Sunday, January 4, 2009
City Turn That Frown Upside Down
Posted by Eli Sanders on Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 10:15 PM
From J. Kraemer in the StrangrFlickr pool:
About 2 inches on the ground and its still coming down pretty heavy!! This is on my front porch... I had cleared it off about 45 minutes prior to this shot.I really hope this is gone in the morning!
Forecast says... it will be.
The War Already!
Posted by Charles Mudede on Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 9:15 PM
Is it fair to place Obama in this triangle?
Protesters wearing masks of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (L), Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and U.S. President-elect Barack Obama (R) during a rally against Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, in Jakarta January 4, 2009.
The War No Wondering Now What To Do Now That You Know That This Is The End
Posted by Charles Mudede on Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 8:16 PM
I said:
Indeed, the timing of this war can not be separated from the political situation in America. This is a kind of squeezing of the last drops from the very end of a long and favorable period.
The experts say:
Many Middle East experts say Israel timed its move against Hamas, which began with airstrikes on Dec. 27, 24 days before Mr. Bush leaves office, with the expectation of such backing in Washington. Israeli officials could not be certain that President-elect Barack Obama, despite past statements of sympathy for Israel’s right of self-defense, would match the Bush administration’s unconditional endorsement.“Obviously Bush, even by comparison with past U.S. presidents, has been very, very pro-Israel,” said Sami G. Hajjar, a longtime scholar of Middle East politics and a visiting professor at the National Defense University.
This is what it really comes down to. An era ends with a bang.
Arts / News The Year in Big Pictures
Posted by Anthony Hecht on Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 7:22 PM
The Boston Globe's always incredible Big Picture blog posted their favorite shots from 2008 in a series of posts last week - part 1, part 2, part 3.
Life Snow Daze 2
Posted by Dan Savage on Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 6:37 PM
First off, to Seattle Public Schools: It's supposed to be 45 degrees tomorrow. Yeah, there's a lot of snow on the ground right now. But all this shit is going to melt off tonight. Please don't prematurely cancel classes tomorrow for shits and giggles—you know, like that day two or three weeks ago when you cancelled classes because it was supposed to snow. Don't do that. (My kid goes to an extremely exclusive and supremely fancy private school, of course, the kind of place where public school students are served up in mince pies for lunch. But my kid's school cancels classes whenever you do, so... I take a keen interest in when you cancel classes. Don't cancel classes tomorrow, please.)
Secondly, to the mayor: Psst... maybe you could get away with just salting the streets along Joel Connelly and Frank Blethen's commutes.
Thirdly, to all and sundry: Have you noticed that there aren't any shootings during snowstorms? Maybe hip hop concerts and Folklife should only be scheduled during blizzards and/or at Stevens, Baker, Crystal, Snowqualmie, etc. Just a thought.
Games North West South West
Posted by Paul Constant on Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 3:28 PM
If you've read all you can, you don't want to go to the movies, and you have hours of aimless time ahead of you, may I suggest playing this online version of the original Legend of Zelda game?
I don't play video games anymore, but when I stumbled across this, I lost an entire evening or two trying to remember all the old hidden chambers and secret passageways and so on. I wasn't very good at the game when I was a kid, but I eventually won Legend of Zelda through sheer tenacity. I think, from my completely biased opinion, it is the best video game ever.
Life Snow!
Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 3:03 PM
IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN!!! Here's the forecast from the marvelously named Buzz Bernard—apparently the snow that's falling, faintly, now will turn to rain.
I heard people complaining bitterly at the end of SNOWSTORM '08, but I WANT MORE.
News Re: Shooting at Chop Suey
Posted by Charles Mudede on Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 1:37 PM
Update 3: One of the victims of the shooting has been released from the hospital. One man died from his injuries earlier this morning and another is still being treated for life-threatening injuries.Police say they've released one of the men arrested in relation to the shooting. Another man is being booked in to King County Jail for investigation of assault.
Police say they are still looking for another suspect.
There has been much talk about the Blue Wall of Silence, and not enough talk about its counterpart: the Black Wall of Silence, which on the street is called "no snitching." That code will do its best to shield the other suspect in the Chop Suey shooting from the law and add more fuel to this present cycle of violence.
