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Talk to This Year's Quirkiest Senatorial Candidate
Not many candidates for the U.S. Senate are 4'9" tall and only have one hand. But Oregon Democrat Steve Novick qualifies on both counts -- and uses them as pluses in his TV ads. Like this one, where he shows why he's the best beer-drinking partner among all the candidates. Or this one, where it's obvious why he's for "the little guy." Also, as far as we know, he's the only candidate this year for any major office who has his own brand of beer. And his online campaign manager is a major Slashdot junkie, too, which is certainly in his favor. But will humor and oddness get Steve into the Senate? We don't know. So ask him. In fact, ask him anything else you'd like about campaigning and politics. He's promised to respond, and seems like the kind of guy who will give interesting answers, at that. (Please follow Slashdot interview rules, as always.)
I mean, you say yourself that the companies with money are going to want this, how do you plan to fight the opposition? If your opponent Gordon Smith opposes net neutrality, you're going to face a lot more of that in the senate. Voting to ensure it in bills is one thing but what makes you unique to any other Senator trying to keep the net neutral? What are the best things we can do to help this? I tried explaining it to my friends and family but often find I've at best confused them.
Allow me to play the devil's advocate, argue against this point: The government controls too much of our lives right now, why let them control the internet with a facade of "net neutrality?" It's just another form of restricting the market to evolve naturally, why would we want that?
My work here is dung.
If elected as Senator for Oregon, how hard would you push for environmental action? You seem to promote fiscal responsibility and I find these two topics to have interesting relationships to each other. Hypothetically (and I know this wouldn't be your responsibility) if Oregon had the chance to switch to a garbage disposal system that resulted in twice as much materials being salvaged from waste but also cost the citizens twice as much to fund, would you make the switch?
On Slashdot, we often get stories where great new ideas come but require extra cash to go green. They are under heavy fire from fiscally responsible people. Where do you stand on this? I can think of many things if you'd care to address them. Like the investment to move to a wind powered infrastructure, compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb usage being enforced by the government, tighter emissions on all transportation, electronic circuitry recycling costs, etc.
If you care to further elaborate, I'm also interested in how fiscal responsibility can be maintained in addition to your pledge to reform healthcare.
My work here is dung.
How willing are you to NOT "bring home the bacon" and possibly sacrifice local needs and wants rather than further inflate the budget? Are you for attempting to actually CUT the budget instead of cutting the rate of increase?
After reading your views, I see a few things that put you at odds with the current Democrat party. What causes you to align yourself with the Democrat party? What differences do you personally see in yourself that by and large the Democrats adhere to? If elected, would you promise to remain Democrat or would you entertain the idea of going third party/independent?
My work here is dung.
Are you in favor of nuclear energy, or are you afraid of it?
Complaints have been registered far and wide of our cowboy president. Democrats voting on bills hasn't done anything--some Democrats seem to have sat idly by as it happened. If you're elected into office, how are you going to stop this? More importantly with the president in his last term, how are you going to undo what has been done? Whether Clinton, Obama or McCain win, give us plans of action for how you intend to undo what you listed on your site: "warrantless wiretapping, extraordinary rendition, covert CIA 'black site' prisons, use of torture in interrogations and other tactics in tension or direct violation with the law have sparked outrage here at home and sullied our name abroad."
My work here is dung.
Steve, your state already tried, and aborted, an attempt at universal health care. Do you want federal universal health care because Oregon needs to take money from other states to make it work? Would you raise federal income taxes to make it work? How much?
That blue guy Stan Jones http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Jones was pretty cool.
Just picture him at a Senate costume party with deelybobbers on - instant Andorean.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
What will you do to get more Oregon beer east of the Mississippi river?
But seriously, you state that The manipulation of scientific data and government reports by political appointees must end. And we must stop the revolving door that has put industry lobbyists in charge of protecting our natural resources. How would attempt to improve the reliability of the EPA's research and encourage transparency within its ranks as to thwart its recent politicization and "bullying" of its scientists who don't produce data to support a political agenda?
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. indymedia
America's finest and most accurate television news and opinion programs, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report respectively, would be honored to interview a candidate of your stature.
Have you considered gracing their shows with your presence? If not, why not?
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Does the advent of the Internet mean that a politician can win elections without requiring as much financial support? Or is it simply another media out of the many already used (radio, televsion, etc.) that one must now campaign on, making campaigning more expensive than before?
