HorsesAss.Org

When I talk about car culture, people say I’m being overblown. But how else do you explain The Seattle Times deciding that it’s super important for the city to continue forcing builders to build more parking spots? I mean, I don’t think the market will solve all of our problems, but usually The Seattle Times does. Not today.

The proposal is part of a package to lighten regulations that discourage investment and development. Seattle is a highly regulated city, sometimes to the detriment of reasonable development, and generally this package of reforms is good. But to allow the spread of housing without parking is utopian and anti-family.

No. Plenty of families don’t have cars. When I grew up in a city with functioning public transit, we took it everywhere. When we moved out here, we became a 2 car family.

It is utopian to think that many people will abandon their cars. A few will, but the vast majority who can afford market-priced housing in Seattle will have a motor vehicle, now and always. If they have a vehicle, they will park it — somewhere.

This is such a circular argument. One part of the reason it’s expensive to live, and raise children, in the city is because it has tacked on the cost of parking even to families that don’t drive. I mean people on the cusp could afford a house in the neighborhood and give up their car. Let them chose. If there’s still the demand for parking, people will still build parking.

Anyway, the type of person who buys a house near light rail or a well used bus stop is less likely to drive than the typical person moving into the city, or if it’s a family with 3 people over 16, maybe they’ll just have 1 or 2 cars instead of a car for everyone. Maybe it’ll be a good house for people who’ve retired and don’t have to drive to work every day. The list goes on and on. Let them decide for themselves.

More city people these days have bicycles also, as the mayor does, but they still drive, particularly if they have children or elderly people to take care of. Seattle is famously a city with a low proportion of children, said to be second only to San Francisco. Still our leaders should think twice about making Seattle any less welcoming to families than it already is.

First off, thanks for the random shoehorning of hatred of bicycling, McGinn, and San Fransisco in case anyone needs to prove that this piece was written by Joni Balter. Second, if Seattle residents are disproportionately childless, that undermines your argument that we should build houses to accommodate your version of child rearing. Finally, and once again, you don’t have to drive to get your children around. Yes, it can be tough in Seattle’s not great public transit system, but plenty of people make it work. It saves money. And many people prefer the interactions with their kids on public transit (where parents can give them their full attention) than when they’re driving.

Late last week, media sources, both local and national, were abuzz with the figure $770,000 released by Secretary of State Sam Reed. That is, supposedly, the “cost” for a special election to replace Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA-1). Inslee recently resigned his seat to run for Governor.

Last Friday I listened to KUOW’s Weekday Friday news round-up as they spent quite a bit of time on the topic of this special election. (Aside: I was a little surprised that the four esteemed journalists in the studio didn’t understand that the Governor cannot appoint a replacement for a Representative…it’s in the Constitution.)

I was puzzled by the figure. I mean, the special election will take place on the same days as the primary and general election. Does it really cost $770,000 to add one race to the ballet for about 11% of the state’s voters? Is that the cost of adding a couple of pages to the voter’s guide for residents of the old 1st CD?

Now…if Inslee had resigned just days earlier (before March 6th), it would have required a stand-alone special election. I could imagine a new election costing taxpayers $770,000. But that isn’t what happened. Inslee, intentionally or not, delayed his resignation and a stand-alone special election was avoided.

For the answer to the puzzling cost figure we turn to TNT.

Katie Blinn, the co-director of elections with the Secretary of state, said there isn’t really an increase in election costs only a change in how those costs are distributed. County elections offices divide the cost of elections among the government entities with matters on the ballot. But state law dictates that the state doesn’t pay anything for state and federal elections held in even-numbered years like this. It only chips in for special elections that are normally held in odd-numbered years and for any election to fill an unexpired U.S. Senate or U.S. House position.
[…]

So there are not additional costs other than the postcard mailing. What Blinn’s response seems to indicate is that the costs will be shared by an additional governmental entity. As state costs go up, the costs borne by local governments will go down.

In short…the election itself costs taxpayers almost nothing extra. What we are talking about with the $770,000 is the transfer of funds between different government entities; budgetary shuffling. Somehow, the mainstream media missed that subtly. And maybe it’s because Sam Reed wasn’t particularly clear about what the $770,000 is.

The Democrats, of course, point out that Sam Reed is the McKenna campaign’s Thurston County co-chair, and that “[t]he conflict of interest is clear.”

The SOS office is also requesting $225,000 to do voter education—essentially to mail out postcards to educate voters about the confusing special election in the old 1st and the regular election in the new first. I’m not sure why the voter’s pamphlet—you know, that document sent to all voters that educates them about the elections and candidates—cannot be used to educate voters about the special election. Perhaps it violates the RCW or something. I don’t know.

