Like you, she's frustrated

The trickle of electon porn to our mailbox has become a stream. Yesterday the mail carrier dropped off no fewer than four new glossy flyers soliciting our votes.

Now, it's known the world over that Portland is in the roughest shape it's been in at least 40 years, maybe longer. And so with the elections currently under way, it's funny seeing the incumbents act out their contrived sales pitches.

Probably the biggest howler of yesterday's batch came from the career bureaucrat who's currently serving as head honcho at the open and notorious scam center known as Metro government.

Got that, voters? Instead of ignoring problems, she got to work!

You can drive around town and look at the results, a failed city.

But hey, she hears you! She's mad about it, too.

She's right about the inaction and leadership failure. But she doesn't notice that it's right in front of her every day in the mirror. She's not "blaming others," but she's not exactly accepting any blame, either.

I could have suggested an insert: "Unlike you, I'm geting paid a nice salary and benefits, out of tax dollars, to be responsible for these things."

Indeed, the flyer barely acknowledges that Peterson's the incumbent Metro president. That troublesome word "Re-Elect," which some years is a plus, is this flyer's Waldo. It appears just once, sideways, in letters 1/16th of an inch tall.

Time to get this one into the round file and out to the landfill can. The smell is too much to bear.

Peterson's opponents include an urban planning expert named Alisa Pyszka, and a gas engineer named Gary Dye. Dye is a self-described libertarian who wants to abolish Metro and consolidate city and county governments. Do I even need to say which of these folks I will be voting for? No, you get it.

Despite all the glossy spin, the question of the day is pretty simple: Is Portland better off now than it was four years ago? Of course not. I for one am voting accordingly.