Real Oregon Reality

Donate To Jeff Merkley Via ActBlue

2009-05-20T20:37:00.001-07:00

Matt, from the comments in the last article, suggested that if I love Jeff Merkley so much, then why don't I marry him ...

... no, no, joke! joke! I maek funnay joak!

Anyhow, he suggested I set up a donation page at ActBlue, so I did.

My pitch is, ever since Jeff got to Washington he's actually been doing the things we elected him to do, and money makes the world go round. I'm saying, every time he takes action on credit cards, or mortgages, or any one of the many things he said he'd promise us he'd do, we should go and toss him a bone or two ... whatever you have.

Because I'll bet he'll notice that, the little thank you's (and the big ones too).

Anyway, the quick-donation box is in the sidebar there, and my own page at ActBlue to donate to Jeff is here:

https://secure.actblue.com/page/friendsofmerkley

Give Jeff Merkley Mad Props, Yo!

2009-05-19T14:51:00.001-07:00

He's actually doing what he's promised to do, taking on the credit card companies.

Do they allow that in Washington any more?

Play Ms. Bachmann Out, Keyboard Cat

2009-05-06T20:30:00.001-07:00

From Chinuk Studios, a Chinuk Production, Directed by The Chinuk, Written by the Chinuk, and starring Michele Bachmann (R-Venus or maybe Saturn) and Keyboard Cat in ..

Play Michele Bachmann Out, Keyboard Cat!

This had its world premier over on PK a few hours back, but I want to celebrate my triumph here too!

Buffoon EPIC FAIL "Hoot Smalley" Bachmann + Keyboard Cat = AWESOME!

Janet Jackson's Breast: Still Public Enemy Number One

2009-05-04T14:09:00.001-07:00

And the Supreme Court demands that a lower court take another look at it:

The Supreme Court today ordered a lower court to revisit the case of pop singer Janet Jackson's so-called "wardrobe malfunction" in which she inadvertently exposed her breast during the 2004 broadcast of a Super Bowl halftime show.

The Federal Communications Commission had fined CBS, the show's broadcaster, $550,000, and found that the show was indecent because it depicted a sexual organ for nine-sixteenths of one second.

Nearly 90 million viewers watched the performance of "Rock Your Body" by Jackson and singer Justin Timberlake. CBS challenged the fine, arguing that such fines by the FCC could chill the free speech of broadcasters.

Some days, it's tough to be a jurist.

And by tough, we mean AWESOME!

This could be the start of a new era in BROADcasting, amirite?

I better stop now.

That's How They Roll

2009-05-04T13:18:00.001-07:00

Republicans sure are a funny bunch. They'll ignore you, ostracize you, vilify you, put you down, and diss you.

But just one Republican Senator goes Democratic, and all of a sudden, they're buying you ice cream:

Oh hey there, remember last year when, during the election, John McCain’s pathetic campaign resorted to offensive yet hilarious attacks against those of us who live in Northern Virginia? Remember how they called us communist and “fake Virginia.” Yes!? Well guess what!! Now the tool bags are coming here to hold the first in a series of events where they will feverishly try to figure out why they suck and what they can do to fix it.

Congratulations, Northern Virginny! You're fashionable now!

You want Republicans to start celebrating Teh Gay?

As soon as Teh Gay becomes instrumental in getting Republicans elected, male-on-male pegging (warning: That link goes to an unexpectedly adult Wikipedia article) will become a sacrament. You can bank on that.

My salute to those in "fake Virginia". Work those bastiches for all you can, then kick them to the curb so you can watch them cry.

They earned it.

Now, THIS Is A "Fair" Tax

2009-05-04T12:11:00.001-07:00

The President is going after Cayman Islander "POBox" Corps, amongst others:

Going after companies and individuals who funnel money to tax havens in the Cayman Islands or Swiss banks is just one part of the proposal. Much of Mr. Obama's plan aims to limit what the president considers the tax avoidance of multinational corporations who use subsidiaries and foreign branches to avoid paying higher taxes in the United States.
The White House, in a release detailing the plan, said the current tax system "is rife with opportunities to evade and avoid taxes through offshore tax havens."

There's no essential sin in trying to pay the minimum tax one is entitled to. Also, nobody deserves to get fleeced.

But corprations have been getting away with sucking profits out of America for so much and for so long that, even though it's legal, it's un-American. And it's you, me, and every one we know (speaking for us proles, that is) that's paying for it – either through increased taxes or decreased services. Usually decreased services.

I don't know about any of you folks, but I get tired of sacrificing so that some "too-big-to-fail" corporation gets to have even bigger profits.

Legal tax reductions can be good. But just like you can actually get poisoned if you drink too much water too fast, too much of any good thing isn't eventually good at all.

Corporations have been making bank for a very long time now on a favorable business climate (so favorable, for instance, that Oregon will allow you to skive on out of here for a single $10 bill), and its time that they pitched in thier fair share to maintain the edifice that made their success possible.

It's past time, actually.

Kicking It Blogstyle

2009-05-04T11:58:00.001-07:00

A bit of a mention here about thanking BlogBurst for activating this here blog. I just visited the dashboard and found that an article I posted, noting the grim state of the Chinook salmon runs here in the Northwest, was picked up by a newspaper's blog, the Gary, Indiana Post-Tribune.

Nifty! Thanks BlogBurst!

I am still posting like mad over at Preemptive Karma, so don't forget to join me there too!

Ahh, Persephone, Returned From The Depths To Us

2009-04-24T09:12:00.001-07:00

Good news if you, as I, have been missing la belle Rhodes...

She's coming back! Back on The POJ mid-May.

And the nifty party?

She's being syndicated by Premier Radio Networks ... the same syndicator which runs the Unavuncular Carbuncular Creepy Uncle of America – Rush (we call him "Mr") Limbaugh.

She's gonna eat him alive. As big as he's gotten, she'll need a doggy bag.

But what doggy would have him?

I invite discussion on Preemptive Karma. Join me there.

Simple Answers To Simple Questions Re: Cash Gifting Refunds

2009-04-23T03:50:00.001-07:00

In scanning my hit counter, I noticed I got a hit on the following query:

"possible to get money back from cash gifting"

Which I interpret as the following question:

Q: Can I get my money back from a cash gifting pyramid?

and the simple answer:

A: I don't think so.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, your mileage may vary. If you want to risk your nuts in a "cash gifting" scheme, by all means, go balls-to-the-wall.

But the reading I've done ... some of it documented in my earlier post on the subject ... suggest that the only players likely to get anything out of it are the ones who got on on the ground floor.

An easy way to find out if you've gotten in on the ground floor: if someone's inviting you on board the airplane, you ain't it, bunky.

And if the network collapses and you find yourself out in the cold, are you going to complain to someone that you got burned in a scheme designed to make you a bunch of money without paying taxes and without working for it? Pretty embarrassing. Would it get you some government attention? I don't know. Do you? Are you willing to take the risk?

And by now, the money is long gone anyway, spent by the people upline of you that got it already. It's gone.

Better you stay away from this stuff, and remember what Mom Always Said: if it sounds too good to be true, it is. This sort of carp is the reason why Mom came up with that saying.

Randy Leonard Needs To Go, Too.

2009-04-22T19:59:00.001-07:00

In the last several days we've seen several reminders as to why, regardless of how Sam Adams conducts his private life, why he's proven himself to be the exact opposite of a visionary, thoughtful steward of the city's future.

But let's look at Randy Leonard just a little. Up until quite recently, we were a huge fan of Randy. We liked his scrappy style, and liked the way he took on Dave Frohnmayer over the "Made in Oregon" sign issue.

But latterly, he's been just a little too much the bully. Over on Preemptive Karma, I commented on Sam Adams's crass equivalency of a luxury hotel that I couldn't possibly afford to stay in to a significant regional transportation link in urgent need of reconstruction. And, despite Randy's newfound enmity for Sam, apparently they can remain freinemies: Randy will happily, apparently, back Sam's play for "support my hotel, or the bridge gets it".

I came to the conclusion that Randy's no longer looking out for the town but for other interests when I watched this report on KGW. At the 1:53 mark, Randy accuses Ted Wheeler, County Chair, as "someone who's having a temper tantrum because he's not having his way."

Let's go to the map, shall we?

Wheeler asked for figures
The City Council sat on the request for six weeks.
On Monday, the Council finally delevered the request – and gave Wheeler until Thursday ... that's tomorrow ... to make his decision.
When Wheeler objects and takes his case to the media, he's throwing a temper tantrum.

I could be missing something here.

But I don't think I am.

Randy doesn't deserve to be on the City Council anymore. Since he's not in as much public hot water as Sam is, I don't think he'll be recalled. I doubt that anyone with sufficient gumption will challenge him for re-election either.

Which is sad, because Randy doesn't deserve to serve anymore.

To threaten to pull support on a good for all the people unless you support something that very few of the people will enjoy in an economy that can't support it is simply to play the "big kid in the room" card, and we're already supporting one hotel I can't afford to even walk through the door to visit (I'm looking at you, "The Nines").

The Portland City Council, as expressed through the power plays of Sam Adams and Randy Leonard, has evolved into one big bully. I'm sorry I voted for Sam and Randy.

An Addition To the Reading List

2009-04-17T09:13:00.001-07:00

So far, in this blog, I've recommended two books for those who want the properly cynical footing to cope with the cynical political landscape – if you can't keep up, you can at least keep an eye on things.

I've decided to add two books to the assigned reading in this course. The complete list is:

Dune, by Frank Herbert
Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell
Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
Stand on Zanzibar, by John Brunner

Each is important for diffferent reasons. Dune matters because Herbert had immense insights into power blocs and power struggles, and what might tilt things one way or the other – and that a random chaotic event can cause amazing results. Also, Herbert understood, perhaps better than any popular author, the explosive mix that religion and politics can make – and this, is the most important message, because he does it without making it a preachy cautionary tale.

Nineteen Eighty-Four is important for all the obvious reasons – the cynical manipulation of the population by a power elite, the evil deleterious effect on the zeitgeist and the human animal that opression can bring. But the real lesson I want people to take away from it, and the source of my sarcastic caption on the cover picture, is the effects of a power elite for whom power is the only object. They speak of addictive substances, nicotine, methamphetamine, what have you. Kissinger glibly commented that power is the ultimate aphrodesiac (not without reason). But more than that, power is the most addictive substance known to man and woman. You can't have it without wanting more, you can't have more without wanting to keep it all for one's self, and you can't keep it without greedily scheming to order affairs so that you never lose it.

When I say the Republican Party's main platform can be found there, it's the addiction to power and the need to get it for its own sake, at any cost. They would kill our country for it if they had to, and events suggest to me, they are still trying.

Stranger In A Strange Land was suggested by reader Phil. He recommends it highly, and my review of the plot suggests it has much to say about community and power. I've not read it yet, because I've never been much of a Heinlein fan, to be quite frank. But it's on my list now.

Stand on Zanzibar is a challenging book to read. John Brunner's visionary classic challenges the reader with a layered structure, an army of intertwining characters, and the strife of what was then the distant future time of the 2010s to paint a picture of a planet going crazy under the strain of overpopulation and technology that's zooming ahead of Man's capacity to reason with it all. With its piercing insights on what makes man tick, it's not predictive, but it does have Mankind's number, and is as relevant now as when it was written back in the 1960s.

Those are your assignments, if you care to take up the challenge. Since my topical work is being done over at Preemptive Karma for the nonce, we can use this area as a sort of reading and book discussion club. I'm going to go back through Dune soon and make public notes. Everyone is welcome to come along.

I think we can all learn something from each other. I believe this.

Yay BlueOregon!

2009-04-16T18:13:00.001-07:00

Blue Oregon's really cleaning up this year.

First that blogger on The Fix named BO to his 50-State Blogroll, now I hear that the George Washington University Institute for Politics, Democracy, & the Intarweb got what, if it isnt the Oscars or the Emmy at least it has to be the Golden Globe for public policy intarweb commentary, the Golden Dot as best damn state political blog for 2008.

Blue Oregon's one of those things that got me inspired to start DIY punditin'. I admire Kari's work and quite frankly think this is a very deserved honor, so I'm not only commenting on this in my capacity as part of the PK posse but also here.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Blue Oregon!

Pacific Wonderland Vintage Plate? I Am Totally There For That!

2009-04-14T03:08:00.001-07:00

One of these would look soooo cool on my '72 VW:

Over on Oregonlive (where I nicked the above image, lensed by Randy Rasmussen) they've broken the story of a proposal to bring back the old Pacific Wonderland plates for a 25,000 limited edition.

I mentioned this to my wife and she said it was, well, a fait accompli. We weren't alive when the PW plates happened, but both our families were the kind to keep cars - and plates - around for an awful long time.

Not everyone is impressed: a commenter opined:

Since Oregon museums are reducing hours and laying off staff, I believe we don't really need a new history center.

Legislators. This may come as a surprise to you in the ivory tower but we have real issues to deal with in Oregon.

Yeah, whatevs, buzzkill.

I'm going to be lining up for them plates! Maybes they can get prisoners to stamp them like they used to ...

I Reach Teh Big Time ...

2009-04-12T09:16:00.001-07:00

... or at least the medium-sized time.

I've been a fan of Preemptive Karma since I started reading local blogs. I admire wit and clever prose, and it had it in spades. It was one that really challenged me to think, dammit! It's always been a ground of great reading, and at least one PKer has gone on to greater things.

I'm speaking of course of Carla "The Unimpeachable" Axtman, who's currently Fellow at Blue Oregon.

That Carla wears the title of Fellow is cosmically funny to me since, after all, Carla's apparently a woman*. I know. I've seen a picture of her.

Anywhoozle, one can imagine my surprise when Kevin at PK contacted me and asked me if I wanted to join the PK crew.

Flattered? You bet. Excited? Hells-to-the-yeah!

After talking with him and figuring out things, I've decided to take him up on the offer. I am now offically affiliated with the PK crew, and will be taking my comedic wit and nimitable style there too.

This blog will remain, and will have postings of a more personal and abstruse nature from here on out, just updated a little less frequently.

I plan on tripping the light fantastic over on PK; please, please join me and book mark both places!

* yes, I know what "Fellow" is. I maek funnay joak. You Laff Now!

I Evolve Upwards ...

2009-04-11T09:31:00.001-07:00

Details to follow presently.

Stay tuned to this channel. This one, too.

Portia Di Rossi Knows How To Take Responsibility

2009-04-10T20:16:00.001-07:00

At least someone does.

Another lesson gay people can teach us straights. Pay attention!

First Black President? Not Good Enough For ASU

2009-04-10T17:15:00.001-07:00

Someone once told me an easy way to sense BS.

"Do you know why it doesn't make sense?" he said to me. "Because it isn't true."

This will do nothing but p*ss you off, and I'm sorry to have to share it, but I've had an ab-so-lute gutful of organizations that do the little weasel dance to avoid looking like they wanted to have President Barack Obama speak.

First it was the pained fretting of Catholic priests who moaned about President Obama (and I'm going to use that name repeatedly if it makes some people cry so much) speaking at Notre Dame which was painted as being all principled and stuff but actually had more than the whiff of hypocrisy about it.

I didn't think anyone could top the childishness of that move. But ASU did.

