Well, here's what Ridgefield Barbie voted for when she sold us out on the fiscal cliff scam.

It would be bad enough if that empty suit was just worthless.

But now, she's damaging us as well.

Here's what that lying political prostitute is doing to us:

CROOKED FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES: The Top 10 Crony Tax Breaks in the "Fiscal Cliff" Deal

I know that regular readers require no additional proof that Washington is irreparably broken. But if you want to see just how filthy and disgusting the Beltway really is, just peel the onion on the "Fiscal Cliff" tax deal: doing so reveals roughly $40 billion in payoffs to every special interest with a connected lobbyist.

The top 10 crony tax breaks in the package:

10. “An accelerated tax write-off for owners of NASCAR tracks (cost: $78 million).”

9. “A tax credit for companies operating in American Samoa ($62 million), including a StarKist factory.”

8. “A $222 million rum tax rebate.”

7. For “businesses located on Indian reservations . . . $222 million in accelerated depreciation.”

6. A $12 billion “wind production tax credit.”

5. A $59 million “algae-based fuel” tax credit.

4. A $7 million “plug-in motorcycle” tax credit.

3. A $154 million tax credit for “builders of energy-efficient homes.”

2. A $650 million tax credit for "manufacturers of energy-efficient appliances."

And your winner is:

1. A $430 million giveaway to Hollywood and its “film and television producers"

As The Objective Standard observes.

Congress avoided the so-called “fiscal cliff” only by passing tax hikes and leaving out-of-control federal spending practically untouched. But, to those with friends in political places, Congress rewarded special tax breaks.

Disgraced ex-Senator Chris "Sweetheart Loan" Dodd, a man so crooked you can open wine bottles with him, deserves special dishonor: he was responsible for the payoffs to Hollywood.

We are headed for economic collapse and the politicians -- Democrats and establishment Republicans -- are more interested in preserving their power and doling out favors than saving the country.

That's right.  That despicable waste of skin has foisted this off on us... and then lied through her tooth about it.

Well done, Bimbo.

Madore: Paul Harris to run for Steve Stuart's commission seat.

According to Commissioner David Madore's facebook page, State Representative Paul Harris (R-17) has announced he is running against Commissioner Steve Stuart (D-District 3).

Since chatting with Commissioner Stuart during canvassing board sessions and discovering that Stuart had been named to Gov-Elect Inslee's transition team, I've thought that he would likely be the recipient of an offer for a high-level post in an Inslee Administration.

Stuart denied such a possibility, unequivocally, but I had to ask myself: why would Inslee want Stuart... due to, if nothing else, the lack of geographical proximity... it's a long way to Olympia... unless it was to check him out for such an offer?  They're likely both a good fit with common ground: both former jocks (Stuart was an all-state ball player in high school and Inslee was a state champion basketball player and quarterback for Ingraham in Seattle) with some commonality in a variety of areas.

So now, let's look at the bidding.  Marc Boldt was crushed at the polls for mirroring Steve Stuart's voting record.  Not good. A D vs. R race would likely have a similar outcome as the Mielke-Tanner race, although Harris would likely, if nothing else, be able to match Stuart's funding if Stuart stays to fight it out.

Stuart will likely not be satisfied with the permanent position of "county commissioner" as the nadir of his political career.  His problem?  The 3rd Congressional District is so reliably GOP that even a complete moron like Jamie Herrera can get the gig and likely keep it... until her unbridled, screw-her-constituency ambition forces her to move on and put us, thankfully, in her rear-view mirror.

So, with that door, effectively, slammed shut; and a year's-long legacy of ignoring his own constituency on the loot-rail scam combined with unfulfilled campaign promises... what's Steve Stuart to do?

Gamble on a sketchy-at-best re-election bid that first, he's likely to lose and second, wouldn't improve his station in life even if he won?

Or grab an offered brass ring if Inslee holds one out there (And rumors abound that such is the case) and move up to the state's power center?

Stuart can vault from Olympia to a US Senate run down the road, after he develops some statewide chops and uses his position to go around the state and set up political alliances.

Can he realistically do that from Vantuckey?

No.

Now Paul Harris has some baggage of his own, truth to tell.  I was disappointed to find out that he was the highest rated Republican House Member by the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO.

That kind of thing makes me question his "conservative cred" and moves him perilously close to RINO-land.

But if, as the Madore announcement states (And such an announcement this early is only being done in an effort to scare other GOP'ers circling the carcass away) Harris is "....a strong critic of the CRC Light Rail Tolling project," AND HE HAS THE VOTING RECORD TO PROVE IT, then that would make him the leading contender to fill Steve Stuart's commissioner seat whether Stuart's still sitting in it... or not.

Paging Rep. Vick: why weren't you at the Town Hall meeting today?

Sen. Rivers was there.

Rep-Elect Pike was there.

