What a turnout we had for our first petition drive in Bandon last Saturday to get the needed signatures for a ballot measure.  This is the FIRST referendum the city of Bandon has ever seen.  (They are so used to just passing measure after measure without voter approval.)  I think we have left them in a fairly bewildered state.....but back to the topic.....9 folks turned out to canvass door to door in Bandon to get signatures!  Did we get enough?  Rob Taylor will be commenting on that soon, so I will leave that up to him.  But I will say this:  the public response to us has been very edifying.  Just to update you on "terminology."  Here is the difference between an "initiative" and a "referendum", which we get asked alot.  Once the Bandon City Council voted on extending the Urban Renewal Debt from $5 mil to $12 mil, that became law.  A "referendum" is when concerned citizens get enough signatures to submit to the elections clerk to then "refer" the entire matter back to the voters, via an election ballot.  Thus, a referendum.  An "initiative" is similar, but it is a measure put on the ballot that is not law yet.  The concerned citizens are "initiating" an idea that has not become law yet.  Thank goodness Oregon is one of the most liberal states (and I use the word "liberal" in a good way here) in the Union for letting its citizens get things on the ballot, recalls, initiatives, referendums, etc.  And by gosh, we are using that process to the max right now.  Stay tuned for updates on the state of our referendum........

We have 2 weeks to get all the signatures on our Bandon Urban Renewal referendum.  Either call Rob Taylor at his home to sign the petition (541-347-9942) or email him at:  urpetition@msn.com.   Even better--take 5 minutes of "training" and we can send you out in the community to garner signatures yourself.  We need around 200 valid signatures (must be a Bandon city resident and registered to vote.)  That is actually a fair amount, so please help--every single signature is now valuable. 

Letter from a Tea Partyer to his Georgia Senator:

Dear Senator:  
It is beyond incredible to me that there exists in our hallowed halls of Congress such capitulation and outright malfeasance regarding the most egregious and astounding acts of criminality, treason and abrogation of the Rule of Law by this current administration, and that our elected representatives sit idly, silently by. We have entrusted you with our safety, our rights, our liberties, and our freedoms, and you continue to act as if you were only small actors given a piecemeal role in an inconsequential play put on by children.   With the positions you hold on the various committees of the Senate, it is completely incomprehensible to me and a great many other of your constituents that you allow the evisceration of our military to go unimpeded by an entire host of very bad actors...the most important one being an individual who holds claim to the Presidency of the United States, yet acts at every turn as an enemy, a tyrant and a despot. I am reserving the use of harsh words...I am merely pointing out the obvious, as you apparently have lost the ability to see the forest for the trees, ensconced as you are in that cesspool of corruption we know to be Washington, DC.   Apparently, the timeless ruse of cajoling folks to "go along to get along" has worked again, to our extreme detriment. Your silence has been deafening...and I don't believe an MSM blackout will work as an excuse. We pay a whole lot more attention than you think for that to work. The litany of abuses is beginning to rival that of our Declaration of Independence. You might try reviewing it again...and I don't mean to appear snide, but if you haven't noticed any correlation between then and now, you are obviously NOT PAYING ATTENTION.  

If a sitting President announced that he would just bypass Congress because they won't capitulate to his whims, would you remain silent? YOU HAVE.  
If a sitting President had been found in contempt of a Federal Court numerous times, would you remain silent? YOU HAVE 
If a sitting President and his Department of Justice were found to be complicit in some of the most incredible, illegal usurpations of the Rule of Law, would you remain silent?   YOU HAVE (Let's not forget the New Black Panthers' voter-intimidation case, the Fast and Furious "gun-walking" travesty, the drilling moratoriums, ad nauseum).
A sitting President has wasted billions upon billions of taxpayer money on fraudulent schemes, far outside of his Constitutional constraints, while rewarding his friends and campaign "bundlers" and insists on wasting more, and where has your voice been?   A sitting President has done everything in his power to destroy the engine of free-market capitalism, vetoed job-creation and innovation, and where has your voice been? Besides a petulant newsletter mention...NOWHERE.   We are all entitled to our own opinions...we are not entitled to our own facts. I have presented nothing but FACTS to you here...abbreviated atrociously in the vain hope you will read this through before rolling your eyes and discarding it.   We have now come into a time where we shall either live as free-men, or die as slaves to an international behemoth not of our own making. This will be the last chance we have to determine the outcome of that question. You can cajole yourselves with the absurdity and conjecture that only politicians can produce to make themselves feel a sort of vindication for their inactions, or you can rise to the occasion, don the mantle of responsibility that was given to you by your fellow citizens, and help us get these criminals out of office, out of the public trust, and into the prison they alone so richly deserve.   We are not only watching closely, we have been rather busy. The actions you take will vindicate ours, in one way or another. You must decide if you are going to continue to be part of the problem, or part of the solution. We WILL return to the Constitutional Rule of Law, or we will join the other failed nations of history, and your names will be featured on the headstone, as well. 
James Seigfreid confederated3@netscape.net  United States Patriots Union Tea Party of Gilmer County
www.blogtalkradio.com/teapartyorg  

