bigmacbear: Me in a leather jacket and Hockey Night in Canada ball cap, on a ferry with Puget Sound in background (Default)
bigmacbear ([personal profile] bigmacbear) wrote2006-10-18 12:23 am
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Commonality

What do [livejournal.com profile] gmjambear and I have in common with Bill Gates?

Answer: A Congresscritter.

Turns out that most of the area between Lake Washington and the Cascades, including parts of Renton, Mercer Island, Bellevue, and Medina (the ultra-rich enclave where the Microsoft mogul lives), comprises the Eighth Congressional District of Washington. It actually takes in a large chunk of eastern King County which extends all the way to Snoqualmie Pass, and about half of Pierce County to the south. You can find maps here.

And for the moment, our shared Congresscritter is a Republican.1

After hearing the commentary on the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (the "torture bill") and reading that our Congresscritter voted for it, and then finding out the Seattle Times had given him their endorsement, I wrote a strongly-worded letter to the editor and sent it off. In a day or two I'll post it here if it hasn't been printed.

1 Re-" as in all over again, and "publican" as in the hated tax collector of the New Testament. How appropriate, given that by some of their recent actions the government steals from the poor and gives to the rich, all over again..

[identity profile] danlmarmot.livejournal.com 2006-10-18 02:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes. Mr Reichart may be 'open-minded', but being open-minded about torture then deciding it's OK is even a bit more ugly than being dumb and blaming your decision on ignorance.

Also: notice how it's really really hard to find out how people voted on that? It's not easy figuring out how your congressman voted. Took me about 20 minutes.

So it's Ms. Darcy Burner for us as well. Ballots are mailed on Friday, so our fun weekend task is to vote.

(Oh, and no, we don't live in Medina :-) )