Moe Lane

See, this is problem with liberal-libertarian “alliances:” God help the latter if the former disagree with them on something. Like, you know, pot legalization:

Colorado’s medical-marijuana dispensaries can sell the stuff just fine — and would-be vendors of the recreational variety hope to do the same once rules are put in place this year.

But there is little that those businesses can legally do with their cash other than put it in a safe or bury it. No bank, credit union or financial-services company can knowingly accept business accounts with any trace of a marijuana connection. If they do, it’s a federal crime.

Note the emphasis on “legal:” illegally there’s a bunch of stuff that businesses can do, starting with money laundering.  I will avoid belaboring the point that it is somewhat surreal to ban a business operating legally under state law from essential and elementary business transactions, but I will make two points:

• If you are upset that the federal government is apparently capable and eager to interfere in a particular arena that should be strictly state business and arguably none of it its own, guess what: it does that everywhere else, too.
• The US Supreme Court case you should be cursing at this point is Wickard v. Filburn.  In more ways than one.  Still love that “The Commerce Clause lets us do anything we dang well please” strategy, o ye recreational marijuana users? – Because, again, it’s not just restricted to pot policy.

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I keep getting sent this link, God knows why:

A United Nations-based drug agency urged the United States government on Tuesday to challenge the legalization of marijuana for recreational use in Colorado and Washington, saying the state laws violate international drug treaties.

The International Narcotics Control Board made its appeal in an annual drug report. It called on Washington, D.C., to act to “ensure full compliance with the international drug control treaties on its entire territory.”

I mean, I’m sure that I don’t know why people might suggest that this would have ever been a topic of more than academic (undergrad) interest to me, ya, you betcha. (more…)

Quick background: Seattle last year instituted a ban on plastic bags and mandated a charge for paper bags, on the grounds that doing so would force consumers to use recyclable bags. This is all ostensibly for improving the quality of life in Seattle:

“I think we’ve gotten to a place where it’s really going to work for the environment, businesses and the community in general,” Councilman Mike O’Brien said at the time.

So, how did it work? (more…)

Yes, “leaking.”

Six underground radioactive waste tanks at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site are leaking, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday.

[snip]

The tanks, which already are long past their intended 20-year life span, hold millions of gallons (liters) of a highly radioactive stew left from decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons.

Yes, “again” (via @seanmdav):

In our 1989 report on the Department of Energy’s (DOE) management of the single-shell tanks at its Hanford Site in Washington, we reported that, based on estimates by DOE contractor staff, about 750,000 gallons of liquid waste had leaked from 66 single-shell tanks.1 Subsequently, in September 1990 the Washington State Department of Ecology learned that the volume of liquid waste that had leaked from one Hanford single-shell tank (designated as 241-A-105, commonly known as 105-A) was substantially higher than the volume reported to us and included in our report.

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Now watch as I leech content off of Twitter.
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Yeah, this is pretty much how it goes.

this video “the internet goes to washington” is hilarious: youtu.be/ecciu_grqaEh/t @brodigan

— El SOOPer!! (@SooperMexican) February 7, 2013

God knows that I can’t claim to be above it all, either – as witnessed by the fact that this post is essentially a retweet with comments enabled. Don’t think about that too hard.

SURPRISE!

Democratic State Sens. Rodney Tom and Tim Sheldon announced they would create a majority power-sharing coalition with Senate Republicans, throwing control of the chamber into question.

While the new coalition pledged to start preparing for next month’s session, Democratic leaders who now hold a slim majority signaled they will fight the proposal.

One wonders how, given that the existing plan has been signed off on by the entire incoming GOP state Senate Caucus.  The way the deal goes: Tom and Sheldon get to be in charge.  The Republicans get to control crucial committees like Ways and Means, Commerce and Labor, Health Care* – and, here’s the fun one: they get to pick the majority floor leader.  That’s the person who decides which bill goes to which committee, which is another way of saying “the person who can kill or save bills.”  The Democrats get… to play with the parks and beaches, of which I understand Washington state has some very nice examples.

So, basically, nobody you care about is getting hammered on this one. (more…)

Pardon my use of the technical term ‘hovel’ to describe these things: ‘shack’ simply didn’t have the same connotation of ‘lived in by a beaten-down peasant’ attached to it.

