GREENLIGHT
Newsletter of the Green Party of San Juan County, Washington (
Editor: Tom Odegard ( )
No. 72, October 2006PO Box 2562, Friday Harbor WA 98250
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Monthly Green Party Meeting Saturday, October 14, 12:00 noon at Skagit Valley College
Facilitator: Tim White
Agenda:
Approval of Sept. meeting minutes
Treasurers report
Report on Aaron Dixon visit and planning for SJC campaign.
Ballot Tracker/Vote scam report and planning.
Reporton Anti-Displacement Project.
Analysis of primary election.
Finalize and approve platform.
State GREENS Bioregional Conference.
State Convention including transportation options.
Begin ongoing discussion of initiatives and referenda in SJC.
No on Initiative 933
Other Matters
Adjourn
Iraq Withdrawal Resolution Successful
Final Results from the September 19 election YES: 3,126 59.14%
NO: 2,160 40.86%
As a result of this vote the County Council sent the following letter:
[County Council letterhead]
October 3, 2006
The Honorable George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President,
After much discussion some months ago, our San Juan County Council voted to adopt Resolution 22- 2006 concerning Iraq which authorized placing an Advisory Ballot before the citizens of this county.
The Advisory Ballot Measure appeared in our Primary Election held on September 19, 2006, and it was passed by an overwhelming majority of the voters.
The result of this vote authorized the Council to adopt a new resolution which requests transmitting to you the following:
"We request that the President and Congress immediately begin a rapid, orderly, and humane withdrawal of all U.S. military personnel and equipment from Iraq, commencing no later than January 1, 2007; and that the U.S. provide financial and humanitarian aid to the Iraqi people."
We respectfully urge you, Mr. President, to help implement this Resolution of the people of San Juan County.
Very Sincerely,
COUNTY COUNCIL
SAN JUAN COUNTY, WASHINGTON
Alan Lichter, Chair,District 4;
Bob Myhr, Vice Chair, District 6;
Kevin Ranker, Member, District 1
Attachments: Resolution 52-2006
Primary Election Certification
c: Governor Christine Gregoire
Senator Harriet Spanel
Representative David Quail
Representative Jeff Morris
Note: Same letter sent to Congressional reps.
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Aaron Dixon in San Juan County October 11
Here is Aaron’s schedule from Maggie Lesoing, who is coordinating arrangements:
Morning: Aaron Dixon will arrive on San Juan on Oct. 11 at 10:40 am. Mitch and I are organizing a lunch event to be attended by the islands’ religious community, the League of Women Voters and the media.
Afternoon: After lunch, he will head down to the Middle School to speak to the Speech
and Debate class.
Break
6:00 - 7:00 pm: Dinner at Maggie’s. I'd like to get a list of people who plan to come to the dinner at our house prior to the talk at the college. Please email me to let me know. FYI, our address is 4776 Westside Road -- coming from town on Beaverton Valley road, turn left onto Mitchell Bay Road, which turns into Westside Road somewhere past Snug Harbor, I think. Keep going past Sunset Point, around that sharp left turn, and look for the 2nd house-shaped mailbox on the left. It says Jamison, and it's a left hand turn.
- Note to greens from other islands, contact Tom Munsey (378-5196 or ) for ferry pick-up and/or for overnight arrangements.
7:30 - 10:00 (?): Talk at Skagit Valley College, with Q&A afterward.
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Who are the people of "our culture"?
It's easy to pick out the people who belong to "our" culture. If you go somewhere - anywhere in the world - where the food is under lock and key, you'll know you're among people of our culture. They may differ wildly in relatively superficial matters - in the way they dress, in their marriage customs, in the holidays they observe, and so on. But when it comes to the most fundamental thing of all, getting the food they need to stay alive, they're all alike. In these places, the food is all owned by someone, and if you want some, you'll have to buy it. This is expected, in these places; the people of our culture know no other way.
Making food a commodity to be owned was one of the great innovations of our culture. No other culture in history has ever put food under lock and key - and putting it there is the cornerstone of our economy, for if the food wasn't under lock and key, who would work?
From Beyond Civilization
Humanity’s Next Great Adventure
Daniel Quinn
Harmony Books
Contributed by Joyce and Byron Harrell
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Got Conspiracy?
from Conspiracies, Cover-Ups and Crimes; Political Manipulation and Mind Control in Americaby Jonathan Vankin. Paragon House Publishers, New York, 1992
[Conspiracy theories] are theories born in a country too big and diverse to govern, but permeated totally by government. A country whose basic ideal is individual freedom, where daily life is dominated by authority. From the runaway power of the president to the tyranny of workplace management, liberty is strangely difficult to come by. We've substituted the multicolored spectacle of consumerism for control over our own lives, and we're supposed to think that because we have so much stuff available for purchase we have the freedom to choose. But you can't fool everyone. Conspiracy theorists may not always be right, but they are not fooled.
I've been trying to present a way of thinking about a society where information is controlled, ergo, understanding is impossible. Conspiracy theories are a guide to life in a strange and threatening America: a conspiracy nation.
People created this nation. People run it. Someone, somewhere must know what is going on. Why can't everybody? Conspiracy theories begin with that very question.
Contributed by Steve Ludwig
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Opinyon Pine: (Editorial) Tom Odegard
Well sports fans – the killing ground continues to expand for non-coms and combatants alike while our Govt. continues to sneak bodies from arenas without proper accounting. (Is Westmoreland still around; remember selective body counts) And now we’ve got proof positive that our reps are compromised – by money, sex, or out ‘n out threats, since they utterly failed to deal with Abramoff (sp) and now Foley. Yes’um, we got a pack of bought or frightened reps who can’t stand for anything substantive because their lives belong to someone else.
