HorsesAss.Org

Six months ago, Florida Governor Rick Scott had plans to make Florida a “better” state by de-funding state higher education programs in fields like psychology and anthropology:

“Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists? I don’t think so.”

Scotts “War on Anthropology” was based on an incorrect assumption that there is no job market for anthropologists:

…[T]he difference in job growth between [math and science] jobs and anthropologists is slight. Anthropology jobs are expected to grow by 28 percent, while computer software engineers and environmental engineering technician jobs will grow by 30 percent.

“The expected growth isn’t that much different in terms of percentage,” said Chris Cunningham, an analyst with the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And then there is this from today’s news:

Jim Yong Kim was chosen to be president of the World Bank, becoming the first physician and Asian-American to head the lender after emerging markets failed to rally around a challenger to the U.S. monopoly on the job.

The World Bank board of directors said today it chose Dartmouth College President Kim to succeed Robert Zoellick, whose term ends June 30. A specialist in HIV/AIDS with a Ph.D. in anthropology, Kim, 52, faced rival bids from Nigeria and Colombia.

Be warned, Gov. Scott, anthropologists will rule the World… Bank.

– Am I the only person who thinks Dennis Kucinich shouldn’t come to Washington to run for Congress, but is fine with it if he does?

– Father Michael Ryan, head of St. James Cathedral, tells parishioners in a letter that gathering signatures for Referendum 74 would “prove hurtful and seriously divisive in our community.” (h/t to Howie on Facebook)

– Bravo! Welcome to the proper side of this debate!

– Obama wins the WA Caucus.

– New menu items at Tutta Bella.

– Kings of the AL West’s second tier is maybe all the Mariners can hope for.

Last week’s contest was won by no one. Apparently, Dana and I have TV tastes that don’t resonate with the HA readers. The view was of Cameron and Mitchell’s house from the show Modern Family, located in Los Angeles, CA.

UPDATE: Last week’s contest was won by Coosboy last night after this was posted.

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

Romans 13:6-7
You must also pay your taxes. The authorities are God’s servants, and it is their duty to take care of these matters. Pay all that you owe, whether it is taxes and fees or respect and honor.

Discuss.

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

Alyona’s Tool Time Award: Sen Chuck’s tweet.

Ed and Pap: Stop supporting ALEC members.

I didn’t speak up.

Mark Fiore: Dogboy and Mr. Dan in “Restrain Yourself”.

Sam Seder: Michele Bachmann says uninsured choose to not have health insurance!.

Maddow does Bill Maher.

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

Ann Telnaes: The Catholic leadership’s selective use of duct tape.

Roy Zimmerman: Vote Republican, Pennsylvania edition:

Alyona’s Tool Time Award: Rep. West’s imaginary Communist Conspiracy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thom: Rep. West, not so many Communists…plenty of Fascists.

Young Turks: Ex-gay’ therapy advocate now says his theory about gay choice was wrong.

ONN: Dems say Obama has dicked us around for four years…”it’s our turn”.

White House: West Wing Week.

The Second Half of the G.O.P. Gladiatorial Games:

• Ron Paul takes potshots at Mitt, Newt, and Santorum.
• A match made in heaven.
• Mitt Romney is sooooooo gay!
• Buzz 60: Obama and Biden release their taxes. Romney??
• Jen Granholm: Romney is out of touch?
• What if Romney loses??
• Romney should listen to Lilly Ledbetter.
• Mitt Romney: Memories to last a lifetime
• Stephen on Mitt’s possible running mates.
• How Mitt Romeny got his tax extension:
• Mitt chats with Sean Hannity about his horse breeds, ties.
• Ann Telnaes: Santorum quits.
• Jon says “Goodbye” to Rick Santorum.

Thom: Patriotic millionaires WANT more taxes.

Young Turks: FAUX News mole is fired.

Is Herman Cain trying to sell chicken-topped pizza?

Sam Seder: Health Care and the Supreme Court.

Stephen on Sen. Chuck Grassley’s twitter feed.

Liberal Viewer: Is broccoli like health insurance?

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

Young Turks: Obama calls Kanye a jackass…AGAIN!

The Republican War on Women™:

• Maddow: War on Women at the NRA.
• Actual Audio: Reince Priebus & the War Against Women
• Thom on the Snatch project.
• Stephen on the Democrat War on Women
• Sam Seder: Women are just like livestock says recently passed Georgia bill.
• Jen Gramholm with Nancy Pelosi: Women should run for office and ‘kick open the door’.
• Young Turks: Sarah Silverman’s abortion joke.
• Alyona debunks the BS about 92.3% of jobs lost by women.

