The GOP sent out a press release today w the following headline: Democrat divide over Iraq War hurts Cantwell.

The Democrats sent out a press release today w the following headline:
Convention: State Democrats Unite Behind Maria Cantwell.

From the GOP press release:

As anticipated, Democrats were fiercely divided over the Iraq War, and their incumbent US Senate candidate, Maria Cantwell. Reactions to Cantwell's appearance at the convention were mixed. Many delegates sported "No War� buttons, and before her speech chanted "No more war.� Washington State Republican Party Chairman Diane Tebelius said: "There is a clear division within the Democratic Party over Maria Cantwell. The Democratic base's obvious lack of enthusiasm for Cantwell is definitely going to hurt her in November. The rift in the Democratic Party is not going to heal overnight. Washington voters are not going to vote for a party that does not have a clear message."

From the Democratic press release:

Highlighted by a united show of support for Senator Maria Cantwell and a slew of Democratic Congressional and legislative candidates, the convention officially kicked off the 2006 campaign season for the 1000-plus delegates in attendance and Democrats throughout Washington state. Chair of the Washington State Democrats, Dwight Pelz said: "Washington State Democrats are energized and ready to roll up their sleeves to re-elect Maria Cantwell, send fresh new leadership to Congress and expand our majorities in the legislature. The grassroots of the Party has come together and demonstrated our strength and commitment to take back our country from the incompetent and failed leadership of Bush and the Republicans in Congress.�

I saw Al Gore's movie last night — opening night in Seattle — and want to join Dan, Annie, Goldy, Franklin Foer, and all the rest who are saying this is a film you shouldn't miss if you're a human being living on this planet. (That means you!)

Here are two incentives to see An Inconvenient Truth this weekend:

One, Franklin Foer is predicting, correctly I think, that this movie...

...has the potential to become a seminal political document--a cinematic Silent Spring. It will certainly change elite opinion.

Want to join the American elite? This weekend it will cost you less than $10.

Two, as Goldy notes:

Big crowds will assure wider release.

He means big crowds on opening weekend. So if being part of the elite doesn't thrill you, or makes you feel uncomfortable and frustrated, you should still see the movie this weekend. That way, you'll help it reach the masses.

I saw the movie at Pacific Place, and I could go on and on about what it left me thinking and feeling, but here's what's most prominent in my mind at the moment:

As a journalist, it left me feeling as if this profession has failed on a very basic level to inform the public about global warming. There's a moment in An Inconvenient Truth when Gore debunks the whole notion that there is a scientific "controversy" over the reality of global climate change, and part of the debunking involves this study, which looked at 928 scientific papers on climate change published in peer-reviewed science journals between 1993 and 2003.

None of those scientific papers disagreed with the consensus position: That climate change is real, is tied to human activity, and is happening now.

Then, Gore pointed to the results of another study, I think it was this one, which looked at coverage of global warming in the "U.S. prestige press" (that is, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times) between 1988 and 2002. At a time when there really was no scientific disagreement on global climate change, 53 percent of the mainstream "prestige press" articles surveyed gave a sense that there was indeed some sort of scientific disagreement.

No wonder Americans, from the elites on down, are so confused about global warming, and no wonder this country is still the largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions on the planet.

Also, as a citizen and a voter, the movie was a stark reminder of how rare it is these days for someone to try to rally this country with calls for moral action that are grounded in science — and how close we were to having a different kind of national discourse.

Here's what I mean: On Friday evening, I sat in a movie theater and listened to Al Gore give what is essentially a riveting science lecture intended to make an argument for saving this planet. It felt strange — refreshing, but still strange — given how much of the national conversation these days is taken up with irrational, unscientific arguments that are intended to appeal to our emotions, not our critical thinking. Fast forward to Monday, when back in the current reality I will turn on my television (or my web-based equivalent) and watch the man who sent Al Gore into political exile, President Bush, give a Rose Garden press conference arguing for a Constitutional ban on gay marriage — an argument that will be grounded in Christianist religious doctrine, an argument intended for no higher purpose than to help Republicans with short-term political concerns, and an argument doomed to go nowhere, since the gay marriage ban has no chance of passing in the Senate. Meanwhile, the planet gets warmer.

Thankfully, movie theaters are air conditioned. Get yourself to one!

Seattle Times reporter David Postman reports on his blog that Gov. Gregoire has just learned that the Board of Pharmacy was never confirmed.

None of the members of the state Board of Pharmacy have been confirmed by the state Senate and in January Gov. Chris Gregoire could replace the entire panel if she wanted.

And she may. The governor told me last night that she's learned the board members had never been confirmed, neither the two members she appointed or the five appointed by Gary Locke. On Thursday the board voted 5-0, the two non-pharmacists on the board don't get a vote, to to endorse a regulation that would allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense medication on moral grounds. The vote moves the proposal forward to a public hearing in late summer, after which another vote will be taken by the board.

Gregoire has been criticized for not fighting harder to stop the proposal. Now, though, she says she's committed to a tough and aggressive campaign to get the board to reverse its position. And that could mean replacing board members next year.

"This is all about patients' rights and they must focus on patients. And if they're not going to do that I need a group that will. But they've got a chance. They can make it right. They have until August."

I interviewed Gregoire in Yakima last night after she spoke to the Democratic state convention. In the convention hall she papered the room with copies of her letter to the pharmacy board opposing the plan and mentioned it in her speech to delegates.
Gregoire is also working to build a coalition of interest groups to lobby the board. Gregoire said she is trying to enlist groups like the AARP, cancer organizations and doctors. While much of the attention on the proposal has been on emergency contraception, Gregoire says it goes much further.

"What if I came up and you assumed that I was an undocumented (worker), so you're going to deny me, because you decided I was getting some sort of state help and I don't deserve it. Or you decided because I'm getting some prescription having to do with AIDS, therefore I'm gay and you don't like that or I have some sort of cancer and you think I've been a smoker and that's my problem so you're not going to do that. I could go on with the list. I think there's no end to it. This board did not appreciate what they were doing. They did it too quickly. They looked for a compromise and they failed to understand what they've done and once I think they are aware of it, I have confidence they'll do the right thing in the end."

Gregoire has been on record since January opposing the plan. But should she have moved sooner to build a coalition and speak out publicly as she began to do just last night? "I've asked myself that today," she told me. But I was left with the clear sense that she didn't think that would have worked before now. Most people, she said, thought about the proposal only in terms of birth control and she said there was "complacency" about the board's deliberations.

Now, though, she seems jolted into action "I don't know of another state that's gone this way and I am shocked that we have," she said.

