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January 31, 2010

Multnomah County Pivotal in 66/67 Win? This Time, Not So Much

As the punditry analyze the highly-explicable success of Measures 66 and 67 to death, a truly curious and happy inversion of the conventional wisdom has emerged.

It's been long said (and rued by between 32-34 Oregon counties, depending on the election involved) that, in warm-blue Oregon, liberal Multnomah County proclivities dominate a state that would otherwise be dependably rurally conservative.

Not so much with this round, though. As David Sarasohn at The Oregonian tells us,

Measure 66, in fact, was leading by 5,000 votes before the counting ever reached the Multnomah County line. (Multnomah then tossed in its margin, just more than 100,000.) Measure 67 barely trailed, by 11,500, outside the state's most populous county. It hardly ever works like that. Liberal measures, and Democratic politicians, historically have tended to get beaten up in the rest of the state and then limp into Multnomah hoping for a powerful boost to edge ahead.

Measure 66 didn't neeed Multnomah county to pass, and Measure 67 didn't need much help. That Tea Party mentality might be broad but it doesn't go very deep; even rural Oregonians might be getting weary of the state going to the cupboard and finding it bare (actually, there has been so much budget-cutting over the past 20-odd years, the cupboard was hacked off the wall some time back, leaving only one of those plank-and-cinder-block things college students have in their dorm rooms).

As far as the passage of these measures go, time will tell whether or not it's a sea-change, but in this state, bear noting.

Of course, a good point raised by David in his typical witty style is one I've dealt with ever since we got vote-by-mail:

What's the fun of an election night if you don't have to wait for the late returns from Multnomah?

True, as they say, that.

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:59 PM |

January 30, 2010

Republicans In Public: "Shut up!" "No, YOU Shut Up!"

From BlueO, courtesy Paulie Brading, who reads Adam Nag so we don't have to, we learn that Tea Party Partisans (such as our own Smilin' Bob Tiernan) are not only unendearing nags to Democrats and liberals, but also to their own party:

[T]he intensity of the divisions was put on display as Mr. Bopp and Bob Tiernan, the Republican chairman from Oregon, quarreled before reporters over whether the watered-down compromise had any real force.

Mr. Bopp insisted that it did, and Mr. Tiernan insisted that it did not, repeating himself and interrupting Mr. Bopp until Mr. Bopp turned to him and said, “Shut up!”

Oh, airing dirty laundry in public. Bad mojo. So much for the legendary Republican united public face. The national Republican party seems to be a caselot of small regional reactionary parties, none of which who like each other very much, and all of them yelling "I'm in charge here!"

Oh, third parties out there who are looking to play in the big leagues? Here's your opening!

Posted by The Chinuk at 08:26 PM |

January 29, 2010

Richard Daley, Disingenuous Carpetbagger

With the passage of Measures 66 and 67, the Sane Clown Posse at the ORGOP is sounding the death knell of Oregon business, but this time the opportunists are really coming out of some unexpected places.

Seems that, if you're a put-upon Oregon business suffering under some of the one of the nation's lightest tax burdens, Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley wants to be your white knight.

Come to Chicago – that toddlin' town.

A little thing this opportunist carpetbagger would rather you not know is, even with the hike in taxes Measure 67 will impose upon you, you'll pretty much be moving to Chicago - that taxin' town.

Carla Axtman spells it out for you in the specific:

The low tax rate? Not likely. Chicago has the highest sales tax of all major US cities. It's at 10% now and goes down to 9.75% in July of this year.

The State of Illinois also has a Retailers' Occupation Tax, Use Tax, Service Occupation Tax and the Service Use Tax

The eye-glazing details are available in her article at BlueO.

That's not all though. The Tax Foundation's Business Tax Climate Index, an aggregate which ranks state 'tax-friendliness' from 1 to 50 (where 1 is the lowest-taxed state), in 2009 had Oregon as one of the 10 best states to do business an be taxed in - number nine in fact, whereas Illinois was #23.

Well, Measure 67 will raise business taxes in Oregon – slightly. In the 2010 Tax Foundation report, Oregon's moved up from #9 – to #14.

Ouch? Maybe? Well, then go ahead and follow the Pied Piper of Chicago east.

Because this year, Illinois has also changed their rank – from #23, to #30.

Looking for lower taxes by moving to Illinois?

Good luck with that. You're still better off in Oregon.

In other news, ORGOP Chairman Smilin' Bob Tiernan said something, but nobody cared.

If you want to see the Tax Foundations's Business Tax Climate background reports, 2009's PDF is here, and 2010's PDF is here. The Tax Foundation (the same people who figure out when Tax Freedom Day is each year) is at http://www.taxfoundation.org/.

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:20 PM |

Jon Lim Four Govrenur

Perennial long-shot GOP candidate (and Oregon Lt. Governor in an alternate reality) John Lim (or is it Lymm?) really needs to get his PR people to fact-check and spell-check his press releases.

Willy Week's Nigel Jaquiss shows us what passes for a PR for the Lim campaign, a press release so full of EPIC FAIL that it belongs in some PR FAIL museum.

In an effort to add subtlelty to the jest, the link to Mapes's article near the end of the piece is malformed and broken, but there's one up above that should work here, and if it don't, here it is: http://blog.oregonlive.com/mapesonpolitics/2010/01/is_it_john_lim_or_john_lymm.html.

Good luck.

Posted by The Chinuk at 05:34 PM |

How They Make A News Report

Here, from Charlie Brooker of NewsWipe, from the BBC-4, is the only news report you'll ever need to see.

CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, you can close up shop and go home now; you're work is done. KPTV-12, your secret's out. FOX, since you don't "do" news and your viewers won't, as we elite like to say "get" it, you can proceed on as usual.

Now all you have to do is watch this every so often between American Idol viewings, and you're all set.

Posted by The Chinuk at 04:05 PM |

Short, Bashful Post-Howard Zinn Confession

I've never actually read A People's History of the United States.

This is an omission that will be rectified soon, I promise.

Posted by The Chinuk at 03:34 PM |

This Will Interest You If You Email The City Of Portland

A small item but it seemed worth sharing: According to Commish Randy, the City of Portland has a new domain address which will make the email address of any city employee you try to contact at least a little easier to remember: portlandoregon.gov.

The new email address would read city.employee@portlandoregon.gov, which is an improvment over city.employee@ci.portland.or.us.

So, there ya go. Make a note of it.

Posted by The Chinuk at 03:11 PM |

Welcome To Cesar E Chavez Blvd

The signs went up along NE and SE 39th Avenue between SE Hawthorne Blvd and NE Sandy Blvd today, with signs to go up along the rest of the boulevard (from the north end to the south end) over the next few months.

At 1 pm there was a public unveiling of the sign in front of the Central Christian Church at SE Cesar E Chavez Blvd and Stephens Street, and Mayor Sam Adams as well as those for and against the street renaming were said to have attended.

Here's the KGW Report:

Posted by The Chinuk at 02:52 PM |

January 28, 2010

Dept Of The High Cost Of Living, Durham Law Enforcment Division

Today in Things are Tough all Over: Durham, Oregon is a very small place. It only has 1,400 people, doesn't even cover half-a-square mile, and is surrounded by Tigard on one side and Tualatin on the other. One of the palmful of postage-stamp-sized towns in the Portland Metro area, it's just a few seconds off I-5 at Exit 209 (the same one that gets you to the Bridgeport Village shopping juggernaut).

There's a problem this budget cycle, though: after analyzing costs, the neighboring city of Tualatin, from which Durham has contracted its police protection, has jacked up the cost of providing it from around $44,000 to $282,796 yearly.

Problem: Durham's general fund is only $283,000 – merely $204 more than the cop bill.

Durham's not sure what to do about it yet, though the possiblity of going without police entirely has been mooted.

You, dear reader, no doubt have, in this economic time, have had to decide to go without something deemed essential. At least, right now, you can say "at least I'm not Durham".

That is to say, we can all relate, I think.

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:16 PM |

I Do Not Think That Word Means What You Think It Means

There's just no pleasing Republicans, I guess.

Rep John Boehner (R - Tanning Salon):

On the opening day Thursday of a two-day House GOP retreat in Baltimore, Republican leaders said that Obama must do more than invite them to the White House, offer to cut capital gains taxes for small businesses and sing the praises of offshore drilling and nuclear energy to get their cooperation on contentious issues such as health care.

He's going to have to do more than give them everything they demand?

Bipartisanship: still like date-rape, and the GOP is okay with that – as long as they get to be the rapists.

Memo to the working class: The GOP still hates you, in case you haven't figured that out.

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:03 PM |

She's Gettin' The Hoot Out Of Smalley

Michele Bachmann (R – Hoot Smalley), noting that the financials of next year's Tea Party Convention are – ah, sketchy – has asked to be included out (via TPMMuckraker):

Like Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) earlier today, Bachmann's office cited concerns about the event's financial arrangements. Some Tea Partiers have accused the convention's organizer, Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation, of seeking to profit from the confab.

When its too radioactive for Michele Bachmann, well …

… but it's still not too radioactive for Sarah Palin, at the present time.

Posted by The Chinuk at 04:35 PM |

The Mighty POJ Firms Up Its Lineup

Read all about it here.

Posted by The Chinuk at 03:42 PM |

Can We Stop Calling Them The Party Of Fiscal Responsiblity Now?

