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With summer on full display, please join us this evening to quench your physiological and political thirsts at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet every Tuesday evening at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier than that for Dinner.

Here is Wall Street Journal editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz going off on the evils of bicycles and the evil bicycle sharing program recently launched in NYC. Note…this is NOT parody.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out another DL meeting over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter also meets. The Lakewood chapter meets on Wednesday. And on Thursday, the Spokane and Tacoma chapters meet.

With 204 chapters of Living Liberally, including sixteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting near you.

Dylan Matthews has a graph-filled post at Wonkblog digging into the data behind the just-released report on the racial disparity in marijuana law enforcement.

When I first saw this on Twitter yesterday, I was certain that the disparity figures reported by the ACLU marked a decrease from previous years, but they’re mostly unchanged over the past decade. Historically, the disparity for all drugs is even higher, particularly because of crack-cocaine enforcement.

I’ve been thrilled to see sharp, wonky folks like Matthews dive into this subject more and more since marijuana was made legal here and in Colorado (and here’s another post from Talking Points Memo, which has begun covering this topic with more frequency as well). But I think Matthews undersells the seriousness of the problem when he writes this:

How important is this? Well, while making up a quite small share of our prison population, marijuana possession charges make up nearly half of total drug arrests:

Obviously, being arrested without going to jail is a lot better than getting arrested and going to jail. But it’s still a major nuisance, leading to fines, long hours of community service and thousands of dollars in legal fees.

The downsides of having a marijuana arrest are often far worse than just fines and legal fees. Many of those arrested end up taking pleas in order to avoid jail. Part of that deal is that you plead guilty to a felony charge in order to avoid that jail term. And that felony charge goes on your record and follows you around for the rest of your life. For a young black man, often with little financial resources to get ahead in the first place, this makes it just about impossible to further their education or find employment. They become doomed to what has been appropriately described as the “new Jim Crow”, a second-class status that keeps them outside of the walls of opportunity for life.

The 4 to 1 disparity discussed by the ACLU doesn’t even take into account what happens after these arrests. Those with the resources to fight back can often get their charges reduced or thrown out. Those without them end up being told to plea guilty by an overworked public defender. To see the kind of impact this is happening in our major cities, just take a look at this chart within Matthews’ post:

For so many of the urban areas listed there, these arrests are portrayed as a public safety need. But they’re exactly the opposite. When you have an urban area that has problems with gangs – which thrive from the policies of prohibition in the first place – all this does is give those gangs more young people to recruit, young people that might have other avenues if they didn’t have a felony on their record holding them back. It’s not a coincidence that Chicago’s astronomical arrest figures for at-risk youth go hand-in-hand with its astronomical homicide figures. It’s what you should expect to happen when you do this.

Last month, as part of the celebration of HA‘s 9th anniversary, Darryl walked us through Nine years of HA trolls. It was quite the stroll down memory (some might mispronounce it marummy) lane.

Coming in as #5 on Darryl’s troll hit parade was the priggishly self-righteous Piper Scott, aka Scott St. Clair, an “investigative journalist” once (still?) employed by the odious Evergreen Freedom Foundation. His self-important droppings have been seen in many Washington state online venues, from Crosscut to some minor blog called unSound Politics (or something like that).

Some have suggested that blog commenters like St. Clair — right-wingers whose primary purpose appears to be incessantly inflammatory and/or derogatory on liberal or progressive blogs — are somehow paid to interfere with civilized discourse. I’ve seen that supposition confirmed only once, in the case of Kevin Carns, professional troll, one-time Political Director for Washington’s House Republican Organizing Committee and Executive Director of The Speaker’s Roundtable (the WHROC’s PAC). He haunted HA in its early years.

The evidence regarding St. Clair’s status as a professional troll may have been strengthened by something I chanced upon today. I was looking at some of the numerous testimonials and remembrances of the recently-departed Senator from New Jersey, Frank Lautenberg. I grew up in the Garden State, so big events there always interest me. I first registered to vote in New Jersey, and my first Federal election ballot in 1972 included the very same Class 2 Senate seat held until this week by Lautenberg. (I voted proudly and happily for Clifford P. Case, the incumbent Republican Senator … one of only two GOP votes I’ve ever cast.)

