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And They're Off!

Mia Love's announced that she's going to take another shot at Utah Rep. Jim Matheson's seat in the 2014 run. Last time out, she mounted an interesting come-from-behind effort; losing to Matheson in the end by the slimmest of margins. That initial foray received help from Portland-area folks: Jeff Reynolds - Multnomah County Republicans head, and John Kuzmanich - head of Oregon TEA Party.

No word as yet on whether they'll be involved this time around; Love says she learned a lot in her first run, though, setting her team up for success next year.

She's since hired a top consultant from Utah Republican Sen. Orrin G. Hatch’s team and began organizing her campaign early this year. 

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Hilarious! Zero Report: Merkley "Dragged Into IRS Scandal"

Really? That's amazing, because Oregon's junior Senator jumped in with both feet; he joined such luminaries as Chuckles Schumer and Smilin' Al Franken in a letter to the IRS demanding that they take action, and threatening legislation if they didn't. The folks at The Zero really shouldn't try to rewrite history; they have trouble enough with unembelliished facts.

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Medicating the Porkland Metro Area

Fluoride proponents have been pushing the meme of a "growing dental crisis" in the Porkland area because we don't have fluoride in the water. Porkland City Council tried to sneak it in, but were quickly overruled by a successful petition drive calling for a vote. It's been voted down three times in the past, but the folks who stand to cash in keep bringing it back every few years. At some point, what we need is a vote to ensure that the subject will never be brought up again.

Now that the dirty tricks have been exposed:

A state official managing a new survey of kids' oral health met with the architects of Portland's pro-fluoride campaign in January and later complained that she felt pressure from Upstream Public Health about how to present the findings.

Those details emerged from state emails referencing the 2012 Smile Survey, a now-politicized report released April 24 that revealed improvement in every major dental category compared with 2007 results. State officials released the emails to The Oregonian in response to a public records request.

The emails don't show any effort to delay the report, but do call into question whether fluoride proponents received advance and unfair access to information contradicting the "growing dental health crisis" campaign tied to Tuesday's election.

In other words, the proponents are marketing a pack of lies, as the "statistics" they've been citing in their high-dollar television ads are not only outdated, they've been eradicated. So now, in response to the online version of the article in The Oregonian, a "dentist" from North Carolina - and one from Florida - are apparently being paid by the pro-fluoride crowd to carpet-bomb the comments section .

Now, what do we have thus far? Proponents have pressured a state official over the negative (for them) findings in a state survey on dental health.

Proponents have mounted an expensive television ad-based campaign, telling residents that we're in the midst of a dental health "crisis" that only water fluoridation can "cure".

And in response to the story in The Oregonian regarding the survey, proponents of fluoridation have enlisted the assistance of people from the other side of the continent in an effort to stifle discussion on the messaging board.

Obviously, somebody's hoping to make a ton of money through compulsory medication of the water supply.

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Hoping The Poll's Correct

Tablets of sodium fluoride, used for cavity prevention. 

Porkland City Council voted unanimously to medicate the pristine Bull Run waters For The Children™ - only to find citizens yelling "Hooold On Thar!" They collected more than enough signatures to put the thing on the ballot (and in record time). A new poll released by KATU shows 53% against it, and this despite a massive, high-dollar campaign by proponents who are flooding the airwaves with pro-fluoridation propaganda. It's abundantly clear that some folks stand to make a lot of money if the plan goes through.

They point to studies showing that it's perfectly safe - but then, studies showed that thalidomide was safe, too. And it wasn't all that long ago that doctors were featured in television ads, hawking their preferred brands of smokes. Yet the same folks who today want to ban tobacco products have no problem with involuntarily medicating entire populations.

It might be one thing if fluoride wasn't so ubiquitous in the first place; you actually have to hunt around to find toothpaste and mouthwash that doesn't have it (along with warnings telling you not to swallow the products). And Porklanders who want their precious snowflakes to be thoroughly fluoridated have the option of having their crotchfruit receive free, daily fluoride tablets through the schools (isn't it weird that the schools hand out free condoms, but require parental consent for "harmless" fluoride tablets?).

If they insist on dumping the chemical compound into the water supply, the least they can do is provide free filters capable of removing the stuff to residents who don't want to drink it. Naturally, that's not part of the plan.

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Comedy Gold At Tri-Mess

Testifying against a bill aimed at making the TriMet board of directors more accountable to taxpaying citizens, head honcho Neil McFarlane actually came out with this gem:

“I would sort of ask the question,” McFarlane said, “what is broken with TriMet?”

A better question would be: what isn't broken at TriMet? McFarlane claims that mounting employee health insurance costs are driving the agency toward a fiscal cliff, although he recently found nearly $1 million to dole out in pay raises to himself and 69 of his bestest, closest managers - most all of whom were already receiving six-figure paychecks.

