– If Cyrus Habib were to unseat Brad Owen as Lt. Governor, it would make him the second Lt. Governor since statehood. I’m pretty sure. Owen has served that position for a lot of useless time.
– Patty Murray’s pro-Planned Parenthood editorial in The Seattle Times is pretty badass, even if it stresses bipartisanship more than I’d like.
– Abortion Is Healthcare, and Healthcare Is a Right
– Federal Court Rules Center for Medical Progress and BioMax Can’t Plead the Fifth
Larry Wilmore: Debunking FAUX News’ mythical “War on Cops”.
Some kid’s bootleg South Park.
The 2016 Clown Show:
Matthew Filipowicz and Emily Atkin: Teabagger threat to Obamacare in Kentucky.
Mental Floss: 24 facts about musicals.
Larry Wilmore: County jerk’s office and Oath Keepers.
Liberal Viewer: Megyn Kelly wrong on law defending Kim Davis, anti-gay KY County Clerk.
Matt Binder: Jade Helm ends…without a hostile take-over.
Boy Builds Clock…Bigot’s Heads Explode:
Mental Floss: Misconceptions about disease.
Greenman: Lonnie and Koni, Senior glaciologists on climate change.
VSauce: The Zipf mystery.
Thom: The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Helobiously Ugly!
U.S. Closed for Business:
Sam Seder and Farron Cousins: It’s 2015 and the Wingdings are STILL talking about BENGHAAAAAZZZZZIIIIIII!!!1!!11!
White House: West Wing Week.
Congressional Hits and Misses of the Week.
Minute Physics: Why it’s impossible to tune a piano.
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
Tim Eyman is a horse’s ass.
Three years ago I brought to my editors at The Stranger a scoop detailing the undisclosed funding of one Tim Eyman initiative with money raised from another, and they were so concerned about the seriousness of the allegations (I was accusing him of, you know, breaking the law), that they took the somewhat rare step of vetting the piece with the paper’s attorney before publishing. I was never concerned about libeling Eyman because the case I was making was so well documented, but regardless, I joked to the attorney at the time, Eyman would never sue anybody for libel out of fear that legal discovery would expose how much money he was secretly making on kickbacks from his favored signature gathering firm, Citizens Solutions.
Well, three years later, we now know how much: $308,000!
Voters Want More Choices, the Eyman-led political committee behind I-1185, paid Citizen Solutions nearly $623,000 between April and July 2012, according to court records. Overall, the firm earned $1.2 million for its efforts to get I-1185 on the ballot.
In July 2012, Citizen Solution paid $308,000 to Eyman’s [private company] Watchdog for Taxpayers. Eyman told the PDC that he was paid to find new clients for the firm.
That same month Eyman loaned $190,000 to Citizens in Charge which used it to pay for gathering signatures for I-517, according to court records.
Neither the payment nor the loan was reported to the Public Disclosure Commission, according to court documents.
I don’t know that there’s anything inherently illegal about Citizen Solutions paying Eyman $308,000, as long as he declares it on his taxes. It’s his failure to fully disclose I-517’s transactions that led to this investigation.
But given the unusually large gap between what the signature gatherers on the street say they’re being paid and the inflated cost of Eyman’s signature drives, it is fair to speculate that this isn’t the first or only payment that Eyman has received from Citizen Solutions. In fact, I publicly speculated exactly that way back in June, 2006:
I have another theory which, lacking the subpoena power to open up the private books of Eyman and Citizens Solutions I cannot possibly prove, but… I think Tim’s ripping off his patron, Woodenville investment banker Michael Dunmire, who’d already contributed $307,700 to I-917 through the end of May.
[…] Again, I can’t prove it, but I’ve always suspected that Eyman has a financial stake in Citizens Solutions, or receives some kind of monetary “consideration”, and while none of this may be illegal it is certainly dishonest. Something is just not right here, and knowing Timmy, I can’t help but suspect that he’s cooking the books for personal gain. Again.
Nine years later the Attorney General finally used his subpoena power to open up Eyman’s books on I-1185, and he found exactly what I predicted. And considering the inflated costs Eyman has paid over the years for printing and mailing, I wouldn’t be surprised if he earned “monetary considerations” from that too. We’ll never know for sure (unless he sues me for libel), but Eyman’s probably made several million dollars this way from his initiative campaigns over the years.
Ever since he emerged on the scene Eyman has gone to great pains to deny that he earns anything off his initiative campaigns. At first, he just plain lied about it. Then, he concocted this byzantine web of campaign committees and vendors and private corporations to cover up the money trail.
Of course, as long as you disclose it, it’s neither illegal nor unusual to pay oneself to run an initiative campaign. So why does Eyman hide it? I’m guessing because if his backers knew he was skimming 25 percent right off the top, they might have the common sense to cut out the middleman. And that would mean the end of Tim Eyman’s lucrative “volunteer” career.
– There are plenty of issues where local control doesn’t make sense, but rent control isn’t one of them, so get on board, the parts of the City Council that aren’t.
