Election: Teabaggers brewing trouble

Rand Paul, who won a Kentucky Senate seat, called his victory part of a "Tea Party tidal wave."

Make that a little back-splash in the bathtub by a pouting toddler.

The high-profile teabaggers in Nevada, Delaware, New York and elsewhere were all trounced.

The House, though, will have its fair share of teabaggers who could block John Boehner from becoming speaker. Michelle Bachmann, a complete wacko, may try for the post. Hope she gets it so that Americans can see the real face of the teabagging movement.

The diehard teabaggers have a wonderful platform: repeal health care reform, get rid of the minimum wage, privatize or eliminate social security, make English our official language and Christianity the official religion, wall off our borders and nuke Iran.

Is everybody happy now?

Well, the multi-millionaires - Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina and Linda McMahon - are not. They got fleeced at the polls.

Whitman, by wasting $140 million of her own stash on her ego, is a disgrace to the human race.

Imagine what $140 million could do for those truly in need. Despicable.

Same goes for Fiorina and McMahon.

Another multi-millionaire, Chris Dudley, is leading the race for governor of Oregon by 20,000 votes over Democrat John Kitzhaber. However, most of the remaining votes, about 19 percent, come from the most populous county, Multnomah, which is breaking for Kitzhaber by a 2-1 margin.

Hope the sensible folks of Portland save our state from the embarrassment of electing a former basketball bench warmer as governor.

Finally, Republican Dino Rossi appears to be a loser yet again, this time against Sen. Patty Murray (D) in Washington state. This will be his third statewide defeat.

Yo, Dino. Get a life, loser.

Smartphone tidal wave

For the vast majority of Americans who are perfectly happy with their "dumbphones," your days are numbered.

Check out this link that shows an LG smartphone running Google's Android 2.2 (Froyo) on T-Mobile going for $30 with a two-year commitment. (Sidenote: A Wall Street Journal poll shows far greater satisfaction with Android than with Apple's iPhone.)

If you thought you had a great cell-phone plan with your dumbphone, it's time to think again.

The move to a smartphone, and its corresponding increase in monthly fees to the tune of $30, means that your cell phone bills won't get cheaper, but far more expensive.

Also, the network will get so congested that your smartphone will act like a dumbphone.

This is one of the great under-reported stories in America. We have all these wonderful phones that can't do much on our existing networks.

In this bogus attempt to "let the market decide," we end up with the worst networks in the industrialized world.

South Korea, Japan and even China have better networks than we have in this country. And yes, we are way behind Europe as well.

It's funny that those who want to look hip by carrying around an iPhone, need to use a Verizon phone to actually make phone calls that don't drop in mid-sentence.

This is the problem in America. We have more hype than substance, more sizzle than steak.

But, it's something we can text each other about, when we're not driving.

Good riddance, Juan Williams

NPR finally got rid of an "earsore" in Juan Williams for his bigoted comments about Muslims.

The problem is that they should have done this years ago when he compromised journalistic ethics by working for Fox News.

Fox News is to news what the People's Daily is to freedom of the press.

Also, Fox News parent, News Corp., donates millions to Republican candidates.

Fair and balanced?

Not a chance.

There is no news on Fox, just commentary. That's fine, but journalism, and the word is stretched here to apply to commercial television, is more about reporting the news than bloviating about it.

Was it censorship as Williams claims? No. Can an entity that receives government funding fire someone for their opinions? Yes. Read this short piece at Salon for an explanation.

Williams' other main problem is that he's a bi-analyst. He swings both ways. On NPR, he'll give opinions that he thinks a liberal audience wants to hear and on Fox he says stuff that ultra-conservatives love.

In essence, has no moral compass. He has few principles that money can easily buy.

Finally, Williams is totally overrated as a political analyst.

When Ray Suarez left NPR's "Talk of the Nation" to work on the News Hour on PBS, Williams came in and he wasn't very good. He was no Ray Suarez, who is the best interviewer on radio or television.

