HorsesAss.Org

I’m not thrilled with this outcome, but I expected it. I understand that police officers shouldn’t be prosecuted for merely making mistakes while on duty. And if a police officer feels his life or the lives of others are in danger, he should be able to respond appropriately. But there was nothing about this incident that made me think that Officer Birk acted with even the minimal level of restraint that we’d expect from a police officer. Dominic re-posted the dash-cam video of the incident (which doesn’t capture the shooting itself) and I have trouble imagining how Birk could have felt his – or anyone else’s – life was in immediate danger because Williams had a carving knife.

At the very least, Birk had better be fired today, yet I find it to be a shame that his firing would be the only semblance of justice that the Williams family sees from this.

UPDATE: As several commenters have pointed out, the Williams family can still bring civil lawsuits against SPD and they’d be more likely to prevail than in their efforts to have criminal charges filed.

UPDATE 2: Mayor McGinn’s statement here.

UPDATE 3: Officer Ian Birk resigns.

Please join us tonight for an evening of politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E.. We start at 8:00 pm, and sometimes even earlier for dinner.

Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 211 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.

– Nate Anderson writes about the uncovered attempt of a smear campaign against Wikileaks and its supporters.

– Anti-regime protests have started up again in Iran. I’ve been following the latest on Twitter using the #25bahman hashtag.

– Bryan Gabriel’s trial started up today in Seattle. The background on his case can be found here.

– Sensible Washington’s initiative this year will be I-1135.

I stumbled across this article today:

Woodinville’s Tourist District Roundabout Transportation Improvement Project received an engineering excellence award from the Washington State Chapter of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC). The award was presented to the Woodinville City Council on February 8.

The roundabout project won a gold award in the category of exceeding client/owner needs. […]

A number of other national professional engineering groups have also recognized Woodinville’s project for its innovative use of three roundabouts. […]

What drew my attention is that I use this bit of road at least several times a month. It reminded me that I been meaning to post a RANT about Washington drivers and their seeming inability to use roundabouts effectively.

Before I take up a menacing stance upon my mighty soapbox, let me first add to the praises of this project. For many years now, I have made almost weekly trips from my home in Redmond to Snohomish. I take SR 202 (or the Redmond–Woodinville road) to Woodinville and then pick up SR 9 to Snohomish. The intersection of SR 202 and Northeast 145th, was sometimes a mess. During rush hour, SR 202 used to back up for a mile or two. But even during low traffic periods, the intersection of roads at odd angles, combined with the particular traffic flows rendered an annoyingly low throughput at this intersection. According to this 2006 Seattle Times article, people have been trying to find a fix for this problem since the 1970s.

Roundabouts were the answer. Not those wimpy little traffic calming circles that one finds all over Seattle. These are real (if smallish) traffic roundabouts. About a year ago, they finished the project that consists of one main 2-lane roundabout. And there are two satellite roundabouts (see image) that, in part, serve to slow traffic down and permit a smaller main roundabout footprint.

My assessment: Fantastic! The one-way time between my house and my destination in Snohomish was reduced from 40 minutes to just under 35 minutes. Also the variance in trip time was reduced. Essentially, getting through the SR 202/NE 145th intersection is now both faster and accomplished in about the same amount of time each trip. I truly love these things.

What annoys me about roundabouts is the stupid-ass drivers who have no idea how to use them effectively. There are some simple tricks that, when everyone is in on it, makes them much more efficient. So, at the risk of being dubbed “The Traffic Nazi” by someone other than my significant other (Happy Valentines day, dear!), allow me to offer some advice to the traffic circle novice.

