Search Results for: 10,000

What the Koch Brothers say on-line but won’t say under oath.

Bashir: With Congressional approval at 10%, Republicans intensify anti-Obama attacks.

It began five years ago today:

Jennifer Granholm: Michigan rebounds thanks to ‘active’ leadership.

Bill Maher: New Rules.

White House: Science fair.

The Delicious G.O.P. Primary

• ONN: GOP introduces new “Mystery Candidate” with paper bag over head
• Young Turks: Santorum’s Hat-Rick
• Buzz 60: Santorum sweeps all three!!!
• Alyona’s Tool Time Award: Santorum and women’s emotions.
• Young Turks: Santorum claims Obama is destroying religious liberty, families.
• Sam Seder: Santorum compares health care to an iPad.
• Young Turks: Low GOP turnout helps Santorum.
• Maddow: Rick Santorum’s billionaire benefactor (pt. I)
• Maddow: Rick Santorum’s billionaire benefactor (pt. II)
• Young Turks: Rick Santorum on women in the military.
• Newsy: Santorum sweep reveals Romney campaign trouble.
• Mitt Romney: The web influence.
• Maddow: Mitt’s 4 year anniversary.
• One Minute News: Romney’s 1983 dog-on-the-roof story surfaces again.
• Mitt: “We’re on the same page and same verse” as the Ryan plan to privatize Medicare
• Sharpton: MITTion Impossible (or Willard’s Woes).
• Actual audio: Mitt loves America.
• Mitt Romney: What will he say today?
• Bashir: Why conservatives don’t trust Willard.
• Mitt’s Hits!
• Sam Seder: Paul double dips on expense reimbursements.
• Ed and Pap: Newt’s new Southern Strategy.
• Sam Seder: Ron Paul Fan, “He’s not a bigot, you Jew!”.
• Jimmy Kimmel: Mitt Romney’s believe it or not.

White House: West Wing Week.

Mark Fiore: The heart and mind-o-matic.

ONN: Panel analyzes Obama’s furious, profanity-filled rant at nation.

Thom: Are politicians now SuperPAC puppets?

The Week in Marriage Equality:

• Newsy: WA passes same-sex marriage law.
• Young Turks: Rep. Maureen Walsh’s (R) heartfelt speech to the WA House of Representatives.
• One Minute News: Prop-8 ruling stay.

Newsy: Pelosi’s “stop Colbert” spoof ad goes viral.

Pap: How the GOP war on workers backfired.

Lobbyist poses as anti-union mechanic in Superbowl advertisement.

Maddow: The absurdity of GOP legislators rallying against ideas they previously supported:

Andrew Breitbart totally loses it at Occupy protesters.

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

Contraceptive Choice:

• Jennifer Granholm: WWJD about birth control debate?
• Sam Seder: Catholic Bishops attack on contraception…which 98% of Catholics use.
• Alyona: The MSM’s birth control hysteria.
• Ann Telnaes: Playing with women’s private lives.
• Young Turks: Reasonable compromise.
• Obama speaks on contraception accomodation.
• Ed: Republican War on women’s health heats up.
• Jennifer Granholm: Obama’s reasonable compromise.
• Ed and Pap: Republicans hope culture war will re-ignite base.
• Alyona’s Tool Time Award: GOP is fucking INSANE over birth control.
• Sam Seder and Markos: Contraceptive compromise.
• Obama: Contraception.
• Thom: It’s about health care, not bad Catholics.
• Ann Telnaes: The Catholic church reaches outside its flock.
• Newsy: Obama announces birth control compromise.

An interview with Jay Inslee.

Alyona: Time for a national popular vote?

Hannity’s Bizarre Claim:

• Ed: Fox’s ‘syphilitic liar’ Sean Hannity says that ‘Obama didn’t want bin Laden dead!’.
• Young Turks: Hannity’s bizarre theory that Obama wishes bin Laden was alive.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Buffoon Donald Trump thinks endorsing Romney guarantees him a position in Willard’s cabinet!.

Pres. Obama’s record on jobs:

Ed: Update on the Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) scandal.

The CPAC Funny Farm:

Young Turks: Herman Cain on “stupid people”.

Alyona: CPAC’s freedom for some.

The CPAC Carnival for Conservatives.

Embarassing: FAUX News contributer’s rap video at CPAC.

