Washblog

This is so frustrating.

I'm working on trying to find election results from August 19th at the county level, and I discovered that our Secretary of State's office is trying to help the county auditors by hosting their websites.  It's a neat idea, and I approve.  However, whoever is doing the programming of these .aspx pages is having trouble dealing with all of the complications.

What Bernie says -- in 2005 the top 1% of earners made more than the bottom 50% in the United States.

That means 300,000 people made more than 150 million people.

That's just income. The unfair distribution of wealth is even more severe. The most wealthy 400 people are worth $1.54 trillion. And we have the highest percentage of childhood poverty in the world, he says. 18% of the children are in poverty in this country -- almost one in 5 children.

Those people who make between 100 million and a billion per year in the US spend an average of $182,000 on watches. (I spent $30 on a watch in 2000, and it keeps on ticking.)

To the richest in the country: "President Bush has given you hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks and yet we have children in this country who are hungry, we have millions of children who lack health insurance."

Please watch the video after the fold:

    In A.D. 2008
    Election was beginning.
    Voter: What happen ?
    Official: Somebody set up us the DRE.
    Operator: We get signal.
    Voter: What !
    Operator: Main screen turn on.
    Voter: It's you !!
    SAM: How are you gentlemen !!
    SAM: All your VOTE are belong to us.
    SAM: You are on the way to false election.
    Voter: What you say !!
    SAM: You have no chance to revote make your time.
    SAM: Ha ha ha ha ....
    Operator: Voter !! *
    Voter: Take off every 'ZAPPINI'!!
    Voter: You know what you doing.
    Voter: Move 'ZAPPINI'.
    Voter: For great justice.

The sun is hot and the calendar pages are flipping slow
And so am I
Election season passes like molasses in wintertime
But it's July
Registering new voters every hour and getting older by the minute
These candidates just pushed me over the limit
I'd like to call 'em something
I think I'll just call it a day

Pour me something tall and strong
Make it a Hurricane before I go insane
It's nomination day, but I don't care
It's election day somewhere

Mr. Maurer and Keller from the Institute for Justice lay out the Libertarian position against publicly owned elections very well.  But so much of their argument is based in outdated ideology, I just had to respond.

I question their definition of "special interest", and whether it applies to the Institute for Justice and/or to Washington Public Campaigns.  I'm sitting in a meeting of the WPC group while I type this, and everyone around the table is focused on the community that our elected officials are trying to serve.  Does that qualify them as a "special interest"?  Special Interests, at least those that are vilified by all sides of the ideological debate, are lobbyists, groups and individuals that want special favors for themselves or their clients, and advocate for those special favors from the government.  I do not see Washington Public Campaigns advocating for anything more than to open the electoral process to anyone who wants to represent their community.

[Front paged: NM]

Last night, I attended a meeting at the Northgate Community Center.  The city is considering changing the zoning in the Northgate area to allow taller buildings along 5th avenue and other areas.  Northgate has been going through a lot of changes lately, with the major development south of the Mall, and the new building going up at the corner of 5th and Northgate Way.  It's great to see.

I'm trying to find the information I saw last night online.  On Seattle.gov, the link to the Northgate plan from the main Neighborhood Planning page, www.seattle.gov/dpd/..., is a broken link.  It currently goes to www.seattle.gov/dclu/....  it is supposed to be going to www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/....

There is no mention of the meeting last night on the Northgate page.  In fact, there is no calendar at all.  I had to go to the Northgate Activist website to find out that the original comment period ended on May 16th, was extended to this meeting.  At the meeting, they extended the comment period again to June 17th.  Northgate Activist had a link to the EIS proposal.  Finally!

From: Blinn, Katie - Office of the Secretary of State
To: Subject: PCO Elections

Dear County Chairs,

We have received a few questions about PCO races in the context of the new Top Two Primary.

PCO races will appear on the ballot after all ballot measures and other offices.  Voters will be instructed:

"If you consider yourself a Democrat or Republican, you may vote for a candidate of that party."

Candidates will be listed by party, and the candidate from each party who receives the most votes will be declared elected.

<<MORE>>

Mr. Nader is going to be on the Conversation today.  This is what I sent to them in response to the alert.

----

My work with the Democratic Party comes from my understanding of the word "activism".  Activists have to answer three questions.

What decisions are being made?
Who is making that decision?
How can I influence that decision?

Elections are our best opportunity to be an activist.  We have to find a balance between three factors when deciding who we vote for.

How much does each candidate follow my values?
How likely is any particular candidate to listen to my opinion and my ideas?
How likely is a candidate likely to have the opportunity to push my values?  (Basically how likely is someone to actually win the election.)

