The re-canvassing problem

Most might consider me to be slightly behind the times by posting this. I'm still fed up, you see, with the decision to change election policy by the courts. I have hemmed and hawed because I didn't know state law as well as I wished. However that is finally over thanks to Bob Williams of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation! His excellent December 22 commentary is spot on in covering what is sticking in my craw. Read it and thank God we still have people like Mr. Williams to inform us.

Is anyone else out there afraid of sounding like a whining Democrat? I sometimes wonder that we could have been so willing to fight by their rules when they and the ridiculous Sec. of State, Sam Reed, succeeded in playing the grinch in the court. This is why I am so happy that Rossi deflated it all by shifting to challenging the election as a whole. This should and will be done if we can awaken this state properly.

Start buying those orange ribbons and let's really "canvass" this state.

Agent Orange

Is Washington really a "blue" state? There's no cut an dry answer to be sure.

However...

If it isn't blue, you might try orange. If you are wondering why that sounds so familiar, it's because the noble Ukrainian freedom fighters had orange as their color all along in the heat of the election mess over there. So people here in Washington have decided that we need to adopt orange as our theme color in calling for a revote. I have liked the idea of a revote since it was brought up before the 3rd count.

BTW, read all about the latest ripples at soundpolitics.com They are the premier conservative Seattle blog.

Good decisions

This is good move by Rossi--finally calling for a revote. He needs some media guns though to get the problems out in the open. There are damning reports of fraud which, if looked into and reported (not likely) would probably have everyone seething.

***

December 29, 2004

Attorney General Christine Gregoire
1125 Washington Street
Olympia, WA 98504

Dear Attorney General Gregoire:

The Secretary of State will certify you as governor-elect tomorrow. Although you will be certified, with all the problems that have plagued this process there won't be many people in our state who believe with certainty that you actually won the election. The uncertainty surrounding this election process isn't just bad for you and me - it is bad for the entire state. People need to know for sure that the next
governor actually won the election.

We've now had three counts - I was certified the victor after Counts 1 and 2, and you will be certified tomorrow as the victor of Count 3. Throughout the entire process, King County Elections staff changed the rules about which ballots would count and, at the end, the Supreme Court also changed the rules. As it now stands, some people in King County had the rules changed so their votes could count, while other wrongfully disenfranchised people across the state - including many members of our military - have been denied the opportunity to have their votes counted.

Additionally, I don't believe you'll find many people in this state who think the hand recount was more accurate than the first two counts. Even some Democratic elections officials have said hand counts are less accurate. So we're now in a situation where nobody really knows who won this election.

Our next governor should enter office without any doubt about the legitimacy of his or her office. The people of Washington deserve to know that their governor was elected fair and square. Unfortunately, the events of the past few weeks now make it impossible for you or me to take office on January 12 without being shrouded in suspicion.

The law allows me to contest the election. An election contest would bring every questioned aspect of this election before the Legislature or a court for review. It would take many weeks, perhaps months, to complete. At the end, even if the results were to change back in my favor, the state would have suffered from the long, drawn-out process.

For several weeks, former Secretary of State Ralph Munro has argued that this election will never be seen as legitimate and that the best option is to put it back into the hands of the voters for a revote. If our roles were reversed, if you had won twice and I had only won in the less-accurate hand recount, I would support a revote. I would not want to enter office with so many people viewing my governorship as illegitimate.

The only good answer is for the people to decide, once and for all, who is the next governor. A revote would be the best solution for the people of our state, and would give us a legitimate governorship. If you and I were to join together and ask the Legislature to pass a bill calling for a special election, the bill would pass quickly, as soon as the 2005 session begins. The revote could be held as soon as possible.

I hope you will agree that a revote makes the most sense to build back people's trust in our election process, and I look forward to your response.

Best regards,
Dino Rossi

Recounting the options

I'm a just a little sickened.

No, I'm not referring to the fact that Gregoire has apparently won in the third "count" of ballots. No, I'm not referring to the snickering from King County. No, I'm not referring to the pathetic Democratic mantra's regarding counting every vote. I'm not even referring to madam ridiculous's quote after she deciding that we finally have an accurate count: "The election process is working exactly as it should." (see AP story)

Wow. God help us if this is the way the election process is supposed to work! How thrilling.

