HorsesAss.Org

UPDATE 1:15 PM

Never mind. Mubarak offered a few new concessions, but, in the words of Al Jazeera English, “made it clear that he wasn’t going anywhere.”

As any student of politics knows, this won’t end anything. Basic political science is that revolutions are most likely to happen not when an oppressed people are at their most desperate, but when they have hope and that hope is denied. True to form, the masses now gathering in Tahrir Square and elsewhere (at nearly midnight local time) are staggeringly angry.

To be continued…

= = =

Numerous outlets are now reporting that in an address to his country in the next few hours, Hosni Mubarak will step down as Egypt’s president, handing power over to (depending on the report) either his newly anointed vice president or the military.

If true, the question, of course, is where Egypt goes from here. But for the time being, this is a remarkable victory for people power. A leaderless, youth-dominated movement, without initiating any violence, has removed from power a brutal dictator of three decades, backed by billions of dollars in military aid from the most powerful country in the world. Can’t have a much more powerful expression of democracy than that.

If I’d told you that Joni Balter had a piece up about an election, would you think, maybe she’s going to write about the bond and levy elections that happened yesterday? Or perhaps the elections this November for Seattle City Council, King County Council, and various other municipalities around the state? 2012, and what the redistricting might do to state and Federal elections here in Washington? What will be the lines of the 10th district? Will she write about how Gregoire’s probable retirement means a reshuffling of the state’s executive branch? The president? No, stupid, none of those things, something that will happen after all of them. She’s writing about the mayor’s race.

It’s summer 2013: The southern half of the Alaskan Way Viaduct came down 10 months ago, creating dust, noise and predictable simmering feuds. But at least the project advanced before a feared earthquake. At Seattle City Hall, the ground rumbles in another way.

Construction projects never have any delays. True fact. Also, did the demolition create predictable simmering feuds, or am I diagramming that sentence wrong?

A humdinger of a mayor’s race is taking place, pitting the biggest foe of the tunnel, Mayor Mike McGinn, against City Councilmember Tim Burgess and state Sen. Ed Murray, two project supporters. As the city keeps growing, the public is comfortable that a tunnel is being built to keep traffic moving.

Remember that list of elections that happens before the one we’re talking about? I’m not sure Burgess wins it. If the cost over runs measure gets on the ballot (a big if), I think a few members lose.

Also, Balter is awful confident that there won’t be any more traffic than when the Viaduct was up. That nobody will feel any ill effects from the tunnel. To be clear, the 2013 tunnel is coming in on time, under budget, and not negatively effecting anyone in this fantasy of hers. Since construction on 1st is already fucking up my commute, I find that tough to believe.

Also, also, humdinger? There are mummies who don’t use that phrase because it’s too passe. Anyway, skipping past bullshit digs at McGinn, we get back to the Burgess.

Burgess skated to re-election to his council seat in 2011 and has been a leader on the viaduct, parking, education, police accountability, the sea wall. Voters lapped up that Families and Education levy he and the mayor worked on in 2011.

Since Burgess in 2011 punts on police accountability and the seawall, it’s tough to imagine why he’ll be taking the lead in 2013. Everyone thinking about running for anything in Seattle will support the Families and Education levy, so I’m not sure why that’s his. On parking he’s mostly modifying McGinn’s proposal, and it will be 3 years old by the time of the election. I’m not familiar with his education plank (or if it’s made up like some of the other things). So mostly that’s things McGinn has done better through 2011. But if you think the tunnel will be made of pixie farts, and not cause any problems then score one for Burgess.

Look, I’m probably McGinn’s biggest supporter among bloggers. I voted for him somewhat reluctantly in the primary, and volunteered for him in the general because I really didn’t like his anti-choice-corporate-bigwig-I’m-going-to-buy-the-election opposition. But I was skeptical that the Mike Bikes thing was real. I was skeptical that he’d pull for the city when things got tough. I was wrong, and he’s the rare breed of politician who has exceeded my expectations.

But I understand that our last 2 mayors lost primaries for reelection. And that not everybody likes his style. So, he could lose. I’d rather someone who loses by doing good for the city than the seat warmers we’ve had for the past 50 years or so.

Anyway the conceit of this piece after I read Balter’s column was to spin out things that could happen to those people that weren’t that much more unlikely. Burgess loses in November, Murray decides to run for governor. And that the Seattle Times folds in early 2013. But the way I wrote it, it’s mostly just Burgess bashing instead. Since I’ve lost the whole thread, I’ll just end here.

