I love postage stamps. Today I was out to buy some 23's, and I got this one. And, as intended, it prompted me to check out some wonderful history.

A friendly reader suggests that this blog's more left-leaning readers should not miss out on this important news source.

I'm not one to display my views on the bumper of my car. Lapel buttons are out, too. "Support Our Troops," "Bush Lied," yuck.

But sometimes, there's an issue that's worth saying something about. (Via Scratch and Sniff.)

When you want to blight a neighborhood with gigantic apartment towers, you say: "We've got all these new people moving to the city -- where else are we going to put them?"

When population experts show that the population of the city is actually declining, you say: "That can't be right -- look at all the apartment towers that are being built!"

Oh, man, it's been grouch, grouch, grouch on this blog lately. Time for some yuks. If you thought all the redneck jokes were worn out, you might get a kick out of these. I laughed, anyway.

"What's in a name? That which we call garbage by any other name would still smell."

That was an actual line in a play in which I performed in high school. A sweet young lady from one of the nearby girls' high schools -- Pat Kelly, I think it was -- delivered the line quite well. I believe it may have been in "Tom Jones." Anyway, I was reminded of that theatrical observation today when we got this in the mail:

It's the occasional garbage and recycling newsletter that we get from the City of Portland. This time around, they're alerting us to a rate increase for refuse hauling. Hey, with $60-a-barrel crude, you know that's coming.

So many newsletters from the city. You wonder how many millions of dollars a year we spend on these things. Jobs for the "creative class," I guess. ("Creative" in the sense of, can't spell "peek.") But what struck me most about this one was where it came from: the city's "Office of Sustainable Development." Is that what the sanitation department is called now?

I notice, too, that the Water Bureau has changed its return address to "Utilities," perhaps to try to make us all forget how badly the city has been running the one real utility that it already has. (Meanwhile, we get ready to spend billions to buy and "improve" another one. Cue "The Impossible Dream.")

Anyway, perhaps we should rename some other city bureaus, just to keep that lovin' feelin' goin' on. The Fire Bureau should rid itself of the negative connotation of its current name -- maybe "Office of Unscorched Living" would be better. The Transportation Office could go with something like "Freedom of Movement Corps." Elections is already "Voter-Owned," so that's taken care of. Environmental Services might be a toughie to re-moniker -- it's already so green-sounding -- but "Office of Feces-Free Fisheries (OFFF)" could have some potential. O.k., no it doesn't.

The planning and design gurus at Harvard are really something. First they give a grooviness award to the Portland streetcar (motto: "It only costs the city $1 million a year, and you can get there faster by walking"). Now comes news that they're having Randy Gragg -- the local urban renewal (or whatever that thing is) columnist that we love to hate -- back for a year as a Loeb fellow, to study "the intersection of media, civic participation and planning and urban design."

What's there to study? From his writings, I thought he knew more than anyone else about all that already.

No wonder he felt free to dis the search committee and finalists for the Portland Development Commission CEO post last weekend. Gragg himself's a short-timer, at least temporarily.

I'm going to try to lay off him for a while. It's a nice honor, and I wish him well at Harvard. Maybe Harvard will talk some sense into him. But I doubt it. More likely, he will go to lots of wine and cheese receptions with the rest of the "creative class" types and pick up some new catch phrases to repeat in Portland as if they were the gospel. All the sheep in the city will say, "Baaaa, Harvard, baaaa."

Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle. David Knowles isn't the new executive director of the Portland Development Commission -- Bruce Warner (right) is.

I had Warner as a 3-1 shot, with Knowles at even money. Warner, currently the director of the state Transportation Department, was not quite the consummate inside candidate, but as I've noted here before, he's not new to Portland-area bureacracy (or to some of the PDC's pet developers), having run Metro as chief operating officer for a while.

Anyway, Hizzoner the Mayor says he's down with Warner, and so until further notice, so shall we be. Here's hoping that he and the new commissioners get this sick puppy out of trouble quickly, and keep it there. Otherwise, I still say it's not an entirely frivolous proposition to fold the whole thing down into a regular city bureau. Whatever arguments were once made that independence would lead to quality at the PDC have since been proven, quite conclusively in my view, to have no merit.

Pending Warner's August 1 arrival, Judy Tuttle, formerly Mayor Vera Katz's chief of staff (after Sam Adams left that post), will fill in as interim executive director. Don Mazziotti's last day is tomorrow.

