I’ll be a special guest blogger over at Willamette Week for the presidential debate, starting at 5:45 PST.

Comments are taken, and published within the live blog stream at the discretion of the editor (not me), so come on over and join the fun.

From our good friends at Willamette Week, where you can download a high resolution, printable PDF of the above image.

First noticed on Huffington Post (with a little shout out to this blog), from Lynn Zinser’s New York Times Slap Shot blog. Also read a round-up of coverage of the event on E & P Pub, with some humor regarding Rangers’ center, former Winter Hawk and Alaska Native Brandon Dubinsky.

You probably don’t have the inclination to watch an hour and ten minutes of Amanda Fritz and Charles Lewis taking questions from the editorial board of Willamette Week, so I’ll break it down for you.

At the end of the interview, the candidates are asked if they have any nicknames. When pressed, Lewis came up with “Bruiser,” from his high school football glory days. (Fritz gave “OK Mama,” from way back in the days of CB radios.)

Bruiser is kind of ironic; Lewis has reinvented himself since the primary. Gone is the angry young man looking to settle scores with the Portland Development Commission (PDC), the city agency that snubbed his non-profit in favor of a glitzy new theatre complex for Portland Center Stage. (I noticed the new, non-combative Lewis at the City Club debate.)

When pressed on his past beef with PDC, Lewis allowed that “I had some issues with them.” But now? “I’m really excited about some of the things that are happening,” he said. “Downtown Portland is a vibrant, bustling city in large part because of PDC and the efforts that they have put there.” (Starting at 51:18.)

Sheesh, don’t tell his number one fan, Jack Bog.

But that’s not all. In an attempt to differentiate himself from Fritz, he’s suddenly fully on board with another bugaboo of BoJack: “…the east-side streetcar, you know, it’s something that I am in favor of seeing; I want to see that investment,” says Lewis. It’s “something I believe we should have….” (Starting at 27:55)

Well, with Chris “Streetcar” Smith out of the race, I guess somebody had to pick up that moniker. And it sure wasn’t going to be Fritz, who has been steadfast in her insistence on funding basic infrastructure first.

Lewis also seeks to differentiate himself from Fritz on the city’s bio-fuels mandate. “I ran my amphibious bus on 100% biodiesel,” says Lewis, “I think it’s important to have a wide variety of fuel sources… I understand the impact on food prices….”

Fritz wants to re-evaluate the mandate “in light of the impact on food prices, in light of the fact that we cannot grow our way out of burning fuel for recreational or other uses,” she says. “We need to be focusing as well on conservation and on alternative modes, including … rail, pedestrian and bikes.” (Starting at 33:17)

An issue that came up during the City Club debate was Lewis’ unconditional support for the local option Children’s Investment Fund, which is up for renewal on next month’s ballot as Portland Measure 26-94. Both candidates support the measure, though Fritz has consistently questioned whether the city is the correct jurisdiction for this. She has already reached agreement with county commissioners to lobby the state legislature to obviate this local fund.

“Essentially, we need to be getting music programs back into the schools in the school day for every child in every county in Oregon,” says Fritz, “and by funding after-school programs, particularly for enrichment, we haven’t lobbied at the legislature as hard as we might otherwise have done….”

Fritz notes some of the good things this levy funds. “If those programs are cost-effective in Portland, they should also be provided in Prineville and Pendleton,” she says. “And we need to have the city of Portland playing at the state level and … have the same sense of urgency which I believe has been lacking because we’ve chosen to fund some of these very, very worthy programs … locally rather than insisting on statewide solution with the appropriate jurisdiction providing the funding.” (Starting at 35:25)

Lewis, whose non-profit receives funding from this levy, thinks the city is the proper jurisdiction for funding these things.

Perhaps the most significant difference that emerges in this interview is on the drug and prostitution exclusion zones that recently expired, and that Lewis would like to see reinstated.

These zones, which an old friend referred to as “Martial Law Zones”, gave police extra-judicial authority to prevent freedom of movement and association. Citizens arrested for certain crimes would be excluded from these zones, regardless of whether their cases were ever heard by a jury.

“That’s part of livin’ in a civilized society,” says Lewis, “that the community can make rules on where people are allowed and not allowed to go, with the prime example being if somebody is, you know, criminal, you can say, ‘you’re goin’ to jail, and that’s the only place you’re allowed to be,’ and so I think we do have that right.”

