Vocal Minority

Northwest Items

2005-06-02T21:48:00.000-07:00

Northwest Items
In 2001 Oregon and Washington created a panel to advise them on a new bridge over the Columbia River on I-5 to replace the Glenn Jackson Bridge. A year later they presented 8 options for the states to consider. They continued to study the problem for another 3 years and have recently created a new task force that will study the environmental, financial and legal aspects, and is expected to come up with a plan by 2008. They state that the new bridge, whatever it may be, could be completed as early as 2015 for a paltry $1.2 billion. It took less time and money to make the first trip to the moon, for crying out loud.

Another case of government failing to get their priorities straight. The Oregon State Police have a DNA database made from samples taken from criminals and other suspects. They also have a backlog of tests to run due to lack of funding. After a newspaper article ran explaining the problem several people conducted fundraisers and donated $14,000 in private money to the cause. The 450 tests done from that money enabled them to solve a homicide, a rape and 6 burglaries. I’ve got an idea. At an average cost of $1,750 per crime solved let’s fund the damn program 100% and we’ll get the money from P.G.E. by retroactively billing them for the taxes they collected, but didn’t pay.

The City of Coburg started it and now all the cities are getting on the bandwagon. Every small town with a highway running through it has discovered a pot of gold on the highway in the form of speeding tickets. Portland sits on Highway 26 just east of the Zoo and gets them coming up the hill in a 50-mph zone. C’mon, 50 mph on a 4-lane road with limited access. Hell, Walker Road is 45 mph and it’s residential. Next is Beaverton. They’ve got a little stretch of the Sunset and now I see them out there writing tickets. Rob Drake and Linda Adlard will probably reread the law and figure out a way to put photo radar out there so the cops don’t have to be bothered with all that writing. Filling out the trio is North Plains. They have a cool scam. An officer sits behind the support of the next overpass to the west and shoots his radar down the road toward the westbound traffic. He is even sneaky enough to get out of his car and just peek around the piling with his radar gun. It’s all about safety you know.

Could Andrew Perri be the next “Pre” ?

2005-05-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

Recently the Oregonian ran an article on Andrew Perri, an 18 year old from Oakridge , Oregon that is an inspiring young runner. Andrew was raised by his Grandmother since he was an infant and has seen little of his mother and father since they abandoned him. "In his own words, I was born to two children". He has overcome the rough start in life through hard work, determination, and his Grandmother. He is also the two-time defending champion in the 800 meter, where he has the fastest time in the state this year, regardless of classification, and the reigning champion in the 1500 meter. Much of his success is due to the 36 year running coach from Oakridge, Ron Hebert, who helped him get his life in order. Ron has also guided the team to state championships in 2000, 2002 and 2003.
Now Andrew is ready for college and has applied to several schools for a scholarship, time for the hard work to pay off. (And let’s face it, his situation is a perfect example of what they were intended for. ) Thus far he has received a full ride offer from Adams State College in Colorado, nothing from the Oregon schools. He thought about doing a "walk-on" at Oregon but again in his words " I didn’t bust my butt all these years to be a walk-on". It would seem to me that the Oregon schools would give preference to an athlete from our state. Thus far Oregon and Oregon State seem to have adopted the Trailblazers tactic of recruiting troublemakers with a lot of talent and a criminal record. Here is a young man that, although he may place only second, will lend some character to the program and let us once again root for the home team. Maybe Nike will practice what they preach and give him a hand.

The Oregonian's at it again

2005-05-21T11:03:00.000-07:00

The Oregonian wakes up, or they're alive, or...
Last Sunday, May 15th. the Public Editor, Michael Arrieta-Walden decided to throw us another curve ball. Based on a survey of 630 readers ( how do you get on that list anyhow) the paper needs to change it's approach to the world of news. I've read the Oregonian for over 30 years and watched it slowly turn into what many call a birdcage liner. Mind you, it's never been a good paper but it's now darn near worthless. Let's take a look...

Front page sec. A - This is where the paper is supposed to cover national and international news but we get stories about cowboys, new shopping centers and various acts of good will. Each day something is said about Iraq so it will qualify as international news. My favorite day is Monday when the A section is 8 pages long with 2 full pages of ads. I guess not much happened over the weekend.

Metro - The real local news is crammed in here. Auto accidents, murders, rapes, gang activity and what might be happening in salem. They meet every 2 years and we get maybe 25 inches a week on the 400 or 500 new bills. What I especially like about this section is how the Obituaries are stuck right in the middle of it beside the upbeat stories. Oh, and I forgot the cynical Back Seat driver, Stephen Beaven. Does anyone else get tired of his attitude?

Business - Well, business sections are not really very exciting because most of it is self promotion except for the "Who was indicted today" down the left side.
Sports - A big section with an extra every Monday but really, who cares. When the Blazers aren't playing they really haven't anything to talk about. But, if they covered the real news as well as they do the sports section we'ed have the number 1 paper in the USA.

Living - If there is a section of the paper directed at the twenty somthings, this is it. Problem is this is where the boy scout and booster club articles go, not the front page.

Now for some excerpts from Micheals Sunday surprise -

"The survey is far from scientific. Yet the responses are noteworthy because they run counter to much of the thinking and trends at the newspaper. Local news is the newspaper's franchise. Space devoted to nonlocal news, other than the Iraq war, has declined in recent years."
It was your survey, you want scientific then make it so. When you're the 800 lb. gorilla "local news" is not the papers franchise. Space devoted to nonlocal news was the papers decision and most likely not the result of a survey.

