New poll shows why Sen. Smith trying to influence Dem primary

Now we have hard evidence showing why Gordon Smith has singled out Jeff Merkley in his latest attack ad with the Democratic Primary still 10 days away - a new poll: Merkley and Smith in statistical tie, Novick lags behind

One of the most compelling aspects to this new poll is that it's a General Election match-up. Which means that it reflects all Oregonians rather than just Democrats as the Primary Election polls have done.

Steve Novick's supporters have consistently argued that his quirky, acidic style will match up better against Gordon Smith in the G.E. But this new poll, especially the trend lines it reveals, shows that it's Jeff Merkley who matches up better against Gordon Smith. Which is why Smith is trying to influence the Dem Primary.

My one second of fame... in a political ad

Ever so briefly at the very beginning there's a shot of me talking to Jeff.

Steve Nader takes another shot at Democrats

Steve Nader... er... Novick indulged his inner Nader yet again by taking a shot at Jeff Merkley over at Politicker OR. But that was just a smoke screen intended for what he presumes to be a gullible public. Really it was a veiled shot at Barack Obama.

(Sshhhh... we're not supposed to be intelligent enough to have figured that out for ourselves)

The subject of Steve's latest Nader moment was Social Security.

He invoked a report released yesterday by the trustees of Social Security and Medicare, which indicated that benefit payments will start exceeding Social Security tax revenues in 2017. If the government repays the money is (sic) has borrowed from the Medicare and Social Security trust funds with interest, the Social Security fund will be solvent until 2041, albeit unable to pay full promised benefits.

Novick is pessimistic about the possibility.

"Can we really expect the Federal government to repay on time, and with interest, what it has borrowed from Social Security and Medicare? Not under current policies without savage cuts to other essential services," he said in a statement.

Note the very last sentence in Novick's quote there because it's central to understanding his game here - "Not under current policies without savage cuts to other essential services." Current policies = George W. Bush's policies. New President = new policies. Right? Okay, moving on...

In Steve's "endorsement" of Barack Obama he summed up his reasoning by saying that he'd "rather be disappointed in new ways, rather than the same old ways." Having already called Obama "sorely lacking in fiscal responsibility" his projection of being disappointed in Obama begins to appear even more consistent if one connects the dots.

• We're going to have a new President and the odds are heavily in favor if it being a Democrat. With Clinton facing virtually impossible delegate math, the odds are that our next Prez will be Obama.



• Novick admits that every president since 1983 has raided Social Security except for Bill Clinton (in his second term).



• Guess who the presidents other than Bill Clinton have been since 1983? REPUBLICANS. Namely Reagan, Papa Bush and of course the ill-begotten Shrub.



• So rather than aknowlege that the principle SSI problem for the last 25 years has been Republican Presidents, Novick pulls a Nader and lumps everyone together, glibly sweeping aside the fact that the only President who has resisted raiding SSI was, by his own admission, a Democrat.



• When Novick asks "Can we really expect the Federal government to repay on time, and with interest, what it has borrowed from Social Security and Medicare?" He is basically projecting that Obama will govern like a Republican. Which is actually consistent of him since he's already accused Obama of "unjustifiable political timidity".



• Now we see his whole "I'd rather be disappointed in new ways" quip about Obama in a fuller context. So much for his whole "speak truth to power" shell game.



• Unsurprisingly, Novick has leveled a similar charge at Jeff Merkley. Jake Weigler, Novick's campaign manager has been backpeddling furiously to explain his bosses flip-flop on Obama. Which largely explains why Steve is using Jeff Merkley as a surrogate now instead of flailing away directly at Obama.

Back to the Politicker OR piece,

Steve Novick today equated Jeff Merkley and Sen. Gordon Smith's views on Social Security, and emphasized his own willingness to advocate for measures, that, according to his campaign, will "prevent a federal fiscal train wreck and exposed the intellectual bankruptcy of both Gordon Smith's and Jeff Merkley's approach to federal finances."

That's just what you'd expect from Steve Nader... er... Novick. Lump 'em all together and arrogantly presume that nobody but your inner circle understands your tactic. Many of us understand all too well that it's just another reflection of Steve's Naderite selfish personal agenda.

Oregon hearts Jeff Merkley

Funny web ad

This is a Democrat I'm supporting for U.S. Senate.

Presidential Candidate Selector

Take the quiz to find your preferred Presidential candidate (from the two major parties).

Remember that "The results are scored on a curve. 100% means that we are 100% certain that the top candidate on your list shares more of the views you indicated than any other candidate." So the top choice will get a 100% score, but that doesn't mean you are in 100% agreement with him/her, only that you agree with that candidate more than with anyone else.

Also, when you don't think the possible answers to a question are as nuanced as you would want, you can select "neither" and/or make it a low priority question.

My top candidate turned out to be who I thought, Ron Paul, but that was followed (with scores of 73% to 58%) with four Democrats: Biden, the Kucinech, Obama, and Richardson.

At the bottom, with scores of 27% to 20%, were Giuliani, Romney, Clinton, and McCain. This helps confirm my own suspicions about them, and my own instinctive revulsio to each of them.

Cross-posted at Independent Country.

Oregon Rain Sticks

It's been a long time since I've written much of anything here. That's because I've been just totally consumed with starting a fledgeling business while maintaining a full time job.

So far I only have a very rudimentary website up but I am proud to introduce Oregon Rain Sticks. The quality of the pictures isn't very good so far but I think they give you basic idea of what we're creating.

For those of you who are near Portland, Oregon you can see several examples of my work at the downtown gallery of The Real Mother Goose. Our rain sticks have been in there for a little under a month, so this is literally a new venture.

I say "my work" because the design is mine and because I built all of the rain sticks currently on display at The Real Mother Goose (TRMG). Michael my partner was brought in both because he has much better woodworking skills than I do but also as another source of design ideas. His addition has already paid off as far as I'm concerned. We'll have more about that on the website later on. Suffice to say that he has taken my design and expanded it beyond rain sticks. Hopefully by the beginning of May we'll have more than just rain sticks at TRMG. We're also planning on getting our work into more galleries, both here in Oregon and in other parts of the country. As I said at the start, this is a new venture still in it's infancy.