Sally's Recall Campaign Song!

Sally Gump’s Made The Right Choice For Me
Sung to the tune of “My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean”

Sally Gump is a concerned St. Helens citizen,
Doug & Phil are city councilors there you see,
Sally Gump says now “Let’s recall ‘em”,
For they’re no good for you and for me.

Recall, let’s recall,
Let’s recall Doug & Phil with glee, glee, glee,
Recall, let’s recall,
Let’s sign the petition for you and for me.

Last night as Keith Locke laid on his pillow,
Last night as Mayor Randy laid on his bed,
Last night as Charles Grant laid on his pillow,
They dreamed that all the councilors had fled.

Bring back, bring back
Bring back that petition to me, to me,
Bring back, bring back,
Bring back the petition; I’ll now sign it, you see.

Oh blow ye the winds o'er the Columbia River,
And blow ye the winds o'er the Boise factory,
Oh blow ye the winds o'er our City Hall,
Bring back the petition; I’ll sign it right now, you see.

Bring back, bring back
Bring back that petition to me, to me,
Bring back, bring back,
Bring back the petition,
Sally Gump’s Made The Right Choice For Me.

Courtesy of a fan........who wishes to remain anonymous at this time. We'll likely be hearing more from him soon--when he has less to lose from possible retaliation of the "SLAPP suit twins."

Word games

Not much time to write today, so I offer a word game to fill your time.

The word is: Smarmy, "revealing or marked by a smug, ingratiating, or false earnestness" (courtesy of Merriam-Webster)

The topic is: St. Helens Recall

The game is to see if you can find a way to use the word in a sentence related to the topic. Go on, this is an easy one!

Can you crown yourself King of St. Helens?

I spent a very few minutes in front of the Post Office yesterday afternoon, relieving Sally for a bit, and found myself within stink-eye range of the great visionary. He's taken to manning the corner of the PO building, snagging people from the parking lot before they can get to the door or ... heaven forbid ... to Sally's table.

He's a true politician--in the worst sense of the word. He's loud, lays it on thick, and promises to solve all your problems. Probably all by himself. Or, at least, as we know from experience with this guy, he'll take all the credit for the resolutions.

I had an interesting talk yesterday with a couple of others who, like I do, get to see him at work on a more frequent basis--far more than we want to and more than the average citizen who will vote this fall. One of them pointed out how Morten seems to thrive on creating a problem where none exists, then riding to the rescue to resolve it.

An example of this is the so-called dissension in the public works and parks departments. They are two separate departments now because Doug reopened the old parks building, thus moving parks away from public works and resolving the dissension problem.

The two departments were combined some years ago to save money. But money is no longer an issue for St. Helens apparently, and he had to do something about that oppressive work environment. He seems to have a great need to save the little people from evil (kind of like he "had to do something to stop" Sally?). I hadn't considered before yesterday, but perhaps an accounting of how much his little problem fixes cost taxpayers would make could good campaign fodder.

He's also taking credit (and graciously allowing a bit to the rest of the council) for the decline in vandalism in the parks since this council took over. No credit to the park caretaker now living at McCormick Park (who by the way is doing a great job) or to the SHPD. Nope. Just to this amazing, innovative council that is driven by Doug's vision. Gloss over the problems that do exist, Doug, create some easily solvable (if expensive) ones and be sure you're the one riding the white horse and carrying the banner.

We could have a contest to determine the best words for that banner. Nah, that's too much work. Let's just sit back and see what words Doug puts on his own banner. I'm sure we'll get to see it and the white horse before the elections are over. Wonder if he'll wear a crown?

New titile ... from the Twilight Zone

With apologies, but I just had to post this. It was sent to me this morning from someone who is still reading the local hate rag.

"From: Humble Picker Packer #9 9/3/08
Has anyone out there ever heard of St Helens Oregon? Well its a real town. and there's some real bored, nosy, small minded ninnies. We only see our Mayor once a year if we're lucky. We finally have the chance of getting to vote for someone who wants to do something for this economically depressed town. Then a secretary who works for the City counselor, who's running for mayor wants HER BOSS recalled from his job and has the balls to show up for work wearing a recall button. How many ninnies can keep a job while wearing a button saying I want my boss fired? DUH.....Only in St Helens. and the "pleasantly plump" gothic wannna be with the spineless jelly fish glued to her side like some barnacle...every Thursday during our town weekly festival...there they are with those stupid clip boards. More ninnies trying to have this poor guy recalled. We are at the festival to unwind. Not listen to your gossip OH small minds. Search into your own "closets" for your own skeletons. Stop trying to ruin someone's life. They can have a wheel barrow full of clip boards and I still plan to vote for the man. The point is....This world is in serious trouble. we are ruining the environment. People are dying in this terrible war, and so on. And there those two ninnies stand....in there own little capsule...trying to ruin someone else's life. A clip board in one hand. A pile of useless papers in the other. I wonder how many trees were used to make those recall papers. The world will never know. Just another day in the life of a small town....IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE"

