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Ever since Emmett Watson passed away, it seems the city’s columnists have been vying for the honor of replacing him as Seattle’s official curmudgeon. Take for example Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat, who brings us this story today about Rose Walter being carded at Von’s Grand City Cafe in Seattle; when the 91-year-old great-grandmother couldn’t produce an ID with proof of age, she was denied service and asked to leave the bar. To Danny, this anecdote apparently says something deeper and broader about Seattle.

“In the good old days,” Rose says, “I don’t remember things being so fussy.”

Welcome to Seattle 2008, Rose. Fussy is our middle name.

You probably won’t be surprised the manager at Von’s feels he no longer has a choice but to ask for ID, even if it’s a centenarian hobbling in with a cane.

“Obviously you have heard what’s going on downtown lately, with the mayor and the Police Department and the liquor board,” said Greg Galuska, Von’s manager. “They’ve blatantly put out an agenda that they’re going to penalize bar operators.

“We decided that to protect ourselves in this environment, we had to move to 100 percent ID compliance,” he said. “No exceptions. It’s not worth risking imprisonment on the part of me or my staff.”

Yeah, well, my question for Danny is… when was the last time you’ve been carded?

I’m 44 years old, and with my falling hair and greying beard, I pretty much look my age (if I don’t always act it,) and I can’t remember the last time I’ve been carded in Seattle or anywhere else. I’d guess Danny’s a few years younger, and his puckish demeanor and boyish good looks only accentuate his youthful appearance. So tell us Danny… how often are you asked to produce your ID?

It’s not that I’m defending the mayor’s overly zealous anti-club crusade, it’s just that Rose’s ridiculous carding strikes me as more a comment on Von’s policies than on those of the city or the state. According to Danny…

Even the state Liquor Control Board says bars only have to check IDs of “youthful appearing persons.” Which it has defined as “anyone who does not look at least 30 years of age.”

[…] Elizabeth Walter, Rose’s daughter, says this incident is trivial by itself.

Yet she does wonder what’s become of her city.

“We’re supposed to be so liberal, but then we have this police state that’s encroaching on us, in small ways, just little by little by little,” she said.

That’s the downside of all these rules and regs and zero-tolerance policies. They’re well-intended. But they trample common sense.

Um… huh? How the hell is the LCB’s “youthful appearing persons” standard a “zero-tolerance” policy? And how exactly is this incident evidence of anybody “trampling common sense” except the folks at Von’s? (Or maybe, Danny, for attempting to conflate an isolated incident into a cautionary tale of Seattle’s slow decline into a “police state.”)

Yeah, sure… perhaps Seattle can be a little “fussy.” But if so, the fussiness starts with our columnists.

24’s 1994 pilot. Yeah, it’s old, but it’s new to me.

Tonight on “The David Goldstein Show”, 7PM to 10PM on News/Talk 710-KIRO:

7PM: The Stranger Hour with Josh Feit and Erica C. Barnett
The Stranger’s Josh Feit and Erica C. Barnett join us for the hour for our regular look back at the week’s news, and a peek ahead toward what’s coming up. Josh will give his take on the start of the new legislative session, while Erica grades the new Seattle City Council. But first, strategist, blogger, pundit James Boyce calls in with his analysis on today’s results from Nevada and New Hampshire.

8PM: Free the elephants?
Local comedian and Seattle P-I columnist Cathy Sorbo is back, and she’s brought her fellow Elephanistas with her, fight to free the Woodland Park Zoo elephants. Really.

9PM: More liberal propaganda.
Should smoking be banned when kids are in the car? Is Bush’s economic stimulus package a classic example of small government, free market conservatism? Is the US a torturer?

Tune in tonight (or listen to the live stream) and give me a call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).

A few weeks ago, Paul wrote about the impending return of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to their respective Comedy Central television shows and wondered:

Am I the only one who thinks Jon & Stephen have something up their sly little sleeves in returning to their shows?

[…]

Do we really think they’ll be anywhere near as funny?

I’m a regular viewer of late night TV, and I have to tell you, “Strike TV” has been “Must See TV”.

First of, Jon Stewart was on fire during his recent interview of Jonah Goldberg:

Also, Jon was very classy in changing the name of his show from “The Daily Show” to “A Daily Show” out of respect for his writers. Stephen Colbert, OTOH, relied on some pre-strike taped segments to get him through the week:

Leno, who sucks with his writers, sucks extra hard without them. David Letterman and Craig Ferguson agreed to terms independently with the writer’s guild, so they came back fully staffed. Letterman, however, returned with a crazy “old guy who lives in the woods” beard, and had it shaved off during the show. As guest Tom Hanks remarked, “Dave, that’s the kind of bit shows without writers do.”

