Here is some funny political news. I can’t wait to see the new show “In Da Office Zone!”

No, he isn’t hiding in a maze of people in a colorful landscape. He isn’t somewhere in the world with Matt Lauer…He isn’t dancing around the world like Matt…or maybe he is. 

The place I would have expected to find him is in the PolitickerOR.com list of 50 most influentional people on Oregon Politics. 

Check the post HERE and find the link to the list at the bottom.

OR Download the list HERE

Who else got left out? (besides me, the famous Lane Bus Project Blogger…I came in at 50,005…not bad.)

Who doesn’t deserve to be on there?

COMMENT BELOW!

We’ve seen a lot of debate lately about the “tyranny” of Measure 11 and mandatory minimum sentences. The argument goes that mandatory minimums violate equal rights and disproportionately punish offenders for some minor crimes. Before looking toward the future, I think it bears reviewing the history of how all this came about.

Prior to 1990, Oregon sentencing law was pretty simple. The judge could pretty much sentence a defendant anywhere in the statutory range permissible for the crime. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, “truth in sentencing” and sentencing guidelines to reduce racial disparities in sentencing became popular themes. Put simply, people didn’t like prisoners serving only a small portion of the adjudged sentence because of prison crowding, and felt that sentencing guidelines would prevent minority defendants from getting longer sentences than non-minority defendants.
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Relay For Life®, the American Cancer Society’s signature event, is a fun-filled overnight experience designed to bring together those who have been touched by cancer. At Relay, people from within the community gather to celebrate survivors, remember those lost to cancer, and to fight back against this disease. Relay participants help raise money and awareness to support the American Cancer Society in its lifesaving mission to eliminate cancer as a major health issue.

The Bus Project team needs your help! Donate today on their team page to give them the encouragement they need to complete the 24 hour relay!

The event starts at noon on Friday and goes until noon on Saturday at LCC.

For more details please check out the Eugene/Springfield Relay for Life homepage.

Stay tuned for photos and results!

As an observer of local politics for the last 15 years, one question seems to persist over the years - why do conservatives do so well in the initiative process, while progressives do quite poorly? Conservative measures have steadily eroded state funding (Measure 5), increased mandatory prison sentences for violent offenders (Measure 11), and restricted zoning measures (Measure 37). Progressives have had more modest successes - Death with Dignity, crime victim’s rights, and hunting restrictions. Indeed, the biggest progressive successes have come in beating back conservative measures, particularly on land use, repeal of Death with Dignity, parental notification, and by restricting payment by signature on petitions. Why haven’t progressives done more to take the initiative on initiatives?

One good reason for conservative success is quite simple - they cheat, deceive and use financial incentives. Bill Sizemore’s electoral shenanigans have made the news for years, but his measures keep making the ballot. They also use deceptive or incomplete information to mislead voters. For instance, Kevin Mannix has billed his current measure as “tough on property crime”, as will certainly be reflected in the ballot title. An honest title might be “Increases Penalties for Property Crimes, Decreases K-12 Educational Budget”, as that is the practical effect of the measure. Prior to 2002, they used pay per signature collectors to circulate initiatives, a method designed to encourage deception by the signature collectors. Fortunately, the voters rejected this method by a 3-1 margin. However, conservative measures continue to receive heavy funding from private interests.

The relatively low numbers of signatures required to get an initiative on the ballot in Oregon means that it’s even quite cost effective for conservative interests to get their way through the process.

The reasons for the more modest successes of progressives are more obscure. Money is an obvious culprit. Corporate pro-smoking interests so dominated the public debate on Measure 50 so much that even some non-smokers thought they would see a tax increase if it passed. Progressive measures have also tended to focus on substantive measures that would require state expenditures, such as public election financing and universal health insurance for children, while conservative measures have focused on popular, low-cost restrictions, such as the gay marriage ban. Progressives have also wasted energy on obviously unpopular measures - losing a Measure 11 repeal effort by almost 3-1, labeling of GMO foods by 2-1, a signature increase for initiatives by 1.5-1, and a prohibition on livestock in waterways by almost 2-1. We don’t do the cause any favors by picking dumb fights.

None of those seem to matter as much as the simple gap in organization. 9 of the 10 measures on the November 2008 ballot will be from conservative groups. All 9 come from only 3 sources - Kevin Mannix, Bill Sizemore and Russ Walker. This comes despite the widespread consensus that this will be a huge year for progressive causes. We’re winning on a broad front, but only playing defense on initiatives.

If we want to reverse the trend, we’re going to have to pull it together. We need a group that will employ full-time staff to organize petition drives. Ad hoc organizing for every campaign eats up tremendous amounts of time and energy. We should be smarter about picking causes that will garner widespread support. Not too many people cry when murderers go to prison for life, but almost everyone support better child welfare programs. We must start sooner and keep a consistent message going throughout the campaign. People shouldn’t hear about our measures for the first time at the polls. Opposition research should be part of the process - people should know who is looking out for their interests and who is trying to buy their vote with advertising dollars. Where were the ads of cackling Phillip Morris execs blowing smoke into the faces of sick children in 2006? Why did it take 10 years for us to publicize the fact the Loren Parks, the primary financial backer for many conservative initiatives, has such, ahem, unusual beliefs about human sexuality? We should fight when conservative causes spread false information. Too often, false claims go unanswered in the media. In sum, we need to get organized and focus our efforts if we’re to turn the tide.

The Bus Project of course doesn’t stick it’s nose into National politics (OK, maybe once in a while on our free time.)

It was a nice surprise to see some Politicorps fellows pictured in a NY Times article on Sunday about far-left liberals positions on the Obama nomination.

Speaking of bus buttons, it was great to see lots of enthusiastic volunteers braving the dust and heat at the Oregon Country fair this year. Led by our own Lynn Moracco and Alison Friedman, the crew registered over 1000 new voters!

Do you find yourself coming to LaneBus.org and saying, “They never update this!” I do it all the time.

Well, whenever this happens to you and you want to whet your political whistle, try some of our new news feeds!

Down the sidebar to the right, you will find current articles from Blog Net News

We even have our own channel set up!

Now if you want to step outside the state and see what is going on, you can click on the BUZZ link at the top right of the menu and see some feeds from news sources around the globe.

These would be my 2nd and 3rd choices for you to do. My first choice would be to write your own article and submit it for consideration!!