Arizona State University has invited President Obama to deliver the commencement address on May 13th. It's tradition (and, I understand, the "done" thing) to award the commencement speaker with an honorary degree.

As of this writing, according to and broken by the Politico, ASU has decided not to award the country's first black President an honorary degree. He just hasn't worked hard enough yet, you see:

The university decided against awarding Obama the degree because it is customarily awarded for “lifetime achievement,” ASU spokeswoman Sharon Keeler told POLITICO.

“It’s normally awarded to someone who has been in their field for some time,” she said. “Considering that the president is at the beginning of his presidency, his body of work is just beginning.”

***BOGGLE***

A man of Barack Obama's stature and achievements hasn't rated the honor yet?

This is like refusing to call Neil Armstrong the first man on the moon because he hasn't done it twice yet.

If this man hasn't rated your respect yet, he never will. And ASU doesn't even have the courage to come up with a reason based on a solid debating point. At least Notre Dame did that. And they gave him an honorary degree.

WTF, ASU? Neocons on the board? Fear of a black planet? What? And you actually announced that and expected it not to look like weasel words and embarrass you? Are your PR people on vacation or payyy-ote or something?

There's buzz out that they're reconsidering. Thats as maybe. Damage is already done though. Well played, Asinine State University, well played.

Actual Smart Person Roger Ebert Pwns Bill O'Reilly

2009-04-09T20:58:00.001-07:00

This is kind of neat, actually. One doesn't get two beautiful examples of textbook pwnage in one week. First, it was "Charlie" knocking Mr. Limbaugh off his routine so much that "sticking it" at the end was simply not possible, then, Roger Ebert dials Bill O'Reilly's number ... and nails it utterly.

One point of reference in my universe is that Roger Ebert is a national treasure. He is an incredibly gifted and readable writer. Yeah, I know, he does all that movie reviewin' and stuff, but can you name any other movie reviewer that's won the ever-loviin' Pulitizer for his reviewing?

Trick question. There isn't another (at least not at this writing).

Now comes along Mr. O'Reilly, who's a very important pivotal sort of person (and if you don't believe him, just ask him). He has taken it upon himself to compile a "Hall Of Shame" of doubleplusungood media outlets that he doedn't like, nosirree. And Ebert's employer, the Chicago Sun-Times, is new on the list, in the "Media Outlets That Traffic in Defamation" list.

At this point, it may be helpful to note that to get on this list, all one has to do is, they believe, to have "regularly helped distribute defamatory, false or non-newsworthy information supplied by far left websites".

By that metric, one can cut and paste three words from a Media Matters press release and qualify. And I may not be a lawyer but I have a feeling that defamation might not mean what they think it does. But for the moment we'll concede the point.

How does an Actual Smart Writerly Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Person return the favor? With reality, served with a side of dry wit and a droll chaser:

I understand you believe one of the Sun-Times misdemeanors was dropping your syndicated column. My editor informs me that "very few" readers complained about the disappearance of your column, adding, "many more complained about Nancy." I know I did. That was the famous Ernie Bushmiller comic strip in which Sluggo explained that "wow" was "mom" spelled upside-down.

Your column ran in our paper while it was owned by the right-wing polemicists Conrad Black (Baron Black of Coldharbour) and David Radler. We dropped it to save a little money after they looted the paper of millions. Now you call for an advertising boycott. It is unusual to observe a journalist cheering for a newspaper to fail. At present the Sun-Times has no bank debt, but labors under the weight of millions of dollars in tax penalties incurred by Lord Black, who is serving an eight-year stretch for mail fraud and obstruction of justice. We also had to pay for his legal expenses.

So there. I'll not show you the rest, as that would be rude (and legally actionable); use the above link to read it yourself.

As for the rest of us, I think Mr. O'Reilly can consider himself pwned.

I doubt it will make much of a difference; after all, in Mr. O'Reilly's world, he never actually loses.

Somebody's Gotta Go: New Reality Show Makes Me Hate Us All

2009-04-09T06:55:00.001-07:00

I think I've just seen proof that our civilization does not deserve to survive.

The buzz is that FOX is coming up with something on the order of an abomination. No mere trifle this, the show, said to be titled Somebody's Gotta Go, is all about people losing their job, and their fellows slipping the knife in.

Bob Sassone at TV Squad:

Someone's Gotta Go will feature employees of a real company who give a pay cut to a fellow employee and vote out a fellow employee at the end of each show. Please note that these are real employees at a real company who are really going to lose their jobs, not to mention have their personal details revealed on national television.

I was going to link to what Sarah Ball at Newsweek's PopVox column said about it, but she seemed to enjoy the idea too much. If this idea wasn't appalling enough on its face not to make its sordid way from the Netherlands (where worldwide TV purveyor Endemol concocted this foul thing) to be pitched, straight-faced and unironically, to a TV network in the USA, then what it says about us as a culture is too ugly to put to words.

Seriously, I don't have a funny rejoinder to this one. This just makes me sad. Seriously, it makes me sad.

But don't let me harsh your vibe. If this sort of program sounds like fun to you, watch away. You're the one who'll have to look yourself in the mirror.

Abandon handbasket; we've arrived in Hell.

If Ed Orkney Hadn't Died Back In '76, This Would Have Killed Him

2009-04-09T06:36:00.001-07:00

When we heard that (GI)Joes was going into bankruptcy, a lot of us hoped the handwriting wasn't on the wall, though deep down, a lot of us knew it was.

How did we know? The seeds were planted when an equity firm bought what was then GI Joe's, a Northwest friend since all of us can remember. GI Joe's was forever, man.

In retrospect, I think the surprising thing was how fast Joe's collapsed. From cherry property for expansion and competition on 2007 to failing company by the end of 2008, mere weeks after opening its 31st location in Nampa, Idaho – that's fast enough to make one's head swim.

We maybe really knew it in our gut when they did the "G.I"-ectomy, turning G.I. Joe's , the friendly Northwest friend, into Joe's Sports, Outdoors, and More, a name generic enough to go up against any sports retailer in any market.

Trouble is, there were already too many of them.

I don't know how long the late Mr. Orkney figured his business would last when he started it in that tent on North Vancouver Avenue in 1952. And I'm pretty sure that Norm Daniels didn't figure that when Gryphon got a controlling interest in Joe's that they would go and de-Oregonize the name and then see the company into a swift decline.

But that's what we got.

One of my first memories was the store opening in Salem in 1976, when we could finally go to G.I. Joe's whenever we wanted and not just on our all-to-infrequent jaunts to Stumptown. It was the first store opened outside the Portland area, and the fifth G.I. Joe's, on the way to 31 locations across the Northwest.

Those were good times, my friends. Good times.

G'bye, G.I. Joe's.

Cash Gifting is Back. Don't Fall For It!

2009-04-09T06:10:00.001-07:00

So, I'm getting ready to go to bed, getting one more check in on the email, stuff like that, and I'm listening to The POJ, and I hear a report on an old scheme designed to separate the desperate from their money.

It's "cash gifting". The report mentioned some staggering amonut of videos online, so I surfed on over to YouTube.com, and plugged in the words "Cash Gifting" – and the response said it was able to come up with just over twenty thousand videos about cash gifting.

And it's tempting to think that "well, yes, that's the sort of thing you expect to see in hard times", and write it off. As liberals and Official Smart People™, I'd like to point out that we can do better.

I've never been in a pyramid or cash gifting program. I don't know anyone who ever was, and I don't want to know anyone who ever does. So I speak as I find here. Here's what it's all about.

"Cash Gifting" is yet another case of old wine in new skins. Ever since the original chain letters (you know, the one where you send $5 to each of five names on a list and add your name to the bottom of a list and mail that off to five or so friends) and Make.Money.Fast, the chain letter-pyramid scheme has morphed just enough to seem legal and stay ahead of people who find out about it.

The current idea is a variation on an old theme. The way the schemes make the dodge look legit is to use the concept of a gift or a game to establish consent amongst participants and evade taxes (you can't tax a gift, after all, right?).

In the 70s and 80s, something called the "Airplane Game" was popular. This was a four-level tree, the top being the "Captain", the second level (2 participants) being the "co-pilots", the third level (4 participants) being the "Crew", and the fourth level (8 participants) were known as "passengers". When the passenger level filled out, each paying typically $1000 to get on board (that was usually it, but there were probably as many different costs-of-admission as there were schemes out there), all the money gets passed up the tree to the Captain, who "pilots off" and goes away with his gifted loot. The tree splits in two, the two "Co Pilots" become "Pilots", and each tree works to fill its passenger level.

It seems a reasonable plan. Since the money is gifts, they can't be taxed; since you only have to get 8 suckers on the bottom to complete the tree, it seems to be immune to that geometric progression that makes pyramid structures untenable because by the thirteenth generation you need over 13 Billion members to keep the pyramid going.

But when you think about it, the limited nature of the gifting tree doesn't prevent saturation, just forestalls it a bit. Because when that pilot flies off with his cash, the two airplanes now have to find sixteen people to let the new pilots take wing. And sixteen more for each if that pilot can take off. And so on.

It's not too long before enough burned people exist to bring the whole airline down.

Now, I told you all that to tell you this. Based on my hearing about the new programs on The POJ and my search on YouTube, it would seem gifting programs are back. These days, they're called The People's Program, and they call them a a gifting program. Video after video with similar claims, loaded with similarly-worded positive reviews, and links to similar websites, many of whom use identical graphics! Images of happy smug people fanning Benajmins in front of yo face and having their pictures on DVD cases promoting the program abound.

The catch these days to try to make it legal is that they try to leverage the searching power and self-selecting nature of internet users to promise you that only people looking to get into and profit from gifitng programs will see your appeal. This is supposed to keep it legit by not attracting people who don't know what it is you're talking about.

It will still get you in trouble. I've read a lot about these programs, and it seems that the "tax free gift" claim and the targeted interest concept has been used so much that the IRS sees it for what it is; an attempt to get money and evade paying taxes for it.

And even if you are daring and bold and desperate enough to give it a shot, consider that at least one estimate I've seen suggest that no matter how large the model becomes, 88% of participants will likely lose money.

The only way to be sure you're going to make money in a gifting scheme, really, is to start one. And then you're (sorry for the bluntness) just hoodwinking money away from other people who are just as desperate as you. Can you look yourself in the mirror and live with yourself? I know I couldn't.

Once again, I've never been in such a scheme (nothing magical about that, just my morbid interest in toxic social structures leading to voluminious reading, so I was luckily forewarned) and I never will be because it's logically and ethically suspect. And I've never known a person to be suckered by a Gifting Club, and I never want to know one.

But when I hear that there are tens of thousands of videos on YouTube with a high-tech version of the same old pyramid plan, I have to speak up.

And that's what I'm doing.

If you're tempted, don't do it. Please.

You only think you're badly off now. If you're lucky, you'll just lose your money.

Don't do it.

If You Think TriMet Service Cuts Are Bad ...

2009-04-08T21:48:00.001-07:00

... just be glad you don't live in St. Louis, where the transit system is getting ab-so-lute-ly gutted:

The service area for this multibillion-dollar regional asset will shrink by two thirds, literally overnight.

The Metro transit agency faces an operating deficit of $45 million this year, which is expected to reach $50 million next year. Nearly one in every four of its 2,300 employees will be laid off in the coming weeks. Many highly skilled and productive employees already are being poached by transit systems in other regions.

Service will end at 2,300 of the 9,000 bus stops and shelters on Missouri’s side of the system; service in Illinois, which is fully funded, won’t be affected. A bus fleet of 320 will shrink to about 140. MetroLink light rail riders will see one-third fewer trains during rush hour. Call-A-Ride service for the disabled will be slashed.

Most city and inner-ring suburban service will be cut 25 percent to 75 percent. Most of St. Louis County outside the Interstate 270 loop will receive no service. Limited service to the Chesterfield Valley was salvaged through the end of the year as a result of a last-minute deal between Metro and far-sighted municipal leaders and local businesses.

The article at StLouisToday was written on the 27th. These service cuts are already in effect. Now, I'm no transit planner and have actually not enough knowledge to be useful, but I'm guessing if you reduced weekend TriMet service to a handful of Portland-only routes, permanently on Sunday schedules, cut back MAX service to half-hourly on all lines, reduced fixed-route service to Portland Only except during rush hours, restricted TriMet LIFT customers to 8 am to 5 pm service, six days a week, you might come close to the pain that St Louis is feeling right now.

I'm not a fan of the cutbacks TriMet's proposing, but – for now, anyway – we're doing better than most, even with the much-criticized (but still beloved) Streetcar and Aerial Tram.

If the Federal Government really wants to step up with our tax dollars and rebuild the country the Republicans have been tearing down since Reagan, a good place to start would be by funding mass transit so that all cities have decent (if not ideal) service levels.

In other words, start treating mass transit as a necessity, not as an option or a luxury. Because, if you're interested in having viable cities, it really is a necessity.

Chinook Salmon: Outlook Still Grim, Fishing Season Cancelled

2009-04-08T18:20:00.001-07:00

Via Salem-News.com:

With northern California chinook salmon runs forecast to be at historic lows, the sport salmon season south of Cape Falcon scheduled for March 15 through April 30 has been closed.

“Chinook salmon forecasts for runs that contribute to ocean salmon fisheries off Oregon are estimated to be at very low levels,” said Eric Schindler, ocean salmon supervising biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “Critically low numbers of fall chinook within the Sacramento River and a very low forecast for Klamath River three-year-old chinook head the list of problems facing salmon managers this year."

What could I possibly add to that?

The Long UO-PDX Made In Oregon Sign Nightmare Is Over

2009-04-08T17:13:00.001-07:00

It's just going to read Oregon.

The compromise with UO which gives the City right of purchase if UO ever quits the building is a nice touch, I thought.

Free Stuff: Worth What You Pay For It

2009-04-08T17:08:00.001-07:00

Screenclipped from one of the far-too-many aggregate sites that I waste my life at each and every day:

Well, Mom Always Said that free stuff is worth what you paid for it, but in this case I'd say it's a bit overpriced.

No, silly ... don't click on the ad. While I acknowlege that there are douchbags in the world that get way too much importance, I don't actually link to them. Jeeze.

WaPo Columnist Names The Best Oregon Political Blogs ...

2009-04-08T16:09:00.001-07:00

... and the envelope please!

The Fix, Chris Cizilla's (wasn't that a Japanese movie monster?) blog on the WaPo, has laid out the best reads amongst the politiblogs infesting the noosphere like a plague (did I say that?), and of Oregon's amazing population, he could only come up with two:

The Shadout Mapes On Politics at The Oregonian
Blue Oregon

That's it, people. Just two. I am a little miffed that mine didn't make the cut, but I'm a sprout, so I'll get over it. But there are others which were quite worthy (LoadedO for at least one).

And so it goes.

We'll try for it next year, of course.

The Exquisite Pain Of The Dwindling Bourgeosie Spreads To Willamette Week

2009-04-08T15:23:00.001-07:00

The double-edged sword of modern times just keeps writing my blog posts for me.

For instance, a few posts ago, I mocked The Oregonian for their quaint, dear idea of what down-market means. I found it terribly, terribly dear ... in the way the mortal whistles as they pass the graveyard.

