Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

Sent from my Iphone, which will probably break tomorrow.

Construction of the luxury 1 Hotel & Residences is on hold until at least late summer while the $200 million downtown Seattle project undergoes a redesign to become more appealing to lenders, its developer says.

The project — first in Seattle to offer “condo-hotel” units — has been stung by slow sales and the national credit crisis, Paul Brenneke said Thursday. “It’s obviously a difficult credit environment out there,” he said, “and we’re trying to position this project in the best possible light.”

This could be a bellwether of a slowdown in downtown’s development. Or it could just be that 1 Hotel & Residences was a poorly marketed, crappy idea all along. I’ve disliked the project since I saw a 17-page ad in an in-flight magazine billing it as the “New Urbanism.” Seriously? A building that contains all the amenities a millionaire wants in one exclusive fortification isn’t New Urbanism. It’s a gated country club that happens to be downtown. Cosmopolitan centers don’t need imposed mechanisms for getting people lunch and massages; that’s what downtowns naturally do.

So the main problem here is a bad model, not the national credit mess. Plenty of other Seattle developments, from luxury towers to squat apartment buildings, are moving right along. However, the luxury condo market is small, and to compete, developers must build residences that are distinctive and exquisite. 1 Hotel & Residences was neither. The developers are smart to pause and rethink the business model. If they can’t create something truly magnificent—and the designs thus far haven’t been—the developers of this project and other luxury high-rise condos downtown should revamp their plans and build smaller units and sell them for less.

Josh, as you know I’m not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m appalled at the comments to your two posts on lobbyist Kim Justice. Kim was sexually objectified by both gays and straights which, in my opinion, was inappropriate, and minimized her heroic achievements as a lobbyist.

Yes she is “cute”, but your award to her was intended as serious praise for her excellent work on behalf of the voiceless in Olympia. She worked fist and glove with me and speaker Chopp and was extremely effective in fighting very well paid mortgage brokers lobbyists to get SB 6381 passed out of committee, a bill which imposes a fiduciary duty on mortgage brokers. This very important piece of consumer protection legislation would not have passed without her . See below for information about this landmark legislation.

Here, here, and here.

Thanks again for honoring Kim Justice.

Here and here are my two earlier posts recognizing Kim Justice, a lobbyist for the Statewide Poverty Action Network, for her great work in Olympia this year—like when she nuked this nasty bill.

Sonnet Is ‘Dangerbunny’
by Blush Photo

Music

Feral Children, Holy Ghost Revival, the Pharmacy at Comet

• See what else is happening in Music on Saturday »
• More Stranger Suggests for this week »

Thanks to Slog tipper Lee…

^{Marcus Gannuscio’s Neil (2008), oil on canvas, 38 by 32 inches}

At Davidson Contemporary.

March is coming in like a humping elephant. I shudder to think how it will go out.

There’s an open mic and a mystery author, and a few other things about hyperserious subjects, too.

Bruce Barcott, who read yesterday at Elliott Bay Book Company, is up at Third Place Books today with his well-reviewed environmental reportage The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw, about one woman’s efforts to save a Macaw’s nesting grounds from a dam. And at Elliott Bay tonight is the impressively-named Indran Amirthanayagam, with his new book The Splintered Face: Tsunami Poems, which is about the massive, apocalyptic tsunami from a few years ago now. It’s also a great title, and I really like Amirthanayagam’s previous book title, The Elephants of Reckoning.

At SPL Central Branch, David Smith-Ferri reads from Battlefield Without Borders: Iraq Poems, which he wrote while in Iraq as a member of a fact-finding delegation. The vast majority of the sales of the book—$12 out of $14!—goes toward the Direct Aid Initiative.

Full readings calendar, including upcoming, non-deadly-serious-issue-related books, here.

Plagiarizing: Bush aide resigns.

Dismissing: Mukasey won’t prosecute Bush aides.

Strafing: Israel kills 45 Palestinians.

Vying: Obama needs the Jewish vote.

Appointing: SPD names feel-good positions.

Flaming: 300,000 at Sydney gay pride.

Retracting: Judge yanks injunction on Wikileaks.org.

Just Stop Flushing: Local water to dry up.

Just Stop Popping: ADHD stimulants not linked to substance abuse.

Can You Spot the Glaring Omission? Bush identifies top drug-producing nations.

Air Fuss: Boeing employees pissed after Pentagon chooses to buy un-American.

Please Be Healthier than that Baby Elephant We Named: Zoo wants us to name baby gorilla.

God, Christopher Hitchens is a douchebag.

God, Christopher Hitchens is a douchebag.

God, Christopher Hitchens is a douchebag.

God, Christopher Hitchens is a douchebag.

God, Christopher Hitchens is a douchebag.

