Don't forget to vote! Your signed and dated primary election ballot is due by 8pm TODAY.

CYNTHIA McKINNEY:
"Don't Get Tired When Working for Justice"

2008 Green Party Presidential Candidate, first African-American woman to represent Georgia in the House of Representatives, and relentless activist for social justice.

Cynthia McKinney has been active in the Free Gaza Movement and was the subject of the documentary American Blackout, on voter disenfranchisement. She was recently awarded the Peace Through Conscience Award by the Munich American Peace Committee.

Price: $5 general admission. FREE for all students, staff, and faculty of any high school, college, or university (just bring school ID).

Doors open at 4:30

Sponsored by the Black Student Union and the Mideast Solidarity Project.

(Panel on Iran's "Green Movement" immediately follows at 7:30 in Lecture Hall 1)

[updated with segment from Democracy Now! and an additional comment.]

Regarding the discussion about Capitol Lake, it seems to me that the lake is unnatural and environmentally destructive. It seems to make sense that the correct way forward - the way that it ecologically correct (and therefore in the long-run also economically correct and socially just) - is to restore function to the natural estuarine ecosystem.

[Additional comment:
I think it's understandable, considering how industrialization has divorced us, as a society, from the natural world, how it would be difficult to imagine living - to imagine life - in an environment that comes complete within healthy ecosystems, to imagine life in a stable and productive ecosystem, an ecosystem that is teeming with life. It's a real contradiction with our present reality of ecological disease; at one time this area teemed with wildlife. For my part, I believe that to restore ecological health, vibrancy and vitality is an ideal to strive for.

Democracy Now! video below]

The following is a three part video series containing a speech by Mari Margil about law, environmental protection and regulation, and corporate power. After the videos there is an excerpt from and a link to a related article by Mari Margil from Yes! Magazine.

Video Description: The associate director of the Community Environmental Defense Fund (CELDF) describes the inspiring, groundbreaking work she and CELDF are doing to recognize Rights of Nature in law in both the U.S. and Ecuador, which recently became the worlds first nation to enshrine such rights in its constitution.

Part One:

Mari Margil Part 1 (of 3)

See Parts Two and Three

FOX News Isn't News. It's a Political Operation.

I think this is a great video. Make sure to check out the part (at about 1:30) where Paul Weyrich says, "...our leverage in the elections...goes up as the voting populous goes down."

High voter turn out elections favor populist - environmental, progressive, common interest causes. So please, make sure to get your ballot in!

I was just filling out my ballot when I noticed that it is damaged. When it arrived in the mail, there was a chunk taken out of it, sort of like it had maybe been ground in a mail processor machine. After reading the instructions, instead of risking that my vote not be counted, I think that I will make the effort to visit the elections office for a new ballot.

I wonder if anyone else has found their ballot to be damaged.

-berd

• On September 30, 2008, the Brennan Center for Justice released a comprehensive report on voter purging[1].
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The Thurston County Auditor has begun to mail ballots to registered voters in our county. Unfortunately it appears that today some students have also received address verification notices in the place of their ballots. What does this mean? Ballots for an unknown number of students and residents in our area are not being delivered and instead will be retained by the auditor until address confirmation is received. Essentially, voter rolls are being purged at the last minute, leaving very little time for voters to provide the requested verification.

If you have received a letter from the County Auditor or the Secretary of State that indicates your ballot will not be mailed on time, please respond to the verification request as soon as possible. Additionally, I ask that you please take the time to reply here so that we can begin to assess the scope of this problem. One step you can take includes filing a report with the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington State by calling (206) 624-2180 during business hours.

Additional points of contact include:

Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed: (360) 902-4151 http://www.secstate.wa.gov/office/ Thurston County Auditor Kim Wyman: (360) 786-5408

The Olympian Reporters:

Rolf Boone 360-754-5403 rboone@theolympian.com

Venice Buhain 360-754-5445 vbuhain@theolympian.com

Matt Batcheldor 360-704-6869 mbatcheldor@theolympian.com

Brad Shannon 360-753-1688 bshannon@theolympian.com

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.