General

I was forwarded an email today from a conservative friend of mine.  While I might not agree with the Tea Party folks, I think this is encouraging.  I privately rant about the so called “tea party movement” being co-opted by opportunistic organizations for their general anger and leading the generally good people down a path of religious or anti everything a democrat might believe.  Kind of like waving a steak back and forth in front of a dog. The dogs head goes left, then right, then back again.  The locals are putting a stop to that and have cleaned house.

Jerry Martin, Ross Burton and Leon Howard founded the Tri-Cities TEA Party in February 2009 with the intent of raising public awareness to excess government spending and taxes. The founders believe the Tri-Cities TEA Party has strayed from its original mission and have stepped forward to direct the group back to its core principles.

You know, I don’t have a problem with people getting active and voicing an opinion.  But from what I heard, many stopped participating because it became a cess pool of right wing rhetoric.  I can respect the change.  Good on them.

I wrote in my last post about Larry Haler and his position about what I’m going to start calling “Marijuana Reform” being a bit perplexing.  Now with all bills off the table in the Wa Legislature (of which I’m pretty certain Larry’s will be too), Lee notes something I think our local pols should be paying attention to.

Making that even more clear are the results of a SurveyUSA poll, which finds that 56% of Washington adults think that legalizing marijuana is a good idea (vs. only 36% who think it’s a bad idea). On top of that, the only demographic that remains strongly opposed is the 65 and over crowd. Even among those aged 50-64, SurveyUSA found that 63% think legalizing marijuana is a good idea. And even in Eastern Washington, they found that 52% think it’s a good idea.

I don’t really have a dog in this hunt in the fact I’m just not into the weed.  I have friends - staunch conservative friends no less - who feel the same as I do that Washington State should be trailblazing the issue of decriminalization and perhaps even legalizing pot.  I, like them, just feel that the current path of incarceration and the issues/violence associated with the prohibition flies in the face of the conversation we should be having about our current laws.  And in light of our legislators current zeal for the tea party folks and “listening” to them as a minority, they should be listening to the majority of their constituents as well.

With little time I don’t write much anymore so here’s a dump on some of the latest…

I’ll start local.

Larry Haler…

I don’t know what has happened with our local Washington State Legislator Larry Haler (R-8th).  Once upon a time we had a reasonable, personable politician who despite the handicappings of having to work with other more hardcore R-types, always had a rationale that gave liberal folks like me a little hope that the fringe of either party doesn’t rule.  It seems I’m losing a little more hope each day.  First, Larry introduces/sponsors/whatever legislation to reel in medical marijuana. At first I thought there might be an argument and I sent him a note.  No reply.  This is a first.  I’ll have you know that this is the first time Larry hasn’t called me back after sending him an email.  And this legislation perplexes me.  It’s not that I ever thought that Larry was a person who supported medical marijuana or even it’s legalization.  But in an earlier conversation about last years decriminalization bill that was trying to get through committee and a vote on the floor, he would “vote for it if he thought it was going to pass”. I took it at the time that this meant that at some level, Larry understands the complexity of our current laws and the cost it’s prohibition imposes on our society despite his personal feelings about its use.  Something I greatly respected at the time.

Now, I’m not so sure.  Lately he’s been supporting teabagger legislation to defend state rights despite the obvious need to deal with the Washington State budget.

“This is to make a stand, to draw a line in the sand,” said Rep. Larry Haler, R-Richland, a co-sponsor of five bills that would assert the state’s right to make its own policy in areas such as energy, firearm sales, police powers and taxes.

And most recently he got his hat handed to him trying to introduce legislation on university executive pay.  While that might seem a noble thing, and one spurred by my friend Laural Piippo, the response he got was definitely a learning experience and frankly, I’m surprised he didn’t see it coming. (and a big hat tip to Michelle Dupler for some good reporting)

Bill Lyne, president of the United Faculty of Washington State, said while he supported the notion of holding the line on executive salaries, he worried the bill would divert discussion from the real issues of higher education funding the Legislature will tackle during the session.

The state faces a $2.6 billion revenue shortfall for the remainder of the 2009-11 biennium. Cuts have been proposed to higher education funding as well as student financial aid, although Gov. Chris Gregoire has said she’d like to see the Legislature find a way to save financial aid programs.

