Way back in 1998, Tim Eyman launched I-200, an initiative to end affirmative action policies anywhere that state tax dollars came to rest. This was a direct copycat of California's Prop. 209, a white middle class "fuck you" to California's immigrant population. Washington's voters, experiencing what I've got to hope was some kind of psychotic break, passed I-200, which amended the civil rights legislation we've been hearing so much about lately.

Lucky for Washington, our tax dollars go to some pretty smart people. Seattle Schools kept its racial tiebreakers until a lawsuit knocked them down in 2002; UW continued collecing demographic info and would offer scholarships to minority kids it admitted; Sound Transit kept following Federal guidelines on getting bids from women & minority contractors first.

Well. Seems that little Tim-Tim is wetting his white robe over this one. Not content just to be famously and profitably anti-gay, he's going after minorities, again. Eyman slipped I-914 under the radar a month ago, and it's yet another direct hit on affirmative action... and the City of Seattle.

Remember the days of "if you're not with us, you're against us?" Boy, were they sweet. Tucked away in his nonsense about doing his part to create a civil, bipartisan dialogue, last night Bush rolled out yet another way to divide up the country: "You're either for the war, or against foreign aid."

It used to be that being against the war just meant that we hated America. Which, you know, is fine. I mean, I don't hate America, but I've got a thick skin, and I'm not going to get all hacked off if you try to tell me otherwise.

Last night, though, Bush upped the ante. Opposing the war-- and everything that goes with it, like illegal wiretapping and unlawful imprisonment and torture of detainees-- now doesn't just mean you hate America. It means that you also don't want to send aid to refugees or help girls go to school. Don't want to fight? You hate the world.

What's fucked up about this is that if in the first place we'd actually did all of this "showing compassion abroad" and "believing in the God-given dignity and worth of villagers with AIDS" stuff he was talking about last night, we might not be in the place we are right now as a nation or at least would have a lot easier time getting out of it.

In a shocking decision to provide news analysis from people who are not old and not boring, KCPQ (channel 13 in greater Seattle) has asked a group of policy kids from the Evans School to play talking heads for an hour.

Also shocking-- they're letting me play, too!

Tune in to channel 13 tonight at 9 pm (I think they're calling the show IQ News?!). We'll be hacking the State of the Union address to pieces and hitting the local politics pretty hard, too.

And hey... if you like this kind of thing (you know, where people who you can actually relate to go on the boob tube and talk about how the news actually means something), drop your local TV stations an email. Landslides and apartment fires can't be the only news worth covering, right?

Yesterday was the day, my friends. After thirty frickin' years, gays and lesbians finally have protection against discrimination in housing, employment, and insurance in Washington State, thanks to what should not have been a difficult vote for the state Senate.

Oh, but it was. State conservatives came up with all sorts of lame excuses for their bigotry and ignorance:

• Discrimination against homosexuals doesn't actually happen (then passing this bill shouldn't have been an issue, no?)
• This legislation will create unaffordable burdens for businesses (oh sure, because no one would bat an eye if someone suggested that insurance companies shouldn't have to cover, say, African-Americans because it would be "bad for the bottom line." Gays? No problem)
• Anti-discrimination legislation is the back door to gay marriage (sorry kids, wrong back door*)

Gosh, I read the most uplifting news ever this morning. Wanna see it? Here:

Huge College Loans Eating Up Salaries
Yeah. Totally awesome. It's really inspiring. All of those years of being told that higher education was the way to get ahead, and it turns out that the only "get" we're getting is further into debt. Woo!! Crack open the Pabst and break out the coozies, kids-- we're havin' a party!

The great thing is that our Congress is really out there doing its part. I mean really. They are so on the side of students. Ha ha ha I am totally kidding!!! The kicker is that a while back-- you probably heard something about this-- the House and Senate threw down this budget reconcilliation business. 'Cause, you know, when you have to pay for a war and cleanup of the totally-preventable-if-someone-had-actually-invested-the-money-in-the-first-place aftermath of a natural disaster, you're not going to pay for it by eliminating tax cuts for the rich, and you're definitely not going to pay for it by raising taxes.

You're going to pay for it by making it more difficult and more expensive for students to get loans for school.
click here to learn how to take action...

You probably noticed-- savvy follower of politics that you are-- that we had an election a couple of months ago. You probably also noticed that there were a lot of random positions up for election, including Port Commissioners.

It's probably less likely that you have much of an idea of who the Port Commission candidates were, much less what the Port of Seattle actually does. We tried to help you out a little bit around here, and the BetterDonkey position went like this: the Port is a big fat entity that spends a lot of money, $60 million of it yours-- and that it's about time we all started paying attention.

Well. Speaking of paying attention, the State audited the Port of Seattle, and found that the port can't account for $504,258 in inappropriate spending, and is at high risk of abuse in key departments.

Highlights, courtesy of the Seattle P-I:

Hi. Remember when there was a hurricane and then a flood and then the Gulf Coast drowned and then a bunch of people in New Orleans got stuck in the Superdome and the Convention Center and some guy called Chertoff lied and said he didn't know that anyone was at the Convention Center and now people are still homeless and waiting for FEMA trailers and some guy called Brownie was hired as a Department of Homeland Security contractor for two whole months afterward despite his arguable personal responsibility for the deaths of thousands of people?

