This is also listed in the back page calendar, but for those of you not on Internet or who've been out in the mountains or living in your vacation cave: President Asshole himself is coming to town August 22-23. He'll be in Bellevue Friday night for one of his roving national campaign shakedowns of the extremely wealthy -- in our case, reportedly at the home of billionaire Craig McCaw. Rumors have him in Lake City Saturday morning, tho as usual the White House is staying mum on exact plans til a few days before. A major anti-Bush march and rally is being organized for Saturday, Aug. 23 at noon starting at Myrtle Edwards Park on the waterfront north of downtown. Plans change, and a lot is going on at the last moment -- check for details, and plug in to the organizing, at www.stopbushseattle.com or www.mvp- seattle.org. --Geov Parrish

Dubya will be in Portland the previous day, Aug. 21, and word on the street there is that it's shaping up as that city's WTO -- it'll be large and wild. Portland has had some famous run-ins with visiting presidents in recent times, and lately the activists have been getting more radical, the crowds have been getting larger, and the cops have been getting even more brutal. Globally, Seattle has the radical reputation, but these days a lot more is happening in Portland. Here in Latteland, way too many activists think summer means we can all go hiking and the world will stop and wait for us for a few months. A lot more of the people in Portland who toss around words like "revolution" act like they mean it, and act on their beliefs a lot more visibly and persistently -- and not just the black bloc crowd. For a large number of reasons, a lot of interesting stuff is going on in the Rose City these days.

By the time our Appointed Leader gets to Seattle next week, his entire delegation might be a little frayed from their welcome in Oregon. Let's jangle their nerves a little more. Remember all the sickening stuff that's happened just in the past three years -- from the stolen election to the corrupt appointments to the arsenic in drinking water and the new clearcuts and the abandonment of Kyoto and every other damn treaty, to the corporate scandals, to the tax cuts for the rich while the economy tanks and a record government surplus becomes a debt that'll still be acruing interest in the next ice age. Oh, and then there's the wars and the trashed constitution and the open pining for a global fascist empire. Remember all this, and much more, and grab ten of your friends and tell the world what you think when the man who's done all this in your name comes to town. --G.P.

Julian Borger of The Guardian newspaper in London reported on Monday, August 4, that the Bush administration has been undercounting the number of dead and wounded US soldiers in Iraq. The official death toll (as of 8/4) was 166, but Borger points out that a total of 248 soldiers have died so far, if you include accidents, illnesses, and suicides. Even worse, the Pentagon is purposefully undercounting wounded US soldiers, by a factor of 10. The official Pentagon total is 827 wounded. Central Command in Qatar reports 926 wounded. However, Lt. Col. Allen DeLane, who is in charge of airlifting wounded troops into Andrews airbase, was quoted on NPR as saying, "I can't give you an exact number because that's classified information, but I can say to you over 4,000 have stayed here at Andrews, and that number doubles when you count the people that come here to Andrews and then we send them to other places like Walter Reed and Bethesda, which are in this area also." So that's 8,000, not 800, as the Pentagon has been reporting. Borger points out that some of those wounded at Andrews might be soldiers who have passed through Andrews more than once. But, surely, they haven't all passed through 10 times! And, hey, why the hell is the number of wounded US soldiers considered "classified information?"--Maria Tomchick. Source: "The unreported cost of war: at least 827 American wounded," Julian Borger, The Guardian, 8/4/03, www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4725751,00.html.

US hopes for more reinforcements in Iraq have been dashed once again, this time by Iraqi Kurdish groups. About 9,000 foreign troops have been pledged by a group of 19 countries led by Poland, but that's not nearly enough to relieve the majority of overtaxed US troops and bring them home. The nations that could provide the most help--France, Germany, Russia, India, and Pakistan--have refused to contributed troops until the UN Security Council gives it's blessing to the occupation; Bush administration hardliners are reluctant to even ask for a new resolution, since they know it'll come with strings attached: limits on US authority in Iraq. So, the Pentagon was very happy when Turkey said it would send 12,000 soldiers to help "keep the peace" in the Sunni triangle in central Iraq. Only one problem: the two main Kurdish groups in Iraq, the PUK and KDP, have refused to allow Turkish troops to march across the border and through northern Iraq to join US forces. The Pentagon's only other options involve either airlifting Turkish troops (too expensive!) or putting them on ships (too slow!). Oh, well. Maybe it's time to take Congress' advice and finally ask the UN for help.--M.T. Source: "Kurds block Turkish mission into Iraq," Charles Clover, Financial Times, 8/6/03.

You have to read the foreign press to get the most interesting news of what's happening in Iraq, because the New York Times, Washington Post, Fox News, MSNBC, etc. won't do any real investigative digging. A good example is the following. I stumbled across an article from Agence France Presse entitled "US used napalm-like firebombs during Iraq invasion: Pentagon official". (8/7/03), and was appalled that I hadn't seen this news elsewhere. It's a summary of an interview with a officer returning from Iraq, originally printed in the San Diego Tribune. Col. Randolph Alles, commander of Marine Air Group 11, talked about napalming two bridges near the town of Numaniyah in south-central Iraq, and dropping MK-77 firebombs on troop positions near Safwan just across the border with Kuwait. Alles was quoted, "The generals love napalm. It has a big psychological effect." (Although not on the American public, which has been protected from even knowing about its use in this war.)--M.T.

More good news for the hope of reform in the Seattle School Board! was announced last month, long time activist with Citizen's Campaign for Commercial Free Schools, Brita Butler Wall, is running against Board President Nancy Waldman (www.electbrita.org). Brita's not alone; a year of horrible disasters with the school board has resulted in an influx of extremely qualified candidates. Although this may be the one race in Washington where (hopefully) incumbancy is a weakness, these candidates onetheless face a general apathy and obscurity and need name recognition.

Running for Position 1 (far North Seattle) is Theresa Cardamone. A long-time active parent with Alternative School #1, she's challenging Barbara Peterson, an incumbent who voted to approve a budget missing $35 million and afterwards gave the superintendent a B+. (www.campaignforcardamone.org)

Running for Position 2 (North Seattle/Greenlake) is Jan Morris, a special education teacher turned family lawyer who also volunteers teaching art to the elderly. Her passion is for Alternative schools, a particularly neglected branch of the school district. She's challenging incumbent Steve Brown, board vice-president who voted to approve a budget missing $35 million and gave Superintendent Olchefske a B+ grade afterwards. He's also reportedly infamous for his sneering condescending attitude towards "concerned parents." (www.janmorris.org)

Adrian Moroles, running for Position 6 (West Seattle), appears to face the greatest challenge out of this group: the incumbent there is wisely not seeking re-election. His campaign platform features an abundant sprinkling of words like "courageous leadership" in order to "build confidence and trust" and "provide quality education for all" -- usually bland and meaningless euphemisms, but when compared to the current board's actions they sound radical and futuristic. Regardless, as an administrator with SEA-MAR Community Health Center, a strong proponent of bilingual education (he grew up in a migrant farm worker family in a segregated Latino community) who holds a Masters in Education Psychology and raises numerous foster children to boot, you can't be too suspicious of his sincerities and ambitions. (www.adrianmoroles.com)

And for the record, don't forget everyone's favorite Brita Butler-Wall for Position 3 against evil incumbent/board president Nancy Waldman, who, like five out of six of her colleagues, voted to approve a budget missing $35 MILLION and afterwards gave Superintendent Olchefski a B+. (www.electbrita.org) --Chris LaRoche