and why wouldn't we want this kind of measured, thoughtful goodwill on the city council? i mean, who wouldn't enjoy Ed calling Randy a "clown" or "asshat"? the essence of democracy, civility and good government.

Ooooohhh Kaaaayyy...guess I can remove this @$$clown from consideration for my vote. Volm is a whackjob as well, so it's a three-man race at this point.

Where is Ed's red nose?
Did Ed sign a release for this picture?
Sue the editor!

When he's not LOLing, I'm sure Saltzman is really shaking in his shoes about facing anyone in this crew.

Jesse Cornet recently said there that it isn't his website. He was asked directly if Blue Oregon's bratty, elitist, "we know better than you" attitude, that some of its writers are so proud of, would characterize his dealing with Portlanders. He replied, "I sure wish I ran Blue Oregon. Now that would be neat. But you see, to get a site like this, it has to run itself (which isn't to say Kari and others don't to a lot of work to make it greate (sic)). Editors (which I have not been for over two years) and contributors (which I remained until I decided to run) are given wide discretion. If contributors want to share their position that commenters (sic) are whiny, that's fair game. You see, they're not City Council. They're just citizens, just like you".

Of course the original question was a little more pointed, about why they're the only blog on the planet too busy to manage link spam (which happens to include everything from child porn to date rape drugs), and how outing readers and calling them stupid is "hard hitting journalism".

So, I would ask him, isn't that pretty much Hannity? Do we need more people on the city council that allow such travesty to go in their backyard because it's not in their job description? For the record- and I know, I run a number of site professionally- the only think Kari does to manage the blog is sell ads. What the average 15 year old does to have a website doesn't count as professional management. And he ain't too good at that. Referring to his finding the time to ban the IP addresses of those that question the party line too persistently? Call a spade a spade? Pointing out that Carla is so insulting that the Urban Dictionary references her under "Madame La Snarque" is not more worthy of ban than child porn spam.

Not that they have time for anything other than M66/67... And BTW, Jesse isn't an assclown.

why they're the only blog on the planet too busy to manage link spam

Actually, we manage link spam all the time. TypePad, our host, has recently gotten much worse with the filters (or maybe, the spammers have gotten better.) Your complaint seems to be that over the holidays we weren't fast enough with the spam deleting. Yeah, it's a volunteer-run blog.

In any case, we've been working on a whole new infrastructure for way too long - and we're just about ready to go live. And it should deal with the whole spam problem. That, and the anonymous asshole problem too.

Dog forbid we actually listen to people speak before we give them money. As far as I'm concerned, a good debate like this, where we can actually see who is very prepared, vs who is just also running, and what exactly their differences are, would save both me, (since I wouldn't have to give them all $5,) and the city money, (since not all of them would qualify.) Otherwise I was going to have to give them all, [well, 4 out of the 5] of them money.

Not that this doesn't work too. Only 3 of them are still in consideration for my $5 now...

Garren is a loud mouthed, lying conspiracy theorist. Just because he doesn't have enough friends or work ethic to get public financing he lashes out at those who do (or at least are trying). I'm looking forward to the time when we never have to read another post about Ed.

Wow, such hypersensitivity to the word "clowns."

I specifically requested they NOT use my name or the photo which had me in it until I had run the whole thing past my steering committee. I made it very clear that I am accountable to the people who are putting their time and energy into my campaign and could not commit without their input.

Instead of honoring that request, or at least telling me "we're publishing it anyway", I had to find out about the photo and article from a friend.

Don't take my word for it. This is what Jason Renaud wrote me the next morning:
"Sorry Ed. You were clear with the group about your need for an
internal decision. I did ask you + Debra on Monday and you were still
undecided. So I posted the picture of the foursome (not as good!) and
no commentary."

Given the level of betrayal and disregard for my specific intentions, I think "clowns" was more than generous. And since I was at the table, and felt the "vibe" at it, I think I am entitled to an opinion about what transpired. The feel among some of these folks was that they are taking this money from Dan Saltzman, not the taxpayers. I don't think that's right, and I stand by that decision.

There will be plenty of opportunities to listen to candidates, including Friday night at Dough Nation. I just don't want to be there, and neither do any of my campaign volunteers.

Regards, Ed Garren

Garren- You sound like such a victim. I hope you find happiness in a campaign somewhere. I can only hope that your "steering committee" gets you in a van on I-5 headed back south. Welcome to the real campaign world, W. Hollywood may like your style of doing things and signed releases on pictures.

@dimag05- Mary Volm is native Oregonian and 20 year veteran of the city of Portland, until you can say that yourself you haven't earned the right to call her a "whack job".
I note that you state "a three man race", when Mary Volm indeed is the only woman in the race. Note,"a three person race".

Too self absorbed to contemplate your subtle sexist error?
Hasn't Mayor Adams given you any soccer balls to clean up or something else to do other than attack Volm?

Does Adams know that city employees are being paid to blog from City Hall on taxpayer time?

It amazes me that all too often those who routinely call for open dialog and debate are the first to dismiss someone else as a "whack-job", "sexist", or "liar". Either we respect opinions and perspectives that may differ from ours or not but name calling - and that goes for you too Ed - has no place in civic (and civil) debate.

Lol @ Gary: You must not be familiar with The Portland Mercury blog. There is rarely civility here. You've obviously have not read some of the starting blogs here back in December on this city council race. Nothing gets deleted--everything is posted warts and all. The Portland Mercury only cares about Google hits to their website. It is only an entertainment newspaper/online media. I agree with your comment Gary— it's just that civility is something The Portland Mercury could care less about the way the blogs flow here.

@ABS: Mary Volm is native Oregonian and 20 year veteran of the city of Portland, until you can say that yourself you haven't earned the right to call her a "whack job".

Why limit it to that? Why not says that anyone that isn't a native Oregonian, a 20 year "veteran" of the city of Portland, (it isn't actually a war BTW,) who's first and last name doesn't have 4 letters, and who isn't a Timber Queen hasn't earned the right to call her a "whack job."

@Janelle: (After people change their names enough times I just call them the original one to avoid confusion.) Why did you bother to start a new account? It is obvious to everyone who exactly you are when you start posting things like that.