photo by james callan [flickr] via our group pool [#].

• Who’d have guessed that rabid internet conservatives don’t “get” the Stranger’s sense of humor w/r/t publishing the addresses of people who expect political anonymity yet cover their front yards in political signs? [bigblog]
• Thanks to Michael Kinsley we now know that bad penmanship can temporarily sink your ballot. [dailyweekly]
• Joel Connolley rambles and rants about something. [seattlest]
• Seattle Transit Blog supports Proposition 1. Let’s hope this turns the tide right around. [stb]
• Always wanted to work for Linda? Oddfellows is hiring. [chs]
• Just in time to find something stylish to wear to an election party, Blackbird is running a storewide 40% off sale with free champagne and pictures of puppies. That’s worth potentially much more than the free drip coffee you’ll get at Starbucks, the free ice cream at Ben & Jerry, and the free sex toy from Babeland combined. No voting required. [blackbird]

What are you doing on Election Night? You’ll already have voted and you’ll want something to do with yourself while you wait for the returns.

Wing-It Productions’ Election Show 2008 is an entertaining, non-partisan spoof of the election process at the Historic University Theater on The Ave,

NWFF and Strawberry Theatre Workshop transform NWFF’s theaters into “an epicenter of election information” that includes major network broadcasts in both of their cinemas, radio coverage in the lobby, special appearances by dead presidents and live blogging all night long. Master of Ceremonies MJ Seiber will post red and blue light bulbs on a giant map of the country to give you the on-screen graphic effect live and in person.

Those of you who live up north might want to head to the Nile Shrine Center on 244th SW in Mountlake Terrace to hang out with the 1st Congressional District and Snohomish County Democrats to watch the election results, listen to live music, and snack on the appetizer and salad bar buffet.

If you’re able to walk into any bar in town and not be bombarded with election coverage and discussion, you’ve got some special sort of talent. Among your choices: you could drink with The Stranger at their election party at Showbox or you could join the guys from Drinking Liberally at the Montlake Ale House on 24th Ave. E. Nectar Lounge and Neumos the ante by throwing Dance Parties, too. Boom Noodle is offering happy hour all day and night for customers who bring in registration cards, absentee ballot stubs, or “I voted” stickers which includes special pricing on four special drinks. (The Sarah Palin “I Can See a Red Russian From My House” with Stoli, Kahlua and cherry cream sounds far tastier than having her in office.)

Central Cinema is hosting a party with beer and pizza and election results up on the big screen.

Democratic consultants, political reporters, trivia and prizes are some of the inducements to spend your Election Night at Town Hall.

But maybe you want a distraction instead. I’ll be at the Key Arena to watch the Seattle Thunderbirds take on the Edmonton Oil Kings and, trust me, few things are better at distracting you from your worries than drinking beer while watching a bunch of mostly-Canadian teenager knock the puck–and each other–around the ice.

I’ll be checking the results from my phone during the game, but if you’ve got the discipline to keep yours shut, you could go to a movie. Rosemary’s Baby plays at SIFF and Return of the Living Dead plays at the Grand Illusion along with The Brain That Wouldn’t Die.

On this Election Eve, it’s time to finally get around to talking politics here on Metblogs, something we don’t do that often. Waiting until election day in a city where 1/3 of you have already turned in your absentee ballot probably isn’t smart, but hey.

I talked to the other authors about whether they wanted to endorse, and most all of us said they were going to go straight ticket with the Stranger endorsements.

(Aside on the Stranger: Isn’t is a little odd that a paper that would continue to keep images of those Danish cartoons of Muhammed online — and proudly, staunchly, and rightfully defended their publishing of those cartoons — now turns tail and pulls down their “Hell Houses” article the moment Michelle “I’m a shrill disingenuous harpie and you can too!” Malkin and Matt “Wait, I’m still relevant?” Drudge come sniffing around?)

But we were all in the tank for Obama, anyway. And I think we all prefer four more middling years of Gregoire over four hell years from Dino “Greased Weasel” Rossi. But most of all, there were buckets and buckets of scorn heaped on Tim “I Don’t Have A Real Job Anymore, I’m Just The Political Equivalent Of A Panhandler” Eyman’s I-985, which would, among other things, make it impossible to get 520 rebuilt without raising taxes. Wait, I thought this was about road improvements without raising taxes. Oh, right, it’s Tim Eyman logic!

