The video's up and it's simply fantastic. Nice work team. Now spread that video folks- and vote NO on I-912.

I know you know this...but I'd feel bad if I didn't say it: be sure to buy the viaduct tape at Costco to save $...you can use my membership if you need to.

Other ideas:
I'm considering hosting a bake sale the entire length of 45th in Wallingford. All proceeds will go to flattening those numerous hills that sprout up all along that street. They'd be fun if I were carting kids in a horse-drawn buggy with hay of course, but I don't have kids, a horse, or a buggy, and my car's not liking it. I'm tempted to drive on the sides of buildings just for a flat surface.

How about a car wash right on I-5 south around 65th in the afternoon between 3-5P (bonus: weekends included!)? We'll just cart our buckets and suds...probably charge $10.00 (due to the added risk). Someone should hold a sign on the bridge over the freeway to advertise. All proceeds will go towards easing congestion. I'm told we could easily raise enough to add a 1" wide by 10' long lane by raising $1,121,000. We could raise that money easily in like 20 years...and if there's money left from the 45th street project even sooner.

Other ideas: yard sales, speed dating (kill two birds at once), "Bite of I-5" (local restaurants could serve commuters in their cars), Bingo (I think we could pull it off...even if we do it via conference call or something), silent auction (goods would be on the side of the freeway on tables, of course...bidders would get out of car to bid...get back in the car and continue listening to NPR as they sit there), "I'll have my Circus On the Side"...this is a circus that plays entirely on the side of the road...to a captive audience...has been successful in other states raising lots of $. No risk of causing an accident (thank goodness!) since the traffic is not moving. We could also bring back Drive-in movies quite economically. We could project the movie from one side of the freeway onto the white tractor trailer (there's bound to be one) on the other side. That's a win-win for everyone if there are two trucks on each side.

Other thoughts?

That, my friends, is lovely. Simply lovely.

Pick that up!

send everyone to

www.betterdonkey.com/video

I actually love the idea of a bake sale or car wash to raise money for replacing the Viaduct. That could get some great press.

Nice video :-)

Apparently this puts the "tragedy" into YEA on 912.

BTW, I gave $30 to Irons for Executive.

Bake sale reminds me of the 60's-70's thing where the air force should hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.

Awesome. I am in!

I just had to comment on how much I liked the video and I particularly enjoyed how much it looks like a "legitimate" political ad at the beginning. I also have to give a shot out to Yanusz because he's awesome. It was a funny, I like.

That video kicked ass! If only it could be put on tv so the I-912-ers could see it.

The bakesale is a great sale. I say the week before election day would be a great time for a bake sale, perhaps at Westlake Center to get the most attention.

is that an attempt at sarcasm?

If your goal is to keep Eastern Washington Red , you have done a great job. I showed your ad to Eastern Washington voters who are for keeping the gas tax and they were very pissed off after viewing the ad. You are falling right into the hands of Chris Vance of turning I-912 into a vote of confidence on Democratic control in Olympia. Many in the business wing of GOP are for keeping the gas tax.

PS "Hillbilly Armor” is stuff that was scavenged by troops in Iraq to armor their humvees because Bush sent them into battle without the correct gear. So you have even opened the door for not supporting the troops.

1. Seattle/King County = 55% of the voters in the state. Deal with it.

2. Eastern Washington isn't all Red. It's mottled purple like everywhere else.

3. That Hillbilly Armor joke was fucking hillarious.

4. The ad was made by a SEATTLE firm about a SEATTLE issue with 912 in order to raise the profile of 912 IN SEATTLE. If you haven't gotten the picture yet, I would refer you back to the title of this comment.

5. What exactly have you done to help beat 912? Before you answer it better be more than wrote a small check or told some folks that is was a bad thing. Because this ad cost creative time, production time and talent.

6. Who exactly did you show it to? did you focus group it? did you compare it to another 912 ad that was grassroots developed (oh wait, there aren't any)? did you ensure that your test group resembled likely voters? more to the point, did you ensure that the group represented likely voters who are liable to either switch or sit this one out?

Because I know that you won't come back (not verified = chickenshit)I won't hold my breath for a response. But for those of you looking at the ad, please igonore this idiot until he responds with something more thought out than "you kind of made fun of my friends."

Politics only happens when people take initiative and do something. When you do that, you innevitable make some folks unhappy.

By the way, I'm also known as "the enforcer" and can be hired for dinner parties and family fights.

Could you have ATTEMPTED to mike the chick a bit better?!!
Also..why "Across The Field (Ohio State University)" for the kicker sound? It's distracting and grating.

