OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 2016
Politicians and the lies that matter
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
Help The Harbor
make its goal
A safe haven for survivors of assault
ocial life in the Columbia-Paciic region is peppered with
fundraising events. Saturday’s Soup Bowls event to beneit
The Harbor is one of the most special of this year.
Formerly known as the wants to raise as close to
Women’s Resource Center, $40,000 as can be done.
The Harbor marks its 40th
Sen. Johnson also has a
anniversary as a safe haven for “very personal connection” to
survivors of stalking, domestic the evening. “A big old tree
violence and sexual assault in blew down near our home on
Clatsop County.
the Metolius River. There was
It is, of course, sad that a no mill to take it to. All the big
resource such as The Harbor is logmills are defunct. I arranged
necessary. But it is a blessing for friends in Redmond to
that people do this good work. bring it to the Dragon Kiln.
The Soup Bowls concept
“This is a noble end of one
makes for one of the region’s of God’s magniicent creations
best fundraisers. For the price of — going into the kiln where
admission, the donor receives a the magic happens that cre-
bowl made in the Dragon Kiln ates durable beauty that will
and soup, chowder or stew change lives.”
If you can’t be at the event,
from an area restaurant.
Since this is a 40th anniver- consider helping The Harbor
sary, state Sen. Betsy Johnson make its $40,000 goal.
S
Oregon is terrible at
regulating lobbyists
Even idealistic Oregon is under
the thrall of paid lobbyists
ollow the money” is
some of the oldest and
best advice for investigative
reporters. It also, unfortu-
nately, is regarded as a per-
sonal credo by politicians and
lobbyists exploiting political
connections for personal gain.
Our Tuesday Capital Bureau
story by Hillary Borrud,
“As spending on lobbying
increases, transparency remains
murky,” deserves to shock us
with its details about the sums
lavished on inluencing law-
makers and agencies. Sadly, in
these times of manipulated and
money-drenched government,
it comes as little surprise that
even idealistic Oregon is under
the thrall of paid lobbyists.
It is doubly depressing to
learn how Gov. Kate Brown
and legislators rubber-stamped
an exemption that permits
lobbyists to avoid reporting
spending to lobby other lobby-
ists. In effect, this permits inlu-
ence-peddlers to shroud many
of their activities in secrecy.
It’s no wonder elected oficials
are happy to go along with this
system of “you scratch my
back and I’ll scratch yours.”
For readers not familiar with
the term, “lobbyist” literally
started as the word for a person
who waits in the lobby outside
legislative chambers to get a
word with lawmakers as they
pause in deliberations. Such
activities can be, and often are,
entirely innocent. Lobbyists
often bring great expertise to
complex questions.
But the activity has
‘F
expanded far beyond its orig-
inal scope and now applies to
an entire highly paid industry
dedicated to making money
by obtaining government con-
tracts, protecting industries
from taxation and regulations,
and other insider matters. In
many cases, lobbyists actually
write statutory and regulatory
language, which lawmakers
then insert into legislation.
Oregon is appallingly bad at
regulating lobbyists and mak-
ing their inluence visible to
the voting public. The Sunlight
Foundation gives Oregon a
lunking grade. Such laws as
exist are essentially meaning-
less, leading some activists
to focus on the broader and
related issue of reforming the
state’s lax standards for politi-
cal donations, which include no
campaign contribution limits.
The Oregon Government
Ethics Commission may have
ethics but lacks basin com-
petency, having initiated an
electronic iling system that
doesn’t function. Even if it
did work, based on last year’s
reports it would provide details
on far less than 1 percent of the
year’s $35.9 million in lobby-
ist spending.
A spokesman for the state’s
lobbyists asserts there is no
evidence of corruption and
no interest in strengthening
disclosure laws. In any just
world, this would be all the
evidence the public would
need to loudly demand a swift
and thorough change in how
Oregon laws are made.
among Iraqi and Syrian civilians,
so we can’t carpet-bomb the terror-
ists without killing all the civilians
our Honor, I rise this around them. 2.) If Obama sent the
week in defense of Hillary 82nd Airborne into Mosul and wiped
out ISIS, after horriic door-to-door
Clinton.
ighting, the morning after the bat-
I see from polls that Clinton tle we would own Mosul, because
scores very low on “trustworthy” there is no agreement among Sunni
questions. Well, let’s talk about tribes there, let alone the Kurds,
truth in politics. All politicians Shiites and neighboring Turkey,
over who should control Mosul
shade the truth at times. Some do post-ISIS. In other words, we’d be
it more than others. Indeed, when stuck governing it. So Obama is try-
Donald Trump tells the
ing to squeeze ISIS with
one hand while trying to
truth, it should be labeled
squeeze Iraqis to come
“Breaking News —
together around a post-
Trump tells truth without
ISIS order with the other.
immediately contradict-
It’s called being stra-
ing himself. We’re going
tegic and Gen. Patton
live to the scene right
would be applauding
from his grave.
now.”
