Through a partnership with Friends of Trees, the Timbers have pledged to plant a tree for each goal they score.

Well there's three new trees planted.

As for the team, LLP is asking his pro players to submit to a college coach. That usually doesn't go well.

There once was a rich man named Merritt
Who extended the city a carrot
He thought it was funny
To keep all his money
He never intended to share it

Yeah all those hard working regular types live in Dunthorpe.

And as for driving "regular guy" cars, the super-rich are some of the cheapest bastards around, especially the old-money crew.

I love that Henry got Merritt a lawyer to fight his speeding tickets. I just wish Henry himself had to face up to what he did to America in court. Those are the lawyers' fees I'd like to see.

It sure looks to me to be 'grooming for public office' stuff. Y'know, as if the Repugnantcans in this state might get their 'act' back together. Then, they'd probably draft this yahoo.

*sigh* Go by streetcar!

The wealthy, powerful and self-entitled are always charming, "forthright and earnest" when they're getting their way. When they're not, watch out. It's not pretty.

Godfry,
I see where you're going with that. Plant a few stories about driving tickets now so you can mount a serious campaign against Jefferson Smith later when the Dems run him for Governor.

Speaking of Nutsy, I saw him on the news the other night capitalizing on the death of the 5-year-old girl hit by a car in east county. What a prince (sp.?).

If there one thing that really annoys me, it's this idea that because the super wealthy occasionally do something like drive a non-fancy car, or work in a menial job like carrying 2x4's around, that they somehow "get" the common man.

Look, a lot of people would be content to drive a Ford Bronco, or spend summers hauling 2x4s if they knew that there were literally tens of millions of dollars in the bank ensuring that (a) this wasn't a lifetime thing, and (b) they didn't actually have anything to worry about. Why do most people hate the idea of driving a Ford Bronco, or carrying lumber? Because it means that they aren't fabulously wealthy, and that they might be teetering on the brink. Instead, the super rich let their kids play tourist in the middle class for the summer, but it doesn't give them any penetrating insight into the realities of not having health care, or needing to stay home with your sick kid for 2 weeks even though you've got 8 projects on your plate and 3 days of sick leave left in the year.

How I love myself let me count the ways
1. Money

I wonder how ofter Bush 43 relaxes by cutting brush these days.

"It sure looks to me to be 'grooming for public office' stuff."

Agreed. These type of stories don't just appear out of thin air. There are usually PR types pulling the strings from behind the scenes planting seeds.

If I had to speculate about an ulterior motive here, it's the O kissing tuchis to get or keep advertising by the Timbers.

"I remember sitting and meeting with him in person and laughing. I was just immediately at ease. Then I was intrigued about going to the next step."

What other steps did Leonard take that "intrigued" him, but did not take into consideration the public he was elected to represent?
So he is intrigued and away he goes!
Who else intrigued him?
Those who want our water rights?
The fluoride lobbyists?

"That was a big ask at a time when the city didn't have a lot of money," Fish said.

It was also a big ask to get free public park land for the venture. Fish should have said No to that in the first place, instead the people of Lents had to fight for their neighborhood park, but then he is not a good steward of our parks. He closed Fulton Community Center, he allows Hales to chop a giant Sequoia in Pier Park, what a go along.

New name for city: The City of Go Alongs!

And those of us who live in the northwest neighborhood can thank Merritt Paulson for these "zone M" parking tags--$60 for the privilege of parking in my own neighborhood, to help subsidize the Timbers...

As far as Henry Paulson - presented here as the kind but demanding father - it's the same old story. You keep out of sight for a few years to make sure the anger generated by your deeds does not come back at you. Then you slither back out of your mansion and begin trying to present a more wholesome image. The hopeless sell-outs in the press play along and away you go. But as with Bush, Rumsfeld, Condi, Wolfowitz and Cheney - not to mention Don Corleone in Nevada - the past can be a persistent thing.

The key is not to oversell the new image too soon. For example, this article talks about Merritt's business success. His "fierce work ethic" and "in-your-face but genuine style." Like that was how he pulled this off. Who is this reporter kidding?

Yes, the Paulsons worked fiercely to wrangle the best possible deal they could from our city council. But the main work Merritt had to do was cash the check from Dad.

Let's review what really happened: Daddy Paulson helped lobby for changes in the way Wall Street worked; changes that basically destroyed the economic security of the United States of America. Daddy took some of his financial gains made on Wall Street and bankrolled Junior here.

Junior bought an MLS franchise. Daddy is the minority owner. Henry Paulson helped Wall Street pillage the greatest country on earth, and then fled to Washington to make sure he and buddies didn't have to pay for it. And if they had paid for it, it would probably be with prison terms.

What happened to cause the meltdown has been called by many terms, but it was - at its core - a fraud. Wall Street defrauded America. Merritt just happened to be one of the beneficiaries of the whole thing.

This wasn't about having to carry a backpack on vacations as a kid. This was about a giant briefcase with many trillions of dollars in it. This is not the result of Merritt camping out as a child, but it is the reason there are more people camping out tonight across the country.

The rest is all Oregonian happy talk.

Ramen, Bill.

"I remember sitting and meeting with him in person and laughing. I was just immediately at ease. Then I was intrigued about going to the next step."

The images that come to mind are a pitcher plant, jacklighting hunter, or a plurity of Jägermeister on prom night . . . Neither insect, deer nor date fully realizing what "the next step" entails until it's too late to do anything about it.

"I remember sitting and meeting with him in person and laughing. I was just immediately at ease."

Considering the source and Paulson as two big time grifters, I understand Randy's comfort.

"Paulson said it wasn't his father's money that helped him"

Explain again how you got the money for the Timbers Merritt baby.

C'mon... When griping about the wealthy, why drag out the same Republicans, "Bush,, Rumsfeld, Condi, Wolfowitz, Cheney"? What about Mr. sellout - Al Gore? Kerry? Pelosi? I don't know Paul Allen's political leanings, but I'm pretty sure he's a Dem. sigh, okay, make me say it, Bill Gates.

LLP= privilege, money and power
He can have anything he wants. Right now he wants a soccer team. Tomorrow he may want to run for POTUS.

You laid it out Bill, and although the whole picture is not good by any means, on one small aspect of this, but significant, the Lents Community and the public did not lose park land nor did Lent's lose their $43 million URA funds due to Merritt Paulson backing out of the project.(correct me if not current status on that URA fund.)

On that score, I have to hand it to Merritt Paulson who after that Lent’s community contentious meeting as I recall anyway, he called it off indicating that he didn't want to continue the ask at Lents if the people didn't want it. Leonard didn’t like Paulson's move and wanted Paulson to retract that. In other words, in my opinion, Merritt listened to the people at that point anyway where Leonard, Fish and the others had shown they could care less.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009/06/lents_stadium_plan_off_the_tab.html
Residents booed Paulson at a meeting Thursday night. In a letter to the city the next morning, he said the opposition persuaded him to abandon the idea of a Lents ballpark.
"What Merritt has done is put me in a bad position," Leonard said. "I told him I would vote for soccer if he kept the Beavers. He promised me, he shook my hand, he said he'd see this through.
"Merritt needs to very quickly calm down and take a deep breath," he said.
But later in the day, even as he publicly scolded Paulson, Leonard huddled in the mayor's office with Paulson's representatives, trying to work out the outlines of a soccer deal.

Good old Admiral we had, blaming others for putting him in a bad light.

I will add not a fan of the Paulsons and what happened later,
as we all know a deal was worked out anyway.