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DUMB AMERICA Simply put, John Kerry was just too smart to be president of our country. He spoke in complete and well-articulated paragraphs, discussing a variety of complex issues and put forth viable solutions to complicated problems. Dumb America (Midwest & Bible Belt) needs a dumb president to relate to and Bush is perfect for the job. The entire world witnessed that in his bumbling performance during the debates and with his infamous one-liners and catch phrases like "axis of evil," "He can run but he can't hide," or my personal favorite, "You're either with us or you're with the terrorists." Black or white, good or evil, right or wrong. Arrgh!! Dumb America is lazy. They don't want to have to think, but would rather sit in front of Fox entertainment and listen to the talking heads blather on with their misinformation campaign. Their ignorance is evident in the fact that more than half of them still think Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11. We are the laughingstock of the world right now, as was reflected in the headline of a British publication on Nov. 3, which read "How can 59,087,000 Americans be so dumb?" Thank God we live in a blue state! Julie Claybaugh, Eugene
GET TO THE BOTTOM As noted on EW's post-election cover, our planet indeed continues to spin, and the sun still rises in the east and sets in the west. However, the election results are not yet set in stone. Our votes are funneled through the Electoral College, which assembles on Dec. 13 to formally elect a president. EC members are pledged but not required to vote for the candidates whom they represent. If vote results are proven to be invalid, EC representatives might be persuaded to reconsider their vote. Furthermore, the Constitution states that Congress may debate the legitimacy of a state's electors prior to ratifying the outcome. Mounting evidence, particularly in crucial battleground states such as Ohio and Florida, indicates that electronic voting concerns were well-founded. OnlineJournal.com has published instructive articles by Larry Chin, Thom Hartmann, Wayne Madsen, and Jackson Thoreau. Another fine source is investigative reporter Greg Palast (gregpalast.com), who broke the story of Katherine Harris' and Jeb Bush's "cleansing" of the Florida voter rolls in the 2000 election. Reporting from Ohio, Bob Fitrakis (freepress.org) has been covering both e-voting problems and voter suppression. Fitrakis brought to light the fact that out of 638 total votes, an electronic voting machine in Gahanna, Ohio, reported 4,258 votes for Bush! Bev Harris deserves enormous credit for blowing the whistle on the dangers of e-voting. Her organization, blackboxvoting.org, has filed numerous Freedom of Information Act requests to get to the bottom of this debacle. Please help her by donating whatever you can afford. Greg Lief, Salem
CRAZY SPENDING In this past election, candidates for state and local office spent millions to get elected to jobs that pay next to nothing and whose very offices are supposed to represent the voices of the people. How is this possible with all the money that is spent by the special interest groups throughout Oregon? I believe that it is time that we the voters insist that our representatives and senators in Salem pass and forward onto the electorate a campaign finance reform amendment to the Oregon Constitution which will do the following: Eliminate all corporate campaign contributions. Limit contributions from political action committees (PACS) to $500 per two-year election cycle and limit the amount individual contributors can give to $1,000 per election cycle. Limit all State Representative campaigns to a maximum expenditure of $25,000, including the primary. And limit all Senate campaigns to a maximum expenditure of $50,000, including the primary. Limit campaigns for statewide office to $500,000, including the primary, for all offices other than governor. Limit the governor's campaign to $1 million, including the primary. Set limits for all non-partisan races in accordance with a formula that would be in proportion to the figures listed above. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Oregon took the lead role in ending the crazy spending that goes with every election cycle for these positions in government? These elected offices were supposed to be designed for a representative form of government by which citizens could get elected, serve a few years and return home and let someone else take their place. Our state legislature was never meant to be solely "the best money can buy." Let us insist that our new legislature take action to make public service more accessible and possible for those that do not have strong financial resources or friends with deep pockets. Isn't that what representative government should be? Rich Cunningham, Eugene
BETTER COMPETITION Competition remains paramount in the minds of decision makers the world over. So if that's the case, let's compete as nations to see who can feed the hungry, house the homeless, and finance the recovery of AIDS orphans in Africa faster! Let us compete to see who can clean up the environment more efficiently. Let's compete to see who can produce the most thoughtful civil and human rights faster! Let's compete to see who can provide more affordable health care for our senior citizens and the disabled! Let's compete to see who can halt homicides and suicides, death and destruction faster! Above all, let's compete to see who has the will and the courage to produce a better world, where hate gives way to love, ignorance gives way to knowledge, prejudice gives way to tolerance, and war gives way to peace. Competition is an integral part of human nature, so let's invent a new human nature and put aside our existing competitive values of military and economic struggles, and move to a more realistic and practical resolve. There is only one intelligent course. Tom Bush , Eugene
FEAR RULES Dear President Bush: You have succeeded in getting half of the country to vote for you because of fear, and now the other half of the country is in fear of what you have done and will do. Fear rules. Congratulations! With all due respect, you are my president for the next four years, but I will not let fear be my leader. To paraphrase: Do not go gently into this dark night … rage, rage against the dying of the light. Sarita Lief , Eugene
IN MOURNING Two dates are linked in history. On 9/11 my brother Bill had just gotten off the commuter train at the base of the World Trade Center when the first plane hit. He sat in his office across the plaza from the Twin Towers and watched the tragedy unfold. Every image you saw on CNN, he saw live. New Yorkers vowed not to concede their city or their ideals to Osama bin Laden. They returned to their city and offices in defiance. On Nov. 3 I spoke to Bill many times. From the same
office window, Bill told me he could now see signs which read, "No Blood
for Oil" and "Dissent is Patriotic" posted in the skyscraper windows.
