The Daily Render by Nikolas R. Schiller

Today I posted the article below to numerous DC neighborhood yahoo groups. The aim was to get people thinking about what the coming administration might be able to do for the disenfranchised Washington, DC residents. I’m hoping some people see the importance of the next few months and are motivated to demand full representation in Congress.

“There is no Black America… there is the United States of America.” but do residents of Washington, DC get to participate?

Below is the e-mail I sent out:
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8/6/2008 || 2:11 pm
The Organization For Security And Cooperation In Europe Continues To Press The US Goverment on Full Congressional Representation for D.C. Residents

A New Generation of DC Voting Rights Campaigners

Last night the graphic above was forward to me by my friend and fellow activist, Timothy Cooper of World Rights, an NGO that works to promote and protect human rights under principles of international law.

I have worked with Timothy on many different human rights demonstrations in the past involving the OSCE. He was quoted in David Montgomery’s article about me as saying “Nikolas looks better in a Colonial outfit and a tricorner hat than practically anyone I know.” Timothy Cooper is also one heck of a piano player, but what I respect him for most is his ongoing work on behalf of the disenfranchised residents of America’s capital city.

As one of the few activists who have succeeded in placing the international spotlight on Washington, DC’s lack of voting representation, this press release below shows that he’s been continuing the fight. In the Needs Assessment Mission Report[pdf] published by Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights there is a specific paragraph that I don’t think would have been included without his diligence. It references the 2006 OSCE Declaration that we helped lobby for; both on land and water.

W O R L D R I G H T S
Human Rights Advocacy Worldwide

For Immediate Release

Date: August 4, 2008
Contact: Timothy Cooper
Tel: 202.361.0989

ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE (OSCE) PRESSES UNITED STATES ON GRANTING D.C. RESIDENTS FULL CONGRESSIONAL VOTING RIGHTS

Washington, DC—In a “Needs Assessment Mission Report [pdf]” issued by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on July 28, 2008, the OSCE concluded that “[w]hile the United States of America has a long-standing tradition of democratic elections, several issues raised in previous OSCE/ODIHR reports, and those highlighted by OSCE/ODIHR NAM interlocutors, merit further attention.” Among those issues raised in previous OSCE reports is the continuing denial of full congressional representation to the nearly 600,000 residents of Washington, D.C. In its last election observation report issued in 2006, the OSCE called on the U.S. government to grant D.C. residents full congressional voting rights. The United States is obligated to guarantee full representation in Congress to the residents of the District of Columbia under the 1990 OSCE Copenhagen Document, to which it is party.

The new report’s Executive Summary notes that “only citizens of states are entitled to vote for congressional representation with full voting rights, leaving approximately 600,000 US citizens in Washington DC alone without full representation in Congress….”

The latest report’s findings also state that “[a]ccording to the Constitution, United States citizens who are not citizens of one of the 50 states are not able to vote for members of Congress who have full voting rights in Congress. It is estimated that up to 600,000 citizens in Washington DC alone, without including citizens in US territories, are subject to US laws including taxation and permitted to vote in the presidential election, but cannot fully exercise their voting rights for Congressional representation.”

Worldrights lobbied the OSCE/ODIHR for many years to draw its attention to the willful disenfranchisement of D.C. residents by Congress and the Executive Branch.

The report may be found at: http://www.osce.org/odihr/ or by clicking here[pdf]

The current Democratic Party leadership mentioned in the graphic above have been advocating 1/3 representation for the residents of Washington, DC for far too long. What is funny about the graphic to me is it uses the 1/3 meme that I’ve been pressing for the last few years:

First with the license plate:

Which received mention in the Washington Times

Then the D.C. Flag

….and now the graphic above employs the concept of being begging to the 1/3 meme. I wonder what meme will be next? I can only hope the Democratic Party leadership changes their direction in favor of what Washington, DC residents voted for: statehood or at least full representation in Congress (not one token vote in the House of Representatives and no Senators).

Related OSCE Entries: (more…)

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6/9/2008 || 9:00 pm
The Dr. Bill Show!

I’ve been at odds with DC Vote for years. While we are on the same side regarding the importance of congressional representation for DC residents, I’ve been quite dissatisfied with their approach toward bringing true equality. As an ardent supporter of statehood, I’ve been annoyed that DC Vote has been a puppet of the Democratic Party and has wantonly gone after partial representation instead of full representation.

Last year I modified their logo to create a 1/3 fraction because of their support for the constitutionally dubious Norton-Davis bill that would give DC a token vote in the House of Representatives, but no representation in the Senate, or 1/3 representation. This was followed up by a nice phone call from the executive director of the organization asking me nicely to not screw around with their copyrighted logo (free speech rules!). I even created multiple designs of the DC Flag that had only one out of the three stars filled in to show my fractional contempt. However, my best creation was the modified DC license plate that said “TAXATION WITH 1/3 REPRESENTATION,” which was ultimately mentioned in the Washington Times.

