The Wandering Eye

Greg Walden got invited to the tea party, but he says he doesn’t want to come.
A group of 35 Republican members of the House, led by ultra-right-wing Rep.

Bend, Oregon – home of the Pregnant Man, the Clothesline War and the Great Goose Massacre – is about to gain some more notoriety: Kent Couch, our famous Lawn Chair Balloon Man, is going to do it again.
And this time it’ll be a twofer.

You might not think there’s much money to be made in guitar picks, but an Oregon manufacturer seems to have found the right formula.
Steve Clayton Inc.

Almost exactly one year ago, Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed into law a bill protecting the Metolius Basin from destination resorts and other intensive development.

Ever since 1986, the July candidates’ debate sponsored by the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association has marked the traditional start of the state’s gubernatorial campaigns. But not this year: Republican Chris Dudley has opted out.

Chuck Sheketoff of the Oregon Center for Public Policy put an amusing post up on Blue Oregon today twitting Greg Walden for his somewhat inconsistent stance on unemployment benefits.
“Remarkably, Congress went on a July 4th vacation unable to muster the votes necessary to extend unemployment insurance benefits,” Sheketoff writes.

I turned to the Local section of this morning’s Bulletin to discover something I hadn’t seen there in many years and never expected to see again: a local columnist.
Lily Raff, whose column will appear twice a week, spent six years as a reporter for The Bulletin and recently completed a prestigious Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship at the University of Michigan.

You know the real estate news must be grim if even The Bulletin can't find a way to put a positive spin on it. Bend's daily newspaper reported this morning that a record number of notices of default were filed in Deschutes County in the first six months of 2010.

Eastern Oregon's own Rep. Greg Walden and a couple of other Republican congressmen have unleashed their righteous wrath on a federal program that helps low-income folks heat their homes.