The Wandering Eye

The first thing I turn to after I bring in my copy of The Bulletin every morning is the editorial page. I never know what kind of inspired idiocy I’ll get to read as I eat my Cheerios.

Ever wonder what happened to Bend’s Clothesline Lady? She hasn’t gone away or given up – she’s still out there fighting.
The back story: More than two years ago, Susan Taylor decided to start hanging clothes to dry on a line outside her Awbrey Butte home.

Some of the Tea Party troops were outside Rep. Greg Walden’s Bend office Monday afternoon to register their opposition to health care reform, marching around and holding up signs saying things like “No Socialism!” and “Obama = Tyranny.

“Oregon calls flat unemployment a win,” said the headline in yesterday’s Oregonian.
The gist of the story was that although the state lost 1,200 jobs in February, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained the same as in January at 10.

Jeff and Marci Beagley, members of a faith-healing cult in Oregon City who let their 16-year-old son die without seeking medical care, were sentenced to 16 months in prison last Wednesday.
Rejecting the defense’s plea for leniency, Clackamas County Circuit Court Judge Steven Maurer said the grisly history of the Followers of Christ Church demanded that he impose a heavy penalty.

They say a man is known by the company he keeps. If that’s true, some of the folks that state legislature candidate Jason Conger hangs with might say something troubling about him.

The laws of probability allow even a blind hen to occasionally find a kernel, and the right-wing Cascade Policy Institute to occasionally produce a valuable piece of research.
The institute has come out with a study titled “Oregon’s High School Dropouts: Examining the Economic and Social Costs” that lays out some startling and disturbing facts about the heavy toll the state pays because as many as one-third of its high school seniors fail to graduate.

The scramble to succeed Ben Westlund as state treasurer is on, with four candidates entered in the competition by Tuesday’s filing deadline.
Bend’s Chris Telfer announced her interest almost as soon as the news of Westlund’s death broke.

A fire destroyed a home on Bend’s Westside Wednesday morning, and it took nine minutes for the fire trucks to arrive after the first 911 call came in.
Why? Because all the available firefighters were tied up handling a couple of other emergencies.

Lewis & Clark Law School professor James Huffman announced his candidacy for Ron Wyden’s US Senate seat yesterday, and the ink wasn’t even dry on his press release before the Democrats pounced on him.
The Oregon Democratic Party set up a one-page website titled “Meet Jim Huffman, Right Wing FreedomWorks Ideologue and Candidate for US Senator,” which rips into him for statements he’s made over the years.