A councilor marked by foresight and imagination

Good old Merriam-Webster. It never fails to entertain me, as do our councilors.

vi·sion·ary
Function: adjective
Date: 1648

1 of the nature of a vision, illusory; incapable of being realized or achieved, utopian, a visionary scheme; existing only in imagination, unreal

2 able or likely to see visions; disposed to reverie or imagining, dreamy

3 of, relating to, or characterized by visions or the power of vision

4 having or marked by foresight and imagination; a visionary leader, a visionary invention

A "Mayor of Vision" sighting as been reported. Using his "foresight and imagination," Councilor Morten was seen today at the corner near the SH Post Office passing out literature and campaigning for office.

Now, while you gotta love a guy who takes to the streets to reach voters, you have to laugh at his choice of that corner, just down the sidewalk from where the intrepid Sally Gump is set up, day after day, with her recall petitions . . . one of which carries his name.

I guess he's decided his SLAPP suit didn't stop her afterall. Go Sally!

Thanks for the free advertising, Phil!

Only time for a quick note tonight but I wanted to comment on the pin Phil Barlow is sporting these days. I saw him in Council Work Session this afternoon and pinned to his chest was a big white button with a black "R" and the international "no" sign in red across the "R."

I almost burst out laughing when I saw it! My first thought was that we couldn't ask for a better advertisement than to have one of the recall councilors wearing a big "R" badge around town, even if it is supposed to indicate he's against the recall.

This thing is the size of a jar lid, mind you, and I'm wondering what kind of comments it gets. . .

"Hi Phil, what's the badge for?" or "Hey Phil, does the "R" stand for Republican?"

So, what does he say in response, do you suppose?

How about, "Oh, haven't you heard there's a recall against me?"

Or, "I don't support the recall against me." (Duh.)

The way I see it is that no matter who says what, the connection will either be made by the citizens who ask or the councilor who tells them what the pin means. The word RECALL has to come out there somewhere!

So, I had to control myself--if I gave in to first impulse, I'd have jumped up and thanked him profusely for wearing the badge. But, that might mean he'd finally get it and take it off. Hmmph, so much for free advertising. Finally, I contented myself with drawing a big picture of it in my little notebook and writing, "Thanks for the free advertising, Phil!"

The Circus has Begun!

I'm a City of St. Helens employee. Am I afraid of retaliation? Absolutely! I've seen and heard things that turn my stomach upside down. I'm disgusted in the behaviors and personal agendas of several councilors. Not everything they've done is bad, don't get me wrong but I will say, LOUD AND CLEAR, that Morten and Barlow are not the upstanding citizens they have heralded themselves to be; Locke takes full advantage of his power in office, abusively; and Grant...well, his attendance and participation in City Council meetings and his activities as "commissioner" of the Library and Arts & Culture are sorely lacking to say the least.

St. Helens needs good sound leadership! A council that trusts its staff; a staff that has extensive experience and/or years of schooling to become the qualified administrators they are. If you were to research the background of Morten and Barlow, you will find no government experience, yet they voted themselves in as “commissioners”. You won’t even find that they served on a city board or committee.

You will hear Bill Eagle speak. You will hear other people who claim to know what’s happening. They DO NOT KNOW the details. Sally Gump and Kim Bauer have done their research. They have done extensive reading and listening. They have both seen the Council at work, especially Morten and Barlow.

If you care about your town, you will RECALL DOUG MORTEN AND PHIL BARLOW and you will NOT RE-ELECT KEITH LOCKE OR CHARLES GRANT! Randy Peterson has been a sound mind on the City Council for many years, as was Don Kallberg, Ron Youngberg, Jim Huff and many others before them. The City needs leaders that can lead not try to own the City.

City employees, business owners, and many leaders in this community are afraid to sign a recall petition for fear that retaliation may come in many forms. These same people who work very, very hard to make St. Helens a nice community to live in, fear that speaking up against Morten and Barlow will cause them to lose their job, lose their business or lose “something” by speaking out.

Isn’t it obvious what Morten and Barlow are like? They are suing Sally Gump for exercising her American right to recall elected officials. YES, THAT’S WHAT I SAID! SUING A CITIZEN FOR EXERCISING THEIR RIGHT TO RECALL!!! AND threatening to sue every person who supports it. It’s absolutely ludicrous. It’s just a circus with buffoons. And what a joke…they want to meet with Sally Gump and her “people” to mediate. Mediate what??? The facts are the facts. They don’t belong in office.