ETS! encourages comments, feedback, tips, corrections, and info! Please keep them as concise as possible so we can print as many different voices as possible: ETS!, P.O. Box 85541, Seattle WA 98145, or e-mail ets@scn.org.

George W. Crackhead

Consider this--about our next President?--

George Bush, Jr., was doing cocaine while his dad, George Bush, Sr., was head of the CIA--before George Bush became President--that was 25 years ago!

Bush got his cocaine directly from the real source--Ollie North and the contras--no middle man! No risky "street connections" for this rich, privileged white boy! The best and the purest, and, likely, for free!

Bush's strange "waffling" on the subject hides a far worse truth that he doesn't want to come out, worse even than illegal cocaine use.

If--according to our government's "zero tolerance" laws--Bush gave any amount, even less than a gram, of this CIA cocaine to any of his friends (and who does cocaine alone?)--by our laws, this makes Bush a "pusher." Get this, people--THERE IS NO STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS FOR THIS CRIME.

Write your Congressperson, write the Attorney General, demand a FULL CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION--if they can spend upward of $50 million investigating Clinton's couple of not-illegal blow jobs...

Wouldn't you love to see George Bush, Jr., in a Texas or federal penitentiary, together with those he put in there for cocaine pushing while he was governor of Texas?! Some big, dangerous, and very angry dudes?! (statistically likely to be black). How long do you think this wimp would last...I know it won't happen, he'll go to a jail that will be a "country club."

But, remember, "zero tolerance."

--Barbara Tomlinson, Seattle

G.P. replies: Barbara, Barbara, Barbara. I think you've finally lost it.

So, Barbara, while I generally share your opinion of George, Senior and Junior, I think your letter is a pile. And I print it, at possible great embarrassment to you--nothing personal--to demonstrate that even when we have the facts and the sentiment of the country's majority on our side (a lot of people are enjoying watching Bush squirm), it's important to get our facts straight and to not read too much into others' misfortune. Cuz if it's not George W. Bush, we'll still get some other frightful neo-fascist in office. Like Al Gore. Who's too fucking boring to have ever smoked dope.

Too Much Port

To the Editors -

One of the reasons I read Eat the State! is the vain hope that its editors use some mental power higher than reflex when making their election recommendations. After reading the last issue, I realize how misplaced that hope is.

I live in Burien, where the Port's $1 billion "third runway" is going to drain my wallet while it destroys the peace and quiet of my parkside neighborhood. That being the case, I have been following the Port election a little more closely than a normal person otherwise might.

I have heard and/or met all the candidates and, no question, the one who best combines experience, vision, and humor (a vital trait in a politician) is Ernie Ludwick. He even has guts. Sure, a few of his opponents might share his belief that the Port, with all its billions, should be self-supporting, but are any of them calling the existing financial situation there "corporate welfare"?

So imagine my shock when the Vol. 3, #44 of ETS! described Mr. Ludwick in one dismissive sentence. Isn't that what the other newspapers in Seattle are for- -to marginalize anyone who challenges the status quo? The man is a fountain of ideas, was it too much to mention a couple, if only to debate them?

The last words of your piece on the race for Port Commissioner, Position #2 were "What a mess." Ernie Ludwick agrees, and is running to try and clean up the expensive and destructive mess that is the Port of Seattle; I wish the staff at ETS! were half as useful.

--Kazumi Kochu, Burien

ETS!,

Don't want to risk alienating a media mogul, but where do you get the cojones to dismiss my candidacy based on one word in my voters' pamphlet statement? If you had bothered to even call me for 20 seconds, you would know that I represent the biggest challenge to the status quo of any of the Port candidates. The "business as usual" tax ripoffs and handouts to airline and shipping mega-corporations are sure to continue as long as we have your brand of press "vigilance" at work.

Next time try checking the facts before you print your guess at where I am coming from. I have thousands of grassroots supporters who are beating the streets, handing out fliers and putting up signs. They are enraged that "cruise ship" Laurie is spreading her personal wealth over the airwaves trying to buy this election, and that "big labor" Larry is using typical union strong-arm tactics to try and elbow his way in. I operate on honor and won't accept money from special interests. Your other choices are: a cruise ship owner, a longshoreman, a hotel lackey, a government functionary, an entrenched bureaucrat, and other one-trick ponies. Talk about conflict of interests! Each seeks to feather the nest of their own special interest puppet master.

Next time you think about setting yourself up as the arbiter of social change, try checking in with those of us who are actually doing something about the problems.

--Ernie Ludwick, Candidate, Port of Seattle Commission

G.P. replies: Gee, folks, thanks for thinking of us, though frankly, it doesn't say much for your campaign that you're taking time in the waning days of a tough race to write letters, to a relatively obscure publication, that can't appear until after voters have decided. By the time you read this, the Ernie Ludwick campaign will almost certainly be history. For the record, with limited print space, nearly a dozen races to cover, and a crowded nine-person race for the open Port seat, here's why I made an arbitrary editorial decision to give Ernie short shrift: 1) I can't think of an elected office less appropriate than the Port of Seattle in which to place a libertarian, whose stated ideology is to let corporations do whatever the hell they want. That's the problem down at the Port. 2) I made a judgment call that Ernie's was a "fringe" campaign. Based on a third party that never does well, in a crowded field, relatively little access to money and zero name recognition in a county-wide race, and--oh yeah--Mr. Ludwick's 1986 conviction and jail time for cocaine pushing (intent to purchase for resale). Now, frankly, I don't give a rat's hiney about Ernie's drug hijinx (see Barbara's letter), but it is relevant when deciding whether anyone will take a candidacy seriously. So my apologies, and here's your letters, even tho it's a bit late now. Good luck, and try not to get busted again.