Group tries to put out fire heating calls for Sam Adams to resign

I hate acronyms. It seems there's an acronym for everything. But I heard about a group today that is just begging to be known by an acronym.

The realization came to me while watching the 11 o'clock news on KATU, the ABC affiliate in Portland. They were leading the newscast with the latest story on the scandal surrounding Portland Mayor Sam Adams.

The story prominently featured Hollie Teal, a supporter of Adams, who believes he should stay in office in spite of his admission that he lied about a sexual relationship he had with a young male a few years ago.

Hollie is working to rally support for Adams. She's started a blog, Sam is Still My Mayor, and a group on Facebook that already has 130 members.

In Teal's interview with KATU she gave the group of supporters an unofficial name. "We are the People in Support of Sam," Teal said. Seems an appropriate name to me. People in Support of Sam -- P.I.S.S. -- because Adams has undoubtedly pissed all over his political career.

I'm fascinated by the Adams scandal story, but the things I want to know aren't the things that are making the evening news, the morning papers or the media websites. I want to know the story behind the story. Rumors of Adams' involvement with the other man in this story were apparently circulating years ago, before Adams officially began his run for mayor. But I want to know what pushed it to the forefront now, after Adams was seated as mayor. I want to know what the conversations were like in the Oregonian newsroom, where Adams' partner works as an investigative reporter.

Sure, I'll check in periodically to follow developments in the story. My daughter lives in Portland, so how the city is run, and who runs it, are of obvious interest. But what I'm really interested in is finding links to the story behind the story of how this broke and the intrigue of how journalists and politicians are intermingled here, like the former Portland Mercury reporter who had been trying to track down the sex rumor and ended up on Adams staff.

Media organizations are good at aggressively pursuing a big, breaking news story and political scandal revealed (in this case, finally, as I understand it, by Willamette Week, to home Adams first confessed his lie). But I am particularly interesting in the story behind the story and how the story made its way to publication/broadcast/posting. Now some of those details are coming to light, like Willamette Week's story on why Adams confessed. I also find it fascinating when media report on the actions of other media. It is, surely, one of the benefits of having a competitive media environment with watchdogs keeping and eye on the actions of government, elected leaders and public servants.

So many media outlet are in financial trouble now, along with the economy, and journalists are among those frequently joining the ranks of the unemployed. One has to wonder how many competitive media market, or how competitive those markets will be, after all the economic dust settles.

This story is fascinating on so many levels. Yep, it's a real P.I.S.S.er.

Voters strip mayor of gavel for posing in panties

The mayor of the tiny town of Arlington, Ore., got dooced this week by her constituents. See the full story from the East Oregonian.

Some people just have no sense of humor. Come on, just how many mayors would anyone want to see in their underwear on a fire truck?

There are mayors embroiled in even bigger scandals than this one. Like the mayor of Detroit, Mich. And remember Marion Barry?

Well, I guess there are two lessons to learn from now-ousted Mayor Carmen Kontur-Gronquist's scandal.

One lesson related to the Detroit mayoral scandal too and that is that political (sexual or skin) scandal has now ventured into cyberspace and the wireless world.

The other thing of note in this age of voter apathy is that sometimes your vote really does count, as Kontur-Gronquist was recalled by the slimmest of margins, 142-139. And she got her constituents involved, as nearly every single registered voter in the town cast a ballot. How many mayors can boast that sort of turnout or interest?

Arlington mayor's 15 minutes of national fame

The scandal involving the Arlingon, Ore., mayor's myspace photo controversy will spill over onto national TV today. An interview with the mayor, Carmen Kontur-Gronquist, is scheduled to air tonight (Friday, Jan. 18) an ABC's 20/20.

The mayor has refused calls for her resignation. I'm not sure what folks are so upset about. The mayor has put that tiny burg (population 524 in the 2000 Census), on the map. Her predicament has been a hot topic on blogs, like this post on a blog called "A Slip of a Girl," listed as a lingerie blog, or this one on Blogger News Network, or this one on Death by 1000 Papercuts.

A Google blog search for the term "Arlington mayor photos" brings back 1,411 results. That's nearly three times as many posts about the Arlington mayor than live in Arlington.

Arlington shouldn't be trying to recall their mayor. They should be turning her photos into a calendar (with her consent and permission of course) and turning this into an economic development/revenue generating opportunity. If they city doesn't, someone else will find a way to make money off the deal.

