HorsesAss.Org

As a critic of the Highway 99 tunnel, but one who thinks we’re probably stuck with it, I’m still hoping that Bertha gets itself* up and running again. I really do hope that whatever solution to the latest problem turns out to be the last fix. I’d also like to be more sure that Seattle won’t be on the hook for any cost overruns.**

Still, with this new revelation that the Viaduct is sinking, and with Bertha stuck for who knows how long, I say don’t wait on the tunnel to take it down. It’s — as ever — disconnecting the city from the waterfront. The main goal of zooming cars at unsafe speeds through a city their occupants hate has already diminished considerably during construction, without many of the traffic problems we were promised.

Yet, on the ground in the waterfront, it’s still not pedestrian or bike friendly. The bike/walking path below the Viaduct south of Yesler gets used by cars as a turning lane, and various parts of the waterfront sidewalk being blocked off at random push pedestrians into the road. These are normal side effects of construction, but they don’t have to be made worse by the delays to the tunnel.

If traffic is bad, then either mitigate it with more transit and better maintenance of surface streets or, I don’t know, get Bertha fixed. In the mean time, the people who use the waterfront on a regular basis don’t need to be in limbo.

[Read more…]

– If you’re going to have an ACA horror story, it would be nice if that story was based in fact. But that’s probably too much to ask.

– It’s also important to emphasize going forward that the pre-clearance requirement in Section 5 was far from obsolete. Because of the nature of elections, before-the-fact challenges to vote suppression are far more effective than after-the-fact ones. Once a state has conducted an election, it becomes much more difficult for the courts to order remedies. A pre-clearance requirement is not sufficient, but it’s a crucial part of voting rights protection, and Congress should not concede this issue to the Supreme Court going forward.

– The King County Council officially put the measure to save Metro on the ballot.

– Transportation Advocacy Day is coming up. I still haven’t got my Transportation Advocacy Day tree, or done most of my Transportation Advocacy Day shopping.

– Several years ago Washington legislators arrived at a sensible compromise, requiring districts to include measures of student growth in their evaluations of teachers – but leaving it to the districts to decide what that actually meant. It’s a good system that should be given time to be properly implemented. But Duncan insists that teacher evaluations be directly linked to specific test scores, even where states have chosen not to do so.

– I still don’t understand Bitcoin, and I’m genuinely sorry for the people who lost money here, but, you know, there are reasons for regulations on actual money.

The Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally continues its tour of Seattle’s finest pubs. We are in search of a new place to call home. If you can, please join us this Tuesday evening for some political punditry and pub prognostication over a pint.

This week we will visit the Moe Bar, 1425 10th Avenue
Seattle. We meet at 8:00 pm, but some folks show up early for dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle? Check out another Washington state DL over the next week. The Tri-Cities chapter also meet on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, the Bellingham and Burien chapters meet. And on Thursday, the Woodinville chapter meets. And next Monday, the Yakima, South Bellevue and Olympia chapters meet.

With 215 chapters of Living Liberally, including nineteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting somewhere near you.

– Did you get any snow? Here are school closures/delays in Washington.

– Despite how amazingly think-about-what-you-did that assignment is, i’s total bullshit that his record remains clean, and ideally his punishment would remain in place and he’d have to make his being-a-decent-human presentation and have to write “don’t be a dick” on the blackboard fifty times.

– Here’s another view of the brand new ship Macaw Arrow, docking at Port of Olympia on it’s first ever journey, to deliver “frack sand” proppants for fracking North Dakota oil shale.

– I’m not really in the habit of linking to sermons here, or listening to them online, really, but this one really got to me.

– The anti-choice movement is up in arms over my play, MOM BABY GOD, and I have a simple message for them: Bring it on. We’re not backing down.

– I’m afraid Goldy was perhaps too irenic to Boeing management here.

Last week’s contest was won by don. It was Dover International Speedway in Dover.

This week’s is related to something in the news from February, good luck!

Luke 12:48
“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

Karl Marx
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

Discuss.

Ana Kasparian: Leave the Rich Alone!!!!

Thom: The Good, The Bad, The Very, Very Ugly.

White House: West Wing Week.

Cable Cabal:

• Anna Kasparian: Will consumers get screwed by the Comcast—TWC deal.
• Jonathan Mann: I Hate Comcast and TWC.
• David Pakman: Comcast and TWC merger is terrible for consumers.
• Thom: Comcast—TWC is an affront to Public Interest.
• Young Turks: Comcast’s devastating admission about merger

Sharpton: Ohio Republicans pushing new bills to suppress voting:

Jon: ‘Meth Labs Of Democracy’ (via Crooks and Liars.

ONN: Onion Week in Review.

Outrageous Anti-Science Positions of Gov. Pat McCrory (R-NC):

• Maddow: Part I.
• Maddow: Part II.

