The original plan for Mother's Day was reflection and prayer and--above all--peace. Not the celebration of commercialism and long-distance calls it's become. (As Lucy Van Pelt might say, "Its all a big Madison Avenue plot.")
This week Oregon's total of casualties in Bush's Iraq War stands at 485. Add in the other 49 states, add in Afghanistan, and add in the locals who've died in the fight or in the crossfire, and the no one actually knows for sure what the number is.
Here's Julia Ward Howe's original 1870 proclamation:
Mother's Day Proclamation
Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.
Does this qualify as an endorsement? On Friday, during the KPOJ Morning Show in Portland featuring national broadcaster Thom Hartmann, he and broadcasting colleague Carl Wolfson divulged their Senate votes while taking a call from a 70-year old Aloha voter who is also going with Steve.
Click the link for the audio, here's the transcript:
Thom Hartmann: Ben in Aloha, nice to welcome you to the show, Ben.
Ben in Aloha: Hey, thank you guys, I would really like to thank that lady for keeping the faith out there. And I would also like to mention Steve Novick's campaign. I'm 70 years old and I think that Steve is the best chance that we have to move Oregon forward in the Senate --
Thom: I would tell you Ben, I voted for him yesterday. We mailed in our ballots this morning.
Ben: Cool, awesome. I'm going to pass out some literature for him today in a couple of very active spots --
Carl Wolfson: Hey Ben --
Thom: And that said, I think that Jeff Merkley is also a great candidate.
Carl: Yep. I voted for Steve Novick as well, as we're talking about balance, I voted for Steve Novick last Friday and again, Jeff Merkley, an excellent candidate, but I voted for Steve Novick as well and Ben, thank you very much for bringing that to our attention. Thom, I guess we're 2 and 0 on the Novick campaign.
Thom: Yeah.
And somewhere off air, I bet Heidi Tauber makes three. Just a hunch.
(Excellent work done here, on a story that really should be getting more play, especially given who one of the co-chairs is... - promoted by torridjoe)
Justia nd Public.Resource are two archiving web sites that post the entire Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS), Justia received a cease and dissist letter from the Oregon Legislative Council Committee on April 19th asking them to remove their copy of the Statutes or pay a licensing fee, which costs $30k for 2 years of publishing 'rights'. Public.Resource disabled their version on the ORS and has joined them, promising to republish the laws as well if the issue is not resolved. There are two additional wrinkles to the story that make it particularly galling:
1) Thomson West, a large legal information services company publishes an annotated copy of the ORS (which sells for $460) without paying for a commercial license and the Legislative Council Committee has explicitly stated that they will not send a cease and desist letter his way.
2) The real issue here is that Oregon is looking for ways to raise revenue for their publishing of the laws and has apparently decided that the best way to do that is to intertwine allegedly copyrighted material within the public documents and make it impractical to separate the two, therefore requiring a license to publish. The Council has openly stated that they have been talking with other states about how to raise licensing revenue for their codes this way. Not only is Oregon hoarding information, but we are also exporting our our information hoarding methods to other states.
Anyway, folks, this is heading to a lawsuit no later than June 2nd.
(This really sucks. It truly won't be the same on Monday when I stop by to do my irregular gig at KPOJ. Heidi was always the quickest with a smile or a warm greeting, and she was (is) a sterling broadcaster. - promoted by torridjoe)
UPDATED BELOW
Portland progressive radio station and Air America outlet KPOJ has been missing a host from its local 6-9 morning show, which featured Heidi Tauber, comic Carl Wolfson and national Air America personality Thom Hartmann (who joins the team at 8 a.m.).
Co-host and newsperson Tauber is conspicuously absent from the morning show. I say conspicuously absent because the other on-air personalities, Wolfson, producer Paul Pimentel and Hartmann, haven't mentioned her name once during the entire three hours Thursday or Friday. I also noticed that her name has been scrubbed from the website and her station e-mail address no longer works.
The morning show has also been re-branded as "Mornings with Carl Wolfson and Friends," replacing "Mornings with Thom, Heidi and Carl."
