green blog of revolution

I Think You Get the Drift

2009-11-30T08:09:00.001-08:00

Can't imagine why you'd care.

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy

2009-11-28T10:22:00.001-08:00

As always, I started the paper off with the letters to the editor. What do my fellow citizens have on their minds that they have to share with others? Oh, hey, look a letter that seems to imply that graduate students teaching classes at the UO necessarily means a poor educational experience:

The UO can’t compete

In the Nov. 25 Register Guard, Anne Williams does a fine job of reporting the facts. One item she missed, however, relates to University of Oregon professor John Nicols’ “concerns” about the quality of education in the program. At the UO, these classes are typically taught by graduate students, not professors, and in halls with 200 to 300 students, not the 30 to 40 in a typical College Now class.

As such, these classes are a profit center for UO, which calls into question the UO’s “objectivity” in evaluating the quality of education. College Now fills a need for students who want high-quality instruction, smaller class sizes and lower cost. The UO can’t compete with those benefits.

Who wrote this letter? Hey, it's our good friend and fellow AFT unionist Bob Baldwin! Thanks a lot Bob.

Two things for Bob, real quick.

One, we prefer to be called "graduate employees" because, and why would you have cause to know this, we actually have to fight the federal government and various state governments just to have the right to have unions, so the word "employee" is quite important to us.

Two, go fuck yourself. It's great that you're proud of Lane Community College and its programs, but do you really need to take a swipe at your union brothers and sisters while doing your bragging? You don't see us writing letters about how much public employees cost and how lazy they are, now do you?

After the letters it's on to the front pages. The R-G just recently started running "corrections" on page two and I love them. Today's paper featured three corrections to a story the R-G ran yesterday about how economists are split over whether Measures 66 & 67 are really "job-killing taxes" which just happens to be what the business-backed people are calling their campaign.

Guess what the three things the story got wrong all had in common. Guess:

A story on the cover of Friday’s newspaper about economists’ views on two upcoming tax measures contained several errors:

The Eugene economics firm ECONorthwest has not taken a position on measures 66 and 67, but its managing director, Randall Pozdena, has. The story incorrectly stated that ECONorthwest contends the tax measures are job killers.

A letter supporting passage of measures 66 and 67 has been signed by 36 Oregon economists. The story incorrectly stated that 16 economists signed the letter.

By 2013, the corporate income tax rate under Measure 67 would be restored to the current level for businesses whose taxable income falls below $10 million a year. The story incorrectly stated that the tax rate would be restored to the current level for businesses whose in-state sales fall below $10 million a year.

If you guessed all three errors hurt the "Yes for Oregon!" side, you win.

Lastly, the Business section. A story about how tariffs on Chinese tires are going to hurt the little guy where it hurts the most. No, not there, in the pocketbook. The article is a beaut, from "President Obama recently slapped a 35 percent tariff on tires after a U.S. union claimed that an influx of Chinese imports has cost more than 5,000 U.S. tire workers their jobs since 2004." to "Matt Edmonds, vice president of the online retailer Tire Rack, says the tariff punishes buyers who want cheaper tires. 'It’s going to impact those who really can afford it the least.'"

My favorite part of the article is where even good American tire companies are going to be forced to raise the price of their tires, partly because these "American" tire companies get some of their tires from China, but, as the tire companies are saying themselves, raw material costs are going up. In fact, even though Goodyear has said its cost increases are from raw materials, article author Dee-Ann Durbin goes ahead and doubts that and asserts that the increase could be to off-set the tariffs.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. will raise the price on all consumer replacement tires sold in North America by 6 percent starting Tuesday. The manufacturer, based in Akron, Ohio, cited raw material costs. Goodyear imports about 2 percent of its tires from China, so the increase also could offset tariffs.

And, no, not one person or organization who supports this crazy, (Chinese) job-killing tariff is quoted or cited in the story. Why would they be? They're crazy.

Conversation Piece

2009-11-27T09:37:00.000-08:00

I thought this was too awesome not to share. From the R-G:

Sources of U.S. accomplishment

I am pretending that I am a person from another country who will do about anything to be able to live in the United States of America and become a citizen. I have studied the history of the U.S. and have learned of her greatness and progress despite things that at times were not done justly.

One thing that really stood out in my studies was that the U.S. accomplished its greatness under the influence of Christianity. If I ever get to the U.S. I am not going to try to change that influence. I will practice my religion and not make a wave and hang on for the ride.

One thing that influenced my conclusion that Christianity was a great positive influence in the progress and greatness of the U.S. is the acres and acres and acres and acres and acres and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows of crosses, and many Stars of David, in cemeteries in the U.S. and in several countries throughout the world.

Charles E. Sullivan Springfield

Mind blown?

Bounty

2009-11-24T09:27:00.000-08:00

Two Fishermen - Max Pechstein, 1923

This print gets thrown up in the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday we have coming up here. This print also reminds me of the halcyon days of my late adolescence when I hung out with an interesting cat who was apt to make woodcuts in a similar vein (in my dining room) and listened to the Primus (no Dr. Seuss hat though, sorry Lex).

Party at My House

2009-11-22T09:34:00.000-08:00

Hope you all saw that last night. Eleven days. Let's do this thing.

Neither One of Us Is Chinese

2009-11-20T09:56:00.000-08:00

If this were a just world, here's what would happen to a couple of letter to the editor writers:

They would be sleeping soundly in their homes after a stressful and trying day. Suddenly a large man wearing a blue outfit with a club and a gun would enter their room pointing and shouting in a foreign language while holding his hand on his gun. Almost immediately, this guy falls down to the ground. While getting up from the ground he continues shouting at them in a foreign language. As our letter to the editor friends start to sit up in bed, the man fires electrodes into their skin and shocks them with 50,000 volts of electricity.

In a just world this would happen to these people. Unfortunately, this is not a just world.

Apple-Bourbon Sourdough Stuffing

2009-11-19T16:53:00.000-08:00

2 sourdough baguettes cut into small pieces and toasted in a 250 oven for about .5 hours so. Well, until toasty.
On good sized red apple small cubed. I used a Fuji, but everybody's loving on the Honeycrisps these days.
1.5 to 2 cups of diced onions and celery
Minced fresh thyme and rosemary
two tablespoons butter
one tablespoon olive oil
2.5 cups apple cider
.5 cups bourbon
Large handful of fresh cut sage

Set your oven to 350. Oil and butter into a pan, followed by the apple, onion, celery and herbage. Salt, pepper. Let the veggies soften up while you get your bread in a large mixing bowl. When veggies are good to go, throw in the sage, and then pour the cider and bourbon into the pan. Let the whole thing get hot, then pour over the bread. Mix. Put into a casserole dish and bake 40 minutes or until the top is crispy.

It comes out pretty sweet, which I like with gravy, but the dish is like 90% the way to a dessert, so cranberries and nuts instead of the onion and celery? Maybe some orange rind and it would be cracking. I imagine you could up the bourbon and maybe even hit the dish with a bourbon spritz when it was done, light it up and serve it flaming.

Here's Your Beloved French

2009-11-19T09:33:00.000-08:00

You Frenchie lovers.

Homefront

2009-11-18T08:48:00.001-08:00

The Mothers - Kathe Kollwitz, 1921

Hey, welcome to a new series here at GBOR where I post the work of others because I am too lazy/busy to post anything original on my own. Kidding, of course, that's what I've been doing for years. In this case, I will be posting graphic work that it not my own. See the difference? I don't really have the language to talk about art and, as I have discovered when I foray into discussions of music, when I don't have the language it takes me about four seconds to say something stupid. On the other hand, if I stick to "I like this" or "For me, that it not what I like" people tend to respect that. I don't know why, maybe they just feel sorry for someone so completely defenseless. So that's pretty much what I'll be doing with these posts; just throwing up an image and saying "I like this."

As with music, my tastes in art tend to run to the dark and distorted, so we'll be seeing quite a bit of German Expressionism from the interwar period (is there any other kind?), but I imagine I'll mix in some other stuff that I like as well that it different. Maybe not the classics, but some lighter stuff. Like when I mix Mary McGregor in with my Tool.

This first image is probably my favorite art image of all time. It is so powerful, I cannot imagine anyone not being drawn to it. Why is it that I own a print of it that sits under my bed? I don't know. Maybe 'cause I'd have to look at it all the time.

I've Fallen and Can't Complete the Joke

2009-11-17T08:42:00.000-08:00

I give the Emerald a certain amount of grief, but this is pretty good. And, for a humor piece, pretty accurate.

Oh My Freakin' God, Yes!

2009-11-12T20:16:00.000-08:00

Awesome rant about freedom of speech on the college campuses. It's nothing you haven't read before, but it's done so well, you have to applaud. My favorite bit, set up with standard "UMass Amherst let a convicted terrorist speak on campus in the name of free speech, but me - me? - while the university also allowed me to speak, they also let me be openly heckled. That's right, the demon liberals violated my free speech rights by letting others also speak freely." You know the schitck. As I was saying, my favorite bit:

After the event, I asked several [hired security guards] why they stood by while my First Amendment rights were trampled. They smiled ruefully or shook their heads. It was plain they were ordered not to engage demonstrators.

It's possible these rental guards acted this way because they understood that they were only there to make sure no one killed any one else or did drugs, but I like to believe that they were actually just pitying Don Feder: American Thinker's very tenuous grasp of how the goddamn First Amendment works.

Salute

2009-11-11T08:27:00.001-08:00

Virginia Slims

2009-11-09T14:08:00.000-08:00

I read and loved Dennis Lehane's The Given Day (I can't find a link to the paperback, but I got it a Costco.) I recommend it to you all. The book is about a Boston cop that is forced to go undercover to monitor subversives while finding himself drawn to the power of his own Boston police union. I loved this passage which we all might recognize in some way, but it made me think of Ash in particular:

Mondays and Wednesdays brought another meeting of the Roxbury Letts followed by a boozy gathering at the Sowbelly Saloon. He spent his nights with them and his mornings with a curl-up-and-cry-for-your-momma hangover, nothing about the Letts being frivolous, including their drinking. Bunch of Sergeis and Borises and Josefs, with the occasional Peter or Pytor thrown in, the Letts raged through the night with vodka and slogans and wooden buckets of warm beer. Slamming the steins on scarred tables and quoting Marx, quoting Engels, quoting Lenin and Emma Goldman and screeching about the rights of the working man, all he while treating the barmaid like shit.

Read it.

50 Days? That's Almost Half a Football Season!

2009-11-04T08:22:00.001-08:00

Dear Editor of the Register Guard,

I read in today's paper that James Matthew Dublin received a 50 day jail sentence for purchasing drugs, giving those drugs to a 15-year-old girl, raping a 15 year-old girl, and pledging to make that 15-year-old girl his regular "plaything" when he is in town. This is an outrage.

It appears that the normal sentence for these crimes would be a total of 62 months in jail, but District Attorney JoAnn Miller and Lane County Circuit Judge Doug Mitchell conspired to downgrade this sentence to a mere 50 days because Dublin, now a convicted sex offender, is a "responsible member of society" with a "clean record" who has never previously been caught drugging and sodomizing 15-year-old girls. Oh, and he's a military veteran with a Master's degree. I guess this makes it all right.

The Eugene police seem to think so, as Sgt. Kevin McCormick seems to say that the embarrassment of getting caught is punishment enough for Dublin and serves as a warning to other Johns. I have always been of the belief that grown men who would have sex with 15-year-old girls had long since abandoned their capacity for embarrassment.

The Register Guard itself completed the task of turning this tragedy into farce with the headline "Teen prostitution case ends." A 15-year-old girl was sexually assaulted, but let's definitely make the headline about her and her actions. After all, a great guy made a "huge mistake" and now he will sort of not really have to pay for it.

Unfortunately this story is indicative of a culture that is extremely permissive when it comes to sexual crimes against women, where the police, the courts, and the media all go out of their way to make the male perpetrator out to be the sympathetic figure.

Damn, So Close

2009-11-03T08:23:00.000-08:00

Listened to an NPR story this morning on the Catholic Church and health care reform.

Good news: The Catholic Church supports health care reform! Seems like they support a robust public option! The Catholic Church has been in favor of socialized medicine in the United States going back to Harry S. Truman. You know, with Catholic charities and Catholic hospitals, the Church provides around 1/6th of all the medical services in this country! And they would be totally on board with health care reform, but...

Bad news: Even though all the proposed health care bills strongly prohibit any federal funds being used for abortion, there is the remote possibility that one day, theoretically, after seismic shift in political belief on the issue, it's conceivably possible that maybe Congress could change the law, and so, the Catholic Church just cannot bring itself to support any law that might allow for the possibility that poor women might be able to exercise the same legal right that Catholic school girls enjoy every single day.

