Initiative 985 sponsor Tim Eyman sent out another broadside today, this one aimed at Transportation Choices Coalition (TCC) state policy director Bill LaBorde. (LaBorde, formerly the state director for Environment Washington, joined TCC a couple of weeks ago). In the email, Eyman accuses LaBorde of "abandoning ship" because he is no longer listed as the campaign manager and treasurer for the No on 985 campaign. (The initiative would open carpool lanes to all drivers for most of the day, bar tolls from being spent on transit, and redirect tens of millions from the state's general fund, which primarily funds health care and education, toward building still more roads.) Eyman writes:

On August 6, over a month after we turned in 300,000+ voter signatures for I-985, Bill LaBorde [here Eyman included LaBorde's cell phone number and personal email] filed his initial campaign report (called a C1PC) naming the opposition committee to I-985 to the state public disclosure commission. He called it No! on I-985 and he named himself Campaign Manager and Treasurer.

To date, there's been no money reported being raised or spent -- how do you beat something with nothing?

On August 21, a month and a half after we turned in 300,000+ voter signatures for I-985, a revised report (C1PC AMENDED) was filed and Bill LaBorde's name is no where to be seen and his email address is no where to be found. A new campaign manager is named (Trevor Kaul...) and a new treasurer is named (Philip Lloyd...) and Bill LaBorde is not even listed as a Committee Officer.

The opposition campaign to I-985 is clearly in disarray.

Bill LaBorde has abandoned ship on his efforts to organize I-985's opposition -- he's moved on, preferring to spend his time and effort trying to get voters to approve his higher priority: the $107 billion/$60,000-per-family Proposition 1 on the Puget Sound's fall ballot.

But really, who can blame him?

Then he asks for money.

I spoke with LaBorde at a TCC forum on the viaduct downtown this afternoon, and he reassured me that he is definitely still involved with the No on 985 campaign, and laughed at Eyman's faux naivete about how campaigns work. LaBorde said he merely set up the campaign (it's a coalition, not "his" campaign), which has since hired a professional campaign manager and treasurer. (Campaigns are usually run by professional managers, not full-time employees of advocacy organizations.) LaBorde says he expects contributions to the campaign to start showing up on disclosure reports next month, and that the campaign is working now to "bring the business and labor communities on board." LaBorde adds: "I'm pretty confident that we're going to have more money than Eyman by the end of this campaign." Currently, Eyman's own campaign appears to be around $230,000 in the hole, as Eyman has not yet repaid a $150,000 loan and the campaign has spent about $80,000 more than it has received in contributions.

As of yesterday, Reuven Carlyle--one of two Democratic candidates for state representative from Seattle's 36th District--was beating his opponent, John Burbank, by a margin of 4.4 percent--a lead of more than 1,200 votes. On primary election night last month, Burbank was leading Carlyle by 250 votes. The two candidates will both move forward to November's general election under Washington State's "top-two" primary system.

Tim Eyman sent out a blast email this morning claiming that opponents of his latest initiative, I-985, only want rich people to be able to drive alone in carpool lanes. (His initiative, in contrast, would open carpool lanes to everyone, including solo soccer moms in suburban assault vehicles, for most of the day, including hours when traffic is already congested). Eyman's explanation for this audacious claim: Enviros (who oppose I-985) do support high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes--HOV lanes that solo drivers can access for a variable toll during the parts of the day when freeways aren't congested. (The worse the traffic is, the more solo drivers have to pay to get around it--and if traffic gets too bad, they aren't allowed at all.) Opponents call these "Lexus lanes," reasoning that after all, we've already paid for all those roads with our gas taxes and it isn't fair to pay twice. And just think about all those poor, poor solo commuters stuck in traffic who just can't afford the buck or two it will cost to jump on the HOV lane with all the (rich) carpoolers and folks on buses (and who, presumably, also can't afford the bus)!

According to Eyman's email:

I-985 opens carpool lanes to everyone during non-peak hours -- it's what other states do and provides immediate, cost-effective congestion relief. Opponents are squawking about this, whining that it's just not right for solo drivers to be able to drive in those lanes. But I-985's opponents support solo drivers using carpool lanes ... as long as they're rich. Lexus lanes are the future, say opponents, forcing solo drivers to pay twice for the 'privilege' of using carpool lanes.

There are a few glaring problems with that argument. First, "congestion relief" is a myth. The second you open up a new lane to solo traffic, that lane inevitably fills up, as people change their travel patterns, making trips they wouldn't have taken or would have taken at different times--a very old, very basic concept known as latent or induced demand.

Second, the idea that "only rich people" can afford the tolls is ludicrous. According to the state Department of Transportation, the variable tolls on SR 167, the first HOT lane in the state, will range, on average, from $2 to $5. (If you're riding in a carpool or on a bus, of course, the lanes are completely free). In comparison, Sound Transit Express bus fares range from $1.50 to $3; Sound Transit's Sounder train fares range from $2.55 to $4.75; Pierce Transit bus fares range from $1.50 to $3; and King County Metro bus fares range from $1.50 to $2.25--and that's about to go up. So the cost for "rich" people to drive alone in the 167 HOT lane is comparable to the price of commuting by bus--and that's without all the stops, inevitable delays, and the hassle of sharing a small space with lots and lots of random strangers.

Finally, there's the question of the gas tax. Is it true, as Eyman claims, that by paying a few bucks to hop in the HOV lane, solo drivers are "paying twice"? Of course not. Only about $12 million of the funding for the 167 project, for example, came from the five-cent gas tax approved by the legislature in 2005; the rest, around $5 million, came from a federal grant. The tolls themselves will pay to maintain HOT lanes, not build them--so no one will be paying twice for anything, and drivers won't even pay the full cost of building the system in the first place. Meanwhile, the overall state transportation budget is facing an ongoing deficit--a deficit serious enough that, over the last four years, the state legislature has chipped in an extra $3.8 billion to pay for state transportation projects. That money didn't come from state gas taxes, either--which, incidentally, only cost a typical driver (one whose car gets between 20 and 30 mpg) between $150 and $225 a year.

So, to summarize: Thanks to latent demand, opening HOV lanes up to everyone doesn't provide "congestion relief." HOT lanes are free if you carpool, and only a little more expensive than transit if you choose to drive alone. And drivers aren't being forced to "pay twice" for roads they've already paid for with gas taxes; in fact, they're getting subsidies from the state and federal government that protect them from the true cost of paying for those very lanes.

