Hello Minnesota 6th Congressional District!

Nedken Luddidor the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist is posting at Dump Bachmann again. You'll never guess on what subject -- oh, who am I kidding. It's PRT again.

Michele Bachmann voiced her support for Rep. Mark Olson's and Gary Dean Zimmermann's Personal Rapid Transit scheme... Bachmann also sponsored legislation for PRT when she was a state senator.

The next paragraph is a litany of distorted or already-disproven talking points about a technology, not Bachmann, so I'll spare you from mentioning them here.

I'm a recovering politician, though, so one observation does leap to mind:

PRT is not an issue in Congress.

Don't want to spend money to develop PRT? I think the majority of Minnesotans have already spoken on that through their legislators. Taxi 2000 has received no tax incentives or exemptions from the state, and likely never will. You have been protected from PRT. Move on!

Might PRT receive Federal money someday? Maybe. But it would have to pass the rigorous criteria of either the USDOT's Large or Small Starts programs. In other words, such funds for PRT would be extensively reviewed by a Kucinich Administration (okay, more likely a Clinton Administration, but you know what I mean). Move on!

Maybe I'm spoiled. I've got Jim McDermott; maybe I don't fully appreciate what it's like to have a loony right-wingnut like Bachmann representing me. I would share Sunny Jim with you if I could, honest. But all I can do is urge you to Dump Bachmann! Please!

But how is the Dump Bachmann Blog going to do that effectively, how are you going to convince the all-important swing voters, if one of your Dump Bachmann Team is wasting his time obsessing about non-issue PRT?

Move on! Health insurance, Iraq, the economy, the deficit, civil liberties, and a host of other issues need solutions from a progressive majority. Labridor's PRT obsession is a distraction from that.

Remember 2006? Didn't the Propagandist write then,

When is MPR going to ask Bachmann about her promoting and writing legislation for PRT? MPR did a couple of stories on PRT and even quoted Bachmann a few years ago....

http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/04/26_mccalluml_prt/....

Why Has Bachmann's promotion of PRT gone down the memory hole? Source

Of course, Bachmann was then elected. And didn't Lloydletta's Eric Zaetsch then write that PRT "probably was a non-issue"? So why would it be an issue this time?

But something tells me that a certain Minneapolis cartoonist is going to persist in making PRT the centerpiece of his Dump Bachmann efforts in 2008. It worked so well last time, didn't it?

Update (5/22/08): PRT is still his only Bachmann issue

gPRT
Ken Avidor is the +/- 3% margin of error