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August 31, 2009

Transit In Salem: Improved … But Wait, There's Less

Herewith, one case of how public transportation in one of Oregon's major cities is dealing with a budget that works more like a straitjacket.

Cherriots is the system serving the state capital. It's a name with some history; Salem's historic nickname is the Cherry City; when I was growing up there, I remember the annual cherry orchard tour of the West Salem hills was proudly touted in the Oregon Statesman (yes, Salem was once a two-paper town too, as modest as it is and was).

Transit in Salem was always hit and/or miss. Cherriots, while better than nothing, was never available as frequently or as late as I really needed it. Only recently has service extended past 7 PM. Salem has never had Sunday service. And last year, Salem voters defeated a proposal not to expand or extend service, but just to keep it at the then-current levels.

Cherriots is actually doing an admirable job of retrenching. They are not only rolling out a new, redesigned website (http://cherriots.org) but, starting in about a week from this writing, a major system remodeling and realignment (which is viewable at http://cherriots.org/NewRouteMap/CherriotsMapOnline/index.html). Long time Cherrioteers will detect a complete change of tone, from nearly all-new route names (the only historic name left is the #1-South Commercial), to new local-loop route service in the south, east, and north (three routes which now serve local areas without going to or through downtown join the #11-Lancaster Drive as Salem shifts toward something of a more-local-service paradigm).

There is also a new hierarchy of routes, as detailed in the graphics: "Frequent Service" on trunk routes, "Peak-hour" and "Standard" service (the definitions are a little inscrutable, but you can download route maps and schedules from Cherriots.org and compare 'em yourself). Evening service runs until nearly 10 PM most nights on the trunk routes, which is astoundingly good.

But. As improved as service is in the areas and times where it is provided, it's important to note where service is no longer available. Salemites voted down the last transit levy. What did they lose?

• West Salem, which as of 2006 exulted in four routes, now only has two (#10-Wallace Road Loop and #12-Edgewater Loop), with significantly reduced area of coverage. Trying to get a bus ride in the West Salem hills south of Orchard Heights Road or trying to get to West Salem High? Sorry.
• The area west of Commercial Street S and Liberty Road S, served by portions of three routes as of 2006, will now be served by none. Students going to Sprague High School? Fugeddaboutit.
• Before the service realignment, Keizer was served by three routes (#4-Keizer East, #9-Keizer Central, and #18-Keizer West) which combined to offer comprehensive (well, for Salem, anyway) service to the neighborhoods on either side of River Road N and south of Chemawa Road with no need to find a connection to a route going downtown. Now, the main of Keizer is served by essentially two routes: the #9-River Rd N/Parkmeadow combined with the #19-Keizer Station/CCC routes (which are trunk routes which provide service up and down River Road N) and the #18-Windsor Island Rd Loop, which is a local circulator. Service in Keizer could be worse, but it's now more complex – unless you're fortunate enough to live near River Road N or Chemawa Rd, you've got a walk or a transfer or both.
• The piece de resistance: No Saturday Service

I think that last one needs reinforcement. No Saturday Service. At all. Nada. Zip. Zilch. If you need to get anywhere in Salem on a Saturday, now, you're on your own, bucko. This is not only probably fairly embarrassing for Salem as a whole (the third-largest city in Oregon having only five-day-a-week bus service Even Corvallis has buses on Saturday)? And the state capital to boot? And Salem geography is something of a problem. For a city of its modest size, it spreads out into hills and parts of Salem are quite far away from other parts. Don't have a car? Get on your bike – but enjoy those long distances, Salem hills and mostly-bike-unfriendly streets. Or maybe you can find a ride with a friend.

I just realized it looks like I'm slagging Cherriots, and I've got to correct that right here. I'm not, really. Actually, I think Cherritos deserves a gold medal for the way they're diligently trying to make a silk purse out of the sow's ear of the meagre funding they get stuck with. It could be worse, down there.

My problem, once again, is with a pervasive attitude I see that values public transportation as a luxury and an option. It just shouldn't be. We can't at one hand claim to want to live in "livable" communities and at the same time starve the parts of the shared commons that could actually make that happen. Even in Oregon, we, as an American society, have never truly committed to coming up with an infrastructure that supports the kind of communities we all claim to want to have. Having available and frequent transit keeps cars off the streets, keeps air clean, reduces consumer costs and therefore frees up more money for paying bills and spending. The economy might just work better.

Of course someone might differ with me on that point.

But I don't see as we've ever seriously tried it, at least not on the scale it needs to be tried.

Until then, we'll have these half-hearted steps and reductions in service that never quite closed the gap anyway. We deserve so much more for what we contribute to the economy. It breaks my heart, really it does.

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:31 PM |

Another Ambivalent Sign That Civilization Is Ending, Unless It Isn't

Starbucks is debuting an instant coffee.

I'm not saying Starbucks coffee is good, it isn't, it tastes like waterlogged burned timber.

But if Starbucks has to come up with an instant, well …

I'm sure that means something. Somehow.

