Free Republic

18 states allow for recall votes on US Senators. The 18 states allowing for recall are as follows: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin. The Senate oath of office is: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well...

Propostions 66 and 67 have been put on the ballot to reverse tax increase enacted by the Oregon legislature earlier this year. The vote is in late January. A "no" vote is a vote against the taxes. I'm looking for how I can join the "No" campaign, but I can't find a website for it. The other side is much more organized. Can someone help me with this?

With a mere investment of $780,000 Soros and his allies were able to suborn free elections in the states of Montana, West Virginia, Missouri, Oregon, in 2008, and in Minnesota, Ohio, New Mexico, Nevada and Iowa, in 2006. How did he achieve so much with so little? He founded a 527 group which funded candidates in one kind of race in which the victor has the most influence over election integrity, and in which there is so little political competition: the Secretaries of State. In each State the SoS job is entrusted with overseeing the protection of free and fair...

-- Rescuers hoping to find two hikers missing on the frigid slopes of Oregon's Mount Hood faced worsening weather conditions Monday night as forecasters predicted white-out conditions that could severely hinder search efforts. == Up to 2 feet of snow is expected to fall Monday night into Tuesday at the elevation where rescuers are searching for any signs of Anthony Vietti, 24, and Katie Nolan, 29, who have been missing since early Friday. A third hiker who was with them, 26-year-old Luke Gullberg, was found dead Saturday.

The Oregon City parents charged with criminally negligent homicide in the faith-healing death of their teenage son will ask a judge to dismiss the charges because they followed the advice of state child welfare workers. Attorneys for Jeff and Marci Beagley also contend the law is unconstitutionally vague. The Beagleys belong to the Followers of Christ, an Oregon City church that relies solely on spiritual healing and rejects doctors and medicine. The hearing today in Clackamas County Circuit Court will preview some of the prosecution and defense arguments but won't delve into medical evidence. Attorneys also will revisit issues that...

Portland has the 19th worst traffic congestion in the country, with 23 percent of the city’s roads having “heavy delays,” according to a report released Wednesday.Seattle’s road woes are the worst, followed by Los Angeles at No. 2, with 38 percent of its roads having heavy delays, followed by Chicago (37 percent), San Francisco (35 percent) and New York City (31 percent), according to global positioning system (GPS) company TomTom of Concord, Mass.The company ranked cities as most to least congested according to how fast cars could travel on the street network. Traffic was defined as congested if drivers...

Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Nov. 16, 2009 Time: 1:30 p.m. PDT Farm tractor driven through fence at Umatilla Chemical Depot Umatilla Chemical Depot, Hermiston, Ore. –A large farm tractor drove through a Umatilla Chemical Depot fence last night, and the driver abandoned it. The person responsible has not been apprehended. Security at the depot remains high. The tractor did not get near the depot’s chemical weapons storage area. Depot security and off-post law enforcement officials are investigating. No damage was sustained to chemical munitions or the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (UMCDF). The UMCDF...

Buddy Lou, a 10-year old tabby cat, has become the first feline death from H1N1 in the United States. It appears the cat acquired the H1N1 virus from the owner’s niece who had been sick with an influenza-like illness the previous week. H1N1 in cats: Buddy Lou’s illness The cat was brought to the Animal Clinic in Lebanon, Oregon, on November 4, with labored breathing and was initially diagnosed with pneumonia. His breathing worsened by the next day and the cat was admitted to the veterinary clinic for treatment with antibiotics and oxygen. Buddy Lou did not respond to treatment...

Medford teacher Shirley Katz, who was denied permission to take her handgun to South Medford High School, has lost her appeal to the Oregon Court of Appeals. The court opinion, issued Wednesday by Judge Jack Landau, upheld a November 2007 decision by the Jackson County Circuit Court that affirmed the Medford School District's authority to prohibit employees from carrying firearms on school grounds.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A shooting has been reported and confirmed at a Tualatin strip mall, police said. Few details were available. According to Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue, there may be as many as 10 victims. The shooting was reported at 7575 SW Mohawk at the Martinazzi intersection. Police first confirmed that a shooting had occurred sometime after 11 a.m.

