It looks like Portlanders will need to continue their hour-long drive out to Spirit Mountain in order to throw away retirement funds, savings accounts, and milk money. Our Governor Kulongowski did not approve Portland’s plan of allowing the Grand Ronde tribe to build a casino in town in exchange for some hundreds of millions of dollars for a baseball stadium. I am somewhat mixed on this issue. In theory it seems a fine idea.

In a surprising turn of events, internet searches for war have outnumbered searches for sex, though I can’t say that they surpass the combination of all mispellings of Britney. That’s reported in England, but I’m sure that American thirst for knowledge is comparable.

In light of all the nastiness we’ve been hearing about Oregon, the schools, the economy, the infighting, timber, power, baseball, gambling, and such, I was really happy to see this article, in which the Senate put the (at least for-now) smackdown on GWB’s energy/budget plan to drill pristine Alaska. The article tells us that Gordon Smith cast one of the key votes to shift the win over to the powers of good.

This one snuck up on me. Apparently Iran wants in on the nukes game as well. I don’t know what to think, with Ari justifying our accusations with reasons like “After all, Iran has been in possession of a great amount of energy of a non-nuclear nature as a result of their gas and oil supplies,” he said. “There is no economic justification for this, and it does remain a matter of great concern.

Finally got off my butt and put the beerdrinker.org gallery up after the migration. Check out some photos. If you want an accout to put up some pics, let me know, I’ll set you up.

This guy really kicks butt. Vermont governor Howard Dean, speaks well, actually says stuff, and believes in some important issues, such as reproductive rights, preserving the environment, sensible foreign policy, and well though-out education policies. And he says things like, “Another example of the Administration’s ineptness is on the Korean Peninsula, where U.S. policy has been incoherent, inconsistent and dangerously disengaged.” If there’s anybody out there to restore hope in the Democratic Party, it going to be someone like Gov.

We are pretty certainly going to war very soon. Saddam has blatantly refused to do any disarming per GWB’s requests entirely whatsoever and the weapons inspectors are over there with their abacus counting the number of nukes in Iraq because they’ve run out of fingers and toes, so it’s perfectly reasonable that we demolish their sorry asses, and hopefully take a pretty good chunk of their culture and history with them, not to mention a pretty good haul of oil.

Perhaps it will stay beautiful as I journey to the Oregon Coast in search of Jack’s blue plastic beach decorations. Wish me luck, back tomorrow sometime.

I picked this pint up at New Seasons on the top shelf, where the spendy beers and the larger singles live. Not that it was that spendy. Being Friday in Portland, I’ll likely be hitting the pub sometime after I write this review. So, in New Seasons (it’s our locally-owned groovy high-end supermarket. Good place, good meat, pretty good beer selection) I’m checking out the fancy beers, and I see that Lagunitas has a new flavor.