Kids Need Not Read This!

Okay. I got the R rating.This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
death (5x)
dead (4x)
kill (3x)
drugs (2x)
hurt (1x)

From now on I don't mention the death of reason, how many of my heroes are dead, that bad bills need to be killed, that our health system is more than just drugs and that bad politics hurt our state.

Senator Reid versus the KKK

Bobby Kennedy sent 500 marshals to Mississippi to enforce the rights of James Meredith upon the state. 200 were injured. Two were shot.








Senator Reid would have had us withdrawing within moments.

Somehow, Muslims killing innocents doesn't have the same iconic momentum for the lefties. Not that I'm shocked. Thinking through an "action" has never stopped a single leftie from perpetrating an action. That's most of the fun, or so the kids tell me. I don't get it, though. How many times do Muslims have to kill, or attempt to kill, innocent civilians before the lefties drop the scales from their eyes?

This guy is not a Republican. He's not a Lutheran. He is al Qaeda operative Dhiren Barot.

Even Bobby Kennedy saw the KKK for what it was. What democrat is willing to look at the Muslims and wake up? Sure, sure, sure. Not all Muslims. But how many Muslims are standing up against this craziness that you can name? Me? About three.

The Dumbest Things in Salem

I was reading Victoria Taft's webpage tonight, and love her article asking about the dumbest things that have happened in Salem since January.

Well, pretty much all of it was dumb. The Republican presence is so thin that only holding actions could be taken against all the dumbery taking place there. Such is the modern socialist state.

And then I had a glimmer of a memory. I think this pretty much sums up this years session. Courtesy of T.S. Elliot.

THE HOLLOW MEN (1927)
Mistah Kurtz-he dead. A penny for the Old Guy

I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rat's feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without color,
Paralyzed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other kingdom
Remember us - if at all - not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

II

Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.

Let me be no nearer
In death's dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer -

Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom

III

This is the dead land
This is the cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they recieve
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.

IV

The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.

V

Here we go 'round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go 'round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning.

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper

Want Some Fun?

Head over to Victoria Taft's blog and list your stupidest bill for this year's legislative assembly.

Plenty of fun throwing around teh stoopid. Don't hesitate. And if you make it up, who is going to know? Nothing nuttier than a democrat with a vote!

Wyden Should Take a Beatin'

Hey, it's true. I'm tougher on Senator Smith than I am on Senator Wyden.

Why?

When you're a democrat you believe in nothing and everything. Want to pass a law making the world a better place? Pass it. Law for democrats are pretty sounding words that promise nothing. Want consistency? How about Mr. Consistent? What's his name? Ran for the presidency a couple of years ago? The guy who received a hat? (Click on the link and then do an "alt+f" search for "hat". As you scroll through you get this weird kabuki theater of assertions on Kerry that will creep you out. Kerry really was/is weird.)

Or, better yet, take a look at the leading contender for the Democrats nomination for US President, Madam Hillary Clinton. What is her stand on taxes? I'm not sure she's one step to the right of Hugo Chavez. I think the only thing stopping her from talking about nationalizing industry is her fear that enough of us would object that she might be considered "unpopular". So, she'll talk about raising taxes "on the wealthy" completely exposing her inability to conceive the difficult task of capital formation on an industry-wide basis. And when it comes to her stand on Iraq, she's had enough positions to cover the field.

So, to be fair, expectations about Democrats are low, by definition.

We don't expect them to follow the law.

We don't expect them to have clear positions on anything.

We don't expect them to do much of anything but blunder into the market place, like a bunch of drunken Spaniards discovering America, and laying claim to anything of value at hand.

So why should we have different expectations for our state's democrat senator, Ron Wyden? Just take a look at his constituency. They do believe they can mandate better living. We only need to follow the Big Party.

But this simplistic thinking, exhibited by Kerry, Clinton, Chavez and Wyden have the same fault structure.

Systems aren't simple. They need to be structured and fed. Just like a working forest. Here's an example of what happens when the structural foundation of a complex system is attacked by external political whimsy. The case point is oil production, and why we'll never run out of oil.

