Milwaukie's Sex Offenders

On Thursday, June 29th, a public announcement was made regarding Oregon's new Sex Offender Website going online at 10 a.m. As of 3:00 p.m., more the 250,000 "hits" have been recorded to the website.

Oregon State Police will report an updated figure before 12 noon on Friday before the holiday weekend.

On a side note to media: There may be some confusion with accessing the website. Please make sure that the correct website address is accurately reflected as sexoffenders.oregon.gov . If someone enters "www" before the address it will not go to the website. Also, remember there is a direct link on the front page of the Oregon State Police website.

A press release from the Oregon State Patrol revealed their new Sex Offender Registry. I took it for a spin... and, what did I find for Milwaukie and Oak Grove?

DOYLE, DONALD WILLIAM 1/10/1943 13222 SE MCLOUGHLIN BLVD #F

JOHNSON, JOHNNY NEWMAN 8/21/1958 13222 SE MCLOUGHLIN #8

JUDD, MARTIN PAUL 9/10/1967 13222 SE MCLOUGHLIN BLVD #11

KEMP, ROBERT JAMES 3/6/1938 13222 SE MCLOUGHLIN #7

MCGEE, WAYNE PRESCOTT 6/7/1955 13600 SE MCLOUGHLIN BLVD

MERIWEATHER, THOMAS NICHOLAS 1/15/1953 13222 SE MCLOUGHLIN, IN CAR

SCHREIBER, MATTHEW JOHN 6/15/1962 7609 SE OVERLAND ST

Information is only provided for sex offenders who have been designated as Predatory, as provided in ORS 181.585, who have also been determined to present the highest risk of reoffending and to require the widest range of notification; or found to be a sexually violent dangerous offender under ORS 144.635.

[Info] How to survive in the woods for three days

Yet another Wiki, this one billed as a How-To Manual. How to survive in the woods for three days caught my eye right away.

Blue Oregon tries soooooooooooooooooo hard..

Had to chime in on a couple of Blue Oregon posts today.

First, an alleged 'civil engineer' sorta kinda sets up a straw man and poses a misleading arguement about roadway construction and maintenance costs in a discussion of area transit problems.

Since Clackamas County taxpayers are the red-headed child of TriMet, receiving much less service than we pay for, we do have to be diligent in quashing the FRNs (Frelling Rail Nuts) who expect the MAX to solve all our transit problems. That's the MAX which will never run within five miles of my house.

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Then, another story takes aim at nuclear power, but one respondent employed the time-tested READY-FIRE-AIM methodology of the World Wrong Web, reversing the chronology of the Trojan Shutdown. Revisionist history ain't a meritorious debate tool, so that had to be challenged.

In the process, the boogeyman of Yucca Mountain arose once more. Folks, we have high level radwaste we could burn, for power, using reactor designs which minimize proliferation risks. Here's the facts, folks.

"I clearly have serious concerns... whether the people at the Justice Department have looked at the Constitution."

This was an incredibly wrong, wrong thing to do. I cannot believe this happened.

F.B.I. Raid Divides G.O.P. Lawmakers and White House
By CARL HULSE, NY Times, May 24, 2006

WASHINGTON, May 23 — After years of quietly acceding to the Bush administration's assertions of executive power, the Republican-led Congress hit a limit this weekend.

Resentment boiled among senior Republicans for a second day on Tuesday after a team of warrant-bearing agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation turned up at a closed House office building on Saturday evening, demanded entry to the office of a lawmaker and spent the night going through his files.

The episode prompted cries of constitutional foul from Republicans — even though the lawmaker in question, Representative William J. Jefferson of Louisiana, is a Democrat whose involvement in a bribery case has made him an obvious partisan political target.

Speaker J. Dennis Hastert raised the issue personally with President Bush on Tuesday. The Senate Rules Committee is examining the episode.

Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House majority leader, predicted that the separation-of-powers conflict would go to the Supreme Court. "I have to believe at the end of the day it is going to end up across the street," Mr. Boehner told reporters gathered in his conference room, which looks out on the Capitol plaza and the court building.

A court challenge would place all three branches of government in the fray over whether the obscure "speech and debate" clause of the Constitution, which offers some legal immunity for lawmakers in the conduct of their official duties, could be interpreted to prohibit a search by the executive branch on Congressional property.

Lawmakers and outside analysts said that while the execution of a warrant on a Congressional office might be surprising — this appears to be the first time it has happened — it fit the Bush administration's pattern of asserting broad executive authority, sometimes at the expense of the legislative and judicial branches.

Pursuing a course advocated by Vice President Dick Cheney, the administration has sought to establish primacy on domestic and foreign policy, not infrequently keeping much of Congress out of the loop unless forced to consult.

"It is consistent with a unilateral approach to the use of authority in Washington, D.C.," Philip J. Cooper, a professor at Portland State University who has studied the administration's approach to executive power, said of the search.

"This administration," Dr. Cooper said, "has very systematically and from the beginning acted in a way to interpret its executive powers as broadly as possible and to interpret the power of Congress as narrowly as possible as compared to the executive."

Some Republicans agreed privately that the search was in line with what they saw as the philosophy of the Justice Department in the Bush administration. They said the department had often pushed the limits on legal interpretations involving issues like the treatment of terrorism detainees and surveillance.

Republicans may have a potential self-interest beyond defending the institutional prerogatives of the legislative branch. With some of the party's own lawmakers and aides under scrutiny in corruption inquiries tied to the lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the former lawmaker Randy Cunningham, Republicans would no doubt like to head off the possibility of embarrassing searches of their members' offices.

But lawmakers of both parties said they had no interest in protecting criminal activities or Mr. Jefferson. Their fear, they said, is that the search set a dangerous precedent that could be used by future administrations to intimidate or harass a supposedly coequal branch of the government.

