BlatherWatch

The good guys kick some BIAW, christian, election night ass!

Suppose it could turn around if the Lord changed his mind of a sudden and decided to answer the prayers of Rev.Joe Fuiton and his Flying Evangelicals. But with 60% of the precincts in, dare we even  think that the fair and righteous won the Supreme Court races for not only Tom Chambers, but Gerry Alexander as well?

Maybe the Lord answers liberals' prayers after all.

The evangelicals and the BIAW, (their non-sectarian moral equivalents) strove so hard to beat incumbents Gerry Alexander, Susan Owens, and Tom Chambers using brutally negative ads, and dumping huge amounts of money into the judicial races, heretofore blandly Socratic and frugal debates.

We have to admit, we'd nearly lost faith in the Alexander race especially. But here he is in the wee hours leading by 9 points!

Could it be that religious right/BIAW coalition's aggressive, well-financed, negative attack-tics backfired?

Maybe we weren't the only one that thought the brutality and unfairness of the Bobbe Bridge ad created sympathy for Alexander and empathy for Bridge. Why was she, and her personal tragedy, reasonable people asked, so callously dragged into this? And how could they think they could so crudely attach her to Alexander?

Might the expensive TV scheissblitz by the rich special interests have actually raised Alexander's name recognition?

Slime and money are the mother's milk of politics, they say. But would it be too much to hope that this might be the beginnings of a bigger backlash barring bilious bashing by Bible-bumping bottomfeeders and building big-buckaneers?

Horse's ass podcast on KIRO site

Thanks to incessant pissing and moaning by BlatherWatch, and a hard working board op, KIRO is now podcasting the David Goldstein Show (Sundays, 7-10p) click on PODCASTS and scroll to the bottom of the links for Sunday's show.

Hat tip to our favorite board-op Erynn Rose and Mr. Clendening for recording Goldy for posterior.

BlatherWatch endorses...primaries 2006

Primaries are Tuesday and really- who cares what BlatherWatch thinks?

Well you're right- nobody, really. But you know us- we dither on even when we have nothing to say, and no one's listening. 

Nonetheless, we gathered our editorial board on a series of consecutive days, fed them lavishly on savory chips des potatoes and Safeway pop and hammered out the kind of authoritative political endorsement sheet you'd expect us to come up with after oral gratification such as that.

THE SUPREME COURT
The no-bullshit, Orange level votes we insist you make (these are not suggestions) are for the Washington Supreme Court. The Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) has dumped unprecedented tons of money into the races to defeat incumbents who haven't done their bidding in the past. They're literally buying their way into the court (they already paid the way for their stooge, Jim Johnson onto the court in 2005).

(The BIAW, by the way, doesn't represent real builders any more than the Mafia represents cement manufacturers. They're political thugs who hate our freedom and are trying to hurt America; and they do it with the blood money they shake out of mean and greedy people from all over the country).

GERRY ALEXANDER: is chief justice, and while we certainly don't agree with him all that much- he voted, frinstance, to keep the Defense of Marriage Act denying equal marriage rights. But you oughta see the guy the BIAW got to take his place! John Groan is a snide lawyer with bad hair who's cherry-picked issues out of years of Alexander's decisions and has amplified them to such a harsh pitch with his attack ads that he's got Alexander on the ropes. Groan's name has been linked to property rights zealots and fundamentalist clinchpoops and it's apparent he hates our freedom and is trying to hurt America.

SUSAN OWENS is in nobody's pocket, especially the BIAW's, and has the distinction of NOT being endorsed by the Seattle Times. She is who she is, and has been the target of right wingers for years because of her principled stands on the social issues anathematic to those who hate our freedom and want to hurt America like her opponent the drab state Sen. Stephen Johnson, who's BIAW bought and paid for and hangs out with property rights terrorists. If you must vote for a Johnson (and we know the urge is strong) vote for MICHAEL JOHNSON, whose toothy yet enigmatic smile in the voter's pamphlet makes him look like he's got a secret joke (which, we suspect, he does).

