Washblog

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[Front paged: NM. Editorial comment: 1.) See Jason Osgood's 5/12/07 story specifically congratulating Councilmember Constantine for protecting our secret ballot: KING COUNTY PROTECTS OUR SECRET BALLOT. 2.) Councilmember Constantine knows that King County Elections has not used unique identifiers on ballots. Having been told, erroneously, by the King County Director of Elections that Jason Osgood was misinforming people that King County had used these unique identifiers, I understand why he recommended against contributing to Osgood's cammpaign. Therefore, I don't agree with the characterization of his comments that appears here as "trashing" the candidate. It is unfortunate, to say the least, that Sherril Huff appears to have not verified the information in her email before she sent it out and that, therefore, she spread misinformation that makes it more difficult for voters to make an informed choice in this election. I'm front-paging this story despite my disagreement with the author's characterization of Councilmember Constantine's comments, as it is reporting important information.]

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Wednesday night I attended the regular membership meeting of the 34th District Democrats.  Part of the night's agenda included approval of proposals to donate money to Democratic candidates for statewide office.

Following decisions to make donations to Christine Gregoire, Jim McIntire, Peter Goldmark and John Ladenberg, I stood and introduced a motion to contribute to Democratic Secretary of State candidate Jason Osgood.  I expected little or no opposition, as Osgood enjoys the strong support of a large number of 34th LD activists. However, to my surprise, King County Council Member Dow Constantine stood to speak in opposition.  Constantine was clearly upset with Osgood, and proceeded to trash him before the group.  His anger was focused on public statements he claimed Osgood has recently been making to the effect that King County uses bar-codes on ballots which allow votes to be tracked back to voters.  King County uses no such system - and therefore Constantine was upset that County officials have allegedly been forced to deal with confused, angry and misinformed citizens. Following his talk the motion to contribute to Osgood (who was endorsed by the 34th last month) was easily defeated.

Many Democrats in the room were shocked that the Osgood campaign would spread such false information and agreed with Constantine's assertion that the group should postpone any contribution until the candidate "gets his act straight."

This would all be perfectly sensible, except for the fact that Constantine's accusations were entirely false and that Jason Osgood has never said any of the things about King County ballots that he was accused of saying.  In fact, Osgood has consistently and publicly said the exact opposite - that King County does not use bar-codes and that this is a good thing.

So where did Councilmember Constantine come by this false and defamatory information about a Democratic candidate for statewide office?  Well, that's where it gets interesting.

[Front paged: NM]

Last Friday Norn Dicks, Brian Baird and Adam Smith betrayed the people of America and voted with the Republican Party to hand George Bush a major victory in his project to eviscerate the Constitution and establish a regime of unchecked executive power.  The so-called "compromise" FISA bill ended any hope of accountability for our runaway President or the telecommunication companies who criminally conspired to violate our rights and invade our lives.

Fine.  No surprise there with these guys.

What is a surprise is the unbelievable dishonesty all three Congressmen are employing to rationalize their shameful cave-in.  Statements released over the weekend by the offices of all three include strikingly similar language that can only be described as bald-faced lies.  It's one thing to vote for crappy public policy.  It's quite another to lie to our faces about it.

Attorney and progressive activist Paul Richmond offers a great alternative to Democratic voters in the 6th Congressional district who may have had enough of Norm Dicks.

www.richmond4congress.com

It's refreshing to hear another Washington Democrat call for and to funding the war. Here's the latest release from the Richmond campaign:

[Update, N.M. 7/31/07: This March, 2007 Vanity Fair article: Washington's $8 Billion Shadow, is all about Gael Tarleton's former employer and big donor, SAIC. This looks like a pretty creepy company.]

From The Port Observer:

http://www.portobserver.com/26.html

Gael Tarleton and SAIC – An Overview
By Jeff Upthegrove

Port of Seattle Commission candidate Gail Tarleton says she wants to restore accountability and transparency to the Port.  But Tarleton’s own involvement with a ports contractor raises troubling questions about her own ties to special interests.