Sunday, May 29, 2016

Wow. Whoda thunk the democratian would ever write this?

Given the demonstrated history of the local cancer on our community, where hatred of the perspective of the county's voter population on any particular issue on the agenda that doesn't match completely with theirs, I was stunned to read, first the headline... and then the article itself.

Essentially, aside from the hatred most of the lamestream media for Tim Eyman and the requisite gratuitous shots at him, the rag acknowledged the reality of the 2/3rds tax issue: we have voted for it on 6 different occasions and as such, it's time for the legislature to put this constitutional issue to a vote.

The rag beating the hell out of Eyman comes to no surprise: he wants to cut our taxes that go to the burgeoning programs the rag so favors... what was so surprising was this acknowledgement of the right of the people to have a say.

In the past, the local version of the Völkischer Beobachter (Nazi Party National Observer newspaper) has trashed most efforts where the will of the people is sought; when the outcome is in doubt viz their agenda, putting questions to the people is the anethma to them.

Is it because the rag lives on a B&O tax cut?  Is it because they have finally felt the sting of the taxes we all have to pay?

Who knows.  But it's like cutting the grass and finding a diamond in the back yard.

In Our View: Allow Vote on Two-Thirds

Legislature must let voters decide on changing requirements for tax increases

Published:
The ruling did not come as a surprise. Even Tim Eyman, the creator of Initiative 1366, had acknowledged that it might not pass muster in the courts, so Thursday’s unanimous state Supreme Court decision voiding the measure was predictable.

But while the courts once again have overturned a two-thirds majority requirement for raising taxes, it is time for the Legislature to follow the will of the people. Six times voters have expressed support for a higher threshold on tax matters, and six times that support has been knocked down by either lawmakers or the courts. While strong arguments can be made for or against requiring a two-thirds vote in the Legislature when it comes to taxes, such a requirement clearly is desired by the public.

Initiative 1366 presented a new twist on the issue. Rather than using a ballot measure to try and amend the state constitution, an approach that has been overturned in the past, Eyman devised a novel tactic. Lawmakers were given one of two options: Place a constitutional amendment on the ballot that could entrench the two-thirds requirement; or see the state’s sales tax rate drop by 1 percentage point. A total of 51.5 percent of statewide voters (57 percent in Clark County) agreed with that approach, painting the Legislature into a corner.

The item was largely ignored during this year’s legislative session as the issue played out in the courts. Thursday, justices said the measure violated the state constitution’s requirement that initiatives be limited to a single subject. “Based on the plain language of the initiative, we hold that I-1366 requires the Legislature to choose between two operative provisions,” read the opinion, authored by Chief Justice Barbara Madsen. “This does not constitute valid contingent legislation.” Three justices, in a concurrent opinion, also wrote that the initiative violated the constitution by essentially proposing an amendment by initiative, which is not allowed in Washington.

On a side note, it would take some time to figure out how much money the state has spent over the years in court fights relating to Eyman’s ballot initiatives. At least four times, he has promoted measures passed by voters only to be ruled unconstitutional after winding their way through the courts — odd behavior for somebody who rails against taxes and government spending. He has failed enough times to learn something — one would think.

Meanwhile, the Legislature next year should take action. The Washington Policy Center, in anticipation of Thursday’s ruling, commissioned a statewide poll by Elway Research and asked voters what they would like lawmakers to do if I-1366 is tossed out by the courts. According to the organization, 65 percent of respondents said they want lawmakers to send voters a constitutional amendment allowing them to weigh in on a two-thirds requirement.

Raising the threshold from the current level — 25 of 49 votes in the Senate, and 50 of 98 votes in the House of Representatives — could hamper government’s ability to address issues, react to emergencies, and provide needed services. It also would place an inordinate amount of influence in the hands of a small minority of legislators. But, as six previous votes indicate, the public is clamoring for the opportunity to enact those restrictions — and ultimate power must rest with the people.

Lawmakers should not view the latest Supreme Court decision as a reprieve from a lose-lose situation, but rather as a call to heed the public. They should place a constitutional amendment before voters.

Thursday, May 26, 2016

In my view: democratian fails the journalism test: Greg, step away from the bong before you post on pot.

