Washington has now banned conversion therapy.

Courtesy of the Seattle Times:  

A measure banning licensed therapists from trying to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity was signed into law Wednesday by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. 

Inslee signed the bill joined by lawmakers and other LGTB supporters, including Democratic Sen. Marko Liias, the bill’s sponsor, and Chad Griffin, the president of the D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign.

Inslee called conversion therapy abuse, and said that “we are today prohibiting the abuse of our children.” 

“We have always believed in civil rights in our state,” he said. “We believe in tolerance for all.” 

The new law, which takes effect in June, will deem it “unprofessional conduct” for a licensed health-care provider to perform conversion therapy on a patient under the age of 18. Under the measure, if the provider violates the law, he or she faces sanctions ranging from fines to license revocation or suspension. The measure does not apply to nonlicensed counselors operating as part of a religious organization, religious denomination or church.

While this is very good news I have to admit that I kind of assumed that Washington state, which I consider relatively progressive had banned this practice years ago. 

That led me to check to see just how many states or jurisdictions do indeed have these conversion bans in place.

That is a little disheartening.

This is the 21st Century. We know better. Or at least we should know better.

States are now pushing for media literacy programs in public schools to battle the proliferation of "fake news."

Courtesy of the AP: 

Alarmed by the proliferation of false content online, state lawmakers around the country are pushing schools to put more emphasis on teaching students how to tell fact from fiction. 

Lawmakers in several states have introduced or passed bills calling on public school systems to do more to teach media literacy skills that they say are critical to democracy. The effort has been bipartisan but has received little attention despite successful legislation in Washington state, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Mexico. 

Several more states are expected to consider such bills in the coming year, including Arizona, New York and Hawaii. 

"I don't think it's a partisan issue to appreciate the importance of good information and the teaching of tools for navigating the information environment," said Hans Zeiger, a Republican state senator in Washington who co-sponsored a bill that passed in his state earlier this year. "There is such a thing as an objective source versus other kinds of sources, and that's an appropriate thing for schools to be teaching."

I am totally behind this effort, and see it as a complete necessity moving forward.

I think on the first day of class, lesson one should be do not listen to a damn thing this guy says.

Homeland Security informs officials in 21 states that Russians attempted to hack their election systems in 2016.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

Russians attempted to hack elections systems in Wisconsin and 20 other states in the run-up to last year's presidential election, Wisconsin officials said Friday. 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security notified states of the attempted breaches on Friday, said Michael Haas, director of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The attempt in Wisconsin was unsuccessful, he said. 

According to the Associated Press, Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia and Washington were also among the 21 states targeted. 

Wisconsin's voter registration system was targeted, as were election systems in other states that have a presence on the internet, Haas said. Haas said he did not know which states other than Wisconsin were part of the attempt by what Homeland Security officials told him were “Russian government cyber actors."

I am not at all convinced that these were only "attempts."

I think there had to be some successful hacks, and I would not to at all surprised to learn that there were a number of them.

I also think that ultimately we will learn that there more than 21 states targeted.

As I have said before, we are still at the beginning of all this and it is certain that there is so much, much more we are going to learn. 

Nazi armband wearing racist harasses black man in Seattle, gets tracked down knocked out.

Courtesy of Buzzfeed:

On Sunday afternoon, a Twitter account called @bigotbasher posted a photo of a man apparently riding Seattle's D line while wearing a swastika armband. 

The user wrote that the photo was submitted to them by a third party. @bigotbasher wrote in their tweet that the man in the armband was harassing a black man on the bus. BuzzFeed News has reached out to the person behind the @bigotbasher account for comment.

The picture was picked up by a few anti-fascist–affiliated Twitter accounts that quickly got to work trying to identify the man.

That all led to this post:

 Somebody took @teethinclaws up on his suggestion, and this was the result. (Warning: video contains brief violence and language.)

The gentleman who punched the neo-Nazi out has not been identified, but apparently he is NOT a member of AntiFa.

