Washblog

Quickly...

My opponent has predicted a "strong" 46 percent voter turnout for today's primary.

After cranking the numbers, my campaign projects a 41 percent turnout statewide, with a 39 percent turnout in King County.

I believe that moving the primary to August will depress turnout far more than the incumbent admits. However, with the Republican incumbent's aggressive purging of the voter rolls, his prediction percentage wise may be correct, even if fewer voters actually cast a ballot.

For reference, turnout for 2004's primary was 45 percent.

Jason Osgood, Democrat for Secretary of State

2008 LANGSTON HUGHES AFRICAN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL
April 12-20, 2008

This is the Fifth Annual African American Film Festival.

"Our goal for each year' is to present as wide, and as honest, a variety of portrayals of Black life as possible.' said Zola Mumford, the festival's curator. "People of African descent are doing all sorts of interesting things all over the world; and this little gem of a festival invites audiences to learn and expand their view of the African experience."

http://langston.bside.com/2008/schedule/
http://www.langstonblackfilmfest.org

Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center
104 - 17th Avenue South

Tickets:

206-386-1177
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/2303
(box office opens 1 hour before show time)

Below is the remaining schedule for the LHAAFF. (Sorry about the formatting, I'm lazy.)

We're going to Roots Time tonight at 7:00pm. See you there!

Knute Berger (aka Mossback) joined the chorus of self-satisfied elites roasting marshmellows over John Edwards' failed populist-themed campaign.

Candidates who have embraced various aspects of the traditional populist amalgam -- class warfare, corporate greed, fundamental monetary reform, and general antiestablishmentarianism -- have tanked.

I've got an alternate theory. Mine's based in reality:

Edwards' populist message didn't catch fire because no one got to hear Edwards' message.

Per Glenn Greenwald, our senators filibustered a GOP admendment to Bush's "Spy on Americans" FISA bill.

Here's the note I wrote to both. (It's been a long time since I've written either of them.)

Senator Murray/Cantwell-

Thank you for opposing Bush's FISA bill. The telecoms should not be given immunity for spying on Americans.

Sincerely, Jason Osgood / Seattle WA

But don't praise the Democrats too hastily. Here's the analysis of the inside baseball:

In essence, the reason Senate Democrats were able to successfully filibuster today is not because they oppose the Cheney/Rockefeller Senate Intelligence Committee bill. It's not because they stood firm against telecom immunity or warrantless eavesdropping. Quite the contrary, more than enough Senate Democrats were and still are prepared to vote for that bill in order to ensure passage (as they demonstrated on Thursday when 12 of them, in essence, voted for that bill).

The only reason Democrats were able to hold their caucus together today to filibuster is because The Senators were offended that their inalienable Senatorial Right to vote on amendments was deprived by the GOP's premature Cloture Motion. The one (and only) "principle" that can really inspire many of these Senators to take a stand is the protection of their Senatorial prerogatives. Many of them don't actually have any beliefs other than that.

What will our state's courageous Senators end up doing? Will they fulfill their oaths and protect our US Constitution, our freedoms, and the American people?

Or will they disappoint? Sell us all out to the highest bidder. Yet again.

I don't even know why I ask.

The current situation makes me so sick I could puke.

This is worse than when the GOP was in full control. At least it was us versus them. The good guys against the bad guys.

I guess I should have known not to get my hopes up. Having our Democrats repeatedly capitulate is so much worse than the outright treasonous behavior of the GOP. I can't really articulate how much it pisses me off.

Announcing the November meeting of Washington Citizens for Fair Elections

We will feature a documentary by Dan Rather, The Trouble with Touch Screens.

