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I missed a lot of posts here as I traveled, so this may have been covered already, but Rush Limbaugh is trying to buy the St. Louis Rams. In response, several black NFL players have said they would refuse to play in St. Louis. It’s hard to know how widespread that sentiment would be, whether it would affect their ability to sign free agents, or if it’s even possible for the Rams to be worse than they already are, but the NFL will certainly be thinking about that before the owners and league would approve any deal.

Having an owner with a well-known history of racism isn’t that unusual, even in sports with large numbers of black athletes. Marge Schott made enough racist comments when she inherited the Cincinnati Reds from her husband in the 1990s to get herself suspended by the league multiple times. Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, had to pay a multi-million dollar settlement after he was caught forcing black families out of the buildings he owned. While many players have lamented being stuck on the Clippers, few have openly complained about playing for a team run by someone with such a long record of racist behavior. It’s also possible that better players, who have somewhat more control over where they can play, are able to avoid playing for him. The Clippers have been one of the worst franchises in any of the four major North American sports leagues for several decades. That may not be because of Sterling’s racism, but it certainly hasn’t helped.

But Limbaugh may be a different story altogether. With his high profile and his increasing hostility towards Obama and everything associated with our country’s black communities, his presence alone may make it very difficult to assemble a competitive team in St. Louis again. At the very least, every time Limbaugh says something stupid, black players on the Rams will get sick of having to comment on it. It will be a distraction that players will quickly tire of. Unless he just stops saying ignorant things, which appears impossible for him at this point.

If the deal goes through, there would be one side benefit (other than the Seahawks continuing to have two easy wins every year). It would make it clearer to people that Rush Limbaugh is not some average dude railing against “elites”. He’s an extremely fucking rich guy. And while there are large numbers of people who will never figure out that Limbaugh’s shtick has been to get rich by fueling the kind of partisan (and often racist) nonsense that pitted Americans against each other, the fact that he’s now one of the “elites” who sits in a luxury box watching his NFL team play makes it easier for those outside of his listening audience to see him for the fraud he is.

As expected, the Seattle Times has endorsed No on I-1033, as will most every other newspaper in the state.  But while it is a responsible editorial, and fairly well argued, I couldn’t help reading it with an involuntary roll of the eyes, for some of the common misconceptions the editors attempt to correct, happen to be ones they’ve worked damn hard to create.

The Times now argues that Washington is not a high tax state (in fact, we’re 35th by Tim Eyman’s own source), but this will strike many readers as quite contrary to the impression the Times itself has left over the past few years, whether arguing for estate tax repeal, or in favor of an all-cuts budget, or in support of Dino Rossi and other conservative Republicans. Even former state Republican Party Chair Chris Vance has acknowledged that King County’s budget woes are largely due to a structural revenue deficit, not out of control spending, a fact based reality the Times appears pained to grasp.

I-1033, unlike I-601, applies to counties and cities as well. In all of them, growth in property-tax revenue is limited to 1 percent plus taxes on new construction. Cities and counties are finding it a hard limit to live with. Any further limit on their tax collections should be up to the citizens in each jurisdiction.

Further limits? The existing 1 percent cap is an arbitrary and ridiculous limit that is already eroding the ability of local governments to provide basic services, and the Times is willing to even suggest the notion of further limits… and in an anti-1033 editorial no less?

There are two reasons why Eyman’s I-1033 still has a chance to pass. 1) Investment banker Michael Dunmire; without his money none of Eyman’s recent measures would have qualified for the ballot; and 2) Our state and local media have relentlessly created the impression in the minds of many voters that Washington is a high-tax state with out of control spending… and editorializing against Eyman’s initiative once every year or so, is not enough to change that impression.

