Racists vandalize 10 sites

White supremacist graffiti was spray-painted across 10 Longview locations overnight Friday, marring property and the town's image, city leaders said.

Longview police said 10 buildings, vehicles or signs had been found with spray-painted slogans or symbols as of Saturday afternoon and urged anyone who knows about it to talk to authorities.

I've done some brief foraging around on the web to see what can be found concerning hate crimes in Longview. An Aryan Nations member, Zachary Beck,  back in 2004 was accused of shooting at a police officer during a standoff in Longview.

Spokesman Review article
ADL article with links

SWP: Racist acronym

One People's Project report on Zachary Beck and Longview

Update: kgw.com has updated story 10/2

This is the second time swastikas have been painted on the doors to the House of Prayer Church in Longview, Wa.

The pastor said he believes the church is a target because it’s a place for people of any race to worship.

PMR Intelligence Briefing for October 1, 2006

STRYKER MOVEMENTS NOTED

On Saturday Sept 30th 2006, three groups of nine Strykers each were seen Northbound on I-405 in a convoy of assorted support vehicles. The specific time of the sighting was unknown but we can assume daylight hours from the context of the conversation.

Tacoma News Tribune reported Sunday Sept 24th that the 2/23rd Strykers will train in Eastern WA beginning "late this month (September)" and will deploy to Iraq "Next Summer (2007)"

The training will happen at Yakima in Eastern WA, so the movement we saw toward I-90 makes sense in this context.

PORT MARINE TERMINAL DEVELOPMENTS

Personnel in camoflage BDUs were observed Friday, September 22nd inside the Port's Marine Terminal, pointing out various features of the fencing and security.

On Monday, September 25th, a Homeland Security grant of $327,000 was announced by DHS. This grant is for security perimeter enhancements for the Olympia Marine Terminal - possibly to include cameras or card readers for access.

The Port of Olympia has been in negotiations with the 833rd Transportation Battalion to move its Headquarters to the Marine Terminal in Olympia. The DHS grant for perimeter security might be part of the effort to make the Marine Terminal safe enough for the 833rd to relocate there.

BACKGROUNDERS

The Stryker Brigade which went through Olympia in May 2006 is called the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry. They are stationed in Mosul and Baghdad.

One part of this Stryker unit is the 1/23rd Infantry. They are based in Baghdad. It is their unit which has been covered by the Embeds from Olympia.

The two reporters from the South Sound are almost 25% of just nine embedded reporters in the whole of Iraq as of Sept 26th 2006.

"For the past month, though, the 1-23rd has been performing searches and setting up roadblocks in Baghdad (...)

[Bumped to the front by Rick]

If I have a complaint about downtown Olympia (and actually I have more than one) it would be that the sidewalks are too narrow.  This is not because there are people I need to step over, because I never have to step over people (what an insulting concept).  It is not because the sidewalks are covered with feces and I can not find a feces free spot to walk.  The sidewalks are too narrow because they do not adequately function in their intended manner. 

Sidewalks are a public space.  Their nature is to provide the zone where people can mingle and converse in a public place.  People seem to think that the sidewalk is the zone that protects the buildings from the cars in the street.  Others view the sidewalk as the arterial on which people travel.  Travel on a sidewalk is really not common as one thinks.  Think of the people you know that will get in a car to drive two blocks to buy a qallon of milk. 

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Check out this very informative post about the misconceptions that people often use to dismiss consideration of a single-payer plan like the one that is currently in place in Canada. It sounds to me like it would be such a burden off individual, businesses, & government to adopt such a system, I don't understand why we're not quickly moving in that direction.

Orcinus: Sara's Sunday Rant