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‘The Black Stallion’

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YES ON #8

THE MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE OF CALIFORNIA VOTED ONCE FOR BANNING GAY MARRIAGES IN THIS STATE AND WE’LL DO IT AGAIN.

STAY OUT OF CALIFORNIA POLITICS, DEGENERATE SCUMBAG!!!

Donate to the “No On Prop 8” campaign here.

I’m thinking the last thing two grieving parents need after the tragic death of a child is a mob of angry religious nuts threatening to boycott their businesses—or firebomb them—because the grieving parents didn’t dispose of their son’s remains in a manner that pleases the religious nuts.

Shafayet Reja’s mother is Hindu, his father is Muslim, and his parents brought him up in both faiths. When Shafayet died, his parents had him cremated, the Hindu tradition, and not buried in a shroud, which is the Muslim tradition. An angry crowd confronted the parents at their son’s funeral. And bomb threats followed.

To some Muslims, the fact that Shafayet Reja prayed and attended mosques trumps his family’s wishes.

“It was the community’s business because the community knew he was a Muslim,” said Junnun Choudhury, [a leader of] one of several mosques around the city whose worshipers came to the funeral to plead with the family. “It is our job to bury him in the Muslim way.”

Oh, and this happened in New York, not Afghanistan.

From The New York Times:

Now comes Ms. Palin, a smiling, bubbly vice-presidential candidate who travels in an alternate language universe. For Ms. Palin, such things as context, syntax and the proximity of answers to questions have no meaning.

In her closing remarks at the vice-presidential debate Thursday night, Ms. Palin referred earnestly, if loosely, to a quote from Ronald Reagan. He had warned that if Americans weren’t vigilant in protecting their freedom, they would find themselves spending their “sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was like in America when men were free.”

What Ms. Palin didn’t say was that the menace to freedom that Reagan was talking about was Medicare. As the historian Robert Dallek has pointed out, Reagan “saw Medicare as the advance wave of socialism, which would ‘invade every area of freedom in this country.’ ”

Does Ms. Palin agree with that Looney Tunes notion?

From Andrew Sullivan:

She really does just make things up. In last night’s debate she said:

“When I and others in the legislature found out that we had some millions of dollars [of Permanent Fund investments] in Sudan, we called for divestment through legislation of those dollars.”

Yep: you guessed it:

A search of news clips and transcripts from the time do not turn up an instance in which Palin mentioned the Sudanese crisis or concerns about Alaska’s investments tied to the ruling regime. Moreover, Palin’s administration openly opposed the bill, and stated its opposition in a public hearing on the measure.

The racism in this presidential election has less to do with Obama than with Palin. No black woman (or man) in America could get so far in politics with so little. If Palin were black, she would not be qualified to be a community organizer.

One more note: In an essay on the movie Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, James Baldwin points out this to be one of the problems with the black character played by Sidney Poitier, Dr. John Wade Prentice: he is overqualified. But in the situation of the movie, his great achievements in science, and the fact he is moving to Europe (the land of the liberals), is what allows him to obtain the hand of an ordinary white woman. Like Prentice, Obama is overqualified. But in post-Carter presidential politics, this is not a plus but a minus. Obama won the debate against McCain by not appearing to be what he actually is: overqualified. In both debates, it was the Democrats who had to show restraint, who had to hide the extent of their know-how. The Republicans, on the other hand, were free from restraint.

An open mic, a mystery by a local legal historian, and three other readings today.

Up at Third Place Books, Naomi Wolf, who was discussed on Slog yesterday, reads from Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries. Wolf, you’ll recall, once convinced Al Gore to wear earth tones. This helped Al Gore win the presidency in 2000, and that’s why things are so great right now.

At Elliott Bay Book Company, Brian Culhane reads from The King’s Question, which the press release calls a collection of “thoughtful and shapely poems.” You can read two poems of his here. The Anthony Hecht Prize mentioned at the top of that page is not The Stranger’s Anthony Hecht.

And at Grey Gallery, Rivet Magazine is having a farewell party and art auction. Rivet Magazine wasn’t perfect, of course, but in its last couple of years, it really came together as an interesting and chatty read. This is the book event of the night.

The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here.

Posted by News Intern Aaron Pickus

Marriage Obama-meter: Barack and Michelle celebrate the 16th friggin’ year of their traditional marriage.

California Bailin’: Anybody got $7 billion for California?

Lactose Intolerant in China: Another great reason to not drink milk.

Opportunity Knox: King County Superior Court Judge Mike Heavey joins the battle over Amanda “I’m in an Italian Prison” Knox.

Dictator Games: Kim Jong Il, 66, discovers peek-a-boo.

Illegal Immigration: Lawless penguins deported from Brazil.

Victory for Victims: The Washington Supreme Court rules in favor of domestic violence victims who skip out on work to, you know, heal.

Bush the Problem Solver: Our government has cut its funding for supplying contraceptives to one of the biggest providers in Africa.

