the Seattle Times endorses legalizing marijuana

The Seattle Times has taken up the cause of legalizing marijuana. First, in its own editorial:

Marijuana should be legalized, regulated and taxed. The push to repeal federal prohibition should come from the states, and it should begin with the state of Washington.

In 1998, Washington was one of the earliest to vote for medical marijuana. It was a leap of faith, and the right decision. In 2003, Seattle was one of the first places in America to vote to make simple marijuana possession the lowest police priority. That, too, was a leap of faith, and the right decision. A year ago, City Attorney Pete Holmes stopped all prosecutions for simple possession: the right decision.

It is time for the next step. It is a leap, yes — but not such a big one, now.

Second, in an op-ed written by Norm Stamper, a former police chief, and the anti-Kerlikowske:

A fundamental change in drug policy seems daunting, but we've done it before with the repeal of alcohol prohibition. Today, you no longer see gangs shooting each other over beer and liquor market share. And both the president and Kerlikowske have compared drug use to cigarettes, pointing to the success of public-education campaigns in reducing the number of smokers.

But have they forgotten that we have not sent one person to jail for smoking Marlboros? If we can successfully manage alcohol and tobacco under a public-health model, we can do the same for all other drugs.

Here in Washington state, talk of legalization has hit the mainstream, and has prohibitionists on the defensive.

And it's about time.

party fouls

Via the inimitable Dave Weigel, parliamentary procedure gets exciting in Wisconsin.



A few notes:

1. Some Americans are going to consider this the collapse of civilization, but this is pretty tame stuff by international standards.

2. If you're wearing orange shirts in the chamber as a show of solidarity, don't expect the other side to play nice.

3. Liked the guy who shouted "we love you anyways."

4. Never be the last person chanting.


Added: Weigel's diary of the scene inside the Capitol is worth a gander, too.

when elections don't matter

I was going to blog extensively about Glenn Greenwald's recent visit to South Puget Sound Community College, but I see that Berd beat me to it.

Instead, the abridged version.

1. At this point, in the Obama presidency, at least as it relates to civil liberties, you're either naive or cynical. Consider his track record, as summarized by Greenwald:

Civil liberties were at the forefront of the critique of the Bush-Cheney administration. Yet virtually all of these powers are still in place, or have been strengthened.

Obama symbolically ended...
* Authorization for torture. (It was no longer in use by the time he was inaugurated.)
* The use of CIA black sites. (They were already empty.)

Obama continued Bush-era practices for...
* State secrets
* Guantanamo Bay detention
* Drone attacks
* Covert activities / "interference" (that fuels terrorism, in Greenwald's view)

Obama invented...
* The right to order the CIA to target American citizens for assassination

Greenwald's summing-up: "The idea that Barack Obama would do more to institutionalize and entrench and strengthen Bush-era policies... was something that not even the most cynical Democrat would have foreseen."

2. Greenwald seemed much more upbeat about the Tea Party and the Republican "shellacking" than many in his liberal audience. Partisanship, if nothing else, deflates the president's ego.

3. New Mexico Republican Gary Johnson: savior of civil liberties? From an unidentified woman in the Question and Answer session: "I had drinks with Gary Johnson, and got a little bit drunk. He's really awesome.... He's a Republican and he's completely awesome."

the eleventy-sixth amendment

I've been staying out of the political fray this season, since I'm far too busy with far more pressing things. (Today in Debate: a half-hour skirmish on the meaning of history.) Why am I posting this, then? I don't know. I guess it's because I loathe confident ignorance.

I tried to watch Christine O'Donnell's dust-up with Chris Coons over the interpretation of the First Amendment, and whether it lays the groundwork for the separation of church and state. I was hoping to see if O'Donnell's reported ignorance ("The First Amendment?") was, in fact, an uncharitable fallacy of accent in interpretation. (Point. Counterpoint.)

I couldn't get that far. It took only 1 minute and 8 seconds to determine that O'Donnell's grasp of the Constitution is tenuous, if not fatuous. When Coons argues that schools shouldn't be allowed to teach religious doctrine, O'Donnell fires back,

"Public schools do not have the right to teach what they feel? [Turns to the audience.] Well there you go. Do you want a senator who would impose his beliefs? Talk about imposing your beliefs on the local school!