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:09 PM |

Rapture Ready? Atheists Have Your Pet's Back

I suppose this is something that is bound to happen in a country where people carry bumper-stickers reading In Case Of Rapture, This Car Will Be Unmanned are unironically displayed on cars.

If you're Born Again and worry about the pets that might get Left Behind (providing you are the sort who believe that pets don't have souls – that's why I hate metaphysics, everything's always up for grabs), then the organization Eternal Earthbound Pets (http://eternal-earthbound-pets.com) has such a deal for you:

You've committed your life to Jesus. You know you're saved. But when the Rapture comes what's to become of your loving pets who are left behind? Eternal Earth-Bound Pets takes that burden off your mind.

How? You fork over $110, and you're assured that, should the Rapture occur within ten years of that payment, a vetted pet-lover, who's been background-checked and is a confirmed atheist, will collect your pet, no further questions asked. Additional pets can be covered for the incredibly modest fee of $15 by the each.

I must admit, I'm not at all sure about how I ought to feel about this. If the Born Again sincerely believes that they may be Raptured any day now, then this is a canny thing to do. However, the atheist clearly thinks the Rapture is bunk (as I do), so ethically, it's a shaky thing to do. However, the cost is hardly penurious. On the other hand it kind of reduces to atheists having the laugh on Born Agains while making a couple of bucks off 'em.

Like I said, metaphysics is messy. I like it not.

This appears to be no goof; EEP seems to be serious about the service they offer. Also, perhaps, they are trying to make a point; according to the EEP FAQ (which is just a fun thing to type):

Being an atheist does not mean we lack morals or ethics. It just means we don't believe in God or gods. All of our representatives are normal folks who love and live for their family, are gainfully employed, and have friends of varying beliefs. Some of us are married to believers. Many of us volunteer our time at food banks, animal shelters, meals on wheels organizations, etc. We fully endorse the "Rule of Reciprocity", also known as "The Golden Rule." We just happen not to believe in God(s).

Which is meaty food for thought, after all.

Unlike most people, atheists don't scare me.

Y'all's mileage will no doubt vary on all this.

Posted by The Chinuk at 08:36 PM |

I Have Seen The Future Of Urban Bicycling …

… and it's between the parked cars and the curb, which is highly nifty. The Shadout Mapes (whose nifty book, Pedaling Revolution, should be required reading) reports on a pilot project on Southwest Broadway, downtown (follow this link to see a piccy of it):

It's the city's first European-style cycletrack, where the bike lane has been moved to between the parked cars and the curb. It's a pretty dramatic departure in street form from the ordinary bike lane, one I'm sure will attract the attention of motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.

As well it should. I recall reading, in Mapes' book, the same thing was tried for a while in New York, to no small success. It was never expanded upon, mostly, by my read, due to our unfortunate American attitude that the car is king – another American attitude which needs changing, desperately.

As someone who drives of necessity, I like the idea of making it more possible for bikes to be on the road and an effective part of the transportation mix. More bikes on the read means less cars on the road, which means more room for me to drive. It's a win-win.

Posted by The Chinuk at 08:26 PM |

August 30, 2009

Department of Teabaggers, Bureau of It's-Not-Them-It's-You

Today in All My Crazy Exes Are In Texas: Remember when Rick "Goodhair" Perry, Gubbanah of the State of Texas (remember the Alamo? Yeah, where'd we put that thing?) wagged a perfectly coiffed lock in Washington's direction, scolding that, well, that the Stimulus was equivalent to Messing With Texas™, and we're not sayin' that we want to dissolve the Union, but, well …

It looks like Perry has moved on:

Perhaps the most notable thing about the “Sovereignty or Secession” rally at the state Capitol today was the absence of any remotely mainstream speakers. That little problem in presentation did not escape the event’s organizers from the Texas Nationalist Movement. In fact, several speakers bitterly complained that neither Gov. Rick Perry nor a single one of the 70-plus supporters of Rep. Brandon Creighton’s HCR 50, a resolution asserting Texas’ “sovereignty” from the federal government, made an appearance.

Mmmph. Awkward. Well, at least, now that their paramour has used them and tossed them aside, they're not, like, one of those spurned exes that are a little but nutty and start to stalk them …

Instead of Perry or Creighton, the protesters had Larry Kilgore, a “Christian activist” and candidate for governor who has endorsed executions for homosexuals; Debra Medina, a Ron Paul Republican and a slightly-less long-shot candidate for governor; and Melissa Pehle-Hill, yet another fringe candidate and a member of a self-appointed “citizens grand jury” investigating Barack Hussein Obama, aka Barry Soetoro.

The audience of about 200 people included tattoed bikers wearing Confederate memorabilia, Alex Jones conspiracy theorists carrying those Obama-as-Joker signs, lots of older guys in Texas flag shirts and blue jeans, Ron Paul activists, and others.

Umm. Oh, boy.

Gov. Perry, two words for you: restraining order. You'll want to look into that. I know guys (and gals) who've had exes like that. It just got ugly.

Posted by The Chinuk at 10:45 AM |

August 29, 2009

The Red Electric Celebrates Orwell on 1984's 60th

About sixty years ago, George Orwell published the famous novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Such a book as this should need no introduction round these parts.

