more info: www.witnesstoacrime.com

[update from Monica:]

Ohio 2004 Election Fraud speaker at Traditions at 2:00 Sept 18th

In addition to speaking at Media Island at 7PM Thursday Sept 18, Richard Hayes Phillips will be at Traditions Cafe at 2 PM on Sept 18 for casual Q and A. Traditions is located at 300 5th Ave SW, Olympia.

From Robert F. Kennedy, Jr: "Richard Hayes Phillips worked day and night for three years compiling irrefutable evidence of how the Republicans stole the 2004 presidential race in Ohio. This landmark investigation is a testament to what private citizens can accomplish when government officials fail to protect our right to vote and to count those votes as cast. Every American - Republican and Democrat - should read this book, and join the fight for democracy's most fundamental right."

Hello all,

Richard Hayes Philllips will be in Olympia this Thursday, Sept 18, 7 PM. He will speak at Media Island (816 Adams, across Adams from the Olympia Library). Please see the attached flyer and forward this to anyone you know who might be interested.

Richard began investigating the Ohio election when he received an unsolicited e-mail containing obviously erroneous election results from Cleveland. He quickly found that hundreds of votes in certain precincts had inexplicably shifted from John Kerry to other Presidential candidates. He then spent 3 years compiling irrefutable evidence of election fraud in Ohio in 2004. His new book on his findings is Witness to a Crime, a Citizens' Audit of an American Election.

He is stopping on his way between Portland and Seattle and this just came together very quickly yesterday so we were unable to find a larger location. It is possible that he will be in Olympia as early as noon Thursday and could meet informally with interested people in the afternoon. If you would be interested and available, please let me know and we'll set something up.

Thanks,
Monica Hoover

Sponsored by Alliance for Democracy.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., says: “Every American – Republican and Democrat – should read this book and join the fight for democracy’s most fundamental right.”

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the 7:00 p.m. speaking engagement at Media Island, 816 Adams SE, across from the downtown Olympia library.

It may be a while before we get this thing youtubed ... or even bliptv'd, as it were.

This occurs, as you may notice, at 8 minutes into the episode, during Sandman's duet with Jen Graves.

Ballet Arts Olympia, a dance school on the westside, is closing. My daughter has been dancing there over half her life. She learned a lot about dance, her body, made new friends and participated in recitals at the Washington Center each spring.

Some of the teachers left to open another place, drawing away enough students so Ballet Arts couldn't afford to continue operations. There is a slim chance it may be able to rise from the ashes. If you know any kids who are interested in dance, have them call Suzi @ 943-7781. It's more than just ballet, they also taught jazz, Irish and modern dance as well as creative movement for the really young ones.

Although the title is from a Time magazine story, it's really about the bigger picture.

From the article:

The best case for the bailout seems to be that nobody has the faintest idea what the consequences for financial markets of AIG's failure would be, but they were afraid that it could lead to total chaos.

Earlier in the year, small banks were failing. Evidently it's not uncommon for banks to fail and is part of the natural order, if you will. But now giants are starting to require help (and a lot of it).

In Michael Lewitt's op-ed in the New York Times (linked from the Time article), he even mentions his own experience in investment failure:

When I drove to the Beverly Hills offices of Drexel Burnham Lambert on Feb. 13, 1990, the last thing I expected to hear was that the investment bank where I worked was going under. Yet early that morning, we were told that the company was filing for bankruptcy. I was, to put it mildly, blown away. At the time, Drexel had $3.5 billion in assets and was the biggest underwriter of junk bonds.

Mr. Lewitt goes on to explain how credit default swaps work.

Are we headed toward a complete government take-over of most major financial institutions?

The Fed cannot afford to stand on principle. The myth of free markets ended with the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

For a local angle on the current economic climate in the United States, this comes from The Associated Press:

Again, Michigan summers are hot. Hotter than Washington summers. And muggy with mosquitoes. Timing our outdoor excursions properly was everything.

