Endorsements won't buy you a cup of coffee any more than my opinion will if you don't have three bucks. Still, there's something exciting about these Downtown Dispatch endorsements because the person writing this right now last voted in 2000.

That's right, after getting burned by moderate Republican president Bill Clinton in 1992 I went without voting until 2000, when I threw my vote away for Al Gore and then stopped voting again. But now I'm back, greatly inspired by "that one" to go vote. And I'm hoping he is more progressive than he's letting on right now. I have endured the "global greed is good so let's start a drug war and deregulate everything and destroy the unions" era through Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush and now I'm anxious for the Obama era to begin. Even if that's really just blind faith.

PRESIDENT: Obama
That One.

U.S. HOUSE 7th District: Jim McDermott
Washington State's most progressive national politician. McDermott Voted No on the Wall Street bail out.

U.S. HOUSE 8th District: Darcy Burner
Do I vote for the social climbing former Microsoft lady (Burner) or the guy who spent many, many, many years trying to catch the Green River Killer (Reichert)? Easy - Reichert is tied to satanic war criminal George Bush so let's go with the kute yuppie!

GOVERNOR: Christine Gregoire
If his slick TV commercials are any indication Dino Rossi, who prefers the Republican party, comes off as repulsive.

ATTORNEY GENERAL: John Ladenburg
Didn't Republican tool Rob McKenna benefit from some illegal last minute campaign slush fund donations from right wing Republicans when defeating Deborah Senn the last time? He can sue me if that's wrong information.

INITIATIVE MEASURE 1000: (Right to Die): YES
A visibly drugged Martin Sheen's appearance in the "vote no" tv spots is reason enough to stop barfing long enough to vote yes.

INITIATIVE MEASURE 985: : NO
Another serving of hokum from smarmy hilljack Tim Eyman.

INITIATIVE MEASURE 1029: NO
Requires more training and criminal background checks for home caregivers, at taxpayer expense.  

CITY OF SEATTLE Proposition 1: (73 million for the Market - chump change) YES

SOUND TRANSIT PROPOSITION 1: NO
Surprising to see The Stranger and others drink the Sound Transit Kool-Aid™ and endorse this huge, permanent tax hike of billions - all so that we can build a train to the cultural wasteland that is Bellevue.

Earth to self-absorbed Seattleites - Seattle will never be New York, or San Francisco. It's a second-tier city whose growth is limited by it's geography. If you need to get to the paved-over virgin forests now known as Seattle's suburbs, drive over there in your hydrogen-powered vehicle.

I don't want my taxes increased so that the money can be pumped into Seattle's government/construction industry/transit cabal. Maybe re-think this one, wait until "that one" gets in there, try again the next election cycle after we see how things turn out.

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Endorsements, do they mean anything? In Seattle we know that they are bad luck - Frank Blethen's Seattle Timesendorsed George W. Bush for president in 2000 - and now their company is in deep debt and selling off property owned by his family for generations. The Times is worth a fraction of what it was in 2000.

"They'll be eating bark off the trees," my mom said back then. "If they vote for Bush, there's gonna be disaster after disaster until they're eating bark off the trees to survive."

-Alex