Healthcare vs. Healthcare

Our nation has had a breakthrough. We have passed healthcare reform. We now, legally, have the same options that we have had for years. Way to go congress! It is so uplifting you can give us so much, yet so little at all. However the discourse was eloquent. Absent any changes to the tax structure, it will also be more affordable. It is unclear how effective this first move will be, but it is in the right direction. In the meantime I continue to use soap.

citizen less than judge

Law is reason without logic


Examples of injustice will be featured here, but this blog is for you to point out the inconsistency of public policy and your life.







Judges, cops, IRS agents, etc, all have affected us and in light of the high level corporate crime we see today, it is hard to understand why they waste their time on us.







We are low hanging fruit. The real bastards make a lot more money than the average Joe Citizen.







But, Joe has fight and will take them on round by round. In the meantime, give him some power by sharing your struggle!



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Friday, March 12, 2010

Judges vs. Boobs: Round 2

Of course, the judges lost. But, what is even better, the taxpayers paid for half of it. Message: Be an elected official and we’ll pay half for your happy-ending!!! http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008898194_webmamiya.html

Be surprised that Mamiya is not only the presiding judge (and an elected judge) but also a different Seattle Municipal Court Judge than what Joe Citizen was fighting in Round 1. If you look at their election records, these unopposed judges have a challenger. If only an attorney who has passed the bar and has lived in Seattle more than 60 days would run against one or all of them!!!



NEWS FLASH:

The Mariners agreed to let a strip club be allowed kitty-corner from SAFECO stadium. The club will be subject to the same six-foot distance lap-dance requirements as with the rest of City code. However, if you are a judge, you likely will get off in the VIP room for 50% off, courtesy of the Seattle City Taxpayers.

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Thursday, March 11, 2010

Judges vs. The Law: Round 1

Washington State Supreme Court Justice Bobbe Bridge vs. Joe Citizen Both Arrested for DUI:



BASIC ARREST FACTS

Bridge: BAC .219 and .227

Citizen: BAC .19 and .209

Bridge: Arrested close to home

Citizen: Arrested close to home

Bridge: Also charged with hit and run

Citizen: No other charges

Bridge: First offense

Citizen: First offense



ARREST OUTCOMES

Bridge: Hard to say, police report heavily redacted - http://www.clr.org/wabridge22803dui.pdf



Citizen: Arrest report public record



Bridge: Escorted and dropped off at home by police, despite mandatory arrest and incarceration standards (same link as above)



Citizen: Escorted directly to jail



Bridge: Makes several undisclosed statements to officers (again same link)



Citizen: All statements public



Bridge: Gets highly publicized, but, closed court hearing by Seattle Municipal Court Judge Michael Hurtado, who also dismissed her hit and run charge



Citizen: Goes to public court four times between arraignment and pretrial because of missing files and lack of familiarity with his charges by both prosecutors and public defenders, finally enters a motion for deferred prosecution to avoid a trial that had ever-changing prosecutorial methods and a different public-defenders that hadn't read the case before he went to the hearing with you five minutes later.



Bridge: Immediately granted a deferred prosecution and enters a two-year intensive alcohol program, admitting her alcohol problem



Citizen: Eventually, after multiple continuations and missed days at work to attend hearings that never happen, is also granted the same deferred prosecution



THE AFTERMATH

Bridge: Makes several public statements and apologies decrying her own indescretion as if it were a one time event



Citizen: Despite how much he knows what he did was wrong, he is labeled an alcoholic and that his arrest was the inevitability of a condition he was born with, which will also restrict him from being functional if he does not accept treatment



Bridge: Continues her elected position as a Supreme Court Justice, even ruling on State case law affecting DUI, which ends up effecting Joe Citizen. She eventually retires with dignity and is applauded for her work for children and families, see below...



Citizen: Was underemployed at the time of arrest and has to declare his DUI arrest, despite its deferred status, on job applications. He has unsuccessfully been looking for work for the past two years and is making little more than minimum wage, but has healthcare benefits. He is struggling to support his wife and children, which is heavily complicated by the terms of his treatment plan which inflexibly interrupts both his work and family life several nights per week



Bridge: Is an honored speaker, paid to entertain and edify audiences with her anecdotes and life experiences, including lessons learned from her DUI

Citizen: Always has to explain his DUI to prospective employers, current employers to get the time off work to attend required classes, and is written off by most as an alcoholic with little to contribute to society.



