The race between the folks who want to rename a Portland street after César Chávez and those who want to rename East 42nd Avenue after Douglas Adams is over, and the Chávez folks have apparently won. They got their signatures in to the city first, and so their proposal will get first priority as the city kicks off its review process.

In a peculiar show of gamesmanship, the Chávez fans still aren't saying which street they'd like to rename. They've collected signatures and submitted paperwork for three streets: Grand Avenue, East 39th, and Broadway. Only one at most will be renamed, but the Chávez group is keeping potential opponents off guard by leaving only a one-in-three chance that their street will ultimately be targeted. By the time the applicants and the city zero in on one, the process will be that much further down the road.

A pretty shabby move, if you ask me.

Legally, one wonders how long that particular game can go on. The City Code specifically states: "Only one street renaming application shall be processed at a time...." The rest of the code, in discussing applications, envisions only a single street being proposed for renaming in any one application. Have the Chávez people submitted three applications, or only one? If it's three, then only one can go forward. It's past time for them to say which one that is.

A friend writes:

Sarah Palin spoke in Erie, Pa. yesterday and made a reference to the Philadelphia Phillies winning the World Series. There were quite a few boos from the crowd.

http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/10/31/palin-stumps-in-tom-ridges-hometown/

For someone who is characterized as a populist, common touch type, she really blew this one. When you are invoking the "bread and circuses" of American sports, you better know where you are and who the local teams are. I've visited Pittsburgh a lot in the last five years. I like the area, but western Pennsylvania is not eastern Pennsylvania -- they have their own teams. The Pirates, Steelers, or Penguins could work in Erie. This is not a sophisticated insight.

Some politicians are very good at this type of demagogy. Not Palin. Her knowledge base is weak and her narcissism overwhelms any chance of her really doing the homework that effective politicians do. Palin should had consulted with Joe Sixpack. He could have explained it to her.

Here's a blog that you'll want to check out. I don't know if it's authentic or not, but whoever the author is, he or she has some brilliant insights. Sort of like the I Could Kill Her babes, 40 or 50 years from now. (Via Loey.)

We got some more election porn yesterday -- if you like getting this stuff, it always pays to wait until the last minute to vote. This time it was from some organization fronting for the unions that represent public school teachers and other government employees, instructing us on the correct way to vote. Which is no on Measures 58, 60, and 64:

The main reason given for these recommended "no" votes is the fact that the three measures are sponsored by Bill Sizemore, the villain who takes money from out-of-state righty fat cats and puts it out on the street to collect signatures for their vapid ideas. So often has Sizemore outraged the left that now his authorship is being seen as reason enough to vote against any measure.

Maybe there's something wrong with Oregon's initiative system -- something that ought to be reformed. And maybe Sizemore's breaking the rules of the game -- in which case he ought to be punished for his misdeeds. But I just don't buy the suggestion to ignore the merits and demerits of ballot measures based on whom they come from. Even idiots get it right once in a while.

I'm voting no on most of Sizemore's initiatives, but for the right reason: I have read them, considered their substance, and concluded that they stink (except for 59, the unlimited Oregon income tax deduction for federal taxes).

I see that Fireman Randy just came back from a hotshot New York meeting with His Royal Highness The Grand High Commissioner Of "Major League Soccer." And wow, if Portland taxpayers hand Little Lord Paulson $100 million to screw around some more with PGE Park, the grand high commissioner might actually give Portland an expansion franchise in his "major league soccer" league -- arguably the third- or fourth-best soccer league in the whole wide world.

OMG, I can hardly contain my excitement.

I wonder how much the city spent sending the Fireman out of town on this vital mission. I'm sure old Merritt showed everybody a good time in the Big Apple.

Time to get out my ballot and vote "no" on some money stuff.

There's a certain kind of politician who's immensely popular up there.

Bojack's crystal ball is showing the following tonight:

Sarah Palin will release a scanty summary of her medical background tomorrow -- on Friday, just in time to get lost in Halloween and the final weekend before the election. It will be a summary assessment of her current health by a physician, similar to what Barack Obama released a while back. It will not contain original medical records or any hard evidence of her supposed pregnancy with, or delivery of, her infant son, Trig Palin, in April.

The McCain camp will tell the world "See? We released her medical records. What more do you want?" When the media calls the disclosure out for the thin piece of paper it is, McCain and Palin will say, "That's all you got from Obama." And before that conversation can go any further, it will be time to vote.

I'm sure that Palin believes that the questions surrounding Trig's birth will go away after she and McCain lose the election. But given her continuing posturing for a run at the White House in the future, and her continuing use of her children as campaign props, she's wrong about that.

The Portland police officer who needlessly killed James Chasse in 2006 changed his story in crucial respects just days after the killing on a Pearl District street, according to a fine investigative story by Nick Budnick in the Trib today. Officer Christopher Humphreys, a notorious "thumper," is captured on video the night of the killing admitting that he and his partner tackled the diminutive Chasse. Two days later, Humphreys told investigators that he merely pushed Chasse, who fell to the ground.

The 42-year-old, 145-pound man suffered at least 26 broken and shattered bones in his rib cage and a punctured left lung as a result of his "fall." Humphreys directly denied to police investigators that he landed on Chasse.

When history remembers Tom Potter as mayor of Portland, his failure to respond adequately as police commissioner to this deplorable incident will no doubt be mentioned. Not a great legacy, Mayor.

Obama strategists worried about complacency on the part of Obama supporters have gotten an unpleasant jolt with this high-profile defection from the Democrat's camp.

The Blazers say that savior Greg Oden will be out two to four weeks with a sprained foot. They add, "The MRI revealed a couple of avulsions that are not believed serious and do not require surgery."

Not knowing what an "avulsion" is, we wiki-ed, and lo and behold, it's apparently a type of bone fracture. Ick.

The City of Portland has been making a lot of noise lately about changing its rules for siting cell phone antennas. Traditionally, these things have gone on tall, ugly towers, but now the trendy thing is to put them on regular telephone poles. Neighbors have been complaining about the unsightly towers, and that seems to be music to the city's ears, because it's cheerleading putting the cell antennas on the lower, less conspicuous poles.

One big problem with this is that the lower the antenna's height is, the closer it is to people. And the closer it is to people, the more radiation that it is hitting those people with. It's never been proven that cell phone radiation from an antenna, say, 50 feet away can hurt you -- but it's never been proven that it doesn't, either. The whole civilized world is currently being used as a colony of guinea pigs to find out what the health effects of low levels of this type of radiation are.

Complicating matters is that our friends in Congress (who take millions in campaign contributions from the cell phone companies) have strictly prohibited local governments from considering possible health consequences in siting cell antennas. And so all the city is allowed to take into account in allowing these things in any given location is aesthetics.

I'd rather not have these antennas near my house at all, but if there has to be an installation, I'd rather look at an ugly tall tower than have it sitting on a telephone pole 15 feet from my kids' bedroom window, blasting away 24/7. Ten or 20 extra feet could make a big difference in the health impacts.

It's been a while since I felt good about America.

Then I saw this. And this. And this. And this.

Now I feel a whole lot better.

An Election Day story from David Sedaris. (Via The Fire Wire.)

I had a great weekend in the pro football Underdog Pool. Acting on smart tips from readers Pat Malach and Kevin, I guessed that Cleveland would continue to cleve, and it did, netting me the big points of the week (7).

And with that, it is on to the ninth week of the big daddies' season. I'm in third place in the standings at this point, but there are plenty of hounds coming up behind me, and so there's no room for any stumbling. Readers, can you help me pick an underdog (in caps) from this bunch that will win its game outright this week?

13 DETROIT at Chicago
8.5 KANSAS CITY vs. Tampa Bay
8.5 DALLAS at NY Giants
7.5 CINCINNATI vs. Jacksonville
6.5 SEATTLE vs. Philadelphia
6 NY JETS at Buffalo
6 NEW ENGLAND at Indianapolis
5.5 GREEN BAY at Tennessee
5 HOUSTON at Minnesota
3.5 MIAMI at Denver
2.5 ST. LOUIS vs. Arizona
2.5 OAKLAND vs. Atlanta
2 BALTIMORE at Cleveland
2 PITTSBURGH at Washington

Seattle at home? New England on the road? Favre in the snow? Any chance of the Cowboys waking up and upsetting Plaxico and his soap opera pals?

Such logic isn't lost on Stern. He remains adamant that N.B.A. franchises must remain in the nation's largest cities. He ticks them off: ''Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles. . . . If I've forgotten one, I don't mean to. The Top 10.'' But he also acknowledges that the other dozen and a half teams might be better situated as the lone big-league option in a small market rather than fighting popular baseball and football teams for corporate and fan support and media attention. That means successful N.B.A. markets like San Antonio, Sacramento, Portland and Salt Lake City. It doesn't mean Seattle. ''I wake up every morning thanking the Good Lord that we're the only game in town,'' says Peter Holt, who owns the San Antonio Spurs.

More election porn showed up yesterday. The Mrs. and I each got a "voter guide" explaining to us the way correct-thinking folks are supposed to vote on the ballot measures. Although they came from outfits with different names -- "Defend Oregon" and "Our Oregon" -- they were pretty obviously created by the same people:

The Yes on 57/No on 61 gave us this guy. Can't tell whether he's supposed to be a criminal, a voter, or what:

But this one eclipsed them all for pure entertainment value -- some of the best porn is always generated by amateurs:

We finally see what our frequent blog commenter looks like. Given his slim-to-no chance against the union candidate, we may actually vote for JK, just for kicks. He'd give Salem a kick in the pants that it so richly deserves.

