Last Saturday's Democratic Convention and Caucus seemed to be a success. Preliminary estimates announced after Saturday morning's registration period were that around 1,400 delegates and alternates were in attendance for the day's deliberations.

There was debate and dissent, passion and play. Thurston County Democrats Caucus Information

Thurston County will be sending 88 Obama Delegates and Alternates, and 36 Clinton Delegates and Alternates to Congressional District Caucuses.

Here's the TCD platform video presentation:

photos on the flipside

I am a big fan of Clean Elections or Voter-Oriented Elections which is about getting corporate money out of elections. There is a new wiki-style crowd sourcing project made by the man who invented Creative Commons aimed at doing just this. It is hard to get laws passed that keep corporate money out of elections because the people who are in office have been elected with the help of corporate money, so it is not in their interests to vote for such bills. This project is a way around that problem...

The project consists of a pledge, a map, and a wiki. The pledge is for the candidates to take to promise to not take PAC money.The a map shows which representatives have taken the pledge and which haven't and also shows political affiliation. The wiki is to document candidates stances and history concerning financing. The hope is that we can wikipedia-style pressure the candidates to take the pledge and publicly shame them if they break it.

In case you are wondering about our representative Brian Baird, he raised 42% of his money ($177,702 of $421,385) of his 2008 campaign contributions from PACs (Political Action Committees).

I think this is huge. Please check it out.

An article about the project:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/03/stanford-law-pr.html

The project's site:
http://change-congress.org/

Please check out the "About" section of the site. It talks about the goals of the project:
http://change-congress.org/about/

[Video added by Rick]

On March 18, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Initiative-872 is not necessarily unconstitutional, allowing the 2004 initiative to finally take effect.

Initiative-872 was designed to allow split-party voting in the primary. Although it was passed by the public, the Democratic Party, Libertarian Party, and Republican Party objected that the law was unconstitutional. Their argument is that this law effectively forces them to nominate a candidate they didn't choose for the final election. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals over-turned the initiative, but the case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The recent Democratic Caucus was a real pleasure to take part in. The organic flow of the event was exciting; it was fun to come together in person to decide on which candidate to support. I enjoyed hearing people speak on behalf of the different candidates. It was empowering to know that we have influence; we have some ability to affect the outcome of a political election based on first hand participation.

My precinct (Oly 218) caucus was held in a building with about 4 or 5 other precincts. Olympia 218 had a huge turnout, there were well in excess of 100 people.

What struck me most was the enthusiasm, the hopefulness, and the desire for real change that was apparent amongst the participants. This photograph by Kay Schultz exemplifies the spirit of enthusiasm at the Caucus:


Photograph by Kay Schultz

There is promise for developing a better society through the democratic process. Congratulations to Washington for such a great Democratic Caucus turn-out.

Baseball decides to clean up steroids and level the playing field. Will Americans hold our political/election system up to the same standard and level the field by banning untoward corporate contributions to political campaigns?

I found this interesting enough to post. Liberal Europeans think that they have some right to vote in the US since our foreign policy affects the world. Do they think they should be permitted to vote in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, or anywhere else? No, of course not.

http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/2825     Text of the column is below.

"American presidential elections are not “home affairs.” American decisions have repercussions all over the globe. The American mortgage crisis affects banks in Europe. The insatiable American demand for oil makes the Arabian sheiks rich. The American refusal to care for the environment causes the North Pole ice to melt and coastal areas in Asia to flood. A weakened dollar and an immense budget deficit affect the global economy.

Hence, the world should be given the right to vote. Because the current situation is a blatant case of taxation without representation, against which the Americans rebelled in 1776. But of course the world will not be allowed to vote. The best we can hope for is that the Americans choose a leader who is deeply aware of the U.S.’s responsibility, as a superpower, for the rest of mankind.

The international community was able to limit America’s hegemony somewhat through organisations for international consultation, agreements and the corresponding judicial apparatus. But that system is in crisis, partly through the actions of the current American president."

Hat tip to WeaselZippers

C. 

Russ Olsen was the one Lacey candidate that you could be interested in, because well, for a Lacey candidate, he was suprisingly good. If he were a Olympia candidate, he would have been down the same line as Rhenda Strub or Craig Ottevelli, but for Lacey, he was pretty left of center.

And, he almost won. Here are the precincts that went for him.

View Larger Map

Aside from driving through Lacey on various routes every day, I don't know all that much about Lacey and why certain neighborhoods would have voted the way he did. But, a few thoughts.

1. SE Lacey was Russ country. Pricier homes along the lakes? Are these the neighborhoods less likely to be transient? There are also some brand new neighborhoods down there (not even showing up on Google maps yet), so maybe it was the transient vote.

2. Two old neighborhoods near the mall went for Russ. They're some older neighborhoods by Lacey standards.