HorsesAss.Org

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

Jon takes down Graham and McCain for holding up hagel nomination over fake Benghazi outrage (via Crooks and Liars):

Young Turks: FAUX News’ crazy Al Jazeera theory.

Haggeling:

• Stephen on “Friends of Hamas”.
• Sam Seder: How “Friends of Hamas” joke became wingnut reality.
• Ann Telnaes: John McCain’s Iraq war fairy tale.

Maddow: Half of Michigan Blacks disenfranchised by GOP war on Democracy.

Young Turks: The GOP cat fight, staring Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove.

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

Sharpton: Is wacko Sen. Ted Cruz the new GOP savior?

Washington’s own Fukushima.

Thom: The establishment GOP versus the grassroots GOP.

Maddow: Indiana bill would force women to endure TWO transvaginal ultrasounds, before and after abortion:

Ed: Republicans are demonstrably out of touch with America.

Young Turks: How crazy is Sen. Ted Cruz?

Stephen on his sister.

Seattle Labor mobilizes for immigration reform.

Sam Seder: The Donald threatens blogger over Dump Trump petition.

Young Turks: Drunk tweets from Scott Brown?

White House: West Wing Week.

Greenman: Dark Snow Project.

Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: The week in intelligence.

Young Turks: Seven Craziest bills in the nation:

Maddow: No stigma for Sen. Ted Cruz for his McCarthy ways.

Pope Affairs:

• Red State Update: The Pope quits.
• Mark Fiore: Pick-a-Pope.

Sharpton: Obama’s approval up; GOP still hell-bent on destroying him.

Stephen: Horse meat (via Slog).

#StopTheSequester.

Thom: Single biggest driver if income inequality.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Who will be the next Republican savior-o-the-month?

Sam Seder: MO GOP lawmaker proposes making it a felony to propose gun control legislation.

Ann Telnaes: Congress takes a recess.

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

I’m not thrilled with Publicola’s “Isn’t It Weird That…” segment as a segment. I’d prefer they do straight reporting rather than shoehorn some (often supposed) hypocrisy into a post that doesn’t need it. But the actual reporting in this piece is worthwhile.

No statewide tax measure can pass without Seattle’s support, yet the proposal state house transportation director Judy Clibborn announced yesterday included zero dollars for the new 520 bridge (whose west side remains unfunded) and zero dollars for the new Alaskan Way tunnel (whose estimated revenue from tolls has been slashed from $400 million to just $165 million)?

It’s disgraceful that we’re having this conversation while even the barest discussion of raising revenue for education or social services is verboten, but it is the conversation we’re having. And I want to support this, I do. A car tab would probably be the most progressive piece of taxation in the state, the backlog is real, and the need to invest in our infrastructure is real.

But the need is real in Seattle too. At a certain point, Seattle isn’t going to be a piggy bank for the rest of the state unless they throw us a bone every once in a while.

Via The Spokesman–Review:

Spokane City Councilman Mike Fagan, in a fundraising letter for his anti-tax efforts, called Washington Gov. Jay Inslee “a lying whore.”

Fagan, and his co-lying whores, accused Gov. Jay Inslee (D) of lying about vetoing “any tax increase”:

“Candidate Inslee repeatedly promised to veto any tax increase. He said no way to higher transportation taxes in 2013….What a lying whore he turned out to be. In recent weeks, he’s made it clear he’ll sign any tax increase the Legislature unilaterally imposes.”

Holy shit…there are a couple of lies in this brief excerpt alone!

Prior to accusing someone of lying about some action (like not vetoing a tax increase) one really ought to wait until they take the action that contradicts their words. Inslee has not signed any tax increases into law. It is possible that Fagan is a victim of childhood lead consumption and, therefore, doesn’t have the IQ to really understand this distinction (if so, I’d blame his father). However given that two other people signed the letter—his father, Jack Fagan, and admitted liar and initiative whore, Tim “Biggest Lie of My Life” Eyman, it seems more likely at least one of them was aware that Inslee has taken no such contrary action.

Fucking liars!

Secondly, Inslee did not promise to veto “any tax increase.” This is so easily debunked, that even The Seattle Times gets a piece of the action of making liars out of the Fagans and Eyman:

While running against GOP gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna last year, Inslee said, “I would veto anything that heads the wrong direction and the wrong direction is new taxes in the state of Washington.”

