Miscellaneous links.

• Do you see the subliminal arrow in the negative space of the FedEx logo at right? Neither did I until I read about it at Edward Tufte's joint. Now I can't stop seeing it.

• One more year to go until the next presidential inauguration on 2009/01/20. Who knows how much more damage Bush can pull off by then? StickerGiant.com has commemorative swag.

• Impeachment is in the air. Watch Rep. Wexler's speech before the U.S. House of Representatives. Read about State Sen. Oemig's hearing in the Washington Legislature.

• Three days ago, I was sent email by DraftBloomberg.com, asking me to sign a petition to draft Mike Bloomberg as an independent candidate for President. I promptly wrote back, refusing on the grounds that (a) I view Bloomberg as a Naderesque spoiler who's likely to take votes from the Democratic nominee, and (b) I find Bloomberg to be an uncompelling candidate who just happens to be rich enough to self-finance. Looking at their site a few minutes ago, I see that they've only managed to scrape up 1,522 signatures, which is pathetic.

• Ron Paul enjoys an improbable level of support on the Internet, raising staggering amounts of money by appealing to the libertarian bloc. But there's compelling evidence that Paul is a Bircherite not a libertarian, with lucrative ties to white supremacists going back more than 20 years.

• Harold Meyerson argues that we are entering a recession and the old remedies won't do, because the US economy is no longer fundamentally sound.

  Wages have been flat-lining for a long time now, the housing bubble isn't going to be reinflated anytime soon, and the upward pressure on oil prices is only going to mount. As in Roosevelt's time, we need a policy that boosts incomes and finds new solutions for our energy needs.

  Scholars & Rogues argue that getting out of Iraq can fund the necessary changes to get us out of a recession.

• Although I'm generally willing to believe the worst of the Bush administration, I've never found the 9/11 conspiracy theories to be plausible. Matt Taibbi debunks 9/11 conspiracy theories to my satisfaction.

• On a positive note, the .NET Source Code is now available. You can debug through the source of the Microsoft libraries, when you need to. Visual Studio 2008 only.

In response to the following letter:

Subject: Thurs 4/19: Impeachment in Olympia
Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2007 15:04:29 -0400
From: Democrats.com <activist@democrats.com>
Reply-To: activist@democrats.com

HELP WASHINGTON STATE IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/wa

PLEASE JOIN US FOR AN HISTORIC DEBATE ABOUT IMPEACHMENT AND THE IRAQ WAR, ON THE FLOOR OF THE WASHINGTON STATE SENATE ON THURSDAY, APRIL 19TH, 11:00AM. RALLY 10:00 AM.

We have one more week to move SJM 8016 to a vote in the Washington State Senate. WE CANNOT LET DEMOCRACY QUIETLY SLIP AWAY. Democratic leadership can still move SJM 8016, Senator Oemig's bill to investigate President Bush and Vice President Cheney, to the floor for a vote, if they choose. Our intention in this campaign is to send our memorial to the US Congress, not to let our bill rot in committee. We need to send out a flood of calls and emails to members of the Washington State Senate, asking them to move SJM 8016 to a vote. It is not enough for our Senators to say that they will vote "if SJM 8016 makes it to the floor." We must urge them to actively advocate for a vote, and to lobby their colleagues in favor of SJM 8016 as well. We need your help this week, to convince leadership to move SJM 8016 to a vote. Here is how you can help:

1. Email or call State Senate leadership today. Urge them to provide leadership by moving SJM 8016 to the floor for a vote. Please tell them that we can't wait until the next legislative session to call the Bush Administration into account. With our current constitutional crisis, we must insist that our Senators exercise their power and influence to support and protect the US Constitution. Remind then that their sworn oath to defend the Constitution is their only oath of office, and their highest calling as a public official. The eyes of the country are upon them now. SJM 8016 may be the most important legislation they vote on in their entire career. The fate of our country deserves their dedicated efforts now. We want our Senators to go on record now with their votes. We need to send this message daily to all of leadership. Here are emails for leadership:

brown.lisa@leg.wa.gov
eide.tracey@leg.wa.gov
chopp.frank@leg.wa.gov
murray.edward@leg.wa.gov
spanel.harriet@leg.wa.gov
regala.debbie@leg.wa.gov
rockefeller.phil@leg.wa.gov

