Comment Archives: stories: News: In Other News...
Re: “In Other News”
Pretty disappointing Rent-A-Kop's Hren was a no-show.
Anyone carrying a badge & a gun needs strict accountability, and the issues with Blackwater-Lite have not been resolved to the public's satisfaction.
We may have to just start ignoring their "authoriteh."
Re: “In Other News”
Regarding the two [new] lawsuits filed against the PPB for un-called-for taser use.
Is there a way one can enter into a class-action suit?
Re: “In Other News”
It about time! But what about ALL the measures the he got on the Oregon ballots if *bad* money was used. Will it make them void?
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That's the problem with trying to keep public secrets in the information age.
Re: “In Other News”
Any cabbies reading this should be aware that you are allowed to park in front of any hotel for 15 minutes.
If you are first up on the stand and you think a town car may be parked in front of the hotel with no reservation you should pull up and park in front of the hotel. In front of or behind the town car. You then have 15 minutes. When a customer comes out you can offer them a ride. This is also good if you are first on the stand and the hotel is busy with people checking out whether or not a town car is illegally parked. Pull up and offer the customer your service! Cut out the middleman(doorman). You have just as much of a right to park at the door of a hotel as anyone. Just remember you only have 15 minutes so plan wisely.
Re: “In Other News”
Whoops! I was wrong.
The Marriott Waterfront Hotel was also guilty of using an unpermitted driver from PRIME town car company. Another town car from PRIME town car company was being used by the Hotel Monaco with an unpermitted driver and no plates. This was on the day of the sting. These drivers got fined, but they also did not have insurance. Why weren't they towed and impounded? My car would be?!
Re: “In Other News”
Lets see if the city can actually collect these fines this time around. Town car companies have been getting away with not having to pay these fines. The city lets them off of the hook most of the time. It makes me wonder if it is true when people say the hotels use the kickbacks to pay their doormen. Or instead of paying their doormen decently.
Is the city going to continue to allow hotel doormen and other hotel staff help to manage the quality, safety and efficiency of the downtown para-transit market?
Keep in mind the rented town cars and unpermitted drivers that were fined did not have insurance to cover their passengers. Rental companies do not insure commercial vehicles. Any insurance an unpermitted driver may have had would be null and void against any claim. How many of these drivers fined really had insurance that covered all of their paying passengers?
The Benson was using a town car company driving a rental. The Hotel Monaco was using an unlicensed vehicle with an unpermitted driver. BOTH UNINSURED!!!
The hotels using these illegal town cars that were fined during the sting were:
The Benson, Hilton, Marriott Waterfront, Marriott City Center, Doubletree Lloyd Center, Hotel Vintage Plaza, Hotel Monaco, Hotel Westin, Hotel Lucia, and the Governor hotel.
These hotels do not care about their customers. What if there is an accident in an uninsured town car? With an unpermitted driver?
The hotel and or the doorman who provided this town car to the unwitting customer get all the blame. Because the hotel knows a town car must have a reservation first. A respectable hotel would call a real town car company for their guest. Not allow their doormen to call whatever driver will give them $10.
Re: “In Other News”
Thank you for the quiet time.
I'm still trying to recoup from the announcement about the new Harry Potter book. Quite a shock. I had really hoped Rowling had gotten that all out of her system.
Next!
Re: “In Other News”
Sirs:
The ghost of Robert Moses, the designer who preferred cars to people, hated neighborhoods especially ethnic neighborhoods, and detested public transit would be thrilled with this project.
His preference for freeways destroyed metropolitan New York -- his routing freeways right through neighborhoods without regard for the residents is blamed for the much of the urban blight most other cities suffer today. He is even blamed for the Brooklyn Dodgers moving to LA by siting a freeway on top of the ball park -- without an exit.
