It’s not surprising, but the overwrought nature of this editorial in The Columbian is easily ascertained by reading the first sentence.
The tax-increase snake is not exactly back on the state’s budget table, but it has slithered under the door and is coiling its way up a table leg.
It goes [...]
Your liberal media…making sure Sarah Palin has a legitimate gripe:
There are a lot of legitimate reasons to criticize Sarah Palin, her new book, and her policies, but you don’t have to stoop to sexism to do it. Newsweek’s November 23 issue, however, does just that by publishing on its [...]
Rep. Dave Reichert, R-WA-08, is “just getting started” in his jihad against AARP. From The News-Tribune:
In e-mails to the office of Washington’s insurance commissioner, Reichert’s staff wanted to know if AARP needed to be regulated under state insurance laws. An official in the insurance commissioner’s office, Gayle Pasero, company [...]
Paul Leonard of Vancouver Business Journal, in a piece dated yesterday:
One of the reasons behind his “No” vote, according to Baird, was that there was not enough time to consider Republican amendments to the legislation – a concern apparently held without regard to the GOP-led chants of “Kill the [...]
This is kind of an odd story, not sure what to make of it. Oregonian reporter Allan Brettman reports that eleven members of the Northwest Congressional delegation signed a Nov. 9 letter to the Obama administration requesting funds for land purchases and economic development in the Columbia River Gorge.
The [...]
Fake News, magically making trees grow back their leaves in late Autumn. Supporting Fake News channel is an unnatural act in [...]
Well, okay, this is not a secret if you follow Washington politics, but it’s worth bringing up right now.
According to Open Secrets, Rep. Brian Baird’s (D-WA-03) top three metro areas for donations last cycle, excluding PAC contributions, are Portland-Vancouver, Seattle-Bellevue-Everett and Washington, D.C.
And it sounds like [...]
So you, or your wife or daughter might be forced to by an insurance policy under the threat of federal penalty, and one of the prime actors in shaping part of that that bill, the Bart Stupak sepsis amendment, was the Catholic Church.
Which, you know, is great if you’re [...]
Already up at the Urban Dictionary:
Stupak–A medical condition (subset of sepsis) resulting from unsafe – unnecessarily so – back alley abortions as a result of the “Stupak Amendment” to the 2009 Health Care Reform Bill.
Doctor: Unfortunately, while this would have been covered under private insurance carriers, public plans [...]
The US House just passed HR 3962, the health care reform bill. A solitary Republican voted “Yea.” Roll call should be up here after a while. If you go there, you can also check out Roll 884, the Stupak Wire Coat Hanger Amendment.
Democratic Rep. Brian Baird (WA-03) says he’ll vote against health care reform, no word on Rep. Adam Smith (WA-09). Brad Shannon has the story, along with a statement from Dwight Pelz encouraging members of the delegation to support reform.
Baird cited, among other things, wanting more information from CBO. Okay [...]
Ken Camp at NPI Advocate notices that Rep. Adam Smith (WA-09) and Rep. Brian Baird (WA-03) need to get some phone calls of encouragement regarding the pending health care bill. There might be a vote this weekend.
Feel free to click through to NPI Advocate for more information.
Separately, [...]
The “free-market” means that a massive American corporation, propped up and majority owned by US taxpayers, can now do whatever the hell it wants.
Thousands of the 25,000 workers from Opel’s four factories are gathered in Ruesselsheim to protest at GM’s refusal to sell its European operations.
GM’s U-turn came just [...]
Real quick, it looks like America’s Vancouver may wind up with a new mayor.
City Councilman Tim Leavitt held a 1,750 lead over incumbent Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard after initial ballots were counted Tuesday evening.
With perhaps 7,000 ballots left to be tallied in the coming days, it may be some [...]
In America’s Vancouver, the big talking points in the mayor’s race often wind up being about stuff the city can only control on the margins. Like jobs.
(In case the link won’t load, it’s a link to a final Columbian article where challenger Tim Leavitt and supporters accuse incumbent Royce [...]
Apparently $3.2 billion in tax incentives over 20 years and everything else the state has forked over isn’t good enough.
This is partly about neoliberal corporate executives chasing non-union low wages, as Charles Mudede alluded to at Slog yesterday, but it’s also an attack on unionism itself. This [...]
