– If Obama hadn’t been biking and golfing, I bet the earthquake wouldn’t have even happened.
– Cascade Bike’s Energizer Stations
– I’m embarrassed about how few of these books I’ve read.
– Both sides are equally Zzzzzzzz.
– A nice side effect of doing the right thing.
I sent the following questions to all of the candidates for Seattle City Council. I’ll put the answers up in Tuesdays and Thursdays: Sept. 6 & 8 for position 1, Sept. 13 & 15 for position 3, Sept. 20 & 22 for position 5, Sept. 27 & 29 for position 7 and October 4 and 6 for position 9. First candidate to respond on Tuesday, second on Thursday. There is a good chance some of the candidates won’t respond, if that’s the case, I’ll probably make up snarky answers for them.
1) Crime is down in the city, but we’ve seen some horrible incidents with the police in recent years. How do we ensure public safety and not have those sorts of things happen in the future?
2) Now that the Viaduct is coming down, what should the waterfront look like?
3) As the great recession drags on, the city budget is still hurt. What do we need to cut, what do we need to keep, and do we need to raise more money via taxation?
4) With its budget shrunk at least until the end of the recession what should Seattle parks look like?
5) What is the Seattle’s role in education and public transportation given how important they are to the city, but that other agencies are tasked with them?
It’s Tuesday!
So please join us for another evening of politics under the influence 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 a few folks will show up early for dinner.
Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? The Bellingham Chapter also meets at 7:00pm tonight. Tomorrow the Burien chapter meets at 7:00pm. There are 234 chapters of Living Liberally, including thirteen in Washington state and six more in Oregon.
Rep. Dave Reichert is, perhaps, best known for compulsively talking about his bravery. He has, after all, stared down the business end of a loaded gun…or some such thing.
When it comes to politics…not so much.
Yesterday The Atlantic took up the apparent decline in town hall style meetings on the heels of the 2009 teabagger-infused raucous town hall season.
During this year’s recess many congresscritters are replacing town hall meetings with other forms of constituent contact like individual meetings, themed meetings, and small venues. These alternatives tend to make constituent contact more difficult, but…
Congressional aides insisted that their events are well publicized through e-mail, website announcements, or alerts in local newspapers. They cited scheduling issues as the top reason for announcing an event on short notice.
There are notable exceptions (emphasis added):
But not all members make their schedules public. The office of Rep. Dave Reichert, (R-Wash.) declined to release his schedule of events.
“Aside from various other tours and visits in the community, we are currently planning his tele-town hall schedule,” spokesman Charles McCray wrote in an e-mail. More than 200 protesters gathered outside Reichert’s office on Thursday, the third such incident this month.
Oh, great. Reichert is afraid of his constituents and the national press has picked up on it.
Thanks for embarrassing us…fucking coward.
– Seriously, BackPage, just do photo ID.
– Rick Perry seems to have given up on the book he wrote last year.
– Sad to say, I didn’t know much about Jack Layton (h/t) or Nick Ashford in life.
– The liquor initiative sure has a lot of money on both sides.
– Even as things are going well, I’m much more skeptical about Libya than Lee. But there is still a lot of uncertainty.
Dear God…Goldy is back to his infernal begging again.
Just because gubernatorial candidate and current state Attorney General Rob McKenna gets a car as a form of political contribution, doesn’t mean Goldy is entitled.
Simply put, Goldy isn’t influential enough. I mean, even as a journalist for a prestigious regional newspaper, Goldy doesn’t quite make the cut as an…
…overseer of business practices by the state’s automobile dealerships.
or as the state’s top dog consumer advocate who
…receives complaints against dealers for deceptive advertising practices, dishonest promotions or hidden costs.
or as the Washington consumer’s investigator, prosecutor, judge and executioner, who
…investigates, determines penalties, negotiates settlement agreements and — on occasion — takes miscreants to court.
It’s not like Goldy is ever going to be in a position to craft…
…settlements with car dealers over advertisements that allegedly violated the state’s consumer protection laws.
Nope…Goldy just doesn’t have the clout of an Attorney General.
But since he is something of a sports writer—namely, author of The Stranger’s Sports Blotter column—maybe the UW Huskey Football team should be donating season tickets to Goldy…
Goldy writes:
So here’s a question: Assuming Gaddafi has fallen to a popular rebellion, and Libya is now in the hands of presumable democratic (whatever that means in the region) opposition forces… were the NATO air strikes justified? Morally and financially? Was it worth the cost in both dollars and “collateral damage” to first protect the nascent rebellion, and then to support its offensive?