However, Inslee never ruled out increasing taxes for transportation and did say he supports sending a tax measure to the ballot to raise money for transportation.

He also has opposed new taxes, although he’s been open to extending existing taxes.

Man…what a bunch of Fucking Liars!

And given that Fagan was lying in order to raise money…that pretty much makes him and is co-liars LYING WHORES.

Fagan and his co-lying whores have even embarrassed the state Republican party:

“There is no question that’s beyond the pale and is uncalled for. No matter what the issue is, it’s uncalled for, and I would condemn such a thing,” GOP Chairman Kirby Wilbur said.

Eyman promises no apologies:

“Kirby Wilbur, thanks for the advice, but no he (Inslee) doesn’t deserve an apology,” Eyman said.

Queue the tearful, “Second biggest lie of my life” apology from the lying whore in three, two….

A bill to let people apply to clear their records of a nonviolent, misdemeanor marijuana offenses has passed the House Public Safety Committee.

As expected, Washington State’s House Committee on Public Safety voted this morning to approve House Bill 1661, moving it towards a full House vote. The bill would allow those convicted of a cannabis possession misdemeanor – up to 40 grams for those 18 and older – to have it removed from their record. The committee voted 6-5 in favor of the bill.

The primary sponsor of the measure, Rep. Fitzgibbon, says the chances are “really good” that it will pass the House. Newly elected Governor Jay Inslee hasn’t stated his position on the bill, but it would be unlikely for him to veto such legislation. Its fate in the Republican-controlled Senate is less than certain, but its passage isn’t an impossibility, especially considering that the measure has several Republican sponsors.

Sounds like a good idea in the wake of our passing I-502. It was illegal then, but it was also unjust. Since the people of Washington recognized that, it’s time to fix the problem for people who got caught up in the system before it got fixed.

So if you’d like to contact your legislators, you can find them here. If you want to ask the members of the Senate Law and Justice Committee to pass this, you can find them here. Something tells me that Pam Roach* will be tough to get but you can at least try with her and the rest of the GOP members.

If Inslee isn’t sure you can contact his office here. Or, I guess you could just ask him to pardon those people. It’s probably better for the bill to pass because it sets up a system, but if it doesn’t pass, that would be better than nothing.

[Read more…]

– I’m a metacommentary aficionado, and this piece on David Brooks is one of the best.

– Seriously, fuck the Yellow Pages.

– Tacoma’s libraries are now lending a hand to help the food banks get back on solid ground. Librarians wanted to hold a food drive, but figured they would get more goods by forgiving overdue fines in exchange for food donations.

– Seattle is going to start taking Chicago’s bikers and the jobs that come with them.

– It’s somehow comforting to know that Washington isn’t the only state with Godawful legislators.

– Taking lefty radio off the air in Seattle and replacing it with sports talk in an already saturated sports talk market isn’t working. Switch back to lefty talk. Although this time, maybe get some local people.

– Good to know the GOP are opposed to authoritarianism.

– I enjoy biking in the snow, but I’m glad we didn’t get a chance to West of the Cascades.

I’ve already had my piece on Pam Roach’s state workers can’t lie bill. I haven’t been following it, and I have no idea if it’s going anywhere. But the Daily O gives her the quote of the day when discussing it.

“It’s good enough for God. He gave us a commandment that said, ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness.'”

-Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, arguing for her bill that calls for discipline against state employees deemed to have lied.

I, for one, can’t wait for the no coveting by state employees law next. And for that matter why only apply it to state employees if you think you’re doing God’s work? Why not have a Deuteronomy 23:19 law and outlaw interest?

“You shall not charge interest to your countrymen: interest on money, food, or anything that may be loaned at interest.

I mean that might be kind of tough for Pam Roach who just today voted (with I think all the R’s and several D’s, but that’s just a quick tally in my head since the website doesn’t break it down by party) to make it easier for payday lenders. As Senator Nelson explains in a press release:

In 2009, we passed payday lending reform. It put safeguards on a predatory lending product, allowing borrowers to make reasonable payments and not end up buried in high-interest loans.

But the payday industry is back, marketing this new consumer installment loan as having a ‘36 percent interest rate.’ In reality these loans include massive fees and penalties that take the rate as high as 220 percent. As a former banker, I’m confident that if a money lender can’t make a profit at 45 percent interest, as allowed in existing law, they have a failed business model.