Bridge: Has a children’s center named after her at the new Kent Regional Justice Center in recognition of her accolades as a judge



Citizen: Has the ability to drop his children off at Bobbe Bridge’s Children’s Center while attending hearings and probation appointments



CONCLUSION

Bridge: Made a mistake and is able to restore her name and reputation as a worthy contributor to society



Citizen: According to the courts; Is expected to get arrested again and go to inpatient treatment, and his disease will prevent him from having high concept decision making abilities for the rest of his life... HE WILL NEVER BECOME A SUPREME COURT JUSTICE



Sources regarding Bridge's arrest, including public record of her police report; legal postions before,during, and after her arrest; and, arrest outcomes:

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20030327&slug=bridgedui27m; http://www.seattlepi.com/jamieson/110792_robert03.shtml; http://www.dui1.com/DuiCaseLawStateWAPage2.htm; http://www.clr.org/wabridge22803dui.pdf

Posted by PaperStreet at 10:17 PM 0 comments

Google Public Policy Blog: Secretary Clinton to address Internet freedom

Google Public Policy Blog: Secretary Clinton to address Internet freedom

2009

One year ago, there was political nervousness of the highest order over the much-anticipated Iowa caucuses. Now, we are nervously anticipating a Black President.

Baseball season extended well past October '08, directly into a mindless Pepper game for the hottest bailout fatigued Senate seat in the country. There are 1.2 million concerns and geo-theatre warfare. Seconds until 2009 and the Clintons will help tick them away. Times Square seems weird this time.

BOOM! It is here in flailing glory. The worst year since 1931 is over. So we hope.

Election leftovers

After the last two Presidential Elections, this was relatively painless. As soon as the polls closed on the West Coast Obama was declared the victor. It wasn't even close. Obama's lead was too large to even consider challenging. McCain gave a great speech and sounded like his old self again. Palin took her family back home to Alaska and is undoubtedly reading books about the rest of the country in preparation for her pending candidacy for President in 2012.

Surely, the Apocalypse will then be upon us. In the meantime President-elect Obama has been preparing for his transition into the White House. No vacation with family just yet.

The battle for Congress the Democrats won out, but they also fell short of their iron-clad majority, including a filibuster-proof Senate. Minnesota is still undecided between Norm Coleman and Al Franken, but that would still leave the Senate Democrats short of 60 by 4 votes.

Washington State's election was also less protracted than four years ago. Gregoire made some big advances in King County (which was a surprise) and pulled off a victory. Had he won, Rossi probably would have been a rising star for the GOP. Especially since he was a challenger in a Democratic year. Lucky for us he's no Sarah Palin. Democrats are no doubt breathing easier now that Gregoire will be returned, it is still amazing that she was in this much trouble in the first place. Also surprising is the amount of incumbents returned to the legislature. They were mostly democrats to begin with, but few incumbents lost and one longtime democratic Senator, Marilyn Rasmussen, appears to have lost to her GOP challenger.

Other issues around the country were controversial. The ballot measures banning gay marriage all passed. Colorado wasn't really a surprise, but California banning gay marriage is a little surprising. California is home to the two largest gay population cities (San Francisco and Oakland) and is a supposedly "liberal" state. MSNBC found that minority communities are not accepting of gay marriage, especially the African-American community.

Rounding out the results of the ballot initiatives in Washington, Sound Transit passed, Eyman's transportation initiative failed, and physician assisted suicide passed.

A Black Man in a White House: President Elect Barack Hussein Obama

“We will, and always will be, the United States of America.”
-President Barack Obama

Sweet Jesus, he did it.

This moment is for my Father who grew up during Jim Crow; who ordered burgers out the back door of a restaurant; who entered Truman's newly desegregated U.S. Army and stayed there for 30 years. This is also for my Mother who is a Korean immigrant, who has not been back to her homeland since she left almost 30 years ago; who faced high odds and a rigid glass cieling in corporate America; who overcame a language barrier by listening to country music. For me, this moment is for my son who will live in a markedly different reality than his father and grandfather experienced.

Iraq

The Iraqi government has stated that it wants US troops out of Iraq after 2011.

That's all.

Can we get some of that money back now?

They don't want us there. The American people don't want to be there. The only person that wants to keep us in Iraq is John McCain.

Less than a week

There has so much to comment on recently it is hard to say where to begin. The Presidential race seems to have swung so far to Obama that Buchanan is already hyperbolizing President Obama's 1st 100 Days. The "global financial crisis" is still in full swing and the first *GULP* billions should be on its way out of the Treasury and to the banks. And for the first time since 1958 the Federal Funds Rate is 1%.