I listened to the podcast of Wednesday's 8 a.m. segment (featuring Willamette Week editor Mark Zusman), and Tauber cheerfully closed the show by saying she'd see everybody tomorrow.
If it's the case that Tauber's been dropped, it all seems kind of sudden and silent. It's eerily like Stalin trying to remove all references to Trotsky. Well, not quite like that, but you get the idea.
Why the silence? Do they think listeners wouldn't notice? Is it more budget cuts by corporate weasels who lack the simple decency to own up to their decisions? Who knows?
The complete lack of information only draws attention to the act.
During today's "Weasels of the Week" segment, somebody called up and tried to nominate the "KPOJ station mana ..." but was cut off in mid-sentence.
Clearly Tauber is missing. And it's also clear that the powers that be at KPOJ are consciously trying to avoid acknowledging that fact.
It's pretty insulting to listeners to pretend that Tauber never existed. You'd think a "progressive" radio station wouldn't behave so corporately creepy, but apparently you'd be wrong.
UPDATE:
Oregon Media Insiders has a post about Tauber. She's definitely gone. This comment from "Bill Cooper" sums it up:
HEIDI IS OK I spoke with Heidi this evening. She told me to tell everyone she is ok. I won't go into the details of what happened. Bottomline, this business can often be brutal. This is one of those times. Broadcasters know that the ax is always overhead and it can fall at any time for any reason, or no reason.
I have been told that no one has been hired to replace Ms Tauber at this point, although there are those who are speculating that the move was made to make room for the return of a well-known female morning show news anchor who recently faced a situation similar to Heidi's.
When the brain trust at Clear Channel escorted Heidi from the building they immediately scrubbed all trace of her from the company, including killing her email and voicemail. Heidi is setting up a gmail account and I will post it here soon so her friends can get in touch with her.
on a side note...there are reports that several KPOJ sponsors have pulled their accounts because Heidi was let go. Maybe Clear Channel will see the error of their ways if their wallet gets hit hard enough!
It appears I was right. This is about corporate weasels who lack the personal integrity to own up to their decision-making. What's really sad about this episode is having to witness people you respect look the other way -- or actively participate -- when powers that be "disappear" someone right before their eyes.
The campaigns released their April fundraising numbers this week, and Novick's were pretty solid, although Merkley did take in more total dollars (helped substantially by his second mortgage). But look at the Oregon totals:
Merkley: $70,500
Novick $107,000
Did you notice that Steve's number seems to be higher? And Merkley's overall total raised for the month is higher, which means his Oregon percentage is that much lower...30%, in fact. Think that one over: seven of every 10 donors to Jeff Merkley can't even vote for him. I'm no Oregon-native uber-parochialist; I've got no problem with out of state donations per se. But it depends on where it's coming from (individuals as opposed to elected officials*), and to what extent. Seventy percent of your money coming from outside the state you're trying to represent is just bad.
So let's add April to the accumulations from the first quarter of 2008:
Novick: $107,000 + $187,000 = $294,000
Merkley: $70,500 + $131,700 = $202,000
Stop and parse that for a minute: the guy who claims to have the largest grassroots organization in Oregon history, since January has barely raised 2/3 of what Steve Novick took in from Oregonians.
Which campaign do you think OREGONIANS are responding to more strongly?
*itemized comparison, although Novick still outraises Merkley in OR even if every unitemized Merkley dollar is Oregon-based
Ha ha, no---Tom Potter doesn't actually have a Daley-style patronage machine (although he has a strong vision for building one some years into the future; there's a task force working on it), but maybe some folks are still listening to Uncle Lame Duck, and he's thrown down his chips and is betting on black (how can it be racially insensitive if Wesley Snipes said it?):
As mayor of Portland, I want to let my fellow Oregonians know that I will be casting my vote on May 20th for Barack Obama.
Senator Obama is the only presidential candidate who has the right combination of strength, integrity and wisdom needed to bring reconciliation and hope to our nation.
During the course of this campaign we have watched Senator Obama come under fire and work through difficult issues with grace and integrity. At each step of the way he has responded by unifying our diverse communities and inspiring us to be part of something bigger than ourselves.
