MaxRedline

Rope-A-Dope Misconstrued

So many folks are flipping out over N.J. Gov. Christie flitting around with Barky today, but ask yourself this: would you rather have the Barkster hanging out, doing photo-ops in the situation room in between sessions of huddling with his campaign staff, trying to figure out how best to steal the election? Or would you rather have him out there, prevented from campaigning, losing prime photo-ops, and unable to effectively collaborate with his campaign rats? 

New Mailers Appear In Oregon

Courtesy of the thugs at AFL-CIO, the pamphlet warns that your voting history is a matter of public record. In other words, "we know who you are, and we'll know how you voted". Inside, they provide helpful information regarding the "correct" way to vote.

It's an updated version of a tool that's served them well in the past: "Nice little place ya got here. Be a real shame if something was to, you know, happen."

It may be an effective intimidator for some folks, but of course it's predicated upon a lie: the fact that you voted is public record; how you voted is not. Even rabid Kate Brown, supported by union thugs, knows that any effort on her part to alter that would encounter an insurmountable wall of litigation. She probably hopes that it's sufficient to violate the law by not destroying unused ballots after 8 p.m. on election day.

It's interesting that they'd decide now to stoop to such tactics; clearly, this election has them very concerned, even in regard to the reliably Democrat Portland metropolitan area. Despite all of the mud-slinging against her Republican opponent during the past week or so, Kate Brown may very well lose her job; when virtually no media support her and several have endorsed her opponent, her many union endorsements suddenly become less compelling. That race alone may explain the thugs' decision to resort to thinly-veiled intimidation tactics.

Their problem is that it's already starting to backfire among recipients of the pamphlet.

News Flash For Portland City Council:

Today's the one-year anniversary since Portland City Council, in their infinite wisdom, cut weekly garbage pickup from weekly to every other week while increasing recycling pickups from every other week to weekly. How's that genius move been working out?

Many Portlanders are losing patience with the city’s garbage and recycling services, according to a new survey by the city.

Nearly 3,500 Portland residents took part in the 2012 Community Survey, which was conducted by the city auditor’s office. The results show significantly lower satisfaction with the quality and cost of trash and recycling pickup.

My, what a surprise: Portland homeowners were issued "free" made-in-China kitchen food slop buckets and ordered to dump the contents into the yard-debris recycling bin. Oh, and for those hot days in the summer - the kiddies at City Hall are chock-full of helpful suggestions: put your kitchen slop in the freezer to cut down on odors, then trot it out and dump it into the bin just before your pick-up day. If you have a lot, you may want to buy a second freezer just for the slop. "We know that change can be difficult," they smugly remind us. They also recommend buying a subscription to a newspaper and using pages to line your kitchen slop bucket. And whatever you do, don't use a garbage disposal. No doubt if mayor Sammy and his sidekick Randy were going to be around much longer, they'd ban 'em.

Got a family with small kids? Use cloth diapers rather than disposables, and in the process crank up your water/sewer bills (already third-highest in the nation) and buy more "green" detergent. Oh - and your recycling/garbage pickup "services" cost more, too.

Don't like the options? Tough - Portland City Council "knows what's best" for you, so if you don't like it, you're free to pack up your family and move out of town. Naturally, being a mainstream media outlet, KATU is obliged to end with a comment from a hipster who thinks it's all great.

Yet another reason why the hipsters are wearing out their welcome here.

The Scent Of Pepper Spray In The Afternoon

As mentioned previously, Portland Occutards "liberated" a foreclosed home and moved the former resident (and previously unreported, her husband) back in. The City refused to turn the water back on, citing the fact that she's not the owner, and the county Sheriff's deputies, along with Portland Police, showed up yesterday to dig them out. This prompted around 4 dozen Occutards to show up in "protest", and as things grew increasingly boisterous, a number found themselves on the receiving end of pepper spray; one was arrested.

Meanwhile, a tearful Patsy blathered:

"I just want to have my day in court. They're doing everything they can to stop that," she said.

Oops. Turns out that she has a court hearing on Friday.

Nevermind....

If you can't get what you want for free, turn it into a race-case.

Boy that gets old.

Sandy Halloween!

Over in New Haven, Connecticut, a 100-year-old oak tree was uprooted during the recent storm - and hanging up amid the root-ball was a human skull, with spinal cord and rib cage attached. The upper town green, where the tree is located, was formerly a cemetery that may have contained between 5,000 and 10,000 bodies. The headstones were ultimately moved to a different location, but the bodies were not relocated.

Scores of Democrats have abandoned area search and rescue efforts; focusing instead upon recovery, in a desperate bid to register as many voters as possible prior to next Tuesday.