President Obama has been criticized by Republicans and Democrats alike for our military intervention in Libya, but compared to Bush’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Gaddafi’s ouster appears to have come relatively fast and relatively cheap in both blood and treasure. So does Obama deserve a little praise for his policy, or was this always none of our business?
I do think Obama deserves some praise for his policy here. I supported the initial intervention back in the spring when a massacre of Benghazi was looming, and I think it was morally justified for NATO to see this through until the regime was completely brought down. If the mandate was to protect the civilians of Libya, the only way to truly do that was to get rid of Gaddafi and those loyal enough to him that they’d try to slaughter their countrymen. Did it cost a lot? Sure. But does it cost less than having the world’s most powerful military while only using it for cynical self-interest. Definitely.
As for that last point, I’m still worried that any goodwill generated by the support for the Libyan people is largely overshadowed by our failure to stand up for the Palestinians. The lack of freedom in Gaza and the West Bank is not much different than what others in the region are rising up against. In fact, the Palestinians in the occupied territories are worse off than their neighbors in Egypt and Syria. And our failure to help them will continue to overshadow the times that we get things right in the region.
Last week’s contest was won by Budget Wonk. It was Briarcrest Christian School in Eads, Tennessee, the real-life counterpart to the fictional Wingate Christian School in the movie The Blind Side. Briarcrest was the actual high school attended by future NFL player Michael Oher.
This week’s location is somewhere in Washington state, good luck!
Song of Solomon 4:5-6
Your breasts are perfect;
they are twin deer
feeding among lilies.
I will hasten to those hills
sprinkled with sweet perfume
and stay there till sunrise.
Discuss.
Thom: The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.
David Shuster: How FAUX News got the Secret Service bus story wrong.
Thom: FAUX News doesn’t know jack about economics.
More Rotting NewsCorpse:
Christine O’Donnell gets all weird and walks out of a CNN interview.
Thom: How Republicans avoid angry constituents…outsourcing?
Jon does Michael Steele.
Koch Brothers Exposed:
Seattle’s Hempfest arrives.
White House: West Wing Week.
Ann Telnaes: The New Media censorship.
Thom: What happened to compassionate conservatism?
Ed: Hannity Psychotalk on unemployment.
The Libertarian Floating Petri Dish Dream:
Young Turks: More town hall heckling.
Sam Seder: Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder’s strip club problem.
Liberal Viewer: FAUX News on Texas’ prayers answered.
Thom: more Good, Bad and Very, Very Ugly.
ONN: Supreme Court rules first amendment does not apply to one annoying man.
The Republican Primary Nut House:
Newsy: Bill Clinton goes vegan.
Sam Seder: Who is the Tea Party?
Thom: Darrel Issa and the Lobbyists.
Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma shoots up his way to Worst Person in the World.
Highlights of Obama’s Rural Economic Tour:
Jon: hose money grubbing fat cat poor people:
Tweety: Coburn’s racist attack on Obama, and other crazy sideshows events.
SCTV: Eco-Maniac.
On Wisconsin:
Young Turks: Is Allen West Harriet Tubman?
Thom: The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
The Seattle Times had an editorial a few days ago about the results of the School Board primary. Not to worry, they’re exactly as pro-insider as you’d expect.
Challengers raised valid concerns about the School Board’s failure to provide stronger oversight of former Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson or get ahead of serious problems uncovered by state audits.
Voters want to hold elected officials accountable. This is understandable at any position, but especially with the school board. The school board is a mess. Goodloe-Johnson’s tenure was horrible. The teachers are sidelined by the administration. I can’t imagine why anyone would support any of the incumbents.
The Times editorial board endorsed all of the incumbents and one challenger in a nod toward stability and experience. The candidates we endorsed stood out in a crowded field marked by inexperience and unfocused answers about solutions.
THEIR EXPERIENCE WAS FUCKING UP! That’s what they did. All of them. Jesus, by that logic you can never vote against any incumbent. Hell, you can never fire anyone by that logic.
Really, Goldy, give it a rest with the hyperbole. If you are going to call Rob Mckenna a socialist, you’d better back it up with proof.
Hey…no fair using McKenna’s own words and stuff! That’s the kind of hack reporting that’s gonna bite you in the ass.
– I did not mean to imply that Bachmann might have been anything other than awful for the country thus far.
– Time to Play on Rainier Ave.
