HorsesAss.Org

Numbers 22:29
Balaam answered the donkey, “You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.”

Discuss.

Robert Reich: Why So Angry?.

‘Key & Peele’ on Black Republicans.

The Scourge of Health Care for Everyone:

• Colbert goes after the Koch Brothers anti-Obama Care ad
• Sam Seder: Who likes Obamacare?
• Nia-Malika Henderson and Ezra Klein: Obamacare, Day 1.
• Daily Show’s Jason Jones on buying insurance
• An important day for millions of Americans

Kimmel: The week in Unnecessary Censorship.

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

Lewis Black has some words for the Barilla Pasta President.

Zina Saunders: Wayne LaPierre has a dream:

Ana Kasparian: Will Eric Holder slap down North Carolina’s voter ID law as racist?.

Terrorist Attack on Washington, D.C.!

• Ann Telnaes: Government shutdown countdown.
• Nia-Malika Henderson: The government shutdown in 140 characters.
• Young Turks: Boehner goes nuts over ‘We are winning’ government shutdown comments
• Jon: The March of Dumbs.
• Ann Telnaes: House GOP cuckoos.
• Congressman castigates Park Ranger for the memorial closure he voted for!
• Sam Seder and Cliff Schecter: Shutdown impact on biomedical and scientific research.
• Thom: Yes, the GOP are crazy enough to do this.
• Jonathan Mann: Government shutdown sitcom theme song:
• Boehner’s home turf
• Maddow: CRY BABIES!
• Stephen: The “Slimdown”
• Dumb and Dumber: All wired up and ready to go…crazy.
• Jon: Shutstorm 2013
• Ann Telnaes: GOP hitching a ride out of the government shutdown mess.
• The lowdown with the Shutdown.
• Ed: GOP hypocrite-anarchists continue try to defund Obamacare.
• Stephen fixes one problem with the shut down.
• Jon apologizes to Republicans…for being too easy on them.

White House: West Wing Week.

Thom: More Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Mental Floss: 42 Idiom Origins.

ONN: The Onion Week in Review.

Mark Fiore: American Salebration.

Thom: The GOP is terrified and they will lose.

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

Emmett O’Connell has a piece about the possibility of merging Olympia, Lacey, and Tumwater. When I lived in North Thurston County, it always seemed like something that ought to happen, but I only lived there for a few years, so not enough to really understand the ins and outs of the local political culture.

Emmett gives some examples of mergers not working and links to another piece about different politics. Fair enough, but the city cultures never felt that distinct to me. I’ve mentioned it before, but here in Seattle when I ride my bike across city lines to, Shoreline or Lake Forest Park for example, it feels like it’s a different city at the border. I’ve had that feeling in New England crossing from a small exurban Mass town to a small exurban New Hampshire town. It never felt that way to me on a bike or a bus going from Olympia to Lacey or Tumwater (I didn’t drive when I lived down there, but being in a car can mute that sort of thing, sometimes).

They seem to be doing fine as three separate cities. But I’ve always though they might do better as one.

Joel Connelly has a piece on coal interests giving to Republicans who then spend it on pro-coal candidates in Whatcom County.

– State Republicans, on May 1, received a $10,000 donation from Pacific International Terminals. Pacific doubled down with a $20,000 contribution on Sept. 17.

– The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, on June 25, made two donations totaling $10,000 to state Republicans.

– The state Republican Party, on May 1, gave $5,000 to the Whatcom County Republican Party. It followed with a second $5,000 donation on May 24, and a third $5,000 donation on July 19.

– The state party has given $500 apiece to four candidates — Kathy Kershner, Michelle Luke, Ben Elenbass and Bill Knutzen — who have been endorsed by the Whatcom County Republican Party. The county party strongly supports the proposed coal export terminal.

–The Whatcom County Republican Party, between July 29 and Aug. 1, made donations of $900 apiece to Kershner, Luke, Elenbass and Knutzen.

I’m not here to say that they can’t do that. If the law allows it, corporations are going to make political donations that maximize their profit. But it is scuzzy. And perhaps it shouldn’t be allowed. It should definitely be called out.

