Incursio

I decided to break down the ARRA dollars by state on a per-capita basis. Sources: Census.gov Recovery.gov

My wife and I have never missed a payment on any debt in over 16 years. Not one. A bit over a year ago, we refinanced our home, lowered our rates and paid off some of our other debt. We were conservative - financing less than 80% of the value of our home. We have NEVER taken one of the crazy risky loans. Every mortgage we have had for over 10 years has been a conventional regular old fashioned pay down the principle fixed rate loan. No sub-prime crap, no baloon payments, no 115% of value LOC, no 30-due-in-15 or any other tricky fancy loans. Just normal stuff. This week, we decided to try and take advantage of the low interest rates, and save a couple percent. Additionally there are supposed to be some government benefits for loan companies to help people who are in good standing refinance that we were hoping to utilize. We called to refinance our home, and found out this:

Only 1 million payments of $4000 each!

I am not the first to blog this stuff, but I figured that I would pass them on. Here in Portland, we have one man (Eric Bryant, now complete with target on back!) who insists that the Police should be required to follow the same rules that they would happily enforce against us. I happen to agree with him. Downtown Cop gets another ticket.

Hey Oregon Voters, The time has come and passed. If you mail your ballot in now - it won't make it by the deadline. Instead drop them off by hand, at a ballot drop site: Multnomah County Washington County Clackamas County Links to all the other county elections offices As of today, we have about 48% of Oregon registered voters have returned their ballots . Obviously that does not include any that are currently working their way through the mail. And we have 4 full days left to drop off ballots by hand. Please vote, and Please drop your ballot off by hand, DO NOT MAIL IT! I repeat, today was the last day it could be mailed. Starting now they have to be dropped off by hand.

The Oregonian (newspaper) has decided that it cannot endorse the assisted suicide initiative that Washington voters will be deciding on this November ( WA Initiative 1000 ). Despite the fact Oregon's law has been successful: Ten years' experience with Oregon's one-of-a-kind Death With Dignity Act has shown that our deepest concerns were unfounded. Safeguards built into the law appear to be working. On the plus side, the law has not created a tidal wave of assisted suicide since its enactment in 1997. Only 341 patients, 86 percent of them with terminal cancer, have died under its provisions. More than a third of those who have obtained lethal prescriptions never used them. Despite the fact that Oregon's law has been popular: It's also true that the law is popular, twice winning voter approval, and that vigorous public debate over it has led to much-improved end-of-life care in Oregon. The state is recognized today as the national leader in providing access...

What motivation would you need to spend 4 billion dollars on one single highway project, 4 billion dollars on one single 5 mile stretch of highway. 4 billion dollars on one single project that would be considered the single most expensive public works project ever in the history of the Pacific Northwest? Would one of the nation's worst traffic bottlenecks qualify? I mean if you were going to spend twice the city of Portland's annual budget one one single project - would a nationally known and recognized traffic bottleneck be a good place to do so? If you wanted to spend four times the State of Oregon's education budget on a single 5 mile stretch of highway - would you want to cure something that was pretty bad - I mean really bad? If you were going to ignore peak oil, or climate change, or air pollution, or gas price trends, or vehicle miles traveled trends, or economic advice - and build one single massive project that is likely to suck up regional transportation fu...

There are plans afoot , and it looks like the organizations are following city code this time, to rename a Portland street after the late Douglas Adams . Of course they are working on - 42 nd avenue. This amuses me... Lets hope they don't bull-doze a row of houses to make room for it... And as much as I hate to link to myspace, here is the page for the Douglas Adams Boulevard group. And for the record, I am opposed to renaming streets . But if there is going to be a street renaming frenzy, at least lets have them be clever and fun - and not so controversial. Additionally, I would have to say that this renaming would give 42nd ave MORE significance than the number 42 ever could...

OK, well maybe not officially . But at least in my mind. Here I am putting on my opinion hat. This post is purely my opinion and nothing more. I am not going to (at this time) do any research on the subject. I simply want to rant a little. I love Portland. I have found so many wonderful things here. And the city government is generally one of the better city governments I have ever come across, in all the places I have lived across the USA. The Portland city government is generally accessible. You can usually have good results working with almost any bureau. They work well with people, and most of the staffers that I have met genuinely care and take their jobs seriously. Almost everyone who is "in the trenches" really cares about the city and is working to make it better. Even the elected officials tend to be pretty good. Sure, as with any elected government - there are SNAFUs like the stupid Cesar Chaves street rename BS and other crap... But that tends t...

I have been involved in may community initiatives, processes, and committees over the last several years, and I have begun to notice something about people. I don't have any links or stats or such - this is just my viewpoint. Any time there is something done - there are always that camp that must complain. We all know them, the folks that are never happy with any solution. They are more than happy to tell you how the government screwed up, or the government screwed the people, or the government is full of idiots. There is no project too big or too small to draw their ire. You hear them complain about roads, about Transit, about bicycles, about development, about zoning, about environmental restrictions. Here in Portland we have had some high profile projects that people just love to hate. The Tram. The Streetcar. MAX. South Waterfront or the Pearl. But if you ask those people "Well, did you attend any of the meetings?" the answer will invariably be "no...

