Monthly Archives: November 2011

Rees Lloyd: Reading Assignment for the Weekend: Occupy Meets Pilgrims

Blog
As the Thanksgiving Holiday is observed, I invite readers of Victoria Taft’s  Blog to consider a timely lesson from history by the first Americans to celebrate Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims,  provided by author William J. Federer.  Among his many books, is what I believe is the best single resource on what the Founding Fathers  actually said and wrote of their own cultural, governmental, and religious beliefs and values in creating our free, constitutional republic, “America’s God & Country; Encyclopedia of Quotations.” (See, www.AmericanMinute.com, for more information on William J.  Federer, and his books.). In short, more than four hundred years after the Pilgrims  tried governance by communalism, socialism, or communism with disastrous 

 

result, self-righteous  American “Occupiers,” mostly wealth-consuming rather than wealth-creating college students and liberal faculty members, demand  that Americans pay the Occupiers “student loans,” and that wealth be re-distributed generally from those who produce it to those who consume it by adoption of those socialist systems which have failed in every country which has adopted a version of them. 

[Rees Lloyd, a long time California civil rights lawyer, now residing in Portland, is a member of the Victoria Taft Blogforce]


Thanksgiving – Pilgrims reject “Occupy Wall Street” wealth redistribution
By William J. Federer

As Thanksgiving nears, one wonders what the Pilgrims would have thought about “Occupy Wall Street” and its effort to redistribute wealth.
 The Pilgrims were originally part of the Virginia Company and were ruled by a set of bylaws that set up a communal system for the first seven years.
 In this system, all capital and profits remained “in ye common stock”:
 “Anno: 1620. July 1. 1. The adventurers & planters do agree that every person that goeth being aged 16 years & upward…be accounted a single share…                                   
3. The persons transported & ye adventurers shall continue their joint stock & partnership together, ye space of 7 years…during which time, all profits & benefits that are got by trade, traffic, trucking, working, fishing, or any other means of any person or persons, remain still in ye common stock until ye division…
5. That at ye end of ye 7 years, ye capital & profits, viz. the houses, lands, goods and chattels, be equally divided betwixt ye adventurers, and planters…
10. That all such persons as are of this colony, are to have their meat, drink, apparel, and all provision out of ye common stock & goods.”
 Pilgrim Governor William Bradford wrote in his Of Plymouth Plantation, that sharing everyone’s profits & benefits equally “in ye common stock,” regardless of how hard each individual worked, was a failure:
 “The failure of that experiment of communal service, which was tried for several years, and by good and honest men, proves the emptiness of the theory of Plato and other ancients, applauded by some of later times, – that the taking away of private property, and the possession of it in community, by a commonwealth, would make a state happy and flourishing; as it they were wiser than God.”
 William Bradford continued:
 “For in this instance, community of property (so far as it went) was found to breed much confusion and discontent; and retard much employment which would have been to the general benefit and comfort.
 For the young men who were most able and fit for service objected to being forced to spend their time and strength in working for other men’s wives and children, without any recompense.
 The strong man or the resourceful man had no more share of food, clothes, etc., than the weak man who was not able to do a quarter the other could. This was thought injustice.
 The aged and graver men, who were ranked and equalized in labor, food, clothes, etc., with the humbler and younger ones, thought it some indignity and disrespect  to them.”
 The women did not like this communistic plan as well, as William Bradford wrote:
 “As for men’s wives who were obliged to do service for other men, such as cooking, washing their clothes, etc., they considered it a kind of slavery, and many husbands would not brook it…”
 William Bradford added:
 “If (it were thought) all were to share alike, and all were to do alike, then all were on an equality throughout, and one was as good as another; and so, if it did not actually abolish those very relations which God himself has set among men, it did at least greatly diminish the mutual respect that is so important should be preserved amongst them.
 Let none argue that this is due to human failing, rather than to this communistic plan of life in itself. I answer, seeing that all men have this failing in them, that God in His wisdom saw that another plan of life was fitter for them.”
 William Bradford also wrote:
 “So they began to consider how to raise more corn, and obtain a better crop than they had done, so that they might not continue to endure the misery of want.
 At length after much debate, the Governor, with the advice of the chief among them, allowed each man to plant corn for his own household, and to trust themselves for that; in all other things to go on in the general way as before. So every family was assigned a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number…
 This was very successful. It made all hands very industrious, so that much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could devise, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better satisfaction.
 The women now went willing into the field, and took their little ones with them to plant corn, while before they would allege weakness and inability, and to have compelled them would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.”
 This Thanksgiving, as we partake of the bounty that the Almighty has provided, let us not just recall the Pilgrims’ historic meal, but let us recall the economic wisdom that helped the Pilgrims to produce their bountiful harvest.
–
William J. Federer is the author of the new book, Change to Chains-the 6,000 year quest for control. www.AmericanMinute.com

Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com

Bruce McCain: Kitzhaber’s End Game? End Capital Punishment in Oregon by Fiat

Blog

When Governor John Kitzhaber issued his de factomoratorium on all executions in Oregon, he laid out his desire and intent to abolish the death penalty in Oregon. Using his clemency powers under Article V, §14, the governor granted a temporary reprieve for Gary Haugen and for any other death penalty case that crosses his desk. In so doing, he called on the legislature “to bring potential reforms before the 2013 legislative session and encourage all Oregonians to engage in the long overdue debate that this important issue deserves.” The problem is the governor knows the legislature can do almost nothing to abolish the death penalty because Oregonians already had that debate when they placed the death penalty into Article 1, §40 of the state constitution.
One “potential reform” the 2013 legislature can effect is to refer to the voters a constitutional amendment to repeal Article 1, §40. One advantage for the governor is that the legislature can draft its own ballot title and manipulate the question like it did with Measures 66 and 67, where Yes meant No and No meant Yes. But what happens if the legislature does not refer a repeal measure, or the voters reject the repeal, keeping Article 1, §40 in the constitution?
Governor Kitzhaber telegraphed his end game in his three-page statement on November 22, when he warned, “I could have commuted Mr. Haugen’s sentence – and indeed the sentences of all those on death row — to life in prison without the possibility of parole.” Kitzhaber claims he did not resort to commutation (yet) because “the policy of this state on capital punishment is not mine alone to decide.” Yet he unilaterally halts all Oregon executions because of his own personal opposition to the practice. The governor insists the death penalty “is a matter for all Oregonians to decide,” while shrugging off the inconvenient truth Oregonians already decided this issue and put it into their constitution – presumably safe from meddling by the legislative or executive branches.
The governor does not attempt to hide his disdain for capital punishment, a position shared by many, if not most liberal progressives. Indeed, his November 22 prepared statement highlighted virtually every talking point provided to him by the Oregon ACLU and others in a November 6 letter urging him to do exactly what he eventually did. Dr. Kitzhaber apparently bases his personal opposition to capital punishment at least in part on his Hippocratic Oath to “do no harm,” despite the fact none of the condemned killers on death row are under his medical care. Ironically, Dr. Kitzhaber would likely not hesitate to write a script for a lethal cocktail for Gary Haugen if he qualified for death under Oregon’s assisted suicide law.
The governor summarized his personal position when he said, “Personally, I favor replacing the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole and will argue for that policy in any future debate over capital punishment in Oregon.” While he is willing to temporarily wait for a potential statewide vote on a repeal of Article 1, §40, Kitzhaber knows that in the end, he will ultimately prevail regardless of the past or future will of the people he was elected to serve. He clearly wants Oregonians to agree with his position and thereby avoid a constitutional showdown by giving the people one last chance to capitulate to his personal beliefs. But he also knows he holds all the cards that matter in this rigged game.
The last time John Kitzhaber was governor, he earned the well-deserved nickname as ‘Dr. No” for his prolific use of the veto. However, the defining issue for Kitzhaber’s legacy may very well be the final act of his final term – the mass commutation or pardon of every convict on Oregon’s death row. Make no mistake; John Kitzhaber will not leave office with any person subject to the death penalty whether Oregonians agree with him or not. The fix is in.
Bruce McCain is an Attorney in private practice and is a retired Captain with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office 
Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com

Occupy Portland’s Anarchists Squat in Empty Homes

Blog

As we’ve been talking about on The Victoria Taft Show,  the Occupiers are taking a page out of the ACORN playbook and beginning to squat in foreclosed homes.
Portland Police flushed out a bunch of squatters in a home in NE Portland a week ago Friday and yesterday was the latest bust.
The “rationale” used to steal other people’s property is revealed on their new website called, “Unsettle Portland,”

“We want to explicitly acknowledge that there are currently people and groups who are organizing to take foreclosed houses and to redistribute them.”