No, my reason for being a little sickened is the way the rules were changed along the way. The State Supreme Court decision to include 700 extra ballots from who knows where, is just the culmination of the matter. The reason the Republican don't have the nerve to take on that decision is because it would not win them the election--you see King County is hardly the only Democratic leaning county to find all sorts of new votes. While the focus may have been on King's infamous blunderings about for new votes, there were plenty of other counties with the same idea--and less attention from the media.

So the Republicans have instead embraced the court ruling and decided to abide by it:

"The Supreme Court just changed the rules," State GOP Chairman Chris Vance said. "Now we will aggressively fight by those new rules." (AP) This translates into a new effort to find all the excluded Republican ballots and fight for their equal inclusion. True, this might work but it is still a sad state of affairs when the Republicans start thinking short-term. Vance should have been much more on the ball all over the state. He could have nailed these people to the wall on every election board decision to include extras. If he had done so, and the State had ruled against him, then an appeal to the US Supreme Court would have sealed the deal. They already established precedent in 2000: no rule changes during the election!

*sputter*

How exasperating can one thing get? All the media coverage has been on Gregoire: "Should Rossi concede? Do you believe this is a conclusive victory? blah blah..."

The most anyone asked Rossi when he was governor elect was "how are you feeling?"

Kyoto: global socialism

It's official--or something like that, "official" being a relative term limited to only those esteemed experts from Greenpeace et al:

The Kyoto protocol won't help solve "global warming." Ok, thanks for coming to that conclusion. Don't get all excited though. Conceding this point was just a means of shifting the effort into a higher gear. It will take us all moving into some kind of bomb shelter and subsisting off of [organic] soybeans and rice to lower the temperature at the north pole to something colder.

Then we will get our white Christmas, you see, and Santa won't have to put up bug screens and wear sun-block.

Bottomless Bucket of Ballots

If the power of precedent comes anywhere near this lonely oasis we call Western Washington, then God help us all! Have you ever seen anything so sickening as this absurd game the election officials are playing in King County? Every day (literally) they "find" more unsecured, uncounted ballots! You tell me which is worse: the clumsy theory or the corruption theory? There are just no other options and both options should be driving every sane citizen to one slogan: DON'T CHANGE THE RULES!

It's time to unleash the power of the blogosphere! The last couple days have brought some good denunciations of the shenanigans from out-of-state blogs. How much more should the Washington blogs be pounding the King election [oaf]ficial's antics.

I know I keep referring to election officials as the problem, while most partisan GOPers are taking aim at the Gregoire Grinches and Democrats. I do this because we all expected the dems to display this level of childishness--we've seen it before, so why should anyone be surprised. The problem is the people who let them get away with it. Yes, and sometimes they are one and the same!

The latest analysis and news

Professor Stephen Bainbridge from UCLA wrote a stinging piece today in response to the continual stream of uncounted ballots--or what, maybe the bottomless bucket of ballots (sorry, I'm on a massive alliteration high--I've got more). Considering that this is a man who has probably seen it all and he sees a problem here, yeah, I think we have a problem!

In the MSM:

The Washington Post noted the seriousness of the original "findings" of 561 uncounted absentees.

The hand count, which has been going on for a week, had slightly widened Rossi's lead until Monday, when the elections director in King County, which includes Seattle and is the state's largest county, discovered a potentially election-swinging foul-up.

Because of a data entry error, the official said, 561 absentee ballots had not been counted. If those votes swing for Gregoire at the same 58-40 rate as the rest of the votes in the strongly Democratic county did, Monday's find could give her as many as 101 new votes -- a relative landslide, given the closeness of the race.

The AP today told the story of the newer set of uncounted ballots. Total: 723.

And finally, there is the not so clear coverage by the two leading newspapers from--you guessed it--Seattle in King County (keeping that connection firmly in our head).

The Seattle PI is portraying State Republican Party Chairman, Chris Vance in a pretty negative light in this news piece. Either Vance is not focusing the rule-changing aspect as he should, or the only statements the press is reporting are his allegations of suspicious circumstances. Even though these allegation are not far-fetched at all, I think Vance should be focusing on the basic principle: don't make rules as you go; don't change the rules as you go.

