I lean in favor of staggered closing times after 2:00, but I’m not strong. And a decent argument might turn me the other way. This editorial in The Seattle Times doesn’t make a decent argument. It’s annoying for 2 reasons. First, the argument itself.

RESEARCH suggests that focusing on crime hot spots can result in more efficient use of limited police resources. Bars that close at 2 a.m. are a prime example of predictable trouble zones.

The first sentence contradicts the second. You can’t focus on any particular hot spot if they all happen at the same time. Also, I love how research suggests it. No mention of any particular research and then the most bland statement in the world.

Closing time at bars is a knowable, manageable police concern, if the city is willing to bring its resources to bear at that time. Unfortunately, Seattle city leaders and members of the City Council have asked the state Liquor Control Board to consider allowing localities to extend hours. The goal is an enlivened nightlife and music scene and a desire to end the crunch of people leaving bars and causing street trouble at 2 a.m.

How about no? There is no need for longer drinking, more drinking or any other variation on the theme.

“How abut no” is a hell of an argument. Really, totally 100% made the case. There’s literally no counterargument. Well, except, “how about yes?”

They go on in this vein mostly as an excuse to attack McGinn. Whatever. We’ve all grown so used to that stale nonsense. You can find fresher dinosaur meat than you can find fresh ways for The Seattle Times to say they don’t like McGinn. But then there’s the other thing that pissed me off:

State lawmakers are poised to cut liquor-excise tax sharing. For Seattle, the reduction could be millions of dollars and would eventually ding the police budget.

As Councilmember Tim Burgess, who is open to studying longer hours, puts it: “The council won’t be motivated to extend bar hours, which likely will increase the demand for police services, when funds we use for police services are being withdrawn by the state.”

In other words, the city would be embarking on an experiment to extend bar hours while experiencing a reduction of state support for police. This was not a good idea before any state budget cut. It will be even less compelling afterward.

Then maybe fucking argue for a goddamn state budget that will allow local municipalities to keep that money. There’s an editorial today praising the Senate budget that will cut that money. If it’s a problem oppose the budget. If it’s going to mean there’s a public safety issue oppose the budget. Jesus.

Dear Third Avenue bus traffic during rush hour;

I had my doubts when I first started using you. I mean I never know how many people at my stop are buying drugs and how many are actually catching the bus. But damn, once I get on the bus, it’s so wonderful.

I love the dance the buses do when skipping a stop. When it works (and usually it does) it’s so seamless. I love that it’s not stuck with the cars in traffic. Despite myself, I love seeing cars pulled over for using it. It’s better than the other streets.

Don’t get me wrong, I know we’ve had our problems. When it rains hard the system seems to fall apart. I don’t know if that’s more people riding than normal or if it’s worse driving from bus drivers. I often take the tunnel even though it’s a less convenient stop.

Still when you’re working, you’re the best way to get North or South downtown.

Love,
Carl Ballard

I mentioned in Tuesday’s open thread that NARAL Pro-Choice Washington’s Chocolate for Choice is tonight. Even though Goldy isn’t one of the guest judges this time, I feel compelled to mention that it’s one of the best events of the year. Obviously, you support an important organization that has done so much to push for legislation for reproductive health in Washington State. In normal times this is important, but as states push more and more abortion — and even contraception — restrictions, it’s more important than ever.

But God knows we’ve all been to awful fundraisers for great organizations. This one isn’t one of them. You don’t sit through a bunch of boring speeches, at a table with people you don’t really know. Local chocolatiers donate chocolate that you can sample, and take home. There aren’t tables that you have to sit at, and while there will be some speechifying, it’s kept to a minimum every year I’ve been.

– Put them on the cover of Fortune and pretend they are role models.

– Dana Loesch, who is valiantly trying (and failing) to carry Breitbart’s torch, has done some digging into Sandra Fluke’s personal life because of course she has.

– Repairs to The Duwamish Trail.

– It will be tough to pivot from I hate Planned Parenthood to I look presidential.

– I’m glad someone in power is pushing back against the we’ve got to bomb Iran narrative. Kudos, Adam Smith.

– But at least none of the GOP presidential contenders have gone after the Girl Scouts yet.

– A clear victory for the concept of hate.

I’m actually somewhat sympathetic to the Seattle Times here. They moved Doonesbury from the comics page to the editorial page this week as it deals with the horrible new Texas abortion law. I think it was a mistake, but at least they’re still running it.

But Erica C. Barnett is right that once you start making decisions like that it opens you up to questioning why it gets made sometimes but not others.

However, despite the fact that today’s top local headline was about an 8-year-old girl who was accidentally shot by a classmate (the mother is being charged with third-degree assault) who brought a gun to school, the Times saw fit to run a comic strip today making light of gun violence (and, incidentally, drunkenness)

Sill, it might be too much to expect consistent standards from The Seattle Times.