US-India Civilian Nuclear Deal: The new deal will likely lead to a large increase in US arms sales to India.

PKK Kills 15: 15 Turkish soldiers and 23 Kurdish rebels were killed in a battle near the Turkey-Iraq border.

People without cable: How are you people surviving this election without The Daily Show? HOW?!

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sarah Palin’s televised showdown with Joe Biden drew nearly 70 million U.S. viewers, far surpassing last week’s John McCain-Barack Obama face-off and ranking as the most watched vice presidential debate ever.

Palin, the Republican governor of Alaska, and Biden, the Democratic senator from Delaware, also drew the biggest audience of any nationally televised political debate in 16 years…

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - O.J. Simpson, the former football star who was famously cleared of double murder in the sensational 1990s “Trial of the Century,” was found guilty on all charges in his Las Vegas kidnapping and robbery case on Friday.

Joe Six Pack: Makes a dashing re-entrance into the American lexicon, thanks to Sarah Palin. The term suggests that average Americans go home every night and drink an entire fucking six pack. Or that they look like this guy…

Please Make a Note of It: Don’t call police to your house about a burglary if you’re growing pot inside.

Some Crazy Shit: Ecstasy smuggled under toilet paper.

Zogby: We’ve lost the drug war, voters say.

Three in four likely voters (76 percent) believe the U.S. war on drugs is failing, a sentiment that cuts across the political spectrum — including the vast majority of Democrats (86 percent), political independents (81 percent), and most Republicans (61 percent). There is also a strong belief that the anti-drug effort is failing among those who intend to vote for Obama (89 percent) for president, as well as most supporters of McCain (61 percent).

When asked what they believe is the single best way to combat international drug trafficking and illicit use, 27 percent of likely voters said legalizing some drugs would be the best approach — 34 percent of Obama supporters and 20 percent of McCain backers agreed.

Thus sayeth the latest Rasmussen poll.

Barack Obama has regained his solid lead over John McCain in Washington, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of the state. The Democrat now leads his opponent 53% to 43%.

So, Obama is leading McCain in Washington 53-43, but, as we saw earlier, Gregoire is tied with Rossi here 48-48.

What’s that about? One cause seems to be the very different levels of support Gregoire and Obama are receiving from independents. Gregoire is losing them to Rossi, 37-57. Obama is winning them over McCain, 48-44.

Obama-backing Rossi voters, if this poll can be believed, just might give this state’s electoral college votes to the Democratic ticket while giving the governor’s mansion to a Republican.

Whole Foods just sent me an email regarding the future of its planned Interbay and West Seattle stores.

The grocery chain is being sued by the developer of an Interbay shopping center after Whole Foods attempted to renegotiate its lease.

According to Whole Foods Regional President John Clougher:

“Whole Foods Market is disappointed that TRF Pacific was unable to meet the schedule we all agreed upon several years ago. We have been in ongoing discussions with TRF about downsizing the Interbay store for several months. We continue to believe these negotiations are a work in progress. While we acknowledge that there are legal complexities, we hope to come to a resolution.

Whole Foods Market’s West Seattle store project is unrelated to this issue, and its development schedule is on track.

There you have it.

Update: TRF Pacific responds to Whole Foods’ response:

“It’s unfortunate that we’ve been forced into taking this action. This is the first time in our company’s history that we’ve had to file a lawsuit against an anchor tenant for breach of lease. “TRF has had a great working relationship with Whole Foods. In fact, this is the third development with the company. “The Interbay Whole Foods was configured and custom built based on Whole Foods’ specifications. Whole Foods notified us of its intentions to terminate its lease one week before we were scheduled to turn over the building shell to the company. “We’re hopeful that Whole Foods will reconsider its decision and honor the commitments it has made.”

Story updated. Originally posted at 3:13 PM

A South Seattle man accused of threatening to burn down his 13-year-old autistic neighbor’s home last summer is back in jail after another ugly incident.

According to court documents, at around 10:30 last night, Levison stood outside of his neighbors’ home in the 5500 block of South Leo street and began screaming threats at the autistic boy’s family. Documents say Levison told the boy’s father to “fight [him] like a man” and that he “[did] not want to see that idiot staring at [his] house.”

Police arrived and arrested Levison for investigation of malicious harassment, Washington’s hate crime law. Court records say Levison told police he “told [the boy’s parents] to keep that fucking idiot out of my sight. I pay rent and I don’t have to put up with that.”

The family already has a no-contact order against Levison for a July 8th incident where, court documents say, Levison told the autistic boy’s mother that she needed to “keep [her] fucking retarded son in the house or the backyard like a dog; if you don’t, I’ll burn you[r] room down.”

King County Prosecutors have filed charges against Levison, who is being held at the King County Jail on $500,000 bail.

You know that block and a half of prime Capitol Hill real estate where Sound Transit is building an underground light-rail station? When the station is finished, the entrances will only take up a small part of the above-ground space, and the agency doesn’t know what, exactly, it will do with the rest.

