Thursday, July 9, 2009
Media / Insomnia This Is Very Old, Right?
Posted by Jen Graves on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 11:50 PM
Still, I only recently noticed on the New York Times plastic delivery bag that it now says, "All the news that's fit to go."
To go?
Is that replacing "All the news that's fit to print" because of the no-printing of the Internet? Or is this some more pointed marketing strategy that just happens to be advertised on the print-edition bag?
City Ask and You Shall Receive
Posted by Dominic Holden on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 11:25 PM
Earlier this week, the Tenants Union of Washington State—which, among other things, provides legal advice to renters dealing with landlords trying to illegally evict them—was in dire straits:
Last year, King County slashed funding to human services from the 2009 budget to manage a $93 million deficit. The county sustained the Tenants Union and a handful of other organizations in a "lifeboat" through the end of June, but that funding has run out. Board members realized that if they don't raise $25,000 by July 16—which would keep the Tenants Union afloat through the end of the year while they find new funding—they will be forced to dissolve the organization.
Board members have been scrambling to raise the dough, holding "raise the rent" parties and contacting the press to get out the word. And about an hour ago, the tenants union posted this note:
On July 8th the TU received an anonymous, amazingly generous, gift of $25,000. This, with all the other generous gifts people have given (more than $17,000!), puts us safely over the emergency baseline goal of raising $25,000 by July 16th. Now we know we can stay open, and we can dive into the hard work of strategically rebuilding the organization and sustaining the movement for housing justice.
Buckets of kudos to the anonymous donor, the board, and several local writers who covered the TU's struggle to stay afloat.
City 36th District Dems Endorsements
Posted by Dominic Holden on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 8:15 PM
It's hot inside of Our Redeemer's Lutheran Church in Ballard, where the 36th District Democrats are—thank Luther—trying to truncate the lengthy process for endorsing candidates. Jason Bennett, chair of the group, promises the meeting won't drag on like last night's five-hour nightmare at the 34th District Dem meeting. Under the rules here, if the 36th District Dems' executive committee votes two-thirds in favor of a candidate, then that motion goes to the floor, where members at large can ratify the decision by a vote of 50 percent plus one. In many cases, the executive committee has recommended a sole endorsement of one candidate (which essentially makes that person a shoo-in).
I'll continue to update this post as the group votes:
County Executive: Larry Phillips
Port Commissioner Position 3: Rob Holland
Port Commissioner Position 4: Max Vekich
Mayor: Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn
City Council Position 4: David Bloom (Burn on Sally Bagshaw, who had asked the group to split the endorsement with her. She spoke about how, even though she worked with a slew of Republicans over the years, she's a Democrat. What? Really, she's a Democrat. She swears.)
City Council Position 6: A proposal by the group's executive committee for a sole endorsement of Nick Licata is failing. A few speeches are underway, including one by former school board member Amy Hagopian, speaking in Licata's favor, who said, "I’m tired of voting for people because of the genitalia that they hold." The room responds with hisses and boos (and presumably some thoughts about holding genitalia). Members are now considering a dual endorsement of Licata and Jessie Israel. [time passes] That motion failed. No endorsement. That's actually a minor victory for Licata; the 36th is Israel's home district.
City Council Position 8: Bobby Forch
Court of Appeals, District 1: Anne Ellington
Referendum 1 (the bag tax): A debate is underway about whether you can "change people's behavior" by taxing the bags and if a bag fee is just handing money over to grocers. The vote is split and they move on. No Endorsement.
King County Assessor: The executive committee made no recommendation, so now the old hippies are speaking to the virtues of Lloyd Hara, who is currently a port commissioner. Others—even older hippies—are holding out for Rich Medved, who worked in the office under former assessor Scott Noble since the Summer of Love. But the group makes No Endorsement.
City Attorney: Pete Holmes
City Council Position 2: City Council Member Tim Burgess is asking the group to reject the executive committee’s recommendation for a sole endorsement of David Ginsberg. In response, the group does reject the sole endorsement, and a second motion is made endorse both Ginsberg and incumbent City Council Member Richard Conlin. [time passes] In a surprise move, the group turns down a dual endorsement, too. Now the group appears to be favoring a sole endorsement of Conlin (the opposite of the executive committee's recommendation in the two-person race). And indeed, the sole endorsement goes to Conlin—a roast on toast for Ginsberg.