And speaking of rich people... Voters Want More Choices, Tim Eyman's latest PAC, already has nearly $170,000 in the bank in advance of this November's election.

Beyond satire? Not yet. . .

In the latest election-results update, Gov. Christine Gregoire lost some ground (and two counties) in her race for reelection against Republican challenger Dino Rossi; Republican attorney general Rob McKenna gained a bit over his challenger, Democratic Pierce County executive John Ladenburg; Democratic challenger Peter Goldmark slipped a little in his campaign against Republican lands commissioner Doug Sutherland; Congressional challenger Darcy Burner slipped a bit in her bid to unseat Republican US Rep. Dave Reichert; education superintendent Terry Bergeson slipped below 40 percent in her race for reelection against Randy Dorn, who gained three percentage points; and Reuven Carlyle's lead grew against John Burbank in the 36th legislative district (on election night, Burbank was winning).

Rossi is now within 35,000 votes of Gregoire, which means it's likely to be a close race in November--though not close enough to write the governor off, as the boys at Ye Olde Crosscutte Web Blog did today. However, Darcy Burner's lackluster showing in the Eighth Congressional District against incumbent Dave Reichert may be somewhat misleading. Burner faced two other Democrats, in addition to Republican Reichert and two "no preference" candidates, in the primary; taken together, the Democratic vote in that race outnumbers the Republican vote. That could bode well for Burner on election day in November, when Democratic turnout will be much higher than it was for this week's primary.

One weird thing is that unlike the Secretary of State's office, King County Elections lists the number of ballots cast for a write-in, which slightly skews the percentage totals. The only possible reason this could matter is in a close race, or a judicial race in which one candidate was close to winning more than 50 percent--the cutoff for winning a judicial election in the primary. Judicial candidates who get more than half the vote, in other words, don't have to go on to the general; judicial candidates with a plurality of the vote, but less than half, do. One race where that hasn't been decided yet is King County Superior Court, Position 10, where Regina Cahan currently has 50.33 percent of the vote (according to the Secretary of State), or 50.23 percent (according to KC Elections.) Both sites list the same total number of votes for each candidate; on the Secretary of State's tally, though, the write-ins simply disappear. I've used the Secretary of State's numbers for consistency between statewide and King County-only races, but if you're curious how many write-in votes there were in a specific race, check out KC's elections web site here.

Here's a complete list of election results in all contested races.

Continue reading "Election Update" »

As you've heard, Eli Sanders, Charles Mudede and I will be flying to Denver this weekend to cover the Democratic National Convention. Part of Charles's beat will be to cover the protests, organized by the hilariously self-monikered Recreate '68 group. But why would you bother to recreate '68 when you can experience the real thing on film? (Kidding. Sort of.)

One of my favorite movies ever, despite its hokey Appalachian flashbacks and low-grade, persistent sexism, is Medium Cool, cinematographer Haskell Wexler's enormously enjoyable treatise on the difficulty of journalistic objectivity. There's a sun-bathed baptism in green mountains. There's a Chicago slum. There are rock doves. There's a deeply sympathetic child.

But more excitingly for our purposes, there's actual footage of the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which resulted in some famous police riots. The fictional narrative is woven into the documentary footage, sometimes literally, as when a fictional character in a bright yellow shirtdress passes in and out of a stream of actual protesters and police, searching for her son.

You should come. Eli and I are going to be at the 7 o'clock show tonight, but it plays at 7 and 9:15 through Sunday. (A contemporary documentary about the crazy summer leading up to the convention plays Sat-Sun only.)

Look out, Haskell, it's real!

Wanna know where all the hep, happening primary election parties are? We've got you covered.

UPDATE: Governor Christine Gregoire: The Northwest African American Museum (2300 S. Massachusetts Street) 7:30pm.

Darcy Burner: The Mustard Seed Grill (5608 119th Ave SE, Bellevue) 8pm.

Gerry Pollet: Mr. Villa (8064 Lake City Way NE) 8pm.

John Burbank: Barta Photo Studio (2821 NW Market Street) 7:30pm

Reuven Carlyle and Scott White are both having private parties at secret undisclosed locations.

Dino Rossi's party is in some place called Redmond.

The Stranger Election Control Board will post updates all night long.

xkcd, as usual, is right on the money.

click for larger version

Someone needs to figure out how to make this a real issue while not sounding like a conspiracy theorist, BEFORE an election. The validity of the vote is really the only political issue that matters, no? How many software glitches have you experienced today? Me? Probably about 30. Be very afraid.

Tomorrow, August 19, is the last day to send in your absentee ballots and the day for poll voters to go to the polls. For the Stranger Election Control Board's endorsements (and to find out why this primary election matters), go here; for a shorter, printer-friendly cheat sheet, go here. You can find your polling place here. Happy voting!

As Eli noted, John McCain's fire breathing performance at this weekend's Forum on Faith is starting to raise all sorts of questions about his attempts to reform his image from 'ye of little faith' to darling of the religious right.

Aside from possibility that he cribbed a transformational life experience from a seminal work by Solzhenitsyn, McCain also wandered into hot water with his answer on who he wouldn't have appointed to the Supreme Court: Ginsburg, Souter, Breyer, and Stevens. That's every member to the left of Samuel Alito, sans Justice Kennedy.

The implication? John McCain's going to have one hell of a litmus test for who he would nominate for the court.

The problem? John McCain voted for the confirmation of Justices Ginsburg, Souter, and Breyer.

You can almost deal with the mendaciousness on Souter—who was foisted on McCain by closet pinko George HW Bush—but it would seem hard to explain how McCain could have had any ideological doubts about which way Breyer and Ginsburg would be voting if confirmed.

He--for there could be no doubt of his sex, though certain of his proclivities did something (in the mind of the military wing of his family) to complicate it--was in the act of watching a slackliner on a slackline strung from opposing trees. It was hard not to think of Man on Wire (if you haven't seen it, go, go, go). The branches above the slackline, heavy with leaves, which the slackliner walked in and out of and occasionally ripped out of his way, made the whole sight kind of circus-y. Passersby stopped to watch. The stoner watched the slackliner (this guy) and then watched the sky, on his back, next to a girl he'd just met (bottle-orange hair, candy-striped top, also stoned). The leaves and the sky. A small airplane shot out of the leaves.

