Serious Political Commentary for Serious Conservatives

Freedom Advocacy Section

“The Federal Government is not supposed to be a drive-thru social services agency where every State and millions of Americans pull up to the government window and load up with all kinds of Federal freebies.”
-Scott Rohter

Law of the Sea Treaty

Thirty four United States Republican Sentors have declared themselves opposed to the United Nation’s Law of the Sea Treaty. But there are still ten others who have not. Republicans need to present a unanimous front! We need unanimity here so that when we beat this New World Order Treaty down ….we defeat it so clearly, that the Democrats never even think of trying to bring it back in a future administration. IT MUST BE A HUMILIATING DEFEAT FOR PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA!

The lesson we need to learn from this is that in order to get along with the rest of the world WE DON’T NEED TO BEND OVER AND LET THEM KICK US IN THE BACK SIDE….And we don't need to bend over backwards either. We don’t need to surrender any more of our diminishing American national sovereignty in order to get along with the rest of the world! We just need to be a good neighbor. That’s all.

These 10 Republican Senators have yet to oppose the "LOST" (Treaty). They will remain in office beyond the next election. Richard Lugar, Olympia Snowe, and Kay Bailey Hutchinson also have not declared their opposition to the Law of the Sea Treat, but they are retiring this year.

Please be sure to call these Senators and let them know that you are opposed to "LOST", particularly if any of these are your Senators. And remember their names, the next time they're up for a challenge in the Republican Primary. They need to be replaced!

The Capitol switchboard phone number is:  1-202-224-3121.

The first 5 digits of the Senators phone numbers are always the same as they are above. The last 5 digits of the following Senator's phone numbers are:

Lisa Murkowski	Alaska
John McCain	AZ	4-2235
Mark Kirk	Ill	4-2854
Susan Collins	ME	4-2523
Scott Brown	Mass	4-4543
Thad Cochran	Miss	4-5054
Lindsey Graham	SC	4-5972
Lamar Alexander	TN	4-4944
Bob Corker	TN	4-3344
Mike Enzi	WY	4-3424

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There is a debate currently raging on Capitol Hill regarding the protection of intellectual property rights, and the so called theft of intellectual property by rogue websites, and foreign manufacturers of knockoff products, that offer products  for sale, without paying any royalties to their authors and inventors for their writings and discoveries.  There are two Bills working their way through Congress. They are:  SB 968 (PIPA) The Protect Intellectual Property Act and HR 3261 (SOPA) The Stop On Line Piracy Act.  They are currently still in committee being marked up with amendments. They are concurrent versions of the same Bill, which seeks to offer a legal remedy for the threat posed to American intellectual property rights, that is authorized and protected by our Constitution under Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8. Most of the Senators and Congressmen that I contacted today, whom I respect on Capitol Hill are not publically taking positions on the Bills.  That doesn’t demonstrate a whole lot of leadership on the issue, but in their defense, the rather complicated issues behind this legislation are a bit confusing.  Those members of Congress include Senator Tom Colburn, Senator Jim Diment, Senator Jeff Sessions, Senator Darryl Inhoff, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Congressman Stephen King, and Congressman Tom McClintock.  However Two Members of Congress that I respect are already publically taking positions on this issue. They are Congressman Ron Paul, and Senator Rand Paul.  They are both in front leading, and they are opposed to the Bills in their current form. In favor of the concurrent Bills are approximately eight Congressmen that you probably never heard of. They are:  Lamar Smith, Mark Amodei, Marsha Blackburn, Mary Bono, John Carter, Elton Gallegly, Bob Goodlatt, and Morgan Griffin.  Supporting HR 3261 and SB 968 is Hollywood, and ‘Big Pharma’.  That can’t be good!  Opposed to the Bills are Google, Facebook, Twitter, and most of the companies that provide access to the internet.  It seem like this is just a big battle between different liberal giants with conflicting business interests, similar to what occurred between Hollywood and the young television industry in the 1930s and 1940s.  But maybe it isn’t.  Anyway, it’s going to affect all of us, so we better pay attention! The way the Bills were originally written, they were encountering quite a lot of opposition. Opponents said that they had gone too far. Last week, specific language in the House Bill, giving the Justice Department and the Attorney General’s Office the power to shut down a website, just accused of on-line piracy, without a court order, was stripped from the Bill.  The Senate has done likewise.  Also Congressman Lamar Smith has agreed to remove the DNS blocking provision of HR 3261, which provided that domain name servers must remove references to any site that is merely accused of on-line piracy.   This provision has been deleted from the House Bill.  It remains to be seen whether or not either of these Bills in their present form will ever make it out of committee.  Certainly something needs to be done to protect American intellectual property rights!  I think I heard that Wikipedia is going to shut down for a day to protest these Bills in any form! Congressman Darryl Issa is opposed to HR 3261, and he has introduced his own Bill in the House.  It is called, The On-Line Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act, the OPEN Act, which he believes is a better solution to the problem of internet piracy.  Call your Congressman and Senators today and let them know that something at least needs to be done to protect American intellectual property rights!  To quote a friend of mine, “The dad gum movie industry, which is behind this, is just unhappy with their declining box office receipts.  A much better solution would be for them to just make better movies!” -  Thom Harrison Congressional Switchboard : 1-202-224-3121

