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3389 x 591: www.flickr.com/photos/rwhitlock/2932940186/sizes/o/

Tumwater Overlook Park Panorama and a slideshow of recent photos await below the fold:

Fred E. Walker, Communist, just appears out of nowhere, struts briefly across the Pacific Northwest political stage, and then vanishes back into nowhere.

Having a "Party name," or alias was standard fare for members of the Communist Party in that era. Ludwig Katterfeld, the 1916 Socialist Ungovernor, became "J. Carr" when he later joined the CP. In Walker's case, it is difficult to ascertain if "Fred E. Walker" was a genuine or fake name. We do know he was a native of Oakland, California, born around 1907-1909, and had Finnish-American inlaws in Woodland, Wash. He is the first Ungovernor we have encountered who was born in the 20th century. And quite possibly the youngest ever, being 23 or so at the time he ran in 1932.

We first encounter Walker in the late 1920s (about the same time Katterfeld was kicked out of the CP) in connection with the Young Workers (Communist) League summer schools. One was held in Winlock, Wash. in 1927 and another in Woodland in 1928. Finnish Americans seemed quite open to the idea of communism and with Winlock being a community of Finns, it was natural to have the school situated there.

The president has committed treason and staged a coup, as of October 1st he has his own military of 3000-4000 soldiers in the U.S according to the army times. This has not happened since 1807. He also now controls 100 Billion dollars due to the bailout fine print. This is similar behavior of dictators establishing a police state as seen through history, Mussolini did this in Italy in 1920 and Hitler did this in Germany in 1933 while these countries were still democracies.

We must call all District Attorney's to use their power to arrest the president.

Our policy makers are being threatened with martial law. This is not acceptable in a democracy and history has shown this same behavior by Mussolini just a short time before shutting down a country completely.

Please watch Naomi Wolfe's video. She has looked at where people faced a closing society and succeeded in restoring a democracy. She has some urgent solutions in order to save our democracy.

One of the most critical things to do now is arrest the people who have staged this coup of our country before they use martial law.

Deep Lake, Millersylvania State Park

The park was established and built in the 1930s under the aegis and economic backing of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

13 image composite 180º panorama
4433 x 567 version: www.flickr.com/photos/rwhitlock/2930162340/sizes/o/

Almost every week this is the "What's on the city council's plate this week" review. I don't cover everything, so if you want the full rundown, read the packet and agenda yourself.

Why hold an election on whether to conduct a study on the proposed ithmus park when just doing the study costs a lot less? City staff wonder:

Approximately $30-70,000 for just the feasibility analysis.  The source of funds for the feasibility analysis has been referred to the finance committee.

...the City Council would have to submit the measure to a vote of the people at the next election, in February 2009.  The February 2009 election would be considered a “special election.”  A special election typically costs the City between $100-120,000 depending on the number of issues on the ballot.   This is significantly higher than our costs for a general or primary election.  Special elections typically have few ballot measures as compared to a primary or general election.  Therefor; the costs are only shared with the jurisdictions that have ballot measures. 

I wonder too.

Watch the debate of the two candidates for Thurston PUD commissioner (district 3) here:

Something they keep on coming back to is whether the PUD should branch out from water and become an electric company as well. I wasn't sure of either's position at the end of the debate, I just got that both know that its something they need to consider.

Something to consider is the impact of establishing new PUDs to replace Puget Sound Energy provided electricity. The Washington PUD Association says PUDs could save money:

With access to low-cost power from the Bonneville Power Administration, a new electric-service public utility district would be able to charge rates up to 20 percent lower than rates projected for Puget Sound Energy, according to a study released today by the Washington Public Utility Districts Association.

The analysis by EES Consulting, a Kirkland-based management consulting firm specializing in the energy and other natural-resource-based industries, found that PSE rates have gone up sharply over the past several years – nearly 25 percent since 2002, or almost twice the national average.

PSE now has the highest rates of any electric utility in Washington, with the exception of a small utility serving the islands of San Juan County, and is asking the Utilities and Transportation Commission for permission to raise residential rates another 8.25 percent.

Nihilism rearing its head being stood with in solidarity over at South Sound indymedia:

On the evening of October 6th, we disabled four Olympian delivery vans by slashing their tires. The Olympian newspaper is responsible for many crimes. We will not be able to list all of them here, but we will try.

They have four reasons why it was done. And, comment over there. [Comments activated: seems there's more to discuss -- Rick]