Let's let asshat Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sum it up it in the asshatiest way possible:

"We want health care reform very, very much, but we cannot do that over children's dead bodies, to put it most bluntly," he says. "There is a fundamental issue here about whether taking life should be treated the same way as supporting and healing life."

Indeed, as we all learned in catechism, Jesus prefers that thousands of people die today for lack of basic health care than to make it possible for even one fetus to be theoretically aborted maybe in the future.

Assume the Position

2009-11-02T14:08:00.000-08:00

This is the funniest thing I have read in a long time. I literally LOLed (LLOL) this morning.

Eugene should support police

The people of Eugene should be grateful to have a dedicated police officer such as Judd Warden. Officer Warden works hard and is committed to upholding the law and keeping citizens safe. Until you have been put into a situation, like law enforcement officers deal with day to day, don’t be so critical of their actions.

Eugene police officers are sent into unknown situations routinely with very limited information. They constantly must be aware and ready for a life or death situation. Until they can prove otherwise, a high risk police scene is considered dangerous until secured. If suspects are not cooperating with police officers, then they face being restrained with what force is necessary until they cooperate.

I know that if I were visiting another country and police officers were speaking with authority in a language I did not understand, I would immediately lie face down on the ground with my arms and legs spread wide until directed otherwise. That usually is a universal signal of surrender or complying with law enforcement.

For that matter, if I were protesting in Kesey square in downtown Eugene and police officers were attempting to arrest me, I would assume the same position.

Don’t scrutinize the Eugene police for their actions, when it’s the actions of the suspects that are out of line.

It’s time Eugene citizens starting showing more support for their police officers instead of being unsupportive.

Mike Montgomery

Noti

Angry Dad

2009-10-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

This is the kind of thing that gets me all fired up in the morning.

Exposed!

2009-10-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

We're fucked. I suppose that everyone who reads this blog (save for the random crazy) situates themselves on the left of the political spectrum. Whether you call yourself a liberal, progressive, Marxist, Trot, or Obamafascist, I think we should all be very concerned that the right has finally caught on to our Hexagon of Power aka The Leftist Plot to Take Down America from the Inside aka Operation Slowly and Peacefully Try to Make America a Better Place.

Now, I don't claim to the the sharpest candle in the box, and I know that most of my readers know more about our Masters than I do, so I am not at all surprised that, despite my firm lefty beliefs and career in America's labor movement, I have never heard of three of the seven links in the Hexagon of Power. Tides? What the hell is Tides?

I know the Working Families Party, of course. They have been much mocked by me. If not on the blog, then certainly in the friendly confines of my chats with friends. This is the party, at least in Oregon, that would like to be a sort of more moderate version of the Democrats. Or as they like to say, they want to focus on "our" issues, not God, gays, and guns (and abortion). Not that the fine people in the Working Families Party don't actually agree with me/us on the Triple G (plus A) issues, it's just that Oregon has a lot of rednecks that might vote for "our issues" if only we just didn't spend so much time standing up for the civil rights of queers, non-Christians, and women. You know?

Don't get me started on SEIU. Nothing is as progressive as dividing the labor movement because you don't want to pay your back dues to the AFL-CIO. The less said the better.

So, there it is. We progressives can no longer hide our hidden-even-from-ourselves Hexagon of Power, as we have been exposed. I guess we have to crawl back under the rocks from whence we came, never to disturb this great nation again. Damn.

h/t NW Wingnut

Let's Not Rush Into Anything

2009-10-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

University drafts first sustainable climate plan
By 2050, the University hopes to achieve climate neutrality, net zero emissions

Fair and Balanced

2009-10-26T09:37:00.000-07:00

There was an article in the Register Guard about the drive to organize the faculty here at the UO. It was pretty boring. The only excitement came in the UO administration's pledge to be neutral during the campaign. A pledge they immediately undercut:

Asked to comment on the union effort, the UO Provost Jim Bean said the university “supports the rights of faculty and staff” as they decide whether to unionize and will make relevant information available.

“The ultimate decision about whether to unionize is up to each individual faculty and staff member, and the university will remain neutral in that process,” he said. “Accordingly, the university’s goal on this issue will be to merely ensure that accurate and relevant information is available to everyone.“

To be fair, so far the UO hasn't put out anti-union propaganda. When they do, I will expect them to put out pro-union propaganda to remain neutral. I will be disappointed in this expectation.

Oh yeah, the GTFF can't get a mention.

Fell On

2009-10-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

Darkest days in Oregon football history.

Darkest days in Washington football history?

Huck the Fuskies

2009-10-22T08:33:00.001-07:00

I Blame Dan

2009-10-18T11:45:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posting. I got the H1N1.

I Was Standing, You Were There

2009-10-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

In a City/Region story about the wide disparity in fund raising between Peter DeFazio and Sid Leiken for the big 4th District race (DeFazio is out raising him 5 to 1), the R-G casually mentions that Leiken's biggest supporter (other than his mom, one would suspect) is none other than newly-appointed Board of Higher Education member Allyn Ford.

So, Leiken won't be able to go to Washington to be an insignificant member of a minoroity party, but his boy will have the power to mess up higher education here in Oregon. Peachy.

Why, Oh Why, Do We Keep Electing These People?

2009-10-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

Our so-called Democratic Governor Ted Kulongoski just appointed Allyn Ford, a Republican, to the Oregon Board of Higher Education. This is great, because if there's one thing the GOP knows, it's how to fix higher education.

For funsies, it also appears that Ford supports repealing the tax increases which are the only thing keeping higher ed from collapsing or raising tutition through the roof.

Oh, and also he runs one the great logging companies here in Oregon.

Grand Slam Ari

2009-10-07T12:49:00.000-07:00

Ari Fleisher is exactly right, anyone on the left who questioned that Bush got the most votes in Florida and actually won the 2000 election is just as crazy as anyone on the right who questions whether Obama was born in the United States. The parallels are startling.

Moreover, Ari does the double when he rightfully points out that absolutely nobody ever criticized anyone who questioned the legitimacy of the Bush administration.

Ari is right again when he points out that it was the tactics of the left that divided the nation and frustrated Bush's desire to unite us under his kindly rule.

And has any man ever been more right than Ari when he points out the scientific fact that for every lulu on the right there are 1.8 lulus on the left?

Etouffee a la Dave

2009-10-06T19:34:00.000-07:00

Two tablespoons butter, two tablespoons flour. Roux it to it.

While you stir, stir, stir, rough chop three cloves of galique-brand garlic, two medium shallots, and a pound of the zoo-keeny.

When that roux is peanut butter color, or you get tired of stirring and you're all "two bees in a bucket," add in a cup of clam juice and enough white wine to make a thick gravy-type fluid.

Into that delicious concoction throw a can of organic fire-roasted diced tomatoes and chipotle-flavored diced tomatoes. Bubbly, stirry, bubbly, stirry.

Get those veggies in the soup. Salt, pepper, cayenne. Lower the heat.

While that bubbles away get two cups of sushi rice ready. Or whatever rice. I don't care. Use a non-stick pan, that's all I care about. Cook the rice.

Remember when you bought that pound of white fish earlier? Cod, halibut, snapper, tilapia - as long as it's wild-caught in the U.S. of A. Rinse it, dry it on some paper towels. Hit it with some salt, pepper, Old Bay.

When the rice is ready, put it in a bowl. Put some sort of cover on top of the bowl. I use a plate, you don't have to. Wipe out the pan, heat it back up, drizzle in some oil. Give the fish a couple of minutes on both sides until it's good.

Plate, rice, etouffee, fish. Pour yourself a glass of that wine you were using earlier. Pour one for your significant other. Eat. Tell each other how much you love each other.

"Greater Good?!" - Whatevs

2009-10-05T14:38:00.000-07:00

You all know how much I love receiving Oregon Senator Jeff Kruse's newsletters. I haven't blogged on them in awhile because they have been sort of blah compared to the tea party/town hallers, but the once I received today was a gem of vacuity, so I thought I'd share a couple of choice lines.

Not only does government usually cost more and operate less efficiently, but we should always keep in mind the more government is involved the less freedom we have.

That second clause is particularly true, which is why I've always said "The U.S. out of the U.S."

I will admit, while I am a lover of the Kruse-man, I am a relative newcomer, so I can't be certain, but given his touching devotion to right-wing orthodox, I can't imagine he did too much balking at the notion of the unitary Executive advanced during the Bush years. Oh, who am I kidding? I doubt Kruse has ever heard the phrase "unitary Executive." He probably knows that when it comes to trillion dollar wars and all their attendant spying and torturing, it is probably best to trust a small cabal of people to make and implement decisions in secret. When it comes to health care, however, it is troubling to see the Legislative branch ceding power (it does not have) to the Executive.

The parallels between health care reform in Oregon and on the national level are striking in two different ways...What I find even more troubling is the seeming willingness in both cases for the Legislative Branch of government to cede authority granted them by the Constitution to the Executive Branch. One should keep in mind that nowhere in either the US or the Oregon Constitution is the authority to regulate health care granted to either Congress or the Oregon Legislature; however these bodies have been invested with the authority to set laws and review regulations. With the creation of the Oregon Health Authority and whatever President Obama chooses to call his organization we see a clear transfer of legislative responsibility to the Executive Branch, and this will come with very little oversight.

Jeff watches Fox, so a statement like this seems obvious to him:

The public sentiment for President Obama’s “public option” has been very negative.

A poll like this would obviously be fake, even if it says Obama is doing a bad job.

Fortunately, Jeff acknowledges that the health care system is broken. You know what broke it, don't you? (No, not that.) Medicare and Medicaid. You see, Medicare and Medicaid don't pay doctors and hospitals enough, which ~~forces them to not make as much money~~ is governmental interference with the natural market which always leads to a broken system. Also, the Governor of Texas, who is totally not a far-right wacko, thinks health care reform would be a bad idea and since Texas has the wisdom to exploit all of its natural resources (unlike a certain state in the upper Northwest corner of the United States that is not Washington), you know he knows what he's talking about.

All of this was wind up, of course. The real concern - the only concern! - is what might happen to our Constitutional rights.

Both the Oregon plan and the Obama plan will require the government to collect a lot more information about you than they already have. They will need to have all of your personal healthcare information, your personal financial information, and the information of your employer, physician, and hospital. This clearly violates the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Amendments to the Constitution, but we are told it is for the “greater good”, whatever that means. I personally think the government already has more information about me than they need and I don’t want to give them access to any more.

Now, if you're my friend, then you have your Constitution memorized and you immediately know that these so-called health insurance reform proposals would jeopardize your right to be protected from having your property seized without compensation (5th), to be protected from search and seizure without probable cause (4th), and/or your right to not have government troops quartered in your home (3rd). That's right, if Obamacare passes, soldiers will be sleeping in your bed - without your consent!

And lastly, just because no discussion of health care would be complete without it, here is your completely nonsensical rant about people who are not you, a medical person, or a really convincing commercial telling you what you should do health care-wise:

Make no mistake, hospital admissions, payments to physicians, the allocation of medical devises, and what types of procedures are covered for which groups of people will be strictly controlled.How comfortable are you in having these choices made for you by non-medical people without your input?I think we should all be outraged.

I am outraged, indeed. I prefer to keep all my medical transactions between me, my doctor, my nurse, the receptionist at the doctor's office, my employer-chosen health care company, my health care company's IT people, and my employer's HR department. And the notion that someone other than myself would decide how much my doctor gets paid without my consent keeps me up at night. I like to pay my doctor in freshly-laid eggs, which, I believe, is the same policy my health insurance company has.

Now that Jeff (and I!) have thoroughly demolished Obamacare, let us leave you with this maxim, which you can hold onto when the leftists in the Senate ram their lefty health-care proposals down your throat:

Our greatness as a country is not because we are smarter or taller or better looking than the other people of the world.

May it always be true!

Meanwhile, Rome Continued to Burn

2009-09-30T12:44:00.000-07:00

I've been a weence obsessed with the Polanski thing and have been letting more important things slip. Fortunately, my ol' running buddy Lex has been paying attention to the anti- and anti-anti-ACORN/SEIU fracas. Yeoman's work.

Let me ask this, though. While yes, yes, yes, we all need to come to the aid of SEIU, didn't SEIU not just a few short years ago basically tell the AFL-CIO to shove it up their ass? And by "it" I mean labor solidarity. Is there no penalty for this? Isn't this one of new labor's problems, all of our supposed allies kick us where it counts and when we pick ourselves up we ask if there is anything else we might do for them.

