Update: at least 80 dead. "Religion of Peace" (tm) slaughters dozens of children in Norway: Arab Street silent.

.
Sources I've accessed indicate as many as 50 killed at the youth camp.

Norway ripped by Oslo bomb, youth camp shootings

By NILS MYKLEBOST - Associated Press | AP – 4 mins 33 secs ago

• tweet97
• Email
• Print

Click image to view more photos. (Reuters/Thomas Winje Oijord/Scanpix)

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Norway's peace was shattered twice Friday when a bomb ripped open buildings in the heart of its government and a man dressed as a police officer gunned down youths at a summer camp. Police linked one Norwegian to both attacks, which killed a total of at least 16 people in this nation's worst violence since World War II.

Police said they did not know the motive or whether the attacks were the work of one person or a terrorist group, but Justice Minister Knut Storberget said the man who opened fire at the youth camp is Norwegian.

Hundreds of youths ran in terror at a camp on Utoya island where the prime minister had been scheduled to speak Saturday. Some even tried swimming to safety as the gunman fired.
A 15-year-old camper named Elise said she heard gunshots, but then saw a police officer and thought she was safe. Then he started shooting people right before her eyes.
"I saw many dead people," said Elise, whose father, Vidar Myhre, didn't want her to disclose her last name. "He first shot people on the island. Afterward he started shooting people in the water."
Elise said she hid behind the same rock that the killer was standing on. "I could hear his breathing from the top of the rock," she said

She said it was impossible to say how many minutes passed while she was waiting for him to stop.

The shooting occurred after the bombing in Oslo, Norway's capital and the city where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. The blast left a square covered in twisted metal, shattered glass and documents expelled from surrounding buildings in a dust-fogged scene that reminded one visitor from New York of Sept. 11.

Ian Dutton, who was in a nearby hotel, said people "just covered in rubble" were walking through "a fog of debris."
"It wasn't any sort of a panic," he said, "It was really just people in disbelief and shock, especially in a such as safe and open country as Norway. You don't even think something like that is possible."
Police said seven people died in the Oslo blast, and another 9 or 10 people were killed at the camp, which was organized by the youth wing of the ruling Labor Party. Rescuers were to search to blast wreckage through the night for more victims, and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said police fear there could be more victims at the camp as well.
Elise, the young camper, said she believes she saw more than 10 people killed.

Acting national Police Chief Sveinung Sponheim said a man was arrested in the shooting, and the suspect had been observed in Oslo before the explosion there. Police did not immediately say how much time elapsed between the bombing and the attack at Utoya, about 20 miles (35 kilometers) northwest, but reports of the shooting began appearing on Twitter about two and a half hours after the bombing.

Sponheim said the camp shooter "wore a sweater with a police sign on it. I can confirm that he wasn't a police employee and never has been."

Much more here:

Hey, Mr. President.... what say you "negotiate" with scum like this in Afghanistan?  That will make everything right... won't it?

Herrera's latest babble confirms it: the "vote" word is missing from her lexicon.

.
The crap has hit the fan on the CRC financing rip-off package, and our typically day-late, dollar-short congresscritter had to weigh in.

What she said, like usual, doesn't matter. In this instance, she didn't say it anyway; her little slimeball staffer from her campaign said it, since God knows that woman can't speak for herself.

She's written a couple equally meaningless letters babbling about a vote for this waste of billions.

Of course, by failing to wind up the hammer by conditioning her support and threatening to kill the funding for this entire project unless there is a vote and unless the bridgers/looters agree to abide the results, her letters were, and are, worthless eyewash, designed to confuse the electorate into believing that she actually opposes this project... and this rip-off's tolls.

Tim "The Liar" Leavitt smacked her upside the face for daring to step out of line, and like the good little girl/empty-suited coward she is, she's caved.

You can read her garbage here.  But it's a waste of time, ascii and her relentless, vacuous babble that means nothing because she lacks the balls to actually LEAD.

If only we had Allen West.

Cross-posted to Jaime Herrera Watch.
.

The bizarre thought processes of a Yakima Millionaires supporter.

.
Folks, a great many who should know better have lost their ability to reason and are being bent over by the numbers in support of the idea of enriching the Yakima Millionaires... all at the expense of the hundreds of thousand of us who have no interest or desire in making rich people richer at our expense... so the few, who can avoid paying anything of consequence can screw those of us who want nothing to do with their post high school baseball scam.

Not even I can make this up:

Letter: Embrace Bears … baseball, that is

Thursday, July 21, 2011

submit 0diggsdigg

I have a few comments regarding the Yakima Bears relocating to Vancouver. Many residents think it is a bad idea due to the potential tax increase. However, I personally think the Vancouver Bears could be great asset to our city.

I actually grew up in Yakima, so you could say I grew up with the Bears. Baseball games are great bonding experiences for families. Wouldn’t it be much more convenient to drive a few miles to watch a baseball game rather than to Tacoma or Seattle? Sure, it’s not Major League Baseball, but it’s still just as exciting.

We should embrace the Vancouver Bears with open arms. It could have a significantly positive effect on our economy as well. According to the Yakima Herald Republic, the Yakima area will lose about $206,000 in local economic impact when the team is relocated.

Sure, we will have to pay a few more taxes at first, but increasing our local economy would be a great thing in the long run. Go Bears!

Sara Berghoff
Vancouver

So... to gain $206,000 in "economic impact," this typical Millionaires kool aid drinker wants us to waste $1 million per year... without even being asked.

There's something wrong with a thought process that concludes spending making $1 while losing $5 makes any kind of sense at all... when we can just keep all of the $5.

But then, those shilling this manure pile have never really been concerned about either us... or making sense.

