MaxRedline

Look For - The Union Label

Okay, that's more than a little unfair: although Metro's Oregon Zoo has a unionized workforce, that's not why you'll be seeing the Zoo in the news early next month. What you'll see is a careful side-stepping of managerial incompetence as they attempt to spin the fact that they've screwed up yet again, resulting in the unfortunate decision to euthanize another megaherbivore.

You won't read, nor hear, that Metro Oregon Zoo has systematically chased out virtually all experienced animal care staff while embarking upon a hiring spree of "managers". Nor will you read or hear that daily animal care has been largely turned over to temporary workers and other inexperienced staff - many of whom much prefer to socialize among themselves as much as possible.

No, what you'll get is the solemn intonation that you always get: "He was like family", "It was in his best interest".

Another endangered animal is euthanized and dismembered, and they'll trot out the same old lines - hoping you won't remember when they said the same things two months ago.

They didn't have this sort of problem 20 years ago, when they had a couple of managers and a staff of experienced animal care professionals. You'd almost think they took a wrong turn, somewhere along the line.

PR

If the holy "Sustainability Center" so desired by Portlandia's politicians had any legs, they wouldn't need to hire a PR firm to peddle it. Judging from the comments on this story, they're going to have to spend a lot more than $22,000 to clear up the stink emanating from this wish-list project.

No worries, though - Eileen Brady and the other wannabe mayors are all over it. That's the latest in a litany of reasons why Brady and the other pretenders should be denied. Vote Max Brumm. He's young, but sane. And that's something that Eileen, "Streetcar", and Bus-boy completely lack.

 

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Oregon Motor Pool

The state seems to take the term literally.

Real Hope, Real Change

Image via Wikipedia

Chagrin Falls, Ohio: A little hardware store that's been around for some 72 years now stands, oddly enough, as a reminder of what this country is all about.

Barry Obama, you and your whole sorry administration need to take a look. You might learn something.

Tolerance

What happens when the oldest Jewish bakery in New York City packs it in? As it happens, a couple of Pakistani Muslims take the business over - and keep it kosher.

For the bagels, that means high-gluten flour, brown sugar and liquid malt. It means making them by hand, not by machine, and boiling them, not steaming them, before they are baked.

As for keeping the bakery kosher, Ali says, "Kosher and halal is very, very close, like brother and sister, maybe twins."

On the other end of the tolerance spectrum, there's a barbeque joint called Hillbilly Heaven on Upper James Street in Ontario, Canada. They specialize in Southern barbeque; in fact, that's all they do. The owner had some trouble with some of the locals - one of whom pitched a fit because they don't serve duck - so he put up a few helpful signs:

The restaurant has a big sign by the cash register that says halal, rice, kabob, shawarma, fries, wings, ¼ chicken, Mexican and burgers are “things we don’t have and never will.”

On the door it says “to better serve you, our staff speaks ENGLISH” and “What would make you think this was a Korean BBQ? Do you see any f’n ducks in the window?”

Naturally, the ever-so-tolerant PC crowd in Canada is celebrating diversity and freedom. 

Just kidding - they're pitching hissies over it: Evelyn Myrie, executive director of Hamilton’s Centre for Civic Inclusion, says the signs are “very offensive and against the principles of diversity and inclusion.”

She's pushing him to remove the signs and apologize.

Here's another idea: remove her and close her "Centre".

 

 

Kidiocy

So-called Occuturds were littering downtown Portland again last night; ostensibly in support of Freedom in Egypt. You have to love their deep understanding of local, national, and international events. About four of them were arrested during their celebration of freedom in Egypt, and it's clear that the country over there pays considerable attention to the antics of Portland's Occuturds: the new, "free" government in Egypt has banned Americans from leaving the country.

Obama will doubtless bow and scrape before them while delivering a strongly-worded message to the Egyptians.

And the Portland Occuturds will battle gamely on: Freedom, children, Freedom!

It's really about time to deploy the Reagan Solution on these pretenders:

"Answering a question [in April 1970] about New Left campus tactics before a meeting of the California Council of Growers in Yosemite, Reagan said: 'If it takes a bloodbath, let's get it over with. No more appeasement.' Liberals howled with indignation. Do liberals ever do anything else?

