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Please join us for a pre-Independence Day celebration the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

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

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out another DL meeting over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter also meets. The Bellingham and Lakewood chapters will meet on Wednesday. And for Thursday, the Spokane and Tacoma chapters meet.

With 203 chapters of Living Liberally, including sixteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting near you.

– Power of Ridicule

– In petitions: The General has a petition to investigate that pervert Rep. Michael Burgess, and The Transit Riders Union wants to save Metro from devastating cuts.

– I’ve been riveted by the abortion hearings in Texas. I probably would have missed a lot of it if not for Jessica Luther

– Capitol Lake has mud snails.

– A bicyclist has died in Woodinville (Seattle Times link)

– I am very sorry that white people began experiencing great violence in 1860. But for some of us, war did not begin 1860, but in 1660. The brutal culmination of that war may not have allowed us to ascend into a post-racial heaven. But here is something I always come back to: In 1859 legally selling someone’s five-year-old child was big business. In 1866, it was not.

Yesterday, Washington state’s Republican delegation joined the House Republicans and voted in favor of a bill that would severely restrict women’s access to safe and legal abortions. Bill H.R. 1797 goes under the Orwellian title “Pain-capable unborn child protection act.”

The bill goes to some lengths to argue that the fetus (referred to in wingnut-speak as “unborn child”) feels pain by “no later than 20 weeks after fertilization.” The claim is scientifically dubious. Recent reviews conducted by bona fide scientists (rather than, you know, wingnuts) cast doubt on this assertion.

For example, in a recent review article, Bellieni and Buonocore (2012, Journal of Maternal, Fetal, and Neonatal Medicine 25:1203–1208) weigh the anatomical, endocrinological, behavioral, and electrophysiological evidence. They cautiously conclude:

Our data show that there is consistent evidence of the possibility for the fetus to experience pain in the third trimester, and this evidence is weaker before this date and null in the first half of pregnancy.

Less ambiguity was found in a 2010 “Working Party” report by The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists titled “Fetal Awareness”. Their conclusions are rather concrete. From the summary…

In reviewing the neuroanatomical and physiological evidence in the fetus, it was apparent that connections from the periphery to the cortex are not intact before 24 weeks of gestation and, as most neuroscientists believe that the cortex is necessary for pain perception, it can be concluded that the fetus cannot experience pain in any sense prior to this gestation. After 24 weeks there is continuing development and elaboration of intracortical networks such that noxious stimuli in newborn preterm infants produce cortical responses. Such connections to the cortex are necessary for pain experience but not sufficient, as experience of external stimuli requires consciousness. Furthermore, there is increasing evidence that the fetus never experiences a state of true wakefulness in utero and is kept, by the presence of its chemical environment, in a continuous sleep-like unconsciousness or sedation. This state can suppress higher cortical activation in the presence of intrusive external stimuli. This observation highlights the important differences between fetal and neonatal life and the difficulties of extrapolating from observations made in newborn preterm infants to the fetus.

These recent reviews summarize the broad scientific literature relying on hundreds of previous scientific studies and empirical observations that weigh in on all sides of the argument. The House Republicans relied on cherry picking a handful of papers that favor their position. They come to a “scientific conclusion” for the bill using amateur methods unworthy of an undergraduate term paper, let alone a House bill!

The bill prohibits abortions after 20 weeks post-fertilization, and provides limited exceptions:

• To “save the life of a pregnant woman whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury…not including psychological or emotional conditions.”
• If “the pregnancy is the result of rape,” but only “if the rape has been reported at any time prior to the abortion to an appropriate law enforcement agency“
• If “the pregnancy is the result of incest against a minor” but only “if the incest against a minor has been reported at any time prior to the abortion“

The scientific record is clear on another aspect of abortion: “Abortion-related deaths are more frequent in countries with more restrictive abortion laws”. The more restrictive the laws, the higher the rates of abortion-related maternal mortality.

The World Health Organization estimates that there are about 20 million unsafe abortions annually. The practice result in about 68,000 unnecessary deaths to women, and an additional 5 million women who suffer long-term health complications from the unsafe practices. The public health consequences of anti-abortion laws are profound.

