0810 am 'Get This' news

Produced by:

KBOO

Air date:

Thu, 08/09/2007 - 5:00pm

08/10/07 Get This
Chris Andreae

Oregon is so swamped with money, apparently, that we can’t even see the trees it’s printed on. Yes, so much cash is pouring in that loggers can’t keep up their tree-cutting pace. Strangely, however, there isn’t enough of this logging money out there to keep public forestland up and running. Campgrounds are closing and maintenance work is at a halt…unless of course it’s maintenance on logging roads…
It gets worse: The federal government has rolled out a plan to sharply increase logging as well. This time it’s the Bureau of Land Management. (Recall that it was just this week that we learned that Bush appointed James Caswell as the new head of the BLM. And at that time it was pointed out that Caswell is the extraction industries’ King Slut). The BLM is going to bring back clear-cutting in old growth forests and much, much more. It’s time to get out the monkey wrenches…
A Slap On The Wrist For A Kick In The Shins: The fireman who kicked an apartment resident who came downstairs to find out what all the ruckus was about, and found out, got demoted.
First it was hake fishing and now it’s halibut fishing that has been closed. A word to the resource extraction fans: That enormous Dead Zone off the West Coast is just a few years short of casting its ominous shadow over human habitat. Maybe that is a good thing…
Hispanics are a growing minority in Marion and Polk Counties.
Kulongoski signed a cigarette tax into law but we still get to vote on it in November. It’s a good tax, all in all.. But what we really need is a big fat gas tax. Two reasons: There’s more money in it. And vehicle emissions are what’s really killing us.
Garbage In: Garbage Out: The Portland City Clown-cil rejected a plan to fine businesses that don’t recycle. The plan included assigning franchises to waste hauler. (Note to waste haulers: You are tomorrow’s gazillionaires! The only manufacturing area in which America excels is the production of trash. It’s cheap, plentiful and rapidly becoming our one and only natural resource.)
And while he was at it, Kulongoski vetoed a provision of the Senate bill that was intended to bail out OMSI. OMSI might think about bailing itself out by applying its considerable brain trust to coming up with ways to recycle all that trash…
US forces in Iraq continue the killing spree. And there are – officially, anyway – one million Iraqis dead. (That’s officially according to FSRN, a reliable and reputable news service which, I fear has seriously low-balled this one. The numbers of collateral dead are equally vague and staggering.)
The Oregonian is offering 32 long-time journalists early retirement in exchange for clearing out their desks…leaving more room for Macy’s ads and shoddily-edited A/P stories selected for their patriotic, pap content.
Bush can’t remember when it was exactly that he first heard of Pat Tillman’s death (And he most assuredly doesn’t know anything about the evidence that Tillman was murdered by members of his own unit…); But then a Commander-in-Chief isn’t expect to keep track of the dead, just make sure the American public can’t either…
Boys Will Be Boys: All charges have been dropped against two of the Marines who participated in the murder of 24 civilians in Haditha. Arguably, this was the worst of many American massacres in Iraq. And still more arguably, this is just the bloody tip of a very black iceberg…
Another iceberg we should have seen coming and addressed years ago: The American sub-prime mortgage market is sinking like the Titanic and taking Asian and European markets with it. Will the Chinese be in a mood to talk business? Let’s see how those Beijing Olympic Games turn out. My money is on the Chinese athletes all the way. It’s America’s only shot at the real ‘gold’…
Department of Magical Thinking: The Army is cooking newer and better tales of glory and riches to tantalize the old, the fat, the felonious and the drug-addled to Come On In! The Killing’s Fine!
Johnson & Johnson is suing the Red Cross over the logo.
Bush says his administration isn’t going to bail out the morons who bought too much house from wily real estate agents. (And they aren’t getting a free ride when they show up at the ER after a suicide attempt or two…)
Jose Padilla is going to be sentenced soon. Judge Marcia Cook told the jurors that they could convict Padilla if they think he “believed that the conduct was religiously, politically or morally required, or that ultimate good would result.” Hey, Waait a minute…Isn’t that Bush’s justification for the war in Iraq?
The Department of Homeland Security is making a list and checking it twice. The DHS is going to find out if you are naughty or nice and then it’s going to kick you off the plane…
Hurricane season isn’t going to be as bad as we though this year. In the south anyway. New York City of course will be welcoming tornados and torrential rains for another few weeks at least...and Asia? Bring your swimmies…
Tall Drink of Water: The chemicals – one in particular, bisphenol A – that leach out of plastic containers have got your name on a list of potential fatalities and illnesses. Here’s what you could be getting along with your “hydration”: breast cancer, prostate cancer, type II diabetes, reproductive “abnormalities” (Yikes!), reduced semen quality, recurrent miscarriage (If the “semen quality” issue doesn’t take care of that problem first), obesity and neurobehavioral problems. Now that tap water doesn’t taste so bad, does it?
It wasn’t that long ago that Jackson County closed its libraries because taxpayers didn’t want to ante-up for literacy’s sake. Now taxpayers are footing the bill for American troops in Iraq to protect the libraries Over There. “Patriotism” is a stranger in a strange land - for real.
Moammar Gadhafi’s son says that Libya did in fact torture the Bulgarian medical workers – and he should know…
While not otherwise occupied, (No pun intended) Iraqi forces are protecting the mosque in Kadhimiya from Sunnis and other angry people. This is the pilgrimage to the shrine of the 8th century Imam, Moussa al-Kadhim and if we make it through without “incident”, I’ll eat my burka.
Mexico – clearly having paid attention to the US-Russia-China cold war that’s developing on the horizon – is cozying up the its Latin American neighbors. Cuba and Venezuela, to name just two. (There is of course, the possibility that this is a set-up contrived by Calderon’s allies in the State Department who may see Mexico as the battering ram contrived to bring “Democracy” and “free trade” to the Southern hemisphere…)
Canada has staked its own claim to the Arctic Circle – minus the thermos with the flag in it…).
In Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf is backing away from his State of Emergency threat – He has much worse problems to attend to such as Barack Obama…