FYI, rumor has at that documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (What Would Jesus Buy? and Super Size Me) has found Osama bin Laden. I guess we’ll find out in January when his new film, Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?, premiers at Sundance.
Can’t Bring Yourself to Type the Word “Ass”?
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!
Jesus wouldn’t buy Republican bullshit!
What a Gov. Rossi Washington Would Look Like
If you want to know, just look at today’s paper. Namely, the photos of bare, muddy, logged-over hillsides resembling World War I battlefields and drowned car dealerships, big box stores, and strip malls.
Dino Rossi represents greedy landowners and real estate developers — and nobody else. His campaigns are largely funded by the BIAW. These people want two things: The prerogative to build anything, anywhere, without restrictions; and government bailouts for the resulting business losses and environmental damage.
According to the fishwrapper, what’s happening in Chehalis now was predicted years ago. In fact, at least one county manager was fired for objecting to it.
After the initial media disaster coverage fades away and reportage focuses on why it happened, what you’ll see is:
Haphazard development
Warnings brushed aside
Opponents steamrollered
And — not least — those who acted against common sense and CREATED THE DISASTER demanding that taxpayers:
Give them money to repair their businesses
Rebuild damaged levees, roads, and infrastructure at public expense
Provide subsidized flood insurance so they can stay put and do more of the same
And — when you dig down to the bottom of it — you’ll find the perpetrators of this bullshit are REPUBLICANS. They all voted for Rossi. They support groups like BIAW. And they will not be deterred! If they can make YOU pay for cleaning up this mess, they not only will not be humbled and will not learn from this experience, they will use YOUR MONEY to do more of it!
And that, in a nutshell, is why Dino Rossi should never be governor of Washington. He is a tool for the people who rape not only the land, but also your pocketbook.
Geez, wouldn’t that be something? Billions of dollars spent by the WORST GOVERNMENT EVER on locating bin Laden (wait a minute what do you mean they said he’s no longer a target?), and who finds him but Morgan Fucking Spurlock? My only hope is that he gave OBL a Double Quarter Pounder and a McFlurry to put him into a sugar coma and jack up his cholesterol level at the same time……..
“Did development, logging set the stage for disaster?
“By Lynda V. Mapes
“Seattle Times staff reporter
“In 1996, the worst flood Lewis County had ever known blew through, drowning communities in muddy water high enough to close Interstate 5. Since then, the county has granted more than 100 permits for new development in the floodplain. …
“Big-box stores, restaurants and strip malls galore. A railroad line extension, parking lots for a church. A coal-unloading facility, a new natural-gas pipeline, a mine expansion. And barns, homes, carports and shops. All built in the floodplain.
“Then last Monday, … [f]aster than anyone had ever seen before, torrents of water gouged hillsides, broke levees and overtopped dikes … 10 feet of water covered parts of Chehalis, and hundreds of people watched their homes and belongings go under. …
“Now as the water recedes and residents of Lewis County take stock, many are looking back in time, wondering how much the legacy of development in the floodplain, and clear-cut logging in the upriver drainages, contributed to their woes.
“Many state officials and regional experts, including a former county manager who says he was fired after criticizing floodplain development, say they have been warning for years that the hunger for development was running counter to common sense.
They note that while many counties … have either banned or seriously crimped development in the floodplain, Lewis County has not. ‘… [They] keep repeating the same mistakes, even when [they] know better,’ said Andy McMillan, a longtime wetlands manager for the state Department of Ecology. ‘It’s the same old things coming into play: There’s money to be made ….’
“But … Lewis County leaders … say it’s unfair to blame them for nature’s wrath. And they predict the development will go on. ‘The floodplain in the Chehalis is so vast that the filling in the floodplain for local development has no significant impact,’ said Bob Nacht, the director of community development for the city of Chehalis. …
“After the 1996 flood, arguments broke out about getting tough on development in the floodplain. … Locals had debated a moratorium after the flood in 1986, too. And again in 1990 and 1991, 1996 and 2000. But such talk gets little traction in … Centralia and Chehalis, where … 70 percent of the city limits are in the floodplain …. Cutting floodplain development means cutting economic development ….
“It’s not that they didn’t expect more damage. It was just seen as acceptable risk. … ‘As long as the pressure is on the government to permit development in the floodplain, these kinds of events will continue to occur, and we will continue to have damage,’ Nacht said. …
“While individual filling projects might not appear to have an impact, the cumulative effect … can mean big trouble, the experts argue. It’s like putting bricks in a bathtub. One brick displaces a little water. But a lot of bricks can force the tub to overflow. ‘The more stuff you put in a flood plain, the higher the water the will rise,’ said David Montgomery, a scientist at the University of Washington ….
