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A power substation in Redmond, WA, about 2 miles from my house, experienced an explosion and fire today.

I’ve been watching the King5 live feed.

Thick black smoke is bellowing from the site—probably a mixture of burning insulation and transformer oil. In the bad old days, transformer oil contained PCBs. Nasty stuff. But I don’t think this substation is old enough to have the rally nasty stuff on-site.

It is probably unwise to use water to fight fires at electrical substations, so they brought in a foam truck, supposedly from Seatac.

They’ve dumped a third load of foam on the fire, and it is still going strong.

Oh…the humanity!

Update: A fourth application of foam applied from multiple angles seems to be doing the trick.

Update: MyNorthwest, “Puget Sound Energy tells KIRO Radio there are about 9,000 scattered outages in the area.”

Anthony Weiner just resigned, and as you can imagine I am disappointed:

I can think of one circumstance under which Rep. Weiner should resign: he makes a pact with Sen. Vitter and they both fall on their swords (figuratively) and go away.

Yes…I’m disappointed…primarily because Sen. Vitter is still a Senator.

Seriously…Weiner inappropriately flirted electronically. Vitter broke the law when he hired a prostitute, and broke his marriage vows when he fucked her. And he broke his mother’s heart when he wore diapers for foreplay.

And I’m disappointed because…well, we have lost our distraction. Weinergate was fun, with its rich raw material for double entendres. It’s hard to resist. It brought out the 14-year old in all of us. (Okay…maybe not all of us, but a lot of us.)

The scandal even emboldened those normally sexually repressed and anal retentive tweeters, bloggers, and media talking heads, who were suddenly given license to unleash upon their audience jokes and banter of a prurient nature that rivaled the most salacious tweets from Rep. Weiner.

Except that it was okay for them to do that because…well, it’s in the news, and his name is Weiner. And everyone else is doing it.

So now, I suppose, we will have to go back to talking about serious issues, like clawing our way out of this stubborn recession brought to us by eight disastrous years of George W. Bush. We’ll have to grapple with an enormous debt caused almost entirely by the Bush tax cuts and Bush’s reckless failure to fund his Most Excellent Military Adventures. And we now have to start asking whether Republican obstructionism in fixing the economic mess they created puts them in league with al Qaeda.

See why Weinergate was such a nice distraction?

So let’s go at it one more time…for old time sake. Let’s get some major Weiner distraction going in the comment thread….

A helpful primer from a fellow driver who was on his bike this morning and observed worse than usual behavior from the cars on the road:

First, look to your left behind the steering wheel. Do you see a stick? OK, good. If you pull that stick up a bit, it will indicate that you are turning right. If you press it down, you’ll show the world that you’re turning left. Use it.

Also, I know I recently wrote about when bicyclists can ride through a red light, so take this with a grain of salt. If you’re in a car and there’s a red, you probably shouldn’t go through it. Especially, if I’m on a bike going through the green, there are pedestrians in the crosswalk, and you’re just going to have to wait in line for the onramp anyway.

Finally, some roads have a yellow stripe down the middle. This lets people know that cars will drive in both directions down this road. Keep to the right. No, your right. YOUR FUCKING RIGHT!

I’m glad that Senators Murray and Cantwell are among the senators pushing for a draw down of troops from Afghanistan. It’s past time we got serious about getting out. Bin Laden is dead. I’m not sure what good we’re doing there any more.

This is to say nothing of the money we’ve sunk and the lives lost there. So, yes, it’s very good to see Democrats pushing a Democratic president on this.

And yet, with Libya it’s not a lot of mainstream Democrats. Any time Kucinich gets to take the lead on something it’s because there aren’t a lot of other Democrats lined up. While I understand that unlike Iraq, the humanitarian mission isn’t total bullshit, Congressional approval ought to come before the bombs start falling. And that’s a principal that Democrats should stand for no matter who is in the White House. So even though I have nothing but contempt for the people who turned a blind eye when Bush was doing worse, I still hope they succeed in stopping our involvement in Libya.

– Cool bus shelter for a great man.

– If you want to scare an English person, tell them their health care might become more American.

– Fuse does the arrhythmic on McKenna’s education plan (h/t, Howie on Facebook).

– Pretty horrible effects of having busy highways and a port in your neighborhood. I’m glad the port is mitigating some of the worst of it.

– Kill Rockstars’ spring cleaning sale.

From CNN Money (h/t) more about the increased costs of college.

The numbers confirm what most middle class families already know — college is becoming so expensive, it’s starting to hold them back.

The crux of the problem: Tuition and fees at public universities, according to the College Board, have surged almost 130% over the last 20 years — while middle class incomes have stagnated.

