Why does COAST lie about Rail Transportation?

What really does COAST have against passenger rail transportation? They claim it's often "too damned expensive," yet you never see them opposing other expensive forms of transportation, many of which are often way more expensive than passenger rail transportation. COAST can't even make a good argument for being against passenger rail transportation. This was ever so apparent in the recent election when their passenger rail charter amendment, Issue 9, was defeated by Cincinnati voters %56 - %44.

Recently, COAST blogged about Amtrak rail service in the Northeastern Corridor being delayed due to electrical problems caused by inclement weather. What COAST conveniently failed to mention though, was that AMTRAK service was back up and running after only a three hour delay, while the roads and airports continued to be hampered, delayed and closed due to the snowstorm on the East Coast.

So after only a three hour delay, Amtrak's North Eastern Corridor was back up and running...

While the roads and airports were still affected by snow...

So COAST, why lie? Why continue to try and mislead about passenger rail transportation and not oppose the massive amounts additional taxes and spending that other transportation projects will require? You've come out in clear opposition to the Ohio 3C Passenger Rail project, but have remained completely silent on the local issues of the BILLION DOLLAR Brent Spence Bridge Replacement and $675 Million I-75 Re-Widening. Why remain silent on these instances of additional spending? Kind of goes against your group's title doesn't it?

Makes you think; who's paying and lobbying them to drum up support against passenger rail transportation and remain silent on other transportation projects that waste millions of dollars more?

To anyone reading this that may be paying/lobbying COAST to do just that: You might want to rethink who you're paying to do your dirty work. As COAST/NAACP/WEDEMANDAVOTE proved in the last election, they're not very good at it. See: Issue 9 Election Results

What does "COAST" really stand for?

If you look at COAST's blog post labels they tag their blog posts according to their subject matter. The full list is viewable on their website, the most popular below:

Cincinnati (89)
Streetcar (65)
WeDemandaVote (50)
Taxes (50)
Spending (48)

So what does this tell us about COAST?

Well their number one concern is stopping progress in Cincinnati even though the VAST MAJORITY of their members don't live in the City, so maybe they should be called "Cincinnati's Overlords in AnderSon Township"

Well they hate streetcars even though they require no additional taxes and involve much much less spending than other transportation projects ($128 million v. $2,600 million for the brent spence bridge) so maybe they should be called the "Coalition Opposed to All Sustainable Transportation"

And number three on the their list (in a tie with taxes) is WeDemandAVote, a group that partnered with NAACP president Chris Smitherman to oppose the streetcar, only to see Issue 9, which they authored, soundly defeated.

For a group that allegedgly cares about taxes and spending, they sure don't seem to prioritize it. Maybe it is beacuse this is how they make their decisions:

COAST, please keep your lies confined to Blue ash and anderson township, if you stop trying to hold back Cincinnati, we promise we won't do anything to improve Blue Ash and Anderson Township, sound fair?

Are the members of COAST smarter than a fifth grader?

I remember the first time I heard someone get called a "pussy." I was in the fifth grade. Ryan McFarland and James Fallon, two members of my fifth grade class, were squaring off in the middle of our Hamilton, Ohio school parking lot. James was angry that Ryan would not fight him. Upon Ryan's refusal James called him a "pussy." No, he wasn't referring to the common slang for a cat, but using the word as a derogatory reference for a woman's reproductive organ. The word is often used to refer to someone who is "weak" or "scared." You may have heard it before used by members of COAST as we showed you in one of their "tweets" a few weeks back.

You see, calling someone a "pussy" is a common tactic of COAST. Yes, as we've shown you before COAST's leaders are not really above the maturity level of the earlier mentioned fifth graders. Hell, they even did it again recently, referring to our nation's leaders as "lilly-livered pussys."

So are Mark Miller, Jason Gloyd and Chris Finney, three of COAST's top brass, above the maturity level of a 5th grader? One would think not since they let such language fly on their Twitter and blog website all the time. Maybe if COAST focused on political issues and offered solutions and new ideas instead of calling people "pussy's" they wouldn't find that the majority of the candidates and issues they endorse wouldn't find such failure. Shall we recap this years election results?

