The Dirty Northwest

Table top tap system lets people self serve beer. I sure hope the OLCC steps in to stop the fun.

The “missions trip” (so called because it was similar in theme to the missions trip I heard about as an Evangelical child — bringing supplies of encouragement to stranded friends much in need) to the NE corner of Oregon was a great success.

That area is beautiful in the winter and I’ll be posting a bit on the little gems I discovered there through the rest of the week.

For now I leave with this shot:

So you’ve seen TDNW wake from slumber these past few days.

That’s due in part to changes in personal life that allow more blogging time, but it is mostly caused by the current political landscape:

1. Republicans – through the Katrina disaster and the present Foley scandal – have proven that they cannot govern
2. Oregon’s gubernatorial race is a dead heat.

While I have long held differing views from the GOP on a variety of issues, they were primarily academic differences. I, like many others, trusted that they could actually govern the country – I just didn’t agree with *how* they would do so.

The flaccid Federal response to a natural disaster of epic proportions (a hurricane, no less – one of the few disasters you can actually see coming… for DAYS) slit the throat of the Smaller-Government-Is-Better-Government argument and left it to die.

The backs turned on the pederast problem in the hallowed halls of Congress leave naked the raw lust for power that drove Republican leadership to endanger children for the sake of one seat – one vote – in Congress.

With the conservative’s beloved small-government ideology twitching on the floor, and with the leaders of the Republican Party who aren’t already jailed being caught with pants around ankles, I personally am fired up to make sure that their virus does not spread any further into the state that I love.

Republican Gubernatorial candidate Ron Saxton is in a dead heat with Democratic Incumbent Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

Saxton is in the party of Tom Delay, George Bush, and Tom Foley. They are all on the same team. They share money and values.

And we at The Dirty Northwest will be fighting for Ted until Election Day.

I admit: when I first starting hearing about this, I thought it was either a) a misunderstanding or b) an error that would be corrected quickly.

But it’s been hanging around too long:

Sprint today joined Cingular Wirless and T-Mobile as cell phone companies whose customers’ private cell phone records are available online for anyone to buy for as little as $89.95.

Sure — why should Bush and the NSA have all the fun? Let’s all spy on each other. And if you turn in your neighbor for wrong doing? Maybe you can get a little piece of flair to wear on your shoulder…

I suppose this one has to be turned forward in the fall.

Always the first Sunday in April through the last Sunday in October, Daylight Saving Time ends next Sunday.

Always, that is, till 2007 when the 2005 Energy Bill takes effect.

And for you night owls:

“As an admirer of moonlight I resent the bossy insistence of those who want to reduce my time for enjoying it. At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves.” (Robertson Davies, The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks, 1947, XIX, Sunday.)

Meddling with the natural order of the earth’s circumnavigation of the sun? It sounds positively Republican.

This article is about a month old, but what jolted my memory was a news report I heard this past week while in my hotel room in Nashville. The news report, on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight, stated that the US Treasury is planning to require credit card companies to effectively double customers’ credit card minimum payments by the end of 2005. A quick Google search did not yield any articles that described this plan exactly, but the article I’ve linked does talk about rising payments in general and how it will affect many people.

We all have or have had credit cards at one time or another. In talking with some people this week after hearing the report, I have found that those who think this is a fantastic idea are the ones with no credit cards or credit card balance, and those that think it is bad, are those that carry a balance, or those that happen to have compassion for people in situations like Gail Nunez. Some people I’ve spoken with have taken the Republican Party line, saying that if you carry large balances, it is only your fault.

Personally, I think the timing reeks of political greasings. Interest rates are on the rise. Current salaries do not keep pace with cost of living and inflation. Bankruptcy laws were re-written during this past year that ultimately benefit only credit card companies. The Iraq war, military spending, and Bush’s tax “reliefs” are drying up much of the US Treasury’s revenue.

Is Gail Nunez’ situation still her own damn fault?

If anybody has heard of this plan to double the payments, please pass along the sources.

I’m on vacation till the 9th, so the posts between now and then may be sparse.

Also, due to high comment spam, I have put some limits on the number of links you can have in comments. You may have to do the ol’ cut-n-paste method to follow an address someone leaves for you. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Cheers,
DD

Yesterday was like November 3rd and 4th, 2004: I felt a mix between numb shock and utter bafflement that others can laugh and carryon.

Today I feel the same as I felt on September 12th and 13th. I look around and see that people are starting to “get it”.

It’s sinking in.

They are asking where the leadership is. They are empathizing with the stranded. They are wondering aloud what they would do after being stuck for 5 days in the dystopic zombie movie that is the Gulf Coast.

Your hardcore administration apologist and head-in-sand Christianist aside, Katrina is changing everything.

UPDATE: Oh yeah — we missed our Blogaversary last month, but mustn’t forget this: today is Jonno’s Birthday. Happy Birthday, man.

you don’t have to go home cuz you can stay here

Portland’s East Side nightlife has been on an up-tick in the past couple of years. One of the new anchors, the much raved about Jupiter Hotel (home of the Doug Fir), is a favorite of Condé Nast’s Travel magazine.

As you may know, Condé Nast owns GQ (among others) and will feature the Jupiter in the September issue on their list of the hottest hotels in the US.

I must admit, in spite of the high poseur factor I’ve encountered at the Doug Fir lounge, the hotel itself is quite beautiful.

I also have it from a source familiar with the deal that the Hotel Formerly Known As The Clyde, will become the Portland location of Ace Hotel .

The folks at Ace have done a killer job integrating the old with the older and this property shows a lot of potential with the claw foot tubs and great location.

Contributors like Designo will like this one: CoolHunting.com is have a design your own sneaker contest — and I don’t mean the crapity Nike ID kind of design:

Opening July 25th, the Chicago branch of Vacant presents the U.S. debut of paper Air Force Ones created by graffiti artist/web designer/sneaker head/funny man Shin Tanaka.

We’ve teamed up with Vacant on this one to include a selection of reader designed Cool Hunting AF1s. So download this template, tweak it out and send it to us by 22 July at paperAF1 [at] coolhunting [dot] com. Our favorite designs will be made in to little paper sneakers and included in the exhibit.