The battle of the special K's

It's not surprising that the local daily newspaper is tailoring its coverage of the secretary of state race to favor local boy Knute Buehler, a Republican.

The daily, about 99 percent of the time, endorses the Republican over the Democrat, even when they are proven kooks.

And since Knute is an accomplished orthopedic surgeon with a CV that includes being a Rhodes Scholar, he's a natural for the newspaper.

The only problem is that he has no experience in running for office and has never held any public office.

The GOP likes these kind of candidates. It pushed former Portland Trail Blazer Chris "Airball" Dudley against John Kitzhaber and he damn near pulled it off in 2010, a bad year for Democrats nationwide.

But, Dudley didn't win.

Still, he raised a ton of money and Knute has too by using Dudley's bag-woman. He has more money in the bank than his opponent, current Secretary of State Kate Brown.

Money matters, but the problem for Knute, aside from being a Republican in a Democratic state, is that he gets his political cues from Fox News.

When Kate ruled that the labor commissioner race would be held in November instead of May since the race is not contested in the primary, Knute called this "Chicago-style machine politics."

Say what?

That kind of chatter excites the GOP wing-nut base, but means absolutely nothing to the average Oregon voter.

What Knute means is that the GOP would likely turn out more voters than the Democrats in the primary since the Republican presidential race is contested and the Democratic side is not.

It obviously makes more sense to hold the labor commissioner's race in November when the voter expects contested races to be held and will turn out accordingly. Republicans were hoping to sneak in a rare statewide win during a low turnout primary.  

Plus, Knute is running on another bogus issue: voter fraud.

Oregon Republicans can't win a statewide race so they grasp at ways to suppress the Democratic vote.

Voter fraud is so rare across the country, particularly in Oregon, that the GOP resorts to this cause because it's got nothing left.

In Texas, that state's high court threw out the voter ID laws because there is no evidence that it is a problem. In fact, after exhaustive efforts, the Texas attorney general found 26 cases of voter fraud over the past 6 years. The population of Texas is about 26 million.

It would behoove Republicans to turn off Fox News and go outside and check the political environment once in awhile.

A clear majority of Oregonians do not want the government to limit women's access to their own reproductive health. Oregonians do not believe in teaching "intelligent design/creationism" in the public schools. Oregonians know there is no evidence of chronic voter fraud in this state.

Oregonians believe in personal liberty, which is why we were the first state with a "death with dignity" law. And, Oregonians resent Republicans who seek to limit our freedoms rather than expand them.

The Mitt-wit strikes again

Instead of your basic mega-millionaire trying to buy political office, Mitt-wit Romney is trying to portray himself as your All-American everyman merely exercising his civic duty.

But, a few of stories today would suggest being "off-message" for your average pol.

Except that Mitt-wit isn't average, he'll have you know.

No, and he doesn't come from average stock.

Mitt-wit shared what he considered a "funny anecdote" via conference call with thousands in Wisconsin about how his father, as head of American Motors, shipped jobs from Michigan to Wisconsin but tried to keep it hush-hush until after the elder Romney was elected governor of Michigan.

Yeah, that was a riot.

Then, while trying to display his bona-fide hipness on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the Mitt-wit allowed that those with pre-existing conditions should be denied health insurance coverage.

And, as noted before, all of us will have pre-existing conditions once our personal genome is mapped.

I guess we all won't need health insurance. Isn't that grand.

Then, after two swings and misses, Mitt-wit was swinging for the fences when he took out permits to get an elevator installed at his home that is being rebuilt in La Jolla, Calif.

According to Politico, the re-constructed home will have a "3,600-square-foot basement -- a room with more floor space than the existing home's entire living quarters."

Oh, and that elevator, it's for cars, because if there is one thing you need in California, is an elevator for your vehicles.

Meanwhile, is it any surprise that President Obama is maintaining his leads over his potential rivals, particularly in key swing states?

No.

Not when Mitt-wit gets to open his mouth wide enough to insert both feet and hands.

Obama's failures can't match Bush's

A cartoon ran in the local daily today by Chip Bok, who inks some clever anti-Obama editorial cartoons, that is worth noting.