Dear Friends, Tonight I cast a historic vote to overhaul America’s failing healthcare system to improve the healthcare of all Americans. This bill prohibits exclusions based on preexisting conditions and ensures American families will no longer be one illness or job loss away from bankruptcy. It also protects America’s senior citizens by fixing the donut hole sooner and allowing more drug price-negotiation to ensure seniors are getting the best prices for their medications. For the first time in our nation’s history, we will say that every American deserves access to affordable quality healthcare. I also believe that controlling escalating healthcare...

Note: The following text is a quote: West Coast Man Charged with Developing and Distributing Cable Network Hacking Tools BOSTON, MA—Charges were unsealed in federal court against an Oregon man and the company he founded, TCNISO, alleging that they developed and distributed products that allowed users to modify their cable modems and obtain internet access without paying for it. Acting United States Attorney Michael K. Loucks, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer and Warren T. Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - Boston Field Division, announced today that RYAN HARRIS, age 26, of San Diego,...

I saw some of the Oregon blowing out USC at Eugene Saturday night. I noticed in the crowd shots there were Oregon fans making the Obama "O" with their fingers. I was just wondering if that "O" came first or those moonbat leftists in Eugene decided to adopt the Obama "O"?

Here is the Video of Portland's TPE II I will try to have some more shots this afternoon. Pray for America and the TPE II

Tremayne Durham still wants his money back. Three years ago Durham killed one man and held another hostage in an unsuccessful attempt to get back $18,000 he thought he was due. He is now serving a life sentence in the Oregon State Penitentiary, but he hasn't given up trying to collect. Today, he's using the courts instead of a .357 magnum -- and so far, he's having more success. Durham has filed suit in Multnomah County Circuit Court against Rob Chambers, whom he paid nearly $18,000 to build a soft-serve ice-cream truck in December 2005. Durham changed his mind a...

An Oregon apartment complex is banning its residents from flying American flags, not only from their dwellings but also their vehicles, KATU in Portland reported..... Sharron White, a long-time resident, was told by management to take down the flag she's flown on her car for eight years because "someone might get offended."

March on the Media! Join the nation wide rally on Saturday, October 17, 2009 At Hawthorne Park (between E. Main St/Jackson St/ Biddle Rd.) Medford, Oregon Meet at noon and march to NBC affiliate Channel 5. Bring your signs....tell the media we KNOW they are just a propaganda arm, not reporting the news we need to know!

Every now and then, you stumble upon a town that's gotten everything right—great coffee, food with character, shop owners with purpose. These 10 spots have it all, in perfectly small doses.

University of Oregon football coach Chip Kelly said he and suspended running back running back LeGarrette Blount reached a written agreement last Friday that the disgraced player could suit up for the Stanford game Nov. 7th if he meets strict academic and behavioral guidelines. After speaking with a number of nationally renowned professionals in the field, which included Dr. Harry Edwards and Tony Dungy, I came to the conclusion that leaving the door open for LeGarrette's potential return as an active player was the best solution," Kelly said in a prepared statement. Blount was suspended from the football team for...

On Tuesday, Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old Afghan immigrant who was a teenager in Queens during the Sept. 11 attacks, pleaded not guilty to federal terrorism conspiracy charges in New York. This is a scary story. Police stopped and searched Zazi's rented car on the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 10, as the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks loomed and President Obama was about to join world leaders at a U.N. confab. According to the U.S. attorney's office, Zazi flew to Pakistan in August 2008 to receive bombmaking instructions, returned to use the Internet and nine pages of handwritten bombmaking...

SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- A northwestern Oregon man who used a shock collar for dogs on his young children has been sentenced to three years of supervised probation.

