The Turd Stirs

Phil Krinkie, a Republican who cares so much about PRT that he hasn't said anything about it in seven years, has entered the race* to succeed Michele Bachmann in Minnesota's 6th congressional district.

So out of all the important issues facing the district and our nation, what is the ONE thing Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist (semi-retired) Ken Avidor decided to tell his Twitter followers about Krinkie?

You guessed it:

Ken seems to think that there are simply no remaining issues in this race other than -- what a coincidence -- Ken's obsession. 

gPRT


* "Phil Krinkie joins GOP race to succeed Bachmann," St. Paul Pioneer Press, July 20, 2013

A Certain Demeaner

Ken Avidor served himself up for us to write about today, with the following tweet. Apparently he just couldn't resist the opportunity to conflate Bachmann's 2003 PRT bill with the current St. Croix River Bridge project.

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The one thing has nothing to do with the other -- unless you equate the bipartisan support for the bridge in the MN congressional delegation with the 13 Democrats and 5 Resmuglicans who were pro-PRT in the 2003-04 state senate session.

We'll leave behind the matter of the bridge, since Ken's handlers seem to have helped him find the correct side of that issue. But what of this 'promotion' of PRT by Minnesota Public Radio?

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It was a story in MPR's News & Features section. Got that? Not Opinion or Editorial.

In Ken's eyes, if a news story doesn't agree with his propaganda it must be enemy propaganda. That's how author Dan Olson is turned from a reporter into a promoter.

You know, this reminds me of the time Ken Avidor took issue with an article about a possible PRT project in Dubai:

"Personal Rapid Transit" PRT Disinformation Part II and III (Ye Olde PRT Skeptic Blog, 11/5/05)

"Fun"? There was nothing fun about it. Ken wasn't satirical, there was no irony, he employed no pun or other wordplay. 

Nope, it was just Ken Avidor suggesting you Google sexy pictures of Zoe Naylor while thinking of an accomplished business reporter who happens to have the same name.

Far from fun, it was demeaning. Ken Avidor might as well have told journalist Naylor to hold an aspirin between her knees.

Ken makes MPR sad

gPRT

The year: 2010

And yet Ken Avidor returns to the past again, re-posting in PRT Moondoggie his most favoritest Minnesota Public Radio story ever -- the one from 2004 that contains the magic words PRT, Bachmann and Zimmermann:

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Por que? Es claro: because Ken has set about the task of politicizing the issue of PRT in Winona. Look at what he's already posted this week:

Jan. 4: City Council Vote Soon on Winona Pods
Jan. 4: Candidate Jeremy Miller's Position on the Winona Pod Project
Jan. 5: SD 31 Candidate Paul Ibisch's Position on Winona Pod Plan

Ibsich and Miller are Republicans (and Miller is a son of Winona mayor Jerry Miller -- didya know that, Ken? You're welcome). Democratic Farmer Labor incumbent Sen. Sharon Erickson Ropes hasn't responded to Ken's single issue question yet, he says.

He doesn't need her response. Because even though Ibsich and Miller The Younger's support for the PRT plan is clearly conditional, for Ken Avidor the only correct position is total opposition to PRT. This of course is the Risser Rule, after the one-time Green candidate whom Avidor relentlessly attacked and linked to Bachmann, Zimmermann and Mark Olson -- until Risser abandoned her noncommittal position:

The upshot is that Ken now has more than enough info to brand Ibsich and Miller The Younger as 'PRTistas' who are 'just like Bachmann and Zimmermann.' Ken will use this to continue his talking point that only right wingers want PRT.It's a talking point because it's propaganda. A lie. Avidor knows full well that PRT has support from both ends of the political spectrum -- he knows because I've explained it to him, at places like his own Daily Kos diary (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

And Michele Bachmann's support for PRT in 2004? There were actually several PRT-related bills other than hers, and the majority of authors/co-authors were Democrats (read them for yourself). Other non-Republicans who support PRT include Marcy Winograd (running in California against blue dog Jane Harman), Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Gus Ayer, Peak Oil expert Debbie Cook, TheocracyWatch founder Joan Bokaer, and New Urbanist Peter Calthorpe.

Update (2/25/2012):

Now Ken's going after Minneapolis community leader/environmentalist Sarah Sponheim (daughter of old Avidor target A. Sheffer Lang)

gPRT

Blogger resigns to spend more time with his conspiracy theory

Editor's note: We continue beta-testing the change to one of the oldest editorial policies of "PRT is a Joke" IS A JOKE. For a limited time, The Name of the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist will be shown -- although special formatting will be used.

