Vote for Astoria

Okay, the Astoria May 15 elections are upon us. At stake are the fate of the Clatsop Community College and the makeup of the Port of Astoria Commissioners.

Of course, my bone of contention is the LNG issue. Naturally, I am only interestd in voting for people who are firmly and unequivocably AGAINST any LNG on the Columbia River. And the issue is being utterly ignored in this port race ... you know, the brontosaurus in the living room that's crapping on the floor and eating the wallpaper. Everyone sees it, hears it, and smells it, but nobody talks about it.

So I voted by inference. For example, I know Peter Huhtala is anti-LNG from his running for the port commission last time around. He endorsed Kathy Sanders in a letter to the editor at the Daily Astorian. So okay, that's good enough for me, I voted for her even though he didn't say a goddam thing about LNG in his letter.

I already know about Patrick McGee ... he's written lots of letters to the editor about LNG, and I KNOW where he stands. And I'm right there with him. He got my vote without even a nanosecond of hesitation.

The Bill Hunsinger/Jim Bergeron boondoggle ... what can I say? Bergeron is old guard, and he's automatically on my shit list just for that. But Hunsinger? He came into my tent hustling votes while I was vending my photos at a cruise ship down on the docks. I asked him FLAT OUT what his position was on LNG.

He gave me some utter crapola about "we have to know more before we can make a decision." Huh? Gee, what more is needed to know besides eyesore tanks destroying the view, total disruption of river traffic and behemoth floating terrorist targets trundling up and down the river with armed guards? It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that LNG is some seriously bad and ugly shit.

He did admit though, that MAYBE putting LNG tanks on the Skipanon Peninsula isn't such a good idea. Do tell.

Okay, okay, I admit it, I did vote for him. But it was ever so reluctantly, and amounted to the choice of what may or may not be the lesser of two evils.

And off the subject of the election, but on the subject of LNG, I was very amused to find that Mary Louise Flavel rented office space to the cheery Bradwood Landing folks who want to bring us better living through gas pipelines and habitat destruction. I just KNOW she's giggling all the way to the bank, and probably happily dreaming of Astoria being blown up in a firestorm.

Anyway, back to the election ... that goddam college bond. Some people just don't know when no means NO. This bond is the hustle from hell. That's some prime real estate up on that hill - maybe the best in town. Sure would be a tasty treat for some greedy developer, wouldn't it? So if the college would just get the hell out of there so everyone can cash in, everything would be just peachy, wouldn't it?

One word succinctly describes the Clatsop Community College bond: bullshit.

I honestly don't know whether to laugh or cry. They want us all to cough up our hard-earned money for 21 years (and ??? more) to pay off a bond to put a college in a tsunami zone. Oh please!!

So it's another no-brainer for the CCC bond: Just fix the damn thing already, and shut the hell up.

Our ballots are signed and mailed. Are yours?

Click here to see Elleda's photography at the Astoria Photografpix web site