HorsesAss.Org

– This fucking week. A large explosion in Texas has killed dozens.

– It’s the deadline for bills not related to the budget came and went this week. Now marital rape is illegal in all cases and localities can set their own speed limits sometimes.

– There’s a lot to take in about the “children and vagina’s” guy. On top of the gendered fuckery that the piece mentions, there is also the fact that he tried to say I’m just smarter than all of you despite the fact that he used the possessive for no reason. (h/t)

– I know the straw poll of the 43rd district is meaningless, but McGinn beating Ed Murray who represents the district and everyone else is indicative of something.

– And in somewhat more meaningful polls, it looks like Rodney Tom is less popular with his constituents (pdf) than he once was.

– Blair Butterworth’s memorial service is this Sunday at Town Hall.

– I can’t find anything to quote in this Lindy West piece making fun of a list-of-women-men-don’t-want-to-marry piece without the rest of the context, but it’s amazing.

In the wake of the bombing in Boston, oddly enough I didn’t make the connection for a few days in my own mind that I’ve been to the finish of a marathon. I’ve had friends compete in the Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon in Seattle and followed their training in conversations with them and on social media. It’s a type of dedication that I can’t imagine, and that leaves me inspired.

A few years ago, a friend posted pretty much every day “only X days until the marathon” for a few months. I don’t mind: that’s what Facebook is for, and it’s pretty quick to scroll past it. By coincidence, I was on First Avenue that day and there were a bunch of people looking over the entrance to the Battery Street Tunnel cheering. I stopped by and looked for that friend, even though I had no idea when he’d be passing.

I didn’t see him, but I loved the energy and enthusiasm of the people cheering right there toward the end. I stayed and cheered for nobody and everybody for about 20 minutes until moving on. I went about doing other things and then went back an hour or so later, and new people were cheering on new runners. Other than the fact that the runners were obviously going slower, the scene was pretty much the same, so I cheered again for a while.

Since then I’ve done that again or been at the finish for the marathon. It’s absolutely wonderful. And even if there’s more security and an added danger this year, I can’t imagine anywhere else I’d rather be that day than watching the end of the race.

I’m just going to say it right now. This press release is the greatest thing in at least the English language, and probably other languages too. All words are obsolete once you read it.

It’s Benton 1, U.S. transportation secretary 0 in Columbia River Crossing debate at Capitol

I like so much about that title, that it’s tough to know what’s the best: Is it that he gave himself a score and then bragged about the score he gave himself as if it’s objective? Is it that even by his own reckoning, he only won the meeting by 1 point? Is it the fact that the title implies that this is the beginning, rather than the middle of a process that has been going on for years? Is it that the Federal government is offering to give his district money, and he’s complaining about it? Is it that he describes an ostensibly closed door meeting as a debate? Is it that Secretary LaHood probably didn’t even know that there was a game afoot?

Those are all good choices to be sure, but I think the best is that he never defines the scale that 1 to 0 is on or how one earns a point. So here is some speculation:

• Score half a point per guest you treat like a jerk
• The number of goats each brought to the meeting
• One point per person videotaping someone without their permission (more on that later in the piece)
• On a scale of 0 to 10 who Senator Benton likes the best
• A scale of 0 to 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 and the numbers were pulled randomly
• A scale of -5 to 5 who polkas the best
• Whoever left the meeting with the most smug satisfaction gets a point
• 1/3 of a point each time you masturbate to your own press release
• Smallest penis gets a point
• One point if you’re scared of the idea of public transportation

Oh my God, we’re not even into the meat of the press release yet. Courage. Here we go.

Sen. Don Benton says there’s no question that the people of Clark County came out ahead this morning when he and members of the Senate Majority Coalition Caucus went toe-to-toe with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood over the Columbia River Crossing project.

That’s a rather fancy way of saying I sat across a table with a guy who offered me a bunch of money to help build a bridge, but I wanted to build a different bridge, and probably more money. Also, no question? If you asked everyone in Clark County there would be 100% agreement on this opinion?