The US Senate passed PAYGO legislation – "Pay As You Go" … but the vote was straight party-line.

All Republicans, who loved PAYGO when it was under a Republican President, refused to support President Obama when he shows the fiscal responsibility you and they demanded.

Is it getting through to any of you yet that the Republican party doesn't like you and wants to continue drinking your milkshake?

Posted by The Chinuk at 03:36 PM |

January 27, 2010

Why is it that whenever Republicans say "limited government"...

... it is never applied to the massive military-industrial complex in this nation?

Posted by Kevin at 07:33 PM |

There Are Some Things Even The Salt Lake GOP Won't Do ...

Such as have a keynote speaker that was just arrested for doing a bad James McCord impersonation outside Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu's office earlier this week. The Salt Lake Tribune:

Salt Lake County Republicans are scrambling to line up a new keynote fundraising speaker after the arrest Tuesday of their scheduled first choice, filmmaker James O'Keefe, on charges of attempting to tamper with the phone system of a U.S. Senator.
"The allegations and arrest today certainly changes our plans," county GOP Chairman Thomas Wright said in a telephone interview with The Tribune . "We'll be announcing a new speaker shortly."

He was apparently supposed to speak on his "takedown" of ACORN (and by takedown I mean absolute crock of lawbreaking and creative editing of the results of a fishing expedition).

"We're disappointed," he said of O'Keefe's arrest on felony charges. "He doesn't necessarily represent the Republican Party."

And by doesn't necessarily they mean they're just regretful that he got caught.

Doesn't necessarily represent the Republican Party?

Oh, well, that's alright then.

Posted by The Chinuk at 04:26 AM |

Mapes: Oregon's Yes On 66/67 Bucks The Trend

Jeff Mapes, Senior Political Maven at The Oregonian, analyzes the meaning of the passage of Measures 66 and 67 in the national context. Long story short: Given the Brown victory in Massachusetts and the Oregon polity's dead reluctance to raise taxes on anyone, the decisive victory of the measures bucks the expected trend, and takes some of the steam out of the so-called Republican renaissance:

Jeff Mapes on voters passing Oregon's first income tax increase since 1930

Posted by The Chinuk at 04:09 AM |

Suck It, SerfdomWorks

For the past several months, cynical groups of people have taken an issue that the Oregon Legislative Assembly, in a display of courage, and referred it to the voters and, just as cynically, proceeded to lie and lie and lie about it.

Tonight, a majority of Oregonians were wise and sane enough to say no to you.

We said yes to having those who are thriving and surviving in this economic climate pay just a little more of their own freight, and no to having most of us carry you.

We said no to melodramatic commercials lensed in bakeries that weren't even in Oregon. We said no – for the moment – to the tea party mentality that gave low-information voters the sway over people who had to make the hard choices.

Today, a majority of Oregonians said to the Legislature, "We have your back. Raising taxes is a bold move in times like these, but if you're going to propose it, make your case, and you did, and we approve."

Today, Oregonians passed Measures 66 and 67 with a clear majority, and that's what we hoped would happen.

Thank you, Oregon. You did the right thing.

Posted by The Chinuk at 03:35 AM |

January 26, 2010

Bugging Democrats: The GOP Has Become That 70's Show

Today in A Page From The Nixon Playbook: Remember James O'Keefe, that conservative short-filmmaker heero who exposed ACORN for what it he thought it was, remorselessly breaking a few laws along the way (because it's not illegal if they do it)?

He hasn't let the moss grow under his feet, that's for sure. In his next work, he and a few friends were playing "Watergate Break-in":

Alleging a plot to tamper with phones in Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, the FBI arrested four people Monday, including James O'Keefe, 25, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group's credibility.

Also arrested were Joseph Basel, Stan Dai and Robert Flanagan, all 24. Flanagan is the son of William Flanagan, who is the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, the office confirmed. All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.

I do find it a little confusing that they're going after a Democrat who's reliably Republican, but I guess past some point a Democrat's a Democrat.

Bonus points if you noticed that while reporting with an even and measured tone about The Talented Mr O'Keefe, we reliably forward the meme that ACORN's credibility has been damaged – yet we hear nothing about how ACORN was cleared of any illegal actions and that these cheapjack "investigative journalists" were on a fishing expedition. Trust American media.

And, from whatever place he's occupying in the afterlife (if you believe in such a think), Tricky Dick is smilin'.

Everything old is new again.

(h/t Democratic Underground)

Posted by The Chinuk at 03:24 PM |

Dept. Of Everything's Just Fine, Bigger Wave Bureau

Today in This Can't End Well: It turns out that over the past decade-and-a-half, waves along the Oregon Coast are getting much, much bigger. From Natural Oregon:

No one really knows why, but those waves that pound against the Oregon coast are getting bigger and bigger.

According to new research from Oregon State University, maximum wave heights are reaching 46 feet. That’s 13 feet taller than they were just 14 years ago. In one of those so called “100-year events”, waves are now expected to hit up to 55 feet high.

All this concerns scientists who have to rethink how this will affect the coast and the people who live along it.

Global climate change? Maybe. There's also the Pacific Decadal Oscillation to consider. But if global climate change is where more chaos is injected into the global system by increased average global temperatures, then I'd say this is a time to worry, and it just might get worse. Expect accelerated erosion at the beach, amongst other things. The lower levels of homes in Neskowin already flood more than they used to.

Maybe if Newport began negotiations with Toledo, they could relocate to an adjoining townsite in time. I'd look into it.

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:20 AM |

Do You Want An Oregon Where Corporations Continue To Get A $10 Ride ...

... while you pay the full ride for them?

That's what a yes-vote on Measures 66 and 67 boil down to really. If you read The Oregonian today (the part where they publish actual facts rather than editorial fantasy) you noticed on the front page that the wealthy have had it pretty darn good while the income for the rest of us has remained flat since 2001 … and, when you factor in inflation, the increase in Portland Water Bureau rates (thanks, Randy!) if you aren't rich, you're falling behind.

The rich are doing pretty well in Oregon … and business leadership in this state have the gall to tell us that they're taxed too much. Do you suppose, after the TV lamps have gone off, they go back, knock back a few, and laugh their asses off at us?

Despite the BS claims of the anti-66/67 people, all they'll do is raise taxes – ever so slightly – on the people who can afford it and have benefitted from Oregon's business-friendly tax landscape over the last decade or more. 97 percent of Oregonians won't be affected by it; any business that qualifies over the absurdly-low $10 annual tax will only see their taxes go up $140 (or one month of wireless service for some people I know).

Daily Kos Oregon diarist Meteor Blades distills it down very very well right here:

If the voters say "yes," S-Corporations, LLCs and LLPs, the vast majority of corporations in the state, would see their minimum income tax rise to $150 a year, no matter how big their profits. Owners of these kinds of businesses pay personal income tax on any profits. C-corporations would either pay the new minimum of $150 or 7.9% on their profits, whichever is greater.

If Measure 66 passes, it would raise Oregon's top personal income tax rate from 9 percent to 10.8 percent on an individual’s income between $125,000 and $250,000, and to 11 percent for everything above $250,000. State income tax on the first $2,400 of unemployment benefits would be eliminated. According to the state's Legislative Revenue Office, only about 3% of Oregonians would pay the higher tax. While critics complain that the state has the fifth highest personal income tax per person in the country, Oregon has no sales tax, and, overall, it ranks 41st in taxes per person.

Just a little more. On people who can well afford it. This is what they're all crying about.

Of course, if your idea of how Oregon should work involves the taxes for essential state services either falling on your shoulders (and by you I mean those who aren't earning north of $125,000/year for a single and $250,000/year as a family, which is just about everyone) or, what's more likely, going away entirely, then by all means, vote agains 66 and 67.

Or you can wise up and ask those who are thriving – and are doing so because the Oregon economic landscape is so kind to them – to kick back a little to the system that is allowing them to succeed.

Or, as I realized it just recently, with business taxes in Oregon amongst the 10 lowest in the nation, ask the next person who is telling you to avoid voting for the job killing taxes where were all the jobs they should have been creating when the taxes were so good to them already.

Or, just remember this: when they start complaining about people like me agitating about class warfare, know that the war already happened, and we working folks lost.

Take a little bit of the government that's suppose to work for you back. Vote yes on 66 and 67.

Posted by The Chinuk at 05:53 AM |

What Would Be The Trajectory Of A Little Green Football?

It is entirely possible that I'm unfashionably late to the party here, but the subject whereof I opine was not one I ever really visited – in its heyday, it was fairly appalling.

But then Little Green Footballs (a site to which the wired-political-savvy should need no introduction, and if you do, here's one) never did anything by halves.

This amazing den of opinion, it must be said, never encouraged you to think that it was the web version of the Harvard Classics. It, its proprietor, and its populus were proudly and out loud neoconservative and wanted you to know that if you were left, liberal, progressive, etc, that they despised you and pretty much figured that you were what was wrong with America. Many neologisms which became widespread and retained currency either started there or got popular after getting traction there: Bush Derangement Syndrome, moonbat, Islamofascism, if you heard or used those terms, you felt LGF's ghostly touch. It was also LGF (and its proprietor, Charles Johnson) which seems to get credit for casting enough doubton the Killian documents to cost Dan Rather his job at CBS News and give the American public an unexpected lesson in typography.