It shows a certain decadence amongst the decreasing members of the middle class that they regard some things ("staycations", economy packs, cheap beer and the like) as a big discovery when the underclass that supports them sees them as everyday life. It's like telling that awkward joke in the hopes of "identifying" with some "underpriviledged class" and makes them look, well, kinda silly.

I don't mean to take the piss out of them so much. It's tough in the newspaper biz these days. But its just kind of galling when you see people who voted for Republicans and waxed on their intellectual offal for years panic when the bill comes due and break their own arms patting themselves on the back for surviving so brilliantly when the shell game is a way of life for most everyone who hasn't even gotten their chances.

Nobody was ever poor before they were poor, you see. They're redefining poor. Poor people just ain't been doin' it right.

And that brings me to Willamette Week. I am very reluctant to kick someone when they're down (remember, they got layoffs and deep salary cuts very recently), but their latest interactive initiative just comes off as a little out of touch in the above ways, as well as simply cribbing something the New York Times is already doing.

Picturing the Recession is a call for readers to send in their photos of how everyone around them is coping. WW's version is called Shuttered Portland, and since people love being intarwebs-famous for at least two minutes, I'm guessing they'll get a good amount of photos (even though the NYT version already accepts photos from just about anybody), but the text punched the same buttons on me that The Oregonian's gently-condescending attempt at humor did.

Just because I'm an irritated curmudgeon, I'll cherry pick some rhetorical questions from the article and answer them, and maybe my point will become clear:

Are you playing Wii at home with friends instead of meeting them at bars? You can afford a Wii and friends? This is hard done by to you?

What’s in your refrigerator now? Leftovers, bargain buys from Food 4 Less, and stuff past its expiry. If we're feeling flush, we chill up some water (at the rate Portland bills us, it's pretty much a luxury anyway

What used to be there? See last question.

Has your favorite store closed? Food 4 Less? No, it's still open.

What’s become of it? It's gotten more crowded with middle-class people who never thought they'd be poor, and whose faces alternate between the self-congratulatory look of being brave enough to shop with the black, brown, and white proles and a momentary glaze of terror that maybe this isn't a temporary economic reset for them.

Is the store vacant? No.

If not, what moved in? See the answer two questions back, chump.

Okay, so I'm sour grapes and all, whatever. I never got the chances that some have gotten and all that, call me what you will. But this bizarre fascination with being Newly Poor and the strictly bourgeosie way of looking at it (by newsers that expect me to lend them crediblity) just sticks in my throat like a bone.

What I'd like to see from the news is more actual serious reporting on the deteriorating economy and the dwindling middle class (and consequently, the dwindling chances to become part of it) and more riding on the people pulling the levers to do the right thing and stop playing games, and less droll ironic commentary on what it's like to be poor these days.

I can save you a lot of tedious work.

Three words: being poor sucks. There. Your job's done for you.

I'm not saying you shouldn't take pix and send them to WW. Hell, why not? Sounds like fun anyway.

(Hat tip: Carla "The Unimpeachable" Axtman at BlueOregon)

Limbaugh Pwned By Republican LIstener Who's Had A Gutful

2009-04-07T20:58:00.001-07:00

If you haven't heard this one yet, you need to. It's the story of a man forced to look in the mirror and recoiling at what he saw.

You know him as Rush Limbaugh. Add your own epithets.

Thank God, incidentally, for Media Matters for America. They need no introduction around the liberal noosphere, of course, but I mention them because they are heroes to me, if only because someone over there listens to Limbaugh so we don't have to.

That is one crappy job. Must be just below Assistant Crack Whore on the crappy jobs scale. But it's a public service to be sure.

Anyway, I just heard this on Malloy, But all the stuff is over at the Media Matters site, including a recording. The caller is someone named Charlie, who identifies himself as someone who votes conservative and didn't want to see Obama elected and who served in the Marines and the Army, and all of a sudden, apparently, he had a gutful of it all, and it centers on that thing we don't do, torture:

Thanks, Rush. Rush, listen, I voted Republican, and I didn't -- really didn't want to see Obama get in office. But, you know, Rush, you're one reason to blame for this
election, for the Republicans losing.

First of all, you kept harping about voting for Hillary. The second big issue is the
-- was the torture issue. I'm a veteran. We're not supposed to be torturing these people. This is not Nazi Germany, Red China, or North Korea. There's other ways of interrogating people, and you kept harping about it -- "It's OK," or "It's not really torture." And it was just more than waterboarding. Some of these prisoners were killed under torture.

And it just -- it was crazy for you to keep going on and on like Levin and Hannity and Hewitt. It's
like you're all brainwashed.

And my last comment is, no matter what Obama does, you will still criticize him because I believe you're brainwashed. You're just -- and I hate to say it -- but I think you're a brainwashed Nazi. Anyone who could believe in torture just has got to be - there's got to be something wrong with them.

Yes, that's right. You just heard a Republican call Rush Limbaugh a brainwashed Nazi. It took several minutes for Rush to get back on his pins but he was never able to regain the initiative, so he ended the call and lept off the deep end into the river of de Nile:

Charles, Barack Obama is president of the United States today because of stupid, ignorant people who think like you do. You pose -- you and your ignorance are the most expensive commodity this country has. You think you know everything. You don't know diddly-squat.

You call me a Nazi? You call me somebody who supports torture and you want credibility on this program? You know, you're just plain embarrassing and ludicrous. But it doesn't surprise me that you're the kind of Republican that our last candidate attracted. Because you're no Republican at all based on what the hell you've said here.

When confronted with the truth of what he's done, Rush Limbaugh recoils in horror at it ... and projects it on the messenger. The mistake here would be to assume that Mr. Limbaugh holds only liberals or people who don't agree with him in contempt. He holds all his listeners in contempt. If he didn't he would hand out such intellectual offal.

Of course I didn't excerpt it all ... that'd just be rude of me. Go to Media Matters to read the whole thing and listen to the clip.

It's historic, in a way. There may well be no better exposition of the corruption that is Rush Limbaugh and exactly what he does when confronted with it. It deserves a listen. It deserves two listens.

Simple Answers To Simple Questions on: Wingnuts Fomenting Open Rebellion

2009-04-07T04:14:00.001-07:00

Kari at BlueOregon:

Will the responsible Oregon Republicans denounce these dark demons that stoke the fires of revolution?

No.

This has been another edition of Simple Answers To Simple Questions.

We would answer the question Is There Such A Thing As A Repsonsible Oregon Republican, but we do not run a series called Oregon Political Koans. Maybe someone else will. I"m just not that smart.

A Completely Tasteless and Insensitive Statement About The Nature Of Desperation These Days

2009-04-07T03:54:00.001-07:00

Making the below is wrong and tasteless and sad and I apologize in advance, but the moment I saw the story on the news I couldn't get it out of my head.

It's wrong, and once again, I apologize:

I am a rotten person.

Update: they got the dude in northern Cali.

On Public Assistance In TN? Forget About Winning The Lottery.

2009-04-06T18:36:00.001-07:00

In our latest example of the pure hatred and disdain the Republicans have for the poor, comes this amazing concept from the state of Tennessee. According to reports we've heard over the weekend, Tennessee State Rep. Stacey Campfield (R-But What Did You Expect) wants to harsh one of the few buzzes poor folks get:

"This bill prohibits issuance of lottery prizes in the amount of $600 or more to any person who receives state or federal economic or medical assistance due to indigency."

Arrie Chamberlain says the measure is unfair. She plays the lottery every week, is on the government's food stamps program and has a job.

"If I work and go out and earn a living, why can't I spend the money? Everybody else gets to. Just because I make less money and have more obligations doesn't mean the state can tell me how to spend my money. "

If there's anything that makes my blood boil, I mean really boil, it's the way we expect The Poor to be more virtuous than us, and if we don't, well, we despise them. The Poor aren't Poor because they're evil, they're poor because, unlike you (the editorial You, please note, not the personal You) their chances didn't work out. And we aren't necessarily any better than them, just a bit luckier.

Now, I don't condone addiction or frittering away, but I also don't begrudge poor people the occaisional drink or lottery ticket. If my tax money is supporting someone having just a little fun, so be it. The mass of poor people who dissipate themselves themselves through drink and fun is a myth, just like the Cadillac-driving "welfare queen" that the Reagan cosmology gave us.

(for the record, I drink sparingly, and never play the Lottery.)

Think about it. Just because you're poor doesn't mean you don't want to just kick back, enjoy, and dampen the pain for a little while.

And that's not all, of course. Rep Campfield's idea of social engineering is to tell poor people who are taking any public assistance, even if they earn most of thier own money and just can't make ends meet, that they can't win the lottery.

Poor? Tough. Suck it. Win the lottery? Screw you.

The only thing Stacey Campfield deserves for this is the big middle finger.

Can Unicorns Save Our Made In Oregon Sign?

2009-04-04T12:08:00.001-07:00

I don't know. Kinda scary actually:

Yea, I'm late to the gathering as usual.

Stole it from here. You know actualy, after that last curmudgeonly rant, one look at that sign and I'm feeling better already.

What The Oregonian Thinks of As Frills ...

2009-04-04T12:02:00.001-07:00

I admit, sometimes beating up on The Oregonian is a bit too easy to do. It is sometimes real hard to see through the veil to the disdain it's had for the working people of its constituency though the endless Macy's ads or the celebration of boutique-y food tastes in the FOOD(you can't afford)Day section.

The mango chutney is a nice touch, though.

Now, we must be aware that there is a upper-middle crust in town that think of themselves as The Real And Struggling Portlanders. There is a certain sort of mental illness that falls on these types. They, for some odd reason, believe that everyone sees the world as they do, and that everyone else they don't know is on their level.

Therefore, if they aren't hurting, nobody else is. The general cultural level of a place doesn't go down until it goes down for them.

They're terrified of that.

Every now and then, someone with The Oregonian attempts, awkwardly to show how aware they are of how hard it's getting for the commonfolk, and of course, it comes off wide of the mark and ... well, awkward. No better example can be found than the article written for the front page of The Oregonian's "How We Live" section (I throw up in my mouth a little every time I see that section name) titled "The Frill Is Gone" (A play on The Thrill Is Gone by BB King? How witty!), which is supposed to be "a light look on how life in the Northwest is shaking out in lean times".

Oh, goody. Let's see how light. Here's a selection:

Out with the old ... Grande chai latte with extra whip.
In with the new ... Thermos of Folger's.

Oh, good Lord, you're kidding me, right? Thermos of Folgers? Are you people feeling that sorry for yourselves? You can get Cascade Pride whole bean coffee for a good price at WinCo, and it looks like you haven't priced the coffee at Dutch Bros (very nice, resonable price).

Let's look at another one:

Out with the old ... Pint of organic microbrew made from locally grown hops.
In with the new ... Six-pack of PBR.

Six-pack of PBR? Is that when you've hit rock bottom? No, when you've hit rock bottom is when you're drinking Milwaukee's Best. Nice try. When's the hair shirt coming out?

Out with the old ... Private school.
In with the new ... Public school.

That one's just as well and actually an improvement: I think private school graduates have gotten us into enough trouble lately. On a related note, I think I know where all that money to run the public schools have gotten off to.

Out with the old ... iTunes.
In with the new ... Free music podcasts.

Already there, bucko. Well, actually, not exactly. iTunes is free. And you don't have to buy a whole damn album. 99 cents a song remember? With money management skillz like that, I'm not surprised y'all think PBR is the same as economizing.

Out with the old ... Powell's New York Times best-seller shelf.
In with the new ... Any shelf at the Multnomah County Library.

... or any shelf at Powells that has books that say used on them. Crimony.

Just a couple more ...

Out with the old ... Satellite dish.
In with the new ... Recycled rabbit ears.

Oh, now you're down with the common man. Welcome to our world. But wait ....

Out with the old ... Portland Opera tickets.
In with the new ... Free Metropolitan Opera on cable.

I thought we just got rid of pay TV. You figure out how to get that on rabbit ears, baby you will be rich!

Out with the old ... Shopping for clothes at Pioneer Place.
In with the new ... Shopping for clothes at Goodwill Industries

I'm not going to mock this one. It's just kicking someone when they're down.

A light look at the new Northwest frugality? This is so shallow it makes my stomach hurt.

And I actually do like the Oregonian. Ohman's cartoons are incomparable. Editorial writing–when they aren't penning anti-working class missives and chiding the rabble for wanting a higher mimium wage-–is usually first class. And that too, is my opinion.

Maybe I out to try to get to my point here. I'm always amused when someone from the middle-upper-classes gets to downsize their personal economies. Now, I'm quite aware that a lot of people have indeed worked quite hard and deserve the lifestyle that they're now losing. Perhaps even the staff of The Oregonian numbers among many of them.

So why is it that whenever the paper comments on the New Lean Times they give me the impression that they're people who've never not been a little too well-paid at something all of a sudden seeing that they're on a long glide path into The Land Of The Rest Of Us ... and it's scaring them to death?

Just maybe they're waking up to the reality that what they consider reasonable pay for honorable work is something that a lot of us who live and work on the socioeconomic floors below them only wish we had a chance at. And some of us have striven quite hard for it. The Clinton boom? Passed us by. The dotcom boom? We fantasized about working in a company that had a pingpong table and hot and cold running lattes. Never happened to us.

Prepare to get your perceptions enlarged.

Welcome to our world, Sparky. There's not much here, but it's ours.

Broadway, 39th, Grand: Not Only No, But Hell No

2009-04-04T09:47:00.001-07:00

The buzz: The city of Portland has just released results of a postcard survey poll on the possibility of the three target streets – Grand Avenue, Broadway, or E. 39th Av – would wear the moniker Cesar Chavez. And the results are ... urgh.

Broadway: support, 73; opposed, 1,276
Grand Avenue: support, 69; opposed, 372
39th Avenue: support, 91; opposed, 694.

The idea is to now go back to Council with recommendations based on this. Since stop the insanity has been deemed an unacceptable result, the one with the weakest opposition will probably get the nod.

That means you, Grand Avenue.

That'd by my prediction, anyway.

You know, the memory of Cesar Chavez deserved better than this. Read Sean Cruz' blog here, and here, to find out why that is. The quote to me that illustrates exactly the shallownness and arrogance of the advocates that needs repeating is this one:

The Committee-Once-Bent-on-Renaming-Interstate-Avenue has never asked the City or the County or the State to put other possible public property naming options on the table, and Portland remains stuck in the mire largely because the White Folks in Charge at all levels of
Oregon government have been so fearful of alienating a potential voting bloc.

The street-focused effort will win no awards for creativity or imagination, in part because there is no major street in Portland that is a natural fit for a Mexican American hero.

Nothing underscores this point more than the fact that the Committee is equally
good with Broadway, 39th, Grand or Interstate Avenue, so far….

The process has been hopelessly ruined by power center after power center bypassing through-going rules put in place by people concerned that just the sort of thing would happen that, in fact, has happened, because they are justified enough.

We now face the ironic proposition that, in Portland, a city justifiably reputed for a progressive outlook, we are having an ugly argument over whether to name a street after someone who embodies a great many qualities that we all hold quite dear.

Bizarre.

Mom Always Said it's fun and games until someone loses a limb.

And to add an observation of my own, from Cervantes:

Hay más mal en aldea que se sueña.