The bill he was testifying against would turn the seven-member TriMet board from one exclusively consisting of gubernatorial appointees into a board appointed by folks at the local service level. As it stands, only one board member periodically rides transit; none of the others do. And McFarlane, now among the most highly-compensated of any transit agency head in the country, doesn't see a problem with the status quo.

What's broken? As one person commented, try this:

How about electric trains that have no power all day long and require buses for backup? How about Ticket Vending Machines that cancel your credit card when you're away from home and put you on a terrorist watch list? What's broken? How about millions of dollars in fare revenue that walk out the bus door every day because people won't pay, and drivers are fearful of assaults for asking them to? How about bridges to nowhere, and communities forced to pay for trains they don't want? How about bus drivers getting stabbed because of Neil McFarlane's "Rich bus driver" rhetoric, and divisive propaganda?

And how about an agency that keeps finding ways to fund multi-billion-dollar construction projects but complains incessantly about health insurance costs for drivers and mechanics?

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Unlike Porkland, Minneapolis Gets It

Porkland continues to waste invest billions in tax dollars and cash borrowed from China to build little light rail and streetcar lines, but they don't have anything much that makes them worthy of the term "public transit": due to downtown Porkland's uniquely small city blocks, the light rail "trains" can never consist of more than two cars. Moreover, they don't take people where they want or need to go.

By contrast, Minneapolis has the Hiawatha line (now being re-named the "blue" line) that runs out to the largest shopping mall in the country, and will be bringing their "green" line - running between Minneapolis and St. Paul later this year. These trains are actual trains; three or more cars in length. And they have the populations and destinations to support them.

Even better, they aren't stupidly train-centric, unlike their counterparts in Porkland.

Red Line Bus Rapid Transit is scheduled to begin June 22 along Cedar Avenue from Bloomington to Eagan, Apple Valley and Lakeville.

They know what they're doing in Minnesota. Unlike in Oregon, where they just pretend (and spend a lot of money doing so).

Porkland's "Arts Tax" Staggers On

The city has yet again extended the "deadline" to pay the insidiously regressive "arts" tax, as their website - and preferred method for handling payments - crashed yesterday, which was formerly the "deadline". The initial deadline was April 15, then it was extended to May 15, and now it's extended until further notice. Doubtless, they'll tweak this turkey some more in the interim, as they've already decided to refund any payments made by state and federal pensioners after finding out that it's illegal to charge them. Before the city re-extended the deadline, Willamette Week noted:

For those of you keeping score at home, the $35-a-person Portland arts tax is due today—the deadline moved back a month after the city had trouble getting money from people without computers, couldn't get debit-card payments to work, changed the exemptions twice, offered refunds, and was sued in two courts.

The civil trial in the first of those lawsuits, filed by Lewis & Clark Law School professor and retired blogger Jack Bogdanski, will start in earnest next Wednesday in Oregon Tax Court.

This thing could well go entirely belly-up before the city decides exactly when its next deadline for payment is going to be. The city's moved to dismiss, and so their legal beagles and the tax law professor will spend some time presenting oral arguments May 22. It doesn't seem likely that the city's going to prevail on this one; would a guy who makes his living teaching tax law to up-and-coming lawyers be likely to challenge the tax if he wasn't fairly certain of his facts?

In the meantime, the sheep are being shorn; "a surprisingly high rate of compliance" has been reported. Baaa.

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TriMet And Uncured Pork

Porkland and the development agency known as TriMet are suddenly finding themselves in unfamiliar territory, after decades of wallowing in pork: KOIN television is actually hitting the development agency hard, much to the apparent dismay of longtime Friend of Neil (Goldschmidt) and nominal head of a "transit" agency Neil McFarlane. McFarlane, evidently expecting softball questions during an interview on an appropriately immobile light rail car(Correction: some guy notes that it's a 3000-series bus. Still, not moving,), was confronted with a few annoying facts, such as the hefty raises he managed to sneak through for himself and 70 or so of his best "managers".

Naturally, McFarlane blames the fiscal disorder at his agency upon the recession and the high cost of TriMet’s union health benefits while attempting to fend off discussion of the fact that TriMet executives are more highly paid, on the order of tens of thousands of dollars, than their counterparts across the country - even as they raise fares and slash services. It's a well-done report, and highly entertaining. 

Meanwhile, another darling of the porkers at TriMet and of Porkland Democratics, the "Columbia River Crossing", appears to be well on its way to oblivion. If the Washington legislature doesn't come up with the cash (to the tune of some $450 million) by September, then it's all over but the wiping. This would be an excellent development, as Oregon's legislature has already pledged $450 million in funds it doesn't have, and the federal government is clearly in no position to fund the project despite its promises. If Washington legislators are able to sink it, we can finally stop throwing more money into the bureucratic rat-hole.

It Gets Deeper And Stickier

Our friends at the IRS, who will soon be overseeing our health care, keep running into trouble. As if the whole targeting of conservative groups and Jews wasn't bad enough (back to that in a moment), they're now being sued because, well, they kind of violated HIPAA a little bit:

The Internal Revenue Service is now facing a class action lawsuit over allegations that it improperly accessed and stole the health records of some 10 million Americans, including medical records of all California state judges.

