HorsesAss.Org

I really like this story in the LA Times about the opening of the Vashon Island branch of Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union (h/t to Occupy Seattle’s Facebook).

The movement has spurred thousands of Americans to move their accounts out of mega-banks, but many have had to resort instead to big regional credit unions. Here, a group of hard-core Vashon activists, already seasoned in anticorporate campaigns, hit on the idea of merging with a small credit union to create a new branch on the island.

That office has managed, in its first year of operation, to enroll an astonishing 16% of the population and collect local deposits of almost $20 million.

“What surprised me about it was how rapidly the community embraced the credit union,” said Rob Harmon, a green economy pioneer who was part of the organizing committee. “We had wild dreams that in the first year $10 million would move. … And in the first year, $17.5 million moved. So we’re 70% above our wildest dreams.”

Last year, 1.3 million people across the U.S. joined credit unions, the lower-fee, not-for-profit alternative to commercial banks — double the rate from 2010. Once relegated to small offices at big companies, credit unions over the last 15 years have taken advantage of relaxed federal regulations to expand their membership.

…

Vashon organizers say the key to their success — a template they hope to share with other communities — was the decision to abandon the capital-intensive process of chartering their own credit union. Instead, they joined a small, existing credit union willing to cede substantial control in exchange for new members and deposits.

Harmon and Moyer were talking one day in 2009 about how to create a coal-free zone on the island. They needed to help people weatherize their homes, but none of the three Wall Street banks on the island wanted to make those kinds of loans except as home equity loans.

With the news of JP Morgan Chase losing $2 Billion in a way that shows they haven’t learned thing one, it’s quite timely.

Of course Obama has been planning his fundraiser for quite a while now. So there’s certainly a possibility that it’s just a coincidence that Washington was the first state he visited after announcing his support for marriage equality. Still, he could have made his announcement at any time. And Biden’s trial balloon came the weekend before the trip. So, maybe they looked at the calendar and decided Obama is going to be in Washington, so let’s make it happen.

It certainly seems to me that Washington is the right choice of venue for that. Of course there’s a good chance, depending on the signature gathering, that we’ll have this question on the ballot. Obama coming here probably spread the news a little more among people who like him that he thinks marriage equality is something worth pushing. Of course, this was big news anyway, but it probably got to a few more low information voters today.

That’s not to say his speech was all this one issue. As Paul Constant says:

What President Obama offered was basically his standard stump-speech. This doesn’t mean he ignored LGBT issues—when he listed his accomplishments, DADT repeal was high on the list; he said that no American, “black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled” should be discriminated against; and he did state that nobody should be denied rights because of who they love. (That mention of the freedom to love came early in the speech, and it got a raucous round of applause.) But marriage equality was just one of a series of issues he set out to contrast himself with Mitt Romney, who he referred to frequently by name. Romney, he said, “is a patriotic American,” and he congratulated him for the “success he’s had as the head of a large financial firm,” which earned derisive laughter from the crowd.

His was a fundraiser for his campaign, not a marriage equality rally. And there are lots of issues where he has to keep pushing. Still, I’m glad he was here.

It was sad to read Josh Feit’s announcement of the death of Publicola yesterday. Publicola has become a daily stop for me, and an important source for certain types of news. They filled a unique niche in the Pacific Northwest mediasphere.

It seems like the success of Publicola as media emerged from pure hard work–Erica and Josh appeared to be working their asses off. They hunted down political stories with enviable energy and tenacity, and presented it in their own style.

It took some time, but the mainstream media eventually warmed up to Publicola (indeed, folks at KUOW sounded like they had lost their best friend this morning). You can only break so many stories before your competitors have to sit up, pay attention, and consider you a peer.

The good news is that it looks like Crosscut will pick up Josh and Erica in some form or another–Publicola will live awhile longer under new management. (It’s almost like Crosscut wants to become relevant or something.) I hope the Publicola part of Crosscut can be as inspired as the independent Publicola.

An interesting and not so well known side story is Goldy’s role in the gestation and birth of Publicola. There is more behind that story for Goldy to divulge….

Finally, it is only fitting to point out that today is the 8th blogoversary of HorsesAss.

Goldy started this blog on May 10th, 2004 with this first post, with its first “fuck”, first commenter, and even the first fucking troll.

Eight years later, this is post number 10,222. We’ve had something over 511,000 comments, too many “fucks” and way too many fucking trolls to count.

Thanks to you, dear reader, we still have reason to be here because, like Publicola, our “financial model” certainly isn’t providing it.

– Publicola calls it quits.

– Who would have guessed Jonah Goldberg isn’t the most honest person ever?

– One of the NY GOP Senators who voted for marriage equality isn’t going to run for reelection because of a tough primary challenge.

– Sensible Washington is hoping people will show up in Kent to protect access to collective gardens.

– I’m pleasantly surprised that McKenna losing a talking point is gaining traction from Obama’s support of marriage equality.