My translation may be a bit off. Apologies if so.

Mannix: You Know Their Tired Of You When They Won't Even Laugh At Your Jokes Anymore

2009-04-01T19:29:00.001-07:00

So it seems that Kevin "Not The 1970s TV Detective" Mannix knows how to see in April – with a rather high-quality joke:

Because Oregon doesn't have an LG, you see. In case you aren't in on the joke.

Read here at the WW Kev's press release. I don't appreciate Republicans (and Kevvy less than most) but I do appreciate a healthy sense of humor, and this was a good one.

But boy, do his Republican cohort wish he'd just enjoy retirement. One editorial in the Oregon Catalyst and the disdain just happens. It ain't pretty. You can read it at this URL:

http://nwrepublican.blogspot.com/2009/03/kevin-mannix-is-back.html

which I'm going to make you cut and paste because I'm not going to sully my beautiful blog with links to a place like that.

Kevin, you are now an outcast in your own party.

Didn't think that would happen, did you?

That's the way your party rolls, though. Anyone on the outside could have told you that.

But anyone on the outside is an enemy, amirite?

But seriously, I thought it was a good one.

But everyone knows that, out of respect, John Lim was going to get to be LG first.

You Can't Go To Europe Either? Damn.

2009-03-29T19:14:00.001-07:00

(via) I can't afford to take a vacation any farther away from here than Salem. I'm certainly not going to Europe in the forseeable future.

So I'm totally feeling the Bush Admin Republicans who won't be going to Europe anytime soon. Seriously. Of course, I can't go because there's no money, honey. They can't go because it just wouldn't be a good idea, in the staying-out-of-international-jail way.

Just so you guise know, if you need ideas about how to take time off in America, I can help you there. Staycation? We just call that life around here.

And, no, it's not because I'm bitter that all the fomerly-prosperous people I see are breaking their arms patting themselves on the back in self-congratulation on discovering the joys of the "Staycation" when that's pretty much all the vacation I've ever known.

Okay, I lied just there. It is, in fact, because I am amazingly bitter about it. [Sam Kinison Primal Scream] Welcome to MY WORLD!!!! [/Sam Kinison Primal Scream]

Who says NOLA's dying?

2009-03-28T10:15:00.001-07:00

Population back up over 300,000 in the city, 1.3 megapersons in the New Orleans metro area.

Mom Always Said you can't keep a good city down.

That sound you hear is Republicans softly crying because a Democratic stronghold is rebuilding itself. I don't imaging NOLA will forget how the Republicans let them down either.

They still got about 150,000 to get past us, though.

Hey, hometown pride, you guise. Deal with it.

Right Now, Mayor Sam's Strategy Seems To Be Working

2009-03-27T19:50:00.001-07:00

And what is that strategy?

Play it cool. Wait it out.

Back on January 20th, which should have been the best G-d d-mned day this country ever had, Mayor Sam Adams blew a whole lot of good will when he revealed that he did, in fact court Beau Breedlove–in contrast to his protestations of earlier.

There's been a great deal of water under that bridge since. And, at first, it looked very much like Sam would conclude what a great many people had–it was a breach of trust that fundamentally changed the nature of the Sam Adams-Portland polity's relationship.

A lot of people sprang to Sam's defense when the meme was mooted that he was being smeared because he was gay. A lot of people felt used afterwards.

But there was an entrenching afterwards. After about a week's worth of seculsion, Sam came back to City Hall and just got back to work, L'Affaire Ruiz came (and went). Calls of "Recall!" were heard from the east side to the west side and it seemed like the perfect career-ending storm. Randy was no longer Sam's friend.

Come with us back up to the present. What do we have?

Randy Leonard (still stylishly sans 'stache) heartily holding forth on the plans to condemn the Made In Oregon sign in the lobby of City Hall. Sam's on board but we don't see him.
Amy Ruiz unironically holding forth on something or other that's sustainable on KATU News.
Most of the Student Council celebrating the ascension of PDX to MLS. Sam's out front.
Someone from the Recall Sam Adams campaign finally testifies in front of Student Council. Forgets to dress for success. Goes off like a wet fart; is savaged by the commenters as PMerc's Blogtown.
That zombie of Portland politics–the Convention Center "Headquarters" Hotel–stalks the landscape again. They say it's a sure thing. Also, again. You can pop this tape in the Teddy Ruxpin of city gubmint and rerun it every so often. It's a golden oldie.

In short, City Hall's kind of back to normal, mostly.

Will there be a credible recall challenge to Mayor Sam? There could be, I suppose. The statutory 6-month waiting period for the recall is giving the whole thing a chance to cool off. Sam's doing what Sam does. Randy's making noises about–well, seems to be about wanting to be Mayor, but things are so odd around here lately, I could have misunderstood them.

Sadly to say, Jasun Wuerster pretty much shot himself and what recall movement there is left in the foot with his underwhelming City Hall testimony.

A long time ago, there were radio ads for a company's product called "Verbal Advantage". They make you talk pretty. You may remember they began It's alarming but true ... people do judge you by the words you use!"

Well, back on the 18th, Jasun learned to his dismay that it's alarming but true: in politics, people do judge you by the image you project. And Portland is a pretty laid back place, it's true. But when you get into the chambers of power you better look like you've suited up to play your "A" game. In the comments, Jasun himself averred that his financial situation (we can relate) and his health (we can also relate) dictated his choice of attire. But we've also latterly been to Value Village and Goodwill, and it's not that hard to find an acceptable looking jacket and tie for really fricken' cheap. And the way they take pictures, hey, he could have gone in in tattered jeans and still accorded himself.

There's not a dress code for democracy, no. There's not a dress code for life, either. But there is a dress code for important events. Ignore it and you lose face. By showing up by looking like he just rolled out of bed, he delivered what might be a shot below the bowline of the only recall campaign that seems to be out there. And it didn't have a great deal of credibility to begin with. You can be whatever you want, but when you show up to City Hall, you better look like you mean business. Perception is the reality.

And I can see I've gotten distracted by what the Blogtown commenters (who, I think–for the record–were really a bit too cruel on Jasun) got caught up in. Like I said, Perception is the reality.

Now, back to the nut of things: Sam's back at work; the Portland Student Council is back to its charming old dysfunctional self; the Sam Adams recall campaign is looking like a group of tyros; the scene has cooled off considerably.

Already I see the conventional wisdom swinging over in Sam's favor.

Sam getting recalled? He's stood pat and kept his head down.

Magic 8 Ball say outlook not so good.

Maybe Sam understands PDX better than we know.

The Republican Road To Recovery: Idaho, We're Looking At YOU!

2009-03-26T20:36:00.001-07:00

(via a blog in the other state slated for elimination) The national GOP proves it's great at designing a slick pamphlet (and not much else) with the "Republican Road To Recovery", which has all sorts of nifty circles filled with handwavy promises you can't disagree with.

With all the good will the reputation the Republicans have buy them, I'm having trouble not believing that you could fill the pretty circles with things like "Kittens", "Puppies", "Apple-cheeked Kids", and "Corn Dogs" and really change the substance of the report much. I mean, am I for More Jobs and Sustainable Power? You bet! Do I think Republicans are sincer about ever delivering on it? How many ways I can hell no!

Anyhow, the incomparable Nate Silver has "leaked" the substance of the refined plan. Sorry to let you know, Idaho – even though you're redder than red, you're on the chopping block. Sucks to be you!

We'll have to get our potatoes from somewhere else.

Tap The Rockies. Or, Better Yet, Don't

2009-03-26T20:15:00.001-07:00

Something that caught our eye in passing: In a story designed to make you feel fortunate you live in Oregon, where you don't (yet, anyway) have to worry about where your drinking water comes from (and where you can feel fortunate if you live in PDX) we find that there's enough hydrocarbons in the drinking water in an area northeast of Denver that you can have a little pyrotechnics show erupting from your water faucet, if you want.

Yay, resource extraction.

Also it provides another reason to shun bottled water: Nestle's water grab will apparently do no small amount of damage to Colorado's water table.

Ironic for a state who's signature consumer product is a beer touted as superior because of its legendary Rocky Mountain Water. I'm old enough to remember when the folks would sneak home Coors from a state where it was legal to sell it (Oregon had strict rules about beer purification which seem, in retrospect, quaint) and surruptitously quaff a few, only to have the joy of breakin' the law blunted by the fact that Coors sucks (well, some things don't change anyway).

A Short Tale About Arlen Specter, The Democrats, and The Employee Free Choice Act

2009-03-26T14:44:00.001-07:00

Once upon a time, near the edge of the political wilderness, a Democratic Party with a 9-vote Senate Majority (but not quite enough to prevent a Republican filibuster) saw a poor, battered Arlenspecter just by the side of the road.

While still greatly sustained by his constituency, he was very mindful of the fate of another member of his local ecosystem, the Ricksantorum, who was foolish and took his niche for granted, so he was stepping carefully, lest he be consigned to the political wilderness forever with the rest of this species.

"Excuse me, Democratic Majority?" he asked plaintively. "I know I'm a Republican and all, but I'm a moderate Republican – heck, I'm almost one of you, and I sure would appreciate it if you could help me stay out of that there political wilderness."

"Well, I don't know," said the Majority. "I remember how you treated me when I was the Minority. You talk reasonably now but back then, others in your species all but tried to kill me. I know you're a reasonable member and all, but you can't help but deserting me when me and the American people need you to do the right thing. Because of your species, we have two pointless wars in which we're still losing blood and treasure and an economy that's hollower than a Republican promise (sorry, no offense). You'll tell me this but you actually have a poisonious bite thats fatal to working-class Americans and a toxin would stop at no lie to tell a posionous untruth about what my party's trying to to rebuild America."

"Look", said the Arlenspecter, "Though your words sting, I'm not going to insult your intelligence by saying you're wrong. I understand your reluctance. But if you pick me up and bear me away from the boundary of this wilderness, I'll be your friend. I'll treat you better. I'll help you by making sure that the Employee Free Choice Act doesn't get filibustered by others in my species."

"Well, I'm still not sure. Your colleagues have given insincere promises before"

"Okay, I'll tell you this one thing", the Arlenspecter said, almost desperately. "You've heard whisperings in the Beltway Press that I might join your side to stay in my seat? Whether there may or may not be a truth in that is yours to ascertain. But it certainly may happen if you help me. So what do you say?"

The Democratic Majority was still unsure. To say that the Republican Party has been dreadful to them over the last two administrations would be to severly gild the lily. But the Majority was made of compassionate stuff. Don't we all love America? Do we not have more in common than we have in difference? Doesn't even the most sincere Republican deserve a chance to make it back out of the wilderness if they do the right thing? were all thoughts that went through the Majority's mind in and out of committees and debates.

And he was a particularly snappy dresser–Republican or Democrat, he was clearly, by the couture of his kind, one of the tribe.

"All right, I will save you. All living things and decent Senators deserve kindness, a lift out of the wilderness, and a chance to remain relevant."

And the Democratic Majority picked up the Arlenspecter and, placing it under its cloak close to its EFCA, confident that it did a Good Thing, carried it right up to the boundary of the political wilderness.

All of a sudden, as they got to that amazing line, the Majority felt a sharp pain right in its EFCA, and felt the venom start to spread. It dropped the Arlenspecter in betrayed shock.

"Arlenspecter! You gave me your word of honor that you wouldn't do that!"

"People make a lot of promises in this town," the Arlenspecter said as it crawled off. "Next time, get it in writing. And don't wait up for me to join your side when I run for re-election either, ha!"

"But ..."

"Hey, hey, hey there. You said it yourself. You knew what I was when you picked me up."

Know Your RealAge™? So Does Big Pharma.

2009-03-26T13:57:00.001-07:00

(Hat Tip) The New York Times:

But while RealAge promotes better living through nonmedical solutions, the site makes its money by selling better living through drugs.

Pharmaceutical companies pay RealAge to compile test results of RealAge members and send them marketing messages by e-mail. The drug companies can even use RealAge answers to find people who show symptoms of a disease — and begin sending them messages about it even before the people have received a diagnosis from their doctors.

While I generally resent the commoditization of our lives and the commercialization of the American experience the problem here isn't so much that here for me.

The problem I'm having is that Big Pharma didn't have the courage to say that they were doing it. They hid behind trusted people in the media and a happy shiny message.

I have a problem with the fact that every facet of my life is available for marketing by some company or another. I have a bigger problem with a lack of good faith and honesty. It bespeaks, in the end, a general contempt by manufacturers and business in general about the people it, on the face, strive to serve and provide for.

I think American culture, as it is, is going to hell in a handbasket. Some would say I'm an optimist, pointing out it's already there.

If we don't have basic honesty, which is supposed to be a core American value, then we've really got nothing but a sham.

The Reasons I'm Still Not 100% Thrilled About MLS In Portland

2009-03-26T12:45:00.001-07:00

They're not all that honest about abosolutely, positively having to ZOMG remodel Piggy Park.
I know they're saying that this is all guaranteed 'n' stuff and that the taxpayer exposure on this is at a minimum, but people on that stratum of society have been lying to me for so long they've forgotten how to tell the truth. It's probably gone so far that when they lie to us that actually think they are telling the truth. So they say there's going to be a deal in place that'll prevent taxpayers from being harmed. Well, maybe. I'll believe it when it doesn't happen.
New sports stadia don't really help the local economy. It's always used as a reason and it's been debunked time and again (and it the situation I've linked it was disproved by actual smart people with actual degrees and stuff) but this zombie bullet point just Will. Not. Die.
One less just-affordable entertainment opportunity for me and mine. Major league sports = major league ticket prices, it doesn't matter what sport it is (fortunately, we've recently reconnected with the Winter Hawks, which is a hell of a team). We're poor. In 2011 we'll probably have no chance to see a Timbers game live, because we're no longer able to afford it
No more Beavers at the Piggy? I suppose I can accept this in concept but on a gut level, it just doesn't make sense.
The NASL Timbers drew 20,000 fans a game. The NASL folded anyway.
The whole quest for some sort of triumph on this issue distracted the mayors office and the Student Council from taking care of essential things. Now the city's going to be spending an extra megabuck a month while they work out some issue they should have already taken care of.

I'm sure Mom Always Said something about this, but I can't quite figure out what it might have been.

TriMet Adjusts Service Cuts; More Public Meetings On Tap

2009-03-25T20:03:00.001-07:00

TriMet, after taking in a whole lot of public commentary (and maybe reading a blog or two, who knows?) has refined its service cutback initiative. Here's the executive skinny:

Routes Eliminated down from twelve to five. And here are the losers: 41-Tacoma, 74-Lloyd District/Southeast, 86-Alderwood, 153-South End Loop Road and 157-Happy Valley.

That 41 elimination is what caught my eye. It's just as well; with only morning and afternoon service and no weekend service at all, it was a pretty lame replacement for the old route which was discontinued when weight limits made using the Sellwood Bridge out of the question.

The rest of the lines proposed for elimination will run on reduced hours/days or will be combined into new routes. Notable here is the 33-Fremont, which will remain but in a foreshortened form: only running weekdays with no evening or weekend service, and only between Emanuel Hospital and the Gateway Transit Center.

