HorsesAss.Org

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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Sorry this is late

– Congrats to Sally Jewell

– I like Jim Wallis, but he’s quite late to the party on marriage equality, and then only half assedly there.

– For those who were interested in why Rear Admiral Charles Gaouette was out.

– Pregnancy Is Hard But Anti-Choicers Refuse to Admit It

– I don’t know if I’m more happy or sad about the cancellation of the Blue Angels, but I’m definitely both.

– The Direct Tui

I’m generally a rights of defendants person. And more generally a you can have your day in court person. But even with those filters, this seems like a dumb lawsuit (Links to the TNT, so use your clicks accordingly).

Paula Henry’s husband was fatally shot by a family friend in Tacoma in 1995, and now 18 years later her husband’s killer is suing her and others from prison.

Larry Shandola alleges that Henry violated his privacy rights and intentionally inflicted emotional distress, in part by telling the state Department of Corrections that he shouldn’t be allowed to serve his sentence in his birth country of Canada.

…

Now Shandola is seeking $100,000 each from Paula Henry and other defendants, according to court records. He had Henry served with the lawsuit at her home, which prompted her to move because she was terrified that he knew where she lived, Ladenburg said.

Some of Henry’s friends and a victim’s advocate are also named in the suit and have had to pay thousands to defend themselves, Ladenburg said.

A motion to dismiss the lawsuit will be heard Friday, he said. Henry is requesting $10,000 in statutory damages, according to court documents.

I mean unless there’s something I’m missing here this is, on top of being cruel, just dumb.

The linked article says that while it’s too late to do something about this sort of thing in the legislature unless it’s attached to another bill. I don’t know how that would pass muster with the 2 items requirement, but if they can do that, great.

The Queen Anne, Belltown, and Downtown business people are upset that Hempfest is going to exist and are couching it in complaints about the venue.

At the request of the BBA Board, BBA President Jim Miller joined with the Downtown Seattle Association and the Uptown Alliance in a letter to the City’s Office of Economic Development requesting that the City not issue a permit to Hempfest for use of Myrtle Edwards Park unless specific conditions are met.

The letter states that the size of Hempfest at 250,000 participants has outgrown the 4.8 acres of Myrtle Edwards as a safe and appropriate venue, that customer access to nearby waterfront businesses is closed off during the festival, and that noise, traffic, and trash are a direct impact to the surrounding residential neighborhoods.

We can’t have tourists coming to one of the most vibrant areas of the city? That would be a negative? It seems overblown to me, as someone who has never been to Hempfest.

And I suppose I have been negatively impacted: I once had to bike to Ballard using a different route! The bottom line is that the city functions just fine when Hempfest is going on. And the downtown location is a draw. People from out of state can find a hotel in walking distance, for example.

Also, one of their proposals — shortening the event to one day — seems counterproductive if the goal is to not crowd the park. I assume some people are only coming for one day. If the business groups got their way, instead of some of them going on Saturday and some on Sunday, they’d all come in on the same day.

Yo! It’s Tuesday, which means the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally meets. Please join us tonight for an evening of politics over a pint.

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

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out plethora of other DL meetings over the next week. Tonight there are also meetings of the Tri-Cities and Vancouver, WA chapters. On Wednesday, the Bellingham chapter meets. On Thursday the Bremerton, Spokane and Tacoma chapters meet. Finally, next Monday, the Aberdeen, Yakima and Olympia chapters meet.

With 205 chapters of Living Liberally, including fifteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting near you.

– There will be fewer water shut offs as the Seattle City Council passes the No Child Without Water legislation

– Diaz is out.

– Notes On the Senate Transportation Budget

– Strangely, the only place I could find the news that Clayton Corzatte had died was a Gulf Coast newspaper. I did hear it on KUOW, but I didn’t see it on their webpage.

– I’m sure I wasn’t the only person from Seattle who read Monday’s XKCD and was sad that there’s a gap between San Francisco and Vancouver.

While Obama hasn’t released his budget yet, the reports are that it will include a proposal to include chained CPI for calculating Social Security inflation. It’s technical and if you manage to stay awake with a detailed explanation of it, congrats. The bottom line is that the calculations of inflation would rise more slowly on the assumption that seniors, people on Social Security Disability and widows would replace things for cheaper ones, so we can give out benefits at a lower rate than inflation.

I’m asleep just writing about it, but it’s a major benefit cut. To get out ahead of it, I’m writing Senators Cantwell and Murray and Representative McDermott (the 3 people who represent me in Congress). I hope you’ll do the same.

Dear Senators Murray and Cantwell and Representative McDermott;

I’m writing to ask you to oppose tying Social Security benefit increases to chained CPI instead of to to inflation. We should be looking at ways to increase benefits to seniors who’ve been paying into the system their whole lives, or at the very least preserving the current benefits.

Social Security is not in crisis right now. While some tweaks may be necessary down the line, they shouldn’t be made just to show that you’re doing something. it’s also abhorrent to talk about benefit cuts — either through this sort of thing or raising the retirement age — before raising or eliminating the earnings cap all together.

Thank you,

Carl Ballard

– Cycle Tracks

– Rodney Tom is a dick.

– People are complicated, but Michael Kelly still helped lead us into an unnecessary war.

– Margaret Thatcher has died.

– I’ve always been concerned with people who use Islamist.

– The death of ironic justice

I don’t have a whole lot to say about the issue of having private clubs within bars where individuals can use marijuana. There’s certainly a valid concern about the effect of mixing alcohol and marijuana and then having people drive home at night. But I think the best way to approach that is to promote an alternative rather than trying to make it impossible for anyone to gather and use marijuana.