The Seattle Times reports in detail about the new 150 ballots:

While observers from three political parties and a phalanx of television camera crews watched, election workers opened a locked cage in a warehouse and pulled out a cart containing trays of rejected absentee ballots.

Within minutes they found 150 of the ballots they were looking for in sealed envelopes in a tray with other rejected ballots. They were placed in a box, sealed, and taken to the King County Administration Building.

Back to the blogosphere in conclusion

Captain's Quarters (dot com) did a good piece today which also covers the new call for a REVOTE! Yes, this is an idea which is appealing to many conservatives because they don't see any result from the current trend of counting to be considered valid enough to produce a legitimate winner.

*sigh*

I'll have to give that some thought. I'm far from repulsed by the idea. Perhaps there's something to it.

Anti-spew

I'm glad major columnists are taking on the ridiculous amounts of negative Iraq coverage being spewed everywhere but in Iraq itself.

Both of these townhall.com contributors have written useful and informative pieces lately.

• First there's Kathleen Parker and her piece on my favorite Iraqi bloggers/party leaders. They just paid a visit to America apparently and even got to meet dubya.
• Then there is the happy little piece by Jeff Jacoby on Iraqis who were offered opportunity to voice whatever they wanted on cameras passed without supervision from person to person. The resulting footage was put into a stunning documentary of sorts called "Voices of Iraq." I am going to see what it takes to see this 80 minute video.

Take some time to read and pass these articles on. They're simple and compelling.

Something to make us famous

There's a happy little event going on in France. It's all about a new bridge you see. Maybe they are finally tired of the Eiffel Tower...or is that just wishful thinking? No matter. To be quite honest, it is a pretty little bridge. Ok, perhaps not so little considering it is the tallest ever built. (See Reuters piece)

"The Millau Viaduct is a magnificent example, in the long and great French tradition, of audacious works of art, a tradition begun at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries by the great Gustave Eiffel," French President Jacques Chirac told a reception.

The irony of Chirac's comment is that the architect is the famous Englishman Norman Foster! I think Chirac should have saved that comment for the ribbon cutting for the up and coming Paris White Flag Hall of Fame (WFHF).

Improper expectations

Here's a good article for reference. It's on the president and the way he approaches social policy issues.

I might add...

The last century defined two main category issues that are affected by government. They are social/domestic issues (any internal matters; think abortion, education, marriage, budget etc.) and foreign/international policy (self explanatory). In reality, the president has more power than the constitution originally seemed to imply--especially in the foreign policy sphere. Its language makes congress the key player in general. However, having what we have, (a more powerful executive), it should be noted that his power does not extend so much into the social sphere as much as some think.

Of the two areas I mentioned, it is on the social side where congress still retains more power. Therefore I agree with the article that many (but not all) evangelicals will be disappointed in the president by the end of 2005. They will clamor that Bush hasn't exercised the "mandate" they personally handed to him in the election. It is really too bad that they expect so much of any president. He does not have the power that many think, nor should he. He is wise in exercising restraint. True, this does not mean he should pass up clear opportunities to make progress, but there is a proper time for everything and he seems to know it.

Rumsfeld in a spot

It was interesting to read up on the breaking story about Donald Rumsfeld's grilling by soldiers in a public setting. The AP article on the incident was pretty detailed and I have to tip my hat to the Associated Press for that. However I don't think the article was fair to Rumsfeld. Some of the most important facts that provided the best kind of context to this puzzling case about humvees and their armor, were only included at the very end of the article.

There are few people as maligned as this man at the top of the Defense department. In all of my collegiate experience, I have never really heard any admiration directed toward him. Even when compared to others in the Bush administration, he seems invariably to be considered public enemy number one. Even compared to Cheney who must, in my estimation, run a close second.

Rumsfeld has one of the most impressive resumes in the world. Impressive that is, if you are able to find a biography that isn't loaded down with out of context quotes and facts and unsubstantiated speculation. It's amazing what they will write about him. This is a guy who was has the honor of being the youngest and oldest serving Defense secretary. He was awarded the highest civilian award from the government, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His political career is virtually spotless and that after over 50 years! He was one of the first lawmakers to support the civil rights movement. He served in a dizzying array of jobs and positions in the government, military and business sectors. He is incredibly intelligent with a rare sense of humor and profound leadership and managerial skills.

The most profound and unique items in his life's story are often construed in some odd-ball fashion to make it somehow appear suspicious.

