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.”

I wondered what, if anything, the marchers actually know about the legislation they’re in such a lather over. One thing I bet they don’t know – because Glenn Beck and the rest of the Fox News crew would never tell them – is what the reform would do for them and other people in Walden’s congressional district.

It just so happens that the House Energy and Commerce Committee has put out a report breaking down the benefits of the bill for every congressional district in the country. According to the committee’s figures, in Oregon’s District 2 the measure would:

• Improve coverage for 417,000 residents who now have health insurance.
• Give tax credits and other assistance to up to 217,000 families and 22,100 small businesses to help them afford coverage.
• Improve Medicare for 142,000 beneficiaries, including closing the “donut hole” – the coverage gap between when a recipient reaches the basic prescription drug limit and when drug expenses become so heavy that catastrophic coverage kicks in.
• Extend coverage to 100,000 uninsured residents.
• Guarantee that 17,800 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage.
• Protect 1,400 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.
• Allow 57,000 young adults (up to age 26) to obtain coverage on their parents’ insurance plans.
• Provide millions of dollars in new funding for 39 community health centers.
• Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care providers by $83 million annually.

Besides ticking off the benefits, the congressional report gives the larger picture of what the reform legislation will do and how it will do it. If you want to get the facts for yourself instead of just accepting what the right-wing screamers on radio and TV tell you, you might want to check it out.

“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 10.5% — and that was good news. In February 2009 the rate was just a tad higher at 10.8%.

Construction “continued its rapid decline,” the state report said, losing 1,800 jobs from January to February. Manufacturing also dropped 1,100 jobs, “a steeper decline than the typical seasonal decline of 300 for the month.”

The numbers are still horrendous any way you look at them. But Amy Vander Vliet, the Oregon employment department’s economist for the Portland area, strove to put a positive spin on things.

“Vander Vliet expects initial recovery stages will be ‘somewhat bumpy,’ picking up steam later this year and beyond,” The Oregonian story said. “Not all local economists agree. But some admire her chutzpah.”

The whole situation reminds me of a scene in the 1979 movie “Being There” in which dimwitted Chance the gardener (Peter Sellers) impresses the president of the United States and billionaire Benjamin Rand with his economic astuteness by uttering reassuring platitudes:

President: Mr. Gardner, do you agree with Ben, or do you think that we can stimulate growth through temporary incentives?

Chance: As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden. 

President: In the garden. 

Chance: Yes. In the garden, growth has it seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again.

President: Spring and summer. 

Chance: Yes. 

President: Then fall and winter. 

Chance: Yes. 

Rand: I think what our insightful young friend is saying is that we welcome the inevitable seasons of nature, but we're upset by the seasons of our economy.

Chance: Yes! There will be growth in the spring! 

Rand: Hmm! 

Chance: Hmm! 

President: Hm. Well, Mr. Gardner, I must admit that is one of the most refreshing and optimistic statements I've heard in a very, very long time.

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.

“The fact is, too many children have died,” he said. “A graveyard full.”

Blogging on examiner.com, Charles McAlpin wrote that despite the conviction and the stiff sentence “it remains to be seen whether parishioners at the Followers of Christ Church … will continue the decades-old practice of faith-healing-related medical neglect. The church … has a history of defiance, despite an unusually high death rate among its children.

“Furthermore, there is reason to believe that, although their grief may be sincere, the church families wear the failed healings of their children as a badge of honor, a symbol of their willingness to sacrifice for their faith.  Not long ago, the Beagleys' son-in-law, Carl Worthington, was convicted in the death of his daughter, Neil's niece.  Just before the conviction, a former member of Followers of Christ said of Carl and his wife, ‘They'll probably be looked up to, that they made this sacrifice for the love of God, for the church and for all of the members.’”

Sick, sick.

***

How the mighty have fallen: Bill Sizemore, once the terror of Oregon liberals, is so broke that he needs a public defender to represent him on tax evasion charges.

According to The Oregonian’s account, the former anti-tax activist told the court “he barely has $100 in the bank, is working for $10 an hour planting trees and clearing brush, and makes barely enough to buy groceries.”

After listening to Sizemore’s sad tale, Marion County Circuit Court Judge Claudia Burton agreed he could have a court-appointed attorney.

Sizemore and his wife Cindy, who live in Redmond, have been charged with three counts each of felony tax evasion for failing to file state income tax returns in 2006, 2007 and 2008. If convicted they could face up to five years in prison and a fine of $125,000 on each count.

I can’t help feeling sorry for Sizemore, but I also wonder why he couldn’t just ask his sugar daddy Loren Parks for a few bucks.

***

Oregon Public Broadcasting came out with a poll last week that found 64% of Pacific Northwest residents believe they’re worse off than they were a year and a half ago.

