HorsesAss.Org

On my first visit to Seattle back in 1989, my future ex-wife took me on a tour of her beloved hometown, which of course included the downtown waterfront. Walking hand-in-hand through the shadows of the clamorous and crumbling Alaska Way Viaduct, I subtly remarked on how the structure dominated the sites and sounds of an otherwise charming tourist trap:

“I can’t believe they built a fucking freeway through the waterfront!” I gently screamed in her ear… to which she quizzically replied: “What?!”

Of course, I understand the historical circumstances that led to this gashing, open wound through a neighborhood that would otherwise enjoy some of the highest property values in the state. And I certainly share the pragmatic, financial concerns of those who oppose a more expensive tunnel replacement.

But really… can anybody honestly tell me that rebuilding this monstrosity is the preferred alternative, especially after we now learn that a replacement Viaduct would have to be 50 percent wider than the existing structure, with columns twice as thick, just to meet current seismic and traffic safety standards?

Let’s put this in perspective. Imagine the Viaduct had never been built, and SR 99 currently passed through the waterfront at grade, traffic lights and all, like any other street. (You know… the way it currently runs through much of Seattle.)

Now suppose we wanted to alleviate local traffic snarls by allowing 99’s thru-traffic to bypass Alaska Way. Do you believe for a moment that any politician in their right mind would propose plunking down a massive, double-decker, view-destroying, elevated freeway, essentially cutting off the waterfront from the rest of the downtown? Do you believe a single editorial board would come out in support of such an outrageously ugly, noisy and expensive transportation folly? Do you really think our state Legislature would have provided $2 billion of taxpayer’s money towards such a controversial proposal?

Of course not! Financial priorities, aesthetics, and common sense simply would not allow it.

A lot has changed since the Viaduct was constructed over 50 years ago, and modern, world-class cities no longer wall off their waterfronts with massive freeway projects; indeed, any urban planner who proposed such a project would be laughed out of the profession. Yet it’s the rebuild boosters who seem to be laughing as if their opponents are out of touch with reality: money is tight they patronizingly explain to us… we simply cannot afford a tunnel.

Right.

Over the last decade taxpayers have spent a billion dollars building and refurbishing stadia and arenas to the benefit of billionaire sports team owners, and maybe, just maybe, the bonds on the now demolished Kingdome will finally be paid off before the next round of extortion begins. Yet we’re told we can’t afford the extra billion dollars for the tunnel alternative, despite its estimated life-span of at least 100 hundred years… twice that of an elevated viaduct.

I find that hard to believe. And besides, it shouldn’t be up to state legislators to make that decision. The state has ponied up it’s $2 billion bucks, and if local voters want to tax themselves to turn our waterfront into a world class destination, well then, that’s up to us. Now that the Monorail has been permanently derailed, let’s give voters the opportunity to use the local MVET to help finance the tunnel and other road improvements. And why not start talking about a special taxing district — much like the one financing South Lake Union development — so that those property owners who stand to reap the biggest rewards from the Viaduct’s removal, also pay a higher percentage of the cost?

And if we still can’t find the money to pay for a tunnel, well… we can’t do what we can’t do. But that still doesn’t make a replacement viaduct the preferred alternative.

It’s time for our state and local civic and political leaders to get their heads out of the 1950’s, and start imagining the city with a fresh perspective. It’s time to start giving serious attention to a third replacement option, one which I would argue is far preferable to replacing the existing Viaduct with a new, bulked-up model: the waterfront boulevard.

That’s exactly what San Francisco did after the double-decker, Embarcadero Freeway collapsed during the 1989 Loma Prieta quake… a change that revitalized the waterfront. And citizens liked the results so much that they just opened a new 6-lane boulevard to replace a portion of the Central Freeway, right through the heart of the downtown.

I believe that much of the legislative opposition to the tunnel stems both from institutional timidity, and urban Democrats’ justified fear that their opponents will seize on the tunnel as a symbol of out-of-control, profligate spending on the part of the party in charge.