When the pentagon was hit on September 11th, in the rush of humanity to help evacuate the hit area, he was overlooked until someone finally noticed that he was right there among the workers evacuating helping in the rescue effort. Such heroics are often sidelined though. This story is not included in government sources that he would have control over, and some others who actually mention the incident accuse him of playing the hero just to win loyalty among subordinates. Yeah, can you tell that some people are just a little delusional in their attacks on "Rummy?" Discounting the ridiculous speculation over motives, since when was it a crime to win loyalty when you are trying to reorganize one of the biggest bureaucracies in the world?

Accident prone elites

In my mind and the minds of the people I work with, this is a magical, mystical kingdom -- our version of Camelot. And we feel we are working at a kind of roundtable of King Arthur proportions. Now, it may be that this kingdom exists only in our minds. But that makes it no less real for those of us who live it every day.

Think you can guess who said this and what it was referencing? No, I don't think you can unless you have already read the article at this link.

It's the formerly so mighty Dan Rather about a year ago. Someone tell me whether I'm supposed to laugh or cry. For all the denials of media elitism, Rather certainly let it out of the bag with that statement. Even if the whole document fiasco didn't happen, one would think that Rather's days would have been numbered much earlier.

How on earth can a journalist think of himself and the news corporation that employs him in such terms?

I guess it wouldn't hurt anything to just laugh. He seems to be someone who is totally accident prone and it's pretty entertaining to follow. I mean how else do you explain his dogged defense of the Bush memos? Accident prone...or perhaps "poor judgment" prone.

Is there a good acronym for CBS if the "C" stands for Camelot?

Federalism for Iraq

If I could vote in Iraq, I know what my party would be: The Iraqi Pro-Democracy Party. I first read about the founders when I found their blog out of the blue earlier this year. I was hooked from the start. Since then, they keep showing up in the news because they have started their own party. Apparently they are a trio of brothers.

So what kind of policies do they support? Are they naïve and ignorant about what democracy needs to really work? Do they think that pure democracy is the answer? I finally went back to the party website and read up on their policies. There was one policy heading which caught my eye more than any other: FEDERALISM!!!!

Talk about chills running down my spine. Sure enough, they support a unified federalist government. If you don’t know what that means let me just point you to the federalist papers written so many years ago by Madison and Hamilton! This is the stuff the United States was made of, and these Iraqis know US history. They seem to be able to put it into the real context of what Iraq is today as well. Here’s their excerpt on federalism:

Federalism

The governorates of Iraq have suffered a lot of oppression and neglect at the hands of the successive central governments which lead to the loss of trust between Iraqis living in the governorates and any central government, and also led to a mass immigration from different governorates to Baghdad. Thus we see that federalism is the best solution to Iraq and that this should be based on geographical basis. A united federal Iraq will serve both the governorates as well as Baghdad and will strengthen Iraq's unity instead of weakening it.

You know, it’s been said that the US Democratic Party (the losers…just thought I’d remind everyone) has finally rediscovered the beauty of federalism. In fact, that’s probably the reason they have not all moved to Canada. Each state is sovereign—each governs as it sees fit under (hopefully) minimal national guidelines (ok, laws) like the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Federalism... How many people over here even know what that means anymore?

irrelevant in Bellingham

This could be the most irrelevant blog on the face of the earth at as I write, but the fact is, I'm ready to start making something of my experience here at Western Washington University. It’s time to follow the white rabbit.

It's a fact of life in the US that university faculty tend to be way more liberal than their students. It holds true for me and many of my friends, so why not let them know. Why should we be the ones to just let things slide. They can say what they want, but sooner or later, people like me are going to say something back.

This is just a step in that direction. I know, up to this point, it sounds like I have it in for professors. I don't. In fact, I tend to be too laid-back in my classes. I say what I think many times but that doesn't mean I say the important things that I think. I just happen to feel more comfortable writing it instead of speaking it. I plan on getting a group together for this end--a group of conservative writers. A watchdog group if you will. My first quarter here is about over and I'm ready to do a little asking around.

About the writers

This page is down (abbreviated) for now...

Caleb
Alumni - Journalism

Katherine (Kat)
Alumna - Music Education

Mark
Alumni- Journalism

Joel
Alumni - Economics