It used to be that when Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist Ken Avidor wanted to smear pod transit as a right wing conspiracy, all he had to do was trot out one of his state's Republicans who had said or done something supportive in the legislature.
Leaving aside the issue of why Minnesota was able to produce, elect and nurture whackjobs like Michele Bachmann and Mark Whoever despite the (best?) efforts of Ken the Dump Blogger, we have to remember that the pro-PRT community for many years was limited to one citizens group with limited resources.
Republicans were generally anti-light rail and therefore seen as the path of least resistance, and they became a focus of pro-PRT efforts. This was a mistake, especially since it turned out there were plenty of Democrats willing to offer bills on PRT.
My point is that it was easy for Ken to trot out Krazy Eyes and Slappy whenever (and that was often) he needed to dismiss PRT as fringe.
But he can't do that now, now that there are Heathrow pods, Masdar City PRT and Suncheon pods in operation, and plenty of non-Republicans are interested.
He can't do it, but it doesn't mean he won't try.
Recently Ken tried to use his old technique of linking a politician to 'pod people,' hoping to achieve shaming. But this time the politician is Jim Oberstar, who is giving the keynote at this fall's Podcar City conference at George Mason University.
Oberstar is no small-time loon like the aforementioned duo.* For one thing, he's a Democrat. And in his 1975-2011 House career he amassed enormous gravitas on transportation issues. He was only Chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. In fact, Oberstar is an avid cyclist and promoted creation of bike trails during his long career. You'd think Ken would remember that. Awkward.
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| Jim Oberstar doesn't need Ken Avidor's approval. |
Will Avidor attack Oberstar more as the Podcar City conference gets closer? It would be the stupid thing to do, but -- Nah; I think he'll drop it.
^* UPDATE 1 -- Ken quotes us out of context again! He tried to slime Oberstar, now tries to make it look like we did it.
UPDATE 2: James Oberstar, 1934-2014
gPRT
Get it together Ken, you're barely trying