August saw the end of an era for Personal Rapid Transit, as it's most articulate critic announced his resignation as a contributor to the Dump Michele Bachmann blog.

"Way back in 2004, a transportation activist sent me an MPR article about the pods that quoted Michele Bachmann," Ken Avidor wrote in Dump Bachmann in recalling how he got started wanting to Dump Bachmann and opposing PRT. He also started opposing PRT in 2003 and 1989.

Avidor went on to explain he is departing Dump Bachmann in order to spend more time with his conspiracy theory. "I spent a lot of time away from my anti-PRT conspiracy theory last year, polishing my liberal credentials in the run up to Bachmann's reelection. Then I started to realize how much I miss my conspiracy," Avidor said.

One day, Avidor was on his regular daily commute between Alameda and Minneapolis when he started discussing children with the man in the next seat.

"I suddenly realized how fast my conspiracy has grown up, so much that I hardly recognize it," he said, "so I decided I needed to devote more time to it, before it has to start college in September."

This year, Avidor and his conspiracy have traveled to many places together, including Ithaca NY, Morgantown WV, Phoenix, London and Daventry in England, and Abu Dhabi.

He promises to return to Dump Bachmann soon. "Hopefully she'll be in Congress a long time, so I can spend the rest of my life trying to dump her -- it's that important to me," Avidor said.





gPRT

Mr. & Mrs. McCarthyism

"I would say, what I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look -- I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think the people would love to see an expose like that."

Doesn't that sound familiar? What other Minnesota propagandist has been saying things like that -- for years?

"I would like to see the media investigate why Bachmann, Olson, Vandeveer and Zimmermann promoted PRT" Source

"The next time you read a puff piece... write the publication or Web site and demand a real investigation of the PRT flim-flam." Source

"The next time you read a puff piece... let them know you don't buy their con -- write the publication or website and demand a real investigation of the PRT flim-flam." Source

"As I have said before, there needs to be an investigation of PRT by the major media before the election this fall." Source

"The media in the Twin Cities has let the electorate down by not investigating the role PRT has played in Minnesota politics. I hope there will be an investigation of PRT before next year's election" Source

"I have asked the Star Tribune to investigate the claims of the PRT promoters for years." Source

"Perhaps the best way to sort fact from fiction about PRT is to ask an investigative reporter to verify the claims of the PRT proponents... Perhaps GRIST would consider an investigative article on PRT?" Source

"I've been encouraging publications to assign reporters to investigate PRT and sort out fact from fiction." Source

Kiln Ovendoor probably has all our names on a list in his pocket.

Hypocrisy alert: Kenwood guilt-by-associates PRT to Bachmann at 1:45 pm, Oct. 19.
Then at 2:02 pm he criticizes Bachmann for using guilt by association! (h/t Atren)

Hypocrisy Update (10/23): He posts again about Bachmann's guilt by association -- and then he GBAs Bachmann to Olson. Also GBAs PRT to Olson.

"I'm shocked, shocked to find there is guilt by association going on!"

gPRT
Ken Avidor says PRT isn't pro-America

Rep. Bachmann gets a promotion

She's now Senator Bachmann. The jump-up is courtesy of Kennel Ration, the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist. Would I lie to you?

In Minnesota, the biggest supporters of PRT are the usual anti-rail transit suspects: Senator Michele Bachmann, Rep. Mark Olson (16b), Phil Krinkie.... and Dean Zimmermann [ellipses in original]. Source

Too bad no other Los Angeles Times readers know or care who Olson, Krinkie or Zimmermann are. People less concerned with Guilt By Association and more into finding additional transit alternatives probably care more that PRT has been endorsed by the World Wildlife Fund* and the EU.

Related: LA Times Steve Hymon blog

Also today: World Premiere!
New Feature!

* Click Skycab thumbnail

gPRT
Ken Avidor, the human cut and paste hot key

Why Conspiracy

Why would Ken Avidor choose to create and promote a conspiracy theory? Why would anyone?

It seems like a no-win affair: whether a UFO cover-up, the Illuminati or Bigfoot, alleging conspiracy automatically puts one outside the mainstream.

My guess as to the answer is: CONTROL. When you blame everything on a conspiracy you can't lose.