Note: You may remember the Republicans riffing on the “all we want is an Up or Down vote!” when Democrats were threatening filibusters over some of George W. Bush’s nominees. It’s time to let them hear those words again. Please take a few minutes to send your own message to Speaker Boehner here.

Dear Speaker Boehner,

Must I remind you that you are the Speaker of the HOUSE, not the Speaker of the Republican Party. As second in line for the presidency, I expect you to show careful stewardship of our nation.

You’ve failed. You’ve failed to uphold your oath of office. You, and the band of terrorists that control you, are now engaging in treasonous acts of sabotage against the U.S. (I remind you that you are not immune from prosecution for Treason under Article I, section 6 of the Constitution.)

I demand that you stop your collusion with the terrorists. Put a CLEAN continuing resolution up for a vote IMMEDIATELY.

All Americans want is an up or down vote on a clean resolution. Call it the “Constitutional option”, an up or down vote put before House members. This is what the Speaker of the House is obligated to do.

Up or down vote!

Do it!

– Today in apt metaphors.

– A good health care rundown and Q&A.

– of course not all ACA situations will be the same, but this is pretty great.

– A Shutdown Is Just What Conservatives Want, And It Sucks

– The problem with science–and in particular science involving living ecosystems–is that you can’t just unplug everything and go home. If you’ve set up an experiment with specific schedules for data collection, or living organisms of any kind, anything from weeks to years of work could be interrupted or lost during a shutdown.

– I am talking, of course, about octopus wrestling is the greatest thing anyone has ever written on any subject in this, or any other, universe.

OK, so I think I’ve figured out how to (a) have the House Republicans do their job passing a clean continuing resolution, and (b) let the House Republicans claim victory. Senate Democrats should load up a continuing resolution with some things they’d like. They can have a public option, or lower Medicare age (preferably to birth). Basically, they should negotiate this funding the government thing with the same bad faith as the Republicans.

Then when the Republicans inevitably, eventually do their job and fund the government, they can say to their Tea Party constituency, “Oh hey, we totally stopped the public option. Health care could have been more affordable still, but no.”

Since now the conversation is between the GOP doing their jobs and passing a clean resolution, or the GOP plan to continue their hissy fit for a little longer and demanding delays to the Affordable Care Act, when the Republicans eventually do their job, it will look like they’ve caved. Under the Carl Ballard plan, when they do their job, they can have saved the republic from socialism or whatever.

My questions are bold, Sally Bagshaw’s are as submitted.

1) Now that I-502 has passed, what should the purchase of marijuana look like within city limits? Will medical marijuana collective garden storefronts in Seattle have to abide by the 1000-foot rule established by I-502?

I support the sale of both medical and recreational marijuana through a licensing system that monitors the production, processing and sale of marijuana within city limits. As a Councilmember I have recommended that we preserve our Industrial zoning areas by minimizing the size of marijuana facilities in IG1 areas, allowing for such facilities in IG-2 and out of residential areas. I look forward to working with the Washington State Liquor Control Board, the Department of Health and the Department of Agriculture once their policies are set at the end of the year.

Yes, the 1,000-foot rule was established to separate schools and parks from marijuana stores and that should be applied to both medical and recreational stores. Preferably they will be treated enforced the same by the state.

2) With Metro’s ability to fund itself at the whim of the legislature, what should the city’s role be in public transportation? How should the City Council both make sure we get our fair share, and that the system serves the entire region well?

I fully support a local option measure to be passed by the State Legislature to allow King County Council to fund Metro Transit with a combination of Motor Vehicle Excise Tax (MVET), a VMT tax, or a tax that assesses vehicles based upon their weight and emissions among others. We absolutely MUST provide Metro with a reliable funding source that would support transit and roads. Without the funding, Metro must cut 600,000 hours of local and regional transit. This is unacceptable when we should be adding at least this amount to the system.

Since 1999 when Eyman’s first initiative – I-695 was on the ballot, I have worked to preserve funding options for Metro. At the time I was the chief lawyer for Metro transit, and fought as Metro was gutted by an ill-conceived initiative.

I have worked with legislators these past years, and continue to do so to encourage a special session in November 2013 to pass a statewide package. My preference would be for King County to be given councilmanic authority; in lieu of this, Metro can go to the people of King County and demonstrate how much additional transit is needed and ask for their support.

