This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on January 13, 2010 9:55 AM.
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So where is the panel of experts on the Paulson stadium deal?
Back in July, when the Portland City Council was basking in the glow of an early version of the PGE Park soccer deal with Little Lord Paulson, our mayor made a few of his trademark moves. First, as you'll recall, the deal wasn't finalized until 10 minutes before the City Council meeting at which it was aired, to the applause of the throng of scarf-clad soccer dudes who had been wheeled in for a show of sudsy enthusiasm. Other than Paulson, the Sam-Rand twins, and the hooligans, everybody in the room was ambushed -- no time to ask, or even to formulate, any questions.
But then came a truly classic Adams moment. He's never satisfied simply to lie to your face -- he always has to gild the lily with a little extra malarkey. For the thrill of it, I guess, although to know for sure you'd have to ask a shrink. Not only does he falsely deny having sex with the teenage intern -- he makes himself out as a mentor to the kid. Not only does he falsely accuse his opponent of lying about the scandal -- he makes the guy out to be a homophobe.
Just one comment that I failed to mention at the outset. We'll be coming back to council with a panel of experts on facility renovations, so that will be giving the city council expert opinions on the contract that will be proposed. So, we're lucky that this facility was renovated within our lifetime, and some of the professional staff that worked on the previous renovation we have retained, or they have volunteered to sign up again. So we're gonna get really good experienced experts to give us the kind of due diligence rigor to make sure that this contract -- if it's eventually approved -- that this contract is really in the best interest of taxpayers.
Well, here we are more than six months after he banged that jerky gavel of his. We're told that we're all finally going to get to see the contract tomorrow. Will the expert panel's report be ready by then? Has the panel even met yet? Does anybody know who's on it?
If it's like everything else that's gone down on this deal, then there is no panel, and that was just one more little lie piled onto the steaming pile of falsehoods dumped on this city by its dreadful figurehead. And if the experts do show up, it will be quite amusing to poke around and see why they might want to be so enthusiastic about such a dubious project.
I've only known a couple of people for whom lying was a pathological problem and it seemed that, for them, their notion of a lie's effectiveness rested primarily on delivering the it with a focused emphasis and delivering it to as large an audience as possible. In other words, not a lot of care went into details or crafting supporting evidence or persuasion or keeping track of who knows what. Blunt, opportunistic deception was mostly a matter of force and timing; and shaping it as an announcement exploits our group tendency to have an expansive sense of audience, to relax the same alertness to dishonesty we possess when we're addressed individually. I don't know what these people were like privately, but professionally it seemed a genuine compulsion, and was their standard method by which they advanced their concerns. Even if the goal itself wasn't poisonous, the road to it always was.
I mean who cares anymore? This is getting depressing, I'm an old guy thinking about leaving when I retire.
Now I'm starting to hear, sharp, young kids see there are no opps for any kind of advancement in this town and they want to leave also.
It'll just get me angry when I think of how many years and dollars we waste on polishing the same old scrap heap of downtown Portland instead of doing something that matters and makes life better for people who live here.