Ralph Nader, as much as I respect him for his past work and values, has forgotten what it means to be an activist in 21st Century America.  He has also advanced the notion into our political lexicon that voting for a candidate with low/no chance of winning is equal in electoral value to voting someone who will actually listen to their constituents.  I work to elect candidates who are willing to meet and talk with me face to face, which contrary to what may be the impression of many is actually MOST of them.  I have had face to face talks with Senator Cantwell, Rep. Inslee, Rep. McDermott, Gov. Gregoire, and all Democratic candidates for office and incumbents for the County and City offices.  How?  Because I choose to be involved.

I doubt, although I could be wrong, that Mr. Nader would be interested in meeting with me because I work within the Democratic Party.  That makes him ineligible for my support.  I don't believe that he caused Al Gore to lose in 2000.  I do believe that he would have made a great Democratic Party candidate in 2000.

By saying that he would only launch a bid for the White House if Edwards dropped out, he again articulated his position that he is not interested in doing the most important thing that any candidate for office can do.

Ralph Nader refuses to listen.

Chad Lupkes
Seattle

[Front paged: NM]

In December, I posted a diary about Lewis County.  The King County Democrats are planning a work party on April 26th to help some of the farms and community members recover from this disaster.  But Suzie let me know about something that I had missed.  Did you hear about the fire?

Letting my fingers do the walking on the Internet, I've gotten in touch with a lot of different people from all over the country.  This hit my inbox today, and I wanted to share.

Chad,

Pass this along to all candidates in your area, please!!!

Hello to all Democrats in 2008,

I am Jamie Sanderson, chairman of the Georgetown, S.C., Democratic Party. You have probably received e-mails from me before. I am sending you another one for a fresh start in 2008.

I am building a nationwide Democratic billboard, with wood and nails, to showcase on election night 2008 at the United Steelworkers union hall in Georgetown, the place of our victory party. My plans are to make this an annual event.

However, I need your help.

More after the jump

Did anyone else see the US Supreme Court ruling that came out this morning?  I heard about it on the Radio this morning, and paid very close attention to the subject all day, actually reading the 33 page decision.  The article in the Seattle Times stated Secretary of State Sam Reed's reaction.  He was surprised and delighted that "the people of the state of Washington are going to be able to control who gets elected through this process."

Mr. Reed has evidently never attended a meeting of his local Republican Party.  If he ever had, he would have seen that there actual humans at those meetings, not automatons.  The people have always had control of the process of who gets elected.  The General Election in November is where our elected officials actually get elected.  The primary is a different purpose entirely.

Freedom of association means something, Sam.  I really wonder why you are trying to destroy your own party by making sure that Republicans are never challenged in the high population density areas, and you are giving Democrats the opportunity to take even the suburbs and rural areas because of the national failure of the Republican brand to actually solve problems.

Thanks, but I thought you were a Republican.  Maybe I'm wrong.

I'm collecting information on when and where the rest of the caucus cycle events are going to be held.

Please see the list here.

If you see a blank next to your LD, County or CD, please contact me with what is missing.

I'm also building a map to show all of these events.

Frustrations after the jump.

Dear DNC members,

I am involved in a lot of discussions, and one that is making the rounds right now is a desire to see the DNC open the rules a little and allow a split Primary/Caucus decision for Presidential Primaries similar to the system that Texas uses.  Everyone recognizes the need for the caucus to provide certain aspects of neighborhood organization and activation, but at the same time people are recognizing the limitations that the Party has in trying to enable people to vote.  Too many people have the impression right now that a Primary would solve the problem, and the lack of party registration in this state doesn't seem to diminish their support.

What a day.  At Barbara's at 10:30 to get things set up, at the caucus site at 11:45, and the staff person at Northgate Community Center showed me the two extra rooms that would be available if we needed them.  We already had a few people sitting in the comfy chairs waiting for the room to be available.  I think they all helped set up the chairs, asking for direction, and generally super-helpful.

We got the sign-in tables set up, and the sign-in sheets out.  By 12:10, people were starting to arrive, and by 1:00 we had a full house.  And I mean full.  429 people showed up for 6 precincts.  I have no idea what the fire code said.  (At Olympic View Church up the street, the fire code on the lower room said the limit was around 200 people, and Larry Smith had 510.  They sent the largest precinct (123 people) up to the chapel.  And that wasn't the largest in the district.)

Back to the story.  What does this have to do with John McCain?  Read on!

[Front paged: NM. These resolutions can be presented at the upcoming presidential caucuses -- or adapted for your local legislative district or other community organizations.]

Hi everyone,

Judith has done a great job collecting proposed resolutions from the progressive grassroots for the precinct caucuses, and I have posted them on the PDCW.org website for your consideration.  To save time, I posted them all as PDF files, although the text of any of them is available if you want to make edits.

http://pdcw.org/resolutions/

I also want to encourage you to visit a website that was mentioned on Air America Radio out of Colorado that gives us some really good platform planks to consider.

http://caucuskit.com