– Even in the war on women, this is outlandish.

– Start worrying about children

– Bike Fashion Show

Now that Obama supports gay marriage, it will presumably be much easier to get a marriage equality plank into the platform. Still, I haven’t seen him support plank in the national platform (I haven’t seen one way or the other, but I’ve only done a cursory Google search). So hopefully he lends his support to it, and it’s not a fight. But for now, I’m still going to push people who support that plank at the next levels.

A day following passage of Amendment 1 in North Carolina, banning same-sex marriage in the state, Obama finally reaches the tipping point in his evolution toward support of same-sex marriage:

So what was the response “across the isle?”

RNC Chair Renee Blatherspoon (or whatever the fuck his name is): “…President Obama has played politics on this issue…”

Ahhh…Obama, who has been talking about his position “evolving” on this issue has, like an evil genius, picked THIS moment to capitalize on the issue for maximum political advantage!

And elsewhere:

Ralph Reed, a top organizer among religious conservatives, said Obama’s announcement was a “gift to the Romney campaign.” […] “The Obama campaign doesn’t have to worry about New York and California,” Reed said. “They have to worry about Ohio, Florida and Virginia and I don’t’ see evidence that it’s a winning issue in those states.”

and

“This decision may have made Barack Obama a one-term president,” Bob Vander Plaats the head of The Family Leader, a conservative faith group focused on politics in Iowa, said. This will stoke a part of the religious base even more against Obama, Vander Plaats said. “They were already fired up to get rid of Obama. This will only make them more on fire to get rid of Obama. And if I’m Romney today, I’m smiling,” he said.

In other words…this move was political suicide.

A politically shrewed move AND political suicide at the same time.

Clearly, Obama is Master of the Jedi mind trick….

I generally think it makes sense for Joni Balter to move to news. But the highlighted bit is strange.

In an email, Balter told PubliCola that her new title will be assistant political editor. “I have long wanted to try some editing,” Balter says. “I am taking the lead on the Politics Northwest blog, trying to give it a bigger presence on the site and make it a must read.”

More political reporting on the Politics Northwest blog sounds good. The best model would be Postman, but The Tacoma News Tribune’s political blog is pretty good, and has had more longevity than Postman. I hope she can pull it off, and as I’ve said, all in all, Balter moving to news is probably the right move for the paper, and hopefully for her.

Still, does Joni Balter not realize she has access to a blog now? She could have made some effort to make the Ed Cetera blog a must read. I’m sure the paper would have loved her to break some stories on that blog, instead of doing nothing with it for a while, and then giving it to an intern. And it seems that a breaking news blog would be more work than an opinion blog. Maybe it’s more different than I realize, but if the past is prologue, it’s not a good sign.

Please join us tonight for another evening of electoral politics under the influence at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally. There are a number of elections we will be tracking tonight:

• Wisconsin special Democratic primaries: This election will determine Gov. Scott Walker’s Democratic challenger. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is favored. Also, the Lt. Gov. and four state Senate primaries will be held.
• Indiana Republican primary: Sen. Richard Lugar is in a tight race against Teabagger favorite State Treasurer Richard Mourdock.
• North Carolina Constitutional Amendment: Amendment 1, which seems likely to pass, will add this to the NC Constitution:
  

  Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State….

Come join the conversation as the election results are released.

We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm, but a few folks show up earlier for dinner or to watch the early returns.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? There are other DL meetings this week. Tonight the Tri-Cities, Bellingham, and Vancouver, WA chapters meet, and Thursday night Drinking Liberally Bremerton meets.

With 234 chapters of Living Liberally, including twelve in Washington state and six more in Oregon, chances are excellent there’s a chapter near you.

– Mother’s Day (week) actions for Macy’s workers.

– You probably wouldn’t want your dog off leash in this dog park.

– Oh, it looks like there’s a mayor’s race in Portland

– I’m glad the Obama administration is putting out feelers (h/t) on marriage equality, but it’s time to just make it happen.

– Here’s hoping Neil Sinhababu’s take on the Greek elections is right.

– How much latitude should artists have when copying photographs?

I haven’t been making fun of The Seattle Times’ Ed Cetera blog recently. And point of fact, their intern is doing a pretty good job providing content.

But fortunately, there’s still their occasional nonsense where Bruce Ramsey and Lynne Varner argue usually over some detail on a non-issue where they start out meeting each other 90% of the way. Surprisingly, this time they actually talked about a real issue: The police response to the May Day vandalism. Bruce Ramsey starts it off thus: “I’m big on individual rights, but here is where I draw a line.”

Sure. We all have our lines. So it’s fair to say where they are. But I feel like Bruce Ramsey is regularly saying where we should curtail our individual rights and saying he usually supports individual rights as opposed to this time. But it seems to me, he could focus more on the rights he wants to expand.