“While he was public-works director for Lewis County, Mark Cook pushed county commissioners for stricter building regulations in the floodplain. … The county commissioners fired Cook in May after about four years on the job. … ‘Change is hard, and sometimes the messenger doesn’t always survive the task,’ said Cook, who now works as a private consultant for a variety of clients, including Lewis County. ‘No one wants to hear their current … permitting practices could have adverse consequences.’
“All the while Lewis County has debated its floodplain development, logging has been chewing through the forests in the Chehalis watershed …. Logging has declined overall in Western Washington …. But the most intensive cutting is still happening on the type of industrial forestlands that dominate the Chehalis watershed. Since 2002 alone … 230,972 acres of the watershed … have been logged …. [T]he effects of clear-cuts and logging roads stick around for years, potential ticking time bombs for large landslides, said Gordon Grant, a hydrologist for the federal Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis, Ore. … [F]orestland that has been clear-cut is … five times more likely to slide in flood conditions, and forestland with logging roads is even more vulnerable, Grant said. Those landslides … bring down logs, creating debris flows that stop up streams, culverts and even rivers. That means even more flooding when the big rains … come. …
“And geologically speaking, the Chehalis floodplain is a particularly bad place for that kind of punishment. It’s broad and flat, and the watershed is … the second largest in the state. Drainage … a layer of impervious clay just below the shallow soil. Floodwater high up the Chehalis River stripped gargantuan loads of silt and timber off the hills, and dumped it … to depths of up to 12 feet in some upriver communities …. One rugged, heavily logged drainage was scarred with dozens of landslides that spewed into a creek. Some slides clawed deep ravines. In one large clear-cut alone, nearly a dozen slides emptied into a creek. …
“As the floodwater recedes over much of Lewis County this weekend, it’s too early to tell whether development policies will be different. But in Chehalis, Nacht said the city … will demand even more fill in the floodplain. Future development will have to be built on fill piled above the level of this latest disaster, he said.
“The city’s claims that continued building in the floodplain has no impact is baffling to some experts. ‘Fill will have an effect, and those effects will be local,’ said Park. … ‘For someone to stand up and say it didn’t have any effect … flies in the face of the whole basis for having regulations.’
“Dan Sokol, who coordinates flood-insurance programs for the state Ecology Department, said this flood should at least teach that development planning needs to take into account everything from clear-cutting in the headwaters to development in the floodplain. Tougher restrictions on building are also needed …, Sokol said.
“Montgomery, the UW scientist, argues that commercial and residential floodplain development ends up costing everyone else. ‘We should not be subsidizing those land uses through flood-control measures and rebuilding things and bailouts,’ he said. ‘ … [W]hy did we build there in the first place?’
“Despite the devastation last week, the critics appear unlikely to change many minds in Lewis County. ‘If you didn’t allow Wal-Mart to come in, people would say, “Why are you stifling economic development?” said Bob Johnson, the community-development manager for Lewis County.”
Quoted under fair use; for gut-wrenching photos and complete, unexpurgated, nauseating story — and/or copyright info — see http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....od09m.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Want Dino Rossi and his BIAW pals want can be summarized in 7 words: Business as usual. They build, you pay.
If Jesus could see this mess, he would just shake his head and ask, “Why would ANYONE vote for these people? It’s not what I tried to teach.”
@3 Why would Republicans want to catch Osama? He’s the best recruiting tool they’ve ever had. He’s raised more campaign donations for the GOP than all previous dictators and tyrants put together!
In fact, Republicans have been so clumsy about catching Osama, one can’t help but suspect that secret orders have been issued at the highest levels of the Bushevik regime that Osama is NOT TO BE CAPTURED OR KILLED under any circumstances, and the soldier who does it will face “rendition” and “interrogation” — and wish for a quick death before a firing squad. Republicans are capable of anything, no matter how low and traitorous. That’s not a matter of speculation; we’ve already seen it.
If building in floodplains is a form of terrorism, then the WSRP and BIAW are terrorist organizations.
Huckabee’s ‘Willie Horton Moment’ Gets Media Play
Perhaps things are changing in MSM after all. A little bit, anyway. Not so long ago, the media would have ignored the Wayne DuMond scandal. It would, after all, call into question the judgment and common sense of a Republican presidential candidate and we can’t have that! But the press is ultimately a business that has to sell papers, and now, acutely aware of both falling circulation and the disgust of readers who were sold a bill of goods by the press about the criminal Bush regime, perhaps the media facade of whitewash and coverup is cracking just a little bit.
The DuMond scandal should have ended Huckabee’s political career. At the very least, it should end his ambitions for national office. (So should his whacky wingnut positions, such as eliminating social security and replacing the income tax with a consumption tax, but that’s another story.)