"No member is above the law, but the institution has a right to protect itself against the executive department going into our offices," said Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the House. "We all have in our offices information, letters, correspondence, speeches, etc., that we have written, some of which we may have given to the public, put on the public record, some may not be, which is confidential information, just as the White House has confidential information."

Mr. Hoyer and other Congressional leaders said they were uncertain of what their legal or procedural response might be, though several said a "protocol" for carrying out such a search should be worked out between the Justice Department and Congress. Such an arrangement could cover things like prior consultation with leaders or other notice, how the search would be conducted, who would be present and other details.

"I think it is necessary for us to assert our own prerogatives," said Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the deputy Republican whip.

There is no sign that Congressional Republicans' discontent over this particular matter may spread into a more general challenge to the administration's expansive view of executive authority. But the friction has underscored the growing willingness of Republicans on Capitol Hill to distance themselves from the administration at a time when Mr. Bush's poll numbers are touching new lows, prompting the White House to try to repair relations with Congress.

At the Justice Department, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales sought to smooth ruffled Congressional feathers. Mr. Gonzales said that private discussions were taking place to resolve the dispute and that he and his agency "have a great deal of respect for the Congress as a co-equal branch of government."

He and other officials suggested that the search had been made necessary by a lack of response to an earlier subpoena. "We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that the Department of Justice is doing its job in investigating criminal wrongdoing, and we have an obligation to the American people to pursue the evidence where it exists," Mr. Gonzales said.

Members of Congress are mindful that much of the public is not familiar with the speech and debate clause, which, among other things, requires that lawmakers be "privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same." Many people may wonder why a Congressional office cannot be searched in a criminal case and what members of Congress are complaining about.

To many lawmakers, that is secondary to the larger separation-of-powers principle they see at risk.

"I clearly have serious concerns about what happened," Mr. Boehner said, "and whether the people at the Justice Department have looked at the Constitution."

Oak Lodge Community Council Agenda

AGENDA
May 24, 2006
Oak Lodge Sanitary office
Oak Grove, Oregon

7:00 PM -- Call to Order: Dick Jones, Chairperson

ROLL CALL: Bill Bader, Bill Brown, Wilma Brown, Frank
Budwill, Sue Conachan, Edith Coulter, Rosemary Crites,
George Dietz, Jerry Foy, Bryn Gillem, Chuck Gode, Milo
Haas, Thelma Haggenmiller, David Jelinek, Dick Jones,
Jim Knapp, Alan Koch, Gloria Koch, Elinor Kuhns, Bill
Neels, Elaine Neels, Chuck Petersen, Margaret
Pritchard, Paul Savas, Eugene Schoenheit, George
Schneider, Eric Shawn, Susan Shawn, Kent Squires,
Julie Stanley, Dr. Elton Storment, Bob Waldt, Leonard
Waldemar, Don Wake, Suzanne Wake, Roy Wikman and Doug
Woods.

7:02 PM – Introduction of Attendees

Name, area of residence and position in the Oak Lodge
Community Council, if any.

7:05 PM – Council Reports
Approve minutes of the April 26th meeting.
Treasurer’s Report – Sue Conachan

7:10 PM – Sheriff’s Report – Lt. Chuck Slaney

7:15 PM - Special Presentation - Mace Childs
Clackamas County Fire Dist. #1

7:45 PM – District Reports

New Urban High School-Tim King

Clackamas County Fire District #1 – James Nowlin

Oak Lodge Water District – Jim Knapp

Oak Lodge Sanitary District – Kent Squires






Page 2

8:15 PM – Land Use Issues for Voting

Introduction of procedures by Chairperson. Eligibility
for Voting, Time Limits, presentations by those in
favor, the Council’s on-site review and those opposed.


Z1032-05 This is a 2 lot partition with an existing
house on one parcel. It is located at 14500 Vista Ln.
This parcel is .85 acres and is zoned R-10.

Z0357-06 This is a 2 lot partition with an existing
house on one parcel and a variance as the total area
is 19,250 sq. ft. This is located at 4021 Risley Rd.
The area is .44 acres and is zoned R-10.

Z0369-06 This is the Head Start facility at 16518
River Rd. They request expansion of their facility.

Update on Land Use Applications:

None

8:40 PM General Matters for Discussion

Sexual Predator update: No new information

Trolley Trail update- Thelma

FUTURE PUBLIC MEETINGS

Council meetings:
June 28, 2006 July 26, 2006 August 23, 2006

OLCC/CIA at Rose Villa unless otherwise noted
June 14, 2006 July 12, 2006 August 9, 2006

Special meetings, if required to vote on land use
issues, will be held in conjunction with the monthly
CIA meeting normally on the second Wednesday of each
month

9:00 PM – Meeting Adjourned

Oak Lodge Community Council meeting

A note from Richard Jones:

Please remember the OLCC meeting is Wednesday May 24th, 7 PM at Oak Lodge Sanitary's office. Mace Childs will discuss the land use interface with the Fire District. We will have a number of land Use application.

For those interested in the North Clackamas Park issues, the North Clackamas Park Stewardship Committee will meeting on Wednesday, May 24th, from 4-6 PM, at the Milwaukie Center.

[Health] McDonalds cooks healthy overseas, unhealthy here

Dear McDonalds:

I am very surprised that you value the life of an American customer less than a Danish or Russian customer, and will defer eating at McDonalds' until you reduce trans fats further. Why? Read on.....

Trans-Fat Content in Fast Foods Varies Widely by Country, City
The Washington Post

Three Danish doctors found widely varying levels of unsaturated fatty acid known as "trans fat" in foods purchased at McDonald's Corp and KFC fast food chains in 20 countries. Studies show eating 5 grams of the fat per day increases the risk of heart disease by 25 percent.