Charamba, Douro 2008
Horse Heaven Hills, Cabernet 2010
Lorelle, Horse Heaven Hills Pinot Grigio 2011
Avignonesi, Montepulciano 2004
Lorelle, Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2011
Villa Antinori, Toscana 2007
Mercedes Eguren, Cabernet Sauvignon 2009
Lorelle, Columbia Valley Cabernet 2011
Purple Moon, Merlot 2011
Purple Moon, Chardonnnay 2011
Abacela, Vintner's Blend No. 12
Opula Red Blend 2010
Liberte, Pinot Noir 2010
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Indian Wells Red Blend 2010
Woodbridge, Chardonnay 2011
King Estate, Pinot Noir 2011
Famille Perrin, Cotes du Rhone Villages 2010
Columbia Crest, Les Chevaux Red 2010
14 Hands, Hot to Trot White Blend
Familia Bianchi, Malbec 2009
Terrapin Cellars, Pinot Gris 2011
Columbia Crest, Walter Clore Private Reserve 2009
Campo Viejo, Rioja, Termpranillo 2010
Ravenswood, Cabernet Sauvignon 2009
Quinta das Amoras, Vinho Tinto 2010
Waterbrook, Reserve Merlot 2009
Lorelle, Horse Heaven Hills, Pinot Grigio 2011
Tarantas, Rose
Chateau Lajarre, Bordeaux 2009
La Vielle Ferme, Rose 2011
Benvolio, Pinot Grigio 2011
Nobilo Icon, Pinot Noir 2009
Lello, Douro Tinto 2009
Quinson Fils, Cotes de Provence Rose 2011
Anindor, Pinot Gris 2010
Buenas Ondas, Syrah Rose 2010
Les Fiefs d'Anglars, Malbec 2009
14 Hands, Pinot Gris 2011
Conundrum 2012
Condes de Albarei, Albariño 2011
Columbia Crest, Walter Clore Private Reserve 2007
Penelope Sanchez, Garnacha Syrah 2010
Canoe Ridge, Merlot 2007
Atalaya do Mar, Godello 2010
Vega Montan, Mencia
Benvolio, Pinot Grigio
Nobilo Icon, Pinot Noir, Marlborough 2009
Portuga, Rose 2011
Revelation, Chardonnay, Pays d'Oc 2010
Beaulieu, Cabernet, Rutherford 2005
Monte Alto, Tinto Reserva 2005
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Cabernet, Indian Wells 2009
Espiral, Vinho Rose
Vin-Koru, Pinot Gris 2011
14 Hands, Hot to Trot Red 2009
Rodney Strong, Cabernet, Sonoma 2009
Abacela, Vintner's Blend #11
Portuga, White 2010
La Bourgeoisie, Red 2009
Januik, Red 2009
Three Rivers, River's Red 2008
Kirkland, Alexander Valley Merlot 2008
Muga, Rioja Rose 2010
Quinta das Amoras, Vinho Tinto 2009
Mauro Molino, Barbera d'Alba 2009
Garda Chiaretto Rose
Columbia Crest, Two Vines Vineyard 10 White
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Pinot Gris, Columbia Valley 2009
L'Hortus, Rose de Saignee 2010
Maculan, Pino & Toi 2008
McKinley Springs, Bombing Range Red 2008
Trader Joe's Pinot Gris 2009
Montes Alpha, Cabernet 2007
Gran Sasso, Sangiovese, Terre di Chieti 2009
Garda, Classico Chiaretto Rose
Beaulieu, Cabernet, Rutherford 1999
Picos del Montgo, Tempranillo 2008
Chateau de Montmirail, Vacqueyras 2008
La Granja 360, Syrah 2009
Montgras, Carmenere Reserva 2009
Lange, Pinot Gris 2009
Columbia Crest, Horse Heaven Hills Cabernet 2008
Kirkland, Pinot Grigio 2010
Trader Joe's Coastal Syrah 2009
Columbia Crest, Horse Heaven Hills Merlot 2008
Trader Joe's Coastal Chardonnay 2009
Vieux Papes Red
Domaine de l'Aujardiere, Chardonnay 2009
Santa Rita, Cabernet, Medalla Real 2007
Penfold's, Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet 2008
Guild, Red, Lot #02 2008
Dievole, Dievolino Sangiovese 2008
Laforet, Burgogne Chardonnay 2009
Columbia Winery, Merlot 2007
Bonterra, Cabernet 2008
Elk Cove, Pinot Gris 2009
Maquis Lien 2006
Scott Paul, Pinot Noir, Le Paulee 2007
The Occasional Book
Hope Larson - A Wrinkle in Time, the Graphic Novel
Rudyard Kipling - Kim
Peter Ames Carlin - Bruce
Fran Cannon Slayton - When the Whistle Blows
Neil Young - Waging Heavy Peace
Mark Bego - Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul (2012 ed.)
