>On another note, how are Pen-Lers coping with depression and anger today,
>as we exercise our freedom to vote for the marginally lesser evil? The
>thought of Jesse Helms as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations committee
>is so nauseating that I'm having trouble thinking of anything else. Here
>in Pennsylvania, we are about to give you Rick Santorum in the Senate,
>someone who combines the worst characteristics of Gingrich, Huffington,
>Helms, and Thurmond. Cheers.
>
>Teresa
>
>
>***************
>Teresa Amott
>Dept. of Economics
>Bucknell University
>Lewisburg, PA 17837
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>717/524-1652 (w)
>717/524-3760 (fax)
I keep saying to myself: we lived through eight years of Reagan and at the
beginning I never thought we could.
More seriously, in the land of populism here in Oregon we are dealing with
18 statewide ballot measures. If certain combinations pass we could be
building 1000 new prison beds per year into the 21st century (Measure 11),
while every tax or fee increase (including photocopying court papers) would
be subject to a vote of the people (Measure 5), while public employee
salaries would be cut 6% by requiring (in the Oregon Constitution) that we
pay what the state has picked up for the last 15 years (Measure 8), while
K-14 education would be guaranteed current funding plus inflation at the
expense of all other general fund programs (Measure 15). This doesn't
count the perennial anti-gay measure and the repeal of Little Davis-Bacon.
Most of the worst measures are bankrolled by rightwing millionaires but
it's "the people" who are voting on them. Talk to me tomorrow and I may
argue for a benevolent monarchy.
At the national level we have no Senate races but if the Republicans do
win, Hatfield and Packwood chair Appropriations and Finance, I believe. We
used to be able to rely on these "moderates" as something of a check on the
worst of the Senate Republicans, but Packwood is now so beholden to Dole
and the rest for his survival that he's capable of anything.
Cheery, huh?
Steve Hecker
Steven Hecker
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Labor Education and Research Center
1289 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-1289
telephone: 503-346-2788
fax: 503-346-2790