Pap and David Pakman: The Wall Street Secret Society.

Young Turks: Nutburger Tom Delay, “God created this nation. He wrote the Constitution….”.

WaPo: So you want to sue the White House?

Mark Fiore: Jack Gerrard’s American Petroleum Institute.

Discrimination:

• Ann Telnaes: Disguising anti-gay discrimination.
• Ana Kasparian: U.S. Evangelicals spreading the their anti-gay “gospel”.
• Sam Seder and Charlie Pierce: Kansas anti-gay bill legalizes discrimination
• Young Turks: Bad news for anti-gay Christians In Kansas.
• Ann Telnaes: Romney—Don’t let the courts rule on marriage equality.

Lawrence O’Donnell: The Koch ‘polluting’ Brothers are already dishing truckloads of cash to the GOP.

Sam Seder and Charlie Pierce: Why there’s no Republican party anymore.

Pap and Thom: GOP obstruction is killing the judiciary.

WaPo: The debt ceiling deniers.

Scott Walker’s Bridge to New Jersey:

• Richard Fowler: Gov. Scott Walker lies about voting for Reagan.
• Chris Hayes: The Emails that may derail Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI).
• David Pakman: Scott Walker “John Doe” investigation reveals staff’s racist, anti-gay emails leaked.
• Ed: Badger-Gate is a new ‘governor problem’ for the GOP
• Chris Hayes: Is Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) worse than Chris Christie?

The GOP Plan: Repeal, repeal, repeal.

Alan Grayson on Ted Cruz:

Ed: VW sides with UAW after GOP intimidates workers.

Mental Floss: 50 facts about 50 state Capitals.

David Pakman: “Joe” the anti-union “plumber” takes a union job.

The Christie Minstrel Show:

• Chris Hayes: Did Christie misappropriate relief funs?
• Sam Seder and Charlie Pierce: Christie trudges on…but for how long?
• Young Turks: Christie v. Palin…the fur flies
• Maddow: The corruption of NY/NJ Port Authority’s David Samson
• Chris Hayes: Chris Christie meets voters for the first time post Bridge-Gate
• Alex Wagner: The Christie Town Hall
• Sharpton: Gov. Chris Christie holds town hall in ‘friendly turf’

David Pakman: Madman Glenn Beck considers burning the American flag.

Richard Fowler: The GOP civil war rages on.

Thom: The GOP refusal to expand Medicaid is a disaster.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

I really hope this doesn’t come across as either too pro-advertising or in any way pro-distracted driving. But I kind of dig the gigantic ads on the side of buildings that the city of Seattle might crack down on.

After years of debate over how to regulate (or ban) wall signs on the sides of buildings that advertise products or services that aren’t available in the building where they’re advertised, the city council’s Housing Affordability, Human Services, and Economic Resiliency committee met this morning to talk specifics.

Dozens of opponents of the proposal (from Vulcan to Total Outdoor Advertising to the Mariners) waited patiently while the committee slogged through the details, but they were probably encouraged to hear council member Bruce Harrell preemptively parroting nearly all of their points. The opponents argued that giant signs promote civic pride, are easier for drivers to read, and are a way for small businesses to supplement their meager incomes.

I like wandering around the city, and one of my favorite thing is when you see some faded paint from an ad that was on an old building a long time ago. Trying to figure out from the cost of whatever painted on the brick or the language used what time frame it might have been.

This isn’t quite that, of course. It’s for businesses that aren’t in the building that’s advertised. And it’s generally draped over the walls or plastered on instead of being painted. So perhaps future walkers won’t have the same thing. But it has been going on for a long time. Anyway, they’re on walls — often times boring walls — so they aren’t taking any views away.

And while these are big for drivers, they are in high pedestrian traffic areas. Most buildings tall enough for that to be an issue are in areas with high pedestrian traffic. So you can see plenty of them on a bike or on your feet, and that’s fine.

Really, also, if the goal is to stop distracted driving, this rule doesn’t make a lot of sense:

Currently, the city bans “off-premises” wall signs on the sides of buildings; it does allow businesses to advertise products or services they actually provide (those are known as “on-premises” signs). So if you’re Jimmy John’s (to give an example from SoDo) and you want to put a huge Jimmy John’s sign on your outside wall to attract customers, go for it. But if Subway wants to buy an ad on your wall, that’s against the rules.

Is an ad for a store in the building less distracting than an ad for a store somewhere else? I think they’re exactly as distracting. But as long as they aren’t animated, reflective, 3D, or whatever, I think most drivers will be sensible enough to ignore them.

Well this certainly bodes poorly for police reform. As well as being pretty crappy in its own right.

