Editor's Note
We Love Our Critics: I haven't been at this job very long now, so you would think people would cut me some slack. For those who wonder, though, I now know Ron Kramer's name, and how to spell Rich Holbo, thanks to all the editorial helpers peopling the streets of Ashland. We have initiated a policy of giving a free subscription to people who report goofs in the paper, and the first winner is Terry Miner of Ashland, who contested my claim that the City’s population hasn’t grown since the early eighties. He wasn’t sure about his numbers, either, and said his brother-in-law Pat Hansen didn’t support his personal recollections, but at least he called to flick me some abuse, so he gets a free subscription, and so does Pat, who loves to read provocative stuff and has my favorite bumpersticker in the world stuck on the wall of his study: “Revenge Is A Moral Imperative.” For penance, though, I promise I’ll dig into the Census numbers and back up my assertions on population non-growth in this town.
We Unload On The Democrats For A Change: The Rights of Spring issue is highlighted with Josh Carreon’s original art satirizing, for once – Democrats! “Why do that?” some of my friends are likely to say. Because every now and then you have to look at yourself as your adversary does. Like Bob Dylan sang, “I wish that for just one time, you could stand inside my shoes, so you could know how bad it feels to see you.” Locals ‘round here will remember the virulence of the Hillary-hatred that raged in Southern Oregon for the entire eight years of the Clinton era. Now some people think Hillary can become the first First Lady to be elected Commander in Chief. Hillary is the product of the same primary system that gave us Gore and Kerry. The Democratic National Committee doesn’t get my donations anymore because its leaders always nominate the candidate who pleases the largest number of big campaign donors, and nowadays that means they load up the platform with deal-breaker campaign commitments that alienate poor and middle-class whites: gay marriage, gun control, and abortion on demand. In a backassward bow to framing a “middle-of-the-road” agenda, the DNC platform ignores all issues important to the poor: healing urban crime, protecting civil rights, moving towards equal pay for women, providing children with health and day care. Here in Jackson County, the poor are preponderantly young women and their children, and guess what – you can waste your time telling them to vote for a Democrat – they know better. They get all their drug treatment, surplus food, politics, and free childcare from their Republican church friends. With “faith-based aid” clocking in at $2 Billion this year, there will be plenty of faith-based voting in 2008. Just a heads-up.
We Tell The Untold Story: For the cover article, I drew from my personal experiences as Pete Seda’s friend, and applied my experience as a former Federal Public Defender to a study of the pending indictment against Pete Seda. I discovered that no charges of terrorism are alleged against Pete, who is apparently in exile from his adopted homeland of Ashland, Oregon for allegedly failing to file a financial document concerning some money received and disbursed by an Oregon nonprofit corporation. You would think that, with all of the scandals about misuse of funds by the Red Cross, and all the preachers violating the restriction on not politicking from the pulpit, that the US Attorney’s Office would get on the stick and prosecute some of those nonprofit swindles. But those nonprofits aren’t called the “Al-Haramein Islamic Foundation.”
We Cover The Local Bummers: In the late-breaking bad news department, we actually delayed the printing of this issue to report accurately and angrily on Chief Bianca’s resignation. There is sure to be a great deal more news in the coming weeks about this gigantic elephant that has appeared in our local civic living room, so our fulminations will no doubt continue in the May issue.
We Have A Den Mother: On the personnel front, the AFP has snagged Dee Fretwell to serve as our Operations Director. Dee will manage Advertising Sales, Production Scheduling, Accounting, and Community Relations. Dee’s unofficial title is “Den Mother.”
And We Have Deadlines: Proposed articles, art and poems must be submitted by the 12th of the month to be considered for publication in the next month’s issue. Advertising art should be submitted by the 15th of the month, and those received later will appear in the next issue.
We Unload On The Democrats For A Change: The Rights of Spring issue is highlighted with Josh Carreon’s original art satirizing, for once – Democrats! “Why do that?” some of my friends are likely to say. Because every now and then you have to look at yourself as your adversary does. Like Bob Dylan sang, “I wish that for just one time, you could stand inside my shoes, so you could know how bad it feels to see you.” Locals ‘round here will remember the virulence of the Hillary-hatred that raged in Southern Oregon for the entire eight years of the Clinton era. Now some people think Hillary can become the first First Lady to be elected Commander in Chief. Hillary is the product of the same primary system that gave us Gore and Kerry. The Democratic National Committee doesn’t get my donations anymore because its leaders always nominate the candidate who pleases the largest number of big campaign donors, and nowadays that means they load up the platform with deal-breaker campaign commitments that alienate poor and middle-class whites: gay marriage, gun control, and abortion on demand. In a backassward bow to framing a “middle-of-the-road” agenda, the DNC platform ignores all issues important to the poor: healing urban crime, protecting civil rights, moving towards equal pay for women, providing children with health and day care. Here in Jackson County, the poor are preponderantly young women and their children, and guess what – you can waste your time telling them to vote for a Democrat – they know better. They get all their drug treatment, surplus food, politics, and free childcare from their Republican church friends. With “faith-based aid” clocking in at $2 Billion this year, there will be plenty of faith-based voting in 2008. Just a heads-up.
We Tell The Untold Story: For the cover article, I drew from my personal experiences as Pete Seda’s friend, and applied my experience as a former Federal Public Defender to a study of the pending indictment against Pete Seda. I discovered that no charges of terrorism are alleged against Pete, who is apparently in exile from his adopted homeland of Ashland, Oregon for allegedly failing to file a financial document concerning some money received and disbursed by an Oregon nonprofit corporation. You would think that, with all of the scandals about misuse of funds by the Red Cross, and all the preachers violating the restriction on not politicking from the pulpit, that the US Attorney’s Office would get on the stick and prosecute some of those nonprofit swindles. But those nonprofits aren’t called the “Al-Haramein Islamic Foundation.”
We Cover The Local Bummers: In the late-breaking bad news department, we actually delayed the printing of this issue to report accurately and angrily on Chief Bianca’s resignation. There is sure to be a great deal more news in the coming weeks about this gigantic elephant that has appeared in our local civic living room, so our fulminations will no doubt continue in the May issue.
We Have A Den Mother: On the personnel front, the AFP has snagged Dee Fretwell to serve as our Operations Director. Dee will manage Advertising Sales, Production Scheduling, Accounting, and Community Relations. Dee’s unofficial title is “Den Mother.”
And We Have Deadlines: Proposed articles, art and poems must be submitted by the 12th of the month to be considered for publication in the next month’s issue. Advertising art should be submitted by the 15th of the month, and those received later will appear in the next issue.