“I’m worried the symbolic might overshadow the reality,” Lyne said to the committee. “If we fired all six (public) university presidents, we would save $3 million. … I don’t think this should dominate the conversation about higher education or higher education funding this session.”

If you were following any of this mess, Laurel Piippo is dead on.  And perhaps the awareness might help.  But I think Larry was schooled.

“A better way to solve the problem is to better fund universities,” Lyne said.

A recent survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education ranked University of Washington President Mark Emmert’s $905,000 annual salary second in the nation for public universities. The Ohio State University President Gordon Gee was first at $1.5 million.

Haler said the pay earned by university executives is disproportionate to money spent on higher education in the state, citing reports that Washington ranks 48th in the nation for higher education funding.

He agreed with Lyne that better funding is needed.

“I think we need to get a little more real in funding, in getting state funding reallocated to state universities,” Haler said after the hearing.

Explain that to the teabaggers frothing over all that states right stuff Larry.  These are the same folks who don’t seem to want to pay for anything. And when they perceive anything as unjust in their world - like executive pay no matter how inconsequential to the larger more broad issues at play - They will bark like rabid dogs.  My advice:  Don’t align yourself with them.  You will have plenty of friends here if you just be your own person.

On Term Limits…

The Slog’s Chicago Fan’s take is dead on.

When politicians are primarily motivated by getting re-elected, they have every motive to cave in to media bullshit, loud minority opinions, and generally not get things done. If politicians knew  going in that they had 8 or 12 years at most in their jobs, and they were presented with tough choices (public option or not? Fund a crazy pre-emptive war or not?) the calculus of re-election would not matter as much. Final term office-holders could do what they honestly thought was right since they weren’t going to be running for re-election in any case. And in their not-yet-final terms, they also would not be looking ahead to maybe being Speaker in ten or twelve years, or maybe Majority Leader someday.

I would argue that if term limits were enacted, not only would a rational Health Care Reform bill be passed by now, it would also be a better bill for both industry and individuals. Without the pressures of elections and pitting those against what the people want and the corporate interests, lawmakers would have crafted a bill out of sincerity instead.  We will never know at this stage unless something is done to limit how long members of congress can serve.  And I’m talking to you Doc Hastings (and quite deleting my comments off your Facebook page you twit - it makes you look like an ass and I’m about read to start the FB page “Stop deleting OUR comments off your FB page Doc Hastings… good god what a worm).

Howard Dean almost nailed it but…

It’s not quite that simple.  Voters in Mass, the ones that showed up, just voted for a nude model.  I don’t know what exactly that means but it doesn’t mean the ones who turned out are all that bright.  Yes, they do want change and a variety of populist issues were at play including but not limited to HCR.  A gaff about who is a Red Sox fan and a low turnout in the democratic base and… welcome Senator Brown!  Yes, Howard, you are correct, and they did want change.  Just not another lame ass democrat like the ones currently pandering around DC.  It would be enough to make me stay home.

I think Gibbs was a little more on target but not much.  Nobody has had a very good explanation if you ask me.  The MA vote doesn’ t seem to mean voters were unhappy with HCR in particular.  It’s the watered down version full of concessions for the HC industry, the debacle the democrats helped the republicans make out of it, and - and I’m conceding this point to Ken Robertson of the Tri-City Herald - factions of the democratic party hurting their own cause.

Here is Gibbs…

If Dems could pull this rabbit out of their hats, the could probably fix it down the road.  But right now, I’m not so sure they have the will.  I’m not sure I have the will to watch.

Supreme Court Decision on corporate free speech…  are we really fucked now Internet?

I would argue that yesterdays Supreme Court Decision on corporate free speech could be a game changer as we brace for more decisions on Net Neutrality and FCC authority over service providers.  The danger here to me is the amount of money those interests could spend molding public opinion towards their own interest.  Fortunatly, for now, not every big player on the internet is on the same page as this tidbit from Juan Cole points out in a larger context this morning.

[...] In other words, given the extreme maldistribution of wealth in the US, the corporate sector already had things stacked in its favor through wealthy persons employed by corporations. Jeffrey Toobin on CNN pointed out that in a congressional race, a million dollars is a lot of money, but would be chump change for a corporation. But it would be chump change for a lot of corporate executives, too.

