I am sorry to say that as of the moment I am no longer an employee at The Stranger. It’s a longish story that I don’t really feel like getting into (and it would probably seem stupid to outsiders), but let’s just sum it up as “editorial differences.” I was always appreciative of the opportunity to share the page with such a great group of writers, and will miss some (if not all) of the experience. We have left open the possibility of me returning to the paper in some capacity, but after more than three years there I am comfortable with the notion of moving on.
Of course, just because I’m no longer being paid to pontificate on politics doesn’t mean I’ll stop pontificating. I certainly don’t plan to maintain my prior workload, but do expect to use HA again as an outlet. So sorry, trolls. I also plan on doing some long deferred maintenance in order to both speed and clean things up around here. As for my career plans, well, I’m determined to be openminded.
It is no secret that I have long been considering a run for office, quite possibly a city council run in 2015. But I lack the financial resources to wait 22 months until my next paycheck, so I have no choice but explore more practical options.
I am fully aware that there aren’t likely any local journalism jobs out there for me—at least none that would pay the bills—so I won’t be looking too hard in that direction. May 10 will be my 10th Blogiversary; that’s a long time to be doing one thing, so I could use a change. That said, I am confident I would still be a valuable asset to the right broadcast, print, and/or online news outlet. So if anybody is looking to add a smart, wonky, passionate, provocative voice, drop me an email.
Other than that, I’m open to new challenges: communications, public relations, government relations, policy analysis, political consulting (I helped elect a Socialist, for chrisakes! What’ve the other consultants done?)—as long as it’s a cause, candidate, or product I can get behind. I am also perfectly willing to consider abandoning politics altogether. I’m a self-taught programmer capable of straddling the chasm between marketing and development, so a return to the tech industry would be appealing.
The point is, I’m looking for a job: presumably one that pays better than the last one, while harnessing my passion and creativity. So if you have any offers or suggestions, let me know.
Dish Goldy! Give us the details!
Goldy, I’ll miss you over at SLOG. I don’t always agree with what you write but I always read it and find it interesting and thought-provoking. Good luck with your next job.
(Agreed with @1. Would love to hear the details.)
Aw man. You’re the best part of that place. Hope you find a new outlet soon. Always look forward to hearing your take.
So we’re back to blogville?
You were one of my favorite writers on Slog, I really appreciated the digging you did to get a story.
I hope it wasn’t a disagreement with Tim Keck about how hard to push your support of the $15/hour minimum wage. I’d hate to see them shift away from their strong editorial position in favor.
Software development, eh? Where’s your resume?
='( What happen???
I will be watching and waiting for you next gig. You have been doing wonderful work and the community needs your point of view. If you do run for office at some point I will be there.
Welcome back to HA. I know you’ll be golden.
Plumbing school is only 9 months and plumbers make great money, although the work can be hard on your lower back; and, of course, there’s the smell to deal with. And, don’t forget, plumbing can be an entree into elective politics; see, e.g., Joe the Unlicensed Plumber. If he can get 15% as a novice running for Congress, you could do at least three times better in some local race. And if you lose, there’s always plumbing to fall back on. People will always keep shitting and flushing no matter what happens in the world at large.
I have a friend who’s a plumber. (He has a college degree in jazz piano, but that was only to avoid the Vietnam draft. His real education was 9 months of plumbing training at SOIC.) As a novice politician with zilch campaign funding, he knocked off a 28-year incumbent and got elected to a suburban city council by ringing lots of doorbells. People will vote for a plumber before they’ll vote for a lawyer. People trust plumbers.
You were one of the reasons that I read Slog. I am sorry to hear about the falling out.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA EAT IT PIG FUCKER!
You contributed nothing, complained about everything and in the end, people just couldn’t swallow your wild bullshit.
Ah, sympathies, guy. I remember your work at The Stranger very fondly.
Good luck in finding the next thing!
Slog contributor emeritus! Always enjoyed reading your posts.
Damn Goldy! Sorry to hear that. Looking forward to seeing more of your writing here but we all know how that paid.
Best of luck getting the next gig.
You should be happy, The Stranger is just well…gross.
Too many journalists, not enough plumbers. Go where the money is! Has Roger Rabbit ever posted bum financial advice? Plus, working with your hands is honorable. I’ll bet you can use your union connections to get an apprenticeship. It’s time you did something for yourself instead of serving others. You’re not getting any younger.
This is the saddest day of my life Goldensteinemberg …. sniff.
Sorry about your departure from The Stranger, Goldy. Perhaps there is an opening on the editorial board of The Times?