Republicans, by voting for Bill H.R. 1797, have ignored (in fact, abused) science, and have voted, essentially, to kill women.

And I am sad to see that Washington state’s G.O.P. delegation, Dave Reichert, “Doc” Hastings, Jamie Herrera Beutler, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, all voted in favor of killing women.

Death is a pretty harsh punishment for unintentionally getting pregnant…particularly for women who were too embarrassed to report a rape, or girls too ashamed to report incest.

You know what…It’s time to get rid of these puritanical women-killing fucking troglodytes!

1) Now that I-502 has passed, what will the purchase of marijuana look like within city limits? Will medical marijuana collective garden storefronts in Seattle have to abide by the 1000-foot rule established by I-502?

Since the medical marijuana dispensaries have served and do serve as suppliers for the recreational users as well – especially underage ones – my perception is that we have too many of them and it’s good that they have gotten notices to move further away with the 1000 foot rule. That said, I don’t think banishing marijuana storefronts makes any sense or sends a good message. We probably should have saved the old state liquor stores and used them for outlets. I attached the speech I made at the Cannabis Freedom March for some background on my thoughts. [a copy is here – Carl]

2) With Metro’s ability to fund itself at the whim of the legislature, what should the city’s role be in public transportation? As mayor, how will you both make sure we get our fair share, and that the system serves the entire region well?

My suggestion for METRO funding is called ORCA Tabs. Here’s a post I made recently called METRO Rx. http://katemartinformayor.com/2013/05/14/metro-rx/

3) What should the waterfront look like after the Viaduct comes down? Will there be a streetcar or other transit?

I think the upper deck of the viaduct should be preserved as an open space. Here’s a post I made recently called The Viaduct Park. http://katemartinformayor.com/2013/05/09/the-viaduct-park/

4) What should happen in the next 4 years to make sure that police reform both satisfies the Feds, and works for Seattle citizens?

Here’s a post from earlier in the campaign – pre Diaz retirement. http://katemartinformayor.com/2013/01/30/seattle-police-department-path/

Here’s some current commentary on that…

I sincerely hope that the selection process holds off until after the election. I believe the new chief should know who their boss will be for the next 4 years (at least).

When we do open up the search, we need a chief who I describe as a dichotomy. The person must be strong and able to command the respect of the force in an organization with a military-style hierarchy. Previously, although former Chief Diaz was on paper the chief, he didn’t exactly function like the chief. Command staff below him and union leadership seemed to dominate.

In addition to being able to actually function as a respected chief, the chief must lead by example and must be a woman or man with compassion for humanity and agility with a variety of tools beyond just force. The problem of excessive force and racism is an epidemic across our nation’s police forces, so a new tradition must be instilled. That is not something you can make people do and it’s nothing they can fake. They must have the aptitude and the proper professional development and leadership for it to happen.

Additionally, I think that the police force must be rested and healthy. With the $16.8M worth of overtime last year at SPD, I think we have to take a serious look at the relationship between overworking our force and the performance standards we desire, in addition to the budget implications of such practices.

I’d also like to see more neighborhood-based hiring to connect communities to the police forces in a social, neighborly way.

And finally, I understand that there have been inadequate levels of professional development. For all of our City workers, we must invest in their professional development. For the police, for instance, I understand that it has been 8 years since training for domestic violence. That is unacceptable and that’s not the only area lacking in professional development.

5) When there are police incidents, the response from the top is important. With hindsight, in the wake of John T. Williams being killed by a Seattle police officer what, if anything, should the mayor’s office have done differently what, if anything, did it do right?

We need a police force we can trust. I don’t think we’re any closer to having that than we were 2 years ago.

I believe the right response is to trace the incident back to a systemic problem and then fix that problem. I think that professional development of the force has been neglected. There are so many new officers and so little training. The force needs more tools to defuse situations – especially in cases with mental illness and addiction involved. It was just a couple of months ago when a father called 911 up near Carkeek Park because his mentally ill son was acting out. I am certain that the outcome that father was looking for was not the death of his son, but that’s what happened when 10 cars responded to the incident and a guy with no gun or knife was shot dead. Authentic, effective professional development must be stepped up so that every officer has the tools they need to successfully manage the tremendous variety of situations they encounter every day.