We were all hosed by the lies used to pass I-502, the pot legalization initiative a few years back.

Actually, I do agree with the title of the nonsense written today: 

In Our View: Legislature Fails Pot Test

Because they certainly have, just not quite the way Jayne portrays it.

The campaign was a campaign of lies and fantasy from the very beginning.  Regular readers are well aware of the false numbers and promises made, since I've repeatedly brought them up. The rag got hosed on the scam, because they're incapable of critical thinking:

The number of $582 million in promised yearly tax revenue was a fantasy...

The lie concerning pot revenue used by the
I-502 campaign and bought by the democratian, 
To actually hit such a number would require Washington State's 7.2 million people to buy enough pot to generate $81 for every man and woman and child living in this state... or $291 or so worth of pot.  Each.  Every man... woman... child and infant.

The rag continues to trumpet bogus and unrealistic numbers, saying today, for example, that "Predictably, the journey to legalized marijuana in Washington has been accompanied by a few bumps in the road. Introducing an industry that produces more than $300 million in annual revenue is bound to create some unforeseen problems." 

First of all, the rag has never admitted they got hosed with the $582 million number... or that, in endorsing this idiocy, they hosed us.  But in all the times the Daily Izvestia has screwed us, they've never admitted they've been wrong, so this isn't surprising.

But a number THAT big?

Wow.  Who knew?

So, I went and committed the cardinal sin of actually looking up the latest revenue numbers, and stunningly enough, this is what I got:
The number, ladies and gentlemen, through last July, was not, of course, $582 million. In fact, the number was just over 10% of the promised amount: $62 million to the state... and additionally, $8 million locally.
Washington's racked up more than $250 million in marijuana sales in the past year — roughly $62 million of which constitute marijuana excise taxes. That's beyond the state's original forecast of $36 million. And when state and local sales and other taxes are included, the total payday for the state and local governments tops $70 million.
So... what happened to that $582 million figure? And when the rag writes this garbage:
So, yes, there are some kinks still to be worked out as the state deals with legalized marijuana. But there also have been some clear benefits. Projections are that tax revenue from marijuana sales will top $1 billion by the end of 2018; the revenue demonstrates how legalization has diminished the marijuana black market; the legal system does not have to spend time and money catching and prosecuting citizens for marijuana possession; and, as the Times wrote editorially, “recreational users’ wink-and-a-nod exploitation of the medical-marijuana system is gone.”
I have to ask: was Greg high when he wrote this babble?

We will be hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars short of a "billion" dollars in tax revenue by the end of 2018.

To achieve such a number would require each of us down to our newborns to have purchased almost $4.4 billion worth of pot, including the 37% tax.

Because of the tax and overhead, blackmarket sales CONTINUE apace: the reality is that if someone can but a product for 40% less (Conservatively, considering the tax and the overhead of a retail establishment) they will do so and there will be sellers to provide it, sales where there are no tax incomes figures available... since there isn't any.

And the idea that somehow, "the legal system does not have to spend time and money catching and prosecuting citizens for marijuana possession;" is more democratian revisionism:  Or have they forgotten this recent beauty:


Easter egg hunt in Clark County disrupted by drug bust, police say

A disturbance at a neighborhood Easter egg hunt led police to a nearby home, where they recovered drugs and $108,000 in cash.

Share story

A disturbance during an Easter egg hunt Saturday evening in Salmon Creek, north of Vancouver, led to the discovery of a large-scale unlicensed pot operation, according to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.
At about 6 p.m., police were dispatched to a report that the neighborhood Easter egg hunt had been interrupted by a man screaming that his roommates were going to shoot him, according to a story published in the Vancouver Columbian.
Police arrived in the area and learned that the disturbance was related to a marijuana distribution operation headquartered in a nearby home, police said.
Three men, two aged 24 and one 27, were arrested on drug charges. Two of the men had warrants for their arrests from Missouri, police said.
“It is believed that deliveries were occurring across the United States” from that pot operation, the news release said.
Detectives with the Clark Vancouver Regional Drug Task Force obtained a search warrant for the home and four vehicles, and they found 45 pounds of processed marijuana and $108,000 in cash, police said.
The pot was seized, along with five vehicles.
THAT is a "diminished market?"

