The O dresses up the truth, once again
The b.s. from Mark Larabee and the O about the Paulson stadiums scam just won't quit. While the neighbors scream bloody murder about the hokey "process" that's been set up for Thursday night's "citizen advisory" vote, our city's moribund daily newspaper blithely proclaims, "Residents will get a say in Lents' baseball future." Except for a chosen few, however, the say will be meaningless. Don't expect the Stickel-ers to tell you that. Or to mention this. Too busy cheerleading.
The editorial board of the O never met a builder boondoggle they didn't like. Streetcars, aerial trams, now a second minor league baseball stadium in less than a decade after the first one fell on its face -- it's all good to them. "Snazzy." Especially when it comes from a Republican trust fund baby like Little Lord Paulson. That gets them squirming with glee. Whatever. Soon they'll wonder why they're gone.
| Posted at 11:39 PM | Permalink |
|
Comments (7)
This house of cards is collapsing quickly. Randy, Sam and Merritt all know it. The rest of us sure do.
Posted by Drake | June 16, 2009 11:55 PM
This reminds me so much - even though it's just a tiny fraction - of the frustration I felt before the war in Iraq. It just seemed so obvious that the plan was screwed up in so many ways and the idiots in charge were on a fool's errand for their own aggrandizement.
There was also a certainty that the people who would pay the price were not really involved in the decisions. It was all done at a different level and they were so much window dressing.
What reminded me of this is Jack's mention of the cheerleading role of the media. Remember the cheerleading before Iraq? Wasn't that excruciating?
Doesn't this current scheme seem like an allegory? It reminds me of Norman Mailer's book about why we were in Vietnam told as the story of a hunting trip.
The presence of Henry Paulson's kid in the mix is too obvious to miss. The farcical level of needing two stadiums to do what one already does, is Joseph Heller's "Catch 22" set in the Rose City.
Why do we need two stadiums? Because we only have one. If we had two, we would need three. If you think it's crazy, you are sane, but if you think we can stop it, you are crazy.
This baseball/soccer deal encapsulates everything that's gone wrong with America in the last 50 years.
Oh well. I'm too weary to deal with it. I like writing jokes. But somewhere out there in Portland tonight there's got to be a brilliant young writer staring at this and thinking, "My God, it's a literary masterpiece waiting to happen."
Posted by Bill McDonald | June 17, 2009 12:45 AM
Here is an Oregonian secret: If its a scam, the editorial board starts using words with "zz" in it. Do a search and you find such doozies:
buzz
dazzle
fizz
sizzle
snazzy
And when it goes bust:
fizzle
Posted by Garage Wine | June 17, 2009 7:20 AM
take a look at the map in the O story. Look at the size of the proposed stadium in relation to the size of the park.the stadiums not going to take up 5% of the park, its going to take up 40$ or more!!!!!
Posted by johnd | June 17, 2009 8:01 AM
Ah ha: We were wondering when someone would wake up to the fact that the Republicans are to blame for the Paulson stadium fiasco.
Posted by RickN | June 17, 2009 8:30 AM
If you're referring to my comment, I see the stadium deal as symbolic of the Paulson TARP plan. Three guys in the Rose Garden driving that deal: Bush, Paulson and Bernake. Three guys in the Rose City driving this deal: Sam, Paulson, and Randy.
Posted by Bill McDonald | June 17, 2009 10:01 AM
Bill, out of the five people you mention in your above post, only one is a purported republican. It think it is a mistake to paint the stadium fiasco as a repub vs demo allegory.
Posted by lw | June 17, 2009 12:05 PM