There is no way I can list them all, but each is equally important for keeping up the fight against long odds... against the big money... against the special interests.... against the elected officials who cheerfully sold this community out... and against a media that would lie, cheat, steal or sell their own children into slavery to get this thing built. My focus will be primarily aimed the organizations and people I'm most familiar with and I apologize in advance to those I might miss.
Elected officials who had the guts to withstand the onslaught of threats and bribe attempts were many, though surprisingly few compared to those wholly owned sock puppets on both sides of the river who gave in to those approaches.
At the legislative level, the Senators who made up the Majority Caucus Coalition (MCC) are the ones who stopped this thing in it's tracks.
Cursed with two senators and a congresswoman who support the entirety of this rip off either directly or tacitly, huge efforts were brought to bear, including that moronic trip by US Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, who essentially had his political head handed to him in a basket along with both ears and the tail of our utterly clueless governor.
What the CRC Scammers did not understand is that they were talking to a crowd who knew more about the CRC rip off than they did. These senators were lied to and about, threatened, efforts were made to bribe them and they were worked over in every imaginable way.
And they did not crack. They did not fold. That idiot Cleveland's phantom "25th vote" that she stupidly claimed she had last session never materialized.
Senator Ann Rivers fought long, hard odds as she spent hours to educate and inform fellow Senators with precious information and analysis by forensic accountant Tiffany Couch, who, when I think about her, makes me not want to steal from my own piggy bank. Ann is an anti-CRC dynamo, dubbed the "Bridge Killer" by Willamette Week. She not only worked the issue in Olympia, but also worked it in Salem and other areas around both states to help drum up the support needed in both legislatures to get this thing back under control.
Senator Don Benton has been fighting this rip off since it became public. Years of effort; years of being pilloried by the local rag and the democrats, years of abuse, years of legislative combat, years of dealing with both accidental and intentional ignorance about what this scam actually was, what it was based on, what the motives of the prime movers actually were and are. Fighting and fighting and fighting some more to kill this bridge, a bridge that, had Tim Probst been elected, would likely be under construction even as we speak.
Sen. Benton's SB6125 fired the coup de grâce into the head of this crime when his bill passed out of the State senate.
Knowing that it wouldn't survive in the House, the bill, designed to undo the political treason of the CTran Board's effort to subrogate their control of eminent domain to an out of state, unrelated agency (Illegal on its face) had the desired effect. It was the final, needed wake up call to kill this thing dead in the Oregon legislature.
Leftist heads exploded here. Molehill Moeller claimed the he would kill the bill, trying to make people believe that he had that ability (He didn't and doesn't. No ceremonial position does) but his playground theatrics notwithstanding, the bill didn't need to pass the House to send the message.
And the Oregon legislature received it, loud and clear.
Senator Curtis King, Co-Chair of Senate Transportation. Senator King just recently became one of the Senators representing Clark County in the Legislature when, as a part of redistricting, Clark County lost the representation of Sen. Jim Honeyford of the 15th District and gained the representation of Sen. King from the 14th District.
Sen. King's efforts are legendary. Upon being familiarized by local senators and others, Sen. King wrote the letter that caused Moeller to vapor-lock (For all the good it did him.) The letter made it clear what the conditions were for getting the bridge replaced. There were 6 or so conditions, and the one that stuck in the craw of our local leftist gaggle was this one:
Sen. King was quite clear on that.
Equally clear were the morons running Oregon and Washington. Who can forget Taxhaber's legendary "No light rail, no bridge" stupidity that obliterated any of the non-light rail justifications given for raping the people of SW Washington?
And the dim-bulb in Olympia was no better, deliberately ignoring the people of Clark County in favor of his union/light rail masters.
Well, how'd that work out for him?
And those who knew the entire purpose for this scam was that very aspect of this project refused to listen. They would have none of it.
But when the stated POLICY of the CRC Scam was to ignore the people, I suppose the lack of concern over this requirement was to be expected.