Back from a week out on the east coast and catching up on the news:

– Has there been a more entertainingly bizarre story than what’s been happening in Hardin, Montana? The town builds a jail in 2007 believing that building the jail is the road towards economic prosperity and more jobs. The jail stays empty for the next year and a half as the bonds issued to pay for the jail go into default. As desperation sets in, the economic development arm who initially built the jail volunteer to house Guantanamo detainees, but aren’t successful. As desperation increases, they then sign an agreement with a con-man from California named Michael Hilton (who has a long criminal record mostly involving fraud) and his private security force – named the American Police Force – to run the jail. Hilton also intended to set up a military training facility and perform law enforcement duties in the town. Without any formal announcement, black Mercedes SUV’s start rolling through the town with official-looking City of Hardin Police insignias (based on a Serbian coat-of-arms) that no one seemed to be expecting. Then, the Billings Gazette reporter who’d been covering the jail saga is hired away by the American Police Force to be their spokesperson. As the story explodes and the Montana Attorney General ponders an investigation, Hilton (a native of Montenegro who refers to himself as “Captain”) claims that an executive with a security firm named Michael Cohen has accepted the job of running the operation. Cohen says there’s no such deal and calls Hilton a liar. Finally, the economic development arm is finally forced to scrap the whole deal after it fully dawns on them that they just signed an agreement with a career criminal with a bogus company to run their jail and patrol their town. Holy fucking shit.

– This Wednesday morning, the Massachusetts Legislature will debate a bill to fully regulate and tax marijuana. The fight to create more sensible laws for marijuana may still take some time, but when the Today Show can have level-headed segments like this on the topic, we’re getting there.

– Two men are trying to open up a medical marijuana dispensary in Mountlake Terrace. In Spokane, the Gonzaga chapter of the ACLU is planning a demonstration in support of the medical marijuana law after the recent arrests there have again made it difficult for authorized patients to obtain medicine.

Update [Darryl]: And here is some political multimedia fun for the weekend.

My friend Stefan Sharkansky and I will be appearing together tomorrow afternoon at the NW Journalism Conference, in a panel discussion on blogging moderated by conference organizer Barry Mitzman, 3:30 PM, Pigott 201, Seattle University.  Huh. I didn’t know Stefan blogged?

The theme of this year’s conference is “The Future of News.” Registration is $50, but only $15 for students and the unemployed (which given the current state of “News,” probably covers most of the attendees).  There are several interesting sessions at the daylong conference I might attend, not to mention a lunch with Seattle Times publisher Frank Blethen, if I weren’t otherwise engaged at my daughter’s soccer game. One must have priorities.

Yup, this is how Republicans congratulate our president:

“They love a weakened, neutered U.S and this is their way of promoting that concept.”
— Rush Limbaugh

“It’s not Republicans that are throwing their lot in with terrorists — it’s the White House.”
— Michael Goldfarb

“Before they break out the champagne at the White House, they may want to pause over the fact that Obama now shares this honor with Mohammed el-Baradei, Yasser Arafat, and flagrant liar Rigoberta Menchu Tum.”
— Mona Charon

“Now as he nears a critical decision on whether or not to provide the troops his commander in the theater is pressing for even as appeasers in his inner circle council appeasement of the Taliban, he is awarded the world’s most prestigious prize.”
— Hugh Hewitt

“I did not realize the Nobel Peace Prize had an affirmative action quota for it.”
— Erick Erickson

“After a number of years, the NFL renamed its Super Bowl trophy after its most fitting recipient — it’s now called the Vince Lombardi Trophy. I’d like to see the Nobel Foundation follow suit. If today’s headlines said, ‘Barack Obama Wins Yasser Arafat Prize,’ that would be perfect.”
— Andy McCarthy

And the DNC’s appropriate response?

The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists — the Taliban and Hamas this morning — in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize. Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize — an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride — unless of course you are the Republican Party. The 2009 version of the Republican Party has no boundaries, has no shame and has proved that they will put politics above patriotism at every turn. It’s no wonder only 20 percent of Americans admit to being Republicans anymore – it’s an embarrassing label to claim.

Embarrassing indeed.

Well, he may have lost in his bid to win the 2016 Summer Olympics for his hometown of Chicago, but I guess his international standing has not totally eroded, as President Barack Obama was just awarded the Nobel Peace Prize nonetheless.

President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” a honor that came less than nine months after he made United States history by becoming the country’s first African-American president.

The award, announced in Oslo by the Nobel Committee while much of official Washington — including the president — was still asleep, cited in particular the president’s efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

“He has created a new international climate,” the committee said.

