Salem-News.com Politics articles

Oregon Governor has Bad Intel on Corporate Tax Breaks

Public disclosure of corporate tax payments (PDF) remains a terrific, if largely unfulfilled, step toward reform.

(PORTLAND, OR) - State tax giveaways for business are reaching a fever pitch in the Pacific Northwest. Washington lawmakers last month enacted an $8.7 billion “mega-deal” package of state and local tax breaks designed to keep the state’s aerospace industry, dominated by Boeing, in the state.

The sheer scale of the package, which is designed to last until 2040, has prompted some to wonder whether the time has finally come to end the tax-incentive arms race between the states.

BREAKING NEWS The Prawer Plan has been Cancelled

As we celebrate the Prawer Plan being scrapped, we understand that this victory is temporary.

(WASHINGTON, DC) - We've just received the welcome news from our allies on the ground that the Prawer Plan to forcibly relocate over 40,000 Israeli Bedouin from their ancestral lands is no longer under consideration by the Israeli Knesset.

The recent demonstrations on both sides of the Green Line, and throughout the world, succeeded in raising enough doubt about this plan to help take it off the table.

When It Comes To Questionable Washington Practices, President Has Reversed Himself

When it comes to transparency and credibility, the administration seems to be in increasing trouble.

(WASHINGTON, DC) - President Barack Obama won election, at least in part, by promising to change Washington.  He said repeatedly that he would stop the revolving door and not hire lobbyists in his administration.

At a 2007 campaign event in Nevada, for example, Mr. Obama declared: "I'm in this race to tell the lobbyists in Washington that their days of setting the agenda are over. They will not work in my White House."

Israeli Knesset Member`s Blood Rejected in Govt. Drive Because She`s African

It happened after attending Mandela’s memorial...

(TEL AVIV) - The day after returning from anti-Apartheid leader Nelson Mandela’s memorial in South Africa, Israel’s first Ethiopian-born Knesset member Pnina Tamano-Shata (Yesh Atid), had her blood refused in a government donation drive because she is African.

Volunteers at a Magen David Adom (Red Star of David—Israel’s Red Cross) booth set up inside of Knesset told Tamano Shata that she could not give blood because she is has “the special kind of Jewish-Ethiopian blood.”

Why Andy Shallal Should Be Mayor of D.C.

Washington, D.C., is actually a place where Andy Shallal has a chance to get himself elected. He's in a 7-way race, and people want a newcomer.

(WASHINGTON, DC) - It would make a tremendous difference nationally and internationally to have a real activist, progressive, populist, and democrat as mayor of our nation's capital. Imagine a leading opponent of war as mayor of the world center of war making.

Imagine major public initiatives to address the massive poverty and racial disparity in the headquarters of the greatest wealth machine on the planet.

Fire the Liar

Memorandum for: The President from: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

(WASHINGTON, DC) - We wish to endorse the call by Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Chair of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, Committee on the Judiciary, that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper should be removed and prosecuted for lying to Congress.

“Lying to Congress is a federal offense, and Clapper ought to be fired and prosecuted for it,” the Wisconsin Republican said in an interview with The Hill. “The only way laws are effective is if they’re enforced.”

The First Rohingya Conference in the USA
`Stop Genocide and Restore Rohingyas Citizenship Rights in Myanmar`

Rohingyas are a stateless Muslim minority who are victims of systematic ethnic cleansing and state-sponsored slow burning Genocide.

(MILWAUKEE) - We are delighted to announce the First Rohingya Conference in the USA which will be held on December 14th, 2013 (12:30 pm to 7:00 pm) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM).

The Conference is jointly sponsored by the Burmese Rohingya American Friendship Association (BRAFA) and the Rohingya Concern International (RCI). It is also co-sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Hmong Diaspora Studies Program and Risale Center of America.

Food & Water Watch: Now they`re engineering our apples!

Even major food companies like Gerber and McDonald's, have already said that they won't use the GE apple. We need to show the USDA that the public — that's you — overwhelmingly opposes this freakish fruit.

(WASHINGTON, DC) - You've seen the stories, maybe on the Internet, maybe on your local news. It's a gross curiosity: someone shows off junk food that they claim they've had for 40 years, but it looks like it was made yesterday.

These stories give us all the creeps, because it's just not natural for food not to decay. You should feel the same way about genetically engineered (GE) apples — these "Arctic" apples won't turn brown when you cut them up!

Drones over Tijuana

“It’s a strategy against delinquency. The public complains about home burglaries and robberies on mass transportation,” - Tijuana Mayor Jorge Astiazaran Orci

(LAS CRUCES , NM) - If Tijuana’s new municipal government has its way, drones will fly over the northern Mexican border city in 2014.

Tijuana Mayor Jorge Astiazaran Orci, a member of President Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party, said his administration is working with a California firm to deploy small drones as a means of fighting crime and carrying out other public safety tasks like detecting fires.

On Kitzhaber and the Oregon legislature

Government has taken an oath of loyalty to the state. Citizen voters should consider the politicians responsible for these giveaways recallable or impeachable.

(PORTLAND, OR) - With only a handful of exceptions, Oregon’s Democratic governor Kitzhaber and the Dem state legislature grovel before Nike, Intel and the corporate 1% and shower them with our taxpayer's money.

A NYT reports on how Washington’s political leaders (also Dems) grovel before Boeing and the possible consequences of workers refusal (so far) to accept it.