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We’ve seen a run on vote rigging attempts in Republican controlled blue states. Republicans in Florida, Virginia, and Pennsylvania have flirted with, and have had rejected, plans to change their electoral vote allocation from a winner-take-all system to a congressional district allocation system. Republicans in Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin are expected to join the fun. (And probably be rejected.)

It makes sense for Republicans to selectively change the state laws in their favor, especially given their excellent job of gerrymandering congressional districts following the 2010 census. Yeah…the voters get fucked, but that never stopped a Republican from power-grabbing.

Changing a handfull of blue states to congressional district allocation, while maintaining the winner-take-all system in red states, would have given Mitt Romney the presidency. Even as the popular vote went to Obama.

With Sen. Rodney Tom’s Republican Senate majority, Washington state has taken it’s first step to becoming a blue state controlled by Republicans. Surprise, surprise…House Republicans are trying to join other Republican-controlled blue states in their Presidential election-rigging effort:

The proposal, House Bill 1091, would divvy up Washington’s electoral votes by results in each of the state’s 10 congressional districts, with the remaining two votes going to the statewide winner.

In 2012, that would have given Obama nine electoral votes from Washington while Romney would have taken three.

Supporters say that would be a fairer result for more conservative parts of the state that are constantly outvoted in statewide elections by the Seattle area.

In one sense, these whining Republicans are correct. Under some conditions, allocating electors by congressional district (with the two additional electors going to the state popular vote winner) is a fairer system than the winner-take-all system. Those conditions are:

• Every state does this, rather than just selected blue states.
• Congressional districts are not gerrymandered. That is, all states have in place a rigorous, non-partisan redistricting process.

Under those conditions, a universal congressional district allocation system is fairer because all but 100 of the 538 electoral votes are allocated by smaller, and thus more representative, voting blocks. That wold be fairer than the current system that has some bizarre artifacts:

The [current] system has the effect of making your vote count a lot more in “swing states” — states where the majority could conceivably vote for either candidate — than in other, more politically predictable states. It is a virtual certainty, for instance, that Georgia will vote for Mitt Romney, so an individual Georgian’s vote for Barack Obama doesn’t mean a lot — Georgia’s 16 electoral votes are going to be cast for Romney. Conversely, an individual voter’s choice for Romney in ultra-blue New York won’t stop that state’s 29 electoral votes from going to Obama.

This raises the questions, what do we mean by a “fairer” system? Here are some ideas:

• A fairer system would give each person’s vote an identical weight in determining the election’s outcome.
• Consequently, a fairer system would elect the winner of the national popular vote.

Democrats remember how unfair it felt when George Bush lost the popular vote, yet became President. And Republicans would have collectively “gone postal” if Mitt Romney had won the popular vote but lost the presidential election.

What I am getting at is that the fairest system of all is to elect the President by popular vote. The system we have now, fails 8.7% of the time (four out of 46 elections where the national popular vote was known) by putting in office the loser of the popular vote.

We used to believe that the only way to change the system to elect the President by popular vote was to amend the Constitution. Now we know better. The National Popular Vote compact system achieves the same thing by letting states exercise their constitutional right to allocate electors as they wish:

The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in the entire United States. The bill preserves the Electoral College, while ensuring that every vote in every state will matter in every presidential election. The National Popular Vote law has been enacted by states possessing 132 electoral votes — 49% of the 270 electoral votes needed to activate it.

This works when a coalition of states is formed that controls 270 or more electoral votes. Then, by each member state’s law, the slate of presidential electors for the state is elected according to the result of the national popular vote. If the coalition does not control 270 votes, the states revert back to their old system (winner-take-all for most states).

There doesn’t seem to be a downside–unless you believe it’s okay for a candidate to lose the national popular vote and still be elected President. Since the compact makes no changes to the electoral college itself, no Constitutional amendment is necessary.

Back to the Washington state Republicans trying to rig the vote. The new bill, HB 1091, actually does two different things. It changes the way we allocate electors now. It also cancels Washington state’s participation in the interstate compact.

Of course! Why would we expect consistency from Republicans? They were never interested in making the presidential election as fair as possible. They’re only interested in advantaging Republicans.

So sad…Washington state Republicans have still have not shown any ability at true leadership. Fuck ’em. And fuck Rodney Tom for joining ’em.

