The city has tended to puzzle me in certain ways.  It is oft cited as a national Model for how to get a few things done, so any number of people from other cities come down to discover that… it has its good points and its bad, and you can work with that however you may.

The upshoot is that the economy is perpetually soft enough that there are always empty store-fronts around.  I imagine it is a problem which is worse in any number of other cities, and in a sense it may not really be much of a problem at all.  But the thing you can do every year, and particularly every two years, and every four years, is take note of them before the election season comes — because these are the fronts that will be rented out by election campaigns as the temporary offices to be abandoned once the election flies by.

So I pass by the Sho Dozono campaign, a flood of signs with the “For Rent” sign still up.  (Perhaps it should remain so because it will be back for rent by December.)  I know where the two Attorney General candidates are set up.  Also up is Hillary Clinton’s place — signs plastered, but… I have yet to see a single soul linger in there.  Maybe she can just keep it up as a facade for a campaign that is going nowhere (the demographics tip Obama’s way) — who knows?

Back in 2000, in a college class alongside an individual (overweight film buff, 10 years older than I, single father) where we were looking at various war propaganda through various wars.  At one point, he looked down at a cartoon and said “Wow.  Gooks.  There’s a term hasn’t been used since Vietnam.”

I looked at him, and said, “Actually John McCain referred to how he hated ‘Gooks.'”

He shook his head.  “No.  There is no way an American politician in the year 2000 could possibly say ‘Gooks’.”

I smiled and shrugged.  “Well, he did.”

“No.  That would pretty much be the end of any politician’s career.”

I sighed, and said, “Well.  Part of his ‘No Nonsense’ ‘Straight Talk express.  He did.”  I knew he did, I knew how he spinned out of it (half understandably, half not), and I knew that there was no real point in arguring when I was right and he was wrong, except if I wanted to just going ahead and printing out the story about the controversy.

I never did get around to that.  And I am not quite sure what the refusal to acknowledge the possibility that he said something he did says about him, explifier of part of the electorate off on the fringes of either voting or not voting.

Looking over the Portland Mayorial race, and as imperfect as it is I will take a look at the wikipedia articles on candidates Sho Dozono and Sam Adams to help guide a decision.

In 1976, Dozono joined his father-in-law’s business Azumano Travel. He became president in 1981, and owner in 1987. Dozono and his wife Loen have five children.^[2] In 2002 Dozona was awarded the ASTA’s 2002 Travel Agent of the Year Award at the Society’s World Travel Congress to honor his work in rebuilding the travel industry following September 11 attacks.^[3]

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Dozono organized the “Flight for Freedom”, a group of Oregonians who flew to New York City in response to Mayor Rudy Giuliani‘s plea to keep the city’s tourist economy afloat.^[4] The trip was led by then-Mayor of Portland Vera Katz, and participants reportedly ranged from 800^[4] to over 1000^[5], far beyond Dozono’s expectation of 200.^[4] Similar “Flight of Friendship” trips were organized to Thailand following the 2004 tsunami^[6] and to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.^[7]

Dozono has not previously held public office of any kind. As a prominent member of the Portland business community, Dozono is running on a platform of fiscal responsibility.^[8] On social issues, Dozono has professed to hold progressive values,^[8] and has numerous civic awards and achievements.^[2] Current Portland mayor Tom Potter has endorsed Dozono’s candidacy, as well as former mayor, Vera Katz.^[9]

^{Impressive credentials, befitting the task of Portland’s Mayor.  But take a look at Sam Adams’s credentials!}

Samuel Adams (September 27 [O.S. September 16] 1722^[2] – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, politician, writer and political philosopher, brewer, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.^[3] Adams was instrumental in garnering the support of the colonies for rebellion against Great Britain, eventually resulting in the American Revolution, and was also one of the key architects of the principles of American republicanism that shaped American political culture.

Adams established himself as one of the voices of opposition to British control in the colonies; he argued that the colonies should withdraw from Great Britain and form a new government.^[4] Adams called for the colonists to defend their rights and liberties, and led town meetings in which he drafted written protests against Parliament‘s colonial tax measures such as the Stamp Act of 1765. Adams played a prominent role during protests against the Stamp Act, and in the events of the Boston Tea Party in 1773. He participated in the Continental Congress.^[5] He also advocated the adoption of the Declaration of Independence at the Second Continental Congress.

After the United States declared its independence in 1776, Adams helped write the Massachusetts Constitution with John Adams, his second cousin, and James Bowdoin.^[6] Afterwards, Adams helped draft the Articles of Confederation.^[7] Following the end of the American Revolutionary War, he ran for the House of Representatives in the 1st United States Congressional election, but was unsuccessful in his bid. He was elected Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 1789,^[8] and after John Hancock‘s death in 1793, Adams served as the acting governor until he was elected governor in January of the following year.^[9]

Sorry Sho Dozono, nothing wrong with you, but looking at these two candidates, it is crystal clear that Sam Adams — Revolutionary Founding Father of the United States — has the more impressive credentials.  In fact, Portland can look forward to a New Golden Age with Revolutionary Era Founding Father Sam Adams leading our city’s government, and the Norse God of Poetry and War holding down the Middle for our city’s professional basketball team.

The following letter was published in the Oregonian the other day:

Carmen, not Candy’s Room

Bruce Springsteen’s band member tells us that it is a rush to him to “turn your guitar amp up to 11 and scream and shout and be presenting amazing music.” Amazing to me that anyone older than a demented 6-year-old can call that racket “music.” True, my standards are high, as they are generated by the Metropolitan Opera. But the reaction to the Springsteen noise proves the truth of the old adage that “some people grow up, others just grow old.”

