The Sub-Prime Mess Explained by Stick Figures

Finally!

Sypmathy for the ELFers

I have a piece up on Time.com about the suspected eco-terrorism near Maltby, Washington, and the fact that the destroyed "Street of Dreams" was not exactly a cherished local landmark.

Here's a quote that I was surprised to get for my story. It comes from FBI special agent Frederick Gutt:

A lot of people in the Northwest, on the west coast, and in the U.S. and in the world today are environmentalists, have concerns about the earth and mother nature, myself included... A lot of people up here may be more sympathetic to the objective. It's a social objective many people can share.

Surprising because law enforcement officials are not always so thoughtful and personally forthcoming in their remarks about crimes such as this. Lest you think him an ELF sympathizer, however, here's what else Gutt said:

I don't think it makes the methods any more acceptable. There are ways to effect real change without resorting to crimes of violence.

Hillary Clinton's Seattle Speech

Greetings Slog readers. Here's a digital audio recording of Hillary Clinton's speech at Pier 30 in Seattle this evening.

More (Real) Music for Obama

There seems to be some sort of surge in music-making for Obama lately. The Grateful Dead are reuniting to play a get-out-the-vote rally for him in San Francisco. In Seattle, a bunch of musicians just recorded this... uh... funk for Obama:



And now everyone's sending around this link to an Obama anthem produced by a member of the Black Eyed Peas. Here's the YouTube version:

Music for Obama

There's an item in The New York Post this morning saying that Barack Obama entered his Des Moines victory party to the sounds of Jay-Z's "99 Problems." As in, "I got 99 problems, but a bitch ain't one."

That would be provocative moment, if true. But I was at the Obama victory rally in Des Moines and heard no Jay-Z. My digital audio recording of his speech that night has Obama entering to U2's "City of Blinding Lights" and exiting to Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered."

Here's the audio, Part 1 and Part 2.

Left Behind

I just returned from a week in Iowa, where I rode with the John Edwards bus tour, watched Barack Obama give his history-making Iowa caucus victory speech, and then, once it was all over... Stayed put.

Des Moines is a lonely place when you're the only out-of-town writer left in town. Here's the story I wrote about the experience.

The Anxiety of Hope

As you might have guessed from the below, I've just finished a feature on Barack Obama.

Barack Obama's Seattle Speech

Welcome back, once again, Slog readers. Barack Obama was in Seattle tonight for a "Generation Obama" event. As promised...

Here's the audio of his speech.

Barack Obama's Speech in Des Moines

Hello again Slog readers. Here's my digital audio recording of Barack Obama's speech yesterday in Des Moines. It's longer than Oprah's (about 30 minutes) and, like I said, not quite as good. But if you're an Obama fanatic, or just someone who's wondering what all the fuss is about, it's really something you should check out.

Click here to listen.

Oprah Winfrey's Speech in Des Moines

Hello Slog readers. Here's my digital audio recording of this afternoon's Oprah-Obama event in Des Moines. You'll hear Michelle Obama first, giving a brief introduction for Oprah. Then you'll hear (very briefly) some reporters jockeying for the best view spot. And then you'll hear Oprah's speech. It's about 20 minutes long.

Click here to listen.

And Now, the Chris Crocker Nude Pictures "Scandal"

Perhaps it was inevitable that Chris Crocker, a young man whose exhibitionist impulses have brought him internet stardom and talk of a TV deal, would have an exhibitionist past that includes the posting of nude pictures online. Crocker certainly seems to suggest inevitability in a MySpace blog entry he just put up, writing: "I had a lot of alone time in the last half of my teen years, [I was home schooled] and when you're young self-discovery..happens."

The self-discovery to which he is referring, and which prompted tonight's mea culpa, could be found on this blog last week. (But it's not there anymore. Crocker has been trying to get people to take the pictures down, saying they're illegal to possess. He called me tonight to say: "Everybody's talking about, 'Oh I saw Chris Crocker naked.' It's nothing to brag about. I'm a minor [in those pictures]. Everyone who's saving it to computers: It's child porn.")

The full Crocker mea culpa, sure to become a document of his generation (or at least of the next 24 hours), follows:

In regards to my "nudes"..

For days now I have been bombarded with messages about the nude photo scandal. The truth is, I was young and stupid when I took those pictures. So young in fact that I was 17 at the time.

I do not condone anyone underage or OF age to post nudes, but in my own personal defense- I had a lot of alone time in the last half of my teen years, [I was home schooled] and when you're young self-discovery..happens.

I did in fact upload the nudes of myself to the internet when I was 17. Again, I do NOT condone anyone to do this. On the contrary- I encourage everyone to NOT upload nudes of themselves.