I am have a couple of opinions about all of this.

First I don't think that anybody should feel that it is okay to walk around adorned in Nazi paraphernalia. And to verbally harass a minority while wearing said paraphernalia is just looking for trouble.

And secondly I can tell you that if I were 30 years younger I would undoubtedly be applauding these actions and wanting to knock a few Nazi assholes out myself.

However I am NOT in my twenties and I know that as much as this asshole was asking for trouble he was not using physical aggression so did not deserve to be met with physical aggression.

Verbal interactions, however heated, are still only verbal interactions.

When you introduce physical violence, now matter how justified you may feel, you are now in the wrong.

Not only that but this will certainly be used by other Nazis and White Supremacists as a recruiting tool and to prove that the white man is under assault, which will then justify in their minds any violence that they may resort to in future confrontations.

If people are not more careful this all may actually lead to an honest to goodness race war, and I don't see how that benefits anybody. 

Governor of Washington signs order to let the autonomous automobiles drive without human chaperones.

Courtesy of The Drive:  

Washington governor Jay Inslee signed an order Wednesday that could allow self-driving car tests to begin in the state in just under two months and without a human monitoring from the driver's seat, his office announced in a blog post the same day. 

The order gives self-driving car companies the ability to send applications to the state's Department of Licensing for self-driving car pilot program tests on public roads. In the governor's blog post and in the official order, it states that around 94 percent of all motor vehicle crashes are caused by driver error, and officials believe the use of autonomous cars could have a powerful impact on that. 

Additionally, the governor's order brings a handful of state agencies together that will work with the approved self-driving companies and craft future legislation based on the upcoming trials. 

Inslee showed that has pretty much absolute trust in the tech when compared to the capabilities of human drivers, according to a statement obtained by The Seattle Times. 

“One thing I know about radar, it doesn’t drive drunk, it doesn’t drive distracted,” Inslee said, according to The Seattle Times. “We humans are really good at a lot of things, driving cars isn’t necessarily one of them compared to the automated processes that are digital and foolproof. I just have huge confidence in the safety aspects of this.”

Autonomous automobiles is one of my favorite things to cover outside politics and religion, probably because it is both terrifying and awesome at the same time.

It is also inevitable.

Just like fear of drowning did not keep us land bound, and fear of flying did not stop the airline industry, our fear of giving up control to machines will not stop the coming of autonomous automobiles.

We already rely on machines to remember our phone numbers, fly our planes, and answer all of our questions, so how is this really any different?

I for one can hardly wait to let Google take the wheel and allow me to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Two former Bernie Sanders supporting members of the Washington state Electoral College are threatening to vote against Hillary Clinton, potentially throwing their state to Donald Trump.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

In the looming election, a solid majority of the American people could cast a ballot for Hillary Clinton. Yet, thanks to two guys from Washington state, Donald Trump could be sworn in as the next president of the United States. 

Two men who were selected as members of the Electoral College in the likely event that Clinton wins the state of Washington, are, at the very least, uncertain that they will honor the will of the people of their state. Robert Satiacum told the Seattle Times that he is “absolutely not” voting for Clinton and that “I hope it comes down to a swing vote and it’s me,” because then “she ain’t getting it. Maybe it’ll wake this country up.” 

The other likely elector, Bret Chiafalo, says that he has “not ruled out that possibility” of voting against Clinton.

The article goes on to point out that it is not impossible that this action could throw the state to Donald Trump.

So how does it happen that two simple minded dipshits like this got elected to the electoral college?

Simple.

The fact that two men who think they have the right to override the will of their states’ voters were chosen as Democratic electors appears to be the fault of an utterly reckless method the Washington Democratic Party uses to name those electors. Electors were chosen at the state party convention in June, an event where so-called Bernie-or-Busters were overrepresented. 

