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– I haven’t written about local prospective high-end marijuana entrepreneur Jamen Shively, but in this article he says something interesting:

Shively said that under no circumstances would his company violate federal law.

“Let’s suppose tomorrow that Washington state issued licenses and said, ‘Go ahead, guys, have at it.’ We would say to the state of Washington respectfully, ‘Thanks, but no thanks, because we haven’t heard from the federal government.'”

I doubt the federal government is going to “back off” before the state starts issuing licenses. I tend to think that they’ll be too timid about the political repercussions to do anything at first, but they’ll eventually try some sort of crackdown once people start making real money. If that’s how it plays out, I’m not sure Shively’s move is a smart one. Cornering the high-end market for marijuana won’t be that hard once the market gets going (as we might see delivery services instead of storefronts until the fear of fed intervention dies down). In fact, with the ease in producing a legal product, “high-end” marijuana will likely cost close to what it does today. There will be a number of enterprises out there willing to work quietly and under the radar, and some of those will weather the storm of a fed crackdown.

– Dylan Matthews discusses what the Obama Administration could do from a rescheduling standpoint. Most scenarios discussed involved rescheduling rather than simply removing it as a controlled substance. But removing it entirely probably makes the most sense from a policy standpoint if we feel the proper approach is to treat it like alcohol.

– You’ve probably also seen that Frankie’s in Olympia is the first bar set up to legally allow the consumption of marijuana on its premises. They were able to do this because they fought to gain an exemption from the state’s anti-smoking laws years back. One thing I expect to see is a push for other establishments (bars, arcades, movie theaters) to come up with clever ways to welcome pot smokers (roof seating, outdoor patios, etc) even without resorting to a fight with the state.

Digby points to a horrible thing Ann Coulter said to show that the GOP’s problem with their hatred of the other.

The Republicans have a problem all right, but it isn’t racial demographics. It’s Ann Coulter and all the people who think like her. And I don’t know what they’re going to do about that.

Right. But it isn’t just the cultural elite of the Republican party. It’s the fact that the Coulters, and the Limbaughs and on and on have an audience of people who want to hear the sort of things they’re saying. If they were just shouting into the wind, they wouldn’t have careers.

The Republicans can’t keep their base unless they regularly spout ugly crap.

Please join us tonight for an evening of politics over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We’ll begin the evening by giving all of our drinks, food and money the conservatives; and we’ll entrust ’em to share equally with us. It’s because, you know…we’re bipartisan. And handing over control to conservatives is just plain common sense bipartisanship! I mean, they’d do the same for us…right?

We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier for Dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities and Vancouver, WA chapters meet. On Wednesday, the Bellingham chapter meets. On Thursday Drinking Liberally Bremerton meets. And next Monday, the Yakima chapter meets.

With 230 chapters of Living Liberally, including fourteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

Rodney Tom and Tim Sheldon have decided to caucus with the Republicans even though they’re still claiming to be Democrats. I don’t know what it means to be a Democrat when you caucus with the Republicans and vote for their shitty budgets.

It isn’t a surprise, still with Tom, it’s a little bit of a sting. One of the best pieces on this blog was written in defense of him . And while he was never embraced fully by the party (because a lot of his policies were still shit) he was never primaried in that Democratic leaning district. Obviously, that’s probably going to happen now.

In the piece linked to in the first paragraph, Goldy wonders if there’s any way to salvage a Democratic majority. I guess the only way I can see would be to get one of them a job outside the legislature so they’ll have to resign. There would be a tie until their replacement was picked, and since they ran as Democrats, the Democrats would pick that replacement.

Of course something like that would be rewarding them for being assholes. Still, it’s less awful than the budgets and the hateful legislation we’re likely to see out of the state senate if the GOP is in charge. Inslee has a lot of positions to fill, and maybe there are some lobbying groups that they’ve been good on their issues, but would like to see a Democratic majority.

– Congrats to all of the couples who got married yesterday.

– Bikes galore on the Fremont Bridge.

– War on Catholics.

– Perhaps Michael Dunn would have told those kids to turn down their music, no matter what. But perhaps knowing that he had the ultimate power in his hands to annihilate all of them, gave him a little edge. Very few people, no matter how “responsible,” would be immune to such a feeling.

– I was just goofing on this Christmas card from the Obamas, and apparently it’s part of the war on Christmas.

– Modesty is bullshit

– You’ve clearly done something right as a team when you force the other team to apologize to their fans.

Last week’s contest was won by Geoduck. It was in Dortmund, Germany.

This week’s location is another random one, this time with Google Maps. Good luck!

