Liberal Talk Radio

A 50-year-old woman in Seattle will likely get life in prison for her third robbery, under the so-called “three strikes” law. The commenters on the P-I article are ecstatic (”She’s obviously a scumbag. Lock her up.”).
Me? Not so much. “Three strikes” laws are turning our prison system into an overpriced [...]

Lately on the show, I’ve been talking a lot about my growing fear of right-wing extremism.
We’ve received a few comments from listeners, mostly accusing me of being a bit hysterical about the whole thing. And while I generally understand that criticism, I do think that the country’s taking an ugly turn. [...]

On this week’s podcast, we discussed the President’s gimmicky pledge to freeze “non-defense” spending in 2011. For your edification, here’s a chart showing defense spending over recent years:

To put that in context, the total discretionary budget for every other department of government combined — that’s education, HHS, agriculture, commerce, the VA, everything — totals [...]

The podcast is going to be 24 hours behind schedule this week, folks. A painting project at my house got out of hand and suddenly the day was over.
It was sort of like the Iraq war, really. I went in all optimistic, assuming that the walls would greet my wife and I as [...]

The Mayor’s office announces:
SEATTLE – Today Mayor Mike McGinn announced that outgoing Office of Sustainability and Environment Director Michael Mann will work with the McGinn administration to craft a plan for a public-private partnership to lead the economic recovery through a retrofit agenda in Seattle.
Word is that Mann’s first effort will be to commission a [...]

Before I dive headfirst into the myriad pre-game coverage of tonight’s State of the Union, I want to take a moment to talk about a few things that I’d like to see … admittedly, the POTUS seems to have lost my cell phone number in the last few months, but I’m told he still reads [...]

America’s House of Lords continues to brag about its own disfunction:
The measure isn’t quite finished yet, but sources said the current version would cost just over $80 billion. Though that number may change as the process moves forward, it is clear Senate Democrats have no intention of moving a jobs package as large as the [...]

News today that Congressional Dems have decided to put health care on the back burner.
Who wants the over/under on when they get back to this? I’m setting it at 2016. Email me if you want in on the action.

Nate Silver puts Martha Coakley’s chances at winning today at about 25%.
We’re well past the point where we can deny that access to basic health care is a basic human right in an industrialized country. Further, the failure to pass health care reform will demonstrate the extent to which our country is [...]

Ed Kilgore says the Democratic party may be preparing to strip them of their super status. The party won’t however, muck with the sacred and holy status of the blessed four states at the front of the primary calendar.