HorsesAss.Org

Please join us this evening for some politics under the influence at our first meeting of 2013—it’s 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 and Vancouver, WA chapters meet. On Wednesday, the Bellingham chapter meets. On Thursday Drinking Liberally Bremerton meets.

With 227 chapters of Living Liberally, including fourteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

I’m writing today to ask you to oppose John Brennan’s nomination to head the CIA. This country should not put into office someone who helped bring about the torture regime. It’s bad enough that it happened at all. It’s bad enough that it happened in our name. It’s bad enough that that there were no prosecutions above the lowest levels. But for God’s sake, the least the Senate can do is oppose a high level torturer for a job at the CIA.

And look, I know that other than the torture, Brennan is highly qualified. But what a qualifier to have to add! It seems that some things should be off limits.

And yes, I realize this could be a political blow to Obama. I recognize the problems with that, and as someone who supported him, that will be too bad. But he shouldn’t have nominated someone who supported a program that “included slamming detainees’ heads against walls; prolonged standing in stress positions; beating and kicking; prolonged shackling of hands and feet; and much more.”

Thank you,
Carl Ballard

If you want to write Cantwell or Murray an email, the forms are at their names.

This is a great thing Patty Murray did to prevent active duty suicides.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., announced Thursday that President Obama has signed her amendment to require the Pentagon to create a new suicide prevention program for active military members.

The new program would also expand eligibility for Department of Veterans Affairs mental health service to family members, improve training and education for health care providers and create more soldier-to-soldier counseling opportunities, according to Murray.

Great work, Senator. Still, as long as the war in Afghanistan is going on anything like this is going to be a small part of the solution. Because this is an inevitable consequence of a decade of war. This is going to happen in a war where the end is still over a year away. This is what happens when people are going to be away from their families for an extended period of time.

So by all means, let’s do everything we can to prevent military suicides. But let’s not pretend they’re going to stop while the country is at war.

All questions edition:

– Is the best fact about Patty Murray her college major?

– Is a hostage negotiation the best metaphor for what the GOP is trying to do with the budget?

– Wouldn’t you want a beer after you’d shot yourself? (h/t)

– Anyone interested in seeing Sarah Weddington at Town Hall?

– Did you get called for jury duty?

– How about those Seahawks?

– This… I… um… What?

Last week’s contest was won by Liberal Scientist, who got all 6 locations (Oakland, CA – Minneapolis, MN – Webster, NY – Pittsburgh, PA – Oak Creek, WI – Hollidaysburg, PA).

This week’s is a random location somewhere on earth, good luck! And Go Seahawks!

Leviticus 26:29
And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.

Discuss.

Young Turks: Time for the GOP to shut down the government.

The Joe Biden reality show.

2012 in Hindsight:

• Red State Update: Best of 2012.
• Ann Telnaes: The year in review.
• Sharpton: Best White House photos of 2012.
• Young Turks: Most under-reported story of the year.
• Mark Fiore: Tips and tricks for holiday journalism

Lawrence O’Donnell: Why the fiscal cliff deal is so awesome!

Thom: The battle for 2014 begins in the Senate.

The Republican War on Women:

• Ann Telnaes: The House’s parting shot at women.
• SlateTV: Kansas goes after sperm donor for child support.
• Martin Bashir: The Neocons’ non-apology to Hillary Clinton, and the G.O.P. female math problem.

Ed: Hypocrite-narcissist O’Reilly fails to quit after his taxes go up.

Young Turks: Why did Republicans block Sandy relief?

Sam Seder: Farewell Joe Lieberman. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass….

Orange and Weepy:

• Jimmy Fallon re-lives the Boehner—Reid confrontation.
• Bill Press: House Republicans deserve the leader loser they elected.
• Sharpton: Boehner’s Party’s branding problem
• OneMinuteNews: Boehner’s potty mouth.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: John Boehner’s big fat problem!
• Martin Bashir: Failed Boehner gets re-elected regardless.
• Maddow: Out with the failed 112th Congress, in with the likely-to-fail 113th Congress:
• Young Turks: Mr. 29%
• Ed: A damaged Boehner squeaks by….
• Sharpton: More diverse Congress, but incompetent Boehner reelected as speaker
• Sam Seder: A moment of G.O.P. lunacy in the House.
• Jennifer Granholm and Stephanie Miller: The House speaker’s misty-eyed moments.

SlateTV: States pass laws prohibiting employers from asking for your social media passwords.

Sam Seder: “Conservative” ideology works until THEY are suffering.

Young Turks: Fake fiscal cliff drama.

Guns Don’t Kill Guns…People Kill Guns:

• Thom: Debate over putting guns in our schools.
• The gun owner next door.
• Red State Update: A word from our gun sponsors.
• Jennifer Granholm: Will gun control happen?