This is certainly good news. It's frustrating, though, that Gregoire just learned she's got this leverage over the board. Groups like the Northwest Women's Law Center & Planned Parenthood have been meeting w Gregoire behind the scenes for months urging her to get involved. Nancy Sapiro, NWLC's senior legal and legislative counsel complained to me yesterday that Gregoire's "hands off style" to "honor the process" was a constant frustration to the coalition that was lobbying the Pharmacy Board. Gregoire apparently didn't take Sapiro and her colleagues seriously until the situation got out of hand. It's troubling that Gregoire doesn't seem to listen to the people she claimed as constituents when she ran in 2004—especially on a social issue like this one where she had cast her opponent, Dino Rossi, as such a blockhead.

As for removing the board...I'll believe that when I see it.

Want to impress your political friends? Get up to speed on CA-50 this weekend, because starting Tuesday it will be the bellwether du jour in the Democrats' effort to take back the House of Representatives.

(What the hell is CA-50? See here, here, and here, for starters.)

Last night I attended the meeting of the Northeast District Council, the most recent stop on the Nickels campaign to promote the annexation of North Highline. I wrote on this subject in February, and I was curious to see whether Nickels staffers have since revised a sales pitch that back then seemed incomplete -- suspiciously so.

The proposal is for Seattle to annex North Highline, the unincorporated sliver of land on Seattle's southwest border, just north of Burien. The area -- which includes parts of White Center, Boulevard Park and part of South Park -- has a depressed tax base relative to Seattle, such that it can't give revenue back to the city in proportion to the services it would get from the city. What's more, there is a significant, increasingly organized opposition within North Highline to Seattle's overtures.

So...why is Nickels so hellbent on making this happen? What is in it for him? Or us, as Seattle taxpayers?

Nickels's representative Julien Loh, who has been assigned the task of promoting this bewildering idea, answered that question thus:

"We think it's the right thing to do."

But that didn't satisfy anybody. Since when do politicians care about the right thing to do -- especially when it runs against self-interest? So the question was asked again, and this time he answered:

"We can offer better services to the people of North Highline then King County."

Still, he's not speaking about Seattle's interest. The question is rephrased and asked again, to which he answers that Seattle wants a "stable neighborhood south of its border."

More iterations of the same question only bring more of the same incomplete answer: It's because Nickels represented the area when he was on county council, and he feels an affection toward those folks. Or it's because it's a very diverse neighborhood which would add to the cultural fabric of our city. Or it's because the Growth Management Act said cities should absorb unincorporated areas and that's what we're doing. Did I mention it's the right thing to do?

All of the above happened at the Southwest District Council meeting I attended February 1 -- four months ago. Since then, I wrote a critical article. And then this past week, the P-I wrote almost the same piece.

So surely the Nickels promotional team has reacted to the skepticism and tweaked its campaign.

Nope. Last night's meeting unfolded exactly like the one four months ago, as members of the district council put the same questions to Loh and he answered in the same platitudes. I counted three times that he said, "the right thing to do." It was like being at a press conference emceed by Scott McClellan.

People at the meeting wanted to know what the financial cost of annexation would be, and Loh told them the financial assessment would be released next month. Which is the same answer he gave when the same question came up in February.

The members became agitated as Loh kept to his talking points, and they only calmed down after University District Community Council president Matt Fox seized the floor and gave everyone a neat five minute rebuttal to Loh's presentation that reduced the city's case to rubble and, seemingly, confirmed the skepticism of all present. Loh didn't even bother contesting Fox's points.

It's remarkable to see a campaign which is ostensbily designed to promote a policy have the exact opposite effect. Maybe Nickels' motives aren't sinister, but when the media and residents on both ends of the city all have the same reaction, that's a campaign that needs fixing -- and it shouldn't take four months.

While drifting through digital space, I came across this passage from Nabokov's memoir Speak, Memory:

"The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Although the two are identical twins, man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more calm than the one he is heading for (at some forty-five hundred heartbeats an hour). I know, however, of a young chronophobiac who experienced something like panic when looking for the first time at homemade movies that had been taken a few weeks before his birth. He saw a world that was practically unchanged -- the same house, the same people -- and then realized that he did not exist there at all and that nobody mourned his absence. He caught a glimpse of his mother waving from an upstairs window, and that unfamiliar gesture disturbed him, as if it were some mysterious farewell. But what particularly frightened him was the sight of a brand-new baby carriage standing there on the porch, with the smug, encroaching air of a coffin; even that was empty, as if, in the reverse course of events, his very bones had disintegrated."

The passage appears early in the book and is second in greatness to another passage that appears shortly after the middle of the memoir and describes, with marble smoothness, two lovers walking at night through an empty city. In the passage above, the English language and reality are almost one and the same.

Gus Hellthaler had already made up his mind to sell his University District tavern, the Blue Moon, but now he wonders if he'll sell an empty building. On May 25, says Hellthaler, a Seattle official gave notice to the Washington State Liquor Control Board of the city's objection to Blue Moon's beer and liquor license, which is only good through September.

Hellthaler has had a target on his back ever since February 2005, when he refused to sign the"Community Good Neighbor Agreement" thrust at him by the City Attorney's office.

Those agreements have always carried an implied threat: If you don't sign, the city will write to the liquor board objecting to your license. Technically, the city has no power over a state board; but by the same token cities have more resources for monitoring clubs and for that reason, say critics, the liquor board takes the city's opinions at face value -- and rules accordingly.

If so, the Blue Moon appears to be one case where that policy seems deeply flawed. The tavern hasn't provoked anger from its neighbors. It doesn't have a long list of liquor violations. It hasn't attracted violence. Nor has the police department made a convincing case that the Blue Moon presents a drug-dealing threat -- any more so than any other bar in the city.

All of this leads Hellthaler and his tavern's defenders to draw the same conclusion: that Nickels's administration is making an example of the Blue Moon.

That is, all the other nightclub owners in town are put on notice: Sign a good neighbor agreement, because if you don't, it won't matter whether you have a clean record or not. You're going down.

With the obvious exception of the live music venues which I frequent and the occasional stop in Linda's, I don't go out for cocktails on Capitol Hill--I'm much more fond of neighborhood bars in Ballard and other North End environs. However, Havana--the new establishment being built by former Viceroy manager Quentin Ertel--has the potential to keep me on the Hill for happy hours this summer.

Set to open in late June, Ertel's space is located between 10th and 11th on Pike Street. It's not easy to find at the moment, as its side entrance is tucked into the parking lot that faces Vita. Kelly O and I went over there recently, chatted with Quentin and took a couple of photos, including this one that gives a sense of what the ornate and pleasingly old-fashioned bar will look like (Quentin wants it to feel like a vintage bar that was just re-discovered):

The space has the advantage of some pretty sweet contrasting elements: soaring, pressed tin ceilings and elegant, enormous picture windows alongside cavernous enclaves and cozy balcony seating, creating the potential to be both visually dramatic and invitingly intimate:

Color choices as of now are blessedly free of local design cliches (read: the walls will be avocado green, not blood-red), and Quentin is using his exceptional thrifting skills to collect great light fixtures and accessories that reflect the old-world look he's going for. What's more, the boy has a killer track record--he's managed a ton of successful local bars, including the Showbox, Linda's, Chop Suey, and was the key element that made Viceroy such a hit. I'll leave it to your imagination what sort of DJs and theme nights he'll be drawing to Havana--and I'll be writing about it more in a future edition of my Rocka Rolla column.