Emanuel Hospital? If you're going to end the line at Emanuel, why not go for broke and go to the Rose Quarter TC? More connections available there, one fewer transfer for line 33 riders. And you want to go somewhere after hours or on weekends? C'est la guerre, mon cher; C'est la vie, mon ami.

Another interesting bit of bus route alchemy: the 18-Hillside and the 63-Washington Park will be combined, and 63-Washington Park will elminate weekend service.

Many lines will lose weekend service. Lines 1-Vermont, 10-Harold, 34-River Road and 51-Vista will lose Saturday service but retain weekday service. Lines 17-NW 21st Ave/St. Helens Rd, 48-Cornell, and 67-Jenkins/158th Ave.will lose Sunday service but still have weekday and Saturday service. A few other lines will see drastic changes in weekend coverage.

There will be three public meetings on the 6th, 7th, and 8th of April in SW and downtown Portland and the Clackamas Town Center area respectively. TriMet has a press release on their site which has more complete details on the proposed service reductions and times and locations of the meetings.

Feel your area's getting the short end of the transit stick? Show up and make yourself heard!

Malloy News: New Website/Podcast Subscriptions ETA, This Coming Monday

2009-03-25T19:44:00.001-07:00

Just heard on the Malloy show; all new stuff coming on Monday next, including a less expensive (Mike really stressed that) podcast subscription, and apparently Ben Burch at White Rose Society is going to archive them for free access with a 7-day embargo (if you want it now, then pay Mike what is supposed to be a more reasonable subscription fee than NovaM asked, which if you can, you oughta).

White Rose is really hoppin ... they now have 7-day embargoed podcasts of Thom Hartmann and Stephanie Miller. You should also support Ben Burch if you have a few bucks.

Republicans On Pretty Much Everything: "We Must Have Tax Cuts"

2009-03-24T23:00:00.001-07:00

It's been beat pretty much to death on The POJ, but it was said of the news today that State Senator Brian Boquist (R-Reading From A List Of Talking Points) of Polk County said Republicans had great ideas on how to get Oregon's economy turning over again.

So, I thought "hey! Any idea that The POJ has the guts to announce as being from teh Republicans has got to be a game-changer!"

Well, you can all go home again. Clear out the auditorium:

Tax cuts. Withholding tax cuts. Tax credits for remodeling your home (should go over like a shot with renters and people who have low incomes). Tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts.

Let's set the scene: let's say that, due to a revolution in science, it was found that, instead of four billion years in the future, the Sun was going to enter its red-giant phase, scouring all the Earth of live, in only four years. You can picture the headlines now:

REPUBLICANS ON SUN GOING NOVA; WE MUST HAVE MORE TAX CUTS

They're all like big, fleshy Teddy Ruxipins that only have one tape. It's the answer to everything.

To save everyone a step from here on out, please review the following comic I stumbled on today. It should explain everything about the Republican response to the economy, AIDS, poverty, scoliosis, tooth decay ...

(Image hotlinked from the Big Fat Whale site:
click here to embiggen)

Can Someone Again Explain To Me Why a 51-Year Old Woman Had To Go To Jail Over A Bike Light?

2009-03-24T22:01:00.001-07:00

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm the one that just doesn't get it.

By now, we've all been 'round the roses in the bizarre case of Freedom Child, the 51-year-old woman who had to go to jail over not putting her bike-light on. I've read the news articles, I've read Steve Duin's column today, and I just don't get it.

It's particularly hard for people like me. You see, quite contrary to the straw-man pre-mis-conception of the lefty that the conservative witling lets themselves be convinced exists and cuddles so close to their breast to keep them enraged.

I like the cops! I adore law and order. My father was a prison guard and he was in the National Guard. In my family, until you knew what was going on, the only proper response to a man in blue was Yes, officer!.

When me and my wife watch COPS, we root for the uniform.

So, I'm looking over the facts as we've been allowed to see them ... the unmarked car coming up to a woman, hassling her, and then the physical confrontation. Even if you don't buy the fact that Freedom Child didn't understand the men were police before they physically restrained her, even though, as Duin reported in his column:

Child testified Dorn and Harris never identified
themselves as police on that dark and lonely night; the
officers insisted they did so fairly quickly. Yet if
we're weighing everyone's relationship with the
truth, the officers never mentioned the unmarked car in the
arrest report and each claimed he popped on the
"overhead" lights so Child could see they were in
uniform.
There were no overhead lights in the car.

Even if you don't think Freedom Child was being straight with us about not knowing they were the cops, you've got to wonder what's going on here. It's really starting to look like the two officers are being given a pass. The revelations that Duin shares with us in his column give the strong impression that the citizen was being treated as the enemy here in a system that is still unwilling to admit it went over the line and made a mistake.

But I'm willing to admit I'm wrong. I've always–seriously–always ready to give the man and woman in the uniform the benefit of the doubt (you'll have to give me the benefit of the doubt on this, people ... it's easy for someone writing an anonymous blog to say whatever sh*t they want and claim sincerity, and I realise that. I'm being straight-up with you here).

So why should I believe that what happened to Freedom Child should have happened to her? Is running a woman that you spooked the heck out of into jail really a justified use of my tax money?

Or, what am I getting wrong here?

And don't bore me with the well, you never know what a person's going to do argument. I know that one. If there were an epidemic of fifty-something female bike-riders luring police into situations where they look all harmless and busting a cap in the cop's ass, then you'd have a point. But there isn't. So you don't.

I hope our Portland Police officers strive to be above reproach. I doubt they're 100% successful–after all, they're human beings. But was this trip necessary?

The Ontario Argus-Observer Takes A Hit

2009-03-24T13:37:00.001-07:00

Down from six days/week (Mon-Fri and Sun) to five days/week (dropping Monday)

Publisher Steve Krehl said dropping the Monday paper was an alternative to a price increase during a recession that has cut into advertising. He says the cost of single newspaper copies won't increase and home delivery rates won't go up in 2009.

So it's either give up a daily issue or take a bigger hit elsewhere.

Big town paper it isn't, it's a community thing. Paid circulation is about 5,000.

It's sad, though expected, that this spectre should be stalking the small-town papers too. Very sad.

Malloy Econ Contributor Prairie2 Now Has Own Blog

2009-03-24T03:51:00.001-07:00

Regular listeners to and fans of the Mike Malloy program know to listen for economic insights from a regular email correspondent known only by the email moniker Prairie2.

The correspondent, dubbed by Mike the shows "Economics Bureau Chief" (regular callers to the Malloy program occaisionally get dubbed some Bureau Chief or another, it's a show custom and a sign you've arrived) is known by regular listeners as someone who obviously thinks long, deeply, and hard about the economy and the danger we're all in, and writes honestly and, moreover, simply enough the be read by anyone. He's kind of a Paul Krugman for the blog set. Most of us find his (hers?) thoughts and opinions challenging and thought-provoking, and one of the other reasons why the Malloy program is a regular listen.

If you don't hav the time or inclination to listen to the Malloy program to get your dose of Prairie2, P2 has finally set up their own blog where you can get the goods direct/subscribe via RSS/whatever.

Your points of contact are:

Blog: http://prairie2.com
RSS Feed (Atom): http://www.prairie2.com/feeds/posts/default
RSS Feed (RSS): http://www.prairie2.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Worth your while, I say.

First, The Willy, Now, The O

2009-03-23T11:40:00.001-07:00

I'm late to the party here, so just put this down to jotting this down in this, my public political self-education notebook, but I'm jolted to find out what's going down at The Oregonian: staff reductions, pay cuts, unpaid furlough days ... oh, boy.

I've had my seasons of unhappiness at the management of The Oregonian before, as I have with the WW, but I can't deny their putting skin in the game: they're taking 15% off their salaries, which is going to hurt a bit when you make as much money as they (I guess) do.

But if you think things are bad here, it's worse elsehwere in the Advance constellation: The Ann Arbor News is going down. Last issue–July.

At least we still have a daily. I'm still fond of The Oregonian, even with its (rather unignorable) flaws.

Mother Nature Hates Governor Teleprompter

2009-03-23T08:59:00.001-07:00

March 22nd, 2009, 10:30 pm; Mount Redoubt in Alaska erupts.

(This was actually a photo of the 1990 eruption)

February 25th, 2009: Bobby "Teleprompter" Jindal, Governor of Louisana, criticizes necessary spending in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, saying:

It includes $300 million
to buy new cars for the government, $8 billion for high-speed rail
projects, such as a “magnetic levitation” line from Las Vegas to
Disneyland, and $140 million for something called “volcano monitoring.”

Wikipedia, on Mount Redoubt:

The 1989 eruption is also notable for being the first ever volcanic eruption to be successfully predicted by the method of long-period seismic events developed by Swiss/American volcanologist Bernard Chouet.

Ah ... so that is what it's good for, that rascally volcano monitoring.

Quod erat demonstrandum, baby.

Teh Lars's New Syndicator Not Quite Sure What Teh Lars Is

2009-03-23T08:42:00.001-07:00

Well, to be honest, he's puzzled us for a long, long time:

Lars Larson announces the selection of Compass Media Networks as its exclusive representative for national radio syndication effective March 30, 2009.

(Italics, larger font size, bolding are ours, nest-say-paw. I mean, it was all I could to to not use the blink tag here)

Peter B Collins: Thanks For The Pledges, Moves To The Web

2009-03-21T18:35:00.001-07:00

Peter B. Collins, one of the most underrated liberal talkers out there, as everyone by now knows, has ended his show.

However ...

After a brief appeal, some 200 people pledged an average of $10 by the each to support his program. Sadly, this was not enough, but was encouraging, and especially to the broadcaster.

Activist listeners rallied to try to save the PBC Show, and I’m
gratified by more than 200 people from all over the world (including
Japan, Costa Rica and Hawaii) who emailed to pledge an average of $10 a
month to support the program.
While this isn’t enough to reverse course, most of those who pledged
said they would subscribe to our podcast in the future. At this
difficult time, it buoys me to see so many people who value what we do
and want to keep it going.

If you'll miss Peter B, though, you won't miss him for long. He's planning to create a regular podcast and its debut is apparently mooted for June sometime. He's planning a live stream of it and also perhaps a subscription which, if you have the money to do so, I think people should support.

Jane Lubchenco In As NOAA Administrator

2009-03-20T09:34:00.001-07:00

NOAA has announced that OSU's Jane Lubchenco has jumped from academia completely to awesome:

Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., was confirmed by the U.S. Senate this evening as the under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere. In this capacity, she will serve as the ninth administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the nation’s top science agency for climate, oceans, and the atmosphere. Dr. Lubchenco is the first woman and the first marine ecologist to lead NOAA.
"Dr. Lubchenco is an outstanding and accomplished environmental scientist with a proven ability to communicate, lead a dynamic team, and inspire action," White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley said. "Dr. Lubchenco joins a distinguished group of scientific leaders in the Obama administration that will ensure that science plays its proper role in shaping policy."

Call it home-state pride but it seems appropriate that a Pacific Northwesterner and a member of the faculty of a particularly prestigious Land and Sea Grant university be named Undersecretary for Commerce on Oceans and Atmosphere.

I suggest raising a glass of cool, clear Bull Run water to celebrate ...

Why Do I Still Take My Own Car With TriMet Close At Hand?

2009-03-20T09:21:00.001-07:00

What Jenson Hagen said at BlueO raises a question worth discussing. The meat of his commentary goes:

The main point here. I have watched TriMet fares jump quite considerably. Was it not too long ago that a general adult all zone ticket cost $1.75? It was something around there. Then as gas prices were climbing, that ticket price began to edge up. Now I'm looking at a $2.30 fare to travel in one direction as an adult. The overall round trip for the day is $4.60, or $1.10 more than before.

I live in an area of inner-Outer East (yeah, that's kind of strange, yes?) in an area that's "convenientish" to two major east-west routes, a mere two blocks from a minor route that runs too infrequently and at awkward times, a seven-minute walk from a major crosstown route, and within shouting distance from the Gateway transit hub if I Go By Bike. When the Max Green Line finally comes on line, I'm going to be ever more fortunate, because the nearest station is a mere mile off.

I'm more fortunate than most as goes TriMet access, but still I take my car.

Why?

I work a third-shift job, which side of the clock TriMet has historically underserved even when the money was there, with awkwardly-timed and widely-time-spaced runs (by this I mean 30-min frequency minimum. Even going a short distance can take over an hour. And TriMet has the annoying concept of having the last run just as I usually get off work, which means I have to shave a few minutes off my time on-the-clock just to get my ride. This is one of TriMet's major flaws, and it makes me sore that they never really address the needs of the third shift. But I'm digressing).

But at least it's there. So why don't I try taking TriMet more often?

Because I live close enough to my work to make, typically, the cost of gassing up an 1972 automobile (a VW Beetle, if you must know) more or less equal to the cost of buying transit for the same time and frequency. It has actually always pencilled out a little more expensive to take transit than to take my 1972 automobile, and, following from above, a hell of a lot less convenient.

We're all watching our pennies very closely. We also all need something that works quickest and easiest–because the less time we have to take working out transit is just that much more time we have to address our other needs, and improve our own personal economies.

We who aren't making more than $32K/year see time as money. You might think that us poor folks don't see time as money. Anyone who things so is extremely wrong. We are always making these trade offs–more often than you'd think.

If you want more sanity in public spending, just put some of us poor folks, who always have to play the shell game with our money, in charge.

Anyway, I don't mean to say that TriMet shouldn't raise fares in tough times or adjust farebox to compensate for revenue. But TriMet should keep in mind that there are unfashionable reasons to use the bus (a lot of us poor folks need to get to work without the car) as well as green, fashionable reasons.

I don't mean to cast aspersions–I love TriMet, and I love TriMet drivers. But transit planners need to not just keep in mind, but take seriously the fact that a lot of people who would use transit aren't–because, even at todays gas prices, people will take the easiest way to make sure they get to work on time, and don't get in hot water for attendance, and for quite a few of us–ironically–keeping in a car by ourselves is the quickest, cheapest, and most convenient and dependable way to stay employed.

That's the way we roll, because that's the way we have to. You give us a sane, sensible reason to take the bus, and we will so be there.

I think I can speak for an awful lot of people here.

Nova M/On Second Thought Refugee Update

2009-03-19T20:12:00.001-07:00

From what we just heard on Malloy, they're going to have a remodeled web presence on or about the first week of April.

They're looking at at new podcast subscription service, so enjoy those free podcasts (via Ben Burch's White Rose Society) while you can. However, Mike is saying they're going to make the new podcast subscriptions more affordable than Nova M Founders Club was, so maybe more of us will be able to get on the bandwagon. I sure plan on it if I can afford that.

Actually, after checking Ben Burch's main page, I found the following bit of good news:

After the Mike Malloy show goes to
subscription service, probably at the beginning of April, the same
situation will apply as with Thom Hartmann's archives; They will be
podcast and archived for free, on a seven-day embargo.
Also,
I will be adding the archives of Stephanie Miller and possibly also
Bill Press on the same terms at some time in the near future. Details
to follow as I know them.

So pay to get it current or wait a week and get it for free. Seems fair to me. We liberal radio listeners owe a hell of a lot to Ben Burch. If my personal economy every improves, I plan on donating. If you, dear reader, have a few bucks, you should throw it his way.