(1) You get to define the conspiracy. Thus, a transit technology like PRT can really be anti-transit if there is an insidious conspiracy by anti-transit highway interests.

(2) You decide who are the conspirators. For example, liberals and conservatives, corporations and environmentalists, all agreeing on an issue, indicates divergent interests have put aside differences to work on something they agree is to their mutual advantage. Unless there is a conspiracy. UPDATE-- Ken Avidor uses LinkedIn to stalk PRT advocates (12/2).
(3) Facts are only as you see them. News stories you disagree with are "puff pieces." Peer-reviewed studies you disagree with? You guys buy those. Plus, by invalidating those puff pieces and bought-and-paid-for reports, you can keep on being the sole voice of truth crying in the wilderness. You can continue calling for investigations, even though those news stories and reports were investigations.
(4) You are the smart one. Because you define the conspiracy, you have all the answers. You get to say things like "I have proof of everything I say," and describe yourself as "perhaps the leading skeptic" of PRT -- even though all the proof is circumstantial, circular or plain wrong, and you are the leading authority only because you invented the conspiracy in the first place. But it feels good to be the keeper of secret knowledge; the people who believe you call you an "expert."

A word about words -- or rather, their meanings. For there's really nothing wrong with the word conspiracy per se-- but the common usage of the word gives it a certain je ne c'est plot.

In other words, in the popular consciousness there is a difference between a conspiracy and a plan.

For instance Hillary Clinton was right about there being a 'vast right wing conspiracy' against her husband. All the evidence about Richard Mellon Scaife, the Arkansas Project, etc. are in the public record. There was a group of people with right wing sympathies, linked by money and documents, working in concert against the Clinton presidency. But Hillary Clinton was ridiculed for calling it a conspiracy, because the general public doesn't give much credence to the existence of conspiracies. She should have called it a plan.

Hence, we can say that plans and conspiracies begin with theories. But plans go on to have provable facts that link together people -- causes and outcomes. Conspiracies, therefore, do not have these features.

So we can understand Ken Avidor the Minnesota anti-PRT Propagandist by recognizing the role conspiracy plays in his arguments, and the arguments of his followers.

The conspiracy.
Certainly Ken Avidor's free 'n' easy use of "scam" and "stalking horse" are prima facie evidence that he is alleging a conspiracy. He's even gone back over 30 years, unconvincingly trying to show that the conspiracy spans the ages.

In 2004, former Minneapolis Councilman Gary Dean Zimmermann, Rep. Mark Olson and then State Senator, now Congresswoman Michele Bachmann conspired to fleece Minnesota taxpayers with a multi-million dollar boondoggle called Personal Rapid Transit (PRT).

The conspirators.
Anyone who doesn't side with him is a PRTista or gadgetbahner. This is a reality where a multi-discipline civil engineering firm is only a highway contractor because it was involved with a PRT program. But if another firm agrees with him, its highway projects are ignored. One propaganda tool is The Pod Squad (right) -- presumably they have been convicted of something, or Avidor thinks ought to be, and all riding in a PRT vehicle. But the graphic and caption together are a deception: it conveys the message that PRT is a crime. But none of them were convicted for anything to do with PRT.

And what a poor group of disembodied heads they are: no PRT projects approved; no funds secured for PRT programs; no LRT projects stopped. Aha! This just means the Avidor is effective!

And Michele Bachmann? The so-called PRT bill she sponsored in 2004 was simply to add PRT to the long list of categories of projects for which Minnesota local governments may issue bonds. And her support for PRT was so deep, that was the first and last time she did anything on PRT's behalf. She is not a PRT supporter.

The secret knowledge.
It's all circular. Name one of Ken Avidor's claims -- every single one has been knocked down. Yet he continues to repeat them, and invent new ones. The ULTra PRT gets a development project? There is no project. There is? Then ULTra isn't really PRT. It is? Then ULTra is not really a clean all-electric vehicle!

* * *

Soon things become so convoluted that allies become enemies and foes become friends. Take the light rail-only posters the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist has cultivated on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Local Transit Forums. I won't name names, but two of them rhyme with Scroll Not Rolled To Mole Farriers and BihardBRANSITbadvocate. Read:

Posted by [Scroll Not Rolled To Mole Farriers ] at 11/2/07 7:40 p.m. in reply to: #1488320
Last edited at 11/2/07 7:54 p.m.

