By Sean Cruz
(Portland, Oregon)—Chris Dudley plans to create a new bureaucracy of political appointees in the Governor’s Office, with new titles of “State Budget Director” and “a Budget Review Team”, and order the new bureaucracy to duplicate the budget review and regular auditing work that is already being done by non-political state agencies.
Reaching deep into his playbook, “Just Wing It!”, Dudley posted his strategy to:
“Strengthen Executive Leadership and Budget Accountability:
“As Governor, Chris Dudley will appoint a State Budget Director inside his office – not a state agency; will establish a Budget Review Team of experts in public and private finance to review budget assumptions and conduct regular audits; and will aggressively use his veto-pen to control legislative spending that is non-essential, wasteful, or fails to adequately save for a rainy day.”
Dudley’s proposed State Budget Director will not have any actual budgetary authority, but will report to the GOP Governor and help him understand what the fiscal reports and audits mean in language he can understand, and will lead the proposed Budget Review Team, acting as the Governor’s Point Guard on the Budget, doing the work that the Governor normally would be doing himself.
Dudley has not disclosed the salaries and PERS benefits his “experts in public and private finance” are looking forward to claiming, nor a short list of who these essential Team Dudley members might be, saving that information for after the election.
Since the Oregon GOP platform calls for the “abolition of the Department of Education”, it is possible that Dudley plans to pay for his Budget Review bureaucracy with savings gained from shutting down the Oregon DOE and moving into their offices, but that is only conjecture (except for the call to abolish the Department of Education).
There is speculation that Dudley’s new Governor’s Budget Review Team will also be proponents of Creationism and thus serve a dual role, advising Dudley’s new State Education Director on the many budget-saving faith-based curriculum ideas as called for in the Oregon GOP platform, which would replace the abolished Department of Education.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Father's Day 2010, child abduction and Aaron's Law
By Sean Cruz
Portland, Oregon--I last had a reason to celebrate Father’s Day 14 years ago, other than honoring my own father and grandfather, not since my four children disappeared into concealment in Mormon Utah in February, 1996.
Abducted children are never permitted to celebrate any memory honoring a left-behind parent, much less a holiday, and the day becomes radioactive for all its victims. No cards, letters, gifts or phone calls will get through in either direction.
Abducted children suffer the devastating loss of a parent, but are never permitted to mourn. My children were compelled to celebrate Father’s Day with a succession of three stepdads in three states, no trace memories of me or my family allowed.
The abducting parent, family members and other criminal associates involved in an abduction will work hard to destroy every emotional connection the child(ren) have to the left-behind parent, and with it any possibility of a normal childhood, of a normal life.
A kidnapping is a continuing crime, with lifelong consequences, and for many victims, like my son Aaron, life-ending consequences.
I have learned that I have a grandchild, name unknown, being raised in concealment in a Mormon enclave.
My son Aaron would have made someone a fine father, with his big heart and irrepressible good humor, had he been given the chance to live a normal life, to become a father himself.
I am working my way out of a five-year period of mourning the death of my son, and have begun preliminary work on the introduction of Aaron’s Law into the California State Assembly, gathering allies, planning, looking at legislative concepts that would increase the effectiveness of the law.
I have connected with the Polly Klaas Foundation and spoken with Marc Klaas,
Polly’s father and Founder of the KlaasKids Foundation. Both organizations are national leaders on the issue of child abduction. See for yourself here, and become aware of the issues at stake:
http://www.klaaskids.org/
http://www.pollyklaas.org/
Portland, Oregon--I last had a reason to celebrate Father’s Day 14 years ago, other than honoring my own father and grandfather, not since my four children disappeared into concealment in Mormon Utah in February, 1996.
Abducted children are never permitted to celebrate any memory honoring a left-behind parent, much less a holiday, and the day becomes radioactive for all its victims. No cards, letters, gifts or phone calls will get through in either direction.
Abducted children suffer the devastating loss of a parent, but are never permitted to mourn. My children were compelled to celebrate Father’s Day with a succession of three stepdads in three states, no trace memories of me or my family allowed.
The abducting parent, family members and other criminal associates involved in an abduction will work hard to destroy every emotional connection the child(ren) have to the left-behind parent, and with it any possibility of a normal childhood, of a normal life.
A kidnapping is a continuing crime, with lifelong consequences, and for many victims, like my son Aaron, life-ending consequences.
I have learned that I have a grandchild, name unknown, being raised in concealment in a Mormon enclave.
My son Aaron would have made someone a fine father, with his big heart and irrepressible good humor, had he been given the chance to live a normal life, to become a father himself.
I am working my way out of a five-year period of mourning the death of my son, and have begun preliminary work on the introduction of Aaron’s Law into the California State Assembly, gathering allies, planning, looking at legislative concepts that would increase the effectiveness of the law.
I have connected with the Polly Klaas Foundation and spoken with Marc Klaas,
Polly’s father and Founder of the KlaasKids Foundation. Both organizations are national leaders on the issue of child abduction. See for yourself here, and become aware of the issues at stake:
http://www.klaaskids.org/
http://www.pollyklaas.org/
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Put a fee on it! Oregon GOP Governor candidate Chris Dudley posts his solution to privatizing OLCC!