“I don’t want it to be a big frickin’ Walmart or a bunch of condos out of Belltown,” says Carter Kinnier, 48, a Capitol Hill resident. He resents the explosion of boxy condos but he does like the farmers market. So you can imagine his disappointment when he recently heard that his beloved weekly food fair, a block north of the transit station, would be displaced by a four-and-six story apartment building.

Then Kinnier had an idea.

Kinnier wants a new home for the farmers market, one that exists permanently—like a little Pike Place Market—right on top of the light rail station. He envisions a place that supports local vendors, selling everything from butternut squash to local cheeses and ladling out halibut chowder and miso soup. Sound Transit expects 14,000 people a day will board at the station—all potential customers. “Imagine getting a sandwich or a piece of fruit on the way to school or work,” he says.

Granville Island Public Market in Vancouver, B.C. Photo via Matt Jones on Flickr

Reality check number one: Kinnier, wearing a black beret and a lime-green hoodie poking out of a thick brown sweater, acknowledges that his schedule as an IT manager prevents him from personally making this happen. “I am just tossing the idea out there,” he says.

But he’s finding allies. Chris Curtis, director of the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance, says, “It would be lovely to have a permanent location somewhere.” For example, she would like to join “part of project like with Sound Transit,” she says. She cites the increased popularity of the Capitol Hill Farmers Market—up 30 percent from last year—as evidence that Capitol Hill may support a farmers market more than one day a week. She has started talking to Sound Transit about the idea.

Reality check number two: Regardless of what is eventually built above the transit hub, it must house hundreds, if not thousands, of residents. A one- to three-story, Pike Place Market-esque bazaar will never happen. If this were to manifest, the market will be in the first story and basement of a massive residential building. But is that possible; would Sound Transit even go for it?

“You could potentially see some development pretty quick after the station is finished,” says Bruce Gray, a spokesman for Sound Transit. Sound Transit plans to lease the land, rather than sell it, so the agency would retain some control over how the land is used. “Whether it is a farmers market or is mixed use is unknown,” he says. The agency will hold a series of public meetings to field ideas, modeled after the meetings for the station design.

Reality check number three: Farmers are poor. They can’t pay the going rate for retail space in a new building unless it’s subsidized (for example, the Pike Place market is run by the city and will be asking for more public funding on the general election ballot). The city council would have to allow the developer on Broadway to exceed the 65-foot height limits, give them at least two extra stories, so the additional rents from the apartments above pay for the market below. Would neighbors go for an 85-foot building on Broadway? Would it be different enough from the failed Broadway Market formula—corporate clothing retailers and imports stores—to actually stay busy?

It would require a lot of public support, but Kinnier thinks it would be worth trying between now and when the station is finished in 2016. “There is a lot of potential for a footprint of this size on Capitol Hill,” he says. “We will never have an opportunity to do this again in our lifetime.”

Opening this week:

The always excellent Sean Nelson reviews Claude Chabrol’s pervy May-December manipulation A Girl Cut in Two.

In the land of the Blindness, the one-eyed man is the one with the least amount of feces on him.

Eric Grandy wasn’t too into the precious Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, even with the awkward™ stylings of Michael Cera.

Plus: Find out what Brendan Kiley thought about the Ed Harris-helmed Western Appaloosa; David Schmader’s take on How to Lose Friends & Alienate People; and my less than enthused feelings on Bill Maher’s Religulous.

In Limited Runs, make sure not to neglect Northwest Film Forum’s annual Local Sightings, which kicks off tonight with a super fun party and continues for the next week. Elsewhere, protest primer Chicago 10 and desert island dream The Black Stallion play at SIFF Cinema. The Egyptian has Princess Mononoke at midnight (“I hate him! I hate all humans!”); and the Coen brothers’ classic Blood Simple is at Central Cinema.

For everything else, check our Movie Times page.

Submissions to HUMP! 4—Seattle’s biggest, best, and, uh, only amateur (and locally produced!) porn festival—must be in our offices by 5:30 PM on this coming Monday. (Psst! The HUMP! jury won’t actually be gathering to view submissions and decide what’s going into the festival until Tuesday night, so if you need an extra night to work on your film… take it. Just make sure we have your submission in our offices by 4 PM on Tuesday, which is the dropdeadline.) Tickets for HUMP! 4 go on sale Wednesday October 8. Watch this space—and that print edition we sometimes put out—for details, show times, and updates!

More info about HUMP!—including mandatory release forms—here.

Rivet Magazine, which has produced several very good issues in the last couple years, is closing down. I do not know if this is indicative of the death of print or not, but it is still sad.

