Category: Uncategorized (Page 3 of 49)

Unless someone makes a move for a vote among the PCOs tomorrow night, it looks like the Thurston County Dems are leaving Joe Hyer on the list for Thurston County Treasurer:

For immediate release
2/21/2010 7:00 PM

From: Jim Cooper, Chair, Thurston County Democrats
Contact info: 360-451-xxxx or jimcooper@thurstondemocrats.org

We support Councilmember Joe Hyer as a friend and political colleague. Joe is an integral part of the “citizen corps” that makes Olympia and Thurston County tick. Until we have seen specific charges and evidence against him it is the position of the Thurston County Democrats’ (TCD) Executive Committee that Joe Hyer is innocent until proven guilty and only he, the County Commissioners, or the Judicial System can make the choice as to whether he is qualified to serve as County Treasurer.

Should Joe, or any other candidate, become unfit to serve (through withdrawal of their own name or a statement by the County Commissioners or the Courts) TCD will be constitutionally obligated to rescind our entire list of nominees for the interim appointment of County Treasurer and open the process again in order to refresh the list to three qualified applicants.

We were on our way to dinner tonight, and thought it was strange that dozens of “No on R 71” folks were out in force on the westside of Olympia (a pretty liberal part of even Olympia). But, after reading this it make a lot of sense.

Via facebook:

Action Alert: We need more sign-wavers next 2 days to ensure our safety in numbers:

Olympia’s sign waving rally on Sunday the 1st (Black Lake Blvd & Cooper Point Rd) was overtaken by bullies late in the afternoon. The rally went peacefully from 12 – 4 pm. At 4 pm, Pastor Roy & his wife Valerie appeared, (local leaders of the anti-gay “Reject” campaign who are based in Dupont but lead a Church in Lacey). They had summoned 40 – 50 young men and a few young women who bullied us out of their way by jostling us and blowing painfully loud air horns close to where we were already standing. They appeared to be almost entirely Russian immigrants from one of the Tacoma churches involved in the anti-gay campaign. I asked Pastor Roy & Valerie to request their recruits to stop blaring the air horn in our ears and not to bully our sign wavers. Valerie blew me off and Pastor Roy just walked away. Ironically, last weekend when both sides were at the Lacey rally, our side made it a point to be courteous, and I even intervened in a few situations where Pastor Roy thought our people were being aggressive.

This was a pretty scary encounter. Most of our people left, including one father with a toddler. Two organizers (including myself) strongly encouraged the handful our supporters still there to leave in pairs to be safe.

Via email:

I made a mistake. This is to announce that I have rescinded my endorsement of Jeff Davis for the Port of Olympia Commission.

From the beginning I was uncomfortable with how independent Jeff could be as an active member of the Longshoremen’s Union.

He tried to provide assurance by promising to excuse himself from Port decisions that affected Longshoremen.

But it turns out that the bulk of his extraordinary collections of campaign donations are large contributions from outsiders and Longshore Unions. The final straw was his pompous response to this issue in a recent forum when he said, “If you were to go to the state PDC website and look up my contributors, they all have stevedore and ILWU names behind them and quite frankly, I’m fantastically proud of that. We stick together, we work together and we live and die together.”

This tells me that he is both emotionally and financially beholden to his Union colleagues.

It tells me that he will not be able to critically and objectively assess decisions affecting the port’s marine terminal.
His response is a reminder of the belligerence of some Union dockworkers, which is not the norm at the Port of Olympia.
It is clear that he will put their interests ahead of the citizens of Thurston County who he may be elected to serve.

Maybe I’m too idealistic but I strongly believe that it is not in our best interests to elect anyone who is both financially and emotionally beholden to outsiders or a particular special interest group. You can forget any altruism or notion of public service.

In fairness to Jeff , I have not demanded that he remove my name from his campaign materials as most have already been printed.

Given recent wake-up calls concerning stormwater management at the port, Dave Peeler’s background can be an asset to the port.

Both other Commissioners are fans of spending whatever it takes to keep the marine terminal going and largely indifferent to port taxes and spending, the port needs some balance.

I’m now suggesting that my friends to vote for Dave Peeler.

Paul Telford, (outgoing) Commissioner
Port of Olympia

There was a recipe that called for a can of beer. This is what Keri thought it called for:

I love my wife.

