News from the State of POORegon: Humane Society sues to block killing of sea lions, purple people muggers rally in Salem and a guest post...

Here it is 3.30 A.M. and I am putting up some posts as I finally got to the computer. I could not sleep due to severe pain. Well, however and whenever one can get to the computer in our home right now with three students gearing up for finals.


This post comes from our local paper. First feed is on my least liked union, those trolls from SEIU. They are demanding virtually no cuts or changes to the contract they now have and it is a good one. Oregon is only one of two states left that pays for ALL benefits for most of the SEIU member and their families. This includes the infamous 6% retirement pickup that the state has to pay for. The SEIU must come back to earth and deal with reality. The 6% pickup must go or at the very least cut in half and union members must pay for a share of their benefits.


Second feed is about how the Humane Society has filed a motion in federal court to block the Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife from starting their program to trap and kills Sea Lions that eat and damage huge numbers of Steelhead and Salmon waiting to go up the fish ladders at Bonneville Dam. As one who fishes for both of these fine and tasty gamefish, I have fished at this dam and all along the Oregon coast. I have personally had Salmon and Steelhead that I have had hooked and been fighting both of these types of fish only to have them eaten or partially destoyed by Sea Lions, at least 20-25 times. Having lived in Oregon since 1978, I have watched the numbers of Sea Lions and Seals explode after coming under Federal protection in 1972. All other tactics have been tried and failed. Relocating these overstuffed fish killing vermin does not work as they ALWAYS return within two weeks. I would seriously love to help ODFW cull the troublemaking Sea Lions out.


The third feed is a post from a person that lives in Prineville, Oregon. This individual is commenting on the absurdity of the policy to protect the Spotted Owl and how that helped to kill the timber industry in Central Oregon and the entire Northwest. I think most of you know how I feel about the environazi movement and tree huggers.


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Purple people muggers rally in at State Capitol

Union, advocacy groups rally against call for cuts
Jonathan Cooper/AP Bend Bulletin

SALEM — On a day when 27,000 state workers were taking an unpaid day off to save the government money, thousands of them gathered at the state Capitol on Friday to tell lawmakers they’re tired of bearing the burden of the state’s troubled finances.


As collective bargaining heats up, unions and other advocacy organizations brought 36 busloads of demonstrators from around Oregon as a show of force to those who decide on employee pay.


“This is our voice, and this is how we can tell management that we don’t provide services that can be cut,” said Greg Pelton, 32, an operations analyst at the Department of Motor Vehicles. “The proposal that management has given us is unacceptable, and nobody should stand for that.”


Pelton came to the rally with his wife, Melissa Pelton, and their 3-year-old son. Melissa, an office specialist at the Oregon State Hospital, said she’s concerned about how her family would pay for child care and other important services if she and her husband both see significant reductions in their take-home pay.


Clad in union T-shirts — purple for the Service Employees International Union, green for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — the demonstrators waved signs and chanted to lawmakers working in the Capitol.


“Don’t hurt those most at risk. Oregon needs a better fix,” they yelled.


The state’s initial proposal to public employee unions would result in smaller paychecks for union workers through decreased pay and increased health care and retirement costs.


Gov. John Kitzhaber’s administration proposed that spending on employee health care be capped at the current level, with increased costs becoming workers’ responsibilities. It also proposed that workers take a 3 percent pay cut through seven unpaid days off and pick up a 6 percent contribution to their retirement plans that is now covered by the state.


“This is an extremely tight budget,” said Tim Raphael, a Kitzhaber spokesman. “We’ve made deep cuts to education, health care, human services. And that’s why the governor has been so focused on changing the way the state does business to provide the services that Oregonians need and deserve in the most efficient and effective way possible.”


Last week, state officials gave a marginally better offer, but the negotiations are continuing, said Karen Miller, an Oregon Health Authority employee and member of the SEIU bargaining team working on pay and benefit issues for 23,000 state workers.


“Obviously, this is not about reason and logic,” Miller said of the state’s offer. “So we are taking this opportunity to show them that we have support from working families across Oregon.”


The state faces a $3.1 billion gap between projected revenue and the estimated cost of continuing current services. The Great Recession decimated investments, significantly increasing the cost of required government contributions to the Public Employee Retirement System, the pension plan for state workers.


All sides agree that government workers will see smaller paychecks when lawmakers wrap up negotiations on a budget for the next two years. But workers say cutting their paychecks is just an attempt to take the easy way out of a budget crisis.


“We think we’re getting the short end for what we do for the state,” said Kurt Rhomberg, 56, a bridge worker for the Oregon Department of Transportation in Milwaukie. “We just want fairness.”


Demonstrators encouraged lawmakers to adopt the recommendations from a report issued by SEIU, which proposed alternatives to service cuts including more aggressive tax collection and trimming management. State lawmakers are considering a bill that would set an employee-to-manager ratio of 11-to-1 when possible in agencies with at least 100 employees.