Tomorrow night at 7:30 pm, Rivet is having a final party and an art auction at Grey Gallery. Here are some the artists who have contributed to the art auction:

Gala Bent, Chelcie Blackmun, Jamey Braden, Ethan Cameron, Celeste Cooning, Tammy Vince Cruz, Diana Falchuk, Nick Greene, Shaun Kardinal, Wade Liostro, Allison Manch, Emily Pothast, Kristen Ramirez, Yanka Sabat, MichaelVincent Santos, Specsone, Laura Wright

I’m certainly no Jen Graves—which is a nice way of saying my opinion on visual art is virtually worthless—but I do like some of the artists on that list. It costs ten bucks to get into the auction, and there will be a Last Dance-themed party after the auction at 9 pm. It should be sad, but it’s definitely worth your time. It’s a real shame that Rivet is fading away.

The $26 burger is no more at the Triangle Lounge, and its creator, Tom Hurley, is no longer involved with the Fremont bar and restaurant. Hurley first gained fame for his namesake French restaurant in Portland, which he closed at the beginning of this year; in an interview with The Oregonian, he blamed the closure on lingering effects of a 2004 protest against foie gras staged at Hurley’s. Hurley opened Coupage in Madrona in the fall of 2006; the signature menu item there was a pricey foie gras burger that met with praise instead of protests. After a number of staff changes (including the departure of the acclaimed opening chefs, who went on to open Wallingford’s Joule), Coupage shut down in August. It was reported that Hurley had purchased the Triangle a year ago, but it seems that the relationship was not so clear-cut, and it is now over.

At the Triangle recently, a server showed little remorse about the tandem departure of Hurley and the burger. Some choice words were deployed about the former, who was apparently not a big hit with the staff; as for the latter, the relief at no longer having to hear “a TWENTY-SIX DOLLAR burger!?” was evident. In the burger’s defense, it was meant for two and came with two beers (and did not involve foie). Mr. Hurley has not returned a call for comment.

Say, I wonder how the lackluster film adaptation of Choke is doing at the box office? The Cult, Chuck Palahniuk’s fansite, has announced a contest:

Clark Gregg and I got on the phone yesterday and decided that we needed to hit the ball out of the park this weekend with the box office numbers on CHOKE. …if CHOKE doesn’t at least crack the top ten in this upcoming weekend’s box office, it’s chances for being around much longer are slim. What’s sad is, CHOKE is competing against movies that opened up in over four times as many theaters. But it’s still averaging better than most on a per theater basis! Why? Because it’s a great film! And it’s one that needs our support! And dammit, that’s what we’re gonna do!

So Clark and I came up with a way to challenge as many people as we could to go see CHOKE this weekend… with as many people as they can convince to go.

THE CONTEST:

We need everyone reading this post right now to go see CHOKE this weekend. But before you do, we need you to email this post to everyone you know. Contact everyone in your address book. Everyone you work with. All of your family and extended family. Everyone on your MySpace page. Your Facebook page. EVERYONE!!!

If you’ve already seen it, go see it again. If it’s more than 50 miles away from where you live, leave enough time for the drive. If it’s out of state, make it your day.

The person who gets the most people to go, gets a character named after them in Chuck’s next book. Yes, this is for real. Clark and I spoke to Chuck on the phone yesterday, and he’s completely on board with this.

Chuck fan reactions, including accusations of desperation, sheep mentality, and vaselined Michael Jackson glitter gloves, are after the jump:

Continue reading "You Are Not Your Fucking Film Grosses" »

According to the latest Rasmussen poll, which finds both candidates getting 48-percent of the vote.

Recount II, here we come?

This year’s race has been anything but steady. Last month, Rossi pulled ahead of the governor, 52% to 46%, after trailing behind by four percentage points in August. Gregoire managed to hold solid leads in May, June, and July, after a virtually tied race through March and February. This year’s election is reminiscent of the exciting match up between the two candidates in 2004 that ended with a controversial win for Gregoire that had to be decided by the state’s courts.

Gregoire’s problem, according to Rasmussen: Independent voters. They’re breaking for Rossi 57 percent to 38 percent.

Addie Polk, 90, of Akron, Ohio, became a symbol of the nation’s home mortgage crisis when she was hospitalized after shooting herself at least twice in the upper body Wednesday afternoon.

On Friday, Fannie Mae spokesman Brian Faith said the mortgage association had decided to halt action against Polk and sign the property “outright” to her.

“We’re going to forgive whatever outstanding balance she had on the loan and give her the house,” Faith said. “Given the circumstances, we think it’s appropriate.”

* Do not try this at home.

Asked, earlier, and now answered by Burner spokesman Sandeep Kaushik:

Her position has not changed. Darcy believes that action is needed, but the bailout proposal voted on today did not do enough to deal with the underlying problems that created this mess. And it did not do enough to protect taxpayers. So she would have voted no on this proposal.

Which puts her in basic agreement with her opponent, Republican Congressman Dave Reichert.

The Washington State Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit against the state Republican Party this morning for allegedly violating campaign rules. The party used over $150,000 from a soft money account, which is prohibited from promoting specific candidates, to send three mailers encouraging voters to support Dino Rossi, the Public Disclosure Commission found last week.

