Search Results for 'pR'

[AnneT]

I tore out my entire front yard, rototilled and raked it out all level. I plan to bring in 20 yards of topsoil to start a NEW grass.

I am hoping spring is only around the corner:) so I am needing to start my planning & budgeting

Since the soil is different here (at the junction) I am looking for advice

1) should I seed?

2) should I hydroseed?

3) or should I put down sod?

Any advise is mulch-appreciated:)

Anné

[Julie]

Ken, (looks like you had the same trouble with the “a” tag I did… I guess the syntax here is a little different–but it does list “a” under allowed markup. So I’m puzzled.)

Interesting link!

I welcome anyone from this unfortunate, courageous, and much appreciated committee you mention to go ahead and fix what needs fixing in my resolution at their leisure, to save time later. I purposely posted it on the MorePerfect wiki to give people the opportunity to go ahead and improve it. Not many have, and I’m very sure it could use improving.

It will be interesting to see how this new method of handling resolutions works. It does seem it might be more efficient.

[Ken]

Given the current last rung of medical testing before human trials, there is nothing wrong with using animals for medical testing and primates are the last line of defense between an amoral industry (big Pharma) and a now subverted FDA.

If we have another industry friendly administration, I suspect they will dispense with the monkeys and go straight to the homeless and prisoners.

But the article above just shows needless cruelty and abuse.

If you don’t care about the primates, note that such abuse and mistreatment can even alter the results of the testing if they were abused during last stage drug trials.

[Ken]

Comparing Obama to Bush seems a bit forced if not a rationalization for a choice already made.

“If conservatives were compassionate, they wouldn’t have to put the adjective in front of it.” – Wesley Clark

I knew Bush was lying the first time I heard that “compassionate conservative” line. His record of mismanagement, incompetence and down hard ignorance with a mean streak was legendary in Texas.

But it seems to have escaped the corporate media.

So we reached the “Mencken point”

–On July 26, 1920, HL Mencken wrote in The Evening Sun:

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

— H.L. Mencken(1880-1956)

Republicans and sometimes Conservative Democrats suffer from a condition that can only be described as empathy constriction.

Their empathy can only reach the end of their arms. So anyone they hug or shake hands with regularly can share in their empathy and be treated like another human. Everyone else is “the Other” and “The Stranger” or deamonized into “The Enemy”

Wars are seldom caused by spontaneous hatreds between people, for peoples in general are too ignorant of one another to have grievances and too indifferent to what goes on beyond their borders to plan conquests. They must be urged to the slaughter by politicians who know how to alarm them.”

— Henry Mencken

Notice how those who suffer from this condition change their views when confronted with what was only an issue for “other people”.

The Cheney’s don’t join in the gay bashing now that they have a daughter that is out.

Nancy Reagen was all for stem cell research when there was a chance it could have eased St Ronnie’s suffering. And a wingnut talk show host gets converted to “health care for all” by one painful and long visit to the emergency room.

My brother in Law is not quite as gung-ho as he used to be since his son watched the driver of his hummer killed by an rpg that went through my nephews open window.

Most of us developed empathy as children. In some Democrats I think it extends too far. I know one highly educated man who neglected his own children while traveling around the world building water systems, wells and hospitals as a member of half a dozen charitable organizations, some religious, some not.

Another feels livestock are worthy of the same protections as humans, ignoring the fact that they would not exist if they were not both tasty and edible.

And we now have a chance to start the recovery.

Either Hillary or Obama should probably be expected to do little harm to the constitution, though I think the scale tilts a little towards Obama as a constitutional scholar.

Hillary’s advisers and potential cabinet are a mixed bag. Wes Clark, Madeline Albright and Ambassador Holbrook are all smart and tough and though they have been through war, they will not use it as a substitute for buying resources on the world market. Terry McAuliff is a world class snake, known liar and completely owned by the corporate overlords especially the telco/ communication and media giants. Mark Penn and Chris LeHane are professional liars and PR flacks specializing in union busting.

Obama does not seem to have a specific group of associates waiting for patronage jobs that I can find. I can assume he has some good people as well as some of the ugly side of the direct mail industry in his campaign.

I don’t think he has been inside the beltway long enough to collect a large group of both saints and sinners that we can point to.

I will take either one. But I have to speak up when I see an unfair attack on either one, or both as it seems I have done in this forum.

[JoB]

I wrote my reply to my friend and clarified my thinking.. so here it is:)

My problem with the article is that beyond the assertion that Hillary is a hawk and surrounds herself with hawks… there is little there beyond the fact that the south might find Obama a less bitter pill to swallow.

Again, what bothers me is the unknown.