The stoner thought about all the people who'd given him a hard time about going to Hempfest: the friends going to Smoke Farm who blinked in disbelief when the stoner chose Hempfest (close to home, by the water) over the possibility of bad outdoor theater in a remote location; the actress/singer/Joni Mitchell fan who, when the stoner intimated that he was going to Hempfest by texting that he was "was being a hippie" today, texted back "the first step is admitting u have a problem"; Dan Savage, who declaimed over after-work drinks on Friday that every other weekend of the year is more ideal for getting stoned in Myrtle Edwards Park because there's no one else there; the stoner's young friend from New Orleans, another stoner, who nonetheless texted, "Hempfest is just a celebration of everything that's not fun about pot"; and so on and so forth). You get a lot of heat for going to Hempfest. It's easy to be intimidated by the disdain. By the unfashionable-ness of it. Dan Savage, of all people, is giving his friends a hard time for going to Hempfest?

Whatever with those people. Hempfest is fantastic. It helps to show up in the afternoon, around 2 or 3, and to go with friends, and to sit in the shade with a view the water and the sky and the barely clothed people in the ripeness of their youth walking by. It's true that you hear the stupidest shit from the people who are given microphones and access to a stage, but (satisfyingly) the people you are sitting with aren't falling for it either. "We are here and now!" an officially sanctioned Hempfest speaker was shouting into a microphone in the distance. The girl with the bottle-orange hair smiled and said, "Man, that's some motivational speaker. No wonder we can't band together. These are our motivational speakers."

Nevertheless, from those very unmotivational stages, or at least from the northernmost one, comes the most amazing sort of rain when the clock strikes 4:20 pm: free joints. Raining down. Hundreds (thousands?) of them. Onto the crowd. This year there was such a crush of people on the path in the minutes before 4:20 pm struck--perhaps the joints-raining-down-from-the-sky thing has been too well publicized--that the stoner and the slackliner and the girl with the bottle-orange hair couldn't get to the northernmost stage (does it happen at all the stages?) until about 4:22 pm, by which point the sea of bodies was already obscured in a haze, battlefield-like. The stoner asked a random girl for a hit of hers and she reached in her bag and gave him a fresh one, adding, "They handed them out."

This will happen again today, by the way.

If nothing else, the stoner thought, Hempfest is an answer to the dominant American culture--the suburban, generic, corporate-controlled mainstream. It's the embodiment of an alternative. That this alternative seems so drastic, that it causes so many of your friends to bristle, is only evidence of how well the conservative line has been sold to us. This alternative isn't drastic. It is not some lawless primal orgy. Hempfest is crawling with police officers and security personnel, watching everything: 100,000 people smoking pot outdoors on a nice day, laughing, relaxing, reading, buying stuff, listening to music, eating noodles, eating ice cream, walking on slacklines between trees, sitting on the rocks, watching the trains groan by, etc., etc.

The only hippie-riffic conversation the stoner got into occurred in one of the VIP areas, behind one of the stages, where a man in what looked like a utilikilt, except it was made out of black lace, sat down and smiled. This man in lace and leggings and some serious facial hair was walking with the assistance of a light-wood cane topped with a brass knob. The rest of the man's ensemble was more than dubious, but it was a handsome cane. The stoner complimented it. The man in lace replied, "It used to be Jefferson Airplane's manager's."

The stoner replied with an expression that must have looked like awe.

"Yeah, Jefferson Airplane's manager's cane. His son gave it to me."

The stoner was trying to think of a Jefferson Airplane song. He said, "What was one of their big songs?"

The man in lace shook his head and said he had no idea. Then he added, "If you ask me about psychedelic trance or something, I can probably tell you." Then there was a long silence.

The stoner went and got his bike and rode out to Elliott Avenue, and then up the west side of Queen Anne Hill to watch firemen march uphill into brush fire. He took a photo of the fire engines with his cell phone. Then he rode back down to Elliott Avenue and, hungry for ice cream, stopped into a Baskin Robbins. For there one was. He ate it outside on the sidewalk, next to his bike, staring into cars waiting at the light.

Confirms he's hosting a fundraiser for Dave Reichert, according to the campaign for Reichert's Democratic opponent for Congress, Eighth Congressional District, Darcy Burner.

(Apologies if this has been posted to Slog already--I'm just getting back in gear after four days out of the office sick.)

There's something totally unnerving about finding out that Hillary Clinton's run for the presidency was seemingly run by people who didn't have that firm a grasp on what they were doing.

But slogging through the much-hyped Clinton Memos recently released by The Atlantic, it's hard not to feel that everybody in Team Clinton just kind of expected to win, and then go get a sandwich before cake-walking to the White House. The memos are a treasure trove of delusional overconfidence and directionless infighting, with no one wanting to confront the fact that Obama might be more than a charisma-filled speed bump until they had effectively already lost.

Oh, and when they finally did realize how dire things were, the chief strategist of the campaign pronounced that it was time to remind the electorate that their opponent was a Muslim interloper.

What's even more astounding, in this massive body of evidence that suggests Team Clinton did almost as much to make Barack Obama the nominee as Barack Obama did, is that the main players in Clinton's incredible deadspin are still claiming that this wasn't really their fault: It was the media's, for not aggressively pursuing John Edwards' carousing.

What a perfect coda to a perfect disaster. Take it away, Choire Sicha:

The question, for the thousandth time, is: What is wrong with these people? Also, who are these squabbling, selfish children—and why do they not have a VH1 reality show?

As PopTart points out, the New York report about a forthcoming screed by Reverend Jeremiah Wright is being disputed by Wright's daughter.

I got this from Ben Smith, by the way, PopTart, but I'm terribly curious about where you found it. What kind of tawdry websites are linking to something this boring?

That's our very own Attorney General Michael Mukasey, explaining why nobody will be prosecuted for hiring prosecutors, judges, and other lawyers on a solely political basis. Awesome.

This post is by regular Slog commenter Mr. Poe. The opinions expressed in this commentary do not necessarily represent the views of Index Newspapers, The Stranger, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Cupcake Royale, or any of their subsidiaries.

Glory be to the Republican Father, to the Governor of the Holy...Florida. As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end, Amen. Or something. But seriously, we need to talk. It just feels like there are so many things that haven't been said that should, like "why are you praying to me" and "do I need to get a restraining order". No, you do not need a restraining order. I spent two years of my "life" in Florida, and have vowed never to return. Since then I have returned, but that's not important because it never happened. As for the prayer, you'll soon notice that I'm not actually praying to you. This is more like a letter. A letter addressed as a prayer, if you will. Truth be told, I couldn't think of a clever headline so I settled with the first thing that came to mind. Actually I didn't even try to think of a new one. I figured it best to go with the only thing I thought of since I have a hard time finishing anything I st.