The Washington State Republican Party, if found guilty, faces civil penalties in King County Superior Court of up to $10,000 for each of the three violations and liability for court fees.

Earlier this week, state Democrats called for AG Rob McKenna, a Republican, to hire independent counsel in the case to avoid an apparent conflict of interest. Luke Esser, chair of the Washington State Republican Party, worked with McKenna on the King County Council and at the AG’s office.

“Rob McKenna has known Luke since college,” says AG spokeswoman Janelle Guthrie. So, she says, “Attorney General McKenna has screened himself from this case and delegated attorney general decision making capability to his chief deputy, Brian Moran.”

It will be a long time before the party’s lawyers see a judge: The case isn’t schedule for a hearing in King County Superior Court until March 2010.

In the meantime, the AGs office believes the Republican party will stop sending those sorts of campaign mailers. The party sent a statement to the AG’s office today, saying it “will not be making membership communications that are similar in kind to those that are the subject of the pending dispute … for the balance of the election cycle.”

Guthrie says that if the party does continue, “we are prepared to immediately request an injunction.”

On the website for the Socialist Worker, Britain’s anti-capitalist paper…

a world that is on the edge of…

We old and crusty socialists are not that different from the extremists in Christianity. In every event that happens, they look for the signs of apocalypse; as for us, it’s the signs of revolution. Though looking forward to the future, in reality Christian extremists are always going back to ancient Rome (the world they wanted God to end); though looking forward to the future, socialists in reality are always going back to 1840, going back to every economic crisis that was supposed to be the labor pains for the birth of a new tomorrow. What didn’t happen back then is not going to happen today. We must give up this hope that makes us wait and wait for the “true” labor pains. What we need is a whole new science of revolution. A science liberated from the “weak link,” the point of crisis.

Edward Champion’s Reluctant Habits points to this transcript of a press conference held by Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear. If our soccer club manager holds press conferences like this one, I will buy season tickets and follow the club loyally.

JK Which one is Simon Bird [Daily Mirror’s north-east football writer]?

SB Me.

JK You’re a cunt.

SB Thank you.

JK Which one is Hickman [Niall, football writer for the Express]? You are out of order. Absolutely fucking out of order. If you do it again, I am telling you you can fuck off and go to another ground. I will not come and stand for that fucking crap. No fucking way, lies. Fuck, you’re saying I turned up and they [Newcastle’s players] fucked off.

SB No Joe, have you read it, it doesn’t actually say that. Have you read it?

JK I’ve fucking read it, I’ve read it.

SB It doesn’t say that. Have you read it?

JK You are trying to fucking undermine my position already.

SB Have you read it, it doesn’t say that. I knew you knew they were having a day off.

JK Fuck off. Fuck off. It’s your last fucking chance.

SB You read the copy? It doesn’t say that you didn’t know.

JK What about the headline, you think that’s a good headline?

SB I didn’t write the headline, you read the copy.

JK You are negative bastards, the pair of you.

There is much more to enjoy.

This month’s Slog Happy is everything you’ve ever wanted in a Slog Happy:

*You asked for it to be up north, so we found a place up north.

*You said you wanted a place with food, so we found a place with food.

*You told us we should bring back trivia, so we’re bringing back trivia!

So join us next Thursday, October 9th, at College Inn Pub for the Best Slog Happy Ever*! The bar has a near-perfect standing in our restaurant reviews, thanks to their yummy chili, nachos, and sandwiches, and they’ll also be serving up $3 wells and $3 micros until 7 pm.

See you there!

^*Maybe.

A second couple who belong to an Oregon church that practices faith healing have been indicted on criminal charges after the death of a child.

A Clackamas County grand jury has charged Jeffrey Dean and Marci Rae Beagley with criminally negligent homicide in the death of their 16-year-old son, Neil, who died from a treatable condition.

“What’s the difference between Trig Palin and Sarah Palin?”

[Answer’s after the jump.]

Continue reading "Overheard in the Office" »

OMG Wonkette:

John McCain on those “emotional” ladies:

Also: Impactful, John McCain?

And John McCain making a disturbing Grandpa Simpson noise repeatedly:

Jackie Mason kvetches at Sarah Sliverman for her pro-Obama video, calling Silverman a “sick yenta.”

Via Political Punch.

I wonder where this kid will be in 15 years…

Via BBC News:

The attack happened on Wednesday morning after the boy entered the zoo by jumping over the security fence and evading sensor alarms.

Over the next half hour, he bludgeoned some of the animals to death with stones and hurled others over the two fences surrounding the crocodile enclosure.

At one point, he tried scaling the outer enclosure himself to get to “Terry”, the 11ft (3.3m) saltwater crocodile.

A turtle, four Western blue-tongued lizards, two bearded dragons, two thorny devil lizards and the zoo’s 20-year-old goanna were among those killed.

The zoo is considering suing the parents, since the boy is “too young to be prosecuted.” Read the full story here.

Not with a fence, not with patrols, not with vigilantes—the only effective way to slow immigration is to have a shittier economy.