So the GOP’s brilliant new plan to derail health insurance reform is to “ACORN” the AARP. (Pausing while that sinks in a moment)
You know, the AARP, the really, really powerful lobby that is really really powerful and represents the group of Americans who vote the most–seniors.
The slime is [...]
Brian:
I respectfully request that you endorse the robust public option and get on board with what would be a significant and meaningful improvement in the lives of ordinary Americans.
Your ideas about reforming the tax system and the health care system at the same time, as expressed in your recent [...]
To absolutely nobody’s surprise, PDC complaints have started flying in the race for mayor of America’s Vancouver. It’s standard operating procedure for conservatives in Clark County to throw bogus charges right about this time in a campaign, you can practically set your clock by it.
And lo and behold, challenger [...]
Down here in Vancouver the hotly contested race for mayor is providing the lamest example of conservative victimology I’ve ever seen during a campaign, and that’s quite a low bar to crawl under. If you’ll recall, long-time incumbent Royce Pollard is squaring off against sitting council member and mayoral candidate [...]
Brian Baird pens a curious guest editorial that includes how to pay for health insurance reform; Chris at Politics Is a Blood Sport calls it what it is: a Value Added Tax, and it’s regressive and unfair as hell.
If this is some kind of trial balloon, I’ll [...]
Over the weekend, the NYT had an article featuring Rep. Earl Blumenauer, the Portland congressman they hold up as a spokesman for the “Frustrated Left.”
Instead of forging ahead, Mr. Blumenauer, 61, finds himself fighting to retain one of the touchstones for liberals this year, a public insurance option in [...]
Down here in Clark County it seems there may be a wee problem, and that the problem has gone on for a very, very long time:
Allegations surrounding the firing of a black manager from Clark County’s jail portray a workplace where racism is tolerated or ignored, a state civil [...]
Wells Fargo is jacking up its credit card rates.
The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD), which was passed by Congress earlier this year, will limit how credit card companies can raise interest rates on consumers when the second part of the legislation takes effect next year. But [...]
Box Turtle Bulletin notices something interesting about a new anti-71 ad.
The second image you see flashing on the screen, of Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden, is a copyrighted image from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You can find a copy of that image [...]
Looks like the gloves are coming off in the race for mayor of America’s Vancouver, which pits city council member Tim Leavitt against veteran incumbent Royce Pollard.
From The Columbian:
Vancouver mayoral candidate Tim Leavitt has missed “an outrageous” 16 elections over the past 10 years, including primary elections in 2008 [...]
This is kind of nice for SW Washington.
The Democratic Party announced Monday that it will hold its state convention in Clark County on June 25 and 26. The event, which is expected to draw as many as 2,100, will begin with caucus meetings and a banquet Friday evening at [...]
You might want to go see “Capitalism: A Love Story” because it’s timely and Michael Moore is funny, but as an added benefit you will be supporting a non-svelte hypocrite who has used the existing film distribution channels to place his subversive movie in front of millions of eyeballs.
In other [...]
Unemployment will almost certainly (be) in double-digits next year — and may remain there for some time. And for every person who shows up as unemployed in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ household survey, you can bet there’s another either too discouraged to look for work [...]
A little while ago on my tee-vee, a cable reporter (and does it matter which one?) insisted that unnamed Senate staffers don’t think there will be a public option when a bill makes it to a floor vote, and the reporter left the definite Village impression that this is the [...]
Ha ha ha ha ha ha. From HuffPo:
The congressional legislation intended to defund ACORN, passed with broad bipartisan support, is written so broadly that it applies to “any organization” that has been charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws, campaign finance laws or filing [...]
A poor economy and, of all things, political wrangling (!) have created an uncertain future for the Columbia River Crossing project, the effort to build a new bridge between Portland and Vancouver.
From The Oregonian:
In an interview with The Oregonian late Thursday, Portland Mayor Sam Adams said he would [...]
Protesters who attended Saturday’s Tea Party rally in Washington found a new reason to be upset: Apparently they are unhappy with the level of service provided by the subway system.
Rep. Kevin Brady called for a government investigation into whether the government-run subway system adequately prepared for this weekend’s [...]
From page two of a Politico piece this morning, concerning the Mad Max Blue Cross Defense Act of 2009:
The bill requires individuals to buy insurance, or else face penalties as high as $3,800 for a family. It would not mandate businesses to provide coverage for their employees – as [...]