In the large nuggets and fries meal, the amount of trans fat varied from less than 1 gram in Denmark to more than 10 grams in New York City, according to the research published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine.{snip}The results show that "industrially produced trans fat can be eliminated without notable increases in the cost of foods or reduction in the quality or availability of foods," Steen Stender, author of the study, told Reuters.{snip}

And, the Wall Street Journal reports today on page D3:

At a NYC McDonald's, a large fries-and-chicken-nuggets combo was found to contain 10.2 grams of the trans fat, compared with 0.33 grams in Denmark and about 3 grams in Spain, Russia and the Czech Republic. A large order of french fries at a New York City McDonald's contained 30% more trans fat than the same order in Atlanta....

Any response from McDonalds will be posted here.

Tonight's Oak Lodge Community Council Agenda

AGENDA
March 22, 2006
(Oak Lodge Sanitary’s office) on Tri-Met's No. 34 River Road bus line.
Oak Grove, Oregon

Click on the Comment link below for the full agenda.

Special Events on Ag and Forest Land in the county

County Ordinance 207 is up for review. Drysiders, for years, have allowed special events on ag/forest land, and a winery in Stafford has requested the county allow them to do what's been legal and permissible in residential and business areas of the county for years.

The ORS allows counties to permit such in ag/forest areas, within limits; what should those limits be? The state's maximum allows up to 3,000 people, per event, with up to five events a year, on ag/forest land, if there's enabling legislation by the county. Should the rules be tighter? Should there be additional requirements? Should the county allow this at all?

I think so; after all, first, and foremost, the land belongs to its owners to use as they see fit, provided they don't limit the ability of their neighbors to use their adjacent land, and provided there's no risk to life or limb.

Back home, I was a Civil War (whoops, sorry, granny, a "War of Northern Agression") re-enactor. It just isn't something you can practically do in the confines of a residential area, and ag or forest land for this is perfect.

Mrs Clackablog is a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, who keep crafts and traditions alive, while playing at jousting and other forms of mock combat. Again, this is something best done in a rural area, as half-ton oatburners do not fit well in suburban parkland.

Surely, the county's staff can evolve guidelines; specific limits on noise at property lines, a requirement for private state-licensed security and or first aid/AED/CPR-trained marshals on site, perhaps a mandate for other safety-oriented requirements as well as a performance bond to forfeit if the event causes problems. A waiver for groups which have a track record of not causing problems is also equitable.

If you concur, then an e-mail, by close of business Monday, to Ms Erlien Kittleson, The Adm. Ass't. to the Planning Director, and to Gary Hewitt, Variances and Forest District Applications. On a weekend, I'm flyin' blind not knowing the exact person to write to, but if neither of those folks are ight, they will know who is, and a list of all the possible county planning contacts may be found here.

Oak Lodge Community Council meeting Wednesday

Richard Jones reports:

The Oak Lodge Community Council March meeting is Wednesday, the 22nd, at our regular location (Oak Lodge Sanitary’s office) on Tri-Met's No. 34 River Road bus line.

We have a number of interesting Land Use items and as a special speaker we will have ODOT talking about the rebuild of McLoughlin including the installation of some addition islands. This will be our opportunity to speak up and give our input early in the process. If ODOT goes away thinking we love our current islands BEWARE!!

Strong winter storm system expected later today and tonight

Statement as of 10:24 am PST on March 8, 2006
Expires 10:00 AM PST on March 09, 2006

(NWS, Portland OR) A strong frontal system will move across northwest Oregon and southwest Washington later today and tonight bringing gusty winds and low snow levels to the area. Wind gusts of 30 to 40 mph can be expected throughout the Willamette Valley... Clark County and the lower Columbia region later this afternoon and
evening as the front moves through the area. The snow level will lower after the front passes this evening... to around 500 feet in northern areas and 1000 feet in the south. Some light snowfall accumulations will be possible above 1000 feet... generally an inch
or less. By Thu morning... some rain mixed with snow is possible on the valley floor as colder air moves into the area and lowers the snow level to near 500 feet. Another storm system with very cold air is expected to move through the area Thu night.

[Civitas] Calendar of Public Meetings for March 2006 affecting Oak Lodge

Meeting times and places may change so data should be confirmed in advance.
Click here for the list.

Locations:

County Commission Board Offices are at 2051 Kaen Road.
Educational Service District office is at 4101 SE Lake Road.
Homewoods Heights is at 17999 SE River Road.
Milwaukie Center is at 5440 SE Kellogg Creek Drive.
Mt. Scott Fire Station of CCFD No. 1 is at 9339 SE Causey Avenue.
North Clackamas School Board is at 4444 SE Lake Road.
OLSD is the Oak Lodge Sanitary District at 14611 SE River Road.
PSB is the Public Service Building, 2051 Kaen Road.
SSC is the Sunnybrook Service Center, 9101 SE Sunnybrook Blvd.

If you want to take the bus to get there, visit this new free trip planning service from Google or use Tri-Met's own Trip Planner.

RIP, Harry Browne

There's a lot not to like about Libertarianism.

There's just some folks who not only can't take care of themselves and rend the heart when they botch their lives, over and over again; they also ruin the lives of those around them.

Ther's also a small but highly effective minority of folks who just plain run amok; the uninsured driver, the drug users who scatter toxic waste left and right as they make their evil brew, and the persistant driving drunk, among many others. Visualize the mushroom clouds we'd see if plutonium, uranium and thorium were not regulated.

That being said, I admired Harry Browne, the 1996 & 2000 Libertarian candidate for the presidency.

"I hate death." Dryly, he continued, "If I were president, I would outlaw death. And just like every other law, Congress would be exempt."

Tonight, I learned of his demise. Please, just read his Principles of Government and tell me he wasn't an unsung genius.

Who’s in charge of this choo-choo train? A witless draft-dodger, an inept duck-hunter, an historical illiterate, and an overrated twofer.