God, Christopher Hitchens is a douchebag.

Hey, there’s Dan!

God, Christopher Hitchens is a douchebag.

God, Christopher Hitchens is a douchebag.

David Beckham wears underpants and so should you.

I’m in LA to do Real Time with Bill Maher. HBO, 11 PM. Tune in, if you like. Right now I’m in my hotel room watching Mike Huckabee… on the Tyra Banks show. Which is making my head hurt.

Our very own Dan Savage will be appearing on Real Time with Bill Maher (a show that apparently is on a television station referred to by the kids as “The HBO”) tonight at 11 pm (8 pm eastern). Other guests include Christopher Hitchens and Harry Shearer.

Any Slog readers who have both technical and pay cable capacities are encouraged to put the show up on YouTube for posterity.

The Department of Justice: An Op-Ed by the acting deputy U.S. attorney general, Craig Morford, ran in the LA Times.

A Move to Revise Offenders’ Sentences Should Stop Until Its Effects Can Be Weighed.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission recently decided to apply — retroactively — new, lighter sentences for those convicted of crimes related to crack cocaine. As a result, on Monday, courts across the country will begin to decide whether 19,500 of them should be released early from federal prison.

A disproportionate share of these prisoners came from urban areas such as Los Angeles, and those communities will bear the brunt of their return.

Morford’s tactics are taken from the Bush Administration’s playbook on this issue. You may remember that a couple weeks ago Attorney General Michael Mukasey lobbied Congress to block the release of inmates convicted of crack offenses, claiming it “would produce tragic, but predictable results.” The idea that releasing 19,500 crack prisoners over a period of five years, dispersed around a country of 300,000,000 people, didn’t seem to convince lawmakers to block the prisoners’ release. So he’s apparently assigned his minion to drum up public support, err, fear. And, in essence, what Morford is saying is that crack offenders (disproportionately black), despite having already served sentences as long as cocaine offenders (who tend to be white), are more dangerous to the community. Even if Morford’s claim were true, the fault should be pinned on his own Department of Justice for emphasizing a system that relies overwhelmingly on lengthy incarceration rather than rehabilitation.

White Planes: Cocaine smuggling craft linked to U.S.

Those Danes: Start heroin-maintenance program.

Slow Ride: Mushrooms slow perception of time.

More Hype in UK: BBC film to show effects of injecting cannabis.

London: Police single-out gay bar for drug raid.

Sydney: Police seize drugs headed to gay Mardi Gras.

Supplemented: Vitamin D is hot; vitamin E is not.

Targeted: Cartels strike border guards.

Jailed: Student who gave teacher pot cookies.

Duh.

One thing I totally forgot about when I announced the Slog’s lobbyist of the year, is how she, Kim Justice, first came to my attention.

It goes like this: Early on in the session, she alerted me (and the public!) to this horrible bill, and then she fucking stomped on it.

By This Empty World

Is he really JFK’s love child? His family says no. Vanity Fair thinks yes.

Also known as bissextile day.

The news:

Michael Seiwerath, who won our Genius Award for film in 2005, is leaving Northwest Film Forum. He’s been with the organization practically since the beginning, and his tenure (since 2001) as executive director has seen impressive growth, including the move to the two-screen 12th Avenue cinematheque and “start-to-finish” funding of several feature films (most notably, Robinson Devor’s Police Beat). It’s going to be tough to find a replacement who’ll work as hard and for as little money as Seiwerath (according to NWFF’s 990s, he received a salary of just $29,400 in 2006—and he has two young daughters). We’ll be reporting further on his departure and the search for a new executive director in the print edition.

New Line is being absorbed by its sibling company, Warner Bros, according to the LA Times. Expect less Lord of the Rings, more Will Ferrell. Variety’s Anne Thompson notes that we still don’t know what’s going to happen to Warner Independent and Picturehouse.

Also via Anne Thompson: You can download some excellent short films via iTunes and Sundance. I recommend the Oscar-nominated Madame Tutli Putli.

New this week:

In On Screen: the forlorn Israeli-Arab comedy The Band’s Visit (me: “What follows could be described as a culture clash, but it’s more of a culture bump—discomfort, flirtation, fleeting moments of connection, and then more awkward silence”), Semi-Pro (Bradley Steinbacher: “Much as in Will Ferrell’s high-water mark, Anchorman, what keeps the movie afloat is the constant threat that things will spin into absurdity”), Penelope (Brendan Kiley: “I’d hoped watching Christina Ricci wearing a prosthetic pig nose for 101 minutes would add at least a grain of amusement to this romantic comedy. I was wrong”), The Other Boleyn Girl (Charles Mudede: “It’s good to be the king”), and City of Men (me: “Perhaps you recall the opening scene in City of God, which followed an emancipated chicken on a tear through the maze of a city slum. Unfortunately, there’s nothing like that in this new film, directed by one of Meirelles’s assistants. It’s just a copy of a copy of a copy; and where the style has faded, sentiment has flooded in”).

