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The Republican presidential candidates had another debate. For some reason (exhaustion perhaps, maybe common sense kicked in?) Darryl decided not to live blog that one. I listened to a bit and, you’ll never believe this but, Newt Gingrich is still really annoying. The bit that people who watched the whole thing thought was most newsworthy was how Mittens thought to casually bet $10,000.

Now, despite what that link says, the odd thing about the number is that it’s neither a reasonable amount like $1, $5, or $10 that people actually make on these sort of things, but nor is it so exorbitant that it necessarily calls out as a joke bet. If I said to you, “I’ll bet you a billion dollars” then you know no matter who wins the bet that we’re not actually paying up because neither of us has a billion dollars. But $10,000 is both way too much, and just enough that you aren’t quite sure what would happen if you lost.

And any way why make a personal bet? Why not say for charity? Presumably the whole bet thing was because someone in his campaign suggested it knowing this had come up before, and hoping to defuse it in the future. He could easily say something like, “I’ll bet $500 that that isn’t true. If I win, give it to children’s hospital in Boston, if you win, I’ll give it to any charity of your choosing in Texas.” Then the worst thing that happens is he has to give $500 to a charity in Texas, and that doesn’t seem awful.

Actually more than that, but what Goldy said.

But adding, like a broken record, that these legislators ought to take a good hard look at their districts if they want to balance the budget with cuts alone. If there is a lot of waste in state government, then some must flow into all districts. It must be gobbled up by their constituents. Their friends and neighbors, as much as anyone else, gobble up the social services and the education the state pays for, so they might as well start cutting in their own back yard.

If they can’t think of cuts proportionate to their districts’ share of state spending, then perhaps tax increases are necessary.

– What if Tim Tebow were a Muslim?

– Elizabeth Warren was in town, and it looks like she was great.

– So maybe in Breitbart’s mind, it’s okay to destroy someone’s life as long as you do so by saying a bunch of stuff about them that’s not true.

– Congrats Washington teachers.

– More economic shit as a result of Alabama’s immigration law.

– Is it Christmas? (h/t)

Last week’s contest was won my milwhcky. It was Drammen, Norway.

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

Deuteronomy 28:49-51
Foreigners who speak a strange language will be sent to attack you without warning, just like an eagle swooping down. They won’t show any mercy, and they will have no respect for old people or pity for children. They will take your cattle, sheep, goats, grain, wine, and olive oil, then leave you to starve.

Discuss.

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

Young Turks: Right-wing elementary school cuisine bizarre freak-out.

The War on Christmas:

• Jon and Bill-O in a War on Christmas.
• Jon launches another salvo in the War on Christmas (via HuffPo).

Alyona: Mind blowing inequality figures.

Jon on the new go-to-jail-with-no-trial bill.

Corporate Personhood, Corporate Speech:

• Thom: Corporate personhood for dummies.
• Thom with Rep. Ellison: Amendment that corporations aren’t people
• Alyona: LA votes against personhood.
• Thom: Corporate personhood and talking money?
• Thom with Rep. Ted Deutch on the outlawing corporate cash amendment

Young Turks: Blackwater asks for Sharia law?!?

White House: West Wing Week.

Greenman: It isn’t about the “hockey stick”:

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

Obama speaks on the economy.

Rockbottomcookie: The gay homophobes.

The Republican Primary Asylum:

• Ed and Pap: Donald Trump and The Republican Freak Show.
• Alyona’s Tool Time: GOP wants to rip apart families.
• Young Turks with Al Gore on the GOP primary.
• Ed and Pap: The dimwit Republican circus freaks march again.
• Thom: Crazy alert for the New Hampshire ballot.
• Suzie Sampson sits down with Pastor Jim Miller and talks candidates.
• Stephen on The Trump debate.
• Ann Telnaes: Herman Cain drops out.
• Young Turks: Rick Perry’s “Hot Gas” moment.
• The Rick Perry ad that is universally disliked.
• Jesus responds to Perry’s disliked ad.
• A response to Rick Perry’s ad:
• Another response to Rick Perry’s disliked ad.
• Sam Seder: Rick Perry’s Strong Save the Christians Ad.
• Young Turks: Newt’s “food stamp credit card used for Hawaii vacation” bullshit.
• Actual Audio: Newt on child labor.
• Sam Seder: Newt is running for Asshole-in-chief.
• Romney’s $100,000 taxpayer funded destruction of records.
• Mark Fiore: Suzie Newsykins, the Antimitter.
• Romney: A career politician.
• What’s younger than Mitt’s political career?
• Romney’s accidentally released anti-Gingrich ad. (via Slog).
• What was Mitt Romney hiding?
• Maddow: Newt’s gay half-sister supports Obama.
• Mitt Romney through the ages.
• Ed and Pap: Gingrich tries his hand at race bating.
• Newt Gingrich credits Mitt Romney’s wealth to…Newt Gingrich (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Flashback: Politically Incorrect (ca. 1999) Newt and The Godfather.
• The 3 minute hip-hopish evangelical attack on Newt Gingrich (via Slog):
• Ann Telnaes: Newt Gingrich as frontrunner.
• You’re a mean one Newt Gingrich:
• Aloyna’s tool time: Rick Santorum suggests people die because of “bad decisions”.
• Alyona’s tool time: Rick Santorum war on food stamps.

