Coquille, alas, seems to be inhabited by a group, small perhaps, but a group nonetheless of very thin skinned individuals. Perhaps it is a genetic mutation but in keeping with the nature of such anomalies as those suffering from this inherent weakness they seek out others of their kind and band together with other members of their species for protection into, well, you know a group, a hive, a band or even a club.

These thin skinned people are recognizable for their unbridled willingness to hurl mud and sling poo at their perceived adversaries while immediately crying FOUL if a defense, particularly in the form of an offense is mounted.

Now, the former chief of police, Mike Reaves, has taken issue with Mayor Steve Britton going on offense in response to a letter written on behalf of the ex chief by a sitting city council member, Bruce Parker, accusing the mayor of being a criminal. The mayor volleyed back with a letter of his own and asserts unprofessional conduct by Reaves while he was chief. Granted, Reaves did not write the letter accusing Britton of being a criminal but then he never does his own fighting… he ALWAYS has someone else do it for him, in this case Parker.

Unable to take what they dished out Reaves and his wife employed George Derr, their lawyer who famously called Coquille citizens ‘unhappy unwashed‘ for disagreeing with Reaves, to write a ‘letter of intent’, (technically it should have been a ‘demand letter’) threatening to sue The Sentinel, the mayor and the City of Coquille, unless The Sentinel prints a letter of apology from Britton for 10 consecutive weeks!

Derr claims that Britton’s letter was published…

…with the intent to cause harm to Mike Reaves, his wife, Teresa, their children and their marriage.

Honestly, what do these people expect when they attack someone publicly? What was the intent of their attack? Surely, anyone expects if they shoot at someone that shots may be fired in return. How lame to cry foul when you fired the first salvo? Why fire the salvo if you can’t stomach being in the line of fire?

So what does The Sentinel and Mayor Steve Britton intend to do? Jean Ivey, editor of the paper decided that rather than throwing the letter in the trash, to instead have legal counsel write Derr to advise the Reaves to ‘put up or shut up’ and I received this email from Jean.

In case you are wondering why anyone would write a NOTICE OF INTENT TO SUE; no one would if they had grounds for a suit. If one has grounds, one just brings suit.
It is a guess on my part, but I believe Reaves is finding it much more difficult to be a bully now that he no longer has a badge.
Well, I’m ready to play…… Lets see what he’s got.
Jean Ivey

Ivey told me that she looks forward to the opportunity to prove to the Reaves’ that it is ‘much harder to be a bully without a badge’.

Mayor Britton had similar sentiments and told me, rather gleefully that he is, ‘grateful to the Reaves’ for providing the opportunity to publicly prove my statements’.

Really, what a colossal, whiny assed pussy Reaves is! More importantly, why didn’t O’Connor ever discipline Reaves for mishandling the firing of at least one officer amongst many other things, not to mention fire him? O’Connor never put the best interests of the city first.

Whether the Reaves will take the challenge is yet to be known but for the sake of the paper and our mayor, and having experienced the drudge and drear of a recent pointless and harassing lawsuit I hope the Reaves think better about it. Although, as a people watcher sitting in the people watcher stands with my people watcher mint julep in hand, watching the entire community air the Reaves legacy laundry and THE THIN SKINNED CLUB dumpster diving and pawing through trash looking desperately, DESPERATELY, for anything they can spin to their advantage, may have some serious entertainment potential…. for those of us suffering from Post Election Stress Disorder.

We will see how this plays out…

As warned in an earlier post, Councilor Bruce Parker’s letter to the editor two weeks ago has opened the door for some angry retaliation by disgruntled citizens. Tomorrow’s Sentinel will have a letter casting back some of the dirt flung by Reaves, (or his proxies rather, since he doesn’t seem to do his own flinging), highlighting several past indiscretions of the former chief. An excerpt is printed below

Honorable men do not require their officers to rescue them from embarrassing and adulterous situations. Honorable men do not step into a new position and immediately confiscate all monies and materials from a recognized, community supported (and self supporting) organization as he did with the Reserves. An honorable man would not be suspected of intimate relations with a female employee…..

The writer goes on at length and makes reference to several issues that I am currently investigating. If only half of the claims made in this letter are accurate it only begs the question why has O’Connor continuously allowed friendship to get in the way of the public good? Why has he repeatedly kept things from the very public who pay his salary?

Additionally, I spoke with Keizer Police Chief, Marc Adams today who confirmed that he graduated from the police academy with Steve Britton, December, 1979. “Steve is a great guy,” he said. Britton does not have access to his original graduation certificate at the moment but has offered some of his achievement awards during his law enforcement career
Sobriety testing
Basic marine theft investigation
Marine safety and law enforcement

Lastly, it appears that the same erstwhile Sentinel reporter who has long been a stenographer for the parting police chief and his policies is now taking a shot at councilor candidate, Dian Courtright on his blog. He has provided an audio recording taken from his voice mail whereby Dian had to cancel an interview. Apparently he believes, inexplicably, that Dian would deny canceling the interview. Why else go to the bother of posting the recording? What was the point?

I have spoken with Dian and she freely acknowledges she had a change in plans. She may well be glad she did as I spoke with Mayor Britton who advised me that based upon the way this blogger has handled the mayoral race, never again will Britton grant him an interview.

Thankfully, Dian avoided being corralled by the biased editorializing of this amateur blogger and hopefully will restrict her interviews to established and legitimate news media.

Well, well, well, the answer to how Michael Reaves, tight lipped, insolent and uncommunicative obtained 20 signatures on the nominating petition for mayor is, that HE didn’t. Ann Parker, wife of Bruce Parker, twice defeated in the race for mayor, did it for him. Does she intend to listen to citizen commentary as well? Will she act as liaison between the ‘hairy unwashed’, the ‘malcontents’ as her husband calls them, and his eminence should he be elected?