Never mind those sticky bits about due process, presumption of innocence, or a jury of your peers. If a cop says your 86’ed, your 86’ed.

Fortunately, Fritz gets it.

“Civil rights and the constitution are very important,” she says. “We can solve that problem without infringing on people’s civil rights and without doing things which are possibly unconstitutional.” (Starting at 37:38)

(I’m sorry they didn’t get into a discussion of zoning adult businesses, something that clearly contributes to vice in areas where they are concentrated. Rather than the libertarian approach of letting de facto red light districts sprout along strips like 82nd Ave, regardless of the location of schools, we have the ability — even within the strong free speech protections of the Oregon constitution — to zone adult businesses. If they can do it in Tigard, we can do it in Portland.)

In the end, there is no doubt that Fritz is the stronger candidate. Of course anything can happen, but Lewis’ puzzling shifts since the primary, along with his lack of experience make him appear a very risky choice for city council.

Yes, it’s from the Obama campaign, but it’s must-see for anybody who’s forgotten (or wasn’t around for) the S&L meltdown. Like Joe Biden said, “past is prologue.”

Yesterday, I noticed a sudden up-tick in sales of my More Hockey Less War bumper sticker. I couldn’t figure out why this might be, and then this morning I found this great op-ed piece by fellow traveler Alex Charns in the Raleigh-Durham News Observer.

I dropped him an e-mail, and he shot back that he can’t take full credit. A segment on NPR’s Day to Day yesterday featured commentary from hockey mom Polly Ingraham that ends with her saying “I’m ordering the bumper sticker that says ‘more hockey less war.'”

Well folks, if that’s what you’re looking for, here you go!

Paul Newman had some great scenes in his unbelievable 53-year cinematic career. Here’s one from Slap Shot (1977) with Strother Martin (in a twist on their roles in Cool Hand Luke). I love the way he acted with his eyes (Not safe for work!).

Besides being a great actor, Newman protested the war in Vietnam, was proud to be on Richard Nixon’s enemy list, and helped save The Nation when it faced economic troubles (here’s John Nichols on Newman in The Nation yesterday), among other things. And he did his own skating in Slap Shot. What more could you want from a guy?

Like Wacky Mommy said about him and Joanne Woodward, “It’s not like they were out taking off their panties in public and having nervous breakdowns in their SUVs.” No, Newman was a class act.

Thank you, Paul Newman for showing the world how to do it right. I’m going to go watch Slap Shot right now.

Amy Ruiz does a great job capturing the blow-by-blow on the Merc’s blog, so if you didn’t hear Friday’s city council debate, you might want to check that out before reading this.

I pointed out in a comment on Ruiz’s piece the one glaring factual error in the debate, Lewis’ claim that Jefferson High School is “1/4 full” and David Douglas is bursting at the seams because of the lack of affordable housing in inner Portland.

Gentrification and displacement of non-white communities is a serious problem in Portland, and I appreciate Lewis’ attention to this. But it has nothing to do with Jefferson’s (or Madison’s, Marshall’s or Roosevelt’s) under-enrollment.

These schools are under-enrolled because Portland Public Schools has allowed the majority of high school students in these clusters to transfer out while they have dramatically cut educational and extracurricular opportunities.

For example, out of 1,603 PPS high school students living in Jefferson’s attendance area last October, only 403 were enrolled there, along with an additional 142 from other neighborhoods. The balance of Jefferson’s student population attended other PPS neighborhood schools (437), Special Programs/Focus Options (423), with the rest in PPS Charter Schools, Special Services or Community Based Alternatives.

So Lewis is factually incorrect to blame Jefferson’s under-enrollment on the lack of affordable housing even though he is correct that affordable housing is a serious problem (something he and Fritz clearly agree on).

I can’t expect Lewis to be as well-versed in public schools policy and demographics as me, but he’s made this statement before, and it is just plain wrong.

Fritz, by contrast, spoke to the City Council when they met at Jefferson last January. She told them about the injustice of the inequity in opportunity between schools like Jefferson and Wilson, her neighborhood high school, demonstrating a clear understanding of a critical problem facing PPS.

On other issues, Lewis showed himself to be reasonably well-informed, though it’s almost an embarrassment to try to compare his 10 years of experience in the non-profit sector (and a couple years as a small business owner) to Fritz’s 20-year history as a community organizer, public citizen and advocate for equitable, transparent governance.