“I’ve been working hard to keep our coalition members informed about the many significant flaws in the CRC project, so we were ready with questions when Governor Inslee brought Secretary LaHood in to lobby our coalition this morning. As a result, it wasn’t even a fair fight. I’d say we schooled the transportation secretary in a way he couldn’t possibly have expected,” said Benton, R-Vancouver, noting LaHood’s visit is part of a CRC propaganda blitz at the Capitol today.

I should say here I don’t really have an opinion on the Columbia River Crossing. Still, imagine if a Seattle legislator acted this way to the Secretary of Transportation over, say, Highway 99. The outrage from the people who are perpetually outraged that Seattle exists would be amazing. I mean the meeting was of the Majority Caucus and not the GOP ostensibly in part because Seattle’s legislators are too arrogant.

“I guess the governor thought he could strong-arm the Senate Majority Coalition into rolling over by bringing the D.C. folks in to give us the same ‘this bridge or no bridge’ lecture he’s been delivering. Instead, the transportation secretary had his hat handed to him, and I have to believe I will find even more support now for my efforts to force a redesign of the CRC project.”

I guess they were hoping that saying, “we have a fuckton of money, here take it” would at least keep the Majority Coalition from whining like a bunch of little babies. That was obviously incorrect.

Benton said he and other coalition members let LaHood have it on the whole range of CRC concerns: how the bridge height would cost Clark County thousands of permanent jobs, how replacing the Interstate 5 bridge without addressing the corridor as a whole would fail to reduce commute times from Clark County to Portland by more than one minute, the financial liability that would go with including an extension of light rail from Portland, and more.

I have no idea, again, if those are valid concerns. But anyone who is opposing getting light rail in the same sentence he worries about commutes into Portland is an idiot. Light rail will obviously help Vancouver commuters.

Project supporters want the Legislature to authorize a $450 million allocation, which would serve as Washington’s share of the $3.5 billion CRC project; with less than three weeks to go in the 2013 legislative session, Benton said, the writing on the wall is becoming clearer.

There is literally no cliche that this press release won’t include.

“I was very proud of how our coalition joined me in standing up for the people of Clark County,” said Benton, who is the coalition’s deputy leader. “The governor and the CRC supporters are obviously getting more desperate by the day; they see how time is running out to get the Legislature to go along with this boondoggle.”

They’d like to spend money in your neck of the woods. You can disagree with if and how, but come the fuck on.

“The best thing the governor can do now, after seeing that his federal emissary couldn’t sell this boondoggle to our coalition, is to agree to a redesign of the project.”

Because a meeting went poorly (in that people who wanted to act like asses acted like asses) we have to start over. Obviously.

Anyway, I wasn’t the only person to notice that this is an embarrassment. Jim Camden of the Spokesman-Review has a great take on it (I think the S-R has a limited number of clicks, but I’ve never hit it). Really, sometimes you need to just write in disbelief like I’ve been doing for several paragraphs now, but sometimes the journalistic prose is the way to go.

When LaHood and Inslee stopped by the Senate Republican Caucus room to urge them to pass a transportation budget in it with money for the bridge, and thus allow the state to get its hands on lots of federal money, he was, to put it mildly, rebuffed by opponents like Sen. Don Benton of Vancouver. All while someone was videotaping the exchange.

Later that day Inslee and LaHood held a press conference in the governor’s conference room to make a public appeal for the Legislature to vote for money for the bridge. As soon as they left, Benton emerged from the back of the room to hold a counter press conference to say that it shouldn’t. The senator’s office later circulated a press release exclaiming he had “schooled” LaHood on the bridge and declared the score “Benton 1, transportation secretary 0”. the caucus sent out a link to a YouTube clip of their discussion in the caucus room.

This appalled Senate Democrats, who thought a cabinet secretary should be treated with a greater modicum of respect, and shouldn’t be taping conversations without his permission. Senate Republicans promptly took the video clip off YouTube, and Majority Leader Rodney Tom of Medina later teol [sic] the Seattle Times it had been inadvertently posted, although how it could be edited with an intro, sent to YouTube, a link created and connected to a tweet isn’t immediately clear.

