And below is a link to an article which illustrates the polarization which is likely to frustrate a serious effort at infrastructural development:
The subject is bound to stoke the passions of a few here, so before posting I would like to caution all the participants to please refain from some of the most blatant partisan rhetoric we try to tone down on the Amtrak forum.
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/01/22/ro ... ntractors/
Amtrak evolved into the hodgepodge it is today precisely because of politics; the Beltway dreamers who managed it were not subject to the disciplines of the market, so they turned the long distance service, which was never conceived as a profit center by the private roads who developed it, into a "middle class welfare" measure. At the same time, the corridor services grew because the pressures of congestion and fuel economy made them popular, but the high capital cost and immobile nature of the facility discouraged private ownership in a political culture which could swing to the left on relatively short notice.
The central focus of the coalition which elected our new President, (to date, at least) is most surely not economic development. It is the fantasies of the Purely-Politically-Correct, as embodied in the doctrines of the National Education Association, probably the strongest single link in the chain, and determined to use our classrooms as an expensive, Federally-financed bully pulpit.
The issue cited above is probably the first in a long series of gaffes' which the insulated illuminatii of the Obama/Clinton/Gore team will find very difficult to avoid. And you can bet that the Limbaugh/Hannity/O'Reilly team will add fuel to the fire at every opportunity.
The subject is bound to stoke the passions of a few here, so before posting I would like to caution all the participants to please refain from some of the most blatant partisan rhetoric we try to tone down on the Amtrak forum.
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/01/22/ro ... ntractors/
Amtrak evolved into the hodgepodge it is today precisely because of politics; the Beltway dreamers who managed it were not subject to the disciplines of the market, so they turned the long distance service, which was never conceived as a profit center by the private roads who developed it, into a "middle class welfare" measure. At the same time, the corridor services grew because the pressures of congestion and fuel economy made them popular, but the high capital cost and immobile nature of the facility discouraged private ownership in a political culture which could swing to the left on relatively short notice.
The central focus of the coalition which elected our new President, (to date, at least) is most surely not economic development. It is the fantasies of the Purely-Politically-Correct, as embodied in the doctrines of the National Education Association, probably the strongest single link in the chain, and determined to use our classrooms as an expensive, Federally-financed bully pulpit.
The issue cited above is probably the first in a long series of gaffes' which the insulated illuminatii of the Obama/Clinton/Gore team will find very difficult to avoid. And you can bet that the Limbaugh/Hannity/O'Reilly team will add fuel to the fire at every opportunity.
Last edited by 2nd trick op on Tue Apr 28, 2009 12:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.
What a revoltin' development this is! (William Bendix)