The Columbian editorial board just goes off on the BIAW Clark County Commission for delaying implementation of new stormwater rules for fat cat political donor/developers.
[...]Peace in the Valley and thank you to all the members of the armed forces, especially those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The situation in Afghanistan is particularly worrisome, and our thoughts are with you.
[...]Last week, Central Washington University professor, conservative writer and state Republican executive board member Mathew Manweller had a guest editorial published in the The Seattle Times in which he argued that Republicans should not target Blue Dogs in the 2010 election. It hardly seemed like a controversial idea, [...]
It’s an open thread, which I don’t know how to say in German.
[...]I just had to watch Glenn Beck here in the 11 AM Pacific Hour, because some in the right-wing Twitterverse were all abuzz about a “big announcement.”
Beck complained about accusations that he is a McCarthyist, because he’s “not a Senator” and doesn’t have subpoena power, which of course is [...]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Coast Guard training exercise set off a security scare in Washington’s Potomac River on Friday as the United States marked the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
That’s bizarre, almost beyond belief. My tee-vee says President Obama was at the Pentagon for memorial services.
On Monday I compared Fox Noise lunatic Glenn Beck to deceased Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, and I asked:
Which obscure administration or member of Congress will be next? Will it it be a third under-secretary for African affairs, or will it be, um, YOU?
And today we found out [...]
Just got in, only heard snippets of President Barack Obama’s speech on health care. What I heard sounded good. Cesspool?
[...]At Crosscut, Bob Simmons eloquently points out a simple historical truth with a contemporary meaning: private enterprise failed to provide electrical service to much of rural America, and it took the REA under Franklin D. Roosevelt (and Truman) to get it done. And the right wingers of the day [...]
Capitalizing on his war record, McCarthy narrowly defeated the overconfident Senator Robert La Follette in the 1946 Republican senatorial primary and assailed his Democratic opponent, Howard McMurray, as a man so desperate for election that he would accept communist support. The baseless charge worked. McCarthy trounced McMurray and, in [...]
Then the issue can be talked about. These are legitimate concerns expressed in this video, but no birthers, no tenthers, no deathers, etc. Regular people have legitimate concerns, they should be talked about. That is how you wind up with better legislation.
Nobody can [...]
Some folks had some other stuff they seemed to want to discuss, so here’s an open thread.
[...]At the town hall meeting in Centralia on Wednesday night, Rep. Brian Baird turned the tables on a city of Centralia candidate for mayor named Matthew Trent. The Columbian included an account of the exchange in an article this morning:
One of the [...]
There are two key indicators today in the brewing battle between the House and the administration over health care reform, and while they don’t represent any kind of change in position, they indicate progressives are holding their ground.
Earlier today, Greg Sargent reported that House progressives sent a letter to [...]
They’re all heart, I tell you. The Daily Astorian reports on Brian Baird’s town forum in Ilwaco, and state GOP executive board member Nansen Malin reveals what Republicans actually think:
“We want everyone to have quality healthcare, “Malin said, “But I am against universal health care.”
But how can everyone have [...]
Nansen Malin, GOP executive board member from Pacific County, via that twit thing:
Never thought I’d see this: CNN poll-Majority oppose ObamaCare. the details are very interesting.
Now thinking specifically about the health insurance plans available to most Americans, would you favor or oppose creating a public health insurance option [...]
Obama will speak to a joint session of Congress, yeah okay. But what’s the end game?
“It’s so important to get a deal,” a White House official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to be candid about strategy. “He will do almost anything it takes to get [...]
Obviously it’s the dastardly work of the Ilwaco chapter of ACORN.
UPDATE–Here’s another tweet from the same GOP official:
Also ONLY known dems (small town) received yellow feedback forms for Baird
about [...]
I’m so old I remember when reporters looked at you as a questionable source if you blogged, but apparently having over one hundred thousand thousand Twitter followers [...]
Adding, for overly obvious emphasis, that to have message discipline you need to have a message in the first place.
We’re getting our butts kicked out here, and the people who get paid to do this stuff need to get out the belt. I’m looking at [...]
Is the Yelling Marine, David Hedrick, going to run for Congress against incumbent Democratic Brian Baird in WA-03?
