Renaming streets seems like a poor way to honor people. Why not name something new? Like a school or a bridge or a new road? Or gather some real funds and support and make a statue or create a new park? I guess cause those things are harder to do...
I created a predictions market about the meeting tomorrow:
I think (hope?) they will either postpone the decision or say no to 39th.
A press release from Oregon State Representative Chip Shields boasts that he has introduced House Bill 2539 which will prohibit the use of fireworks in the City of Portland except between June 30th and July 5th.
"When people set off fireworks outside of the holiday period it stops being a celebration and starts becoming a public nuisance," said Rep. Shields. "Fireworks can scare pets, damage property and waste police time when they are mistaken for gunfire."
Urban Honking is not pleased.
First off, if fireworks are a problem in the city of Portland then let Portland's city government handle that. If fireworks are a state problem, then by all means, Chip Shields and his anti-fun brigade should wipe out the glory of fireworks across our majestic and free-loving state.
Secondly, what the fuck? Fireworks are as American as apple pie and hating to pay taxes. We set them off at sporting events and use them as a means to celebrate. They are not, and have never been, intended solely for use around Independence day.
America's earliest settlers brought their enthusiasm for fireworks to the United States. Fireworks and black ash were used to celebrate important events long before the American Revolutionary War. The very first celebration of Independence Day was in 1777, six years before Americans knew whether the new nation would survive the war; fireworks were a part of all festivities. In 1789, George Washington's inauguration was also accompanied by a fireworks display. This early fascination with their noise and color continues today.
Thirdly, a quick review of the calendar reveals many holidays that would be boring and dull without fireworks:
Jan 1 - New Year's Day
Jan 19 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Feb 8 - The anniversary of Portland's incorporation
Feb 16 - President's Day
May 5 - Cinco de Mayo
May 25 - Memorial Day
Jun 14 - Flag Day
Oct 31 - Halloween
Nov 11 - Veteran's Day
Dec 25 - Christmas
This of course does not include many ethnic holidays or smaller celebrations like birthdays and anniversaries that are greatly enhanced with a magical show of light and fire!
Fireworks are not just for the Fourth. Urban Honking demands universal access to fireworks throughout the year in order to celebrate whatever we choose.
TAKE ACTION
1. Send an email to Chip Shields!
2. Sign the Petition! Fireworks Are For Everyday!
3. Help move the campaign forward! What else can we do? Comment below!
The agencies that enforce our laws and regulations can't be everywhere. As citizens we have a duty to be the eyes and ears of our society, and most agencies have a form where you can register a complaint:
It's very easy to mock those that help enforce the rules (calling them "tattle tales" or bringing up McCarthyism), but most of the violations we are likely to see are small things like a car with a lot of smoke or shopping carts abandoned on the side of the road, or potholes.
These are not super high priorities that justify an enforcement agency, and are dealt with by fining those responsible for the infraction. Reporting these small infractions is like picking up litter. No one instance is going to change the world, but you can use these systems to improve your own surroundings.
Did you know in our great democracy you can vote twice? Once with your vote, but again with cold hard cash! Why not drop $10 or so below and help Obama outspend his competition in the homestretch?
First, lets explore the wisdom of the "Drill-baby-drill" GOP by examining the possible output of additional domestic oil alongside total consumption grouped by US and foreign sources. 0.6% of our energy needs met by 2030 doesn't seem like a plan (or even a substantial part of a plan) to reach energy independence.
And now an excellent summary of the Obama and McCain tax plans from ChartJunk.
(Hat tip to UrHo's Hyperlink and Huffington Post)
Update: Diebold still can't count votes accurately in Ohio, and they won't be fixed before the 2008 election.
A leading cyber-security expert and former adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) says he has fresh evidence regarding election fraud on Diebold electronic voting machines during the 2002 Georgia gubernatorial and senatorial elections. At a little noticed press conference in Columbus, Ohio Thursday, he discussed his investigation of a computer patch that was applied to Diebold Election Systems voting machines in Georgia right before that state's November 2002 election.