I like the name of your beer: Left Hook Lager, but why choose a lager to represent yourself versus, say, a stout?
You seem to be pretty frank about your policy on the war. How much effect do think you could have on the Democratic platform regarding Iraq? The party has equivocated (eg pulling funding) on whether or not it will go full force at ending the current deployment of troops and on just how it would plan to work with regional players. How do you think you can work to providing a consistent and working policy for Iraq? Your site says that you are amazed at the war can still be sold. What are you going to change about that?
I got a catholic block.
I've been tracking your campaign for awhile, you seem like a really good candidate for the senate slot and a good fit for Oregon. Unfortunately I'm a Californian democrat... and I know that most Oregonians aren't terribly fond in Californians interfering with your state.
Is there a way I can support you without getting you in trouble with your constituents? I know even a donation opens you up to the story of "funded by San Francisco Democrats" which would probably play pretty poorly in some parts of Oregon... Should we just stay on the side-lines or is there something folks outside your state can do to help you get your message out?
And one more related question: In this increasingly interconnected world, how do you see interstate involvement in local campaigns as changing the United States as a whole? The DSCC seems to be a pretty critical source of extra-state funding for instance...
I touch computers in naughty places
with out hitting a dozen people with their own beer label.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
With your opposition to some current tactics, how do you propose - in a positive light - to add to the national defense against militant Islamists, who have proven both time and again - in peace and war - that they want to attack the US?
How will you make the Senate more accountable to the people? At a minimum, what example will you display in your own Senate office?
When you decided to get into politics and/or make this run, how did you build your team? How did you choose your advisers? Were they all people you already knew or just knew one or two and they made recommendations? Basically, how does one go from "I think I could be a good Senator" to having the political machinery to make a run at it?
Do really dense people warp space more than others?
What are your thoughts on the sinking dollar and the price of gold? Do you support the abolishment of the federal reserve and a return to a hard currency?
If the dollar is an "I owe you nothing", then the Euro is a "Who owes you nothing." - Doug Casey
You talk about fiscal responsibility. Does that include government regulation that promotes sustainable growth over growth for growth's sake? If so, what would such regulation be? Finally, I think we can all agree that Americans live beyond their means. What role should the government in dealing with the current credit crises? What action should be taken at the microeconomic level? Are you in favor of the Bear Sterns bailout, etc?
I got a catholic block.
Where do you stand on the issue of medical marijuana in your state? For ten years, use of marijuana has and created a legal vacuum for the public interest versus the private use issue. Would you protect growers of medical marijuana in your state from federal prosecution when such situations occur? Do you support the free and open use of a chemical that has no known addictive qualities, no known adverse health effects and broad, diverse public support for its decriminalization?
...and it should be known by now
Question for the candidate:
Oregon is one of the few states that still has enough respect for civil liberties to show leadership and not adopt the unfair Federal Sex Offender Registration guidelines.
The question is, as a Senator, what would you do to end the blatant harms that a online-available, register everyone, one-size-fits-all sex offender registration policy has caused? Do you acknowledge that sex offender registries are in fact punitive (regardless of their stated intent)? What would you do to ensure that individual property and privacy rights are not infringed (any worse than they already are)? Thank you
While I was among the many Americans that didn't want the military to engage in Iraq, not we are there.
You want to pull out of Iraq within 6 months.
How to you propose to do that? What efforts are you going to put into rebuilding.
Just leaving would be a horrible mistake that would cause even more strife to the Iraqis.
Wouldn't it be better to ahve a rebuild plan that is shared with the rest of the world? remove more of out troops as specific goals are met?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
In Oregon?!? There's a bunch of folks who've lost their jobs because of Washington, as far as they're concerned (environmental lobbyists to be exact) and they want their due. In other words, start carving up that pork because the rest of the country owes them for keeping the owls happy!
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
Where do you stand on having a Flat Tax? What about the Fair (or Consumption) Tax? And why.
If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
As a brewer I am sure you understand the value of science.
What will you do to see that a strong science advisory board is available to the senate?
What about a strong technology advisory board?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
If you are elected, which committees would you like to serve on and why?
If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
Enough of this gold standard crap. That bridge has been crossed (and burned) and none of your Econ. 101 blathering is going to bring it back.
