The White House does federalism wrong in the Oregon standoff.

This is not how this works.

The White House on Monday referred to an armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon as a “local law enforcement matter.”

Spokesman Josh Earnest’s comments come even though the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has taken charge of the response to the incident along with state and local agencies.

Continue reading The White House does federalism wrong in the Oregon standoff.

Oregon town scratching its head over how to solve its deer overpopulation problem.

See if you can figure out what phrase is absent from this article on one Oregon town’s deer problem:

A town in southern Oregon will hold a public meeting to discuss how to deal with droves of fearless deer that wander the streets, occasionally acting aggressively toward residents, state wildlife officials said on Tuesday.

The “Deer Summit 2015” will be chaired on Wednesday by Ashland Mayor John Stromberg as part of efforts to address deer that have stalked people, pawed at them with their hooves and even stomped on small dogs.

“The deer have no fear of humans,” said Mark Vargas, District Wildlife Biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Continue reading Oregon town scratching its head over how to solve its deer overpopulation problem.

Scenes from the Class Struggle in Portland, Oregon*.

Those dang Californians.

Portlanders have had it with those board shorts and kale smoothies, and now they’re rising up to stick it to the Californians-literally. According to the Oregonian, upset citizens are placing “No Californian” stickers on For Sale signs throughout the city. The state is currently receiving an influx of out-of-state buyers, forcing housing prices to skyrocket.

Realtor Lori Fenwick was notified of the incidents when one of her buyers sent her a photo of a defaced sign. She shared her findings with a real estate group on Facebook and quickly learned that she wasn’t the only victim. Three other realtors piped up including Quinn Irvine of M Realty. “A lot of these homes are going into bidding wars and going over ask price,” he said. “And a lot of these guys are getting outbid. And I think they’re going around to agents who have properties that have sold over ask price and putting anti-California stickers.”

(Via Hot Air, via Instapundit) Apparently, lots of the people fleeing the drought in California are going north to Oregon, which is sensible enough (Oregon is considerably wetter than California**) but not pleasing to the Oregonians who are already there. Specifically, apparently, the people in Portland. For added fun, check out comments here at the original article.  There’s a certain whiff of entitlement permeating it, and I’m not entirely sure from which side.  Ach, well, not really my problem.

Moe Lane

*If you’ve never seen Scenes From The Class Struggle In Beverly Hills, I’m not surprised: it’s apparently never been released on DVD in this country. It is… an interesting film. Memorable?  Yes, let’s go with ‘memorable.’

**Also, better they go north, instead of east. Although the people living to the north would probably disagree.

Former Oregon ‘First Lady’ Cylvia Hayes fights to keep her emails out of the public record.

Protip: when your attempt to block the courts from letting news organizations see your public-service-related emails makes people on the other side of the political spectrum immediately rub their hands and gleefully wonder, Ooh, what’s in the emails? – well, OK. I don’t know what the victory condition could be there, either. The mere fact that you’re fighting a judgement like that will suggest to pretty much everybody that you have something to hide, win or lose.  In other words: it’s a quandary, and no mistake.

Former Oregon first lady Cylvia Hayes declared Wednesday that she will go to court to block a state order requiring her to turn over emails related to her public service… Hayes is under an order issued last week by Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum to turn over to The Oregonian/OregonLive emails dating back three years pertaining to state business. Rosenblum concluded that Hayes was subject to the state public records law.

Continue reading Former Oregon ‘First Lady’ Cylvia Hayes fights to keep her emails out of the public record.

Quick note: Oregon cannot impeach governor John Kitzhaber (D).

Startled me too when I found this out: I was looking up how the Oregon legislature could initiate impeachment proceedings against recalcitrant Democratic Governor John Kizthaber, only to discover that apparently they cannot. It seems that there’s no provision in the state constitution for such a thing – the only state in the Union that doesn’t have that, in fact.  So it’s either Kitzhaber resigns, or they try to do a recall. Continue reading Quick note: Oregon cannot impeach governor John Kitzhaber (D).

Kitzhaber Meltdown Watch: there goes his Chief of Staff!

Oregon is having a moment, isn’t it?

I know, I know: Kitzhaber’s replacement will be worse. But on the other hand, Oregon’s been managing to avoid having open progressives – open the way that Kate Brown is open about it – formally run its state government for quite a while now. Looks like they’re gonna get three years of precisely that…

Corrupt Governor John Kitzhaber (D, Oregon) MUST be recalled.

And not a moment too soon, either.

Two leaders of Republican Dennis Richardson’s failed gubernatorial campaign last fall have filed a prospective petition with the state seeking to launch a recall of Gov. John Kitzhaber.

It’s the second recall effort filed this week, yet potentially the more viable. Richardson has a vast email database that could help achieve the 220,000 signatures necessary to get a recall on the ballot.

…Are you a legal voter of Oregon?  Then it behooves you to sign this petition, when it becomes available in July. John Kitzhaber is so self-evidently corrupt that even the Oregonian – a paper that endorsed Kitzhaber – is calling for his resignation. This is a known thing; few dispute it.  In fact, it should have been the Democrats who started the recall process.   Continue reading Corrupt Governor John Kitzhaber (D, Oregon) MUST be recalled.

Yet another demonstration of a possible link between hardcore gun control views…

…and damaged cognitive ability: “A recent gun buyback event in Oregon, aimed at curbing the number of weapons on the street, turned into a planned profit making opportunity for a group of firearms enthusiasts.” Basically, the gun buyback people were offering too-high prices for some firearms, so certain gun enthusiasts simply sold them clapped-out pieces of junk for a profit.  The buyback also offered to trade ‘high capacity magazines’ for $25 gift cards for a store that happens to sell ‘high capacity magazines’… for $8.  Yes, that worked out pretty much as you’d expect, too: they ran out of gift cards.  It’s a shame I don’t live in Oregon; there was clearly money in that.

But the best part? At least one person said Hey, wait, I know precisely where people who want to sell firearms are going to gather – and so he waited outside in order to make a better cash offer for the firearms that were worth more than the buyback value. How did it go?

“I picked up five weapons including a Model 11 Remington SemiAuto 12-gauge from 1926, a Mossberg bolt-action 20-gauge from 1947-1950… AND a pre-1900, 12-gauge breech action with Damascus barrel……AND……. a couple of 22 pistols,” wrote the member.

Because this is America, that’s why.  And it shouldn’t surprise anybody that the system was so easily gamed, here. I think that sometimes we forget that we largely don’t trust governmental competence for a reason.

Via PJ Tatler.