News Clips— Sidran's internet buddies

City Attorney Mark Sidran was wise to quickly establish a Web site for his fledgling campaign (www.sidranforseattle.com), because the guy's got a lot of competition. Sidran has taken umbrage at some of his critics' sites: the Jewish candidate publicly blasted some chowderhead for likening him to a Nazi. But, slurs aside, Sidran's campaign has unwittingly given life to some fine political satire.

WWW.SATANNOTSIDRAN.COM OK, the concept of writing in Satan on your mayoral ballot doesn't seem that promising (Satan's proposals for dealing with the homeless are even more draconian), and the link that's supposed to "make it clear Mark Sidran breaks election law more frequently than any other candidate" doesn't work. But there's actual information here, including links to lists of donors to former campaigns, a quiz as to which of six unsavory critters reminds you most of the candidate, and links to several other anti-Sidran sites, including:

MARKSIDRAN.COM The guy who called Sidran a Nazi is back—and he's gotten meaner: this time he compares the city attorney to actor/singer David Hasselhoff.

WWW.HEMP.NET/~DARRAL/SIDRANSATAN.HTML This fellow loves hemp and hates Sidran. Not a bad philosophy of life, if you think about it.

SIDRAN2001.COM An unauthorized "borrowing" of the biography page from Sidran's real campaign Web site, in which Mark's heartwarming "growing up in Seattle" stories are subtly modified. Sample line: "Despite her dim view of politics, my mother had a passion for education, reading and spitting on poor people when we walked by them downtown."

WWW.VOTESIDRAN.COM This bogus Sidran page (notice how they all have better URLs than his official site?) opens with the wacky claim that the city attorney's "no-sitting" ordinance has been so successful, he's following up with a "no-walking ordinance." Despite being a hoax, this proposal still got five votes from the City Council.