In my early days of cruising the political blogs I stopped by LGF occaisionally just to see if what I was hearing about it was correct. It was. I then surfed over the Free Republic, where the discussions were usually a little more temperate.

That was then, this is now. I see little need to keep tabs on right-wing blogs; there are so many other masochists who are oddly willing to, and I can read them instead. But LGF seemed such a phenomenon, and the things it helped spawn (anyone remember Pajamas Media) were at once so epochal and shallow, that it was hard not to wonder, every now and then, how things were going there.

Like I said, that was then, this is now. PJM used to have a whole network of basement denizens; now, it's more of a right-wing HuffPo. And LGF used to be flamingly fascist. Now … well, it may or may not be a liberal blog, but it's rabid right-wing days are clearly over.

The distancing came to a head at the end of November, 2009. Charles Johnson nailed ten theses to the neocon church door in the form of an article titled Why I Parted Ways With The Right. Its ten-point manifesto is interesting in that it takes down just about every right-wing loudmouth, nut, and movement there is (et tu, Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin, Birfers, the Xtian gay-hating right, creationists …), but also in as much that if you copied the post, pasted it on just about any liberal blog and changed the title to, say Why I Never Joined and Will Never Support The American Right, it would look totally in place.

Every one of his ten points describes why I have nothing in common with the right wing, to an exactitude. It reads as though the man read my mind or something. Spooky.

Now, as overused as it is, the phrase "thrown under the bus" is dire, grim, and evokes visions of pain, and that's for good reason. The confusion and viciousness evinced by Johnson's former comeraderie is of that unique vintage that is usually seen when a neocon goes liberal and starts taking potshots at those who were formerly at his side:

Johnson broke off relations with blogs that claimed openly to owe their own existence to him. He called the syndicated columnist Diana West and the investigative reporter Richard Miniter fascist sympathizers. He threatened to take down Michelle Malkin. In some ways, it was an exploration of the limits of his own influence: all over the blogosphere, you were either with him or with the fascists.

“I was such a small fish at the time,” Geller said. “I realized I was basically committing blog suicide by going against him. But he was wrong.” When one of Johnson’s posts about the conference was picked up and incorporated in a press release by the conservative bête noire Council on American-Islamic Relations, Geller called him out on Atlas Shrugs; he responded with a series of posts about her, the most memorable of which was titled, “Pamela Geller: Poster Girl for Eurofascism.” (Not that Geller herself, who posted a Photoshopped picture of Johnson in Joker makeup, was exactly on the high road.) Traffic at her site, she says, went down about 75 percent. “He really did put a knife in the trans-Atlantic counterjihad movement, for a long time. People were running for cover. Nobody wanted to go against him then. He was the king.”

Pamela Geller, for whatever it's worth, runs an objectivist (meaning you can safely ignore it) blog called "Atlas Shrugs", and for her and a great number of warblogs, neocon blogs and readers, and Instapundit wannabees, LGF was the center of the web.

I first noticed this trend myself last year when checking up LGF and finding, to my sincere surprise, that the posts there seemed – well, reasonable. At the time, I thought maybe I was seeing things. Then not only did the New York Times Magazine do a story on this (see above), but also the Los Angeles Times. Both articles make engrossing reading, and suggest that someone out there at least sees this shift as tectonic in some way, shape, or form.

I don't know if Charles Johnson's right-wing burnout says anything much about anything, except that perhaps the right-wing online echo chamber was a phenomenon that not only burned its candle of both ends as well as through the middle. Would it only that it were that Johnson is apparently as reasonable and cogent then as he is now, maybe a lot of damage to the public discourse could have been avoided, who knows.

And who knows where LGF will go from here? It still has some following, even in the wake of what's gone between him and his former compadres on the right.

I mentioned that his manifesto could be just about completely posted into many liberal websites without a change, but his signoff in the article is fairly personal:

The American right wing has gone off the rails, into the bushes, and off the cliff.

I won’t be going over the cliff with them.

I'd point out that the American right wing is not only dragging him towards that cliff, but, thanks to the years 2000-2008, the rest of the country with him, and it was thanks to people like him, making the media safe for and encouraging the substitution of uncomfortable fact with convenient red-shaded versions of the truth and endless demonization of dissent and the American left.

I wish him luck. We'll all be counting the cost, right along with him.

(PS: A good blog to bookmark, which would be helpful in keeping track of the meta on this (which is one of the few places in the 'sphere where meta-discussion is not mere wanking – the metamorphosis of LGF is a multilayered thing) is LGF Watch, who's been blogstalking LGF since the bad old days)

Posted by The Chinuk at 04:00 AM |

January 25, 2010

The Mighty POJ In This Post-Air America World

The most remarkable changes in the new AAR-less Monday-Friday KPOJ lineup appear to be happening to the Malloy program and the addition of two new names.

Mike Malloy is still on evenings, but moves to 9 pm to midnight Monday through Friday. Now at 6 pm is Norman Goldman, who as Ed-heads are familiar, got his radio start provided legal analysis and then fill-in for Ed Schultz. He's graduated to his own three-hour daily show, which The POJ will have in its entirety, followed by Malloy.

The post-midnight hours still have Bill Press, now from 3 am to 6 am, and add Alan Colmes from midnight to 3 am.

The moneymakers Carl and Christine from 6 am to 9 am, Thom Hartmann, Ed Schultz, and Randi Rhodes are otherwise unchanged.

The weekend schedule hasn't been completely changed yet – Ron Reagan's show still is listed there, as well as other AAR content. I presume this is a work in progress.

Posted by The Chinuk at 11:48 PM |

Yay Middle Class!

I'm no economist, but aren't we kind of past the point where even more tax credits are going to do much good?

I mean, tax credits are all spiffy and all, but you could give me all the tax credits you wanted to and for me it's like unlimited credit at the Goodwill unless I have more income to apply it to.

Also, I have no kids and my elderly mom and dad are getting by fine on their own, so I don't have those hooks.

Posted by The Chinuk at 11:40 PM |

January 23, 2010

Spadea Wars, Chapter IV: A New Hope

I understand a lot of you proles out there may have terminated your subscriber relationship with The Oregonian. After the Anti-66/67 spadea craze of the last week or so, I can relate. I certainly don't blame you. However, if you did, you missed something special today:

This, my friends, is the top of the front-leaf of the spadea from today's The Oregonian – a pro-66/67 spadea, paid for by Vote Yes for Oregon, that not only skewers The Oregonian for overruling its sales and advertising department's wise policy that political ads don't belong as a spadea, but also hoists The O up by its own petard by exhibiting exerpts from three editorials over 2009 that not only contradict its own editorial policy on 66/67, but also applaud the Lege for having the guts to enact a tax increase that Oregonians In Favor Of Keeping The Tax Burden On The Poor And Middle Class cynically forced to a public vote.

That one's my personal favorite:

It's true: You shouldn't raise taxes in a recession. But youdon't close schools, boot thousands of students from universities and gut your public safety system in a recession, either. In a state that has little savings, it was one or the other, and the Democratic majority made the right choice. – The Oregonian, June 11, 2009

I remember wondering aloud if the paper would chase after pro-66/67 advertising as eagerly as they did anti-66/67 advertising.

So far, that answer is a 1/3 yes.

The copy in the spadea is correct. It is the wrong place for a political ad. But, if all accounts I've read are accurate, The Oregonian's publisher, N. Christian Anderson III, opened that up, and it's sauce-for-the-goose time – at least, if The O wants to maintain an air of equity, if not actual fairness.

By my scorecard, they owe Vote Yes for Oregon two more to even it up.

Is everyone else as tired of hearing the word spadea as I am?

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:10 AM |

Carla Axtman Hurted Someone's Widdle Feewings, I Guess

A reference I made to BlueO's Carla Axtman yesterday, with my nickname for her (The Unimpeachable) brought this chowderheaded response from the mononomially-monickered "Richard", who regaled us with at least half his wit by saying:

Actually, Carla is exactly next to impeachable in the dictionary, though she has made it there!

Appeneded with a link to the Urban Dictionary, that sketchy chronicle of street speech, reading thus:

Madame La Snarque

A blogger whose main way of communicating is to avoid facts by making snide remarks and personal attacks, rather than debating facts.

Carla is Madame La Snarque at BO.

From this I can note the following:

1. The quality of insult repertoire hasn't improved since middle school. At least some things never change.
2. Carla! YOU MADE THE URBAN DICTIONARY! WOOOOT!

Carla, you gone went and bruised someone's feelings out there with all that truth stuff and your uppity opinion.

Just one thing to do then.

Keep it the heck up!

Posted by The Chinuk at 08:56 AM |

January 22, 2010

The All-American Basketball Alliance – Because White Men Can't Jump

They want you – if you can bust a bucket.

But only if you're white.

And only if you were the child of two Caucasian, American parents.

But don't call them racist, yo. It's just the way they roll:

“There’s nothing hatred about what we’re doing,” [said AABA Commissioner Don "Moose" Lewis] “I don’t hate anyone of color. But people of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now. Here’s a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like.”

Great. Now some imbecile wants to pare b-ball down to Stuff White People Like.

I'm offended, yes. I'm trying to be appalled, but I just can't stop laughing at these twits.

