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– The fake stories Stetzer describes are not being spread in good faith by innocent dupes. They are not innocent and they are not dupes. And the stories are not merely “fake,” but false. The biblical term for what he’s describing is “bearing false witness against your neighbor.”

– I’m just going to posit that if you call our first Black president “monkey man Barack”, and the first Black first lady “Gorilla face” avoiding being thought of as racist wasn’t a high priority, the mayor of Airway Heights.

– even if you dispense with the ghoulish idea of Bush going to any sort of veteran’s charity, the idea that he cashed in on it is disgusting.

– This story of what this country did to Lois Chichnikoff Thadei and other Native American children of her era is just awful.

– A believer in the power of social media to make change, Bland can be heard thanking the bystander recording her arrest as she’s taken into police custody — custody from which she was never released alive.

– I like Bernie Sanders. I might vote for him in the primary (although I did vote for Clinton 8 years ago, and am leaning toward voting for her again). Still I quite like the first 3 parts of this series on his history from a feminist perspective.

Mental Floss: Why is ginger a palate cleanser?

Obama’s Greek debt crisis solution.

White House: West Wing Week.

Thom: The Good, The Bad, and The Very, Very Phemicly Ugly!

Political Stars and Bars:

• Maddow: Confederate flag to come down on Friday
• David Pakman: SC House votes to remove flag
• Young Turks: Racists furious over confederate flag removal.
• Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-SC) slams Confederate flag amendment
• The flag comes down for good.
• House explodes over Confederate flag resolution.
• Young Turks: Crowds cheer as traitor’s flag is removed

Young Turks: Beware of people preaching morality.

Liberal Viewer: FAUX News says Americans are jerks?!?

Maddow: Debate entry rules to limit participation.

Thom: The Koch brothers plot to kill our national parks.

Young Turks: George W. Bush speaks to wounded vets…and charges them $100K.

Forgotten Assholes of History: The Woman Who Helped Kill Lincoln:

Follow the Money: Droughts, lobbyists, and you.

Mark Fiore: Selective hearing of gun violence.

Pap: SCOTUS has fractured the Republican party.

The 2016 March of the Clowns:

• BuzzFeed: There are so many white guys running it’s hard to tell them apart
• Pap and Farron Cousins: Chris Christie slowly waddles into the race
• Sam Seder: Who’s distancing themselves from Donald Trump now?
• Homer Simpson examines Donald Trump’s hair:

• Young Turks: The Donald insists that he’ll win the Latino vote
• Feel the #TRUMPMENTUM!
• Maddow: Trump doubles down on anti-immigrant rhetoric.
• Young Turks: Trump tries to backpedal but can’t stop saying racist shit
• David Pakman: Donald Trump insults Mexicans…and his clothing line is made in Mexico
• Young Turks: Modern Family writer owns Trump in Twitter war
• David Pakman: Donald Trump construction project reportedly employing ‘illegal immigrants’.
• The Retrumplican Party:

• Thom and Pap: Donald Trump leads the GOP; is the apocalypse beginning?
• Young Turks: Ted Cruz, “I like Donald Trump….I salute Donald Trump.”
• Pap and Farron Cousins: Ted Cruz’s most cringeworthy moment.
• Young Turks: Ted Cruz’s sleazy book sales trick ISN’T FOOLING ANYONE.
• Pap and Farron Cousins: Did Rand Paul and Cliven Bundy just become BFF?
• Richard Fowler: Huckabee resists gay marriage and perverts MLK quote
• Pap and Farron Cousins: Marco Rubio thinks the world will end if he isn’t elected.
• Thom and Pap: Marco Rubio wants NASCAR-style college tuition sponsors
• David Pakman: Rick Santorum (ewwwww) thinks SCOTUS decision proves ‘Man on Dog’ warning was accurate
• Richard Fowler: Jeb Bush totally misunderstands the Baltimore riots
• Young Turks: Jeb Bush thinks you don’t work hard enough.
• Ari Melber with Bernie Sanders: On Jeb Bush’s ‘work longer hours’ comments.
• Thom and Pap: Jeb Bush is completely out of touch with society

Sam Seder with Cliff Schecter: How President Obama’s new rules on overtime pay will help any Americans.