I think Fred On Everything's a little soft on Shrub, et al., this week. Hope he makes up for it next week.

[National] Bad Idea From Darlene Hooley

A letter to Congresswoman Hooley:

Your recent e-mail (click here to see) questioning the transfer of port management to Dubai Ports World is a bad, bad example of pandering, and the staffer who briefed you on this issue made a mistake.

If we don't have trustworthy friends in the Muslim world, we will never find peace with an open society based on world trade. We must avoid showing Muslims we are xenophobic, and since this is a transfer from one overseas management corporation (which also was not rigidly inspected before they took the reins) to another, drawing attention to *this* transfer tells Muslims we can't, won't, don't trust them.

Port management companies follow the procedures DHS and the Congress dictate.

If you are truly concerned with security, then provide full funding for 100% inspection, for even if we had 100% US ownership of port management, our container inspection system system inspects only 5% of all containers and only 1 % of containers are inspected overseas.


One nuke (out of how many hundreds of the tens of thousands made? out of how many hundreds of ex-Soviet suitcase nukes which are unaccounted for?) exploding on the deck of a ship in harbor, would make large portions of any city uninhabitable for decades, because water detonations create the worst possible conditions for contamination.


Add to that the likely enhancement of the device by surrounding it with metals which would become radioactive easily, like cobalt (not a controlled or tracked substance because of its industrial utility and commonality). That easy and undetectable step would multiply the lethality of fallout several hundred fold, and anyone with the time to think about the matter would see that cargo inspection has no business being performed in a metropolitan area.

I realize you're overworked and understaffed, and your staff are overworked, but insulting Muslims (which I ain't, by the way) through challenging the transfer of port management to a corporation with Muslim leadership won't make us more secure, and will have the opposite effect. It will add fuel to the fire by insulting the Arab world.

Please, instead, seek full funding for 100% inspection of every cargo container arriving, either offshore or in locations far away from high density population areas. THAT is a positive solution to this problem.

[Food]Layers of Chocolate, Best to Worst

One might want to think about the fact that chocolate triggers dopamine release in the brain. I suspect that eating a lot of 100% solids could have a mildly consciousness-altering effect. One might draw parallels with the various other civilisations that got their warriors all ****ed up on drugs before sending them out to fight...

A Brit-blogger spoke with a U.K. chocolatier and found a few things which should inform you, the consumer, about the quality of the chocolate you buy to enjoy. Apologies for his naming UK and European chocolate companies, but, well, that's what he's used to.

Now, one key element, the nature of the bean (premium Criollo, hybrid Trinitatio, or Forastero waaay down there at the bottom) is something which we probably will never get the USDA to require we be told. Right now, we're not told whether coffee comes from Arabica or Robusta beans, and coffee does not have the tie-in to the enormously influential sugar industry which chocolate does. But, if ever you see any of those words on a chocolate advertisement or label, please write back to Clackablog (e-mail address at top of the blog web page) & let me know.

However, if you see the words 'acid' or 'cacao solids' you're getting factory chocolate. The more different oils and fats you see on a label other than the original cacao butter, the more it's been adulturated.

I'll ask Mrs Clackablog, the chemist, to give this a once-over, and help with more label-reading tips.

MEDICARE DRUG FORUM TONIGHT

Sen. Kurt Schrader & Rep. Dave Hunt invite you and your family to attend tonight's forum to learn how to best navigate Medicare Part D:

Monday, February 13 @ 5:30pm
Gladstone Senior Center
1050 Portland Avenue, Gladstone

This is a great opportunity to get answers from the experts:

* Cynthia Hylton from Oregon Senior Health Insurance Benefits Assistance Program (SHIBA), the state agency designed specifically to help educate the public about Medicare.
* Katie Gauthier from Oregonians for Health Security will lend expertise about the Oregon Prescription Drug Program, the state-sponsored program to assist Oregonians with their prescription & wellness costs.

Over 20 different companies are offering multiple Medicare Part D plans in Oregon, but are not allowed to market these plans by calling you directly. To find out which plan is best for you, gather your list of prescriptions and visit www.medicare.gov, call 1-800-MEDICARE, or contact a volunteer from Oregon SHIBA (Senior Health Insurance Benefits Assistance) at 800-722-4134.

If you are unable to attend tonight's forum but would like more information about Medicare Part D, please contact Representative Hunt at rep.davehunt@state.or.us or 503/986-1440.

[National] Krewe Du Vieux

The first major parade of Carnival season in New Orleans is over. Anyone surprised they have a dim view of FEMA?

[World] Congress shall make no....

and neither shall anyone else.

[Oregon] Measure 111: Its Time Has Come

Once upon a time, medicine was a bad joke, so the Founders didn't even cover it in version one-dot-oh of the Big Contract. Nowadays, if you're talkin' unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, you ARE talking about a certain basic standard of health care with dignity. No begging in quadruplicate to drug companies and waiting months so you can get a little plastic card for a munificent discount on their drugs, drugs which have become vitally significant elements of healthcare.

There's simple stuff which doesn't require an MRI on every block would significantly improve longevity as well as make for a healthy American workforce. Heck, if Cut Off, Louisiana can do it, Oregon sure can.

Heck, we might even get below No. 47 in national longevity. Yep. We're fourty-seventh! We're fourty-seventh!

This ballot measure tells the Oregon Lege to improve things.. sure, they won't get it right the first time, but with the US longevity rate lower than 46 other countries (see list below), hadn't we better get serious about extending the world's best health care system to Americans?


Campaign organizers for Measure 111, the Healthy Oregon Plan, will distributing signature sheet packets on Saturday Feb. 11th from 9AM-11AM at 537 NE 29th Ave, very close to Tri-Met's 19 and 12 bus lines. Click here for Trimet's Trip Planner. A more general meeting will follow on Saturday the 18th, time & location TBA.