Lindy West reviews some choice ’70s sexploitation in Concessions.

Tucked away in Limited Runs this week, sometimes justly and sometimes not: The Business of Being Born at SIFF Cinema (Ricki Lake gives birth on camera), Duck Soup at the Admiral (Groucho Marx impersonator in attendance), Final Friday Freakout #2 tonight at Cafe Rozella (featuring talented direct animator Devon Damonte), Five Against the House and The Brothers Rico at Grand Illusion (these Phil Karlson rarities are cool enough to make Suggests), Hannah and Her Sisters (Charles Mudede judges this this fifth-best Woody Allen film), the inimitable McCabe & Mrs. Miller at Metro Classics, Jean Renoir’s The River at Seattle Asian Art Museum, Tron in 70 mm at Cinerama, Teenage Hitchhikers at Grand Illusion late nights, and the first installment of a comedy series called What the Funny (starring Seattle theater luminary Darragh Kennan) at Northwest Film Forum.

The PI has a story on the possible deal.

As reported by the New York Observer, the Federal Reserve will most likely still have its greatest nemesis in Congress, and the Department of Peace its greatest champion: polling leading up to the March 4th local primary challenges to Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul show both congressmen crushing their opponents:

A new poll from the Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling shows Kucinich handily beating [Cleveland city councilman] Cimperman, 55 to 29 percent. The only potentially troubling sign for the incumbent: He trails Cimperman among independents, who are free to vote in Tuesday’s primary. A (much) higher than expected independent turnout could tighten the race…

Meanwhile, another Public Policy poll in Texas has Paul routing his Republican congressional challenger, Friendswood Councilman Chris Peden, 63 to 30 percent. Peden has made Paul’s libertarian-based assault on some conservative orthodoxies the linchpin of his effort, calculating that the district’s Republicans were previously unaware of Paul’s strident opposition to the Iraq war, among other issues.

There had been suggestions that both were looking at trouble for taking time out of their normal duties to run for higher office. Apparently that’s not looking to be the case. A big win would be especially sweet for Kucinich, considering that the current mayor in Cleveland (Kucinich’s hometown and the heart of his congressional district) has been campaigning actively for his defeat.

This was at the bottom of my stacks and shit:

1. “Do not expect a kiss from her and do NOT go for it on the first date.”
2. “The Russian women like to believe that you are a desired man by other women!”
3. “The mothers here are always the problem.”
4. “Dancing with these women.”
5. “…[T]he good women here will NEVER eat unless you are eating too.”
6. “But I can tell you that I have had to play instructor EVERY single time that oral sex was going to be performed.”
7. “Katya…so beautiful yet she was an emotional thief and an economic tyrant.”

Photo of downer cow being dragged to slaughter via Farm Sanctuary.

February 18, 2008: The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) issues the largest beef recall in history, three weeks after the Humane Society released a video showing slaughterhouse workers administering electric shocks and high-intensity water sprays to cows that were too sick to stand, and rolling the cows over with forklifts. According to the Boston Globe, “One worry when an animal collapses is that it may have bovine spongiform encephalopathy, the infection known as ‘mad cow disease.’” The majority of US mad cow cases have come from such so-called “downer” cows.

February 29, 2008: USDA director Ed Schafer rejected calls to ban downer cows from the food supply and said he wouldn’t support stiffer penalties against meat processing plants that violate food-safety laws. Although the recall came only after the Humane Society released a videotape made surreptitiously by a slaughterhouse worker documenting the violations, Schafer said he believes the system worked. “The rules are adequate,” Schafer said.

Monday, March 3: This is the deadline to submit comments to the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, which recently proposed lowering the standard for meat producers who want to label their products “naturally raised.” Under the proposed new standard, meat could be labeled “naturally raised” if it was produced without growth hormones, antibiotics, or mammalian or avian byproducts. That means, for example, that cows that were raised on factory farms on corn (not grass, their natural food), with no access to the outdoors, without natural breeding methods, and under inhumane conditions—and taken to massive, polluting industrial feedlots for fattening and slaughter—could be labeled “naturally raised.”

If you want to stop the United States’ food-quality standards from slipping even further, submit a comment to the USDA here.

Two bills we’re monitoring here at Slog made today’s cutoff to be passed out of policy committees in the opposite chambers.

One bill, which Rep. Maralyn Chase passed out of the House earlier this session, would provide fair compensation and adequate moving time for tenants displaced by condo conversion. The second bill, one that Sen. Brian Weinstein passed out of the Senate earlier this year, would give consumers the basic right right to have a warranty to protect against faulty construction.

