Archive for August, 2007

To me, Larry Criag is the worst kind of Republican. A self professed man of “Family Values” who speakes out against gay rights as if he were another supposed moral beacon for the nation. A Senator who, with great flair spoke out about the sexual antics of Clinton. Yet all the while he had a secret. His secret likely was a source of self torment and guilt over desires he simply couldn’t control and has probably lived with those demons most of his life.

Craig’s announcment tomorrow likely wont come with the confession that he is in fact gay. And although I don’t have a point of reference, I don’t think Larry Craig is gay. The way I see it, being gay is different than being repressed. Being gay seems to be more a like self acceptance of who you are and not cruising toilets for anonymous sex.

Anti gay rights republicans should make note of this latest scandal. Those of us who support gay rights are not creating an environment of repression that forces people to make poor and unhealthy decisions. Until they get that, I would suspect more high profile republicans are going to get caught cruising toilets (or the the like) while ruining thier careers, destroying their families, while living a very personal lie.

But I guess that’s what it’s going to take.

Can’t believe I’ve been at this for 2 years…

It’s just so easy to find inspiration in these times.

I got word today about something interesting I thought I’d share from Progressive Majority. I appears the Toppenish School Board had a vacancy earlier this year and decided to fill it with a local minister after he submitted a one paragraph resume over another qualified candidate. Well, it looks like Progressive Majority got the tip on the open seat and the highly qualified candidate who applied wasn’t selected over the “one paragraph resume” minister. Good thing he didn’t live in their district!

Congratulations Maria Osorio!! Silly and impulsive as the Toppenish School Board’s first decision may have been, my guess is that your fellow board members are pretty happy with the outcome.

Sadly, from the word I got, it isn’t the first time this has happened.

This Larry Craig stuff is like shooting fish in a barrell. But I can’t help myself…

Oh my this is good stuff…

Oh no, he’s not gay. His first statement… “Thank you very much for coming out today…” Hmm… I thought I heard in the background, “we were just here for a press conference, Larry”.

Don’t you get tired of the pathetic explanations anti-gay rights republicans come up with when they turn out to be… you know… GAY?

Larry could learn some chops from this guy if he’s going to play the denial game.

[via Towleroad]

Dan Savage of The Stranger sums it up best on CNN…

Note the CNN Inerviewer’s interest in the mechanics of it all…

I guess… I’m right! They don’t have to close! Doc said so… er… in so many words.

“There’s a provision in that bill that hospitals owned by physicians would have to change their make-up or they wouldn’t receive Medicare reimbursement,” he said.

Yeah, the quote is mixed in on another topic from the Tri-City Herald article, but lets go back and look at what Doc published on his web site.

Buried within the bill is a provision that would require the closure of Wenatchee Valley Medical Center facilities in Wenatchee, East Wenatchee, Moses Lake, Cashmere, Royal City, Omak, Tonasket, and Oroville.

As I noted in my previous post, this is a shade off of a lie if not an outright lie. But while Hastings is free to insert the fear package on his publicly funded congressional web site, he is not so free to spoon it out it when the press is nearby, and thus we get the most honest quote of out of Doc in months.

But that has been the leg Hastings has had to stand on. Straight out of the GOP playbook… fear. Fear of losing access to health care in rural areas is a great way to bolster yourself as a great defender. Never mind the Bush war that has never been questioned by Hastings that has cost nearly 4000 American soldiers their lives and cost 400+ Billion dollars so far compared to the paltry 5 billion spent on children in the coming years.

Good old “W” is going to make an appearance for Reichert this month to raise funds…

Darcy Burner has an answer.

Hmm… I debated posting this at all. But it is interesting in some respect.

Let us start with the Richland City Council Race:

Looks like John David isn’t in the hunt. But Kent Madsen is. In an odd twist, Kent’s Mother was one of my early piano teachers in the neighborhood so I have a certain affinity for the guy. Also, I worked for his brother at one time climbing trees (yes climbing trees - it was one of my favorite jobs ever… I guess I just like trees). I’m not sure of Kent’s politics but I can assume they lean more to the right after reading a Tri-City Herald forum post from one of his friends. I’m not saying being “an upright christian” means anything negative, or that you are automatically a republican (as Kent pointed out to me it is a non-partisan race… Du-uhhhhh), but regardless of all that fodder, I like the idea of someone who has deep roots in this area stepping up to run. You go Kent!