1. In America, you travel counterclockwise around the roundabout. Yes…I’ve witnessed (more than once) the car in front of me approach the roundabout in total confusion and then hang a left. Sigh.
2. Enter, traverse, and exit the traffic circle at a fairly constant speed. There is almost no excuse for stopping. Never stop in the circle unless not stopping would result in death (wayward pedestrian) or property damage (an idiot stopped in front of you). There is no need for slowing or accelerating through the circle. Just hang a constant 20 MPH (or whatever is appropriate for the circle size). If you find yourself changing speeds…you have probably fucked something up.
3. There is never ANY reason to panic in a traffic circle. In the past year of near weekly use of this newly redesigned stretch of highway, I cannot tell you how many times drivers in front of me have slammed on their brakes in confusion, or have exited in front of me only to pull a semi-panicked U-turn in front of me on the main drag. Dude…don’t panic. If you’re confused, and going counterclockwise, just chill and continue to circle. (On the other hand, if you are confused and going clockwise…panic!!!) Seriously, you can drive around a roundabout all day, and nobody will notice (except for that other pitifully confused driver going around in circles…but who cares what that dumb-ass thinks!). If you miss your turn, take a lap or two and exit with a Zen calmness once you’ve figured it all out.
4. When exiting the roundabout, USE YOUR GOD-DAMMED BLINKER…without fail. And USE YOUR DAMN BLINKER, TOO. Blinker good. Blinky-blinker-blink! By my estimates, only about one percent of drivers in Woodinville understand this small, but important, form of communication. In Europe, the compliance approaches 100% in my experience. Really…it helps everyone (especially the car waiting on you before entering the roundabout) if you signal your exit about midway between the previous exit and your desired exit. Not signaling means you have wasted other people’s time and fuel.
5. When approaching the roundabout, time your entrance so that you don’t have to stop. There is no stop sign at the entrance. Except in heavy traffic conditions, a full stop probably means you have failed to plan properly, and everyone behind you suffers. Of course you must yield right of way to traffic in the roundabout. But, like freeway on-ramps, you should plan the maneuver from early-on for a smooth merge with existing traffic (and don’t get me started about idiots braking on freeway on-ramps!). By the way…if a vehicle in the roundabout has to adjust for your entrance…you’ve fucked up. It was your responsibility to enter without affecting the flow within the circle.

Whew! I’m glad I finally got that off of my chest.

(Via The Hill.)

This morning at 9:00 Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn will be Steve Scher’s guest on KUOW’s Weekday.

Be prepared to hear how much McGinn hates the deep bore tunnel, how much he hates the Seattle City Council for approving agreements with the State, how he is so totally going to veto the agreement, and how much he is going to seriously hate the City Council when they override his veto.

Oh…and happy Valentines Day.

Three days ago Joel Connelly reported it as imminent. Now King County Councilmember Bob Ferguson has announced his candidacy for Washington State Attorney General:

Bob may have some Democratic competition from former Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg. On the Republican side, it’s hard to tell. But…

[t]he King County GOP last week registered the Internet domain name “DunnForAG.com.”

That would be Reagan Dunn, son of the late Rep. Jennifer Dunn, who represented Washington’s 8th CD from 1993 to 2005. Reagan Dunn, like Bob Ferguson, currently serves on the King County Council.

No word from Richard Pope yet on whether or not he will also run….

Last week’s contest was won by Milwhcky. The correct answer was Memphis.

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

1 Peter 2:13-14
Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.

Discuss.

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) wrapped up Saturday on its third and final day. One function of the annual conference is to allow potential Republican presidential candidates to telegraph their intentions to run, while strutting their conservative stuff to the hungry conservative masses.

And there was a lot of telegraphy (and strutting) this year. We got coded messages from Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN), Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS), Newt Gingrich, John Thune, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), and The Donald Trump. There were probably others there that I’ve forgotten about.

Two CPAC no-shows, Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, are both expected to join competition as well. I mean, it isn’t a coincidence that Sarah Palin hired a chief of staff just today—the same person who worked for her 2008 VP campaign. She was telegraphing from a distance….

The G.O.P. 2012 primary field is still a little fuzzy as very few of these folks have actually admitted they are running.

The Democratic race is pretty clear. President Obama will run for reelection. There will be a couple of Democratic also-rans and crank candidates, but unless an authentic Kenyan long-form birth certificate is found, or someone uncovers a third grade report by Obama where he swears his allegiance to Chairman Mao, Obama is going to be the Democratic nominee.

Today a new FOX News poll does head-to-head match-ups between Obama and the top Republican (probable) candidates.

I know some readers will be dubious about a Fox News Poll. However, this one is done jointly by Anderson Robbins Research, a Democratic pollster, and Shaw & Company Research, a Republican pollster. The poll uses live interviews on a national sample of 911 registered voters from Feb 7-9. Both landlines and cell phones were included. The margin of error is 3%.

