"We've got a big hole that we're digging ourselves out of," President Obama said, starting off another one of his back yard chats on the economy, this one in north Seattle at the home of Erik Foss, a general contractor, and his Cynnie Foss, the volunteer services manager at the University of Washington Medical Center.

The visuals were decidedly recession-era: modest two-story home, coffee mug set on a stool for the president to sip from, the audience seated on chairs that were of such hodgepodge designs they might have been brought over by neighbors (wooden chairs, plastic chairs, metal chairs, folding chairs, blue canvas camp chairs).

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He introduced Mike McGinn as "the outstanding mayor of Seattle" (somewhere Joni Balter is rolling her eyes) and praised Senator Patty Murray and Congressman Jim McDermott, both on hand as well, for helping push through health care reform and the recovery act. "The economy's now growing again," Obama said, contrasting the current situation at length with the mammoth job losses and shrinking economy that greeted him when he entered office.

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Jody Hall, owner of Cupcake Royale, talked about how a small business loan from the federal government helped her open her new store on Capitol Hill and expand her business even during a recession. But first, she talked about the cupcakes she brought for Obama, and what a hard time she had getting them past his security. "I suspect the Secret Service confiscated them," Obama said, smiling broadly, "and are eating them as we speak."

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When it came time for questions from the neighbors in the chairs—as opposed to people like Hall, who'd been brought along to highlight a new administration report on how women are faring during the recession—there was a long silence at first. "Don't be shy," Obama said. "Even though every word you say will be recorded by those people back there."

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There were no questions about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"—though Hall did make a point of mentioning her child and her partner when she talked to the president about her business and her family.

Instead, people mostly gave Obama easy opportunities to talk about his accomplishments and challenges during his first two years in office.

"Health care is just really complicated," Obama said, in response to a question about why the media hadn't done a better job of pushing back against politically-motivated falsehoods regarding what his reform does—and doesn't—do. "So we knew going into the debate that there would be distortions."

On why more people don't understand all that's been done in the first two years of his administration: "We had to move so fast, we were in such emergency mode, that it was hard for us to do victory laps... We had to move on to the next thing."

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Obama also addressed the national debt—a big issue in the fall campaigns, particularly here in the U.S. Senate race between Murray and Republican challenger Dino Rossi.

"People have a legitimate concern, I think, about the debt and the deficit," Obama said. Expensive measures had to be taken in the last two years to stave off an economic depression and stabilize the economy, he said, and those measures added to the deficit (which, when he took office, was already at $1.3 trillion after eight years of the Bush administration). But, Obama added, the question now is: "How do we get back to a point where we're living within our means?"

Republicans aren't answering that question, Obama said, an implicit jab at candidates like Rossi, who talk about the deficit constantly but also, for example, want to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, which would add hugely to the deficit.

The president said voters need to ask Republicans what their plans are for reducing the deficit, and listen very closely. "If they can't answer the question," he said, "then they're not serious about it."

He talked about his general philosophy on the role of government ("I don't want government to get bigger, I want government smarter"); his dismay at the state of American infrastructure, like our jammed up airports or the broken South Park Bridge ("We used to have the best infrastructure in the world, and frankly we can't make that claim anymore. I want us to get back to number one"); and the general mood of the country ("We've gone through a very difficult time in the last couple years").

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Toward the end, one of the people in the chairs stood up and told Obama: "You may not hear this very often, but we're very proud that you're our president." Obama replied: "Thank you."

I've always had a thing for potty-mouthed Irish women, so I gotta confess to a kinda schoolboy crush on the BIAW's profanatory, trash-talking PR maven, Erin Shannon. (Really. So give me a call, Erin, and lets hook up sometime for a drink or five. Don't worry; I'll drive.)

But when it comes to her politics, Shannon is just plain awful. You know, in that batshit-crazy Hitler-was-the-first-environmentalist/DOE's-storm-water-regulations-are-worse-than-the-Holocaust sorta way that defines the ideological crack house that is the BIAW.

