HorsesAss.Org

The crisis continues…the federal government is still being held hostage, but that won’t keep us from plotting a rescue mission. Please join us for an evening of rescue politics over a pint at tonight’s gathering 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 nearby DL meeting over the next week. The Tri-Cities and Shelton chapters meet tonight. The Lakewood and South Seattle chapters meet this Wednesday. For Thursday, the Spokane and Tacoma chapters meet. And next Monday, the Aberdeen, Yakima 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.

– How do you know when a Koch brothers sponsored group is lying in a press release? If it issued a press release.

– And the goddamned town full of righteous assholes who populate Maryville, Missouri joined up to recite the sacred mantra of “boys will be boys” and to condemn and harass the victims.

– Maybe not letting King County fund its own transit is a way to fund the 520 bridge since people are switching in large numbers due to the tolling.

– “As a matter of policy I always wait a few days before reading anything Alessandra Stanley writes so editors have time to issue the necessary 3-4 corrections. So I admit I’ve yet to read the piece.”

– This weekend’s weird protest against the fallout of the government shutdown they engineered is just the latest primal scream from this slowly dying breed of American.

– Three Olympia local food options that aren’t the co-op or the farmers market

– I always try to write a quick email when I’ve had good customer service (although in fairness, I’ve never been great at following through on it). Lately though, it’s been harder and harder to find a good email address. I feel like I’m being pushed to Twitter and Facebook, but those feel too public for that. Is it that putting those addresses somewhere where I can find it means that it’s also somewhere where billions of spam bots can find them too? Has anyone else had this problem, or is it just me?

– Ayn Random

Over the weekend, I was crossing the street, and a mom and her 2 or 3 year old kid were walking down the street in the opposite direction when the kid suddenly starts crying and laying down in the middle of the crosswalk. And the mother says “you can’t have your temper tantrum in the street.” Then she pulled him over to the sidewalk where he continued to throw his tantrum.

I’m not a parent, and I have no idea what the back story is, so I’m not going to criticize the mom. But I sort of think that makes a good metaphor for what the GOP is doing.

Maybe the GOP temper tantrum in the middle of the street is hoping that the rest of us will see their temper tantrums not in the middle of the street as reasonable. But their temper tantrums aren’t reasonable.

– A bill for the next session would make it easier to fire cops. On the one hand, I’m generally opposed to management being able to arbitrarily be able to fire employees, on the other hand, there are some cops out there who probably need it.

– Over at Defeating the Dragons there’s a multi-part piece on how an evangelical becomes pro-choice. In some ways since I’m not an evangelical it’s not my fight, but since there is so much spill over into public polity, it’s probably necessary. In any event it’s so far a pretty good read.

– I’m still think a special session to get a transit bill is our best hope of not losing Metro fundin, but Ben Schiendelman makes the case that it’s bad news and has a way forward.

– If you’re waving a confederate flag, you’ve lost the argument.

Last week’s contest was won by zzippy. It was Rehoboth Beach, DE.

This week’s is from Google 45-degree views, good luck!

Ezekiel 23:8
She did not give up the prostitution she began in Egypt, when during her youth men slept with her, caressed her virgin bosom and poured out their lust on her.

Discuss.

Stephen: Shep’s FAUX News deck.

Mark Fiore: The Grand Bargain hoax:

Chris Cillizza with Maya MacGuineas: Why do we have an unbalanced budget.

Mental Floss: 30 Life Hacks Debunked.

Sam Seder: The conservative trucker protest that wasn’t.

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

Sharpton has some civics lessons for the G.O.P.

The Law of The Land:

• WaPo Obamacare Q&A: Can anyone deny me coverage?.
• ObamaCare or Shut Up.
• Sharpton: Republicans compare ‘Obamacare’ to slavery
• Jon: Medicant
• Young Turks: Obamacare will destroy America! says nutjob Rep. Broun

Thom: The climate change point of no return.

White House: West Wing Week.

Sam Seder: Michele Bachman says some crazy shit.

Pit TV: Stop and Frisk…

Stephen: On the guy running for Michele Bachman’s seat’s totally illegal ads.

Ann Telnaes: Some $peech is worth more than others.

