The Olympia Movement for Peace and Justice organized a march to Ft. Lewis to protest the war in Iraq and to support the troops by bringing them home. I spoke with several protesters today.

What's it about?

I asked Pete about why he was marching:

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Supporting the troops

Barry talked about supporting the troops:

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[update 9/24/05]

See these pictures from Rob W.'s blog, and these from Zoltan Grossman's site.

Also see this write-up in the Taccoma News Tribune, and this one in the Olympian.

[update 9/25/05] Here's a post from pro-war blogger Sondrak.

The Olympian opines about the fate of Capitol Lake:

Crews are on the ground studying the lake as part of a $900,000 study to determine whether it's best to leave the 260-acre lake as a reflecting pool or remove the Fifth Avenue dam and allow the man-made lake to revert to an estuary. The first parts of the study should be complete next spring.

The ramifications are huge -- not just for aesthetics, the environment and salmon recovery, but for shipping in lower Puget Sound. The sediments washing down the Deschutes River have to go someplace, and if it isn't the lake, it will be Budd Inlet. And that has potential impacts for the Port of Olympia and the Army Corps of Engineers responsible for saltwater dredging. Then there's the question of whether the new, multimillion- dollar Fourth Avenue bridge can withstand unregulated tidal action if the dam is removed.

Can anyone describe what it would look like if the dam is removed?

Comcast is beginning to offer Voice-over IP phone service in Thurston County, reports the Olympian:

A Comcast customer of the new service can keep their existing phone number, use a touch-tone phone and connect to the service through a cable modem.

The service includes an installation and activation charge and a monthly charge that varies if it is used in conjunction with other Comcast services. A customer who only wants the Comcast voice product will pay $49.95 a month, Neary said.

While the monthly fee of many VoIP products is comparable to a regular phone line, the advantage to the consumer is that VoIP companies usually offer unlimited local long distance services at no charge, said Jay Stewart, owner of Olympia-based Zhonka Broadband. Stewart said this is possible because the Internet is not as regulated as phone lines are and to "digitize" a phone call doesn't require as many resources to transmit that call.

Seems expensive. Does anyone have any experience using Skype?