An additional note: He's keeping the menu simple--essentially just a rotating artisan cheese plate. However, he has worked out a deal with the folks over at neighboring Via Tribunali to run over their Neapolitan-style pizzas, an idea I heartily support.

As anyone who grew up with Sears catalogs in the house knows, the difference between underwear advertising and pornography is often in the eye (and lap) of the beholder.

However, this negligible difference is obliterated on the website for the Shock Absorber sports bra.

(Go to site, skip the intro, then "click to see the Bounce-o-meter in action and find your perfect sports bra!" For best effect, choose double-D or higher, and the peak level of activity.)

Enjoy! Or don't.

(Hat tip to Stranger distro prince Joe G.)

So SIFF is entering its second exhilarating/exhausting week today, and the counterprogrammers—who were cowering a bit on opening weekend—are finally coming out to play.

Seattle True Independent Film Festival (STIFF) kicks off today with an impressively packed lineup of underground/low-budget/local/microcinema offerings. Andrew Wright previews the festival here. In addition to his worthy picks, I also recommend you check out Grand Luncheonette, a short by Peter Sillen (who co-directed the great Benjamin Smoke with Jem Cohen) about the closing of a Times Square lunch counter. It looks like it should be 16 mm, or at least a film-to-video transfer. Dansk Stil is a movie about the Danish hiphop scene, which makes for a nice counter-programming choice given that SIFF is doing a Danish spotlight. Charles Mudede says he's heard good things about Wally. There are also lots and lots of movies about zombies and ninjas and clowns.

Grand Illusion, which sells general tickets for a sweet $7.50, is in the second week of a Fritz Lang series—either an ambitious or a completely foolhardy alternative to SIFF's archival presentations. Go, now, watch M. Next week, they're retreating to more traditional microcinema territory with a movie called Psychopathia Sexualis (it's a dramatization of the Krafft-Ebbing text).

Northwest Film Forum embraced the SIFF behemoth last week, with a pretty damn good SIFF program entitled "Alternate Cinema" (so far, a Darkness Swallowed is my favorite experimental film of the year). This week, they're breaking away from SIFF and doing something pretty smart: music festival documentaries. Who knew such a genre existed? It should appeal to people who aren't so into SIFF's (I hate to say it) disappointing music-oriented programming. The T.A.M.I. Show starts tonight at 7 and 9; Festival starts Monday (Megan Seling's capsule review is here). Next week: Coachella.

A gorgeous photograph from Timothy Archibald's book "Sex Machines."

(NSFW. Image after the jump.)

Continue reading "Beautiful Sex Machine" »

It's only been open a couple months, but Sugar, the new Capitol Hill gay nightclub, is already seeing some trouble. Last Thursday, the club's booker and promoter, LA Kendall of Re:Launch HitGirl!, pulled all her programming after consistently butting heads with the club's owner, George Foster.

"Week after week I was being told to slash the budget and fire people," says Kendall. "So I set him down and I had a meeting. He started bringing up that he was upset the clientele wasn't younger, white, gay boys and he was also expressing concern about not making enough money. He had a real problem with all the women in the DJ booth... Colby B was just nominated to be one of the Top 5 DJs in Seattle, what more could you want?"

Even though the club had been packed during it's opening weekend (over 500 paid each night and the club's capacity is 475), Foster still wanted to see more people, and different kinds of people. So instead of continuing to fight Foster, Kendall severed ties, pulling not only her programming (including tonight's now cancelled "Are We Not Men" night), but also her employees. About 30 people total, she estimates.

"It was just time to go. He wants to go with a more circuty kind of feel to things. And he would ask me to try and make that work, but I don't know anything about that. It's not my forte, my business is a little more diverse, and I didn't want to be a part of something that I knew was going to fail."

I called Foster and left a message from him at the club.

Future installments of this column will delight in the conflicts that accompany major construction projects in Seattle, but our first stop, First Hill, is an exception to that rule. Here at least, developers are welcomed -- or at least those who have the good sense to consult with neighbors before they call in the backhoe.

Says Michael Gray of First Hill Home Improvement Association, "We want a mix of housing. We have very high-end housing and we have low-end, but we don't have much in between.�

Until now — or very, very soon. First Hill's got the boomingest condo market in the city, and most of these new buildings are targeting young Seattle professionals who make around $50,000. I've snapped pictures of all the ground zeroes. Next to those I've pasted artists' renderings of the future project. Yes, this is illustrated land use wonkery.

In this post I'm only covering the major residential projects. There's an expansion project at Harborview, as well as one at Virginia Mason, but as you'll see we have more than enough condos and assisted living communities to discuss. I don't want to clog the Slog, so the slide show presentation starts after the jump.

Continue reading "Coming Down/Going Up" »

First, read this story from three days ago:

May 30 (Bloomberg) -- Karl Rove, President George W. Bush's top political adviser, laid out a plan to win the 2002 congressional elections by stressing national security. For 2006, Rove is framing a strategy for Republicans to sell the U.S. economy.

In a recent speech, Rove argued that Bush's policies of tax cuts and trade agreements had pulled the nation out of recession, created millions of jobs, boosted productivity and increased disposable income. That record can help lead Republicans to victory in November, Rove said in the May 15 speech at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

Oops. Now check out this New York Times story from today:

The American economy added a surprisingly weak number of jobs in May, a sign that nervousness over a cooling economy may be spreading among the nation's employers.

The net increase in nonfarm payrolls in May — 75,000 — is a significant falloff from April, when the Labor Department estimates that 126,000 jobs were added, a figure it revised downward today from the 138,000 it initially reported.

Anything below about 150,000 net new jobs a month is regarded as too slow to keep up with population growth, so in effect, workers are losing ground.

The Labor Department statistics were the latest in a series of recent reports pointing to a slowdown in the expansion of the economy.

So says Homeland Security. At least the giant lava lamp in Soap Lake is on the protected list.

It did seem so unreal ...

(Via Modern Art Notes.)