-
Hooks are so 17th century. Which of the following would you consider adopting if you win your election?
1. Fighting claws as seen in Enter the Dragon
2. Hydraulically actuated pincer
3. Chainsaw
4. Rocket fist
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
That is all well and fine, but Oregon has trampled upon the unalienable rights of its citizens for years now. Will this guy change any of that?
Steve,
In 2006 Kinky Friedman ran for Governor of Texas, using a similarly "quirky" campaign approach, injecting humor into his message and campaigning in a style considered by many to be unconventional. While he made a strong showing as an independent (with 12.5% of the vote), he still placed fourth. What influences your campaigning style, and how do you seek to avoid the same pitfalls of other lighthearted (though serious) campaigns?
Mr. Novick, your YouTube presence has attracted a lot of attention -- even mine. I find your ads pithy, sharp, witty.
When Senator Hillary Clinton ran for the open Senate seat in New York everyone knew it was but a springboard to the US President campaign trail. When Senator Obama left the State Senate for the US Senate, many people dreamed -- and more, probably, feared -- it was but a springboard for the top national office.
What is your opinion on candidates who use a limited election to project a national campaign? Who, while denying the charge, are seen as using an office for personal gain rather than determinedly seeking to serve in the very office they fight to obtain?
Lastly...what makes your beyond-the-borders campaign different than those (named and not named) others whose State-representing Senatorial campaign have reached national (and international) attention?
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
In your television ads, you state that you are not like other politicians. How do your political actions differ from those normally held by politicians: namely, increasing budget sizes - whether for the war, healthcare, public schools, or other state-run programs - through taxation or deficit spending; and advancing laws violating human rights - whether through increased regulation of the economy, privacy violations, taxation, etc.
Also, how do your political motivations differ from those that have become the norm in politics? Politicians, acting as the "supply", have increasingly manipulated the economy to service the demand of corrupt companies offering to fund their campaigns - such as by contrived monopolies or selective tax breaks. How do your influences differ from the standard fare?
Steve, do you support the legalization of any drugs, or all drugs? What about decriminalization? Thank you for your availability today.
What is your stance on digital piracy?
Sorry to break it to you, but he's not the only major candidate running this year to have his own brand of beer. A brewery in Kenya, home of Barack Obama's father, is brewing Obama Beer.
Infrastructure is failing in various parts of our civil society, while we also have droughts throughout the country that will continue to persist if not worsen. Oregon experiences its share of both of these important issues.
I'm curious if you have considered a national water infrastructure? It would certainly be difficult, expensive, and time consuming. Is long term planning no longer viable in our modern political climate? Like so many other issues such as national debt, corporate greed, and the environment: is short-term expediency too powerful a force to overcome? Is it even conceivable in the modern political landscape for audacious projects to occur, such as the interstate system for water?
Darn it, if we had a few more candidates, we could have hell of a drinking game!
If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
But will you ever be even-handed?
Have you ever considered becoming an economist?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
The Forest Grove School District is currently attempting to intercept conversations between students on it's school buses, in flagrant violation of ORS 165.540(1)(c) and Federal Statute 2511(1)(b). What will you do make sure all governmental entities comply with existing law?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
My question: How can I help your campaign?
I'm a registered Democrat in Portland, Oregon. I have professional editing experience. I have advertising copywriting experience. Obviously, since I'm on Slashdot, I have plenty experience with computer technology. Other sciences, too. I'm comfortable meeting and talking with groups of people. If there is any interest in my helping, reply or write to my email address above.
Many Greepeace activists are now in FAVOR of nuclear power - because it's less polluting than coal or oil. Doesn't screw up the environment like giant hydro-electric dams either.
As far as what to do with the nuke waste - we do have a state called Nevada It's almost the size of California, but with only 2.6 million residents, with 85% of them living in Reno or Vegas. It's dry, so little worry about run off. I've driven thru it many times - there really isn't much out there at all, so even a 100 square miles is easily spared. Heck - Nevada could even make money off it, by charging for it.
Am I "dumping" on Nevada? No...Every state has some resource that other states don't. Some have prairies/plains that are good for crops, some have coasts good for fishing. Nevada has wide open desolate space, and that's a resource for holding/containing things.
..........FULL STOP.