In reviewing the obituaries, I chanced upon one in NorthJersey.com, the website of the Bergen Record. The Record is a daily publication in Bergen County, located in the upper-right corner of the state, directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan. With the innumerable major media outlets right across the river, it’s really a minor part of the press presence in New Jersey, perhaps a step or two above a community newspaper. So imagine my surprise when I glanced at the comment threads and saw this [click on the image to enlarge it]:

Why in the world would a guy from Washington write a lengthy (and derogatory) comment on the website of a minor newspaper in New Jersey? Why would he have “Top Commenter” status there? Why would he have 114 subscribers to his comments on that website, a continent away from his home?

Across the nation, there must be hundreds and hundreds of media websites on a par with NorthJersey.com. How many of those list The Piper as a heavily-subscribed Top Commenter? If he isn’t being paid to troll obscure websites all around the country, what possible reason could he have for being there?

I’m amused that the first two replies to St. Clair’s comment list their locations as “Everett, Washington” and “Everett CC”. Not only does The Piper ride teh intertubes clear across the country, he brings a couple of fanboys with him!

If there are paid wingnut commenters, I suppose that some liberal/progressive blog commenters must also exist. There can’t be as many lefties as righties, though. Just about every newpaper, television, and radio website is populated overwhelmingly by conservatives, libertarians, and worse. I used to think that most of those were local crazies venting their spleen, but perhaps I was wrong.

– Congrats to John Lovick?

– The attention her discovery has brought Barre-Sinoussi has changed everything, just like her friend warned, she says. It even won over the man who told her at the start of her career that a life in science would be impossible for a woman. He contacted her many years after the HIV discovery.

– You must remember this paragraph anytime someone tells you that the black ghettos of Chicago are “no different” than other white immigrant ghettos. Such a person is speaking in ignorance of the actual math and should be immediately instructed to put down the hair tonic.

– Interesting debates on the nature of food aid going forward.

– Seasonal service changes for transit agencies. (PS, I dig the new look at Seattle Transit Blog).

– I don’t even know what a hipster is, really.

1) Now that I-502 has passed, what will 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?

Since the medical marijuana dispensaries have served and do serve as suppliers for the recreational users as well – especially underage ones – my perception is that we have too many of them and it’s good that they have gotten notices to move further away with the 1000 foot rule. That said, I don’t think banishing marijuana storefronts makes any sense or sends a good message. We probably should have saved the old state liquor stores and used them for outlets. I attached the speech I made at the Cannabis Freedom March for some background on my thoughts. [a copy is here – Carl]

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

My suggestion for METRO funding is called ORCA Tabs. Here’s a post I made recently called METRO Rx. http://katemartinformayor.com/2013/05/14/metro-rx/

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

I think the upper deck of the viaduct should be preserved as an open space. Here’s a post I made recently called The Viaduct Park. http://katemartinformayor.com/2013/05/09/the-viaduct-park/

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

Here’s a post from earlier in the campaign – pre Diaz retirement. http://katemartinformayor.com/2013/01/30/seattle-police-department-path/

Here’s some current commentary on that…

I sincerely hope that the selection process holds off until after the election. I believe the new chief should know who their boss will be for the next 4 years (at least).

When we do open up the search, we need a chief who I describe as a dichotomy. The person must be strong and able to command the respect of the force in an organization with a military-style hierarchy. Previously, although former Chief Diaz was on paper the chief, he didn’t exactly function like the chief. Command staff below him and union leadership seemed to dominate.

In addition to being able to actually function as a respected chief, the chief must lead by example and must be a woman or man with compassion for humanity and agility with a variety of tools beyond just force. The problem of excessive force and racism is an epidemic across our nation’s police forces, so a new tradition must be instilled. That is not something you can make people do and it’s nothing they can fake. They must have the aptitude and the proper professional development and leadership for it to happen.

Additionally, I think that the police force must be rested and healthy. With the $16.8M worth of overtime last year at SPD, I think we have to take a serious look at the relationship between overworking our force and the performance standards we desire, in addition to the budget implications of such practices.

I’d also like to see more neighborhood-based hiring to connect communities to the police forces in a social, neighborly way.

And finally, I understand that there have been inadequate levels of professional development. For all of our City workers, we must invest in their professional development. For the police, for instance, I understand that it has been 8 years since training for domestic violence. That is unacceptable and that’s not the only area lacking in professional development.