Rick Seifert, a southwest Portland blogger of no small note, who blogs as The Red Electric, has been given the opportunity to commemorate it with a display in the entryway to the Hillsdale branch of the Multnomah County Library (located at 1525 SW Sunset Blvd in Portland, in the Hillsdale neigborhood center)

The little exhibit showcases several books from my personal library and a green Remington 3 portable typewriter from my collection. Orwell used a Remington 3, although his was a no-nonsense black one, no doubt flaked with cigarette ashes.

The “news peg” for the exhibit is the 60th anniversary of the publication of “1984.”

If I can introduce just one or two young readers to Orwell, I will consider the exhibit a success.

Hell, I think more adults should read Orwell. Judging by the way things are going around here, I'd say they haven't.

Bravo, Rick!

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:55 PM |

It Must Be Time For Another Blogger Ethics Panel

Carla over at BlueO must have really hit a sore spot somewhere.

Read all about it. Seriously. The discussion has even spread to HorsesAss up north.

Goldy at HorsesAss:

… when Carla, who has arguably covered the Metolius controversy and the political maneuvering around it more thoughtfully and thoroughly than any other journalist in the state, reaches deep into her reservoir of knowledge, lays down the facts as she knows them, and then dares to suggest that it is her “belief” that this damaging story was fed to the press by lobbyist Hasina Squires… she’s suddenly accused of crossing Blethen’s “line where free speech can go too far and real damage is done.”

Now, I can draw certain conclusions based on all of this, but I'm just a dumb citizen – what do I know?

What am I supposed to think here, media? Please. I'm kinda lost.

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:22 PM |

The Tao of Bob

Consider Bob Tiernan.

Stop giggling. I'm serious.

You'll remember Bob. If you don't you should get to know him, because he's quickly becoming the embodiment of the footnote in history. It's a far cry from the destroyer-of-organized-labor he was, back in the day.

Good times. Good times. Well, not for you, for him. But still.

Some time last year, Bob decided to get on board the good shop Oregon GOP, hoping to steer it out of the Doldrums; his mission, to get the ship moving toward some sort of shore before they started consuming the horses for food (that's why, in case you were wondering, the sailors called those regions the "Horse Latitudes". Digression. Sorry). And, after an absurd episode when he got wild with enthusiasm over being somehow pivotal in getting Michael Steele into the National GOP Chair (exulting that at last it changed the appearance of the GOP as a party of old white businessmen – just the appearance, mind you, not the substance, it's still a party of old white businessmen) he and the GOP have kind of pulled a wide-angle fade.

They've been quiet, man. Now, I know better than to simply count out a group like this, for the GOP, down has never necessarily equaled out. But as the GOP Quietude has lengthened, it caused me to wonder – are they planning something big? Some sort of polity-intoxicating charm offensive in the offing?

Well, Bob has surfaced. At long last, an Op-Ed on health care in the Oregonian! Magnificent! Putting on my David Reinhard Breakaway Editorial-Reading Suit, I girded my loins, bellied up, and dived in to … utter banality. The Op-Ed, such as it is, is a masterpiece of stale GOP framing, casting health care reform as a "mistake we can't make" (as opposed to the mistakes we could make over the course of the Bush years, I suppose), and putting the same lipstick on the same pigs they've always herded out when they need the little guy to make the mistake that somehow the big guy's interest is their own:

• Handwaving about how the USA has the "worlds greatest health care system" that the wealthy from around the world are beating down the door to partake of – that only guarantees access to the rich and still provides us with an embarrassingly high infant mortality rate and already functions as a "death panel" for those who are too old, poor, or useless (to insurance companies) to maintain;
• Tired reruns of the spectre of "increased burdens on small business" – although nobody's ever been able to explain to me how making it unnecessary for businesses to source health insurance for their employees, thereby reducing the cost of doing business, increases their burden;
• The sheer horror of our government "taking over" the health-care system, which apparently has frightened the wits out of the "Keep The Government out of Medicare" Crowd;
• The preservation of a parasitic health-insurance industry in which – if you're lucky enough to have a job that provides insurance – only provides you with one provider, being dressed up as choice

You get the idea. Not just the same dog 'n' pony show, the same dog 'n' pony. Only the pony's been stuffed, and the dog's dead – and it's stinky.

It was then I realized that there's a certain placid acceptance of things as-they-are to Bob. Maybe it's the proud way he smiles at you while pretending he has new ideas. Maybe it's the way he bragged that the ORGOP has improved the lives of Oregonians by way of a series of reminder PSA that almost nobody paid any attention to. Maybe it's the way the shiny new ORGOP website (linked here only for purposes of illumination) looks spiffy until you realize that there are only three entries to the blog (the last, a month and a half ago).

Through all, Smilin' Bob keeps smiling. While the world spins about him and teabaggers thuggishly disrupt town hall meetings, Bob just is.

One lame Op-Ed full of cut-n-pasted talking points, without even the wan passion that a Hovde or a Reinhard brings to it, and it's mission accomplished. I still think they're trying to lull us into a false sense of security.

Well, it's starting to work.