Maddow: Gun violence.

Jen Granholm: The creators of Texts From Hillary.

Sam Seder: Conservatives trust in science declining.

Jon on CNN’s new branded news segments.

Young Turks: Cory Booker heroic fire rescue.

Ann Telnaes: Stand your ground laws.

Kimmel: Unnecessary Censorship.

Stephen does Michelle Obama.

Thom: Fracking earthquakes.

Charging Zimmerman:

• Jon covers the Zimmerman charging.
• Liberal Viewer: Will Hannity be a witness against Zimmerman?
• Ed and Pap: Self-centered Hannity making Trayvon murder all about Hannity.
• Young Turks: “Stand Your Ground” law in Florida is a ‘classic case’ of NRA lobbying.
• Thom: Zimmerman had the rules of engagement wrong.
• Jon on outrage over NBC’s selective editing.
• Young Turks: Hannity defends Zimmerman.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker saves neighbor from fire.

Pap: Who is responsible for high gas prices.

Remember Big oil tax breaks?

Alyona’s Tool Time Award: Drug testing Child Support Recipients!?!

Young Turks: Obama vs. Bush on income equality.

Shit Rep. Allen West says.

Thom: So much more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

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

If you’re interested in nominating Obama and improving the Democratic platform, Saturday Sunday is the first day in the process.

Those of you who were able to resist attempting mischief in the Republican caucuses and thereby retained your eligibility for the Democratic caucuses can collect your reward this Sunday, as Washington Democrats begin the process of selecting 130 folks to represent us at the Democratic National Convention.

Even though Obama has already accrued enough delegates to get the nomination, it’s nice to be able to voice your support. I’ve never caucused for a winner, so maybe I’ll go just for that. But the other thing is to improve the platform. The big push by activists will be for a marriage equality plank.

I’ll be caucusing Sunday afternoon, and running for delegate to the LD/County level with a pledge to support the nomination and re-election of President Barack Obama and the inclusion of explicit marriage equality language in the county, state and national platforms. I’ll be asking for a similar commitment from those who seek my vote for delegate to any level as the process advances.

If anyone knows of any other planks activist groups are pushing, I’d love to hear about them in the comments. Universal single payer health care and an end to the drug war are two ideas off the top of my head that would probably benefit from a platform fight, but I don’t know of any activist groups pushing for them in the platform.

Anyway, you can find your caucus here. Good luck.

How many of you all have a Swiss bank account?

— Vice President Joe Biden countering Mitt Romney’s claim that President Barack Obama is “out of touch.”

It’s not too surprising.

State Rep. Roger Goodman (D-45, Kirkland), one of six candidates who announced for the First District Congressional seat being vacated by US Rep. Jay Inslee (D-1)—Inslee, of course, is running for governor—announced today that he’s dropping out of the race. Goodman’s decision comes on the heels of what he himself called an “anemic” quarter of fundraising, which prompted rumors last month that he planned to withdraw from the race.

It’ll be interesting to see if this puts any pressure on any of the remaining non-Darcy Burner candidates to drop out and coalesce around an anybody but Darcy candidate, or if the rest of the pack stays in. It’ll also be interesting to see (if you can with small numbers) where his support goes. As I’ve said, I like all the candidates I know in the race.

– Once you write the fragment “it’s based on speculation rather than inside knowledge”, it should be clear that you would be providing your readers with a more useful service if you were to close your laptop, head to the nearest public park, and enjoy the nice weather. Why not do that instead?

– Misplaced priorities indeed.

– I’ve never thought much about Ashley Judd beyond the blandest adjectives—she’s pretty, she seems nice, her pores look really small—but it turns out she’s also a smart, bold, kickass feminist.

– Our awesome legislature.

– Who Seattle parks were named after. (h/t)

Atrios is right that the housing market isn’t going to recover while the crooked, thieving banks are all crooked and thieving.

I’m not sure how anyone expects “the housing market” to “recover” when buying a house now involves handing a bunch of money over to a bank which will then proceed to steal your house from you.

This behavior will continue until lots of people go to jail. And that, apparently, is off the table.

Of course there is another option. And that’s to make it impossible for the banks to steal your house from you. And it seems the simplest way to do that is by putting a moratorium on banks foreclosing until the documentation gets sorted out. It might increase the cost of lending since there are a number of legitimate foreclosures that wouldn’t happen.

Ideally this would happen at the federal level, but I don’t think it’s something you can get done with the current House of Representatives. So, it can happen at the states. It’s 4 years past time, but I’d like to see some creative state legislator here in Washington propose it in the next session.

