Friday, November 16, 2001

THE POLITICAL CAREER of Mark Sidran sputtered and died on Thursday, when a late absentee-ballot count gave the Seattle mayoral election to Greg Nickels. As of today, the count gives a 2,726-vote lead to Nickels out of some 166,000 votes cast.

Sidran had spent 12 years preparing for the election, promoting his own name by turning the City Attorney's office into a bully pulpit for attacks against minorities, youth, the poor, working families, renters, and just about anyone who wasn't a white upscale baby boomer. His candidacy had the downtown business lobby's full backing, and received the most one-sided local media coverage given to any candidate since Alf Landon ran against FDR in '36. But in the end, Sidran's tactics generated more enemies than friends.

Will the local dailies, let alone the local civic establishment, now realize they can't keep presuming white upscale baby boomers to be the only people in Seattle worth giving an ass about? We shall see...

posted by clark 11:39 PM

"BUSH ADMINISTRATION plans threaten protections guaranteed by the Constitution." (Found by Follow Me Here.)

posted by clark 10:34 AM

WHAT GILLIGAN'S ISLAND AND STAR TREK have to say about America's sense of its place in the world.

posted by clark 10:29 AM

Thursday, November 15, 2001

THE GUY WHO TRIED to move the Seattle Mariners to Tampa is now in line for a cushy federal appointment, despite his career history of shady dealings.

A SCOTTISH JOURNALIST wonders why the recent media hype over the "porno chic" women's-fashion fad hasn't involved actual porn performers.

"44 REASONS NOT to get a boob job." (By the (male) author of "Why I'm Still Not a Libertarian.")

posted by clark 2:52 PM

WHY CORPORATE "NICESPEAK" (the balderdash of mission statements, quests for excellence, et al.) is different from Orwell's "Newspeak," but just as truth-evading.

IF YOU LIKE the MISCboutique (and I can't see why you wouldn't), you'll be equally excited about the site's next shopping opportunity. Very soon (just in time for the holidays), you'll be able to get your very own hi-quality prints of some of the vivid color photos you've seen here. Every home should have several. More details to come.

posted by clark 12:29 AM

Tuesday, November 13, 2001

'TWAS A PERFECT DAY for the low-key recreation of the Alki Landing that served as Seattle's official 150th birthday rite. That is to say, there was heavy rain, wind, cold temperatures, high tide, moderately heavy waves, and a near-total greyout (no visible horizon).

Some 1,000 people and 800 umbrellas braved the elements to witness volunteers playing the Denny Party showing up on a restored clipper ship playing the schooler Exact, then taking a small rowboat to the beach (where the real pioneers had been met by nearly-nude natives, not Gore-Texed honky families enjoying freebie chicken wings and Starbucks coffee).

The scene then moved down the shore to the 1905 landing-memorial obelisk, for a ceremony dedicating two plaques just added to it honoring the landing-party's women and the local natives.

Lame-duck mayor Paul Schell gave a short speech, comparing his appearance to that of Gen. Douglas MacArthur at the far-better-attended 1951 100th birthday: "We do have one thing in common. We were both asked to leave."

ELECTION '01 UPDATE: The absentee-vote counting resumed today after the Veteran's Day holiday weekend. Our boy Greg Nickels still leads, but by fewer than 1,600 votes. Today's count, however, still included a number of early absentees, who trend more conservative. It'll be the makeup of the late absentees, some of which were counted today and more of which will be counted in the next two or three days, that will decide it all.

ELECTION '00 UPDATE: The news-media recount of the Florida ballots has finally been announced. Most headlines about the unofficial recount claimed Bush won it. But buried in the stories (or played up in 'alternative media' analyses of the results), you find that Gore would've won under six of the nine possible recount scenarios, other than the one the Republican-dominated Supreme Court threw out.

In other words, one can still plausibly say the election may have been stolen by the GOP sleaze machine, now hard at work attempting to recreate the social conditions of the Cold War.

posted by clark 11:08 PM

Monday, November 12, 2001

PHOTO-REPORTAGE DEPT.: They were partying like it's 1999 again last Friday when another WTO protest march took place. This one didn't directly connote the anniversary of the Seattle trade-meeting debacle but rather noted this year's meeting in Qatar, a land that doesn't let such foolishness as freedom or democracy get in the way of making deals and bucks.

Of course, here in the U.S. it's quite harder these days to demonize something with "World Trade" in its name, without giving an audience all sorts of other unfortunate memories. Thus the banner proclaiming WTC and WTO to be equally disastrous. The rest of the visuals in the march rehashed common protest topics not directly related to word trade (the Iraq sanctions, the drug war, and, of course, Mumia Abu-Jamal).

They've torn down the Flag Plaza Pavilion at Seattle Center. Another of the Center's dwindling inventory of 1962 World's Fair buildings, it hosted everything from cat shows and rave parties to the touring King Tut artifact show. Bulldozers are now at work preparing the lot for the replacement, Fisher Pavilion (KOMO's parent company bought the naming rights).

The comforting sights of the Standard Time rainy season in the great PacNW include those of kids defiantly playing at the Center's International Fountain and a Metro bus's unwiped windshield portion glistening in another vehicle's taillight.

posted by clark 11:51 PM

Sunday, November 11, 2001

A NEW GUEST COLUMNIST ponders and compares some of the events of this past Halloween season.

posted by clark 3:45 PM

ARCHIVES:

• Past weblog entries.
• 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, and 1986-94 columns.
• Reviews of literature & art, nonfiction & culture criticism, movies & videos, and music & noise.
• Longer articles and essays.
• Some slightly weird little fiction pieces.
• X-Word crossword puzzles, now with on-screen solving.
• Cyber Stuff, links to cool and/or useful sites.
• A listing of many Things I Like (and a few things I hate).
• The origin and future of MISCmedia.