As the PI recently reported:
Joplin was one of four juveniles killed in 2008. De'Che Morrison, who was found dead from a gunshot wound in South Seattle a week after Joplin's death, was the youngest, at 14. Pierre Lapoint, who was shot Aug. 5 on Rainier Avenue South, was 16. Quincy Coleman, who was shot to death on Halloween near Garfield High School, was 15.All these cases are among the nine linked to gang violence.
Police, hindered by the "no snitching" credo of gang culture, classify all four as unsolved and have been alerted to possible gang retaliation.
"None of this bodes well when we're looking to give kids a future," Kerlikowske said of the four deaths. "When we see this kind of an outcome, it's pretty devastating."
As the chief points out, the "no snitching" mentality has been a problem nationwide. FBI figures show that the homicide clearance rate dropped from 91 percent in 1963 — the first year records were kept in the manner they are now — to 61 percent in 2007, according to The Associated Press.
Unless this code of "no snitching" is destroyed or weakened, the homicide statistics in 2009 will pretty much be the same as the homicide statistics in 2008.
The War The Jewish President
Posted by Charles Mudede on Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 12:33 PM
I somehow missed this strange article in the Chicago Tribune.
Writer Toni Morrison famously dubbed Bill Clinton "the first black president"—a title he fervently embraced.
Abner Mikva, the Chicago Democratic Party stalwart and former Clinton White House counsel, offers a variation on that theme. "If Clinton was our first black president, then Barack Obama is our first Jewish president," says Mikva, who was among the first to spot the potential of the skinny young law school graduate with the odd name.
"I use a Yiddish expression, yiddishe neshuma, to describe him," explains Mikva. "It means a Jewish soul. It's an expression my mother used. It means a sensitive, sympathetic personality, someone who understands where you are coming from."
Obama, of course, is a Christian. And his middle name is Hussein. In the presidential election, he won 78 percent of the Jewish vote and about 70 percent of the Arab-American vote, according to unofficial exit polling.
At least he is popular with the Arabs and the Jews. That might be worth something.
Politics Bill Richardson Drops Out of the Obama Administration
Posted by Christopher Frizzelle on Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 12:01 PM
Richardson, who will remain governor of New Mexico, is facing a federal grand jury investigation into whether he exchanged government contracts for contributions to three Richardson political committees.
Stranger Suggests Today The Stranger Suggests
Posted by The Stranger on Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Music
Finally Punk
Finally Punk are four young ladies from Austin, Texas, dedicated to keeping the "revolution girl style now!" turning at a frantic 45 spins per second. Their riot-ready punk rock is loud, brash, and unpretentiously fun, their songs blasted out short and sweet, and their ripping cover of "Negative Creep" easily out-sassed by original jams like "Missile" and "Boyfriend Application." With ideal local support from TacocaT, Flexions, and Talbot Tagora. (Vera Project, Seattle Center, 956-8372. 4 pm, $6, all ages.) ERIC GRANDY
Books Reading Today
Posted by Paul Constant on Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 10:00 AM
There are no readings today, besides one lonely open mic. Instead, you should read "The Curse of Yig," a short story by H.P. Lovecraft.
Yig was a great god. He was bad medicine. He did not forget things. In the autumn his children were hungry and wild, and Yig was hungry and wild, too. All the tribes made medicine against Yig when the corn harvest came. They gave him some corn, and danced in proper regalia to the sound of whistle, rattle, and drum.
The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here.
News The Morning News
Posted by Unpaid Intern on Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 8:47 AM
Posted by News Intern Aaron Pickus
Bisected: Israeli troops occupy Gaza.
A Brief History of War: Juan Cole tracks the evolution of tactics in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Missile rehearsal: Israel using new type of missile received from the US one month ago.
Ethiopian pullout: Somali insurgents occupy police posts.
Cabinet makeover: Mugabe begins to form new government in Zimbabwe.
Saying the GOP has new leadership: Is like saying that a patient's cancer has metastasized.
Franken leads: With 225 votes.
Demonstratin': Lebanese communists throw onions and rocks at US embassy in Beirut.
Another Bush: Bush Sr. says he'd like to see Jeb Bush as President.
Shooting at Chop Suey: One person killed.
Armed robbery: In the Admiral District.
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