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Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Politics The Wednesday Morning News

Posted by Dominic Holden on Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 8:42 AM

Shut Out of the Convention: Obama is moving his speech tomorrow to a venue one-third the size, to avoid the rain, but that means about 40,000 people who had tickets to see the president can't get in. "The move may not play so well for Team Obama... in a state that is definitely in the toss-up column for November," says Politico.

Madonna Jr: She's got a grueling winter concert schedule that comes to sunny Tacoma, Washington, in January.

Nate Silver on Obama's Prospects: "[O]ur forecast has moved toward Barack Obama over the past several days. It now gives him about a three-in-four chance of winning the Electoral College on Nov. 6."

Better than Mitt: "At its peak, Michelle received 28,003 tweets per minute last night — nearly two times the peak of Mitt Romney’s RNC speech at 14,289 tweets per minute."

The Convention Is Really Gay: Gayer then ever, in fact, with 535 LGBT delegates.

Busted: The Seattle Times can't explain why they like GOP McKenna's budget plan, but to the extent that they do, well, Democrats have already done it. Good work, PubliCola.

Syria's Business: Iran is helping out Syria's government by shipping military supplies over Iraqi airspace.

More Gay Marriage at DNC: Zach Walls, the son of two lesbians, will speak.

Journalism Is the New Pity Fuck: Knight foundation gives $3.7 million to local reporting projects (full disclosure: the Knight Foundation is flying me to a conference on poverty journalism tomorrow).

We're Going to Rebuild a Neighborhood: City council approves replacing Yesler Terrace—its oldest central housing project—with towers and a mixed-income, mixed-use neighborhood on First Hill. The population will increase tenfold.

This Is the Headline: "Has Weird Otter Voice."

Shitty Conduit: Did anybody else catch Fox News's Greta Van Susteren interviewing Democrats after last night's convention speeches? Because all she wanted to talk about Dems removing the word "God" from their platform. Who decided to remove it? Do candidates care? They don't care? Is the platform meaningless? Don't they realize how angrrrrry that will make Greta van Susteren? In related news, CNN would be vastly improved with a robust absence of Wolf Blitzer.

Strip Club Refuses to Pay Taxes: Taking their case to court, they say dancing qualifies for tax exemptions as "live dramatic or musical arts performances."

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Comments (19) RSS

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I don't see anything here about the deadly shooting at Premier-elect Pauline Marois (Parti Quebecois)'s victory party. Unlike the US, political violence in Canada is extremely rare.

Posted by Keister Button on September 5, 2012 at 9:02 AM

I thought for sure that today's morning news would include the homeless man swimming naked in green lake.

Posted by Gay Dude for Romney

on September 5, 2012 at 9:22 AM

Mentions of god or religion are supposed to be out-of-place for a political convention. Politicians are not only not required to divulge their religious beliefs, they're specifically protected from doing so in the Constitution.

Posted by Urgutha Forka on September 5, 2012 at 9:29 AM

Weird otter voice. I concur.

@3: Remember, the Republican party seems to think that being a Muslim should disqualify someone from holding the Presidency, in flagrant disregard of Article 6, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution of the United States.

Posted by venomlash on September 5, 2012 at 9:41 AM

This picture is all anyone ever needs to know about Wolf Blitzer. Or Andy Richter, for that matter.

Posted by Ruke on September 5, 2012 at 10:25 AM

The Dem's keynoter mentioned God at least 10 times.

Posted by sarah70 on September 5, 2012 at 10:30 AM

If you understand that Van Susteren is simply abiding by her right wing paymasters for the propaganda outfit she works for, it makes sense.

Posted by neo-realist on September 5, 2012 at 10:39 AM

I wonder when the fucking Times will just give in and officially become The FOX Network Seattle Times.

Posted by balderdash

on September 5, 2012 at 10:40 AM

What, no mention of me twisting my ankle yesterday? What kind of shitty newspaper are you guys running here?

Posted by MacCrocodile

on September 5, 2012 at 10:45 AM

@5 LOL
Wolf - what a fucking stupid name - LOL

Posted by dnt trust me on September 5, 2012 at 10:53 AM

@10, what a stupid comment. It's a Jewish name, and he could have changed it but didn't. Find something a bit more mature to complain about.

Posted by sarah70 on September 5, 2012 at 10:57 AM

11- Oh I'm sorry. I should study more about Judaism. No complaints here however.

Posted by dnt trust me on September 5, 2012 at 11:02 AM

That completely sucks about Obama's speech!

Posted by treefort on September 5, 2012 at 11:30 AM

@12 -
Wolf (short for Wolfgang) is an unremarkable first name in German-speaking countries. It's not necessarily Jewish. Exhibit #1: Mozart's first name was Wolfgang, and he was Roman Catholic in 1700s Austria.

Posted by Demetria on September 5, 2012 at 12:21 PM

Meta: This blog entry doesn't have the "News" tag on it, so my usual "Favorited" URL didn't find today's news...I was slightly worried.

Posted by DropPhone on September 5, 2012 at 1:08 PM

If pornography is protected as free speech, then surely any tax that applies to nude dancing but not to dancers who are fully clothed would have to be unconstitutional, no? This is content-based discrimination.

Posted by long-time reader on September 5, 2012 at 1:19 PM

@16,

I very seriously doubt that. Lots of stuff is taxed differently despite all falling under the definition of free speech. Why do I have to pay sales tax on a copy of The Seagull, but, if I see it performed live, I apparently don't have to pay a tax?

If the courts decide that stripping counts under the exemption, then strip clubs don't have to pay, but there's nothing stopping the legislature from passing a specific law levying taxes on strip clubs and only strip clubs.

Posted by keshmeshi on September 5, 2012 at 1:50 PM

It's Zach Wahls not Walls you rank amateur!

Posted by Weekilter on September 5, 2012 at 1:54 PM