HorsesAss.Org

Yet again the Seattle Times editorial board has strongly urged Congress and/or the President to drop health care reform, focus on other issues, and start over from scratch. And yet again the Times has attempted to cover their motives with the following caveat:

For years, this newspaper has favored health care reform. We still favor it, done at the right time and in the right way.

Yeah, well, forgive my cynicism, but I’m not so sure.

As compromised as the current bill is, if history is any guide, this is our last, best chance to pass health care reform for at least a generation. Surely, the Times editors don’t believe that given such a disastrous political failure, Congress or the President would be willing to buck history and touch this rail again anytime soon? Certainly the Times isn’t suggesting that smaller Democratic majorities in both houses, or even a Republican majority in one or the other, would be more likely to pass health care reform than the relatively large Democratic majorities we hold at the moment? The Republicans are clearly invested in blocking reform at any cost, and view this obstructionist strategy as absolutely critical to their long term political survival.

So I can only assume that the Times is being either naive or disingenuous when they repeatedly and aggressively urge Democrats to abandon health care reform at the same time they claim to support it.

Here’s my theory. The Times used to support health care reform, as like most businesses, they saw rising employee health insurance costs as threatening their economic survival. But with the collapse of the newspaper industry, and the large number of journalists and other related professionals now out of work, supply and  demand has shifted so far in favor of the publisher that health care costs have ceased to be much of an issue. Newspaper employees are just thankful to have a job, and have repeatedly granted wage and benefit concessions to the Times and other papers nationwide.

If health insurance costs continue to rise, the Times will simply demand even more concessions, with the implied threat that recalcitrant employees can always be replaced by those hungry enough to do the job for less.

Health care crisis solved.

Yeah, I know, that’s an awfully cynical theory. But the only reasonable alternative would be to assume that the Times editors are a bunch of blithering idiots who genuinely and inexplicably believe that defeating health care reform is the surest path toward achieving it… and such a brutally harsh assessment just wouldn’t be polite.

If you’re wondering why I’ve sat back and allowed Jon DeVore to use HA as a forum for promoting the candidacy of State Sen. Craig Pridemore to succeed U.S. Rep. Brian Baird in WA-03, well, this video should tell you everything you need to know.

Of course, with a controversial and uncertain House vote nearly upon us, the politically prudent thing to do would be to keep quiet until the outcome is determined. No need to expend political capital in a losing cause, and all that. And that’s exactly the path that Pridemore’s main Democratic opponent, Denny Heck has chosen.

But not Pridemore. This is a guy who clearly wants to go to the other Washington not just to be a representative, but to represent the people back home. There’s an authenticity in this video that one doesn’t often see from politicians these days, and I sure hope Pridemore’s consultants don’t attempt to polish it out of him.

Yeah sure, Pridemore is the more progressive of the two candidates, and of course that helps earn my support, but I’m also a pragmatist who fully understands that WA-03 is a swing district in which sometimes the less progressive Democrat is the better choice in August if that’s the only Democrat who can win in November. But I simply don’t believe that Heck’s more “moderate” tack gives him that advantage… not in this race, and not in this election cycle.

Heck comes off as just another politician, and maybe that’s good enough in some years, but not in 2010 when there’s a backlash brewing against politics as usual. Pridemore on the other hand is a guy who I believe can genuinely connect with voters, given the resources and opportunity to do so. And that’s why I’m convinced that Pridemore represents the Democrats’ best shot at holding WA-03 in November.

But don’t take my word for it. Check out Pridemore’s website for yourself. And if you come away as impressed as I have, you might want to consider throwing him a few bucks.

For the first time since I learned about the King County Conservation District elections a few years back, the King County Conservation Voters endorsed candidate has finally won one of these bizarre, nearly secret elections. So congratulations to Max Prinsen, who topped runner-up Mara Heiman, 1,772 to 1,488.

So now that we’ve proven that pro-conservation forces can win an election that in recent years had proven the only race that KC Republicans could reliably count on, I’d like to take the opportunity to publicly suggest that we scrap this election entirely.

4,232 conscientious citizens cast ballots in yesterday’s election, better than 50% more than the 2,757 ballots cast in 2009… which in itself was a huge increase over previous years, when a mere few hundred votes was sometimes all that was needed to assure victory. But that’s still a tiny fraction of the roughly one million registered voters in King County.

So if we really can’t afford to piggyback the KCCD election onto a primary or general election ballot — when, you know, people actually vote — why even bother holding it? Two of the board’s five seats are already appointed by the three elected members, so why not just appoint them all? Maybe distribute the appointments geographically amongst the nine County Council members, so as to assure that rural voters receive adequate representation?

I know, I know… nobody votes for less democracy, but a countywide election with less than 1% turnout is a farce. It’s past time we admitted it, and eliminated the KCCD election all together.

Once again, the Change.org website held an open forum for voting on which issues Americans want the Obama Administration to address. The results were announced and – once again – ending marijuana prohibition was one of the top issues voted on. In Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper discovered the same thing when he agreed to respond to questions from the online community. He was expected to respond to these questions today.

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After struggling to find a polling place and waiting in line for what seems like forever for today’s election, you could use a drink. So join us tonight for an evening of politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. beginning at about 8:00 pm. Stop by even earlier and enjoy some dinner.

Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 343 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.

The good news is that there’s a 90 minute wait to vote at the Bellevue library polling station, so I guess the turnout is relatively high. And the bad news is that there’s a fucking 90 minute wait to vote at the Bellevue library polling station!

The parking lot is overflowing and the line is so long people are walking away in disgust. If you wanted to design an election to discourage participation, this would be the way to do it. You know, the Republicans’ dream system.

What a joke.

