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Archives for 09/14/2005 - 09/14/2005

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

The President, Like, Thinks?

Posted by on September 14 at 5:22 PM

Spotted this on Sullivan & Americablog, but apparently Atrios caught it first…

Reuters took this photo of Bush writing Condi a note during a meeting. (Yes, it’s real.)

pottybreakx.jpg

The note reads, in part, “I think I may need a bathroom break?”

He thinks he needs to piss? Isn’t that something a person should know for sure?

Drunk Uncles!

Posted by on September 14 at 3:19 PM

Thanks so much to Drunk of the Week columnist Kelly O for sending along the URL for a Shrine to Drunk Uncles. Currently their collection of sauced relatives numbers only one, but if your mother’s/father’s brother fits the description, send a photo their way,

Oh, shit…

Posted by on September 14 at 3:10 PM

Is the big one about to hit us? Some folks think so

Brian Jonestown Massacre

Posted by on September 14 at 2:54 PM

I’m curious to hear from the masses who hit the Brian Jonestown Massacre show last Friday. I was on the tail end of being sick with a sick one in tow so I couldn’t do more than pop my head into Neumo’s that night, but the place was packed. So I’m curious a) what brought so many of you out to the show (the spectacle or the music) and b) how the show went (the spectacle and the music). If you hit that show, please post something here. Thanks.

Massachusetts Marriages

Posted by on September 14 at 1:58 PM

The amendment that would ban same-sex marriages in Massachusettswhere it has been legal for a yearfailed in their state legislature, 157-39. (It passed last year, but needed to pass for a second consecutive year to go on the ballot.)


This year, the crowds were tamer and some legislators who had initially supported the proposed change to the state constitution said they no longer felt right about denying the rights of marriage to same-sex couples.

Gay marriage has begun, and life has not changed for the citizens of the commonwealth, with the exception of those who can now marry,” said state Sen. Brian Lees, an East Longmeadow Republican who had been a co-sponsor of the amendment. “This amendment which was an appropriate measure or compromise a year ago, is no longer, I feel, a compromise today.”

More Strip Clubs? Bring ‘Em On, P-I Readers Say

Posted by on September 14 at 12:28 PM

The P-I’s editorial board weighs in today on the mayor’s proposed new strip-club regulations, which virtually ensure the demise of Seattle’s four remaining strip clubs by banning lap dances, requiring supermarket-bright lighting in all clubs, and requiring customers to hand tips to a manager or deposit them in tip jars. Mayor Nickels drafted the new rules in anticipation of yesterday’s ruling overturning Seattle’s 17-year strip-club moratorium:

Seattle’s lax rules on conduct, which allow up-close contact between dancers and customers, and the ban on new competitors are a perfect business environment, for the existing clubs. With the judge’s decision, it’s time for the council to approve Mayor Greg Nickels’ better-late-than-never proposal for tightening club regulations. Anything less than concerted action by the mayor and council will invite a flood of new clubs, making the city the undisputed sleaze capital of the state.

Seems like the P-I’s readers are OK with that: According to the online poll that accompanies the editorial, nearly three-quarters of readers don’t want the new regulations, and believe “city government [should] allow Seattle strip clubs to enjoy a competitive advantage over those in nearby cities.”

Voice your opinion on the mayor’s proposed strip-club regulations here.

Re: Come Home, America

Posted by on September 14 at 12:07 PM

George McGovern’s “Come Home, America” speech also included cheesy lines like this:

And let us be joyful in the homecoming. For: “This land is your land, this land is my land. From California to the New York Island. From the redwood forests to the Gulf Stream waters. This land was made for you and me.”

I’m not suggesting the Democrats engage in this kind of dumb kumbaya politics. Read Byrd’s speech. He’s talking about real issues Iraq, Katrina through the prism of a return to fundamental American values. And here’s the best part. If you want to read “Come Home, America” as a call for immediate withdrawal from Iraq, you can. That will make the far left happy. If you want to read it as a call for a return to reality-based leadership, but a call that stops short of demanding total immediate withdrawal from Iraq, you can do that too. That reading will make the rest of the left happy.

This far-left, center-left divide is one Democrats have been struggling to straddle, and this kind of rhetoric allows them to do it.

Re: Come Home America

Posted by on September 14 at 12:06 PM

Um, Eli, on July 13, 1972, George McGovern accepted the Democratic nomination for President at the Miami convention with his infamous “Come Home America” speech….and well…McGovern lost to Nixon 37.5% to 60.7%

Come Home, America

Posted by on September 14 at 12:03 PM

Senator Robert Byrd, in a speech on the floor of the Senate yesterday, may have found the Democrats’ campaign theme for 2006: “Come Home, America.”

