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I never thought I would see this day - a multi-racial president of the U.S. I'm eight days older than Obama. I'm multi-racial like Obama. We have a president that is really like me! That tickles me somewhat. I wish my mother and father were alive to experience this moment. Obama is a symbol and catalyst for a more fruitful future. We've got to help him get it done. I'm really proud of all the people that got involved and supported Obama's campaign. Job well done. Thank you all.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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I don't give a rip about not voting on election day. I love getting my ballot, filling it out, and returning it within one day. No procrastination in 2008. I miss discussing (arguing) the measures and candidates over dinner with my folks. Really appreciate Oregon's system and wonder why other states haven't followed suit. I do miss going to the booths to vote with my mom. But I had big fun provoking youngsters (30 somethings) into filling out their ballots this year. Good times being a Royal PITA :) My job here is done.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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I'm going to express myself simplistically and naively to express an undercurrent running through Alex Everyday's mind.

What I hear is an emphasis on high-tech jobs with big market caps. I'm more interested in smaller businesses that give local folks reliable, well paying jobs. Too few big companies lead to single points of failure when economies sour. I don't want to live in the Rollerball future where a handful of mega-corporations rule the planet.

There is too much emphasis on "home-run" companies that make a big splash, hire lots of folks initially, but are built on foundations of sand such that they lay off employees at the first inkling of a cyclical downturn.

VCs want to make money as quickly as possible but they don't show much forethought for building sustainable, solid businesses that are designed to build profits slowly and sustainably.

Boom and bust is tired. Sure, I enjoy OPB uncovering freaked out entrepreneurs suffering heart attacks due to their self-chosen type-A life styles, but a handful of us still have 30-year mortgages and don't care to be laid off every 18 months as one unsustainable company after another bites the dust.

"Compete or die" is a stupid and unsustainable business model given the long term. Making ungodly money hand over fist is the "home-run" mentality which is a gold-paved road to nowhere with respect to the long term.

Think: long term, long term, long term, long term.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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Is Oregon's business climate significantly different from California's such that new ventures in Oregon are stifled? I've heard entrepreneurs complain how expensive it is to do business in Oregon. My general impression from the media is that Oregon has a business-hostile environment. Is this hype or real?

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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How many of us reflexively vote no on Sizemore's or Mannix's measures? Has there ever been a good Sizemore measure? I suppose that depends on what your definition of "good" is, but every Sizemore initiative sets my spider senses a-tingle.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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I hired a "licensed" electrical contractor to rewire my house. He quit in the middle of the project. Had to hire another contractor to finish the project. Months of aggravation. Contractor hired a sub contractor to reroof my house. The roofers did the crappiest job imaginable. I'm still cleaning up and repairing their mistakes. Called a contractor to install two windows. They said they would provide an estimate but never called me back. I seldom have excellent work done by licensed contractors so I end up doing it myself. 63 isn't going to help me acquire excellent quality work at a fair price.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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Even though I don't want The Man stomping around MY prop'ty telling me what I can and can't do, I realize my desire to be "free" has to be balanced with my responsibility to the public's safety. I do much of my own work. The stuff I don't know how to do, like electrical, plumbing and structural, I hire out to professionals and get permits. Common sense should prevail. (And greased pigs should fly upside down in formation.)

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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Mr. Merkley, I appreciate you participating in the TOL and City Club of Portland forums aired on OPB. Could you give us an example of an action you've taken in your Oregon political career that you would like to change today given hindsight?

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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Do the candidates feel the kicker should be continued, discontinued, modified? Why?

Business experience seems most important given Oregon's poor business and financial health. Legislative skills can be learned on the job. Oregon needs jobs. PERS needs to be invested most advantageously. Therefore I think the treasurer needs to be more business oriented. I don't rely on Oregon for pension. Leaning toward Alley but I'm not convinced yet.

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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I'll admit that double taxing anybody is unfair. But is it fair to cut state funding without a public discussion? Is it fair that too many Oregonians are poor? Measure 59 does not say where lost revenue will be retrieved. Whether the state has too much or too little money is another topic altogether.

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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Are you kidding? Does the tax code need to be rewritten? RAOTFLMFAO. Oh that's rich! Woo hoo! Yes indeed, the tax code needs to be gutted and rewritten. Preferably a one page document. Everybody reports how much they make. Richer folks pay more taxes than poorer folks. Nice graduated scale that makes sense (okay you can lambaste me now). No cheating allowed. No loopholes. No complex tax dodge structures. Simplify the hell out of the federal and state systems so that paying taxes takes no more than five minutes per tax payer. Put the displaced Oregon Tax Department employees into positions that benefit Oregonians. Maintenance of the tax system is unnecessarily costly so we should be clever and make the system simple, fair and bullet proof. What services are Oregonians willing to pay for? How much will Oregonians pay for those services? What is a reasonable price for those services? Oregon needs a rainy day fund to buffet the effects of boom and bust cycles. (We should get rid of these pesky cycles and smooth things out while we're at it.) Why doesn't Oregon have a well-balanced annuity invested in the (don't cover me with banana slugs here) global economy such that the investment of Oregonians removes taxation burden? Where's our imagination and can-do sangfroid? We've got a lot of smart people in Oregon who should be able to figure this out. Let's not be as short-sighted as we have been. Saying "I don't want to pay taxes" is a fool's statement given that our infrastructure costs money. If we all pay, but not so much that it's overly burdensome, we can all win. Government doesn't have to be our enemy. It can work for us. YES, IT MUST!