Given your writing style, your take no prisoners editorial headlines, (“Fuck the (insert the evil entity here) you could write a really good book on Northwest Politics. You already wrote a great piece on HA about how the Pend Oreilles of this world are leeching off those no good Hippie and Socialist enclaves in King, Snohomish and Pierce Counties to basically pay their county services.. I may not always agree with some of your articles, but I didn’t miss a chance to read them. I guess the Stranger has its office politics as any media enterprise, but you will do well…
There is an open State Senate seat in the 37th, Goldy. I know you’ve thought about it……
The Stranger fucked up by letting you go.
I’m very sorry to hear this. You weren’t the only part of SLOG I liked, but I always admired your passion and always read your posts with interest. I hope you land on your feet soon.
I certainly support your decision not to air dirty laundry in public – it’s best for all concerned, really, unless you think you were dealt with so unfairly that you absolutely have to protest – but I do think it would be far more classy of SLOG if they would let you have one last post, announcing your own departure and describing the positive aspects of your tenure there. After three years, that’s really the least they could do to be civilized about it.
This sucks; when Goldy was hired, I thought The Stranger really got a prize catch. Now they seem to be housecleaning. Numerous reporters have departed in the past year and there’s been less original content on Slog, half of which now seems to be linked to Stranger articles.
Hope Goldy gets the job he wants soon. I’m poor, but I’ll contribute a few bucks if he runs for office.
i’m sure there’s good money selling pro sports corporate welfare to urban liberals for chris Hansen. oh, wait… you already tried that.
How about running in the 48th against Rodney Tom? You could live at our house!
I don’t know if the Seattle Weekly is non-evil, but if they hire Goldy, they would get me as a regular reader.
I very much appreciate your work and effort. I never did fully understand some of the negativity toward you on Slog, because I find you very well grounded and reality based.
Anyway, I look forward to catching you over here when you have time.
Good luck with the job search!
Very sorry to see you go, Goldy. You were one of the better writers at SLOG even though I didn’t always agree with you. I will particularly miss your gardening posts.
Goldy is one abrasive motherfucker. He’s on the right side of most things, and helps the world more than he hurts it, but he is a fundamentalist and a fanatic. Fundamentalists aren’t fun no matter what they believe.
CROSSCUT!
I find this development very disturbing. Dan Savage was the reason I ever found Slog in the first place, but the diversity of writers was the reason I’m still reading it several years later. Goldy, you’ve been one of my favorites. It seems that writers regularly leave The Stranger when they need to for their own reasons, and I’ve been disappointed that a few I’ve loved have left recently. But the idea of management actually firing someone I enjoy reading is far beyond disappointing. Fuck them.
Lindy left for a great gig. I hope you find something even better. You’d make a great political feature writer for one of the mags!
That’s a serious loss for The Stranger, and for it’s broader community of readers & commenters, and for the minimum wage dialog in particular.
It was refreshing to peruse the Slog and discover an occasional arrangement of Facts and Numbers in support of all that is Right and Good.
And it’s a loss for Goldy and his strident voice and uncompromising posture. Having considerable direct experience with “editorial differences” in the progressive blogosphere, I sympathize from a personal perspective, and I concur that the reveal would be worse than pointless . . . but I must observe that the with-us-or-against-us sword cuts both ways, and is part of how things fall apart.
A sorry shame all around, but par for the course. cf Life of Brian.
Two of my favorite blogs are Talking Points Memo and Raw Story, so it would be cool to see Goldy land a gig at one of those. TPM is a little more mainstream, so Goldy would have to clean up language; as far as I know, they don’t have a west coast person, so if they’re interested in expanding geographically (maybe Goldy can be their weed and minimum wage expert!), Goldy would be an amazing contributor.
Raw Story does seem to have a west coast presence. They have TBogg, a regular contributor, so maybe the insightful smartass niche is already filled, but maybe Goldy would fit well there, too, if they are hiring. And Crooks and Liars might be a decent fit, too.
Just wanted to chip in with everyone else. I loved reading your posts on Slog and your articles for the Stranger. They were well-written and content rich (full of “Facts and Numbers”, as @33 said). I wish you all the best and if you ever do run for office you’ll have my support.
You were the reason I started reading The Stranger again. It seems strangely subdued over there without your rantings.
Will follow your writing wherever you go!
I’m sorry to see you leave Slog, Goldy. Good luck.
Your writing on WA politics in general and Seattle in particular will be sorely missed on Slog. You kept me up-to-date on all things politics in Washington when I was away and when I was back in Seattle. Most importantly, thank you for being a strong and reasonable voice for public education in Washington State. Your common sense writings on some of the more heinous ed policy bill moments helped more of the clueless see what was wrong with the neoliberal ideology of the DFER/LEV/StandOnChildren crowd who espouse the Michelle Rhee-form method of child abuse. I started reading HorsesAss during the Eyman fiasco – did you know you were blocked in Utah on some state gov networks? – and was delighted to see you move to Slog, which was ALSO blocked in Utah on some of the state gov networks. (Theme, anyone?) So now I will re-bookmark your horsesass blog and use my VPN when I am stuck in the un-holy land of the Utards and the Churchislators.
