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Wednesday, January 9, 2008

The Morning News

posted by on January 9 at 8:05 AM

New Hampshire: Clinton makes a comeback; Obama comes in second, lands two key union endorsements in Nevada; McCain also makes a comeback; Romney loses again. Full results here. Scroll down for Stranger coverage.

Pundits & Blowhards: Proving they don’t know jack shit once again.

Lame Duck: President Bush travels to the Middle East. The world cringes in anticipation.

Drums of War: On Monday it was reported that

Iranian Revolutionary Guard gunboats harassed three U.S. Navy warships in the Strait of Hormuz Sunday, in what the U.S. military considers a “significant provocative act.”

Military officials told NBC News that two U.S. Navy destroyers and one frigate were heading into the Persian Gulf through the international waters of the Strait of Hormuz when five armed “fast boats” of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard approached a high speed, darting in and out of the formation.

The Pentagon released a video of the incident, and today an “anonymous Iranian official” in the Revolutionary Guard stated that

“The footage released by the U.S. Navy was compiled using file pictures and the audio has been fabricated.”

Here’s the video:

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Discharge: Over 500 gays are serving openly in the military.

Mean Mother Nature: At least six dead after storms punished the Midwest.

Graduation Day: Gary E. Cherry of Shelton, convicted three times of rape and labeled a “sexually violent predator,” could become the first man to graduate from Washington State’s Special Commitment Center for sex offenders.

It’s Not the Assisted-Suicide Act: It’s the Death with Dignity Act.

Troubled Port: The Port of Seattle received catcalls, the threat of an initiative from Tim Eyman, during yesterday’s public hearing.

Still No Leads: Mayor Nickels and the SPD met last night with Capitol Hill residents about the murder of Shannon Harps.

Oklahoma City Seattle Storm: Four local women now own the last Seattle sports franchise to win a championship.

Jock Itch: There’s a flasher running amok around Green Lake.

Too-Tall Jones: Despite Children Hospital’s reducing the heights of its proposed expansion by 80 feet, Laurelhurst residents still aren’t happy.

Compare & Contrast: Obama’s New Hampshire speech vs. Clinton’s.

RSS icon Comments

1

Look up Operation Preying Mantis. We attacked Iran in the Straits of Hormuz before, when they mined one of our ships. Their defense consisted of three actual warships, and five speedboats just like these. As much as it fucking galls me to say it, Bush is not incorrect.

Posted by Gitai | January 9, 2008 9:05 AM
2

Dude, that guy is just class. And that's why he'll win.

Posted by NaFun | January 9, 2008 9:06 AM
3

Re: Hillary Clinton's "win"--we lose.

Hillary Clinton is going to betray Democratic voters on every issue that we care about: Iraq, Afghanistan, the economy, the environment, healthcare, civil rights, and on and on and on. She has never staked out a position in the Senate that wasn’t some kind of crass, political manipulation—-hello co-sponsoring an anti-flag burning amendment (which is obviously the most pressing issue of the day). Her corporate-friendly presidency would be a daily disappointment and there seems to be some kind of mass, willful blindness regarding her voting record and what a return to Clintonism would mean for our country.

Posted by Original Andrew | January 9, 2008 9:28 AM
4

"I felt like we all spoke from our hearts, and I'm so gratified that you responded."

This sounds a lot to me like an admission that the much-talked-about emotion she showed in the last week was calculated. I still would happily support her if she wins, but man, the first few seconds of that video really look like someone who believes they are absolutely entitled to win this thing. The 180 degree change in her background (from oldsters to kids) in a week also is a bit too perfect. Not buying it.

Posted by Tone | January 9, 2008 9:29 AM
5

OK, Let's say that the final polling data turns out to support the claim that Hillary had a last-minute upswell of support due to the press coverage of the last few days. How does that not undermine the notion that she's facing unfair hurdles due to her gender? I suspect she'd be perfectly willing to take petty attacks in the name of collecting sympathy votes. It helped her in 2000, too.

Posted by tsm | January 9, 2008 9:29 AM
6

Re: Bush in the Middle East


Let’s hope someone gives him a “Hamas Hug.”

Posted by Original Andrew | January 9, 2008 9:32 AM
7

Oh look, a Gulf of Tonkin for the new century.


What, nothing on Gregoire's proposal for drunk-driving checkpoints?

Posted by laterite | January 9, 2008 9:41 AM
8

Predictably: Obama talks about America. Hillary talks about herself.

Me, I'm voting for America.

Posted by K | January 9, 2008 9:55 AM
9

The sounders just won a championship

Posted by Andrew | January 9, 2008 10:04 AM
10

I hope the children of Laurelhurst residents get cancer.

