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Great news for WA state Democrats: 21 of the 36 remaining members of the recently diminished state House GOP caucus voted Friday to retain Rep. Richard DeBolt (R-Chehalis) as minority leader.

Why is this good news? Democrats picked up six seats last Tuesday, increasing their hold on the state House to a commanding 62-36 majority, and I think it’s fair to lay at least some of the blame for the GOP’s electoral failure at the clay feet of DeBolt and his ham-fisted, hardball tactics.

House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, was unsure of what to expect from the Republican leadership team in the 2007 session.

She noted the DeBolt-led GOP’s fiery tactics on the 2006 session’s opening day, when the minority tried to bypass protocol and force a vote on a sex-crime bill. The caucus’ political committee later issued mailers criticizing Democrats for their positions on sex offenders.

“In 2004, [DeBolt] was really great to work with. I enjoyed working with him,” Kessler said. “In 2006, not so much.”

If you’re looking for a reason why an Iraq-war-fueled national Democratic wave managed to sweep so many local Republicans out of office, I think you have to look at the mean-spirited, Rove-like tactics of the state and local GOP over the past couple years. The fake sex offender mailings, 2005’s last minute voter registration challenges, the vicious, gay-bashing demagoguery before and after historic passage of WA’s gay civil rights bill… all this helped to make our relatively defanged, homegrown sub-species of Republican virtually indistinguishable in the eyes of average voters from the corrupt, feral and politically rabid breed that inhabits the other Washington.

Thanks in part to DeBolt and his caucus’s efforts to mimic the tactics of their national Party, voters concluded that a Republican is a Republican. And in 2006, that wasn’t a very good thing for a politician to be.

Now the Republican caucuses in both state houses are so small that Democrats don’t really need their votes or input on anything but a constitutional amendment. (And we’re only a few votes shy of not needing them on that either.) Given this disparity of power it would be awfully tempting to dis the GOP caucus the way their Congressional leadership dissed Democrats for most of the past 12 years, but Kessler says she plans to work with DeBolt.

“Because we have this big majority, we feel an extra responsibility to work with the Republicans and keep them engaged,” she said. “I’m hoping he will accept that from us.”

If DeBolt is smart he’ll accept Kessler’s olive branch, though personally I don’t think he deserves it. Considering the geographic divide between the two parties it is in the best interests of all of the state’s residents if the two sides can manage to work together… at least during the session.

Howard Dean defines the new Democratic Party:

“We are going to do the 50-state strategy for the next 150 years so we can be the dominant party power in this country again,” he said. “You can’t be the powerful party in this country who controls the government unless you are willing to let the people control you. And the only way you can do that is ask everybody for their vote, understand everybody is our boss even if they vote for you or not.”

New York Times reporter Timothy Egan is a great writer, and while I haven’t read his new book — “The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl” — I have no doubt he well deserves the National Book Award he just won.

This is a prestigious award, and it’s great to see the Spokane-raised Seattle resident get some local recognition. Front page, above the fold in yesterday’s Seattle Times; that’s quite a tribute, and while I’d rather see Seattle Times reporters writing like Egan than writing about him, I certainly can’t begrudge him the spotlight. Congratulations Tim, you deserve it.

But an editorial in today’s Seattle Times as well? Man, that’s spreading it on a little thick. I mean… who do you gotta sleep with on the Seattle Times editorial board to get gushy coverage like that?

This grainy video was shot on a cell phone Wednesday night at UCLA’s Powell Library, and shows a university student being tased repeatedly by police, apparently for the high crime of talking back. John Aravosis has been following the story extensively at AmericaBlog, as has the Los Angeles Times, but the UCLA Daily Bruin provides the most authentic, first hand report:

At around 11:30 p.m., [Community Service Officers] asked a male student using a computer in the back of the room to leave when he was unable to produce a BruinCard during a random check. The student did not exit the building immediately.The CSOs left, returning minutes later, and police officers arrived to escort the student out. By this time the student had begun to walk toward the door with his backpack when an officer approached him and grabbed his arm, at which point the student told the officer to let him go. A second officer then approached the student as well.

