From IBD editorial. http://www.investors.com/editorial/EditorialContent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=320285596120230&secure=1&show=1&rss=1

Glad our overlords are working together to get it done.

From IBD editorial. http://www.investors.com/editorial/EditorialContent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=320285596120230&secure=1&show=1&rss=1

Grow up.”

I voted for, and gave money to, Obama and my voting record would not indicate support for the Republican party. I won’t speak for my colleagues, but I will say that your argument is without substance because it…lacks any substance. It’s just ill-formed attacks at nothing specific.

Try again, Donna.

And I would point out that people may “hate” the Republican party (I have no doubt you do), but they also “hate” (59% of the country dissaprove per the latest AP poll) the Democrat controlled congress. Our politicians are spending money for their gain at our expense, and our children’s expense. They are making a bad situation (that created by the confluence of greedy bankers, irresponsible ignorant home owners, distortive Governmental incentives and mandates to Fannie Mae et alia, and a loose Fed driven by Greenspan) and making it far worse than it had to be. When they aren’t spending our money, they are adding uncertainty and scaring the shit out of people.

It’s a disappointment that so far, the new boss is the same as the old boss. I expect better from the leaders I voted for. I expect better from the leaders I DIDN’t vote for. I expect when spending historic amounts of money for a dubious purpose, that they would at least take their time, a measured rational approach to such an important bill, rather than trot out the same hysteric fear mongering and short-termism that was trouted out by Bush to sell the War in Iraq. Obama and congress didn’t do this and the result is this giant tarp of bullshit, fat with waste, with non-stimulative spending and with money that won’t even be spent soon enough to matter.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
–Abraham Lincoln

That’s how I would want this done, if it has to be done.

PS. I stepped into the real world for a brief second, but if you want to play here, on these grounds, in these comments, you better bring the appropriate funny to back it up. This doesn’t inspire any confidence in your quality:

http://www.sdsc.edu/~woodka/qualityhumor.html

Your name is so close to vodka, and this polish beer I drink, you should be funnier or at least drunker.

Grow up.

1. Brilliant idea covering the National Mall in Gold leaf, do you have any idea the kind of tourism dollars that’d bring in? Hell, we should just cover all of Washington D.C. in gold leaf, then it could literally be the City of Gold.

2. Really, this is a subsidy and vote of confidence (i.e. buying votes) to (from) the rail-workers, construction, and likely some other Unions. How no one sees this is beyond me.

3. Gov’t minds are simple, so the thought process (if you can even call it such) probably goes something like: “well, if consumer spending goes down we have to make up the difference with government spending…”

And since that’s pretty much the extent of Economic knowledge (if that) possessed by most Politicians, the conversation ends there. It doesn’t quite matter to these schlubs WHAT the $ is spent on, as long as it props up GDP. If they can make themselves richer and/or more powerful in the process, all the better.

Steve, I’d agree with you, except that HSR as a whole in this country has been a failure and a money pit. If it’s not this fantasy maglev train connecting Tomorrow Land and Cheetah’s, then it will be some other ridiculous under-demanded HSR or mag lev monstrosity, which almost always are incredible boondoggles.

Here is an HSR cheerleader blog’s thoughts on mag lev trains:

http://cahsr.blogspot.com/2008/06/oooo-shiny-maglev-toy.html

Ajay-
2) When two cities are connected by a 4hr straight shot drive on a major highway, that is a very good reason not to build other ways of getting there. This is not an argument against airports, which help people travel LONG distances and between places NOT connected directly by major highways.
3) Hasn’t the most commonly discussed goal of the stimulus bill been to rebuild and expand ailing infrastructure in order to make ourselves more productive in the future? Will getting Mickey Mouse to the Playboy club at the Palms in under two hours really help our economy all that much in the future?

“The deal provides $8 billion for high-speed rail projects.” [FULL STOP: TEXT OF ACTUAL BILL ENDS HERE. REST COULD CHARITABLY BE CALLED SPECULATION]

So 8 Billion for rail across the entire country somehow means a Disneyland train?

..for example, including money that COULD benefit a controversial PROPOSAL for a magnetic-levitation rail line between Disneyland, in California, and Las Vegas, a project favored by Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.). The 311-mph train could make the trip from Sin City to Tomorrowland in less than two hours, according to backers.”

2) “People can drive there, they don’t need any other way of getting there” would be a good logical argument to oppose building any airports anywhere in the US. Why does New York need an airport? People can already drive there! Except foreigners – and they can fly in to Canada and then drive over the border.
It’s also a good argument for not building any freeways. Or buying a car. (You can take the bus.)

3) And isn’t the point of the stimulus bill to involve lots of spending?

I actually laughed out loud reading this. It could but it won’t. Amtrak loses money on all but one or two Northeastern lines. The biggest losers are in the West.

With projects like this, we should beat Zimbabwe at its own game in NO time.