Sharpton: Juvenile taunts at CPAC.

Mitt Romney: Then and now (at CPAC).

Young Turks: Gay Republicans not welcomed at CPAC.

One Minute News: So you want to be a Conservative.

Alyona’s happy hour: cruising for gay sex at CPAC

Ed: CPAC starts with juvenile attacks on Obama.

Buzz 60: Santorum and Romney battle for CPAC love

Young Turks: CPAC dating seminar.

Sam Seder: State Sen. Constance Johnson (D-Oklahoma City) on he amendment to a Wingnut personhood bill .

Ann Telnaes: Russia and China reject U.N. resolution condemning Syria.

Obama and the marshmallow launcher.

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

This past Monday I moderated the Cannabis Defense Coalition’s monthly public meeting for February. Here’s a short rundown of what’s been happening locally with drug law reform:

– The CDC is opposing the medical marijuana bill currently in the state Senate (SB 6265). The bill was introduced in response to the mess caused by Governor Gregoire’s veto last year. After that bill took effect, a number of smaller communities across the state were under the false impression that they could ban the 10-person collective gardens that the law allowed. And larger communities like Seattle and Tacoma were upset that dispensaries weren’t legitimized enough to start regulating them adequately.

This bill found a way to split that difference. It would allow for “non-profit patient cooperatives” that are by default legal in any county or city with more than 200,000 people, but by default illegal in any county or city with less than 200,000 people. It also allows a jurisdiction to limit the number of people in a collective garden to 3.

The CDC is concerned that access to medical marijuana will once again become extremely difficult for rural patients in the state, but that’s not their only concern. As Steve Elliott points out, the bill would also create a patient registry, a non-starter for CDC members who have major concerns about the government maintaining a list of people who are breaking federal law. This is compounded by the fact that the federal government has also been actively trying to eliminate the gun-ownership rights of medical marijuana patients.

Not mentioned by the CDC, the “Save 502” clause was removed, meaning that if a 5ng/ml limit passes along with I-502 this year, there will be no protection for patients who test above the limit for medical reasons.

– As for New Approach Washington’s I-502, it has qualified for the November ballot. Due to its DUI language, it’s still expected that a large number of medical marijuana patients will vote against the bill, and some plan to actively campaign against it. During Monday’s meeting, there was discussion about Washington State Police initiating training for how to handle marijuana DUI cases. There was also a claim that the number of marijuana DUI arrests have been going up recently, but haven’t seen any actual numbers to back that up yet.

The topic of marijuana DUI continues to be an extremely difficult political hurdle for legalization advocates. What happens in 2012 will likely dictate how future initiatives handle the topic.

– While Sensible Washington has opted out of trying to run its own statewide marijuana legalization initiative in 2012, they’ve announced that they’ll be working as part of a broad effort to pass local initiatives in various communities around the state. These initiatives will be similar to the “lowest law enforcement priority” initiatives that have already passed in Tacoma and Seattle, but will also make it illegal for local and state police to work with the federal government in the enforcement of medical marijuana laws.

– Finally, while the success of the gay marriage bill doesn’t have a direct impact on drug policy, it might have an interesting indirect one. If a referendum on the gay marriage bill is filed and makes the ballot, you could see an increase in the fundamentalist vote in November, something that might not bode well for I-502.

There is some football game on or something. I’m busy doing work stuff this afternoon and, frankly, when I woke up this morning, I didn’t even know who was playing. I guess I can have the game it on as background noise.

If, like me, you don’t have a teevee, Westwood one affiliates will carry the game. In the Seattle area, you can find it on 950 on the AM dial.

Anyway…snark away in the comment threads if you wish.

3:45: Somebody scored a basket.

3:50: Did Tom Cruise just score?

3:53: Damn…Redmond’s best Thai restaurant has closed.

3:56: Meanwhile, the score in Nevada (via Nevada GOP):

Current #NVCaucus results with 72.9% of precincts reporting: Gingrich: 22.3%, Paul: 18.6%, Romney: 48.1%, Santorum 10.9%, No Vote: 0.2%

72.9% complete? Have they run out of fingers?

4:18: From Twitopia:

Ana Marie Cox @anamariecox
“Illegal huddle” also something Santorum has campaigned against. #SuperBowl

4:25: Is this USA Today headline a double entendre? Brown student uncovers lost Malcolm X speech.

