Okay, here's the quote. See if you can guess who the speaker is talking about:
"Think of some evils that could happen, and why it is important for the line to be drawn here. On Sept. 11 some people drove planes into a building to prove a point. The defendants say their conduct is necessary to avoid imminent danger because people are dying in Iraq. That is the same thing suicide bombers say."
That's the Deputy District Attorney in Multnomah County Court last Thursday, explaining to the jury why they should "support the troops" by convicting 7 defendants, sixty- and seventy-somethings all, members of Seriously P.O.'d Grannies, for smearing anti-war messages in water-soluble red finger paint at the Armed Forces Recruitment Center on NE Broadway in Portland.
The charge, for which it took a jury a whopping thirty minutes to return a verdict of so not guilty: Third-degree criminal mischief with the intent to substantially inconvenience the U.S. government.
"Intent to substantially inconvenience the U.S. government"? Good lord--there aren't enough paddy wagons out there to bring everyone in. I think we used to give people national holidays on their birthdays for that kind of intent. This is America--we got our start by seriously inconveniencing the government of the day.
I'd like to believe that the DDA knew he'd caught a stinker of a case, and deliberately gave an over-the-top closing to make sure the SPOG's would walk. Comparing easy-clean graffiti artists opposing the Iraq war (they were eventually fined $137 for the graffiti) to the suicide bombers on September 11, 2001, is preposterous.
But just in case, let's briefly review:
Any questions?
Reaffirming my faith in the whole idea of "a jury of one's peers," jurors later told reporters "they thought the case was a waste of the court's time and public's limited legal resources."
Jury trials, habeas corpus, due process--they're pretty good ideas. The Bush administration should give them a spin some time.
Update: This week the OLCC opted not to relax its rules to make it easier for Oregon music clubs to stage shows that minors could attend. The Commission had recently been weighing the possibility of a rule change, but concern about making underage drinking easier trumped other considerations by event organizers. The Commission has staffed out the problem, hoping for a new way to attack the problem next year.
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For a brief moment there, it looked like Oregon timber-country counties were going to get their timber payments after all. A provision in the Energy Bill would have restored the money for four years, but the language was removed in the Senate last week.
Republican Sens. Gordon Smith of Oregon, Orrin Hatch of Utah and Lisa Murkowksi of Alaska joined all Western Democrats in supporting the call for a vote. All other western Republicans opposed it.
A spokesman for Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon said Wyden was extremely disappointed that the timber money was removed, despite support from what he called an overwhelming majority of the Senate.
Amazing isn't it, how these measures that everyone seems to agree with keep failing?
Looks like it's going to be cold turkey for Oregon counties, rather than gradually kicking the timber money habit.
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Oregon gas prices dropped a penny last week, to $3.057/gal at the pump. Cheapest gas: $2.83/gal (with discount card) at Fred Meyer's, 3750 Market & Motor, Salem. Most expensive gas: $3.27/gal at the Tomahawk Restaurant, 92178 Marcold Rd & Savage, in Marcoli.
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"Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor gloom of night . . . " That's the Post Office's credo, but it sounds like they've got nothing on the Daily Astorian, where they managed to keep the newspaper afloat during the devastating storms that hit the area on December 1st and 2nd. Says Managing Editor Patrick Webb:
When the Big Wind hit our scenic but rugged Oregon coast on Dec. 2, I was in the newsroom, stopping by to check my e-mail on a nonpublication Sunday.
That casual visit turned into an exhausting but exhilarating week in which The Daily Astorian (circulation 9,000) reinvented itself and its 50 staff bonded like soldiers in foxholes.
The reporters, editors and photographer were heroes, but they will share their medals with people from production crews, secretaries and drivers, advertising sales staff, just as they shared snacks, clean socks and aspirin.
Even the janitor, Tom Grimm, earned a photo credit.
Blogs will never replace "dead tree media" until you can make floatable origami boats out of them. Congrats to the Astorian. Hope the sock thing works out.
Tens of thousands of Oregonians got a message from state tax collectors over the weekend instead of the kicker tax refund they were expecting: Time to pay up.
About 170,000 state income tax refund checks were reduced or erased to pay $42 million in debts those taxpayers owed to the state, the Department of Revenue reported Monday.
The debts include unpaid student loans, child support and court fines, said Revenue Department spokeswoman Rosemary Hardin. Most of it -- $27 million -- was for unpaid personal income taxes.
Ontario Middle School eighth-grader Bailey White 'Chips are for eating not gambling' poster was selected by the state of Oregon Department of Health Services to represent the month of November for its annual Gambling Prevention calendar.
Las Vegas oddsmakers paid 7:1 on White. The favorite, at 3:2, was 12-year-old Howie Mieklejohn of Brownsburg OR, whose entry, "Betcha Can't Quit Gambling," was disqualified after Mieklejohn's urine tested positive for aesthetics enhancing drugs.
"At a critical time in our history, Hillary Clinton has the strength and experience to restore hope and opportunity to working Americans and deliver the change America needs," Kulongoski said. "No one is better equipped to repair the damage of the last seven years and repair our standing in the world."
Has either Christine Gregoire or Butch Otter endorsed anyone yet? I don't think so . . . ?
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StS True Animal Story: At the Oregon Zoo, rare--and adorable--colobus monkey Delu celebrates her first birthday at a party on December 21st.
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