Salem-News.com Op Ed articles Page 26

The Soul of a Nation Weeps

Passage of a bill allowing torture strikes at the very heart of what America stands for and for many, it is an outward perversion of our ideals and history.

(SALEM) - Last week, President George W. Bush applauded passage of a bill that will officially allow U.S. troops to torture prisoners.

The "Enemy Combatant Bill" strips detainees of the right to appeal, broadens the President's unilateral powers to decide who is an enemy and which interrogation methods violate the Geneva Conventions, and fatally undermines the War Crimes Act.

The U.S. Constitution is now well on its way toward becoming an unrecognizable document. The controversy behind the president's "Enemy Combatants Bill" is one that will never go away or be silenced.

Op Ed:
Heart & Head Gov-K.
Takes Strong Stand Vs.
Slice-It-Thin Saxton

Corporate counselor says spend less, while Incumbent Governor Sees Kids-First as a responsibility for state.

(SALEM) - Oh ! -- NOW I “get it...!!”:
It’s not “turn back the 21st Century” but really simpler.

Just “fix" the economy to pay off people with many more living-wage jobs but less health-care and pension costs.

That’ll lure better ones flooding into Oregon via “trickle-down”, sure to draw many new entrepreneurs; and the State won’t ever need any Oregon tax-rise.

Op Ed:
Turn Back 21st Century ,Saxton Says Now --
Defying RISING State Costs

He Promises “Deeper-Slashes” to “Correct” State Programs-- But Fails AGAIN to Name Them OR HOW He’ll DO IT.

(SALEM) - Defying both logic and recent history, “Saxton the Silent” is now decrying incumbent-Governor “Decent-Man Kulongski” for every honest, open, inevitable answer on Oregon’s rising-cost State-program operations.

Governor K. honors his Oath of Office, and tells it to us “like it really is”’ perhaps because he is not PLEDGED to other-interests-first allegiance seeking to weaken State government and then “strangle it in the bathtub”.

Op Ed:
Modern-Day Curse
Capturing Oregon

We have allowed our Legislators and others influencing them to indulge in “transactional lobbying” shaping decisions with desperate consequences.

(SALEM) - Education today in Oregon and our nation is organized on the pattern set in place over 100 years ago to meet strong pressures felt then for social, economic and educational change.

That pattern --craft organization-- was slowly abandoned, changed for-the-better in nearly every element and component of our still-modernizing society.

Not only “new technologies”, widely varying, of assorted varieties...

Op-Ed: War Hero Max Cleland Calls for Changing the Course During Visit to Oregon; Many Say it Can`t Happen Fast Enough

Cleland and Candidate Paul Evans are both Democrats and American war veterans.

(SALEM) - Former U.S. Senator Max Cleland visited Salem Thursday evening, joining Paul Evans and his campaign in front of a crowd of 200 at the Grand Ballroom in Salem.

"I came to Oregon in support of Paul Evans because it's time that a leader like Paul, with a record of service as distinguished as anybody in the country, take office to change the course instead of staying the course," Cleland said.

Op Ed:
Education Policies
Draw Public Analysis
As Court Action Continues

Oregonians Want Honest Answers - Not More Salami-Slices.

(SALEM) - In our previous Op Ed (published 9/9) we backgrounded you on the actual public-record scores reporting Oregonian educational status right now.

You now KNOW for sure --from solid statistics summarized from sources beyond reasonable doubt-- that Oregon has deprived a whole generation of its children and youth of their Constitutional right to reasonable educational opportunity.

The funding obligation demanded for reasonable, rational learning resources has been refused, over and over again, by our Legislature.

Op-Ed:
Saxton Seeks
Education Actions
Delayed, Thus Denied

Oregonians demand dollar-based action-NOW.

(SALEM) - Amazing how demeaning the depths to which strong political pressures drive conscientious competent professionals, sometimes. Money cannot be single-motivation here --not for a competent corporation counsel.

Must be commitment-and-concern; unfortunately, to corporate interests, despite high State office now sought; as Saxton’s ATR-PLEDGE must clearly communicate to all.

Op Ed:
Managed Care --
But For Whom ?
Oregonians Need Answers

Desperation, disparities and distortions...

(SALEM) - Oregonians lavish loving care on their children. Even our “childless-O’s” show practical concern for kids of relatives, friends, and their neighbors.

That’s an Oregon proclivity possible only while parents retain personal good health. Without health care there’s no further chance for economic ability beyond mere survival.

Many now know more than 613,000 Oregonians lack health care coverage; 113,000 Oregon children are UN-covered, often preventing educational activities; and more than 67,000 Oregon kids are eligible but NOT enrolled in publicly-funded health programs.

Op-Ed: MSNBC Report May Be One of the Strongest Statements About Current U.S. Administration

Keith Olbermann's scathing assessmnent of a speech Donald Rumsfeld gave to veterans pulls no punches and cuts no corners as it lays into the spirit of an administration.

(SALEM) - Many free thinking Americans have grown increasingly frustrated with the national media in recent years, as the Bush administration has pushed forward with its military/business venture campaigns around the world.

For many, Keith Olbermann restored some degree of faith this week, when he let both barrels fly on MSNBC...

Op Ed:
Oregonians Granted
DeLuxe Umbrella

Desperate Damage To Essential Programs CAN Halt.

(SALEM) - Oregonians wakened Friday to find fate had furnished both current and future Oregonians with a fabulous “paper umbrella” fashioned from unprecedented business profits forecast by State economists.

Citizens are set to recoup $1.04 BILLION with $283 MILLION returned to Oregon corporations paying taxes, via 61-percent slash in their 2007 statement.

Immediate attention centered on warding off wasteful return --to out-of-state corporate pockets...