If President Obama's failures can be summed up as Solyndra, Keystone and the Chevy Volt, he's doing pretty darn well.

Solyndra refers to the solar enterprise that apparently squandered hundreds of millions of taxpayers dollars after the Chinese solar companies received even greater subsidies to beat us at our own game.

Keystone refers to the Canadian pipeline that Obama rejected because the environmental impact wasn't fully weighed and the northern states it would criss-cross didn't want it anyway.

As for the Chevy Volt, GM has suspended production because of soft sales, but it doesn't mean that the Volt has failed completely. In fact, it's European cousin, the Opel Ampera, is doing quite well.

Now, compare this with George W. Bush's energy successes: Fracking, offshore oil drilling and tax breaks for buying Hummers.

Let's see, fracking uses dangerous chemicals that oil companies don't have to disclose and causes earthquakes not fully understood. Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico produced the biggest oil spill in American history by BP. And, giving tax breaks to urban drivers for buying huge, gas-guzzling SUVs sent the exact wrong message to consumers.

I'll take Obama's attempts at reasonable solutions to our energy deficiencies rather than Bush's devotion to looking backwards.

Obama looks forward to solve our problems. He is precisely what we need at the dawn of this new millennium.

It's better to fail at something hopeful than to succeed at something so detrimental to our world.

Advantage Obama.

Obamacare at High Court: Either 5-4 against or 8-1 for

As the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, is argued before the Supreme Court, we all want to know who wins and who loses.

Of course, TV always frame this is as a Republican vs. Democrat thing and completely ignores the impact on Americans, both great and small. Nor do the talking heads note often enough that the mandate part of the law is the brainchild of Republican "think tanks."

How the High Court decides, either for or against Obamacare, is only seen as how it will affect the presidential race between President Obama and Mitt Romney.

Nevermind that the health care of 40 million uninsured Americans hangs in the balance. Forget that Americans spend the most and get the least in health care among the most developed nations in the world. And, if you have a pre-existing condition, well, guess you don't deserve health insurance.

And, with DNA mapping, we'll all have pre-existing conditions in the future.

The only thing that seems to matter is will Obama be hurt or helped by this ruling.

To this I say, who knows and who cares.

What matters is the health of Americans, not which political party wins or loses.

Should the High Court overturn Obamacare by a 5-4 vote, all Americans lose. A 5-4 vote means the same as a 9-0 outcome.

If the Supreme Court votes 8-1 to uphold the health care reform law, all Americans win.

The court, being dominated by 5 conservatives appointed by Republican presidents, would seem likely to vote against Obamacare.

Except that it would be rightfully accused of judicial overreach.

Plus, the commerce clause of the Constitution, on which Obamacare will be argued, has proved time and again to be the most important and useful clause to reform this country.

On thing we know for sure about the High Court is that Justice Clarence Thomas has already voted against Obamacare. His vote is so predictable since his wife is actively campaigning against the law and everything Obama stands for. I think he'll choose wife over country any day.

The other conservative justices, though, certainly have no reservation about voting to support Republicans as it did in Bush v. Gore in 2000 and in the Citizens United ruling in 2010.

They know on which side their bread is buttered or margarined on.

Still, almost all of the appeals courts, many of them conservative, have ruled in favor of Obamacare.

Not that it matters.

The High Court can cite the flimsiest of reasons to scuttle the law.

Or, they can do the right and honorable thing, stay out of the political process and vote to uphold it.

I see an 8-1 vote in favor of Obamacare.

Of course, that is the rosy outlook. It could easily be 5-4 against, which would then lead to court cases against Social Security and Medicare. Won't that be fun.

There could be unintended consequences, though, should the court rule against Obamacare.

It could eventually lead us to a single-payer system, such as Medicare.

This could lead us to confront the true enemies of health care for all: insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

The war on health care for all is just beginning.

Etch A Sketch or Stand Your Ground? You decide

A liberal , a conservative and a moderate walk into a bar, 
The bartender says "Hi Mitt!"


