So far the most important issue on the ballot is Initiative 25. If you want any possible hope of having a meaningful vote in King County please vote yes for I-25.

This isn't an election, it's a denial of service attack! The whole point of representative democracy is that citizens have neither the time nor the background to make detailed choices about how the day to day activities of government are to be run. But in this election we am being drowned in no less than 9 different measures in addition to 14 different elected offices of which only 3 appeared on the primary. This is just nuts! The only consequence of dumping this many issues and elected offices on the citizenry is to so overload the citizenry that they either don't bother to vote or vote blindly.

• Initiative 960 - Yes

• Referendum Measure 67 - Approved

• Senate Joint Resolution 8206 - Rejected

• Senate Joint Resolution 8212 - Rejected

• House Joint Resolution 4204 - Rejected

• House Joint Resolution 4215 - Rejected

• King County Prosecuting Attorney - Bill Sherman

• King County Assessor - Scott Noble

• Port of Seattle - Commissioner - Position No. 2 - Bob Edwards

• Port of Seattle - Commissioner - Position No. 5 - Alec Fisken

• City of Redmond - Mayor - John Marchione

• City of Redmond - Council Position 1 - Hank Myers

• City of Redmond - Council Position 3 - Dayle (Hank) Margeson

• City of Redmond - Council Position 5 - Richard Cole

• City of Redmond - Council Position 7 - David Carson

• Lake Washington School District No. 414 - Director District 1 - Jackie Pendergrass

• Lake Washington School District No. 414 - Director District 2 - Chris Carlson

• Lake Washington School District No. 414 - Director District 5 - Ravi Shahani

• Public Hospital District No. 4 - Commissioner - Rebecca Hirt

• Public Hospital District No. 5 - Commissioner - Jeanette Greenfield

• King County Initiative 25 - Yes

• King County Proposition No. 1 - Medic One - Approved

• Sound Transit Proposition No. 1 - No

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Since I do not associate with either the Democratic nor the Republican parties I don't vote in either of their primaries. So I will only be giving my opinion on non-partisan positions and various measures. I went to the King County Voter Guide which generates a custom on-line guide just including positions/issues I'm eligible to vote for. I then checked the voter guide candidate text, check the candidate's web site, check the PI, the Seattle Times, the Stranger, the Municipal League of King County and searched the net.

• Port of Seattle - Commissioner - Position No. 2 - Thom McCann

• Port of Seattle - Commissioner - Position No. 5 - Alec Fisken

• City of Redmond - Mayor - John Marchione

• King County - Proposition No. 1 - Yes

• King County - Proposition No. 2 - Yes

• City of Redmond - Proposition No. 1 - Yes

• City of Redmond - Proposition No. 2 - Yes

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It's voting time! Now why, you might ask would I publish the way I'm planning on voting? Well, if I can convince one other person to vote the way I will then I've doubled the power of my vote. And if someone convinces me to change my vote then I'll have been saved from making a mistake.

As for those who are wondering why a privacy activist like me would publish such private information keep in mind two things. One, I choose to publish this information and choice is the core of privacy. Two, at least until mandatory mail in ballots come to King County in another year or two no one actually knows how I really voted.

• Initiative Measure 920 - NO

• Initiative Measure 933 - NO

• Initiative Measure 937 - YES

• House Joint Resolution 4223 - YES

• United States Senator - Bruce Guthrie

• United States Representative - First Congressional District - Jay Inslee

• State Senator - 45th Legislative District - Toby Nixon

• State Representative - 45th Legislative District - Position 1 - Roger E. Goodman

• State Representative - 45th Legislative District - Position 2 - Tim Lee

• Justice of the Supreme Court - Position 2 - Susan Owens

• King County District Court - Northeast Electoral District - Judge - Position 2 - Frank V. LaSalata

• King County - Proposition No .1 - YES

• King County - Proposition No. 2 - NO

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On 9/19/2006 it will be time to vote in my part of the world. As usual I provide my election guide. Since I claim allegiance to neither the Democratic nor the Republic parties I will not be taking part in their primaries. As such I will only list my position for nonpartisan positions. I will update this article as I decide on my positions.

• Justice of the Supreme Court - Position No. 2 - Susan Owens

• Justice of the Supreme Court - Position No. 8 - Gerry L. Alexander

• Justice of the Supreme Court - Position No. 9 - Tom Chambers

• Court of Appeals Judge - Division No. 1 - District No. 1 - Position No. 4 - Ronald E. Cox

• Court of Appeals Judge - Division No. 1 - District No. 1 - Position No. 7 - Marlin J. Appelwick

• King County District Court - Northeast Electoral District - Judge Position No. 3 - Frank V. LaSalata

• King County Proposition No .1 - NO

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Below are reviews of several hundred restaurants that I've eaten in during the last few years. Most of the reviews are for the Seattle area but you will also find reviews from around the world including Amsterdam, Australia, Hawaii, Las Vegas, London, etc. The reviews are ordered by country/state, restaurant rating and then restaurant name. If you don't like my ordering then you can download the Excel spreadsheet and order them yourself!

