HorsesAss.Org

The US Department of Education is investigating Seattle schools for disciplining black children more than white children.

According to district data, in the 2011-2012 school year, nearly 13 percent of black high school students received at least one short-term suspension. The equivalent figure for white students was just under 4 percent. In middle schools, the rate was 7 percent of white students and 27 percent of blacks.

The district has long been aware of the disparity, and recently held community meetings that addressed its discipline rates.

This, coming in the wake of the DOJ investigation of Seattle Police, is troubling for Seattle. Of course I’d rather address these problems head on than to have them go unaddressed. Hopefully we’ll have some actual change in school policies.

Please join us for an evening of politics over a pint because, you know, sequestration and stuff, at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

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

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter also meets. On Thursday, the Spokane chapter and Drinking Liberally Tacoma 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 that meets near you.

– Anti gay laws are bad for business.

– Mark Sanford is gross.

– The sequester is gross because it’s suspending housing vouchers in King County.

– And the sequester is gross because of what it does to women.

– The Daily Caller is gross.

– Having concubines may be gross, but they’re Biblical.

– Dan Sytman’s wingnut welfare job.

– Legislators who play music are pretty much awesome, (PS, if someone has video, I’ll post it).

OK, that’s bit more than the data actually say. But Goldy has a piece on a study of economic growth in the last decade.

According to a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), the economies of the nine states without a personal income tax (Washington included) have actually underperformed both the economies of the nine states with the highest income tax rates, and the 41 income tax states as a whole. Over the past decade real per capita GDP growth was only 5.2 percent in the non-income-tax states, compared 8.2 percent in the nine highest taxed states. Real median household income also fell further in the non-income-tax states, while unemployments were largely uniform across all three groups.

Washington actually did better than average on both per capita GDP and median income growth (while slightly worse on unemployment), but given the aggregate performance of the non-income-tax states it is impossible to argue that our lack of an income tax had anything to do with it. Unless you’re an idiot. Or a liar.

So yeah, 50 quite different states over a relatively short period of time is hardly the last word on what types of taxes make the most sense. But it certainly puts the lie to the notion that we’re getting ahead as a state because of our tax structure. If anything, it’s holding us back.

– Happy Women’s History Month.

– I’m not as opposed to the bike tax as a lot of people who ride bikes, but Rep. Ed Orcutt, um, doesn’t make a good case for it.

– Who could have guessed that conservative justices would be making things up?

– If hell exists, Dick Cheney’s spot is next to Walter Jones.

– (a) Gwen Moore is awesome. (b) Suzan DelBene looks less than happy to be in the frame.

– And if history is bound to repeat itself, the NFL will soon have its first openly gay player(s). When that happens, the supposed locker room and media distractions will be revealed as having been a myth.

Last week’s contest was won by Ted. It was JJ’s restaurant in Kansas City, the site of a tragic fire last month.

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

Exodus 32:27-29
Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’” The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”

Exodus 20:13
Thou shalt not kill.

Discuss.

Zina Saunders: Idiots with Guns.

Maddow: Make your own assault rifle.

Thom: Hanford nuclear waste on its way to the Columbia.

Voting Rights and Racial Entitlements:

• Sam Seder and Ari Burman: Will Republicans destroy the Voting Rights Act.
• Ann Telnaes: Your wasted vote.
• Ed: Scalia’s shameful comment.
• Pap: The Republican war on voting makes it to the Supreme Court.
• Young Turks: Scalia’s “Racial entitlement”.
• Thom and Pap: Should Scalia hang up his robe?
• Ann Telnaes: Courting history.

Barely Political: The Sasha and Melia show.

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

Young Turks: A stung Hannity goes after Rep. Ellison.

Sea Quest ER!

• Maddow: Congress blows sequestration, takes long weekend.
• The sequester explained.
• Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: What is the Sequester?
• Sharpton: Republicans pass the buck.
• Obama on the Sequester.
• Maddow: Cuts threaten America’s standing….
• Stephen on The Sequester.
• Mark Fiore: Starve the beast.

Rep. Ellison (D-MN) attacks Sean Hannity on his show (via TalkingPointsMemo).

White House: West Wing Week.

Jon: Merger Mania.

Going Drone:

• Ann Telnaes: Drones? What drones?
• Liberal Viewer: Limit on Obama’s flying killer robots.