I’ll email these to the Seattle mayoral candidates later today. I still haven’t figured out the calendar. I’ve put them here first in case y’all have any more suggestions or tweaks. I’ll update this post to reflect any changes if I make them before sending.

1) Now that I-502 has passed, what will the purchase of marijuana look like within city limits? Will medical marijuana collective garden storefronts in Seattle have to abide by the 1000-foot rule established by I-502?

2) With Metro’s ability to fund itself at the whim of the legislature, what should the city’s role be in public transportation? As mayor, how will you both make sure we get our fair share, and that the system serves the entire region well?

3) What should the waterfront look like after the Viaduct comes down? Will there be a streetcar or other transit?

4) What should happen in the next 4 years to make sure that police reform both satisfies the Feds, and works for Seattle citizens?

5) When there are police incidents, the response from the top is important. With hindsight, in the wake of John T. Williams being killed by a Seattle police officer what, if anything, should the mayor’s office have done differently what, if anything, did it do right?

If you want to help out Oklahoma, here are some things:

– The Red Cross

– People on Twitter are saying if you text “REDCROSS” to 90999 it’s a $10 donation.

– If you’re looking for someone in the region, you can see who has registered as safe and well.

– Much of this came from the White House page.

If you have any other resources, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Do you feel pleased when you contribute to charities? Do you feel even more pleased when those contributions are augmented by the contributions of others? If so, then today is your red-letter day.

The Seattle Foundation — that estimable organization, headed by former Mayor Norm Rice, devoted to doing good for King County and its environs — has declared May 15 to be GiveBIG 2013. If you make a contribution to one of the 1400 organizations profiled on the Foundation’s website, all of them 501(c)(3) charities, before midnight tonight, it will be “stretched” by funds from the Foundation and its partners. They have something like $850,000 waiting to be distributed to worthy causes.

I just finished donating to eight organizations that I support both financially and emotionally. They do good work in a variety of fields, from Planned Parenthood to the Seattle Shakespeare Company, from the Seattle Public Library to the Center for Wooden Boats. I didn’t give much … the amounts ranged between $10 and $35. But thanks to GiveBIG, those organizations will receive between [$10 + X*$10] and [$35 + X*$35], where X is the percentage by which today’s contributions will be stretched.

I know that all HA readers, even the trolls, share the impulse to do good. Believe me, participating in GiveBIG will brighten your day. So I hope you’ll all join me in this endeavor. And by all means, let your fellow HAers know that you’ve made some donations today. No need to say where you chose to target your donations, though I’d hope you would feel good about adding a plug for your choices here on teh internets.

GiveBIG!!

Geoff Tate: Fixing the economy.

Ann Telnaes: Life begins at conception.

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

Maddow: Heritage Foundation, “Low IQ immigrants are parasites & their ‘unborn’ children will be too!”.

White House: West Wing Week.

Heavyweight Governor:

• Ann Telnaes: Gov. Chris Christie tries to lose weight.
• Sam SederChris Christie has some surgery.
• Alex Wagner: Weighing in for 2016.
• Young Turks: Is a thin Christie on the way?
• Lawrence O’Donnell: Christie in 2016?

Maddow: Obama’s IRS scandal in context.

Sam Seder: Judge slams Obama administration over their right wing Plan B stance.

ONN: The week in review.

Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: Another state falls to gay marriage.

Lush Rimbaugh:

• Sam Seder: Random Rush.
• Sharpton: Limbaugh is costing his employer big bucks.
• SlateTV: Limbaugh can’t get past Susan Fluke.
• John Fugelsang: Rush Limbaugh has chased away more sponsors than Lindsay Lohan at Betty Ford:
• Young Turks: Advertisers bail!
• Sam Seder: Has the Flush Rush movement finished Mr. Limbaugh?

The Point: Justice Sandra Day O’Connor regrets Bush v. Gore in 2000.

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

Maddow: Alarming ineptitude revealed in care of U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Jon on the Jodi Arias coverage.

Sam Seder: Republican warmongers beating the war drums.