Williams found out that words matter.

The sad thing is that he is whining all the way to the bank.

Oregon No. 6 for business

Oregon, in spite of raising income taxes on the rich, keeps getting noticed for being a good place for business. Last month, Bend ranked No. 7 in Forbes magazine for being one of the best small places to do business.

Now, Forbes ranks Oregon No. 6 out of the 50 states for being great for business and careers, moving up four spots after passing our tax hikes. Our neighbor to the north, which has no state income tax, ranks No. 5.

Check out this story, which contains a brilliant quote from a spokesman for Our Oregon, a non-profit group promoting "economic and tax fairness," who said that corporate interests always bad-mouth Oregon's business climate.

"They have an interest in creating and in spreading this false and toxic rumor that Oregon is bad for business," said Scott Moore. "Because by doing that they then lobby the legislature for even lower taxes on business."

So true.

That is why Chris Dudley has a chance at being Oregon's first Republican governor in 25 years. His sole platform is too cut capital gains taxes on the rich, which in turn will make life more miserable for the desperate and the destitute in this state.

Oh, and Dudley wants to privatize the sale of hard liquor. For some reason, Republicans have long considered the state control of hard liquor sales as one of the greatest attacks on our freedoms.

The freedom to be alcoholics.

Dudley and other Republicans running for office believe that government can't create jobs but say they are running for office to create jobs.

Huh?

As I've noted before in other blog posts, Oregon's economy has always been weak because we have few direct connections to the federal trough aside from county timber payments which are always on the chopping block. We have no military bases and we have few defense contractors.

And yet, as the article points out, businesses are moving to, or expanding in, Oregon.

Intel announced this week that it'll expand its operations in Hillsboro, a Portland suburb, to the tune of $3.5 billion.

Vestas, the wind energy giant, is moving its world headquarters to Portland.

Hi-Tec shoes is moving its U.S. headquarters from California to Portland.

Oregon has always bent over for business and that is another reason why the economy has never been strong in this state. When business runs the government, they just raid the treasury and then turn around and say government is bloated and must lose weight. Huh?

Fat cats get really fat at government, and taxpayers', expense.

Newspapers back Kitzhaber

Twelve of the 14 "major" newspapers in Oregon are backing Democrat John Kitzhaber because these editors can see the obvious: Kitzhaber is qualified while his Republican opponent, Chris Dudley, is not.

The two newspapers that endorsed Dudley are The (Bend) Bulletin and The (Salem) Statesman Journal.

(The Bulletin further diminished whatever credibility it had left by being the only "major" paper endorsing Republican/Libertarian Jim Huffman over Ron Wyden for the U.S. Senate. Maybe the daily should be called Teabagging Times.)

It should be noted that the Statesman Journal is a Gannett newspaper and the publisher of The Bulletin is Gordon Black, a former, longtime Gannett henchman.

Gannett also publishes USA Today, which is known in the business as "Useless Today."

Of course, a newspaper endorsement is essentially meaningless these days, but 12 of 14?

The discerning dozen represent liberal areas, such as Portland and Eugene, and also conservative regions, such as Medford and Pendleton.

As usual, there is no story on television station endorsements because they rarely, if ever, make endorsements. Not they matter anyway. Besides, almost all campaign money is spent on television ads and no TV station would want to offend a potential advertiser and lose their business by endorsing one candidate over another.

Still, it's ridiculous that a non-entity like Dudley, a former NBA second-stringer, is the best the GOP has to offer against Kitzhaber, who is a former emergency room doctor, state representative, president of the state Senate and two-term governor.

But, it shows what a massive amount of money will do. Dudley has avoided all but one debate with Kitzhaber and it's obvious why: He may stand taller, but he is really short on any experience remotely connected to leadership.

Let's hope these newspapers are right and that Oregonians vote for the real thing instead of a poser like Dudley.

Falling home prices give Bend new ranking

Bend is always making some sort of top 10 list for either the fastest appreciating or fastest depreciating home prices.