Well isn’t that nice. They want to “redistribute” the home of somebody who couldn’t afford it and give it to people who have no intention of paying for it.
Here are some other reasons given on their website:

We understand some of the intended purposes of opening these spaces to be:

  • to be housing for evicted families and people otherwise shut-out by the 1%
  • to make available focused environments for organizers to work together and co-strategize
  • to create welcoming and safer spaces to be used as community hubs
  • to host much-needed community services: legal aid, health clinics, childcare, and more…
  • to sustainably and beautifully tend and improve the physical structures that host these activities

And finally they just want to stick it to “the man.”

Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com

Jewish Paper: Portland High School Welcomes Anti Israel Rap Group

Blog

UPDATE COMING SOON WITH DAVID HOROWITZ REACTION.
JewishReview.org reports Portland’s Lincoln High School welcomed an anti-Israeli pro-Palestinian rap group to perform at a school assembly on November 4th. The group DAM was brought to town Portland State University Middle Eastern Studies Department  DAM was scheduled to make a special appearance at the school and give a special concert/assembly during school hours. A check of the school calendar notes an optional assembly but doesn’t provide details.
According to the Jewish Review:

Lincoln’s Arab Studies Program funded for the second year by Qatar Foundation International, sponsored the rap group’s visit to the high school. The school promoted the assembly as an opportunity for students to hear another perspective on a controversial issue, in this case the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. [emphasis mine]

Buying access has its privileges. In fact, the students might actually understand the words of the Arabic language raps calling Jews killers and Nazis since the school now offers Arabic classes thanks to the same foundation! 


Some Jewish students at Lincoln students learned of the planned assembly and called on the school to re-think the invitation. Instead the school held a ‘listening session’ on November 1st for parents, Rabbis and students to vent.

According to the Jewish Review:

Michael Cahana, senior rabbi for Congregation Beth Israel, attended the panel discussion as the rabbi of many families whose children attend Lincoln. He said, “This is not a free speech issue; it is an educational issue. Certainly from a Jewish perspective the lyrics of DAM’s songs promote terrorism, which strikes me as really inappropriate to bring them to a high school. To have a vibrant discussion [outside of a school] makes sense. But when you bring a group into a classroom” or, in this case an assembly, “it carries a certain responsibility. And I don’t see that responsibility being met.”

DAM with Fans at PSU

The school’s Arabic teacher, who offered extra credit for Lincoln students who attended and wrote about the group’s evening concert at PSU, claimed the group didn’t encourage terrorism.
While sounding quite talented, some lyrics of their songs refer to Jews being Nazis and killers.

Assessing the situation, Marcia Weiss, a Lincoln parent and board member for the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland said, “I want [DAM’s] voice to be heard. I want them to be able to complain about their situation. On the one hand [the trio] feels oppressed. That’s what they were trying to say” in their lyrics. “But DAM, in the medium of hip hop, said it in a very shocking, bad way that has our hackles up. But the message that they feel oppressed is still valid.
“From a Jewish perspective, feeling oppressed is obviously not a license to strap on a bomb. There’s no excuse for terrorism,” she said.

Imagine if a white supremecist rap group came to a school.
From the Review:

Another line from “Who Is the Terrorist?” compares Israeli democracy to the Nazi regime.
You’re [Israel is] a democracy? Actually, it’s more like the Nazis.
From the sidelines Peyton Chapman, Lincoln High School principal, jumped in with, “If the word ‘Nazi’ comes up at the assembly, we’re going to discuss it.” The Holocaust “was an incredible horror. We don’t want to have it repeated.”