I obviously did this behind my parents backs and I am truly embarressed for myself and my family at this time, but I just wanted to clear the air and let anyone and everyone know, that has saved these pictures that it is illegal seeing as though I was 17 at the time, so when you brag that you "saw Chris Crocker naked!!!"..what you're really bragging that you saw a 17 year old me naked.

Again, I do not condone or stand by my actions at 17, nor anyone else who is underage exploring themselves in this way.

When he called me, Crocker admitted that at this point he's not going to be able make the nudes disappear. "It's obviously not like I can zap it from the internet," he told me. But, he added: "It's just not something I want out there... I just don't want people to be under the impression that it's me as an adult when it's not." Still, he seemed somewhat resigned to the pictures being viewed online. "If they want to stare at a 17-year-old cock all day, that's their damage."

A TV Show for Chris Crocker?

Variety and DListed are making it sound like Chris Crocker just inked a new deal for a TV show in the wake of his Britney video. That's sort of true, in a limited sense, but they have the chronology wrong and seem to be downplaying the still-nonexistant nature of Crocker's show.

First off, the deal is nothing new. In my Crocker profile back in May, I mentioned the deal:

Over on YouTube, where Chris also posts, the total number of views for his videos long ago passed the one million mark. Among the people far away from Real Bitch Island who are tuning in: Cassie, the R&B star, who has a subscription to the Chris Crocker video stream on her YouTube page; Glenn Meehan, a Los Angeles producer who recently inked a deal with Chris to develop ideas for a TV show; and Matt Sunbulli, MTV's "web correspondent," who has requested a Chris Crocker video for the MTV website.

So there's no new deal since May. Second, there is some distance between having a development deal and actually having a TV show. What Crocker has right now is still only a development deal.

I just spoke to Meehan again, and he confirmed this, saying nothing new had happened. "We've had him under a deal since you were up there with him," Meehan told me. "It's the same one."

But, he added: "There could be news soon."

Welcome, Chris Crocker Fans (and Haters, and Curious Onlookers)

It's been rather amazing to watch the reaction to Chris Crocker's Britney video over the last week—and to watch the hits on this little web site spike as a result of people searching out the profile of Crocker that I wrote back in May.

For me, it's been a lesson in the enduring power of the mainstream media, even in these increasingly web-centric times. Sure, my Crocker profile got some hits in the four months before the Britney video. But that was nothing compared to the traffic the story saw after Crocker's video landed him on CNN, Fox News, Howard Stern, Jimmy Kimmel, VH1, and so on, which led to tons of people outside the already existing universe of Crocker-watchers suddenly going, "What the...?" and typing his name into their search engines. Which, I'm guessing, is how you got here.

In case you missed it, here's Crocker doing his web-cam interview with Kimmel on ABC, being analyzed on VH1's "Best Week Ever," and getting parodied by Seth Green:







Thanks to all of you who have written over the past few days with nice words, criticism, and other feedback about my profile. A couple of questions keep coming up, and I'll try to answer them here:

1) Where does Chris Crocker live? At Crocker's request, I promised not to reveal the exact location of the home where he makes his videos. He told me he's received death threats in the past, so it seemed a reasonable request. Which means, Crocker-stalkers, that I can only tell you what I wrote in the profile: He lives with his grandparents in a conservative town in the South. Sorry.

2) Is Chris Crocker serious about Britney? Crocker has answered this question himself in the comments attached to his video:

Yes, I was "REALLY" crying, you fucking morons. The one time I'm NOT acting- everyone says I am.

And I can assure you that his love for Britney Spears did not begin last week. Back when I spent a few days with Croker in his town, Britney came up repeatedly. He cited her as one of his heroes and major influences. He was extremely proud of having almost as many MySpace friends as her (now he has about 100,000 more than she does). And when we drove to the next town over to go to a gay bar, well, here's what happened:

On my last night in town, I pick Chris up in his grandparents' driveway and we head to the next town over, which has a gay club, one that people come from all around to attend. We pass a giant car racetrack, and miles of signs advertising chicken strips and the price of gas. I told Chris to bring some CDs, and he's brought Britney Spears (the whole discography). We're listening to In the Zone...

So, do I find it believable that Crocker might be outraged over Britney's treatment after her Video Music Awards performance? Yes. He's like that. As for the tears? I'm sorry, but I can't certify whether they were real or not. Like you, I only have his video and his own words to go on.

More questions? Bring 'em on.

Running on Angry

I have a feature out in this week's Stranger about the surprising popularity of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.



Paul has a large and growing group of supporters here in Washington State, largely because of his antiwar stance. These supporters are trying to get him to come to Hempfest (Paul has been a critic of federal drug laws). They're making calls to Iowa in an effort to boost Paul's chances in this weekend's Iowa Straw Poll (with Rudy Giuliani and John McCain not participating in the poll, some observers have predicted Paul will place second, behind only Mitt Romney). And they're signing on to his local Meetup groups in droves.