2009 COAST Failures:

Brad Wenstrup - Mayor of Cincinnati - DEFEATED

Albert F. Peter - Anderson Township Trustee - DEFEATED

John Banner - Cincinnati School Board - DEFEATED (finished in 10th out of 12th place, ouch!)

Christopher McDowell - Cincinnati School Board - DEFEATED

Arnold Engel - Fairfield School Board - DEFEATED

Victor Rivera - Fairfield School Board - DEFEATED

Tony Steer - Fairfield School Board - DEFEATED

Jennifer Miller - Mason School Board - DEFEATED

Issue 7 - Library Levy - PASSED - COAST Opposed

Issue 9 - Passenger Rail Charter Amendment - DEFEATED - COAST Endorsed, planned and executed

Issue 52 - Cincinnati School Levy - PASSED - COAST Opposed

Issue 57 - Little Miami Fire & Rescue Levy - PASSED - COAST Opposed

2009 COAST Endorsed Victories:

Chris Monzel - Cincinnati City Council

Charlie Winburn - Cincinnati City Council

Charlie Norman - Cheviot Treasurer

Peggy Reis - Anderson Twonship Trustee - DEFEATED

Issue 8 - Passed - COAST endorsed

For the 17 COAST endorsed issues and candidates, ONLY 5 found victory....5!

Source: 2009 COAST sample poll ballot.

COAST calls someone a "Littel Rich Pussy" and continues to lie about streetcars.

Well, it certainly has been awhile since CAAST last mentioned COAST and yep, you guessed it: Despite being soundly defeated in the recent election with Issue 9, COAST continues to deceive and lie about streetcars. In fact, just yesterday they stooped to a new low when they called someone a "Littel Rich Pussy" on Twitter (It appears to be a spelling mistake as I'm assuming they meant "Little"). Then again, what other kind of behavior would you expect from COAST and their Anderson Township followers?

Yesterday, Brian Sherman (@bshermcincy) who is not a politician, just an ordinary citizen, "re-tweeted" (reposted a message on Twitter to help spread it along) a "tweet" posted by Hamilton County Commissioner David Pepper (@DavidPepper) which said:

"They (COAST) scare people, then disappear & move on."

After his re-tweet the classy, mature folks at COAST decided to send a message to Mr. Sherman and call him a "pussy."

For those who aren't sure; "pussy" is often used as a slang term for a woman's vagina. It wasn't enough that COAST has been called out and caught numerous times lying and trying to deceive the voters, now they have to call their opponents "pussies." Is it any wonder why no one listens to these guys?

In other COAST news, there's a rumor going around that former SORTA board member Stephan Louis has started to write anti-streetcar stories for the COAST blog. Don't remember Stephan? He was the guy who in a debate at the University of Cincinnati compared building a streetcar to having an "abortion," then was embarrassed following the debate when he received only one vote of support. Read that story here.

It is believed that Stephan wrote the most recent COAST post which featured this photograph of a streetcar trapped in the snow:

The title of the COAST story was that "Trolley's get trapped in snow, busses roll on." What COAST failed to tell you as they intentionally tried to deceive you was that the website from where they borrowed this image shows A BUS and CARS trapped in the SAME snow storm:

These images come from: http://www4.uwm.edu/cuts/headlite.htm

I thought the buses rolled on, COAST? Guess not.

Folks we've seen it time and time again, the CAAST blog serves as a constant reminder to it; COAST's only tactic is to obstruct and deceive in order to promote their special interest agenda. All you have to is look back through the months of posts here to see how many times COAST has lied. The good news is, no one's buying it. I agree with what commissioner Pepper said: "They scare people, then disappear & move on." That's COAST's strategy. No real solutions and no real answers.

To Smitherman, Louis and COAST I ask you: Do you remember the results of Issue 9 in the November 3rd election? Because I certainly do and as I remember, you lost:

Issue 9:

No on 9 - 56% Yes on 9 - 44%

You can now follow CAAST on Twitter, check out as at:

twitter.com/gocaast