A wonderful thing, Fisher House in Clark County, WA

I have a personal stake in this because a family member of mine is in the VA hospital over the past ten years, multiple times for some very serious things. So when I read this article over at the Oregonian. (src: Fisher House ) I sure was happy for those that might have to come from other areas of Oregon to seek veteran treatment and the closest place to stay can be prohibitively for family to come see there family members.

This would be some thing akin to a Ronald McDonald House but for veteran's family, who need a place to crash.

It could be in Vancouver or Portland at some point in the future. Vancouver has a history of Army base and Long Term veteran care center here that is linked to the Veteran Administration hospital in Portland, Oregon.

So right now, the Fisher House Foundation and a group of like minded individuals are fund raising. Read the article for more information on this, if you are interested in helping out.

Thinking of Government....

I really want to think this through from a lot of different angles. I may be a different duck and operate as so. But there is a lot of questions, new faces and issues coming to the fore from the City of Vancouver, Clark County and the state of Washington?

Would you like to see? in January, there will be newer levels of inaugurations and swearing-in, so there is going to be time to get to work.

Happy Holidays, Everyone... Clark County, WA

I just want to wish all of my family, friends, local politicians and all whom may grace this wonderful page, a Happy Holidays in what ever form you choose to celebrate.
But I ask of you one simple request. If you are going to get hammered or even a HINT of it, please hand some one the keys to some one you truest or pre-arrange a taxicab or sober ride home. Nothing is worse to watch another preventable trajedy happen!

Westboro Baptist Church? What now?

Some might argue with the religious freedoms we enjoy here are not with frought and peril. I don't mind when someone has right to a privilege of thought and freedom as long as they don't impinge on others their rights.

(Westboro member Shirley Phelps Roper said on twitter that they were going to picket the burials of the adults and children of the Newtown, CT mass shooting...)

The case in point I have such a problem with is the Westboro Baptist Church, who have made it all the way to the supreme court in a case represented by the family of lawyers who's father is the head founder. The case was about a soldier who died and a law from the state they were picketing had to be a certain amount of feet or yards away from the funeral procession or burial site.

Now, common sense and decency will tell you that, out of moral conviction and human respect, you would go and picket a funeral unless there were circumstances that were way out of line and could not be addressed in some other forum.

The family who took this case up to the supreme court eventually won their case and now are back picketing any public relations opportunity they deem will get them massive attention. This church reminds me of a little child that when it does get its way, it goes running to the courts and in more cases than not wins the day or appeals failed rulings to higher courts and wins again?

Well, a group of uninitiate, separatist computer users and technical experts with a desire to teach the church going members of this group a lesson. Some how gathered up the list of members of the church along with employment data and requisite phone numbers and connection to the church or the Phelps family tree. The group eventually posted it on a text based web service called pastebin.com...

Now if this group named Anonymous did their home work right, they would have used a encrypted connection of some means so they could protect themselves from being discovered and having the web site or service come back with IP based logs of whom posted this comment. Kind of like a persecution protection. Though I do feel whomever was dumb enough to post this and was used as an entry or exit node, will be the one facing the a lawsuit action.

Or it could be an internal leak from within the family that wanted to teach the whole church a lesson and got access to the internal computer or system where this data was stored on insecurely... This by means teaches all a lesson! SECURE YOUR DATA, Idiots!

Newtown, Connecticut and another local Mass Shooting

Right now, I am just praying for the parents, families and the people of Connecticut who in some way were or are involved with the mass shooting there two days ago. Right now, there are twenty children and eight adults that were killed at a school in that city.

And with the recent three person shooting a week ago in Clackamas Town Center southeast of my current coordinates in Clark County, Washington. I also pray for the talk show hosts and people in the radio industry within the Portland, Oregon metropolitan media market and the families along with the thousands of people that were touched by this tragedy as well. It may have only been two people plus the gunman and one survivor who remains in the hospital with unpaid medical bills that might haunt her and her family for years to come because one person chose to take his mental anger and screwed up-ness on to others.

Luckily, he was not able to inflict more emotional and physical death on anyone else. I'm praying tonight that no death shall ever be inflicted in this manner any time soon....

And for the first time in my memory, this will be my generations turn to be parents of future generations to explain what happened and how this may impact the live of others. I now pray also for those parents and adults, who are going to have to explain to younger generations, what this really means.....

Columbia River Crossing and the state legislature...

I just wanted to let everyone know, regardless of how you feel about the light rail component or not, please contact them at your leisure through email, a phone call or letter your duly elected representation and let them know how you feel.  I am chosing to remain silent on the main political scuttle butt that stirs the passions amongst some of our local population because I simply feel it does not add any positive to the discussion that has been had for the past thirty years that have gone on about replacing the current Interstate Bridge that rests on wood pilings.

And further, I want peoople to get to know their local elected officials. Nothing is worse than allowing yourself to remain ignorant as a voter of whom are running for various elected offices that you can vote on without doing the requisite homework onn the issues you feel strongly about or whom you trust.

A party label is not going to be a guarantee of how someone is going to vote in the future or will choose to represent you in Olympia.

I won't put up the various officers and representatives information here. Clark County is way too big and too many offices that one can find out with a simply search on a search engine (there are plenty around) you can find out whom is running for your political interests,  geographic area AND party affiliation, if that is office is partisan or not.

Political Games 1 - My Sanity ZZZERO

Well, in about three weeks the Washington state budget will be coming forward. The the legislature will convene with its new and old guards and a new governor will be in office starting around the first of January 2012.

What my concerns are, is where they are going to be cutting to square the budget. My feeling is, they are going to be targeting what is left of social services to fill a billion dollar budget hole plus a washington state supreme court ruling with an additional billion dollars from this same budget area. And a new democratic government is saying he will be able to do a lot of reformation to make it happen.

As someone who has come to depend on social services of the state to stay alive, this concerns me. And no, please do not call me a leech, ok? I would like some of our local bloggers to live my life and walk in my shoes before they continue to utter such thievery of thought process.

I have done everything within my power to stay off these subsidies. So please go take your crank and go churn out your bull over on your own blogs about the columbia river crossing project, ok?

I am worried for the voiceless. The ones who may not be able to say much. The ones whom don't have the options and opportunities I have had. And it won't just be the social services that I feel will have to be targeted, it will be targets at higher education and transportation projects that are not bonded to achieve this promise.

If K-12 education is protected monies in the state budget, where else (short of long term bonds can you target?)