Downticket, we’re pretty much with the Strange, pro-transit, anti-silly-King-County-amendments. The one issue more than one of us differed on was I-1000, the Assisted Suicide initiative. The issue here is we don’t see safeguards within the initiative to prevent insurance companies from covering death cocktails while denying costly treatments. There’s been anecdotal evidence of this happening in Oregon, and while it is anecdotal and mostly from those opposing the Oregon law, a couple of minor changes in the language would plug that hole. So, split decision on that.

Anyway, if you haven’t voted, that’s our advice, and by the way, go look yourself up in the King County election database and go vote tomorrow. If you have voted, well, good for you.

It’s only 40-something days away. The morning when your 2008 ballot will be due, after which you are bound to spend the whole night drinking because no matter which way the election turns, there will be significant occasion for serious drinking. Sure, the fate of the presidency lies more heavily in the hands of the fickle voters of less enlightened states with less patriotic names like Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and New Mexico, but just a little bit of the responsibility falls on you, too.

Before you can actually do any voting, you need first make sure your registration is up-to-date. Click your way over to the Secretary of State and not only will the internet tell you if and where you’re registered, it will also show you how often you’ve voted along with the names and addresses for almost all of your current elected representatives. Creepy, but kind of awesome, right?

If you find out that you’re not registered, head over to the Online Voter Registration immediately.

The real Presidential election is serious business, but the mock-election that forms the framework of The Election Show is anything but. The improvised political spoof presents a condensed version of the election process in two acts. In the first act, the audience is introduced by the “non-partisan, non-biased moderator” to the incumbent President facing re-election. The President addresses the “nation” in a speech detailing the highlights of the previous four years. In Thursday’s opening night show, President Sean Patella-Buckley (cast members take turns playing the different roles on different nights), an RPG-loving leader spoke of his many accomplishments which included surgically enhancing all cats with wings and dogs with laser vision. The President is then sent away in order and the stage becomes home to the opposing party’s nominating convention. Three candidates make their cases for why they should receive the party’s nomination by presenting platforms based on themes brought up in pre-show conversation with audience members. As the first act ends, audience members are sent into intermission with ballots to choose the candidate they prefer to face the incumbent in act two’s election, during which the two contenders square off in a debate that is almost frighteningly realistic in points despite the utter ridiculousness of the campaigns.

Throughout the show, the on-stage action covers all the key components of a real election: recurring bits included portrayals of candidate stumping, attack ads, and a sharp-witted parody of political talk shows. The opposing pundits in the talk show segment, portrayed this night by Justin Sund and Ben Piper, were particularly amusing, providing some of the biggest laughs of the night with their spot-on portrayals of party propaganda hacks. After a solid round of campaigning and the selection of Vice President candidates from the audience–”Your job,” moderator John Boyle tels them, “is to sit down and say nothing”–the audience votes again and the show concludes with the announcement of the election’s winner. For this show, the winner was Jon Axell who responded to a pre-show complaint about not having enough time to get thing done by proposing to build a second sun so that there would always be enough hours in the day, a conceit that is unimpressive in the describing but made extremely funny by Axell’s performance.

Any improv show, particularly one so audience-driven, relies on two key factors to be successful: the performing talents of the cast and their ability to form a bond with the audience. The Election Show’s experienced and skilled cast are all veterans of the comedy and improv scene and put their skills to use in amusing and inventive ways and managed to get the audience so engaged in the show that at several points spontaneous chants related to the on-stage action broke out in the audience. The audience is an important part of this show and everyone in the theater rose to the occasion, although it should be noted that the two weakest parts of the show came when the audience was required to invent a political crisis facing the nation and the opposing candidate’s scandal. As it happened, the ideas thrown out weren’t terribly funny on their own. To the cast’s credit, they made the best of them and still managed to earn appreciative laughter.

If real life campaigns were as entertaining as those in The Election Show, we’d never have a low-turnout election again.

The Election Show runs through October 24 at the University Theater on the Ave and concludes with a special election night show on November 4th.

Alexander Nevsky, still courtesy SIFF.