By Sean Cruz
(Portland, Oregon)--"’Kent Craford, acting campaign manager for Dudley, concedes liquor is a moneymaker. ‘It's true that the OLCC and state monopoly of liquor distribution and retailing does make money for state coffers. But that doesn't mean it can't, if it were privatized. The way you do that under a private system is to put a fee on it.’"
Taking another page out of his playbook, “Just Wing It!”, the Dudley campaign has announced that it will make up for the shortage of thought that it put into the OLCC conversation by proposing a new fee to cover the loss of revenue that privatization will bring.
The reason that privatization hasn’t already taken place in Oregon is because every model put forth over the past couple of decades results in (a) loss of revenue to fund critical services, and (b) increased prices to consumers.
There has been no lack of desire from either Democratic or Republican officeholders to find a way to privatize the liquor industry. The legislature and the liquor industry have discussed privatization models for years, session after session, and have run into two insurmountable obstacles:
1. The only way to recover the lost revenue is to impose a fee or a tax.
2. With privatization, net prices to consumers go up. You learn this once you do the math….
In government, in legislative work, it is the Law of Unintended Consequences that bites most ideas in the ass. Those consequences are not always obvious, and the more complex the problem, the more likely you will run into the Law.
The argument for a new fee or tax or higher prices for consumers has been dead on arrival for years—and still is…but not knowing this, the Dudley campaign takes up the cudgel…Just Winging It!....
In every industry, in every line of work, experience counts, job readiness counts…except for in politics.
Only in politics can complete novices make the jump to the top job with no experience whatsoever, with only the skimpiest understanding of the requirements of the job itself, and with little chance of success in the job if they manage to win election.
Campaigns like Dudley’s depend upon an angry, impatient, uninformed and divided electorate, and name recognition from work in a completely unrelated field that draws a great deal of media and public attention.
That’s the formula.
That’s the playbook.
That’s the game.
(Portland, Oregon)--"’Kent Craford, acting campaign manager for Dudley, concedes liquor is a moneymaker. ‘It's true that the OLCC and state monopoly of liquor distribution and retailing does make money for state coffers. But that doesn't mean it can't, if it were privatized. The way you do that under a private system is to put a fee on it.’"
Taking another page out of his playbook, “Just Wing It!”, the Dudley campaign has announced that it will make up for the shortage of thought that it put into the OLCC conversation by proposing a new fee to cover the loss of revenue that privatization will bring.
The reason that privatization hasn’t already taken place in Oregon is because every model put forth over the past couple of decades results in (a) loss of revenue to fund critical services, and (b) increased prices to consumers.
There has been no lack of desire from either Democratic or Republican officeholders to find a way to privatize the liquor industry. The legislature and the liquor industry have discussed privatization models for years, session after session, and have run into two insurmountable obstacles:
1. The only way to recover the lost revenue is to impose a fee or a tax.
2. With privatization, net prices to consumers go up. You learn this once you do the math….
In government, in legislative work, it is the Law of Unintended Consequences that bites most ideas in the ass. Those consequences are not always obvious, and the more complex the problem, the more likely you will run into the Law.
The argument for a new fee or tax or higher prices for consumers has been dead on arrival for years—and still is…but not knowing this, the Dudley campaign takes up the cudgel…Just Winging It!....
In every industry, in every line of work, experience counts, job readiness counts…except for in politics.
Only in politics can complete novices make the jump to the top job with no experience whatsoever, with only the skimpiest understanding of the requirements of the job itself, and with little chance of success in the job if they manage to win election.
Campaigns like Dudley’s depend upon an angry, impatient, uninformed and divided electorate, and name recognition from work in a completely unrelated field that draws a great deal of media and public attention.
That’s the formula.
That’s the playbook.
That’s the game.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
"Just Wing It!" Oregon GOP Governor candidate Chris Dudley announces new campaign slogan!
By Sean Cruz
(Portland, Oregon)--You read it here first! Chris Dudley has decided to bank his campaign run on a reference to the ubiquitous Nike slogan, recalling for voters the only fields he has any inkling of—sports and Big and Tall clothing—as the new title of his playbook, which was formerly titled “Dribbling towards the Finish Line.”
The fledgling Oregon politician (and first-time voter) feels that his new slogan will both reflect his spur-of-the-moment approach to problem-solving and suggest to voters that his qualifications for the job extend beyond the basketball court—even if they don’t—while at the same time emphasizing that he is reading a lot of books these days and calling attention to the fact that he has become aware that Oregon’s official slogan is “She flies with her own wings.” That is a great deal of ground to cover in just one sentence.
It is a truly crafty move…signaling that Dudley will rely less on sports metaphors and more on those that have a basis in actual governance and politics and real-world problems.