As a legislator, I am shocked that a majority of my colleagues in the Senate voted to sidestep effective protections for Washington families and instead put high-interest lenders back in charge of people’s lives.

You know, like God intended.

Look, I don’t think the Bible, or any other holy text, is a particularly good guide for legislating. We’re a secular democracy. To say nothing of what version to use, or what interpretation? But if Pam Roach thinks her lashing out at state workers is God’s work instead of the business of a diverse group of people who swore an oath to two inherently secular documents (the US and state constitutions) then we can judge her by her own standards on the rest of her actions in the legislature.

The House Democrats are working on a gas tax plan:

The proposal, from House Transportation Committee Chairman Judy Clibborn, will divide the money between new projects and maintenance and eventually raise the state’s gas tax by a total of 10 cents.

Gov. Jay Inslee, who has said he wants a transportation package that would both build new projects and fix some of its crumbling infrastructure, refused to endorse it Tuesday, saying only that it is “a good start on that discussion.”

The gas tax should be raised from time to time. And dedicating a portion of the increase to maintenance makes sense. Still, we refuse even to close the loopholes on taxes on private jets owners or out of state banks to help the most vulnerable in society, let alone real tax reform. I find it difficult in that situation to get behind a tax to serve only people who can afford a car.

Please join us tonight for another evening of politics over a pint 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 another DL meeting over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter also meets. The Longview chapter meet this Wednesday. And for Thursday, the Spokane chapter and Drinking Liberally Tacoma meet.

With 207 chapters of Living Liberally, including fourteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

I don’t know why I didn’t get this fundraising appeal from the state party.

On the eve of Washington State Democrats’ annual crab feed in Olympia, the Dems have set out to feed State Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Medina, to the wolves.

Tom is Senate majority leader, head of a coalition of 23 Republicans and two dissident Democrats (including himself) that has taken tenuous control of the Legislature’s upper chamber and started to move a conservative agenda of GOP-backed bills.

“We’ve shown State Senator Rodney Tom the door. Now, it’s time to send him packing,” Democratic State Chairman Dwight Pelz said in a fundraising letter sent out Friday. It asks Democrats across the state to give $5 (or more) to a “Rodney Tom Retirement Project.”

Feed to the wolves is a pretty harsh of a way to describe fundraising to help recruit someone who will caucus with the Democrats. I mean compared to the people who will probably be kicked off social services in Tom’s budget, having to retire to his Medina home with more chances to make money doesn’t seem too bad.

But more to the point, it sounds like a good use of money for the Dems. If you’d like to contribute to the Rodney Tom Retirement Project, you can. It’s a Democratic seat, it ought to be held by a Democrat.

Remember during the 2012 election how Republicans tried to paint Obama as soft on Israel, if not downright hostile to Israel? Here’s Israel’s take:

“Barack Obama is a true friend of the State of Israel, and has been since the beginning of his public life,” Peres and the award committee said in explaining their decision. “As president of the United States of America, he has stood with Israel in times of crisis. During his time as president he has made a unique contribution to the security of the State of Israel, both through further strengthening the strategic cooperation between the countries and through the joint development of technology to defend against rockets and terrorism.”

Consequently, Obama will be awarded a Presidential Medal by President Shimon Peres.

This is shining example of how Republicans will shamelessly lie about fucking anything and everything.

Republicans, as a corporate entity, can only be described as deeply sociopathic. Some individual Republicans may not be sociopaths, but they must lack an ethics enzyme or something. I mean, how else can a person willfully belong to an entity that has no higher principles and simply seeks power through habitual lies?

– Happy Presidents Day. Or is it Presidents’ Day?

– Hanford has a leaking tank of high level nuclear waste.

– Guns were magic and rarely ever were there accidents until hippies ruined everything.

– Well one way to solve the GOP demographics problem would be to repeal the 19th amendment.

– I’m really excited about the forthcoming The International Bank Of Bob.

– What’s inside the smaller womb?

Last week’s contest was won by wes.in.wa. It was Gijon, Spain.

This week’s location is somewhere in Washington state, good luck!

Matthew 5:5
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Luke 12:49
I came to cast fire upon the earth. How I wish that it was already ablaze!

Discuss.

Maddow: Obama appoints a Commission to look into GOP’s voter suppression shenanigans.

Awesome: I.S.S.:

Thom with the Good, the Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.

