Zappini

Stefan Sharkansky invited me to guest blog on Sound Politics. I thought that was mighty brave of him. Stefan has been a good sport, coming to the Washington Citizens for Fair Elections events and meetings. So returning the favor seems like the least I could do.

At some point, we have to get past the partisan bickering. It's not working. In fact, it's hurting us, our country, and our future.

Perhaps we can start with election integrity. Because it truly is a non-partisan issue. Each side can build up some trust, some credibility, demonstrate willingness to negotiate in good faith.

Fingers crossed.

My contact with Stefan, and others from the right, has been noticed (ahem).

I'm a geek. I've played lots of board games. Rule #1 in a game like Diplomacy is to never stop talking. It's weird, but your opponents are more reliable than your allies. At least your opponents are predictable. And your allies can hurt you far more than your opponents can ever hope to. So it is with real politic. For me, that Stefan is a committed partisan is actually a good thing.

I've also been online for a long time. The polemics on Sound Politics and Horse's Ass are a form of performance art. I love a good rant or flame as much as the next guy. And I regard being called an asshole the start of a good conversation.

I'm not excited about making myself a target. But now's the time. I feel that I now know enough about elections and voting systems to start speaking out. (Or maybe just louder.) Remaining silent isn't an option. I'll support any efforts to improve election integrity. If that means working with partisans from the right, good. It'll help balance out the partisans from the left.

The team from work went down Las Vegas for a few days. The boss was punishing us for a job well done. It was blast furnace hot. We ate big Thursday night at RumJungle. The Fire Pit is all you can eat meats. It was okay. Then we danced for a bit. Jen (Dan's girlfriend) was quite the party catalyst, getting about 1/2 of the restaurant out onto the floor.

Friday we headed to the big boss's house. It's pretty big. And deluxe. Marble everything. Lots of great toys. Like those new 6' tall super thin speakers. Wicked cool. The view of Lake Mead is great. I tried to spend some time outside on the patio with everyone else, started feeling really bad, so escaped to the basement and set the air conditioner on "artic wind". It was a pretty good visit. Our big boss has an amazing amount of energy and is a great host. We ate really well.

Four of us saw Cirque Du Soleil's "O" Friday night. Tickets were $150. Each. Yet we were pretty far back. It's hard not to feel ripped off. The program is very French. Good guy, bad guy, a couple goofballs for comic relief, vague plot, lots of whimsy. Technically, the whole thing is just amazing. Swimming, custumes, sets, lighting, water, high dives, a stage that rearranges. The performers are also amazing. So I feel weird complaining. But the whole of "O" somehow manages to be less than the sum of its parts.

I enjoyed Saturday quite a bit. When I travel, I like to explore. See what's what. I have less than zero interest in The Strip, gambling, and hanging out at the pool. Stan, Laura, and I had previously talked about site-seeing on Saturday. So we stole Dan's rental car, grabbed Mahesh, and boogied.

Fremont Street was the first stop. It's where all the old school casinos are downtown. The street itself is covered, which lowered the temps enough to allow walking around. Everything being human-scale and pedestrian friendly makes Fremont Street fun. It's totally unlike the inhumanity and pedestrian hostile qualities of The Strip.

Next, we headed up to Valley of Fire State Park. That was really cool. Geographically, it's a bit like Sedona, Arizona. Millions of years of sentiment, oxidized red, pushed back up, and then eroded into otherworldly shapes. The Valley of Fire had been inhabited from roughly 3,000BC thru 1,000AD. Then the climate changed and most of the people had to move on. There's rock art to see, carved by ancients. Highly recommended.

With the benefit of hindsight, heading down Thurday morning and coming back Saturday was a good plan. You totally miss the weekend peak travel crowds, but still get to see the shows.

Though, honestly, if I never visit Las Vegas again, I won't feel terrible about it. It's just not my style.

My coworker Mahesh and I headed down to watch the parade, grab a bite eat, enjoy a bit of the weather. I love community activities like this.

The number of Norwiegian flags struck me. I'm left trying to figure out why it's okay to wave Norwiegian flags on our streets, but not Mexican flags. Are white Europeans the only group that are allowed to celebrate their cultural heritage?

The first marching band played Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" for the judges. Gods, I love that song. It's great to see a new generation of future leaders appreciate the artistry of heavy metal.

We activists working on election integrity need a strategy. To be effective. To not burn out. To do the right thing.

So here's my strategy, to date, unrefined.

I swiped my strategy straight from Bernie Ellis. Until I attended his workshop, I couldn't figure out how to get started.  I'm very grateful to Bernie and appreciate his leadership.

There are three phases of activism: find your allies, education, and direct action. Bernie's group also works with, versus against, elections officials.  Praise them for their hard work. Bernie says you have to prioritize. Lastly, Bernie's a Yellow Dog Democrat who found a way to work with Republicans.  (Apparently, many in Tennessee's GOP got all sorts of interested in election integrity after some goofy primaries.  Haha.)

Andrew Gumbel said something very important: That criticizing the elections, the officials, etc, only serves to undermine democracy. Our job is to increase confidence, to support their efforts.  Gumbel said this during his "Steal This Vote" book tour last year.  This advice is probably the hardest to do day to day.