In other words, rather than, say, allowing the party’s nominee to name reliable electors, the party chose to select electors during an emotional primary season at an event that could be gamed by a minority faction that was willing to sabotage the party if Democrats did not chose that faction’s preferred nominee.

Well I think my opinion of the Bernie Bros is fairly well known, and this does nothing but reinforce my belief that I was right about them all along. 

The very idea that any progressive would throw the election to a thin skinned megalomaniac merely out of spite demonstrates that these morons are too immature and under educated to participate in the election process.

Sarah Palin pissed off that Washington shooter was not identified as an immigrant, because being an immigrant makes the killings worse?

Courtesy of Anti-Immigrant Barbie's Facebook page:

He's NOT Hispanic, and YES - He Terrorized... Shame On Media 

We share such sadness for lives lost in Washington State. Please offer heartfelt prayers for those impacted forever by Friday's heinous attack. 

In reporting this, once again the media got it wrong - why? It's appalling they made sure to announce the murderer was Hispanic. (Early eyewitness reports suggested the shooter was Hispanic.)  Ironically, my Hispanic family friend and I watched the unfolding coverage that night and both commented that media was terrible in making that racial pronouncement. (She does actually have one Hispanic friend, Juanita Fuller, but I have no idea if they actually watch TV together.) It was glaringly obvious they could NOT know this otherwise unidentified dark-skinned male was Hispanic - in fact he didn't look "exclusively" Hispanic to many of us - so why did media lie? 

As per usual, after capturing this evil man who struck such terror, media THEN feigns caution and holds off as long as possible to reveal the killer's background as a Muslim immigrant. We don't even have to ask "why?". (To make sure they go the facts right? To delay folks like you from jumping on the Muslim terrorism bandwagon? Could be a lot of reasons.)

And where's your apology, media? You give us no reason whatsoever to trust you. It's a good thing there are more of us than there are of you - and we know where to put our trust, faith and reliance for wisdom and strength to victoriously plow through these coming days... Proverbs 3:5-6. (Perfect, a Bible quote about not trusting your critical thinking skills and instead trusting in God. Good choice in this situation.)

- Sarah Palin

Okay so what we know so far is that the shooter, Arcan Cetin, killed four women and a man in with a rifle in a Macy's store at the Cascade Mall in Burlington, Washington.

Right now there is no identified motive, though apparently he did recently break up with a girlfriend who worked at a Macy's store.

Cetin has a history of inappropriately touching women, and he was arrested on assault charges back in 2015.

He posted this about Hillary Clinton, though to my ear it sounds a little sarcastic.

However there is also online evidence that he suggested that President Obama's liberalism was a lot like communism.

Though Cetin came from the predominantly Muslim country of Turkey there is little known about his own religious beliefs, and no evidence as of yet that he was connected to terrorist groups.

Cetin came to this country as a young child and attended public schools in Washington.

So considering the fact that he immigrated to this country many years ago as a child, does not seem connected to any radical Islamic groups, and has no known ties to terrorists, just why does his nationality seem like such a big deal to Sarah Palin that she is demanding an apology from the media for not getting it right?

Oh I think we all know the answer to that question.

Here's what I know.

This is once again a case of a mass shooting by a guy with a gun in America.

Why he did it, where he is from, and what religion he practices, do not change that fundamental fact.

Colin Kaepernick's national anthem protest trickles down to Seattle high school.

Courtesy of Q13 Fox: 

The entire Garfield High School football team, including the coaches, took a knee during the national anthem Friday night before their game against West Seattle High on Friday night to protest “social injustices.”

After the game, which Garfield won, Garfield High School head football coach Joey Thomas said that "the players decided to do this" to bring attention to "social injustices," emphasizing that it was "a player-driven" move and that his players plan to continue the practice during the anthem before every game "until they tell us to stop."

Well if they are waiting for the school board to tell them to stop it does not appear that will happen anytime soon.

Seattle Public Schools issued the following statement:

“Students kneeling during the national anthem are expressing their rights protected by the First Amendment. Seattle Public Schools supports all students' right to free speech.”