And for better or for worse, a college education is becoming more and more a stepping stone to the middle class in this country. As we’ve moved the factories and other lower skill middle class jobs out of the country, there is a greater and greater premium on post high school education. If we’re no longer going to have a manufacturing economy, the least we can do is to prepare the next generation for the economy we will have.

Of course, there’s so much more to an education than just job training. Hopefully, people come out of college more well rounded and better thinkers, the kind of people we need around the state. Maybe some will create the next industry, maybe someone will find a passion they never had before but maybe some will just be better able to help their kids with homework or become smarter, more well rounded, more engaged citizens. The state shouldn’t short change itself of that, either.

The Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally meets tonight, and there are a few topics likely to be raised over a pint: The Washington state gubernatorial race, Ron Sims’ return to Seattle (running for Gov?), the tunnel-ish vote, last night’s Republican debate, today’s Wisconsin Supreme Court decision, and today’s Prop. 8 ruling in California.

So please join us tonight for drinks, conversation, and even dinner at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00 pm, but a few folks show up around 7:00 pm for dinner.

Can’t make it? Drinking Liberally—Tacoma meets on Thursday, June 16th, 7:00pm at the Hub Restaurant.

Special Event:

Next week, our meeting will be moved from Tuesday to Wednesday (June 22) for a special Drinking Liberally with Living Liberally co-founder Justin Krebs.

Justin is on his “538 Ways to Live, Work and Play Like a Liberal” book tour.

Bring your copy of the book for Justin to sign. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event. We’ll meet at the usual spot.

Dear Reagan Dunn,

What a bold move you’ve made in blacklisting The Stranger from your AG campaign press releases. Is it a coincidence that Rob McKenna is also passing over The Stranger? Or is this a recent addition to the Washington State Republican Party platform?

I couldn’t help but notice that The Stranger was blacklisted after their recent acquisition of a certain potty-mouthed, muckraking, filthy, blogging asset from HorsesAss.

Just so you know, since Goldy’s departure, we gone to great lengths to clean up our act. We’ve not uncovered even a single Republican beating up his Mother, we’ve not exposed even one lethal mix of cronyism and incompetence in a top federal agency, we’ve eschewed asking pointed questions about potential brain damage in members of your caucus, and we have made (mild) jokes about Rep. Anthony Weiner.

Why, just recently we rebranded the blog:

The New HorsesAss…Same great flavor, 50% less “fuck.”

Besides that, at the New HorsesAss we are so totally not obsessed with the size of your enormous closets….

I think it’s clear that, of the two publications, HorsesAss is quickly overtaking The Stranger as the more palatable news source to people with language “sensitivities.” And I note we were the first media to break the news that you were running for AG.

So I was wondering…can you please send HorsesAss the press releases you used to send The Stranger?

Thanks in advance!

Darryl

Via Politico:

…Politico’s Ken Vogel has confirmed that former King County Executive Ron Sims has resigned his senior post at the federal department of Housing and Urban Development. He then wonders if it has anything to do with Monday’s decision by Gov. Chris Gregoire to retire after two terms. Sims lost to Gregoire in the 2004 Democratic primary.

An announcement of a gubernatorial bid from Jay Inslee is imminent. Would a Sims run throw a wrench into the works with the top two primary? I doubt it…we’ll still have a Democrat (probably Inslee) running against McKenna.

Could it be that Sims is really eying a congressional race in the 1st or 7th LD? My gut feeling is that Sims is much, much more interested in an executive position than a legislative position….

I watched most of the Republican debate this evening, and I’ve got to say, it is good news for Obama. He’ll win re-election.

This isn’t partisan wishful thinking on my part. I don’t make the same claim for the Inslee—McKenna race for Washington governor. I have my (very strong) preferences, but the outcome of that race is far from clear.

There isn’t much uncertainty left in the 2012 presidential race. Obama will win, absent of some sort of catastrophe.

You know, some scandal like Obama or Biden shooting a friend in the face, or outing a CIA covert agent, or firing numerous “non-compliant” U.S. attorneys, or getting busted lying about warrant-less domestic spying on Americans, or starting an illegal rendition program, or authorizing torture of prisoners, or misplacing palettes of $6.7 billion U.S. currency. Stuff like that.

I mean, that shit would absolutely sink any President’s chances at a second term…bar none (unless he is a Republican).

Here’s what I have learned from the debate. The Republican candidates (except for Ron Paul) are situated sharply to the right. Ron Paul is a Libertarian kook off in some other political dimension, with zero chance of making it through the primary, but the rest of the pack are extremists! Extremists of the teabagging ilk.