 

 

 

 

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Bread And Circuses

My Bride had an all-day parent counseling meeting today, so I putted around. Windy and rainy here again, so I did some more cleaning in the garage - I can actually park a car in there, now, although there's still much to be done. I built a firewood holder between the two bays, and loaded that about 1/3 of the way full (dry and out of the weather!) and should be able to fit the next tree I chainsaw  up into the space.

Did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, decided to bake a couple of loaves of french bread. Many people have bread-making machines, but few actually use them. They're crappy for actually baking bread, but great for kneading the dough - just toss in the water, salt, sugar, yeast, and flour, and let it do its thing. While that's going on, you have time for other stuff. We had a couple of checks that needed to be deposited, so I took them upstairs, scanned them in, and emailed them off to the bank.

With that done, it was time to head down and grab the dough out of the machine. Rolled that out, cut it in half, rolled each into a loaf, then covered them and took them upstairs to rise in the warmest room in the house. That gives me another half-hour to do other stuff, so I pulled in the freshly-emptied garbage cans, refilled the bird feeder, and checked health plans. Sheer excitement. But, we need to buy coverage in the next few weeks, so it needs a look.

Took the bread back down to the kitchen, gave the loaves the old eggy-water treatment, slit the tops, and popped them in onto the middle rack with a cup of ice on the bottom of the oven. 20 minutes later, fresh french. Good thing I made two loaves, as one disappeared after the girls got hold of it. I made a basic ham-and-cheese omelette to go with it. As I'd assumed, my Bride was tired and hungry when she got home, so she was pretty happy. And as she correctly noted, the bread alone would cost $4-$5 if you bought it at the store ($2-$2.50 per loaf).

Daughter's comments were pretty much limited to "you make good bread, you make great omelettes" - most of the rest of the time, her mouth was full. It's interesting: I can stuff three people using 4 eggs, four slices of ham, a couple of slices of cheese, and 50 cents' worth of bread ingredients. If people are going hungry in America, it's because they've made bad choices. What I made was far from expensive, yet quick, easy, and nutritious. And I can do stuff like that any time: I picked up a filet for $4, cut it in half, froze one half. The other gets cooked and used in a stir-fry later in the week. Nothin' to it.

I'm not buying that there's a "crisis" in America when it comes to food. Our only crisis currently resides in the White House. I bake the bread; he provides the circuses.

 

 

 

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"My Message Is Simple"

This is one of the rare occasions when Obama speaks with complete honesty: not one of his alleged "State of the Union" speeches has achived above an eighth-grade level of language skill, and while the Left routinely portrayed George W. Bush as intellectually impaired, all of his State of the Union speeches exceeded Obama's in this regard.

Indeed, Obama's message was not only simple, but blunt: he don't need no steekin' Constitution. It doesn't get much simpler than that. And he hit all the right notes: class warfare, his commitment to raising taxes, increasing regulation and income redistribution.

As Senator Marco Rubio noted:  the tax issue was an important one, because, “I have never seen a President pit Americans against each other like this one does.”

Carefully omitted from Obama's speech were any significant discussions of his accomplishments to date; this is entirely understandable in view of the fact that there are none - despite having had, for two thirds of his term in office, a Democrat - controlled House and Senate. Although they rammed Obamacare through, his administration has granted thousands of exemptions to this finely-crafted legislation, and virtually all have gone to his union supporters - although nearly 20% of all waivers granted to date have gone to Nancy Pelosi's district.

It's hard to claim something like that as an achievement. He tried to claim credit for a Detroit Comeback: On the day I took office, our auto industry was on the verge of collapse. Some even said we should let it die. With a million jobs at stake, I refused to let that happen. In exchange for help, we demanded responsibility. We got workers and automakers to settle their differences. And the Government Motors Chevy Volt is flying out of dealerships across the country! Not. Okay, time to move on to that darn "do-nothing Congress"!

Boogey-men are so much easier than substance.

In his entire speech, Obama touched not once upon the alleged subject: the State of the Union. It's entirely understandable: the State of the Union is not good, his administration's actions (Gunrunner, suing the states, etc.) are making it worse, not better, and he's clueless.

You want to set forth a "blueprint" for America, Mr. Obama? Fine.

Let's start with this: First, Do No Harm. Now that the ground-rule's in place, let's look at some actual benefits: eliminating the U.S. Department of Vegetation Education would save $100 billion per year, every year. Let the states handle it.