But I also think that opposition stems from a lack of imagination. The generation in power now grew up with a loud, ugly, double-decker freeway cutting through an otherwise spectacular waterfront, and they simply cannot envision the city without it.

Well not me. I came to this city as an outsider, and I’m here to tell you that the Viaduct sucks. And you know what…? Rebuilding it 50 percent wider can only make it suck at least 50 percent more.

Remember… this is where all the off-topic stuff goes. Really.

The latest installment of Podcasting Liberally is now available for your listening pleasure… or whatever emotion you feel when listening to a bunch of lubricated, Seattle liberals talk politics.

Joining me this week is Carl, Mollie, Will, N in Seattle, and former Stranger reporter Sandeep Kaushik (apparently, the only one amongst us who can afford a full name.) Listen in as we talk about the Oscars, Seattle’s tunnel vision, and the Bush administration’s forward thinking initiative to threaten journalists with execution. We also calmly and cogently answer the question posed by Will’s Republican friends: why are Republicans so rational and logical, while us Democrats are rely so much on emotion? (Short answer: “Fuck you.”)

KUOW radio (94.9 FM) will preempt its regular NPR programming tomorrow to bring you a recording of last week’s Ron Sims v. Ken Hutcherson debate, followed by a live call-in show. The debate will air from 11 am to 12:30 pm. Calls will be taken from 12:30 pm to 1 pm.

I don’t expect the airing on KUOW to change any more minds on gay civil rights than the live debate did, but it will be informative and entertaining nonetheless, so I highly recommend tuning in.

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.

Oh… and if you happen to be on the other side of the mountains, please join Jimmy at the Tri-Cities chapter of DL, every Tuesday from 5:30 onwards, Tuscany Lounge, 1515 George Washington Way, Richland.

As the state Legislature enters the final days of the session, one of the pressing issues they are addressing is SB 6533, which would provide restaurants a B&O tax credit on fifty percent of the $1/gallon tax on carbonated soft drink syrup?

WTF?

Not only would this tax break drain $10 million a year from state coffers — money that could be used, say… to provide health coverage for 10,000 children — it would incentivize businesses to sell and market a product that is harmful to children’s health.

This is not just a classic example of special interest tax legislation, it is just plain stupid… and the Children’s Alliance wants you to tell your legislators to vote no. They’ve set up a Take Action form that makes it easy for you to send an email to Gov. Gregoire and your own district representatives, asking them to oppose thus unnecessary tax credit. It is always more effective if you write your own personal message in the available field, but all you really need to do is just fill in your address information and click send.

Let’s send a message that if businesses want to talk about tax breaks, they need to do so in the context of broader tax restructuring. I’ve sent my email. Please send yours.

Some big changes are coming to HA over the next few weeks, and in preparation I’ve decided to introduce the first change now: the daily open thread.

This is the place where all totally off-topic comments should go. I don’t mind if comment threads organically drift onto tangents, but if you have something entirely unrelated to say, post your comment here.

For now I’m merely asking you to politely follow these guidelines, but in a couple weeks we will be switching to software where these rules can and will be strictly enforced… not by me, but by your fellow members of the HA community.

Who says the Bush administration doesn’t learn from its mistakes? After being whipped by a public backlash over leaked information about illegal domestic wiretapping, the Bushies have come upon a sure fire solution to all their problems: execute journalists.

The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks of classified information, has launched initiatives targeting journalists and their possible government sources. The efforts include several FBI probes, a polygraph investigation inside the CIA and a warning from the Justice Department that reporters could be prosecuted under espionage laws.

[…]

In a little-noticed case in California, FBI agents from Los Angeles have already contacted reporters at the Sacramento Bee about stories published in July that were based on sealed court documents related to a terrorism case in Lodi, according to the newspaper.

Some media watchers, lawyers and editors say that, taken together, the incidents represent perhaps the most extensive and overt campaign against leaks in a generation, and that they have worsened the already-tense relationship between mainstream news organizations and the White House.