This is where it gets fun. Lets all sit on the bleachers, sip mint juleps and do some serious people watching between now and November, it could get interesting.

Three lines in a circle have come to be synonymous with the ‘peace movement’.

The peace symbol became a hieroglyphic superstar because of its simplicity and adaptability, says Ken Kolsbun, co-author of the new book “Peace: The Biography of a Symbol.” The symbol can be rendered in a few strokes, even by the least artistically gifted, he points out. What’s more, the symbol has never been trademarked…

Locally, peace or the ‘peace symbol’ it is hard to tell which has come under fire. Some residents have objected to Dian’s peace signs in her Adams St apartment window, ( though no objections have been made to the dumpster sitting on Adams Street that we have heard of ). What is so objectionable about peace in Coquille? What is so tolerable about trash?

More importantly, why do Coquillians believe they can deny the 1st Amendment rights of another citizen? Is Coquille afraid that visitors to the city might leave if peace is espoused? Are Coquille values antithetical to peace? Would an “I Heart CPD” sign be acceptable?

This week’s Sentinel is filled with letters expressing their outrage at Councilman Parker’s outburst and supporting the paper’s still open forum. One of the best letters, written by Jo Teel and Colleen Luckman, challenges Parker’s claim that he is doing his ‘duty’ –

It is not the “duty” of elected officials in any government to use a public meeting to vent their personal feelings, propose their own agendas, or initiate their own vendetta against any single person or business that is part of their constituency. It is not the “duty” of any elected official in any city government to attempt to censure any viable community voice, or influence the financial situation of any entity within their community.

Mr Parker’s values were his campaign fodder. The election has been decided, the seat has been won. Our city council memebers need to hear the voice of their constituents, whether it be in a meeting, a newspaper, or on the street. As elected officials, that is their “duty”. Their personal opinions and values should no longer be the priority. It is the community who elected them, and the community which they must serve.

Parker’s definition of values was not the only point of contention. Another letter from Eldon Rollins questions the councilman’s use of the term ‘out of towner’ and notes that Diane and Donell at the Sentinel are natives while -

Mr Parker, on the other hand, arrived here from Sacramento, which is world famous for its Colloquium on Coquille Values, and I’m sure Mr Parker immersed himself in all the available literature and picked the minds of the Sacramento Valley’s leading experts on the values of Cquille before moving here…

…I would like to think that treating recent arrivals to the area fairly is a Coquille Value.
In fact every so often for better or worse, we see fit to elect them to the City Council and sometimes we even make them our City Manager and our Police Chiief.

Touché all of you!

The erosion of our civil rights continues despite a democratic majority in both the House and Senate. Domestic spying long villified by civil rights activists and constitutional scholars as a violation of the Fourth Amendment is back in the news. At issue is the added authority to search and even seize business records all without court approval. From the NY Times –

Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congress this month could allow the Bush administration to conduct spy operations that go well beyond wiretapping to include — without court approval — certain types of physical searches on American soil and the collection of Americans’ business records, Democratic Congressional officials and other experts said.

Administration officials acknowledged that they had heard such concerns from Democrats in Congress recently, and that there was a continuing debate over the meaning of the legislative language. But they said the Democrats were simply raising theoretical questions based on a harsh interpretation of the legislation.

Meanwhile, Matthew Rothschild, editor of Progressive Magazine has been interviewed over at TruthDig.

Rothschild, … author of “You Have No Rights,” explains how our president became a “medieval king,” and why your civil liberties are in greater danger than ever.

Along the lines of the First Amendment, that infamous freedom of speech right that Coquille Councilman Bruce Parker objects to, our civil liberties are being selectively violated across the nation whenever Bush or Cheney are around.

Scheer: People talk about—you know, Bush has talked about this so many times—“They hate us for our freedom.” That was a line used long ago. People talk about, “Visit the free country, the free country, the free country.” Why don’t people realize that when you take away the Constitution, even the parts you dislike, you’re really hurting the freedom? Or is that just a word that’s being bantered around, like any kind of spin?

Rothschild: I wish more people in this country would really revere the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, the Fifth Amendment, the Sixth Amendment and the Eighth Amendment. But Cheney and Bush themselves are intolerant of the freedoms that are enshrined in our Bill of Rights. In my book, “You Have No Rights,” I tell the story of a guy named Steve Howards who was walking through Beaver Creek, Colo., an open-air mall there and, of all people, Dick Cheney is there, shaking hands. And Steve Howards goes up to the vice president, about three feet away, and says, “Mr. Vice President, I think your policy in Iraq is reprehensible.” … And then he walked away. But the Secret Service approached him 10 minutes later and said, “Did you assault the vice president of the United States?” And Steve Howards said, “No, I was just expressing my First Amendment rights.” And they responded, “No, you assaulted the vice president of the United States. You’re under arrest.”

It gets even worse, there is an operational manual that directs Secret Service to violate our First Amendment rights

There’s actually a White House manual that came out as a consequence of a couple of the people I profile in this book suing the White House and suing the Secret Service. The White House manual from the advance team of the White House tells people at the White House, when the president and the vice president go out somewhere, that they should be shielded from protests, that the advance team should do everything possible to keep the protesters out of earshot and eyesight of the president and vice president. If that doesn’t succeed, the advance team should get together a rally squad…

Further along the lines of the First Amendment is this article regarding a ‘freeway blogger’ at The Progressive.

Here in Coquille we have a sitting city council member actually boycotting a local paper for allowing people to exercise their First Amendment right! Flex your rights people or they will soon be gone.

UPDATE: It is getting worse every day. Man In “Liberal” Asheville Arrested For Holding “Impeach” Sign
(hat tip excuuuuuuse me!)