Ed: Michele Bachmann is very proud that she didn’t get anything wrong….

Hanford: 6 leaking tanks.

Young Turks: Louie “Guber” Gohmert.

Seattle Police using crime prediction software.

Jimmy Kimmel: Unnecessary censorship.

WoodwardGate:

• Sam Seder: Bob Woodward threatened by WH advisor’s…kindness?
• Young Turks: “Threat”.
• Bill Press calls Bob a HorsesAss!
• Ed: The Right Wing’s brand new hero!
• Jon: Ginned up controversy.

Maddow: Michigan gives up on democracy.

Thom: The NRA’s latest conspiracy theory.

Wrestlers have a message for Glenn Beck (via Indecision Forever).

Young Turks: Congress finally passes the Violence Against Women Act.

Conan: The final benediction.

Young Turks: Is Hannity the Worst Journalist Ever?

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

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

Even though I’m a curmudgeonly urban dweller who doesn’t want kids, I’m glad the city put in a playground in Westlake Park.

The year-round play area will include a soft, rubber-like surfacing and a Geode by Goric. This large, netted spherical structure and a collection of large domes will be surrounded by a fence with bench seating in some areas. The design and elements involved were selected specifically with sightlines and function in mind, as the structures do not obstruct views to the retail spaces and through the park. The Geode is designed to be used by children up to 12 years old.

As long time readers of this blog know, when the Fun Forest left Goldy agitated for it to be replaced with a kick ass playground. And while Seattle got the Chihuly museum, well, the reasons to support more playgrounds and more amenities for children are generally true. Making the city more accommodating to all sorts of people, not just those of us who are young and childless, is a worthwhile goal.

In the wake of the supreme court ruling that a majority is needed for a tax increase like the state constitution says, Rodney Tom has decided to huff and puff about it and maybe change the rules.

Senate Majority Leader Rodney Tom, the Democrat who abandoned his caucus to lead a Republican majority, has issued a statement explaining his plot to make an end-run around today’s state supreme court decision. That ruling found a two-thirds voting requirement is unconstitutional. But Senator Tom says never mind: tweaking parliamentary rules could mandate a nearly-impossible-to-attain two-thirds majority for any tax increases.

I’m not sure how you change the rules in the middle of the session. I assume he can if he’s proposing it, and it’s just a bad idea instead of an empty threat. But if he’s as sure as he seems to be about the caucus he’s leading, I don’t see why the 2/3 rule would be necessary.

We’ve waited and waited for this announcement. I mean, here we are half way through the current legislative session, but the Washington state Supreme Court has finally ruled on the 2/3 majority laws, brought to you by our state’s top Initiative Whore, Tim “Biggest Lie of My Life” Eyman.

The ruling: by a 6-3 majority, the court upheld a lower court’s finding that 2/3s laws are unconstitutional.

I’ve not read the ruling yet, but I strongly suspect it will highlight the major argument put forth by Goldy and other bloggers here: ENGLISH. If you read the state Constitution and understand the English language, it’s kind of a no-brainer.

Once again, an Eyman initiative–in this case, several similar versions of the same basic initiative–is found to be unconstitutional.

– Rodney Tom Hates Teachers

– I haven’t written anything about the sequester, but it’s going to have an impact.

– All that has made the borders, and the sharp disparities between states, more important and complex than ever for gay couples, and for interstate tourism as well. The marriage license office in Clark County, Wash., across the Columbia River from Portland, Ore., had to increase its hours to serve border couples when Washington’s new law took effect.

– So if I understand Scalia’s jurisprudence correctly, the 14th Amendment (which says nothing about race) applies only to racial discrimination (that affects white people) (unless a Republican has a presidential election to win), while the 15th Amendment (which explicitly forbids racial discrimination in voting and empowers Congress to enforce the provision) should not be construed as allowing Congress to prevent racial discrimination in voting, because this would be a “racial entitlement.”

– Congrats to Tom Tomorrow.

The State Supreme Court is planning on ruling in the 2/3 majority case.

SEATTLE – The Washington Supreme Court plans to issue a ruling Thursday on a lawsuit challenging the two-thirds majority required for the Legislature to pass a tax increase.

[…]

The Supreme Court agreed to expedite its consideration of the two-thirds majority rule, which came about because of a series of citizen initiatives. Voters most recently approved the supermajority rule last November.