Oregon  HB 4111

Dateline:  February 20th, 2012

House Bill 4111: This reform Bill is the culmination of a fifteen year long struggle to correct a terrible injustice that was committed in the name of all Oregonians to two of our senior citizens in Lane County, Jack and Betty Neely, who were 77 years old and 66 years old respectively when they had their family home foreclosed on and sold for the exact amount of an unpaid sewer lien, which they refused to pay in 1995.  They stood opposed to the juggernaut of urban development and annexation in Eugene.  Their home on Horn Lane in the River Road area just west of Eugene, and in the path of Eugene’s urban growth boundary was foreclosed on and sold for $7411, after a long legal battle with the City of Eugene which the Neely’s lost.  Their house was appraised at just under $70,000, but it was sold for exactly $7,411. That was back in 1995. Jack and Betty Neely paid dearly for standing on their principles. They paid dearly for standing up to Eugene’s over aggressive land use planning goals, and for their refusal to pay the original $5000 sewer assessment.  The Neely’s paid over $70,000 worth of fines, and Jack Neely paid with his life.  He died of a heart attack, one month after the forced sale of his house and his eviction by the Lane County Sheriff.  That was after a five year long legal battle that left both he and his sister penniless and homeless.  Jack Neely died of a broken heart, which was precipitated by that legal battle.  He was discouraged, disillusioned, and beaten down at the time of his death.  That’s what the autopsy report did not say!

I wrote this Bill back in 1995. It was gutted that year and passed by the House, and then it was allowed to die in the Senate.  The number of the Bill that year was House Bill 3453. I tried unsuccessfully to bring the Bill back for the last two years.  Last year it was referred to as Senate Bill 929.  It didn’t even receive a hearing last year.  What the hell was the matter with the Legislature in this State that for the each of the past 15 years that no one in the legislature brought this Bill forward again?  How on earth did this law ever get written in the first place?  And what the heck is wrong with the League of Oregon Cities who stood opposed to a small language change in the wording of the Bill this year that would have made it even better?  Oregon House Bill 4111 seeks to simply restore justice to cold hearted law and order for all Oregonians, who for whatever reason could find themselves in exactly the same situation as the Neelys did, with a local improvement lien on their property that they cannot pay.  ORS 223.525 just simply ignores the United States Bill of Rights.  It disregards and it violates three of our first ten Amendments to the US Constitution. 

It violates the 4th Amendment that guarantees to all Americans the right to be secure in our houses against unreasonable seizures.  It violates the 5th Amendment that requires that property that is taken for a public use (such as satisfying a municipal sewer lien) cannot be taken without just compensation.  And it violates the 8th Amendment that prohibits the imposition of excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishment.  When did it become acceptable in Oregon or anywhere else in the United States of America to sell someone’s house for the exact amount of an unpaid sewer lien, which by the way was later determined to be illegal, and to effectively turn a couple of independent, taxpaying Oregonians into homeless people who are dependent upon the State? After the Neelys lost their house,  in a subsequent lawsuit, the Oregon Appeals Court ruled  (in The City of Eugene v. Nalven) that the City of Eugene was wrong in forcing anybody who lived outside of their City limits to hook up to the Eugene Municipal Sewer System!  The City of Eugene was wrong.  They were actually dead wrong, because Jack Neely lost his life over their illegal act.  It’s about time that the City of Eugene officially apologize to the two surviving members of the Neely family, Jack’s sister Betty, and Jack’s younger brother Don, and make the proper restitution.