When Bush was campaigning, he said all the right things, but there in his history was what he did.. not what he said.

I think Obama has shown us the same thing in his history… what he does is not the same as what he says.

Hillary on the other hand does pretty much what she says…and owns up to what she calls hard decisions that don’t always please.

something about that attracts me.

I really can’t wait to hear other reactions to this. Let er rip:)

[Jeffro]

McCain was a fresh idea eight years ago. I did like the guy, but the fact that he held his tongue and supported Bush in ’04 was unforgivable to me.

“BIG” government is a smear and doesn’t mean anything. You (the candidate) need to tell me what areas of government you think are big and how you plan on going about shrinking them. For me, ending the war in Iraq would be a good start. I will allow for the possibility of government to step in where private enterprise has failed us, and big on that list is health care. Nothing’s free. We all know that. Part of the dishonesty with the Repub side is they cut taxes and then increase spending. A true conservative should balance the checkbook, something we haven’t seen since the Clinton years.

I personally see no difference between Hillary or McCain, and will not vote for either. I’d really like to see Obama get through, and failing that, I’d like to see Ron Paul go it alone.

[Ken]

I am still chewing but some of it sure taste “funny”.

There are other parties out there that haven’t received any press at all

Can you name some of those third parties? Google is little help today.

Wikipedia has the most complete info so go here for the overview.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_third_party_presidential_candidates,_2008

The communist party has not offered a candidate since 1988 google tells me and Brian Moore is again the candidate for the Socialist party USA (which I think only exist in California now)

The Constitution Party has a couple of unknowns and is trying to draft Ron Paul after he drops out of the Republican race (which I hope does not happen, RP could certainly liven up the usually boring, scripted convention)

The Green Party is trying to draft Ralph Nader.

Nuff Said.

The Libertarians have 9 candidates and they describe themselves in ways that cover every possible permutation from far left to bull goose looney.

They also are trying to draft Ron Paul.

Prohibition Party has some anti alcohol minister from some flyover state. As usual.

Independents. No party since they cannot agree on anything.

There are 26 of them running for president.

Good luck to them all.

One thing they all have in common?

They did not garner enough support to get on the ballot in Washington State.

Ok I chewed on that for a while and all I got was a vaguely bilious taste in my mouth.

Lets see what else you got.

Meanwhile I think it might be time to let liberals define liberalism.

---

I am a liberal. We live in a liberal democracy.

That’s what we created in this country. That’s in our Constitution. … I think we should be very clear on this. You know, this country was founded on the principals of the Enlightenment. It was the idea that people could talk, reason, have dialogue, discuss the issues. It wasn’t founded on the idea that someone would get stuck by a divine inspiration and know everything right from wrong. I mean, people who founded this country had religion, they had strong beliefs, but they believed in reason, in dialogue, in civil discourse. We can’t lose that in this country. We’ve got to get it back.

— Wes Clark – September 5, 2003

---

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label “Liberal?” If by “Liberal” they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer’s dollar, then … we are not that kind of “Liberal.” But if by a “Liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal,” then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal.”

— John F. Kennedy, September 14, 1960

---

Long ago, there was a noble word, LIBERAL, which derived from the word FREE [libre]. Now a strange thing happened to that word. A man named Hitler made it a term of abuse, a matter of suspicion, because those who were not with him were against him, and liberals had no use for Hitler. And then another man named McCarthy cast the same opprobrium on the word. Indeed, there was a time–a short but dismaying time–when many Americans began to distrust the word which derived from FREE. One thing we must all do. We must cherish and honor the word FREE or it will cease to apply to us….

— Eleanor Roosevelt

[Ken]

I an enjoying how much McCain is hated by the current Republican leadership, the pundits and free republic.

But that does not make him a “liberal”

Now days Goldwater and Eisenhower would both be considered too liberal today and hounded out of the party.

The Dems would take them.

McCain’s poor judgement was on display several months ago when he visited the Baghdad market.

My nephew was one of those several hundred troops in a cordon around him. There were 3 gunships directly above and a dozen more staged close by.

He still needed advanced ceramic armor just to walk a couple of blocks.

The next day many of those Iraqis shown on the news footage were dead or kidnapped and presumed dead.

He is a republican. His family are long time Republicans.

He may not vote for a Dem but he swears he will not vote for “that F—kin old fool”.

Pass the popcorn.

[Anonymous]

My boyfriend and I absolutely LOVE Lost!! That seems like a fun idea to get together, get some adult beverages, and watch the show. The problem, though is that we can’t watch it when it’s on because we don’t have the patience to wait for next week. What we do is, when it comes out on dvd, we take a weekend and watch the entire season. I think they just started season 4 and we just finished watching season 3, let me know if anyone gets together, Adam, maybe we could actually watch the show like normal people.

