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Street Fee Follies

If you drive a car, I'll tax the street

If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat

Hey, The Beatles knew this back in 1966.

Oregon Senate majority leader Peter Courtney's resigned to not getting a transportation package through the legislature this year, but House speaker Tina Kotek's a bit more optimistic, as is gov. Retread. The good news is that they're not looking at it as a means to revive the zombie CRC light-rail bridge into Vancouver. That being the case, they may be able to get something done. 

It seems fairly certain that Oregon's parties will work together to raise our fuel taxes, but that's not a bad thing, as it goes to maintain and improve infrastructure. The only thing that is certain to screw this up is if the Democratics pursue their plans to enact a "carbon tax" as well, which Retread and his First Squeeze would dearly love to see happen. If they push on that, the fuel tax is DOA, because the Republicans aren't going to go along if Democratics ram through another environmeddlist agenda just because the felonious Squeeze says it's a great thing.

In any case, whatever the legislature does, Porkland mayor "Streetcar" Charlie is certain that it won't be enough, and while his sidekick, the Little General, has buttoned his lip on the subject, Streetcar's made it pretty clear that there is going to be a "street fee" in Porkland's future. Maybe if he'd quit diverting $5 million in fuel tax funds each year to pay for operating that silly streetcar, the city could fix a few potholes. Yeah - that's just crazy talk.

Thanks to David Gulliver for the youtube link.

Cylvia Hayes: Fashion Maven

She'll cut a stunning figure in her bright orange jumpsuit.

Oh boy. It appears that Oregon gov. Retread's First Squeeze has sort of dug herself even deeper: 

Oregon First Lady Cylvia Hayes has been collecting private consulting fees while serving as an adviser to Gov. John Kitzhaber—and that practice has put her under scrutiny by the state’s ethics commission and has led to a criminal investigation by the FBI.

And she was paid some $118,000 by a shady organization, the "Clean Economy Development Center":

Public records also yield few details about the Clean Economy Development Center, which functioned largely under the radar of the IRS, state attorneys general and other regulators. As a nonprofit it filed just one federal tax return — in 2010, when it reported more than $900,000 in revenue. In May 2014, the IRS revoked the group’s tax-exempt status due to its failure to file returns for three consecutive years.

And to return to her use of state facilities and offices for personal gain:

On April 9, 2012, a “Clean Economy dinner meeting” was scheduled at the governor’s mansion, according to public records.

That appears to be a clear violation of state ethics law, to say nothing of the federal implications. Beyond that, it appears that she has now twice filed false tax returns:

In her 2012 tax return, Hayes declared only $27,361 in income—well below the $88,000 she told Borrund the Clean Economy Development Center paid her that year. 

Honesty on her tax returns is an issue that has dogged Hayes before. 

In 1997, for example, she was paid $5,000 for participating in an illegal sham marriage to a teenager from Ethiopian in order to help the young man establish immigration status. 

In a press conference in October, Hayes acknowledged that she never reported the $5,000 as income to the IRS.

So, she's filed at least two false tax returns, and she took in $118,000 from a shady "Clean Economy" organization while serving as gov. Retread's "advisor" on clean energy policy. It seems that Retread's First Squeeze is incapable of anything remotely resembling honesty. But hey - she's kind of cute, and 30 years younger than he is. And he can prescribe Viagra.

Speaking Of Kate Brown And Other Democratics,

It seems that there's a neurological basis underpinning their mental disorder:

The brains of psychopathic violent criminals have abnormalities in regions related to punishment that are not seen in the brains of violent criminals who are not psychopathic, according to new research using brain scans.

These MRI scans suggest that psychopaths don't grasp punishment the same way as other people, the researchers said. This is likely why psychopaths do not benefit from rehabilitation programs, as other violent criminals often do, the scientists report today (Jan. 28) in the journal Lancet Psychiatry.

In the group of criminals who were psychopathic, the scientists observed lower volumes of gray matter in brain regions involved in empathy, moral reasoning, and the processing of social emotions such as guilt and embarrassment. They also found abnormalities in white matter fibers leading to the prefrontal cortex, in regions involved in learning from reward and punishment.

Those with psychopathy are less empathetic, more callous, more manipulative.

That seems to describe Leftists to the letter; they claim to be looking out for the interests of the very people they consistently screw, but because they're so manipulative, those folks believe that they really are on their side. Interestingly, after decades of this sort of manipulation, blacks are increasingly waking up to the fact that they've fallen out of favor, as the Left goes after the Latinos.

Were it not sad, it would be amusing.

Shilling For Comcast, Graduation Rates: Oregon Roundup

Portland Oregon Secretary of State, Democrat Kate Brown, is catching some heat in the wake of the revelation that she signed a letter to the FCC that was actually written by Comcast representatives in support of the company's planned merger with Time-Warner cable.

She doesn't seem to much like the attention; understandable, since she has aspirations to be the state's next governor. Fortunately, most Portlanders have short memories and even less info, and they like it that way. So Korrupt Kate will likely skate.