What is most interesting at this point is watching the GOP cannibalize itself as people begin abandon the sinking John McCain campaign. Even Sarah Palin, who seems to be drawing bigger crowds than the top of the ticket, has been positioning herself outside of the McCain camp, taken stands on issues that have not been on message. It seems that Sarah Palin's presidential ambitions are not going to wait until after the election, she is positioning herself to run for the GOP nomination in 2012 (yet another sign of the coming apocalypse?). The McCain camp has traded the "maverick" tag for "diva" and called her out in public on it.

The choice of Sarah Palin has undone the McCain campaign. Perhaps the oddball choice of Alaska governor wasn't as smart as initially thought. Tom Ridge would have made McCain far more competitive in Pennsylvania and actually give them a chance at winning.

Back home in the "other" Washington the Governor's race is especially close. Rossi has hit Gregoire on traffic, sex offenders, and now has an ad of her endorsing a state income tax. Stick a fork in her, she is done. Gregoire managed to get touched by all three of the third rails in WA politics. She has no response to any of it other than the comparison to the Bush administration.

We'll have to see. It's not helping Gregoire out much that I can tell. We'll have to see about Burner and the legislative races. Personally I do not believe that Obama's enthusiasm gets to the bottom of the ticket. Rejection of that kind of partisanship is part of the reason he has done so well and a big part of the appeal to the younger independent voters that he has drawn.

That One

“Mr. DuHaime rejected comments made last week by a Pennsylvania Democrat, Representative John P. Murtha, who told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, speaking of his home base, that ‘there is no question that Western Pennsylvania is a racist area.’

Mr. McCain referenced Mr. Murtha’s comments in his third stop of the day, at Robert Morris University here, when he said, ‘I think you may have noticed that Senator Obama’s supporters have been saying some pretty nasty things about Western Pennsylvania lately.’ As the crowd booed, Mr. McCain became tangled up in the rest of his remarks. ‘And you know, I couldn’t agree with them more,’ he said, to silence…”

-Elisabeth Bumiller & Jeff Zeleny; New York Times

Fourteen days ago Senator John McCain referred to Senator Barack Obama as “that one” in a debate in front of, at least, 90 million onlookers. The day prior to that, Senator McCain posed a simple question to a foaming crowd if we really know who the “real” Obama is. A worm in the crowd had an answer to that: a terrorist. The bellicose comment seemed to catch McCain briefly off-guard—that for a nanosecond he couldn’t believe what he has become: an angry threatened pol who will do anything to win. Joe Every-man is not on the good side of public perception. Death threats--Wallace, this rhetoric on both sides should end.

It is clear the McCain cadre gave the green light to race-bate this contest and caricature Mr. Obama as the mysterious otherman. This is the last resort, you see. Pat Buchanan volunteered his thoughts on the matter in saying, “he has to go there, or he will lose this election.” The spirit of Lee Atwater is alive and well in modern Republican politics.

The General Election has spiraled into the darkest of depths at similar speed to that of the stock market crash. Attitudes are vicious. There is now an element of hate and fear coming from Senator McCain's campaign that is careening out of control. The conservative intelligencia (Peggy Noonan; Bill Kristol; Christopher Buckley; George Will, and now, Colin Powell) have all rejected where McCain is going, in particular his nod to someone who equates seeing Russia from American soil to sound foreign policy experience. Senator McCain’s crowds have changed. They are not reflective or even remotely reminiscent of the bipartisan quasi-conservative lot that attended his primary experience.

What a difference a year makes.

Meanwhile, his opponent convenes an economic panel and a foreign policy panel to talk through the difficult issues we face.

The Day After

Wall Street is rebounding from yesterday's precipitous drop of 777 points. An terms of market capitalization As of this moment the Dow Jones Industrial Average is back up 342 points.

The plan that was turned down by Congress would have authorized the Secretary of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve to start buying up some the subprime securities and bad loans that are gumming up the books of financial institutions.

The House of Representatives failed the measure by a vote of 205-228 that would have authorized $700 billion to start buying back some of the bad loans and securities. Is this a Wall Street bailout or a Main Street? People on Wall St have been saying this is to save Main Street, and the people on Main Street just see where the money is going. The money is going to Wall Street firms and banks. The minority blamed the majority for being partisan when the bill did not pass.

And the market is up 376. Could Paulson and Bernanke being playing up the risks of inaction to cause panic? A day in the life of a stock trader must be very long indeed.

