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wphurley's comments:
on Changing Child Sex Crime Law
As for the cap on statutory limitations, the notion of such a cap is nothing less than an enabling facility for predatory sexual criminals and the institutions that harbor, hide and/or protect them.
Arguing in support of a legal convenience that aids and abets sexual predators and the institutions that protect them is - at best - inhumane. Sexual molestation is a crime and predatory pattern of behavior that flourishes in secrecy and actively seeks to exploit all disparities in power between the perpetrator and victim. Keeping and enforcing a statutory limit on the prosecution of sexual predators cements just one more lever of power disparity to be exploited by predators and the institutions that protect them from the children they scarred for life.
In the end, teenaged victims are not conversant in the subtleties of the law. Predators, by definition, use every weapon at their disposal to capture and control their prey including the specifics of the law. In short, caps subject teenaged victims of a sexual predator’s violence to the law of the jungle from which the victim him/herself is then responsible for escaping.
posted 2 years, 1 month ago
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on Changing Child Sex Crime Law
The first battery of questions Ms Harris put to Randy Ellison pushed him to speak to the "whys" of his long time silence.
One word suffices as an answer - trust!
The dynamics of the maturing brain of teens - meaning mind & emotions - is an organic developmental process leading to the emergence of the adult faculties of autonomy and responsibility. Violence visited upon a person at this time in life is horrifying and deeply scarring. When the person who violates a teen is a person whose even purpose and presence in the teen’s life is premised on trust, the violence endured by the predators target is both physical person and psychological. The damage to the process of cognitive maturation necessarily has life-long impact for the subjects of attack.
The immediate and long term effects are many, but among them is the crippling of the normative development of a person's ability to foster trust. "Trust", is an essential and assumed component of adult relationships - whether romantic, personal or professional – and is a requirement for civil society’s functioning. The extent of the corruption of the target’s ability to trust begins with his or her ability to trust him or herself. “Trust” is a wholly foreign concept and emotional capacity for those violated in the manner Mr Ellison described. Until the subject of a sexual predator’s attacks has regained the capacity to trust him/herself, any option to seek legal remedy – criminal or civil – is for all practical purposes impossible.
Meanwhile, time passes and the predator continues his/her behavior of identifying, isolating and violating new targets of violence. To this point, research backed by the evidence put forward in courts around the world has shown that the sexual predators will violate over 100 victims over the course of the lifetime.
posted 2 years, 1 month ago
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on Obama's Popularity
A voice I find to be both credible and reliable on matters pertaining to the behavoir and effectiveness of Congress is American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Norman Ornstein. Ornstein's views on the performance of Congress over the past decade can be summed up succintly by comparing 2 works of his, one published in 2008 the other, an OpEd, published in January this year.
The first is a book analyzing the effectiveness of the GOP's run controlling the House & Senate. The book is titled, "The Broken Branch". In it, Ornstein and his colleague, Tom Mann, excotiate the GOP for the manner in which it ran the Congress within the walls of the Capitol and in the field among the districts and fund-raising.
http://tinyurl.com/2e7y6xt
Conversely, Ornstein's OpEd lauds the civility, effectiveness and responsiveness of the current Democratic Party led House & Senate.
http://tinyurl.com/ybp4kh3
As your guest said, at about 9:50a, Congress passed more legislation on to the President for his signature than any Congress in decades. Furthermore, the House passed nearly 200 additional bills which effectively died in the Senate - due in large part to the minority's unwavering use of obstructionist filibusters to quash legislation that had received more than 50 votes (a majority) in the Senate.
In closing, allow me to point-out that Mr Ornstein's employer, the American Enterprise Institute, is among the most conservative and high-profile policy think tanks influencing Washington's political classes.
posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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on Making a District a Destination
Lastly, the neighborhoods beyond the PLD, including another development called "Westport", all report that their restaurants and businesses have lost income to the "PLD". In short, the vast majority of the jobs created in the "PLD" and the monies it's "created" are truly a result of "zero sum" transfer of monies from other neighborhoods to the "PLD".
This, as I stated above, is but one of many examples of how these types of projects affect the city and citizenry. The fact is that the city's politicians and favored business leaders get a shiny new "trophy" project while the people and businesses of the city (and county & state) get more subsistence wage jobs and a huge, new tax obligation - not considering the opportunities lost through the poor and short-sighted use of key infrastructure and culture of innovattion that are unique to Portland.
Besides, looking at the prospects for the Rose Quarter side-by-side with other cities' "destination" projects, many of them have a sports arena at their heart - most of which desire a pro team's presence. To point, what makes the Rose Quarter more desirable than other cities' brand new billion dollar plus developments from the perspective of the Blazers' ownership?
In fact, Cordish Cos.' co-founder, David Cordish, has lambasted KC's city leaders for failing to attract a pro team. Since Cordish is the Blazers' preferred developer, it's reasonable to assume that David Cordish's sentiments about pro teams and "destinations" are well known to Blazers' management.
