THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2016
FRIDAY EXCHANGE
Do your job
may be considered a funding
source for the EPA.
In “Clapsot” County, land
is more valuable than the trees
taking up space upon it, and
it seems shameful that such
negative publicity cannot be
avoided.
GARY DURHEIM
Cannon Beach
I
hear people argue the Elec-
toral College is obsolete and
should be done away with. I
tend to agree, but the other side
of the coin is that the Elec-
toral College may never have
been as important as it is at this
moment. In fact, it may be the
only thing left that can restore
the United States’ image, both
at home and abroad.
The Electoral College’s rep-
resentatives have the author-
ity to protect the people by vot-
ing to not allow someone to
become president who:
• Did not win the majority
of votes
• Does not represent the
U.S. by acting presidential
(Hint: no four-letter words on
national television)
• Does not seem to under-
stand the meaning of the term
“conflict of interest”
Why would a presi-
dent-elect choose someone
who has been a major critic of
the Environmental Protection
Agency to head it? Is it possi-
ble big changes are in store?
Please don’t say you don’t
believe in climate change,
because I believe most people
will admit the rivers and for-
ests around their houses are
worth saving — not to for-
get all the clean drinking water
being contaminated in our
country by fracking.
And, do the majority of
Americans really think the
minimum wage is too high, or
shouldn’t be raised?
Nicknames are often
earned. The father of our coun-
try, George Washington. Hon-
est Abe, Abraham Lincoln.
Considering the number of
countries with nuclear weap-
ons (U.S., Russia, China, Israel
and Pakistan — and North
Korea is very close), why
would a president-elect want
someone known as “mad dog”
to be his top advisor on the use
of such weapons?
The question is, do the
Electoral College voters have
the courage to stand up and do
their job of protecting Amer-
ica? Let’s hope so. It’s never
happened before, and it would
Watch for snags
T
be an unusual, unprecedented
and courageous act, but when
you think about it, isn’t that
how the country was founded
in the first place?
CARL DOMINEY
Astoria
Hero no more
A
sports hero of mine, Rich-
ard Sherman, lowered
himself in my esteem, when he
stated on his Facebook page
that the statements Donald
Trump has made about Mus-
lims and other immigrants
are terrible, and that he does
not know how he is going to
explain them to his kids as they
grow up.
I do not understand why
he feels that Donald Trump
wanting to keep the country
safe and law abiding by vet-
ting those who immigrate here
is such a sin. However, hav-
ing children out of wedlock, as
he has done, is totally accept-
able, and not something that
any Christian would have to
explain to the offspring.
It is more likely that Sher-
man is simply one of those
individuals who would like the
Utopian dream of a world soci-
ety with no countries, no bor-
ders and no specific govern-
ment — just let all the people
be free — and Donald Trump’s
views fly in the face of that.
It has always been proven,
throughout history, that there
are those who attempt to dic-
tate what they think is best
for the masses when there is
a leadership void, and this
will always cause conflict and
power struggles. A world with-
out borders is, in reality, only a
wonderful dream.
The only thing that the U.S.
can do to protect the people of
our country is to unite for the
common good of our citizens,
and not attempt to sway the
world with our opinions or sys-
tems of government. But more
than that, we need to be care-
ful about accepting immigrants
to this country who will seek
to fundamentally change our
beliefs and laws to those that
they prefer.
Perhaps Sherman, when
waving his pen of judgment,
should heed the words of
the Bible where it says, “Let
he who is without sin, cast
the first stone,” or perhaps
John Lennon, “give peace a
chance,” before he berates the
president-elect. That is what I
think. I could be wrong.
DAVID GRAVES
Astoria
Repeat offender
T
he headline for the article
reporting that the Environ-
mental Protection Agency had
penalized Nygaard Land LLC
for unlawfully filling wetland
(“Nygaard Land penalized for
wetlands fill,” The Daily Asto-
rian, Dec. 6) might more prop-
erly have stated “Nygaard
docked for filling wetlands
again.”
Nygaard Land is a repeat
offender, as anyone who fol-
lows such shenanigans knows.
Lacking a three strikes law,
they quietly go about their
business converting wood-
lands to dairy pasture to land
suitable for development, and
make news only when the wet-
land issues resurface. Wet-
land violations, fines and sub-
sequent mitigation is simply
a cost of doing business. It’s
dirty work, but someone must
do it.
