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Two and a half million jobs were created by US companies last year.  Fewer than a million of those jobs went to US workers.  This is a political issue.  Congress, Republicans in particular, have been blocking legislation to end offshore tax breaks and move foreign-based jobs back to the US.  Until they hear from every one of us - loudly - our representatives have little incentive to change the status quo.

posted 2 years, 2 months ago
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A supervisor, you say?  Good grief.  Considering your spelling and grammar, I doubt you'd recognize an overqualified applicant if you did meet one.

posted 2 years, 2 months ago
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As a citizen, I lament that your attitude, sir, is all too representative of today's corporate mindset, interested less in thinking employees than servile drones.

posted 2 years, 2 months ago
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Imagine Oregon leading the way for the rest of the nation with a statewide Medicare for All system!

Any Portlander who'd like to sample such a system for themselves, just drive 300 miles north to Vancouver, BC.  Even without a Canadian health care card, you can see a doctor at a local clinic for $50.  And on the other side of the border, prescriptions cost a third to a quarter of the U.S. price.

Don't imagine that such a change would be easy, though.  The insurance companies that currently dictate everything - from the treatment we can receive to the price we pay for it - will pour millions of your premium dollars into attack advertising in order to retain the current system.  But with the insurance execs out of the equation, we could eliminate fully 25% of our health care costs, cover every citizen regardless of income or employment status, and fund the preventive care that everyone wants.

posted 2 years, 2 months ago
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Once again, lawmakers have found a way to let millionaires escape responsibility for their actions.  Only the super-rich could afford to pay a $20,000 fine and flout the law; everyone else gets publicly shamed.

In Scandinavia, fines are often based on a percentage of income.  Sadly, innovative ideas for bringing both the rich and poor to justice rarely occur to our legislators, too many of whom are millionaires themselves.

posted 2 years, 2 months ago
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Could you please tell me where to find a copy of The Humanist Manifestos?  There don't seem to be any on the shelves at Powell's.

posted 2 years, 2 months ago
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It's ironic - and a little bit sad - to hear the Tea Party in Oregon representative complaining about "the elites," when his entire movement (Freedomworks, Americans for Prosperity, Tea Party Express) has been funded and promoted by corporate billionaires.  I can remember when public broadcasting used to do a better job of digging at the roots of astroturf movements.  That was before the days of federal financing threats and corporate underwriting.

posted 2 years, 2 months ago
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The Baby Boomers who now direct our political and financial policies were themselves the beneficiaries of well-subsidized public education and civic resources during the postwar era.  In many cases, they could pay for a year's college expenses with a summer job.  Cheap rents in downtown areas and college towns had not yet been driven up by real-estate speculators.

Thanks to the rapacious attitudes and selfish cost-cutting of today's policymakers and captains of industry (largely those same Baby Boomers who were once indulged by their elders) young people nowadays are saddled with debt the moment they set foot out the door, and before they have a chance to even think about the direction of their lives or career paths.  I have a hard time blaming today's kids for being less adventurous than their parents' generation. 

posted 2 years, 4 months ago
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Measure 5 and its offspring halved tax rates for commercial property owners and developers, while doing nothing for the typical homeowner.  If the media paid more attention to the funders of ballot measures (as well as political candidates), voters would make wiser choices in their own self-interest.

posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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A homeowner should never give up without a fight.  Chances are that any mortgage held by a bank these days has been flipped and bundled beyond recognition.  Staying in the house and forcing the lender to produce "the note," i.e. the original mortgage paperwork, could at the very least force the lender to negotiate in good faith.

For more info, visit Findlaw Common Law's Produce the Note page as well as this page from the Consumer Warning Network.

posted 2 years, 10 months ago
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Oh, you awful distrustful citizens!  Don't you have confidence in your financial institutions and corporations?

I mean, it's not like they're going to take your personal information and sell it to some unscrupulous data-miner.  Okay, maybe they will, but isn't it worth it in return for the chance that they might possibly permit you to work for them and enrich their bottom line?

posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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On November 30, 1999, I was a journalist attached to the newly formed Independent Media Center, which, following the week in Seattle, branched out into a global news gathering organization.

