Gerry Pollet--the 46th District candidate whose supporters sued to have his opponent, Scott White, removed from the August primary election ballot after White attempted to withdraw from the race, then changed his mind--lost his challenge in King County Superior Court this morning. Pollet wanted to prove that King County Elections officials had not told the truth when they said White's faxed withdrawal came in five minutes late (and wasn't received until the next morning), and that they reinstated him for other reasons. That claim was rejected in Superior Court by Judge John P. Erlick.

The question really isn't "Why didn't we think of this," Jen, but "Why don't we do this too?"

Every time I pass through George H. W. Bush airport in Houston, Texas, or the Reagan National in D.C., this thought runs through my head: One day I'm gonna fly into George W. Bush International Airport and my head is going to explode. The right is aggressive about getting shit named after their ex-presidents—anyone flown into William J. Clinton International Airport lately? or James Carter International?—and the left isn't. It's part of their Great Man/Dear Leader/crypto-fascist schtick.

Anyway, you can bet your ass that when Mr. 23% is out of office—oh, blessed day—right-wing sycophants will set about memorializing W by naming airports, highways, federal buildings, flower pots, and children after him. This name-shit-after-W campaign will organized and aggressive and it will have two primary goals: Make right-wingers feel better about voting the moron into office in the first place (exonerating themselves, really, for the damage he's done to this country) and confuse future generations of voters about just how universally loathed this president was.

So naming naming sewage treatment plants—or other suitably disgusting facilities—after the bastard seems like a great idea to me. The campaign to name shit after W once he's out of office will be political; a political campaign to name sewage plants after him before he gets out of office is just good defense. And it is not, as some in the comments would have it, a waste of time and effort. Humor has its place at the ballot box. If gathering signatures to memorialize W in this way gets people involved, and if the chance to name a sewage treatment plant after W brings more people to the polls (or their mailboxes) come November, then it's all to to the good.

So: What shall we name after the bastard?

Do you know why you're voting Republican? No? Well! Below you shall find all of the very best reasons in the universe...

Why didn't we think of this?

The Senator from New York went back to work this afternoon, and according to Politico received royal welcome.

I'm glad she's back, and hope she took a nice vacation. I also hope she's there to fix the government, not fix the race.

Work it.

You're tooling around on Facebook, you've exhausted every other possible diversion for the day, and deep down, you wish you could join John McCain in his quest to end the practice of government-subsidized earmarks. This train of thought might have led to frustration and sadness, if not complete existential despair, if not for...
Pork Invaders!

The premise of Pork Invaders is much like the premise of Space Invaders, only instead of aliens, you're blasting tiny pigs meant to represent wasteful government subsidies. And the little laser that blasts the aliens nows says 'Veto.' Also, the extra lives are represented by John McCain's somewhat draconian-looking campaign logo.

The reward for beating the level is a small tutorial on John McCain's record on government spending versus Barack Obama's. A minor spoiler: McCain believes his record is better, which is why his picture is smiling and Obama's is locked in a kind of grimace—probably as he contemplates all the government tax dollars he's wasted.

In the end, the message becomes muddled: Slowly but surely, the pork closes in on you, and the Straight-Talk Laser Express becomes overwhelmed by the sheer weight and speed of government waste—you can almost picture a pixelated Sen. Robert Byrd dancing on its ashes as he builds another highway in his own honor. It’s kind of a downer, but then again, so is a great deal of John McCain’s run for the presidency.

No, not those candidates. Not those candidates, either. The candidates I'm talking about are John Burbank and Reuven Carlyle, running for the Washington state legislature from Northwest Seattle's 36th District, which includes Ballard, Magnolia, parts of Phinney and Greenwood, and Interbay. Here's what it looks like:

Every election season, the city's district Democratic organizations put candidates through an endorsement process that can only be described as hellish. Interviews are followed by debates in hot church basements and candidate questionnaires that can run to more than a dozen pages. And even after all that, thanks to the Party's byzantine rules and procedural bylaws, they frequently fail to endorse any candidate at all, and just as often issue a dual endorsement.

Although the results are often a letdown, the questionnaires themselves frequently yield interesting details. (How else would we know, for example, that now-City Council member Tim Burgess supported elements of the PATRIOT Act? Or that Richard McIver challenger Robert Rosencrantz had only "qualified" support for women's right to choose?) Although the questions tend to be invasive, pointless, and repetitive (Are you a Democrat? Do you support the Democratic Party platform? Have you ever been a member of another party?) the answers can be revealing.

For example:

Asked whether he supported the King County Democrats' party platform, Carlyle gave a "qualified" response," adding pointedly, "I do not support creation of a Department of Peace and Nonviolence as the work articulated [in the party platform] is, in fact, the current moral and public obligation of both the Department of State and Department of Defense."

Asked a similar question about whether he could support his opponent if he didn't win, Burbank took the opposite approach, accusing Carlyle of being insufficiently Democratic. "My Democratic opponent is opposed to the impeachment of George Bush," he wrote. "I favor this impeachment, even as his term comes to an end. ... It will ... cross up [Bush's] apparent plans for the invasion of Iran."

Carlyle used the question "Are you a member of another political party?" to overshare--at great, great, great length--about his impoverished upbringing, starting with his toddler years "living outside the care of my single mom who struggled at that time with mental illness." Snark aside, his story is touching ("I began my first real business with regular customers, mowing lawns, at nine to help my mother keep our family together financially") and sometimes glamorous (he left home permanently at 15 to become a page for Warren Magnuson?) if a bit overlong.

Burbank wasn't buying Carlyle's rags-to-riches story, painting him as a rich, privileged businessman who made "different" life decisions than did Burbank. "He has chosen to work in the private sector to create private and personal wealth while I have chosen to work in the public sector working for the public good and for Democratic ideals," Burbank wrote.