Did you have to be told that the 12 cities the AABA wants to set up in are in Dixie?

No, no you didn't.

Thanks, Moose, for being such Neanderthal embarrassment to white people.

No disrespect meant toward Neanderthals, of course.

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:54 AM |

PERS Employee-Of-The-Month: Lars Larson

Who says irony's dead?

From Willy Week's "Murmurs" column, we find, much to our surprise, that Alpha Broadcasting – the company that now owns once-listenable KXL 750 AM, home to the self-ordained Mouth of the Columbia, Lars Larson – acquired KXL with money from Endeavor Capital, which is partially funded by – are you sitting down – PERS.

Thats PERS, as in Lars Larson's Public Enemy Number 1.

Once again: PERS indirectly funded Lars Larson, a man who'd probably be thrilled if Oregon's public employees lived on a bowl of gruel a day. Yeah. That guy.

I know. My head's about to asplode, let me tell you.

But never let it be said that Lars is short of a clever quotable. Saith Lars in response to that:

If PERS has helped fund keeping conservative talk radio strong and vibrant in Oregon, I’m a happy man. I’ll provide returns in ways their other investments have not.

Sure. Kind of like Bernie Madoff provided returns for his investors, no doubt.

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:28 AM |

Volcker In The House - Putting the Glass Back in The Steagall

And now for a little good news … and Lord knows we need a little good news. Because amid the clatter and the bang of manly nekkid conservatives winning Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts and the worst Supreme Court decision since the one that allowed a certain faux Texan to saunter into the People's House comes this little shaft of sunlight … from Shahien Nasiripour of the HuffPo:

In his remarks Thursday, Obama laid out a proposal to require banks and the companies that own them to divest from any hedge funds or private-equity firms they own, invest in or sponsor. He also called for a cap on a firm's liabilities relative to market share, so a small group of banks won't be able to hold an inordinate amount of control over the financial system. And he would require banks and their parent companies to halt all Wall Street-like trading they do strictly for their own profit. If the banks don't want to quit those businesses, then they can no longer be banks.

Emphasis mine. This amounts to at least a partial revival of the Glass-Steagall Act, which drew a hard line between commercial banks and investment banks and, which once that barrier was pushed down, laid the groundwork for the housing bubble - which is still collapsing.

What we need is, of course, full reinstatement of Glass-Steagall. But this is so far and above what was being done it might turn out to be a strong upside – and with Paul Volcker at last being listened to and Geithner going along because he's enjoying that gig too much, it can't help but be a Good Thing.

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:13 AM |

The Oregonian: Afflicting The Afflicted, Comforting The Comfortable

Oh, boy. What to say about The Oregonian anymore, eh?

Yesterday's decision by the Supremes about allowing corporations to spend an ass-ton of money on the political process? Oh, stop worrying your empty little prole heads about it, okay? And, as special added bonus, we'll give you the false equivalency between unions and big business, because you have to be frightened of unions – which give you power in the workplace – and business, who will take good care of you – they promise!

And, of course, another day, another anti-66/67 spadea.

Carl Wolfson over at The Mighty POJ is calling on listeners to cancel their subs to The Oregonian, and I can't blame him.

I wonder if The Oregonian would be as eager to create spadeas for Pro 66/67 buyers.

Posted by The Chinuk at 08:47 AM |

January 21, 2010

The United States Of Money

As of today, here are the true citizens of the United States of America:

Because of this Supreme Court decision, the more of those you have, the more speech you can buy, and now … there's no limit.

If you liked the corporatocracy then, you'll love it now.

(Illustration sourced from hyar)

Posted by The Chinuk at 07:56 PM |

Another Victim Of The Best Health Care System In The World

Jennifer Lyon, raised in The Dalles, Oregon, and fourth place finisher in 2004's Survivor: Palau, did not survive breast cancer.

Actually, she put off getting treatment. Why? (emphasis mine)

It all began in the summer of 2004, when she "felt something in my right breast that didn't feel normal," Lyon told PEOPLE in October 2005. "I thought it was probably scar tissue related to my breast implants. It was right along the ridge of the implant, so I let it go, and I let it go for a long time."

Asked why she delayed seeing a doctor, Lyon said, "I didn't have insurance, which is a big part of it. And it really wasn't changing much. But a year later, I felt another lump, and then I felt something under my armpit."

If she delayed getting timely treatment because she just wasn't rich enough, how many more?

If anyone's dumb enough to oppose single-payer health care, I wonder just how long they think they'll dodge the bullet.

(via The Oregonian)

Posted by The Chinuk at 07:44 PM |

Yes on 66/67 Has A Half Mil For A Final Media Push-No's Only Have $50K

If money is the measure of a measure's chances, Yes on 66/67 has it in the bag.

According to Brent Walth at The Oregonian, the pro-66/67 campaigners, largely public-employee unions, have the edge in campaign funding, 5.9 Megabucks to 4.2 Megabucks.

Moreover, the pro-66/67 forces still have about a half-million to blow, whereas the anti-66/67 are down to about $50K. And even though we vote by mail here in Oregon, people still wait until pretty much the last minute to take that in.

If I may make a suggestion to the pro-66/67 camp: The Oregonian has this nifty thing called a spadea …

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:25 PM |

Facebook Friends Crook County

Out with the rubber, in with the data:Facebook is building its first company-owned data center in Prineville. Two hundred construction jobs to make it go up; 35 jobs at the center once in operation.

While it won't replace the economic clout lost when Les Schwab moved down the road to Bend, it certainly won't hurt – in a county where the unemployment rate is estimated at 17.5%.

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:21 PM |

How Much Does It Cost To Get The Quitter To Speak?

$17,500, according to Carla "The Unimpeachable" Axtman at BlueO.

I was reading that and couldn't help thinking to myself that Sarah Palin pretty much has the best job ever. Clearly, I'm in the wrong line of work!

I also found it vaguely amusing that it looked the Lane County GOPpers paid twice for it, which the Lane Co. GOPper chair called a mistake, most likely on the Party's part. It will be remembered that the GOP are supposed to be the fiscally-wise ones.

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:08 PM |

Breaking: Air America Radio Is No More

Here's some less-than-good-news for y'alls: Sometime this afternoon (Thursday, Jan 20 2010), the financial woes that have dogged Air America Radio almost since its beginning finally caught up to it, and AAR abruptly ceased operations, taking down its entire website but for a single front page letter of explanation:

It is with the greatest regret, on behalf of our Board, that we must announce that Air America Media is ceasing its live programming operations as of this afternoon, and that the Company will file soon under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business.

The entire missive can be read simply by URLing up http://www.airamerica.com. The letter, which goes on to blame the current economic climate and technology-encourage listener fragmentation.

All current employees will be paid through today, and all full-timers with more than 6 months in grade will be offered some sort of severance, the exact nature of which has not been publicized. Air America will be rebroadcasting encore editions of its programming until next Monday, Jan 25th, at which time the network will go dark.

The first thought that probably comes to mind is what of the famous PDX Liberal radio flagship, the Mighty POJ. In reality, a great deal of its peak-hours programming does not come directly from AAR, but from other source: Randi Rhodes is syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks now; Ed Schulz and Thom Hartmann are syndicated by Dial Global, and KPOJ Mornings centering on Carl Wolfson is produced locally; Mike Malloy is self-syndicated (and still mad popular here in Portland). Even after hours, which is largely pre-recorded, is mostly not AAR; Bill Press is also syndicated by Dial Global, as is Stephanie Miller. The loss of Ron Reagan's show will leave a hole two hours wide in the early evenings, and the most significant impacts will be over the weekends, which is largely rebroadcast AAR content.

I'd predict that KPOJ will continue on largely unchanged during most of the day Mon-Fri, and after a scramble or encore rebroadcasts have more interesting content on the weekends – at least for the near future. As far as going forward from that goes, nobody yet can say for sure – KPOJ has not released any word. Perhaps it's too soon after this rather precipitous event to expect the POJ to say anything. But they've been very popular here in PDX, and is only semi-dependent on AAR programming – and just because AAR has suddenly gone away, The POJ's PDX audience remains. And Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz, and Al Franken have gone on to pretty sweet gigs since.

Air America, beset as it was by financial problems, had a pretty good run. In an era where the intertubes is supposed to be ruining print and broadcast, they survived seven years, and that's no mean feat. If they had as much liberal and progressive sugar-daddy support as people like Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck have, personalities who'd have to find work too if it weren't for neocon largesse (Limbaugh, after all, gives away his program), then Air America and more would still be going, regardless of the popularity.

Sic transit gloria, though, I guess.

Abyssinnia, AAR. It's been fun.

Posted by The Chinuk at 04:47 PM |

January 20, 2010

Unspinning the Massachusetts spinmeisters

Conservative wingnuts are claiming that Brown's victory in Mass. was a rejection of health care reform, among other things. Apparently President Obama and Congressional Dem leaders see it similarly because the scuttle is that they're considering a pared-back health care bill.

While there has been some weeping and gnashing of teeth on the left over "No Exit Polls, in fact there was a poll taken in Mass immediately after the election but it's technically not an "exit poll" because it apparently wasn't taken as voters left the voting places.

