One opportunity the Obama campaign is missing (and they seem to be doing just fine without me) is that they're not posing the question, "Did John McCain put his country or his election first when he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate?" We all know the answer: he chose her because he thought it would help him get the Hillary defectors and the ultra-conservative voters who weren't thrilled about him. But I'm sure that whether it was best for the country never entered his mind.
Country First?
Posted inOpinion
Take a Look at Dallas Brown
Nothing has done more to alienate voters from the democratic process than the lack of clear choices and substantive debate. Local elections in particular tend to ignore the most important issues in favor of well-intentioned but meaningless platitudes. With so many pressing issues facing our community, I refuse to allow another election pass us by in a blur of don't-worry-be-happy bromides. Though The Source apparently feels that my candidacy is hardly worth mentioning, this is precisely why I am running for City Council Seat 2.
Watch my opponents' slick television ads or listen to their feel-good rhetoric, and you would never know that Bend is in the midst of a major economic crisis. Property prices have plummeted in our community, foreclosures are on the rise and families are finding themselves owing more money on their mortgage than their house is now worth. Having brought Bend to this unhappy condition by fueling ever more unsustainable housing growth, our local leaders now refuse to even acknowledge that families are struggling. We can't allow local leadership to serve the needs of real estate developers while ignoring the long-term health of our community.
Posted inCulture
Our Picks for the week of 10/29-11/5
HDC Halloween Party
and Drag Show
friday 31
In the first of the many, many Halloween events we're picking out for you (there's even more on our special Halloween section on page 16!), the Human Dignity Coalition is throwing their annual Halloween bash featuring PDX's Poisonwaters and friends, after party with Grove DJs, live auction, dancing and more. It's pretty much a guaranteed good time.
Posted inNews
Could Cruz Cruise Out of Drake Park?
The Flashback Cruz has always been one of The Eye's favorite Bend summer events. We're not really a car aficionado, but it's still fun to go down to Drake Park and look over all the polished-to-perfection, tricked-out classic and exotic vehicles.
Posted inNews
The GOP’s Human Pinata
Pity Tucker Bounds, U of O grad and John McCain's spokesman for the state of Oregon. Beating up on him has become a favorite pastime of the media … both left and right.
Posted inNews
Dems Try to Tie Stevens to Smith
The Eye almost - ALMOST - has to feel sorry for the GOP: Just when it seems that things can't get any worse … they do.
Posted inNews
Right-Wingers’ Credibility Gets Carved Up
When the story about McCain campaign worker Ashley Todd being attacked by an Obama supporter who carved the letter B into her cheek appeared on The Drudge Report, right-wing news media gobbled it up like a kid with an ice cream cone - and none more enthusiastically than the NW Republican blog.
Posted inNews
Smith Assails McCain Tactic
Sen. Gordon "I'm Not Really a Republican" Smith has made another gesture to distance himself from his party, becoming the fourth Republican senator to denounce John McCain's scurrilous "robocalls" against Barack Obama.
Posted inCulture
Poetry in Motion: A local author’s take on the Nature of Words
As a writer, I am dubious about whether creative writing can be "taught," suspicious of an art form that, when everything is flowing, brings words that link themselves together with an almost supernatural effortlessness. But one conversation with Ekiwah Adler-Beléndez, the youngest author, at just 19, to present a workshop during this year's Nature of Words, has opened my mind. Ekiwah, who has been called a poetic prodigy, began writing poems at the age of 10, he told me, because, "I fell in love with a girl and had to write a poem about it. It was the first feeling that poetry really pulled me into its world. It wasn't so much that I chose it, but that it chose me."
What struck me most about Ekiwah was that, for all of his success, including multiple book publications and the much-coveted respect and endorsement from poet Mary Oliver, he seemed just as interested in me and my work as a writer, and also what he can learn from coming to Bend.
Posted inNews
Cancellations, Mega Rap at Midtown and Axl Rose spoils perfectly good bets
Many of you already spotted this in the print edition of the Source, but we thought we'd further spread the news here that the LNYX and Jamie Janover show slated for tonight at the Silver Moon has been cancelled. Word is that Janover has an ill family member and was forced to cancel the remainder of his West Coast tour in order to be with his family.