I expect if lyrics about enslaving blacks, white superiority and the like came up, Principal Chapman would take a moment to ‘discuss it.’ 

Still, I think this kid has taken the best measure of the situation. She was quoted in the Review:

Audrey Weiss, freshman, and Marcia Weiss’s [Jewish Federation of Greater Portland board member] daughter, said her non-Jewish “friends have no idea what the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict is about. They don’t watch the news. So bringing in a group that is so one-sided doesn’t make sense to me. It doesn’t promote anything positive. It just promotes anger. I understand it’s free speech. It’s not necessarily hate, but it doesn’t do anything good. Many students haven’t been introduced to any other opinion. So the only thing they will know is what these people say.”

Audrey’s a smart kid. She understands what’s afoot even as her instructors bury their heads in the sand. It’s pretty simple calculus. Political groups buy a school program; preach their particular, distasteful message; inculcate as many students as they can with their beliefs; give them extra credit for it and wait for the next wave of anti Jewish fervor. Rinse. Repeat.

Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com

A Thanksgiving Prayer from the President

Blog

…the first American President, that is. H/T to Rees Lloyd who passed this along. The Thomas More Law Center comments:


Thanksgiving is a time to remember that the source of all our amazing liberties is God.
In recent years, U.S. Supreme Court decisions have interpreted that the Establishment Clause in the Bill of Rights requires a separation of church and state; consequently, many public acknowledgments of God have been declared unconstitutional. This is an erroneous interpretation of the Founding Fathers’ intent: on the same day they reached final agreement on the Bill of Rights, the Founding Fathers asked President Washington to proclaim “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God.”

Here is George Washington’s first Thanksgiving proclamation made in 1789. It was delivered with a humility that suits mankind when he delivers all praise to God.

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to “recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”
 
Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us. 
And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.

Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com

A Thanksgiving Prayer from the President

Blog

…the first American President, that is. H/T to Rees Lloyd who passed this along. The Thomas More Law Center comments:


Thanksgiving is a time to remember that the source of all our amazing liberties is God.
In recent years, U.S. Supreme Court decisions have interpreted that the Establishment Clause in the Bill of Rights requires a separation of church and state; consequently, many public acknowledgments of God have been declared unconstitutional. This is an erroneous interpretation of the Founding Fathers’ intent: on the same day they reached final agreement on the Bill of Rights, the Founding Fathers asked President Washington to proclaim “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God.”

Here is George Washington’s first Thanksgiving proclamation made in 1789. It was delivered with a humility that suits mankind when he delivers all praise to God.

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to “recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”
 
Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us. 
And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.

Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com

Overcoming the Language Barrier

Blog

I can’t make out a word she says, but the gesture when the name Barack Obama is mentioned breaks all language barriers.

Video removed due to copyright complaint from REN-TV

According to the UK Telegraph, “The channel, which goes out to 120 million people across Russia, has declined to comment. But sources close to it have tried to defuse the row by claiming that the newsreader had believed she was off camera at the time and merely providing a voice-over for a report. According to the same storyline, the rude gesture was intended for studio technicians who had been trying to put her off her stride.”

Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com

Bruce McCain: Kitzhaber’s Self Imposed Constitutional Crisis

Blog
On November 22, Governor John Kitzhaber issued what he described as a “temporary reprieve” halting the lawfully scheduled execution of two-time murderer Gary Haugen. The governor reminded Oregonians he acted pursuant to the authority granted to him under Article V, § 14, which provides, “He shall have power to grant reprieves, commutations, and pardons, after conviction, for all offences [sic] except treason, subject to such regulations as may be provided by law.” Thus Kitzhaber had three options available to him, each with a progressively more impactful effect. A reprieve is a postponing or cancellation of a punishment. A commutation replaces one sentence with another, lesser sentence. A pardon is an official act of forgiving a crime in which the conviction is eradicated from the records, the formerly convicted person is freed from further punishments and penalties, and may not be retried for the same offense. Fortunately, Kitzhaber did not commute or pardon Gary Haugen – yet.

