Last Days

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23 This week of impassioned protests, withdrawal
deadlines, and a political debut for the ages kicks off today with the
upsetting but hopeful story of the FBI’s rescue of nearly 50
juvenile prostitutes after a local and federal combo crackdown on
pimps selling kids for sex. Details come from the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer‘s Scott Gutierrez, who reports that police in
Seattle, Tacoma, and Kent took part in last week’s three-day
Operation Cross Country, which netted 571 suspects in 29 cities
and led to the rescue of the aforementioned 50 girls—10 of whom
hailed from the Seattle area (the youngest Seattle girl was 13). Also
caught in the Seattle part of the crackdown: 35 adult prostitutes and
three suspected pimps, with the latter group facing possible federal
charges. As for the rescued minors: They’ve been placed with family
members or Child Protective Services.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24 In much lighter news: Today, President Barack
Obama delivered his first speech to Congress, a complicated event
upstaged by the simple failure of Louisiana governor Bobby
Jindal, whose televised response to the president’s speech
single-handedly transformed the rising star of the Republican Party
from a potential presidential candidate to a human billboard for the
Emmy-winning sitcom 30 Rock, whose intern character
Kenneth was the go-to comparison for the majority of Americans
attempting to characterize Governor Jindal’s odd but familiar blend of
Southern sanctimony and talking-to-a-brain-dead-baby-osity. Even
Republicans couldn’t help bashing Jindal, with conservative
commentators blasting the 37-year-old governor’s “animatronic” delivery
and “cheesy” prose. Congratulations to Governor Jindal, who joins the
mighty Sarah Palin as proof of the odd-but-delightful fact that at this
stage of history, every Republican failure translates directly into a
golden opportunity for Tina Fey.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 Speaking of the president saying things,
today Obama announced his (latest) selection for secretary of the
Department of Commerce: former Washington governor Gary Locke,
who follows New Mexico governor Bill Richardson (who withdrew due to a
potentially incriminating grand-jury investigation of “contracts in his
state”) and Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire (who backed out over
policy disagreements) as Obama’s pick. Congratulations to Locke, who we
hope has the staying power his predecessors lacked.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26 The week continues at a Wal-Mart in
Bloomingdale, Illinois, where late this evening an employee
doused himself in lighter fluid, set himself on fire, and burned to
death. Further details come from the Associated Press, which
identifies the self-immolation victim as 58-year-old Larry Graziano,
who told police called to rescue him that he “couldn’t take it anymore”
before setting himself fatally ablaze. A Wal-Mart spokesman said
Graziano was a seven-year employee who worked nights stocking shelves
and had no reported personnel issues.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27 Today brings further proof that the president
never shuts up, as President Obama declared he will end combat
operations in Iraq within 18 months. “Let me say this as plainly as
I can: By August 31,
2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end,”
said Obama. “Iraq’s future is now its own responsibility.” On Capitol
Hill, Democratic leaders remained cool to the suggestion that tens of
thousands of troops would remain. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said his
announcement was good news because it meant an end to the war, but she
cautioned that the troops left behind must have a “clearly defined”
mission. Obama succeeded in winning over most Republicans, who
initially dismissed the time line as arbitrary. Senator John McCain,
who lost the presidency to Obama, said he supports the plan. “Let us
have no crisis of confidence now,” he told his colleagues on the Senate
floor Friday. “Instead, let us welcome home our fighting men and
women—not just thanking them for serving in Iraq, but
congratulating them on bringing us to victory there.”

••Meanwhile in Puyallup: A woman was sentenced to
three months in jail for being a cruddy mother. Details
come from KOMO, which identifies the woman as Tammy Gibson, who
made headlines last June when she went to the home of a registered sex
offender and beat him with a baseball bat. As victim and Level
3
sex offender William A. Baldwin told police, Gibson began her bat
attack by announcing that she was going to kill Baldwin because he
had molested her children. In a subsequent interview with police,
Gibson told police that Baldwin had not molested her children,
but had merely spoken to one of her daughters in public—the
previous summer. Which brings us to today, when Gibson was
sentenced to three months in jail for assault, during which time the
daughter she shredded the law to “protect” will have no mother at
all.

••Meanwhile in Tacoma, a Pierce County Superior
Court judge was today charged with felony harassment and a
misdemeanor count of patronizing a prostitute. Details come from
Tacoma’s News Tribune, which reports 58-year-old judge Michael
Hecht stands accused of patronizing one prostitute and threatening to
kill another prostitute last August (shortly after his election but
prior to his swearing-in, for what that’s worth; also, both prostitutes
were male). “Judge Hecht denies both allegations,” said Hecht’s
attorney Wayne Fricke to the Associated Press. Today, superior court
presiding judge Bryan Chushcoff announced that he will continue to
assign cases to the presumed-innocent Hecht, whose arraignment is set
for March 13.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28 The week continues with a much-appreciated
response to Seattle’s disgusting upsurge of anti-gay violence,
as several hundred marchers—organized by the Queer Ally
Coalition—took to Seattle streets to protest the ongoing
clobbering of Seattle denizens (some gay, some just perceived to be so)
by clueless scumbags. Thanks to all who showed up to reclaim Capitol
Hill as a civilized, chilled-out neighborhood in a civilized,
chilled-out city.

SUNDAY, MARCH 1 The week ends with an accurate collection of facts
from the Seattle Times editorial board, who today issued the
group statement, “Repackaging the news is not journalism,”
inspired by the ongoing legal action between the Associated Press and
All Headline News Media Corp., the online news source the AP accuses of
“free riding.” As the Times editorial board writes, “The online
venture does no original reporting or news coverage… All Headline
News merely cobbles together wire-service dispatches from the internet.
If AP went silent, so would All Headline News. Same with the demise of
local newspapers and daily reporting, most recently Denver’s Rocky
Mountain News. The blogosphere would not have fodder—or
mainstream media—to rail against. Newspaper-like blogs that
assemble and present the work of others would have precious little to
aggregate. So much of the discussion about the future of journalism is
about distribution… Missing in all the discussion is an
understanding of the craft, organization, and expense of gathering the
news. The stuff everyone has an opinion about. News appears almost
magically in a bounty of online formats, seemingly for free. Opinions
masquerading as journalism are not sufficient to inform a
democracy.”

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