The poll was commissioned by Democracy For America and done by Research 2000. They're apparently only releasing select bits of data. What I have is from a DFA email because I'm on their email list. Here's the relevant portion:

Last night, Democrats lost Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in a bitter
special election. This is already a sad day for all of us who loved
Ted Kennedy. But to make it even worse, conservative Democrats and
Washington talking heads are claiming that the loss happened because
Congress was "too far to the left."

They're wrong again -- and we can prove it.

We had Research 2000 poll voters immediately after the Election ended:
Even Scott Brown voters want Democrats to be bolder and they want
healthcare reform that includes a public option.

You read that right. By a margin of three-to-two, former Obama voters
who voted for Republican Scott Brown yesterday said the Senate
healthcare bill "doesn't go far enough." Six-to-one Obama voters who
stayed home agreed. And to top it off, 80% of all voters still want
the choice of a public option in the bill.

I gotta say that those numbers are roughly in line with my sense of what the street thinks. A lot of the resistance to the Congressional health care legislation has come from those who don't see it going nearly far enough.

But feel free to set my sense of the street aside. The fact remains that Massechusetts already enacted it's own health care reform and while it may be unpopular with Republicans, a recent study shows that employees like it! Access to employer coverage in Massachusetts has increased, as has employees’ satisfaction with scope and quality of coverage. Which makes the reaction by wingnuts and Dem leaders to Brown's win in Mass all the more quixoticly unhinged.

I report, you decide.

Update: It appears that I misattributed who commissioned the R2000 poll in Mass. Turns out it was MoveOn.org and you can parse it's results for yourself here

Posted by Kevin at 07:38 PM |

January 18, 2010

Killing for Jesus, Rumsfeld legacy lives on

U.S. Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret 'Jesus' Bible Codes

Coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the United States military by a Michigan company, an ABC News investigation has found.

The sights are used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers. The maker of the sights, Trijicon, has a $660 million multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps, and additional contracts to provide sights to the U.S. Army.

U.S. military rules specifically prohibit the proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan and were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarked on a religious "Crusade" in its war against al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents.

Trijicon says that there's nothing wrong with the coded Bible verses nor is there anything illegal about them and that the issue is being raised now by a group that is "not Christian."

By that reasoning the rejoinder credited to Jesus in John 18:36 would seem to make Jesus "not Christian" too.

More importantly, this melding of religion and the military feeds into the claims of Islamic insurgents around the world as proof that America is waging a religious crusade against Muslims.

(ht: Becky)

Posted by Kevin at 07:56 PM |

Not All That Surprised, Really, at The Oregonian

As a trend, I've always found The Oregonian, when it comes down to choosing between the working man/woman and the businesses that employ them, far more in favor of big business making more money by preserving the status quo than it was in letting workers get ahead at all.

I recall by the bad taste it left in my mouth a so-called editorial, back before we made a minimum wage indexed to inflation, an editorial against that thought which was made up of mostly conservative cliches about how a rising minimum wage puts all sorts of businesses out of business, that it came off as rather thickly-veiled contempt at hourly wage-slaves.

Oddly enough, it seems to be the wages of hyper-rich people that are putting us under. Ah, well.

You might be appalled by The O's anti 66/67 editorial. But you shouldn't have been surprised.

And remember, kids, if you're suddently offended by the whiff of "class warfare", it already happened – and you lost.

Posted by The Chinuk at 12:32 PM |

Modern Bipartisanship, Defined Again

Something of a nugget about truth that Jeff Golden passed to us in his Blue Oregon article:

It’s true the Right has used our Can’t we all get along? instincts to eat our lunch again and again. The 2000 presidential election is one example. So is the past year; Obama won’t stop inviting ideas from his "friends on the other side," when it’s pretty clear that their main idea is that Obama, along with every progressive impulse he’s ever had, has to be destroyed.

Grover Norquist, quoted by The Nation magazine, May 2003:

Bipartisanship is another name for date rape.

Congressional Republicans are OK with it, as long as they're the ones doing the bipartisanshipping.

Posted by The Chinuk at 12:20 PM |

January 17, 2010

What The Evil Hollywood Types Think Of What Limabugh Said

Conservatives are fond of painting Hollywood as a pile of hate-America-first just-short-of-Red-Communist reprobates (except, of course, when it suits them to try to make Hollywood-y pals, which typically looks so awkward it results in EPIC FAIL and they make unfunny sanctimonious "conservative" comedies (paging An American Carol …), so I already know what most of them think of what Roger Ebert and Craig Ferguson have said about what The Talented Mr. Limbaugh had to say about donating to the Red Cross via http://whitehouse.gov:

Exactly. Would you trust the money's gonna go to Haiti?

Yep, you read it right. You ought not be surprised that such a personage would stoop to suggesting that the President of the United States would personally skim money off the Haitian relief, but that's the sort of person you're working with, as anyone well knows.

Now, evil tends too be relative these days to conservatives, with the equivalency being "evil" = "people who dare criticize us". Two of the more intimidating threats to the nation, then must be Roger Ebert and Craig Ferguson.

You no doubt know of the amazing comic brilliance that is Craig Ferguson. Scottish by birth, American by choice, after his run as the bizarre Brit boss Nigel Wick on Drew Carey's show, he's redefined CBS's The Late Late Show to be, possibly, the best example of late-night comedy going. Here's what he had to say to Rush:

Mercy sakes, Rush could dash a cool million off out of petty cash. But then, anything about Rush is petty. And I'd say that Craig's patriotism would kick Rush's patriotism in the ass and send it off crying like a schoolgirl (no insult meant to schoolgirls).

But Ebert really took it to the mat. Roger Ebert, perhaps the most infulential movie critic of the past fifty years (and the only one to have ever won the Pulitzer for movie criticism) threw aside the velvet gloves and laid Rush up with the clue-by-four:

You should be horse-whipped for the insult you have paid to the highest office of our nation.

Having followed President Obama's suggestion and donated money to the Red Cross for relief in Haiti, I was offended to hear you suggest the President might be a thief capable of stealing money intended for the earthquake victims.

( ... )

Unlike you and Justin of Raleigh, I went to Obama's web site, and discovered the link there leads directly to the Red Cross. I can think of a reason why anyone might want to go via the White House. That way they can be absolutely sure they're clicking on the Red Cross and not a fake site set up to exploit the tragedy.

Yes, Roger, but they've made their minds up … why confuse them with the facts? It's so much easier to think that President Obama is willing to do this … but they're conservatives. They think everyone else in the is as crass and base as they are.

As far as the conservative thought on Rush must be, we've heard nothing worth repeating or remembering, and can only presume that the only thing they're having to do with Hollywood is trying to figure out how to get An American Carol II: Electric Booglaoo made.

Well, we can hope. It beats what would happen if they tried to fire off a synapse or two.

Posted by The Chinuk at 10:03 AM |

January 14, 2010

Q: How Ethically Devoid Are Oregonians Against "Job-Killing" Taxes?

A: They had to go to Auburn, California to find a bakery to act – badly – as a "victim" of the mythical "job-killing" taxes.

Couldn't Oregonians In Favor Of Reduced State Services and A Continued Free Ride for The Rich find a bakery in Oregon? I understand we have them here.

I mean, I've eaten bread and donuts on NE 102nd Avenue here in Portland. I'm pretty sure that they weren't imported.

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:16 PM |

January 13, 2010

Obama poll numbers Reaganesque

Interviewed for a KATU piece on a new poll on President Obama among Oregonians, Ian McDonald, who teaches political science at Lewis and Clark College, observed:

"The parallel to Ronald Reagan is astonishing," he said, because he’s the only other president to have such low approval ratings after his first year.

Posted by Kevin at 09:01 PM |

John Kitzhaber Will Now Take Your Questions

Happening now: John Kitzhaber taking questions from a web audience on jobs and the economy at http://www.johnkitzhaber.com/jobs-webcast/.

If you missed it, there will hopefully be an archived version. In any case there's a website where Dr. John's taking suggestions and feedback on his plan, delivered today at Lane Community College in Eugene: http://ideas.johnkitzhaber.com/.

All Oregonians welcome, but on my own behalf, for the teabaggers amongst you, please take the Caps Lock key off and type in complete sentences. Thanks.

Posted by The Chinuk at 12:27 PM |

January 12, 2010

Ex-Gitmo guard meets two former detainees & apologizes

From BBC News:

Mr Neely was 22 when he worked at the camp and left after six months to serve in Iraq. But after quitting the military his doubts about Guantanamo began to crystallise. This led to a spontaneous decision last year to reach out to his former prisoners.

I wish I could post the BBC's embeded video here but I don't see any way to do so. But you gotta follow the link and watch the two videos.

The first is of their actual reunion and the second is all three of them remembering what it was like at Gitmo, for each of them. The second one is about half way down the page and you'll have to survive a commercial at the beginning but it's worth the wait.

Posted by Kevin at 05:13 PM |

Maybe The Chinese Misunderstood The Complaint

Well, at least they aren't putting lead in kids toys anymore – they're putting an even better metal:

Now that lead has been banned from children’s products, some Chinese manufacturers have been substituting the even more dangerous heavy metal cadmium, especially in costume jewelry, an Associated Press investigation reveals.

Cadmium is a known carcinogen that, like lead, can delay brain development in young children, leading to learning disabilities. Research also shows that long-term exposure can cause cancer and kidney problems.

One bit of children's costume jewelry was reported as containing 91 per cent cadmium by weight.

