VOTE!!!! and another thing....

VOTE! even if you disagree with me, just VOTE!!!
and another thing...
Here is a letter to supporters of the Progressive Majority. They are flipping over local governments similar to Mao Tse Tung's strategies during his cultural revolution, where he focused his efforts on small villages and cities after being initially defeated on a national level.
Who can stand up to this kind of money on a local level unless they solicit funds from businessmen and women who provide local living wage jobs and the Local PACS they belong to?
These candidates that they support at city and county levels are considered their "Farm Club" grooming them for future bigger more important offices. We in Whatcom county are subjected to being one of their chosen playgrounds. Our LOCAL elections are no longer Local. Progressive Majority candidate Carl Wiemer was the camel's nose under the tent. This year they have 4.
Read their own words.

Dear Friend,
Progressive Majority has already helped put 209 progressives in office and flipped 21 state or local governments to progressive majorities in just four years. This year alone, we have already flipped three local governments.
In less than 24 hours voters will hit the polls and mail ballots are due. Our candidates are making their final push and our staff is right there behind them. We're out waving signs at 6 a.m. no matter if it is snowing and going door to door all afternoon with our candidates.
Why are we doing this? Because our candidates embody the progressive values of access to affordable, quality health care; education; protecting our environment; civil rights; reproductive freedom; and economic justice. A couple of days from now our candidates will begin work on their progressive agendas as newly elected city council members, school board members, and county officials.
This has been a good year for progressives already, but it is about to get a lot better.
Below are updates on just a few of over a hundred Progressive Majority recruited and trained candidates with elections on November 6th. These candidates are locked in tight races and pulling out all the stops to win. Visit our web site to learn about the other Progressive Majority candidates.
Arizona
John Williams UpdateThank you for your immediate response to our fundraising plea for John Williams, candidate for Surprise City Council!
Your contributions helped him get his last piece of mail out the door, but he still has a few last minute expenses and needs your help to ensure that he wins tomorrow. Click here to make a secure online donation to help John pay for the mailing that may be the difference.
Thank you again for your quick response and support enabling John to reach critical undecided voters.
ColoradoProgressive Majority candidates Karen Kellen, Cindy Baroway, Tom Quinn, and Bob Murphy are all locked in tough races in Lakewood. They are running against well-funded Tea Party Candidates - a group of Libertarians, who are bent on undoing publicly funded city infrastructure. That sounds pretty horrific to me. Karen, Cindy, Tom, and Bob have all contacted thousands of voters at the doors, on the phones, and in the mail boxes. Ballots have all gone out and the stakes couldn't be higher. Their loss would mean the forward planning for the city will be lost to a group of no growth, no services, and no government libertarians.
To their north in Westminster, Faith Winter is making waves as she blazes toward victory. Faith has knocked on over 12,000 doors and she is breaking fundraising records for the city election. Faith will add a much needed progressive and consensus building voice to the city council. Hopefully Westminster will have a new Progressive Champion with a bright political future.
Minnesota
Our staff has been working hard with Kim Ross, as she works to help turn the Eden Prairie School Board to a progressive majority. All that hard work paid off recently when she swept the endorsements of her two local newspapers, The Eden Prairie News and the Eden Prairie Sun Current. Helping Kim secure these critical endorsements is just the tip of the iceberg. We've also worked with her on the direct mail plan, fundraising, and pro-kids progressive message.
Pennsylvania
Peter Amuso has seen the surge in gun crimes in Montgomery County and he is not going to let his community be torn apart anymore. Progressive Majority has helped Peter hone his message and stump speech on this issue close to his heart so he can bring much needed change to Montgomery County. Peter wants to see new state legislation limiting the handgun purchases to one per month and requiring gun owners to report lost or stolen guns to police immediately. Peter is well suited to be the next District Attorney as an Army veteran and Harvard-trained lawyer. When he wins, he will be the first progressive and first Democratic District Attorney of Montgomery County.
Washington
Over 90% of Washington state voters will cast their votes through mail-in ballots and Progressive Majority candidates were ready! We have given strategic advice and helped candidates across the state produce mail and field voter-contact plans that have given them a leg up on their conservative opponents. Here is an example of a mail piece for Bob Kelly that is going to help put him on the Whatcom County Council. In fact, Brett Bonner, of 790 KGMI in Bellingham, said that "This is probably one of the most effective adds I've seen this campaign."
Progressive Majority isn't just concerned with winning on November 6th, 2007. We are building for the future. We have 479 Farm Team members preparing to run for office in the coming years. Flipping 21 state or local governments to progressive majorities is a good start, but we've got a long way to go. Keep on fighting - you know we will!
Sincerely,
Gloria A. TottenPresidentProgressive Majority

Is this really what we want in whatcom county? These guys are inconsistant as they are Pro growth in Colorado and Anti growth in Washington. Go figure.
The only thing that is consistant is their anti-freemarket anti-second amendment pro socialism agenda.

BY THE WAY, VOTE!!!

ARE YOU WILLING TO LET 25% OF US DECIDE YOUR FUTURE?

As of 07:35 this morning, slightly less than 25% of voters have returned their ballots.
Are the other 75% waiting for the last minute?
I doubt it. It appears that predictions by the auditors office and others are predicting a 45% to 50% voter participation in the 2007 General Election.
With a potential to have 25.01% deciding the victors in local elections, this is shameful at best. At worst 12.51% of all registered voters may decide some very important races.
Do my friends and neighbors truly trust a minority of us to elect our city and county legislators?
I predict that low voter turnout will directly correlate to a local environmental extremist victory. So much for our right to use our own private property as we see fit.
Not only will low voter turnout mean that more burdensome restrictions be placed on how we run our businesses and use our own private lands, more private lands will be condemned for land grabs by the same extremists. It appears that nasty campaigns are effective in keeping the moderate folks and many conservatives home.
Again, don't break the faith with our veterans and fallen soldiers and POW /MIAs.
In truth, I don't care if we totally disagree on political view points, Mail In Your Ballots!