One of Paul's local supporters, who's featured in my story, is an employee at the Google office in Kirkland who, like me, flew down to the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, in early July so that he could see Paul's Candidates@Google appearance. This local Paul supporter dropped $400 on plane fare, donated the maximum $2,300 to Paul while in California, and gushed on camera (gushing begins at around 42:00) about how excited Paul has made him about this presidential race.

For me, all of this support for Paul in liberal/libertarian Washington raises a question: Do Paul's local followers really understand his political philosophy, beyond his unique (for a Republican) opposition to the Iraq war?

In my piece, I suggest that Paul's views, and his political philosophy, really don't mesh with those of a lot of his new followers—especially on issues like global warming (he doesn't believe in it), abortion (not a fan), gun control (he thinks guns in the hands of airline passengers would have prevented 9/11), and how to catch Osama bin Laden (he wants to issue retro "letters of marque and reprisal").

I happen to love Paul's "letters of marque and reprisal" idea, just because it's pure Paul and is so 1800s it makes me smile. But here's something that really caused me to do a double-take: Paul's stance on global warming. From my story:

Perhaps the best [example of] how radical Paul's positions can be relative to the more mainstream people who are now starting to support him: Paul is still a global-warming skeptic, calling fears about the problem "overblown" at a time when even Bush has recognized the reality of climate change.

Paul's solution to all environmental problems is essentially to do nothing and hope the market works everything out. Schrage, the Google executive, sounded skeptical of this approach and pointed out that market forces created the global-warming problem in the first place. "Climate change seems like something that wouldn't, indeed hasn't, been an issue that's been well addressed by market forces today," Schrage told Paul. "Seems like the perfect example of a market failure—that the external costs of pollution don't get absorbed by companies—and thus a natural place where some sort of collective action, government intervention, might be appropriate."

Paul disagreed, and suggested that a greater respect for private property in America, and a greater appreciation for how what one person does on his or her private property affects the environment on another person's private property, could somehow reverse environmental problems. When Schrage pointed out the international nature of the climate-change problem—the fact that factories in America can ultimately affect the weather in India—Paul answered: "If there is manmade pollution..."

Which was one rather big if.

He continued: "If there is man-made pollution, it might be in China and I know I'm not willing to tax you or send troops over there to close down plants."

To read the whole piece, click here.

Chris Crocker: The Stranger Profile

In this week's Stranger I write about Chris Crocker, a 19-year-old gay kid who, using little more than a digital video camera and an internet connection, has managed to channel his small-town frustrations into national online fame.



This was one of the most fun and heartbreaking stories I've ever had the chance to write for The Stranger, and I have a number of "Crocker out-takes" to post on Slog over the next few days—things I couldn't fit in the story, but that shouldn't be kept from the world. Look for them starting tomorrow.

I Loved L.A.

I'd never been to Los Angeles until last week, and when I first found out I would be going down there I didn't expect to like it much.

Growing up in Seattle, almost everything I'd heard about L.A. was negative—especially during the 90s, when this city was gripped by nativist resentment and something close to cultural hysteria about all the L.A. people who were moving up here.

The complaint, at the time, was that L.A. people didn't drive like Seattleites, didn't talk like Seattleites, didn't expect housing to be as cheap as Seattleites, and didn't have the crunchy-earthy-earnest Seattle ethos. Back then, people in Seattle talked about L.A. transplants the way some locals now talk about the condo boom—a sign that Seattle is being transformed, and not for the better, into a place the old-timers and professional gripers don't recognize.

Anyway, I landed in L.A. on Wednesday, ready to hate it, ready to look down, like a good Seattleite, on it's car culture, its fakery, and its self-satisfied sprawl.

It was hot, the light was squint-making, and all that I'd been warned about was there: the cars crawling along the 405, the people always talking like pitchmen, the endless streets, the unapologetic strip malls, the skyline-obscuring haze.

Who knows exactly why one falls in love with a city, but I have a theory about why I proceeded to fall in love with L.A. last week, against all advice and all the long odds of a Seattle native feeling such affection for such a place.

My theory is that L.A. was a huge relief. Maybe I'm more vulnerable to this than most people, because of the nature of my job, but when I landed in L.A. I was completely full up on the hectoring tone of Seattle's gripers, finger-waggers, and utopia-demanders. It's unbelievably grating to live in a city where the dominant civic discourse is one of lament about the absence of the perfect (twined with perpetual disagreement about how to get to the perfect, and achingly slow steps toward that end).