Carlyle also touched on the fact that even with Democratic majorities in the state house and senate, Democrats in this state continue to vote against their constituents' interests (failing to protect Maury Island from strip-mining; failing to cap payday loan interest rates; failing to pass a homebuyers' bill of rights; failing to pass meaningful tax reform). Carlyle, suddenly sounding very Barack Obama, called this "govern[ing] with fear of losing instead of conviction for change."

Asked whether the government should pay for abortions for poor women, Burbank said yes (as did Carlyle) but went one (perhaps poorly worded) step further: "In fact, I support public funding for abortions for all women." (Hmm, let's start with birth control first, shall we?)

Burbank's campaign theme is reducing inequality, but his solutions tend, by his own admission, toward piecemeal taxes and penalties. For example, in his questionnaire, Burbank said he supports (re-)enacting a special cigarette tax to pay for basic health-care coverage for low-income people, a new hourly payroll tax to fund paid family leave, and the "latte tax" for early childhood education, which he wrote, sponsored, and funded.

Carlyle had some harsh words to say about that tax, which failed 68 to 32 percent. "I support progressive taxes and progressive benefits and strongly resist incremental programs and taxes that do nothing but lose credibility for larger tax reform," Carlyle wrote.

Responding to criticism of luxury taxes, Burbank wrote: "In the absence of an income tax, piecemeal luxury taxes can hep fund some crucial public services." And he blames "conservative opponents of any taxes" for the resounding loss of his latte tax in liberal Seattle.

And Time is all over it. But it seems that Time's Jay Newton-Small runs with a different class of cuckolds than I do....

It's a fine line Lieberman's walking and one that could have serious consequences. The Democrats are well-positioned to pick up several Senate seats in November and if he's no longer the 51st vote, Lieberman may find himself facing open calls to throw him out of the caucus. No one likes to play the cuckold for long, sooner or later they ask for a divorce.

Hm. The cucks I hear from at Savage Love never tire of watching other men fuck their wives senseless. But here's hoping Dems pick up 10 seats this November, for a filibuster-proof majority, and that they're so sick of watching Lieberman eat John McCain's ass that they toss him the fuck out of their caucus.

Via Horse's Ass: At an appearance yesterday at the Building Industry Association of Washington's annual luncheon, gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi was introduced by BIAW president Brad Spears as a “candidate who believes as BIAW believes.”

Goldy points out:

Um… the BIAW believes a lot of things Dino, some more offensive than others. So if you don’t believe as they do, that DOE’s stormwater regulations are the moral equivalent of the Holocaust*, isn’t it time you set the record straight and denounce your patrons at the BIAW (an organization that has made your election their top priority in 2008) for their violent, offensive and over-the-top rhetoric?

* And attributed global-warming and growth-management legislation to "radical environmentalists". And referred to Gov. Christine Gregoire as a "heartless, power-hungry she-wolf who would eat her own young to get ahead." And referred to her supporters as "witches."

UPDATE: The plot thickens. A group of Pollet supporters has filed a formal challenge to White's candidacy in King County Superior Court, alleging that "County Elections Division Director Sherril Huff improperly allowed Scott White, a senior County political appointee with ties to the County Executive, to have his candidacy reinstated after White filed a signed form withdrawing his candidacy on Thursday, June 12th."

One of the complainants, Karen Deyerle, says the group's goal is "not to get Scott off the ballot or to get the elections office in trouble," but "to have the court review and validate that everything was done properly according to the law." She continues: "The question in all of our minds is exactly what happened, because we’ve been getting conflicting information."

Deyerle says she also plans to file an ethics complaint against White with the county on Monday.

Full story, including background info, continues below.

Gerry Pollet, one of two Democrats seeking a seat in the state Legislature from the 46th district (see my exhaustive coverage here, here, and here) has received a letter from King County Elections that one supporter calls "the final word" on whether Pollet's opponent, Scott White, will be allowed to remain in the race. (White attempted to withdraw from the race, but elections says they didn't receive his withdrawal form--sent from a King County fax machine in violation of county ethics rules--until well past the deadline. Complicating matters, the form was time-stamped several hours before the deadline, a fact White attributes to a faulty fax machine and which Pollet has contested.)

And the final word is? White can stay in the race. According to the letter, written by elections director Sherril Huff,

Scott White's attempted request to withdraw his candidacy was not filed with King County Elections by the deadline. According to King County Elections fax activity report, the withdrawal document was received by King County at 4:35 p.m. on June 12th. (The report states that the document was received at 15:35 and the fax machine is one hour behind.) Though Mr. White may have intended to file the withdrawal prior to the deadline, it was not received by King County Elections on time and as a result, RCW 29A.24.131 mandates that the request be rejected.

Contrary to the assertion in your letter, my decision to reject Mr. White's request to withdraw is not based on any verbal request from him. It is based on my reading of RCW 29A.24.131 and the fact that Mr. White's request to withdraw was not filed with my office before the deadline. Mr. White is being treated as any other candidate in the same situation would.

I've got a call in to Pollet to find out whether he plans to pursue his efforts to remove White from the race.

In other White-Pollet news, the two candidates received a dual endorsement from the 46th District Democrats last night (a separate vote from the official "nomination," which went to Pollet after a confusing battle that's documented here). That vote, too, was reportedly complicated.

Women-hating extremist Barack Obama (and his band of fellow women-hating staffers) strikes again, this time during feminism-activist John McCain's conference call regarding campaign finance. You see, Obama's spokesman tried to interrupt the call and state Obama's position, and... forget it. Just read the quote, and die a little inside:

UPDATE: [McCain Communications Director] Hazelbaker writes in to add an even tougher shot at Burton's gambit, raising the gender card.

