HorsesAss.Org

Thom and Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead: GOP following the Taliban Path?.

ONN: Pope supports gay marriage after meeting charming CT couple.

White House: Ruby Bridges visits with the President and her portrait.

Bill O’Reilly is once again the Worst Person in the World.

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

FAUX’s Eric Bolling is Worst Person in the World.

News Corpse?

• Ed and Pap: Murdoch and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
• Murdoch smacks down FAUX News anchor for mentioning hacking scandal.
• Sam Seder: FAUX and Friends claim THEY are victims of hacking.
• Stephen: Murdoch’s media empire troubles.
• Thom with Adele Stan: Is Murdoch’s empire crumbling?
• Olbermann: Will News Corpse scandal spread to FAUX News?
• Sam Seder: Rupert Murdoch calls in to clear up this whole phone hacking scandal.
• Newsy: Rebekah Brooks Resigns
• Young Turks: Will 9/11 hacking bring down FAUX News?
• Ann Telnaes: Rupert Murdoch.
• Randi and Pap: News Corp could be another Enron
• Newsy: Now the FBI is involved.
• Olbermann: My Murdoch moment, Part I and Part II

Thom with guest Alan Grayson: Running to get his congressional seat back and why.

White House: West Wing Week.

ONN: Millions irrationally feared dead in minor train accident:

Ed: N. Dakota Republicans demonstrate how callous & hypocritical the GOP is on human suffering.

The Republican Primary Asylum:

• Ann Telnaes: Bachmann and Santorum take the pledge.
• Maddow: Are you there, Gov. Rick Perry? It’s Me, God!.
• Mark Fiore: Mourning in America.
• Sam Seder: Bachmann courts Jews…and fails.
• Stephen: Michele Bachmann’s and Rick Santorum’s marriage pledge.
• Keith and Janeane Garofalo Michele and Marcus Bachmann
• Jon on Mrs. Marcus Bachmann’s husband (via Slog).
• Young Turks: Michele and Marcus Bachmann on gayness.
• Maddow: Rick Perry’s WACKOs lined up for “Day of Prayer”
• Lawrence O’Donnell on Newt’s refusal to sign the pledge.
• Huntsman: “Guilty as charged” to ending Medicare as we know it
• Maddow: The ghost of Senator Ted Kennedy debunks Mitt Romney’s FAT job-creation lie

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

Stephen with Dan Savage (via Slog).

Newsy: Could BushCo face criminal investigation?

911 tapes: Young Republicans at Rob McKenna event want some guvment services! (Via Publicola).

Thom: The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is officially recognized.

Ed: Psychotalk from FAUX’s five “brain wizards’.

The Default Standoff:

• Ann Telnaes: Republicans refuse to negotiate.
• Stephen explains Mitch McConnells scheme to hand the Republican’s nuts over to Obama.
• Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) calls on Republicans to put families over tax breaks for millionaires. (via Howie In Seattle):
• Thom: Mitch McConell wants to end democracy???
• Lawrence O’Donnell: The Eric Cantor problem
• Ed and Pap: The Republicans’ crazy old uncle image.
• Blooper: There’s a c**t deficit in America?!?
• Jon on Armadebtdon
• Republicans say the darndest things: U.S. credit rating not worth saving, says Ron Paul.
• Ed: Did Republicans paint themselves into a corner?
• Michele Bachmann on “Obama’s Choot-spa. (via Slog).
• Keith and Markos Moulistsas on debt ceiling stuff.
• Newsy: Pros and cons of McConnell’s plan B
• Jon on the debt ceiling debate and the GOP’s job creationism religion.
• Sam Seder and Katherine Harris on Michelle and Marcus Bachmann.
• Ross and Burbank interview Rep Jim McDermott (D-WA-07) on debt ceiling.
• Ann Telnaes: Cantor, the Teaparty and the debt ceiling.
• Thom: McConnell says “We The People” should have no voice
• SCTV: Michele and Marcus on marriage:

Ann Telnaes: Define rights of CEOs .

Some misguided Minnesota senator is Worst Person in the World.

Thom with even more of the Good, the Bad and the Very, Very Ugly.

Bill-O calls in to The Young Turks.

Ed: Obama trounces Republicans in fundraising.

ONN: Biden introduces a trio of sexy bodyguards.

Thom: The history of “We’re going broke!”

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

I just finished reading this “Guest Op/Ed” by McGinn at Seattle Crime. It’s a good explanation of why the city went after The Weekly, and how McGinn thinks they can change their ways. Beyond the specifics, the fact that he went with Seattle Crime instead of The Seattle Times for this piece shows the respectability blogs are gaining. Especially ones like Seattle Crime that do a lot of on the ground reporting.