And, who's got us beat? Countries with longer life expectancy than the U.S., as per the CIA: Andorra, Macau, San Marino, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Sweden, Australia, Switzerland, Guernsey, Iceland, Canada, Cayman Islands, Italy, Gibraltar, France, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Spain, Norway, Israel, Jersey, Faroe Islands, Aruba, Greece, Martinique, Austria, Virgin Islands, Malta, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Montserrat, New Zealand, Germany, Belgium, Saint Pierre et Miquelon, Guam, United Kingdom, Finland, the Isle of Man, Puerto Rico, Jordan, Guadeloupe, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bermuda and Saint Helena.

What have they got that we don't? Answers are welcomed. Step right up.

[TriMet] Google Transit

http://www.google.com/transit is the first in a rollout of Google Maps which include mass transit schedules. Here's an example of a trip from the Oak Grove library to the branch library in Hollywood. Looks pretty neat, and much faster than Tri-Met's own website. Recommended.

[National] Katrina Discussions

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs holds a series of hearings on Hurricane Katrina, as a part of its ongoing investigations into the most-warned about, and most-poorly-managed, major disaster of modern times. Click here to watch the finger-pointing live, or click here and pick the room number from the list shown for audio-only.

The Defense Department’s Role in the Response Thurs., Feb. 9, 2006, 7:00 a.m. PST.
The Roles of DHS and FEMA Leadership Fri., Feb. 10, 2006, 6:30 a.m. PST.
Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Worsen the Disaster Mon., Feb. 13, 2006, 7:00 a.m. PST.
The Homeland Security Department’s Preparation and Response Tue., Feb. 14, 7:00 a.m. PST.

Previous episodes (video downloadable for use with Real Alternative or Real Player) include:

Preparing for a Catastrophe: The Hurricane Pam Exercise (a Potemkin Village exercise in New Orleans, a year before Katrina. How could the exercise been so perfect, but the reality so atrocious?)
Managing the Crisis and Evacuating New Orleans
The Role of the Governors in Managing the Catastrophe
Evacuating New Orleans in Advance of Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina: Urban Search and Rescue in a Catastrophe
Mississippi’s Recovery
Who’s In Charge of the New Orleans Levees?
Perspectives of FEMA’s Operations Professionals
What Can Government Learn from the Private Sector’s Response?
‘Always Ready’: The Coast Guard’s Response to Hurricane Katrina
Why Did the Levees Fail?
New Orleans: A Flooded City, a Chaotic Response
How is FEMA Performing Its Mission at This Stage of Recovery?
Recovering from Hurricane Katrina: Responding to the Immediate Needs of Its Victims
Recovering from Hurricane Katrina: The Next Phase
and, another bon mot which should have been an eye-opener:
FEMA’s Response to the 2004 Florida Hurricanes: A Disaster for Taxpayers?

Also, Alabama's Department of Public Health and The South Central Center for Public Health Preparedness will present “When Every Second Counts: Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina,” on Tue., Feb. 14, 2006, 10:00-11:30 a.m. PST. Register here for the live webcast after testing your readiness to run Real Alternative/RealPlayer or Windows Media Player.

[National] Energy Independence @ 2 cents / KWH

Wednesday, I stumbled across (Thank you, BoingBoing !) a discussion of airborne windmills. One tethered version posits two cents per KWH, which ain't shabby, but has to ground when thunderbumpers start sparking, or Auntie Em's house flies by. Not suited for the tropics, but better for high latitudes, places (like Oregon) which really need the power (to keep back The Ice?) Given that China's now alleged to be the cause of 1/4 of LA's smog, I certainly hope someone Over There's looking at this tech, too.

Add in microwave power transmission as the esteemed First Blogger explained in Fallen Angels, and the tether could be non-conductive; therefore, lightning nearby would not require grounding it, and availability of power from the Skymill(TM) goes up. I think this would surely benefit The Republic For Which We Stand, by reducing the opportunity for energy shortage-driven panics to lead to corporate-imperial adventurism.

At very least, this would enrich the near-space environment and makes it easier to work off the surface for long periods of time. Combine that with the incrementalist approach of JP Aerospace and their plans to use three different designs of blimps for a slow but very safe and very very cheap replacement for rockets, and we'd be far better off investing in this, rather than extracting oil at gunpoint.

[Newspeak] Outlawing Comedy

Rowan Atkinson, one of the funniest men of our time, speaks here to Parliament on the foolishness of legislating against 'hate speech' and on the impact upon civil society were that to be enacted An excerpt:

In (other) words, you haven't committed an offence unless of course you've committed the offence, in which case I'm afraid you've committed an offence.

[Civitas] Calendar of Public Meetings for February 2006 affecting Oak Lodge

Calendar of Public Meetings for February 2006 affecting Oak Lodge
Note meeting times and places may change so data should be confirmed in advance.
Click here for the list.

[Crime] Oregon City Girls book, national newsmagazine story

Friday last, Dateline NBC shed a little light on the local/federal investigations into the Pond & Gaddis murders of 2002, as per this Tribune story and article from the Oregonian.

[National] The Worst Case Scenario: Is America Ready For A Nuclear Terrorist Attack?

And, the answer from the Bush Administration, as you will read from the latest Sixty Minutes story below, is obviously, "We don't care."

(CBS) We can no longer ignore the worst-case scenario of a nuclear terrorist attack on an American city. Osama bin Laden has made it clear he wants to obtain nuclear weapons and use them against us.

The 9/11 Commission considers such an attack the No. 1 threat today, not because it’s the most likely disaster scenario, but because it would be the most devastating. The chairman of the 9/11 Commission even says he expects to see such an attack on an American city in his lifetime.

Hundreds of thousand of people could die in a nuclear attack, but hundreds of thousands of others could be saved. That’s because the Pentagon — after decades of searching — believes it has found a drug to treat radiation exposure. Why isn’t that drug available?

Correspondent Ed Bradley reports. (Story follows: Click here or on COMMENTS, below).

[Civitas] Oak Grove Sanitary Wants You!

Richard Jones passed on news of a vacancy on the board of the Oak Grove Sanitary District, which meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. in the District's Administration Building at 14611 SE River Road.

Hi There,

This e-mail is aimed at Oak Lodge Sanitary District residents. Attached is an application for Oak Lodge Sanitary District Master Plan Advisory Committee.
January 31st (Tuesday) is the final time for returning the application.

Becoming involved early is important because early involvement increases the likelihood your ideas will be included.

Have a great day,

Dick J

Filling these seats with people who actually do their homework and think is important to keeping the quality of services up, while keeping the gost of government and its impact upon us, low. Failure to do that the last time could have been expensive. Here's an application form in PDF form.

[Farvernügen] Choosing the safer car

Electronic Stability Control (ESC and other acronyms) has been shown to significantly reduce the chance of accidents.

Since the best way to avoid an accident is not to have one, ESC is a good idea. So, I cross-referenced 2004-2006 vehicles which had ESC against NCAP crash test ratings, and filtered out the vehicles which had only a 3-star or lower crash test rating.

Click here for the results.

[Xmas] Deck Us All With Boston Charlie

The formalities of the season must be observed, and one of them is The Original MashUp, brought to us by The First Blogger, the esteemed Dr. Jerry Pournelle.

One might wish to go back to the original source, however, and short of a trip to Fort Mudge in the depths of the Okeefenokee, here may be a viable reference for the serious scholars of Pogo among us.

[Feds] It's a matter of national security

If word gets out that we're ill-prepared, it will only encourage the hurricanes to intensify their attacks. Therefore, is it a matter of National Security that FEMA conceal its incompetence?

Mark Tapscott blogged:

If there were an award for the least popular federal agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency would probably be a near-unanimous choice, thanks to the barrage of negative media it received during the Hurricane Katrina debacle. Maybe that is why FEMA is using the Freedom of Information Act to keep behind closed doors the results of its own customer satisfaction survey on how well the agency’s inspectors did their jobs following hurricanes Charley, Frances, Jeanne and Ivan. The way FEMA is doing it points to why one of the most frequently used and abused FOIA exemptions ought to be seriously tightened up or repealed outright.

[Feds] TSA does something right

However, there's actually an improvement: The TSA new policies are a real improvement in safety.

Read this article by a real security expert, Bruce Schneier, to understand why the TSA is moving in the right direction and why critics like Salon don't get it. Key quote:

Exactly two things have made airline travel safer since 9/11: reinforcement of cockpit doors, and passengers who now know that they may have to fight back. Everything else -- Secure Flight and Trusted Traveler included -- is security theater. We would all be a lot safer if, instead, we implemented enhanced baggage security -- both ensuring that a passenger's bags don't fly unless he does, and explosives screening for all baggage -- as well as background checks and increased screening for airport employees.

The TSA deserves credit for its shift in policy, not abuse.

AGENDA, Oak Lodge Community Council

December 7, 2005, Oak Lodge Sanitary office, 14611 SE River Road, Oak Grove, Oregon

(Details after the jump; click here for more).

[Media] No, I Didn't Crash Blogger

If you tuned in yesterday and found 404 - Page Not Found or suchlike on all of Blogspot.Com (where this blog is hosted), I didn't do it. Wasn't my fault. No, not me.

Blog*Spot was down for a few hours yesterday due to an unexpected server outage, causing timeout, 404, and similar errors when trying to view blogs. This problem was solved and we are implementing better monitoring to better catch and resolve such issues in the future. If you continue to have problems viewing Blog*Spot blogs, please try clearing your browser's cache and cookies, then reloading the blog(s) in question. Thanks for your patience.

The timing was soooo concidental.. for the Oregonian local bureau published a story on my blogging just before Blogspot crashed.

Oak Lodge Community Council meeting Wed. the 7th

The regular November-December Oak Lodge Community Council meeting is tomorrow evening, December 7th, at Oak Lodge Sanitary's office.

The agenda is packed: Ron Weinman from Clackamas County's DTD will update us on the County's Capital Improvement Progam (CIP). Applicants or representatives from two groups will share information, there are several land use applications for review as well as District and agency reports.

Thoughts on the war

Every once in a while, Fred On Everything writes about something I can actually quote.. not that he's wrong, mind you, but a steady diet of Fred would unravel the minds of the media elite and those who accept the 500 channels of video pablum delivered from the the White House Press Office and the poverty industry via Comcast-ABC/Disney-DirecTV-CBS-Dish-NBC-TimeWarner.

I like to keep him prominently on my virtual shelf because he will challenge his own assumptions as ruthlessly as anyone else's. That needs doing, a lot.

Well, he's provided a cogent and concise comparison of the working stiffs in the press (not the suits who decide what gets covered, but the actual foot soldiers of the Fifth Estate), their motivations, and how those are bound to collide with those of our military. Here's a snippet:

For example, many in Washington who actually know how the press works (the military actually doesn’t) believe that the press supports the war in Iraq, has until recently given the White House a free ride, and has been adroitly controlled by the government. I agree. If newspapers had been against the war, they would have published countless photos of gut-shot soldiers who will never get a date, paraplegics doomed to a life on a slab, and more Abu Ghraib photos (which they have.) Soldiers don’t know this. In any event, anything but unqualified support is treason.