That said, in her unexpected guest-post today on Slog, Shannon does in fact make a cogent point. The SECB's "it's 'mindfuckingly stupid… for the state to hold a monopoly over one industry'" argument in favor of privatizing the sale of liquor in Washington State is strikingly similar to the BIAW's own self-serving, anti-public interest arguments in favor of privatizing workers' compensation and handing the profits and control over to the insurance industry.

See, Erin… you and I have something in common, more than just a predilection for using the word "fuck." So how about that drink?

Anyway, the point is, if you're gonna vote against I-1082, the BIAW's anti-worker, small-business-killing, AIG-backed political money-grab—and you should, because it is a vicious manifestation of the BIAW's coal-black soul—then you should also ignore the SECB, and vote No on I-1100 for many of the same reasons. Because the fact is, there are some things we're just better off leaving in the hands of government.

So thanks, Erin, for helping to make that point.

(This guest Slog post is by Heather McClung, an owner of Schooner Exact Brewing in Seattle and president of the Washington Brewers Guild. For more information, you can read the voters' guide statements on I-1100 and I-1105.)

Most of the debate around I-1100 and I-1105—the hard liquor initiatives—is all about the big boys: big box stores and big grocery stores vs. distributors vs. labor unions and “Big Beer.”

Well, I’m not a boy, and I’m not so big. I’m certainly not Big Beer. As the owner of Schooner Exact Brewing and the president of the Washington Brewers Guild, I’m considered a small craft brewer—10 barrels at a time from a brewery two miles south of the stadiums. We’re a growing operation, adding an employee a month. But Initiative I-1100 in particular could kill my business.

So my biggest concern about I-1100 and I-1105 isn’t about cuts to public services or the massive increase in hard liquor outlets. Granted, those are important issues, but for me, defeating these initiatives is about survival, of my business and hundreds more Washington craft breweries and wineries across the state.

The reason for my opposition isn’t getting nearly enough attention amid all the back and forth on TV, in direct mail and on the internet. What makes I-1100—which was written by right-wing blogger Stefan Sharkansky—such a problem is the way it summarily eviscerates 39 state laws that give us future big boys a level playing field against the current big boys.

A few examples of what that means: If 1100 passes, big producers would undercut us smaller producers by offering large volume discounts to restaurants and retailers. Big companies could buy space on grocery store shelves, pushing aside smaller Washington-based beer and wine labels. Big companies could give away product and essentially bribe bar owners with promotional enticements.

The idea that I-1100 “modernizes” state liquor laws is a crock. This is really a power grab by some very large corporations who want to use their considerable weight to monopolize liquor sales. And this isn’t about “competition.” I’m all for competition. The truth is 1100 kills competition.

I-1105 is marginally less bad compared to I-1100 for small brewers and the smaller wineries, but we are certainly concerned about I-1105’s provision that repeals all liquor taxes in Washington State.

The Stranger dismisses the impressively broad coalition of business, labor, faith, law enforcement and local government urging a No/No as: “…oppos(ing) these initiatives because they want to protect the profits of beer megacorporations.” Oh really? F that. I wake up every day with the burning desire to take profits away from those megacorps—most of which, BTW, aren’t so mega, and employ thousands of Washingtonians. I would never have joined forces with them to fight these stupid initiatives if I didn’t have a damn good reason.

The central point The Stranger seems to miss is this: You don’t get good public policy by passing bad public policy. Initiatives I-1100 and I-1105 are bad public policy. That’s why the vast majority of craft brewers—including me—will be voting No and No on I-1100 and I-1105.

(This guest Slog post is by Erin Shannon, public relations director for the Building Industries Association of Washington [BIAW]. The voters' guide has more information about Initiative 1082 here.)

Yeah, we get it. The Stranger hates the BIAW because we support conservative candidates and sometimes say outrageous shit that no one else has the guts to say.

In fact, all the Stranger Election Control Board had to say about Initiative 1082 was that the “conservative fucks” at BIAW wrote it. Booga-booga. Vote no.