D-bag Tim Eyman's Initiative 1033: Unanimously Rejected
And at 9:40 p.m. it's over. But before candidates leave, Bennett gets all James Brown on their asses by telling them to take down all their signs or he's going to fine them $5 for each one.
Sports SeaSk8 Lives Again
Posted by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 5:03 PM
After an interminably long and ridiculous city process, the Seattle Center skatepark is finally open.
The park's official opening is this Saturday—there will be a ribbon cutting at noon and skating competitions between 1:00 and 3:00 p.m.—but you can skate there now. 
Photos by Victor Ng
Teh Internets No Thanks, Comcast
Posted by Sam Machkovech on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 4:52 PM
When you type in a domain name that doesn't exist, your result is typically a blank browser window with an error message. Comcast thinks that's silly, so today, in Seattle, Portland, and other test markets, they're introducing Domain Helper, a little search page that replaces the default "nxdomain" error.
Problem: This is DNS redirection, a practice that not only forces advertisements onto typo-writers but can also wreak havoc with non-browser traffic. I could go into detail about potential issues with things like e-mail and FTP use, but just trust this all-caps nerd:
NOW EVERY DOMAIN NAME IS VALID from a DNS lookup standpoint. THIS SHOULD NOT BE.
Comcast allows its customers to opt out of the "service," which you should. But Comcast will poorly inform its less savvy customers, and they, by default, will be stuck with Comcast-monopolized ads at best and Internet traffic issues at worst. In defense, Comcast's new PR beacon ComcastBonnie states that competitors like Cox and Time Warner Cable employ their own DNS redirection services. Don't let such schoolyard rationalizations fly; let Comcast know you think this move stinks.
Books A Partial List of Free Books I am Bringing to Slog Happy
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 4:28 PM
I have some great books coming to Slog Happy tonight, and I thought I'd give you a partial list of the books that I'm bringing, so you can read about the books beforehand. Maybe we'll do this by genre?
Mysteries include The Last Dickens and Beyond Suspicion.
Literature includes Ishmael Reed: The Plays, and Peripheral Vision.
Non-fiction includes Wicked Plants, Paranoia & Heartbreak and a book about Hunter S. Thompson.
Sci-fi and fantasy includes City of Souls and a Magic: The Gathering tie-in novel (you know you want it!)
And young adult fiction includes The Hotel Under the Sand and Pop Salvation.
Plus many more, including a comic book or two. The books are first come first serve; see you at six.
Politics / City Hey, Maria! There's a Bunch of People Outside Who Really Want to Talk to You
Posted by Kelly O on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 4:25 PM
There were about 75 or so people outside Senator Maria Cantwell's downtown Seattle office at lunchtime today, at a rally to support the public option in the upcoming health care bill. I think they meant business.
More photos after the jump.
Politics Burris Won't Run For Senate in 2010
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 4:24 PM
Thus endeth the legacy of Blagojevich:
U.S. Senator Roland Burris will not try to hang on to his seat in 2010, the Sun-Times reports.The embattled Senator, who was appointed to the seat by impeached former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, has only raised about $20,000 toward a campaign, according to the Sun-Times' Michael Sneed.
Hump Humpday Ticket Winners
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 4:05 PM
We have our winners. The authors of these five HUMP film treatments—which will be forwarded to Lynn Shelton—each get two tickets to the 7 PM screening of Humpday tomorrow night at the Harvard Exit.
Shelton is known for a distinct sense of realistic, mumblecore, whathaveyou. Her HUMP! submission should play to her directorial strengths: Shelton would follow via steadycam a day in the life of pornography addict. The character, a slightly dumpy man in his mid-30’s, would be seen in every element of his natural wanking environment. From an orderly apartment covered in jerk-material arranged tidily, to his bus trips watching yank films on his iPod with his headphones in. Brief visits to the library to achieve his mid-day fixes on the internet. Within the time-frame, not only could Shelton utilize every extra credit location with ease, but also allow an audience to connect with a sad, lonely man and his constant, wanking struggle.
"Politic-hoes": I’d love to see Ms. Shelton create a porno inspired by the 2009 Seattle elections. The plot line would involve an election night party gone haywire. Several campaigns inadvertently book the same site for their election night parties, and as the booze flows and the results pour in, former adversaries find themselves in a variety of unexpected positions and combinations. Of course, the film would incorporate some of the smart humor I’ve seen in the Humpday previews. Cameos from real-life local politicians preferred, but not required.
