Elevate People, Not Boondoggles!

ELEVATE PEOPLE, NOT BOONDOGGLES!

As consultants and construction contractors in the Chamber of the 1% salivate over the prospect of spending further millions of your money to lay the groundwork to grab hundreds of millions more, it’s time for the people of Salem to send a clear message to every elected official within 100 miles:

It’s an obscenity to pour money down the planning rathole for a project that backers are trying to sell with an ever-changing rationale but will never be built, in a city that is so apathetic to the actual residents’ needs that it doesn’t even provide weekend bus service.

We’re against blowing four to eight hundred million dollars on an enormous elevated boondoggle. 

What are we for instead? It’s simple: we are for ELEVATING what’s right, not what’s wrong.

·      We support elevating people, not pork-barrel bridges.

·      We support elevating transit in Salem above the level of a third-world country.

·      We support elevating transparency over the backroom, backscratching maneuvers by politicians conspiring with their campaign funders, the maneuvers that produced this camel pretending to be a racehorse.

·      We support elevating honest government instead of the profits of the CH2M-Hills and the others sucking at the teat of a giant pork project.

·      We support elevating health for people by spending on projects that support biking and pedestrians, not just drivers.

·      We support elevating downtown Salem businesses, not the ones in Keizer and beyond West Salem.

·      We support elevating the needs of the “bridgehead” neighborhoods over the profits of the contractors who want to destroy those neighborhoods.

For all those reasons and more, that is why we support elevating the “Salem River Crossing” just enough to drop it in the trash can and move on to more important things.

Internet freedom under corporate assault again

 Click on each image to enlarge.

The problem with talking about "corporate corruption" is that it's like accusing a skunk or an outhouse of having a bad smell -- corporations aren't corrupt or non-corrupt, they're just being corporations.

Corporations aren't people, they're inhuman machines that are designed for one and one thing only: seeking and grabbing more profits. 

They're like sharks, which are designed for one and one thing only, finding and consuming prey.

Like sharks, corporations are efficient and relentless. They're fine in their place -- but that place is NOT in policy making roles, because their amoral nature means that the only thing they can see or think about is more profits.

Corporations cannot recognize values of fairness and access any more than a shark can recognize the value of a great painting.

Take action, before the telecomm sharks eat us alive.

http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=8799039

Outstanding Encore for Salem Progressive Film Series Season: David Cay Johnston and "American Winter"

Like many a great performance, Salem Progressive Film Series saves the very best for an encore round, and the 2012-13 SPFS season is no different.

They are bringing the outstanding journalist and author David Cay Johnston to Salem along with the powerful, penetrating film "American Winter," a visual "How the Other Half Lives" for the 21st Century.

THURSDAY, June 13, 7 pm,
at Salem's outstanding community venue, the Grand Theatre, 191 High St NE.

Monsanto is winning in the war to take away Oregonians' rights

The bill to enshrine corporate power over people power, SB 633 PASSED in the Oregon Senate today on a close vote (17-12).  This evil, undemocratic and heinous assault on our rights is scheduled for a First Reading in the House tomorrow, May 2.

After that reading it will be referred to the Chief Clerk and then to the House Speaker for committee assignment and a work session that must be scheduled within 7 days.

THIS GIVES US SOME TIME TO WRITE A PERSONAL NOTE TO OUR REPRESENTATIVES. FIND YOUR REP HERE: http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr

PERSONAL NOTES ARE THE MOST EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION.

Then, as SB633 rides a river of money through the process you can keep calling and emailing.

SB 633 is what MONSANTO wants!  It is dangerous not only because it preemptively denies basic community rights, it also exposes future generations of human, animal and plant life to genetically tampered organisms, many of which are outlawed in Europe because they only benefit Monsanto and they impose the risks on society.

Representatives need reminding - By fighting SB 633, the people they represent are claiming their Constitutional right to choose the fates and futures of their communities, farms, seeds, and food.