Of course, blogs have had elected officials guest post for some time now. HA has had guest posts by politicians before, and I think the trend is important. Where the issue is more general interest, the elected officials will probably stick with newspapers and their own websites. But it makes more sense for the mayor to run this story at Seattle Crime since they have been reporting on it more than anyone else.

While generally I think this sort of thing is good, one thing doesn’t translate from the paper form. And that’s the name Op-Ed. It literally means the page opposite the editorials. So for example in today’s New York Times the editorials are on page A20, and the Op-Ed is A21. When you close the paper they face one another. This physicality doesn’t exist in blogs, and I think we need another word or phrase. Here are my suggestions:

• Guest Post
• Guest Piece
• Opinion Piece
• Opinion
• Special To (whatever blog)
• Exclusive to (whatever blog)
• Written Thingamajig
• Guest Blog*

[Read more…]

Washington state has a primary election on August 16th. Admittedly, the 2011 general election isn’t exactly electoral arena rock. I’ll only be voting on one election—King County Court of Appeals, Division 1, District 1, Judge Position 2, where an appointed incumbent is running uncontested. Still…with mail-in voting, there is never an excuse to not vote. Consider it practice and debugging for 2012.

Is your registration active? Address current? Now is a good time to double check here: verify your registration status, update your home address, check out your voting history, read your voter’s pamphlet, and even find contact information for your current elected office-holders.

Not registered to vote? Register online here. The deadline for on-line registrations is next monday, July 18th. After that, you can register in person through August 8th.

– Of course it was a Murdoch paper. (h/t)

– Challenges of riding the bus with a kid.

– Shaun is right on about Dean Willard.

– The Weekly goes fishing. (For the record, I’m fine with papers doing this generally. You don’t know what you find until you look. Still, the self interest between the news and business sides is a bit odd.)

– Strawberry Festival.

– The girls who won Google’s science fair.

I’m a little late on the gloating on this one, but I was certainly happy to see DOC head Eldon Vail step down from his post earlier this month after he got busted having an affair with a subordinate. Although if this state had a press corps that considered coverups of lying corrections officers as newsworthy as marital infidelity, he would’ve resigned over a year ago.

I love writing here in Goldy’s absence. But I don’t have as much time as I used to to do metacommentary posts on conservative blogs. And that’s something I do enjoy. So here‘s Sharkansky:

“Crowd lines up to oppose Metro bus cuts”

Seattle Times:

More than 400 people showed up for a sweltering Metropolitan King County Council committee meeting to protest proposed cuts in Metro bus service.

Some urged the council to adopt a $20 car-tab fee that would forestall cuts for two years

Why is Metro proposing to cut service?

Because the bottom fell out of the economy.

Metro’s main revenue source is sales tax, which has declined in an economic downturn.

Unmentioned in this article is the inevitable waste and inefficiency of a union-constrained government monopoly which depends mostly on taxpayer subsidies, not rider fares, to fund the service.

Strong media criticism. If only The Seattle Times would whine about unions! Also, roads get massive subsidies, and are a government monopoly. So I guess Sharkansky will oppose any future road work. What, you want to build a new floating bridge across Lake Washington? That’s constraining private enterprise who might want to build a bridge! Also, also, there’s plenty of waste in the private sector.

Also unmentioned is any suggestion that those who ride the buses could get the service they want if they only start paying their fair share of the fare. The protesting bus riders apparently feel that they’re entitled to have their rides paid for by the people who don’t ride the bus.

We’ve been over the fact that people who ride the buses pay for more of the service than just the farebox. More important, you could make a similar complaint about any government service. I used roads as an example above because it’s the biggest parallel to Metro as far as a way to get around. But you could privatize fire protection as insurance agencies used to do commonly, and still do in some areas, so people whose house didn’t catch fire are paying for the people whose houses did.

Whiny mooching jerks.

Yes, nothing says whiny like people patiently waiting in line for several hours and showing up at a hearing to testify politely. What King County needs is less citizen participation.

Also, it takes a lot of gumption for someone whose investment plan is to sue King County to complain about mooching jerks.

Not news: Congressional Republicans are way out of touch with a majority of Americans. In particular, their seemingly religious proscription against raising taxes isn’t a value shared by most Americans.

A new Gallup poll asked respondents on what methods should be used to reduce the federal deficit. There were five answers ranging from “Only with spending cuts” to “Only with tax increases”.