Now Sierra Club and Ron Sims are in the hunt for a better plan than what Prop 1 offers for its $157 billion in taxation over 50 years. It probably won't take Sierra Club and Sims the five years that ST required to come up with ST2.

So, let me get this straight, John Niles: you have now officially endorsed bad, shallow, and pie-in-the-sky conceptual planning and analysis? Isn't that how CETA came to embrace Monorail?

Figured out yet that Metro totally made up that 50k ridership figure, and that inflation will eat those new Rapid Ride service hours up in a giffy? [sic]

John Niles / Kemper Development Co have been talking up concept-only BRT for over 10 years now.

Now, Niles wants to "pass the torch" of phony support for his non-existent BRT plan to Ron Sims, and the kooks at the Sierra Club. Wow. I didn't know you could cop out on a cop-out!

Sierra Clubbers have a hidden agenda - they want to stop economic progress more than anything else...and hardcore tolling will definitely achieve that...

. . .

Posted by [Scroll Not Rolled To Mole Farriers] at 11/12/07 4:53 p.m. in reply to: #1504294

...When "Rapid Ride" begins service around the same time Central Link starts up, it will be clear to most people that Bus Rapid Transit is really just another way of saying "I was late, because my bus was caught in traffic." Metro could have included more capital amenities to make their slow, lumbering 2nd class buses try compete with light rail, but Sims chose quantity over quality.

A thoughful [sic] conservative would take a look at the operations and maintenance costs for running such a huge fleet of buses stuck in traffic, and see that Metro's .9 cent sales tax is getting eaten alive by inflation costs associated with having so many drivers, and so many internal combustion engines on the road.

But we don't have thoughtful conservatives here. Just the bomb throwing type. And the Interstate Era dinosaur road warriors.....

Posted by [BihardBRANSITbadvocate] at 11/12/07 5:14 p.m. in reply to: #1515781

Too bad there are no local versions of Paul Weyrich around here. He even gave Philadelphia good marks for getting Route 15 re-started with streetcars, although it sat for a little bit longer, because after the reconstruction, the neighborhood activists had their alderman block the re-start. Praising a rail line in Philadelphia when they supposedly have a working Bus Rapid Transit on the other side of the Alleghenies in Pittsburgh...

See what just happened?

(1) Buses were attacked because of their O&M costs. But light rail is nothing without bus feeder transit to increase the stations' rider catchment areas. Those costs will be incurred whether the primary line-haul mode is BRT or LRT. The real desire is for LRT, not budget savings.

(2) The Sierra Club (!) was attacked for not supporting the recent Seattle-area "Prop. 1" Roads+Transit measure, which would have authorized additional future LRT projects and highway projects. Sierra, a light rail supporter, decided it only wanted the light rail. In effect, Ken Avidor's running mates are attacking Sierra for being too pro-rail. The self-described anti-"road warrior" is really fine with roads, so long as it logrolls the desired technology, LRT, ASAP.

(3) Sierra's position is explained with a conspiracy theory--"a hidden agenda." That is how a venerable pro-environment group can disagree with you, the guardian of truth.

(4) Paul Weyrich (See his Right Wing connection, Part II, 5/30) is held up as an example of a conservative we need around here! Weyrich, co-founder of the Heritage Foundation, who once told a Resmuglican meeting:

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)

This is a friend of transit? A man who espouses anti-democratic values that, if carried out, would make public transit impossible? Beyond espousal -- he has had the political resources to make it happen. But he happens to have a newsletter that says nice things about the desired technology, LRT, so the Propagandist's disciples love him.

(5) Neighborhood activists are on the wrong side because they delayed the Philadelphia Route 15 streetcar. Silly residents, thinking that what happens where they live is any of their business.

* * *

We started by asking "Why Conspiracy?" For Ken Avidor, our diagnosis is Control -- perpetuating his campaign by (mis)defining his opponents and a technology. Why that should be so important could be due to the conspiracy theorist having control issues.

But I'm not claiming to be an expert.

12/2/2007 -- He uses LinkedIn to connect the 'conspirators'

June 2008: Another transit supporter is on board with Paul Weyrich

gPRT
Ken Avidor is two - two - two mints in one

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

Mr. Peepers

The problem with YouTube, like many clubs, is the low threshold for admission. Anyone fancying themselves the next Antonioni, McG or Funt can upload even the worst dreck. Even if I agree with an auteur's background purpose, if their realization of the concept is a dog I'm not going to shy away from criticizing the artistic product.

