TO THE EDITOR
IMPEACH THE BIGOTS
Jeff “FREE” Luers
“Two million prisoners rot
in U.S. jails, most of them
guilty only of nonviolent
crimes with exorbitant
and unjust sentencing.
Thousands of these
prisoners are innocent
of the crimes for which
they were sentenced.”
This is a letter of progressive perspec-
tivism on the current justice system of the
U.S. Jeff Luers burned three anti-environ-
mental vehicles resulting in no injury, no
death and some opened eyes and received
22-1/2 years in prison. Ken Lay defrauded
thousands of people of billions of dollars
and got zero jail time. His buddy, George
W. Bush, committed war crimes resulting
in thousands of deaths and thousands of in-
juries and received no punishment whatso-
ever.
Federal “justice” is an Ashcroftian
nightmare of anti-constitutional bigotry
and state justice is only slightly better. Two
million prisoners rot in U.S. jails, most of
them guilty only of nonviolent crimes with
exorbitant and unjust sentencing.
Thousands of these prisoners are innocent
of the crimes for which they were sen-
tenced.
Police routinely beat and otherwise ha-
rass nonviolent political demonstrators and
minorities on the street and get promoted
instead of fired. The rich are pampered, the
poor are oppressed and the environment is
trashed. There may be justice somewhere in
the world but certainly not in the U.S. We
need to dump Bush, Ashcroft and all the
other Krazy Killers of Kindness. Impeach
Bush, not Martha.
Bob Saxton
Eugene
COST OF PUBLICITY
It’s Friday, June 27, about 7:50 pm. I
just got home from Eugene after a long day
BY TONY CORCORAN
No More Cuts
Time to quit dancing ‘round the budget.
“The fewer people that you have to talk to, the fewer people there are who can say
‘No’.”
—Tim Knopp, House Republican Majority Leader — last Wednesday
“We can’t fund the moon this session. It’s not just about money and services. It’s
votes, it’s compromise.”
—Karen Minnis, Republican House Speaker — last Wednesday
T
elling comments from the leadership of the House. Seems the Speaker can’t get
past $5 billion for education, even though the Democrats in the House and
Senate are saying that amount should be $5.5 billion to get us back to where we
had intended to be in the last biennium. And she has very little for human services. She’s
negotiating with her own caucus, not with everyone else in the Capitol, that’s the prob-
lem. I went to Salem this year with one goal: Do no further harm. To schools, commu-
nity colleges, universities, public safety, programs for the working poor, the disabled,
seniors; I’ve had it‚ we did enough damage in the six special sessions. No more cuts to
programs.
The session is winding down. A group of 20 has devolved to a group of three - Senate
President Peter Courtney, Speaker of the House Karen Minnis, and Teddy the Guv. But
they ain’t makin’ headway, they’re stalled at the corral; they don’t know whether to suck
elm or drool, as Rayna would say. My goodness, it cain’t get more simple, Karen. You’re
the Republican leader, you’re the one who can show us what you’re willing to fund.
You’re in charge; revenue bills have to emanate from the House. Tell us what you’re will-
ing to pay for, and how you want to pay for it; we Democrats will either be there or we
won’t. Pretty simple: we cain’t keep dancin’ forever.
We’re running close to Larry Campbell’s longest disastrous session in history — when
he kept everyone there until the air-conditioning went out on August 7th and everyone
left unhappy on August 8th. Please Karen, don’t do this to us.
Has anyone noticed: The Governor’s only had to issue two or three vetoes so far.
Remember Kitzhaber’s record? Why so few, now? In part because of the balance in the
Senate: Bad bills haven’t moved forward. Most controversial bills are locked up — cougar,
4 JULY 10, 2003
at work and some necessary shopping, and
a 40-minute wait on the asphalt of Highway
99 near Junction City, on a day when tem-
peratures passed the 90 degree mark by a
good margin.
Why, do you ask, was I stuck on the
blacktop with at least hundreds, if not thou-
sands, of my fellow Oregonians? Because
of a publicity stunt for Guaranty Chevrolet
in Junction City, wherein an airplane
landed and later took off from Highway 99,
blocking traffic, increasing congestion, in-
creasing the irritability and “road rage” fac-
tor of the drivers, and tying up nearly every
police officer in the area for traffic control.
Did Herb Nil and company pay for all this?
It seems highly unlikely, if not laughable,
since the unofficial reason was to “kick off
I went to Salem this year with one
goal: Do no further harm.
bear, wolf, timber, land use, abortion, water rights, medical malpractice —
fading away in committees that are either closed or closing. The budget is
the only fair game.
T
he last PERS piece, the successor retirement plan for future public em-
ployees, will be on the floor on Monday. As I write this column I don’t know
what the outcome of the vote will be. I hope it will pass out of the Senate
and over to the House. Majority Leader Knopp says he won’t concur with the plan we
send over; he’ll force it into a conference committee. The House will send three confer-
ees, two Republicans and one Democrat. The Senate will send two conferees — one
Republican and one Democrat. Guess who that will be? My General Government vice-
chair, Senator John Minnis, and moi.
A bill can’t get out of conference committee unless a majority of both chambers vote
affirmatively. Hmmm? John and I both know the hit that public workers’ pensions have
taken from HB2003 and HB2004. We’re trying to get both chambers to “yes” on this
plan.
The successor plan, as it exists in the Senate version, is a hybrid system — part de-
fined contribution, part defined benefit — a compromise that was hammered out among
the public employer/business coalition, the governor, and the public sector union coali-
tion. Splinters from all sides — from the Special Districts to the Oregon School
Employees Association to the Association of Oregon Industries — will not support any
compromise. Rayna deTortuga and her sidekick, Wrigley — representing the employers
and business interests — are now being called “sellouts.” The same is true for Margaret
Hallock, the Guv, and I: We’re “sellouts,” too. I think that means the plan is a fair compro-
mise. As Mike Salsgiver, representing the Portland Business Alliance, said, “We will not
sacrifice the achievable on the altar of the perfect.”
Salsgiver is a class act; after his testimony he told me he was getting a button made:
DCBA. I thought it was a new-age masters degree program. Apparently Rayna had let
Mike listen to a voice mail I left her expressing my frustration at certain business inter-
ests in the building who kept insisting that we stick public employees with a pathetic
401K plan. I mentioned something about those “defined contribution business a———-s”.
A DCBA is born. Stay tuned‚ the end is near‚ really!
Sen. Tony Corcoran of Cottage Grove represents portions of Lane and Douglas counties in Senate District 4,
which includes the UO area. He can be reached at sen.tonycorcoran@state.or.us