PS - The Oregon Legislative Information System (OLIS) is an excellent way to track bills. http://www.leg.state.or.us/index.html

I called the Legislative Administration Services and got fast, courteous responses to my questions FROM "Committee Services."

Committee Services: 
Rick Berkobien, Manager
900 Court St. NE, Room 453, Salem OR 97301
Email: rick.berkobien@state.or.us
Phone: 503-986-1485

The Judicial Candidates for the 99%: Baldwin and Egan

And the Albany Democrat-Herald has the word on Judge Jim Egan:

Editorial: Jim Egan for appeals court

April 27, 2012 9:00 am  

     To serve on the Oregon Court of Appeals, it helps to be a smart lawyer. But you don’t have to be a Portland lawyer. Which is why Linn County Circuit Judge Jim Egan would be a great addition to the court.

 

     The Democrat-Herald has had the chance to talk with all three candidates for Position 6 on the Court of Appeals: Egan, who of course has been a known quantity around the mid-valley for years, as well as Tim Volpert, partner in a big Portland law firm, and Allen J. Arlow, an administrative law judge for the Oregon Public Utility Commission. . . .

       What sets Egan apart is his background. Unlike Arlow and to some extent Volpert, he’s not been working much of his life in corporate or government law. Instead he has represented ordinary Oregonians with problems as a trial lawyer.

     Egan also served in the Marine Corps, then in the Marine Corps Reserve. As an officer with the Army Reserve, he again served his country in Kuwait a few years ago.

     He’s familiar with the nitty-gritty problems of Oregon not just from his law practice but also from first-hand experience on the Linn County Planning Commission and the board of the Tangent Rural Fire Department.

     Since 2010 he’s handled cases as a Linn County circuit judge. He demonstrated that he wastes no time by quickly issuing a lengthy written opinion in a recent case involving public records and the responsibilities of city councils.

     In a statewide preference poll of lawyers, Volpert came in first with 688 votes. But Egan, even though he’s not from Portland where most of the lawyers are, still got 569 votes. That speaks well of the respect he has earned among people in his profession.

     Egan for Position 6 on the Court of Appeals.

A message we should all endorse

A petition worth signing: REINSTATE GLASS-STEAGALL

griftopia (Photo credit: cdrummbks)Hi,

I signed a petition to The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate, and President Barack Obama titled "Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act".

Will you sign this petition? Click here:

http://signon.org/sign/reinstate-the-glass-steagall-5?source=s.em.cp&r_by=756599

Thanks!

Young Writers Contest from one of America's best magazines

Few magazines cause me to think about what a great and interesting read I've had as often as this one. My bride and I both comment about what an unusual magazine HCN is, and what a pleasure it is to see serious journalism on environmental issues that isn't always solemn, along with great photography.

If you know a young writer (2012 grads and later, down through HS), suggest that they peruse some issues of this fine publication and thinking about whether they have anything to offer on this topic:

In 600 words, describe why your heart is at home in the American West. Is being a Westerner a physical state, a frame of mind, an emotional experience? Is it something you earned? Something you were born into? A title conferred on you, or one you adopted on your own?

2012 Annual High Country News
Student Essay Contest

What does being a Westerner mean to you, and why do you consider yourself one?
"How I Became a Westerner"

Entry Deadline: Sept. 21,2012

Send essays to studentwriters@hcn.org. Visit hcn.org/edu for more information.

In 600 words, describe why your heart is at home in the American West. Is being a Westerner a physical state, a frame of mind, an emotional experience? Is it something you earned? Something you were born into? A title conferred on you, or one you adopted on your own?

The contest is open to all currently enrolled high school students and undergraduates at American schools, colleges and universities as well as 2012 graduates. Submissions must be original, unpublished work (the writing can have been published in a student publication). One entry per person, please.

Include your name, contact information, school name, and area of study with your submission.