Both bills made it out of their respective committees earlier this week.

In response to this new Clinton ad, Obama releases this new ad in Texas:

Most of the block bordered by Denny Way, Yale Street, and Howell Street has been redeveloped in the past decade—save for a patch of land owned by Northwest Trophy Inc.

The family-owned award manufacturer holds the one-story building sandwiched between the Marriott SpringHill Suites and the Downtown Emergency Services Center on Howell Street. In 2006, the land was rezoned along with the rest of the Denny Triangle to allow for skyscrapers, so the Anderson family, which has owned the property for 25 years and resented the drunk new neighbors, put the land up for sale. Seattle design firm and developer Pb Elemental submitted a bid to buy it. “This is urban infill basically,” says Elemental principal Chris Pardo. On less than a 3,000 square foot parcel, the firm plans to build a 440’ tower.

The incredibly small footprint poses a structural challenge that Pardo says required guns from Magnusson Klemencic Associates, engineers behind the downtown Seattle Library. “It ends up being a flagpole,” he explains. The tower is supported by a 30’ hollow concrete spine, rooted 90’ deep in the ground. Each floor is only about 2,100 square feet.

“The name has nothing to do with ego or anything,” Pardo says of calling it the Trophy Building, a description normally ascribed to prestigious civic architecture. Nevertheless, the distinctively slender and flaring design makes for the sort of landmark that will define Seattle. But such monuments rarely contain residences afforded by ordinary folks. The Trophy will be no exception. Lower units will begin at $2 million; upper penthouses, which consume two levels, will top out at $18 million.

The building will contain only 19 units.

But because there are fewer than 20 units, the building is exempt from the city’s design-review process, according to Pardo. He says that falling through the loophole was inadvertent. (My calls to the Department of Planning and Development to verify this loophole haven’t been returned.) It’s interesting, perhaps even alarming, that a skyscraper can be built without some sort of design guidance from the city. And in the case of the Trophy Building, it’s particularly surprising because it will be 40’ taller than surrounding proposed skyscrapers, such as 1200 Stewart and the Stewart Minor Tower, which are subject to extensive design guidance.

Continue reading "The Trophy Building" »

It’s about more than music, people. Line Out is about night life—drinking, dancing, headbanging at King Cobra.

5 Minutes Wasted: Musical Comedy steals a piece of Terry Millers’s life.

Your Turn to Play Music Critic: Listen to House on a Hill, tell us if you like it.

Two Shows, One Review: Sam Makchkovech hits up Beestings at the Comet and Velella Velella at Nectar.

What Does Miles Davis Have to Do With a Kid on a Ferris Wheel Eating Too Much Cotton Candy?: Trent Moorman brings it all together.

Goody Goody!: TJ Gorton on Dimitri’s Goody Goody remix. Also, there’s a picture of some very nice boobs.

Today’s Music News: A guy from Blur wants in the Parliament, singer of Dave Clark 5 dies at age 64, Amy Winehouse is cleared, and a bunch more stuff you need to know.

Schlager 101: Terry Miller schools you on some Brotherhood of Man and Kelly Marie.

Stage6 Shuts Down: You can no longer get scores of amazing videos via their site. Sorry.

King Cobra’s Grand Opening: The photos! the videos, the dudes with long hair headbanging to songs about robots from the future.

Sasha Frere-Jones on Amy Winehouse: Surprise! He finds a way to make it about race.

There’s a hell of a lot more to read about too. Lots of pictures, lots of videos, lots of everything, my friends. Go check it out.

(Photo by Kelly O from last night’s King Cobra Grand Opening.)

Michael Seiwerath has announced that he’s stepping down from his position as executive director of Northwest Film Forum. From an email he just sent out to friends and supporters:

After much thought, I have decided to move on from my position as Executive Director of Northwest Film Forum. This is an organization I love dearly, and where I have spent much of my waking life for the last twelve years.

Since the organization’s founding in 1995, I have worked with a talented team to build a film community, support artists and bring vital films to Seattle audiences. I was hooked from the day I met founders Jamie Hook and Deb Girdwood in their windowless space behind the old Storeroom Tavern, filled only with a futon, shag carpet, cats and a monstrous 16mm Steenbeck film editor. In a city that prided itself on loving film and the arts, there was no comprehensive center for filmmakers and audiences in Seattle. I’m proud to say that over the years, NWFF has grown from this small space to fill that void […]

While I believe as firmly as ever in the mission and work of NWFF, I am leaving because it is time for me to seek something new. I’ll be staying on to the beginning of this transition, likely though the summer. While I’m unsure what the future holds for me, it is inspiring to know that NWFF will remain a part of it.