I imagine Christopher will be posting the official Stranger Suggestion for tonight soon enough, but in the meantime, here are a couple of notable runners-up, the first of which gets hyped mightily by Stranger news intern Sarah Mirk:

"Marjane Satrapi, the author of Persepolis, the most phenomenal graphic novel published in the last couple years, is stopping by Seattle and those who don't see her will be kicking themselves years from now when they finally drop their fluffy fiction and pick up her comics. Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's upbringing in Iran at the time of the Iranian revolution. Her simple black and white drawings follow her journey through bombings, veils and rock-n-roll rebellion." (Town Hall at 8th and Seneca, 7:30 pm, no tickets required.)

On the trashier end of the entertainment spectrum, tonight also brings the TV show Dateline NBC, featuring an exclusive, one-year-later interview with the Northwest's most notorious not-so-newlyweds Mary Kay Letourneau and Villi Fualaau.
"[T]heir first network primetime television interview since their May 2005 wedding!" crows the show's website, which also features a most creepy teaser clip, in which Mary Kay explains Villi's "forceful" pursuit of her hot, elementary-school-teacher lovin'. "He was quite the man," purrs Letourneau.

Mary Kay and Villi: still icky after all these years. (And fans of the ick should tune into NBC at 8:00pm.)

Russia's president Vladimir Putin has proposed paying women to have babies. Putin, alarmed by Russia's falling fertility rates (and the economic decline that could follow as Russia's median age increases), has suggested a $36,000 lump-sum payment to goad women into having more kids.

Grist has a good piece today about why this is a bad idea. To summarize: Russia's falling fertility rates coincide with rapidly declining life expectancy (now in the 50s) and the highest child mortality rate in the industrialized world. Raising children costs a whole lot more than $36,000; Russia is poor. All of which makes it extremely unlikely that paying women to have more babies will improve Russia's situation in the long run.

The bottom line is this: Where would China's economic miracle be today if the government had insisted that every woman have five kids instead of promoting family planning? The way out of the fertility problem is economic growth through well-implemented immigration programs, which is also a very effective way to share wealth and reduce poverty. Vladimir, listen to me, you can't reproduce your way out of this mess. You are going to have to be a little more creative than this.

May I suggest a dark-n-arty happy hour tonight at Noc Noc? With new paintings by sci-fi surrealist Joe Vollan, plus $2 wells, $1 Miller and PBR drafts, and scrumptious tater-tots. I'll see you there around 6 pm. (Noc Noc is on the east side of Second Ave between Pike and Pine.)
^{ate, Joe Vollan}

These images look only summarily like the installation that went up last night at Soil—they're design prototypes—but they capture the general impression of exuberant excess offset by rigorous structure that's suggested by the show's title, Hardline Organics (A Tale of Absurd Optimism). The installation swallows the gallery in four segments, all different but of a piece, all made by the fivesome of Craig Miller, Jenny Heishman, Yuki Nakamura, Saya Moriyasu, and Etsuko Ichikawa—in a grand exception to the usual rule about art made by committee.

As you walk in, red light animates paper sculptures hanging on lines like geometric laundry; a little farther into the space, enormous plywood and neon pods jut across the space and up toward the ceiling. The centerpiece, in the heart of the gallery, is a partly deconstructed geodesic dome shape that you walk inside. It's made of the plywood ends of wire spools, the holes covered in colored plastic, and tiny ceramic figurines gather and play on ledges on the outside of the dome, outside the holes, so if you're on the inside looking closely, you see their little suburban lives through the plastic windows. In the back area of the gallery is a sort of rainbow of plywood strips above three concrete cylinders where, again, some kind of ceramic community has formed, including a sparkling blue swimming pool. Everything is here: modernist interior design, Eastern formalism, futuristic cinema, utilitarian architecture, cartoon utopia, abject figuration, humor, wishing. It's up through July 1, Tuesdays-Sundays noon to 5.

I also stopped by Shift Studio, which last month had the sublime—and I do mean partly frightening—stalagmites of Elise Richman. This month, Donna Stack and Andrew Kaufman are showing separate work that conjoins thematically. Stack's sutured-together stuffed animals, trapped in asphyxiating hugs, and pink rabbit fur pelt are in tribute to her former sculpture professor, who committed suicide in 2004. Kaufman documents trauma and recovery in single splats of paint or ink, first made in black, then reproduced in white, then in negative, as if the impact is rehearsed repeatedly. The two artists are a couple (recently reunited, according to Shift's web site), based in Ellensburg. Shift is open Fridays and Saturdays noon to 5.

When the weather is too wet to enjoy, and the news gets too depressing to read, and I have a slight eye tic that's driving me insane and a stubbed toe that no one wants to hear about, I like to escape to Candy Mountain.

(and shun the non-believers. shun them!)

Rock paper scissors times five.

(Via Melissa).

I wanted to call your attention to a comment that your blogging hero (and former Stranger columnist), Stefan Sharkansky, made here on the comments threads re: the controversial plank that the GOP passed at its convention last weekend. As you know, the Washington State GOP now opposes granting citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants. As has been roundly pointed out, the plank is unconstitutional.

Here's what Stefan had to add:

Of course this particular plank is unconstitutional. Who cares? It's a symbolic statement that represents nothing more than the wishful thinking of the grassroots convention delegates. It's not like this in and of itself is going to cause elected officials to try to enact this into law.

I wanted highlight Sharkansky's quote for the GOP rank and file. Any GOPers out there have a problem w Sharkansky patting you on the head & belittling your plank this way?

P.s. to Stefan: Of course it's not going to get enacted into law—it's unconstitutional. But that's not why the plank was freaking people out. People were talking about it because they were shocked. The plank reflected some pretty extremist values on the part of the GOP. (It violates the 14th Amendment.) And I think people like David Postman, who led the reporting on it, felt it was newsworthy that one of the two major political parties in the state was embracing such a belligerent POV.

Journalists in the UK call for a boycott of Yahoo...

The National Union of Journalists said it sent a letter on Friday to Dominique Vidal, Yahoo Europe's vice president, denouncing the company for allegedly providing information to Chinese authorities about journalists. The union also said it would stop using all Yahoo-operated services.

Yahoo has been cited in court decisions as supplying China's government with information to help them identify, prosecute and jail writers advocating democracy.

One night of passion, indeed.

The speculation continues, with the P-I sounding weary of Eyman's antics but confirming that it is R-65 signatures that Eyman will be turning in on Monday. Now the only question is: How many?

So, in the wake of my column mentioning a group of UK kinksters, I received an email claiming to be from the father of a seventeen-year-old boy involved with the group. I'm slightly baffled as to what he thought I could do to help him, but you can read my column here, and his letter to me and my reply to him are here on my personal blog.

New Iraqi Prime Minister: US Troops Killing Iraqis for Sport.

And Your Little Dog Too: Baghdad Pet Market Bombed.

Iran's Nukes: Inching Toward a Deal.

Abu Ghraib: The convictions keep coming—but when does Rummy go on trial?

Princess Diana: Did you know her death is still being investigated?

