Current affairs

I always feel like applauding a watchdog group that barks noisily when our so-called “public servants” are engaging in some shenanigans. So I will: clap, clap, clap to Friends of Marion County and their hard-working president, Roger Kaye, for catching the Salem City Council in what appears to be a conflict of interest cover-up.

Yesterday the Statesman-Journal reported that revisions to Salem’s annexation rules would be put on hold until January as a result of Roger’s efforts. Some background: In 2000 Salemites voted to approve annexations of land into the city. Presently city rules require that developers tell people how they plan to use the property that they want to have annexed.

This makes sense. Before voting on whether to bring a parcel into the city, wouldn’t you want to know what was going to be done with it? An ugly commercial strip mall is one thing; a creatively designed sustainable community is quite another thing.

However, now that more conservative city council members have replaced the progressive Mayor Swaim-era councilors, common sense is giving way to corporate interests. The council has been considering making changes to the annexation rules that would much reduce the information given to voters about a proposed development.

That’s fine, so long as the changes are made in an aboveboard manner. But Friends of Marion County revealed at a Monday City Council meeting that several councilors, plus Mayor Janet Taylor, have failed to disclose that they received substantial donations from the Colson & Colson Construction Co. which—no big surprise—would benefit from a revision to the annexation rules.

I’ll include a copy of Roger Kaye’s letter to Mayor Taylor and the City Council for the interest of Salem land use junkies. Laurel is a board member of Friends of Marion County and has been following this issue, along with other Measure 37 related matters. The battle is just beginning over whether short-term financial gain or the long-term public interest will be the centerpiece of land use planning in Oregon.

We hope very much for the latter. But this will only happen if elected officials vote to do the right thing, rather than what will bring them the most campaign contributions.

Over the weekend I was aghast to read a brief mention of House speaker Dennis Hasterts’s new atrocious policy: only allow votes on bills that are supported by a majority of the Republican majority. Good god.

It was bothersome enough to think that we’ll have at least two more years of Republicans ruling Congress. But there was some consolation in knowing that this would be rule by a democratically elected majority.

Now Hastert is planning to allow a minority of House representatives to call the shots, since 51% of Republicans could stymie a bill that has the support of 49% of Republicans and 100% of Democrats. He would rather trash democracy and bipartisanship to avoid the prospect of, heavens, a bill passing because of Democrat votes.

If you want to let Hastert know what you think, send him a message.

Here’s a copy of a Washington Post article on the subject. I placed it in an extended post so people could read it (and weep) without registering at washingtonpost.com.

The last thing Laurel said last night before she went to sleep was, “We’ve got to move to Canada.” And the first thing she said upon waking up this morning was, “I’m going to stay in bed all day with the sheets pulled up over my head.” Diagnosis: severe post-election-stress syndrome. No doubt lots of other Kerry supporters are feeling the same way today. I’m in a bit better shape than Laurel, but I’m scheduled for my annual physical exam this afternoon and had to be honest when I filled out the “Review of Systems” section on the Patient Health…

I’ve made the rounds of quite a few sites that predict the outcome of the presidential race. My favorite, because it is the geekiest (and consequently, most believable) is the geekly named "Electoral College Meta-Analysis." It’s the product of a Princeton professor whose specialties are biophysics and neuroscience. Dr. Wang says that he makes heavy use of probability and statistics in analyzing complex experimental data, so I’m ready to believe his regularly updated meta-analysis of state polls. Especially because today he is showing Kerry over Bush, 281 to 257 (with undecideds included). If you visit his site, scroll down to…

I really have to start getting my mind focused on more important things in life, like the Red Sox - Yankees game tonight (every fall I briefly become a baseball fan for the seventh game of championship series). But first I’ve got to share a potpourri of political postings. Wow! Maria Shriver must have taken the pledge at Votergasm.org, which I talked about yesterday, one step further. Votergasm wants people to withhold sex from non-voters, but Maria reportedly did the same for a husband who told people to vote for the wrong person. Arnold Schwarzenegger is saying that “Bush has…

The folks at Votergasm.org have come up with a brilliant idea that is sure to sway the swing(ing) voter. If you choose the “American Hero” option when you take the Votergasm Pledge, this is what you commit to: I pledge to have sex with a voter on election night and withhold sex from non-voters for the next four years. OK, sign me up, since Laurel mailed in her ballot today. Votergasm offers two other options for the less patriotic, and reveals a hitherto hidden Constitutional right in a “disclaimer” section: Per the U.S. Constitution, children conceived on election night are…