The poll of 1,200 people found that 68% have cut back on eating out and at least half of them “are driving less, cutting back on vacation and personal travel, doing more bargain shopping and cutting back on entertainment,” said Alan Davis of the polling firm Davis, Hibbitts and Midghall, which conducted the survey.

People still seem to be in love with electronic toys, though. The poll shows that “in the last 12 months, 19% of people bought a personal computer, 12% bought an iPhone or Blackberry, and 10% bought a big-screen TV,” according to OPB’s story.

But probably the most surprising finding is that 71% said “their spending and saving habits will be permanently changed because of the economy.”

Will they? My hunch is that when the good times roll again (if they ever do) most will go back to their old borrow-and-spend ways.

***

Well, it was fun while it lasted. The Oregon Ducks’ chances of revisiting the Rose Bowl next year look pretty dismal now that star quarterback Jeremiah Masoli has been suspended for the entire 2010 season.

Masoli pleaded guilty to a burglary charge in connection with the theft of a couple of laptops from a frat house. Star running back LaMichael James and kicker Rob Beard pleaded guilty to lesser charges in separate incidents and will have to sit out the first game of the season.

Masoli, a junior, could redshirt this season and come back to play in 2011, Coach Chip Kelly said.

“This is not what our football program is all about,” Kelly told reporters in announcing the suspensions.

Which begs the question: “What IS it all about?” It looks to this Ducks fan like it’s all about winning at any cost, even if that means recruiting players with a dubious character and a shady past.

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.

Back in January, a Bend group called Prepare the Way held a “Cities Wide [sic] Prayer Meeting” to support the Republican Conger’s campaign for Democrat Judy Steigler’s House seat.

“We are asking that you share about this gathering with your pastors and Christian leaders,” an announcement of the event on Prepare the Way’s website said. “Help spread the word so we can gather as a City church, letting go of denominationalism, standing together to support a Godly man willing to represent God in a very challenging hour in government.”

Toward the end, the announcement got kind of scary. Introducing a quote from Archie P. Jones, it said: “We must not stand idly by while the enemy takes what is rightfully ours.  Christians have DOMINION on this earth by the blood of the Lamb!” (Capitals in original.)

A little explanation of who Archie P. Jones is and what “Dominionism” means is in order here.

“Dominionism” is a doctrine embraced by many Christian fundamentalists that essentially says Christians have a divinely ordained right – indeed, a duty – to rule the Earth. According to the ReligiousTolerance.org website, Dominionists think the verse in Genesis saying man shall rule over all the creatures on Earth “commands Christians to bring all governments, societies, and cultures worldwide under the rule of the Word of the Judeo-Christian God as they interpret it to be.”

Archie P. Jones is a prominent Dominionist author and scholar. In a 1980 essay entitled “Civil Government: The Neglected Ministry” he wrote that the legitimate role of government is “to enforce God’s law” and that “the ruler, in his pastoring, teaching function, must enforce God's laws, God's moral system and moral teaching.”

(If you’re in any doubt as to which end of the political spectrum Jones believes to be on God’s side, it might help to know that he co-authored a book titled “Born to Lie: From the Birth Certificate to Health Care” that, among other things, tries to revive the discredited smear that Barack Obama isn’t a native-born American citizen.)

When I asked Jason Conger if he agreed with the Dominionist doctrine, he replied: “I have to be honest and tell you I don’t even know what a Dominionist is.” After I gave a brief explanation, he said that “any kind of imposition of a state religion I certainly don’t believe in. I’m a believer in the Constitution and I completely respect the provisions dealing with the establishment of religion.”

Conger explained that the January prayer meeting came about because Stephen Williams, the founder of Prepare the Way, and his wife are “very dear friends of ours.” Stephen Williams formerly was a teacher in Cupertino, CA and became something of a right-wing media celebrity in 2004 when he tangled with the school district over bringing religion into the classroom. He also ran unsuccessfully for the Bend-LaPine School Board in 2007.

Conger says he supports the Constitution, and I have no reason to doubt him. His campaign website doesn’t present any wacky ideas – in fact, it’s pretty bland. And he belongs to Trinity Lutheran Church, which is hardly out there on the lunatic fringe.

But his closeness to Williams and his group makes me wonder where he’d stand if pushed hard on issues such as civil unions for homosexuals, prayer in the schools, abortion rights and Oregon’s Death With Dignity law. Hopefully that will become clearer between now and November.

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.

Among other things, the study found that:

• The unemployment rate of high school dropouts in Oregon is roughly twice that of high school graduates.
• On average, dropouts earn $10,000 less per year than high school graduates and far less than college graduates. Their lower earning power translates into about $173 million in lost state income tax revenue per year.
• More than 40% of high school dropouts receive Medicaid benefits, costing the state another $200 million a year.
• High school dropouts are twice as likely to be incarcerated as graduates. If the high school graduation rate was 100% the state’s prison population could be cut in half.