Please join us tonight for an 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’s DL tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings over the next week. The Tri-Cities chapter also meets tonight. And on Monday, the Aberdeen, Yakima, South Bellevue and Olympia chapters meet.

With over 200 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’m not thrilled with Hagel, but oh my God, how disingenuous is his GOP opposition?

– Sure, or there’s a more general correlation between seniority and wanting to preserve Senate traditions. And when the next group becomes the senior Democrats they might also be opposed to filibuster reform.

– The worker comp system is designed to help injured workers get back on the job. But the Republicans’ changes only make it harder for middle class workers to regain their health and get back to work.

– The Clinton-Obama interview on 60 Minutes was nice.

– King Tom

– As a last resort, Janet asked me to go with her to get an illegal abortion in Cicero, a suburb of Chicago, known mostly as the birthplace of Al Capone. She’d heard about “the doctor” from her uncle, a lawyer who practiced in Chicago and was the family’s black sheep. Although I wasn’t keen on going, I felt someone needed to accompany her.

– What comes within 1/2 a mile of the coal trains in Seattle (pdf).

I just don’t know what to say:

There was a shooting at Twilight Exit last night.

The gun buyers on surrounding streets underscore the case for Congress and the Washington Legislature to act get cracking on gun safety legislation, McGinn argued. “That’s one of the loopholes we need to close,” he said. “One person can sell another person a gun on the street and it’s absolutely legal. Do you see anybody out there doing a background check?”

Shirley Chambers has lost 4 children to gun violence in Chicago since 1995.

All the soundbites about how it isn’t guns who kill people, and all the victim-blaming that has been and will be heaped on Shirley Chambers and her children, and all the rationalizations about people with mental illness, and all the Othering of poor black people who live in cities, and all the sanctimonious hand-wringing about “cultural degradation,” and all the excuses and justifications and cynical rhetorical flourishes in the world will not change this fact: Shirley Chambers’ children are dead. All of her children are dead.

There is really nothing left to say that hasn’t been said before. I guess it’s once again the wrong time to talk about these things lest we offend some of the worst political actors out there. What we certainly won’t do is stop the next horror. We won’t do anything to stop the time after that or, or, or.

Looks like the first gun buy back event in King County in decades was a success except that more people wanted to turn in their guns than there were gift cards available. So they had to end early. Still the program got hundreds of guns — all unwanted — off the street.

Now, I don’t know how much is a feel good measure and how much it actually will stop gun crime. Those guns won’t be used in crimes, but the county is still awash in guns. And a voluntary program probably isn’t going to keep the guns out of the hands of the most paranoid or the most dangerous people, or the people who are planning to use a gun in a crime. Still, it’s better than nothing.

Maybe what’s most telling is the people trying to buy guns for more than the gift cards:

The gun buyers on surrounding streets underscore the case for Congress and the Washington Legislature to act get cracking on gun safety legislation, McGinn argued. “That’s one of the loopholes we need to close,” he said. “One person can sell another person a gun on the street and it’s absolutely legal. Do you see anybody out there doing a background check?”

The fact that most people turned in their guns instead of selling them to someone offering more money speaks to the fact that this wasn’t just get a gift card and go. Even if the people offering money for guns didn’t understand that.

– This story by Ryan Grim and Ryan J. Reilly on how Obama’s DOJ dealt with medical marijuana in his first term is long, but very much worth your time. It provides some details of the internal high-level discussions that we’ve only been able to speculate about before.

One thing that stands out to me is how the Obama Administration and the DOJ are engaging in some revisionist history about the Ogden memo, the DOJ statement in March 2009 affirming that they intended to keep Obama’s promise about not going after individuals who were in compliance with state law. There was absolutely an expectation that the DOJ would honor this in this good faith and that the memo was an affirmation of Obama’s campaign promise. As state-sanctioned systems grew, however, many U.S. Attorneys simply didn’t do that. And once some of them crossed that line and didn’t get smacked down from above, others began to undermine it as well. This was a clear failure in Obama’s first term, and there continues to be an expectation that Obama do better in his second term.

– Eric Mortenson at the Oregonian writes about the fledgling industries that are starting to crop up as I-502 becomes a reality. The Washington State Liquor Control Board hearing in Seattle last Thursday saw a huge turnout. If you happen have a spare 2.5 hours, you can watch the full hearing here and here.

