– I’m a metacommentary aficionado, and this piece on David Brooks is one of the best.
– Seriously, fuck the Yellow Pages.
– Seattle is going to start taking Chicago’s bikers and the jobs that come with them.
– It’s somehow comforting to know that Washington isn’t the only state with Godawful legislators.
– Taking lefty radio off the air in Seattle and replacing it with sports talk in an already saturated sports talk market isn’t working. Switch back to lefty talk. Although this time, maybe get some local people.
– Good to know the GOP are opposed to authoritarianism.
– I enjoy biking in the snow, but I’m glad we didn’t get a chance to West of the Cascades.
We also think the Progressive Talk format is done on the Raydio at this point, save for a few smaller outlets that need to fill time slots until the spare parts of conservative radio will work for cheap(er). CBS could of done better than to waste a 50k watt signal on what is already critical mass in Seattle with the half dozen other sports talk formats in the Greater Seattle/Tacoma/Everett market.
We have to wonder how a .1 can keep ad dollars fluid before CBS starts amputating stations, even those that started out with heritage beginnings in Seattle like AM 1090.
Maybe rather than switch back, shut it down.
@1 Looks like Cereal Bob clocked in late at “work” again today.
Comment du jour:
For the kid’s Bar Mitzvah gift, we should all chip in and buy him some diamond teeth.
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2.....ayers.html
This really didn’t interest me before, because it has zero prayer of becoming law.
The claims that the inclusion of warrantless searches of households were a ‘mistake’, though, are turning out to be a lie, as the guy who made the ‘mistake’, an attorney, has done it twice before:
There is no need for a warrant; there is no probable cause requirement; and the Seattle Times columnist writing about this clearly unconstitutional law observes that the sponsors include “Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle, a lawyer who typically is hyper-attuned to civil-liberties issues.”
After a stream of criticism, the author withdrew the warrantless search section of the bill, calling it a “mistake.” Yet, as Bryan Preston points out, the warrantless search section – word for word — was included in bills by Kline in 2009 and 2005.
http://pjmedia.com/blog/warran.....democrats/
The only ‘mistake’ seems to be having been caught and exposed as a liar.
Didn’t Democrats once object to warrantless searches like wiretaps and shit?
Out of all the bluff and bovine fecality from the so-called “conservatives”, (really, rightwing, corporatist extremist radicals) there is one little detail being left out here.
Who voted for the Budget Control Act of 2011?
HMMMMM????
Straight from the House Clerk website:
“Budget Control Act of 2011”
Oh dear me, tsk tsk tsk…
Voted FOR: GOP 218 – Democrat: 0
Voted AGAINST: GOP: 22 – Democrat: 188
Final vote, the ayes @ 218 – 210
This was the final ROLE CALL vote for passage tallied in the House on July 29, 2011 for this bill.
From the House Budget Committee website, direct copypasta:
The Budget Control Act of 2011
Description of Updates to the Legislation – July 27, 2011
The Budget Control Act has been updated to make certain that House Republicans fulfill their pledge to cut spending more than we increase the debt limit.
Congressional Budget Office numbers confirm that the updated legislation adheres to this pledge: no new taxes; no blank check for the President; spending cuts greater than the size of the debt limit increase.The bill has been revised to increase outlay savings, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The Budget Control Act caps budget authority each of the fiscal years from 2012 to 2021. Budget authority – the authority Congress provides to agencies to spend each year – is set at a fixed level for the next decade under the Budget Control Act. Budget authority eventually results in the actual spending of money, which are recorded as outlays.
Outlays are recorded when agencies spend out the money they’ve been provided through budget authority. The updated legislation makes no changes to the annual budget authority caps, but removes a limitation on outlay calculations that was included in the first version of the bill. This adjustment allows the Congressional Budget Office to provide a more accurate measure of the likely rate of spending. In their new analysis of the Budget Control Act, the CBO estimates that the bill will reduce the deficit by $22 billion in FY 2012, and by $917 billion between 2012 and 2021. Under the bill, the President is given authority to increase the debt, under certain conditions, by up to $900 billion.
