HorsesAss.Org

The US Senate narrowly passed a budget bill last night that included funding for drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge… and personally, I blame Mike McGavick. I mean… the guy claims he can make Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens pull bills, so certainly, he could have used his super-human powers on ANWR. But he didn’t. What a disappointment.

It’s a Stranger kind of day. Josh Feit reports on Slog that Okanogan County rancher Peter Goldmark is back in the race against first term GOP Rep. Cathy McMorris in the 5th Congressional District… and a whole bunch of sources confirm that it is true.

Goldmark’s got a great bio for the district, and while I’ve never met him, those who have assure me that he’ll be a great candidate. This is a guy with stature, and it would be a huge mistake for McMorris to take his challenge lightly.

As Rep. Jay Insee points out in The Stranger’s feature story on Darcy Burner, Republicans could be facing a very tough election… even in solidly red Eastern Washington:

“There’s no way to predict anything in politics, but right now it does look like there’s the potential for a tsunami like the one we experienced in 1994,” Inslee told me. “The conditions that existed then, I believe, exist now. The country is outraged at the ineptitude and incompetence of this administration.”

Inslee says he’s “very impressed” with Burner, but adds that if the electorate is demanding change, it may be enough for her to simply not be Reichert. “Once a tide like that begins to run,” he says, “it doesn’t matter what kind of swimmer you are, you can be swept out.”

The political climate is such that upsets can happen… but in order to win an upset election, you have to have a candidate running. With Goldmark the Democrats have found a very credible challenger who could turn this into a very interesting race.

I’ll be on the John Carlson Show, 570-KVI today at 3:05 PM, talking about whether we should apply campaign finance laws to bloggers. Um… I think I’ll say “no.”

UPDATE:
Stayed on for a couple calls. Man… I seem to make these guys angry. Is it something I’ve said?

I think Eli Sanders may be in love, but too bad for him, Darcy Burner is happily married. Not that I blame him. A lot of people are falling in love with Burner… well, at least her candidacy anyway.

Burner is running against first-term Republican Dave Reichert in Washington’s 8th Congressional District, and Sanders’ feature in this week’s Stranger (“Fighting Mood“) is a great introduction to both the electoral dynamics and the candidate herself.

Darcy Burner is a military brat, computer geek, and former Microsoft executive. Howard Dean believes she can help the Democrats take Washington State’s 8th Congressional District and the U.S. Congress

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Pew pegs Bush’s approval at 33 percent. SurveyUSA has Bush above 50 percent in only three states: Utah, Wyoming and Alabama. No wonder Republicans are switching parties.

Gee, I sure hope longtime Kitsap Peninsula columnist Adele Fergusen is suffering from senile dementia… because I’d hate to think such wrong-headed sentiments could come from somebody in their right mind.

The pony hidden in slavery is the fact that it was the ticket to America for black people. I have long urged blacks to consider their presence here as the work of God, who wanted to bring them to this raw, new country and used slavery to achieve it. A harsh life, to be sure, but many immigrants suffered hardships and indignations as indentured servants. Their descendants rose above it. You don’t hear them bemoaning their forebears’ life the way some blacks can’t rise above the fact theirs were slaves.

Ironically, these shockingly unselfconscious comments come from a column intended to persuade African Americans to join Fergusen in voting Republican. “Why do blacks continue to support Democrats?” she boldly asks.

Well… um… maybe Fergie, because angry, old, shriveled-up Republicans like you are a bunch of fucking racists?

Of course Fergusen has always been an alter kaker, so given her advanced age, perhaps she can be forgiven her Douglas Wilson moment. But you’ve got to wonder… what were the supposedly sane editors at the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal thinking?

UPDATE:
Thanks to Darryl at Hominid Views, via The General, Fergusen’s column has gotten national attention. So the KPBJ has of course done the responsible thing… mysteriously pulled the column from their website, without comment.

Fortunately, I just so happened to print a copy as a PDF.

Human Events, a “national conservative weekly,” wants to set the record straight about former FEMA Director Michael Brown. So who did they choose to write their “exclusive” expose “Media Maelstrom Over Michael Brown“…? None other than Brownie’s longtime attorney and personal friend, Andy Lester.

In a section entitled “Distorting the Truth” Lester once again accuses me of lying:

The sharks smelled blood. It was time to dig up dirt. The blogosphere came to the rescue.