Here is a summary of answers to the question “thinking ahead to the next presidential election, if the election were held today, how would you vote if the candidates were…”

• Obama (48%), Romney (41%)
• Obama (49%), Huckabee (41%)
• Obama (56%), Palin (35%)
• Obama (55%), Gingrich (35%)
• Obama (54%), Jeb Bush (34%)

The findings for Palin, Gingrich and Jeb Bush are not overly surprising. However, Obama’s substantial lead over the two individuals who are widely considered the front runners is great news for Obama.

There was a poll released yesterday by Public Policy Polling that did head-to-head match-ups in nine swing states (defined as states that Barack Obama won in 2008 and that George Bush won in 2004. Indiana was excluded because of legal difficulties polling in the state. Nebraska CD 2 is also included because Obama won an electoral vote from there). The take-home message:

If he stood for reelection today against one of the current Republican front runners Obama would almost certainly win the same number of electoral votes he did in 2008, if not more.

Here are the numbers:

Obama v.	2008 Vote	Gingrich	Huckabee	Palin	Romney
Colorado	+9	+14	+9	+19	+6
Florida	+3	+5	+5	+14	+2
Iowa	+10	+13	+4	+16	+6
NE-2	+1	+19	+11	+24	+9
Nevada	+12	+11	+10	+13	+1
New Mexico	+15	+21	+19	+29	+16
North Carolina	+0	+6	+4	+9	+3
Ohio	+4	+6	+1	+7	+2
Virginia	+6	+11	+5	+11	+5

Clearly, the Republicans have a lot of work to do to catch up with Obama. After two years of ceaseless smears, Obama is still going very strong. Further smears aren’t going to cut it for the Republicans.

And Obama has most of the advantages. He is the power of incumbency. He will not have a bloody primary to fight. He will not have to shift his positions between the primary and general elections. And he has a long list of accomplishments to date.

Finally…Obama should achieve higher approval ratings over the next year. Political scientists have long noted that presidential approval suffers when his party is also in control of Congress. The House takeover by the Republicans last fall means that people’s opinions of Obama’s should rise. And that has been the trend since January.

You might say that Republicans taking the House in 2010 is Obama’s ticket to an easy re-election in 2012.

Newsy: Obama proposes clean energy tax cut.

Young Turks: Teabagger Rep. wrong about stimulus bill.

Ann Telnaes: Time to look beyond oil.

Lawrence O’Donnell and Bill Maher on John Boehner, Glenn Beck, Christine O’Donnell, & Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

Mike Papantonio and Shannyn Moore discuss the importance of progressive media for an informed, intelligent democratic society.

Young Turks: FAUX News insider tells all, “just make stuff up:

Ed and Pap: The CPAC freak show.

Maddow: Are Republicans beginning to understand the real cost of war?.

Newsy: New magazine for Teabaggers.

Ann Telnaes: The G.O.P. moves to restrict abortion funding.

Cheney called “war criminal” at CPAC.

President Obama addresses the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Topless Takedown:

• Newsy: Chris Lee scandal to resignation.
• Young Turks: “Values guy” resigns.

ONN Radio News: U.S. Takes out debt consolidation loan.

Newsy: O’Reilly’s Interupt-a-thon.

Ed and Pap: GOP Congress bows to Koch brother’s power.

Liberal Viewer: Colbert, cops say taser of innocent not excessive?.

Newsy: Mubarak refuses to resign despite rumors.

Sam Seder: G.O.P. meltdown over Patriot Act.

Cenk: The truth about Ronald Reagan.

Mark Fiore: Aggregation!

Egypt in Political Turmoil:

• Cenk: Revolution well done.
• Maddow: The Caliphate is Coming, The Caliphate is Coming.
• The Partisans: A message for Egypt:
• Cafferty files: Palin’s “opinion” on Egypt.
• Sam Seder and Juan Cole on crisis in Egypt.
• Newsy: Mubarak resigns–for real this time
• Pres. Obama on a historic day in Egypt.

Young Turks: Conservative blogger gives more details on Nikki Haley’s affair.

Newsy: Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) to retire.

VP Joe Biden: Building a 21st century infrastructure.

ONN: Nation elects first openly drunk Senator.

Ann Telnaes: Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife forms lobbying firm.

