Category: Uncategorized (Page 36 of 49)

Washblog had a great headline to a short post that really got to me. It referred a horsesass.org post about Microsoft giving more money to Republicans than Dems. Well, any money at all it turns out.

Either way, here it is: “Linux, Apple, Open Source, Competition, Democrats.” Contrasted with the text of the post: “Windows, Diebold, Proprietary, Monopoly, Republican.”

This reminded me of all the stuff I was writing about over the summer when I was all abuzz about the Top Two primary. My point back then was that there is a deep down difference between nature of the the two parties. Now I just have a different way to articulate it:

Democrats are Firefox (or some other open source software).

Republicans are Explorer (or some other failed proprietary software).

In the Top Two realm, this would mean that Democrats would be ok with whomever chose to vote in their party ranks, even up to election day. Republicans would be a bit more stodgy about such an arrangement and get all bent out of shape.

The Democratic Party should be an open source party, because when you get down to it, all politics should be so called open source.

Good ideas are good ideas, and good candidates don’t neccesarily get endorsed by the state chair.

Being involved in politics or your community (I don’t think they’re exclusive at all though) is good, it means your part of the solution. Not being involved is being part of the problem.

Open source software works because there are lots of people involved, making “whatever” work for the good of the everyone.

Politics works when everyone gets involved and everyone is heard. Its our democracy and it should be our Democratic Party.

Certainly an oh crap moment:

The word on the street is that Congressman Brian Baird of the 3rd District may be contemplating retirement in the not-so-distant future. Baird has spent 6 years in Congress, and recently welcomed twins into the family. It is not clear if this news relates to 2006 or 2008, but times they are a changing.

We will keep you informed as more details or news emerges, but put that feather into your cap.

For all the complaints Olympia Dems have about Brian Baird, I constantly remind myself that the WA-3 not too long ago was represented by Linda Smith.

UPDATE: chirrido at Washblog offers more details to the initial post:

In response to some of the commentary about Baird’s announcement regarding 2006, we wanted to share an additional tidbit that has come this way. We have heard, but not yet confirmed, that a member of the State Legislature recently hired a senior Baird campaign official, ostensibly to manage the 2006 reelection campaign for said legislator. This caused us to ask why a legislator that lives in the 3rd Congressional District would need a congressional-caliber staff member to manage a campaign for a less than competitive legislative seat. As we said before, this is pure conjecture, and merely for your amusement and discussion. But it is definitely another feather worth putting in your cap.

Sounds like for folks in the know, they can just work backwards and fill in names of the state legislator and staffer. I’m not so inclined though.

Ever since I started to read Bowling Alone I’ve had this impression that stong community ties, strong civic values, are elements of progressive and Democratic communities. Specifically the level of trust people have with each other, I’ve been thinking, is a direct line to their trust of local institutions such as government.

Since Democrats tend to like government more that Republicans… well, you get the point.

Eric over at the Cascadia Scorecard points to a study by Ichiro Kawachi, a Harvard man, that shows that states with stong civic connections also vote Dem.

While studying the connections between social capital and health I stumbled across something rather odd. States with high social capital–strong connections between people and their communities–tend to vote democratic.

Harvard researcher, Ichiro Kawachi, one of the leading lights on social capital and health, has performed several studies that make state-by-state comparisons; and he’s shown that, on average, states with higher social capital also have better health outcomes. But as I was peering over some of his charts I couldn’t help but notice that states with higher social capital also tended to be “blue” states–they voted for John Kerry in the last presidential election.

Unfortunately, Kawachi reports the results for only 36 states (the others did not have sufficient data to support his study) so my little “finding” here refers only to those states, though they do include all the big ones. That’s just one of the limitations, but I still think it’s interesting that 6 of the 10 states with the highest social capital voted for Kerry in the 2004 elections. Meanwhile, 8 of the 10 states with the lowest social capital voted for George Bush in ’04.

…While Kawachi never mentions the voting comparison, in a separate study he offers a plausible explanation in the context of health outcomes. He suggests that high social capital leads to more civic engagement and, in turn, to more investment of resources, money, and concern into the community at large. For Kawachi, that investment is a partial explanation for better health outcomes–places with high social capital care more about the welfare of others.

Democrats should talk about this in a serious way, and more than just in “Its takes a village” sort of way. Just because large government social programs have mostly failed doesn’t mean that the moral obligations to our communities and neighbors aren’t still there. It is still our responsibility to be good neighbors.

Should I care if people from exurbs vote for my guy?
It’s community, stupid
I couldn’t agree more, build communities
The future of parties

With less than 40 percent turn out, less than public candidates and one contested race between two cities of a total of more than 50,000 souls, it just about feels that way, doesn’t it?