"This type of boys-club bullying embodies an arrogance better suited for a frat house than a serious campaign about serious issues," she says.

The context is kind of hard to explain: Somewhere down the hideous rabbit-hole of this campaign season, the conventional wisdom became that the best way to disseminate information to the press was via endless rounds of conference calls. Which is perfect, in a 'most-of-the-campaign-workers-already-seem-to-be-disembodied-voices-of-malice' sense.

So, an Obama staffer attempts to interrupt McCain's conference call, and the most disgusting, lurid kind of sexism seeps through. The kind of sexism directed from one man to another, on an issue that has absolutely nothing to do with either party's gender. Also, it's like a fraternity, in that fraternities have given up on GHB and moved into the more nuanced field of disrupting political phone calls.

Am I right, ladies?

The 527s—those frisky, often fact-free independent campaigns that brought us the tragic verb 'swift-boated'—appear to be coming undone at high speed, and for two very different reasons. On the left, Senator Obama is cutting off their traditional sources of funding, hoping to direct his campaign's message down to the syllable. On the right is Senator McCain:

The truth is that, less than five months before Election Day, there are no serious anti-Obama 527s in existence nor are there any immediate plans to create such a group.

Conversations with more than a dozen Republican strategists find near unanimity in the belief that, at some point, there will be a real third-party effort aimed at Obama.

But not one knows who will run it, who will pay for it, what shape it will eventually take or when such a group may form.

Jonathan Martin's write-up focuses big on a couple of reasons why John McCain doesn't seem to be winning the affections of those who would target Obama.

The first appears to be John McCain's open derision of independent political organizations, even those that aired ads on purely positive terms for him during his primary campaign. Early in the process, when Romneys and Giulianis walked the earth, McCain had called for outlaw 527s in their entirety, and made it known that he wouldn’t tolerate them working on his behalf. While his position has softened, nothing says, 'Advocate for me!' like knowing that the man you're making ads for thinks you're a kind of mean, ethically-challenged reptile that should be thrown in prison.

The other missing cog is Senator Clinton: They really, really wanted to run against Hillary.

“We spent 18 months and millions of dollars making Hillary: The Movie," laments David Bossie, head of Citizens United and a longtime Clinton tormentor. “We’re incredibly proud, but the problem is the film has no relevance anymore.”

I bet Hillary: The Movie would have been pretty fantastic. Bossie says he intends to make an Obama film featuring such beloved cast members as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but Obama doesn't have the same vintage appeal to the id of the conservative right.

How many bodies are in Arkansas landfills because of Barack Obama’s clandestine cocaine-smuggling ring? My guess would be considerably less than those deposited by the Clinton family. And how do you make a film out of that?

This weekend, June 21-22, people all over the country are hosting bake sales to support Barack Obama's campaign for the White House.

To find a sale near you, go to moveon.org and enter your zip code.

Some of the ones in the city include:

Sat June 21, 12:00 PM
Corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Union St
Let's help get Obama in the White House! We're having a bake sale to raise funds for MoveOn's efforts to elect Obama--Please spread the word!

Sun June 22, 2:00 PM
The War Room, 722 E Pike St
Seattle DJs and nightlife participants come together!!! The War Room, The Original Hot Mess and Re:launch HitGirl host HUNGRY FOR CHANGE! Come purchase all sorts of delectible goodies, listen to some of Seattle's hottest DJs spinning music from all genres, mingle with some of Seattle's NightLife Celebutantes - all on the lovely rooftop deck at The War Room! ALL MONEY RAISED GOES TO MOVEON.ORG TO HELP PUT BARACK OBAMA INTO THE WHITE HOUSE!

Sun June 22, 10:00 AM
Alaska Junction/corner of Alaska SW & California Ave SW
Zeb and Celeste are 10 and 7. They've been following the election closely and want to do something to make sure "we don't end up with another scary president." Bring your kids on down for a treat!

Sun June 22, 2:00 PM
Gasworks Park
Come out to a rocking bake sale on a sunny day in Seattle. Shrug off that summer diet for a day to support that main man, Obama. We hope to have some Barack-oli quiche on hand, and plenty of brownies for sale to help support MoveOn's campaign for Obama.

More complete listings after the jump.

Continue reading "Snacking for Obama" »

A recent email from my friend Erika, an anthropology Ph.D. student at Indiana University, who is studying in Beijing. (She and I have been going back and forth about my reactionary antipathy for the Dalai Lama.)

I am having a very complicated morning. I'm trying to help a teacher here with very limited English skills to find an apartment in Bloomington where she will be teaching Chinese next year. I just found a very promising furnished place and then discovered through a google search of the landlord's very unique-sounding name ("Kunga Norbu") that he is a nephew of the Dalai Lama (whose brother lives in Bloomington). Zoinks! There goes that option.

In the Senate, a handful of Republicans are holding up the expansion of the Global AIDS Bill, pretty much the only program fro the current administration that doesn't make me completely want to tear my hair out.

From the AP:

Some conservatives are also leery of more money going into politically sensitive prevention programs involving the distribution of condoms, male circumcision or family planning. Conservatives already have had to give up a provision in the 2003 act that required that one-third of all HIV prevention funds be spent on abstinence programs. In turn, liberals accepted some restrictions on family planning groups participating in AIDS programs.

.

Abstinence programs? Still? Really? I thought that ship had sailed. I guess in the Land of Magical Thinking it's still a viable option, despite evidence to the contrary.

But wait! What's this? It's not really about abstinence?