TOM CHAMBERS is from Eastern Washington and we like that, because it helps defuse the perception that Seattle runs everything. (It really does and it should, but the appearance of that makes drysiders feel like 3rd world citizens, which, in so many ways, they are). He's been a voice (if a bit restrained) of reason over the years. Which is exactly not the case, with his opponent, the peculiar, dangerous Jeanette Burrage. She fills the role in our state of eccentric conservative goofbat, one unfilled since Gov. Dixie Earl Ray who left office in 1980. (OK, OK, Pam Roach does a pretty good job w/that, but compared to Jeanette, she's a punk). Burrage, who hates our freedom and wants to hurt America, is fierce on such issues as the wearing of skirts in her courtroom (even men!) and locking up folks partial to butt sex. Just before they endorsed her in 2000, The Seattle Weekly said: "From all accounts, she is not the most competent of judges. An extreme conservative of the libertarian, property-rights, absolutist persuasion, Burrage has been unable to keep politics out of her courtroom." (It'd be very fun for such as we, if she were elected, but we cannot recommend voting for her merely for the fun and ridicule factor she'd bring. It wouldn't be right).

It’s BIAW-bashing night on horse's ass radio!

And it's about time, too. Tune in tonight for The David Goldstein Show (KIRO, Sundays, 7-10p).

David writes:
7p: Few right-wing groups are more vocal than the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW), which is in the midst of shattering campaign finance records by spending millions of dollars to put their hand-picked candidates on the state Supreme Court. But one hot-button topic they’ve been silent on is the issue of illegal immigration… and now we know why: as the Seattle Times reports today anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of residential construction workers are Latino immigrants, many of them illegal. Did the BIAW bust the unions and replace them with low cost, illegal workers? Are you willing to crack down on immigration if the result is dramatically higher food and housing costs?

8p: Over $1.8 million has already been spent on behalf of right-wing Supreme Court challenger John Groan, most of it viciously characterizing Chief Justice Gerry Alexander as a senile, baby-killing boozer. What if anything can be done to prevent wealthy special interests like the BIAW from buying the bench? Terry Sullivan from Washington Public Campaigns joins me to discuss public financing of elections, an idea whose time may finally have come. Are you willing to pay to get big money out of local politics?

9p: We continue our evening of BIAW-bashing when Seattle P-I political columnist Joel Connelly joins me in the studio. In addition to discussing our disgraceful judicial elections, I’m guessing we’ll also touch upon GOP evil-mastermind Karl Rove’s visit this week on behalf of Rep. Dave “Rubberstamp” Reichert, and the state of the US Senate race between Sen. Maria Cantwell and challenger Mike?™ McGavick.

Tune in tonight (or listen to the live stream) and call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).

The sheriff's in trouble- rove rides to the rescue

Darryl of hominid views is blogging on Horsesass this weekend and he's got the scoop on the tight and tightening 8th district race where Darcy Burner and Dave "Sheriff Hairspray" Reichert are locked in what the New York Times is calling a toss-up.

There's definitely blood in the water in the unexpectedly stiff challenge to Reichert by the energetic political newcomer. Darcy has out-fundraised the incumbent for the last three quarters.

Karl Rove is here tonight to raise money for Reichert in the green pastures of Medina. Bush and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Dick Cheney and Laura Bush have come into the district to raise money for Reichert.

Unfortunately for Republicans, Reichert's still an inarticulate and stumbling candidate with an empty briefcase.

Darcy says when Bush came to the District to help Reichert, it actually helped her fundraising. We can't imagine that the publicity surrounding a Rove visit can help Reichert, other than to shake down the rich base.

Is mike webb crazy? or is it memorex?

Paul Simon's American Tune looped over and over on Mike Webb's Internet show, most of the day Thursday.

    Many's the time I've been mistaken
    And many times confused
    Many's the time I've been forsaken
    And certainly abused
    But it's all right, it's all right
    You can't be forever blessed
    When I think of another working day
    I've just got to get some rest.

Now there's a letter to friends and listeners: I will be taking a much-needed and long overdue rest. The show will be suspended for a brief time ... As some readers and listeners know, these have been some trying times on a personal level which I believe did not belong in the public spotlight.

Despite he says he doesn't want the public spotlight, Webb's acting out has been a magnet for attention of not only such as us, but the MSM as well. His actions Thurs. have made this into a major beneath-the-fold page B1 story - a delicious little anomaly that's among the "most e-mailed" along with "Canadian held after biting border guard."

The accusation has been made: Mike Webb's "mental deterioration" is a delay tactic, according to prosecutor Nancy Balin. "Webb was aware," she said,"that the jurors were watching" during Webb's outside the courthouse apprehension and at least one witness said she heard Webb say: "This is going to end my trial."