Amsterdam has its coffeeshops and it’s always made sense to me that Seattle could replicate that, even if they were all private clubs rather than your typical Starbucks. But it makes sense to me that if you want to stop people from publicly partaking in a certain type of venue, you should give them a smarter alternative.

Last week’s contest was won by Ludicrus Maximus. It was Barcelona, Spain.

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

Job 9:23
When a good person dies a sudden death, God sits back and laughs.

Discuss.

Young Turks: Sarah Palin’s embarrassingly hypocritical PAC expenses.

Kimmel: This week in unnecessary censorship.

Maddow: NC GOP takes war on voting to college students:

Young Turks: Weed wins.

Stephen on ‘Morning Joe’ supporting Mark Sanford.

Bill Press: Shocking statistics on poverty in America.

Young Turks: Michelle Obama, the single mom.

Sam Seder with an episode of Random Rush.

WA tries to close down private clubs that serve pot vapor.

Bearing Arms:

• Sam Seder and Cliff Schecter: This week in gun control
• Young Turks: Jim Carey and “Cold Dead Hands” fallout.
• Thom: Let’s start treating guns like cars.
• Bill Press praises CT for passing gun safety laws.
• Sam Seder: The “Family Protection Ordinance”
• Young Turks: The disasters and the successes in gun safety regulations
• 154 rounds in 4 minutes.
• Obama speaks on reducing gun violence
• Mark Fiore: Your Daily Gun.
• Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: GOP leaders reveal opinions on kids with guns:

Young Turks: The craziest conspiracy theories believe in.

Pap on the G.O.P. autopsy.

Sharpton: The Republican War on Women is revived.

Sam Seder: Idiot conservatives think that Google honored Hugo Chavez on Easter.

Cracking up over global warming.

Maddow: Once again, GOP embarrasses the U.S. on the world stage.

Sharpton: Bestiality is “The Stupid Party’s” new obsession.

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

Lawrence O’Donnell: How wrong the G.O.P. has been on marriage equality over the years.

Young Turks: Morning-after pill restrictions thrown out by judge.

Stephen takes down Jeremy Irons.

Fox & Rice:

• Jon on Sean on Rice.
• Young Turks: FAUX News disappointed more coaches aren’t abusing players.
• Sam Seder: FAUX News and the ‘wussification’ of America!

White House: West Wing Week.

Young Turks: Obama and the “best looking Attorney General”.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Hillary tops challengers for 2016.

Maddow: Defying extremist’s threats, clinic reopens with community support.

Jon: What is it with Republicans and animal fucking?!?

Sam Seder: Where are the female Libertarians?

Maddow: America’s other Tar Sands oil spill:

Young Turks: VA’s ‘criminalize blowjobs’ gubernatorial candidate.

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

I remember in the distant past at a group of activists trying to get the county I was living in at the time to build sidewalks on some street that was perceived (and probably was in fact) unsafe to walk in the shoulder. At some point someone suggested that the group just build its own sidewalk. There was some discussion about if we get the county’s permission or if we just go ahead and do it.

Nothing came of it, but the idea for that sort of DIY project that should be the government’s job as activism has always stuck in my head. So I was glad to read about this, even if it was only as a publicity stunt.

An extremely polite group of anonymous guerrilla road safety activists armed with $350 worth of reflective plastic pylons turned the painted Cherry Street bike lane under I-5 into a protected bike lane Monday morning.

The group—calling themselves the Reasonably Polite Seattleites—wanted to make a statement about how easy and affordable it would be for the city to use the method to make bike lanes safer all over the city. To stress how polite they are, they attached them using an adhesive pad for easy removal, according to an email sent to SDOT and Seattle Bike Blog.

I would really like to see some of these actions for real. Maybe don’t tell SDOT, and just put them up until they become part of the community, next time.

Ben Livingston writes in Slog about how the state Office of Financial Management was using some fuzzy calculations to overestimate the tax revenues that’ll be generated by I-502. It’s not terribly unusual to see drug law reformers overstating this case, but it’s a clear sign of how times have changed when a state agency is doing it.

This concern over failing to pull in the expected revenues from I-502 is echoed by Mark Kleiman, the state’s new “pot consultant”, in his recent interview on TVW (which you can see at the bottom of Livingston’s post). From that same interview, Kleiman is additionally concerned about whether people who are already in the medical marijuana community will switch over to the non-medical market when it’s available:

Washington state many he headed toward a situation where recreational sales of marijuana are not profitable due to heavy taxes, regulations and, most importantly, competition from the untaxed “collective gardens” where the state’s medical marijuana is grown, Washington’s newly hired pot consultant said last week.

“Any revenue estimate depends on actually having people come to the licit market rather than having them use one of the parallel markets,” UCLA professor and author Mark Kleiman commented last week’s episode of the Washington-based news program “Inside Olympia.” “What if you gave pot legalization and nobody came? It is entirely possible that by the time we finish regulating and taxing this product, it’s going to be uncompetitive with what you can get at the collective gardens.”

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This is a reminder that tonight the Northwest Progressive Institute’s Spring Fundraising Gala will be held at the Mercer Island Community Center (8236 SE 24th Street). A reception begins at 6:30 pm and the main program is at 7:15 pm.

This year’s speakers include Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA-1), Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl, State Rep. Gael Tarleton (D-36), and NPI founder Andrew Villeneuve. Tickets are $60 for individuals, $90 for households, and $20 for students and “those living lightly”. Kids are free. Tickets can be purchased here or at the door.

I’ve been to these in the past, and they’re quite enjoyable!