On Mexico, please tell
Here is what is rel-
me why it would pay for
evant: Lying is serious
a multibillion-dollar wall
Thomas L.
business. But Clinton’s
on our border and how we
Friedman
ibs or lack of candor are
would compel our neigh-
all about bad judgments she made bor to do so and what impact that
on issues that will not impact the would have on U.S. companies? To
future of either my family or my act as if those are not even issues
country. Private email servers? Cat- is fraud.
tle futures? Goldman Sachs lec-
Trump’s tax plan? The nonparti-
tures? All really stupid, but my kids san Tax Policy Center estimates that
will not be harmed by those poor it would decrease tax revenues over
calls. Debate where she came out 10 years by $11.2 trillion, and since
on Iraq and Libya, if you will, but Trump has ruled out entitlement
those were considered judgment cuts, he would need to slash all dis-
calls, and if you disagree don’t vote cretionary federal spending by 80
for her.
percent — that’s where the defense,
But while Hillary’s struggles research and education budgets
with the whole truth on certain come from. This is not just magi-
issues have garnered huge attention, cal thinking, it’s nonsense, and if
driving up her negatives, Trump and Trump implemented half of it, your
Bernie Sanders have been getting kids would pay dearly.
away with some full Burger King
As for Sanders, he is promising
Double Whoppers that will come to break up the big banks. Under
crashing down on the whole coun- what legal authority? What would
try if either gets the chance to do be the economic fallout? And how
what he says.
would this raise stagnant incomes
Trump told a biker rally in Wash- for middle-class Americans? Sand-
ington on Sunday: “When you think ers mumbles on these questions.
of the great Gen. Patton and all
The Tax Policy Center said in
our generals, they are spinning in a study of Sanders’ full economic
their graves when they watch we plan, including free health care,
can’t beat ISIS. ... We are going to with no premiums or copays, and
knock the hell out of them.” Then, free college education, more gen-
for good measure, he repeated his erous Social Security beneits and
long-standing call to build a wall 12 weeks of family leave, “Even
along the Mexican border, and though Sanders would raise taxes
when he asked who would pay for on nearly all households by a total
it, the crowd shouted in unison: of more than $15 trillion over the
“Mexico!” Trump added, “Not even next decade, his plan still would
a doubt.”
add an additional $18 trillion (plus
Really, not even a doubt? Why at least $3 trillion in interest) to the
hasn’t President Barack Obama national debt over the period” and
been a “real man” and just car- thereby “create an enormous is-
pet-bombed the Islamic State off cal challenge.” Even eliminating
the face of the earth? Answer: 1.) the defense budget wouldn’t come
ISIS is embedded in urban areas, close to balancing his books.
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
New York Times News Service
Y
I wish we
had better
choices, but
given the
options, I’d
vote for the
candidate
who is most
likely to be
a practical
unifier and get
some things
done — and
who only tells
whoppers
about herself,
not about
my country’s
future.
If you’re a college student “feel-
ing the Bern,” I hope you’re wear-
ing sunscreen, because if Sand-
ers wins, you and your kids will
be paying for his cash burn for
eternity.
All lying in politics is not created
equal. I think the ideology Sand-
ers is selling is fanciful, but under-
lying it is a moral critique of mod-
ern capitalism that has merit and
deserves to be heard. But Sanders
is not being truthful about the costs.
What is grating about Clinton is that
her prevarications seem so unnec-
essary and often insult our intelli-
gence. But they are not about exis-
tential issues. As for Trump, his lies
are industrial size and often contra-
dict each other. But there is no the-
ory behind his lies, except what will
advance him, which is why Trump
is only scary if he wins. Otherwise,
his candidacy will leave no ideas
behind. It will just be a reality TV
show that got canceled.
This is serious. We’re about
to elect all three branches of our
government. I wish we had better
choices, but given the options, I’d
vote for the candidate who is most
likely to be a practical uniier and
get some things done — and who
only tells whoppers about herself,
not about my country’s future.
Penne and prejudice in Italy
By FRANK BRUNI
New York Times News Service
OME — If there’s a gayer
country than Italy, I hav-
en’t ogled it.