That's not a toy contaminated by cadmium, that's a cadmium toy.

I guess we should be more careful and respectful about how we complain. Next time, they might substitute depleted uranium.

Posted by The Chinuk at 05:38 AM |

January 11, 2010

Afghan War - to be or not to be?

Both of Oregon's Senators, Merkley and Wyden, reacted with guarded skepticism to President Obama's early December, 2009 announcement that he was going to commit an additional 30k troops to the Afghan War effort.

I too have been guardedly skeptical, mostly because my sense is that there was a brief window of possibility relatively early on and that BushCo's decision to instead chase phantom WMD in Iraq virtually guaranteed that Afghanistan would yet again turn into an intractable quagmire for the foreign occupiers. Many moderates and conservatives have also expressed skepticism.

A newish poll of Afghans themselves indicates that they largely feel that things are going in the right direction in their country. That would seem to include the presence of foreign armies fighting the Taliban.

My question to you, dear readers, is whether or to what degree does the apparent implied approval of the Afghan citizens themselves change your view of the appropriateness of our forces being there?

Posted by Kevin at 11:54 AM |

January 10, 2010

George Stephanopolus Is Sorry About That, People ...

On last Friday, as everyone and their domesticated animal knows now, Rudy! Giuliani, Mayor of 9/11, pinched an amazingly smelly rhetorical loaf in front of George Stephanopolus on Good Morning America:

… we had no domestic attacks under Bush; we’ve had one under Obama.

I don't need to point out that Rudy! is displaying symptoms of cranio-rectal impaction, do I? No, no I don't.

Anyway, as also recorded pretty much everywhere, George joined Rudy! in admiring the rhetorical offal thus extruded, the assertion going completely unchallanged, even though Rudy! undoubtedly knew who was President on 9/11, and George is – sorry, was – a Democrat.

That you all know. But, rejoice, and lo! all is repaired and grand today – George has seen the error of his ways and is very sorry, and may or may not ever fall asleep on the job again:

All of you who have pointed out that I should have pressed him on that misstatement in the moment are right. My mistake, my responsibility.

Well, that's all right then. Because as we know, in America, when someone gets corrected, everyone foolish enough to believe what Rudy! said realized they were in the wrong, and corrected their thinking immediately.

Thanks for manning up George.

By "your responsibility" does that mean you're getting docked in pay or being demoted back to This Week?

No?

Ah.

Posted by The Chinuk at 08:49 AM |

January 09, 2010

Global Warming, Local Cooling

This will qualify as preaching to the choir perhaps, but if conservatives get to glad-hand inane insanities like the President has to produce a for-reals birth certificate or we won't believe in him and things of that nature, then I owe the truth a favor or three similarly.

Global warming is an unfortunate term. It implies that everything everywhere is getting hotter, and in the average that's true, but in the specific, not quite.

The atmosphere is a system, and like anything interconnected into a whole, changes in one area may indirectly change something in another area – or, more appropriately, changes overall will change things overall – but in different ways.

Temperature is the measure of energy in this system. As average temperatures climb globally, the planet doesn't warm globally, but more energy is injected in the system – and where there's more energy, there's more chaos, more unpredictability, more unexpected extremes.

Thus, while the 2-foot snowfall Portland endured last winter may or may not say any one thing about the change in climate all over the world, it certainly indicates something might be going on. And, in my memory, as a kid in the mid-Willamette Valley, any snow was seen as a memorable event. Now it seems we get some snow every year.

There seems to be a change afoot.

More to the point, as Salem-based blogger Brian Hines points out, Just because it snows here doesn't mean that global warming has been suspended. Relating a recent exchange in the news, CNN it looks like (emphasis mine):

Idiocy must be contagious, because yesterday I heard something similar (on CNN, I believe). The weather person was saying that it was unusually cold in the central and eastern parts of the United States.

The anchor responded with something like "Well, that's interesting, since the Copenhagen conference on global warming happened not long ago." Before he could expand upon this illogical train of thought, the weather expert interrupted to save him from further embarrassment.

"When it's colder than normal in one area, it's usually warmer than normal somewhere else. Currently the jet stream is sending cold air from the arctic down into the heart of the country. But in Juneau, Alaska, it's warmer than in Chicago right now."

Unfortunately, calling it "global warming" enables chuckleheads in the media (and pretty much anyone on the yawning abyss that is FOX) to click and grin and go "hey, how's that global warming working out".

If we all go down to doom, it's because of ninnies like that. But, in point of fact the media have been falling down on the job with this for years now.

Anyway, the truth I'm forwarding on? Unseasonably cold weather doesn't mean global warning is off. Freezing temperatures in Birmingham Alabama might actually mean shirtsleeves in winter in Juneau Alaska.

And, since the tundra's probably thawing, that can't end well.

Posted by The Chinuk at 07:44 PM |

Hope For The Klamath Basin

… Reports the blog Natural Oregon, who tells us that various parties are on the brink of signing a historic agreement to begin a long process designed by bring fish back to the Klamath.

Of course, it's not perfect. Those deadlines are out over the horizon somewhere. Let's also hope that Brain prevails down the road somewhere.

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:10 AM |

All We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself, And A Three Hour Tour ... A Three Hour Tour

The latest instalment in American Security Theater, the airplane turn-round that put PDX in the news, complete with F-15 fighter escort, was precipitated, it turns out, by a 56-year old wiseacre with a bizarre, Gilligan's Island-based sense of humor, it would appear:

I thought I was going to die, we were so high up, I thought to myself: I hope we don't crash and burn or worse yet, landing in the ocean, living through it, only to be eaten by sharks, or worse yet end up on someplace like Gilligan's Island, stranded, or worse yet, be eaten by a tribe of headhunters, speaking of headhunters, why do they just eat outsiders and not the family members? strange... and what if the plane ripped apart in mid-flight and we plumited (sic) to earth, landed on Gilligan's Island and then lived through it and the only woman there was Mrs. Thurston Howell III? No Mary anne (my favorite) no ginger, just lovey! If it were just her, I think I'd opt for the sharks, maybe the headhunters.

The whole complaint makes for pure head-scratching reading, and you can find it linked to the word "Complaint" in the first line of the eighth paragraph of this linked Oregonian story about it. You can even peep the comment card, crabby handwriting and all.

I don't know if it was really necessary to scramble military hardware for an escort, but as odd as things are these days, I can't say I wouldn't turn around the plane if I were the pilot.

At to top it all off, Mike Meyers just may have a case for copyright infringement (it's in the complaint, seriously, read this bit of absurdity-in-real-life).

But then, common sense always has said you don't casually discuss things like planes crashing, flames, and actually using the seats as flotation devices, and certainly not as jokes. The few times in my life the privilege of flying has been accessed to me it was made clear that you don't even joke about hijacking. I imagined people flying with friends named Jack who arranged to call them John or something for the course of the flight.

The man's getting jacked for a felony.

My guess is felony stupid. Without a license.

Posted by The Chinuk at 08:52 AM |

January 08, 2010

Dept. of Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

All over the news today is the illustration of the old maxim grandma and grandpa used to repeat like an American mantra: Figures lie, and liars figure.

Oregonians Against Tax Fairness has become notorious for latterly running what boils down to yet another attempt to advance their unique brand of bull-cookie by beating up on that perennial scapegoat, the State Worker.

They tell you one thing and commit enormous sins of omission. By simply adding up all the spending the State's done in the last five years without making any effort to say where all the money comes from (not, as it turns out, from taxes) and where it all goes (not actually to state employees), and making this big undefined meatball of the whole thing, they weasel and say this necessarily mean that state employees are getting huge raises.

The bald truth is a lot of state employes have seen pay cuts, few have seen raises (a lot have forgone even cost-of-living increases) and are being required to take betweeen ten and fourteen unpaid furlough days this coming year.

Representatives for the tax-unfairness crowd claim they're comfortable with the math.

Well, of course they are. That should surprise nobody. The last word in Mapes' analysis of the ad, though, belongs to …

Scott Moore, spokesman for Vote Yes for Oregon, which favors the tax increases, called foul. “Their claim is that because employee salary levels weren’t cut back to 2006 levels, that somehow constitutes a pay raise,” he said. “That’s not how things work in the real world.”

But it is the way things work on Bizarro world.

Posted by The Chinuk at 10:21 AM |

AOI: In Fear Of Large Inflatable Animals, And Also Unions

Willamette Week has named the state's premier big business lobby, AOI – Associated Oregon Industries – Rogue of the Week, and this roguishness, fits like a glove.

The only reason they're doing this is to silence unions. As of the 1st of January, SB 519, passed into law last session, makes it illegal to require employees to attend lectures by the boss on thier political or religious views under pain of disciplinary action.

This will prevent them from trashing unions in mandatory meetings, so they're out to get this law – by saying that this somehow limits their free speech rights.

The conclusion Willy Week draws is

We think Associated Oregon Industries should cut the legal games over forcing workers to attend anti-union meetings. That’s not free speech, that’s coercion.

… and it's a solid conclusion. And right.

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:08 AM |

January 07, 2010

The Reason He Doesn't Care is, He's In Control

Joe Lieberman … Nobody likes him, everybody hates him, but we have to eat the worms.

