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Wednesday, August 19, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
O
P
I N I O
N
John
Kass
American Voices
Editorial…
Time to take a step back
on paved trail issue
For about three years now, folks in Sisters
Country have been riled up in a controversy
over a proposed paved trail from Sisters to
Black Butte Ranch.
It’s time to take a step back and put the
issue on the back burner for a while.
Proponents have rallied support for the
project and outlined all the community ben-
efits they believe will flow from adding such
an amenity. Opponents have made their objec-
tions known in detail and offered up proposed
alternatives. There is little new to say on the
subject.
And, in any case, nothing is going to hap-
pen any time soon.
Sisters District Ranger Kristie Miller
brought a great deal of clarity to the issue in
her discussions with the Sisters City Council
at their workshop last week. If there is a
proposal made — whether it’s the same as
before or modified to accommodate objec-
tions — and if the Forest Service chooses to
consider it, the paved path project will be run
through the ringer in another Forest Service
Environmental Assessment. All interested par-
ties will have ample opportunity to weigh in
on pros and cons.
And that isn’t going to happen in 2015. It
may or may not happen in 2016, depending on
whether the Forest Service funds an EA. And
if they do fund it, the EA will take a year or
more to complete.
So here is a very long moment to let the
rancor die down and for neighbors to mend
fences. There will be ample opportunity for
folks to take up their cudgels again when there
is a proposal and a process in play.
And, this being Sisters, there are sure to
be other issues, other controversies and con-
tretemps to keep folks busy while the Forest
Service decides whether or not to fund an EA
and put this one back on the front burner.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
Sisters Weather Forecast
Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon
Wednesday
thursday
friday
saturday
sunday
Monday
Patchy smoke
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
90/50
83/43
73/35
80/39
84/47
83/na
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Hillary Clinton is in the
early stages of political
sepsis.
Madam Inevitable cut
herself with some bad
emails. And rather than wash
the wound thoroughly with
soap that stings, maybe apply
a tincture of iodine, she went
into deep denial and jammed
those fingers in her pockets.
She kept pretending it
was nothing, really, and now
they’re puffy and throb-
bing and downright uncom-
fortable, especially for any
Democrat who thinks a few
months down the road.
Of course the Republicans
are enjoying this, even as
most of them endure Trump,
a man so in love with his
own voice that he believes
his brain farts are policy.
The other day Trump
said he wants to take ISIS’
oil wealth. That’s the kind
of thing Saddam Hussein
wanted to do. It would give
Vladimir Putin and every
other boss the pretext to do
the same. You see some-
thing, you grab something
and say “President Donald
did it too.” Kuwaiti oil, or
land, who knows, just take
what you want and watch the
world go away.
For now, Hillary’s politi-
cal health is a legitimate
issue, centering on those tens
of thousands of emails she
kept on a private server at
her home as she went about
her country’s business as
secretary of state.
After denial and stalling,
she finally turned her server
over to the FBI. Her critics
insist this is a criminal issue.
But whether it is or isn’t, the
damage is political because
of one simple, nonpartisan
question: Was her private
server compromised by for-
eign intelligence agencies?
Using private servers
helped shield her work prod-
uct from the public and con-
gressional committees try-
ing to find out more about
Benghazi. But her paranoia,
and her arrogance, could also
very well have put her coun-
try at risk.
Every day we learn
about secure systems being
hacked. Most of us can’t
write or understand code,
but that doesn’t stop us from
reflexively grabbing our wal-
lets when news breaks about
hackers hitting a department
store or a gas station chain.
We understand that. We
know such thieves are out
there.
They could be overseas,
or sitting a table or two
from your iced latte waiting
to hack into your checking
account. Or, they could be
agents of foreign intelligence
intent on the servers in the
home of Madam Secretary.
And a candidate who puts
their own politics over secu-
rity — especially if that can-
didate is widely thought by
voters to be untrustworthy
— has a problem.
Over the weekend in
Iowa, she tried to blame the
Republicans and everyone
but herself. She also tried to
turn her email scandal into a
joke while talking about her
new Snapchat account.
“I love it. I love it,” she
said. “Those messages disap-
pear all by themselves.”
Trying to turn national
security into a punch line is
a stupid thing to do, espe-
cially when the FBI has your
server.
The political problem for
the Democrats is that she
might lose the election. But
what if she were to win?
We will have elected an
imperial personality who
felt entitled to use private
email for government busi-
ness — email that reportedly
contained classified informa-
tion, including discussions
on secret drone programs
and other matters.
The knife turned a bit
the other day as her succes-
sor, Secretary of State John
Kerry, was interviewed by
CBS News about his govern-
ment email.
Kerry was asked, “Do
you think China and/or the
Russians are reading your
email?”
KERRY: The answer is
it is very likely. It is not out-
side the realm of possibil-
ity and we know that they
have attacked a number of
American interests over the
course of the last days.
CBS: It’s very likely that
your emails are being read?
KERRY: It is a possibil-
ity, there’s no way for me ...
and I certainly write things
with that awareness.
Enjoy the rest of the sum-
mer, Mrs. Clinton. But it’s
too late to wash your hands
of this.
© 2015 Tribune Content
Agency, LLC.
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.