Based on CBO estimates, the spending savings exceed the amount of this debt increase.The revised bill will also include a point of order against consideration of a measure that would violate the discretionary spending caps put in place by the bill, which in the Senate would require a three-fifths vote in the Senate to waive. In addition, three provisions from the original bill are modified to address technical timing issues with respect to resolutions of disapproval.
This was Paul Ryan’s baby, 100%. He was looking for something to campaign on during his run for President. His entire purpose in life is to remove all law enforcement against commercial interests. The only “freedom” they are really concerned with, is the freedom for the plutocrats to make money.
Chuck Grassley on the subject.
You so-called “conservatives” really should try to lie a little better, it’s become impossible for us Liberal folks to listen to you with a straight face anymore. All you really are, is the new Fascists.
John Boehner was so visibly drunk during this particular press conference he was about to fall off the podium.
Thats what passes for Legislators in this country now. Drunks, liars, open bigots and sociopathic drunks.
This is a good one — Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon is resigning, effective May 31, 2013. Reardon is extremely scandal ridden, and has managed to even piss off most fellow Democrats in a fairly Democratic leaning county:
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/.....ping-down/
Amazing chutzpah, even in his resignation letter. All the credible evidence indicates Reardon cheated on his wife on multiple occasions, to say the least. Yet he blames “false allegations” for having to resign, and loudly bemoans the toll these allegations have taken on himself and his wife (!), and that he and his wife (!) have had to pay tens of thousands of dollars to defend against these allegations!
Maybe he should change his name to Rear-done, because his ass is finished!
Exactly right. I’m jonzing for some Thom and have always been a fan of the locals they did have (the weekend garden show was a fav), mostly loved hearing the gentle, folksy conversation. More local would be better. I could do without Ed and Rhandi.
Department of Collateral Damage: It’s happening to the Drug Addled Gas Bag too. According to a Peter B. Collins piece in Truthout, he cites increasing aversion to talk format generalized from the effective campaign on Rush’s advertisers.
@ 8
You know that a lefty talk format only works if lefties pay for it.
You know that lefties are only good at spending other people’s money.
Why would another lefty show succeed where others have failed? I mean, Al Franken’s already in office. What would be the point?
@ 7
I can feel another Richard Pope candidacy coming on. You still have time to move.
@ 8
I read the February 10 piece by Collins based on your mention. I’m not sure he said what you say he said.
He said this:
Ironically, the company blames the progressive-driven advertiser boycott in 2012 aimed at Rush Limbaugh for his misogynist comments about attorney and birth-control advocate Sandra Fluke, which appears to have caused many national advertisers to stop advertising on all talk radio programs – both right and left – to avoid controversy.
As far as the ‘effective campaign’ on Rush’s advertisers, Rush is still out there, still highest rated. How’d your ‘effective campaign’ work out for y’all?
# 9: And how do my right-wing friends who listen to conservative AM radio every day, all day long, pay for it? Advertising, of course.
The problem is that you have to create a critical mass of listeners in order to attract advertisers. Advertisers have pretty much proven that they ware willing to pay for “eyeballs” (TV and print) and “ears” (radio), regardless of ideology. That’s because advertising agencies make those decisions, not the sponsors themselves (with some limitations).
The problem progressive radio talk has suffered is that it’s target audience isn’t listening to a radio all day long. They may listen during drive time, but for the most part get their news and commentary from the internet (online newspapers, blogs, etc.). That trend is accelerating.
In contrast, most of my right-wing friends who listen to talk radio are either stay-at-home moms, retired folks, or small construction sub-contractors who can listen to a radio all day long. Their sole sources of information are Fox News and A.M. talk radio.
Most liberals are actually working for a living, students, academics, etc., many of whom are working in an environment where they can’t listen to the radio (like my office).