The Hostage Crisis Continues:

• Thom: We need a hostage negotiator.
• Jon on bipartisan curious Republicans.
• Sam Seder: GOP holds America hostage, mainstream media pushes false equivalency.
• Young Turks: NBC/WSJ poll is devastating for Republicans.
• Ann Telnaes: Power-drunk Boehner.
• FuckYouCongress. Time for some Recycling!
• Sam Seder’s solution.
• Jon: Who is to blame???
• Boehner’s shutdown is hurting Ohio.
• Chris Hayes: The G.O.P.’s “new” ransom strategy.
• Young Turks: Why the religious right doesn’t fear financial collapse.
• Maddow: Up is Down for Republicans.
• Maddow: New class of GOPers bring their own rule book.
• What if the shutdown isn’t so bad for the G.O.P.?
• Ann Telnaes: The G.O.P.’s terrible performance.
• Daily Show: Where is the GOP coming from?

The GOP War on Women™ continues with anti-Hillary buttons.

Maddow: G.O.P. muddles message.

Chris Hayes: Meet a member of the Ignorance Caucus.

Pap: The death of Republican ideas.

Stephen: New Pot laws.

Red State Update: Podcast 47, All we want is a conversation with Obama.

Liberal Viewer: FAUX News’s fake Obama Muslim museum story.

Thom: Wendy Davis vs. the TX Good Ol’ Boys.

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

With Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell not up for reelection in 2014, Washingtonians might be interested in the Oregon senate race. And I suspect Blue Oregon will be a great source of information (It certainly couldn’t be worse than the Oregonian).

For a while there, we wondered if Karl Rove’s efforts to “make Oregon next” were falling short in the 2014 U.S. Senate race.

But in the space of just a few days this week, we’ve gone from wondering if anybody was really serious about running – to a possible three-way Republican primary.

Kari at Blue Oregon is happy with a primary. I’m always skeptical about that, and think it’s free publicity for the side that’s having a primary. But Jeff Merkley is a pretty strong candidate, and I think he’ll be able to survive, especially if the GOP go into full meltdown mode.

Last night I was having dinner with my friend Dave. We started exploring the question of whether the House Republicans were crazier when Clinton was Prez or now. Remember how totally outrageous the House was under the Newtster? They shut down the government…twice. And then they decided to impeach the President, essentially, for getting a blow job. The two charges that passed along party lines in the House was easily dismissed by the Senate.

There was a kind of zealotry in that bunch of Republicans that parallels what we see today. They share a collective tone-deafness that has caused House Republicans—then and now—to unwittingly undertake extreme actions that Americans disagree with.

Both then and now, there was a zealotry that was borne out of hatred for the Democratic President. But here is a difference I see between then and now. Republicans seemed angrier, but less crazy in their zealotry back then. Newt Gingrich and Henry Hyde were angry and cynical men, who sometimes said outrageous things to make a point—but a point that had some connection to reality. The current crop of Republicans are expressing zealotry borne out of a much bigger dose of madness. It seems many in the current crop have been brainwashed into believing things that are at odds with facts, with reality (Kenya!, Obama Muslim conspiracy!, cutting taxes raises revenue, Obamacare kills!, etc.).

Michele Bachmann and Louie Gohmert seem to really believe the crazy-ass shit they say. They live in a largely self-constructed universe.

In some cases it seems the hatred observed of both groups is confounded in the current crop by racial hatred. It has driven some House Republicans to insanity.

So what do you think? Were they crazier in the crazy House days of the Clinton Administration? Has Obama derangement syndrome pushed today’s G.O.P. further off the cliff of sanity? Or was the Newt-pack just as bad?

When I mentioned the grocery workers’ strike authorization, I said that I wasn’t sure what to do to support them if a strike came. I still don’t, but I’m glad to see that there is a website with options. You can get updates emailed to you, if you don’t mind that. There’s Grocery Store Alternatives for if the strike comes and you still need to shop. If you’d rather check them out on Facebook, you can here.

The site still feels like a work in progress, and presumably it will scale up if there is a strike. Hopefully it won’t come to that, but I’m glad it’s there if there is a need.

The King County Exec’s office doesn’t mince words — nor should it — in this press release about what the shutdown is doing to nutrition programs in the county.

Advance layoff notices were sent this morning to 82 King County employees who provide essential nutrition services for Women, Infants and Children, as a consequence of the continuing federal shutdown.

“This self-inflicted, manufactured crisis will interrupt essential nutrition services for

38,000 pregnant women, new mothers, and young children in King County,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine. “They are literally taking food from the mouths of babies.”

As a result of the shutdown, USDA funding in King County and Washington state for the Women, Infants and Children program, known as WIC, will expire on October 31st. The loss of funding will have a total economic impact of up to $30 million dollars a year, including $23 million that goes directly for food for families.