South Carolina is Still Crazy:

• Stephen mourns his sister’s loss.
• Sam Seder: Family values candidate Mark Sanford wins special election.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: Why sex scandals no longer matter in U.S. politics.
• Alex Wagner: “Serial adulterer” S. Carolina’s Mark Sanford’s political comeback.
• Joy Behar on Rep. Elect Sanford.

Young Turks: Elizabeth Warren wants students to get bank rates on their loans.

Ann Telnaes: America the armed.

Maddow: G.O.P. war on student voters violates the law.

Mark Fiore: iEvade.

Thom: Should Obama send troops to Texas?

Benghazi Brouhaha:

• Jon on the FAUX News, GOP Benghazi theories: “You have no fucking idea!”
• Young Turks: Republicans try to take down Hillary before 2016.
• Maddow: GOP hopes on their lucky stars that Benghazi will be the scandal that sticks.
• Young Turks: Impeach Obama over Benghazi? Republicans hope so.
• Chris Hayes: Political hot air.
• John Fugelsang: Oliver North talks about a Benghazi(!!!!!) cover-up — and irony hangs itself:
• Sam: G.O.P. off the rails with Benghazzzzzzzzzzzzzzziiiiiiiiiii.
• Maddow: fringe conspiracy theories part 1 and part 2

Young Turks: Enron CEO to get reduced prison term.

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

Wow…tons of news from the MA in the past 12 hours. I don’t usually do posts on news items, but this is a pretty extraordinary circumstance. I’m going to do a bit of live blogging in the short time I have available.

Please keep this comment thread on-topic of the bombing and the manhunt.

9:18: I frequently learn of breaking news quite quickly. For the Boston marathon bombings, I am among the 10% who heard the news 6 or more hours after it happened.

9:20: KUOW 94.9 FM has ongoing coverage. CNN has a livestream…but, you know, be careful what you believe (e.g.).

9:31: And for a political connection, we get some idiotic tweets from Ann Coultergeist.

9:34: Excellent current summary from Mother Jones.

9:41: I couldn’t embed the video mentioned by MikeBoyScout, but here, from another source, is the uncle of the suspects:

9:43: CNN reports that both suspects are naturalized U.S. citizens, as of September of last year.

9:46: Via SJ in the comment thread (and my correction to the link)…inside news on the location of the suspect.

10:30: I’ve heard it mentioned several times on CNN that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the 26 year-old suspect, was killed when he was run over by his younger brother. If true (and I’ve seen this reported elsewhere), it add another bizarre twist to this bizarre-iferous set of events. But I also have to wonder if this is psyops rather than truth. I mean, could this be a ruse designed to dispirit 19 year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev?

11:12: The Family Research Council has figured out why tragedies like this occur (or, at least, what “compound[s] the problem”: “abortion, family breakdown, sexual liberalism, or religious hostility!” Oh,Gay Marriage, what Doom hast Thou wrought?

11:42: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev graduated from “Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, a public high school in Cambridge.” Holy shit…I think that is the same high school that HA comment thread personality (and typo-robot) SJ told me he graduated from! Now debating submitting an FBI tip….

4:56 pm: The suspect is, apparently, surrounded in a boat in someone’s backyard. This thing is likely to come to an end soon. Here is a live feed.

5:23 pm: Hmmm…it looks like Glenn Beck is working hard to become the King of the Boston Trufers: “They have until Monday and then The Blaze will expose it.” “It” being the involvement of a “Saudi national” You Go Glenn!

5:44 pm: On-site news reports are the suspect is in custody. An ambulance has arrived, presumably for the suspect.

– This fucking week. A large explosion in Texas has killed dozens.

– It’s the deadline for bills not related to the budget came and went this week. Now marital rape is illegal in all cases and localities can set their own speed limits sometimes.

– There’s a lot to take in about the “children and vagina’s” guy. On top of the gendered fuckery that the piece mentions, there is also the fact that he tried to say I’m just smarter than all of you despite the fact that he used the possessive for no reason. (h/t)

– I know the straw poll of the 43rd district is meaningless, but McGinn beating Ed Murray who represents the district and everyone else is indicative of something.

– And in somewhat more meaningful polls, it looks like Rodney Tom is less popular with his constituents (pdf) than he once was.

– Blair Butterworth’s memorial service is this Sunday at Town Hall.