And we’re succeeding. Two headlines, the first from MarketWatch:

Payrolls sink 159,000, worst job loss in 5 years
Hidden unemployment rises to 11%

And from the Wall Street Journal:

Latest Immigration Wave: Retreat

(To be fair, the article credits Congress’s defeat of the bill to legalize illegals—as well as the slumping economy and construction sector—as responsible for the retreat. But clearly, the clever shittier-economy strategy is working.)

Here are Seattle Congressman Jim McDermott’s remarks to the House of Representatives today, explaining why he switched from a “yes” to a “no” vote on the bailout:

Mr. Speaker,

On Thursday morning, the morning after the Senate passed a very different bailout bill, two things happened.

The filings for new unemployment benefits hit a seven year high, and a number of telephones melted in my congressional office as my constituents called in with their opinions.

By the thousands, the people of the 7th Congressional District are absolutely enraged by what the Senate did.

The rest of the explanation (which gets very… politically intricate) is in the jump.

Continue reading "McDermott: My phones were melting!" »

…by the 16 year-olds our pastors rape.

Arkansas:

A pastor in Pine Bluff has been arrested for raping a 16-year-old girl.

Approximately three weeks ago the Arkansas State Police Hot Line notified the Pine Bluff Police Department’s Detective Office of the reported rape of a 16-year-old in Pine Bluff. The investigation revealed enough evidence to support the report as being factual.

Edgar Franklin Jr., 43, was identified as the person responsible. Mr. Franklin is the pastor of New Bethany Missionary Baptist Church in Pine Bluff.

We already know how our Senators voted on Wednesday: Patty Murray voted “yes” and Maria Cantwell voted “no.”

Here’s how the rest of the Washington State delegation voted today in the House:

Jay Inslee (D-1) NO

Rick Larsen (D-2) YES

Brian Baird (D-3) YES

Doc Hastings (R-4) NO

Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-5) NO

Norm Dicks (D-6) YES

Jim McDermott (D-7) NO

Dave Reichert (R-8) NO

Adam Smith (D-9) YES

What’s changed from the last time around? Nothing, except that Jim McDermott switched from a “yes” to a “no” vote. More on that later, but here’s the immediate most interesting aspect to me:

Dave Reichert stuck with his “no” vote, obviously betting that he needs some populist cred in his eastside race against Democratic challenger Darcy Burner. So, what’s Burner’s move?

She was against the bill on Monday. Today, a strong majority of House Dems voted for the bill, given the sweeteners that were added. But, Burner mentors Inslee and McDermott voted “no.” And politically, it could be trouble for Burner to disagree with a Republican opponent (Reichert) who opposes the bailout. Or, maybe she could spin support for the bill into a “real leadership” mantra. We’ll see.

I’ve asked for Burner’s position on today’s vote, and I’ll let you know as soon as I hear…

If you’re not registered to vote, you have until TOMORROW, October 4, to get your ass registered to vote. We wrapped every issue of this week’s Stranger with a mail-in voter registration form—forms you can drop off at various locations around town (Havana, The Saint, Sonic Boom Records, Cellophane Square, Caffe Vita, Easy Street Records, Hidmo Eritrean Cuisine), or mail in yourself (must be postmarked by October 4)—so there’s no excuse. And you can register to vote online here. Get your ass registered!

And you have until Monday, October 6, to register for Jet City Hoops, Seattle’s new co-ed gay basketball league. Jet City Hoops’ first season begins on October 18th. Get registered!

Rumors are circling the tubes that Thomas Pynchon’s next book will be a psychedelic Raymond Chandler hard-boiled noir pastiche. And it will be just 400 pages. And it will be published in August of next year.

When Tom Nissley reviewed Pynchon’s previous book, Against the Day, for us when it was published a year and a half ago, he had an extreme proposal for Pynchon:

…what if, instead of releasing a white monolith that daunts even his fans, Pynchon put out ten 100-page books from the same material? (How I’d love to see the Chums of Chance storyline captured in a single little book.) The vast mystery of their intersection could remain, but can you imagine how eagerly readers would snap up the pieces of the puzzle? It would be a hit!

I thought that was a great idea. But I’m also excited about the idea of a Pynchon book that doesn’t appear as daunting as his last half-dozen books. I hope this rumor is true.

The Denver Police union is selling this shirt, re: the DNC protests, for a fundraiser.

And I want one.

Thanks to Slog commentor Shawn Fassett.

Sarah Palin Sex Tape Leaked!

^{(and/or your last reminder to make that HUMP! film this weekend… entries due Monday, Oct 6.)}

My advice for the author of today’s “Savage Love Letter of the Day”—and all my advice for SLLOTDs over the next two weeks, and all the advice I’ll be giving in the print edition of my column for the next two weeks—was bought and paid for. Details here. But all you need to know is this: If you’ve got a question and you want a guaranteed response, go to www.noonprop8.com, make a donation of $25 or more, and send me your question along with your donation confirmation email.