Pasco Council races are boring… Matt Watkins didn’t get a challenger so he was free to go run off on his Motorcycle. I am really jealous of Matt so he can just piss off… not really… GO MATT!!!!

Benton City has finally gotten rid of that jackass Bryon Robinson. Long overdue. Not that big of voting base but he only got 40 votes. Caio!

I didn’t follow the W. Richland races.

School board races:

Richland seems to support the status quo despite the angry mobs over some of the priorities. Heck, I’d be an angry mob of one if I had the time. Richland Schools are overrun with nuts of the LDS kind if you ask any of their employees. But you do have to hand it to the folks in Richland. We support our levies (most of the time). Which sends a good message to the anti-government righties who seem to be in control: education is top priority. A quick look around Washington State and you could find just a few republican legislators who understand the importance of funding education vs. tearing the system down in support of privatization. But we have those good republicans in spades. Cheers Yakima! You really know how to pick em… or your choices sucked. (Chris Mullick has some fun reading on this as well)

The only Pasco School Board race I was somewhat watching was the Patrick McBurney candidacy (also applies to Richland). Patrick apparently has a problem with law vs. loyalty to the Republican party. Patrick sent a great e-mail to then republican party member Richard Pope for holding his own party to the public disclosure laws. I guess, from the letter he wrote to Richard Pope, he just doesn’t appreciate the rules.

Dear Mr. Pope:

Congratulations on your dubious accomplishment. I would say more but you have already received [sic] a response from David Irons [sick], and I don’t need to comment further. However, I thought I would pass this link along where you can connect with like minded people www.kcdems.net.

Sincerely,

Patrick D. McBurney - Chair
Benton County Republican Party

(It’s also interesting to note that Pope just won a primary, as a Democrat, to move on to the general election as candidate for King County Council challenging the recently DUI challenged Jane Hague. You simply cannot make this shit up!)

Hey, wait a minute… I thought Sr. was the Benton County Republican Chair?? But Pasco is Franklin County… er… I am confused. Jr. McBurney was running for Richland School District and Sr. was running in Pasco… um… ok whatever. If either one of these fellows thinks former King County Executive Candidate David Irons was a great guy they should both cast themselves into the Columbia River and get it over with. If the Mid Columbia elects anyone of these two to more than dog catcher (edit: I’m elevating the McBurneys to no less than Governor.  Anytime you have a Democrat and a Republican in the same family, both interested in public service well… that has got to be some very interesting family dinners - see official update below) they will be doing themselves a huge disfavor, unless they can find a way to repent themselves from (and quit associating with) the likes of David Irons.

Update:  So… I got this wrong!  Jr. is the Benton County GOP chair (and the author of the Pope e-mail)!  Sr. is a Democrat and lost his race the Pasco School District!  That probably all makes for great dinnertime conversation (if which my name comes up as… sonofabitch).  Either way, I appreciate Patrick Jr. commenting to set this straight.  That’s what it’s all about… and I was wrong so I stand corrected.  By the way Patrick, Pope didn’t quite connect with the KC Dems.  I think they are just as worried about his research abilities as the state GOP!

Good night, and good luck!

I’m going to see Cheap Trick tonight at the fair. Without a doubt they will play Surrender.

Surrender, surrender, but don’t give yourself away…

Former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer, the spokesperson for the group, offers their message: “the war in Iraq can be won and Congress must not surrender.”

Darryl knows what the republicans version of surrender really means…

When Republicans say “we cannot surrender,” you know they really mean? They mean that they cannot be humiliated by admitting that the pre-invasion vision was naive and the post-invasion management has been disastrously incompetent.

Falls a little short on… values!