It's getting hard to make fun of the ORGOP. It's become downright redundant.

Posted by The Chinuk at 05:23 PM |

August 26, 2009

Now Let Me See If I Have This CIA Thing Straight …

… if we don't turn a blind eye and allow the spooks to continue to do inhumane and cruel things to "high-value" targets in order to get them to cough up information of dubious (at best) provenance, then their morale will flag because we're not grateful enough at them for being unconscionable creeps?

I mean, I dig, I'm just as USA! USA! USA! as the next guy. I just want to know what the right side to come down on this thing is.

Posted by The Chinuk at 12:09 AM |

August 25, 2009

The Lion Is Now Legend

We heard that Ted Kennedy passed away tonight – and we were of a certainty saddened. I doubt that he'd of really wanted to have left us now, now that so many liberal causes that were worth fighting for and would have improved the lives of everyone, liberal or conservative, were on the line.

Say la gare, as the Frenchies would say.*

He was a deeply flawed man, but one place he wasn't flawed in was a real desire to fight for the little guy (that fellow that Antonin Scalia is convinced is mythical). And so, therefore, from this little guy, a short period of mourning is in order.

From any given Republican or teabagger, savagery and nastiness; but then, that's to be expected. They don't think liberals are humans.

We, of course, know better. Not just, of course, that liberals are humans and good Americans, but that also conservatives and teabaggers are as well.

Ted himself has taught us this.

You see, he fought for everyone, including people who didn't like him.

* Reference to a gutter character in this delightful Esther Friesner story I must recommend to you all sometime when the mood is better.

Posted by The Chinuk at 11:59 PM |

August 24, 2009

UK's Guardian profiles Fatah's Jew

Meet the first Jewish member of the Revolutionary Council of Fatah, Uri Davis.

(ht: JTA)

Posted by Kevin at 05:21 PM |

The moral bankruptcy of a "Christian nation"

I've listened to rightwing fascists insist over and over that the United States is a "Christian nation." Those assertions ramped up to a fevered pitch during the Bush administration, but they continue even now.

If ours is a "Christian nation" then these are the actions of a "Christian nation".

CIA interrogators threatened to kill the children of one detainee at the height of the Bush administration's war on terror and implied that another's mother would be sexually assaulted, newly declassified documents revealed Monday as the government launched a criminal investigation into the spy agency's "unauthorized, improvised, inhumane" practices.

...

In one instance, suspect Abd al-Nashiri, the alleged mastermind of the 2000 USS Cole bombing, was hooded, handcuffed and threatened with an unloaded gun and a power drill. The unidentified interrogator also threatened Nashiri's mother and family, implying that they would be sexually abused in front of him, according to the report.

Other interrogators told Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that "if anything else happens in the United States, 'We're going to kill your children,'" one veteran officer said in the report.

And if those are the actions of a "Christian nation" then I submit that Christianity as practiced in this nation is morally bankrupt.

"Do to others as you would have them do to you." - Jesus (Luke 6:31. NIV)

Posted by Kevin at 02:49 PM |

Prominent Israelis backing 2-state solution, Obama and J-Street

Posted by Kevin at 10:32 AM |

August 22, 2009

The cookbook for guys who like uppity women!

Literally:

I collect cookbooks and have somewhere close to 50 of them. So today when I stopped at a roadside produce stand and saw this one I just knew that I had to have it. And not just because I collect cookbooks either. I am also a very long-time aficionado of uppity women. To the point that I consider myself a connoisseur of the species. Which reminds me of Archie McDonald's humorous and brief lexicon in this cookbook:

Uppity Woman
Homo sapien femaleus uppitus. The girl you married who primised to love, honor, and obey, an implicit pledge to sew, cook, clean, look after kids, wash the car, keep the firewood cut, and scratch your back. These things are now forgotten in the Liberated Phase of Life. Aprons are traded for briefcases and someone else is hired or intimidated to keep the house cleaned and do the cooking. And it's high heels every day, baby.

HouseHusband
Homo sapius domesticus.. The Bread Winner and Lord and Master who formerly came home to a meal he did not prepare, who now has been Liberated.

The dedication is classic too:

DEDICATED TO
JUDY
The world's most Classic, Grade A,
Number One, All-Time, All-American
Uppity Woman,
and all the rest of
her kind.

On and on it goes in the same vein. Absolutely priceless stuff! The recipes are pretty average. Nothing special as far as I can tell. But the book was published in 1988 and the recipes appear to largely date from the early to mid-20th century.

But I mean c'mon... with a title like that, who cares about the recipes!

Posted by Kevin at 08:45 PM |

August 20, 2009

Huzzah, Barney Frank!

Now, I know that you and me and everyone we know are tweeting and blogging and sharing this one. I like to try to stand out from the crowd, but sometimes, you have to join the crowd and show the love and support.

Barney Frank, today, you are our hero for speaking truth to stupid:

Yes, everyone's seen it. See it again. This waste of human skin, this oxygen thief, has the gall to go to one of these town halls and accuse a gay, Jewish congressman of knowingly supporting Nazi policies.