While the program has wide bipartisan support, the White House and many Republicans objected to the original Democratic-crafted draft because it removed a provision requiring that a certain amount be spent on abstinence programs and bolstered links between AIDS treatment and family planning. Some Republicans said that would open the way for family planning groups to spend money on abortions.

.

You see? It's about protecting God's precious, innocent life in the womb from those embryo-sucking monsters at Planned Parenthood and the like, not providing treatment to the dirty sinners that have successfully fought their way past the birth canal to find that life is nasty, brutal, and short.

Politics as usual. Good morning Slog.

As I mentioned in my column this week, King County Executive Ron Sims is facing probable opposition in his bid for reelection from King County Council member Larry Phillips. So as you can imagine, things have been a little tense around the county courthouse. To alleviate some of the pressure, Sims recently hired consultant Heather Andersen to conduct focus groups of county staffers to, according to an email from county council chair Ross Baker, "discuss relations between the King County Council and Executive." The consultant, the email notes, was a finalist to conduct this year's council retreat, and "is highly regarded locally."

Last week, though, the focus group was abruptly canceled after it came to light that the consultant Sims chose was more than just a highly qualified mediator. In fact, Andersen was a donor to Sims's campaign--and even served as a "table captain" at Sims's campaign kickoff at the downtown Westin this past Tuesday morning. And Andersen's relationship with Sims goes back even further--she was the lead plaintiff in the case challenging Washington State's Defense of Marriage Act, AKA Andersen v. Sims a lawsuit gay-marriage supporter Sims wholeheartedly encouraged.

Speaking of executive-council relations, Sims sent a frosty four-page (!) letter to King County Council members in response to a disparaging statement his likely opponent Phillips made after Sims announced a $68 million county deficit. In 2005, Phillips charged, Sims declared that "the era of big budget deficits is over"--a statement Phillips is likely to use on the campaign trail to portray Sims as asleep at the wheel while the county drove off a cliff. Sims's letter says Phillips took that statement out of context.

I take great exception to Mr. Phillips' statement that I have somehow jeopardized public safety funding which I have prioritized each year in my proposed budgets. His press release ignores the very next two sentences in the same speech that warn of the need for diligence. Later in the speech I say the structural deficit has not been permanently solved and highlight the need for annexations of urban unincorporated areas.

The letter goes on to quote several subsequent Sims speeches at length, and concludes,

Given Mr. Phillips' press release, I have asked Mr. [Budget Director Bob] Cowan to make a follow-up presentation to the County Council ... to provide an update on our financial status... and answer any questions councilmembers may have.

Finally, I am disappointed that this letter is even necessary. The Sheriff, the Prosecutor and the Judges did not politicize this problem or point fingers when describing the criminal justice impacts of the cuts faced by King County. Neither did I. ...

For your convenience I am also attaching a copy of my full remarks from last Thursday.

It is unfortunate that Mr. Phillips has chosen to make the 2009 budget challenge a political issue as the problem was created by reality, not rhetoric. It can only be solved by creativity and collaboration, not competition and conflict.

Of course the budget is a political issue, and will continue to be so throughout the campaign.

And speaking of Sims's reelection campaign, his kickoff reportedly featured an (unintentionally?) ironic call-and-response: "There's a train coming! Get on board!" Sims opposed last year's roads and transit measure and has been cool to the idea of putting Sound Transit expansion on the ballot in 2008.

This woman is for real.

Check the skirt. Dries Van Noten, I think.

[It's Mark Mitchell is your new guest Slogger. I know you'll make him feel welcome.]

I wasn't old enough to appreciate Jacqueline Kennedy before she became the Jackie Oh! of my soon-to-be misspent youth. I do remember the Mrs. Onassis years as deeply glam—nude sunbathing, the Christina, sister Lee the Polish Princess by her side. Even at 10 I wondered how often Jackie had to actually do the trollionaire. Rona Barrett fed my taste for the sordid. (Notice Ari's cowboy boots. He wanted the height).

I barely remember Pat Nixon, vague and ladylike, but that mighty wave of teased hair is burned onto my retinas. My Aunt Zoo Zoo had hair like that. She'd have it set once a week at the beauty parlor, and it was always lacquered stiff, but strangely flexible, like spun fiberglass.

There's a great story about Betty Ford, drunk before some grand state dinner, sitting quietly on the side of her bed, but too swacked on hooch and goofballs to put on her little evening slippers. Here with Hirohito she looks totally blissed out. Can't tell if she's wearing shoes or not.

Rosalyn Carter was like my mother, down to earth and country. Rosalyn favored Simplicity patterns. I suspect she hand-stitched this joint herself.

Then along came Nancy, she-beast of the 1980s.

I hated this woman with a fiery passion throughout her and her Depend-able husband's reign of terror. I would wrack my filthy imagination to come up with the most appalling imaginary tortures for her. For me, she was the Marie Antoinette of all that was callous and entitled, as it seemed like everyone I knew was, or soon would be, sick or dying. She wore Adolfo's big, ugly copies of Chanel suits in hideous red tweeds with giant gold buttons. Big gold chains. Witch.

Barbara Bush has had (at least!) two Presidents of the United States of America inside her vagina. Still, she strikes me as nothing more than a spoiled rhinoceros in a powdered wig.

Of Hillary, I cannot speak today.

But Michelle Obama is everything amazing and strong.

The saga surrounding Scott White--a Democratic candidate for state legislature in North Seattle's 46th District who got pneumonia, withdrew (or tried to withdraw), changed his mind, and got back in (or didn't) again--continues.

Last night, White broke his long illness-related silence to tell his side of what had happened. According to White's telling of events, after he was diagnosed with pneumonia and told he would not be able to doorbell for "a couple of months," he decided to pull out of race "based solely on my health." So at "the end of the day" last Thursday, June 12, he faxed a form to King County elections withdrawing from the race. However, the elections office didn't receive the form until 4:35--after the deadline for candidates to withdraw their names from the primary election. "Not only did I fax it after the deadline, but they received it after the deadline," White said.

