Rather than the "Portland City Council," why not just call it the "PC Council" for short?

When did this become Jack Peek's Blog? ;)

You pick on "Mrs. Oregon"? You hear from me, chumps! 8c)

This Mrs. Oregon thing is really ridiculous. I have no idea why Mr Potter is so bugged by some insignificant paegeant.

I would think there are more important things to do, like helping Erik spend his clean money efficiently amongst the pressure groups.

It's hip to be unhitched and unPC to say otherwise. Now you got it.

If birthrates are a problem we should have a Parent Pageant.

I don't think the Mrs. Oregon thing is rediculous: the pageant asked for a letter of support, and I'm glad Potter said "I can't support you." The pageant has clearly made a political and "moral" statement by defining in their rules that "marriage is between one man and one woman". They made it the issue that it is, and it's rediculous to think that a woman married in Canada, or Massachusetts, or the many other places that recognize our marriages, could not participate in the pageant. I'm proud Mayor Potter did what he did.

Really, it's not as if Potter sought out the pageant issue. They came to him, and in their research the staff discovered that the pageant had added a marriage definition to their policies in response to last year's Multnomah County same-sex marriage controversy. Because of that, Potter declined a letter of support.

If he had been running around trying to find things to "make a statement" about, it would be rather idiotic. But they came to him, they had added a marriage definition as a political/moral statement, and Potter disagreed with that statement and so refused a letter of support.

It's pretty simple, and not at all untoward.

I am proud of you, Tom, for standing up against bigotry. We need more politicians like you.

One woman from the pageant was quoted saying that the mayor was discriminating against heterosexual couples by not sending the winner a congratulatory letter. It’s like saying that Tom Potter would be discriminating against white people if he refused to send a congratulatory letter to the winner of Mrs. White Supremacy (if there were one). Give me a break.

Jack:
These smokescreens have perfect timing, so we didn't react much to the new "commission" that will decide who gets the clean money and, more importantly, who will not. Thoughts?

Whoa! The tone of this blog has become really crabby the last few days. Yuck.

Hey! Stop picking on single people!

Mrs. Oregon = Mrs. White Supremacy

Yeah, that kind of thinking actually does make me crabby.

Some people need to start making at least a passing acknowledgment of the world into which they were born.

I like single people. And enjoy living in a city that has room for both them and my hetero, child-bearing family.

Libby Crawford, the pageant's executive director, said no lesbian has entered the contest. But she drafted the rules last year in the wake of Multnomah County's decision to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Oregon voters in November approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

"I didn't want to deal with my pageant becoming a stage," she said. "I've seen it happen in some pageants where someone's political agenda came out at a pageant. It can ruin your system."
...
After getting Potter's response, Crawford forwarded the e-mail to Portland talk show host Lars Larson, who took up Crawford's cause on Monday's radio show on KXL.

She didn't want to deal with her pageant becoming a stage, but promptly submitted Mayor Potter's response to Lars Larson's radio show?

Libby Crawford's animosity towards an unpopular minority group is evident from her own actions.

I am glad that I have a mayor who stands up for all people, including hetero, child-bearing ones.

Why in the world does a private contest -- ANY private contest -- want a letter of support from a government body? For credibility? Prestige? I may be naive, but credibility and prestige are earned by your actions, not by having The Great Oz give them to you.

Potter did the right thing. He should follow up and refuse similar requests to all other contests that come begging. Make 'em earn their credentials through hard work, not political connections.

I guess he'll be disowning the Royal Rosarians next. I'm sure they've got some criteria for membership that are taboo.

The royal rosarians only require that you convince another rosarian of your "'character and fitness" and pay a 340.00 membership fee and some hefty annual dues. Oh and you must also be a "professional" or in "business."

No mention of whether being fat, queer, disabled, a red-head, married, hyper-fertile, or well-endowed is required or a disqualification.

All is as it should be with the Rosarians.

Jack, I'm disappointed that you think its appropriate for the city to sponsor a pageant that discriminates (cearly) against lesbians. I didn't realize that you expect the city to support an anti-homosexual agenda.

I, for one, am glad enterprises look to our trusty local governments for meaningful letters of support.

The City Council better serves us Portlanders by using taxpayer resources to investigate beauty competitions than, say, PDC and its suspicious Family of Funds. Tell us your opinion on this, Tom: does PDC use "Family" there to denote the traditional breeder setup or does it refer to its usage in denoting homosexuals, as in "Yeah, he's family"?

Here are some future Oregonian headlines on really important topics our City Council will undertake:

-City Council Passes Contentious Resolution to Support Oregon State Fair's Hog Judging Competition

-Potter and Council say "We're not crazy for Cocoa Puffs", Refuse Support for Breakfast Cereal Eating Contest

-Council Tells Central Catholic to Evolve, Fails to Endorse Science Fair

There is a political science professor at Harvard, I believe, who has written on how obsession with equality can be problematic and produce unintended consequences. I can't remember his name. Does anyone know?

I don't know who the Harvard Professor is, but I guarantee he's a white straight male.