Argentinian airport bathroom stall: Some pastor tapping foot to a
Senator next-door. Cut to orgy between them and an intern (make him wear confederate flag
jockstrap please). End with a shot of Santorum on the condom.
FULL FEMALE CRUDITY: A cute but schlumpy Christian blogger, let's call him DK, is flaming back at an online rival, invoking in broadest terms the story of Sodom. As he becomes bored with his own tired, inarticulate rhetoric, the scene dissolves to a fantasy of DK as Lot in a biblical temple, sending his hottie virgin daughters off to the hands of the unruly mob. Butch angels descend around him, and are about to pass judgment, when the babes return, pussycat doll style, storm the temple and bind, beat and peg Lot while the Angels masturbate around them. DK starts awake. A voice calls out, “Dinner’s ready!”
Sorrrrry, my treatment is a bit long (365words), but it's based on a TRUE conversation I had with friends the very night we saw HUMP! 2008: Three dudes sitting around a kitchen table. Friends Ryan and Nate are explaining HUMP 2008 to Ryan’s naïve roommate David. Ryan and Nate jokingly explain the movies, that the gay movies were the best of the lot, then the conversation turns to buttsex. David hadn’t had it, Nate doesn’t like it, Ryan loves it. They spar a bit, then get to retelling their experiences. Nate goes first: Wayne's World doodeedoodeedoo flashback style, stop motion animation, and b&w. He’s in the bedroom with a girl and they get around to the buttsex, she’s doggie style and making a grunting unhappy “nn-nnoooo” noise, Nate gets alarmed and pulls out only to be thrown agains the back wall by a geyser of diarrhea. He falls dazedly forward with a Wile-E-Coyote poop outline on the wall. He sheepishly crawls over to her to ask if she’s okay to see her snoring on her belly. Flashback ends, Ryan and David feel sorry. Ryan counters by explaining (a la Dan Savage) that it depends on who you’re with and how long you’re willing to take, toss the salad first, whatever it takes. Ryan follows with his amazing buttsex story, again Wayne's World stop motion b&w flashback. In the bedroom with a girl, and they communicate through grunts and coos and whimpers that it’s buttsex time. After some butt licking and lubed up fingerin while kissing he takes her butt doggie style. After a few thrusts... we're back at the table Ryan is explaining how good she was... then cut between several butt sex positions and Ryan going “and then we” “and then she” then “you won’t believe what happened next." She throws Ryan on his back and straddles him and cut back to Ryan (“I don’t know how to explain this..."). Back to her spinning like a top, with legs straight out, levitating an inch or two off his crotch (shown from side view closeup) and both of them going out of their minds with pleasure—then closeups of both faces absolutely ecstatic. Back at the table there is silence. After a pause, David sez “I gotta try that.” Black screen with credits and big band music blaring (a la woody allen)
Thanks to all who entered... details about making a film for HUMP! can be found here. You can order tickets to see Humpday at the Harvard Exit this weekend here.
Nerd Interview On a Half-Shell
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 3:25 PM
Did you know that Barbara Walters interviewed the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? I didn't either, until SF Signal posted it this morning. It's possibly the most awkward thing I've seen on the internet all day.
Didn't Barbara Walters used to be a journalist or something?
Visual Art New and Improved Means Less Tragic
Posted by Jen Graves on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 3:18 PM
Seattle Art Museum has been a contender in the worldwide competition for Worst, Grossest, Most Pandering, Least Creative, and Yet Least Effective Ad Campaign Ever for a few years now.
The campaign to spread the word about Target Practice: Painting Under Attack 1949-78 is not great, but it is significantly less profoundly wrong than what came before it, and is seemingly everywhere. Scattered little stencil paintings on sidewalks that say "PAINTBRUSH" and then depict a meaty X-acto knife are the best part. The posters are just okay (sooooo neat and tidy). I wish, instead, that they would simply plaster up this 1962 demonstration of a painting's Constituent Parts, According to the Rules of Painting, by Iain Baxter. (Click to enlarge so you can read it; can you read it?)
Line Out What Happens When You Listen to the Same Song Every Hour of Every Day For a Week?
