Oregon Paper Turns The Tables On Garbage-Sifting Prosecutors, Delight Ensues

A fifteen year old article got new
 life on social media this week, with dumpster diving
reporters going through public officials' trash to
make a point about privacy and rights. 

I'm not sure why this  is making the rounds on social media today, but everybody seems to be reviving an Oregon alt weekly newspaper's turning of the tables on nosy police and prosecutors.

Given that police sometimes tend to be overly nosy, i.e. sans search warrants, this decade and a half old tale is one to remember in case this ever happens again.

At the time, police in prosecutors in Oregon decided it was A-OK to go looking through people's garbage cans at curbside looking for evidence of a crime. That is, without a search warrant.

The logic was the garbage and recycling is abandoned property, so it was fair game to go looking through the refuse.

Since there's a lot of personal and potentially private material in garbage - recepts, notes, documents, evidence of where you shopped and when you shopped and where you were, invading garbage seems pretty invasive.

I come down in favor of police sifting through your garbage - but only if they have a search warrant. Since the Willamette Week knew prosecutors and police and the local mayor thought it was OK to search through garbage without a warrant, the reporters there decided to brilliantly turn the tables.

They sifted through the trash left curbside by the prosecutor, police chief and the mayor. Abandoned property, right?

The police chief and especially the mayor were terribly displeased when the Willamette Week reporters fessed up to sifting through their trash. The local prosecutor had a better sense of humor about it.

The anger by the police chief and mayor seemed a little misplaced, because the reporters, judging from that week's trash, concluded that both officials seemed like fine, upstanding citizens. There was certainly more than a whiff of garbage, but no real whiff of scandal.

Here's how the paper wrote about the Police Chief's Mark Kroeker's reaction at the time:

"'This is very cheap,' he blurted out, frowning as we pointed out a receipt with his credit card number, a summary of his wife's investments, an email prepping the mayor about his job application to be police chief of Los Angeles, a well-chewed cigar stub, and a handwritten note scribbled in pencil on a napkin, so personal it made us cringe. We also drew his attention to a newsletter from the conservative political advocacy group Focus on the Family" addressed to Mr and Mrs. Mark Kroeker."

With that, the normally accessible and affable police chief abruptly ended the interview and complained to other media about the Willamette Week's invasion of privacy. The paper did not reveal what was in the personal note on the napkin, but it was nothing nefarious, such as an extra-marital affair or illicet activity.

The paper couldn't get to the mayor's garbage. The bin was up against her house, and the reporters would have trespassed if they'd gone on to her property to check it. But the recycling was curbside, so the reporters had a look.

The contents were mostly just newspapers, all mainstream and middle of the road and reputable.

Then-mayor Vera Katz was livid when she got wind of the recycling heist by the paper. She summoned the reporters, and the newspapers from the recycling bin to her office. She also ordered them to bring the name of the newspaper's lawyer.

The mayor's prepared statement read, in part, "I consider Willamette Week's actions in this matter to be potentially illegal and absolutely unscrupulous and reprehensible....I will consider all my legal options in response to these actions."

Funny, though. The mayor was fine with her police force digging through people's trash. What's the difference?

The local district attorney, possibly sensing a PR mess, didn't get too publicly excited about Willamette Week's dumpster diving. He only asked the reporters, "Do I have to pay for this week's garbage collection?"

However, the paper did detail the findings in the the DA's refuse bin. Again, nothing shady, but the reporters got a LOT of personal information about the guy.

Again, I know this story is 15 years old. But it's a master class for when government or police officials overreach.

I get it. Police have a job to do and we demand that they keep us safe while they conduct their often dangerous work. But it never hurts to keep them in check, though.

Bundy Clowns In Oregon Need Their Cowboy Boots In Court, Dammit!

Ammon Bundy, one of the ringleaders in that
Oregon wildlife refuge standoff last winter,
says the courts are being the fashion police
and won't let him dress up like a cowboy for his trial.

Let's check in with the guys who took over that wildlife refuge in Oregon last winter again, shall we?

When last we looked, back in May, some of them wanted to have their guns with them in jail while they awaited trial.

One of the ringleaders, Ryan Bundy, said not allowing him his guns in jail violated his Second Amendment rights.

The jail, and a judge didn't buy the argument, and the poor guy had to languish without his guns. I'm crying so hard for Bundy and his suffering that my office is now flooded with tears.

Now Ryan's trial is coming up, along with brother Ammon Bundy is upset that he will not be allowed to wear his cowboy boots in the courtroom during the proceedings.

According to OregonLive:

"Ammon Bundy's lawyer J. Morgan Philpot argued that his client is innocent until proven guilty and should be allowed to wear the civilian clothes that he chooses.