Privatize the US Postal Service; forcing it to compete on equal footing with the likes of UPS and FedEx. If they can't compete, then they go away. Either way, we save billions.

Privatize AmTrak. Growing up in Illinois, three private train lines ran through my town: Santa Fe, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, and Burlington Northern. They all carried passengers, although CB&Q devoted considerably more resources to freight transport. However, since all of our politicians and planners assure us that rail is the transport of the future, we obviously don't need to subsidize it. Turn it back to the private sector, where it belongs.

And instead of funneling billions of transportation dollars into light rail and streetcars, we could use some of that gas tax money to fill pot-holes and build bridges. After all, rail is the transport of the future - and since the technology's been around for well over a century, we don't need to subsidize it.

Obama has had three State of the Union addresses, now - and has yet to discuss the actual State of the Union and reasonable means for improvement. Instead, he keeps flogging the same tired horses.

 

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Hope And Change

If Hairy Reed is enamored of Generation We, it must really be special.

For CD-1 (Oregon) Voters

this is likely a first for MaxRedline; however, the extensive links hold up.

From Larry Sparks, Clatsop Co Republican Chairman (via GB):

What Did She Know and When Did She Know It

Suzanne Bonamici's husband, Michael Simon, was David Wu's personal attorney for nearly a decade, and as recently as last year Bonamici described Wu as “a family friend.” Despite his displays of erratic behavior, she reportedly even went to bat for him as recently as 2010 to encourage a primary challenger to drop out.

Yet, for some reason, the close relationship between the Bonamici-Simons and Wu has been ignored since Bonamici entered the CD-1 race. Pieced together from published reports, the evidence shows Suzanne Bonamici most certainly was aware of David Wu’s history as a sexual abuser and it defies common sense that she did not know of his irresponsible and embarrassing behavior over the past few years. After all, it was no secret among his friends and political colleagues. In late October, a senior staffer decried “the charade” others were playing to keep him in office. Bonamici had contributed $250 to Wu on October 25, 2010.

And though Bonamici now says she’d begun to plan a run against Wu early this year, she held back for months before finally entering the race -- after he resigned.

The Background: Simon Threatens Dying Woman

In the throes of a public relations nightmare, Wu hired Michael Simon in 2004.  The Oregonian had told Wu it was about to publish a story detailing Wu’s alleged 1976 assault of a girlfriend when he was an undergrad at Stanford.

Leah Kaplan, a school counselor at the time of the assault, was a key source in the Oregonian story, and she was dying when the Oregonian interviewed her:  “Kaplan said the woman claimed Wu had entered her dorm room, attacked her and wrestled with her. She said the woman told her that she was fighting Wu off and that he tried to silence her by holding a pillow over her mouth. ‘She was screaming. He tried to rape her’, Kaplan said, recalling the woman's account.”

According to the paper’s then-Managing Editor Stephen Engelberg, Wu’s attorney, Simon, threatened a dying woman’s family should she tell her story.

“Wu hired a lawyer who ferociously counter-attacked, threatening to sue the Oregonian if any story were published. Neither Wu nor the lawyer would answer questions about the incident, but they contacted Kaplan's family and made it clear they were prepared to hold the dying woman legally accountable for her conduct. Wu's campaign manager said the candidate would never respond to ‘unsubstantiated allegations’." 

In an about-face, Wu issued a statement the day of publication in 2004 “admitting to ‘inexcusable behavior on my part’, confirming that he was disciplined by Stanford and asserting that he worked with a counselor after the incident.

Michael Simon’s law firm, Perkins Coie, collected nearly $60,000 from Wu for Congress during this period. 

10/22/04 - $29,982

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00329292/155055/sb/ALL

12/20/04 - $15,638

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00329292/163112/sb/ALL

4/1/05 - $11,082

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00329292/180239/sb/ALL

Wu was easily re-elected in November 2004.

Wu Ally Warns “Charade Needs To End NOW”, Bonamici Donates to Wu Campaign

Over his years in Congress, Wu exhibited fits of bizarre behavior.  “In one instance, he warned of faux Klingons in the White House during a floor speech in 2007. In 2003, as the House was convulsing to pass the Medicare prescription bill, Wu fell into a state that one colleague described as ‘almost catatonic,’ according to The Washington Post, as Democratic leaders frantically tried to get him to vote for the bill.”