Not surprisingly, almost nobody (4%) opted for “Only with tax increases.” But just 20% said the deficit should be reduced with spending cuts only. Another 30% said “mostly with spending cuts.” And 32% wanted equal doses of spending cuts and increased taxes.

So half of Americans fall on the “mostly–to–all spending cuts” side of things. But “mostly” isn’t part of the ethos of many Congressional Republican. Rather, they have entrenched themselves in a “zero tax increases” mindset, and one they share with but 20% of Americans. To them there is a world of difference between the two options—there is a line drawn that cannot be crossed, lest they commit sacrilege before the eyes of their God (by whom I mean, of course, Grover Norquist).

Common sense, logic, reality, education, hunger, unemployment, investment in the future, the reputation of the U.S., the security of the U.S., the fiscal solvency of the U.S. all be damned! (“Norquist Will be done.”) No tax increases of any type for any reason! (“By the Grace of Grover.”)

It’s not just out of touch with 80% of Americans, when their religion compels them to hurt America, it’s treasonous.

News: Congressional Republicans are out of touch with Republicans. The same Gallup poll looked at the question by party identification:

We see that 68% of Republican respondents will accept tax increases at some level to fix the budget deficit.

In other words, only a quarter of American Republicans worship at the Altar of Norquist.

As August approaches, Congressional Republicans have a big decision to make: Grover or Country.

Pray they choose wisely….

During his campaign announcement speech, gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna (R) was all about education. The only problem is…he has no way to fund the pricey stuff he proposed:

“Rob McKenna’s $5.76 billion education plan flunks basic math,” said Aaron Ostrom, Executive Director of Fuse Washington, the state’s largest progressive organization. “He’s trying to fool voters with a smoke and mirrors plan that even he himself has labeled ‘hard to fathom.'”

McKenna made two specific and ambitious spending proposals:

• Doubling higher education spending from 8 percent ($2.56 billion) to 16 percent ($5.12 billion) of the state’s $32 billion budget, an increase of $2.56 billion.
• Growing public education’s share of the budget from 41 percent ($13.12 billion) to 51 percent ($16.32 billion), an additional increase of $3.2 billion.

In total, Rob McKenna proposed $5.76 billion in new spending in just one hour – $600 million more than the budget deficit the Legislature spent nearly five months working to close.

To pay for it, McKenna has two modest proposals…. Regardless of the merits or feasibility of either proposal, combined they would pay for just 13 percent of McKenna’s new spending.

McKenna is also relying on revenue assumptions that don’t pass muster, even with himself. When pushed by several reporters after his speech, McKenna admitted he was also relying on the estimated 13 percent growth in government revenue (approximately $4 billion) for the next biennium.

Big talk…zero chance of realizing it—the math just doesn’t pan out. Man…that McKenna sure has difficulties when it comes to mathematics!

But who do educators actually support? Well, it is a little early to say for sure, but Publicola’s Josh Feit made an interesting observation:

Inslee raised nearly $10,000 from teachers and educators—not the union, just individual teachers, about 30 of them. McKenna has raised just $850 from teachers, a low number for a candidate who’s stumping on education issues.

Two hypotheses:

1. Educators find Jay Inslee to be the more appealing candidate, and we might expect a roughly similar 10:1 ratio of donations from educators to Inslee:McKenna in the future.
2. It’s a one-time anomaly. Inslee’s just received a transient surge of donations from appalled math teachers.

Which one is right? Beats the hell out of me. I report, you decide.

There are a whole host of issues where Democrats are the party that believes in making the tough, rational choices. From taxes, to building the middle class, to environmental policy*. We’re the party that has to tell people the truth: we’re going to have to burn a lot less carbon. We’re going to have to make industrial polluters pay if we want to slow industrial pollution. We’re going to have to pay taxes if we want education and social services.

I sometimes hear this described as a messaging problem: We’re the party that tells voters that they have to eat their vegetables and do their homework. If most voters were under 16, this would be a problem. Fortunately, most adults understand the value of vegetables and homework.

The problem isn’t that Democrats have to sell eat your veggies, it’s that they can’t sell eat your veggies to adults. I’m not particularly health conscious, but my whole apartment smells of the vegetables I roasted for dinner tonight. Sure, I’d rather have chocolate cake for dinner but I, like most adults, understand that in the long term that’s not a good idea.

And I think that’s the attitude we have to take: Sure tax increases are annoying, but the things they fund are better in the long run. Sure, there might be a problem switching to greener sources of energy and it might be a drag for some people to drive less, but the oceans are dying and the globe is warming. We’ll try to accommodate that as best we can, but ultimately, there is going to be some pain.

