Memo to Paul Montague, CRC scammer: Yeah, it IS a light rail scam.

Attending the 18th District Battle Ground town hall meeting was `Paul Montague, one of those who don't give a damn what the people want... one of those who want to ram this rip off down our throats.

Montague, a charter member of the Vancouver Downtown Mafia and Identity Vancouver president, foolishly disputed Sen. Ann Rivers' assertion that the Oregon State Supreme Court had spelled out the scam as light rail and nothing but light rail in a land use decision concerning METRO:

As I have been saying for almost a decade, loot rail is the driver for the CRC/Bridge Replacement program

In its entirety, the massive, multi-billion scam known as the CRC was never driven by any "need" to replace the I-5 Bridge for reasons of freight mobility or to relieve congestion.

As I have been saying, quite literally for years, the ENTIRE reason to replace the bridge was to get the camel's nose of light rail under the Clark County tent flap, and to do it without asking us.

Now, it seems, no less then the Supreme Court of Oregon agrees.... with me.

The Oregon Supreme Court has succeeded in doing what scores of public meetings, thousands of pages of reports, and endless public relations spin could not: Give us the original rationale behind the proposed $3.5 billion Columbia River Crossing.

The answer, according to the court: The massive Interstate 5 bridge and freeway project is a “political necessity” to persuade Clark County residents to accept something they previously didn’t want—a MAX light-rail line from Portland to Vancouver. (To read the Feb. 16, 2012 Oregon Supreme Court decision regarding the Columbia River Crossing Project, click here (PDF, 18 pages))

Project opponents filed a legal challenge to the way Metro, the regional planning agency, granted sweeping land-use approval to the project. The Oregon Supreme Court sided mostly with Metro.

But Chief Justice Paul De Muniz, writing for the majority, highlighted an inconvenient set of facts for CRC backers.

He wrote in the Feb. 16 opinion that most of the project—namely the 10-lane freeway bridge and new interchanges—was put forward to get Clark County to agree to the light-rail line.

De Muniz cited statements that Metro made in the land-use process and Metro’s lawyer repeated before his court.

“It was politically impossible for the light rail project to proceed without also building new interstate bridges across the Columbia River,” De Muniz wrote.

“Or as Metro later summarized it: ‘There is no light rail without the freeway bridge[s] being replaced.’”

Backers have cited traffic and safety issues as the top reasons to build the CRC. But the court ruling means those and other justifications were created after officials decided to give a sop to Clark County, now worth $2.5 billion.

More:

Now there's only two possible reasons that Montague, who doesn't care what the people want, is so stuck on this rip off and his bogus positions that will hurt so many tens of thousands of people in this county:

1.  He didn't know (Although he does now, I read the pertinent part of the decision to him, so his further ignorance is no excuse)

Or, as I stated:

2.  As part of the Shove it Down their throats Identity Vancouver crowd, he doesn't care.

It could be number 1: after all, the scum running the democratian have never run this now almost 11 month old story; can't let the inconvenient facts get in the way of the agenda, can we?

But it's likely Number 2 and like most of the lying scum shilling this steaming pile, he didn';t want to admit that he KNOWS this is a rip off.

I pointed out the idiotic "earthquake" reason wasn't a reason at all: they could always retro fit the bridge if they were so damned concerned about.  Montague, used to getting his own way, kept talking about how far down it was to bedrock and so forth: not providing ANY reason it COULDN'T be done, just saying HE didn't THINK it could be done... and how would he know... since no one had ever asked?

I also publicly stated I want to see a study on the multiple negative fiscal impacts on the county: you can't suck $100 million a year out of this county's economy without suffering adverse economic impacts... but no one has ever looked.

Either way, Paul, here's your memo.  And in closing, it's far better to keep your mouth shut and let people THINK you're a self-centered, tin-eared shill for this horrific project that nobody wants, then to open your mouth, spout falsehoods and confirm it for everyone.