2. Contact Governor Christine Gregoire. Ask her to support SJM 8016 by letting Democratic leadership know that she wants them to move SJM 8016 to a vote. Ask her kindly to honor her own oath of office and to use her influence now to restore rule of law in this country. We ask her to protect us from the abuses of the Bush Administration. Governor Gregoire has not received enough communication on this issue. Let Governor Gregoire know that opposition to SJM 8016 would show she does not vigorously support the US Constitution. We want a vote on SJM 8016 so we know where our Legislators stand. Help us flood her office with calls and emails all week long:
(360) 902-4111
http://www.governor.wa.gov/contact

3. PLEASE COME TO THE STATE CAPITOL IN OLYMPIA TO ATTEND THE DEBATE ON APRIL 19TH AT 11:00.

We will gather to rally at 10:00 am (details TBA). Our March 1st rally in Olympia had 500 people. Let's make this one 1,000 and let the world know that democracy lives in Washington state. As the second state to call for impeachment through our state legislature, we are providing hope and leadership for the rest of the country. We must keep pushing ahead, and keep impeachment "on the table". Every day that we make our voices heard, we win another step toward restoring democracy.

Please arrange for transportation with people from your community. We are asking that people sitting in the Senate gallery wear something "Guantanamo orange." (Since signs are not allowed in the Senate gallery, we will alert our Senators to our presence by wearing orange.)

Thank you for your timely response to this call to action. Your commitment to the practice of Democracy has inspired me personally, and given me hope that the good people of this country will prevail.

Thank you,

Linda Boyd Washington For Impeachmentx

---

FORWARD THIS EMAIL

I just sent the following letter:

Senator Oemig's bill to investigate the Bush Administration is of vital importance, and I urge you to bring it to the floor of the Senate for a vote.

It seems clear that the Administration lied us into an unnecessary war of aggression against Iraq -- a war that has killed thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis; a war that has hurt our national security; a war that has led us into torture and violating the Geneva Conventions; a war that has alienated us from our friends and allies; in short, a war that we cannot afford financially, morally, or militarily.

Surely this is enough to bring impeachment proceedings against the President and the Vice President. We must have a full investigation. The Oemig bill is one of the few avenues that can start this investigation, since our representatives in the other Washington are not minded to do so.

I believe that this is not a distraction, but the highest service that the Washington legislature can perform for the nation. The 2006 mid-term elections were a referendum on Iraq and on the President. He has repeatedly shown his contempt for the will of the people since then. In the remaining 21 months of his term, he may precipitate us into yet more wars, with Iran and Syria.

I urge you to bring Senator Oemig's bill to the floor, and to lobby your colleagues to make this happen.

Thank you.

George V. Reilly,
Seattle, WA 98108

I'm slightly more hopeful this week about not Attacking Iran after reading this piece, subtitled Thelma and Louise Imperialism.

You only have to pick up the morning paper to find the most mainstream of official types in an over-the-top mode that, bare months ago, would have been confined to the distant peripheries of political argument. There's Senator Joe Biden, the very definition of a mainstream man, grilling Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about whether she believes the administration already has the authority to attack Iran and swearing, if she does, that it "will generate a constitutional confrontation in the Senate, I predict to you." (You can add the exclamation point to that comment or to similar ones from the likes of Senators James Webb and Chuck Hagel among others.)

... 

Former officials are now crawling out of the Washington woodwork to denounce Bush/Cheney policy in Iraq and Iran with the fervor (however masked by official Washington language) of an exorcism.

... 

