Given what we know about PGE, their PUC stranglehold, and the recent IPO, I wonder if it's not a bad idea to put them under a microscope...

PGE is in the business of making money, as a monopoly, on a service everyone on the grid requires. Their conservation efforts have been window dressing for their pushes to keep those meters spinning, especially at higher rates. I wish it was more like Snohomish PUD near Seattle... customer and business-first, committed to helping their customers save money and electricity, and tireless in building a case to fight Enron on behalf of their customers... ultimately the ones bearing the costs of the corruption.

How novel...

Instead of bashing PGE, he's now bashing Wal-Mart. What an opportunist.

Hey Hink... I think Sam Adams is the one fighting Wal-Mart

I'm sure Opie'll be on that bandwagon. Anything lefty, and as far from the city's legitimate government functions as possible. I can't blame him. That's what gets you re-elected around here.

Why doesn't he take on Fannie Mae? They cooked the books and bilked investors to the tune of $30 billion.

Oh yeah right...Fannie Mae was run by some of Clinton's top cabinet members -- Frank Raines and Jamie Gorelick.

I guess Sten's afraid to eat his own.

I liked the Peggy Fowler quote about the city commissioners buzzing around PGE like a pesky mosquito. A mosquito annoying large a connected -lawyer infested corporate rat.

That's a large connected-lawyer infested corporate rat.

Sorry for the confusion re Sten and Adams. I don't live inside the Portland City Limits, so they're all rather interchangeable to me. At least Leonard has a moustache so I can tell him apart.

"customer and business-first, committed to helping their customers"

Yeah, I know, I wish the CIty of Portland was like that.

If Opie really wanted to bust PGE's chops, he'd put together a legitimate PUD proposal (not the usual greenie-hippie-looking thing), assemble a credible PUD board, get the mayor behind it, circulate petitions, raise funds. Not enough time in the budget for that, I guess...

Legitimacy and true professionalism are completely meaningless in this town. Everything is about playing playing politics and jockeying for position with "The Players".

One of my favorite obsessions is reforming Multnomah County Animal Services,as you may know, and we went through the proper process of working with a task force to get it done. But recommended changes aren't happening, in fact the agency is moving in the opposite direction with a vivisectionist sponsored "cat confinement" provision that has increased cat intake 70% in the five years since it was enacted. Today on Craigslist, an MCAS employee posted that MCAS was doing the "best it can" and is being "blasted". When I posted that it is in violation of a public mandate emboddied in task force recommendations, my post was flagged and removed.

The editorial crowd at the Oregonian is manipulating public opinion in the same way-by leaving out crucial chunks of fact, with this and many other issues. Like the most dysfunctional junior high schoolers, they are afraid of offending "the popular crowd"..They ought to be exposing these bullies for what they are; just like Todo exposed the wizard in The Wizard of Oz: Just an old guy commanding special effects. If the game playing weren't annoying enough, the press' acquiesence is downright disgusting. It won't hurt you to stand up and be professionals for a change.

Sten's PGE proposal netted zero benefits to ratepayers but millions of dollars to out-of-state consultants. I wish I had a job where that could be considered a success.

Run for office in Portland. Once you're in, you'll have to be beyond outrageously incompetent to ever be voted out.

Wow - that's the first time anyone has found a similarity between Erik and Dubya.

As for Wal-Mart, I'm pretty sure that zoning issues are within the basic purview of city council.

Zoning, my a*s. It's all about the unions.

[Posted as indicated; restored later.]