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Could you imagine the shrieking if any Democrat in this country did what Karl Rove did yesterday?

This is why the Taliban is coming back in Afghanistan.

Alabama’s strongly anti-gay Attorney General (the guy who was ridiculed for trying to ban sex toys) was caught being gay.

The Seattle PI has printed two good editorials on the upcoming Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment vote that would prevent Attorney General Rob McKenna from receiving federal assistance in arresting the state’s registered medical marijuana patients.

I found the dumbest anti-pot column I’ve seen all year. At the other end of the spectrum, the Swiss may move to full legalization this year.

This week’s Birds Eye View Contest is still unsolved.

I began this week serving on Jury duty at the King County Superior court in downtown Seattle. At lunch time, I made a beeline to Ivars on the waterfront for some fast, delicious, and artery clogging seafood as only Ivars can make it.

To get there from the courthouse, I have to pass under the monstrosity known as the Alaska Way Viaduct—a noisy, ugly mass of concrete and steel that sits just east of the waterfront. On this beautiful Monday I ate my fish and chips in a little park a couple of blocks due south of Ivars, while enjoying the spectacular view and, of course, bathed in the deafening sound of traffic on the Viaduct.

I don’t spend a lot of time in downtown Seattle, so maybe I just don’t “get it.” But to me, the Viaduct completely and utterly destroyed any sense of beauty and serenity that might otherwise be found on the spectacular Seattle waterfront. Really…it stinks.

Apparently not everyone shares my opinion:

The 2.2-mile viaduct is viewed by many as an aging waterfront misfit but was considered unique and “very clever” as a structure and a highway bypass when it was opened in 1953. That makes it ‘historically significant,’ ” said Art Skolnik, a land use consultant.

Skolnik, a longtime advocate of repairing and preserving the viaduct, said he’ll ask the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation to on Friday nominate the viaduct for placement on the National Register of Historic Places.

Historically significant my ass! It’s an ugly, dirty, noisy blemish on the landscape. In fact, it’s hard to imagine anything more disturbingly invasive, or more destructive of the potential for the Seattle waterfront, aside from, say, using the space to store dead bodies or nuclear waste (maybe…I mean, nuclear waste is much quieter).

At the time it was opened “it was a big solution to a difficult problem,” Skolnik said. “Back then it was cheered.”

…until people actually thought about being pedestrians on the waterfront!

We can learn from our mistakes. Tear the fucking thing down! And vow to never, EVER make that mistake again!

As reported by KXLY yesterday, the party responsible for those mysterious “Dino Rossi, Don’t Let Seattle Steal This Election” signs is none other than (surprise) the BIAW! The Orca-killing association hopes to divide the state by putting up 61 billboards throughout Eastern Washington at a total cost of $168,000.

Jill Strait, a spokesperson for Rossi’s campaign, said this is the first time they’ve heard about the billboards…

… you know, except for three weeks ago, when she spoke to Postman about the signs. But other than that, this is absolutely the first time she’s ever heard anything about it. Really. You can trust her on this.

As for the signs themselves, they’re not proving universally popular with Eastern Washington residents, as evidenced by the rather emphatic graffiti gracing this sign in Winthrop:

The Freeway Blogger has a new blog site—gasoline stations:

The episode begins with an air of disappointment and disgust as the panel anticipates today’s Senate FISA/Telco-immunity bill vote. The topic changes mid-stream to Plum Creek and the raping of the Montana environment. From there, they take up rural land use issues in Washington. The panel revisits the assisted suicide death with dignity initiative, and then switches tracks to a discussion of light rail. Next they reveal the secrets behind the not secret ballot currently in use in some Washington state counties.

This week Goldy was joined by HorsesAss’ and EFFin’ Unsound’s Carl Ballard and HorsesAss’ (and now Slog’s) blogger Will, Seattle P-I columnist Joel Connelly, DailyKos uber-blogger Joan McCarter (mcjoan), and Mr. Tim White.

The show is 61:31, and is available here as an MP3:

[audio:http://www.podcastingliberally.com/podcasts/podcasting_liberally_july_8_2008.mp3]

[Recorded live at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. Special thanks to creators Gavin and Richard for hosting the site.]

You know, watching this video, I just couldn’t help but be reminded that Italian mobsters are secretive too. I sure hope nobody is offended by that obvious connection.

UPDATE:
YouTube’s pulled the video, I assume due to some copyright complaint concerning the music.  Gee, that was fast.  Shows you just how secretive the Rossi folks are, that they don’t even want you to see how secretive they are.

The Pentagon announced today that it will rebid the controversial Air Force refueling tanker contract, with a decision coming before the end of the year.  Notice how I wrote that the “Pentagon” will rebid the contract, not the “Air Force”:

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that his office — not the Air Force — will oversee the competition between Boeing and the team of Northrop and Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co.