Wu was hospitalized for two days after Election Day 2008, over what he said was a bad reaction to Ambien and a generic for Valium.  His staff and family reportedly couldn’t find him on Election Day. (Reported Feb 2011)  He also admitted to taking painkillers – reported to be Oxycodone, from a campaign donor in 2010.

His emotional stability worsened to the point that in the days leading up to the Nov. 2010 election, local Democrats complained about him and Wu staff and consultants sought to find a psychiatric hospital for him.

“Several staff members confronted Wu for the final time on Oct. 30….The meeting was held after four consecutive days of troubling behavior that led the staff to agree that Wu needed a higher level of medical care, according to people intimately familiar with the events of that period….

‘This is way beyond acceptable levels and the charade needs to end NOW,’ wrote Lisa Grove, a senior and long-serving campaign pollster, in an e-mail to colleagues that day. ‘No enabling by any potential enablers, he needs help and you need to be protected. Nothing else matters right now. Nothing else’.”

On October 25, 2010 Suzanne Bonamici contributed $250 to Wu, a strong signal of support.

(Center For Responsive Politics, www.opensecrets.org, Accessed 10/5/11)

Willamette Week reported that “Wu’s behavior grew so erratic in the final weeks before his re-election last November that the Oregon Democrat’s closest political advisers staged two of what some of them termed ‘interventions’ to urge him to seek psychiatric help.” 

His irrational behavior didn’t occur only behind closed doors. “Phyllis Kirkwood, a Democratic precinct leader in Washington County, was alarmed enough to send Wu a letter after the Oct. 27 event. “You gave us no reason in that speech to support you at all,’ she wrote in the letter, which she confirmed for The Oregonian. ... ‘You sounded bitter and angry, blaming in loud, fearsome tones your possible defeat on your opponent and the media.’

In an interview, Kirkwood said Wu ‘yelled a lot, which I didn't think was necessary. In fact, I almost got up and said, 'Hold on now, Mr. Wu, we are all your friends.'"

Still, he was reelected by a comfortable margin in November, with Bonamici’s help.

Wu Staff Quits

In mid-January, the Oregonian reported that since the November election, Wu “had lost at least six staffers plus the leadership of a veteran campaign team that guided him to a seventh term amid complaints about his public behavior.”http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/04/rep_david_wu_loses_another_emp.html

Then came news of the photo of Wu in a tiger costume.

On February 18, 2011 Willamette Week reported  “At 1:03 am PST on Saturday, Oct. 30, an email from Wu’s Congressional BlackBerry landed in the inbox of a female staffer….There was no message attached to the email, only a single image. That photo, copied above, showed Wu in a plush tiger suit with orange- and black-striped mittens over his hands, a hood with pointy ears pulled over his head and a white circle split by a zipper stretched over his stomach.”  He also sent follow-up emails to his staff, pretending to be his children.

The pictures later went viral, and “David Wu tiger” became the most popular Google search term for the congressman.

In an intro to her interview with David Wu, KGW’s Laural Porter described in late February how many had lost faith in his ability to do his job.

“A lot of people are very concerned about you….your whole senior staff resigned after the election.  They talked about strange behavior, erratic behavior, sometimes hostile. Some loyal Democratic supporters have severed their ties with you. Your staff tried to hide you from public view because they were afraid of what you might say or do.”

Simon Resigns as Wu’s Attorney – Six Months After Charade Warning

On April 26, 2011, six months after Wu’s pollster urges an end to “the charade”, the Oregonian reported that Michael Simon had resigned as Wu’s attorney. And the story called Simon and Sen. Bonamici “a powerhouse couple with deep roots” in the 1st district.

http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/04/rep_david_wu_loses_another_emp.html

All told, Simon’s firm, Perkins Coie, had collected nearly $75,000 from Wu.