So it is with Ken Avidor, the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist. Yes, he hates Resmuglicans; very salutary. But how does he hate them? Objectively? Factually? On the issues? Ehhhhh... I don't think so!

The other contributors to Lloydletta and the Dump blogs seem to be progressives who have their heads screwed on pretty tightly. But Kiln Ovendoor is something else. Entirely.

He's got a video camera now. Maybe it's new; I first noticed it when he posted his ambush interview of Green senate candidate Mike Cavlan (Have Video, Will Distort, 7/7). But Stanley Kubridor's latest video must be seen to be believed--a creepy, grainy, ogling, 93-second grope of a clip of Sen. Michele Bachmann (R-700 Club), taken during a live radio interview at the Minnesota State Fair.

Ostensibly the subject is Bachmann's hands, and how her fidgeting supposedly masks some type of "inner turmoil" (actually, she looks like she's twiddling her thumbs. Or has a cuticle problem) "lurking just below the surface." Thank you, Dr. Sigmund Avireud.



But what's Steven Spielidor's real subject? Well, at 00:22, 01:15 and 01:25 the camera moves to the senator's breasteses. I guess that's two subjects. And not surprising, coming from the creator of the Michele Bachmann worship page.

What is the purpose of this video? I don't care how egregious Bachmann's politics are, this video is a nonsubstantive and invasive waste of bytes.

Archived funny: Opposites Attract (8/4/05)

gPRT
Evacuation walkways would undoubtedly enlarge the profile of Ken Avidor

Especially if she's stwict

Over the last few days I've noticed that posts on Lloydletta made by Kiln Ovendoor (the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist) have been attracting pornographic comments from a poster named "ej." I won't quote them here, as this is a blog for the whole satiric family. But I will link to an example, here.

What's remarkable is that the comments are still there. Apparently, Kenwood only censors comments that satirize and/or reveal the deception in his anti-technology smear campaign.

Maybe "ej" is a big fan of Kendoll's Ode to Michele Bachmann page? He ("ej," I mean) does write like someone who could appreciate a leatherclad legislator who knows how to use a riding crop.

Archived Funny: Opposites Attract? (8/4/2005)

gPRT
Ken Avidor is a techno-dream

Reductio * absurdum

Local Man Denounces Pedestrian Footbridges

A self-styled walking and biking advocate spoke out today against construction of Bike/Pedestrian Bridges anywhere in the Universe.

The man, a Minneapolis resident who said he didn't like it when media failed to publish his name, said he preferred crosswalks.

"These overpasses are pie in the sky, whereas crosswalks are proven," he said. "Overpass proponents try to make them sound like a good thing by calling them footbridges!!! But really they are just bashing crosswalks!!! Overpasses are nothing more than gadget-crossings, people want their feet firmly on the ground with everyone else--if only because it's symbolically egalitarian!!! If lifeforms want to cross the street safely, we should wave in a friendly manner and ask motorists to yield!!! They are, after all, our friends, neighbors and fellow-citizens!!!"

"Building overpasses would be a mistake," he continued. "Rain and snow will drip off them onto people below, and people walking across will be able to see into bedroom windows!!! It's nothing more than a stalking horse for the pro-drip, cheap-thrills industry!!!"

Asked if he was aware that people have curtains on their windows, he fumed that footbridges are safety nightmares. "Drunks will throw up on them, and young people will use them as places to drink, or have sex!!! And are we going to call out the hook-and-ladder every time someone gets stuck up there?"

He also raised an aesthetic and environmental concern. "Just ask people if they want the trees on their street cut down for overpasses!!!"

The man said he would soon be releasing a definitive 'overpass report,' including illustrations showing what a footbridge would look like with the head of Sen. Michele Bachmann (R-Stillwater) Photoshopped onto it.


gPRT
Like a bridge over troubled Ken Avidor

Are You Exsmearienced?

Originally published at "PRT Is A Joke" IS A JOKE v.1
Words written with wildcards (***, !!!, etc.) was the way we originally wrote Ken Avidor, Ken, and Avidor.

"Yes it is!"
"No it isn't!"
--Monty Python

*** ******, who also calls himself "PRTSkeptic" online, hates roads. That's fine, at times they annoy me to. *** hates the Minneapolis 35W Access Project in particular. He calls it the Excess Project, which it may very well be.

