Imagine that a U.S. citizen is arrested as a suspected terrorist, on U.S. soil, and then placed in military custody for as long as officials deem necessary.

Oh, and this citizen doesn’t get a trial, so the mere suspicion of complicity in promoting terrorism is sufficient grounds for an open-ended detention.

It sounds like the plot of a novel.

In fact it’s part of a bill that the U.S. Senate passed by a 93-7 vote on Dec. 1.

Greatest deliberative body in history, right?

Occupy: A force for good

To the editor:

A young woman named Katherine Ball, age 27, is an inspiring example of the Millennial Generation described by Lance Dickie in his op-ed (Nov. 30). I read of her in a recent article by Steve Duin about Occupy Portland in The Oregonian. Here’s some information.

Katherine and her cohorts are facing a future far less secure than the one I faced. At her age, I had a family and had started a relatively predictable career with a major corporation. Life was not perfect, but I had medical insurance, a retirement plan, a savings account, and I was debt-free. My, how times have changed.

5J weapons policy a mistake
To the editor:
It is obvious that the Baker 5J school district and board has sought to deceive the community by false statements and hypocritical reports. The Baker 5J newsletter stated, “Our original concern had nothing to do with guns.” Then why did the Baker 5J and board chair propose an illegal policy by the Oregon School Board Association (OSBA) that prohibited Concealed hand weapons licenses (CHL)?  They then approved the first out of three readings of the policy, not even knowing the law. The Baker 5J weapons work session came to the conclusion that “We did not know the law.” We agreed unanimously to go by state and federal Law and they stated, “teachers would not be restricted."

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, won’t allow any inmates to be executed on his watch. Kitzhaber, elected last November to his third term (and second stint), recently described Oregon’s death penalty system as “broken,” “inequitable” and “compromised.”

Those terms imply certain things about Oregon’s recent experience with capital punishment that, if true, would indeed be cause for citizens to worry.

“Inequitable” suggests that Oregon is executing minorities or some other specific group of death row inmates at a disproportionate rate.

“Broken” and “compromised” indicate that the state has perhaps had to free condemned inmates who were exonerated by DNA or some other indisputable evidence of innocence.

Yet none of these things is true.

I’m calling it the “Kitzhaber rule.”

And it goes this way: Giving public employees pay raises is a noble goal — so long as the governor is doling out the dollars.

Ignoring this edict is a perilous act.

One that can cost you your job, in fact.

Richard Lariviere, the soon-to-be-ex president of my alma mater, the University of Oregon — which makes him, I suppose, a lame duck Duck — can attest to the potential hazards if you defy the Kitzhaber rule.

The Oregon Board of Higher Education, after apparently taking a straw poll — thank goodness for the state’s strict public meetings law, right? — made its decision official Monday when it voted unanimously to terminate Lariviere’s contract. Lariviere, who was under contract until June 30, 2012, is out on Dec. 28.

Baker City Editorial Board

Some super committee, huh?

Rarely has an entity been so inaptly named as the 12-member bipartisan panel tasked with trimming at least $1.2 trillion from the federal budget over the next decade.

By Jayson Jacoby
Baker City Herald

Lampooning people for the predictions they proferred almost half a century ago isn’t exactly fair.
But it surely is fun.