WIC is a federally-funded nutrition program that helps 38,000 women and children in King County eat well, learn about nutrition and stay healthy. The program provides vouchers for nutritious foods and infant formula, health screenings, nutrition and health education, and breastfeeding support. WIC services are provided through Public Health – Seattle & King County clinics and nine community partners, including community health centers, Swedish Medical Center, Neighborhood House and Open Arms.

I can’t even imagine that Republicans think this is OK. And yet they do. They think it’s fine and dandy to starve children because they don’t want their constituents to be able to afford health care.

These sort of cuts are going on everywhere, but since this press release is King County, let’s think of Dave Reichert. He represents some of those children, and their mothers, who won’t have enough to eat. Some of those 38,000 women and children are his constituents and his neighbors in King County.

He says he would vote for a clean CR. And good on him for that. But as far as I can see, he hasn’t done anything to push that vote to the floor. He’s still saying the Democrats are the problem instead of his GOP colleagues having a temper tantrum, so he still thinks shutting down the government is a legit tactic to get legislative concessions, hungry babies be damned. He hasn’t called for a vote, at least publicly. I don’t think he has signed on to the discharge petition that would bring the vote to the floor (I couldn’t find a list of who has). He voted against the Democrats’ parliamentary maneuver to have the vote. It’s more important to him to show some sort of unity with the people holding the government hostage than to feed his neighbors.

– No, private charity can’t handle it alone

– Well it looks like our tattered campaign finance system will probably manage to get even weaker.

– Patty Murray’s guest editorial on the government shutdown (Seattle Times link).

– Did anyone watch the mayoral debate? I probably should have as a civics nerd who is undecided in that race and who likes both of the candidates. But I had other things to do.

– In yesterday’s post, I mentioned one King County Health Care event. You can find more here, if you want to go.

– The State Senate’s transit listening tour is coming to Seattle. The Transit Riders Union is pretty cynical about it, but encourage you to show up.

– Maybe those state senators are just running away from the bear in Olympia (Daily O link).

– RIP Comet Tavern

The Washington Post has a profile of how the new health care law is working in this Washington. It turns out, so far, we’re doing well (hat tip to a few friends on Facebook, including Nick).

Washington Health Plan Finder had one of the most troubled launches of any health marketplace, even more so than the glitch-plagued federal exchange.

When HealthCare.Gov launched, shoppers could at least access the homepage. But in the Evergreen State, the entire marketplace site was down. If you tried to visit the site Oct. 1, you got internal server error messages.

This makes it all the more surprising that, six days later, Washington is now posting some of the highest enrollment numbers in the country. The state has had nearly 9,452 people sign up for coverage since Oct. 1. The enrollments have largely been in the Medicaid program, however, with 916 people buying private insurance.

There are an additional 10,497 people who have submitted applications for health coverage through the marketplace but are not actually enrolled, meaning they have yet to pay their first month’s premium. All told, that’s about 20,000 people who have taken a step toward signing up for coverage in Washington. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to the 960,000 people there without insurance — but we are only seven days into a six-month open enrollment period.

The article goes on to talk about user friendliness. And it looks like that is great. You can look at your options before you log on, so you can see what’s going on. I’ll say again (and now that it’s up) that you can find it here. If you need to apply, or just want to poke around, see what you can do. It’s easy, and it might save you some money.

I’d also point out that King County (at least) is also making an effort to help people get enrolled. They’re handing out fliers and holding events like this one in Lake Forest Park. I’d be curious to see what the breakdown is by county, and to see what other counties and locals are doing to get people enrolled.

My questions in bold, Nick Licata’s after that:

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?

The State Liquor Control Board has allocated 21 retail licenses for recreational marijuana in Seattle, legalized by I-502, which I strongly supported. The stores will likely open during spring of 2014. More stores could open if demand is high enough.

I believe the state legislature needs to act to place medical marijuana within a clearer legal framework than its current “grey” status, a result of the partial Governor’s veto in 2011. The needs of medical patients must be met, and I’m not convinced the recreational market will meet that need. I’d like to see a medical license with clearer restrictions, and a reduced number of dispensaries. In any case, the US Attorney has stated that the current lack of regulations isn’t viable, and given the illegal status of marijuana at the US federal level, that is a caution we should heed.

I am co-sponsoring legislation that would require dispensaries or to be within commercial or industrial zones—more or less the same as retail stores for other legal products. It’s likely there will be a lot less dispensaries; the state could attempt to incorporate medical marijuana into the 502 system, though I’d prefer a separate, smaller regulated medical system.