More than any other program, “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” takes the cake for strike-related mischief. Whether it’s spinning his wedding ring on his desk, playing German techno set to a laser show, or riding down a zip line from the balcony to his desk, Conan has been making the best of a bad situation. Perhaps the best example of goofy-ass shit on “Late Night” is the giant rat maze that guest Tom Brokaw had to navigate just to get to the stage:

[Unfortunately, the clip won’t embed properly, so click here to check it out.]

Only 1-percent of precincts have reported, but that hasn’t stopped the AP from projecting Mitt Romney the winner of Nevada’s Republican caucus, largely on the strength of Mormon voters, who accounted for 25-percent of GOP caucus goers. Early returns show Romney taking over 40-percent of the vote, with Ron Paul, John McCain and Fred Thompson jostling for a distant second place. The much more high profile and closely fought Democratic caucus is still underway.

Meanwhile, in South Carolina, where the Republican candidates have campaigned heavily in pursuit of the top spot in today’s primary, turnout is reported to be very, very low.

Three hours into voting, the South Carolina State Election Commission reports that turnout has been low “across the board” for today’s Republican primary here.

“All the reports I’ve received from various counties is that turnout has been light,” said commission spokesman Chris Whitmire.

Hmm. That can’t be too encouraging for Republicans.

UPDATE [1:12 PM]:
The networks have all called the Nevada Democratic Caucus for Hillary Clinton, who leads Barack Obama 50% to 45% with 74% of precincts reporting. Do the math; despite trailing only slightly in recent polls, John Edwards will finish a distant third. Looks like Nevada voters bought into the media narrative that this was two-person race.

UPDATE, UPDATE [4:51 PM]:
Or maybe Obama won. I’m confused.

UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE [6:26 PM]:
McCain wins South Carolina. Just barely.

Seattle Times:

Advocates for a new University of Washington branch campus packed an Olympia hearing room Thursday to argue whether an urban Everett location or a more spacious Marysville campus would be the best site to serve the north Puget Sound region.

This choice is easy: Everett, right? The proposed campus would be easier to get to, considering many students take transit. The UW Tacoma location happens to be right on their streetcar line, and it’s a big success.

Backers of a 27-acre Everett site adjacent to the city’s transit center said Everett is closest to population centers, convenient to public transportation and offers a wealth of high-tech employers with whom future students can partner.

There you go, it’s a slam dunk. But the “rural campus” advocates don’t like the Everett choice:

Proponents of a 369-acre site in North Marysville said the more rural location offers a traditional campus setting with room for dormitories, sports fields and future growth. It would also better serve students in Island and Skagit counties, they said.

If a prospective student wants the sleep-away college experience, complete with sports teams and palatial grounds, that choice already exists. It’s called the University of Washington. You know, the original one.

Besides, kids from Island and Skagit counties already have a state school with sports field and dorms. It’s not new, but Western Washington University, located in Bellingham (in Whatcom county, just to the north) has been churning out quality graduates since 1893. (Most of Death Cab for Cutie! Chris Vance! Randy Tate! Joyce Taylor! The Punter For The Atlanta Falcons!)

The U-Dub’s lobbyist (who blogs, oddly enough) says this:

[…]but while the Everett site has gained some additional support this week, deep divisions remain in the legislature on the issue. More importantly, I believe a number of legislators are beginning to question the wisdom of moving ahead at all on the new campus given the cost projections and what appear to be concerns about how this really fits into the entire higher education system.

Considering just how tough a time Olympia is having providing funding for the UW branches that already exist, one has to wonder: is creating another UW branch in our best interest? Or is it more about legislators bringing home some pork?

[For more info, check out Postman’s run-down.]

Dino Rossi’s State of the State Denial:

(Some 70 other media clips from the past week in politics are now posted at Hominid Views.)

There was a hearing in Olympia yesterday on state Sen. Eric Oemig’s impeachment resolution, and the hearing room was packed with citizens seeking to testify in favor. One attendee has a firsthand account posted over on Daily Kos:

Today I was privileged to be one of about 200 citizens who went to our state Capitol to ask our legislators to defend the US Constitution by directing Congress to investigate whether sufficient grounds exist for the impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. The atmosphere was boisterous and enthusiastic, but respectful. We were there to testify at a Senate committee meeting and we comported ourselves accordingly. Unfortunately, a Republican member of the committee was not able to do likewise.