This is great! My iPod (bought used FWIW) sounds great with Mike and Kathy coming out of its speakers.

Checking up on Randi Rhodes, we see that her website still has the complete text that she posted up there when the Nova M balloon went up. That could use a little bit of updating, since there's no Nova M anymore, they won't be making up with anyone anytime soon.

Nancy Skinner's still motorboatin' along, and is gaining my respect. Talk about making lemons out of lemonade. And she's like Randi without all the stuff a long of Randi-haters complain about, so she should have appeal enough to keep going.

The websites for On Second Thought and 1190 Nova M (KNUV, Phoenix) are, as Generalissimo Francisco Franco is, still dead. Rumor is that KNUV is back to broadcasting Spanish language programming, as it was before Nova M's flagship moved from KPHX to KNUV.

And so it goes.

Thoughts for Chuck Butcher in a Terrible Time

2009-03-19T18:31:00.001-07:00

A recent aquaintance and the person I think of as The Bravest Person In Baker County, Chuck Butcher, has suffered a tragic, tragic loss.

In my opinion, some thoughts by all kind and decent people should be sent his way. A word of support on his blog would not be at all amiss if you have any compassion at all.

As the son of a mother who's had to lay a child to rest, I can tell you that most parents would trade Sisyphus's own task if they never had to deal with the task of the passing of one's child.

That being said, I won't say I know what Chuck's feeling, for certain reasons. My late brother was taken by an accident. But I've already probably come off as a little too haughty and familiar, so I have a better idea: go read Chuck's heartachingly honest eulogy about his son, where he lays it all out for you and, while I'm guessing he didn't intend to, make you think about why such things happen.

The Shadout Mapes Wrote A Book I Want To Read About Bicycles ...

2009-03-19T08:30:00.001-07:00

... But I'll have to wait a while. Pedaling Revolution will have to be checked out from the MultCoLib, there's no money in the budget for a new book right now ... and I'm 43rd back on the hold list.

Oh, well, a good book like this (and it's getting good reviews) by someone whose work I quite admire is worth waiting for.

BREAKING: The Bike Tax, About To Die The Death Of Stupid Ideas

2009-03-19T08:19:00.001-07:00

The dawning light of sweet reason is rising over the State Capitol, as the Bike Tax–the risible idea dreamt up by State Representative Wayne Krieger (R-naturally) and signed on by two other SW Oregon republicans and a Metro area Democrat who should have known better.

The AP is reporting (via OregonLive) that HB 3008, the statewide bicycle registration fee, what amounts to a bike tax, is going nowhere. Which is a good thing, even if bike-haters don't want to see it.

Bikes offer economical, affordable transportation to those who can–and those who can't–afford cars. Bike wear on our streets and highways are as near to nonexistent as makes no difference. The cost of adding striping and bike-safety facilities to streets must certainly pale into insignificance next to the cost that cars and trucks inflict on the road system. Moreover, there is no one more immediately effective way of reducing your contribution to local pollution and global climate change.

And if that doesn't convince ya, remember that most bike riders are already automobile owners. We've (and I include myself in that group) already are taxed and pay fees to have the roads to begin with, and we happen to think that if taxes and fees are the entry cost for having an opinion, we've already been worked over for it! If you only drive a car and feel your opinion on this is important, then our opinion must certainly be as important as yours.

Look. Every few bikes on the road means more room for your car. This is a win-win, and with I think the actual cost of supporting bikes as part of the system would actually be, you get it with no extra cost.

And if that does't change ya mind, think on this: while money to implement bike safety programs and additional bike infrastructure would be neato-mosquito, it probably wouldn't happen anyway: according to State Rep Terry Beyer (D-Springfield), the chairwoman of the committed where this gold plated (rhymes with "bird") isn't about to get a hearing, the revenues required to run the registration system would just about use up the revenue it generates anyway.

So if you think that additional money from this tax is going to support bicycles, then you're laboring under a terrific misconception, and you must stop it.

Let this stinker die.

The Norm Coleman Full Employment Plan

2009-03-17T16:03:00.001-07:00

Are the RNC about to trade Michael Steele in for Norm "I Want Every Vote Counted Unless it's Going To Be For Franken" Coleman?

Poltiico (and others) seem to think so.

Republicans either failing upward or sideways. And the more I think about it, the more I realize that Norm Coleman is the perfect face of the odd bird the Republican party has become.

You go, boy.

(via MNPublius, and h/t to Kevin at Preemptive Karma for jogging my memory on this one).

Meanwhile, Back At The Party Of No New Ideas ...

2009-03-17T13:27:00.000-07:00

Via Democratic Underground and the Kansas City Star:

Rep. Chris Carney was walking down a Capitol Hill street whensuddenly - bam - an anonymous Republican with a video camera who had been following him asked him a question that was intended to embarrass the Pennsylvania Democrat.
The interviewer asked first about a single provision in the massive economic stimulus bill, then asked if Carney was going to be "ready to vote tomorrow."

An irritated Carney answered: "Like I told you before, if I see the damn package, I'll have an answer."

A "macaca" moment meant to replayed on the Internet and possibly wound a vulnerable Democrat?

Yes, as the article concludes.

Now, we know that each party tracks the other, has video cameras on each other all the time. But there's a difference between what happened at the so-called "macaca" moment–Former Virginia Senator Allen didn't need to be handed the rope. The tracker for the Webb campaign stayed out of the way. Senator Allen pointed him out before taking the safety off his mouth and shooting his foot with it.

That's not the same as stalking your opponents, getting the drop on them with a video camera, and asking them a pointed question in order to get them to give you a tell. If I may stretch the rope/hang-ones-self metaphor a bit much, this is forcing someone to take the rope you want them to hang themselves with and, when they refuse to put the noose around their neck, trying to pin them so you can force it on them yourself.

I guess coming up with new ideas is hard for Republicans to do. It's easier to manufacture 'gotcha' moments.

Will Michael (Not The Ex-Bangle) Steele Soon Be Ousted?

2009-03-16T14:26:00.001-07:00

Tegan Goddard seems to think it possible:

Republican insiders tell Political Wire that a no confidence vote on RNC Chairman Michael Steele is likely to be called after the NY-20 special election on March 31 -- regardless of whether Republicans win the seat or not.

Later in the article it's related that the putative putsch leader, someone I've never heard of named Katon Dawson, reiterate that he supports Steele.

So Steele's going to be kicked to the curb soon. Unless he isn't, of course. But it seems to me that the point isn't that the RNC may have the mother-of-voters-remorse over Mr. Steele, but that the whispers are going out at all.

But it stands to reason. Republicans pay lip-service to the marketplace of ideas, but in the Big Tent, it's lockstep all the way, and Michael Steele has these little things called independent thoughts that make the old white guys who run the place swoon.

Remember how I said this some time ago:

Tiernan said he was attracted to Steele by his dynanism and ability to articulate Republican values. He said Steele's ethnicity helps bust the stereotype that the GOP is a "party of old white guys who only care about business."

There's a big, big difference between busting the stereotype and actually changing the way one thinks.

The former is message, the latter is substance, and with Republicans, the message is substance.

Translation: they are still the party of old white guys who care about business.

They're more addicted to message than a tweaker is to their crystal.

That's your political lesson for the day.

Goodbye, P-I

2009-03-16T13:38:00.001-07:00

That's all, folks. We are sad to hear that after 146 years, 117,000 subscribers, being Seattle's oldest business, and having the gee-darned coolest rooftop sign since the Daily Planet, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (which is also the frigg'n coolest name a paper could have, in our opinion) will publish its last issue Tuesday.

That's it. That's all.

Seattle, don't despair. You'll get by being a one-pape town; we here in Stumptown have been one since our version of the P-I ... the Oregon Journal ... folded back in 1982. Life does go on, even in a one-pape major town.

I mean, the Sonics left town and the Space Needle didn't fall down. Go through the stages of grief. You'll get through this!

But a few years down the way, you'll remember how interesting it was to have two papers in town, and one an afternoon daily, and you'll despair just a little bit.

As we do.

We're there for you, Seattle.

We care.

(PS: Image nicked from the P-I's front page today, because it's cool, dammit!)

Dune Times Two, or Arrakis Squared, And Another Book Recommendation

2009-03-16T13:28:00.001-07:00

Something I've done this month after not having done it for an awful long time: read Dune twice.

And not with a book in between as a "palate cleanser". I went straight from the line where Lady Jessica Atreides consoles the Fremen Chani with the famous line While we, Chani, we who carry the name concubine–history will call us wives, to the front of Chapter One: In the week before the departure for Arrakis ...

I've huffed and puffed and hand-wove about how Dune contains a lot of what might help one understand how agendas and religion contemplate unifying to configure politics. It's a rousing tale, one of the best ever written, and to me is a cautionary tale about while religion may inform our private morals it must not ever be allowed to shape our public policy.

I think if nobody ever reads any other book to try and understand human events, this would be the one.

I think it's time I deconstructed Dune to demonstrate what I mean. That should come up soon. I am rather prolix ... but prolix and erudite are two different things. Let's see how I stand up to my own gom jabbar.

And while I'm thinkin' about books, in my first bloviation about important books, commenter Phil from Frieddogleg held up another book he recommends about the same sorts of things I say you should read Dune for, and that's Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land. I will admit, here and now, that I've never read it, but that's just my own personal flaw–I've never been a Heinlein fan.

But Phil's got good insight, so I don't mind passing along the suggestion. And, once I get off my current Arrakis affliction, I very well may move on and dip my toe in Stranger for the first time ... and I'll report on that as well. I've read a summary of the work, and it looks like it has definite things to say about power and human's relations to it.

Tip O' The Blogger Cap to EK

2009-03-15T20:52:00.001-07:00

I noticed that Ellen Kimball has tucked me into her list of interesting blogs. Much obliged! I do, if anything else, try to keep it interesting around here.

My-te-fine of you, ma'am!

I will say this: I'd always wondered what it's like to work in broadcasting. Talking on the radio is something I wanted to do once, back when I imagined the world was open to let me do what I wanted, rather than what I had to do ...

Peter B. Collins: What A Difference A Week Makes

2009-03-14T21:06:00.001-07:00

Caught this in passing on Malloy last night: Peter B. Collins, one of the most underrated liberal talkers on the air, just one week after winning La Rhodes' slot in Seattle, has reached the end of his rope:

Since we started on KRXA in 2005, I’ve been covering the costs of
producing the show and delivering it to our affiliate stations by
satellite. With phone bills and the other expenses, it adds up to more
than $5,000 a month. We get a little advertising revenue and some
generous listeners contribute, but most of it is absorbed by my small
business, Collins Media Services. Until last summer, I was able to
cover the costs from my work as a radio producer and consultant. Like
everyone else, the Bush recession has hit me hard.

...

Over the past 3.75 years, I’ve tried it all. I pitched all of the Air
America programmers except the current one, who never returned my calls
or emails. I was offered a deal by Nova M, but they reneged in a
bizarre story I’m saving for my talk-n-tell book. Air America just
announced that Montel Williams will be their new offering in the Thom
Hartmann time slot, which tells us that Jerry Springer’s flameout was
just their first attempt to retread a tabloid TV host as a
“progressive” radio host.

I wish he did'nt have to take himself off the air. Peter B had a unique, measured way of looking at the world and his voice is made for radio.

We here in PDX never heard him except tape-delayed and late, but he was worth staying up for. And he had just got the early-evening slot in Seattle that Randi Rhodes had before she disappeared.

It's an inexplicable shame that liberal radio can't have the same rich angels that conservative talk radio gets. Rush Limbaugh gets tens of millions of dollars a year, Hannity gets millions to arrogantly slant the truth, and they all get to complain about how the Democrats are trying to Fairness-doctrine them off the air (even though Democrats aren't). In the meantime, Mike Malloy has to self-syndicate and Peter B gets to go off the air, even when what we hear suggests that people like liberal radio. A lot. When Randi went up against Lars here in PDX, Lars lost that daypart.

Mom always said life wasn't fair.

Bad News/Good News: The Faces Of The Oregon Republican Party

2009-03-14T20:50:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Bad News/Good News, our occasional feature where we start with the silver lining only to be distracted by the dark cloud within. This edition:

The Oregon Republican Party

Yeah, those guys. Now, we have sympathy. We, as liberals, know what it's like to have everyone hating you for no good reason (although in your case, we think there are at least eight years of Good Reasons).

Anyway, very recently, RNC Chair Michael "I wasn't the bassist for the Bangles (sorry, Rush)" Steele visited Portland for no discernible reason (but it made the kulturkampfers feel good maybe). And who spoke at the gathering but Oregon's two Rushiest radio talkers: Lars "Actually Lives in Vancouver" Larson and Victoria "Hanging On For Dear Life at KPAM" Taft, as Carla "The Unimpeachable" Axtman reported over at BlueO.

Not the most promising speaker ticket. But let's look at Both Sides Now:

The Bad News: The most vocal advocates conservative Oregon Republicans have are Lars Larson and Victoria Taft.

The Good News: at least they don't dress like this:

Because just what the world doesn't need is more revealing clothes on Lars Larson.

(Image above hotlinked from TPM's CPAC coverage).

That's been another edition of Bad News/Good News.

Happy Three Times Five Day!

2009-03-14T20:24:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow is the 15th. Halfway through most months, it's been seen as a mere "hump day" for quite a while though.

But no longer. This month we celebrate the New Math and join the ranks of the growing mathematically-themed days by declaring that the fifteenthing is "Three times Five" day.

There are many benefits over "Three times Five" day over "Pi day" or "Square Root Day" or "Hyperbolic Arc-cosine Day" (Heaven forbid!). Among them:

Almost anyone can conceptualize "three times five". WFT is "ln" supposed to be anyway?
"Three times five" is easy to work out, even for Lars Larson and Victoria Taft listeners (though for them, this may require the doffing of a shoe).
Both numbers have pleasant visual aspects, almost no matter how you represent them. They are also infinitely meaningful: The number three is considered perfect and holy amongst Christians, and the number five is quite popular amongst secular folks and people who shop at Saks.
Perhaps best of all, you don't have to wait two years or six years or 100 or whatever if you missed this months "Three by Five" day to have a party. There's one next month! Or the month after that! And so on, and so on ...

So, there you are. From the enlightened cosmopolitan in the retail district on NW 23rd Avenue to the self-made preacher who thinks calculators are the work of the Devil, suspiciously eyeing the world from his armored-up compound in the hills out near Molalla, there's something for everyone here!

So join us this month for "Three times five" day! Unless you don't! Then, hey, next month for sure!

Now We Know What That Big WW Meeting Was About ...

2009-03-13T20:52:00.001-07:00

... and it wasn't pretty, as we all suspected.

I've mocked WW in certain circles, because for a long time now it's seemed more concerned with style than substance. I will give the pape its due here, thought because even though staff have to take an 8 percent hit on salaries, the big butts, Richard Meeker and Mark Zusman, are taking a 25 percent hit on thier pay.

Good on them. You are our heroes today, man.