Peter Bhatia, the newspaper's executive editor, says he also would like to devote more space to national and international news. "But our priority is and will be local news. We have to make choices about how we use the space in the paper, and local news is far and away what readers tell us they want and what our formal research shows."
So what the hell is with the survey? What's the difference between formal research and a scientific survey. Sounds to me like he's talking out of both sides of his mouth on this one.
Bhatia notes that the paper's definition of "local" includes "any news that people here care about..."
What the hell is he talking about. Local is local. If the public want's to here about Iraq, then they want national news. Cut the crap.

The bottom line here is that the Oregonian will decide what you need to read about. They will determine if it's "local" or has a "local" connection which qualifies it for their community newspaper. They want local, but refuse to cover the Oregon legislature until the partisan fighting at the end of the session. Had they done their job in the past, I doubt the legislature would be reviewing past bills for revision. They also claim to have limited space for news, but have plenty of room for an article about some bum collecting garbage and making "art" out of it. They could also get rid of the Personal Style insert that comes out once a week with a model on the cover that looks to be 16 years old sitting with her legs spread wide.

A local paper has two duties. They are supposed to be our watchdog for government and alert us when the elected officials are heading off in the wrong direction or their trying to slip a bogus bill in under the radar. Also, their supposed to provide us with "news", as referenced in their name. News is news. As the world shrinks and we become more global in the economy and social aspects the newspaper is expected to follow suit and expand their coverage, not shrink it. This is especially bothersome when they do such a lousy job of covering Oregon. Instead of sending 3 reporters to Iraq, where they could simply pick up the news wire and cover it aduquately, they should send 3 reporters to remote parts of Oregon and tell us what the local problems are and what they think of the State of Portland.

I've often heard that the Oregonians circulation is dropping and I believe that is the reason for their self analysis. Then they throw a survey at us and state that they have tried to guide us but we are fickle and did not follow. In the end they did not tell us what they intend to do to improve the daily rag. Or maybe their not going to change it after all...

P.S. - For the few faithful that have followed my rants, I have taken a sabbatical recently to help a relative out with a cancerous tumer.

10,000 Down - 990,000 to go

2005-04-14T22:24:00.000-07:00

It was probably accidental, but the Feds finally did something that made sense. They enlisted state and local law enforcment officers all over the nation and rounded up 10,000 fugitives from the FBI's National database. And they did it in just one week for only $900,000. Sounds to me like they should repeat the show another 99 times and arrest all of the 1,000,000 fugitives in the database. That would only cost a miserly $100 million and would stop a hell of a lot of violent crime since 70% of the ones arrested had previous convictions. Who knows, they might even find a terrorist or two.

Just to put the cost in perspective, the Feds:
- gave $121 million to the National Endowment for the Arts
- spent $168 million of sexual-abstinence education
- spent $10 billion developing an anti-missle defense system (that will never work)
- spent $600 million on Army recruitment advertising
and spent $40 million investigating Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky (Clinton)
Note- Above figures from Parade Magazine

A primer on credit card fraud

2005-04-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

The above link is for those of you that that do not use the internet to pay bills and are very careful with your personal information. You know, the one's that think it could never happen to them. The real problem here is not that the internet allows the crooks to communicate and organize their efforts, it that there are virtually no laws governing how our information is protected. Come on Congress, get off your butts and pay attention to the real world.

A new low for blogging Terri Schaivo

2005-04-06T22:38:00.000-07:00

Blogs are terrific. It's like writing letters to the editor of the local paper and every one of them gets published. Most of us understand that bloggers can and do say whatever they want to and many don't bother with facts, but then what the hell, the media acts the same way many times. It's up to the reader to sort out the truth from the wishful thinking or even malicious intent. There are, however, limits to what should be presented for our consideration and the above site is one that has exceeded the limit. This blog makes Tom Delay look pretty good, even though he threatened the Federal Judges.

Jane Fonda apology - I think not

2005-04-06T10:44:00.000-07:00

I recently read that Jane Fonda had apologized for her actions during her trip to N. Vietnam in 1972. The following quote from Newsmax doesn’t sound much like an apology to me, just more of her lame bullshit.

NEW YORK – Jane Fonda says her 1972 visit to a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun site, an incident that brought her the nickname "Hanoi Jane," was a "betrayal" of American forces and of the "country that gave me privilege."
Story Continues Below

"The image of Jane Fonda, 'Barbarella,' Henry Fonda's daughter ... sitting on an enemy aircraft gun was a betrayal ... the largest lapse of judgment that I can even imagine," Fonda told Leslie Stahl in a "60 Minutes" interview that will air Sunday night.
Fonda, whose memoir "Jane Fonda: My Life So Far" comes out next week, said she did not regret meeting with American POWs in North Vietnam or making broadcasts on Radio Hanoi. "Our government was lying to us and men were dying because of it, and I felt I had to do anything that I could to expose the lies and help end the war," she said.

In case you’re unfamiliar with her position, you can get most of the details from Snopes.com.
Another lame attempt to deflect criticism was made in 1988 because her past was affecting her currant income. It appears the new apology is more of the same. She now has a book to sell and needs to get the monkey off her back. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to throw a manage a trois’ in the book to help it sell. If she had any guts at all, like the 50,000 soldiers who died fighting in Vietnam she would take her argument to the current invasion of Iraq where her argument is a much better fit. Let’s face it, she’s just another media whore.