At this point, O'Donnell is at least courting an actual controversy. Local school boards have long wrestled with the First Amendment, and there are plenty of folks who want to keep the feds out of their schoolhouse. (Ironically, a lot of them are the same folks who voted for the president most responsible for the raging federalization of education, George W. Bush.)

But then, after reiterating her support of teaching Intelligent Design in the classroom, O'Donnell tries to hammer the point home:

You have just stated that you will impose your will on local school boards, and that is a blatant violation of the Constitution."

Which Constitution? The one that hides out in the National Archives makes no mention of education, leaving the matter entirely to the states. Nothing in the Constitution would prohibit the establishment of a national education system, which seems to be the trend these days.

So I never made it to the moments when O'Donnell reportedly was baffled by the placement of the establishment clause in the First Amendment. I was too astonished at her novel interpolation of the Eleventy-Sixth.

Capital debater to have breakfast with Biden

Cameron Seib, a leading debater for Capital High School, will dine over hash browns and coffee with the talkingest politician who ever talked, one Vice President Joe Biden.

“I think it’s a great opportunity,” said Seib, 17, of Olympia. “You don’t get too many chances to meet such important people, and I’m definitely excited that not only is he coming to Seattle, but I get to meet him as well.”

The teenager was invited to the political fundraiser by 3rd Congressional District candidate Denny Heck. He spent the summer volunteering for Heck’s campaign.

Biden's in the region to stump for Patty Murray, who's hoping for a campaign that goes the way I like my eggs: over easy.

the eternal awkward stage

It's one thing to believe stupid things when you're young. It's another to publish them for all the world to see.

It's another thing, still, to try to erase your former stupidity.

Zeiger, the author of two books and many columns, essays and blog posts about politics and local history, recently had his writings purged from a number of websites, including “Intellectual Conservative.”

Morrell’s campaign and the House Democratic Campaign Committee noticed the missing articles Saturday, the committee said. The group opened its general election campaign with a news release questioning why the articles, more than 50 by their count, were disappearing. The committee said Zeiger was taking them down to hide his “extremist” views. Field director Alex Hur said: “Voters deserve to know what a candidate’s values really are.”

Zeiger said those articles don’t all represent his values anymore, so he had them removed. They would be a “distraction” from the campaign, he said.

The writings aren’t from very long ago, mainly 2003 and 2004. But Zeiger is just 25, and he was in college at the time. He said he’s “grown up since age 18 and 19 when the really provocative stuff was going up.”

I'd say Zeiger is sincere, even if he's chosen the dubious strategy of purging the past. (If you're not inclined to give him the benefit, at least read his own reflections on his brief career as a pundit.)

I can empathize with Zeiger; the poems, political cartoons, and essays I crafted in high school were heartfelt but brainless, and it's easy for me to repudiate them as adolescent folly.

The only smart thing about them: they weren't published. No eternal awkward stage for me.

politics and daffodils

This Monday afternoon found the legislature in special session. Sign things will wrap up quickly: on a warm March day, the Capitol parking lot emptied precisely at five.


And, really, why would you want to be stuck inside the Capitol when daffodils are blooming?

[Photos courtesy of Melissa Anderson, who shares my political philosophy regarding unreasonably springlike weather.]

OEA recommends school board candidates

The Olympia Education Association's Candidate Interview Team recently interviewed the three candidates running for election to the Olympia School District Board of Directors: Allen Miller, Mark Campeau, and Eileen Thomson. In this unusual election season, all three are running for the first time after having previously served via appointment to their respective positions--and all three are running unopposed.

Allen Miller
The OEA Candidate Interview Team recommends Director Allen Miller for the Olympia School Board District 2 position. Director Miller expanded on his written responses during an interview on October 15th at the OEA office. He emphasized the importance of open communication, trust, respect and collaboration as key elements in his role as a Board member and across groups and interests in the district. Director Miller stated that he would use the District’s Strategic Plan to guide his decisions on policy and the district budget. In budget development, Director Miller listed his priorities as, first, keeping future cuts as far from the classroom as possible, and second, employing a transparent, inclusive process. Director Miller invited communication from teachers and suggested that email was the best way to contact him with questions or concerns. We encourage Director Miller to take a more proactive role in reaching out to faculty and staff across the District.