There is no doubt that having some benevolent entity take the bad loans off the books would help someone. Isn't that why pencils have erasers?

Taking it in the shorts

It's about time that this whole economic mess just played itself out. Another billion dollar bailout for irresponsible business practices. A loan, but still a bailout.

Just how big is too big to fail? How many companies are that crucial to our economy? How much money do we have to keep doing this?

There is a now a ban on the short selling of several financial stocks. For those unfamiliar with the concept of short selling it involves borrowing money on the margin and selling stocks with the anticipation that the price will drop. If executed properly the trader will buy the stock back after the price has dropped.

There is nothing particularly wrong with this. It is speculative, but then again it's the stock market. The problem arises when if the price of stock is manipulated by said regulation. Whenever a price is artificially high or low it will inevitably create problems and will eventually seek a new equilibrium.

We have essentially socialized the stock market. The largest capitalist institution in the world is now passing its risk on to the American taxpayer.

Poll Poll Poll

So there has been a shift recently, Rossi and McCain are both leading in the polls. Still within the margin of error but there has been a trend. McCain is getting a lot of attention for picking Palin and she does seem to be helping bolster his maverick reputation. She is already helping out in Michigan and other battlegrounds.

My feeling on Palin is that she won't last in the spotlight, she is a religious conservative and her stances on issues are not in touch with what most Americans believe. She is a pit bull with lipstick with a few good zingers. But her record is like an anchor. She has been repeating her "thanks-but-no-thanks" stance on the "bridge to nowhere" been taking travel per diem when she was not traveling and there are reports of her spending $10,000 of Alaska tax dollars to transport her family.

Rossi doesn't seem to have done anything to really deserve the lead, just more of the same coming out his campaign. Gregoire on the other hand can't seem to catch a break. The Huskies and Cougars are losing, supervision of dangerous criminals is lacking and they keep killing people. The budget shortfall must be hurting her too, especially with Rossi highlighting how much spending has increased under her term.

One more mess up by the state bureaucracy and she might as well start writing her concession speech. These races are going to be incredibly close. Get your popcorn ready.

The Million Person March

Senator Barack Obama understands the dynamic of innocuously operating as a black man in the mainstream-majority liberal-institution called the Media. The perceived lovefest between Obama and the media is largely a fact. Journalism's high core had made up its mind.

This appeal is, in part, perhaps borne from the legacy of the minority experience in a Pax Americana. Of finding place and character within seemingly hostile environs and pulling up fallen boot straps. The opportunity to spend formative years in the prestigious Punahou private school, Occidental, Columbia, and Harvard is notable indeed and not afforded by all; but the notion of maintaining assimilation is the dark shadow that is casted behind all persons of color. T.S Elliot couldn't have said it better: "Between the emotion and the response falls the shadow." (T.S. Elliot in The Hollow Men.)

Trying to win the alter of the President of the United States, or POTUS, as White House civil servants refer to the position, has never been like this before. Revolutionary situations are not suppose to make it this far. The gripping reality of true, fundamental, change makes people nervous...including the other POTUS contender.

Last Thursday night, Obama gave the speech of a lifetime. We heard a little bit of Iowa, a bit of 2004 DNC Covention Speech, and a little Chicago. The best part of the night was, of course, the Brooks and Dunn tune at high decibels as he exited the stage with a huge smile and a generous wave. Thats right...Brooks and Dunn.

Obama is a politician and inevitably, pragmatic tendencies can't help themselves. He's placated on a variety of deliberations concerning energy, economy, religion and war since the beginning of his campaign. He is able, though, to at least listen to other arguments and be willing to alter his instincts after an idea is learnt. That is, after all, at the core of politics itself. The only difference between this and flip-flopping is integrity. He has carefully proven the soundness of his bipartisan underpinnings. Part of this is a play for the independent-middle; part of this is legacy; but the majority of it, is him as he has always been. See here.

The 2008 Republican National Convention Pt. I

They looked like a collective mass of drooling banshees as they danced to Earth Wind & Fire. It was sad; it was a horrid scene of melting faces and bad dancers. This was the Republican National Convention. A party that dare not echo "4 more years" as they did in the serious summer of 2004. A scene that drew national anarchists and pseudo-military retaliation. A convention that was interrupted by the glaring reality that faces us: our warm earth.