'We would prefer our clients not look like disheveled slackers in front of the jury,' Philpot told the judge during Tuesday's pretrial conference hearing. 

Philpot added later in the day in a written motion, 'These men are cowboys and given that the jury will be assessing their authenticity and credibility, they should be able to present themselves to the jury in that manner.'"

What, is this a costume contest and not a trial? They expect Ammon to show up in his cowboy boots, and the jury will swoon, "OOOHH!! A real cowboy!" That means we need to let him go. Yippee Ki-Yay!

The reason there is a dress code in court for defendents - no ties, belts, steel-toed boots, etc - is nobody wants the accused to weaponize his or her fashion accessories to launch an escape attempt. Or assault somebody.

The problem with Bundy's cowboy boots is that leg shackles used when he's led into court won't work. (The shackles are removed once he's in the courtroom.)

There's already photos of what the Bundys might wear in court, because their pictures were taken for the jurors' books.

OregonLive says both Bundys are in suit jackets but no ties in the photos, and the judge said the two look perfectly presentable for court appearances in those photos.

OregonLive had another fun tidbit about Ryan Bundy in its court fashion article about the bumbling brothers.

Ryan Bundy challenged prosecutors' assertion that he aided and abetted in the theft of government property, specifically the theft of cameras during the standoff last winter.

Buddy cited "basic Biblical principle" saying, "A man will be accountable for his own sins and not that of another. "

In other words, Bundy is saying he can't be prosecuted for helping somebody steal something. He's only accountable with God.

No, he's also accountable to the law here on Earth. "The Biblical standards don't apply, says the judge.

Strange Sound Spooks Oregon Town

Forest Grove, Oregon has been experiencing weird noises,
and nobody knows where they're coming from. 

To me, there's almost nothing worse than hearing a strange sound in the middle of the night, or anytime for that matter, and can't figure out from where it's coming.  

It gets even spookier when nobody else can figure it out, too.

Which makes me glad I don't live in Forest Grove, Oregon, which is suburb of Portland.

It's a sharp, high pitched noise that's been heard in the town off and on for weeks now. When it goes off is random, and lasts anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes.

Gas lines in the area are buried underground, and it's not likely to be that. Plus the gas company has been looking for leaks since the noise started.

It sounds a bit like bad brakes on something like a logging truck struggling to slow down going down a hill, but there's no steep hills nearby. Or it could be a train, but the only tracks in the area are ones that are rarely used and dead end in downtown Forest Grove.

A random, note. I played a clip of the noise from this link to television station KATU in Portland, Oregon, and it drove oe of my dogs nuts. Jackson started barking like crazy. All other sounds this morning have elicit little notice from Jackson.

A sound engineer said high pitched noises like this one don't travel as far as low rumbling ones, so the source of the noise has to be relatively close to the people hearing it.

Audio expert Tobin Cooley told KATU that he doesn't know what the sound is.

"'It sounds like some sort of pressurized gas or air through a fitting or valve or something,' Cooley said. 'It's not steady state and you can't predict when it's going to happen. Those are all interesting sound features.'"

Unlike what a few people are saying, I really doubt this is a UFO or secret government plot.

But everyone would love to know what's going on.

This news report gives you another example of what the sound is like:

Before Last Night's Arrest, The Oregon Militia Standoff Gets Sumo Weirder.

Before that stupid Oregon standoff took a more
serious turn last night, this guy challenged New
Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to a sumo match over
the matter, proving how weird the whole incident
has been getting. 

Last night, the standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon by those weird militia guys got more serious, with one of them killed and seven others arrested, apparently as they made their way to some sort of community meeting they called.

The deceased guy is apparently LaVoy Finicum, the de facto spokesman for the militants. Their ringleader, Ammon Bundy, was one of those arrested, we hear. 

I don't know if this the end of the takeover of the wildlife refuge by these wannabe revolutionaries, who apparently think the US of A belongs to these rednecky white guys and nobody else.

There are still some of them holed up at the refuge, and at last report, it was unclear what would happen next.

The whole thing has kept taking stranger and stranger turns anyway.

Now a warning, don't watch the video at the bottom of this post if you're eating or particularly squeamish. More on that in a moment.

Despite the increasing seriousness of the Oregon situatio, I can't resist this little gem.

One of those odd militia guys who took over that wildlife refuge in Oregon has a challenge for New Jersey Governor and Republican Presidential Candidate Chris Christie.

Boy, is it a challenge!