As the US economy heads into a recession and the dollar falls like a rock against the Euro and other currencies, what's your position on the size of the defense and national security budgets compared to our national investments in science & technology research, health care, education, and (domestic) economic development? Would you be willing to take a stand on freezing the defense & national security budgets and reallocating them more sensibly? Would you be willing to go so far as to call for a reduction in overall defense spending in order to achieve energy independence?
Reminds me of the X-Files:
:-)
NUTT: Not all woman are attracted to overly tall, lanky men such as yourself. You'd be surprised how many women find my size intriguingly alluring.
MULDER: And you'd be surprised how many men do as well.
(I figure this is OK, since he is using his size in his campaign
Would a campaign slogan consisting of "One of us! One of us! One of us!" reach its target market of voters effectively?
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
would you support legalization of any/all drugs?
If not how can you justify the 'war on drugs', and do you believe that people should be protected from their own stupidity by laws instead of information?
If you will which drugs? and how would you defend yourself against the claims that this would create more drug addicts?
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
What would - or, indeed, could - you do to improve the reputation and quality of Oregon schools, to produce the kind of skilled yet generalized mind so badly needed?
Contextual Information: Oregon could - and should - be one of the leading States in America in education and should be regarded in much the same way as the Oxbridge or former JMB regions in England are - centres of excellence. The old JMB region (which covered five educational districts in the northwest of England) is probably the closer of the two - they are roughly from the same era, the industries past and present are roughly the same, and the resources available are comparable. There, the comparison seems to end. The Universities in Cheshire, Lancashire and Derbyshire are ranked amongst the best in the world. The schools are generally highly regarded and the state-run schools are considered comparable with the old grammar (ie: private) schools. Not equal, in terms of intake - the grammar schools are very select - but certainly comparable in terms of what they do with who they take. Even if the only real difference between them and Oregon's system was on of image and attitude, Oregon's system is broken and theirs isn't. The fix exists, apply it.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Many democrats now support socialized health care as reform. Would you vote for or against Senator Clinton's national health care bill?
When are you running for President? We need someone with a sense of humour in office.
What's this "we" shit? You're British! But don't feel bad, as I live in Ill inois instead of Oreogon I can't vote him into the Senate either.
However, if I was rich I could buy the sucker, and it would be legal, thanks to our insane laws that allow bribery as long as you bribe both major party candidates before the election and call your bribes "campaign contributions".
If I was Bill Gates I wouldn't even bother voting. I would have no need to!
-mcgrew
(The McGrew on this page is an imposter. He doesn't even have the first name spelled right, the illiterate buffoon! It's spelled like the guy in the bible that got stoned.)
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
2. Will you introduce or back a bill to immediately restore habeus corpus? If not, WHY?
3. Will you seek to imprison or support the imprisonment of the Bush Junta for their obvious war crimes? If not, WHY NOT?
4. Will you introduce or back a national adoption of the International Depletion Protocol, as developed by Prof. Heinberg of California? If not, WHY NOT?
5. Will you introduce a bill or support a bill that bans practices such as extreme rendition and waterboarding? If not, WHY NOT?
6. Will you support the prosecution of those responsible for the practice of extreme rendition and waterboarding? If not, WHY NOT?
7. Will you introduce or support a bill that will close American military bases outside the USA? If not, WHY NOT?
8. Do you repudiate american imperialism? If not, why not?
9. Will you introduce or support a bill that reinstitutes a graduated income tax that will actually force the rich to pay a larger percentage of their wealth than the working middle class? If not, WHY NOT?
10. Will you introduce or support a bill that reduces military expenditure by at least 50% over the next 4 years? If not, WHY NOT?
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
What's it called, "Brawndo"? Is it full of electrolytes?
-- Sig down
Sorry to break it to you, but he's not the only major candidate running this year to have his own brand of beer. A brewery in Kenya, home of Barack Obama's father, is brewing Obama Beer [observer.com].
Obama isn't running for the Senate, he's already a Senator running for President. But ok, he's running. Steve Novick is the only candidate with his own brand of beer that doesn't have a hate filled racist preacher!
A white man voting for Obama is like a black man voting for a candidate whose preacher is in the KKK. I've been to his church's web site, its fugly and by that I'm talking about the rhetoric, not the looks. Racism is wrong no matter what your race. I don't see how his preacher can even call himself a Christian. There should not be any such thing as a "black church" or a "white church". If everyone in your church's congregation is the same color, maybe you should join a Christian church!
