HorsesAss.Org

– 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)

I meant to get around to this Joel Connelly piece earlier. I had earlier accused him of being unhelpful in a writing a piece about states seceding that, whoops, he didn’t write. This one about Texas though is all him. I’ve double checked the byline.

So no, Texas shouldn’t leave. Those of us who aren’t from Texas and are less than thrilled with the politics and politicians coming out of Texas should figure out ways to empower the more than 3 Million Obama voters, and engage the countless Texans who didn’t vote at all. That doesn’t mean that we should ignore our values to court Texans, it means there’s a large base of support there (and in every state) that already supports Democratic values.

Gene Johnson writes about the meeting today in the other Washington:

SEATTLE (AP) — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson met with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday, but came away no further enlightened about how the federal government will respond to last fall’s votes in Washington and Colorado that set up legal markets for marijuana.

…

Inslee said the meeting with Holder was collegial and the attorney general asked a lot of questions but gave no indication about when the DOJ might make a decision. Colorado’s governor did not attend.

“I went into this believing that our state should continue to move forward with our rulemaking process,” Inslee said. “Nothing I heard during that discussion dissuaded me of that view.”

During a speech in early December, Holder said the DOJ would have a decision relatively soon.

The fact that Holder didn’t make any attempt to stop Inslee and Ferguson from trying to implement I-502 is certainly a positive sign. Holder has to know that the consequences of allowing Inslee and Ferguson to move forward for months and then later decide to use the courts or some other means to shut it down will be embarrassing both to the Obama Administration and to their fellow Democrats in Olympia. Nothing that cynical is likely to happen.

But the fact that Holder gave no additional assurances regarding the federal government’s response makes me a little concerned about what will happen when people start participating in this new above-ground market. This is an important point:

Inslee described the meeting as the opening of an ongoing conversation. He said he gave Holder details of the role of state employees — noting that although they issue licenses to private entities, they won’t be charged with handling or distributing the weed.

This is key because it gets down to some of the more nuanced legal aspects involved. Most (but not all) attorneys I’ve heard from don’t believe that the feds can legally pre-empt the state and arrest workers merely for setting up and carrying out regulations. The only thing that’s pre-emptible is actual participation in the marketplace (and thanks to Raich vs. Gonzalez, privately growing or even merely possessing marijuana is within that definition).

This concerns me because it’s entirely possible that Holder simply doesn’t care about either Washington or Colorado sets up regulations because he’d likely lose that battle in the courts. He may just be biding his time until licenses are given out and then allowing prosecutors to go after growers and sellers he knows he can win cases against. That also may be too cynical an expectation, but after the experiences in Obama’s first term regarding medical marijuana, the cynicism might be justified.

As Obama began his first term, he re-iterated a promise that he – and every other Democratic hopeful in 2008 – made regarding medical marijuana. He wouldn’t use DOJ resources to undercut the various state laws that made it legal. However, over time, that promise was repeatedly violated and a number of folks who were complying with their state laws are now facing long jail terms.

But this turnaround wasn’t the result of a top-down decree by either Obama or the DOJ. This was a bottom-up attempt by various U.S. Attorneys and other folks in the embattled drug war bureaucracy to find ways to circumvent the intent of that decree. In states like California and Montana, the meaning of the state law was ignored and even actively undermined. But in states like Colorado and New Mexico, it was largely respected. And here in Washington, there was even a noticeable difference between the aggressive enforcement in Eastern Washington and the saner approach in Western Washington.

And it was more than just enforcement. We also saw attempts from various institutional drug war tools to scare some state politicians away from regulations that they knew would be impossible to undermine. This is what happened to both Governor Gregoire and Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee as each of them attempted to establish more concrete statewide medical marijuana regulations.

So until there are actual assurances from Holder (and maybe not even then) that our state laws will be fully respected, there’s definitely a concern about what various lower level drug warriors in the DOJ and the DEA could do once we start handing out the licenses. There would certainly be a political backlash to any attempt to undermine the will of Washington and Colorado voters, but it could be another in a long line of political backlashes that folks in Washington DC barely notice. Or maybe this time will be different. Maybe having state officials like Inslee and Ferguson fighting for the voters of their state will force Holder to keep his folks in line. Still a long way to go before this starts to play out.

Goldy reports on Rodney Tom’s (among others) attempts to kill the state’s GET program.

“We don’t need to be in that business,” state senator Rodney Tom (R-Medina) insisted about the program while speaking at a January 10 Associated Press forum in Olympia. It was a sentiment with which Senator Steve Litzow (R-Mercer Island) and Representative Ross Hunter (D-Medina) later agreed. That’s three lawmakers from two of the wealthiest zip codes in the state dissing a program that has been a boon for the real middle-class families statewide.

Talk about being out of touch.

Lawmakers instead appear eager to implement “differential tuition” pricing, permitting universities to charge more for certain majors, like engineering and business management.

If you’d like to contact Rodney Tom and let him know that you don’t think the state legislature should be dismantling public education, or middle class access to public education, you can do so here. If you want to let the members of the House and Senate Higher Ed committees know you want to preserve access to higher ed, you can let them know at the links. If you’d like to find your own legislator and let them know, that’s great too.

My own plan to save GET is here.

Welcome to the second term. Please join us for a post-inaugural celebration and assessment 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 one of the other DL meetings over the next week. The Tri-Cities chapter also meets tonight. On Wednesday, the Burien and Bellingham chapters meets, And on Thursday the Woodinville chapter meets.

With 200 chapters of Living Liberally, including thirteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

Cathy McLain at the Seattle Times has a post with some info about tomorrow’s meeting between Gov. Inslee, AG Ferguson, and US AG Holder that I wrote about yesterday:

Rick Garza of the Washington Liquor Control Board said Monday he expects the federal government will try to take action if Washington’s system has loose controls. He says it’s important for Washington to have a strong regulatory structure that would limit how much marijuana is grown to ensure that it’s only meeting demand for in-state users.

I-502 already codifies a lot of the specifics of the regulatory scheme, but also leaves a lot up to the discretion of the state liquor control board. If you look at the text of the new law [PDF] on page 18, you’ll see the following:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 10. The state liquor control board, subject to the provisions of this act, must adopt rules by December 1, 2013, that establish the procedures and criteria necessary to implement the following:

…

(3) Determining the maximum quantity of marijuana a marijuana producer may have on the premises of a licensed location at any time without violating Washington state law;

That section also deals with how the LCB can regulate other parameters of a legal marketplace, including how many retail outlets will be allowed in an area and how marijuana can be advertised. If Garza is speaking with knowledge of what Holder is planning to do, this is a good sign that they’re willing to tolerate I-502’s implementation.

On the other hand, what could end up happening is that we’ll get overly restrictive regulations based upon a fear that Washington will become a supplier for other states. If that’s the case, we’ll be the pioneering state for all of this, but we might end up with an archaic and inefficient regulatory model similar to what we previously had for liquor, while other states are freer to set up smarter regulations when they later take this step.