Hochkommissar für Konservatismus says, "Make sure I have the right partners."

This fascinating clip contains color film footage from the Reichsparteitag der NSDAP in Nürnberg, or as we refer to these gatherings colloquially, the Nürnberg Rallies.

By the way, Governor Mike Pence was in Jeffersonville last night, and spoke by torchlight.

• Pence, state candidates rally for GOP votes in Jeffersonville Featured

So long as they're the right sex of partner, right Mike?

Opposed to "regional apartheid"? Your last chance to speak is tonight.

(From Curt Morrison)

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Public meeting (the Louisville edition)
Tuesday, June 28 ... 4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Location: Holiday Inn Hurstbourne, 1325 Hurstbourne Parkway, Louisville, KY

This is it. The Bridges Project is seeking community input on their latest revisions. Then it's a tolled and down-sized, 4-lane East End Bridge, and tolls on I-65.

Basically, the current tolling scheme is a tax on Hoosiers that work in Louisville, to pay for Spaghetti Junction and the bridges, because after tolls, we'll have a regional apartheid. There will be very little cross-river traffic that's not absolutely necessary. It's not very equitable for Hoosiers. It's the opposite of regionalism. But the worse part, even if the tolls were only $1 each/way, this would equate to a 4% tax on a single mom earning $15,000/yr in her job across the river. At their very core, these tolls are going nuclear in our war against the poor. And it can't stand.

Find out more info at: http://www.no2bridgetolls.org/

Or get your info straight from the source: http://www.kyinbridges.com/public-involvement/upcoming-events.aspx

And check out our latest video: http://youtu.be/kHY3UGCPieA

"The project, as it is proposed with tolls, is not what the community wants.”

For the record: I couldn't stay, and the congregation of braying suits was a bit much.

Public has their say: Concerns of tolling, safety voiced at Indiana meeting on Ohio River Bridges Project, by Braden Lammers (News and Tribune)

A similar sentiment was passed along by John Gilkey, who is running for Clarksville Town Council (Paul Fetter is also a candidate for Clarksville Town Council), that he heard while he was campaigning.

“The overwhelming sentiment that I get from [Clarksville residents] is that the project, as it is proposed with tolls, is not what the community wants,” he said.

“There is overwhelming belief that tolls will have a tremendous negative impact on the well-being of Southern Indiana. This project has two potentials: one is to be an instrument of economic growth to the entire area; the other is to become an instrument of economic decay for Southern Indiana.”

Hell, it'll make you blind, son: More on the Tolling Authority's meeting this morning.

Bar none, the scariest sight in recent memory. Kerry Stemler and David Nicklies are the designated stewards of your transportation future, Kentuckiana. Are you feeling sick yet?

Coming two days after two governors and a mayor issued a largely meaningless press release, the order of the day was keeping the morale of Tolling Authority shock troops at a high level of self-congratulatoriness. Toward this end, Chairman Buddeke reminded the members that they are united as a team of unique ambassadors, selflessly undertaking sacrifice for the public good ... and we must be reminded of it at every opportunity.

No less than four times, executive director Steve Schultz (above, left) invoked the celestial intervention of Tuesday's "direct guidance from our leaders," leading me to question whether I was seated at Indiana University Southeast or Pyongyang Polytechnic.

Sounding more than ever exactly like his hero, George W. Bush, Kerry Stemler insisted to reporters that tolls are off the table for Spaghetti Junction, the Clark Memorial Bridge and the Sherman Minton, although he didn't mention whether future diversion coping measures might include the tolling of a few hundred yards of asphalt on either side of these key choke points.

Make no mistake about it: Tolls remain an integral part of the project. The new talking point to emerge today is that thanks to Tuesday's providential "guidance" from our dear celestial leaders, the Tolling Authority now can begin seeing to it that those tolls, which they denied considering for so very long, can be kept as low as possible -- just another example of the benevolence of St. Daniels, who's making all these asphaltgasms possible.

On the placard above, the Tolling Authority's freshly minted Job One is indicated right at the top: Global Developers, Global Contractors and Investors/Lenders. Political propaganda points are to be earned when St. Daniels informs voters that we are building (unnecessary; whatever) bridges with someone else's (read: China's) money, not our own.

Naturally, toll revenues will then flow outward and elsewhere for the remainder of the lifetimes of our grandchildren, but what the hey -- One Southern Indiana has its lifeline, and we have our 1950's transportation "solution" for 2050 realities.

Thirty solid minutes of these quasi-erotic buzzwords, like outsourcing, innovation, privatization, delivery models, design engineering, creativity and market options, produced a bizarre masturbatory fury -- although, like the good Puritans we'd expect St. Daniels' disciples to be, no one was much interested in prolonging the good feelings; rather, it was stressed that the element of time is crucial, and construction must begin in August 2012.

Just in time for the Republican convention in Tampa.

Goebbels snoozes as Tolling Authority congratulates itself.