Mark Campeau
The OEA Candidate Interview Team recommends Director Mark Campeau for the Olympia School Board District 5 position. Director Campeau responded to questions during an interview on October 15th at the OEA office. He identified the importance of the Board’s role in providing clear, strong policy leadership as a key element in improving student learning. Director Campeau felt that the District’s Strategic Plan was a good guiding document for the Board to use in its decision-making processes for budget and policy issues. He emphasized the need for adequate resources to allow teachers to meet the needs of their current students. He stated that he had enjoyed visiting buildings and talking with teaching staff and emphasized the importance of hearing from a variety of sources about concerns and successes in the District. He plans to continue his visits. Director Campeau included maintaining class size and programs focused on improving student learning as key considerations in the budget development process. We applaud Director Campeau for his efforts to build relationships with faculty and staff across the District.

Eileen Thompson
The OEA Candidate Interview Team recommends Director Eileen Thompson for the Olympia School Board District 3 position. Director Thompson responded in writing to questions from the Candidate Interview Team. In her responses, she included open access, improved communication and improving student learning as critical elements to be addressed in her role as a member of the Board. Director Thompson felt that the District’s Strategic Plan should serve as the guiding document for her decisions on the Board. In the budget process, she emphasized maintaining an open, inclusive process and keeping future cuts away from the classroom as priorities. Director Thompson stated that she has enjoyed spending time in buildings and welcomes communication with staff members. We applaud Director Thomson for her efforts to include new voices in the District conversation.



For the second election running, the OEA Candidate Interview Team included myself, Sharyn Merrigan, and Dan McCartan.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, quasi-libertarian?

Re-reading The Scarlet Letter means re-reading "The Custom-House," its windy (in both pronunciations) preface. (If you skipped it, I don't blame you. But you really should go back and read it--it's a witty counterpoint to the heavy-handed moralizing of the novel.)

Hawthorne's experience as a federal employee turned him into a bit of a libertarian. In a typical digression, he writes,

An effect—which I believe to be observable, more or less, in every individual who has occupied the position—is, that, while he leans on the mighty arm of the Republic, his own proper strength departs from him. He loses, in an extent proportioned to the weakness or force of his original nature, the capability of self-support. If he possess an unusual share of native energy, or the enervating magic of place do not operate too long upon him, his forfeited powers may be redeemable. The ejected officer—fortunate in the unkindly shove that sends him forth betimes, to struggle amid a struggling world—may return to himself, and become all that he has ever been. But this seldom happens. He usually keeps his ground just long enough for his own ruin, and is then thrust out, with sinews all unstrung, to totter along the difficult footpath of life as he best may. Conscious of his own infirmity,—that his tempered steel and elasticity are lost,—he for ever afterwards looks wistfully about him in quest of support external to himself. His pervading and continual hope—a hallucination, which, in the face of all discouragement, and making light of impossibilities, haunts him while he lives, and, I fancy, like the convulsive throes of the cholera, torments him for a brief space after death—is, that, finally, and in no long time, by some happy coincidence of circumstances, he shall be restored to office. This faith, more than any thing else, steals the pith and availability out of whatever enterprise he may dream of undertaking. Why should he toil and moil, and be at so much trouble to pick himself up out of the mud, when, in a little while hence, the strong arm of his Uncle will raise and support him? Why should he work for his living here, or go to dig gold in California, when he is so soon to be made happy, at monthly intervals, with a little pile of glittering coin out of his Uncle’s pocket? It is sadly curious to observe how slight a taste of office suffices to infect a poor fellow with this singular disease. Uncle Sam’s gold—meaning no disrespect to the worthy old gentleman—has, in this respect, a quality of enchantment like that of the Devil’s wages. Whoever touches it should look well to himself, or he may find the bargain to go hard against him, involving, if not his soul, yet many of its better attributes; its sturdy force, its courage and constancy, its truth, its self-reliance, and all that gives the emphasis to manly character.