Sen. King stood with the others and against the special interests and their self-assured, Mussolini-like arrogance exhibited by the Moeller-types shilling this rip off. He ignored Sen. Cleveland's lie, uttered repeatedly, that SHE "had the 25th vote" needed to start construction on this, the most massive waste since the billions vaporized on Headstart that accomplish nothing.
He listened to the other 3 Senators from Clark County who actually cared about the will of the people they represent, unlike Cleveland from the neo-communist 49th... Senators Rivers, Benton and Braun (From the newly arrived 20th District, also a result of redistricting.) He was a true leader and excellent strategist. And Clark County owes him a debt of gratitude that cannot be adequately repaid.
There were many others in the MCC who stayed strong and stood with our valiant Senators from Clark County. Senate leadership in the form of Sen. Rodney Tom and GOP Leader Sen. Marc Schoesler and others who were firm in their resolve against the power of the big money infesting this cancerous project.
Without them all... this blight on our community would already be under construction.
Locally, those elected who fought this hardest included Commissioner Tom Mielke, Commissioner David Madore and Rep. Liz Pike.
Tom Mielke has fought this rip off from the very beginning. For four years, he sat alone as the only Republican on the County Board of Commissioners. He fought and fought and fought, typically the only local elected voice speaking for the people instead of attempting to control them. Hammered by the left, ignored by his fellow "Republican," beaten to a pulp by the democratian... he represented the people... the people... the people... and not the special interests controlling the downtown mafia.
For years, Tom was the "no" vote to democrat ideas that did not include the people. On this subject, he would not be moved, he would not be cajoled, he would be threatened and he would not be bribed. He refused to cave to the Amen Chorus of those who had an agenda that did not include the will of the people. Unlike Steve Stuart, who is leaving under the guise of it just being too tough to take the payoff gig in Ridgefield, Tom was emboldened by the challenge and rejuvenated by an actual conservative4's election to the Board; moving Stuart, his fellow leftists and equally important that cancerous blight on our community known as the democratian into complete irrelevance.
As a result, he was re-elected by the largest margin in the county in 2012... even after being outspent roughly 8 to 1... because he supported the will of the people.
David Madore had been fighting this issue for years even before he ran for office. And, in fact, he ran for office because the incumbent commissioner, my brother-in-law Marc Boldt had become an entirely co-opted downtown mafia member who forgot all about that "Servant of the People" shtick that got him elected to the commission in the first place.
Madore cares about this community so much that he has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money to kill the hated CRC Scam, the biggest light rail project in terms of size the world has ever known when he certainly did not have to.
Few in this community have paid more for their opposition to the special interests who made every effort to ram this crap pile down our throats.
Madore has shown that talk is cheap.... time, money and integrity as well campaigns of ridicule designed to destroy public perception being the wages for his efforts.
Ultimately, however, David Madore achieved both ears and the tail by ramming the sword of the will of the people directly between the shoulder blades and into the heart of this horrific scam. He withstood the persecution of the left to triumph for us all. His steadfast belief in the will of the people resulted in the now-infamous precinct map that shows that save for the 5 precincts where the CRC Scam would actually touch down.... every other precinct in the entirety of this county... over 220 of them... rejected light rail.
I had been asking for.... BEGGING for my brother-in-law, former county commissioner Marc Boldt, to hold such a vote, only to be informed... quite falsely as it turned out, that such a vote would violate the state constitution... proving that, once again... if Marc Boldt had managed to win in this scenario, we still would not have been allowed to provide an undeniable voice to our government about where we, the people, ultimately stand...; which is against the idiocy, greed and corruption of the Columbia River Crossing.