Worse is that DC Vote has been able to conflate “voting rights” with “statehood” in public discourse to the point that people use the words “voting rights” incorrectly. The inherent irony is that they’ve been advocating for a voting right (singular) because they are staunchly in favor of giving Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton *a* vote in the House. In my opinion, “voting rights” (plural) involves DC residents having Congressional representation in both the House and the Senate. I remember when we marched at last year’s rally, I had to stop people from chanting “Give us the vote” because they were naively advocating for partial representation when we were holding a large flag that said “DC STATEHOOD NOW!”

Earlier this afternoon I noticed an advertisement on Wonkette for “Dr. Bill” and after clicking on it I was brought to DC Vote’s website to watch a flash version of the video above.

Frankly, I really like the video and that’s why I am posting it here today. With my reservations about DC Vote aside, I actually like this video as a means for explaining the disenfranchisement of DC residents. There is no mention of any constitutionally dubious legislation, rather its a simple & straightforward video that makes a strong case for giving DC residents representation in Congress while making fun of America’s worst president.

If you are reading/watching this from outside of Washington, DC, please share this video with your friends. If you think “change” is coming to Washington, maybe it should start with the enfranchisement of DC residents.

Related Entries:
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5/26/2008 || 1:26 pm
DC Residents say they want full democracy, like New Delhi.

[download pdf]

This article is a great primer on the disenfranchisement of Washington, DC residents. However well-crafted or edited, I genuinely have issue with this one statement– the only place where the word STATEHOOD is mentioned in the entire article:

While many Congress members support a vote in the House for Washington residents, statehood is less popular because it would mean adding two senators from one city in an upper chamber that has only 100 members for the entire nation. And although the population of D.C. is greater than the state of Wyoming, the District lacks characteristics normally associated with states such as diverse geography with both urban and rural areas. Yet, these definitions of what constitutes a state are not written in the Constitution.

Statehood is the easiest answer, but the hardest solution to obtain. The League of Women Voters gave up on Statehood in the 90’s and were most recently in favor of the constitutionally dubious 1/3 representation bill. What I find sad is that the words “An Equal Constitutional Rights Amendment” are used in place of an actual bill. So instead of working for statehood- a singular goal- they are currently advocating what? A to-be-drafted bill that will probably only give partial equality? It’s rather sad. I mean, come on. The Democratic Party, DC Vote, the League of Women Voters, and the ilk are not able to change anything because they gave up on what DC residents voted for. Instead of not wavering and clearly stating one precise goal: statehood, they have sought “incremental” answers that have missed the mark. Its just so happens that most of these incremental steps are unconstitutional. Politics might be the art of compromise, but equal representation is the basis for politics. Statehood might be the most difficult solution to the DC Dilemma, but it provides the residents with full equality that no “voting rights bill” can match.

Below is the article:
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5/9/2008 || 1:13 pm
SloMo the Statehood Snail visits Swampoodle

SloMo the Statehood Snail hanging out at the corner of 1st & M Street NE in Washington, DC

On Tuesday evening after I had finished putting the last coat of wheat paste on to my base map installation at Artomatic, I decided to venture outdoors and place one of my favorite cartopomorphic creatures on to a couple lampposts outside of the venue.

The idea was to see if anyone would recognize the SloMo the Statehood Snail when they visited my exhibit space. He’s placed about six times on the base map and on three lampposts outside of the venue.

Artomatic opens tonight and I look forward to seeing if anyone recognizes him when they visit my exhibit space. My null hypothesis is that visitors will not notice the lil bugger.

SloMo the Statehood Snail outside of the Metro exit on M Street

SloMo the Statehood Snail in a Swampuddle!

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4/10/2008 || 11:46 pm
Germany’s Green Party opens chapter in Washington, DC

As a current member of the DC Statehood Green Party, former elected member of the DC Statehood Green Party steering committee, and former elected national delegate to the Green Party of the United States, this is exciting news to me. Dies ist gut:

Germany’s Green Party opens chapter in Washington, DC

Julie Gregson | Deutsche Welle | 04.09.2008

Germany’s Green Party is setting up a branch in the United States. The bottom-up initiative aims to bring a more international perspective to the party’s work and combat anti-Americanism among some members back home.

The chapter is due to be officially founded next weekend in Washington DC. It hopes to tap into the experiences of the growing number of Germans working in the US capital in international organizations, foundations and think tanks, as well as in the media, the culture industry and higher education.

“We’ve discovered that there are a lot of Germans in town who are young, tolerant and cosmopolitan and who share Green values or are active in the Green party,” said chapter co-founder Arne Jungjohann. “We want to offer them a platform.” But the group is also looking to engage with Greens across the United States and has set up a Facebook presence to allow those living further afield to contribute to the debate. “Our purpose is to have a group that is following German domestic politics and influencing the Green agenda in Germany on international topics,” said Jungjohann, who is also Environmental Program Director at the Boell Foundation.