1 Corinthians 7:2-9
Each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband because of sexual immorality. The husband should meet his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should do the same for her husband. The wife doesn’t have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise, the husband doesn’t have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Don’t refuse to meet each other’s needs unless you both agree for a short period of time to devote yourselves to prayer. Then come back together again so that Satan might not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I’m saying this to give you permission; it’s not a command. I wish all people were like me, but each has a particular gift from God: one has this gift, and another has that one.

I’m telling those who are single and widows that it’s good for them to stay single like me. But if they can’t control themselves, they should get married, because it’s better to marry than to burn with passion.

Discuss.

The 14-year-old son of a friend of ours – a straight-arrow kid who attends a prestigious private school – was out jogging around Green Lake this evening when he was “detained” by SPD for, well, being out jogging. He didn’t have any ID on him (he’s a 14-year-old out jogging, fer crissakes), but at least he knew “how to behave” – yes sir, no sir, etc. His mother had to leave a school function to go get him.

Did I mention his father is black?

This is the sort of incident that doesn’t show up on statistics; and if it happened to this kid, you can bet it happens a lot. Why? Because all the controversy over how SPD treats communities of color, the DoJ report, the consent decree, new monitoring provisions, all of it, has not filtered down to the officer in the field. At all. And that’s the responsibility of SPD leadership and City Hall – starting with Mayor Mike McGinn – officials who have loudly denied any problems with SPD policing and who have fought accountability and reform, tooth and nail, for years. The egregious incidents – the ones that make the papers – may cost the city money, but they’re applauded outside the public eye by a lot of the rank and file as well as by SPD leadership. They set the tone, and this is the sort of thing that results.

Our friend’s son is OK now. But when his mother – who is a bit sheltered about these things but tonight is understandably spitting mad – asked him what he needed to do, he had a succinct answer:

“Be white.”

Ladies and gentlemen, your Seattle Police Department.

Thom: The G.O.P.’s plans for the 2016 election.

SlateTV: Cory Booker starts his food stamp odyssey.

Former Sen. Alan Simpson goes all Gangnam style.

Maddow: FreedomWorks loses it’s Dick Armey.

The War On Xmas™:

• The War on Christmas totally explained:
• Young Turks: Bill-O’s freak-out over the War on Christmas™.
• White House: President Obama lights the National Holiday Christmas Tree

Sam Seder: Stoopid Republicans think the election was stolen by (the non-existent) ACORN.

Thom with The Good, The Bad and the Very Very Supercacaneously Ugly.

SlateTV: Hillary Clinton laughs off Presidential talk.

Red State Update: Romney and Obama have lunch.

Sam Seder: Teabaggers lose their Dick Armey.

Thom: The Good, The Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.

Fiscal Cliff Notes:

• Ann Telnaes: Boehner talks about “fairness”.
• Mark Fiore: The Twelve Days of Cliffmas.
• Sam Seder: Mitch McConnell filibusters himself
• Mr. Burns with some political “common sense”:
• Ezra Klein: Republicans running out of room in budget debate.
• O’Donnell: Republican Senator Mitch McConnell filibusters his own bill!!
• Young Turks: McConnell self-filibusters.
• Fiscal cliff explained in pictures.
• Ann Telnaes: Republicans sink into a fiscal bog.
• O’Donnell: “Magic beans and fairy dust”

Thom with The Good, The Bad and the Very Very Potomaniacly Ugly.

Washington State Issuing marriage licenses for same-sex couples (via Crooks and Liars).

Jon does Gov. Chris Christie.

Truth in advertising: Exxon hates your children (via Slog).

FAUX News sidelines Rove and Morris:

• Sam Seder: Even FAUX News is freakin’ sick of Karl Rove and Dick Morris.
• Bill Press: Glee over Dick Morris and Karl Rove being sidelined at FAUX.
• Young Turks: FAUX News cuts Dick, Rove.
• Martin Bashir: Armey and Rove benched at FAUX News.

Thom and Pap: Teabaggers are the GOP’s “invasive species”.

Martin Bashir: Romney Surrogates using the same feckless & offensive talking points.

Lunatic Congressman Gohmert casts sole vote against striking “lunatic” from laws.

White House: West Wing Week.

Shitting upon the Disabled:

• Sam Seder: G.O.P. Senators kick Tiny Tim to the curb.
• Bill Press: G.O.P. Senators shake Bob Dole’s hand and then stab him in the back.
• Jon: It’s official—Republicans hate the U.N. more than they like helping people with disabilities (via Crooks and Liars).
• Ed: Republican Senators vote down treaty to protect people with disabilities worldwide.
• Martin Bashir: G.O.P.’s disgraceful circus act over U.N. Disabilities Treaty.
• Thom: One party flew over the cuckoo’s nest.
• Ed: Fiscal cliff and U.N. disability treaty demonstrates that Republicans are far removed from reality.
• Maddow: GOP Freakout…Part 1.
• Maddow: GOP Freakout…Part 2.
• O’Donnell: 38 Senate Republicans disgrace themselves and the U.S.