Now THAT my friends is what freedom is all about.

And good on these high school athletes for participating in our democracy. As well as the Seattle Public Schools for supporting their right to do so.

Woman gets shot in the chest during showing of the movie "13 Hours." Now the conservatives just have to find a way to blame THIS on Hillary Clinton as well.

Courtesy of Komo News:  

A 40-year-old woman was seriously injured Thursday when she was shot in the chest inside a Renton movie theater, police said. 

The shooting happened at around 8 p.m. at a movie theater at the The Landing in Renton during a showing of the film "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi." 

"It got about 15-20 minutes into the film and I believe the lady in front of us that got shot was actually talking to her husband or significant other and that's when we heard the loud pop," said one witness, who did not want to be identified. He was sitting 3 or 4 rows behind the man when the gun went off.

And how did the brave man with the gun respond?

Just as witnesses realized it was a shooting, they saw the man make his way toward a nearby exit.

Police believe that the man was intoxicated at the time.

Of course he was because who else would bring a loaded firearm to a theater except a drunken asshole who would run away from any responsibility for his actions?

Fortunately the man's father isn't quite the POS his son is and he notified the police:

Police say the shooter's father called 911 Thursday night from his Newcastle home and told dispatchers his son was distraught and told him that he dropped his gun at a Renton movie theater and it discharged. The 29-year-old is now in custody. 

"According to him, he said he dropped the gun and it went off. We have witnesses that say he came into the theater and appeared intoxicated. He went in and took a seat in theater number nine and was fumbling with a pistol when it went off and struck someone sitting in front of him," said David Leibman with the Renton Police Department.

Apparently in the NRA's America you cannot even sit down to enjoy some good old anti-Hillary Clinton propaganda without the risk of being shot by some drunk guy.

Washington Supreme Court rules that charter schools are unconstitutional.

Courtesy of The Seattle Times:  

After nearly a year of deliberation, the state Supreme Court ruled 6-3 late Friday afternoon that charter schools are unconstitutional. 

The ruling — believed to be one of the first of its kind in the country — overturns the law voters narrowly approved in 2012 allowing publicly funded, but privately operated, schools.

In the ruling, Chief Justice Barbara Madsen wrote that charter schools aren’t “common schools” because they’re governed by appointed rather than elected boards. 

Therefore, “money that is dedicated to common schools is unconstitutionally diverted to charter schools,” Madsen wrote.

Education policy analyst and public school advocate Diane Ravitch had this to say about the ruling:  

This is a big win for parents and public schools.

I would agree and further state that I hope this is the first of many such decisions that put a stop to charter school programs that drain money and resources from the public schools while resisting any oversight from the same public whose tax money they are taking.

Listen I understand that there are some poorly run public schools in this country, and that parents really want alternatives.

But I also understand that there is a very determined anti-public education movement that uses charter schools and homeschooling as a way to undermine public schools, and their motives have far more to do with their religious faiths and ideology than they do with improving educational opportunities.

Make no mistake, public education and public school teachers are under constant fire in America and charter schools are the Trojan horse the opponents are using to get past our defenses.

(H/T Common Dreams)

Washington Planned Parenthood clinic set on fire as Republicans continue attacks in response to doctored videos.

Courtesy of KGW:

Pullman Fire Department and Pullman Police Department both confirmed a fire at the Planned Parenthood. 

The fire started at around 3:30 a.m. along SE King Drive and caused extensive damage. Police said fire alarms and burglary alarms were tripped at the same time. 

Pullman fire said the fire is suspicious because it happened at Planned Parenthood. 

Around 4:45 p.m., Riordan said Pullman fire investigator Rich Dragoo informed them that the fire was arson. 

"This is an appalling act of violence towards Planned Parenthood, but unfortunately a predictable ripple effect from the false and incendiary attacks that fuel violence from extremists," added Karl Eastlund, CEO, Planned Parenthood of Greater WA and North Idaho.