“There’s a tone of gleeful relish in the way they talk about dragging reporters before grand juries, their appetite for withholding information, and the hints that reporters who look too hard into the public’s business risk being branded traitors,” said New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller, in a statement responding to questions from The Washington Post. “I don’t know how far action will follow rhetoric, but some days it sounds like the administration is declaring war at home on the values it professes to be promoting abroad.”

A tone of gleeful relish over the prospect of imprisoning those perceived to be the political opposition? Man… we’ve never heard that coming from the right-wingers before. Though.

At Langley, the CIA’s security office has been conducting numerous interviews and polygraph examinations of employees in an effort to discover whether any of them have had unauthorized contact with journalists. CIA Director Porter J. Goss has spoken about the issue at an “all hands” meeting of employees, and sent a recent cable to the field aimed at discouraging media contacts and reminding employees of the penalties for disclosing classified information, according to intelligence sources and people in touch with agency officials.

“It is my aim, and it is my hope, that we will witness a grand jury investigation with reporters present being asked to reveal who is leaking this information,” Goss told a Senate committee.

The Justice Department also argued in a court filing last month that reporters can be prosecuted under the 1917 Espionage Act for receiving and publishing classified information.

As if the so-called “mainstream” media hasn’t become timid enough under the yoke of its corporate ownership, now the Bush administration wants reporters to face the threat of being tried as spies. Nurses are being investigated for sedition… reporters are being investigated for espionage… I guess cheap consumer goods aren’t the only thing we’ve been importing from China.

I’m flying in from Philly today (and boy will my arms be tired.) So chew on an open thread in my absence.

You know, I had thought that one of the advantages of being Jewish is that nobody could accuse me of being a traitor to the so-called Aryan race… but I hadn’t counted on our modern, sensitized, 21st century Nazis being so inclusive:

Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2006 00:32:10 EST
From:
To: goldy@horsesass.org
Subject: RACE TRAITOR

JEW COMMUNIST SCUM, WE ARE WATCHING YOU!!!!!!!

Confidentiality Notice: The information contained in this e-mail and any attachments is Racially and Religiously privileged and confidential. It is intended for specific Aryan recipients only and Brothers and Sisters of their choosing. If you are a jew, you can only be in possession through deceit, treachery, guile, cunning, dissimulation and chicanery, and such possession of this e-mail is contrary to law. You are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail through the error of someone else, you must notify the sender and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments immediately. You should neither retain, nor copy nor use this e-mail or any attachment for any purpose. Disclosure of all or any part of the contents to any other jew is a punishable offense.

The email went on to helpfully include the addresses of several Nazi websites, but out of deference to the confidentiality notice above, I have declined to promote them here. Out of similar respect, I have also redacted the email address of the sender, but I assure you that googling it would uncover additional useful resources on the American Nazi movement… that is, assuming you consider a handful of ridiculous, drably-costumed nutcases protesting ironic statues, to be a “movement.”

I should note that this is far from the first anti-semitic email I have received, nor is it remotely the most offensive… in fact, these “official” Nazis could learn quite a few tricks from the amateurs. But whether you chalk it up to boldness or stupidity, it is the first overt threat I’ve ever received where the sender apparently did not feel the need to maintain total anonymity.

For years, Dave Neiwert over at Orcinus has chronicled the gradual spread of eliminationist rhetoric from the far right-wing fringe into mainstream discourse. But the flip-side to the mainstreaming of their rhetoric, is that these extremists continue to grow ever more extreme. And bolder. And for this, the high-profile, professional antagonists who make their living parroting this violent hate speech (i.e. Ann Coulter) have at least some moral culpability.

Judging from his email address, my pen-pal fancies himself an elite, SS commando — a twisted, if sadly pathetic fantasy — though in the real world, I’m guessing he’s more beer belly than Beer Hall Putsch.

