Salem-News.com Op Ed articles Page 22

Op Ed: Demo-Dialog Killed,
Kicker-Drain Stymied,
Oregon Legislature Wallows in Woe

Cult-Controlled Confrontation Causing Commonweal Consternation

(SALEM) - Most Oregonians believe the notorious corporate tax-kicker must be drained at least once to shape and supply the only-possible first step towards State return to fiscal sanity: the Rainy Day Fund fulsomely promised by politicians of assorted stripe and similar conscience.

Consensus and cooperation were to be achieved while cult-driven bloody competition --and colossally inept initiatives-- avoided “this time for sure!”, with “the kicker” finally captured and put back to work.

Op Ed:
Lobby-Lavished Dollars Pay Off
But Oregon Wise-Ones
Defy Predator Practice And Prevail

Big dollars are used as blunt-force instruments to impose corporate will, but manipulation is apparent in Rainy Day Fund controversy.

(SALEM) - Lobbyists, by definition, buy-and-sell influence via access, for private gain. Their major tool is corporate contributions, ostensibly for political campaign purposes, allowed only through egregious error by “the Supremes”.

The two-day stunner-deal on kicker-drain into Rainy Day Fund proves up the pattern precisely; this time, fully-obvious even to the naive eye-and-understanding of too many Oregonians.

Op Ed:
Cult-Driven Chaos
Descends On Oregon`s
Hopes for 21st Century

Personal-Power Drive, 'Contributions' Threaten Session.

(SALEM) - It¹s not only "the law" that is "sometimes an ass."

Some politicians have strong special proclivity for precisely the same level and direction of choice, even when they are obviously defying public will that has been expressed by vote.

In recent decades that has applied to the GOPster-side of the Salem Arena, malignly manipulated by musty machinations made in D.C. by Norquist et Cie.

Op Ed:
U.S. Supremes Blew Another:
Defy Historic Impacts of Cigarettes
To Save Philip Morris Billions

Arrogance costs money and the tobacco pushers have plenty of those death-stick dollars to spend.

(SALEM) - Tobacco propaganda to build addiction and hide health impacts is as old as the slave-trade on which this poison-product industry was first built.

Slavery, you will recall, took nearly 100 years to be resolved, supported during that time by other Supreme errors.

For many years tobacco suppliers falsely claimed their product was no poison-pill in-a-roll, threatening human health; and that only personal choice should be the criterion for broad public usage.

Op-Ed: Tobacco Company Disagrees With Harvard Report

Philip Morris company's response to the "Cigarette Tax Buys Back A Healthy Future for Oregon Kids, Eases Pain For Those-Addicted" Op-Ed that ran on Salem-News.com in February.

(RICHMOND, Va.) - The recent report by Harvard University that concluded Philip Morris USA and other tobacco companies have deliberately increased the amount of nicotine that smokers get from cigarettes over the past seven years, if true, raises legitimate public and scientific concerns.

News of this report has increased the volume of those voices that favor regulation of cigarettes by the federal Food and Drug Administration. Philip Morris USA continues to support the legislation introduced in 2005 to grant the FDA authority over the product including the regulation of tar and nicotine.

Op Ed:
Make-or-Break Arrives
Early in The Arena:
Get It Done Or Pay Price

Participants poised For progress or heavy cost.

(SALEM) - Oregon business leaders are publicly agreeing on one-time kicker usage to fix the roof before the next downpour. The rainy day fund so established recaptures lost-millions now dumped to corporate bottom lines outside of Oregon. That will create rational and reasonable stability for sure-to-come necessity.

Final-fate for the now-fully/discredited kicker-concept can be left to later voter-discretion --but that rainy day reality must be achieved NOW and without fail.

Op Ed:
Cigarette Tax Buys Back
A Healthy Future for Oregon Kids,
Eases Pain For Those-Addicted

Oregon’s Original Plan Perverted, Needs Reversal NOW

(SALEM) - THIS is NOT your ordinary tax-hike, former Gov. Barbara Roberts declares, but “A taxing means to a healthier Oregon”.

Oregon is THE ONLY STATE in the nation to lower its tax on cigarettes in the LAST TEN YEARS.

Roberts, for decades a respected voice in Oregon --not only for political savvy but for old-fashioned household common sense--totalizes the tremendous dollar-draining damage done by tobacco addiction among ALL Oregonians; with special/attention to those surely by now recognized as the most vulnerable advertising targets for those who deem the dollar worth more than the doomed human lives-affected: Oregon’s always-vulnerable teens-and-younger.

Op Ed:
Ethics-Breakers Need
Painful Consequence
To Force Realistic Reform in Oregon

Rapidly End Huge-Hole/Easy-Payoff “Campaign Contributions”

(SALEM) - “New ethics-regulation rules for this Legislature"? Where are they? What’s different this time-around?

"Campaign contributions" still legal? "Just mark 'em up as so much 'travel costs' for lobbyist lavishing and you collect when you show up"?

Collecting meal-checks will never do it while allowing such huge loopholes that those lavish corporate-cash givers can literally “fly a travel-tour airplane” right through --to a safe landing!! AND it remains "legal"??

Op Ed:
Demand Management
Can Draw Dioxin Danger
To Brooks Burner NOW

Thirty-to-One Increase Under New Permit Plainly Provocative

(SALEM) - The Marion County trash burner must win renewal of its operating license from ODEQ to permit continuance of its Brooks operations. That new permit reduces the limits on particulate matter and acid gases, and increase the limits on nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide.

BUT the new permit --NOT YET APPROVED-- multiplies the limits for DIOXIN by THIRTY TIMES for the most dangerous of emissions: From “one nanogram per cubic meter of air released” to a truly awesome “30 nanograms per cubic meter of air released.”

DIOXIN IS A KNOWN CARCINOGEN.

Cupid`s Countdown to Oregon 150

With the state quickly approaching it's 150th birthday celebration, Oregonians have much to consider.

(SALEM) - When February 14th, 2007 arrives, it will mark the 148th birthday of Oregon Statehood. That also means our Governor and Legislature have only two years left to implement specific plans to mark our Statehood Sesquicentennial--aka the "Oregon 150" birthday--for the benefit of all Oregonians. We want much more than mere hoopla!