– I can’t find anything to quote in this Lindy West piece making fun of a list-of-women-men-don’t-want-to-marry piece without the rest of the context, but it’s amazing.

I’m just going to say it right now. This press release is the greatest thing in at least the English language, and probably other languages too. All words are obsolete once you read it.

It’s Benton 1, U.S. transportation secretary 0 in Columbia River Crossing debate at Capitol

I like so much about that title, that it’s tough to know what’s the best: Is it that he gave himself a score and then bragged about the score he gave himself as if it’s objective? Is it that even by his own reckoning, he only won the meeting by 1 point? Is it the fact that the title implies that this is the beginning, rather than the middle of a process that has been going on for years? Is it that the Federal government is offering to give his district money, and he’s complaining about it? Is it that he describes an ostensibly closed door meeting as a debate? Is it that Secretary LaHood probably didn’t even know that there was a game afoot?

Those are all good choices to be sure, but I think the best is that he never defines the scale that 1 to 0 is on or how one earns a point. So here is some speculation:

• Score half a point per guest you treat like a jerk
• The number of goats each brought to the meeting
• One point per person videotaping someone without their permission (more on that later in the piece)
• On a scale of 0 to 10 who Senator Benton likes the best
• A scale of 0 to 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 and the numbers were pulled randomly
• A scale of -5 to 5 who polkas the best
• Whoever left the meeting with the most smug satisfaction gets a point
• 1/3 of a point each time you masturbate to your own press release
• Smallest penis gets a point
• One point if you’re scared of the idea of public transportation

Oh my God, we’re not even into the meat of the press release yet. Courage. Here we go.

Sen. Don Benton says there’s no question that the people of Clark County came out ahead this morning when he and members of the Senate Majority Coalition Caucus went toe-to-toe with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood over the Columbia River Crossing project.

That’s a rather fancy way of saying I sat across a table with a guy who offered me a bunch of money to help build a bridge, but I wanted to build a different bridge, and probably more money. Also, no question? If you asked everyone in Clark County there would be 100% agreement on this opinion?

“I’ve been working hard to keep our coalition members informed about the many significant flaws in the CRC project, so we were ready with questions when Governor Inslee brought Secretary LaHood in to lobby our coalition this morning. As a result, it wasn’t even a fair fight. I’d say we schooled the transportation secretary in a way he couldn’t possibly have expected,” said Benton, R-Vancouver, noting LaHood’s visit is part of a CRC propaganda blitz at the Capitol today.

I should say here I don’t really have an opinion on the Columbia River Crossing. Still, imagine if a Seattle legislator acted this way to the Secretary of Transportation over, say, Highway 99. The outrage from the people who are perpetually outraged that Seattle exists would be amazing. I mean the meeting was of the Majority Caucus and not the GOP ostensibly in part because Seattle’s legislators are too arrogant.

“I guess the governor thought he could strong-arm the Senate Majority Coalition into rolling over by bringing the D.C. folks in to give us the same ‘this bridge or no bridge’ lecture he’s been delivering. Instead, the transportation secretary had his hat handed to him, and I have to believe I will find even more support now for my efforts to force a redesign of the CRC project.”

I guess they were hoping that saying, “we have a fuckton of money, here take it” would at least keep the Majority Coalition from whining like a bunch of little babies. That was obviously incorrect.

Benton said he and other coalition members let LaHood have it on the whole range of CRC concerns: how the bridge height would cost Clark County thousands of permanent jobs, how replacing the Interstate 5 bridge without addressing the corridor as a whole would fail to reduce commute times from Clark County to Portland by more than one minute, the financial liability that would go with including an extension of light rail from Portland, and more.

I have no idea, again, if those are valid concerns. But anyone who is opposing getting light rail in the same sentence he worries about commutes into Portland is an idiot. Light rail will obviously help Vancouver commuters.

Project supporters want the Legislature to authorize a $450 million allocation, which would serve as Washington’s share of the $3.5 billion CRC project; with less than three weeks to go in the 2013 legislative session, Benton said, the writing on the wall is becoming clearer.

There is literally no cliche that this press release won’t include.

