As we in Clark County are aware of, given we have been inundated for over a week now of article after article from the local mouthpiece hating the hiring of Don Benton to head the county department of environmental services, allegations of “collusion” have been raised in an effort to stir up citizens to support a recall of County Commissioners Tom Mielke and David Madore.
But those allegations are unfounded, they are little more than a fallacy trumped up by a few who see the overwhelming votes for both as interfering with the agenda previously seen from the County Commission and who wish to thwart the will of the county voters in changing the direction of the County Commission.
First of all, we need to establish what is meant by the term “collusion,” which means “an agreement between two or more parties, sometimes illegal and therefore secretive, to limit open competition by deceiving, misleading, or defrauding others of their legal rights, or to obtain an objective forbidden by law typically by defrauding or gaining an unfair advantage.”
Hitler gets wind of Don Benton being hired to head the Dept of the environment and realizes all of blustering and scheming with certain people won’t change a thing
There is little doubt that the Lazy C, legally known as the Columbian, the unofficial daily newsletter for the Democrat Party is one of the poorest excuses for a newspaper seen. Their bias reeks as does their contradictions in articles often published.
It’s not unheard of to see one article one day boasting of home values increasing followed the next day by foreclosures increasing. With Democrats largely in control over the past few years, the Lazy C spared little ink to try to convince readers how well off they were, even though they obviously weren’t.
Now we see them setting a new record in bashing of a Republican with some 24 articles in a week blasting State Sen. Don Benton (R 17) along with Clark County Commissioners Tom Mielke and David Madore, both elected by wide margins just this past November.
Even though the Lazy C admitted their act was legal and within the confines of a Commissioner’s duty, the two hiring 5 term Sen. Benton to also head up the County’s Environmental Department as set the Lazy C on a rampage as they have spent the last week whipping some people into a lynch mob frenzy over the hiring.
The Lazy C, the unofficial daily newsletter for the Democrat Party, the Mouthpiece is well known for their deep leftist bias, in spite of denials from editorialista Lou Brancaccio.
Legally registered under the title the Columbian, too many times they have exposed themselves as anything but objective, all too often working against the very community they hope to buy their product.
Blogs exposed the heavy bias in reporting when a Republican elected official was accused of wrong doing versus when a Democrat elected official was involved in an alcohol fueled sexual harassment scandal that continues to be covered when confronting cronista Stephanie Rice over denials of extreme lopsided coverage publishing 14 articles in 5 days for a Republican, followed by 2 over a month for a Democrat.
The manufactured flap over the admittedly legal hiring of State Senator Don Benton to be Clark County’s director of environmental services rages on, now with County Commissioner Steve ‘Bullshit’ Stuart deciding to publicly take fellow Commissioner David Madore to task over Madore’s open letter to retiring County Administrator, Bill Barron.
On May 4, this blog ran a copy of Madore’s Open Letter that cleared up several fallacies being promoted by Benton haters and the lazy c, since Barron quickly announced retirement from the position, timing it to appear as if he could no longer tolerate the two conservative Commissioners, Tom Mielke and David Madore.
Stuart, who left the Wednesday meeting in a profanity laced huff announced he will apologize for that outburst at the next meeting, although he took the intended apology back even before it is issued by justifying his juvenile act.
Route 66, once known as the Main Street of America since it was one of our early roads cutting through the heart of America. Its fame spawned songs, a hit TV show of the same name and epitomized the American love affair with our cars as many envisioned cruising down the highway, with the top down, listening to the cool songs of the era by the Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, Jan & Dean and of course, Elvis Presley.
The once famous highway has been bypassed by modern Interstate Highways today and is but a historical memory, but our visions of cruising in a cool car, like a vintage Corvette remain imbedded in our souls as does the songs like ‘409,’ ‘Little Deuce Coupe,’ ‘Maybellene’ and so many more.
As we all know, Governor Jay Inslee snuck into town a couple weeks ago and issued marching orders to “increase the decibels” to shout down the struggling middle class taxpayers in Clark County who oppose being straddled with decades of increases in the gas tax, license fees, tolls and more to fund the CRC light rail project from Portland that they have repeatedly shown they do not want.
Apparently seeing an opportunity to try to derail the growing opposition, the Columbian mouthpiece is pulling out all of the stops to engage in a so called journalistic Kristallnacht assault on the choice of Sen. Don Benton to take over the vacant Dept of Environmental Concern for the County.
