4/29 Truth Update: The Money Trail

It was immediately obvious to any of us who were courageous and patriotic enough to challenge the official story, that the Bay Bridge overpass collapse was an inside job.  What was less obvious was who exactly these insiders were - and what exactly were they inside?

Early signs pointed rather damningly to Schwarzenegger and Caltrans, but for whatever reason, this time the cockamamie twaddle of trutherism somehow didn't smell right.  Caltrans is a state agency, not a corporation.  Conspiracy doctrine generally prefers that elected officials be in cahoots with one or more sufficiently evil corporate concerns, so the pieces weren't quite fitting.  Still, given that we were talking about fire melting steel here (chortle), it was never really in doubt that we were looking at a massive cover-up.  It just wasn't yet clear who we would be pinning it on.

Now, happily, we're gaining a little focus to our neurosis.  As Mark Felt taught us, ferreting out the neredowells here was just a matter of following the money.  Who stood to gain from the sudden closure of multiple arteries in one of the most complex traffic distribution structures in the country?  With millions of commuters suddenly in need of alternate routing advice, where were they to turn?

Where indeed?

[W]ithin 48 hours of Sunday's accident, engineers at the major mapping sites had reprogrammed with alternate routes that added only a couple minutes to estimated drive times. That's a big improvement from a couple years ago, when routing algorithms were only updated sporadically.

Digital cartographers say the response to the Oakland disaster was a promising sign of what's to come _ up-to-the-minute detours and routing technology that takes into account not only major disasters but fender benders and traffic jams.

Of these "major mapping sites" (Yahoo!, Google, and MapQuest), two of them happen to be conveniently located within 50 miles of the site of the incident.  The third is headquartered 1,300 miles away.  Which two would you guess managed to update their mapping algorithms a whole day before the third?  Maybe the two companies who had some advance knowledge?

It took Yahoo nearly 39 hours to suggest new routes [roughly 6:30 pm Monday, local time]. Google Maps was updated late Monday night. MapQuest Inc., a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, began suggesting detours late Tuesday night.

Not too surprising that Yahoo! and Google are among the perpetrators.  But let's not be so blind and sheepish as to stop there.  After all, for whose campaign did Yahoo! Chairman and CEO Terry Semel host a hoity-toity $2.5 million fundraiser last year?  Yes, it was Governor Schwarzenegger.  And if only it stopped there, we might yet sleep at night, knowing it was just another corrupt Republican behind the lies.  But OpenSecrets.org reveals that Semel has also made personal campaign contributions to Mark Kennedy Shriver (a Democrat and the Governor's brother-in-law), Ted Kennedy (Arnold's uncle-in-law), George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Lieberman, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, the DNC, and the Republican Party of California.

What's more, Microsoft's rumored takeover of Yahoo! (rumors which are conveniently drying up today), suggests that in all likelihood, Bill and Melinda Gates, Bono, perhaps the Edge, and Washington Governor Christine Gregoire may also have a hand in the dastardly business.  As for Google's involvement, founders Brin and Page are thus far curiously silent on the matter, just the kind of stonewalling we might expect.

More to follow as further details and tissue-thin associations and inferences warrant.

Previously:  Paging Dr. Rosie: Did Schwarzenegger Demolish Bay Bridge Interchange?