HorsesAss.Org

For some time now, Goldy and I have been harping on how The Seattle Times, especially their ed board, is out of step with Seattle. Their endorsements don’t sway people and they don’t feel the same way as most city dwellers on many issues. They represent a conservative, old guard elite that simply doesn’t have the truck that it once did in Seattle. But perhaps we’ve been wrong.

So stay with me a little bit. The Seattle Times certainly disagrees with city residents on taxes, sure. While city residents understand that things cost money, and are generally willing to pay for them (roads and stadiums aside), The Seattle Times seems to think any tax increase for any reason is always bad. And they want more roads. And for Seattle to pay for those roads, even state roads that Seattle is at best ambivalent about.

And even when they say they want something lefty like health care, they change their mind when that lefty thing might actually pass.

And on candidates, oh my. The Seattle Times thinks all candidates for all offices should abide by the above crazy. So they often pick candidates very different from who Seattle picks.

But it isn’t just politically: the ed board is (aside from Ryan Blethen) quite old in a youthful city. How many columns and posts by Bruce Ramsey mention something Carter did that he didn’t like, as if it relates to the experience of most people in Seattle today? They have an attitude of respect for conservative institutions, giving the likes of Bruce Chapman a fair hearing while the typical Seattle resident doesn’t care that you were in the Reagan administration. The adoration of bland institutions is downright strange. They’ve written multiple anti Google rants in a tech friendly city. Finally, they’ve, mostly (all?) people who grew up here despite the large number of people who’ve come here more recently either from other countries or other parts of America.

So the point is, Goldy, The Seattle Times was here long before the current iteration of Seattle politically and culturally. But The Seattle Times isn’t out of step with Seattle: if anything, Seattle is out of step with The Seattle Times.

Earlier today, I leapt into the abyss and signed up for a Twitter account. I only have time to write about a small number of the articles that interest me, so Twitter seems like a great format for all those posts and news items that I want to share but don’t have time to write full posts about. As you’d imagine, I’ll be posting a lot about drug policy and civil liberties, but probably also about sports, working in the high-tech world, TV, and some other mundane shit I don’t often write about here.

A website has been set up to vote on ways to cut Washington’s budget.

Remember back in 2009 when Susan Hutchison tried to deny she was a Republican while cynical moralists like the editors at the Seattle Times got their undies in a knot over Democrats slinging partisan labels in a nominally nonpartisan King County executive race? Well it shouldn’t surprise you then to learn that Hutchison has maxed out to Republican Dino Rossi, with a $2400 contribution to his senatorial primary campaign.

Those who advocate for nonpartisan elections claim they are trying to remove partisanship from politics, when in fact all they’re really doing is removing valuable information from the voting public. And most of the nonpartisaniks damn well know it.

We’ve all heard about the alleged “enthusiasm gap” that’s supposed to presage doom for Democrats this November, but you wouldn’t know it from the crowds here at Netroots Nation.

Conference organizers tell me that over 2100 attendees have registered for this year’s event, compared to about 1800 last year. (Perhaps that helps explain the collapse of the convention center’s WiFi network?) Only the 2007 event was bigger, when about 3000 bloggers and activists descended on Chicago for the featured faceoff between the Democratic presidential primary candidates.

And yet the oh-so-enthusiastic teabaggers had to cancel their Tea Party Nation convention, which was to have been held here in Las Vegas last week, due to lack of interest. (They claimed the heat scared away attendees; I guess us lefties must be a heartier lot.)

I mean honestly… if 2000 teabaggers had gathered here last week with their conspiracy theories and poorly spelled signs, that’s a story that would have led the network news. But a similar number of liberals? Crickets. Because, I guess, it just doesn’t fit into the standard narrative. Or something.

I enjoyed decent Internet access on the airplane of all places, but here at the Rio, crushed under the weight of a couple thousand bloggers, the Intertubes are proving as sclerotic as Dick Cheney’s arteries. Even AT&T’s 3G network has slowed to a crawl, so I’m not even sure that this small post from my iPhone will get through.

Anyway, just thought I’d give you a heads up in case you don’t here hear much from me.

Each year Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) puts together its annual “Most Corrupt Members of Congress” report a bipartisan list of the House and Senate’s 15 most ethically challenged members. But this year CREW is also producing a report on the most Crooked Candidates of 2010, and look who made the initial list: Dino Rossi!

Makes you proud to be a Washingtonian, doesn’t it?

