Sheriff Bergin to Arrest District Attorney Marquis according to Daily Astorian

That is, according to the Daily Astorian anyone who is doing something illegal can suffer legal sanctions, no one is above the law and if a district attorney is doing something illegal he can expect to be arrested by a sheriff in any county, even Clatsop.

So what if the rest of the story isn’t as interesting as the headline, it got people to stop, take a look, read the article and maybe slap down seventy-five cents for the paper. At least, that is what the Daily Astorian is betting on. While its stories have little content and can only win an award if running against its sister newspapers in competitions that its owner contributes monetarily to, the Daily A can boast of its superfluous headlines, causing one to look twice and even give it a hard third blink before a slow wag of the head shakes off the incredulous realization that the editors are once again trying to pass off their words as a full blown “news” story.

Kroger says LNG can be stopped … if the company transporting it does something illegal. That's it. A big, "Do you think?" to the Daily Astorian and a logical conclusion that one would think that Kroger’s argument is pretty weak as he goes in front of the Ninth Circuit Court. One would think Kroger would say something like going through the Ninth Circuit would delay the construction which could put the Bradwood project in a permanent downward spin, investors dropping out. But Kroger didn’t say anything like that. Wonder why?

Sidebar: Could be that going to the Ninth Circuit doesn’t stop anything. Appealing the FERC permit doesn’t stop Bradwood. The permit stands as granted until the end of the trial. The time line for appeals is notoriously long. In Raich vs Ashcroft, Raich appealed in March 2003. While the Ninth Circuit had a decision by December of 2003 their decision was appealed, first for reconsideration and then to the Supreme Court with a decision in July 2005.

How many headlines do you think the Daily A can pull out of a long recess like that? Kroger takes on USA? Kroger fights the good fight while economy tanks? What headlines will look the best to a governor wannabe? If Marquis becomes the next US Attorney for Oregon will he continue writing for the Daily Astorian? Some say he'll have to given what he'll be making. When VandenHuevel took over for Foster the quality of articles went down in the Daily Astorian regarding LNG. VandenHuevel doesn’t do quite the job Foster did but Webb is the same old sloppy editor never catching poor research or letting little white lies slip through in the interest of saving a headline.

What kind of headlines do we have to look forward to in the future? Astoria Set to Slide Into River (if the Cascadia subduction zone starts shaking things up). Clatsop County will burn to the ground (if predictions for rising temperatures hold true). Webb’s fingertips must itch at all the stories he has had to bypass because of his paper’s commitment to Forrester’s warped philosophies and debts.

DA Uses Pubic Office to Oust County Commissioner was a headline that Webb had to have wept at passing up. Sheriff’s Secret Service Keep Dossiers, Private Citizens Probed by Agents, another one he had to let go. Democrats Paranoid Elite Control the Party Line, No one’s crossing; Jewell Witch Hunt: Season Open; Sheriff Closes Shelter, tells freeloaders to go home; the list of real headlines that Webb passed on is immeasurable.

Truth is more bizarre than fiction. The stories the Daily Astorian is keeping in its vault are much more interesting and factual than the sensational lies they make up to keep control over the local populace and vote. Too bad for those who want to know the truth, too bad for those revolted by human hubris, too bad for those whose lives have been destroyed by lies. But what the hell, it’s all just entertainment.

Kulongoski's Duplicity

Governor Kulongoski must be called out on his duplicity. Any responsible editor, any responsible politician, any responsible citizen of Oregon would take the time to call this man on the carpet for his consistent duplicity in dealing with the public on the subject of energy.

In one breath he tells the media that they must take on the responsibility of educating the public. The media needs to be in the forefront at giving the public the information of where Oregon is really at in regards to how much energy is consumed, where that energy is coming from, what energy is immediately available, what energy resources will be available in the immediate future and long term. His goal, according to Kulongoski, is affordable, reliable, energy. In the next breath, Kulongoski cowers and hides behind his own lies.