What would a government agency be if it didn't blow big bucks on endless "strategic plans," groovy mottoes, new "brands," and constant bureaucratic "re-engineering"? Well, the City of Portland's human resources office isn't going to be outdone in any of those departments: It's hiring a local accounting firm, AKT, on a no-bid basis to do all of that and more, in connection with something called "Re-Engineering of the City's HR Business Process." The estimated price tag: 50 grand.

So far they've come up with a real catchy slogan: "Knowledgeable, Helpful and Responsive." You read it here first, people: That one is bound to go viral.

The Portland Airport must be a cash cow for the Port of Portland. They're building more parking and a shangri-la office facility, and generally blowing more and more money out there -- as if the financial meltdown around the rest of the world weren't happening.

Last week we were told that the Port wasn't going to be able to sell bonds (borrow money) on Wall Street for deicing equipment. But I dunno, there's a $130 million bond sale scheduled for this week -- revenue bonds having to do with the airport. And orchestrating the deal? Why, Goldman Sachs, of course.

It must be nice.

Check him out having one of his spells:

He is obviously in pain and starting to lose his grip. Can he handle the White House?

The Paulson-Leonard stadium deal was recently called by its true name -- a scam -- in The Nation:

So forget the obscenity of any sports owner having the temerity to ask for public funds for a sports stadium at a time when we are collectively bailing out the nation's banks. Forget the lunacy of making the case for $85 million from a city that, despite its lush rose gardens and micro-breweries, has 16 percent of kids living below the poverty line. Forget all humanitarian and economic considerations. The fact is that the cash between the cushions at the Paulson family compound could pay for the new stadium in Portland and yet Merritt wants more. These aren't masters of industry. They're grifters.

... real jail.

... I would pull all of my television ads off the air -- and ask the shadow campaigners behind me to do the same -- except for this one.

I think Portland battles Utah for the division title right to the end. And shocks everyone by winning it. I know nobody’s saying that, but I just honestly believe they have more overall talent than the Jazz.

The paid circulation of the dead-tree version of The Oregonian has dropped below the 300,000 level. The latest figures, released today, place it at 283,321.

A bunch of mavericks up there. Heck of a bunch of people.

It's Big Pipe. Does this mean that Fireman Randy gets assigned to deal with Zari and Grimwad over at Parks? Oh please, Lord, make it happen -- you couldn't get better blog fodder than that.

Don't let this be you.

The dysfunction known as the New York Knicks basketball team (the proud home of Zach Randolph) gets worse by the week. Now Knicks exec Isiah Thomas -- who has never, in our view, been what you call "good people" -- apparently overdosed on sleeping pills over the weekend and is denying that it happened. In direct contradiction to police reports on the incident, Thomas is claiming that it was his teenage daughter, not he, who was rushed to the hospital.

If he's lying -- and I believe the police, who say he is -- Thomas is ever more of a dangerous nutcase than I thought he was. Why the team owners and the league tolerate shenanigans like his is beyond me.

A while back, regular toilets that actually work were banned in the United States, in favor of the "low flow" specials that can't handle the big job, if you know what I mean. Save the whales, etc.

Now it's regular light bulbs that are getting the bum's rush, in favor of compact fluorescent bulbs that save energy. You can't get regular light bulbs at Costco any more, and that's often my geezerly sign of things to come.

So I buy a pack of the new ones and try to use them, but yuck! That's got to be the ugliest light I have ever seen. We're talking 1958 White Castle men's room light. A sickly, harsh bluish murk that can only make the Northwest's winter gloom even more depressing. Maybe in the tool shed you'd use one of these -- or on the outside of the house, on the side where you're not speaking to your neighbor. But in your living quarters? No way.

Do I really have to use these things? Can somebody recommend a version of them that throws off a spectrum of light that human beings would actually want to live under?

When Caribou Barbie was busted buying $150,000 worth of show clothes on the campaign dime, we were told that it was a nonissue. Funny thing, though -- now she's hurriedly returning a bunch of it.

This is a true piece of work. I predicted that she wouldn't last a week on the ticket. I am so glad to have been wrong about that.

The Reign of King Henry Paulson is turning out to be quite the royal scam. He hands out hundreds of billions of our kids' tax dollars to the big banks with no strings attached, and we're all supposed to light a candle and hope that they start making loans again. And guess what -- they aren't going to. They're going to buy up smaller banks with the billions -- bailing out the shareholders of the target companies -- and then the big boys will pay dividends on their own stock, making their own shareholders richer. And no end to the executive bonuses, of course.

I keep reading that they're training an Army unit to serve as a domestic riot squad. If the American people ever actually figure out what the banksters have pulled off during the last five years, that is going to be Pentagon money well spent.