Reality-BasedTM Political Numbers from Nicholas Beaudrot
Electoral Math
Reality-BasedTM Political Numbers from Nicholas Beaudrot
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"Bennett: Seattle holds key to arena solution"
Lo and behold, threats that the Sonics back out of the last few years of their lease at Key Arena appear to have been ... completely hollow. And now the ownership is trying to get back to the negotiating table. Nicholas says: Excellent! The Sonics were the first Seattle pro team I started rooting for; I've yet to give up my allegiance to the Braves, and the Seahawks sub-.500 years didn't inspire me. Sure, the Sonics were up and down, but I certainly didn't have any commitment to the Hawks, who have been varying degrees awful for about eight years now. I'd love to have the team stay, but there was no reason to meet ownership's demands for exorbitant public subsidies. Let's make a deal!
A public/private partnership to retool Key Arena would be just fine by me. There is a longer term question about what to do with Seattle Center, but that's somewhat separate from the question of what to do with the Sonics; if Seattle's going to have a pro basketball team, it has to play in Key Arena for the time being. Still, the city ought to be able to come up with renovations and revenue sharing agreement that Clay Bennett finds appealing. Seattle's a much larger and wealthier market than OKC. At the very least, Bennett will be able to flip the team to new owners and buy an expansion team for his home town.
Somehow I feel like tonight's late-night Senate session ought to turn into a drinking game of some sort. I just can't figure out what it is that would cause you to drink.
Montlake Ale House
2307 24th ave E
8pm-close
Via Kevin Drum, some brilliant folks at the National Review think they have stymied the Democrats' plan to force Republicans to filibuster for real, controlling the Senate floor overnight and giving speeches in support of the war in Iraq. If all the Republicans boycott the Senate Chamber, there will be only 50 Democrats, which is insufficient to form a quorum. So Republican Senator X takes the floor to speak in favor of the war in Iraq, says, "I suggest the absence of a quorum", then leaves the chamber as the clerk calls the role.
But, it doesn't work that way, once you suggest the absence of the quorum, if it's a "real" quorum call, and not just the Senate's usual way of killing time, you can't leave the Seante floor. And even if you could some group of Senators would have thought of this before the Young Turks at the National Review. So the Senate has procedures to stop these shenanigans; during a quorum call, the sergeant-at-arms may physically arrest Senators and drag them to the Senate floor. If you don't believe me, it happened; just ask Bob Packwood (R-OR).
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Photos from The Divorce's final show.
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updated by Nicholas Beaudrot on 08:24 01 September 2007