Mental Floss: Misconceptions about video games.

Congressional Hits and Misses of the Week.

Harry Reid calls out Republican’s silence on Trump’s racist comments.

When not to correct someone’s grammer:

Liberal Viewer: FAUX News hawks fake “gag order” on Oregon bakery.

Rover-eye view of Mars.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

HA doesn’t really do political endorsements because A) I think unsigned endorsements are kinda stupid, and B) it’s generally no secret who we individually support. But since I haven’t been writing much at HA recently, and I don’t have Slog at my disposal anymore to influence elections, I thought I’d take a moment to clarify my thoughts on a handful of city council races.

District 2: I’m voting for Tammy Morales
Nothing personal against Bruce Harrell… but I’ve got nothing personal for him either, and I’m hard pressed to think of anything he’s accomplished during his eight years on the council. He’s way too conventional for my liking, and yeah, okay, I’m a little pissed off at his pissiness towards Kshama Sawant. So I’m voting for Tammy Morales.

Morales is affable, smart, energetic, and not totally full of herself. (Also, she doesn’t live in Bellevue, ever.) Yes, I know Josh Farris speaks more directly to my issues, and I’m glad he’s running, but Morales stands the better chance of forcing Harrell to break a sweat. And I want to see Harrell sweat.

District 3: I’ve maxed out to Kshama Sawant
I rarely donate to political campaigns because I figure my blogging is contribution enough. But Kshama is more than just special. Never in my 12 years of closely following state and local politics have I seen a newly elected official achieve so much so quickly, sometimes by the mere threat of her presence. And as much as Sawant has dragged Seattle politics to the left, her defeat would be taken as a mandate to drag it sharply to the right. That’s why the business community is spending so much to defeat her.

So as an indication of how strongly I feel about this race, I’ve contributed the maximum $700 to Sawant’s campaign, and I encourage you to give whatever you can afford. Sure, my generosity is partially a reflection of my improved finances, but it’s mostly a reflection of how important I believe it is to our city, our state, and our nation to keep this particular socialist in office.

District 4: I slipped Michael Maddux a $20
I could think of lots of reasons to deny Jean Godden yet another term, but I only need to give you two: She’s been there too damn long, and she’s simply too damn old. That may not be nice, but it’s true. It’s time for her to move out of the way and give somebody else a chance.

As for Godden’s main opponents, I don’t hate Rob Johnson, but I don’t particularly like a lot of the people and organizations supporting him. And when the Seattle Times endorses Johnson by praising his “willingness to break from Seattle’s insular liberal orthodoxy,” that just gives me the willies. So if I had a vote in this district, I’d be casting my ballot for Michael Maddux, who clearly represents the progressive values of the district and the city. Also, he shows up at Drinking Liberally. So there’s that.

Position 8: I’m voting for Jon Grant, if only to make a statement
This is without a doubt the toughest decision for me. First of all, I weirdly like and respect Tim Burgess (yay universal preschool!), even though he’s consistently the most awful vote on the council, and perhaps the biggest dick on the council when it comes to disrespectful treatment of Sawant. Second, I kinda like all three of Burgess’s serious opponents, if in different ways. Third, Burgess is almost certain to win reelection. So if I’m going to cast what I perceive to be a protest vote, then I’m going to cast it for Jon Grant, who is running almost entirely on tenants rights and affordable housing… issues Burgess kinda sucks on.