4:50: Poll Analysis: Patriots ahead of Giants by +1 halfway through contest.

5:19: From Twitopia:

Newt Gingrich Ideas @GingrichIdeas
Use Madonna’s outfit as a model for my Moon Emperor uniform.

5:48: Clearly, Obama has won over the hearts and minds and companies of Detroit:

5:59: Rush Limbaugh goes “green”.

6:00: Remember Shrub’s “sporting” moment? What is it about Wingnuts going nostril spelunking during sporting events? Do they think they’re digging for gold? Or do they imagine themselves wiping out poor people?

6:11: The National Football League can admit, seat, entertain for 3+ hours, and clear out 68,658 people in far less time than it takes the Nevada GOP to tally votes for some 35,000 caucus-goers?

6:51: It’s over. The Yankees win…again.

It is a beautiful day in the Puget Sound region, so I don’t know how many people will be around here this evening. In any case, Nevada caucus results should come in sometime after 5:00 pm.

I should be able to do some commentary.

Have at it in the comment thread.

4:43: Turnout seems to be down in at least one county:

The GOP presidential caucus attracted about 6,700 voters on Saturday [in Washoe County], down from the estimated 11,000 to 14,000 that showed up for the presidential caucus in 2008….

4:46: Live updates are supposed to be available at CNN. It isn’t working for me yet.

4:51: The most recent poll in Nevada that I’ve found is this one from PPP:

• Romney 50%
• Gingrich 25%
• Paul 15%
• Santorum 8%

5:00: It’s five and CNN is still just showing a scenery shot with no audio.

5:05: Here is the Nevada GOP web page.

5:06: With only Eureka County reporting results are (4% reporting):

• Romney 34.3%
• Gingrich 30.3%
• Paul 18.2%
• Santorum 17.2%

5:09: Pershing County weighs in. Both counties combined. Romney stretches his lead over Gingrich, and Paul slips behind Santorum.

• Romney 41.7%
• Gingrich 27.0%
• Santorum 15.9%
• Paul 15.5%

5:13: Now we have Churchill County. Romney strengthens his lead. Santorum spurts out ahead of Ron Paul.

• Romney 45.9%
• Gingrich 20.8%
• Santorum 17.7%
• Paul 15.5%

5:34: Nye and Mineral Counties report. Ron Paul surges ahead of Gingrich:

• Romney 36.7%
• Paul 29.6%
• Gingrich 19.7%
• Santorum 12.9%

5:44: Cool…I found the code to embed the results tool….
[Read more…]

Wingnuts believe in voter fraud the way they believe cutting revenues increases revenues. For them, the topic of voter fraud induces apoplectic foaming at the mouth the way a good Pentecostal revival induces intense spells of speaking in tongues.

And it’s bizarre because actual cases of voter fraud are few and far between.

Well…we now have one more example—someone who has actually been convicted of voter fraud.

I know it is totally “impossible” to believe but the voting fraudster is a Republican.

Not just any Republican, but Charlie White, former chairman of the Republican Party in Hamilton County [Indiana]. Oh…and current Secretary of State.

So, just keep in mind, when a Republican gets all alarmist about voter fraud, they are likely engaging in an exercise of psychological projection—they are expressing fears of what they would do if they had the opportunity.

An interesting question is what will happen now in Indiana. Indiana law requires the removal of public officers convicted of a felony, and the Governor gets to appoint the replacement.

The Governor—that would be Republican Governor Mitch Daniels—presumably has the power to appoint at his pleasure. But….

Separately, a Marion County judge in December ruled that White was not eligible to run for secretary of state in 2010 because he was not properly registered at his own address. White has been allowed to stay in office while he appeals that ruling.

The Marion County judge ruled that the Democrat White defeated by more than 340,000 votes in 2010, Vop Osili, should be declared the winner of the election.

This is going to get real interesting!

Florida handles its elections the way Seattle handles its snowstorms. They know that big ones happen every few years, but they never seem prepared for them. I’m still at the office, but will be leaving in the next hour for the Ale House where I plan to live blog with Darryl. I’ll also likely be getting updates from my old college roommate, Dan, a former Republican living in Miami who’s been complaining to me this week that he’s needed a Hazmat suit to open his mailbox.

