What Salem needs most

Image via WikipediaCitizen re-engagement. Stat! The toys for making it easy aren't essential, but they do take government's excuses away.

Genius is looking at the same old problems

. . . and being able to see something entirely different.

To-Do: Stand up FOR real people and AGAINST Corporate Personhood

URGE THE OREGON LEGISLATURE TO OPPOSE 'CORPORATE PERSONHOOD'

Representative Phil Barnhart, along with Reps. Jeff Barker and Michael Dembrow, has submitted House Joint Memorial 9 which calls for the Oregon Legislature to:
"...respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to pass and send to the several states for ratification a constitutional amendment to restore the First Amendment and fair elections to the people." (full document is attached)

Please contact members of the Rules Committee (where it has been stuck since February 21st) and urge them to pass HJM9 through the Rules Committee.

If you are contacting a Democratic State Representative, you can let them know that HJM9 is supported by two Legislative Action Items adopted at the 2010 Democratic Party of Oregon Platform Convention. These can be found in the attached document (LAI 4-3 on page 9 and LAI 4-1 on page 11).

House Rules Committee

Membership:
Dave Hunt (Dem), Co-Chair
Andy Olson (Rep), Co-Chair
Vicki Berger (Rep), Co-Vice Chair
Paul Holvey (Dem), Co-Vice Chair
Phil Barnhart (Dem)
Tim Freeman (Rep)
Chris Garrett (Dem)
Matt Wingard Rep)

More on Minto (of Minto-Brown fame)

Image via WikipediaEnrich and Beautify the Earth

From the book titled John Minto: Man of Courage 1822-1915:

John returned jubilant from the 1849 gold strike with enough 'yellow dirt' to make it possible to buy the finest in rare fruits and flowers to plant on his acreage. When a Methodist minister came upon him three years later as he was loosening the graft bands of a crabapple tree on which he had worked six varieties of popular apples and he was singing at his work, the minister remarked: "You seem happy, Brother John." Yes, Brother Roberts," he answered. "Just now I would not swap with Adam before his fall," the preacher made no reply.

"Perhaps he thought me irreverent," John remarked later, "but I had no such thought, and that had been the experience of my life when working to enrich and beautify the earth."

John Minto lived to 93 and he was a poet who wrote the following to fill a need for songs for the Salem Grange:

A GRANGER'S LOVE SONG

Come to the grange with me, Love
Come to the farm with me
Where the birds are singing and the flowers are springing
And life is happy and free.

To thee, Ceres her bounties shall bring, love
Promona and Flore shall give
Of their fruits and their flowers, to crown the hours
Of the life on the farm thou shalt live.

While the bread-grain is in the field, Love
And the fuel is cut from the grove,
Neither cold nor want shall thy night dreams haunt;
Only plenty and comfort and love.

We'll build our home by the hill, Love,
Whence the spring to the brooket flows;
On the gentle slope where the lambklins play
In the scent of the sweet wild rose.

In the labors, joys and cares of the grange, Love
In the shelter and shade of the grove,
Life's duties we'll meet in companionship sweet,
And there rest from our labours in love.

John Minto was an innovator in agriculture with some firsts in grafting fruit trees and sheep ranching, and served prominently in the Oregon Legislature.

Speaking of the Grange, don't forget tonight's dance to benefit the Grange!

Great new find: Cog-itate

A new blog I hadn't seen before -- excellent. With this VERY sad and sobering message.



Note that you are NO SAFER if you are driving while using a hands-free cellphone than with a handheld. IT'S NOT YOUR HANDS THAT ARE THE PROBLEM, it's your divided attention. Cellphone conversations are nearly as bad as texting, because the person you are talking to demands your attention without being able to see what you're seeing (road conditions etc.)

Here's the message for a lifetime: HANG UP AND DRIVE. Period.

Another look at getting around

From the wonderful folks at Straub Environmental Learning Center:

Tuesday, March 29, 2011, 6:30-8:00pm
Sustainability Workshop

Transportation: The Alternatives!

We’re kicking off this year’s workshop series with a lesson on alternative transportation. With the price of gas continually climbing, the need for other, more sustainable modes of transportation is becoming exceedingly important.

This workshop will highlight some available modes of transportation in Salem: biking, busing, walking and carpooling. Representatives from the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA), the City of Salem and Cherriots will be present to give some helpful tips on sustainable commuting. The Sustainability Workshop series is open to the public.

Classes are free, but registration is required due to limited space. RSVP to Alexandra at 503-391-4145 or email fselc@fselc.org.

All workshops will be held at Straub Environmental Learning Center, 6:30-8:00 pm, unless otherwise noted. For a schedule of the entire series, click here.

Late but in earnest! Help rid Minto-Brown of invasive Scotch Broom

Sorry for the late posting, but here's a great effort worthy of support.

A must-read as we head into School Board Election Season

One of the most important and little-mentioned facts in all of education: Most educational outcomes have nothing to do with the schools and are determined long before schooling starts.

For those who like Fantasy & Sciency-Sounding Fiction

Greater Salem-Keizer
Local Government Forum

March 15, 2011, 6:30 - 8:30pm
North Salem High School Auditorium
765 14th St NE • No RSVP necessary

The forum will allow local government entities to share their economic forecast with each other and discuss what measures seem likely to be taken as a response.

Featured speakers include:

• City Manager Linda Norris, City of Salem;
  
• City Manager Chris Eppley, City of Keizer;
  
• Steve Dickey, Director of Transportation Development for Cherriots;
  
• Marion County Administrator John Lattimer;
  
• Chemeketa Community College President Cheryl Roberts; and
  
• Salem-Keizer Public Schools Superintendent Sandy Husk

Moderator: Bill Church, Executive Editor of the Statesman Journal will field written questions from the audience.

Event coordinated by the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce
Questions? Contact Jason Brandt 503-581-1466 ext. 304
===========================================

Ok, so this is interesting. Not at all obvious why local governments need to appear under the aegis of the Chamber of Commerce or, given their huge PR budgets, have an employee of the corporate press ready to "field" (filter) questions from the taxpayers when the subject is economic forecasts, but it's a good step that they're doing it, to a point.

One of the more interesting questions is why the local transportation poobahs are not included, since the biggest deal in town is the proposal to blow $400-$650 million on a totally unnecessary, monstrously large, third auto-bridge over the Willamette, despite a persistent DECLINE in driving across the Northwest and the upcoming second round of recession caused by our unwise (suicidal, actually) dependence on fossil fuels. The SKATS (Salem-Keizer Area Transportation Study) folks are the only ones with forecasts that matter, since their resolutely autistic forecasting model is built from the start to justify continual expansion and never-ending sprawl. The price of oil (and, thus, gas) doesn't even appear in the SKATS travel demand model, so the fact that we're getting hammered by $100+ per barrel oil right now means nothing -- just like a severe autistic person, once the model decides it wants a new bridge, no amount of reasoning with it can change its view.

The other interesting omissions from the forecasting party: Marion-Polk Food Share, the people with the best and most-current picture of the real economic situation in the area. Another one: Someone from the real-estate industry specializing in foreclosures (25% of Oregon home sales last year, and scheduled to spike even higher).

And if you want to have some big fun, come and ask this: Before telling us any more new economic projections, please review all your agency's past economic projections from, oh, 2004 onward. Tell us the date you made the projection and what it included, so that we may evaluate your past performance in this area as we hear your new projections.

The reason we must undo "Citizens United" [sic] v. FEC

double-click to watch full -sized