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The Seattle-area city and county governments do the same thing. It is fairly popular up here.

To partially copy-paste from a previous post, I live in Seattle, which is in King County, evidently the 12th largest county in the nation according to their FAQ site. I worked the AVU (Assisted Voting Unit) for the primaries this year. It was a Diebold Accuvote TSx (direct link to PDF). It has a printer and a sealed spool, and the voting works like this:
1. Voter makes their selections on the screen and hits the "Next" button (or whatever it is)
2. The printer prints a printout of what they voted on all the candidates and any issues, scrolling it up into a window
3. The voter looks at the paper ribbon through the window, confirming that what they voted for actually showed up right
4. The voter hits the "cast ballot" button, and the paper that they were looking at through the window gets sucked up into a spool with two security seals on it.
5. After all is said and done, the spool gets put in a bag and gets taken to some central place, in a car with more than one person in it, from different parties, if possible.
If there is anything at all wrong with the vote, the ballot is scrapped and the voter re-votes. This scrapped vote is also recorded and taken up into the spool. The spool also had barcodes everwhere for machine-scanning, as well as the people-readable (and verifiable) totals.

Sounds like what you're asking for. Given, it's not a Mini-ATX hooked to a server, but that is terribly impractical. I worked in a polling place in some church where we had a total of about 80 voters come through in 14 hours. Setting up a server would have been completely impractical. Other than that, it seems your requirements have been met - the exact same paper that the voter looked at gets sucked up into a tamper-proof* spool, which is transported as securely as any voting records to a central storage place. If there is any question of the vote, the spools are taken out, un-sealed, and counted - every record having been visually verified by the voter who cast it.
As for cost, they were small, self-contained touchscreen units - I think I remember hearing them being in the price range of about $6k or so per unit. Expensive, yes, but not unusually exorbient. This is the government, after all.
I knew there were problems with the earlier systems not having printers and such, but they seem to have finally gotten them right.

*Reasonably tamper-resistant, anyway - Secured by a VOID-type sticker (that leaves behind crap) and a plastic, one-way clip similar in concept (but more foolproof) than a zip tie, both with ID numbers that are recorded in multiple places, with multiple people watching and signing to verify. Yes, this can break down at the individual level, but so can any system - if you've got corrupt officials, no system can keep them from throwing things.

I live in Seattle, which is in King County, evidently the 12th largest county in the nation according to their FAQ site. I worked the AVU (Assisted Voting Unit) for the primaries this year. It was a Diebold Accuvote TSx (direct link to PDF). It has a printer and a sealed spool, and the voting works like this:
1. Voter makes their selections on the screen and hits the "Next" button (or whatever it is)
2. The printer prints a printout of what they voted on all the candidates and any issues, scrolling it up into a window
3. The voter looks at the paper ribbon through the window, confirming that what they voted for actually showed up right
4. The voter hits the "cast ballot" button, and the paper that they were looking at through the window gets sucked up into a spool with two security seals on it.
5. After all is said and done, the spool gets put in a bag and gets taken to some central place, in a car with more than one person in it, from different parties, if possible.
If there is anything at all wrong with the vote, the ballot is scrapped and the voter re-votes. This scrapped vote is also recorded and taken up into the spool.

I don't see how that is any less secure and worse than traditional paper ballots - it seems, in fact, much better to me. The voter gets visual confirmation of their vote, there are no chads of any sort to worry about, the exact same paper that the voter looked at gets sucked up into a tamper-proof* spool, which is transported as securely as any voting records to a central storage place. If there is any question of the vote, the spools are taken out, un-sealed, and counted - every record having been visually verified by the voter who cast it.
I knew there were problems with the earlier systems not having printers and such, but they seem to have gotten them right. Yes, there could be viruses and crap, but I don't see how any virus could get around the visual confirmation by the voter. The only way I can see that it would cause problems is if it tweaked the results enough that there was no suspicion, so that no manual recount would take place - no worse than any other system.

