Welcome To The Real World Congressman!

Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR), welcome to the world of your constituency! In other words, welcome to the real world.

Take a good look at this man. He could be a terrorist. No? He was pulled out of line for special security screening at the Portland International Airport. He was not happy. Nor should a 12 term Congressman be happy with such treatment. Neither am I when it comes to me! It's intrusive, it's embarrassing and it's intimidating.

Having already gone through security before boarding a flight in Eugene, he was making a connecting flight to D.C. in Portland when he was pulled from line and searched by rubber gloved TSA agents. It didn't feel good at all did it Congressman?

This member of the House Transportation aviation sub-committee told TSA officials "it was a stupid practice"! Do tell.

One thing I do not understand is why both the Congressman and the TSA admitted security operations are a "work in progress". Why? These searches have been going on and getting far more intrusive since long before 9/11. Why is it still a work in progress?

Time for another Dogwalk solution. Make every member of Congress fly from airports where they are not easily recognized. Out of their states and districts. See how they like being treated like the rest of us. More than a handful, I'd wager, will agree "There's room for improvement". Maybe that would force Mr. DeFazio and his aviation sub-committee to change that which he observed. "The TSA is off track and we are going to fix the policy."

Just make sure its for all of us. Not just members of Congress!

Animal Magnetism - Who Knew And How Did I Find Out?

As I was browsing through blogs this afternoon, Bacchus was laying near by turning the air blue. Just about the same time I noticed an article on how cattle respond to magnetic fields from power lines and it got me to thinking about all the wonderful studies being done - like why pigs smell the way they do and how much gas is expelled by cattle - and sleeping Saint Bernards. So I read further.

Studies have shown that
cows and deer tend to align their bodies with the Earth's magnetic poles. Why these studies have been done I have no idea. I have even less of an idea who funds them but it does keep researchers employed. It's fascinating stuff though. They've found there are no particular weather patterns that go along with this behavior other then when the sun shines they will not stand in one another's shadow. I never noticed, but then I don't frequent pastures when cows are present.

It has now been discovered that if power lines are in the area it messes up a cow's compass. Since power lines produce their own magnetic field the animals are more likely to stand in random directions according to their proximity to the lines. Here I always thought they stood with their backs to the wind!

This is all very scientific. Researchers used Google Earth satellite images in a study of 8,510 domestic cows in 308 pastures randomly located across six continents! I'm delighted Google Earth is being put to such good use. I've only used it to check out properties we've been interested in or how our house and yard looks from on high. But then I'm not a scientific researcher.

True, such study helps determine the migratory patterns of birds and other four legged critters with the same disposition like red and roe deer, whatever they are. It also could come in handy, as the reporter suggests, if you become lost in a cow pasture.

There is a more pertinent point, however. I found this information by reading, albeit on line. If our newspapers continue to disappear, who will hire and pay reporters to unearth this information? I'm probably being unnecessarily flip when it comes to the subject matter, but I'm completely serious about my last question. There is a lot of heavy duty scientific research and institutions involved in these studies and it took some heavy duty journalistic research to find it. To lose or not have access to it, no matter what your field of interest may be, is the tragedy of the decline of the newspaper industry.

Blogging Does Not Automatically Equate Journalism

There is an article on Breitbart that tells me journalism is evolving, not dying. It points to the ever widening spread of the Internet as the reason. I, for one, skim many news sources on the web just to put together a post. But what of the millions of people, not only in this country, but worldwide, who do not have Internet access be it because of location or financial ability? Without hard copy newspapers how are they to be informed?

This brings to mind a headline today from the Salisbury, Maryland paper in which the Mayor, in her State of the City address suggested that mean spirited bloggers were the biggest threat the city faces. The news story was a fair analysis of the Mayor's comments.

The Spokesman Review's Huckleberries picked up on it and asked the following:

Question: In Coeur d’Alene, there are three online sites that touch of city of Coeur d’Alene business regularly — this one, OpenCDA.com, and the Coeur d’Alene Press comments section. The latter two sites are openly antagonistic to Mayor Sandi Bloem’s administration. Do you think those sites help or hurt the city?

I find it interesting when asking if readers thought the local blog sites were detrimental to the city, the moderator neglected to include his own. While he is correct that the other two sites are mostly antagonistic to the city administration and it's urban renewal agency, it is not always without cause. I should think being pro administration, no matter what, can be just as detrimental.

Following is the pertinent excerpt from Mayor Parsons' speech:

While we face the same challenges that other cities and towns are facing, our biggest
challenge by far is a small element within the City that consistently seeks to find
“smoking guns” and conspiracies within the ranks of the City workforce. Daily, I run into
citizens who are weary of the constant “gotcha” mentality on the part of a few citizens
and City Council members. Citizens fear standing up and serving because it quite simply
is not worth the vilification they chance at the hands of blogs and with threatening phone
calls.

Each week I do a taping on a radio station. This past week, I interviewed Gary Comegys
who is running for Mayor. The day the taping was to be broadcast, the station received a
very early morning call from a local lawyer threatening the station manager that if the
station aired the program they would be in violation of the FCC regulations. The week
before, that same lawyer called the owner of a senior complex at his home in
Westminster with a similar threat. The owner of the complex had invited his residents to
a lunch for Comegys and Councilwoman Shanie Shields. This lawyer stated that if the
luncheon were held, the owner would be in violation of federal law because the complex
was built through a program that awards tax credits on a highly competitive basis to
ensure affordable rents for residents. In both cases, there appears to be no legal backing
for his statements. He simply is utilizing threats and intimidation in the hope that those
whom he opposes in the election will have no advantage.

