Merkley - what would be your issue?

Merkley: We need a senator from Oregon immersed in energy. Current energy policy was built by Cheney to enrich oil companies. Need energy policy that tackles global warming.

Smith: There isn't a senator in DC that has introduced more renewable energy legislation. Merkley's record on hydroelectric is terrible, and i will defend hydroelectric.

A draw...nothing too exciting in these answers.

Comments

Jeff Kropf and Merit Pay for Oregon Public Officials

You can read here about a massive pay raise for the Governor, judges and legislators being proposed by a state commission. Wow...and this, in the middle of economic crisis in the U.S. Jeff Kropf has an interesting idea...merit pay for public officials. I'm not against the idea...but how would you measure it? It would seem to me that any system of evaluation for politicians would inevitably become partisan (liberals might see cutting taxes as bad, if public services were reduced...conservatives might see passing a gun control law as bad, etc.). Anyway...it's an interesting idea...and certainly worth examining.

Some interesting facts about Georgia

Always eager to educate as well as persuade, Oregon Elephant has dug up the following interesting facts about Georgia: The highest point in Georgia is Mount Shkhara (5,201 m). It is known that people inhabited Georgia from very early times. Skulls of early man have been found in the country dating back 1.7 million years. People have lived in Tbilisi since the fourth millennium BC. The name of the present-day capital, Tbilisi, is derived from the Georgian word for warm. In Greek and Roman times the western part of Georgia was called Kolkheti (Colchis); the eastern part of the country was known as Iberia. Ancient myth says that the King of Colchis (Aeetes) possessed a Golden Fleece. The story of Jason and the Argonauts is about the quest for the fleece. Early Georgian merchants sailed as far as the Indian Ocean to trade their goods and bring back spices. The Silk Road, the trade route between Europe and China , ran through Phazisi. St Nino of Cappadoccia, a relative of St George, conv...

Gov. Kulongoski wants to make a "green school" in Vernonia...hopefully the kids will get taught, also

Governor Ted is assembling a team to ask the feds for stimulus money to rebuild a school in Vernonia, damaged by the flooding in 2007. I think this is great - schools are a good thing to spend stimulus money on. But...then his train goes off the tracks... He wants to make the main thrust of the request that we will build a "green school"...now, I'm not opposed to doing responsible things to care for the environment, but I'm guessing doing extra stuff out of the ordinary, would make it much more expensive. With our economy the way it is, I just think that the people in charge of giving the money out are going to look at what can be done in a state, and how cost-effectively it can be done. If Oregon wants $5 million (I'm just making these numbers up) for a school to teach 1000 students, and Arizona will build a school, with the same facilities, same everything else, except they can do it for $3 million becuase it isn't a "green" school, and that m...

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