Position 9: I’m supporting Bill Bradburd (but secretly voting for Lorena Gonzalez)
The whole thing with Sally Clark’s sudden retirement followed by Lorena Gonzalez’s instant campaign stunk of Ed Murray trying to maneuver a political ally onto the council. But every time I’ve spoken to Gonzalez or have seen her speak, I’ve come away more impressed. I’d really like to vote for Bill Bradburd, what with his focus on affordable housing, but I’m not sure I trust his neighborhoody NIMBYist instincts. So, yeah, I’m voting for Gonzalez (who’s going to win anyway) and hoping she proves a disappointment to Ed.

The Others:
Mike O’Brien and Sally Bagshaw are going to win reelection regardless, and I haven’t paid close enough attention to District’s 1 and 5 (there’s just too damn many candidates!) for me to pick a definitive favorite in either. So if you vote in those districts, I’ve got nothing to offer.

There you have it. It’s not an endorsement, per se, because that would be stupid. I mean, who am I to tell you how to vote? Still, there’s no harm in telling you how I’m going to vote. Take it for what it is.

Oh hey they’re temporarily reopening the waterfront.

But today, citing the need for access and especially because it’s tourism season (which you’ve definitely noticed because crowds of confused people, maps-in-hand, have nearly taken you out numerous times in the last week) the City of Seattle has re-opened the waterfront for a temporary summer vacation, so to speak.

“A temporary, park-like pedestrian promenade from University to Madison streets will be open with wayfinding, seawall project information, and activities, accompanied by approximately 70 new parking spaces adjacent to Waterfront Park. Seawall construction will continue from Madison to Yesler streets adjacent to Colman Dock,” reads a release from the City.

Enjoy it while you can suckers! One question: park-like? OK, I lied: another question, 70 new parking spaces? Why not more park-like stuff? Another another question: can we just ignore the thing underground keep the park-like pedestrian promenade? Whatever! I’m going to walk it this weekend! It’s going to be awesome. It’s totally going to be park-like!

– In conclusion, Jim McNerney is a terrible human being. And very emblematic of the New Gilded Age

– Oh hey, congrats to team Hanauer, and like a large portion of the middle class, on the new overtime eligibility rules.

– If you want to know what Seattle’s most radical anti-growth activists really think about multifamily housing, the mayor, transportation solutions, and “those people,” I highly recommend checking out any event put on by the City Neighborhood Council, a group founded in the 1990s to advise the brand-new Department of Neighborhoods on neighborhood planning.

– Also, I don’t know about the rest of the crew, but I won’t be posting anything on the 3rd.

– Well looks like we’ll probably have a transit package with full funding for ST but a stupid carbon thing

– Fox News just fired one of its hosts in the most vicious & humiliating way imaginable

– I wonder if Metro could steal the color scheme idea from SWIFT. If the actual buses are different colors (I couldn’t tell from the post, but I’d bet not), it might be a problem on the C and D lines, but otherwise, it’s doable. Also, holy cow, SWIFT 2 looks like it’ll be pretty great.

– Westlake Park, in a lot of ways, is ground zero for DSA and the the city’s fraught relationship with public demonstrations. Remember when people ~*~so angry~*~ about the death of an unarmed Black teenager got just too damn close to singing children at the tree lighting ceremony? A Speakers Corner would corral that pesky anger into somewhere more comfortable, giving shoppers the chance to not see that anger if it’s making them not feel like spending all their money at the mall that day! What a win for our city’s business interests!

– JEB!

– The embarrassment is not limited to the flag, itself. The fact that it still flies, that one must debate its meaning in 2015, reflects an incredible ignorance. A century and a half after Lincoln was killed, after 750,000 of our ancestors died, Americans still aren’t quite sure why.

– Good for gender neutral city bathrooms in Seattle.

– So wait, there’s a cost to inaction on climate change?

– Five Thousand Ladybugs of Highly Effective People

Thom: Texas rejects a woman’s right to choose.

“Holy Encyclical, Batman!”

• Mark Fiore: .
• Thom: The Popes climate change call
• Young Turks: Republicans attack Pope

David Pakman: Paul Ryan falls apart (again) on FAUX News…has no plan to replace ObamaCare.

