Breathlessly indeed.

The 4 county commissioners and all of their Portland allies are hypeventilating over the possibility voters will put a halt to Portland's Metro/TriMet plans for Clackamas county.

This latest stunt is no surprise.
Along with their parade of lies Comissioners have been trying to cast this donor friend of a friend of the rebellion as trying to take over the county himself.
Top to bottom that's all the decoy measure has. Public deceit gone wild.
Every single element of these measures and UR has been distorted by the usual suspects.

This meaningless WW story isn't evening interesting.

The list of supporters for the decoy is much more educational.

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/index.ssf/2011/10/clackamas_county-sponsored_urb.html

All the piece of the action donors, PGE, NW Natural, Streetcar manufacturer and last week the out of state owned Clackamas Town Center gave $5000.00 to help obstruct the public will.

Hey where's Occupy Portland?

You know that our current crop of politicians are totally worthless when Loren Parks is more in your corner than any of them.

Loren Parks has been fighting Urban Renewal for more than 30 years. I was in a memorable Beaverton City Council meeting in the late '70s where he was fighting an Urban Renewal plan. That meeting was where I learned about tax increment financing and I just couldn't believe cities would mortgage their future. Boy, was I wrong.

S.O.P. for the pro-government (pro-Metro, pro-Light Rail, pro-TriMet, pro-Portland, pro-UGB) folks:

Endless ad hominem, personal attacks against those who fight for limited government. Never, ever actually discuss the issues, or the pros and cons. Under no circumstances shall they admit their own proposal's shortcomings even if they are painfully obvious. ("No money? We'll just raise taxes...")

Yeah, the author of this blog would never dig post a bad photo or judge something guilty by association due to participation from one of his "usual suspects".

Real life is so darn messy. Good people are sometimes bad, bad people are sometimes good.

Loren Parks bankrolled the Death with Dignity measure. God bless him and keep him. This was a watershed event in American social history that acted directly, but most importantly, indirectly, as a catalyst to change. The success of that measure has protected the elderly and terminally ill from needless suffering at the end of their lives, simply by profoundly reshaping attitudes.

Long live Loren Parks.

And that is not a "bad" picture of him. I've seen bad pictures of him. [shudder]

I don't understand why people are not outraged that PGE and NW Natural are funding these conniving politicitians schemes.

They both have monopolies and rates provided by government and their customers are captive rate payers unable to go elsewhere for their energy.

This should be prohibited.

funny.

No matter how one feels about some measures that Parks has helped fund, in large part his contributions have been more for the opportunity for voters to vote on public interest issues.

That is far better than what Clackamas County Commissioners and other pols have tried so hard to prevent on both the Sellwood Bridge and Urban Renewal. And now they are conniving to prevent any voting on the LO to Portland Streetcar, or Hwy 43 Bike Road.

And Ben is right, examine the contributors to M338. Their amounts are now 20 times more than M336. But the media wants to paint the dark forces supporting just a vote on M336 as bad.

And what is maybe even worse, most contributors to M338 are in very direct conflict of interest positions. Most are companies, attorneys, developers, architects, engineers and such that will be directly benefited by really the "no control" M338 urban renewal measure.

Right Ben. Why is PGE and NWNG on every list of contributors for PACs supporting light rail, urban renewal development, etc. What isntheir stake in this, and why do rate-payer dollars pay for their agendas? I feel like I am being forced to help seal my own doom with every utility bill I pay. Utility bills are the new form of taxes- we can't not pay them, but what do their expense have to do with delivering essential services?

Where IS the PUC when you need them anyway?

lw, what exactly is the "Highway 43 bike-road" proposal? Does it involve putting bike lanes on Highway 43? That isn't anywhere near the level of MAX to Milwaukie, or the LO Streetcar.

And do you seriously doubt the need for a new Sellwood Bridge?

Benjamin -- check the link below. Seems you missed it a few days ago.

http://bojack.org/2011/10/car_haters_invade_clackistan.html

hah! too late- we've all voted YES for the signature raised measure and NO NO NO for the County Commissioners "Lets confuse the voters since they are sooooooo stupid" measure

Yep, I already voted for the honest measure and voted against the one that the idiot county commissioners created.

Not only that, but I'm keeping track of the commissioners who voted for this measure and I intend to vote against them in every upcoming election.

Benjamin, how can you deduce that I don't think we need a new Sellwood Bridge?

I didn't say that, but said if citizens go to the expense and time to put a measure on the ballot, like the Bridge fee, why should pols/bureaucrats work to obfuscate the vote? I thought they wanted citizens input, transparency.

I gathered signatures to get Clackamas County residents out of the $5 VRF that was to support the Sellwood Br., not because I don' think it doesn't need replacing, but because our county commissioners overstepped their bounds by committing Clackamas Co. money to a Multnomah Co. capital project. Former CC Chairman Lynne Peterson has no limits or sense when it comes to her favorite subject - transportation planning.

I thought when shevstartedbworking in Salem we were rid of her and that she would be buried in the beaurocracy in Salem. Instead she has been scheming on how to get funding for her dream team in CC to even more devilish work. Luckily, most people In CC were not asleep and continued on with the ballot measure they don't want us to have. What, now the people want power? Who evervheard of such a thing in Clackistani? Why 43 too? And to think, we PAY these people to make our lives miserable!