We know you’re only reading this out of morbid curiosity to see what crazy things we’re going to say next. Not that you’re at all interested in the facts; you’ve already made up your mind about us and Initiative 1082.

So why don’t we just let The SECB make the case for us?

Here’s what you do. Re-read the I-1100 endorsement in “Vote, Baby, Vote!” but replace “liquor” with “workers’ compensation insurance” and “beer industry” with “trial lawyers.” Here, we’ll get you started and throw in a few of our favorite lines from that screed:

Every year for the past [20+] years, lawmakers in Olympia made a choice. They could pass a bill before them to… fix the problems with the workers’ compensation insurance monopoly, or they could keep the system we have. The current system looks like this: Liquor Workers’ compensation insurance is only sold at a state-run store… in an homage to East Germany...

Lawmakers kept that idiotic system.

Why? The short story is that unions representing the employees in liquor stores the workers’ compensation insurance monopoly intimidated lawmakers into maintaining an inefficient status quo. So since the end of Prohibition, our liquor workers’ compensation insurance outlets have been difficult to get to and frequently run out of products money, inconveniencing bar and restaurant and other small business owners and underscoring how mindfuckingly stupid it is for the state to hold a monopoly over one industry.

You're going to hear a lot of arguments about why you should vote no... Those arguments all come from the state Democratic machine that was too lazy to fix the broken liquor workers’ compensation insurance system for the past [20+] years and the beer industry trial lawyers bankrolling its opposition campaign.

If you want to see what the anti-liquor workers’ compensation insurance initiative campaign is really all about, follow the money.

Most of that dough comes from the… trade association of major brewers trial lawyers. Their official arguments are bullshit. They oppose these initiatives because they want to protect the profits of beer megacorporations trial lawyers.

Anyone who tells you that the legislature will pass a better law on its own or that a party who doesn't have a financial stake in privatizing liquor workers’ compensation insurance will run a better initiative next year is lying to you. The legislature will never act, and someone's bound to turn a profit when the state gets out of a business it sucks at running and never should have been in to begin with. This is our best chance to shed a crappy system. There's plenty of opportunity to fine-tune the improved system in the next few years. Vote yes on I-1082.

Neither side is within close reach of passing or rejecting an increased sales tax in King County, according to a SurveyUSA poll out this week.

Nearly one-third of likely voters are still undecided. Prop 1, if approved, would increase sales tax by 0.2 percent to pay for the county's public safety services (sheriff's deputies, prosecutors, jails, etc.) and sprinkle the rest of the dough to cities within the county to help with their public-safety budgets (Seattle would get $13 million a year to help shore up it's $67 million projected deficit).

The numbers go like this: 34 percent say yes; 37 percent say no; and 30 percent are undecided. Most demographics surveyed are roughly split in support, excepting conservatives, Republicans, and folks who have warm feelings for the Tea Party, who make the base of opposition. The only slice of the electorate that supports Prop 1 by more than half—and even then, by only 51 percent—are self-described liberals, who make up only 31 percent of likely voters.

No sign of the enthusiasm gap on the streets outside:

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I can hear the sidewalk-standers cheering, and hear the motorcade pulling up. In the front row in this back yard: Governor Gregoire, Mayor McGinn, and Congressman McDermott. (Nearby: a couple very Seattle compost bins.) And just walking in: Senator Murray and, presumably, the president shortly...

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Word among the press pool is that Obama made an unscheduled stop at the downtown Top Pot donuts on his way here. No word on whether it was glazed, old fashioned, or sprinkles.

DONUT UPDATE: From pool reporter Jim Brunner of the Seattle Times:

The president made a surprise visit this a.m. to Top Pot Donuts on 5th Ave near the Westin hotel. Obama ordered two boxes of donuts. "Who wants a little sample here" he said, munching on what appeared to be an old fashioned glazed. "You can't eat these everyday," he said. He worked the small crowd inside, also dashed across street under the monorail shake hands with crowd there. Motorcade zoomed off at 9:35. Now approaching Ravenna area where he'll do backyard chat. Kids lined street at Nathan Eckstein school to cheer and wave.