Posted by Megan Seling on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 3:10 PM
Two-Block Radius / Chow Fattening Up Capitol Hill: The Conspiracy Continues
Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 2:52 PM
Move your increasingly big ass over, Old School Custard and Molly Moon's: Bluebird Homemade Ice Cream & Tea Room opens today at 5 p.m. at 1205 E. Pike (at 12th), with free beer in celebration. Their flavors include Vivace Stumptown coffee and an Elysian stout ice cream that you have to taste to comprehend: It is incredible, in the sense of not-to-be-believed-beery-rich-and-amazing. Bluebird will also serve sandwiches and tea at lunch and dinnertime.
Former Crave chef and soon-to-be Top Chef contestant Robin Leventhal twittered:
Just tasted the Peanut Butter & Snicker doodle Ice Cream Josh is making at his Cap Hill store Bluebird. DELISCIOUS!
[Another local chef made it onto season six of Top Chef too: Ashley Merriman of Branzino.]
Capitol Hill Seattle Blog has an interview with Bluebird owner Josh and more details.
Once Cupcake Royale opens, the streets of Capitol Hill will be officially paved with sugar cubes.
Chow / Sports Seattle Represents With 38 HDBs!
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 2:28 PM
When I looked into competitive eating, I talked with Seattle's preeminent eating champion, Erik "The Red" Denmark, who provided me with lots of helpful advice and coaching. Well, on his blog, Denmark has finally posted his wrapup of the big 4th of July Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest results.
Denmark ate 38 hot dogs and buns in ten minutes, coming in at a very respectable 8th place, just under Hall "Hoover" Hunt, who ate 38.5 HDBs. Here's a little bit of what Denmark had to say about the experience:
I had my best day ever as a competitive eater. I surpassed my own expectations on the 4th. I had a realistic goal of between 32-35, I was confident I could hit those numbers - I had a best case scenario goal of eating 37 or more. So, when I shoved number 38 in the last few seconds of the contest, I was satisfied. Probably more satisfied than I have been since eating 22 HDB's in my first qualifier win at Coney Island back in 2006 to make it to the finals for the first time.
Denmark also notes "This was the first year since I have been in the finals that the hot dogs (meat) were actually warm." Many more pictures and a complete rundown of how the players did, over at his blog.
Visual Art More Art Tonight
Posted by Jen Graves on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 2:07 PM
I left out one important event: The free screening of five short films about water, by artists including Stranger Genius Susan Robb. Robb describes this as "my first gen-u-ine work made with a real crew and a cast that includes Haruko Nishimura from the Degenerate art Ensemble." The film, called Water Lab, is described as
Investigating the interface that tap water creates with nature and our homes, Robb's video explores SPU's interventions through abstracted aerial shots captured in the Cascades and inter-spliced with quick cuts of sci-fi-like images of a "water laboratory."
The entire program—also featuring Seattle filmmakers SJ Chiro, Britta Johnson, Luke Sieczek, and Rick Stevenson, with films about filtering, foster children, microbes, and "Kingfish"—will run about an hour. All the films were commissioned by Seattle Public Utilities, which is why they're about water.
Doors open at 6:30 pm and the program starts at 7, at Central Cinema.
Crime / Life Beware the Greedy Gravedigger
Posted by David Schmader on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 1:36 PM
From NBC Chicago:
Families whose loved ones were buried at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip [Illinois] are flocking to the grounds to find out if their plots are safe after investigators said as many as 300 graves were dug up so they could be resold in a money-making scheme.Four people have been charged in the scheme....all were charged with dismembering bodies—a Class X felony—because graves were dug up with backhoes and the bodies haphazardly discarded. Those charged are: Carolyn Towns, the 49-year-old officer manager who is suspected of being the mastermind of the scheme; and Maurice Dailey, 49, Terrence Nicks, 39, and Keith Nicks, 45, all gravediggers at Burr Oak.
Full story here (including an investigator's premonition that "somebody's going to hell for this one.")
Line Out Hot for Teacher
Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 1:22 PM
Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau, a.k.a. DJ Headline, are back this Saturday.
TV / Books Wary but Intrigued
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 1:22 PM
I was visiting Michael over at Bailey/Coy the other day, and he told me that HBO was adapting Jeffrey Eugenides's novel Middlesex into a miniseries. I've been thinking about this since then, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it.