Dozens of large squid are reportedly washing up dead on the central Oregon coast near Heceta Head. Oregon State Parks and Recreation spokesman Chris Havel tells the Oregonian his office is hearing reports of dozens of what are probably Humboldt squid. He says they're typically much more common in warmer waters around Santa Cruz, Calif. Humboldt squid have also showed up recently in waters off the Washington coast and in the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Washington state and British Columbia's Vancouver Island. Commercial fishermen in the strait complained the giant squid were grabbing the salmon right off their...

Policymaking: If the stimulus isn't working, perhaps it's because it was largely written by a collection of leftist interest groups called the Apollo Alliance that counts among its directors a co-founder of the Weather Underground.The Labor Department reported Friday that 42 states lost more jobs than they gained in August, and that 14 plus Washington, D.C., reported unemployment rates of 10% or more. Michigan's rate rose to 15.2%, highest in the nation. Nevada, represented by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, is second with 13.2%. California, home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is tied for fourth with Oregon at 12.2%. Clearly,...

More than two dozen motorcycles crashed on a freeway in Oregon on Friday, blocking traffic for hours, police said. Oregon State Police said the bikers were behind a car when traffic unexpectedly slowed in the northbound lanes on Interstate 5. The collision sent bikes scattering across the road, near Wilsonville, south of Portland.

The Oregon Court of Appeals reversed a decision this week by a controversial Clackamas County judge whose rulings prompted Attorney General John Kroger to block her from handling child-welfare cases. The appeals court said Circuit Judge Deanne Darling erred when she ordered an infant, who Department of Human Services claimed was physically abused, returned to the mother. It is not clear whether the appeals court case was among those that led to Kroger's extraordinary action. Darling came under fire earlier this year when she ordered DHS to help seek the release of a man accused of having sex with underage...

PORTLAND, Ore. - Vandals in Portland targeted some pretty pricey cars over night, throwing acid or paint stripper all over them. No one has claimed responsibility, and there's no telling just how many people were involved. The damage to as many as 15 cars is expensive. Here's one, a Hummer from the besieged Vic Alfonso Cadillac Dealership in Northeast Portland. You can see a number of spots where the paint is now peeling off the car. A sociology professor at Portland State University said there are plenty of reasons that could have motivated the vandals to do all of...

I wonder when the lawsuit will be filed about this.

Stephanie Yao Long/The OregonianIndish's version of vegetable korma. I recently watched "Monsoon Wedding," the Bollywood story of a grandiose Punjabi marriage celebration, a film as intricate as the four days of family drama leading to the ceremony. While we don't actually see what must have been a banquet to end all banquets, we can well imagine a feast as complex and elaborate as the convoluted wedding itself. I mention this affair because Indish, a new Indian restaurant, stakes its claim for uniqueness on a refusal to serve what owner Raj Sharma calls ornate and elegant wedding cooking. Rather than...

EUGENE, Ore. – Oregon suspended running back LeGarrette Blount on Friday for the remainder of season for punching Boise State defensive end Byron Hout. As Boise State began celebrating on their famous blue turf, Hout yelled in Blount's face and tapped him on the shoulder pad. Before Broncos head coach Chris Petersen could pull Hout away, Blount landed a right to Hout's jaw, knocking him to his knees. Blount also had to be restrained by police officers from fans heckling him on the way to the locker room after No. 16 Oregon's 19-8 loss Thursday to the No. 14 Broncos....

But the lasting image from this highly anticipated kickoff to the 2009 college football season may be Blount punching Boise State's Byron Hout after the final whistle and then needing to be restrained from fans by police on the field. As the Broncos began celebrating on their famous blue turf, Hout yelled in Blount's face and tapped him on the shoulder pad. That drew an immediate scream from Boise State head coach Chris Petersen, but before Petersen could pull Hout away, Blount landed a right hand to the defensive end's jaw. Then as Blount was being pulled off the field,...

