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August 21, 2008 Opinions |
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—Letters—
‘Oregon Ceding From The Union Without Declarations?
To The Record-Courier:
In reading the article in The Record Courier about comment period on draft vision for Oregon’s “Federal” forestlands, the governor is as bad as Steve Culley’s vision of Gov. MCall about how to micromanage all kinds of lands?
The article in the RC, Aug. 14, 2008, edition how the ultra liberal Hon. Gov. Ted Kulongoski and his liberal staff wants to encroach on federal land to management and planning shows the mentality to combine state and federal lands to create a “unitary government” such as Hitler did back in the 1930s in that Germany’s provincial, i.e., states, into one central command in which the modern day world is called “partnership” mentality.
In a case law of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling (1987), California Coastal Comm. V. Granite Rock Co. (55LW43666) the court decision had indicated that the States may not control use of Federal land by land use planning or by denying environmental pursuits.
In case law in respect to Federal lands, Kleppe v. New Mexico, 426US592,543(1976), the court stated that putting the public domain of the United States (to land use planning) completely at the mercy of the State’s legislation, state or local laws (or regs) must always yield in cases of conflict with the exercise by the federal gov. under any power it possesses under U.S. constitutional law.
Case law: Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 US 11, 25 (1905); Connolly v. Union Sewer Pipe Co. 184US540, 556 (1902).
Art IV, Section 3, Clause 2 (property clause) “provides U.S Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the property of and belonging to the United States.”
Article VI, US Const, 3rd para.; “All the executive and judicial offices, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath (uphold US Const.) or affirmation to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
As long as Oregon’s judiciary has judges who practice “left wing” activism (politically motivated?) we will get the Mcalls etc., the governors will have free reign to break the laws as they see fit and a liberal media to a collective doctrine? To central control? Is Oregon “ceding” from the Union without declarations? End run around and subversion of American culture by the flooding of foreign immigrants as displaced persons (DPs). It’s all in the planning by the establishment, i.e., CFR-TF? “The shadows of power?”
Bruce Parke
Sumpter
Aesthetic Value Compromised By North Powder Wind Farm
To The Record-Courier:
On our Eastern horizon our once open space range land view has now been forever changed by the recent completion of the Elkhorn Valley Wind Farm, near North Powder, Ore. In the day these sanitary white pillars stand out in horrific contrast to the surrounding grassland, and at night we are enlightened by the multiple blinking red lights.
It used to be a beautiful moon rise to see, but no more. It seems somewhat curious that all of these energy production facilities are in our rural landscape, and not near urban areas where the aesthetic value would be compromised, and the highest electrical usage occurs.
If it were not that this "Green Energy" is so politically correct and the huge tax incentives to the parent companies, there would be no logical or economical merit to the 1.3+ million dollar per tower cost. No way will this form of energy ever be cost effective, and I am sure that our future electricity rates will bear this truth. If any other segment of the economy would have attempted this massive footprint, hell would have frozen before it would have been allowed.
Bio-fuels generation, using the aftermath of much needed thinning in our surrounding forests before we loose our Watersheds to catastrophic fire, would be productive power generation and an economic stimulus for our rural communities by creating family wage employment.
Our ranch goes back seven generations, and we are Stewards of our resources. We believe that one of these resources that we protect is the "Open Space" that all enjoy. If these production facilities continue to expand, everyone will loose the landscape we cherish.
Curtis W. Martin, V P Ranch
North Powder
Don’t Fall For Offshore Drilling Scam
To The Record-Courier:
GOP politics of deception trumps honesty once again as Republicans pick offshore drilling as their wedge issue for the 2008 presidential election. If you fall for this high gas price — offshore drilling scam — you deserve another four years with a Republican in the White House.
51% of Americans believe that removing restrictions on offshore drilling would reduce gas prices within a year. No less an authority than oil magnet T. Boone Pickens says that offshore drilling will have no appreciable affect on the oil crisis at hand. This is a Republican ploy to confuse voters. And have you noticed how John McCain's campaign has become a mirror of the the two prior Bush campaigns; down and dirty.
The GOP offshore drilling campaign is about subtle lies and distortion of truth. Will the American electorate be bambozzled by the masters of deceit again?
Ron Lowe
Nevada City, Calif.
LCDC Well Received
To The Record-Courier:
My column on LCDC and Oregon’s class warfare by land use planning seems to have been pretty well received. I attended Bob and Lorene Colton’s 50th wedding anniversary on Friday and the Colton family reunion on Saturday. The crowd there pretty well represents the long term residents of the county. I got lots of agreements and no death threats. I thank you all for the complements and no I won’t run for office unless the position of benevolent dictator opens up. I will continue to oppose the less than benevolent dictatorship of Oregon’s top down from Salem land use dictatorship. The more I see of it the more I regret that we didn’t get a rope when our 1973 legislators came from Salem after passing Senate Bill 100.
Monday night I went to the meeting on Baker County’s review of it’s land use plan and again had regrets about not getting a rope back when LCDC was created. I haven’t had a chance to read through it yet, but it is plain that the state is still very much in control. We might be allowed to tweak a few little things, but changing anything like how land is zoned is off limits.
The county is going to review and take testimony and adopt something. Right after that the legislature will meet and consider the testimony of the Big Look. It is my hope that they will get the message that the natives are restless and apologize for instituting state control in the first place and throw it back to the counties where land use decisions belong. If they don’t we should think about getting a rope. If, as the preliminary reports on the Big Look indicate, that local control might be the new norm then this current exercise on review is a waste of time and money.
Your efforts and time should be devoted to testifying on the Big Look and that testimony should be to get control back to the county level and out from under the whims of the I-5 corridor. Your county officials should hear from you on this. They should represent you and not the urban elite who look at eastern Oregon as their personal fiefdoms. If after it is all over and we are still a vassal state subject to the will of the left side of the state then the long term goal should be a state of Eastern Oregon in fact, not this state of mind crap we hear from those who are supposed to be representing us. We need fighters not compromisers. The compromisers will fall for the creation of an eastside LCDC and think they have gained something. In fact the state, meaning the Willamette Valley, will still control your lives.
Senator Smith came to town earlier in the day and I had a short conversation with him about immigration, the thing that drives our population increase, the reason we thought we had to have statewide land use laws in the first place to mitigate all that “sprawling.” I suggested that the United States might consider limiting immigration, but the Senator seems to think that it is kind of a quaint idea harbored by a local yokel. I had no idea that Mr. Smith was one of the nine Senators with a good approval rating for all he has done on stopping the invasion and bringing corporate America under control. I was considering voting against all incumbents, but what do I know. Seems like the people don’t much care for Congress so they send them all back for another six years.
Steve Culley
Baker City
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