56 - yes. We shouldn't have automatic "no" votes if lazy voters sit on their cans and fail to participate in their system. Let those of us who care to vote rule the world. Maybe we can vote the non-voters out of Oregon? The Gilligan's Island initiative.

59 - no. Double taxation bites but 70% of us don't pay this. The tax system needs to be made fair. 59 seems like a good idea on the surface of it, but 59 does not address where lost revenue for Oregon will be replaced. Bad Sizemore! Bad!

How do we get Sizemore and Mannix to write good initiatives?

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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Nothing resonated with me in the debate other than my belief that Obama is more intelligent, capable, genuine and compassionate than McCain.

McCain is easily provoked like Bush. McCain will lash out rashly without due diligence. Palin's selection is a prime example of McCain's poor decision making.

Speaking of irrational, how can McCain claim to be pro life when he will send your children to die in Iraq and Afghanistan without an exit strategy?

How well are veterans being treated today? Many of them aren't receiving financial and health benefits commensurate with their sacrifice for their country. McCain says he will take care of veterans but I don't see enough evidence of this.

Pro life means we do everything in our power to feed, clothe, educate, care for people from birth until death. But we let people fall by the wayside as we watch. So let's not kid ourselves, we are not pro life in a broader and more real sense.

McCain doesn't care about Little America. Obama *might* be more even handed. That's a gamble I'm willing to take. We require fresh leadership.

The last eight years, the last 30 years, has been a disaster for America. We've slipped backwards in almost every measurable category and our Stupidity Quotient has increased exponentially.

Time to change direction even though that scares many of you. The future is too important to hand over to small-minded simple folk who are popular automatons pimping the status quo.

A Democrat president and congress might be able to get the People's work done finally. We've run out of time for sub-par political representation. Vote for Obama.

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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Suffering is getting old so do me a favor and vote for Obama.

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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please erase this empty message

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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How about a show on where we're going to get good new jobs to replace those which have been lost?

How about a show on how we can limit Oregon's population. Someone can move in when someone leaves. I don't want Portland to grow any more. I want Oregon to have the population it had back in the 1960s. (Not a reasonable request given the new arrivals and the amount of building that has ensued since.) I want the rain back. I want dripping forests and 20 kg slugs with Titanium fangs like we used to have. I channel Governor Tom McCall: You foreigners have three years to leave my beloved Oregon! Shoo! Be gone with you!

More seriously, nobody wants to pay taxes, but we have streets to pave, sewers to fix, electrical lines to bury under ground, greasy children to educate, etceteras.

When everybody pays some taxes it decreases the burden on the few who pay a lot of taxes. What services do Oregonians want? How much will those services cost? Can we go Marcus The Cat on the Tax Code and boil it down to one page which takes five minutes to fill out? Can this revised tax system be fair to everybody? Aren't we Oregonians smarter and more clever than we settle for?

Oh, oh, oh! How about this? Let's ban cell phones in Oregon! We could be the France of the mobile technology world. "We don't use *those* here," as we look down our noses at the Illiteratci.

Elegance, Simplicity and Sophisitimication for Oregon.

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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Marcus is a bane to productivity. Wonder if the Vice President has hired Marcus to handle some "troublesome documentation"? Very funny.

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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Politicians who delve into negative ads don't focus on the problems they are being hired to solve. In other words, if politicians have something positive to contribute, they don't spend the bulk of their time bashing their opponents' character or political records.

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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I have enjoyed the Obama feel-good videos where members from the Cult of Personality share sound bites with We The Bleating Unwashed Sleeping Sheep. But feel-good words and utterances don't mean much. We've got real problems to fix. Action counts. At least Obama attempts to keep his focus on what we need to do as a country. Because McCain is ineffective and thoughtless, I drown his drone.

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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I don't watch t.v. but the ads still get through my defenses. Thanks TOL! Where's my spray-on Teflon? Where's my body condom? Run!!!

Negative ads galvanize my resolve against the opposition. Negative ads are offensive. Candidates fail to tell us what they stand for as they focus too much on what their opponent DOES NOT stand for.

The current political practices must change for the positive. Campaign season should be three months. Campaigns should cost no more than $_____ (set your reasonable amount here.) Candidates should discuss issues they will pursue for the benefit of We The Sheep. Candidates must state who their constituencies are and who they will actually serve.

Underneath all this is the pervasive ickyness that We The Sheep have become the toilet paper of politicians. Cynical I realize, but the results speak loudly.

The blame lies with We The Sheep for accepting and being manipulated by negative, thoughtless, stupid, arrogant, effete, vapid, ineffectual, sneaky, disingenuous, politicians. We don't get what we pay for. We accept this negative and misleading political advertising. Shame on us.

How is this for a negative ad?

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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And here is what happened recently when a journalist with credentials ran afoul of Big Brother.

[url]http://us.oneworld.net/article/357286-rnc-media-intimidation-condemned[/url]

The public's right to know is being overwhelmed by those who will do dirty deeds undetected.

Winston Smith, Room 101

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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