Another married Republican politician is caught trolling for sex on the intertubes (via Gawker):

Rep. Christopher Lee is a married Republican congressman serving the 26th District of New York. But when he trolls Craigslist’s “Women Seeking Men” forum, he’s Christopher Lee, “divorced” “lobbyist” and “fit fun classy guy.” One object of his flirtation told us her story.
[…]

By modern day standards, the conversation was relatively banal: No prostitutes, escorts, or madams were involved. Just good old fashioned lying and an apparent willingness to cheat on one’s wife.

The woman says she cut off contact when she searched for Lee online and concluded he’d lied about his age and occupation. Then she forwarded us the correspondence.

Lying, willingness to break his marriage vows…and sheer stupidity! Seriously…the dude didn’t even change his name and then sends the woman a topless photo of himself. Was he trying to create a public scandal?

Perhaps there is something about diaper fetishes that gives unfaithful Republicans the courage to not resign in the humiliation of a public scandal. But Rep. Lee is no Sen. Vitter. Rather, he’s now former Rep. Christopher John Lee.

Update: Hellooooo Carl Paladino! (Via Swing State Project.)

So, last weekend I called up Goldy to ask how the new job was going. I was, shall I say, a bit underwhelmed by the volume of Goldy bylines on Slog.

“Look…”, I said, “Paul Constant, the freaking book editor, is kicking your ass in number of posts.”

“Yeah…well there was a lot of paperwork on Wednesday…”

Then Goldy intimated that he hardly had time to post because he was working on some “longer pieces.” It sounded plausible, but I had some lingering doubts.

Perhaps getting up in the morning, getting dressed up for work (you know, putting on a pinstripe navy blue blazer and chaps), and heading to the office was really hard for Goldy—it messed up his head for writing. Or maybe he was rendered dysfunctional all afternoon because he couldn’t take his mid-day nap. Who knows.

Well my doubts have been allayed for the time being. Today’s edition of The Stranger contain a news piece by Goldy entitled “The Welfare State”:

When our state’s rural Republicans toss around pejoratives like “socialism,” “redistribution of wealth,” and “welfare state,” they’re usually hurling them at the People’s Republic of Seattle and the Democratic legislators we send to Olympia. As a commenter on the Spokane Spokesman-Review’s website recently carped: “Eastern Washington… has always been shorted/slighted where state expenditures are concerned! Nearly to the point that we don’t exist!”
[…]

However, the money is not exactly moving in the direction most Eastern Washingtonians suspect.

Goldy pulls together some pieces he has blogged on over the past weeks to nail an important and under-appreciated point:

The irony here is not that those who benefit most from state spending are paying the least; that’s kinda the way these things are supposed to work. No, the irony is that those rural communities that are most dependent on the state—whose roads and schools and other essential public services couldn’t possibly be maintained without generous state subsidies—are also those least likely to vote for the tax dollars necessary to sustain these services.

So…with a 1 kiloword news piece in the print edition, I guess Goldy has done alright for week one. I’ll be generous and give him a B+.

But, geez, Goldy, for week two? At least try to keep up with the book guy.

Via TPM:

Failed GOP Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell is back, and she’s telling supporters she wants her newly formed political action committee ChristinePAC to “investigate and counter attack leftwing groups.”

O’Donnell, who wrote that her losing campaign sent “shockwaves” throughout the nation, said in an e-mail to supporters Tuesday that her group will look into the groups “funded with one million dollars or more from billionaire leftist George Soros.”

Ya know, it sounds to me like Ms. O’Donnell is on some kind of witch hunt.

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.

And now we learn the Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), the new head of the House energy committee, denies a role for man in climate change. For tonight’s DL roundtable chat, we will ponder the question, “just how many of these stoopid fucking anti-science shit-fer-brains Wingdings are there out there, anyway?”

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

This morning was the hearing on House Bill 1550, the bill that would remove penalties for adult marijuana use and set up a distribution system similar to hard liquor. I was able to watch part of the hearing on TVW this morning and also heard this part that Eli Sanders recounts:

The question that’s always asked about this idea—How can a state legalize pot when the feds have declared it illegal?—was articulated this morning by Rep. Christopher Hurst (D-Enumclaw), who warned that if Washington starts selling cannabis through the state liquor store system, as the bill proposes, “Our state employees will be going to federal prison and the federal government will seize every penny we bring in.”

It’s a very inventive scenario, but not a realistic one. What’s much more likely to happen is that if Washington passes this bill, the federal government would immediately try to block the implementation of the regulatory aspects through the courts. And if they failed to block it that way, I find it incredibly unrealistic that they’d respond by sending DEA agents into a state liquor store, arresting the cashier and sending him to jail. As I’ve written before about this, there’s a point where interfering with a state’s laws is far too politically radioactive.

