A UF J-school project measures how well states live up to promises of openness in government. Oregon's rating is as sunny as the Willamettee Valley (that is to say, not very). Only one office gets even a 6 on their scale of 1 (low) to 7 (high).
And, here are some objective benchmarks (not enough, but it's a start) to show how well Oregon is educating its youth.
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Puddletown Blogger Nails ID Thieves at Red Lion
Oh, this is worthy. A Portland blogger is notified of identity theft in progress,and despite the proximity of Portland Police to doughnut stands throughout the city, manages to get the thieves collared at the Red Lion in Lloyd Center. Sweet.
Then, as I peruse the responses (including the /. postings), I see a SYT note she's concerned, 'cuz her mailbox does not lock. Folks, there ain't no excuse to having insecure mail... just go to Ace Hardware or some other emporium of Home Defense Hardware, and get a locking mail box, or a mailslot.
Oh, yes... from the
if it's important to Oregon, you'll read about it in the Seattle Times department: A part-time Lake Oswego library clerk was busted for selling library books on the web.
Free-lance socialism is everywhere... but, then, the Legislature is in session.
Then, as I peruse the responses (including the /. postings), I see a SYT note she's concerned, 'cuz her mailbox does not lock. Folks, there ain't no excuse to having insecure mail... just go to Ace Hardware or some other emporium of Home Defense Hardware, and get a locking mail box, or a mailslot.
Oh, yes... from the
if it's important to Oregon, you'll read about it in the Seattle Times department: A part-time Lake Oswego library clerk was busted for selling library books on the web.
Free-lance socialism is everywhere... but, then, the Legislature is in session.
Monday, March 28, 2005
Monday, March 21, 2005
O-8 from 1st Cav tells us what Dan Rather wouldn't
Hi. Been away for a while. The G'parents-in-law have a new place they had built on the Crooked River, and I've been playing electrician (or someone like him). Will scribble more, soon, once I get caught up with the stack of Salmon Wrappers.
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http://www.jerrypournelle.com/mail/mail353.html#Saturday
then scroll up into Friday's Mail a few screenfuls, or click on the InstaPundit link in the headline for today, above, to find:
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Here is a fascinating e-mail that is making the rounds in military circles. It is an account of a presentation given by one of the leaders of 1st Cavalry Division, [the Division {the original poster's} nephew was assigned to]. I've tried to follow Iraq stuff pretty closely, but most of this I had never heard. The notations were from a speech given at the Ft. Hood Officers Club by Major General Pete Chiarelli, Commanding General of the 1st Cavalry Division, just returned from Iraq.
1. While units of the Cav served all over Iraq, he spoke mostly of Baghdad and more specifically Sadr City, the big slum on the eastern side of the Tigris River. He pointed out that Baghdad is, in geography, is about the size of Austin. Austin has 600,000 to 700,000 people. Baghdad has 6 to7 million people.
2. The Cav lost 28 main battle tanks. He said one of the big lessons learned is that, contrary to doctrine going in, M1-A2s and Bradleys are needed, preferred and devastating in urban combat and he is going to make that point to the Joint Chiefs of Staff next week while they are considering downsizing armor.
3. He showed a graph of attacks in Sadr City by month. Last Aug-Sep they were getting up to 160 attacks per week. During the last three months, the graph had flat lined at below 5 to zero per week.
4. His big point was not that they were "winning battles" to do this but that cleaning the place up, electricity, sewage, water were the key factors.
He said yes they fought but after they started delivering services that the Iraqis in Sadr City had never had, the terrorist recruiting of 15 and 16 year olds came up empty.
5. The electrical "grid" is a bad, deadly joke. Said that driving down the street in a Hummv with an antenna would short out a whole block of apt. buildings. People do their own wiring and it was not uncommon for early morning patrols would find one or two people lying dead in the street, having been electrocuted trying to re-wire their own homes.
6. Said that not tending to a dead body in the Muslim culture never happens. Yet, on election day, after suicide bombers blew themselves up trying to take out polling places, voters would step up to the body lying there, spit on it, and move up in the line to vote.