According to a recent poll by North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling (which Politico notes polls for Democrats but maintains a high reputation) almost 70 percent of those polled in Connecticut now dislike Joe, tracing the precipitous decline in his public regard to the point at which he helped kill the health-care reform public option, which he was for before he was agains.

It's a pyrrhic victory at best, of course. Whenever Joe huffs and puffs as sighs about how horrid it would be that the public actually get what they need, he becomes the media's darling anyway. He'll get what he wants – attention and power – and you wont get what you need, and that's ok by Joe.

That's the way it is for the Senator from Joe Lieberman.

Posted by The Chinuk at 02:53 PM |

January 06, 2010

Actual Oregon Small Businesses Support Measures 66/67

(via PMerc) The Oregon Small Business Council, representing about 400 actual small businesses that employ people and put money into local economies and stuff like that, pretty much nailed it (emphasis mine):

"The decision was made that the return on the investment in terms of having quality education for a skilled workforce was deemed to be the right move," says Andrew Plambeck, director of the OSBC. "Small business owners have children in public schools, and we benefit from the services that would be cut if these measures did not succeed."

"This election is being painted as business vs. labor," Plambeck continues. "How it really works out is Big Business vs. Oregonians."

Big Business (and teabag-mentality) against Oregonians. That's exactly what it is.

And remember: if you vote against Measures 66 and 67, God kills a kitten. Won't you please think of the kittens?

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:53 PM |

Dept. Of Well, Duh – Michael "Not The Bangles Bassist" Steele Edition

Hey, Michael Steele, say something stupid!:

Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele offers a simple explanation for why the party all too often lost touch with typical Americans since the Ronald Reagan era: "We screwed up," he claims in a new book offering a blueprint for the party's resurgence. That "we" includes the last two Republican presidents, George W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, and the most recent Republican candidate for president, Sen. John McCain.

The hey? Is Mr. Steele having one of those crystal moments when things all of a sudden make sense?

Not so fast, bunky:

To regain the public confidence, Steele says the party should, among other things, expose the "reign of error" inherent in liberal policies, contrast conservative and liberal principles, and highlight the damage caused by Obama's policies while explaining conservative solutions.

Ah. Right. It's not that they were out of touch, it's that we weren't listening.

Perhaps they should dissolve the populace and elect another?

Oh, what's that? He's releasing a book? Through Regnery Publishing? Well – there you go then.

Oh, by the way, he called for grass roots action – and snubbed Sarah Palin. So we have that, anyway.

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:38 AM |

Broken Arrow

This can't be a good sign:

The Tulsa, Okla., trucking company stopped payment on the gas cards of its drivers, leaving some of them stranded Tuesday around the United States, miles from home. No explanation on the website. No one at the company answering phones.

The 200 or so employees at Arrow Trucking's headquarters were told to pack up their belongings and go home Tuesday morning, according to the Tulsa World.

This was of the 25th of December.

That's Christmas Day to those of you who got it off.

Arrow Trucking, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, isn't some two-bit operation. It owns (owned?) 1400 flatbed trucks and 2600 trailers. It was a nationwide trucking operation.

Was.

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:31 AM |

January 05, 2010

How Other Regional Transit Systems Are Coping

In the last discourse I held a public moment-of-silence for the death of TriMet's Fareless Square. We here in the Portland Metro Area, who have a reputation for having Transit What Works™, have had to endure quite a few service adjustments and cutbacks leaving, in my own opinion, a transit system I can barely recognize and being perhaps the number one reason why people stay into (and go back into) their cars.

TriMet is only working with what they get given. Only a minor fraction of your (increasingly-expesive) farebox cover system operations, of course; this is a tautology but a truth none the less. You might wonder how other major Northwest metropoli are taking it. I did a quick rocket ride round some websites and blogs, and here's what I found:

• Lane Transit District (Eugene, OR): of what LTD's potential service reductions will look like, few can say yet. But they are expecting a $3.5 to $4 million shortfall in income during the next year, which will result in, as they deftly put it, a "significant reduction in services". There will be blood, but first, there will be hearings.
• In Salem, daily service has been rejiggered into three service levels. Routes have been consolidated and cut, and Saturday service has been completely eliminated. Yes, in the states third- (or second-, depending on what today's population estimate is) largest city, and state capital, you can only get a city bus five days a week. Oregon: Things DO look different here!
• Meanwhile, in Vancouver, C-Tran has had to endure a fairly enervating series of cuts that have all but ended most rural Clark County service or cut it back severely (service between Vancouver and Battle Ground, for instance, which was once a full-service bus line, only allows one service stop – at SR 503 and NE 149th Street – between the Vancouver fringe and Battle Ground city limits. And the hits just keep on coming, including the ending of mid-day service on the dial-a-ride "Connector" serving the area away from the routes that serve Camas and Washougal.
• And King County Metro, the bus and rail system serving Seattle and King County, will cut 200,000 service hours (5% of total service) over the next two years – 50,000 of those hours falling off in February alone.

While all these areas still have public transportation, those who still have complete systems are seeing fewer buses even along trunk routes (we've heard that the famous "15 or better" TriMet "Frequent Service" lines will be more like "17 or better") and fewer places that you can get to on those routes.

Don't have a car? Get one.

Can't afford a car? Oh, well.

The people who take it in the shorts with reduced transit service is, as you'd expect, those who can't get along so well without them. People who need transit (or paratransit) to get to jobs or medical appiontments. Low-wage workers starting out. People like that.

Solid available transit supports the economy and workers by offering more alternatives to the automobile. Reducing those options just seems, to be, to be cutting off our noses despite our faces.

We'll keep having this problem until public policy gets gutsy enough to regard public transit as an element of infrastructure along with roads, streets, highways, and other essentials for making sure commerce goes. As long as we regard transit as a luxury option, we'll have to put up with this sort of cutback just when people really need it.

Treat transit as essential highways. Fund it like highways. It's the only sane thing to do.

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:10 AM |

RIP TriMet's Fareless Square

Just a moment of respect in passing: TriMet's Fareless Square, responsible – at least in part – for Portland's healthy and vibrant downtown and decreasing its traffic load, has – as you have no doubt heard, been retired.

The boundaries remain, but only as a Free Rail Zone (a name so innovative it took a contest to choose).

And, with this, TriMet pursues its relentless way toward looking just like every other transit system in America …

A moment of silence, please.

Posted by The Chinuk at 07:11 AM |

Sometimes, It's Hard To Choose Sides

The Randy Leonard HIT Team/Greek Cusina imbroglio has provided great Portland political theater which, if it were made into a play, would probably get pretty good reviews.

But the personalities behind it are pretty touch-n-go. I've been, in the past, a fan of Randy but the rough edges he showed to the Lents citizens during the public discussion over the possibility of the Beavers moving to the site of Lents Park took a great deal of the bloom off that rose.

And while it doesn't seem entirely fair that the Greek Cusina has apparently been hounded out of existence by the tender mercies of the HIT team, I've been following The Oregonian's coverage of the issue for a while now, and it certainly looks like owner Ted Pappas never met an unpermitted building improvement he didn't like. Randy's release of the subject seems to back The Oregonian's reportage.

So – building codes enforced, lack of possible structural causes of fire, fewer firemen dying for no damn good reason – good thing. Greek Cusina going out of business, less commerce, 50 people out of work – bad thing. Would it have killed the owner to get a permit on some of this stuff?

Unlike apparently most people, who put it on a level with removing the Statue of Liberty from New York Harbor, the disappearance of that big purple octopus from the corner of SW 4th and Washington will not cause any shed tears around here. God, that thing was in bad taste.

Posted by The Chinuk at 06:25 AM |

How To Check Your Voter Reg Status Online

1. Go to http://oregonvotes.org/voterresources.html.
2. Click on the link that reads "Am I Registered To Vote?"
3. Enter the info. The minimum required is First name, Last name, Date of Birth, and home ZIP code.
4. Bask in the smug glow of being ready to participate when you see you're listed as an active voter

If you aren't registered to vote, you have just today to do that. You can do that in person at any county elections office. In the tri-county area, that's:

• Multnomah County:1040 SE Morrison St. Portland, OR 97214-2495, (503) 988-3720
• Clackamas County:1710 Red Soils Court, Suite 100, Oregon City, OR 97045, (503) 655-8510 / TTY (503) 655-1685
• Washington County:3700 SW Murray Blvd. Ste. 101, Beaverton, OR 97005, (503) 846-5800 / TTY (503) 846-4598

Surf here to find the full list of all 36 Oregon County Election offices, including directors' names and phone and email contacts.

And remember, every vote against Measures 66 and 67 (or in favor of Anything forwarded by Serfdomworks or Americans for General Poverty) means God kills a kitten.

Won't you please think of the kittens?

Posted by The Chinuk at 05:57 AM |

Today In Bad Faith

Occasionally I like to peep just what is it about modern religion that alienates me from it. Certainly there is much good done under that rubric, but it just seems so overwhelemed by the crass, simply evil, and desperately so-ridiculous-someone-should-have-been-embarrassed-by-this in the name of religion that it constantly leaves me boggled and disappointed in it.

With that in mind, here are three recent examples of haywire faith in action from the never-depleted "today in bad faith" file:

1. Brit Hume as Pope Ignorant the First

As though anyone needed any more stuff about Tiger "Horndog" Woods, but this did provide a nonpareil canvas on which to display the utter ignorance and rather telling arrogance of one of FOX News's more intellectual talking heads, Brit Hume.