The rank hatred and religious bigotry exhibited by the local excuse of a newspaper, by the leftists and CRC Scammers toward a man who made the elimination of this crime his top personal and political priority, working against the ignorant, the gullible, the mis and mal-informed for years on his own... quite literally putting his money where his mouth was, doing all he could to inform and educate, including drilling down with that pit-bull of waste, fraud and abuse, Tiffany Couch... a woman who joined with Madore while standing shoulder to shoulder together in the face of personal, professional and public character assassination by the communist-like automatons who either didn't know, or did not WANT to know the truth of what they were doing to us... this county.... and this region.
Rep. Liz Pike has been a stalwart in the trenches (Conversely, Brandon Vick was nowhere to be seen) Pike has helped to organize meetings to direct opposition and act as a loud voice for the people she represents in order to kill this rip off before the local fiscal onslaught could begin.
That she represents the people of this district is clear: the moron running against her is talking about Pike's effort at minimum wage as she stupidly defends her fantasy of jacking it up so that we all suffer, deliberately misinterpreting Pike's plan as being designed to hurt "the working poor."
One wonders: why isn't Winningham babbling about the CRC Scam she supports?
Those in the community who fought the long fight include a cross-section of politics and demographics.
Conservatives, moderates and liberals combined forces on both side of the river to stop the insanity.
Each had their own reasons, from environmental to fiscal to fighting this because it was an abuse of power on so many levels... which is, for example, the reason *I* opposed it.
One of the leading voices against this bizarre project was and remains Lew Waters. Lew is a much better writer than I am, geometrically. He typically uses a rapier where I prefer, in the interests of time, using a cleaver.
He has railed against this project, taking on all comers and systemically blowing holes in their lies, exaggerations, distortions and arrogance. He's nailed Cleveland, Molehill, Brancaccio, Jayne, the pit yorkie, Inslee, Montague, Parker and a host of others devoted to hurting this community and causing massive economic destruction to the people of Clark County. He has been unflinching in his pursuit of the death of this stupidity and I join him in remaining ever-vigilant in insuring that if it were to rear its ugly head again that we would be among those removing this political leprosy yet another time.
And if it happens again, we will be there again. Over and over and over... no matter how much it takes.
The web sites and Facebook pages of opponents such as CRC OMG WTF, STOP CRC and Blue Oregon were absolutely instrumental in keeping their constituencies both informed and involved.
Additionally, unlike the democrats on this side of the river, many south of here displayed the common sense that God gave a board fence and ultimately moved to opposition of the project, including Oregon Senate President Sen. Peter Courtney.
The "Bridge Killer" award in Oregon goes both to Courtney and GOP Senator Bruce Starr, both of whom feeling themselves at the mercy of the oh-so-ethically challenged Patricia McCagg, Taxhaber's biggest mouth in every sense of the word in the effort to shill this stupidity.
And where would we be without the champion of the arena so similar to that of Tiffany Couch?
Joe Cortright is a well-known economist who spent years tap dancing on the fantasy numbers the liars shilling the CRC Scam kept whipping out on such a regular basis,,, and many, many others.
The Willamette Week, a newspaper that, during the course of this idiocy, picked up the gauntlet dropped by that worthless turd of a rag we're stuck with here in Clark County called the democratian.
The WW printed several stories that our local rag would not touch because to print those stories was to provide proof and ammunition to those opposed to the crime of the CRC that the basis for this entire project was not what those shilling it over here were telling us.
One example: that the entire basis for this scam was light rail. Light rail.... and NOTHING else. That story is right here:
The WW printed several articles that drilled down into the morass of sewage the CRC Scammers were attempting to ram down our throats. Essentially, Willamette Week took responsibility for committing acts of journalism, a forgotten science at what has long since become known as the Lazy C.
Thank you so very much for all you've done to act like a real newspaper should, and one our daily has long since forgotten.
Finally and most important...The people and small businesses of Clark County who now have a litmus test of political idiots of years duration: did you, or did you not support the CRC Scam, and if you didn't, then what did you do to stop it?
And remember: EVERY single democrat in Clark County who ran or is running for office DOES support this stupidity.
Every. Single. One.
More will be added as I remember them. Feel free to add in the comments section.