For example, to answer Rachel Maddow's question, no, I don't think that prominent Democrats are going to do anything to publicly counter the attacks on SEIU and/or anyone who works for the underprivileged in our society. That hasn't really been the Democrats' schitck since 1992. Remeber, we're the third-way party. The "third-way" being finding ways to cave to corporate/conservative interests whenever possible. This is what we do now.

By 'Best,' They Mean 'Worst'

2009-09-29T12:50:00.000-07:00

I was doing a search for the book The Damned Utd on the Barnes & Noble website, and was offered Michelle Malkin's Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronnies as my best match. I'm no logarithmic scholar, so I can't even begin to guess how in the hell this is possible. It almost seems as if a certain book company is trying to shove a certain political agenda down my throat.

[Update] But hey, check out match #8, Lizzy Reis gets a mention!

The Associated Press, Where Even Child Rapists Can Catch a Break

2009-09-29T07:03:00.000-07:00

There was a big article about the Polanski case in today's paper. I'd link to it, but it's an AP story that is continually getting updated, so I can't find the exact story that the Register Guard published. In a huge article that quotes extensively from Polanski's lawyers, here is how the Associated Press describes Polanski's original 1977 crime:

The director had pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl while photographing her during a modeling session.

Which is, I guess, one way of describing what happened. Another might be:

Polanski feed a 13-year-old girl Quaaludes and champagne, then performed cunnilingus on her while she said no. He then anally raped her while she said no.*

Just to be clear, Polanski does not dispute that any of this happened, he just doesn't understand what is so horribly wrong about the whole thing. I guess he is not alone, as the French Culture Minister Fredric Mitterand threw out the "ugly American" charge today:

Mitterrand told a press briefing that the arrest is "absolutely horrifying" and the case is "an old story which doesn't really make any sense."

"We know the conditions that this happened in, and while there is a generous America that we like, there is also a side of America which scares and that side has just showed us its face," he told reporters.

[Interestingly, this article about the worldwide "shock and outrage" at Polanski's arrest does not even mention what it is the director did to get him in all this trouble. Ah, the little details.]

So I guess I am an ugly American. I know that in France drugging and raping 13-year-old girls is considered standard after-dinner entertainment, but at least in this respect I hope America remains just as provincial as we can be.

More at LGM and a good summary of the conversation.

*From her 1977 Grand Jury testimony:

Q: What happened then?
A: He reached over and he kissed me. And I was telling him, "No," you know "keep away."
...
Q: What did he do when he placed his mouth on your vagina?
A: He was just like licking and I don't know. I was ready to cry. I was kind of -- I was going "No. Come on. Stop it." But I was afraid.
...
Q: Did he say anything after that?
A: Yes. He goes, "would you want me to go in through your back?" And I went "No"
...
Q: When you say he went in your anus, what do you mean by that?
A: He put his penis in my butt.
Q: Did he say anything at that time?
A: no?
Q: Did you resist at that time?
A: A little bit but not really because -- (pause)
Q: Because what?
A: because I was afraid of him

I Thought It Went Without Saying

2009-09-28T13:21:00.000-07:00

Apparently, the notion that men who plead guilty to drugging and raping 13 year-old girls should be forced to serve out their sentence is controversial in some circles.

Walk On

2009-09-24T07:50:00.000-07:00

A quick shout-out to my brothers and sisters in the University of California Higher Education system that are participating in a walkout today.

I'm thinking the reasons for this walkout - that the UC system largely left faculty out of the decision making process during this budget crisis - might show labor the way forward in these difficult monetary times. ~~Control of the means of production~~ Voice, dignity, and respect need to be our themes when bread and butter are not options.

All Politics is Local

2009-09-21T12:26:00.000-07:00

Any love for Kitzhaber out there? I was out of the state through most of his tenure, so I have little to no idea. Anyone?

I have been grooving on the Sid Leiken story. For those of you not from here, or those who disdain the City-Region section, let me fill you in on what-I-find-to-be a hilarious example of really inept political corruption.

Sid Leiken is the mayor of the neighboring burg of Springfield, known to many as "Springtucky" because of its relatively lower level of income, education, and cleanliness. It is also my hometown. The street I grew up on was t-boned by a gravel street which conveniently provided the ammo for our semi-regular rock fights. That street remains unpaved in the 21st century; Springfield has other priorities. (I would like to point out that, while it is true that my daughter is technically my half-sister, this has little to do with my Springfield-based origins.)

Mayor Sid is young, good-looking (if you go for that sort of thing), and conservative. As such, he's been tapped to run for the 4th District Congressional seat currently held by one Pete "Peter" DeFazio. Because Leiken is a big favorite of everyone's favorite NW Wingnut, I've been especially looking forward to his trouncing at the hands of the Congress' sexist Congressperson. You see, whereas DeFazio bucked his party leadership to vote against the stimulus bill, Leiken had the political courage to accept the funds, then attend tea party protests against goverment waste. How could he lose?

Leiken is so confident about his eventual victory that he has decided to cripple himself even before the race starts. It seems Oregon has some obscure (and probably fascist) law that does not allow a politician to personally benefit from his campaign funds. (Fascist) Awhile back the ~~Fascist Party of Oregon~~ Democrats noticed that Leiken had paid himself $2000 out of his campaign funds (no links because the R-G archive is protected) and asked the Oregon Elections Division to look into it. The R-G was reporting this story on the inside of the City-Region section, but due to my twin loves of Mayor Leiken's eventual defeat and reading the obituaries to see if any of my peers have died, I was on it like grease on an elbow.

The next Jim Feldkamp had a very good reason he wrote himself a check out of his campaign coffers in violation of Oregon election law. You see, he was just paying himself back for some polling work he had done on behalf of the city regarding a proposed gas tax increase. Who did this polling work? His mother. Sure, this made perfect sense. Whenever I needed polling work done I always turned to my mother. And you know who was the bestest, brightest, handsomest son ever? This guy. Then she had to go and die and you all ended up with the mess of insecurities I am today.

The highly-partisan Democrats did not find this to be a sufficent answer. Possibly because they could find no evidence that Mother Leiken actually runs a polling firm. Simple answer, again. Like so many mothers of mayors, she was just dabbling in polling to see if it felt right. Turns out it didn't, as this is the only poll she conducted or plans to conduct.

Because of the vicious media hounding Sid and his mother were suffering (including a page two City-Region "expose"), the good Mayor held a presser where he pulled a Boehner, begged the media to leave his poor mother alone, refused to give back the puppy, and wrote a personal check (again?) for $2000 to repay his campaign fund.

End of story. Except one thing. Leiken is unable to produce any evidence that he wrote his mother a check in exchange for a poll. The future 25% vote-getter in the 4th is not good with paperwork or the keeping of the finances.

Is it necessary to even say that neither Leiken nor his mother can actually produce any evidence that she conducted an actual poll? The only evidence they can produce about the poll seems to be negative evidence. According to the Leikens, Glenda Leiken used a Springfield phone book and called 286 people to get 200 results for her poll on the proposed gas tax. Leiken has (thank God) stipulated that this poll was not "scientific." No cross tabs, no demographics. Apparently, some people were 'fer it, some were ag'in it. I could have told him that for 1900 dollars, American.

The Demorats, of course, will not let it go. It seems that they are suspicious that no actual poll was conducted. But to believe that, you'd have to believe that a good man like Mayor Leiken was dipping into his campaign fund for personal reasons, got caught, brought his mother in to lie with him, and then did that so transparently badly that absolutely no one bought it. (Well, not no one - go down to the letter from the Muches.)

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the future of the Republican party. I fear them.

Screw You Pegasus Pizza

2009-09-17T09:22:00.001-07:00

Oregon's minimum wage won't be going up this year. Which is fine. We fine citizens of this great state passed a ballot measure (the horror!) that ties the minimum wage to the cost of living. If the cost of living goes up, so does the minimum wage. This year we had some deflation here in the state of Oregon, so the minimum wage is rocking steady.

All well and good. Except that the media (that's right, I am a wingnut railing about the media. yip. yip.) can't report on the goddamn minimum wage without digging up some business owner that is willing to advance, yet again, the thoroughly discredited idea that an increase in the minimum wage leads to a loss of jobs.

Tara Reader, a manager at Pegasus Pizza, near the University of Oregon campus, said she was glad that the minimum wage wouldn’t change next year, and she wishes it would stay put beyond that.

“The minimum wage increases should come to an end, and given Lane County’s unemployment rate, I think it’s even more important now,” she said.

“For companies like Wal-Mart, a yearly minimum wage increase doesn’t affect them,” Reader said. “But when you’re a small business, and the only costs you can control are labor costs, it ends up being significant. It can be a devastating blow to small business.”

Of course a small increase to the minimum wage can just destroy a small business. I believe this is why they are called "small" businesses. What really gets my goat is that Ms. Reader goes on to say that actually an increase to the minimum would have no effect at Pegasus, as all their workers are paid above the minimum because they are such valued employees. My God, if you think the minimum wage is crap, why are you decrying its potential increase? You run a small business, you have to know what crap this argument is.

Let's look at the numbers here.

Oregon's minimum wage is $8.40 an hour. Let's say the economy recovers and a pizza joint like Pegasus (well not Pegasus) is facing a 4% increase to the minimum wage. This means your dough slinger would be pulling down $8.74 an hour, or $.34 more than he's making now. Will Poor Man's Pie go under? Well, let's assume that PMP is open 12 hours a day and needs an average of 5 employees to keep the masses fed. That's 60 person hours a day. With that body-blow 4% increase to the minimum wage, that's $20.40 a day out of the till in labor costs. My God, PMP would have to sell one more large pepperoni with extra cheese per day just to cover that! Let's hope that newly recovered economy can cause such an increase in business.

But wait Dave3544, you're thinking, it's not just increased labor costs. What if PMP was thinking about adding crew, increasing employment in Lane County and providing a solid job for ~~a teen who needs spending cash~~ a struggling father who just wants to keep his youngins in Pampers-brand diapers?

Well, in the first place, pizza joints just don't add crew for the hell of it. It's not like the owner of PMP was sitting in his mansion surrounded by luxury goods thinking, "Well I've got everything I need, why don't I share the wealth by hiring a minimum wage employee I don't really need, this way everyone can slack off." No, he either has the business to necessitate hiring another employee or he's thinking about expanding. Either way, he's thinking that he can make more money than it costs by hiring a minimum wage worker - it's called capitalism (oh, and exploitation!)

If PMP pizza owner is thinking about adding an employee, one has to wonder if the increase in the minimum wage by $.34 an hour is really going to be what compels him to hold off on that decision. Is his margin really so narrow that $.34 an hour is the make-or-breaker here?

Now, I will acknowledge that there are probably businesses out there that can't readily expand to the equivalent of one pizza a day. They may have hundreds of person hours to worry about. Maybe they need to exploit their workers down to every last penny in order to just stay alive. Fine. But if that is the case, then the Register-Guard needs to go find one of those business owners and Tara Reader of the Pegasus Pizza should stop babbling bullshit talking points that have nothing to do with her business.

And Yet, I Imagine They'd Disagree with My Interpretation of Their Argument

2009-09-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

Just so we're clear, Oregon Right to Life very much believes that a government bureaucrat should stand between you and your doctor when it comes to important medical decisions.

Let's Keep Defining It Down

2009-09-09T15:43:00.000-07:00

You want a great example of everything that's been wrong with the Democratic party since the third-way Democrats took over in the early 1990s? Take a good look at former Clintonite and current a-hole Matt Miller's piece from the WaPo. Matt takes on us crazy liberals who believe that without a government option, health care reform ain't worth spit. Actually, like all good centrist Dems, he ignores actual arguments from the left in favor of shooting down the charactures of arguments from the left.

Matt comes out swing and labeling. First, "the left" is "dangerous" because we are opposed to the wonders of "the biggest progressive achievement in half a century," which says a lot more about the last half century than it does about the dangerous left.

In the next paragraph the dangerous left becomes "Democrats" and/or "liberals" who have mindlessly been led astray by unnamed leaders who say that without a public option, health care "reform" is a waste of time.

Matt takes on the liberal, Democrat, dangerous left leaders. Apparently, we believe without a Medicare-style public option, there will be no way to cover everyone. Matt trumps us with the Netherlands and Switzerland. They have universal coverage and private insurance. Their health system is better and cheaper. Boom, dangerous leftists destroyed by real-world facts.

What Matt fails to mention, of course, is that while the Swiss have private insurance, they don't allow for-profit insurers to participate in the basic plan. This seems like an important distinction, as getting rid of for-profit insurance would certainly lower costs in the US and is not an idea that anybody is proposing right now. Other than that, yes the Swiss example is spot on.

Oh and, while were here, maybe Matt can throw out an insane right-wing talking point.

In fact, as these two countries show, it is possible to cover everyone without a “big government takeover.”