I am working with our local legislators and with King County Executive Dow Constantine and King County Councilmembers to advocate both a statewide and regional package. I also serve on the Regional Transit Committee and advocate for regional support that assures productivity, geographic equity, and social fairness. Metro transit’s ridership continues to grow; to reduce our regional congestion, we must increase ridership and decrease the reliance on single-occupancy vehicles.

Absent and new MVET funding, I believe the voters of Seattle would support a car-tab fee to support transit infrastructure development if the fee was progressively collected and road improvement projects were included in a comprehensive package. The City has a strong history of support for our transportation levy that was last passed in 2006. We also learned a lesson two years ago when the Transportation Proposition 1 was soundly defeated because it failed to balance transit with a comprehensive roads/bridges/infrastructure approach.

3) What should the waterfront look like after the Viaduct comes down? Will there be a streetcar or other transit?

I have worked on the Waterfront project for nearly a decade as chair of the Allied Arts Waterfront for All project. I co-authored a report developed after we sponsored two design charettes and one collaborative.

The potential opportunities for economic development, sustainable environmental features and a waterfront that is designed with universal access in mind will make this the best waterfront in the world.

I am encouraged by early designs incorporating public beaches and parks, and the connection between Pike Place Market and the Aquarium. As a downtown resident, I also support efforts to connect the street car on 1st Avenue; if we decide to do this, I recommend we dedicate a separated lane to the streetcar so it moves faster than cars, and extend the line all the way from the Sculpture Park to Lander Street, perhaps redirecting traffic on 1st Avenue so it serves northbound traffic only. This would simplify our downtown grid with one-way traffic on all streets except Third Avenue, which would remain primarily accessible for buses. I would retrofit the George Benson Street Cars so they could operate on the same tracks as the streetcar.

4) What should happen in the next 4 years to make sure that police reform both satisfies the Feds, and works for Seattle citizens?

One primary goal of the Department of Justice-directed police reforms is to result in greater trust between officers and the communities they serve. Right now serious efforts are underway through the Monitor, the new Ombudsman, and the Office of Police Accountability to assure this happens.

I acknowledge that the police have a tough job, and individual officers are feeling beleaguered by the investigation and are understandably cautious. As we are implementing the Department of Justice Police Accountability Plan, our community must also come together to support the efforts of officers who are trying to do the right thing. The great majority of them are good officers believe they are truly trying to “protect and serve”

The creation of the Community Police Commission will provide guidance on reform issues and ensure community involvement. The community panel and court-appointed monitor will report back to the judge and to the Department of Justice. This provides for police reform that is community driven and results-focused. Los Angeles found it took nearly a decade to change the culture. I hope it takes us less time.

5) A recent study found Seattle is the worst of the 50 largest US metro areas in terms of pay equality for women. Why do you think that’s the case, and what is the city’s role in closing that gap?

The study brought to light many important issues facing women in Seattle and our community as a whole. Not only are men paid 9.5 percent more than women, but the Seattle city payroll has more men in higher-wage positions and is only about one-third women.

Some of this is historic: some of our employees who receive the highest income are Seattle City Light and police officers that work over time and in emergencies. Although we are beginning to see signs of change, particularly in the police department, the majority of employees in these positions traditionally have been men. Also, the structuring of some city departments results in divisions being dominated by women (the Department of Human Services for example).

I fully support our apprenticeship programs and vocational programs that encourage women to pursue journeyman positions in the construction industry. As a law school graduate myself, I encourage women to get their education and pursue whatever interests them. For the thirty+ year of my professional career, I have supported other women who are building lives and careers, and worked to assure women in my departments have been paid fairly

In some circumstances, veterans of our wars receive preferences, and they enter the pay scales at a higher rate. Since to date more returning veterans are men, this explains in part why some new hires are paid more than others.

I encourage women to get additional training and apply for positions where they can. In a world where more women are supporting families this has to change, women must have opportunities to pursue their education and additional training so they have advantages during promotions.