Congressional Hits and Misses of the week.

WTF? Another Right-Wing Extremist Mass Shooting?!?

• Obama makes a statement about the shooting
• Liberal Viewer: FAUX News downplays racial motivation and tries to spin an anti-Christian motive
• Thom: The White shooter was a terrorist
• Sam Seder: Right wing terror—how the NRA uses racism to advance its cause
• Jon runs out of jokes
• Grace Para: Charleston from a Hispanic point of view
• Maddow: Making sense of it
• Should we call the mass murder terrorism?
• Sam Seder: The despicable Right Wing spin
• Young Turks: Right wing terrorists kill more Americans than Islamic extremists
• Thom: Charleston shooting PART 1
• Thom: Charleston shooting PART 2
• Sam Seder: Republican defends flying Confederate flag in the wake of the Charleston terror shootings

Mental Floss: 14 facts about parasites.

Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA) gets a jump on Father’s Day

Young Turks: What woman should appear on the $10?.

Pap and Sam Seder: GOP trash economics sends Kansas back to the dust bowl.

VSauce: Dinosaurs.

Mental Floss: Misconceptions about famous stories.

The 2016 Clown Parade—“Even More Clowns” Edition:

• Sam Seder: You bastards have no idea how hard this is for Ted Cruz
• David Pakman: Jeb! Is! In!
• Thom: Right Wing extremism, Jeb style
• Pap and Farron Cousins: Marco Rubio’s shopaholic confessions
• Sam Seder: The Rick Perry 2016 makeover
• Young Turks: Donald Trump hired actors to attend his announcement

• Donald Trump Can’t stop whining about America
• Factivist: The Jeb! Bush! record
• Farron Cousins: Donald Trump’s ego can’t fit in Republican clown car
• Jon: Listening to Trump quotes is “better than freebasing”
• Sam Seder: DNC’s hilarious statement about Trump
• PsychoSuperMom: Keepin’ Crazy in the Trump World:

• Maddow: Trump is in!
• James Rustad: Old Trump Donald Owned a Slum
• Pap and Sam Seder: Scott Walker makes Wisconsin even dumber

Mental Floss: Why do we blush when embarassed.

Farron Cousins: The death of another Republican talking point.

Kimmel: This week in unnecessary censorship.

Thom: How big money is undermining voter rights.

Racial Identity Politics:

• Young Turks: Rachel Dolezal, guilty or not guilty?
• Melissa Harris-Perry: Extended interview with Rachel Dolezal
• Flashback: Steven Colbert and Steve Carell in “Maya”
• Young Turks: Abdul-Jabbar defends Rachel Dolezal
• David Pakman: Are Rachel Dolezal’s parents abusive extremist young earth creationists?

White House: West Wing Week.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Our state’s editorial boards love to complain about the budget impasse in Olympia, but for many years they have played a key role in the obstruction, consistently opposing any substantive new tax—especially on income—as fervently as the most dyed-in-the-wool anti-tax Republican. Until now:

A proposal in the Senate would apply a 7 percent capital-gains tax to 0.1 percent of the state’s residents, or about 7,500 residents. It would only apply to gains over $250,000 for individuals or $500,000 for couples.

Instead of punting to committees and next year’s Legislature, they should buckle down and make the choice to begin taxing capital gains.

That’s the Seattle Times editorial board making the case that a “capital-gains tax is best option to fund education.” Seriously. And while we’ve been seeing their position evolve over the past few months, it’s still pretty stunning to see them state their support for the tax so bluntly.

And then there’s this from today’s Olympian:

A key element of our state’s F grade for effort was the comparatively low percentage of the state’s economic output that Washington has invested through taxes into K-12 schools. Part of the problem is our over-reliance and regressive tax system that ignores a large share of economic activity including the sales of services and such income-producers as capital gains.

