Category: seriously

Thanks to the mammoth pile of studying Michelle did in preparation, she’s passed the Oregon State Bar Exam!

Were there any news stories you heard about that just never developed? What did ever happen regarding the Energy Task Force suits, or, well, a bunch of other fairly closely related things dealing with money, petroleum, and environmental health? Well, they probably made Sonoma State University’s Project Sensored 2005 list. Read ’em and weep, as they say.

Ralph Nader, possibly the only person who has displayed a lifelong willingness to fight bad companies (see earlier post), has been shunted off the Oregon Presidential Ballot this fall. I really like Ralph Nader, and really doubt that he’s a threat to John Kerry. The fact that he was a detriment to Al Gore in the first place was a very bad sign for the candidate.

I really dislike how democrats are treating someone who has done more for the causes they supposedly support for so long. And I really dislike the signature trading, name on ballot blocking, and general scurviness of both parties lately. Seems they could both use the jackass for a logo. Oooh – or better – the parts left over from the push-me-pull-you.

As Oregon public employees know, the public retirement system took a nasty hit when fraudulent giants Enron and Worldcom fell. Why our public retirement fund was so heavily invested in such short-term, quick-buck companies baffles me, but none less, I really can’t expect to depend on the public retirement system if they continue to invest in bad companies.

But what are bad companies, and who are they? I suppose for starters you could look for companies that do business with rogue nations. I’m not sure how I feel about the branding, but if we as a country decide that it is illegal to do business with these folks, then we should sure as hell make sure that companies like Haliburton, General Electric, and Phillips-Conoco either stop doing business with them, or suffer the financial consequences.

A recent CBS News article looks at these companies, and points out the almost seamless connection between these companies and projects that undermine both the security of our country and breaks our own laws. I suppose the mail does get routed through an office in the Cayman Islands, but that still doesn’t make for a very sound long term investment.

And speaking of sound, long term investments, Social Security won’t work for us either. A friend of mine has been showing me regression curves and calculated returns on our SS payments, and it looks grim. Neither of us expect that Social Security will do anything for us but cost. And we’re mostly OK with that. Chris would understandably like to invest that money elsewhere. And Pres. Bush would like him to be able to do that too. And I’m not totally opposed to it either. In theory, the return would be greater if invested elsewhere, which would help pay for all those old people, and allow us to look forward to somethign. But I have these irrational fears that investing SS money elsewhere could be dangerous. Why? Because of bad companies.

Supposedly there have been crackdowns on being a bad company. Even Haliburton is under scrutiny for the time during Veep Cheney’s tenure. Something ought to come of all this because we’ll be in even worse of a pickle if we start spreading the money around and companies behave the same as they have lately. Heck – we’d be in the same shape as my public retirement fund.

The president is in town today to drum up support for his re-election. This morning he pledged $15 million for dredging the Columbia River.

“By deepening the channel from 40 to 43 feet, it will create new export opportunities of Columbia River ports will help our farmers and ranchers, it will help our manufacturers remain competitive, it will protect and restore jobs, really good paying jobs and will help to restore the river’s eco-system,”

In yet another display of his complete lack of understanding of all issues environmental, he seems to think that removing part of the eco-system by dredging, putting it somewhere else, stirring up a century worth of pollution, and increasing traffic on the river will somehow improve the ecosystem.

Environmental issues aside, how can $15 million dollars possibly be enough to fund such a massive undertaking? That’s a lot of silt, much of which probably shouldn’t be used for residential purposes.

Vice President Cheney visited Portland briefly to raise funds for local GOP candidates. His rather windy speech included some very poignant and appropriate words:

“What this President has accomplished in three-and-a-half years is remarkable, but the danger has not passed. The threat remains…”

I’m sure I’ve taken his words out of context. What he’s accomplished is the danger. What he could do is the threat.

Sadly, the wording of the questions in the Q&A session that followed the speech were so tightly crafted that they’re nearly impossible to make fun of. The only truly funny part is when the VP answers a question about the No Child Left Behind Act and how it “harkens back to the President’s experience in Texas.”

What a gem of a corporate fraud reference – Harken … President … Texas. Did some speech writer have a freudian slip, or were they so exhausted after writing both the questions and responses for the event?

I answered the phone to a person asking for a public opinion poll. I’m always wondering where they find all these people when I see the results of these polls, so I thought I’d participate.

It was somewhat embarrassing that the call was about a state congress-people for my district, and I had no idea who they were. So I answered truthfully. It was fun. What made it fun was the hearing the way the questions were worded about issues important in Multnomah County.

The questions often omitted how one of the candidates would have voted on hot issues like gay marriage, taxes, and logging. Not only that, the questions seemed way to simple and loaded to be of much use, but I’m sure it was intentional.

So now you know when you see a local public opinion poll about “the issues,” I’m one of the idiots that took part. Maybe its only me that takes comfort in that.

My friend Chris introduced me to McSweeney’s periodicals back in college. He still buys the print versions, but I just occasionally visit their site. Today I found their Daily List of Reasons to Dispatch Bush. They’re all pretty damning, but this is my favorite quote so far from my new hero, Ronald Reagan Jr.:

“The former president’s son has voiced his criticism of the Bush administration in the past. In 2000, at a Republican convention in Philadelphia, he asked of Bush: “What’s his accomplishment? That he’s no longer an obnoxious drunk?”

and

In addition, during an interview with Salon.com, he said, “The Bush people have no right to speak for my father, particularly because of the position he’s in now. Yes, some of the current policies are an extension of the 80’s. But the overall thrust of this administration in not my father’s — these people are overly reaching, overly aggressive, overly secretive and just plain corrupt. I don’t trust these people.”

Its no secret that I dislike George & Dick. I feel that most of what they have done in the last 4 years has been without regard to the consequences of those actions. I’m not saying they don’t consider the consequences, I’m saying they make a concerted effort to ignore them, because by the time its a problem, they won’t be around for questioning.

The most recent activity includes asking churches to effectively campaign for Bush/Cheney ’04. You can read the article for the details, but there is no doubt in my mind that there will be congregations that are so riddled with fear of a catholic, gay-loving president that they will break their tax-exempt status to campaign outright. The campaign themselves aren’t worried because it won’t affect them – they never told anyone to campaign for them. But they didn’t draw any lines for what kind of behavior would remove tax exempt status. If there ever were law-suits, they would move just as quickly as the suit for the Cheney Energy Task Force attendees has gone. That was over 3 years ago. I hope the congregations that get these invitations to promote Bush will see him for what he is.

Imagine a place where an acerbic criticism of the President can be viewed freely. Then imagine a place where the people can be duped into war. Amazingly, its the same place.

Do me a favor and see Fahrenheit 9/11. Especially if you voted for Bush. Especially if you plan to again. If, after seeing it you still want to vote for him, please… please tell me why.