He and most We, "the liberals," are crying because we are in mourning. For three years, we have refused to believe that Osama bin Laden could tear the fabric of our country. We were determined to preserve the America of Sept. 10, 2001. Our goals were to restore civil liberties and American prestige and find a solution to our unjust war. We mourn the loss of those ideals. New Yorkers refuse to allow 9/11 to change them. And we, the liberal faction of this country, stand with New York. When we are done crying, we will take our country back. Kathy Thomas, Leaburg
CALL TO ACTION Republicans shamefully abused civility so their legion would for vote gay discrimination and Bush. They demonized Democrats and again disenfranchised voters. No paper records from e-voting machines is maddening. You can't re-count. Diebold machine maker was quoted, it "would win Ohio for George Bush." That's why Kerry conceded? Republicans won't correct voting fraud because they benefited twice. It's code red work for Democrats! Riot! The administration squeaks by things they'd burn Democrats for. You're on their bus or not and treated accordingly. The IRS attacks the NAACP for criticizing Bush while tax-exempt but ignores churches endorsing him to congregations, by mouth and print. New York, Pennsylvania, and D.C. directly suffered on 9/11 yet elected Kerry. They have large gay populations, yet no marriage measures. The morals and values divide widens until secular and non-secular people agree to disagree. We're again a blue fringe alongside Canada which doesn't mix religion and government. America: Follow suit to avoid civil war. Fight censorship, discrimination, anti-choice, anti-freedom, fiscal irresponsibility, assault weapons and war crimes. The far right wants us down – unhealthy, misinformed, unemployed, silenced and scared into relinquishing freedoms (PATRIOT Act). They think our Constitution is a rough draft needing numerous amendments. Reagan's amendment abolished U.S. media fairness. Now we get bias, spins and little truth. Republicans demonstrated their wickedness and their base approved that message. Good guys finished last. Wise up, Democrats. Develop winning candidates that can reach everyone. Advising homogenization with Republicans is ensuring more elected Republicans. Be strong and true as Democrats only. William Stark, Eugene
GAY RIGHTS I am so outraged. I can not believe that so many people even in the state of Oregon could possibly vote in favor of a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriages or civil unions. I am a proud homosexual in the city of Eugene and know several others who feel just as I feel and are in my shoes. I will stand up for and against all of this and fight Congress, the Senate and even the supremacy of what is leading our country. "I'm queer, I'm here and there's nothing you can do anything about it," said Jack McFarland "Will and Grace." How many of you watch this show? How many people do you know have that lifestyle and who have an increased danger of contracting the most deadly disease that is known on this Earth? Who are you to judge what others can and cannot do? This is America and we are supposed to be the country of the free. Help me fight for what's right. Brian M. Peterson, Native Eugenean
VALUES WANTING I read that moral values have become a big issue in the recent election. Let's talk about the moral values of the corporations that colluded with our government to create the illusion of an open and fair election on Nov. 2. You won't read about it in the mainstream media or see it on TV, but if you search on the Internet, where information is truly free, you may discover the complete absence of corporate moral values. Look for a graph of exit polls compared to machine tallies in states that voted electronically, and you will be shocked at the enormous, blatant differences, differences which are less than 1 percent in an honest election. The exit polls show that Kerry won, and won by a lot. America, your votes may no longer belong to you; some are controlled by the secret software of an unverifiable black box! The for-profit corporations that made these machines are strongly biased toward the Bush administration and have stated so publicly. Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy, gave us a concisedefinition of his style of government, saying, "Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." Do your own research, think for yourself, and you may come to the conclusion that fascism with a friendly face has crept into the American way of government. It is long past time to throw the corporations out of our government! David Hazen, Eugene
FLABBERGASTED This is a post-election comment, and since DeFazio will be re-elected, it (sigh) will be pertinent for yet another two years. But I was flabbergasted by Alan Pittman's comments regarding the DeFazio-Feldkamp race in his "Fighting Green with Green" article (10/28). He notes that "The timber barons are ... backing Jim Feldkamp's attack against local Democratic Congressman Peter DeFazio." What nonsense. Pittman lists a paltry $37,200 in donations from timber folks. In a race for Congress, that is chump change, especially against a veteran (18 years, going on 20) incumbent who wins by large margins and hardly campaigns. According to Pittman's numbers, timber gave more to Faye Stewart in a race for a county commission seat than they gave to Feldkamp! If that is all they are giving, they are backing DeFazio. DeFazio was first elected with environmentalist support (which he sought) way back in 1986. But ever since then, big timber has never, ever funded his opponents. This election clearly continues that pattern. DeFazio, in another continuing pattern, proposed a bill back last summer offering to save all remaining Northwest old growth from the chainsaws, if conservationists would simply give up the next generation of old growth — the 80- to 140-year old trees in late seral reserves. (LSRs are where most remaining trees 80 to 120 years old are located.) No thanks, congressman. That's not a reasonable trade. Tom Giesen, Corvallis