Whatever. Watch me all you want. (Right now I’m doing my one finger version of the Nazi salute.) Just bear in mind, we’re watching you too.

I haven’t paid much attention to these things in the past, but I’m told the Koufax Awards are pretty prestigious as blog awards go, and well, HA has been nominated for two of them. The first round of voting has just started, and if you think I’m deserving, I’d appreciate you linking on over and casting your vote for HorsesAss.org in the respective comment thread.

Best State & Local Blog

Best Series (on Mike Brown & FEMA)

Show a little love, but vote once, and no freeping. And please feel free to pass this on.

The Seattle P-I’s Thomas Shapley sounds a little pissed….

Keep quiet about legislation pending in Olympia. After newspapers were outraged that a shield bill might be partly hung up over Senate Dems’ fear of a GOP attorney general getting credit for the media-friendly bill, Sen. Erik Poulsen, D-Seattle, told a Seattle paper, “you don’t threaten and insult the party in power and get your bill passed.”

Hmm. Really? So… um… if you want to pressure legislators to pass a bill, you gotta be (shhhhh) very quiet. Wow. Just think of all the money special interests are wasting on lobbying and PR.

Shapley snarkily continues:

That’s as crude as cautioning politicians about messing with folks who buy ink by the barrel.

Touche, but… uh… what’s so special about ink?

See, you didn’t hear much support for this bill from us bloggers, because quite frankly, it specifically excluded us… an exclusion the editorialists seemed well aware of every time they reassured their readers that the bill only shielded those who “earn their living” from journalism. Gee… thanks for the collegiality guys.

Of course I understand the pragmatic need to draw the line somewhere, otherwise anybody could throw just about anything up on Blogspot and cynically claim shield law protections. But it’s hard to argue that what I do — every single day — isn’t journalism. I do research, I conduct interviews, I threaten and insult politicians… and sometimes, I even break stories that influence current events.

And of course, I write. And I write. And I write and write and write and write. I often write more words in a day than columnists like Shapley write in a week.

But unfortunately for me, I’ve apparently violated the cardinal rule of capitalism: I’ve failed to commoditize myself by putting a price on my product. So no matter how professionally I endeavor to conduct myself, no matter how many hours I devote to my craft, unless somebody pays me by the hour I simply don’t deserve the same legal protections afforded professional journalists. Well ain’t that a slap in the face?

Notice, it’s not enough simply to earn a little cash from my efforts; part-time freelancers would have been excluded too. Advertising and donations bring in a little spare change, but no… apparently, I’d have to earn my living from blogging for the law to consider me a real journalist… and even then I’m not convinced the bill’s protections would have applied.

Hmm. I wonder if Seattle Times’ publisher Frank Blethen would fall under the bill’s protection, since in attempting to break the JOA, he has claimed his paper has lost money for years? So how exactly does a newspaper’s owner “earn a living” from a paper that loses money?

Well, not to worry Frank, because the bill was pretty much intended to protect only those journalists steadily employed by media corporations — and those who own them — because… um… you know… when our founding fathers proclaimed the exigence of a “free press,” they of course meant only that press which charged for its services. Which means Frank wouldn’t have to go to jail for protecting a source, but I would.

Well screw that.

To all you whistle-blowers, leakers, and law firm copy boys out there just itching to let the public know what you know we all need to know, whatever the information’s legal provenance, here’s a tip: I wouldn’t trust those pampered, princesses in the paid media as far as I could throw them. Listen to them whine about their precious shield law… what kind of confidence does that give you that they’d be willing to give up their freedom to protect yours?

Us bloggers, on the other hand, we’ve got balls.

Shield law? Shield law?! We don’t need no stinkin’ shield law! If I promise to protect your identity, I’ll protect your identity, whatever the consequences. And you can rest assured that no chicken-shit, lawsuit-shy publisher is ever going to hand over my notes… because I have no publisher. (And quite frankly, I’m so disorganized, I don’t really have notes.)