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?

Ensuring our bus service is vital. The bus system is the best way to serve every neighborhood and business district; it should be our first public transportation priority. Should the state not grant King County authority to maintain funding for current service, the City may need to use its existing Transportation Benefit District authority to maintain service in Seattle via a ballot measure. Such a measure should be short-term only, for one or two years, and clearly state that once King County is able to collect funding via state authority, the City funding should stop. All neighborhoods and business district should have a good level of bus service before we consider building more streetcars. Light rail should be pursued within the regional context.

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

A post-Viaduct waterfront should live up to the tag line planners currently employ, “A Waterfront for All,” in three crucial ways. First, it should provide free and easy access to Puget Sound in the form of beaches, open space and structures that directly abut the water. Second, it should offer a wide variety of free activities, such as music concerts, community festivals and other public gatherings that can attract a diverse audience of residents in addition to tourists. And last, it should contain surprises, such as artistically designed wayfinders at intersections, writers’ parks along the water that allow for reading, writing and contemplation, and integrated public art that amplifies the emotional, cultural and historic aspects of the waterfront.

I supported studying streetcars on the waterfront. The study is complete, and the estimated cost to place a streetcar on the waterfront is between $35 and $55 million. The decision to place a streetcar on the waterfront will have to take place within the overall spending plan for the waterfront.

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

I support the City of Seattle’s policing reform objectives as follows:

• Prompt implementation of reform;
• Transparency;
• Alignment of the monitoring plan with the scope of the Settlement Agreement;
• Certainty that the monitoring plan follows the specific commitments of the Settlement Agreement; and
• Ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent to best further the speedy implementation of the Settlement Agreement.

We will best and most timely realize these objectives if we seek to uphold the spirit and the law of the Department of Justice’s Settlement Agreement and Memorandum of Understanding. They find that ongoing community input is a necessary and critical component of achieving and maintaining effective and constitutional policing.

The Community Police Commission is established to provide an independent forum for dialogue and widespread input on the reform efforts required by the Agreement/Memorandum. It is responsible to “leverage the ideas, talent, experience and expertise of the people of Seattle to support the City in ensuring that police services are delivered to the people of Seattle in a manner that:

1. Fully complies with the Constitution of the United States;
2. Effectively ensures public and officer safety; and
3. Promotes public confidence in SPD and its officers.”

The CPC should seek to strengthen the 3-legged table of our civilian policing oversight body. Each the civilian director, the civilian auditor, and the civilian oversight body have critical roles that make Seattle’s system – structurally – sound.

SPD rank and file will have to formulate new policy and cultivate a new policing culture. The City Council may have to pass new laws. The recommendations of the CPC will be a useful guide informed by their collective law enforcement expertise and community experience.

An emerging policy deliberation of significant reform potential relates to the Seattle Police Department’s proposed new Use of Force policies.

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?

An April report from the National Partnership for Women and Families (NWPF) ranked Seattle as having the widest gender wage gap among the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas.

On average in Seattle, a woman who holds a full-time job is paid $44,535 per year while a man who holds a full-time job is paid $60,881 per year. Women in the Seattle area are paid 73 cents for every dollar paid to men. Nationally, it’s women 77 cents for every dollar paid to men.

This means, for Seattle women, if the wage gap were eliminated for working Seattle area metro women would have enough money for approximately:

• 118 more weeks of food (2.3 years’ worth);
• Eight more months of mortgage and utilities payments; or
• 16 more months of rent.

The City of Seattle also has gender disparities in the payment of wages to its employees. Men employed by the City of Seattle make approximately 9.5% more than women on average.

I support the efforts of the Gender Equity in Pay Task Force to:

• Review City’s data to best understand opportunities and challenges, including a focus on departments with the largest differentials.
• Develop recruitment/retention strategies to increase employment of women.
• Develop strategies to increase City contracting and purchasing with WBEs.
• Develop policy that modifies existing procedures to address the bias that creates gender-based inequities.
• Develop tools and resources for individual women that help to address gender-based pay gaps.

The extremists still have the federal government shut down, but the people’s business must go on! So please join us for an evening of politics over a pint at tonight’s gathering 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 one of the other DL meetings over the next week. Tonight there are meetings of the Tri-Cities and Vancouver, WA chapters. On Wednesday, the Bellingham chapter meets. On Thursday the Bremerton chapter meets. And on Friday, the Centralia chapter meets.

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.