I remember when I first moved to Oregon, 27 years ago. Both our U.S. senators were moderate Republicans.

It's great to see that we're back to that.

The Oregonian frets a lot about its comics pages. Whenever it's thinking about replacing a comic strip, it goes into this extremely agitated state, in which the public editor and other bigwigs strut and cluck around trying not to upset the cranky old grandpa's whose favorite cartoons are about to be banished.

But some of the funniest material in the O isn't on the comics pages -- it's on the front page.

Take today's expose' on Portland Development Commission director Don Mazziotti's expense account. Man, that is some seriously funny stuff.

Here's a paper that isn't around when the state's U.S. senator is forcing his tongue down young women's throats in the elevators of the Capitol. The news organization that somehow misses the boat when the mayor of Portland is gettting it on with his staff member's 14-year-old daughter and reportedly fathering an illegitimate child or two with other women. The paper that still can't figure out that Frank Gable probably didn't kill Michael Francke. But even the O knows how to kick a mortally wounded animal. Thus, out it goes to read all the receipts detailing The Don's taxpayer-financed Perignon lifestyle, and run a story about it two days before he leaves office on the business end of Mayor Tom Potter's wingtip.

And gee, guess what, Mazziotti has blown lots of money in questionable ways, even admittedly misrepresenting the nature of one little $166 night on the town in Bend. Shocking -- shocking!

But truly amusing.

There's all kinds of dirt in the story, which is very well done for what it is. In addition to the mystery Valentine's Day dinner in Bend (two regular entrees plus a Wellington, all supposedly in the company of a "city lobbyist" -- except that the lobbyist says she wasn't there), The Don's been spending all sorts of taxpayer dough wining and dining his own staff, including bashes at Wilf's. He and Marge Kafoury, the Portland city lobbyist, have been out for dinner seven times on the PDC's dime, including a $126 blowout at Bluehour down in the Pearl in February. Then there are 10 meals listed with one Gianna Lupo, a local realtor of the female persuasion who's running something called Little Italy Development LLC. Wyman Winston, Mazziotti's deputy, whose apparently limited skills have required many tens of thousands of dollars of management coaching, chowed down with The Don 10 times, with the average meal tab running $107.

O.k., so what? The craziest thing is the fact that, on top of all the free food and booze Mazziotti's gotten reimbursed for, he's also, for the last two years, collected from the PDC an additional $1200-a-month "expense stipend," for which he doesn't have to submit, and hasn't, any substantiation at all. According to the O, this was approved (partly retroactively, of course) by a simple memo from Matt Hennessee, the PDC's chair. No mention is made of any approval by the PDC board. That's an extra 55 bucks per workday, supposedly "to conduct the business of the PDC." All with a stroke of Hennessee's pen.

Regular readers, you know whom this reminds me of. Of course, the fattest cat of them all -- the guy who got both The Don and Reverend Matt their PDC positions. Their mentor, Neil of Oz. The same guy who had no problems billing taxpayers for a personal limo ride or two for himself when he was a "consultant" to the shadiest of "quasi-governmental" operations down at SAIF. It's obviously the same m.o. You wonder what else was going on besides the heavy meals and lots of cocktails at places like Bluehour.

At the end of the article, Mazziotti admits that he didn't see his $1,200-a-month "stipend" as an expense allowance at all, but just another $15,000-a-year salary increase. If that's so, can he keep it? I wonder if anyone in city government will have the guts to try to make him pay it back.

Even better, I hope that the bright young people at the Internal Revenue Service and the Oregon Department of Revenue fought through their tears of laughter and read the story all the way through. If I were they, I know whose tax returns I'd be looking at tomorrow.

The first drawings of the proposed Sellwood Wal-Mart have quietly been circulating around the Portland Planning Bureau, and preliminary rumors are that they're getting a warmer reception than was anticipated. "They've incorporated a lot of the features we like to see," said one City Hall insider. "Maybe there's room for big box if they do it the Portland way."

Reports out of Wal-Mart headquarters in Benton County, Arkansas, are that the retailing giant is willing to make concessions in order to get a toe hold on the lucrative Portland market. An executive at a competing company explained: "They're even thinking of having that little smiley face character come out, if that's what it takes."

Will the kinder, gentler, Wal-Mart strategy sway the Portland powers-that-be? I don't know. Judge for yourself.