Posted by Greg | January 9, 2008 10:17 AM
11

"by the people, for the people, of the people, not just the priveleged few." pardon me, but doesn't already having spent 8 years in the white house make you a little more "priveleged few" and a little less "of the people?"

Posted by eloise | January 9, 2008 10:21 AM
12

You know what sucks? Being a deaf person in an election year.

Posted by city kitty | January 9, 2008 10:22 AM
13

@6 and 10

You guys are sick. If you cannot disagree with someone without wishing harm on them you don't deserve to be in the discussion.

You two should go to Pakistan where instead of debate they kill their political opposition.

Posted by Dale | January 9, 2008 11:10 AM
14

I'd like to see Eyman get an initiative on the ballot to nuke the Port of Seattle's property tax levy. Let me see if I have this straight, the Port owns SeaTac airport, the Port of Seattle, Fisherman's Terminal and Shilshole Marina and they still need to jack up the taxpayers for money? Seems to me that if they weren't corrupt and incompetent they'd be returning money to the taxpayers or at least breaking even. As far as those advocating that the Port's property tax levy should be used for environmental cleanup what other business gets to tax the general public to pay for cleaning up their messes.

Posted by wile_e_quixote | January 9, 2008 11:14 AM
15

@12,

If you do some Googling, you can usually find a transcript. That's what I did before I bought my new faster-than-a-speeding-bullet computer.

Posted by keshmeshi | January 9, 2008 11:15 AM
16

@14 - Well, get a proper pollution tax passed and I'll support your property tax cut. Somehow I suspect Eyman & Co. won't accept that tradeoff, though.

Posted by tsm | January 9, 2008 11:17 AM
17

Thanks 15, but I've been Googling all morning and have found exactly 0 transcripts of the NH concession speeches. They usually turn up some weeks afterward, but that doesn't help me now. As a result of this lag, I'm always behind the current public dialog and it's extremely frustrating. All I have to go on is others' pull quotes. Having everything filtered this way sucks.
If anyone can point me to a source of *timely* transcripts, I would be forever grateful.

Posted by city kitty | January 9, 2008 11:24 AM
18

the obamalution will not be slowed

Posted by Jiberish | January 9, 2008 11:28 AM
19

I watched the speeches - you didn't miss much.

Let's hope Bush doesn't succeed in starting yet another unneeded war that has nothing to do with 9-11 and everything to do with his ego and incompetence.

Posted by Will in Seattle | January 9, 2008 11:38 AM
20

hillary rules. personally, i love that she's listening to the voters and adjusting her campaign accordingly. how awesome would it be to have a president that hears the people, and responds by doing what the people want to see done. i think it's one of her biggest assets that, when she messes up, she listens to the people she represents, and chooses a route that better represents them. that is, in fact, the job of a politician. and that's one of the reasons she'll be an excellent president.

Posted by kim | January 9, 2008 12:38 PM
21

kim, while I respect your opinion, mine differs based on one big fat terrible issue: Iraq. While it's sorta heartening to feel that a big-time politician is actually listening to her constituents and adjusting her actions accordingly, the Majority have been proven wrong on too many issues for me to trust them anymore. For example, the majority of Americans wanted to invade Iraq waaay back when. Most of us were all gung-ho for it. Hillary voted in support of the invasion probably in part because she believed the polls at the time and thought most Americans wanted to take this action. And it's true, we did. However, I am looking for a visionary, not someone I feel who caters to me. I want a LEADER. I want someone who isn't afraid to stand up to the Majority on occasion and do what's right instead of what's popular. That, in my opinion is what leaders do. I like Obama, but if Hillary is the only Democratic option come the general election I'll vote for her. I do think she's got a big brain on her and some good ideas - I'm just not excited about her advisers (what's up with that Blackwater guy anyway??) or the fact she's been entrenched in the status-quo for so long.

Posted by city kitty | January 9, 2008 1:01 PM
22

City Kitty:
A quick google search found this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/us/politics/08text-obama.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The tagline on that NYT article led me here:
http://www.cq.com/corp/show.do?page=products_cqtranscripts

Posted by grumpypants | January 9, 2008 1:12 PM
23

Thanks a lot grumpypants! I've been on the NYT site this morning and somehow didn't see this.

Posted by city kitty | January 9, 2008 1:32 PM
24

PS, the CQ transcripts thing is cool! Sucks I have to pay for what other people get for free but heck it's better than nothing.
It's also quite funny that you have to call a phone number to sign up for a transcript service.
Doh! lol. But I'll get a buddy to help me out.

Thanks again! I don't know how I missed this.

Posted by city kitty | January 9, 2008 1:39 PM

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