[NYTr] Oregon Senator Wyden Hears from War's Foes

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by MichaelP - Jan 7, 2007

KTVZ.COM
http://www.ktvz.com/Global/story.asp?S=7585610

Wyden hears from war's foes in Madras

Senator vows to keep fighting for timber payments

By Amy Easley

Dozens  of Jefferson County residents took time out of their Sunday to
hit the winter-slick  roads and attend a town hall session with Sen.
Ron Wyden, D-Ore.,  to  voice  concerns and hear his views on issues
ranging from crime and the economy to health care, the war in Iraq and
county timber payments.

Wyden,  who  also held a Prineville town hall Sunday and travels to La
Pine  on Monday, paid a traditional January visit to Central Oregon as
part  of  his promise to hold town hall meetngs in each Oregon county,
every year.

People filled the Jefferson County Rural Fire District fire station on
South Adams Drive, anxious to raise their concerns with the senator.

"I  would  say  the  crime,  the  meth," said Linda Johnson of Madras.
"And the parents getting involved."

"I  want  the  troops  to  get  home now," said Frances Davis, another
Madras resident.  "There's no point in being there. It's not a viable
object any longer."

And  she's  not  the  only one expressing that view. Several people at
Sunday's meeting said they felt too much money has been spent on a war
that's  gone  on too  long and never should have started in the first
place.

One  person  went  as  far  as asking Wyden if it would be possible to
impeach President  Bush  and  Vice President Cheney on charges of war
crimes. But  the senator  kept  the  focus on getting our troops home
safely.

"I  feel  very strongly about both supporting our troops," Wyden said,
"but also making it very clear that they are not going to permanently
referee a civil war in Iraq."

Another  big  topic in Madras Sunday, to no one's surprise, was county
timber payments. Oregon's congressional delegation attached almost $2
billion  for extending those payments to a big energy bill last year,
hoping   to   avoid deep  cuts  in  funding  for  rural  schools  and
governments. But the four-year extension of the so-called "safety net"
died on Capitol Hill late last month.

Wyden  told  me getting that money for Oregon is his top priority this
year.

"I'm going to force the Senate to vote again and again and again until
we get that measure passed," he said.

"It's  so  important, and it seems to me that if you can find hundreds
of billions  of dollars to pay for the war in Iraq, you can make sure
that people in  rural  communities  in the West, and particularly in
Oregon get  a fair shake. And that's why I'm going to make the Senate
vote on this until we get it passed."

If  you  weren't  able to make one of Sunday's town meetings, he'll be
holding his  annual  meeting for Deschutes County at the La Pine High
School auditorium on Monday from 1:30-3 p.m.