I don’t make these judgment calls on the art of dance because of my clear partisanship, but because I can’t stand the Country First stiffness. As I looked at virtually every cable outlet and saw the beam of confusing rhetoric called the Republican National Convention coming from my TV, I got scared. I got scared because after all these mad years, this party has not taken steps to appear inclusive or unifying--especially against the backdrop of the first woman Republican VP candidate.

Say I was a swing-vote, unsure of where the winds would take me. Say I was an apolitical person and this was my first election I were to cast my power. Say I was a woman and a Clinton supporter who cared deeply about econo-security measures and the historical moment rife with gender identity. Would I want to hear the ever ironic "experience to hold the Oval Office" debate? (Most people running for the job for the first time don't have previous job experience doing the job.) Would I want to hear the insane argument that the Alaska energy paradigm equates to unilateral diplomacy with Russia? Would I be insulted that choosing an unknown woman would automatically garner my vote? If I was someone riding the fence, I would certainly hope the Palin move wasn't merely political.

Governor Sarah Palin is unequivocally impressive. Most were curious; others confused. “Who was she?” They thought. John McCain picked a nobody/somebody. In blackjack parlance, this was a necessary double down that needed to happen with stakes so high. But, oh..this convention is so confusing. We move from the red meat fodder from Fred Thompson (non-unifying) to Joe "Switchback" Lieberman and his mono-insistence that those slightly left of center should be--you guessed it--country first. And we end Wednesday with Gov. Palin serving attack after Republican attack on character and public service credentials of her opponents. I scratch my head and my ass, and I wonder, just who is this Convention is for?

Which Americans does she speak of?

Getting excited about Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin's teenage daughter Bristol is 5 months pregnant, aged 17 years and unmarried. A wedding is in the works. This makes me think that the Christian-right is going to have a difficult time getting excited about Sarah Palin. On the other hand, these kind of things do tend to happen and they are doing the "right" thing and getting married and keeping the baby.

There are rumors that it is not Bristol's first baby. Bristol was out of school for several months at the time of the birth of Trig, the infant son of Governor Palin. She was out of school for several months with mononucleosis, usually an ailment that only requires a week or two. A lot of the pictures of Governor Palin that don't show much of a baby bump. In other words, they are just rumors.

Hopefully this is the last nail in the coffin on the abstinence debate. Bristol is a good example of why abstinence is impractical and bad for kids. She is probably a wonderful young woman but she needs birth control and it's irresponsible of her parents to simply tell her that abstinence is all that you need. The question is, if she can't get the abstinence message through to her daughter how is it going to get through to the youth of the United States?

Sex (not gender) has been introduced to this campaign and the ironic thing is that Sarah Palin is an abstinence advocate. Sex. Sarah Palin. Abstinence? Seriously? The very idea of Sarah Palin advocating abstinence to in person to teenagers just makes me want to giggle. That would definitely a "Hot for Teacher" moment. And let's face it, if Sarah Palin is a superficial candidate. Her resume is so thin that it basically forces McCain to stop attacking Obama's experience, which is fine it doesn't seem to work anyway.

If McCain wasn't going to be the oldest President in history. She is a heart beat away, and the 72 years of beats on McCain's ticker really makes his VP candidate more important. We need a real leader not someone who was picked because she's the "hottest governor" and can fire up a little anti-abortion sentiment. Palin is going to be under a lot of scrutiny for the next two months, it will be interesting to see if anything turns up.

The High Watermark

One of my idols has always been Hunter S Thompson. To put it simply he had a way with language that made it jump. His words weren't written by some dead person or translated from another language. They were alive. Hunter's word's lept from his typewriter onto paper and made your brain dance with a tempo and pace that was as furious as the man himself.

It's quite difficult to look up to a man who committed suicide, you kind of have to look past a few things in order to have that kind of a hero. But Hunter would have known that. Hunter looked up to Hemingway, another famous American writer who committed suicide. There are some conspiracy theorists who think that Hunter did not commit suicide, but I cannot imagine that they would have let him go this long and nail him after his brief flirtations with fame. Maybe it's old payback. Maybe I'm next for even talking about it.

Most people know about "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" for it's ridiculous drug addled humor. But it's lesser known title is "The Death of the American Dream." "The Wave Speech" is where Hunter is talking about the end of the 60s, the end of the movement. When the 60s turned into the 70s and the counterculture morphed back into the establishment.

There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .

And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark — that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

It is sad that Hunter couldn't take any more of the Bush years. One can only suppose that after trying to show people the truth for years to see W Bush elected twice was a travesty. Utter disappointment in democracy is the only way to describe it. That is why I wish that he could have seen Obama's speech last night. We are building that sense again. The sense that we are winning. That we will be riding a wave that cannot be stopped.

