– Congrats to Ed Murray for being elected Majority Leader.

– Congrats to Representative DelBene.

– A FAQ from SPD on what I-502 will mean for people who want to smoke marijuana in Seattle.

– Obama kicked ass in Indian Country.

– Andrew Johnson was a monster, but I would so sit in that chair.

– Keep throwing.

There’s an unseemly moment now looking at petitions for secession.* I don’t mean the secessionist talk. That’s a few assholes being assholes; it’s not a movement. If people are going to write about it, put it in some context. I mean way more people voted for Obama in states where those stupid petitions exist than will sign the petitions. Hell, he won some of the states.

And while I’m fine with calling this bullshit out, it’s unhelpful to just point and laugh, especially to imply that it says something about these states. I’m a 50 state strategy person, so it’s up to the Democrats to organize in Texas and in Alabama and in the Dakotas. Maybe the next election won’t make the difference, but we have a duty to keep pushing because there are plenty of people there who would never sign those sorts of petitions. Painting those states as a bunch of backwards yahoos sort of defeats that.

It discourages Democrats from trying and it shows an unseriousness to the people you’re trying to get to vote Democratic, and support liberal causes. It implies there’s nothing you can build on when there’s plenty. It looks back to the secession movements of, and before, the Civil War instead of forward.

So here’s some of the context I want in these stories: How many Obama voters live in those states compared to the number of people who signed the petitions? What are the efforts to reach out to those states? What are the demographics of the states?

Look, I know after the election there’s still a news hole to fill. And that ultimately this story doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. But this is the wrong way to write the story.

[Read more…]

– Happy Veterans Day.

– You have decades upon decades to contemplate what you did. But after today. After this moment. Here and now. Gabby and I are done thinking about you.

– In total, all the profiles, stage-managed and controlled by the Pentagon’s multimillion dollar public relations apparatus, built up an unrealistic and superhuman myth around the general that, in the end, did not do Petraeus or the public any favors.

– It’s pretty sweet how horribly Karly Rove and the NRA performed.

– And I think it’s a nice counter-narrative that Romney did worse with Mormons than George W. Bush.

– It’s strange to read Lindy West review a film positively, but I agree with everything she says about Lincoln.

– Is Greg Nickels looking for a position in the administration?

– The kind of people who vote for Obama and for Walker are frustrating. But, fuck Senator Ron Johnson.

– The person who recorded Romney’s 47% remark is an American hero.

– Not a problem.

– I realized that there are two movies about Lincoln based on books. One incredibly well received by a Harvard historian at the top of her craft, and one about vampires. And the book I’ve read is the vampire one (it was fun).

In the 2010 election in the 8th district, Dave Reichert was, let’s say, afraid to debate Suzan DelBene. And there was speculation from DelBene’s supporters that it might be because his brain had a booboo, and he was done with thinking. While it wasn’t as acrimonious as the campaigns against Burner, it still had it’s moments.

And now they get to work together! Possibly as soon as Tuesday.

Look, I have no problem when campaigns get down and dirty. I think a lot more ought to be on the table than there usually is. But after the election, one side goes on to their elected position and the other doesn’t. But at least for 2 years — and given where their careers are now, probably a good deal longer — Reichert and DelBene will have to work together in Congress.

And maybe it’ll be fine. I mean I can’t remember any bad blood between Inslee and Hastings spilling into their work in the delegation, even though their 1994 campaign was pretty hard fought. But I’d like to be a fly on the wall next time they have a private conversation.

– A pretty damn good night.

– Donald Trump wants a revolution because of the electoral college. Also, maybe he should have waited until the California votes had come in.

– But Bill O’Reilly is worse.

– Rosemary McAuliffe keeps her seat.

– When do I take down my Jay Inslee sign in my window and take the Obama button off my coat?

– Technology is helping kick polio’s ass.

– Don’t block the window seat.

My last post was a bit negative. There will be a results thread at some point, but for now, share your stories of who you voted for and why. Do you like absentee voting or miss going to a polling place?

Good Christ, I’m so glad this election is done tomorrow. I was injured and so I didn’t canvas anywhere, or do much volunteering. I usually feel like I have some control of some down-ballot races by knocking on doors or making phone calls. This time, I’ve given some money, but haven’t been able to feel like I got someone out to the polls or convinced someone by calling them. So it’s just my vote.

Don’t get me wrong, I love writing here. And I think it makes a difference. And I’m glad that y’all have stopped by. But it’s not the same as interacting with people at their door.

Even without that, this election has felt like more of a slog than they often do. Maybe since it started like 10 seconds after Obama took the oath of office. Maybe it’s a fairly negative election. I don’t even have a TV box, so I’ve missed most of the commercials, but the PAC’s and super PAC’s feel like they’re overwhelming the candidates in ways that are even worse than before.

Anyway, all this is to say, I’ll be glad when tomorrow is done. I’ll be gladder if Obama and Inslee win. So please, please, please get those ballots postmarked or dropped off by tomorrow.