Most importantly, millions of Americans – white, brown, black, wealthy and poor, urban, suburban, and rural – have for the first time been moved to join the political process and have rallied to his vision. Senator Obama will bring fresh leadership and new ideas to make our nation and our world a better place.
I am confident that Obama will show the same leadership in the White House that he has on the campaign trail. At last, we will have someone on our side at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
I mention the patronage angle in jest, partly because Kos believes the only in-state endorsements that really matter in Presidential races are the ones of big city mayors, because they can mobilize their troops for the benefit of the candidate. As noted, it's not clear Potter really has troops to rally, and when the city is more abuzz about Sam vs Sho, Potterville is a ghost town.
Still, couldn't hurt! And now it's official, and all.
I really, really want to believe in the power of karma for some people, and I think with Hillary Clinton I just might be getting my wish. After two months of making everyone's life miserable past any reasonable chance of victory, Clinton is forced to do a Dead Woman Walking act for at least the next two weeks, if for no other reason than to raise money to pay herself off (after paying off all those fine folks she's been stiffing of course. You know, working people).
Even Obama said today that Oregon is where he hopes to say "Fin," in a TV interview echoed by David Plouffe to Howard Fineman. That means Barack Obama will express to the nation (and world) on the 20th that he considers himself the nominee by having the most pledged--and I wager perhaps the requisite number of total--delegates, if the flood of "automatic" delegates continues to weigh in for Obama (who picked up DeFazio late Thursday, along with multiple Washington legislators like Baird and Larson).
And that big moment, the biggest one of the campaign before he reprises it in Denver, is very likely to happen in Portland, Oregon. Where else would he be? Montana? Hillary's going first in Kentucky after her consolation prize; he's got the Letterman crowd at 830pm local time, right after they call it. Coliseum, maybe?
So Obama's gonna be in town, briefly out in Beaverton before a thing in Albany and down to Eugene where he's doing a nightime public thing. And hey, maybe if you live in Eugene, tomorrow is an excellent day to go bowling.
I think Barack's going to have a fabulouso time this weekend, and he'll cruise back in Sunday night for two days of working it before the counting starts. What's Hillary up to? She was in Central Point tonight, let's hear how she rocked whatever house she was inside of, intending to rock.
{well, let's wait until we cull the people too lazy to click through to the good stuff below}
Putting aside the issues of copyright violation--which, given Kari Chisholm's high knowledge of internet publishing, essentially means active theft--Steve Novick had something to say regarding the oft-recycled attacks by his opponent regarding blog posts Steve made in 2005 and 2006. Shorter Novick: "Jeff, you sad, bitter, desperate man."
It is sad to see what has happened to Jeff Merkley in the course of this campaign. He says he's against negative campaigning, but he's the only one running an attack ad. He said it was wrong for a legislator to raise money during the legislative session, but then this last session he did it anyway. His whole campaign can be summed up by the words he used in explaining his sudden change of position on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, 'I don't know if I am doing the right thing or the wrong thing. I want to win.'
"I'm sure in his heart of hearts, Jeff Merkley knows it is ridiculous to say the last, best argument for his candidacy consists of recycling some out-of-context quotes from strong remarks I made in 2006 blog posts. But his handlers are telling him to do it, so he's doing it anyway.
"Jeff Merkley is accusing me of dividing Democrats, but his campaign is the only one circulating these out-of-context statements – to the media, at positive Democratic gatherings around the state and now in advertising. He is doing a disservice to the Democratic cause in this election. The real decision Democratic voters have to make is, who will tell the truth, stand up for Oregon, and end politics as usual?I feel confident when they look at the candidates that way, I'll be the nominee to carry our fight against Gordon Smith and John McCain.
David Steves of the Eugene Register-Guard has also taken a look at the ad, and did something of an AdWatch truth mission on it.
Beyond the understandable disappointment over the Merkley campaign opting to continue with nonsubstantive, negative character attacks, the Novick campaign this morning published an open letter to Merkley online consultant Kari Chisholm, owner of Mandate Media and the cut and paster of NovickInsultsDemocrats.com, the "companion site" to their attack ad. It seems Chisholm has taken something that doesn't belong to him, used it, and claimed credit for its creation:
On the recent attack website you launched for Jeff Merkley, novickinsultsdemocrats.com, you used a substantial amount of work that I, and others, created for the Novick campaign and claimed credit for it as your own. This work includes graphics, logo design, photography, and layout design.
