Thursday, June 8, 2017

An odd day in Oregon politics

This morning, Clackamas County passed an Inclusivity Resolution. This is a great step forward.

The Ethnic Studies in K-12 education bill passed the Oregon House of Representatives today. Another step forward!

Help is still needed on getting the Cover All Kids bills (HB 2726 & SB 558) passed.

The racists continue to push IP 22.This is an attempt to repeal Oregon's 30-year-old inclusivity law (ORS 181A.820), which prohibits the use of state and local resources to enforce federal immigration law. IP 22 is the product of white nationalist and racist thinking. Sign the pledge to oppose IP 22 at http://bit.ly/2rLVYyP.

These same racists showed up at the hearing on HB 3464 today and went off on several rants, giving what were at best novel interpretations of the law. HB 3464 prohibits public bodies from disclosing specified information concerning people unless required by state or federal law. The bill is a logical step in Oregon's inclusivity, sanctuary and immigrant rights efforts.

The racists clearly missed the e-mail on decorum at legislative hearings: being shrill, shouting, exaggerating, going off topic, accusing every legislator of bad faith and criminal behavior, ignoring facts, and open displays of racism won't move many legislators, though Mike Nearman may be the exception to the rule.

The Oregonian broke the story that reactionary Representative Mike Nearman (R-Independence) has on his payroll a person who has been charged with illegally transferring a gun to Matthew Heagy, the convicted felon who was arrested at the March 25 protests at the State Capitol. Police say that Heagy pepper sprayed a state trooper and was found to have a concealed firearm. Angela Roman, Nearman's policy analyst, is facing one year in jail if she is convicted of transferring the gun. Nearman blew off the matter by telling the Oregonian, "That case involves something that happened on her own time so that's between her and law enforcement." The question arises if there isn't more going on: do ranking Republicans use middle people to pass on weapons to criminal fascists and provide other soft support for them?

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