I sometimes joke that I’m the only non-lawmaker who still reads the editorial pages, but of course that’s not true. Editorial board endorsements may not be nearly as influential as they were even a decade ago, but they still play a role in shaping public opinion. Or at least, reinforcing it. And anti-tax legislators no longer have the “serious” people behind them in obstructing all efforts to tax income.

Washington’s tax structure is absurdly regressive. I’ve been saying that since my very first blog post, more than 11 years ago. There’s simply no arguing with that fact. And now the editorial boards have finally acknowledged that our revenue system is insufficient as well. Republican lawmakers should take note that they are on the wrong side of the editorial boards on this issue, and that if we fail to pass the additional revenue necessary to satisfy McCleary, the editorial boards won’t be shy about pointing out which lawmakers are to blame.

Given my fierce criticism over the years, you might think that I’d hate to give the editorial boards credit for finally advocating for responsible tax policy. Not at all. Responsible tax policy is all I ever really wanted. And it’s great to see the Seattle Times on board.

[Cross-posted at Civic Skunkworks]

– Pro-Choice and Pregnant? Yeah, It’s Really Real

– Increasingly it looks like this whole P.C. boo-hoo is just a weaponized version of Those Were The Days.

– Being a GOP presidential candidate gets you the opportunity to scam the elderly out of their homes, eventually.

– Wow, Councilmember O’Brien.

– The legislature should pass a resolution saying they don’t know if longer fire seasons caused by global warming are real.

– WHY WERE YOU MUTED?

SlateTV: Spiders falling from the sky.

Ann Telnaes: The elusive G.O.P. ObamaCare replacement.

Obama: Health Care in America:

Thom: The Good, The Bad and the Very Very Anisosthenically Ugly.

The 2016 Clown Procession:

• Maddow: A bad day for the 2016 clown brigade
• Sam Seder and Charlie Pierce: Who has entered the G.O.P. clown car so far
• Young Turks: Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham experience a bit of electile dysfunction
• Sam Seder: OMG—Rick Perry’s 2016 presidential campaign theme song
• David Pakman: Jeb Bush said unwed mothers should be publicly shammed in his contributions to the Republican War on Women™.
• Mark Fiore: Bush spawn returns.
• SCTV: Your next 2016 looser
• Farron Cousins: Scott Walker’s contribution to the Republican War on Women™.
• Young Turks: Jeb Bush and Rick Santorum with a bad case of electile dysfunction
• David Pakman: Santorum campaign event draws crowd of one
• Lindsey Graham is a “Bro with no ho,” according to Mark Kirk
• Richard Fowler: Lindsey Graham throws his scarf into the ring
• Marco Rubio’s finance controversy explained
• Sam Seder: Mike Huckabee gets really creepy (and insensitive)
• Sam Seder: The hilarious video that Mike Huckabee doesn’t want you to see
• Farron Cousins: Rick Santorum picks a fight with the pope
• Jon shreds the NY Times over Rubio coverage

Jon: Awkward moments between CNN’s Chris Cuomo and NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Farron Cousins: Sarah Palin—The candidate the GOP deserves.

Richard Fowler: Ben and Jerry’s delicious environmental mission.

Here is what you need to know about MERS.

Pelosi announces opposition to trade bill.

Forgotten Assholes of History: Money hungry witch hunter.

David Pakman: Glenn Beck quits America.

Pap: Mitch McConnell’s anti-American journey to spite Obama.

Thom: Kansas’s reagonomic disaster and Minnesota’s economic miracle.

Obama sometimes responds to letters that call him an idiot.

VSauce: The Moon Terminator Illusion:

SlateTV: What are the chances of getting hit by asteroid?