It is time to come home, America.  Time to look within our own borders and within our own souls.  There are many questions to be answered and many missions to accomplish right here on our own soil.  We have neglected too much for too long in our own backyard.

Taken literally, it’s a little too isolationist for my taste, but it could work. And it could work even better if Democrats make it not a literal but a metaphorical homecoming  a promise of a return to better days, to fiscal sanity, to an America not bogged down in a war launched on falsehoods, to a government that can help its citizens after natural disasters.

Seattle’s Smaller Weekly Watch

Posted by on September 14 at 11:23 AM

For the week of September 15-21, 2005:

The Stranger: 124 pages.

Seattle Weekly: 140 pages.

Score one for Seattle Weekly? Not so fast…

The Weekly has a 16 page insert from from Washington State University/King County Extensiona paid insert (thanks Ron Sims!)that they credit toward their total page count, which is just a touch dishonest. When the Stranger has an advertising insert/pullout, we don’t include those pages in our total page count. We don’t, as the Weekly does this week, skip from page 62 to 79 in the middle of the paper. It’s irregular and it demonstrates the Weekly’s insecurity about their size.

An honest page count for this week’s “special” issue of SW puts it at the same size of this week’s regular issue of the Stranger, or 124 pages.

Jacko Dons Full-Body Lycra

Posted by on September 14 at 11:15 AM

Contactmusic.com informs the world of a most terrifying Michael Jackson sighting .

Apparently, during his ongoing vacation in Dubai, Jackson rented out an entire water park so the region’s children could have a free day of funwhich is creepy enough, but then comes this detail:

The reclusive superstar, now based in the middle east, baffled onlookers at the Wild Wadi park, wearing a white lycra body suit that exposed just his nose and eyes.

A lifeguard tells British newspaper the Daily Express, “He looked even stranger than usual. His body is very skinny and lycra does him no favours.”

Sightings like this are the only things that makes me mildly grateful that freak isn’t in prison.

Nice Try, Robert.

Posted by on September 14 at 10:59 AM

Robert Jamieson wrote a column yesterday attacking the Stranger. He accused us of “flip-flopping” on the monorailgoing from cheerleaders to critics and then back to cheerleaders.

The flip-flopping editors of The Stranger — they became the monorail’s biggest pompom squad. The hip alternative weekly got a reality check, and a brief change of heart, when the P-I revealed that a single 14-mile line of the monorail network would cost $11 billion. Dude, the paper quickly reverted back to its old cheerleading ways.

Of course our position on the project changed when the $11 billion finance plan came to light. (By the way, the news of the $11 billion finance plan and the damning finance documents were first reported by Erica C. Barnett on our web siteone day before the PI reported its story.)
But as we made clear in the wake of the $11 billion news, we still dug the monorail system, but we couldn’t accept the junk finance plan. We were humbled, and called for a revote. Well, nothing’s changed. We still dig the monorail system. And we still do not dig the finance plan. (A new finance plan is coming tonight, and we’ll see what we think.) We’ve remained consistent on this.

Speaking of consistency, consider this: When Sound Transitwhich we hatedwent belly up, we called for a revote. When the monorailwhich we lovedwent belly up, we called for a revote. If only everybody else in this town were as consistent when considering these two important projects.

And I’m glad Jamieson brought up the concept of “flip-flopping.” Here’s Jamieson on Aug. 27, 2004 defending Christine Gregoire’s record on race relations as a sorority leader in the ’60s. Jamieson wrote:

“Gregoire deserves credit for recognizing her sorority’s backward policy as a student, and for raising the issue with the sorority’s body. She spoke up when many around her maintained echoing silence.”

Just five days later, on Sept. 1, 2004, Jamieson seems to have changed his mind. First he quotes Gregoire: “You know what frustrates me about this?” Gregoire said. “I chose to be the first [in my sorority] to stand up at a national convention and say, ‘Stop it.’ Somehow that’s just dismissed.”

And then Jamison weighs in:

“It is dismissed because the Greek systemthen and nowis considered by outsiders to be an incubator of ignorance. It is dismissed because Gregoire was slow to give the kind of heartfelt response that comes without political calculation. It is dismissed when people perceive you aren’t taking ownership of your past.”

Hey, Robert, how about taking ownership of a column you wrote five days earlier?

151 to 160

Posted by on September 14 at 10:00 AM

Today at the UN, Bush Urges the World to Crack Down on Terror. He addressed 160 world leaders, almost exactly the number of people killed by insurgents in Iraq today.

RIP Timberline

Posted by on September 14 at 9:03 AM

The End of an era.

After a long run the Timberline will be closing.
Final night will be Sunday September 11, 2005
Please don’t forget those that lost their lives on 9-11.
Thank you all for the great run… Jim & Jeff