2012 conventions 2012 election 2013 session arts arts and culture author ballot measures basketball bomb books boy scouts budget bullying business charlie hales children clackamas climate change coal college courts crime culture culture club democrats drugs economy education environment family film fluoride food gay rights guns handguns health health care health insurance high school history housing immigration internet kitzhaber law legislature lgbt literary arts living marijuana marriage media medicine mental health military minor parties mohamed mohamud movies music native americans news newspaper obama olympics oregon our town parenting pers photography police politcs politics port portland portland business journal president prevention public safety religion republicans rnc romney rural salem sam adams sandy hook schools science shooting sports suicide supreme court taxes technology terrorism theater third parties transportation union university of oregon washington wildfire women

two santa clauses or how the republican party has conned america for thirty years

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

american wealth disparity the bottom 50% have very little

http://blogs.alternet.org/grantlawrence/2010/04/10/mind-blowing-american-wealth-disparity-the-bottom-50-have-comparatively-nothing/

the 50% lowest of wage earners can't make ends meet, they don't understand the tremendous wealth that comprise the average earners, and the wealth that should be available to the public, or that that wealth is derived from their spending, even if all they can afford some gas and toothpaste (perhaps not enough for a place to live)

this way the rich can easily convince the enough of the public there is no money, and that everyone must tighten their belts.

GE, EXXON paid no U.S. income Tax in 2009 (they are people, according to the US Supreme Court)

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Tax/ge-exxon-paid-us-income-taxes-09/story?id=10300167

and we pay them subsidies too

and people should educate themselves about 2 economic theories, supply side (trickle down) and demand side (keynesian).

one main problem with the US economy is lack of demand which is caused by lack of jobs and low pay.

if money were injected to those below the 50% earning rate, through welfare or some other means, that could stimulate sales and production of goods and services. yet supply siders are promoting austerity, precisely what will exacerbate the economic downturn.

this continues to make obama look bad, which could help republicans/the superrich in the next election cycle.  

shody

posted 2 years, 1 month ago
view in context

in our government, with our form of self rule, policy, to be legal, must be in the interest of the general public. policy that is in the interest of business profits at the expense of the people, such as NAFTA, is illegal.

all elected officials, including the city level, and the military take an oath regarding the US constitution. article ll section 4 states "The President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."

the way power traverse our government, emanating from businesses with outrageous profits, through business associations, PACs and for-profit lobbyists, fund raisers to campaigns, along with instructions regarding official government policies and bypassing the interests of the people (like NAFTA does) shows that if we do not restore a government of, for and by the people, it is bound by corporate profits to always fail the people.

why debate the budget with this invisible 800 pound gorilla in control? no one in government will address this issue, because if they do, they will be targeted for removal, like alan grayson was, because as senator dick durban said "frankly, banks run congress."

it isn't just banks, it's the US chamber of commerce, the american petroleum institute, the world trade organization, but not the people.

that is why the pentagon can loose 1.1 trillion dollars in the year 2000, and 2.3 trillion in 2001 (announced by rumsfeld sept 10, incase anyone forgot) and not loose any funding, face any sanctions or investigations.

yet we are fighting to fund the suicide prevention hotline, head start, etc in portland OR because we have no money?

lets look at the rich running government policy and fix that, then everything will fall into place, correct? we are not a third world country, we can afford services for the working class and the working poor, but big oil, general electric, etc need to get out of paying their taxes and to receive tax payer subsidies?

shody

posted 2 years, 1 month ago
view in context

i posted a negative comment about government subsidies. i would like to expand on this theme. i would like subsidies for rail and high speed rail, and a government run system that answers the public vs a private one that focuses on PROFITS as their top priority instead of serving transportation needs.

i don't mind subsidizing the most efficient system, but the system should be implemented regardless; it is the most energy efficient system, it shouldn't be withheld because a of lack of a governmental stamp of approval, that was my point

one problem with a for-profit system is big oil would have a profit motive to make passenger trains less desirable in order to sell more gas to individual cars. oil could simply pay them to make a crappy system. come to think if it, they could do that to the government, but we have more oversight options, which we need to demand now in this case with crappy trains, public or private. lol!

what i don't get is why our trains are the most energy efficient system and the most expensive with the least scheduling choices compared with buses, planes and autos? should we be running the hell out of them?

do we have to hire amtrak? why can't we have a good system with peoples needs in mind? is big oil interfering some how? amtrak never answers me, they are a silent untouchable monster with no need to respond and every reason to ignore me

shody

posted 2 years, 2 months ago
view in context

fascinating conversation, thanks! i wonder if biomass doesn't pan out as an energy source, if biochar, a similar process employed for carbon sequestration that prodces a high grade fertilizer/soil amendment would be a good alternative

we need to break our dependency on oil for fertilizer as well, but it doesn't supply the most important nitrogen or phosphorus, as far as i know. still, is should qualify for organic food protocol and there are other non-petrol organic sources for these nutrient 

removing brush from wild lands would need to be dependent on consistent effective deterrents for both businesses and government officials allowing the taking of beneficial plants (or animals?) that should not be used to make biomass energy or biochar soil amendment, including prison time, when appropriate, of corse! we don't want all of oregon to be a desert or even any additional environmental degradation because of this process run amuck. if this cannot be assured by top officials, we must scrape these plans completely