There is no question the governor had the right and the authority to issue a reprieve in Haugen’s case. But Mr. Kitzhaber went much further by stating that no one would be executed in Oregon as long as he is governor. In so doing, he no longer acted as an executive considering a single case on its merits, but as a dictator who has unilaterally decided that Article 1, §40 of the Oregon constitution will not be in effect as long as he remains in power.
In 1984, Oregonians overwhelmingly reinstated the death penalty and enshrined it into the state’s constitution, where meddling legislators could not tamper with it. Article 1, §40 states, “Notwithstanding sections 15 and 16 of this Article, the penalty for aggravated murder as defined by law shall be death upon unanimous affirmative jury findings as provided by law and otherwise shall be life imprisonment with minimum sentence as provided by law.” In Haugen’s case, every legal step has been taken, including an Oregon Supreme Court upholding the legality of the death warrant that decreed Haugen be put to death on December 6. Yet at the last minute, the governor steps in and not only halts Haugen’s execution, but effectively suspends operation of a constitution he took an oath to uphold.
This was not a case in which a convicted death row inmate made a last gasp appeal for executive clemency. Haugen made no such appeal; instead Kitzhaber listened to and agreed with a coalition of death penalty opponents, including the Oregon ACLU and Amnesty International, who wrote to the governor on November 7 urging him to grant Haugen a reprieve and to go further and place a moratorium on all executions:
“We are asking that you grant an indefinite stay of Mr. Haugen’s execution until a comprehensive review has been conducted of Oregon’s death penalty system—a reviewdesigned to assess whether Oregon’s death penalty is working, as well as to identify problems and determine whether solutions exist. In other words, we are asking that you declare a de facto moratorium on executions in Oregon pending a comprehensive study of our death penalty system by a committee that you designate.”
Rather than uphold the Oregon constitution and the will of the people he was elected to serve, Oregon’s governor caved to the demands of the radical Left in one of the most disingenuous demonstrations of “courage” ever displayed by an elected executive. Kitzhaber is unapologetic in admitting he based his executive decision on his own personal opposition to capital punishment. Imagine the outrage if a pro-life governor decreed there would be no abortions performed in Oregon as long as he is in office, despite what the courts and constitution say.
Kitzhaber rails against the time and costs of Oregon’s lengthy appeal process – yet he allowed the very processes he criticizes to proceed, knowing he held the ace in the hole card. He allowed this case to proceed to the state supreme court, when he could have personally saved the parties and taxpayers the effort and costs by simply stepping in and saying, “Hey, everyone. Save your time and money. I’m not going to allow anyone to be executed, no matter what the constitution says or the judicial branch rules.”
The governor’s public statements explaining his decision used virtually every talking point contained in the November 7 letter from the ACLU and friends, including the use of a reprieve and declaration of “a de facto moratorium on executions in Oregon pending a comprehensive study of our death penalty system.”
Because the death penalty is in our constitution, neither the governor nor his progressive allies can change it without another vote of the people. However, rather than repeal Article 1, § 40 as the governor wants, there is another constitution amendment the people should consider: amending Article 5, § 14 to exclude aggravated murder from the reach of the governor’s personal political beliefs.

Bruce McCain is a local attorney and a former Captain with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. 

Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com

Overcoming the Language Barrier

Blog

I can’t make out a word she says, but the gesture when the name Barack Obama is mentioned breaks all language barriers.

Video removed due to copyright complaint from REN-TV

According to the UK Telegraph, “The channel, which goes out to 120 million people across Russia, has declined to comment. But sources close to it have tried to defuse the row by claiming that the newsreader had believed she was off camera at the time and merely providing a voice-over for a report. According to the same storyline, the rude gesture was intended for studio technicians who had been trying to put her off her stride.”

Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com

UPDATE!! Occupy Portland Now Seeks Credit for "Cleaning Up" Parks

Blog

** THE “CLEAN UP” (RAKING) HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO MUD.

After leaving Lownsdale and Chapman Squares in a state that resembled toxic brown fields, Occupy Portland now wants credit for coming back and cleaning them up. How noble.