Kulongoski’s goal is politically motivated. Pure and simple. Whether or not he wants to run for governor again, his allegiance is to his party and not to the people of Oregon. His mouth says whatever is convenient for the moment. He has allowed the working class of Oregon to be taken political hostage by groups of ecological extremists whose philosophies will be Oregon’s downfall. Ecological extremists who use Oregon as their playground while their business interests, their incomes, their other homes, are elsewhere. In states that have realistic energy plans, realistic business opportunities, realistic land use laws, realistic growth.

It takes courage to stand up to the extremist groups, the shrill voices that feel it is their right to misinform as many people as they want, as often as they want. Kulongoski chooses, instead, to champion their cause. He wants to ensure that their right to misinform is respected. While Bradwood Landing has gone through one of the most vigorous and open hearing processes in the history of siting an LNG terminal, Kulongoski has misinformed the public that FERC has rushed the process, and he publicly calls for a "full rehearing."

Can this man be so ignorant? Can he ignore 54,000+ pages of notes detailing the process that has gone into getting the permits for siting the terminals at Bradwood Landing? Calling this amount of work “rushed” when he tells the people of Oregon that he will ensure that they have reliable and affordable energy is a blatant example of his duplicity. It is an example of how he will enable the extremists to hold the working class of Oregon hostage in the political power struggle over energy.

While Oregon very well could have been in the forefront showing how a nation moves gradually, and, therefore, smoothly, purposefully and steadily towards renewable energy from a heavy reliance on fossil fuel it will now be in the forefront of the nation on how extremists use political terror to manipulate a governor while crushing the working class. Oregon will be the welfare state, with all either relying on state subsidies to keep the renewable energy plants operating or food stamps to keep themselves going.

The Internet Connection

Click above to see our first newsletter.
Print it out, take it to work, mail it to your friends.

Occasionally we will put together a newletter. Our half-assed attempt at bringing you some hardcopy, REAL news, representing a range of topics that are traveling the blogosphere.

This one is about, yep, LNG! Get the lowdown that the Daily Astorian doesn't have the brains to tell you, the Signal doesn't have the man power and the Gazette doesn't even know we're in the same county!

Print it out, bring it to work, mail it to a friend. You never know if your blog's in it!

Remember to think about it. Do you want to leave your land use options open, or do you want to limit your land use rights even more? Do you want a strong transmission infrastructure for energy and technology, or do you want one so encumbered by land use laws no energy company, green, reusable, or otherwise will never want to come here? Do you understand what the job of the Board of County Commissioners is, as a quasi-judicial "court" and what your vote is doing to that process? Think about this. We're voting yes, make your vote COUNT!

An Aboriginal Nation's Surrender

A sovereign nation of aboriginals were given checks for lands stolen that have never been cashed. In their pride they refused, a deep understanding that by cashing those checks they would have accepted to become a part of this government. They hadn't. They were independent. They were free. And they knew it.

Eighty years later this same nation has a new generation, so dislocated from its heritage, from its culture, that it sells their way of life that is the very truest definition of who they are as a people, for a government hand out. Hunters and gatherers at your heart, core and soul - whose charge is stewardship of the resources of this very land - what does the present stewardship of the land have that safeguards it? Where are the salamanders? The tree frogs? The bees and butterflies? Where are the fish? By what right do you forfeit it? On whose behalf do you surrender?

Yet, these Indians, the first stewards, the natural stewards, the only stewards, are given fish sticks for ceremonies and told that they will be allowed "government" recognition, if they eat the handouts and keep their mouths shut. They can have their bingo parlors and their casinos, painted fish on their chips, a made up language with made up stories.

And the white men praise the little Indian boys who sign, and clap one another on the back. Good boys, they say, good boys! Let’s smoke the pipe of peace, and pass the bottle of lightening. The occupiers smile and the paternals smile back. No one notices the tears shed by the maternals. Who notices the woman’s tears? The woman’s memories of where the fish runs are, where the best wapato roots lay, where the bones of ancestors rest?