Clearly the democratian gang is as clueless about the pot scene as they are the CRC/Loot Rail scam.

Locally, of course, tax revenue will be hammered by Oregon pot retailers who sell their product currently with a 25% tax that is scheduled to be reduced to 17 to 20%.

I get that the rag stuck their crank out to get this idiocy passed.  I also get that they would rather cut off said crank with dignity than admit they screwed up.

But this editorial column today was pure fantasy, much like their column endorsing I-502 and the I-502 campaign itself.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

So, Gas Tax Rivers finally has her campaign page up... and what does it say? Nothing.

I get it.

Gas Tax lied about a HUUUGE issue to get elected last time; specifically this:
A screen capture from River's 2012 Campaign website.
So, I fully understand why her web site effectively contains absolutely nothing of substance; no promises... no pledges... nothing.

And why is that?

So she can't be held accountable for her promises.  So she can't be asked: "Why did you lie to us?"

Or, "How can we believe anything you say?"

See, if you don't say anything, you can't be held liable for lying.

And that's just one of the may reasons I have to wonder: Is Rivers getting blackmailed?

She used to be a woman of her word.  Now, she doesn't have any words to be a woman of.

 A web site full of glittering generalities where she promises nothing of substance because that means she won't have to deliver anything of substance.

But then, when she was running in 2012, how did this promise work out?


Simple: we got hung with a $700 million dollar bill in this county... and that's around $1600 for every man, woman and child, all because Rivers lied to get elected.

She did nothing to keep her word.  She did nothing to protect us.  She did nothing to allow us to have any voice.  And when asked about it, what did she do?

She even lied about that, falsely claiming that if she hadn't screwed us with her yes vote costing us $700 million... her promised "no" vote would have cost us "$7 BILLION."


That was a lie, of course.  The Transportation scam passed with 27 votes.

Had she voted "no" as she promised she would... it STILL would have passed with 26 votes.  We'd still be paying the $700 million or so, to be sure... but our senator wouldn't be a verifiable liar.

Is it any wonder her website is so worthless, and no one reading it has any idea what she plans to do if she's reelected...  except, of course, to screw us again?

When is the next time she's going to lie?  What is she going to get for screwing her district, a district that voted 75% or so "no" on the gas tax advisory vote?

And if since she's going to lie to us again... and fail to represent the will of the people of THIS district... why should she be elected at all?

Remember that each and every time you put gas in your car.  Senator Ann "Gas Tax" Rivers is a major portion of why you're paying roughly $2.40 more for 20 gallons of gasoline... so we can finance King County's transportation issues.

In large part, because our senator is a liar... like most other politicians.  And that's a shame.  She could have been somebody... and now, she's just another two-faced RINO.

What would Senator Hinton do? (Democratian interrogatories.)

From McCleary to bridge to restrooms, primer on issues for those seeking office

Published:
3
 
The lineup is official, which means the game is about to start.
Friday was the deadline for candidates to file for this year’s election, kicking off the campaign season. Three legislative districts — the 17th, 18th, and 49th — rest entirely within Clark County, meaning that a total of three state senators and six members of the House represent the vast majority of residents.

Odds are that several of the candidates seeking those offices will knock on your door between now and the Aug. 2 primary, and voters should be prepared to engage with them. With that in mind, here is a primer on the issues for quizzing candidates and holding them accountable:

Education funding.
In the 2012 McCleary v. Washington decision, the state Supreme Court ruled that the Legislature has not lived up to what the state constitution says is its “paramount duty”: Funding basic public education. Since then, lawmakers have increased spending on K-12 education by $4.8 billion, but prior to the 2016 legislative session the court chastised them for not doing enough. The justices held the Legislature in contempt and issued a fine of $100,000 a day.

This year, lawmakers responded by passing a plan to plan for education spending, kicking the issue down the road another year. Do candidates believe a property-tax increase is necessary for funding basic education? 