– Great job, Ballard Preservation Society
I had the good sense to miss the GOP Presidential debate the other night, but here are some links vaguely related to the GOP Presidential candidates:
– Debunking Five Absurd Comments About Planned Parenthood From the GOP Debate
– The Club For Growth doesn’t like Donald Trump, but I don’t like either of them.
– Maybe not such humble beginnings
– Back to school, Seattle.
– I’m not a big comic books person, but seriously, DC, get your shit together.
– Ahead of public hearing, a couple ways to make the 520 Bridge plans better
– “A future in which eating out no longer involves waiters?” That’s not dining. That’s eating.
– I had heard of many of these 7 amazing places in Seattle you’ve probably never heard of but will have to check a few out (h/t to Central Cinema’s Facebook page).
– Get your shit together, SPD.
– It’s Pope Francis Who Should Apologize on Abortion
– The plutocrats and the social conservatives will probably be fine together.
Kimmel asks people “Do you think President Obama is a Muslim?
Sam Seder and Cliff Schecter: Glenn Beck’s TheBlaze is imploding.
Obama: Why I went to Alaska.
Color-blind people see color for the first time.
Thom: Col. Wilkerson: “Dick Cheney is an idiot,” and he “should be in jail for war crimes!”
Greenman: We are the asteriod.
Mental Floss: Misconceptions about social media.
2016 Clowns On Parade:
Thom: The Good, the Bad and the Very, Very Ludicropatheticly Ugly!.
Liberal Viewer: FAUX News asks if #BlackLivesMatter is a hate group.
Congressional Hits and Misses: Hank Johnson edition.
Thom: Thomas Edison was right about solar energy.
Mental Floss: Unusual political parties:
Rare sea creature found off the coast of Papua New Guinea.
Mark Fiore: Obama drills.
Kim Davis, the Thrice Divorced, Four-times Married, Known Adulterer Refuses to Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses:
David Pakman: States with the strictest gun laws have lowest rates of gun-related deaths.
Thom: How China messes with American labor.
White House: West Wing Week.
Farron Cousins: Even Bush-appointed judges agree that voter ID laws are racist.
David Pakman: Democratic Party adopts $15/hr minimum wage to national platform.
Greenman: One day at the wind farm.
Obama views glacier melting from climate change.
Sam Seder: Conservatives know the real reason Obama renamed Denali
Richard Fowler: ObamaCare is working, and the proof is insane.
Thom: The Good, The Bad and The Very, Very Rakehelly Ugly!
David Pakman: Mike Huckabee: Planned Parenthood is like ISIS…
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
– I’m taking Monday off for Labor Day. Do you guys want an Open Thread on Tuesday-Thursday or to wait until Wednesday?
– I support the Seattle teachers.
– Finally a place where cars and bikes can gang up on other people. I don’t mind waiting at drawbridges that much, but I don’t bike past a bridge for my commute (generally).
Ten years ago today I received the following email from an HA reader:
I think I’ve told you that I’m into Arab horses. Well, for 3 years Michael Brown was hired and then fired by our IAHA, the International Arabian Horse Assoc. He was an unmitigated, total fucking disaster. I was shocked as hell when captain clueless put him in charge of FEMA a couple of years ago. He or the WH lied on the WH presser announcing him to FEMA. IAHA was never connected to the Olympic Comm, only the half Arab registry then and the governing body to the state and local Arabian horse clubs. He ruined IAHA financially so badly that we had to change the name and combine it with the Purebred registry.
I am telling you this after watching the fucking shipwreck in the Gulf. His incompetence is KILLING people.
After a little bit of sleuthing I turned the tip above into this scathing post that quickly went viral, transforming FEMA’s inadequate response to the tragedy in New Orleans into a national conversation about cronyism. Within days, FEMA director Mike Brown was out of a job. A month later, while testifying before congress, Brown would blame HorsesAss.org by name for his agency’s failures:
The path this story took—from a single reader’s small piece of specialized knowledge, to a local blogger, to a national blog, to the national media—may not be the first example of the transformative power of blogging. But it’s certainly one of the clearest. And I’ll always be proud to have played my little role.
Mark Fiore: Smokey the Climate Scientist.
Mental Floss: Does ginger ale really help with stomach aches?
The 2016 Clown Show:
Mental Floss: Misconceptions about cancer.
Young Turks: Terrorist attempts to bomb abortion clinic.
Gunzzzz:
Mental Floss: 31 amazing facts about household items.
Bill Maher with some New Rules.
White House: West Wing Week.
New Orleans, Ten Years after Katrina:
Sam Seder: FAUX News, “It’s hard out there for white people”.
Congressional hits and misses: Best of Ted Cruz.
Eric Schwartz: Fuck You:
Nuclear Football:
Slate: What is sex like in space?
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
Three tourists from Rhode Island were beaten, burned and robbed outside the 3rd Avenue transit tunnel entrance on Monday night. Why am I not surprised?
