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March 25, 2008
Where do YOU do shop, eat, and play?
Whether it's in Portland or elsewhere, where do you do business? What attracts you? Price? Convenience? Selection? Service? Atmosphere? Liquor By The Drink? Smoking Sections? Other . . .?
On the flip side, why do you NOT do business somewhere? Give us the low-down on your experiences.
If you prefer, you can rate businesses 1-5
1=poor 2=fair 3=neutral 4=good 5=excellent
Please review the blog rules on the main blog page before posting. I only accept responsibility for my own comments and opinions. All questions and concerns can be directed to the blog administrator, Charlie Myers.
Posted by Michelle Hanners at 12:54 PM | Comments (161)
March 24, 2008
Elections and the Media
During the course of discussion on the Democratic Primary, the issue of the media and their involvement in elections came up. I think this is a fascinating topic, but one that deserves its own space. So, here we go....
Although I, like others, believe it is the responsibility of the individual to determine what is true and what isn’t when viewing or listening to various media outlets. However, I also think the media does its viewers a disservice by slanting their reporting to favor their view. When I refer to the “media” here, I’m referring to programs such as NBC Nightly News, Fox News, etc. I am not referring to opinion-based programming such as Hannity and Colmes on television, or Phil Valentine on the radio.
Most of us are so busy that we have a limited amount of time, and resources, to independently verify the facts in all news we receive. Therefore, I feel that the media has a responsibility to report the news, not comment on it, or report it in a manner that favors their individual or collective viewpoints. Unfortunately, this is not a common occurrence in the media. This is not a view I hold by myself.
During a radio interview with ABC News Political Director Mark Halperin, Hugh Hewitt stated, “And so everyone that you work with, or 95 percent of people you work with, are old liberals."
Mr. Halperin’s response: "I don’t know if it’s 95 percent, and unfortunately, they’re not all old. There are a lot of young liberals here, too. But it certainly, there are enough in the old media, not just in ABC, but in old media generally, that it tilts the coverage quite frequently, in many issues, in a liberal direction, which is completely improper. It’s an endemic problem. And again, it’s the reason why for 40 years, conservatives have rightly felt that we did not give them a fair shake."
— Exchange on The Hugh Hewitt Show, October 30, 2006. taken from http://www.mediaresearch.org/biasbasics/biasbasics2.asp
There are a number of other examples I could cite, including the book by Bernard Goldberg, “Bias.”
With this in mind, can we honestly blame people when they develop viewpoints that may or may not have any basis in fact? Today, we have been bombarded with the fact that the 4000th soldier was killed in action in Iraq. Yet how many positive stories have we seen since the surge began making considerable progress over there? Front-page news now rarely shows anything on Iraq unless it’s negative. Now the main news is how the economy is tanking. Again, how many front-page stories did we see when the economy was roaring on all cylinders?
Enough of my blabbering. What do you think about the media and politics? Are individuals solely to blame for not getting all the facts, or should we be able to rely on the media to get an unbiased reporting of events?
Posted by at 11:48 AM | Comments (7)
FYI
Public Meeting
Highway 52 West Visioning Workshop
March 25, 2008
6:00pm - 8:00pm
Portland High School Theatre
Contact Planning Dept. Melinda Keen for more info 325-6776
Posted by Councilman Callis at 10:08 AM
March 21, 2008
Democratic Primary
I haven't seen any discussion about the ongoing Presidential Primary within the Democratic Party. I don't want to start a war here, but I'm curious to know what others in our town think of this fiasco.
First, is there anyone out there who thinks it would be fair bar the delegates from Michigan and Florida from the National Convention? Personally, I think the DNC should be flogged for allowing such a flawed primary process to exist in the first place. How in the world do you disenfranchise (There's that word again) that many voters, especially in such critical states.
Next, does anyone really think the delegates should be seated from the original elections in those states? I don't see how in the world Senator Clinton can think this is fair, since Senator Obama was not even on the Michigan ballot, and both candidates were forbidden from campaigning.
Third, do any others feel as I do that the "Super Delegate" process is a terrible process to use when selecting a candidate? I believe it opens the door to charges of unfairness, corruption, and favoritism.
Finally, are there any others who think that either way this ends, the Democratic Party will have effectively taken itself out of the Presidential race? I cannot envision a good ending for this (especially considering the lack of cooperation between campaigns), and personally I think it may be sounding the death knell for the party for some time to come. I see the Party becoming so fractured that it will take years to repair the damage.
Thanks Howard Dean! Your leadership of the DNC may do more good for the GOP than they could have done themselves.
Posted by at 08:11 AM | Comments (29)
March 20, 2008
MY Space - Good, Bad or Ugly?
After seeing the report on TV last evening about the 12 Y.O. Sumner County girl that met her rapist on MY Space, I thought this would be a good time to bring up this topic on the blog.
What are your experiences with MY Space?
Should there be better security measures that not allow under age members?
What do you do in monitoring under age computer users in your household?