In 1995, Spoonamore received a civilian citation for his work with the Department of Defense. He was again recognized for his contributions in 2004 by the Department of Homeland Security. Spoonamore is also a registered Republican and until recently was advising the McCain campaign.
This guy bascially just threw his career away for this, so I'm tending to give him a little benefit of the doubt. Until we pass some common-sense legislation to mandate verifiable paper trails and end black box voting, I'm not willing to let this tinfoil hat stuff slide.
Diebold makes ATMs, why can't they can make a voting machine as reliable as the self-checkout at my grocery store?
A quote from a news article I read recently about America's addiction to consumer debt stuck with me.
"The Federal Reserve Board ... recently put into effect rules barring a lender from making a loan without regard to the borrower's ability to repay it."
Think about that for a minute. Doesn't that one little fact knock out a core tenant of Norquistian Conservatism? Specifically, that free markets are self-balancing entities and by unburdening business from the shackles of government interference we can create a meritocracy where a person is only limited by their own talents and ambition.
However this doesn't seem to apply to a world where banks have to be told to not lend their money to people who obviously can't repay it. A similar situation would be if the AMA drafted new rules barring doctors from killing patients.
The big secret? Government works. And it would work much better if we stopped entrusting the levers of power to those who "just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub".
dalas pointed out that Sam Adams' had a poll on his blog to choose the color of the Flanders Crossing, but now there seems to be no mention of it on his site.
I just wanted to encourage everyone to vote for pink.
Read more about this project on Commissioner Sam's blog.
The Portland Tribune has a story about the vote-rigging of an online poll. The subheading of the story is "Rules broken to gain entry to popular Candidates Gone Wild event", the "rule" seeming to be something about how one person gets one vote, but the only verification is a cookie it's very easy to vote multiple times.
The Tribune got the story wrong. It's not the fake votes that is an issue, it's the use of the online poll itself! The readers figured this out in the article with comments like "Online polls are absurd... Willamette Week should commission a real, live opinion poll, and invite the top contenders." and "It's so easy to fake votes online." and "Clearly, WW should have had a more effective system. At a minimum, a vote that would require an email address, verify the email address, and allow one vote per email."
The Willamette Week and the Bus Project should have enough confidence and pride in their event to just choose who they are inviting, instead of hiding behind an online poll and complaining about people breaking the rules. And the Tribune should call them out on their bullshit instead of running a sensationalist story about rigging votes.
Candidates Gone Wild is a local Portland political event put on by the Willamette Week and the The Bus Project. Instead of a boring debate the candidates do a little more song and dance, including some cute video projects that show a little bit of what the candidates are like as people. It humanizes the candidates and is also a reminder of who is running.
In the past they've selected which candidates get to attend with their own secret formula, but likely simply based on which candidates are actually viable. This year they appear to have pawned off that duty to the masses by using a voting system. This worked well in the races for Mayor and Commissioner Seat No. 2, because it's clear which candidates are actually running and which are not. (Mayor: Sam Adams and Sho Dozono, Seat #2: Nick Fish and Jim Middaugh.)
But the race for Seat No. 1 is tricky. Early on when we posted about the viable candidates and how the voting seemed to reinforce the border of legitimate candidates and the other people running. Even then Seat #1 showed a close race to make it into the top three, and now the gap between who makes it and who doesn't is just 17 votes, and the number is changing a lot.
It's not that Candidates Gone Wild is a make it or break it event (the last one I attended was made up of mostly candidate supporters and political wonks), but they have a responsibility to present all the viable options. Making an entertaining event doesn't give you a pass on your political responsibilities. And coming from a pulitzer prize winning newspaper and a political activism group they should know better.
I'd be willing to bet money they do the right thing in the end. They can clearly see the same thing I can. The votes are too close, and clearly the people want to hear from more than just three of the candidates.
But just in case I emailed The Bus Project, and I wrote to the candidates, and now I'm posting this here. Because as an undecided voter in that race, I don't want to hear from the three of the candidates with the most MySpace friends, I want to hear from all the viable candidates.
