Ferries Boo, Slurs Stay Off
The Washington State Ferries -- the aquatic arm of the State Department of Transportation -- is refusing to stock the current edition of the Seattle Weekly, whose cover depicts Muhammed Sen. Patty Murray covered in pork:
A spokesperson for the ferry system tells the Weekly the issue was pulled because "it was distasteful. We pulled one I think three years ago when it was a caricature of Sweeney Todd slashing Santa's throat during the holidays. We decided to pull it because we thought it was denigrating to women. It was not in keeping with what we want our customers to have to view. I thought it forwarded a disrespectful attitude toward a public figure." The spokeswoman also says that the ferries hadn't received any customer complaints about the issue, but "I don't want to have to receive a complaint about it."
Bonus links: Read the Weekly's actual article here. See the image the paper was spoofing here.
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I thought that pic was a parody of Lady Gaga.
I was wondering why Matt Welch was on the cover.
I thought that pic was a parody of Lady Gaga.
You are correct.
...and I've now added the link to the post, for readers who didn't get the Weekly's joke.
I think I'm now going to head to the Outback and order a filet rare.
Ugh, what an unattractive individual.
I thought it was Andy Dick.
yeah i think the audience is meant for Seattle/Washington state residents
Everyone here knows what Patty Murray looks like.
Yeah, a real handsome woman.
Yeah, a real handsome woman.
I think in the 80s they called em tennis shoe moms.
Instead of that pork chop over her hooch, I would have placed an oyster. Off-theme, but what the hell.
No, a clam. Duh.
How about a crab?
What are the chances the article lists earmarks benefiting the Ministry of Fairies Aquatic Transport?
Had the same thought here. Will click through and check it out when I get a bit more time later today.
According to WSTC, Federal Funds constituted 22.9% of the ferry system's capital funding for the 2005-2007 biennium.
Figure 2-2, pg 2-13
http://wstc.wa.gov/LongTermFer.....Phase1.pdf
SMEAR THE CHEESE!
"We don't want to have to deal with the whining that may occur. Our Union contract says we don't have to". So nyah!
It was not in keeping with what we want our customers to have to view.
Kingston/Edmonds ferry rider here, and my response to that is: Oh, but you do want us to see all these human-like creatures "working" and making better than six figures to pick their butt, hit on the attractive commuters, wax the same piece of floor every month, and serve the crappiest coffee man has ever seen? I guess so.
As they say, 'government bureaucracy can create a sand shortage in a desert, and make bad coffee on a route to Seattle.'
First, they came for the meat dress...
And also, the SW has been a lefty joke for years. But it is rather disturbing how every week there are people running around forcing everyone to look at the cover. Not to mention the hundreds of ads for body piercing and waxing. Crap, talk about a diluted market.
We decided to pull it because we thought it was denigrating to women.
So racist.
I thought it forwarded a disrespectful attitude toward a public figure.
There we go. It beat up on their favowite Senator! Boo hoo hoo.
I've always said this country dies the day we lose the right to disrespect politicians.
In my mind, the very essence and foundation of America is the phrase "fuck you", particularly when directed at authority.
Yeah, if the cover showed Dino Rossi (her opponent and possibly our next senator) with a giant sausage up his butt they'd be handing out copies to people as they walked on.
Check out the Weekly's interview -- the spokesperson dodged that very question:
The ferry system is all about what's wrong with state employees. Heavy union presence, captive audience, always a pawn in political discussion, expensive, etc.
always a prawn in political discussion
Water was involved, so that's how i read it.
Do public spokesdorks have one of those cards like NFL coaches have that tells them when to kick the extra point or go for the conversion, except it tells them the safest possible response to every possible question?
Just walk on by . . .
*whom I had the great pleasure of meeting last week.
That sounds more like The Stranger's style.
Ferry Administrators wear boots, yeah you gotta believe me.
The San Francisco Ferries were one of the teams the Beers played in BASEKetball. I'm gonna have to watch that again today.
If my memory is correct, here's the scene.
Joe "Coop" Cooper: "How to speak San Franciscan. Va-joi-na!"
Here it is.
So this guy Alan Schreiber is gonna vote for Murray because earmarks are gonna help him keep his farm, when it's clearly government intervention that caused asparagus to be unprofitable because of hikes in the minimum wage.
