– I try not to link to the same blog twice in one open thread, but there are two really good pieces at Seattle Transit Blog recently. So please, either read this about standing on the bus or this on the rail options to Ballard. But not both!!!
– 6 questions for the media about the Soho anti-prostitution raids
– Things that aren’t gaffes if they’re fine in context aren’t gaffes.
– I knew most of the Mark Driscoll is terrible stuff here, but it’s helpful to see it in one place.
‘Bertha’ stopped after reaching obstruction
http://www.king5.com/traffic/n.....94781.html
Gawd, it sounds like George Bush era “Nobody could have imagined…” Can we sue the politicians and supporters who rammed this through for negligence? Make them liable for cost overruns?
Meanwhile, in New Jersey.
This is a prime example of how Republicans govern. They see the American people as needing to be disciplined and punished by direct force if necessary. They sincerely believe that the stick is for anyone who suffers from the effects of that method, and the carrot only can be applied to those who already submit to their will or embrace that governance.
This is what you end up with when you allow the fanatics, psycho-greedheads and obsessive-compulsives a voice in government. This is why we should screen people for psychopathic or sadistic tendencies before allowing them to hold office.
“The beatings will continue, until morale improves.”
Of course, we know where this story originated.
I’m so glad we have marriage equality in this state so we don’t have to deal with crap like that. I feel so sorry for those poor people.
Sound Transit has gotten smart and equipped their newer articulated buses with grab-straps in the midsection, but on Metro’s buses there’s not much to grab hold of in the “hinge”, which makes the prospect a little scary of being caught there when the bus gets moving. This is still no excuse not to cross into the rear at the next stop.
Lately it’s gotten pretty gruesome in the tunnel on the northbound side during evening rush hour at either Westlake or Convention Place. This is particularly true for the 41 to Northgate but also often for the 72/72/73. Metro has “loaders” at the rear doors with hand-held Orca scanners who check riders in and then shove them through the door not entirely unlike attendants on the Tokyo subways. But of course, any conservative will tell you nobody rides the bus…
That “Gaffe” link isn’t clickable.
@5,
Thanks. It should be fixed now.
Cop News
Federal prosecutors have indicated 18 current and former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies on civil rights and corruption charges.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/09/.....?hpt=hp_t2
A student at a Catholic college in Texas was shot dead by a campus cop during a traffic stop.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/09/.....?hpt=hp_t1
Tort News
The airline industry argues you shouldn’t be able to sue them even if they falsely tell the TSA you’re mentally unstable and have a gun.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_new.....rline?lite
Roger Rabbit Commentary: If you encounter paranoid airline personnel at the airport and get dragged off a plane by armed cops, suing them will be the least of your worries; you should count yourself lucky if they don’t shoot you dead. When traveling through an airport the safest thing to do is hunker down, keep your mouth shut, and try not to look like a Mooslim. Dye your fur white or something.
We should repeal the Patriot Act and end the Departmnet of Homeland Security. The reason we have Islamic terrorism is our activities over the past 70 years. Withdraw entirely from those countries and stop meddling in their affairs.
It isn’t my imagination that America’s police departments have turned into paramilitary organizations that terrorize innocent citizens. Mother Jones has noticed it, too.
http://www.motherjones.com/pol.....tarization
Steven Biskupic is best-known as a Republican U.S. Attorney who railroaded a Wisconsin state employee into prison on blatantly political “corruption” charges. But he also prosecuted a bunch of Milwaukee cops who committed an ever more shocking crime than the beating of Rodney King.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Jude,_Jr.
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Biskupic is hard to figure out. He was a career prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s office before he was appointed U.S. Attorney by Bush. His prosecution of Georgia Thompson appears to have been blatantly political, and a shocking abuse of government power, but Biskupic was cleared of wrongdoing by an internal investigation by Obama’s Justice Department. And he nailed those KKKops — they got federal sentences ranging from 15 to 17 years. Biskupic was (and is) considered a straight shooter by many of those who knew him. What he did to Georgia Thompson doesn’t make a shred of sense, unless you believe he was taking orders directly from Karl Rove, which maybe he was and no one was able to discover. I guess the takeaway here is that even good men were corrupted by the stink of the Bush Regime.
