Even in its death throes, the democratian has to lie about the CRC.

Yet another CRC related editorial.  Yet another series of lies.

For years, the democratian has been lying about this project.  If there's an issue, typically the rag has lied about it overtly (like today's lies) or covertly (Like refusing to ever mention the Oregon State Supreme Court decision that laid out the true purpose for replacing the bridge: light rail) and they continue to do so, even after the effort is "dead."

Today's lies?

And yet, the problem has not gone away; the CRC is dead, and the need for an updated I-5 bridge remains crucial to the economic future of the entire West Coast.

Absurd on its face in view of the fact that the only issue driving the replacement of the bridge was light rail, replacing 6 through lanes on the current bridge with 6 through lanes on a new bridge isn't "crucial" to anyone for anything, save those expecting to make bank from this rip off.

IF replacing the bridge "remains crucial to the economic future of the entire West Coast," then why was the entire project held hostage to loot rail?  Loot rail isn't "crucial" to anything.  So why wouldn't Oregon and the CRC Scammers compromise and build it WITHOUT light rail if it's so damned "crucial" to have the bridge replaced?

And that's the thing.  Does Greg even bother to read this tripe before he prints it?

Continuing to repeat these same lies... as this very paper has for the better part of a decade... accomplishes nothing except to further erode the badly diminished credibility of the cancer on our local society.

Then the very next line was the most horrific lie of all:

To be sure, the Columbia River Crossing was not conceived in a vacuum.

It absolutely WAS "conceived in a vacuum.”  A few guys sitting around, seeing how TriMet was going over a cliff, wondered how they could get more money into the local version of the Titanic.  They knew (and the figures released yesterday proved) that they were sinking and fast.  So, they were looking for ways to rape additional people into sucking money out of their wallets.

Somebody looked up and said, "Hey, you know what?  That Pollard clown in Vancouver is a moron...  I bet if we troll a new bridge past him, we can suck him into being our buttboy for loot rail, and we'll make bank!"

That Greg won't admit to that fact... even today, 2 years AFTER the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that some version of that is PRECISELY what happened, goes to the heart of the matter.

We will NEVER be able to trust the local rag on matters of importance, because they lie like this in the blink of an eye.  I'm reminded of Reagan: "Trust but verify."

To those who haven't been examining this massive scam at the cellular level, the rag's lie about the "vacuum" may even make sense.  To those of us who've had this crime in our sights for the last 8 years or so?

We know better.

Greg goes on to lie: 

The proposal was the result of years of planning and consideration, and assertions that it did not include public input are provably false.

Yet, we've seen proof of just the opposite... but no proof that public input was ever considered.

We know, for example, that the "LPA" (Locally preferred alternative) was the only one ever considered... because it was the only alternative that had loot rail on it going into Vancouver, and as far as this despicable rag is concerned, Vancouver is the center of the universe... and loot rail was the entire purpose of this project.

We know that the CRC had a WRITTEN policy to reduce/eliminate public input and then ignore it if received.

And we also know that the public's input that repeatedly showed WE DID NOT WANT LIGHT RAIL was ALWAYS ignored, by EVERYONE INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT.

And that's the thing, you see.  If "public input" was actually accepted for anything but appearances...  then where did any of it make any difference?  Greg just keeps saying: "There was public input."

Yeah.  And for all the difference it made (none) it was pretty clear it was ignored and then round-filed.  All that "public input" Jayne is babbling about...  And NONE of it made ANY difference.

Everything that Jayne wrote here ignores the findings of the Oregon Supreme Court's decision in METRO (Linked above).  Alternatives, including a 3rd bridge approach, were rejected out of hand because those alternatives did not deliver loot rail or hundreds of millions of dollars worth of extra student parking to Clark College.

In short, when the fix was in from the beginning, there were, in fact, NO "good reasons" for rejecting the inevitable additional bridges approach... except, of course, additional bridges in other locations would not bring loot rail into downtown Vancouver or additional millions into TriMet's coffers as they've done everything they can to stop the arterial bleeding of money that plagues TriMet every second of every day.

Next lie: (And you'd think they'd know that lies ain't gonna sell it)  

Some are opposed to bringing Portland's light rail to Clark County, but any hopes for federal funding rely upon the inclusion of mass transportation.

First, given that the entirety of this rip-off was to get loot rail into Clark County, that provably meant the project was not needed.

Second, the federal funding required MASS TRANSIT.  It did NOT require LIGHT RAIL.

One of the many issues we have here is that those shilling this scam insist on believing the people to be... well... just, plain, stupid.

EVERY time the alternative of Bus Rapid Transit instead of light rail over the bridge was pro-offered, it was rejected out of hand by everyone involved, from the morons at the newspaper through the downtown mafia to the governor's offices...  "No light rail... no bridge."

Why does Jayne have to lie about this?

Because if he wrote the truth, 4/5ths of his column would have disappeared.

The ONLY "alternative" is to plan on additional bridges... what we SHOULD have done in the first place.

The ONLY alternative is to DIRECTLY ELECT SPECIFIC REPRESENTATION TO A BRIDGING COMMITTEE.

None of this "Vancouver can veto whatever the people want to do" bullshit.

But the scum at the Columbian have lied so much for so long that even after all of their lies have been obliterated... they keep LYING.

Clark County has many needs when it comes to transportation.  Yet, the last of these has anything at all to do with light rail or the I-5 Bridge.  We have a great need for additional bridges.  And if the "economic future of the entire West Coast" WAS at stake (And it clearly isn't) then the fed should pay for all of this and it should not have loot rail... which has absolutely NOTHING to do with anyones economic future but TriMet's.

I read this babble from Jayne and I ask myself: does he really believe this tripe?

Or is he just ignoring his principles because like the guards at Dachau, that's his "job."

Imagine how much better off we'd be as a community... as a country... if journalists had the principles of, say, CBS News' former journalist Sharyl Attkisson, who quit working for CBS because their institutional leftist bias made it impossible for her to do the work of a journalist.

Imagine how much better off our community would be if the sheep working for that disgrace to journalism known as the Columbian would just get up one day and announce they couldn't take the bias and the lies any more,.

Imagine.