Schools and Numbers

2005-04-03T21:53:00.000-07:00

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m getting tired of the school budget issue. It’s everywhere we turn. Today’s Oregonian (April 3, 2005) has another tired article about the teachers in Hillsboro’s district having to absorb the financial screw-ups for the board. In Salem, the issue is whether they give them $5.2 or $5.4 billion. So finding this addtl. $200 million means that every other budget issue there is tainted with the concept of stealing from the schools. Now I don’t want to be in a position to argue whether teachers are over or underpaid, or how many months they work each year. Those are not my issues. What I’d really like to see is some valid, reliable numbers so I can figure out if my small part of that $5+ billion is enough. Everyone knows that government will spend every penny they get. Our part is to give it to them and tell them when we’ve hit our limit. I tried to do exactly that today with the Oregonian article and got the following results.

Article Facts:

Hillsboro has 19,347 students, almost 1000 teachers, a 28:1 student-teacher ratio and a $130 million budget.
Based on the above:
At $130 mil and 19,347 students that figures out to $6,719 per student. Is that it? Does it include 40% of property taxes and federal money, because if it does it seems out of line with the claim of $7,357 in 2001 according to the Oregon School Boards Assn.
They claim that core classes exceed the ratio and give as an example the teacher with 38 students in her class. But doesn’t that mean that other classes are smaller than 28, like 18. Based on a 28:1 ratio that means the school should have 690 teachers, so what about the other 310.
Although the article says 86% of the budget is spent on wages and benefits, the Oregon State Education Dept. says 70.1% is the average for teaching staff. That leaves $91,130,000 for either 690 full time or 1000 full & part time teachers. You don’t need a calculator to ask how in the world could it average $91,130 per year per teacher.

At the Oregon School Boards Assn. I also found the following interesting facts:
In 2001 Oregon ranked 20th in the nation in expenditures per student at $7,357, higher than Washington $6,496, California $6,255 and Idaho $5,386.
Oregon spends $346 less per student on salaries than the national average but ranked 14th for the average salary paid. Meaning that they have bigger classes, but are paid above
average.
So, is there a crisis in education funding in Oregon? Beats me. It depends on where you get your facts. There seems to be as many funding angles as there are school districts in Oregon. Hillsboro has 28 students per teacher but Salem-Keizer has 23.2 Beaverton has been able to stay within budget without cutting days but Portland can’t even come close and has the shortest year in the nation. On top of all this the legislature keeps playing around with the school system, like CIM & CAM. What I’d like to see is the Oregon Secretary of Education promote an accounting system for all school districts that gives all of the costs for education in a form we can trust and understand, a system that wouldn’t allow distortion or hiding of expenses.
Just the facts.

The United Nations Thugs

2005-03-22T11:58:00.000-08:00

Is there any doubt that the United Nations has outlived its usefulness. Blue helmeted U.N. soldiers have been dispatched all over the world to combat aggression and protect innocent people and I have yet to see any successes. They currently list 16 locations where peacekeeping forces are present dating back to 1948. Do they ever accomplish the goal of peace? They claim to have done that in 42 countries, including Somalia. Yeah, right. The United Nations is a textbook example of nepotism to the extent that the U.S. refuses to pay it’s dues and even though we are assessed 1/3 of the bill we finance our own actions all over the world. The last year for which I could obtain a budget, 2001 saw them walk through $11.9 billion. Of course that pales in comparison to the $200+ billion we are spending right now.
The point is that the United Nations is a self perpetuating spending machine that is concerned about it’s own existence than about those it is supposed to serve. This story is a good example of what they have evolved into. These assholes, the U.S. included, refuse to admit that an army cannot win against terrorism. Terrorist activities, by their very nature, thrive in a military situation. Doesn’t anyone remember the French underground during WWII? Dictators are allowed to exist because they are granted the status of statesman. They can then negotiate a deal with the U.N. and retire to another country with their plundered funds after killing a few hundred thousand of their own.

The only method that will effectively work against dictators, revolutionists, slaughters, terrorists, etc. is the Rule of Commerce. The same rule that the U.N. depends on for its plunder. The murderous heads of state should be cut off from the rest of the world with absolutely no exceptions. Food and medicine should be shipped to the border. Those that seize power through force should have no where to hide. I’m in favor of saving money and placing a $100 million bounty on their heads, dead or alive. This was supposed to be the plan with Saddam Hussein if Iraq but the U.N. let plenty of money slip through to him and it was clear he would have been allowed to go in exile, a free man.

The second half of the plan calls for the wealthy nations to share the wealth. I know, I worked hard for what I have, let them get their own. The thing is that few will credit luck, government and circumstances for good fortune, only failure. Any millionaire or billionaire, for that matter, who claims to have made it on their own, is patently full of shit. No one “made it” without numerous dedicated employees’ working their butt’s off for a lot less money. You’ve never bought a Nike shoe made personally by Phil Knight and Bill Gates did not write DOS, he bought it. Certainly we could provide a job to a 14-year-old girl in the Congo so she doesn’t have to sell herself to a blue helmeted thug.

We sit here in America beside one of the poorest nations in the world, Haiti. A great deal of their turmoil comes from the inability to provide food and shelter for their people. The U.S. can’t help a country of oppressed people a hundred miles away yet they travel around the world to save the grateful people of Iraq.
In accounts of WWII returning soldiers, they stated that the people in the Netherlands began cleaning streets and picking up bricks to rebuild their country the day after the American troops arrived to liberate them. They also noted that the French asked them who was going to pick up the mess and rebuild France.