In all, some 60 million medical records were stolen, the class-action suit alleges; included were records involving everything from psychological counseling through sex or drug treatments and more.

The remedy being sought is $25,000 - per violation. That amounts to a cool $250 billion overall. Can't wait for these boys and girls to enforce Obamacare.

However much pleasure one might derive from the scandal involving the agency's targeting of conservative groups, however, it remains that they were pushed to do so by many of the same Democratics now shouting for their heads - a measure supported by at least 57% of Americans, according to polling data regarding the question of whether or not the "offending" IRS staff should be jailed or fired. Give them credit; they excel at dodging the various turds that they themselves set in motion:

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana, for example, vowed congressional hearings and called the IRS actions "an outrageous abuse of power and a breach of the public's trust."

He was joined by a chorus of other Democrats including Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire who called it "completely unacceptable," Kay Hagan of North Carolina who called it "disturbing and troubling," and Mark Pryor of Arkansas who tweeted that he's "working to get to bottom of this so we can fire those responsible & ensure this never happens again."

What paragons of virtue! There's just one tiny little problem with all of the huffing and posturing:

As the New York Times reported back in 2010 :

With growing scrutiny of the role of tax-exempt groups in political campaigns, Congressional Republicans are pushing back against Democrats by warning about the possible misuse of the Internal Revenue Service to audit conservative groups….And the Republicans are also upset about an I.R.S. review requested by Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who leads the Finance Committee, into the political activities of tax-exempt groups. Such a review threatens to "chill the legitimate exercise of First Amendment rights," wrote two Republican senators, Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and Jon Kyl of Arizona, in a letter sent to the I.R.S. on Wednesday. ... Democrats dismissed the Republicans' complaints as groundless.

Oh, hey, what a coincidence! The same Montana Democratic who's now yowling is the guy who told the IRS to do exactly what they did. Imagine that!

Oh, and he was by no means alone: just last year, junior Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Portlandia) joined luminaries such as Al Franken, Chuckie Schumer, and Tom Udall in signing a letter to the IRS Commissioner, asking that the IRS make "immediate" changes to their policies in order to pursue deeper investigations into the organizations; policies which these Democratics are now decrying. It may seem a touch hypocritical, but then, they are Democratics.

Not only are they now racing to distance themselves from the very agency they leaned on, they're also dumping on their Messiah:

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that he believes President Barack Obama owes the American public explanations for both the seizure of Associated Press phone records by the Department of Justice and the IRS targeting of conservative groups.

“I don’t think anyone truly believes that the president has given us a sufficient answer for America, much less the press,” Rangel said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I think this is just the beginning and the whole idea of comparing this with Nixon, I really think is just, it doesn’t make much sense. But the president has to come forward and share why he did not alert the press they were going to do this. He has to tell the Americans, including me: What was this national security question? You just can’t raise the flag and expect to salute it every time without any reason and the same thing applies to the IRS.”

Well, when Charlie "Ethics 'R' Me" Rangel gets his dander up, Barky'd better start delivering. Everybody knows how cranky Charlie can get.

Time to head to the store for some more popcorn - few things are more entertaining than a big implosion.

 

Even The Zero's Had Enough

It seems like every two days, somebody over in Porkland City Hall dinks around with more tweaks to the so-called "arts tax"; new Mayor Charlie Hales has come up with the latest: even though the city's facing a $21 million deficit, he figures he can shake loose a couple million dollars out of the city's general fund to at least pay for some art teachers in Porkland Public Schools. In that scenario, the Porkland Symphony, Opera, and other trough-feeders would be left to rely upon their generous endowment funds.

Portland Mayor Charlie Hales on Monday pledged that the city will cover $2 million for new teachers at local schools if its arts tax is deemed unconstitutional.

Even the editorial board at The Oregonian has had just about enough; they say it's time to dump the whole thing and send it back to the voters, as it currently bears little - if any - resemblance to what was sold to Porkland voters at the time.

Consider where we are. The tax has been criticized appropriately as regressive and is currently tied up in court because it may be unconstitutional as well. In an effort to make the regressive, possibly unconstitutional tax less unpalatable, city council has adopted a $1,000 income floor and directed city staff, in consultation with Office of Equity and Human Rights, to develop some possible modifications by the end of the July.

Oh, and they also announced that public-employee retirees are exempt from the new tax. If returned for a re-vote, it seems unlikely that folks, even here in Leftist Porkland, are going to be willing to pass a law that treats private-sector retirees differently from public-sector retirees. With all their tweaking and geeking around on the new "arts tax", Porkland City Council's turned it into something completely different than what was originally approved.

Time to flush it down one of those $100,000 "Porland Loo" toilets and start over. Or better yet, just flush and forget.

 

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