So Mayor Hales says on the news that the fact that his, Novick's and Saltzman's paid political consultant, Weiner, is also Uber's paid lobbyist isn't a conflict. Are you shitting me? From the moment Uber hired Weiner, Hales and Novick went from talking tough to being Uber's biggest supporters. They set up an innovation task force that included someone who was essentially an Uber lobbyist. They excluded from the task force the entire cab industry. Then Novick and Hales met with Uber multiple times to negotiate the regulations bypassing their own rigged taskforce. Must be pure coincidence.

Hales says that he negotiated concessions from Uber on insurance, background checks and accessibility for disabled people. Great! Except that Portland didn't require Uber to change their insurance or their background checks and they have virtually zero wheel chair accessible vehicles.

Hales says that cab drivers are upset because "the didn't want the competition." If he had listened to the cab drivers at all instead of just Uber's lobbyist he would know they welcomed the competition as long as it had to obey the same rules as cabs. Instead he, Novick and Saltzman gave Uber everything it wanted and completely screwed the cab drivers who have followed the City's laws for decades. Then they blame the cab drivers?

Hales, Novick and Saltzman should just admit they're for sale, it couldn't be more obvious. Hire the right lobbyist and you get everything you want.