Natually, they're not Nazi policies. You actually have to say that these days. And when he tells her how wrong she is, there's not a glimmer of regret or flicker of knowledge in that face. Even holds up the Obama picture with the Hitler mustache again.

Barney's right. To hold a conversation with these witlings is about as useful as holding it with a dining room table. They're not there to have a discussion. They're there with a lie, and the only thing they want to do is crap on their neighbor.

Let this woman be the poster child for modern stupid.

Meanwhile, in the Serfdomworks headquarters, Dick Armey (the most appropriately-named man in American politics today) chortles and thinks "job done!"

Can we stop pretending these people have a point yet? Please?

Posted by The Chinuk at 12:52 PM |

Help Bitch Magazine Find Their Sign

If you believe in Hell, I think there's a special place that people like this should be sent:

Red alert, readers! Lock up your signs because there is a thief on the loose! If you see this sign floating around NE Alberta Street (or in some jerkwad's apartment somewhere) please bring it back to us! Our sign was a donation from Ferrousity and we really feel it tied the whole office together.

This is the sign to which they refer:

I not only personally get angry when people screw nonprofits doing good, but people who screw over nonprofits who are doing good and necessary feminists insurgency (despite all appearances, we as a society still treat women like crap).

So, if you have a bit of karmic debt you're having trouble managing, and you know anything about this, here's your chance to get some of that karmic interest reduced. Of course, if you have a few bucks, you could always throw some their way (http://bitchmagazine.org). Just sayin'.

Posted by The Chinuk at 12:28 PM |

Say It Isn't So - The Terror Alerts Were Political?!

Tom Ridge finally mans up about what we've been telling you all for - well, just read it:

Ridge was never invited to sit in on National Security Council meetings; was "blindsided" by the FBI in morning Oval Office meetings because the agency withheld critical information from him; found his urgings to block Michael Brown from being named head of the emergency agency blamed for the Hurricane Katrina disaster ignored; and was pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush's re-election, something he saw as politically motivated and worth resigning over.

Of course, since we've all moved on, who cares?

Posted by The Chinuk at 11:07 AM |

August 19, 2009

Free Transit for Public Employees: They're Asking The Wrong Question

The Oregonian, apparently needing to limber up after not beating up on public employees and PERS retirees for a while, winds one up today. The headline, designed from the outset to prevent any worthwhile discussion on the issue, reads A free pass? Government workers often get subsidized transit fares.

Most of the article seems concerned with battling figures (one statistic cites an 25% increase of getting public employees out of their cars, while another cites a loss), and a perception that public employees are lucky because they get free transportation to and from work.

For the first of that, I'd say that we're missing the forest for the trees. If the money isn't being spent wisely, then that needs to be fixed. But obsessing over the amounts while mostly ignoring the benefits is penny-wise and pound-foolish.

For the second, I'm mostly amused. I need not search far until I find moaning and groaning about how terrible the conditions on the city bus are. Tales of smelly people, rude people, and hostility abound. But when we talk about a public employee getting it, all of a sudden it's a gold-plated benefit they are unfit to receive.

Our double-standard about public employees is something that needs to change. But the point of this rant is that our attitude about public transit needs to change even more. The mere idea that free public transit is an undeserved benefit to someone only highlights our screwed-up American attitude that transit is a luxury, an option.

And that's wrong. Transit gets people out of cars, it reduces pollution, it open space on the highways, it gets us out of our bubble, it reminds us we're humans who share a city instead of lords of tiny little spaces where we pretend to be connected by yakking on cellphones and texting. When impletmented correctly, it moves people, sustains an economy, makes an economy work better, and makes communities work better.

Of course, we'll never see that as long as we're given systems that, even at their best, are still broken. It'll take money, but it seems to me if we can bomb Iraq halfway back to the stone age with the wealth of our nation we can scrape up just a few more drabs (in comparison) to provide everyone with frequent, available transit that works.

It'll take that … and it'll take a change in attitude.

Posted by The Chinuk at 01:19 PM |

August 18, 2009

New TheoCon poll: Jewish Dems overwhelmingly support Obama

A new poll commissioned by the so-called "Traditional Values Coalition" of 500 self-identified Jewish Democrats found that 92% approve of President Obama's job performance.

Along with the nearly unanimous approval of President Obama's efforts, the poll found that 58 percent of the respondents said he was "doing a good job of promoting peace in the Middle East" compared to 16 percent who disagreed. Asked whether the president was being "too tough on Israel," just 18 percent said yes and 55 percent said no.

The survey suggests that despite the Obama administration’s repeated calls for an Israeli settlement freeze, support for the president among American Jews remains high.

Naturally, the wing-nuts running TVC are trying to fabricate a rift between Jewish Dems and the Obama administration.

Sheldon, as well as Morris and McGann in a column for the New York Post, noted that only 20 percent of respondents agreed with what the survey defined as Obama’s view that “if Israel could settle its dispute with the Palestinian refugees and give them a nation of their own, that the Arabs would live in peace with Israel.” Fifty-two percent opted for the view that “the Arabs will never live in peace with Israel and that giving them a nation of their own will just make them stronger.”