From Blatherwatch:

~Whatta line-up! a runway full of role models will show up for the Family Research Counsel and Focus On the Family’s big October “values” do called the Values Voter Washington Briefing. Values-ridden speakers include Bill O’Reilly, who reportedly paid $20 million to a former producer for her lawsuit to go away after he told her in a recorded phone call that he wanted to rub her privates with a Middle Eastern sandwich; Dr. Bill Bennett; the “virtues czar,” and gambling addict who lost millions in Las Vegas while publically opposing gambling; the sullied Rabbi Daniel Lapin, whose disgraced non-profit Toward Tradition was used by Jack Abramoff to launder money; the thrice-married Newt Gingrich who engineered the impeachment of Bill Clinton while carrying on an extramarital affair with a young assistant whom he’d later leave his wife to marry. If you’re considering going to this event- we’d advise leaving your kids at home.

Quite the line-up eh?

Watch the promo!!!

Doc Hastings gets a little heat in Ellensburg:

Steve Verhey of Ellensburg, who last Thursday protested the war on the Kittitas County Courthouse steps along with about 10 others, told Hastings people opposed to the war are angry. He asked Hastings, R-Pasco, about the congressman’s oft-stated position that fighting the war in the Middle East keeps terrorists from fighting it here.

“I view that attitude of yours as an insult to the intelligence of your constituents,” Verhey said.

Hastings responded, saying he believed the majority of people in his Central Washington district share his own view of the war. He added that the great thing about a democracy is that people can have opposing views and confront elected officials with them.

“Don’t patronize me,” Verhey fired back, drawing a groan from the largely pro-
Hastings crowd.

Another voice from the crowd, James Melvin of nearby Thorp, rose to defend Hastings’ support for continuing what Hastings called a “war on radical Islamists.”

“What part of, ‘They want to kill each and every one of us,’ do you people not understand?” Melvin asked.

I doubt Hastings actually has a clue about what people in his district really think about the war. I don’t think he has ever asked anyone but the most friendly crowds he can gather in a small rural grange hall. And his cool aid drinking defender, Melvin, has clearly bought into each and every fearful talking point Fox News has fed since the towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001. And I applaud Verhey for piping up! But if you want to get Doc, get him lying:

In order for SCHIP to continue beyond September, the program must be renewed – and I support that. But, continuing this children’s health program need not come at the expense of the Medicare plans of over 150,000 Washingtonians and the shut down of the Wenatchee Valley Medical Center. Yet, this is precisely what the House-passed Democrat bill would do.

Buried within the bill is a provision that would require the closure of Wenatchee Valley Medical Center facilities in Wenatchee, East Wenatchee, Moses Lake, Cashmere, Royal City, Omak, Tonasket, and Oroville.

Nowhere I can find in this bill is a provision that would require the closure of Wenatchee Valley Medical Center or any of its other facilities. In fact:

Additionally, the legislation would limit the amount of investment interest in the hospital that can be owned by physicians—seemingly regardless of whether the physician is a referral source—to no more than 40 percent, and limit each individual physician’s interest to no more than 2 percent. If enacted, many existing physician-owned hospitals would have to restructure ownership interests to comply with this new requirement in order to continue to protect future referrals.

Yes there are limits. And if you click the above link there is a good description of what SChip does. But it doesn’t close anyone. In fact, existing physician owned facilities have an exemption. Yes, they will be required to make some changes but closing the doors simply will not happen (Unless they are completely incompetent - which I doubt).

So has Doc outright lied? You can decide that. He certainly isn’t telling the whole story and in fact using the language he did, providing his constituency an explanation as an absolute, when it is not, is nothing but a shade off of a lie.

There are other issues with Hastings’ position that are not completely clear. For instance, his assertion that about cuts for other Medicare recipients. At first glance it might actually carry some weight. But I’m not so sure. Still reading. Interesting that finding objective information and how it relates to SChip is kind of tough. Of course, Doc could just tell us what he is concerned about, quote some text in the bill, point objectively to some potential consequences, and maybe he could make his case. But then, he is still telling us we are making progress in Iraq.

I’m just saying…

[My apologies for the formatting of this post - my wordpress is not acting right]

There will be a satellite DL get together this week only. If you wish, come join us at the Wine Garden at the Benton-Franklin County Fair this Tuesday. It’s Blues and Bikes night. There will be a motorcycle fashion show and music by Too Slim and the Taildraggers. On the main stage it will be the Charles Daniels Band.

For those who don’t have Fair plans Tuesday night, the regular gathering at O’Callahan’s is still a good place to be.