In Portland, we're lucky that the citizenry stood up and told the public officials who fed at the trough of construction companies and worshipped Mr. Moses , to use the vernacular, to fuck off. Otherwise Portland would be the same sprawling mess as Los Angeles, Houston, metropolitan New York, Chicago and on and on.
From a long life I'm a cynic. Whenever someone proposes something like this, I immediately wonder who will benefit the most. Portland has a long, well established tradition of public corruption, so who benefits? You and I who pay for these boondoggles? Hardly.
Agreed. We do need a new bridge as the old one is a bottleneck. Access across the South Channel of the Columbia to Hayden Island is dreadful, effecting both the businesses on the island and the people who live on the island.
Do we need this specific bridge?
I'm not convinced this proposal isn't based on what will generate the most income for engineers, construction companies and the public officials they employ.
I remain your humble servant,
Jacomus
Re: “In Other News”
Not in the slightest bit funny.
Next!
Re: “In Other News”
Sirs:
Harumph. I know what goes around comes around, and, that hair styles, too, come and go out of style.
The current style, though, the Kewpie Doll, makes me wonder what's going on.
This is a style originated in 1905 by Rose O'Neill in a series of drawings for the Ladies Home Journal. The drawings were of a little imp or elf with the hair combed up in a peak on top of the head. Sort of a poor man's Mohawk.
Do all of you with said hairstyle know the source of this style, that you look like a children's doll from 1905?
Not that it matters, really.
I remain your humble servant,
Jacomus d'Paganus-Fatuss
Re: “In Other News”
WHAT'S GOOD FOR PIMPS IS GOOD FOR THE U.S.
Sirs:
John R. Miller, former US State Department Ambassador, broke the news of an especially enlightened program in an OpEd piece appearing in the New York Times on July 11th, 2008.
According to Mr. Miller, the U.S. Justice Department is throwing its full weight into the fight for expand sexual slavery into all corners of our land.
According to Miller, officials at our Justice department oppose grading foreign governments on how well they combat sexual slavery and whether those governments put traffickers in jail, and including this information in the State Department's annual report on trafficking.
Officials at our Justice department also oppose the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services streamlining the process of helping foreign trafficking victims get visas to visit the U.S. and receive the care the alledgedly require.
In addition, officials at Justice oppose Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, State and Justice Departments pooling data on human trafficking, explaining that if no one knows the extent of the problem, fewer people will complain.
Officials at our Justice department oppose the U.S. State Department giving information on American anti-trafficking phone lines to visa applicants at American consulates overseas.
This aggressive stance by Justice is especially good news for the entrepreneurs of the prostitution industry who will be protected by several special provisions of the legislation supported by the Justice Department.
The Justice Department strongly objects to a provision making it easier to prosecute pimps, the chief slaveholders in the United States, and even opposes taking away from pimps the defense that they "didn't know a child's age".
Our Justice Department even opposes expanding its own efforts to combat human sexual trafficking. The reason given by officials at Justice is that enforcing sexual slavery laws is just not worth their time and energy since most of the victims are women and children from other parts of the world
And, no, I'm not making this up. For more information on the Justice Departments position on sexual slavery, please go to www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/opinion/11miller.html
I remain your humble servant,
Jacomus d'Paganus-Fatuus
Re: “In Other News”
Sirs:
A citizens group in San Francisco wants to pay an ironic tribute to President George W Bush when he leaves office - by naming a sewage plant after him. BBC World News, 10 July
It's enough to give s*** a bad name.
And, it seems homosexual behavior is common in nature, and it plays an important role in survival at least according to an article in the July 2008 Scientific Am. Next they'll show that bigotry, hatred and religious mania are also genetic. Along with Down's Syndrom and television evangelism. Let's hope they find a cure.
And finally, have you heard what neo Nazi commentator Rush Limbaugh called equally fascist Bill O'Reilly in a 06 July New York Times Magazine article? According to the author, Rush Limbaugh said "somebody’s got to say it. The man is Ted Baxter.” Now let's hope someone explains to O'Reilly, who once graced Portland's media scene from the desk at KATU News, who Ted Baxter was.