Matt continues by reminding us that the public option is not the most important thing. The most important thing is providing all Americans "access" to group health coverage outside of the employment context. Matt sees this happen through the wonders of the regional co-ops.

The central progressive breakthrough in any reform should be to make it possible for every American to access group health coverage outside the employment setting — access that does not currently exist but which the proposed insurance exchanges would enable. What’s critical, therefore, is the structure of these exchanges and the rules about who would be eligible to use them.

That's right. Matt has managed to define the essential need of health care reform from universal coverage with effective, quality health care to access to something. And the real danger, as it always is to a Clintonite is that if we don't get about compromising with the Republicans over the crumb they might allow us, well they might just take it away.

Matt then spends a few paragraphs attacking the one thing that nobody is proposing, but would actually solve a lot of problems - single-payer. Can you guess why single-payer would be bad? Did you guess that the crushing hand of government bureaucracy would stifle innovation? You guessed right!

On the eve of beneficial innovations in drug therapies, devices and cost-effective ways to deliver better care, it is ill-advised to make the government’s hand too rigid.

Oh glory day we are on the eve of! Oh happy future! When? How? Unanswered, but assured.

Liberals should make peace with the notion that a regulated market of competing private health plans can be the vehicle for getting everyone covered. Yes, it means that unlike some other advanced countries, we’ll have billions of “health” dollars siphoned off by middlemen and marketers.

But if liberals think of it as a jobs program, they’ll learn to love it. If everyone’s covered and insurer “cherry-picking” is dead, health insurance will come to look more like a regulated utility.

A regulated market "can" be a vehicle for accomplishing the half-assed goal of getting everyone "covered," sure. Let's not for a moment stop to consider what kind of coverage for how much and who benefits. Those issues pale in comparison to the larger goal of making sure everyone has "access" to "coverage." And even if the whole thing turns out just like a non-governmental Enron-type utility, so much the better. I will rest easy knowing that there are lots of middle men employed in the business of denying the claims of poor people, because, in the end, it's all about jobs, jobs, jobs, n'est pas?

Days, Dollars

2009-08-24T16:52:00.001-07:00

Happy/Sad

2009-08-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

I went clothes shopping for my grandmother's memorial service next week in Boise. After all the dieting and all the absolutely no reason to own them, I found myself without a singe stitch of dress clothes to wear.

I purchased separates on sale at two different stores to put together a pretty snappy ensembe for less than 75 bones. Maybe I'll post pictures later. (Don't stay up all night waiting, though.)

Feels odd to buy clothes that are supposed to "fit" you, rather than modified tents. I went straight out of skater/punk/grunge over-sized clothes into fat-guy clothes, so "fitted" is not a word I am too familiar with. For some reason when I am wearing this "suit," I don't feel like a freaking clown. I think Homer had it right with the mumu. There is no reason for guys (or anyone! even women!) to have to wear clothes that were just not designed for them.

The sad thing is that this is the nicest set of clothes I've ever worn and they cost $75 for pant, shirt, jacket.

It Gives So Much

2009-08-21T11:46:00.000-07:00

I gotta remember that going out in public usually results in me getting myself in trouble. I'm not good with people. Unfortunately, I'm not much better at home. As my friend and mentor Fletch said, "I'm a man without a country here, Frank."

Thank God sports season is coming back and I will have an excuse to stay at home watching my precious tv instead of being forced to interact with human beings.

Wednesday Night in the Kitchen with Dave

2009-08-19T19:23:00.000-07:00

First, get that grill fired up. We're making tacos.

While that heats up, we're making chicken stock. Yes, it's 100F outside, but the chicken carcass is in the fridge and soup is deliciously low-fat.

Remove the breast from the chicken, if you haven't already. Break up the carcass and meat and place in stock pot. Run some water in there and add three carrots, three celery stalks and a quartered onion. Salt, peppercorns, and a bunch of herbs. Let the water come to an inch or so above the ingredients. Throw the pot on a burner and let come to a boil.

Then take one chicken breast, trim it, and cut it into long strips. You should be able to get nine or ten chicken strips out of a half-pound breast. Hit those strips with a little salt, pepper, paprika, and cumin mixture (I go with a 6-4-2-1 mix, but you do what works for you).

Take a bunch of cilantro and cut off the tops. Throw the herb into your food processor and chop that up machine-style. Set about a tablespoon aside and mix the rest up in a cup of sour cream and the juice of a lime for some sauce.

Open a can of pinto beans, rinse them, throw them in a small pot over lowish heat. Squeeze the juice of a lime in there and chuck in that cilantro. Salt, pepper, cumin. Stir.

That grill is hot, so go throw the chicken on it and come back inside and get the fixin's ready. I used a package of pre-shredded cabbage, grated some Tillamook extra-sharp cheddar, and opened a package of those tortillas I love so much.

Flip the chicken.

Get the plates ready, lower the heat on the chicken broth, and stir those beans.

Bring the chicken inside and tell the kids (Amber had a friend over) their dinner is ready.

While they go nuts, throw some oil, salt, and pepper on your ahi tuna pieces. Throw them on the grill for a couple of minutes on each side. If you got the room, throw some of those tortillas on there. Turn off your grill.

Slice up the tuna (should be just a touch cold on the inside) and make yourself some delicious tacos. I recommend the Simpsons while you dine.

Don't drink so many High Lives that you forget that chicken stock. When you can bend the chicken bones, but not break them, it's ready. About four hours. Strain it, chill it, and tomorrow night you've got the base for some badass soup on a hot day.

Um, That's My Stool

2009-08-19T08:07:00.000-07:00

These are tough economic times for everyone, there's no doubt there. And this new president isn't helping things with his run-away deficit spending, I'll tell you what. This is not the change we voted for! But seriously folks, a lot of people are hurting, and the people I feel most sorry for are small business owners, especially the brave men and women trying to run an unprofitable bar, mini market, or "deli."

Why these people in particular, you ask? Because they have to deal with the tyrannical Oregon state lottery bureaucracy. Can you imagine working with those bastards every day or week or month or whatever? Talk about your tough Jobs! (Pause for biblical-based laughter). That's why when I read that the state was even thinking of reducing the amount of money it cuts to retailers for hosting video lottery games, I knew I had to blog about it. Unless Defazio plans to hold a town hall on the subject, which I doubt he has the courage to do, then this is my best vehicle for expressing outrage. (Just for the record: TORT REFORM!!!)

The last thing we need is more government interference in how we run businesses in this state, and the state threatening to take away or slightly reduce their payments to these businesses is fascism at its worst. A lot of these smaller bars and restaurants will not be able to stay open if the state reduces its payments. Just to make myself clear here, a lot of these business do not have a customer base outside of their Oregon video lottery sales sufficient enough to stay open. And now the state of Oregon wants to stomp on their dreams with their heavy boot of thuggery by keeping more of that money in the state coffers. These bureauthugs must not realize that these businesses are so unprofitable that even a slight reduction in payment - although certainly still an economic benefit to the businesses - might mean the difference between staying open and closing. And then where will the employees of these businesses be? On the state dole, that's where, being supported by citizens like you and me! Which is, of course, the Democrat's whet dream. When we are all living on the dole, then we'll all be voting Democrat to keep those payments flowing.

Let me ask those smart state bureaunazis this, when you've driven every unprofitable bar, mini market, and deli-style video gaming parlour out of business, what will we have then? One word - Communism.

Yes, Register Guard, Yes!

2009-08-18T07:59:00.000-07:00

What this town needs is more paeans to the Lane County working-class life of the '50s and '60s written by multi-millionaires.

I remember when Eugene was known as the timber capital of the world; it seemed as though log trucks were on Sixth and Seventh avenues all the time. How things change.

In my youth, not many kids went to college after high school. They would get a job working at a sawmill, in the woods or at a plywood plant starting at maybe 15 to 20 cents per hour less than a journeyman’s wages — just like their dads, brothers, granddads or neighbors. They could support a family, own their own home, buy a camper and help send their kids to college.

Starting out at the mills meant working swing shift from 4 p.m. to midnight, or the graveyard shift from midnight until 8 a.m. A millworker’s wife might work in the summers at a cannery in Eugene or Junction City, and maybe she’d pick crops for the local farmers.

Life was good.

Oh, life was good, Avon. A man could give up whatever hope he had of living a comfortable life by dedicating himself to forty years of back-breaking labor. He could look forward to becoming a journeyman after some years and get raises of maybe 15 to 20 cents more than he earned when he started. He could look forward to years of not sleeping with his wife in bed at night. If he was real lucky, maybe his mill would be purchased by another outfit and he could go out on strike to fend of cuts to his pay. If he prayed real hard, maybe his kids could see their names on the tree at the mall at Christmas time.

Oh, and the ladies! What luxury they had spending their summers working in a cannery or maybe picking crops for a local farmer. I don't have to tell you, Avon, that there is nothing a woman loves more than performing physical labor in the hot sun. And you forgot the kids! The halcyon days picking blueberries for 10 cents a flat out in Leaburg. The hours spent at the string bean vines instead of the ol' swimming hole.

Yes, it was nothing but non-stop upward mobility for Lane County's working classes. Too bad the relentless consumption of our forests, the very consumption that kept those jobs plentiful and low-wage, lead to the day when trees were too small to be run though your mills. Too bad mill owners spent decades taking profits and giving them to the Republican party, instead of investing in new equipment. Too bad free trade meant that our raw logs went to China to be processed, while cheaper Canadian timber drove you out of the lumber markets here. all those damned hippies ruined it with the socialism and environmentalism.

Good times, indeed.

We Hardly Read Ye

2009-08-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

RIP Labornerd?

With no posts since July 16, one assumes that Labornerd is dead. Who would have thought that a blog dedicated to the daily recapitulation of AFL-CIO talking points on EFCA would not go over like gangbusters.

This, of course, means that there is still room for a blog that looks at pop-culture and daily happenings through the lens of labor.

Shakespeare in the Park Dinner

2009-08-15T16:37:00.000-07:00

Much Ado About Tuna Salad

Poach one pound of albacore tuna in a broth of water, salt, peppercorns and a good handful of tarragon for about 12 minutes or until cooked through. Be sure to turn the fish to cook all sides.

Set aside to cool.

While the fish cools, dice two stalks of celery and a quarter of a medium onion. Put into a medium bowl. Chop up about a half tablespoon of tarragon and add it in there. Targgon, like thyme, comes right off the stalk if you pull the leaves backwards down the stem. You got capers in the fridge? Of course you do you beautiful bourgeois bastards! Throw a few in the bowl.

Flake the fish (I use my fingies) and add to the bowl. Make sure it's cool before adding it in - you don't want to cook the celery and onion. Give the bowl the salt and pepper treatment.

Add mayonnaise (I prefer low-fat. There's so much going on in there, you aren't going to miss that real from-the-jar fat taste. Plus, save for the fat in mayo, this is a supper low-fat meal.) until it forms a nice salad when mixed. Start with half-a-cup, work up from there.

Taste and adjust salt and pepper. Maybe throw a couple of dashes of hot sauce in there. Go nuts.

Throw the whole thing in the fridge. Ideally, you will have made this in plenty of time for maximum fridge mingle.

Serve on hoagie rolls. I prefer soft ones that I cut open myself so I can make a little pocket and the bread doesn't crumble.

I've got a bottle of Hinman Chardonnay and a bag of Sweet Onion Kettle Chips.

Ready to get my Benedick on.

Gobblers!

2009-08-15T08:13:00.000-07:00

Most times when I open the backdoor for the dog, especially when she'd rather lay on her back and beg for a belly-rub, I'll tell her "go get 'em!" on the off chance there's a squirrel out there who needs a chasing up a tree. This morning, I let her out with a "go get 'em!" and there is immediately chaos.

Turns out there's a rafter of turkeys back there. Most got away, but two got trapped on the roof. I have a very well behaved dog, but it is difficult to call a dog off of a turkey on the roof. Must be primal.

I got some snaps of turkeys sitting on a wire and as soon as I remember how to get them off my phone, I'll post them.

Another Letter That Won't Be Published

2009-08-13T10:27:00.000-07:00

Did Robert Boyer (letters, Aug. 13) cite Social Security as a government program that has failed? I will admit there are many government programs that are little more than billion dollar boondoggles, the Star Wars missile fantasy comes to mind, but Social Security?

Here is a government program that has been operating successfully since in 1935. It has enabled most Americans to retire in their 60s, whereas before many people worked until the day they died. The biggest problem that Social Security is that it is so successful that Congress can’t resist borrowing its surpluses to pay for tax cuts and wars.

