“Green” Developers’ Scorched-Earth Tactics

Posted inOpinion

“Green” Developers’ Scorched-Earth Tactics

Eric Flowers

To hear the developers of the Metolian tell it, they're the greenest, tree-huggingest, Earth-lovingest guys who ever walked the planet.

But the tactics the developers and their supporters have been employing look more like a scorched-earth policy. They seem to have adopted William Tecumseh Sherman as their role model instead of John Muir.
A little background: The Metolian is the smaller of two destination resorts originally proposed for development within the Metolius Basin. Responding to the pleas of thousands of lovers of this irreplaceable scenic, recreational and ecological resource, Gov. Ted Kulongoski asked the state Land Conservation and Development Commission to draw up a plan for its protection.
The LCDC plan would allow limited development of both resorts within the basin in exchange for the rights to put larger resorts outside it. Ponderosa Land and Cattle Co., the owner of the land where the bigger resort was supposed to go, apparently feels it can live with that deal. But Dutch Pacific Resources LLC, which wants to develop the Metolian, is fighting the plan because it would be able to build only two residences in the basin if a site can be found elsewhere for its "eco-resort."

Posted inOpinion

Take A Memo: Our favorite interrogations, Chavez’s handshake, Cletus, and more

Eric Flowers

The author has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as America. He is reporting from a garbage dump, after cleaning up cigarette butts, patchouli packaging, and signage from recent "Earth Day" events statewide, on assignment for Or-Bust.com and The Source Weekly.
Waterboarded, How Many Times?
"If you look at what this really comprises, if you look at the documents that have been made public, it says 'top secret' at the top. The definition of top secret is information which, if revealed, would cause grave harm to U.S. security." offered former CIA top-snoop-chief Michael Hayden, when informed that the Obama Administration has released details of top secret (i.e. over-the-top) interrogation (= torture) techniques. Among the memos released was the disturbing acknowledgement that two top al Qaeda suspects were waterboarded at least 266 times. 266 - one was drowned (all in jest) for over 30 seconds at a time. Good thing Bush reassured us that "America does not torture." While releasing the memos, Obama staffers noted that those involved in the actual techniques should not be prosecuted yet deftly did not include immunity for those who drafted the techniques, like Hayden, John Yoo, and others in the Bush-Cheney junta all too eager to cite "security" and "terror" as reasons why BDSM at the CIA should go undisclosed.

Posted inOpinion

Leaving Downtown: Contemplating the end of an era and a dream

Eric Flowers

Mid-morning. Spring. A low gray sky. Snowflakes dive-bomb my windshield. I turn into the Mirror Pond parking lot. I pull into a slot on the south-end and turn off the ignition. Sitting under the park's white arbor are two punks in soiled white hooded sweatshirts, hoods up, shoulders hunched. One is smoking. Both are on their cell phones. Swell. Something about the irony of so much white. The punks are part of the daily dealing and scoring scene back here on Brooks Street.

I grab my purse and brown bag lunch. The countdown has begun. One week. Six days. Santee Alley the store my store closes. Empty. Gone from this very downtown. I am part of a battalion of Bend boutiques, retail businesses and restaurants morphing into ghosts of commerce. There's no solace though in the "strength in numbers while heading into war" theory. This war is like a Chinese proverb, both understood and not, all at the same time. I lock the car and look around knowing the weather will keep "Parking Nazi" from patrolling. No need to pay for a parking voucher today. Sweet. Another seven dollars not spent.

Posted inNews

Celebrate Record Store Day

The Source Staff

Tomorrow is the third Saturday in April, which means, of course, that it's Record Store Day. This holiday, which began in 2007, is a national celebration of independent record stores - a medium that has been slowly going the way of the buffalo in the past decade, as evidenced by the fact that we only have one independent store left in Bend.

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