Mark Crispin Miller advised that you can't look at the enormity of the problem all at once. Just work on what you can manage. He also said that a government cannot survive the loss of the people's confidence, democracy or not. He used the example of the Soviet Union. So don't despair; this too will pass. (These gems came from Miller's "Fooled Again" visit).

I have been very impressed by the people and efforts of Whatcom Fair Voting. (No Leaky Buckets is a site maintained by member Marian Beddill.) They are truly non-partisan. And effective. Watching them in action gives me hope for our own efforts. I try to emulate their example.

I also try to practice the advice from "Getting to Yes". Mostly because I don't have a better idea. Politics in the USA are broken. I believe it's mostly because of the partisan divide and that we're not talking to each other. So I do the one thing I'm pretty comfortable doing: talking. Otherwise, I try to negotiate in good faith and push back when someone pushes me.

Most recently, I've found great inspiration in the work of David Domke.  He's a communications professor over at the U of W.  I recently attended a seminar he and Crispin Thurlow gave on strategic communication.  What they call "Talking American".  It's a toolkit for applying all that stuff Lakoff has been talking about.  Great, great stuff.

Lastly, I have this goofy idea that we just have to keep pushing.  Push, push, push.  Everything I've read about effecting change says that you have to stay positive, work on getting your facts straight, and push, push, push. Ghandi actually understood marketing for activists: first the ignore you, then they mock you, then they fight you, then you've won. That's pretty much the diffusion model right there.

Well. I guess it was my time to stand up and be counted. To paint a bullseye on my back and run around the courtyard.

This Wednesday at 12:30pm, we're protesting King Co's push to 100% vote by mail. Here's the press release posted on Evergreen Freedom Foundation's website.

Long time readers (haha) will recall that I've had prior contact with EFF. I blogged about it back in October 2005 (Bob Williams (EFF) on Election Reform). I've learned a lot about election and voting systems since then.

Things have more or less worked out the way I had hoped. I'm very surprised. A couple of us from Washington Citizens for Fair Elections have been making the rounds, talking about election integrity to anyone who would listen. Including the Libertarians and Republicans.

I got some pretty funny advice a few months back, from an election integrity activist who happens to be a liberal like me, "If you want to get the attention of the Democrats, start with the Republicans". Haha. We'll see how that advice works out.

I've found that I disagree with a lot of the election reform ideas from both the left and the right. Some of the issues really piss me off, like the disenfranchisement of felons, Real ID, and vote by mail. And when it comes to improving the integrity of our elections, I'm happy to work with anyone and everyone, regardless of their politics.

It's probably naive, but I hope that if people from across the political spectrum can identify common interests and work towards positive change that maybe it'll open the door to future dialog. I'm cautiously optimistic.

I'm rapidly approaching the age of mid-life crisis. I'm not terribly pleased about it. Although, things as they are, I'm pretty grateful to still be living and breathing.

And I scored some sweet loot. Juli got me a crank operated flashlight and radio. Plus some survival gear. (I'm somewhat concerned about the upcoming avian bird flu virus pandemic and the resulting collapse of civilization.)

My other brother Greg bought me the latest Boondocks release Public Enemy #2 and Da Jesus Book, which I thought was humor but apparently is serious business.

I really don't experience enough art. So, it being my birthday weekend and all, Juli and I headed down to On The Boards to catch the latest 12 Minutes Max. Overall, I had a great time. I really liked about 1/2 of the acts.

Mary Purdy is brilliant. One of her skits was a lecture about cooking that strayed into failed relationships. Very funny. The other was a mime routine about cooking under time pressure, set to music. Really, really well done.

I liked the dancing routines. Especially Cathleen O’Malley’s “Loose Ends” and Jill somebody who danced "Coin Operated Boy".

Juli also really like the guitarist Michael Candido.

I haven't put my stake in the ground yet on immigration. So here it is.

America is a big place. Everyone should be welcome. Though measures must be in place to ensure orderly immigration. Because we need continue the American model of integrating immigrants, vs the Europen model where immigrants are left outside of society.

A formative childhood experiences was my church sponsored so-called "boat people" from Vietnam and Cambodia. Help them get established, educated, employed, etc. I played with their kids while the adults did adult stuff. Note that "boat people" are illegal immigrants. And yet somehow everyone knew that we were supposed to help them.

Another formative thought came after the Persian Gulf War. The Atlantic Monthly explained that Iraq (1991) was the opening salvo in a global war between the rich North and poor South (more or less). (Sorry, can't find the issue to cite.) We were told to expect a lot of people wanting to move "North" (to USA, Canada, Europe, etc).

There's some number or precentage of immigrants that American society can absorb. So even though I welcome anyone who wants to come to America, I recognize that our society can't absorb a flood of people. Whatever that figure, we need to use the economic levers of "push" and "pull" to moderate the flow of immigration.

Unfortunately, I supported NAFTA. In my worldview, the official policy of the USA should be to improve the economic lives of all of Latin America. I mistakenly believed NAFTA would help Mexicans, Salvadorians, etc. My hope was that if their lives improved there, the flow of immigrants to here would be moderated. I'm embarrassed to say that I was wholely wrong about NAFTA (and I really don't understand why NAFTA didn't achieve that goal).

I guess that's all I've got say about immigration for now.