 In Salem last week House Bill 4111 passed the Oregon Legislature, but someone in a legislative work session on the Bill inserted some bad language  into the Bill, a defect which will turn back the hands of justice slightly by substituting the words 75% of total assessed value , instead of the words 75% of real market value, which will minimize the impact of the Bill.  In ORS 223.525 in subsection 1 it reads,” The property shall be sold for the greater of these two values:

1. The amount of the lien.
2. 75% of the total assessed value as determined by the assessor of the county in which the land and improvements are located.

The correct language of ORS 223.525 subsection 1 should have read:

1. The amount of the lien.
2. 75% of the real market value as determined by a comparable market analysis.

There is often a substantial difference between real market value and total assessed value.  It is not clear who actually inserted the words total assessed value into the Bill, or at whose request it was put there, but the League of Oregon Cities, opposed my request to substitute the words [real market value] for the current language in the Bill [total assessed value]. What possible good reason could they have for opposing the correction?  I’ll leave you to figure that out for yourselves.

I have assurances that in the next legislative session that the House will revisit this issue, and attempt to correct the defect in the current language of the Bill, nevertheless  it is still a great moral victory for all Oregonians of good conscience, and a huge improvement over what the law currently is.

Paul Holvey   rep.paulholvey@state.or.us
Bruce Hannah rep.brucehanna@state.or.us
Floyd Prozanski sen.floydprozanski@state.or.us
Peter Courtney   sen.petercourtney@state.or.us

Now is the time to call Governor Kitzhaber's office at 503-378-3111 and urge him not to sign Oregon House Bill 3543. This bill repeals the kicker check refunds! It is our money that they over appropriated, which they are now claiming it is too costly to return to us! They are nibbling away at our Oregon Constitutionally protected kicker check refunds without allowing us to vote on it! They have no business keeping excess money that they shouldn't have collected in the first place, and they also have no business now claiming that it is too costly to return to us! Our money should NOT be kept by the State and used as a future tax credit! Some people might not owe any tax next year! Others might have moved out of the State. Still others might not even be alive next year! Meanwhile, it is OUR MONEY! WE should be earning interest on it, not Salem! They erred in collecting it, and they erred once again in not returning to us the overpayment! Call now and urge the Governor not to sign Oregon House Bill 3543. The Governor's phone number is: 503-378-3111.

Update
Bill signed by the Governor on June 9, 2011.

on the West Eugene EmX

Eugene City Councilors	Phone	Fax	Email
Kitty Piercy (Mayor)	541-682-5010	541-682-5414	Kitty.Piercy@ci.eugene.or.us
George Brown	541-682-8341	541-682-5414	george.r.brown@ci.eugene.or.us
Betty Taylor	541-338-9947	541-338-9947	Betty.L.Taylor@ci.eugene.or.us
Alan Zelenka	541-682-8343	541-682-5414	Alan.Zelenka@ci.eugene.or.us
George Poling	541-517-3110	541-344-7927	George.A.Poling@ci.eugene.or.us
Mike Clark	541-682-8345	541-682-5414	Mike.Clark@ci.eugene.or.us
Pat Farr	541-682-8346	541-682-5414	pat.m.farr@ci.eugene.or.us
Andrea Ortiz	541-688-5588	541-682-5414	Andrea.F.Ortiz@ci.eugene.or.us
Chris Pryor	541-682-8348	541-682-5414	Chris.E.Pryor@ci.eugene.or.us

Call, write, fax or email Lane County Commissioners Faye Stewart, Jay Bozievich and Sid Leiken and tell them that Lane County should not pay the legal fees for Commissioners Peter Sorenson and Rob Handy since they were found guilty of willfully violating Oregon's Public Meetings Law!

Mailing Address: 125 E 8th Ave, Eugene, OR 97401

Commissioners	Phone	Fax	Email
Stewart	541-682-4203	541-682-4616	faye.stewart@co.lane.or.us
Bozievich	541-682-3719	541-682-4616	Jay.Bozievich@co.lane.or.us
Leiken	541-682-4203	541-682-4616	Sid.Leiken@co.lane.or.us

"A journalist has no better friend than the truth." - Scott Rohter
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