George Bush, former frat president, now our President, has official-looking people at his public appearances who will escort you out of the event if you wear a T-shirt, or your car sports a bumper sticker, that doesn't meet with the Bush crowd's approval. (And who knows exactly who they are?)

Back when there was a political campaign going on, this seemed at least a bit slimy. But now that W. can't run for anything any more, it's downright alarming. I can't attend a speech by the President of the United States if I have a bumper sticker that opposes the invasion of Iraq?

That, my friends, and the fact that it's not on the front page of every paper in the land, proves to me that we are a nation in decline. Mohammed Atta is getting his way.

The ousted face cards at the Portland Development Commission sure are taking their sweet time leaving, aren't they? Lately they decided to jerk the city auditor around a bit when he started to audit them. The auditor had to go run to the city attorney to back up his authority to conduct an investigation into the endless roll of shenanigans at the troubled urban renewal pork pot.

Exactly what legitimate purpose was served by the PDC's posturing? As extreme a move as disbanding the PDC might be, they sure make an excellent case for it.

What a steaming load of the usual from Team Neil. I hope the mayor is going to demand, and promptly get, a blood oath from the new CEO that this kind of nonsense is going to stop. And I suspect that may require pulling an Anoushiravani on several more of the arrogant miscreants over there.

UPDATE, 6:10 p.m.: I just noticed (while taking out the recycling) that The O reported (kind of flippantly) on Friday that one of the four "finalists" for the PDC CEO position -- the one who didn't have a snowball's chance in Hades -- actually hadn't applied for the job and wasn't interested in it any time soon. Just another misleading PDC press release -- better get a bigger scrapbook.

Gordy down at RoguePundit has taken this topic, and done his usual great job of thinking, researching, and writing about it.

It's a sure sign that Tom Potter's doing the right thing at the Portland Development Commission: Randy Gragg hates it. He thinks Charlie Hales should have been put in charge so that we can have 10 more lines of streetcars.

Oh, and the search committee for the PDC exec was a bunch of dopes: "it was diluted by neophytes -- fine for the appearance of citizen involvement but dangerous for selecting the head of the city's $200 million-a-year economic development arm." Yes, it would have been safer to just ask Randy, and he could have asked Homer. Damn that citizen involvement that you have to put up with when you're spending hundreds of millions of tax dollars, eh Randy? It's just not cool.

But Charlie Hales is so-o-o-o-o cool. He's building a streetcar in Miami, you know. And he had coffee with Randy. Randy, who's risen from covering First Thursday to becoming the O's new super-critic of local government operations -- the self-appointed expert who tells off every neighborhood in Portland that dares to stand up to the Usual Real Estate Welfare Clients.

Of course, the way the O functions, one day, out of the blue, Randy will be transferred to the police beat in Gresham. Then within a week he'll have a job working for some developer, Charlie Hales maybe, destroying another Portland neighborhood in a "public-private partnership." Given that he's just openly ridiculed the new PDC chief, whoever it turns out to be (you talk about your dangerous moves), that turn of events might be welcomed by just about everyone but Gragg and Hales.

The OSPIRG college boys are going door to door again. The kid they sent today bothered us twice -- he couldn't remember that he had just rung the very same doorbell 15 minutes before. Then they wonder why people with real lives don't want to listen to their compelling Naderite spiels. Please, go to Erik Sten's house. You can all stand and chant around his disconnected downspouts.

Well, it's time for me to shut up about the proposed Wal-Mart in Sellwood, I guess. Phil Stanford says I'm "for it." Actually, I don't care too much either way; I just don't think the city fathers should be so adamantly "against it."

It did get a good conversation going in the comments here, though.

Speaking of Phil, I'm just finishing up his book Portland Confidential, a howl of a good read about the Bad Old Days of the Portland Rackets. Here I thought Portland was always such a squeaky clean place; shows you what a poor student of history I've been.

Gambling, nude dancing, payoffs to police and city council members, womanizing political leaders, behind-the-scenes real estate swindles... I'm glad the days of official corruption around here are over now. That stuff all went away in the late '50s.

Right?

Portland Commissioner Sam Adams's website apparently includes a capsule description of each of the 100 businesses that the commish visited in his first few months in office. Interestingly, one of the fearless entrepreneurs that it lists is none other than "Than" Clevenger, the guy whose extremely odd public relations contract with the Portland Development Commission led to the infamous brouhaha on Portland Communique. Funny thing, though, the post about Than on the Adams site is dated May 16, which was after all the negative press about him (and his self-inflicted wounds) had hit the wire.