5) When there are police incidents, the response from the top is important. With hindsight, in the wake of John T. Williams being killed by a Seattle police officer what, if anything, should the mayor’s office have done differently what, if anything, did it do right?

We need a police force we can trust. I don’t think we’re any closer to having that than we were 2 years ago.

I believe the right response is to trace the incident back to a systemic problem and then fix that problem. I think that professional development of the force has been neglected. There are so many new officers and so little training. The force needs more tools to defuse situations – especially in cases with mental illness and addiction involved. It was just a couple of months ago when a father called 911 up near Carkeek Park because his mentally ill son was acting out. I am certain that the outcome that father was looking for was not the death of his son, but that’s what happened when 10 cars responded to the incident and a guy with no gun or knife was shot dead. Authentic, effective professional development must be stepped up so that every officer has the tools they need to successfully manage the tremendous variety of situations they encounter every day.

– The pride flag will fly above Seattle City Hall.

– So let me be very clear: If you claim to be “pro-life” and yet you don’t support this bill, I have to conclude you are, at best, a sanctimonious hypocrite and not someone whose proclamations on “morality” are deserving of any attention or respect.

– Lindy West continues to be pretty awesome.

– RIP Frank Lautenberg

– I don’t know why anyone would have lutefisk as part of a diet. In my family, it’s mostly just an excuse to have cream sauce.

Last week’s contest was won by Jay S. It was the site of the shooting of Ibragim Todashev in Orlando, Florida.

This week’s is a random location somewhere on earth, good luck!

1 Samuel 18:25-27
“Say to David, ‘The king wants no other price for the bride than a hundred Philistine foreskins, to take revenge on his enemies.’” Saul’s plan was to have David fall by the hands of the Philistines.

When the attendants told David these things, he was pleased to become the king’s son-in-law. So before the allotted time elapsed, David took his men with him and went out and killed two hundred Philistines and brought back their foreskins. They counted out the full number to the king so that David might become the king’s son-in-law. Then Saul gave him his daughter Michal in marriage.

Discuss.

Ann Telnaes: Justice Scalia limbers up for the busy June court schedule.

Taking Food out of the Mouths of the Poor:

• John Fugelsang: The revoltingly fake Christian of the week.
• Thom: Are Republicans heartless or just very bad at economics?

White House: West Wing Week.

Alex Wagner: Sen. Ted Cruz & the new generation of GOP flamethrowers.

Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: The Bromance is back.

Katrina vanden Heuvel: Why can’t Obama go Bulworth?:

Mark Fiore: The Re-Obamulator.

Young Turks: Note to Republicans—it ISN’T “packing the court” when you are filling vacancies.

Pap: Exposing the climate criminals.

The FAUX View of Bread-winning and the Place of Women in the Household:

• FAUX men FREAK OUT over female breadwinners.
• Young Turks: FAUX proudly doesn’t understand women or science.
• Sam Seder: FAUX’s Neanderthals express their view on the place of women
• One Minute News: The week in unnecessary misogyny

ONN: Week in review.

Liberal Viewer: Should schools suspend students for non-violent willful defiance?.

Mental Floss: 49 hoaxes people actually believed.

Young Turks: Who lies more…Republicans or Democrats?

Thom: Empirical proof that Republicans lie.

Bye, Bye, Bachmann:

• Sam Seder: Michele Bachman’s retirement is all too telling!
• TPM: The Day in Michelle (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Young Turks: All the reasons Michele isn’t leaving.
• Michele Bachmann retires from Congress.
• John FugelsangPlease don’t leave me, Michele Bachmann:
• Thom: Crazy alert with a Tea Party temptress.
• Maddow: Michele Bachmann’s Lengthy Catalog of Ridiculous Gaffes & Errors, Part I
• Maddow: Michele Bachmann’s Lengthy Catalog of Ridiculous Gaffes & Errors, Part II
• Sharpton: Teabaggers whose stars burned out.
• Young Turks: An ode To Michele Bachmann & her totally straight husband.
• Sam Seder: Without Michele, Who will be the craziest member of Congress
• Lawrence O’Donnell: ‘Fearless’ Tea bagger Michele Bachmann surrenders!.

Ann Telnaes: Congress takes a vacation.

