Primary Election Saturday in Hawaii. Get up and vote if you haven’t already. Please.

It seems that I got unreasonably distracted by the sloppy Photoshop work in Rep. Colleen Meyer’s latest campaign brochure and missed another matter altogether. One of her Democratic opponents in District 47, Jessica Wooley, was calling another problem to the attention of folks in the district yesterday:

I want to pass on some important news regarding endorsements and a brochure that Colleen Meyer recently sent to voters. On the brochure, Meyer included a nice big picture with the Governor and Lt. Governor (no surprise) and John Reppun and other KEY Project staff (surprise).

Please spread the word that John Reppun and the KEY Project folks did not endorse Meyer. They did not give her permission to use that photo in the brochure. This could make a big difference to voters in my district because John Reppun and the folks at KEY are the hub for many community issues and John is a highly respected leader throughout the island. KEY is a non profit organization and they don’t do campaign endorsements.

Please spread the word to anyone you know.

Gladly.

For the Palin file, this post-GOP convention column by Heather Mallick.

John Doyle, the cleverest critic in Canada, comes right out and calls Palin an Alaska hillbilly. Damn his eyes, I wish I’d had the wit to come up with it first. It’s safer than “white trash” but I’ll pluck safety out of the nettle danger. Or something.

Doyle’s job includes watching a lot of reality television and he’s well-versed in the backstory. White trash — not trailer trash, that’s something different — is rural, loud, proudly unlettered (like Bush himself), suspicious of the urban, frankly disbelieving of the foreign, and a fan of the American cliché of authenticity. The semiotics are pure Palin: a sturdy body, clothes that are clinging yet boxy and a voice that could peel the plastic seal off your new microwave.

Palin has a toned-down version of the porn actress look favoured by this decade’s woman, the overtreated hair, puffy lips and permanently alarmed expression. Bristol has what is known in Britain as the look of the teen mum, the “pramface.” Husband Todd looks like a roughneck; Track, heading off to Iraq, appears terrified. They claim to be family obsessed while being studiously terrible at parenting. What normal father would want Levi “I’m a fuckin’ redneck” Johnson prodding his daughter?

Whew. She shouldn’t hold back on her opinions so much.

It was wet in Kaaawa yesterday, and appears to have rained some overnight. Hopefully it won’t rain enough today to dampen the primary election turnout, although KITV reported last night that the number of votes cast early was down 25% from 2006.

With the Bush administration winding down, the Texas Observer reports the GOP exodus from Washington has begun. Jobs, it seems, are hard to come by.

Following the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in 1994, DeLay instituted his “K Street Project,” which cut off access in the halls of Congress to lobbying firms unless they donated to conservative causes and hired Republicans to top jobs. The move led to a great purge of Democrats from the lobbying ranks. That served Republicans well in the short run. But like other elements of DeLay’s grand “permanent Republican majority” plan, this one has come back to haunt his party. In the past two years, many firms have scrambled to improve their Democratic bona fides, and adding former Republican staffers to the payroll is the last thing on their minds.

“I don’t think a lot of people are being hired because they had a Bush connection,” said Matthew Dowd, former chief strategist for Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign and founding partner of the Austin-based consulting firm ViaNovo. “The House is Democratic, the Senate is Democratic, and the White House is likely to be Democratic. That’s not going to be helpful for a Republican who wants to go into the lobby business.”

Boo hoo.

Another interesting tidbit from the TX Observer. It seems that Cemex, the Mexican company that is the largest provider of concrete in the US, has refused to work on the border wall being built along the US-Mexico border. The decision is driving up costs and causing other problems.

This is my second try to get Ms. Amedine on video, and I think this time it turned out a bit better. She goes through her whole routine, shaking hands, lying down, and giving a few kisses. She even gets in a few barks, just for good measure. If clicking on the photo doesn’t work for you, try clicking here. And remember, it’s a large file that has to download so don’t be impatient.