For Mr. Obama, one of the nation’s youngest presidents, the award is an extraordinary recognition that puts him in the company of world leaders such as Mikhail Gorbachev, who won for helping to bring an end to the cold war, andNelson Mandela, who sought an end to apartheid.

Oh man that must tie the righties’ underwear up in knots. In fact…

But it is also a potential political liability at home; already, Republicans are criticizing the president, contending he won more for his “star power” than his actual achievements.

You know, actual achievements like 9/11, the failed response to Hurricane Katrina, disastrous missionless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the greatest economic meltdown since the Great Depression and other highlights of the Bush administration.

In one sense, the award was a rebuke to the foreign policies of Mr. Obama’s predecessor,George W. Bush, some of which the president has sought to overturn. Mr. Obama made repairing the fractured relations between the United States and the rest of the world a major theme of his campaign for the presidency. Since taking office as president he has pursued a range of policies intended to fulfill that goal. He has vowed to pursue a world without nuclear weapons, as he did in a speech in Prague earlier this year; reached out to the Muslim world, delivering a major speech in Cairo in June; and sought to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” the committee said in its citation. “His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.”

The world still looks to the United States for leadership, moral and otherwise. Here’s hoping President Obama has the strength, ability and opportunity to deliver on today’s recognition.

In another few hours, NASA’s Centaur rocket will crash into the moon in a search for evidence of water. The following NASA promotional video has more:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csj7vMKy4EI[/youtube]

Read the headline, teaser and five-sentence story accompanying it at the top of the Seattle Times’ home page this afternoon, and you could be excused for thinking that Sound Transit has suddenly found itself in some deep shit. In fact, you might even be downright angry at the implied notion that Sound Transit might have misled voters last fall, and will soon have to come back for even more money.

You’d be wrong, but it wouldn’t be your fault. Rather the blame lies squarely on one of the stupidest bits of reporting, editing and headline writing I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading in the Times… and considering it’s the Times, that’s a pretty high bar.

Sound Transit isn’t “forecasting a loss,” they’re forecasting revenues coming in at $3.1 billion below original projections over the next 15 years… which is about $1 billion lower than the previous revised forecast. That’s not a loss, as you can’t lose something you’ve never had. Indeed, Sound Transit couldn’t possibly show a loss this year or the next or over the next 15… it’s a government agency, not a business, and government agencies just don’t work that way; they can only spend the dollars they have!

Furthermore, despite the lower forecast, Sound Transit still believes it can deliver the services promised, and on time. How? Well, despite all the naysayers, their budgets have long been on the conservative side, with fairly deep built-in reserves. Due to the recession, these reserves don’t leave much wiggle room anymore, but that’s why they’re constantly redoing their revenue forecasts… so that they have time to react to changing circumstances and respond accordingly.

And, now that they know that revenues are coming in significantly lower than projected, they’ll adjust their design and engineering to reflect the new fiscal reality. That means new stations may become standardized and not quite so fancy. Meanwhile, expensive changes and alternatives, however politically expedient, are much less likely to be adopted. They’ll also be force to be more creative in looking for savings in operations. (UPDATE: Seattle Transit Blog has more.)

But they are not, as the Times irresponsibly implies, operating in the red, to the tune of $3.1 billion or any other number. That’s just plain wrong, stupid, and in my opinion, an inexcusable reach for a sensationalist headline that does nothing but misinform the public.

UPDATE:
The Seattle Times has changed the headline to the more accurate “Sound Transit to collect $3.1B less.” That may not be as sexy as the first headline, but it has the virtue of being based in fact.

That said, I’m still at a loss to explain how the Times editors could have possibly gone with the first headline without realizing the obvious false impression it would make on readers. I mean really, it couldn’t be interpreted any other way. Meanwhile, for those of you who would still prefer to spin this into a story of Sound Transit mismanagement or dishonesty, here’s a graph from today’s revised forecast that tells the whole story:

Of course, this is also the story behind the revenue woes at every agency at every level of government throughout the state and the nation. Those who blame budget woes solely on profligate spending while ignoring the revenue side of the equation, quite simply have their heads up the ass.