I can't take credit for that joke. It belongs to "ranewton," who posted it after a Joe Klein essay at The Huffington Post taking Mitt Romney's campaign to task for its latest gaffe, "Etch a Sketch."


Klein thinks this phrase, which means wiping the Etch a Sketch clean of nasty extremist positions doodled during the primary season and start the fall campaign with a clean, moderate slate, could doom his presidential chances.


If that's what it takes, let's hope so. 


The irony is that Mittens and his minions end up blunting whatever momentum was gained from a primary victory, this time in Illinois, the very next day with some crazy comment.


Can you imagine if something great happened on Mitt's watch if he were president?

Let's say that the jobless rate fell to 5 percent. The next day, or even that afternoon, Mitt would announce that, in order to reduce the deficit, we're going to outsource our defense contracts to the Chinese.

On one hand, Mitt Romney may be the perfect candidate to always compromise his own positions.


On the other, maybe he should put his mitts on a BB gun, don a coonskin cap and stand his ground.


Which leads us to the killing of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. 


No charges have been filed even though the killer, George Zimmerman, admitted to the crime inside a gated community. 


Zimmerman's defense is Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, which lets anyone kill anyone else if they feel threatened. And yes, this pathetic law was pushed by the NRA.


"Stand Your Ground" is now the phrase of our times.

But, what if an African-American stood his ground in front of Zimmerman and shot him?

Well, obviously, that African-American would be immediately arrested and eventually tried by a jury of his peers. All white, of course. 

With no justice being served in Sanford, the African-American community in Florida, and around the country, is rightfully angry. 

Much of white America shrugs. And, unfortunately, many Americans say the 17-year-old had it coming and consider Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, a hero for taking a stand "against all that is wrong with society."

In that sense, Zimmerman represents the teabagging anger of the crowd that is irrationally hostile to President Obama. 

Teabaggers would love to see Obama gone, by whatever means necessary. Yes, teabaggers long for someone to stand his ground in front of Obama and "liberate" the country.

When you stand your ground, though, there is no Etch a Sketch to shake to make the chalk outline of a dead body disappear.

It's permanent.

And the damage lasts a lifetime.

News that doesn't fit on Fox

If you want to hear opinions about the "greatness" of Republicans or how President Obama is "destroying" America, then Fox News is for you.

But, if you want to know what's going on in this country or the world, Fox News is not the place to get that information. In fact, you're likely to be mis-informed. As noted before, a recent study showed that those who don't follow the news at all know more about what's going on than those who only watch Fox News.

With that said, here are some stories that are hard to find on Fox News.

A new analysis by the Associated Press shows that drilling for more oil does not result in lower gas prices.  The typical Fox News viewer would naturally dispute the AP report, if it knew it existed, even though the reporters pored over monthly data from the past 36 years.

Here's a sample paragraph:

"Sometimes prices increase as American drilling ramps up. That's what has happened in the past three years. Since February 2009, U.S. oil production has increased 15 percent when seasonally adjusted. Prices in those three years went from $2.07 per gallon to $3.58. It was a case of drilling more and paying much more." 


And here's another:

"When Bush and running mate Dick Cheney campaigned in 2000, they argued that as oil executives they could get oil prices down, with Bush saying, `'I would work with our friends in OPEC to convince them to open up the spigot, to increase the supply.' "

"Yet it was during the last few months of Bush's term in 2008 that gas prices hit their highest: $4.27 when adjusted for inflation."

As noted in an earlier post, speculators now control 80 percent of the oil futures market and that is the primary reason we are paying so much at the pump.

Meanwhile in Tennessee, home of the Scopes Monkey Trial from the 1920s that kept the teaching of evolution out of public schools, the Republican-dominated state Senate passed an anti-evolution bill.

This prompted a response from a Nobel laureate, not that he knows anything, which is what the Fox News viewer would say.

" 'By undermining the teaching of evolution in Tennessee's public schools, HB368 and SB893 would miseducate students, harm the state's national reputation, and weaken its efforts to compete in a science-driven global economy,' said the statement signed by Stanley Cohen, who won the Nobel Prize in physiology of medicine in 1986, and seven other scientists."