Proving that liberals are way tuned in to the Internet, Bush’s “Need some wood?” comment during tonight’s debate has spawned an instant www.needsumwood.com web site. Laurel heard the site mentioned on Air America while driving home this evening and, thankfully, remembered that “some” was spelled just as Bush probably thinks it is, or we never would have found it. Like many debate watchers I couldn’t understand what Kerry was getting at, and seemingly Bush didn’t either. Apparently in 2001 Bush did indeed get $84 in business income from his part ownership of a timber-growing enterprise. But this certainly wouldn’t make…

What a moment it was, 6:55 pm today, when I heard arch-conservative talk show host Lars Larson call in to Randi Rhodes’ arch-liberal Air America radio program. Lars and Randi are two of the most irritating people on radio, proving that pomposity, big egos, impoliteness, and ill-informed opinions can be found equally on both the left and right sides of the dial. Lars phoned to tease Randi about being “punked” by her guest the preceding hour, Patti Smith (the singer). I didn’t hear all of the interview, but got in on the end of it. They were talking about Ralph…

This is a great question, ably answered by Juan Cole in a posting with the same name on his web site, Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion. Cole is a history professor at the University of Michigan. Noting that the population of the United States is over eleven times that of Iraq, he starts his essay by multiplying statistics from Iraq by that number. “Thus violence killed 300 Iraqis last week, the equivalent proportionately of 3,300 Americans. What if 3,300 Americans had died in car bombings, grenade and mortar attacks, machine gun spray, and aerial bombardment…

Last night I got to enjoy two sides of female twenty-something accomplishment and attractiveness. First we went to a Kerry house party at Bill and Pat Dixon’s home in south Salem, the highlight of which was a spirited “Carry Oregon!” presentation by Kelsey. Kelsey is a paid staffer for the Democratic Party in the mid-Willamette valley. She explained that because of campaign finance laws, their slogan says “Carry” rather than “Kerry.” So you don’t need to call in about the misspelling, though Kelsey said that many people do. If she’s a typical Kerry/Democratic Party staffer, Bush and the Republicans have…

The incomparable Mark Morford of SFGate.com has an interesting take on election polls in his column today. He asks, who the hell could be undecided between Bush and Kerry, given the stark differences between them? And, whoever they are, how the hell could they be swayed so easily after a superficial slick slogan-filled convention (whether Democratic or Republican)? Morford gets it just right when he says, “These polls are designed solely to mangle your head and confound your synapses and elate you and titillate you and then plunge you into instant despair and then yank you back out at the…

It was nice to enter cyberspace today and find four reasons to smile. (1) Bush’s Convention Bounce. Could be just a modest two percentage points, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll. Factor in the margin of error and it could be nothing. I believe a few other post-convention polls found a bigger bounce. Given that most people already seem to have a firm idea about who to vote for, two points sounds more likely to me. Anyway, this is good news for recently down in the dumps Kerry supporters. (2) Lion Tops Tiger. You have to love it when Vijay…

Having CNN on while paying some bills has been a depressing experience. I probably should have been watching the Cartoon Channel, though the talking conservative heads at the Republican Convention certainly are equally amusing. I missed Zell Miller’s speech, but saw enough clips to realize how utterly mean-spirited and misleading he was. One commentator on CNN had a nice line: “With that speech he put ‘zealot’ back in ‘Zell.’” Laurel likes to believe that American voters will be influenced much more by facts than by rhetoric. I disagree. The hard-core voters on each end of the political spectrum clearly already…

Why is it that liberals seem to have the facts on their side, but don’t have a clear majority of voters on their side? Yesterday I came across two persuasive arguments for a simple answer: It’s the language, stupid! Liberals don’t know how to use words effectively. Conservatives do. In the July/August issue of the Sierra Club magazine there’s a fascinating article called “Winning Words” (available online). The author, Katy Butler, says: “It’s not for want of solid facts and rational arguments that the environment has lost ground, says cognitive scientist George Lakoff, author of Moral Politics: How Liberals and…

Well, that’s a gutsy title for a posting. Hopefully we won’t be getting any middle of the night knocks on the door from Homeland Security. Note to Tom Ridge: focus on the word “try” in the subject line and the unlikelihood of a real terrorist openly posting his thoughts on a weblog. Which gets at what I’ve been thinking about—the utter improbability that all of the Homeland Security alerts and efforts, both here and abroad, really are seriously disrupting Al Qaeda’s terror plans. Of course, I’m entirely willing to admit, and I certainly hope (given our upcoming travel plans), that…

After all the disgusting dysfunction, political posturing, and inane ineptitude that gets exhibited here in Salem at the capitol, it was a joy to walk by there yesterday and enjoy great displays of skill, teamwork, and sportsmanship (sportswomanship too). Of course, there wasn’t a legislator or lobbyist in sight. Which is why I saw what I did.