--Emanuel Cleaver voted AGAINST censuring Charlie Rangel? Wha? Are you kidding me? How does that do anything but make you look like someone who supports the corrupt status quo? Representative Cleaver, we deserve better than this. You owe us better than this. You, sir, need to constantly show us, your constituents that you are for a "clean"--or cleaner, at least--Congress and that you're not in this whole thing just for yourself. Both. Not to be outdone, Dennis Moore, over in Kansas, did the same, shameful thing. Heads up, guys--this is not the kind of thing we voters are looking for in representatives, if that last election didn't teach you anyting. Just sayin'.
--Joel Brinkley, professor of Journalism from Stanford University, has a terrific column on the op/ed page today, pointing out a bit of what I've hinted at strongly in the recent past. That is, if some country--he points out Egypt, mostly--doesn't do what is right and what we want them to do--like, say, clearly support truly clean elections or human rights or whatever--we should cut them off from our financial support. If Hosni Mubarak can't have honest elections in Egypt, cut him off the $2 billion we give them per year until he does. That's what I recently said about our "partner" in the Middle East, Israel.
If Benjamin Netanyahu is going to keep allowing settlements to be built in the West Bank, thereby scuttling the possibility of continued peace talks, cut 'em off. It just makes sense. In the first place, it'll get their attention and likely have them do what we wish. Secondly, in case they haven't noticed in Washington, we aren't as flush with cash as we used to be. Finally, it makes people take us seriously, which would be a nice change of pace. Let's stop being anyone's patsy. (Being realistic, I know we'll never cut Israel off but we should at least consider it, at minimum).
--If you were one of the poor, unfortunate suckers who got totally lied to and screwed by Enterprise Rent-A-Car by buying one of their fleet cars, only to find out later Enterprise had made a deal with the manufacturer to save themselves money by taking out the side-impact air bags, it looks as though you just got screwed again.
The ultimate settlement? You get a $100.00 voucher from the company--apparently to rent yet another of their cars, as though you'd want to deal with them--and a yellow sticker warning "No Side Curtain Airbags."
Yipee, huh? Wowza. That was sure worth it, eh?
Yet another corporation screwing yet more unsuspecting, trusting consumers. Customers, in fact. Thanks, Enterprise!
Remind me to never rent a car from these clowns, the scumbags.
--Who knew there was a forest in Israel?
--"A Chinese passenger train hit a record speed of 302 mph Friday during a test run, state media said. It reportedly was the fastest speed recorded by an unmodified conventional commercial train."
In the meantime, here in the US, Amtrak, the government-run mass transit train system in the US is lucky to even run a train, let alone clean it or have it operate at an ultra-high speed. But "We're Number One!", right?
Enjoy your weekend, y'all.
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2 comments:
I still don't understand the liberal obsession with trains. At minimum they need population density and government intervention to be viable, and lack the flexibility to deal with change. They also aren't energy efficient except at near 100% utilization, and that is extremely rare real-world.
As far as I'm concerned, this is like complaining that the US has fallen behind in gas light technology.
It's because we "Liberals" are looking forward, not back.
People say mass transit is a losing proposition that doesn't pay for itself but highways have tons of infrastructure that is extremely costly and that's just for cars so we can go around in them, one person per car.
Remember $4.00/gal gas? If you don't--and I'm sure you do--you'll remember it when it comes back around again. It's not gone forever.
Let's just use the small example of Kansas City.
We'd be very well served by at least two lines in the city, providing local mass transit service through and to the city, with buses that took us farther into the rest of the area. If we had one North/South, from our airport to, say Harrisonville, eventually and one line going East West, from Blue Springs through the downtown and out West to Gardner, it would both be very useful and usable and allow us to get away from that one person/one car addiction and need.
But we don't do it. We won't do it.
One day Americans will learn we have to give up our selfish privacy but that day doesn't seem to be coming any time too quickly.
Nationally, lines that go, say, from Chicago to St. Louis, over to Kansas City and then out to Denver might make great sense if they're one of the "bullet trains", possibly, and it could be used for both business or pleasure, but I think here, that may be at least more difficult to prove, if not possibly unrealistic and, as you suggest, a return to the past.
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