Goldy (Founder/Blogger-in-Chief) —
David Goldstein is an accidental activist who stumbled into politics in 2003 with a satirical statewide initiative to officially proclaim WA’s serial anti-tax initiative sponsor, Tim Eyman, “a horse’s ass.” A conscientious political press corp, weary of Eyman’s outrageous antics, turned its coverage to Goldstein’s outrageous antics, sparking a spontaneous grassroots movement to gather nearly 50,000 signatures before a humorless Attorney General managed to get an equally humorless judge to issue an injunction shutting down the campaign.
A year later Goldstein transformed his campaign website into a local, political blog. A mix of snark, satire, muckraking, and surprisingly thoughtful analysis, HorsesAss.org quickly became the most influential blog in WA state, and one of the most widely read local political blogs in the nation. Goldstein also blogs at Huffington Post and Daily Kos, and is best known nationally for breaking the story about former FEMA Director Mike Brown and his disastrous tenure at the International Arabian Horse Association, and for his relentless coverage of adulterated Chinese food imports.
Goldstein was born and educated in Philadelphia, and now lives in Seattle with his daughter, dog, cat, and everybody else who lives in Seattle. In addition to blogging, he is the creator of the world’s most widely pirated rhyming dictionary software, and the co-author of an Off-Broadway musical flop. Goldstein has been published in The Nation and The Stranger, and can be heard pontificating about politics on “The David Goldstein Show“, News/Talk 710-KIRO, Saturdays and Sundays from 7 to 10 PM.
Geov —
Geov Parrish began writing regular political commentary when, in 1996, he founded the community newspaper and web site Eat the State!, which he continues to co-edit. The same week, he began a long-running stint as a commentator on KEXP-90.3 Seattle’s “Mind Over Matters,” airing each Saturday at 8:30 AM.
ETS! led almost immediately to an unlikely new career as professional columnist, with a decade put in at The Stranger and Seattle Weekly. Beginning in 1998 Geov also wrote regularly at various times for Mother Jones, In These Times, WorkingforChange.com, and for several years in national syndication in both print and radio. But now he’s given all that up to write for HorsesAss.org. He also posts nationally from time to time at Booman Tribune.
Prior to writing for a living, Geov also spent time as a: radio DJ and programmer, punk rock singer, community activist, East Asia scholar, convenience store clerk, zine publisher, strawberry picker, factory worker, bicycle messenger, public health and medical school instructor, and successful small business owner. None of which even remotely qualified him to have paid political opinions. Deal with it.
Darryl —
Darryl Holman brings to Horse’s Ass the sensibility of a good Midwestern upbringing (albeit in a single-parent household), an East Coast education (albeit at a State university), and West Coast angst. More importantly, everything he does is deeply rooted in the blues. In real life, he is an anthropologist and a demographer at the University of Washington specializing in biological anthropology, human reproductive ecology, and scientific and statistical modeling. Besides contributing to Horse’s Ass, he also writes for Hominid Views and, occasionally contributes to Jesus’ General.
Other than blogging, Darryl likes to play chess, fly airplanes, fix automobiles, tinker in his small machine shop, do things with computers, and play the guitar. Like almost everyone else in the greater Seattle metropolitan area, he is also building an airplane in his garage.
Darryl was born in Santa Maria, California, but was raised in Madison, Wisconsin where, at a young age, he was exposed to dangerous liberal ideas, Vietnam war protests, the radical environmental movement, and severe winter weather.
He has a BS and an MS in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin (with diplomas signed by Chancellor Donna Shalala), and a PhD in Anthropology and Demography from Penn State University. Bill Clinton spoke at his PhD graduation ceremony in 1996, but he was too busy in New Orleans that day to attend. He spent a few more years at Penn State as a Postdoctoral fellow before moving to Redmond, Washington in the fall of 1999.
He became immersed in state and local politics when he observed that the quality of life was perfect in every way in Western Washington except for the dysfunctional transportation infrastructure, and simultaneously learned about Initiative 695 (the initiative that gutted funding for transportation infrastructure). There are unsubstantiated rumors that Darryl was the mysterious “Statistician X” (a.k.a. dj) during the gubernatorial election contest.
Will —
Will Kelley-Kamp is a young punk. At least that’s where it stands until he gets off his lazy ass and posts a bio.
Carl —
Carl Ballard is the pen name for Carl Balard, itself a pen name. Since unlike Goldy he tries to keep his personal life and blogging life separate, the rest of this entry will be entirely false:
Carl Ballard was born in a small Midwestern town. He doesn’t remember what town or even what state, but in fairness he was a baby at the time so remembering anything about it is pretty impressive. After earning a degree in Kickass from the University of Transylvania (minor in Rad!) Carl decided to travel the galaxy and will tell you that Neptune is nice. After returning to Earth, Carl earned a Masters in Making Fun of Righties where his thesis, “Fuck the Heck: Wingnuttia from Cesar to Sharkansky” was universally praised, and may be made into a movie. Carl puts his Making Fun of Righties degree to work on a regular basis at EFFin’ Unsound where he tracks local righties. He is getting sick of writing about himself in the third person.
Lee —
Lee Rosenberg is also a punk, although not quite as young as Will.