Setting the Stage

The Democratic National Convention is moving today. It is moving to Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium. This was decided several months ago for Obama to give a speech in front of 70,000 people to end the convention.

The talking heads are asking if this is too lofty or unapproachable for the common voter to feel a connection. They must need to need something to talk about. Politics is about the extension of self into society and how we are able to change our environment.

Setting the stage will be several Greek columns. This is somehow elitist. It is no mistake that almost all of the buildings in DC have columns. The Greeks are credited with the world's first democracy in Athens. The Romans are credited with the establishment of the Republic and idea famously proposed by Plato in his work by the same title.

Efficacy is a word that has been used in a few of my previous posts. It's definition means a personal sense of effectiveness in controlling or making change. I think that is what the Democrats are shooting for. Recalling the roots of democracy and reclaiming the long lost sense of American efficacy. We may vote,but there is a sense among Americans that they do not control their political destiny. Although we claim democracy it is clear that the citizens do not rule. This is more like an oligarchy they way the choke points in Congress are controlled by seniority and chairmen who are heavily influenced by industry and interests.

Obama is fighting the tag that all Democrats have been fighting, arrogance and elitism. Greek columns are never thought of as "elitist" in other settings so it must be the messenger. It is worth noting that the speech is open to the general public. It won't be just for party delegates. Obama is not trying to make himself out to be a god, but he is making an appeal to our more noble instincts and civic duty. Politics can be a noble pursuit, that is what people want.

The speech still needs to be made before final judgment is passed. It is Obama's strength, if he rises to the occassion his speech could be one of the most important in American history. The first Presidential acceptance speech by an African-American needs an equally historic moment that closes a chapter of American history and shows that the future is a tabula rosa ready to be written by each of us.

Hillary's Big Night

Tonight is Hillary's big speech. Basically it is her time to throw her support behind Obama fully and recognize her shortcomings as a Presidential candidate.

Or not.

We'll see what she has in store for us tonight.

Odds and Sods

The Governor's race is tightening as the final ballots are being counted. Deja vu all over again. Rossi 46% Gregoire 48%. It's going to be getting even closer as the counting for the primary continues and count down to November begins.

Will the voters in the General Election be significantly different than the Primary voters? Usually the primary is a dry run for the get out the vote to test organizationWho was really trying to get their voters out?

Is this a democratic tide?

Doesn't seem like it. It doesn't seem as anti-incumbent as I would have guessed but it isn't 2006. McKenna is doing well in his statewide race. Sutherland is losing in the face of scandal and poor management, losing the election is the political trinity. And Darcy Burner can't seem to get over the hump. She has been campaigning for too long not to have made more of an impact in that district, but Reichert did catch the *ahem* Green River killer.

Here are some new items, youtube candidate questions answered by Rossi and Gregoire. Rossi's are way more slick, kind of an active background with the candidate positioned slightly right of center. The Governor's ad looks like it was shot in the laundry room in a dorm. Gregoire faces the camera with a background of Gregoire campaign signs, oh and Obama posters too. 2 signs for Obama and 2 for Gregoire.

http://www.youtube.com/user/YouChoose08

And check out the link to vote.wa.gov in the sidebar to keep up with the latest returns.

The Art of the No-Story Story

The Top 2 primary went off yesterday and produced few if any surprises. There will be a few legislative races that pit two members of the same party against each other. Hopefully a few of them get nasty and start airing some dirty laundry.

Gregoire seems to have won the plurality of votes cast, although she is hovering dangerously close to 50%. If I was Gregoire I would be worrying right now. Any type of slip up or major admission of error by the state between now and the election will cost her the race.

Secretary of State Sam Reed and McKenna in the Attorney General's race shows that these are almost lifelong offices and that there is not going to be a wave of anti-GOP resentment. Either that or no one really cares or knows about what it is that these offices really do. Reed is rock solid. McKenna is more than likely safe during the general unless Ladenburg really goes negative on him. Current results show Ladenburg narrowly losing to McKenna in Pierce County, probably more results to come in will trend to Ladenburg. They had to be hoping to win Pierce County.

Sutherland is caught in the middle of a scandal regarding a former female employee at the Dept. of Natural Resources. He's losing right now.

So there is nothing new or noteworthy. Campaigns that were supposed to be in trouble are and the races that were supposed to be competitive are.