In any case, this story was first brought to the nation’s attention by bloggers, such as Roger Rabbit on HorsesAss.org, and is gaining traction to the point where MSM can no longer ignore it:
“Surging Huckabee forced to defend role in release of rapist
“By Richard A. Serrano
“Los Angeles Times
“Pastor Jay Cole had two close friends. One was an inmate in the Arkansas State Penitentiary. There, the minister would sit with Wayne DuMond ‘and pray and read the Bible.’ For a while, the prisoner’s new wife lived in Cole’s home.
“Cole’s friendship with Mike Huckabee ran deeper, back to when the surging Republican presidential candidate headed the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. …
“A little more than 10 years ago, the paths of these three men merged at the state capitol in Little Rock, where Huckabee was the new governor. With Cole’s urging, … Huckabee played a key role in setting free a rapist who was supposed to serve many more years, say three members of the state board that paroled DuMond.
“After his release, DuMond moved to Missouri, where he suffocated his wife … [and] police suspect he killed another woman ….
“How a convicted rapist went free has become an issue in today’s presidential campaign. … Huckabee’s surge has drawn a spotlight to his record in Arkansas. Amid the new attention, he is facing questions about … DuMond’s case.
“Campaigning in South Carolina on Saturday, Huckabee brushed aside a question about the case but said he was expecting attacks from rivals. ‘Over the next few weeks, I’m sure you’re going to see a whole lot of things,’ he said ….
“Huckabee last week said he had … rejected using his powers as governor to commute DuMond’s sentence …. The parole board …, Huckabee said, unlocked the cell door. … While Huckabee acknowledged discussing the case with the parole board, he said that conversation was … initiated by the board chairman.
“Three board members recalled it differently. They said Huckabee raised the issue of DuMond’s release … in a closed session. They said … the influence of the evangelical community … drove him. ‘We felt pressured by him,’ board member Ermer Pondexter said. ‘”I felt compelled to do it.’ … Another board member, Deborah Springer Suttlar, said Huckabee did not mince his feelings about DuMond. ‘He wanted him out,’ she said. …
“The story opens in 1984, when a 17-year-old cheerleader was kidnapped in Forrest City, Ark. She was driven to a field and raped. A knife was used to cut off her bra. Police arrested DuMond …. He had been suspected in a prior rape in Texas and as an accomplice to a homicide in Oklahoma. …
The Forrest City case drew public attention, because the cheerleader was … a distant cousin of … Bill Clinton. … DuMond was sentenced to life in prison for rape, plus 20 years for kidnapping. …
“Clinton was elected president in 1992, and Lt. Gov. Jim Guy Tucker became governor. Tucker evaluated the DuMond case and … reduced the sentence …; DuMond was now parole eligible.
Huckabee became governor in 1996 …. Huckabee said the case was ‘on my desk’ when he became governor. He announced he was considering a commutation. He later acknowledged writing a letter to the prisoner. … The rape victim, Ashley Stevens, was enraged. She and prosecutor Fletcher Long met with Huckabee. They warned that DuMond would strike again.
“At one point, Stevens recalled, she stood up, put her face next to Huckabee’s and told the governor: ‘This is how close I was to DuMond. I’ll never forget his face, and you’ll never forget mine.’ Long, a Republican, could tell the governor was unmoved. ‘Most of what I think about him would be unprintable,’ Long said.
“The prosecutor added that Huckabee and evangelicals were conned by DuMond’s contention that he had been ‘saved,’ a common ruse by prisoners. ‘If you’re religiously converted,’ Long said, ‘how do you go out and kill two women in Missouri?'”
Quoted under fair use; for complete story and/or copyright info see http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ase09.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Jesus would say, “This guy is a contender for the Republican presidential nomination? You’re kidding, right? This is a joke, right?”
The more you learn about Huckabee, the worse he looks. Religious nut. Extremist. Naive. And two women lost their lives simply because Huckabee hates Clinton so much he released a rapist whose saving grace was that the teenager he kidnapped and raped was a Clinton relative.
Exactly the sort of thing that myopic, frothing, Clinton-haters lap up. In their eyes, Huckabee is a hero for slapping down this poor little girl by releasing the monster who raped her.
What a sick, pathetic thing the GOP has become.
Here’s another reason why Huckabee should never be president (or, for that matter, governor): He thought he was doing God’s work by releasing that cretin.
In both world wars, German troops went into battle wearing belt buckles stamped “Gott mitt uns.” Stupidly and arrogantly, they actually believed God was on their side. We know how that worked out for them, don’t we.
Now Republicans, too, are foundering on the rock of hubris.
I don’t think I’ve said today that Dave Reichert is toast in November. He’ll be crisp and brown.
@11 Don’t forget the graphics! http://imagecache2.allposters......osters.jpg
Reichert is in this fix because he doesn’t hug rabbits. Darcy hugs rabbits! http://www.merchantsbay.com/eI.....t_Full.jpg That’s why Reichert is toast. The 8th C.D. voters don’t trust rabbit haters, and I don’t trust them either.