We will also have an update on local and state-wide Election Integrity issues

Time: Wednesday November 28, 2007, 7 PM

Location:  

University Heights Center
Room 105 (south end of the building)
5031 University Way NE
Seattle WA 98105

The Dan Rather documentary exposes the shocking lack of quality control in the manufacturing of some touch screen voting machines that are in widespread use and presents conclusive evidence of the failure of touch screen voting machines across the country.  From scientists involved in testing the equipment, to manufacturers in third world countries who shipped these defective voting machines to the United States, Dan Rather Reports presents new information showing that these defective machines may have altered the outcome of multiple elections

In addition, Rather interviews former employees of the company that printed the Florida ballots for the 2000 Presidential election.  They provide evidence of a high-level conspiracy to sabotage Florida paper ballots in heavily Democratic areas of Florida in the 2000 election.

(Many thanks to Phil Harrison for continuing to organize these events. -- Jason)

Government Operations & Elections

Thursday 07/12/07  10:00am - noon

Senate Full Committee Jt. w/ House State Government & Tribal Affairs

City Council Chamber
123 Fifth Avenue
Kirkland, WA

Work Session:  Ballot Tracking and Voter Privacy

1. Introduction - Administration of elections in an all-mail environment.
   
2. Ballot tracking and unique identifiers on ballots.
   
3. Digital scanning of ballots.
   
4. Tabulation reports and crediting voters.

here's the announcement

I don't know how these things work, but I believe this is State Senator Eric Oemig's initiative.

Marj Creech, election integrity activist from Columbus Ohio, is in town this weekend. Marj is a member of Citizens's Alliance for Secure Elections and the Education Coordinator for Election Defense Alliance.

Come meet Marj Creech and talk shop with other activists. The Holt bill (HR 811), national news, local news, etc.

Sunday June 10th, 3 - 5pm
University Baptist
4554 12th Ave NE
Seattle, WA 98105

Marj promises FREE BUTTONS for all attendees.

(Thanks to Chad Lupkes for helping make this connection.)

King County plans to adopt mail ballot tracking. This is more than envelope tracking. It adds a unique barcode to each ballot that is linked to the voter's id. This eliminates the secret ballot, taking away all voter privacy. Unique barcodes on ballots are unconstitutional, illegal, and bad policy.

Tuesday May 1, 2007
7 pm - 9 pm

University Heights Center  
Room 212 (second floor, middle of the building)
5031 University Way NE
Seattle WA 98105

[I fired off the following email to all my activists friends. On the off chance that someone here can attend these meetings, I'm posting here. I'll back up the talking points and other stuff with links, data, etc, as able.]

This is incredibly frustrating... I don't accept that these meetings are not subject to the council's Open Public Meetings Act, whatever that is.

Can anyone attend any of these CEOC meetings on such short notice?

Things to remember:

 - Mail ballot tracking adds a unique barcode to everyone's ballot which is tied to their voter id. This eliminates the secret ballot and any remaining voter privacy. The Sec of State, county council, and elections department all think this is a great idea.

 - We'll spend millions to be the first customer for Diebold's highspeed scanners. They haven't been certified by the feds yet.

 - The elections dept will be prescanning ballots before election day and running a summary report of elections results every day.

 - The elections dept will be electronically modifying the ballot database to honor "voter intent", replacing our current manual ballot duplication procedures.

 - Florida Gov Crist (R), New Mexico Gov Richardson (D), and others have banned computerized voting machines. Why is King Co still using them?

 - When a council member or elections official says something about "security", that means either a) every independent inspection of our vote counting and tabulation equipment has found fatal, irredeemable flaws or b) the equipment hasn't been tested yet.

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Wagner, Nick" <Nick.Wagner@metrokc.gov>
Date: April 24, 2007 9:42:09 AM PDT
To: "Jason Aaron Osgood" <zappini@gmail.com>
Cc: "Alvine, Michael" <Michael.Alvine@METROKC.GOV>, "Ellen Hansen" <ellenhansen@msn.com>
Subject: RE: Next CEOC Mtg?

Jason,

There is a meeting of the full CEOC today from 1:30 to 2:30 in the Southwest Conference Room on the 12th floor of the King County Courthouse, 516 Third Avenue, in Seattle. It will be preceded by a meeting of the election equipment subcommittee from 12:00 to 1:30 in the same location (this meeting will also be attended by King County Elections staff, who will be available to answer questions) and a meeting of the public meeting subcommittee meeting from 12:30 to 1:30 in the Ginger conference room. You are welcome to attend the meetings even though, according to legal counsel, they are not subject to the Open Public Meetings Act. We are in the process of getting the CEOC website up and running and intend to post meeting notices there; however, we have not yet set up a regular routine for communicating the meeting information to the folks who maintain the website. I will try to make sure that future meetings are posted on the website.