The 3rd and Pike area is so terrible that it has it’s own Twitter feed. On most days the tunnel entrance and sidewalk outside are full of drug dealers and thugs who fuck with people coming in and out of the tunnel. I stopped using that tunnel entrance and now use the one across the street next to Macy’s because of this reason. The King County Sheriff department seems to be less interested in providing security and more interested in getting themselves fired. The city and SPD have tried with the 9 1/2 block strategy to reform the area, and it has had some success, apparently not as much as could have been hoped for.
My favorite part (if you want to call it that) of the incident is this:
Police arrived at the scene, but the group of suspects had fled. However, officers did arrest one man at the scene after he interfered with medics’ efforts to treat the victims, and told the victims they “deserved’ to be beaten and robbed. Police are investigating whether the man was also involved in the robbery.
If you have anything to share regarding the crime, you can contact the SPD Robbery Unit at (206) 684-5535.
– Huzzah. It’s raining. Remember, people forget to drive in the rain every summer in Western Washington, and I’m sure this year will be worse than normal.
– A homeless woman was beaten to death so can we all just get on board with encampments now?
– The Seattle Times Editorial Board Can Go Phở Itself
– I think Donald Trump could check out the HA Bible Study if he wants to find a new favorite verse.
– My worst nightmare would be being Tim Eyman.
Rand Paul came to town recently. He said some nonsense about guns:
It was a terrible morning to glorify guns. At the exact same time that everyone on the internet was horrified by the latest in a seemingly unending string of mass shootings, Paul’s adulation of the 2nd amendment felt awkward and dripping with an unpleasant machismo. ( “If you doubt me on the 2nd Amendment, come into my house unannounced,” Paul warned as the room applauded the thought of Paul shooting another person to death.) Before Paul took the stage, local politician Elizabeth Scott was proudly introduced as a member of the NRA. Meanwhile, on Twitter, people were scrolling past auto-play videos filmed by a man as he murdered two innocent people in cold blood. For a candidate who repeatedly claims to be uniquely in touch with reality, Paul is surprisingly out-of-step with an America that overwhelmingly favors commonsense gun safety laws.
When I talk about gun control with my pro gun friends, I’ll almost always hear someone talk about responsible gun ownership. But this sort of braggadocio is alarmingly common. Oh, give me the chance to kill the fuck out of someone who comes to my house unannounced. That’s not a death penalty offense, but I’m so excited about it I’m going to share this fantasy that to a decent person would be one of the worst days of their life with several hundred supporters.
It’s something decent people aren’t fantasizing about. It isn’t something the sort of people who feel responsible would say. And if people wanted hold him responsible, they could boo instead of applaud.
Now sure, I realize that one candidate from one party who isn’t doing very well in the polls isn’t indicative of the whole of gun owners. But this sort of thing rarely, if ever, gets called out from the people who tell me they’re the responsible sort. Hell, a dickbag can wrap bacon around his gun, get what type of gun it is wrong, and nobody who claims to be all about responsible gun ownership is like “Um, noppers buddy. That’s not how ya’ do it.”
So you know, step the fuck up. Or people like me — that rare breed who do actually want to take your gun away — are going to keep being the ones to call it out.
– Maybe we shouldn’t reward Chuck Schumer for being so wrong on Iran by making him the next Democratic leader.
– Seriously, birthright citizenship is the best, and anyone opposing it is the worst. QED.
– The seawall project is over budget.
– The Breitbart people should be ashamed of themselves. Part something in an infinity series.
Mark Fiore: The toxic mining law.
Mental Floss: Why do people and animals tilt heads when confused?
Stop Being a Baby When It Comes To Access To Reproductive Health Care :
Julian Bond:
Red State Update: Black Lives Matter and Hillary and Bernie and Mike Huckabee.
Jimmy Carter talks about his cancer.
Congressional Hits and Misses: Steny Hoyer edition.
Young Turks: Will the world end in September?
The Intimate Explainer: Sweet Nothings about the Iran deal.
AT&T Helps NSA Spy on Americans:
Thom: The Good, the Bad – and the Very, Very Matronymicly Ugly!
The Iraq war hawks are back…for Iran.
Maddow: July 2015 was the hottest month ever recorded on planet earth.
Mental Floss: 21 failed inventions.
Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins: The U.S. burns while Congress fiddles.
The 2016 G.O.P. Circus Show:
Fans want Jon Stewart to moderate a presidential debate.
Richard Fowler: Nutbag Rep. Steve King things you can marry your lawn mower.
Thom: Here are the different rules for Democrats and Republicans.
White House: West Wing Week
Pap and Farron Cousins: Florida’s criminal Governor still stealing trom tax payers.
Mental Floss: Misconceptions about space.
Citizen Zimmerman:
Who funds the anti-immigrant hatred?
College Humor: 31 words that sound like slurs…but aren’t.
A baby seal responds to Shell Oil Drilling in the Arctic.
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
Eager to share our brilliant political commentary and blunt media criticism, but too genteel to link to horsesass.org? Well, good news, ladies: we also answer to HASeattle.com, because, you know, whatever. You're welcome!