Perhaps the EPA ought
to insist the company hire an
in-house wetlands specialist to
help cut the red tape and assist
in identifying potential trouble
spots, while making sure the
essential paperwork and per-
mits are in order. But then, per-
haps the EPA tolerates such
regulatory lapses, as the fines
he public should be aware
of the dangerous hemlock
snags along Williamsport Road
and the surrounding timberland
on city property. These snags
are some of the worst a person
can encounter, and can come
down at any time. Beware
when driving at night and hik-
ing in the timber on Williams-
port Road.
HAL HANKEL
Astoria
Not Hug Point
T
he lead story, “‘A love let-
ter to my home state’”
(The Daily Astorian, Dec. 12),
about a movie being filmed
locally, featured a picture of
two members of the cast sup-
posedly filming at Hug Point.
Unfortunately, someone
either in the movie company
or the editorial staff can’t tell
the difference between Hug
Point and Neahkahnie Moun-
tain, as the people were sitting
on the stone fence at the over-
look on Neahkahnie Mountain,
nowhere near Hug Point.
As a fifth generation Ore-
gonian, it annoys me to see
the topography of our state
misrepresented.
PAT McDONALD
Gearhart
Boycott Walmart
B
oycott Walmart. The Asto-
ria-Warrenton Area Cham-
ber of Commerce pushes “buy
local.” Even if Walmart hires
500 people, 400 will be part-
time. How long before those
500 jobs are offset with busi-
ness closures?
The 15,000 population of
Astoria and Warrenton doesn’t
5A
need another big box store.
Drive to Longview, Wash-
ington, if you really need
Walmart. I’d like to see Trader
Joe’s in the local market,
but I’ve been told they need
100,000 population for the
numbers to crunch.
Nobody can compete with
the buying power of Walmart.
Aren’t Costco, Fred Meyer,
and Safeway enough big
guys?
I, for one, will never walk
through the doors of Walmart.
Please citizens, unite behind
a cause. Let them spend the
money to build it — if you
don’t come, it will fail. Maybe
in a year, corporate will pull
the plug.
I know for families of four
plus, it’s hard to not shop and
realize the cost savings. I’m a
single guy, and that cost sav-
ings is minimal. Families of
three to four, you can make
it work. You have neigh-
bors employed by the target
employers, don’t disrupt their
lives.
I hope Walmart can’t find
employees. Enough said.
DUGAN JENNINGS
Warrenton
Treasure the staff
O
n Dec. 6, I was at Colum-
bia Memorial Hospital
undergoing some invasive pro-
cedures to diagnose a prob-
lem. From the second I entered
the East Lobby to the second I
walked out a few hours later, I
did not meet one single person
who was not warm, friendly,
compassionate, helpful, very
competent and just plain nice
to be around.
I should confess that I
have been a nurse for nearly
35 years (retired now), so I
know how things can be —
how things can go wrong, how
people can be when under
stress. Here’s the thing: I don’t
remember anyone’s name,
but I do so wish they could
all get a big pay raise. Really.
Seriously. They should be
treasured.
CATHERINE MARTIN
Astoria
GET LOCAL NEWS AT DAILYASTORIAN.COM
The Trump Cabinet:
Bonfire of the agencies
By CHARLES
KRAUTHAMMER
Washington Post Writers
Group
W
ASHINGTON —
Democrats spent the
first two decades of
the post-Cold War era rather
relaxed about
Russian prov-
ocations
and revan-
chism. Pres-
ident Obama
famously
mocked Mitt Romney in 2012
for suggesting that Russia
was our principal geopolitical
adversary. Yet today the Dems
are in high dudgeon over the
closeness of secretary of state
nominee, Rex Tillerson, to
Vladimir Putin.
Hypocrisy aside, it is true
that, as head of Exxon Mobil,
Tillerson made major deals
with Russia, received Rus-
sia’s Order of Friendship and
opposed U.S. sanctions. That’s
troubling but not necessar-
ily disqualifying. At the time,
after all, Tillerson was acting
as an agent of Exxon Mobil,
whose interest it is to extract
oil and make money.
These interests do not nec-
essarily overlap with those of
the United States. The rele-
vant question is whether and
how Tillerson distinguishes
between the two and whether
as agent of the United States
he would adopt a tougher Rus-
sia policy than he did as agent
of Exxon Mobil.
We don’t know. We shall
soon find out. That’s what con-
firmation hearings are for.
