Sounding upbeat at TPM...
Way back when, the plan progressives were really behind was just allowing people to buy into Medicare—an approach that had a lot of political logic to it. It now seems like a very limited version of that may be back on the table as something [...]
CNN has the full story:
Tokyo, Japan (CNN) — Four American teenagers, all children of U.S. military personnel, have been arrested on charges of attempted murder after a woman was knocked off her motorbike with rope strung across two poles, Japanese police said.
The four suspects — two 15-year-old [...]
I know Slog Happy is usually the second Thursday or the month, but this month it'll be the third Thursday, December 17th, so it has one extra week to be extra super awesome. Because not only is the next Slog Happy the two-year anniversary of all Slog' [...]
A new dance night called Fringe debuted at the Eagle on Friday; Matt Hickey has the (nsfw) pics on Line Out.
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[...]
These hot Strangercrombie items are currently causing quite the bidding war—better act fast or forever lose out on:
• Grabbing a beer with Mike McGinn!
• A positive book review about whatever book you want!
While other gay-rights organizations in Seattle atrophied, struggled, or vanished, Equal Rights Washington (ERW) prospered under the leadership of Connie Watts. The former senior field director for the national office of Planned Parenthood in Washington, D.C., Watts led the organization through the state's greatest test for gay rights—defending the domestic-partnership [...]
This is about three times as long as it needs to be, but it proves my subject line.
From Buttry Brown, the new film series about "a low-rent fashion model turned ass-kicking honkey hater," written by and starring Seattle's Ade and Scott Shoemaker.
Hank Stuever is a staff writer—now the television critic—for the Washington Post. He's in town to read from his new book, Tinsel, at Elliott Bay Books tonight. Stuever has also contributed numerous pieces to the Stranger over the years. Here's Stuever on fags on their hags...
But in [...]
Today, Google announced that they were introducing Real Time Search. It's a feed of stories that constantly updates on your search page with new sources, including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and other sources. (The videos they provide include search topics like "Obama" "Twilight Reviews" and "Traffic on 101.")
And they also' [...]
This is about brotherly love. No. Not incest, but frat boy love. I'm gay, in a fraternity, all that is cool and everything. I was resigned to not sleeping with any of these guys, as appealing as that is. Now last night one of the guys was really wasted and' [...]
It was filed today by Democratic Senator Ben Nelson and, like the Stupak Amendment in the House, this amendment seeks to tie the success of the overall health insurance reform bill to an agreement on tightening restrictions on federal funding for abortions.
Debate on the Nelson's amendment is likely [...]
Enworld reports that Renton role playing game manufacturer Wizards of the Coast laid off employees last Thursday. Enworld confirmed three people who were definitely laid off, and they suggest that layoffs come every year at WOTC around this time. I have a call out to WOTC, and I'll update' [...]
Strangercrombie, the nothing-else-like-it catalog of gifts that will benefit three worthy causes this year, is jam packed with amazing gifts. (The gifts are donated and 100% of proceeds go to charity.) Considering we're on six-geese-a-laying day, here are six awesome gift packages currently going for $66' [...]
Not even Bill O'Reilly can tell the Fox News bimbos apart in this segment about the War on Christmas. "What is it about Christmas they don't like?" O'Reilly asks in reference to some of those there-ain't-no-God ads running on buses across the country. Bill concludes: "They" [...]
Mayor-elect Mike McGinn announced today that he is relaunching the committee tasked with recommending a new police chief, and he's begun appointing new members. The committee had stopped work during the election despite pleas from McGinn to allow the search to continue.
"I am currently contacting members appointed to the" [...]
The Washington State Bar Association has endorsed a bill that would decriminalize simple marijuana possession, reducing the maximum punishment from the current $1000 fine and 90 days in jail, to a $100 ticket.
Well… um… yawn.
It’s not that I don’t support the WSBA’s resolution, it’s just that it’s hard to [...]
I just had a chat with a person who consistently provides me with reliable information about the Amanda case. The source, who covered the long, long trial, knows every aspect of it and has never let emotions or rumors distort his/her view of things. The source must remain unnamed because [...]
On Friday, I linked to a review of Glenn Beck's live movie event, The Christmas Sweater.