But it took more than [the work of Sy Hersh, Ray McGovern, and others] for so much of official Washington to panic. It took the administration's decision to send the USS John C. Stennis, a second aircraft carrier task force into the Persian Gulf (with hints that a third could follow); it took the announcement of what Juan Cole has termed George Bush's "fatwa," allowing the U.S. military to take out Iranian agents anywhere in Iraq ("Announcing open hunting season on all Iranian visitors to Iraq," Cole wrote, "is like playing Frisbee with nitroglycerin. Bush has gone looking for trouble and is likely to find it..."); it took the detention by U.S. forces of various Iranian officials in Iraq and the invasion of an Iranian office in Irbil in Iraqi Kurdistan; ...

but only slightly:

So feel free to imitate official Washington. Be scared, very scared. An attack on Iran, if it were to happen, promises a special mixture of two fundamentalisms deeply engrained in our top political and military officials that may, in the end, combine into a single lethal brew -- and that will, in the bargain, give American policy in the Middle East the full-blown look of a war on Islam. Though our President is a Christian fundamentalist, neither of these Washington fundamentalisms are, in the normal sense, religious or particularly Christian.

I got a reply from Maria Cantwell's office, regarding the email that I sent about Attacking Iran. Clearly no brain cells were used in sending out this form response.

Dear Mr. Reilly,

Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns for the development of nuclear weapons in Iran. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.

As you may know, international nuclear inspectors continue to monitor whether Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Such a program would be in contravention to the nuclear non-proliferation agreement that Iran has signed. In November 2004, the countries of Britain, France, and Germany negotiated an agreement with Iran, in which Iran agreed to cancel its nuclear programs. Unfortunately, Iran has recently backed away from its commitments. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reported that Iran is accelerating its nuclear fuel enrichment activities and has failed to comply with international nuclear inspectors. Specifically, Iran began resuming uranium conversion in August 2005 and then announced its intentions to begin research on enriching uranium in February 2006.

On March 29, 2006, the United Nations Security Council issued a Presidential Statement on Iran 's nuclear programs requesting that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment programs within 30 days and cooperate with the IAEA. Iran failed to comply with this Presidential Statement.

On May 31, 2006 the Bush Administration decided to change course and join diplomatic talks with Iran, along with the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. I believe that the United States must engage in real diplomacy and work with Russia, China, and other countries to deal with Iran. We cannot permit Iran to build or acquire nuclear weapons.

During the debate on the Defense Authorization bill, Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) introduced an amendment calling on Iran to suspend its enrichment program and to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency. The amendment was agreed to, with my support, in a vote of 99 to 0.

Please be assured that I will continue to press for progress towards a verifiable diplomatic solution.

Thank you again for contacting me to share your thoughts on this matter. Finally, you may be interested in signing up for my weekly update for Washington state residents. Every Monday, I provide a brief outline about my work in the Senate and issues of importance to Washington State. If you are interested in subscribing to this update, please visit my website at http://cantwell.senate.gov. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can be of further assistance.

Sincerely, Maria Cantwell United States Senator

For future correspondence with my office, please visit my website at http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/index.html

I hate phoning politicians' offices, but clearly email isn't achieving much.

Via Digby, a warning about the Bush Administration trying to gin up a case for war against Iran. Arthur Silber and Scott Ritter have things to say.

I just sent the following letter to my Senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, my Representative, Jim McDermott, and to Senator Russ Feingold.

Senator:

It is quite apparent that the Bush Administration is working up to provoking a war on Iran. We went through this before, in the leadup to the Iraq war in 2002.

I hold no brief for Iran. They are bad actors in the region. Clearly, they have worrisome nuclear ambitions. And they have little love for the U.S.

But somehow, we survived more than 40 years of Cold War against a far greater threat, without ever going to war with the Soviets.

As Scott Ritter points out at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070205/ritter a Democratically-controlled Congress will share responsibility with Bush should we start an unnecessary war with Iran. Only Congress can declare war; do not forfeit that right to the president again.

Let there be hearings. Let a real case be made for war with Iran. And if our national security is indeed at stake, then do what you must. But if it is not, then shut this down now.

There is a great moral question at stake here. (Never mind the logistical difficulties of starting another war when the Army is already stretched too thin.) We cannot, must not, silently acquiesce to another war.

Go, thou, and do likewise.

I just sent the following letter to my senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, as well as to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Letter Page :

How has America come to this? Is the United States of America truly about to repudiate the Geneva Convention? Is the Senate about to let the President decide when and whom to torture?

This is foul. This is wholly un-American. This is deeply immoral. Every civilized society abhors torture.

