1. The 2011 legislative session begins in Olympia today. In Friday's Fizz, we noted that a batch of conservative Democrats might support a resolution not to seat newly elected state senator Nick Harper, who got help in the primary from a fake political action committee set up by Democratic consultant Moxie Media. (Republican state attorney general Rob McKenna is currently pursuing a lawsuit against Moxie in Thurston County Superior Court for violating state campaign finance law).

This morning's update: A batch of Republicans, including black sheep state Sen. Pam Roach (R-31, Auburn), may save Harper by voting against the resolution. Conservative Democratic Sen. Jim Kastama (D-25, Puyallup) is set to introduce the legislation—he's close to state Sen. Jean Berkey (D-38, Everett), the incumbent Harper beat in the primary with Moxie's help. But blocking Harper is largely a GOP effort— Republican senate minority leader Mike Hewitt (R-16, Walla Walla) sent a letter to senate majority leader Sen. Lisa Brown (D-3, Spokane) in November saying Harper should not be seated.

2. Democratic state Sen. Karen Keiser (D-33, Burien) has pointed out—and has sent a letter to McKenna—noting that several newly elected Republican state senators, including Steve Litzow (R-41, Mercer Island) and Andy Hill (D-45, Kirkland), got help during November's election from a suspect GOP group, Americans for Prosperity Washington, which is currently being investigated by the Public Disclosure Commission.

No word yet if the Democrats will offer a counter-resolution about Litzow and Hill.

Democratic state Sen. Craig Pridemore (D-49, Vancouver) has already filed legislation to reform campaign finance rules to prevent groups like Moxie and AFPW from concealing contributors.

3. Hotly partisan Democratic blogger David Goldstein, aka HorsesAss, aka Goldy, announced on Friday that he's going to work for The Stranger.

We don't know if we should cheer the news or lament the news that one of the loudest bloggers in Seattle has been picked up by a well-established paper. Good luck, Goldy!

4. Obviously, the horrifying news from Tucson this weekend—the shooting rampage that critically wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and killed six others, including a federal judge, a nine-year-old girl, and a Giffords' staffer—has brought a startling pause to the start of the legislative season.

One thing that hasn't gotten much attention yet: Giffords was Jewish; the first Jewish congresswoman from Arizona. There has already been a lot of speculation about the motives behind the attack, and it seems clear that the 22-year-old suspect, Jared Loughner, had serious mental problems.

But something that has emerged in Loughner's bizarre cosmology is an obsession with U.S. currency and the gold standard, a regular trope of convoluted anti-semitic ideology, long associated with far right groups like the militia movement.