No.
Would this allow local districts to reduce their reliance upon local levies funded by property taxes? 
Not necessary.
Should the state pass a capital-gains tax to help fund schools?
No.
Has the Supreme Court overstepped its bounds in dictating increased funding and,
Absolutely.  The Court has zero authority over the Legislature.  The end.
if so, how should lawmakers respond?
They should ignore the Supreme Court and refuse to pay a dime in fines.
They should cut the number of Justices to 5 by killing their funding.You wanna do that, it's up to you.  
But WE do not have to accommodate YOUR choices or decisions.
Climate change.
Gov. Jay Inslee has said he wants to be the nation’s “greenest governor” and has put forth several policy ideas that largely have been ignored by the Legislature. Last year, lawmakers inserted into a transportation package a provision that forced the governor to choose between low-carbon fuel standards and the much-needed transportation funding. Candidates must be ready to answer these questions:  Should state government take climate change seriously?
No.
And what should the Legislature do about it?
Nothing.  It's not a state issue.
The Interstate 5 Bridge.
In 2013, the state Senate scuttled a Columbia River Crossing plan that had been a decade in the making and would have replaced the century-old bridge. Some local representatives — and many local residents — opposed the plan because it included an extension of Portland’s light-rail system into Clark County. So, where do we go from here?
We build an additional bridge to the west of I-5 to the Hillsboro area. 
And we build a bridge to the east of I-205 so that we've got 4 bridges crossing the river. 
We make sure that none of those bridges are light rail ready or capable. 
THEN, we look at replacing the I-5 Bridge... but not until the other bridges are completed.
Candidates must be ready to weigh in on the future of the Interstate 5 Bridge;
We consider replacing it AFTER the other bridges are built.
the future of light rail in Vancouver;
There IS no future for light rail in Vancouver.
and how to engage Oregon officials to forge a compromise that is beneficial for both states.
We force them to build these bridges through federal means.  They can be involved... or it can be rammed down their throats like they tried to ram loot rail down OUR throats.
Bathroom politics.
Proponents are collecting signatures to try and place Initiative 1515 on the ballot, regarding the use of bathrooms by transgender people — an issue that has made news across the country this year. What do candidates believe is an appropriate response on this topic?
You go to the can with what you were born with.  And you can take a shower with those who have the same equipment you were born with.
Life is tough.  It's tougher when you're stupid, and mutilating yourself is stupid. 

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Boger of the CCRINOs breaks it down, provides the "do not vote for list."

I suppose the RINOs had to label the division they've caused somehow.

Brent Boger, who has been a major player in shattering local party unity and flaying this county with his hideous political choices, has laid most of it out with a FB post... self-serving pap, to be sure, but his use of the phrase "Madore Candidate" and "Non-Madore Candidate" is yet another example of that very divisiveness.

The obvious ploy here is the interchangeability of the hated "Madore" label and the "conservative" label because, clearly, in the local RINO world, one cannot BE an actual conservative and run for office WITHOUT the support of, and agreement of Madore.  Boger and his ilk believe, wrongfully as it turns out, that Madore is cancer in every square foot of this county.

Nonsense.  But labeling is an important part of the political realm.  As is mislabeling when the meme requires it.

For the rest of us, it boils down somewhat more traditionally and simply:

"Conservative" and "RINO."

Madore's support (or lack thereof) isn't even a data point in my consideration of a candidate.  If a candidate is conservative, I am likely to support them.  Boger's idea that Madore's support equates to some sort of reason to oppose a candidate is the same reason, then, when a leftist sends a check to a democrat like Boldt or a RINO like Rivers, they should ALSO be opposed.

Right?

Nope.  Of course not.  Situational ethics are the hallmark of the RINO.

Here's how Brent sees it:

17th District, State Rep Position 1:
Non-Madore Candidate: Jerry Oliver
Madore Candidate: Vicki Caldwell Kraft

17th District, State Rep Position 2:
Non-Madore Candidate: Paul Harris
Madore Candidate: Richard Colwell

18th District, State Rep Position Position 2:
Non-Madore Candidate: Shane Bowman
Madore Candidate: Liz Pike

49th District, State Rep Position 2:
Non-Madore Candidate: Carolyn Crain
Madore Candidate: Wade McLaren

County Council District 3:
Non-Madore Candidate: John Blom
Madore Candidate: David Madore

County Council District 4:
Non-Madore Candidate: Jennifer McDaniel
Madore Candidate: Eileen Qutub Quiring

Of some interest is his failure to describe 17th District Senate candidate Lynda Wilson.  Odd, that, but since she's of the RINO ilk, not terribly surprising.