Yeah. I thought you might remember that. Recently I got my little hands on some hot poop you're probably not aware of. See, some folks from Jefferson Parish-- the parish just west of Orleans Parish-- came to a, shall we say, colleague of mine for some, shall we say, consultation on matters of local importance.

The leadership of Jefferson Parish is almost 100% Republican, and the majority of residents are white and middle and upper-middle income. Just FYI.

Ooh ooh! Everybody loves pictures!!! Go here for the cutest party bus pictures EVER-- and stay tuned for a big fat post on all the dish from the Election Night Party Bus Extravaganza.

Yo. The Port of Seattle? Really big deal. $3.5 kajilliabillion* flow in and out of the Port every day. If Seattle is the economic engine of Washington State, the Port is, like, the fuel pump. Or is it the camshaft? Anyway, it's an enormous money machine, AND you get taxed to pay for it. The least we can do is vote on the people who run it.

Port Commission: How BetterDonkey is voting

Position 1: Lawrence Malloy-- Ahoy Malloy! Labor loves him, environmentalists love him, and he wants the Port to be accountable and transparent so that we can all once and for all figure out what the heck they do over there. His opponent tries to fool you into thinking he's "progressive," but he's not.

Position 4: Jack Jolley-- Jack's opponent has been on the Commission for 20 YEARS. Enough already! Jack, on the other hand, is about reform, change, new ways of thinking, and environmental responsibility.

Belly up! Hosted bar-- no holds barred.

*estimate

Here at BetterDonkey.org we don't agree on everything, but we do agree on some things. One of the things we agree on is that with the right resources, we are all totally capable of figuring stuff out for ourselves. Like who to vote for.

Instead of endorsing candidates, we wanted to let our members and readers know who BetterDonkey is voting for-- when we agree, at least. Then we want to hear from YOU.

Seattle City Council: How BetterDonkey is voting

Position 2: Richard Conlin-- You gotta love Conlin. He's a wonky heartthrob, and he puts together the facts before he makes a decision. Brilliant!! His opponent, former Port commissioner Paige Miller, is really freaking lame. She pulled a page from the Karl Rove playbook and tried to accuse Conlin of being a flip-flopper all through the campaign... perhaps a ploy to disguise the fact that she's got no real plan for the city?

Position 4: Jan Drago-- Jan Drago is the current City Council president and she's got a long record of smart leadership. Plus, a vote for Jan is a vote against Casey Corr, who is so the Mayor's lapdog. Think about it: a no-name Mayoral candidate got a huge percentage of the vote in the primary. People are pissed at Nickels, but you know that none of us are going to have the guts to vote him out in the generals. The next best thing? Vote against the guy who's going to rubber stamp the Mayor's agenda.

Republican Party Endorses I-912

State Transportation Infrastructure Poised to Crush Us All To Death

Darlings, this is serious. The state GOP is endorsing (read: feeding an assload of money into) the I-912 campaign, which will destroy hundreds of vital transportation projects designed to repair the roads and bridges you use every day.
If I-912 passes, your safety is in jeopardy.
You and I have to step up, you know what I'm saying? Investing in the future TODAY is what being progressive is all about. So here's my suggestion: go to the Keep Washington Rolling campaign. Sign up to volunteer-- that's what I did. Maybe throw them a $20 if you've got it. Read up on the facts (grant talks about this a bunch in his blog) and talk about this with your friends. And of course, come November 8, vote no on I-912.

Alright. So the last few years in Seattle we've had the tightest, saddest little budgets ever. Every year the Mayor would announce his budget and all the neighborhood people, all the human services people, all the public safety people would get into their little huddles and when the City Council had their hearing on budget priorities, BOOM the whole thing would blow up. If you weren't in Council chambers two hours before the meeting started to get your name on the list of speakers, you were totally screwed.

Well, the Mayor just announced his budget yesterday, and it is a completely different universe. Because there is money in it!! Thanks to people doing things like having jobs and shopping and buying houses and stuff (who are these people who can buy houses in this city? Seriously), the General Fund got some kind of huge windfall and now the Mayor's got money to burn.

The awesome thing about elections is that after you cast your ballot, there's always a party. Or like, 50 parties. My hot, hot tipper (hi G.M.!!) let me in on his list of election night goodness.

Know of any other parties? Don't be stingy!! Give it up!!!

Munileague Election Night Party
6-8 at their office
810 3rd Ave between Marion and Columbia (Downtown/Pioneer Square)
A good place to start?

Click here to read more...

Yay voting!!! Okay. So I have my Seattle voter's pamphlet right here next to me, and about six hundred browswer windows open full of candidate endorsements and other info. Let's go through this stuff together. I'm not going to tell you what to think, but I might make some recommendations based on the tons of resources that we can use to figure this stuff out. This might take a while, but it will totally be worth it. Ready???

