HorsesAss.Org

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.

Daniel Kirkdorffer has the latest on the ballot counting in the Burner/Reichert race, so really… why bother repeating it here?

Though I do have a couple things to add about those bursting ballot bags that have been widely reported. First, these votes will be counted. A similar problem occurred during the primary, and all those ballots were counted.

Second, these ballots absolutely should be counted. Over on (u)SP my beer-buddy Stefan writes: “What would Democrats do without ballots of questionable provenance?” Questionable provenance my ass. Of course, that’s just his fallback in case Darcy wins.

The fact is, these are absentee ballots, sealed in their envelopes, that were dropped off at the polls on election day, and for which there was a chain of custody from the polling place to the cage. It has been suggested that because the seals were broken on these bags, ballots could have been added after the polls closed, but again… these are absentee ballots, sealed within their envelopes, that must have their signatures verified before the ballots are counted.

Besides, the real risk with the broken seals is not ballots being added, but ballots being removed.

Seattle Initiative 91, which prevents the use of taxpayer money to subsidize arenas (ie a new Key Arena), passed with an overwhelming 74 percent of the vote. To which the Seattle Times says:

This initiative, no matter how hearty its public support, is lousy policy…

(Of course, if I-920 had passed by a hair, the Times would have praised the wisdom of voters, but, well, what do you expect from the Times?)

Sure, maybe I-91 is lousy policy. But then, isn’t that also true of most initiatives?

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to spend a couple hundred million dollars subsidizing the Sonics, but I-91, a totally inflexible measure that could come back to bite us in the future, was the wrong way to stop it. And even initiatives based on sound policy and with good intent are usually crappily written, chock full of vague language and unforeseen consequences.

Let’s face it, some guy sitting in his bonus room churning out initiatives for an up or down vote is a just plain stupid way to legislate. The Times basically came out and said that 74 percent of Seattle voters — you know, the readers it’s tasked with informing — were wrong. Me… I think it’s the process that’s gone to hell.

TANGENTIAL ASIDE:
When the Sonics finally head off to Oklahoma City, no doubt there will be many fans throughout the region cursing us “Seattle liberals” for our obstinance. They might not want to pay for our “gold plated tunnels,” but they have no problem with Seattle taxing itself to build an arena that serves the entire region. So think of this is an important civics lesson to be learned by the region’s suburban and ex-urban isolationists: we all have a shared stake in maintaining urban Seattle as a healthy and vibrant, economic and cultural core.

I grew up in a suburb outside of Philadelphia, but I always considered myself a Philadelphian, as did all our neighbors. Even people who grew up across the river in Cherry Hill and other New Jersey suburbs tended to identify themselves as Philadelphians.

Yet ask a traveling Puget Soundian where they are from and they’re at least as likely to say Bellevue or Renton or Redmond as they are to simply reply Seattle. There are kids who grow up on the Eastside whose parents rarely allow them to venture into the big, bad city except for sporting events or other special occasions; for some of our region’s youth, their first days at the UW must seem like visiting some strange, foreign land.

I hate to break it to you folks, but Bellevue is Seattle. Renton and Redmond are both Seattle. Mercer Island? Most definitely Seattle. And the same is true in reverse.

Perhaps that’s one of the things we saw in Tuesday’s election when traditionally Republican Eastside districts were virtually swept by the Democrats: a growing regionalism in which suburban voters recognize how much in common they have with their urban neighbors, sharing both values and interests.

Or maybe not.

It’s Post-Election Gloating Special tonight on “The David Goldstein Show” on Newsradio 710-KIRO, from 7PM to 10PM.

7PM: How will the Democratic Party ever survive those crazy “nutroots”…? Democrats won big, big, BIG on Tuesday, retaking both the US House and Senate. And while some people say same of the credit should go to us bloggers and internet activists, others say us crazy, far-left, whacked-out “nutroots” are going to be the death of Democratic Party. Joan McCarter, better known as frontpage blogger McJoan on that crazy, far-left, whacked-out blog Daily Kos joins me to give her perspective on Tuesday’s election and the role of the netroots now and in the future. Oh.. and she’ll also do some gloating.

8PM: Still want to move to Canada? Tuesday was only a start, and I’m pretty damn sure we’ll take a couple of steps backwards on our way to a true progressive majority. Bill Scher of the blog Liberal Oasis is in town promoting his new book “Wait! Don’t Move to Canada!“, and he’ll be joining me in the studio to argue for his “stay-and-fight strategy to win back America.” And of course, we’ll do some gloating as well.

9PM: What’s the matter with Washington? As big an ass-whooping as the Democrats delivered nationally, that’s nothing compared to the clean-sweep in statewide and legislative races, where the Dems took near super-majorities in both houses. Progressive Majority of Washington’s Dean Nielsen will call in at the top of the hour to give us an update on the legislative races, and former Republican state Rep. Toby Nixon will join me in the studio for the entire hour to talk about what led to his party’s stunning defeat (including his own) and what he expects from the fattened Democratic majority in Olympia. Will Democrats overreach? Will they be too timid? Toby will tell us. (And since Toby is such a stand-up guy, I’ll try not to do too much gloating.

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

I spent most of the past couple days mucking around with WordPress 2.0, building a new template so that I could finally upgrade my cranky old copy of 1.2 and deal with comment spam assault I’m under. And things went pretty darn well… until I ran the 1.2 to 1.5 upgrade script late last night, and the mySQL server crashed. And then crashed again.

And I think, it’s all your fault. I’m guessing the problem is that my database is just plain huge… over 100 MB of comments alone.

So if anybody has a solution short of jettisoning the comment threads, please let me know.

In the meanwhile, I’ll delete the comment spam when I get around to deleting the comment spam. If people have a problem with that, don’t read the comments. But if I keep getting complaints about the spam via email or comment, I might as well just turn off comments altogether.

Light posting this weekend as I focus on some system maintenance. So talk amongst yourselves.

Yesterday I poked fun at my beer-buddy Stefan for posting the following paranoid fantasy:

I heard a story from an informed source that someone walked into a polling place in Bellevue and stuffed a bunch of “flood ballots” into an Accuvote. They have lawyers looking into this.

Well, KCRE has finished its investigation, and it turns out that Stefan was right: somebody did stuff a bunch of ballots into an Acuvote. Um… into the slot on the side of the cart, that is. You know, the one where you are supposed to stuff absentee and provisional ballots.

The Republican poll worker who reported the incident insisted that this was suspicious because one person shouldn’t have had more than one ballot, but of course one can easily imagine a circumstance where somebody might gather up absentee ballots from family, neighbors or co-workers, and drop them off at a polling station or a post office.

So I guess, where there’s smoke there’s, um, smoke.