I remain your humble servant,
Jacomus d'Paganus-Fatuus
Re: “In Other News”
I've said it before and I'll say it again: permitting these police officers to ride on TriMet jeopardizes federal subsidies for TriMet. If you read the fine print in the grants TriMet receives from the US Deparment of Transportation to supplement security on the line, the dollars given to TriMet are based on the number of security personnel hired to ride the line. We're under-reporting to the federal government how many officers are riding the line as a regular safety patrol in order to receive more federal dollars. This is called fraud, and it is a crime. It is also a crime that could cause the USDT to force the repayment of grants given to TriMet in the past and cancel payments scheduled for TriMet in the future. Eventually, the federal government will act on this discrepancy in reporting and well meaning TriMet officials will find themselves in federal prison for fraud.
Re: “In Other News”
And MR JACOMUS-
You can blame Fred Hansen for a lot of things quite possibly,
but crime in cities and towns that spills over onto the transit system is not one of those things.
That sir, is ludicrous.
TRIMET was set up to be more like the European models.
What the planners did not take into consideration was that Portland is not in Europe and European values are not the same as American values.
The model worked well in the 70's and early 80's sure as hell does not work now as the city grows.
As Portland grows, and will continue to grow, inevitably it will become like every other large city in America. Crime is part of every large American urban area.
It's an American societal problem.
It's not TRIMETS fault, and it sure as hell is not Fred Hansens fault.
Maybe Mr Hansen should go, but not for this reason.
Re: “In Other News”
I want to say, as a Trimet bus driver, that the transit cops are doing one hell of a job!
They have a thankless grinding job and are getting as much criticism as bus drivers get themselves.
People want security, but then they don't want cops around.
People want fare enforcement, but then they go bonkers when they see fare inspectors and/or police.
It's your typical Portland schizophrenia, Portland wants it every way and then complains about it.
Speaking as a bus driver;
THANK YOU TRANSIT COPS FOR YOUR EXCELLENT WORK, we need you out there!
Al M
(now my personal views about the Portland Police might not be so glowing)
Re: “In Other News”
Sirs:
As a regular reader of your publication I must protest your sarcastic and questioning stance toward our public officials as evidenced in the articles above.
1. We must patiently await the report of the stalwarts of Portland Police internal review board concerning the shooting of Mr. Stewart by Ms. Rabey. Really, now. If the shot was from 100 meters or further, Ms. Rabey deserves a marksmanship medal. If from, say, two feet, then obviously Ms. Rabey has unusually short arms, or, was standing too close to Mr. Rabey to get off the prerequisite warning shot, or, the barrel of Ms. Rabey's service revolver is particularly long and therefore heavy causing her aim to drop below Mr. Rabey's hairline. As good and loyal citizens of this fair city we must await careful consideration of these and the other issues involved of which we are undoubtedly unaware.
2. What would John Wayne say about shooting a perpetrator in the back. He'd be outraged, I say, sir, outraged. As am I.
3. The simple and frankly, most obvious, solution to the problems of crime and inferior customer service on Trimet is to take the agency-provided vehicle away from Mr. Fred Hansen, general manager of the aforementioned public agency, and make him ride the light rail trains and buses with those of us who pay his keep. Serve him right, too.
I remain your humble servant,
Jacomus
RSSGoing to Seattle?
Re: “In Other News”
Tax 'em!
While your at that, tax the shit out of the demographic that has a 5 mile or under commute and chooses to go by automobile. Why not?
Your ass is already spreading from long stays in your cubicle desk chair; lets delay the inevitable!!
Oh, and I think we should toll individual drivers on 26, yes that means car pooling gets you a free pass, past the traffic lines and past the fees. Car pooling does not include taking your little snot nosed future polluter to the day care either, so use your better judgement.
Peace Portland.