I think that this fire is undoubtedly the result of those doctored videos, and even though investigations launched in numerous states have found that NO fetal tissue was sold for profit, the politically motivated attacks continue.

In fact Florida Governor Rick Scott decided that since his investigation did not find the evidence he was hoping to find, that he would just withhold that information from the public: 

After the now-discredited videos accusing Planned Parenthood of selling fetal tissue came out, Republican politicians rushed in, demanding investigations and defunding efforts with an eye toward marginalizing or even destroying the women's health care provider. Gov. Rick Scott of Florida was particularly eager, sending a team of investigators into Planned Parenthood clinics in a fishing expedition to find malfeasance. 

That effort may end up backfiring. Politico Florida reported on Wednesday that Rick Scott's office suppressed the findings of the investigators, who found no evidence whatsoever of the alleged fetal tissue sales. The initial press release drafted by Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration indicated that "there is no evidence of the mishandling of fetal remains at any of the 16 clinics we investigated across the state." Emails obtained by Politico through a Freedom of Information Act request showed that the governor's office struck that language from the press release. 

Well I guess we can all look forward to a clinic in Florida suddenly bursting into flames as well, can't we ?

The "controversy" over the videos is also affecting the President's plan to promote Obamacare.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

The Obama administration on Wednesday awarded more than $1 million in grants to Planned Parenthood to help promote ObamaCare, a move that is drawing GOP criticism at a time when the healthcare provider is under congressional investigation. 

Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) blasted the White House’s decision as “unconscionable” in light of allegations of illegal activity in the health provider’s fetal tissue program, which has prompted key Republicans to call for a total defunding of the organization. 

“A growing body of evidence suggests that Planned Parenthood broke federal law and now the Obama administration is thumbing its nose at Congress and taxpayers by using this backdoor maneuver to boost funding for the scandal-ridden abortion giant,” Black wrote in a statement Wednesday. 

She is the lead author of three bills to defund Planned Parenthood, one of which she says has been promised a vote by House GOP leadership.

Actually according to Mitch McConnell the Republicans don't have the votes to defund Planned Parenthood but he hopes that when President Trump, Carson, or Bush take office that will all change.

Which means that the Republicans are going to try and make this issue a central theme during the 2016 election, and that we can all expect more anti-abortion protests, more fire damaged clinics, and more political manipulations by those who want to deny women the right to control their own bodies.

"How does it feel to get robbed with your own gun?" There is one Washington resident who can answer that question.

Courtesy of KOMO News:

A local man was robbed by an acquaintance with his own gun while trying to sell it to a friend of the acquaintance earlier this month in Mukilteo, according to the Mukilteo Police Department. 

According to police, the victim took a ferry to Mukilteo with a 21-year-old acquaintance from Oak Harbor, who happens to be a convicted felon, in order to sell a gun to a friend of the acquaintance. 

The victim and acquaintance met the buyer, a 23-year-old Everett resident, in a parking lot near the ferry, and the buyer agreed to purchase the gun for $1,000, according to police. 

All three men decided to go to the buyer's apartment so the victim could show him how to clean and reassemble the gun. On the way, the acquaintance reportedly put a live round into the gun's chamber and pointed it at the victim's head. 

According to police, the acquaintance asked the victim, "How does it feel to get robbed with your own gun?"

The other two men then took the victim's cell phone and kicked him out of the car before warning him not to call the cops.  

Damn if only the good guy with the gun had not sold the gun to the bad guy, making him a bad guy with a gun, who then used it to rob the good guy, now without a gun, of all of his stuff.

You know it is almost as if guns place too much power in the hands of people who should not have such power, and allows them to then victimize others who would usually feel safe from such aggression.

But hey, we're the greatest country on earth and according to the NRA the 2nd Amendment keeps it that way, so that's just silly talk. Right?

Right?

I don't think that Sarah Palin knows what the word "surge" means.