@ 11
Well, we won the election…
I thought this was a great piece.It was heavy on technology, but I gleaned very interesting trends on the Republican Message, what they stand for.
I ranted over in the gas tax thread, I’d vote for a MODERATE socially tolerant, limited-government fiscal conservative if they could punish the road people wasting our money. But that’s not going to happen any time soon.
@ 12
Not more of the ‘World According to rhp’s Circle of Friends’ observations.
I keep getting you confused with another commenter – NTfF – but I think it’s you who spews about what you heard on the radio on your way to work.
Why can’t you suggest that those on the right also listen, while commuting and frequently while at work, to their preferred source? And why can’t you penetrate the market of moms, retirees, and workers who listen during the day? I think more than a few Seattle moms are libbies.
During commutes I listen to NPR except for those two idiotic weeks each Spring and Fall. I haven’t had AM radio on unless there was a game in more than a decade.
@ 13
Touche’.
I think we have a new Comment du Jour.
Hmm, the Fascists are pretending to throw a bone to President Obama on the sequester. This smells an awful lot like a line-item veto power such as was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Corporatists.
Ouch! A brutal headline at Business Insider,
“Just In Time For The Sequester, Here Are Two Brutal New Polls For Republicans”
http://www.businessinsider.com.....z2LYsf3hNK
Bloomberg’s latest poll has President Obama at a three year high, Congressional Republicans at a three year low. Apparently America isn’t buying wingnut bullshit anymore.
comments from the Progressive AM1090 link
“Well, we won the election…”
It looks like Republicans have an early start on blowing the next one as well.
The Tea Party pays a fair amount of money to direct-mail folks to get their message out, and to solict more money for – well, more mailings. But this last batch of mailings lambasted Karl Rove, and included a photographed image of him in a Nazi SS uniform – the same one worn by Himmler.
Once word got out, the Tea Party quickly distanced itself from the mailing, and the direct mail folks are accepting the blame.
Tea Party Blooper
But was the picture the only problem? The Tea Party language against Rove was particularly viscious (usually reserved only for President Obama) and it’s clear they thought they could raise money by making Rove the target.
@ 19
Steve, one of those brutal polls, Pew, also has this:
Overall, 73% say efforts by the president and Congress to reduce the deficit should be only or mostly focused on spending cuts while just 19% say the focus should be only or mostly on tax increases.
That’s 73% across party lines, Steve. I’ll take unpopularity if it gives me a 70% chance of getting a deal weighted more on cuts than on further tax increases.
Thanks for bringing it up.
Don’t you dare touch my benefits but I demand you slash benefits for those other people I could care less about, so I don’t have to pay as much in taxes.
And GET OFF MY LAWN!
@ 24
Sure thing grampa, soon as you give me back my fuckin frisbee.
@14
The “her” in that quote is Karen Soltis Anderson a 29-year old Republican pollster.. But further down from that quote is this:
The most enthusiastic supporters of Ronald Raygun were 18-29 year olds..
Grim times ahead indeed for the right wing.
About time.
Us dry-siders are starting to whine about the proposed increase in gas tax. We’re tired of spending our hard-earned money for your la-de-da wet side foo-foo projects like rebuilding the Seattle seawall to keep Ivars and tourist trap gee-gaw stores from falling into Puget Sound. Whadda we care…our exports go to real ports like Tacoma and Longview where conservatives live. And don’t get us started on the Viaduct. Just keep the tax low so we can drive our big honkin’ dually pickups and send the money to us….after all, we need decent roads so that [pick one] you wet siders can get to a bunch of effete snob wineries or our hard-working Metsicans have decent roads to get to their apple-pickin’ jobs.
Thanks for bringing Pew into it, Bob. However, you left out a few things.
http://www.people-press.org/fi.....elease.pdf
There was this,
“Moreover, 76% say that the president and Congress should focus on a combination of spending cuts and tax increases to reduce the budget deficit. Just 19% agree with the current Republican position that tax increases should be off the table.”