Terri Schaivo & Urban Legend

2005-03-20T23:23:00.000-08:00

I’ve been reading a lot about Terri Schiavo lately and now her story is front-page news. Even though this is a matter of our right to control our own destiny and an affront to Oregon’s’ assisted suicide law, what matters more is the bloggers statements that are appearing. I have read some of the statements and done some research on their authenticity.
 I watched the video of the Democrats laughing it up and saw that they laughed at comments by the media, nervous laughter. The statements they made at the press conference were serious. The accusation of their hilarity is crap.
 The statement made by Michael Schiavo on the March 18, 2005 Larry King show that “We didn't know what Terri wanted, but this is what we want...” is an unfinished sentence taken out of context. Larry interrupted him before he finished his statement. For an in depth interview with Michael Schiavo try this.
 Then we get to the opinion on brain dead. If the matter weren't so serious it would be laughable. The article referenced wasn’t written by an M.D. but by Lee Kent Hempfling, Chairman CEO Neutronics Technologies Corporation (USA). It seems that he writes books about the brain and publishes them through the Enticy Institute. “The Enticy Institute is the future center of brain and planet friendly energy studies world wide.” He states “… Terri Schiavo is suffering from a lack of motor control. He brain is sending signals to motion but those signals are not getting through to muscle groups and that results in the inability to speak, move and control motion.” Of course, the neurosurgeons wouldn’t think of this, right?

Watch out for the Bloggers, some of them have a motive.

Representatives bought for $52K

2005-03-20T19:26:00.000-08:00

Following is how your Representative voted on the Bankruptcy Bill and the payoff for a YES vote -
Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore) $3,500 Yes
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore) $0 No
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore) $10,279 Yes
Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore) $0 No
Rep. Darlene Hooley (D-Ore) $22,500 Yes
Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore) $7,500 Yes
Rep. David Wu (D-Ore) $8,500 Yes

Total Payoff = $52,279

Oregon Legislature Fiddles While State Burns

2005-03-17T10:36:00.000-08:00

The Oregon legislature currently list about 1,267 new bills in the House and 1,060 new bills introduced in the Senate. A portion of these are normal housekeeping bills but probably a good 1,000 of them are new laws that will effect you and your neighbors. Every time the Legislature meets they play around with these inane, stupid bills eventually pass a few hundred and leave the serious matters until the end of the session. Then, in their haste to leave, they ignore matters such as PERS and land use problems, leaving the issues unsolved for another session.
Currently Rep. Jackie Dingfelder thinks it’s more important to ban commercials or previews after the start time of a movie in your local theater, subject to a $200 fine per customer HB3367. I had no idea the people of Oregon were up in arms over movie times. Personally I like the built in delay, as I have a difficult time getting to my seat on time.
But what really irritates me is the fact that these new bills are introduced daily and the media chooses to virtually ignore them. The Oregonian posts a Bill Watch column buried in the paper’s Metro section listing a few of the interesting ones. They generally don’t write anything about a new bill unless it pertains to land use laws or same sex marriage. In the past the press has been touted as a government watchdog that protects us by informing the public on what our government is doing so they can’t operate in secrecy. Not in Oregon. Of the estimated 300 or 400 new bills that are expected to pass this session you might be lucky to find out about a dozen of them before they become laws. You can view them here.

Irritating Tidbits

2005-03-16T19:00:00.000-08:00

Isn’t it refreshing to see government, any government, respond in a friendly, non-adversarial way? Washington County has prepared a preliminary guide for handling their Measure 37 claims in which they are not charging a fee to claimants and limiting the ability of neighbors to sue. Personally I am amazed at all of the doom and gloom statements from the opposition. For crying out loud, only 95 claims have been filed in the entire county. If you want their land so you can drive by in your SUV and look at the wildlife, then buy it.

The Oregon House of Representatives is considering dumping the CIM/CAM program for Oregon schools. It’s about time. I’m surprised it’s taken 14 years to realize that the whole approach was crap. Thanks again Vera and Norma.

OK, makes sense to me. Cut physical education out of the schools and make the parks and adult area, then wonder why kids are going sideways. Portland approved money for the Children’s Investment Fund and they’re dishing it out. Now I like children and I’ve done my volunteer time in their activities but I think they should see more bang for their buck. One program received a 2-year $220,000 grant and serves 200 children. Another gets $300,000 to serve 536. A third got $435,621 to serve 150 children.

Congress is bankrupt

2005-03-09T09:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the senate voted to pass the revisions to the personal bankruptcy bill. When reading the quotes of the bill’s supporters I am appalled at their callousness and ignorance of the facts (details here). As far as I’m concerned the Congress is morally bankrupt. Oregon’s Ron Wyden voted to give National Guard soldiers a break when shipped off unexpectedly and also people forced into bankruptcy due to medical bills. He voted against capping the interest rate at 30%, presumably he thought it too high. I hope so. Oregon’s Gordon Smith voted against all three.
Meanwhile banks are adding 2% transaction fees to anyone that uses a credit card overseas, because they can.
During the recent years banks have passed Check21, eliminated personal bankruptcy, added unexplained 2% fees and cut their bank staff to nothing. They own us.
Everyone should remember how their representatives voted on this bill at election time.

Another I.D. theft

2005-03-09T09:04:00.000-08:00

Another 32,000 got slammed by I.D. theft when bad guys got a hold of passwords and invaded a database owned by a company called Lexis Nexis. They are apparently a division of Seisant, which provides data for Matrix, a crime and terrorism database project funded by the U.S. government that has raised concerns among civil liberties groups.
If you were worrying about your personal information at Choicepoint you can feel better now. They just announced they have hired Carol A. DiBattiste, former deputy administrator of the Transportation Security Administration as the company’s chief credentialing, compliance and privacy officer. It certainly makes me feel safer knowing a former TSA official is in charge. Considering the fine job they've done with airport security I know I feel better...

