Item from the business pages: "Nucor Corp. NYSE:NUE - News), the largest US steel producer, on Friday almost doubled its quarterly earnings forecast because of the higher prices and strong demand that have sparked an industrywide recovery. The company, whose shares rose nearly eight percent, also said lower costs an some of its mills have helped its performance...."

This is the same Nucor that got a big, fat, whopping corporate welfare gift from the Seattle City Council on Mar. 15 when the council approved Mayor Nickels' plan to forgive old debts and give the company's West Seattle plant a big break on electricity rates. The profitable plant, which is the biggest consumer of electricity in the city, already got one such break four years ago, which had been due to be repaid in 2004 and coming years. Instead, Nickels-using the same mantra of "saving jobs" and "multiplier effects on the local economy," overrode Councilmember Nick Licata's objections and, with the help of new council drone Jean Godden, pushed a second break through along with forgiveness of the first one.

One wonders: how many different breaks are needed, economically speaking, can be justified by citing the local impact of the same jobs? How many other local companies will demand the same cushy treatment, just as, at the state level, big businesses are now after the legislature to give them the Boeing treatment? And-based on last week's business news-how much of the money saved by Nucor, money now being paid by other local utility customers (like you and me), is going not to those mythic local jobs, but directly into the pockets of the stockholders of the country's most profitable steel company? --Geov Parrish

Attention fellow masochists: I've been invited to appear as a regular Wednesday morning drive time guest, in the 8 AM hour, discussing news of the week with host Kirby Wilbur on KVI-570 radio. KVI, for those not up on your fair and balanced media, is the more established of our two secular right wing AM talk stations (there's also a couple of Christian ones). From their standpoint, KVI recently lost the franchise of Rush Limbaugh to upstart KTTH-770, so I guess this is some sort of counterprogramming. From my standpoint, it's a chance to engage an audience progressives don't usually get a respectful hearing with-but it'll be lonely, and I could still use some supportive phone calls now and then. Hint, hint. --G.P.

I don't want to be cruel, or to ruin the vibe from what was otherwise a splendid and well-attended event, but...the screeching, sectarian-sounding woman who was the sole speaker sending off March 20's anniversary anti-war march in Seattle was truly dreadful. I've been going to marches and rallies for 25 years, and maybe I'm just getting old and cranky-or listening to KVI too much--but hers was an off-putting performance for the ages. No music, no information on Iraq or what people could do to get involved or stop the war or unseat Bush, not even any information on the march itself, just what seemed like an unbroken half-hour harangue of pointless, tired clichˇs: "We've got to stop this war!...(pause)...The People! United! Will never be defeated!...(pause)...The People know the truth! And that's why The People will stop this war, because The People will never be defeated!...(pause)... Stop this war! Stop this war! Stop this war!... (pause)..." And on, and on, and on, while The People, basking in a sunny day, socialized and milled about and generally ignored her, which was just as well. The medics on site probably didn't know how to treat The People when The People are at risk for dying from either clichˇ poisoning or sheer embarrassment.

And seeing as how 5,000 or so marchers were gathering in a residential neighborhood on First Hill, it must have done wonders for the peace movement's image among the locals, too. "Sorry, sir, but she's not with us. She just seized the sound system somehow." More to the point, a large march like that contains a lot of people who are marginally involved in activism; speakers and organizers who seem like they have something to say, and can say it in an accessible and entertaining manner, are essential in helping such folks feel at home and like they want to get more involved. Oh, well. --G.P.

A month after we began ETS! in 1996, after some similar experience (protesting another bombing of Iraq, of course), we printed the following, which seems as relevant as ever:

Eat the State! presents our top ten list of chants we never, ever, ever want to hear again:

10. "No Blood For Oil!" (presumably, starvation and disease for oil have been fine, and blood for petroleum substitutes is A-OK) 9. "We're Fired Up, Won't Take No More!" (until we go home in an hour) 8. "No Justice! No Peace!" (see 9.) 7. Anything in Spanish from a crowd more than 90% non-Spanish-speaking 6. "What Do We Want? (something) When Do We Want It? (timeline)" 5. "Power! Power! Power To The People..." (or anything else with "The People," a phrase freely and arrogantly substituted for "us") 4. "The People, United, Will Never Be Defeated" (if The People were united, there would be no one left to defeat, now, would there?) 3. "Two, Four, Six, Eight," anything after this that rhymes with "eight" (we're policy advocates, not Big Bird) 2. "Hey Hey, Ho Ho," anything after this, period. (we're policy advocates, not the Seven Dwarfs) 1. "The Whole World Is Watching!" (the most embarrassingly and obviously false statement imaginable.)

Eight years later, add a caveat for the WTO protests - the only time in most local activists' lives when the whole world actually was watching--and throw in as a banned bonus the chant "This is What Democracy Looks Like!" for any scruffy-looking march of 300 people. The result, far too often, still covers far too much of the protest vocabulary.

The number of people in Seattle supportive of issues like stopping the US occupation of Iraq is far, far greater than the number of people who usually turn out at these events. Organizers should ask themselves: "Why?" --G.P.