Then, corporations don’t all agree with each other. We still have Net Neutrality in part because Google lobbied for it even as some of the telecoms lobbied against it.[...]

I’d like to believe that there are corporations out there with a moral compass in regards to Net Neutrality but given that public trust of the corporate world is at an all time low following this latest financial crisis, and the fact that Congress isn’t moving nearly fast enough on legislation to re-regulate corporate practices, time is not on our side.  And as it is now with this latest supreme court decision (just for the sake of argument), if Net Neutrality were up to a public vote, the cards would be stacked against proponents of Net Neutrality when it comes to molding the broader public opinion.

Olberman wasn’t mid-drink of a refreshing glass of milk when Dan Savage came on…

[if you saw it... you know... if not... video to follow...]

Here it is…

I really appreciate Michelle Dupler from the Tri-City Herald.  She’s a straight on young reporter and seems to be filling in the shoes of the Herald’s political beat quite well.  It may be kind of dull politics around here but when Speaker Chopp shows up in town to coo the locals, and gets reported in the Tri-City Herald - and backpedals - well, the bullshit alarms are a’ringin!  Commenting on I-937 Chopp chose to tell the locals what they wanted to hear.  That Hydro power is renewable and ironically, why it should be considered to be in Washington State.  But no sooner than the original article came out, Chopp reconsiders.

Read the rest of this entry »

Man… Yakima…  Yet another reason I don’t like to go there.  Yet another reason people laugh at you.  And I always wondered why people called Yakima the “Buttcrack of Washington”.

By Associated Press YAKIMA, Wash. — The Yakima City Council is cracking down on what an ordinance delicately refers to as “cleavage of the buttocks.”

Responding to a proliferation of coffee stands with baristas wearing see-through clothing, thongs and other scanty apparel, the council this week approved minor changes to the city’s indecent exposure law.

The Yakima Herald-Republic reports that Mayor Dave Elder had wanted the changes under the city’s adult business ordinance. But city legal staff warned that trying to place coffee stands under that law could lead to legal challenges.

I had no idea the “thong” was so pervasive there.

Note changes… more coming.

“The first thing that would make me feel a little bit better towards them if they’d follow the Japanese model and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say I’m sorry, and then either do one of two things — resign, or go commit suicide.” - Sen. Grassley

Why in the world would I agree with a man who suggests people commit suicide?   Well, first I know he is just expressing his outrage and despite the fanatical tone, the outrage is certainly there and it’s not lost on me.  The executives taking those bonii are a bunch of unrepentant jackasses… maybe not the same unrepentant jackasses in the sense that the division of AIG they worked in may not be responsible for the mess they created, but they were for the same unrepentant jackasses who are handing out bonus’ to more unrepentant jackasses.  Ethics be damned!  Not a care in the world but for the bottom line and that line is thier own personal wealth.  That personal wealth, you know, that same personal wealth built upon the same greed that brought us to where we are today.  And they would do it all over again without hesitation.  Don’t you think for a minute they wouldn’t.

AIG and the rest of these failures weren’t after anything but thier own financial benefit.  They went after the fast quarter because they knew there was no slow dollar to be made.   Un-f-ing-repentant jackasses.

Anything else Mr. Grassley says is just more talk from crazyville but in this case, I’d just like to see a little honor amongst the theives.

I once went to a St. Patty’s day party in a very small conservative town in Indiana where I was nearly accosted by a patron who, for some strange reason, brought his own green food coloring turn his beer green.  Unfortunately, for him, the more he drank the less the food coloring mixed in his beer… and more on his face.  Before long he had essentially colored the lower half of his face green and was making a drunken conservative ass out of himself.

Conservatives are always getting it wrong and making a mess of things.

Drinking Liberally in the Tri-Cities is tonight and a special St. Patricks Day celebration is in order.  I’m pretty sure there will be green beer - and plenty of good cheer - so come on down and join us.

