Remember Juneuary -- that chill in our spring air that just wouldn't go away? First it affected our Oregon strawberries. Now it's taking aim at Oregon wine.

By Ben Matasar of Portland, Oregon. Ben is a software engineer and political activist. As a guy who works on a web database for a living, I'm always thinking about how it might be possible to help out my favorite causes and candidates via the web. As a board member (on hiatus) of the Bus Project, I'm interested in ways to increase turnout. I've tried various things in the past, mostly internal tools to help build walklists and such. This year, I've built something exciting with the fine folks at Our Oregon. I'd like to introduce VoteTrack OR, which is...

More election porn showed up yesterday. The Mrs. and I each got a "voter guide" explaining to us the way correct-thinking folks are supposed to vote on the ballot measures. Although they came from outfits with different names -- "Defend Oregon" and "Our Oregon" -- they were pretty obviously created by the same people:

The Yes on 57/No on 61 gave us this guy. Can't tell whether he's supposed to be a criminal, a voter, or what: But this one eclipsed them all for pure entertainment value -- some of the best porn is always generated by amateurs: We finally see what our frequent blog commenter looks like. Given his slim-to-no chance against the union candidate, we may actually vote for JK, just for kicks. He'd give Salem a kick in the pants that it so richly deserves.

While Sarah Palin's husband and operatives in Alaska are continuing to stonewall investigations into the Troopergate scandal by refusing to cooperate with investigators, the main money man for Bill Sizemore and Kevin Mannix's political syndicates is also busy evading investigators. Having paid the piper and called the tunes in Oregon politics for over 15 years, paymaster Loren Parks now seems to have gone missing even as Sizemore once again faces a different kind of music in court this morning to answer contempt charges. While Our Oregon is saddling up its posse to round him up, the indefatigable Janice Thompson at...

Today, Our Oregon sent out an email asking the question, "What is Bill Sizemore thinking?" and a link to a their new website "NO MORE SIZEMORE".

Bill Sizemore, as many know, is the chief petitioner of several measures that will appear on the ballot this November. Among those include one that CAUSA has been actively engaged in working to defeat.

Measure 58, which would "prohibit teaching a public school student in a language other than English for more than two years", is vague and full of unintended consequences, and would take away local control from the principals, school districts and teachers who know our schools best.

In their email, Our Oregon had this to say about Sizemore:

No matter how many times Oregon voters tell him no, and no matter how many times he and his organizations get caught using fraud and forgery to get measures on the ballot, Bill Sizemore keeps coming back with more ballot measures. That leaves many Oregonians asking: What is Bill Sizemore thinking?

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The past ten days says everything on how liberals are converting to popular anti-tax philosophy just long enough to get elected and then they can raise all the taxes they want. Jeff Merkley introduced his most publicized campaign proposal this week, which is to give taxpayers a $500 tax cut. Merkley even emphasized that he wants it as soon as possible. This comes off of Merkley's ads touting in bold highlights that he is going to cut taxes while simultaneously attacking Gordon Smith in debates and in press releases for raising taxes. Gordon has a great pro-taxpayer record compared to Merkley where we are unable to find a single tax he didn't vote for in his near entire 10 year term.

The liberal/union coalition group, Our Oregon, mailed out a voter's guide called "Tax Fairness and Accountability" draped in imagery of the bald eagle and U.S. Flags. The guide warns taxpayers against "higher fees" and higher "tax burdens" and then offers liberal YES/NO endorsement list that will in effect prevent tax cuts and create more taxes.


Continue reading "Liberals masquerade as tax cutting conservatives"

Our Oregon announced yesterday that they are filing a complaint with the Elections Division of the Secretary of State, following up on the signature fraud discovered last week. From yesterday's press release: The complaint centers on statements from four Oregon voters who are certain their names were forged onto petitions they did not sign. The four fraud victims were found after a limited examination of the signatures by Our Oregon, which turned up numerous examples of suspicious signature activity within even a relatively small sample of signature sheets. The complaint also includes written testimony from a Bend resident who encountered...

Currently Oregon state legislators, by their own admission, are not making enough money. They are paid $19,884 per year plus $109.00 per day they are in session. The average session runs 6 months, for approximately an additional $14,000 spread over two years. Legislators are also allowed $30,409 per session for office staff and supplies. So, for each two year (one session) time period our Oregon legislators are paid over $84,000. Throw in another session like just happened and the pay grows to $128,000 over two years. This simply is not enough to attract the talent we need.


Continue reading "Oregon Legislators MUST Be Paid More"