Is Portland in a "build it" but not to someone elese's specifications and we'll lose the team situation?
posted 2 years, 9 months ago
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on Making a District a Destination
One note of caution to those spearheading or supporting plans to convert Memorial Stadium as part of an overall goal of making the Rose Quarter an "entertainment" destination. Other cities that have pursued such "revitalization" dreams have succeeded in realizing 2 outcomes.
The first is that the "revitalized" area are improved in that the dilapidated buildings and fallow grounds have been made over.
The second outcome is that the cities (and counties & states) that have undertaken these projects are now burdened with tens of millions of dollars in new debt that - despite developers, consultants & politicians "best estimates" - require both new taxes and cuts in public services because actual revenues generated by the "revitalized" destination failed to provide enough new "tax" income to the cities and states to meet the cost of annual debt service.
The best example is that provided by ToL, the Cordish Cos.' development known as the "Power & Light" District in Kansas City. The "Power & Light" District (PLD) has failed to meet projected revenue targets by a wide margin. In 2008, PLD generated a mere 15% of the revenues budgeted toward servicing the bonds issued for the project. The 85% gap narrowed in 2009, down to an 84% miss. Furthermore, "occupancy", the number of retail, food services and office space leased, is well below forecasted targets.
The net result for the residents of Kansas City and Cass County is additional, unplanned tax hikes. KC's City Manager, Troy Schulte, has concluded (as reported on July 22, 2010) that the city will be obliged to provide additional subsidies at an annual cost of $10-15 million a year for the foreseeable future. Those monies will be raised as new taxes.
The developer, Cordish Cos., has proven to be aggressively litigious. Cordish is suing Kansas City & the County over property value assessment, seeking to limit its annual costs by keeping the properties valued at $11.8 million as opposed to the assessed value of $66.7 million. Cordish is also involved in other suits over the project over construction, lease terms, and other issues all of which effect revenue generation and the city's tax burden for paying off the project's debt.
posted 2 years, 9 months ago
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on DNA Evidence and Eyewitness Testimony
Mr. Fairgrieve has been allowed to present a wholly inaccurate and, in its distortion, dangerous interpretation of the justice system's function as it pertains to determining a defendant's guilt or innocence.
Mr. Fairgrieve asserted that the justice system does not determine innocence, only whenther a defendant is guitly or not guilty. Mr. Fairgrieve is dead wrong on this essential fact.
The US criminal justice system, as well as all state and local jurisdictions, operate under the inviolable foundation of a defendant's innocence. The process of jurisprudence, beginning with the investigation of a given individual's suspected role in a criminal act, is required and designed to operate with a "presumption of innocence" of any suspect or investigation's target.
The trial phase (or its parallels) weigh and consider the preponderance of evidence in service of its function of determining a defendant's guilt or innocence. That the court, and the volumes of legal writings, employ language that refers to a defendant being judges guilty or not guilty is an artifact of the internal reification of the jurisprudential process not to the Constitutional principle of presumed innocence.
At no time does a "not guilty" verdict rendered by a jury, judge or magistrate vacate, invalidate or in any way tarnish the presumption of innocence.
It is both telling and deeply disturbing that a prosecutor will visit violence on this findamental principle of US law. As an individual human being, a prosecutor may well harbor his or her own sentiments regarding a defendant, witness or victim, but it is the higher legal prerogative of innocence that must be honored. As soon as this principle is neglected, the system of justice is internally corrupted while its bond of trust with the community serviced is eroded.
Please ask Mr. Fairgrieve to correct his statement - in service of the public trust.
posted 2 years, 10 months ago
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on Foreclosing in Oregon
To help your guest speaker understand the subject about which he's a purported expert, please see these items.
Shadow Inventory
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/12/report-on-housing-shadow-inventory.html
Current Issue of Oregon Business has a cover story on the state's "resort" and vacation home developments. The consensus of the interviewees, including developers and financiers, is that there is a) over a decade of inventory yet to be sold and b) there will be no more development of such properties in OR - period.
posted 2 years, 10 months ago
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on What Are Workers Worth?
Your guest's assertion that state employees enjoy a "Constitutional guarantee" that shields them from various types of dismissal is dubious, at best.
But, for the sake of argument, let's assume this assertion of explicit Constitutional protection is accurate. Assuming such, one can measure, as you put it Emily, the inherent monetary/market value of this attribute (under the Constitutional assumption) be mapped to characteristics of private sector jobs?
It can indeed! The job security afforded state employees maps to but does not fully offset the salary, bonus and/or stock compensation vehicles available to private sector employees.
In addition to the public/private comparison, there is a powerful and valid reason for job security guarantees - Constitutional or negotiated/contractual. That is that state employees a subject to the changes in political outcomes, meaning that today's employees may report to Dudley appointed agency and department managers if Mr. Dudley wins in November. Political changes occur on their own cycle, regardless of the course of the "business cycle".
Let's try to compare apples to apples.
posted 2 years, 10 months ago
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on Immigration Law
Are you insinuating that the US abadon our core value for those of China?
Do you, for example, want more than 1 child?
posted 2 years, 11 months ago
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on Immigration Law
Arizonans' are a vile bunch! They're also a pack of whiners seeking out scape-goats.