I call FUD on the e-vote-phobia, at least in King County. The system is well-designed and works as well if not better than the traditional paper methods.

*Reasonably tamper-resistant, anyway - Secured by a VOID-type sticker (that leaves behind crap) and a plastic, one-way clip similar in concept (but more foolproof) than a zip tie, both with ID numbers that are recorded in multiple places, with multiple people watching and signing to verify. Yes, this can break down at the individual level, but so can any system - if you've got corrupt officials, no system can keep them from throwing things.

$1,012,321.14 for property tax (that includes the $1.95 fee for noxious weed)

source: https://payments.metrokc.gov/metrokc.ecommerce.propertytaxweb/RealProperty.aspx?Parcel=9208900079

I'm sure the rest is made up by the remaining 35,000 employees living in the state.

It's estimated that worldwide there are about 34 million people living with HIV. In the US, it's nearly a million with about a third of those people having AIDS symptoms. Only about 40k new cases are diagnosed each year, but because many fewer people are dying (because they're on these drugs) the number of people living with HIV continues to increase. A few years ago, AIDS was even the leading cause of death for young African American men and high up on the list for most other groups of young people.

#2: somebody get Judge Judith Eiler's email address. make sure she's on lots of "personal e-mail" lists

Note: I'm not posting anonymously out of fear. I forgot my password a year ago and haven't bothered getting it. If you really care who I am, I'm sure a subpeona will help you out (assuming the judge ISN'T Eiler I'm thinking that might be hard to get but who knows till you ask)

But seriously folks. Nothing illegal here, just reposting publicly available information to a million of my close friends

Judith Eiler's e-mail address according to this document (http://www.courts.wa.gov/court_dir/courtdirectory2005.pdf) is:
judith.eiler@metrokc.gov

I would recommend putting her name on it. Maybe even one sentence "this is personal correspondance between the author of this e-mail and the Judge Judith R. Eiler, and was not sent to any other person" If you really really want to prove it wasn't spam according to her ruling, you could always put in the picture of the person you're sending to: http://www.metrokc.gov/kcdc/eiler.htm Just keep in mind, as long as you can show that it's a personal e-mail for her, it's not spam. Just please do be careful; just cause it's not spam, doesn't mean it's not harrasment, threatening, or otherwise illegal. Keep it PG, polite, and kind while dripping with venom and you'll be alright. IANAL, YMMV, etc.

Other e-mails she might get:

Kent Courthouse:
kent.kcdc@metrokc.com

Burien Courthouse:
burien.kcdc@metrokc.com

Unless you're a jerk with a botnet I'd say sending e-mails to those two would be a lot harder to claim was personal. If you are a jerk with a botnet, I doubt filling those e-mail boxes would really make any point at all but its a free country (till the cops come and stop you from doing something at least) so go for it I guess lol

BTW, a lot of pages about her and the courts she serves at have been changed today; I'm guessing to avoid precisely the situation you advocated. That PDF file might be the last evidence of her e-mail address left on that server (we all know how hard it can be to get those pesky pdf's updated)

somebody get Judge Judith Eiler's email address.

It does not seem, like she has one... We'll have to wait until she — and others like her — retire or die out and get replaced by the new generation of judges. Of course, the new generation will be quite ignorant of details of some other new tech. Such is life today — unlike for the previous part of civilization's history, technology can now change drastically within a human lifetime...

Then, again, this particular woman has already been cited for:

engaging in a pattern of rude, impatient and undignified treatment of self-represented litigants in the courtroom. This included inappropriately interrupting them, addressing them in an angry or condescending or demeaning tone of voice, and threatening to rule against them if they interrupted or annoyed her.

This suggests, our (self-represented) anti-spam crusader annoyed her and lost for that reason — not at all because she does not know, what spam is... I admire his intentions, but he needs to partner with a like-minded lawyer, who would be going to courts leaving Bennet to what he does best — baiting spammers and collecting evidence.

It's not the population, it's how many different things we vote on.