Further, he failed to mention Gas Tax Rivers' or Brandon Vick's persuasion.  Vick is between the Rock and the Hard place.  He joined in opposing Rivers' gas tax and tab fee betrayal to the people of this district and this county.  Rivers on the other hand, has morphed into the very worst politics has to offer: the RINO special-interest stereotypical fake Republican.


Those who unfortunately escaped a GOP challenge are the aforementioned Ann "Gas Tax" Rivers, Brandon "6 Committee" Vick and Lynda "Nowhere to be found" Wilson.

I will be doing what I can to make sure that none of the "Non-Madore" candidates (RINOs) or any of the 3 unchallenged GOP candidates.... particularly Gas Tax, win a damned thing.

Boger, of course, makes excuses for Gas Tax, refusing to admit the truth of the situation: campaign pledges are not negotiable, changeable or refutable by the candidate that uses them.

For if Boger's take is correct.... 
People in politics have the right to change their minds. When they do, it is not lying as some suggest. Who is to say that you were right in the past and wrong now? You know more now than you did in the past--unless you forget.
Then no campaign pledge or promise is worth the paper its printed on and nothing any candidate of any stripe says can be or should be believed.

Boger takes this position, of course, because he could hardly be able to support his buddies and friends who lie like they breathe were he to take the honorable route.

How could he support Rivers or his own creation, Scott Weber, if he were to hold them accountable for their actions, their pledges to do certain things as a condition of their election (Rivers to oppose the gas tax/tab fee increases; Weber to work to get rid of his position as an elected official if he were elected) if he were to hold them accountable?

As a RINO, it's easy for people to lie when the reason serves a purpose they like.

Likewise, as a RINO, when it's personal friends involved, its even easier to overlook their lies no matter how much the people get screwed... much like Rivers screwed us with a $700 million burden... without asking us.

As an attorney, RINOs never forget that words have true meaning... in the language of Justice Thomas in Carcieri v. Salazar:
When the language is "plain and unambiguous," the statute must be applied according to its terms.
These pledges amount to a political contract with the voters.  The terms were both plain and unambiguous:

From Rivers' former campaign web site:



 There are three lies from this excerpt of her campaign website:

1.  "I will not support an increase in the gas tax."

2.  "I will not support increases in tab fees."

3.  "The people have spoken and I have listened."

From Scott Weber's own words:


Quoted from Lew Water's Blog
Quite apparently, Weber really likes the idea of his 6 figure pay check since he's never made any discernible effort to implement his plan, making it nothing but an election year ploy.

I remember getting the call from Boger about Weber and the plan to have him run against Sherry Parker on the basis of eliminating that position as an elective office.

I remember telling Boger: "You know, that sounds like a GREAT idea... as long as he follows through on it after the election."

Well, here we are some half-million or more taxpayer dollars into Weber's pocket later.... and nothing.

The language used by both of these politicians is both plain and unambiguous.  Yet, Boger would have us all believe that those words are meaningless when uttered by anyone running for office as long as they use the excuse of "I didn't know then what I know now."

And what, exactly, did Rivers, who had been involved in local politics for the better part of a decade when she was elected to the House in 2010 and then elected to the Senate in 2012 suddenly "learn" that she didn't already "know?"

Except that any lie to get elected is perfectly OK, for example?

The many faces of Tim "The Liar" Leavitt.
Who can possibly forget this guy, and his fake opposition to tolls on the CRC that I warned everyone about months before he was elected mayor of the Vancouver Soviet?

What is the difference between the lies of Leavitt and the lies of Rivers and the lies of Weber?

Leavitt's lies only cost the taxpayers $200 million.  Rivers' lies will cost us 3.5 times that much and no one seems upset about that.

This type of reasoning is literally a blank check excuse for those we elect to ignore their word, given to the voter as a condition of that election in the first place.