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I never got a voter pamphlet but thankfully King County has a really nice service that lets you enter your name and address and get back a customized listing of what will show up on your ballot.

• County Positions
  • County Executive - Ron Sims
  • Sheriff - Sue Rahr
  • County Council District 2 - Morgan Catha
  • Port of Seattle Commissioner - Position 1 - Lawrence Molloy
  • Port of Seattle Commissioner - Position 3 - Lloyd Hara
  • Port of Seattle Commissioner - Position 4 - Jack Jolley

• City of Seattle Positions
  • Mayor, City of Seattle - Al Runte
  • Seattle City Attorney - Tom Carr
  • Seattle City Council Position No. 2 - Richard Conlin
  • Seattle City Council Position No. 4 - Jan Drago
  • Seattle City Council Position No. 6 - Nick Licata
  • Seattle City Council Position No. 8 - Richard J. McIver

• Judicial Positions
  • Court of Appeals - Position 2 - Susan Randolph Agid

• School Positions
  • Seattle School District No. 1 - Director - Position 4 - Michael DeBell
  • Seattle School District No. 1 - Director - Position 5 - Mary E. Bass
  • Seattle School District No. 1 - Director - Position 7 - Linda Thompson-Black

• District Positions
  • Seattle Popular Monorail Authority - Position 8 - Beth Goldberg
  • Seattle Popular Monorail Authority - Position 9 - Jim Nobles

• Measures
  • Seattle Proposition No. 1 - No
  • City of Seattle Advisory Measure No. 1 - No
  • Seattle Popular Monorail Authority Proposition No. 1 - No
  • Seattle Popular Monorail Authority Proposition No. 2 - No

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It's voting time again. I'm going to update this article as I work through the vote pamphlet.

• Initiative Measure 900 - NO

• Initiative Measure 901 - YES

• Initiative Measure 912 - NO

• Initiative Measure 330 - HELL NO

• Initiative Measure 336 - NO

• Senate Joint Resolution 8207 - YES

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I was reading the economist and ran across a mention of Magnatune, a record label that sells exclusively on-line. Although you can buy a CD from them they also sell all their music in a variety of formats without any DRM. This includes, btw, WAV and FLAC formats which are completely lossless. They also make all of their music available as MP3s for free so you can try before you buy, no strings attached, no memberships, no log-ins, nothing. Before finding Magnatune I had spent exactly $1.07 on music this year and that was for a song I downloaded from iTunes. The reason I don't buy much music is that I don't find much music to like. Maybe it's just me but radio is a waste land filed with the same music I've heard for years. What is great about Magnatune is that it allows me to try out lots of music and decide what I like. Although a lot of their music is 'out there' (they intentionally specialize in genres that they feel mainstream labels do a bad job with) I was generally impressed with both the quality of the talent as well as the production quality of the music. Magnatune seems to perform the job that I think a good label should do - quality control.

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It's time to vote and here are my picks. Remember, the election is 9/20/2005, go out and vote!

• King County Sheriff - Sue Rahr

• Court of Appeals Judge - Susan Randolph Agid

• Port of Seattle Commissioner Position No 1 - Lawrence Molloy

• Port of Seattle Commissioner Position No 3 - Lloyd Hara

• Port of Seattle Commissioner Position No. 4 - Jack Jolley

• City of Seattle Mayor - Greg Nickels

• Seattle City Council Position No. 2 - Richard Conlin

• Seattle City Council Position No. 4 - Jan Drago

• Seattle City Council Position No. 8 - Robert Rosencrantz

• Seattle School District No. 1 - Director - District No. 5 - Mary E. Bass

• Seattle School District No. 1 - Director - District No. 7 - Linda Thompson-Black

• Seattle Popular Monorail Authority - Board Member - Position No. 8 - Beth Goldberg

• Seattle Popular Monorail Authority - Board Member - Position No. 9 - Jim Nobles

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The purpose of this page is to provide pointers to books the reader might want to futher investigate. In other words, I'm not trying to provide full book reviews, just provide enough information to choose books you might want to go to www.amazon.com and check out the reviews for and read excerpts from. For what it's worth I have found the best book prices on www.bestwebbuys.com. An Excel spreadsheet of these reviews is available here.

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