Last week’s contest was won by Poster Child. It was Mercer Island.

This week’s contest is related to something in the news from January, good luck!

Revelation 13:10
He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.

Discuss.

Ed: Boehner blames Obama for GOP’s incompetence.

Guns and Stuff:

• Young Turks: Ted Nugent ready for ARMED REVOLT!
• Ed: Ted Nugent is ready for armed revolt against Obama.
• Mark Fiore: The Presidents Kids.
• Young Turks: Republican blames black people for gun violence.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: Falsehoods in LaPierre’s ‘NRA Inaugural Response’
• Thom: Should citizens have the same weapons as the military?
• Young Turks: Stand your ground laws encourage people to shoot (dead men don’t tell tales…).
• Ann Telnaes: NRA Nutcase LaPierre’s numbers just don’t add up.
• Young Turks: MS lawmakers try to skirt federal law
• Sam Seder: How many people were shot on Gun Appreciation Day?
• Thom: The hidden history of the 2nd amendment.
• Young Turks: Arming school children.

Thom with some more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Roy Zimmerman: Vote Republican, D.C. episode:

Hillary’s Day:

• Young Turks: Hillary hits back.
• Sam Seder: Rand Paul on Benghazi…STUPID UNTETHERED
• Sharpton: Teabagger Sen. Rand Paul’s bizarre conspiratorial question.
• Jon on ‘No Shit Sherlock’ hearings on Benghazi (via Crooks and Liars).
• Bill Press: Praise for Hillary
• Stephan: Republicans sucked at Benghazi hearings.

Sam Seder: What the fuck went on inside Michele Bachmann’s campaign???

Maddow: Is America a liberal country?

Re-Inauguration:

• Ann Telnaes sketches Obama’s second inauguration.
• Bad Lip Reading: Obama’s inauguration:
• A special inaugural edition of West Wing Week.
• Maddow: Inaugural hats.
• Jon on Paul Ryan’s criticism of Barack Obama.
• Young Turks: Republicans OUTRAGED that Obama’s speech was LIBERAL!
• James Taylor sings America the Beautiful:
• Thom: A second inaugural, a second conspiracy.
• Ann Telnaes: Justice Roberts gets it right!
• Inaugural poem.
• Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: Obama’s last inauguration.

Gov. Jay Inslee makes some announcements.

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

G.O.P.’s War on Elections:

• Thom: Can we stop Republicans from rigging the vote?
• Ed: Stealing 2016.
• Maddow: GOP vote rigging plan withers in public light
• Sam Seder: Republicans celebrate MLK day by disenfranchising voters
• Thom: The G.O.P. has to rig elections to win.
• Ed and Pap: The GOP plot to steal elections.
• Young Turks: Republican bill in Virginia has been introduced before…13 times
• Thom: There is only one way to stop G.O.P. vote rigging.

Sam Seder with another episode of Random Rush.

The “No warming in 16 years” myth.

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

Oh look what Rodney Tom’s majority is looking to do now:

SB 5156 would completely repeal RCW 9.02.100, otherwise known as Washington’s abortion law. The law was adopted by public vote in 1991 to shore up state law with the US Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade (so that if Roe were ever overturned, Washington women would still continue to have the same rights and protections. It states, among other things: “Every woman has the fundamental right to choose or refuse to have an abortion.”

The bill would also repeal in its entirety 9.02.110, “The state may not deny or interfere with a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion prior to viability of the fetus, or to protect her life or health.”

Allen says that Planned Parenthood’s legal team is still trying to suss out how, exactly, this bill’s passage would affect women’s access to abortion providers in Washington state, given that Roe is still the federal law of the land. Regardless, it’s troubling: Washington voters have repeatedly confirmed women’s right to make their own pregnancy decisions, beginning in 1970, when voters approved Referendum 20 and legalized abortion in the early months of pregnancy.

“We don’t believe it’s an accident,” Allen says.

It’s hidden in a bill that’s ostensibly about parental notification, and you can read at the link why that’s fucked up enough on its own.

Of course even if it passes the Senate, it’ll never see the light of day in the House. And if it somehow got to Inslee’s desk he’d veto it. And even if it somehow became law, Roe is still the law of the land. But still, we were told that this session the Senate would be all about kicking poor people off social services and hating teachers. And that we’d avoid social issue fights. “You are going to see individual members do what they want to do, but what we have said is, we’re not going to let social issues divide our focus.” Whoops.

