Once again, President Bush and his administration have shown they don’t care about anyone after they are born. Unless of course, you are in the top one percent of income level. Let’s look at the record:

1. He has sent more than 100,000 young men and women into Iraq and can’t seem to stay with one reason why. When the American public shows their displeasure, what does he do? Sends more into the middle of a civil war. Iraq is now more unstable than it has ever been and al-Qaida are swarming all over the country, where they weren’t before. As of June 21, at least 3,545 Americans have been killed. But he vows to stay there until we attain victory. Can anybody explain what “victory” means?

2. With the help of Congress over the last six years, Bush has continually eroded our constitutional rights, with the passing and reauthorizing of the Patriot Act. They have illegally spied on American citizens. They have opened mail and listened to phone calls of ordinary citizens (maybe even you). They have basically OK’d torture. He signs bills into laws we must obey, and then secretly executes a “signing statement” saying the government doesn’t have to follow those laws. He has filed over 1,000 of these. And they have taken away the right of habeas corpus, the last resort of those wrongly imprisoned to go to court to gain their release.

3. Hurricane Katrina raged on in Louisiana and Mississippi while he was on vacation in Texas. When he left for Washington days later, he didn’t stop to observe the damage as most presidents would. It took him about a week to finally get down there. But maybe he looked down from 35,000 feet when he flew over. Parts of the region still look like Katrina hit last week, and there is no money for repairs (may have something to do with spending over $8 billion a month in Iraq).

4. The Drug Enforcement Administration has threatened to arrest and prosecute doctors whom they think are over-prescribing painkillers, even to terminal patients who are in excruciating pain. They want to make sure these patients don’t become addicts in their last months, rather than receive a little relief. And, of course, the Justice Department has tried to overturn Oregon’s Death with Dignity Law, which voters have approved twice. Through the end of 2006, it had been used 292 times.

5. And finally, he vetoed a bill for just the third time this week. It’s the second time he has vetoed government money for research using embryonic stem cells. This research could lead to breakthroughs in treating Parkinson’s disease, cancer, multiple sclerosis, spinal injuries and even diabetes. If you want to stop funding all government research, that’s fine. But if not, let the scientists decide how and what research is done.

The even sadder part is, these embryos will never become people. Most of them will be poured down the drain. And that’s better than helping people who are or will be suffering from these ailments? Doesn’t make much sense to me.

And we know what governor presided over more executions than any other.

OPB causes woes

Where is the excellence brought by competition? Oregon Public Broadcasting sold the state of Oregon the idea that one is better than many. California, on the other hand, has many public broadcasting stations serving the state so the viewers can choose the best signal and program at the specific time of viewing — not to mention they each run their local programming, also. Here in Oregon, we are held hostage by big monopolies; i.e. public TV, radio, telephone, even newspapers. OPB says they are the best because they are the only system by law in the state of Oregon. They say they are updating the old translators.

I don’t know about the rest of the state, but here in Hood River, the other three commercial channel side of the translator has gotten better but the OPB side has gone downhill. Saturday night the programs were unrecognizable due to the wind. Seems the Oregon weather controls the translator that serves Hood River. Wind, heat, rain, snow. Sunday morning when I tried to e-mail OPB about the problem, again the whole Web site was down, like they only keep it up for pledge breaks.

Driven by greed

To all the farmers who have taken advantage of Measure 37: You certainly have displayed a lack of respect for the heritage of farming in the beautiful Hood River Valley. Your greed has bested you, and caused you to disregard the atmosphere of the community. Your claims have and will drain much-needed tax dollars from such things as public education.

As a representative of those who have grown up here, I salute you and your ability to consider your personal advancement above that of the community and environment. I am sure you have sent those Hood Riverites who came before us spinning in their graves.

Flag (dis)orientation

How beautifully thrilling is Independence Day! Hooray and Hallelujah! For our nation’s enterprise of exaltation of each individual person!

The July Fourth parade will include me, thankfully carrying Old Glory. But with an unusual orientation: Its stars of union will be toward the bottom of the staff. This is as directed by law, in the U.S. Code (4, 1, 8). Our beloved U.S.A. is today in “…dire distress…of extreme danger to life or property.” That is the condition perceived and experienced today by an unconscionable too many Americans.

With the flag I’ll be carrying a facsimile of the original Bill of Rights, 4 March 1789. Without them, six of the original states of America may not have ratified the Constitution.

The Bill of Rights and Old Glory are the foundation facts and symbols characterizing us, the United States of America. Can we learn to respect and honor them again?

Meadows unrated

Dave Riley’s response to Mark Flaming’s letter to the editor about Mt. Hood Meadows is simply unsatisfactory. Like anyone who has skied in good resorts it is obvious that Meadows doesn’t get its slopes open like similar resorts. Flaming says this is because the Forest Service does not set standards for quality and price of service or for customer satisfaction, and he appears to have read the Mt. Hood Meadows permit. Dave Riley retorts that they are “heavily regulated” by the Forest Service. I am not convinced.

Every avid skier knows when they are getting what they pay for with a lift ticket. These things can be measured by indicators like numbers of open lifts, skiable area, numbers of skiers, customer satisfaction and, of course, price. I am sure that it is possible to compare Meadows’ avalanche control equipment to other resorts as well. Accident rates as well. I know full well that Meadows doesn’t measure up. And now that I think about it I have never seen Meadows independently rated with concrete indicators. I think that the main problem is that no one measures Meadows.