It should come as no surprise that the Republican member in question was none other than state Sen. Pam Roach, Auburn’s own gun-toting, do-nothing whackjob, who’s considered a bit of an embarrassment even by some of the craziest elements of her own caucus. (Seriously Pam… when even your fellow Republicans share eye-rolling stories with liberal bloggers like me, you might want to start reeling it in.)

TVW has the video, and you can view Sen. Roach’s outburst here, starting at about 28:10, when she sternly warns the crowd:

“I’m going to be filing an ethics complaint, because I believe that the topic of this hearing in an election year with this content, especially because this issue has been aired in the year 2007, is specifically using state property, state facilities for campaign purposes.”

To which the audience laughs in derision. The committee chair, Sen. Darlene Fairley, attempts to restore order, but Sen. Roach wasn’t finished. As the next panel is assembling, Sen. Roach interrupts again, pulling out a photo of her son, Air Force Capt. John Adams Roach (not to be confused with Stephen, her gun-toting, drug-dealing son,) and angrily chastises the audience: “What you are doing is a disgrace!”

As Sen. Roach stands up waving the photo and yelling at the audience in mock anger, the crowd erupts, despite Sen. Fairley’s calm explanation that “She’s doing this for TVW, so let’s just let her do it.”

So what exactly did the panelists say that so offended Sen. Roach? Well, it’s interesting to note that while she starts her grandstanding at 28:10, the senator didn’t actually arrive in the hearing room until after 24:50, sometime during the three minute statement of Linda Boyd of Washington For Impeachment. So if Sen. Roach was genuinely responding to any of the comments made during the hearing, it would have been those of Boyd.

I’ve transcribed part of Boyd’s testimony below, but I urge you to view the TVW video to judge her “disgraceful” comments for yourself, especially those moments where Boyd’s voice cracks with emotion in describing her reverence for the Constitution and the rule of law.

“Without our Constitution we have nothing, and it threatens to make our entire government illegitimate, and I do not say this lightly — I cannot believe that these words are coming out of my mouth, that our government is illegitimate, and does not answer to the people.

Impeachment was promised to us by the founders as a way to restore integrity and to restore the power of the people in their government. Articles of impeachment introduced by Dennis Kucinich, have been waiting in the Judiciary Committee in the House, but the bill is stuck in committee. We have turned to you to magnify our voices, to bring Congress to do their job. This is a traditional role of the state Legislature; Jefferson’s Rules 602 through 604 guaranteed the right of legislatures to call on Congress to do their job.

We have a beautiful vision in this country — impeachment is not a mere act of castigation, it is to preserve the beauty of our document of our initiation of the ideas that connect the people of this country. The price of not impeaching is very high. The eyes of the world are upon us; let them know that the senators of Washington State understand that politics here is not just a game of winning the next election, politics are the lives of the people.”

It is to this fervent plea that Sen. Roach responds with nothing less than naked political grandstanding. She doesn’t even display the courtesy of sticking around for Sen. Oemig’s closing statement: at 34:40, less than ten minutes after arriving, Sen. Roach gets up and leaves, remaining absent for the hearings on the following bills as well. (Watch the video; Roach’s seat is empty for almost the entire hearing.) That’s the kind of thoughtful, dedicated public service we’ve all come to expect from Sen. Roach.

Sen. Roach threatens to file an ethics complaint charging that hearing the impeachment bill — giving the citizens of our state the opportunity to give public testimony for or against — is somehow an abuse of state facilities for campaign purposes… and I sure hope she does. For the only person I saw campaigning in that hearing room yesterday was Sen. Roach, and if she files her ethics complaint I intend to file mine, charging her with abusing the ethics complaint process for political purposes.

Nice.

Police say a man who allegedly fired shots near a Spokane Valley, Wash., business has been arrested near Post Falls.

Washington State Patrol Trooper Mark Baker says police were looking for a man who fired shots at a Hooters restaurant early Friday, then may have caused a wreck on Interstate-90 as he drove the wrong way toward Idaho.

I’ve actually been to that Hooters. It was during a weekend trip to Spokanistan for a family member’s graduation from Gonzaga. The service was great, and the food didn’t suck. The gals, however, weren’t that hot, and certainly not worth shooting up the joint over.

