Search Results for: 10,000

It was sad to read Josh Feit’s announcement of the death of Publicola yesterday. Publicola has become a daily stop for me, and an important source for certain types of news. They filled a unique niche in the Pacific Northwest mediasphere.

It seems like the success of Publicola as media emerged from pure hard work–Erica and Josh appeared to be working their asses off. They hunted down political stories with enviable energy and tenacity, and presented it in their own style.

It took some time, but the mainstream media eventually warmed up to Publicola (indeed, folks at KUOW sounded like they had lost their best friend this morning). You can only break so many stories before your competitors have to sit up, pay attention, and consider you a peer.

The good news is that it looks like Crosscut will pick up Josh and Erica in some form or another–Publicola will live awhile longer under new management. (It’s almost like Crosscut wants to become relevant or something.) I hope the Publicola part of Crosscut can be as inspired as the independent Publicola.

An interesting and not so well known side story is Goldy’s role in the gestation and birth of Publicola. There is more behind that story for Goldy to divulge….

Finally, it is only fitting to point out that today is the 8th blogoversary of HorsesAss.

Goldy started this blog on May 10th, 2004 with this first post, with its first “fuck”, first commenter, and even the first fucking troll.

Eight years later, this is post number 10,222. We’ve had something over 511,000 comments, too many “fucks” and way too many fucking trolls to count.

Thanks to you, dear reader, we still have reason to be here because, like Publicola, our “financial model” certainly isn’t providing it.

Over the last few months, I’ve written at length — some might say ad nauseum — about Washington’s redistricting process based on the 2010 Census:

• A report on minority-majority Congressional Districts and why it’s absurd to try to construct one here. (The Redistricting Commission didn’t listen to me.)
• On the mechanics and mathematics of Congressional reapportionment and how Washington earned its 10th Congressional District.
• A “breaking” story just before the release of the nearly-final CD maps.

A few days after the last of those, upon further review of the newly-drawn map, I wrote a more reflective piece on the outcome of Congressional redistricting in Washington. My conclusion: Skeletor won the battle with Tim Ceis, and it wasn’t even close. For reasons that escape me, I posted that piece only on Peace Tree Farm, resulting in even fewer readers than my wonkery draws here on HA. That was dumb of me, wasn’t it?

Nearly everything in the above-referenced posts concerned Congressional redistricting. Which makes sense, I suppose. Changing the number of districts is always exciting, though of course it’s even more exciting (and much, much bloodier) in states that lose Congressional Districts. You can check with Dennis Kucinich on that. For the record, Washington has never experienced CD subtraction.

But redistricting affects far more than Congress. Many other jurisdictional boundaries have to be changed to account for changing demographics, from school board districts to County Council and beyond. If Seattle elected City Council by district (as it should, IMHO), those borders would have to be redrawn too. With one exception, those lower-level maps are drawn by lower-level governments.

The exception, of course, is the map of Legislative Districts, also drawn by the Redistricting Commission. While the number of LDs in Washington is constitutionally set at 49, their boundaries must be redrawn to take into account population trends over the 10 years since the last Census. LDs that had nearly identical populations in 2000 are no longer equal, and the Commission is mandated to reconstruct the legislative map to reflect those demographic trends.

The Commission had to account for more than just the statewide 14.1% increase. Had every LD added 16,948 residents (average LD population was 120,288 after the 2000 Census and would be 137,236 under this redistricting), we could have kept the old boundaries. But of course, that isn’t what happened. The population of the old 2nd LD increased by 43,337 (36.0%), while the 28th actually lost 754 residents (-0.6%).

I won’t go into the extended process by which the Commission eventually settled on the new map, except to note that it took them until 10:35pm (85 minutes before their deadline) on January 1, 2012 to convey their agreed-upon map to the Legislature. Instead, I thought it might be interesting to examine the changes in LD boundaries. Data geek, and map geek, that I am, I’ve done exactly that — creating maps showing each LD’s old boundaries, its new boundaries, and the two superimposed on each other.

The results of (some of?) my handiwork will appear here on HA soon. The questions I pose to myself — and to my colleagues here, and to the readers of HA — are:

1. Do I report on the LDs one-by-one or in groups?
2. Can I report on every single one of the 49 LDs without boring y’all to death?
3. How ever we decide to do the reports, in what order should they be revealed?

I’ll answer a couple of those questions, at least to start, by writing individually on the Seattle-area LDs with open seats. I plan to begin with the 46th, followed by the 36th and the 11th. Why the 46th? Simple — it has cooler maps than the others. It’s the wow!! factor…

So, if you haven’t nodded off in boredom are drooling in breathless anticipation, stay tuned.