Similarly, they pointed to a question in which Obama is described as saying it is “very important that Israel not expand its settlements on the West Bank so as not to alienate the Palestinians” and told that “Israel says it should be allowed to build new homes in existing settlements but not to start new ones.” Respondents again chose the option not associated with Obama, this time by a 52-37 percent margin.

In both cases, Obama supporters say the survey oversimplified the president’s position.

"Based on the phraseology of the questions, they are misrepresenting the position of the Israeli government and the Obama administration," said David Harris, president of the National Jewish Democratic Council, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

"Whenever anyone shows me a poll from any interested party, from one side or another, I have questions about the veracity of that poll," he said.

Harris' point is certainly well taken. But even so it seems to speak volumes that a poll commissioned by such a biased organization was unable to avoid a 92% job approval finding.

Posted by Kevin at 11:20 AM |

August 16, 2009

East Oregonian, tough words for Town Hall crashers

Civil discourse serves us; hate only divides us

A taste:

You can agree or you can disagree the positions of President Barack Obama. You can agree or disagree with Sen. Merkley, Sen. Ron Wyden or Rep. Greg Walden. Argue about the proposed cost of health care reform. That's a legitimate and debatable point. Argue about the quality of health care reform. That, too, is legitimate and debatable, as is the role of insurance companies and business.

But when you begin comparing our leaders and their political views with Nazi Germany, that is simply a scare tactic and hatemongering. It is absolutely wrong.

I agree, it is wrong. But scare tactics and hatemongering is what the GOP has to offer America.

At Congressman Wu's Town Hall last week:

At the Tea-Baggers party in Forest Grove this past April:

Posted by Kevin at 11:03 PM |

Palin-inspired artwork

Usually I find the use of nudity in artwork to be fairly gratuitous and seemingly used as much for titillation (of the artist) as anything else. But I have to say that some of the nudity in these Sarah Palin-inspired works of art insightfully provides it's own provocative commentary.

Palin Artwork roundup

(ht: Darla)

Posted by Kevin at 07:13 AM |

August 14, 2009

Friday Foodie Fun - sinfully good Banana Bread mini-loafs

I've been playing around with Banana Bread recipes and making batches most of the Summer and I think I've finally struck gold! If "sinful" has any real meaning in a foodie context then eating one of these mini-loafs will earn you a first-class ticket to Hades.

First a word on roasting Hazelnuts, which have figured prominantly in most of my recipes this Summer. Simply spread raw hazelnuts in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven on the middle rack until they're roasted the way you prefer. 20 minutes will get you a light roast. 40 minutes will get you a dark roast, which is very tasty but can begin to get slightly bitter if taken too far. What I like about dark roasting hazelnuts is that they acquire a coffee-like taste. But they're also much more fragile and therefore more difficult to process than lighter roasts.

Banana Bread mini-loafs w/roasted hazelnuts

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
9 medium very ripe bananas, mashed (about 4 cups mashed bananas)
1/3 cup milk
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
1 cup baker's sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups roasted Hazelnuts (broken into large pieces)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Evenly grease 6 mini-loaf pans.

In medium bowl combine all dry ingredients and set aside.

Place the two eggs in a cup with warm water to bring them up to room temperature.

Using bench top mixing machine with the all-purpose paddle, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly. Add the rest of the wet ingredients. Mix well. Then with the mixer on medium begin to add the bananas in largish chunks (1/3 of the banana) until they're all in. The paddle will mash them for you as long as the bananas are ripe enough. Scrape sides and bottom of the mixing bowl to work in the butter/sugar mixture that the paddle missed. Lower mixer speed to low and begin adding the dry ingredients about half a cup or so at a time. Mix just until blended. Scrap sides and bottom of the bowl thoroughly and add roasted Hazelnut pieces Mix just until blended.

Pour batter into prepared mini-loaf pans and place on a cookie sheet on middle oven rack. Bake 1 hour and 15-20 minutes. Cool them in their pans for about 15 minutes and then remove them from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack or upside down on a cookie sheet. Place in appropriate containers and store left-overs in the refrigerator.

Compared to the banana bread recipe that I've been using as a baseline all Summer, this one has 3X the bananas, 50% more vanilla extract, about 20% more milk and 2X the butter. Well, and the roasted hazelnuts too of course. I also cut the baking soda/powder amounts in half! Except for the vanilla extract, the other wet ingredient increases and the baking soda/powder decreases result in a much richer, moister, denser loaf. So much so that I pulled the mini-loafs out at 1 hour, checked their done-ness (toothpick or knife test works) and kept throwing them back in to bake a little longer. At 1 hour and 20 minutes I could tell by the dark brown crust that I'd end up with a tough crust if I kept baking them longer. So out they came!

I should point out here that I only used 5 mini-loaf pans rather than the 6 referenced in the recipe. The net effect being that each pan was filled to the top. Spreading the same amount of batter between six pans will negate some of the moistness.

Even at 1 hour and 20 minutes the very center was not dry. But considering the small size of these loafs and the length they'd been in the oven... everything was thoroughly cooked and perfectly safe to eat.