So boos and hisses to the majority of the MSM that hyperventilated over the $770,000 “cost” of a special election.

And boos and hisses to the SOS office for failing to clearly communicate to the media the meaning of the $770,000 figure. It’s an integrity issue, given how a high-ball estimate would look like conflict of interest. Reed should have gone out of his way to explain exactly what the figure means, and provide an actual estimate of taxpayer’s costs.

Finally, Reed should have been out front with corrections last week when the media was hyping the figure incorrectly.

– I had seen links to the John Derbyshire piece, but hadn’t read it until he was fired.

– I’m all for leveling the playing field, but I don’t think rejecting bus ads is the way to go.

– Who knows why people take the Ryan plan seriously.

– I don’t know who God prefers, but I like kind atheists.

– My favorite local news stories are the ones where they can’t decide if they’re trying to titillate or moralize.

– Yep, they are consolidating behind Romney…like a jar of bacon grease in a cold ass room is clearly the greatest political metaphor ever.

– Obviously, the standings in early April don’t matter too much, but it is nice that the Mariners are 3-1.

Last week’s contest was won by wes.in.wa. It was Porto, Portugal.

This week’s contest is related to a TV show or a movie, good luck!

Programming Note: My life is generally uneventful enough that I can ensure a contest will be posted every Sunday at noon, but as my wife is due sometime in April with our second child, if a Sunday passes without a contest, you’ll know why…

Luke 18:32-33
He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”

Discuss.

Thom with The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.

Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: Jesus was a Jew; Obama is a Muslim.

Stephen does Nikki Haley.

Sam Seder: James Murdoch resigns as BSkyB Chairman.

Young Turks: Rep. Allen West…Gay Marriage not important.

Pres. Obama speaks at Easter prayer breakfast.

Episode 9 of the Not Exactly Rick Snyder Show.

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

Young Turks: Crazy new FAUX News conspiracy theory.

The Republican War on Women:

• Young Turks: Of course there is a GOP War on Women!
• Roy Zimmerman with a Kansas version of Vote Republicans:
• Jennifer Granholm: Sixteen-year-old Laela Zaidi weighs in on the Republican War on Women.
• Alyona’s Tool Time Award: The GOP’s war on the War on Women
• Maddow: Sen. Murkowski ‘gets’ what GOP does not.
• Ann Telnaes: The Republican woman problem.
• Young Turks: Nikki Haley, “Women Don’t Care About Contraception.”
• RNC Chair says GOP War on Women fictional as War on Caterpillars?

Pap: The death of the GOP.

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

White House: West Wing Week.

Sam Seder: Supreme Courts strip-‘n-probe ruling.

Jon on Sarah Palin’s “Today Show” gig.

Ann Telnaes: Real aftermath of the Gulf oil spill.

Stephen: Disheartening improved employment news.

Thom: The President strikes back.

Mark Fiore: Abraca-Tax-Cut.

Jon: Can you make Bill-O pay $4.00 for a shrimp.

Obama: The story of “Fired Up, Ready to Go:

Alyona’s Tool Time Award: Paul Ryan “misspoke” on calling Generals liars.

White House: The Google White House tour projet.

Obama speaks at the White House forum on women and the economy.

Thom: A well-oiled machine to privatize colleges that doesn’t depend on facts.

The G.O.P. Primary Reality Show:

• ONN: Romney to travel back in time to kill liberal versions of himself.
• Mitt Romney versus Reality.
• Mitt Romney is lying AGAIN!
• Alyona’s Tool Time Award: Mitt’s jealousy of Air Force One.
• Actual Audio: Mitt’s funny story.
• More Mitt Romney versus Reality
• Ann Telnaes: Unzipping the inner Mitt.
• Romney v. Obama on tax breaks for Big Oil.
• Jon: Rick Santorum’s big night of losing
• Buzz 60: Poll shows Santorum losing in his home state.
• Young Turks: Santorum campaign staffers are complaining.
• Kimmel weighs in on pink balls (via Indecision Forever).
• The Newt Gingrich “Open Marriage” campaign.

Young Turks: The Wingnut “Obama is a bully” theory.

Sam Seder: GOP-er fights against Gay Marriage until she realizes she is gay.

Pres. Obama’s Passover message.

Ann Telnaes: Masters of their universe.

Maddow: “You have one new message from the Secretary of State”.

The White House Carpet Crisis.

Jennifer Granholm and Karen Middleton (President of Emerge America): Getting women into politics.

