As a native Oregonian, my head swivels and my ears listen closely whenever someone is talking about my home state. That’s happening a lot since Oregon seems to be in the news frequently lately.
April 1st, Rachel Maddow had Oregon Rep. Peter Defazio on her show. He talks about "Republicanomics" after Powell has his say. Don’t know too much about Peter, but it sounds like it is good to have him on our side. Rachel had invited him on her show before to talk about infrastructure funding in the stimulus bill.
Over at Crooks and Liars, they just had a chat with our new Senator, Jeff Merkley. Here’s a little bit of why I was proud to vote for him:
More than with many candidates Blue America supported for the U.S. Senate, it always seemed to us that with Jeff Merkley (D-OR) we were electing one of us -- not some private-school millionaire, but a guy from a working family who still sees his goals as helping out other ordinary Americans from working families. His victory over multimillionaire reactionary Gordon Smith in November was one of the sweetest of the cycle. And as soon as he got to the Senate he got busy working with the Obama Administration and his colleagues on creating jobs and turning around the mortgage crisis. His voting record is the most progressive of any new senator Blue America helped elect.
I’ll never forgive myself for being so stupid as to vote for Smith in his past two elections. He rewarded our votes by proceeding to support torture and to kill our salmon. Maybe supporting Obama and Merkley in 2008 (and beyond!) will give me a little credit toward redemption.
Some of our British neighbors were just a little upset that the Obama administration’s briefing material compared the UK to Oregon. According to an editor in the Telegraph:
For those who might bristle at the "slightly smaller than Oregon" description of Britain (which seems to originate from the CIA World Factbook), US geographical comparisons are also included in the other country profiles prepared by the State Department's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.
Germany - a "reliable US ally" since 9/11 - is "about the size of Montana" while the Czech Republic "about the size of Virginia".
We are informed that France is "America's oldest ally" and was "instrumental in helping Britain's American colonies establish independence" and more recently has been "a close partner with the US in the war on terror".
The article concludes with a mention that while Oregon has a population of 3.7 million, the population of the UK is more than 60 million. Quite a bit of difference! Of course, the UK doesn't have a desert, were few people live, like we have in central and eastern Oregon. It's a long drive, but someday I'd like to visit the High Desert Museum.
Our Senator Wyden was deep in the center of the debate last month about "Who killed the plan to ban big bailout bonuses?" It references the original story on Huffington Post (see its headline below) which was updated twice as the story progressed.
In reference to the situation an Oregon newspaper’s opinion section states:
Amid this sordid scenario, a few political heroes stand out. One is Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden. He and Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine had introduced bipartisan legislation that would have forced companies to either return taxpayer-funded bonuses or pay hefty excise taxes on the bonuses.
But Congress dropped that idea. Neither did Obama insist on it.
They share the responsibility with AIG. To suggest otherwise is pure political theater.
Not sure if I completely agree with the newspaper's assessment. It has been somewhat less than "true blue" in the past, but Wyden is someone I've always admired.
Speaking of admiring people, as a person with no party affiliation, before 2008, I'd always voted for the person, not the party. Olympia Snowe has often seemed to be a strong, intelligent woman. Until I started coming to the Daily Kos and getting more political, I didn't even realize she was a Republican. When I did, it seemed really strange to me that McCain choose that silly Barbie-Doll wannabe instead of an intelligent woman like Snowe, or perhaps Dole. Palin was a token, no doubt about it. I hope that someday certain Republicans that I know and love will figure that out.
OK, I've had a chance to brag a little about my state. How about yours?