There were no sudden surprises this year (unlike in previous election cycles), so we've got who we've got for the primary races six weeks hence for city and county council. And although the lineup is as uninspiring as the dailies have been complaining about--for different reasons--there is at least an outside chance that the city council could gain the mythic progressive majority activists have been daydreaming about. If one accepts that we have two such councilpeople now--three on the days when Richard Conlin forgets to take his meds--here's what would need to happen. Curt Firestone would need to surprise Margaret Pageler in his challenge of the well-financed incumbent. Then, out of the three open seats, progressives would need to win two. That means either Judy Nicastro or Daniel Norton beating Cheryl Chow in Position 1 (unfortunately, the two most clearly progressive candidates among all the open seats are running against each other), and Dawn Mason would have to both beat Alec Fisken and prove herself an actual progressive (an unlikely outcome, in my opinion, but we're dreaming here) in Position 9. That even leaves newcomer and prodigious fundraiser Heidi Wills, running against Charlie Chong, as a possible darkhorse progressive in the Position 7 race.

It's daunting, but not impossible. The hardest task, and one most worthy of rallying around, is Firestone's challenge of Pageler. The other races are dependent on the bonafides of candidates like Mason, who will at this point say whatever we want to hear. Firestone is the real article, a long-time activist from before he was running for anything. Nicastro and Norton are the next-best bets: one, maybe both, will survive the primary. We are not as far away from a progressive majority as it might seem. The more important question, though, is what that means. What do activists want from four, five, or six presumed progressives on council? One or two clear priorities--not a laundry list of groups, like the Seattle Progressive Coalition--as something to rally behind would help.--Geov Parrish

The biggest comedy of the campaign so far has been the race to sign up for the Seattle Green Party. Presumably it's to get the Greens' vaunted endorsement; Mason, Nicastro, Chong, and Wills have all expressed interest in signing up. Of them, only Nicastro seems even remotely credible; Mason was, until last year, a Democratic Party officeholder, and Wills has worked for two Democrats (Ron Sims and Cynthia Sullivan). Both are relying heavily on those networks--not the Greens--for their campaigns. Meanwhile, Charlie Chong is, well, Charlie Chong, and it's hard to believe he has professed allegiance to any one party. Nicastro's not necessarily pure, either--she's come under criticism from some housing activists as manipulating her crusade for rent control to benefit her own political aspirations--but as least she's not hopelessly wed to the Democrats. Here's a good test of sincerity: how 'bout if the Greens institute a $100 membership fee for anyone who's filed for office? Goodness knows they could use the money, and if the Greens are that valuable a stepping stone, it should be a minor investment for that lucrative $80K/year council job.G.P.

I have no idea where I was when Kennedy was shot--either of them--and I don't care. Nor do I care when any of their wretched (and rich) offspring have skiing accidents, crash their planes, or rape their cousins. I JUST DON'T CARE. Congress was passing one of the most sweeping and idiotic pieces of legislation in years--the Republicans' $792 billion tax cut, a final piece of the long-term strategy of shifting government wealth to the country's economic elite, by failing to use the budget surplus to reinstate all the safety net programs slashed in the last two decades. And we heard virtually nothing about it because we were getting live underwater mini-cam shots of the retrieval of the wreckage of JFK Jr., who was being mourned by a whole nation's worth of boomer talking heads who wanted to relive their maudlin memories of his father's assassination. I say it's a shame nobody shot Joe Sr. in 1935 or so, sparing us his ill-gotten fortune and all of this bullshit. Meanwhile, I was kind of hoping a flaming meteor would take out the rest of the clan at the funeral. Better yet, have it catered by the concessionaires at Safeco Field. (The Kennedys can afford it.)--G.P.

Last week, Woodstock '99 ended in a melee, as dozens of teenagers and twenty-somethings set fire to trailers, stole food and water, and tried to kick open ATM machines. What did the organizers expect? After three days of sitting around in the blistering sun on an Air Force base, forced to listen to such has-beens as Elvis Costello (who has resurrected his career by writing drippy love songs for mediocre Hollywood movies) and Willie Nelson (unceremoniously forced out of retirement by the IRS), who can blame them for trashing a couple of loudspeakers? But seriously, most of these people weren't even born when the first Woodstock happened--back in the days when young men burned their draft cards, students and GI resisters protested the Vietnam War, people of color took to the streets to gain their civil rights, and mainstream people were forced to face a wide range of issues: racism, classism, sexism, environmental concerns, etc. But since the end of the '70s, the mainstream media has divorced any portrayal of the '60s and '70s from a discussion of these political and social issues, which leaves only a picture of hippies getting high at Woodstock and riots just happening in the streets for no apparent reason. So searching for a deep meaning behind the Woodstock '99 riot is futile. It happened simply because so many young Americans think the '60s were all about just getting high, starting a riot, and indiscriminately destroying stuff.--M.T.

The Independent of London reports that about half the medicine sent to Kosovo refugees was absolutely useless. Most of the donations were made by pharmaceutical corporations, who can take the donations as a major tax write-off. But the shipments included such junk as: Chapstick lip balm, Preparation H hemorrhoid cream, and anti-smoking kits. In one shipment, a U.S. medical charity (which should have known better) sent a huge amount of cough syrup and a fruit-flavored syrup for treating sinus pain in children. In addition, much of the medicine was past its expiration date and had to be dumped. The U.N.'s World Health Organization was appalled at the lack of syringes, antibiotics, insulin, and other useful medicines in the shipments and at the scale of waste involved. And not only are these supplies useless, they are also considered "chemical waste," which is expensive for recipient nations--in this case Albania and Macedonia--to destroy or dispose of. According to Valery Abramov at WHO: "It is most unfortunate, but we see this problem again and again. It took years to get rid of much of the aid sent after the Armenian earthquake, because the country simply did not have the incinerators required to deal with the drugs."--M.T. Source: Liberation of Kosovo: up to Half Medical Aid Sent to Refugee Camps 'Useless,'" Independent (London), 6/30/99.

Here's a follow up to the Nature & Politics article "Stones and Roses in North Richmond" (ETS! 7/21/99). Information on the class action lawsuits filed on behalf of Los Angeles and Oakland, CA, against the CIA regarding the importation of crack cocaine into their communities during the 1980s, can be found at http://www.copvcia.com/classaction1.htm. Anyone living in LA, Compton, or Oakland from 1983 through 1988 is automatically part of the suit. If you were a resident and would like to testify regarding your personal loss from drug violence during those years, you can call one of the following numbers: 213-427-8519 or 310-837-6684 for LA, or 510-273-2474 for Oakland. The lawyers handling the case also need legal research help; if you're a law student or attorney who wants to help, contact Katya Komisaruk via e-mail at outlawyer@igc.org. The Oakland City Council has endorsed the lawsuits is now talking about filing its own lawsuit, too.--M.T.