Chris Christie is apparently unimpressed with this band of so-called "Patriots" that took over that Malheur National Wildlife Preserve in Oregon,

The wannabe frontier guys or whatever in Oregon aren't happy with Christie for not being a wackadoodle who thinks white guys who pretend to be soldiers and frontiersmen so they can use publicly owned land only for themselves at the exclusion of the rest of American taxpayers who also own the land.

Enter Kelly Gneiting with a video, and it's quite a video, as Raw Story and many other media outlets report.

As we see in our video, Gneiting is a big, BIG man, pretty much naked except for one of those sumo wrestler loincloth outfits. He challenges Christie to a sumo wrestling match that would determine the outcome of the Oregon wackos' millitants' occupation.

I guess the "logic" as it were, is that Christie is a big guy himself, so we'll do a sumo match to settle the matter. I suppose Gneiting figures a sumo match is a better way to settle a difference of opinion, then, say, debating the issue.

In the video, Gneiting claims to be Christie's brother. He wants Chrisite to "throw on a diaper" and "go to war over the Constitution."

Why do I suspect that Christie is not going to do that?

After jokingly claiming he rolled "his brother Christie" down the stairs in a sleeping bag, Gneiting made this offer:

"Bring that big 'ol belly over here, and let's' slap bellies...."

(Editor's note: EWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!)

Gneiting goes on:

"......I'm talking about 10 bouts - you win one of out those 10 and me and these other good, constitutional folk - I'm going to make them sumo wrestlers too -- all these good, constitutional folk, we'll disperse. But if I win all 10, I get to roll you down the stairs in that sleeping bag again. Woo-hoo, little Chrissy!!!'

Oookay!

Given the very unfortunate death and the somewhat more fortunate arrests last night,  and the fact that Christie has at least a minimum of common sense, I don't anticipate writing a follow up post detailing the highlights of the would-be Christie-Gneiting sumo match.

Because of course it won't happen.

So all we have is Gneiting, in his classic sumo video, inviting Christie to the match.

Watch if you dare:

Oregon Whack Jobs Sure Don't Know How To Run A Revolution, Or Whatever They're Doing

Members of "Y'all Qaeda" are still holed
up at an Oregon wildlife refuge. Sigh. 

I was going to follow the lead of law enforcement and pretty much ignore the crazy guys who took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge  over in Oregon.

Apparently, they're annoyed by what they think is the evil federal government taking away our rights to the citizens' land.  Or set fire to it to control varmints or something.

Or maybe they just want to play dress up and pretend they're life sized GI Joe action figures and Wild Bill Hickok or something.

This place is a wildlife refuge, which, um, is open to the public. Anyone. At least until these yahoos showed up. Now nobody can go there except them. Are they the only people who think they are U.S citizens?

I hope they're not quintessential U.S. citizens, because such citizens would be bozos.

If not for the expense this takeover is costing us taxpayers, and the fear and inconvenience to the Oregonians living near the refuge, this would seem like a farcical movie comedy that gets mixed reviews.

Let's go over some of the highlights of this takeover.

1. Nobody is taking them seriously.  Like the late, great Rodney Dangerfield, "they don't get no respect."

Federal law enforcement is ignoring them. A lot of the rest of us are not exactly calling them terrorists, but things like "Y'all Qaeda""Yee-hawdists" and "Vanilla ISIS" since they're such wannabe but failing militants.

I've also seen them referred to, as Raw Story points out,  "Yokel Haram," "Fail Qaeda" who are participating in an "Infantada."

There've been some great Tweets about this outfit, such as "Y'all Qaeda follows a strict interpretation of Shania (Twain) law." and "Every successful revolution starts with the takeover of a closed visitor center with a gift shop."

2. The group put out a call via social media to get supplies, like food, clothing and the like. They probably got some of that, but many people, also inspired by social media, sent lots of dildos instead.

Dildos for the dildos. The militants there were not amused. One video showed one of the Y'all Qaeda guys angrily sweeping the dildos off a table. Temper, temper!

3. One of the idiots, Joe Oshaugnessy, collected donation money for the cause. When a newspaper revealed that Oshaugnessy lied about being a U.S. Marine, he got depressed and went to a hotel and used the donation money to drink his sorrows away.

Another Vanilla ISIS member tearfully announced this turn of events on Facebook. Awwww. So sad!

 4. Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, who is pretty much Y'allQaeda spokesman in Oregon, complained that the state of Arizona took away the foster kids who have been staying with his wife Jeannette at their Arizona home.

Now, I can't knock Finicum for helping boys from troubled homes find a sense of self-worth and independence at his ranch.

However, as Talking Points Memo notes:

".....having one parent away from home for a significant period of time committing a number o fhigh profile federal crimes would seem like at least a plausible reason to remove the children. This doesn't seem to occur to Finicum."