Countering anti-americanism

Anti-Americanism is another area where the group believes it could have important input. Reinhard Buetikofer, co-leader of the Greens, welcomed the establishment of the party’s Washington DC branch, saying it was a positive sign for bilateral dialog.

“This is not supposed to be a one-way street — it’s an exchange, it’s about cooperation,” Buetikofer said. “It will attest to the fact that the Green party is open towards exchange with the United States. You do not have to be German to join the group, but an affiliation with Germany is required and German will be its working language.

It is the Greens’ second branch abroad. The party also has a group based in Brussels, the headquarters of the European Commission.

[via Sam Smith’s D.C. City Desk]

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4/8/2008 || 4:52 pm
ABSOLUT STATEHOOD

Screen grab links to .kmz file for Google Earth

A geovisual response to an LA Times blog entry showing mostly isolationist responses to an alternative history map of North America by Absolut Vodka.

This interactive map for Google Earth shows the familiar Absolut Vodka bottle labeled “Absolut Statehood” and placed inside of the original boundaries of the District of Columbia. These boundaries existed until 1847 when the residents of Virginia voted to cede back the portion of the District of Columbia that was west of the Potomac River.

Absolut Statehood represents the cartographic notion that the nation’s capital can become America’s 51st state*. Today there are over 550,000 American citizens living in the nation’s capital that are being denied the fundamental right of represenation in Congress. This ongoing human rights violation currently practiced by the government of the United States has been denounced by the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The United States is the only country in the industrialized world that forbids the residents of it’s capital city the right to elect representatives to their national legislature.

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4/4/2008 || 12:58 pm
The maps on Google Analytics suffer from Washington, DC’s exclusion

The other day I mentioned how Google Charts API includes small maps but leaves Washington, DC off the map. Last night when I was looking at my newly installed Google Analytics interface (above) and I discovered another reason why Washington, DC should be included: without including Washington, DC, the map on the Google Analytics page is lacking a means to show visitors from the nation’s capital. This means all webmasters around the world who use Google’s Analytics are not being able to effectively analyze their data on the map of the United States because not every country/territory/region on the continental mainland is being shown.

From the screen grab above:
A. There is 61.4 square miles of Country/Territory missing here
B. If Regions are being listed, why is one being excluded from the map above?
C. District of Columbia is not a Region nor are any of the States listed below it

As I wrote before, Google can add Washington, DC to the lower portion of their maps in the area where Alaska and Hawaii are not shown to scale. While Washington, DC may be denied statehood, it has more inhabitants than the state of Wyoming and should be given the same opportunity to be shown on the map of the United States. Otherwise, like the Google Analytics screen grab above, the maps will continue to be incomplete and inaccurate.

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2/13/2008 || 1:17 pm
My vote verified by a paper ballot

An infographic showing how to hack a Diebold Accuvote-TS unit

So yesterday I participated in the DC Statehood Green Party Primary. This election cycle I was offered the opportunity to keep the tab from my ballot. Compared to those generic “I VOTED” stickers, the paper ballot is a much better souvenir because it shows that not only did I vote, I was voter number 2 at the precinct. Here’s the scanned proof:

Judging by the DC Board of Elections and Ethics results for my precinct (below), I can verify that the ballot above was the second and last DC Statehood Green Party ballot given out yesterday. If you scroll down to the bottom of the image, it shows that there were 2 people who voted for Cynthia McKinney and since the ballot above is market 00002, I can only infer that the other voter has 00001.

Page 137 of the Pre-Certified Presidential Preference Primary Election Results - Precinct Report

It looks like Cynthia McKinney beat Ron Paul in my precinct (2 votes to 1 one). Only nine people voted republican compared to the two Statehood Green (one being me). Thats some hyperlocal politix.

Related 2008 Election Entries:

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4/18/2007 || 11:34 am
Roll Call’s Photo of the Week features the DC Colonist

From Roll Call:

Up-Lifting Message
Nikolas Schiller of the DC Statehood Green Party helps fellow party members lift a large pro-D.C. statehood flag on the Capitol’s West Front following a voting-rights march to the Capitol on Monday. Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and other District officials led supporters from Freedom Plaza to the Capitol in a show of support for a bill that would grant D.C. a vote in the House.

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4/16/2007 || 10:20 am
D.C. Voting Rights March…

This afternoon will be the largest organized march for D.C. congressional representation in over a decade. While its great news that there is enough popular support to have a march, it’s downright sad that the bill in which people are lobbying for is a complete sham. It gives D.C. a token vote in the House, and little else. Congress will still have full control of D.C. (as written in the Constitution) and there will still be no representation in the Senate.

