The non-profit vultures are circling overhead following the enormous swath of destruction left by hurricane Mitch. In Central America, as elsewhere in the Third World, the mainstream relief agencies are often only slightly more reliable than their host governments in supplying aid to those who need it; one e-mail from a trusted long-time activist now living in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, describes all the fancy cars belonging to aid organizations like CARE now parked at the local Westin, and wonders if that's where the money goes. The small groups activists have forged in two decades of Central American solidarity work are a much better bet.

Missing from all the news coverage and relief appeals--and even, for the most part, from the ever-so-cloying "we must help Nicaragua because they had a revolution 20 years ago" appeals from lefties--is a sense of the extent to which Mitch's death toll was due to global capitalism. Put the same storm, with its torrential rains, on the Gulf Coast of the U.S., and we'd have a big story: with dozens of deaths, not 10,000. The difference is decades of deforestation, whole cities of the poor living on movable hillsides, roads that couldn't support evacuations had they been called for, and governments incapable of helping anyone but their own generals' pockets. No telling how low textile sweatshop wages will go now.--Geov Parrish

And hey, here's a sobering thought for the decade. It would take a storm with the death toll of Mitch every week for the next three years to equal what the United States has extracted in carnage and carcasses from amongst Iraq's citizenry since the start of the Gulf Turkey Shoot, er, "War." The bizarre and continuing American fixation with Saddam Hussein, and its punishment of people for the crime of living under his thumb, is making a last-moment, mad dash to the top of the list of the 20th century's great war crimes. Bereft now of even the fig leaf of coerced U.N. approval, the U.S. blood lust--to the great yawn and snooze of our news-consuming public--is the best argument going for federal tax resistance.--G.P.

OK, here's another one. There are now more brand names in the world than there are species. That's right, brand diversity has now exceeded ecological diversity on our poor overburdened planet. The trend, as they say, ain't good.--G.P.

Now that she's out of Congress, whaddaya want to bet that Ms. Campaign Finance Reform herself, Linda Smith, will be accepting money to influence the decisions of her former colleagues?--G.P.

Remember Proposition F, the Arcata, Calif. ballot measure that (at least symbolically) holds corporations accountable for their social wrongs? It passed, with nearly 60% of the vote. Anyone wanna put a similar measure up to a vote in Seattle next year?--G.P.

Duh...We got it right the first time, but last week we typoed the new voice mail phone # for the Seattle Mumia Defense Committee. It's 206-728-9781, and many plans are in the works in response to the prospective death warrant. Meetings Tuesday nights @ 8 PM, upstairs from loyal ETS! advertiser and all-around good folks, The Vain Co., 2222 2nd Ave. in Belltown.

I noticed that on Nov. 12, the day after the U.S. government announced a build-up for a military strike against Iraq, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 6 points, driven by a big jump in the price of Chevron and Exxon stock, a rise in oil prices, and gains by other oil-related companies. This should help dispel any lingering doubt about the real force behind U.S. government policy on Iraq. In the meantime, our government is paying extra to deploy planes, boats, and bombs in the Gulf to hurl at Saddam, to the tune of around $600 million. February's build-up (remember then?) cost an estimated $1.3 billion.--Maria Tomchick

The Clinton Administration has finally admitted that it really was trying to assassinate Osama bin Laden in August's cruise missile attack against Afghanistan. This flat-out contradicts months of assurances that this was not a U.S. goal. But even more worrisome is that Presidential lawyers have concluded that this sort of political assassination attempt doesn't fall under the 1975 U.S. Executive Order banning political murder. The same President who says sex isn't sex is now saying that assassination isn't assassination. He's once again splitting legal hairs and lying to the American people when caught. Who Clinton sleeps with is his business, but who he tries to assassinate is the business of all of us. And it's our business when he breaks U.S. law to do so.--Martin Kelley, The Nonviolence Web at www.nonviolence.org.

I'm more than a little nauseated by the media's fascination with Calista Flockhart. The star of the popular TV sit-com "Ally McBeal" has been skewered lately for being anorexic, which she denies. Excuse me, folks, but they're all anorexic--from Helen Hunt (Home Improvement) to the anchorwomen on the nightly news. So why pick on Calista Flockhart? To sell magazines and ad space, naturally. But this fascination with actresses who play brainless, spineless, neurotic "chicks" is as bad as the gory details of what Flockhart eats everyday. (Example: she goes to a restaurant with an interviewer, listens attentively to the list of the daily specials, then orders a bowl of tomato soup ... as if a bowl of soup is a full meal for anyone but a starving Iraqi, that is.) Even coverage of the question "what is anorexia?" is lame. The conclusion that, because Flockhart thinks she eats enough, she has no eating disorder, shows a real ignorance of what anorexia is. All anorexics think they eat enough (if not too much), even when they only have a piece of toast and a cup of coffee for breakfast (then go out to the gym to "work it off").--M.T.