Reaching deep into his playbook, Dudley posted on his campaign website his strategy to:
“Strengthen Executive Leadership and Budget Accountability:
“As Governor, Chris Dudley will appoint a State Budget Director inside his office – not a state agency; will establish a Budget Review Team of experts in public and private finance to review budget assumptions and conduct regular audits; and will aggressively use his veto-pen to control legislative spending that is non-essential, wasteful, or fails to adequately save for a rainy day.”
With this statement, Dudley (1) demonstrates his skill at crafting long sentences; (2) announces that he will (a) create a new bureaucracy, (b) populate the new bureaucracy with his political appointees, (c) order the new bureaucracy to duplicate the budget review and regular auditing work that is already being done by non-political state agencies; and, (3) hopes that the reader will not notice the conflict with his other promises to shrink the size of government.
Dudley's new Governor's Budget Director and staff, plus the new Budget Review Team and their staff are going to need some officing space...salaries and PERS benefits....
"(from campaign internal memo): what are we going to do with the reports and audits coming in from the State Revenue and Fiscal offices?...gonna need some more filing cabinets...geez, this seemed like such a good idea at the time it went up on the website...ok...we better Just Wing It! from here...people like the sound of that...we're still going to need a bunch of filing cabinets...."
(Portland, Oregon)--You read it here first! Chris Dudley has decided to bank his campaign run on a reference to the ubiquitous Nike slogan, recalling for voters the only fields he has any inkling of—sports and Big and Tall clothing—as the new title of his playbook, which was formerly titled “Dribbling towards the Finish Line.”
The fledgling Oregon politician (and first-time voter) feels that his new slogan will both reflect his spur-of-the-moment approach to problem-solving and suggest to voters that his qualifications for the job extend beyond the basketball court—even if they don’t—while at the same time emphasizing that he is reading a lot of books these days and calling attention to the fact that he has become aware that Oregon’s official slogan is “She flies with her own wings.” That is a great deal of ground to cover in just one sentence.
It is a truly crafty move…signaling that Dudley will rely less on sports metaphors and more on those that have a basis in actual governance and politics and real-world problems.
Reaching deep into his playbook, Dudley posted on his campaign website his strategy to:
“Strengthen Executive Leadership and Budget Accountability:
“As Governor, Chris Dudley will appoint a State Budget Director inside his office – not a state agency; will establish a Budget Review Team of experts in public and private finance to review budget assumptions and conduct regular audits; and will aggressively use his veto-pen to control legislative spending that is non-essential, wasteful, or fails to adequately save for a rainy day.”
With this statement, Dudley (1) demonstrates his skill at crafting long sentences; (2) announces that he will (a) create a new bureaucracy, (b) populate the new bureaucracy with his political appointees, (c) order the new bureaucracy to duplicate the budget review and regular auditing work that is already being done by non-political state agencies; and, (3) hopes that the reader will not notice the conflict with his other promises to shrink the size of government.
Dudley's new Governor's Budget Director and staff, plus the new Budget Review Team and their staff are going to need some officing space...salaries and PERS benefits....
"(from campaign internal memo): what are we going to do with the reports and audits coming in from the State Revenue and Fiscal offices?...gonna need some more filing cabinets...geez, this seemed like such a good idea at the time it went up on the website...ok...we better Just Wing It! from here...people like the sound of that...we're still going to need a bunch of filing cabinets...."
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Parentally abducted children speak about their experience, pt 1
Take Root members are adults who were kidnapped as children by family members.
More than 200,000 U.S. children are abducted by family members or persons known to the child each year, every year.
Oregon's Aaron's Law is unique in the nation. Oregon is the only state where the abduction of a child creates a civil cause of action that reaches to every criminal participant in the abduction of a child, whether relative to the child or not.
If Aaron's Law had been on the books in 1995, then criminal participants Kory and Chris Wright would have been deterred sufficiently, no abduction of the four Cruz children would have taken place, and Aaron would still be alive today.
For the record, Kory and Chris Wright are not related in any way to either the Cruz family or to my former wife's family. Their motive was entirely to carry out a Mormon shunning, which continues to this day.
Aaron's Law was written for the Wrights, and for people like the Wrights....
I hope to see Aaron's Law enacted in all fifty states. While the law currently protects children kidnapped from Oregon, it does not apply to any other kidnapping situation.
Abducted children speak about their experience, pt 1
More than 200,000 U.S. children are abducted by family members or persons known to the child each year, every year.
Oregon's Aaron's Law is unique in the nation. Oregon is the only state where the abduction of a child creates a civil cause of action that reaches to every criminal participant in the abduction of a child, whether relative to the child or not.
If Aaron's Law had been on the books in 1995, then criminal participants Kory and Chris Wright would have been deterred sufficiently, no abduction of the four Cruz children would have taken place, and Aaron would still be alive today.
For the record, Kory and Chris Wright are not related in any way to either the Cruz family or to my former wife's family. Their motive was entirely to carry out a Mormon shunning, which continues to this day.
Aaron's Law was written for the Wrights, and for people like the Wrights....
I hope to see Aaron's Law enacted in all fifty states. While the law currently protects children kidnapped from Oregon, it does not apply to any other kidnapping situation.
Abducted children speak about their experience, pt 1
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