And this,
“If there is no deficit deal by March 1, 49% say congressional Republicans would be more to blame while just 31% would mostly blame President Obama.”
And this,
“And while Obama’s 51% job approval rating is down slightly from a post-election high of 55%, it remains well above the 25% approval rating for GOP congressional leaders.”
And this,
“By a wide margin (71% to 26%), the public favors increasing the minimum wage from its current level of $7.25 per hour to $9.00 an hour.”
And this,
“Obama holds a sizable advantage over congressional Republicans on immigration. Half (50%) say that Obama has a better approach to dealing with immigration, compared with 33% who say congressional Republicans have a better approach.”
On every major issue the American public sides with the president – the economy, gun control,
I think it’s time for the left to cede AM radio to the right. It won’t be so bad, considering the left still pretty much owns TV news and commentary. There’s the Fox organization on cable, but they’re not too significant when compared to the rest of TV news/commentary.
It’s all good! No worries!
Republicans, once the party of fiscal responsibility and national security, is now reduced to being the party of transvaginal probes.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....34658.html
Repuplicans, hell bent on losing again in 2014 and 2016.
From 30,
What is this obsession the Republicans and other conservatives have with women’s reproductive organs?
@9 Serial RENEGING BS Hypocrite,
Nearly 4 months since you lost the bet and you still fail to meet you losing obligation.
You know what you’re good at, Bob?
Neither do we.
@ 32
And yet you seem eager to enter into another bet despite your claims. What would be the point?
@33 Serial RENEGING BS Hypocrite,
I am eager to enter in to another wager about an election with you.
I’m offering you 3:1 that Rodney Tom will not be reelected.
The terms of the bet are that the loser writes a check in the lost amount (you’ll lose) made payable to Northwest Harvest and mails it to Darryl.
Our last wager (which you have failed to meet your obligation) was for $1,000. Want to go $10K this time?
You asked what the point is. The point is beating asshole so called conservatives like you, you Serial RENEGING BS Hypocrite, early and often.
You in? Think you can take me for $30k?
Your Pink Slip — Brought to You by your Republican Congress Criter
@ 32, 34
But all those other commenters who said I’d be gone by the end of November, demoralized and licking my wounds…….
When’s the election? What’s your assurance I’ll still be around?
@36 Serial RENEGING BS Hypocrite,
Rodney Tom’s term expires in 2014.
I have no assurance you’ll still be around, and certainly hope you get hit by a bus and move on to your just rewards (worm food) long before then.
I’m willing to take that risk. The bigger risk is you’ll continue reneging on your obligations.
But hey, you’re a Republican!
President of MeetThePressistan, Grandpa Walnuts, demonstrates the wisdom of the American electorate … once again.
http://www.azfamily.com/news/M.....41531.html
Remember, as badly as Rmoney got walloped by Obama/Biden, McCain did worse.
Well whadaya expect??
http://grist.org/news/in-a-blo.....carbon-tax
They’re communists!
Let’s pause for a moment and take note of the HorsesAss for whom this blog was founded
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/.....or-itself/
Automatic defense cuts could cost Washington state bigState would lose $461 million if Army budget hit; 11,500 jobs would be affected
Don’t bother trying to call your Republican Congress Critter here in WA. They took the week off.
In other words, the Republican House response to your concern about the economic impact of the inevitable sequester, “F U!”
@ 39
YLB, read the actual article in the links you post.
The government will collect the environmental protection tax instead of pollutant discharge fees, as well as levy a tax on carbon dioxide emissions, Jia Chen, head of the ministry’s tax policy division, wrote in an article published on the MOF’s website.
It will be the local taxation authority, rather than the environmental protection department, that will collect the taxes.
