Salem-News.com Op Ed articles Page 27

Oregon’s New Umbrella: The Rainy Day Amendment

Op-Ed: By Steve Buckstein Cascade Policy Institute.

(PORTLAND) - What if Oregon could enjoy the fastest economic growth rate of any state over the next five years? What if, over the next two years, Oregon could build a rainy day fund in excess of $2 billion to help cushion inevitable economic downturns?

The first scenario above is what actually happened in Colorado from 1995 through 2000, the first five years of its citizen-imposed spending limitation, known there as TABOR, or Taxpayer Bill of Rights.

The second scenario is what forecasters predict will happen here over the next two years if Oregonians pass a spending limitation on the November ballot known as the Rainy Day Amendment.

Op-Ed:
Slicing Salami
While Wallet-Walloping
Oregonian-Worker Pockets

Productivity-Plundering Potent Portent for State.

(SALEM) - Salami --no matter how well-sliced and presented-- is still sickening stuff for those whose stomachs demand real essential nourishment. Then there’s that pervading smell, too...

That’s why national productivity and worker-gain measures --the most meaningful in the book -- are so revealing for many in Oregon revisiting the campaign for the Governor’s command-post.

“Death of The American Middle Class” is not a new-novel title, but an extremely threatening next-step negating the road we once felt led firmly to Oregon’s future.

Op Ed:
Open Invitation:
Salem-News TV-Interview
For Ron Saxton

Salem-News.com offers Oregon's Republican candidate for Governor the chance to answer a few questions on video.

(SALEM) - "Ron: We need the same straight answers you would offer to any other client seeking to set up your famous counseling talents for a new assignment. In all candor, this job now depends on what you answer to just several questions."

That’s our public invitation for Saxton as candidate for the Governor’s chair in Oregon, the State we all love and respect. He can speak out and up, right into the video camera-lens, here on Salem-News.

Kansas Windbags Just Won’t Leave Oregon Alone

Right-Wing political frenzy in Kansas amounts to an orgy of discontent.

(SALEM) - There are plenty of places in the world where psuedo religious zealots like Sam Brownback and Fred Phelps could live. Even if we are forced to share a continental U.S. with them, the least they could do is stay home.

Kansas... where the need for separation of church and state is best described as a need for separation of church and hate.

Op Ed:
Triple-Bottom-Line For Corporate Responsibilities
Shaping Governor-Battle

Oregon's Corporate Business-Characteristics Under Scrutiny.

(SALEM) - Strong national-international trends are re-shaping how the whole world does business, with new technologies affecting management at every level.

Changes are demanded for corporate managers who must "run the show or the show will run you." Right out-the-door, that is.

The “pay-off issue” (no pun intended!) in Oregon is...

Oregon Sex Offender Law Put Into Question

Why aren't women convicted of misdemeanor sex crimes required to register as a sex offender in Oregon?

(SALEM) - For most of us, there are those inevitable memories of our younger more carefree days, fooling around in a parked car.

Op Ed: Capital Editorials
Can Shape State Policies
Despite Corporate Concern

What is the reponsibility of local media when it comes to telling the truth about educational funding?

(SALEM) - Skimming other Edit Pages is professional effort here, demanded to determine where others are headed --and why. When any colleague joins us in “raising-the-dust relative to realities” --even while still playing political games protecting “the interests”-- it helps us all.

Op Ed:
Educational Funding
Deeply Researched;
Foundations Lead The Way

Realities Observed: Where’s Corporate Concern?

(SALEM) - You’ll recall from schooldays that the chalkboard was chosen when the teacher had to “really lay-it-on” for complete understandings of any complexity.

Media, the French, War and Americans

Is the media to blame when the information flow is unpopular during a time of war?

(SALEM) - You know, I heard it again this week. I’m talking about those statements that start with “The media” and lead to “the war” and then there is this connection with “what is wrong” and you know what?

Each time this is stated, my cup fills a little more, and the tablecloth beneath it is staining.

The picture in my mind tells me the color is red, and a society that accepts war needs somebody else to blame for the mistakes it inevitably brings.

Op Ed:
Oregon Political Principles
Now Playing Nearly
At Nursery-Rhyme Level

Alice’s “Red Queen” Now Red King While Pogo Ponders.

(SALEM) - Treasured political principles paramount since our American Revolution are reduced to nursery-rhyme levels in Oregon’s Governorship campaign. Our own Red King, substituting for her Red Queen in “Wonderland”, mirrors Alice’s deeply distorted descriptions of governance now.

Latest light from Saxton Himself is that statement revealing his stomach-revulsion when finally forced to digest or deposit Oregon’s own threatened TABOR “delicacy”.