Amy Tan performs at the White House.

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

Maverick McCain goes Rogue:

• Sam Seder: McCain skips Sunday talk shows to hang out with terrorists.
• Chris Hayes: Sen. John McCain sneaked into Syria to meet with kidnappers

Maddow: A flashback to 1997.

Young Turks: Who’s trying to poison the President?

Christian Nutjob “historian” David Barton: “You Can’t Drink Starbucks and Be Biblically Right” (via Slog).

Ann Telnaes: Eric Holder’s strange remorse.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Tesla and electric cars—why Republicans are dead wrong to bet against Obama.

Pap: Barriers must be lifted for American voters.

David Schuster: Letterman rips GOP Senator a new one.

Obamacare:

• Sam Seder: Good news for Obamacare.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: Tea Party town hall in Cincinnati unveils ‘stupid hysterics’ on IRS, ‘ObamaCare’
• Maddow: CNN Poll on Obamacare is widely misrepresented
• Sam Seder: Obamacare opposition isn’t what you think it is.

Obama speaks on college affordability.

Young Turks: Bill-O the Clown and Alex Jones have a cat fight.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Republicans using ‘scandals’ to avoid positive economic news.

Town Square: Will we ever end the war on terror?

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

I didn’t realize that this is happening next month (h/t, h/t), but it’s rather great that it is.

The Trans*Pride march will include community members that identify as Trans* in some way such as folks who identify as Transgender, Transsexual, Gender Queer, Gender Non-Conforming, Trans Men, Trans Women, Drag Queens and Kings, Cross Dressers, and our Friends, Families, Co-Workers, and other Allies. The purpose of the march and rally is to raise awareness and support for the Trans* community and to elevate the challenges faced by Trans* and Gender Non-Conforming people in Seattle and more broadly in Washington State, the United States, and Internationally.

We are very excited about the speakers that will be participating in this event, who will be addressing issues of gender identity and expression and how they intersect with sexual orientation, race, poverty and class issues, ability, and the many other intersections of identity we all have. The speakers will be announced soon. If you are interested in speaking or suggesting a speaker, please check our performers page.

I’m glad that Seattle is accommodating enough that the Department of Neighborhoods is a sponsor. It’s Friday, June 28, and if you’re interested in checking it out, here’s the schedule:

5:00pm – 6:00pm – Assemble in Front of Seattle Central Community College
6:00pm – 7:00pm – March to Cal Anderson Park
7:00pm – 7:30pm – Welcome & Speeches
7:30pm – 8:00pm – Music by: Rae Spoon
8:00pm – 8:30am – Seattle Trans* Organizations Highlights
8:30pm – 9:00pm – Keynote Speech: Julia Serano
9:00pm – 9:30pm – More of Seattle’s amazing Trans* Community Organizations
9:30 – 10:00pm – Comedy by: Ian Harvie
10:00pm – Thank you and Good night!
10:30pm – Trans Pride Official After Party!!

They’re also raising money here if you’re interested in supporting it monetarily.

As EvergreenRailfan has been noting in the comments, today Amtrak will have another round trip from Bellingham to Seattle. From their press release.

To help travelers pass the collapsed Skagit River Bridge severing Interstate 5, the Washington state-sponsored Amtrak Cascades train service will roll out two extra train trips daily between Seattle and Bellingham.

“Travelers need more options for travel and with the help of Amtrak, Sound Transit and BNSF, we were able to offer this great travel option,” said state Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson. “We are so fortunate that we have the relationships to make this urgent service a reality so quickly.”

This third, temporary round trip will depart Seattle at 8:15 a.m. and departs Bellingham at 5:15 p.m.

“Sound Transit is pleased to provide a Sounder trainset during the time this temporary service is in operation,” said Sound Transit Board Chair and Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy. “This additional service will help citizens avoid traffic congestion during the construction period, saving the public travel time as our organizations work together to bring a vital regional transportation artery back in operation.”

If passenger demand persists, the added round trip could remain in service until the Skagit River Bridge is repaired, rail officials said.

Hopefully it will help with congestion.

As I mentioned last night, former Microsoft employee Jamen Shively’s press conference with former Mexican President Vicente Fox went down today:

Shively described grand visions for his pot brand — hundreds of millions of dollars in investments, tens of millions of customers, more than 1,000 jobs just at Diego Pellicer’s Seattle headquarters.