– This pastry prevents Rick Perry from explaining why he thinks Social Security is unconstitutional.
OK, this has been bouncing around my brain for a while. In an open thread a week or so ago, I made a passing reference to the fact that unions are more grassroots than large corporations or one rich guy. The background is that 3 initiatives qualified for the ballot: one a Tim Eyman initiative largely funded by Kemper Freeman, one a let Costco sell booze initiative funded by Costco and one a home healthcare initiative funded by SEIU.
It paints a nice picture if you’re a reporter or a journalist. Tut tut, all sides do it. But I’m sorry to let the people using that sort of construction know, no they aren’t the same. The editorial makes a special case that one person funding an initiative is particularly bad. Fair enough, I guess. Still, corporations, especially large ones like Costco, are nearly as unaccountable. But one of these things is not like the other. Unions are accountable to their membership.
SEIU (and all unions) have to be accountable to their membership. That’s a more engaged group than disinterested shareholders or boards of directors who are often buddy buddy with the CEO. If SEIU’s initiative fails, they’ll rightly be held to account by members who paid dues and elected union officers. When Costco’s last liquor initiative failed, there was no fallout. They just put another one on the ballot.
And membership does hold its officers to account. Those of us in or with family or friends in unions know plenty of people who take active part in union activity. My aunt was a teacher in another state and she and some of the other teachers in her district ousted the old guard who were, “on the take.” This sort of thing happens regularly in unions, but hardly ever in the corporate world.
To get back to this initiative season, SEIU’s home health care initiative is not only something that benefits the union and its membership, but is also of benefit to anyone who needs to hire a home healthcare worker in Washington. We’ll know that our loved ones and ourselves are in good hands. Even if you think Costco’s initiative is beneficial, they only put it on the ballot to make money. So, no, when a union gets something on the ballot that benefits its members and the state, it’s not the same as when a corporation buys itself a law.
One of my favorite outcomes from Tuesday’s primary election was in the King County Council District 6 race.
Incumbent Jane Hague is in trouble.
Yesterday’s data dump shows Hague with 38.8% of the vote. Next is Democrat Richard E. Mitchell with 29.1% of the vote. Port Commissioner John Creighton is third with 24.6% of the vote, and Patsy Bonincontri took 7.2%.
(One reason I like this outcome is pure vanity. Political uberwonks Erica Barnett and Josh Feit predicted Hague and Creighton making it through. I predicted Hague and Mitchell. So there.)
We cannot generally read too much into a top-two primary result. But, holy shit, 38.8% for the incumbent? That cannot be considered positive. I see no way that Hague takes anything close to half the Creighton vote in the General. Many Creighton voters were making a statement—a protest against the incumbent.
The votes tallied yesterday were greatly skewed relative to the election night dump: Mitchell was within 2% of Hague.
Why the shift in the later ballots?
Mitchell’s campaign offers the explanation:
“Undecideds clearly are breaking for Richard because they’re tired of the personal and legal drama of the other opponents. That is clearly reflected in the numbers,” [Mitchell’s political consultant, Jason] Bennett said.
Maybe. Bennett offers another possibility:
[Hague] may have suffered from a backlash by Tim Eyman and other anti-tax conservatives over Hague’s decision to vote for an annual $20 car-tab fee to maintain Metro bus service.
This seems less plausible. First, as Goldy points out in this must read piece featuring Goldy defending Hague, King county rejected Eyman’s most recent “Thou shalt have $30 car tabs” initiative by a 60-40 margin.
Secondly, the anti-government nut jobs that would actually change their vote in response to Tim Eyman’s apoplectic screeds against Hague would most likely throw their vote behind the politically androgynous Creighton before Mitchell, who told The Stranger Election Control Board that
…he would approve a $20 car-tab fee to avert a devastating 17 percent cut in Metro bus service and believes in a minor sales tax bump to rescue the county’s underfunded criminal-justice system.
(As an aside, Eyman produced a:
wanted poster-style enemies list that pictures and labels four County Council members. The word “Liar!” appears below mug shots of Jane Hague and Kathy Lambert.
Does Tim “Biggest Lie of my Life” Eyman really want to go there?)
My hunch is that some folks who mailed their ballots at the last minute simply did a little on-line research. Mitchell looks great when investigated on-line. Hague…not so much. Like here.
Eager to share our brilliant political commentary and blunt media criticism, but too genteel to link to horsesass.org? Well, good news, ladies: we also answer to HASeattle.com, because, you know, whatever. You're welcome!