U.C. President quits - Barnett doesn't

2005-03-07T13:01:00.000-08:00

Since we’re talking about college football coaches, how about that Gary Barnett of Univ. of Colorado. The guy slams a woman football place kicker after she claims to have been raped by a fellow player. It also turns out they provide sex and drugs for recruiting parties, have bought hookers for the assistant coaches, and created a slush fund for god knows what (any guesses?). The athletic director has resigned and now the university president. Meanwhile, last November Barnett was chosen AP Big 12 coach of year, 9 months after the scandal arose.
Is there any question in your mind where the current pro athlete attitude comes from?

Another loser gets a big payoff

2005-03-07T12:37:00.000-08:00

Another loser gets a big payoff. The University of Washington and NCAA settles out of court with Rick Neuheisel for $4.7 million. He got $3 million for being fired and a $1.5 million loan with $200,000 interest forgiven. Most importantly he gets bragging rights for justice being served and made the following statement.

"I feel fully vindicated," Neuheisel said outside the courtroom. "Obviously they're going to have their stories, too, but I feel like this is the best scenario. Nobody's nose gets bloodied."
"The legal system works," he added. "The players got together and found an amicable resolution. I'm thrilled to be moving on."

The jerk clearly broke a NCAA rule of betting on football and now feels vindicated. $4.7 million seems like blood money to me. Great example for our young people.

Assisted Suicide - It's not about you.

2005-03-05T10:47:00.000-08:00

Today I have to talk about a serious and somber topic, assisted suicide. Friday, March 4th. The Oregonian chose to run a front-page article on David Prueitt and his failed suicide attempt. It seems Mr. Prueitt did everything correctly but went into a coma for three days, lived two more weeks and died of natural causes. Rather than pick a more sensitive headline they chose to go with “Why am I not dead”. The Oregonian has been against assisted suicide all along and their attitude in the editorial section has long affected their coverage in the paper. They did acknowledge that Pruiett had unbearable pain, followed all of the proper steps for obtaining assistance and took the pills prescribed. However they included two inane and uninformed quotes.

The first –
"By any standard, this is a failed attempt," said Dr. Greg Hamilton, a Portland psychiatrist and former president of Physicians for Compassionate Care, a group against assisted suicide.
"That's one of the reasons we oppose assisted suicide. The dying process is prolonged and inhumane, and it's traumatic for the family."

OK, it’s a failed attempt. He did not suffer additional pain. He was simply disappointed and confused. How did the attempt prolong his dying process? The man is dealing with the pain from cancer on a daily basis and Dr. Hamilton says that ending the slow process of dying is inhumane? As to the family, I’m sympathetic but you’re not the one with cancer, support David and deal with it. It’s not about you.

The second –
But Dr. Kenneth Stevens, vice president of Physicians for Compassionate Care and chairman of the radiation oncology department at Oregon Health & Science University, called Prueitts death a failed assisted suicide. The most likely reason for such a failure, he said, is that the patient did not consume the complete lethal dose.
"We've always been concerned that the dose would not always be lethal and that there would be complications. In this situation, living is considered a complication."

He took a lethal dose Dr. Stevens and did not regurgitate it as verified by a nurse. The reporter, Don Colburn, should have told you that. Or did you ask? So by your logic, if he had died the process would have been a success, right? You really have nothing to say of any value here.

The issue of assisted suicide will stay controversial as long as there are selfish people out there that want to impose their values on everyone else. Suicide involves only the person contemplating it for everyone else involved suffers far less than the person that is dying. I lost my mother and father to long slow deaths due to cancer and currently have a close relative suffering from a fatal brain tumor. When I listen to the trite uninformed crap spewed out by the likes of Oklahoma Senator Don Nichols and talk radios Lars Larson it becomes unbearable. The uninformed state that the terminally ill can be made quite comfortable with modern medicine. They haven’t been there. Pain can be handled with morphine but the patient is affected mentally. My mother, on a morphine drip, constantly begged to go home from the hospital so they knocked her out with another drug, an induced coma.
The bottom line of all this is the mental anguish of being terminally ill and the process of dying. My relative with the tumor is a proud Viet Nam vet that has lived his life proudly and independently. I hurt when he tells me what bothers him most is a task he did yesterday, he can no longer do. As the tumor grows in his brain he bears witness to his own demise. He knows he will eventually be unable to care for himself and others will watch after him like they would a small child. He is faced with being stripped of his last vestige of dignity before dying.
Those that oppose assisted suicide must do so on religious grounds for there is no valid reason to interfere in someone else’s life. Everyone screams about separation of church and state and demands the Ten Commandments be removed from the courthouse, yet here is where we really need true separation of church and state.
We need to honor a dying man or woman’s last wish. It’s not about us.

Nun released from prison

2005-03-03T09:57:00.000-08:00

From The San Francisco Chronicle-
“A nun who spent the past 18 months in prison for defacing a missile site in a peace protest is scheduled to be released Friday, but she may face another confrontation with prosecutors for refusing to pay $3,000 in restitution.

Jackie Marie Hudson, 70, was convicted in April 2003 of obstructing national defense and damaging government property. She and two other nuns had poured blood on a Minuteman III silo in northern Colorado in October 2002, hit nearby railroad tracks with a hammer and then sat down to await arrest.”

I won’t support or condemn the nun’s actions but it seems that the current government is trying to suppress peaceful demonstrations. For crying out loud, 18 months for pouring blood on a missile silo. The Choicepoint identity theft man in Calif. only got 16 months. The police show up at peaceful demonstrations in full riot gear and pepper spray the crowd, including children, like it was the start of the second American Revolution. These people couldn’t even begin to handle the 60s demonstrations.

Mo Cheeks - R.I.P.