All the best,

Michael Seiwerath
Executive Director

A local Obama supporter, responding to the scary ad that Hillary Clinton is now running ahead of March 4, reminds that another Clinton, Bill, has a rule about this kind of campaigning:

The Texas Democratic Party is asking in advance that both the Obama and Clinton campaigns resist the urge to sue should they not enjoy the results of Texas’s hybrid caucus/primary:

“It has been brought to my attention that one or both of your campaigns may already be planning or intending to pursue litigation against the Texas Democratic Party,” [Texas Democrats’ legal council] Dunn wrote in the letter, obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Such action could prove to be a tragedy for a reinvigorated Democratic process.”…

Democratic sources said both campaigns have made it clear that they might consider legal options over the complicated delegate selection process, which includes both a popular vote and evening caucuses. But the sources made it clear that the Clinton campaign in particular had warned of an impending lawsuit.

“Both campaigns have made it clear that they would go there if they had to, but I think the imminent threat is coming from one campaign,” said one top Democratic official, referring to the Clinton campaign. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

The story, by Jay Root of McClatchy’s Washington bureau, doesn’t specify what exactly the campaigns are looking to file suit over, though the conventional wisdom is the dispute will almost certainly be over the states’ caucus. Much like Washington, Texas has both a primary and a caucus. Unlike Washington, the caucus is held the same night as the primary, after the primary polls close.

The Obama campaign, which in the past has benefited from caucuses, is less than enthusiastic about this news:

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said the Clinton campaign was trying to minimize the results of the caucuses. The former first lady and her team have made clear their unhappiness with caucuses, believing that they cater to the hard-core party activists who tend to support Obama. The Illinois senator has won 13 caucus contests in states and overseas U.S. territories so far, while Clinton has won just two.

“This takes it to a new level, which is they don’t want the people who are participating in those caucuses to have their results reported in a timely fashion. And I assume that’s a very self-serving decision,” Plouffe said.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan elders may impose a fine on U.S. presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, payable in livestock, after a photo of her rival Barack Obama in robes dragged their people into the race for the White House.

The picture, which appeared on a U.S. Web site, showed the Illinois senator in a white headdress and traditional Somali attire during a 2006 visit to Wajir in Kenya’s remote northeast.

(Via Ben Smith)

The Politico’s Jonathan Martin attempts to answer one of the last, great questions of 2008: what could possibly be the motivation for Mike Huckabee to stay in this race?

The new line of reasoning from party insiders trying to figure out the strategy behind Huckabee’s increasingly quixotic, totally mad run for the White House? People will look back fondly and say, “at least he did better than Mitt Romney.”

“Huckabee is playing for second,” said Republican strategist Craig Shirley, a McCain backer and author of a book on the 1976 presidential race. “He wants the story written that he came in second to McCain and not Mitt Romney. That way he will have what he believes is the more legitimate claim to be the heir apparent for the GOP nomination, and not Romney, in 2012 or 2016.”

Playing for a better position in 2012 is clearly on the mind of Huckabee strategist Ed Rollins, whose hopes for the Arkansas governor’s future appear to rest on the idea that sometime during his presidency, John McCain may die:

And even if McCain does win in November, Rollins noted that the Arizonan will already be 72 years old.

“It may be open again in four years. And Mike is 51. He’s got a long way to go before his political career is over.”

Yet others suggest that possibly we’re over-thinking Huck’s motives:

“I think he’s looking for a high profile and a job,” said John Brummett, columnist for the Arkansas News and a veteran of the Little Rock press corps. “He’s always needed work.”

“And I think he thought he could be a bigger deal if he stayed in it for a while.”

So, there you have it: either Huckabee is trying to position himself as the New Reagan, or he is hoping that people realize how old McCain is, or he’s hoping McCain dies in office, or he simply wants a paycheck and his own little plot of fame in the evangelical right. Or possibly all four.

Not all lobbyists are old white guys in suits. Lobbyists can also be young women—gay women even.

Meet Kim Justice—yes, that’s really her name—who is, appropriately enough, the lobbyist for the Statewide Poverty Action Network.

You wouldn’t figure the young-looking Justice as a power player down in Olympia, but the 28-year-old did the heavy lifting on the central bill of this year’s progressive agenda—helping pass a piece of timely corporate accountability legislation to make sure mortgage brokers aren’t duping borrowers.

The bill, now bound to pass, sailed though the House consumer protection committee yesterday (one day before cutoff) after clearing the full Senate earlier this session.

Justice wasn’t always political. She was a music head in college (University of Missouri) where she worked at a radio station and studied mass communications. (She still loves music and says she loves going out “anywhere there’s live music.”)

