Rhenda Strub, a new city councilmember here in Olympia, writes a pretty good piece on the ithmus issue here in town. Not on what she believes we should do, but on how we all need to take a deep breath:
The hyperbole is objectionable enough, but the anger coming from the people who want to talk about this issue is really astonishing. People who have lived here for much longer than me (6 years) tell me they’ve never seen anything like it.
To tell you the truth, I haven’t seen anything like it either. Even the old convention center debate wasn’t this divisive. What I think happened is that the social and political groups that formed around the port protest issue have continued and this is their new target. And, of course, there is a reaction to that energy and it keeps on bouncing around.
Months after QFC shut its doors, area residents will soon have a grocery store besides Safeway or Wal-Mart to choose from.
Saar’s Market Place is set to open in Yelm sometime in July, and its operating manager may be a familiar face for longtime residents.
Saar’s will open in the former QFC location. Because the space was formerly a grocery store, it’s expected to shorten the relatively quick time frame for opening.
If Walmart did have an impact, it influenced one large national chain out of town, but then convinced a locally owned chain that there was enough going on in Yelm for them to open a store.
I hope Saar’s sticks around. Not saying there isn’t actually a Walmart effect, but at least it isn’t be felt in Yelm.
As a candidate from the Campaign for Liberty movement you have the potential for strong support in Olympia, by appealing to what I call Olympia’s anarchist tendencies. The campaign may also need to morph its stance on illegal immigration to something that does not focus on a group of people. I might expound on that more later. There needs to be more emphasis on things that matter to people in liberal Olympia. There is a streak, a vein that runs through Olympia, and that is fear of unchecked power, and if that chord was struck I think Delavar can achieve stronger support. Here is just a couple of things that need emphaisis for your to garner support.
Opposition to war based on a non-interventionist stance.
Championing and, really, defend the Constitution, any transgression against it will not be tolerated.
Attack inflation. This issue alone can be tackled effectively by Delavar. The answer is there, it’s not rising prices, but falling dollar, right? And your solutions, Delavar, is different from other candidates, and it could ease the anxiety of many a voter.
I wonder… I would assume that the folks who would feel like even Cheryl Crist is too centrist would go for this guy. Though, maybe they’d hitch their wagons to him, thinking he actually has a chance to get to the general election.
I know the upcoming primary is essentially non-partisan, but assume that Crist doesn’t make it into the Top Two, losing too many Dem votes to incumbent Baird. That leaves Delavar and the other Republican, Christine Webb.
She might not be able to pick up enough of the conservative vote (because her campaign started really late) to get to face off against Baird, leaving Delavar the only hope of anarchists. In that case, in Delaver vs. Baird, I see Olympia (the far left part of town) going to Delavar.
Things have been moving, people have been doing things since I noticed a letter to the editor which looked exactly like a blog post I had just read.
First looks like blog author, our own R. Scott, has been changing things to make everything look ok.
The post in question now carries a notice “Source: anonymous email submission,” but I’m 100 percent sure that wasn’t there the first time I read the post last week or yesterday when I noticed the similarity with the letter.
And, why would someone submit a piece anonymously to a blog and then to the Olympian as well? Newspapers don’t take anything on an anonymous basis.
And, R. Scott has changed the original post and since there are ways on the internet to see if you’ve changed something, check it out:
Click image for larger version.
This is a picture of my feed reader, Google Reader, Saturday morning. What it shows is the post in question, its original date July 25, 2008 and when it was last edited (12 hours ago on Friday night).
So, R. Scott changed his post, most likely to add the note of the anonymous submitter after all of this started Friday morning.
It is still pretty likely that the letter was plagiarized. But, if it wasn’t then R. Scott plagiarized the original anonymous version by taking credit for it.
Either way, the fun does not end there. Late on Friday night, R. Scott also published a press release on his blog, which he also quickly took down. Here’s a link to where it was and another screen shot:
So why send a press release pointing out that Sandra Romero is a board member of Futurewise? This isn’t a mystery to anyone, especially since its actually listed at her own website. And, that Futurewise sued the county for not doing its job… do you think that anyone who has been paying attention didn’t know that already?
What’s more likely is that R. Scott wanted to point to his “anonymous email submission” in public.
There’s nothing definite there so I can’t say for certain that any of my suspicions are true, but the things that happened in the last few days do nothing to allay them.
The letter was likely copied from the blog. Either the letter writer didn’t think anyone would notice or she just didn’t care.
