You forget to mention, though, that Bill McDonald sweeps in and gives those youngsters a good talking-to.

What did you expect? You have what few actual numbers there are.

They have nothing besides name calling and these pie-in-the-sky plans. Of course, they'll shout you down.

Sycophant's a big word for some in Randy's camp.... Now that's ad hominem.

Yes, Master. We hear and obey.

What shall I do next, Bojack?

One would not not dissent and debate in our fair city. In honor of the Fireman, I will be contentious and overbearing to all my co-workers today. I may even ride the streetcar on my lunch break.

Jack's influence over his minions can be pretty scary. The other day I suddenly started speaking in a language I don't understand: The Tax Code.

ad hominem attacks are a strategy used by those who cant debate on the merits (ha).

This stupid Lents proposal is completely indefensible, and these guys know it. Randy has dug himself in a hole, and he only knows how to dig deeper. I think his mistake was backing Adams on this idea, and now he is claiming it as his own.

Megadittoes, Jack.

Although I have to say, at risk of losing my status as a sycophant (and when did a term for crazy members of the pachyderm family become the descriptor for a slavish follower? ba-dum-bum) that the "if I'm pissing people off on both sides of an issue then I must be right" ain't necessarily so. Eight years of media equivocation on the Bush administration should have proved that.

I know, right? I mean, look at the economic boom of jobs and spending that descended on Portland after Civic Stadium was renamed PGE Park and the Beavers got bought by Paulson!

right?

I mean, that's what Mayor Katz, Leonard, Adams and Paulson promised...right? I re-read their promises, and it's all right there, so it must be true.

Right?

Luckily, there's a lot of factual evidence that sports stadiums provide significant economic benefit to the local community...right? I mean, that's what I was told by Katz, Leonard and Adams.

Right?

Oh. Right. It's all made up. No, wait... I just realized what the stadium's for-- Leonard told me! It's to:

"give Lents a competitive psychological and economic edge that no other neighborhood in the City could compete with".

Right! That's it! Now I get it!

I can hear the gnashing of teeth in Alameda right now. "We'll *never* get a sports stadium! Curse them!"

And St. Johns? Wankers! They ain't got the stuff to compete with Lents!

Ladd's Addition? Losers!

Right?

Right.

Then another person bleats: "I am a progressive, not a Jack Bog sycophant!"

That comment by Portland Lover was a reaction to the post directly before it, which read "Alas...leave it to Jack Bog's sycophants to always show up and post their BS." I think Portland Lover was objecting to the use of the phrase "Jack Bog sycophant" to marginalize opposition to the stadium, which seems to be growing on BlueOregon.

I would strongly urge casual soccer fans to watch Barcelona and Manchester United in a couple of hours. Maybe this Major League Soccer thing will come into focus for you after that.

When are we going to get our "Bog Sycophant" t-shirts? We need a way to identify each other when we're not online.

Alert. Bill McDonald is Coding. Get the H&R Block team over here stat!

Baaaaah?

Baaaaah!

Projection is an amazingly true compass needle that always points unswervingly at peoples' own defects. It was delicious irony for someone to charge Bojack readers with sycophancy at Blue Oregon.

In the first 2 paragraphs of Randy "Jaws" Leonard's latest BlueOregon polemic, "I"/"me"/"my" appear 17 times. Fireman, hose thyself.

I prefer the term "bogophant" myself, even though I hardly ever agree with my master's voice when it comes to criticizing Oden.

"Projection is an amazingly true compass needle that always points unswervingly at peoples' own defects."

You mean when you point a finger at someone, you have 3 fingers pointing back at you?

Forget the T-shirts, jak bog bumper stickers!

BOJACK FOR MAYOR

Maybe we can get a plant for making the t-shirts and bumper stickers sited in Lents and pick up some of that sweet, sweet economic development money.

And streetcar and tram tokens!

using quotes from the article:

Step 1: Describe and declare the pre-development site "defective" or "blighted" in some way:
For a neighborhood that has clawed and scratched to shake the moniker “Felony Flats,” becoming the “Home of the Portland Beavers” would be a fitting mark of a new era.