The SEIU report said the average employee-to-manager ratio in the largest state agencies — those with at least 1,000 employees — is 6.1-to-1. The ratio is 4.6-to-1 in smaller agencies, the union reported.

Original article is here

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Removal of sea lions challenged by Humane Society
By William Mccall: The AP/Bend Bulletin

PORTLAND — The Humane Society of the United States said Friday it has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the killing of California sea lions that eat endangered or threatened salmon at Bonneville Dam.


The lawsuit came a week after the National Marine Fisheries Service authorized wildlife managers in Oregon and Washington to resume trapping and killing the sea lions. The mammals eat the migratory fish as they gather at the dam east of Portland while heading up the Columbia River.


The Humane Society had won a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in November 2010 that said the fisheries service, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, had not properly justified its decision to remove and kill the sea lions.

The fisheries service said last week it had complied with the court requirements.


The Humane Society has argued that Northwest salmon and steelhead populations are at greater risk from overfishing and hydroelectric dam operations than they are from native sea lion predation. The organization claimed the sea lions eat only a small fraction of the fish that are caught or killed every year.


“We maintain this is a useless exercise,” said Sharon Young, a Humane Society spokeswoman. “Killing the sea lions at the dam is not going to solve anything.”


The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife had resumed trapping the animals on Monday for removal to be euthanized, but state officials were unavailable on Friday because of a mandated furlough day.

Original article is here.

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‘Save the planet’ and the spotted owl have killed the jobs
By Carroll Asbell / Bulletin guest columnist

Ten years ago, the economic bottom fell from under the city of Prineville’s engine with the enthusiastic support of our political harlots.


The stated justification? Greed and the destructive policies of our wood products industries had succeeded in driving a small, unappetizing bird — the spotted owl — to the brink of extinction.


The spikers, tree sitters and the arsonist all were deemed justified, and the well-funded actions in the law were heralded in print, on the television and in the editorials as efforts that would start the revolution to save the planet from the enemy — man. The devastation in personal and financial loss caused by this emotional outbreak was claimed necessary for the public good, and those affected were only being punished for their years of abuse of the land. The spotted owl must be saved from the logger for the good of mankind, and hardships of this action must be borne by the unenlightened perpetrators.


Arise! Arise! Sitters, huggers and spikers, resurrect the “save the owl” banners and prepare to defend the threatened owl population once again. Gather the funds and assault the news media, retrain the lockstep political panderer. Within the silent forest genocide is now contemplated as the only resolution available to keep the spotted owl from slipping into extinction.


A closely held government report has determined that the spotted owl population has fallen to a point that extinction is inevitable unless extraordinary measures are implemented quietly. The solution? Send forth the Forest Service, shotguns at the ready, and kill as many barred owls as we can for they are now determined the ultimate force behind the spotted owl’s inevitable extinction.


The loggers are exonerated? No, the forest industry has been dealt with and properly destroyed, most equipment and jobs sent abroad. However, it is politically important to step in and protect the spotted owl from the barred owl to prolong the fiction, for a while longer, that man and his rape of the forest was the single perpetrator causing the spotted owl’s demise, thus assuring the forest industry remains permanently dormant. When this assurance is explicit, the spotted owl will have served its purpose and can go the way of the logger and the dinosaur.


All is not bleak; our enlightened leaders have championed some new arrivals who have invaded our borders and are about to take up residence in our midst and create destruction and hardships, as expected. This unavoidable destruction, unless confronted by mature, rational intelligence, will only increase as emotional agitation rules. We were well-advised and warned of the coming invasion, and yet our government did nothing to prevent or mitigate their effect on our lives and livelihood. Rather, our elected officials and the agencies responsible for our protection have instead shielded these interlopers and issued harsh warnings to the public that any interference with these invaders will result in instant, harsh and punitive actions against any individual that interferes with these foreign elements.


Illegal immigrants at our southern border? No, although the parallel in government response is almost identical. I speak instead of the uninvited, nonendangered wolf, sanctioned and abetted by elected officials and claimed to benefit society as a whole.


The protected wolf can drive the rancher from the grassland; the sea lion, the fisher from the sea; taxes can move the industrial jobs from the land, and politically dictated “rules of engagement” can prevent our warriors protecting us against our enemies. A perfect world where we all are destitute, unemployed and dependent on the government dole, if they can borrow more money to support our meager existence.


Will the hue and cry across the land save the barred owl from culling or expose forever the spotted owl canard? Will we restrain the predators to the true wilderness? Will we open the forest and re-create the millions of lost jobs so desperately needed now in Prineville and the West? Would our forefathers tolerate the imposed mandates or gather the tar, feathers and a pole?


Only you can answer these questions. Eligible voter, look in the mirror; you have brought us to this progressive, emotion-driven Armageddon.


Carroll Asbell lives in Prineville.

Original guest column is here.