I'm not sure where this is, or even what this is, but it sure is a fun looking indoor space.

When I talk about a really kick–ass playground to replace the Seattle Center’s Fun Forest, instead of the pay-per-view Chihuly museum that’s been proposed, of course I’m thinking of a space mostly aimed at kids. But I emphasize the “mostly.”

This is an opportunity to let our imaginations run wild and build something appealing to kids of all ages. Yeah, sure, we could build just another museum. Or we could build a public “playground” that could ultimately prove just as iconic as the Space Needle itself.

Unless, you know, Seattle just isn’t up to the challenge.

The world’s stupidest election has come around again, with the King County Conservation District giving new meaning to the term “secret ballot.” Dozens of voters will gather today at seven libraries throughout the county to cast ballots in a race that nobody but dedicated environmentalists and self-interested developers even know exists.

No publicity. No convenient neighborhood polling places. No mail-in ballot. It’s pretty much democracy at its worse.

That said, I suppose I’ll attempt to find the polling-place/library closest to a Trader Joe’s, and try to make the most of the inconvenience, casting my ballot for either Kirk Prindle or Max Prinsen. As Lee mentioned, Kirk is a friend of Howie, and thus a friend of HA, who has managed to make it out to a couple DL’s. But Prinsen has the endorsement of the King County Conservation Voters, and I’d hate to see our side split their vote.

Anyway, I’m probably voting for Prindle, but you use your own judgment. Just get out there and vote.

As legislators prepare to close Washington’s $2.6 billion budget gap, partially by imposing a tax on carbonated beverages, a new scientific study confirms the obvious… that taxing soft drinks can make young people healthier.

The study, which collected food intake data from 12,123 young adults for 20 years, found that with every 10 percent increase in the price of a two-liter bottle, people consumed 7 percent fewer calories from soda. They also took in fewer calories over all.

When people faced an even larger increase — $1 for a two-liter bottle of soda, comparable to a proposed tax in Philadelphia — they consumed 124 fewer calories a day, the study found. The lower soda intake was associated with a drop in weight of more than two pounds — and a lower risk for pre-diabetes. The study appears in the March 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Now some might argue against any government effort to influence behavior by distorting the price of one product over another, yet the low price consumers have long enjoyed on sugary beverages is itself a direct result of massive federal corn subsidies and the vast supply of cheap, high fructose corn syrup these policies have created. Washington’s proposed nickel per 12 ounce tax, representing about a 20 to 30 percent increase at the checkout counter, can thus rightly be seen as merely a state effort to partially counter the market distortions created by subsidies at the national level. And considering the measurable public health benefits the study suggests we should expect, this policy seems like a win-win to me.

If the Wright family really wants to improve the Seattle Center, perhaps they should attach a couple of these wicked cool sliding tubes from the Skyline level of the Space Needle? How fun would that be?

The Wright family, the people who constructed and own the Space Needle, want to build a private, pay-per-view Chihuly Museum at the foot of the Needle on public land where the Fun Forest used to be. Personally, I can think of some much better uses for a couple acres of land the Seattle Center master plan had envisioned as open space.

Seattle Times Publisher Frank Blethen waving the piece of paper upon which Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong promises only to persecute dissidents "a little."

As tough as I am on them, I have to admit that the Seattle Times editorial board is usually pretty good on issues involving free speech. Unless, of course, it’s spoken in Mandarin.

GOOGLE’S fight with China presents issues that are not as simple as many Americans believe.

Americans frame it as a fight against state censorship — of government telling a U.S. company to disable its search engine in China so that Google’s customers there can’t read certain political opinions. Americans don’t believe in doing that — and Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, has said so publicly, threatening to leave China.

To China’s government, the issue is whether a foreign corporation will obey its laws. Framed that way, the answer is easy. It has to obey. That is the rule with foreign companies everywhere.

Well, the law is the law. Spoken like a Mahatma Gandhi or a Martin Luther King Jr… you know, if they were drunk.

And on what does the Times base this bold statement of principle? Well apparently they looked the communist Chinese minister of industry and information in the eye and were able to get a sense of his soul. After all…

Listen to what they say.

“I hope Google will abide by Chinese laws and regulations,” says Li Yizhong, minister of industry and information technology. This is not the diction of a totalitarian state. It sounds like a man who wants to make a deal.

Now that’s the sorta confident assessment of a foreign government’s character and intentions that would make Neville Chamberlain proud. I mean, with totally non-totalitarian diction like that, where’s the harm in a little censorship?

I dunno, but is anybody else a little weirded out by an American newspaper defending government censorship, while urging the world’s largest Internet search engine to just quietly play along? Strange.

I’m getting word over email that the homeowner involved in this morning’s shooting in Kirkland is Steve Sarich. Sarich is a very prominent – but also very controversial – figure in the medical marijuana community. Last week, after a 38-year-old medical marijuana patient named Mike Howard was beaten to death during an alleged robbery attempt, Sarich sent the following email to both state legislators and the media:

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The King County Conservation District election is coming up this Tuesday. Kirk Prindle is a friend of HA and we hope that you can make it out to one of the seven voting locations and make your voice heard.

Think I'm thinking too big? Yerba Gardens features 130,000 sq ft of outdoor space, including a playground, amphitheater, carousel, skating rink and water feature... all on a rooftop in San Francisco.

Yeah, I suppose we could just plop a pay-per-view Chihuly Museum and Gift Shop in the space where the Fun Forest used to be, and maybe extract a few extra bucks from tourists who stray too far from the cruise ship terminal. Or, we could build our kids a really kick-ass playground our region’s families would use again and again and again.

Again, nothing against Chihuly in particular, or museums in general, but Seattle needs more family-friendly attractions, not less, and a glass museum just doesn’t fit that bill.