Political candidates will have their good and bad days, but this was one rough day Darcy Burner certainly didn't envision with just over four months until election day.  The above photo shows a distraught Darcy in front of the charred remains of her house.  The Burner family was asleep when the fire started.  While the house is a complete loss, the family thankfully made it out safely.  Unfortunately they did lose their pet cat to the flames, and pretty much everything else inside.

In 2006 Darcy Burner came out of nowhere and transformed a race everybody thought would be a blowout by incumbent Republican Dave Reichert, into a narrow loss of only 7,000 votes, or about 5 votes per precinct, out of 250,000 votes cast.

It was the best result any Democrat has ever had in Washington State's 8th district.

Despite the setback, Darcy renewed the fight last year, getting off to an earlier start, and is probably by now already $800,000 ahead of her record fundraising pace of 2006.  Much of that is due to the remarkable efforts of the netroots.

Yesterday I wrote that the Darcy Burner campaign was making a final push to raise $25,000 before the end of the year.

Later in the day I heard from the campaign that the drive had brought in close to $20K so far.  As Goldy at HorsesAss.org wrote yesterday:

The 4th Quarter fundraising period is drawing to a close, and where Darcy stands in relation to Dave Reichert and to her fellow Democratic challengers will largely determine the level of financial and logistical support she will initially receive from the DCCC and other organizations. A strong showing will put Darcy near the top of the list, positioning her to make a strong run out of the gate in 2008. A disappointing showing could set her campaign back into the second tier of competitive races, giving Reichert the breathing room he so desperately needs.

Goldy now indicates that if she can raise $10K in the next 8 hours she will be able to report $600,000 cash on hand for the end of year.

The Darcy Burner campaign (WA-08) has a had a great year out fundraising incumbent Dave Reichert in Q3, and reporting more cash on hand through September. Now the campaign is making one final push for the final quarter of the year to raise $25,000 before midnight Monday Dec 31st. That's less than 35 hours from now, as a countdown clock at the Burner site reminds us.

I save my wall calendars.

You see, each year eventually comes around again in exactly the same date to day of the week arrangement.  It is just a matter of time.

To see what I mean take a look at this table at the Virtual Perpetual Calendar site.  Each year of the calendar has a number next to it that can be used to located other years that have the exact same calendar.  For example, 2007 will repeat in 2018, meaning the wall calendars you are using this year will be reusable again in 11 years.

In this manner I've been able to use my 1989 calendars twice since then, which is nice since one of those is a much loved Calvin & Hobbes calendar.  However, some periods before reuse are much longer.  Next year's calendar last occurred in 1980, and won't be reusable again until 2036.  That's such a long way out that they might actually have light rail running to Redmond by then!

(From the diaries. mcjoan)

Mcjoan and Markos have been asking Kossacks this week to reach into their pockets and contribute to a nationwide fund raising drive for Washington 8th Congressional District candidate Darcy Burner, in her effort to counter George Bush's fund raising visit for incumbent Republican Dave Reichert on Monday.

As a resident of the 8th, I am heartened by the tremendous amount that has been donated in just a couple of days.  It has been a wonderful response!

However, I suspect many here don't know much about Dave Reichert or just how insidious an incumbent he is.  The 8th is a swing district, but it wasn't always that way, and it has never elected a Democratic representative since it was created in 1983.

More after the fold...

From the Seattle Times:

The court martial of 1st Lt. Ehren Watada began today with a military judge sharply restricting the list of witnesses sought to defend this Fort Lewis officer who refused to deploy to Iraq.

Lt. Col. John Head said that these witnesses, which included a former member of the CIA and a former U.N. official, "are not relevant and would tend to confuse issues at the trial."

In the courtroom, a defiant defense counsel, Eric Seitz, said, "I think it is an atrocity that our witnesses are being handled in this manner."

The conviction of Lt. Watada continues today.  Hundreds protested yesterday, hundreds will do so again today.

On Monday, Lt. Ehren Watada will stand trial for refusing to partake in what he and others claim is an illegal war of aggression in Iraq.

He faces 2 years in prison for missing deployment, and 2 more years for expressing his opinions.

His case, that the Iraq war violates the U.S. Constitution, and that his officer's oath demands he abide by that same Constitution, above all else, has brought international attention.

Recently he received the support of a man respected by many throughout the world, Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town.

Quote after the jump...