Why would I martyr myself to protect a source? Well, maybe because I’m a little nuts. And maybe I’m savvy enough to realize that the first local blogger to be jailed for not revealing his source is going to walk out of prison with a national profile.

But mostly it’s because I believe that the only protection against fascism is a free press, and I simply don’t trust the corporate media to fill this crucial role on its own. Sure, I’d rather the shield law be extended to bloggers like me than not — if only out of respect — but if Rob McKenna and the editorial boards and eventually the state Legislature want to measure a journalist’s professionalism in dollars earned, well then, that’s up to them.

Every day journalists the world over risk their freedom — and their lives — in defense of a free press. Now that’s professionalism. Kinda puts the spat over WA’s shield law into perspective.

Carla at Premptive Karma has the scoop:

A DC political operative has told me that Brent Wilkes, one of the individuals charged with bribing Republican Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham, has struck a deal with prosecutors to testify.

Wilkes will implicate four more Republicans for possible criminal activity: Richard Pombo,John Doolittle,Duncan Hunter, and Jerry Lewis.

Carla can’t second-source it, but she says it comes from an extremely reliable source who is “highly confident” of the information. She goes on to write:

The same source is also indicating that Republican Congressman Tom DeLay will step down if he wins his primary. This would allow for the RNC to appoint someone new to his seat to run against the Democrat in November.

Should be interesting to see how this plays out.

[Cross-posted at Daily Kos]

I was talking to The Stranger’s Josh Feit yesterday afternoon, and he was little worried. The folk at Town Hall had moved the Sims v. Hutch debate upstairs into the big room –apparently to accommodate the camera crews — and Josh was concerned that the audience might look embarrassingly small in the thousand-seat auditorium. “What if only twelve people show up?” he asked me. I assured him that I’d be there to make it a baker’s dozen.

As it turned out, I barely got in. A large, raucous crowd filled the auditorium, including an enthusiastic cheering section for Hutcherson’s Antioch Bible Church. I’d never seen so many queer people in one place… and there were a lot of gays and lesbians there too. This was one, pumped up crowd… more like the audience you might expect for a superstar comedian than a political debate. And judging from the audience reaction, The Stranger may have stumbled upon the greatest debating act since Timothy Leary v. G. Gordon Liddy.

They were loud, they were passionate, they were in your face… and that was just the audience. A steady wave of cheers, jeers, hisses, catcalls, laughter and groans rolled across the audience towards the dueling orators on stage. Both men received several standing ovations from their admirers. Both men seemed to genuinely enjoy the fierce debate.

This was politics the way it should be: raw, energetic… and entertaining. If all political rallies, all political events, all political debates were as much fun as this, we’d have 95 percent voter turnout… we’d have the nation’s youth clamoring to get involved. Politics wouldn’t just be more fun… it’d be downright cool.

Anyway, I’m not going to get into the details, but Michael has great coverage over at BlatherWatch, Will throws in a few pithy observations of his own, and the Seattle P-I does its darnedest to make the whole affair sound typically boring. I’m told the Seattle Channel shot the event, and if you get the chance, I highly recommend watching for yourself.

I’ll just sum up the Battle in Seattle by saying that I thought Sims kicked Hutch’s ass. (But then, I’m biased.) The topic was gay civil rights, and Hutch and his “church folk” wanted to make it a theological debate. It’s not, and Sims wouldn’t bite.

I’d love to see both men get a chance to hone their rhetoric by going at it a couple more times, but if all Hutcherson has to back up his public policy is the Christian Bible, then he really doesn’t deserve having his public profile raised any further… and Sims shouldn’t help him raise it.

I doubt many minds were changed last night, but it sure was fun. And that’s something you don’t often get to say about politics.

I’ve been busy. So here’s your open thread, a little early.

UPDATE:
Online polls suck. They’re stupid, pointless and misleading… you know, like the one the Puget Sound Business Journal is running on the Cantwell v. McGavick race. So let’s teach them a lesson and “freep” this poll.