The stories that come out about My Space are horrific, yet some good has come as well, what, and who should be responsible for policing this site if any? Lets hear your thoughts, experiences and suggestions.
Posted by judy at 07:40 AM | Comments (32)
March 18, 2008
FreeCreditReport.com Billing Warning
Due to what seems to me as an increase in recent marketing of the Free Credit Report website I felt it was time for me to post a warning to people who might be taken in by this company. If you don't know freecreditreport.com offers you free credit checks and also offers a service to continue allowing you to check your credit whenever you want. Now at first this sounds wonderful. In today's world one should be very careful about their credit with all the identity theft going on in the world. Knowing this and when people see the commercial thinking they want their free report how can they lose, right?
Yes you can go online and get your first report for absolutely nothing, and it is accurate from what I've experienced. Where you start to hit a problem is when they don't have an obvious place where it says you are agreeing to sign up for a monthly charge to allow you to continue checking your credit. Yes it is there but it's not like other places online where you purchase a service and they clearly state you are being charged "X" amount for the following service and a clear choice of where to bill it from. The average person does not see this and they agree thinking they are just receiving their free report. Later they will realize they have been billed on their credit card for a fee of $10.95 or so. This transaction on your account will not clearly say freecreditreport.com either. It will have no contact number of any kind, it will also have nothing to tell you what it was.
When I did this I did not notice exactly what this was because I like many have a few small online payments like this to websites for various things such as my personal webspace. I thought $10 was small and it could have been something I ordered that I forgot about because this was around Christmas as well. I didn't think much of it but then the following month it was there again, and it had a new friend with a similar look to it of a charge of $11.95. By this point I knew something had been charged without my knowledge and I researched. The ONLY way I could figure out it was freecreditreport.com was to copy and paste the transaction description from my online statement into Google search and came up with many articles of others across the country having the same problem I did and some were much worse. I called the company up furious and demanded they refund my money because I never received an email stating I was charged, I never received an online notice during the 2 months telling me to check my credit. It was a silent way they used to charge me over $30.
Legally they have not stolen money because I did agree in the fine print that was hard to see on the website. Since it was only $30 and not something like $200, I shrugged this off as a learning experience about checking my online billing more carefully. However I wanted to give everyone my entire story so you know what I as many others have gone through with this company that claims they give free reports. Be cautious of them and tell your friends because I have read up cases online about this same setup that cost people hundreds of dollars and did have to go to court to settle it. These kind of bait-and-switch tactics have been going on since at least 2003 from what I'm reading online and probably before that. The fact is you are entitled to one free credit report every year by law. So unless you really want a report every day do not go to these sites and do not pay them a dime. I hope this helps save at least one person from some financial frustration.
Posted by Charles at 05:25 AM | Comments (5)
March 12, 2008
Calling all new moms
Hi everyone I am not only new to Portland but also a new mom to a 4 month old baby boy.
I was wondering if anyone could suggest things to do with my son. I'm a stay at home mom and
I'm having a hard time finding any mommy and me groups or activities close to Portland. Am I the
only one?? I'm willing to drive to other towns but would really like to find other Portland mom's.
Posted by new mom at 01:21 PM | Comments (9)
March 10, 2008
FRONT PAGE - Around the Town - MARCH 2008
Post your thoughts about News worthy articles, events, happenings, questions,
garage sales,and general information regarding our town.
Want to talk about something specific, post it here.
One of the blog authors will start the topic for you!
Happy Posting - Judy
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Posted by judy at 11:00 AM | Comments (85)
March 04, 2008
Is the Kerley Building a Health Risk
Is our City saying Don't Ask Don't Tell
This months council meeting included discussions on moving public works to a rented building across the street from city hall which resulted in the issue of the Kerley building (old Farmers Bank Building) on Main Street being brought up. And the fact that the city owns it with 8,000 sq feet of space and it isn't being utilized much by the city.
The issue of that buildings condition quickly became the topic of conversation with the possibility of mold, aspestos, etc, etc being addressed once again and they didn't want employees working in that building not knowing the degree of health issues that could arise.
My concern is not with this being brought up, but the outcome of where it ended.
One of the Councilmen wanted a study done once and for all to determine if indeed there were health hazards within this building, what degree they might be, and what it would cost to get them fixed if there were any. Sounds logical to me, however, this suggestion was met with basically WE don't need to know......... if there is health risks in that building we would have to lock it up and would not be able to be use it for the various things it is currently used for, example: Traffic Court, Boy Scouts, Church (which will soon be moved out), Some Insurance company, etc If they are not able to hold traffic court there they would have to find somewhere else which they don't have that space anywhere else.
What are your thoughts on how this is being handled?
Does the City have an obligation to find out if indeed people are being exposed to possible health hazards?
Should they just shut it down completely or give it back, which will place a further burden of space on the city?
Comcast Cable Channel 3 repeatidly broadcasts this meeting for a few days after the meeting, if you haven't already done so, please take the time to watch it.
Posted by judy at 02:39 PM | Comments (19)