Location(s)

Richland, WA

I got turned on to this from Eli Sanders over at Slog and “Made in America” seems like bad ass documentary to me.  Eli’s review was something of a rememberance for me for the very brief experience I had with an LA gang.  Nothing dramatic happened in my experience of course.  In fact, if I was to define my life in LA, it was a mixture of brief luxuries, Hollywood excess, surfer subtleties, horrid violence, questionable moral choices and abject poverty.  Mingling with gang members was only in passing chance.

The girlfriend I had at the time was cousin to a Wilmington (Long Beach area) gang member and for his birthday we very white Orange County/Garden Grove nitwits rented a motorhome and took him and his “friends” to up the Grapevine to Valencia for a day at Magic Mountain amusement park.  For a goofball white kid from Richland Washington, it wasn’t nearly as shocking as I would have expected.  Instead of the hip ass image you might expect, they were just a bunch of (not that they were building playhouses for children) normal 20 somethings.  MM security made them take off their “colors” (it was the 80’s… ok) and they had fun just like anyone else.  But I thought about the conditions and why they were where they were and who they were.  Sanders brought a bit of that to mind…

The story of gang violence in Los Angeles, and around the country, is usually told as a law enforcement problem. Sometimes it’s also told as a contemporary social problem, with a discussion of the role that poverty and drug policy and the penal system play. But I’ve never seen the problem so thoroughly excavated as it is in Made in America, which first sets the Los Angeles gang problem in its historic context, looking at what brought African-Americans to the city in the first place (World War II and the auto-makers, among other things); what confined them to areas like Compton and Watts (racist housing covenants, racists police practices, white fear); and what helped create a leadership vacuum in the community that was filled, in part, by gangs (the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, for starters).

My job at the time took me to Compton alot (I actually met some of the best people there).  Another job I had landed me in Paramount (east LA).  You could see it all around you.  It was in a sense though, the beginning of the explosion and I didn’t witness anything extreme or extrordinary.  But the conditions that created this “war”, the incredible poverty and social inequity were glaring.  But then, I could always go home to Garden Grove and never witnessed the night.

We here on the WA - Dry Side probably won’t get a public screening of this movie but you can buy it here.

Check out the trailer:

Your service is getting nearly useless.  I was promised much better internet speeds.  So much for that promise?  Fix it!

If you were thinking about ordering Clearwire, don’t do it until they get their shit together.

For most folks, it’s easy to take for granted the DNR.  And equally easy for us all to let slip into the grey matter or our minds the totally great and awesome Commissioner of Public Lands, Peter Goldmark.  Fortunately for me, having been a supporter since Peter’s 2006 congressional run, I’m on the cool people’s email list from the Dept. of Natural Resources where I get really cool information via e-mail like BAD BUGS!

The caterpillar life-stage of the Douglas-fir tussock moth eats the needles of fir and spruce tree species. This moth is native to Washington, and population levels run in cycles, dropping for a period of years between major outbreaks. The last outbreak in the state occurred from 2000 to 2002, leaving at its peak in 2000 more than 45,000 acres of defoliated trees.

Outbreaks typically collapse within two to three years due to a buildup of natural enemies such as a virus and parasites. However, during an outbreak, up to 40 percent of the trees in an affected area can be killed. Surviving trees may have top-kill—damage to the uppermost foliage on the trees—or may suffer growth loss, or are weakened and more susceptible to other insects, such as bark beetles.

Now I don’t have any bugs (honest girls!).  But I have a great appreciation for the DNR and Peter Goldmark. Keep the emails coming.

I’ve been reading the Seattle PI as long as I can remember. When I was 6 or so, my brother and I had 2 delivery routes in a then not-so-wonderful Seattle neighborhood near Madrona where we fought off angry dogs and angered subscribers with our superior throwing skills (remember aluminum screen doors? A well thrown Seattle PI never sounded so good). And if I remember right, I think my early driving skills were honed on the way back from a PI distribution center with my mother while hauling bundles in the back of our 72′ Ford station wagon, where at 6 (or so), on my mothers lap I nearly ran us into a ditch.

Tomorrow, after 146 years, the last Seattle PI will be printed and for that I am sad.

While the PI is going online only, it’s still a bitter pill to swallow for me (I should be excited right?).   In a large sense, I understand the failing business model of the printed paper.  The Internets win, economics overtake, and in the midst of that… the thinner, lesser content versions of dead tree news contracts until gone.  I just don’t have to like it.