Also, says Talking Points Memo and Oregon Public Broadcasting, Finicum and his wife got most of their income from being foster parents. For a guy who wants government off our backs and likes his individualism, it's a little strange he's living off government subsidies.

Oh well, I guess it's OK to be a bit of a hypocrite if there's money to be made.

5. Then we have this video, a bizarre little battle cry with strange horns. Really guys?  It sounds like they're pretending to be mating mountain goats.

Which proves their little revolution is completely off the rails.

Some Weirdo Is Hanging Dildos From Utility Wires In Portland, Oregon

Dildos are now hanging from electrical wires
in Portland, Oregon.  n

The trend of getting pairs of sneakers caught up in telephone wires seems to be passe, but now we've got a new one.

Someone, or a bunch of people, are hanging dildos from the wires along the streets of Portland, Oregon.

The unofficial motto of that city is "Keep Portland Weird," so there you go.

So far, nobody has claimed credit for the "artwork" so if a message is trying to be sent, we're not sure what it is. Neither are art experts in Portland.

"If these adult sex toys are being hung on power lines in order to make a statement it hasn't been very effective...It's not very effective if you don't claim it," said Victoria Frey, the executive director of the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art.

Some people thought the dildos might help guide participates in the World Naked Bike Ride along their route, but that doesn't make sense, either.

World Naked Bike Ride, designed to "deliver a vision of a cleaner, safer body-positive world" and to promote bicycling and to protest against excessive use of fossil fuels, is held in dozens of cities, and dildos don't seem to be philisophically part of the event.

Some people think the dildos on the wires are funny, other's don't. I can see parents' concern about having to answer their kid when they ask, "What are those things hanging from the telephone wires," but then I doubt the answer will scar the kids for life, either.

They're probably not safe, as I imagine anything hanging from an electrical wire could present a hazard.

A traffic hazard, too. Some out of town driver in Portland comes in, looks up and stares at the dildos and says, "What the hell are those," then WHAM! he rear ends the car in front of him.

Oh, I'm so tempted to say something off color here. Dildos? Rear ending what's in front of you?

Yikes!

I hope this dildo trend doesn't spread to other cities, like mine, but I'm sure it will anyway.

There's always some, ahem, dick who likes to spoil the view.

Guy Tries To Steal Two Beers, Loses His Clothes Instead

Bet this guy won't try to steal beer again.
At least at the last store he tried.  

Bad news for a shoplifter up in Beaverton, Oregon.

Police said he tried to steal two beers from a convenience store in that lovely town, but the the store's owners would have none of it, says OregonLive.

In a Don't Try This At Home moment, the two owners tussled with the shoplifter for at least three minutes, trashing the store and removing all of the shoplifter's clothes, except for his boxer shorts.

Geez, after a day like that, I'd need a couple of beers. But then, I tend to hand over cash when I go to a store for beer rather than try to shoplift it. But that's just me.

The benefit of paying is, I always leave the store wearing the same amount of clothing I had when I entered the place.

In any event, Soloman Temanie-Berhane, 21, faces several charges, including third degree robbery, resisting arrest, assault on a police officer and theft.

The whole episode was caught on a store security camera. This is better than watching World Wrestling Entertainment: 

An Oregon Judge's Gay Marriage Ruling Is Almost Old Hat, His Written Rationale Takes Eloquence To A New Level

U.S District Court Judge Michael McShane's
 ruling in favor of gay marriage in Oregon
was Constitutionally sound, but the eloquence
of his ruling was the best part.  

Today, U.S. District Court judge Michael J. McShane ruled that Oregon's ban on same gender marriages is unconstitutional.  

Which isn't a surprise, since a slew of judges have ruled in recent months that such bans violate the Constitution's guarantees of equal protection.

The Oregon ruling today means gay marriages started there today. Nice to see Oregon join the fold.

How McShane ended his written ruling, dated today, is something to behold, however. I have never seen anyone explain it better:

"My decision will not be the final word on this subject, but on this issue of marriage, I am struck more by our similarities than our differences. I believe that if we can look for a moment past gender and sexuality, we can see in these plaintiffs nothng more or less than our own families.

Families who would expect our Constitution to protect, if not exalt, in equal measure. With discernment we see not shadows lurking in closets or the stereotypes of what was once believed; rather, we see families committed to the common purpose of love, devotion and service to the greater community.

Where will this all lead? I know that many suggest we are going down a slippery slope that will have no moral boundaries. To those who truly harbor such fears, I can only say this: Let us look less to the sky to see what might fall; rather, let us look to each other...and rise."

Amen!