Let's begin with something obvious. You are ridiculously hot. Your looks are so grand they managed to surpass all of your sexified competition: Anderson Cooper, Scooter Libby, (Mayor) Adam West. Anderson Cooper! How the fuck did you do that? You are officially more intriguing than Anderson Cooper. Congratulations. Don't get me wrong, I obsessed about Coop as much as the next fatherfucker, but that obsession ended a long time ago (Tuesday). Even though you're Republican, "straight", part of a fraternity and kind of a gigantic douchebag, I love you. I love everything about you. I mean, just look at you:

Awww... I'm smiling too. You seem to be fighting yours, but why? Is it because you have a secret? A big, juicy, Grade A secret? Maybe you just need to poop. Whatever the reason, it's adorable. We have so much in common. I don't have any humble qualities either. You should know that although I'm retardedly liberal, I see your side and I totally dig it. Matter of fact, you seem to hold solid stances on everything save homosexuality. I can deal with that, and I'll soon explain why. We're both well aware that it's possible for an openly gay Democrat to mingle with a closeted Republican.

Continue reading "Mr. Poe Prays to Crist, Charlie Crist" »

Too lazy to slog through 4,400 words of endorsements? We hear you. To simplify your decision-making in the August 19 primary election, we've put together a handy, printer-ready cheat sheet that tells you which candidates we support.

The Stranger Election Control Board cheat sheet: Easier than thinking for yourself!

In the Stranger Election Control Board's interview with Gov. Christine Gregoire (for a full list of our endorsements, check out our election cheat sheet
), she blasted a Building Industry Association of Washington-backed ad as "racist." The ad implied Gregoire gave the tribes a sweetheart deal on a slot-machine gambling expansion compact in exchange for donations to the Democratic Party, which later made their way to her campaign. Gregoire told us:

They made stuff up about the tribes – and the ad, by the way, I think is racist. I think this whole thing is racist, and I'm totally offended by it. But it just shows you how low they'll go. It shows you that it doesn't matter what the truth is, they're going to trump stuff up. So I'm not afraid of making decisions independently and standing by them.

Gregoire's comments are making it all over the Northwest (and nation--last night the story was featured on NPR's "All Things Considered.") Here's a sampling of the coverage.

Spokane's Spokesman Review: "Gregoire Calls Campaign Ad Untrue, Racist."

KOMO News: "Gregoire Calls Campaign Ad 'Racist.'"

The Seattle Times: "Gregoire decries ad by foes as 'racist'"

Tacoma's News Tribune: "Gregoire charges racism by critics of gambling deals"

KING 5 News: "Gregoire declares campaign ad 'racist'"

The Bellingham Herald: "Gregoire charges racism by critics of gambling deals"

The Associated Press (printed all over the Northwest, and here in the Oregonian): "Campaign ad declared 'racist' by Wash. governor"

The Everett Herald: "Campaign ad called 'racist'"

Here's the original ad:

And here's the relevant snippet from the Stranger's interview with Gregoire.

What do you think, Slog readers? Is the governor right that attacks on her relationship with the tribes are "racist"? Or is she blowing the ads out of proportion?

Another statistic:

More black men in the United States are behind bars than are in higher education, according to a new study by a Washington DC thinktank.

Following a boom in prison construction and an increase in the numbers of people being incarcerated for non-violent crimes, there were 791,600 black men in American prisons and county jails in 2000, and only 603,032 enrolled in colleges and universities, according to the Justice Policy Institute, which favours alternatives to imprisonment.

The Stranger Election Control Board's editorial endorsements for this month's primary election will hit the streets (and go up online) later today. In the meantime, please enjoy this edited video of the SECB's interview with Gov. Christine Gregoire, in which the Gov gives us what-for on Sound Transit, tells us what her priorities will be if she's reelected, and rips into Republican Dino Rossi for criticizing her close relationship with the state's Native American tribes.

Part I:

Part II:

Thank you, Towleroad, for directing me to this interview of Cyndi Lauper in the London Times.

On her disgust with Dubya and love for gays:

This community for me is my beloved community. I have been running with this community all my life, and when I hear people like George Bush talk about the gay community being anti-American it makes my blood boil. The guy who saved the White House, one of the heroes who crashed that plane on 9/11, was gay – the rugby player Mark Bingham, who died on United 93. And does Bush ever mention that? That gay guy saved his lousy ass. And this guy who says he prays to God, this guy who promotes hate and fear, this guy we call our President...This guy is the true anti-American.

And on her insurmountable heterosexuality:

My sister was gay, my best friends were gay, so I figured I had to be gay. So I did everything they did. I tried kissing girls. But it didn’t feel right for me and eventually I was forced to come out as a heterosexual.

And here's a trailer from another kind of team (the "RNC Welcoming Committee") wearing another kind of mask (black bandanas).

It's pretty cute, for a video predicting violent battles in the streets of St. Paul.

(Any Slog readers from Minneapolis-St. Paul? I'll be there for the convention and am looking for local contacts. If you know any, email me at: brendan@thestranger.com.)

On KUOW this morning, I'm pretty sure I heard Secretary of State Sam Reed hypothesizing that Washington's new top-two primary might increase voter turnout (compared to last year) because voters would no longer be so incensed about being forced to pick a party that they refused to vote.

Now, I know the Secretary of State office must have heard plenty last year from pouty, self-styled independents who couldn't understand the art and fun of temporary, strategic partisan voting. But were there really that many of them? In our endorsement interview last week, Reed conceded that turnout might actually go down in this primary, because voters understand that there are few real choices being made. He thought this would only happen in places like Seattle, where it's pretty clear that two candidates of the same party will make it through. But even in areas where party identification is more evenly split, there are tons of races where the two frontrunners are pretty evident before a single vote is cast.

In plenty of races across Washington state, this primary is essentially a glorified, state-funded public opinion poll. Candidates will get talking points and potentially jumpstart their fundraising by winning the primary, but they still have to do the exact same thing all over again in the general. Among the few races where your vote is likely to have a real impact are those for Supreme Court positions, where any candidate who earns over 50% of the vote gets elected without going on to the general. If Sam Reed is right—that voter turnout will only be depressed in places like Seattle and might even increase elsewhere—then that could eventually have a frightening impact on the political slant of our high court.

God, how I hate you, top-two primary.

George W. Bush, along with his dad and his brother Jeb, took a break from lunching at the Bush compound in Kennebunkport to surprise-call Rush Limbaugh's show today and congratulate him for being on the air for 20 years.