The impostors come with their braided hair. They wa-wa and wear leather. They play politics and follow “government criteria.” And fat white men in newspaper offices praise them and life is good. For them. For awhile. Until they die. And there is no tomorrow, for those who don’t. But it doesn’t matter. The Chinooks have a bingo parlor and maybe a casino. They have forgotten how to fish and white men always like to gamble. There is a government payroll for a few at the top, and maybe a reservation to drink on for those at the bottom. The average lifespan for an Indian woman on a res is 54. This is good. She doesn’t have too long of a life to remember what was, or suffer what is, or watch what her children become.

The Time for Socialism Has Come

Either by turns in the economy or by personal misfortune, we often find ourselves in a pickle while trying to maintain a life style; even modest life styles. There are very few people that are able to walk through life without financial care.

Americans have always been known to lift themselves up by their boot straps and this is commendable, however one could wonder if this is the most civilized way of living. Through fiction we are promised that money will no longer be used in the future, which must surely agitate those who believe in less government. Centralized goods and services would be considered as government handouts to the extreme by a population that wants to see all goods and services privatized.

The anti government people have found disappointment and abundant reasons why our government doesn’t work. Oddly, being a government of the people, for the people and by the people; this reflects poorly on the citizenry. Those who complain about the government failing are not doing enough to remedy the problems. There is a lot of them out there and one would think that a population of that size should be a force to reckon with and would have solutions at the ready.

Getting back to the haves and the have nots and especially those who suddenly find themselves struggling in a sea they never anticipated swallowing them. Is there anything that a government could do to make all of its citizens more secure?

There are countries in Europe that embrace Socialism where the needs of their citizens are met from cradle to grave. All medical, educational, transportation needs are met. Even in retirement the needs are met weather one chooses to live at home or in a facility. Imagine a life where the government pays students to stay in school through graduate school. It pays doctors very well to take care of their patients. Residents never have to worry about if they can afford the medicines they need to live healthy lives.

As stated earlier this all comes from the feared Socialism. The evils of Socialism were drummed into our heads all through the Cold War. If we start down that path we would be giving up our freedoms, our God (gods) and we would soon be living in box like, gray room apartments that are illuminated by a single 25 watt light bulb.

The European model of Socialism never looked like the Soviet model. It is based on a high tax rate, around 50 percent. Most people in the United States presently pay around 18 to 25 percent in income taxes. Would it be worth it if the citizens were to pay 50% and never have a care from cradle to grave? If this question already has a negative answer in your head, consider the present economy and what your chances of retirement are. Where will you be living if health becomes an issue? How will the present economy with down turning financial markets change how you will pay for your childs education? Wouldn’t this all be a lot easier if you paid it up front and shared the burden? Wouldn’t we be a more productive society if we spent less time worrying about how we are going to accomplish all we are expected to do in society? Wouldn't there be less crime if basic needs were met?

Energy Wars

In four years approximately two hundred people have spoken out at local hearings and in letters to the paper against siting LNG holding tanks at either Skipanon or Bradwood. Two hundred people told the media, their legislative representatives, the governor and the Federal Energy Regulation Commission that the local board of county commissioners in Clatsop County refuse to listen to the majority of their constituents in working through the process.

Out of a population of 36,000, with 21,104 being registered voters, 200 people have declared themselves "the majority"! We will forego the obvious conclusion of what kind of math they were doing.

This group of people have ignored the fact that the county commissioners and the City Council of Warrenton "heard" that 20,904 people didn't have the same concerns. Yet, still these 200 still claim rights over the top of 20,904 people who chose not to speak against LNG, against neither Oregon LNG's project nor Northern Stars.

Now, this same group wish to isolate Clatsop County, completely cutting it off of access to the outside world's options of technology or energy, saying they do so "for our own good."

Using scare tactics, half truths and outright lies the group will do whatever it takes to keep Clatsop County small and "manageable". Industry and technology to be kept out, service and tourism companies in.

The same group that quotes the Oregon Dept of Energy report that LNG isn't needed ignores the rest of the dirty little secret. ODE says LNG isn't needed because 146 new nuclear plants are to be built in the next decade.

What would you rather see in Warrenton or Bradwood, two LNG holding tanks or nuclear plants? Which is more of a terrorist target? Which has a larger "blast" zone? If the government sites a nuclear plant here do you think a referendum that they can't cross a few parks will stop the Feds?