This is the same man who fostered the idea of a taxpayers’ suit against me during my first
year in office. This was dismissed at the most basic judicial level, but not before it cost
the City and our insurance carrier $32,000. In the intervening years, he has enjoyed the
ears of at least one member of each City Council and has cost the City tens of thousands
of dollars in legal and staff time. In almost every case, there has been no legal basis for
his claims and accusations. However much like the taxpayers suit against me in 1998, it
costs money, energy, time and focus from those good and decent people who come to
work everyday to simply do their job.

This is not about differences of opinion and policy questions. This is quite simply mean-
spirited ugly constant intimidation. Combined with the lies and innuendo of several
“bloggers” this city is under siege. Routinely, I receive calls and e-mails from citizens
who disagree with my positions on individual matters. We talk and often find common
ground, and sometimes agree to disagree. It is a very valuable process and I always find
that I see whatever issue under consideration from a new perspective.

This poses a far greater danger to the Salisbury’s future than the current financial crisis.
When people are afraid to step forward, run for office, speak on relevant issues, write
letters to the editor expressing individual opinions, then the future is in jeopardy. I leave
this job, an adventure that I have enjoyed with a firm conviction that the people of this
great city need to stand up and say, “No More”. Only then can we move forward to meet
the serious challenges and build upon the dreams and hard work of the twenty-four
mayors who preceded me in service to this City.

Sorry it is so lengthy, but it goes to the point that Coeur d'Alene's Mayor Bloem could have used much the same rhetoric. What isn't known, in either case, is how close to the truth the "mean and nasties" have come versus the credibility of the mayor's complaint?

There is no "journalism" involved in these blogs even though the Press blogs are under the banner of the Coeur d'Alene Press and Huckleberries is under the Spokesman Review's banner. Blogs are not necessarily and most often not journalism! They are opinion - right, wrong or indifferent. Bearing a newspaper's banner, at least locally, does not change that.

Rhetoric, on either side, can mask the truth. It cannot negate the truth. The question is will the truth will out? And if so, without good journalism, how?

Looking For Terror In All The Wrong Places

I searched for the most grisly picture I could find to illustrate this post. Not because I like blood and gore and severed heads, but because I fear for what's happening on our southern border. Really fear it.

If you listen to the news at all you're aware of the war between the Mexican drug cartels. You've read about the execution style killings and the slaughter of members of the police and army who haven't been corrupted and are trying to quell the violence. If you really listen you realize that these atrocities are happening in the border towns. Our border!

This is a long way from the horrors in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's here and like it or not, it has crossed the border into our country. The cartels are having great success recruiting American teens to be their assassins. Does this sound familiar? Bored or disenfranchised kids looking for a little excitement? Do they not make up the terror squads in the Middle East? Yet this is here. In our country! Our kids!

The money is good and easy. Sometimes $50,000 and two kilos of cocaine for a successful hit. A $500 a week retainer and a $70,000 Mercedes to get around in. Our border. Our kids!

What's most frightening of all are the drug pipelines that wend their way throughout the United States. There is a big one that comes right up through Idaho. Unless we get a handle on it now, it's only a matter of time before our law enforcement officials will be found with their hands bound sans heads.

Terror is a tactic. You bet it is. It has been determined you can't wage a war on a tactic. It's time to stop worrying about descriptive semantics and get a grip on what's happening. This need not be one of uniformed troops against terrorists in civilian clothing. The Mexicans have found, as we have in Iraq and Afghanistan, it just makes the good guys easier targets for the bad guys. No matter what you choose to call it, it's here, it's now and if isn't contained on the border we'll have far bigger problems than finding Osama bin Laden!

A Come Back When We Really Need One!

Man starts company, man loses company, man wins company back. A cliched romance of the best kind has occurred just when American entrepeneurialism most needs a boost!

How long ago was it when brand name retailers began disappearing from the American landscape? I can remember when Federated acquired the May company stores and brands changed forever. Marshall Fields, Lord and Taylor, Robinsons,The Bon Marche, Frederick and Nelson, Pittsburgh's Kaufmanns where I worked for a time when I was fresh out of college. Over the years it seems like everything became Macy's! Then came the downsizing and stores across the country closed.

Thinking back on this, it has been going on for years and has ultimately lead to the retail doldrums of today. Look at the names that have closed their doors just recently. Circuit City and Linen n' Things to name but two. Other specialty stores are in trouble. Ann Taylor and Talbots. Wow. Will everything end up being Macy's?

Nope. I was picking up a stack of catalogs to take out to the recycling box this morning and there sat Owner's Manuel No. 67! J. Peterman! "Wow!" I exclaimed to Hub, "Why are you throwing this out and when did they come back?" He responded with an disinterested shrug.

I remember how saddened I was when they ceased operations in 1999. Now they are back. Their catalog is iconic. It's worth getting just to read of the romance behind the clothes they carry. I even used to purchase from them though infrequently because it was expensive. The J. Peterman duster. I have the jacket length version hanging in my closet awaiting spring temperatures. It has worn like iron over the years.

What makes the story of their return even better is that the original owner has regained the rights! Good old fashioned American effort combined with some hard learned lessons has provided a most happy ending. The best part of all, the government and it's bailouts had nothing to do with it! Left to our own devices, the deserving and able will survive; those entities who lack those attributes should be allowed to fail. It isn't the brand name that's the problem, it's the people calling the shots, and as long as they remain in those positions nothing will change. Why prolong the inevitable?