24 tons of debris is heading our way from Japan.  Did you read this in the headlines today?  Well, they have the weight right, but it's not heading our way from Japan, it is heading our way from Washington D.C.  24 tons of Federal regulations, take-overs, land-usurpations, taxes, and mandates are about to land on the Bandon Marsh.  I do not know which horror I am more afraid of---the stinking, rotting, filth-laden flotsam and jetsam or the tsunami debris from Japan........

I read a great article today, by Michael Prell in Townhall.  I want to share it with you.  It boils down to the fact that there are no perfect candidates, there are only citizens that are willing to take the time to hold the politicians'  feet to the fire.    Here  is the  article.
 http://townhall.com/columnists/michaelprell/2012/02/15/the_perfect_candidate/page/full/

Are you happy with the remaining Republican candidates?
Or the current occupant of the White House?
Or Congress?
If your answer is “no,” don’t worry. You are not alone. In fact, you are in the majority.
Polls show that none of the Republican candidates can crack 50% support in a head-to-head contest with President Obama. That is not to say the President is doing much better: he can’t crack 50% either. And Congress? They have a 12% approval rating and an 81.7% disapproval rating.
So, in this all-important election, who is the “right” candidate?
The answer is: none of them.
The truth is: none of them ever have been. There is not, nor has there ever been, any such thing as the perfect or “right” candidate. Even President Obama, who swept into office astride a unicorn of “hope” powered by the breathless hot air of media sycophants, has crashed back to earth and revealed himself to be nothing like what he had promised.

So, given that there are no perfect or “right” candidates, what are voters to do?
Do more than vote.
In 1975, Milton Friedman said: “I do not believe that the solution to our problem is simply to elect the right people. The important thing is to establish a political climate of opinion which will make it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing. Unless it is politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing, the right people will not do the right thing either, or if they try, they will shortly be out of office.”
In other words: our job is to make it politically painful for any of these less-than-perfect politicians to do the wrong thing, and to make it politically profitable for them do the right thing, namely: to stand up for America’s founding principles and to defend the Constitution.

Who, in America, is currently performing this critical task? The media? Hardly. The vast majority of media outlets in America celebrate, rebrand, and provide political cover for perhaps the greatest series of government power-grabs, money-grabs and assaults on the Constitution since America was founded. When the government spends more, with the stroke of a pen, than all of America’s children will earn in their lifetimes – the President calls it “fairness,” and the media calls it “compassionate” while branding those who call for fiscal restraint as “irresponsible” and “heartless.”
The American people are left to wonder: who will stand up to these imperfect politicians and force them to honor the oaths they swore to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States– or replace them with those who will honor their oaths?
If you are looking for that strong, perfect and “right” candidate among the bruised and battered remnants of the Republican race – keep looking. There is no such thing as a perfect or “right” candidate. If we didn’t know that before they spent millions beating each other up with brutal attack ads, we certainly know it now.

So where are we to look? To paraphrase Milton Friedman: look in the mirror.
It is up to you to elect the best possible candidates – with the full knowledge that none of them are perfect. Then, you must be ready to do the hard work, each and every day, to reward them for doing good, and to punish them for doing bad.
Call it the “carrot & stick” approach. Feed the politician a carrot and encourage them to do the right thing – and if they fail to do the right thing, “stick” the carrot where it will cause them the most pain.

