Snohomish County, WA is the battleground - a current 3-2 GOP edge on the County Council has allowed for unchecked growth in rural areas in the county, and a lassis-fair attitude toward environmental protections.

County Government tends to affect the citizendry more than federal, so read about the wingnut Jeff Sax, how he closely resembles how the Bush Administration operates, and how you can help defeat him......

All the stereotypes of why we went to Iraq were thrown out there - you have to watch it.

The poll is down the left column at the bottom, the olympian (Olympia, WA) is the local newspaper at the state capital.

Should Tom Delay resign his congressional seat in light of being indicted for breaking campaign finance laws?

Yes

No

Its currently 63-36, with 793 votes -

CRAWFORD, Texas, Aug 16 (Reuters) - A pickup truck ran over wooden crosses erected at anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan's campsite on Monday night, in the latest sign of tension over the peace vigil outside vacationing President George W. Bush's Texas ranch. Larry Northern, 46, of nearby Waco, Texas, was arrested and charged with criminal mischief in connection with the incident, Crawford Police Chief Donnie Tidmore said.

Here is a link to his wife, who works at Baylor U:

http://www.baylor.edu/social_work/index.php?id=768

Mrs. Northern is married to Larry, a retired realtor, and they have two daughters, Breeanne, a graduate student at the University of North Texas (1981), and Robin, a social work major at Baylor University (1983).

A recent article mentions that after extensive testing done by California's Secretary of State, they have rejected touchscreen machines after discovering a 10% failure rate.

"There was a failure rate of about 10 percent, and that's not good enough for the voters of California and not good enough for me," Secretary of State Bruce McPherson said.
...
"We certainly can't take any kind of risk like that with this kind of device on California voters," McPherson said.

Turns out the failure rate was closer to 20%.

A group called The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe today said it carried out the series of blasts in London in retaliation for Britain's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The authenticity of the message could not be immediately confirmed, but al-Qaida in Europe also claimed responsibility for the last major terror attack in Europe: a string of bombs that hit commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, in March 2004 that killed 191 people.

The group appeared to boast that it had spent some time planning the attack.

my thoughts, and some quotes to remember from President Bush over the fold

Yes
No

Currently showing about 60% No to 40% yes.

http://q13.trb.com/

The poll was released during the newscast and is supposed to be shown again at the end of the newshour. Q13 is a local version of Fox News in most ways - Bush fawning constantly, and their lead was Bush's speech with a very favorable take on his speech and the Iraq war in general.

Update [2005-6-29 1:39:24 by westsyde]: You can also e-mail them at foxfeedback@q13.com, they said they will display comments along with the poll results.

I have posted the lawsuit on my blog:

http://washblog.typepad.com/main/2005/04/lawsuit_filed_a.html

Paul Lehto, plaintiff, also writes for Washblog about touchscreens and voting transparency, etc.

"Plaintiffs Wells and Lehto, as citizens and voters, object to provisions of the contract between Snohomish County and Sequoia Voting Systems, Inc. attempting to shield from public view and verification the means by which votes are recorded, counted, tabulated, and reported on the grounds that they contain 'trade secret,' 'confidential,' or 'proprietary' materials. Plaintiffs contend, among other things, that provisions of the contract ought properly to be set aside based upon contractual, statuatory, Constitutional and public policy grounds."

The two County Auditors who have brought the tiger to town in Washington State in terms of touch screen voting machines without paper ballot trails and the secret vote counting that comes with it (Snoco Auditor Terwilliger and Yakima Auditor Mattingly) have both written to the Legislature claiming that only “a few” vocal citizens want a paper ballot, or auditability of electronic voting.

Please recommend, and read on.....

"Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement that the pope, who was being treated at the Vatican, was given cardio-respiratory assistance after his heart stopped Thursday afternoon."

Life support for the Pope? Doesn't that contradict everything I have been hearing from Catholics (re:Schaivo) lately? Not trying to snark, just confused. I thought I heard the vatican say that feeding tubes were not considered 'interfering' with God's will, but artifical breathing support was?

http://washblog.typepad.com/main/2005/02/freep_the_elect.html

I posted about it and last nights' forum. I believe that the WSGOP, EFF, and local hate radio are squelching true voices from being heard at these public hearings on election reform, and we need to counterbalance that.

Hopefully we can move the DRE problems more into the limelight, and become the focus of reform instead of some vicious intra-party beef like recalling the SOS.

I was personally rooting for Rodriguez, but I think that Berendt may 'get it' now. With the emergence of the Progressive Democratic Caucus, he has signaled his acceptance, hopefully he will work with the grassroots more, on the web and on the ground. Maybe we will see more web presence from the party, you would think high-tech Washington would have a more complete layout.

Hardly saw any. Saw quite a bit of Kerry/Edwards however. I was wondering, man that is wierd. I expected to see shitloads of yellow ribbons and Bush signs. Nope. Turns out that military families are not so fond of the President's Iraq plan, and I would guess, likely not vote for him either.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/10/16/military.poll2.ap/index.html

The poll found that 62 percent in the military sample -- 58 percent of troops and 66 percent of family members -- said the administration underestimated the number of troops that would be needed to establish peace in Iraq.

He talked with Ken Mehlman from BC'04, Mehlman just basically gave away their economy justification. Guess what? Its 9/11, folks. They claimed they lost 1,000,000 jobs from 9/11 alone.

I would donate if I knew where to go....

Update [2004-10-3 3:51:0 by westsyde]: Man do the republicans play victim well. Berendt wont even give them a hair though, and I love it. A couple quotes:

State Democratic Chairman Paul Berendt responded with tongue in cheek: "I think Chris is mistaken. I think the Republican National Committee just packed up and left the state in the middle of the night and took all their equipment with them. They seem to have given up on having any chance of carrying this state."

"It's laughable that Vance is deriving political hay out of this," Berendt replied.

The Democratic leader suggested that Vance was "just trying to change the subject because ... their candidate for president was trounced in the debate" against Democratic nominee John Kerry Thursday night.