Where the hell were you?  NO ONE was representing you.  Don't tell me you don't care because I've got to tell you, I'm watching you.  What could you have been doing that was more important than meeting with your constiuents in an open forum right bhefore session starts?

Are you already living up to the low set of expectations I had for you?

In the past, party chairmanships have been a launching pad for political careers.

It's also been a wrecking yard for some.

When added to the fact that Brandon is about to become a brand new father for the first time... and to campaign, by definition, will take every waking moment... as will the next legislative session, as far as that goes... one wonders:  Why would he leave his wife and baby home alone?  How can he discharge his family responsibilities and obligations sitting in interminable meetings in Olympia with his family... his wife... his newborn baby... home... alone.... day after day.... night after night?

This is a tough situation for Brandon... very tough.  He wants to be a politician and a legislator so bad that he'll do almost anything to achieve it.

Except in this case, the cost is just too high... he loves his wife and baby too much... and his vision is clouded by those with an ulterior motive who don't care what the cost is to Brandon personally.

I care.

There will be other opportunities... other elections.

But likely not for Brandon if he screws this up.

And I cannot support someone who would

Don't screw this up again.  If you do, I'm coming after you myself .

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.

Delusions of Brancaccio: proof you can't fix stupid.

As I may have stated on occasion, Brancaccio and his newspaper are a cancer on our local community.

Today he goes on to illustrate his remarkable ignorance of local politics, best displayed by his rabid support of Marc Boldt and Joe Tanner... and now he cements that stupidity by first, shilling for The Liar and THEN falsely claiming this:

• First, he has to rid himself of that anchor he's been carrying around since the last election. And that would be the "no tolls" campaign push he made when talking about the proposed new Columbia River Bridge. He supports the new bridge. 

The mayor has tried to inch away from that old campaign talking point; but if I were his adviser, I'd tell him to clearly admit his mistake and say he wishes now he wasn't so adamant back then.

Clearly, the moron who printed that tidbit doesn't understand that Leave-it committed the political equivalent of murder to get elected.

For several months before this scumbag defrauded himself into office, I pointed out that every time that scumbag claimed he was opposed to tolls, he was lying.

He was elected on a platform of lies.  And anyone running against that scumbag would be happy to point out that he was lying scum THEN, and totally violating every ethics law known to man by working for a CRC contractor and voting on official actions that impact that contract.

That Brancaccio believes we've forgotten that Leave=-it is lying scum is as moronic as his shilling for Boldt.

Further, even David Madore won in the 49th, showing that Vancouver is hardly the bastion of this rip off that the rag is... and that Leave-it has proven himself to be.

For Brancaccio to suggest that the mere admittance of a "mistake" would do anything other then emphasize the fact that Leave-it is a lying slimeball just shows to go that the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz is more politically attuned to this area then Brancaccio.

It's like, I'm sure, those leftists and RINO's who organized, led and financed Boldt in his campaign: stupidly going without polling, they had no idea that he was going to be crushed.

Brancaccio's effort to rehab this lying scumbag's political career notwithstanding, this is a mountain that Leave-it can't climb.  And now that he's going to run into both Madore's fan AND his checkbook, he would be best suited if he'd just decide to call it a career, his public admission of self-immolation notwithstanding.

At base: Leave-it lied to get elected.  And that's the bottom line.

The morons down at the Lazy C doesn't understand that there are, in fact, TWO anchors around this slimeball's neck:

Anchor One:  He's a liar.

Anchor Two: He lied to get elected.

People voted for this clown because he lied to them.  They supported him because he looked them in the eye and lied to their faces.

Not a tiny fib, mind-you, but a whopper he had to invent to be at least a little different then Pollard.  In short, he ran on a lie, was elected on a lie, and has governed on a lie.

The problem with these two anchors is, quite simply, that he can't "rid himself" of them, short of diving into a vat of molten lava.  When you lie to get elected, you can't be believed when you try and "fix" it.

Idiot.

If Brancaccio had a brain in his head, he'd know that.  But since it's OK to have a liar in office, as long as that scumbag supports your agenda, he's going to spin it as best he can.

Any articulate anti-CRC candidate who calls this clown out to educate people that first, he's a liar and second, that he's for this massive rip off and third, that you can't believe anything he tells you (what's he lying about now?) can beat this scumbag like a rented red-headed step-child.

And Brancaccio's initial lie?

(Note: I've certainly been one of those who have, ah, pointed out the occasional shortcomings of the mayor.)

With the frequency of a Haley's Comet fly-by.

Quick question:  Has this despicable rag beat up Tim "The Liar" Leave-it the most?

Or Don Benton?  Or Tom Mielke?  Or David Madore?

That lie Brancaccio has babbled is right up there with the lie that he's unbiased or non-partisan.

If Leave-it had been as steadfastly opposed to the CRC scam as mayor as he was when he ran, then Brancaccio would be beating on him like a gong.

The only thing more transparent than Leave-it's head is Brancaccio's naked support of the CRC scam and EVERYONE ELSE who supports it.