The Grace in being grateful
(I originally wrote this in 2004. I've made some minor tweaks but its essentially the same piece. Happy Thanksgiving to all) The most formative person in my life when I was a child was my great grandmother. Having been raised in an extended family where alcoholism was rampant, my Grandma Grace was the calm for me in a sea of dysfunction

Welcome to the Streets, Welcome to the Conversation
I attended my first march on Portland streets in about 1987.  The precise reason for this demonstration now eludes me, but it was during my freshman year of college. For a college student during the Reagan administration, this was not a remarkable act.  Over the years, I've attended dozens more.  Some were to express support, some to register dissent.  D

With Real Guts, They'd Tax Us For This Buildup
So the hawks circling Obama will get their escalation in Afghanistan. God save us!It galls me how these people pose as Brave Thinkers Who (Alone) Understand The Dangerous World We Live In:I say to them: if the troop surge so vital to our security, show real political spine and support something that would separate patriots from posers – a $30 billion surtax to cover the cost of a troop surge. (Best estimate: $1 million per soldier per year.)The surtax’s proponent, Rep. Dave Obey, makes the sound point that if national health insuran

Will your doctor honor your dying wishes?
Over at FireDogLake, David Dayen takes note of a new directive from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops that forbids Catholic-run hospitals, and the doctors and nurses that work in them, from "removing feeding tubes or ending palliative procedures of any kind, even when the individual has an advance directive to guide their end-of-life care." Barbara Coombs Lee is an Oregon nurse who was the chief petitioner on Oregon's Death with Dignity ballot measure. She's now the president of national advocacy organization Compassion & Cho

Mystery: What's John Minnis being investigated for?
The big news today is that John Minnis, the state's police training director and a former GOP state senator (and spouse of former GOP House Speaker Karen Minnis), has resigned his post - amidst a criminal investigation. The big question: what's he being investigated for? Presumably, it's big. The investigation is being conducted by the Department of Justice at the request of Minnis' own agency - and the Governor demanded that he resign immediately (rather than on January 1st, as Minnis offered.) Dennis Thompson at the Salem Statesman-Journal has the story: Th