L.A., by contrast, is completely fucked up, completely beyond environmental repair, completely imperfect, and completely designed to give tight-assed Seattle people an aneurysm. Granted, I was only there for three days, but it seemed to me that people in L.A. have a sort of wry satisfaction with their state of affairs. I loved that. I drove 20 minutes to get everywhere. I ate in a strip mall. I had superficial conversations. I drove some more. I stopped worrying about sprawl and sprawled out at the beach. (That's not me below, by the way.)



To ask the hot Seattle question of the moment: Is it sustainable? Would it last, my thrill at life in a city that does everything my home city tells me not to?

I don't know. Probably not.

But man, it was nice for a while. On my last day I went up to the Getty, wandered its other-worldly gardens...



...and looked down on the huge, flat metropolis. The sun was warm, as always. The air was striving for opaque, as always. I couldn't quite see downtown Los Angeles to the east and, looking west, I couldn't quite see where the ocean ended and the land began. It was all blurry, messy, resistant to resolution. Everyone I saw seemed happy with this. I didn't want to leave.

(Photos by Corianton Hale, who was also in L.A. recently.)

Offender Outtake: The Women's Movement and Sex Offender Laws

I have a feature in this week's Stranger about the life and crimes of Jefferson County's only Level 3 sex offender. It's a long piece, but that doesn't mean I could fit in everything I found fascinating about the debate over how best to punish and rehabilitate sexual criminals. Here's one thing that didn't make it into my story:

When I asked Alisa Klein, spokeswoman for the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, why punishments for sex offenders have grown increasingly harsh over the last few decades, she pointed to a force that I hadn't considered: The women's movement.

Speaking for herself, and not for her organization, she told me:

We have seen, pretty much consistently since the 60s, a pendulum swing toward a lot of attention to this issue, and increasingly, every decade since the 60s, a lot of punitive and sort of knee-jerk attention to this issue.

This is due in part, she believes, to the women's movement:

What the women's movement did, because they wanted to get people to pay attention, and take this seriously, is, in my opinion, they threw their lot in with the criminal justice system to be the main system for responding to sexual violence.

Klein believes that violent sexual predators, and other sexual criminals, should be punished. But she also believes many of them can be treated, and should received better treatment than they do. Further, she believes that that the current public focus on extending sentences for sex offenders, and on restricting their movements after they are released back into society, can create a false sense of security.

Most rapes of adult women are committed by someone known to the victim. Most sexual assaults committed against children are perpetrated by someone known to the child (in about half the cases, by a family member). But the current push for harsher and harsher sex offender punishments grows out of public concern over "stranger danger," which itself grows out of highly-publicized cases of children being abducted by strangers—a horrifying, but relatively rare, occurrence. (Read more about this phenomenon of televised child abduction stories driving policy in my piece.)

Klein believes that the current focus on "stranger danger" can confuse the public on where the most common danger really lies—with friends, acquaintances, and family members. "It ends up becoming a kind of deterrent to our society's ability to respond before the fact," she told me.

Back to the question of how all of this intersects with the women's movement, here's a letter to the editor of The Stranger about my piece:

I enjoyed Eli Sander's piece on Erik Mart. I'm sorry that the system has so mishandled Mart's case, punishment and treatment. I'm also sorry that he was apparently molested by his father and that society never addressed it.

But I feel even more sorry for the two women he assaulted. I can imagine the absolute terror they must have felt and, later, the furious anger at the audacity of their assailant.

I think this country has severe punishments because we have such severe crimes. But, if we're going to "rate" sexual crimes on a scale, obviously the more violent or repeat offenders should get a higher rating. But how is raping a child more wrong than raping a 30-yr-old woman or a 70-year-old retiree? And this is where the problem of sexual assault runs head long into the issue of feminism and the institutionalized objectification and dehumanizing of females. Until just a few decades ago, sexually assault was considered okay in certain situations.

Today, outside of the U.S. rape is the norm, not the exception, in dozens of countries. Women and children are bought and sold as sex slaves in Russia and other eastern European countries. In South Africa, Egypt and Mexico the incident of sexual assault -- including child molestation and incest -- is calculated in minutes, not annually.

If our judicial system is taking a hamfisted approach to the treatment of sexual predators, it's still better than what most foreign governments do -- which is nothing, partly thanks to misogyny...

-- M. Murphy

Only Five Times a Day?

Maybe I need to go on this media diet...

On Lt. Ehren Watada

My report on the likely outcome of the Lt. Watada court-martial is up this morning on TIME.com.

And here's a longer piece about the Watada case that I wrote for The Stranger back in August. (That piece was later re-published in the Boston Phoenix.)

But Can She Sing?

Hillary Clinton, on the trail in Iowa, tries her hand at the Star Spangled Banner: