Strange & Stranger

Can you imagine a reporter inviting a candidate for public office to an endorsement interview at the very time that he’s trashing that candidate on a blog? Well, hold your breath. I received the following e-mail at 2:24 p.m. on Thursday, September 20:

I replied, “Sorry, I don’t do endorsement interviews with the corporate media. Learned my lesson in 1999.”

Jonah replied, “Have you ever read our paper?”

Ignorance, AIDS & Politics

Read it? Hell yes, I’ve studied it. I began digging up some choice links that illustrate why I have so much contempt for The Stranger—which never invited me to an endorsement interview in any of my previous campaigns—like the issue where their editorial clowns called me “the requisite loony” (apparently because I hate Bill Gates) while endorsing an ESTABLISHMENT heavyweight named Judith Billings, mostly because she has AIDS (“We love HIV!”). How can anyone take such an endorsement seriously?

They also noted that Billings was “racking up endorsements.” That’s kind of like endorsing candidates who are raking in money. I mean, we all know what kind of candidates get all the money, corrupt endorsements and media publicity in this town.

Then there’s this page, where The Stranger endorsed four assholes—Theresa Cardamone, Darlene Flynn, Brita Butler-Wall and Irene Stewart—in one fell swoop.

HELLO, does anyone at The Stranger bother to do any research on the candidates? For crying out loud, Stewart is a member of Mayor Greg Nickels’ administration. She’s an INSIDER. Flynn and Brita-Wall disgraced themselves after being appointed to the school board, and Brita’s true colors were especially obvious from the beginning.

And who could ever forget the candidates forum at the University of Washington’s Kane Hall that was moderated by The Stranger’s Dan Savage and attended by a stripper, apparently designed to further remind citizens that Strippergate was and remains the biggest scandal in recent Seattle history? (No, I never attended this forum, which was held a few years ago, but SHEEZ.)

Two-Faced Media Whore

I shared some of the above information with Jonah (I hate typing Spangenthal-Lee) even after I made an amazing discovery. While searching for those choice links, I discovered a conversation about me on a blog at http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/the_seattle_mafia.

This particular thread was started by our friend Jonah shortly before he invited me to his paper’s endorsement interview. His comments aren’t particularly flattering; he suggests I’m some sort of kook and adds that I resemble Frankenstein in appearance.

His initial post is followed by a brief flurry of posts by people identified only by pseudonyms, all attacking me in a sort of feeding frenzy. It’s kind of like being gang-raped by a bunch of toothless media lap dogs.

Now I’m a big believer in free speech, and if people want to call me names—well, let’s just say the Seattle Mafia has done much worse things to me. Still, this web page really pissed me off, for a couple reasons.

First, a reporter named Jonah Spangenthal-Lee was running me down on his blog at the very time he was inviting me to an endorsement interview. Excuse me, but does anyone beside me see anything unethical about this? Frankly, I’m amazed any newspaper would risk its reputation by indulging in such a stunt. So am I to believe that this asshole would really give me a fair hearing if I did attend his sleazy little interview?

The second thing that pissed me off is the fact that all the little chipmunks who eagerly followed Jonah’s lead in trashing me are obviously working for the Seattle Mafia. How do I know?

They don’t discuss any issues! They think I look like Frankenstein. They think I’m a kook, apparently because I call corrupt politicians “whores.”

There’s no evidence on this web page that any of these assholes has a clue about public education or Seattle politics in general, nor do they appear to care. It’s certainly possibly that they’re just typically clueless Seattle liberals who have brainwashed into believing that civility trumps children, democracy and everything else. But what difference does it make? They’re still effectively helping the Seattle Mafia. And they’re still assholes.

A Teachable Moment

There is a silver lining to this little misadventure on the campaign trail. One of the reasons I run for public office is to gather intelligence on the enemy, and this is probably the best scoop I’ve ever had on The Stranger. In the past, their main offense was simply ignoring the issues (along with any candidates who actually discussed the issues), aside from a few insults they’ve tossed my way. But trashing a candidate on a blog out of one side of your face at the same time that you’re inviting that candidate to attend an endorsement interview out of the other side of your face is sleazy even by Seattle standards.

But what else can we learn from this experience? (Dare I call it a scandal?)

Well, let’s start with Jonah’s last e-mail to me.

Jonah, there are thousands of educators in Seattle who “get education” in the sense you allude to; i.e., they work for the education bureaucracy. But virtually none of them have a clue about education reform. Hell, they’ve lost control of their own union!

Back to Jonah’s forum... Jonah got the ball rolling with a little sarcasm, further adding that I look a little like Frankenstein.

The first comment was another lame insult from Ari Spool, another member of The Stranger’s staff.

Next, someone named earle posted “zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.”

A poster named josef said, “I think you meant he looks like Frankenstein’s monster, whose name was Adam, if I recall.”

This comment was followed by some more lame comments by Jonah, Cato the Younger Younger and Mr. Poe, whose name is linked to http://www.myspace.com/nobodyactuallylikestom, where he is apparently campaigning for John McCain. His website is worth checking out; it’s sooooo educational.

Next comes a comment from a real asshole, who hides behind the pseudonym t.p.n.:

What the Hell does he mean by “lifted”? On my Introduction to the Seattle Mafia, I state very clearly that I was inspired by an article that appeared in the Seattle Weekly, further displaying a list of the chief mafiosi copied from Mark Worth’s article.

Moreover, I wouldn’t say the Seattle Weekly had a “scoop.” After all, the corruption that infests Seattle isn’t that big a secret.

The Seattle Weekly performed a rare public service by allowing one of its classier reporters to simply scrape together a lot of Seattle Mafia trivia, giving readers an unusually detailed view of how the Seattle Mafia operates.

If anyone is guilty of lifting anything, it’s t.p.n.

On http://thepapernoose.blogspot.com/search?q=mark+worth, he quotes from my Seattle Mafia Introduction and repeats a few other observations I’ve made on my websites over the years. He frets that I may alienate “fence sitters” by using a term as harsh as “Seattle Mafia” (Boo!) and generally dismisses me as a conspiracy theorist before leaving visitors with a “well written list of questions” by former Seattle Times columnist Michelle Malkin. Ironically, I posted the same damn link near the bottom of my Seattle Mafia Introduction!

So who is this mysterious t.p.n., anyway? Fortunately, he invites visitors to “view my complete profile.”

And what a wealth of information it is! We learn that t.p.n. is a male, associated with the Maritime industry in the Duwamish River Valley (Washington : United States, not France, Brazil or anywhere else). Ya just gotta love a man with no original ideas who has the courage to stand behind other people’s ideas, even putting his reputation on the line.

The next comment worth noting was posted by N in Seattle:

So who’s this freedom fighter who is such a big fan of Goodspaceguy Nelson? N in Seattle links his name to Peace Tree Farm (http://peacetreefarm.org/), which sounds like the perfect name for a website run by a liberal Seattle peace pussy. But N in Seattle is slightly less courageous than t.p.n.; I couldn’t find a link to his profile. (However, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that he’s a male.)

This is followed by two more posts by tsm and Patrick (both unlinked), followed by another post by t.p.n. (who now spells my name Bloomstrom), then the comment “Eets FRONKenSTEEN” by viktor (unlinked).

Additional idiotic comments (none of them mentioning any issues) introduce us to Natalie, cascader and smarm (all names unlinked).

There may be one voice of reason on the entire thread; Katelyn wrote, “But what about THE ISSUES. THE ISSUES, PEOPLE. How is calling everyone a whore gonna help anything?” However, it isn’t really clear if she’s addressing Jonah and his chipmunks or me.

And that just about sums up The Stranger’s interview with David Blomstrom. They obviously had no intention of endorsing me in the first place, nor do they have a clue about education, and they certainly don’t give a damn about kids or democracy. These people are simply assholes.

Hey, don’t take my word for it; I invite you to visit The Stranger’s Frankenstein Blog for yourself. I copied several posts to preserve a record in case the bums decide to delete the entire thread. (I also copied the entire web page for posterity.) Better yet, why not go there and post your own thoughts? (Don’t forget to include links to my campaign website!)

Below is a copy of the single post I made on the Frankenstein Blog:

P.S. While working on this article, I discovered that Jonah Spangenthal-Lee started a new thread on his blog titled “David Blomstrom Probably Thinks You’re a Whore”—AFTER he extended his invitation to the strangest endorsement interview in town.

So what do you think? Should I attend The Stranger’s endorsement interview? Do you think the interviewers would be unbiased? Do you think there was ever a chance that they’d endorse a candidate who’s openly challenging Seattle’s corporate establishment? And would a person with any class want to be endorsed by a bunch of shitheads in the first place?

In other words, do you really think I’m that stupid?

Can’t afford to donate money to my campaign? No problem! You can join the team by simply visiting Urban Dictionary > Seattle Mafia and clicking the yellow thumbs up icon , indicating you agree with my definition. Doing so will help publicize the fact that there IS a Seattle Mafia. If you’re working for the Seattle Mafia and want to click the thumbs down icon , that᾿s fine, too. Either way, you’re helping my campaign. :)