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 Associated Press has lost Christine Gregoire. Where, oh where, could she be?  What appointments are still available?

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.

I'm catching up on the email behavior of the city council and I wonder what could get these folks re-called?

-any thoughts?