Yikes, this is scary.

Via email:

The Coast Guard is seeking the public’s help in identifying the source of a radio call they received earlier this evening from a young girl who identified herself as “Kelsey.” The girl stopped transmitting before additional information could be gathered.

The girl, who said she was six years old, called the Coast Guard at 5:11 PM stating that someone with her, possibly named Kelly, was “in the water,” and was “not waking up.”

The Coast Guard copied the transmission on its radio towers in southern Puget Sound, and conducted a thorough search of the area with an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles, Wash., and a small boat crew from Coast Guard Station Seattle.

Anyone who heard this little girl on the radio, or who can provide additional information, is requested to contact Coast Guard Sector Seattle at 206-217-6001.

I remember screwing around with my dad’s radio when my family owned a sailboat when I was growing up. I probably pissed off a handful of Coasties, but this is still very creepy.

The whole family plus some friends motored down to Morton this morning to take in an hour long train ride in the foothills. The entire ride was well worth the experience. Our two year old was beside himself nearly the entire trip and everyone helping out on the train ride was extremely friendly.

Taking him up into the diesel engine was a great added bonus.

I’m not a train person at all, but I could see the attraction that some folks have. I can see a day well spent though and appreciate it.

Few good things come out of the SW lately. This is one of the few:

Since Native Americans claim a right that makes sensitive people squeamish, I don’t think it’s too much to ask them to claim it in a picturesque manner. For example, it seems to me that a hollowed-out canoe should be involved any time an Indian kills a whale. Based on designs that go back through the generations and all that. Drums booming slowly in the background would also help, as would a chanting medicine person of some type to get the whole myth-invoking, pipe-toking deal on the road.

I know that this latest whale incident had nothing to do with any legitimate hunting, and the Makah tribal leaders have condemned it and so forth. But the last time there was a legitimate hunt, didn’t they use a shotgun? Guy in the back of the canoe, holding it across his legs? And now a machine gun, so what next? If it’s efficiency over tradition they want, why not a huge conveyor belt that carts the whale carcasses from the ocean into factories on the shore? Then they could carve them up and package the whales for mass consumption. Indian whaling should not be allowed to resemble a soulless and highly profitable enterprise like America’s meat industry.

Just more than ten years ago, I was wrapping up my sophomore year at Delaware State University. I had spent two years in their print journalism department and had worked my way from a regular reporter to sports editor and then finally news editor at the school paper, The Hornet.

That last semester I spent wondering about the most significant phenomena of my time at DSU, I was a white student at a historically black college, one of only two white journalism majors in my department at the time.

Both my fellow students at my teachers encouraged me to write about the “white student experience” at Del State, and in doing so, I often drew into the conversation the other big school in the state: The University of Delaware.

This reflection brought to you by the historic meeting of my Del State Hornets with the (some say mighty) Fighting Blue Hens.

Some fact memories from that time:

• Despite Del State being known as “the black school,” the student body at Del State was 75 percent black, and 25 percent everything else. The student body at UD was 96 percent white. No one called it the “white school.”
• When I was high school there were more than a few urban myths about Del State, as you might imagine there are for Evergreen in Olympia. One was a mysterious female student that spread AIDS throughout the school. I was warned not to get AIDS before I started attending.
• Did I mention that Del State and UD have never played each other before. I think this has as much to do with the relatively tight football schedule (as compared to baseball or basketball, which the two schools have played against each other) and that UD has been a historic football power, and DSU not, as it has to do with race. But, in part, race had some part to play.

By the way, see that Hornet up there? Designed by my classmate Chris Brown.

DSU v UD section of the Delaware News Journal
With matchup finally set, football talk heats up
Game forum

Right back at ya, artistdogboy:

had they died by Pearse’s side or fought with Cathal Brugha*
Their graves we’d keep where the Fenians sleep, ‘neath the shroud of the foggy dew.

Also by Peadar Kearney, the Soldiers Song.

The video below is what I was talking about here. I took it from the collection I just posted below, editing down so you can see just where TJ spoke.

The funny part of this is that TJ was probably the only speaker that I can remember actually being heckled when they spoke. Seems that the small handful of pro-Baird folks who showed up had the guts to yell at TJ.