I always said that if you simply let most of the money be managed by institutions following the credo of “maximize the rate of return” you’ll end with a world that looks like one run by a conspiracy. And all that money sloshing about will find it’s way into every profitable scam including the running of governments and the waging of wars. Which leads us up to the following poem:
Don’t Ask 10/06 tom odegard
Sing hail, heil, ho, and away we go,
kakocracy* smears US with dirty snow
you must not weep for what we sow
fills up the world with our status-woe.
It’s not as though
“they” had kak for brains
or us too
no no
there’s no other word for Shuck ‘n Ahh
this “ocracy” of Rabelaisian ka
we are drowning in slurries of ooze
effluent from a billion boors
“Economies of Scale?” I guess!
Jesus Saving spoils from our community chest
and “I’ve got mine” rogues
vye with ancient gelt to
strip the last turd from the firmament
Poor old Mammon stands beggared in their shade
while they freebase the remains of earthly trade
“The poor, the workers, the middle class?”
“You’re crazy! You may be next, so don’t ask!”
*a government ruled by the worst people
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The Power of Green: Peace & the Post-Oil Economy
In conjunction with our fellow Greensin
British Columbia, Idaho & Oregon,
GPoWS will host the
1st Annual Cascadia Greens Conference & Retreat.
This event will establish the foundation for greater communication and networking among the Green Parties in our bioregion.
When: December 1 - 3
Where: Cornet Bay Retreat Center at Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey Island
More info:
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Thanks to Roger Longley for this article from
The Maine Morning Sentinel
Thursday, October 05, 2006
COLUMN: Jim Brunelle
Electoral reform in Maine: Adopt instant runoff vote
Forecasting election results can be risky. I pretty much gave it up 40 years ago after embarrassing myself by predicting -- openly, on television -- that incumbent John H. Reed would handily defeat Kenneth M. Curtis in the 1966 race for governor.
He didn't.
Nevertheless, I will venture a small prediction this year. With five candidates running for governor -- four more-or-less seriously -- it's a pretty safe bet that the victor, whoever it is, will be determined by fewer than half the total number of ballots cast Nov. 7.
In Maine, as in most states, pluralities determine the winners in multi-candidate races. Theoretically -- although certainly not practically -- the next governor could be elected with barely 21 percent of the vote.
Incidentally, Curtis was the last governor to win two terms by clear majorities. After him has come a series of third-party contenders to dilute the results of most races and reduce the old democratic principle of majority rule to plurality rule.
Independent James B. Longley, Democrat Joseph E. Brennan, Republican John R. McKernan were all minority governors. Independent Angus King was first elected in 1994 with just over 35 percent. His successor, John E. Baldacci, won four years ago with 47 percent.
It looks as though this election will be no different. An electoral trend has become a political tradition and it's not a particularly healthy one.
All of which brings us to another of this column's regular pitches for the adoption of a curative reform that would restore some legitimacy to the election process and end more than three decades of chief executives that most voters have opposed at the ballot box.
The method is called "instant runoff" and the system is simplicity itself: Whenever voters are faced with multi-candidate ballots, broaden their choices. Instead of making them vote for just one candidate, allow them to rank their selections in order of preference.
If any one candidate gets a majority when the votes are tabulated at the end of Election Day, he or she is declared the winner. But if no one gets more than 50 percent of the vote, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated and the second-choice votes designated by that candidate's supporters are distributed accordingly to the remaining candidates.
This process continues until one candidate accumulates a clear majority.
The beauty of this arrangement is twofold: It guarantees the democratic legitimacy of elections and it settles the outcome immediately, avoiding the two-round runoff common in some southern states in which top surviving candidates are forced to compete in a second election scheduled a month or so later.
The problems involved with the two-round runoff are substantial and worth avoiding. First, there's the cost of holding a second election, both for the public and the candidates. There is the inconvenience to voters, who shouldn't have to put up with the bother of another round of electioneering and having to revisit the ballot box long after Election Day has passed.
Furthermore, such runoffs often result in dramatically reduced levels of voter turnout, making the final results even less legitimate.
One of the big advantages of the instant runoff is that it effectively removes the "spoiler" factor from elections. That's when an independent or third-party candidate with little chance of winning enters the race and draws votes away from one of the major candidates, skewing the race toward a candidate of lesser popularity.
The spoiler can divide the voters of, say, a normally liberal-leaning district and give the election to a conservative candidate, or the other way around. The instant runoff would tend to overcome such artificial divisions.
Conversely, the instant runoff can help third-party candidates by freeing voters enrolled in major parties to stray from the fold, knowing that they can always give their second vote to their home party's candidate.
It also can work to discourage the worst aspects of negative campaigning, since candidates will be seeking second-choice ranking from their opponents' supporters.
Bills to establish instant runoffs in Maine have been introduced at recent legislative sessions but the idea has never gone anywhere. Despite the state's motto, "Dirigo," and a record of political innovation, from legislative term limits to public campaign financing, lawmakers here seem reluctant to show leadership in this particularly enlightened reform.
That's too bad.
This is an idea whose time has definitely ripened. Maine is in a good position to show the way to the rest of the nation and vastly improve our own homegrown elections in the process.
Well, maybe next year.
Jim Brunelle is a weekly columnist and has been commenting on Maine issues for more than 40 years. He lives in Cape Elizabeth and can be reached at .
Dixon campaign stuff available!!
- 4 double sided campaign signs, fastened on stakes, available.
- 1 doz Aaron Dixon bumper stickers
- 50 copies of The EverGreen Voice
Want’em? Contact Maggie:
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