The winning essay will appear in the upcoming HCN Books and Essays special issue and the writer will receive these backpacking essentials from MountainSmith:

• Lookout Backpack
• Poncha 35 Degree Sleeping Bag
• Rhyolite Trekking Poles

High Country News 119 Grand Avenue, PO Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428

Related articles

• 3 Great Environmental Reads
• The fight over fracking in Colorado's North Fork Valley.
• The American West, Fueling Global Warming

Snap!

An important perspective hits the blogosphere

Pentagon (Photo credit: gregwest98)A guy who has done seriously high-level work in military procurement world reaches some conclusions that might surprise you, given his background in the Red States and in the Mil-Ind Complex (MIC). Let's show some traffic love to a new and different voice in the blogosphere.

Hit that link, and check it out: http://timetothinkaboutit.com/

FACT: Republicans are the Borrow and Spend Party

That people think of Republicans as "conservative" or "fiscally responsible" is stark evidence of the abject failure of newspapers and the electronic media to do their jobs.

Think you have the right to vote?

Richard Nixon and his co-conspirator cronies decided to make the GOP, once the party of Lincoln, into the racist party, making Lyndon Johnson's prophecy that signing the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act would cost the Democrats the South for 40 years.

The GOP took up race baiting with a vengeance, and it continues unabated today, as the party relentlessly tries to fabricate "voter fraud" fears, while busily proving again and again that stealing elections and wholesale election fraud is the province of elected and appointed officials, not voters.

What's amazing is that so few people realize just how pervasive the GOP's war to limit voters has become. Faced with a choice of (a) admitting that its racist ideology and tactics dooms it to irrelevance or (b) declaring war on voting by the poor and people of color and trying a host of tactics to suppress registration and and prevent voting by the growing non-white plurality (soon to be a non-white majority), the GOP has gone all-in for (b).

For Oregon farmers, oil-rich canola is either promise or peril | OregonLive.com

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2012/02/for_oregon_farmers_oil-rich_ca.html

Take action against this disastrously horrible idea. More effort to place the needs of rich auto drivers over humanity's need for real food. Growing rapeseed to make motor fuel in the Willamette Valley is like putting an oil refinery in the Vatican or the Louvre, only much more serious. Art can be recreated ... Getting those genes back out of the fields would be like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube while on fire.

Is there no level too low for the biofuel-mad subsidy seekers? Apparently not.

Tell Oregon Dept of Ag to do their job, and protect the future of food in the Willamette Valley.

WORD

WORD: Tired of partisan gridlock? Reforming electoral rules gives voters real choice. - CSMonitor.com

What he said.

Corporation Nation: Screwing Oregonians for fun and big profit

Image via WikipediaIf you ever wondered whether the initiative process had wound up being captured by the very corporations its was originally meant to corral, wonder no more:

Mark Nelson, the veteran Salem lobbyist and political consultant, is now getting involved in the business of gathering signatures for proposed ballot measures.

Nelson and other fellow business interests have started a non-profit firm called The Signature Gathering Company of Oregon.  It's first big client is a proposed initiative from the Oregon Association of Realtors that would ban new real-estate transfer fees.

"It's our feeling that the business community cannot be left exposed in this state without access to a quality and affordable signature-gathering company," said David Reinhard, who works for Nelson and helped set up the firm. . . .

Five ways income inequality happens

(Reuters) – As if on cue for an Occupy Wall Street commercial, the latest Congressional Budget Office report highlighted the large crevasse between the upper 1 percent of U.S. households and the rest of us.

When it comes to income inequality, this is what U.S. politicians should be digesting now. While it’s hardly a major revelation that for the top 1 percent of earners real after-tax income rose 275 percent between 1979 and 2007, the top 20 percent made more in after-tax income than the remaining 80 percent. That’s quite a difference since the lowest-income group’s median income only rose 18 percent.

Income inequality couldn’t be more of a mainstream issue as some 70 percent of Americans surveyed want wealth shared more equally.

The reasons for the growing disparity, which the CBO, without irony, measured by an increasing “Gini coefficient,” were buried deep in the report. It’s how income was taxed that allowed the ultra-wealthy to keep more of what they earned compared to middle- or lower-class Americans.