2005-03-02T13:11:00.000-08:00

If you didn’t see the firing of Mo Cheeks coming then you probably spent the last few months in Europe.
We all know that coaches are typically sacrificial lambs that are fired when the team just can’t get the chemistry right. Take a look at Mike Dunleavy who was Coach of the Year in 1999 and then unceremoniously dumped after the Blazers fell apart the next year. I thought Cheeks situation would be different.
Mo was brought in to clean up a team that Whitsett and Paul Allen had turned into a bunch of spoiled, overpaid, under performing millionaires. From 1997 to 2003, 14 different players had been either arrested or cited for 30 different incidents ranging from sexual assault to marijuana possession.
Over the next few years they dumped their garbage including Rasheed Wallace, Bonzi wells and Qyntel Woods, but much more was needed. They didn’t change the attitude of the players that remained. Paul Allen and Co. had unlimited wealth, a high tech dynamic background and the ability to do just about anything he wanted. He had the opportunity to change the Blazers but conducted business as usual just like the rest of the NBA owners. Instead of offering bonuses for character, honesty and respect, he signed Randolph and Miles to long term, big money contracts. They then proceeded to turn into assholes.

One word I’m really getting tired of is “dissed”, the illiterate term for disrespect. It seems that those that use the term the most are themselves incapable of showing any for others.
I also hope that 20 years from now the NBA jerks have a little trouble sleeping at night due to their actions.
BTW – The Blazers 25 Point Pledge doesn’t cover staff.

Homeland Security - Start with Banking Industry

2005-02-26T10:22:00.000-08:00

For those of you that aren’t yet convinced that we need to pass a law reigning the banking cowboys in I offer the following:

San Francisco Chronicle February 25, 2005
Bank of America Corp. has lost computer data tapes containing personal information on 1.2 million federal employees, including some members of the U.S. Senate.

Wells Fargo Computer Records Stolen November 19, 2003
Wells Fargo sent out a letter saying burglars stole computer records from the office of a California consultant working for Wells Fargo.

Wells Fargo computers stolen November 3, 2004,
Identity thieves may have obtained sensitive information about thousands of Wells Fargo mortgage and student loan customers, after four computers containing customer account numbers and Social Security numbers were stolen last month. The incident occurred in mid-October, when the computers were stolen from the Atlanta office of Regulus Integrated Solutions, a vendor that prints the loan statements for the bank.

Wells Fargo Does It Again 16 April 2004
"Andrei? You've lost another submarine?"
— The Hunt for Red October
In an unpleasant echo of last November's 200,000-customer database compromise, Wells Fargo has once again suffered the theft of a laptop computer containing confidential information for thousands of Wells Fargo customers. What's more, the bank apparently took nearly a month to tell those customers about the theft. The theft occurred on 26 February outside of St. Louis, Missouri, after two Wells Fargo employees stopped their rental car at a gas station convenience store, leaving the yellow Ford Mustang unlocked and the key in the ignition. When they returned from their snackfest, the vehicle was gone. It was recovered five days later stripped of its contents — including the Wells Fargo laptop that had been in the trunk.

For As Many As 43,000 BankRI Customers December 17, 2003
Bank Rhode Island has announced the theft of a laptop computer that held personal information for as many as 43,000 BankRI customers, more than half the bank's customer base. The theft of the laptop containing the missing information — including customer names, home addresses, and Social Security numbers — was first reported by Fiserv, Inc., the principal data service provider for BankRI.

GMAC Insurance tells 200,000 customers they could become victims of identity theft. March 29, 2004
A division of GMAC Financial Services has been quietly informing about 200,000 of its customers that their personal data may have been compromised because of the theft of two laptop computers from an employee's car at a regional office near Atlanta.

Meanwhile, congress is happy to pass the Check21 act which lets the bank take your money in a nanosecond and works with the banks to revise the bankruptcy laws totally in the banks favor. Banks and insurance companies have been running this country long enough. Write your congressman…

OSU's Mike Riley reinstates Rodulph

2005-02-25T12:08:00.000-08:00

Once in a while I break down and listen to Herr Lars Larson on the radio. Usually when OPB has nothing on. Yesterday he was slamming Coach Mike Riley of Oregon State Univ. about reinstating defensive end Joe Rudulph; accused of hitting a white soldier in a bar because he was dancing with his black wife. He reinstated Rudolph, even though he will be going to court on April 25th. Now Larson is usually a jerk and is famous for butting in on callers and demanding answers to his questions first, but he handled Riley with kid gloves. Riley stated that the players weren’t at fault and also the guy they hit wasn’t at fault and then issued some really evasive statements about everything being distorted, privacy, two sides to a story, etc. All this confusion about what happened even though there were a half dozen witnesses to the event!
I can’t believe they’re paying this guy a high 6 figure salary. They should send him back to San Diego. The guy basically talked for 15 minutes and said nothing except how they are trying to rehabilitate Rudolph and make this a learning experience. What I really want to know is did Rudolph apologize to the soldier and his wife. I’ll bet not. What’s more important is getting him back on the team.
Yesterday a couple of strippers in a Tualatin bar got in a fight and now one of them is being charged with a Measure 11 crime and is facing 7 years in prison. Oregon prisons have a number of inmates there for throwing a single punch. Can’t help but wonder why Rudolph isn’t facing a Measure 11 count.