Don't worry about that, the protesters will tell you. "We'll fight the nuclear plants, too! And we'll win, like we did against the LNG plants."

Which will leave us right back where we started, with rising energy costs and dirty coal fueling our electric plants. We won't have access to the solar, wind or hydro power because of this group's opposition to 4-131, voting no and forbidding the transmission of any of that kind of energy to cross our county and enter our homes, even if these options were ready within the next decade which they won't be.

Measure 4-131 must be passed to keep ALL options open to ALL Clatsop County citizens. The West Coast States must have the same options and access that the East Coast and Southern states have to safe, clean and reasonably priced fuel and energy sources. The east has three LNG terminals, the south has three terminals and the west has nothing.

LNG protesters, Common Sense, CFOG, or whatever name they go by next are striving to eliminate options, take away choices, shut down and out the average citizens, those living paycheck to paycheck. A vote of yes on measure 4-131 in September takes back what is our right, it maintains our options, leaving them open to be exercised on a project by project basis.

Write Governor Kulongoski and FERC today. Tell the governor that we want our options left open. We are tired of his bowing to special interest groups. Ask him if he is going to guarantee the nuclear plants will be built and what are his plans to ensure they will be? We want equal access to the energy that the east coast and southern states have access to. We want the option to fuel with LNG or CNG as other green technologies are worked out. This is the true common sense approach to our energy problems and no one is going to do it for us folks. Senators Johnson, Wyden and Smith, Reps Boone and Wu have all but declared themselves completely against LNG. They are listening to the minority voice because, right now, those are the voices screaming the loudest.

Twenty thousand-nine hundred and forty of us haven't opened our mouths. Now is the time. Write, email or call the governor, Johnson, Wu, Wyden, Smith, Boone and FERC. Tell them LNG is a viable option that you don't want taken away. Don't shut us out in the cold, don't allow us to be isolated at the mouth of the Columbia River with no options, no alternative energy, no voice.

FERC is supposed to be making a ruling on whether or not to allow Bradwood to proceed sometime this week. Governor Kulongoski has recently written to FERC asking them to delay their decision, after Bradwood has waited three years for it, until more people have a chance to complain. Kulongoski and Oregon's Attorney General have both said they will use whatever means available to stop Bradwood, which means denying them state permits. Your voice is needed NOW, if you want to see this LNG and stable energy costs any time in the neat future. Fax you letters to reach the governor before FERC makes its decision. FAX: 503.378.6827

Contact FERC here.

Weakly To Weekly

There has been self indulgent back patting sessions at the Daily Astorian and the East Oregon Publishing Company over their series on climate change and the environment. It seems disingenuous for a business that uses gross amounts of pulp, fuel and natural resources to call all the other kettles black. If the Daily Astorian wanted to walk the walk they should reduce their newspaper to a weekly publication. Consider all the paper they use and all the fuel they use to distribute this paper five days a week. This came to mind after looking at the Daily Astorian the other day. There was local news on the front page, maybe 1/10th of page 2 had any local content, 1/3 of page 3 had local content, and page 11 had 80% news. Summing it up there was slightly more than two pages of local news of which one quarter was fluff. I recently read through a copy of the Chinook Observer, a weekly paper which is owned by the same company as the Daily Astorian. This paper had substance and a good professional look about. It contained a weeks worth of news which seemed much more substantial than the Astorian and its scant daily effort even when all five days are combined. The Astorian can counter and say their readers need the news on a daily basis, where in actuality it is the Astorian that needs the daily ad revenue from five day a week publication. This paper is obsolete moments after they publish. Their online presence is more useful for up-to-the-moment news, though the effort of northcoastoregon.com, with a smaller staff and fewer resources out-scoops the local standard on a daily basis. The Astorian may also be afraid to disturb the steady stream of biased journalism and propaganda that they use to dictate their vision to the readers along with the manipulation they inflict upon the local political climate. The Daily Astorian will probably never reduce their production to save the environment or to put out a better publication. It is a shame. How long can they suffer a declining readership before they decide something needs to be changed?