The military usually regards journalists as cowards. (“Coward” and “traitor” are their gravest pejoratives.) This is questionable. When the 2000th US soldier died in Iraq, I checked the site of Reporters Without Borders and found that 72 reporters had been killed there (with two more missing), or 3.6 percent of the military total. I don’t know how many troops have served in Iraq. Just now it is about 160,000. To be conservative, let’s call it 130,000 on average, making 347,100 for two and two-thirds years of war. By the equation 2,000/347,000 = 72/x, one finds that there would have to have been 12,500 reporters in Iraq to have equal rates of death between reporters and soldiers. Otherwise, the press is taking casualties at a higher rate than the military. The calculation is rough, but makes the point.

When I was a child back there in Journalism School (with an odd curriculum, very out of fashion, where Journalism was under the School of Business and there was a strong expectation you'd have to be able to calculate and read a balance sheet to cover a story), I went to school with Iranian and Iraqi students, and my senior paper was on the Islamic Press. Folks, brace yourself: They don't think like we do.

It's kinda clear to me that our overseas press, brave as they are, miss the boat, and fail to engage the Islamofascists with the same degree of skepticism they've used for two centuries to keep our government occasionally honest. Sure would be nice if they considered this advice from a guy who knows what's going on:

Here's something that needs to be emphasized. The leaders and media of the western world continually refer to 'mujahadeen' (holy warriors) and 'jihad' (holy war) in their references to Islamic terrorists. By the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed (Allah bless he and his progeny) and Islamic law, the terrorists should properly be called 'mufsidoon' (evildoers) who engage in al-Hiraba (unholy war against society - that which destroys, rather than supports, betterment of humanity). These words make considerable difference when speaking to and of Muslims. The connotations of all are extremely important. Can you imagine trying to recruit a young Muslim for a suicide murder mission if he is going to be participating in al-Hiraba and thus condemned to 'jahanam' (hell)?

I routinely espoused the concepts of 'musfidoon' and 'hiraba' to the people and leaders in my province in Iraq - they began to use the words! This even spilled into some of the rhetoric of people from other provinces! We must continue to use the proper words of Islam to describe the despicable acts committed by those who pervert the teachings of the Prophet (Allah bless he and his progeny).

More discussion follows here, in the First Blog.

Amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate,...

Why McDonald's French Fries Taste So Good is an Atlantic Monthly excerpt from Schlosser's Fast Food Nation. This article notes the rise of, and influence of, the flavor industry in the manipulation of our culinary desires.

The laundry list of chemicals above came from a Burger King strawberry shake. Have it your way?

Calendar of Public Meetings for December 2005

Please consider that times and places may change, so confirming details in advance is wise.

Locations:
County Commission Board Offices are at 2051 Kaen Road.
ESD office is at 4101 SE Lake Road.
Homewoods Heights is at 17999 SE River Road.
Oak Lodge Sanitary Office is at 14611 SE River Road.
Milwaukie Center is at 5440 SE Kellogg Creek Drive.
Mt. Scott Fire Station of CCFD No. 1 is at 9339 SE Causey Avenue.
SSC is the Sunnybrook Service Center, 9101 SE Sunnybrook Blvd.

Tuesday the 6th
8:30 AM Board of Commissioners Study session at Board offices.

Wednesday the 7th

7:00 PM Traffic Safety Commission meets at SSC.
7:00 PM Oak Lodge Community Council regular Nov.-Dec. meeting at Oak Lodge Sanitary office.

Thursday the 8th

7:40 AM Economic Development Commission meets at SSC.
10:00 AM Land Use Hearing with Hearings Officer at SSC.
10:00 AM Clackamas County Commissioners weekly meeting at Board offices.
6:00 PM NCP&RD DAB meets at Milwaukie Center.
7:00 PM Historic Review Board meets at SSC.

Friday the 9th
10:00 AM Milwaukie Center Advisory Board meets at Milwaukie Center.

Monday the 12th
6:30 PM Planning Commission meets at SSC.

Tuesday the 13th
9:00 AM Board of Commissioners Study session at Board offices.
6:30 PM Oak Lodge Sanitary Board monthly meeting at Board offices.

Wednesday the 14th
9:30 AM BCC Land Use Hearing at Board offices.

Thursday the 15th
9:00 AM Land Use Hearing with Hearings Officer at SSC.
10:00 AM Clackamas County Commissioners weekly meeting at Board offices.
7:00 PM North Clackamas School Board meets at ESD office.

Monday the 19th
7:00 PM Fire District No. 1 Board meeting at Mt. Scott Fire Station.

Tuesday the 20th
8:30 AM Board of Commissioners Study session at Board offices.
7:00 PM Oak Lodge Water Board monthly meeting at District offices.

Wednesday the 21st
9:00 AM Sunrise Corridor Briefing at SSC.

Thursday the 22nd
10:00 AM Clackamas County Commissioners weekly Board meeting.

Tuesday the 27th
8:30 AM Board of Commissioners Study session at Board offices.
7:00 PM Jennings Lodge CPO meets at Homewoods Heights.

Thursday the 29th
10:00 AM Clackamas County Commissioners weekly meeting at Board offices.

Tuesday December 27th
CPR training at Fire District #1: Contact the Fire Prevention Office, 503-655-8537 for details.
The cost is $10 to residents of Fire District #1.

Many thanks to the indefategable Dick Jones for this information. Any errors are mine.

Economic Recovery via WiFi

It was rumored that the first connection New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin had with the outside world after Katrina travelled on a WiFi-connected Vonage VOIP telephone linked through the dedicated folks at DirectNIC.com, who stayed on line throughout it all.

Now, Nagin's announced an initiative to cover the entire city with WiFi, starting with the Central Business District and the French Quarter. Be nice if they could fix Old Glory first, though.

But, the economic advantages of free Internet everywhere are not difficult to see... and not impractical. Sure wish the folks around here would look at free WiFi as a way to apply CPR to what's left of downtown Milwaukie, instead of bemoaning the juggernaut that is Wal-Mart.

UPDATE: BellSouth has yanked the offer to allow the City of New Orleans to temporarily use a BellSouth building to aid in the recovery, allegedly because of the WiFi project. If you're a BellSouth shareholder, you may wish to express your views here; the web form for comments for everyone else is over there.

[Health] Appealing your health plan's denial of service

Ever try to read your health plan's rules? I recently did my 'due diligence' in looking over which of the two non-Kaiser plans would be least worst, and ended up with a lot of eyestrain and not a lot of useful facts. Fortunately, US News and World Report did some analysis for me, and here's their results.

In the process, I encountered a description of the appeals process available to Oregonians, which just might be useful to you.

[Geography] Zipped Up

Ever wonder just where your zip code went? Here's a new site which cross references zip codes with the enormously useful Open Source Google Maps.

Where's your zip code?

[Health] Brees Foundation

Surgeons are as bad as programmers; both professions select for folks who prize the social graces and, indeed, human interaction, far less than the joy of solving a challenge. Fortunately, when a programmer doesn't communicate well, you generally just get something like, say, Microsoft Windows.

However, when a surgeon doesn't communicate well with a patient, things get worse. I've had two major surgeries, both with fallout I'd rather have avoided, and one of those (Kaiser, wouldn't you know) had Unintended Consequences Not Explained. So, forgive me when I note I'm wary of the entire breed.

Brees Foundation is a Bandon-based alliance of breast cancer survivors who are taking charge. They're self-funded, and their 2006 calendar is now available for order. Recommended.

[Truth] FactCheck.Org

Katrina: What Happened When is a fascinating article from FactCheck.Org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. It was put together quickly to serve as a conduit for reports on the 2004 election, and has quickly grown to be exttremely useful for broader issues.

It, along with the debunking service Snopes, should be in the Favorites/Bookmarks of every web browser. Really.

Weather map of Milwaukie

This website overlays weather and other information over Google Maps.. so you can see where it's raining, et cetera.

If you click on Overlay at right and select Portland Radar, you can even overlay the current radar image, which looks something like this (but, click on the link above for what's happening now).



Wow.

Civilization Triumphs!

The Cafe du Monde reopened today, 19 Oct MMV. Now, you don't have to go to SW 6th and Alder to Island Joe's for your morning beignet and chicory cafe au lait fix.

Wednesday's Oak Lodge Community Council Special meeting

AGENDA: Special meeting
October 12, 2005
Rose Villa
13505 SE River Road
Oak Grove, Oregon

7:00 PM -- Call to Order: Dick Jones, Chairperson

ROLL CALL: Bill Bader, Bill Brown, Wilma Brown, Frank Budwill, Sue Conachan, Edith Coulter, Rosemary Crites, George Dietz, Jerry Foy, Bryn Gillem, Chuck Gode, Milo
Haas, Thelma Haggenmiller, Richard Holmes, David Jelinek, Dick Jones, Jim Knapp, Elinor Kuhns, Bill Neels, Elaine Neels, Chuck Petersen, Margaret Pritchard, Paul Savas, Eugene Schoenheit, George Schneider, Eric Shawn, Susan Shawn, Kent Squires,
Julie Stanley, Dr. Elton Storment, Bob Waldt, Leonard Waldemar, Don Wake, Suzanne Wake, Roy Wikman and Doug Woods.

7:05 PM – Land Use Issues for Voting

Introduction of procedures by Chairperson. Eligibility for Voting, Time Limits, presentations by those in favor, the Council’s on-site review and those opposed.


Z0772-05 The applicant is seeking to partition a parcel into two lots. It is located on the east side of River Forest Drive near the intersection with River Forest Rd. This parcel has 22,100 sq. ft. and is zoned R-10 This application in some form has been before the OLCC several times in the last 18 months.

Z0370-05 This is an appeal of a staff decision dated August 25, 2005 involving adding 4 residential lots and an open tract for future development at the end of Minerva Lane off Oetkin Rd. The appellant believes the proposed roadway will take place on her property as well as environmental concerns. The applicant letter is the agenda.

Z0651-05 The applicant is seeking approval for 10-lot subdivision. The lots will range between 8,030 and 11,912 sq.ft. This parcel is 2.99 acres located at 15510 Wallace Rd. It is zoned R-10.

Z0758-05 This application is for Design review for a third warehouse structure on Ken Hood’s former property and a proposed monitoring Plan for traffic on Vineyard Rd.

8:00 PM General Matters for Discussion

Review Clearwater issue-Eugene Schoenheit

8:30 PM – Meeting Adjourned

Disaster survival

What should be the final word on disaster survival: Rescue yourself.

Avoiding water-damaged cars when buying

An estimated 570,000 cars were 'totalled' as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as per the head of the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) in media releases last week. And, as per NPR and other news sources, about half of storm-damaged cars which should have been parted out or scrapped will be resold through various kinds of chicanery.

So, here's NADA's tips on how to avoid getting a Katrinamobile.

TripAdvisor.com

Did some trip planning a while back, and found that Trip Advisor was the most useful of the sites used, far more than the major sites, when it came to studying the different places to stay out of town. The post-mortem reports from conventioneers who stayed in various different hotels were pretty close to what the reviewes on TripAdvisor had to say. Its reviews also match up accurately with Clackablog's experiences with the resorts in his old home town on the Gulf of Mexico (nowadays, a tourist trap/geezerville).

Red Light Cameras Cause More Accidents. Again.

The District's red-light cameras have generated more than 500,000 violations and $32 million in fines over the past six years. City officials credit them with making busy roads safer. But a *Post* analysis of crash statistics shows that the number of accidents has gone up at intersections with the cameras. The increase is the same or worse than at traffic signals without the devices. Three outside traffic specialists independently reviewed the data and said they were surprised by the results. Their conclusion: The cameras do not appear to be making any difference in preventing injuries or collisions....

Del Quentin Wilber and Derek Willis, *The Washington Post*, 4 Oct 2005, A01