INVESTMENT INCOME EARNERS ARE TAXED LESS

Most lower- and middle-class earners make their money from wages, which are subject to Social Security, Medicare, federal and state taxes. But income from businesses, capital gains and dividends may be taxed at lower rates. In the CBO study period, the share from capital gains and business income increased, meaning upper-income families reaped greater after-tax benefits just from the kinds of non-wage income they reported.

When you’re on salary, you get taxed regularly through your paycheck. If you hold stocks, bonds, business equity and property, your capital gains — if any — can be delayed for years. Holding securities in tax-deferred retirement accounts can put off taxes for decades.

EXECUTIVES AND FINANCIAL PROFESSIONALS DID BEST

Again, no surprise here. But when you can structure your compensation so that it’s tax-deferred, paid in stock options or paid as capital gains, dividends or carried interest, you can pay much less to Uncle Sam and keep more of your income. Long-term capital gains, dividends and carried interest are taxed at a maximum 15 percent rate.

When the bulk of your income comes in those forms, you avoid taxes at the maximum 35-percent marginal federal rate. So those at the top of the compensation pyramid not only made more in gross income, their overall tax rates were lower because of how their pay was received. Billionaire Warren Buffett is a good example. His average rate was 17.4 percent.

LOWER-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS PAY MORE IN PAYROLL TAXES

Since the highest earners were paying less in overall taxes because they were paid in non-wage income, their payroll tax rate was also lower. The CBO found that the lowest fifth of families paid an average 8 percent in payroll taxes while the highest-income group paid under 2 percent.

Why are the poor paying quadruple the amount of payroll taxes than the rich?

They are unlikely to report investment or business income at the lowest rates. Attention tax reformers: You could make a case that the wealthiest Americans are not paying their fair share for Social Security, Medicare, state and federal programs. But since the tax code allows them to avoid paying any more, it’s perfectly legal now.

CONVERSION TO S CORPS ALSO HELPED WEALTHY

Those who ran their income through corporations (even small ones) reaped even more breaks by converting from a standard “C” to an “S” corporation. The S corporation essentially taxes business earnings at your personal rate in the year that you make the money. That opens up a number of ways to legally pare tax liability and gave many high-income households yet another loophole. I know, because I had an S Corp for years. “The observed growth in the conversion of C corporation income into S corporation income has contributed to the rapid growth in income for the highest-income households,” the CBO reported.

THOSE WHO HAVE MOST LOOPHOLES BENEFITS MOST

It’s a cumulative giveaway: The more deductions you can take at the most-favorable rates, the lower your after-tax income. Who did the best? No surprises here. “Employees in the financial and legal professions made up a larger share of the highest earners than any other group.” Hello Wall Street and K Street.

In addition to these plums, if you were in the elite class that benefited from low rates and a bevy of write-offs, you had more money to spare to hire lobbyists to keep your after-tax income higher than wage earners. You and your affiliated special-interest groups were also able to donate copious amounts of money to Congressional candidates who want to keep the tax code working in favor of the well-heeled.

Unless you can find a way of living off of an investment portfolio, create an S corporation and avoid payroll taxes, you’re going to pay more than your fair share of taxes. Has the Congressional debt reduction supercommittee considered this low-hanging fruit? There’s no way to tell since their proceedings or minutes have not been made public. Lobbyists have had better access than other citizens.

Only one thing is certain. If the status quo prevails, the tax code will continue to serve as a wealth enhancer for the ultra-wealthy and corporations. Without meaningful tax reform, the gap between the 99 percent and the top 1 percent will widen from a chasm — to a canyon.

 WORD. 

More excellence on this same idea here.  And here.

Spinning a little history the other way

This is a good antidote to some of the irrational nonsense spun by the Tea Party crowds, which is very similar to the nonsense spun by the Religious Right (it's positively astounding how absolutely, unalterably certain they are that God hates exactly the same people that they personally hate and fear).

