We all know the fable of the Little Boy Who Cried Wolf and how he liked to stir up people by warning them of a wolf stalking the sheep, ready to eat them up, knowing it was false. When one day a real wolf did appear and he cried warning people, nobody believed him and the sheep were scattered.
The moral of the story is that after many lies, false claims or in the case of our news media, biased reporting, even if they were to report something truthful, who would believe them?
We need look no further for a prime example of this than our own local newspaper of record, the Columbian, or Lazy C as I prefer to label them due to their lack of interest in reporting anything negative about Democrats while building mountains out of molehills to smear Republicans or conservatives and anybody not supportive of the Columbia River Crossing Light Rail project.
They stirred up as much angst as they could last year over the Clark County GOP sanctioning for County Commissioner Marc Boldt, who has ran for office as a Republican, but whose performance as County Commissioner sided far more with liberal Democrats than those who voted for him.
In the meantime, they have remained silent over the Washington State Democrat party under Dwight Pelz calling for the ouster of Sens. Rodney Tom and Tim Sheldon, or the lack of support given former Sen. Jim Kastama in his last campaign because they worked in a bipartisan manner. They haven’t even reported the same treatment given to former State Auditor Brian Sonntag for joining a conservative think tank once he left office and they marginalized how Democrat Rep. from the 49th Legislative District, Jim Moeller threw the only Democrat running against Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler in the 3rd Congressional District under the buss because he didn’t think the CRC light rail project was a good idea.
But the legal hiring of Sen. Don Benton (R 17th) drew over 40 articles inciting anger throughout the community with outrageous claims of impropriety and few words showing the hiring was completely legal.
Of course the effort is to undo the last election where the County Commission took on a conservative majority.
We are again seeing an increase as we now approach the election of a new mayor and 3 city council members in this off-year election and the Lazy C ratchets up their rhetoric and biased reporting against only one side, completely ignoring those in their favor.
Their target this time is a group of concerned citizens and business people, novices in the political field, but trying their best to follow complicated election rules and oppose those candidates favored by the Lazy C and who all will rubber stamp further burdening the middle class taxpayers to pay for a light rail extension from Portland, Oregon that has been rejected more than once.
Taxpayers rejecting light rail and a small band of professional politicians and special interest groups ignoring the will of the taxpayers is not newsworthy, only those who take a righteous stand against this effort to steamroll citizens is.
The group, Vancouver Vitality, being political novices, have made some errors and the Lazy C & special interests have quickly jumped on them, maximizing the errors with claims of radical extremism.
In the meantime, false allegations raised by an opposing special interest group comprised of experienced insiders remains ignored. Examples of their erroneous claims can be seen here.
This special interest group calls themselves Forward Vancouver and just happens to feature a logo eerily similar to that of incumbent mayor Tim Leavitt’s reelection campaign. Their website consists of only two pages, one to join and another to donate.
Their dirt apparently being done through flyers included in daily editions of the Lazy C or possibly through the mail.
If you clicked on the connections to their erroneous flyer above, looking closely at their named top donors is a list of well known special interests around town. Ed Lynch, Jeanne Caswell, David & Patricia Nierenberg and the AFSCME to name a few and all with a vested interest of some sort in extending Portland’s financially troubled light rail into our community, whether we want it or not.
There is even the specious claim of much maligned County Commissioner David Madore, “buying elections,” but nothing saying just how many elections the wealthy special interests behind Forward Vancouver have bought over the years.
But, most disturbing was an email sent out on October 16 by Heather Stuart, wife of Steve Stuart, now the lone Democrat sitting on the County Commission and sole supporter of the CRC light rail project on the County Commission, alleging Public Disclosure Commission violations, secret ad buys, with no mention of if they are really secret, how do they have a copy, and requesting a “generous donation” of $5,000 each from recipients to offset the efforts of Vancouver Vitality.
What makes it disturbing, beyond the obvious that seeking donations in the thousands of dollars range is hardly a grassroots appeal, Ms. Stuart begins her emails with, “I wanted to make sure that you saw this information before it goes to the press.”
Disturbing because there was no contact with anyone from Vancouver Vitality until October 21, 2 days before Lazy C ‘crack’ reporter Stephanie Rice claims her story is coming out.
I draw from that the appearance of collusion between the Lazy C and the special interest group Forward Vancouver days in advance, giving the citizens group minimal time to state their side as the smear is set to be published Wednesday, Oct. 23.
Let’s face it, though. No one has ever accused the Lazy C or Stephanie Rice of being overly objective.
As was stated above, Vancouver Vitality is a grassroots group of political novices that has strived diligently to comply with confusing and complicate election rules. They have made errors that they continually make every effort to correct. They are not seasoned special interests or professional politicians, they formed to oppose such professional political & special interest groups ready to profit off of an agenda.
But, you can’t help but wonder why all of the erroneous claims of near crime of the century over hiding their funding and false claims of who is funding them when the Lazy C has already reported the names and sources of funding, “according to the state’s public disclosure commission.”
That makes Forward Vancouver’s claim of “protecting the integrity of our elections and independence of City Hall” along with “keeping a narrow ideological agenda from threatening the health of our local economy and our quality of life” most laughable.
In fact, I find it quite egregious to read a special interest group, trying to force a project on citizens that those same citizens have rejected more than once claiming, “Help us reject special interest politics.”
Forward Vancouver IS the special interest in our community. They are the ones that stand to profit off of the backs of struggling middle class taxpayers with the “narrow ideological agenda” of ramming Portland’s financially troubled light rail down your throats.
The members of Vancouver Vitality have nothing to gain, other than saving their paychecks and businesses from ruin brought on by the “narrow ideological agenda” supported by Forward Vancouver and the Lazy C.
And after all of the times that the Lazy C has cried wolf over every opponent of the CRC light rail project, who would believe them if they ever reported anything truthful or relevant?
UPDATE: The Lazy C has posted their hit piece with no mention of the questionable acts of Forward Vancouver, as expected or that every election season sees many frivolous complaints filed with the PDC that end up going nowhere.
But when the intent is to smear grassroots groups opposing the downtown special interests that would burden struggling middle class taxpayers with costs of a light rail extension they have rejected more than once, it makes good copy for a biased media.
Discovered this evening on County Commissioner David Madore’s facebook page,
1111 Main Street, Suite 400 – the mystery address on Leavitt’s flyers
I was curious. So I walked to the address and asked the receptionist if they were the home of “Forward Vancouver”, Tim Leavitt’s political action committee. Not really. But there was one person, Linda McLain, who was gracious enough to talk with me for a few moments about her involvement.
She said she didn’t really know much about it. Someone just asked if they could use her address. I asked if she was aware that there were promises made to citizens that are being betrayed by Leavitt on the CRC and tolls. She said no. What promises? “But things change and I really want this project.”
I assured her that I would email them to her. Does integrity matter? I would think that it should, especially to a CPA.
With all of the current effort to smear Vancouver Vitality, how is it the Lazy C missed and aren’t interested in a dummy address being used for Forward Vancouver? What does Forward Vancouver have to hide?
