Paul Motague: Identity Vancouver and CRC slimeball, apparently didn't get the memo.

Just a few days ago, Montague, a charter member of the downtown mafia, was publicly humiliated when the truth was presented during the town hall meeting in Battle Ground:.

Saturday, January 05, 2013

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.

Montague obviously doesn't give a damn that like the rest of the looter/tollers, he's allowed himself... and, in part, 430,000 of the rest of us, to get bent over AND hosed by Oregon in this rip off.

Today, Senators Benton and Rivers introduced a bill to strip out the loot rail component.  Predictably, Montague threw a fit, stupidly going public to do it:

• 
  

  Paul Montague ·  Top Commenter
  

  This is such a bogus bill. Senators Benton and Ann Rivers want to throw away 17 years
  worth of work, 7 of it formal work by groups on both sides of the river,
  and $140 million worth of public investment to defeat light rail. They
  cannot show a valid reason for their opposition to light rail. This project does
  not even touch upon their districts and they want to stick their noses into
  Vancouver's business.

  Reply · 15 minutes ago

Yes, they want to throw away 17 years of waste, and they're willing to flush the already wasted $140,000,000 that you clowns SPENT WITHOUT ASKING US, MORON... to yes, defeat the hated, unwanted loot rail AND TOLLS that you and your fellow scumbags want to ram down our throats... all without ASKING, even though you, personally, now know that the who thing is a SCAM... and save the additional BILLIONS you clowns want to flush down the crapper.

I'll gladly trade the millions your sort has already wasted for the billions you WANT to waste.

Well done, I say.

And there are at least an even DOZEN "valid reasons" to get rid of the COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY THAT ISN'T WANTED, NEEDED, OR AFFORDABLE.

TriMet being $1.6 billion in debt is one.  The horrific taxpayer per-rider subsidy comes to mind.  Requiring the people of Clark County to pay for improvements to PORTLAND'S bridges is another, loot rail has been defeated every time it's been put to the ballot, all it does is move people out of buses instead of cars, and on and on.

And the lie that it "doesn't even touch upon their districts?"

Tell you what, you lying little worm: you exempt everyone in Clark County from paying your life-long tolls and then, maybe, you can babble that kind of bullshit.

But THOUSANDS of us who live in the 17th and 18th have to cross your rip off a bridge to go to work every day, and it touches EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US.... AND OUR FAMILIES... AND THE BUSINESSES DEPENDING ON THAT DISCRETIONARY INCOME THAT WILL NOW HAVE TO GO TO YOUR TOLLS, YOU FRICKING IDIOT.

So, when confronted with the choice between wasting additional billions or walking away from the tens of millions YOU have ALREADY wasted, that's a really easy decision.

Next time, you simple idiot, ASK US FIRST.

It's your failure to heed the voters in all of the other votes we've had on this, the proof in the Oregon State Supreme Court decision, the CRC policy of IGNORING THE VOTERS as laid out in the memo, and the fact that you flatly refuse to ask the tens of thousands of commuters and their families that YOUR efforts will harm if THEY WANT THIS RIP OFF that lead to this.

Stop sniveling, you putz.  This all COULD of been avoided had you asked us FIRST.

You didn't.... now SUFFER.

Like you are trying to make US suffer.

Montague goes on in his stupidity:

Paul Montague ·  Top Commenter

Marc - You better do your research. Lew - Whoever uses the bridge will pay tolls to
use it. If you don't go into Portland, you won't pay. If you use light rail, you
will pay for it. The sales tax was voted down, so folks won't pay for light rail O & M
that way. Peter - The last time light rail was on the ballot was in 1995
and the proposal was for Clark County to pay for all the construction. A
totally different proposal than today. Today, the Federal Government is
proposing to pay $850M for the construction of light rail. If we don't use that
money, it will go to some other project somewhere else in the US. Users of the
bridge will pay tolls to cover the cost of the bridge. Olympia's $450M will pay for
new interchanges at SR-14, C Street, Mill Plain, Fourth Plain, SR-500 and 39th
Street. Salem's $450M will pay for new interchanges on the Oregon side of the
river. Get your facts straight.

Reply · 2 · 

 · 30 minutes ago

Clearly, you wouldn't know a straight fact if it bit you in the butt.

"Whoever uses the bridge?"  65,000 commuters and their families are getting bent over by you and your ilk without asking them.  The businesses depending on $100,000,000 a year in discretionary income are going to pay for it.

And this idiocy:  "If you use light rail, you will pay for it."

Right.  And the taxpayers will subsidize each one of your trips $20 or so EACH WAY.

Do you think Montague doesn't KNOW that?

"Folks won't pay for M and O without a vote under ANY conditions.  And that pretty much means they'll always vote it down.  It's required by law.

We have no problem with the fed putting that money where it's wanted.  This ain't that.

And Olympia's $50 million will also go to re-enforce the Steel Bridge (Or is the Steal Bridge?) AND to expand the maintenance yard.... in PORTLAND.

Here's a clue, moron: put it on the ballot NOW, COUNTY WIDE.  I double dog dare ya.
 
It's not JUST that Paul lies so much in support of his agenda... it's also that he does it so badly.

At the end of the day, we know about the scam.  We know this is a rip off.  And no amount of your whiny sniveling will make any difference in any of it.