Courtesy of Sergeant Surge's Facebook page:  

Great to see grassroots commonsense conservatives Clint Didier and Rob Maness begin to surge in the polls. Their positive solution based messages are resonating with voters in Washington and Louisiana. We need these proven fighters in Congress to help take our country back! 

 - Sarah Palin

Okay this makes me want to ask "In what universe is a two point lead a surge?" 

And I am completely sure that there is NO universe in which a distant third place position with only 17% support can be considered surging. (Though to be fair Maness did manage to pick up eight percentage points since the last poll.)

I think this is just a case of wishful thinking on the part of Palin who is desperate that at least some of her candidates win so that it will cut down on the mocking.

I don't know why she bothers, even if they all win it is not like there are not piles and piles of things to continue mocking her about.

For instance.

Woman gets 14 months in jail after 9 year old son took handgun to school that accidentally wounded 8 year old.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

A Washington woman has been sentenced to jail for her part in a shooting at an elementary school after a handgun her son had in his backpack went off, wounding a classmate.

 Jamie Lee Chaffin was sentenced to 14 months in prison after pleading guilty to unlawful weapon possession charges, reports the Kitnap Sun. 

On Feb. 22, 2012, Chaffin’s then 9-year-old son took a loaded handgun to school in his backpack, which went off wounding 8-year-old classmate, Amina Kocer Bowman, shattering her elbow and damaging her internal organs before the bullet came to rest in her spine. 

According to Chaffin’s son, he took the gun to school to protect himself from classmates.

Which is exactly the message that we keep sending to our children through video games and movies.

Without a gun we are vulnerable. With a gun...invincible. 

Apparently the boy also said that there were a number of unsecured weapons around the boyfriend's home for him to choose from.

I think it is very good news that a parent is being help responsible for this accidental shooting, however it is truly unfortunate that the boyfriend's charges were dismissed by the state Supreme Court.

In my mind if you own a gun you are responsible for any damage, injury, or death that is the fault of that gun.

After all what would have happened if that eight year old girl had died? Or if other children had also been injured?

Snohomish County Sheriff's Office confiscates anti-tank rifle from drug dealer's storage unit. Gotta love America.

Anti-tank rifle at top of picture depicting very troubling cache of weapons.

Courtesy of KATU:

A very large anti-tank rifle is probably one of the last thing you want in possession of a wanted criminal, but that's exactly what the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office reportedly found inside a storage locker belonging to a suspected drug dealer. 

The Snohomish County Regional Drug and Gang Task Force arrested 40-year-old Aaron Knapp outside his storage unit in Everett Wednesday on suspicion of attempted delivery of a controlled substance. 

According to the Sheriff's Office, a search warrant served on Knapp's Mercedes and storage unit turned up a pound of meth, half a pound of heroin, 15 firearms and approximately $40,000 in cash. 

Of those firearms, 12 were military assault rifles (five of which were confirmed stolen), two were stolen handguns and one was a fully functional 20 mm anti-tank/sniper rifle, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Gee I wonder how the NRA will defend this loser's right to own an arsenal of military assault rifles and a freaking anti-tank rifle?

You know, not that I am an expert on the Constitution or anything, but I have a little difficulty in believing that the Founding Fathers had anything like this in mind when they wrote:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Don't you agree?

Hey remember that sob story about "Bette" having to pay $700 more for premiums thanks to Obamacare that was told during the official GOP response to the President's SOTU speech? Yeah that was bullshit.

"Wait, I'm getting fact checked? Nobody said anything about fact checking."

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

The centerpiece of the Republican party's attack on the Affordable Care Act following President Obama's State of the Union address this week was the story of "Bette." 