Later on, Hawthorne credits his (politically-motivated) dismissal for providing him with the creative energy and spark to turn the outline for The Scarlet Letter into a living, breathing, perpetually sermonizing novel.

Obama's speech to schools echoes a previous president

In the Olympia School District, we won't be in school on Tuesday when President Obama delivers a speech to the nation's students. Nevertheless, the controversy over the speech has prompted Superintendent Lahmann to issue a statement:

On Tuesday, September 8, President Obama will do a national address to students about education. The national media has focussed on concerns that have been raised about the address being shown in schools. We have received a few emails and phone calls of both support and opposition about having students watch the broadcast.

Since our students do not start school until Wednesday, September 9, it seems obvious that we will not be broadcasting the President's message to students live. If parents or community members contact you about this issue, please remind them when school starts.

I have attached a copy of a Question & Answer release that the Department of Education sent out related to the President's speech. If staff wants to record the President's speech and use it later as part of a lesson, they may do so just as they would use an other supplemental resource. Given the concerns that have surfaced, please be sensitive to the controversial nature of any use.

The last time a president asked for a bully pulpit at the front of your classroom? Back in 1991, when Bush--George Herbert Walker Bush--asked for support of his educational goals.

Jim Lindgren links to the story, and does a little WestLaw digging to find media reactions.

In October of 1991, I must have been in seventh grade. I don't remember Bush's speech in the slightest.

Baird reverses course; will host town halls

Via Jon DeVore, it turns out that Brian Baird has changed his mind and will now host real, live, town halls this summer.

His constituents should look forward to the five town hall meetings and feel free to participate. And if the kitchen gets a little hot, as we editorialized before, Baird should "(w)ork with the concept that some rowdy crowd behavior will happen and figure out how to best manage it. These are, after all, Baird's meetings...."

Two other fumbles were recovered Wednesday, these of the verbal variety. In his written statement, Baird addressed two inappropriate analogies he had drawn in recent interviews. Last week he labeled as "Brownshirt" in nature much of the recent disruptive behavior at town hall meetings. The next day, Baird dug deeper. He compared the unruly town hall meeting participants with Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Now, though, in both instances, "I regret that and apologize for it."

Good for him. Up until recently, Baird had a solid reputation for engaging his constituents. This is the Brian Baird we know and expect.

today's health care links

I had been working on a great big post about medical ethics and the health care debate--which, at least on the television, is more like the battle of Talking Points vs. Shouting Points. But in my research and reading, I kept getting sidetracked by more and more links of interest, so for now, I'm taking the cheap way out, and letting you experience the fun for yourself. (The medical ethics piece is still coming, promise.)

1. Debate about the debate: Jesse Walker on various shades of Astroturf.

2. Similarly, David Harsanyi on who really controls the conversation.

3. Oh, you mean you actually want to compare reform proposals?

4. What Obama's grandmother has to do with the debate.

5. Hopefully, you'll never have to battle your insurance company for coverage.

6. How to put a price on life.

7. When the health care debate pits brother against brother.

easily offended

Don't believe in God? You are not alone.

Apparently, this sentiment offends the Governor of Iowa.

Gov. Chet Culver weighed in on the controversial Des Moines bus ad that has been yanked after multiple complaints.

“I was disturbed, personally, by the advertisement and I can understand why other Iowans were also disturbed by the message that it sent,” Culver said.

The question will likely become a legal battle, Culver said. He deferred questions of whether the group deserves the same free speech rights as Christian organizations to advertise on the buses to the Iowa Attorney General.

Culver also declined to answer if he would also have gotten off the bus had he been a rider, but noted that he would have been offended by the ad’s message.

What, exactly, is Governor Culver offended by? The notion that atheists exist? The notion that atheists exist openly? The notion that atheists have free speech? The notion that some atheists feel isolated in the Corn Belt?

Even if Culver is "disturbed" by any of the above, he has to know that this is an open-and-shut matter of viewpoint discrimination prohibited under the First Amendment--never mind the Constitution of the state of Iowa. Culver, in pretending otherwise, and refusing to stand up for the rights of all Iowans, has revealed himself to not only be a bigot, but a political coward.