Lewis is wise to dwell on his business experience, since his public policy experience ends at the intern level. But it all started sounding like “Ethos yada yada started from zero yada yada Ethos yada revolving credit for small businesses yada yada yada Ethos yada started on my credit card yada yada yada make payroll yada yada staff of 75 yada yada yada Ethos…”

People are quick to defend Ethos, and I don’t want to beat up all the low-wage teachers and volunteers there who have brought music to the lives of kids that otherwise wouldn’t have much.

But there’s a certain charity mentality to it. I wrote about it in a comment on PPS Equity last July:

My complaint is with the misconception that Ethos solves the problem of PPS not funding music education in poor schools.

…Lewis perpetuates this myth, as in this quote (since removed) from the Ethos Web site: “When budget cuts threatened to destroy music education programs in Portland Public Schools, Charles stepped in and found a solution.”

It’s not a solution; it’s not even a band aid.

These organizations foster a charity mentality toward the least well-off among us, and … give political cover to policy makers who maintain a system that takes pretty good care of students in wealthy neighborhoods but not in others.

I am a to-the-death supporter of arts education in our schools. Which is why I point out that Ethos reaching a couple thousand students with some small amount of music education is no substitute for an integrated K12 music curriculum, taught by certified, union-represented teachers, for all 47,000 PPS students.

I don’t see any way Ethos is helping us get to that realistic goal (they’re doing it in Beaverton with the same level of state funding and even less federal and local funding). To the contrary, I think Ethos may work against this vision.

In the end, I was pleased that Lewis stayed positive and did not reveal his bombastic side, which was on display in the Willamette Week endorsement interview for the primary (and in his supporters’ comments on this blog and others). In that, besides going after John Branam about his salary as a PPS employee, Lewis seemed to cite his beef with PDC snubbing Ethos as a major reason for wanting to be on the City Council.

He seems to be maturing as a candidate, and I agree with him (as does Fritz, I believe) on several critical issues. But there’s little doubt who’s really the best prepared to lead, and to lead in the direction Portland needs to go.

Amanda Fritz has been significantly involved with the official planning of Portland’s future, and is uniquely qualified to bring citizen’s voices into City Hall and implement the Portland Plan. I stand by my primary endorsement and say “Fritz for City Council!”

Yesterday was a sad, sad day for our nation state. The Democratic-led Senate voted to completely cover up and excuse the Bush administration’s illegal wire tapping.

Leading the charge, voting for cloture (despite an earlier pledge to support a filibuster of such legislation) was Senator Obama of Illinois. Yes, that Obama.

Not too many surprises so far in the big races… Obama up by a healthy margin over Hills; Merkley looks like the winner going away, soon to be the Sacrificial Lamb against incumbent Gordon Smith for US Senate.

In the Portland races, it looks like Sam “The Tram” Adams has dispatched Sho Dozono without a runoff. The tally is currently 57.84% to 33.99%. Dozono’s campaign was tough to watch. I’m not thrilled about Adams, but I’ll take him over Dozono and thank my lucky stars there won’t be a runoff.

Nick Fish also looks to have avoided a runoff for council seat #2, with 61.79% to Jim Middaugh’s 21.31%.

Seat #1 has always been about second place, with Amanda Fritz expected to take a plurality (though hoping for an outright majority). Indeed, she’s got 43.41% now, with the rest of the field bunched up in the 9-12% range.

In second place, Charles Lewis has a narrow lead over John Branam and Jeff Bissonnette, with Mike Fahey and Chris Smith taking up the rear. (I called this race all wrong at the outset, predicting a Fritz-Smith runoff, but Smith hasn’t even garnered 10%. I feel bad for having been so tough on him.)

Here’s the field for seat #1 as of Multnomah County’s update #3 at 9:45:

           John Branam.  .  .      13,154   11.93
           Jeff Bissonnette .      12,934   11.73
           Chris Smith.  .  .      10,392    9.43
           Mike Fahey .  .  .      11,683   10.60
           Amanda Fritz  .  .      47,846   43.41
           Charles Lewis .  .      13,770   12.49
           WRITE-IN.  .  .  .         451     .41

I have no idea how many more ballots are left to count, so it’s hard to know if Branam or Bissonnette can close the vote gap to overtake Lewis.