A quick look at the CSS file you are using (to the non-Web savvy, the CSS file is the program that controls the look and feel of a website) shows that it is an exact copy of the one I created for the Novick for Senate campaign. Here is a link to the CSS file you published, and here is a link to our published CSS file.
Yet despite copying and pasting my work onto your own server, you label the site as "Powered by Mandate Media." And in the comments on your blog BlueOregon.com on May 7, 2008 9:20:16 PM, you stated, in response to a question about who had built the website, "Yes, I built that one-page website."
No matter what field you work in, copying another person's work and publishing it as your own is an extraordinary violation of professional ethics. I ask you to immediately remove the content of this website and replace it with a public apology for your unprofessional conduct.
The CSS file of a website is the heart of a comprehensive, original web creation. It covers almost all of the general layout decisions one makes when building a site--fonts, color schemes, columnar design, backgrounds, images, etc. For the purposes of a political campaign, the look of a website is the visual representation of their "brand," and for someone to use that template--not only without attribution, but claiming it as one's own--is wholly unprofessional, and Chisholm knows it.
I have a real problem with the copyright laws in this country; I think intellectual property is far too tightly controlled. That said, I can argue the ideals of copyleft all I like, but the current laws still exist and I'm accountable for obeying them. So is Kari Chisholm.
The sad and pathetic nature of this ad rollout notwithstanding (and Novick has his own personal statement on that which we'll cover separately), the issue raised here continues to amplify why people like Sen. Rick Metsger call Blue Oregon's recent behavior "troubling"--how many elected officials and visible public figures in the state will contribute to BlueO in the future, knowing that their words are fair game for active distortion should they ever happen to run against one of Chisholm's clients? And watch out if you design a web page he likes; you might find that imitation (and theft) is the insincerest form of politicking.
The neat thing about following a campaign run on conventional wisdom and accumulated professional knowledge that invariably relies on what seems to have worked in the past, is that you can see the next move coming right down Broadway. When a man doubles down on a house he owns, he's not going to use the money to get custom typefaces for the website and a latte machine for the office (although their expenditure reports do show a high burn rate on something simply labeled Dour). He's going to do some work with it.
I'm talking of course about the ad the Merkley campaign has taken from the amateur drafts at U2be, to the added professionalism of scary music and one of those three or four voice types you hear in every commercial that the candidate doesn't talk in. You can see it for reference over here. It recycles the attacks on 2006 and older comments from Blue Oregon posts by Novick, taking ever more from the actual quotations until you are left with the height of elliptical overload, Novick's apparent smear of Darlene Hooley: "...lie..."
With two weeks left Merkley had continued to run his generally positive ads and had spent some money attacking Gordon Smith because...Gordon Smith took a quick shot at him. I thought for a minute after the SUSA poll came out showing a tighter race, that Merkley would pull back a bit, rely on his machine, push for the home stretch with that furrowed eyeline hard at work furrowing, and let his money advantage ride him into the nomination. Why risk going negative now, when you might actually be surging a little? Of course you wouldn't, if things really looked good for you.
I mean, Novick had his ad with about two seconds of negative contrast with an unnamed opponent sitting, waiting. It wasn't supposed to run for at least another week, and maybe not at all--campaigns cancel buys all the time for a particular message. Even if they had an idea of running it, so far it doesn't look like they're going to. That's a classic response choice made by a campaign that likes its position, and isn't worried about trying to pull down their opponent's favorability.
Because that's what this is about. You don't buy precious ad time attacking your opponent to make your own favorables go up (and they won't), you do it to make your opponent's go down. And by doing it with Obama and Clinton quotes, Merkley hopes to depress Novick's apparent strong advantage with the wave of young voters who are now filling out their ballots.
It's cheap, predictable and more than a little "same old" sleazy, but it's also just like clockwork for Merkley and the campaign: if it looks tight and you might lose, by all means PANIC AND OVERSHOOT.
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