[Ken]

repost of text from a post the edit button ate.

---

This is a little confusing to me as well so bear with me.

In the past, the process was time consuming and sometimes acrimonious due to the loose conversational style of proposals some submitted and those who deal with precise or legal language trying to amend them into usable shape right in the precinct caucus.

Further adding to the confusion, were submittals of hundreds of proposals/resolutions that varied only slightly from each other. The district caucus ended up handing out colored stick on dots (I forget the number but it was more than ten) to each credentialed delegate, and posting each proposal all the way around the gym at West Seattle High. Each delegate then walked around the gym and put a “dot” on each proposal they agreed with.

While this might be democratic, it ain’t efficient and many people left the meeting in search of food before it was complete.

This year proposals will be accepted at the precinct caucus with no discussion. The will be returned to the area caucus coordinator who will forward them to the county chair to be condensed and codified by a committee into legal, precise, and hopefully coherent proposals.

Example proposals are not that easy to find but

here is one google located that shows the original language with strike throughs for deleted and amended language.

If you want to use a basic format from the past (English common law I believe)

Stating the reasons for the proposal/resolution in a series of sentences beginning with the word “Whereas” and then summarize the proposal/ resolution with a sentence or two that start with “Be it Resolved” of something similar.

[Julie]

acemotel, I don’t think you should hesitate to keep asking questions!

On the 34th District Democrats page,

http://www.34dems.org/news_caucus.htm

there is a “script for the precinct caucus chair”. (in .doc format). If you read through that, it will give you a better idea of how the caucus goes.

An excerpt from the script states: “After each group has elected its delegates and alternates, we will fill in some paperwork. People will have an opportunity to introduce resolutions which will be forwarded to the County Convention.

We will not debate and we will not vote on these resolutions today.

We will then adjourn.”

[Bernicki]

I’m in there, like, once a week to see what’s new. I’ve found some amazing things in there, and the prices are right.

[WSMom]

Oh my gosh! We LOVE LOST in our family. WHAT THE HECK?! is right!! I’m going to watch it again today because we missed some of it getting home late from a basketball game. Let me know if you find a LOST group as we’d love to meet up occasionally (we’re a family of 5 so probably not the demographic you’re thinking of).

[acemotel]

I don’t mean to belabor the point, but I haven’t been to a precinct caucus, so a followup question: is there a time during the caucus when resolutions are called for, or does one need to force the issue?

[JoB]

house..your assertion that McCain is liberal depends upon your definition of liberal i think:) Campaign finance reform following nearly getting your hand caught in the Keating cookie jar doesn’t exactly qualify one as a liberal.

and your assertion that democrats equal big government is also dependent upon definition. If you equate big government with big social programs, you might be right. But if you equate big government with huge tax relief and subsidies for private businesses you might be wrong.

the assertion that every new president equals change is also dependent upon definition. If your definition includes the words “in policy”, then a new president does not necessarily mean change.

As for why the alternate parties aren’t getting much attention this year… i think the last two elections are a good indicator of that. Alternates pulled enough “liberal” vote to lose an election for the democrats. Not a good idea this time:)

You do make some good points though and they sound like the basis for an interesting conversation.

I agree that all of the candidates sound as though they are speaking to second graders… and that is due to our sound bite driven press.

None of the candidates will quickly forget the press’s reaction to Kerry’s attempt at articulate answers in the last election. His front porch talks were actually quite thought provoking, but his press coverage was anything but.

America elected the candidate they would most like to have a beer with because that’s what the second graders led them to believe was important. A major award winning newspaper actually endorsed Bush for his second term because he was likable and they loved his campaign promises… in spite of acknowledging that he hadn’t fulfilled any of them in his first term. And this was on their editorial page. Amazing.

i think there are plenty of republicans as well as democrats who aren’t too happy with the directions our nation has taken. And i don’t think most of us believe that any of the presidential candidates now offered are the ideal solution. But you have to work with what you’ve got.

I just think it is time that American citizens became a larger part of the conversation than American business… and i hope it’s time for Americans to think for themselves and not just take the information offered by an increasingly sensationalized press as the final word.

Personally i don’t think your political affiliation is nearly as important as how you feel about issues that will affect all of us. When it comes to the real issues, rhetoric aside, most of us are more alike than different.

I am a conservative… a true conservative… a conservative democrat. imagine that:)

[Ken]

Also note, one way to get to the county convention to advocate your proposal, is to get yourself elected as a delegate at the precinct level and again at the district.

So get to work :)

[JimmyG]

No big deal to me if you believe me or not.

