I flew into Philadelphia yesterday in time to watch the Eagles-Bears game with my family, one of those typically frustrating Eagles performances where they can’t seem to get any rhythm going, yet show flashes of brilliance, only to eke out an unsatisfying win or a disappointing loss in the fourth [...]
Last week’s contest was Placentia, CA. The winner was wes.in.wa, with an assist from Liberal Scientist, who provided this map of California oil wells.
I think the server clock on HA is off by a bit, so if this wasn’t posted exactly at noon, my apologies.
Here’s this week’s [...]
(There are more clips from the past week in politics posted at Hominid Views.)
[...]With Senate Democrats securing the bare 60 votes needed to bring the healthcare reform bill to the floor for a full debate, it is important to note that had Washingtonians followed the Seattle Times advice, and elected Republican Mike McGavick over Democrat Maria Cantwell, healthcare reform would be [...]
I’ve been meaning to comment on David Brewster’s post-election analysis over at Crosscut — “A bad election for moderates” — but I just can’t work up the energy necessary to read it through a second time. So rather than a thorough, line-by-line fisking, I’d mostly just like to focus [...]
(Courtesy of Fake Ted van Dyk)
Why am I drinking Mike McGinn’s wine? Because he was out of beer.
Yeah, sure, I didn’t actually work for McGinn, and in fact, I voted for Mayor Nickels in the primary. But I gave McGinn my vote in the general election, [...]
Vote-by-mail advocates have long argued that the system increases voter participation, particularly in traditionally low-turnout off-year elections, and this recent general election certainly doesn’t provide any evidence to the contrary. Indeed, when compared to other cities, Seattle’s off-year turnout is simply off the charts.
HA comment thread regular N in Seattle, [...]
According to Publicola, Gov. Chris Gregoire told a Seattle audience last night that she would not accept an all-cuts budget in 2010… a 180-degree turnaround from her position heading into the difficult 2009 legislative session. What’s changed her mind?
Well, obviously, the $2.6 billion projected revenue shortfall is nearly impossible [...]
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 [...]
With only a smattering of ballots left to count statewide, it is interesting to note that Seattle voters have thus far turned out a 57.56% rate, four and a half points higher than the county as a whole, and nearly seven points higher than the state average.
To put that in [...]
Here are some recent news items:
- Remember the big push a few years back after the Terri Schiavo mess to encourage people to have a living will for such situations? If you were one of the people who did that, make sure you avoid Catholic health care institutions as [...]
Rightly or wrongly, Democratic elected officials are often maligned by their opponents as tax and spend, well, Democrats. And with the latest state revenue forecast now confirming a $2.6 billion shortfall for 2009 alone, it’s time for state Dems to finally live up to that reputation.
70% of the state budget [...]
According to a new poll, a majority of Republicans believe that ACORN stole the 2008 election, and that Barack Obama was not the legitimate winner.
The poll asked this question: “Do you think that Barack Obama legitimately won the Presidential election last year, or do you think that ACORN stole [...]
While Susan Hutchison did her best to blame Dow Constantine for the woeful condition of the Howard Hanson Dam, residents and businesses in the Green River Valley may have deeper pockets to sue should the worst happen during the current flood season.
In a groundbreaking decision, a federal judge ruled [...]
At only 42.96%, eight points below the statewide average, Pierce County had the lowest voter turnout in the state in the 2009 general election. Pierce is also the only county in the state without all mail-in elections.
Hmm.
[...]As of the close of business, Wednesday 11/4/2009, the day after the election, King County Elections had 572,611 total mail-in ballots on hand. As of the close of business yesterday, Tuesday 11/17/2009, two weeks after the election, KCE had counted 570,280 total mail-in ballots, with an estimated 1,400 [...]
Damn commie-pinko American public…
When it comes to paying for a health care overhaul, Americans see just one way to go: Tax the rich.
That finding from a new Associated Press poll will be welcome news for House Democrats, who proposed doing just that in their sweeping remake of the U.S. [...]