But what she signed in support of is just more of the same:

Take the “triple-play” packages—cable, phone, and high-speed Internet access—that tens of millions of Americans buy from companies like Comcast and Time Warner Cable. In France, a country often portrayed as an economic and technological laggard, the monthly cost of these packages is roughly forty dollars a month—about a quarter of what we Americans pay. And, unlike in the United States, France’s triple-play packages include free telephone calls to anywhere in the world. Moreover, the French get faster Internet service: ten times faster for downloading information, and twenty times faster for uploading it.

Kate's telling the FCC that Oregonians are really happy with Comcast's offerings and rates, and she really has no business speaking for us in this regard. So why do Oregonians keep putting up with Kate and her ilk? One answer can be found in what passes for our educational system, which churns out low-info "graduates" at an astonishing rate (although over a third of students never actually do graduate).

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A report released by the U.S. Department of Education shows Oregon at the bottom of the list when it comes to the percentage of kids who graduate from high school in four years.

Oregon's rate was 68.7 percent in 2013, making it dead last among states.

Hey, we're number one in "Green&Sustainable" and we're number one in losers.

Dropouts and those too lazy to graduate on time can't be expected to be informed voters. And that's the way Kate and company like it.

Related articles

Doubt Grows for Fate of Comcast-Time Warner Cable Merger

Brown letter to FCC nearly verbatim from Comcast

Don't Spend It All In One Place, Coloradans

It looks as though residents of Colorado are in line to receive pot-tax refunds of as much as $7.63 per resident, thanks to a constitutional clause:

The state constitution limits how much tax money the state can take in before it has to give some back. That means Coloradans may each get their own cut of the $50 million in recreational pot taxes collected in the first year of legal weed. It's a situation so bizarre that it's gotten Republicans and Democrats, for once, to agree on a tax issue.

Yeah, I should probably have used green in the embed link. No word on whether the rule applies to taxes generated from the sale of Cheetos.

Portland Loses Out On First Round For Google Fiber

The company has announced that it'll be rolling out gigabit fiber in Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, and Raleigh-Durham, reaching into some 18 cities in those metro areas. Google charges $70 a month for gigabit internet on their networks.

Portland's not necessarily out of the running, though:

We’re also continuing to explore bringing fiber to five additional metro areas—Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Antonio and San Jose, and will have updates on these potential Fiber cities later this year.

Here in Portland, CenturyLink is busily stringing fiber for gigabit access - our neighborhood has had  access to their lines for about four years now. Elsewhere, AT&T has announced plans to build their gigabit fiber out in as many as 100 cities. It remains to be seen as to who, ultimately, can offer reliable gigabit access at the lowest cost.

CenturyLink keeps trying to get me to sign up, but I've looked into them and haven't been any more impressed with their overall service record than I was with their predecessor, Qwest.

Drinking And Droning

The guy who crashed a drone onto the White House lawn a couple of nights ago turns out to have been a drunk government employee with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. He apparently decided to fly a friend's drone from a nearby apartment, which is (ahem) illegal in D.C.

Although planes are restricted from entering the airspace around the White House and it is illegal to operate a drone in Washington, it is unclear whether the man will be charged with a crime. Some Secret Service officials believe he should be prosecuted in an effort to deter others.

Hey, stuff happens. It's not like he was on duty or anything, and he did turn himself in after he got up the next day and heard from friends that a drone had been found on the lawn. Chances are he won't pull a stunt like that again. Besides, he owes his friend around $500 for a new drone.

Just equip the controller with a breathalyzer, and it should all be good.

Related articles

Officials Say Drinking Played Role in WH Drone Crash

As Predicted Here

When Porkland City Council member Amanda Fritz decided not to support "Streetcar" Charlie and The Little General in their quest to impose a "street fee", I said here on this blog that she would run for another term, despite her oft-stated claim that this would be her last term. As I noted at the time, she repeatedly mentioned her desire to spend more time with her husband, but that scenario was irrevocably changed when he was killed last September in a car wreck on I-5 near Salem. Given that event, I observed, she has little left but politics now. As expected, Willamette Week today reports that she says that she will be running in 2016.

Related articles

Fritz, citing death of husband, will run again

Portland Commissioner Amanda Fritz to run for re-election in 2016

There's A Reason Why This Dork Doesn't Allow Comments

This guy is a predator. He buys lots of ad-time in the PNW, and it isn't because he's a great plastic surgeon. If he was good at what he claims to do, he wouldn't need to buy up air time.

Frozen

I went to the Thriftway store about a mile down the hill today and picked up six pounds of PRIME sirloin for just under fifty dollars. Not "choice", not "select", prime. The stuff you get in your top-of-the line steakhouses, where you pay forty bucks for a six-ounce steak. I had to wait while their butcher cut it for me, but I'm okay with that.

They don't have it on the shelves in the meat section; you have to call because it was a special deal. And a sweet deal it is; you can't usually get "choice" at that price. The prime stuff's sitting in the freezer for a short time to make to make cutting it all down to family-sized portions a bit easier, and then later today I'll vacuum-pack and fully freeze the portions for later meals. I do have one small, family-sized piece cut and in the fridge for the evening dinner, but the rest goes into the freezer. Vac-pack keeps it good for at least six months.

We'll be eating large! And only because I actually read the fine print - they were pushing "choice" in the big ad, but noted that they had a prime version for a buck less. That was kind of obscured by the big ad.

This happens a lot, so it saves money and gives you better quality if you pay attention.