Suddenly, a swirl of stories appeared that Brown had been forced out of his last job. Who broke the story? Not the major media. It was a website, aptly named HorsesAss.org. The story was false. But the media picked it up, ran with it, and kept repeating it.

Hmm. Only problem is, the story was true. Invective aside, let’s take a look at what I wrote in that original post:

Yes, that’s right… the man responsible for directing federal relief operations in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, sharpened his emergency management skills as the “Judges and Stewards Commissioner” for the International Arabian Horses Association… a position from which he was forced to resign in the face of mounting litigation and financial disarray.

Both Brown and Lester apparently believe that my post played a significant role in his downfall, but they entirely miss the significance of what I wrote. Forget for a moment the question of whether Brown resigned under pressure in the face of mounting and costly litigation… although this was well documented in industry newsletters at the time, and corroborated by reporters following up on my post.

The story I broke — the story that turned Brown into the butt of jokes about Bush administration cronyism — was simply that Brown’s work experience immediately prior to joining FEMA was a decade serving as Judges and Stewards Commissioner for the IAHA… an indisputable fact. In the context of FEMA’s disastrous performance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Brown’s utter lack of emergency management experience became a big story.

Lester argues that his friend Brown was the victim of an unscrupulous blogger and an irresponsible press corps, a critique as familiar as it is disingenuous. Indeed, even the title of his expose includes a calculated lie, in the claim that it is an “exclusive.” In fact, most of the piece was lifted word for word from a guest column Lester wrote back in September, 2005 for the ironically named Accuracy in Media.

Whatever the extenuating circumstances of the federal government’s failed response to Katrina (and there is plenty of blame to go around) there remains little doubt that Brownie brought to FEMA a resume with absolutely no qualifications to recommend him for the job. Lester can offhandedly malign HA all he wants, but it doesn’t change the facts.

Clearly, there’s nothing more threatening to homeland security than pacifists.

The latest edition of Podcasting Liberally is now available for your listening pleasure. Joining me at our weekly beer-inspired political gabfest was Lee, Gavin, Mollie, Will, and Seattle Weekly / Eat the State writer Geov Parrish.

Topics of discussion included South Dakota’s asinine abortion ban and what this means to Democratic prospects in 2006 and beyond (sorry Dino), what the fuck is wrong with the Greens, Sen. Russ Feingold’s censure motion, and the state of state’s newspaper industry.

And we closed the show by announcing our brand spanking new PodcastingLiberally.com website. Our weekly podcasts from DL are now online, archived, and conveniently packaged into an RSS feed… so subscribe away. We have big plans to expand our programming over time, so if you’re interested in joining our lineup, let’s chat.

Big thanks to Gavin and Richard for producing our show and for putting together the new website. And be sure to listen to their latest edition of Confab.

The Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally meets tonight (and every Tuesday), 8PM at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. I’ll be there, knocking back a couple of pints of Manny’s, and recording the latest edition of Podcasting Liberally.

And don’t forget, the Tri-Cities chapter of DL, also meets Tuesdays from 5:30 onwards, Tuscany Lounge, 1515 George Washington Way, Richland. Ask Jimmy for more info.

48th District Rep. Rodney Tom, a two-term Republican from Bellevue, has announced that he will seek the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Republican state Sen. Luke Esser.

“Senator Luke Esser and the Republicans in Olympia have moved so far to the right they no longer represent the interests of mainstream voters. They have become more focused on partisan politics than real results,” said Tom. “Running and serving in the Senate as a Democrat will allow me to be more effective at solving problems, making smart investments in education and transportation and ensuring fiscal responsibility.”

While I appreciate his sentiment, and welcome him to the Democratic Party, I simply cannot endorse his candidacy… not in this district, not at this time. Not only is Esser out of touch with mainstream voters in the 48th, judging from his voting record, so is Tom. And besides, the Dems already have a strong challenger to Esser in Debi Golden.

In fact, Golden, a former teacher and current curriculum and course designer for Bellevue Community College, nearly beat Tom two years ago, despite a late start and no prior campaign experience. She’s also yet another alum of my class at Camp Wellstone, which includes such rising stars as 8th CD congressional candidate Darcy Burner and 45th LD senate candidate Eric Oemig.

