When I first glanced at the headline of today’s Seattle Times editorial opposing pre-ballot review of Tim Eyman’s stunningly unconstitutional Initiative 960 (“Careful, initiative tampering is dangerous“), I was initially pleased. I had predicted this unselfconscious fit of hypocrisy. And there’s nothing I like better than being right, especially at the Times’ expense.
Indeed, the only surprise in this entirely predictable piece of sanctimonious sophistry, was how genuinely angry I got reading it. I was personally offended. And you should be too.
The editorial was sparked by a lawsuit filed by Futurewise and SEIU 775, seeking to keep I-960 off the ballot because it is outside the scope of the initiative process. The Times argues such pre-ballot review is dangerous:
We believe their lawsuit should fail because it would undermine the rights of the people to petition their government.
The courts have an obligation to rule on the law, not policy or public opinion, and the fact that the Times once again attempts to influence a judicial decision tells you everything you need to know about how deeply flawed our system of electing judges really is. But that’s a subject for another post.
What I find most offensive about this editorial is not the arrogant judicial bullying or the inherent hypocrisy, but the fact that the Times chooses to shamelessly lie to its readers in order to score a cheap rhetorical point.
A few initiatives have been tossed off the ballot. […] The only statewide example was an initiative years ago that tried to change the U.S. Constitution.
That is simply untrue. There was another, more recent example of a statewide initiative tossed off the ballot on a scope challenge, and the Times knows it. In fact, four years ago they editorialized in support of using pre-ballot review to deny the people the right to petition their government.
Of course, I’m referring to I-831, my initiative to officially proclaim Tim Eyman a horse’s ass. The Times wrote:
David Goldstein has accomplished something. The Seattle computer programmer has successfully placed the phrase “horse’s ass” into dozens of family newspapers.
As if I held a fucking gun to their heads. But I digress.
Goldstein calls I-831 an attempt to reform the initiative process by highlighting Eyman’s abuse of it. Goldstein abuses it himself. The sort of law that names a citizen and condemns him by proclamation is called a bill of attainder. It has been forbidden for 200 years. Calling someone an animal part may not strictly be called a bill of attainder, but it leans that way. Taken seriously, a court would have to throw out I-831.
The Times knew that I-831 was tossed out on a scope challenge. It was cited as precedent in the Futurewise/SEIU complaint. The Times editorialized in favor of the scope challenge, and reported on the court’s decision. Just last month I even challenged the Times:
I dare you to prove me wrong. Four years ago you editorialized against a joke initiative, urging the court to bar I-831 from the ballot simply because it offended your delicate sensibilities. Do you have the balls to stand by your defense of pre-ballot scope challenges as a legitimate legal exercise?
They knew that I knew that they knew all about Goldstein v. Gregoire — and they surely must have known that I would publicly excoriate them if they pretended it never happened. And yet, they simply didn’t give a flying fuck.
I have in the past attacked Times editorials for lies of omission, but this was an out and out, deliberate lie of fact. They wrote that the “only statewide example” was the Philadelphia case, when they knew that it was not, and they did so because it was more convenient than acknowledging the truth. It was a rather trivial lie, but a lie nonetheless, and in telling it they disrespected me, and they disrespected their readers.
Not that the rest of the editorial is a paragon of virtue, consistency or logic.
There is a contrary idea that initiatives are junk that somebody wrote on the back of a napkin. They may start that way, but all of them go to the Code Reviser’s office, where they are put into legal language. The ballot title comes from the Attorney General’s office, and is subject to challenge in court.
I-831 went through the Code Reviser’s office, without a single change suggested, and its ridiculously non-descriptive ballot title came out of the Attorney General’s office and a court challenge. Yet according to both the Times and the court, my initiative was perfectly ripe for pre-ballot review.
The Times ridiculed me by name for attempting “to reform the initiative process by highlighting Eyman’s abuse of it,” while the AG spent pages warning against the dangers of using the initiative process merely to send messages. Yet that is exactly what the Times now lauds Eyman for with his wildly unconstitutional I-692:
That is how car tabs were lowered: the people voted to lower them, the court threw the measure out, and the Legislature lowered them anyway. The political message got through.
Surely the Times couldn’t be arguing that some people should get to use the initiative process to send political messages, and some should not?
And while the Times now frets that the lawsuit seeks to expand scope challenges “from a narrow set of voter initiatives” to those that “violate the Constitution in other ways,” that was exactly what they urged the court to do in regards to I-831:
The sort of law that names a citizen and condemns him by proclamation is called a bill of attainder. It has been forbidden for 200 years. Calling someone an animal part may not strictly be called a bill of attainder, but it leans that way. Taken seriously, a court would have to throw out I-831.