Please join us tonight for some politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. Festivities take place at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. beginning about 8:00 pm. Or show up early for some fine dining.
The pressing question for the [...]
Then again, Jon, sexist or not, she did pose for the photo. And even if it was originally intended to grace the cover of Runners World, she had to understand that the shot was more likely to inspire lewd MILF comments than the kinda gravitas we’ve [...]
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 [...]
I’m too old to benefit from the Institute for a Democratic Future’s excellent six-month training program, but many of you are not, so if you’re between the ages of 21 and 36, and looking to make a difference through politics, I highly recommend sending in your application before the [...]
Washington state’s unemployment rate rose slightly to 9.3% in October… well, sorta. That’s the same rate that was originally reported for September, before being revised downward to 9.1%.
By comparison, South Carolina’s unemployment rate currently stands at 11.6%. Hey Palmetto State… how’s that race-to-the-bottom cheap labor strategy working out for you?
Pretty amusing video of an anti-immigration tea party in Minneapolis, where a prankster succeeds in getting the crowd to cheer the deportation of European immigrants. I especially enjoy the enthusiastic changing of “Columbus, go home!”
What a bunch of maroons.
[...]But wait… I thought the King County Council was officially nonpartisan…?
When Constantine is sworn in next Tuesday, that will leave eight councilmembers to decide his replacement: four Democrats and four Republicans.
Five Democrats, including Constantine, voted for the selection process while all Republicans voted against it.
Voters last year made council elections [...]
Why doesn’t this surprise me?
The state says Washington’s Republican Party is deadbeat in repaying legal fees associated with a failed challenge to the Top 2 primary system.
In a federal court filing Monday, the Attorney General’s Office wrote that while the Democratic Party has paid the $37,700 it owes, the [...]
So, how’d that endorsing Joe Mallahan go? Oh right, he was ahead until you, the Seattle Times, and the rest of the Seattle bashing institutional players decided to get involved. How’d that work out for you?
Sorry, there won’t be any more gloating in this letter: it’s for advise. If you [...]
I was hoping to attend tonight’s forum in Edmonds with travel show host Rick Steves, State Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles, State Rep. Mary Helen Roberts, former U.S. Attorney John McKay, and former White House advisor Bud Krogh. It starts in about an hour, but I’m stuck at home with parental [...]
A Moore Information survey released last week shows challenger Dino Rossi leading incumbent Christine Gregoire 48% to 42% in the 2008 gubernatorial contest, prompting the pollsters to speculate about the Washington state GOP’s rising prospects:
The fact that Rossi leads in this match-up is interesting and encouraging for Republicans in [...]
While Rep. Dave Reichert worked hard to appear more moderate in response to a tough challenge from Darcy Burner, he’s been veering hard back to the right ever since, culminating in his vote against the House healthcare bill, and his bizarre attacks on the AARP for endorsing it.
Of course, all [...]
HA contributors were unusually busy over the weekend, a typically slow time of the week when both posting and traffic generally dips, so here’s a brief summary of the posts you might have missed.
Even business guys befuddled about Baird’s vote
Spiraling healthcare costs is the number one issue for [...]
According to the headline in the Seattle Times, the “Airport link makes Sound Transit line the train to somewhere“…
The airport line is not expected to have a huge impact on near-term ridership, but routing to such a logical place squelches earlier complaints that light rail is the train to [...]
Steve Elliott takes on the useless waste of humanity that is Frank Chopp. It makes absolutely no sense to me that Mike McGinn can win the mayoral race, but that guy can’t be defeated by an actual progessive in the 43rd District.
Last week’s contest was won by milwhcky for the second straight week. The correct answer was The Bronx.
This week’s contest should be more of a challenge, good luck!
[...]Now that’s rich… the Seattle Times editorial board advising organized labor on what’s good for workers and the Democratic Party.
THE revolt of organized labor within the state Democratic Party is a kamikaze effort that works against the interests of the Democratic Party and the workers of Washington.
Yeah, because nobody has [...]
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 [...]
The American Medical Association this week adopted a report from the Council on Science and Public Health that encourages the Federal government to reclassify marijuana away from a Schedule I drug. Schedule I drugs, by definition, have no medical value, and now even the more conservative AMA is recognizing [...]
Some news from The Onion – Area Man Passionate Defender Of What He Imagines Constitution To Be
[...]I think it would have been funny if that guy carrying a gun into the West Seattle community center had been promptly shot.
Well, no… not funny, exactly. What’s the word I’m thinking of…? Ironic. That’s it.
Yes, I think it would have been ironic.
[...]Via Attackerman, I see that John Hannah, a former aide to Dick Cheney, is still scratching his head about what went wrong in Afghanistan:
Ever since last year’s presidential campaign, there’s been an unfortunate tendency to assess America’s Afghan campaign as one long, steady downward spiral to disaster. “Eight [...]
Only one year after Barack Obama’s “change we can believe in” election, and in the midst of a crushing economic recession that has caused home prices to plummet, unemployment to spike, and state and local budgets to plunge into nearly unprecedented crisis, you might have expected incumbents to face more [...]
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 [...]
(And there are some forty more media clips from the past week in politics at HominidViews.)
[...]Just a reminder to join me tonight for a 5oth birthday roast of Geov Parrish, with all proceeds benefiting Eat the State!
I’ll be emceeing as Knute Berger (Crosscut), former school board president Brita Butler-Wall, Tim Harris (Real Change), Lansing Scott (ETS!), Maria Tomchick (KEXP) and Mike McCormick (KEXP) futilely attempt [...]
Ten days after the election the votes are still being tallied, but the outcome only grows murkier with every passing day, setting the stage for a constitutional crisis that could grind our nation’s capital to a halt. What looked like a comfortable margin on election night has been shrinking steadily [...]
Longtime conservative talk show host Kirby Wilbur got canned by KVI yesterday, and as much as we disagreed on almost every issue, you might be surprised to learn that I’m sad to see him go.
Back when I first stumbled into activism, my talk radio skills were mostly honed on [...]
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 [...]
Even less surprising than the revelation that the Ivar’s undersea billboard was an elaborate hoax, is the revelation of how far the Seattle Times actually has that stick shoved up its collective ass:
Times Executive Editor David Boardman says that while he can appreciate the initiative behind the marketing ploy [...]
As best as I can tell, there are two main arguments being offered in favor of changing the ballot deadline from the current postmarked by election day to the more restrictive received by election day: 1) candidates and voters deserve to know who won on election night; and 2) it [...]
Ross Reynolds will be talking with Secretary of State Sam Reed and Rep. Sam Hunt sometime between 12:20 and 12:40 PM today on KUOW’s The Conversation, about the ballot deadline debate, and since I’ve been covering it so obsessively they’re gonna give me a couple minutes to respond before going [...]
Fake News, magically making trees grow back their leaves in late Autumn. Supporting Fake News channel is an unnatural act in [...]
I just finished listening to KUOW’s broadcast of a special Veteran’s Day edition of BackStory… one of my favorite public radio shows. The episode, “Coming Home: A History of War Veterans,” along with links to additional material is available from the BackStory website, or you can just listen [...]
These things don’t happen in a vacuum, and so it is not surprising to see Gov. Chris Gregoire joining the chorus of establishment voices demanding that the ballot deadline be changed from postmarked on election day to received by election day.
Earlier in the day, Gregoire said that the [...]
In the wake of the Obama Administration’s declaration that the federal government would respect state medical marijuana laws, Kirk Johnson in the New York Times reported the following:
For years, since the first medical marijuana laws were passed in the mid-1990s, many local and state governments could be confident, if [...]
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 [...]
There’s some celebratin’ to do following last week’s election. So join us tonight for some political jubilation at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally.
Festivities take place at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. beginning about 8:00 pm. Or show up early and [...]
I’ll be emceeing a couple of celebrations this week, and you’re all invited.
Geov Parrish 50th Birthday Roast & ETS! Benefit
On Friday evening, Nov. 13, join me, Knute Berger (Crosscut), former school board president Brita Butler-Wall, Tim Harris (Real Change), Lansing Scott (ETS!), Maria Tomchick (KEXP) and Mike McCormick (KEXP) [...]
State Sen. Fred Jarrett announced today that he would give up his seat to serve as Deputy Executive to former primary rival Dow Constantine. The newly enhanced position will make Jarrett the number two man in King County Executive’s office. It’s a good fit for Jarrett, who brings both extensive legislative [...]
Writing in the Washington Post in the wake of the 2004 presidential election, Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury pitched his own state’s vote-by-mail system as an answer to touch screen and polling place staffing controversies experienced elsewhere. But in doing so, he obviously felt the need to spin one [...]
Forget the fact that he ran the most impressive, effective, tireless, grassroots campaign I’ve seen since I started following local politics. According to the political sages at the Seattle Times, Mike McGinn mostly owes his victory to moody voters…
SEATTLE voters are in a testy mood. They turned down the [...]
Has anybody else noticed how thoroughly Susan Hutchison got her ass kicked?
With the latest ballot drop, Hutchison has fallen to 40.93% of the vote. To put that in perspective, that’s less than a point and a half better than admitted-Republican David Irons garnered in 2005, a race in which a third [...]
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 [...]
Forgive me for obsessing on the topic, but when our foils at the Seattle Times editorial board and our friend Joel Connelly at the Seattle P-I are both editorializing in favor of changing the voting deadline from postmarked on election day to received by election day, you just know [...]
King County dropped an additional 20,953 Seattle ballots this afternoon, with Mike McGinn expanding his lead to a 4,939 margin in what until recently was considered a closely contested mayors race.
Mike McGinn 96,514 50.88% Joe Mallahan 91,575 48.28%McGinn won 56.5% of this batch of ballots, most of which I presume to have been received after [...]
I’ve already spent some time joyfully fisking the Seattle Times’ “absurd” proposal to change the deadline on mail-in ballots from the current postmarked on election day, to the more restrictive received by election day, so there’s no need to do a line-by-line takedown of Joel Connelly’s own contribution [...]
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 [...]
My reliably liberal Democratic mother and stepfather both kinda like Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, as do many of their friends down there in the Sunshine State. Despite the fact that he’s a (gasp) Republican.
You know, you raise your parents as best you can, and then you have to let go.
But [...]
Former U.S. Marine Jay Clough will announce his candidacy tomorrow for Washington’s 4th Congressional District, currently held by Republican incumbent Rep. Doc Hastings.
“I expect our Representative in this district to work harder. As I traveled throughout the district in the last few months, I heard over and over that people [...]
Last week’s contest was won by milwhcky. It was Waterford, Michigan.
Here’s this week’s, good luck.
[...]Assuming he’s guilty, Christopher Monfort is a cop killer. From what limited biographical information we’ve learned about him thus far, I wouldn’t be surprised if he is seriously mentally ill. At the very worst, he’s an awful, sadistic, cold-hearted, anti-social murderer.
But calling him a “terrorist” just trivializes the word, [...]
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.
The Seattle Times editorial board is once again arguing for making it more difficult to vote.
AH, the weekend after the election and that weird feeling of knowing it could be several weeks before voters learn results of the Seattle mayoral race, a contest essentially tied.
Actually, as the Times’ own [...]
It is do or die time on healthcare reform, and with Republicans promising not a single vote in favor of the Democratic plan, it is time for us here in the Pacific Northwest to let our Democratic representatives know that if they don’t support us, we won’t support them.
For example, [...]
(And there are 40 other media clips from the past week in politics posted at Hominid Views.)
[...]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 [...]
Details are starting to emerge about suspected cop-killer Christopher Monfort, and not surprisingly, he sounds a little crazy. And as it turns out, he’s also a pretty crappy artist.
Really. Those are images from a 2003 art exhibit of Monfort’s titled “No War” at Highline [...]
Stephen Gutwillig gets to the real heart of the matter:
How can the notion that marijuana is “here to stay” coexist with these rates of marijuana arrests? Apparently because the people caught in the crossfire aren’t considered part of the mainstream. In California, African-Americans are three times as [...]
King County Elections just dropped another 19,562 Seattle ballots, and these went strongly for Mike McGinn, 53.2% to 46.8% for Joe Mallahan, once again doubling McGinn’s lead to a 2,384 vote margin.
Mike McGinn 85,416 50.31% Joe Mallahan 83,032 48.91%Based on today’s earlier drop, I think it’s fair to say that this is the trend we [...]
Mike McGinn padded his margin by an additional 694 votes this afternoon, more than doubling his narrow lead over Joe Mallahan to 1209 votes:
Mike McGinn 75,657 49.99% Joe Mallahan 74,448 49.19%This represents McGinn’s largest numerical lead thus far, and while not conclusive, bodes well for those anticipating a trend toward McGinn amongst late voters.
In this [...]
Washington’s best political satire site is without a doubt, Red County, a pitch-perfect, Colbert-esque parody of the angry, deluded, self-denial that tends to fill the right-wing blogs. And it doesn’t get any better than their frenetic mock analysis of the King County Executive race:
The general election result that shattered [...]
I feel snubbed…
Locally, an iron triangle of left interest groups (e.g. NARAL) liberal media (The Stranger, PubliCola) and the labor left (SEIU) seek to impose ideological requirements while slamming any Democrat who hints at moderation.
What am I… chopped liver?
Other than that, I kinda agree with Joel.
So, how crazy is Susan Hutchison’s letter to supporters, hinting that a U.S. Senate run might lay in her future? Not so crazy that I hadn’t predicted exactly that just a couple weeks back.
[...]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, [...]
A lot of folks deserve credit for the defeat passage of Referendum 71, but when it comes to the underlying strategy that got us this far, it’s hard to argue that anybody has played a bigger role than state Sen. Ed Murray.
Murray says the state’s organizing networks now are [...]
Yeah, I know, there’s a tea party at the Capitol, and a tragic mass shooting at Fort Hood, but still, you’d think the House healthcare reform bill being endorsed by the AMA of all organizations, not to mention the AARP, would be much bigger news.
Whoooo, pretty radical groups there. [...]
I know the timing is a bit insensitive, and it will probably piss off some folks for me to go there right now, but dwelling on the tragic mass shooting today at Fort Hood, in which 12 have been killed and 31 injured, I couldn’t help but think about the [...]
King County Elections just released their latest results, and of the 27,151Â Seattle ballots counted today, Mike McGinn expanded his narrow lead over Joe Mallahan by 54 votes, taking a 515 vote advantage in the mayor’s race, 65,172 to 64,657.
Countywide, KCE dropped a total of 68,507 new ballots today, with Seattle [...]
Washington State Republican Party chair Luke Esser explaining Susan Hutchison’s lopsided loss in the King County executive race…
“King County is a tough place to do business if you’re not a left-wing Democrat,” Esser said. “Inside the city of Seattle I could probably bring Abraham Lincoln back from the dead [...]
Much has been made of the placement of  Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1033 on the King County ballot, somewhat hidden below the instructions on the left-hand side of the page, visually separated from the rest of the ballot questions. I-1033 opponents had raised alarms that this poorly [...]
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 [...]
There’ve been two news items this week that have shown us one of the uglier aspects of the drug war – attempts to censor science and expert opinion in order to maintain the status quo.
In the UK, a chief drugs advisor named David Nutt was fired by Home Secretary [...]
Susan Hutchison has called Dow Constantine to concede the King County executive race. I guess she was neither professionally nor spiritually ready for the job.
[...]Goldy, Lee, Carl, Darryl, Jon DeVore, Paul, Fake Frank Blethen
