According to King County Elections:
Director Sherril Huff estimates 129,000 mail ballots are on hand and remain to be counted. This number does not include ballots still to be delivered by the United States Postal Service.
Today 53,412 mail-in ballots were counted, bringing the total number of ballots counted thus far to [...]
Dow Constantine's cell phone rang about 10 minutes after King County Elections posted the most recent batch of election results, which showed his lead growing in the race for King County Executive. Susan Hutchison conceded that she lost. "They had a short cordial conversation," says Constantine's campaign spokesman Sandeep Kaushik. [...]
King County Elections has posted the results of about 30,000 additional Seattle ballots. Mike McGinn was leading by 910 votes last night; he's now only 462 votes ahead of Joe Mallahan.
Mayor
Mike McGinn 52,238 49.77%
Joe Mallahan 51,776 49.33%
Write-in 946 0.90%
It bears mentioning that McGinn was in the lead on the primary [...]
SF Weekly tells the tale: Bay area resident Sean C. wrote a negative review of Ocean Avenue Books online. He started hearing from the owner.
"It wasn't anything really bad," Sean C. says. "But obviously it was enough to push her over the edge." First came the alleged onslaught of' [...]
Spectacled bear, normal-style.As you probably know (PAY ATTENTION), I care very deeply about bear issues.
Today in the Daily Mail: Leipzig's bespectacled lady-bears are going bald! AND NOT EVEN SCIENCE KNOWS WHY.
The sudden hair loss has affected all female bears at the zoo. [...]
Most of them hate gay people, but they like pot:
Voters approved a referendum making Maine the fifth state to allow retail pot dispensaries, but medical marijuana advocates say it won't become like California, where hundreds of marijuana shops have popped up and come under critical scrutiny.
California, Colorado, New Mexico' [...]
By news intern Garrett McCulloch
I pretty much always have a crappy bus ride between my apartment on Queen Anne and the Stranger offices here on Capitol Hill—wait, ride downtown, wait some more, transfer, ride to up the hill. All to travel about two short miles. But today I decided to [...]
We spoke today at the Mercury Group, the political consulting firm that worked on his campaign, in their offices on Second Avenue. This is an unabridged transcript of our conversation. (Photo by Kristen Blush, taken last night.)
How tired are you today?
I'm pretty tired. I'm pretty tired. [...]
Mistakes were made...
Usually I agree with most of the advice you dispense. But your advice to ACLU—a caring loving uncle—was questionable. I'm a criminal defense lawyer and had a case where a father was driving down the street in his van and noticed the young man who had had' [...]
Here comes the end of the world:
Owen Wilson has signed on to voice the rascally Great Dane "Marmaduke," Fox and New Regency's adaptation of the long-running comic strip.
Wilson's boarding is the last piece of the puzzle for the live-action/CG movie, which has shades of Fox's' [...]
Dow Constantine is right. His current 14-point lead over Susan Hutchison in the race for King County executive is a blowout "beyond anybody's highest estimates." Constantine's also correct to say that "a lot of people were mistaken" when they worried in the closing weeks of the campaign that he [...]
...courtesy of JoeMyGod: Carrie Prejean has withdrawn her million-dollar lawsuit against Miss California USA because there's this XXX sex tape she'd rather not see released.
The video the lawyer showed Carrie is extremely graphic and has never been released publicly. We know that, because TMZ obtained the video months' [...]
I've written about this before, but it's getting very close now: The 33rd issue of McSweeney's is going to take the form of a Sunday newspaper titled The San Francisco Panorama:
It'll have news (actual news, tied to the day it comes out) and sports and arts coverage, and comics [...]
Joe Mallahan or Mike McGinn will get the top-floor office at City Hall, but, at least at first, someone else will hold more power:
Read why City Council President Richard Conlin is more powerful than ever, and what he plans to do once Nickels out of [...]
From the Bangor Daily News:
“We went up against tremendous odds,” Marc Mutty, public affairs director for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland who has been on loan to the [Yes on 1] campaign, said from Portland. “We all know we were the little guy going up against the big [...]
Remember when three pit bulls killed another dog at Magnuson Park? Never happened, according to Grisha Stewart of Ahimsa Dog Training in Ballard (though pit bulls apparently did break the leg of a husky at the park). She has "an inside" [...]