-mcgrew
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
I would like to hear how much you think the closure of your school, and thus your removal from public education, lead to your success in life.
"Even TIME magazine recently did an expose on the boondoggle known as the V-22 Osprey.on the boondoggle known as the V-22 Osprey. "
*Cough*I'm just sayin'.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
You realize what is directly underneath and adjacent to the proposed nuke waste storage facility? The largest aquifer in the west.
The house is not without it's own lunatic fringe.
Professor John Frary http://www.fraryforcongress.com/ has thrown his hat into the ring and his dignity to the wind in an effort to unseat long-time democrat Mike Michaud.
1 in 4 Maine children in struggle with hunger.
About 20 years back, Josephine County (Grants Pass, et al) got a massive infusion of cash in repayment for gov't-enforced restricted logging rights in their area. During this period of time, IIRC they spent it like drunken Sailors on Leave (e.g., they pretty much poured it into programs which has nothing to do with stimulating industries that didn't involve cutting down trees).
The payments timed out last year, and now the county government is in full-on panic mode. They simply have no cash available to keep feeding all the expansions they poured the dough into all this time, and are even in a crunch as to funding basic services. Some towns in the Northern end of the county are even considering changing their incorporation so that they become members of the county to their north.
So... if (okay, when) they come screaming to you for a return of federal funding to help dig them out of their (IMHO self-created) multi-hundred-million-dollar mess, what will you do? Tough Love, Open the floodgates, what? (and if there is any money going that way, please stipulate some sort of money-management controls for the idiots running the show down that way...?)
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Thanks, geekoid. The typo has been fixed, and in the spirit of the Bush Administration, the person responsible has been given a raise and promotion.
Novick is quirky yes, bat-shit loco he's not. He is a highly intelligent, humorous, and all around nice guy with a lot of great ideas. He is a hard working guy that is very approachable. Like his campaign ad says, he really is a guy you'd like to have a beer with. Jones may have been insane, but other than the blue skin he wasn't that different than some of the other nuts like Conrad Burns, Dennis Rehberg and Judy Martz. Jones was always entertaining at debates. I think he sometimes forgot where he was. Rehberg is intelligent but just a completely evil jerk. Burns is simply a total dumb redneck much like W. I moved to Oregon from Montana 2 years ago. I now work for an organization that has endorsed Novick.
Aside from global warming, what are your major environmental priorities and what remedies will you seek as Senator to address them?
I see that this Slashdot account started posting today, just after this "Ask Slashdot" question was posted.
Slashdot has a process for 'verifying' certain 'celebrity' names to make certain that someone posting as a certain name is actually that person. In addition, the "Ask Slashdot" style is that they collect up the highest rated and/or best questions, then present them to the subject 'offline', for 'offline' answer. They don't expect the subject to actually reply in-thread.
So what I'm really asking is that if you (Slashdot user "SteveNovick", user number 1258404,) are really the Oregon Senate candidate Steve Novick, please go through 'proper channels' so that we know that your posts really are you. (In addition, if this account is "official", I would like to know if it is candidate Novick himself, or a staffer, that is posting these answers.)
(P.S. I'm an Oregon Democrat, and from what I have seen, it is almost guaranteed that I will vote for you.)
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
Your ideas intrigue me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter...
Seriously though, I see the two as inherently compatible. It all depends on how you calculate costs and the timeframe you are concerned with.
Looking ahead to the future, environmental responsibility offers long-term benefits, but few (if any) short-term benefits. The costs however, must be borne up front and will diminish over time. On the other hand, in the immediate short-term, there is no business case for any kind of environmental responsibility. Of course, there is no business case for any kind of intermediate-term or long-term behavior that does not offer immediate gratification either.
A better way to look at the situation is to compare the intermediate-term and long-term costs of our short-term choices. My belief is that it will be much more expensive in the future if we continue to not pay the true economic costs of our collective lifestyles. Gasoline for example, is dirt cheap compared to other staples we purchase on a regular basis. The artificial subsidy of gasoline drives other decisions (what kind of car we drive, where we live, what we do in our spare time) that affect our behaviour largely because we do not have to pay for the real costs or consequences of our actions. Unfortunately, since those costs will be borne in the future, it is difficult to persuade people to alter their short-term behaviour.