I am a 27 year-old straight female. I have been in long term relationships since I was a teenager and decided some time last year that I would like to enjoy the single life for a while. It has been great, and I am loving my freedom. Last week, I was on vacation and had a great night of sex with a friend of a friend of a friend. He has a girlfriend, although he was not aware that I knew this when I slept with him. I didn’t feel guilty about it at the time because I rationalized: “I’m not going to see him again, I’m certainly not going to try to steal him from his girlfriend, we are using condoms, and who knows, maybe she’s cool with it!”

Now, I’m not sure if I did the wrong thing because I think it’s safe to assume that most girlfriends would not be “cool with it.” If a similar situation arises in the future, do I have a moral responsibility to leave the men with girlfriends alone, or should I do as I please and let grownup dudes worry about their own girlfriends?

Worried About Bad Karma

I’m of two minds here.

First mind: As you move through your long overdue slut phase, WABK, would it really be that hard to avoid guys with girlfriends? Judging form my own mail, WABK, I’d say there’s no shortage whatsoever of single straight guys up for a little NSA action. Wanna sleep better at night? Stick to single guys.

Second mind: Sometimes inertia keeps us in failing or failed relationships. And sometimes sleeping with someone else—a.k.a. “cheating,” or getting a glimpse of how much better things could be—provides us with the impetus to do what must be done, i.e. to get on with the messy, unpleasant, protracted business of getting out of a failing or failed relationship. In these instances, WABK, sleeping with someone who’s technically “involved” with someone else is a mission of mercy, the kind good works that pile up rewards in heaven, the kind of change we can believe in, etc. Unfortunately there’s no way to know in advance if the involved person you’re sleeping with is in a failed or failing relationship, so you’re still kind of a slut. But you may be retroactively exonerated.

Bonus third mind: The guy you slept with had a girlfriend, not a wife. Call me old-fashioned—and good luck with that—but “cheating” when you’re dating, even if you’re in a “committed” relationship, isn’t as serious an offense as cheating when you’re married. The seriousness of a commitment increases exponentially as a couple moves from dating to engaged to married. And our primary mission when we’re seriously dating someone—but while we’re merely that person’s boyfriend and/or girlfriend—is to determine if this person is the person with whom we want to spend the rest of our lives. And sometimes sleeping with another person can help us make that determination.

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Sony unveiled their new e-book reader yesterday. It’s pretty similar to their last reader, but it includes front lights and touch screen capability. You can add text by using a stylus on a virtual onscreen keyboard, and you can turn the page by swiping the screen with your finger. The device will cost 400 dollars and will be released later this month.

In other e-book news, the iPhone is far outstripping the Kindle as the most popular e-reading device in America. Forbes says:

Stanza, like Kindle, lets users download new content directly to their device. It has a snappy interface that allows readers to flip through a book simply by tapping the edges of the page and responds far faster than Kindle’s poky E-ink screen, which takes about a second to turn pages. On the downside, the iPhone’s LCD screen can strain eyes after hours of reading and chews through battery power far faster than Kindle or the Sony Reader, both of which can go without recharging for days.

And then there’s what some may call Stanza’s unfair advantage: the application is free, as are its titles.

Of course, an unfair advantage is still an advantage. Right now, the multi-use capabilities of the iPhone make it look like a better deal than the Kindle. I wonder if it’s possible to do a timeline chart of e-book downloads? This year probably looks like a straight vertical line.

UPDATE: If you’re interested in trying out your iPhone’s e-reader, you should download Kelly Link’s last book of short stories, Magic For Beginners. It’s available free, minus two stories that had contractual obligations, here. Link writes great short stories that are kind of fabulist like Aimee Bender, but have a slight sci-fi bent, too.

Music

Why?

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

One of South Korea’s most famous actresses was found dead in her home on Thursday in what the police called a suicide. They linked her death to malicious online rumors, a growing social problem in South Korea, which has one of the world’s most active online communities and one of its highest suicide rates.

The body of the actress, Choi Jin-sil, 39, was found in the bathroom of her apartment with a rope made out of bandages around her neck, Yang Jae-ho, a senior police investigator, said at a news conference.

Already struggling with a messy divorce, she had been deeply troubled by online accusations that she had driven another actor to gas himself in his car a month earlier, Yang said. The actor, Ahn Jae-hwan, was struggling with debt, and the rumors said she had pressed him relentlessly to repay money she had lent. She complained to the police about the rumors, which she called baseless, and they were investigating when she died.

The measure was approved in a 263 to 171 vote, with 172 Democrats and 91 Republicans offering support. … Democrats also won 32 more votes than they had on Monday, despite reservations from some conservative Democrats that the tax package would add to the deficit. […]

In addition, federal legislators noted that the public’s view of the measure seemed to swing following Monday’s precipitous stock market drop. While many lawmakers had said that nine out of 10 callers objected to the measure over the weekend and on Monday, things appeared to balance out later in the week.