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar#Positive_and_Negative_Effects_on_Soil

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar#Co-benefits_for_soil_of_pyrolysis

shody

posted 2 years, 2 months ago
view in context

i'm glad you posted this. i agree with this, accept that if trains ran every ten minutes, on time would not be much of an issue. or if they ran every 30 minutes and accommodated bikes (they probably do but do they do so easily and efficiently? i don't know) and autos that riders self loaded, and had ticket prices that reflected their energy efficiency and therefor didn't need government subsidies, would people then more to use trains more?

there seems to be some unknown force that makes trains less attractive to ride than they should be ;-(

posted 2 years, 2 months ago
view in context

thank you! l am glad to see some thoughtful vision in this topic. high speed rail would go 6,000 mph, if vactrains are developed. that is 10 times faster than present day air travel and uses a very small fraction of the energy to operate.

"trains move one ton 425 miles on a gallon of fuel" downhill, with a tail wind. lol! still, that got to beat planes for efficiency

i can't help but wonder if big oil is blocking vactrain construction. it isn't very complex in many important ways.

how about 3 systems side by side, low speed local collector train, high speed city to city and vactrain international metro to metro, transcontinental routes to form a global network  as shown on Discovery Channel's Extreme Engineering program "Transatlantic Tunnel".

shody

posted 2 years, 2 months ago
view in context

we are supposedly the richest nation in the world, yet we are led to believe we can't afford basics that other poor counties take for granted. high speed rail could go as fast as 6,000 mph! (vactrain) and that would call for a new alignment, to say the least. oh yea, as the richest 1 or 2% gain fabulous wealth, we beg and and are surprised with the most modest of successes to up-grade to our system a few mph, i forgot the reality ;-(

shody

posted 2 years, 2 months ago
view in context

i am sorry that trains are the most expensive way to travel, even though they are more energy efficient

perhaps big oil companies set ticket price to guide the public into car and planes?

oil costs as little as $1 a barrel in iraq, yet sells on the commodities markets at 90 to $100. what is done with the difference in oil price?

posted 2 years, 2 months ago
view in context

i am consistently disappointed by the public's knowledge of important details. i doubt they know there are different kinds of high speed rail.

wiki:

Specific definitions by the European Union include 200 km/h (120 mph) for upgraded track 

A vactrain (or vacuum tube train) This would entail building maglev lines through evacuated (air-less) tubes or tunnels. The lack of air resistance could permit vactrains to use little power and to move up to 4000–5000 mph (6400–8000 km/h), or 5–6 times the speed of sound at sea level http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vactrain

when are we going to up-grade the high speed system we install now? i hope that we install the fastest most modern system available/practical for ourselves and stop living in the fear and scarcity consciousness handed to us by the masters on wall street http://www.fcic.gov/ their mistakes always take something from the us

thanks

shody

posted 2 years, 2 months ago
view in context

Hi,

I was quoting thom on the thom hartmann radio show from 2 weeks or a month ago.

I did a quick internet search and see that it is hard to confirm the number, it looks like there were 110 swat raids per day nationally between the early 1980a to late 1990s, but Thom said the numbers are going up as swat team receive federal grants in the form of military hardware.

these links do not confirm my number of one wrong address swat raid a day nationally but some of them describe some of the mistakes resulting in death

http://www.theagitator.com/2008/03/10/houston-drug-raid-stats/

2 bad address in a year for the city of dallas TX:

http://www.dallascriminaldefenselawyerblog.com/2008/01/dallas_swat_my_bad_wrong_house.html

this is linked to 12 specific cases of bad addresses, Oops, most of the links are bad too:

http://www.drugwar.com/oopswrong.shtm

http://www.drugwar.com/pswatgrandpa.shtm

http://www.drugwar.com/pninjashame.shtm

Shody

posted 3 years, 5 months ago
view in context

There are certain police tactics that I have learned about called "knock and talk", that I wont go into, but police are trained to routinely use their position of authority in inappropriate ways.

on average nationally there is one swat style police break-in to the wrong house per day, and one third of those result in injury to a totally innocent person, I don't know what number of these mistake results in death, but this is totally unacceptable.

I spoke to multnomah co sheriff internal affairs about this and I was assured that multnomah co sheriff doesn't engage in these sort of tactics recklessly. I hope this is accurate.

My mom watched 6 portland policemen exit a police vehicle and enter a political demonstration dressed in street clothes and start arguments with the protesters and push one into the street and then arrest that person for being in the street, which was not allowed in this demonstration. 

thanks for the topic, I appreciate the show and the opportunity to participate.