As I have stated time & time again, if the bill passes, D.C. residents will only be 1/3 represented– so why advocate for partial representation? Democracy only works in whole numbers. History tells us this. Just like the slaves who were once considered 3/5’s of a human in regards to representation, which was found to be unconstitutional, this bill will probably end up with the same result.

I was going to publish the list of sponsors of the Voting Rights March to show high up the kool-aid drinking goes. From the NAACP to the DC Government, it’s laughable that these organizations are behind something so constitutionally dubious. Moreover, I must highlight the sad fact that they behind something that sells everyone short. As one person told me, “It’s the best thing going,” but does that make it legitmate? Politics may be the art of compromise, but why compromise becoming a full citizen over being 1/3 of a citizen?

I will be marching with the largest D.C. flag (made of hemp, with the text “DC STATEHOOD NOW!”) from Franklin Square to Freedom Plaza in the “March to Statehood” contingent and then after the march & rally I will be going to “Push the Senate Reception” in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. I was thinking of getting arrested in the senate, but I have yet to decide if it will be worthwhile or not. I’m a bit rusty when it comes to civil disobedience, it’s been awhile.

Lastly, I’d like to point out the stupidity of the naming of the march as a “Voting Rights March.” People are lobbying for a voting RIGHT - thats singular - not plural, with the right being only one vote in the House. If it were really about voting RIGHTS - that’s plural - it would be in support of full representation in both the House & Senate….

Below the fold is Reuters story,
“Washington, after 200 years, may get vote in Congress”
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3/27/2007 || 4:21 pm
OSCE Finds US Government Violates Human Rights

Posted on Sunday to theMail by my friend Timothy Cooper:

On March 9, the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe’s Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) issued a major report on the 2006 mid-term US congressional elections(PDF), and concluded that the US government violates DC citizens’ basic political rights, as well as those of US citizens living in the territories, by denying them full representation in Congress. The OSCE report states, among other things, that “US citizens who are not citizens of one of the fifty states are not able to vote for members of Congress who have the right to vote on the floor. . . . These restrictions exist even though such US citizens are subject to US federal law and pay federal taxes. . . . It is . . . estimated that in Washington, DC, alone, without including US citizens of US territories, up to half a million US citizens are not permitted to vote in federal elections for full congressional representation. As these citizens are subject to US laws, including taxation, the denial of full representation, as underscored by the Constitution and Supreme Court decisions, would appear to be a limitation of voting rights.” The OSCE recommends that “US authorities should consider all possibilities to provide full representation rights for all US citizens.”

The OSCE is Europe’s largest human rights monitoring body. It is composed of 56 countries, spans the globe from Russia to Canada, and is the world’s preeminent democratic election monitoring body, which regularly observes elections in all OSCE countries. The US is a founding member of the organization, and is bound by all of its human rights commitment. The right to participate equally in one’s own national legislature is a key OSCE democratic election standard under the 1990 Copenhagen Act. In 2002, Worldrights launched a campaign to win the OSCE’s endorsement of full Congressional voting rights for DC residents. Since then, Worldrights has appeared at the OSCE’s annual Human Dimension Implementation meetings in Warsaw, Poland, pressing for the OSCE to address the DC issue and make recommendations. The complete report may be found at: http://www.world-rights.org.

Worldrights has also requested that the US Helsinki Commission, under the new leadership of Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) and Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), hold hearings on US noncompliance. The Helsinki Commission regularly monitors the human rights compliance of other OSCE countries.

On July 1st, 2005 I greeted the OSCE parliamentarians when they met in Washington, DC for the first time. Alongside Tim, Statehood Green Party members, and DC Vote, we organized a street meet & greet, where I said hello to the parliamentarians dressed in my colonial costume as they entered the hotel for the day’s meetings.

That afternoon we had a press conference in Freedom Plaza (you can watch the video here, scroll down to OSCE) next to a ballot box enclosed in a barbed wire fence. The following day, we conducted the first even naval lobbying effort in the history of D.C.! As the OSCE parliamentarians took a yatch ride to the historic home of George Washington, we followed them on D.C. Shadow Senator’s Paul Strauss’ boat with a banner that read “OSCE Equal Voting Rights for D.C.”

Seeing this continued postition of the OSCE is great news and shows that our efforts have had a lasting impact. Alas, we still are denied representation in both chambers of Congress….

Read my OSCE related blog entries…
Text of the OSCE Report(PDF) after the fold.
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3/23/2007 || 8:52 am
Tom Davis Supports Statehood?

No, not really. But taken completely out of context, this clip sure makes him sound like a supporter of statehood. I actually learned some new constitutional facts. See for yourself:

If you were to watch the full clip you’d see that he’s just another politician compromising equality for 1/3 representation and claiming it’s progress. He definitely makes the case that a strict reading of the constitution says that DC should be a state.