Step into an alleyway in the Northeast Washington neighborhood known as Stronghold, and you will see a vegetable patch, a campfire, a view of the Capitol and a cluster of what neighbors call “those tiny people, building their tiny houses.”

The people aren’t really tiny, but their homes are — 150 to 200 square feet of living space, some with gabled roofs, others with bright cedar walls, compact bathrooms and cozy sleeping lofts that add up to living spaces that are smaller than the walk-in closets in a suburban McMansion.

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Well. This was highly disturbing to read:

Democrats on the bottom of the ticket in Washington state all the way to the very top are caught in a pickle. Stand against religious bigotry or give back some $60,000 in state campaign cash contributed by world-famous spiritual channeler JZ Knight after videos showing Knight preaching hatred of Catholics became public.

In a story that may become a national news story as soon as tomorrow morning, Knight is seen and heard on video to let loose a profanity-strewn rant against Catholics and has been a frequent and generous contributor to Democrats here in Washington and at the national level. Knight’s contributions to Democrat at all levels total more than $120,000 for the current election cycle.

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I had heard that Darcy Burner – best known for being a Democrat who couldn’t beat a Republican in Washington state during the two worst election cycles for Republicans in living memory – spoke yesterday at Netroots Nation in Providence, RI (I happen to be in town myself for the much cooler Breitbart Awards conference that the Franklin Center/the Heritage Foundation is putting on). Feeling all very nostalgic about Ms. Burner and everything, I decided to see if she had been up to anything. Turns out? Yup! Darcy’s doing what she does best: making life easier for Republicans.

It goes like this. WA-01 is a recently redrawn district (more on this later) that is going to be strenuously fought over this election cycle.  It was held by Democrat Jay Inslee, but he resigned the seat in order to run for Governor. As everyone reading this probably knows by now, House seats may not be assigned; if there is an empty seat then there must be an election. So there will be two elections in November: one for the month remaining in the current, and one for the next, full term. This happens all the time, and people should treat the news that this sort of thing causes headaches for the national parties with all the respect that such news deserves: yup, you guessed it, none at all.
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This one must have hurt, really.  I mean: a guy spends over three and a half decades in Congress.  He’s carefully establish himself as a convenient… receptacle… for almost-respectable defense lobbyist payoffs.  And he’s just gotten the brass ring: next in line to his party’s top slot at Appropriations.  And in the last Congress? That spot was the Holy Grail for people who wanted to wet their beaks while serving their country.  This was, in other words, as close to being Norm Dicks’ moment as is allowable for people who are… like Norm Dicks.

Then it all went bad.  Because Norm Dicks soon discovered – like the rest of the Democratic party – that the reason why David Obey (the Appropriations chair in 2010) decided to retire was because Obey realized that he wasn’t going to be the Appropriations chair in 2011.  And thus it came to pass.  In the meantime, Norm Dicks got publicly mocked by libertarians.  The House duly flipped parties.  Dicks himself had his worst showing (admittedly, 58%) since 1994 and the second/third worst showing in his electoral history.

And then those miserable so-and-sos in the new House leadership banned earmarks.

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I haven’t really been paying attention to this particular race – it’s admittedly one of the few where the Republican incumbent (David Reichert) isn’t quite safe, but then again, it’s a bad year to be a Democratic challenger* – but I got tipped off to what appears to be a bit of a vetting problem with Dave’s challenger (one Suzan-with-a-Z Delbene). And, yes, if I’m able to use the phrase ‘dead of a heroin overdose’ in a completely literal manner then there was in fact a vetting problem.

The story starts with Ms. Delbene, who is a member of the Board of Trustees for Reed College. Oddly, while this information is on the Reed College website, and confirmed here, it does not show up in her official campaign biography.  Which would be very odd, no?  After all, she’s an alumnus; and having that bit of academic respectability would surely be an advantage in a competitive House race.  And it would be… if it were for any college besides Reed.  You see, Reed has a certain reputation:

“When you say Reed, two words often come to mind,” Mr. Diver said. “One is brains. One is drugs.”

Mr. Diver, by the way, is Mr. Colin Diver… President of the college. (more…)