Here it is people: the third and final week of SIFF . Is everyone still on board? Found your line zen? Overcome the constant sensation of missing everything and always being in a hurry? Mastered your decision-making about what distinguishes a “3″ on your ballot from a “4″? Lost track of the rest of civilization? Here are some picks to guide you through the beginning of this week from your Metblogs prognosticators:

Baghead [siff] : I don’t want to say much more about Baghead than that it’s funny, scary, and something of a relationship movie. Anything more than that might spoil your enjoyment of it. After all, someone at the Sunday screening thought they were seeing a movie called Baghdad and had a great time. OK, just one more thing. I want this movie to make lots and lots of money so that the Duplass brothers can keep making really good low production value movies with not incredibly famous actors. It’s entirely possible that their aim of trying to have the stupidest title of the year (sorry guys, I’m afraid that you’ve narrowly lost that contest to Beverly Hills Chihuahua this year) with stories of interpersonal awkwardness in the face of the scariest thing they can think of on a road trip can survive the loose-feeling handmade aesthetic, but I’d rather not see it come to that. [josh]
Monday June 9, 4:30 PM (Egyptian)

Walt & el Groupo [siff] : Uncle Walt takes his animators on a goodwill tour of South America. Wacky hijinks ensue, allegedly changing our artistic and political landscapes to this day. Crazy enough to be fascinating. [josh]
Monday June 9, 4:30 PM (Uptown)

Momma’s Man [siff] : Azazel Jacobs makes a movie about a guy who makes a weekend trip to visit his parents and finds himself unable to leave their apartment to return to his wife and children. Whether this sounds like the premise for a quirky indie drama or a terrifying horror movie may depend on your own family situation.
Monday June 9, 7:15 PM; Wednesday June 11, 4:30 PM (Uptown)

Theater of War [siff]: Meryl Streep took on on the title role in Brecht’s anti-war play when it was staged with a new translation by Tony Kushner in 2006 at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. This documentary includes footage from the play, shows Streep digging into the role, and provides backstory on the playwright. [josh]
Tuesday June 10, 7:00 PM; Thursday June 12, 4:30 PM (SIFF Cinema)

In the Land of the Headhunters [siff] : Back in 1914 photographer Edward S. Curtis produced this silent film about love and war amongst the Kwakwaka’wakw people in what we now call the Queen Charlotte Strait area of British Columbia. Entered into the United States Film Registry for its cultural and historical significance in 1999, the film made its debut here in Seattle way back in December of 1914 at the Moore Theater. Thanks to SIFF, the Burke Museum and the Seattle Theater Group, it’s back at the Moore with a newly restored version accompanied by the orginal orchestral score and descendants of the original cast. [zg]
Tuesday June 10, 7:00 pm, The Moore Theater

Stranded: I’ve come from a plane that crashed on the mountains [siff] : One of many movies mined from the story of the Chilean soccer team whose flight crashed in the Andes and had survivors resorting to cannibalism. This one, however, finds the survivors and their families, taking them back to the site of the crash thirty years later. [josh]
Tuesday June 10, 9:30 PM

Trouble the Water [siff] : New Orleans native Kimberley Roberts and her husband fight FEMA’s milles of red tape as they struggle to rebuild their post-Katrina lives in Memphis in this provocative documentary that includes footage Roberts filmed of the hurricane’s assault on her hometown. Be prepared to be both deeply touched and extremely pissed off. Executive producer Danny Glover and the films directors, Carl Deal and Tia Lessin, are scheduled to attend both screenings. [zg]
Wednesday June 11, 4:30 pm; Friday June 13, 9:30 pm, (Harvard Exit)

Fields of Fuel [siff] : If you haven’t turned Green yet, then see this flick about bio-diesel. It’s one of those movies that’ll make you want to sell that gas guzzling car of yours. Until you realize you need said car to get around, and don’t want it smelling like fried chicken. [ba]
Wednesday June 11, 7:00 pm; Thursday June 12, 4:30 pm (Harvard Exit)

Alexander Nevsky [siff] : Prince Alexander Nevsky raises an army to fight Teutonic knights set on invading Russia in this epic film from the Soviet Union originally released in 1938. It’s worth going for the way pre-CGI battle sequences alone. Enhancing the experience, Sergei Prokofiev’s original score will be performed live by the Seattle Symphony. [zg]
Thursday June 12, 7:30 pm; Friday, June 13, 7:00 pm; Saturday June 14, 8:00 pm, Sunday June 15, 2:00 pm, (Benaroya Hall)

