HorsesAss.Org

Yet another notch in the belt of the regional progressive blogosphere. Darryl at Hominid Views, whose original post led to national ridicule being heaped on Adele Fergusen’s ridiculous, pro-slavery column, reports that the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal has decided to discontinue her column. Way to go Darryl.

The Seattle P-I’s Joel Connelly was happy just to be out of the house after weeks recuperating from hip replacement surgery… but he seemed especially pleased to be at Garfield High School Saturday afternoon, as Senators Maria Cantwell and Barak Obama prepared to speak in the jam-packed gymnasium. “This is a late New Hampshire primary crowd,” he told me, apparently remarking on both the size and the enthusiasm of the audience.

At this point in his long career I think it is fair to describe Connelly as a touch jaded, having comfortably settled into his role as the curmudgeonly deacon of Seattle’s political press corps. So while I could feel the excitement in the air… what do I know? I came away impressed that Connelly was impressed.

No doubt, Obama is a political superstar, and he draws superstar sized crowds, (the Seattle Times estimated the standing-room-only audience at 1,500,) but some of his aura seemed to rub off on Cantwell yesterday, who drew loud applause and a standing ovation from a very friendly crowd.

The two Senators had come to talk about education, and Garfield was the perfect setting. Cantwell, in her more wonkish, policy-focused fashion struck an “education = opportunity” theme, using her own life story as an example of how government programs can positively impact individual lives. Cantwell was the first in her working-class family to go to college, but couldn’t have done it without the support of federal Pell grants.

Obama for his part hit on some larger themes, admitting that there is a “values component” to education, that it’s not just a function of money and government. Parents have to be involved in their children’s education, he exhorted the crowd, they have to turn off the TV set and help their kids with their homework.

But it is also important that government fulfill its promises, he told the audience… that our schools need both more reform and more money. “Every child is special…” Obama poignantly stated, “but our budgets do not reflect that.”

In fact, I have long been disgusted at our decades-old debate over education reform, for as the recipient of an excellent public education myself, I can bluntly tell you that there is no mystery as to what makes a good public school good. Yes, there are many factors, but way above all others are money and parental involvement… and because of the unjust way we finance education, the two tend to go hand in hand.

The best schools are generally those with the best funding and the most family and community participation. Natural ability aside, the best students are generally those whose parents are most involved in their children’s education. Really… no education reform is worth a damn if you don’t properly fund it and the kids do not receive the support they need at home and in the classroom.

The fact is, we know how to make public schools better — there are good public schools all around us. Smaller class size, special needs tutoring, enrichment programs like art, music, physical education, foreign languages… all of these things cost money. We just don’t want to spend this kind of money educating other people’s children.

And the fact is, due to their own financial or personal circumstances — or due to their own crappy education — there are many parents who simply lack the time, the resources, the skill sets, or yes, the values to help their kids succeed academically. These are the families who need the most intervention and counseling… these are the kids who cost the most to educate… and again, we as a society simply refuse to pay for it.

“The basic notion that we have a mutual obligation to each other has been lost,” Obama lamented. And until we restore that notion, I personally don’t think we have a snowball’s chance of truly reforming public education.

Garfield High was not only the perfect place for the Senators to talk about education… as the symbolic center of Seattle’s black community it was also the perfect place to showcase Cantwell’s support from our nation’s highest profile black elected official, as well as local community leaders themselves.

In yesterday’s Seattle P-I, columnist Robert Jamieson criticized Cantwell’s appearance as political opportunism.

Cantwell’s rare visit to the community feels like a slap in the face to Aaron Dixon, who just announced that he would run against her as a Green Party candidate.

But it was Jamieson whose face got slapped, and by none other than longtime Mount Zion Baptist Church minister and Seattle icon, the Rev. Samuel McKinney. Rev. McKinney made a point of refuting Jamieson’s criticism, insisting that Cantwell was no stranger to the black community, and highlighting the work she’s done on its behalf. In a ringing endorsement of Cantwell’s reelection, McKinney instructed the crowd: “When you are ahead, you don’t change.”

All in all, it was a great program. From the teen rapper who warmed up the crowd, to the presenters introducing educational programs that have had an impact on the community, to the featured speakers themselves… it was an entertaining and informative afternoon.

Having never been there myself, I took Connelly’s word that the event had the feel of a New Hampshire primary, and I walked away wondering if in the current political climate there was any national GOP figure who could generate a similar crowd for Mike McGavick?

Perhaps President Bush could do it… and I certainly hope he comes and tries. For while Obama may only be a first term senator, I’d much rather have his enthusiastic endorsement than that of a lame duck president with 33% approval ratings.

More Coverage:
Will, Carl and Andrew have their own take on yesterday’s event.

I’m off to Obama-a-rama. Will report later. In the meanwhile, talk amongst yourselves.

Hmm. I don’t think The Stranger’s Cienna Madrid much cares for President Bush’s new choice for Secretary of the Interior:

I’m from Idaho and I hate Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne. I hated him when he was Senator Kempthorne. I hated him when he was Mayor Kempthorne. And I am resentfully preparing myself to hate him as Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne:
[…]
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

The environment is fucked.
[…]
I bagged his groceries once in the Boise Co-op when I was 16, and that night my parents told me they were getting divorced. Coincidence?
[…]
Every time I have seen Kempthorne “in the flesh”, dogs have been barking at him. Because he stinks of evil.

If I wasn’t straight, Cienna… I think I’d be ladydazzled.

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.