I spent the day on the line between protesters and police, and one of the things that struck me was the near-total lack of mainstream media in the center of the action.  For the most part, the major TV, radio, and newspaper reporters situated themselves several blocks away from the police line, where they relied on second-hand reports from the authorities.

What they missed was a responsible, diverse resistance movement that for many hours kept the peace amidst a growing crowd, protecting downtown property in the process.  It was only after the firing of tear gas by police into the crowds that peaceful protesters would fall back, allowing vandals to rush into the void and cause property damage.  This pattern repeated itself over the course of the afternoon.

The sensationalistic media images of the moment missed the story that only came out later, through independent reporting and angry Capitol Hill residents.  It was not the actions of uncontrolled anarchists, but rather the largely unprovoked use of force, tear gas, and pepper spray by police, that created an atmosphere of chaos and ultimately led to several successful lawsuits against the city.

posted 3 years, 5 months ago
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Any urbanite thinking about bringing chickens into their backyard would do well to research their property's lead paint history.  Chickens aren't the most discerning of creatures, and lead paint chips scattered around the grounds can taste mighty sweet.

posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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Co-ops are the latest scam floated by the corporate health-care industry.  What could possibly be more accessible and down-to-earth than a co-operative system, right?

In reality, co-op coverage is usually opaque and unresponsive, limited to a small number of facilities, and certainly not portable if you're traveling outside your home region.

But what the health-care industry really likes about co-ops is that unlike a national public option or Medicare buy-in, co-ops are too small to negotiate lower prices with pharmaceutical companies or medical facilities.

posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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Howdy, This is Conch, host of Words & Pictures.  Zine culture is radically participatory, so I encourage everyone to support your local small-press outlet, welcome out-of-town zinesters to Portland, come out to Thursday's benefit show at the Holocene for the Independent Publishing Resource Center, and try out a few workshops at the Zine Symposium.

posted 3 years, 10 months ago
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If you are a homeowner facing foreclosure, demand that your mortgage servicer "produce the note" and prove that they own the original home loan with your original signature.  If the mortgage has been bundled and/or flipped to other investors and the servicer can't "produce the note," and they instead want to recreate the mortgage paperwork, you're on very solid ground to renegotiate the terms of the loan.

More information:

http://www.consumerwarningnetwork.com/2008/06/19/produce-the-note-how-to

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2009/02/385922.shtml

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
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Prior to Measure 5, corporations contributed half of Oregon's tax base.  Twenty years later, that percentage is down to less than 5%.  For years, Intel was handed state tax abatements based on their promise to add 1,000 high-paying jobs to the local economy.  Even when those jobs never materialized, Salem kept renewing the tax abatements, and now we watch as Intel announces job cuts of more than 1,000.  When are Oregonians going to wise up, stop kowtowing to big business, and demand that they contribute their fair share to the state economy?

posted 4 years, 3 months ago
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I wish Senator Merkley all the best, but hope that he tackles the crises in Washington more forcefully than he did during his rather anemic campaign. I think that Sen. Merkley has three people to thank for his victory on Tuesday: Constitution Party candidate Dave Brownlow, George W. Bush, and whichever member of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was responsible for the enormous ad buy on his behalf.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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I discovered one of Oregon's great overlooked cemeteries, Pioneer Memorial in Eugene, while attending the University of Oregon. According to the UO library archives (the cemetery sits right on the library's southeast flank, protected and obscured by a stand of ancient Doug firs) "[f]or many years the cemetery was considered as a viable space for future university growth. A 1963 plan (Lutes and Amundson) envisioned placing buildings over the graves by means of stilts and enabling navigation through raised walkways and bridges." Fortunately common sense prevailed in the end, and the site still offers a rare chance for locals to seek out peace and quiet right in the midst of an often clamorous campus.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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In Portland, fortunately, community radio still exists as a media base for citizen journalists. Specifically, KBOO offers free training from experienced news gatherers, credentials and press acess to volunteer reporters, and has launched the careers of figures as diverse as Norman Solomon, Dmae Roberts, Beth Hyams, and the host and engineer of this program.

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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