{"id":4937,"date":"2009-06-17T06:37:15","date_gmt":"2009-06-17T11:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=4937"},"modified":"2011-11-21T11:49:35","modified_gmt":"2011-11-21T17:49:35","slug":"minnesota-liberals-re-writing-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=4937","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota Liberals: Re-Writing Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conrad DeFiebre is not <\/em>one of the bad ones, as a general rule, as far as media types are concerned.\u00a0 While he was a Strib <\/em>writer for about 600 years, he was also one of the reporters that could <\/em>tell a balanced, fair story.\u00a0 He was the first reporter from either of the dailes (to say nothing the TV statiosn) to be bothered with reporting the actual facts on the Concealed Carry debate back in the nineties.\u00a0 For that, I’ve personally given credit where it was due<\/a>, not that anyone cares.<\/p>\n

Long story short:\u00a0 He’s always been a good reporter.<\/p>\n

But these days he works for MN2020, the regional “non-partisan” “progressive” think tank.\u00a0 Which is apropos not much, except that for someone whose gig has been telling entire, complete stories<\/em> for his entire career, he kinda, well, doesn’t.<\/p>\n

His latest piece is called “Conservatives “Re-Writing History”<\/a><\/p>\n

; I’ll direct you to read the piece to find any examples <\/em>of history at all<\/em>, much less conservatives “re-writing” it.<\/p>\n

Opposition to modern transit development may be on the wane in most parts of Minnesota,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“May” it be?\u00a0 Well, I guess we have to take Mr. DeFiebre’s word for it.\u00a0 Perhaps he knows of a Minnesota Poll on the subject?<\/p>\n

but it’s alive and well in one surprising location: The Minnesota History Center in St. Paul.<\/p>\n

“Light rail is an expensive investment without return except as an exercise in chest-thumping to make a city feel like it’s in the big leagues.”<\/p>\n

That’s a quote from Lyle Wray, former Citizens League executive director, posted in big letters in the history center’s long-running transportation exhibit “Going Places: The Mystique of Mobility.” It enjoys equal billing with more mildly-worded praise of light rail in the display’s vintage Soo Line boxcar.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

OK, so we have a qualitative judgment about the “mildness” or, I dunno, “spiciness” of wording?<\/p>\n

I’ll let that pass.<\/p>\n

What’s worse, an accompanying video clip features half a dozen anti-light rail comments, some from anonymous on-the-street interviewees, some from inveterate transit bashers at the Taxpayers League of Minnesota.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Er – so what?\u00a0 Isn’t it refreshing that the Minnesota History Center,noted conservative tools that they are (note to non-Minnesotans: they are not; they are more given to hagiographic treatment of old labor and Farmor\/Labor Party organizers) actually presents both sides<\/em> of a story?<\/p>\n

Does MN2020 have a problem with that?<\/p>\n

Oh,wait<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I digress.\u00a0 My question:\u00a0 Where is history, and its conservative re-write?<\/p>\n

Worse yet, the exhibit also includes plenty of promotion of personal rapid transit, a thoroughly failed technology that has been embraced by both the rabid right and the lunatic left, mainly as a foil to responsible transit proposals.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Rabid”?\u00a0 “Lunatic?”\u00a0 Such invective from a…reporter?\u00a0 Why, it’s almost as if DeFiebre is getting talking points from…someone with an ax to grind?
\nAnd let’s be clear: Personal Rapid Transit seems to be a rather pie-in-the-sky proposal that’d crisscross cities with small rails for tiny, taxi-like rail cars whose destinations could be programmed for anywhere on the system, rather than shuttling back and forth on a single line.\u00a0 It’s utterly un-tested, and it’s the kind of thing that draws all sorts of fawning resolutions at caucus-time demanding government support, and its cost estimates (which are usually about 10% those of light rail lines per rail mile) strike this tech\/engineering industry hanger-on as hopelessly pollyannaish.<\/p>\n

But “Thoroughly failed?”\u00a0 It can not “thorougly fail” unless it’s been “thorougly tested”<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But that kind of invective on an utterly speculative subject like PRT?\u00a0 Why that can only mean one thing:<\/p>\n

Minneapolis artist, activist and blogger Ken Avidor tipped me off…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[scraaaaatch<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Ken “Avidor” Weiner is indeed a blogger.\u00a0 He’s an “artist” of sorts as well – the only “cartoonist” in the Twin Cities less talented that Swiftee.\u00a0 But he’s indeed an “activist” for light rail; so active, indeed, that he felt he needed at least two of him<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Note to Conrad DeFiebre: you might wanna pick better sources for this stuff.\u00a0 Not that “Sources” matter so much in your new career – clearly John Fitzgerald is mushy on the subject – but still.<\/p>\n

But yet again, I digress.<\/p>\n

The post is a puff piece about the wonders of light rail, and how short-sheeted they allegedly are in the MHS presenation on the subject.<\/p>\n

So where is the the ballyhooed “conservative rewrite of history?”\u00a0 It’s the present<\/em>.\u00a0 And the issue of “is light rail a boon or a doggle” is very, very Very, VERY, VERY <\/em>much in the balance.<\/p>\n

Because even if oil runs out tomorrow, the free market will have developed a hydrogen-powered car (the ultimate Personal Rapid Transit) and a network of nuclear powered hydro stations long before government will have built rails to haul the gray, lumpen hordes of proles about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conrad DeFiebre is not one of the bad ones, as a general rule, as far as media types are concerned.\u00a0 While he was a Strib writer for about 600 years, he was also one of the reporters that could tell a balanced, fair story.\u00a0 He was the first reporter from either of the dailes (to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,63],"tags":[174],"class_list":["post-4937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capitalism-v-socialism","category-lefty-alt-media","tag-stalkers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24495,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937\/revisions\/24495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}