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September 18, 2008 Opinions |
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—Editorial—
Media Bashing Of Palin Unnecessary and Unfair
John McCain made a smart move when he announced Sarah Palin as his running mate. Not only does she have the support (some say of about 30 percent of Hilary’s voters), she’s an NRA member and is in favor of oil drilling.
However, McCain’s choice of this dynamic, successful hockey mom, was a surprise to many including the mainstream media, which may account for the unfair bashing she has received. Politics tend to bring out the worst in people, as we have witnessed with the Obama and Hilary campaigns, but the attacks on Palin are little more unnerving in a nation that touts equal rights for women.
Palin is being asked biased questions about whether she can juggle being a mom with the vice presidency. We can’t recall Obama being asked if he can handle being a dad along with the presidency. In fact, we can’t recall a man’s fatherhood ever being a point of contention in any election. Obama has young children. What if his daughter has a big piano recital the same evening he’s scheduled to meet with President Talabani of Iraq? To our knowledge, he hasn’t been publicly insulted by being asked that question.
Yet, Sally Quinn, in her washington post.com column stated that Palin is a “bright, attractive, impressive person,” but, “is she prepared for the all-consuming nature of the job? Her first priority has to be her children. When the phone rings at 3 in the morning and one of her children is really sick what choice will she make?” As a “bright” person, a mom, and a governor, we’re pretty comfortable in assuming that she already has arrangements in place for her children in the event a national emergency strikes and she is needed elsewhere.
What’s even more disconcerting is the public attention her children have received. If a man had a Down’s Syndrome child, a newborn or a pregnant teenager, would his ability to hold office be questioned?
CNN’s John Roberts said “Children with Down’s syndrome require an awful lot of attention. The role of vice president, it seems to me, would take up an awful lot of her time, and it raises the issue of how much time will she have to dedicate to her newborn child?”
Women everywhere juggle marriage, children, take care of ailing parents, volunteer and still manage to hold full time jobs. This is not a new concept. In fact research shows that women are more adept at multi-tasking than men.
As if she hadn’t already been attacked enough on her abilities to hold a job and raise a family (something almost any American woman who chooses to can do), and her children drug through the media mud to the satisfaction of some, Liberal radio host Ed Schultz used the words “bimbo alert” when referring to Palin. Has a male candidate ever been referred to with the words “gigolo alert?”
The Huffington Post also featured photos of Palin with the headline, “Former Beauty Queen, Future VP?”
Democrat Vice President candidate Joe Biden said, “There's a gigantic difference between John McCain and Barack Obama and between me and I suspect my vice presidential opponent. — She's good looking.” What does that have to do with anything? And what an insult to voting Americans to insinuate she might be voted into office because of her looks.
It’s true, Palin is attractive, was elected Miss Wallisa, and was a runner-up in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant. But one of our most respected presidents was a former movie star.
Experience counts for a lot in leading a nation, but so does the ability to relate to the public and understand their needs. Who would better know the needs of the American family than one who has juggled the many roles of a wife and mother while fulfilling her job as Governor of Alaska?
There will always be half truths and outright lies in politics, but there should be no room for discrimination.
—Guest Opinion—
Individual County Courts Should Decide On Road Closures
By Roy H. and Betty J. Barnes
Presented to the Baker County Commissioners
Please keep in mind that in politics and management, that small towns and counties have one of the most important and difficult tasks. All politics are local. All authority is delegated from the bottom up. This very thing is being discussed in our national election.
The USDA and USFS have studied this area for at least 18 years, starting in 1990. The results of their study seem to be first to claim the final rule, final authority. Then second is to close most all roads in defiance of the mining laws, the American with Disabilities Act of 1990 and other related laws, such as water rights and their access. This also affects police patrols in the forest such as fish and game enforcement, community policing, drug related prevention and detection.