– You’re going to vote for the liar. Because he shares your moral values.

– I’m both horrified at the GOP disenfranchisement machine and awed that people are pressing ahead in spite of it.

– It’s not all irrational programing at Fox News?

– Bales himself will not make any statements during the Article 32 hearing. The court proceeding in Tacoma is similar to a pretrial hearing in civilian courts. It’s scheduled to last at least one week.

– A West Seattle man accused of attacking a gay man with a bat while shouting homophobic slurs now faces a hate crime charge.

– This is as good an explanation for the trolls as anything.

Mike O’Brien has the story of Seattle City Light helping out in the wake of Sandy.

Seattle City Light, our local publicly-owned utility, is sending 18 linemen, their trucks and all their gear out to Long Island, NY to help restore power in the aftermath of Sandy. I am incredibly proud of our utility for finding a way to help out.

Many utilities across the country are lending a hand. I am especially proud of City Light for not only sending staff, but also finding a way to send the critical equipment they need to be most effective in the relief effort. City Light has been working hard all week to find a way to help and it paid off. This weekend, City Light crews are catching a ride with the U.S. Air Force to the storm ravaged area where millions are without power and heat.

It’s not very efficient to send the trucks and workers to help, so I’m sure there are some run-everything-like-a-business-I-don’t-want-my-utility-bill-going-to-that people out there. But I’m glad they’re helping. And I’m proud that my utility bill is going to help pay for that.

– On our last blog, Lee and I used to make fun of right wingers. Matt Manweller was on the top of the list. And ick for ever to that guy.

– Melissa McEwan’s take on the John Koster story.

– Seattle’s plans for the storm season.

– Being wrong is the most important thing for conservative pundits.

– It’s a better world.

– I didn’t know anything about assassin bugs before reading this post.

I’m a pretty harsh critic of The Seattle Times. I think their coverage is more biased for a corporate status quo than they’ll care to admit and their editorials are sloppy and often off the mark. And with the ad for McKenna, they’ve put their partisanship on display.

But I don’t get any joy from their declining circulation numbers. For the best corrective to the Seattle Times’ sloppy efforts is better competition. When I read that they’d fallen off of the top 25 papers in the country, I thought of George Orwell’s lament at the end of World War Two that London only had 12 daily papers.

It is only when there are large numbers of newspapers, expressing all tendencies, that there is some chance of getting at the truth. Counting evenings, London has only twelve daily papers, and they cover the whole of the south of England and penetrate as far north as Glasgow. When they all decide to tell the same lie, there is no minority press to act as a check. In pre-war France the press was largely venal and scurrilous, but you could dig more news out of it than out of the British press, because every political faction had its paper and every viewpoint got a hearing.

Of course people get their news from the Internet now and from TV more than they did back then. But the biggest problem with TV news, with the Seattle Times, and most other daily papers in the region, is that they’re reporting from a similar perspective.

I thought I might be all out of what the fucks this campaign season. Especially after the shitty hurricane coverage. But there’s still at least one more. What the fuck, John Koster?

Koster: “When a mother’s life in in danger. I’m not going to make that decision. You know, I know they go out and… incest is so rare, I mean, it’s so rare. But the rape thing…you know, I know a woman who was raped and kept her child, gave it up for adoption, she doesn’t regret it. In fact, she’s a big pro-life proponent. But on the rape thing, it’s like, how does putting more violence onto a woman’s body and taking the life of an innocent child that’s a consequence of this crime, how does that make it better? You know what I mean?”

First off, if that story is true it doesn’t really change the facts for the women who get an abortion after being raped. If a woman decides to have a kid after being raped, I want to live in a society that respects that. But society should have just as much respect for a woman who doesn’t want to bring her rapist’s child into the world.

Now I think all women should be able to make that decision for themselves under any circumstances. But it’s tough to imagine that a person wouldn’t feel a little compassion sneak in when we’re talking about rape victims.

– Aside from the anti-bus one, I like these reasons to bike to work.

– I’m not an evangelical, and we live in a secular society is a better response on policy than to tell them what they should believe about religion. But the relatively recent change to opposition to abortion in the evangelical community is pretty fascinating.

– Good for Italy.

– Bogus photos, however, are a strange new form of popular expression attached to unfolding crises, hovering somewhere on the boundary between art and commentary.

– Obviously, it’s limited in geography and scope, but I think the MTA Flickr had the best pictures.

– When I was in England and people would ask me why people call it football, I would tell them it was because the ball was shaped like a foot. I like this answer better.

I don’t care how desperate you are for a local angle on the biggest story right now. If the story you’ve decided to write is What does Michael Brown think of Sandy (h/t) you’re writing the wrong goddamn story. I mean maybe if you preface it with, and do the opposite of what this fucker says.

Seriously, after his monumental fuckup in the wake of Katrina why the hell would you ask his opinion if you had a hangnail? Honestly.

Also, even if you didn’t know it was this fucker, that’s really terrible advice. Obama is being too prepared for a disaster and Something something Benghazi.