Here's where it gets weird(er): The fax White sent in includes a time stamp of 1:29 pm--three hours before King County Elections officials say they received it, and not the "end of the day," when White says he sent it. However, a fax log provided by King County elections shows the fax coming in at 3:35--actually 4:35, elections spokewoman Megan Coppersmith says, because the fax machine was never adjusted for Daylight Savings Time. White says the machine he used had a faulty time stamp (I've got a call in to his office to find out), but his opponent Gerry Pollet disputes this, arguing that the 1:30 time stamp speaks for itself.

In any case, elections spokeswoman Megan Coppersmith says her office believes White is "absolutely" still in the race. In an email, a spokesman for the Washington Secretary of State's office confirmed that his office, too, considers White still in the running. In White's words, "As far as I’m concerned, this is an administrative matter. I am a candidate in this race, I’ve been told that I’m a candidate in this race by King County Elections, and I'm totally confident about this race."

But those statements are hotly contested by White's opponent Pollet, who has said that if his opponent "wants to stay on the ballot, he’ll have to go get a lawyer." Pollet has filed several records requests seeking to find out whether any withdrawals filed after White's were accepted (King County received at least four other candidate withdrawals from the August primary) and exactly what time White actually sent in the withdrawal form.

In another twist, White sent the form from an office at King County (White works in the county's facilities management division, which answers to King County Executive Ron Sims)--a violation of the county's ethics code, which bars both personal use of county equipment and using county equipment for campaign purposes. Although White notes that he paid the executive's office $1.50 to send the fax, a spokeswoman for Sims, Natasha Jones, says that doesn't excuse sending a campaign document from a public fax machine. "You're not supposed to use county resources for campaign work, and that’s very clear and were very diligent about it," Jones said. Had they known what White was doing, she says, "we would have told him you need to go somewhere else." Ironically, the office arrived at the $1.50 figure by looking up the fee charged the nearest copy shop--which just happens to be on the ground floor of the county building.

Pollet compares the whole thing to a "circus." When I pointed out that it was a circus largely of his making (because of the way he has relentlessly tried to draw attention to it)—and over a $1.50 charge and a campaign he had assumed would include White until White tried to pull out—he replied, "[White] definitely withdrew his candidacy on Thursday before any deadline." As for the $1.50 fax, he says, "It’s not about whether or not you pay for it. It’s illegal to use a county fax machine for private use."

One other thing that remains unresolved is how White came to be listed on King County Elections' web site as "withdrawn." Coppersmith says she doesn't know who made that notation, but says it was an "error. Our web site is a working web site and it wasn’t final until Tuesday (June 17), when all of the information was listed and stated as official," she says.

It's unclear how this whole drama will end. King County and the state consider White to be in the race; Pollet seems determined to do all he can to get White out of it. If both opponents stay in, it's going to be a long campaign--assuming both candidates make it through the August "top two" primary (a safe bet in the solidly Democratic 46th), they're going to be running against each other until November.

Via Instaputz comes the exciting news that the George W. Bush Store has a new line of items to commemorate the last days of Dubya's historic reign. Items such as the "Thank You President Bush" yard sign ($7.95 each, or $4.25 each if purchased in packs of 50-99) and "W Thank You" travel tumbler (also $7.95).

Best of all is the site's welcome note:

As licensee for the last eight years to the George W. Bush Presidential Campaigns, and as the creator of the George W. Bush Store, Spalding Group has been fortunate to experience the tremendous popularity and respect that President Bush has attained. As President Bush enters his last year in office, we are receiving countless requests for new items that allow supporters to demonstrate their appreciation and admiration for our President.

Meanwhile:

Less than one-quarter of Americans think President George W. Bush is doing a good job, giving him the worst marks of his two-term presidency, a poll showed Tuesday.

The poll also showed 80 percent think the United States is on the wrong track.

Only 24 percent of those surveyed gave Bush a positive rating, a score "worse than that of any president, except for Jimmy Carter (22 percent in July 1980) since Harris first started measuring them," the Harris polling agency, which conducted the survey, said.

Bush's previous low came in April, when 26 percent of Americans said he was doing a good job.

The Massachusetts School of Law at Andover is preparing to convene a conference to try President Bush as a war criminal:

"This is not intended to be a mere discussion of violations of law that have occurred," says MSL's dean Lawrence Velvel in a statement announcing the conference. "It is, rather, intended to be a planning conference at which plans will be laid and necessary organizational structures set up, to pursue the guilty as long as necessary and, if need be, to the ends of the Earth."

The dean, who I imagine as looking exactly like Keith Olbermann, goes on:

"We must insist on appropriate punishments," Velvel said, "including, if guilt is found, the hangings visited upon top German and Japanese war-criminals in the 1940s." Sending administration officials to the gallows, he added, "would be a powerful lesson to future American leaders."

Um, wow. Maybe we should wait until after the election to talk about this, guys.

The recent NBC poll on Hispanic preference for the next president isn't just interesting for the fact that a major piece of conventional wisdom appears to have been based on mind-blowingly inane supposition—it's also interesting for the fact that the NBC political team is using the kind of language that makes it nearly impossible for anyone to continue using Obama's Hispanic problem as a talking point and retain any kind of credibility.

In addition to our recent NBC/WSJ poll, which showed Hispanics breaking for Obama 62%-28%, a new survey of 800 Latino voters from 21 states finds that 60% of them plan to vote for Obama versus 23% for McCain. That is down considerably from the 40%-plus Bush received in 2004. It’s no longer fair to say that Obama has a problem with Latino voters; McCain does. This was a case of conventional wisdom that was never based on fact, just semi-informed speculation based on primary exit polling and bad stereotypes of Latinos.