Seriously…at one point (here), a Mainstream Republican in the audience pointed out that he was feeling left out, and asked what candidates would do to take a balanced approach that would include him. Mr. Santorum started out the discussion by pointing out how he had eliminated welfare and set up the template for eliminating other entitlements, like Ryan’s proposals to end Medicade, food stamps. He then pointed out that the “Teaparty is a great backstop for America.” It came off more than a little cccccrazy and not at all inclusive of the mainstream Republican questioner. Bachmann was next and gave a slightly less crazy answer(!)—the Teabaggers R U, she said. Herman Cain started his answer pointing out that the Teabaggers are “not too negative and not too critical.”

Mmm’kay then…feel better, Mr. Mainstream Republican?

Another amusing example of candidates trying to out-crazy each other can be found in the extended exchange on NASA beginning at 7:00 here including the Newtster’s claim that “we’re not a developed country” because of NASA (8:06). What the fuck?

All of the candidates reject the TARP and auto bailouts (at 5:28). So fuck you Detroit! Even Herman Cain, who once support TARP, explains his flip-flop (2:10). The candidates spent most of this debate trying to out-wingnut and out-teabag each other. (Except Paul, who was just being himself—quite sensible about 40% of the time, a lunatic 40% of the time, and too incomprehensible to really tell 20% of the time.)

Everyone knows that candidates swing toward the extremes of their base during primaries and bounce back to the center during the general election. But things are different now. The Teabaggers have dragged Republican candidates not just to the right, but to the extreme right. As they maneuver to out teabag each other, their statements and positions are captured in audio or video in an easy-to-disseminate format.

In the mean time we have Barack Obama, who will not be seriously challenged in the primary. He’s a centrist. He sold himself as a centrist in 2008, and has pretty much lived up to it (or down to it if you are significantly to the left of Obama). He has a solid grip on the center, and he will sit there like a rock through the primary season while the Republicans joust over who is the teabaggiest of them all. The winner of the Republican primary will come out looking like Paul Ryan on Oxycontin wielding the mighty Loofah of conservatism, and will to battle his/her way back to the center, where Obama will be firmly entrenched.

A hope for the Republican might have been to adopt the Bush 2004 strategy: “TERRORISTS, TERRORISTS, EVERYWHERE!” But, oops…Obama killed bin Laden.

He’ll win.

The Washington State reporter shield law that Rob McKenna supported was written in a way that excluded us dirty fucking hippie bloggers. As Goldy explained at the time:

Like those hoity-toity salaried reporters, I often get tips and quotes from sources who choose to remain anonymous, and I don’t see why I should have to go to jail to protect their confidence, when, say Chris McGann wouldn’t? (And I will protect my sources, with or without a shield law, because that’s what journalists do.)

Well, things change. And now Goldy, formerly excluded by the law has its protection.

It’s an odd idea that candidates for public office (let alone an open government champion) should get to pick and choose which professional journalists get to attend their press conferences—and yes, that paycheck I get from The Stranger makes me a professional journalist as defined in McKenna’s own reporter shield law, so suck it up.

And the definitions still seem unworkable. For instance, so long as Goldy is being paid by The Stranger, he’ll have the force of law behind any sources he protects. If The Stranger doesn’t want his services any more and he comes back here, he may have to go to jail to protect sources. If he somehow makes enough money from ads and donations that he can pay the rest of the front pagers, and we break a story with anonymous sources, then I think the protection will apply to us, even as they still don’t apply to him.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the shield law we have is certainly better than no shield law. It works for most anonymously sourced news as newspaper, TV, and other “professional” outlets still dominate coverage, especially original coverage of the type that has the most anonymous sourcing. But as a country and as a state we’re moving (however slowly) away from that model. And the people who need the shield the most are the ones who don’t have it.

Eventually, a reporter who doesn’t fall under the statute’s protection is going to have to chose between prison and giving up their source. On principal, I’d chose prison, but it would be hard to justify to my family and to my employer. News is news, and while we amateurs tend to be more partisan and more over the place in terms of quality, we deserve the same protections as the paid media. The law is fairly new, but it’s already time for an upgrade.

It has long been suspected that Gov. Christine Gregoire would decline running for third term in 2012. Several media sources are now reporting that Gregoire will make her retirement “official” at a 10:00 AM press conference today.

Gregoire’s statement clears the way for an announcement from Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA-01) that he will be running for the office. Expect an announcement soon.

Unless something really odd happens because of the top-two primary system, Fall of 2012 should bring us a choice between Inslee and State Attorney General, Rob McKenna (R).

– The deadline for the College Bound program is coming up (h/t).

– I’d still rather have higher taxes, especially on the wealthy, but facts are facts.

– Rob McKenna For Governor.

– Strike up the band, baby. It’s our chance to see who the GOP field has to pander to (also, what a great sidebar).

– Of Course.

– I didn’t know what a globular cluster was before reading this post.

Last week’s winner was Siberian dog. It was Oulu, Finland.

Here’s this week’s contest, related to a TV show or a movie. Good luck!

Genesis 27:11
And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.

Discuss.