“Yes, we are Big Marijuana,” he announced.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last March, the company wrote that it had raised $125,000 of an anticipated $625,000. Shively suggested those were outdated, but did not provide different figures.

I’m far from someone who has concerns about a commercial marijuana industry. I find it natural that once marijuana is legal and regulated, there will be companies that will grow to resemble the large brewers and distillers in this country. They will even pander to heavy smokers and largely not care about people who develop dependency issues with their product. As far as I’m concerned, this is still far better than settling turf wars with gun battles and not having any government oversight into their production processes.

But I’m somewhat annoyed by what Shively is doing here (even beyond what I mentioned last night about the risks he’s taking with respect to provoking the feds). What annoys me is that there’s a sense that he can become “big marijuana” just through marketing and good corporate gamesmanship alone. As we develop this new market, I have hopes that the Liquor Control Board errs on the side if giving out more licenses to more folks to foster an atmosphere of competition. If someone is going to become “big marijuana”, I want them to get there by having a superior product, and by working their ass off to grow a good company. Not because they have connections and a lot of capital.

It has been rolling across the country for a while, and today the fast food worker’s strike has landed in Seattle.

Taco Bell was closed, along with a number of other fast food restaurants around the city as workers walked of the job in a rolling strike that is continuing today.

The strike, organized by Good Jobs Seattle, is demanding higher wages for fast food workers. The Lake City Burger King and a Subway on Capitol Hill also closed temporarily for lack of employees, and picketers have targeted Qdoba, Chipotle and Taco Del Mar as well

“They’re done with having poverty wages,” said Reagan Jackson of UFCW 21, who joined the picket lines outside the Georgetown Arby’s earlier today. “They’re requesting that they have a new living wage of $15 [an hour]”

Good for them. As someone who eats at several of those places, I’ll just say that I’d gladly pay a bit more for the food if the workers were paid a living wage. And I would eat even better knowing that it came out of CEO’s pay.

– The Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation discovered radiological contamination in Magnuson Park in 2009 and fenced off the area but did not publicly announce the problem, officials acknowledged in an unusual public meeting Wednesday night. (Seattle Times link)

– Congress manages to get a lot done. If by a lot, you mean naming post offices.

– The Damsel in Distress part 2.

– just because he looked like a hero compared to the rest of the dipshits and reprobates in the Bush administration doesn’t actually make him one.

– I can’t be the only one who thinks the people of Spokane are having a sigh of relief about what’s going on in Toronto knowing that Jim West could have been worse.

– Despite the fact that I don’t like Sarah Palin’s politics, I think it’s pretty cool for Republic that she’s coming to town.

– I love this discussion of enclaves of Olympia.

– The Tim Eyman Memorial Bridge

This gets more interesting:

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox is arriving in Seattle on Wednesday night to meet with local marijuana entrepreneur Jamen Shively.

On Thursday, Fox will join Shively and other leaders at his Kirkland-based company, Diego Pellicer, for a press conference at the Columbia Tower in downtown Seattle. They will announce details of the company’s new acquisitions and plans to expand domestically and internationally.

A lot of people have been breathing a sigh of relief that the DOJ has been very quiet about their intentions so far. But that doesn’t mean nothing will happen. Everything they’ve said and done in recent years has been centered around one basic truth – if you get too big, you become a target. In fact, San Francisco’s U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag said exactly that when it came to her decision to target the largest medical marijuana dispensary in the country, Harborside. As the war they’ve been foolishly fighting for decades slowly falls apart, nothing raises the ire of drug warriors more than seeing people get rich in an industry that they’ve been conditioned to believe is illegitimate.

Shively is an interesting individual. At this month’s Cannabis Freedom March, he spoke about how he’s only recently discovered marijuana, when a “brilliant programmer” he worked with at Microsoft introduced him to it. As a corporate strategist, he obviously knows a lot about how to set up and run a company, but it’s not clear he knows what he’s getting into when it comes to the drug war. Mark Kleiman, our state’s marijuana consultant, thinks Shively may be trying to scam some folks out of investment capital without actually crossing any lines that would get his ass arrested. I’m highly skeptical of that, but Shively’s approach really has me scratching my head. I guess we’ll see what happens at the press conference tomorrow.