The marriage equality fight moves to New Jersey... where yesterday voters turned their pro-marriage equality Democratic governor John Corzine out of the office and elected anti-marriage equality Republican Chris Christie. The New Jersey legislature is about to pass a marriage equality bill, however, and Corzine has promised to sign it, [...]
Some questions: Is this song about giving head? Why are they wearing life jackets? Who or what is B4-4?
I want to kill their hair.
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[...]...is a Republican who seeks "to reconstruct the pre-Christian religion of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European peoples." Um... that sounds vaguely familiar.
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[...]The always-amazing Colson Whitehead has a great editorial over at the New York Times, celebrating one year of a postracial society. He argues:
I have observed that journalists employ Google searches to lend credence to trend articles, so I compared recent hits on the word “postracial” with those of [...]
Tommy Wiseau: You will see his buttocks.So, six years after everyone else, I finally got around to watching cult-trash masterpiece The Room. Here is what I wrote about it in this week's Concessions:
The overwhelming feeling, when one begins watching The Room,' [...]
When the Dutch government didn't want Google Earth showing satellite images of military installations, it censored them—stylishly, in camo, as if they were paintings-by-number.
Greg Allen plans to paint them (isn't there a digital way? he asks), and he posts a number of the enticing-looking things, with a further [...]
Most counties around the state will update their election results this afternoon and this evening, which should give us a better idea of how things will shake out for the mayor's race and Referendum 71. The margin in those contests are one percent and two percent, respectively.
King County will [...]
What this loss in Maine (and the victory in Washington State) says to me is that I am so grateful that my civil rights, as a person of color, were not put up to a popular vote. As we've seen over and over in the last year, the' [...]
David Gassner is stepping down as artistic director of Theater Schmeater after three years of hard work and some good productions (The American Pilot, Maria/Stuart, American Buffalo). Suckers Interested parties are encouraged to apply at TheaterSchmeater.org.
(And if you're wondering what's happening over at Giant Magnet—well, I am too.' [...]
The Washington Poll, a project run by the University of Washington, predicts that Referendum 71 will pass by over 80,000 votes. Matt Barreto, an associate professor of political science at the UW, says they used a combination of extrapolating results from the first day of election returns and factoring in [...]
The only place you could put a federally-funded needle exchange program in the entire city of Chicago... is O'Hare Airport? Gee, it's almost like Democrats aren't really serious about allowing funding life-saving needle exchange programs at all.
Via Sullivan.
Wait! Is that a fat lady I hear? Clearing her fat, fatty, fat-fat throat? Getting ready to sing, most fattily indeed?
No. NO! It isn’t! Not yet, buster man! This ballgame ain’t been called! Bite your damn tongue.
MALLAHNDS! MALLAHANDS! MALLAHANDS!
Excuse me, please. I do get so worked up. [...]
President Obama standing on the sidelines in Maine and Washington was appalling. The failure of our national organizations and leaders to demand his involvement was equally appalling. The outrageous act of the Democratic National Committee sending an email into Maine asking Maine Democrats to call into "NEW JERSEY" [...]
I have been informed that I left out a reader in today's Reading Tonight. (Have I mentioned that I'm riding on three hours of sleep?) University Book Store added a reader to their genrepalooza tonight: Local author Cherie Priest will read from her new steampunk novel Boneshaker.
Boneshaker is' [...]
Do not tell SuttonBeresCuller that it was such a breeze for this nice German fellow to convert an old gas station into a clean, usable property. Boys, just keep going: We are rooting for you.
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[...]Why would you want to massage a dog? Because it's fun!
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[...]After Maine, where the Catholic church actually organized a second collection to raise money to prevent gay people from having civil rights, the situation shifts again. Using a tax-exempt church to raise money to defeat the civil rights of fellow citizens is not too shocking in the age [...]
Wayne Besen writing about last night's heartbreaking defeat in Maine...
It is time we wake up and acknowledge that the GLBT fight for equality is the world’s first “Civil Likes” movement. Each year, a popularity contest is held somewhere on the map and if the locals find us likeable our [...]
And that tells you everything you need to know about cyclists, according to the commenters over at the PI. I wonder what they'll say the first time a Seattle motorist strikes a pedestrian. We'll just have to wait and see.