Maybe it's not Tiger, maybe it's all that Buddhism his supposedly practices:

The extent to which he can recover seems to me depends on his faith. He is said to be a Buddhist. I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. My message to Tiger would, 'Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.

Tiger needs forgiveness or redemption? Seems to me he needs some self control and people to tell him "no" instead of making sure he had what he wanted and cover for getting away with it.

The comment says more about Hume's yawning chasm of lack of understanding of his own faith (as well as Buddhism) and complete arrogance than anything else. The only positive point here is that Brit works for FOX News, and therefore this is not necessarily a decrease in quality of that noise box, more a reassurance that the world pretty much works the way you expect it to.

2. 2012 Pot, Meet Christian Artihmomantic Kettle.

Most sane Christians I know know better than to waste time trying to divine when the Second Coming will occur, in as much as hoping Jesus is coming tomorrow isn't the point of the whole thing anyway. As someone once told me, someone once told me that, when asked that if he somehow was able to acertain when Jesus would return and knew it was going to be in 5 minutes, when asked how he'd respond, he said "Why, I'd keep working this row in the garden right here."

Maximum paraphrasing license is requested in the above, please pardon. But my point is made, I hope. Modern Christanity – especially the modern evangelical American kind – seems to be more obsessively concerned with gating Jesus back to Earth whether or not they feel He's ready to come than it is with improving the lives of you and yours and your neighbors – you know, making God's Kingdom real here on Earth, Golden rule, those outmoded ideas.

So when I caught this little tidbit from the San Francisco Chronicle, I wish I could say I was surprised at the snobbery of the attitude I saw. Alas, I am not:

Harold Camping lets out a hearty chuckle when he considers the people who believe the world will end in 2012.

"That date has not one stitch of biblical authority," Camping says from the Oakland office where he runs Family Radio, an evangelical station that reaches listeners around the world. "It's like a fairy tale."

The real date for the end of times, he says, is in 2011.

Darn those Mayans for not consulting the Bible over the end of the world, which is lain open there in terms so obvious it all it takes is a self-obsessed civil-engineer evangelist whose not too afraid to combine mathematics with numerology (which is evil unless you're using it in the name of God – hey, what a surprise, yes?) in order to pull a prediction out of a book that famously said that (if you buy it) the Second Coming cannot be known.

It's one of the few things that the Bible is unequivocal about.

But really, I don't begrudge the guy his assumption (although mocking 2012-believers the way he did is kind of the pot-kettle-black height of poor taste to me). What really makes me cry and die inside is followers like the one quoted in the article, who are perfectly happy at almost smugly being Amongst The Select™ and are perfectly willing to let the poor old fellow off because he guessed wrong last time.

Of course the Jehovah's Witnesses have been casting and recasting the Final Judgement sincce 1914, so it appears there's always a market for that sort of stuff.

Personally, I'm more of a fideist where it appraches religion at all. I wear not only a crucifix (blessed by a Catholic priest) but also a taijitu, otherwise known as a 'yin-yang', because of the way I look at things. But I'd feel better about religion in general if it got back to teaching everyone how to be excellent to each other, and less about how ignorant, arrogant millionaire pundits lecture stars on how to return to Christ to be made whole, and how someone has come up wth yet another variation on The Bible Code.

That's faith in America to me – left out in the sun, curdled, gone sour.

Good luck with that.

("Today in Bad Faith" is an occasional, non regular thing I'm doing. It's not regular, but something will happen sooner or later, and this disillusioned lapsed Catholic will be there to complain about it)

Posted by The Chinuk at 05:15 AM |

January 03, 2010

Corporate Welfare - communities practice tough love

AP via Yahoo News:

Cash-strapped communities have a message for corporations that promised jobs in return for tax breaks: A deal's a deal.

As the economy sputters along, municipalities struggling to fix roads, fund schools and pay bills increasingly are rescinding tax abatements to companies that don't hire enough workers, that lay them off or that close up shop. At the same time, they're sharpening new incentive deals, leaving no doubt what is expected of companies and what will happen if they don't deliver.

Target Corporation got tax abatements from the city, county, school district and other taxing bodies in DeKalb Illinois after promising at least 500 jobs at a local distribution center. When Target broke it's promise by only hiring 434 employees it was notified that it's next tax bill would be $600,000 higher, more than half of which would go to local schools.

The newfound boldness comes from communities and states that have long bent over backward to lure companies and jobs by offering abatements and other incentives — to the tune of an estimated $60 billion a year in the United States, according to the Washington-based economic development watchdog group Good Jobs First.

This new corporate accountability is being called "clawbacks." But municipalities seem to be slowly learning from history and are preemptively crafting much tougher abatement agreements with corporations looking to locate new facilities.

"The public is a lot more aware of tax abatements and there's a climate of skepticism about what can be perceived as corporate handouts," said Geoff McKimm, a member of the Monroe County Council in Indiana.

With that in mind, county officials drew up an agreement with Printpack, a packaging company, that includes a provision requiring the company to refund either $197,000 or that year's abatement, whichever is more, if the number of employees at a new factory falls below 140.

Another provision requires Printpack to refund the entire abatement if it employs fewer than 75 people — a guarantee meant to prevent companies from leaving a "skeleton crew" at a location to avoid paying up.

It's a pathetic commentary on the state of American politics that it takes an economic downturn of epic proportions for elected officials to stop pimping out their own constituents to the demi-god of corporation profits. And you can bet that if those constituents weren't pissed off then it wouldn't be happening even now. But at least there is some small measure of accountability.

Now if we could just get the federal government to relearn the American Premise so eloquently articulated by President Lincoln as, "government of the people, by the people and for the people" perhaps we could avoid the next economic implossion or at least declaw it.

Posted by Kevin at 11:46 AM |

Dept. Of Everything's Just Fine

According to the New York Times, one in fifty Americans is living on nothing but food stamps.

No money. Just food stamps.

One in fifty Americans works out to nearly 6,200,000. That's about 2/3rds of a New York City, about two Los Angeleses, or between two and three Chicagoes.

Or almost two Oregons, or almost one Washington State.

Posted by The Chinuk at 10:04 AM |

In Case You Were Wondering, The "Aughties" Sucked KTHXBAI.

Today in "Well, No Sh@t, Sherlock": The Institute of Really Important People Who Decide On Obvious Things (represented here by Neal Irwin of The Washington Post) reported on the findings of ten years of watching (reg required, but it's free – hey, at least the price is right!): as it turned out, if you're not hyper-wealthy, it was a dog-eat-dog world – and you were wearing sirloin underwear, bunkie:

• For the first time in sixty years, no (as in zero, zilch, nada, not a sausage) net jobs were added. At all.
• For those who are still working, your economic clout has, if anything, remained at about 1999 levels.
• Everything was a bubble. All the bubbles broke.
• More people are farther in debt than ever before, and by "more people", we mean "you".
• Economists and policymakers will be Rubik's-cubing the why for a very long time.

The punchline of the story? Oh, you'll love this one:

The financial crisis is, for all practical purposes, over, and forecasters are now generally expecting the job market to turn around early in 2010 and begin creating jobs. The task ahead for the next generation of economists is to figure out how, in a decade that began with such economic promise, things went so wrong.

What, us disconnected? Did something go wrong and we missed it somehow?

I'll answer your question for you: the reason we're in the soup now is because the Republicans were allowed to run things for eight years and put the cap on thirty years of Reaganomics.

It wasn't a coincidence.

There, I've saved you thirty years of work. I expect my Brookings Institute fellowship and my McArthur Genius Grant to arrive just any ol' day now.

And a bit of advice: when they start throwing around accusations of class war agitation, remember this: if you have to wonder whether or not there'll be a class war, it's already passed you by. And you were on the losing side.

Posted by The Chinuk at 09:49 AM |

January 01, 2010

Hypocrisy 2.0

Commenter "R. Stick" (post below this one) has inspired me to blog about something that I was going to leave to others - Israel approving illegally built settler building in Occupied Palestine.

JTA doesn't name the area but from the few clues in their piece it seems to be the Oranit settlement

Dozens of stop work orders handed were handed over in the area by the Israeli military and police, an Israeli source confirmed. In spite of this, Palestinian residents observed ongoing construction.

Though on Palestinian land, the settlement is west of Israel's separation wall, which curves and cuts between Palestinian villages and settlements, effectively annexing huge swaths of land to Israel. Locals have speculated that the construction moratorium does not apply to settlements on the West side of the separation wall, on lands effectively annexed to Israel.

According to the Israeli group Peace Now, more than 50% of the land Oranit occupies is privately owned by Palestinians.

Most of it may be built on illegally confiscated Palestinian-owned land and nearly all of it is outside of the 1949 Armistice Line (i.e. on land internationally recognized as not belonging to Israel), it is one of the "land grab" areas cut off from the rest of Occupied Palestine (and from its Palestinian owners) by the Apartheid Wall.

The searchable map below doesn't show the Apartheid Wall, only the Armistice Line. But if you switch to the Satellite view you can't miss the Wall.

View Larger Map


The map is gimpy. The Oramit settlement is due east a very short distance from where the map is indicating... where all the buildings are. Keep scanning east and you'll quickly find the Wall.

Posted by Kevin at 12:20 PM |