We should not look to politicians for leadership in these matters. Politicians pander to today's voters. The people in the future who will pay the price for the choices we make today aren't voting in this election, so their interests will not be represented.
The business case for environmental responsibility is that it will be more expensive in the long-term if we do not make any changes to our current behaviour. The easiest way to modify the behaviour of people and corporations is to use taxation. We should heavily tax behaviour we want to discourage, and provide incentives for behaviour we want to encourage. That way, even those people who only care about immediate short-term advantages will behave in ways that offer medium-term and long-term benefits.
How about the fact that public health care in the other G8 nations costs less per-capita than it does in the US, and all of their citizens have coverage? It seems to me that fiscal responsibility demands public health care, rather than opposes it.
*** Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?
What's the sound of one hand clapping?
There's a rampant discrimination against short men everywhere in the world as well as in the USA. The consequences are visible both at the workplace as well as in social situations and in everyday (non-social) life. No politician really cares to do anything to change this deep-rooted discrimination - one where you shouldn't mention it because "it's funny" or it makes you look bad. Since you are definitely a short person, will you do something about it? Or will you actually NOT do anything because it's a cause better fought for by the tall?
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
In 1994 Congress passed the anti-bootlegging provisions, and 18 U.S.C. s. 2319A, that give perpetual, and retroactive, protection to unauthorized recordings of live musical performances. In 1998 Congress passed the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act which lengthened the copyright term from the life of the author plus 50 years to life of the author plus 70 years; the average copyright term is now longer than one human lifetime all but obliterating the usefulness of a "public domain." (As a point of reference the original copyright term in the first American copyright act was at most 28 years.) The statutory damages which accrue per instance of copyright infringement (up to $150,000) far exceeds actual damages in most cases. Thus, infringers who copy 50 songs which would have cost them $50 dollars on iTunes, or even $1000 in traditional CD format, end up owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.
Is a more balanced, public domain friendly copyright law on your agenda?
What? I was just saying that's the politics in Oregon. Stop projecting on me ... "Dude".
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
Mr. Novick,
:)
First, I work for a large software company that has a significant operation some distance away from Portland. But, they are one of the only high-tech companies in the area. With the thinly veiled threat of outsourcing and off shoring, what are you going to do to bring more high-tech jobs to areas in the state that are not the Portland metro area? The economic benefits of bringing highly-skilled and highly-paid workers to the rest of Oregon should be obvious.
Second, did you know that on the eastern side of the Cascades there is actually more of Oregon besides ski resorts and their associated towns? It always seems that people (and politicians) who live in the western portion of the state think that Idaho begins just on the eastern side of Bend and Sunriver - I was wondering if you knew about the rest of it, unlike the governor and most of the other state Democrats.
Finally, can you do something about all of the Californians moving here?
"Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
Tech companies also need to be reasonably close to an international airport. Seattle has Sea-Tac; Portland/Vancouver has PDX (and Beaverton/Hillsboro has Hillsboro Airport), and the Silicone Valley has both San Francisco and San Jose airports. So you would probably also want to improve the transportation infrastructure in these college towns as well.
Finally, tech companies need a source of capital. This should come from private, not public, investment, but I am sure there are things the government can do to encourage investment in these areas.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
This isn't a question - but that beer opening ad should have played during the superbowl.
thank you for turning me onto that little jewel of political trivia
whoooooosh...
Fair enough, but your first clue should've been when he mentionned the Bush administration ;)
While we're at it, let's drum all of the crazy hate spewing preachers out of politics--including the ones whose boots the Republicans have to lick every election year. I thought that part of Obama's appeal was that he understood the set of people for whom a fringe religious lunatic is part of the standard entourage.
An interesting anagram of "BANACH TARSKI" is "BANACH TARSKI BANACH TARSKI"
Amen to that!
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
You better start distributing free drugs on the street (no, not of medical kind)!
At least in the US if I were poor and hungry, but still *reasonable*, I'd commit a crime of squatting on some remote land somewhere once (and grow myself some potatoes) rather than keep mugging people for $20 over and over again, risking being beaten up, or shot.
Not to mention that there are many charities which seem to be able to come up with $6 per desperate person per day to feed them.
Food is cheap. Illegal drugs on the street are (comparably) not, and this is what, I'd expect, most of the muggings are happening for.
Paul B.