Fact-Checking the "PRT Boondoggle" Blog
A project of the PRT NewsCenter

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Schmuck To The Future!

Kennel Ration the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist took a break from his new "Personal Rapid Transit is Bogus" blog today -- returning to Dump Bachmann to slam PRT, thereby sapping energy from the effort to unseat Rep. Michele Smoochy Bachmann (MN-666).

For the second post in a row, I have to compliment him. His post is like the old days, as if he hadn't left DB after being caught tossing softballs at social conservative, pro-gun, pro-highway Elwyn Tinklenberg. Some highlights:

  • A setup question that goes nowhere. He poses the question, "what happened to Bachmann's plan to get Minnesotans to ride around in pods?" but then proceeds to bury it under a couple quotes from the Advanced Transit Association newsletter. He never really gets around to answering the question.

  • Non-denial denials. The first ATRA quote includes a description of his famous phone conversation with then-ATRA Treasurer Larry Fabian. The reader expects Labridor is going to disprove, after all this time, the account of his profane tirade. Contemporaneous notes? An audio recording? A witness? But no. He doesn't really address this either.

  • Guilt by association. The first ATRA quote also characterizes Humidor's tactics, including "he attacks people more than ideas and is ready to condemn with guilt by association." Kenmore then makes his fans happy by doing exactly that -- mentioning PRT in the same breath as Dean Zimmermann's bribery case and Mark Olson's domestic violence! He also trots out the ultimate tar brush, the Pod Squad cartoon that implies PRT is a crime.

But the best part of the whole post, what really makes it perfecto, molto bene, happens right up front. Just like the time he used Google Maps to 'prove' the Cardiff PRT test track had been bulldozed, today he fiddles with time-space in a way that would make Hawking proud.

After quoting a July 10,
2008 article about Smoochy Bachmann's new 'energy tour' gimmick, Kenwood writes that "While she claims Democrats "refused to address our nation's rising gas cost", this is sort [sic] of legislation Bachmann worked on:"

What did he put after the colon? A quote from a public radio story. Except it was from April
2004 -- over four years ago (when gas was not $4+ per gallon), and more than two years before Smoochy went to Congress in January 2007!

He doesn't address the issue of why Smoochy hasn't put forward a PRT bill in Congress, or why the Resmuglicans didn't either in all the years they controlled both houses. But when liberals
like Debbie Cook get involved in PRT, he attacks them.

Wasn't that great? It's another example of why I'm so glad he's back on the internet. It's a blogging style, a presence we can only hope he brings to Personal Rapid Transit is Bogus!


Archives: Hello Minnesota 6th Congressional District! (10/10/2007)
Schmuck To The Future "II": He shadows me again at Viropop (7/12)



gPRT
I'm gonna get me some kibbles and Ken Avidor!

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