text:
Posts published in April 2006
Where it hits hard
This is where people get really upset about regulation, and you can understand why . . .
Baker City is out there by its own self, quite a distance from other communities. I-84 runs through it, but the 10,000 people of Baker are a distinct community - about 40 minutes from La Grande, the nearest community of similar size, and well over an hour from Ontario. You drive over substantial mountains to get to anywhere else, and those roads - this includes the freeway - get tricky at various points in the winter.
Baker City, and Baker County for that matter, has one movie theatre, the Eltrym Theatre, and you just know that's an important fixture in town. A lot of small-town theatres like it have closed over the years, but the Eltrym has stayed afloat. And now the big movie season, summer, is just about to begin . . .
Maybe. The theatre apparently hasn't met fire safety water sprinkler codes, hasn't for some years, and now the Baker City Council has given its owner until June 30 to at least come up with a plan to meet the requirements. (We're not belittling that; yes, we know about the fires that have taken lives in firetrap buildings.) If the requirements are strictly adhered to, there's a good chance that the owner might just walk away, and the theatre may close.
You get the feeling that a lot of people in Baker are going to be very unhappy if there's not a serious attempt to find some ground everyone can live with . . .
Cantwell, McGavick and oil
What seems undisputed in the contentious world of oil and gas is that we're running out. The exact moment of peak and decline seems yet to be the subject of some dispute, but evidently by the time we hit two decades or so hence, the United States, and the world, we will have a whole lot less oil to burn.
This leads to an obvious conclusion: Unless we want to de-evolve our society (as most of us do not), we should be getting about the business of developing new technology, so that our cars can run and houses be heated from sources other than petroleum. This is neither a stretch nor unrealistic, and any number of specialists have said that the economic pressure for it happen will occur once gas reaches a certain price point; $5 a gallon is often banied about. That, of course, suggests we have no free will or insight or initaitive to act before then, and simply develop the tech because we can see what's coming in the future of oil.
That, we'd suggest, is the logical backdrop to the rising political dispute over our spiking gas prices, those being the immediate sympton of a bigger problem. Watch for the rare politician who looks further ahead than this month's crisis: You may need to go on an expedition to find one.
That doesn't necessarily invalidate the short-range stuff; it instead puts it in its place. While to one extent or another, the rise in gas prices over the last generation was going to happen and is going to continue, the immediate details are not necessarily irrelevant.
Oil and gas spiked unexpectedly and interestingly in an Oregon Republican gubernatorial debate, and that may be worth revisiting. But nowhere in the Northwest has oil and gas become so central to politics as in the still-emerging Senate race in Washington. (more…)
Simple and stark
Strange that the wonders of the Internet have been so lightly tapped, so far, for sending political messages. Anyone with some imagination, some desktop video production skill (granted, it helps to be under voting age in this category) and a net connection can, with a little effort, produce an on-line message that can be circulated far and wide. All those joke and video spots you get in email from friends? Why aren't politicians using the same approach for their campaigns? It would cost them next to nothing.
The key ingredient is the water-cooler quality of the thing, the spiciness that makes you want to share with friends. Most political spots are too boring and predictable for that. But every so often, someone rediscovers the potential.
One of the best such of this cycle is a new video spot by Idaho 1st House District candidate Keith Johnson, posted on his web site, and probably to be redistributed broadly. In common with most good net video features, it is simple and targeted. Against a black background, and over a bed of light bluegrass music, you see this message:
"I am Keith Johnson and I am running for Congress. I have never . . . relied on out of state donors to bankroll my campaign . . . shut down the legislature for a publicity stunt . . . attended a liberal Democratic fundraiser in New York City. My opponents have. Enough said."
Bang. It will get Johnson talked about, which is what his campaign needs at the moment.
Meanwhile, the targets of his jabs have an opportunity to consider their replies . . .
No gay rights initiative in Washington?
Some indications that Tim Eyman, Washington's king of the initiative, may be falling short in his effort to put a measure on the ballot to reverse this year's legislative passage of a gay rights bill.
If so, that would be a remarkable failure - up there with the voter rejection of the transportation package initiative last year. But if the numbers released so far are accurate, the proposal seems headed for the reject pile rather than the ballot. A rundown of the stats can be found at the Horse's Ass blog.
Eyman, it should be noted as well, seems more focused on his I-917 measure on the state car tabs rate.
Finkbeiner implications
Qualifies as a political stunner, the announcement Friday by Washington state Senator Bill Finkbeiner that he will not run for re-election this year.
The implications are large, but of a piece with developments already underway.
The surprise comes in part from the way Finkbeiner, a Republican who has voted conservative enough to become his party's floor leader, seemed this year to tailor his legislative record to his district, on gay rights and other matters. His district, he seemed to suggest, was moving, was less and less conservative, and he had to respond. Usually you don't do that if you're planning to retire anyway.
Republican Representative Toby Nixon, plans to run for Finkbeiner's seat, and Finkbeiner quickly endorsed him.
