I was at Liberty this afternoon when an email arrived for the bar’s owner, sitting at the table next to me, via Liberty’s website…

I was looking at your website with the intent of possibly checking out your establishment, but based on your presentation, and you’re overpriced menu, I have to say that I will probably never set foot in your bart. The concept for a “neighborhood bar” is where people can come to relax and spend comfortable time with old friends and make new ones. Not to sit around eating sushi and “artisan drinks.” I have to say I think you are doomed to failure because there are not enough attitude queens and pretentious snobs on 15th Avenue to support a business. Good luck to youj!

Jeff

Well, Jeff, I live in the neighborhood and I was at Liberty this afternoon having a beer with an old friend—and there were a dozen or so other folks in the bar. And I had drinks and some sushi at Liberty last night with the boyfriend—and the place was packed. So it would appear that there are more than enough of “attitude queens and pretentious snobs on 15th Avenue” to make Liberty a success.

Either that or you’re wrong about the place.

And what’s wrong with youj, Jeff? What kind of dweeb goes to a bar’s website before deciding to check it out?

The Washington Post revealed today that the DOJ wasn’t only firing people for political reasons, but hiring new people— through its revered Honors Program for young stars— along partisan lines as well.

From the Post’s article:

The Justice Department is removing political appointees from the hiring process for rookie lawyers and summer interns, amid allegations that the Bush administration had rigged the programs in favor of candidates with connections to conservative or Republican groups, according to documents and officials.

The decision, outlined in an internal memo distributed Thursday, returns control of the Attorney General’s Honors Program and the Summer Law Intern Program to career lawyers in the department after four years during which political appointees directed the process. …

The changes come as the Justice Department is scrutinized for its hiring and firing practices because of the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys. Some of the fired prosecutors were removed because they were not considered “loyal Bushies” by senior Justice and White House officials.

Justice officials said the change was prompted by a contentious staff meeting in early December, which included complaints that political appointees led by Michael J. Elston, chief of staff for Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, had rejected an unusually large number of applicants during the most recent hiring period. Last year, about 400 applicants were interviewed for the honors program — the primary path to a Justice Department job for new lawyers — down from more than 600 the year before.

The honors program, established during the Eisenhower administration, is a highly regarded recruiting program that attracts thousands of applicants from top-flight law schools for about 150 spots each year and has been overseen for most of its history by senior career lawyers at Justice. Then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft reworked the program in 2002, shifting control from career employees to himself and his aides.

The changes alarmed many current and former Justice officials, who feared that the Bush administration was seeking to pack the department with conservative ideologues. Many law school placement officers said in 2003 that they noticed a marked shift to the right in the students approached for honors program interviews.

Complaints about the program emerged again this month after Senate and House investigators received a letter from the unidentified Justice employees, who alleged that hiring at the department was “consistently and methodically being eroded by partisan politics.” The letter singled out the honors and intern programs, alleging that senior political appointees appeared to reject applicants who “had interned for a Hill Democrat, clerked for a Democratic judge, worked for a ‘liberal’ cause, or otherwise appeared to have ‘liberal’ leanings.”

The Post article was flagged for me by my dad, a long-retired DOJ lawyer who’s sad about the Dept. right now.

We now have a two-tiered prison system.

For roughly $75 to $127 a day, these convicts—who are known in the self-pay parlance as “clients”—get a small cell behind a regular door, distance of some amplitude from violent offenders and, in some cases, the right to bring an iPod or computer on which to compose a novel, or perhaps a song…. The clients usually share a cell, but otherwise mix little with the ordinary nonpaying inmates…

Adult. and Erase Errata (MUSIC) Erase Errata scavenge the ruins of riot grrrl and disco punk to bring us dark, nervously energetic rock that sounds both paranoid and passionate. The trio jams coercive rhythms, twitchy guitar, and the odd blast of trumpet into quick, careening tracks that are just a second shy of exhausting. Adult. make clean, icy electro and skuzzy, gothic no wave, bound together by the disaffected vocals of Nicola Kuperus. The recorded output of Adult. may not be what it was, but their live shows, like Erase Errata’s, are still totally magnetic and unsettling. (Chop Suey, 1325 E Madison St, 324-8000. 9 pm, $10, 21+.) ERIC GRANDY

After initially pooh-poohing this scandal, The Seattle Times has a big scoop this morning confirming that former Port CEO Mic Dinsmore was slated to get the $340,000 in “severance” pay despite the fact that the Port did not follow proper procedure and vet the issue publicly. Moreover, Dinsmore wasn’t in line for severance pay anyway—he wasn’t laid off, he was retiring.

According to e-mails obtained by the The Seattle Times, it was only, after HR had signed off on the sweetheart deal ($340,000!?!) that it went public and was ixnayed by a vote at the last minute.

Why did HR sign off on the deal? As the PI scooped it last week, Port Commissioner Pat Davis authorized it—signing a memo without the consent of her fellow Commissioners.

Pat Davis’s alibi is problematic on its face. She says her lone signature authorizing the Dinsmore severance is kosher because the deal had been discussed by the Commission in executive session with her fellow Commissioners. And while this morning’s report in the Seattle Times indicates she’s right about that, it also points to a larger problem, a little theory I’ve been Slogging out loud this week: State law says the Commission isn’t allowed to make decisions about compensation in closed door Executive sessions in the first place. In other words, the Port violated state law by authorizing this in Executive session.

I asked the Port’s legal staff about this on Thursday, and they said the sessions were kosher because only “final action” on compensation packages for individuals need to be done in public.

The legal staff is correct about the language, but here’s what I wrote about that yesterday:

I’m not sure it clears Davis. It seems to me a final action had already been taken: Davis signed a memo authorizing the payment to Dinsmore. It only came to light, according to sources at the Port, when an HR person brought it to the attention of the new Port CEO, Tay Yoshitani, before presumably trying to make good on Dinsmore’s “severance.”

Indeed, this morning Seattle Times story confirms this scenario.

I also interviewed Port Commissioner John Creighton about this yesterday. He said: “Whatever happened in Executive session, that memo should have never been signed without a Commission vote in public.”

Some previous Slog coverage on this mess—including the contention that investigating a derelict closed-door Executive session with an investigation slated to be presented in a closed door Executive session is unacceptable: here and here and here.

Posted by Sage Van Wing

Sunshine: Exemptions to Washington State’s Public Records Act to come under review.

Warmer: Canada fails to meet its Kyoto goals.

Empty?: Secret CIA prisons in use again.

Mellow Cello: Mstislav Rostropovich is dead.

Smartypants: Computers now as smart as half a mouse brain.

Truth In Advertising: Dolphin-safe tuna still dolphin-safe.

Gender Bias: Clothing tariffs are irrational.

Royal Mess: Prince Harry in the crosshairs.

Compromise?: Bush will veto Iraq withdrawal bill, but the rhetoric is changing.

Choppers: Several good reasons not to fly in a helicopter.

Beam Me Up, Scotty: Actor’s ashes launched into space.