The student began to yell “get off me,” repeating himself several times.

It was at this point that the officers shot the student with a Taser for the first time, causing him to fall to the floor and cry out in pain. The student also told the officers he had a medical condition.

UCPD officers confirmed that the man involved in the incident was a student, but did not give a name or any additional information about his identity.

Video shot from a student’s camera phone captured the student yelling, “Here’s your Patriot Act, here’s your fucking abuse of power,” while he struggled with the officers.

As the student was screaming, UCPD officers repeatedly told him to stand up and said “stop fighting us.” The student did not stand up as the officers requested and they shot him with the Taser at least once more.

Of course, after a 300kV shock, it is quite likely the tased student could not stand up…

According to the many sources, a shock of half a second duration will cause intense pain and muscle contractions startling most people greatly. Two to three seconds will often cause the subject to become dazed and drop to the ground, and over three seconds will usually completely disorient and drop an attacker for at least several minutes and possibly for up to fifteen minutes.

But that’s really beside the point. If the police didn’t need a good reason to tase the student the first time, they didn’t need a reason to tase him the second. Or the third, or the fourth time, for that matter. As Aravosis laments:

In America, even being an asshole isn’t sufficient justification for the authorities to use violence against you. At least it wasn’t until just lately. This incident isn’t just about a student at UCLA, it’s about what’s happened to our country over the past six years and what it means, anymore, to be American.

What’s happened to our country is that America has become a nation that condones torture, and so it only makes sense that some people in law enforcement and other government offices now believe that they have the authority to torture American citizens. (And make no mistake, an electric shock baton or taser is an instrument of torture.) Watch the video. The police repeatedly tase the man in front of dozens of fellow students as if, well, that’s just the way one deals with backtalking trouble-makers. In fact, when bystanders started pleading with the officers to stop, they threatened to tase them too.

As the student and the officers were struggling, bystanders repeatedly asked the police officers to stop, and at one point officers told the gathered crowd to stand back and threatened to use a Taser on anyone who got too close.

Laila Gordy, a fourth-year economics student who was present in the library during the incident, said police officers threatened to shoot her with a Taser when she asked an officer for his name and his badge number.

Now, I don’t say this lightly, and I fully understand the implications of what I am suggesting — but if the crowd of bystanders had attempted to protect their fellow student from the officers by resorting to physical force, they would have been morally justified. During the late 1960’s this was exactly the type of incident that would have sparked a campus riot. And it probably should have yesterday as well.

This was the third time in a week LA area officers were caught on video committing acts of physical abuse. In one incident an officer beat a suspect after a foot chase, and in another incident an officer doused a suspect’s face with pepper spray as he sat handcuffed in a patrol car. And now campus police not only torture an innocent student, they are so confident in their righteousness that they do so in front of a room full of witnesses.

No doubt the vast majority of law enforcement officers respect the rights of the citizens they are sworn to protect, and we should all be grateful to them for putting their lives on the line every day. But when official violence is left unchallenged, unpunished and unanswered, it can only lead to more violence.

UPDATE:
According to an editorial in today’s UCLA Bruin Daily the student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, was tased five times… the final four times while he was handcuffed and immobilized.

If you’re not doing anything tonight, come on down to the Seattle Follies at Town Hall, and watch me and KUOW’s John Moe duke it out in a post-election political boxing match.  Seattle City Councilwoman Sally Clark hosts, 7:30 PM, $15 at the door.  More info…

The federal government’s failed response to Hurricane Katrina, a nearly endless parade of congressional corruption scandals and the deteriorating war in Iraq all played huge roles in creating the anti-Republican tide that swept Democrats into power last week. But to the average voter, nothing brought home the incompetence and arrogance of the Republican regime like rising prices at the pump.

High gas prices were an affront and a hardship that voters angrily faced every day, and so it was with some suspicion that I watched gas prices inexplicably plummet a national average of 75 cents a gallon during the final two months leading up to the election. I’m not a big fan of conspiracy theories, but if oil industry executives wanted to do their best to prop up the corporatist-sponsored Republican leadership… this was a great way to do it.