Projections show that Social Security will continue to take in more than it pays out for a couple of more decades. At that point, if Congress refuses to repay those IOUs to the American people, we may need to make adjustments to the program; the most obvious being to end the tax exemption for incomes over $106,800. There may indeed come a sad day when Social Security is “bankrupt” and this nation no longer has the resources to allow its senior citizens the honor of a few years without labor, but that day is a long way off.

Social Security is a shining example of what our government can achieve when we dedicate ourselves to the proposition that we are a society; when we acknowledge that we are all truly our grandmother’s keepers. We should hope that we can devise a health care system that works so well.

Loving the Tier 1 Attitude

2009-08-12T06:47:00.000-07:00

The GTFF filed a grievance against the Art Department for violating the hell out of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and their own internal policies. Like I always, I spent hours putting the grievance together, gathering facts, talking with our members, trying to settle with the UO. We had a Step 3 meeting with the UO's grievance officer for the GTFF. I presented a half hour of argument, the UO's representative from the Grad School did the same. At the end, the grievance officer from the UO asks each side to submit written statements. I indicate that I am going on vacation, but will come into the office to write something up. The Grad School agrees to write up a statement. The UO's grievance officer indicates he's going to need more than e working days to read all this and come up with a decision. We all agree that he can take another week.

I spent four hours crafting a six-page argument detailing each contract violation. The UO's representative from the Grad School was out sick, but she, too, came in and spent some time making careful arguments about the case. Her document was also about six pages, with many pages of supporting documents.

We got the decision yesterday and, aside from some boilerplate, here is the judgment that the UO's grievance officer came to after carefully weighing the twelve pages of argument, plus the supporting documents, detailing ten allegations of contract violation:

The GTFF alleged that the Art Department failed to give preference to applicants who are further advanced in the program. However, there are other factors that are also given special consideration with respect to assignments such as a student’s special skills. Therefore, it was not proven that the Art Department failed to give preference to applicants who are further advanced in the program.

Lesson learned.

New Leadership, Please

2009-08-11T07:48:00.000-07:00

You know what just about the most "un-American" thing I can think of is? A Congressional leader calling his or her political opponents "un-American" for protesting government actions. Let's call them ugly, loud-mouth, ignorant SOBs, but let's leave un-American out of it.

For fuck's sake. This is what our political opponents do. They brand dissent as un-patriotic. To them Code Pink is just shy of an official terrorist organization. What do they do? They stand up at meetings, shout down the speaker, and make their voices heard. We admire them. We admire anyone who has the courage to stand up to the powers that be and makes their voice heard.

And these townhall protesters are no different than we are. Well, I guess I'd like to believe that they're wrong, whereas my lefty groups are right, but how can for one hot minute anyone who reads this blog think that these people have invalid views or don't deserve to be heard just because they were organized into going to an event by Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh. I am a union organizer, I am astroturf by definition. Sure, members may walk into my office to tell me about some issue they have and I can use my skills to organize them, but this never happens over politics. Nope, I'm out there trying to get three to five people to show up for some half-assed rally. Let's just take (and leave) EFCA as an example.

Lastly, I will not abide by my leadership pretending like a townhall meeting means something. That they are some genuine exchange of views between a Congressperson and the citizens. That Peter Defazio has yet to make up his mind about this crazy health care bill and that the fine citizens of Drain, Oregon are going to provide some magical insight that really opens his eyes. It's bullshit and we all know it. Townhalls, at best, provide a politician political cover or anecdotes, otherwise they are pretty useless. Somehow the thought that organized hicks might be standing up and making a mockery of these dog and pony shows does not rock me to my American core. They always were political theater, the last thing we should be upset about is that they'll be good political theater. Heaven knows, if it weren't for the chance that I might be engaged is some actual heated political yelling, I doubt that I'd be driving down to the Grove tomorrow at 8 am to hear Defazio spout hackneyed talking points for a bill he probably doesn't genuinely support - which, in my book, is pretty un-American.

Goals Falling by the Wayside

2009-08-10T15:59:00.000-07:00

My goal is to post at least once a day. Work is kicking my ass just about now though, so I don't have the leisure time I once did.

I also intended to be on a diet just about now, but I grew tired of worrying about how much I weigh. Well, I still worry, I guess I just grew tired of doing something about it. You'd think that summer would be the time of salads, fresh fruit, and weight loss, but I find it hard to lose weight in the summer. One, I have a grill, so I want summer to be about pork chops, steaks, and grilled veggies (which means oil). Plus, soup is so good in the winter and I can make the hell out of a low-fat soup. So for now, I will just have to remain 15 pounds (or so) over my government-mandated weight. I'm sure once I go to put me pants on come fall, I will return to fretting.

Premiership Is On, Summer's Over

2009-08-09T08:47:00.000-07:00

This makes me happy:

It's a small thing, as United will probably win another title this year, but they'll look like a bunch of gits while doing it.

Liverpool seems to have given away their chances by selling Xabi Alonzo. Unless something takes a dramatic turn, I don't see us having what it takes if Lucas is supposed to be a credible option.

Just Like Network TV

2009-06-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

In Eugene, We Care About This Type of Thing

2009-06-13T10:09:00.000-07:00

Go Ducks!

The Oregon Coast

2009-06-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

It's BAGELS.

That Fine Line

2009-06-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

From a Long Line of Cheese-Touchers

2009-06-03T08:43:00.000-07:00

Where I'm at These Days

2009-06-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

AGEListas!

Here is information you need to know in order to successfully have a successful time at the little AGEL conference we are putting on here in Eugene. First, thanks for agreeing to attend. Our planning committee has being doing its best to make the conference as kick-ass as possible, but that will largely depend on you. We have 51 registered attendees, making this a huge AGEL conference. Naturally, having such a large group of out-of-towners presents some challenges; we hope you will be patient with us. Also, AFT has a set amount of corn to kick down for these type functions, so we've been forced to stretch every dollar. We think we've come up with some creative ways to make each dollar last. You may come to think that creative equals suck, but you can cut us some slack.

And on that positive note!

1. Here's my cell phone number. It is the number to call in most "emergency" situations. 541-543-****. Program it in your phone now.

If I don't answer my phone, it is because I am already on it or I tried to answer your call, but my touch-screen has decided that I was trying to open Phil Helmuth poker and I will be trying to close that program while you leave a message. In that case you can call AFT guy C- G-. 541-521-****. There's a good chance he will be standing next to me.

If it is during business hours, you can try the GTFF office, 541-344-0832.

2. Thursday there is a Meet and Greet at the Villard Street Pub. This is where you should be able to hook up with your host, get keys, directions, etc. We're going to officially meet there at 6 pm, but feel free to show up sooner or later (although later might mean your host will get tired of waiting for you). If we haven't seen you by then, we'll see you there.

Villard Street is at 1417 Villard St., Eugene

Around 8:30 or so, we are going to play some pub trivia. There is a regular game at Villard St. that many members of the GTFF play in, so we thought it might be fun to have the AGEListas go head-to-head. Really though, there is more drinking than triviaing going on.

3. We have your housing assignments, which we will share with you when we see you. We think we have beds, air mattresses, or couches for everyone. We are, however, stashing a bunch of you at a local co-op and in an unused apartment across from the GTFF office. These places may not have towels for you, so bring one. You should all bring one.

If you are from GEO-Michigan or TAA, especially, bring a towel.

Did I mention the towel situation?

4. In an effort to give you the full Oregon experience, we have arranged a weather forecast that calls for rain. Thank goodness we didn't have the conference this weekend, it was all sun and low 80s. You can, of course, track the weather at weather.com. Come prepared.

5. Lastly, I am working on the assumption that most of you have cellular phones and that many of these phones are fully capable of hitting the internet and helping you get directions to various places you will be staying, visiting, getting drunk at. If this is not the case and you need/want maps, then there are several computers in the GTFF office hooked up to the internets and a printer you can use to print out whatever you think you may need.

Alright? I am very much looking forward this conference. I hope you are as well. As the kids say, lets "do" this thing!

Dave3544

The World Needs Ditch Diggers, Too

2009-05-30T09:02:00.000-07:00

Organically Grown

2009-05-29T07:51:00.001-07:00

Make It Rain Like That

2009-05-27T08:57:00.000-07:00

Dreaming the Dream

2009-05-26T15:29:00.001-07:00

Some days I wish I had a real boss, just so I could share with him or her my bathrooming needs.

Electric Twanger

2009-05-25T15:43:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned earlier, I've spent a decent portion of the weekend watching '80s videos in alphabetical order, so I think I speak from a position of some authority when I say the '80s produced little that was absurdly awesome as this:

Of course, I still identify with the kid, especially with my overt distaste of all things Boomer, but as the father of a thirteen year old, I can also sympathize to a certain degree with father. Lord knows the possibility of having your son turn into Dee Snider would be pretty terrifying and could drive a man to all sorts of tantrum throwing. The lesson here, of course, that when we act based on our fears, we can sometimes make those very apprehensions come true. Is there nothing Twisted Sister can't teach us?

Long Weekend

2009-05-24T09:44:00.000-07:00

VH1 Classic is showing every video from the '80s in alphabetical order. Well, maybe not every video, but it's pretty thorough.

We're on Love Stinks, you should grab a slice.

Gusts Up to 75 MPH

2009-05-24T09:43:00.000-07:00

By Any Means Necessary

2009-05-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

I Swear to G*d

2009-05-20T19:28:00.000-07:00

Good times in the R-G mailbag this week.

On May 15th, the R-G ran a story about Jimmy Marr, a Springfield man having his personalize license plate recalled by the state because someone complained it had an anti-Semitic message. His license plate read "NO ZOG" a reference to the belief that the Zionist Occupation Government runs, not so much Israel, but the world, through their control of the banks, media, and most fast food franchises. His truck was spotted at a Phoenix, Oregon gathering of neo-Nazis*, and a Medford teacher complained, so the state recalled the plate.

“This got by us the first time and didn’t trigger any” controversy, DMV spokesman David House said. “But we got a complaint about it and discovered that it is an anti-Jewish message.”
...
House said a nine-member panel of state officials reviewed the matter and decided — after doing a bit of Internet research — to recall Marr’s plate.
They sent Marr a letter last week informing him of the ruling.

“It was a pretty easy call,” House said. “All you have to do is Google it to see what it means. And members of the targeted group know what it means.”

I read the article at the time, but didn't think much of it. Idiot has his plate recalled for being an asshole.

The first letter to the editor in support of Jimmy Marr was a classic. Not in the sense that it was great, but that it was a favorite argument of mine from way back. Some of you may know that I spent some time in grad school studying the Mother's Movement, a group of pro-fascist women opposed to US involvement in WWII. Most of the group was deeply anti-Semitic and I spent several Saturday afternoons in Portland reading obscure anti-Semitic newsletters. After the war, as the Birchers got rolling, it was easy for these women to transition into the anti-UN, anti-Israel movement. When accused of being anti-Semites, they often countered that since Palestinians were Semitic, they couldn't possibly be anti-Semitic, but it was, rather, Israel that was anti-Semitic what with their policy of killing Palestinians. Much like the blacks are racist because they voted for Obama thinking of today.

Justin Harris comes oh-so-close to making the "Jews are the real anti-Semites" argument, but since he seems to think Palestinians are Arab, he kind of fumbles it:

Anti-Zionism is not anti-Jewish

The “No Zog” license plate is not anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish; it is anti-Zionist (Register-Guard, May 15). The Zionists are a group, not the entire Jewish people.

Jimmy Marr obviously takes exception to the Zionist platform to remove all Arab Palestinians from all Israel territory, including the Gaza Strip and West Bank. He believes the continuous police state that the Palestinian people live under is equivalent to occupation. He is exercising his free speech. In Oregon we don’t call it bashing, we call it thinking.

Mark Pitcavage of the Anti-Defamation League also confuses the issues by inferring that anyone who uses the acronym in support of the Palestinian people is of the extreme right, whereas it is the fundamental Zionist approach that all lands written of in the Bible belong to Israel; only that is an extreme right position. Thomas Aquinas famously said, “Beware the man of one book.”

Citing sources that disparage a free-Palestine supporter while also presuming the blamelessness of the Zionist movement (all Jewish persons are not all Zionists) is like the pot calling the kettle black.

Maybe the Anti-Defamation League is a hate group.

Using the term anti-Semitic in a bold headline, like terrorists and terrorism, becomes ineffectual when used in a deceptive manner. The tone of the article suggests that Marr is guilty of something criminal in the forum of public opinion. I believe the article borders on abuse of journalism’s standard of ethics.

Justin Harris

Springfield

It was good, but Justin and Jimmy must have not thought it went far enough, because today Jimmy hit the back pages with his own stirring defense of himself and the purity of his beliefs with this gem, which I am sure will be memorized and recited by school children all across this great land long after the ZOG is dead:

Who elected Google?