But he hates everything connected to it. For instance, he even hates the project's designer, the engineering firm Short Elliott Hendrickson (SEH-- they also design other things, including transit operations, but we'll ignore that for now, as *** does). That SEH was at one time working with the Taxi 2000 Corp. on its PRT program, for which it needed the services of construction engineers, became "evidence" in ***'s eyes that Taxi 2000 is part of the big bad Secret Highway Cabal. And for some time he has made the most of it, one of his Talking Points on many occasions.

Let's review ***'s logic:

The Road Conspiracy: Bad

SEH: designs roads

SEH is therefore Bad and part of the Road Conspiracy

Taxi 2000: Bad and partnered with SEH

Taxi 2000 and PRT are therefore part of the Road Conspiracy

I never said it was logical logic, anymore than his attempt to label PRT a right-wing conspiracy simply because some of its supporters are Republican.

Which was how he spent a good part of the recent Thanksgiving weekend. Getting smeared on the website of my hometown newspaper is a holiday memory I'll treasure. Some lowlights:

Day	time	*** ****** said:
11/25	1:58p	PRT is all about bashing rail transit.
11/25	3:55p	There is no technology to discuss...PRT doesn't exist [ellipses in original]
11/25	5:25p	Excuses, excuses... [ellipses in original] that's part of what PRT is about-- it gives die-hard car-lovers an excuse not to use mass transit or ride a bike
11:25	8:05p	The PRTers can... Remove the links to LRT-haters like Emory Bundy... [ellipses in original] but you won't because PRT is just a stalking horse for the anti-LRT bunch.
11/26	6:24a	In Minnesota, the PRT/gadgetbahning-promoting elected officials are right-wing theocrats
11/26	8:51a	Democrat Jim Huhtala is running against Rep. Mark Olson in 2006 (Take a look at the picture of Jim Huhtala standing in front of the Hiawatha Light Rail... It's a clear choice for liberals. Nuff said. [man, now THAT's single-issue voting. I've since read some about Huhtala and found him a fine candidate; but ya gotta be more choosy than just a photo with a train]
11/27	6:54a	Mr. Gow, will the CPRT which lists you as their Seattle contact ask its members to help Mark Olson's [R] campaign in 2006 like the CPRT did for Dean Zimmermann in 2005?
11/27	11:05a	I can't find the acronym PRT on FROG's web site [oh really?]
11/27	11:05a	I would also like to to know whether Mr. Gow personally supports PRTers Michele Bachmann [very R] and Mark Olson or... their Democratic opponents... So Mr. Gow, who do you support? [response, #898390]
11/27	5:44p	Wow, Mr. Gow...SOME LIBERAL YOU ARE!!! Mr. Gow won't say whether or not he or the CPRT favors pro-NRA, Pro-highway, pro-war, pro-Bush, anti-abortion, anti-gay rights, pro-intelligent design Michele Bachmann and Mark Olson in the 2006 election... big surprise. That's how fanatical these PRTers are... [response, #899249]
11/28	3:38a	So Mr. Gow, what about Bachmann? She's running for Congress... Are you supporting her or Elwyn Tinklenberg? You probably don't like Tinklenberg... Elwyn and Jesse were big boosters of the Hiawatha LRT. [ellipses in original] [response, #899799]

Evidently, ***'s transit must fit his test of political purity, and PRT has picked up Resmuglican cooties. GOP chocolate is on PRT's peanut butter. Resmuglican green beans touched PRT Jell-o.

There were a lot more smears, vociferous ones, by two other posters, "terrorist" and "Sacs not swelled on Toad Worriers." *** claims those are not him using other identities, but come ON. ***, terrorist and Shawls not shed for Over Coats all use the exact same epithet-laden prose style.

Look closely at anything connected with *** ****** and you'll find humor and irony. In this case it is that he refuses to admit that his Light Rail Transit is itself covered in GOP and highway cooties! Not only are major Light Rail contractors like Parsons, Herzog and Kiewit also involved in highway projects, but their soft money contributions are overwhelmingly weighted toward Resmuglicans (see Finally, the experts take charge, Nov. 3).

Now I personally don't have a problem with that. They're civil engineers; it's natural they could do both road and transit projects, and they can donate to whomever they choose. My point is that it's the PRTSkeptic's litmus test, and he applies it only to PRT.