Bette was an otherwise unidentified Washington state resident featured in the official GOP response to the Obama speech delivered by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.). According to Rodgers, 

Bette had written her a letter stating that she had "hoped the president’s healthcare law would save her money – but found out instead that her premiums were going up nearly $700 a month." The lesson, according to Rodgers: "This law is not working." Bette has now been tracked down by her hometown Spokane Spokesman-Review. She's Bette Grenier, who owns a small business with her husband. Unsurprisingly, her story is much different from the sketchy description provided by Rodgers. That description perplexed experts, including Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, who couldn't understand how a state resident "would have no choice but to pay $700 per month more for a policy that meets the Affordable Care Act’s coverage requirements," the newspaper reported. 

Grenier told the newspaper that she wrote Rodgers after her insurance company informed her that her $552-a-month catastrophic health plan would not be offered in 2014. It offered her an alternative plan complying with the ACA at $1,052 a month. 

But that sounds like her insurer trying to steer her to an overpriced option. A compliant plan meeting the Affordable Care Act's coverage mandates actually is available from Washington's insurance exchange for much less -- and with a deductible far lower than the $10,000 she was paying under the old plan and broader coverage, though lacking a provision for four free doctor visits a year provided by her old plan. 

Grenier said she had flatly refused to even investigate her options on the exchange. "I wouldn’t go on that Obama website at all,” she said. “We liked our old plan. It worked for us, but they can’t offer it anymore.” 

Instead, she and her husband "have decided to go without coverage," the newspaper reported. 

"We wouldn't go on that Obama website."

We "have decided to go without coverage."

Yeah THAT'LL teach Obama!

You know the Republican strategy for 2014 seems to be to make a bunch of commercials featuring people who are upset at the horrible things that Obamacare has done to their health insurance.

However if THIS is the best they can do, and remember this was featured in the OFFICIAL Republican response, then it should prove quite easy for the Democrats to smack each one down in turn.

Essentially the Republican's position seems to be, "We hate Obamacare because Obama passed it, we like our OLD health care though we never really understood it, and we cannot work a computer. Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi!"

Newly elected Washington state Republican party chair finds that she makes $20,000 less than predecessor. Cites "War on Women" in effort to achieve parity.

Courtesy of the Seattle Times:

 Susan Hutchison, the new chair of the state Republican party, gets a salary of about $75,000 a year — substantially less than the $95,000 earned by her predecessor, Kirby Wilbur. 

But when Hutchison tried last weekend to convince the GOP executive committee to boost her pay to Wilbur’s level, the conversation turned ugly and Hutchison’s request was rebuffed. 

Hutchison bemoaned the decision in an internal party memo obtained by The Seattle Times. 

In the memo, sent Monday to the state GOP executive board, Hutchison wrote the “positive spirit” of the GOP meeting had “soured late in the day” when her salary request came up. 

The pay for the Republican chairman’s position had been cut by GOP leaders — citing budget issues — at a meeting just prior to Hutchison’s election in August. 

But Hutchison argued that vote had violated the party’s bylaws and could be viewed as “discriminatory and vindictive” — and even play into the hands of Democrats who have talked up the GOP’s problems among female voters. 

“The pay cut defies the concept of equal pay for equal work, playing into the ‘war on women’ narrative against Republicans,” Hutchison wrote. She added she’d personally raised $22,000 from 18 non-Republican Party donors from her personal list of contacts — “which more than covers” the $20,000 pay raise. 

“I left the meeting demoralized, and so did my hardworking staff. I heard that some of you felt beat up and angry, while others were very pleased. This kind of division over something so minor is not what will move us forward,” Hutchison wrote.

Of course after this kerfuffle Republican sources are claiming that they were planning to cut this salary all along and it had nothing to with the fact that Hitchison is a chick, and for her part Hutchison is trying to minimize the fact that she just ran head long into the GOP "War on Women," but I think we know what's really going on here.

Let's face it in the Republican world having ovaries is a preexisting condition, and the men believe that the doors of opportunity are pried open with their Viagra engorged penises.  (Or a gun, same thing really.)

Should I even bother to ask, yet again, WHY women bother to join the Republican party?

Did you know that bicycle riders create more pollution than the drivers of cars? No? Well that's because you're not a Republican. Update!