Hell, the Times didn’t even argue that I-831 should be tossed out because it was unconstitutional, but simply because “it leans that way.”
(And FYI, I never called Eyman “an animal part,” I called him a fool. Anybody who doesn’t know the difference between metaphor and analogy doesn’t deserve to be writing op-eds for a major American newspaper. And anybody who intentionally blurs the difference doesn’t deserve to be either.)
The Times claims to “defend the right of initiative,” arguing that the lawsuit “would expand the power of political groups to shrink the people’s choices before an election.”
Yeah, right. Because apparently, the only people who should have the right to “shrink the people’s choices before an election” are stick-up-their-ass assistant AGs and the sanctimonious serial liars at the Seattle Times.
“GOP E-Mails Missing, House Panel Says
“By CHARLES BABINGTON
“AP
“WASHINGTON (June 18) – E-mail records are missing for 51 of the 88 White House officials who had electronic message accounts with the Republican National Committee, the House Oversight Committee said Monday. …
“The committee’s interim report said the number of White House officials who had RNC e-mail accounts, and the number of messages they sent and received, were more extensive than previously realized. The administration has said that about 50 White House officials had RNC e-mail accounts during Bush’s presidency. But the House committee found at least 88.
“The RNC … ‘preserved no e-mails for 51 officials,’ said the interim report …. The 51 include Ken Mehlman, a former White House political director who reportedly used his RNC account frequently, the report said. …
“Congressional Democrats are investigating whether White House officials used RNC e-mail accounts to conduct … improper activities such as planning which U.S. prosecutors to fire and preparing partisan briefings for employees in federal agencies. …
“The report especially criticized Alberto Gonzales … for actions when he headed the White House Counsel’s office. There is evidence that … Gonzales … ‘may have known that White House officials were using RNC e-mail accounts for official business …,’ the report said. …
“The report said the House committee may need to issue subpoenas ‘to obtain the cooperation of the Bush Cheney ’04 campaign.’ It said the campaign acknowledges providing e-mail accounts ‘to 11 White House officials, but the campaign has unjustifiably refused to provide the committee with basic information about these accounts, such as the identity of the White House officials and the number of e-mails that have been preserved. … These e-mail accounts were used by White House officials for official purposes …,’ the report said.”
Quoted under fair use; for complete story and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/25n7do
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Republicans are behaving like people with something to hide. Can you say “crimes” and “obstruction of justice”?
I-960 is definitely unconstitutional. But can all these legal issues be decided before the November 2007 election? Probably not, considering the time that an appeal to the state supreme court will take. On the other hand, there is no reason to fault opponents of I-960 from filing suit right away over the issue. And the Seattle Times is definitely hypocritical.
The Bush administration is an unelected, lawless, rogue regime.
I want to petition my government to officially declare Tim Eyman a horse’s ass, and to designate all Republicans as outlaws.
“arrogant judicial bullying”
The bright spot, Goldy, is that I think you’re selling our judges and justices short by implying they can be bullied by the likes of Frank Blethen’s fishwrapper. They’re better than that, and have repeatedly proven themselves so.
You wonder if the Times editorial writers know what a “bill of attainder” is — or bothered to look it up. It’s a legislative act that punishes an individual or group without benefit of trial. Calling Eyman a “horse’s ass” isn’t remotely close to a bill of attainder; it’s merely stating a fact.
I wonder how much pollution Blethen spews into the atmosphere by flying around on his private jet. More than Al Gore, I bet.
“(And FYI, I never called Eyman “an animal part,” I called him a fool. Anybody who doesn’t know the difference between metaphor and analogy …)”
You forget, Goldy, that Republicans like Blethen are literalists. They read the Bible literally; they read statutes literally; and they don’t read the Constitution at all (and wouldn’t understand it if they did).
They think if a law says “horse’s ass” then it means “horse’s ass.” And, as we all know, a horse’s ass is literally a horse’s butt. The place where horse shit comes from.
Of course, horseshit comes from Eyman too, metaphorically speaking. But they don’t get metaphors.
But what mainly comes from Eyman is flawed initiatives that fail at the polls and/or get tossed by the courts. So many of his initiatives have been invalidated in the courts you wonder if he doesn’t deliberately write them that way. Either that, or he’s our state’s slowest learner. Eyman’s financial angel isn’t getting much value for his money; but then, Michael Dunmire has plenty of money to throw away (which makes you wonder whose money he’s spending.)
Even in a liberal market, the media proves to be reactionary and conservative. The rightwing’s timeless mantra that the media is liberal is one of the rightwing’s biggest lies; the competition for that honor is, of course, quite steep.