Yet, if you're a RINO, none of those lies matter.  Past voting records are to be overlooked in the RINO world.  We are to suspend our disbelief in favor of supporting a "Friend of Brent."

From the "We hate conservatives, overlook Boldt's RINO record as commissioner" letter:
While we don’t individually endorse all of his votes during that very long period of his service, and some of them concern several of us, we value Boldt’s character, collegial temperament, ability to listen as well as to lead, and maturity in addressing different points of view. Furthermore, his perspective as a farmer, truck driver, and small-business leader is essential on our council.
In short, translated that garbage means "Hey, we know his voting record sucks, but we don't care that he voted like Steve Stewart had his hand up his back, we hate conservatives; he hasn't been one for a decade or more, so vote for Boldt anyway."  (This mischaracterization of Boldt notwithstanding; his tenure to date has been an utter and complete disaster.)

One need look no farther than Brent's hatred of David Madore and his subsequent support of a non-Republican leftist as county chair... and the tax increase that Brent now bears a portion of responsibility for that resulted...

Or the fact that those he would "pardon" for lying to us are his own personal friends... or in the case of Boldt, an opponent of a hated conservative...

Or that it's all too typical for RINO's to make excuses like this...

To see the motivation here.

It's the exact, same reason we have a RINO Senate at the state and federal level (GOP senators at the state level voting with the democrats killed the pervert bathroom bill, for example, not to mention ramming the $15 billion transportation/gas tax/tab fee scam down our throats without asking us... unlike the neo-communist government of the city of Portland, who just last week had a gas tax vote...) and the federal House level... (RINO Ryan has been a great Speaker, hasn't he?) doing Obama's bidding, our fake, cardboard cut out of a congresswoman notwithstanding.  

 If, in fact, Boger is right.... then anything any politician ever says or promises to get elected is worthless... a waste of time and ASCII.  We should just skip campaigns altogether, announce on one week... and hold the election the next since nothing any of them says or does means anything.

Except, apparently, to me.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Democrats whining about Sanders supporters at the Nevada Dem Convention: sounds like irony.

Soon to be former US Senator Babs Boxer (D-CA) came unhinged over the conduct of Sanders supporters at the Nevada Democrat Convention this past Saturday:
Dems' new fear: Sanders revolt could upend Democratic convention 

CNN Digital Expansion DC Manu Raju
(CNN)Sen. Barbara Boxer, a veteran of Democratic politics, says she never saw anything quite like this before. 
Loud cursing, shouting, obscene gestures and vile insults, including crude comments about the female anatomy. It was all on display over the weekend as supporters of Bernie Sanders turned the Nevada State Democratic Convention into chaos. 
"I was not able to stop these people for doing what they did," Boxer, a Hillary Clinton supporter, told CNN. "Apparently they've done it before. .... This group of about 100 were very vocal, and I can't describe it -- disrespectful doesn't even explain it, it was worse than that."

READ: Changing super delegate rules would still leave Sanders behind

Boxer is hardly the lone Clinton supporter to experience such harassment on the campaign trail. Several top Democrats told CNN publicly and privately that the energy and enthusiasm of Sanders supporters has at times descended into incendiary attacks that threaten to tear apart efforts to unite Democrats against Donald Trump. Several female senators told CNN the attacks have been misogynistic.
Why would the woman would lie like this?  Well, that's anyone's guess.  She's never seen it before? Seriously?

You see, this sort of thing happens frequently.

Let a conservative, for example, speak on a college campus.

Or, in many instances, watch the protesting scum around a Donald Trump rally.

So when Babs lies about never having seen "anything quite like this before," remind her that her silence in the face of this sort of thing when aimed at the right side of the political spectrum made it perfectly acceptable for a huge segment of her side of the aisle to engage in this against those THEY perceive to be "the enemy."

The left had their chance to reign these clowns in when the right was the target.  And what did we get?

Cricket chirps.

Where were the demands from these fringe-leftist whack jobs for civility when those riots happened?

Will they be this upset when these same people or their surrogates show up in Cleveland for the GOP Convention?

Of course not.

Now the shoe is on the other foot.  And the monster which scum like Boxer helped to create... is now turning on it's former master.

