Here's what Dave Neiwert over at Orcinus has to say about initiatives and legislation ostensibly aimed at controling immigration:

Anti-illegal immigration activists keep insisting that there's nothing the least racist about their efforts to crack down on the problem. It's only illegal immigration they oppose. Really. It has nothing to do with race or ethnicity.

So maybe they can explain why, in Denver, anti-illegal immigration activists have mounted a protest against the city librarian because the library has (gasp!) expanded its collection by adding large numbers of Spanish-language books, including, evidently, some with racy pictures inside.

This elicited the following response from one of the protest organizers:

"You always hear they want to come and work," said Robert Copley of the Colorado Minuteman Project. "Well, they also want to come and kill, and destroy wages, and just demean our quality of life."

It's pretty clear Mr. Copley's concern is not with illegal immigration -- though we're sure he can rhapsodize at length on that subject as well -- as it is with Latino immigration. And it's kind of funny how that theme keeps cropping up a lot.

Again, none of this is surprising. I've argued consistently that people who think the solution is to harass immigrants who come here illegally are, almost without exception, concerned more with the racial (and cultural) aspects of the current immigrant wave than they are about, say, the war on terror (though they sound that theme frequently enough) or the fact that most of these immigrants are here illegally.

Maybe this explains why local activists are so adamant in asserting that their efforts have nothing to do with immigration. From Seattle Weekly:

Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Olympia, has spun off a group called Grassroots Washington that is "in the process of filing an initiative," says Jonathan Bechtle, director of the foundation's voter integrity project. Bechtle says "the focus is not on immigration." Instead, he says, the purpose is "cleaning up" voter registration rolls generally, the necessity of which became apparent during last year's pitched battle over who won the 2004 gubernatorial race.

However, Bechtle acknowledges that the cleanup would be aimed at weeding noncitizens from the rolls, as well as felons, duplicate names, and the deceased. "It's something Arizona just put in place," he says, referring to Proposition 200. "Some of the ideas came from that." He also says some of the initiative's language will be taken from a bill which state Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, introduced during the current session of the Legislature. The bill would require that voter applicants submit proof of citizenship through documents such as a birth certificate or passport, but it has found no traction.

Via email from a non-Tom Crowson supporter. Even if you support Crowson, vote in this election. The Thruston Conservation District is one of those local governments that does very good work, including salmon restoration work and developing farm plans, which help local farming and conservation:

There is an election tomorrow, Saturday, for one position on the Thurston county Conservation Board. A hard right candidate is challenging the incumbent. You may remember Tom Crowson as the fellow who ran against Brian Baird in 2004. More recently he has been one of the leaders in the Farm Bureau/Builders/Developers coalition to over turn reasonable protections to our critical areas ... the Critical Area Ordinance.

 

We need to keep the services of the Conservation District insulated from right wing politics.

You must vote in person ... the election is being held in conjunction with the native plant sale at the Conservation District Office, 2400 Bristol Court SW (Map). The election for one District supervisor (Position #1) will take place on Saturday, February 18, 2006 between the hours of 11:30 am and 4:00 pm.

This supervisor will serve on the District's Board of Supervisors for a period of three years. The last election only had a handful of voters turn out so a 50 people can determine the outcome of this election. You must be a registered voter within the Thurston Conservation District boundaries to participate in this election. The Thurston Conservation District encompasses all properties within Thurston County except within the 1948 city limits of Yelm, Tenino and Rainier. There are two candidates in this year's election. To learn more about each candidates, please click on the bios next to their names below...

Clifford D. (Doug) Rushton, Incumbent

As always this is simply an update on city business as gleaned from their weekly packet. For more information, read the packet yourself or go to the city council meetings. The city's ban on "big box stores" is about to lapse, so they council is considering renewing to give them more time to figure out the long term fate of such stores. Interesting reading is the pro and cons of such a move:

Option 1. Extend Moratorium an additional 180 days.

 Pros

1. Provides time for staff analysis, council direction and measured and appropriate response to large-scale retail development.

Cons

1. May prevent certain property owners from pursuing development of their property for large-scale retail.

Option

2. Let the Moratorium lapse. Pros1. Will allow private property owners to pursue development approvals for large-scale retail developments.

Cons

1. Such developments would proceed under our current regulations without benefit of further analysis of regulatory options.