Well, Bankrate.com now rates Bend in the top 10 for to retire because of the cratering home prices.

In an article titled "10 Great Places to Retire in the U.S.," the writer says "Bend rank among both the 'top 10 four-season towns' and 'top 10 mountain towns.'"

Well, I'm not sure about this "four-season" status, but we are experiencing a beautiful fall right now with leaves turning brilliant colors of red, yellow and amber.

Spring usually passes in a blink between winter and summer and it's not worth planting tomatoes until June 1.

Cold temperatures are common from October into May, be we can have surprisingly mild Januarys. Still, last December we had temps as low as 17 degrees below zero, which was the coldest we've seen in our 26 years here. It does snow in Bend, but, a white Christmas is the exception and not the rule. We've had only one real snowy winter and that was 18 years ago.

Hot summer days are usually confined to July and August and the temperature rarely breaks 100 degrees.

Because we are a mountain/high desert town, cool nights are standard throughout the year. In fact, we can have 50-degree temperature swings in a single day.

But, the air is usually crisp and clean, except for those rare inversions that trap smoke from wood stoves in winter or when fire season blazes away in August.

The weather here does have great variety, though, sometimes all in one day.

The story also says Bend attracts "active retirees" and that is certainly true because of the skiing and hiking opportunities, not to mention fishing and hunting.

But, the real reason Bankrate.com takes notice of Bend is the falling home prices. The median price dropped from around $400,000 in 2006 to around $200,000 today.

But, with stories like this one from Bankrate.com it won't take long for Bend to attract more retirees, which will eventually push up the price of homes and then make Bend unaffordable and unattractive once again.

Ducks No. 1 for first time ever

When a No. 1 team loses, as did Ohio State on Saturday, the No. 2 team usually moves up a spot, but you never know with polls.

What's shocking is that it is the Oregon Ducks who were No. 2, but are now No. 1 in both major polls, AP (writers) and USA Today (coaches). Later Sunday, the Ducks were ranked No. 1 in the Harris poll.

It's never happened before to a team from this state. It's a major milestone. The last time a new team (Virginia) reached No. 1 in the major polls was 20 years ago. It's a spot usually occupied by the major football powerhouses.

Oregon has arrived, but not all the way.

It has yet to play for the national championship and the first BCS poll, a confounding system using multiple computer models which determines who plays for the penultimate college game, puts Oregon second behind Oklahoma.

To play in the championship game, the Ducks would need to go undefeated and have all SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 teams have at least one loss. Otherwise, the Ducks don't have a chance.

But forget that now. There has never been a true national champion in college football because there has never been a playoff system to determine the best team.

The Ducks are No. 1, though, in the hearts and minds of most college observers. That's quite a turnaround from Oregon's mostly dismal past.

I moved to Oregon in 1984, a year after the 0-0 "Toilet Bowl" game between Oregon and Oregon State. Neither team was distinguishable from the other and both made the Bottom 10 poll for years.

To see the Ducks make the long, unsteady climb to this point is amazing.

Congratulations to all associated with the program, especially the long-suffering fans. Enjoy it while you can.

Because it could all end Thursday when lowly UCLA comes to Eugene for a night game. Hey, the Bruins dominated Texas, which just took down Nebraska.

Three years ago, Oregon was ranked No. 2 and then saw it all unravel in a Thursday night game against Arizona in Tucson when QB Dennis Dixon went down for the year.

Injuries could play another major role as the Ducks play USC a week after UCLA and those two teams always have recruiting classes rated much higher than Oregon has ever had. That means that UCLA and USC have bigger, faster, and perhaps better, players than Oregon does.

Here's hoping that Oregon escapes the injury bug this season although they had serious close calls with two key players when they whipped Washington State last week.

Being ranked No. 1 enlarges the target on your back and everyone wants to take their best shot at you. The Ducks will find out that holding on to that spot is even harder than making it to the top.

Go Ducks!

You're No. 1, at least for this week.