7. Pointed out that we all heard from the media about the 100 Iraqis killed as they were lined up to enlist in the police and security service. What the media didn't point out was that the next day there 300 lined up in the same place.
8. Said bin Laden and Zarqawi made a HUGE mistake when bin laden went public with naming Zarqawi the "prince" of al Qaeda in Iraq. Said that what the Iraqis saw and heard was a Saudi telling a Jordanian that his job was to kill Iraqis. HUGE mistake. It was one of the biggest factors in getting Iraqis who were on the "fence" to jump off on the side of the coalition and the new gov't.
9. Said the MSM was making a big, and wrong, deal out of the religious sects. Said Iraqis are incredibly nationalistic. They are Iraqis first and then say they are Muslim but the Shi'a - Sunni thing is just not that big a deal to them.
10. After the election the Mayor of Baghdad told him that the people of the region (Middle East) are joyous and the governments are nervous.
11. Said that he did not lose a single tanker truck carrying oil and gas over the roads of Iraq. Think about that. All the attacks we saw on TV with IEDs hitting trucks but he didn't lose one. Why? Army Aviation. Praised his air units and said they made the decision early on that every convoy would have helicopter air cover. Said aviators in that unit were hitting the 1,000 hour mark (sound familiar?). Said a convoy was supposed to head out but stopped at the gates of a compound on the command of an E6. He asked the SSG [Staff Sergeant] what the hold up was. E6 said, "Air, sir." He wondered what was wrong with the air, not realizing what the kid was talking about. Then the AH-64s showed up and the E6 said, "That air sir." And then moved out.
12. Said one of the biggest problems was money and regs. There was a $77 million gap between the supplemental budget and what he needed in cash on the ground to get projects started. Said he spent most of his time trying to get money. Said he didn't do much as a "combat commander" because the war he was fighting was a war at the squad and platoon level. Said that his Non-Commissioned Officers [Sergeants] were winning the war and it was a sight to behold.
13. Said that of all the money appropriated for Iraq, not a cent was earmarked for agriculture. Said that Iraq could feed itself completely and still have food for export but no one thought about it. Said the Cav started working with Texas A&M on ag projects and had special hybrid seeds sent to them through Jordan. TAM analyzed soil samples and worked out how and what to plant. Said he had an E7 from Belton, TX (just down the road from Ft. Hood) who was almost single-handedly rebuilding the ag industry in the Baghdad area.
14. Said he could hire hundreds of Iraqis daily for $7 to $10 a day to work on sewer, electric, water projects, etc. but that the contracting rules from CONUS [non-Pentagon Washington] applied so he had to have $500,000 insurance policies in place in case the workers got hurt. Not kidding. The CONUS peacetime regs slowed everything down, even if they could eventually get waivers for the regs.
-
http://www.jerrypournelle.com/mail/mail353.html#Saturday
then scroll up into Friday's Mail a few screenfuls, or click on the InstaPundit link in the headline for today, above, to find:
-
Here is a fascinating e-mail that is making the rounds in military circles. It is an account of a presentation given by one of the leaders of 1st Cavalry Division, [the Division {the original poster's} nephew was assigned to]. I've tried to follow Iraq stuff pretty closely, but most of this I had never heard. The notations were from a speech given at the Ft. Hood Officers Club by Major General Pete Chiarelli, Commanding General of the 1st Cavalry Division, just returned from Iraq.
1. While units of the Cav served all over Iraq, he spoke mostly of Baghdad and more specifically Sadr City, the big slum on the eastern side of the Tigris River. He pointed out that Baghdad is, in geography, is about the size of Austin. Austin has 600,000 to 700,000 people. Baghdad has 6 to7 million people.
2. The Cav lost 28 main battle tanks. He said one of the big lessons learned is that, contrary to doctrine going in, M1-A2s and Bradleys are needed, preferred and devastating in urban combat and he is going to make that point to the Joint Chiefs of Staff next week while they are considering downsizing armor.