        2(sic) Oregon soldiers killed in Iraq identified Aug 29, 2009 11:23 AM AP   Related Topics: PORTLAND, Ore.PORTLAND, Ore. (Map, News) - The Oregon National Guard has identified two soldiers killed when a convoy they were guarding was attacked in Iraq. Pfc. Taylor D. Marks, 19, and a decorated veteran, Sgt. Earl D. Werner, 38, died Friday when the convoy was struck by an explosively formed penetrator, or EFP, an armor-piercing explosive that turns into a projectile when detonated.Werner was on his third deployment with the Oregon National Guard. He had been awarded the Bronze...

GRANTS PASS — A kill order was issued Tuesday for the first wolves caught killing livestock in Oregon since they began moving to the state. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy said extensive efforts were made to persuade the wolves to leave livestock alone in the Keating Valley of Baker County, but haven’t worked. The two wolves have killed 29 animals in five incidents, including last week, when three sheep and a pet goat were killed. Federal hunters have been given a permit to kill the pair, and the rancher has permission to shoot them to protect...

The recent health care debate has sparked a lot rhetoric from both sides. In the interest of full disclosure, I am vehemently against the proposed government take over of our health care system for a number of reasons. Primarily due to overwhelming, documented reduction in the quality of care patients receive under such a system. The state of Oregon has the type of system that Congress is proposing for the entire country. Barbara Wagner, a resident of Salem in the state of Oregon, and lung cancer survivor, was prescribed Tarceva by her oncologist. Tarceva is a drug that has shown...

The son of a notorious CIA double-agent jailed in 1997 for spying for Russia has also pleaded guilty to espionage charges, the US Department of Justice said. Nathaniel Nicholson, 25, appeared Thursday before District Judge Anna Brown and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy to commit money laundering, a statement said. Harold Nicholson, 58, the highest-ranking CIA officer ever convicted of spying, was jailed in 1997 and is serving a 23-year prison sentence. He must also answer the latest conspiracy charges but has pleaded not guilty. The younger Nicholson faces more...

President Obama has proposed a new body that would enhance Medicare’s ability to deny care to the elderly and disabled based on government bureaucrats’ arbitrary valuations of those patients’ lives. Here are two examples of how a Government run Health Care plan would operate. A Death Panel By Any Other Name Would Smell the Same

The Healthy Americans Act would guarantee every American universal, affordable, comprehensive, portable, high-quality, private health coverage that is as good or better than Members of Congress have today. The Act includes tough cost containment measures - and would save Americans $1.45 trillion over the next decade.

Two cases of “public option” administrators rejecting patient requests for lifesaving or life-extending drugs (and instead offering to fund those patients’ assisted suicides) reached the mainstream media in the last two weeks. This has caused critics of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul proposal to look to Oregon for clues about what a national health system would bring. The picture is not pretty. Oregon, the only state to allow assisted suicide (via the 1997 “Death With Dignity Law”), has used its public health care “option” as a pretext for enacting an official policy of trading lives that bureaucrats determine to...

Monday, August 17, 2009 The Salem Town Hall Meeting with Kurt Schrader Your intrepid reporter was there! Although I fell asleep half way through as Mr. Schrader is rather long winded and boring as heck. What I came away with was: about 2/3rds of the crowd were Conservatives concerned with Obamacare and a small segment were what really looked to me like OLD HIPPIES.Yes, old hippies. I didn't know they still existed. The evidence is the bus pictured above. Oh, and a large group of Illegal Immigrants holding signs for "immigration reform". They were the only ones to applaud when...

The top consumer advocate in the Oregon attorney general's office spent years on the other side of legal aisle, defending companies against consumer claims, before becoming charged with pursuing nefarious businesses and flim-flam artists in the Beaver State.

In Oregon, one in four people can’t find full-time jobs Here’s the thing that worries unemployed Woodstock resident George Snipes: What if things are worse, much worse, than we are being told? They are, says Andrew Sum, an economist who heads the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. Sum has analyzed employment data for all 50 states, and he says that those charts provide statistical verification of what Snipes feels in his gut: Oregon’s 12.2 percent official unemployment rate is something of a red herring and far from a true indicator of the social hardship taking...