Nick

Nick Wagner
Council Staff
Metropolitan King County Council
King County Courthouse
516 Third Avenue, Room 1200
Seattle, WA 98104-3272
Phone: 206.296.1679
Fax: 206.205.5156
nick.wagner@metrokc.gov

-----Original Message-----
From: Jason Aaron Osgood [mailto:zappini@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 9:13 AM
To: Wagner, Nick; Alvine, Michael; Ellen Hansen; Julie Goldberg; Elizabeth Walter; Fred Morris
Subject: Next CEOC Mtg?

Hi Nick Wagner, Michael Alvine-

When and where is the next CEOC meeting? (Not the public hearing May
14th.) I saw fellow activist Julie Goldberg last weekend. She says
the regular date was changed because of the upcoming hearing. (I had
to duck out early and missed that detail.)

These are public meetings. I'm pretty sure there's rules about
announcements and whatnot. Every meeting I've attended, I've had to
explicitly ask for time, place, and agenda. On just about everything
else, I get announcements. Bobbie Egan and Megan Coppersmith send me
the media advisories. The SOS announces their meetings and proposed
rules changes. The council announces their agendas. Etc.

You two have been very responsive and helpful. I appreciate that. And
I understand that all rocks roll downhill. However, the current
situation isn't working for me. I don't know who to complain to. So
I'm starting with you.

I recall that council communication staff has been asked to maintain
the CEOC's web page. Schedules, agendas, minutes, announcements, etc.
How's that going? The site has been updated to announce the upcoming
hearing. But that's all.

I dream of a day when I don't have to go out of my way to stay in the
loop.

Thank you for your time.

Cheers, Jason Osgood / Seattle WA

Randy Gordon sends word that the Lehto and Wells v. Sequoia and Snohomish County lawsuit comes to trial next month.

I am arguing my case regarding touch screen voting in Snohomish County in the Court of Appeals, Division 1, at the One Union Square Bldg, 600 University Street, Seattle, WA (Ct. of Appeals in the lobby level) on April 18th at 9:30 a.m. or so.

I believe that it was an unconstitutional delegation to have the counting of votes delegated to a black box.

See everyone there. [Hat tip to eridani.]

Washington Citizens for Fair Elections
Tuesday, March 27 at 6:30-9:00p

SPEAKERS

Toby Nixon, former State Representative
Gentry Lange, election integrity activist

LOCATION

University Heights Center
5031 University Way NE Seattle, WA
Seattle WA 98105
206-527-4278

Room 107 (north end of the building)

PROGRAM:

Former State Rep. Toby Nixon will discuss the effort to make the director of King County Elections an elected office.  King County is the only
Washington county with an appointed elections director. A group of citizens is promoting I-25, a King County initiative for the November ballot. I-25 would create a separate Department of Elections with a separately elected Elections Director, responsible directly to the people. The implementation schedule would complete the transition to a new, independent office before the 2008 fall election cycle.

Gentry Lange will give a presentation on Vote By Mail (aka "Forced Mail Voting").  On March 13 Seattle residents held their first election with all mail-in ballots and without traditional polling places.  Is this an improvement?  Does it increase the chances for election fraud?  Is it cheaper than the "old" system? Come and hear Gentry's analysis of this voting system and discuss our possible responses to it.  As a preview, you can visit Gentry's Web site where VBM news and analysis are collected: http://novbm.com.        

Gentlemen, wash your hands. I'm immune suppressed. When you don't wash your hands, you're trying to kill me. It's attempted murder.

Why am I pointing this out now? Because I'm a guy and I use men's restrooms and see everyone's behavior. And should the avian bird flu virus hit, or equivalently nasty bug, it'll likely kill me. A fate I'd prefer to avoid for a bit longer, thank you very much.