Elected officials who had the guts to withstand the onslaught of threats and bribe attempts were many, though surprisingly few compared to those wholly owned sock puppets on both sides of the river who gave in to those approaches.
At the legislative level, the Senators who made up the Majority Caucus Coalition (MCC) are the ones who stopped this thing in it's tracks.
Cursed with two senators and a congresswoman who support the entirety of this rip off either directly or tacitly, huge efforts were brought to bear, including that moronic trip by US Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, who essentially had his political head handed to him in a basket along with both ears and the tail of our utterly clueless governor.
What the CRC Scammers did not understand is that they were talking to a crowd who knew more about the CRC rip off than they did. These senators were lied to and about, threatened, efforts were made to bribe them and they were worked over in every imaginable way.
And they did not crack. They did not fold. That idiot Cleveland's phantom "25th vote" that she stupidly claimed she had last session never materialized.
Senator Ann Rivers fought long, hard odds as she spent hours to educate and inform fellow Senators with precious information and analysis by forensic accountant Tiffany Couch, who, when I think about her, makes me not want to steal from my own piggy bank. Ann is an anti-CRC dynamo, dubbed the "Bridge Killer" by Willamette Week. She not only worked the issue in Olympia, but also worked it in Salem and other areas around both states to help drum up the support needed in both legislatures to get this thing back under control.
Senator Don Benton has been fighting this rip off since it became public. Years of effort; years of being pilloried by the local rag and the democrats, years of abuse, years of legislative combat, years of dealing with both accidental and intentional ignorance about what this scam actually was, what it was based on, what the motives of the prime movers actually were and are. Fighting and fighting and fighting some more to kill this bridge, a bridge that, had Tim Probst been elected, would likely be under construction even as we speak.
Sen. Benton's SB6125 fired the coup de grâce into the head of this crime when his bill passed out of the State senate.
Knowing that it wouldn't survive in the House, the bill, designed to undo the political treason of the CTran Board's effort to subrogate their control of eminent domain to an out of state, unrelated agency (Illegal on its face) had the desired effect. It was the final, needed wake up call to kill this thing dead in the Oregon legislature.
Leftist heads exploded here. Molehill Moeller claimed the he would kill the bill, trying to make people believe that he had that ability (He didn't and doesn't. No ceremonial position does) but his playground theatrics notwithstanding, the bill didn't need to pass the House to send the message.
And the Oregon legislature received it, loud and clear.
Senator Curtis King, Co-Chair of Senate Transportation. Senator King just recently became one of the Senators representing Clark County in the Legislature when, as a part of redistricting, Clark County lost the representation of Sen. Jim Honeyford of the 15th District and gained the representation of Sen. King from the 14th District.
Sen. King's efforts are legendary. Upon being familiarized by local senators and others, Sen. King wrote the letter that caused Moeller to vapor-lock (For all the good it did him.) The letter made it clear what the conditions were for getting the bridge replaced. There were 6 or so conditions, and the one that stuck in the craw of our local leftist gaggle was this one:
3. We need to eliminate costly and inflexible light rail."Eliminate costly and inflexible light rail."
Sen. King was quite clear on that.
Equally clear were the morons running Oregon and Washington. Who can forget Taxhaber's legendary "No light rail, no bridge" stupidity that obliterated any of the non-light rail justifications given for raping the people of SW Washington?
And the dim-bulb in Olympia was no better, deliberately ignoring the people of Clark County in favor of his union/light rail masters.
Well, how'd that work out for him?
And those who knew the entire purpose for this scam was that very aspect of this project refused to listen. They would have none of it.
But when the stated POLICY of the CRC Scam was to ignore the people, I suppose the lack of concern over this requirement was to be expected.
Sen. King stood with the others and against the special interests and their self-assured, Mussolini-like arrogance exhibited by the Moeller-types shilling this rip off. He ignored Sen. Cleveland's lie, uttered repeatedly, that SHE "had the 25th vote" needed to start construction on this, the most massive waste since the billions vaporized on Headstart that accomplish nothing.
