The Democratic Prescinct Committee Officers voted tonight to put together a list of who should fill the vacant seat left by Bob Macleeod. The ranked list we're sending to the county commissioners for them to choose from is:

1. Karen Valenzuela (Tumwater city council member) 164 points
2. Susan Bogni (current commissioner's assistant, who endorsed her) 109 points
3. Walt Jorgenson (former Tumwater city council member) 87 points.

The PCOs were allowed to rank three of the applicants, with six points to divide among their first second or third choices.

Just a few observations from the night:

New county commissioner Sandra Romero telegraphed as much as she could the next step. She said she wanted to "respect the process" and vote for the top choice of the PCOs. I noted that she said "wanted" not "would."

Out of the possible 110 PCOs, 81 showed up and voted. That is out of a total possible of 297 PCOs. Less than a third of the people in Thurston County had someone voting for them tonight. Not that I'm upset with the results, my top person was on the top of the list. I'm just saying its a sad statement.

The following is via OMJP (Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace) listserve with photos added by me:

"I am a black South African, and if I were to change the names, a description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank could describe events in South Africa."
~Archbishop Desmond Tutu

If you feel a sense of responsibility of the death of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank with US manufactured weaponry bought with US tax dollars...

If you are concerned that The Evergreen Foundation profits from the Occupation of Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan through its investment in Caterpillar, Haliburton, Raytheon and others... If you know the history of how Boycotts, Sanctions and Divestment pushed out the Apartheid regime in South Africa and want to see racial equality in Palestine ...

If you want to be part of a constructive community based campaign...

join SESAME for this important meeting on Divestment and Boycotts @ Evergreen.

Talk about divestment and boycott with Evergreen students, alumni, staff and faculty
Wednesday, Jan 7th
4pm
Library Underground

There will be an informative segment on the history of divestment at Evergreen followed by a meeting to come up with ideas on how we can make this educational campaign a reality.

If you are interested in learning more about divestment from Israel in preparation for the event check out:

The first meeting of 2009 for the Parking and Business Improvement Area (PBIA) Advisory Board to the City Council will be at the MIXX 96 Conference Room this Thursday January 8th from 6-8 pm. On the agenda is officer elections, 2009 budget review and updates on on-going projects. The meetings are open to the public.  Public comment is always one of the first agenda items.

***There is a vacant seat that the board will be filling by appointment. The only requisite is that you are a PBIA rate-payer.***

The following is an analysis of the conflict between Israel and Palestinians by writer and activist Starhawk. It's also a testimonial, and it is important and powerful. Onward:

On Gaza

by Starhawk

December 30, 2008

All day I've been thinking about Gaza, listening to reports on NPR, following the news on the internet when I can spare a moment. I've been thinking about the friends I made there four years ago, and wondering how they are faring, and imagining their terror as the bombs fall on that giant, open-air prison.

The Israeli ambassador speaks movingly of the terror felt by Israeli children as Hamas rockets explode in the night. I agree with him-that no child should have her sleep menaced by rocket fire, or wake in the night fearing death.

Hey folks -

I put together a handy web application for people who want to track arbitrary date about their own lives.  Things like hours of sleep, calories consumed, beers drank, cigs smoked, miles ran, etc., etc., and then you can graph it over time.

I wrote a little write-up of the web app here:

http://www.newprotest.org/details.pl?1338

And the tool itself is here:

 http://trackeverything.org/

Give it a try, let me know what you think.

The Tallhouse Arts Consortium presents an aerial dance performance the first Wednesday of every month at the Brotherhood, next show is Weds., Jan. 7th. You may have caught the Tallhouse Arts Consortium in last Fall's Artswalk, performing acrobatics and aerial dance (trapeze, fabric) at Olympia Salvage. Come see their free performance at the Brotherhood, 8pm to 10pm. Tips for the performers are greatly appreciated!

www.myspace.com/thebrotherhoodlounge

Hi everybody,

This will be our first practice of the new year! Things have been moving along swimmingly at the space downtown, horns have been singing, drums have been quaking, and folks have been arranging songs of all sorts for many instruments. Come down at the times given to play some music, dance, or shout with us!

 Enter at 525 Cherry St.  (Old K Records space)

Questions and further information are at-

http://groups.google.com/group/olymarchingband

This tale begins with a lump of snow.

This particular lump of snow was pushed from the driveway of the Memorial Medical Center by a snow plow belonging to GVA Kidder Matthews. It was pushed onto the sidewalk next to the mouth of the driveway. Here it lay, standing about three feet high, stretched all the way across the sidewalk, blocking the path of anyone on wheel or foot who was unwilling or unable to leap or climb over it, and here it lay untouched for the next two weeks. It not only blocked the medical center from one side, it also blocked the bus stop on the other side. Yes, GVAKM had effectively placed a barricade between a medical center and the bus stop that serves it.

Nearly every Puget Sound town has gone through one or more hectic real estate booms. And when these occurred, of course, they occupied the entire minds of the populace. One of these booms was on in Olympia during the constitutional convention in 1889. The Portland Telegram of July 29, 1889 observes the craze in this pertinent dispatch:

"One of the Spokane Falls delegates reported that an Olympia minister had become so interested in the real estate boom in that city that he had opened the Bible in an absent-minded way and announced in a sermon that his text was found in 'Owing's Addition, Lot 2, Block 4.'"

Some good feature writer could do a story on the Jinx of the Pacific county legislative seat.

"By a strange succession of deaths," says Wifred J. Airey in a University of Washington Ph. D. dissertation, "Pacific County was practically left without any representatives in the first legislature. J.L. Brown, one of the candidates, died just before the election; John Scudder was nominated in his place and elected, but died before the legislature met. A special election was held and Henry Feister was chosen to fill the vacancy. He rushed to the Capitol by March 29, was sworn in and took his seat, but died chatting in the barroom of the Washington hotel, a victim, it is supposed, of apoplexy. A resolution was passed immediately authorizing another election; two weeks later on April 14, James C. Strong took his seat giving Pacific County a representative in the House for the remaining days of the session."

--Wilfred J. Airey A History of the Constitution and Government of Washington Territory.