Ouch #2 Today: Watch Your Water Rates Go Up Almost 20 Per Cent

2009-03-13T19:36:00.001-07:00

James Mayer, The Oregonian today:

Water rates would go up 17.9 percent under a budget plan presented to the City Council today by the Portland Water Bureau.
The increase is driven in part by council decisions to use reserves to avoid large rate hikes in recent years, said Commissioner Randy Leonard, who oversees the bureau.
"That was a huge mistake," Leonard. "No good deed goes unpunished."
The action would mean a $2.76 increase on the average residential customer's monthly bill of $15.40.

The average bill is $15.40? Ain't ours, let me tell you.

And we're still worrying about cryptosporidium? Something that pretty much never happens in Portland? Because we get our water straight out of the mountains?

If Mount Hood ever erupts, then you can put a fork in our water supply. Until then? Barring population pressure, I ain't so worried myself.

Ouch #1 Today: Fewer Multnomah County Employees, Due To The Economy

2009-03-13T19:25:00.001-07:00

13 Multnomah County employees are not going to have a nice weekend (The Oregonian, "Friday the 13th brings 13 pink slips to Multnomah County employees"):

But Multnomah County can't avoid letting workers go. Its finances are worse because it serves more people and provides services other counties don't, and it has relied heavily on one-time money to pay for programs that have remained once the funding for them went away.

Today's layoffs hit as the county braces to lose hundreds of jobs when commissioners balance a budget for the next fiscal year that begins in July. The county must figure out how to absorb an expected $45 million funding gap.

Get ready for fewer services from fewer, overworked, and overstressed county employees. Looks like law enforcement, corrections, health dept ...

Maybe this was the bug up County Chair Ted Wheeler's butt when he told Commish Randy all about himself in his famous turn at the Portland Student Council this last week, hm?

It would get me upset.

And Ted wanted that job? Wow. He's more of a man that I am, that's for sure.

They Only Wound Up Galting Themselves Over

2009-03-12T15:33:00.001-07:00

Hey, Conservative Blogosphere, How's that "Going Galt" Working out for you?

Apparently, not so well according Hilzroy @ the Washington Monthly:

None of the people Dr. Helen interviews is actually Going Galt. More to the point, neither is Dr. Helen. She claims to be "mulling over ways that she can "go Galt". Allow me to help her
out (along with Michelle Malkin, Glenn Reynolds, et al.) To Go Galt, she should:

(a) Identify those things that she does that are genuinely creative and productive. If there aren't any, then the fact that it will be difficult for her to Go Galt is the least of her problems.

(b) Refuse to do those things in any way that allows society at large, as opposed to a small circle of like-minded individualists, to benefit from them.

It really is that simple. If she and the other bloggers who are calling on people to "Go Galt" don't do this, the only explanations are that they don't have the guts to do what they are encouraging others to do, or that they recognize that nothing they do counts as creative or
productive, or that they just aren't thinking about what they write.

Read the whole thing (seriously, it's important) and read the comments too. They're some of the most thoughtful comments I've ever seen to a post.

They use that word a lot, the conservative bloggers. But we're pretty sure it does not mean what they think it means.

You'd Think They'd Be A Little More Grateful Than That

2009-03-12T15:02:00.001-07:00

Citigroup, recipient (according to RawStory.com) of $50 Bn of your TARP tax dollars to avoid going out of business, spent some of it on a conference call devoted to reducing your rights to unionize:

Sam Stein @ HuffPo:

Embattled financial giant Citigroup Inc., which has received at least $50 billion in federal bailout funds, hosted a private conference call on Wednesday to build opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act.

The call, which came just one day after the labor-backed legislation was introduced in Congress, suggests a growing effort on Citi's behalf to spur concerns about the bill, which would make it easier for employees to organize. On Tuesday, the bank downgraded Wal-Mart's rating over fears that the Employee Free Choice Act could pass.

Citigroup Hates You.

Portland Now Officially Over-rated

2009-03-12T14:40:00.001-07:00

The Oregonian: "Portland Has Weak Showing In Manliness Rating":

Portland has been rated the 47th manliest city in the U.S., but before we reach for our color-coordinated hankies, let's note that Los Angeles and New York finished 49th and 50th -- out of 50 -- and that the list was commissioned by "the cheese-filled snack of NASCAR."

I've never thought of NASCAR as a cheese-filled snack though.

Will the rating lists never end? Oh, boy, that's got to be the Number One most irritating and irrelevant ...

... oh, wait, now I'm doing it too! Crap!

Strangely, I'm Still Torn About MLS ...

2009-03-12T02:41:00.001-07:00

And it's not for lack of trying to make sense of the two advocacies for it.

First of all, I remember the NASL Timbers and the years of "Soccer City, USA". If any city can make that happen, it was PDX. And man, the NASL Timbers were hot.

In the corner of advocacy for, we have the argument that the nearby USL teams are going big league, leaving the Timbers as the only USL team for hundreds of miles in any direction, and the story that the Paulsen family are putting up enought money to make any potential loss to Portland taxpayers as near to zero as possible. There's also the prestige a major league team brings, the prospect of a new baseball stadium for the Beavers (something I thinkt they deserve after all these years) and, as Anna Griffin in The Oregonian pointed out, if you're waiting for a major league football or baseball team to come to town ... well, I wouldn't cross the street on those odds.

In the advocacy against, there's powerful arguments, mostly centering on the state of the economy, and the very real appearance that money that will go to the MLS team would have and should have gone to gapingly-open social needs, real needs, that this city has now and will have very soon. Also the prospect of using a new Urban Renewal district possibly to pay for it (they said it's off the table, but I don't entirely trust that assertion) and that Convention Center urban renewal funds will be used to pay for the new Beavers stadium. It's also a hell of a way for the old Memorial Coliseum to go out. All that, and the owner of the team is a man who, if his dad's any indication, feels that if he wants it he should get it no matter who pays for it.

I think we deserve a MLS level team. Portland's ready for it. But the way things are, it's an extravagance. Can we afford it at this time? Maybe not.

The claim of extra jobs–well, we've seen in other cities that that's a big bust usually.

But it would be cool to have MLS in town! And the Beavers in thier own house!

Maybe it seems a little juvenile, but as just J. Random PDX Citizen ... I just don't know.

PDX: Keeping Portland Normal

2009-03-12T02:22:00.001-07:00

An employee at Powell's Books at PDX dyed her hair pink.

Some weeks later it had faded well under the pastel wavelength.

It was only then that some buzzkill complained.

And then PDX said "cap it, babe".

After some weeks?

WW proclaims the Port of Portland (who owns and runs PDX) the Rogue of the Week this week. We agree.

C'mon, people, its Powell's! If you want Suzy Brownshoe, go to Barnes & Noble. One of the reason to go to any Powell's is because you know attractive young women with candy-colored hair are going to be there.

I mean, I know some of you came to Portland hoping to sleep with one of the girls in the Lille or Gilt ads in the WW and PMerc, and just about now you realize it's not going to happen, so at least you can go to Powells and dream, amirite?

The Bike Tax: What He Said

2009-03-11T12:19:00.001-07:00

I know a "me too" post shows a lack of creativity, but Patrick Emerson's writing out HB 3008, Wayne Krieger's Bike Tax, needs to be read and passed about:

Perhaps the stupidest public policy idea I have ever heard of is the
proposed bike tax. It is not worth talking about the proposal itself as
it is not going anywhere and is, as I think I mentioned, stupid. But
what is interesting to me is that, in fact, the appropriate public
policy is to subsidize bikes, not tax them.
Why? The negative externalities associated with bike riding:
virtually none. Minimal wear and tear on roads, sometimes a slight
slowdown in traffic and a extra line of paint for a bike lane. Positive
externalities associated with bike riding: lots.

Read all about it: http://oregonecon.blogspot.com/2009/03/pay-me-for-riding-my-bike.html

Free (at Least For Now) Podcasts of Mike Malloy Available

2009-03-11T10:06:00.001-07:00

Remember how I said that Malloy was making his podcasts free for now?

You can find them at the White Rose Society. go to the White Rose homepage and go down to the The Mike Malloy Show - New Archives Being Posted link, which is the fourth item in the Table of Contents list.

On your way down, notice that Ben Burch has a donation drive on and donate what you can. He's been doing this for years and if it weren't for White Rose, some liberal talkers wouldn't be getting the word out at all.

Also, here's complete Malloy connection info if you are so inclined:

Streaming; http://server2.whiterosesociety.org:8000/truthseeker.m3u

Temporary Archives; http://www.whiterosesociety.org/Malloy.html

Temporary Podcast; pcast://www.whiterosesociety.org/malloy.xml

President Obama's Memo On Scientific Integrity: The Complete Text

2009-03-10T23:26:00.001-07:00

Repeated verbatim w/o comment because ... well, who needs additional commentary about something this nifty?

SCIENCE IS BACK IN THE HOUSE! (Empahsis below is mine)

Date: Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 12:48 PM
THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
_________________________________________
For Immediate Release March 9, 2009
MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS
AND AGENCIES

SUBJECT: Scientific Integrity

Science and the scientific process must inform and guide decisions of my Administration on a wide range of issues, including improvement of public health, protection of the environment, increased efficiency in the use of energy and other resources, mitigation of the threat of climate change, and protection of national security.

The public must be able to trust the science and scientific process informing public policy decisions. Political officials should not suppress or alter scientific or technological findings and conclusions. If scientific and technological information is developed and used by the Federal Government, it should ordinarily be made available to the public. To the extent permitted by law, there should be transparency in the preparation, identification, and use of scientific and technological information in policymaking. The selection of scientists and Technology professionals for positions in the executive branch should be based on their scientific and technological knowledge, credentials, experience, and integrity.

By this memorandum, I assign to the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (Director) the responsibility for ensuring the highest level of integrity in all aspects of the executive branch's involvement with scientific and technological processes. The Director shall confer, as appropriate, with the heads of executive departments and agencies, including the Office of Management and Budget and offices and agencies within the Executive Office of the President (collectively, the "agencies"), and recommend a plan to achieve that goal throughout the executive branch.

Specifically, I direct the following:

1. Within 120 days from the date of this memorandum, the Director shall develop recommendations for Presidential action designed to guarantee scientific integrity throughout the executive branch, based on the following principles:
(a) The selection and retention of candidates for science and technology positions in the executive branch should be based on the candidate's knowledge, credentials, experience, and integrity;

(b) Each agency should have appropriate rules and procedures to ensure the integrity of the scientific process within the agency;

(c) When scientific or technological information is considered in policy decisions, the information should be subject to well-established scientific processes, including peer review where appropriate, and each agency should appropriately and accurately reflect that information in complying with and applying relevant statutory standards;

(d) Except for information that is properly restricted from disclosure under procedures established in accordance with statute, regulation, Executive Order, or Presidential Memorandum, each agency should make available to the public the scientific or technological findings or conclusions considered or relied on in policy decisions;

(e) Each agency should have in place procedures to identify and address instances in which the scientific process or the integrity of scientific and technological information may be compromised; and

(f) Each agency should adopt such additional procedures, including any appropriate whistleblower protections, as are necessary to ensure the integrity of scientific and technological information and processes on which the agency relies in its decisionmaking or otherwise uses or prepares.

2. Each agency shall make available any and all information deemed by the Director to be necessary to inform the Director in making recommendations to the President as requested by this memorandum. Each agency shall coordinate with the Director in the development of any interim procedures deemed necessary to ensure the integrity of scientific decisionmaking pending the Director's recommendations called for by this memorandum.

3. (a) Executive departments and agencies shall carry out the provisions of this memorandum to the extent permitted by law and consistent with their statutory and regulatory authorities and their enforcement mechanisms.

(b) Nothing in this memorandum shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(c) This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity, by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

4. The Director is hereby authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.

BARACK OBAMA

EFCA: Yep, This Is Why I Voted For Senator Merkley

2009-03-10T23:00:00.001-07:00

Senator Merkley tells it like it is for the working man and woman:

This is why we put Jeff in. This is why we needed two progressive Democrats in the Senate from Oregon.

Go, Jeff! Do us a favor, won't you, if you come by here: contact Jeff and tell him thanks for doing what it was that we sent him there to do.

(via Preemptive Karma)

How To Win Free Maher/Coulter Tix If You Were In Boston

2009-03-10T09:15:00.001-07:00

NB: The contest is over, and the tix have already been awarded

Funny for the day: The Boston Phoenix just concluded a contest where the winner gets two tickets to an upcoming debate between Bill Maher and Ann Coulter. To enter, one had to correctly guess a list of three things the two actually had in common.

My favorite was from one Michael Denham, who wrote:

They both are belligerent, get surprisingly large media coverage, and are both men.

Well you can't please everyone, I suppose. For the record, the answers were:

They both attended Cornell.
They've both written New York Times Best Sellers.
Neither has ever been married.

The author of the post also pointed out that both dated New York Times best-selling authors; to be exact, Dinesh D'Souza and porn star Karrine Steffans, which I have trouble believing completely. After all, I can see Ann Coulter dating Karrine Steffans, but I just don't think Dinesh D'Sousa is Maher's type, seriously.

PS: You were'nt going to Boston anyway. Don't lie to me!

We Like The Timbers ... But We're Not So Sure About This

2009-03-10T08:57:00.001-07:00

We've been following PDX's journey toward MLS as far as our easily-glazed eyes will let us go.

We'll admit, we're confused. And I definitely don't want to kill the buzz of any Timbers fan (who I am, kinda–I attend games as the budget and time will allow).

But the rush toward giving the Timber's owner what he wants and the way which it's all going down so swimmingly just make me think of deals made out of sight. And since the Portland New Town (you know, the condo district otherwise known by the name of SoWa) concept has worked out so well, there should just kind of be a lot more public cirucumspection, and there just doesn't seem to be.

I'm just sayin'.

Newspaper Death Row: The 10 Most Likely To Be Next

2009-03-10T02:18:00.001-07:00

In passing, and with an eye cast toward the struggles of not just the the Post-Intelligencer and The Oregonian, here's a much-linked artcile from the site 24/7 Wall Street that takes a guess at the next ten major dailies that may go dark or go digital.

The list reads:

The Philadelphia Daily News
The Minneapolis Star Tribune
The Miami Herald
The Detroit News
The Boston Globe
The San Francisco Chronicle
The Chicago Sun-Times
The New York Daily News
The Fort Worth Star Telegram
The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Some of those I think we can do without–the NY Daily News gave us the famous "Whose-going-to-write-the-stimulus-bill-now-we-killed-a-rabid-monkey-but-we-certainly-arent-using-a-racially-charged-symbol-to-refer-to-President-Obama" cartoon and is the closest thing I can think of to a craniorectal inversion in print.

But the SFChron? The Sun-Times (who gave us the greatest movie reviewer ever–Roger Ebert, the only movie reviewer ever to win the Pulitzer)?

If the Plain Dealer goes down, where are we going to get our newspaper prop the next time we see Rocky Horror over at the Clinton?

It's dark times, my friends.

TriMet: Providing Stimulus To Bike Park & Riders

2009-03-10T01:14:00.001-07:00

Announced today via TriMet:

At the Bicycle Transportation Alliance annual awards dinner on
Saturday, TriMet General Manager Fred Hansen announced that the agency
is dedicating $1 million of stimulus funding to expand and improve bike
parking facilities throughout the transit system. The stimulus funds
will create a pilot project for bike Park & Ride facilities as well
as upgrade older lockers.