My “NO ZOG” license plates have been recalled (Register-Guard, May 15). I’d like my fellow Oregonians to help me figure out who is responsible for this. David House, spokesman for the state Driver and Motor Vehicle Services division, said, “It was a pretty easy call. All you have to do is Google it to see what it means.”

Who elected Google Corp. to define meaning for Oregonians? Do Oregonians lack the capacity for critical thinking? Do Oregonians need a multinational corporation to identify “hate” for them in their own backyards? Where and who is this omniscient oracle? Let’s follow the “yellow brick road” of money and see what Oz looks like when we peel back his curtain of anonymity.

Google Corp. is owned by investors in the New York Stock Exchange. Does the demographic composition of investors in the New York Stock Exchange mirror the demographic composition of taxpayers in Oregon? Or does it more nearly resemble the demographic composition of Zion?

If you answered yes to the last question, you have identified one aspect of the Zionist Occupation Government. By doing so, you have become a neo-Nazi, an anti-Semite, a white supremacist.

If you don’t believe me, Google it. That’s what your government does.

Jimmy Marr

Springfield

Now, I guess there is always the possibility that one can misread the written word, reading the wrong tones, miss the proper shading, whathaveyou, but I read the second sentence of that next-to-last paragraph sarcastically. Did you? I mean, I think Jimmy wants me to agree with him that investors in the New York Stock Exchange are ~~Jewish~~ Zionists and that, through their control of the Google, they have fixed it so that a Google search of the perfectly innocent acronym ZOG** reveals that it is some kind of anti-Semitic slur, rather than the good wholesome - American - decrying of Zionists controlling Palestine and/or the world. Once I have agreed with Jimmy that this is the most likely explanation, I am now outraged, shocked, and appalled that someone would imply that this obvious conclusion would lead someone to label me, me!, an anti-Semite, neo-Nazi, and/or a white supremacist. How dare they!

I guess it's possible that Jimmy is just straight up trying to recruit anti-Semites into the white supremacist movement. But, while that makes more sense, it is much less likely.

Anyway, next up will be the expected round of letters bemoaning the anti-Semitism that flourishes in our society. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but somewhere along the way someone will advocate that anti-anti-Semitism should be a mandatory course of study in the schools which will just give the Springfield Jimmys more ammo. I also look forward to George Beres' straight up anti-Semitism, which will no doubt include a rant about the Register Guard being anti-Palestinian because they published the anti-anti-Semitism letters.

Will the R-G go so far as to publish the Holocaust denial letter that someone is undoubtedly writing right now? Oh, the fun we'll have. And, yes, it appears that Jimmy Marr was a member of the Pacifica Forum, so we got that in there too.

All of which is, unfortunately, more mileage for Jimmy's asinine beliefs than a stupid obscure license plate could ever have gotten him. Thanks again, Register-Guard, for being a fine citizen of the community.

*The original newspaper article claimed this was a gathering of neo-Nazis, so the claim is suspect of course, but let me assure you that in my attempt to find a link to this article I came across many "white pride" sites and I did not see a-one disputing the "neo-Nazi" assertion.

**The ZOG seems to be slipping, as a Google seach for the term brings up, in order, 1. The wikipedia page linked above. 2. ZogSports - The NYC sports league for young professionals. 3. A neo-Nazi site. 4. Dr. Zog - an original, high energy, Austin, Texas band that combines Lousiana Zydeco, New Orleans funk, Texas Blues and Southern jamband grooves. 5. The Zionist dictionary which (finally) reveals that ZOG is an anti-Semitic slur.

Seasonville

2009-05-20T15:03:00.001-07:00

Any of the regulars/old timers mind if I start publishing old Seasonvilles here? Some of my newer friends don't know it and it still makes me giggle. Anyone?

Speak now, or...

Lesson, Learned

2009-05-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

Andrew Breitbart, founder of my favorite wingnut website wrote a column for the WaTimes entitled I, Jerk in which he recounts a recent incident wherein he was trying his best to spend a Sunday hotel brunch getting buzzed with the wife, only to be interrupted by about 300 college kids holding some sort of protest outside of the hotel. Like any good wingnut, Andrew is a seething ball of rage ready to confront the America haters given any opportunity. In response to one of the protesters holding up his fist, Breitbart rushed to the hotel balcony and held up his middle finger. Here, I'll let Breitbart tell it - and remember, this is 300 or so college students protesting he-doesn't-know-what:

...when one dude raised his fist like runners Tommie Smith and John Carlos did at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, I could not hold myself back. I jumped from my seat and bolted to the center of the balcony, where the American flag waved furiously in a now-harsh wind. Positioned next to Old Glory, I countered the young punk and reached out my right arm directing my middle finger in his direction.

As soon as my finger was raised, a phalanx of photographers began snapping away at the white middle-aged man wearing a white LaCoste shirt next to the old red, white and blue. Cognizant of the power of imagery, I owned the moment and refused to back down. The fist wielder immediately dropped his arm. I clearly had won and envisioned photos of the anti-antiwar protester making the front pages of the Los Angeles Times.

Another victory for the good and decent Americans! Someone willing to throw the finger to people exercising their right to protest! Righteous. Except, oopsie, the protest was really about the abduction and forced military servitude of young kids in the Congo.

Breitbart uses his column to tell this amusing anecdote and not much more, as no lesson about flying off at the handle seems to be in order. Just a funny mea culpa.

What I love about the commenters at Big Hollywood is that I know that they are not going to read this story and find it to be anything other than proof that the liberals are destroying this country. Reaction comes in four schools.

1. Great apology. A liberal would never admit he made an error, only a conservative would admit he made a mistake and tell the world about. Forgive yourself, already.

2. If liberals weren't out protesting things all the time, then Breitbart wouldn't have made this mistake. If you see someone protesting something, it's a good bet they need a flipping off.

3. Why are people protesting/demonstrating about something that is happening in Africa? Do they really think interrupting the brunches of those in Santa Monica is doing something good? If they care so much, why aren't they in Africa doing something about it?

4. The demonstrators should have done a better job making what they were protesting about more clear, so as to avoid a flipping off from a drunken Andrew Breitbart in the future.

That's it. Not one word about how sometimes the young people might know what they are talking about and rather than just jumping to the conclusion that they are all a bunch of know-nothings, maybe we should hear what they have to say and be educated. Nope, not at Big Hollywood.

Nothing to See Here

2009-05-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

This is one hell of a sentence:

As police union leaders who have bargained the contractual impacts of the implementation of an external police auditor system, and who are in the process of filing multiple contractual grievances and state-regulated unfair labor practice complaints regarding those impacts, we constantly espouse to those outside the police union sphere to try to approach this realm from a neutral perspective.

Reading the full article, I think that were supposed to ignore the fact that the local cops are acting like dicks and doing whatever they can to stop the voter-imposed public oversight system. Because calling them dicks is not neutral. Pointing out the rapes is not neutral. Pointing out the whitewashing of cops punching handcuffed suspects in the face is not neutral. Pointing out that the pigs went out of their way to vote a cop "Officer of the Year" while he is under investigation by the police auditor, that would not be neutral.

Certainly, saying "Fuck the police" would not be neutral and should not be done while the police are in the process of delaying the implementation of a neutral oversight system for as long as possible.

Merde

2009-05-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

That HBO Latino is broadcasting Maradona, la mano di Dio right now makes me desperately wish I had taken Spanish instead of French.

Looks like it's you and me, again, Jason Bourne.

Impromtu Championships

2009-05-16T09:53:00.000-07:00

Taking a flier and taking the family to the Pac 10 Track and Field Championships this weekend at Hayward Field. Had nothing to do this weekend, so why not? It's supposed to be nice out (80 F). Hopefully, 5.5 hours together each day will not be more than we can handle.

Last time I was at Hayward was when I was a kid. Don't remember much about it, other than I have a vague feeling I liked it. No idea why we didn't go back. Maybe should have talked to my dad about this before I took the plunge.

Maybe you'll get some hot live blogging action.

I 8 U

2009-05-16T08:08:00.000-07:00

No matter how many beers you drink, what good movie you watch, or how much snuggling you do with the wife the night before, when you wake up all your problems are still right there. I'm talking the big ones here: the economy, the weak-ass president we have, ~~swine flu~~ ummm...Nancy Pelosi knew about some aspect of the Bush torture regime but didn't do anything about it, like call for Congressional investigations which totally should never happen, but maybe she should face a Congressional investigation for not calling for one, am I right here people?

You wake up on Saturday and all the world's problems are still right there.

Then you read the letters section of the Register Guard, and some kind soul has taken the time to solve all of our problems. Read. Understand. And know that everything is going to be alright.

Look for a new economy

As soon as the tax and interest and unemployment rates all level off at 8 percent and lower, the economy embarks upon a long extended era of clear sailing such as no civilization on Earth has ever known.

History never predicted people would suddenly envision such an outcome.

Clear seas, clear sailing, a powerful economy quickly restarted and firmly under control. All the parts still in place and functioning. All the people striving together, fulfilling their potentials. The sounds of song and laughter spilling out beneath the nighttime skies.

An old economy grinds to a stop. The abstract details of a new economic era stretch before us, like the first turns highlighted on a GPS readout, outlining the beginning of the next leg of the journey.

Personally, I am keeping a watch to see the tax rate and interest and unemployment rates all come together at 8 percent and lower.

For me, that is the first sign of entering the new economy.

Nancy I. Campbell

Yoncalla

As my good buddy Lex might say, Boom!

Lower the tax rate from 36% to 8% (or lower!) and you are going to have some good times on your hands. No more government waste, no more bloated bureaucracy, no more, well anything from those fat cats in Washington.

The relatively high interest rates keep the poor people, who obviously don't know how to manage their money, from borrowing any to buy goods they don't really need, but also makes sure that those who do loan money - to the right sort - make a healthy profit. This encourages leading - smart lending - and big profits.

The relatively high unemployment rate means that people will work for the wages they deserve, not some over-inflated wage gained by the government manipulating the labor market by working for low unemployment. And once those government workers hit the pavement looking for honest work, wages are going to plummet to what are their natural, moonlight-dancing levels.

Oh happy day indeed!

For Malonee

2009-05-15T14:16:00.000-07:00

Bet

It's on like Donkey Kong

Sorry About the Light Posting

2009-05-13T16:03:00.000-07:00

I've been sick.

Speaking of which, here's some Droopy. I hope it tides you over.

The Cover Up Was Great

2009-05-11T11:29:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry that all my former GTFF colleagues were not there, as they missed what had to be one of the great nights on GTFF history.

Eleven bands rocked the place, each one very good. Even music I didn't personally like was done well enough that I enjoyed it. We packed Luckey's. We don't have exact numbers, but we estimate from the gate that we had 250 to 300 people in the joint. If you all have been in Luckey's before, you can imagine that there was not an inch of room to spare.

Most importantly, we took $1600 from the gate for Food for Lane County. With What PacficSource had donated on out behalf, we raised $2600 or 15,600 pounds of food for our community. Not bad for a bunch of snot-nosed unionists.

Hopefully see you all next year, when I will definitely be shouting some Nirvana, or maybe Mudhoney, lyrics.

EW LOTW (Bits)

2009-05-07T12:40:00.000-07:00

Bits of several letters to the Eugene Weekly caught my attention, but no one letter was worthy of LOTW status. Here you are:

A lesbian is a woman who loves women romantically. Why do they do this? Contemporary science and psychology are undecided, but it doesn’t really matter.

The wealthier citizens among us tend to use a lot more electricity, heating oversized homes to 80 degrees, washing clothes after a single wearing, etc.

While riding my bicycle northbound on Olive Street about a half block from 5th Avenue I was dangerously passed on the left by a PT Cruiser which then proceeded to turn right into the Post Office loading dock area. I thought this to be strange because postal workers don't drive so dangerously.

“All they that live by the sword shall perish with the sword.” (Matthew 26:52) Too bad our Christian dominated society doesn’t live by its own scriptures. Every weapon ever made eventually gets used. Often with disastrous results.

I would like to quote directly from Congressman Peter DeFazio's newsletter dated April 2009. "I opposed the repeal of the Roosevelt era Glass-Steagall Act, which kept Wall Street investment companies from intermingling with banking institutions."
As a retired economics instructor, I have been waiting for someone to address this issue ever since the Wall Street house of cards fell.

That's it. Good day.

Do I Even Need to Mention the Fascism Angle?

2009-05-07T09:14:00.000-07:00

I was going to write about this Washington Times article that asserts:

The further irony is that the United Auto Workers, which extracted the featherbed contracts a quarter of a century ago that doomed GM and Chrysler, will now hold a majority stake in Chrysler and a slightly smaller stake in GM.