Mission oriented
The left has been in equally
high dudgeon that other Cab-
inet picks appear not to share
the mission of the agency
which they have been nomi-
nated to head. The horror! As
if these agency missions are
somehow divinely ordained.
Why, they aren’t even con-
stitutionally ordained. The
Department of Education, for
example, was created by Presi-
dent Carter in 1979 as a payoff
to the teachers’ unions for their
political support.
Now, teachers are won-
derful. But teachers’ unions
are there to protect bene-
fits and privileges, not neces-
sarily to improve schooling.
Which is why they zealously
defend tenure, protect their
public-school monopoly and
reflexively oppose school
choice.
Conservatives have the
odd view that the purpose of
schooling — and therefore
of the Department of Educa-
tion — is to provide students
with the best possible educa-
tion. Hence Trump’s nomi-
nee, Betsy DeVos, a longtime
and passionate proponent of
school choice, under whom
the department will no lon-
ger be an arm of the teachers’
unions.
She is also less likely to
allow the department’s Office
for Civil Rights to continue
appropriating to itself the role
of arbiter of social justice,
micromanaging everything
from campus sexual mores to
the proper bathroom assign-
ment for transgender students.
If the mission of this depart-
ment has been to dictate policy
best left to the states and local-
ities, it’s about time the mis-
sion was changed.
EPA and climate change
The most incendiary nomi-
nation by far, however, is Scott
Pruitt to head the Environ-
mental Protection Agency. As
attorney general of Oklahoma,
he has joined or led a series of
lawsuits to curtail EPA power.
And has been upheld more
than once by the courts.
Pruitt has been deemed
unfit to serve because he fails
liberalism’s modern-day reli-
gious test: belief in anthropo-
genic climate change. They
would love to turn his confir-
mation hearing into a Scopes
monkey trial. Republicans
should decline the invita-
tion. It doesn’t matter whether
the man believes the moon
is made of green cheese. The
challenges to EPA actions are
based not on meteorology or
theology, but on the Consti-
tution. The issue is that the
EPA has egregiously exceeded
its authority and acted as a
rogue agency unilaterally cre-
ating rules unmoored from
legislation.
Pruitt’s is the most import-
ant nomination because it is
a direct attack on the insidi-
ous growth of the administra-
tive state. We have reached the
point where EPA bureaucrats
interpret the Waters of the
United States rule — meant to
protect American waterways
— to mean that when a hard
rain leaves behind a pond on
your property, the feds may
take over and tell you what
you can and cannot do with it.
(The final rule excluded pud-
dles — magnanimity from the
Leviathan.)
On a larger scale, Obama’s
Clean Power Plan essentially
federalizes power genera-
tion and regulation, not coin-
cidentally killing coal along
the way. This is the adminis-
tration’s end run around Con-
gress’ rejection of Obama’s
proposed 2009-2010 cap-and-
trade legislation. And that was
a Democratic Congress, mind
you.
Pruitt’s nomination is a dra-
matic test of the proposition
that agencies administer the
law, they don’t create it. That
the legislative power resides
exclusively with Congress
and not with a metastasizing
administrative bureaucracy.
For some, this reasser-
tion of basic constitutional-
ism seems extreme. If so, the
Obama administration has
only itself to blame. Such are
the wages of eight years of lib-
eral overreach. Some legis-
lation, like Obamacare, will
be repealed. Some executive
orders will be canceled. But
most important will be the
bonfire of the agencies. We
may soon be secure not just in
our puddles but our ponds.
PUBLIC HEARING /
OPEN HOUSE
Oregon
Department of Transportation
Northwest Area Commission on Transportation
(NWACT)
Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) –
Draft 2018 to 2021 STIP for Public Review
Thursday
January 12, 2017
NWACT Meeting 1-3 PM
Open House: 3-3:45 PM
Scappoose Fire Station
52751Columbia River Hwy (Hwy 30)
Scappoose, OR
The open house will feature maps to view and
handouts about selected projects. ODOT staff will be
on hand to answer questions and take comments.
There will be comment cards available to leave
comments regarding specifi c projects.
To view or comment on this document, please visit:
https://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/TD/STIP/Pages/
STIPDocs.aspx#2018-2021_STIP.
You can also contact the Region 2 STIP and Financial Plan Manager
John Maher at Ph. 503-986-2614 or his email address:
John.D.MAHER@odot.state.or.us.
Accommodations will be provided to persons with disabilities.
To request an accommodation, please call John Maher the Region 2 STIP
and Financial Plan Manager at 503-986-2614.