17th Party Congress just completed - with new elections to politburo.

Quoted: At the just completed 17th National Congress, the message of China’s Communist Party was continuity.

I wish Congress would grow a pair. The artificiality of the Petraeus report on Iraq progress really infuriates me. He says it's "irresponsible" to try to predict what troop strengths we'll have in Iraq after summer '08. I strongly disagree.

The one variable we CAN predict is how many people we keep in Iraq. And that number should be coming down much more expeditiously that we are currently planning.

This whole SURGE-and-PURGE smoke screen is just masking the status quo - we are keeping the same number of troops in Iraq into the foreseeable future.

We no longer have a compelling interest to keep troops in Iraq - so we should bring them home. Congress has the power of the purse, so they should make it clear that our appetite to continue to fund this war is limited and we should ramp down spending to zero over the next two years.

This is NOT a patriotic/support-our-troops issue. It's an issue of listening to the will of the people - and the people want this war to end.

Quoted: “We hope so, because the American public wants us to change course,” Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the Armed Services Committee, said on CBS’s Face the Nation. “And what the president is offering is the illusion of change, not real change.”

Another "virtual account", this one creates weekly dots from the King 5 TV show, Up Front with Robert Mac. If you're interested in Seattle Politics, this is a great show to watch - or read his blog.

King County is "swapping" Boeing Field for the 33 mile Burlington Northern rail line from Renton to Snohomish. The plan is to convert the line to a trail!

This looks like a sneaky way for King County to sell an asset and then go on it's own spending spree. The Port of Seattle will pay $169 million for Boeing Field. Then King County will turn around and buy Ron Sim's pet project - the BNSF rail to trail project. Aren't there OTHER uses for $169 million than to add another eastside trail???

And why are we not retaining this rail right-of-way, and working train track into a transportation system on the eastside.

Coincidentally, this right-of-way would be perfect access from Bellevue to Renton (where the new Sonics Arena could be). And then, link that up to light rail to the airport for eastsiders!

Quoted: Al Runte of the pro-rail group All Aboard Washington called the plan "a colossal mistake. It's the dumbest idea this region has had."
...
Runte said he had walked the entire length of the proposed trail and found, "It's not a dilapidated rail line. It's a beautiful track."

click to play

Dumb Americans - the Australian view. Funny and sad at the same time.

We need some more Mexicans to come here to increase the IQ of our country!

ELF members have agreed to a plea-bargain for the 2001 firebombing of the UW research facility. I'm glad to see this kind of case prosecuted. In a civil society, we cannot tolerate people taking violent action (against people or property) in the furtherance of their cause; no matter how strongly they hold their beliefs.

Just as death threats against abortion clinic workers are unacceptable, so too is this kind of destruction of property (not to mention the loss of research records representing many years of some of these victim's lives).

Of the five people currently implicated, these two women are the first to be sentenced.

Lacey Phillabaum (31) - 3 to 5 years
Jennifer Kolar (33) - 5 to 7 years

Bill Rodgers (40) - committed suicide
Justin Solondz (27) - FUGITIVE (up to 30 years)
Briana Waters (30) - to stand trial (up to 30 years)

Watchdog group looking to stop (conservative) bias in the media.

Quoted: Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.
...
Launched in May 2004, Media Matters for America put in place, for the first time, the means to systematically monitor a cross section of print, broadcast, cable, radio, and Internet media outlets for conservative misinformation — news or commentary that is not accurate, reliable, or credible and that forwards the conservative agenda — every day, in real time.

...not to mention, English!