Documented

 There is a very strange thing happening in the Cowlitz County political Facebook circus right now. Apparently, if one Facebook page gets worked up about something, another Facebook page is required to jump into the fray and express the appropriate amount of outrage. Apparently, Facebook now has mandatory participation requirements. Cowlitz County News has repeatedly demanded to know why Longview Resistance isn't responding to allegations involving Terry Carlson. The argument is essentially, “Why aren't they calling this out? Why aren't they as upset as we are?” That isn't an argument. It is a collection of logical fallacies dressed up as accountability. The first problem is that there are several different logical fallacies being piled on top of one another: Tu quoque, or the hypocrisy fallacy: “You criticized something else, so why aren't you criticizing this?” Whether Longview Resistance has been consistent in every situation has nothing to do with whether...

 Cowlitz County News is pretty worked up because the Longview School Board voted to have taxpayers cover legal expenses connected to the recall effort. Their post makes a big deal about taxpayer money being used for legal bills and questions why the school board members don't simply resign. I have absolutely no problem with taxpayers questioning whether public money should be used this way. Taxpayers have every right to ask where their money is going. What I have a problem with is the selective outrage. Let's talk about Spencer Boudreau, Erik Halvorson, Kalei LaFave and Keith Young. Those four Longview council members were sued over alleged violations of the Open Public Meetings Act in connection with allegations that they had communicated outside public meetings regarding the firing of City Manager Kris Swanson. They denied the allegations. When their insurance company refused to cover their defense, the City of Longview stepped in and paid for their attorneys. The four coun...

 There is something deeply hypocritical about watching Cowlitz County News turn the protection of children into the centerpiece of its attack on Susan Donahue while apparently having nothing to say about documented school records involving Joel McEntire. If protecting children is truly the issue, then the standard should not change depending on who is being discussed. That is the problem that the general public should be aware of. CCN Has Made Susan Donahue's Case About Protecting Children Cowlitz County News has repeatedly highlighted its allegations against Susan Donahue, presenting the matter as a failure to protect children and a failure to follow mandatory reporting requirements. The material CCN has published focuses heavily on the February 5 timeline. According to the documents displayed by CCN, Donahue received an allegation involving students, forwarded the information internally to the board president and superintendent, and was not identified in the police chronology ...

  How Did We Get Here? I never thought I would live to see the day when a block of Tillamook cheddar became a culture-war battlefield, but here we are. Apparently, some people have discovered that certain Tillamook cheeses carry a halal certification, and the internet has collectively lost whatever remaining grip it had on reality. Before anybody starts throwing cheese at their television, let's talk about what halal actually means. Halal is simply the Islamic term for something that is permissible under Islamic dietary rules. Kosher is the Jewish dietary system governing what foods are considered fit or acceptable under Jewish law. They are different systems with different rules, but there is considerable overlap. Pork is prohibited under both. Blood is prohibited under both. There are rules governing meat and how animals are slaughtered, along with requirements concerning certain ingredients. There is nothing particularly sinister about any of this. Wait...This Isn't New! In ...

 There is something that needs to be said about the latest round of commentary coming from Cowlitz County News regarding the Longview School Board and the sexual-assault allegations involving students at Mark Morris High School. This is a serious situation involving kids, and it deserves serious discussion, facts, documentation and accountability. What it does not deserve is to be turned into another Facebook political circus where suddenly everything is about “leftists,” Democrats and mysterious “spam bots.” Let's start with the spam-bot claim, because that one deserves some scrutiny. CCN is claiming that after posting about the potential recall of the Longview School Board, it was suddenly attacked by “spam bots.” According to CCN, it had to remove fake accounts, contact Meta and deal with reports that the post was “Fake News and Spam.” Here's the problem: where is the evidence that they were spam bots? CCN has shown no screenshots of these supposed bots. No list of accou...