I know I come across as a skeptical bastard on this blog. And often times with good reason. The fights get ugly, and people’s lives come to harm far to often as a result of poor decisions made in various city halls and county council chambers, in Olympia, and in DC. Yet for all of the problems, for all the bullshit, for all the fights and arguments, I love politics because they’re a way to improve people’s lives.

Really, we fight so hard because this matters. I mean holy shit, we get to help chose the president, and on and on down. We get to influence the direction of our country and our state. And critically, we get to complain when things don’t live up to our standards.

We get to complain about the people on the other side of the aisle. We get to complain that the people supposedly on our side far too often acting mealy mouthed and pathetic. We get to complain about the influence of money. We get to complain about the operatives on the other side and the apologists for mediocrity on our own side.

So if it looks like I’m buried in snark and in skepticism, well I probably am. But I’m also so glad to be able to have this platform. I really approach it joyfully.

– More GOP races today? I think Rick Santorum wins Alabama and Mississippi. Romney wins Hawaii and American Samoa. That means we’ll be up pretty late to hear his victory speech.

– I appreciate the intent behind these sort of bills to get us talking (and obviously, I’m linking to it here continuing the discussion) but surely there’s a better way to go than joke laws that would objectively be worse policy to object to actual laws that are terrible policy.

– Anyone going to the official reopening of the Burke-Gillman Trail?

– Anyone going to Chocolate for Choice?

ASFCME’s most important endorsement ever.

– If anyone needs me, I’ll be in the other room banging my head against the wall.

– Make Pullman a National Park

– Bus Driver Appreciation Day is coming up.

– A hell of an uptick in campaign spending.

– Occupy West Seattle protesting Chase tomorrow.

– Hug Gate goes all the way up to the Queen of England.

– The Huskies deserved a spot.

You guys, the Republicans are still doing this shit. Can’t it be the brokered convention yet? Darryl doesn’t seem to have posted anything so here’s your results curtsey of me, several hours late.

Kansas:

Santorum 15,290 Votes 51.2%

Romney 6,250 Votes 20.9%

Gingrich 4,298 Votes 14.4%

Paul 3,767 Votes 12.6%, but his supporters will probably make up some delegate math that proves they won.

I can’t find the numbers for Wyoming but apparently Romney won it and also Guam Virgin Islands, and Abramoffville the Northern Mariana Islands.

Here’s the press release I got emailed today.

Democratic candidate for governor, Jay Inslee, today announced that he will step down from his seat in Congress to focus full time on his campaign and talking to voters about rebuilding Washington’s economy and creating jobs for the nearly 300,000 people still out of work.

“I am excited about focusing full-time on talking about my job-creation agenda and building a new economy for Washington state,” Inslee told a group of supporters at his campaign headquarters today. “We have a great chance to seize our own destiny, build our own industries, and create our own technological revolutions right here at home.”

“I am not one for half measures or half-hearted efforts,” continued Inslee. “I am going to leave everything on the field. I am going everywhere and I am going to listen to everybody. If you have an idea, I want to hear it. If you have a problem, I want to know it. If you have a business, I want to help you grow it. I am all in.”

Inslee, who is currently leading in fundraising and running neck-in-neck with his opponent based on recent polls, said he made the decision very recently after watching the GOP presidential nominees visiting Washington with what Inslee described as a “divisive social issues agenda” and then seeing state Republicans offer budget proposals that slashed education funding.

“It was a difficult decision, but what I need to do right now is focus all my attention on talking to people about what’s really important – creating jobs and growing our economy,” said Inslee.

Inslee’s resignation is effective March 20.

For what it’s worth, while this will probably play well with the legacy media who are always complaining he’s talking about national issues, I can’t say I’m thrilled with it. I know going back to DC and here to campaign is a pain in the ass, and God knows you want to not associate yourself with Congress to the extent possible. But I don’t think the best way to ask for the next job is to quit the one you’re in.

Also, does anyone know if there’s going to be a special election to fill the seat or if it stays empty until after the November election? Also also, what happens to constituent services until there’s another member of Congress?

Liss has the details.

A person identifying as a woman and/or having a uterus shall retain all of the full, basic, and fundamental rights of a US citizen as guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Congress and the States shall make no law that infringes upon a person’s life, including but not limited to access to life-saving or life-improving healthcare, and/or medicines and procedures deemed necessary or beneficial by a medical professional and/or by the person having the uterus, procurement of which shall not by denied in and of itself by the presence of a uterus. Congress and the States shall make no law that infringes upon a person’s liberty, including but not limited to autonomy over hir own body and the ability to make decisions regarding hir own healthcare. Congress and the States shall make no law that interferes with a person’s pursuit of happiness, including but not limited to access to a full spectrum of reproductive options, freedom from forcible reproduction, and the ability to make decisions regarding family planning and family resources.