Can Playboy's Girls of City Hall edition be far behind? Maybe they are already trying to capitalize on the sex and politics theme, as one of the items the men's magazine is teasing on its Web site right now proclaims: "Sex in America. Our survey shows that politics doesn't matter between the sheets."

Fire erupts over small town mayor's sizzlin' MySpace photos

"Every last one, route one, rural heart's got a story to tell
Every grandma, in-law, ex-girlfriend
Maybe knows you just a little too well;
Whether you're late for church or you're stuck in jail
Hey words gonna get around;
Everybody dies famous in a small town"
-- "Famous in a Small Town" by Miranda Lambert

One of my favorite sayings since returning to my home state a couple of years ago is that Oregon is a small town. Sometimes it seems everyone knows everyone's business here. Of course it's not quite a intense as living in one of the numerous small towns around the state where the population is measured in the hundreds.
Obviously, in a small town, the mayor is about as public of a public figure as you can get, outside of the high school quarterback and the starting point guard on the basketball team (who are quite likely the same person).

Arlington, Ore., is one of those towns, in as small valley along the Columbia River, between The Dalles and Pendleton. It is perhaps best known, in recent years, as the gateway to Waste Management's Columbia Ridge Landfill.
It's biggest celebrity claim to fame was as the birthplace of "Doc" Severinsen, the former band leader for the NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. But judging by the current media coverage in the state today, Arlington's newest celebrity is in fact the mayor, Carmen Kontur-Gronquist, who is achieving her fame in a very 21st century manner -- on the Internet as part of a scandal.
The mayor is the focus of some criticism for some partially-clad photos of her (in bra and panties) on a fire truck that she had posted on her MySpace page, which unfortunately she has now set to private, so you can't see her photos. I think I'm beginning to understand what women find so hot about fire engines.
As near as I can tell, the scandal broke in a story in the East Oregonian, which then got picked up on the Associated Press wire, and by the Portland and wider Northwest and Internet media.
I get the EO's daily newsletter of stories, but frankly I did not pick up on the story because of its dull headline, "Residents question mayor's actions." Yawn.
I don't know how all this will turn out for Mayor Carmen or the city of Arlington, but if all there is to the scandal is an attractive woman and part-time podunk-town politician struts her stuff on a fire engine in attire that covers more than what you see along the Columbia River on a summer day, then I would hate to see her lose her job. I generally like the whole social networking phenomenon. But many people find out that personal material you post (or others post about you) online can come back to haunt you. Maybe she will take the picture down, which she apparently hasn't yet, even though she blocked access to all but her MySpace friends.
I grew up in a town very much like Arlington. The town of Echo, Ore., where high school sporting events, like the eight-man football game, is the social highlight of the week for miles around. In fact Arlington was one of the schools in our league for sports.
Oh, the things that could have been posted online about those bus trips to places like Arlington, Cascade Locks, Fossil, Condon.... It's probably a good thing digital cameras and websites weren't around back then. I didn't care too much for living under the microscope as a resident of a small town. It always felt like everyone knew more about my business than I did.
John Mellencamp paints a romantic notion of life in small communities in his song "Small Town." Kenny Chesney's performance of "In A Small Town," by songwriters Harold Cory Mayo and Jon Lyle Mcelroy concedes some of the bad, along with praising the good of tiny town life:

Sometimes it was heaven, sometimes hell
Kinda like church, kinda like jail
There's a water tower says 'Welcome to nowhere'
As soon as I could I was long gone
My jeans were torn and my hair was long
Now I can't believe
I wanna go back there
To a small town, to a small town

But as Miranda Lambert sings in her song, "Everyone dies famous in a small town," she gets to the heart of the sometimes unwanted notoriety even small-town notables find in places where everyone knows everyone else and spends far too much time talking about who, and what, they know. (Click here for the video)
Sometimes, people in towns large and small town go on to Internet notoriety, because the world wide web has turned the whole wired world into one massive small town. Good luck Mayor. And if you find you need someone with press experience to handle the media onslaught, look me up on MySpace. Maybe we can trade services. I can be media consultant and you look like you could certainly be my personal trainer.
Ouch! Did you see those abs? Is it just me, or is there something even hotter about a woman in a position of authority who could also kick your ass if you aren't careful!
Of course, none of the things I say here apply in any way, shape or form to my daughter and her MySpace page! Should I be concerned that she never accepted my friend request?