And point out that, while I don't know everything about the UAW and the auto industry, I am very surprised to learn that UAW was negotiating sweetheart deals as late as 1984. If it could be said that any union contract "doomed" GM and Chrysler (but, oddly enough, not Ford) it would be fairer to say those contracts were negotiated more than a half-century ago, but that takes some of the sting out of the idea that the current workers/retirees from the Big Three are to blame for present day ills.

But then I read this comment and I realized that rational argument was not going to matter:

My Dad had a Fiat spyder when he was stationed @ Annapolis after Vietnam. He used to curse as only a Naval officer can about what an abject piece of crap it was. Then, he'd go inside & tell my Mom that since she was Italian, SHE should go out there & start it. It started every time for her. Doubt they've changed much since then. PS. I wouldn't buy LEMONADE from President Nero, let alone a car.

Yes, because your mother succeeded where your father failed, it is pretty obvious that Fiat is a bad car company. Screw Obama.

Mind, Not What It Was

2009-05-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

It took me too long to put together that the Charli Carpenter that blogs at Duck of Minerva, and is guest blogging at LGM, is the same Charli Carpenter that served on the Board at 3544. Always nice to see a GTFFer make good.

Second Best Birthday Gift This Year

2009-05-06T17:36:00.000-07:00

The Bellman gave us all this, but I appreciate it a hell of a lot.

There is a person in this world willing to argue, in public, that she would support gay marriage, if it were not for what it might do to further erode the African American community.

If that sentence makes no sense to you, take the three minutes to read the blog post.

I Say It's My Birthday

2009-05-06T14:18:00.000-07:00

I'm 37.

"I'm not one to blow smoke up my skirt"

2009-05-05T11:04:00.000-07:00

That from Joe the Plumber's interview with Christianity Today.

Other choice bits:

I've had some friends that are actually homosexual. And, I mean, they know where I stand, and they know that I wouldn't have them anywhere near my children. But at the same time, they're people, and they're going to do their thing.

Who do you see as the emerging Christian leaders?
James Dobson.

I like Sarah Palin a lot, actually. I just don't know if that's where God's leading her. I just know the Republican Party's done its best to blackball her. I don't know what her agenda is. If she ran, would I vote for her? Absolutely. John McCain was the lesser of two evils.

All these people were saying just god-awful things about me. I mean, I'm not one to blow smoke up my skirt, but I think I'm a pretty nice guy and I'm not used to people saying that kind of thing about me. It really hurt.

h/t: Wolcott

Finally, Schumer and I Are on the Same Page

2009-05-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

My worst fear? A public health system that runs so smoothly and cheaply that it puts for-profit health care out of business. Thank God for Chuck Schumer.

My second worst fear? That in order to provide basic health care for everyone in this country, we cut into the profits of doctors and hospitals. Thank God someone - Chuck Schumer - is finally thinking of the struggling medical professionals in this country.

My third worst fear? That an out-of-control Democrat Supermajority rams a lot of leftist legislation down our throats. Thank God for Chuck Schumer and his brave band of moderate visionaries who will do whatever it takes to make sure that if things do get better in this country, it is only by a little bit and none too fast.

John Tyler, Right-wing Extremist

2009-05-04T12:39:00.000-07:00

The Register-Guard ran a guest viewpoint from some right-wing extremist railing about the DHS report on right-wing extremism in the US in the paper yesterday. Hilarious stuff, if only because John Tyler clearly doesn't see himself as a right-wing extremist and then proceeds to prove step-by step that he is, indeed, ~~crazy~~ a right-wing extremist.

Let's run through it:

Disgruntled doesn’t begin to describe my fury after reading the recently leaked intelligence and analysis assessment from DHS, headed by Janet Napolitano. Titled “Right-Wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” this nine-page document, dated April 7, 2009, in essence profiles nearly half of U.S. voters.

I'm going to go ahead and not even try to point out that the report was commissioned and complied under Bush, as that is beside the point. The point here is that John seems to think that nearly half of the people of the US are just like him. Who is he? Well:

I happen to believe that abortion of an unborn baby is murder. Late-term and partial-birth abortion is barbaric murder. Only in special cases like rape, incest, or likely death of the mother in childbirth should abortion be considered. Otherwise, I believe Roe vs. Wade should be overturned.

Not even close to half of Americans support overturning Roe v. Wadebut we can agree that being anti-choice does not make for extremism.

I believe God intended marriage to be only between one man and one woman. The Bible says so. Period. Every child needs a father and a mother. Not two mothers, not two fathers. Gays, lesbians, transsexuals, bisexuals, transgendered people, and every other sexual variation possible can have their civil liberties. But it’s my firm position that the claim that there is biblical, moral or legal equivalency of their relationships to my own 42-year marriage is rubbish.

Alright, anti-gay marriage. Probably in the mainstream, although maybe not with all the hate. But, again, no real worries so far.

We will never have national security until we control our borders. An employer who knowingly hires illegals should be fined so much that it dries up that source of jobs or forces them out of business. Targeted inspections should be conducted. Illegals who have falsified their records should be immediately deported, along with their families.

Again, John holds some conservative viewpoints, but nothing for the government to worry about.

President Obama wants to turn this country into a socialist state and is creating a sense of dependency on government to solve all our problems. The average taxpayer will finance it all through redistribution of our wealth — i.e., taking it from those of us who work hard and play by the rules and giving it to those who don’t. Their coming taxation is just a form of legalized theft, codified in law.

Okay, thinking Obama is a socialist and that taxation is codified theft puts you in a small minority. Unless John is just taking talking points and going over the top with them. Nothing that Rush doesn't bray about every day.

Because the entire nation of gun owners and hunters is afraid that the Obama administration is going to find a way around the Constitution, or raise taxes on ammo and guns to the point where no one will be able to afford ownership, or that a national registry law will eventually lead to confiscation. I will never, ever, allow my guns to be confiscated, or registered, by this government.

Okay, now we have a problem. John is telling us that he will not comply with a law passed by the United States Congress? And just how will he "not allow" this imagined registration to take place?

We stockpile food in our pantry and our freezer. I have multiple weapons in my home and lots of ammunition. Connect the dots here: I believe we are in the end times, and I believe in end-time prophesies recorded in the Bible by the Apostle John in Revelation. I could no more dismiss this than I could disavow that Christ came to Earth, was crucified for our sins, and resurrected from the dead, or that his death was the gift of grace that we can never earn.

Now we're officially off our rockers. How a man can write those words and think he is writing for "nearly half of U.S. voters" is beyond me. Well, not beyond me, as I follow politics, so I know that there are extremists out there that think they are mainstream, but Obama and the Dems won the big election because of the media or white guilt or the media or some such crap.

Let me say this plain, you John Tyler, are a right-wing extremist whose political views match approximately 1% of the population of the US. Given your position on guns and the fact that you are preparing for the end times, the government has good reason to worry about you. Not so much because the government needs to fear you - it doesn't - but because you are a danger to the vast majority of people around you. Who knows when you will decide that the forces of Satan have taken over and you need to start blasting away?

And thank God Eugene has a "citizen of its community" that gives this yahoo a platform to rant this bullshit.

Oh, yes. Oklahoma Families, I Know Them Well

2009-05-04T07:41:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've every actually read anything by Charles Dickens. I believe I tried to read As I Lay Dying, but couldn't make it very far. No Chaucer, no Austin, and nothing Greek or Roman (well, maybe The Odyssey). All of which makes the fact that I have read two, count 'em, two detective novels by Watergate burglars all the more criminal. Sometime back, I purchased G. Gordon Liddy's novel Out of Control at a garage sale, purely on the speculative notion that one day I might be able to name drop G. Gord and my knowledge of his fiction works. Well, well, little dave3544 makes good. The second read came courtesy the fine folks at Hard Case Crime, who are either desperate for material or have a wicked sense of humor - or both - as they saw fit to reissue E. Howard Hunt's thriller House Dick.

I wish I could tell you which novel is worse. If memory serves, Liddy's was really, very bad. If I am not mistaken, it was written post-Watergate and the novel was clearly an attempt to cash in on the name. Hunt's book was written pre-Watergate, so at least has some credibility. No additionally credibility is earned upon reading the book. It was not good, but it was not so not good as to be good. Well a couple places were, which, I guess is why I am here telling you about it.

The novel was set in Washington, DC and tells the story of hotel detective Pete Novack. It is set I don't know when. I assumed it was the late '50s, when the book was written, but at one point there was a reference to the "the German question" which I took as a reference to the late '30s when one might not know on which side of the German question to fall. Of course, it might be a reference to the important question of Germany joining NATO. I can't say. In a situation sort of like Hammett's Red Harvest, circumstances conspire to prevent the protagonist from getting any sleep, and in it's absence he is forced to rely on his wits and whiskey. All comparisons end there. There are some missing jewels, a dead guy from Indiana, a crooked doctor, and, naturally, a doll.

The passage below is so good that when I read it, I knew I had to share it with you. Page 47, I love you. Hell, it's the reason we're here. A little set-up. Novak had broken up a domestic between the doll and her ex, who was in town looking for those missing rocks. She did not welcome the intrusion, but when he comes back to her room let her know she is too good for the rough stuff, she offers him a drink and lets him in on her scheme to ransom the jewels she has stolen back to their rightful owner.

Here is E. Howard Hunt at his finest:

Novak finished his drink and put down the glass besides the chromed pistol. He stared at it speculatively. The girl got up slowly and came to him. Her hands met behind his neck. "Novak," she murmured. "What's that, Hungarian?"

"Central Europe, anyway. The part that used to change names every two generations. How about Norton? Sounds English, but you don't look it."

Her nose wrinkled. "A booking agent's idea. If I don't look it it's because one grandmother was a full-blooded Osage. The family always called her princess, but you know families. Oklahoma families, anyway."

Her lips were a fraction of an inch away. Novak closed the gap, kissing her bruised lips lightly. Her body clung to his, her hands was doing something with the hair behind his head. Her eyelids fluttered and closed. Her tongue darted into his mouth, searched and withdrew. Underneath his hand the flesh of her back quivered like the flanks of a nervous filly. Finally she drew away and stared at him. "You're all man," she breathed. "As if I didn't know."

"You like Chinese food?"

"Uh huh."

"I know a place on H Street that's open all night."

"And me looking the way I do?"

"We can char cork and go blackface."

Paula giggled.

Just then the telephone shrilled. Gaiety drained from her face and her body tensed. Novak growled, "I'll take it."

Where is goes from there, I'll leave it to you to discover. Maybe we'll do a book club.

Four Thoughts for No Reason

2009-05-02T10:11:00.000-07:00

1. Doesn't the team that gets Brett Favre have something of an unfair advantage? Shouldn't he at least play a position other than quarterback?

2. Who plays mud football where there are four guys blocking and one guy going out for a pass? Unguarded, I might add.

3. Running plays?

4. Why are there two guys on the bench?

Thanks for reading.

It's Possible You Had to Be There

2009-05-01T17:07:00.000-07:00

If you're a hockey commentator and you want to make the point that hockey players are the toughest athletes in the world, could you think of a softer target than soccer players? Maybe baseball? Figure skaters? I mean, it's a fair point, but maybe football or rugby might have been a better comparison.

Let's Put This State on Kruse Control!

2009-05-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

My favorite Oregon State Senator got his Friday newsletter out to me a bit early this morning and believe you me it is a gem. Not a gem so much in execution, but it in that it a long and detailed gripe about what a bitch it is to be in the minority party. Get this, even if you offer the most reasonable amendments to health care bills, in the end, the majority party can ignore all your proposals and just do whatever it is they please. And they call this a democracy.

Unfortunately, Jeff doesn't post his e-newsletters right away, so I am forced to give you last week's scraps. But my God, they are delicious.

First of all the Tea Parties held all over the nation did not get much media attention, but should be a wakeup call for Congress and all state legislative assemblies.

Boom! The tea parties did not get much media attention. Jeff and I live in very different worlds, apparently.

Jeff then tells us he's a farmer and, therefore, a business man. He can't understand why the Legislature is not run more like a his business. He gives us an example:

We will be looking at those activities which have shown a profit as well as those that have not. We are continuously looking for ways to become more efficient and cost effective in our operation. We are always experimenting with new varieties of seed, different crop applications, different types of equipment, whatever we can find to make our operation better. Our goal is to be able to give our customers the best quality products at the best price.

When we are planning for the next year we never assume the status quo. We know there are some crops that make us money and some that don’t. We also know we will continue to grow many of those we lose money on simply because our customers expect it, which puts additional pressure on our profit centers. I could go on for a long time about my business, but the point is to show the perspective which I use to create my budget. I think one of the unfortunate realities is very few members of the Legislature have any real business experience.