And that’s what winning 1-0 looks like.

Please join us for an evening of politics over a pint at tonight’s Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

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

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out another DL meeting over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter also meets. The Longview and South Seattle chapters meet this Wednesday. Also on Wednesday, the nation’s newest chapter, the Lakewood, Washington Drinking Liberally chapter, will meet. And for Thursday, the Spokane and Tacoma chapters meet.

With 207 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.

On Boston:

– I am just hopeful at the stories of runners continuing to run directly to MGH to give blood, people running towards the blasts to offer help and comfort and aid, and the splendid work the BFD, BPD, State Police, and our elected officials have done so far. The only question to ask is not who to blame but how to help.

– Why we pay taxes

– And it makes me ache to see the invisibilizing of survivors of terror during coverage of another terrorist attack. Let’s not do that. Please.

– Obama’s speech at the press briefing room.

And non-Boston:

– I get that business owners are upset about the sick leave and it’s reasonable to expect that they’ll raise their prices to pay for more costs. But do they think dickishness is going to help?

– Rand Paul’s speech at Howard University.

– I get a lot of calls from the Conservative Majority Fund and a couple of other groups whose breathless, hyperventilated, and shouted warnings about President wanting to take our guns

– Some power is wielded in the spotlight, but “the background” is often where the real power lies. LaHaye knows this, which is why his CNP has wielded more influence for a longer time than most of the many spotlight-hungry organizations that have come and gone since it began.

– A while ago I had a link that the Spokane Street Viaduct would come in under budget. Here’s what Seattle will be using the rest of the money on.

– The Path To Citizenship

There are still more questions than answers about what happened at the Boston Marathon earlier today. I’ve been gathering some links for tomorrow’s open thread, but I couldn’t let this pass without note:

“An insane rebellion against our Creator God is the root cause of this murderous action,” writes [Mars Hill] Pastor David Fairchild in a post shortly after Monday’s explosions.

“We may blame this barbarism on religion, economics, politics, and even mental maladies. Though influential, the underlying sin behind every sin is treason against the One who made us for love and flourishing,” Fairchild writes.

No. No it isn’t. We don’t know if the people who did this are religious fanatics, or if they have some other motive. But no, Fairchild and any other person who wants to throw God’s intent into this needs to just not.

If God is part of the healing, for individuals or communities, great. But you don’t get to shoehorn God into this. Not now. Not ever.

I was to work very early this morning, and got home quite late. I was greeted by a thunderstorm that knocked out the internet at my house. So I only heard a bit about the Boston bombs on the radio.

One person who was slightly injured in Boston today was from the Puget Sound region. Bill Iffrig is from Lake Stevens—he is 78 years old, and was knocked down very close to where the bomb exploded. He was interviewed on ESPN:

In the interview, Bill suggests he may have seen how the bomb was disguised just before it exploded.

(H/T TPM)

– Happy Jackie Robinson Day.

– I’ve got a get a car.

– I don’t know what’s worse, the general dickishness of this picture, or that fact that people from Mercer Island and Auburn think they’re cowboys.

– It’s a little hard to unpack what he is doing here. First of all, he means fetuses. Second, it is impossible to arm fetuses (but if it was possible, @bridoc has a good point: “Fetuses have awful aim”). Third, the implication is that fetuses would shoot doctors performing abortions. Therefore the “Vote Pro-Life!” at the bottom of the bumper sticker seems perhaps out of place?

– Child sex trafficking – as easy in Seattle as ordering a pizza

– Bitcoin isn’t a currency. It’s a commodity.

Last week’s contest was really tough and no one got it. It was just outside of San Diego.

This week’s contest is an image from Google’s 45 degree views, good luck!

Exodus 25:15
Don’t ever remove the poles from the rings.

Discuss.

Ann Telnaes: Kansas abortion law.

Walmart v. Costco: How they treat their employees.

Pap: Rape in the military.