How can we claim to be spreading Democracy in the Middle East at the same time that we commit torture? Are we to lose all of our moral standing in the eyes of the world under this wretched Administration?

Tell me that we're better than this. Please!

Senator, you must oppose this wholeheartedly. Do not let it come to a vote on the floor of the Senate.

Craig Murray, the former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, who was fired for speaking out about Karimov's use of torture, writes about the UK terror plot:

I have been reading very carefully through all the Sunday newspapers to try and analyse the truth from all the scores of pages claiming to detail the so-called bomb plot. Unlike the great herd of so-called security experts doing the media analysis, I have the advantage of having had the very highest security clearances myself, having done a huge amount of professional intelligence analysis, and having been inside the spin machine....

None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn't be a plane bomber for quite some time.

In the absence of bombs and airline tickets, and in many cases passports, it could be pretty difficult to convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt that individuals intended to go through with suicide bombings, whatever rash stuff they may have bragged in internet chat rooms....

In all of this, the one thing of which I am certain is that the timing is deeply political. This is more propaganda than plot. Of the over one thousand British Muslims arrested under anti-terrorist legislation, only twelve per cent are ever charged with anything. That is simply harrassment of Muslims on an appalling scale. Of those charged, 80% are acquitted. Most of the very few - just over two per cent of arrests - who are convicted, are not convicted of anything to do terrorism, but of some minor offence the Police happened upon while trawling through the wreck of the lives they had shattered.

Be sceptical. Be very, very sceptical.

Via AmericaBlog.

(Originally posted to Iraq at EraBlog on Wed, 23 Jul 2003 06:25:56 GMT)

[Found in my email. Original author unknown.]

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ('AP', played by John Cleese) walks down the street carrying THE IRAQI INVASION (played by an empty parrot cage). He walks into THE WHITE HOUSE (played by a cheesy storefront) and addresses COLIN POWELL ('CP', played by Michael Palin).

AP: Excuse me... boy!

CP: (turns around and stands up) What d'you mean, 'boy?'

AP: I'm sorry; I have contact lenses. At any rate, I wish to register a complaint!

CP: Sorry, squire, I can't talk to you now. It's Code Orange! (he hastily starts to put up a sign)

AP: Never mind that now, my fine fellow. I wish to register a complain about this military action, which you sold me just a couple of months ago.

CP: Oh yes, the Iraqi invasion. Lovely little war, that was. What... uh, what seems to be wrong with it?

AP: I'll tell you what's wrong with it. It's empty, that's what's wrong with it.

CP: Oh, no, no, no. It's not empty at all. It's served its purpose, it has. Freed the oppressed people of Iraq, fed the homeless, brought everlasting fame and glory to our bulging leader.

AP: But when I purchased this dreary little police action from you, you assured me that the whole and entire purpose was to disarm Saddam Hussein and take away, quote, his vast stockpiles of ready-to-use weapons of mass destruction, end quote.

CP: Oh, there's some mistake. We went in to liberate the poor oppressed people of...

AP: Listen, mate. I took the liberty of recording your voice when you sold me that thing, and here's what it says. (produces tape recorder)

Tape: (CP's voice): "We know just where they are. We know just what they've got. They're buried in these bunkers right here, which our surveillance satellites have photographed not more than twenty minutes ago. They could not possibly be used for any purpose other than the storage of hideous, slime-dripping nuclear anthrax chemical weapons of mass destruction. Say, are you recording me?"

AP: Right. And when we "liberated" those poor bastards, the bunker was found to contain little more than a twenty-year collection of Penthouse and Hustler magazines, plus a dozen lava lamps and a mini-bar.

CP: Well...

AP: Well?

CP: Well, of course they'd cleaned it out before they left. Sold it all to their chums in the Taliban, they did.

AP: I happen to know that their 'chums,' as you so colorfully put it, hate their guts and have referred to them repeatedly as "scabrous lackeys of the internationalist secular state," end quotation.

CP: Well, they have to say that, don't they? I mean, it's all part of the grand scheme. Lovely little war, wa'nit? Liberated all them poor...

AP: Stoppit! All you've done is make their lives worse than before. That's why they keep killing our soldiers.