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3/22/2007 || 9:36 am
THE GEOCOLONIAL SLOTS - Match 3 for Statehood!

Screen shot below features 2/3 - American University Quilt & 1/3 Meridian Hill Park

I mentioned that I was thinking about doing some sort of gambling themed lost project. And after about 7 different random image generator scripts I settled on this one. On Firefox & Safari it doesn’t appear to work as I intended. When attempting to gamble for representation I found that the images were not randomly loading. So you will probably have to manually hit reload for equality. I tried a few different javascripts to directly reload the page, but none worked. So I am stuck with this slightly substandard geographic casino. Casinos are substandard anyways; just like taxation without representation.

This interactive geographic environment consists of the 2 types of map details from my Washington, DC map collection. The folder consists of the {name}-zoom.jpg, {name}-zoom2.jpg, {name}-cut.jpg, {name}-cut2.jpg- related to each map. The Zooms represent central details that geographic tessellations at two different scales. The Cuts are details of places and spaces around the map. The 144 different Zooms & Cuts were placed into 3 folders: right, middle, left. Each time the page reloads there is a 1 out of a 2,865,984 chance of winning statehood!

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3/14/2007 || 1:25 pm
Here Be Dragons by David Montgomery

Front page of today’s Washington Post Style Section:

Here Be Dragons
Through Nikolas Schiller’s Eye, Aerial Maps of Familiar Places Become Terra Incognita
By David Montgomery

He is sly, this rebel cartographer. He makes maps that look like quilts, masks, feathers, acid trips. You can find America in these maps — you can probably find your house in these maps — if you can find the maps at all, since their creator has posted them to an online underground.

Nikolas Schiller, 26, is the god of this alternative reality. Making maps at a frenzied pace of one every two days for the past 1,000 days, he has done everything he could to keep himself off the map of the World Wide Web.

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2/15/2007 || 6:05 am
Censored today in theMail…

On Sunday I e-mailed Gary Imhoff who moderates the bi-weekly discussion list called theMail. This is the second time I have posted to the theMail, with the first being an e-flyer for “North South East Westminster,” and to be honest I am quite disappointed in the slight censorship Gary employed in my original entry. Specifically, he opted to not include what I feel to be the best piece of media: the Taxation Without Representation Google Map!

Here is what I sent to theMail:

The New DC Flag (if HR 328 passes) and other fractional media
Nikolas R. Schiller, DC [at] NikolasSchiller [dot] com
Co-Chair, DC Statehood Green Party

Fellow friends & enemies of fractional representation,

Last Thursday I received a phone call from the executive director of an organization that is promoting fractional democracy on behalf the disenfranchised residents of Washington, DC. I was kindly asked to refrain from using Photoshop to alter copyrighted images, even when done as a parody (see below). However, when an injustice is currently being promoted in the name of democracy, I cannot in good conscience be silent, or even 1/3 silent.

So to complete my fractional trilogy, I have redesigned the DC flag to represent the 1/3 representation DC residents will get with the passage of the unconstitutional DC Fair and Equal Voting Rights Act of 2007 (hr 328). I also created an animated version to accentuate the stupidity of claiming 1/3 representation as progress.

The flag is based on this proposed design:
http://www.dcwatch.com/issues/flagproposed.gif

The new DC Flag (if HR 328 passes):
http://www.nikolasschiller.com/images/flagproposed_text_left.gif
http://www.nikolasschiller.com/images/flagproposed_animated.gif

Fractionally Related (if HR 328 passes):
http://nikolasschiller.com/images/new_dc_plates.jpg
http://nikolasschiller.com/images/now_with_dc_vote.gif

Marginally 1/3 Related:
http://nikolasschiller.com/images/dc_is_the_capital_of.gif
http://nikolasschiller.com/images/utah_is_the_capital_of.gif
- Look at both and ask yourself, “Who is still getting screwed?”)

Interactive Google Map:
http://nikolasschiller.com/gis/taxationwithoutrepresentationmap.html
- This Google Map Mashup randomly plots 51 DC Flags around the U.S. Capitol and when clicked reveal 51 different messages about Washington, DC.

Don’t forget, if you have the time, take one-third of a day off work on Thursday and go to Capitol Hill and tell Congress what it’s like to be forced to take the backseat on the bus of democracy.

After the flap is what was actually distributed:
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12/5/2006 || 11:14 am
Third of representation a start, but not enough

In today’s Washington Times:

In honor of the bill before Congress that provides a congressional vote for the District in the House of Representatives, Statehood Green Party advocate Nikolas Schiller has designed a new license plate: “Taxation with 1/3 Representation.”

Read the rest of the article:
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11/30/2006 || 11:11 pm
The #2 Political Party in Washington, DC

As one of the few people on the Steering Committee and a National Delegate, I am proud of this small election victory.

via NBC4’s Tom Sherman’s Notebook
source: http://www.nbc4.com/politics/10416500/detail.html

Going Green
The D.C. Statehood Green Party is patting itself on the back over the November election returns. The small party came in way behind Democratic winners in the big elections, but the party has gleaned a few nuggets of hope from Board of Election tallies.