Today, it looks like The Christmas Sweater is a bomb:
Despite heavy promotion on Beck’s radio and TV shows, and in-theater trailers, ticket sales were weak in major cities: Beck sold [...]
To commemorate its 80th anniversary, beloved Seattle dive bar the Five Point is selling food and beverage at 1929 prices from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. tomorrow:
• 25-cent PBRs
• 25-cent bacon and eggs with toast
• 20-cent burger and fries
• 30-cent "Blue Plate Special"
It's bound to be mobbed, [...]
The title alone—The 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN Who KNOCKED UP SARAH MARSHALL and Felt SUPERBAD about It—should get the Mark Twain Prize.
Thanks, MovieLine.
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[...]Shorter version of the guest editorial in Friday's Seattle Times: It's okay for me to visit Forks because I visit Forks for all the right reasons but it's not okay for them to visit Forks because there are way too many of them and they're going to overwhelm Forks' [...]
The Washington State Bar Association, the body of 33,000 attorneys licensed in the state, endorsed a bill in the upcoming legislative session that would reduce the penalty for marijuana possession—currently up to a $1,000 fine and 90 days in jail—to a $100 infraction. The WSBA's board of governors passed the [...]
Never read the "Savage Love" email at breakfast, never read the "Savage Love" email at breakfast...
He likes tongs because of the sensation it gives him in the anal area.
No doubt.
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[...]
Reading
Hank StueverHank Stuever's new book, Tinsel, documents three consecutive Christmases in the upper-middle-class Texas town of Frisco, including a woman who decorates McMansions for $150 an hour, a man whose overly decorated home is a YouTube sensation, and other ghastly holiday monstrosities. But maybe, Stuever [...]
Quite a few readings today.
The library is hosting Thrilling Tales at lunchtime. Librarians will read you "The Sadness of Detail" by Jonathan Carroll and "In The Cards" by John Collier. I sense a "John" theme. Later in the day, poets Nancy Pagh and Kathy Whitcomb will read [...]
I guess as a Republican member of our “nonpartisan” King County Council, Jane Hague has an obligation to help out the King County Republican Party. But considering her own DUI problems, you gotta wonder if she was drunk at the time she contributed the following item to the KCGOP’s [...]
In case you missed it on Friday afternoon, Washington's junior senator has waded into the Knox debate, saying in a statement:
I am saddened by the verdict and I have serious questions about the Italian justice system and whether anti-Americanism tainted this trial. The prosecution did not present enough evidence for [...]
Sent just after midnight yesterday to I, Anonymous:
What is WITH everyone in this city having such a phobia of benign physical contact with one another? I've been riding busses in this city my whole life, but it seems like in the past few years every otherwise-rational person around me' [...]
Hooray (pretty much), says Paul Constant!
It’s a shame that Walter Kirn’s novel Up in the Air was released less than two months before September 11, 2001; it’s definitely one of the most readable literary novels of the last decade, but its reliance on air travel as [...]
No, he's not. But that's how stoopid people are interpreting this detail from the bottomless (get it?) Tiger Woods Sex Scandalathon:
[Woods' alleged mistress Rachel] Uchitel allegedly forwarded along a bizarre, extremely private email from Woods, 33, in which he referenced her famous flings. Woods' email, Uchitel's friend [...]
Even if the Washington State budget wasn’t busted, it is unfair and bad policy to allow Oregon residents an exemption from sales taxes in Washington. Oregon does not allow Washington residents an exemption from their income tax. It is also unlikely that very many Oregon residents actually [...]
The New Yorker has a fascinating series of portraits of world leaders at the U.N. by photographer Platon, with commentary.
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[...]When voters passed Sound Transit's second phase in 2008, the package (known as "Sound Transit 2") included funds meant to study future light rail extensions. Just this September, Mayor-elect Mike McGinn said during the campaign that he wants to put light rail extensions on the ballot within two [...]
HIV-positive New Zealand man intentionally infects his wife with HIV—using a needle dipped in his own blood—so that "so she would start having sex with him again." The man now faces 14 years in prison.
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[...]The estate tax is in the news again, and (surprise!) the Seattle Times is editorializing against it:
The supporters of this tax, which we call the death tax, like to talk about rich bankers, entertainers and other upper crustaceans who die with a moraine of stocks, bonds, cash and title [...]
