Conlin vs. Sawant: The Politics of Character Assassination

Character assassination is easy. The great thing about it is you don’t actually have to prove anything. You can use any number of techniques. Guilt by association with other people. Tying the person to something seemingly in contradiction to their values. Vague innuendos that sound like questions. Taking details of a person’s personal life and…

The Big Squeeze

Skyrocketing rents by real estate developers and stagnant wages by employers equal pauperized workers and displacement to low-income suburbs. How do we reclaim our city? If you’ve lived in Seattle for more than a few years, the city you know is disappearing. It’s being replaced by the “Lords of Concrete” – an alliance of real…

The real meaning of Kshama Sawant's stunning numbers

The strong showing of some 35% by Kshama Sawant in her race against Richard Conlin for Seattle City Council impressed many.  Yet even fans such as the Stranger have failed to understand the actual nature of the political earthquake, resorting to exercises in vote counting that border on numerology. Certainly, the facts themselves are amazing….

Could WA State actually have the fifth highest unemployment in the nation?

As it turns out, the short answer is “yes.” The longer answer is, it all depends on the way you measure the rate. There are a three ways to look at the unemployment rate: The official rate, which is referred to in official Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) as “U.3.” U.3 only counts unemployed workers…