This week’s Stranger has an awesome story by Dominic Holden on the Seattle Subway proposal:

A group of transit nerds, working with allies in local government, are developing a way to do it and do it fast. With lines above and below grade (more than half of the New York City subway is aboveground), the Seattle Subway would transport riders from downtown to Ballard in nine minutes, according to estimates for modern subway technology. Travel from downtown to West Seattle would take 10 minutes—no matter the traffic. Trains could arrive every five minutes.

Here’s how it would work: Seattle voters would take advantage of the City Transportation Authority, created by the state legislature in 2002, which was intended to fund the monorail. That authority still allows voters to establish a motor vehicle excise tax of up to 2.5 percent for “a transportation system that utilizes train cars running on a guideway.” An initial vote as soon as this November or next year could pay for relatively inexpensive analysis and design work for the first line—probably to Ballard and West Seattle. A subsequent vote would pay for constructing the first line. Repeat as necessary until that map you see is complete.

“It’s a great concept,” says former mayor Greg Nickels, who was integral to building the light-rail lines we have. He agrees the current construction schedule for light rail is “frustratingly slow.”

Read the whole thing…it’s good, thought-provoking stuff.

So…Dominic Holden is now pro-tunnel?!?

Democrats have pushed the fact that Senator Zarelli wants to eliminate Disability Lifeline, but is on a different disability program. I’ve never been a fan of accusing people of personal hypocrisy because they live differently from how they govern. So someone supports public transit, but drives a lot doesn’t concern me; I’ll take the transit, and if other people want to drive a lot with these gas prices, go for it. People who take farm aid and oppose it don’t concern me. And Zarelli opposing disability programs is much worse than the fact that he opposes the program while he benefits from a similar program. But the Tacoma News Tribune feels the need to not only defend him, but to make strange metaphors.

The two kinds of disabilities involved aren’t merely apples and oranges; they’re apples and zebras.

Are apples and zebras the most dissimilar things the Trib can think of? I mean you could eat both of them, for example. Here’s one of my nonsense lists to help them out the next time they want to grope for a metaphor about how things aren’t the same:

• Apples and plastic
• Apples and the concept of fear
• Apples and explosions
• Apples and cars
• Apples and people with black mold in their brain who benefit from the program that Zarelli wants to cut
• Apples and the people who Zarelli would make homeless with his awful budget
• Apples and the people who’ll die if we pass Zarelli’s budget
• Apples and declining state revenue as a share of the economy
• Apples and the concept of time
• Apples and mustaches
• Apples and TV shows
• Apples and Higgs particles
• Apples and corporations
• Apples and Unnecessary Capitalization
• Apples and Mispellin the word Misspelling

Lots to talk about. Let’s see…the Washington legislature has a stalemate with a huge deadline tonight, Newt is bouncing checks, Santorum has suspended.

Let’s talk about it. Please join us tonight for an evening of politics under the influence at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally.

Seattle DL meets every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. We begin at 8:00pm, but some folks show up even earlier to enjoy a peaceful dinner.

SPECIAL EVENT: This Thursday (April 12th) the Northwest Progressive Institute (NPI) will hold their 2012 Spring Fundraising Gala Mercer Island Community Center, 8236 SE 24th Street.

The event will benefit NPI and will feature food by Frankie’s Pizza (my favorite pizzeria in the PNW), music, memorable speakers, and great company. The speakers include Senator Maria Cantwell, Congressman Adam Smith, the Honorable Ron Sims, and NPI’s Andrew Villeneuve.

The reception begins at 6:30 PM, main program to begin at 7:15 PM. Tickets are available here or at the door. (The individual rate is $60, household rate is $90. Those living lightly can get in the door for $20, and students who want to volunteer with event setup and takedown are welcome to come for free.)

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? You’re in luck…there are DLs meeting all over Washington state. Tonight there are also meetings of the Tri-Cities, Bellingham, and Vancouver, WA chapters. And on Thursday, Drinking Liberally Bremerton meets. Next Monday there are meetings of the Woodinville, Olympia, Yakima, and Shelton chapters.

With 233 chapters of Living Liberally, including twelve in Washington state and six more in Oregon, chances are excellent there’s one near you.

– Just put a school downtown.

– It’s not a future many in the Northwest had considered in the past. A region that prides itself on green energy, new economy jobs, and a clean environment is about to crown a new king—coal.

– Republicans on Twitter have found the real racists.

– The best encapsulation of every problem with Slate.

– Because we were in Iraq promoting freedom (h/t).

– Whatever you think of Obama’s policies, this GIF of him reading Where The Wild Things Are is pretty great (h/t).

– Middle aged is different for sports stadiums than for people, but I think the Safe is going to be around for a while.