The Onion:

OLYMPIA, WA—A primary election of some sort is believed to have occurred in the past week or two in cities and counties across the nation, according to a report published by a citizens advocacy group.

Although the report stopped short of affirming the claim, the Fair Election Advocacy Council believes that local political offices as diverse as mayor, city councilman, district attorney, and perhaps a judgeship or two may have been contested.

….

“Am I crazy, or was there an election or something not too long ago?” said Olympia, WA resident Rochelle Fleischman, who recalled receiving a multilingual “yellow thing” in the mail several weeks ago that may have been an election-related notice. She promptly discarded it with other junk mail.

The most telling part of the forum last night was who didn’t show up. The much discussed here Michael Normoyle didn’t show up, Ira Knight didn’t pop his head in, and neither did John Griogair Bell.

From past experience and recent election results, folks that only got into the city council races just before the filing deadline have a small chance of actually winning. Most of what they can expect to do is change what is being discussed during the race so that the winners can be held accountable when they’re serving. But how in the hell do you change what is being discussed in the race if you don’t even show up? Last night was free advertising for you!

A few days ago I complained about civic life in Lacey and Tumwater, but at least both Dick Yates and John Darby (the only two candidates in Lacey) showed up last night.

Here is a list of the folks we decided to endorse following the forum last night:

Chuck Namit – North Thurston School Board, District 2
Karen Messmer – City of Olympia, Position 4
Jeff Kingsbury – City of Olympia, Position 5
Doug Mah – City of Olympia, Position 6
Joe Hyer – City of Olympia, Position 7
Ed Stanley – Port of Olympia, District 3
Steve Klein – City of Yelm, Mayor

The position that we had the most discussion on was Position 6 for Olympia, which came down to a close vote. Here are my notes from the forum.

Two-thousand five hundred Olympians voted for a guy that can’t spell “wave” or “pundit.” Returning solid leadeship, just not spelling or usage.

Don’t blame it all on government, however. Part of our loss of community may be explained by the simple fact that we don’t put down deep roots as individuals and families because we don’t stay put the way we used to. How many of your friends live in their parents’ home towns?

And if home town is such a nebulous concept, should we be surprised that serious thought is being given to rebuilding New Orleans as a city full of charming old-style houses, with railed balconies and lovely verandas — but empty of the “blight” of poor people?

The idea — fortunately not yet the prevailing one — seems to be that the poor would stay where they’ve been temporarily relocated. Or maybe just disappear. Where is the “community” in that?

Strong communities typically have vibrant civic cultures, which keep government acountable to the needs of the community. The breakdown of communities drive a wedge between people, erode our trust in each other, alienates us from government and we all end up like Bill O’Reilly.

A new Olympia city council website over on the left with Ira Knight’s http://electira.homestead.com. Not much to say about this new entry, other than it is pretty typical of the sites so far, which mostly repeat what I assume the candidates are putting in their printed material.

That is to say that I hope Mr. Knight is proofreading his printed material better than his website. He does offer and interesting way to volunteer: Sign waiving.

In a campaign season that has been long on platitudes and short on specifics, Knights website does give you a small clue of what he is actually about. No fan of the nuke free ordinance or spelling:

Focus on local issues that affect our community, not geopolitical pundants or special interest groups.

Pretty sure he meant pundit(s).

What does it say about civic life in Tumwater and Lacey that between the two cities, with eight positions up for election, only one person has challenged an incumbent? Half of Tumwater city government is being decided, and the majority of Lacey’s is up for grabs.

No one can tell me there aren’t important issues in either city, especially in Tumwater.

Short of anyone running for Olympia City Council who is blogging, Kendall Miller, a candidate for Kennewick city hall, is putting his thoughts online. Its almost disapointing that he really doesn’t want to win, but that actually makes his blog better reading.

Here’s his take on the newspaper endorsement interview:

It was my first time, of course, dealing directly with media. The senior members of the board seemed offended by the very idea that someone would run for office with the expressed desire to not be elected. “Why waste people’s time?”, they asked. But whose time am I wasting? Certainly not the voter’s. They were complaining because I was wasting their time. I’m not wasting any more of their time than they themselves want to put into it. Would they rather I mount a lame campaign and pretend that I hope to win? At least they have the option to dismiss me if they choose, an option they wouldn’t have if I was pretending.

The other members could see the humor in the situation. There was a reporter present as well who smiled a good deal. There will be an interview with him later one-on-one. It will be interesting to see what angle he takes on my story.

I also like this from his candidate statement:

I have no experience in public service. I am fairly ignorant of recent issues faced by our city. I have no articulated platform that would give you any idea how I would fulfill the duties of this office. I have the support of no particular political party. I have no special talents that would be helpful as a councilman. I don’t even remember names very well.

When you see my name on the ballot, the most dangerous thing you could do is vote for me.