In October 2008, Human Rights Watch rated Somalia the most ignored tragedy in the world. Almost 1.5 million Somalis are internally displaced, and an additional half million are refugees. Two decades of instability, including a U.S.-backed intervention by Ethiopian troops in December 2006, have failed to put Somalia on the map.
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It took the drama of high seas piracy to bring Somalia back into the media spotlight. The hijacking of a Saudi supertanker in November was followed by the capture and sensational rescue of U.S. merchant ship Captain Richard Phillips in April.
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After Navy sharpshooters rescued Captain Phillips, killing three pirates in the action, the media clamor abated. Once again, the debate on Somalia retreated to inside-the-beltway obscurity. (You can view the spike in public attention by searching for “Somalia†on Google Trends at www.google.com/trends.)
But for Somalis, the crisis continues. So does the danger that Washington may be tempted into military intervention that would be damaging for Somalis, for U.S. relations with Africa and for U.S. security. That risk exists, despite commendable caution thus far by Obama administration policymakers, who are aware of the potential for military actions to backfire.
Just noticed that while there was only one candidate on the ballot for State Supreme Court Justice Position #3, in the top two primary in August, there actually were two candidates. I voted for myself in protest, but presumably the top two should have won and moved on. Why is there only one candidate on the November ballot? Mary Fairhurst is here, but Michael Bond is gone. Why? I did a quick Google, but didn’t find anything.
Anyway, I already voted for myself as a protest since there was only one person on the ballot.
Ah… I found it. There is a minimum percentage of the vote threshold to move on to the General election, even if you come in second. Mr. Bond did not meet that threshold. That sucks. If you are going to do a top two thing, number two should get on the general election ballot, even if they only got 1 vote. With some way to deal with ties of course.
Same thing again. Top Two Primary. The top two will move on to the general election. There are two candidates (Peter Goldmark and Doug Sutherland). Both of them will win. It is a waste of my time to look at this further. I will write myself in.
OK. It is lunchtime now. Time to crank through a bit more of this. I’ve got about an hour. Then if needed, there will be more time later. Things are not all mail-in yet, I can drop my ballot off at the polling station until 03 UTC. (Another 8 hours from when I am writing this.)
Anyway, the next five Governor candidates:
Christian Joubert (Prefers Democratic Party): Starts his statement by saying “Because I feel Washington State should be leading the Nation in promoting a Spiritual Civilization based on holistic medicine…” And the website? OH MY GOD! MY EYES ARE BURNING! OK. Next.
Christopher Tudor (States No Party Preference): Hmm, some stuff about being independent of party, some stuff about cleaning up government. Nothing to detailed though. Nothing much concrete enough to make a decision on.
Javier Lopez (Prefers Republican Party): “As an artist and inventor I have come up with an invention that will solve all of the world’s problems. I have invented an air engine that has the power to operate an automobile while relying on air as its fuel source. Adoption of this technology would mean an end to reliance on fossil fuels, stopping carbon-monoxide emissions, pollution and global warming.” Umm…. OK.
Mohammad Said (States No Part Preference): Platform Elements… Washington National Guard unilaterally withdraw from Iraq… Amend the constitution so that the state legislatures declare war instead of the US Congress. Oh, and “Finally I would like to sound the alarm, that AIPAC and other Jewish Zionist Lobbies who represent less than 2% of American People are using the United States through their mighty power in the News Media, Financial Institutions, Hollywood and Entertainment Industry, Both Political Parties, Congress and the White House as Proxy to wage war against any country perceived to be threat to Israel, like in Iraq.”. Yum Huh. OK. And the website: “The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later. ” Good job there.
James White (Prefers Independent Party): Some seemingly random platform items with no real information. He also has a rambling thing talking about defending the Constitution, but without really explaining what he is talking about.
Wow. What a horrible set of choices. All ten of them. For the moment I think I am going to go for Dino Rossi. I however reserve the right to not vote for him in November. I will look at the winning two candidates much more closely than I’ve looked at them today.