Rachael Maddow has a pretty remarkable story here….

Mercifully, there is no new episode of the Primary Reality Show this evening. But a certain case being argued before the Supreme Court will be to talk of the tavern.

So please join us tonight for an evening of jurisprudence under the influence at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally. We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. We’ll begin at our usual starting time of 8:00pm, but some folks will show up even earlier for dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle? There are DLs meeting all around Washington state, including in the Tri-Cities and Bellingham tonight, Burien on Wednesday night, as well as Yakima and South Bellevue next Monday.

With 233 chapters of Living Liberally, including twelve in Washington state and six more in Oregon, chances are excellent there’s one near you.

Thom: Paul Ryan’s budget—most extreme corporate welfare.

Mark Fiore: iWhine.

Young Turks: Man sues Secret Service over Cheney “assault”.

White House: We the People — Your voice in our government.

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

Etch-a-Sketching:

• Some things you can’t shake off.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: Sketchy.
• Even Mitt Romney knows an Etch-a-sketch can’t erase his extreme positions
• Young Turks: The Etch-a-sketch disaster.
• Maddow: Mitt and lying:
• Mitt Romney: Unshakably Extreme.
• Newsy: Romney’s campaign stimulating jobs in Ohio.
• Sam Seder: The real Mitt Romney is an Etch-a-Sketch
• Mitt Romney’s bad day

President Obama nominates Dr. Jim Yong Kim for World Bank President.

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

Greenman: Michael Mann’s hockey stick under oath.

Jon on Cable News.

Ann Telnaes: The Going-Nowhere strategy in Afghanistan.

The Republican Primary Jousting Contest:

• Young Turks: Is Rick Santorum Opus Dei?
• Ed: Romney gives George Bush credit for saving economy
• Actual Audio: Santorum versus Romney.
• Ann Telnaes: Santorum’s higher calling.
• Ed: Obama derangement syndrome.

Thom: Westboro Baptist Church’s Rush advertisement.

Health Reform in Action: One mother’s story:

Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: Porn-con.

Ann Telnaes: Second anniversary of the Health Care law.

Young Turks: Five worst things about the G.O.P. Ryan budget.

Sam Seder: “Katherine Harris” talks Occupy, Joe the Plumber’s campaign & more!

ONN: Joad Cressbeckler denies he incited mob to drag Congressman through briar patch.

Newsy: Congress hires their relatives.

Thom: Why is Tennessee teaching creationism?

Greenman: The search forLord Monckton.

More Skirmishes in the Republican War on Women™:

• Mitt to Women: You’re on your own.
• Maddow: Idaho’s forced transvaginal ultrasound bill, and other news in the G.O.P. culture wars.
• Mitt Romney vows to get rid of Planned Parenthood
• What women need to know about Mitt Romney.
• Maddow: Governor Ultrasound.
• Young Turks: The War on Women.

Health care reform across the country.

Alyona: Worst Proposed Internet laws of 2012.

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

Young Turks: Ryan’s budget, Zimmerman defenders and other topics.

White House: West Wing Week.

Death by Hoodie:

• Young Turks: President Obama on Trayvon Martin.
• Alyona’s Tool Time: Geraldo ‘Hoodie’ killed Trayvon Martin.
• Sharpton: Trayvon could have been any one of our sons
• Olbermann and Prof. Turley: the danger of Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ law
  .
• Young Turks: Trayvon Martin smear attempt by Glenn Beck’s web site.
• Sam Seder: Geraldo Rivera blame Hoodies for Trayvon Martin killing.
• Pap and Ed: Did police blow chance of conviction with Zimmerman?
• Newsy: Florida shooting putting gun laws in the spotlight.
• Alyona’s Fireside Friday: Trayvon Martin.
• Young Turks: TYT crew dress to die.

Ed: The return of Coupon Care.

Conversations with Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson:

Maddow: Obama nominates true humanitarian for World Bank.

Jimmy Kimmel with some unnecessary censorship.

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

Game on! Have at it in the comment thread.

5:11 (PDT): Okay…so I just got here and I haven’t gotten situated yet. But on the way here I heard that Mitt has likely won Virginia, Vermont, and Massachusetts. No surprises here. Vermont is a suburb of Massachusetts, where Romney was Governor. And in Vermont, the polls in February and early March had Romney up by 30 to 50 points. Of course, Santorum and Newt didn’t qualify for the ballot, so Romney’s strong lead was over Ron Paul.

5:17: Newt wins Georgia. No surprise there, either—he represented Georgia. They hated him less as Mr. Speaker than the rest of America.