She lives in Olympia during the session—her house, which she shares with a housing lobbyist, the Jewish Federation lobbyist, and the Children’s Alliance lobbyist, hosts an annual “gay party” for gay legislators, staffers, and allies. The rest of the year she lives in Seattle on Capitol Hill.

She created a political stir at her all-girls Catholic High School in St. Louis (Sisters of Leretto Nerinx Hall) in 1997, when her friends rallied around her cause to take her girlfriend to the junior prom. There was a petition drive, an all-school meeting, and Justice and her g.f. were allowed to go to the prom together—changing the rule that all couples had to be boy-girl.

Justice got her first dose of politics politics when, after a mentor at college convinced her to attend a program in Washington, D.C. on social justice (!) organizing, she was sent out to do political field work in Oklahoma (trying to stop a “right-to-work” initiative). Next, she hit Washington State, working to elect Rep. Brian Sullivan from the 21st District in Edmonds and later for Rep. Ross Hunter (D-48, Medina).

While working on these key tide-shifting races, she met Speaker Rep. Frank Chopp (D-43, Wallingford) and soon enough, she was working as his session aide in 2002.

After that session, she was hired by the Poverty Action Network to jump-start an electoral organizing component for the non-profit, engaging low-income voters in the details of state politics. Last year, she took on the group’s state lobbying responsibilities.

Asked how she approaches the job, Justice says she mimics what other successful lobbyists in Oly do: “Just be yourself and build personal relationships.” I imagine she took her cue from her excellently boisterous veteran lobbyist housemate Nick Federici, another Oly gem.

On next year’s docket? Justice says “we have every intention of working for payday loan oversight.” The issue, a hot topic last year, was MIA in Olympia this year (although not in other states). Justice says work went on behind the scenes on the issue this year to cultivate support. And, she hints, “we have a lot of support.”

Star legislators she praises this year for taking up the fight for consumer advocacy and low-income people include: Sens. Brian Weinstein (D-41, Mercer Island) and Rodney Tom (D-48, Medina) (they were the sponsors on the broker accountability bills); Rep. Eric Pettigrew (D-37, South Seattle) (who sponsored a renters rights bill), Rep. Jeannie Darnielle (D-27, Tacoma) (who also sponsored a renters’ rights bill); and Speaker Frank Chopp (D-43, Wallingford), who’s making a big stand to put more money into the statewide housing trust fund.

For those that are intimidated (or bored) by Olympia, Justice says they should come down and check it out. In fact, she brought down a friend one day who claimed to have no interest in local politics and said her friend was blown away by how accessible the legislators were (true) and how many important issues are at play (true).

Congratulations to Kim Justice, Slog’s lobbyist of the year.

Sources in Olympia confirm that there may be a new Sonics deal in play.

Details are scarce, but apparently a super-rich local crew is interested in putting up a major chunk of change to renovate KeyArena—with the public picking up a much smaller portion of the $250 million KeyArena deal that failed in the legislature two years ago.

How to make a salad bowl out of bacon. God bless us, every one.

SF Signal has a link to a Robert Crumb comic that I’ve never seen before about Philip K. Dick’s religious, possibly tumor-inspired delusions. Imagine if there was a religion in the world based on Philip K. Dick’s writings instead of L. Ron Hubbard’s. I might consider joining, if just because it would be so mind-numbingly odd.

Physorg.com explains:

Jim Mielke’s wireless blood-fueled display is a true merging of technology and body art. At the recent Greener Gadgets Design Competition, the engineer demonstrated a subcutaneously implanted touch-screen that operates as a cell phone display, with the potential for 3G video calls that are visible just underneath the skin. The basis of the 2x4-inch “Digital Tattoo Interface” is a Bluetooth device made of thin, flexible silicon and silicone. It’s inserted through a small incision as a tightly rolled tube, and then it unfurls beneath the skin to align between skin and muscle. Through the same incision, two small tubes on the device are attached to an artery and a vein to allow the blood to flow to a coin-sized blood fuel cell that converts glucose and oxygen to electricity. After blood flows in from the artery to the fuel cell, it flows out again through the vein.

I’m scared. Thank you, MetaFilter.

I HAVE:

1. Talked on the phone to Ron Jeremy.

2. Never seen Terminator 2.

3. Been detained for protesting.

4. Read the most books of my fourth grade class.

5. Had many bangovers.

It’s another book award, this time bracketed. Previous winners include are Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas (definitely not the best book of the year it was released in), Smith’s The Accidental (didn’t read it), and McCarthy’s The Road (a good choice, but it won everything short of the Nobel last year, so it’s not really in keeping with the award’s “We’re not the big prizes” ethos).