THE PRESIDENT: Rush Limbaugh?

RUSH: Yes, sir, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: President George W. Bush calling to congratulate you on 20 years of important and excellent broadcasting.

All three Bushes congratulated Limbaugh in turn, but the dumbest Bush talked the longest.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'm just calling along with President 41 and the former governor of Florida. We're fixing to have lunch here, and I said, "Listen, we ought to call our pal and let him know that we care," for you. So this is as much as anything, a nice verbal letter to a guy we really care for...I am great. We're doing very good, thank you very much, sir. Concerned about our economy, obviously, but know we need to be drilling for some oil and gas in order to take the pressure off the gas prices -- and I'm pleased with the progress in Iraq.

Isn't that just so fucking sweet you could vomit?

...reads this.

The Bush administration has ignited a furor with a proposed definition of pregnancy that has the effect of classifying some of the most widely used methods of contraception as abortion.

A draft regulation, still being revised and debated, treats most birth-control pills and intrauterine devices as abortion because they can work by preventing fertilized eggs from implanting in the uterus. The regulation considers that destroying "the life of a human being."

Many medical groups disagree. They hold that pregnancy isn't established until several days after conception, when the fertilized egg has grown to a cluster of several dozen cells and burrowed into the uterine wall. Anything that disrupts that process, in their view, is contraception.... Dozens of Congressional Democrats—including presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama—have signed letters of protest blistering the proposal. His Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, declined to comment.

The goal of this proposed regulation? To make it harder for women to come by contraceptives. If standard methods of contraception are reclassified as abortion then laws crafted to allow pharmacists and other medical personal to "opt out" of providing treatments that violate their religious beliefs—morning-after pills, abortion referrals—would suddenly cover the pill and IUDs.

Helloooooo? Straight people? The GOP and the religious right don't just hate the gays and gay freedom to host gay brunches, enter into gay marriages, and do gay adoptions. They hate your freedoms, too.

The Stranger Election Control Board (SECB) is meeting with Gov. Christine Gregoire in a few minutes. Any suggestions about what we should ask her? Leave 'em in the comments.

I'm listening to Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg on KUOW right now.

Ladenburg is running for Washington state Attorney General, challenging Republican incumbent Rob McKenna. A caller asked about gay marriage and Ladenburg said that he supports civil unions, not marriage equality, but added that the state should treat everyone equally and perhaps it was a mistake for the state to get into the marriage business at all, since marriage is a religious institution wocka wocka wocka. Ladenburg wants to swing both ways on marriage equality: He's against marriage rights for same-sex couples, he's for civil unions, but he believes the state should treat everyone equally. But wouldn't equal treatment require the state to allow same-sex couples to marry or to get out of the marriage business entirely and make only civil unions available to all couples, gay and straight?

Steve Scher, perhaps not wanting to put the Democrat on the spot, neglected to ask this obvious follow up.

I'll probably vote for Ladenburg in the fall—his position on marriage equality is indistinguishable from this guy's position—but I'll do it with some reservations. Rob McKenna is a GOP hack and all, but he is the only female-to-male transsexual that has ever won a state-wide race in Washington state. I want to be a good Democrat, but I also want to support FTM visibility and McKenna helps break down stereotypes about transsexuals.

Man, this is a tough one.

Senator Ted Stevens—he of the Incredible Hulk tie!—has been indicted on seven counts relating to a recent corruption probe into his ties to Alaskan oil services company VECO. Details are still coming, but the early word from CBS News was as follows:

A federal grand jury in Washington has handed up the indictment against Stevens -- which the Justice Department is set to announce very shortly.

Stevens faces seven counts of false statements involving VECO, the oil services company in Alaska, and the renovations done on his home.

Stevens has been the subject of a wide-ranging investigation -- and with this announcement -- Stevens becomes the highest level politician charged in the department's crackdown on alleged corruption, CBS News reports.

If the name Ted Stevens sounds familiar to you, it should: While a long-time Alaska senator, he achieved his most visible media moment when explaining that the internet was a 'series of tubes!!!!', a concept which Senator Stevens so eloquently explains in the enclosed YouTube clip below.

The remix of which is really pretty neat:

Rumors have been swirling for almost a year that Stevens was trading government funding for VECO in exchange for the company making additions to his palatial Alaskan estate. The FBI raided his home last year searching for information on the deal, and the question of charges being filed has been less a question of 'if' rather than 'when' ever since.

The whole ugly story has been covered under the watchful and all-seeing eye of TPMuckraker since the beginning, the archives of which can be read here.

As I read the entries on Slog about the recent Critical Mass debacle, the thing that most struck me, besides the Rashomon aspect of the multiple versions of the story, was the blinding insight that Critical Mass doesn't accomplish much in terms of concrete improvements in cycling infrastructure. All Critical Mass really does, in my experience, is piss people off. Pissed off people tend not to support the political causes of the people who piss them off, so I've never signed on with CM's agenda.

What does get things done? Corrupt politicians.

So, the only solution to Seattle's endless Process regarding a cycling map (whoo-hoo! Cartography, however inaccurate, will serve!), inadequate bike lanes on appropriate streets and bike routes and so forth: trade Nickels for Daley.

Richard M. Daley, Chicago's Mayor-for-Life-or-Until-Indicted, is a recreational cyclist. And he is an absolute dictator who pretty much gets what he wants (he has appointed or directly got elected the majority of the City Council's Aldermen, either to replace Aldermen who died or were indicted). So Chicago has a comprehensive bicycle plan that actually, you know, gets done. You want bike racks outside your business or local El station? Contact the city and they'll install 'em. Roads appropriate for bike traffic get sharrows and those which are perfect get bike lanes. A new park is built downtown, put in a bike center, with lockers and showers for bike commuters. Keep expanding the lakefront path. Drivers endanger cyclists? Increase the fines and have cops out writing tickets for drivers who door cyclists or cut them off.

All of this has happened because Daley wanted it to happen and then made it happen, not because a bunch of gear-heads block traffic one Friday rush hour a month. No single businessman can call up the city and whine and get a street taken off the plan for bike lanes. No community meetings, no endless planning, just corruption (Daley's supporters make money on all the road work, for instance) and a bike-able city.