Now we can shift our economic panic to the unemployment crisis.

Via The Hill.

Sarah Palin’s thought process, diagrammed:

Naomi Wolf has been freaking out about this article in the Army Times, reporting that a tough, Iraq-seasoned brigade has been reassigned, for the next 12 months, to the control of U.S. Army North. That is, the United States.

From the Army Times:

They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack.

Military units enforcing the law—to help with “crowd control”—was illegal from 1878 until… last year. From columnist Amy Goodman:

Military participation in domestic operations was originally outlawed with the Posse Comitatus Act in 1878. The John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, however, included a section that allowed the president to deploy the armed forces to “restore public order” or to suppress “any insurrection.” While a later bill repealed this, President Bush attached a signing statement that he did not feel bound by the repeal.

This is alarming, especially in light of how the police behaved at the Republican National Convention—preemptive raids, preemptive detentions, arrests of nearly 1,000 protesters and dozens of journalists, seizing recording equipment from journalists, and scenes like this:

There’s another tear-gas bomb, and then another, and the riot cops close in from up and down the street, liberally pepper-spraying the protesters and pushing them toward a park. A phalanx of riot police walks ahead of me, on the heels of two young women, who are complying with instructions, going exactly where they’re told. One of the cops lifts the women by their shirts and pushes them, gratuitously, into a cloud of tear gas. Then he douses their faces with pepper spray.

Perhaps we should start thinking seriously about what to do if the president deploys the military to meddle with the election.

A how-to-write-books author and the author of an 800-page book about Steve Goodman will be reading tonight, along with three other authors.

At Open Books, we have Aaron Shurin, reading from his newest book of poetry, King of Shadows. I have never read Shurin, but he has a very complimentary Wikipedia page.

At Town Hall, Naomi Wolf, who has already been discussed on Slog today, will be reading from her newest book, about patriotism and also the lack of patriotism. She’ll also be at Third Place Books tomorrow if you miss her tonight.

And in the U District, Neil Gaiman reads from his newest, The Graveyard Book. It’s a sort-of goth take on The Jungle Book, for young adults. I read it and, frankly, I was underwhelmed. But he’s written lots of entertaining stuff, even with his weird attachment to Tori Amos.

The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here.

With the VP debate over, Biden the apparent winner, and no earthshaking Sarah Palin gaffes to speak of, attention today will turn right back to the House of Representatives, where a (second) vote on the Wall Street bailout appears imminent.

One interesting facet of the bailout debate that I haven’t had time to Slog until now involves the Democrats in the Washington State Congressional delegation. They’re split, and not in ways you might expect.

When the revised bailout bill passed the Senate on Wednesday, Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the mom-in-tennis-shoes populist, was in the majority voting yes (or yea). And Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, who made her money in tech stocks and in general comes off as less of a main-streeter, voted no.

What gives? In a nutshell (because I’m running off to KUOW, where I think we’ll talk about this more), Murray endorsed the economic urgency theory for supporting a bill that she saw as flawed, while Cantwell dug in her heels and demanded an equity stake for taxpayers if they’re to be throwing money at failing firms.

On the House side, only one Democratic Congressman from Washington State voted against the version of the bill that went down earlier this week: Rep. Jay Inslee. He explained his thinking to me here:

It’s not that Inslee was worried about getting re-elected; he won 64% of the vote in the August primary and is expected to easily win a sixth term representing the First District, which includes well-to-do Seattle suburbs and the high-tech enclave of Redmond, home to Microsoft — an area full of people whose 401(k)s and stock holdings would likely benefit from a bailout. Inslee says that he simply felt the bill was being rushed. He describes the situation as the Bush Administration declaring, “Give me $700 billion in unmarked bills or I’ll shoot the economy in the head.”

Inslee also told me that he hopes to vote for the revised bill today—if certain conditions can be met. For a possible insight into his thought process, in the jump you’ll find a letter to Slog from an Inslee constituent who says she participated in a recent bailout conference call with the Congressman.

Continue reading "Back to the Bailout" »

She who compares Sarah Palin to Evita is on KUOW with Steve Scher.

Naomi Wolf compared the Bush administration’s actions to those of notorious dictators like Hitler in her book “The End of America.” Her new book, “Give Me Liberty,” is a handbook for ordinary citizens. She hopes it will help stop erosions of democracy in this country. Recently in the Huffington Post, Wolf argued that Sarah Palin is an Evita–like puppet; a Trojan Horse smuggling the same failed policies of Bush and Rove into the White House. Does she think we are too late to save democracy in this country?

Steve’s saying the names of would-be dictatorships in a weird, tentative, highly liberal voice. This could get good.

Plus, Cliff Mass joins us with a weekend weather forecast.

I like your name, Mr. Mass.

Need a momentary break from election obsession? (Insert folksy Palin wink here.) Relax with some soothing Letters to E.T., courtesy of Pitch.com’s Studies in Crap.

Sample excerpt:

More here.