Comments on: Obama to Tea Partiers: Drop Dead

By: Cindy Munford

Cindy Munford — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:35:07 +0000

ernesto on April 16, 2009 at 11:00 AM

All day long they have been talking bullet trains and high speed rail for Florida. Apparently we are “in the running”. They have yet to explain how this helps the population.

By: ernesto

ernesto — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:30:19 +0000

I agree. In NY, spending some money to upgrade and automate switching now would kill a bunch of legacy expense later.

Kid from Brooklyn on April 16, 2009 at 11:22 AM

exactly. nothing too out there, just some modern mechanisms that cut costs.

By: acat

acat — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:34:47 +0000

Meh. Illinois has been trying to figure out how to build a high speed rail network since before Obama was born.

If Southwest Airlines can make a buck charging people $50 to get from Chicago to St. Louis, how are rail lines going to compete? Charging $30?

Thing is, rail *could* compete – but they’d have to specifically target a group that Obama can’t – business travelers. Offer comfier seats than airlines, offer free wifi, offer better food than airlines… but that’s not populist.

Mew

By: Kid from Brooklyn

Kid from Brooklyn — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:22:39 +0000

ernesto on April 16, 2009 at 11:00 AM

I agree. In NY, spending some money to upgrade and automate switching now would kill a bunch of legacy expense later.

By: coldwarrior

coldwarrior — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:10:31 +0000

Several of my neighbors this morning were unusually silent about the Tea Parties. All this past week they went out of their way to make sure I knew of their disgust with this FoxNews “stunt” and that the Tea Parties would be a bust…since conservatives don’t go in for this sort of thing.

I wonder if they are eagerly awaiting receipt of approved talking points and responses, given the magnitude of the Tea Party protests across the Nation yesterday.

By: rockmom

rockmom — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:08:25 +0000

Just part of the liberal Utopia – a pleasant land where everyone earns a modest income in a fulfilling job that helps others, gets to work on a non-polluting, non-crowded train for a small subsidized fare, and belongs to a union that takes care of them from cradle to grave.

By: ernesto

ernesto — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:00:35 +0000

If some Americans love the European answers to problems so much… like the train systems… can’t they just move to Spain already?

petunia on April 16, 2009 at 10:44 AM

Some of us americans, (like us NYCers), have been using a subway system older and larger than most if not all others in the world. We could use an upgrade.

that said, high speed rail for places that aren’t under NYC is silly. i could understand if bullet train countries were all wiping the floor with us in terms of economic competitiveness but they’re not.

By: petunia

petunia — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:44:59 +0000

If some Americans love the European answers to problems so much… like the train systems… can’t they just move to Spain already?

By: OldEnglish

OldEnglish — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:41:31 +0000

But the unions will love it. And that’s all that matters – right?