And you Critical Massers who are about to go to comments and tell me to go fuck myself, thanks in advance for your sentiments. You want to change people's minds about cycling in the city? Organize a ride which starts in twenty remote locations, and consists of several dozen cyclists from each location riding downtown, single file to allow cars to proceed, while obeying all traffic laws. This will demonstrate to drivers that cyclists and drivers can co-exist peacefully, instead of the unmitigated asshattery of taking over the whole street. Yeah, you can do it, but all you do is piss people off.

Democrats Gerry Pollet and Scott White, two candidates for state House from North Seattle's 46th legislative district, have received a dual endorsement from Seattle City Council Member Nick Licata and former council member Peter Steinbrueck, the Politicker is reporting. Both Licata and Steinbrueck endorsed White before Pollet got into the race.

And tomorrow night, the Seattle Municipal League is hosting a forum with the three candidates—Democrats Reuven Carlyle and John Burbank and Republican Leslie Bloss--who are seeking the state House seat in the 36th District. The forum is at 7 pm
at the Nordic Heritage Museum auditorium, 3014 NW 67th Street.

This morning it was S&M, the son of Sir Oswald Mosley, and a tabloid. This afternoon, it's anti-Semitism and R. Crumb.

Two British holocaust deniers are seeking political asylum in the U.S. after being convicted of publishing racially hateful material online. Simon Sheppard and Stephen Whittle skipped bail, flew to Los Angeles, and threw themselves at the mercy of immigration officials, beyond the reach of the British courts.

These men are odious, but so are the laws that would sentence them to prison for talking wicked nonsense. But should they be granted political asylum, since they're being sentenced under laws that violate American standards for free speech?

They're currently sitting in the Santa Ana City Jail, awaiting a hearing with the INS.

Bizarrely, one of the articles they've been convicted of publishing is a cartoon by R. Crumb.

(I won't link to their site, but you can see the Crumb cartoon—called "When the Goddamn Jews Take Over America"—here. And you can read Jen Graves's excellent review of the recent Crumb exhibit at the Frye Museum here.)

The cartoon looks like satire—it concludes that honkies should initiate nuclear annihilation because "Our Lord Jesus Christ awaits us with open arms on the other side." But Sheppard and Whittle, and the British court, took it seriously.

So: Two Brits are seeking political asylum in the United States, partly for publishing an American cartoon on their dumb, racist website.

What do you guess Obama and McCain would say about that?

The Seattle Municipal League just announced its candidate ratings for the 2008 primary election, and, as always, they made some interesting and surprising choices.

• State Rep. Maralyn Chase (D-32), whom we've lauded for pushing smart environmental legislation year after year ("The Chase Agenda") received a rating of merely "good," probably because she was unable to participate in the League's interview.

• Only eight state legislators received the League's top rating of "outstanding": House Speaker Frank Chopp (D-43), state Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson (D-36), state Sen. Fred Jarrett (D-41), state Rep. Eric Pettigrew (D-37), state Rep. Skip Priest (R-30), state Rep. Lawrence Springer (D-45), state Rep. Pat Sullivan (D-47), and state Rep. Dave Upthegrove (D-33).

• In the two contested legislative races in Seattle, only one candidate—Reuven Carlyle, running for the open 36th District seat being vacated by Helen Sommers—received an "outstanding" rating. Carlyle's opponents, John Burbank and Leslie Bloss, were ranked "good" (the middle ranking, above "adequate" and "not qualified"); meanwhile, both candidates in the 46th District, Scott White and Gerry Pollet, received a "good" ranking.

• Both incumbent state Supreme Court judges running for reelection, Mary Fairhurst and Charles Johnson, received "outstanding" ratings.

• The Muni League gave Libertarian Ruth Bennett, running against Pettigrew, a surprisingly high rating of "good," despite the fact that the perennial candidate has a tendency to go off about things like her gun collection and PDA-based ridesharing programs as an alternative to light rail. Although Bennett didn't fill out a candidate questionnaire, here's what she had to say about her moderate opponent's safe Democratic seat during our endorsement interview: "You could be found lying in a gay bar with your pants around your ankles, raping nuns and babies, with a heroin needle in your arm and a McCain bumper sticker on your car—and your support would only go down from 95 to 90 percent."

The also-ran candidates' questionnaires always have a tendency to be AWESOME, and this year was no exception.

• Republican 36th District state Rep candidate Leslie Bloss Klein; see correction here) (ranking: "adequate"(??)), whose campaign principles include giving "the largest unrepresented, oppressed, suppressed, demonized, vilified and hated minority in my neighborhood, Republicans, someone that they can vote for," the theme "compassion for a Republican," and the statement, "I cannot win." Klein adds: "Everything I do and think is for the good of the universe with harm to none," and notes that his proudest accomplishment was "my ability to help a friend unlock her psychic abilities that had become blocked."

• Independent Margaret Wiggins, running for state Rep in the 32nd District, wants to lower gas taxes because they only reward bus riders while "hardly help[ing] the majority of working folks to get where they need to go. Her "greatest accomplishments," alas, "are not for public comment."

• 46th District state House candidate John Sweeney, a Republican, who is "currently working on rethinking the theology and 'niche' of the mainline denominational churches."

•KC Superior Court candidate Matthew Hale, who calls himself a "talented writer," is running because he has "an insatiable hunger for justice and a belief that justice should flow out of the courthouse like a mighty stream for all who enter its doors."

The Muni League is having a party to celebrate the release of its voters guide from 7:00 to 9:00 tonight, at Spitfire, 2219 Fourth Ave.

“John McCain is a great man.”

The speaker’s name was Bill Metzger, a retired captain dressed in a dowdy blue suit, his voice carrying over the crowd sternly. He knew John McCain was a great man because he had been a POW alongside him in Hanoi. He knew because, even as they both suffered daily from untreated injuries, John McCain had given up his chance for early release.

“John McCain has been tested. John McCain passed the test. I know, I was there.”

Up to this moment, as roughly fifty people gathered this morning in the Remembrance Garden outside of Benaroya Hall, for the kick-off rally of Washington Veterans for John McCain, Metzger had the crowd in the palm of his hand. It was the kind of ‘band of brothers’ rhapsodizing that drives grown men to tears.

And then he went off message.

John McCain running against Barack Obama was like “Ronald Reagan running against Fidel Castro.”

Oh well.

This event was held on the first day of ugly weather in recent memory and emceed by another member of the steering committee for Washington Veterans for McCain, former Navy captain Doug Roulstone. Roulstone was picked in 2006 to run against Congressman Rick Larsen and had been joined on the campaign trail by Dick Cheney. It went about as well for him as you’d expect.