Since it came out Wednesday evening, we have been subjected to no less than 12 screeds objecting to the hiring, from articles, an editorial and Stephanie Rice’s hit pieces, 4 in a single day on the lazy c’s blogs.
Sunday’s John Laird rant can only been seen as the icing on the cake, or maybe better as the major window smashed by the jackbooted thugs in print as he falsely claims to have extinguished fires in opposition to the deeply troubled project.
Wednesday was a huge day for the minions down at the Columbian. They got to bash Don Benton, David Madore and Tim Mielke, all at the same time!
As we now know, Tim Mielke and David Madore directed County Administrator Bill Barron to begin the hiring process of Don Benton to head the County Dept of Environment, setting liberal heads exploding all, especially Liberal Envirowacko commissioner Steve Stuart who unceremoniously referred to it all as “BULLSHIT!”
His so called apology for his outburst notwithstanding, it appears that he, Stephanie Rice, Lou Brancaccio and everyone else down at the lazy c got it all wrong, again.
Benton is being hired, that much is true, but the smoke screen of circumventing the process, Benton does not meet the minimum qualifications and more is all wrong. It also brings into question Bill Barron’s sudden announcement of retirement, adding to the drama of just supposedly out of control the conservative County Commission is.
Madore: Hello!Commissioner Mielke! Why are you calling me?
Mielke: Hi, David, good buddy, old pal! I’ve got Commissioner Steve Stuart on the line – he wants to have a conference call.
Madore: A conference call? Is that legal?
Stuart: Hi Commissioner Madore. Of course it’s not legal – that’s what I want to talk to you about.
Madore: Go on.
Stuart: I want to apologize for publicly cussing you and Tom out at the last meeting. Since I cussed you out publicly I feel I should apologize publicly. But I need you to put it on the agenda. I want this to all be legal and proper.
Liberal heads have been exploding all over Clark County Washington ever since it was announced that the County Commissioners desire to streamline the process and by a 2 to 3 vote, selected 17th Legislative District State Senator Don Benton to head the County’s environmental department.
County Administrator Bill Barron suddenly decided to retire by September 10, likely out of disagreement with the selection. The Columbian calls it an insult and liberals are incensed and flooding the County Commission with emails expressing anger.
The County Democrat party has even gotten into the act by issuing a call for people to flood Council Chambers Tue May 07 at 6:00 PM at the Public Service Building, 1300 Franklin St. to “discuss the error” of hiring Benton.
As this blog and others have posted for several years, Sen. Benton is likely one of the most hated officials in Clark County, largely due to his critical look at things like the middle class bankrupting CRC light rail project Democrats and the Columbian want built on the taxpayers backs.
Liberal heads in Clark County are exploding like never before as we see County Commissioners Tom Mielke and David Madore direct County Administrator Bill Barron to begin the hiring process to hire State Senator Don Benton (R. 17) as the County’s director of environmental services.
The Columbian immediately went into meltdown finding a demonic looking photo of Benton to use in their rant last evening.
It is well known now that the CRC is a very unpopular project among citizens and many business owners. We know it, elected officials know it and of course, even though they try to deny it, the Columbian knows it.
We also know the Columbian is in the tank for the light rail project and instead of investigating numerous concerns reported over the years about the CRC, will run damage control trying to minimize those concerns.
They also have shown themselves unfriendly towards candidates running for office that openly oppose the CRC light rail project and many can attest, do not treat those candidates very equitably, digging up dirt, casting aspersions and opposing just about any candidate who runs against the CRC.
And yet, the Columbian was puzzled when some candidates began bypassing them during campaigns, seeking other outlets to reach voters.
Ignoring the concerns of their constituents in the 49th Legislative District, all 3 Democrats elected to represent us have now vowed to cast our concerns aside, continue ignoring our voices and work as hard as possible to screw us over to ensure funding of the highly unpopular Columbia River Crossing light rail project.
An email received from rookie Senator Annette Cleveland today says, “We are working hard to fund the Columbia River Crossing”, concluding with “Rep. Moeller, Rep. Wylie and I will continue to work on CRC funding throughout the special legislative session to ensure that our state meets the September deadline and qualifies for the $850 million in federal funds. Anything less would be fiscal lunacy and a terrible mistake for our community’s future.”
That voters have rejected every funding measure proposed and outright rejected light rail itself back in 1995 doesn’t enter into the equation.