Of five partisan races on the ballot Nov. 7, the party says there were 44,580 overall votes for Statehood Green candidates while there were only 29,776 Republican votes.
In the race for the city’s statehood lobbyist (Shadow Representative), the party says standard-bearer Keith Ware got 13 percent of the votes with 12,762 ballots while the Republican candidate got 8,839 or 9 percent.

Even mayoral candidate Chris Otten received 4 percent of the vote behind 6 percent for Republican David Kranich. Of course, Democrat Fenty got most of the rest.

I’d like to map the locations of where the 44,580 D.C. Statehood Green votes were cast. It would also be quite interesting to see where the 29,776 Republican votes were cast. I have a feeling the Republican votes would be found mostly in Wards 2 & 3. Sadly, I do not have the required software (ArcMap) needed to make these two maps Maybe I can get a friend to make it for me…

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11/28/2006 || 9:03 am
The New DC License Plate.. if H.R. 5388 passes

H.R. 5388 is a bill before Congress that would give Utah an extra at-large representative in the House and give Washington, DC residents one representative in the House. The democratic party’s establishment is behind this bill, yet it denies Washington, DC residents representation in the senate and would render residents 1/3 represented in Congress. I decided to adjust the license plate accordingly….

Something to think about courtesy of Samuel Jordan:
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10/3/2006 || 12:29 pm
Dennis Hastert’s Office 3 Years ago… yesterday

Since October 1st fell on a Sunday, this year’s B.A.D.* Day was on Monday.
Same office, two completely different issues:
D.C. Statehood vs Covering up a Congressional Pedophile
Direct Action vs Indirect Inaction
but two bad days…three years apart

http://flow.mediavac.com/ramgen/sinkers/2003/capitolhillOct0103.rm

– Video starts with Eurok & Head-Roc rapping “This is D.C.! (South Africa on the Potomac)”
– Cut to the “Free D.C. song”
– Cuts to flag (banner drop) outside of the Capitol with Capitol Police
(Made of hemp with text “D.C. Statehood Now” The largest flag in D.C.)
– Cuts to the hall of the Rayburn building
– Norton’s office
– Tom Davis’ office (not present)
– Tom Davis in the halls of the Rayburn
– Dennis Hastert’s offce
– 51 seconds later media kicked out

END

They were all arrested for trespassing. In court they each defended themselves pro se and were found not guilty by a jury of their peers. While I wasn’t on Capitol Hill that day, I did attend the court room proceedings and saw the value of democracy in action that doesn’t end with a click of a mouse. Ironically, that click is the same sound that caused Hastert’s bad day this year.

*B.A.D. Day - Budget Autonomy for the District Day - A day to lobby congress to give Washington, DC the ability to approve it’s own budget. Currently in Washington, DC, residents must wait for Congress to approve the budget of the district. Sometimes congress adds riders to the budget and enact laws that D.C. residents did not give consent for. Everyone was dressed as colonists to underscore the history of American colonists who chanted no taxation without representation.

Thank you to Mike Flugenock for keeping this piece of history on-line

The D.C. Colonist encounters Hastert at a book signing after the jump….
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9/15/2006 || 12:05 am
The DC Colonist is in a Scripts Howard wire report

I wish the Washington Post would have used the picture of me shaking Fenty’s hand…

Nikolas R. Schiller, co-chair of the D.C. Statehood Green Party, dressed as a colonist - complete with purple coat, ruffled blouse and three-cornered hat - to demonstrate how “D.C. residents are essentially colonists.”

Schiller said he considered H.R. 5388 “inherently flawed” because it did not grant representation in the Senate. “It would make residents of D.C. one-third of a citizen,” he said, “and I’d rather be 100 percent.”

Read the entire article:
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6/27/2006 || 2:32 am
Tea Time…

Green Tea with Statehood-Green Candidates at Future Green
Sunday, July 2, 2:00PM to 4:00PM

Come out for some refreshing green tea with our Statehood-Green Candidates at Washington’s first all eco-friendly store, Future Green.

Our slate of potential candidates will be there to discuss their platforms and election-year strategies. We say ‘potential’ because they need YOUR signatures to get on this year’s ballot.

WHEN: This Sunday, July 2, 2PM - 4PM
WHERE: Future Green — 1469 Church Street (15th and Church, Ward 2).
METRO: Red Line, Dupont Circle, walk 5 blocks East on P, than one block North on 15th.
BUSES: 14th Street Bus Line
WEB: http://www.futuregreen.net
FMI: Keith Ware, 202-234-7110 or Chris Otten, chrisotten2 at yahoo.com

All DCSGP candidates have been invited to come. Tell your friends to come and register with DC’s only non-corporate political party.