Proud to be an American: 74 year-old put to death in Texas.

Republicans Re-Think Opposition to Abortion: Anna Nicole Smith is pregnant.

So last night was the first ever primetime television Scripps National Spelling Bee -- which was, of course, AWESOME, and could only be improved upon by making all the kids live together in one house with a case of liquor. However! For reasons that are still galling to me, they actually let a CANADIAN participate in this classically AMERICAN competition which is HORSESHIT, I'm sure you'll agree. And that little Canuck almost won! Thank god for the word "weltschmerz" or 14-year-old Toronto native Finola Mei Hwa Hacket (who I will agree was nerdy cute) would've won the whole shebang. Although it is ironic that a Canadian was defeated in an AMERICAN competition by a German word. Finally! Those krauts are good for something!
Anyhoo, big ups to New Jersey gal and AMERICAN, 13-year-old Katharine Close for bringing home the spelling gold with the word "ursprache" -- which originally meant "parent language" and now has a new meaning. U...S...A! U...S...A! U...S...A!

Up yours, Canada!

Jesus Christ, is nothing secular anymore?

...the latest in ballpark promotions: Faith Nights, a spiritual twist on Frisbee Nights and Bat Days. While religious-themed sports promotions were once largely a Bible Belt phenomenon that entailed little more than ticket discounts for church and synagogue groups, Faith Nights feature bands, giveaways and revival-style testimonials from players. They have migrated from the Deep South to northern stadiums from Spokane, Wash., to Bridgewater, N.J.

Third Coast Sports, a company in Nashville that says it specializes in church marketing and event planning for sports teams, has scheduled 70 this year in 44 cities, and many teams produce Faith Nights on their own.

They are about to become even bigger. This summer, the religious promotions will hit Major League Baseball. The Atlanta Braves are planning three Faith Days this season, the Arizona Diamondbacks one. The Florida Marlins have tentatively scheduled a Faith Night for September.

Good Morning Gov. Gregoire. You are now the Governor of a state, a blue state, that's poised to have a Refusal Clause on the books. That is: On your watch, your Board of Pharmacy endorsed new rules that allow pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for whatever reason they want. The Seattle Times has the front-page story this morning.

Although, it's not clear The Seattle Times truly gets it.

They say the Board's proposed rules prevent a pharmacist from obstructing a patient's ablility to obtain a prescription.

But here's the language of the Board's proposed rule (which I Slogged & slogged about yesterday afternoon...and Wednesday too ):

(1) A pharmacist and pharmacy ancillary personnel shall not obstruct a patient in obtaining a lawfully prescribed drug or device. If a pharmacist cannot dispense a lawfully prescribed stocked drug or device, then the pharmacist must provide timely alternatives for the patient to obtain treatment. These alternatives may include, but are not limited to: (a) referring the patient or patient's agent to another on-site pharmacist, (b) if requested by patients or their agents, transfer the prescription to a pharmacy of the patient's choice; (c) providing the medication at another time consistent with the normal timeframe for the prescription, (d) consulting with the prescriber to provide an alternative medication therapy, (e) return unfilled lawful prescription to the patient or agent, (f) provide to patient or agent a timely alternative for appropriate therapy.

It's no wonder The Seattle Times was a little confused. This language is so bad that, am I reading this correctly, it says one of the options for providing a timely alternative is "providing medication another time" .... ? Much worse: the language says a pharmacist can "return the unfilled prescription" ... if "they cannot dispense [it]" even though the rule begins by saying "a pharmacist shall not obstruct a patient in obtaining a lawfully prescribed drug or device."

The story is also on the front-page of the PI.

I've been writing and Slogging about this issue for months. Here's the first story I wrote last April when I broke the news that the board had received formal complaints about pharmacists, including a Seattle pharmacist, who were already refusing to fill prescriptions related to birth control.

All along, I urged Gov. Gregoire to use her bully pulpit to pressure the Washington State Board of Pharmacy (which she appoints) to prioritize a patient's health over a pharmacist's feelings.

I don't know if she simply never took the issue seriously, but she never weighed in...in a substantive way. Now, Gregoire—who campaigned in 2004 on the fact that Dino Rossi was a scary social conservative—is stuck w perhaps the scariest, socially conservative "conscience clause" in the country: One that allows pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for any reason at all. "You want birth control? You're not married? Sorry, I can't fill that prescription."

You blew it Gov. Gregoire. A lot of people (like the Northwest Women's Law Center & Planned Parnethood & NARAL) are disappointed in you...and pissed. I know that they are meeting w you today to pressure you to finally...finally do something. (At this point, I'm not sure what you can do. If the Board puts this in the rule book at its final August 31 vote, only the legislature can undo it.)

Here's what I wrote a month ago:

During Christine Gregoire's lackluster campaign for governor in 2004, the Democratic Party—aware that Gregoire wasn't giving Democrats any meaty reasons to vote for her—resorted to badmouthing Gregoire's opponent, Dino Rossi. The Democrats rightly painted Rossi as a social conservative who opposed blue-state litmus tests like abortion rights. And so Gregoire, despite running as a cipher, eked out a victory based on who she's not. But it turns out she's not who she's not.

With social conservatives launching a massive assault on women's rights in Olympia, Gregoire is nowhere to be found.

Gregoire finally showed up yesterday afternoon when she fired off an angry letter to the Board. However, Seattle pharmacist Donna Dockter, the board member who drafted the new rule, scoffed at Gregoire: "The Governor is not a pharmacist," she said.

The governor doesn't seem like much of a governor either.

Want Al Gore to run for president? Well, you don't have to sit there and wait for Gore to jump in anymore—now you can help draft Al Gore. Gore supporters are collecting $5 contributions in the hopes of demonstrating grassroots support.

Today, we kick off the formal formation of the Draft Gore 2008 PAC....

From June 1st through June 30th, when the second fiscal quarter closes for FEC-registered candidates and PACs, DG08 asks Gore supporters to vote with their wallets: While total fundraising amounts are important, our initial goal for our first reporting quarter is the number of supporters we can point to as wholeheartedly supporting Gore, whatever your financial position in life. Can we reach a goal of a hundred, or a thousand, or five thousand individuals within the grass- and net-roots willing to send the message that Gore is the most qualified candidate for the Democratic nomination in 2008? We believe we can.

Go give $5—it's quick and easy and you just might save the country and the planet.

Looks like we many find out on Monday, one day before the signature-gathering deadline. Eyman just sent out an email saying that he'll be dropping off a bunch of signed petitions at the Secretary of State's office at 11 a.m. that day — although his email doesn't specify the type of petitions he'll be dropping off, or the number of signatures that will be on them.

I just called Eyman for some clarification, and he said: "I don't have anything to add to the email." Then he hung up on me.