Officer Friendly:

• Jon: Pool party gone bad.
• Young Turks: Unarmed man dies in his own blood after being shot by Utah cop
• Sam Seder: FAUX and Fiends defends McKinney cop who brutalized teens at pool party
• Chris Hayes: New evidence in fatal police shooting contradicts police report
• If police action figures were realistic….
• Thom: Is “swimming while black” illegal?
• Helpful Dos and Don’ts for Police Officers, Vol. 2
• Young Turks: Cop who shot fleeing black man is charged with murder

Young Turks: Why Dems (w/ GOP help) torpedoed Obama’s big evil trade deal.

Reid: GOP governing ‘crisis by crisis’.

Kimmel: This week in unnecessary censorship.

Thom: Listen when Greenpeace says “Shell NO”.

Mental Floss: Does hitting the snooze button help?

Pap and Sam Seder: Red states are screwed if Obamacare is repealed.

PsychoSuperMom: Voter fraud is (still) a fraud.

Farron Cousins: The Republican War on the Poor™ continues.

Thom: The Good, The bad, and the very very bathetically ugly.

Maddow: NH Republicans reject FAUX News as debate moderator.

Songify the News: Of murder and catfish.

WaPo: Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, phase I.

Is this Cig-ghazi?

Rummy Raises His Ugly Head:

• Thom: The war crimes clean-up begins.
• Jon: Rummy’s second thoughts.

Mental Floss: Misconceptions about the weather.

White House: West Wing Week.

Young Turks: Hastert’s pedophile obsession proves gross hypocrisy.

Thom: The Good, The Bad and The Very Very Tenebrificly Ugly.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Last week, Congress passed the USA Freedom Act, a very modest reform of the NSA’s surveillance capabilities, still leaving much of what they can do intact.

The main reform is the end of the bulk collection of metadata under Section 215, which has been ruled illegal in multiple courts since Edward Snowden fully disclosed its existence two years ago. In its place will be a system where telecoms archive their data and NSA can only pull metadata after going through the FISA Court that will have a privacy advocate overseeing the proceedings. Although there’s a provision that could allow for a six month “transition period” to this new protocol.

In looking at these changes, Bill Scher argues that civil libertarians lost:

In an interview with Democracy Now just before passage, Edward Snowden confidant Glenn Greenwald triumphantly declared “the only reason why the Patriot Act is going to be reformed is because one person was courageous enough, in an act of conscience, to come forward.” But minutes later, Greenwald conceded that “it leaves overwhelmingly undisturbed the vast bulk of what the NSA does, and it’s very unlikely that there will be another reform bill, which means that the NSA’s core mission and core activities will remain unreformed and unchanged.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who opposed the USA Freedom Act as too tough on the NSA, thundered on the floor before the vote that the bill amounted to a “resounding victory for Edward Snowden.” But the civil libertarian two-stepping exposes the truth: Snowden lost.

As one former intelligence official told the Daily Beast, “What no one wants to say out loud is that this is a big win for the NSA, and a huge nothing-burger for the privacy community.” Turns out one of the main reform planks – having telecommunications companies instead of the NSA collect personal metadata in bulk – is a logistical efficiency, not a restraint on surveillance. “It’s very expensive and very cumbersome,” said the official. “Good! Let them take them. I’m tired of holding on to this,” said another.

What this reminds me of is the debate in the wake of Obamacare’s passage. In many ways, Obamacare fell way short of the ideal health care legislation. Obama conceded significant reforms in order to get something passed, making deals that left significant inefficiencies and profiteering in the health care industry intact.

But the passage of Obamacare was a victory in some real ways. It was a baby step in the right direction and it put to rest the idea that health care reform of any kind was impossible. The passage of the USA Freedom Act is a victory in the same way. It changes the longstanding dynamic towards giving government agencies greater leeway in national security matters and it put the defenders of an unrestrained national security apparatus on the defensive for the first time in many years.

The “former intelligence official” quoted above seems not to understand the significance of the reform as well. The main problem with the Section 215 collection of metadata wasn’t simply the existence of the metadata itself. It was the potential for that information to be abused. The changes implemented make it harder for NSA to cross that line. That’s a victory, even if it’s a small one in a giant box of other needed reforms.