And now that election day has passed? Hmm. Well I don’t know about your neighborhood, but prices here in South Seattle started rising within days, and are already up as much as a dime a gallon at some stations. And a little bit of Googling finds prices up in Oregon and California as well.

I’m just sayin’.

Yet another indication of the declining fortunes of our city’s two daily newspapers:

Rented furnishings and hidden cameras were among the props Seattle police vice detectives used to arrest nearly 100 men who showed up at a ritzy downtown condo in the past two weeks expecting to pay for sex.

Nearly three-fourths of the men who were arrested on suspicion of patronizing a prostitute responded to postings in the “erotic services” category on craigslist, the free online community where people can search for apartments, jobs, used cars, friends and dates. The rest answered escort ads found in the back pages of The Stranger and Seattle Weekly.

It wasn’t so long ago when the first place Seattle’s horny Johns might have looked for a fair view of a fanny was the pages of Fairview Fannie herself, but her classified ads — once the cash cow of dailies everywhere — are now little more than an afterthought. Nowadays, no self-respecting hooker would advertise her wares in the Times classifieds — it just doesn’t make business sense.

(Of course, I think the fact that this trivial prostitution story is currently the featured headline on its website — the preferred medium of readers in this tech-savvy region — also says something the Times‘ gradual decline.

It took me long enough, but I’ve finally managed to upgrade HA to the latest version of WordPress, giving me access to all the latest and greatest features… not the least of which being the ability to finally deal with all that damn comment spam.

For the most part, the site pretty much looks the same, but you’ll notice a few items that aren’t exactly in the same place any more, along with a much improved comment page that features live preview. Perhaps the best layout change is that the author’s name is now listed at the top of the comment, so you can skip over those written by trolls you have no interest in reading. (And if people really miss the old non-resizable pop-up window, I’m sure you’ll let me.)

I’ve still got some tweaking to do, and I haven’t even begun to explore the plethora of plugins available for WP 2.0, so expect a few feature upgrades over time. And I haven’t extensively tested this on various browsers, so if you’re experiencing any problems, please let me know.

Anyway, a little bit of fiddling with the anti-spam features should clean up the threads. Now if only I can get rid of all those damn readers.

I finally have all my work arounds in place to upgrade from WordPress 1.2 to 2.0.5, and plan to take down HA for an hour or so later tonight to make the transition. I hope.

HA will maintain it’s general look and feel, but with a couple significant changes. Things will move around the sidebars a bit, giving the blogads a more prominent placement, and the whole layout will widen to fill the screen. I’m doing away with the popup comment window (at least for the moment,) instead opting for a better laid out permalink/comment page with a much requested comment preview function.

And oh yeah… the new version enables me to use the latest comment spam blocking plugins, so hopefully all that garbage will be a thing of the past.

Anyway, just thought I’d give you all a heads up. Talk amongst yourselves.

UPDATE:
Comments are temporarily CLOSED while I replicate and upgrade the database. Please be patient.

UPDATE, UPDATE:
I’ve turned comments back on for posts from the last couple of days.

From the National Review online:

As for the horserace, multiple GOP sources say that the contest for Min Leader isn’t much of a contest at all. They say current Maj Leader John Boehner has solid backing in the conference and will win with ease this Friday morning when the secret ballots are cast. Many acknowledge that there is a hunger for change after last Tuesday’s losses, but they say RSC chair/Rep. Mike Pence (R., Ind.) is not a popular alternative. Few give Energy & Commerce Committee chair Joe Barton (R., Tex.) much of a shot, though he could pick up backing from fellow Texans and members of his committee.Holed up in his Capitol office, Boehner is devoting his time to member contacts, not media appearances. Key Boehner allies in the effort include Rep’s Pat Tiberi (R., Ohio), Mike Rogers (R., Mich.), and Dave Reichert (R., Wash.).