I just got a call from Seattle Times reporter Steve Miletich confirming a rumor I’d heard recently: Seattle police chief Harry Bailey has overturned the one-day suspension of Officer John Marion, the cop who threatened to harass me at work in retaliation for reporting on police misconduct. Chief Bailey wants to provide more training instead, and as Miletich explains, Bailey doesn’t seem to understand that he’s also apparently overturned the misconduct ruling itself

The police in this city are problematic on a level enough for the DOJ to get involved. They have a pattern stretching back over a decade. The last mayor half assed reform only when the Feds got involved, and previous mayors didn’t even do that much. It’s disheartening to see Ed Murray’s team not even be able to match the halfassedness of his predecessor.

But maybe I’m making too much of one thing. Oh (Seattle Times link).

Bailey, who was appointed interim chief last month by Mayor Ed Murray, said he took the action as part of a sweeping review of more than 25 pending grievances stemming from backlogged disciplinary actions imposed by former interim Chief Jim Pugel and former Police Chief John Diaz.

He said he wants to “get all of these things cleaned up before the new chief comes,” a reference to Murray’s goal to find a permanent chief by the end of April.

Bailey said he was working with the City Attorney’s Office and the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild (SPOG) to resolve some of the cases.

We let police officers carry guns and arrest people on the public dime. We ought to expect there will be some accountability when the fuck up, but it’s looking like even that is too much to ask.

I just wanted to pitch you on building factories in the Puget Sound area. When I read that you probably wouldn’t be building more Southern plants as long as they refuse to unionize, I realized that Western Washington is a great fit.

We have some of the best manufacturing in the world being done in Western Washington, and the major manufacturing employer, Boeing, is currently in the process of screwing over its workers. That means that you can get a good strong workforce that understands manufacturing processes, that has the hands on experience required to build large things, that knows how to prevent FOD. And you can get them for a steal, because Boeing just gave them a horrible contract.

Airplanes aren’t cars, of course, and there will be hiccups. Not everyone will want or be able to make that transition. But the change won’t be nearly as rough as starting from scratch.

We are also a region that embraces unions. We know, like you, that keeping unions at the table, and keeping workers happy will lead to better products. We certainly won’t have Senators threatening you if the UAW tries to organize a plant in Western Washington.

Thank you,

Carl Ballard

– The Big Burger Boycott is today, Seattle.

– Volkswagen’s top labor representative threatened on Wednesday to try to block further investments by the German carmaker in the southern United States if its workers there are not unionized. [h/t]

– (video plays automatically) Well I’m no expert but firing Hanford whistleblowers seems like a bad idea.

– Honestly? You probably don’t want just any old scab driving your kids around first thing in the morning.

– At what point does Rodney Tom just give up any pretense of being a Democrat(Seattle Times link)?

– The Dignity of Work

The Pay It Forward program (Spokesman-Review link) sounds like it’s good as far as it goes.

Instead, under a bill proposed in the House, they’d pay after leaving school in the form of a small, fixed percentage of their future income for up to 25 years.

Rep. Larry Seaquist, who introduced the Pay It Forward program in House Bill 2720, said with tuition costs and loan debt skyrocketing over the past decade, those from low and middle income families find it increasingly difficult to access higher education. The Democrat from Gig Harbor said the Pay It Forward program would remove that barrier.

I don’t want to be too down on this It certainly seems better than getting into debt with whatever the interest rates are to go to college. Look, I hate to be a broken record here, the best way to make college affordable is to not make it so expensive. So long as we are a high tuition state, things like this are eating around the edges, not attacking the problem head on.

The biggest barrier to letting people from underserved communities into college is the fact that it’s fucking expensive. And this plan, while a better alternative for some, is still pretty expensive. Instead of paying for it with taxes, preferably as progressive ones as we can muster in this state, it’s gimmicks like this. And look, if this gets people who wouldn’t otherwise go to college into college, great. But ultimately it’s a poor substitute for making college affordable.

Last night The House passed the Senate Version of the WA DREAM Act (or whatever the Senate calls it) and so now it will go to Governor Inslee to sign into law.

The legislation would make state need-grant money available to undocumented college students, young people who came to Washington with their parents and in many cases have lived all their lives in the Evergreen State.

The 75-22 House vote came after 14 months of tension and maneuver.

It is a testament to the hard work of a lot of people that this got through the logjam that is our legislature. When the Senate passed their version, I thought that this might help pry loose some other popular bills that are dying in the Senate. So far, no. I still hold out hope for the Reproductive Parity Act and other bills that the legislature would pass if only they could get to the floor.

– Ed Murray’s first State of the City address.

– It’s a sign of the world we’re living in that we need regulations of drone use.

– The GOP Senate trying to hide the ball from their own constituents is just pathetic.

– On a disturbingly regular basis…

– Fare inspectors being able to issue tickets in real time seems both helpful and horrifying.

– Seattle’s Bitcoin ATM seems unnecessary, but it’s probably just another example of me not understanding Bitcoin. [h/t]

– The Drinking Liberally thread is below, if you’re looking for the address or whatever.