As interesting as the abominable verdict in the Amadou Diallo case was the response of the four major presidential candidates to it. At one end we have Bill Bradley, who unleashed an astonishingly good statement decrying racial profiling, the practice of which was epitomized by Diallo's shooting. At the other end we have John McCain, a Neanderthal who is enjoying an inexplicably cushy ride from corporate media. (Maybe because they don't want to see a stone idiot, George W., buy the Republican nomination.) McCain allowed as to how he hadn't really been paying that much attention to the case, easily the biggest news story among African Americans (and New Yorkers) in years. Can we expect this sort of benign--or maybe malignant--neglect from a McCain administration, too? The more one learns about the four major candidates, the more depressing the whole scene gets. Thank Goddess Ralph Nader finally announced.--Geov Parrish

Last week, the Tenant's Union sponsored two float trips down the Skagit River to watch eagles. I joined the enthusiastic group traveling on the glacial-fed river, but before I saw any magnificent raptors, I spotted Slade Gorton--or at least the desolation left by his "Salvage Logging" rider. The remaining snow highlighted mountainsides stripped of trees, a raw patchwork of land rape. And as we prepared the rafts, a helicopter lifted dead trees from a steep nearby slope, undoubtedly some "sick" tree that needed to be "salvaged"--along with the rest of the forest. On the river, the eagles watched us long before we spotted them. I wonder what they think of the greedy, thoughtless species that's destroying their world with chainsaws, trucks, and helicopters, and then invading on rubber rafts to catch a glimpse of the survivors.--Valerie Jean

What's the next step in dismantling the WTO and global capitalism? Two upcoming conferences explore the role of unions, and a unique labor/environmental coalition. The UW Labor Studies Department presents "What's Next & How Do We Get There? Labor's Program After the WTO," on March 3-4 (see the Activist Calendar in this issue). This discussion is crucial if labor is to use its substantial resources to stop global plundering, instead of throwing money and votes at spineless Republicrats. Meanwhile, "Turtles & Teamsters!" are growing into "Steelworkers and Steelheads." The Alliance for Sustainable Jobs & the Environment will hold its first membership meeting at Portland State University, April 1-2. (More info is available at www.asje.org.) This coalition grew out of an alliance between steelworkers and environmentalists with a shared corporate enemy: the Maxxam Corp. Maxxam owns Kaiser Aluminum, which has locked out steelworkers, and Pacific Lumber, which clearcuts old-growth redwoods in California's Headwaters Forest. Few things unite people like a common enemy ... and as one steelworker told me: "Let's work together where we agree, and then deal with our differences." How wise!--V.J.

As drug czar Barry McCaffrey toured Colombia last week in a publicity campaign for the $1.6 billion proposed U.S. military aid package to Colombia, Human Rights Watch released a report on the recipients of that aid money. The report says that Colombia's military is still providing arms and training to right-wing paramilitary death squads--the same groups that are responsible for most of the slaughter of civilians and human rights violations during the country's long-running civil war. The report is based on information from the Colombian attorney general's office and independent observers, and not on the assurances of Colombian generals, whom McCaffrey cites as his source for the notion that the military's human rights violations have gone "downward to nearly zero." The report also asserts that the Colombian military has links to drug traffickers and uses their money to help set up paramilitary groups. This flies directly in the face of assertions by the White House and the CIA that the Colombian rebels are the real drug traffickers in Colombia.--Maria Tomchick

The CIA, which itself stands accused of cocaine smuggling, served a clear propaganda function last month when it revised sharply upward the estimates of cocaine produced in Colombia last year. This new announcement was conveniently timed to coincide with the Clinton Administration's new aid package to Colombia. The CIA claims that Colombia produced 520 tons of cocaine--nearly double earlier estimates--in spite of the fact that cocaine use is falling in the U.S. Faced with this criticism of its numbers, the CIA was quick to add that the Colombian rebels also are responsible for most of the heroin (the new recreational drug of choice) shipped into the U.S. What a lie! Try explaining this to the International Narcotics Control Board, a U.N. agency. The INCB takes a broader view of drug trafficking around the world. In its recent annual report, it praised our old enemy Iran for eradicating heroine trafficking, while it singled out our old ally Jordan for its lax laws on bank secrecy, which allows drug traffickers to easily launder money. The INCB report had a few other interesting things to say about international drug trafficking. Haiti, a U.S. client state, is the favorite transshipment point for drugs produced in Central and South America, yet no U.S. aid money is being sent to Haiti to revise its offshore banking laws. Also, the most common illegal recreational drug in the U.S.--cannabis--is being cultivated increasingly by people here at home who order their seeds and supplies over the Internet from Canadian sources. And where do those seeds originate? In the Middle East, according to the INCB. Of course, the U.S. government is never going to spend money to eradicate marijuana production in Israel, Jordan, and Turkey--all strong U.S. allies. The INCB report goes on to point a finger at Afghanistan (run by the CIA-sponsored Taliban) as being responsible for 75% of the world's opium crop, and the processing of opium into heroine has moved mostly from Pakistan into Afghanistan (it's cheaper to be closer to the source). Yet another U.S. ally, China, is the leader in marketing amphetamines. I'm beginning to see a pattern here ... and it has nothing to do with Marxist rebels.--M.T.

...Which is why I don't understand why more people aren't out in the streets protesting our government's push to give billions of dollars to murderers in Colombia. It's a pretty cut-and-dried issue. Maybe it's easy to say "I don't care about someplace so far away," but, damn, it's our tax money, and it will go to kill real, living, breathing people in their own homes--regardless of how "far away" they are. Some of those folks who got excited about El Salvador and Nicaragua 15 years ago could be a lot of help on this issue right now.--M.T.

White courtesy phone, please: Alan Benson and Roberta Wilson, please e-mail us at ets@scn.org. I've lost your e-addresses and wanna talk.--G.P.

Congrats to loyal ETS! reader and Garfield High teacher Paulette Thompson for a nice write-up in the Times the other day regarding her Peace Corps experiences.--G.P.