Anyhow, the Adams crew said at that point: "Currently, Than's public relations firm works through multiple clients through the PDC." Whatever that means.

I'll have to keep leafing through the Adams roster of business stars. What next? "Tracy has a prosperous management coaching business going.... Anthony is toughing it out through his third bankruptcy.... Since his career as a consultant has been interrupted, Neil and his wife have devoted more time to their winery..."

Adams is so comical. He heads up his "100 businesses" page with his "I hate Wal-Mart" screed. That will rake in the jobs for Portland, eh? Why not just say, "Corporate America, we will regulate and tax the h*ll out of you. Stay out"? Straight out of the Vera Katz Economic Development Playbook (which Adams wrote, of course.)

I know I've sworn off the NBA on this blog a few times, but I still watch some of it. And tonight's a major to-do. It's down to one game to see who are the NBA champs. If you don't follow pro hoops, it's the Detroit Pistons against the San Antonio Spurs. I was glad to see these two teams make the finals; they seemed to deserve it the most. And the six games they've played against each other so far have been quite interesting from a basketball fan's point of view.

I've decided that I'm rooting for the Spurs tonight. I like their organization and personnel. Plus the style of game that they've been trying to play is much more fun to watch than Detroit's. But Detroit is also playing a team brand of ball (including "Ra," who's cleaned up his insane act somewhat), and their coach, Larry Brown, is one of my favorite public figures on earth. So either outcome would be acceptable.

BTW, don't tell me who won until the morning. I plan to use the Tivo-like device on my Comcast system and play the whole thing back late tonight. Skipping the commercials and the "analysts," and focusing just on the game, you can actually catch an entire playoff game in under 90 minutes. I've seen all six of the finals games this way, and it's the only way to watch events such as this. If any part of the hype looks interesting as it flashes by (Stevie Wonder playing the national anthem on harmonica last week in Detroit, for exmaple), you just rewind and watch it. Plus, instant replay any old time, at your command.

Go Spurs.

...SiteMeter. Now even Willamette Week is using one to see who's coming, when, and from where. Looks like they signed up June 8.

A while back on the Nick Fish Sunday sunrise talk show, the host half-kiddingly asked Portland Commissioner Randy Leonard what he would do if he was assigned the troubled Water Bureau by Mayor Tom Potter. Said Randy: "Then I'll have to run for mayor."

And lo, it has come to pass. (Via b!X -- now you see him, now you don't.)

If, like me, you've been trying to visualize where the contested Wal-Mart site in Sellwood is, here's the Google satellite image (scary in its precision and clarity) along with the Google map. (To get the little marker to show up on the map, for some reason I had to go to the satellite page first, and click on the "Map" link in the upper right.)

Some readers wondered whether the site is in Portland or Milwaukie. From this Multnomah County precinct map, it looks to be just on the Portland side of the line. It's definitely just on the Multnomah side of the county line. The City of Milwaukie's street map also makes it look as though the site is in Portland. The Milwaukie line looks to be just north of Sherett, and the Wal-Mart location is just north of that.

Elsewhere in webdom, the protesting neighbors have a website of their own now. It's here. Their poster isn't going to win any public relations contests, but it does get to the point, now, doesn't it?

I'm always among the last to know things. We have a 10,000-hit-a-day blogger working right under our noses here in the Rose City. Her name is Laila Lalami (pronounced LAY-la LA-la-mee) and the blog is Moorishgirl.

The blog's been going for years; Lalami moved to Portland from L.A. just last year. Here's her description of her site:

I started Moorishgirl in October 2001, although I've had an online presence of one form or another since 1994. The blog features literary news, commentary, book reviews and author interviews as well as occasional political and cultural links. Moorishgirl has been mentioned in a couple of newspapers, notably The Scotsman, The Washington Post, the Business Standard, L'Opinion, The Los Angeles Times and USA Today. The Complete Review, Best of the Web and WebdelSol included it in their surveys of Best Literary Blogs and The Guardian chose it as a daily pick in June 2004. Moorishgirl was also part of a panel on blogs, which was broadcast on C-SPAN/BookTV.

Lalami was profiled in last Friday's Trib. There's more about her here and here.