Here's a concrete set of examples from King County, Washington (as in Seattle/Boeing/Microsoft/salmon/Gore-tex, not DC)

http://www.metrokc.gov/elections/archive/default.asp

Take a look at 2006. There were six different elections over the year, each one of which had multiple issues on the ballot.

In the general election (the big one), there were about 15 different things to vote on, depending on where you live. City councils, county councils, fire districts, school districts, local initiatives, county initiatives, state initiatives, district court, supreme court, court of appeals, public utility district, etc. Some of these are yes/no/pick one, some are pick N candidates from a list.

What does a typical Canadian/European example look like?

As does Amazon (shuttles between its various locations in Seattle, FTEs get a FlexPass to ride any of the local transit agencies for free, etc). It's great...I take the bus to work daily, and ever since I wrecked my car a couple months ago, I've been using the bus for everything else (and occasionally bumming rides off friends if I need to make a big trip somewhere), too.. so much so I'm not in a hurry to get my car replaced, and I'm even considering not replacing it at all. Seattle has a pretty good mass transit system.

I love the internet!

Election Information

Ed Barney
30503 7TH AVE SW
FEDERAL WAY WA, 98023
edbarney@mail.com
(253) 946-5664

His wife 'Gayla' was (thankfully) brutally beaten in the election for City Council. She's also got something to hide, as she can't fill out a simple questionaire. Sadly, Frosty should talk to his wife more, as she's for 'common sense decisions' (Warning: Picture of Gayla at bottom)

Board Member Dave Larson (who's a lawyer, btw) was the one who made the decision to 'ban' the movie, though Frosty's been squeaking his wheel on other topics at school board meetings for awhile. You can email Dave here!

Give Frosty a call and tell him you find his ideas intriguing and ask to subscribe to his newsletter! Frosty Hardison - Federal Way, WA - (253) 528-0343

Or just buy him something from this sad Amazon wishlist. After all, "The more citizen comment you have the better off we are."

His wife 'Gayla' was (thankfully) brutally beaten in the election for City Council. She's also got something to hide, as she can't fill out a simple questionaire. Sadly, Frosty should talk to his wife more, as she's for 'common sense decisions' (Warning: Picture of Gayla at bottom)

Board Member Dave Larson (who's a lawyer, btw) was the one who made the decision to 'ban' the movie, though Frosty's been squeaking his wheel on other topics at school board meetings for awhile. You can email Dave here!

Give Frosty a call and tell him you find his ideas intriguing and ask to subscribe to his newsletter! Frosty Hardison - Federal Way, WA - (253) 528-0343

Or just buy him something from this sad Amazon wishlist. After all, "The more citizen comment you have the better off we are."

Actually, stop and go is the best case for hybrids. Reciprocating engines are most efficient when they can be designed to work at fixed rpm. Starting from a stop in your car or diesel truck is very inefficient. It is much more efficient to use an electric motor for the initial start. Electric motors make max torque at 0 rpm and love low-speed operation.

When I drove transit in Seattle, I was lucky enough to drive their new New Flyer diesel-electric hybrid articulated buses. Because the big diesel didn't have to yank the bus away from a start, the buses were more fuel-efficient and much, much quieter. The lack of transmission made them unbelievably smooth. They were also the quickest transit buses I've ever driven despite being heavy 60-footers. The dynamic brakes made for a low-effort brake pedal, very smooth stops, and almost no brake wear. A full hybrid powertrain, while expensive, is absolutely ideal for urban transit buses -- which see more stop-and-go operation than any other vehicles. Fast, quiet, smooth, and fuel-efficient.

In my state, at least, minor speeding violations are not considered criminal offenses. See http://www.metrokc.gov/KCDC/reit.htm.

I was in a metro bus and wanted to take a picture of some trees outside. The bus driver told me, "Hey, you can't take pictures in here."

I asked, "Why not?!"

He said, "I'm actually supposed to report you to the police, if you do. Terrorism."

"What are they going to do, reverse engineer the bus timetables from photographic evidence? This can't possibly make us any safer."