And Sara, as always... if you like baseball so much, then go up to Longview to watch it.  They've got a barely above little league team up there you can check out for close to free... and it won't cost the taxpayers of Clark County a thing.
.

A tale of two articles: Democrat State Treasurer Jim McIntyre on the CRC.

.
We all know the local rag has a bridger/loot rail fetish that would make a porn star blush.  And here's how they twist the story to protect themselves.

In their softball cover up of the latest Crossing debacle, these are the quotes from and concerning the Democrat State Treasurer, Jim McIntyre.

New requirements from Washington State Treasurer James McIntyre forbidding annual toll increases from being included in tolling assumptions represent a $318 million hit to toll bond proceeds. Combined with the consultants’ recommended 15 to 25 percent cut in projected toll revenues, the total shortfall would be $468 million to $598 million.

The CRC was banking on an annual 2.5 percent increase in tolls; other Washington tolling models have also included annual increases. But revenues on projects such as the Tacoma Narrows Bridge have fallen below projections, partly because the Washington Transportation Commission has not increased tolls as expected.

“That is a policy we’ve taken on toll financing that is not directed at this particular project,” McIntyre said Wednesday. “It’s recognizing that we’re going to need to rely on tolls to finance most major transportation projects moving forward. We need to be careful and reasonably cautious about how we do (tolling) to make sure that we build the confidence of the taxpayers and toll payers.”

OK.  Fine.  But that isn't all he said... not by a long shot.

Here's what something approaching a REAL newspaper wrote concerning Treasurer McIntyre::

Washington State Treasurer Jim McIntire has voiced displeasure with several aspects of financial plans developed for the CRC and two other big transportation projects in the Puget Sound area, saying they're too optimistic and perhaps not realistic.

Most notably, McIntire is not comfortable with the escalating debt service the CRC would pay during the 30-year life of the bonds.

Under the CRC's initial plan, annual debt payments would soar from $17.7 million in 2016 to a peak of $222.5 million at the end of the bond's lifespan.

McIntire compared the debt structure to the worst sort of toxic mortgage from the housing boom. The loans turned disastrous for the banks, the borrowers and the U.S. economy when millions of homeowners couldn't keep up with the onerous loan terms and defaulted.  (My emphasis)

McIntire argues that Washington transportation projects should strive for "level debt service," more predictable and safer.

For the CRC to pay that ever-increasing debt service, it is counting on significant traffic growth and escalating tolls. The CRC's initial plan called for increasing the toll 2.5 percent every year for the 30-year life of the bonds.

McIntire doesn't like this aspect of the plan either, saying that annual toll hikes may not be politically feasible.

"I would argue that it's a pipedream," McIntire said last week. "I think we need to be upfront with people. We need level debt service and level tolls."

One has to ask:  Why did the despicable rag masquerading as a newspaper leave this out?

We all know why.  They want what they want, no matter how many or who they screw to get it.  And if they don't print it, well, it really wasn't said, and these slimeballs certainly don't want to be smacked upside the face with McIntyre's description of this horrific, fraudulent scam they advocate so strongly.

Our newspaper is despicable.  That they would keep this out is inexcusable, but typical of the scum running the show.

This entire project is criminal.  It's enriching the few at our expense... while morons like Kitzhaber keep lying about the numbers of jobs this scam will create, insisting still that the number is 20,000... when that scam has been thoroughly disproven since the number is closer to 2,000.... max.

Why do the bridgers/looters have to lie?  Why does the local bird cage liner have to lie, if nothing else, through failing to provide the whole picture?

We all know.  And those shilling all of this crap should be fired and removed from office.  I'd call them a disgrace, but that does a disservice to the word.

The democratian's failure to take the lead on these crimes is typical of a rag that does not give a damn for the community... but instead, insists on supplanting OUR judgment with theirs as if it were somehow superior...

No matter how badly we get hurt.
.

A tale of two articles: when the Oregonian blows the whistle on the Columbian's pro-bridge nonsense and assumptions; making The Liar Leavitt and the other bridgers/looters look like idiots.

.
The CRC and the clowns shilling for it suffered another horrific blow today with the publication of yet another in the series of expose's calling their figuring into question since those pushing the hardest for this multi-billion dollar waste can't do it by telling the truth.

So, we have two articles discussing this today; one located on the Oregonian web site, the other on the democratian web site.

The problem here is that the Oregonian article proves that the C-Trans Executive Director is either a liar or incompetent.

The article?

Traffic estimates on Columbia River Crossing further muddy the financial picture

The upshot?  The numbers the bridgers/looters are using for a traffic forecast are a crock.

The anxiety over the CRC's debt structure are only magnified if traffic projections -- and toll revenue -- fail to meet predictions.

The CRC has forecast that traffic at the Columbia River will grow 1.3 percent per year from 2005 to 2030, from 135,000 to 184,000 vehicles per day.

And taking it a step further:

Most notably, (Washington State Treasurer Jim) McIntire is not comfortable with the escalating debt service the CRC would pay during the 30-year life of the bonds.

Under the CRC's initial plan, annual debt payments would soar from $17.7 million in 2016 to a peak of $222.5 million at the end of the bond's lifespan.

That's right, kids... a quarter of a billion dollars in interests payments.  for a year. And now the idiots trying to ram this thing down our throats have had to admit to a strategy of jacking up the tolls 2.5% per year to pay for this.

Haven't heard about that one, eh?

And then, we go back a few weeks to this crock from the Executive Director of C-Trans:

C-Tran director: Most Columbia River Crossing concerns settled

Transit agency board to vote on bridge issues in July

Doesn't seem to be particularly true... does it?

More and more information coming out proving the incompetence and lies of the CRC.  $130 million vaporized...

And this is the best we can do?

.