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Posts published in “Day: September 9, 2013”

Complexity in the resignation

September 9, 2013
oregon
RANDY STAPILUS / Oregon

There's something about Multnomah County's process of replacing members of its commission that, it would seem, could use some work.

The county's top office holder is its commission chair, a position specifically elected by the public and not chosen from among the commission members or rotated around. (In that, there's some similarity with Portland's mayoral job.) But what happens when that person leaves?
For most elective positions, the idea would be that other elective office holders would make the decision about filling it until the voters do. In many instances, in many states, governors do a lot of that sort of thing, and Oregon does it in some cases (most often, judges). But not in this case.

In the case of Jeff Cogen, the chair leaving under heavily embattled conditions (people in Portland know about the infamous affair with a county employee), the replacement will be – his chief of staff, a person unknown to most people in the county and not named by anyone external.

Then the job will be filled in two steps. An elected replacement will be picked after the primary election next May (yes, that's the better part of a year away). But that will be for a temporary term. Coinciding with that, campaigns and elections will go on to fill the job for a regular four-year term; the election to settle that will be held in November 2014. So there could be four county chairs (starting with Cogen) over the next year and four months.

You'd think there'd be a more logical system than this. But then, Portland Multnomah County do like their peculiar systems in governmental organization.

Don’t do it!

September 9, 2013
rainey BARRETT
RAINEY
 
Second
Thoughts

For several weeks, I’ve been trying – really trying – to come up with a solid justification for risking more lives in Syria. Theirs and ours. I’ve tried – really tried – to find reasons to smack ol’ Bashar Assad up-side-the-head for killing and maiming thousands of his own people. I’ve tried. And failed.

If the president of this country authorizes any military action against Syria, I truly believe he’ll be wrong!

As citizens living in this freedom-loving country – citizens who value life, liberty and all that goes with them – citizens who’ve buried more than their share of loved ones who died protecting others all over the world – we’ve shown we put a high value on all we have. We put a high value on – our values. But those values are not the same in the rest of the world. And we’ve had our national butt kicked in several other countries when we tried to impose ours over theirs. For whatever seemingly humanitarian reasons we had at the time. History – and reality – tell us we were wrong.

Assad Junior has been killing his fellow countrymen and women and children for many years. His father – who killed hundreds of thousands in his own time – taught the kid well. Pick a means of death and it’s likely been used by one or the other. Or both. For many, many decades.

And we’ve watched for those same decades without doing anything about it. We’ve recognized the Syrian regimes as they’ve been torturing and killing. And we’ve even given – or sold – them arms of all kinds. They kept killing. We looked the other way.

Now – now Junior may have used chemicals to kill even more. And suddenly we’ve become incensed because he did. Or MAYBE he did. We know gas was used but we don’t know definitively who pulled the trigger. But because it was gas and not bullets or bombs, we’re all upset.

Why are we upset? What’s the difference if you die by bullets, bombs, knives, swords, starvation – or poison chemicals? Why have we become so nearly irrational in our hatred of Junior that our president wants to lob some missiles into the country? To hit what? To hit whom? And we’re not even sure it was Junior who authorized the deadly deed or some nutcase field commander or even one overzealous private who set it off. Or the “rebels.”

So, one of our tidy naval vessels is supposed to fire off a few Cruise missiles, turns to the open sea and the crew goes back to normal duties. For the rest of us – for the president who seems hellbent on pulling the trigger – what then?

President Obama made the first mistake when – without proof-in-hand – he very publically warned Assad he crossed “a red line” if reports of chemical weapons use were confirmed. For a man gifted as few others with the ability to express himself on camera, he certainly put himself – and maybe the rest of us – in a verbal “political box” for no reason. (more…)