"Wait, what was I saying?"

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

The ranking Republican member on Washington state’s House Transportation Committee thinks that riding bicycles causes more pollution than driving cars, the Seattle Bike Blog reported Saturday. 

State Rep. Ed Orcutt (R) wrote an email to a constituent who disagreed with his support for a new tax on the sales of bicycles, a proposal being considered as part of a larger piece of transportation legislation. Reached by the Seattle Bike Blog, he confirmed the email is real. 

In his message, sent to the owner of a bicycle shop, Orcutt wrote: “If I am not mistaken, a cyclists [sic] has an increased heart rate and respiration. That means that the act of riding a bike results in greater emissions of carbon dioxide from the rider. Since CO2 is deemed to be a greenhouse gas and a pollutant, bicyclists are actually polluting when they ride.” 

He added that when citizens drive cars they are helping to pay for the roads, whereas bicyclists “need to start paying for the roads they ride on rather than make motorists pay.” 

Reached for comment, Orcutt told Seattle Bike Blog that “you would be giving off more CO2 if you are riding a bike than driving in a car,” although he admitted to having no evidence to back the claim.

So essentially this scientifically ignorant Republican is upset that bicyclists get to ride on roads that they don't pay for. (Apparently road repairs are paid for through gas taxes, though that may soon change.) Though I would argue that the contribution to wear and tear on the roads, which creates the the need for much of road repair, is substantially less from bicycle tires than from heavy automobiles.

However back to Orcutt's point about the fact that bicyclists create more CO2 pollution than do automobile drivers. Essentially that's bullshit!

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that each passenger vehicle in the U.S. generates on average 4.8 metric tons of CO2 every year, not accounting for emissions resulting in damage to the vehicle and local infrastructure, along with the actual production of fuel. The European Cyclists Federation, however, puts CO2 emissions from biking at about 10 times less than driving a car (PDF), even after accounting for the emissions required to make the bike and emissions linked to food the rider eats to power the device.

You know you would think that after so MANY ridiculous attempts to use science to support their argument, that the Republicans would simply stop using it.

The earth is six thousand years old, women getting raped can "shut that whole reproductive thing down." Mitt Romeny is going to win by a landslide, all completely, and embarrassingly, wrong.

No wonder the Republicans are constantly attacking education. If they can't figure out reality, then dammit they will keep others too dumb to figure it out too!

Update: Apparently Orcutt received so much backlash due his ridiculous statements that he has decided to walk them back:  

"My point was that by not driving a car, a cyclist was not necessarily having a zero-carbon footprint," Orcutt wrote in an email delivered to constituents. "In looking back, it was not a point worthy of even mentioning so, again, I apologize."

Well it's nice that he realizes what he said was ignorant, and I have one response to his apology and desperate attempt to put this behind him.

"Too late!"

I might have to visit Spokane, Washington. These seem like MY kind of people.

"Snow possilby wedged in sighn."

Yeah right!

Picture of the day.

Courtesy of Maddow Blog:

One month after Washington State voters approved the state's marriage equality law in Ref. 74, same-sex couples get marriage licenses for the first time on December 6th, 2012. At around 1:30am, Larry Duncan, 56, left, and Randy Shepherd, 48, from North Bend, Wash. got their marriage license. The two plan to wed on December 9th, the first day it is possible for them to wed in a church in Washington State. They have been together for 11 years. Originally from Dallas, Texas, they moved here 7 years ago because it's more gay friendly. Randy is a computer programer and Larry is a retired psychology nurse.

Seriously who, WHO, would tell these two gentleman that they cannot get married?

I actually feel sorry for people who are on the wrong side of this issue, because for years to come as gay marriage and relationships become more and more mainstream, they will have to keep their prejudice hidden away more and more from a society that will no longer accept homophobic statements, until eventually the only person they will be able to share it with is the person looking back at them in the mirror.

Who, by the way, is most likely gay.