The good news last week: Britain's highest court, the Law Lords, ruled that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is not immune to prosecution for torture, murder, and genocide for the deaths and disappearance of over 3,000 people during his rule. This clears another hurdle for Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon to extradite Pinochet from the U.K. to stand trial in Spain. The next step is for Britain's Home Secretary (Minister of the Interior) Jack Straw to rule on whether Pinochet can be extradited. Things ain't looking good for Pinochet: Jack Straw was a long-haired, hippie activist in his youth (around the same time Pinochet was clenching Chile in his iron fist). We'll soon see if party politics has dulled Straw's conscience; he's due to announce his decision on Dec. 11.--Maria Tomchick

A little-noticed tragicomedy is playing out in Congress, where the poop is hitting the fan over some rare spine being displayed by the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC is floating ideas that maybe, perhaps, the abolition of EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) requirements for stations have been a bad thing, given the plummeting minority representation in media ownership and employment, and that the 1996 Telecommunications Act's lifting of ownership limits is creating a bit of a problem with its creation of mega-merger radio/TV conglomerates. (Like Entercomm's nine stations in Seattle.) The FCC proposed mild rulemaking limits on radio/TV cross-ownership that would force some owners (like CBS) to divest stations in a few major markets. The free market forces in Congress, at the behest of the telecommunications lobby, have gone apoplectic. A harshly worded letter from Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) and others threatened to retaliate against the FCC's funding if it proceeded with its mild reforms. The concept of the public airwaves actually belonging to the public is a long, long, long way from reality these days, and these are the same folks who've decided how all the new computer technologies will be regulated and divvied up, too.--Geov Parrish

Next week comes a deadline which may expose the Puget Sound Regional Council as pathetic fraud it is for pushing the Tacoma 2012 (try not to giggle) Olympic bid. Turns out the attempted end-run around the Seattle City Council's opposition to the bid may not work, because the PSRC isn't a representative body--that would be the city council--for the area where most of the events would be held. No matter how you dress it up, that would be Seattle, so (again) the city council would need to sign off on a bid by next week. Which it won't do, because none of its concerns from September have been addressed. The relentless corporate sucklers pushing the bid are appealing to the U.S. Olympic Committee on whether those rules really mean what they say.--G.P.

But why stop at Tacoma? There must be plenty of Chamber of Commerce types in this state who would love to host a summer Olympics. Fife 2012: Smell the world! Darrington 2012: After the trees are gone! Gold Bar 2012: It takes a village! Bangor 2012: Let's blow shit up! Forks 2012: Drizzle is beautiful! Lynnwood 2012: The global strip mall! Pullman 2012: Where the world comes to drink and puke! Redmond 2012: We just bought the rights.--G.P.

Credulous press people have called North Korea's attempt on Aug. 31 to launch a satellite into orbit a "missile test" and used it as proof that North Korea wants to build and launch nuclear weapons against South Korea, Japan, and (gasp!) the Aleutian Islands. But, in a comedy of errors, it was actually South Korea that launched a surface-to-air missile last week. While checking equipment, technicians accidentally fired the missile, which exploded over a heavily populated area just 40 miles south of the border with North Korea. Good one, guys.--M.T.

All together now: the roster of places where you can find the 1999 ETS! Cartoon Wall Calendar. It's at Left Bank Books, Red & Black Books, Recollection Books, Pistil Books, the Globe Cafe, and the Elliot Bay Book Co. A great holiday idea--as are subscriptions for a friend, loved one, or favorite elected official, of course--and it all goes to the worthy cause of helping us keep publishing this silly rag every week...