3. He showed a graph of attacks in Sadr City by month. Last Aug-Sep they were getting up to 160 attacks per week. During the last three months, the graph had flat lined at below 5 to zero per week.
4. His big point was not that they were "winning battles" to do this but that cleaning the place up, electricity, sewage, water were the key factors.
He said yes they fought but after they started delivering services that the Iraqis in Sadr City had never had, the terrorist recruiting of 15 and 16 year olds came up empty.
5. The electrical "grid" is a bad, deadly joke. Said that driving down the street in a Hummv with an antenna would short out a whole block of apt. buildings. People do their own wiring and it was not uncommon for early morning patrols would find one or two people lying dead in the street, having been electrocuted trying to re-wire their own homes.
6. Said that not tending to a dead body in the Muslim culture never happens. Yet, on election day, after suicide bombers blew themselves up trying to take out polling places, voters would step up to the body lying there, spit on it, and move up in the line to vote.
7. Pointed out that we all heard from the media about the 100 Iraqis killed as they were lined up to enlist in the police and security service. What the media didn't point out was that the next day there 300 lined up in the same place.
8. Said bin Laden and Zarqawi made a HUGE mistake when bin laden went public with naming Zarqawi the "prince" of al Qaeda in Iraq. Said that what the Iraqis saw and heard was a Saudi telling a Jordanian that his job was to kill Iraqis. HUGE mistake. It was one of the biggest factors in getting Iraqis who were on the "fence" to jump off on the side of the coalition and the new gov't.
9. Said the MSM was making a big, and wrong, deal out of the religious sects. Said Iraqis are incredibly nationalistic. They are Iraqis first and then say they are Muslim but the Shi'a - Sunni thing is just not that big a deal to them.
10. After the election the Mayor of Baghdad told him that the people of the region (Middle East) are joyous and the governments are nervous.
11. Said that he did not lose a single tanker truck carrying oil and gas over the roads of Iraq. Think about that. All the attacks we saw on TV with IEDs hitting trucks but he didn't lose one. Why? Army Aviation. Praised his air units and said they made the decision early on that every convoy would have helicopter air cover. Said aviators in that unit were hitting the 1,000 hour mark (sound familiar?). Said a convoy was supposed to head out but stopped at the gates of a compound on the command of an E6. He asked the SSG [Staff Sergeant] what the hold up was. E6 said, "Air, sir." He wondered what was wrong with the air, not realizing what the kid was talking about. Then the AH-64s showed up and the E6 said, "That air sir." And then moved out.
12. Said one of the biggest problems was money and regs. There was a $77 million gap between the supplemental budget and what he needed in cash on the ground to get projects started. Said he spent most of his time trying to get money. Said he didn't do much as a "combat commander" because the war he was fighting was a war at the squad and platoon level. Said that his Non-Commissioned Officers [Sergeants] were winning the war and it was a sight to behold.
13. Said that of all the money appropriated for Iraq, not a cent was earmarked for agriculture. Said that Iraq could feed itself completely and still have food for export but no one thought about it. Said the Cav started working with Texas A&M on ag projects and had special hybrid seeds sent to them through Jordan. TAM analyzed soil samples and worked out how and what to plant. Said he had an E7 from Belton, TX (just down the road from Ft. Hood) who was almost single-handedly rebuilding the ag industry in the Baghdad area.
14. Said he could hire hundreds of Iraqis daily for $7 to $10 a day to work on sewer, electric, water projects, etc. but that the contracting rules from CONUS [non-Pentagon Washington] applied so he had to have $500,000 insurance policies in place in case the workers got hurt. Not kidding. The CONUS peacetime regs slowed everything down, even if they could eventually get waivers for the regs.
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
4H service dog training program
This Oregonian story about a 4H service dog training program is extremely neat. Here we are in a rapidly urbanizing area, the Metro-designated target for most of the Teeming Hordes yearning to be free of the Governator's state; but, what's a kid who likes animals going to do if farms become suburban developments? Instead, allowing kids to socialize service dogs, and the service dogs to socialize the kids, is extremely beneficial to our society, not to mention the blind who just about have to live urban, anyway.
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