Final word.

The United States dodged a bullet on November 4th, 2008. For the conservative excuse makers, no, it was not because she was a woman. This country would elect a woman (vice) president. And no, it was not because she was a republican. We have and will again elect republicans. Get this straight...it was because she was a stupid idiot. An ignorant slob. An incurious moron. A self-serving and evil opportunist. A fear-mongering dunce with nothing to offer. A clownish rube with dark intent.
Make no mistake about it, the United States was in serious danger with Sarah Palin and John McCain in the running and now that they have been sent packing by an overwhelming majority of Americans the world is a much better place.

Here's to never having to hear her harsh, lying voice ever again...

New Statue Comes to Fremont. Are you a Patches Pal?

Late For The Interurban

Last week a statue was unveiled in Fremont to commemorate one of the longest-running shows in television history starring Chris Wedes aka "Julius Pierpont Patches".

A few more pictures of the J.P. Patches Statue...

Some other statues in the Fremont area...

University District Street Fair, 2008

Dateline: May 17th, 2008.

As Seattle broke our high temperature record for this day by soaring into the 90's, The Ave. was packed with people attending the U-District Street Fair.
Here are a few slides ... (the Mormon missionaries at 1:50 were getting more than they were used to but they had a hard time looking away)...

Northwest Biodiesel Forum

Today was the sixth annual Northwest Biodiesel Forum, held at the Seattle Center. They had changed locations from last year, but it was easy to find.
Our Governor,Christine Gregoire was on hand to deliver the opening address and take questions from the audience.
When I was there attendance seemed a little light, but it was still early.
Outside the event protesters set up a booth claiming bio fuel was "crimes against humanity." Their reasoning is, if we use bio-mass for fuel, people will be denied food and starve.

Ok...first, petroleum really is crimes against humanity. Wars of aggression for oil. Pristine coastlines polluted. Compromised politics and dishonorable compromises. Dependance of other countries...

second, people all over the world are already being denied food. It is not for lack of food. Food is rotting, undelivered on the docks. There is no political leadership to get the food to the people who ned it. A form of genocide, but not from lack of food. So..it is not bio-fuel that is an evil "crime against humanity" but the so-called leaders of government.

third, bio-mass, as far as I know, has never claimed to be the only solution. It is part of a multi-pronged solution. Certainly there is validity to the arguement that there is not replacement level fuel for the cheap and plentiful petroleum we have built our society on. Obviously we need multiple sources, none of which will work as good as cutting back our use. Ahem. I rode my bike to the Forum. I wonder if the protesters did.

fourth, the "food shortages" line is, at this point, nothing more than a piece of propoganda foisted on us by big oil. At the moment we have a Mexican refugee crisis. Mexican farmers are flooding into the United States to find work so they can feed their families. Why? Because Monsanto and others have flooded the Mexican market with cheap and plentiful corn. If there is a shortage, maybe Monsanto can do the right thing and keep their corn in the U.S. and let the MExicans go back to work on their own farms.

Here are a couple of pictures I took at the forum, including a few clips of Governor Gregoire...

Seattle Green Festival

On Saturday and Sunday, April 12 & 13, Seattle hosted it's first Green Festival. The Dahlai Lama was also in town that week, but even with 50,000 people turning out for His Holiness, the Green Festival was packed to the rafters.

I went specifically to see Jim Hightower and the best progressive radio host, Thom Hartman. I met Thom and he signed my copy of his new book, Cracking The Code.

Coincidentally, that Saturday was the one day of sun Seattle is alloted per season. I rode my bike down (see website for route information, and ran into the Dahlai Lama's motorcade.
BikeWorks was on the scene to protect our bikes in a monitored bike lot. BikeWorks does a lot of good work in the Seattle area.

The ride there and back was half the fun, so I have included some of those slides as well.

Seattle Loves it's Libraries.

In recent years, 28 Seattle libraries have been either totally remodeled or torn down and rebuilt from the ground up. The old libraries, which were dark and gloomy have been replaced by bright, spacious libraries.
Saturday, December 8th marked the finish of the 28 library project with the grand opening of the new Broadview branch.

The Flood of 2007

On December 3rd, 2007, the day after the snow storm, Seattle was hit with a rain storm that is unusual even for Seattle. Over worked drainage systems could not keep up with the deluge.
Once permiable land has mostly been dug up and paved over so run off was extreme. Weyerhauser and their habit of clear cutting all area froests left hillsides barren and prone to landslides as the exposed earth soaked up water without the protection and root systems
of the detroyed trees.

It rarely snows in Seattle.

Since we are very nearly at sea level, and situated on Puget Sound between The Cascade and The Olympic mountain ranges, snow is not all that common. When it does snow here, everything pretty much stops. It is not like the Midwest or other snowy regions. Two inches can bring Seattle to a standstill.



PS. No posts in November. I was wrapped up in school. One more week for this quarter, and I seem to be doing pretty good.

Camping.

I decided not to add "camping" to my list of favored activities in the profile section. This is due mostly to my last camping trip last month. Seattle is a Ferry ride and a few hour drive from a sub tropical Rain Forest. I thought I would be ok because it had not moved into rainy season yet...so I thought.

All started out ok. Here is my campsite...

Another view, with supplies... yes, that is Jiffy Pop. I optimistically thought I would be outside most of the time...

And here is a view from the campsite...

And then over night it clouded up and I spent the next 36 hours under a blue tarp...

Seattle Progressives Protest Corporate Candidate Hillary Clinton.

No real Progressive supports corporate sell out and shill Hillary Clinton, so this afternoon, when she shows up to bilk money out of big business in exchange for favors that will hurt Seattle residents, we will be there to protest her presence.

Remember, she will be going to Benaroya Hall. Be there from 3 pm on. The best time is probably 5 pm, and word has it that the parking garage where the guests will be pulling in will be on Second Avenue.

If you bring signs, make sure they have a positive Progressive message. Not jus "Down with Hillary", but more like "Progressives Oppose the Iraq Invasion"...something with the Progressive message.