Pat Buchanan was talking with Chris Matthews about Florida Governor Charlie Crist on MSNBC's Hardball yesterday. Crist, a Republican, is running for the U.S. Senate, and he's drawn a primary challenger from the right. Will Crist be the next Republican to be Scozzafava'd? Buchanan said that it was a real' [...]
Slog Tipper Patrick points out an addition to the Morning News that I should have caught but didn't. Patrick says:
The city of Detroit could also use a mention for electing an openly gay man as city council president.
Very true, Patrick. I apologize. Openly gay former news anchor Charles Pugh' [...]
Music
Dirty ProjectorsThere's a scene in the addenda to Dave Eggers's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius in which the author, while kayaking, is overwhelmed by the sight of a killer whale leaping, Free Willy–style, out of the ocean in close proximity. That scene is all [...]
This was the gambit, and it looks like PUNCH came away at least with a few bucks (I hope).
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[...]
House Of Sims / FlickrStill really, really yucky.
Necco news: The horrible little discs are now made with all-natural flavors and colors. Green—its horror being dependent on man-made elements—has been lost in the process.
Weinbach: The Shirt.
If you only go to one Laff Hole tonight to see Brent Weinbach tell jokes, make it the Laff Hole where Brent Weinbach is performing, which is at Chop Suey at 9 pm and is called Laff Hole.
Videos & stuff after the [...]
I didn't want to say anything earlier...but, um...
I'm not sure WHAT I'm just saying, but I'm just saying.
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[...]
Four very good-looking readings tonight and then a not-so-good-looking reading.
First, the not-so-good: Laura Day, who is the author of How to Rule the World From Your Couch, will allegedly show you how to amplify your brain and control your intuition to get things done. Funny how "amplifying" [...]
The Henry Art Gallery owns all 30 of Allan Sekula's WTO protest photographs, and is only showing 10 because of limited wall space on the mezzanine. Then don't use the mezzanine! The full set should be up.
That complaint aside, even with just 10 we get a chance' [...]
Last night, despite the SECB's beer goggles—and wine goggles and whisky goggles—that made us swoon for Dow Constantine and Pete Holmes, a few things were extremely clear: People are sick of City Attorney Tom Carr, nobody is fooled by Susan Hutchison’s claim that she’s a “nonpartisan” (look [...]
The SECB ended up at the War Room last night, where it bought Mike McGinn* a Guinness and then drank a quantity of whiskey. On mornings like this, the SECB recalls, what is very best is a plate of eggs and a milkshake. But where to [...]
(Almost) nothing to see hereTwo years ago, Seattle artist Jack Daws made a penny using about a hundred dollars' worth of gold. It was a counterfeit. A good one, barely noticeable unless the patina wore down and the gold showed through, or' [...]
Here is how gorillas grieve:
Gorillas are known to hold wakes for dead friends, something that some zoos have formalized in a ceremony when one of their gorillas passes away. Donna Fernandes, now president of the Buffalo Zoo, tells the story of being at Boston's Franklin Park Zoo ten [...]
As Break.com user ssproair explains:
This fourth grade girl thinks she is about to give a school report on where her Dad is stationed in Iraq and is surprised when he shows up for her report.
What that sentence looks like in real life:
Sniff and hurrah. Thanks for the heads-up, [...]
Tomorrow's Artwalk includes (click to enlarge)
Bill Finger's 1972, age 12 at PUNCH
Nola Avienne's eida (steel, magnets, metal, shoe polish, and blood) at SOIL
Drew Daly's Float 1, Float 2, and Float 3 at Greg Kucera
Mary Ann [...]
The Daily Show does a great job of pointing out why 24-hour news networks should be outlawed, or at least barred from covering elections:
The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cIndecision 2009 - Reindecision 2008 And Beyondwww.thedailyshow.comDaily Show
Full EpisodesPolitical HumorHealth [...]
Relive last night's exciting, historical, phantasmagorical election minute-by-drunken-minute. Here are last night's SECB posts arranged in chronological order for your reading pleasure. Slog saw its highest traffic of the year last night because voters know that a little snark and assholery in election coverage drives efficiencies and moves us forward.
Just 5% of everything is normal:
A detailed picture of the seeds of structures in the universe has been unveiled by an international team co-led by Sarah Church of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, jointly located at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and [...]
Did you follow the election results last night on Slog? We slaved over a hot blog for you for hours and hours!
Ref. 71: Gay everything-but-marriage is winning.