By: Oregon Single Payer Committee

http://www.thelundreport.org/resource/new_coalition_to_advocate_for_universal_healthcare_in_oregon
February 6, 2012 -- Delegates from 28 unions, nonprofits and grassroots 
organizations gathered in Portland on Friday, January 27, to form a new 
coalition that will advocate for universal health care in Oregon and the U.S. 
Seven labor unions joined with 21 community organizations to sign the membership 
agreement, approve bylaws, and elect an interim executive committee.

The coalition grew out of a partnership between four organizations–Health 
Care for All–Oregon, Portland Jobs With Justice, Mad As Hell Doctors (MAHD) and 
Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP). Two years ago these 
organizations formed the Oregon Single Payer Campaign (OSPC), which last year 
organized a conference at the First Unitarian Church in Portland attended by 500 
people. OSPC also spearheaded the introduction of HB 3510 last year in the 
Oregon legislature by Rep. Michael Dembrow (D-HD 45). HB 3510 would create a 
single-payer financing system that guaranteed universal access to health care 
for all Oregonians, including the more than 600,000 Oregonians who do not have 
health insurance. Rep. Dembrow was in attendance at the 
founding meeting of the coalition.

The goal of OSPC was to get the issue of universal access health care on the 
table, since its advocates had been shut out of the federal health care reform 
debate,” said Michael Moore, delegate from Sisters of the Road and newly elected 
interim president of the coalition. “The goal of the new coalition is to engage 
all communities across Oregon in a conversation about what we can and should 
expect from our health care system. We think providing universal access, as 
almost all other industrialized nations do, is the only truly humane and 
cost-effective system available. We need a broad and diverse coalition of 
organizations to help us understand how to take that message to all the 
constituencies we need to reach


Oregon's current health care system is neither humane nor cost-effective. The 
only health care resources available to many uninsured adults are hospital 
emergency rooms and pay-for-service options at some clinics. Even in communities 
such as Scappoose, only 21 miles from Portland, the Oregon Health Sciences 
University clinic does not accept uninsured patients. In Oregon, it is estimated 
that the cost of uncompensated care for uninsured and under-insured adults and 
children will exceed $1.1 billion in 2012.

Rosalie Pedroza, delegate from the Rural Organizing Project, said, “In rural 
communities, many areas don¹t have insurance options, and facilities are 
limited. Current cost increases are unsustainable; we need affordable health 
care for all.”

The unions signing on to the coalition's founding are: American Federation of 
Government Employees Local 2157, Communication Workers of America Local 7901, 
Laborers Local 483, National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 82, National 
Association of Social Workers ­ Oregon, Oregon Nurses' Association and 
Service Employees International Union Local 49. The nonprofits joining them are: 
Alliance for Democracy, Center for Inter-cultural Organizing, Community
Alliance  of Tenants, Elders in Action, Fellowship of Reconciliation, 
Health

Are you sick and tired of waking up every morning to a new insult, a new assault on our liberties, a new attempt to steal our lands, our wages, and our liberties?  What happened to the America we once knew?  I awoke from my slumber the summer of 2008.  I knew then the awful train wreck that was about to be visited upon us.  And everything I feared has come to pass, and more.

The government, which we used to tolerate, like one tolerates a slightly daffy, but kind old uncle, has become an entity to be feared and loathed.  We once trusted our government and believed it was a kind and beneficent protector.  We believed it would always fiercely protect the rights created by our founding fathers. Now it is the destroyer of those rights.  It is the black boot that has its heel crushed into our throats.   

I know a teacher here in Coos Bay that is deathly afraid her superiors will find out she is a conservative.  She has become skilled at masking as a good liberal. 

I know a gal who is a care-tender for the state parks around here.  She used to come to the tea parties and the AFP meetings.  No more.  She is terrified her superiors will find out her political views and she will be fired. 

We are beseiged on all sides–by the MSM and the liberal media, by our local government bureaucrats, by our schools, by academics, by activist judges.  The only truly free thing left to us is to write on blogs such as this one.  So I come to you this day to ask you to join us here on Coos County Watchdog–join us and become part of the team to take back our local government, eject the Feds from our Coquille River Basin, and eviscerate the power of Urban Renewal.  

And when all the above is accomplished we might even have time to send the ruling elite home that are camped out on the Potomac.