With both Gregoire and Dino employing campaign trackers (staffers with video cameras who attend opponents events looking for a macaca) here are some important links.
A Seattleite in Idaho will be back in Seattle in a couple of weeks and is apparently the Ty Cobb of campaign trackers:
I tracked for an organization that provided me with the top notch equipment that made my job easier. I had a Macbook and Final Cut Express for editing, a sweet Canon HD Camcorder, a nice microphone that captured great sound, a fancy Manfrotto tripod, the cords and adapters to plug into a mult box, a digital voice recorder, and more.
So, Washington State Democratic Party, if you want to track and ensure that the crook Dino Rossi doesn’t win, and ensure a Darcy Burner victory so that douchebag Reichart loses his seat, I suggest you not only keep tracking their events, but you invest in equipment that will capture great images and, more importantly, GREAT sound.
Sandra Romero is a board member of a powerful special-interest group called Futurewise. Her group filed a growth management appeal in 2005 challenging Thurston County’s comprehensive plan and cost the county an estimated $1.5 million defending against this frivolous claim.
The county commissioners have a duty to administer the state laws and provide for public safety, heath and roads. The commission doesn’t need to be sidetracked by having to deal with lawsuits generated by special-interest groups.
In Romero’s own words, “(The) budget is the biggest problem right now, it is the driver of all of our woes … with almost a $4.5 million shortfall it’s going to be very difficult to get out of it.”
Romero’s special-interest group is responsible for over 25 percent of the current budget crisis, and I’m not willing to send her in to try and fix it. This would be like sending the fox to the hen house.
Please join me in voting for any one of the other three candidates.
Sandra Romero is a board member of a powerful special-interest group called ‘Futurewise’. Her group filed a growth management appeal in 2005 challenging Thurston County’s comprehensive plan and cost the County an estimated 1.5 million dollars defending against this frivolous claim.
The County Commissioners have a duty to administrate the State laws and provide for public safety, heath and roads. The Commission doesn’t need to be sidetracked by having to deal with lawsuits generated by special-interest groups.
In Romero’s own words, “[the] budget is the biggest problem right now, it is the driver of all of our woes … with almost a 4.5 million dollar shortfall it’s going to be very difficult to get out of it.”
Romero’s special-interest group is responsible for over 25% of the current budget crisis, and I’m not willing to send her in to try and fix it. This would be like sending the fox to the hen house.Please join me in voting for any one of the other three candidates.
It looks like OlyForums is going to become part of Mathias’ Everyday Olympia. That is to say the forum will be hosted there. The OlyForums.net URL will direct users to the forums themselves.
Mathias’ EDO probably would have continued to expand had he added forums there anyway, but Olyforums.net already has its own energized group of folks ready to talk to each other. Now, I suspect all EDO needs is one or two more front page bloggers and Mathias will be set.
Speaking of good Olympia Blogs, Oly Ost (means East Olympia) is pretty good.
Their sign isn’t very big, but with the wilting upper right hand corner, can you see that this is the Republican booth at Lakefair? I didn’t get down this far (only as far north on Water Street to get a Demo burger and an Elephant Ear), so I didn’t see this myself.
Maybe they didn’t have a big enough sign to be able to say “Thurston County Republicans?”
Maybe they didn’t have enough money for a second sign that said “Thurston County Republicans?” And, why don’t they sell burgers?
I was about to write the exact same post that Aneurin just wrote, so I’ll just link to it and add two comments.
Makes you wonder why the PDC stuck around with their first generation site for so long when this one is so much cooler. Its almost like they missed a step in between.
The effectiveness of reporting laws are only as good as the tools the government uses to push information to the public. If the data is locked in a filing cabinet, or in a bad online database, we might as well not be reporting.
Rossi and the Republicans send a campaign watcher to Gregoire’s events. That by itself isn’t all that interesting. Thought it is when you realize that Rossi and the Republicans prevent a Democratic campaign watcher from getting into Rossi event.
From the comments of the original video, which for some reason doesn’t have any sound:
I don’t get it. Why was someone from the Democratic Party wanting to get in to a Rossi event with a video camera? I’m not sure I would have allowed you guys in either! Seems a bit suspicious to me.
And, in response:
It’s because Washington state Democrats, much like their counterparts all over this country, are hypocritical frauds. Do you think for one second that they would allow a Republican into a Gregoire event with a video camera? Of course not. Like their presidential candidate, they are complete phonies.
Well, rather, of course they would. Look at the first video again.