5:21: I’m listening to the NPR live coverage but watching MSNBC on the TV.

5:22: Mitt Romney is up by only some 4,000 votes in Ohio, with 7% counted.

5:26: Newt promises $2.50 a gallon gasoline. When will Newt Gingrich promise that, as President, he will completely prevent tornado deaths?

5:29: Romney is up 74% in Massachusettes. Newt is at 4% there. In Georgia, Newt is at 48%, Romney is at 22%. Does this mean that Newt is hated outside his home turf more than Romney?

5:34: On NPR they are wondering why Santorum isn’t “cleaning up” with the Catholic vote. Why is Romney winning more of the Catholic vote [in every primary so far] than Santorum? Two words: Catholic Women.

5:36: Former Georgia congressman Bob Barr (2008 Libertarian nominee for PUSA) is on NPR. He is trying to argue that Newt’s campaign isn’t Quixotic. His argument: “Newt has big ideas.” Most Republicans view that as The Problem.

5:40: Wife #3 is introducing Newt for his Georgia victory speech. NPR doesn’t care.

5:41: Not unexpected: Rick Santorum is the projected winner of Tennessee. All but one recent poll had Santorum winning. The outlier had Romney up by +1. The real issue is why the hell didn’t Gingrich do better in a Southern state? (Answer: Americans hate Gingrich more than just about any politician.)

5:45: The NPR pundits keep talking about how Mitt Romney wins among more educated and affluent demographics, and Rick Santorum wins among poorer and less educated demographics. Answer: Santorum appeals to the Stupid.

5:49: It looks like Oklahoma is now being called for Santorum…which just goes to show. Oklahoma your NOT okay!

5:54: In another “election” of interest, Netflix has become the 30th advertiser to drop Rush Limbaugh like a hot Santorum-seasoned potato.

5:59: Is Gingrich still fucking speaking? Or is MSNBC playing the same speech over and over again? Either way, it exceeds the ideas-absorbing capacity of most Homo sapiens.

6:02: Regarding Ohio: I know a Santorum win here would maximize the primary chaos, but I’m secretly hoping for a dead tie. Does that make me a bad person?

6:06: Whooot!!! Santorum just oozed into the lead in Ohio…up by ~2500 6407 votes.

6:23: Huh…NPR is carrying Santorum’s victory speech, but they only gave a few seconds of excerpts of Newt Gingrich’s victory speech.

6:46: And NPR carries Mitt Romney’s speech. I guess Newt Gingrich is chopped liver. Hmmm…actually, that seems about right.

6:58: I love the fact that MSNBC is carrying Mitt Romney’s speech with the right hand side of the screen showing he is getting his ass wiped by Santorum in Ohio (pun not intended).

7:32: Michael Moore is gesticulating all over MSNBC. He is clean shaven tonight…clearly, that was inspired by Breitbart’s demise.

7:40: Romney is putting the squeeze on Santorum in Ohio…down to 6,000 votes from a max of 15,000.

7:46: Man…Ohio is just the pinnacle of entertainment. Mitt Romney is closing up from behind on Santorum.

8:01: I went to Ron Paul’s web site this evening, ready to make a donation. Of course, I would only consider donating in gold. After going through the long registration process, the fucking site wanted a credit card number or paypal account. What the fuck?

8:06: Ohio is now down to a difference of 1,300 or so. PLEASE people, PRAY FOR A TIE!

As some of you know, I’m planning to caucus with the Republicans for Fred Karger, by far the least objectionable. Pro choice, pro marriage equality, he’s actually not horrible on a lot of things. But he’s a solid Republican, and so in a general, I’d still prefer Obama to him.

But I don’t really expect him to win. Thus caucusing for Karger is more to send a message to the GOP that no, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can change. That while we can have reasonable disagreements about economic policy, they don’t need to demonize women and gay people.

Anyway, it’s somewhat impressive that Fred got well over 1000 votes in Michigan.

You know that nut-job uncle of yours who keeps forwarding shit to your email about how Obama is a Muslim trying to take away our guns and hand America over to the UN? Yeah…that guy?

Now suppose you engaged in an economic game with him beginning in the early 1960s. You each would invest $1,000 in the stock market. But he would do so only during the terms of Republican Presidents. You would do so only during the terms of Democratic presidents. Who’d be ahead today?

Clearly your Uncle would be wiping your socialist ass with the help of Republican Presidents and their laissez-faire, free market, capitalist policies. Right?

Um…not so much:

Uncle Billy-Bob: $2,087
You: $10,920

(And Billy-Bob has almost five extra years of investment on you. )

Any questions?