5/29/02 - $3198

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00329292/42453/sb/ALL

4/1/02 - $9639

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00329292/35790/sb/ALL

8/15/02 - $2031

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00329292/53821/sb/ALL

10/1/02 - $285

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00329292/59072/sb/ALL

1/24/04 - $1282

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00329292/116915/sb/ALL

10/22/04 - $29,982

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00329292/155055/sb/ALL

12/20/04 - $15,638

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00329292/163112/sb/ALL

4/1/05 - $11,082

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00329292/180239/sb/ALL

Simon was quoted as saying he resigned “for personal reasons that are unrelated to Congressman Wu." The paper noted, “Simon is married to state Sen. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Beaverton, who may or may not be considering a primary challenge to Wu in the 1st Congressional District next spring.”  

Within a few hours, the story changed: Bonamici said she was now “seriously considering” a challenge to Wu.  Noted the Oregonian, “That's a change for her, since she had been quite circumspect in the past about the possibility of running.

Bonamici does have a couple of complications.  Her husband, attorney Michael Simon, has long represented Wu and his campaign - and he's also been nominated for a federal judgeship.

“Secondly, Bonamici chairs the Senate Redistricting Committee, which means she is in the middle of the discussions over how to redraw the 1st district (and every other legislative and congressional district in the state) to account for population changes.”http://blog.oregonlive.com/mapesonpolitics/2011/04/bonamici_ups_her_public_profil.html

Yet, she still didn’t enter the race formally, and continued her work on redistricting. On July 25, 2011 The Oregonian confirmed that a young woman involved in an aggressive sexual encounter with Wu last year was 18 at the time of the incident.

On July 26, 2011, in a story announcing his forced resignation, the Oregonian quoted a former Wu campaign manager and vice chair of the state Democratic Party saying many “bear responsibility” for not speaking up sooner about Wu’s troubles.

"There are far too many of us on this long journey with David over the last 12 years that kept our mouth shut when we should not have. And ultimately, we bear some responsibility in allowing him to be a member of Congress," said Maria Smithson, who managed Wu's first campaign in 1998.

Wu Resigns, Avakian Questions Bonamici’s Leadership

Wu resigned on August 3, and Bonamici filed for the vacant seat on August 4.

The National Journal reported that Avakian took a swipe at Bonamici for waiting so long to get into the race. ‘Now that this is an open seat, it isn't surprising to see others entering the race. Leadership is about standing up, even when it is inconvenient or uncomfortable. That is why I declared my candidacy over three months ago, saying it was time to replace David Wu,’ he said.”

Bonamici Calls Wu a “Family Friend”, Attempts to Pressure Wu Primary Rival Out of the Race

Amid his growing problems, Bonamici last year considered Wu a “family friend” and reportedly sought to discourage a Wu rival in the 2010 primary. According to an October 5, 2011 report in the Oregonian, Bonamici allegedly cited her friendship with Wu as a reason that Sandy Webb, the wife of Wu primary rival David Robinson, would not receive a key endorsement for her own state House race. “Webb said in an interview that Bonamici mentioned that Wu was a friend and that she ‘couldn't expect support’ if Robinson didn't get out of the race’.”

The Oregonian also reported that Robinson forwarded to the paper a 2009 email from Bonamici to Robinson, who had written asking for a meeting with her to talk about his own candidacy against Wu.  “Bonamici said it would be  ‘awkward’ to meet with him because Wu ‘is a family friend and (as any Google search will reveal) he has been a client of my husband's’."

On OPB’s October 25 edition of Think Out Loud, Bonamici said she made up her mind early this year to run against Wu, but was too busy to officially enter the race. One of her jobs, of course, was to chair the redistricting committee that would determine the First District’s future boundaries.

"I was watching his career as a legislative official and a resident of the district. But during the legislative session, I could not file to run against him because I was busy doing the work of the legislature. I filed after the legislative session," she said.

The Legislature adjourned on June 30, 2011  -- 34 days before Wu resigned from Congress and 35 days before Bonamici declared her candidacy.

In the KGW/Oregonian debate on October 18, Bonamici said, "It's a good thing that David Wu no longer represents this district. I'm glad he resigned. He needed to resign. What we need to do is look at going forward, who is the best person to represent this district."

Given her close ties to David Wu, her continued support of him as his behavior worsened and her refusal to act only until it benefitted her political interests, how can Suzanne Bonamici possibly be the best person to represent CD-1?

An interesting photo from Suzanne Bonamici’s 2007 website:

Suzanne Bonamici On The Campaign Trail With David Wu, as Shown On Bonamici’s Own Campaign Website