(The blogosphere isn't buying it either. Merciful Nate, the blogger that had the altercation in the hallway being used as proof of Webb's mental incompetence waxes ineloquently here).

Webb definitely had a motive for trying once again to change the subject and delay. A juror told BlatherWatch: "He was cooked."

Jurors felt guilty. The trial they'd been immersed in for two weeks that cost the taxpayers $1000 a day was declared a mistrial because of jury taint and they were taking it personally, they blamed themselves.

But many of them felt that Mike Webb had dodged a bullet. 

Webb melodrama may be just that

The Seattle PI's Paul Shukovsky has the story of Mike Webb's performance Wednesday afternoon that began a cycle of events that culminated in his mistrial. But Prosecutor Nancy Balin is not buying it.

The 51-year-old Webb, the only witness for the defense, testified Wednesday morning and later told his sister, Marian Bagni, that he wanted to go home to clear his head before a verdict came in, according to Bagni and a police report.

But Bagni was concerned that her brother was suicidal, she later told Spector.

Webb had told her that if he was convicted the courts wouldn't need to sentence him, according to the police report. And Bagni said Webb had a gun in his house.

"I ran to the police officer and told him, 'I think he's going to go home and hurt himself,' " Bagni told Spector on Thursday.

Bagni said Webb was released from Harborview after promising to check himself into an inpatient treatment program.

But other behaviors by Webb puts the whole affair under suspicion.

Defense attorney Mark Larranaga said Webb's mental health has deteriorated, but the prosecutor suggested that the defendant deliberately sought a mistrial.

"Webb was aware that the jurors were watching" what unfolded in front of the courthouse, Balin said. She noted that Webb was heard to say: "This is going to end my trial."

"The state believes that raising the issue of competency now is a delay tactic," Balin said.

Balin said repeated disruptive demonstrations by Webb such as objecting to the presence of a press photographer in the courtroom and an altercation in a courthouse stairwell between Webb and a blogger aren't evidence of mental illness.

"A person who has trouble controlling himself during a bad, two-week trial is not necessarily mentally ill," the prosecutor said.

BIAW throws gerry alexander in the drunk tank with bobbe

We're even more disgusted than usual at the unusually rancid PAC ads the Building Industry Association of Washington is running against Gerry Alexander, the incumbent chief justice of the State Supreme Court.

They've dumped nearly a million bucks in legal "independent expenditures" into this supreme court race- an unprecedented amount of dough that buys an unprecedented heap of deceptive bile.

A new ad ties him to Bobbe Bridge, the justice who got a DUI in 2004- and from the dire sound of it,  you'd think Alexander actively supports drunk driving- but only when it's practiced by one of his cohorts on the court. (It's a glimpse at what they'll do to Bridge when she runs again.)

They call him old, (he's 70) and claim he's getting "sloppy." (The age-card is put on the table- expect a lot of that in the great baby boomer graying off ahead).

There's never been such base political campaigning for judges in this state.

All the parties in this porqueria were on the Dave Ross Show (KIRO m-f, 9a-12p) Thursday: Alexander, the BIAW stooge running against him, John Groen; and the shrill BIAW flack, Erin Shannon.

BROKEN: MISTRIAL IN MIKE WEBB CASE

UPDATE: The big wheel of justice for Mike Webb keeps on turnin.' Prosecutor's spokesman Dan Donohoe told BlatherWatch, Thurs. afternoon: "We'll get another jury and we will retry the case".

Prosecutor Nancy Balin was pressing to go as early as next week, though it might not happen that soon. A definite date should be announced Friday, according to Donohoe.

~

Judge Julie Spector granted a defense case motion for a mistrial after she determined the jury was tainted, after a few of their numbers witnessed Webb being handcuffed and put into police custody Wednesday.

More details to come.

Seattle Times publishes picture of mike webb

After a courtroom kerfuffle Weds., which ended with Judge Spector allowing a Seattle Times photographer to take Mike Webb's photo while he testified, the rare picture appears with reporter Natalie Singer's story in Thursday's paper.

The daily story was written before BlatherWatch's late-breaking exclusive story of Webb's trip to Harborview psych ward for observation after a lunchtime altercation reportedly witnessed by at least four jurors about to deliberate on his insurance fraud case.

Webb has resisted being photographed for years, in two separate incidences, he attacked photographers in the courthouse hallways. Webb says he's had death threats for years and harkens to talk host Alan Berg who was shot down in Denver in 1984 by white supremacists.