For anyone who wants to try his or her hand at reading the tea-leaves in this cryptic Eyman email, it's in the jump. My assumption is that Eyman's talking about his Referendum 65, which would repeal this state's new gay civil rights law and needs over 100,000 signatures to get on the ballot, but who knows...

Continue reading "Does Eyman Have Enough Signatures for His Anti-Gay Referendum?" »

I promised a column on First Hill development today, but we're still waiting on a few developers to provide artist's renderings of their projects, and without these pictures, we can't tell the whole visual story. A very complete and very colorful presentation tomorrow.

Depeche Mode may have filmed a music video on top of the World Trade Center in 1990, as Charles pointed out earlier today, but Jesus got there first—Hippie Jesus.

In the 1973 film version of Godspell, Hippie Jesus sings and dances on top of one of the recently completed Twin Towers with his Hippie Disciples. The Twin Towers don't appear until the final shots in the number, but a still from the sequence was used on the album cover for the movie soundtrack. You can watch Hippie Jesus in action by clicking here. Ever since 9/11 it's been hard to watch Hippie Jesus and company dance right on the edge of that 110-story drop.

I mentioned all of this in the column I wrote the day after 9/11, which you can read here. And, yes, Hippie Jesus is played by Victor Garber of ABC's Alias.

Okay, so the Board was trying to strike a balance between the guaranteed right of employees not to face religious discrimination & the guaranteed right of women in Washington state to have access to contraception. (Here's the language from Washington state law—RCW 9.02.100: "Every individual possesses a fundamental right of privacy with respect to personal reproductive decisions... every individual has the fundamental right to choose or refuse birth control.")

One thing to add into this equation: There's something known as a bonafide occupational requirement (BOQ), which means, while employers still have to make reasonable accommodations to respect an employee's religion, they can force employees to do things that are essential to the job—like filling prescriptions.

Anyway, as I see it, the Pharmacy Board struck a balance by erring on the side of protecting someone's feelings over protecting someone's health.

Now, here's a telling detail. Here's some language that had initially been in the ruling (back when the ruling prohibited refusals), but was struck today. Check out 7C.

Again, this is language that was struck:

(1) A pharmacist's primary responsibility is to ensure patients receive safe and appropriate medication therapy. Pharmacists shall dispense a lawfully prescribed drug or device or provide suitable therapeutic substitution in a timely manner consistent with reasonable expectations for filling these prescriptions except when:
(a) clinically contraindicated,
(b) potentially fraudulent, or
(c) another on-site pharmacist will fill the prescription without delay.

(7) Pharmacists and ancillary staff shall not:
(a) Destroy or refuse to return unfilled lawful prescriptions when requested to do so by patients or their agent,
(b) Violate a patient's privacy, or
(c) Discriminate against patients or their agent in a manner prohibited by state or federal antidiscrimination laws.

Nancy Sapiro, of the Northwest Women's Law Center, explains that the original languge, which had outlawed refusal clauses, made a point of re-stating the Pharmacy Board's commitment to anti-discrimination...to make it clear that the board believed refusal clauses could be discriminatory. However, the new rule struck that language because, the board said, it was redundant with anti-discrimination law that's already on the books...and so, it didn't need to be re-stated here.

Or maybe it's because the Board recognized that the rule they passed today is antithetical to anti-discrimination laws. Indeed, state law requires all public accommodations, like stores and pharmacies, to serve all people. Northwest Women's Law Center argues that refusal clauses, like the one passed by the Pharmacy Board today, amounts to discrimination against women in a public place.

PS: The Board of Pharmacy hasn't called me back yet.

More from Planned Parenthood and NWLC (part of the Alliance for Reproductive Choice in this case) linked below.

Continue reading "The Pharmacy Board Ruling" »

There's an interesting discussion going on in our Slog forum regarding the subject of last week's feature on Benny the rock balancer, including a response from someone who appears to be the rock balancer himself.

The complete transcript of my interview with former VP Al Gore is available now for your reading pleasure.

I will answer the most frequently asked questions first: There were no bodyguards, just a female publicist. He was wearing a black suit and blacker shoes. There was a much fancier food spread than mere film directors get, but everything else was pretty standard. It was very odd and great to meet him--it's definitely the most exciting interview I've ever done.

It just so happens that there are currently two Shakespeare productions in Seattle with all-women casts. One of them is Hamlet and is apparently terrible. (In the glorious words of Mr. Paul Constant: "An all-female Hamlet? Sure, why not? But, then again, why?") The other is King John, which is apparently great. Matter of fact, Brendan Kiley suggests you go see tonight:

'King John'
(THEATER) A few facts about this rarely produced Shakespeare play: There is a hothead named Faulconbridge the Bastard, eye burning with a hot poker, excommunicated nobles, and a murderous monk. A few facts about this kick-ass production: The all-female cast is (mostly) bitchin', Rosa Joshi directs with an ear for dialogue and an eye for clarity, and the set looks like a bloodstained metal checkerboard. (Capitol Hill Arts Center, 1621 12th Ave, 800-838-3006. Thurs—Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm, $15, through June 4.)

It's also Alanis Morissette's birthday. Celebrate as you will.

Funny that the real WMDs aren't in Iraq—they're in Florida, being used by evengelical (aka, anti-pluralist) Christians against one Cafe Risque.

But first: One of my co-workers just mentioned that his dad's favorite prayer is: "Lord, grant me patience and I want it right now." Which reminds me of my favorite prayer, courtesy of St. Augustine: "Lord, grant me chastity and continence, but not just yet." Augustine wrote that prayer ironically as a barb against lifetime philanderers who become deathbed converts. Ironic, isn't it, that the same logical construction is being used unironically by one of the Florida Christians protesting the Cafe Risque Adult Superstore:

We're not trying to stop you from doing your thing and having your free speech," said Annette DeBusk, 43, of Waldo. "Just don't do it here."

As for the WMD (that's the Alachua County Sheriff's term, not mine), it seems to be a chemical attack.

[An unknown assailant] rigged up a rudimentary device to spew a hazardous substance through a hose into the Cafe Risque Adult Super Center... the adult bookstore—which will sell magazines, videos and sex toys—was overtaken with hazardous materials teams in full gear, firefighters, police and the Department of Environmental Protection. The source of the leak was a water hose connected to two gallon-sized jugs of an unknown substance atop the business' air conditioner. Preliminary tests indicate the substance was corrosive in nature.

(Via Maud Newton.)

Here's the languge adopted by the Washington State Board of Pharmacy at its meeting this morning.

It's not good news.

"Pharmacists and Pharmacy ancillary personnell shall not obstruct a patient in obtaining a lawfully prescribed drug or device...."