We all know that men claim to wash their hands, but don't. Even after doing "number 2". Which is incredibly icky. My observation is that around 30% of men rinse their hands, and 15% use soap. (I can't speak for the hygiene habits of women.)

I understand that washing your hands is still a new idea for many of you. And that there's no shortage of confusing opinions from bozos who deny the germ theory of disease.

Regardless, in the reality-based community, it's understood that washing your hands is the easiest, most effective way to prevent the transmission of disease.

It's also good manners.

There are thousands of people who are immune suppressed: HIV, organ transplants, graft vs host disease (after a bone marrow transplant), auto-immune diseases, chemotherapy, etc. Even the elderly, infirm, children, or merely stressed out people have weakened immune systems.

I was fussy about germs before my bone marrow transplant. During the course of the treatment, the staff indoctrinate you to be obsessive compulsive. Not Howard Hughes level craziness. Though pretty close. The alternative is death. Of late, I've trying to relax my regime, purposefully exposing myself to more germs, in an effort to build up the immunities that had I lost. I still do stuff like using a towel to open bathroom doors and try not to touch my face.

Of course, I indoctrinated my son. Adherence is always spotty. The way to know if someone washed their hands, versus just wetted their fingers, is to feel between the fingers.

I'll share one last anecdote. A former girlfriend was really into dancing (e.g. ballroom, swing, etc.). There's a lot of hand touching in dance. Her and her friends were talking about the issue, wondering about some of the men. She wanted an honest assessment from a guy about male hand washing. I told her that so many men don't wash their hands, and there's no way to predict who actually washes (regardless of appearance), it's just easier to assume that no one does.

Said briefly, men are yucky. I say this so that women know to start applying withering peer pressure on the men in their lives.

That is all.

I fully support our state Senator Oemig's effort to kick start the impeachment of Bush. I'm dumbfounded by Inslee and Murray's efforts to squash Oemig's efforts. Thanks. Thanks a lot. People are dying in an illegal war, the lunatics in charge are gunning for a few more wars, and Inslee and Murray want to Make Nice.

Thanks, Inslee and Murray. Such courage. Such leadership. Such panache.

Drives me nuts.

Blogger poputonian over on Digby has two really good writeups:

Democrats Without A Conscience: Undermining A Moral Imperative (March 5th)

Truth Hurts (March 6th)

And this great comment from jman.

I've written countless letters to Murray and Cantwell and a few to Inslee. Mostly asking them what the hell they were doing. But also imploring them to start acting like the opposition party.

Post 2006 elections, I'm still waiting for my oppositional party to show up. Schucks, I'd settle for our state's delegation to DC to stop enabling the binge alcoholics in the administration.

If the people who claim to represent us aren't willing to oppose the Bush Administration, the least they could do is stand aside and allow individuals of purpose and courage to take action. You know the expression: lead, follow, or get out of the way.

To actively thwart what needs to be done is beyond my comprehension. It's complicity. It's to embrace this mistake as your own. It's sickening.

I'm trying to find the words, but that's all I've got.

[Forwarded from my inbox.]

We're going to celebrate the Oscar win for An Inconvenient Truth by showing the movie tonight at Drinking Liberally. So come have a pint and and watch the most riveting Keynote presentation ever.

Montlake Ale House
2307 24th ave E
8:00 until close (movie starts at 8:15)
Tuesday, February 27th

Cheers,
Nicholas

I'm poking around WashBlog, hoping to learn enough about Scoop (the software used) to do the comments rating customization that Brian mentioned.

Meanwhile, I'm tweaking the layout of some stuff. Here's some examples:

Blockquotes now have a gap between their text and the border.

1. And numbered lists
   
2. No longer
   
3. Run off the left side of the page

• And unnumbered lists
  
• Now have square bullets
  
• As the original CSS intended
  
• (But a typo bug prevented).

Please let me know what you think.

And please point out other tweak fixes and recommendations.

Thanks.