Even former Courier-Journal bridges project propagandist David Hawpe could not muster consciousness during this morning's pep rally. As a friend suggested, why stay awake when you read (wrote?) the script before the meeting started?

Empty bottles as means of sovereign action -- but who gets plunked first?

Yesterday’s artlessly choreographed Tolling Authority photo-op left a universally bad impression on attendees, although, in final analysis, expecting the best in performance art from an aggregation of very bad actors is like asking one of my housecats to read selected passages from Twain's Adventures of Huck Finn.

Oops.

I've gathered opinions from several quarters, from print media to Facebook. Television coverage is not included because I seldom watch local television news, but if you wish to add links in the comments area, feel free.

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Via e-mail, from No 2 Bridge Tolls:

Last night’s “public input and information meeting” seemed to be more about information and less about public input. The Bridges Authority seems intent on going forward with creating a tolling authority to implement tolls on all bridges (new and existing), and possibly all junction traffic, even vehicles not crossing the bridges.

If you were unable to attend last night, you can still have your voice heard by filling out the comment form at: http://www.bridgesauthority.com/contact/

Please bookmark www.No2BridgeTolls.org to keep informed. And most importantly you need to contact your legislators. Their information is on our website and we have a template letter on the site. Please edit the letter in your own words to let the Bridges Authority know how tolling is a bad idea and what the personal impact will be. Please also visit our Facebook page and “Like” us to receive news updates. Thanks for your support of NO Tolls. Together, we can have a voice and make an impact, but we must get the message out to our legislative representatives.

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An Architect’s (Steve Wiser) Thoughts On The Bridges Meeting, at The 'Ville Voice blog:

...I am a half-glass full optimist, but if tolls on all bridges is approved, I hate to say it but, I will be a half-glass empty pessimist. I hope you do not sign a death warrant for this community.

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That’s right – the Bridges Authority is terrified to look the public in the eye, also at The 'Ville Voice.

They’re just going to tie your hands behind your back, cut off your feet and then pig eff you until you pass out and forget about tolls, two bridges, eight bridges, Waterfront Park, whatever. Once again, a handful of people making all the decisions for our beautiful city ... (Linked to David Morse at Facebook).

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Surprise, Surprise: Small Businesses Oppose Bridge Tolls, by Scott Fluhr at the Hoosierpundit blog.

The Courier-Journal treats this as some sort of amazing revelation; it shouldn't be for anyone with a brain and anyone that has been following the issue of the construction of new bridges (plural, multiple bridges, even though only one is really needed) between southern Indiana and Louisville.

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THE GREAT DIVIDE: Toll boosters and bashers have their say; Some members of the public unhappy with format of meeting, by David A. Mann (News and Tribune).

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At least 150 attend hearing devoted to public input on bridges project, by Marcus Green (Courier-Journal).

Tolling Authority "input" session utterly without the redeeming presence of strong liquor.

The Tolling Authority staged a meticulously choreographed mini-rally this afternoon. In a bit of biting irony that surely escaped most of the tolling authoritarians present for duty, it took place at the Muhammad Ali Center, an edifice celebrating democratic empowerment, which was not at all on the menu of this "public input" session.

The best line of the night: "This isn't a public input session. This is a groundbreaking ceremony."

Somehow, I lasted the whole three hours, and spoke with most of the tolling authoritarians present, at least one of whom forbade me from ever using his name again in print. However, flattery will get him (and them) nowhere.

Let's just say that in all conceivable respects, the gathering was thoroughly Orwellian. After the first hour, the logic became so circuitous that I feared having been drawn into an Escher drawing.

Yes, I made it a point to track down David Nicklies of the Bridges Coalition, which is connected to the Tolling Authority in most significant ways except for anyone actually admitting to it, and he repeated to me that all businesses always should be willing to sacrifice for the wider community benefit.

No, I did not ask Nicklies for evidence that he has ever followed this dictum.

With nuanced condescension, Nicklies then remarked that upon closer inspection, his comment in the morning paper to the effect that only 3% of the community opposes tolling was exaggerated; it's even less than that, he said.

Nicklies in person is even more of a dismissive, unctuous dirtbag than voluminous prior notice might have indicated. Two showers later, and I'm still not clean.

Here are a few photos.

David Hawpe presses the flesh with workers from the building trades prior to the start of the meeting. Hawpe, who escorted an chirpy, exhumed Leni Riefenstahl to the confab, happily left the premises before the public session began, having presumably made his point in private prior to the elevators being opened.

In short, we must be innovative to finance the bridges boondoggle, and even if we didn't need to be innovative and could finance all of it without tolls, in 15 or so years there'd still be an antiquated 1950's solution to a 2050's problem with not a cent left to do it right in terms of genuinely enhanced mobility.

Wanna comment? Right this way, and a steno will take your testimony, which we promise to study in depth for voting Thursday on a plan that's a plan, but isn't really a plan if you mean something bad by it. Got it?

It was a farce from start to finish. If I can muster the strength, I'll churn out another column for the Thursday edition of the Tribune. If not, I probably will, anyway.