Aqua Buddha Man:

• Jon: On the edumacation of Rand Paul.
• Maddow: Paul goes to Howard University to teach Black history.
• Jansing & Co.: GOP and the black vote
• Sharpton: Sen. Rand Paul lies at Howard University.
• The Young Turks: Rewriting history
• Michael Brooks: Rand Paul whitewashes civil rights record at Howard.
• Bashir: Sen. Paul invents his own history.
• Chris Hayes: Buddha lies

Young Turks: A 51st state?

Mark Fiore: Tar Sands Timmy.

Ann Telnaes: The two escalator economy.

Kid Grows Up?

• Noted Romney supporter, Kid Rock, finds embarrassment in being a Republican.
• Sharpton: Kid Rock is “fucking embarassed”…”to be a Republican”

Young Turks: State lawmaker equates Muslim prayer with terrorism.

Robert Reich: Public morality:

Lawrence O’Donnell: DREAMing for an end of legal limbo.

Guns and Violence

• Maddow: NRA influence seen in court case to allow felons to have guns.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: G.O.P. becomes the party of stupid on guns.
• Obama speaks on reducing gun violence.
• They deserve a vote.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: Sandy Hook students demand action.
• Michelle speaks on youth violence.
• Maddow: “Almost angry.”

Sam Seder: NC legislators want an official state religion.

White House: West Wing Week.

CNN: Gabby Giffords, two years later.

Mental Floss: 50 Weird Laws:

Budget Insanity:

• Lawrence O’Donnell: Obama’s budget brings out Republican’s inner lunatics.
• Alex Wagner: The GOP can’t even agree on budget items they hate.

Maddow: Obama uses his head in giving a political lesson.

NRCC’s Buzzfeedified web site.

Red State Update: News of the week.

Obama hosts a Memphis Soul evening at the White House.

The Munchy Majority:

• SlateTV: Live and Let Light-up.
• Stephen: The marijuana majority.
• John Fugelsang: Legal cannabis is the conservative point of view
• WA pot laws don’t allow out-of-state visitors to partake.

Sam Seder: Elizabeth Warren demolishes bank regulators for protecting banks over people.

Maddow: Virgina’s TRAP laws threaten abortion rights.

Republican FAIL.

America under water.

Smokey Joe Does Biblical Science:

• Sharpton: Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX-6) says Bible proves climate change is false.
• Sam Seder: Smokey Joe cites bible to challenge climate change.

Maddow: Republicans turn to (probable war criminal) Dick Cheney for advice?!?

Young Turks: Catholic League leader PWNED on gay hypocrisy.

Kimmel: This Week in Unnecessary Censorship.

Jon: Our own worst enemy.

Anthony Weiner Looks for Redemption:

• Stephen: Huge news…after long withdrawl, Weiner ready to thrust back into politics.
• Jansing & Co: Weiner jumps back in?
• Sharpton: Weiner wants redemption.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: If Sanford could do it, can Weiner?

Maddow: Remember when it was illegal for the CIA to assassinate? It still is.

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

Ann Telnaes: The consequences of a Republican filibuster on guns.

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

This is a great and all. I’m totally supportive of it, and I hope to see it happen.

The US Bicycle Route System is a vision for a network of these routes, allowing for easier and safer bicycle travel to all reaches of the nation. The country already has some active segments in the Mid-West and East Coast.

Washington is working to develop USBR 10, working with towns, cities and parks across northern Washington. And, as the Bicycle Alliance of Washington’s John Pope reports, the collaboration has already resulted in some unexpected benefits.

It sounds like an amazing thing, and I’d certainly take it some way. But I can’t imagine going to Eastern Washington on a bike, but I’m not in the greatest shape of my life. Maybe it’s less daunting if you’re planning it. God bless anyone who would be willing and able to do it.

I would be more inclined to go South to Vancouver, then to Longview, and then up the East Sound. That sounds like a fun vacation if the vision for Washington is ever completed. I wonder how long that would take if the route is ever completed?