Over at the TNT’s Political Buzz, Rossi spokesperson Mary Lane Strow angrily denounces CREW as “a big ol’ lefty front group” that gets funding from George Soros, and predominantly targets Republicans:

“It’s another one of those things where (Democrats) have some quote-unquote independent group put it out there that Dino’s sleazy,” Strow said. “Then the Murray campaign can reference it in a future ad.”

And Strow’s accusations of rank partisanship might be an effective comeback, if not for the fact that like most of the Rossi campaign’s assertions, it’s totally unsupported by the facts. Indeed, of CREW’s current list of “The 15 Most Corrupt Members of Congress,” eight of them — more than half — are Democrats, including liberal stalwarts like Rep. Maxine Waters, Rep. Charlie Rangel and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

Huh. That’s some lefty front group, Mary.

The fact is, and has been well documented here on HA, Rossi has spent his business and political career hanging out with some awfully shady company, from Mel Heide to Michael Mastro to the conniving, mean-spirited, campaign-finance-cheating BIAW. Perhaps it is all just “guilt by association,” as the TNT headline implies. But there are some awfully strong associations.

If this sorry episode isn’t the end of Andrew Breitbart’s foray into the national media scene, we’re in more trouble than I imagined.

UPDATE: Joe Conason points out that it’s time to re-visit the ACORN smear job.

Regular readers know that I’m not a fan of the airline industry after a string of miserable and abusive flying experiences (yes, I’m talking to you, US Airways), but the free, in-flight WiFi on this Alaska flight is pretty damn cool. Not exactly speedy, but respectably responsive.

I’m in transit to Netroots Nation today, so don’t expect much from me. But maybe my shy co-bloggers will pick up the slack.

– Marc Lynch writes about the recently revived drumbeat for bombing Iran and why it’s still a bad idea.

– I’m still reading through the Washington Post’s report on the vast, secretive security bureaucracy that formed after 9/11. Greenwald does his thing.

– Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske may have said the single dumbest thing any Obama Administration official has said to date [emphasis mine, breathtaking cluelessness in the original]:

Well, we know that certainly California is poised to and will be voting on legalizing small amounts of marijuana. And that vote is scheduled for November of this year.

There are a number of studies and a number of pieces of information that really throw that into the light of saying that, look, California is not going to solve its budget problems, that they have more increase or availability if drugs were, or marijuana, was to become legalized. That in fact you would see more use. That you would also see a black market that would come into play. Because why wouldn’t in heaven’s name would somebody want to spend money on tax money for marijuana when they could either use the underground market or they could in fact grow their own.

I don’t even know where to start. The idea that you’re worried about legalizing marijuana because it might create a black market is like being worried about wearing a bicycle helmet because it might cause you to have a head injury.

– Marcy Wheeler writes about how our government interprets providing “material support” for terrorism so broadly that it can apply to journalists covering a story.

– Scott Morgan calls out DARE for their double-standard on recreational drug use.

– Alison Holcomb writes about Mexico and why what’s happening there is a good reason to support marijuana law reform.

– I don’t have much of the background here, but this letter appears to indicate that the Veterans Administration is no longer cracking down on veterans who use medical marijuana in compliance with state laws.

– The Seattle Times editorial board has some fans in North Dakota.

Please join us tonight for another Tuesday evening of politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. beginning at about 8:00 pm. Some of us will be there even earlier.

Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 312 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.

I slipped on a loose rock at the park this morning, landing hard on my right arm, just below the elbow. It hurt like a sonuvabitch, though I don’t think I’ve broken anything, but had I it would have cost me several thousand dollars between my insurance co-pay and deductible.

And had I been a laborer, dependent on four working limbs to do my job, an unlucky break like that probably would have cost me my job. That’s how close many Americans are to financial catastrophe: just a freak injury or unfortunate illness away from bankruptcy or worse.

In his recent fundraising letter, Dino Rossi warns how Patty Murray and Barack Obama are threatening the American Dream with un-American acts like healthcare reform and unemployment extensions. “The promise of the American Dream,” Rossi writes, “is the idea that if we work hard and play by the rules in this incredible land of opportunity, we would all benefit from top to bottom.”

“The American Dream was never a promise that everybody would have the same things or that the government would provide you with everything you need no matter what.”

Work hard and play by rules, and everybody benefits, Rossi says. Unless, of course, you work hard, play by the rules and break your arm while lacking access to affordable healthcare. In that case, you’re on your own.

And that’s about as good an illustration of the Republican philosophy as I can think of.