McGinn and Mallahan: Too close to call, with McGinn in a slight lead.
I-1033: Lost.
Assholes in Maine: Voted down [...]
"I voted for Mike McGinn, but I wish I could vote for Johnnie Cochran."
More pictures after the jump...
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[...]Incoming King County Executive Dow Constantine—still not drunk, and still not quite this victory dancey—sat down at the Edgewater Hotel to answer that and a few other questions:
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[...]The Democrat, Bill Owens, won that congressional seat in conservative, way-upstate New York. Which should give the national talkers something to talk about besides Republicans grabbing two governors' seats.
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' [...]The SECB ran into a surprising number of very enthusiastic young-ican Americans at the Mallahands Party, yet another group of folks whom Joe “Shit I’m Really Not Going to Win This” Mallahands seems to have quite a rapport with. Such as? Such as these two fine spring chickens young gentleman...Eric [...]
Attention: Dow Constantine spokesman Sandeep Kaushik has something to say about SECB member Eli Sanders's October 20th Stranger article, which showed Constantine sinking beneath the waves and was headlined "The Dropping Dow."
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[...]
We're pleased to say that things are picking up at the Approve R71 Party at Pravda on 10th Ave, and they haven't even seen the shiny blue check mark next to the tally on the state's election results site:
The unfortunate thing about the Approve R71 shindig [...]
The SECB just chatted up a triumphant Pete Holmes at the Seattle Glassblowing Studio, where everyone is drinking wine and enjoying jubilant swing music.
The first thing Holmes told us is that Tom Carr had just phoned him to concede. "It was a real classy call," said Holmes. "He ran a" [...]
Washington state's anti-gay bigots are slinking out of the Holiday Inn in Everett. The SECB wasn't allowed to reenter the ballroom after one of the security guards spotted the SECB's notebook. We did manage to catch up with Larry Stickney, director of the Washington Families Alliance and' [...]
At 8:08 pm, the backroom of the Spitfire was buzzing with several dozen people—younger people, older people, people dressed in work casual clothes and mingling and drinking and hugging. Someone started playing "Walk the Line" on the overhead speakers and everyone in the room clapped along for a few measures. [...]
A McGinn volunteer points out that if you didn't get your ballot postmarked before the post office closed tonight, you can take your sealed ballots to the following locations by 11 pm tonight:
Lake City—QFC parking lot (3020 NE 127th St)
Capitol Hill—in front of the QFC at Pike and Broadway' [...]
Compare the R-71 county results map with this one for I-1033:
So.. what do we make of this? All counties that think the gays are a-ok are also smart enough to realize that paying taxes is sometimes useful. But there are plenty of counties where they're' [...]
Good news in Kalamazoo, good news in Washington state... and not-so-good news in Maine. The anti-gay vote is up, the pro-gay vote is down. It's close, there may be a recount, and there are still ballots to count from Maine's more populous, liberal counties. But it's close and it's' [...]
At least you guys HAD food. We went to the Susan Hutchison party, and all we got were these $400 cocktails. And haunted. By the ghost of Jennifer Dunn.
Fuck this shit.
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[...]You've seen this photo of some SECB members with The Dino. It was an iPhone photo. We had to use an iPhone photo because he was told not to talk to us. He did not know that the two young ladies were with the SECB. But when our photographer' [...]
Pierce County:
Initiative Measure No. 1033
YES 50.32%
NO 49.68%
Referendum Measure No. 71
APPROVED 48.05%
REJECTED 51.95%
Yakima County
I-1033
Yes 49.99%
No 50.01 %
Ref 71
Approved 35.92%
Rejected 64.08%
Fuuuck.
Nevertheless, state totals still have us here:
I-1033
Yes: 44.54%
No: 55.46%
Ref 71
Approved: 51.13%
Rejected: 48.87%
And these numbers look pretty damn official. (Look at [...]
Mallahands (so soft!) breezed right through, after a glaring and short session of "meet the press" (MAN is he gray under those bright camera lights—but check out that suit...positively Warehouse for Men!) in which he refused to concede defeat, and the optimism in the room borders on the superstitious/sickening...the crowd [...]
"I want to remind you that this is a democracy," Susan told the crowd, "and in a democracy we have opponents. In some countries there are 'elections' and the opponents are not real, or are fake."
Susan did not concede, saying that only 40% of the vote had [...]
[...]
