Expect more dire warnings in the months to come regarding air pollution,  and expect to hear more exhortations not to drive.  Unlike global warming, this is actually a man-made event in the offing in the Portland metropolitan area, as the next stages of the light rail construction that voters twice declined gets underway.  The "planners" know better than the voters, and so they came up with some nifty work-arounds that allow them to build more stuff that we don't want.

Construction has begun along the I-205 freeway, which unfortunately means that traffic lanes are being reduced.  Ditto for downtown Portland.  The result, of course, will be increased traffic congestion along these routes, which means that more vehicles will be subjected to low speed or stop-and-go scenarios.  Just what the "planners" want to see.  After all, vehicles that travel at normal speeds emit far less pollutants into the air, and so by creating these bottlenecks, the "planners" can "encourage" you to drive less because driving is going to be causing increased pollution.  They won't bother to mention that its not your fault - it's theirs.

Fed up with the Republican party?  Why not just vote Mrs. Bill Clinton in?  Well, maybe because most folks realize that she just doesn't have any of the attributes that they want to see in a leader.  Granted, Bush has been a huge disappointment on many levels, but that doesn't mean we can't do worse - and a recent Time poll indicates that Mrs. Clinton may already have hit her zenith.  As noted previously in a discussion of Ron Saxton's run for the Oregon governorship: name recognition isn't always a good thing.  Sure enough, Saxton was torpedoed by his own name recognition: people knew the name; they just didn't much like what they had come to associate with that name.  Mrs. Bill Clinton suffers much the same fallout from her widespread name recognition: we know the name; we just don't much care for the baggage.  People have already made up their minds about her - they either love her or they really don't like her all that much.  Given that, it's unlikely that she'll be able to gain much traction in the coming months.