Alyona’s Tool Time Award: Rep. Steve King (R) on DADT in the workplace.

ALEC ATTACK:

• Ed and Pap: ALEC scoundrels exposed.
• Young Turks: Stop ALEC and its founder’s efforts to disenfranchise minorities.
• Thom: ALEC may have met its match.

Newsy: Olbermann talks it.

Progressives hold Republicans accountable for Medicare vote: .

Buzz 60: March Jobs report.

Sam Seder: Surprise! Repeal of DADT has caused zero problems.

Young Turks: Ayn Rand, Glenn Beck, and Teabaggers.

Bill Maher and friends on Zimmerman.

Maddow: Update on the Michigan story.

Alyona: How much of your tax dollars go to the Military.

Jon on The death of the GOP.
w.indecisionforever.com/blog/2012/04/06/the-daily-show-on-barack-obamas-email-spam’>Obama’s email spam.

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

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

Because the governor might die, or otherwise have to leave. And also because Owen often does annoying things. Mostly deciding the unconstitutional 2/3 requirement was rad. Also, on the plus side of the ledger, he doesn’t fuck around when Gregoire is out of the state, and he could. But while I want the Democrats’ budget to pass, I don’t know that this is the best thing (if he’d actually do it).

It’s a 24-24 tie in the senate because Republican minority leader Sen. Mike Hewitt (R-16, Walla Walla) one of the 25 votes that gave the GOP (and a couple of conservative Democrats) the majority for the GOP version of things, is out recovering from surgery.

Conservative Democrat Owen, who’s made momentous decisions before (ruling against the Democrats by deciding that repealing tax loopholes is tantamount to raising taxes and requires a two-thirds vote), could step in a give the Democrats the budget vote they need.

I mean I’d prefer we win the day because someone realizes that the GOP position is horse shit not because someone needs surgery. I mean the people of Walla Walla deserve representation in this budget mess. That said, I wouldn’t shed a tear if it happened. The Democrats have a better budget than the Republicans and the people voted for Democrats in the majority of both houses.

According to some Travel and Leisure magazine (no, I didn’t know it existed either). Seattle is America’s 6th greenest city.

Seattle did, after all, come in fifth runner-up. And No. 1 was our sibling rival to the south: Portland.

Savannah, Minneapolis, Denver and Chicago also beat out Seattle on the list. But at least the magazine had a lot of nice things to say about Seattle

Yes, if you click the link, one of the things that gets mentioned is that if you bring your own cup to coffee places, you might get a discount. Is that really one of the top 40 environmental things about Seattle? I don’t know what it takes to get higher on a probably mostly arbitrary list, but I say let’s keep trying.

… Sorry, I put the wrong link. I meant to direct you to the Big Blog post that was blockquoted instead of the article mentioned.

The right-wing media has a huge breaking scandal….

The Democratic Party’s newly appointed Jewish outreach liaison is pictured on Facebook in a series of provocative photos with her friends holding dollar bills and referring to themselves as “Jewbags” and the “Jew cash money team.”

Dani Gilbert, who has been a staffer in the office of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.), was recently appointed as the Democratic National Committee’s Jewish outreach liaison, according to her Twitter feed.

Ooohh….that sounds weally, weally, wascally really, really bad.

The whole thing supposedly exposes a huge riff between Pres. Obama and DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Here is the offending picture….

There she is kissing the money!

Except, wait. That Facebook page is from January 2006. I presume Ms. Gilbert was in college (or maybe high school) and was goofing around with some friends.

Inexcusable still. It’s scandalous!

Clearly, Ms. Gilbert should be fired and forbidden from participation in politics.

And kept away from young children.

Rachael Maddow has a pretty remarkable story here….

If you know you’ll be getting into an argument with your conservative relatives for this weekend, you might want to bookmark this graph Shaun and others around the web have been posting.

– Good for Bruce Harrell for his proposal to allow women to file a complaint with the city’s Office of Civil Rights if they are asked to leave a public place or cover up while breastfeeding.

– I’m not sure weirdness is really something you can measure legislative session to legislative session.

– Eliminating Disability Lifeline, on top of being horrible policy on its own, doesn’t even save money. (h/t)

– War Crimes

– Finally, we need to stop shrugging off the concerns and cries of people in states that feel like lost causes or bastions of GOP influence because those people matter too. We need to stop telling people to move (most can’t), to secede (we don’t want to), or to start fighting (we already are, you just aren’t looking).

– Possibly the dumbest use of I was just asking for people’s opinion ever.

– Where’s my Higgs?