He replied, "Well, who's to say."

Who's to say indeed.

Absolutely absurd.

Note that busview will give you the location of all Metro busses in real time.

"wild parsnip"? Heh. Just wait. The description on the site you link sounds like our Giant Hogweed... only Not Giant. Giant hogweed is very common in the countryside in Britain (and Ireland), It's something that looks quite like your "wild parsnip", only it is 10-15 feet tall and its chemical+u.v. burns kill some fool every once in a while, making for a tragically amusing tabloid headline or two. Actually, turns out giant hogweed has invaded America now too: http://dnr.metrokc.gov/wlr/lands/Weeds/hogweed.htm .

Are you sure a small town of fewer than 50,000 people has its own SWAT team?

Maybe it was really the King County SWAT team?.

The Redmond Police Department has a few jobs open right now, if anyone is interested.

Zillow claims it has 50,000 sqft, 8 bedrooms and 1???? bathroom. If you put put the parcel ID 9208900079 into the King County Tax Assessor's page, they claim it has two buildings, one with 48160 sqft, 7 bedrooms, and 18.75 bathroms, and the other with 1890 sqft, 1 br, 1 bath. Choose whomever you with to believe.

Maybe not quite that much, but some come close. Bill Gates' property records

Seattle Metro has a trip planner. Then there is Bus Monster which uses Google maps to show bus routes and current bus locations.

Arrive 4th Ave & Pike St
Transfer to
Depart Pike St & 4th Ave

Microsoft is providing free Wifi access in Marymoor Park in Redmond.

Poor guess. 58% in the largest county in Washington. A lot more people vote absentee these days than you'd think. Makes it easier for the democrats to engage in voter fraud here.
http://www.metrokc.gov/elections/news/2004_10_13.h tm

No public transit system in the country, possibly in the world, supports itself with fare collection, with the exception of the current Seattle Monorail. That's why it's called public transit; the government pays for it. Seattle doesn't even collect fares on their downtown buses during normal business hours. And they're fantastically popular.

Providing cheap, goverment subsidized public transportation is significantly less expensive and more effective than attempting to build the obscene number of roads that would otherwise be required.

And we have to keep the monorail tax - the monorail project has already purchased a lot of land to build the line, so we're pretty far in debt. Until the land's sold and everything's paid off, we're going to have to pay 30-40 bucks extra on our car tabs.

Note that Google had already agreed to this prior to MS pushing for an injunction.

Conslusions of Law, page 10, paragraph 5:

"Defendants' Stipulation is not a substitute for Plaintiff's request for injunctive relief, especially where, as here, the Stipulation was offered after the suit began and the Court issued the TRO. State v. Ralph Williams' North West Chrysler Plymouth, Inc., 82 Wn.2d 265, 272 (19733)"

http://www.metrokc.gov/kcsc/docs/Microsoftprelim.p df

How about this?

Everybody: If you have been to the Microsoft campus in Redmond between August 16 and August 19, YOU NEED TO GO TO YOUR DOCTOR NOW! - it turns out that somebody there had been exposed to Measles while overseas, and subsequently contracted the disease. Especially if you had been in the cafeteria, you need to be checked out, especially if your immunizations are not up to date. While this has all the makings of a sick joke (no pun intended) this is deadly serious. More information at the King County Health Department's website

I agree with the other posters (the ones I see currently that agree with you).
The summary is simply a cheap jab at MS. Reading the article.. It's not about MS. He just happened to go there. It didn't say he spread it to anyone, just "may have exposed other persons to the disease". The article is pretty much about a case of measles in one guy in King County, Redmond, WA.

From the summary, "In fact, they had been back, working, and spreading the disease at Microsoft and other places in Redmond for at least four days prior to being discovered."
It doesn't say he spread it, it says "have confirmed a case of measles in an adult exposed to the virus while traveling abroad."
From the "other" article (linked from the first):
"The infected person visited public areas in King County while contagious and may have exposed other persons to the disease."
That is "may have exposed", not "did expose". The summary is jumping to conclusions.
Oh, a single person that is either a MS employee or a frequent visitor to MS had measles, we'd better post this to SlashDot.