TriMet's bike initiative has always been admirable to me, but could be more.

This is more.

Oh, Go Galt Yourself

2009-03-09T13:59:00.001-07:00

Just caught whiff of this. Us Orygonian bumpkins and bumpkinettes may not have heard of this, but this sounds like the silliest, selfishest, most self-indugingest thing since the other week when that risible "teabagging" party trend (link rated R for adult situation) that happened because Santelli belched something resembling a thought (It would be helpful to note that CNBC's Rick Santellin not only Hates You (tm) but is a buffoon as well, though unlike Jim Cramer, he's not even funny).

It's called going Galt.

As someone once said, assume I'm an Objectivist, and assume I'm a dunce ... but I repeat myself. Now, we all know (even if we don't Rand around) that John Galt is the pivotal character in Atlas Shrugged. He is the ubermensch upon whom withdrawing the creative contribution causes the entire Earth to spin into the sun (or cause another Thin Man movie to be made, or something like that). If you buy into Objectivism, the "men of ability" (not you) are the people who actually make the world go round, and if they decide to stop contributing, then the whole fabric of society unravels and the whole place starts to look like sections of Detroit we've heard about recently.

Now that the rabble (if you're reading this and you wonder who the rabble might be, it's you, Sparky) have begun to actually demand that government work for them instead of on them, the Masters of the Universe (if you wonder if you are one, then it's a dead sure thing you aren't) have decided that they're just going to take their ball and go home.

Balloon Juice has a pretty good summary here:

Much html code has been spilled about the wingnut obsession with “going Galt” in order to avoid paying a 39% marginal rate on income over 250K a year. Matt Yglesias points out that we’d probably be better off if a lot of wealthy Americans went Galt, the Washington Independent has a nice run-down of the whole movement (oh, it resembles a certain sort of movement, if you follow me–ed), if it can be called that, and commenters all over point out that John Galt would never have worked as a dentist, represented people from Bakersfield, or slept with Glenn Reynolds.

Take that lese majeste, you little people. Once you all pipe down, we're getting you a shorter chain.

Problem is, those self-styled Galters don't really resemble John Galt much at all. Once again, if you buy into such Random philosophy and you think that the world won't go unless a creative elite does anything, most of the those who want to go Galting around don't really produce anything that society can't do with out. Conservative bloggers? Investment managers? Commentators? Michelle freaking Malkin?

We'll, they'll show us, you see. They'll go off to the gulch and hope we all Galt ourselves off a cliff.

I hope their little feelings won't get too hurt when they find out the world kind of works better without them.

I kind of hope they Galt off along with the horse they rode in on. We'll all be better off.

Mom always said there'd be people like that there, too, also.

An Upside To A Down Economy: Fewer Traffic Jams

2009-03-09T10:21:00.001-07:00

The dicey economy means people are driving less. Now we know how much less:

Northwest cities fared about average: congestion declined by 28 percent in Seattle, and 34 percent in Portland.

Hell, I'll get and stay on my bike–if the silly people don't get their way.

Hey, KPOJ! Speaking of iTunes Streaming ...

2009-03-09T10:15:00.001-07:00

... why ain't you there?

The POJ and iTunes seems a natural match.

So why ain't you there, ladies and gents? Hmm? Someone over on SW Macadam Avenue want to get on that?

There are many liberal streams, most inferior to The POJ.

Please rectify this.

Thank You, Blue Oregon! And Preemptive Karma Too! (updated)

2009-03-09T10:12:00.001-07:00

I notice that I've been tipped more than once by the mighty Blue Oregon, in my mind the cream of the progressive blogs around here.

It's flattering to be on the BlueO radar, and to Kari, Carla, and all there that I admire, thanks! You've brightened my day!

Updated: I just found out that Preemptive Karma has extended an link of friendship. Must reciprocate if I havent already!

Quite a day!

Post-Nova M: Mike Malloy Still Broadcasting, Podcasts To Be Free (For A Little While Anyway)

2009-03-09T09:42:00.001-07:00

Commenter "fellixe" left me this information on the previous posting regarding the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I'm moving it up to a posting because there's exciting news strongly suggesting that we won't be going without Mike Malloy anytime soon:

Hi again. On the Rhodes Scholars board it was passed along that Ben Burch, all around tech guru and web master of the former Nova M among other progressive media concerns, has posted on Mike Malloy's message board that he would be moving podcasts from the Nova M and On Second Thought to http://headonradionetwork.com/.

Ben's message was as follows:
Hey guys!

Yeah, had my machine crash at the worst time.

Quality will improve tomorrow as we plan to stream directly rather than repeating an affiliate stream with FOUR re-encodings in the chain!

As I said in another thread, podcasts will no longer be via OST, they will be on White Rose, and I am moving gigabytes of audio around as fast as I can to make that happen.

There will eventually be a subscription service. Sooner rather than later, but when it starts it will be temporarily free.

-Ben

I don't know if this effects all the material formerly available to
Founders' Club members of Nova M or not, but I guess it's the best
place to start looking.

I feel somewhat visionary; I wanted for so long to join Nova M Founders Club so I could get me premium Malloy content and podcasts but money has indeed been that tight, and I always felt so guilty about listening to him for free.

That said, I have the utmost sympathy for Founders Club members. After all, they had the gumption to step up and support Mike and Nova M when things were better (If I could just up my income, when it happens again, I'd like to be one of them, of course) and all they have is stress to show for it now. That's not a good prize!

So we'll have our stream back (1190 Nova M's iTunes stream has indeed gone silent) and for a while we'll get some free podcasts! The Drobny's loss appears to be our gain.

I'm thinking of taking up praying again if it will make Mike's self-synidication plan work out. But, oh, it could be so much worse!

I Wondered Why A "D" Would Sponsor That Bike Registration Bill

2009-03-09T08:58:00.001-07:00

... with three Republicans. Loaded Orygun explains:

I honestly am not sure whether Rep. Schaufler just does this kind of thing to be a dick, but if I asked you for one Democrat in the House who might be expected to sign onto something like this, it's Schaufler or nobody. This is the guy who threatened Merkley with a nay vote on any Measure 37 bill that didn't get a GOP vote, no matter what the bill said.

Oh. He's a jerk.

Thanks for the expl, LO.

Nova M ... On Second Thought ... 1190 KNUV ... Going, Going ...

2009-03-08T09:15:00.001-07:00

This photo, nicked from the Phoenix New Times newspaper, shows the last known status of the station that was the flagship of the defunct Nova M Radio, then the flagship of the chimeral On Second Thought Radio, the successor to 1480 KPHX, Phoenix's 1190 KNUV:

Those are indeed the doors of KNUV, 1190 AM, Phoenix AZ, chained and locked. Read the Phoenix New Times article on the current state of affairs here. Eerily, though, despite the blank page that the OnSecondThought.net site (formerly NovaMRadio.com) and the 1190NovaM.com sites have become, the 1190 Nova M stream via iTunes is still available and eerily broadcasting as though nothing's changed.

No word on the status of Dr. Mike Newcomb and the others.

Mike Malloy is on self-syndication. At least we still get to hear him.

Ben Burch's The White Rose Society website maintains a Sphinx-like fundraising front page.

Randi Rhodes's website still displaying the brief message that was mounted when everything started to FDGB.

The POJ seems to be going as strong as ever.

If anyone can diagnose the situation, you're way ahead of me.

Three Republicans and a Democrat Want To Tax You Again To Ride Your Bike

2009-03-07T19:23:00.001-08:00

In these days of fluctuating energy prices, global climate change, and decreasing incomes, the last thing the Oregon Legislature should be thinking about doing is making ecologically-friendly alternatives more expensive, but that's just what Reps Sal Esquivel (R-Medford), Wayne Krieger (R-Gold Beach), Bill Garrard (R-Klamath Falls) and Mike Schaufler (D-Happy Valley) want to do.

A liberal complaining about a new fee or tax may be odd, but really, only if you're a conservative who thinks using talking points instead of a brain. It's a matter of fairness.

The bill in question, HB 3008, sponsored by the four State Representatives, asks bicyclists–many of whom either own at least one car and is therefore already paying vehicle-registration fees, DEQ fees (if you live in the metros), gas taxes and insurance just to maintain the privilege of using an automobile to pay even more–$54 dollars every two years, to register a vehicle which delivers little or no wear on your neighborhood roads, makes you more fit, and pumps zero hydrocarbon emissions into the road.

Of course, I suppose there are many who use bicycles because they don't have or can't afford a car. Now it will cost them more. Many such people presumably ride a bike because they don't have that much of an income. Now they'd have to pony up $54 just to avoid getting a $25 ticket every time they get gigged for it (viewing the breeziness of the way the newsreaders on KATU simply dished off the cost as No Big Deal shows just how out-of-touch some people can get)

This can only lead to fewer people getting on two-wheelers to improve thier health, the health of the environment, and thier own economies. What we need to do is encourage people to get on bikes, not discourage.

As a person who owns two cars (and pays into the commonweal commensurate to that posessiveness) I am certainly not for being taxed again for doing the right thing. Bikes are not the problem, and making it more expensive to ride them will not solve any problems either.

If you feel as I do, you might want to contact these representatives and explain to them that this is not innovative, but rather a lack of vision:

Contact Rep Esquivel here.
Contact Rep Kreiger here.
Contact Rep Garrard here .
Contact Rep Schaufler here.
Go here to find out who your state representative is and tell them too.

And if you want a PDF with the complete text of HB 3008, click here for the download.

This is an official Bad Idea™. It needs to die.

Also, the BTA, who has the right of it, clues you in on Rep Krieger, the chief sponsor, who just seems to hate you if you ride a bike.

Ding, Dong, The Witch is Dead. Kinda.

2009-03-07T10:45:00.001-08:00

Well, the word's out: Wild Bill Sizemore can't actually work for, or collect money from, a charity to live on.

Sounds good. But that guy's got more lives than 9 cats. He should have FDGB* a long time ago.

In as much as we hear he's moving to Redmond, we understand he'll have to go looking for honest work. I won't be completely happy until he's asking me do you want fries with that burger. Of course, with Wild Bill the word "honest" is more a concept than anything else, so we'll see how that goes.

* FGDB=Fall Down Go Boom. Strictly an abstraction.

Commission Cogen Agrees With Me About The TriMet Line 33

2009-03-06T20:23:00.001-08:00

A little while ago I opined about how TriMet's proposal to discontinue the 33-Fremont line is a pretty penny-wise, pound-foolish thing to do (I called it stupid, to be exact), and that corner of Portland, where adequate bus service is pretty much a joke anyway as you get out toward NE 82nd Avenue, is about to become very very underserved.

It would seem that me and County Commissioner Jeff Cogen are on the same page:

We've heard concerns from several of our neighbors about the termination of the #33 bus line and I've sent a letter to Fred Hansen and the TriMet Board of Directors urging them to reexamine the proposed closure of the line. We disagree with the notion that other Northeast Portland TriMet routes adequately serve public needs in these
neighborhoods.
Thousands of riders use the #33 bus line for trips that don’t begin, end or pass through downtown Portland. Many of these trips are on the east-west portion of the route on NE Freemont St. NE Broadway and NE Killingsworth are the next nearest east-west routes, both of which are about a one mile walk from NE Freemont. Of further concern to me are
the hundreds of students attending one of the eight schools on or near the #33 route.

The idea that that route is somehow optional to effective mobility in NE Portland is strange to me. And I don't plan transit. All I did was look at the map.

So, good on Commissioner Cogen. Damn shame I can't vote for you (I'm not in your district) but then they don't plan on ending any routes in SE Portland, we we're the lucky ones I suppose. But the voters made a good choice with you.

Just one thing, Commish: it's Fremont, not Freemont. Just one E.

Surgeon General: So Much For Sanjay

2009-03-06T10:26:00.001-08:00

The dreaded "personal reasons":

Television news celebrity and surgeon Sanjay Gupta will not be the nation’s top doctor, after pulling out of consideration for the post.
“Sanjay was under serious consideration for surgeon general. He told us he was going to withdraw for personal reasons. We hope he stays involved in public service,” said an Obama administration spokeswoman.

I'm not that disappointed. I wasn't that in love with Dr. Gupta as SG.

Let's get someone with a little less celebrity in there, please. Now, just who would be smart enough and passionate enough and largely responsible for the win for the good guys in the last election? It's right on the tip of my tongue ... who could it be ...

"K" Line No Longer Coming To Call

2009-03-06T10:08:00.001-08:00

Global shipper drops a big stone in Portland's transPacific shipping access pond:

As many as 90 Portland longshoremen who service a "K" Line vessel each
week will lose that work, along with significant numbers of truck
drivers, warehouse workers and freight forwarders. Exporters who ship
everything from peas to compressed hay could lose sales.

And those are your ripples. Dominoes all down the "K"-line.

That route was only established last year, when things were doing well.

How's that globalism working out for y'alls?

Jobs? The Bush Hangover Continues

2009-03-06T09:59:00.001-08:00

US unemployment at 8.1 percent. Haven't see that sh*t since the 1970s.

Oregon unemployment at 10.8 percent.

Lost over 600,000 jobs last month.

WHEEEE!

Novick for Gov?

2009-03-06T09:53:00.001-08:00

Yeah, I'd vote that. He's tough and speaks courageously.

The Oregonian: Dropping Comics? Did We Say That?

2009-03-06T09:11:00.001-08:00

The Oregonian can cut staff, merge the Monday Metro into Section A, give sections goofy names like "How We Live" (apparently "Living" was too vague), and nobody complains.

Threaten to dump comics, though, and the villagers line up with torches in front of 1320 Southwest Broadway:

The response: more than 9,500 votes in our comics survey, almost 1,000 e-mails and about 400 letters. Your votes and your letters reaffirmed the importance comics have in the newspaper and how much you depend on them for a few moments of levity in these difficult times. Thanks to all who participated, and thanks for the heartfelt and thoughtful responses.
For now, we're not changing a thing.

For my money, the good news is that Portlanders showed taste in voting up Pickles, Cul-de-Sac, Bizarro, and Non Sequitur. We are baffled that fewer people liked Ziggy and Cathy than Close To Home, which, in our books, is far and away the worst-drawn and least funny comic in synidication today. While we aren't surprised that Ziggy and Cathy scored low, we were surprised they scored that low, and we don't understand why so few people like Edison Lee ... it's like Pearls Before Swine with you guys.

Anyhow, it occurred to me that they could have saved themselves some strife. After all, every time they've vouchsafed rethinking the funny pages, they've always had the villagers at the door and near-riot conditions in Portland.

Well, you know what they say about people who don't learn from history. I'd also remind that the second time 'round history repeats itself, it's as farce ... which would be appropriate.

I'll let P.Bhat, Tha Oregonian's editor, have the last word:

And if we ever bring this up again, just feed us to the crocs in "Pearls Before Swine."

Consider it done.

The rest of you: Just be thankful this isn't the Post-Intelligencer.

You See? I Told You Twitter Makes You Stupid.

2009-03-05T17:56:00.000-08:00

"It Books"? Publishing a dead-tree collection of tweets, fahgawdsake?

Put a fork in us. We're done.

Doesn't seem a fair exchange for losing a respectable non-fiction imprint, but what do I know? Mom always said there'd be days like this.