Middlesex is, I think, one of the few novels I could recommend to virtually anyone (barring, of course, the excessively religious). It is a general-audience novel about a hermaphrodite that managed to both win the Pulitzer Prize and be chosen for Oprah's Book Club. It's deceptively easy to read, which pulls in a lot of people who would otherwise be turned off by a novel that doesn't feature guns and car chases, or smutty, tawdry sex. And the HBO series is sure to mean that more people will read it than ever before, which is a very good thing indeed. (If you haven't read it, you should. Most used bookstores have multiple copies; Oprah will do that to a book.)
And HBO has a pretty good track record with TV shows, but I remember their adaptation of Empire Falls from a few years ago:
(Empire Falls is another one of those Pulitzer-winning mass market books that is amazingly good, by the way. Not as good as Middlesex, but still charming and moving and funny). The miniseries made Empire Falls so pedestrian and bland. Even Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward couldn't save it from dullness. It didn't ruin the experience of the book for me, but it didn't help, either. Like the majority of the people who read it, I have a relationship with Middlesex. More important than that, a lot of transgendered people found the book to be pretty groundbreaking and validating, too. So my point is, HBO better not fuck this up. And then I saw that the whole thing is being produced by Rita Wilson (producer of My Big Fat Greek Wedding), and I'm starting to get nervous. The Millions thinks Wilson's involvement is a good sign, and who am I to argue with them? We're all just book bloggers who get nervous about adaptations.
But still: If you haven't read Middlesex, now is the time, before the miniseries comes along and becomes inextricably linked to the book forever.
.
Visual Art Art Tonight
Posted by Jen Graves on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 1:16 PM
The TM Sisters—two biological sisters (Monica and Tasha López De Victoria; that's Monica on the cover of Artnews in September 2007), ages 28 and 26, who live in Miami and have taken the art world by storm—are performing live tonight from 7-10 pm at the Lee Center (Seattle U) with Extreme Animals and Hooliganship. It's the kickoff party for their three-month long exhibition of interactive video installations (including dance pads, I've heard?) at the center's gallery.
I am not going to pretend to know or understand the TM Sisters; what they do melds video, performance, video games, and I'm sure plenty else. (Their web site is here.) I've never seen their work before. So I am all eyes, ears, and feet. See you there.
Go here to watch a 2007 piece they did at New York's Performa festival. Although what they're doing is very different, it makes me believe they're the kind of artists who could not exist without Wynne Greenwood. Maybe the Genius will be in the house.
Visual Art Currently Hanging
Posted by Jen Graves on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 12:46 PM
There's no party to celebrate this opening (New Economy!), but Saturday at the Henry a new show goes up titled Business As Usual: New Video from China/Cao Fei and Yang Fudong.
In it are three videos, one by Cao and two by Yang. These two artists are fascinating figures. Cao is the daughter of a government-sponsored sculptor father, and she is intent on critique of the Chinese government and the hollow promises of the rapid economic development for the average person—but she's also keenly aware of the censors.
In her work Whose Utopia (2006), which is included in Business as Usual, the factory workers themselves are the co-authors, stars, and key audiences; it's not an abstract study of power simply for the gawking global art world. (There's much more on the interesting creation of Whose Utopia in a clear interview with Cao in fillip here.)
The workers, who have uprooted their lives to participate in the expanding Chinese economy by moving to work at a lighting factory in the Pearl River Delta, dance between glowering pieces of industrial machinery or wear elaborate costumes on the assembly line. They are filmed in their work environments but according to their own expressions; one who loves music adapts what he helps to make in the factory into an instrument; product is expanded. The tone is dreamlike. Here's a segment:
Yang is much more formalist; his seemingly endless five-part series Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest (2003-07) follows stylish but stranded Chinese twentysomethings in nouveau-New Wave molasses style. It's an adaptation of a third-century story about Taoists who form their own retreat from corrupt government, but these camera-ready men (5) and women (2) demonstrate no certain sense of conviction or direction. They float picturesquely, but in a way that is deeply unsatisfying.
Seven Intellectuals is on display this summer in New York and isn't part of Business as Usual; this show includes two earlier works by Yang, City Lights and Honey.
Crime Seattle Police Arrest Teen In Another Questionable Obstruction Case
Posted by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 12:29 PM
City prosecutors have declined to file charges in a obstruction case in which a Seattle teen says her boyfriend was roughed up and arrested by police during a chaotic incident Tuesday night in Downtown Seattle.
Anelise Schruder and her boyfriend, Del Anthony Rhea, had just come from a dodgeball game on Capitol Hill on Tuesday night, and were waiting to catch a bus at 3rd and Pike.
While Schruder and Rhea—both 18-years-old—were waiting to catch the 106 to Skyway, another bus pulled up and a 17-year-old boy got on without paying the fare. A police report says the bus driver started honking to draw the attention of a nearby SPD patrol car.
According to the report, Officer Felix Reyes got on the bus and contacted the driver, who pointed out the teen hadn't paid his fare. In his report, Reyes wrote that he saw the teen grab a bus transfer from another passenger and move towards the back of the bus. The 17-year-old then jumped out an emergency exit window where police were waiting for him.
Schruder—who volunteers at the Seattle Young People's Project—says a group of about 15 people gathered at the bus stop—along with more than a dozen officers—and watched the police put the 17-year-old in handcuffs. Then, Schruder says, officers began hitting the handcuffed teen in the head. “They were just slamming him and being really aggressive,” she says. “Everyone was just like ‘what the hell?’”
Schruder says an officer approached the crowd and asked, “Do any of you guys have a problem with this?” That’s when Schruder’s boyfriend piped up, telling the officer that he did have a problem with their treatment of the teen.
At the time, Schruder says the officer was standing three or four feet away from her boyfriend, but the officer quickly approached Rhea, hit him in the head and took him to the ground. Schruder says one officer grabbed her and held her while three other cops jumped on top of her boyfriend. “You see what just happened to him?” Schruder claims the officer told the crowd. “The same thing can happen to you if you don’t [leave].” Rhea was arrested and booked into the King County Jail for obstruction. Schruder says she also witnessed police grab another bystander and “slam” them up against the wall of nearby Walgreens.
In his report, Officers Reyes claims Rhea was standing 10 feet away yelling profanities at officers as they took the 17-year-old into custody, telling them they had “no reason” to handcuff the teen. Officer Reyes approached Rhea, the report says, and told him to move away. "I haven't paid a bus fare before, what's the big deal?” Rhea reportedly told the officer. The report says Officer Reyes feared he was going to be attacked by Rhea and took him in to custody. The report makes no mention of the level of force used against Rhea or the 17-year-old boy.
Despite the officer's claims, prosecutors apparently decided the case didn’t hold water and declined to file charges at a hearing earlier this morning. Schruder says Rhea will be released in the next 4-6 hours.
Schruder says she hasn't heard from Rhea and doesn't know if he was injured during the arrest.
City Prosecutors have not responded to a request for comment on why no charges were filed against Rhea, but this could very well be another example of police officers misusing obstruction charges, which are generally filed against people for interfering with an arrest.
In 2008, the city paid $268,000 plus attorneys fees to a Boys and Girls Club employee following a controversial obstruction arrest. Last year, Office of Professional Accountability civilian auditor Kate Pflaumer also issued a report warning that "management and policy-makers [in the police department] should continue to be aware of issues that may emerge from 'obstruction only' arrests" but noted that "there was no apparent pattern of abuse of discretion" within the department.
Seattle police have not yet responded to a request for comment.
Celeb / Books Is "Disquieted" the Word For It?
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 12:23 PM
Esquire is starting a series of videos called "Disquieting Bedtime Stories with Mary-Louise Parker." The inaugural edition is from Alice in Wonderland:
I'm kind of feeling disquieted...in my pants. (Zing!) Also, when did Mary Louise Parker turn into a hot, female Christopher Walken?
Politics Poll Shows Nickels Getting Creamed in Head-to-Head Matchups
Posted by Dominic Holden on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 12:14 PM
An upstart polling firm, True Blue Innovation, issued a poll yesterday that gauges support for mayoral candidates among likely voters in the primary election. Although Nickels takes a hefty lead in the primary, his support pales when support from the other seven candidates coalesces around one challenger to Nickels.
As a pack in the primary:
Greg Nickels: 18%
Jan Drago: 13%
Mike McGinn: 8%
James Donaldson: 8%
Joe Mallahan: 8%
Elizabeth Campbell: 3%
Kwame Garrett: 1%
Norman Sigler: 1%
Undecided: 40%
But when pitted head to head—as will happen after the top two candidates in the primary face off in the general election—Nickels gets creamed by any of the four candidates on his heels:
James Donaldson: 48%
Greg Nickels: 26%
Undecided: 26%
Drago: 43%
Nickels: 27%
Undecided: 30%
McGinn: 43%
Nickels: 24%
Undecided: 33%
Mallahan: 41%
Nickels: 23%
Undecided: 36%
Many voters are undecided, even for the primary next month. True Blue Innovation partner Bill Monto notes that more voters could favor Nickels in the November election, where Nickels will enjoy the name recognition of incumbency among less-frequent voters. "The mayor is going to surge up a little bit if he reminds them of things he’s done that they like," says Monto, who has worked on Congressional and initiative campaigns in Washington for the past decade. However, it would take huge surge from Nickels, grabbing most undecided voters, to win the election. "The mayor could be beat, but it's not a slam dunk," he says.
True Blue Innovation, which has been polling since last winter, randomly selected likely voters who participated in the 2005 or 2007 primary elections—analogous to this August's election. The poll has a margin of error of 3.6 percent.
A brief primer on the mayoral candidates is over here.
Health Re: Group Health, Poster Child.
Posted by Eli Sanders on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 12:08 PM
I'll be on KUOW's The Conversation this noon hour talking about whether Group Health is really the right model for national health care reform. That's 94.9 FM starting... now.
Health Is Maria Cantwell a Puppet for the Senate Finance Committee?
Posted by Eli Sanders on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 12:01 PM
That's what some of her natural allies—progressive female entrepreneurs like Cupcake Royale owner Jody Hall and ice cream empress Molly Moon—are wondering:
It's hard to get much closer to the center of power on health-care reform than the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. It's currently drafting a bill that could reshape, for years to come, the way that every single American enters the world, stays healthy, receives medical care for the vulnerabilities of his or her body, and dies.Senator Maria Cantwell landed a seat on this prestigious committee in 2006—making her the first representative from Washington State in 75 years to hold such a post (and only the second ever). You'd know this if you read Cantwell's press releases, because she bragged about her appointment to Finance at length at the time and promised that "this key committee assignment gives the Northwest a vital seat at the table." She vowed to use this opportunity to "fight" for health-care reform.
So what is Cantwell doing now that the Finance Committee is driving toward a compromise on health-care reform that alarms her constituents and, according to experts, won't be able to deliver real relief to a nation struggling under the weight of a broken health-care system?
She's going along with it.
Deferring to more-senior members of her committee—who are in a position to reward her in the future—Cantwell has been deliberately vague about exactly what type of health-care reform she supports. At the same time, she is talking up the committee's current proposal, which would try to fix what's wrong with American health care by creating a bunch of small health-care cooperatives around the country—the so-called "co-op compromise."
"Co-ops cannot drive down costs," said one furious Cantwell constituent, Jody Hall, owner of Seattle's Cupcake Royale and yet another employer who's desperate for better (and cheaper) health-care solutions to offer her employees. "There's no national bargaining power... they're going to basically be a nice gift to the insurance companies."
This is indeed what experts say about co-ops: nice idea, but not a big enough force to wade into the insurance market and compete against the big, established players to drive down costs. That's what the "public plan"—which Hall supports—aims to do: create a government-backed insurance plan massive enough to do battle with Big Insurance on the brutal terrain of the free market. Most Americans support the idea, as does President Obama.
"It feels like Cantwell is afraid to step up and represent," Hall said. Which is an amazing statement coming from a person who is pretty much the likeliest of potential Cantwell supporters: a liberal, a female, an entrepreneur—just like Cantwell was before becoming a politician.
Molly Moon, owner of the popular Seattle ice-cream stores that bear her name, has the same frustration with Cantwell. "It's unfortunate that a woman coming out of the business world isn't really representing a lot of us progressive, female business owners on this issue," she said. In late May, Washington's other senator, Patty Murray, came to Moon's store on Capitol Hill to hold a press event and express support for the public option. Cantwell, on the other hand, "seems to not really be taking the lead," Moon said.
The rest of my story is here, info on today's lunchtime rally in front of Cantwell's office is here, and here's some video of Hall speaking at the White House in April about the need for a public option for health care reform:
Photos of Molly Moon and Jody Hall by Kelly O
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