Visioneers [siff] : In Jared and Brandon Drake’s dystopic future, productivity and forced happiness have displaced feelings and dreams. Zach Galifianakis stars as a descendent of George Washington who is trying to avoid exploding (literally) like so many of his fellow citizens who succumbed to feeling too much individuality. It is entirely possible that this movie isn’t about any of this, and is instead about a man’s slow descent into madness driven by a combination of impotence and displaced extra-marital lust. The humor is dark, the pace is slow, but with the grim outlook enhanced by a score from the Polyphonic Spree it casts a heavy spell. [josh]
Thursday June 12, 9:30 PM; Saturday June 14, 4:00 PM (Egyptian)

Another crowded Saturday of democracy. Record attendance = mild confusion. [10:10 PDT]

update: Five hours, two credentials reports, a hundred speeches, even more questions, and one guest appearance by Sean Astin for Hillary Clinton later and all I can say is that if you thought your precinct caucus was a disorganized time suck, it doesn’t compare to the Legislative District caucus. What it does compare to is my very first visit to the Department of Licensing on a September Saturday a week after moving to Seattle.

The major activity of the day was waiting for mysterious forces beyond our control: in line to sign in, in another line to register to run to be a congressional district delegate, in an auditorium until attendance could be tallied, in an auditorium while delegates could be tallied again, in the same auditorium while ballots could be printed, and in an auditorium while a hundred people gave thirty second speeches for the chance to win one of the fourteen (gender-balanced) delegate seats for Clinton. During all of the waiting, there were numerous repetitive questions, the occasional joke, a bit of hunger (an intrepid hot dog vendor set up shop outside), and a near-unanimous rejection of a motion to kill time by reciting the pledge of allegiance. Judges gave speeches, Jim McDermott gave a speech, surrogates for each candidates gave speeches. I can only imagine that the process was more prolonged in the Obama sub-caucus where something like four hundred people were competing for 53 delegate positions. They seemed to still be in the thick of it when our smaller Clinton group had completed voting.

I had originally signed on to run for a delegate, but when my name appeared on the ballot as “Joshua Ali”, I happily took it as a sign that this was the end of the road for me. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to leave until the speeches were complete. I’m a sucker for civic duty. Plus, I couldn’t leave without voting for Renee LeBoeuf, who put a fatmouse on her campaign flyer.

It’s after Super Tuesday, and the presidential primary campaign is still a horse race. It looks like we, the voters of Washington state, will actually have a voice in our presidential primary.

If anybody can remember the last time that happened, let me know.

On the Democratic side, Clinton and Obama are essentially tied. On the Republican side, while McCain now has a sizable lead, Romney and Huckabee are still in the race.

So it’s off to the caucuses for us.

Oh, that primary ballot you’re holding in your hand? If you’re a Democrat, you’re wasting your time — they won’t look at it. If you’re a Republican, the party will count the vote, but you’d have a more powerful voice if you go to your local caucus. I wrote a bit about why that is last month.

OK, so how do you find your caucus?

Both parties are holding caucuses on Saturday, February 9 at 1 PM.

If you’re attending the Democratic caucus, your caucus information is here. The site is getting hammered right now, so you may need to try back in an hour or two. If you can’t get through at all, try calling 206-583-4345.

If you’re attending the Republican caucus and you live in King County, your caucus information is here. Outside King County, check with the state Republican party.

A few Metroblogging Seattle authors will be attending caucuses throughout the city. See if you can spot us.

Late Friday afternoon, domestic partnerships became legal in the state of Oregon when Federal Judge Michael Mosman lifted the injunction that had been in place since opponents attempted to place the law on the ballot for referendum. The decision was made too late for any couples to take advantage of it before the weekend; so today is the big day in Portland. Brett, from Metroblogging Portland visited the courthouse this morning:

Today is the first official day couples can file at their county for legal domestic partnerships. I headed down to Multnomah County to check out the excitement and there was nothing but love and joy surrounding the area. Even the county sheriffs had smiles on their faces. How could you not when these couples are there to celebrate commitment and love. [mb_pdx]

Read more, and pass along your congratulations, courtesy of our enlightened neighbors to the south.

Goodbye to transit
Hello Tim Eyman, again
Thanks cranky voters!

Got a DUI?
Just be white and raise
four hundred thousand

Burgess beats Della
And finally we can end
That wretched campaign

Dear school board members:
You are all fired. Well, at least
the two folks running

iPhone plus ballot
equals makeshift voter’s guide
Big ups to Crosscut

The season’s over
Catch your breath, eight weeks to the
Iowa Caucus.