Also on the agenda is a couple of annexations, an almost 17 acre one up on Fairview St. and another 5.4 acre deal near Pattison and 8th. The maps I linked to are for general reference, by the way.

Here is the reference is the minutes from last week's meeting to the water rights lawsuit: 

Proposed Condemnation Ordinance for Water Rights at the former Olympia Brewery Staff distributed a proposed ordinance providing for the condemnation of property and water rights at the former Olympia brewery. Councilmember Mah moved, seconded by Councilmember Johnson, to suspend Council rules and pass Ordinance # 6394 on first and final reading. Councilmember Mah noted the ordinance includes a declaration of emergency that requires a super majority vote. Motion passed unanimously.

The wireless ordinance will likely be voted in this week with no loophole for wifi or wimax facilities. Looks like the city is going to take this up later in a regular review of the new rules.

Since he moved to Olympia, new employee Bryan has experienced two windstorm related power outages. "Why the heck does Olympia have so many power outages, isn't our electricity system any good?" he wondered. I responded that we have too many Doug firs and other shallow rooted species standing around power lines to ever be safe for long:

In order to understand the effect of construction on big tree health, it's necessary to imagine how the root structure looks underground. Many people believe that tree roots descend dozens of feet into the ground, balancing the big top of the tree with a similar underground mass. This doesn't happen. If you've ever seen the roots of a wind-rocked Douglas fir, you've seen the "pancake" like shallow wad they make. Roots are essentially shallow, even on big trees.

 

Most feeder roots that take up nutrients lie within two feet of the surface. They are located near the outer edges of tree root systems and usually extend well beyond a tree's drip line. Large anchoring roots located closer to the trunk typically extend down another two to three feet.

While we're on the subject, some good thoughts from the city of Redmond on windstorms.

I've been much more social and public lately. I've caught some flak recently and in a moment of reverie thought of this song by John Lennon. Gonna share just in case it's good for someone else too to read this:

We’re playing those mind games together
Pushing the barriers, planting seeds
Playing the mind guerrilla
Chanting the mantra, peace on earth
We all been playing those mind games forever
Some kinda druid dudes lifting the veil
Doing the mind guerrilla
Some call it magic, the search for the grail

Love is the answer and you know that for sure
Love is a flower, you got to let it, you got to let it grow

More...

Mother Jones:

Democratic Senate candidate and Marine Corps Major Paul Hackett is accustomed to waging quixotic battles and taking his hits. He just didn’t expect the lowest—and fatal—blows to come from his own party.

Hackett, an Iraq War combat veteran, was hailed last summer as just the kind of “fighting Democrat

Over the last couple days I put together a new website for my neighborhood association.

Our old website was basic and informative, but didn't offer a way for anyone except for the webmaster to edit or add anything. This new drupal based (just like Olyblog) site will let any of our members add comments, and our leaders add front page conent, including events. I have been for the past few weeks trying to find a way to tie an email discussion group with a drupal/civicspace site, but I'm not that big of a nerd yet, so I gave up. For my NA instead I grabbed a google group, which should be nice.

This process got me thinking: with the availability of free, open source, so called Web 2.0 applications out there, that allow people to connect, discuss and organize, how can neighbhorhood associations use them to be more effective? I put together our site with some basic modules from drupal (events, forums, etc...), but if other NAs adopt similar technology, can we connect to eachother locally and be a more powerful voice than we are right now?

If we replace Washington state with John and Jane Doe, they would probably lose everything they had.

The Seattle Times:

A near-unanimous state Supreme Court has swept aside an $8.3 million civil judgment against the state for the vicious beating in 1999 of a Somali refugee by a group of teenagers living in a West Seattle foster home.

From The Seattle Times:

Olympia -- Lucia Perillo of Olympia has won the 2006 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, worth $100,000 and said to be the largest award given to a midcareer poet.

Perillo's fourth volume of verse, "Luck Is Luck," was published by Random House in March 2005. The line that lends the collection its title -- "well, hard luck is luck, nonetheless" -- sums up the spirit of the book. Perillo, who has been battling multiple sclerosis since the 1980s, is also a MacArthur Foundation Fellow.

Robert Wrigley, chairman of the Tufts Poetry Awards, commented on "Luck Is Luck": "It gives the reader stories that show the familiar in unfamiliar ways. ... It manages to be simultaneously lighthearted and moving -- a very elusive quality."