CP: Oh no, squire. They're grateful. That's why they pulled down that statue.

AP: I've seen the footage of the event, and the only Iraqis in the picture appear to have had their feet nailed there.

CP: Well, of course they were nailed there. If we hadn't nailed them, they'd've been crushed by the falling statue, wouldn't they? It was for their own safety. That's why we liberated the...

AP: Shut up. Did you or did you not allege on several different occasions that we had found the weapons of mass destruction and that therefore the entire ill-advised escapade was a rousing success?

CP: What, them trailers? Well, of course they was weapons of mass destruction. They could've used them for germs, or chemicals, or...

AP: In fact, they were used for hydrogen, and precious little of that. They didn't even have walls, for pity's sake.

CP: Well, hydrogen's pretty dangerous, isn't it, Squire? It could power tanks or jets or... and what about that Hindenberry thing? Let's see you stand in a room full of liquid hydrogen with nothing but a ripe boysenberry to defend yourself with, and you'll soon see mass destructive. Wouldn't want to be in your shoes then! And anyway, we liberated the...

AP: Liberation don't enter into it, mate. It was a bleeding sham.

CP: No, it was liberation!

AP: Sham, sham, sham! And you didn't find any weapons of mass destruction!

CP: Well, of course we didn't, Squire. They was... they was looted.

AP: Looted? LOOTED?

CP: Yeah. When our boys was busy not looking at the museum, they looted all them weapons out from under their noses. And anyway, we liberated...

AP: You're saying that starving peasants with no resources of their own simply looted vast stores of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons? With What??

CP: They carried them off on their bicycles.

AP: But a missile weighs several tons, and a bicycle can only carry, at most, a couple of hundred pounds.

CP: They used two bicycles, with a bungee cord between 'em. They're a nasty lot, Squire. Not like the ones that sang songs to us when we liberated...

AP: Will you shut up? Since when is it liberation to leave a people destitute, without food, water, electricity, or law enforcement?

CP: Those things was all shackles on them. We freed 'em, I tell you! They're grateful to us. They're singin' songs...

AP: Those aren't songs, you parsimonious prevaricator, they're protesting in the streets, and shooting at our soldiers.

CP: They're just exuberant. Like to fire off their guns a lot, now they're free and all. They don't mean nuffin' by it. They're just so happy to be liberated, with Hussein gone. You mark my words; he was the real weapon of mass destruction his own self, why, he...

AP: That's another thing. You didn't even get him, did you?

CP: Well...

AP: You don't even know where he is, do you?

CP: We got a tip...

AP: You've been blowing up caravans and bombing cities and striking about blindly, because your yahoo cowboy boss refused to listen to any intelligence that contradicted his beliefs. Which, when you come down to it, precluded the use of any intelligence whatsoever.

CP: I see. Quite. (pause) Well, then, we'd better replace it, hadn't we?

AP: With what?

CP: Well, them Iranis are gettin' pretty swaggery, ain't they?

AP: I thought you were encouraging them to rise up against their religious leaders, now that they aren't accepting any more cakes from your lot.

CP: Fair enough. How about something in a nice little Afghanistan?

AP: You've already done that one. Worse than Iraq, if I recall.

CP: How about... coming up to my place and re-electing my boss?

AP: Why in the world would I want to do that? Why wouldn't I just vote for the Democrats and chase you idiots out of office, once for all?

AP: Oh, no, Squire! No, no, no, no! You wouldn't want to do that, trust me on this one.

AP: And why not, if I may be so brash as to query?

CP: Well, they're a bunch of psychopathic liars, they are, always Whitewaterin', 'aving sex in the Oval Office, taking' expensive haircuts on Air Force One, trashing the White House, murderin' poor ol' Vince Foster, and claiming they invented the Internet.

AP: Point taken! Well, then, I'll have a North Korea to go, please.

CP: You won't regret it, Squire! I'll just wrap it up. (tears an American flag off of a roll and clumsily wraps up the same cage the AP carried in.) Come again!

(Originally posted to Iraq at EraBlog on Mon, 24 Mar 2003 06:56:07 GMT)

A friend of Emma's sent her a link to an article by Thom Hartmann at Commondreams.org.

