The Dirty Northwest

Gunther brings it home.

Note: the views expressed in this video are soley those of mtv germany and in no way reflect those of thedirtynorthwest.com, her employees or affiliates.

But DAMN is it funny! 

The latest OR-Gov poll has Kulongoski pulling away from Ron Saxton:

11/6 (10/27 – 11/5), 502 likely voters, +or- <7%

Kulongoski 54%
Saxton 46%

After spending another Saturday canvassing the city (this time a very rainy Saturday in St. Johns) this is very welcome news.

It was the polls that got me fired up about this race to begin with. A near tie in the low 40’s at the time, but these last numbers are looking good. It feels like all our hard work is paying off.

I’m really happy to have been a part of the campaign and it feels great to be able to volunteer just a few hours to something big like this.

If you live in the state and haven’t turned in your ballot you can still drop it off at your county elections office, most any library, and in Portland at Pioneer Square.

I was having a beer with a former business associate last week. We were shootin’ the shit, catching up on old times when I floated out a mildly political joke that I like:

Q: What’s the difference between Iraq and Viet Nam?

A: Bush had a plan for getting out of Viet Nam.

He had the common reaction (a chuckle, a stop-and-think, a hearty laugh) and then he leaned in toward me and lowered his voice.

“You know,” he said. “I’ve been a registered Republican my whole life. But this year? This year I voted straight ‘D’ all the way down the ballot.”

“Yeah?” I said.

“And it’s all because of you,” he added.

“Wait, how?” I asked.

”Because – you called me that one day and reminded me to register at my new address. I had forgotten and thought I’d just skip it this year. But you signed me up and as soon as I got that puppy in the mail, I filled it out and sent it right back,” he said.

If there’s a moral to this story, it’s that if you get off your ass and ask for what you want, you can help to make good things happen.

This image says it all:

Source (PDF)

You’ve heard that Kulongoski inherited a bad economy. Remember how Oregon was neck-and-neck with Washington for highest unemployment rate in the country? Now we’re back near the national average, thanks to Ted’s recruitment of companies like Genentech, Google and Amy’s Kitchen to the state.

Air America has filed for bankruptcy:

Liberal talk-radio network Air America, which features Portlander Thom Hartmann, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Friday.

According to court filings, the station has less than $10 million in assets and between $10 million and $50 million in debts.

Apparently thoughtful consideration of issues and appeals to overcome the instincts of your animal mind don’t make for good radio.

Who knew?

Yeah, as long as I’m breaking retirement this evening, let’s take this blog over to iFilm to catch the latest political parody video “Bomb Iran” (my sources say the source song is circa ‘79 but I was more in to putting things in my mouth than politics).

(lyrics in extended)

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Not to worry, kids. Ol’ Doubles is fine. I’m just busy as diez cabrones over here in p-town and taking a forced break. I have to say that taking a rest from bitching is almost as theraputic as the bitching itself.
Almost.

ORLawgirl and I went snow camping up on Mt Hood this weekend in the White River area.

We strapped on snowshoes, hoisted our packs and put a coat on the dog before trekking up the ridge along the river. There’s a fairly packed trail that you can follow and when you get to a nice spot, you can turn south into the woods and make your own campsite.

It was a beautiful way to ring in the new year and put me in good spirits. I wish all of you the best.

I met with my book group tonight. There are four of us: 2 conservatives, a moderate and me (I used to describe myself as moderate but the more things become polarized the more I find myself embracing the left).

One of the conservatives, a corporate attorney who represents Big Timber, had some great comments.

The first was his opposition to capital punishment on the grounds that it was completely inefficient. My own opposition is rooted in 1) the imperfections in our system leading to errant executions and 2) the anti-American nature of letting a government kill its own citizens. His objection was that capital punishment cases cost 10 to 20 times what a life-in-prison sentence does and that is just not worth it – the perpetrators will be dead at some point anyway.

The second comment he made was that he opposed inheritance. Altogether. No one should inherit anything. No offspring should benefit from the wealth of a parent because it stacks the deck unfairly against those that weren’t lucky enough in the genetic crapshoot to be born into wealth.

He admitted that this was against the Republican mainstream and fairly radical and I respect him for this opinion. It’s the logical extension of conservative thought.

Conservatives believe that wealth is a sort of reward for hard work and diligence. If you study well and work hard you will earn rewards. Therefore, the rich among us are deserving as they came upon this wealth through their hard work and discipline. They deserve tax breaks and special treatment because they are morally superior as proved by their wealth (to paraphrase George Lakoff).

In this paradigm it makes perfect sense that you’d limit inheritance. It’s okay for the children to amass wealth, but they’ll need to do it through their own adherence to the morality of their parents. Not by getting a free handout from the previous generation. Not by an inheritance.

Personally I’m all for inheritance – just so long as this free money is still subject to tax.

Treo bloggin’, but wanted you to see how well Hunter paints the town.

This is the world of the Republican Party, split open like a rotting pumpkin. Crime after crime after crime being investigated, all revolving around the Republican money machine. Every seed connected by the strands of money they share between them. Barely-laundered campaign money passed in the palm of every flabby handshake. Every player in boldface, underlined print in the Rolodex of every other.
And still, this same bottom-tier world of flag-waving supporters still obsessed over an extramarital sex act, but offended to the point of sad, blustering threats at the notion that crimes by gilded and worshipped Republicans are really still crimes

.