I know, I know, Jimmy Carter gave a speech in 1979, and a year and change later lost a presidential election. So we always have to sugar coat things. But seeing the consequences of the last 3 decades of a policy of cake for dinner and no homework, we may be ready for politicians to treat us like we’re adults.

[Read more…]

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) tells the Republicans to stop acting like children because otherwise real people are going to get hurt:

“The possibility that seniors could be denied Social Security benefits is frightening,” Murray said. “Rather than accuse the President of scare tactics, my Republican colleagues should tell the extreme voices in their own party that it is time to act responsibly.”
[…]

“Senate Republicans have put us in this position by walking away from every attempt at finding a long-term solution to our national debt….They continue to deny that their irresponsible actions will have real consequences for the American people. This is not about bumper sticker politics. This is about real people, who could be hurt if Republicans fail to act reasonably and responsibly.”

In the mean time, presidential wannabe Michele Bachmann says both stupid and crazy things:

“This is a misnomer, that I think the President and the Treasury Secretary have been trying to pass off to the American people, and it’s this: that if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling by $2.5 trillion that somehow the United States will default and we will lose the full faith and credit of the United States…”

“That is simply not true. Revenue will continue to come in to the United States Treasury. It’s merely the President’s obligation and the Congress’s to make sure that the interest is paid on the debt. We’re grateful that revenues are sufficient to be able to pay interest on the debt.”

This is stupid, on one level, because of Ms. “J.D. from Oral Roberts University” mistaken use of “misnomer”. A “misnomer” is an error in naming something, whereas I suspect she wanted to use the word “misunderstanding.”

But it is stupid on another level by the fact that she is misinformed. Since mid-May the U.S. Treasury has been tapping its fiscal buffers—shifting money around between its bank accounts and delaying pension contributions—all this so that the government’s bills get paid.

In August, the buffer runs out. The government will have to borrow money in order to pay all of its bills, because revenues will fall substantially short of the bills owed. And there are no more buffers.

Sure…we can pay military families, pay service on the debt, and a few other things. But about 1/2 of the Government’s bills will go unpaid as of Aug 2. The LA Times runs down the numbers:

In August, the government is expected to collect about $172 billion in revenue and will face about $307 billion in bills, according to an analysis by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank. So, in theory, the government would have the money to pay a little more than 55% of its bills during the month. But which bills to pay? Interest on existing debt comes to just under $30 billion, Social Security checks are $50 billion, Medicare is another $50 billion, payments to military contractors for weapons, fuel and other costs comes to $32 billion and salaries for active-duty military personnel come to about $3 billion. Add in unemployment benefits ($13 billion for the month), and the government would already have run out of money without paying a single civilian employee or running any of its domestic programs, including courts, disaster relief, national parks, veterans benefits or welfare programs.

However you slice it up, some bills will not get paid, and a lot of people will be hurt in the process.

A second, and perhaps the worst, effect will be the long-term impact on bond interest rates:

The federal government has been able to borrow money at very low interest rates because investors around the world look at U.S. government securities as a very safe place to put their money. If the government’s ability to pay its bills came into question, the people who buy bonds almost certainly would demand a higher interest rate. That would ripple quickly through the economy. In a letter to Congress and the president Tuesday, the Business Roundtable, Chamber of Commerce and other business leaders warned: “Treasury securities influence the cost of financing not just for companies but more importantly for mortgages, auto loans, credit cards and student debt. A default would risk both disarray in those markets and a host of unintended consequences.”

Bachmann’s error is believing that a failure to pay your bills on time doesn’t affect your credit rating.

That belief is ignorant. And that ignorance poses a clear danger to our country.

– I hope the Seattle 8th graders who signed up for College Bound is a product of an aggressive push, and not a crappy economy.

– “After years of enduring rancid slavery analogies it should be hard to get pissed off at this conservative trend du jour, but amazingly its not!”

– Great turnout for the Metro hearing. If you didn’t make it, you can still make public testimony here.

– News Corp makes GE’s paying 0 taxes seem like a good deal for taxpayers.

– Republicans, stop pointing guns at journalists (even adorable guns).

– “if any of your readers would also like to send me the batteries that would be great“

Please join us tonight for drinks, conversation, and dinner at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally.

Tonight we will be joined by state Rep. Roger Goodman (D-45 LD). Rep. Goodman is running for Congress in Washington’s 1st CD, the seat currently held by Rep. Jay Inslee.