Ezra Klein: Republicans resume their War on Workers™.

Sharpton: Obama honors ‘living legends’ at the Kennedy Center.

SlateTV: Senator Ashley Judd?

O’Donnell: 51% of voters want Michelle Obama for Senator.

From Teabagger to Moneybagger:

• Young Turks: Teabagger DeMint quits.
• Ezra Klein: DeMint’s move stinks of ‘Party Purity’ enforcement strategy.
• Young Turks: The Heritage Foundation is not a think tank; it’s a money laundering operation.
• Sam Seder: Jim DeMint quits Senate for cha-ching!
• Young Turks: Colbert wants to replace DeMint.
• Stephen Colbert reaches for the Senate #SenatorColbert.

Jon: Republicans haven’t learned a damn thing (via Slog).

Young Turks: Ed Asner’s anti-trickle down video.

Pap: Cut the Tea Party cancer out of USA.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Joel Connelly has the details on the public comment period for the coal train hearing next Thursday.

Previous “scoping sessions” in Whatcom, Skagit and Spokane Counties — held by the Washington Dept. of Ecology, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Whatcom County — have drawn overflow crowds.

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, and other Northwest Washington mayors, have warned about the disruption of having a succession of mile-long coal trains, bound for Cherry Point, move along the waterfronts of their cities each day. McGinn worries that after waiting for one long train to go by, waterfront traffic lineups won’t be able to clear in time for the next train.

“Transportation impacts evolve into economic impacts,” McGinn said this week.

I’m opposed to the coal trains, but if they run them, I hope the city and the state have a plan to mitigate the traffic and coal dust. So come on out and make your voice heard.

The Dec. 13 meeting in Seattle will be held at the Washington State Convention Center, Ballroom 6f. The ballroom has a capacity of 3,500 people. Doors will open at 3:30 for people to find seats, and to put down their names for the upcoming drawings.

I hate to make promises about these things, especially because I haven’t done the proper inquiries about media, but I think I’m going to live blog it.

– Frequently asked questions about Medical Marijuana (Cannabis) in Washington State

– Way Past Wonderful

– What, you want me to actually name the spending cuts I support?

– To schedule a wedding with a district court judge you, please follow these instructions.

– Hip hop, like nearly every other genre has some people who support gay civil rights.

Rob McKenna’s wife is right about marriage equality (h/t).

In an email to The Seattle Times, Marilyn McKenna added that while she and her husband disagree on the subject, they respect each other’s opinions. “I believe that being pro-gay marriage is completely consistent with being a Republican too. It’s a matter of personal choice that the government has no right to interfere in,” she wrote.

She added in a second email: “Both the government and the Republican Party need to get the hell out of people’s bedrooms and get a life!”

Great. I mean sure. I’m glad to have Republicans on board the human decency train. Of course that’s easy enough to say after marriage equality passed, and when it’s a done deal. I hope this is part of a genuine reassessment on the part of the GOP, but I fear they’ll be just as backwards on whatever is the next issue of basic dignity in the state as they mostly were on this one.

Of course we’ve known since election day, or thereabouts, that today would be the day marijuana and gay marriage would be legal in Washington. Still, going to bed reading about the people waiting to start the process finally at midnight and waking up knowing that they live in a state that lets them get married is great. Before I went to bed, I wondered if I should go down to a repeal day event even though I don’t smoke marijuana and then I woke up knowing that people around the state weren’t going to jail for that.

It’s a rare thing to wake up in a state that’s so much better than when you went to bed. Today was one of those days, so savor it.

I’d have guessed that Ed Murray wouldn’t run for Seattle mayor. He just became the Democratic leader in the Senate and with the long session next year, he won’t be able to fundraise as well as the rest of the candidates. But if blogging has given me any insight it’s that I shouldn’t make predictions. He has formed an exploratory committee.

I had expected to be a McGinn partisan, and still may go down that road. But instead of it being a definite thing, I’ll have to look at both of them. I just don’t have enough of an idea of Murray’s vision for Seattle to know one way or the other. I certainly like what he’s done in the legislature.

Also, it’ll be interesting to see — to the extent that it isn’t all behind the scenes — how as Majority Leader who is running for mayor, he’s able to shade legislation that he might want to run on. He’s already pretty good on transit funding, and God knows he’ll be running on having passed marriage equality. But the next session will be a chance to burnish those credentials.