The plan, which hands control to the Pentagon acquisition chief John Young and sets up a dedicated source-selection committee, shows that senior civilians at the Defense Department have lost confidence in the Air Force’s ability to manage the contract.

“I think it’s better,” said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash. “No one has any faith in the Air Force.

So to all those of you who vehemently defended the Airbus contract (you know who you are, Sen. McCain), don’t you feel a little foolish right about now?

It should also be noted that Sec. Gates has ties to our region, owning a vacation home on Orcas Island, and formerly serving on the board of directors of Bellevue based Vote Here Inc., and while I don’t really expect him to show Boeing an favoritism, his local connections couldn’t hurt.

How useless and dysfunctional does a political entity have to be in order to have a 9% approval rating?

This useless and dysfunctional.

More here.

And here:

And hopefully, the fact that Obama voted for this bill dispels any false notions about his ability to transcend traditional politics. He may be the best empty suit running this year, but he’s still an empty suit.

Danny Westneat kinda-sorta supports the city’s efforts to limit the use of plastic grocery bags…

It’s well-meaning. We chuck too much plastic.

… but Danny chafes at what’s necessary to enforce a new ordinance…

Don’t you think do-gooder Seattle could reduce its bag usage without inspectors? Tax auditors? A small, but new, layer of bureaucracy?

I dunno… maybe. I suppose national supermarket giants Kroger, Safeway and Albertsons, along with other chains and hundreds of local retailers might come to the table and work out a viable voluntary plan with the city, and I guess that might be preferable to mandating a 20-cent bag fee. But they haven’t yet, and citing Danny’s Australian example, I don’t see what incentive they would have to do so in the absence of the city threatening to act unilaterally:

There the government and the grocery association hatched a deal to get rid of plastic bags — voluntarily. According to a report for Seattle by Herrera Consultants, 90 percent of big Aussie retailers signed up — in part because if they didn’t, the government threatened a more top-down program. Much like the one we’re about to do here.

Could there be better alternatives to addressing the problem, and would the mayor and the council consider them? Sure. But as of now the industry has yet to step forward, preferring instead to relentlessly complain about the economic impact and consumer inconvenience, while hoping the bag fee proposal ultimately collapses under its own weight.

See, that’s the catch with the kind of voluntary program that Danny prefers: it requires volunteers. So if we want to solve this problem and avoid the expense and inconvenience of a bag fee, it’s time for all those do-gooders in Seattle’s grocery industry to step up and offer a viable plan of their own.

John McCain… he’s such a funny guy.

I’m so glad I don’t have to defend that thing anymore:

Rural property owners fighting a King County law that forbids them from clearing or grading large parts of their land won a big victory in the state Court of Appeals on Monday.

[…]

A three-judge panel ruled that the ordinance — part of a package of laws aimed at protecting streams and other “critical areas” — is an indirect but illegal “tax, fee, or charge” on development. The Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights and five landowners sued to overturn the law.

Way back when, I lived in the sticks. Most folks I knew were opposed to this on the principle of the thing. They didn’t want to develop their property, but they didn’t want someone telling them they couldn’t.

So for all you tire-burning, car battery dumping-in-the-river, bologna-frying honkeys, this one’s for you:

My friends at Microsoft are understandably aquiver over renewed possibilities of a Yahoo takeover, what with billionaire investor Carl Icahn pushing to replace the Internet search company’s board of directors. But while they’re at it, they might want to spend a little time focusing on their core business, where Mac sales have recently surged 32 percent year-over-year, compared to just 12.2 percent for the Windows-dominated industry as a whole…

Ironically, however, it may be Microsoft driving customers into Apple’s hands. Ongoing jitters regarding bugs and performance in Windows Vista a year and a half after its launch are believed to be driving would-be Windows upgrade customers towards Macs, which are considered by the analyst to be less problematic, simpler, and more secure.

“Thus far, user satisfaction ratings for Vista have been weak, and startup times for Vista have been known to be much slower than the Mac OS X,” Bachman says. “Thus, more than 50% of recent customers buying Macs in Apple retail stores are first-time buyers.”

Personally, I’ve always been a Mac partisan, but our region does rely on Microsoft’s continued success to provide an awful lot of jobs, so I’m hoping their response goes deeper than just an ad campaign. I’m just sayin’…

Join us at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally for an evening of politics under the influence. We begin at 8:00 pm at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E, but some of us will be there early for Dinner.

If you find yourself in the Tri-Cities area this evening, check out McCranium for the local Drinking Liberally. Otherwise, check out the Drinking Liberally web site for dates and times of a chapter near you.