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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 6, 2015)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JULY 6, 2015 The sunny side of big greed Founded in 1873 STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager A 14-letter word that spells security I The US must make safe bridges a national priority nfrastructure. It’s not as divisive as the death penalty. It’s not as emotional as abortion. It’s not as worrisome as gun violence. But of all the topics facing na- tional politicians today, it surely is one of the most important. Without solid infrastructure — bridges and highways — the United States will literally come to a halt. But over the past six decades or more, the nation’s leaders from both parties have chosen to put their spending priorities else- where. It is even more regrettable that the biggest share of feder- al spending has been for foreign wars that have cost the lives of our military personnel and bil- lions of dollars of taxpayers’ money. That is money that could have been better spent elsewhere: on our vital infrastructure. Now the lack of priority giv- en to the ongoing maintenance and improvement of our bridges is becoming evident. Some have not had a decent ¿x for six to nine decades. The latest warning bell has been sounded by the infrastructure advocacy group Transportation for America, which has produced a report called “The Fix We’re in For: The State of Oregon’s Bridges.” The group used details from the Federal Highway Administration to paint a grim picture of infra- structure in Clatsop County. They discovered that 17 of Clatsop County’s 147 bridges were structurally de¿cient. That makes us the second-worst coun- ty in the state. Let’s be clear. That doesn’t necessarily imply all are unsafe. But it does mean our old bridges need some serious TLC — and soon. The structurally de¿cient bridges in Clatsop County include the: • Irving Avenue Bridge over 19th Street in Astoria; • Old Youngs Bay Bridge on U.S. Highway 101 Business; • West Broadway Bridge over the Necanicum River in Seaside; • U.S. Highway 101 crossing over Ecola Creek. The latter two are 91 and 63 years old respectively — well due for an overhaul, considering the hundreds of cars passing over them daily. These bridges are crucial in getting commercial trucks, visit- ing tourists and local traffic from A to B efficiently and quickly. In all cases, if these bridges were to fail, detours would be costly and more than inconvenient, likely for a prolonged period. The dis- ruption would be unacceptable. Fortunately, work has been underway on the 69-year-old Irving Avenue Bridge for the past three years. The long-overdue $5.8 million repair is expected to be completed by this fall, when crews will shift their attention to start on the Old Youngs Bay Bridge. The Oregon Department of Transportation is to be commend- ed for pressing ahead on these projects while pursuing more fed- eral dollars to alleviate the bur- dens on local authorities. What’s needed, though, is a consensus among leaders at local, state and federal levels that repairing and maintaining our bridges must be a priority to ensure the long-term secu- rity and efficiency of our vital highways. Don’t do drugs J The drug is helpful to some, uly 1, marijuana became legal harmless to most and a real drag to possess without a prescrip- to a few. But so are Big Macs, tion. whiskey, tobacco and video For years now, personal-use games, which can be just as amounts were nearly decrim- addicting and debilitating. Yet inalized in this state, a poorly we all realize those are issues regulated medical program was put in place and an omnipresent of personal choice and personal black market allowed recreation- acceptance of danger, don’t we? And just because it’s legal al users avenues to access the doesn’t mean a Big-Mac-a-day drug. habit is a good one. It’s the same But this is real deal-legaliza- with marijuana. Just because tion. No more fake medical con- pot is legal now doesn’t mean ditions. No more hiding grow you should become a habitual, rooms in moldy basements, or grow sites on out-of-the-way or even a casual user. In countries where marijua- land. No more buying from a na has long been legal, the drug shady dealer down the street. isn’t for addicts or college party If you are 21 years of age and animals. A majority of users are on private property, you can middle aged and middle class, possess four marijuana plants and use it to relax on Sundays or 8 ounces of the ready-to-use while they read a book and portion. And you can toke up in drink coffee. It’s hardly reefer front of your mother, the mayor madness. and the chief of police. Where and if marijuana Hooray? shops can open in our area re- We’re in favor of reducing mains up for debate. State leg- the black market, increasing islators, who dragged their feet state tax dollars and ending the on making important decisions wasteful, hypocritical and often on this matter until well past the racist drug war. We also think eleventh hour, are still trying to this is a good chance for free- decide. dom fighters and personal liber- But that doesn’t mean we ty supporters to put their money have to put off those decisions where their mouth is, and may- about our own habits. Spend be open the eyes to the benefits your money elsewhere. Pick of such freedom to people on up a book, go outside, bake an the other side of