“I was very proud of how our coalition joined me in standing up for the people of Clark County,” said Benton, who is the coalition’s deputy leader. “The governor and the CRC supporters are obviously getting more desperate by the day; they see how time is running out to get the Legislature to go along with this boondoggle.”

They’d like to spend money in your neck of the woods. You can disagree with if and how, but come the fuck on.

“The best thing the governor can do now, after seeing that his federal emissary couldn’t sell this boondoggle to our coalition, is to agree to a redesign of the project.”

Because a meeting went poorly (in that people who wanted to act like asses acted like asses) we have to start over. Obviously.

Anyway, I wasn’t the only person to notice that this is an embarrassment. Jim Camden of the Spokesman-Review has a great take on it (I think the S-R has a limited number of clicks, but I’ve never hit it). Really, sometimes you need to just write in disbelief like I’ve been doing for several paragraphs now, but sometimes the journalistic prose is the way to go.

When LaHood and Inslee stopped by the Senate Republican Caucus room to urge them to pass a transportation budget in it with money for the bridge, and thus allow the state to get its hands on lots of federal money, he was, to put it mildly, rebuffed by opponents like Sen. Don Benton of Vancouver. All while someone was videotaping the exchange.

Later that day Inslee and LaHood held a press conference in the governor’s conference room to make a public appeal for the Legislature to vote for money for the bridge. As soon as they left, Benton emerged from the back of the room to hold a counter press conference to say that it shouldn’t. The senator’s office later circulated a press release exclaiming he had “schooled” LaHood on the bridge and declared the score “Benton 1, transportation secretary 0”. the caucus sent out a link to a YouTube clip of their discussion in the caucus room.

This appalled Senate Democrats, who thought a cabinet secretary should be treated with a greater modicum of respect, and shouldn’t be taping conversations without his permission. Senate Republicans promptly took the video clip off YouTube, and Majority Leader Rodney Tom of Medina later teol [sic] the Seattle Times it had been inadvertently posted, although how it could be edited with an intro, sent to YouTube, a link created and connected to a tweet isn’t immediately clear.

And that’s what winning 1-0 looks like.

Rob McKenna had an editorial in The Seattle Times over the weekend about how the Republican party can come back. I guess I’m doing metacommentary on it.

Op-ed: How Republicans need to change in Washington state

Spoiler, it’s not how they can adjust their policies to be decent, it’s about branding. Now, I won’t say branding is totally bad, but you can only make a bad product look good for so long.

DEFEATS like those suffered by many of my Republican colleagues and me last November are cause for sober reflection, as opposed to finger pointing. Rather than focus on blaming others for our defeats, party leaders and activists should instead consider how changing demographics, rapid technological change and relatively swift shifts in public attitudes have contributed to the Democrats’ recent successes in our state and nationally.

Also, how Democrats’ policy positions have been good for those groups of people. There has been a long move over the last century from the Democrats being the whites only party to being the party of everybody deserves a spot at the table. The GOP has let itself become the party of white male identity politics, and they can’t shake that off without changing policy.

The challenge and opportunity for Republicans is in offering bold solutions that encourage more voters to support GOP candidates.

Fortunately, I’ve seen that constructive approach offered in recent weeks by leaders such as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, among others. All have championed forward-looking policies that will benefit all Americans, not just those in battleground states or among narrow constituencies.

Policies that I will say exist, but won’t say what they are.

I heard the same approach last month when I hosted a roundtable with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and two dozen of our state’s most active campaigners. I came out of that meeting impressed that Northwest Republicans, despite our losses, remain motivated to build the party and offer real alternatives to Olympia’s stale political culture.

What same approach? You didn’t say what the approach was, only that you think it exists. Name some policy that you think will help move people rather than some people.

If we want to be trusted to improve our public schools, grow our economy and govern more effectively, then as Northwest Republicans we must build stronger governing coalitions — and we need to welcome new people inside our party’s tent to do so. As Priebus said, we will win through addition and multiplication in our ranks, not through subtraction and division.

I’m not inherently opposed to what he’s trying to say. But again, it’s the GOP policy that isn’t inclusive. It’s the policy that’s cruel. It’s the policy that people don’t want. And even here, he says schools and the economy are important but doesn’t mention any actual policy for improving them. Anyway, blah blah blah, the national party. I’m skipping that.