As for religion, the Pew Research Center has a new poll out that shows 54 percent of Americans, and 60 percent of Catholics, say churches should keep out of politics.

 Here's a sampling:

"The number of people who say there has been too much religious talk by political leaders stands at an all-time high since the Pew Research Center began asking the question more than a decade ago. And most Americans continue to say that churches and other houses of worship should keep out of politics."

Finally, we have the tragic killing of Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch volunteer. Fox News barely reported the story at first, but had to join the mainstream press because the story got too big to ignore.

Judging by respondents to a recent story on Foxnews.com, though, perhaps it's better for Fox to ignore stories that don't sit will with its core audience of racists.

Here are just two comments:

"What a shame—a tragedy, really— because the dead lil’ gangsta could’ve used “‘A-FIRM-TIV AK-SHUN” to go to kollige an play footballz and make lotsa cash munny!”

"It is obvious the un-civilized B!ACKS who dwell in the greatist nation on earth have never wanted to be part of the TEAM, they CRY and P!SS and MOAN at every given oportunity about fairness and equality, While lining up for the free ride at welfare.
The United States is cursed with these baboons, Who will never gain the ability to stand up and make it on their own without our help.
They are the eternal retarded stepchild , needfull and helpless until the end of time. "

And the beat goes on.

250,000 in Bend?

Well, maybe in a 100 years.

As of July 1, 2011, PSU's Population Research Center estimated Bend had a population of 76,925, Redmond had 26,305 and Sisters, 2,055.

In fact, Deschutes County's population estimate was just 172,050 as of July 1, 2010, according to PSU.

But, recently, one of Bend's top developers claimed he expects to see Bend's population hit 250,000 by 2050.

I think it's safe to say that the county may hit 250,000 by 2050, but not Bend itself.

Besides, there is no way the city could handle that population growth when it can't supply sewer to half its citizens now.

There aren't even sidewalks in much of the city.

As for roads, the city has a few hundred million dollars in projects already lined up just to handle our current population.

Part of the problem is that the city lets developers design the city to their benefit. The other problem is that long-time residents are forced to subsidize these developers through higher property taxes and skyrocketing water/sewer rates.

Bend has never developed a "public facilities strategy" and, consequently, our public facilities can't keep pace with growth.

Yes, Bend is a desirable place to live, but unless you come here with wealth, you aren't likely to make your fortune here.

It's always been known as "poverty with a view."

The only "industry" is tourism, but contrary to an article in the local daily, we do not have "world class tourism amenities."

We've got some nice golf courses, some decent restaurants, but accommodations are definitely not even close to "world class."

Our ski resort, Mt. Bachelor, is great, but it is too short to ever attract World Cup ski races.

On the plus side, the medical community in Bend is the largest east of the Cascades.

And, Bend has become a beer town, thanks to Deschutes Brewery and about a dozen other brewpubs/breweries in the greater Bend area.

But, a beer gut will only get you so far in this world.

What's next? A medical marijuana mecca?

Bend does have Central Oregon Community College and a tiny branch campus of Oregon State University located at COCC.

The only way Bend could approach 250,000 people in 100 years is through higher education with a legitimate four-year university. Local leaders know a such a school is a necessity for long-term sustainability of the region.

But, the powers that be can't agree on a strategy.

While we have COCC/OSU Cascades on Bend's west side, there is this ridiculous notion that a "world-class" research university can sprout up from the sagebrush at Juniper Ridge on Bend's northeast side.

I've written before that the only private four-year school we could ever attract is a Bible college and that is exactly what is happening with Northwest Nazarene University.

Given the fact that Bend almost always elects Republicans to the state legislature in a Democratic state and that these Republicans just want to cut government spending, including at all levels of education, the west side of the state merely laughs at our higher ed aspirations.

Until the leaders of our community realize that COCC/OSU Cascades should evolve into a four-year university at its present site and seek ways to fund that institution, say through a 3-cent increase in the beer tax, rather than de-fund it with tax cuts, we won't ever have such a school.

Oregon is not alone in de-funding higher education. This is a national problem that will ultimately make us less competitive, less affluent, less secure and, well, less educated.