POLITICAL CAPITAL George W. Bush was not elected to "overhaul Social Security." He was elected to bash gays and to prohibit gay unions. He was elected to stop scientific progress in medicine. He was elected to police and prevent desperate women and their medical advisors to consider all avenues of choices in their individual lives. Now, he tells us that he has "political capital to spend" on everyone's lives and the stability of all who work for a living in this country by an "overhaul" of our Social Security program — the one program that helps widows and orphans and permits some dignity to working people in their later years. Oh, and by the way, he was elected to cut the taxes of large corporations to maintain their health and security, and he also feels that the very rich among us need to have a little more money in their silken suit pockets. The Pharisees of the "religious" right and the fat cats and super lobbyists are his base. For the majority of us he couldn't care less. Charles L. Crawford, Sr., Philomath
NO FREE PETS Please rethink your ad policy of encouraging free pets. I worked at Greenhill for four years and I know firsthand what "free" leads to. Offering the ads free of cost to people in need is great. The hard decision to give up a loved pet can be eased a bit by waiving the extra costs. And, giving the exposure your circulation offers will help pets find new homes. However, the word "free" in an ad only encourages negatives. It attracts those who sell animals to laboratories and dog fight enthusiasts (and both exist in Oregon). Free animals also lower the value of the pet in the eyes of the new owners. The "free" pet is much more likely to be dumped than the pet that had some monetary worth attached to it. We don't need to encourage people to extend their "throw away" notions to living animals. What we counseled people to do when I was at Greenhill was to not mention a price in the ad. When people call about the pet, check them out and if the new home is satisfactory, waive the fee and tell them to use the money saved for food, treats, toys, a leash, or a doghouse/cat condo. At least put on a warning in your ads if you persist, and tell people what the consequences may be. Tom Rydbom, Eugene
RED FLAGS Why are the major news sources in the U.S. so quiet about potential election fraud issues in our 2004 swing states? A lot of pre-election speculation was brought to the public's attention by the major news agencies about the paperless voter machines that were used widely in Ohio for this election. Most of the unease with these machines revolved around the facts that they are non-auditable, and the programming code is kept secret and is owned by for-profit corporations with close ties to George Bush and the GOP. Why has this issue all of a sudden vanished from the national news radar screen given the events that unfolded in Ohio this election? I hope there are investigative journalists objectively picking apart the discrepancies between the "official" vote tallies favoring Bush and the exit poll numbers that favored Kerry on election day. I have heard some discomforting statistical analyses by non-network news sources arguing that vote fraud may have occurred, and the objective statistical evidence is compelling, at least compelling enough to warrant a real, hard pressing investigation. Red flags in objective exit polls say Kerry wins, GOP friendly company brings in new, non-auditable voting equipment that proclaims Bush the winner by a squeaker, and the press goes quiet. I am not advocating that the election was fraudulent; I am, however, concerned that national attention to the issue has so quickly diminished and that serious inconsistency between the vote count and rigorous polling outcomes are being ignored. I hope more attention is paid to this issue by the media in the coming weeks. Hans Smith, Eugene
CLUELESS IN LOVE To: David Jagernauth: During one of my breaks at work, I had the unfortunate opportunity of reading your article (10/7) entitled "When Booty Calls: Sex in Your New City." As all of my coworkers are college students, we felt this was an obscene representation of our age group. My coworkers and I were shocked that you would define a one night stand or a booty call as one's "greatest college achievement." If you honestly believe that a marriage and family life must be "saved" by reverting back to a promiscuous youth, then I feel deeply sorry for you, because you obviously have a very skewed perception of what love is. By encouraging freshman and other young kids to meticulously plan a one night stand is simply reinforcing self-conscious behavior in young men and women and setting them up to be taken advantage of. As one who remembers the feelings of loneliness and fearfulness that accompany someone who is just beginning their college years, it makes me ever more certain that these are not the memories which will get me through my later years; but rather, they will be the experiences which I most regret. As far as your advice to men that "The women are far more prudish than the clothes they wear," I hope you realize that many young women wear certain clothes because they have a low self-esteem and want to fit in, not because they want to send a message that they want to sleep with you. One in four women are now sexually abused in some way, and that statistic is only fueled by people like you who insist that women are sending some sort of unspoken message with clothing or gestures. I sincerely hope that you never attempt to give advice to today's youth again, because you are without a doubt clueless in your expectations regarding love and relationships. Astrid Shadle, Eugene