Remember last year after the legislature passed a biannual budget — that we’re still operating under — and the Seattle Times Editorial Board praised them to high heaven?

The session in the spring was bloody — but also successful. It was an honest budget, with fewer gimmicks than in earlier years. And in the Senate it was done with the cooperation of both parties. If legislators come back, they should do it that way because it is the way that works.

Like it or not (and I didn’t like it) that budget was bipartisan, especially from the Senate. But the Seattle Times thought it was a success. It works. So now, we’re operating under the same budget, and we need urgent reforms.

THE deadlock in Olympia is not about the budget. Really the deadlock is about whether to accept three reforms demanded by Republicans and moderate Democrats or to pass watered-down versions. We urge legislators to go for the full reforms, because they make the state budget more sustainable in the long run.

My God! The budget is unsustainable. And how do we reform our unsustainable budget? With bipartisan (3 Democrats in one house of the legislature and zero in the other so far is bipartisan, FYI) reforms. Reforms like making retirement worse for state workers. Reforms like having a shittier health care package for teachers than the one they negotiate now with their districts. Reforms like 4 year budgets. You know, because we can’t do 2 years, why not 4?

No reforming our taxes to make them more fair or to raise more revenue. No making sure revenue keeps up with the size of the economy. Of course if the legislature passes those types of reform and it doesn’t pan out, expect the Seattle Times to freak out and demand another round of “reforms” of the same type.

For the most part, I’ve been happy with the coverage of the 1st Congressional District primary. While there’s some bullshit coverage of Darcy Burner, that’s sort of what you expect from the mainstream sources. There are plenty of good candidates, and for the most part they’re covered about as well as you can expect.

But one thing in particular just drives me off the wall. And that’s whenever I read that they’re competing for “Jay Inslee’s old seat.” The fuck they are. They’re competing to fill a seat with the same number as Jay Inslee’s old seat, but since the redistricting looks nothing like that seat. Hopefully this will die down a bit since there will be an election to fill the old seat until redistricting kicks in.

Why the hell not? I mean, soon we won’t have Newt or Santorum to kick the shit out of anymore.

Newt is already out of the picture. But Lil’ Ricky Santorum keeps on Mitt like a bad case of Giardia. Cesspool ensues.

The polls close in Wisconsin, D.C. and Maryland at 5:00 PM PDT. That’s now!

5:04: It’s all tied up in all three states, with 0% reporting…

5:06: I got a call this afternoon from my favorite neice, Maria Elaine Valdez Holman. “Guess what, uncle Darryl, I voted today,” she said with some excitement. My guess is that most 18 year-olds don’t get quite so excited about voting, but Maria has become quite passionate about politics. She is really looking forward to voting Gov. Scott Walker’s ass out of office. Needless to say, she got her voting issues resolved, but not without some considerable effort, thanks to Walker.

5:32: With less than 1% reporting, we have some results for Maryland:

• Romney, 53.2%
• Santorum, 26.6%
• Gingrich, 10.4%
• Paul, 8.3%

5:41: With 1% reporting in Maryland, CNN boldly calls it for the Mittster.

5:42: We just got a teevee turned to CNN at the Ale House (that can be hard to do during Basketball season, and there is a Women’s final on tonight). Anyway, it seems I was misunderinformed…polls in Wisconsin haven’t closed yet. I believe they close at 6:00 PM PDT.

6:00: Polls are closing in Wisconsin. Wolf Blitzer puts his “intensity” face on.

CNN projection based on exit polls:

• Romney, 43%
• Santorum, 35%
• Gingrich, 11%
• Paul, 6%

6:02: NPR points out that turn-out may be much lower than expected in Wisconsin. That’s bad news for Scott Walker. The G.O.P. voters are simply not all that engaged.

6:06: CNN projects that Mitt Romney wins in D.C. What took them so long…I mean, Santorum didn’t even make the ballot. But I’m grateful we have that settled.

6:07: Dear CNN…When you have a text insert saying, “Santorum to speak soon” up for 45 minutes, you ought to be asking yourself…”Are we being played by the Santorum campaign?”

6:09: CNN has Ari Fleischer on the teevee. Without sound, I have no idea what he is saying. But I’m guessing he is lying–after all, his lips are moving.

6:14: Finally…after almost an hour of pushing it…Santorum is speaking. All smiles and waiving signs. This looser is on fucking Mars! Oh…wait. He’s giving the speech from Mars, PA.

6:17: CNN banner: “Breaking News: Awaiting Wisconsin Results”. That’s not fucking breaking news. We have been awaiting these results for our entire fucking life!
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