We have lost over $800,000 in revenue in federal funding for our schools. This will increase our taxes this same amount. This is due to loss in timber sales. This will not be reversible if the USDA and USFS achieve their goal of closing roads and thus open the issue of wilderness designation. Then we have burning rather then harvesting of trees. On Dooley mountain and on the north fork of the John Day Wilderness they watched the fire burn for an extended period of time, thus letting it get out of control, to burn needlessly and devastating large areas of public and private property. The USDA and USFS state this is good for the forest. They do not mention the air pollution; water shed degradation, water quality. Fire management and suppression is not a “spectator sport.” The best time to put out a fire is when it is small and manageable. Once a fire gets out of control, man is no longer in control.
These acts by the USDA and the USFS, are a violation to our economy, culture, history, and yes, our ethics. Roads and water are still the life blood of the economy.
In our Democratic Republic we elect county commissioners. Also we have separate, but equal branches of government, executive, legislative, and judicial, this is where the rule of law, protection of persons and their property, equal protection of the law, civil rights, these are all basic and fundamental. Your oath of office to obey the laws of the federal, state and all legislative acts, apply. To sign any agreement or contract with the USDA and USFS that makes the county subservient to the authority of the USDA and USFS, and to give “lead agency” status, in effect signs off the authority delegated to the commissioners by the voters.
By signing an agreement or contract with the USDA and USFS, the regular avenues of relief are set aside and the courts will not hear the case until the remedies of the contract have been exhausted. This is very time consuming, as the appeals process follows the contract remedies which are arbitration with the final authority (USDA and USFS). This is like the fox guarding the chicken house!
When signing any legal document without full understanding of every word and phrase, and meaning of words in law, is at least careless and reckless. In buying a house, as recent examples have taught us, what not to do. This reinforces our belief to trust but verify. Read and understand in total what you are signing. Especially the meaning of words in the fine print and statements in any legal document. Clarification and understanding is basic and fundamental before singing any contract or agreement.
The public and the law demands transparency (openness, to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth) and accountability (responsible, answerable) this is key to the public process.
We notice that the MOU is signed off on by the Forest Service legal Department, this agreement has serious implications, yet we do not see where you have done the same.
Now we will discuss the Travel Management Plan Proposed Action and the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).
Wallowa-Whitman Travel Management Plan Proposed Action May 2007
Section 2: Recreation Standard, Amended Direction: 36 CFR5/4/07 final Version, page 8 Parts 212, 251, 261, and 295. The MVUM will be reviewed annually and revised as necessary, balancing management considerations, (such as public safety and maintenance costs) with recreation opportunities and commercial uses.
From map Legend Objective (0B) Maintenance levels - The maintenance level to be assigned at a future date considering future road management objectives, traffic needs, budget constraints, and environmental concerns. The objective maintenance level may be the same as, or higher or lower than, the operational maintenance level (Forest Service Handbook 7709.58, 12.3)
The above items are what you will have to over come in arbitration, and remember the USDA and USFS are the arbitrators. This may affect all statues that have to do with roads, and may cancel the counties authority over RS2477’s.
Is signing on with the USDA and USFS the best avenue to take, or is it in the best interest of the county and the public who reside in this county, for the commissioner’s to see to it that the USDA and USFS abide by all the required statues of the United States, State of Oregon, and the Local Government. Not just the above mentioned 5 considered maintenance level objectives. Take for instance the Americans with Disabilities Act, which they are already in violation of, by burming roads. The ADA requires that.
(4) TO INVOKE THE SWEEP OF CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORITY, INCLUDING THE POWER TO ENFORCE THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT AND TO REGULATE COMMERCE, IN ORDER TO ADDRESS THE MAJOR AREAS OF DISCRIMATION FACED DAY-TO-DAY BY PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
In A guide to Disability right laws (Sept. 2005) put out by the US Department of Justice (civil rights Division, Disability Rights Section).
(Section 504)
STATES THAT “NO QUALIFIED INDIVIDUAL WITH A DISIBLITIY IN THE UNITED STATES SHALL BE EXCLUED FROM, DENIED THE BENEFITS OF, OR BE SUBJECTED TO DISCRIMINATION UNDER” ANY PROGRAM OR ACTIVITY THAT EITHER RECEIVES FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE OR IS CONDUCTED BY ANY EXECUTIVE AGENCY OR THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE. (pg. 17)
This is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Justice, you may contact them at: U.S. Department of Justice, 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Civil Rights Division Section - NYA, Washington, D.C. 20530 or by calling 1- 800 - 514 - 0301
Please remember united we stand divided we fall. We would encourage Baker County, Union County, Umatilla County, Wallowa County, Grant County, to withdraw from This Memorandum Of Understanding With, the USDA, USFS, Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, also to invalidate any decisions that have been made by the lead agency. Further more; we recommend the venue for road closures rest with each individual counties court.
“Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.” During the French Revolution when advised the peasants where about to revolt the Queen said, “Let them eat cake.” Our cake is the American Constitution.
The King of England declared the forest were his and decreed that the death penalty would be invoked for anybody hunting, fishing, or violating the forest. We will not sign our own death warrant by playing a part in something that will destroy our economy, history, and culture.
The King of England declared “divine right of the King”; this is not the Kings forest. We did not grant the USDA and USFS final or divine authority.
Our Democratic Republic is alive and well. Freedom is not free; it has come at a terrible cost, and let’s honor those that have paid price with life and limb.
—Letters—
Globalists Are Going To Be In Charge One Way Or The Other
To The Record-Courier:
Kate Brown and John Kroger came to town Saturday on a campaign swing and met with the locals at Mad Matilda’s. Brown, who is a Portland liberal Democrat is running for secretary of State and probably has her eye on eventually becoming governor even though she says she just wants to be a good secretary of state.
Brown is always interesting when you bring up gun control. In past visits she mentioned going to Montana to visit her relatives who went out hunting with guns of all things, and then just came in and set them down in the kitchen where they stayed until the next morning when they went hunting again and nobody got shot. Imagine that! She retold the story again Saturday. She actually has some hillbilly relatives who shoot guns.
Of course she thinks Portland is different and Portland’s Ginny Burdick is always trying to pass statewide gun control laws. She says she is aware that there is an urban/rural divide and that possibly they haven’t been paying enough attention to it. Brown is by definition the urban/rural divide and now wants a better state job.
John Kroger was the real story though. On guns he still thinks that the second amendment has something to do with arming the National Guard and says he hasn’t read the decision on Heller vs. Washington D.C. And I asked him about ORS 181.850, the law that prohibits any state agency from spending money to assist the federal government in enforcing federal immigration laws. He seemed a bit unclear about it. I did ask if he as attorney general would get involved in immigration enforcement and he said it was “a federal problem.”
I pointed out that under George Bush the borders have remained wide open and enforcement has been almost nonexistent and that other states have started doing what the federal government won’t do and that it is up to the states to get it done. Again he said it was a federal problem. That’s strange because he does link Mexican meth with all of our social problems of child abuse, identity theft and crime, and the high financial costs of the drug flow, but still would rather have some good drug treatment programs, which I agree with, rather than more prisons. But I guess it politically incorrect to go after the suppliers who operate because of an unsecured border. Even with Gordon Smith’s plants who depend heavily on cheap Mexican labor and a lax verification system because Smith likes that labor surplus and knows darn well that the E-Verify system works 99.5 percent of the time and the few glitches are resolved in 30 days Smith and Merkley both oppose it. It’s cheap abundant labor for Smith and Merkley is fishing for Latino votes.
Kroger doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence knowing that both presidential candidates think a “path to citizenship” or amnesty is the way to go. Again we will have a federal policy of globalist open borders and states dealing with it. Evidently Oregon’s land use laws and the true effect of what it has done to Oregon. Then the last democratic legislature cut eh funding while they were trying to push measure 49 with the help of Thousand Friends of Oregon and the Portland Oregonian propaganda machine. Brown says she didn’t vote to cut funding. I’ll take her at her word, but the funding did get cut. The urban elite really doesn’t want to know what the effects on the native born population really were. Oregon has been saved for the well heeled new corner.
The only ways you can get rid of a U.S. Senator is to vote him out or if the Senate expels him. For six years you got him no matter how bad he is. So we will either have Smith or Merkley, neither of whom believe that here is a connection between environmental stress from over population. Smith is particularly amusing when talking about dams and their removal. He says that those dams can light the city of Seattle. Of course the 12-20 million illegal aliens add up to several Seattles and they actually use power, drive cars and burn gas and eat food and need housing and living space too, but I guess he’s a good Democrat in thinking that we can grow forever. Planing and zoning will take care of it.