One morning we got an early start by paying a visit to Dad's neighbors, Judy and Safu. They have a modest in-ground pool. Although they had guests from England visiting and everyone was still waking up around 10 AM, they let us use their pool.

It also has a modest diving board.

Orion and I swam for an hour or so, and then the English guests came out to swim and bask. The two adults basked. The two kids swam.

Safu stopped by and invited us to help ourselves to beverages in the fridge. Once Orion got a shot of that Root Beer he was good to go for another few hours. Although he said he was scared of the diving board, the young lad from the UK said, "It's fun really."

And that was good enough for Orion. He dove into 9 feet of water, exhilarated and carbonated! We stayed until nap time. I was quite sunburned. Orion had bronzed.

A few days later...

we drove to Ann Arbor to use the Huron Valley Swim Club. I had learned to swim there during my summer vacations. Aunt Mary Catherine told us that they were still members, so I planned to sign in as 'Paul Wright'.

It took us a number of trips and web research to find the place. The last time I'd been there had been in the early 90s when I rode my bike there from Granny's house.

The story of the Double Hats

Right as we were walking out the door to fly to Michigan I decided that I needed to bring both of my black formal hats... stacked one on top of the other. I knew there was a slight risk of losing them, but I vowed to be mindful and attentive.

I purchased hat number one from the Clown Shop in Lakewood right as Jusby's character was being born. It's a black felt top hat.

This is my tip-top, well, it's my top hat, AND my tip hat, so it's really my tip-top hat. You can put tips IN it when it's not ON top. Hey, do you know what my tie said to my hat this morning? It said, 'You go on a head, and I'll hang around here for a while!'

I had Nita put a red band around it when she was tailoring my old white tux. I was a Dandy Tramp of sorts. I was a nouveau-pauvre (or New Poor... a clown who was still living it up in spite of losing everything in a dot com bust and market crash).

Eventually the red band disappeared, and I replaced it with a green one. I kept funny money in the band.

Hat number two has a more mysterious origin.

I'd wanted a Bowler hat ever since I'd seen the first 20 minutes of LASER Vaudeville at the Washington Center. They'd done all sorts of hat tricks that are impossible with a flat top hat. Then I met Sage of the Petting Zoo players, and he sports a bowler! Then I met (on-line) Chance Marmelade of Troupe Comique, and he wears a bowler too!

Anyone else having problems with the site running slow or crashing?

More than 4400 Olympia voters have signed the Capitol Park Foundation Initiative, well over the required number. Friends of the Waterfront and others will continue to gather signatures until Thursday, when the signatures will be submitted to the city. The last time a successful initiative petition drive happened in Olympia was over a half a century ago in 1955, when citizens rose up to block the logging off of the Olympia Watershed and to create, instead, Watershed Park.

Given how rare an occurrence a successful initiative is in the City of Olympia, I'm surprised the Olympian hasn't reported on this.  4400 is a lot of naysayers!

description:

Olympia's Constitution in Crisis: The Case for Impeachment drew over 800 people, almost filling the Washington Center on Tuesday, February 20, 2007.

Elizabeth de la Vega, David Lindorff and Ray McGovern made compelling arguments about the need to impeach Bush/Cheney.

Each stressed that impeachment is necessary to restore the Constitution. While the list of impeachable offenses is long, de la Vega pointed out that incompetence was not what the framers of the Constitution had in mind. They also poked holes in the various "arguments" given by Democrats. Unlike the Clinton impeachment, de la Vega stated, the violations of law by Bush/Cheney are serious abuses of power and impeachment was intended to remedy those abuses.

All agreed that the evidence was overwhelming and that the impeachment process would be swift. They rejected the belief that impeachment would harm the Democrats. Lindorff noted that the Democrats would be harmed by not taking action, especially if the Republicans decide to take the lead on impeaching Bush/Cheney.

McGovern asked that if lying to get us into war, illegal wiretaps, dismissing the basic protections granted in the Bill of Rights and creating a unitary executive through signing statements are not impeachable, than what is?

09/16/08 © Sabrina C. Thompson

Innovative Artography