Each and every time a leftist whines about what the Sanders crowd is doing... they should plant themselves in front of a mirror and ask themselves: what could WE... or *I*... have done to prevent this?

Plenty.  For example, they could have condemned this sort of thing when ANYONE did it against ANYONE.

But because it wasn't them... or their buddies?

Silence.

And that's their "Inconvenient Truth."

I hope Sanders' people go nuts.  Perhaps it's time for the Tree of Liberty to be sprinkled with the blood of patriots.

    Tuesday, May 17, 2016

    Gays in the military?

    No, thanks.



    Trusted News, Intel and Journalism From Military Veterans


    Monday, May 16, 2016

    The little finger story.

    They operate on your right little finger 4 times:

    1. The first to reattach a ligament to a bone, sewing a button on the outside of your finger and running sutures through the ligament, through the bone, through the skin to your Seahawk colored button on the outside of your finger.

    A different doctor decides to remove your sutures 3 weeks early. Ligament only partially attaches to the bone.

    Ligament begins to shrink. Little finger begins to tilt outward, eventually achieving a 30 degree angle from perpendicular on your writing hand. Any time you use a pen it feels like someone is unjamming an icepick into that part of your hand.

    First knuckle on the finger is destroyed as a result.

    2. See original surgeon. Freak him out because I request finger be amputated. Promises corrective surgery within 60 days. (This was on October what... 24th of 2014 or so)

    Meanwhile, VA implements the utterly worthless "Veteran's Choice."

    Except they don't tell you. And as a consequence, they take your name off the VA surgical schedule.

    You wait 50 days but don't hear anything. Meanwhile, finger gets worse... hand starting to look like it belongs to ET and is becoming practically useless.

    "Veteran's Choice" refuses to do anything because they claim they can't get my records. Takes them two months to get the records. I already have a referral for hand surgery, but once "VC" reviews the records, they start sending me authorizations.

    They send me authorizations... 3 of them for a primary care doctor (Which I do not need) and THEN, once I get them to figure out what I DO need (hand surgery), they send me 3 authorizations for carpel tunnel surgery, which I DON'T need.

    THEN, when I finally get them to understand that I need a hand surgeon, they refer me to one, who, (not their fault, obviously) just happened to get diagnosed with two different stage 4 cancers.

    So, I contact the VA and ask them if I'm still on the schedule. (They had to put me back on it outside the 30 day window to game the system to get me on Veteran's Choice, again.)

    They told me I was, for another 7 weeks... appropriately enough, April 15.

    I tell them the hell with it: I've had enough of screwing around with VC and just keep me on the schedule so they can do it.

    VC was unhappy with me, but tough shit.

    3. We are now 5.5 months after seeing the surgeon who referred me.

    He removes destroyed knuckle, wires "Middle phalanx" to "proximal phalanx" and pins everything together using titanium pins (Bone, apparently, won't grow around titanium.)

    Things go along OK for two weeks or so, then one of the pins fell out of my finger.

    (Meanwhile, I still can't use my hand for anything.)

    Spend 8 hours in VA emergency room. Doctor says there's nothing he can do for me (He's an ER Doc, not a hand doc) and sets me up for two weeks exam.

    MEANWHILE,the wire used to wire me together starts trying to come out of the skin at one of the suture sites.

    Doctor finally sees me, tells me that where the wire is coming out is, in reality, a cyst. Schedules me for a month later to have cyst removed. Tells me I no longer need pin, removes the other pin.

    It becomes clear it's wire, and not a cyst. I try to tell them it's wire because I can push it back in.

    They don't believe me. Tell me it's a cyst.

    Go to have cyst removed... doctor cuts out something, looks in and says, "I'll be damned. There's that wire."

    I told him I'd tried to tell them... he says, well, I guess we'll take it out...

    He sends somebody out and, I swear to God, they come back with a regular pair of needle nose wire cutters and a pair of what looks like Ace Hardware pliers.

    This guy goes to work on my finger, pulling wire out and cutting it... sounds like when I rewired the dash on my 69 camaro.

    Finally tells me, "OK, we got it all out."