the political old-fashioned brownie. Don’t spectrum. use marijuana, but it’s nice That means we’re in favor to know we will no longer be of legalization. But that doesn’t wasting public money and ener- mean we’re in favor of using gy cracking the skulls of those marijuana. who do. By FRANK BRUNI New York Times News Service I n the dire prophecies of science-¿ction writers and the fevered warnings of left-wing activists, big corporations will soon rule the earth — or already do. AP Photo/David Goldman A Confederate flag flies at the base of Stone Mountain June 30 in Stone Mountain, Ga. At Georgia’s iconic Stone Mountain — where the Con- federacy is enshrined in a giant bas-relief sculpture, the Ku Klux Klan once held notorious cross-burnings and rebel battle flags still wave prominently, officials are considering what to do about those flags. Frank Fine with Bruni me. They’ve been great on the issue of the Confederate battle Àag. Almost immediately after the fatal shooting of cal customs don’t prevent them from nine black churchgoers in Charleston, attracting and retaining the best work- S.C., several prominent corporate lead- force. They’re burnishing their brands ers, including the heads of Wal-Mart in a manner that they hope will endear and Sears, took steps to retire the ban- them to customers. ner as a public symbol of the South; But those efforts, coupled with others made impassioned calls for that. whatever genuine altruism and civic And when Nikki Haley, the South obligation some corporate leaders feel, Carolina governor, said that the Con- have produced compelling recent ex- federate Àag at the State House should amples of companies showing greater come down, she did so knowing that sensitivity to diversity, social justice Boeing and BMW, and the changing two of the state’s tides of public senti- If it were major employers, ment than lawmak- had her back. In fact ers often manage to. up to the state’s chamber Corporations ar- of commerce had corporations, en’t paralyzed by urged her and other partisan bickering. we’d politicians to see the They’re not hostage light. to a few big donors, have the Eli Lilly, Amer- a few loud interest ican Airlines, In- groups or some un- immigration tel and other cor- yielding ideology. porations were “They’re ul- reform we crucial to the defeat timately more sorely need. responsive to a or amendment of proposed “religious broader group of freedom” laws in voters — customers Indiana, Arkansas and Arizona over — than politicians are,” said Bradley the last year and a half. Their leaders Tusk, whose ¿rm, Tusk Strategies, weighed in against the measures, which does consulting for both private cor- licensed anti-gay discrimination, and porations and public of¿cials. put a special kind of pressure on poli- “If you’re a politician and all you ticians, who had to worry about losing care about is staying in of¿ce, you’re investment and jobs if companies with worried about a small group of voters operations in their states didn’t like in your district who vote in the prima- what the government was doing. ry,” he told me, referring to members And if it were up to corporations, of the House of Representatives. “If we’d have the immigration reform we you’re a corporation, you need to be sorely need. Early last year, the U.S. much more in sync with public opin- Chamber of Commerce publicized ion, because you’re appealing to peo- a letter that urged Congress to act on ple across the spectrum.” “modernizing our immigration sys- And so, he added, “Ironically, a lot tem.” It was signed by 246 enterpris- of corporations have to be far more es large and small, including Apple, democratic than democratically elect- AT&T, Caterpillar, Facebook, Gold- ed of¿cials.” man Sachs, Google, McDonald’s, Mar- Newsweek observed as much in riott and Microsoft. a story published this week, noting Are these companies acting in their that inclusiveness “may not be good own interests? Absolutely. They’re politics in this day of polarization and trying to make sure that laws and lo- micro-targeting, but it seems to be good business. And that is making the business community the sort of ‘big tent’ political force that neither major political party can claim to be.” Major ¿nancial institutions were well ahead of Barack Obama, Hil- lary Clinton and other Democratic politicians when it came to same-sex marriage. The leaders of these banks and hedge funds lent their voices and considerable sums of money to its le- galization in New York in 2011. And Amazon, Starbucks, Nord- strom and other companies in Washington state worked to ensure passage of a marriage-equality ref- erendum there back in November 2012. Under the stewardship of How- ard Schultz, Starbucks alone has been a paragon of corporate munif- icence and social consciousness in areas ranging from higher educa- tion to race relations. Back in 2011, Schultz used his corporate pulpit to bemoan congressional sclerosis and try to exert more cooperation among Democrats and Republicans on debt reduction; he succeeded in getting more than 100 other chief executives to pledge to withhold political dona- tions until Congress made bipartisan progress. Between 2010 and 2014, Unile- ver increased the fraction of materi- als it got from farms with sustainable practices to roughly one-half from less than one-¿fth. And the software company Infor participated in a mul- timillion-dollar program to provide free tickets to Selma for