In the mayor’s race, the mainstream media and local bigwigs are assuming Mike McGinn is done. And I get it: he isn’t popular. He has had problems with police accountability. Dumbasses think paying market rates for parking and installing bike lanes are a war on cars.* Something something the tunnel. But given that they all told us Greg Nickels would have a cakewalk, I’m not so sure. And neither is UNITE HERE Local 8, as they’ve just endorsed him.

During his first term, Mayor McGinn played an instrumental role in passing Seattle’s groundbreaking paid sick days law. He also publicly supported Hyatt workers in their effort to organize for a better workplace free of employer intimidation, and championed the creation of good jobs for stadium workers with the return of the Seattle Supersonics.

“Mayor McGinn has proven to be an incredibly strong advocate for hospitality workers in Seattle,” said Erik Van Rossum, President of UNITE HERE Local 8. “From passing the nation’s third paid sick leave law to creating jobs and standing with workers, Mayor McGinn is the most progressive mayor in America.”

“Mayor McGinn has consistently supported good quality jobs and responsible economic growth,” continued Van Rossum. “Time and again when hotel housekeepers, cooks, dishwashers, servers and stadium concession workers need a strong voice at City Hall, Mayor McGinn is there.”

He still has a lot of work to do to get reelected, or for that matter to get out of the primary (by way of full disclosure: including to get my vote, although if the election were today, I’d vote for him). But certainly this is the right sort of endorsement to get. It reminds people why The Seattle Times and bidness people hate him, and it may be a dedicated force of door knockers and phone callers for a campaign that will be short of cash compared to some of the others.

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One of the biggest hurdles to implementing I-502 in Washington is banking:

Banks fall under the scrutiny of federal regulators such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. And bankers fear punishment if their account holders violate anti-money laundering laws. I’ve also heard that banks are worried about pot-related businesses leasing out space in commercial real estate properties on which banks hold loans, which could limit where marijuana producers or retailers locate.

The pot industry’s banking dilemma is making it harder for state leaders to set up a legal pot industry in Washington. Scott Jarvis, director of Washington’s Department of Financial Institutions, recently went to Washington, D.C., and met with several federal banking regulators seeking clarity. Jarvis left without an answer.

This has long been a problem for medical marijuana businesses and is expected to be just as problematic for the new recreational marijuana businesses in both Washington and Colorado. With the emergence of bitcoins, however, does this provide a workable alternative?

Once considered a nutty idea favored by computer geeks and anti-government types, bitcoin is gaining traction as a legitimate way to buy and sell goods.

True believers say it’s the future of Internet commerce, where the world is united in a common digital currency rather than dollars, euros, yens, pounds or pesos.

Shorter term, bitcoin has become a scorching-hot commodity among speculators who are trading the virtual currency at a record clip in deals worth millions of actual dollars.

I don’t have any well-formed opinions yet about the bitcoin phenomenon, but I’m very curious whether this would be a feasible workaround to the banking problem. I guess the main obstacles would be getting enough customer acceptance and perhaps tracking and paying all the required business taxes, but I certainly haven’t thought this through. Your thoughts?

I’m not the biggest Reuven Carlyle fan. Still, I’m glad he goes after tax loopholes.

Carlyle, who’s been beating the tax breaks drum for years, went on to trash the whole exemptions process, saying it was time to apply “the same line by line rigor to both sides of the ledger” pointing out that while the legislature debates program spending every budget cycle, it looks the other way when it comes to tax breaks. “It’s a new era. We’re expecting and demanding a new level of rigor for tax breaks.”

Carlyle said that the legislature has created 277 new tax exemptions worth $3.6 billion since 1995 (he didn’t also note, though, that the Democrats have been in control for most of that time).* The grand total now, he said, is 640 tax exemptions worth “tens of billions.”

Carlyle said that some of them made sense, but concluded: “Here’s the deal: Let’s acknowledge as a state that in some cases the money from tax breaks would deliver better value, a better return on investment, by investing in kids and families, schools and universities.”

I suspect that I’d find more loopholes to close than Carlyle (or the median legislator in either house). But this is a good conversation to have.

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