He listened to the other 3 Senators from Clark County who actually cared about the will of the people they represent, unlike Cleveland from the neo-communist 49th... Senators Rivers, Benton and Braun (From the newly arrived 20th District, also a result of redistricting.) He was a true leader and excellent strategist. And Clark County owes him a debt of gratitude that cannot be adequately repaid.
There were many others in the MCC who stayed strong and stood with our valiant Senators from Clark County. Senate leadership in the form of Sen. Rodney Tom and GOP Leader Sen. Marc Schoesler and others who were firm in their resolve against the power of the big money infesting this cancerous project.
Without them all... this blight on our community would already be under construction.
Locally, those elected who fought this hardest included Commissioner Tom Mielke, Commissioner David Madore and Rep. Liz Pike.
Tom Mielke has fought this rip off from the very beginning. For four years, he sat alone as the only Republican on the County Board of Commissioners. He fought and fought and fought, typically the only local elected voice speaking for the people instead of attempting to control them. Hammered by the left, ignored by his fellow "Republican," beaten to a pulp by the democratian... he represented the people... the people... the people... and not the special interests controlling the downtown mafia.
For years, Tom was the "no" vote to democrat ideas that did not include the people. On this subject, he would not be moved, he would not be cajoled, he would be threatened and he would not be bribed. He refused to cave to the Amen Chorus of those who had an agenda that did not include the will of the people. Unlike Steve Stuart, who is leaving under the guise of it just being too tough to take the payoff gig in Ridgefield, Tom was emboldened by the challenge and rejuvenated by an actual conservative4's election to the Board; moving Stuart, his fellow leftists and equally important that cancerous blight on our community known as the democratian into complete irrelevance.
As a result, he was re-elected by the largest margin in the county in 2012... even after being outspent roughly 8 to 1... because he supported the will of the people.
David Madore had been fighting this issue for years even before he ran for office. And, in fact, he ran for office because the incumbent commissioner, my brother-in-law Marc Boldt had become an entirely co-opted downtown mafia member who forgot all about that "Servant of the People" shtick that got him elected to the commission in the first place.
Madore cares about this community so much that he has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money to kill the hated CRC Scam, the biggest light rail project in terms of size the world has ever known when he certainly did not have to.
Few in this community have paid more for their opposition to the special interests who made every effort to ram this crap pile down our throats.
Madore has shown that talk is cheap.... time, money and integrity as well campaigns of ridicule designed to destroy public perception being the wages for his efforts.
Ultimately, however, David Madore achieved both ears and the tail by ramming the sword of the will of the people directly between the shoulder blades and into the heart of this horrific scam. He withstood the persecution of the left to triumph for us all. His steadfast belief in the will of the people resulted in the now-infamous precinct map that shows that save for the 5 precincts where the CRC Scam would actually touch down.... every other precinct in the entirety of this county... over 220 of them... rejected light rail.
I had been asking for.... BEGGING for my brother-in-law, former county commissioner Marc Boldt, to hold such a vote, only to be informed... quite falsely as it turned out, that such a vote would violate the state constitution... proving that, once again... if Marc Boldt had managed to win in this scenario, we still would not have been allowed to provide an undeniable voice to our government about where we, the people, ultimately stand...; which is against the idiocy, greed and corruption of the Columbia River Crossing.
The rank hatred and religious bigotry exhibited by the local excuse of a newspaper, by the leftists and CRC Scammers toward a man who made the elimination of this crime his top personal and political priority, working against the ignorant, the gullible, the mis and mal-informed for years on his own... quite literally putting his money where his mouth was, doing all he could to inform and educate, including drilling down with that pit-bull of waste, fraud and abuse, Tiffany Couch... a woman who joined with Madore while standing shoulder to shoulder together in the face of personal, professional and public character assassination by the communist-like automatons who either didn't know, or did not WANT to know the truth of what they were doing to us... this county.... and this region.