‘Carbon tax’ sounds better than ‘pollution discharge fee’. It doesn’t prevent the pollution, does it? Same pig, new lipstick.
Oh, and the money goes into general tax revenues, so all it will be is a tax increase, YLB. Not a change in how China actually conducts its manufacturing. Not a fund for use in protecting the environment.
And that’s IF a tax goes into effect. Note the article doesn’t say when.
So what this boils down to is a PR announcement with no teeth. And you, YLB, fell for it, the exact response China is hoping for.
@ 41
Would the response from the Democrat US Senate offices in WA be any different, MBS? After all, both of them voted for it, and Patty Murray was part of the supercommittee that didn’t change it.
Nice try.
blah, blah, blah.. and Republican tools like Bob will continue to think it’s ok to pollute because China and India are doing it.
When China makes verifiable progress on curbing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions what will he say then?
We’ll never know.. Being terminally wrong tends to make trolls “self-deport”.
@41 Serial RENEGING BS Hypocrite,
Would the response from the Democrat US Senate offices in WA be any different, MBS?
Well, I know because I’ve spoken with both Sen Murray’s office and Sen Cantwell’s office. The answer is YES.
But I understand with all the important lying you do in the Comment section here, you have not had time to actually read up.
Senate Democrats propose cuts, tax hikes on rich to avoid sequester
Regarding Sen Murray’s position on the so called super committee, wasn’t that ceremonial like the British Queen or President of Israel?
I tried to find some good news for Republicans in these latest polls. There really isn’t any. They’re trending in the wrong direction on every issue and headed for disasters of epic proportions in 2014 and beyond.
Unfortunately we can’t call it just a case of self-inflicted wounds as the nation will no doubt bleed as well. Even when slitting their own throats they screw up.
@41 Serial RENEGING BS Hypocrite,
Adding to my response to your know-nothing BS talking points. I know you are aware of the polling which came out today.
Did you pay attention to the USA Today/Pew Research Center Poll?
via Steve Benen
You get that? 76-19 agree with our WA senior Senator, Patty Murray and the re-elected President Obama over the do nothing House’s approach.
I just watched Ann Couter get her ass kicked on John Stossel’s show by a bunch of Libertarian college students. She almost lost it and had to result to the use of expletives to check the Libertarian attacks.
Stossel also had John Bolton on the show. If there was ever an armchair Republican interventionist, it’ has to be Bolton. He’s yet another Republican war hawk who never served a day in the military. He didn’t fare any better than Ann Coulter. The students kicked his butt.
Republicans Fiddle While Eastern Washington Radiates
From 49,
As I said in a precious post, nuclear power was not executed in a safe and sensible manner. What are we going to do with all the poisonous waste?
Whoops! That should read “previous post,” not “precious post!”
@51 heh
This convicted felon and Hitler admirer had 18 weapons assault rifles, shotguns, and pistols plus 40,000 rounds of ammunition, high-capacity magazines, and body armor — plus a list of names and addresses of Jewish and African American community leaders.
http://openchannel.nbcnews.com.....aders?lite
Roger Rabbit Commentary: It’s kinda obvious that gun sales aren’t regulated enough.
“A new report sheds light on this dirty secret of the food industry: Cheap fish is widely passed off as more expensive varieties, at customers’ expense. One third of the 1,215 samples collected from grocery stores and restaurants by advocacy group Oceana were actually a different kind of fish than what the seller purported. The group found instances of fake fish across the country, and at all kinds of establishments. Nearly half of the 674 retailers Oceana visited sold mislabeled fish.”
http://lifeinc.today.com/_news.....dered?lite
Roger Rabbit Commentary: I remember when enterprising Americans tried to get rich by coming up with a better product, making it cheaper, and offering great customer service. But this generation of business people seems devoted to defrauding. Never has the need for consumer protection laws and government regulation of businesses ever been higher than it is right now, because this is the most dishonest generation of businessmen ever.