Otherwise, great characterization of pro 912ers. If they're not from Queen Anne or CapHill, they must be ignorant hicks. Why don't those goobers just pay their damn RANSOM and allow the KingCo Donkey Masheen spend it as they see fit! I swear, why doesn't Gregoire repeal their right to vote. They probably can't even spell diversity.

If I-912 and the projects it funds is just a Seattle issue, then The Regional Transportation Investment District should be paying for it and I will vote yes on I-912. The Republican mayor of my town pushed through a street bond, so the paving of my local roads is taken care of, and what mass transit we do have is on a funding rebound, so it's all good for me and mine. Oh wait, but no, I'm smart enough to know that the transportation package that I-912 is trying to abolish is good for all of us.

When it comes to King County being 55% of the state ask the Governor why it is a plan that no longer works to get things passed state wide. That attitude is one of the main reasons why Eastern Washington votes primarily GOP when it comes to state wide issues. The 3rd LD from central Spokane is the only district from east of the Cascades that has Democratic representation in the state legislature. Combine that with those Puget Sound Democrats who regularly vote across party lines and you have a big swatch of red surrounding a few blue patches.

The Hillbilly Armor joke shows how out of touch you are with the rest of the state and with people who have ties to our fine men and women fighting in Iraq. Howard Dean got a lot of flack for pointing out the fact that folks who drive pickups with Confederate flags on the back should be voting Democrat but they aren't, and he was right. Why? Because the GOP doesn't make fun of them while our party does.

I don't know if are are any more grassroots videos about I-912 or not and it does not matter. You are judged by your own content. I was pointed to the ad by an Eastern Washington voter, ask me again why should I vote no on this.

Please take a look a my blog post and the comments at http://www.dougdobbins.com/2005/10/22/i-912-and-an-great-ad-to-keep-eastern-washington-red/ which will answer most of your questions.

Please don't call me a chickenshit because you may not like the results. I linked to my web site and used my real e-mail address when I posted here.

Another tidbit for you. I worked on the recount and legal teams during the whole governor's election. Beside losing business over my support of the governor, the crank phone calls, I even got offers to be detesticled by a sheep emasculator while watching the hand recount in one county. Good Times.

Our efforts in getting votes our governor earned in Eastern Washington, which were not counted by the machine counts led to her being up by 10 votes as the Washington State Supreme Court’s unanimous decision allowed 735 King County ballots which were mistakenly disqualified to be reviewed by the King County canvassing board and counted, if they were valid. This gave the final total of 129 in the hand recount. In court we got 4 more, so the final total was 133.

At the end of the day, it is always harder to get voters to support a tax increase than roll back taxes. With I-912 it is too close of a vote to lose even one voter over “jokes like this video” which play into the hands of old stereotypes of people on both side of the state. Lots of Seattle elitists like my buddy Benny, are all talk and no accomplishment. This seems to have struck a chord with you Ben, so maybe you helped produce the "ad". If so, why don't you and the rest of your high school AV club move beyond the 9th grade humor and come up with something that actually contributes to the dialogue about 1-912 which would appeal to the supporters of the gas taxes state wide.

If you'd like to call me "chickenshit" in person we can meet at Jules Maes down in Geogretown, where I'll treat you first to a beer and then to an appropriate response to playground name calling.

I am willing to own that calling you "chickenshit" wasnt the nicest thing to do and certainly didn't give the readers we have worked so hard to attract the impression that this is a welcoming community that cares for their input. To those visitors reading this fiery exchange, this is a welcoming place that does care to hear what you have to say. If you were given any other impression, my apologies.

That being said, your response makes as little sense as your initial unhelpful foray into the conversation.

As I see it, Washington is a relatively progressive state. While Gregoire had some serious difficulties, both Patty and Kerry won without breaking a sweat. George Nethercutt was a paper tiger.

The problem is, Democrats on the Eastern side of the state just cant seem to get the job done.

Why do "Puget Sound Democrats" get blamed for the failures of the Dems Eastern Washington's? You had the Speaker's seat, we know you can get the votes, so why can't you close?

Maybe I'm just some wacky out of touch liberal (whose been doing this shit for a living for a damn long time) but it seems to me that when a grassroots community gets together and makes a funny, smart creative video clearly meant to rile up their base, it just doesn't have a damn thing to do with Eastern Washington. It just doesn't.

Don't like these guy's work? Go make your own damn video.

I would love to hear all your theories about how we Western Washington folks are screwing everything up for the folks on the Eastside. That is why I just set up this new Happy Hour: Does Eastern WA Matter?
Shall we dance?

Hey Benny G, who are those hillbillies in the ad, if you not calling us on the dry side of the state hillbillies?