Clark County Washington sits in an awkward position at the southern most point of Washington State where the Columbia River separates the state from its Southern Neighbor, Oregon.
Positioned where we are, Washington State often ignores us, except of course when the time comes to want taxes, and Oregon treats us as their bedroom, the hicks to north they like to poke fun at.
All too often our elected officials, seeing Portland, Oregon as that “economic powerhouse” south of us, cater to the whims of Oregon over the desires of Clark County citizens.
You might say 1974 was a watermark for the media, Journalism in particular. The diligent investigative journalism of the Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein resulted in the only resignation of a sitting U.S. President as Richard Nixon was forced to resign over the scandal.
I missed much of it as I was stationed overseas in Germany during that time, after completing my tour in Vietnam. But we heard of the relentless pursuit of information on the cover-up and illegal actions of President Nixon. It was clearly a fine example of how dogged determination of scandal by the media could change the course of a country.
With that in mind, I find it peculiar to see Columbian editor Lou Brancaccio leaning on the investigative journalism of Woodward and Bernstein in his Saturday, April 27, 2013 editorial, Of Watergate, awards & stress. I find it so peculiar because the Columbian is anything but serious investigative journalism.
As we see more and more Washington citizens and businesses joining in opposing the Columbia River Crossing light rail project, the desperation seen from Oregon in wanting to tap into our tax dollars to bail out their folly of light rail increases.
Kitzhaber’s call showed that the calls of “decrease congestion,” “unsafe bridge” and “improve freight mobility” have been nothing more than lies and reaffirmed what this blog and several others have been saying for several years, light rail is the only factor driving this project.
Once again we see another legislative session in Olympia, Washington winding down with the usual prospect of going into special session to get important matters finished that for some reason, couldn’t be finished in regular session.
We see prospects of the special session centering around budgeting even though revenues are forecasted to exceed expectations by some $2 Billion, but are still over $1 Billion short of what spending is projected to be.
Last session the budget was put off due to focusing too much on homosexual marriage. Previous years we saw it put on hold until towards the end for a variety of reasons. We saw other pieces of legislation being placed in front of it, from tax increases, selection of a state rock or an official state dirt to drivers’ licenses for illegal aliens, several matters seemed to be placed before working out the budget.
Just as opponents of the Columbia River Crossing light rail project have been saying all along, Portland, Oregon is calling the shots while Clark County Washington will be bearing the lion’s share of expense.
We have been saying for some time now that this is not a bridge replacement project, that is only the carrot used to force Clark County into not only accepting Portland’s financially failing, deep in debt light rail against our wishes and now we once again see the truth of that coming out of Oregon.
Even opponents agree a new bridge would be great, but as was indicated in the Columbian’s recent poll, 87% of county residents want a third bridge first.
More and more it appears as if proponents are following Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s admonition of “increase the decibels” in a late effort to finally ram the Columbia River Crossing light rail project off onto Clark County citizens, even though every indication shows they strongly oppose it.
Of course, “increase the decibels” we know to mean shout down opponents, marginalize them, ignore them and just blindly push ahead, shortcomings be damned.
Editor of the Columbian mouthpiece, Lou Brancaccio says, “There have been so many missteps on this Columbia River Crossing project that if it was entered on ‘Dancing With The Stars,’ it would be voted off before Mike Tyson. It’s just mess after mess. The tomfoolery is epic. Even its most ardent supporters would agree with this. For me, I hold my nose and close my eyes, and say we should move forward.”
49th Legislative District Representative Sharon Wylie says, “We can always wish for a better process, however, we wound up with a process of our own making, based on the quantity and quality of our participation. The process may not have been perfect, but it was open and it was fair.”
Comedian George Carlin said the above in 1990 as part of a much longer routine, Euphemisms, on how we have taken the humanity out of words to make them sound softer and with less importance.
While I do not fully agree with his assessment of the Vietnam war as “lies and deceits surrounding that war,” he does make a valid argument on Veterans in the past not having the help they would need in dealing with the horrors they might have been subjected to when they try to return to their previous lives.
As we in Clark County are aware of, given we have been inundated for over a week now of article after article from the local mouthpiece hating the hiring of Don Benton to head the county department of environmental services, allegations of “collusion” have been raised in an effort to stir up citizens to support a recall of County Commissioners Tom Mielke and David Madore.