This is not a new issue. It is one that I have been working on for decades; I want to delve into this report and investigate how salaries compare in similar jobs and circumstances and make appropriate adjustments based on skills, abilities, and fairness. I look forward to supporting a Gender Justice Initiative and providing –as our president says – ladders of opportunity for women across the City.

The federal government has succumbed to a small group of White Collar Terrorists, but that won’t stop us! Please join us for an evening of prognostications over a pint at tonight’s meeting of the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet tonight and every Tuesday evening at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Our normal starting time is 8:00pm.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out another DL meeting over the next week. The Tri-Cities chapter also meets tonight. The Lakewood chapter meets on Wednesday. And for Thursday, the Spokane chapter meets. On Friday,the Enumclaw chapter meets. And next Monday, the Yakima, South Bellevue and Olympia chapters meet.

With 210 chapters of Living Liberally, including eighteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting near you.

– Happy shut down the government for no damn reason day.

– But at least we know that no matter what’s actually happening, everyone is equally to blame.

– This is our exchange in Washington, so if you need health care or just want to see if you might, here you go.

– Your Five-Step Guide to Obamacare Week

– Welcome to our newly wet Septembers, Western Washington.

– In all seriousness, this letter from the CoC is perhaps the best evidence yet that the old-guard GOP and their corporate benefactors have finally lost control of the useful idiots they’ve been manipulating so successfully for so long. Nobody who has a fact-based idea of what could happen in a shutdown or — worse — a sovereign debt default wants either. But one is well on its way, and another is terrifyingly possible because most Republicans in Congress are more worried about appeasing the actual lunatics who vote in GOP primaries than doing the right thing for the country.

Congrats to Kathy Best for the job of something between dog shooter’s lackey and important protector of the First Amendment (Seattle Times link).

Kathy Best, a longtime Seattle journalist and a Seattle Times editor for six years, has been named the newspaper’s editor, Seattle Times Publisher Frank Blethen announced Monday.

Best, who most recently has been one of The Times’ two managing editors, begins the new job immediately, Blethen said. She replaces David Boardman, who resigned after 30 years at The Times in August to become dean of Temple University’s School of Media and Communication in Philadelphia.

Before joining The Seattle Times, Best was the assistant managing editor for Sunday and national news at The Baltimore Sun. She had also been assistant managing editor/metro at the St. Louis Post–Dispatch and at the Seattle Post–Intelligencer.

So a few things. 1) It’s possibly inevitable that the news reads like a press release, but it’s still somewhat disappointing. I mean a fair number of Seattle Times pieces about things The Seattle Times likes read like press releases for those things. So, sure. I don’t think The Seattle Times would do a hard hitting thing on their new editor even if there was dirt to be had. (If you have dirt, I’m willing to listen, but I don’t generally care about people’s personal life.)

2) Later in the piece we get this, “Best told the paper’s news staff that with the uncertain future facing the industry, ‘all of us in this room need to stay laser-focused on our mission: producing useful, meaningful, kick-ass journalism that readers can’t get anywhere else.'” I’m not sure that has been their focus but yay for swearing at The Seattle Times, both in the news section and from their new editor. Here’s hoping for more. I assume there will be more “fucks” here on a given week than in the paper in her entire time at the helm, but I’m glad for the swearing.

3) I don’t know enough about her to know if this is a good hire or not, but I’m glad they hired a woman. I don’t know if this will change stories that get covered or how they cover them, but I hope it broadens the lens a bit.

– Happy probably a US Government shutdown because the GOP are horrible day!

– How was your storm experience? Did you see any lightning?

– A lot of ST alerts because of the storm.

– Georgetown and South Park are the Seattle neighborhoods with the worst air.

– (a) Don’t cross the grocery store picket lines. (b) I think we might be able to declare My Northwest’s trolls worse than HA’s. Step it up, you guys.

– Riding a bike (and unmentioned in the piece, but also walking) where there’s Viaduct/Tunnel construction is kind of scary.

– That’s not an education. That’s carefully nurtured stupidity.

Last week’s contest was won by Geoduck. It was the Broadway Bridge in Boulder that saw these floodwaters.

Here’s this week’s contest, a random location somewhere on earth, good luck!

Leviticus 18:17
Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness.

Discuss.