Telephone Town Hall A telephone town hall is similar to a regular town hall except it allows you to participate from the comfort of your own home. You will hear directly from Congressman Schrader and have the opportunity to ask him questions. Due to the number of people participating, Congressman Schrader won’t be able to address every question but you will have the opportunity to share your thoughts at the conclusion of the call. If you would like to participate in the call this evening please dial 1-877-269-7289 and enter access code 15108 at 7pm.

But 'gardeners' escape; pot-grow cooking fire blamed for S. Calif. wildfire From KTVZ.COM news sources Days after tribal police and federal agents seized 1,630 marijuana plants worth an estimated $5 million from a remote area of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, authorities in California said Sunday a more than 85,000-acre wildfire in Santa Barbara County had been traced to a cooking fire at an illegal marijuana grow. Friday's Warm Springs raid marked the fourth time in just over two years that police have busted a major pot grow on the reservation, tied to Mexican drug gangs. The total seized -...

Today's Guest Author is Stephan Andrew Brodhead who is running for the House of Representatives in Oregon's Congressional District #1. _____________________________________________ Health Care is at the top of the American consciousness this summer. It seems that just about everyone has an opinion on it, and there are many people who are passionate about their beliefs on both sides of the argument. As a candidate for the House of Representatives District 1, I feel it is my duty to honestly listen to as many people as possible who feel strongly enough to attend Town Hall meetings that are taking place all...

One of our sources at the David Wu protest Monday found this. I suspect a direct connection between Pelosi's vineyard in Napa, WWV and Acorn.

While the president and Congress may not welcome actual debate there has been some occurring out here in the real world. I've had several lively discussions the past few days with people who are passionate about health care reform and willing to view it as a policy discussion and not a personal attack on the coolest president in the history of EVER. I've always been a fan of letting states run most programs with a modicum of federal oversight. Once the feds are in charge, we go through the looking glass. The federal bureaucracy is a monolithic, slow moving behemoth...

McMINNVILLE, Ore. -- Passions overflowed at a health care forum hosted by Congressman David Wu on Monday as Oregonians packed a small McMinnville conference room while hundreds of others lined up outside, unable to get in. The health care reform debate playing out across the U.S. came home to Oregon as opponents and supporters of a federal overhaul yelled and sniped at one another at Wu's town hall meeting. Congressman David Wu hosted a town hall meeting on healthcare reform Monday night in McMinnville. And the calm of the summer evening gave way to an evening full of debates. “I...

Health Care: There might not be a "death panel," as Sarah Palin described it, but federal bureaucrats will be making end-of-life decisions. That's why state-run medicine is a leading cause of death in Britain and Canada.A post on the former Alaska governor's Facebook page has caused a stir by discussing openly what many privately fear and something we have written about. End-of-life counseling and efforts to measure cost-effectiveness of treatment will combine in a perfect storm to ration care in a way that lets the government decide who lives and who dies. "The America I know and love is not...

The Silverton, Oregon, city council has censured its transgender mayor. Mayor Stu Rasmussen admitted to wearing an open-back bathing suit, mini skirt, and high heels when he spoke before a group of children at a non-profit organization. A person attending the speech was displeased and filed a complaint. Andrea Lafferty is with the Traditional Values Coalition. "This is a man who's dressing like a woman. He was born a man. He has male DNA. That cannot change," she believes. Lafferty says the idea of making the appearance in front of children is an affront to parents who do not want...

Smith walked in through the unlocked door and was unbuckling his pants and taking off his shoes when Cramer's wife, Christy, found the man, Stoll said. Smith then laid down on the couch and went to sleep, she said. Christy Cramer went into the master bedroom with her daughter and locked the door. The pair then left the house through a back door in the bedroom, Stoll said. Christy Cramer picked her husband up at the nearby bar and took him home. All three entered the home but could not get into the bedroom where guns were located because the...

Republicans are seeing a lot of opportunities for 2010, according to a letter from staffers at the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). The letter, issued to a variety of Republican PACs and reported first at AOL's Politics Daily website last week, states that over 70 different seats across the nation are being targetted for turnover.