It's easy to understand why we'll never run out of oil. As long as the morons in our nation's and state's legislatures don't screw up the mechanisms for delivering oil to the market. (Oops...too late.) But, here again, it's easier to criticize Senator Smith because he's supposed to be smarter than Senator Wyden.

Again, Wyden gets the pass on dump and stupid ideas, because he's a democrat and it's what we're used to. Look at Wyden's support for illegal immigrants. He votes against you and your children's citizenship, and gets praise. He votes against the men and women in Iraq, and gets praise.

Why the pass for the democrat?

We Expect Democrats to Be Stupid

I guess that's the only reason why I've heard nothing about Senator Wyden's vote to decriminalize criminal trespass.

Illegal aliens. Why are they illegal? Because they are breaking the law being here. But the law-breaking doesn't stop there. This just in from the United State Attorney, Karin J. Immergut, District of Oregon:

Ten Workers from Fresh Del Monte Produce Indicted on Immigration and
Social Security Fraud Charges
Portland, Ore. – A Federal Grand Jury sitting in Portland, Oregon, returned indictments
on June 27, 2007, against ten former workers from the Fresh Del Monte Produce facility in
Portland. Those indictments became public today. The Fresh Del Monte facility was the site of a
criminal search warrant executed on June 12, 2007, and a separate, court-ordered immigration
enforcement action which resulted in the arrest of more than 160 persons believed to be illegally
in the United States.
The persons and the charges indicted are as follows:
DEFENDANT NAME and DATE OF
BIRTH
CHARGE
MIGUEL CRUZ-CUSTODIO
JUNE 6, 1963
Count 1:
Possession of Fraudulent Immigration
Document 18 USC 1546(a)
Count 2:
Social Security Fraud
42 USC 408(a)(7)(B)
DANIEL CRUZ-HERNANDEZ
SEPTEMBER 12, 1957
SAME
MARIA LUISA DIAZ-OBANDO
AUGUST 25, 1960
SAME
JORGE JUAN LOPEZ-OTZOY
MARCH 5, 1973
SAME
FRANCISCO LUCAS-AMEZCUA
MAY 2, 1988
SAME
JOSE RAFAEL MACHIC-SANCHEZ
OCTOBER 23, 1977
SAME

OCTAVIO PALACIOS-GARCIA
NOVEMBER 22, 1973
SAME
JAVIER VASQUEZ-VILLA
APRIL 20, 1982
SAME
JOSE LUIS GARCIA-DIAZ
DECEMBER 18, 1977
Count 1:
Social Security Fraud
42 USC 408(a)(7)(B)
ANDRES MONROY-GONZALEZ
MAY 3, 1980
Count 1:
Social Security Fraud
42 USC 408(a)(7)(B)
Possession of a fraudulent immigration document carries a maximum punishment of 10
years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. Social Security fraud carries a maximum punishment
of 5 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. The defendants will be arraigned in federal court
in the near future.

Senator Wyden supports amnesty. Amnesty for criminals. And a lot of other, looney lefty stuff, too. But in Oregon you can have crazy ideas. That's no crime.

But what is a crime? I'm not sure the Senator knows. The folks in the picture are his supporters. I guess that kinda tells the whole story by itself.

Common Sense versus Democrats

Each of the links I've listed lower right are links that I click on every day. Or, everyday that I am clicking on links...usually. And please, take the time to read this entire article. It's about you and me and 75-billion dollars controlled by your state government.

One site that I've found particularly interesting over the years is Classical Values. Today's column talks about something near and dear to my heart.

To say that I was a classically trained economist misses a large part of my education. Sure, the degree cites economics, but what it doesn't tell you is that the core of my studies was something called econometrics. Within the context of "classically trained economist" is the question, "versus what?"

"It" is called normative economics. Hidden within the bowels of most econ departments are classes like Labor Theory and Government Resources. These are usually the bomb throwers in the department. Professors who offer wisdom like "since production 'can't' exist without labor, labor should get the lion's share of reward from economic activity." They also write papers talking about J.K. Galbraith. Why? Who can say?