But the announcement was treated as a big deal - former state Republican Chair Chris Vance called it "That's terrible, terrible news for the Republicans" - and there's something to that view. You get a hint of it in Finkbeiner's quote: "It's always better to go out at the top of your game, and that's where I am now." (more…)
Of all the crimes
How does something like this happen? Just consider the lead sentence from this Associated Press story: "The administrator of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission resigned Thursday, five days after being arrested and charged with drunken and reckless driving."
Police said that when the administrator, Teresa Kaiser, was stopped at Portland, she showed a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit.
And she not only worked for but headed the state liquor commission?
Someone, somewhere, ought to be doing some hard thinking about this one . . .
The public investment
There's a remarkable subtext to the Thursday decision by Seattle Judge Greg Canova in the case of the warring Seattle dailies: That not only the owners of those newspapers have a legitimate stake in the outcome.
This is not the norm in business litigation, when one business sues another and a court has to decide. The usual theory is that, unless a public (governmental) organization is involved in the case, the matter is fundamentally simply between the two parties. The workings of the court and the documents submitted to it ordinarily are public, but that's mainly because a public entity - the court - is involved as decision-maker. If amazon.com were to sue Microsoft, where would be the public's seat at the table? Probably nowhere.
But would that be right? Millions of people have a major stake in both corporations' activities. Maybe the public, or some version of it, should be at the table too.
Judge Canova might or might not streatch the point that far. But something similar seemed to underlie his decision.
The situation is that Seattle's two daily newspapers, the Times and the Post-Intelligencer, are locked in a joint operating agreement; the owners of the Times want to end the agreement, while the owners of the P-I say that if it is ended, their newspaper might die. The battle, stretching over years already, has been intense. A month ago they announced they had agreed to submit the case to an arbitrator who would make a decision in a year or so, and that they would abide by it. (The proceedings leading up to the decision would be closed, though the decision itself and its rationale would be released.) They asked Canova to put the legal case on ice until the arbitrator acts.
Canova refused. He pointed out that the litigation also had a third party, the Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town (a group of newspaper employees), and that it had an interest in the case too. It too had a right to litigate, he suggested. His reasoning suggested that interests beyond those of the business owners are at stake.
An opinion to review, and consider.
Ongoing Discoveries
Noteworthy followup story in the Seattle Times on intelligent design, and more specifically on Seattle's Discovery Institute, which has been its leading national proponent.
The article's basic point is that the campaign for ID was dealt a serious blow in last year's federal court decision in Dover, Pennsylvania, holding that the teaching was essentially religion, not science - as the Institute has proclaimed.
Most striking quote in the story, from no less than Rush Limbaugh: "The people pushing intelligent design believe in the biblical version of creation. Intelligent design is a way, I think, to sneak it into the curriculum and make it less offensive to the liberals." Which, as he seems to suggest, didn't work.
Regionally, what does that suggest for the Discovery Institute itself? Spokesmen note that the Institute didn't suggest the Dover officials teach intelligent design, only "the controversy" surrounding it - but that seems a thin distinction.
This might suggest the large institute, which has a wide range of research territory far afield from creation, might reorient itself. And yet that might be difficult too. The Times again: "Discovery Institute funders, including the Maclellan Foundation in Chattanooga, Tenn., have open religious agendas. Another donor, the Stewardship Foundation of Tacoma, says it 'provides resources to Christ-centered organizations whose mission is to share their faith in Jesus Christ.' Its founder, the late David Weyerhaeuser, was also interested in science, Meyer said."
Its researchers seem to know what they want to find.


Classic and elegant, the heart is a symbol of love, captured in these solid ear posts that reflect an air of grace and understated style.
I had first looked at these online and wasn't to impressed but when I saw them in the store i fell in love with them they are beautiful and had to have them. The picture online dose not do them justice they are absolutely gorgeous.
I bought these a year ago and they are my favortie earrings. I wear them everyday and I love that if I sleep with them on they don't bother.
Let's start off by saying that the photo does nothing for these earrings and worried me a bit, but the other reviewers were correct...they are, like one should expect from JA, very nice, well made and packaged, promptly shipped.
If you wear the "old school" style of a pair of studs in your second piercing on your ear, you should def consider these...they are simply the perfect size, leaving plenty of room for your other pair in the lower piercing.
My bf bought these for me for Christmas. I love them so much! They are comfortable and I can sleep in them with no problem and they go with everything!!! These earrings are my first piece of jewelry from James Avery and they wont be my last!
Last Christmas, I got some money and I decided I was going to spend some of it at James Avery(: After looking online, I saw these heart earrings and I knew I had to have them. I wear them all the time now, I hardly ever take them off, they are very comfotable. They don't ever poke me or feel uncomfortable. I've gotten many compliments on them, and I'm so happy I bought them! The price is also very reasonable for such great earrings!
These tiny little hearts are great. I can put them on and even if I don't change them for a few days, at least I haven't left the piercing of my ear lobe showing. I can comfortably sleep in them and they look good, too.
My four year old granddaughter LOVES these earrings...the end of the post is "rounded" and so nothing jabs her any longer. They are precious for little girls.