During remarks last year before the Washington Policy Center, a conservative think tank funded by wealthy, right-wing donors, King County Exec wannabe Susan Hutchison took a moment to plug their Policy Guide for Washington State, a collection of policy proposals for key areas of government.

“I’d like to put in a plug for a book that you have on your tables. It’s called the Policy Guide for Washington State and it’s published by the Washington Policy Center. Let me tell you about this book. I have read it cover to cover and it is one of the most extraordinary pieces of work about Washington State and the policies that make our government run. It hits on 10 different subjects from health care, education, transportation, tax policy and others. But let me tell you, folks… if you started this book tomorrow morning and read it through you would be smarter by dinnertime tomorrow night. This book makes you smart. So I highly recommend that you take it and that you read it.”

So… what exactly are these “smart” ideas that have Hutchison so excited?

On transportation…

Manipulating transportation policies to force a particular behavior coerces people into abandoning their individual liberties in favor of a socialistic benefit where supposedly a greater collective good is created.

[…] Reduce spending on costly, ineffective fixed-route mass transit. Policymakers should change spending priorities that heavily favor mass transit systems despite chronically low ridership. Riders of these expensive systems, like light rail and the Sounder Commuter Train, are being heavily subsidized by automobile commuters, yet research shows that fixed rail does nothing to reduce traffic congestion.

[…] The problem is that transportation spending is based on other agendas rather than congestion relief. As a result, the cost of bringing goods to market rises and consumers end up paying more for products.

Sound Transit’s East Link proposal is a good example. Reconfiguring the center lanes across Interstate 90 (I-90) for light rail, as agency officials propose, would not only fail to reduce traffic congestion, it would, according to the state Department of Transportation, worsen traffic congestion by 25 percent.

On the environment…

Proclamations about the risks from climate change have been revised again and again, always downward, and other information has been shown to be more about politics than science.

[…] Eliminate the mandated “green” building standards for public buildings…

On science…

Even when the science is accurate, it does not indicate that the problem ought to be addressed or that particular policies should be followed.

On I-1033…

Adopt a constitutional amendment to limit the growth of spending to inflation and population growth.

[…]

Colorado’s spending limit, in contrast, was enacted as part of the constitution and has proved much more effective at protecting citizens from aggressive state spending. Passed by the people in 1992, Colorado’s Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights (TABOR) limits the amount of tax revenue the state can keep each year to the sum of inflation plus population growth.

That’s right, in enthusiastically embracing Washington Policy Center’s recommendations (and in giving them over $100,000 from the foundation she ran), Hutchison was for I-1033 before she was against it, only worse, as the Policy Guide calls for the population-plus-inflation limit to be cemented in the state constitution, just like Colorado’s disastrous TABOR measure.

Hutchison can talk all she wants about being a moderate nonpartisan, but these are the policies she’s endorsed, these are the policies she’s helped fund, and these are the policies we must assume she’d pursue. If Hutchison wins in November, right-wingers will hail it as a huge victory, because she is one of them.  But her only path to victory is to hide this fact from voters.

Tim Eyman is nothing if not repetitive, as evidenced by the four times in less than five minutes that he made the same exact argument: that there needs to be a balance between what government says it needs and what taxpayers are able to afford.

Truth is, I can’t argue with that sentiment; I just can’t see how Timmy can use it in defense of I-1033, an initiative that would put even further limits on revenue growth, at a time Washington’s state and local taxes have been steadily falling as a percentage of personal income, and for at least a decade and a half. I mean, isn’t that the best measure of affordability?

And I’m not just pulling my figures out of my ass; I’m pulling it out of Tim’s ass, using the same statistics he uses, as compiled by the conservative Tax Foundation. Indeed, according to the Tax Foundation, Washington’s state and local taxes have fallen from 10.4% in 1994, when we ranked 17th nationwide, to 8.9% in 2008, and a ranking of 35th.

So if Tim really believes, as he repeatedly states, that the issue is whether taxpayers can afford the government we’re getting, I’m not sure exactly what problem I-1033 is intended to solve? He can rant all he wants about high taxes and out of control government growth, but the statistics — his own statistics — just don’t back him up.