Dear Senators,

Congratulation, assholes, for blocking the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities yesterday. You done “real good!”

Let’s see…you further narrowed your alarmingly narrow base:

If you thought the Republican Party only tries to appeal to well-off, married, white suburban and rural Christian men, boy are you wrong. The Republican Party tried to appeal only to well-off, white, suburban and rural able-bodied Christian men.

Nice!

In rejecting the treaty, you spit in the face of both former Sen. Bob Dole and former President George H.W. Bush—you know, the guy who signed the American With Disabilities Act, that serves as model law for signatory states. Oh…and George W. Bush, whose administration negotiated the treaty in the first place, and who first signed the treaty.

Really, nice work!

Instead you cast your lot with the fringe extremists of your party—the American Taliban, if you will. And the American Taliban’s top General is Senator Rick Santorum, who convinced you to reject the treaty because:

…parents and caregivers care most deeply and are best equipped to care for the disabled. Not international bureaucrats.

Except that the treaty does not put “international bureaucrats” in charge of children with disabilities. The very idea completely contradicts the words and spirit of the treaty (try reading it, ya nutjobbers!), which is almost entirely about countries agreeing to pass laws ensuring people with disabilities receive the same opportunities that are enjoyed by persons without disabilities.

Santorum’s overt lie misinformation about the treaty is strikingly similar to, and as absurd as, Sarah Palin’s 2009 lie-of-the-year award winning, repeatedly debunked “Obama’s Death Panels” crazy talk.

Santorum also frets:

Another example of this U.N. overreach is the treaty’s “best interests of the child” standard, which states in full: “In all actions concerning children with disabilities, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.”

But here is what the treaty says:

Article 7 – Children with disabilities

• States Parties shall take all necessary measures to ensure the full enjoyment by children with disabilities of all human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with other children.
• In all actions concerning children with disabilities, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.

Wow…I can see how considering the best interests of the child in passing laws to ensure equality of “full human rights and fundamental freedoms” might threaten the fuck out of you. The little rugrats might try to vote!

And it isn’t just General Santorum. Some of you bought the bullshit of General Tony Perkins:

“The global community could force America to sanction sterilization or abortion for the disabled–at taxpayer expense,” said Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.

Actually, what the treaty says is:

Article 23 – Respect for home and the family

1. States Parties shall take effective and appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against persons with disabilities in all matters relating to marriage, family, parenthood and relationships, on an equal basis with others, so as to ensure that:

a. The right of all persons with disabilities who are of marriageable age to marry and to found a family on the basis of free and full consent of the intending spouses is recognized;

b. The rights of persons with disabilities to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and to have access to age-appropriate information, reproductive and family planning education are recognized, and the means necessary to enable them to exercise these rights are provided;

c. Persons with disabilities, including children, retain their fertility on an equal basis with others.

Literally, the treaty encourages countries to provide the same reproductive options to persons with disabilities as are available to persons without disabilities. But Tony Perkins is a well known lying sack of shit uninformed dissembling nutjob. So…”good job” there.

And that’s not all. You:

…bought the bogus argument that to vote for the U.N. treaty would mean that the U.N. committee overseeing the ban on discrimination against the disabled, including children, could violate the rights of American parents who decide to home school their disabled children.

Nuh-huh. What the treaty does do is ensure that children with disabilities have the same rights to schooling, including home schooling that children without disabilities have.

This “home schooling” concern can only be considered the rantings of lunatics who have not read the fucking treaty. That likely includes YOU and up to 37 of your esteemed, lunatic colleagues!

That’s not the craziest thing of all. The stupefyingly crazy thing comes from a whole other collection of wackjobs: The “U.N. sovereignty over the U.S.” conspiracy theorists. Santorum, of course, hinted at this.

Since the treaty is really designed to get countries to pass laws essentially modeled after the American With Disabilities Act, ratification of the treaty by the U.S. would really only subject the U.S. to a quadrennial reporting requirement. So, thank you, Senators, for saving us from the tyranny of writing the Easiest. Report. Ever. every four years.

Now that you have saved us from the autocracy of U.N. bureaucrats performing abortions and forced sterilization on home-schooled babies with disabilities, it’s time to move on the other important things.

You know…like outing high ranking government officials who are members of the New World Order (or the Muslim Brotherhood). Or revealing the truth about aliens and Area 51. And, for Pete’s sake, finally nailing Bill and Hillary Clinton for the death of Vince Foster!

Get to it!

Verily,
Darryl
Horsesass.org