But today's read is from Classical Values, "Principles of Forecasting". If you haven't clicked on the "econometrics" link above, or, if you have and need to see a practical application of the theory, take a look. And, then you can ask yourself why common sense is so often appealed to yet rarely applied. Pam Meister suggests that common sense is under-reported.

But I write about Oregon, mostly. What does any of this have to do with the quality of my life here in Oregon? Because brain dead democrats like our State's treasurer have control over billions of our dollars. And the Green Disease exhibited by "Our Dear Leaders" leads to disastrous public policy decisions like the one outlined in Randall Edwards'--our State Treasurer--press release today:

Randall Edwards
State Treasurer

News Release______________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Ley Garnett
June 26, 2007 503.378.4329

Former U.S. House Speaker Dick Gephardt headlines a workshop on Sustainability and Investing, Wednesday, June 27, in Portland. The one-day event is a first of its kind jointly sponsored by the Oregon Investment Council, which oversees $75 billion of state investments, and the Meyer Memorial Trust, the state’s largest private independent foundation.

“Sustainable investing is an enormously important topic for us to undertake, given climate change, regulatory pressures on companies and the demand for greater energy independence. This workshop brings together an outstanding group of experts from Oregon and around the world to help our two boards understand the new risks and opportunities we face as investors,” said State Treasurer Randall Edwards, who helped organize the workshop. “Oregon has a long history as a leader in investing. Getting ahead on sustainable investing will be another important milestone for this state.”

The workshop agenda is attached.

According to a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme, investment capital in renewable energy reached a record $100 billion last year and “is showing no signs of abating.”

Gephardt, a former Missouri Congressman who is now a consultant with Goldman Sachs, will speak about global policy initiatives and the investment climate the initiatives are likely to create.

The conference will be held from 8:45 am - 5:00 pm Wednesday at the offices of the Oregon Medical Association, 11740 SW 68th Parkway, Suite 100, in Portland."

75-billion Oregon dollars in the hands of this idiot. This idiot who has been running around the state showing that fantasy flick, "An Inconvenient Truth." This idiot who posts this idiocy on his state sponsored website. And this, of all idiots, who should know the important difference between good policy and vile polity.

Dems have long languished in the shade where the bright sunlight of reason ruled. My favorite peek into the mental machine working behind Democrat eyes was watching May Yih in committee, listening to testimony and doing a slow burn. "What is it?" she finally exploded. "Is it $5-hundred thousand or a half-million?"

And they shall lead us to a better world, tomorrow.

Democrats Break Rules/Raise Taxes

The Democrats have passed a new tax out of the House today. It's for a real good cause.

First, the State of Oregon is going to make your employer take money out of your paycheck to send it to Salem.

Second, you will never see this money again. Unlike other taxes taken from your paycheck, like social security and workman's comp, this money is going to the Bureau of Labor and Industry to pay for Family Leave Benefits.

Why? Because the Democrats have enough votes to pass this kind of crap. These guys live in a disturbing world where concerns about making the current payment on the car and how expensive the kid's orthodontist bill will be don't exist.

Leave my frickin' paycheck alone! If I've gotta take some time off to take care of the kids or the wife, guess what? I tell my boss. He says, "Get to it".

No, I don't have a union contract. But most people working here in Oregon have the kind of boss that understand that matters pop up requiring their employees to leave or miss work. I guess the Dem's won't be happy until we're all enrolled in some union somewhere. And if we're to stupid to do it ourselves, they're going to do it for us.

But this is a benefit I neither want nor need. HB 2575 deducts one cent per hour from workers’ paychecks, and deposits the funds into an account administered by the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI).

According to Rep. Bruce Hanna (R-Roseburg) BOLI has no experience running an insurance program, and there’s no assurance the fund won’t run out of money. No actuarial work has been done to ensure it’s sustainable, and the legislation does not establish a reserve fund to protect taxpayers from any unfunded liability that might occur.

But the coolest part of this whole deal about this tax increase is the way the Dem's passed it.

See, if it's a tax it requires a "supermajority" in the House to pass it. So the Dem's are calling this "not a tax".

It takes money from your paycheck. You're never going to see this money again. And, it's not a tax.

Thank God the Democrats are in teh majority, no?