Sharpton: Birfer Republicans try to convince Justice Roberts to refuse to administer the oath of office to Obama.

White House: West Wing Week.

Young Turks: Wiretapping hypocrisy?

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

The Republican War on Kwanza™:

• Sam Seder: The War on Kwanza™.
• Young Turks: State Senator claims Kwanzaa is a fake holiday.

Bill Press flunks the G.O.P. on Hurricane Sandy relief and the fiscal cliff.

Pap: G.O.P. hate knows no bounds!

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

West Seattle Blog passes this along this Department of Ecology request to help document the high tides in the coming month.

The dates for January’s king tides vary slightly depending on location:

· In the Strait of Juan de Fuca, king tides will occur Jan. 8-13.

· Along Washington’s outer coast, they occur Jan. 10-12.

· The Puget Sound dates for king tides are Jan. 14-17.

Follow these steps to participate:

· Use Ecology’s king tide map and schedule to find when and where the highest tides will occur. Go to http://www.ecy.wa.gov/climatechange/ipa_hightide_map.htm.

· Locate a public beach by checking out Ecology’s Coastal Atlas at https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/coastalatlas/.

· Take photos during a king tide, preferably where the high water levels can be gauged against familiar landmarks such as sea walls, jetties, bridge supports or buildings.

· Note the date, time and location of your photo – then upload your images on the Washington King Tide Photo Initiative Flickr Group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/1611274@N22/.

· Play it safe! While the winter king tides occur during daylight hours, don’t venture out during severe weather and keep a close eye on rising water levels.

I love the citizen participation aspect of this. Hopefully they get a lot of good data.

– The Republican Fig Leaf Industry

– It’s impressive that Rush Limbaugh could lament the supposed sexism of Al Jazeera and say something incredibly sexist in the same sentence.

– Prophecy.

– I like this idea for a 3 in 1 trash can.

– There’s a debt fix I can get behind.

– Not sure who I’m voting for for mayor in 2013, but I think I’ve found my candidate for 2025.

Seattle can’t jay walk. It’s a real problem.

I don’t mean the people who wait at the corner and don’t go no matter what. They’re fine. If that’s what they want to do, God bless. Those people won’t jay walk.

No, I have a much bigger problem with people who seem oblivious to traffic. Maybe they’re out of towners who expect drivers are looking for them. If you’re from a city with more consistent jay walking, perhaps that’s reasonable. But here if you want to to cross in the middle or against the light, you’ve got to follow some rules:

First watch for traffic. I know that sounds like it should be obvious, but enough people just dart out obliviously, that it clearly isn’t. Pedestrians dart into traffic pretty regularly. Watch for it.

Somewhat related to that is emergency vehicles. Give them more room than you’d give other cars. A lot more room. The prompt for this post is that I saw people running to get across the road when a fire engine was coming. They had enough time, but not a lot. If the engine has to slow down it’s a couple more seconds before they can get to the emergency, and they’re going faster than you’re thinking they are. Just don’t do it.

Of course, even when road is clear on the side with the green light, there may be people who are going to make a right turn on the red. They’re looking for traffic, not looking for you. Figure out where the possible right turns are and make sure that nobody is going to make them. DON’T assume that a car without its blinkers on isn’t going to turn: Seattle drivers often forget how blinkers work.

Finally, Seattle police will still stop you for jay walking. It’s not as likely if you’re white as if you’re a person of color. It’s not as likely if you’re well dressed or in a nicer neighborhood. Being on the lookout for police will probably distract from the other stuff, but you probably don’t want to get the world’s dumbest ticket.

As many readers know, this blog is named after Tim “Biggest Lie of My Life” Eyman, Washington state’s own professional initiative huckster and admitted liar. Today, that Horsesass submitted signatures for new initiative.

Initiative 517 is supposed to

[establish] protections for citizens exercising their First Amendment rights by participating in the initiative and referendum process

How does the initiative propose to protect First Amendment rights?

By preventing “non-participants” in the initiative and referendum process from exercising their first amendment rights.

Sure…there are a bunch of good things that would be prohibited by the initiative. It would change the RCW to make “pushing, shoving, touching, spitting, [and] throwing objects [at]” a signature gatherer or signer a disorderly conduct. Of course, these things are already assault, a rather more serious crime, so that’s pretty stupid.

Also in the laundry list of disorderly conduct includes: “yelling, screaming, being verbally abusive, blocking or intimidating, or other tumultuous conduct or maintaining an intimidating presence within twenty-five feet of any person gathering signatures or any person trying to sign any initiative or referendum petition.” Blocking, sure. And being “verbally abusive” is already in the RCW as disorderly conduct. But “other tumultuous conduct”? Or maintaining an intimidating presence within twenty-five feet. What the fuck?