This is an open thread…

[4:40] One other thing that Dan mentioned was that the Cuban community refers to Ron Paul as “El Loco”. El Loco seems to be getting about 7% of the votes counted so far.

[5:22] Finally at the Ale House only to find out that Darryl fucked up the Live blog plan. Jeez.

[5:26] No sound on the TV. It’s set to CNN, so it’s not necessary.

[5:31] Romney won this thing in a landslide, but Newt won among white evangelicals, once again demonstrating that morally repulsive infidelity can be forgiven by the religious right as long as you act like an entitled asshole whenever asked about it.

[5:34] Romney is speaking. I can’t hear it, but I’m guessing he’s firing people on his staff, just out of habit.

[5:37] In re: to Darryl. But I regret both votes equally! Consistency!

[5:52] Rick Santorum being interviewed in Las Vegas where he’s already preparing for his 4th place finish there.

[5:53] I swear to god, I’ve known Darryl for 8 years, but if he shaved his beard, I’d never recognize him.

[6:01] How Ron Paul could have a huge win in Virginia.

[6:07] Newt waddles to the podium. Every Democrat in the country quietly cheers him on.

[6:12] Yep

[6:18] For once, the most cartoonish thing happening in Orlando is not at Disney World.

[6:20] Newt just dominated the panhandle. If the rest of the south votes that way, there will be a lot of disappointed southerners when Mitt is nominated.

[6:22] Darryl is listening to NPR now on his giant headphones. I’m no longer in contention for the biggest geek in the bar. I concede.

[6:24] Carl just walked in. He’s rocking a good beard too, in about 10 years, it could look as good as Darryl’s.

[6:25] Carl: “Does this mean we’re not going to have a moon colony?”

[6:36] Ron Paul speaking in Nevada. That state could be interesting. Both Romney and Paul beat McCain there in 2008.

[6:46] Without sound, I have no idea what John King is doing. Is he predicting a Ron Paul win in Washington?

[6:49] Dan has surfaced in the comments. Hey man, this is for you.

[6:57] Dan explains why Mitt won and why one of the nation’s most notorious white collar criminals is now their governor.

[7:02] Romney did really well with Latino voters. Unfortunately for him, Florida is the only state where Latinos vote for Republicans.

[7:04] N in Seattle is here. All we need is Goldy for the full HA.

[7:05] Will Kelley-Kamp is now here too. Sweet. Live-blogging is likely to slow to a crawl here…

[7:11] Dammit Darryl!! Fix this!

[7:18] I want to send Will to Iran. He needs $3,000. Make your pledges now!

[7:31] Just chatting with Will about how insane it is that Ralph Reed still goes on TV as a representative of the religious right. If Jesus were alive today, I doubt he’d be able to turn the other cheek on that crook.

[7:47] That’s it for me. Will is doing stand-up on Monday nights at Seattle Comedy Underground. It’s $5 for two hours of comedy. Come check him out and say you’re there to see Will Kelley.

It’s a clusterfuck down there. But somehow you just can’t help but gawk at the carnage.

Yep…we’re talking Florida, where Mitt Romney is prepared to slam Newt Gingrich to the matt—revenge for South Carolina.

I’m at the Montlake Alehouse, and maybe Lee and Carl will show up and partake of the live-gawking.

Have at it in the comment threads.

5:00: CNN just called it for Mitt Romney, 48% to Gingrich’s 31%, Santorum’s 13%, and Paul’s 7%. 56% of the vote is in, so that pretty much seals the deal. No Iowa repeat here, folks.

5:01: That was fast.

5:04: Is the race over? Is Romney the nominee? My inclination is to say, “yes”. I’ve been saying that for awhile. But then some ground truth emerges….

5:05: New polls released today:

• Missouri Primary poll: Gingrich 30, Santorum 28, Romney 24, Paul 11. Missouri hates Romney!!!
• Ohio Primary poll:Gingrich 26, Romney 25, Santorum 22, Paul 11. Ohio likes Gingrich a little better than Romney.
• National GOP Primary poll:Gingrich 28, Romney 27, Santorum 17, Paul 13. America seems to prefer Gingrich a little over Romeny

It ain’t over yet!

5:11: Don’t forget about the Oregon special election tonight. We’ll be anxiously awaiting those results.