The study was authored by Emily House and released jointly by Cascade Policy Institute and the Foundation for Educational Choice, an organization originally established in 1996 by conservative economist Milton Friedman and his wife Rose “to pro­mote school choice as the most effective and equitable way to improve the quality of K-12 education in America.”

The report itself makes no specific suggestions for lowering the dropout rate, though considering the ideology of its sponsors it’s pretty easy to guess that if it did make any they’d involve “school choice” – i.e., vouchers.

But you don’t have to agree with the prescription to be alarmed by the diagnosis – and to understand that Oregon urgently needs to come up with a cure.

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. Telfer, a Republican state senator and the owner of an accounting firm, said in a press release that “if elected she will use the position to advocate for better fiscal management and financial oversight.”

“As a CPA, my priority is more sound and reasoned fiscal management of our state,” Telfer said. “Oregonians are looking for fiscal leadership right now and my background will ensure the Executive Branch has someone who can read a balance sheet, challenge the status quo mismanagement of taxpayer money, and chart a more sustainable financial course for Oregon.”

On the Democratic side, three people are vying for the nomination: State Sen. Rick Metsger of Welches; Jim Hill, who was state treasurer from 1993 until 2001; and Multnomah County Chairman Ted Wheeler, whom Gov. Ted Kulongoski picked to replace Westlund until a new treasurer can be elected.

Oddly, although Telfer put a lot of emphasis on fiscal management in her announcement, the state treasurer doesn’t really have anything to do with fiscal policy, which involves government taxation and spending decisions.

How much revenue is raised by taxes and how it’s spent are, of course, determined by the governor and the legislature, and sometimes the voters. The treasurer’s office, as described on its website, basically functions as the state’s bookkeeper, keeping track of financial transactions, investments and debts.

It also was kind of strange that Telfer – who described Westlund as “a dear friend of mine” – appeared to be accusing him posthumously of doing a second-rate job by talking about “the status quo mismanagement of taxpayer money.” But let’s be charitable and assume that was just a poor choice of words.

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. Fire Chief Larry Huhn said his department is short on staff because it “hasn’t hired more firefighters to keep up with the growth in Bend,” according to the Bulletin story Thursday.

So the city isn’t able to adequately protect the area it already has, but it’s fighting the state tooth and nail to bring 9,000 more acres within the Urban Growth Boundary and open them up to development.

Brilliant, simply brilliant.

***

Speaking of city services: According to a survey out this week, most Bend residents are happy with their city fire and police departments, but – surprise, surprise! – they’re not willing to pay more taxes to support them.

The poll of 400 Bend residents found that a scant majority – 51% – said they definitely wouldn’t pay more taxes to keep police and fire services at present levels. The city paid $13,000 for the survey to help it decide whether to go ahead with an election to increase Bend’s tax base – presently a meager $2.80 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, the lowest for Oregon cities of comparable size.

It’s the same story in Bend as in other cities and states and at the federal level: People want government to do things for them, but they don’t want to pay for it.

Where’s the money supposed to come from? From the city’s fairy godmother, I guess.

***

The front page of Thursday’s Business section had a headline I never expected to see in The Bulletin: “Preparing for the inevitable bursting bubble.”

True, it wasn’t a locally written story (it came from the New York Times service) and it didn’t deal specifically with Bend’s real estate bubble – but it did acknowledge that (a) bubbles exist and (b) they inevitably burst. That’s progress, I guess.

***

As of Monday, KOHD News in Bend will no longer exist. The station is pulling the plug on local newscasts because of sagging ratings and ad revenue. Three reporters will remain in Bend – at least for now – to do short segments that will be folded into the main newscast out of the ABC affiliate in Eugene.

While I haven’t been a faithful watcher of KOHD News (or KTVZ either) I’m sorry to see it go. An area as big as Central Oregon can’t be adequately served by two local newscasts, much less by only one.  

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.

Huffman used to write opinion pieces regularly for The Oregonian as well as other articles for conservative publications, and no doubt that will provide an inexhaustible mine of material for opposition research.

For example, the “Meet Jim Huffman” site reports that “[w]hen the Wall Street and bank executives who caused the financial meltdown started taking billions in taxpayer-funded bonuses, Huffman defended them in an April 2009 Oregonian essay titled ‘Outraged at Those Bonuses? Get Over It.’”

In fairness to Huffman the headline most likely was written by a copy editor, not by him, and he didn’t use the phrase “get over it” in his opinion piece. But he did defend the bonuses and opposed any government efforts to rein in executive compensation.

The site claims that “Huffman believes the only way to reduce health care costs is to restrict patients’ access to care, stating in an Oregonian essay that the ‘rationing of health care is unavoidable.’”