In other words, if you come within 25 feet of a signature gatherer or signer, the law enacted by this initiative would pretty much prevent you from expressing anything negative about the initiative. No more arguing the merits. No more trying to persuade people to not signing a petition. Paid signature gathers could try to persuade people to sign the petition, and you can’t offer counterarguments, or protests, even if the petition is being misrepresented by the signature gatherer.

Because, you know, participating in a public debate about a public petition to our lawmakers, in public is a less important First Amendment right than a signature gatherer’s First Amendment right to ask, beg, plead, trick and coerce people into signing their petition(s).

In other words, “We will ENFORCE The People’s First Amendment rights by suppressing The People’s First Amendment rights! It’s Eyman’s paradox.

The initiative has two other marginally related sections (bringing up questions of multi-topic unconstitutionality, a recurring problem for Eyman initiatives). One section would give signature gathers six more months to collect signatures. This, obviously, reflects the fact that many of Eyman’s initiatives fail to qualify for the ballot because of an insufficient number of signatures.

The other marginally-related section tries to circumvent a court ruling that local governments can ignore petitions that can’t legitimately be put to a public vote under the RCW. Eyman simply cannot stand the fact that courts have told him to fuck off. So now he wants to change the law to force invalid initiatives onto the ballot.

Great use of public resources, huh?

– I find there to be somewhat of a logical inconsistency in the outrage over a newspaper in New York identifying who has handgun permits in their area. We often hear that regardless of how accessible you make guns, people who want them will still have them. To a very limited extent, I agree with that. But if that’s true for guns, why isn’t it true for the information about gun permits? The gun permit information that the newspaper printed was publicly available. Anyone could look it up. They just made it more accessible. Does that additional accessibility make a difference? Particularly to an unstable person who might never have thought to look that up in the first place? For folks who are making that argument, the same logic applies to guns.

– I was going to write up something about how Rob McKenna’s acknowledgement that the GOP needs to work harder to appeal to women, minorities, and young people is an odd realization to have immediately after a career filled with supporting terrible policies for women, minorities, and young people, but after some Googling, I found that Cienna Madrid already wrote it for me.

– It’s cool to see how much interest there is in legal pot farming, but I do worry that some folks are a little too optimistic about how easy it’ll be to hit the jackpot as a pot farmer. The taxes dictated by the initiative are high enough that margins will still be relatively low, and unless the state greatly limits the amount of licenses it gives out, people with no experience growing quality product might have trouble competing with more experienced growers. My advice to people looking to make money from Washington’s newfound liberty is to avoid the supply chain for now and focus on opening places where marijuana users can congregate: an Amsterdam-style coffee shop with an outdoor smoking area, a movie theater with a rooftop patio, video arcade, bowling alley, concert hall, etc, etc.

As the new year comes, I write the annual what-do-you-want-from-the-upcoming-legislative-session? piece. It starts on the 14th, and I think this year it’s more defense than it has been in the past. Hopefully education won’t be hurt too badly. Hopefully social services won’t get slashed too much. There’s still a Democratic governor (albeit one who campaigned against raising taxes) and a Democratic House, so hopefully the damage won’t be too severe.

I’m planning to be a bit more activist on HA than I have in the past. So I’ll be encouraging y’all to write to or call your electeds. Maybe letters to the editor (do people still do that?) and other ways to get involved.

In that spirit, I’m going to be emailing lefty/civic groups the following questions:

1) What do you want from the next session of the legislature?
2) What are the prospects for making that happen?
3) How can the Horse’s Ass readership help?

I figure most won’t respond, but a few might. If there’s anyone you want me to email, let me know. If there are any issues you’d like me to push, let me know.

– Happy New Year!

– Comparing the current budget deal to the Gore plan is interesting, but the early 2000’s were very different than now in terms of the economy and in terms of the deficit.

– Who knew the House would be the more dysfunctional body?

– So obviously, it needs More members.

– Get well soon, Hillary.

– The Atom Bowl

– Where to find Stephanie Miller and Thom Hartman.

Boehner is SEEING ORANGE!

It was only a few days before the nation would go over the fiscal cliff, no bipartisan agreement was in sight, and Reid had just publicly accused Boehner of running a “dictatorship” in the House and caring more about holding onto his gavel than striking a deal.

“Go f[uck] yourself,” Boehner sniped as he pointed his finger at Reid, according to multiple sources present.

Reid, a bit startled, replied: “What are you talking about?”

Boehner repeated: “Go f[uck] yourself.”

You know…I’ll bet Joe Biden suggested Boehner do this—as a strategy to keep his speakership.

And I sure hope it works.

Footnote: Now I am concerned about speaker Boehner. The last time we heard that a powerful Republican told a powerful Democratic Senator to “go fuck yourself,” well…the poor bastard lost his heart!