Happy Halloween!

As Leno noted last week, if you want a really inexpensive costume, just put on a "Re-elect Obama" pin and go as a journalist. He had a few other choice lines recently, as well:

Somehow, I doubt that local lefty comedy writer McDonald is making many sales to the show, just now.

About Those Oregon Jobs...

As you've doubtless heard, Intel's building a new, $3 billion research fab in Hillsboro, which for the time being has put thousands of folks to work. At the same time, the state lost nearly 8,000 jobs last month; the worst dip since 2009. We need more streetcars!

Clowns At Clackamas Water District Pile Out Of The Car Again

Two renegade members of the troubled Clackamas River Water District board today called a meeting, appointed two new members, fired the district's attorney and placed the general manager on administrative leave. 

It takes three members of the board to form a quorum, and none of the actions taken by Patricia Holloway and Grafton Sterling appear to be legal. Holloway said her attorney advised that a quorum is not required to appoint new members.

Holloway's an idiot, but overall seems more or less harmless, unlike her cohort, Graftman Steely. The Grafter, spry for a guy around 60 years old, seems intent upon turning the water board meeting room into a MMA fighting arena, hoping to thrash all dissent into submission. And when Patsy and the Grafter show up, it's a sure bet that Clackamas County Sheriff's deputies won't be far behind.

Aside from engaging in outright assault, the Grafter has enlisted Patsy in litigation efforts that have cost ratepayers some $1 million, and insurance coverage for the agency has been dropped because those two put the "diss" in "dysfunctional". And thus far, no insurance providers are willing to cover the agency; opening them to further liability.

The Clackamas River Water Board has struggled for years with infighting and dysfunction. In the past decade, the board has burned through six general and interim managers and, because of recurring accusations of mismanagement, submitted to three expensive special audits and a half-dozen ethics and workplace complaints. The district racked up about $1 million in legal fees in the past four years, mostly from infighting among board members. 

The Special Districts Association of Oregon recently informed the water district that it would cancel the agency's property and liability coverage in January, saying it has a "fiduciary responsibility" to protect other members from costs and liability generated by the district's contentious and dysfunctional board. 

Portland's talking about adding fluoride to the water supply - but over in Clackamas County, they need something a lot stronger.

In the meantime, if you happen to be driving near Hwy 224 and see a mini-car pull over as a bunch of clowns jump out and start chasing one another around with seltzer bottles, relax - it's just another "meeting" of the Clackamas River Water Board. Buy some popcorn and a soda, and wait for the inevitable arrival of police. If you're not a ratepayer, it's cheap entertainment.

 

Colorado Turf Wars

It's a tight contest in Colorado. Even the prairie dogs are taking sides.

Did HMS Bounty Swing Right Before She Sank?

The Zero's been just full of surprises during the past day or so, which is a significant improvement over what many have come to expect them to be full of. First, they (along with virtually every other paper in the state) endorsed Republican Knute Buehler over hyper-partisan Democrat Kate Brown for Secretary of State; a development that few can recall happening in the past few decades. Moreover, they didn't mince any words: Kate's a career politician who's been around Salem for two decades while accomplishing little more than being divisive. Ow.

Yesterday, they went even further; noting that public empolyee bosses are pouring cash into Knute-bashing ads that have no basis in fact, while thrashing Kate again:

Voters, too, should think of their pick not only as a secretary of state, but also as a future aspirant to the state's highest office. Would they prefer in either office someone backed by both public employee unions and the most partisan secretary of state in recent memory or someone who has sought through the initiative process to empower voters and reduce the effects of partisanship? The better choice is obvious.

Katie's got to be soiling herself. If she manages to get enough dead people to vote and thus retains her seat, you can bet she'll be going after some newspapers around here.

It seems reasonable to suspect that this veering away from a predictably Left course with a mild rightward course correction motivated their long-time editorial cartoonist to bunch it. Being decidedly Leftist himself, the atmosphere over there has likely been growing somewhat less congenial. It used to be that he could count on support from other solid Leftists, such as plagiarist Jonathan Nicholas - but he's gone, and the numbers appear to be dwindling.

Oddly, the disappearance of some of the hardest of the hard-core Left might be related to the disappearance of readership: as Terrance notes, circulation at The Zero has been declining by significant percentages over the past seven years; if they're going to turn it around and avoid ending up like a Pamplin paper (mostly online, with a weekly print version), then they seem to have decided that their best course is to stop doing what they've been doing.

They've jettisoned Jonny and Margie Boule, both rock-solid leftists, among others, and now their cartoonist has decided that the environment is less inviting. Will it work? The better question is: can it hurt?