Now, I’m sure he can link to pieces about lower taxes and claim that’s an individual’s right to not pay whatever tax the column is about. But that’s not the same. I’m sure he can link to pieces where he talks about property rights, and that’s closer but still not the same; the main regulations are downstream problems and other externalities, and anyway, a lot of people don’t own property. I’m sure he can link to pieces where he has defended corporate rights when they’ve been unpopular, but that’s not anything like individual rights.

Look, I know there are drug war things where he’s been fine. But it seems he cares less about individual rights than the average liberal. But he talks about how he’s for individual rights more than just about anyone. And you’d think someone like that would go out of their way to write about the individual rights they want to expand more.

– May Day

– A road to disaster for Europe.

-Darryl linked to people who made fun of The Heartland Institute’s godawful billboards in the Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza, but here’s another link making fun of it, now mostly with the written word.

– I don’t know if other people were aware of We are the 1 in 3, but I just came across it (h/t).

– The French elected a new President.

– Cape Disappointment and Useless Bay make this list of most depressing place names.

Last week’s contest was won by milwhcky. It was the new ballpark in Miami, home of the Marlins, whose manager Ozzie Guillen shoved his foot down his throat by saying nice things about Fidel Castro.

Here’s this week’s, a random location somewhere on Earth. Good luck!

Revelation 9:7-10
The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. They had what looked like gold crowns on their heads, and their faces looked like human faces. They had hair like women’s hair and teeth like the teeth of a lion. They wore armor made of iron, and their wings roared like an army of chariots rushing into battle. They had tails that stung like scorpions, and for five months they had the power to torment people.

Discuss.

Thom: Is Libertarianism dead?

Sam Seder: North Carolina’s anti-gay amendment will ‘protect the Caucasian race’ says Senator’s wife.

David Letterman does Stephen Colbert.

Alyona’s Tool Time Award: Gay marriage will lead to White extinction.

Foxx in the school house:

Ann Telnaes: Blind leading the blind.

Sam Seder: Tens of thousands occupy May Day, Reuters calls it a ‘dud’.

Alyona’s Tool Time Award: Some Tea Party hypocrite.

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

Roy Zimmerman: Vote Republican, NJ edition.

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

Stephen: Paul Ryan’s Christian budget cuts.

Alyona: John Yoo is off the hook for torture.

Greenman: Wind power at the crossroads.

Actual Audio: Boehner versus women.

Thom: War criminal John Yoo walks.

Young Turks: The bin Laden letters.

Occupy May Day.

This week in unnecessary censorship.

Campaign 2012:

• Forward.
• Suszy Sampson’s Tea Party Report: Newt’s out! We’re left with Mitt!.
• Mark Fiore: Obama, bin Laden, and Mitt.
• Jon on the Mormonness of Mitt’s religion.
• OFA: Swiss Bank Account.
• Pap: Republicans are stuck with Mitt. Now what?
• Jen: The road to the White House runs through Virginia.
• How to stand behind Mitt.
• Stephen: Mitt and Newt BFF
• Newt isn’t Mitt’s biggest supporter.

Alyona’s Tool Time Award: Heartland Institute for “Climate change is for Unibombers.

Jen: Republican War on women is real.

Jonathan Mann: This is why I march.

Thom: Exposing the biggest, most corrupt organization ever.

Daily Show: The oppression of Missouri gun owners.

Pap and Sen. Boxer: Republican War on Women.

Republicans, get in my vagina:

Sam Seder: The rich would rather give up American passport than pay taxes.

Alyona: Rubio’s DREAM Act, more like ‘Nightmare Act’.

White House: West Wing Week.

The Strange Detention of Daniel Chong:

• Young Turks: DEA leaves student to drink his own urine
• Sam Seder: Forced to drink his own urine….
• Young Turks: Daniel Chong found meth in cell.

Jon on bin Laden’s letters.

Romney, Bachmann, McDonnell: Turning Back the Clock on Women’s Health.

Thom: Some more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

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

Dwight Pelz has pulled his support for the the marriage equality plank of the federal platform. He claims the problem is that this is an effort to embarrass Obama.

“I was unhappy to see them throw up some press release out there making it like this insurrection within the party,” Pelz says. “I wasn’t happy with them using my name,” he says, explaining that he didn’t like their tactics. “I didn’t realize it was part of a strategy to start a fight within the party and embarrass the President.”

“Frankly, I felt sandbagged.”

I appreciate that Pelz wants to support President Obama more than he cares about any particular plank in the platform. But if Obama can’t support a marriage equality plank, he deserves to be embarrassed. He’s on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of basic human decency.*

Furthermore, the Washington State Democratic platform will support marriage equality because most Washington State Democrats support marriage equality. Most of the caucus in the last session of the legislature supported marriage equality. We need a chair who will support for those values at the national level. I realize that party activists have the freedom to get ahead of elected officials on these sorts of issues, I just hope Pelz remembers that he’s an activist, not an elected official, now.

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