Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Friday, May 22, 2015
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
JENNINE PERKINSON
Advertising Director
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Tip of the hat;
kick in the pants
Tip of the hat to the Hyphen District, Milton-Freewater’s new plan to
unite and revitalize its downtown district(s).
We’re in favor anytime a city chooses to embrace its quirks instead of run
from them, and we’re also in favor of a good name. The Hyphen District,
that’s just between SoHo and TriBeCa right? And building off wine from the
nearby Rocks District, the city has marketed itself as a fun and intriguing
place.
The plan suggests restoring the main
streets of both Milton and Freewater
(they were two different towns before
the hyphen arrived) while turning the
land between the two towns into a
mixed-use commercial and residential
common area dubbed the “Hyphen
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came up with the name, also proposed
resurrecting Milton-Freewater’s dormant
railroad for trips through wine country.
In keeping with the train theme, SERA
suggested a fare-free, trolly-style bus, a pedestrian pathway by the river and
converting an old cannery into a community center.
They’re all great ideas — and they all cost money — but the Hyphen has
plenty of opportunity to succeed, grow and become vibrant.
Wine-wealthy Walla Walla is just across the state line, and bringing some
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by a hyphen, and the county and state to which we belong.
A kick in the pants to the city of Pendleton for their increasingly
outlandish rules about marijuana.
Earlier this week, they added the scent of marijuana, whether growing or
drying, to the list of offensive odors on the city’s nuisance ordinance. Still
not on the list: tobacco, curry chicken,
dog vomit and diapers.
The strange rule has already attracted
regional media coverage, and a story
about the ordinance made the website
Reddit for an online discussion as harsh
as you might imagine it would be.
Nearly all commenters, both locally and
nationally, have mocked the ordinance
for being unfair and foolish.
We guess the city will have to
purchase a roughly $1,500, comically
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devices were purchased by Colorado agencies in the lead up to legalization.
Though there have been dozens of “smell complaints” in the city, it’s hard to
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this — however unenforceable — does: It allows the government to come
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“You do have people who just object to the whole idea,” Ben Siller, a
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Denver, told USA Today back in 2014. “(The smell) is discernible. It’s there,
but you get used to it, just like any odor.”
That seems so obvious, but for some reason it wasn’t to a majority of
Pendleton city council members.
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a way to make persistently annoying neighbors knock off an offensive
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— and why it more offensive than rotting walnuts — is beyond us.
A tip of the hat to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who teamed up with
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block the mass collection of phone records under the Patriot Act.
Both senators, despite their seats on opposite sides of the aisle, have been
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to block fellow Kentucky Republican
Senator Mitch McConnell’s attempt to
renew the Patriot Act rather than letting
the House vote on a bill to stop the data
collection.
“There comes a time in the history
of nations when fear and complacency
allow power to accumulate and liberty
and privacy to suffer,” Paul said in the
early afternoon to begin a 10-and-a-half
hour speech that included several
senators. “That time is now. And I
will not let the Patriot Act, the most
un-patriotic of acts, go unchallenged.”
Wyden joined the effort at about 3:45, spoke for 45 minutes, then returned
in the evening.
The whole thing was a bit of a show, as politics at all levels tend to be, but
it made a strong statement of bipartisan support for eliminating a harmful
practice of the NSA.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher
Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
OTHER VIEWS
Iraq war history ensares
Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush
I
n January 2007, shortly after
word ‘mistake.’ It wasn’t because of
entering the race for the 2008
political expediency. After all, primary
Democratic presidential
voters and the press were clamoring
nomination, Hillary Clinton traveled to
for me to say that word. When I voted
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to authorize force in 2002, I said that
she faced was about her vote to
it was ‘probably the hardest decision I
authorize the war in Iraq.
have ever had to make.’ I thought I had
“If we had known then what we
acted in good faith and made the best
know now, there never would have
decision I could with the information
Byron
been a vote,” Clinton said, “and I never
I had. And I wasn’t alone in getting it
York
would have voted to give (President
wrong. But I still got it wrong. Plain
Comment
George W. Bush) that authority.”
and simple.”
Clinton had been saying that since
In recent days, Jeb Bush has
2004. As she ramped up her campaign, she
struggled to answer the if-I-knew-then-what-
said it more and more. “If
I-know-now question about
I had known then what I
Iraq. Bush stumbled through
know now, I never would
three or four tries before
have voted to give the
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president authority,” Clinton
known what would happen,
said at a Democratic debate
“I would not have gone into
in June 2007. “Obviously,
Iraq.”
if I had known then what I
That should be enough.
know now about what the
Unlike Hillary Clinton,
president would do with
Jeb Bush did not vote to
the authority that was given
authorize the war. Unlike
him, I would not have voted
Clinton, he was not privy to
the way that I did,” she said
the secret intelligence used
on “Meet the Press” in September 2007.
to justify invading Iraq. Unlike Clinton, he
It didn’t work. Democrats, and some in the GLGQRWJLYHDVSHHFKIURPWKH6HQDWHÀRRULQ
press, demanded more. They wanted Clinton
support of authorization.
to acknowledge that she had made a grievous
Jeb Bush faced intense questioning on Iraq
error that went far beyond simply believing
mostly because it was his brother who started
intelligence that turned out to be false. They
the war, and many voters quite reasonably
wanted Clinton to say she had made a huge
want to know how a President Jeb Bush
mistake and deeply regretted her actions. They would be different from President George W.
wanted her to grovel.