We definitely need more restrictions on stupid people getting guns:
“An 18-year-old Florida woman was … injured this week when she was shot by her friend’s oven … they wanted some late-night waffles [and] began preheating the oven — unaware that her friend … was storing a magazine from his .45-caliber Glock 21 in the oven.”
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_new.....ffles?lite
Roger Rabbit Commentary: What kind of fucking idiot stores ammo in a goddam OVEN for geebus aych frikkin cripes? Bet he listens to Ted Nugent and votes Republican.
From 55,
Just think if it had been a case of 12-gauge double-ot buck shotguns shells! The whole town might have gone up in the insuring explosion!
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/ann.....-students/
Continues the theme of the republican branding thing, where if republicans could dump their destructive social issues image, they would get more traction.
# 48, 57: I thought I had found a family link between Coulter and another (older) guy named Coulter, a Univ. of Georgia history professer who as a neo-Confederate and member of the KKK. I thought he might have been her grandfather. But so far, no luck in finding a direct connection between the two, except in their ideology and sharing the same last name.
From 58,
I had a prof in college whose last name was Coulter. I don’t think he was related to Miss Ann, however.
At a McCain townhall Wednesday, a woman identified herself as the mother of an Aurora mass shooting victim, then called for a ban on assault weapons. In response, McCain snapped at her: “I can tell you right now you need some straight talk. That assault weapons ban will not pass the Congress of the United States.”
http://www.azfamily.com/news/M.....41531.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Nice guy. No, actually, not. What a jerk. Jerk, yeah, that’s more like it, McCain being a jerk to a grieving mother who asks for reasonable gun regulation (i.e., mentally ill homicidal maniacs not being allowed to get hold of military weapons) so more innocent people don’t have to die like her son did in pools of blood in a crowded theater where he only wanted to watch a movie.
# 60: One thing I’ve not heard mentioned is a ban on the sale of body armour to civilians, such as that used by the Aurora shooter. What reason does a civilian have to possess body armor, except that they expect to be engaged in a shoot-out with authorities? And since it’s not a firearm, no 2nd amendment issues, either!
An aside: Cathay Pacific is reporting a 7.7% increase in freight traffice over last year, which conforms with other reports showing a revival of trade from/through China to other locations. China is continuing to receive 777 freighters under a firm order it has with Boeing, but is dumping it’s older, less fuel-efficient 747-400BCF freighters, parking six in the desert this past quarter.
The days of the 757-400 as the “Queen of the Skies” is long gone, even in the freighter version. I wouldn’t be surprised if just about all the classic 747’s weren’t phased out of carrier’s fleets within the next five years.
@62 rhp6033 (& Roger),
Freight traffic stats are a key indicator of economic growth (doldrums). If you look at stats like Cathay’s across the board, you’ll observe that the Republican predicted recession ain’t on the horizon.
The caveat here is that the impact of the inevitable Republican Intellectual Leader, Paul Ryan’s, sequester is TBD. The US economy is suffering a lack of demand generated by government spending already. Hang on.
Update: The GOS has a story apropos – http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....-sequester
Judge Posner subsequently added, “To confine the right to be armed to the home is to divorce the Second Amendment from the right of self-defense described in Heller and McDonald.”
http://www.saf.org/viewpr-new.asp?id=423
Preventing law-abiding citizens from exercising their right to protect themselves in murderous Chicago didn’t make sense.
It’s also not constitutional.
Doubt this one goes much further. Except on blogs and MSM sources that support Second Amendment rights.
Judge Posner, BTW, is a U of Chicago law prof and prolific author. He co-authors a blog with Gary Becker, the Becker-Posner Blog.
Glow in the dark, anybody?
OLYMPIA– Earlier today, Attorney General Bob Ferguson learned the U.S. Dept. of Energy has now increased the number of identified leaking single-shelled radioactive waste storage tanks on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation from the one they reported last week to six—and they admit there may be more.
Why am I not surprised?