 Hootie Hoo-ray
IMAGE: Nathan Hamm |
Winners
1 Oregon’s
spotted owl, marbled murrelet and other endangered species get a second chance after the U.S. Department of the Interior restored protections and agreed to investigate if the Bush administration ignored scientists’ recommendations to benefit industry. We’re guessing “if” isn’t the question, but rather, “How whorishly?”
2 No elephants in this room. State Sen. Bruce Starr (R-Hillsboro) won’t run for Oregon secretary of state next year, as had been expected. And that news leaves state Democrats facing no recognizable Republican candidate in any of the three statewide offices—treasurer and attorney general are also on the ticket—up for grabs in 2008.
3 Backers of a liquefied natural gas terminal in Oregon don’t have to worry about opposition from Gov. Ted Kulongoski (“Welcome to Gastoria,” WW , Sept. 28, 2005). The guv says he’s open to LNG, which to LNG’s opponents might now stand for Lame Nuts Governor.
Losers
1 So much for two weeks a year: The
Oregon National Guard is prepping for its biggest deployment since World War II. About 3,500 troops learned this holiday season they’re on alert to be deployed in 2009 to Iraq or Afghanistan. Merry Christmas.
2Steve and Angela Brandt , the foster care parents hoping to adopt 2-year-old Gabriel Allred (“Boys in the Media Bubble,” WW , Nov. 21, 2007) got some bad news last week. The state Department of Human Services is delaying a ruling on Gabriel’s future, proving that red tape and bureaucratic delay aren’t just good for Bucky and Snowball the deer. They’re good for children, too!
3 The end may be near for the controversial Lakeside Reclamation Landfill (“Grapes of Trash,” WW , July 18, 2007). Last week, the DEQ issued a closure permit that could force the dump to stop accepting waste in July 2009, at least three years earlier than owner Howard Grabhorn wants to shut down.
4 There’s a new “sheriff” in town. His name: Multnomah County Chairman Ted Wheeler. The chair wants voters to OK transferring actual sheriff Bernie Giusto’s power to run jails to the county board. And Wheeler aims to make the sheriff’s job an appointed—not an elected—one. One more fight for Giusto, who’s already dealing with a state investigation that could cost him his badge (“Let’s Play Recall,” WW , Oct. 24, 2007).
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As far as the sheriff, the people of Multnomah county voted to make the sheriff an elected office instead of appointed as it was under Home Rule. The choices of sheriff by the commission wasn't all that wonderful either. Instead of throwing out the baby with the bathwater, how about waiting and continue to try and get rid of the incompetent Bernie instead of revamping the whole system. It's Bernie that's the problem, not the fact the elected sheriff controls the jail.
I don't think you can blame Republicans for not having candidates. If your experience for the last 20 odd years is pissing in the wind, as a Republican, why stay involved? You do have to know that laws are passed, but they are administered by administrative rules that come from the agency, and those agencies are all headed by and represented by in legal matters, by Democrats serving at the leisure of the Democrat Governor...That is how government works.
There is no longer a loyal opposition to Democrat rule in Oregon, and will not be as long as the voters of the Tri County area control the elections statewide. Measure 49 was defeated on 66% of the land base of Oregon, with 120,000 nay votes. But the 155,000 yea votes from 0.04% of the land base, Multnomah county, was more than enough to win the election statewide. Urban voters telling people how to use their land in Harney county. That is a tyranny that will bring the downfall of the consent of the governed at some point in time.
And I agree that you don't change the structure of government because you elected an ass to office. If enough are put off by his actions or attitude, he will be turned out in due time...oh, is he a Democrat? And entitled Democrat. Sort of a civil service legacy to nepotisim. State police, Governor's driver and body guard, unit commander, all the perks under Democrat governors. Ever notice that Lindsey Ball is sailing a similar course? Governor's driver, and confidant, means you know where the bodies are buried if you can add two and two. So your reward for silence is being upwardly mobile in State employment....Evindently Democrat governors take good care of their minders and enablers.
If you dig deep enough, and through all the names not matching in marriages (political camoflage) you will find a lot of wives, sons, daughters, husbands with good State employment and appointments to boards, commissions, and administrative jobs. The same names keep appearing in different places, time after time. That is the farm team. You control the process, you control the farm team. And from the farm team come candidates for legislative and State offices....Democrats are alive and well, and Republicans are disappearing like spotted owls. Some are displaced by aggressive barred owls (democrats?), and some are bred by barred owls (who hasn't been....by a democrat?). And vastly expanded urban areas and occupation of the land is greatly reducing habitat. Add to that the "let 'er burn" "mother nature at work" enviro phiosophy, endorsed by Democrats, is eliminating habitat forever, on an annual basis....you can't burn it black, kill all the trees, shrubs and annual plants, and have food for the voles and squirrels that owls eat....so the owls leave or starve or both. Haven't you noticed that since Democrats have been in charge, owl numbers have dropped precipitously in Oregon? two plus two equals four.....and I will keep my mouth shut....
Does Bernie know who fathered that exception kid? The way he, Neil, Neil's wife and everybody else was sleeping with each other I don't know how you could trace any of their offspring's lineage.