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We all know the local rag's got some weird ideas. Weird ideas about "journalism," weird ideas about lying to the people if it supports their agenda, weird ideas about sitting on information (We MUST have loot rail, or the fed won't allow us to replace the I-5 Bridge!) weird ideas about bogus polling to support their agenda, weird ideas about using their soapbox to hit people they disagree with over the head... but then, slimy playground bullies can be that way... right, Lou?
But the crocodile tears over the Gorge Commission have to take the cake.
The late, unlamented Tommy the K viewed the Gorge much the same way Hosni Mubarak viewed Egypt. And the people living there for the most part, viewed Tom the same way Abdul Sixpack viewed Mubarak.
That is, Tom believed, quite wrongly, that he should be the final arbiter of what goes on in the Gorge... a place he never lived in, with restrictions he wouldn't dream of living under. Google "Bea House" and "Koenninger" for an example of Tom's Peculiar Tyranny.
Do you know, for example, that if you plan on painting your house in the Scenic Area and you plan on changing the color, you have to get Commission approval as to what color it's going to to be?
That's idiotic.
Unfortunately for the people of Southwest Washington, the legacy of that oppressive mindset, where a big wheel in the local rag filled so many positions with those of a like-minded, fringe-left, damn what the people want or need type, lives on.
Tommy saw the Gorge as his own personal fiefdom. He had no trouble viciously attacking those smart enough to disagree with the tyranny he supported on the people of the Gorge... as if the Constitution of the United States somehow magically stopped at the Gorge Scenic Act Borders.
And now, for at least the second time, the Gorge Commission budget is, thankfully, on the chopping block. As a cancerous growth on the body politik, budget cuts are recognized as a sort of chemo-therapy.
The leaches of the Gorge... aka, the Friends of the Gorge, are made up primarily of Tom-Types: they don't live there, but somehow see themselves as uniquely positioned to enforce and increase the numbers of laws, rules and restrictions those who do live there must live under.
If they're so damned concerned about funding cuts, they could make up the shortfalls, real or imagined, themselves.
Will they? Or will the FOG just whine?
Like I even have to ask.
So, disregard that part of the title. Whining is all the FOG ever does. Meanwhile, the Commission is a luxury we can't afford. Hopefully, we can just defund it and get rid of it altogether, so the Constitution can once again become supreme in the Gorge Scenic Area.
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