"'Microsoft Infected by Virus' ha ha I'm clever, also I am in no way jumping to conclusions by assuming that when the article doesn't say so at all!"

"I buy groceries once a week...I fill up the front seat and floorboard of my car easily..."

Groceries:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&it em=6783518401
http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/S earch?storeId=10001&referredURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.a rgos.co.uk%2Fwebapp%2Fwcs%2Fstores%2Fservlet%2FSea rch%3FstoreId%3D10001&referrer=FG13P&searchTerms=2 852706&params=P6813
http://www.kayslifestyle.co.uk/psnlnet/product.asp x?sid=FMNJA95VFXLQBRN080FB0RF3561EW9J8&brand=KaysL S&prod_id=211251

You'll notice these are all UK sites, we already have an extensive rail network. It's common for people to shop with these.

"cold snowy climate like MN would have problems with a system like this..."

The Taxi2000 system shouldn't be affected much, the running surfaces are enclosed in the track. The UK ATS Ultra system would be affected by heavy snow. Depends on the implementation.

"Would be VERY difficult to evacuate with this system in such small cars."

You say that, but people use automobiles which aren't much bigger. A single Taxi2000 track is designed to take 7,200 vehicles per hour, 21,000 people/hour. It's the equivalent of a 3 lane highway. The performance limiting step with PRT systems is actually the stations, it takes 20-30 seconds to chose a destination and get into the vehicle (180 vehicles/hour/bay).

"All your records you need...family pictures."

You're kidding right. You're the one holding up traffic on the highway with the sofa strapped to the roof of your car?

"Elderly people and their walker/wheelchairs..."

The taxi2000 system is designed to accomodate wheelchairs.

"How would one of these function as an ambulance with all the equipment they need? Firetrucks? Police?"

It wouldn't but I'd expect police stations and hospitals to have stations built in.

"and if you have all these roads and vehicles still...what do you need the new 'transit' system for"

http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/projects/d1/verona/im ages/congestion.jpg
http://www.portcult.com/DRIVING-emfhell26.jpg
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/whoweare/img/traffic.jpg
http://www.dorsetcc.gov.uk/media/images/8/j/Ridgew ay2large.jpg
http://www.metrokc.gov/kcdot/news/photos/2002-2/09 3002corridor.jpg

Google has lots more.

Already been done in King County, Washington.

King County Parcel Viewer:
http://www.metrokc.gov/gis/mapportal/PViewer_main. htm

And a similiar (and brand new) site for local jursidictions:
http://www.nwmaps.net/

Real Estate:
http://www.nwproperty.net/

That being said, while I'm a big fan of Rossi, I think that the Republican challenge was pretty weak. When you have to rely on stats to make a decision then the choice is pretty clear - do nothing. The judge did the right thing here. He told our citizens that we'd better clean up this mess ourselves. In King County where I live, that means throwing out Dean Logan, the appointed county elections director. Since his boss doesn't think that this is necessary, it's time to remove Ron Sims as well.

Some cities have the luxury of separate sewage and storm drain pipes. Others don't, and send everything through the water treatment plant, preventing overflows as best they can. All depends on when it was built and how much they spent.

I'm not historically a fan of buses (not until recently), but these new ones are hot. They are made by New Flyer. They are also really damn clean. I've bicycled and walked near them and it is amazing. The smell is very distinct, it doesn't smell like normal diesel. Hell, I've never seen smoke come out of one of these (only hot air); they seem much cleaner than most diesel cars. I saw some buses in Cleveland and they were spewing nasty black smoke while idling. I've been spoiled by these (since they are used on the routes I use the most), so I'm disappointed when I have to ride on older buses.

If you don't like the way the US is run, why don't you move along with all the other liberals who promised to move to Canada if Bush got elected the first time around?