Teabagging Troubles:

• Young Turks: Congressional teabaggers kill Patriot Act.
• GRIT TV: A bipartisan future on civil liberties?
• Newsy: Trouble in the House.
• Young Turks: Palin v. Santorum.

Young Turks: GOP Rep. on how being gay is deadly.

My Congressman (Rep. Jay Inslee) Inslee questions Senator Inhofe in E&C Committee hearing.

Pap: Lobbyists already control the new GOP Congressmen.

Newsy: Trump for Preznit.

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

I’ve been both nervous and excited to watch the events in Egypt unfold over the past few weeks. After visiting some friends in Cairo in 2007, the nation remains a special place to me. Seeing some of those friends disappear from Facebook from a few days at the end of January gave me an ominous feeling that things wouldn’t turn out well. It seemed for a while that the long-held belief that Mubarak could never be dislodged was being tested to its limits, only to be reinforced with a bloody crackdown.

This victory doesn’t just change the regime in Egypt, it changes the mindset of the Egyptian people and beyond. After the Tunisian revolution, some people in Egypt started to imagine that it could happen there, but many others still didn’t. In fact, the friend I stayed with in Cairo was traveling through Europe for work when the protests started and wasn’t expecting much of anything to come of them. A week later, he was trying to get back into the country to join the chorus of Egyptians who’d despised Mubarak for years but felt powerless to do anything about it. Today Egyptians feel a greater sense of having the power to bring about change on their own. And other long-repressed peoples are starting to believe that they can too.

Eight years ago, as we were preparing to enter Iraq, many supporters of the invasion believed that toppling Saddam Hussein’s regime would be the domino that inspires others to rise up against their own oppressors, but it never happened. Instead, Iraq descended into bloody civil war and authoritarian countries like Iran were able to tighten their grip. It was never well-understood that in order for totalitarianism to give way to democracy, the people of that country have to fight that battle themselves. We can’t make that transition for them. The Egyptian people didn’t – and still don’t – need our help to build a nation with greater freedom and democratic values. They just risked their lives for it. They know what they want – and if left alone, they’ll build it. And that’s more likely to be the impetus that brings greater freedom and democracy to that entire region.

No. Really. This time he has. About an hour ago, Egypt’s new vice president appeared on state television and announced that Mubarak is out, and power temporarily resides with the Supreme Council of Egypt’s armed forces. This after millions of people poured into Egypt’s streets today.

There are a lot of questions moving forward, of course. But for the moment, there are wild celebrations in Egypt, and a spring in the step of freedom-loving people around the world.

Lots going on in the legislature and elsewhere right now regarding marijuana law reform:

– The medical marijuana bill that would allow dispensaries and licensed growers has advanced to the Ways and Means committee, but not without a series of amendments that concern the Cannabis Defense Coalition. My two biggest concerns – from a pragmatic standpoint – are the reduction in the size of cooperative grows and the extra requirements being imposed on health care professionals, but this bill is still a step forward and would still solve the fundamental access issue. Another issue, however, is the patient registry, which was optional in the original bill, but is now mandatory in order to avoid potentially being arrested. Patients worry that signing up for the registry could make it easier for criminal elements or law enforcement to discover where they live and make them targets for burglaries or harassment.

– You can watch the testimony on the full legalization bill, HB1550, from Tuesday’s session of the House Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness Committee here. It’s not clear that this bill will go any further, so supporters are encouraged to call the committee members and request that this bill receive a vote.

Hurst, Christopher (D) Chair (360) 786-7866
Ladenburg, Connie (D) Vice Chair (360) 786-7906
Pearson, Kirk (R) (360) 786-7816
Klippert, Brad (R) (360) 786-7882
Armstrong, Mike (R) (360) 786-7832
Hope, Mike (R) (360) 786-7892
Kirby, Steve (D) (360) 786-7996
Ross, Charles (R) (360) 786-7856

If you call, you might want to mention that this is an issue that enjoys very strong support throughout the United States.

– Sensible Washington is getting ready to begin their signature gathering effort. They expect to start collecting signatures by the last week in February. If they get the 241,000+ signatures they need, we’ll have an alternative to relying on an incompetent and out-of-touch legislature in order to finally end this ridiculous prohibition.

Awww…how adorable. Birfer humor at CPAC: