Archive for April, 2007

It’s Tuesday and time again for Drinking Liberally in the Tri-Cities.  Last week I had a chance to stop by the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally and coaxed a few photo’s out of the crowd.

This is Dave Neiwert, writer and blogger from Orcinus.  Always something to be learned from Dave.

Some of you around here might remember Anna and Gus.  Anna was Richard Wright’s campaign manager.  I spent most my time chatting with these guys since they understand just how tough it is out here on the “Dry Side” of the state.  Anna has been writing for the online publication sightline.org.

This fellow here is Joel Connelly from the Seattle PI.  I met Joel some 20 plus years ago as he was friends of my grandparents.  Sometime after my Grandmother died, my Grandfather would always talk about Joel which led me to read his columns.  I’ve learned much but what really amazes me is the depth of knowledge Joel posesses when it comes to Washington State political history.  A walking-talking encyclopedia.  

Of course David Goldstein (Goldy) of Horsesass.org and Natasha from Pacific Views.  David keeps me laughing and Natasha keeps me thinking.

And by the way, Goldy deserves a big thanks for following the Melamine story.  It is going beyond pet food now and Goldy smelled a rat long before anyone else.  I highly recommend following his posts on this story. 

Neil from Peacetreefarm.  Neil supported my blogging activities early on with McCranium.org.  Thanks Neil!

I am terrible with names and I forgot this guys name.  But he was happy to hear a report from a Tri-Citian that we are not pumping the contents of Hanford tanks into the Columbia River.  I know he is a blogger over at Blue Oregon.  Dude - drop me a note!  I’ll send you back some tank sludge!

Anyway, it’s good to be home and looking forward to Drinking Liberally in the Tri-Cities, tonight, and every Tuesday night at O’Callahans at the Shilo Inn.  50 Comstock Rd. in Richland.  7pm until whenever.  Come join us! 

So my frequent visitor, and righty friend Hindu from Sagebrusher.com pipes in on my Imus post.  I think I will probably take a lot of heat tomorrow at Drinking Liberally in Seattle over my distaste for the Jackson/Sharpton public soapbox extravaganza.  But I honestly think that the debate over racism isn’t going to be hashed out over some jackass getting fired, or from any racial source with an agenda.  To me it needs to be hashed out from within each and every one of us.  Those of us in denial about racism in this country, and I’m talking to you Hindu, need to be clear about that.  And Hindu’s comment…

Agree with most of this, Jimmy, except for the Bill-O stuff. He would have been roasted at the stake in minutes. Limbaugh would have taken seconds.

Imus lasted a few days because he’s a liberal elitist beltway insider. He has friends amongst the democrat martini set. David Gregory was a regular.

If Bill-O, as you say, had been as dumb as Imus, he would have been out before you even noticed.

It took me a few second search on YouTube…

Hmmm…

I have a unique perspective on racism.  Growing up I was a victim of reverse racism.  I lived in some of the blackest neighborhoods in Seattle and was nearly confined to the house.  My memories of stolen bus tokens and dodging rocks are not that far off.  I guess out of some desperate attempt to understand the strange world I was living in (I was a transplant from white Eastern Washington) I started learning, on my own, about slavery and read the 3rd grade material on a fellow named Fredrick Douglass.  I don’t think I understood even the then modern version of the racism I was experiencing, but as I grew older, I understood the historic implications.  And my understanding has made me who I am today.  And when I see a racist, I know exactly what I am looking at.  

But I don’t think Don Imus is a racist. 

I got caught by a jewish co-worker using the word Kike and was corrected.  Ironically, the definition is one that I never knew.  It was a phrase that was passed on through childhood chatter.  I think the Imus issue (and man do I ever want to see this one get out of the media spotlight) is systemic of a multi-generational mindset that is now finding it’s way into a public debate that may just turn out to be more substantial than in previous years where it was acknowledged when something was wrong, but the childhood chatter still went on in the company of close friends (and corporate sponsors).  Don Imus may, in some twisted way, be a hero to this cause if the level of discussion is maintained outside of the crucifixion of public figures and the media’s talking heads.  

But I’m not holding my breath.  Hindu states, and so wrongly so, Bill-O and his media counterparts would be ”roasted at the stakes in minutes” is exactly my point.  They will not.  They will not because they are not accessible, not accountable and completely insulated by their masters.  

Drinking Liberally in the Tri-Cities is tomorrow night… Tuesday!  I won’t be there but I will be Drinking Liberally… at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.  Should be a hoot. 

Enjoy!

Drinking Liberally in the Tri-Cities

O’Callahans - Shilo Inn

50 Comstock Rd.

Richland

7pm till??

Want to find out more about Drinking Liberally? Then check out Drinkingliberally.org.

And if you want to join the Tri-Cities Chapter of Drinking Liberally e-mail list? It is as simple as just clicking here.  

After all the news of the day, you know, Immmmmmuuuuuuuuuhhhhsss.  Who we continually see ridiculed for being a blunderous, racist speaking idiot, jackass, and who, along with his most famous detractor/pundits ganging around like hyena’s over a corpse.  I present to you a previous winner of a “I done something wrong but I’m a good person” awards…. Washington States 8th LD Representative Shirly Hankins.

After all the fire she took over the NW Tire issue (funny, recycling tires is actually a good thing) she proves her mettle by voting for the recent Domestic Partnership bill.  I imagine you right leaning folks are seething about this.  A real sinner now right?  Well, for what all that is worth, I would say that was a pretty good call on her part.  It was afterall, the right thing to do and shows good character.

Kudo’s from Jimmy…

I shouldn’t comment on this at all.  Imus is an ass.  I still watch the TV version if I get up early enough simply because I like some of the guests and a few jokes here and there.  But if you ask me, Al Sharpton is an even bigger ass for his role in all this. 

You see, Sharpton could spend a cold day in hell before he even gets a response out of the likes of Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’Reilly (two real racists).  But Imus is accessible.  And it’s starting to look like Sharpton, Jessie Jackson and the rest decrying Imus’ stupid assed comment will take any opportunity they can get.  It’s weak. 

If Imus could, he still probably would not give them the proverbial “fuck off” that the real “shock jocks” like Howard Stern would.  Instead he is taking his medicine for a stupid joke that taken in context, is no different than most the off hand bullshit many of us hear every day (whether we like it or not).  But the folks rallying around the steak to burn Imus smell the bonfire only because he, his network, and his sponsors, are willing to be tied to that steak.  He is someone they can take down simply because of the sympathies that lay with his surroundings.

I have lost alot of respect for the whole lot, Imus included.  But figure this… How long would this have lasted if Bill-O said “nappy headed hoe”?  Not long.

[Note: No politics... just riding]

It looked like it was time for a solo ride and explore some of the familiar and not so familiar. And even some of the beauty and grotesque.

Familiar… Kahlotus Highway. Not too bad but LOTS of cops. They were out in full force. Just down the road from here I came across one. Fortunately for me, I had just stopped and put a layer on under the jacket. In the process, I left my saddle bag open and dumped the contents as I took off. I had just discovered this and was slowing to turn around and retrieve my shit when a Franklin Co. Sheriff went by.

Just past the Lyons Ferry Twisties. No po po… not a soul on the road.

The grotesque… I saw more dead cows than ever. This was the second of four. Kind of creepy with cows just keeling over and dying. I could have turned this ride into the roadkill photo adventure with all the other dead critters I saw. I did rescue a gopher snake from certain death. He was warming up in the middle of the road so I threw him in the saddlebag and took him to safer territory (sorry, I forgot to get pics… the snake turned into a childs pet when I got to my destination).

Past Starbuck and up Tucannon road I came across these horses. About ten of them in all running back to the barn. Did someone ring the dinner bell? They were in a hurry.

Met up with some friends at Tucannon. This is Gunny, the stick compulsively obsessed yellow lab. She is paying no attention to the fish. What she really wants is to have that pole thrown out in the lake to fetch and she can’t understand why they continually try and fake her out over and over with each cast.

I hadn’t seen the damage from the School Fire so I took a ride up the road to check it out. It’s like another planet. Pretty devastating.

These lucky butterflies were into something on the ground… not sure what but better there than among the gazzillion or so I wiped off my helmet’s face shield.  I worry about Karma…

The Unfamiliar… The ride home took me on what I thought was going to be the old road down to Clyde (near Lower Monumental Dam)… Um… they got CONCRETE ROADS!!! They want to chip seal my street and way out in the middle of nowhere… concrete. Well, since no one was out there lets just say the pace got “spirited”. Great scenery as well.

Nearing the end of anything fun and close to US 12 traffic. One last shot.

It’s Tuesday again so… join in with the good crowd at Drinking Liberally in the Tri-Cities.

O’Callahans - Shilo Inn

50 Comstock Rd.

Richland

7pm till’?

Want to find out more about Drinking Liberally? Then check out Drinkingliberally.org.

And if you want to join the Tri-Cities Chapter of Drinking Liberally e-mail list? It is as simple as just clicking here.

Will over at Horsesass.org turned us on to a story today from a news source I hadn’t heard of.  And I should. Their name is Crosscut, and they link to me and thus, I apologize.  But as disturbed as I am about not giving back the eternal link in my news source roll (I will), I am even more disturbed by the story that Frank Blethen’s, Seattle Times is at the forefront of completely hijacking print media of the most populated western half of our state.  But I’m not surprised…

A potential bombshell is buried in 3.5 million pages of documents and testimony collected for a winner-take-all arbitration between Seattle’s two daily newspapers, which begins next week. In a deposition, a former Seattle Times Co. executive claims that Times officials in the mid-1990s secretly violated their joint operating agreement (JOA) with Hearst Corp., owner of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, using unfairly lopsided circulation spending to keep the Seattle Times‘ circulation lead over the P-I. Times executives then tricked Hearst into giving up their paper’s exclusivity in the morning, the former executive claims. Since the joint operation began 1983, the P-I had been the morning paper and the bigger Times had the less-desirable afternoon publishing cycle. Today, of course, both are morning papers and the P-I is in a circulation death spiral.

[...]

“The mandate” from Times Publisher Frank Blethen “was that the Times would maintain its dominant position,” Sparks told the investigators.

Oh yea… that is business for you.  Well, not exactly.  Watching the Times editorial and you find the republican consistency of mud in most all of its content related to the interests of Frank Blethen himself.  While there has been a little dissent amongst Times reporters, much of it could be filed under the “We don’t want to look like Fox News” chapters.

Crosscut’s story makes me wonder even more about the fate of traditional media in that the efforts to drown the opposition isn’t one more effort to narrow the conversation to the few shallow talking points that live in the hearts of editors. Will that ultimately be the beginning of their own end?  After all, the continual decline of news print media is an exact opposing reaction of doing just that.  And ultimately, citizen journalists, bloggers, and online media like Crosscut, win.   And even more oddly, and something to think about, is we, at least us bloggers, are seemingly more polarized than them.  Hmmm… Where is this going?

Sunday was one of those semi-chilly spring days here in Eastern Washington.  I suppose if I made a gazillion bucks blogging I would be less susceptible to spring’s lure… but I don’t and I’m not.  Spring is here and so is some of the best riding weather (I am always riding something). 

Destination:  Palouse Falls

One of my favorite places in Washington.  A near oddity if you didn’t have a historical perspective, or a little background on a guy named J. Harlen Bretz.  I’ll spare you the details I poured over in geology classes and just tell you this place is spectacular. 

Oh, and bikes… fast ones… 

So a little spotty blogging from me could be expected here and there.  But I promise to share.  If I am lucky, I can mix in a ride with a story this summer on my Montana trip.  We’ll see.  But I promise, some great pics are coming.