Then we have John McCain. Cut taxes and everything will be fine, except for the deficit now at $400 billion and a national debt at $9 trillion and growing fast and 34 years of trade deficits that grow every year, but John is “the biggest free trader in history.” And John, being a borrow and spend Republican instead of a tax and spend Democrat buys into the philosophy that if you cut taxes the economy will grow and fill the federal tax coffers. It would be logical that if you cut taxes to zero the federal government would be rich instead of broke. I’ll guess I’ll have to ask my grandkids in a few years if they like what we did to them. “Should have got a rope Grandpa” is what I think they’ll say.
Obama at least says he will reexamine trade policies, until Corporate America objects, but both he and McCain will legalize almost everyone who wants to wander on in and make themselves to home. So what is an America to do when the globalists are going to be in charge one way or the other? Seems like the only rational course of action is to vote the incumbents out and plan on it next time too. The one hope is in the House of Representatives. The Founding Fathers gave us a way to deal with emergencies by making them accountable every two years. Mr. Walden I’m watching your stances on immigration, borders, gun control, corporate America’s trade policies, Wall Street greed and troop commitments and energy independence.
Steve Culley
Baker City
City Councilor Out Of Order
To The Record-Courier:
At last Tuesday's Baker City council meeting, Councilor Terry Schumacher tried to stifle comments by a couple of fellow councilors Gail Duman and Beverly Calder, who, he said, "persist in attacking him (City Manager Steve Brocato)." He added, "When you go to the polls, remember this." Schumacher is running for re-election this November against one of the city councilors he complained about. Don't vote for Duman, he says, and, by implication, do vote for me.
Now, if that isn't a sleazy way to politic from his bully seat on city council, I don't know what is.
If Schumacher wants to campaign against someone, or for another term for himself, on city council, he shouldn't be doing so on city hall property.
Also, Schumacher needs to be reminded that city council's procedural rules (Resolution 3407) do not allow personal attacks, either by councilors or members of the audience. And Mayor Jeff Petry, whose duty it is to enforce the rules evenhandedly, should have immediately called Schumacher out of order, just as he had done earlier in the meeting to Councilor Calder.
Gary Dielman
Baker City
Crossroads Carnegie Art Show Successful
To The Record-Courier:
The 10th annual art show at the Crossroads Carnegie Center was tremendous. We should be so proud that we have so many wonderful artists in the local area.
The Carnegie Building has been beautifully resorted. It is another architectural treasure that has been utilized for its present use.
We thank the Crossroads Board of Directors, volunteers and everyone who exhibited their art for a wonderful event.
Frances Burgess
Baker City
Representing The Voters
To The Record-Courier:
I had three questions to ask at the last city council meeting. 1. Why wasn't council informed when a formal investigation involving our city manager began?
2. Why was our city attorney involved and did the city pay for it? 3. Council agreed in March to re-evaluate our city manager in October, were we going to schedule that meeting? At no time was I wanting to bring up the details of the police investigation! Ask questions your fellow councilors don't like and you are accused of attacking.
Councilor Schumacher refers to myself and Councilor Calder as “those women.” Just because we women don't agree with our male counterparts who feel Steve Brocato is never to be questioned. I never forget that I'm representing those who voted me into office and will continue to ask questions. As Councilor Schumacher reminded those watching the council meeting, "when you go to the polls, remember this."
Gail Duman
Baker City Councilor
A Little Political Perspective
To The Record-Courier:
The socialists are howling piteously about Sarah Palin's lack of political leadership experience. Although the state government in Alaska is considered quite powerful, their state budget is only $12 billion annually.
Now try to put this in perspective. After all, she is only running for vice president. When Bill Clinton ran for president and was elected, the Arkansas state budget was $2 Billion annually. I do not recall these same folks even mentioning that fact during Clinton's election campaign.
Carl Kostol
Baker City
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