Update: The ads are going back on the buses. Better yet, the advertising policy is being rewritten to better reflect First Amendment rights. No thanks to Culver.

plagiarism charge hits Seattle pol

If there's an excuse for plagiarism, Seattle mayoral candidate James Donaldson is going to find it:

Seattle mayoral candidate James Donaldson rolled out a 32-page plan of his ideas for Seattle last week. He called it, "James Donaldson's Plan for Seattle."

But parts of Donaldson's plan are copied verbatim from a similar plan released last year by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, who, like Donaldson, is a former NBA player.

Donaldson's campaign consultant, Cindi Laws, said she modeled the plan after Johnson's.

"People make these assumptions about athletes being dim ... so I looked at how it had been done," said Laws. "Kevin broke out of the pack by issuing a policy-heavy plan."

Laws said the similarities simply show that Donaldson knows a good idea when he sees one.

He just forgets the part about giving credit where it's due, right?

Throwaways:

1. When asked his opinion of Seattle's proposed plastic bag tax, Donaldson said, "Hold on, I'm Googling it."

2. Obviously, the way to combat stereotypes is to live them out. A warning, though: cognitive dissonance has a wide radius.

3. Remember, it's not the quality of the plan. It's the combined weight of its policies.

Update: Not the only time Donaldson's gone cut-and-paste happy, I'm afraid.

script-flipping, continued

If you needed more evidence that the Town Hall Shout-Ins of '09 are an example of Left and Right flipping the script, try Byron York's (classic?) article on Cindy Sheehan, notable for its unabashed mockery of the antiwar activist and her supporters. Of course, the title of his book on l'affair Bushitler is equally insightful:

The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy: The Untold Story of How Democratic Operatives, Eccentric Billionaires, Liberal Activists, and Assorted Celebrities Tried to Bring Down a President — and Why They'll Try Even Harder Next Time.

Right intuition; wrong team.

Oh, and... The Brian Baird saga gets weirder.

Brian Baird will stay in the frying pan, thank you

Local Democrat Brian Baird won't be hosting any town halls this summer, blaming protesters who've been interrupting town hall meetings across the country.

Baird said his decision to scrub such constituent gatherings was partly prompted by an atmosphere of intimidation and harassment from right-wing opponents of Democratic health care reform efforts who have disrupted town hall meetings in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Texas, Ohio and Wisconsin.

“It’s a lynch-mob mentality out there,” Baird said. “There is an ugliness to it.”

The article notes that Baird is "no stranger to town hall protests." Indeed, this blogger witnessed Baird take a lot of flak--much of it personal--when he came to Capital High School to defend his support for the surge back in 2007. So I'm inclined to grant Baird the benefit of the doubt, here, if he claims to see something more vitriolic than protests past. It's not like he's known for flaking out on his constituents. But the move still strikes me as unwise--if anything, it emboldens the fringe, and reinforces their paranoia.

Last, it's clear that today's health care rabble-rousers have borrowed their tactics from the anti-war movement. After all, they've had over six years to watch and learn.

Update: On a national level, more script-flipping, compliments of Rush Limbaugh.

Update II: Jon DeVore notes that Dave Reichert has been town-hall free for his term.

Update III: And now Baird has put his foot in it. This is turning out to be an entertaining, as in tragic, summer.

Update IV: A cryptic death threat for Brian Baird? Really? People, just stop.

what the legislature did--and didn't--accomplish

The Tacoma News-Tribune's Joe Turner runs down the list of legislative feats from the 2009 session. Excerpted, some of the educational laws already signed by Governor Gregoire:

Special elections: HB 1018 will get rid of two of four spring dates that most school and fire districts use for special elections. The March election will be eliminated right away. May elections will be eliminated after 2011. Elections still will be held in February and April, but the specific dates will be different hereafter....

Military school kids: SB 5248 will enroll Washington in an interstate compact and set uniform rules that govern how schools handle children who transfer from one state to another because their military parents have been reassigned....

Some of the pending education items in the budget:

Pay freeze: Cost of living adjustments (COLA) for some 250,000 state and public school workers will be suspended for two years, but workers will receive “step” increases based on how much time on the job they have....