King County Executive
I hate to start with a flat-out recommendation here, but I'm going to. Vote Ron Sims. I am not always a big fan of his, but you gotta think strategy here. David Irons, the Republican candidate, is going to be tough as fuck to beat. Someone with no name recognition and no political experience is going to be able to win in November. Plus, even if you think the Republican candidate seems like sort of a reasonable person, remember that all of the people he hires to help him make policy are going to be conservative too... and they might not be nearly as reasonable as their boss.

Hey are y'all listening to or watching the Roberts Supreme Court confirmation hearings? You totally should be. They are fucking fascinating. Plus if Roberts is confirmed (heh heh, "if"), he will be only the 17th Chief Justice on the Supreme Court. It's kind of an amazing thing.

First of all there were the opening remarks yesterday by all 300 (okay, I think it's like 18-- but some of them are windy) Senate Judiciary Committee members, which put together became sort of an old fashioned warfare-style (you know, where one line of Union soldiers faced a line of Confederate soldiers, they shot on cue, and broke for lunch) debate between Republicans and Democrats. The Dems want Roberts to answer some damn questions, and the Reps want Roberts to shut up and be confirmed already. This is a broad generalization.

Then they are also having firing-line arguments about "judicial activism" and "constitutional constructionism." Really both the Ds and the Rs are a little pissed about the Supremes and other courts supposedly making laws from the bench (remember the private property ruling that had everyone from every side in an undie bunch of doom?)-- I guess we all get a little territorial from time to time. And then, the hot new topic in constitutional law (hot!!) is whether the Constitution can be interpreted or if it never fucking changes (that constructionist thing)-- generally Big D leans to the side of being able to interpret the constitution based on the way things are now... which basically means that Dems believe full civil rights extend to gay people (heavens no!!).

Want to honor the memory of Katrina's victims? Want to practice a little emergency preparedness here at home? It's an easy fix: come November, vote no on I-912, the Infrastructure Killer.

The Seattle P-I tells us why:

Republican arguments about shared blame for Hurricane Katrina's losses have a reasonable basis.... Acknowledging that reality has obvious implications for Washington state. It's absurd for national Republicans to tut-tut about municipal and state shortcomings in Katrina while many GOP leaders here try to sink the state gasoline tax funding that could save thousands of local lives in a disastrous earthquake. Without the gas-tax increase under threat from an initiative, the state has no prospect of replacing the state Route 520 bridge across Lake Washington or the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

Yeah, gas is expensive. But you know what's a million times more costly? Rebuilding the entire transportation infrastructure of Western Washington on a wish and a prayer, once the Big One hits.

You have a choice. Make the right one.

Don't Give In to the “This Land was Made for Me, Not You” Game

Red versus Blue. Those colors never used to matter, did they? That’s rhetorical, but I’ll answer it: they didn’t. They were shorthand, and they were temporary. Yes, they represented something, but it was understood that beyond this shorthand were whole ideologies, complexities, gray areas.

Enter the turmoil of 2000 and its stomach churning repetition in 2004. The Media—by which I primarily mean cable and network television--- latched onto the colors like they meant something. All of a sudden, you and I were playing for one team and the guy down the street was playing for the other. All of a sudden it was Homecoming and even the kids who ate lunch huddled alone in a corner were rooting for the football team, crying foul on every call against us, giving the old Ivy League cheer time after time when it was clear the home team was going to lose.

Now we are bombarded on a daily basis by the idea that who we voted is who we are; that right down to the particulars of our lifestyle we are entirely different from, and utterly superior to, that distant red-dyed "other."

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died Saturday evening at his home in suburban Virginia, said Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg.

Edit!! Dude. Bush de-nominated John Roberts as Miss Sandra's replacement, and re-nominated him as the new Chief Justice... and many pundit-types are saying that Roberts was the Bush pick to replace Rehnquist all along.

So what do you guys think??? Is this young whippersnapper the right guy to head the Supreme Court? Who will Bush nominate to the other open seat? What effect will all of this have on the court? Do you think the other justices are jealous that they don't get to be Chief??

At times when I feel utterly helpless-- and this is certainly one of them-- I find that my only defense is to take in as much news as possible. I can't get enough.

Just in case you're the same way, I've collected my favorite articles, editorials, and resources from various news sources.

Did I miss something important? By all means, please comment with a link!!

New York Times

• Maureen Dowd: United States of Shame
• Paul Krugman: A Can't-Do Government
• Radio Interview with New Orleans Mayor Nagin
• Editorial: Katrina's Assault on Washington

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

• Melanie McFadden: Race, Class, and the Media

Think there need to be more women in politics? Want to run for office some day but have no idea how to make it happen?

Well honey, you and I are in luck. The White House Project, a nonprofit organization "dedicated to advancing women's leadership," is accepting applications for its Go Run! training September 23-25 on Bainbridge Island right here in Washington State.

Go Run is a weekend long training dedicated to equipping you, the future candidate, with the skills to run and win. The training aims to demystifying the political process and increase the number of progressive women in the political pipeline. Go Run provides the nuts and bolts of running for political office by focusing on such areas as communications, fundraising, and campaigning, amongst others.