That’s a bit of a distortion. Huffman was only making the pretty obvious point that no government health care system can possibly afford to “fund every beneficial medical procedure or drug for every American.”

According to the site, "Huffman signed a FreedomWorks petition [in 2005] supporting President Bush’s risky scheme to gamble Americans’ retirement money on Wall Street." Bush's proposal -- which went nowhere -- was to allow people to voluntarily put all or part of their Social Security contributions into stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

"If history is any guide, these assets will grow over time, providing higher benefits than can the current system," the petition said. Whoops.

The site also says Huffman “joined a 2007 FreedomWorks letter arguing that federal action to avert the mortgage meltdown was unnecessary because ‘market corrections have already begun.’” That’s essentially true.

Oregonian political blogger Jeff Mapes said Huffman “seemed a bit disheartened to find that the Democrats are already digging into his archives. ‘I've got such a vast amount of stuff I've written, much of which, frankly, I don't remember,’ he told me.  He said much of it was part of an ‘ongoing academic conversation’ about issues, and he said he's sure he's contradicted himself at times.  ‘It's easy to take something out of context,’ he concluded.”

Welcome to politics, Jim. As Mr. Dooley said, it ain’t beanbag.

When Abe Lincoln talked about “government of the people, by the people and for the people” at the Gettysburg battlefield in November 1863, it’s a pretty safe bet he wasn’t including corporations in his definition of “people.”

But in January 2010, a bitterly divided US Supreme Court decided  that corporations have the same free-speech rights as people – meaning they can pour unlimited amounts of money into political campaigns.

In a 5-4 ruling the court’s conservative majority struck down the 2002 McCain-Feingold Act, which restricted corporate and labor union spending on “electioneering communications.” President Obama called the decision “a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.”

The decision was an example of radical judicial activism, and a group called the Campaign to Legalize Democracy is pushing a radical remedy for it – a constitutional amendment that would make it clear that corporations and unions don’t have the same rights as actual, living, breathing human beings.

Two representatives of the movement, David Cobb and Riki Ott, will be at the Central Oregon Environmental Center on Kansas Avenue in Bend this weekend to talk about the court’s decision and how to fight it.

Cobb, the 2004 Green Party presidential candidate, and Ott, an Alaskan community activist and writer, are aiming to “help local citizens learn how they can work to abolish corporate personhood and reestablish a government of, by, and for the people,” according to a news release.

“The movement we are launching is a long-term effort to make the U.S. Constitution more democratic,” Cobb said in the release. “We recognize that amending the Constitution to restore the power of the people over corporations will not be easy, but we know correcting the Supreme Court is imperative to the progress of our nation.”

The meeting with Cobb and Ott will take place from 7 to 9 pm Sunday at the Environmental Center; admission is free.

The group also has launched an on-line petition drive to gather signatures in support of the constitutional amendment. At this writing, almost 69,000 people have signed.

The front page of the Local section of today’s Bulletin brought more proof (not that any was needed) that the bubble years are over for Central Oregon: Enrollment dropped in all of the region’s school districts over the past year.

Bend-LaPine enrollment this school year is down 0.9% from the 2008-09 figure. Other area districts saw shaper declines: Redmond 2.1%, Jefferson County 2.4%, Crook County 3%, Culver 5% and Sisters 11.4%

According to the story, “locally, district officials say the decreases are likely connected to a depressed economy, with families moving out of the area because of high unemployment.”

Gosh, ya think?

Meanwhile, the city of Bend keeps wrangling with the state Department of Land Conservation and Development over the proposed expansion of the Urban Growth Boundary. The DLCD has a number of problems with the way the city has drawn the new UGB, but the fundamental one is that it’s just too damn big.

City staff originally mapped out a much smaller one, but the city council, under pressure from the realtor/builder/developer axis, ordered them to expand it and bring in more land on the northwest side – where some of the local Good Old Boys owned property – rather than the east side, where it would be cheaper to supply sewer and water service for new development.

Blogger and downtown businessman Duncan McGeary has a funny post about the UGB battle in which the state plays the role of an exasperated grownup and Bend is a recalcitrant child:

“Come on Oregon, can't you give me a C- for old time's sake?” Bend whines. “You're going to keep us from being the big time city we always knew we'd become.”

“Sigh. I'll explain again,” says the state. “Your plan is too big and your locations are not supported by the evidence.”

“I'm baffled!”

The state “puts head in hands and groans. ‘You have failed to use proper terminology and zoning codes. We have no way of knowing what you're talking about.’”

“I'm mystified!”

“Oregon throws up hands. See you in the appeals process …”

Maybe several years and many barrels of taxpayer dollars down the road, city officials and the special interests who pull their strings will figure out that once a bubble pops you can’t re-inflate it.