Here’s the rationale behind the prize:

The Tournament of Books, we vowed, would be completely transparent. The names of the judges would be known to all, and the judges would admit to their own personal biases as well as their reasoning for every decision. The winner of this award wouldn’t be any less arbitrary or any more legitimate than the winner of any other award, but the crowning of our arbitrary and illegitimate Best Book of the Year—the Champion Book of the Year, would be lots more fun.

And here are the contestants:

Run by Ann Patchett
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
Petropolis by Anya Ulinich
Ovenman by Jeff Parker
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
You Don’t Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem
New England White by Stephen L. Carter
Remainder by Tom McCarthy
The Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida
Shining at the Bottom of the Sea by Stephen Marche
What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman
An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England by Brock Clarke

Actually, with all these books, I think you could at least be guaranteed a good—if flawed—read. My money’s on Then We Came to the End or The Brief Wondrous Life for the big winner, with a slight lean toward the latter. Vendela Vida should totally win the prize, though.

This article in The National Journal is well worth a read. It looks at the demographics of this year’s surging Democratic turnout and finds the makings of a new Democratic strategy, a new Democratic generation, and a new Democratic governing majority:

From New Hampshire to California, and from Arizona to Wisconsin, exit polls from this year’s contests show the Democratic coalition evolving in clear and consistent ways since the 2004 primaries that nominated John Kerry. The party is growing younger, more affluent, more liberal, and more heavily tilted toward women, Latinos, and African-Americans…

The implications for the general election could be significant. If Democrats can maintain the allegiance of the constituencies now pouring into their primaries — especially young people — they could seize an edge in November’s election, and potentially well beyond. “These are long-term opportunities that could change a generation of leadership in the country and give the Democrats a huge leg up on obtaining or achieving elective office,” says Matthew Dowd, the chief strategist for President Bush’s 2004 election campaign and now a consultant for ABC News. “But it all depends on how they conduct themselves.”

The most dramatic change has been in Democratic voting by young people, something that Dowd, in a the article, says could hurt Republicans well beyond this election.

In 2000, under-30 voters split about evenly between Bush and Gore, according to exit polls. In 2004, they preferred Kerry over Bush by 54 percent to 45 percent. In the 2006 House elections, they backed Democrats by 60 percent to 38 percent. In a race between Obama, 46, and McCain, 71, even many Republicans wouldn’t be surprised to see that wide a gap among the young.

“If you look at Ronald Reagan and how he performed among youth, he created a generation of Republicans that was able to sustain itself,” Dowd says. “Well, what Bush has done in his presidency is almost the opposite: He has won elections and lost a generation. Now this generation is emerging, and if Democrats end up winning this election, and then govern in a way that gives people a sense that it is a new politics, they will have a generation. It will be the reverse of Reagan.”

I HAVE:

1. Never voted in my life.
2. Been a member of a radical Marxist group.
3. Never learned how to drive a car.
4. Worked in a brick factory in Barking, London.
5. Never seen Victoria Falls (“the smoke that thunders”).
6. Seen Niagara Falls.

Obama was on Ellen yesterday. Watch it through to the end to see him bust a move or two:

Obama also danced his way into Ellen’s studio last October, in case you missed that clip:

Ellen, who has endorsed Clinton, talked to her this this week, too. (Unfortunately more than half the interview is consumed by jokey banter about banning glitter, and Clinton doesn’t dance.)

A West Seattle rabbi was sentenced to 500 hours of community service, ordered not to drive for two years and fined $500 Thursday for hitting former Seattle City Council aide Mathew “Tatsuo” Nakata with his car and killing him.

A jury found Ephraim Schwartz guilty of assault last month. The charge carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Five hundred dollars? What the FUCK? This was the second time in less than two years that Schwartz had hit someone with his car—the previous time was in 2005, when he was driving on the wrong side of the road and injured a woman riding a bike

So tell me again, why is this man going to be allowed to drive EVER again?

(Addendum: Both stories on the sentencing focused heavily on the fact that Schwartz is a rabbi and was “tormented” by the fact that he killed Nakata. The Times story actually starts with two paragraphs about Schwartz’s “anguish,” saying that his prayers on Yom Kippur “illustrated the despair the West Seattle rabbi felt over the death of Tatsuo Nakata.” You know what? Screw that. The man killed someone who had decades of life ahead of him. I’m not going to have my heartstrings tugged over how he prayed for eight whole hours on Yom Kippur.)

Friday, 29 February 2008

God answered your prayers! The documentary filming yesterday was fun, educational and entertaining. The film crew was very professional, I was very straightforward with my answers and it ended with the same sex marriage activist wanting to have her picture taken with me. It was wonderful! Praise be to God!

Pastor Hutch

…just moments ago…on her show…about a murdered little gay boy…and don’t watch the clip of it (available below from TMZ, yag), or you will really cry.