In the ethnic and minority communities I visited while running for governor, I invariably received a warm welcome and much encouragement.

So I hired someone with a history of making fun of Asians on Twitter. Also, I didn’t mention policy.

And to be clear, if you want to reach out to minority communities, you have to actually reach out to minority communities. The Democrats were once the party of white supremacy and were worse for minorities than the Republicans are now. But the Democrats took the long, difficult, sometimes painful road to inclusion. It cost us the solid South (LBJ said for a generation, but he seems to have underestimated it), and probably more than a few elections in the North. But the party transformed itself by listening, and by actually changing policies. As Darryl’s post this afternoon demonstrates, that’s not something the GOP seems to be willing to do right now.

In the Sikh temples, at Latino and Asian-American community events, in meetings with African-American education reformers, and on the Indian reservations I revisited during my campaign — in all these communities and places, people expressed their appreciation for my presence. But they also asked, “Where are the other Republicans”?

Maybe this would be a good time to mention a policy change that happened when you went to those communities and listened to what they had to say.

They would go on to say, we have seen you many times outside of campaign season, but often our elected officials (in both parties) wait until election year to come around. That must change. In the deepest sense, Republicans “must be present to win,” as in winning over more support in these communities.

Mention policy.

Our candidates must improve their connection to our state’s many diverse communities. Before we can win their votes, we have to spend time in their communities, and not just in the few months before Election Day, to learn how their personal priorities align with Republican principles.

(a) Mention policy. (b) I love how this paragraph reads like like Rob McKenna knows that none of the GOP candidates might actually be from those communities he’s trying to get votes from. What we’re done with the part about trying to recruit minorities without mentioning policy? OK. I’m going to skip over most of the rest of it, and in fairness he will mention vague outlines of policy in his section on getting younger voters. I’d be remiss if I didn’t include this paragraph though:

Fortunately, we are starting from a competitive position in Washington state. In the governor’s race, I won majorities in five of 10 congressional districts, in 31 of the state’s 39 counties and collectively in the 47 legislative districts that were not located entirely within Seattle city limits. To put it in perspective, had fewer than 48,000 of the more than 3 million voters who cast ballots chosen differently, this would be a very different guest column.

TOO BAD WE LET SEATTLE VOTE. It’s always a great way to expand your votes by literally saying if we ignore a segment of the population, we’d have won.

The sequestration cuts to the FAA are forcing the agency to close 150 control towers at low-volume airports (including 5 in Washington state). As a consequence, some Republicans are discovering their inner socialist.

Exhibit 1: Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL-15).

What really bothers Rep. Ross is that Flordia’s Lakeland Linder Regional Airport will lose its control tower. The airport is a relatively low-volume airport, except for one week each summer, during the annual Sun ‘n Fun aviation convention, in which it becomes one of the busiest airports in the world. To put the traffic volume in context, Lakeland Linder has an average of 208 aircraft operations/day making it is slightly less busy than the Tacoma Narrows Airport ( 216/day) and the Renton Municipal Airport (221/day, where the 737 is manufactured).

Ross whines (my emphasis):

The state’s largest convention, SUN ‘n FUN, which is held in April at Lakeland Linder Airport, not only provides incredible economic value to Lakeland, but it serves our children by investing $1.4 million dollars annually in education. It is unacceptable to close this important control tower. Sun N Fun will now have to pay the FAA $284,000 in order to keep this control tower functioning during the convention. This is more money that they must raise that will not go to help our children who are struggling in school.

Really? He wants to keep the control tower so that my tax dollars and your tax dollars will subsidizing the local school systems in Florida’s 15th Congressional District?

FUCKING SOCIALIST!!!!

Exhibit 2: Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX-27). He is…

deeply troubled by the proposed actions of the FAA regarding smaller airports, like the one in Victoria, Texas, as they have long played a vital role in local economies across the country.

At 125 aircraft operations/day Victoria Regional Airport, it isn’t even as busy as Olympia Regional Airport (131/day).

No doubt the airport does play an important role in the economy, but why should my tax dollars be subsidizing the economy of the Texas 27th Congressional District?!?

You’d have to be a FUCKING SOCIALIST to want that kind of Big Government solution to a regional problem!