Once again I got up early (for me) on a weekend day and headed to the Darcy Burner campaign offices to help out as I could.  The weather was dry, and although I had indicated that I would work the phones, I kept thinking what I really should be doing is helping canvass once again.  Not everyone can do it, and I think I'm pretty good at it, so it just seemed that that was the best way I could help out.

As expected they were happy to send me out on another route, this time in Bellevue.

So I studied my list, verified the addresses and the map, prepared flyers I might leave at addresses where there was no answer, and headed out.

I was out doorbelling again this afternoon for the Darcy Burner campaign.  This time in Renton.

It was wet.

It still is!

With only 10 days left until Election Day, and absentee voters already able to mail in their ballots, it is time for me to get out from behind my laptop and help get out the vote.

Living in the 8th Congressional District has given me a front row seat to one of the most hotly contested races this year, and I have been writing about it since February. Back then few were paying attention, but today Darcy Burner's campaign could decide whether the Republicans continue to drive this nation into the ground, or whether we will finally have a Democratic majority in Congress that can start holding the Bush administration accountable for six years of failed policies, at home and abroad.

Make no mistake about it, without a Democratic majority the last two years of Bush's presidency will be just like the past six years have been. The Iraq War will continue to fester, and the call by a large majority of Americans for a plan to reduce the level of troops in Iraq will go ignored. We will continue to see more than two U.S. soldier deaths a day, and could possible reach 5000 dead by the end of Bush's term in office.

A plea to Daily Kos diary writers: please don't tag diaries about "Washington D.C." as "Washington"!

I've noticed a lot of diaries that have been mistagged causing clutter when I want to read diary entries that focus on Washington state issues.  These should be correctly tagged with keyword Washington.

However, too many people are tagging diary entries about our nation's capital, Washington, D.C. as simply Washington, when instead they should be differentiating them by tagging them with Washington D.C.

I freely admit that I have, on many occasions, spoken contemptuously of the president.

Yes, I have crossed that line many a time, since before he was even selected as president.

I have probably even done so in public forums in a manner unbecoming my upstanding position as an engaged and active member of society.

I confess of these things, openly, and without regret.

I'm sure many of you have so sinned more times than you can count.

Yet, on Wednesday a far braver man than I was officially charged with such crimes and more.  

The Army accused 1st Lt. Ehren Watada of missing his brigade's troop movement to Iraq, twice speaking contemptuously of the president and three acts unbecoming an officer. The alleged actions are violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. (The Seattle Times)

Ever since Darcy Burner (WA-08) was announced by Matt Stoller at MyDD as a Netroots Endorsed candidate on May 23, I've been tracking the progress of her ActBlue fundraising numbers.  However, surely due to being pre-occupied with other things, like, oh... I don't know... YearlyKos perhaps, Kos never got around to updating the list of Netroots Endorsed candidates in the Daily Kos sidebar.

I contacted Kos asking him to please do so.  I'm sure others did to.  We made mention of it many a diary and comment.

Finally on Monday, Kos announced that he had updated his list and added Darcy Burner to it.

Thank you!!

This, plus recent mentions at MyDD and Swing State Project, have done wonders for Darcy Burner's ActBlue numbers:

The Darcy Burner campaign surpassed their fundraising goal of $75,000 in the past 10 days.

The Darcy Burner (WA-08) campaign just keeps getting hotter and hotter.  Yesterday EMILY's List announced their endorsement of Darcy Burner.

This comes while the Burner campaign is in the midst of a fundraising drive that they hope will bring in $75,000 in 10 days. As of this writing they've raised $47,888 with less than 2 days to go. You can track the progress of the fundraising effort via their visual tool.

It is crunch time people!

Last week Darcy Burner, a netroots endorsed candidate (despite the fact she's still not listed as such at the bottom of the Daily Kos sidebar list - that needs to be corrected!!!), posted a terrific diary at Daily Kos, in part re-introducing herself to this national audience, and in part making a pitch for continued and greater netroots and grassroots support.

Darcy wrote:

I am the daughter of an Air Force veteran and a public school teacher. I grew up in military towns and attended public schools. Like many Americans today, my parents struggled to pay the bills while raising five kids. I worked hard in school, put myself through college, and went on to a successful career at Microsoft. I am now married to a military veteran and raising a young son.

She's also very modest and smart as she received a National Merit Scholarship and majored in computer science and economics from Harvard. You can read her full bio at her Web site.

Meet Republican Dave Reichert, freshmen congressman/bootlicker for WA-08:

Dave Reichert: Bush's right hand rubber stamp man (© Mike Kane/P-I)

Dave is a Bush man.