You are now why I'm voting for I-912. See I'm over sixty and having voted well over 90% for the Democratic party my whole life and have only missed going to the polls once. But your attitude has shown me it is time not to do anything that can help Seattle. I’m sure there is back up plan for viaduct, if I-912 does pass to get it replaced. I know Doug's wife is part of a group who lobbied for the transportation bill this past session and has been working on a back up plan to replace the viaduct, if I-912 passes. I know for you Benny, it must be a shock to the system to understand someone who is statewide thinker. But Doug is one.

See we have worked hard over here to make it a pro business issue using such examples as how the roads are causing Boeing to look else where to expand. It has worked; we got Ted Hopkins the GOP chair of the Lincoln County Commissioners to publicly be anti I-912. But Chris Vance is looking for a way to get his base to stop thinking about money he wasted on the trial. So when you turn this into East v. West, like that dumb ad, or Dem v. GOP; it will cause you to lose votes and does play into Vance’s hands. Doug was just telling you the facts on how the GOP uses statements from Seattle to win votes in the East. Heck they even use those statements to win votes in East and South King County. King County is not as blue as it once was, neither is this state. Please tell me when is the last time you have worked in Central or Eastern Washington on a campaign? I know Doug has worked on both side of the state for the Democratic Party.

When it comes to Patty v. George. George went an office too far. He did not have Foley v. Washington ads to aid him. Plus Nethercutt forgot how well loved Patty is by GOP business leaders on the dry side. She listens to them, plus she doesn't write them off or make fun of them. A good example for you to learn from.

So if I-912 does pass, please know you were a help to their cause.

I would love to see you call Doug chicken shit to his face. So if you have the guts to meet Doug in person, please videotape it.

Doug don't call me to try to get me to vote no again. Yes, I know it is an inescapable fact is that Seattle is the economic engine that drives this state. But I can send my goods to Portland and they thank me for doing business there, not make fun of me.

for today in Seatown in every place except your brain Benny boy. So I'll just keep spelling it out for you, if you alienate those who may already support you in a STATEWIDE race (like an initiative or the US Senate) then you lose. That's the meat of the issue.

As for "Puget Sound Demoocrats" getting blamed for failure in Eastern Washington, all party leadership spend their time on the west side of the state and that's where their strategy is focused, I accepted that a long time ago. That's the fact about how Western Washington folks screw up things for the rest of the state, not a theory, the fact. To many folks in King County have no idea what goes on in North Bend, Poulsbo, or Port Angeles, much less what goes on in Clarkston or Colville.

When we act as one state things work. Betterdonkey's mission statement is about reaching out to Seattle and Beyond. If this is the best you can to do, then stay in Seattle, and out of Beyond. At this point the energy against I-912 is uniting people from both parties, to keep a transportaion package in place that was passed by both parties in the legislature, to benefit the entire state.

My grandmother used to say the when you are sending an FM stereo signal, the man with the AM radio is not going to appreciate it, since his receiver just isn't equipped for it. We've discussed it and we can agree to disagree. You apparently have a strong need to feel superior when your actions are confronted and critiqued. Being the good Democrat I am, you are a prime example of why I support equal parity for mental health benefits in our state. I'll be in Seattle in a week and my offer to buy you a beer is still good, as long as it doesn't interfere with any medication needs you may have.

I worked on the video. I will not attempt to broach the subject of the political content, but I will say that I agree that the production values could have been higher. We made this video with literally zero budget. I think the only thing we spent money on was a roll of duct tape and beers for the crew. We tried to borrow a mic but unfortunately we had to use the on-board mic of our borrowed camera. And "Across the Field" up till now has been generic march music that no-one recognized and is copyright-free. I would hardly call it grating. Perhaps your audio setup is not equalized properly. Also, the compressed web versions do tend to produce a tinnier overall sound with less resolution in the mid and upper frequencies.

King County represents only 31% of the state's voters. Seattle represents around 10%

link please.

1,777,143 King County Population Source http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/53/53033.html

6,203,788 Washington State Population Source http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/53000.html

The thing of note is the growth rate for the state is 5.3% while King County is only 2.3% during the period of April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2004.

So King County is only 28.6% of the state's population.

In the 2004 election, King County was 1,082,406 of the state's 3,508,208 Registered Voters. In other words 30.8%!! NOT 55%

King County had 898,238 of the 2,883,499 ballots cast in Washington state. Or 30.1% of the ballots, again NOT 55% of the state.

The source for the above is http://vote.wa.gov

These numbers are a long way from Benny G's claim that King County is 55% of the state!!