Tea Party types typically pick from among the Founders' many writings and statements to justify whatever policy position they personally adhere to, ignoring that "the Founders" were themselves quite divided on nearly all important questions. But, just as the Tea-flavored Kool-Aid drinkers get it wrong most of the time, so too do those who ignore the positions of the Anti-Federalists (probably history's most important example of how important naming is to having any chance of winning a political debate).

I understand these things fill up fast, so you might want to get there early if you want a seat.
=================

Willamette University’s U Think, a popular pub series featuring talks and discussions with university professors, will move to the second Wednesday of each month beginning Sept. 14. History professor Seth Cotlar will discuss the historical accuracy of Tea Party claims about America’s founders.

Beginning at 6:30 p.m. at Brown's Towne Lounge, the series features topics from the sciences and humanities. No background knowledge is necessary, and a question and answer session follows each presentation.

The venue is open to adults 21 and over, and it is in the heart of downtown Salem at 189 Liberty St. NE. Willamette U Think is free, so arrive early to eat, drink and ensure you get a seat.

What we make now: hype

Sam Smith nails it yet again:

American Idol is a living metaphor of everything that we are now supposed to desire, buy, cheer and vote for. While there are still real artists, heroines, singers, and leaders, their role in American society has been largely eclipsed by fame factories that transmogrify the ordinary into something we are finally convinced is grand.

Perhaps the most startling example can be found in our politics. Bearing in mind the process, culture and style of American Idol, consider again the rise of our two last Democratic presidents – Clinton and Obama – or the current crop of GOP contenders.

Neither Clinton or Obama had any particular qualifications to be president.  But according to the media and the Randy Jacksons, Steve Tylers and Jennifer Lopez’s of their party they were incredibly magnificent (with a just few reservations for the sake of reality) . . . which is to say the contestants had the ambition while the American Political Idol show had the money, the moxie and the public relations manipulation to turn them into icons. And so on the same night that I watched Scott McCreery returning home to North Carolina and pitching to his old baseball buddies and Obama going to Ireland and playing ping pong with the British prime minister I felt like it was the same show.

Our political contestants have to prove themselves in the primaries just as Idol singers have to prove themselves in numerous weeks of competition, but in both cases the original choice of whom America will get to choose among has been made at the start of the season and largely out of sight of the public. Think of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as Scotty McCreary and Laura Alaina and you get the idea. The show’s producers would have been happy with either one, because they had created chosen and reconstructed both. And, while you’re at it, think of the trio of judges as panelists on Meet the Press and Ryan Seacrest as the show’s David Gregory, and it all begins to become clear.

Even this year’s undistinguished Republican crowd is reminiscent of the early season Idol shows. We know practically nothing about almost all of them, but months before the first actual primary, the inside selection process is already underway, witness the unexplained sudden departure of some.

The key part of the metaphor is that if you go back to the beginning of the season, you will find something much like that outlined in Wikipedia:

|||| Contestants go through three rigorous sets of cuts. The first is a brief audition with three other contestants in front of selectors which may include one of the show's producers. The number of auditioners can exceed 10,000 people each city, but only about 100–200 contestants in each city may make it past this round of preliminary auditions. Successful contestants are sent through to audition in front of producers. More contestants are cut in the producers round before they can proceed to audition in front of the judges, which is the only audition stage shown on the show. Those selected by the judges are sent to Hollywood. Between 10–60 people in each city may make it to Hollywood. At the end of the Hollywood week, 24–36 contestants were selected to move on to the semifinal stage.|||

In other words, though the illusion is that the American Idol is picked by tens of millions of viewers, this is far from the case. It all started in seven cities with 10,000 or more contestants in each. This was winnowed down to 24 to 36 before the public was brought in. The fame factory eliminated over 100,000 in its own manner and of its own choosing, before the public had a damn thing to say about it.

In other words, a pretty good analogy to American national politics. And to how we get to choose a lot of things in this land. . .long after many important choices have already been made.

Dump George W. Obama, draft Bernie