Bethel skills center: There is $10 million in the capital budget to proceed with the skills center in Spanaway that will be shared by a dozen school districts in Pierce County.

And, of course, let's not forget the $600 million in "savings" due to the evisceration of the class size initiative, I-728.

Other bills still pending:

Teachers pay raises: HB 2363 would suspend the cost of living raises that public school and some two-year college workers are automatically entitled to in 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years. However, the bill also obliges the Legislature to make up for the estimated 4.2 percent raise that teachers are losing no later than the 2014-15 school year....

Stun guns in schools: SB 5263 would add stun guns and Tasers to the list of weapons that cannot be brought by students onto school property, buses or playgrounds, and school security must be trained before they can possess them at schools....

Four-day school week: HB 1292 would let mostly rural school districts with fewer than 500 students shorten their school year to fewer than the required 180 days as long as they provide students with 1,000 hours of instruction.

Basic education: HB 2261 would broaden the definition of basic education to include all-day kindergarten and other programs, oblige the Legislature to fully fund that broader definition by 2018-19 school year and develop new standards for evaluating teachers.

The last is by far the most controversial measure; the WEA is pressuring the governor for a veto, since the bill proposes massive changes without even a smidgen of foreseeable funding.

All in all, the legislature passed a record 583 bills in the 105-day session.

That's an average of over five per day.

Crazy.

And yet they still couldn't provide districts a way to preserve at least 3,000 teaching positions by lifting the levy lid.

Crazier still.

"What's the urgency?" asks Kessler; layoffs loom

Lynn Kessler (D-Hoquiam) said something today for reasons I can't fathom. Asked about the now defunct special session, which would have brought back a levy lid lift bill that could literally save thousands of teaching jobs, Kessler stated, "“What’s the urgency?”

Is that a joke, Representative Kessler? Districts have until May 15th to issue RIF notices to the teachers who might have otherwise kept their jobs, or to ax other programs and personnel in order to keep teachers onboard, now that the levy lid lift is doomed.

Even if a solution magically arises by September, when Kessler thinks the legislature can return to action as if nothing is wrong, it'll be too late for the thousands of mostly young teachers who've lived in limbo, or left the profession.

It's not as if Kessler couldn't know better. Hoquiam isn't exactly flying above the storm:

The Hoquiam School Board authorized layoff notices to the equivalent of 10.6 teachers Wednesday night in its first crack at dealing with a higher-than-expected $1.3 million revenue shortfall to its current $20 million operating budget.

Other budget reducing options the board is considering include elimination of the high school girl’s swimming team, the Young Authors and Math Olympiad programs, the middle school drama program and all elementary sports. Also being considered is the elimination of six full-time support staff workers and the reduction of hours for even more workers.

“We’re also closing a school,” School Board member Judy Morgan said, referring to the impending closure of Washington Elementary at the end of the year.

No urgency, Representative Kessler? Really?

"We will find the truth. We will fully investigate."

[via Ed Brayton]

Olympia officially initiates the RIF process

We'd been hearing about it for weeks, and even received an email from District higher-ups warning that it was about to happen. Still, the official call to inaugurate an exploration of the RIF process, Resolution #451, hadn't been passed by the Olympia School Board of Directors, nor had its follow-up, the actual official setting-of-the-process-in-motion, Resolution #452.

Tonight, both were passed unanimously by a Board hamstrung by a depleted economy and a state budget outlook that, in the nicest possible terms, disconcerts. This means that a good chunk of teachers in the Olympia School District--the upper bound is probably 100--will soon receive a letter notifying them that the RIF is in play, and it may include them.

This will not be a pink slip. It'll be a warning that the pink slip virus is contagious, a painful and frightening but legally necessary step. If a district fails to warn an employee that their position is at risk, the district can't make the cut.

In tonight's freshly-released worst case scenario, Assistant Superintendent Jim Crawford estimated that in 2009-2010, the District will have to eliminate 37.5 FTEs, or Full Time Equivalents. That's based on the Senate budget, which would completely eradicate I-728 funds.

Will we get the worst case? Only the legislature--and Governor Gregoire--can say for sure.

You might want to help them make up their minds.