    4. Except, of course, he didn't.

    And when he cut the last piece out that he DID remove, he left a needly type point on the wire still in my finger.

    Kj Hinton's photo.Which also tries to come out after about 3 weeks.

    I go back in, show the doctors where the wire is literally poking through the skin from the inside, and they schedule me for my 4th surgery to get the remaining wire out.
     
    Which they finally do... some 3 years after this all started and some low 6 figure cost to the taxpayers, and around a $1000 cost to me for all of it.

    A little too long to fit on the bingo card, though.

    Finger will never bend, but at least it's straight, if covered with scar tissue.

    Sunday, May 15, 2016

    A democrat filing in the 18th has screwed up the RINO/Bowman plan. Or has it?

    From the bizarro zone:

    A democrat has filed in the 1-8 to run against Liz Pike.  The dem, Kathy Gillespie, is the prototypical, stereotypical fringe-leftist... almost a sitcom but oh-so-typical of the downtown fringe-left Jimmy Moeller types so favored by the local democrats.

    Top-tip to the leftists: the 18th District is among THE most conservative, anti-big-government, anti-tax, pro-life districts in the state.

    Insisting on running the female version of Jimmy Moeller just means another loss.

    But the female version of Jim Moeller is all they've got TO run... because anyone to the right of Mao will not get any party support.

    Just look at the nut jobs they've been running over the past several years.

    Now, as the regular reader knows, Sen. Ann "Gas Tax" Rivers is in full-on hate mode against Rep., Liz Pike.

    Pike, a conservative Representative in the same district, opposed much of Rivers' RINO agenda, which included a $700 million bill for the taxpayers of Clark County for the gas tax she had pledged to oppose as a condition of her election, as well as becoming a complete lackey for the pot industry that lied itself into existence by falsely claiming that passing the pot initiative would result in $582 million per year in tax revenue to the state... a figure that has yet to exceed what... $70 million?

    So, in a fit of pique, was does Rivers do?

    She goes out and recruits Shane Bowman to run against Liz Pike in the upcoming election.

    Bowman, in a stunning political bit of idiocy, claims that he should have the job because he SUPPORTED screwing the entire county for $700 million on the gas tax/tab fee jack, a strong-armed robbery that Pike opposed loudly and publicly... thus Rivers' anger.

    Rivers has never denied recruiting Bowman; Bowman has acknowledged to some that Rivers recruited him to run against Pike, and the simple solution for Rivers to PROVE she didn't recruit him would be for her to disavow Bowman's candidacy, endorse Pike and hold a fund raiser or two for her... things that will never happen since, after all, Rivers made all of this possible.

    That said, even though Bowman's chances were slim... it appears they may have just gotten slimmer... given that, in the state advisory vote on the gas tax increase that Bowman so strongly endorsed ramming down our throats without a vote (a vote that even the leftists in Portland get) the 18th District was a 75% "no" vote... and Pike's reputation as a conservative, government expansion-fighting representative of the people (the exact opposite of Rivers and Bowman) would have made it a spirited fight to be sure... but one that Bowman would likely have lost since the only issue he's got is his rabid support for increasing everyone's taxes... without asking them via vote, first.

    The announcement of a WEA lackey siphons off any hope Bowman had of getting the far-left, conservative-hating vote that he was counting on to take out Pike.

    This, then, becomes something of a microcosm of the county chair vote: a fake Republican (Boldt) announces as a fake Republican as he gradually moves towards running as a "No Party Preference" to draw the RINO conservative-hater vote... a plan that would have been wildly successful if only the democrats hadn't scraped the bottom of the barrel at the last second in getting a democrat, Dalesandro, to file at the last moment.

    Yes, Boldt got 39% of the suckers to vote for him... meaning that 61% of us oppose him... and his tenure has been a disaster of legendary proportions with tax increases, spending sprees and acting as if the will of the people was a waste of his time... much like, for example, he acted during his last tenure as a county commissioner.

    Even then, he barely beat out Dalesandro.

    So now, the great plan of the RINOs to get rid of another conservative has gone up in smoke.

    Or has it?

    Will Bowman follow suit in an effort to "Boldt" the election?  Will he suddenly run as a fake Republican?

    Will it matter if he does?