Jenny Lawson - Let's Pretend This Never Happened
J.D. Salinger - Franny and Zooey
Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol
Timothy Egan - The Big Burn
Deborah Eisenberg - Transactions in a Foreign Currency
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - Slaughterhouse Five
Kathryn Lance - Pandora's Genes
Cheryl Strayed - Wild
Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The Brothers Karamazov
Jack London - The House of Pride, and Other Tales of Hawaii
Jack Walker - The Extraordinary Rendition of Vincent Dellamaria
Colum McCann - Let the Great World Spin
Niccolò Machiavelli - The Prince
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus - The Nanny Diaries
Brian Selznick - The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Sharon Creech - Walk Two Moons
Keith Richards - Life
F. Sionil Jose - Dusk
Natalie Babbitt - Tuck Everlasting
Justin Halpern - S#*t My Dad Says
Mark Herrmann - The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law
Barry Glassner - The Gospel of Food
Phil Stanford - The Peyton-Allan Files
Jesse Katz - The Opposite Field
Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
David Sedaris - Holidays on Ice
Donald Miller - A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
Mitch Albom - Have a Little Faith
C.S. Lewis - The Magician's Nephew
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream
Ivan Doig - Bucking the Sun
Penda Diakité - I Lost My Tooth in Africa
Grace Lin - The Year of the Rat
Oscar Hijuelos - Mr. Ives' Christmas
Madeline L'Engle - A Wrinkle in Time
Steven Hart - The Last Three Miles
David Sedaris - Me Talk Pretty One Day
Karen Armstrong - The Spiral Staircase
Charles Larson - The Portland Murders
Adrian Wojnarowski - The Miracle of St. Anthony
William H. Colby - Long Goodbye
Steven D. Stark - Meet the Beatles
Phil Stanford - Portland Confidential
Rick Moody - Garden State
Jonathan Schwartz - All in Good Time
David Sedaris - Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Anthony Holden - Big Deal
Robert J. Spitzer - The Spirit of Leadership
James McManus - Positively Fifth Street
Jeff Noon - Vurt
Road Work
Miles run year to date: 32
At this date last year: 66
Total run in 2012: 129
In 2011: 113
In 2010: 125
In 2009: 67
In 2008: 28
In 2007: 113
In 2006: 100
In 2005: 149
In 2004: 204
In 2003: 269
Comments (7)
Picky, picky, picky...Anyway, public records act request has revealed the panel of experts (Panel Chair, M. Shizaru): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_wise_monkeys
Posted by Mojo | January 13, 2010 12:09 PM
I've only known a couple of people for whom lying was a pathological problem and it seemed that, for them, their notion of a lie's effectiveness rested primarily on delivering the it with a focused emphasis and delivering it to as large an audience as possible. In other words, not a lot of care went into details or crafting supporting evidence or persuasion or keeping track of who knows what. Blunt, opportunistic deception was mostly a matter of force and timing; and shaping it as an announcement exploits our group tendency to have an expansive sense of audience, to relax the same alertness to dishonesty we possess when we're addressed individually. I don't know what these people were like privately, but professionally it seemed a genuine compulsion, and was their standard method by which they advanced their concerns. Even if the goal itself wasn't poisonous, the road to it always was.
Posted by ep | January 13, 2010 1:32 PM
'experienced experts' good one Sam-inator ! I just hate those inexperienced experts.....
Posted by billb | January 13, 2010 4:51 PM
I assume Marshall Glickman will be on the panel of experts.
Posted by John F. Bradach, Sr. | January 13, 2010 5:34 PM
I hope the panel of stadium "experts" are better than the historic "experts" cobbled together for the 39th/Chavez name change.
Uh, oh. Does "experienced experts" mean it will be the same bunch? Given the term, redundency might be appropriate, if not ironic.
Posted by NW Portlander | January 13, 2010 6:27 PM
I mean who cares anymore? This is getting depressing, I'm an old guy thinking about leaving when I retire.
Now I'm starting to hear, sharp, young kids see there are no opps for any kind of advancement in this town and they want to leave also.
It'll just get me angry when I think of how many years and dollars we waste on polishing the same old scrap heap of downtown Portland instead of doing something that matters and makes life better for people who live here.
Posted by Steve | January 13, 2010 8:27 PM
Remember an expert is defined as a past drip under pressure
Posted by phil | January 14, 2010 5:31 AM