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As we all know, most of America went ‘Full Retard‘ on Election Day, opting with their flea-sized memories to go right back to the Party that promises more of the Bush-Cheney policies that got us into the mess we’re in now.
But there are silver linings! For one thing, the new Teabagging Governors of Wisconsin and Ohio, between diaper changes, scuttled their states’ high speed rail projects, rejecting the $1.2 billion of federal stimulus dollars that support them.
And so, mouths agape, heads shaking in dismay, and more in sadness than anger, our forward-thinking California pols – Senators Feinstein and Boxer, both our outgoing and incoming Governors, and our Democratic delegation including Loretta Sanchez – saw an opportunity: give US that high-speed-rail money those backsliding midwestern states don’t want!
And hell if that gambit didn’t pay off! The Department of Transportation has just awarded California$624 million in funding out of the amount Wisconsin and Ohio rejected. The rest will go to some other states, but we’ve got the lion’s share. So, if you’re keeping track at home, we have won nearly $4 billion in federal HSR funding in the last 12 months.
Robert Cruickshank fills us in: “It’s not clear yet what exactly the California HSR Authority will use the money to build, but it will almost certainly go to expand the first construction segment, currently linking Fresno and Hanford. The funding could be enough to get the tracks all the way to Bakersfield or Merced, a good starting point as we seek additional funds to complete the route from San Francisco to Los Angeles.”
Loretta Boasts…
Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (CA-47) today applauded the U.S. Department of Transportation’s decision to redirect hundreds of millions of dollars in high-speed rail funding to California. In November, Rep. Sanchez and other members of the California Delegation sent a series of letters to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood asking that high-speed rail funding refused by other states be sent to California. As a result, the state now has an additional $624 million in funding to help build a world-class high-speed rail line from Anaheim to San Francisco.
“I am thrilled with the Department of Transportation’s excellent decision to make additional funding available for California’s high-speed rail line,” said Rep. Sanchez. “We are now one step closer to making our dreams of cleaner, safer, and more efficient mass transit a reality.”
“As beneficiaries of this funding, California has an obligation to implement its rail plans in the most efficient, effective manner possible,” Rep. Sanchez continued. “That includes linking urban centers, like Anaheim, to other population centers. Investing in Orange County would be a good first step for this ambitious infrastructure project.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, a total of $3.18 billion in federal funding has been approved for the state’s high-speed train proposal so far, the largest amount for any pending rail project in the nation. With matching funds from the state, the amount available for construction is about $5.5 billion.
Orange County has already taken significant steps to make high-speed rail a reality in Southern California. In July, the Federal Transit Administration awarded the City of Anaheim $5 million to help fund the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC) project. Once completed, ARTIC will accommodate existing bus, rail, and shuttle connections to the Anaheim Resort Area, as well as high-speed trains.
What a hoot.
Don’t these require matching funds from the state?
True matching funds from the state are needed. It should be a priority because we need the jobs and tax revenue that these jobs will create.
A couple comments on the latest post:
1. I’d be happy to send you some parts of the Congressional Record which VERY CLEARLY shows that, along with the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (passed by Carter and Democratic super-majorities in Congress), Democrats (Frank, Dodd, Obama, etc) were actually the reason for most of the mess we are currently in (assuming that you’ll agree that the “kickoff” was the mortgage crisis). Let me know…
2. As long as you are ok with referring to the Tea Party as “teabaggers”, I assume it’s ok if I refer to Democrats as “circle jerks”?
3. Nice touch on the Aerosmith vid. One of the greatest ever…..
Cheers…
1. Some Democrats, including the ones you mentioned, are nearly as big of corrupt Wall Street Whores as your average Rethug.
2. You can call Dems “circle jerks” if you can point historically to some large group of Dems first referring to themselves as “circle jerks,” as some Tea Partiers referred to themselves as “teabaggers” and called out for “teabagging Nancy Pelosi” until they realized it was a sexual term.
3. Agree. Only “Dream On” “Back in the Saddle” and “Last Child” are better. Although Howard Stern considers “Sweet Emotion” the greatest rock song ever.
If memory serves, it was Olberman who coined “tea baggers”, which was then picked up by the Tea Party as a sign of affection (not unlike blacks referring to each other as “ni**er”.).
I think you’d be safe including the entire “Rocks” and “Toys in the attic” albums when discussing some of rock’s greatest moments!