Rabbits are often passionate in their beliefs. If, in Mitt Romney’s words, secularism is the new American religion, don’t its practitioners deserve the same tolerance and respect he accords all the other religions.
Rabbits are capable of being passionate when picked up and held correctly, and given a big smooch on the kisser! See instructional illustration below.
http://www.merchantsbay.com/eI.....t_Full.jpg
Where’s the trolls today? Did the Rapture arrive?
Rabbit:“Where’s the trolls today?”
Probably reading this article and wondering why you haven’t said squat about it.
“In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA’s overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.
Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said.”
As you say, “quoted under fair use”
And people wonder why folks like Nader/Ron Paul/Green Party get any attention.
17:
Actually, that’s a good point. I don’t know what’s been more disappointing, the criminal in the White House, or the utter indifference to him from the Democratic Congress. Rep. Kucinich may be a total whackjob (albeit one with a hot wife), but at least he has the balls to call for impeachment.
Y’know what, I don’t really care who the next president will be. The only thing I really care about it that the next occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, whoever that may be (and considering that a third-party candidate is almost inevitable, and the possibilities exist for up to five legitimate candidates), will be kept on a tight leash by Congress. You can say “Well, Clinton lied too!” all you want. Fair enough. But his lie didn’t cost thousands of American lives and fatten his own pockets in the process.
The next POTUS should be, MUST be, watched carefully, regardless, of party!
The next POTUS, whoever she is, needs to remember that she’s our employee.
Idiot @#19: Hilary doesn’t listen to nobody. That’s why she will not be our next POTUS.
BJ@18: When Clinton lied he drained his pipes!
Perfesser Darryl: Let’s see you keep this thread to the topic. How many of Pelletizer’s (TM) comments will be removed?
re 22: Stop saying ‘Pelletizer’. It’s really stupid and annoying.
And the monniker ‘Puddybud’ sounds like some big, dumb, southern Bubba.
But, I know you’re not from the south.
Anton @ 21:
Since we’re going back to the greatest hits, here’s another classic:
“But nobody died when Clinton lied.”
Leadlice Loosie (TM): Apologize and maybe, just maybe I’ll consider it.
Naaaaaah, on second thought, be all you can be Loosie. Stay the same 24/7.
Pelletizer (TM) is just what he is. He sprinkles a truth in between many of his own thoughts which are soooooooooooooo wrong, they are laughable pellets of “rabbit dung”.
So Loosie, being a malleable mind disciple of the Pelletizer (TM), tell me how many millionaires pay AMT?
Leadlice Loosie ™: You are beyond stupid. Annoying absolutely, idiot without a doubt, stupid; you passed that freeway exit long ago. Maybe you were asleep 24/7?
re 27: You are stressful to be around.
And, incidentally, I get it. You are the conservative black guy that parrots neo-con talking points.
Wow! What an individualist you are!
re 27: Correction, re 26:
#24 Broadway Joe says:
Didn’t clinton bomb an aspirin plant on the eve of one his trials/depositions? Didn’t innocent Iraqis die in the bombing? If you don’t remember, he said it was a plant for chemical weapons, turned out to be a lie.
@29…MS…
As I recall, it was Sudanese aspirin plant. But Bill was fond of lobbing cruise missiles into Afghanistan even as his internal lawyers told him that targeting bin Laden was not something Democrats do.
BTW…The Ol’ Piper is on a business trip in the Southeast and will have limited access to opportunities to educate the HA Happy Hooligans on truth, justice, and the American way. I know you weep, but such is life. I will return next week.
The Piper
Hey Marvin and Piper:
Way to rewrite history. The CIA thought they had Bin Laden and we had a president that actually considered him a threat and went after him. bush decided that bin laden wasn’t a threat because clinton did – they threw out everything that clinton did on principle. Idiots!
What was the unanimous right wing reaction?
Clinton is just trying to distract attention from Monica. so the right wingers were wrong then, and love Bush when he let bin laden escape from Bora bora – because we had to go look for WMDs in Iraq.
No – the guys who are actaully soft on terrorism are the neocon trolls on this site.
#31 correctnotright says
Bin Laden WAS NOT in the building, we know that for a fact. Clinton lied and innocent people died.
Unfortunately due to sandy berger stealing and destroying documents we don’t know exactly what clinton did about bin laden.
Clinton lied, people died. Sandy stole to cover it up.
Marvin (troll):
Get your facts straight – the CIA advised that it was a al Qaida training facilty and that bin Laden probably was there (turns out they were wrong).
but Clinton actaully tried to strike while bush let bin laden off the hook in bora bora. Bush has also said that bin laden is not important.
Fact: Republicans are weak on terror. they talk a big game but don’t deliver.
AHH, bricks dont fill up with water like houses and walmarts.