Polling is a really shoddy way to make a fact-based argument, unless the polling indicates a seismic 37% gap between two candidates. In which case, it is probably safe to say that Hispanic voters favored Clinton over Obama, but overwhelmingly favor Obama over McCain.

Unsuccessful runs for the presidency—and especially campaigns that show that faint glimmer of success, only to be stomped on by the realities of the process—seem to adhere to a kind of ghoulish, ‘high school yearbook signing’ orthodoxy. Everyone promises that this is only the beginning of a lifetime friendship, and then they form a political action committee, and then they slowly cease having any relevance in your life.

It would appear that Ron Paul wants to sign your yearbook.

The Revolution was officially suspended last Friday night, and has now contorted itself into The Campaign for Liberty, which will carry forth the Paul message of limited government, airships, and tearing down the elaborate Rothschild-created banking structures that secretly run our lives from cradle-to-grave.

Here are some of the choicer ‘grassroots’ moments from their “Strategy” section:

• Encouraging the formation of discussion groups and book clubs at the local level to help people learn more about our ideas.

• Establishing a speakers bureau to give presentations around the country about the great principles we champion.

• Developing materials for homeschooling families, to help them educate their children in history, sound economics, and related fields.

Obviously, what doomed fellow Texan Ross Perot’s independent efforts to reshape the American electorate was his unwillingness to declare to his followers that it was finally time to yank their children out of school and give them a Perot-based education on the cruel realities of history and economics.

To digress slightly, there is a precedent for what Paul is hoping to do here: you don’t need to look any further than Howard Dean’s perch as Chairman of the Democratic Party to see that movement-based politics, if applied with enough enticements for the existing power structure, can actually change things.

But the problem is, Paul doesn’t want control of something as minor as the leadership of some National Committee. He wants to tear down the party and reshape it into a cross between an oddly noble brand of Jeffersonian literalism and shrill pamphleteering for backwoods militia groups. And unlike Dean, the Revolution isn't interested in incremental change. Its brand of politics is as unpalatable to the Republican Party as the Green Party's is to the Democrats.

When you combine that with Paul’s decision to toss out his real leverage, which would have been a third party run for the presidency… well, it doesn’t seem to bode well for the future prospects of the Revolution. Which must be of some relief to the Rothschild-Rockefeller banking axis, and a cruel arrow to the heart of the the nascent zeppelin industry.

On the 225,000 signature mark--the total needed to get his HOV-lane-killing, toll-revenue-hogging, road-building-happy Initiative 985 on the ballot in November. Eyman hopes to get 275,000 signatures total, to account for duplicates and signatures that get tossed for other reasons.

If Eyman's relentless pleas to supporters for money are successful, he'll have more than $600,000 to spend on his initiative --a total that amounts to about $2.25 a signature, or about twice the going rate for the paid signature gatherers Eyman relies on to push his pseudopopulist initiatives.

Washington State Sen. Curtis King.

George W. Bush suggests there might be more President Bushes in our future.

Forty-sixth legislative district candidate Scott White is perhaps best known for claiming victory in the nomination battle for his district--hours after his opponent, Gerry Pollet, won the nomination in an initial ballot count, and based on an "extra" ballot found in the home of one of his supporters long after the official counts were over. Pollet, as I've written on Slog, was later declared the "official" nominee. That designation, however, doesn't mean much, because neither candidate can use it on the election ballot--instead, both will run with "prefers Democrat" next to their names, under the new "top two" primary system that goes into effect this year.

Things got even weirder this afternoon, when White--reportedly suffering from pneumonia and ordered to stay home for several weeks--became despondent and decided to withdraw from the race.

However, once he'd submitted his withdrawal form (and spoken to his consultant), White reportedly had a change of heart, and has decided to stay in--a change he will have to make official by 4:30 today.

White did not return calls for comment.

The developer-backed group that planned to spend more than $100,000 promoting city council candidate Venus Velazquez--until her drunk-driving arrest derailed her campaign?

Well, they're back, and they're gearing up for next year's city elections.

In an email last week, PAC founder Joe Quintana invited Forward Seattle members and supporters to meet up at the downtown offices of Gogerty Stark Marriott, "to discuss how we can ensure the election of candidates who are committed to keeping Seattle competitive. The goal of this meeting is to emerge with a short-list of candidates we might support and developing a game plan to ensure success."

Any candidate Forward Seattle decides to back will be able to draw on a strong base of developer support; already, a year and a half before the 2009 election, Forward Seattle has an impressive $78,000 in the bank, and can count on much more from the big developers and builder PACs that make up its donor base. At the moment, Forward Seattle's top donors include the development company Touchstone Corporation ($10,000); South Lake Union developer Vulcan, Inc. ($10,000); downtown developer and landowner Clise Properties ($10,000); construction-industry PAC Builders United in Legislative Development ($10,000) public-affairs consultant Quintana ($5,500); Bellevue real estate developer Robert Wallace ($5,000); downtown developer and monorail bad guy Martin Selig ($5,000); the King and Snohomish County Master Builders Association ($5,000); and downtown developer William Justen ($5,000), mining company Glacier Northwest ($1,000); and many others.

Not to harp on this, but my suggestion a couple of days ago that you should take your protest vote against wrongheaded patriarchy aficionado Barack Obama and cast it for Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney… that was satire. I don’t really feel comfortable advocating for anyone to cast their vote any particular way, but I especially don’t feel comfortable at the idea that someone would cast it for a congresswoman who sponsored a bill to get to the bottom of The Conspiracy Against Tupac Shakur.