ROBERT E. VANDERZANDEN Woodburn

Seems to be an obnoxious high-brow.  I myself would start listening to Opera, but I fear that everyone will just assume that it is a contrived taste, an attempt to Impress.  Anyway, someone actually responded to this letter, as such.  The Friday letters are not in the Oregonian online cache, but the money line was something to the effect of “If Opera is so great and Springsteen so crummy, why must one be subsidized and the other cost $80?”  Another a-hole.

Maybe I would respond, but for the life of me I wouldn’t know whether to attack Carmen and Springsteen or praise them.  Maybe I could try to rise myself above them both and claim disdain as the highest of high-brows, or could mold myself into even more the common clay on the other end of the spectrum — like, I’m more into Larry the Cable Guy  GITERDUN… (ugh).

Some Chinese, along with a smattering of “Free Tibet” — um — hippies of a somewhat strong bent to them (the type that might have real trail mix with rocks included in them.  I mention this because I saw a few frighten some MAX riders.) [Not that there’s anything wrong with it] — regularly protest the Bejing Olympics at Pioneer Square and across the street, calling on us all to boycott due to the atrocious human rights record of China.

I agree.  I will categorically state right here and now that I will not be competing in the 2008 Bejing Olympic Games.

Interesting new item:

“Time to Break The America up into Smaller Countries.”

That is, of course, a call to action for all the secessionist movements, including Cascadia, to proceed.  Either that or that project from the mind of Thomas Jefferson — near the end of his life as he was becoming quite the radical — where a community extends no more than 30 miles, or something to that effect.  (I’ll look that one up later.)

Should I even bother with this one? 

I still owe you that quarter. You should have bugged me at the shop and I would have paid you.

The absurdity of this, and how I will tend to view it as simply a matter of the economics of DIY ventures, is that I sent $6 for the five mini-comics, one dollar for each and one dollar prescribed for posting.  The mini-comics were each priced at 75 cents, which was the price I would see them at at Fallout Comics in Seattle for the next couple of years.  This would, at least in theory, bring the sum available for postage with this purchase to $2.25, evidentally 52 cents would be required for postage, and 29 cents of which Shannon Wheeler paid.

At this point, I believe Shannon Wheeler was just then transitioning to a stage where his income could come entirely from his art.  “Adhesive Comics” was still a collaborative effort full of a handful of comic books that I never really saw anywhere — fall into the dustbin of comics history, and he would buy the whole thing out the next year, leaving it as purely a vehicle for “Too Much Coffee Man”.  I assume that the roughly $2 helped  tide over the printing costs of the mini-comic until they would eventually earn a minor profit, by which time his character was appearing in a Converse commercial.  Now that I think about it, I do wonder if anyone else received something from Shannon Wheeler at this time period “Postage Due”.

But my mother handing me that envelope and asking me for a quarter is a far cry from everyone planning their retirement based upon their stock in  Bear Stearns.

So, Shannon Wheeler and This Guy , along with who I assume was German White Chocolate Girl with Almond, were performing at my regular coffee-house this morning for the benefit of Fox Channel 12 news promotional filler.  And I remembered why I became sick of the whole enterprise about a decade ago.

I should not be so mean.  It is just that the absurdist observational humor, from watching the enactments of the three scenes, tended to degenerate into that one joke singing about caffeine addiction, and I can’t say I really need to see that.  Also I half wanted to strangle the News – caster for 12, but end up having to shrug it off as a necessary promotional item.  In the end one offers Shannon Wheeler the best of luck, and forgives him the quarter he owes me.   (He is the fourth most famous person to have commented on this blog — that’s worth that quarter, right?)   He’s come aways in 15 years, I suppose.

The man in the red costume did smile directly at me, which was welcome because otherwise I was stuck looking at the red flap over his butt.

The other day The Oregonian — a slender paper indeed, Section A being all of eight pages — had a certain “pleasant” aura to it.  It was “Pleasant News day”.  By this I refer to their inclusion of two feel good stories, one involving the Tallest Man in the World, and how after being cited as the tallest man in the world by the Book of World Records, his life had become more pleasant as all manners of people threw in their lot and helped with the difficulties alloted by being so tall.

And the other item picked out from the wires.  Bhutan held elections for the first time ever, at the behest of their beloved king who wished to lead the nation into a semblence of modernity.  Held somewhat against their will, they naturally “Royalists” who wished to continue the latest of their beloved King’s 5 Year Plan, and the nation enjoys a higher quality of living than does their neighboring nations of poverty stricken Nepal and India, one of the reasons they are circumspect about giving up a benevelant monarchy in favor of Democratic elections.  All very … pleasant.

Looking for the article online, I do note one of the cut-off points takes us to this:

But this dedication to preserving Bhutanese culture has a darker side.

More than 100,000 ethnic Nepalis — a Hindu minority — were forced out in the early 1990s and have been living as refugees in eastern Nepal.

Bhutan says most left voluntarily, and refugee rebel groups have set off at least nine small bomb blasts this year in an effort to disrupt the election, killing one person. Bhutan sealed its borders Sunday to head off more attacks and said it will not reopen them until after the vote.

Well, you can’t win in any Pleasantville, I suppose.

Meh.

Hmmm.  No.  Meh.

And.  Meh.