*Organizers: Feel free to bring your literature to swap with candidate literature.
*Get your shop on: Great store for family-friendly products.

COME ON OUT FOR SOME STATEHOOD-GREEN TEA!
Sunday, July 2, 2pm @ Future Green

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6/14/2006 || 10:07 pm
Taxation Without Representation Google Map

Happy Flag Day!

This google map plots 51 DC flags around the U.S. Capitol. When the flags are clicked a random fact about America’s last continental colony pops up. You can open the source HTML to read them all quickly. I obtained some of the facts and figures from DC Vote and I sent the list out to the members of the DC Statehood Green Party for feedback. The result is what I think is one of the first political google map mashups. Have fun!

Render A Comment || || Posted One Year Ago: 911 Mandala, favorite rendering yet!

6/11/2006 || 10:44 am
Meet SloMo the Statehood Snail

I am really happy with how this turned out. I took the DC outline and placed it over the Photoshop preset shape of a snail. The shelless snail now carries the weight of city so great they won’t let it be a state. I added my synthetic signature of ®’s as the Statehood Snails’ eyes. I’ve printed up about 15 these little buggers. When I put them up I want to use some chalk to show the snail’s trail up to the location (lampost) it stopped at. This will add a cute dimension to SloMo’s style.

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Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Jefferson Lenz, Mall Quilt

6/10/2006 || 11:34 pm
2 Tone Stencils of Washington, DC

So I’ve been on a kick lately with making stencils. I’m not making the spray paint style of stencils (although I could) rather I’ve been making ones specifically designed for wheatpasting. I’m keeping the cartographic theme alive in these stencils by using the DC outline that I acquired for the DC GIS and adding new elements.

My first is the “Statehood North Star”

I’ve printed up about 10 of these and cut them out….

Related Design Entries: (more…)

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8/3/2005 || 7:39 am
Maps of where DC residents voted Statehood Green

: click image below to see the map in full size :

Last Friday night I used the DC Board of Elections & Ethics 2004 election precinct totals to construct maps of where all the votes for Green Party candidates were located. I created a map for Adam Eidinger(above - U.S. Shadow Representative), Laurent Ross(DC City Council At-Large), David Cobb & Pat LaMarche (Green Party President & Vice President), Michelle Tingling-Clemmons & Jay Marx (DC City Council Ward 7 & 2 respectively), and the aggregate DC Statehood Green Party total. I did notice that there are a couple totaling errors, because some precincts have a total that is different than the sum of the rest of the candidates, but I am not about to remake those maps! I haven’t made a “real map” in a long time and even with the slight errors, I am very proud of these. I chose to use Adam’s map above because I was actively involved in his campaign (although he lost, he got more votes than the President Bush did in DC) and feel that I am directly responsible in some way for the turnout above. I wish we would have plotted the locations of where we placed campaign signs! It would have been really nifty to see if there was a spatial correlation between high numbers of green votes and the location of the campaign posters. Regardless, I am looking forward to 2006

==/== updated 8/10/05 ==/==
After thinking and looking at the maps for a bit, I realized that I didn’t explicitly put the position the candidate was seeking! Oh well…no one paid me to make this map…
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7/4/2005 || 9:40 pm
Censorship on the 4th of July

Today’s Strike 4 Statehood festivities at RFK were very disappointing. While the marquee outside of the stadium say that you are allowed to bring in signs, once in the stands, this is not true. Maybe it was because the game was being televised by FOX, or maybe the MLB management really doesn’t want people to entertain their freedom of speech while at the stadium, but when you are threatened to be kicked out of the stadium numerous times for holding up signs on the 4th of July, it’s really a sad sad sight.

The plan was the same as at the last game, we were going to hold up the signs that spelled out “S T R I K E 4 DC S T A T E H O O D” every time the pitcher struck out someone from the opposing team, or if the player is walked, we’d flip the signs to say “B U S H P L A Y B A L L W I T H DC.” Alas, this form of signage is not welcomed at RFK stadium, nor was ANY type of signage.

After our first display of the signs the RFK stadium security was on to us and told us that we were not allowed to hold up the signs and we needed to put them away. They said they were either going to kick us out of the stadium or take our signs, and of course we weren’t going to budge an inch- it was the 4th of July, the day we are supposed to celebrate freedom of speech and all that has came with 229 years of independence.

As we were being heckled by security, the Washington Post photographer approached us and we were able to tell him the story. He snapped a few pictures of us and took some of our names, and hopefully we’ll make it into the Post.

We pointed out to the security that there were others with signs that were not being heckled and they approached those people and told them that they needed to put their signs away as well. But of course, those people didn’t put up much of a fight like we did! We eventually put the signs away and the security left us alone.