So... the very center of these mini-loafs is somewhat custard-like in that it's not 100% set like the rest of the mini-loaf. It is 100% cooked though. And it's 110% tasty!!

Enjoy!!

Posted by Kevin at 07:47 AM |

August 13, 2009

White House cut secret deal with Big Pharma?

Proving their mindless "Obamatron" creds, Huffington Post is reporting: Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharma. Which is disturbing to say the least.

I happen to be embarking on an academic quest which will hopefully result in my becoming a pharmacist. But to my way of looking at it there is no threat to my future earning capacity from meaningful health care reform. It's only a threat to Big Pharma and the insurance industry - both of whom are in the business of producing profits for their shareholders. Drugs and access to health care providers (such as pharmacists) are, respectively, merely their chosen vehicles towards that end rather than the point of their being in business in the first place.

Posted by Kevin at 11:31 AM |

Sarah Palin sticks with The Big Lie

Sarah Palin has doubled down on 'death panels', surprising nobody. She reiterated her claim that "the elderly... would suffer the most," citing "Section 1233 of HR 3200, entitled ‘Advance Care Planning Consultation.’"

Here's the truth:

“So what Section 1233 would do, if passed, would be to institutionalize the idea that it is the patient – not the doctor and not the government – who has the last word on how to die, when to die, in what circumstances to try to ward off death, and in what circumstances to accept it.

“How would such legislation accomplish all this? Once every five years, according to the proposed bill, a doctor can initiate a fairly specific discussion with a patient on end-of-life issues. Does the patient, in the event of a terminal diagnosis, want hospital care or hospice care? To be resuscitated if the heart stops? When things go completely downhill and death is likely at hand, does the individual want only palliative pain-killing medication or would she prefer to have physicians throw every medical marvel at a killer disease?”

What's more, studies have shown that these sorts of conversations are beneficial to terminally ill patients. While Ms. Palin would gladly blather on about how she's allegedly "pro-life" the fact of the matter is that studies have shown that terminally ill patients LIVE LONGER as a result of the very sort of consultations which Ms. Palin claims would constitute "death panels." Not only do consultations extend lives but studies have shown that they also improve the quality of care these patients receive.

Why does Sarah Palin want the elderly to suffer more and die earlier?

While Ms. Palin is scoring cheap political points with her rabid, non-terminally ill base,

87% of patients say they “want as much information as possible”

In a study of 2,331 patients with cancer, 87% report they want as much information as possible regarding their diagnosis and prognosis, even if it isn’t good. The study authors note that: “patients need to plan and make decisions about the place of their death, put their affairs in order, say good-byes or forgive old adversaries and be protected from embarking on futile therapies.”

http://pmj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/16/4/297

Apparently the new Republican meme is that giving more information and control to the terminally ill = socialism.

If so then I say bring on the socialism!

Update: Apparently Sarah "do as I say, not as I did" Palin endorsed end of life counseling as Governor.

I suppose it's mere coincidence that now she's trying to pander to a rabid national audience from the responsibility-free safety of her Lazy-Boy, whereas before she was a Governor with actual responsibilities attached to her choices...

Posted by Kevin at 10:29 AM |

August 12, 2009

Focus On The Family Has To Shift Its Focus A Bit

Focus on the Family Ministries will fall $6 Megabucks short on budget unless a special fundraising appeal succeeds:

A “serious budget shortfall” at Focus on the Family has prompted the conservative Christian group to issue a special fundraising plea, and contributed to a decision to cede control of its contentious “Love Won Out” conferences about homosexuality to another religious organization, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Focus on the Family, founded by child psychologist James Dobson, is on pace to fall $6 million short of a $138 million budget for the fiscal year that began last October, spokesman Gary Schneeberger said.

There's such a perfect, symmetrical justice to FoF having to hive off "Love Wins Out" to a second-string outfit (I'm betting Exodus International, regardless of its being tipped as an "up and coming ministry", doesn't have it's own ZIP code, like FoF does).

And coming in light of the recent announcments by the American Psychological Association that telling gays that they can just "not be gay" if they want to hard enough is foolish, wrong, and damaging … well, it all is kind of looking like karmic dominoes falling.

Hey, that might make a good name for a website … naaaah.

(AP story via 365gay.com)

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:56 AM |

August 11, 2009

PK observes Congressman Wu's Town Hall - Pics!!

Congressman Wu held a Town Hall in NW Portland today and as we've come to expect it was a battleline of the health care reform debate (sponsored by a corporation near you). It was scheduled to begin at 12:00 and run for one hour. So I figured I'd show up early. I got there at 10:45 and the line was all the way up one side of the block and half way down the next side. I heard later that the line began at 8:00 and that nobody who showed up after 9:30 got in. So I just shot pics and chatted up folks and basically observed the circus.

My observation was that the crowd was about 9 to 1 in FAVOR of Health Care Reform. Later it seemed like more conservatives showed up but they were still handily outnumbered. Dems definitely showed up in force! Which I suppose was to be expected.

Here are the two extremes:

A Socialist trying to sell Socialist newspapers. He seemed to sell a handful but basically seemed to be ignored by the crowd. And yes, that is blogger Bill Nothstine's smiling mug on the far left, facing the camera.