Last night, in Downtown Portland of all places, someone felt the need to destroy one of my Bill Richardson for President stickers. Sure, I don't expect everyone to agree with me politically. Fair enough. But what on earth could make you so mad about Bill Richardson? Are you mad because he is a "dark horse" candidate? Are you mad because most people have not even heard of him? Maybe the person who ripped apart the sticker was from New Mexico and had some personal reason. In any event I thought it was a strange thing... Now if It had been a Hillary or W sticker I could at least understand the animosity. To each their own I guess. Just try and keep your mitts off my car.

After Tuesday's meeting about the proposed change to Interstate Ave, it seems like the default argument is to label anyone who opposes renaming Interstate to Cesar Chavez - is simply a racist. They call us racist because they know it will win their argument. We can't come back from that.

Not only have they chosen one of the best Blogger themes, but the folks at cafe unknown have also put together a wonderful piece laying out much more eloquently than I would - why we should not be renaming Portland's streets , and how there are better more appropriate options. Please Please stop renaming Portland's streets. Portland has history too. And changing the names of the streets to honor those who were not really even part of Portland's history does a disservice to all of those who have made Portland their home in the last 150 some odd years. If you want to name new streets - fine. But keep the old ones. Please.

The first definition of stupider is "Slow to learn or understand; obtuse." I think that there would be good cause to add to it "See American". Today, while passing through the security checkpoint at Portland International (PDX) I witnessed the TSA personnel sending people to the back of the line for not taking off their flip-flops. They shouted endlessly about removing liquids, regardless of size. And they generally treat every one of us like we were infants incapable of understanding simple instructions. But perhaps they might be on to something.

Two minor gripes. First - I have been noticing a lot of people writing comments or articles lately that end in the question "no?". It is as if we have had a sudden influx of people wanting to sound "international" or something, like they are ESL when most likely they are from Illinois. So many things are now written like this: "It seems like a pretty good idea to get out of Iraq, no?" No? Yes? Wait, I am confused. Is it a good idea or not? Are you answering your own question? What the hell are you trying to say? And my second nit: Don't people get the fact that the more extreme you are in your leanings - the more damage you usually do to your "cause"?

Pssst. Hey You. Yeah, you. My reader. It is time to raise the Oregon gas tax . Now go tell your friend(s)...

An interesting** paradox came to my mind while I was at the dentist. And no, I was not on any laughing gas. Although I do hate how as the shots wear off my nose tickled like I needed to sneeze... But dentist visits make for another entry. The religious Christian folks who advocate teaching "Intelligent Design" in our children's science curriculum usually use a certain angle. It is usually pointed out that "Intelligent Design" and "Evolution" are both theories and therefore can be taught side by side as theory. All-right, leaving aside the rebuttal that "Intelligent Design" is a moral, historical, allegorical, and theological "theory" and therefore doesn't belong in a SCIENCE curriculum, there is a glaring issue with their "teach them side by side" position. Creationists like to push the concept that we should teach both theories side by side, and let the kids make their own intelligent decisions about which ...

There has been a little bit going on with Transportation around Portland recently. One cool thing that I found is ByCycle . They have made a really cool trip planner that supports Portland . You can use it to find and map bike routes. It contains the Metro "Bike There" map, mashed up with Google Maps and a route planning algorythm. Pretty cool, check it out and play with the trip planner a bit. The funding for the new Willamette bridge from Riverplace (area) to OMSI (area) for the Milwaukie MAX and Eastside streetcar loop passed . The new bridge will also have very good bicycle and pedestrian access. This will be very good for southeast Portland, and eventually the MAX line is to run to Oregon City. I am sure we will be seeing more on this in the short term future. This comes hot on the heels of news about MAX exceeding ridership records . Good job legislators, now lets get the Sellwood bridge rebuilt . I came across a site called GoLoco which could be a gre...

House Bill 2210B was voted on and PASSED in the Oregon House just now. This measure is designed to encourage the Oregon based growing and production of biofuels. These including tax credits for producers or growers, some easing of restrictions of where biofuels production facilities can be sited, and a standard for quality and volume of biofuels in Oregon use. However one thing that catches my eye, is the consumer tax credits: Sections 24-28 provide for: "BIOFUEL CONSUMER INCOME TAX CREDIT" 25.2.a - "A resident individual shall be allowed a credit against the taxes otherwise due under ORS chapter 316 for costs paid or incurred to purchase fuel blends for use in an alternative fuel vehicle." The sections go on to describe the details, and the amounts. But basically - for E85 or greater use, or B99 or greater use can get as much as 50 cents per gallon up to $200 max per year tax credit for using biofuels! That will be a nice benefit for those of us wh...

Saddam Hussein has been the boogieman for my entire adult life. This last weekend he was executed, and in my opinion it was about 15 years too late... For anyone who might be interested, there is a cell phone captured video of his hanging on Google video. It is kinda creepy. And I have to warn people - this is an actual video of an actual person being killed. Not everyone will want to see it. Here it is. Use your best judgement. May Saddam meet whatever eternal punishment may await him, and may the people who's lives he ruined have some form of justice. And may our current debacle in Iraq come to an end sooner rather than later and our troops come home safely , and hopefully the people of Iraq see peace within our lifetime.