lastmarx's blog

Click the dollar. As a part of the whole annual budget for the City of Portland, the cost of Voter Owned Elections is actually very small. The tiny sliver of pie in the chart shows how little Voter Owned Elections would cost.
(From Oregon Follow the Money)

Democratic State Senator Ginny Burdick, who used to have a liberal rep but works for the reactionary PR firm Gard & Gerber--hired guns for the "rescind voter owned elections" campaign-- also fronts for them by running against Erik Sten. Look who's backing her and the campaign

News from the Citizens' Utility Board of Oregon: First Question First, Why do Oregon utilities dislike Portland's voter-owned elections?

The Campaign Contributions and Expenditures Reports for the upcoming May elections came out this month. On the ballot could be a measure that attempts to rescind the voter-owned elections law enacted by Portland's City Council last year. The First Things First Committee, running the campaign to end public financing of elections in Portland, is attracting some heavy-hitting financial support. Many of these supporters have ties to utility companies, either directly or indirectly.

For example, NW Natural gave $5,000, Qwest gave $7,500, Portland General Electric gave $7,500, and Stoel Rives (a law firm which often represents utilities) gave $3,500. Executives of utilities such as Dick Reiten and Kevin Lynch, and consultants for utilities such as Tom Imeson, are also contributors. And then there is the Portland Business Alliance. The PBA has many ties to Oregon utility companies: Judy Peppler, President of Qwest in Oregon is the Chair-Elect; as such, she would exercise a great deal of influence over the political agenda of the organization. In addition, the Chair Emeritus and several members at large on the Board hail from utilities such as PGE, PacifiCorp, and NW Natural. Size of the PBA check against voter-owned elections: $32,000.

The Multnomah County Democratic Central Committee voted Thursday night to endorse a congressional initiative that could result in the impeachment of President George W. Bush. By voice vote, about 60 Democratic precinct leaders supported a resolution recently introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. That resolution, which so far has attracted seven co-sponsors, calls for the establishment of a select committee to "investigate the Administration's intent to go to war before congressional authorization, manipulation of pre-war intelligence, encouraging and countenancing torture, retaliating against critics, and to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment." It is H. Res. 635, referred to the Rules Committee.

Former state senator Vern Cook, a Gresham attorney, originally introduced a more general resolution calling for the impeachment of both Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, but eventually supported the substitute motion offered by Moshe Lenske. After the meeting,attended by about 100 persons, Cook urged Oregon Democratic Representatives Earl Blumenauer and David Wu, who represent Multnomah County, to join their eight colleagues as co-sponsors of the Conyers resolution.

A former state senator will present a resolution calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney to the Multnomah County Democratic Central Committee February 9.

The resolution passed the Committee's agenda subcomittee last month.

It charges that Bush and Cheney's (1) unprovoked and misrepresented invasion of Iraq violated the UN charter, (2) their actions contrary to acts of Congress volated their oaths of office and (3) their unlawful detention and torture of prisoners violated the US Constitution, acts of Congress and the Geneva Conventions.

These actions, the Central Committee is asked to declare, reach the level of High Crimes and Misdeameanors while in office sufficient to constitute articles of impeachment before the House of Representatives.

Ron Wyden has egg on his face today. He was one of the Democrats who voted for Bush's nominee after he claimed Roberts had made him "hope"he would support Oregon's law. His sorry reliance on rightwing spin demonstrates the weakness of today's "liberals."

Mike Munk

Supreme Court Upholds Oregon Assisted Suicide Law
The Associated Press, Tuesday 17 January 2006

Washington - The Supreme Court, with Chief Justice John Roberts dissenting, upheld Oregon's one-of-a-kind physician-assisted suicide law Tuesday, rejecting a Bush administration attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die.

Justices, on a 6-3 vote, said the 1997 Oregon law used to end the lives of more than 200 seriously ill people trumped federal authority to regulate doctors.

[Roberts joined the extreme right on the court, Scalia and Thomas, in his dissent]

To the editor, The Oregonian:

President Bush has just accused citizens who "claim that we acted in Iraq because of oil, Israel or because we misled the American people" of being "dishonest."

If we think about it, Bush is slandering the great majority of the American people. How many of us actually think we would have invaded Iraq if it (1) lacked oil (2) if the US did not support Israel or (3) if Bush had not misled Congress, the media and the public into believing that Iraq was a serious threat to this country?

Michael Munk

To the editor, The Oregonian

The title of your recent "U.S. Deaths" box is misleading. In addition to close to 2,200 military deaths, it included, as it does only occasionally, 16,155 wounded. This proposal will provide readers with a more accurate and respectful understanding of the human cost to America from its current "wars of choice."

I suggest you title the box "U.S. Casualties" and regularily include the latest count of wounded by hostile action. It should also include about 200 dead American mercenaries (called "security contractors" in Pentagonese). And why do you ignore the over 100 dead and other casuaties in Afganistan?

Finally, If the "Casualties" box is to be accurate, it must also report those the Pentagon attributes to "non-hostile" causes (including those medically evacuated from the war zones for physical and mental illness) just as you do deaths from such causes-- 465 in the recent box. That total is now around 25,000, and some of them have disputed their classification.

Humberto Muez of the Inter Press Service (IPS), reporting from Venezuela, provides some evidence for Chomsky's take on international oil markets. Here are a few excerpts, go to

http://news.yahoo.com/s/oneworld/20051230/wl_oneworld/657312490311359038...

for the complete article.

Note that Venezuela's CITGO is making cheap heating oil available to poor residents of Boston and New York (The Bronx) but that Chicago has turned down its offer of cheap gas for its buses because CITGO insisted the poor should then ride free. You can support CITGO by buying its gas--closest stations are in Vancouver (at 7-11s).

CARACAS, Dec 29 (IPS) - While this year's record high oil prices are unlikely to come down in the near future, analysts are warning the world's traditional and emerging economic powers to curb consumption, saying that at the current rate, proven reserves will only meet demand up to 2030.