A couple weeks ago, three teens waiting to be picked up by a school bus were arrested by a cop for “loitering” in Rochester, New York. Their real crime? Being black. When their coach showed up, the cop threatened to arrest him, too. The boys’ court hearing is tomorrow.
http://gawker.com/three-teens-.....1474787941
In Los Angeles, police arrested and handcuffed a judge for not wearing a seatbelt. His real crime? Being black.
http://www.latimes.com/local/l.....z2lhF1Ae13
@ 11 RR
Not to mention the Bush administration using NSA capabilities to spy on acedemics critical of the Iraq murder festival.
“The only reason we went into Iraq, I tell people now, is we were looking for somebody’s ass to kick. Afghanistan was too easy.”
So, they admit that they committed a major War Crime, easily comparable to the German invasions of France and Poland or the Soviet invasions of Czechoslovakia, and the Chinese in Tibet.
Of course, the TeaFascist party embraces the idea that we should go around butchering other people’s babies just because we can. What others normally would call mass murder is really just about bringing “American Exceptionalism” to the world. All that peace, love and freedom isn’t going to spread itself, y’know.
It’s a good thing to be an American I suppose, if you like to see burning babies lying in the street with their intestines squeezing out through their belly buttons. There are a lot of people in the world who live for that shit.
@14 Beat you to it. I posted that quote a couple days ago. I always said, even years ago, that someday the Busheviks would talk. And now that they’re talking, we’re finding out it was even worse than we thought at the time.
The Next Housing Crisis
The housing crisis dispossessed millions of homeowners and converted vast numbers of owner-occupied homes into hedge fund-owned rentals. The result? Soaring rents.
http://www.nbcnews.com/busines.....2D11718626
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Being a rabbit, I don’t pay rent, I simply dig! If you’re a human, your next landlord may be a Wall Street shark. Cest la vie.
Am I the only rabbit around here who sees the Wall Street bandits who crashed the economy are making out like foxes in a hen house from the misery they brought to our country? Why aren’t we stoning these people?
What really happens when you put a Randorrhoid in charge of a major retail corporation.
This dude was being touted (mostly by his own private public relations firm) as being the quintessentially perfect example of the Randorrhoidal management style and how wonderful it was to see her business philosophy put into practice in a real company. His PR outfit spread the news far and wide, how he was going to be the “perfect” CEO to turn a foundering company around by setting management personnel at each others throats and forcing them to compete with each other.
But all it really was, was murdering a company to extract as much cash out of it for himself as possible without being arrested for it. Looks like he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.
Job creator, indeed.
Hmm, I wonder if they’d take two bucks a share for the whole kit n kaboodle?
@18, @19 – It takes special talent to wreck one of America’s most beloved companies.
As the world prepares to mourn Nelson Mandela, many righties are bashing him as a “terrorist” who resorted to violence against S. Africa’s apartheid regime.
This is the same bunch who hoard guns, join militia groups, and bloviate about overthrowing our government.
@21 Fuck. Mrs. Rabbit is messing with my screen name again. Bah, women, can’t let anything be …
21, While I disagree with Senator Cruz(R-TX), I also can’t believe the criticism he is getting from his own supporters over this.
Interesting on the ethnicity of the Premier and opposition leader in the South African province of Western Cape. Both the governing Democratic Alliance and opposition ANC are led by women of European descent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.....stern_Cape
Houston is about to open it’s second light rail line.
http://www.railwayage.com/inde.....channel=61
Do you short equities, Roger?
Seems just those two stories above would pique one’s interest in shorting Sears. Yes?
Mandela was great for South Africa, but his fan-worship of Arafat, Gadaffi, Castro etc… takes him down quite a few pegs in my book.