Step 2: Declare that there's an urgent need to "correct" that defect:
Since the creation of the Lents Urban Renewal Area in 1998, Lents has been starving for a catalytic project that would set the stage for the kind of development that is contemplated by the plans and aspirations of the neighborhood

Step 3: Set up a conflict:
The Lents neighborhood has brashly and correctly drawn attention to years of the downtown elite calling the shots in this City, often at their expense—or worse yet, without even considering them.

Step 4: Ignore the double contradiction of you being part of that elite, and your description of your efforts not agreeing with #3 above:
Since my election to the City Council, I have been vigilant in my efforts to keep East Portland in the consciousness of the City.

Step 5: Present the Heroic Savior Solution.
The addition of the Beavers headquarters and 100+ jobs into Lents, along with the 3,000-5,000 people from outside of the neighborhood coming into Lents 72 times each year to spend their discretionary income would give Lents a competitive psychological and economic edge that no other neighborhood in the City could compete with.

Step 6: Ridicule and dismiss all opponents of your proposition (from WWeek):

“I think their analysis is wrong,” Leonard said. “It doesn’t strike me as a genuine argument, so it’s hard to respond.”

"The Leader is Good
The Leader is Great
We surrender our Will
As of this Date."

(thanks to the Simpsons)

Instead of letting outsiders label us, should we call ourselves "Bogdanskians"?

Fireman, hose thyself.

Now that's what I'm talkin' about.

I'll wipe up now.

Fireman, hose thyself.

Or rather: Hoseman, fire thyself.

I'd try to fight the groundswell, but I'm afraid that I'd wake up tomorrow morning with Patrick McGoohan as my next door neighbor. "I am not a Bojack sycophant! I am a free man!"

"What are your orders, Sir?"

"if I'm pissing people off on both sides of an issue then I must be right"

I get it from both sides, but never on the same issue. The hate comes spewing forth from the right when I ask questions about the bizarre governor of Alaska; and from the left when I challenge the Portland City Council, which is bankrupting the place to buy junk.

...and from the left when I challenge the Portland City Council, which is bankrupting the place to buy junk.

Seriously? The "left," Jack? Or just people who are supporters of people like Sam Adams? Because Adams and his old boss Vera Katz are not exactly the kind of people I think of as leftists.

They're pretty much middle-of-the-road politicians. I know it's difficult to compare local and national political figures on policy issues, but I can't really imagine how you'd make the case for Adams, Katz, Leonard, or anyone else who's been on the City Council in recent memory having a political philosophy that was a out-of-the-mainstream as the John Bircher, Alaska independence movement supporting Governor of AK, or even GW Bush.

I don't doubt that Adams, and the others have plenty of followers, and maybe they're to the left of the hard-core GOP supporters, but the people at places like Blue Oregon and elsewhere who are tight with the Democratic power structure in Portland aren't any more left than Ed Muskie. Some of them may have tattoos and piercings or ride bikes, but anyone who'd support a politician proposing a giant tax dollar giveaway to a corporation running a sports team is not "on the left."

"...and from the left when I challenge the Portland City Council, which is bankrupting the place to buy junk."

Also, to some among Portland’s Establishment Left this blog, despite its mostly tasteful graphics, probably comes off as a bit crude, boorish. This is easy to remedy, especially around here.

For starters, try Europeanizing your blog’s name.

How about Jacques Bog’s Blog?

Your web address could then be:

beaujacques.org

So good to log in to a laugh, Geoff.
Portland is oh so painfully funny so much of the time and its good to see people enjoying it in cyberspace.

