Now that I can definitely understand. Might be an interesting re-match to the Open Cup final as well. I just don't see raising a EC banner next year and thinking "yeah, this is great!" That seems to be Garber's main justification for conferences and I don't get it.

While we hear complaints that the CCL and Open Cup are meaningless or wastes of time, I'm hardpressed to figure out how I'm supposed to get excited about Seattle making an Eastern Conference title run.

Spot on Matt.

Thanks. Maybe that's why I'm a politician, I'm so used to rejection now. :)

The few employees I've spoken to seem to have the same feeling. So far the feedback is good. Should be interesting to see what the rest of the Council thinks.

Hmm, you might be onto something RR. Hopefully Providence has an underground cartoonist on the case.

The scary thing is that he's actually being reasonable compared to the rest of the right-wing bloggers who responded to this meme. Most of them have settled on Carter and Obama at the top along with FDR and Wilson.

Does anyone know if there's even the remotest chance of Feilhaber coming to MLS? Don't really care where, though Rave Green would be lovely, just enjoy watching the guy play. Has he ever shown interest at all?

Going to take a reprieve from the heat and watch LA-NY, been looking forward to this one. I like NYRB with LA stumbling lately... then to celebrate another Sounder victory tonight. Take 'em all boys!

I'm hard pressed to figure out why anyone would pay her to write for them.

I could be misreading this, but it seems like this is largely a symptom of our reliance on sales tax versus an income tax since that is a huge chunk of the burden. If that's the case, shouldn't the business community be supporting an effort to create an income tax with a constitutional cap on sales tax?

Yup. The expense and waste has always disgusted me. I reused the second batch once but they were falling apart and ended up in a landfill. Plus I'd rather utilize volunteer hours on something more productive. One thing I'd kinda miss though... signwaving. Perhaps we'd just end up with homemade ones.

Thanks Matt. I've actually been kicking around the idea for a while but really it's the organizing power of social media that made me think it would be possible. It makes free what used to take a pile of dollars to accomplish. Wish I'd brought it up earlier but maybe being political season it'll be more on people's minds.

It's also important to remember that some of us had significantly more inbreeding than others, skewing the results... Sharron Angle

Guess I'm just used to UEFA.

Remember, away goal rule doesn't apply to Extra Time in CONCACAF for some strange reason.

Ugh. That makes me ill. I still can't forgive our FO for letting him go. Happy for Seba... but still weird to watch him doing so well for another team.

I had a friend once tell me that riding a bike increases carbon output... because you breathe harder. Seriously.

Never seem to find time to catch these live but always enjoy them.

I say Nkufo only because the need is so much more glaring for Seattle. Though I'm really excited to see Henry play in the MLS.

It was too good to just show up once. :) Thanks for the kind words. The thing I always try to remember with editorial writers is that they've got to produce every day and often have to put something out without having heard all sides. The "regionalism" thing is persuasive, even if it's coming from Muri, but doesn't really make sense if you think it through to it's logical end. On the housing/transportation front, that happens to be something I've thought a lot about. In fact there's some apartments coming soon near the commercial areas in GH North that I'm proposing we require of the owner that 25% be affordable (as defined by housing affordable to people below median income.) That should put some units on a main bus line/near lower wage jobs. This one would be in the form of a development agreement while I expect an ordinance to come later for our higher density zones. We'll see how it goes.

Hi Lynne, No, that lot was not a part of the purchase. It's a little confusing, but that lot was actually owned by Stutz whereas the site of the tanks next to the Tides was leased until it was purchased by the developers who the City eventually purchased it from. So he continues to own the lot with the old trucks on it. It's been the source of a lot of ongoing aggravation to be honest. We have a junk vehicle ordinance but the staff has had some trouble gaining compliance. Unfortunately we're at kind of an impasse. If you were so inclined, you could call or write an email to the Planning Department or the Mayor. Public pressure tends to get these things moving. Sorry I don't have a more promising answer but we've been trying to get compliance for quite a while now with very little luck.

I don't think it's unreasonable to see a dramatic improvement. Nkufo is coming, Alonso will be returning (his loss was huge), Jaqua is back, Evans will be back shortly, etc. It feels a bit like the Rev's issues last year with all the injuries. Apparently we are expecting another international signing that Adrian expects immediate impact from as well.