See his Right Wing connection, Part IV

Over at his other-other-other blog, Minneapolis Confidential, Ken Avidor the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist is still practicing the politics of guilt by association. It seems Jeral Poskey, former Chairman of the Advanced Transit Association, has made a (gasp!) political contribution:

Jeral Poskey, former executive at Taxi 2000 and former head of the PRT-promoting Advanced Transit Association (ATRA) is a contributor to John McCain's campaign... [ellipses in original] Source

What does this have to do with Personal Rapid Transit technology? Nothing. Poskey is free to support whomever he chooses because, luckily, we still live in America where the Constitution is still (mostly) in effect. Any political preference he may be expressing with his dollars¹ has nothing to do with the feasibility or viability of a technology.

Of course, we have addressed this topic before. Paul Weyrich, a light rail supporter, is also the co-founder of the ultra-right wing Heritage Foundation. He's the one who once said:

I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections, quite candidly, goes up as voting populace goes down. Source (Crooks and Liars)

The double standard here is that the nominally Democratic Mr. Avidor never acknowledges Resmuglican cooties on light rail -- but he screams when there are connections to PRT (e.g., Slappy Olson and Smoochy Bachmann).

Remember, I don't care about anyone's campaign contributions. But by his blogging it is clear that Ken does -- notwithstanding his lack of comment regarding Weyrich.

So I don't care that Light Rail Now!² underwriter Richard Borkowski has contributed to Lyndon LaRouche to the tune of $3,725 since 2007. Borkowski's political views do not bear on the feasibility, viability or utility of light rail transit. But one would think Humidor would care, since right-wing cooties are supposed to taint whatever they touch, evidence supporting his claim that PRT is a right wing anti-transit pro-highway conspiracy.

What I do care about are issues such as astroturf outreach -- such as when the first page of narrative at the website for Light Rail Cincinnati (also a Light Rail Now! underwriter) is written by someone with a Parsons email address.

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part V

Related: Captain Whatever fades away again (see Comments)

gPRTKen Avidor is the burnt sienna in the Crayola box

1. Politically sophisticated people know that contributions are made for all sorts of reasons -- ideological agreement, as a favor, quid pro quos, losing a bet, etc.

2. A Texas organization with anti-PRT propaganda he is fond of quoting.