We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00 pm, but a few folks show up earlier for dinner.

Special Event: Tonight from 6:00pm to 8:00pm there will be a public hearing on King County Transit service cuts. The meeting will be held in the King County Council Chambers, 516 Third Avenue, 10th Floor, Seattle. If you can make it, please stop by DL afterward and share your experience and insights with the rest of us.

Can’t make it tonight? With 229 chapters of Living Liberally, chances are good that there is one near you.

I’ve enjoyed Darryl’s pieces on the polling and general speculation about 2012. And of course, with people throwing their hats into the ring, it’s important to see where we are. And our speculation can help inform the next year and a half. But, there’s still a long way to go, and as HA’s resident worry wart, I have to point out that the narratives may all go awry between now and election day.

Right now, for example, most people think the Governor’s race will be close, even if you can’t predict the winner. After all, the last time there wasn’t an incumbent, that’s what happened. And it’s what the polls show this far out. But a lot of people said the same thing about Cantwell’s last race this far out. Sure, you can argue that McGavick, with no experience as a candidate, was more prone to screw up than someone who has already won statewide twice, or someone who has been a candidate every other year since 1998, and many times before that. Maybe. And neither probably have a drunk driving record. Fine. But who knows what happens in the intervening time on either side?

Conversely, Cantwell’s race this time looks like it’ll probably be a cake walk, and hopefully it is. Hopefully Republicans won’t field a particularly serious challenger. Hopefully, the religious, Tea Party, and money interests will fracture. But they also may unite around a serious candidate.

But one of the great things about not knowing for sure is that there’s opportunity to make a difference. You can knock on doors, make phone calls, or give some money. Write letters to the editor, or even comments on blogs. You can call into talk radio or just talk to your friends.

Last Friday, the Obama Administration’s DEA finally replied to a 9 year old request to reschedule marijuana out of Schedule I in the Controlled Substances Act. The response was as predictable as it was insane.

We stop being surprised by this stuff, and all weekend I was at a loss to even know what to write about this, but it begs us to take a step back and look at just how completely bonkers the anti-drug establishment in this country has become. The report claims that marijuana has a high potential for abuse, has no currently accepted medical use, and that it lacks even accepted safety for use under medical supervision.

Just to make this as clear as possible, the American Medical Association has already asked the Federal Government to review its classification after concluding that it has some medicinal benefits that scientists should research further. As far back as 1999, our own government’s Institute of Medicine concluded that there were only mild safety concerns with the drug if it wasn’t smoked – which it doesn’t have to be. A European company called GW Pharmaceuticals already produces a medicine called Sativex directly from marijuana plants that’s used in the UK, Canada, and now Germany for MS patients. And to top it off, the Federal Government’s own Department of Health and Human Services holds a patent on the plant’s medicinal compounds.

But even beyond all that, this is the Obama Administration’s DEA – led by someone, Michele Leonhart, who he appointed – saying publicly that they think that marijuana is a more dangerous drug than cocaine, opium, oxycodone, and methamphetamine, all drugs found in Schedule II; which means that – unlike marijuana – it can be safely used with a doctor’s supervision. We can laugh all we want at the crazy shit that Michele Bachmann says, but she’s never said anything close to as crazy as that. And this is coming from the administration who came into office in 2009 saying that they were going to put science ahead of ideology?

Will the Republicans come up with a credible challenger to Sen. Maria Cantwell for 2012? The topic came up at Drinking Liberally last week, and I’ve been been thinking about it on and off since then. Specifically…who?

Jim Brunner puts together a good analysis. At this point, the big challenge for any potential Republican is money. The clock is running. Cantwell is raising money. Her non-existent Republican opponent isn’t.

Former Washington state Republican Chairman Chris Vance has the political side figured out. (I like how he is able to say reality-based stuff that current Chairman Kirby Wilbur could never say):

“[R]ight now, it’s very much in doubt whether there is going to be a strong candidate.”

“The Republican brand got hammered on the West Coast during the Bush years, and it has not recovered….There are just so many more Democrats than Republicans in Washington state right now — the math just becomes very difficult.”

and

“If a Republican is going to have any chance to beat Cantwell, they have to immediately and sharply distance themselves from the national Republican Party”

Brunner offers three possible challengers: Susan Hutchison, who lost a race for King County Executive to Ron Sims Dow Constantine in 2009, Rep. Dave Reichert, and Port of Seattle Commissioner Bill Bryant.

Not impressive.

Dino! Your party needs you!