Sounds good, but it goes on to nullify all that by saying:

"If a pharmacist cannot dispense a lawfully prescribed drug or device than the pharmacist must provide timely alternatives for the patient to obtaining treatment. Alternatives may include: Referring to another onsite pharmacist, transferring the prescription to another pharmacy, providing the medication at another time, consulting with provider about an alternative, return the unfilled lawful prescription. provide the patient a timely alternative .... "

This means pharmacists have no duty to fill a prescription. There's no guidance or definitions around the language: "If a pharmacist cannot dispense" ....which means, if they don't approve of you and your prescription—you & your health are SOL.

It was a unanimous 5-0 vote. It's a 7 member board. 1 member was absent. The chair did not vote.
There's a public comment period now. But this is rule that the Pharmacy Board intends to put on the books.

I've got a call into the executive director of the board to get his interpretation of the ruling.

I've attached the reaction of Planned Parenthood & The Northwest Women's Law Center below

Continue reading "Pharmacy Board Adopts Refusal Clause" »

I had to share this: A 1990 video of Depeche Mode performing "Enjoy The Silence" on the top of the World Trade Center. History has made WTC the perfect location for the video, as the song is essentially about nothingness.

Dave Gahan sings: "Words like violence/Break the silence/Come crashing in/Into my little world."

The Rolling Stone article, by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is now online.

One of the big questions hanging over the race for the eastside's 8th Congressional District is whether the incumbent, freshman Republican Congressman Dave Reichert, is really a moderate.

In an article in this morning's P-I, Neil Modie writes about how defeating Reichert, whatever descriptor he deserves, "fits into the Democrats' national strategy" for taking back the House of Representatives, and Modie pegs this article to yesterday's visit by Congressman Rahm Emanuel, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Emanuel was in town to support Reichert's opponent (and the eastside's Great Blue Hope) Darcy Burner, and in his article, Modie cites statistics from Emanuel that the Democrats say prove Reichert is not a moderate:

Emanuel, at a news conference with Burner on Wednesday at the Seattle Labor Temple, said Reichert has voted for Bush policies 86 percent of the time and for the Republican agenda 88 percent of the time.

Then, following the daily newspaper dictate of providing an "on the other hand" perspective, Modie quotes Jonathan Collegio, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

"Dave Reichert is a Republican with a very strong and undeniable independent streak. He proved that ... again and again with various pieces of environmental legislation. Democrat efforts to paint Dave Reichert as some kind of right-wing extremist are going to be futile because they fly in the face of the facts."

Well, which is it? Is Reichert with Bush and Congressional Republicans more than 85-percent of the time, or is he an "undeniable independent"? Just what are "the facts" here? The P-I article doesn't answer the question.

There are lots of facts one could look at to resolve this debate: Reichert's anti-choice, pro-Iraq-War, anti-gay-rights record; his willingeness to have Bush campaign for him here in Washington on June 16; his flip-flopping votes on drilling in ANWR (against it, then for it, then against it); his vote on the Schiavo intervention (against it, his one major "bucking the party" moment); and his votes against stem cell research, in favor of weakening the House Ethics Committee rules, and against national security measures pushed by the 9-11 Commission.

But I suppose one could also argue that there are no "facts" as such in the debate over whether Reichert is a moderate, just varying opinions on what makes a "moderate." This would be one of those dreaded relativist-style arguments, but hey, let's indulge it for a minute and take a look at what Reichert himself says about the issue. What's his opinion?

On May 21, Reichert addressed the "Mainstream Republicans of Washington" at a gathering in Sea-Tac. The event was taped by TVW, and about 50 minutes into the video, Reichert explains his moderate identity, beginning with this statement: "Back in Washington [D.C.], there are lots of games played."

Reichert goes on to tell an anecdote about a conservative voter who came up to him and complained that Reichert's moderation was making him consider voting libertarian. As Reichert tells the slightly rambling story:

Now, I said, 'You know what sir, that would be a huge mistake, and here's why.' (I wanted to explain to this person how things work back in Washington, D.C., and why certain votes have to be taken.)

Sometimes the leadership comes to me and says, 'Dave, we want you to vote a certain way.' Now, they know I can do that over here, that I have to do that over here. In other districts, that's not a problem, but here I have to be able to be very flexible in where I place my votes. Because the big picture here is, keep this seat, keep the majority, keep the country moving forward with Republican ideals, especially on the budget, on protecting our troops, on protecting this country. Right? Being responsible with taxpayer dollars. All of those things. That's the big picture. Not the vote I place on ANWAR that you may not agree with, or the vote that I place on protecting salmon."

Perception is relative (unless you're a conservative, right?) but it sounds to me as if Reichert may be apologizing here for the "moderate" votes he's taken — and making this apology in front of a group of "mainstream Republicans," no less.

"That's where I need to be in a 50-50 district," Reichert went on to say about his "moderate" votes. Are these the statements of a man with an "undeniable independent streak"? Or are these apologies from a conservative who wishes he didn't have to cast a few moderate votes every once in a while to hang on to his seat?

Well, it doesn't contradict the 14th Amendment, but one plank the Democrats will be considering at their convention in Yakima this weekend is a call for a Federal Dept. of Peace—let's call it The DOP. (The DOP idea is being recycled from Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign.)

Listen to Shaman Kucinich talk about the DOP back in 2004: "We can conceive of peace as... the presence of the capacity for a higher evolution of human awareness... to tap infinite capabilities of humanity to transform consciousness..."

The plank, which seems like it was written by 10th-grade theater kids channeling their new hero-poet, Allan Ginsberg—is reportedly coming from the 2nd Congressional District's Progressive Caucus. (The 2nd is Snohomish, Skagit, Whatcom, and Skagit counties: Bellingham, Everett, Mt. Vernon, Oak Harbor.)

I wanna see Diane Tebelius and Dwight Pelz debate "evolution of human awareness" & the possibility to "tap the infinite capabilities of humanity."

As I reported in this week's paper, the City Council seems increasingly unlikely to put any viaduct replacement options on the November ballot. Instead, the council would choose its own preferred replacement option (likely the mayor's $4.5 billion tunnel, but with a possible nod toward building the surface/transit option) and elimimate any direct citizen participation in the process.

Unlike the Seattle Times editorial board (which is all for citizen participation except when they're against it), I think it's time for the city council to stop paying lip service to direct democracy (the ballot would just be advisory, not directive) and start making some decisions. That is, after all, why we elect them.

Polls show that of the two leading candidates for viaduct replacement (the tunnel and the rebuild), voters like the rebuild—an ugly, boxy structure 25 feet wider than the current viaduct—because it's cheaper (and drivers like those views.) This is the Nick Licata school of public planning: moneysaving, but hardly visionary.