There appears to be a place-holder web site up for Hedrick.
Wonder if he’ll show up in Olympia tonight?
Meanwhile, 3rd District Rep. Brian Baird has moved tonight’s town hall to a [...]
This is video of St. Francis, Minn. city council member LeRoy Schaffer addressing the town hall held by Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.-06. It’s kind of not surprising that reporters might have had trouble understanding what he was saying.
After carefully listening on [...]
Correction: Think Progress has issued an update:
The Minneapolis Star Tribune quoted more of Schaffer’s words and it turns out he was defending Social Security. “I’m on Social Security and I’ve got Medicare,” said Schaffer, 70, before entering the auditorium. “I have socialized medicine. I wouldn’t give it up [...]
From The Plum Line:
In case you missed it, the RNC sent a mailing, obtained by a local paper in Washington State and now rocketing around the political world, that contained the following loaded question:
“It has been suggested that the government could use voter registration to determine a person’s [...]
You start imagining warning stickers at certain dark corners of the Internets and the YouTubes that read like this:
warning: the national Communo-Fascist Government wishes to inform You that reading this Web Site may have Unintended side affects upon your Ability to capitolize, punctuate and other righting skills.
A right wing blogger named Pamela Geller, who is known for her extreme anti-Muslim views, has claimed that “Yelling Marine” David Hedrick is a frequent reader of her blog, Atlas Shrugs. Hedrick has drawn national attention, including appearances on Fox Noise, for his condemnation of Baird.
Geller [...]
What David Waldman says:
Maybe I’m just not sufficiently wonky on the health care subject, and after all, this isn’t likely to happen to me right away, because I have insurance through my wife that I’m pretty sure we’re keeping as long as we can. But I don’t get how [...]
From Media Matters:
Fox’s Carlson offers no criticism of guest’s suggestion Pelosi is a Nazi
Fox guest at town hall: “If Nancy Pelosi wants to find a swastika, maybe the first place she should look is the sleeve of her own arm.” Fox & Friends hosted David Hedrick, who at a [...]
It’s pretty much a distortion per day with these people.
Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large of National Review Online, went on Fox News today to fan the flames of the latest fabricated “death panel” controversy.
Goldberg equated a Veterans Affairs pamphlet — one that’s reportedly no longer being used — with Nazi eugenics, [...]
An angry right wing guy insists that Nazis were leftists because they were “National Socialists,” and he also demands that Baird “stay away from his kids.”
This was from the Brian Baird town hall last Tuesday.
Yeah, we’ll stay away from your kids, angry guy, [...]
Perhaps there are lessons from the 1960’s to be learned for today’s leftists: policy is nothing without passion and creativity, although in the case of the video above a laundry list of fantasy grievances set to canned guitar chords may not be the [...]
(Rep. Cathy) McMorris Rogers spoke at All Saints Lutheran Church to about 50 people representing the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association and the AARP, the national advocacy group for people 50 and older.
Although the media were not allowed to attend, a few people who did [...]
One poll question indicative of how difficult it is to gain public understanding on a complicated issue asked if respondents thought the government should ‘stay out of Medicare,’ something inherently impossible. 39% said yes.
Sometimes I really think we should just repeal Medicare, look over at the [...]
The Columbian: has a roundup of primary night down here.
Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard faces a heated battle to keep his job in November after waging a neck-and-neck struggle with Councilman Tim Leavitt in Tuesday’s primary.
Preliminary tallies released Tuesday night show Pollard with 43.1 percent of the vote, followed by [...]
So even while town halls are being held, contentious but not violent tonight in the case of Brian Baird, the political situation has bypassed the right wingers earnestly stamping their feet and holding their breath about “socialism” and “death panels” and such. From The New York Times:
Rahm Emanuel, [...]
Portland Fox Noise affiliate KPTV is going to stream Brian Baird’s first town hall, being held tonight at the Amphitheater at Clark County, capacity approximately 18,000.
The event is scheduled to be streamed starting at 7 pm.
The temperature in Vancouver just before 4 pm is 91 degrees. [...]
From Pacific County blogger/writer Arthur Ruger, who makes a lot of good points. Worth checking out, here’s a taste:
After the last two election cycles, I backed away from lots of writing. At 63, I want to retire as soon as possible from my full-time job at the local welfare [...]