American schoolchildren. The list goes on. And while it doesn’t erase the damage that corpo- rations wreak on the environment or their exploitation of workers paid too little, it does force you to admit that cor- porations aren’t always the bad guys. Sometimes the bottom line matches the common good, and they’re the agents of what’s practical, wise and even right. The worst deal in U.S. diplomatic history By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER Washington Post Writers Group W ASHINGTON — The devil is not in the details. capitulation, the administration played Iran’s lawyer on this one, explain- ing that, after all, “the United States of Amer- ica wouldn’t allow anybody to get into every Charles military site, so Krauthammer that’s not ap- propriate.” Apart from the absurdity of morally equating America with the world’s foremost state sponsor of ter- rorism, if we were going to parrot the Iranian position, why wait 19 months to do so — after repeatedly insisting on free access as essential to any inspec- tion regime? It’s in the entire conception of the Iran deal, animated by President Obama’s fantastical belief that he, uniquely, could achieve detente with a fanatical Islamist regime whose foundational purpose is to cleanse the Middle East of the poisonous corruption of American power and inÀuence. In pursuit of his desire to make the Islamic Republic into an accepted, nor- malized “successful regional power,” Obama decided to take over the nuclear negotiations. At the time, Tehran was Coming clean on past reeling — the rial plunging, inÀation nuclear activity skyrocketing, the economy contracting The current interim agreement that — under a regime of international sanc- tions painstakingly constructed over a governed the last 19 months of negoti- ation required Iran to decade. do exactly that. Tehran Then, instead of Unfettered has offered nothing. welcoming Congress’ administration attempt to tighten access has The had insisted that this sanctions to increase accounting was essen- the pressure on the become tial because how can mullahs, Obama be- ‘managed you verify future ille- gan the negotiations gal advances in Iran’s by loosening sanc- access.’ nuclear program if you tions, injecting bil- have no baseline? lions into the Iranian After continually economy (which be- gan growing again in 2014) and con- demanding access to their scientists, ceding in advance an Iranian right to plans and weaponization facilities, Sec- retary of State John Kerry two weeks enrich uranium. It’s been downhill ever since. Des- ago airily dismissed the need, saying he perate for a legacy deal, Obama has is focused on the future, “not ¿xated” played the supplicant, abandoning ev- on the past. And that we have “absolute ery red line his administration had de- knowledge” of the Iranian program clared essential to any acceptable deal. anyway — a whopper that his staffers had to spend days walking back. Inspections Not to worry, we are told. The ac- They were to be anywhere, anytime, counting will be done after the ¿nal unimpeded. Now? Total cave. Unfet- deal is signed. Which is ridiculous. If tered access has become “managed the Iranians haven’t budged on disclos- access.” Nuclear inspectors will have to ing previous work under the current negotiate and receive Iranian approval sanctions regime, by what logic will for inspections. Which allows them de- they comply after sanctions are lifted? nial and/or crucial delay for concealing Sanctions relief any clandestine activities. These were to be gradual and staged To give a Àavor of the degree of our as the International Atomic Energy Agency certi¿ed Iranian compliance over time. Now we’re going to be re- leasing up to $150 billion as an upfront signing bonus. That’s 25 times the an- nual budget of the Iranian Revolution- ary Guard. Enough to fuel a generation of intensi¿ed Iranian aggression from Yemen to Lebanon to Bahrain. Yet three months ago, Obama ex- pressed nonchalance about immediate sanctions relief. It’s not the issue, he said. The real issue is “snap-back” sanc- tions to be reimposed if Iran is found in violation. Good grief. Iran won’t be found in violation. The inspection regime is laughable and the bureaucratic proce- dures endless. Moreover, does anyone imagine that Russia and China will re- impose sanctions? Or that the myriad European businesses preparing to join the Iranian gold rush the day the deal is signed will simply turn around and go home? Non-nuclear-related sanctions The administration insisted that the nuclear talks would not affect sepa- rate sanctions imposed because of Iranian aggression and terrorism. That was then. The administration is now leaking that everything will be lifted. Taken together, the catalog of capitulations is breathtaking: spot inspections, disclosure of previous nuclear activity, gradual sanctions relief, retention of non-nuclear sanc- tions. What’s left? A surrender docu- ment of the kind offered by defeated nations suing for peace. Consider: The strongest military and economic power on earth, backed by the ¿ve other major powers, armed with what had been a crushing sanctions regime, is about to sign the worst internation- al agreement in American diplomatic history. How did it come to this? With every concession, Obama and Kerry made clear they were desperate for a deal. And they will get it. Obama will get his “legacy.” Kerry will get his Nobel. And Iran will get the bomb.