Come on people. There is a point for even far left Stranger that needs to know when to reel it in.
Goldy has screwed himself for running for office because of all the vitriol he has spewed. Each of us can stand our ground without telling the other to F____ Off. He has burned bridges and will soon be applying at Starbucks. Lesson learned.
Stay classy whatever your beliefs. Respect others.
@41, yeah, if only Goldy had the courage to opine and speculate anonymously about what others write openly and publicly. Also, we’re grown ups (at least I am), so it’s okay to tell others like yourself: fuck off.
I definitely missed you @Slog. Figured you were on vacation or something.
HA has been clunky so I haven’t stopped by as often.
Looking forward to your attention to this blog and whatever else you end up doing.
Let’s get you in leg, dude!
Land on your feet, goldy. We’re pulling for you.
Also, can’t wait for your next round of gardening posts.
I too will miss you at the Stranger. Your voice is strong, and if people can’t handle the occasional obscenity that’s their problem. And yeah, I will really miss the gardening posts too.
Sarah Palin’s looking for a campaign manager. Or closer to home, Clint Didier- the same.
You have been spouting uncritically the positions of the Teamsters on the taxicab issue and SEIU on the minimum wage issue that either one of those unions should hire you. In fact I suspect your uncritical advocacy of the positions of those unions had something to do with your leaving the Stranger.
SEIU and Teamsters, you owe David.
@46 Really? What’s Clint Didier’s next quixotic campaign? Oh, I see, having gotten crushed by Patty Murray in 2010 and Peter Goldmark in 2012, he’s now going to try for the open seat being vacated by Doc Hastings. That district is a slam-dunk for the GOP, so there’ll be some heavyweight Republican contenders, and I’ll bet Didier doesn’t make the top two.
Yes, Rog….he’s back. The chisel-chinned, self-made, boots-puller-uppered, libertarian welfare recipient is back! Liberty is on the horizon!!
Good — the conspiracy worked.
Goldy, good to see you back.
Goldy, How good are you at Linux programming? I mean how “really” good are you? Any Program Management skills? You claim Marketing? How?
Unlike the leftist DUMMOCRETIN jackasses who kiss you ASS and incessantly sniff your shit but don’t offer you a job or even offer to take your resume, Puddy would gladly push your resume if you can show some real accomplishments besides saying FUCK every 25 words.
Well…?
Well it seems to me this troll craves to live in the public spotlight. A personal correspondence via e-mail (goldy@horsesass.org) is beyond its powers. What a jerk.
Speaking strictly for myself, a good response would be: FLIP OFF A-HOLE!
To the HA Schmuck Lib NO Scientist… Puddy noticed you screen scraped the part that hits fools like you between the eyes. Why didn’t you offer Goldy a job Lib NoScientist?
Puddy publicly offered to take a his resume in public on purpose. Why? Because it’s idiots like you Lib NoScientist who always claim conservatives don’t have a heart. Puddy has a heart. Goldy has Puddy’s real email address from long ago.
You are pathetic as always. Sux to be you.
At least Goldy is getting $15 per hour from HA, so that’s something.
No — he’s not? How disillusioning.
The Piper
Conservatives prove they have no heart every day dumbass..
You can’t handle facts:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09......html?_r=0
Another fact – most growth in food stamp use happens in conservative places.
Conservatives are cruel to children of conservatives!
Face it – you’re an a-hole who jerks himself off in this forum.
You’re a sadist jerk! That’s your primary motivation.
Your charitable pretensions are just a fig leaf.
Poor Lib NoScientist… Going off the deep end again!
Will miss your perspective on the Slog. I also always enjoyed your posts about our shared hometown, Philly Philly. And yeah, was oddly captivated by your gardening.
Golly Lib NoScientist… Bill Clinton said go get a job and get off welfare. DUMMOCRETINS are screaming cuz their preznit didn’t deliver those 250,000 – 500,000 high paying jobs a month with that economic team from various libtard universities!
Wow who knew? When you read the article you can view the knee-jerkoff reaction from LibNoScientist.
Must be the HCL or H2SO4 fumes from cleaning those test tubes!
I’m really sad about this and I’m going to miss reading your stuff at the Stranger. That whole team was better with your voice, and vice-versa.
I also thought you were the best thing about The Stranger. I’m truly sad.
dag.
Bummer for The Stranger. Your voice added much needed diversity to the mix there.
So it looks like I’ll be wasting more time here again.
Yay…I guess.
You’re such a good political reporter and commentator. I wonder if there’s a way to make money at that without going to work for someone else? Self-publishing (we both know) is a tough road, but perhaps there is something.