No public option, no passage. And the votes are there, apparently.
You’d never know about this from most media accounts, probably because progressives aren’t screaming, yelling and waving guns around. Yes, it’s a battle of wills, and no, I can’t predict the final outcome.
But I’d wager that progressives around [...]
Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, WA-05, has condemned the crazy disruptors:
“I certainly don’t condone violence, I don’t condone calling President Obama Hitler and painting swastikas on signs at town halls,” continued McMorris Rodgers, vice chairwoman of the GOP conference.
McMorris Rodgers is the first member of the House Republican [...]
Lost in the furor is a basic economic question: what are we going to make? From The Oregonian, about a Port of Vancouver ceremony for an expansion project:
In a ceremony full of speeches, however, a top longshore official nearly stole the show by asserting that free trade agreements may [...]
There will be town halls in WA-03 after all.
Although, while I still don’t have details, those who think they will be able to show up and just scream might find that is not exactly the case.
[...]One of the Portland television stations had a segment today on a town hall held by Rep. David W, D-Or. They showed a youngish man and his male friends holding a sign depicting President Obama with a toothbrush mustache, and the man claimed health care reform will be like the [...]
Portland curmudgeon/blogger Jack Bogdanski on the difference between health care protestors now and anti-war protestors then:
The Democrats were protesting killing people, and the Republicans are protesting healing people.
Sometimes simple observations are good.
[...]Andrew at NWPI NPI notes that Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has embraced a “robust” public option in an appearance last week on The Bill Press Show.
This is good.
[...]A conservative activist who opposes health care reform and who claims “union thugs” roughed him up in St. Louis doesn’t have health care insurance. So the righties are taking up a collection, which is nice, because it’s nice to help people.
You just can’t make this stuff up.
(Props to [...]
Blue Texan at Firedoglake, after noting that the disruptors at a Texas town hall last week were organized by the Travis County Republican Chair, and how the disruptors seemed also to opposed Social Security and Medicare:
They’re just throwing a temper tantrum over “SOCIALISM!” — which in their wingnut [...]
I’m shocked but not surprised. From The Hill:
The Secret Service may investigate a fax sent to a Democratic lawmaker that depicts President Barack Obama as the Joker and warns of “death to all Marxists.”
The black-and-white fax portrays Obama in makeup similar to that worn by actor Heath Ledger in [...]
So, predictably, conservatives are attacking Democrat Brian Baird, WA-03, for refusing to play their stupid “mob rule” game and will have telephone town halls instead of the rugby scrums desired by the tea birthers.
Which got me to wondering who else has used telephone town halls.
So Democrat Rep. Brian Baird, WA-03, is going to do telephone town halls instead of play along with the infantile tactics of the tea birthers. From The Columbian:
“What we’re seeing right now is close to Brown Shirt tactics,” Baird, D-Vancouver, said in a phone interview. “I mean that very [...]
So the conservative lumpenproletariat had lots of fun during the 2008 campaign claiming liberals are all robots, ie “Obamatrons,” and such. They got a hard on over some idiot bimbo on their ticket, celebrated a mindless liar who claimed to be a plumber, and basically acted like douchebags on a [...]
Then Cong. Smith asked for comments, and the comments began. The first question: would this new plan include tax payer support for abortion? The next question, from one of the young fellas sitting in front of me: on page … of the House bill, (reading from a [...]
From Think Progress:
Today, House members are back home to begin their month-long recess. The far right has indicated that they plan to welcome many of their representatives with large, angry throngs (“town halls gone wild”). The corporate lobbyists engineering these “grassroots” efforts have indicated their harassment strategy [...]
From a blurb in The Columbian:
The U.S. Air Force 304th Rescue Squadron is conducting pilot certification training in Clark County.
On Friday, a Columbian reader reported seeing a black helicopter gunship, which he thought might belong to the CIA, flying low along the East Fork Lewis River just downstream from [...]
If someone likes to go bird watching, but sees a black helicopter carrying the President who was “not” born in the USA, does that make them a Birder Bircher Birther?
[...]Personally, I love realistic capitalists who say what is what, and over time I’ve become a fan of “Jim the Realtor,” aka northern San Diego County realtor Jim Klinge, whose blog Bubble Info has been linked to by Calculated Risk with some frequency.
It’s possible Klinge and I [...]