The Washington Constitution requires a simple majority of the Legislature to approve most laws, but the supermajority, or two-thirds vote, has been the law for tax increases thanks mostly to measures successfully pushed by initiative activist Tim Eyman.

I’m no lawyer, but it seems pretty unconstitutional on its face. You can’t bind future legislatures with the initiative process (except up to 3 years for laws that are constitutional). That takes an amendment to the state constitution. Cut and dried.

Still, our state supreme court has heard these sorts of cases in the past and figured out ways to punt. Hopefully they’ve run out of ways to kick the can down the road, and can actually rule on the case. I don’t know how much practical difference it makes with one house of the legislature in the GOP’s hands and Inslee opposing most tax increases in the campaign.

I’ll be at work when the ruling comes down, so I thought I’d put something up now.

Sometimes The Seattle Times has great, important, relevant stories that put a new light on something in the Northwest that otherwise wouldn’t be covered. And I’m going to miss some of those when I don’t read their website behind its paywall. But sometimes they just do hack pieces that they claim are important stories. More and more it’s looking like the Rob Holland piece falls on the hack side.

Except that’s not what happened and that’s not what the report found. Martin did not use Holland’s credit card to purchase anything, and the report Heffter cites actually found this particular allegation to be “unsubstantiated” (PDF, page 25). Martin has repeatedly asked Heffter and Kreamer to issue a correction, and they have repeatedly refused.

“At the end of the day, all you have is your reputation,” Martin told me. And he desperately wants his reputation cleared. The Seattle Times has yet to respond to a request for comment.

[…]

But also, reading their emails to Martin, both Heffter and Kreamer just come off as incredibly confused. “There is a receipt and additional official documentation showing you as the purchaser of camera equipment for the Port, with Commissioner Holland’s Port credit card being used,” Kreamer writes to Martin in a February 25 email, totally ignoring the fact that this so-called “receipt” proves nothing of the kind. “The Port report you cite says the third-party use of the card (by you) was not found to be unauthorized, but we never wrote that it was,” Kreamer continues. “The items purchased were indeed for Port use, the audit found.”

When the Seattle Times goes out of their way to point out stories like this one are vital to the region, so we need to support them, well, you’d think they would at least work harder to get the story right.

In Saturday’s post on the recent DUI updates, I wrote:

And assurances from the police that they’ll only go after impaired folks requires a lot of skepticism given the history of DUI enforcement.

I wanted to elaborate on this a bit, but didn’t want to go off on any other tangents in that post. So I’ll go off on that tangent here. And a recent case from Kent is a good starting point:

Mike Simmons, 31, said Tuesday he was put in jail for 13 hours. Now with towing and lawyer fees, he said he’s out $5,000 and he’s not allowed to drive while he’s out on bail.

All for something he said he didn’t do.

“As soon as the officer came to the vehicle, he asked me to stick out my tongue,” said Simmons.

Simmons thought it was an unusual request but he soon found out he was pulled over for suspicion of driving under the influence.

Simmons said the officer told him there was a green film on his tongue. The unidentified police officer apparently felt that is a telltale sign that someone has been smoking marijuana.

Simmons admitted he had smoked pot three days earlier, but says when he was pulled over he was on a lunch break from work and was stone-cold sober.

We’ll find out more about this specific case as it unfolds, but if Simmons’ recounting of the arrest is accurate, it wouldn’t be the first time an officer has used something ridiculous or imaginary to imply impairment. In this case from Ocean Shores in November, an officer claimed an elderly medical marijuana patient was impaired because – among other things – she was unable to stand on one leg.

To clarify a point that should be obvious to most people, your tongue doesn’t turn green when you smoke pot. So if that’s the evidence that this officer used to demonstrate impairment, and Simmons doesn’t win a lawsuit against the city of Kent as a result of that, then the folks who say that impairment is required to end up in his situation aren’t correct. Because if there are no repercussions for when a police officer does something wrong, it doesn’t matter what the law actually says.

We’ve continually heard from members of law enforcement and others that impairment is required in order to end up in Simmons’ situation. But it’s not hard for an officer to just say, “your eyes are bloodshot!” and use that as a justification to demand a blood draw. These reassurances go beyond being wishful thinking that their fellow police officers won’t abuse their power. They’re close to being outright lies.