Opinion
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Conventional Wisdom: Olympic high and lowlight and the Dems in Denver

You Think you’re so bad. Upfront spent some time last week lamenting the false pageantry around the Beijing Games including the decision to have a
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You Think you’re so bad. Upfront spent some time last week lamenting the false pageantry around the Beijing Games including the decision to have a child lip sync a song during the opening ceremonies. But apparently China wasn't the first to decide that it needed to fake it to make it on the world stage. Australian papers reported this week that the 2000 opening ceremonies in Sidney weren't exactly the real McCoy. The then host country used a canned recording as the backdrop for its opening ceremony while the Sidney Symphony essentially air-guitared along with the pre-recorded soundtrack. Australian officials also conceded that the music wasn't even recorded by the Sidney Symphony, most of it was laid down by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

If we didn't know better, Upfront would think the Olympics were just one big made for TV spectacle, rather than the purest form of international athletic competition that they surely are.

Still there were some great moments in the recently concluded games: Michael Phelps’ unprecedented run to eight gold medals, the men's basketball team finding redemption, Gold for women's beach volleyball. Ah, bikini ball…

There were also some great flameouts: the United States track team in general, U.S. gymnasts falling off the balance beam. But our favorite meltdown had to be the Cuban tae kwon do fighter who intentionally kicked a Swedish referee in the face after being disqualified from the bronze medal match. That was some serious Lone Wolf McQuade shit. DNC

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Me and Obama

Why it’s time for Oregon to get behind Obama. I support Barack Obama because both he and I are Patriotic Americans who believe OUR flag
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Why it's time for Oregon to get behind Obama. I support Barack Obama because both he and I are Patriotic Americans who believe OUR flag can once again stand for what it has long represented … a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Barack Obama and I also agree that "the people" referred to in the Declaration of Independence consists of each and every individual citizen of the United States, whether born on our soil or naturalized citizens. We are, with all due respect to our Native American Indian citizens, a nation of immigrants.

John McCain and his band of Republican "carpetbaggers" have spent the past twenty plus years trying to morph our glorious flag into the equivalent of the Corporate Logo for their use in the Global Economy … where the jobs go overseas and the profits go to insiders and corporate investors, and where "we the people" pick up the tab when the feces hits the fan.

John McCain and his band of Republican "carpetbaggers" embrace a simple minded, cynical notion of Corporate Personhood that gives enormous political power and influence over our governmental and political affairs to foreign nationals so long as they wield that influence ($$$$$$$$$$) through their investments in and control over any domestically incorporated entity.

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Insult to Injury

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Letter of the Week 
This week's LOW goes to Greer Thomas, if for no other reason than his dogged persistence. Like Fox Mulder, Thomas and the rest of the Truthers keep searching with the knowledge that "The Truth Is Out There.

Posted inOpinion

Not Advertising, Not Reading

As a local business owner, I have considered advertising in The Source, but I have always chosen to advertise in other forms of media, due
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As a local business owner, I have considered advertising in The Source, but I have always chosen to advertise in other forms of media, due to the fact that I would be afraid that my ad would be next to an advertisement for a strip club or dating service. After reading the editor's response to Jennifer's letter in this week's Source, I have decided not to read this paper anymore.

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Don’t Walk Away From Pets

A few weeks ago, Josh, Sally, and their three children, who live across the street from me, moved away. They left some lawn furniture, bags
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A few weeks ago, Josh, Sally, and their three children, who live across the street from me, moved away. They left some lawn furniture, bags of trash, and their cat, Boots.

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No Thanks For Biden

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Obama chooses a lock 'em up drug warrior as VP? You gotta be kidding!
I read of a recent drug sting on August 8, in Maryland, where a police dog sniffed positive on a package that was then intercepted, but instead of just confiscating the marijuana, under-cover police decided to go ahead and deliver the package (possession and delivery of a controlled substance). The home of a Maryland mayor was then staked out.

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Taxes Should Crash Too, Right?

During the boom years of real estate development in bend, and rapidly inflating real estate values, my property valuation for real estate taxes also escalated
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During the boom years of real estate development in bend, and rapidly inflating real estate values, my property valuation for real estate taxes also escalated rapidly. In the last five years my assessed value rose 96%, virtually double.

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Anti-Union Astroturfing

Grass roots right wing style. In the PR game they call it “Astroturfing.” It means creating a movement or organization that looks like it’s “grassroots”
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Grass roots right wing style. In the PR game they call it "Astroturfing." It means creating a movement or organization that looks like it's "grassroots" but really isn't.

One of the more noxious sprouts of Astroturf we've encountered this campaign season is an outfit called the Employee Freedom Action Committee. The Washington, DC-based group is registered as a non-profit, which means it doesn't have to disclose where its money comes from. But it operates out of the offices of lobbyist Richard Berman, a notorious Astroturfer who has operated front groups supporting the restaurant, liquor and tobacco industries and opposing (among other things) consumer protection, animal rights, increases in the minimum wage - and, almost needless to say, labor unions.

In a 2007 "60 Minutes" segment, correspondent Morley Safer described how Berman "has come up with a clever system of non-profit 'educational' entities. Companies can make charitable donations to these groups, which … are neutral sounding but 'educating' with a particular point of view, all perfectly legal."

Right now, EFAC is flooding the Oregon airwaves with an ad attacking Democratic US Senate candidate Jeff Merkley. "Some union bosses and their politician friends want to effectively do away with privacy when it comes to voting on joining a union," the narrator says. The screen shows a picture of Merkley looking sinister, then a scene of a big, scary-looking guy - a "union boss," presumably - looming over a poor little old lady.

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Thanks for Cheating: Working around Bend Broadband, travels to Cuba, more

Opening ceremonies from beijing.The Olympics will wrap up this weekend in Beijing and the world can stop caring about things like trampoline, badminton, and air
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Opening ceremonies from beijing.The Olympics will wrap up this weekend in Beijing and the world can stop caring about things like trampoline, badminton, and air pistol shooting for another four years. Speaking of the Olympics, was anyone as indignant as Upfront over the blatant cheating by the Chinese gymnastics team who essentially rolled out a bunch of prepubescent girls for its team competition, where IOC rules require that all competitors be at least 16 years of age or turn 16 during the calendar year of the Games? While the Chinese insisted that the flat-chested babes it put forward were indeed 16 years old, the New York Times found evidence that several of China's gymnasts were as young as 13 and 14, a huge advantage in a sport where physics wreak havoc on larger and heavier bodies.

The proof appears to be in the pudding. The average height of the Chinese team members is 4 feet 9 inches and they weigh in at an average of 77 pounds - less than some dogs in this town. By contrast, the US team averages over five feet and weighs about 30 pounds more than the Chinese.

The contrasts were no more apparent than when the two teams stood next to each other, the muscular, curved bodies of the Americans contrasting sharply with the underdeveloped bodies of their sticklike counterparts.

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No Free Pass on Bike Death

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Letter of the Week

 This week's featured letter comes from Daniel Brewster, who happens to deliver the Source's downtown route by bike and knows a thing or two about the interactions between drivers and bikers. For more on the tragic death of Keith Moon, see this week's Boot, Page 8.

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