...for amazing and upsetting Santa photographs.
Thank you, Sketchy Santas, which I found via MetaFilter, which forced me to look directly at this one.
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[...]It's nice to see that progressive Anglicans aren't being intimidated by the ranters, haters, and schismatics.
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' [...]...will be good for business, says Krugman.
The truth is that conservatives who predict economic doom if we try to fight climate change are betraying their own principles. They claim to believe that capitalism is infinitely adaptable, that the magic of the marketplace can deal with any problem. But for [...]
Maybe it's time for Melissa Etheridge to pay another visit to Saddleback Church.
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[...]Wow. Via Rasmussen Reports:
In a three-way Generic Ballot test, the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds Democrats attracting 36% of the vote. The Tea Party candidate picks up 23%, and Republicans finish third at 18%. Another 22% are undecided.
I’ve considered suggestions of Republican self destruction ultimately leading to [...]
Who's making bank now? The government turns a profit on some of its bank bailout funds.
New clashes in Iran: Between students and security forces.
What they're driving to the climate talks: 1,200 limos.
In addition: The Copenhagen prostitutes will be free.
Public option: Being negotiated into non-existence in' [...]
Remember the three suicides-by-hanging at Guantanamo Bay in 2006? They happened in the highest-security cell bloc, where guards were supposed to be constantly monitoring the 28 prisoners with video cameras and foot patrols.
The camp commander's response was an indictment of the suicides as "an act of asymmetric warfare waged" [...]
"It takes an audience to tell us we're being self-indulgent."
I've spent the past week in New York, helping playwright Tommy Smith and musician/comedian/spaceman Reggie Watts work on a new show called Dutch A/V. The line above was the week's money quote.
The first part of the Dutch A/V project involved us [...]
Friendster apparently relaunched on Friday. Dig their edgy promotional video:
Everything was so simple back in 2002.
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[...]This is where the murder happened.
View Larger Map
Down the the road is the basketball court frequented by Rudy Hermann Guede and the university (Universita per Stranieri, which translates to the University for Foreigners, or University of Strangers) briefly attended by Amanda. The basketball court, which is sunken [...]
Last week’s contest was a tough one, but it was eventually won by Cascadian. The correct location was in Manchester, England.
Here’s this week’s, good luck!
[...]
DAVID BELISLEHello, Christmastime holiday reader! It's time for gingersnaps and cock rings and exploiting politicians in the name of charity—like every year around this time—are you prepared?
No? Then grab your credit card.
Everyone on the city council (except Bruce Harrel, who we didn't ask) has a gift to [...]
It looks like in the U.K., Amazon is thinking about opening "Click and Connect" stores:
The online retailer is reportedly planning to open stores in the UK where customers can pick up purchases they make on the website, rather than wait at home for deliveries.
There's not a whole lot more [...]
Photo from The Blue Moon's Abandoned BlogThere's an open mic and one reading today.
Benjamin H Smith will read at the Blue Moon in the U District today at 2 pm. Smith's Blood Red Sun is "a collection of poems, stories, and sketches," many of which [...]
Last week, Jeremy Scahill had a huge story detailing the secret operations being conducted in Pakistan by the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and the private military outfit formerly known as Blackwater. The operations are primarily assassinations and kidnappings (”snatch and grabs”) of high-value targets. The agreement with Pakistan [...]
Posted by news intern Sarah Lloyd.
The Story So Far: A detailed history of Maurice Clemmons, who allegedly killed four Lakewood police officers last week.
Today in Trains: A grain train passing through Sumner struck a car; a body was found nearby.
One of Us: Elliott Bay Books owner Peter Aaron [...]
Palin makes funny at the Gridiron dinner with sour grapes and puns about baldies:
On the political front, Palin said that “if the election had turned out differently, I could be the one overseeing the signing of bailout checks and Vice President Biden could be on the road selling his [...]
Battle over commercial flights from Paine Field enters next new front
Steve Benan has now compiled seven excuses from Holy Joe for opposing the public option in health care reform.
Sen. Lieberman has literally come up with an excuse each month since June, 2009. And each excuse has been debunked.
If nothing else, this suggest a series of epic failures [...]