Sam Seder: Republicans jeopardize national security for political points.

Stephanie Miller: Leon Penetta’s comment on mean Washington.

Young Turks: Elizabeth Warren smacks down Wall Street bankers.

Greenman: Minding Nemo.

Tea Party Scandal:

• Freedom Works under investigation for fake Clinton sex tape.
• Thom: The Tea Party is brought to you by Phillip Morris.
• Young Turks: The Tea Party’s Lesbian Panda video

Maddow takes on John McCain for revisionism on Iraq (via Crooks and Liars).

Republicans on the Sequester: Then and Now.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Wyoming Legislature bucks GOP tax trend.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) goes dancing.

White House: West Wing Week.

Bill Maher on being sued by the son of an Orangutan.

STOU:

• The State of the Union Address.
• Colbert: “Socialist stroke job”.
• Young Turks: Obama calls for minimum wage increase.
• Thom’s State of the Union.
• Mark Fiore: SOTU and drones and civil liberties.
• Ed: Obama delivers a ‘command performance’
• Young Turks: Climate change in SOTU.
• Bill Press on Ted Nugent’s attendance.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: How Obama provoked Boehner to stand and applaud.
• Sharpton: NRA’s LaPierre’s lunatic response to Obama’s SOTU
• Sam Seder with John Amato: SOTU
• The Gulp Heard Around the World:
  • Sam Seder: The Gulp Heard ’round the World.
  • Marco desperately goes for the water.
  • Young Turks: Rubio’s epic water break.
  • Sam Seder: Rubio’s thin infomercial
  • Ed: Watered down response.
  • Alex Wagner: The REAL problem was the watered down message.
  • Stephen: Nobody noticed…. (via Crooks and Liars).
  • Jon has some fun (via Crooks and Liars).
  • Conan: Rubio’s secret
  • Maddow: Response to the response and the response.
  • Sharpton: The Big Gulp is late night gold.
  • Sam Seder and John Amato: Obama v. Rubio
  • Thom: Marco Rubio & the Republican Ibogaine problem
  • Ed: Not ready for prime time.
  • Marco Rubio’s other water moments
  • Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: Rubio takes a sip.
  • Sam Seder: Forget minimum wage, everyone should just get rich!

Sharpton: Some G.O.P. Valentines day card ideas.

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

Bill Press: Why Dick Cheney is like Big Foot.

Steve Hartman on Arizona’s dildo rationing laws.

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

Well this is a shitty story.

According to an October, 2012 report issued by the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF)—“Aiding and Abetting: How Unaccountable Fair Trade Certifiers Are Destroying Workers’ Rights”—as soon as Theo management learned of the organizing effort they responded with a campaign of “emotional manipulation, guilt, intimidation, fear and derogatory accusations about unions in general.” On March 3, two senior marketing managers confronted a union supporter in a break room, demeaning her organizing efforts, accusing her of “ruining the family of Theo Chocolate,” and causing her to cry. On March 7 workers met again to discuss their organizing efforts, only to have the meeting disrupted by four Theo managers.

Then Theo brought in the big guns, hiring David Acosta of American Consulting Group (ACG), a firm whose website claims it specializes in “union avoidance strategies,” and that boasts “unparalleled success in designing preventative programs that continues to keep thousands of our clients union-free.”

On March 9, the report claims, Theo CEO Joe Whinney called a mandatory staff meeting at which he attacked the organizing effort and the Teamsters. Employees were told that unions get “commissions” for organizing workers (not true), and that forming a union would damage the relationship between management and employees. Over the next few weeks management repeated these tactics—what workers referred to as “emotional blackmail”—sometimes crying in front of workers, and accusing organizers of selfishly hurting the interests of the poor farmers who supplied Theo its cocoa. “You can’t imagine how hard life is in Africa—your situation pales in comparison to theirs,” the ILRF report quotes one senior manager telling a union supporter.

I didn’t know any of this, I’m ashamed to say. But it’s several years in the past. It’s relevant again because:

And that gets to the heart of the Teamsters’ and the ILRF’s complaint: That Theo management mounted a concerted union avoidance campaign in the midst of its free trade certification process, an international standard that explicitly recognizes the right of workers to “form a trade union of their own choosing and to bargain collectively.” The same rights that the “Fair for Life” logo on its chocolate bars proclaims for its African cocoa farmers, Theo fought to deny the workers in its Seattle factory.