Exhibit 3: Michele Bachman (R-MN-6):

One-el Michele frets over airport tower closures:

I am deeply disappointed with the FAA’s decision to close the air traffic control towers at the Anoka County-Blaine Airport and St. Cloud Regional Airport. Throughout this decision-making process, I have been in touch with FAA and DOT officials urging them to focus first on eliminating waste and trimming non-essential items in the FAA’s budget before they even consider shutting down essential safety operations.

Wait. WE have to pay for safety in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District? Can’t the regional or local government do that even better?

Yeah…the Anoka County-Blaine Airport is goddamn busy with an average of 536 operations/day, but It isn’t the Anoka FEDERAL airport. What part of “COUNTY” doesn’t Michele understand?

And St. Cloud Regional Airport?!? Give me a fucking break. At 87 operations/day it hardly warrants a paved runway (and federally subsidized, no doubt), let alone a labor-intensive control tower. St. Cloud is nothing compared to Yakima’s McAllister Field (126/day) and Spokane’s Felts Field Airport (156/day).

I have to ask…where in the Constitution does it put the federal government in charge of county safety? Clearly you can only justify this by abusing The Commerce Clause.

You know, I think the major newspapers of the country need to investigate these members of Congress to find out if they are pro-America or FUCKING SOCIALISTS!

BTW: those five Washington state airports whose control towers will be shut down? Renton Municipal, Olympia Regional, Tacoma Narrows, Felts Field, and McAllister Field.

– Mark Kleiman has won the contract to be the main consultant for the implementation of I-502. Like most drug law reformers, I’ve had strong disagreements with him, but I think he can be a good fit for this role. And this is yet another foot forward in legitimizing what the voters have demanded, a legal and regulated market for marijuana that parallels alcohol in many ways.

– Representative Chris Hurst (D-Crazytown) has decided that I-502 needs some fixing. Amazingly, we agree on one aspect, his desire to have the 1000ft rule reduced to 500ft. And we agree over why (because it will likely push more marijuana retail outlets into the suburbs). We just disagree over why that’s a problem. But for all else, I have little regard for what Hurst thinks, since he’s the reason we had to pass this thing as a voter initiative in the first place. If he wanted to provide input on this initiative, he had his chance last winter when it first went to the legislature. He didn’t, so maybe next time, instead of being a whiny asshole after the fact, he’ll do his job in the first place.

– The Seattle Times editorial board is absolutely right to criticize Washington’s Congressional delegation for failing to be more vocal in support of I-502. The voters of this state overwhelmingly passed this initiative, yet neither Senator (nor even Jim McDermott!) has spoken out to see that it be implemented without federal interference.

– Some community members in Rainier Valley are upset at the large number of dispensaries that have set up shop there recently. There’s an easy solution to this – just wait. Dispensaries currently use a very creative interpretation of the 10-member rule (when you’re there obtaining medicine, you become a member, and when you leave you stop being a member). For the time being, law enforcement (particularly in Seattle) has little interest in challenging them. However, once I-502 is implemented and there are state-licensed retail outlets, I’m betting that the hammer will come down on the folks who try to stick with the “collective garden with a storefront” model. Especially if they’re not conforming with the 1000ft rule in I-502, which requires all retail outlets to be 1000ft from a school, park, and other places where children congregate.

– A Seattle entrepreneur is planning to turn a vacant Pacific County sawmill into a marijuana production facility. I think it can be somewhat overstated how much the marijuana industry alone can help the economy, but it’s still great to see it might allow for the re-purposing of old facilities and bringing new jobs to this state’s small towns.

– I’m all for Rand Paul’s talking on the Senate floor (and Wyden supporting it). I also still oppose Brennan’s nomination in general. But Paul is still an asshole.

– What to do with Hanford’s waste.

– Financial fitness day is Saturday in Seattle.

– The sequester is good news for coke heads (h/t).

– “If we really want to change the food system, we need to change some of the rules”, says Hauter. “This is more than just about voting with our forks”.

– The idea that racism lives in the heart of particularly evil individuals, as opposed to the heart of a democratic society, is reinforcing to anyone who might, from time to time, find their tongue sprinting ahead of their discretion.

– Gun Exchange