News items from the last two weeks…
[Read more…]

– Trans* Women Are Women

– Getting names is making East Link really feel concrete

– There is literally no problem on earth that lowering taxes on business people will not solve.

– Polish your lenses, oil your tripods, search your archives – the seventh Panda’s Thumb photography contest, begins – now!

– Ping pong tables in parks is kind of fun, but I don’t know why we have to ruin it with pretending it’s going to stop crimes.

It’s maybe not the most shockingly dishonest thing the Seattle Times editorial board has ever printed—that would be this. But in terms of sheer disrespect for the intelligence of their readers, it’s hard to sink any lower than this unapologetic libel of Mayor Ed Murray’s proposed Move Seattle levy:

The size of Move Seattle is breathtaking. The property-tax bill for a $450,000 house would nearly double, to about $275 a year. That won’t help rapidly escalating rents or middle-class homeowners dealing with rising home values.

And you know what else won’t help rapidly escalating housing costs? Lying.

To be clear, Move Seattle would not double your property-tax bill. It wouldn’t even come close. It would double the amount you’re paying on the expiring Bridging the Gap levy, but that amounts to only a $145 increase on a $450,000 home—just 3.3 percent of the total property-tax bill (and a mere .03 percent of the value of your home)—not the 100 percent increase that the editors imply. Big difference.

To understand how breathtaking this lie is, imagine if “Property-Tax” Bill was an actual living, breathing human being. The editors’ assertion is so clearly erroneous, misleading, and defamatory that Bill could easily sue the paper for libel, and win big!

No doubt the proposed levy deserves careful scrutiny; all levies do. But so does the editors’ larger implication that Seattle homeowners are overtaxed: “Seattle is the city that doesn’t say no to taxes,” the editors emphasize in a pull-quote.

And yet according to the tax records on my own median-value home, my property-tax rate has actually gone down over the past decade, from 1.06 percent of assessed value in 2004 to only 0.96 percent in 2014! Compared to a lot of other cities, that’s a bargain, especially considering that we don’t even have an income tax. Despite rising property values, in raw dollars, my property-tax bill has barely outpaced inflation.

Yes, we pass a lot of levies here in Seattle, and we tend to pass them with ease. But these levies are constantly expiring. So while it may feel like we’re always being asked to raise our own taxes, our effective property-tax rate is actually quite low, and has remained low over time. In fact, tack on this allegedly “breathtaking” Move Seattle levy, and my property-tax rate would still be less than it was back in 2004.

Not that you’d ever know this from reading the blatantly misleading op-ed pages of the Seattle Times.

I’ve been meaning to tear into Danny Westneat for his credulous puff piece on the state senate Republican majority, but haven’t had the time. Fortunately, Bill Lyne at the United Faculty of Washington State blog has done it for me:

On [higher education], he’s convinced that “the Republicans blew the Democrats out of the water. The GOP,” he tells us, “is proposing to slash tuition but at the same time send tens of millions of dollars to the universities to make up the difference.”  Representative Hunter said the same thing about this that we here at the blog tried to say to Westneat the last time he slobbered over the Republican tuition proposal: It’s not true.  The Republicans say they provide enough money to cover the tuition cut, but the cold, hard numbers in their budget say they do not.  Go read it, Danny.  Better yet, call the university budget offices and see what they say.  The Republican rhetoric on tuition sounds great, but the gap between that rhetoric and the reality of their budget would leave lots of students actually paying more in tuition because it would take them longer to get their degrees.

Read the whole thing. It’s worth it.

As for Westneat, well, sigh. I know he likes to think of himself as an independent voice adrift in a sea of partisan bickering—an equal opportunity eye-roller, or something. But more often than not, he’s just part of the problem, cynically working to erode the public’s faith in government rather than working to offer and advance creative solutions.

Which is a shame, because Westneat has both the talent and the platform to make a difference.