R
I don’t mean demographically
gay. That’s unknowable. I mean
spiritually gay. I mean the self-con-
scious style and gaudy opera of the
place.
It’s shaped
like
high-
heeled
foot-
wear. It’s a
mecca of high-
priced mens-
wear. Its sig-
nature
hunk
of marble, the
David, looks
less like he’s
Frank
girding
for
Bruni
Goliath than
like he’s posing between squats at
the local Equinox. And have you
seen those Venetian glass chan-
deliers, with their wild colors and
wacky tentacles? They could be gay
octopi on their way to an underwa-
ter Cher concert.
So why isn’t Italy kinder to
gays?
Just a few weeks ago, after con-
siderable shaming by the Euro-
pean Union, it inally legalized civil
unions for same-sex couples. While
that was a step forward, it was also
a reminder of how far Italy still
lagged behind such densely Roman
Catholic European peers as Ireland,
Portugal and Spain, all of which had
already accorded gays and lesbians
actual marriage rights.
And shortly before that, when
an international LGBT advocacy
group released one of its gay-rights
report cards, Italy ranked in the
bottom third of the 49 countries
that the group classiied as Euro-
pean, behind Albania, Bulgaria and
Estonia.
But Italy, ever a marinara of con-
tradictions, has long embraced and
revered openly gay artists, design-
ers and even political leaders. The
Where
others see
inconsistencies
that demand
resolution,
many Italians
don’t.
southern region of Puglia elected
an openly gay governor, Nichi Ven-
dola, in 2005 and kept him in that
post for 10 years. He was at one
point discussed as a future prime
minister.
When I asked him about Italy’s
lag, he cited, among other factors,
its particular relationship with the
Catholic Church.
Only a minority of Italians are
regular churchgoers, and many defy
church teaching on divorce and on
abortion, which is legal (though dif-
icult to procure) here. But Vatican
City’s situation in the heart of this
country gives it a special incentive
and invitation to meddle in Italian
affairs. It uses Italy to assess and
advertise its sway.
Vendola said that in regard to
gay rights and “the primary idea of
the traditional family, the church
played all of its cards to inlu-
ence Italian politics, even through
today.” Civil unions passed, but gay
adoption — adamantly opposed by
church leaders — was stripped from
the legislation.
Giovanni Dall’Orto, a gay his-
torian in Milan, analyzed this
dynamic more bluntly. “Consider
the Catholic Church our NRA,” he
told me.
But there’s more at work. For
much of the last quarter century,
Italian politics wasn’t structured in
a manner that made any one major
party the eager home and champion
of gay rights.
“The problem,” said Alessio De
Giorgi, the founder of one of Italy’s
most prominent gay websites, “was
the lack of courage of the political
class.”
And the gay rights movement
didn’t coalesce as quickly here as
elsewhere.
“Italians in general are very lais-
sez-faire with their political strug-
gles,” said Nina Peci, a graphic
designer in Florence who married
her wife, who is British, in England,
where it’s allowed.
Relecting on the recent eco-
nomic crisis, she told me: “In Spain,
they took to the streets. In Greece,
they took to the streets. In Italy, they
took to the streets — to line up for
the new iPhone when it came out.”
Inasmuch as that’s true, it relects
a pronounced bifurcation of public
versus private life. I was constantly
struck by that when I lived in Rome
from 2002 to 2004, and I notice it
anew each time I visit Italy.
This is a land of rococo rules
— religious and secular — but few
people consider them binding. Why
change them if you can just choose
which ones to obey?
It’s also customary here to show
one face to the world and another
at home: to conform when there’s
a crowd and rebel when there’s not.
And the realm for fashioning cer-
tain accommodations is the family,
not the village square.
“Should everyone be out and
everyone be outed?” asked Fred
Plotkin, an American friend of mine
who might as well be Italian, given
how extensively he has studied
and worked in Italy, the subject of
many of the books he’s written. “I
think Italians don’t think so, and not
because of shame — because of a
genuine love of privacy.”
Where others see inconsistencies
that demand resolution, many Ital-
ians don’t.
My partner, Tom, has an aunt
and uncle who are farmers in a Tus-
can village of 250 people. They’re
over 75. When we visited them,
they made us rabbit and polenta.
They summoned the cousins. They
insisted that we stay three nights.
And they put ine linens on our
bed, which was positioned squarely
below one of the dozens of Catho-
lic icons throughout the house: a
framed picture of the pope.