ANIMAL KINGDOM The recent "Best of Eugene" edition gave me an opportunity to address a problem which most of us are part of. The question was asked to many of the award recipients: If you were an animal or vegetable, what would you be and why? Since human beings are animals this question is quite misleading. Webster's primary definition of animal: a multi-cellular organism that can move voluntarily and can actively acquire food and digest it internally. I was never the best science student, but I did learn that humans are part of a group called "the animal kingdom." Somewhere down the line, most humans have made a decision to form our own little elite group. I recognize the enormous effect language we use has on our perception of the world. The language we use creates our reality. Just look at recent public policies such as the "Clear Skies" initiative or the "Healthy Forest" initiative which would indicate positive environmental change but do nothing of the sort. The outcome is millions of Americans believing these policies are cleaning up the environment. That is their reality. Just like when we refer to animals as a separate or lower group we help enable and justify our extreme exploitation and deplorable treatment of non-humans. I am a former New York state "animal cruelty investigator," which is another example of the misuse of the word animal. The correct term would be "non-human animal cruelty investigator." I have seen with my own eyes the horrific world of animal food, testing, and fur industries. What goes on in these industries is so disturbing most people can't bear to watch video. We are all animals. We all love life and we all tremble with fear in the shadow of death. We all deserve respect and compassion! Joshua Welch, Eugene
POLARIZED NATION What now? Now that George W. Bush is yet again our president, I ask myself, what do we do next? Our country is already more polarized than it has ever been as we continue to fight the wrong war, rape our forests, increase our unemployment rate and confuse family values with blatant discrimination and disregard for separation of church and state. Our Earth and the American people cannot withstand four more years of President Bush if he continues to ignore both as he has done in the past four years. Can we have a peaceful revolution? What would that entail? I know that by voting, I volunteer myself to participate in this "democracy" whether or not my candidate wins. I do, however, fall into the age bracket (18-24) that could be targeted by an imposing draft. I may want to establish my own family some day, and do care that my children should be able to breathe the air without danger, and be able to make healthy, personal, choices without fear of the government imposing on those inherent rights. Can Bush promise this? Can he promise that there will be forests for my children to hike in, or that if a college education is still affordable with aid from the government, that there will be a job waiting for them, or me for that matter? Please, help me understand how we can insure that these possibilities will still be available. Peace and good luck, America. Anna Gordon-Norby, Eugene
BIN LADEN FAKE Great timing for an Osama bin Laden videotape! No, I'm not alluding to the coincidence of it showing up just prior to the U.S. elections. I'm referring to a very good actor showing up on our doorstep two days before Halloween! His giveaway is a professionally shot video and his vigorous and healthy demeanor. He even forgot to put on a thinner nose piece! But U.S. intelligence and the CIA assure us with a "high degree of confidence" that the tape was authentic. Didn't they say the same thing about WMDs in Iraq? No matter who set this up, the world is quickly becoming a caricature of itself. Robert Simms, Eugene
VOTING WITH BANANAS It was chilling to hear Ed Gillespie's (Republican National Committee) comments to members of the National Press Club on Nov. 4. He was asked about voter exit polls being conducted as voting was occurring across the country. Exit polls reported the majority of voters were supporting the Kerry-Edwards ticket. Gillespie's response? "I would urge you (the media) to not pay any attention to exit polls." This cavalier dismissal of polls reporting the will of the people, coupled with news reports (R-G, Nov. 3 "Electronic voting problems noted"), is beyond troubling. The article reported that Roberta Harvey, 57, of Clearwater, Fla., said she had tried "at least a half-dozen times to select the Kerry/Edwards ticket." Poll workers "wet-wiped" the screen. Harvery reported it still took about "10 attempts to select Kerry" before the screen eventually confirmed her vote. Exit polling may well be our last gasp attempt to reveal the true will of the people during this era of electronic voting machines. Voting machines were distributed by Diebold Co., whose CEO also ran the Bush/Cheney campaign in a mid-west state. Ed Gillespie blithely urges our "free press" to ignore voter exit polls. Can you say "Banana Republic?" Carol Berg, Pleasant Hill
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