MAIL IN YOUR BALLOTS (from the redundancy dept)

Honor those who have fought, killed, and died for our liberties and our right to vote. Please do not Break the Faith with our Veterans, Fallen Soldiers and MIA/POW’s by not voting. Every election, nothing less than your personal liberty is at stake.

THANK YOU MR. KNAPPENBERGER, THOUGH I RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE

Recently on Wally’s Blog I made reference to elements in the News Media and the destructiveness of the Peace Movement in the United States. I was called to the carpet by one of our servicemen who served in Iraq to cite sources for a claim that I made. He may not realize it, but I am grateful because it prompted me to research some people and Events. I would like to refer you to Wally’s website, http://www.wallywonderswhy.com/
And to look at his article, Do you see what I see. http://www.wallywonderswhy.com/?p=762
There are 9 posts, and this is where I was called to the carpet.
· Poindexter P. Parkenfarker October 28th, 2007 16:53
"I believe that Al Quaida learned well from North Viet Nam. After the war, the North Vietnamese Generals said that the United States had solidly won the war twice. And they knew that they lost almost every battle in the field. What the NVA generals told the world was that they defeated the US because of Soviet and Chinese agents directing the US Peace movement, they were losing the war in S.E. Asia, but winning the war with our own peace movement. They learned, we didn’t."

Mr. Knappenberger then asked me to cite references, because he refused to believe it. However, he accurately assessed the NVA perspective during the War.
So, below are my references, with a correction. (thank you Mr. Knappenberger.)
I was only able to find ONE occasion that the NVA were ready to negotiate their surrender to us. That was after they lost 90,000 of their volunteers, which was ½ of their forces after they failed to take and hold any territory or strategic points during the Tet offensive of 1968 (year of the Goat to year of the Monkey) Since the first advisers under President Eisenhower and Kennedy to this point in the war, we tragically had lost 10,000 of our young boys. Had we accepted their surrender and President Johnson had not bowed down to our own peace protesters the war would have been over in 1968.
General Vo Nguyen Giap credited our News Media and the Peace Protesters for delivering him a political victory from a military defeat. The Soviets funded and directed the Peace movement and considered this a great propaganda victory for communism.
So here are several references which are a good jumping off point to further research this whether you agree with my premise or not.
http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Camp/7624/Generals/giap.htm
http://www.i-served.com/v-v-a-r.org/VietnamAndTheMedia_part03.html
http://www.i-served.com
plus google search Vo Nguyen Giap for many more references and a biography.

By no means am I demonizing the past or current Peace Movement, but make no mistake about it, I disagree with it and think that even though their hearts are in the right place, that ultimately it may unwittingly cause more death, destruction and tragedy for our young boys and girls in uniform serving around the world.
I sense that you have been truly affected by Stop Loss and this may be the biggest motivation for your efforts.
I do not think that re-instating the draft is a solution, but I wonder if they raised the age of enlistment for reservists if some of us old out of shape guys could run supply lines, drive transports and take on many support duties if that would be a better solution than Stop-Loss? (so long as we don’t fall over dead during basic training.) My thoughts are that volunteers who believe in the policy may be more effective than Drafting or Stop-Lossing those who don’t.

Side note: Several of my friends survived the Tet Offensive and on rare occasions tell me hellish things that I wish no- one should ever have to experience. They lost heroic friends and were themselves permanently wounded.

p.s. many thanks to gk and others for references and guidance in research.

STILL, VERY FEW BALLOTS HAVE BEEN RETURNED

It seems that many people are either waiting until the last minute to vote or are uninterested in the future of our cities and county. Whether we agree or not on who to vote for, it is not a good sign that many folks are not participating.

I'm also interested in what folks' thoughts are about the process to solve the 9100 ballot glitch and whether they are comfortable with the solution. There were observers from several concerns watching the process at the courthouse today.

Tomorrow I promised some documentation for a thought that I had over at Wally's site pertaining to an unrelated non -local issue.

Happy Halloweennnnnnnn!

Hillary is the scariest face for Halloween and Rudy is the second scariest face. I just read that somewhere, and I'm sure that poll is probably anecdotal at best. My thought is that a Clinton vs. Giuliani Race would be about as interesting as a Mets vs.Yankees World Series. It is interesting how the other Democrat wanna-be's are all trashing Hillary for everything from her lack of integrity to lack of skills. So much for their chances at VP nominations if they don't shoot the moon and win the party nomination for the big show.

Meanwhile, Rudy may be one of the most efficient administrators, but many conservatives are having difficulty with him, and seem to be split among Huckabee and Hunter as Thompson loses traction. Personally, I am still evaluating all of the Elephants who want the nomination to the big show.

Somewhere around here, I still have Griffey for Prez propaganda, but you can see how far that got.

Anyway, enjoy and have a safe Halloween!

MAIL IN YOUR BALLOTS

Honor those who have fought, killed, and died for our liberties and our right to vote. Please do not Break the Faith with our Veterans, Fallen Soldiers and MIA/POW’s by not voting. Every election, nothing less than your personal liberty is at stake.