Exactly. Experimentation, trying new things. Give the customers what they need at the lowest prices. I'm down. Some government programs will make money, some won't. We can't know which. Some government programs will continue to exist, even though they lose money, just because the customers (that's you and me Russ) expect those ~~crops~~ services to be there. Look, we could talk about this all day, but talking never put hay in the barn.

But wait a tick.

There is a way to create a balanced budget for the next biennium without tax and fee increases...We should be prioritizing core government services and funding only those determined to be essential. We should not be creating new programs or any other type of government expansion.

What happened to the experimentation? The growing crops just 'cause that's what the customers want? What happened to the somethings will work and some won't, but you got to keep plugging away? Well, as Jeff says, government is big business.

The Governor is the CEO and the Legislative Assembly is the board of directors. It is time we stepped up and did our job. As of now we are not operating in the best interest of our shareholders.

And if there's one thing Jeff knows about it's ~~running a large company~~ being a rural farmer.

You Guys Know About This, Right?

2009-04-29T12:33:00.001-07:00

Hope to see you all there.

I was supposed to be in a band, but it didn't come off. Wanted to do a few covers off of Bleach. Thought about calling the band Francis Bean is All Alone, but, again, it didn't come off.

[Update] This looks better on a white background. Click on it.

Closer to Death Everyday

2009-04-29T11:45:00.000-07:00

I take it as a sign of my maturity that I can listen to a Boarder discussing John Foster giving a speech about the economy from a working-class perspective with only the merest snort of derision emanating from me.

Fish Pays

2009-04-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

Behind the campus sushi joint, there are four parking spaces with parking signs that say "Working Employee Only" which indicates that they have some sort of problem with non-working employees parking there.

Parked in two of those spots are one Mercedes CLS and one Mercedes SLK.

I knew I should have gone into the sushi game.

What Would We Do?

2009-04-28T13:39:00.001-07:00

Family Values

2009-04-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

There is, apparently, a world where this cartoon not only makes sense, but is some sort of bold statement of conservative values.

For those with no context, at the Miss America pageant, judge Perez Hilton, WHO IS GAY!!!!1!!!!111!!!, asked a Miss California what she thought of gay marriage. Miss California says that she thinks it is great all Americans can choose which marriage they want, but she doesn't believe in gay marriage, but rather supports "opposite marriage." Apparently, Perez gave her a bad score and she finished runner-up. The conservatives have decided that this is some sort of crime against having non-PC beliefs. It is okay to ask about them, apparently, but not okay to judge anyone because of them.

Anyway, there's your context. Now try to figure out what the hell is going on in that cartoon.

The commenters seem to like it and then overwhelming sentiment is that a gay man should not be judging a beauty pageant. There is a certain amount of outrage that this was allowed to happen.

I must say, I am at a loss.

Omnibus

2009-04-27T09:14:00.000-07:00

*Now that the Republicans have demonstrated time and again (I am thinking here of the stimulus and EFCA just off the top of my head) that they have no intention whatsoever of cooperating with the Obama administration, can we please dispense with the notion that Obama can't order an investigation of the Bush torture regime because it would harm his chances of getting bipartisan support for his social agenda?

*I don't know if all of you had the pleasure of reading this hilarious piece from Krauthammer, but it gets triple thumbs up from me. For those too busy shaping the future of this crazy world, it goes something like this:

1. Obama has stated that he intends to nationalize health care. [Would that it were true.]
2. The only way to pay for this and other programs is SS and Medicare "reform," but Obama has shown no interest in entitlement reform.
3. Obama has a secret plan to pay for nationalized health care, a plan about which he has provided only one tiny hint, which Krathammer alone was wise enough to pick up on. I quote here, because this level of crazy is unparaphrasable:

When asked in his March 24 news conference about the huge debt he's incurring, Obama spoke vaguely of "additional adjustments" that will be unfolding in future budgets.

Rarely have two more anodyne words carried such import. "Additional adjustments" equals major cuts in Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.

Boom! I know it has been said before, but let's all say it again, thank God for Charles Krauthammer.
4. The only way to save money on Medicare is through rationing. [Note that Krauthammer does not suggest that privatization or reducing waste are options, as Medicare is one of the most efficient health care programs around.]
5. Rationing is bad. You will not be able to get your hip replaced and will probably die of a heart attack.
6. [The part that caused my to spit coffee in bed.]

The more acute thinkers on the left can see rationing coming, provoking Slate blogger Mickey Kaus to warn of the political danger. "Isn't it an epic mistake to try to sell Democratic health care reform on this basis? Possible sales pitch: 'Our plan will deny you unnecessary treatments!' ... Is that really why the middle class will sign on to a revolutionary multitrillion-dollar shift in spending -- so the government can decide their life or health 'is not worth the price'?"

Charles "Mothercanucking" Krauthammer just called Mickey "Donkey Fiend" Kaus one of the more acute thinkers on the left. That is a lot to try to wrap your brain around.

*Asked and answered on the issue of calling torture "harsh interrogation methods" or some other goddamn euphemism, but it's really chapping my hide. I can only imagine that the Bush administration official who first thought that one up is laughing his ass off right now. Getting the right to buy into the frame was one thing, getting the nations entire press corp to do it is stunning.

*Trivia or hockey tonight? I do like playing trivia, but my difficulty being a team player, instead of a controlling arsehole, has been an issue, and the Ducks-Sharks series has been a cracker. Decisions, decisions.

Really?

2009-04-26T12:53:00.000-07:00

Wingnut blogger John H. Hinderaker comes out against the Simpsons appearing on US postage stamps. In doing so, he states that he has never seen an episode of The Simpsons. I'm not sure how this is possible. How out of touch can you be as to have never seen what is arguably the most popular television show in American history?

A Nation of Laws

2009-04-24T09:42:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you all, but I am currently enjoying the argument put forward by our friends on the right that prosecuting, or even investigating the Bush lawyers who fundamental misinterpreted the law enough that they authorized torture would be a "political" prosecution because they had their interpretation of the law and you have yours - who's right and who's wrong is a political question. It has been noted elsewhere that these same people are among those that heartily cheered on the Clinton investigations in the 1990s, which, as you know, were not political in any way.

I also love the way that these same people who want to wave the flag and call the brave CIA torturers heroes cannot quite bring themselves to actually use the word torture. Euphemisms fly fast and furious on the right, and I have yet to see any of them come out and say "damn right we tortured the bastard and we should do it again!" Bravery, indeed.

At Least the Dishes Will Get Washed, No?

2009-04-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

I got this email from a concerned member of our society, I thought I'd pass it along:

D----- just sent out this list of all of the people we are hiring for the economic stimulus deferred maintenance projects. 62 men and 1 woman. I know there may be a factor that women might just prefer not to go into trades work and probably the vast majority of people who submitted applications were men. I just wonder what kind of effect it will have on society. Most of this economic stimulus money is for construction-related projects and 99% of the people being hired will be men. Are 99% of the people that have been laid off in the last year men? If not, we'll have a much larger percentage of unemployed women than men. Will that have some unintended/unforseen consequences or does it not really matter? Is just reducing unemployment quickly the most important thing? Have people been talking about this in all of the media that I rarely bother paying attention too?

The AP, Now Practically Euphamism Free

2009-04-23T07:49:00.000-07:00

Rice OK'd CIA waterboard request as Bush adviser

By PAMELA HESS – 9 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — As national security adviser to former President George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice verbally approved the CIA's request to subject alleged al-Qaida terrorist Abu Zubaydah to waterboarding in July 2002, the earliest known decision by a Bush administration official to OK use of the ~~simulated drowning~~ torture technique.

Rice's role was detailed in a narrative released Wednesday by the Senate Intelligence Committee. It provides the most detailed timeline yet for how the CIA's ~~harsh interrogation~~ torture program was conceived and approved at the highest levels in the Bush White House.

The new timeline shows that Rice played a greater role than she admitted last fall in written testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The narrative also shows that dissenting legal views about ~~the severe interrogation methods~~ torture were brushed aside repeatedly.

The Intelligence Committee's timeline comes a day after the Senate Armed Services Committee released an exhaustive report detailing direct links between the CIA's ~~harsh interrogation~~ torture program and abuses of prisoners at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in Afghanistan and at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

Both revelations follow President Barack Obama's release of internal Bush administration legal memos that justified the use of ~~severe methods~~ torture by the CIA, a move that kicked up a firestorm from ~~opposing sides of the ideological spectrum~~ the rest of the world.

According to the new narrative, which compiles legal advice provided by the Bush administration to the CIA, Rice personally conveyed the administration's approval for waterboarding of Zubaydah, a so-called high-value detainee, to then-CIA Director George Tenet in July 2002.

Last fall, Rice acknowledged to the Senate Armed Services Committee only that she had attended meetings where the CIA ~~interrogation~~ torture request was discussed and asked for the attorney general to conduct a legal review. She said she did not recall details. Rice omitted her direct role in approving the torture program in her written statement to the committee.

A spokesman for Rice declined comment when reached Wednesday.

Days after Rice gave Tenet the nod, the Justice Department approved the use of waterboarding in a top secret Aug. 1 memo. Zubaydah underwent waterboarding at least 83 times in August 2002.

In the years that followed, according to the narrative issued Wednesday, there were numerous internal legal reviews of the program, suggesting government attorneys raised concerns that the ~~harsh methods~~ torture, particularly waterboarding, might violate federal laws against torture and the U.S. Constitution and the Geneva Convention and several other international laws.

But Bush administration lawyers continued to validate the program. The CIA voluntarily dropped the use of waterboarding, which has a long history as a torture tactic, from its arsenal of techniques after 2005.

According to the two Senate reports, CIA lawyers first presented the plan to waterboard Zubaydah to White House lawyers in April 2002, a few weeks after his capture in Pakistan. Tenet wrote in his memoir that CIA officers themselves originated the idea.

In May 2002, Rice, along with then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales met at the White House with the CIA to discuss the use of waterboarding.

The Armed Services Committee report says that six months earlier, in December 2001, the Pentagon's legal office already had made inquiries about the use of mock interrogation and detention tactics to a U.S. military training unit that schools armed forces personnel in how to endure ~~harsh treatment~~ torture. A former intelligence official said Wednesday the CIA officers also based their proposed ~~harsh interrogations~~ torture on the mock interrogation methods used by the unit. He declined to be identified because the CIA had not authorized the disclosure of the information.

In July 2002, responding to a follow-up from the Pentagon general counsel's office, officials at the training unit, the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, detailed their methods for the Pentagon. The list included waterboarding.

But the training unit warned that ~~harsh physical techniques~~ torture could backfire by making prisoners more resistant. They also cautioned about the reliability of information gleaned from ~~the severe methods~~ torture and warned that the public and political backlash could be "intolerable."

"A subject in extreme pain may provide an answer, any answer or many answers in order to get the pain to stop," the training officials said in their memo.

Less than a week later, the Justice Department issued two legal opinions that sanctioned the CIA's ~~harsh interrogation~~ torture program. The memos appeared to draw deeply on the survival school data provided to the Pentagon to show that the CIA's methods would not cross the line into torture.

The opinion concluded that the ~~harsh interrogation~~ torture methods would be acceptable for use on terror detainees because the same techniques did not cause severe physical or mental pain to U.S. military students who were tested in the government's carefully controlled training program.

Several people from the survival program objected to the use of their mock interrogations in battlefield settings. In an October 2002 e-mail, a senior Army psychologist told personnel at Guantanamo Bay that the methods were inherently dangerous and students were sometimes injured, even in a controlled setting.

"The risk with real detainees is increased exponentially," he said.

Nevertheless, for the next two years, the CIA and military officials received ~~interrogation~~ torture training and direct ~~interrogation~~ torture support from JPRA trainers.

Last week, the Obama administration's top intelligence official, Dennis Blair, privately told intelligence employees that "high value information" was obtained through the ~~harsh interrogation~~ torture techniques. However, on Tuesday, in a written statement, Blair said, "The information gained from these techniques was valuable in some instances, but there is no way of knowing whether the same information could have been obtained through other means."

Der

2009-04-22T08:38:00.000-07:00

Headline in Emerald today:
SPORTS FANS LINKED TO SEXISM

AFT-Oregon Per Capita Taxes

2009-04-20T11:14:00.000-07:00

That's Glenn's America

2009-04-16T09:09:00.000-07:00

How is it that I didn't know Glenn Beck was having a tea party at the Alamo yesterday? Apparently, he thought it the most appropriate place int he world. I agree, what place could be more appropriate than a landmark commemorating the brave struggle of the independent Texas Republic to succeed from Mexico in order to maintain slavery? And lose?

What the heck could be more American than that?