85% of I-960’s financial support has come directly from Michael Dunmire. For a complete picture of the I-960 campaign’s donations and expenditures see http://www.horsesass.org/?p=30 54.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thebl.....suici.html
EXCLUSIVE: SUICIDE BOMB TEAMS SENT TO U.S., EUROPE
June 18, 2007 4:45 PM
Brian Ross Reports:
“Large teams of newly trained suicide bombers are being sent to the United States and Europe, according to evidence contained on a new videotape obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com.
Teams assigned to carry out attacks in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany were introduced at an al Qaeda/Taliban training camp graduation ceremony held June 9. ”
Looks like the clever misdirection of the war in Iraq is finally not working. They’ve seen through our ruse.
Roger Rabbit needs help.What the hell is he on??
George @ 14
He’s on pissoffedness and reason. That’s what the majority of Americans are on now. And you? What are you on?
Goldy, why do you think the voice of The People should not be heard? Isn’t that…sorta… unAmerican?
Oh yeah…you and your ilk hate Murka.
Fuck you asshole..
Hey Moonbats… your socialist hero Fidel issued a rant today that he’ll “defend” Cuber from us big bad Murkans.
Ya know what I think we should do…? We have plenty of weemins in the military now. We should put together an Amazon Brigade and have them walk in and take the place over. Take coupla days or a week max. It’s about fucking time we cleaned up that fucking mess and freed those people from the bonds of socialism. And to have a bunch of women do it would really humiliate Fidel and the rest of those asshole latin america dictators.
What do you think?
What do you think?
PAY YOUR FUCKING GAMBLING DEBT AND LEAVE!
ProudLeftist@15, and George, Reality could do it. . .
Best to keep off that Convicticon Koolaid. . .it’s worse than Oxycotin.
Mark The Redneck @ 17
“What do you think?”
About what?
Oh…and pay your gambling debt, ya fuckin’ loser.
MarktheRetarded™Redneck. Pay your gambling debt!
The only lying hypocrites will be anybody who stands against Initiative 25 at this point. Especially if they spew demands for more “choice” and support “Democracy for America”.
Tomorrow, the signatures get turned in. 135% of required valid signatures.
Sure, I don’t like paying people to get somebody else’s signature but that’s the price of just-in-time lives. Now the people of King County get a choice – more democracy, more choice and more accountability or more dictatorship, more callousness and more anger.
We’ve got the ball and we’re going to score.
Goldy, why do you think the voice of The People should not be heard?
You’re not a very good reader, are you?
Yeh we would hate to see a stick crammed in this Bitch’s tax machine. That would be a real emergency!
The got so many new taxes on November’s ballot, they’ll have to use a fork lift to deliver the ballot.
He doesn’t have to be able to read. The truth comes to him in a vision. You can tell that bt his coherence.
Goldy, when you start to type “The Seattle Times editorial board…” does the rest of the hed autocomplete? Of course they’re lying hypocites; they work for Blethen. He pays well and the board members sell their souls one slice at a time.
Maybe the editorial board would like you better if you had started an initiative to declare Blethen a genius. If they spoke out as the usual “Praise Blethen, from Whom All Blessings Flow” chorus, we could set a precedent. Although it would be more accurate to call him “Deadeye Frank”.
@16 You have no standing here until you pay your fucking gambling debt, Redneck! Meanwhile, thanks for buying my gas — I appreciate your business! NOV is over $105 a share now; Mr. Cynical should’ve listened to me and bought it a year ago at 58.
@17 If I had to go into battle again, I’d rather go with 1 female soldier than with 10 of you.
@22 Why do you damn fool Republicans think you’ll be better off with an elected politico running elections in a county that votes 60% Democratic instead of a nonpartisan professional?
@22 (continued) Who are you fools gonna run for election director? Motherbeater Irons (38%)? Roadkill McGavick (38%)? Cigaret smoke (39%)? Who ya got? Who ya got? Hey?
You wanna elect the election director, how would you neocon idiots like to see Roger Rabbit running King County elections? Now that would be a spectacle.
Vote for I-25! I’d like that job!
Speaking of democracy, I wonder how much democracy there is on the Seattle Times editorial board? I get the feeling only one person has a vote. Especially if the editorial is about inheritance taxes.
Wow. I-960 looks great. Too bad it will probably never be approved, but I’ll vote for it. Another good idea by Eyman.
Oh Goldy, here we go again with you being disgruntled by the Seattle Times. Why is that-can’t stand to hear the real truth on issues without liberal drivel attached?