Free Hit Counters

SSI Cap - Floor for the rich

2005-02-22T23:53:00.000-08:00

Everywhere you turn today people are discussing the future of Social Security and Bush’s plan to turn it into kind of a Social 401K. I’m not going to get into that debate except to point out the motive behind the plan. Allowing people to set aside 2% in private investment accounts will move Trillions of $ into the same wall street investment firms that are listed under the heading “New Indictments” in the business section of your local newspaper.
Actually I’m here to talk about correcting an accounting error that’s been going on for far too long. I’m talking about the cap on SSI earnings. Now I’ve heard all that crap about entitlement programs and I want to say this. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a damn duck. It’s a regressive tax and congress insists on keeping it that way. The current cap is $90,000 and they’re talking about raising it to as much as $200,000. This means that a select group of less than 5% of taxpayers will not pay SSI on their entire paycheck. I know, Bush said they pay the most already, so they need a break. When we eliminate the “ability to pay” concept from our tax rates I’ll listen to that argument. Meanwhile, correct the error and eliminate the cap taxing everyone equally.
Here’s how it lays out.
According to the IRS, in 2002 if you made $92,664, you were in the top 10% of taxpayers. They paid $523 billion in taxes at an average rate of 20.51% and paid SSI on the first $90,000. So if you’re a CEO of a failing company or an NBA star making, say $5 mil a year you pay $6,885 in SSI, a paltry 0.1377% of wages. Everyone below the $90,000 level paid 7.65% on their wages (before deductions).

Here we go. Add about 8% to your income tax rate and compare it to the so-called high rate paid by the wealthy and see what you think. While your thinking consider this. Half of the people in the U.S. paid in 96.5% of the income taxes. The top 5%, starting at $126,525 paid 53.8% of the income taxes, at an average rate of 22.95%, and got a break on SSI. It’s time that tax rates reflected the truth. The government already adds SSI into it’s numbers to cover the monstrous deficits so let’s just add the tax rates together and have a true tax rate. It’s not that they’re taxed too high, it’s that they make too damn much..

Salem - Build the Nascar track!!

2005-02-21T11:25:00.000-08:00

It’s time for the Oregon legislature to do something right, something that will restore the faith of the people. It’s time for a Nascar track.
The deal fell through in Wash. And now Oregon has another chance to make a proposal for a track in Oregon. All that has to be done is get the governor interested. Ho, Hum.
International Speedway Corp. official Lee Combs states that “I’d be on a plane in 10 seconds if there was some real interest in the Oregon state government talking about a public-private partnership”. The governors spokeswoman, Anna Richter Taylor, responds with responds with a typical government line “ It’s too preliminary… no specific proposal… so many issues to be addressed… economic growth tool… blah, blah, blah. Is it asking too much to give the guy a 10 minute audience and tell him Yes, we’re interested, shoot us a proposal. We have the highest unemployment in the country and Kulongoski gets coy with the guy.
A Nascar track has 1 or 2 races a year that generate from $87 mil to $200 mil a year and puts the area in a high profile position. (Read as bringing more business). We could start a fund to send all the NIMBY’s to the coast for the weekend for a paid vacation to save us from their whining.
For once, let’s stop telling New Business about all the rules and problems they are going to face if they try to come to Oregon. Let’s help them through the hurdles and in turn employ a few more Oregonians that, by the way, pay the salaries for the Salem NIMBY’s.
And finally. Oregon voters created the lottery and stated the profits were to be used for job creation. Salem, who was against the lottery, now embraces it as the ultimate slush fund and has diverted the money elsewhere. Use the profits as the people intended and fund the racetrack. Create a bunch of well paying jobs, state revenues will rise, you will solve your financial crisis, and people here will be able to make a living. If you continue to allow the whining minority to run this state you’re going to stay on the economic roller coaster.

Update on Choicepoint

2005-02-20T21:34:00.000-08:00

Exercising a little due diligence I acme up with a few more facts on Choicepoint:
 They received a $12 mil contract form New York City identify remains from the 911 disaster by performing DNA tests.
 Prior to the 2000 Presidential Election they received a $4 mil no-bid contract from Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris to identify felons illegally registered to vote. Choicepoint identified 94,000 voters but it turns out that less than 3,000 had a verifiable criminal record. Bush won by 537 votes.
 Choicepoint has been collecting information on citizens from 10 Latin American countries without their consent or knowledge and recently purged all documents on Mexican citizens after the Mexican Government complained that it’s federal voter rolls were the source.
 Choicepoint has notified only the 35,000 victims living in Calif. thus far because only Calif. has a state law requiring them to. The Attorney’s General of an additional 38 states have sent an open letter to Choicepoint demanding that they notify residents of their states also. Sheriff lieutenant Robert Costa, in charge of the Los Angeles task force on the matter says that as many as 500,000 identities could be compromised. By the way, this happened last fall. A lone 41 year old Nigerian man plead guilty, refused to aid the investigation and was sentenced Feb. 17, 2005 to a whopping 16 months in prison for 700 confirmed stolen identities.
 To lighten their burden due to the Freedom of Information Act, the F.B.I subcontracted the process of supplying F.O.I. requests to, guess who? Yup, Choicepoint.

Just a footnote:
Last year, according to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers reported fraud losses of more than $547 million. Internet-related fraud accounted for 53% of all reported fraud complaints. According to the Better Business Bureau, 9.3 million Americans were victims of identity-theft fraud in 2004.

Get busy and hammer your congressman.