Your memory does not serve in this case. It was some Red State – connected guys who thought it would make fun slang. Maddow and Olbermann jumped right on it with mischievous delight. Even after that it took the ‘baggers a while to realize what they had called themselves.
“Is it okay to come out?” Shall we call thee “Hirota?” I like that better than “There are some who call me Tim.” Just Hirota. Sounds like a kamikaze pilot. How is your poll going? last I saw it wasn’t quite to fifty and was neck and neck. You better get a flash mob on there quick.
I cede that point. You are correct!
But, c’mon, Vern…..I can’t use a Monty-python-ism????? You would deprive me of that???
Hirota’s fine, btw…..BANZAI!!!!!!!!!!!
Haven’t checked the poll lately but, honestly, I’ve been scratching my head about “local issues”, and while I occasionally comment on them, I pay FAR more attention to national stuff……so I’m not sure if i’d be any good to you….
(and, yeah, I figured I’d say “come out of the closet”….after all, I’m a homophobe, right?)
Actually, Vern, with regard to the first item, I’m going to send it to you via email (its a piece I wrote in ’09 about the mortgage crisis). As it’s 2900 words, I didn’t figure i’d post it….
if you choose to share with your readers, feel free. Or, feel free to give interested parties my personal email address and I’ll send the piece to them…
T (RWB)
My new avatar:
Okay, enough banter. People on this thread expect you to make the case that California’s High Speed Rail is the slippery slope to bankruptcy, Zimbabwe-style hyper-inflation, enviro-fascism, and the killing fields of Cambodia.
The killing fields will be up in the Central Valley somewhere.
Just a quick comment on the matter, before I go to work…
I have no particular issue with the HSR project, as “infrastructure” IS a duty of the government.
Perhaps, I’d argue “priority”, as in: aren’t there other things that ought to be first and foremost on the California agenda? While this project will get a few people to work, the number of jobs created pales in comparison to a raft of other things (like…severe tax cuts on individuals, business tax incentives, etc). But, hey, why create lots of jobs when you can create just a few…
What’s that old saying about “stepping over dollars to pick up dimes”?
Hirota: out!
I was born in Germany and have traveled throughout Europe and Japan. Trains are an incredibly efficient and practical way to get around because they one way or another invested in public transportation.
California has done a pretty good job in the Bay Area but falls short in Southern California. I’d much prefer to take a train to Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, etc. if we had a good system here in Southern California. Hopefully that will get us closer to an efficient and practical rail system.
JT. I’m so glad you are prepared to make your investment into our high speed rail.
Make your check payable to the US DOT. When the bar reaches $85 billion we can than start this non “shovel ready” project.
I am not debating rail as one form of transportation. Sadly there are those in CA who are quick to use the credit card of Bond Measures and don’t give a thought to who and how the Bond and its interest will be covered. Check out the term “bonded indebtedness.”
As a sidebar we currently have over $90 billion in bond debt for our state’s redevelopment agencies. Now were talking some real money.
Well, I’m not advocating going into debt for this project. However, if you are going to bust the budget, at least do it on infrastructure that will generate jobs and make our society more efficient.
I think that’s one fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans. Both bust budgets and spend money we don’t have. Democrats would rather spend it on schools, public transportation, and other infrastructure projects. Republicans would rather spend it on the military, the prison system, and corporate welfare projects.
I don’t think we should deficit spend at all. However, if you are going to deficit spend, this seems like a good project to deficit spend on.
JT. Ask around.
Larry Gilbert is a strong opponent of “corporate welfare” and has testified before committees of the State Assembly and Senate on that topic.
As to priorities. What in your view is the role of government?
As far as priorities go, I’d rather bust the budget on a rail system than Iraq or Afghanistan or any kind of foreign aid to the middle east. It doesn’t make sense to send money to other countries when we have so many people out of work and hungry in our own country.
Putting people in jail at $50K a year just to protect them from themselves (ie. marijuana and other drugs) should be a low priority.
Helping America become self sufficient and sustainable should be a high priority. Right now we send a lot of money to the Persian Gulf, Mexico, Canada, and other foreign countries. The trade imbalances we run suggest we get very little in return from this trade relationship. We use oil faster than it gets replaced so it’s only a matter of a hundred years or so before the world runs out anyway. It’s too bad we aren’t ahead of the game on that one and save the oil for products that can’t be made without it.