What's more, I looked up SEH's PAC contributions, and guess what? SEH gives more to Democrats! Noteworthy:

$2500, 2006 cycle, James Oberstar
$3000, 2004, John Hickenlooper, Mayor of Denver
$2000, 2004, Tom Daschle
$1000, 2004, James Oberstar

In the past cycle (2004) only $750 total went to Resmuglicans.

Using *** logic, doesn't that make SEH, and therefore PRT, the "clear choice for liberals"? Let me emphasize lest I be taken out of context: I don't think transit is inherently political, in the main support crosses political lines. Again, it's ***'s litmus test. I'm only asking why he isn't consistent.

gPRT

He Makes You Discuss PRT

Originally published at "PRT Is A Joke" IS A JOKE v.1
Words written with wildcards (***, !!!, etc.) was the way we originally wrote Ken Avidor, Ken, and Avidor.

PRTJJ has a compadre--at least in the ***-mocking department. Check out some of the bon mots lobbed in blogger triple_a's Residual Forces.

Triple_a's blog entry isn't about PRT, PRT isn't even mentioned. The subject is a small group of people who staged a lame media event to show-up Sen. Bachmann.

*** shows up with one of his usual cut & paste posting jobs, and HE brings up the subject of PRT. See? The poor guy MUST talk about PRT, it's like he just can't help it.

This time *** is repeating his tired, disproven, LTO3 claims about the T2K v. Anderson lawsuit and last spring's Minnesota PRT bond proposal.

So triple_a responds: "I am against the boon doggle [sic] of mass transit as a congestion solution."

***, regurgitating a talking point: "PRT is NOT transit. Groups that lobby for transit do not support PRT: ...tlcminnesota.org/Events/2004/Legislatu re/No%20public%20funding %20for%20PRT.pdf"

But being a self-identified transit-opponent and right-winger doesn't make triple_a stupid, he manages to see right through ***'s empty logic as easily as a kindergartner would: "It is transit. Its [sic] in the name for bleeps sake."

PS: In case you forgot-- *** hates it when I don't mention his name, so I don't.

Erratum: 825 visits


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Opposites attract?

Originally published at "PRT Is A Joke" IS A JOKE v.1
Words written with wildcards (***, !!!, etc.) was the way we originally wrote Ken Avidor, Ken, and Avidor.

***'s web pages and bloggings exhibit an ongoing fascination for Minnesota State Senator Michele Bachmann. It seems to go beyond mere political differences. Gee, I wonder how that got started?

St. Paul, MN
Present Day

Legislative Assistant: Senator Bachmann, you have a phone call.

Sen. Michele Bachmann (R-Stillwater): Take a message, I'm on my way to a snowflake baby christening.

LA: But it's you-know-who.

SMB: What, again? Tell him I can't talk right now.

LA: But he says he knows you're here.

SMB: How?

LA: Just a sec. Hello, Mr. ******? The senator wants to know how you know she's- Uh huh. Uh huh. Oh. Please hold. He says to say he's watching you, he's always watching you.

SMB: Great. OK, fine, gimme. [takes phone] Hello, ***? Where are you? Across the street... oh. Look, I don't know why you're calling. I told you, it's over between us. There's just no future for a neocon like me and a-- whatever it is you are-- like you. Mary Matalin? Trust me, you're no James Carville. I 'm sorry, that was unfair, I just felt like hurting you; I don't know why.

Yes, I saw your Michele Worship Web Page. Yes, it was lovely, very sweet, but I- let me finish. I can't be with you because of your jealousy.

Don't give me that crap, I know you've been two-timing me with that councilwoman in Rochester. Not to mention Farheen Hakeem!

Dean Zimmerman???!!! He means nothing to me! Jeez, all I did was have one conference call and a couple of committee briefings and you have to get all bent out of shape.

Greens aren't even my type! They have no power, what kind of aphrodisiac is no power? It just isn't sexy. Oh pooh-bear, you do so have power, you're an internationally reknowned- nationally reknowned- regionally- all over the- southern part of the state! Oh, stop it with your self pity!

Look, I'm hanging up. Really. No, I really have to go. No. Don't; don't cry. I can't stand it when- I'm going! Good bye!

Well. At least that's over, once and for-

LA: Senator, capitol security is on the other line. They say *** is across the street. They say... he's holding a boom box over his head. They say we can probably see him out our window.

SMB: [opens window] Is that In Your Eyes?

LA: Someone's got a boyfriend!

SMB: Shut up! I... I think I love him!

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