"Discriminates against lesbians"? The group celebrates traditional marriage. If the lesbians want to have a pageant that celebrates lesbian unions, I'd be fine with the city endorsing that one, too. Indeed, Tom Potter would support that one so fast and furious that your head would spin. There'd be no talk of "discrimination" then.

This is the city that was wooing the Salvation Army to turn the Memorial Coliseum into a 24 Hour Fitness. If Mrs. America had a $100 million grant to give away, I'm not sure old Grampy and the kids on his staff would have dissed them.

Traditional marriage? Are you talking about the unions in which a man can have multiple wives, or the wife is the property of the husband and therefore cannot have her own property or sue her own husband in the courts of law?

I have no problem with Mrs. Oregon having its own dog and pony show, but don’t play the blame the victim game when things don’t go its way. Libby Crawford claimed she didn’t want her pageant to become a political stage, but she was the one who turned this whole thing into a media circus.

Jack, I think you are a smart man and a wonderful professor, but your “separate but equal” logic is both shocking and disappointing to me.

Sorry you feel that way. But I'm kind of tired of being made to feel guilty about who I am, too.

Guilt is one of those things that we create for ourselves. Discrimination, however, happens to us. I don't feel guily for being a lesbian. You shouldn't feel guilty for being "what you are" either (I'm not sure exactly what you mean? Straight white male?). The fact remains: as part of majority culture you have the privilege of being "who you are," while members of minority culture do not. As a lesbian, for example, my right to have sex with my partner is protected by the constitution (thanks to Lawrence), but my right to marry the person of my choice or to not be discriminated against in housing or employment is not. Those are genuine adverse legal consequence of being who I am. Your guilt is not.

Sorry you feel that way. But I'm kind of tired of being made to feel guilty about who I am, too.

Posted by Jack Bog at March 30, 2005 05:09 PM

No kidding Jack, In all that has been said here, about me, and an issue of community safety (criminally insane group homes next to school's, and electeds officals of who two stole my votes, and the what will be a less secure town if these elected officals vote to drop the FBI, I just can't take it anymore...a stroke two yrs ago, now a brain cyst..which burst the other night, I think it's time to stop a fight we can't win.

These people lie to us, take our money, then turn it all for what doesn't come close to why we elected them.

Then you look at people who say they haven't forgotten 911, but all they write about will support another.

When you moved from Buckman, there was a reason..a GOOD REASON! The potential for problems for all the reasons I have talked about all these yrs. I quit..the problems will get worse, they are finding ways too put more of these "problems" in neighborhoods.....and then Potter/Leonard invites the ACLU to sit in on negotions on what really is another fight for your good wife and wonderful kids safety and all but one who showed up last night will support it as well.

Jack ....going to look after my wife and me for awhile....my health needs a vaction.

Jack Peek--
If I understand correctly, it was Karin Immergut who invited the ACLU, not Council.

If she did invite the ACLU....well, "WE HAVE A PROBLEM HOUSTON."

Please Mr. Torrid Joe, look up a group called "CAIR" and see if they will be there as well.

If they even are in Portland..."We have another problem as well.

Dear TorridJoe, It wasnt the local goverment lawyer who invited the ACLU..IT WAS TOMMIE P.

I finally lost it, and agree, down with the JTTF.

I promised myself to stay out of this, but the Mayfield case does matter, that it points out what can go wrong.

If the future proves Mayfield is as "pure" as ahh, well snow, then you advocate to "toss" all things that could catch a terror cell operative before he strikes.....because we might violate his civil rights.

I'm asking you to support just that, lets toss all the ways to handle this problem, cause we are a tolerant people, and the hate these people have towards us, must be our fault.

Lets join now, and wish for open borders to let all these religous extremist in, and be not a problem for their "jihad".

I invite you all to post a statement of support for the need to not just dilute the "Patriot Act", but "kill" it.

The so-called terror cell people are not here in Portland, you posters have been right along.

Just because their Muslim,an have possible ties to some type of groups that we just don't need to concern ourselfs about at all, after all it's our country and we invite these wonderful people to show us that our way is the way of true corporate evil, then we must allow these borders to remain open..damn the "Minutemen".

They came to call themselves "Katibat Al-Mawt," which prosecutors said loosely translated to "squad of death."

Nothing loose about it. That's what it means.

Court documents that depicted the seven as a loose-knit group who studied books and films on jihad and participated in firearms and martial-arts training before the Sept. 11 attacks. Members expressed interest in becoming martyrs.
The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, whose Taliban government supported Osama bin Laden, prompted the six men of the group to join the fight against U.S. forces.



The question of the day: Who were these folks, and what were they doing here?

If folks like Randy Leonard think there is no "sleeper cells' in this area, then what the hell is a Katibat Al-Mawt doing here?

If sleeper cells are in the community's midst, no one from the Portland FBI has ever told him, Leonard said.

"It's frightening people and having government based on fear rather than acceptance" said Randy!

HELLO RANDY..HELLO,What the hell is a Katibat Al-Mawt doing here?

There is a reason to fear, I fear people who don't fear.

A big PS: You people who jumped me for one "terror handbook" found...the training, and planning and firearms stuff didn't come from the "INTOLERANT" BOY SCOUTS HANDBOOK ... YOU INFIDELS!