Why even bother mentioning this? Well, here are the co-chairs of the University of Iowa Students for Hillary, proving once again that Slog jokes are no match for the depressing realities of other people:

Nikki and I have decided that now is a good time to get this overwith. Barring a DREAM TICKET scenario or a scenario in which HILLARY WINS THE NOMINATION, which we see as unlikely at this time, we endorse John McCain for President.

This was a VERY tough decision, those of you that know me know I am extremely passionate about our party. I feel that it has moved away from me. We will not campaign for John McCain, but we will vote for him, and urge others to do the same.

For those of you who just can't stomach McCain, we suggest you look into Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party candidate. She is an African American woman from Georgia and is a former member of the House.

This is but three paragraphs of a Unabomber-chic manifesto of supposed wrongs against Senator Clinton, often emphasizing important POINTS with CAPS TO MAKE SURE you can read them. For what it’s worth, the head of the University of Iowa Democrats has since denounced and rejected the two authors of the press release.

From ABC News:

An organization that promotes sexual abstinence for teens received a federal grant of over a million dollars, twice what it had requested, despite the skepticism Department of Justice staffers had about the group and the fact that it refused to participate in a congressionally mandated study.

So why did the Best Friends Foundation receive the grant from the Justice Department's juvenile justice office even though dozens of competing organizations were rated higher by the office's own reviewers? Current and former staffers say it was because of Best Friends' powerful president and founder, Elayne Bennett.

Not only is Bennett the wife of Bill Bennett, a former Reagan and Bush administration official and conservative political commentator, but she is also personally close to the chief administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), J. Robert Flores.

Where to start?

The House has voted to send articles of impeachment against President Bush to a committee that is not likely to hold hearings before the end of his term....

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who ran for president earlier this year, insists that his resolution deserves more consideration.

The "Meet a Black Guy" booth at the Corvallis, Oregon farmers' market:

... this week, a table just outside the bazaar offered something more bizarre — “Meet a Black Guy.”

Those who participated in the free service could chat with 21-year-old Corvallis resident Jeff Oliver, and get pictures taken with him.

The booth was inspired by a similar project in Aspen, Colorado, courtesy of Improv Everywhere, the flash-mob/street-theater pranksters.

Prepare to be mildly horrified/amazed:

"Mom, c'mere! There's a black guy down here!"

(Thanks, Metafilter.)

Make that Bob Barr, the GOP elephant. Over at the Huffington Post, the former Republican congressman has announced he's had a change of heart.

I'll admit it, just five years ago I was "Public Enemy Number 1" in the eyes of the Libertarian Party. In my 2002 congressional race for Georgia's Seventh District, the Libertarian Party ran scathing attack ads against my stand on Medical Marijuana.

Today, I can reflect on my efforts and see no progress in stopping the widespread use of drugs. I'll even argue that America's drug problem is larger today than it was when Richard Nixon first coined the phrase, "War on Drugs," in 1972.

America's drug problem is only compounded by the vast amounts of money directed at this ongoing battle. In 2005, more than $12 billion was spent on federal drug enforcement efforts while another $30 billion was spent to incarcerate non-violent drug offenders.

Well, isn’t that nice of Barr? Now that he can’t do shit, he’s denounced the lock-'em-up prescript for dealing with drug problems. But in his tenure, Barr backed the most offensive piece of drug legislation in this country’s history: The Barr Amendment. That prevented Washington, D.C. from counting votes for a measure, supported by a majority of voters, that would have allowed access to medical marijuana for the sick and dying. Barr, in essence, was willing to suspend democracy to make sure sick people could be arrested.

His about-face is nothing more than a Naderesque attempt to wedge back into political relevance under the cloak of a third party. And his opposition to the drug war seems a lot like the strategy from Ron Paul, who conveniently co-opted the progressive drug-policy reform platform to earn liberal supporters, knowing full well that a) he’ll never be elected, and b) if he were, he'd never really try to decriminalize pot from the Oval Office.

Americans don’t need political pandering on this issue. We need effective alternatives and leaders who can actually implement them—needle exchanges, medical marijuana distribution programs run by the state, accurate drug information for kids, free on-demand walk-in meth treatment—not hackneyed condemnations of the drug war's bloated budget.

The tight-pocketed conservatives Barr is attempting to pander to may not want to pay for prisons, but they don’t want to pay for treatment, either. While reforming drug policy would save the country money, so would adopting policies based on racial justice, better health care, and compassion. Barr's record shows that on social issues, he has been an elephant at heart, even if he is running as a Libertarian. But, as the joke goes: What do you call the Libertarian health care plan? Don’t get sick.

But I am sick. Sick of White House press secretaries who foisted lies on the country and then tried to exonerate themselves by writing a tell-all book. Sick of generals who capitulated until they retired—then signed a deal with HarperCollins. Sick of Barr and his politics of convenience. Scott McClellan, Ricardo Sanchez, and Barr should have changed their positions when it actually mattered, not when it was politically convenient—and irrelevant.

Fresh off a career-ending prostitution scandal, New York State's biggest hypocrite (who, lest you've forgotten, shut down prostitution rings while simultaneously spending thousands of dollars on those same prostitution rings) has decided to make money the old-fashioned way: By picking at the dessicated bones of former homeowners who've lost their houses to foreclosure. According to the New York Sun, Spitzer is currently "shopping around a plan to start a vulture fund that would scoop up distressed real estate assets around the country, revamp them, and flip the properties for a profit.

Distressed real estate funds--better, and more colorfully, known as "vulture funds"--consist of pools of foreclosed houses sold for pennies on the dollar. They can be extremely lucrative, promising typical returns of more than 20 percent. According to the Sun, the former New York governor "is said to be envisioning projects valued between $100 million and $500 million."