Now Roulstone was declaring that this was “the first skirmish in a war! Become part of this McCain army!”

It brought cheers from a crowd that was a mixed bag of older veterans and younger servicemen. Shout-outs to McChord Airforce Base and Fort Lewis were big applause lines. Roulstone informed me that he intended to use that reservoir of veterans to flip Washington to McCain. “There are 640,000 veterans... There’s this huge demographic of military people potentially supporting McCain. We’re out here to build up that coalition.”

All of this (aside from the less-than-obvious parallels between Senator Obama and Fidel Castro) stayed close to the patriotic script, obviously passed down from McCain headquarters.

The real prize, for me, was an interview I got with a former Clinton supporter whose only problem with Barack Obama is “his lack of a clue.”

Her name is Brandy Fraser—“No ‘i’ and no ‘z’!”—and she had been waving a sign reading “Democrats for McCain” enthusiastically throughout the entire event. She smiled broadly, her eyebrows drawn on thickly.

“A lot of Hillary supporters cannot, in good conscience, support Obama,” Fraser told me, a small crowd of McCain supporters circling us. She was a “lifelong Democrat,” though admitted that she’d occasionally cross over to vote for a Republican. “I’m a candidate voter.”

The journey of Brandy Fraser started in the caucus in her native Monroe, where she had made the decision that she would never support Barack Obama for the presidency. She wouldn’t go into specifics, but his policies were, across the board, a turn-off for her. His books frightened her, hearing them read in his own voice frightened her more.

“I grew up in the Vietnam-era,” she explained. Wait, what?

Distinctly aware of the people listening in on our conversation, I asked her if she was pro-choice, and if she was aware that John McCain had said he would appoint judges that would overturn Roe v. Wade.

“I do have an issue with that. And I am willing to take that risk, for the benefit of the country on all the other issues… My choice is to look at the bigger picture.”

That bigger picture now encompasses voting for Dino Rossi as well, as Fraser said she wouldn't vote for Gregoire, "If she was the only one running."

The Democrats apparently have quite a hill to climb if they want Brandy Fraser's vote back.

Opponents to Tim Eyman's Initiative 985 (which would eliminate HOV lanes for most of the day, divert city, county and state funding toward road-building projects, eliminate a state-funded public art program, and redirect millions toward the state auditor's office) are running a smart campaign against the half-baked initiative. Instead of attacking it on environmental grounds (which might sell well in Seattle but still fail to win enough "no" votes to kill 985 statewide), they're highlighting the fact that the initiative would siphon $127 million a year from the state's general fund--a fund that pays, primarily, for education and health care. In a press release from the No! on I-985 Campaign, Bill LaBorde--state director for Environment Washington and a whip-smart environmental lobbyist--called I-985 "an initiative that promises everything for nothing."

Even if you buy the argument that we can build our way out of congestion, $127 million a year doesn't do much building but it sure takes lots of valuable funding away from kids and sick people. With that $127 million you could either educate more than 16,000 kids in our public schools, or you could add maybe a mile of new freeway in the Puget Sound area. You could provide health insurance coverage for 40,000 children, or you could build a ramp on a new interchange.

It's a smart strategy--pitting roads not against transit or conservation, but against kids and sick people without health insurance. Will it play in Eastern Washington? Hard to say, but it's a far smarter tactic than trying to get folks in Spokane to care about smog in Seattle.

Der Spiegel reports (and this helpful fellow translates/summarizes) that the authorities in Berlin are preparing for a crowd of up to one million people anxious to get a glimpse of Obama when his world tour touches down in Germany.

Authorities in Berlin are preparing for a million spectators, which would instantly make Obama's speech the biggest political event in that country since unification in 1990. There are even plans to close down the street, a mile long, and replicate the setup during the World Cup with massive projection screens. Inevitably with a political earthquake of this magnitude, there's some controversy stoked by conservatives.

After a short back-and-forth over whether it was appropriate for a candidate running for foreign office to speak in front of the iconic Brandenburg Gate (a stage that has been used, with immense impact, by Presidents Ronald Reagan and John Kennedy), the Obama campaign has settled on the the slightly-less-iconic-but-still-pretty-imposing Victory Column as the stage to address Germany.

It kind of becomes clear, with the concept of a foreign candidate for a foreign office expected to draw crowds that many German politicians could only dream of amassing, that the enormousness of what Barack Obama represents to the world is something he's going to have to carry on his back if he's elected. While the days of dignitaries worrying over accidentally running into mustacheod lunatic John Bolton in the United Nations men's room will be over, an Obama presidency is going to set a higher expectation in the eyes of the world than, "Well, at least he's better than Bush."

Even as he fights back against the concept that he's a blank slate on which people project their hopes, Barack Obama is looking that concept straight in the face in Germany; he's assumed to be something different from what America has done in the past, either Democrat or Republican. If he's elected, it's going to be a lot for one man to live up to.

As Slog readers know, the August 19 primary includes two seriously contested races for the state legislature--the 36th district, encompassing Ballard, Queen Anne, and Magnolia, and the 46th, which spans much of North Seattle. In each race, one candidate is attempting to paint the other as an "establishment" candidate beholden to big-business and lobby interests, and the other is trying to portray himself as an energetic young up-and-comer running against a tired relic of old Seattle.

It's been interesting to watch the tactics of the two candidates in the former camp--John Burbank and Gerry Pollet, in the 36th and 46th, respectively—evolve. Each candidate began by portraying himself as the populist underdog in his race, refusing corporate contributions and demanding that his opponent accept contribution limits; but while Pollet has continued to run his class-warfare campaign, Burbank has all but abandoned that approach. Consider these two press releases sent out by the Pollet and Burbank campaigns, respectively, over the past week (edited for length as noted).

Pollet's:

Grassroots Support - Not Special Interest Corporate PAC Money

Dear friends,

Thank you again for your support and for making this a truly grassroots campaign. I am proud that my campaign has your support, and the support of so many other residents of the 46th District.

There is a clear difference in who supports this campaign and that of my opponent.

According to the Public Disclosure reports, since the beginning of June over 70 voters who live here in the district contributed to our campaign, compared to only 11 for my opponent. Yes, eleven. (All data from PDC filings are available on line.)

And among my donors, you will not find timber companies, the fireworks manufacturer's PAC, drug companies, or lobbyists representing the Maury Island gravel mine.

Because of my belief in campaign finance reform, I do not accept such special-interest corporate contributions, or money from their PACs.