It's 1984 and Farenheit 451 time

2005-02-20T12:54:00.000-08:00

An information gathering company called Choicepoint has grudgingly admitted that they gave out personal information on about 140,000 people to phony firms that specialized in identify theft. Choicepoint is a firm that specializes in looking deeply into our past, and present and makes that info available to anyone willing to pay the price. Kind of like U.S. Bank did a few years ago when they sold customers account balances and SS numbers for $4 mil and a commision on sales from the info. buyers. The good ole boys at Choicepoint can provide almost every detail on your life, including credit reports, where youv'e lived, personal references and of course, criminal background check. The question is, how much information does an employer or other company need to know about you and at what point do we say enough. Very soon, this type of company will have the ability to report your favorite sexual position.
Let's take an example. Where I live it's against the law to leave an inoperable car in your driveway for over 72 hours. Your minivan transmission goes and the mechanic wants $4,500 to put in a new one. To stay within the law you shift money around and get it fixed but are late with a couple of payments to others that month. That triggers a clause in your credit card agreements that rockets your interest rates to 25%. Meanwhile, you've accepted a job with a new company and given notice at your old one, all that has to be done is the paperwork for the new job. They go to Choicepoint, run a credit check and Bingo, the offer is withdrawn. Because you have no job, you fall further behind in your payments and because of your history you can't get a job. This is what's commonly known as a Catch 22. Your screwed.
Now let's take this a step further. Suppose this all happened because your file at Choicepoint was infected with a couple of bogus entries, maybe from a criminal with a similar name. Now your really screwed.
Now for the really big question. How did the fake companies get info on 140,000 people from a company that states "ChoicePoint remains committed to its core principles of working to create a safer, more secure society through the responsible use of information while ensuring the protection of personal privacy." Seems to me that there are a few holes in that statement. Their representative stated that the bad guys woke up every morning thinking about how they could commit identity fraud and that made them very hard to beat. Obviously, Choicepoint spent very little time thinking about how to protect your information. They further state that "This incident was not a breach of ChoicePoint’s network or a “hacking” incident and did not involve any of ChoicePoint’s customer information." That's because their customer Privacy Statement says that the info collected from their customers falls into a different catagory "We will not share this information with any affiliated or third-party companies if you ask us not to, or "opt-out" of this use"
What can you do? Two things.
First, request a copy of the information they have accumulated on you at CheckPoint. The reports are free.
Second, and most important is write your representatives in Congress and tell them to get off their lazy butts and pass a fair and viable privacy act.
Otherwise, inspect your bedroom walls for the telltale signs of a camera...

You and your fingerprints

2005-02-17T21:27:00.000-08:00

Now that the Oregon House and Senate are in session I feel that someone has to comment on their actions, or lack thereof.
The first measure that comes to mind, and this is old news, is the one that proposes putting our fingerprints on our Oregon drivers licenses so we can be more positively identified. Like they can’t tell who we are from the picture. Of course, I could be lying, and although I look like a WASP, I could be a closet terrorist. So, they want to put my fingerprints on my license and then they can send them off to Washington (D.C.) to the FBI databank, where the truth will prevail. Only problem is that the F.B.I are a bunch of schmuks. For those of you that don’t remember, they’re the one’s that identified Brandon Mayfield as part of the group that bombed a train in Spain. Now I don’t want to say that they’re not entitled to a mistake once in a while but, they took him into “protective custody” for a couple of weeks and meanwhile the authorities in Spain said the fingerprints don’t match and we have a suspect that they do match. But the FBI is never wrong, right? So they held him in custody long enough to destroy his Attorney practice and then let him go with an “I’m sorry”. If Gilda Radner were here today and Saturday Night Live was anything like the show it used to be, they would have a field day with that one.
Oh, right, fingerprints on drivers’ licenses. That’s going to work really great when we issue licenses to illegal aliens. The only ones that will be explaining themselves to the authorities will be the average law abiding citizens.

Airport Security - Bend over and grab....

2005-02-14T21:55:00.000-08:00

I recently flew to Florida and was reminded once again how crazy things have gotten with airport security. I'm going to back up a little here. On 9/10 I stayed up all night and took my son and his wife to the Portland airport to catch a late night flight to Hawaii and got home about 5:00 AM. Needless to say, they made it only as far as San Francisco, rented a car, and drove home. I remarked to him that just the week before I had just thought about the fact that no one was highjacking planes anymore and it was about time to get rid of the x-ray stations at the airport. But then came 911.
So, what was a small inconvenience before is now akin to wandering through a maze with no exit. I can put up with it because now, instead of a minimum wage employee sleeping at the x-ray station, security is actually searching baggage and looking for weapons. At first they confiscated anything sharp enough to pop a soap bubble but have now settled down to really pointy things like scissors with a 1" blade for trimming mustaches. And then a really stupid Moroccan comes along with sneakers that look like platform shoes, the kind KISS wore for those of you old enough, and were really bombs with fuses for shoelaces. Now most airports make you take your shoes off and run them through the x-ray machine too. (Expect to see more flip-flops on flights). Then a couple a Chechen women blow up a Russian airliner and it is suspected that they had bombs in their bras. Now many of the airports are searching women’s bras by the pat-down method. I've talked to a few and they complain that it's really degrading. Better yet, search some articles right after 911 for security patting down stewardesses and copping a feel. Now I know that we have to do everything possible to protect ourselves, but how long are we going to play "Simon Say's". I really think that if Bin Laden has a sense of humor he's sitting there right now with his group saying "OK guys, let's put our heads together, what's the most degrading search we can instigate". With my luck, the next terrorist is going to put some plastic explosive up his anus...
Not known for their forward thinking the FAA had 52 warnings from April until Sept. 10, 2001 and 5 of them specifically addressed highjacking, but unfortunately the warnings did not give flight numbers. The FBI ignored warnings from one of their own that a suprisingly large number of men of Arab descent were taking flight training lessons, but were not interested in learning how to land the plane. During the seventy's highjacking planes became a really popular pastime. In 1978 Israel reinforced the cockpit doors and placed an air marshall on every flight. They haven't had a highjacking since.