5:22: Okay…so Lee is here and he started a competing thread to liveblog the results. This has now become an HA primary contest. Who will get the most comments? Just to be a good sport, I put his post on top. See what a great guy and good sport I am? Please leave a comment HERE if you agree.

5:32: Lee writes, “Finally at the Ale House only to find out that Darryl fucked up the Live blog plan.” Oh, man, after all Lee and I have been through. I feel just like Dominic.

5:35: As long as we are engaging in negative campaigning here, I though I would point out that in 2004, Lee voted for Dino Rossi. But voted for Gregoire in 2008. What a flip-flopper!

5:59: The next primary event is the Nevada caucus. Most of last year, Romney has led Gingrich by double digits in Nevada. That was through last October. The only more recent poll is this poll taken in mid-December. That poll has Romney leading Gingrich by +4%. Nevada may end up being more interesting than Florida!

6:04: As my opponent (Lee) mentions, the sound is off on CNN here at the Montlake Alehouse. We just had about 30 minutes of Santorum on the screen. What the fuck, CNN? That’s just disgusting!

6:06: Even though I am watching CNN, I am listening to NPR. Reporter in Florida just points out what a big win this is, “It’s the first state where [Romney] doesn’t have a house in the state or where he governed the neighboring state.”

6:08: Lee responds to the previous comment: “He doesn’t have a house in Florida?!?

6:10: Newt takes the stage, but more importantly, I see three comments on this thread and two on Lee’s thread. You LIKE ME! You REALLY LIKE ME!!!

6:11: There are two great things about Newt being in the race. First, he is one nasty motherfucker. Second, he has tons of baggage. When Newt first started boasting about running (in Dec 2010), I wrote:

But mostly it [a Gingrich run] would be fun for the memories: Contract with America, government shutdown, impeachment over a blow job. And there is, of course, that scarcely explored aspect of Newt life: his marriages:

Gingrich has been married three times. In 1962, he married Jackie Battley, his former high school geometry teacher, when he was 19 years old and she was 26. They had two daughters. In the spring of 1980, Gingrich left Battley after having an affair with Marianne Ginther. According to Battley, Gingrich visited her while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery to discuss the details of their divorce. Six months after it was final, Gingrich wed Ginther in 1981.

In the mid-1990s, Gingrich began an affair with House of Representatives staffer Callista Bisek, who is 23 years his junior; they continued their affair during the Lewinsky scandal. In 2000, Gingrich married Bisek shortly after his divorce from second wife Ginther.

The blogosphere really hasn’t had the opportunity to explore this side of Gingrich’s life. It’s fucking gold!

6:31: What I REALLY want to know is what Roger Rabbit thinks of tonight’s events. And yesterday’s. And maybe the entire week before. Roger?

6:34: Carl Ballard is here. He notices that at the Ron Paul speech there are three guys on stage…one with a bow tie, one with a regular tie, and one with no tie whatsoever. And they say there is no diversity amongst Republicans.

6:38: At least Ron Paul isn’t wearing a fucking sweater vest. (Carl is.)

6:46: The TeeVee tells me that “there are eight Santorum delegates.” Word to the wise: Be careful if you use the words “eight Santorum” in a conversation.

7:08: Damn! Lee is kicking my ass. But somehow his post got pushed back…. Clearly WE’VE BEEN HACKED!

7:12: Let’s see…we have me, Lee, N In Seattle, Carl Ballard, and Will showed up recently…Goldy is supposed to show up soon. The Montlake Alehouse has become a freakin’ HA class reunion!

7:18: Carl here. I’m not endorsing in this thread, but I’m opposed to typing on Darryl’s tiny computer. I guess I won’t get my passport stamped “Moon” any time soon.

7:24: Carl still. Rick Santorum is on CNN, and like Ron Paul, he’s also not wearing a tie. What the fuck? You’re on TV guys!

7:46: Darryl here…I’ve wrestled my computer (with its tiny little keyboard) back from Carl Ballard. Right now Seattle Jew is pontificating about Mormon church ownership of The Media. I notice that he speaks with as many typos as he writes with.

7:51: Goldy finally arrives. I guess the folks at The Stranger are done wringing whatever use they can get out him tonight to increase their page views.

8:15: Oregon Special Election: OR-1:

• Rob Cornilles (R) 53,215 37.52%
• Suzanne Bonamici (D) 79,386 55.97%