Brendan brought his DC flag to the game as well (it’s the same flag you can see hoisted on Senator Strauss’ boat in the Examiner Article) and decided that he would hold up the flag during applause. And who would have thought that you are not allowed to hold up the DC Flag at the baseball game in Washington, DC? He, too, almost got kicked out of the stadium for refusing to not wave his flag. Can you believe the banality of censorship on the 4th of July at RFK stadium? I am still recoiling!

Eventually the second tier security came and told the security guard, who ended up being posted behind us the entire game, that it was okay to wave the DC Flag! Oh the fun of flags on the 4th of July!

During the 7th inning stretch we defied the RFK stadium security and held up the signs for the stadium to see, which they did! It was quite funny seeing the entire stadium looking up at us to read the sign. The powerless security guard who was stationed behind us came down to us and told us to take down the signs and we just ignored her. We held up the signs two more times before our critical mass of 20 DC Statehood supporters decided to head on home for the night.

As we were leaving the stands, I noticed that RFK stadium security had added a police officer to the ranks of those monitoring our 4th of July festivities in the stands.

We learned through this whole ordeal that the signs are not going to work, but we also noticed that people with letters on their shirts can do the exact same messaging, and it’s a bit more “legal.” There was a gaggle of folks who had “Happy 4th of July” on spelled out on their shirts and they were not given any hassle by the RFK security. We also learned that the DC flag is legitimate, so that means I need to get one for myself! (maybe one with “Taxation Without Representation”)

I came to the stadium dressed as the DC Colonist, which was perfect for the 4th of July, yet I realized that I need a bit more visible messaging on the outfit for it not to be misconstrued as “patriot” that some suburbanites told their children I was. Regardless, everyone got a kick out of seeing me in such a timely costume! I was able to rally our section of the stadium into doing the wave This was the first time I’ve actually partaken in the activity of getting people to literally follow the leader. Very fun!

This will definitely be the last time I attend a Nats game for a while. My next foray will be highlighting the fact that RFK stadium does not recycle. I believe that we’ll be able to make a strong case for adding recycling bins to the stadium to make sure PETE finds a home other than a landfill or an incinerator. There is no reason why RFK stadium is not recycling, and my only guess is because no one has pointed out this fact. Time to do so.

1 Comment Rendered || || Posted One Year Ago: Washington Post: Red, White and Golden Arches: The Star-Spangled Banner Ad

7/3/2005 || 11:11 am
We’ve got the support-

The amendment has made its way out of committee into section A of the Washington Post:
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1 Comment Rendered || ||

7/2/2005 || 9:59 pm
The first DC Democracy Naval Battle

I participated in the first naval battle for DC Democracy, and I believe we won! No bullets, bombs, or carnage, just a couple of boats, a few signs, and a whole lot of dedication.

Through the OSCE’s draft itinerary, we knew that the Parliamentarians were going to be taking a cruise to Mount Vernon, and a few weeks ago I brought up the idea of setting up some sort of “DC Democracy Regatta.” Shadow Senator Paul Strauss volunteered to use his powerboat for the festivities he retitled “DC Democracy Castaways.”

After finding out that we had another boater come on-line on Thursday evening, I sent out an E-mail to the Team DC Democracy listserv requesting RSVPs for the cruise. In the end we had room for about 18 sailors on the two boats.

Around 1:30pm, I showed up at the Washington Marina and helped setup the ships. We placed the banners from yesterday’s rally on to the bow of the the ship- on the port side we placed the English version and on the starboard side we place the spanish translation of “Equal Voting Rights for DC.”

After having to kick off a few sailors (to make sure that if the Coast Guard decided to board our ships we had enough life jackets to be legal), we set off from the marina and picked up Tim Cooper, who had just finished briefing the Parliamentarians.

Senator Strauss CB radioed the “Spirit of the Potomac” telling the captain our intentions of following the ship and then contacted the Coast Guard to tell them as well. And at around 3:45pm we were sailing right next to the ship full of the OSCE Parliamentarians.

The parliamentarians on board were waving, throwing us the thumbs up sign, miming they were signing our resolution in the air…. We charmed the entire boatload! It was absolutely amazing.

I’m unaware of anyone taking the issue of equal voting rights for DC resident to the water, moreso to 317 parliamentarians from 55 countries captive on a boat! A first I am proud to have been a part of such a noble lobbying effort!

We followed them all the way to Mount Vernon, and when we turned back, all the Parliamentarians waved us goodbye! This was my first time on the Potomac, and I must say this is one of my favorite events I’ve ever taken part in, so I doubt I can replicate this experience. There was a camera man with the Examiner on board and I can’t wait to see what pictures he chooses to use and what they decided to write about!

Related OSCE Entries:

Related Statehood Entries:

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|| 10:13 am
Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité

Image Links to Flash Player:

Video footage from the OSCE Demonstration at Freedom Plaza.

My account of the day:
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