Do a search on traffic circles in the Seattle Times “bumper to bumper” column and you’ll find the head of SDOT quoted as saying that is how they interpret the rule on lefts.

But a roundabout and a traffic circle aren’t the same, they exist for completely different reasons and serve different purposes.

[Julie]

Ken, you’re right; we have to start with local & county. I suspect that once enough voters in enough counties have experienced it, there will then be a push for state.

You’ll notice my resolution is backing IRV for state and local elections, for that reason.

And yes, I’m sure it will be a fight. Changing the status quo takes a long time and a lot of persistence. But we have to start somewhere, and I think the caucuses are one place to start.

acemotel, in the past, resolutions have been voted on at precinct caucuses. Those with enough support were forwarded to the next level. This year, I gather, there will not be time to debate resolutions at the precinct level, so all resolutions will be forwarded to the county convention for debate. But I’d like to get this introduced in as many precincts as possible; get it on more people’s radar, and it will likely be taken more seriously at the next level.

[Sue]

Jimmy, in my travels roundabouts and traffic circles are considered the same – if that’s not the case in Seattle, it’s news to me.

I’ve emailed SDOT to verify this rule about the left turns in traffic circles and will follow up here when I hear some definitive info. Unless you have some citation somewhere that I can look at that actually says that. I’m not accusing you of lying, but forgive me if I don’t base my traffic law compliance on a comment on a blog forum without some proof. :)

[TheHouse]

Just throwing some topics out there to chew on:

1) Funny how everyone here plays into the two main political parties strategy of making people believe that you should only have two choices for President (Democrats and Republicans). There are other parties out there that haven’t received any press at all….Does Hillary really represent you and make you life better (no way in hell for me)? Does John McCain truly represent everything that you believe in (no way in hell for me)? Why can’t we get the other political parties (mainly Libertarian and Green) to gain momentum when people are so discouraged with the status quo?

2) Why would you ever want to vote for a political party that is without doubt going to increase “BIG” government (yes, I’m picking on Democrats). Do you really feel that you and all other individuals cannot think for themselves? When I hear Clinton and Obama speak, it’s as if they are playing to a crowd of second graders. If I were a true Democrat (which I am not), I would be offended with the way that this party continually rants “I represent change”. There will be change regardless of who is in office….that goes without saying.

PS….If you’re truly liberal you should vote for McCain. He’s a better ally than Hillary or Obama. If you’re not up to speed on how he destroyed campaign reform, Google it.

[JimmyG]

Sue, you’re confusing a roundabout with a traffic circle, they are two completely different animals.

A traffic circle’s sole reason for being is to slow traffic, a roundabout’s purpose is to move cars more quickly than a 4-way stop with less guesswork for drivers.

Seattle DOT views an intersection with a traffic circle as an uncontrolled intersection and a “short” left may be made when it’s safe and practical to do so.

[acemotel]

is it possible to introduce resolutions at the precinct caucuses? How would that work?

[Ken]

I don’t have a problem with IRV for local and maybe state elections.

But until the constitution is changed to include a parliamentary system (invented after our constitution was ratified) I don’t think it would work out for congressional, or executive races. And we dare not allow a constitutional convention or anything like it as long a PR firms can manipulate large chunks of the electorate.

No matter what I think, the way to go about it is to concentrate on local and county positions first, then state level.

This is one of those projects which will have to ease into the collective political will over several years since it is easy to dismiss as radical by those who are unfamiliar with the theory.

It does change the status quo, so expect a fight.

But eventually, if we are successful getting corporate money out of elections, IRV will probably contribute to bringing more people back into the system.

[Ken]

hehe ok sounds good. and yes, I hung out with the transmitter guys.

The BBPress info is pretty much what I was hoping for. I can figure the rest out from there.

BBpress is pretty simple as plugins go.

[WSB]

Hi, I’m your friendly webmaster (she, not he; my husband focuses primarily on business development) and I don’t have much of a clue what Ken is talking about either. We are content people, not technical people, or else this site would be brimming with a lot more widgets, geegaws, code, and technical razzledazzle than it does; this forum exists as an install of bbPress, and is here via the good graces of our pro-bono technical consultant Stuart Maxwell, melded to some degree with the database for the rest of the blog, which runs on WordPress, and I haven’t changed anything about how it works or doesn’t work. I do suggest you e-mail me personally if you have a question or concern and I will figure out how to investigate it; I know just enough to be dangerous but writing, reporting, editing, photographing, and processing the content for the main site takes so many hours per day, I don’t have a lot left over for technical tweakage. Kind of like my years in TV – I couldn’t fix a transmitter but by gosh, I could write copy and order crews around. editor@westseattleblog.com