To put it bluntly: Citizens don't always vote in their own best interest. Consider the monorail. Or the 2003 state initiative overturning ergonomics requirements. Or any number of tax-slashing Tim Eyman initiatives, which we now blame for our crumbling public infrastructure. In San Francisco, citizens voted to keep the Embarcadero, an elevated highway that was an eyesore on that city's waterfront. It took an earthquake for the city's leaders to do the right thing and tear it down.

We've already had an earthquake—the Nisqually quake of 2001, which damaged the viaduct and forced city and state leaders to start talking about a post-viaduct future. Five years have passed, and we're scarcely any closer than we were then to making a decision about how to replace the viaduct—much less taking any action. Another earthquake could shut the viaduct down completely, or worse. It's time for the council get moving on the viaduct before it's out of our—and their—hands.

So, you know, I am like violently repulsed by former Idaho governor Dirk Kempthorne. More than repulsed. If, hypothetically, I had been given the choice between having Dirk Kempthorne as our new Secretary of the Interior and being forced to sleep on a pillow stuffed with strange men's pubic hair from now until death, I would be crying myself to sleep Every Night.

I mean, he's pure evil. Who else but an agent of destruction would have their eyebrows routinely sculpted to resemble demonic horns?

Alas, on May 26, he was confirmed (surprise!) as our new Secretary of the Interior.

After his confirmation, Senator Cantwell (whom I, uh, politely criticized for her benign words of welcome to Kempthorne's nomination) sent out emails to her constituents who expressed concern about this development. Here's my favorite graph from Cantwell's email:

As a member of the Senate Energy and National Resources Committee, I raised a number of concerns to Mr. Kempthorne during his nomination hearing on May 4, 2006. Having been vocally opposed to many of the environmental policies and decisions pushed the Bush Administration, I wanted to learn more about his plans as Interior Secretary and how his views differ from his controversial predecessor Gale Norton. Specifically, I noted my objections to Administration plans to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, gut the 2001 Roadless Rule, and cut funding for our national parks. I was pleased to learn that Mr. Kempthorne opposes the sale of our public lands to either pay down the national debt or to pay for the County Payments program, both of which are policies proposed by the Bush Administration that I have strongly opposed.

Actually, Kempthorne was all for gutting the 2001 Roadless Rule, although he claimed it was because "the Forest Service did not provide the state with maps of roadless sites and rebuffed Idaho's requests to become a partner in the rule's development,� and not because he's thick as thieves with Boise-Cascade and coincidentally, "the only timber harvesting permitted in roadless areas would be for habitat restoration and fire prevention.�

And now here's a graph from Jeffrey St. Clair's article on the new Gale Norton in Slacks:

Kempthorne's nomination was momentarily blocked by Florida Senator Bill Nelson, who begged for the governor's assurance that he not open the Florida coastline to oil drilling. Kempthorne told the senator he would make no such pledge. Indeed, he brayed that his top priority would be to expand drilling for oil across all federal lands [ANWR, anyone?], including off shore reserves. Nelson wobbled and the Democrats Maginot Line crumbled once again. Kempthorne sailed through the committee without a vote against him and scarcely one probing question about the corruption scandal that shadows his every footstep. A week later the entire senate took a test vote on his nomination: only eight Democrats voted no. A few minutes later his nomination was approved on a voice vote without dissent.

Good times to come. Sigh. I fucking hate Dirk Kempthorne. Still.

About Kelly O's balls (and her 100 Balls) in the June edition of the online mag Visual Codec: "A post-feminist, hipster laff riot maybe, but also part throwdown. O doesn't push the envelope that Richardson, Kern, et al signed and sealed; she marks it Return To Sender. This is an homage with teeth and a big dollop of unsexy sex humor."

Hello citizens of the Slog.

If you are just joining the Freykis Fiesta, you can quickly get yourself up to speed here.

(Long story short: Gay-hating, allegedly Christian freak sends typo-packed hate mail to a member of the media, member of the media shares hate mail with readers, and all Hell breaks loose, in a bunch of bizarre and hilarious directions.)

In the synopsis linked above, I claim the saga started on April 12, when Daniel Freykis sent his premiere email to me. Actually, initial contact was established one day earlier, with a letter to the editor from brother Richard Freykis:

Ha ha ha! Man, did I just have the best lunch- I grabbed a sandwich and a copy of the Stranger, sat down and read a 50,000 word article about guys fucking each other in the ass and all of 'em getting AIDS and then- here's the kicker!- the writer blamed it on the building!!!!!! Oh, you guys slaaaaay me- what, is it a poltergeist who hates queers? Ha ha ha, a billion rim jobs going on and you fucking sick perverts wonder why you all have cold sores- you're SICK FAGGOTS and you're all going to die from AIDS and that is just nature taking out the trash! And you sickos want to get married. Over my dead body, you freaks! Listen, motherfuckers- you are just a propaganda service for ass fucking homo trash, and when I moved to my new condo I didn't pay half a million dollars to have a bunch of cocksucking faggots in the street with your "pride"- "oooh, look at me, I'm so proud to eat shit and get fist fucked"...listen here, cum sucker, that to me is OBSCENITY and if some little innocent child should get hold of it YOU could go to jail! You probably want to jst entice them so you can ass rape them anyway huh, you and your fucking perverted goddamn pedophile freidns! Isn't 18 young enough, you worthless little AIDS victim??? Say hi to all your faggot buddies- I mean, if you consider putting flowers on their gaves 'cos they're all dead of AIDS saying hi! Ha ha faggot, millions read your story adn now the word is out- queer homos are NOT reformed, your worse than ever and you will NEVER get the right to marry!!!! You will all die and burn in hell you fucking assholes. Go suck shit out of your boyfriend's asshole, douche and I'll laugh when your skinny faggot ass dies of AIDS!!!!!!

The "50,000 word article about guys fucking each other" that Richard references is Christopher Frizzelle's Bleak House, which is only about 6,000 words long and (brilliantly) covers a whole lot more than guys fucking each other. However, Richard's letter is clearly the inspiration for the letter that would soon arrive from Daniel, who picked up his elder brother's barely coherent fury and made it his own, promptly giving the world an immortal catchphrase.

Speaking of Daniel Freykis's impressionability: A couple weeks after the initial hubbub, I received this email from a man I'll call Pastor X, who claimed to be Daniel Freykis' "teacher":

First of all, let me assure you that this is no idle letter of enmity or mere threat. My God commands me to go unto the wicked (Ge 6:5, Ps 5:4) and speak plainly and in truth (Ps 15:2, Ro 9:1) and that must be done as His will is my command. I am not writing to assail or engage in the contumely pastimes of your culture and the death it represents. I am, however, writing with great indignity and sorrow for the horrible campaign of slander you have effected against one of my dearest young friends, Daniel Freykis. You are a shameful lot, yet why is it that I know you do not tremble in the presence of great evil (Ex 15:14)? Disagreements are fine, and you people have many rights in this land which were never intended by our Found