The 70th anniversary wasn't noticed in the United States, and was barely reported in the corporate media. But the Germans remembered well that fateful day seventy years ago - February 27, 1933. They commemorated the anniversary by joining in demonstrations for peace that mobilized citizens all across the world.

It started when the government, in the midst of a worldwide economic crisis, received reports of an imminent terrorist attack. A foreign ideologue had launched feeble attacks on a few famous buildings, but the media largely ignored his relatively small efforts. The intelligence services knew, however, that the odds were he would eventually succeed. (Historians are still arguing whether or not rogue elements in the intelligence service helped the terrorist; the most recent research implies they did not.)

---

I'm not quite paranoid enough (yet) to buy the analogy, but the numerous parallels are eerie and discomforting.

[permalink: http://EraBlog.NET/filters/10246.post]

(Originally posted to Iraq at EraBlog on Fri, 21 Mar 2003 08:04:55 GMT)

Peter Turnley is a photojournalist who covered the first Gulf War. The Unseen Gulf War is his collection of previously unpublished photos from that war. The photos present no political viewpoint, but what they do "represent is a part of a more accurate picture of what really does happen in war". Warning: there are a number of graphic images of corpses.

(Originally posted to Iraq at EraBlog on Fri, 21 Mar 2003 07:38:19 GMT)

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Teddy Roosevelt, 1918

We're at war. The anti-war protests have ratcheted up, with hundreds of thousands protesting all over the country.

Emma joined the protest outside the Federal Building in Seattle early this evening. She went back to her office after an hour because her bad feet were killing her. Not long after, I arrived in downtown and followed the protesters as they marched up to Westlake, then back down to the Federal Building, where Emma joined me again.

I have no hope that this will make any difference to Bush. But it's important to be counted.

Senator Robert Byrd gave a fine speech yesterday, on the arrogance of power. Michael Kinsley wrote Unauthorized entry - The Bush Doctrine: War without anyone's permission, in today's Slate. Mike Duncan dissects the speech that Bush gave on Monday night, giving Saddam 48 more hours in Lies, Damned Lies, and Ultimatums.

(Originally posted to Iraq at EraBlog on Tue, 18 Mar 2003 06:41:46 GMT)

Almost, but not quite, at war with Iraq. Saddam has forty-eight hours to quit Iraq and avert war, but no-one expects him to do that. Feh.

I would feel slightly better about the new war if Bush had managed to forge a broad-based coalition. Instead, in their heavyhanded way, Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Perle have managed to piss off most of the world.

Paul Glastris has a good article in Slate about how Bush repeatedly botched the opportunities to get the UN and NATO on board, in contrast with Clinton in Kosovo and his own father for the first Gulf War.

(Originally posted to Iraq at EraBlog on Mon, 17 Mar 2003 06:59:33 GMT)

MoveOn.org organized a rolling wave of candlelight vigils across the world today, held at 7pm local time on Sunday, March 16th. Emma and I joined three of our friends at the vigil at the Seattle Central Community College, at Broadway and Pike. I estimate that there were 300-400 people there, and probably thousands more at the other vigils in the Seattle area.

It looks certain that Bush will declare war on Iraq in the next day or two. I'm still against the war. I would very much like to see Saddam gone (the poor bloody Iraqis never deserved thirty-plus years of that thug's misrule), but I don't trust Bush to do it right. Look at how badly they've followed through in Afghanistan: the country has reverted to warlordism outside of Kabul.

Nor has he made a compelling case for going to war. Instead, he and the neocon hawks have managed to alienate the whole world. Eighteen months ago, after 9/11, the world reacted with horror, and made sincere gestures of friendship. Now, practically everyone loathes and fears Bush.

I want the inevitable war to end as quickly as possible, with as little bloodshed as possible. But Mark LeVine at Alternet points out that 'Bush Wins' could be a nightmare scenario for the Left.

Sound Nonviolent Opponents of War are coordinating further peace rallies in the Puget Sound area. (Tip for candlelight vigils: punch a hole through the bottom of a Dixie (translucent wax-paper) cup and push the candle through that; the cup will catch dripping wax and it will also protect the flame from the wind.)