Rep. Liz Pike has been a stalwart in the trenches (Conversely, Brandon Vick was nowhere to be seen) Pike has helped to organize meetings to direct opposition and act as a loud voice for the people she represents in order to kill this rip off before the local fiscal onslaught could begin.
That she represents the people of this district is clear: the moron running against her is talking about Pike's effort at minimum wage as she stupidly defends her fantasy of jacking it up so that we all suffer, deliberately misinterpreting Pike's plan as being designed to hurt "the working poor."
One wonders: why isn't Winningham babbling about the CRC Scam she supports?
Those in the community who fought the long fight include a cross-section of politics and demographics.
Conservatives, moderates and liberals combined forces on both side of the river to stop the insanity.
Each had their own reasons, from environmental to fiscal to fighting this because it was an abuse of power on so many levels... which is, for example, the reason *I* opposed it.
One of the leading voices against this bizarre project was and remains Lew Waters. Lew is a much better writer than I am, geometrically. He typically uses a rapier where I prefer, in the interests of time, using a cleaver.
He has railed against this project, taking on all comers and systemically blowing holes in their lies, exaggerations, distortions and arrogance. He's nailed Cleveland, Molehill, Brancaccio, Jayne, the pit yorkie, Inslee, Montague, Parker and a host of others devoted to hurting this community and causing massive economic destruction to the people of Clark County. He has been unflinching in his pursuit of the death of this stupidity and I join him in remaining ever-vigilant in insuring that if it were to rear its ugly head again that we would be among those removing this political leprosy yet another time.
And if it happens again, we will be there again. Over and over and over... no matter how much it takes.
The web sites and Facebook pages of opponents such as CRC OMG WTF, STOP CRC and Blue Oregon were absolutely instrumental in keeping their constituencies both informed and involved.
Additionally, unlike the democrats on this side of the river, many south of here displayed the common sense that God gave a board fence and ultimately moved to opposition of the project, including Oregon Senate President Sen. Peter Courtney.
The "Bridge Killer" award in Oregon goes both to Courtney and GOP Senator Bruce Starr, both of whom feeling themselves at the mercy of the oh-so-ethically challenged Patricia McCagg, Taxhaber's biggest mouth in every sense of the word in the effort to shill this stupidity.
And where would we be without the champion of the arena so similar to that of Tiffany Couch?
Joe Cortright is a well-known economist who spent years tap dancing on the fantasy numbers the liars shilling the CRC Scam kept whipping out on such a regular basis,,, and many, many others.
The Willamette Week, a newspaper that, during the course of this idiocy, picked up the gauntlet dropped by that worthless turd of a rag we're stuck with here in Clark County called the democratian.
The WW printed several stories that our local rag would not touch because to print those stories was to provide proof and ammunition to those opposed to the crime of the CRC that the basis for this entire project was not what those shilling it over here were telling us.
One example: that the entire basis for this scam was light rail. Light rail.... and NOTHING else. That story is right here:
That article alone helped to rock the entirety of this scam, and to the best of my knowledge, the democratian has never printed a word of this decision.The $2.5 Billion Bribe
Oregon’s Supreme Court says light-rail politics drove plans for a new I-5 bridge.
The WW printed several articles that drilled down into the morass of sewage the CRC Scammers were attempting to ram down our throats. Essentially, Willamette Week took responsibility for committing acts of journalism, a forgotten science at what has long since become known as the Lazy C.
Thank you so very much for all you've done to act like a real newspaper should, and one our daily has long since forgotten.
Finally and most important...The people and small businesses of Clark County who now have a litmus test of political idiots of years duration: did you, or did you not support the CRC Scam, and if you didn't, then what did you do to stop it?
And remember: EVERY single democrat in Clark County who ran or is running for office DOES support this stupidity.
Every. Single. One.
More will be added as I remember them. Feel free to add in the comments section.
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