Hurst pointed out that people are still getting arrested and jailed, almost certainly referring to this case, but the defendant in that case was believed to be in violation of Colorado’s laws as well. The closest we’ve come to Hurst’s nightmare scenario is probably the case of Charlie Lynch. That case was so egregious that even the judge spoke out about how unjust it was that Lynch would have to serve jail time. But that arrest took place during the Bush Administration. The Obama Administration has since decreed that folks like Lynch – who was following state law – would no longer be prosecuted.

We’re certainly dealing with a lot of unknowns here. It’s not clear what happens to successful legislation that removes the state penalties for marijuana possession and sale but whose regulatory aspects are successfully blocked by the federal government. What you’d end up with is legalized marijuana but no ability to regulate its production and sale. Does the federal government really want to be responsible for that outcome? I doubt it, and that might make the state immune from any attempt by the feds to block the regulatory aspects of this legislation. But that’s a logical analysis, and if there’s anything I’ve learned about the war on marijuana, it’s that you shouldn’t expect drug warriors to act logically.

It’s a tough lesson when you attach a knife to your cock and end up getting stabbed in the calf and dying.

That’s exactly what happened to a man in California, who armed his cock…that is, his rooster, with a fighting knife.

The man had a prior conviction for “owning or training an animal for fighting.” Apparently, he didn’t learn his lesson. The rooster gave him another.

I think the more general lesson is that, in a world where karma can be a bitch, sometimes karma’s a cock.

There is something ideological amiss in this (via Seattlepi.com):

Ruling against a suit brought by the Building Industry Association of Washington, a federal judge on Monday upheld the state of Washington’s 2009 energy efficiency building code.

U.S. District Judge Robert J. Bryan rejected the BIAW’s claim that the code conflicted with federal law. The code sets energy efficiency requirements for new homes, and is designed to reduce energy use and the energy bills of Washington households.

The BIAW sued Washington over energy standards that, they claim, exceeded the Federal regulations. But shouldn’t the BIAW be suing the Feds, claiming that energy efficiency is a States’ Rights issue?

Huh…these Wingnuts are hard to figger-out sometimes.

Several school and fire districts across the state are having levy and bond elections Tuesday. If you live somewhere holding an election, your ballot should have come in the mail a while ago. You can check what districts are holding elections for King County here. I couldn’t fine a statewide list, but will happily add one if someone knows about it.

I think Mason Crosby will win this one for the Packers with a late field goal. Throw out your wild predictions here.

Last week’s contest was won by wes.in.wa. It was Providence, RI.

This week’s location is also random. Good luck!

Matthew 5:31-32
“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Discuss.

The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment has had the force of international law since mid-1987. The U.S. joined the club by signing it in 1988. The treaty received ratification in 1994. This treaty is, under Article VI paragraph 2 of the U.S. Constitution, the “supreme Law of the Land.”

Convention (Article 1) prohibits torture, defined as:

…any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.

The treaty grants NO exceptions to the prohibition on Torture…not even under the “Ticking Time Bomb” scenario (from Article II):

(2) No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.

One of my disappointments with the Obama administration has been a lack of prosecution for those who justified, authorized, and undertook torture. The lack of action wasn’t unexpected…just disappointing.

So we have alleged criminals living free: the “deciders” George W. Bush (who has, remarkably, confessed to authorizing waterboarding in his autobiography) and Dick Cheney, the “justifiers” like Professor John Yoo and Judge Jay Bybee, and those who actually administered torture.

There may never be domestic prosecutions of these alleged criminals, but at least for the highest profile of the alleged criminals, there is now more to fear while traveling outside the U.S. than being hit in the face with a shoe (via Reuters):

Former President George W. Bush has canceled a visit to Switzerland, where he was to address a Jewish charity gala, due to the risk of legal action against him for alleged torture, rights groups said on Saturday.

Bush was to be the keynote speaker at Keren Hayesod’s annual dinner on February 12 in Geneva. But pressure has been building on the Swiss government to arrest him and open a criminal investigation if he enters the Alpine country.

Criminal complaints against Bush alleging torture have been lodged in Geneva, court officials say.

The fact is Switzerland has no choice but to consider prosecution. As a signatory to the Convention, Switzerland is bound by Article 5:

Each State Party shall likewise take such measures as may be necessary to establish its jurisdiction over such offences in cases where the alleged offender is present in any territory under its jurisdiction and it does not extradite him pursuant to article 8 to any of the States mentioned in Paragraph 1 of this article.

So George Bush cannot travel much outside of the U.S., except, apparently, to Canada…seems like a pretty trivial punishment for committing crimes against humanity.

The punishment could be much worse. As John McCain pointed out in 2007:

…some Japanese were tried and hanged for torturing American prisoners during World War II with techniques that included waterboarding.

“There should be little doubt from American history that we consider [waterboarding] as torture otherwise we wouldn’t have tried and convicted Japanese for doing that same thing to Americans….”