My opponent, on the other hand, has received large maximum-allowable contributions from special interests and corporations, including Weyerhaeuser, and PACs for developers and the beverage and restaurant industry. And he's taken fireworks money whose agenda is expanding individual sales and defeating safety restrictions. [...]

Thank you for your commitment and support.

Sincerely,

Gerry

And Burbank's:

Burbank Raises More Than Double of All Other Opponents in June; Trend Continues in July. [...] Seattle, WA – John Burbank’s campaign announced today that it had raised over $42,600 in June, more than double any other candidate in the race. This is the second month in a row that Burbank has out-raised all other candidates in the race. This trend is continuing in July, with Burbank having raised another $10,000 as of July 16 and his competitors having raised less than $3,000 for the month combined. “I am very gratified by this outpouring of support for our campaign for public service,” said John Burbank. “It just shows how much voters want real change in Olympia and they see my proven experience as the best guarantee for working for our future and delivering results.”

Pollet is running against former 46th District Democratic chair Scott White for the seat formerly occupied by Jim McIntire, who is running for state treasurer; Burbank is running against software entrepreneur Reuven Carlyle for the seat formerly held by Helen Sommers, who is retiring after 36th years in office.

John Burbank, one of two Democrats running for state legislature from the 36th District (Ballard, Magnolia, and Queen Anne), is listing his status as the official Democratic Party nominee on his voter guide statement and boy, is his opponent, Reuven Carlyle, pissed.

Burbank was appointed as the district's "official" nominee by state Democratic Party chair Dwight Pelz, a longtime friend of his, after the 36th District Democrats declined to nominate either Burbank or Carlyle, citing their objection to the Democrats' sanctioned nominating process for this year's top-two primary, which only allowed precinct committee officers to vote.

In an email, Carlyle fumed that Burbank "was APPOINTED by his official beer drinking buddy, Dwight Pelz, as the nominee, not elected by voters, the district organization or any other entity of any sort."

Asked how his appointment by Pelz constituted elected experience, Burbank seemed a bit flummoxed, eventually responding, "That is the position of the Washington State Democratic Central Committee. If you go to their web site, you will see that their nominee for this position, Position One, is John Burbank. That’s me. ...[The voter guide statement] was approved by the Secretary of State, so if someone has an issue with it they should take it up with the Secretary of State."

Burbank added: "It's an odd thing that this is what it's come down to"--debates over party process, rather than discussions of the issues. That's a fair point, but in this case, the story isn't so much about the particulars of any internecine battle (if you really want to see interparty warfare, check out what's going on in the 46th) as it is about the top-two primary, which has pitted Democrat against Democrat in general-election battles in races that used to be decided in September.

Remember Lou Novak, the landlord who had to resign his post as VP of the Rental Housing Association after he made a bigoted comment about the Lifelong AIDS Alliance?

In case you don't, I'll refresh your memory:

In case you hadn't realized, last week was anal sex week in Olympia.

That, at least, was the publicly proclaimed assessment of Lou Novak, a prominent apartment-building owner. Novak's eagerness to express his views within earshot of HIV-positive citizens, including two children, who traveled to the state capital last week to lobby for greater AIDS prevention and care funding not only provoked a confrontation that led to an investigation by Capitol security, but has also provoked a minor firestorm among legislators.

A handful of advocates were exiting the main legislative building when they say they passed a man who loudly offered his troglodytic opinion of their activities. The leader of the contingent, Susie Saxton, executive director of CareBearers, a hospice organization in Yakima, was wearing a red "AIDS Awareness Day" T-shirt. She was accompanied by two other adults, as well as a 13-year-old girl and a 16-year-old who had contracted HIV from his mother, who had herself become infected through a blood transfusion during kidney surgery in the late 1980s.

"Looks like its anal sex week," the man said as they passed him, according to Saxton.

Guess which politician he's maxed out to?

Dino Rossi.

Since December 2007, Novak has donated $3,200 to Rossi's gubernatorial campaign.

However, the donation shouldn't surprise anyone familiar with Rossi's record on gay rights.

In 2003, he voted against legislation that would have banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

In 2004 1996, he attacked an opponent, Kathleen Drew, by saying she had "sponsored a gay and lesbian art exhibit in the state capitol." The exhibit was meant to honor the late Sen. Cal Anderson.

He voted for the Defense of Marriage Act as a state legislator and supporting George W. Bush in his call for a US constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

State lands commissioner Douglas Sutherland—the state official who sexually harassed a young female employee several years ago, a story the two Seattle daily papers knew about for four months but ignored—has issued a statement in response to the story, which David Goldstein broke on Horse's Ass two days ago. The statement essentially blames Sutherland's opponent in his race for reelection, Peter Goldmark, for allowing the story to come to light.

Ultimately people will judge for themselves, but it provides a clear contrast between Doug and the opponent’s campaign. The documents show that even though he knew the political difficulty such allegations could cause, Doug’s first concern was for the woman who was made uncomfortable. The woman was asked what steps would help resolve the issue and Doug and DNR agreed to do all of those things.

In contrast, Doug’s opponent, his supporters and a liberal blog sent the information out without speaking with the woman or expressing concern that this might put her in a position she did not ask to be in – using a private matter as a political weapon in a campaign. Indeed, the Seattle Times noted that “She has not responded to interview requests.” Additionally, Goldmark’s supporters even went so far as to try and hide their involvement by arranging a deal that they not be identified by the media outlets to whom they leaked the documents.

The contrast between Doug’s efforts to address the mistake he made by being too informal and apologize and the unauthorized use of a personal matter by Doug’s opponent without considering the position it put the woman in, says a lot about why so many have expressed their support for Doug prior to this story and why so many have called to reiterate that support today.

Just to reiterate: The two incidents Sutherland glibly describes as "being too informal" involved, according to multiple eyewitnesses quoted in the documents Sutherland refers to, the lands commissioner running his hands all over the woman's back and waist, commenting that she had "great parts," and saying something to the effect that he was "just looking." "Informal" is one word for that.

In other Sutherland-related news, the Seattle Times has changed the headline on its Sutherland story, which managed to mention not one but five times in the story, headline, and subhead that Sutherland apologized for sexually harassing the woman. The old headline: "Washington public-lands commissioner apologized after complaint by employee." The new one: "WA official was subject of harassment complaint."

They took out four of the five references to Sutherland's apology, too—including the reference to the woman's decision to resign "despite [Sutherland's] formal apology."

Senator Elizabeth Dole has proposed naming an HIV/AIDS relief bill after... Jesse Helms.