Please sign the petition in support of the Personhood Amendment here. Once it has 1,000 signatures, it will be delivered to Senators Patty Murray (WA), Al Franken (MN), and Kristen Gillibrand (NY) with a request to introduce the proposed amendment into the legislative session.

The Reproductive Parity Act was a casualty of the budget bullshit. But there’s going to be a special session, and the people who pushed it during the regular session are pushing it again.

The bill died in the state senate last week, when several Democrats voted along with the minority Republicans to oppose the bill. Although the legislation failed 26-23, it could be resurrected in a special session, which seems all but inevitable now given Republicans’ and Democrats’ inability to come to consensus on the state budget after the GOP staged a surprise budget coup last Friday night.

The senators Planned Parenthood is targeting are: Jim Kastama (D-25), who is running for secretary of state and who voted in favor of gay marriage; Steve Litzow (R-41), a onetime NARAL board member who has historically voted pro-choice; Rodney Tom (D-48), a former Republican; Cheryl Pflug (R-5); Andy Hill (R-45); and Curtis King (R-14).

Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest has a way to contact your legislator with a pre-made letter. I think it makes more sense to find your legislator here and write your own.

I miss making fun of Sharkansky, so here’s some nonsense that took me about 30 seconds of Googling to find that it isn’t correct.

The Seattle Times Nicole Brodeur’s column today is thoroughly hysterical — in all three senses of the word — “Politics again playing tough with women’s bodies”

It’s 2012, and the battle for control of the American uterus rages on …[Rush Limbaugh] reignited a new national debate about how women can maintain ownership of, and responsibility for, their own bodies.

Of course, neither Limbaugh nor anybody else of consequence is advocating that government restrict access to contraceptives, as Brodeur implies.

First, if you can’t get contraceptives because they’re priced out or unavailable on religious grounds, that’s the access to them restricted, even if it’s not the government restricting them. But second, and to the point he’s trying to make here’s Rick Santorum, winner of the second most GOP contests for president this year, on birth control:

One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country. It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.

Anyway, I was just going to make fun of that, but what the hell, I’m already here. Let’s make fun of the rest of Sharkansky’s word salad.

Brodeur’s central premise is that women can “maintain ownership of, and responsibility for, their own bodies” only if the federal government forces third parties to provide free birth control supplies.

The government forces third parties to do all sorts of things. I’d prefer universal single payer, but this improves the current system that in many instances means people who might want to use birth control don’t have that choice.

How is this different from the proposition that people can’t take responsibility for brushing their own teeth and wiping their own rear ends without a federally-mandated supply of free toothpaste and toilet paper?

Who the hell gets priced out of toilet paper and toothpaste? If brushing your teeth or wiping your rear end* cost in the order of magnitude that prescription medicines like birth control, then we’d need a more equatable way to distribute them in society. It would be bad for the people who couldn’t wipe their butts, of course, but it would also be bad for society to have lots of shit covered asses around stinky and unhealthy. That would be one solution, I guess.

God this is a stupid metaphor, but pressing on. If 58% of people who used toothpaste used it for reasons other than (although sometimes including) dental hygiene then it would probably also be more important that society make sure it was available to everyone.

[Read more…]

Goldy has the details.

With only hours left in the regular session, the Washington State House just rejected the Senate Republicans’ coup budget on a 56-43-ish vote (I neglected to write down the tally). Not that it’s news, but this sorta-officially guarantees a special session.

Also not news, Republicans are bunch of fucking liars. Listening to the TVW broadcast it was often hard to figure out whether the representative was a Republican or a Democrat, mostly because the Republicans kept accusing the Democrats of cutting funding for education, when in fact it’s the other way around, and kept attacking the Democratic budget for its “gimmicks,” when the R’s balance theirs by skipping a pension payment. But you know, I guess if they repeat it often enough, voters might believe it’s true.

– Since Buck O’Neil was inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians, it’s been one of those things I think about visiting but never actually do. Now, not so much.

– If you’re going to imply, for example, that Rebecca Traister is a hypocrite and sellout only willing to criticize MSNBC hosts on listervs, you might want to spend a minute or two looking into whether she’s, say, written an (excellent) book that extensively discusses the sexist treatment Hillary Clinton received at the hands of Olberman et al.

– Aphra’s Reading Room: Women’s History Month Edition, Part I

– While, of course, we should take things like potential threats to Rush Limbaugh seriously, it seems Glenn Reynolds jumped the gun.

– Noooooooooooooooooo