The liberal ideology is flawed in that it is touted as progressive and liberating, but only hurts and destroys a society in the end. 40,000,000 abortions since 1973. Here is the abortion deaths to war deaths comparison.(These are innocent deaths, folks.) But the libs want to ban cigarette smoking? C'mon. And all this rhetoric about celebrating diversity only applies if you are not a Christian or a Jew. It's OK to be gay? Not if you want to see a substantial increase in STDs among gay and bi-sexuals.

So the liberal ideology has killed more people that wars dating back to the Civil War? At least the people going into war knew what they were getting in to.

But in the last days evil will be called good and good will be called evil.

Well at least the buses.

Found at Metrokc.gov

The appropriate State or local official shall establish and maintain reasonable procedures necessary to protect the security, confidentiality, and integrity of personal information collected, stored, or otherwise used by the free access system established under paragraph (5)(B). Access to information about an individual provisional ballot shall be restricted to the individual who cast the ballot.

I suspect the "supplements for babies" line is a smokescreen designed to engender support for something they knew would be controversial. That may actually backfire, since it makes far more sense to simply make sure babies get real, complete breast milk, and anything that might be seen to undermine that (hello, Nestle) is going to garner negative press.

Lysozyme is next to useless as a drug because the molecule is too big to be absorbed and move around the body. It's really more like a kind of natural preservative for bodily fluids (such as milk, or mucous). I'm not sure about lactoferrin but I suspect it's the same story.

What I do know is that lactoferrin has recently been approved for testing as an antimicrobial agent for shipping and storing beef and other foods. In fact it's more likely to be accepted if it's from a GMO plant crop than sourced from animals, since vCJD has people rightly concerned about the latter process (reusing or combining animal products).

Lysozyme can be used in the same way, as a food preservative. Hell, you could clean floors with these things, put them in "antibacterial" soaps (which do more harm than good but I digress), etc. That sounds like a lot bigger and more lucrative market for industrially growing and extracting it, but it's likely not to come off quite so sympathetic in the press as making sure cute little babies are healthy.

Here's where Microsoft's "Technology Festival" will be held...

It seems to me that all of the features on these new "smart" phones cater more to a population that relies on public transporation...

This is a really good point. I was travelling back from doing some location vido work yesterday on the bus (I use public transit whenever possible for this...it's cheaper, easier, more relaible and safer than driving...for me anyway) and spent the whole 30 minute trip back to the office updating contacts on my cell, IM'ing a business partner and checking email, all while barreling down I90 from Issaquah to Seattle in torrential rain on a state of the art bus.

Oh, and I made a couple of phone calls too, which is all I imagine folks to the left and right of me driving through blinding mist could manage to do.

With a phone/PDA like the P900 I would also be able to log into a system the UW is bulding called BusView which shows where all the buses are, including mine, so I don't have to stand waiting for more than a few minutes.

For the record -- I didn't crash on my first Segway ride, and have never seen a crash except for one resulting from a passenger-side door opening close to the sidewalk. I'll admit it took me almost five minutes to get over my "beginner wobble", but after that it was rock solid.

Have you tried one yet? They're extra-special nifty.

I am also interested in hearing about other alternative, yet practical, forms of transportation that I may have missed.

I have never owned a car in my entire life.

I ride my bike everywhere I go. I save thousands of dollars on gas, insurance, maintenance, parking, tickets, registration, etc. I stay fit, so I save time and money on medical bills/healthcare. Since Im totally in shape, I definitely have more success getting girlfriends too.

I live in Seattle where the climate is fairly mild but it rains half the year. Biking in the rain sounds horribly unpleasant, biking uphill sounds horribly unpleasant. Biking in traffic sounds horribly unpleasant. You get used to all of these things when you have no other means of transport...and they quickly become non-issues. I find myself biking up the steepest hills in the city multiple times a day without thought, without exhaustion.