The guy with the megaphone is a conservative who attempted to drown out the pro-reform chants of "Health Care Now!" with little luck. To his right is a skin head who appeared to be associated with the megaphone guy. His T-Shirt reads, "Agnostic Front - Skinhead".

(Update: The guy in the t-shirt says he's pro-reform and is not associated with Megaphone Guy in any way)

You can view the ton of other pics I took at my Flickr page

Lastly here... At about 11:00 a woman wearing the black campus security uniform made her way along the line letting folks know that we likely wouldn't be getting inside. She was challenged on why by several women immediately in front of me. She said that it was her first day on the job but patiently explained that the room has a max capacity rating which would not support letting everyone inside. She said it was rated for 67 people or something like that. But what I found curious was, when pressed about who was getting the seats, she said that Congressman Wu's staff were alloted 27 or 29 (I forget which) seats... which seems excessive. I doubt he has that many staff at all let alone in Portland on this particular day. So I don't know what to say about that other than to report what the security woman said.

Posted by Kevin at 01:46 PM |

August 10, 2009

How Do The Conservative Blogs Stroke The Folks 24/7?

Paid troll-y comments on opposing blogs, according to Politics and Technology.

I mean, yah. They only thing readers of this blog should not be is suprised. Read, if you will, the obituary for our free and open society, the blog version of the Serfdomworks Congressional town-hall strike teams, writ large on the Intertubes:

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Jeebus.

Posted by The Chinuk at 10:29 AM |

A Kind Of Malaise, I Suppose

This contains a couple of adulty-like words. This is your warning. Deal.

Sometimes it seems like a lifetime full of Monday.

Those who follow my dollops of prose-y wisdom will have noticed that I've fallen off – this is the first post I've composed in about a week. I say this as an explanatory, not an exculpatory – but you know, I do believe that the fact that the evil people and bad actors are pretty much allowed to run roughshod over what's left of our common courtesy and our public conversation. And people who know better are making bank off the chaos, forgetting that if you let this go on too long, the store is just going to become a dung-heap and they'll just be the least-dirty ones.

What have we seen this week?

• Trolls, bullies, invading Congressional local town hall meetings, intimidating locals and bullying Members of Congress and US Senators, stirring up chaos according to a list of instructions distributed by organizations with ironically backwards names like "Citizens for Prosperity" and "Freedomworks" who are actually funded by obscenely rich people, on how to screw it up for everyone else. The instructions are leaked to the public. None of the trolls care than everyone now knows what they're up to. The media shows us … but with this amused smirk that seems to say "how charming".

• People who demand the government keep thier hands … off their MediCare.

• A private security organization who was once known as Blackwater and whose name will never cross my lips again, spreading the most venal brutality in the name of Christ:

• Conservative commentators who have so far been right about absolutely nothing continuing to have comfortable lives spewing fear, hatred, and stupidity.

• Conservative media figures suggesting that the people breaking up the Congressional town-halls maybe should take a weapon or two (yes, I'm looking at you, Glenn Beck), and nobody who's paying him a salary even bothers to step up and correct him on that.

• A Congress who needs to step up to the plate and do the right thing on health care, in a country where people are dying daily for having the bad taste to be poor, instead looking for some out for insurance companies whose business depends on not spending money on you, because every dollar they don't spend on you goes into their well-tailored pocket.

Good Lord, I can go on, can't I? The list is so damned huge and it just continues to go on. And most weeks, I can handle it, and truth be told, even though we constantly live close to the edge finanically in our private life, we're still doing better than most. But every now and then the permission the stupid and evil get to run around and say shit about the President, shit about people they don't like, shit about people who are actually trying to make it better for themselves and for everyone, start landing psychological body blows as sure and as psychologically painful as repeated kidney punches.

And you sit down, sometimes, and you begin to realize that you're not doing a damn bit of good. So you step back, and breathe a few breaths before you go back into the fray.

I'm not taking a vacation from PK and I'm not giving up. Some of us contribute with our bones and our muscle, and some with our brains and our words. I've been in unions for almost the last twenty years. I'm a member of the working class who works odd hours, so having a snotty (but correct) viewpoint on all this chaos is what I have to offer, as lame as that may be.

But I am taking a pause, one I believe I'm just about at the end of. I'm sure just a day down the road I'll find some Republican or conservative stupidity that pisses me off and it's off to the races again.

I guess the lesson is this: While don't let the bastards grind you down is a fine and witty slogan, those who still carry it with pride haven't yet realized that while you have to sleep and rest, the bastards never quit grinding, and sometimes, they catch up just a little.

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:01 AM |

August 04, 2009

Give 'em Hell, Obama!

Opponents of health insurance reform may find the truth a little inconvenient, but as our second president famously said, "facts are stubborn things."

Scary chain emails and videos are starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to "uncover" the truth about the President’s health insurance reform positions.

In this video, Linda Douglass, the communications director for the White House’s Health Reform Office, addresses one example that makes it look like the President intends to "eliminate" private coverage, when the reality couldn’t be further from the truth.

Posted by Kevin at 09:34 AM |