On the bright side: At least he didn't become the Democratic nominee for President!

I know, shocking, right?

But still, this--via Slog tipper Jakob--is pretty far beyond the pale:

Eyman had paid signature gatherers at my campus today (WWU). They were African-American men decked out in Obama pins.

They approached me and ask me if I was a registered voter. I said yes, and that I was already volunteering on behalf of Obama. That's when they busted out with the whole I-985 thing. How deceitful, shameful and unethical of them to try to use Obama's name to get interest for Eyman's stupid initiative.

What would that stupid initiative do? Well, among other things, it would open up HOV lanes to non-HOV traffic for most of the day, including parts of the morning and evening rush hours; require toll revenues to be spent on roads, instead of transit; create a new road-expansion account; and ban tolls on SR-99, a recipe for massive congestion once the state starts tolling SR-520, the other bridge across Lake Washington. This isn't a measure you ought to sign just to "give it a shot at the polls"; it's a proposal all thinking people (that is, all people who support mass transit and/or don't want to make congestion worse) ought to do everything they can to keep off the ballot.

Writes Slog tipper Rebecca...

Slog, you are falling behind. It's been 24 hours since Kucinich read 35 articles of impeachment against President Bush, and you haven't posted about it. C'mon, where's the outrage that the Democratic party leadership still thinks that following up on impeachment would somehow hurt them? What happened to ITMFA?

Pigs in boots, indeed.

Rebecca drew our attention to this post at Kos, which gives a full accounting of Dennis Kucinich's efforts to impeach George W. Bush six months before the end of his second, admittedly disastrous, term. Still, if Bush is trying to gin up a war with Iran before his term expires, or negotiate a treaty with the Iraqi government that compels the next president to build 58 military bases in Iraq, maybe we do still need to impeach the motherfucker already...

Even, it seems, his batshitcrazy evangelical "base." Reuters:

U.S. President George W. Bush got polite applause Tuesday for his brief, pre-taped video address to the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest evangelical denomination, which is holding its annual meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana.

That stood in marked contrast to the standing ovations he received last year from the same group when he did a live broadcast link to its meeting in San Antonio.

And they don't much like John McCain either:

They are also cool towards presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain. Several interviewed by Reuters saw him as the lesser of two liberals in the November White House matchup with his Democratic rival Barack Obama.

[But first, a brief note: Remember when I was leaving the SLOG? Forever? Well, I'm back. Minus the '-unpaid intern' modifier. Thank you to the powers that be, and as Chairman Mao so aptly put it, "Let a thousand flowers bloom."]

While this weekend may have officially ended Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the presidency, for some the battle still rages. The time invested was too long, the emotional toll was too high, the hours of hard drugs and internet message-board rage too pure: nothing can make them cast a ballot for a woman-hating fanatic like Barack Obama.

Women are expected to only care about abortion - not their self respect.

The cries for “Unity” are heard in abundance, in full shout, from those that sowed the seeds of division. However, the seeds of division have borne a bumper crop this year.

Democrats like Obama/Dean/Brazille/Pelosi think they can wave the red flag of ‘Supreme Court’ or ‘Abortion’ and women will come running to the aid of the Democratic? Party and forget the misogyny Obama/Dean/Brazille/Pelosi never spoke against while Hillary and her supporters were belittled and denigrated.

But, why McCain as a protest candidate? If, as many are claiming, the misogyny of the Obama campaign was driving them to vote Republican… wouldn’t it be kind of a hypocritical back flip to vote for a hardened opponent of women’s reproductive rights? A guy who left his previous wife in the midst of crippling medical problems, and who allegedly handed out the following impromptu fashion advice to his present wife during his first run for the Senate in 1992:

"At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt."

Who knows, maybe her makeup was really badly put on that day. Or maybe Senator McCain was just having a really bad day. But honestly, isn’t it a little discomforting to know that your protest vote is going to a guy who doesn’t seem to respect women all that much? Or, at all?

Which brings me to a kind of suggestion for a Grand Compromise: why not vote third party? Specifically, why not vote for Cynthia McKinney? You’ve already made the decision that you want to put John McCain in the White House, but why not do so carrying the metaphorical trash bag of righteous indignation that voting for the Green Party candidate grants you?

Cynthia McKinney isn’t some humorless leftist like Ralph Nader or Dennis Kucinich, were you know that what they’re saying is probably the right answer, but the hopelessness of the political reality makes it come across as a certain shade of obtuse and sad.

McKinney punches people who get in her way.

McKinney believes firmly that when you cut away the conspiracy, you’ll find Dick Cheney at the bottom of 9/11.

McKinney believes that Al Gore has a deep-seated hatred for the black race.

Does she have the rhetorical flair of a Ron Paul Revolution? Of course she doesn’t, but you can’t expect every political outsider to develop a well-funded cult around them with a flair for Depression-era political theater. What Cynthia McKinney offers is crazy. Crazy in bulk. Crazy in oil tanker-like excess.

The kind of crazy you can believe in. The kind of crazy that justifies a protest vote against Barack Obama.

Dear Greg Nickels,

If you want to do something about gun violence in the city, how about working to close the gun-show loophole, instead of passing yet another pointless, unenforceable (are you going to frisk everyone who goes to city parks, or just set up metal detectors at the gates?), probably unconstitutional ban on licensed concealed weapons in public parks?

Sincerely,

A citizen who doesn't think ending gun violence means selling out civil liberties

I just read Eli's post about Hillary's concession speech this morning. I knew it was coming, and I've never felt like a Hillary loyalist.

And yet, I've got a lump in my throat. A lump. When is the next woman coming up? What have we lost here?