In Seattle, bikes can be put on the front of buses on a very well designed bike rack. So you can ride the bus uphill to a location (usually faster than biking) and bike back down (which is faster than bussing back downhill). If its pouring and Gore-Tex isn't good enough (which is rare in Seattle, believe it or not) you can always put your bike on the bus. Another reason it's nice to put your bike on the bus is if you don't want to arrive at your destination all sweaty...but you can still zip home really fast.

Bikes has been a very practical method of transportion, and its better for the environment and for the general health of the population. It's even better than driving an electric car.

There are times however when I wish I could escape the city altogether... I usually find girls with cars to take me out of the city. There are times when I wish I could hall a large object, like a computer monitor, or appliance. I can usually arrange to borrow cars from friends although I have been known to bring large objects onto the bus.

Naturally, the distance you travel everyday and your physical condition will dictate the practicality of riding a bike. But if your chief concern is helping the environment... there is no better chioce.

You can probably buy a fantastic bike every single year for same expense as buying/oiperating one used car.

Consider it.

PS. The Seattle bus system has a half-decent online trip planner that facilitates timing your trips.

http://tripplanner.metrokc.gov/cgi-bin/itin_page.p l

A related issue is that of linking up major metropolitan areas.

Who decided that San Jose should get a Light Rail system that is wholely incompatible with BART. If they had thought for maybe a second, the entire Bay Area could be linked by one complete system.

The same goes for Baltimore's Light Rail and Washington's Metro. Sure, they're about 25 miles apart now... but eventually they'll converge. When they converge they'll be incompatible.

I'm no transit expert, but it seems like it is COMPLETELY RETARDED to have adjacent metropolitan areas building incompatible systems.

And what crackhead decided to build Seattle's Bus Tunnels. That's just weird.

Las Vegas' Monorail (that's right, MONORAIL!) will be cool but doesn't go very far and is a couple of LARGE blocks off The Strip.

• PROPOSED MONORAIL AUTHORITY
  Precincts Counted: 100.00%
  YES: 82256
  NO: 81674

However, in many modern countries (perhaps yours excluded) power is generated using modern techniques that are impervious to all but the most severe weather, and the transmission lines are underground

Your last sentence is the flaw in your argument. Engineers dont decide on the rail count, the politicans do. That's why Seattle's regional transit agency, Sound Transit, decided on a light rail system. The only problem with that is that is that Seattle A) Has lots of hills and B) Has no unused railroad lines to commandeer

Actually, it's not Seattle's regional transit agency - Sound Transit is a three-county state appointed agency, and Seattle has very little say in what it does or what taxes the state imposed on us for it.

Seattle's transit system is the ETC, part of the City of Seattle, not the multi-county Sound Transit regional transportation agency.

What may be confusing you is the busses in Seattle are run by King County, which includes the dark land where bill g resides, across Lake Washington in Bellevue, Redmond, and Issaquah, all places that are definitely not Seattle. You have to cross the world's largest floating bridges to get there.

-

i think the court in question is here. perhaps people should get an idea of what sort of justice they might receive.

Ahh! What are we going to do? Help! Help!

Video Games and Children

Violent video games unplugged by King County health board

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com (Usability Portal)

The judge who made this decision is:

Robinson, Palmer, Judge whom you may email or phone at 206.296.9103

Which I found on page 31 here.

Judging by the comments, everyone's saying that this is a free speech issue, and that spammers have every right to say what they want.

Technically, they're right.

Let's remember one thing here. The Constitution does allow freedom of speech. But, it doesn't allow you a platform from which to speak. You can picket my business if you want, but I can keep you off my property. You can run for political office and make up a bunch of signs, but you can't put them on my property without my permission. You can make up a message to put on a highway billboard, but if I own the billboard, I can tell you that you can't put your message on it.

So, if I want to keep a spammer from his alleged right to spam me, which utilizes my resources and my time, I can, and there's nothing that the Constitution can do about it.

But hey, if Palmer Robinson wants to give the green light for spam, so be it. He shouldn't have any problem with spammers sending spam to palmer.robinson@metrokc.gov, should he?

palmer.robinson@metrokc.gov