What’s more, he was busted for using the carpool lanes! (Or as folks on the west side call it, “driving the wrong way on the freeway.”)

Seattle Channel has been running Paul Krugman’s appearance at Town Hall, and I watched it a few times. During the question and answer session, somebody stood up and asked this:

…and also, your thoughts on Building 7…

Paul Krugman was very cute in his response, saying that he thought the dazed look on Bush’s face was proof enough that he didn’t have prior knowledge of 9/11.

But to you conspiracy theory assclowns: stop it. You’re not helping.

Matt Taibbi, who writes for Rolling Stone, perhaps said it best:

I have two basic gripes with the 9/11 Truth movement. The first is that it gives supporters of Bush an excuse to dismiss critics of this administration. I have no doubt that every time one of those [conspiracy theorist] dickwads opens his mouth, a Republican somewhere picks up five votes.

Read the whole thing.

It looks like after 6+ years of being in Afghanistan, we may have finally come across something that can end their domination of the opium industry…

Competition

This week’s Birds Eye View Contest is posted.

Josh Feit, Olympia edition:

Earlier this week, I slogged from Olympia that a battle was brewing over tolling.

The question: How should money generated from tolling be divvied up between roads and transit? (Note to Will at HorsesAss, “Transit” means BRT, HOV, bike lanes, light rail and light rail connections among other investments that get us out of cars.)

Considering both Josh and myself are already out of our cars, I figure he’s using the royal “us”. That is, unless he’s referring to my occasional Flexcar use to visit family on holidays in rural NE King County. In which case, good luck getting me out of that car, since there’s no light rail to Carnation. But I digress.

From the comments to Josh’s post:

Josh, if you really, really want to kill the tolling idea for 520, this is exactly the way to do it. Tolls are supposed to pay for the 520 replacement. I have no problem with using part of the toll money for transit… if it’s built into the replacement bridge. Two HOV / transit lanes down the center, with dedicated ramps, like I-90? We can do that. But the farther the money moves away from the bridge itself, the greater the public outcry and the chances of the toll idea being shitcanned.

If we’re getting a new bridge, it makes sense to make robust transit-oriented functionality a part of the design of the bridge. This means HOV and bike lanes. This means bigger light rail-carrying pontoons and interchanges that make bus travel easier. If we make these investments, does it really matter how we we divide the tolls?

There are a wealth of high-profile races on the ballot this year, and, well, the contest to replace retiring State Treasurer Mike Murphy isn’t exactly one of them. But that doesn’t make it any less interesting to political junkies like me.

Murphy, allegedly a Democrat, is backing his top aide, Allan Martin, a licensed funeral director and embalmer, who has declared as a Republican. Democratic Rep. Jim McIntyre, an economics professor and former Finance Committee chair, is giving up his House seat to seek the Democratic nomination.

Also seriously exploring a run is Chang Mook Sohn, the state’s chief economist and longtime revenue forecaster. But while Sohn is reportedly planning to run as a Democrat, you’ve got to wonder about his party credentials, what with his name appearing on a petition by the libertarian Cato Institute calling for Social Security privatization:

… we support giving workers the option of shifting all or part of their Social Security taxes into individually owned, privately invested accounts, similar to individual retirement accounts or 401(k) plans. We believe that only a system based on savings and investment can provide a safe and secure retirement without burying future generations under a mountain of new taxes.

Huh. Dismantling Social Security doesn’t particularly sound like a Democratic value to me.

I’ve had my run-ins with McIntyre when he chaired the Finance Committee, but at least I know where he stands on the issues. How exactly the State Treasurer impacts these issues, I’m not really sure. But I intend to find out.

NARAL Pro-Choice Washington is holding its 17th Annual Chocolate for Choice event on Tuesday, January 22… the 35th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. The event takes place at the First Base Club at Safeco Field, and tickets start at $35.

I’ve been invited once again to serve as a VIP Judge (along with folks like Darcy Burner, Dow Constantine, Jean Godden, Mike Kreidler, Larry Phillips and others), and let me tell you from personal experience that it is well worth the price of admission. Last year’s event featured an amazing and overwhelming selection of chocolate treats from some of the region’s best confectioners and pastry chefs, and of course, all proceeds go toward protecting women’s reproductive rights.

Hope to see you there; I’ll be the one stuffing my face full of chocolate.