It's assholes like this that are the problem. He wants to keep the problem-creators in office because they keep throwing money at the problem via subsidies.
I've got an idea. Farm something else you prick. Taking other people's money from a government that created the problem because they force you to overpay labor is pathetic. I hope this guy's crops all wither and die. (Of course, if they do, you can count on Big Gov to give him some more of my money.)
FUCK!
I thought that was MAD magazine when I first saw it.
PS Patty Murray is a young Lou Holtz? Who knew...
shudder - That which has been seen....
Employees of the Lynnwood-based engineering company Sound & Sea Technology gave Murray $4,000 for her current re-election campaign, and are now working on sensor systems to allow Navy ships to detect underwater threats, thanks to a $3.2 million earmark awarded last December.
Yeah, we've already got that. It's called sonar and it's been around since DaVinci stuck a tube in the water and put his ear to it. Can I please have $1M and save you the rest of that government cheese?
I just know reading the rest of this piece is gonna cause a meltdown. I can't wait to get to their comments page.
Preemptive censorship. Just in case someone faints at the sight of Patty "Sneakers" Murray covered in chops...
Nice pun (or whatever exactly that sort of wordplay is called) on the title, Jesse.
Pulled pork.
Winner!
First of all the ferry department sounds like whiny bitches.
But why the fuck do they have magazines on the boats anyhow? People can bring their own if they want to read, and the ferries should stick to transportation.
They should be privatized or shut down anyway.
Oh, originally they were. And the government drove them out of business then picked up their runs and equipment for the "public good." And then turned around and did precisely what they wouldn't allow the private company to do to stay in business.
This sounds vaguely familiar. Wonder if it's happened before?
Most transportation companies everywhere- ferries, streetcars, buses, commuter railroads, and subways actually started out as private operations.
Aside from being crowded out of the market by subsidized infrastructure, many of them also collapsed because of over regulation. The massive meltdown of private city transit companies has been attributed to the switch from a deflationary to an inflationary monetary standard, while the city franchise agreements didn't allow the companies to raise their fares.
Oh, originally they were. And the government drove them out of business then picked up their runs and equipment for the "public good." And then turned around and did precisely what they wouldn't allow the private company to do to stay in business.
The history of the Washington state ferries was one of Bill Bradford's favorite rant topics back when I worked for Liberty in Port Townsend.
Wow, Jesse, you were in Townsend? Could you give a little background on who Bill Bradford is?
He founded Liberty magazine and edited it until he died a few years ago. I worked for him & lived in PT from mid '93 through the end of '96 (plus four months as an intern in early '92).
There was some book catalog that was published out of PT until a few years ago. Not the same, I don't think. But it was libertarian oriented, sort of. I remember a long editorial in one about how libertarians seem to want to give corporations the same rights as people, blah blah.
They had some cool stuff.
That was Loompanics. A different operation. It was located about two block from my apartment.
I was a subscriber and customer of Loompanics Unlimited for many years (they eventually went out of business). In the words of the founder and president (Mike Hoy) it was "a publishing and book selling company specializing in odd, unusual, controversial, and wild ass books, with an emphasis on questioning authority". As a matter of fact he had a problem with Reason Magazine for refusing to sell him advertising. He sited it as an example of private censorship.
The Stranger staff must be seething.
The fact that the friggin Seattle Weekly had a more controversial cover then The Stranger is making them do back flips of rage.
Sweeney Todd and Santa are both men, right? How is an image of Sweeney Todd attacking Santa disrespectful to women? It has absolutely nothing to do with women.
I think everybody missed the point: they didn't want to offend Muslims with all that swine (and the pork products too).
While reading the comments on the SW story, I came across this little gem:
"I have been a victim of one of Patti's earmarks. Along with Reps Baird and Dicks they spent taxpayers money to eradicate spartina with chemicals, had a continuing earmark for 5 years at 1.5 million each year half of which went to something called landowner incentive programs, to those landowners who would help poison the grass. In the meantime they have poisoned Willapa Bay. I will probably vote for Patti, but I wouldn't lift a finger to help her."
Absolutely typical of Seattle voters.
"I don't like the person, but I'll vote for them anyway" is all I ever hear. Mostly from Dems. too.
sgsdaPersonally I know a guy is gay when we meet and i feel the need to check my fly~