The results of the one night count are in, and they’re bad.

The One Night Count of homeless people in King County took place early this morning. We are incredibly grateful to the many volunteers and supporters whose careful work made this a safe, respectful, and accurate Count.

At least 2,736 men, women, and children were found sleeping on sidewalks, under bridges, in their cars, on public transit, and in temporary structures and makeshift campsites. This is 142 more people than our volunteers counted outside one year ago.

We’re failing as a society when the number increases. We failed as a society 2,736 times last night. While many of us were comfortable in our beds, 2,736 of our neighbors had to brave the cold night in one way or another.

I don’t know if there’s anything I can add to the disgust felt at Tucker Carlson’s tweet.”The administration boasts about sending women to the front lines on the same day Democrats push the Violence Against Women Act.”

If this was an indictment of the fact that anyone is in combat, I guess you could make a case that it wasn’t terrible (although opposition to the VAWA is still bad on its own). But given that he supported the Iraq war, it’s tough to make that case. But women volunteering for combat, knowing the risks is somehow equivalent to domestic violence. It’s sickening. We should both pass the VAWA and let women serve in combat. Jesus.

I think it’s instructive that people who are anti-tax like Rodney Tom usually run on we can magic up solutions. They’ll talk about reform or combating wastefraudandabuse. So it leaves the impression that you can lower taxes and at the same time keep our programs in place.

So they don’t seem to ever campaign on dismantling the social safety net. But when they get to Olympia, it turns out that — whoops — they’re doing just that. So we get to Tom trying to repeal the never even implemented family leave law.

Braun’s bill has 10 co-sponsors, including two Democrats who have joined with Republicans to form a new coalition this legislative session. The measure has its first public hearing Monday. Braun called Keiser’s counter-bill one of “good intentions, but good intentions aren’t always affordable.”

“We already have a program on the books that we can’t fund,” he said. “Expanding it seems contrary to public interests.”

Senate Majority Leader Rodney Tom, D-Medina, voted in favor of the paid family leave law when he was in the House, but he is now signed on to Braun’s repeal bill. He said some companies already are moving in the direction of paid family leave, but that taxpayers and businesses wouldn’t support a tax increase for a statewide program.

When he voted for it initially, it’s presumably at least because he thought his constituency supported it. So when he talks about the will of his constituents to not raise taxes, that has to be counterbalanced against the fact that his constituents probably want to live in a state with a strong safety net. So maybe when people like Rodney Tom run for office next time, they can be honest and instead of reforming education they can talk about how they’ll make schools more overcrowded. And instead of finding waste they can talk about destroying the social safety net. Because that’s the choice he and the rest of the GOP majority want. Maybe when that choice is laid out, their constituency won’t be so happy with the low taxes they keep promising.

Hey, remember back in December when I said I’d be switching to Monday-Tuesday-Thursday open threads in the new year? OK, me either, but that’s how it’s going to be for a while.

– Problems with the tunnel machine.

– Thank you not just for your work, but for your service to all women and families. You’re making the world a better place. Perhaps you already knew that. But I think it’s worth saying.

– Only one side hates science.

– Build better bike infrastructure for the SoDo arena.

– It doesn’t even rhyme.

– Some modest goals for a 2nd term.

Oh God.

Three veteran King County Sheriff’s detectives have filed a lawsuit against the county, alleging years of sexual harassment from two supervisors in the department’s Special Assault Unit.

…

Among the allegations, statements from other detectives accuse Provenzo and Mahlum of making repeated comments about the size of female detectives’ body parts and that Provenzo “regularly talks about the size of his penis” in front of co-workers: “On more than one occasion, Provenzo took a plastic penis and hung it out of the bottom of his pants.”

The complaint also alleges the sergeants made light of sex abuse victims, instructing the female detectives to “say it slower, so I can close my eyes” when they were discussing the facts of a case. Provenzo regularly told one of the plaintiffs not to investigate rapes on the Mukleshoot Indian Reservation because such crimes take place there “all the time.”

I don’t even know how someone with that attitude becomes a police officer. If there’s a lot of a type of crime, that’s a reason to step up enforcement, not to ignore it. I don’t even know what to say except if the allegations are true, I’m sorry my tax dollars were poorly spent hiring, training, and paying him.

(see also)