Box Turtle Bulletin notices something interesting about a new anti-71 ad.

The second image you see flashing on the screen, of Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden, is a copyrighted image from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You can find a copy of that image on their web site as part of their Gospel Art Picture Kit. Another one found on a web page titled, “What Do Mormons Believe About Adam and Eve.” It’s interesting reading, since it hints at a fallible God — or at least a God that gives conflicting instructions and it’s up to us to decide which set of instructions to follow.

Since the image is copyrighted by the LDS, either there is copyright infringement going on or, um, the Mormon Church is up to its usual anti-equality antics.

Yeah, it’s a laughably bad spot, but as I used to point out, so far my marriage and my children are just fine, despite attempts to extend the same civil rights heterosexual couples enjoy to gay couples.

As a casual observation, I would have to argue that adjustable rate mortgages and high credit card rates have done far more to destroy marriages in my community than the existence of scary gay people, so if we want to “protect the children,” maybe we should get serious about financial sector reform. LDS can put that in its pipe and smoke it.

(Props to DKos diarist Clarknt67.)

Tim Eyman accuses I-1033 opponents of spinning scare-stories around the initiative’s potential impact, but it doesn’t take much imagination to see how the measure would unravel funding for state services and infrastructure when we only need look to Colorado. There a similar TABOR initiative pegged revenues to population-plus-inflation back in 1992, and the results have been devastating.

Joining Washington state educators at yesterday’s No on I-1033 press conference (you know, the one that Timmy so rudely crashed) was Colorado Education Association President Beverly Ingle, who explained how TABOR has eroded education funding, both at the K-12 and state university level. And, as I explained yesterday, as state education funding shrinks, so will local funding, despite Eyman’s uninformed and insincere assurances.

This isn’t rocket science. I-1033 will shrink the size of state and local government, and quite dramatically. That’s Tim’s goal. And by shrinking government I mean it will reduce the quality and breadth of government services, and defer crucial infrastructure investments.

So, if what you think we need to do is spend less money on education, I-1033 is for you. Because that’s exactly its intended result.

There’s a political compromise brewing in the US Senate over several conservative Democratic senators’ opposition to the a public option, a possible “option” clause that would allow states like Nebraska or North Dakota to opt out of the national public option… I mean, if they really want to. And as always, McJoan at Daily Kos gets to the heart of the issue:

In terms of national policy, is this necessarily a good idea? Probably not, when you’ve got crazy secessionists like Rick Perry in governorships. The thought of all those Texans not having access to care is a problem. On the other hand, how many governors ended up sending back those stimulus checks? How many governors, state legislators, or even Senators of Nebraska or North Dakota or Arkansas are going to be willing to stand in front of their constituents and tell them that the rest of the country has access to a government option for their healthcare. Have at it, Ben Nelson.

Yeah, probably not a great policy idea, but if that’s what it takes to get a real public option passed for the rest of us, I agree with Joan:  have at it, Ben Nelson.

A representative from MAPS, an organization devoted to studying the effects of psychedelics, recently sent me a press release about upcoming research being done in Vancouver to study the use of MDMA (more commonly known as ecstasy) to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. While a lot of people will snicker at the idea of using what’s more commonly known as a recreational drug for rave attendees to treat people who suffer trauma from serving in war, previous research has shown some serious promise.

MAPS’ goal is to demonstrate that MDMA has valid medical use so that the FDA and other international health agencies will allow it to be prescribed by doctors. Currently, MDMA is illegal in the United States, but has rather unsurprisingly seen a large spike in use since its distribution was handed to criminal organizations back in the 1980s. Internationally, MDMA is illegal in most countries, but researchers in Israel and Switzerland are also studying the effects of the drug.

One aspect of this story that caught my attention is the fact that this latest study in Vancouver, which could potentially benefit hundreds of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who have been diagnosed with PTSD, is being funded entirely by charitable donations. You’d think that a treatment that has shown such serious potential and has such a large potential base of customers would be something that American pharmaceutical companies would be interested in. Unfortunately, MDMA is off-patent and the drug itself doesn’t need to be taken every day for the overall treatment to be effective. As a result, there isn’t much money to be made when compared to giving old people boners.