Here.

I HAVE:

1. Been a vegan.

2. Belonged to a radical environmental group.

3. Subscribed to Ms. Magazine.

4. Seen Megadeth in concert.

Sometimes people do things they regret. Sometimes, if those people are like me, they are compelled to write about the things they regret and then, if those people are just like me, they regret their compulsion to write about the things they regret.

A few months ago, I wrote an embarrassing story about huffing gasoline. A few days ago, I found out that a Cornish student, Ryan O’Neill, turned that story into a board game:

(You can see a bigger, enlargable version here.)

How does it feel to relive one of the more shameful episodes of one’s life as a board game? Surprisingly, Kind of neat! Everyone should have one:

My Overdue Divorce: the Board Game!

I Was a Pudgy Bed-Wetter: the Board Game!

Suddenly Susan: the Board Game!

And so on.

Thanks, Ryan O’Neill. You may have invented a whole new kind of therapy.

Music

Mahjongg at Vera Project

• See what else is happening in Music on Friday »
• More Stranger Suggests for this week »

On March 1, Metro is raising the one-zone adult fare to $1.50, and the peak fare to $1.75.

Go here to read Erica Barnett’s explanation of why the fare increase is happening and why it’s a good idea, including reducing crowding and the need for increased security.

^{Byron King’s Untitled (2007), pen on paper, 6 by 8 inches.}

At Joe Bar.

Yesterday, the House Democrats in Olympia killed a smart environmental bill that would have made carbon impacts a factor in growth management decisions.

However, the the bill has been resurrected. Rep. Geoff Simpson (D-47, Covington, Kiss Song), the liberal chair of the local government committee who fought for the bill, but lost when the “Democrats” on his committee, particularly the outspoken Rep. Deb Eddy (D-48, Kirkland), voted it down—is holding a special executive session his afternoon at 4:30 to bring it back.

Good for Rep. Simpson. The gossip and buzz in Oly yesterday was that Simpson “got rolled” by his dissident committee members.

Today is the last day for bills like this one—sent over from the opposite chamber—to make it out of policy committees like Rep. Simpson’s local government committee.

“My delivery was so sudden,” said the Bhuri Kalbi, the mother of the infant, born two months prematurely. “I did not even realize that my child had slipped from the hole in the toilet.”

Five readings on this, the leapiest day of the year:

Dan Kennedy is reading from Rock On at the Sunset Tavern. I read Rock On, and I liked it quite a bit, which was surprising to me. The subject (working at a corporate music label) didn’t interest me, and it wasn’t exactly packed with stunning observations about the music world, but Kennedy, a contributor to McSweeney’s, is very funny, and a amiable-enough narrator. Hopefully, he’ll be the same in person. There’s a review by Stranger book critic (and current books intern) Christopher Sabatini here.

George Legrady will be discussing his artwork on display in the Seattle Public Library Central Branch at the SPL today. If I had my way, there wouldn’t be any art in the library; in libraries, as in the home, books are all the decoration you need. But, then, I’m biased.

Jean Haner reads from The Wisdom of Your Face (yes, I’m serious, and it does sound like a put-down: “Oh, yeah, the Wisdom of my Face? Let me tell you about the Wisdom of Your Mom!”) at Third Place Books, and Bruce Barcott reads from The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw, which got a good review on the front page of the NYT Book Review a week or so back, at Elliott Bay. Barcott will be reading elsewhere this weekend, too, so don’t feel bad if you have plans but you also have a powerful urge to learn about scarlet macaws. You’ll have your chance, my friend. You’ll have your chance.

And, lastly—and a late addition not on the readings calendar!—there will be some musicians at the Rendezvous Jewel Box Theater, starting at 7:30, but there will also be a spoken word set by the always-entertaining Doug Nufer where he will channel “Jackie Mason, Perry Mason, and a verbal version of Chainsaw Jason.”

Full readings calendar, including the next week or so, here.

Via TPM, an interesting series of slips (Freudian slips?) from the presumptive Republican nominee. Listen, in particular, for the words “liberal” and “dispirited.”

On my walk to work today I passed a women standing on the edge of the Moore Theater building threatening to jump. She has been up there for about an hour and I believe she still is.

Thanks to Slogtipper Brady for sending this in.

Update: SPD says they received a call about the woman at 8:17 this morning.

2nd Ave is closed between Stewart to Virginia while officers and case workers at the scene try to contact the woman.

UPDATE: She’s down. All is well.

The National Weather Service says a cold front blowing through Washington Friday night and Saturday will bring more snow to the mountains including highway passes.

Okay, Obama went on the Pat Robertson’s hateful little cable network too, just like Hillary—bad marks for