Shody

posted 3 years, 5 months ago
view in context

Our government representivives are in the wrong, they have the advantage of the ability to MAKE the RULES (laws and develop policy) for the lobbyists! They really have themselves to blame, and the people need to call their representatives daily with this (the lobbyists do this daily telling them something else)

"I would like comprehensive government run single payer health care; medicare for every person on USA soil.

I think there is too much special interest in government which drowns out representation of the people, therefor, in the spirit and intent of the deceleration of independents, I propose that Federal taxes for individuals are invalid and to the extent the government is; of, for and by big business, it is hostile the constitution and the people of the USA.

To that end, taxation and authority is invalid and should be set aside until a representative (of natural people vs big business) government can be established.

If not, we have taxation without representation. With big business influencing policy, big business is spending our tax dollars in the way they see fit.

until someone presents ideas or evidence these view or incorrect, we will work to establish a legitimate government for this wonderful country.  You are in violation of your oath to serve the US constitution of, for and by the people"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_County_v._Southern_Pacific_Railroad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_National_Bank_of_Boston_v._Bellotti
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckley_v._Valeo

Coming up in the supreme court next session:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission

To be clear, I am not advacating that anyone do anything illegal or that they do not believe in.

Either the United States Declaration of Independence is a valid document or it isn't

What was the point of the Iraq war? Big oil has been making record profits, does that mean the US military has been fighting to increase profits for big oil? It sure looks that way.

posted 3 years, 10 months ago
view in context

I see, but "lenders" would never do such a thing as dodge their responsibilities.

How did we get into this credit cruch again??

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
view in context

I would be curious if the money spent on uranium used in the military, to power ships, is making its back to the rightful owners of the land where it is mined from and if they are getting fair market value, and if those mines are having any negative impact on the area or the health of the miners.

There is something to be said for taking responsibility for one's actions and not passing the buck

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/17/MNV61272P5.DTL

http://www.umich.edu/~snre492/sdancy.html

http://www.wise-uranium.org/uip.html

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
view in context

It has been a while since the mainstream news reported on such matters, but when they did, as I recall, they noted the release of radio active steam from nuclear power plants often. Is it possible that you are asking close to the relevent question and the Navy doesn't want to appear misleading by ommission, yet doesn't want to admit to anything they are not accused of either?

The Navy claims to be a large biological research organization, how about asking these basic questions, what industries pollute the ocean the most, what are those polutants, what are the most abundant pollutants and what are the most toxic polutants?

Aren't these some of the most basic questions that a large biological research organization would have the answers to?

If not, would it raise questions as to the effectiveness and direction of research that our tax dollars have been going to?

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
view in context

GM Bail out:

Is it true that GM could be purchased for $3B?

If so, and there are 13 layers of management, why doesn't the goverment purchase GM, fire 10 layers of management restart production of the EV1, which is 3 times more energy efficient than prius and sell GM back to the remaining workers?

This also removes wall st from the equation, good riddance!

I have contacted my US congressman Earl Blumenauer (Ore-3) several times over the last 2 months about this.

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
view in context

Alternative energy:

I think you touched on this already; what are the down sides to geothermal and wind, there are some very disatisfied people.

Would this solve some wind energy problems if they were at high altitute, very high and away from the view of the land scape? I don't think birds would crash into these, I wonder about the viberation, that may be diminshed too:

http://www.magenn.com/

should Oregon do a joint venture with intel like NY state and IBM are in the link below?

http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=2280

"paper batteries" in the link below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battery_types

is this worth while, if so, will Oregon promote it some how?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/09/050907102549.htm

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
view in context

Should Oregon take a vote on if Oregon has an official position regarding the bush administration's, stolen elections of 2000 and 2004, lies about Iraq and WMD, yellow cake uranium, torture, outing Valerie Plame, etc.

Because Pelosi said impeachment is off the table, she was negligent with her official duties, which means the state should have stepped in with a statement, but the state didn't, was the state at fault?

That kind of behavior should be means for termination of federal taxes sent to the IRS by Oregonians. The new administration needs to understand that the last administration has set legal precedent, and that we as a state support legal action that makes it clear that this behavior doesn't go unnoticed and unpunished. If we don't it will come back even worse. "Bush did it and nothing happened, so we'll do it even more""equal protection under the law"

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
view in context

Is media controlled by parent corporations, if so, is that in the best interest of the public, if not, what should be done

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0624-25.htm

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
view in context

what is the role of lobbyists (state lobbyists would be fine), do they have a legitimate function, how does Salem handle them, do they provide things for them do they try to attract lobbyists, give them special consideration, what do lobbyists do, how do officials respond, are there ethical concerns that are not addressed that could be addressed. Do lobbyists crowd out the concerns of the general public, do special interests take precedent over, or at the expense of, the general publics interest and how is that addressed.

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
view in context