One undiscussed reality of life in "the desert" is that Arizonans remain mired in an economic calamity of their own making, that being the collapse of their residential and commercial real estate markets and the various industries that support them. AZ is among the state's hardest hit by this manifold collapse, topping even CA, NV and/or FL in numerous statistical categories.
One such measure that AZ tops, second only to CA, is percentage of home-owner's "upside down" owing more to their creditors than the value of the home - a percentage that's presently north of 50%. Adding to AZ's economic pain and inability to right its ship-of-state is the nation's 3rd worst foreclosure and delinquncy rate (floating between 16-20%). Furthermore, AZ's commercial RE market is the prophetic "2" in a "1, 2"-punch combo. Vacant CRE space in some of the most desirable and commercially dense areas of AZ top 25%, with another 25% "doomed to foreclosure".
In short, Arizona, like Nevada, tempted new and existing residents to build a new dream in the desert - all wrapped in the rhetoric and symbology of "entrepreneurialism and personal growth" common to both new-aged infomercials and age-old property scams. Given the state's history of enmity toward government, it's no surprise that the complete lack of local oversight and/or regulations aided both the ascent and collapse of the state's and state's residents' finances.
Sadly, another "age-old" reaction indulged by an "aggrieved" majority is to demonize minorities, "others" & outsiders (a.k.a. the government in AZ's Goldwater-inspired lexicon) instead of facing the fact of their own failures and failed world-view.
Oregonians who see wisdom enough in Arizona's actions to mimic them share in the same short-sighted, close-minded, morally bankrupt ideology and are similarly blind to the obvious, unavoidable and self-induced economic injuries that result from such folly.
Then there's the all-too-obvious racism that, as history has shown us time and again, is the poisonous well that irrigates irrational fury.
posted 2 years, 11 months ago
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on Tea Party
I had begun to compose a longer comment which I hoped speak to the foundational claims of rightist political groups - be they today's Tea Partiers, Perotists, Goldwater-ites or Burkeans. As you can see, I've decided abandon the longer note preferring to keep it short if not simple.
Frankly, I found the entire hour to be a waste of time - from the perspective of garnering a more clear or explict understanding of "Tea Parties" policy goals. Both Mr Moore and the Republican Party's political professional you had as a guest offered no details, no "cause & effect" analysis of conditions concerning them and no prognosis of how a "Tea Party" member elected to office would operate in a role that demands compromise.
Viewed through the lens of the "perpetual campaign", the hour was informative in that both Mr Moore and your GOP operative guest demonstrated that they too have empbraced the "all campaign all the time" rhetorical posture of political professionals as well as professional PR & marketing teams in the employ of all US businesses - this latter group being far larger, more influential and more well funded than all political spending combined. I'll not, now, address the inherent self-contradictions of this posture and the rhetorical approaches of both of your guests - though it most certainly does merit close and extensive examination and comment.
In the end, I found the hour useful. Having had the benefit of an unfettered and uncontested hour upon one of our state's most visible (audible?) "soap-boxes", your guests remained true to type. Neither of your guests proved knowledgeable nore persuasive as advocates for their political projects as each remained steeped in their in-group tropes and misinformed rhetorical complaints that posed as "genuine" analysis.
Thank you for giving your guests the latitude, and "rope" of unfettered access to the public's airwaves (ironic, eh?), to hang themselves.
William of Portland
posted 3 years ago
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on Presidential Candidates Face Off
To be concise, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the CRA had little to nothing to do with the current crisis. The Senator's own economists generally agree with these facts. First, the CRA does not require regulated lenders to originate mortgages to anyone who does (or did) not meet explicit requirements. Conversely, unregulated lenders had no such reluctance to lend to all manner of so-called "sub-prime" borrower. In fact, documentary evidence has been found and reported on, the Oregonian being one source, the internal practices of unregulated lenders coaching sales people to lie, falsify applications and game internal control mechanisms to increase the number of mortgages, and transaction fees, a lender could gernerate.
More importantly, however, is the fact that "sub-prime" mortgages make up a fraction of all mortgages originated. The true root of the crisis is not loan defaults. Defaults are a symptom. The problem is decline in absurdly inflated home values. It is home values that are the so-called "assets" that are then leveraged by lenders and the "after-market" in creating mortgage backed securities (MBS), collateralized debt obligations (CDO), credit default swaps (CDS) and other derivatives (a.k.a. risk diversification instruments).
In service of brevity, I'll conclude by saying that the McCain camp's demonization of Sen Dodd and Rep Frank is beyond the pale. Both members were in the Congressional minority for over a decade and had little to no power to "block" any actions or legislation by the majority. I challenge the McCain representative to identify exactly which filibuster Sen Dodd used and which tactic Rep Frank used to block housing reform legislation proposed by the majority. The lack of details offered by Sen McCain's representative, and your failure to press for those details, allows wholly fabricated mistruths to propagate across the medium you operate and thereby misinform thousands of listeners whoa re directly and indirectly impacted by the tandem crises.
I hope you take the time to air a correction or rebuttal of the misstatements I've identified. Given the scope of the crisis, reaching a dollar value of $2.5 trillion according to num3erous experts, it would border on negligence to allow misstatemnets and mistruths to settle in with your audience uncorrected.
posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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