Bush. Jeb really could not get away with not
“She uttered the most irritating and
answering.
disingenuous nine words in politics: ‘If
Now that he has answered, it seems likely
we had known then what we know now,’”
that criticism he received from conservatives
wrote New York Times columnist Maureen
will subside. But attacks from the Left will
Dowd of Clinton during that 2007 Iowa visit.
increase.
“(Democratic Sen.) Jim Webb knew. Barack
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Obama knew. Even I knew, for Pete’s sake.
the liberal writer Josh Marshall wrote: “It
The administration’s trickery was clear in real
won’t end there. Because with a consensus
time.” Dowd’s conclusion, and that of many
in place that the Iraq War was a bad idea, the
on the left, was that Clinton didn’t have the
whys and hows of just how we made this
guts to stand up to a popular president.
decision are up for discussion in a very new
Still, Clinton resisted a full-scale
way.” An hour or so later, the Democratic
confession. She ended up paying a heavy
National Committee announced a conference
price, losing the nomination to Obama, who
call to “hold Jeb Bush accountable on Iraq.”
had not been in Congress at the time and had
In other words, Bush’s I-would-not-
the luxury of saying he opposed the Iraq war
have-gone-into-Iraq answer immediately
all along.
transformed the debate into a partisan one.
But Clinton knew she had to confess
Conservatives who criticized Jeb’s earlier
sometime. In her 2014 book “Hard Choices,”
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she wrote that she not only regretted her vote,
enough. The Left will keep pressing for
she regretted not regretting it earlier:
more — just like they pressed Clinton. But of
“While many were never going to look past course, Jeb has no Iraq vote to regret.
my 2002 vote no matter what I did or said, I
Besides, in the end it seems unlikely the
should have stated my regret sooner and in
public is interested in a full replay of the
the plainest, most direct language possible.
2002-2003 Iraq war debate. Bush made a
I’d gone most of the way there by saying I
commonsense statement. That’s probably
regretted the way President Bush used his
enough for most voters.
authority and by saying that if we knew then
Ŷ
what we later learned, there wouldn’t have
Byron York is chief political correspondent
been a vote. But I held out against using the
for The Washington Examiner.
Unlike Hillary
Clinton, Jeb
Bush did not
vote to authorize
the Iraq War.
YOUR VIEWS
Texting and driving a plague
invading our communities
I want to warn Pendleton residents
of a terrible plague that has invaded our
community. Across our country it kills and
injures thousands more than the horrible
Ebola virus. Americans panic at the mention
of Ebola, but pay little attention to this much
more dangerous problem. What is it? Talking
or texting while driving.
This deadly habit has become so accepted
and so universal that police departments are
overwhelmed with the staggering number
of people who think this activity is okay and
ignore the law. Sometimes I think they just
throw up their hands and give up on citing
these lawbreakers. On my evening walks
through downtown Pendleton I see an average
of three drivers talking on phones.
Recently I tried to be nice to a young lady
by the Dairy Queen who was headed west
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off going through the intersection to give her
time to turn in front of me. She was looking at
me, but she was also talking on her cellphone.
She just sat there talkling on her phone. It was
obvious her small brain couldn’t process both
tasks at once. I waited a few seconds then,
with lots of cars waiting behind me, I went
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recognize the opportunity, and she rushed
across in front of me missing me by inches. I
yelled for her to get off her phone and drive,
but was only met by a string of obscenities.
The phone was still glued to her ear.
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Oregon is $142. Police departments who are
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DOOWKHLOOHJDOFDOOHUVZHUHVWRSSHGDQG¿QHG,
should state that I think the Pendleton Police
Department and city council are dedicated
and hard working folks. Both entities have
many issues and challenges to deal with. I am
convinced, however, that only much larger
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policy will change the usage of cell phones in
the car.
And what about the latest wonderful
hi-tech gadget by Apple? The new wrist watch
computer/cell phone will increase wrecks
and deaths even more. Can you just picture
someone twisting their wrist around to look at
their “watch” then manipulating the buttons
with the other hand while they negotiate
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LETTERS POLICY
David Burns
Pendleton
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and
public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. Send letters to 211
S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.