Interesting editorial in today's Olympian newspaper.

"Published March 09, 2008

Activism must not cross line to harassment

Legal costs at the Port of Olympia have skyrocketed from $90,000 in 2003 to an average of $410,582 in 2006 and 2007. Those dollars, spent in defense of multiple — mostly unsuccessful — lawsuits come directly out of the pockets of Thurston County taxpayers.

Port Commissioner Paul Telford calls the legal maneuvering “harassment.”

A Supreme Court commissioner recently fined two litigants $500 each for what the commissioner said were frivolous complaints that lacked merit. “Petitioners make numerous assertions in their complaint that have no grounding in fact,” the commissioner wrote. Not surprisingly, the two litigants have appealed.

And therein is the cautionary tale that is playing out at the Port of Olympia. The question is this: At what point do residents cross the line from citizen activists holding government officials and agencies accountable into an arena of obstructionists and harassers? ... "

You can read the entire article here.

Jeff Brigham

Re: blog post http://olyblog.net/discomfort-re-violent-confrontations

At 6:16pm Rob Richards, in his docent role, closed the thread to any further comments. See the comment below:
“Ok, I think we've squeezed every last bit of usefulness

Submitted by Rob Richards on Tue, 03/04/2008 - 6:16pm.

out of this thread,

Nothing to see here, folks, move along.”

Then at 6:32pm, after comments have been closed, “bert” makes another comment on this thread. His comment was NOT in the role of a docent. His comment was a personal comment. See the comment below:
“specific points

Submitted by bert on Tue, 03/04/2008 - 6:32pm.

What I have done here is made a strong case for why Brigham's report deserves to be viewed with skepticism. He has been a staunch detractor of PMR… “ (The comment continues but for the sake of brevity, I have truncated it.)

Olympia Port Militarization (PMR) held a meeting this Sunday, March 2nd at the Olympia Free School, 610 Columbia St., Olympia. The meeting was scheduled for 4:30pm. I am going to leave any comments of mine till later and for now try to stick to the reporting part of this. During the meeting I refrained from making any comments or involving myself in the discussions.

I arrived at approximately 4:20pm. Two people were standing outside the Free School waiting for the person with the key. We were let in by a person next door to the Free School. The meeting started at 4:40pm with a facilitator talking with the participants and developing an agenda. Apparently there was no agenda prior to the meeting. Introductions were made. I introduced myself by name and stated that I was going to do an article for OlyBlog. I have always felt that if you are going to record or interview for publication, ethics require that the person(s) be told that. So everyone there knew that I was taking notes and would be reporting on this meeting. One person raised a question on whether they wanted reporting done on their meeting. This was discussed and the members decided to allow it. There were eleven members present.

A number of announcements were made for other “community” or “progressive” events. Drew Hendricks spoke of a presentation he will give concerning the INS and plans for the removal of illegal aliens, at 6:00pm on March 5th, Seminar 2 Bldg, room A1107, Evergreen College. Alison Bodine, who was recently banned from entry into Canada for two years, requested a speaker from Oly PMR for an event in Seattle. Drew Hendricks volunteered to speak at this event.

In the past six months we have heard much discussion on Congressman Brian Baird and his public support for the “surge” military strategy in Iraq. Many people have disagreed with his decision and some accuse him of not appropriately representing his constituents. Well, it looks like the question “Is Congressman Baird representing the citizens of the 3rd Congressional District?” will get it’s real test this summer and fall.

Ms. Cheryl A. Crist is challenging Congressman Baird for the Democratic nomination for the 3rd Congressional. On her campaign website, she lists her positions on a number of issues including:

A recent posting asked questions on off-leash areas for dog's in the local area. Lo and behold, look what's in today's editorial section of the Olympian newspaper. The editorial is here.

From the Our Views section of the Olympian.

Area needs an off-leash park

It’s time to create an off-leash dog park in South Sound.

Dog parks — or bark parks — are popular attractions across the country. They provide an area for canines to run and fetch, jump and play, without the confines of a leash. South Sound residents must travel to Fort Steilacoom Park in Lakewood to let their dogs run free.

That’s not right.

Go read the article.

The State Supreme Court just issued a decision on a dispute involving Thurston County and the payment of overtime to employees. You can read the article at the source here.
"Published February 24, 2008

The Olympian
Court rejects jail staff’s pay complaint
The state Supreme Court has rejected a claim by Thurston County jail staff members about when checks for overtime pay are issued.

Four officers — Gene Champagne, Cary Brown, Roland Knorr and Christopher Scanlon — sued the county for its practice of waiting an extra pay period to pay overtime.

"Evergreen plans another forum next week regarding concert riot"

"A second campus forum has been set at The Evergreen State College next week to continue discussions that have arisen after an incident in which a patrol car was overturned by a group of concertgoers last week.

The forum will be at 4 p.m. Wednesday in Lecture Hall 1....."

Jeff Brigham

I have included “Loss of the Arab Palestinian State” in the title of this blog entry because that is exactly what happened. The Palestinian Arabs had a state or nation. Israel DID NOT take away their state. The Palestinian Arabs lost their state because of decisions made by their leaders and the leaders of surrounding Arab nations, not by the actions of Israel. This is widely ignored by current supporters of the Palestinian Arabs.

Prior to the First World War, the area known as Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire, and controlled by Turkey. During the First World War, the area was taken by the British. After the First World War, it was controlled by the British under a mandate by the League of Nations. During this mandate, there was much conflict between the Jewish and Arab residents of Palestine. After the Second World War, the British were wanted out and turned the problem over to the new United Nations.

In 1947, the United Nations approved the partition of Palestine into two nations, one Jewish and one Arab. (Yes, that’s right, the Palestinian Arabs had a state.) The partition plan and the borders that it drew were far from perfect. Even so, the Jewish Palestinians accepted the plan. The Palestinian Arabs rejected the plan and chose war. (The start of a pattern!) The surrounding Arab nations rejected the plan and chose war. (Again, the start of a pattern!)

The Olympian has an article in today’s edition:

Evergreen president on riots: 'It's a real wake-up call' Venice Buhain, The Olympian

Here are some quotes and excerpts from the article. My comments are in italics.

Evergreen President Les Purce says "It's a real wake-up call," and, "Perhaps what's worked for us in the past is what now needs to be reviewed." It’s a wake-up call??? Where has he been for the past few years?

“Purce said that as the campus gets larger and more prominent, events attract people regionally "that is not in tune with our culture." Well, that is so sweet! Actually, some of those “regional” people seem to have had the same culture of violence, arrogance, property destruction, and disrespect for fellow citizens. Apparently he has not noticed that some of his misfits have previously brought their culture off campus and performed their property destruction and havoc in Olympia and Tacoma. What’s different now is that some of their culture has been deposited on their own campus.

The article says that this event was hosted by an Evergreen student club, the “Hip Hop Congress” and that “The student club provided its own volunteer security.” OMG! Volunteer security? Well, we have seen how well that worked out!

"It's easy to get lulled in a place that is a calm, gentle place," Purce said.” It would be more accurate for him to say: “It’s easy to get lulled when the spoiled-brat segment of our population and certain egotistical, extremist professors only inflicted their arrogant actions on the communities and citizens off campus. I think it’s different now that they have done it here on our campus. I will really consider it serious if they come to my house and destroy my property and inflict their arrogant behavior on me!”