Sam Seder: Republicans to the unemployed, “Go pee in a cup”.

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

“Behind the scenes” at Moveon.org.

Sam Seder: George W. Bush cancels trip to Switzerland over fears of being arrested for torture charges.

Sharpton: Rep. Dennis Baxley, sponsor of strict FL voting law, admits no widespread fraud (via HuffPo).

Bill-O’s umbrella attack (via Slog).
Obama speaks on the economy.

America Occupied:

• Young Turks: Tea Party meets Occupy.
• Alyona: Occupy San Francisco evicted.
• Garfunkel and Oats with Weird Al Yankovic: Save the Rich:
• Thom: 99 percenters occupy jail
• Olbermann: Occupy protester assaulted by Bill-O’s umbrella.
• Young Turks: Bill-O’s umbrella attack.
• Olbermann: Occupy a Newt fundraiser.

Hanukkah at the White House.

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

Stephen on corporate personhood and the S.C. referendum.

Rick Santorum oozes his way to West Wing Week.
ref=’http://youtu.be/Vy5GTQNZeew’>Worst Person in the World.

Young Turks: No abortions for raped military women.

Roy Zimmerman’s buy war toys for Christmas:

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

While I don’t know if the Seattle Waterfront museum is a good idea or not, I’m quite certain Pioneer Square could use the money. The state spending money in Pioneer Square to mitigate the problems with the tunnel is perfectly reasonable. In fact, even if there was no tunnel, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for the state to take up some real estate and spend money on people down there.

After all, Pioneer Square was hit particularly hard by the recession and by Elliott Bay Books moving. Throw in the loss of 619 Western and possibly other buildings in the future as well as what construction is doing and the neighborhood is having tough times. The bars are still packed before and after a game, but for the rest of the time, it’s pretty sparce. Art walk isn’t the same. There’s nothing like Elliott Bay to draw people.

And now, hopefully the people who staff the museum and the people who use it will fill some of the void left in the wake of Elliott Bay and studio closings. They’ll go out to lunch and dinner. They’ll go to Art Walk and pick up a painting, or just make the place a little less lonely. They’ll go to concerts and have a drink after work.

Now maybe there’s a better way to achieve that than this museum. Maybe incentives for businesses and residents to move there will work better. Maybe some other thing there will spur the local economy, draw more people, or just make more sense for the community (I’d personally love to see an expansion of the Gold Rush Museum, but that’s a different pot of money). But just letting Pioneer Square languish until the economy rights itself, until Elliott Bay’s old location finds a tenant that can draw what it did, or until tunnel construction is over won’t help the area.

– Chart of the day.

– Bus Chick tells the best stories.

– Trapp couldn’t see it. Didn’t listen to those around him who knew something, never hired local hosts, nor even returned phone calls to community interests. He fired some great people, (“Tall Paul” Fredericks, who did get it, comes to mind).

– I’m still digesting Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Why Do So Few Blacks Study the Civil War?

– Ron Swanson is a great character, but nobody should base their presidential campaign on him. Also, all of the men in the race should grow a mustache.

With the Iowa Caucus coming up it may be too late for Washington to jockey for poll position in this contest. But with our legislature in special session and not really doing anything about the budget, I say let the legislators loose. While a few legislators from a few committees from both houses and the Governor’s budget people figure out what’s going to happen, the rest of the legislators can do useless crap.

I say hold a primary early next month, but call it the first in the nation contest for 2016. Sure, it’s a little strange, to have the 2016 contest before the 2012 one, but we’re having them earlier and earlier, so they were going to catch up eventually. And it’s no stranger than giving Iowa and New Hampshire the first in the nation status.

Throughout the Republican debate season, former front-runner Mitt Romney has been long on platitudes, but less specific on his positions within the Republican weltanschauung. Romney has tended to verbalize adopted positions with near universal acceptance within the G.O.P. and then contrast himself with President Obama.

Now with Newt Gingrich surging in multiple G.O.P. primary polls, the Mitt Romney campaign is being forced to take concrete stances—offer some ideological nuance—in order to differentiate himself from Newt. Will Mitt tack to the left? Will he cut back to the right?