Moonscape

It appears the City will also give them their photo op. How insulting.

Through their new blog and twitter, Occupiers have been beseeched to come out and rake up some leaves. Leaves. I suppose with all the bluster going on–the weather, not the Occupiers this time–there may actually be a few leaves to rake.

One might wonder, what, with 48 hours’ notice, why the “99%ers” didn’t clean up before the cops shut them down on Sunday, November 13th, but apparently that didn’t come up.

 

Nice Tags, Occupiers!
Bottle of Urine

Occupiers left behind piles of clothes, tarps, bottles, pallets, filth, bottles of urine and piles of feces. In all, 70 dump trucks full of junk were carted off the premises. And do you know who I saw doing most of the work piling that stuff up on the day of the planned riot, I mean eviction? Cops. Earning overtime. Thirty City workers worked shifts on Sunday to clear out the rest of junk left behind by these ingrates. I hope they wore their John Kerry Bunny suits.

Piles of Junk

The shamelessness of these people knows no bounds. An effort to green wash their toxic flotsam and jetsam has begun.  Check out this post from their blog:

[O]n Wednesday, November 23, starting at 8:30 a.m., Parks and Recreation is sponsoring a volunteer cleanup. We can turn out in large numbers. It’s a chance to restore our parks and to build good will with the public by raking leaves and preparing the two parks for reseeding. We can put our bodies where our environmental principles are. [emphasis mine]

The City has spent upwards of a $1,000,000.00 —and climbing—in police overtime, the parks will cost as much as $100,000.00 to restore, if not more. Dump truck drivers with City pensions don’t come cheap. And undoubtedly, the green hats at the National Lawyers Guild will sue the City for every raised voice, boo boo and owie “suffered” by the Occupiers.

Worse, Mayor Sam Adams’ preferential treatment for this group also sets up the City for future lawsuits. If you haven’t read those posts of civil rights attorney, Rees Lloyd, and former law enforcement officer and attorney, Bruce McCain you can’t fully appreciate the lunkheadedness of the Portland City Council in their treatment of Occupy Portland.

Photo Credit: Oregonian

These noble Occupiers now want credit for “cleaning up” the parks. They spent five weeks lashing ropes around trees, planting non native species (bamboo) and violating the “rights” of trees by cutting their branches (please see Commissioner Dan Saltzman for information on how trees have “rights”). They’ve urinated, pooped, and concoted bomb making chemicals at these two parks. Which brings up the question: Where’s the EPA or Randy’s HIT Squad when you need them? I’m sure Randy Leonard would have sent his notorious code enforcement goon squad to shut down Occupy Portland, but he was too busy marching with them to notice the electrical theft and toxic-waste-dump-in-the-making. If Cindy’s XXX Book Store and the Greek Cuisina staged a march and invited Randy, maybe they’d be in business today.

Occupiers robbed the taxpayers and extorted the use of these parks from a bunch of useful idiots sitting on the Rainbow City Council. Those same useful idiots now give these Occupiers a photo op for their scrapbooks—and the media.

Monday via twitter, Occupiers were thrilled to report that Commissioner Nick Fish was reopening the parks to allow the Occupiers to clean them per their suggestion. Even Al Sharpton has more humility than these people. They helpfully linked to the City’s website which showed, yep, Lownsdale and Chapman Squares will be the subject of a volunteer effort today.  Strangely, that reference is now gone from the page. It might have something to do with the outrage felt by Portlanders who caught wind of this fraud on somebody’s radio talk show, I dunno.

Reference to Specific Parks Removed

After propping up this public tantrum as some sort of noble exercise, the City is in worse shape than before. The rule of law is in tatters because of the Mayor’s unequal treatment of this group due to his endorsement of the content of their message. Taxpayers are upset that they must shoulder the burden of paying the bills that weren’t necessary. The City is begging for donations–a huge one, $25,000.00 came in from Umpqua Bank yesterday–(ah, the irony!) to defray the cost of the clean up and CYA.

And now they prop them up again by giving these uncivil lawbreakers a photo op.

You just can’t make this stuff up.

Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com

Bruce McCain: Kitzhaber’s Self Imposed Constitutional Crisis

Blog
On November 22, Governor John Kitzhaber issued what he described as a “temporary reprieve” halting the lawfully scheduled execution of two-time murderer Gary Haugen. The governor reminded Oregonians he acted pursuant to the authority granted to him under Article V, § 14, which provides, “He shall have power to grant reprieves, commutations, and pardons, after conviction, for all offences [sic] except treason, subject to such regulations as may be provided by law.” Thus Kitzhaber had three options available to him, each with a progressively more impactful effect. A reprieve is a postponing or cancellation of a punishment. A commutation replaces one sentence with another, lesser sentence. A pardon is an official act of forgiving a crime in which the conviction is eradicated from the records, the formerly convicted person is freed from further punishments and penalties, and may not be retried for the same offense. Fortunately, Kitzhaber did not commute or pardon Gary Haugen – yet.

There is no question the governor had the right and the authority to issue a reprieve in Haugen’s case. But Mr. Kitzhaber went much further by stating that no one would be executed in Oregon as long as he is governor. In so doing, he no longer acted as an executive considering a single case on its merits, but as a dictator who has unilaterally decided that Article 1, §40 of the Oregon constitution will not be in effect as long as he remains in power.
In 1984, Oregonians overwhelmingly reinstated the death penalty and enshrined it into the state’s constitution, where meddling legislators could not tamper with it. Article 1, §40 states, “Notwithstanding sections 15 and 16 of this Article, the penalty for aggravated murder as defined by law shall be death upon unanimous affirmative jury findings as provided by law and otherwise shall be life imprisonment with minimum sentence as provided by law.” In Haugen’s case, every legal step has been taken, including an Oregon Supreme Court upholding the legality of the death warrant that decreed Haugen be put to death on December 6. Yet at the last minute, the governor steps in and not only halts Haugen’s execution, but effectively suspends operation of a constitution he took an oath to uphold.
This was not a case in which a convicted death row inmate made a last gasp appeal for executive clemency. Haugen made no such appeal; instead Kitzhaber listened to and agreed with a coalition of death penalty opponents, including the Oregon ACLU and Amnesty International, who wrote to the governor on November 7 urging him to grant Haugen a reprieve and to go further and place a moratorium on all executions:
“We are asking that you grant an indefinite stay of Mr. Haugen’s execution until a comprehensive review has been conducted of Oregon’s death penalty system—a reviewdesigned to assess whether Oregon’s death penalty is working, as well as to identify problems and determine whether solutions exist. In other words, we are asking that you declare a de facto moratorium on executions in Oregon pending a comprehensive study of our death penalty system by a committee that you designate.”
Rather than uphold the Oregon constitution and the will of the people he was elected to serve, Oregon’s governor caved to the demands of the radical Left in one of the most disingenuous demonstrations of “courage” ever displayed by an elected executive. Kitzhaber is unapologetic in admitting he based his executive decision on his own personal opposition to capital punishment. Imagine the outrage if a pro-life governor decreed there would be no abortions performed in Oregon as long as he is in office, despite what the courts and constitution say.
Kitzhaber rails against the time and costs of Oregon’s lengthy appeal process – yet he allowed the very processes he criticizes to proceed, knowing he held the ace in the hole card. He allowed this case to proceed to the state supreme court, when he could have personally saved the parties and taxpayers the effort and costs by simply stepping in and saying, “Hey, everyone. Save your time and money. I’m not going to allow anyone to be executed, no matter what the constitution says or the judicial branch rules.”
The governor’s public statements explaining his decision used virtually every talking point contained in the November 7 letter from the ACLU and friends, including the use of a reprieve and declaration of “a de facto moratorium on executions in Oregon pending a comprehensive study of our death penalty system.”
Because the death penalty is in our constitution, neither the governor nor his progressive allies can change it without another vote of the people. However, rather than repeal Article 1, § 40 as the governor wants, there is another constitution amendment the people should consider: amending Article 5, § 14 to exclude aggravated murder from the reach of the governor’s personal political beliefs.

Bruce McCain is a local attorney and a former Captain with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. 

Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com