How Counties Lose Following Leftist Agendas

Today's decision in State ex rel English v. Multnomah County is worthwhile reading.

Especially if you're a mutton-headed Leftist who wants to turn this county inside-out in order to pursue an agenda of anti-growth, anti-jobs and anti-development.

Working and investing in this country is still legal. And serving as a county commissioner, or as a member of any of the Board's commissions, requires following the law. Multnomah county found out today that it is expensive to break du contrat social.

For background on Dorothy English, there is an excellent Townhall article here. The short strokes are, English bought some property. The county changed the rules.

The county pays.

For the Leftists who are pushing an agenda to remove county commissioners in Clatsop county because they refuse to break the rules--the social contract--just a word: stupid.

You shouldn't be shocked to find out the Left is stupid. For the Left there are no consequences. As we find out on a day-to-day basis, the source of all wrongdoing in the world is due to Bush. Whether it's buying a home you can't afford, or running a newspaper into the ground, all of this is due to Bush (and his minions) and therefore deserve to be bailed out by the taxpayers. Multnomah county tax payers in this case.

The Left has an agenda for Clatsop county. It is whatever they are crying about, today. Not much of a plan, is it?

Not All Democrats Are The Same

Kanjorski. At 5:15.

Compare to Cummings at 6:15.

The link is here. (CNBC.)

There is a dogmatic force at play here. Kanjorski is cursed with an awareness of how markets operate. Cummings is able to ignore markets in order to arrive at a politically motivated outcome.

People who are losing their houses because they didn't know what they were doing is a political problem. Not a market problem. There are millions of us around the country who wake up each morning worrying about our businesses, our homes and our families. Who are these people who get a reprieve from the market? How are they determined?

It seems, according to Congressman Cummings, that their inability to provide for themselves is the threshold. Interestingly, this seems to be the threshold being held out by Leftists for promoting socialized medical care.

So, the vast majority of us must suffer, so that those who are unable or unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives benefit. This suffering is known as "social justice". Take a minute and re-think Representative Kanjorski's statements.

When the market is on its back, when one in four workers is either looking for a job, or given up looking, when half of kids can't find a job, maybe we should be looking at strengthening our economy before we go about looting it.

Pretty common sensical, no?

Red Flags At Oregon State University

Happy talk and budget cuts.

President Edward Ray needs to be asked some serious questions as Oregon State begins a path that turns away from playing its role as a university. You can read about President Ray's proposals in the Fall issue of the Oregon Stater. (Page 8.)

The question of whether or not Oregon State University can survive as a university facing a 30 percent reduction in state funding is a good question. Our elected representatives were unable to come up with priorities for the state that make much sense on the basis of our state's needs for its day-to-day operations, opting instead to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on show-and-tell projects for Green technology and cultural pursuits. (You can find out about "Oregon's Day of Culture here.)

The serious work of running and building a university will be left for another day.

Instead, President Ray proposes happy talk--in line with the current pre-school attitude of our state's leadership--in his proposal for a "new structure" for the university. From the Oregon Stater (Oregon Stater, Fall 2009, "Focus on OSU's Strengths Key to Belt-tightening, Realignment Proposals, p. 6):

Division of Natural resources--"Healthy Planet"--Agricultural Sciences, Forestry, Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences.

Division of Health Sciences--"Healthy People"--Health and Human Sciences, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine

Division of Business and Engineering--"Healthy Economy"--Engineering, Business

Division of Arts and Sciences--"Basic Inquiry"--Liberal Arts, Science.

The only device not included with the President's proposal is the "Happy Face."

Seeing ones Alma Mater reduced to the level of Sesame Street should give one pause. Healthy planet, people, economy...basic inquiry? The university as inoculation against unhealthy planets, people and economies...advanced inquiry?

If you dig into the proposals of the President you see that there are several bright line issues that have been proposed and then disposed. Most shocking is the proposal to eliminate 500 course sections with low enrollment. Next? The proposal to eliminate or consolidate 30 academic programs. I would suggest a name change at some point:

Oregon State Paraversity. Not quite a university. Too big to be called a college. Or would Junior University work better?

The proposal to move the College of Education off campus to Bend isn't really significant. For those of you who have spent any time in the college, you know that intellectual inquiry isn't necessary for the granting of a degree in education. That is, if one school most closely fulfills the requirements for VocEd, it is the education school. The need for advanced skills in any of the sciences is at its minimum when one reviews the candidates that seek admission into the teaching community. The curriculum does not advance those with advanced training in any of the arts and sciences. The key to the School of Education is hitting the minimums, moving into your Senior teaching series and then gaining admission into the OEA.

If you and I were facing budget cuts of 30 percent, the first thing we'd be looking at is how to reduce the fixed costs facing our institutions. Instead of moving a college to Bend I would be closing the campus in Bend. Building an edifice or building a university?

Oregon shows on a daily basis its inability to arrive at adult resolutions to its budgetary problems. Rather than adopt the proposal to reduce government expenditures by $500-million dollars in the last session, it instead has passed new taxes that approach a billion dollars.

Friday I wrote about the state's legislative revenue analysis. Maybe we need to, following the theme of our university's President, refer to this as Healthy Government.

Where's that re-set button?

UPDATE: Over at Zeta Wolf "Liberty Trashed."

A Need To Re-Think Legislative Revenue Analysis

Glad I didn't have coffee. Would have splattered the screen. This link has extremely heavy gack values. Was on my way out the door to enjoy some golf when this cut across my screen.

"Tax increases would help state economy more than cuts, report finds"

I know that Lewis and Clark College has economics classes. I didn't know that any of its graduates found meaningful employment as a result of those classes, that is, any marketable skill as a result of those classes that would end in someone willing to offer any such graduate a job with a paycheck.

Obviously, I was wrong.

"Legislative Revenue Officer Paul Warner said raising taxes and cutting state spending both have the effect of “pulling dollars out of the revenue stream” in Oregon’s economy.

"But cutting state government spending slows the economy more because those paying the higher taxes — corporations and well-off households — would otherwise have kept a portion of those dollars out of the Oregon economy, either spending it out of state or keeping it in savings, the office concluded.

"A state government “spending decrease has a larger negative impact on the economy than a tax increase does,” Warner said while presenting the report to a legislative panel."

The state obviously doesn't hire on the basis of any real world experience. Which goes a way to explaining how we got to where we are today.

Old People Who Don't Like Country-Western

I'm a pretty "traditional values" kinda guy. And I've liked country music for years.

I still run into people who look down their nose at me when I tell them that I like country. It's like admitting to marrying your cousin to these folks. But, the kids dig it.

So here's a recent music video for a newly released country single. Mebbe it's time for the old folks to get over it.



Oh, I also like this.



I enjoy the finger popping. Enjoy your weekend. Call your parents.

Ordered Mine Today

You can buy this book at Amazon--where it is currently #1--or at Barnes and Noble, where I purchased mine (where it is also currently #1.)

I prefer Barnes and Noble since it remains a brick and mortar business. I pre-ordered because I'm afraid that demand for this book will be such that unless I pre-ordered, the chances of getting 1st edition were diminishing quickly. Too quickly to be assured of that 1st edition thingy. Most of the books I buy are 1st editions, since they are read but also treated as investments. Among my firsts are Satanic Verses and Burr. Which I mention since Gore Vidal was recently in the news.

Joining the "club" didn't make much sense for me, since, again, I prefer to shop at brick and mortar stores.

Two reasons to buy today: the 1st edition thing, and; I want to send tingles up the leg of Chris Matthews.