Sometimes it is just painful. The fireman definitely engages in projection and denial. Another mess he made is with the recent Animal Services task force whose recommendations are supposed to become final soon. He and Ted Wheeler appointed the existing leadership and members and boosters of an animal use group to police and make recommendations for themselves. There was no investigation of complaints, no research into best practices in animal management, no willingness to listen, at all, to anyone with knowledge of these matters, but only a willingness to jump on the bandwagon and call names. These people aren't leaders; they're sychophants themselves. Portland is one of two US cities that has a free standing clinic for neutering feral cats. People in neighborhoods all over town support caring for ferals in their neighborhoods. The task force is recommending strong arm tactics for collecting both cat and dog licensing fees. The proponent of this practice, Bill Bruce, an animal mamager from Calgary Alberta, believes in silencing critics. The task force is also recommending that veterinarians in Multnomah County refuse to render services to an unlicensed animal. These practices are by no means best practices and they will lead to a blood bath for tended stray and feral cats. The time to speak up is now. Ask Leonard, Wheeler and the folks at the O why they aren't fully exploring the issues, but instead accepting the opinions of animal users and their, shall I say it, sychophants?

Use it in a sentence Randy.

You think we have problems? Look what happens on the other side of the pond.

http://bnp.org.uk/

Jack I am bitter about this and I can prove it.

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-bitterness25-2009may25,0,4544029.story

Darrelplant; calling Adams and Katz as middle of the road politicians is laughable. If you want to stay on the inner westside and out to 32nd on the east then you might be slightly correct. Being liberal is more than which side one comes down on social issues, there's also fiscal issues, and a slew of others.

If you made a list of all the issues and which side Adams, Katz and even the City Council, you would find that they are predominantly liberal, especially if you looked at the whole state and nation for comparison.

That's why when Portlanders travel you hear many comments of "what the heck is going on out there?-we would have kicked the bums out by now". Fellow demo, if you like labels.

That ilk aren't left, right or middle and they couldn't care less because they're without a moral compass, relying instead on the guidance of a cash dowser that they whittle up for themselves under the tutelage of sc**bags like Goldschmidt and others who perpetuate the cycle of pro abusus publico.

Would an anti-sycophant oppose elective disincorporation of the city of Portland? (But don't let the good -- bond counsel type -- folks at Orrick argue that your elective rights are constrained by blah blah and blah.)

It would dispense with the need for any recall election (or delay) and would give Ted W. an immediate and direct role in resolving the city's financial messes.

The old City of Lents could then reincorporate themselves and chart their own pah.

Would an anti-sycophant oppose elective disincorporation of the city of Portland?

they've already got bread; now they're being offered circuses. in the end, the Lents neighborhood has no real say in the matter.

The stealth story here, the one with real long-term implications, is this: taking huge swaths of public park space to create urbanized private enterprise.

If it works in Lents, why not...Forest Park? I know, let's peel off a few acres of Tryon Creek for something benign like, say, a market.

it takes a lot of pain and persistent effort just to get public spaces. it's never easy. taking it away is like somebody running over your dog, then offering you a bag of dog food.

That's why when Portlanders travel you hear many comments of "what the heck is going on out there?-we would have kicked the bums out by now".

Riiiight, like there's no corruption or sex scandal anywhere else in the country. It took f***ing tapes to pry Blago out of the governor's mansion, but there were years of stories and investigations into him. Do I need to mention Spitzer? Bernie Kerik -- Rudy Giuliani's pick for the head of Homeland Security -- was indicted yesterday, but he served for years in NYC as police commissioner.

Katz, Adams, Leonard (who claims he represents the very east-side Portlanders you claim you do) are all typical pols. They're cutting deals with developers. They're getting money from the folks at the Arlington Club. Most of their work has absolutely nothing to do with "liberal" values, and being a liberal's not the same thing as being a leftist, anyhow.

And seriously? 32nd Avenue? Maybe you don't know the east side as well as you think you do. Me, I've lived in my neighborhood long enough to remember when the skinheads who beat Mulageta Seraw to death lived around the corner, we had a heroin shooting gallery in the abandoned factory down the block, and squatters were pissing off the porches of the condemned houses across the street from ours. So spare me your supposed education about the realities of east-side life.

well put, Darrel.

Geoff - go all the way: Jacques Bogue's Blague