So… Reichert has quickly emerged as a “key ally” of Boehner and the corrupt, K Street-controlled, Republican establishment. That didn’t take long.

So much for Reichert’s alleged “conscience-driven independent” streak. (The Seattle Times’ new motto: “All the news that fits our way of thinking.”)

The Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally meets tonight (and every Tuesday), 8PM at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Join us for some much deserved post-election gloating.

Come on by and meet Bill Scher of the blog Liberal Oasis. Bill is a frequent guest of Sam Seder on Air America, and will be at DL tonight selling and signing his new book “Wait! Don’t Move to Canada: A Stay and Fight Strategy to Win Back America.“

Not in Seattle? Washington liberals will also be drinking tonight in the Tri-Cities and Vancouver. Here’s a full run down of WA’s eleven Drinking Liberally chapters, including our newest chapter in the former Republican stronghold of Mercer Island:

	Where:	When:	Next Meeting:
Burien:	Mick Kelly’s Irish Pub, 435 SW 152nd St	Fourth Wednesday of each month, 7:00 pm onward	November 22
Mercer Island:	Roanoke Tavern, 1825 72nd Ave SE	Second and fourth Wednesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 pm	November 22
Kirkland:	Valhalla Bar & Grill, 8544 122nd Ave NE	Every Thursday, 7:00 pm onward	November 16
Monroe:	Eddie’s Trackside Bar and Grill, 214 N Lewis St	Second Wednesday of each month, 7:00 PM onward	December 13
Olympia:	The Tumwater Valley Bar and Grill, 4611 Tumwater Valley Drive South	First and third Monday of each month, 7:00-9:00 pm	November 20
Seattle:	Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Ave E	Every Tuesday, 8:00 pm onward	November 14
Spokane:	Red Lion BBQ & Pub, 126 N Division St	Every Wednesday, 7:00 pm	November 1
Tacoma:	Meconi’s Pub, 709 Pacific Ave	Every Wednesday, 8:00 pm onward	November 15
Tri-Cities:	O’Callahans – Shilo Inn, 50 Comstock, Richland	Every Tuesday, 7:00 pm onward	November 14
Vancouver:	Hazel Dell Brew Pub, 8513 NE Highway 99	Second and fourth Tuesday of each month, 7:00 pm onward	November 14
Walla Walla:	The Green Lantern, 1606 E Isaacs Ave	First Friday of each month, 8:00 pm onward	December 1

(And apparently there’s also an unaffiliated liberal drinking group in Olympia that meets every Monday at 7PM at the Brotherhood Lounge, 119 N. Capital Way.)

I need a little SQL script and don’t feel like learning the syntax. Essentially, I need to iterate through records of a table, and based on the contents of a field, increment a field in the records of another table. If you’re up to the task, please email me and I’ll send you the details.

UPDATE:
Wow… that was fast! A bunch of people emailed offering to help, and I’ve got the problem solved. So thanks to all of you. I hope to load a new and improved HA shortly.

Darcy Burner called Dave Reichert last night to concede the 8th CD race, and apart from Darcy and her family there are few people more disappointed than I am. As Dino Rossi’s most ardent supporters know, it can be terribly frustrating to come so close to an upset victory and lose.

About his victory, Reichert claims that “the key is listening, and being in touch with the community…” yet I’m not so sure he really heard a word voters were saying:

“I am a little surprised it was as tough as it was, because of the inexperience of my opponent,” Reichert said. “The national environment played significantly higher role, and had more of an impact, than I expected it to play.”

What a dick. Totally incapable of any type of introspection.

In a district that has never sent a Democrat to Congress, Reichert nearly lost to an unknown political novice, and he blames it solely on the national climate. He couldn’t even find the grace to bring himself to give Darcy some credit without accusing her of being “nasty.”

But you wanna know the real reason why Reichert won? All you need to do is read this morning’s paper:

Reichert, a former King County sheriff known for helping to capture the Green River Killer…

That’s the main reason why Darcy didn’t trounce Reichert in King County… a lot of people voted for the beloved sheriff who caught the Green River killer. Of course, Reichert didn’t really catch the Green River killer — in fact, he so fucked up the investigation that Gary Ridgeway was allowed to continue to kill for 18 years after he first became a suspect. And the fact that most voters don’t know this…? Well… I blame the media.

