Valerie Jean Rose, who edits the activist calendar and also writes and does other volunteer work for ETS!, has been diagnosed with breast cancer. To help cover her expenses for health care and lost income, we're throwing a Spring Lumpenproletariat Talent Show! Bring your best (or worst) stuff, or just come gawk at the train wrecks! Wednesday, March 21, 7 PM, at the Speakeasy Cafe, $5 (or more) at the door; if you want to perform, e-mail me at gparrish@seattleweekly.com, or call 206-467-4363. Wish Valerie a speedy recovery! --Geov Parrish

The Commanders of the EZLN have embarked on their journey to Mexico City to press for an Indigenous Rights bill in the Congress. In support of the occasion, the worldwide Independent Media Center (IMC), has established its latest site (#44) in San Cristobal, Chiapas, www.chiapas.indymedia.org. They are making an effort to provide content in both English and Spanish, and seems like the place to go if you want to keep up on the day to day events on this peoples' mobilization, beside which, Seattle 1999 pales. Subcommandante Marcos has already used the indymedia site to send several missives into activist-space. You might also check out the several month old, www.mexico.indymedia.org, based in Mexico City for a more national perspective. Another, unrelated site, www.narconews.com, devoted to covering the global drug wars in their various guises, promises "All Zapatistas all the time," in honor of the occasion. The Zapatistas are on the road until early March, when they will arrive in Mexico City to what is sure to be an unbelievable welcome. This is an event worth following. --Troy Skeels

The New Zealand Herald--funny how you hafta go halfway around the world to get regional news--reported on February 3, 2001 that "All life on Earth could be destroyed by genetically modified bacteria, a scientist has told the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification." Said scientist, soil ecologist Dr. Elaine Ingham, testified via phone at the New Zealand hearing about "...a plant-killing GM bacteria that her Oregon State University research team prevented from being released into the environment. Ingham said the alcohol-producing bacteria had been approved for field trials when her team discovered its lethal effects. She believed the widespread plant deaths caused by the bacteria would in turn affect all life on Earth. The GM klebsiella planticola produced alcohol from post-harvest crop residue. The leftover organic sludge, containing the bacteria, would be returned to fields as fertiliser. Dr Ingham said she had independently tested the bacteria on plants, which the regulatory authority had failed to do. `After seven days, all wheat plants turned into slime.'" Wouldn't it be nice to know how much of this sort of corporate-friendly "research" is going on at UW and WSU? Lots, I'd bet. --G.P.

Sad to note the passing of Leroy Mills, a long-time area Native American elder and activist until his move to Wyoming a few years back. Mills was, among many other things, co-founder of the Northwest Leonard Peltier Support Network. He passed away on Feb. 20. --Geov Parrish

It's been a great year for ETS! predictions. Our long-time readers have probably noticed that several of our predictions have come true, but it can't hurt to point them out and gloat a little. Three years ago Geov wrote a warning about utility deregulation ("1997's Most Underrated Stories," ETS!, 12/23/97) that has largely come true: "Global austerity is coming to the U.S., and not just in the form of social service cuts. Two critical issues to watch for in 1998: utility deregulation and privatization of social security. Both are scams that could literally cost consumers and workers trillions. You know who wins." Indeed we do. It's interesting, however, that you had to be an ETS! reader to hear about this in advance.

In May of last year, I wrote an article (ETS!, 5/10/00) predicting that the Microsoft antitrust case would get shunted to an appeals court that would rule in Microsoft's favor. This week a federal appeals court is deliberating on the antitrust suit and, yes, all the analysts are predicting that it's the end for the Dept. of Justice's case. Microsoft uber alles. What happened to all those economists decrying the impending breakup of Microsoft? And finally, I picked up The Seattle P-I this morning to read about the NASDAQ dropping to below 2,200 points--its lowest level in two years. Here's what I wrote at the end of last year (ETS!, 1/3/01): "The NASDAQ reached a high of over 5,000 points in March of this year. As I glance at yesterday's paper, the market has skidded to under 2,500 points and obviously has farther to fall." It's fun to be right, but more importantly, it makes you scorn those "professionals" who make a living making predictions that are often wrong. That's not to say their predictions are useless, however. Propaganda is always useful for someone.--Maria Tomchick

The day before the latest idiotic, errant, and criminal US/British bombing of Baghdad, the P-I ran an op-ed column by syndicated writer George Gedda. Gedda, mournfully recounting the loss of global support for U.S.-led sanctions against Iraq, trotted out the familiar argument that sanctions are all Saddam's fault--citing, among other things, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook's observation that "Saddam's regime imports 10,000 bottles of scotch every month."

Let's see. In a country of 22 million, that's one bottle per 2,200 people. Such wanton prosperity! At wholesale prices, that would nearly half a cent per person per month otherwise spent on food or medical supplies! (A full penny if it's the good stuff.)

Gedda didn't think to mention the 1-2 million Iraqis killed by sanctions, many of them children. Maybe their parents could use a drink. - G.P.

Kitchen Notes: Several items we had hoped to have in this issue-- specifically, an article by Albert Kaufman on SE Seattle politics, and several letters--didn't make it, because our server (Seattle Community Network) crashed Sunday while we were downloading files; those are the ones we didn't get to. Apologies to the authors, and we'll try to get to you next.

Meanwhile...not to be too strident about this or anything, but while we're deeply appreciative of the folks who responded to Troy Skeels' fund appeal last issue, the response was pretty underwhelming. C'mon, folks--we know you're out there, and we need money to print. We could be coming out every week if we had the money. We did come out every week, for three years, and now we are literally out of money printing every two weeks. This is not a joke. No money, no paper. After this issue, we'll have exactly $41.33 in the bank. It will cost us about $500 to put out another paper in two weeks. We think we do good work; most of you do, too. Please don't make us start putting the fund appeals as our lead story--or our last story! -- G. P.