Let’s get this part straight: Being in this country without “proper” documents is not illegal. If you want something allegorical, think of someone stopped by the cops with a bag full of twenty-dollar bills — and up the street, a bank has been robbed. That person is not guilty of anything; he can be accused of a crime, but he’s not guilty until he admits it or is convicted in court. He could be innocent, after all; he could have picked up the bag of loot that the actual robber dropped when he heard the police sirens. He could have robbed a different bank. We don’t know, so he’s not guilty.

Had he been caught in mid-robbery, then we could say “He’s a robber” with almost no doubt. And if...Read the rest

I started this blog in 2009 after realizing that my name, T.A. Barnhart, had become a brand. Not exactly on a par with "Apple" or "McDonalds" but, within the tiny universe that is Oregon progressive politics, people knew me, knew what I stood for, and knew that I was someone who worked hard for progressive causes. Even when my view of the world or an issue differed from other peoples, my views were respected. Usually. So I started a blog, added a Facebook page, spent the 2011 Legislative session in Salem doing video reports, and generally doing very little to promote and grow this blog.

That changes today. Political writing in Oregon is split between the newspapers, which lack the resources to be more than generalized sources of sensationalized headlines...Read the rest