And I also blame myself.

No doubt us bloggers played a huge role in building the buzz that led the media and political establishment to recognize Darcy as a viable candidate, but we failed to do the one thing that would have assured her victory: tear Reichert down. Both campaigns were typically negative, and neither was particularly nasty by modern standards. The main difference was, Darcy attacked Reichert on the issues and on his allegiance to President Bush, whereas Reichert attempted to diminish Darcy as a person.

The Seattle Times editorial board’s self-righteous bullshit aside, the truth is, this campaign just wasn’t negative enough. If voters understood the truth about Reichert’s job as sheriff, and about the way he bungled the Green River killer investigation, and then claimed all the credit for himself two decades and dozens of dead women later… Darcy would have won. And with the local media mostly unwilling to reexamine the hero myth they created around Reichert, that type of truth telling fell on the shoulders of us bloggers. And in that, we failed.

That’s one of the two unfortunate lessons I’ve learned from this race. 1) Don’t be afraid to go medieval on a candidate’s ass, if that’s what it takes to win. And 2) the Seattle Times editorial board cannot be trusted to truthfully represent and promote the interests of our community.

I intend to address both these issues in the future.

But… as personally disappointed as I am with the apparent outcome of this race, I fully understand on an intellectual level that both Darcy’s and Peter Goldmark’s campaigns were an integral part of a HUGE victory for the Democratic Party… and particularly for us netroots activists who embraced the 50-state strategy first enunciated by DNC chair Howard Dean. Darcy and Peter threw themselves into races the political and media establishment considered GOP gimmes, forcing the Republicans to draw money and resources away from races elsewhere.

And by fielding hardworking candidates who ran tough campaigns in races everybody expected them to lose, the Democrats showed local voters the type of respect that is absolutely necessary for the party to build towards victory in the future. Whoever the Democratic nominees are in 2008, their races will be made incredibly easier by the hard work Darcy and Peter put into 2006. That’s why I come away from this election with absolute confidence that every last ounce of passion and effort the netroots put into these races, and every last dime we raised, was totally worth it. We helped the Democrats take back Congress, and that after all, was the ultimate prize. The GOP may have successfully defended these seats — this year — but at a great cost.

And so to those in my comment threads who seek solace by mocking me over Darcy’s loss, I ask you: How are you enjoying that Democratic majority in the US House and US Senate, or our near super-majority in the Washington state Legislature? What role did you play in losing three Supreme Court races, and all three statewide initiatives? And hey… how about Mike McGavick’s twenty-point loss to the Dem’s “most vulnerable” Senate incumbent? If all you have to celebrate from last week’s election is the thought that Darcy and Peter and a handful of bloggers might be having a bad day, well then, you really have nothing to celebrate at all.

The truth is, we didn’t get behind Darcy and Peter because we thought they would win, we threw our all into these races because we thought they could win, and because we knew with absolute certainty that making these races close would help other Democrats win elsewhere. And on both counts we were proven right.

Did we shoot for the moon? You betcha. But then, to quote Jack Kennedy:

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.

And so to all of you who volunteered for Darcy and Peter, and who contributed money through my Act Blue page or elsewhere, I want to thank you for a job well done. We may have lost these two races, but overall, we kicked ass, and you all deserve credit.

Now let’s get back to work.

I haven’t directly asked the campaign, but it sure as hell looks like Darcy Burner is going to concede tomorrow morning.

Personally, I wouldn’t. But then, I’m not as gracious as Darcy.

Of course legally, a concession is meaningless. If there’s still a big jackpot of Democratic ballots hiding in the remaining absentees and provisionals, and Darcy wins, then she wins.

I have some more thoughts on the race for WA-08, but I think I’ll wait until the morning.

Before you judge the actions of the new Democratic majority, just remember the example the Republicans set back in 1994.