There is a common misconception that the 48th LD is a Republican district, but don’t let the likes of Esser and Tom fool you. In 2004 John Kerry got 56 percent of the vote district wide, and Dave Ross carried most of the precincts as well. Clearly, the changing demographics of the district, plus a strong challenge for his own seat from former Kirkland mayor Deb Eddy, are the primary forces behind Tom’s move.

Given the choice between a progressive Democrat like Golden or a moderate ex-Republican like Tom, I’m choosing Golden. And I’m guessing that in a closed primary, 48th district Democrats will choose Golden as well.

Still, I look at Tom’s flipping as a sign of things to come. Over the coming months, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple more suburban R’s either switch parties or decline to seek reelection. The realignment is well under way.

Writing in the Conservative Voice, the Rev. Jerry Falwell makes a “gracious correction” to an article in the Jerusalem Post, that had claimed he had accepted the doctrine of “dual covenant.”

Earlier today, reports began circulating across the globe that I have recently stated that Jews can go to heaven without being converted to Jesus Christ. This is categorically untrue.
[…]
While I am a strong supporter of the State of Israel and dearly love the Jewish people and believe them to be the chosen people of God, I continue to stand on the foundational biblical principle that all people

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Here’s a starting point for all those who prefer the Viaduct rebuild option because you just love those sweeping views from your car… there won’t be any.

When I saw the piece in today’s Seattle Times about foreign language ballots, I just knew this was something our good friend Stefan would weigh in on, and sure enough, he didn’t disappoint.

The federal Voting Rights Act is scheduled to expire this year, and with it the section that requires ballots be printed in foreign languages when minority speakers comprise a minimum percentage of eligible voters. It is under this provision that King County prints ballots in Chinese, and three other WA counties print ballots in Spanish.

Stefan’s take was pretty much what I expected:

The foreign language ballot provisions of the Voting Rights Act should be allowed to expire next year. Universal voting in English is central to our melting pot. Let alone the expense and distraction of duplicating infrastructure to cater to tiny minorities. The last thing this country needs is to cater to linguistic minorities and give immigrants more incentives not to assimilate.

‘Cause you know, nothing threatens our democracy more than “linguistic minorities” like, um… my great-grandmother, who emigrated from Eastern Europe as a teen, worked hard all her life, raised a family, helped start and run a small retail shop that fed and clothed three generations… and mostly spoke Yiddish until her dying day. Yeah.. helping people like my bubbie vote represents everything that’s wrong with America.

This was exactly the sort of sentiment I’ve come to expect from Stefan, who consistently opposes any effort to make the franchise more accessible. Of course, his position reflects a certain cynical, electoral calculus, but I think this passionate opposition to multilingual ballots — as echoed by some of the comments in his thread — is more… how shall we say… genuine.

For example, one commenter expressed distress at what she called “uncertified ‘photo-copied’ Americans,” lamenting:

We have enough of the Little China, Little Italy and the Little India districts…. Will we need to create a Little America district someday?

Well, where else will we find all those great American restaurants?

And of course, my favorite comment had to be the one that derided our nation’s tolerance of non-native speakers:

We give them no incentive at all to become part of what had made the USA great: E Pluribus Unum.

Yup… I can’t think of a better way to argue the primacy of the English language than to do it in Latin.

And then there is the argument that multilingual ballots are unnecessary because English proficiency is a prerequisite of naturalization. Well, that’s simply not true. Our naturalization laws include broad exemptions due to age or disability; for example, English proficiency is waived for those over 50, with 20 years of permanent residence. Which I suppose explains why the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services official Guide to Naturalization is printed in five languages… including Tagalog.

Personally, I’m willing to consider a cost-benefit analysis in determining whether translating and printing multilingual ballots is worth the expense in time and money. Obviously, if there wasn’t a point of diminishing returns, we’d be printing ballots in dozens of languages.

But I find it hard to accept the assertion that making ballots accessible to non-English speakers somehow constitutes bad public policy. The right to vote is the most basic right of citizenship, and to withhold it as an incentive towards forced, cultural assimilation, strikes me as downright un-American.

Looking for something to chat about? Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) will introduce a resolution today to officially censure President Bush for breaking the law (specifically, FISA) by conducting illegal, domestic wiretaps… and he writes about it in a diary on Daily Kos.