Apparently, it is that latter. Today, during the daily Romney for President press conference call, Mitt went right-wing extreme. Sen. Jim Talent and Gov. John Sununu took up the case for Mitt, spinning his previously wishy-washy stance on the Ryan plan for Medicare into something concrete.

The Ryan plan would eliminate Medicare as it exists now and replace it with a voucher system. The plan would, more or less, privatize Medicare.

Gov. Sununu starts out criticizing Newt:

For Newt Gingrich, in an effort of self-aggrandizement, to come out and throw a clever phrase that has no other purpose than to make him sound a little smarter than the conservative Republican leadership, to undercut Paul Ryan, is the most self-serving, anti-conservative thing one can imagine happening. He gave the liberals and the Democrats the ammunition they needed to moot, if you will, at least for the time being, Paul Ryan’s presentation.

He then asserts Mitt’s support for the plan:

Mitt Romney supports what Paul Ryan did. He endorsed what Paul Ryan did. Mitt Romney had his own package of entitlement reform, which Paul Ryan has praised. They both meshed together. They are both based on really understanding entitlement reform.

and later on:

Paul Ryan’s plan which Mitt Romney supported is the solid basis for moving forward on entitlement reform. And Newt Gingrich not only rejected it then, but he rejected repeatedly by saying I was right what I said that it was wrong and the fact is that Newt Gingrich to this day still continues to undermine Paul Ryan.

Okay…Mitt Romney, 8 Dec 2011, is pro-Ryan plan. That is, Mitt supports eliminating Medicare and replacing it with a voucher system.

Remember this, folks, because if Mitt wins the nomination, he’s got some major Mitt-flopping to do. The public overwhelmingly rejects this radical plan. Mitt owns it now.

I believe you can envision the simple modifications needed for this ad:

HA was down for a little over an hour this morning.

I called Goldy and caught him in front of the U.S. Capitol, on his way to John Boehner’s office. He was pretty sure he’d been paying the ISP bills.

There was no evidence of a denial-of-service attack. A few minutes after submitting a trouble ticket to the ISP, the site returned.

In absence of any other obvious cause, I blame Carl Ballard.

Update: Oops. I was going to post something this morning before the server issue distracted me. As SJ points out in the comment thread, there is an extraordinary opportunity tomorrow evening when Sen. Maria Cantwell and Elizabeth Warren headline a reception titled, Fighting for Main Street. Admission is $40 at the Paramount Theater.

Goldy engages in some gonzo-journalism in D.C., but finds…

…the police just stood by and watched. No riot gear. No pepper spray. No tear gas.

At least Goldy was able to stir up people’s anxieties by obsessively asking protesters about their prior arrest histories:

Fucking troublemaker!

I hate to write about this non-local thing, but if men don’t, it becomes women’s work to point out that this is a terrible policy.

I’m talking, of course, about today’s news that Obama’s health and human services secretary Kathleen Sebelius has overruled the recommendation of her own experts at the Food and Drug Administration, killing a rule change that would have made Plan B emergency contraception available to teenagers and adults over the counter. Emergency contraception works by preventing the ovaries from releasing eggs, and is 89 percent effective at preventing pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex.

We quite rightly criticized Bush for being anti-sex and anti-science, so it seems fair to say that this is disappointing. Sebelius should have let the rule go into effect.

I don’t know if this was a policy or a political decision, but either way it stinks. The forced pregnancy movement in this country isn’t going to support Obama, no mater what. And the need for emergency contraception isn’t going to go away.

– You mean there was drug use on Capitol Hill before Occupy Seattle got there?

– Good job, Rob McKenna.

– This is not just the case for my family. I know I speak for many other hard working black, brown, and even poor white families who have the same experiences in the poor neighborhoods to look down upon from your elitist 1% out of touch pedestal. To say that an entire community “literally has no habit of showing up on Monday” or “they have no habit of staying all day” I say that is a load of shit. (h/t to Howie on Facebook)

– The worst thing Iran could do would be to get nuclear weapons and then not use them.

– Be bold.

– August has figured out the Republican primary.

There are only 19 days left in this year’s War on Christmas. So please join the fray by wielding a pint this evening at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally.

We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00 pm, but some folks will show up earlier for dinner.

Bye, bye, Herb Herm…we are soooo going to miss you:

Can’t make it to Seattle? The Tri-Cities chapter of Drinking liberally meets every Tuesday night at 7:00pm, and Thursday night, Drinking Liberally Bremerton meets at 5:00pm.

With 231 chapters of Living Liberally, including twelve in Washington state and five more in Oregon, chances are excellent there’s one near you.