None of these seemed to merit an entire post themselves, yet each is worth mentioning:
- The California High Speed Rail Authority has dramatically redesigned their website. I happened to like the previous site, which emphasized easy delivery of government information - reports, the Implementation Plan, etc. The new site is much more oriented toward educating the public about high speed rail - it's pretty much laid out like a campaign site. It's a necessary move for the CHSRA given the onset of the 2008 campaign season and hopefully they'll keep it frequently updated. (Plus a link here would be nice!)
- The Rail Passenger Association of California and Nevada has endorsed high speed rail. RailPAC is one of the state's leading rail organizations and has done excellent work this spring keeping the Coast Starlight up and running. They are crucial supporters of any rail project, especially this, so it's heartening to see them going all out for HSR. We welcome them to the movement!
- On Friday I came out against the idiotic "gas tax holiday" proposal being floated by Hillary Clinton and John McCain. The movement to push back against this extremely bad idea is spreading. A petition is being circulated online - hilariously written in the style of Nigerian check scam spam - and there's also a Facebook group. It's hitting the blogs hard today, from Open Left to Daily Kos to our friends at The Overhead Wire. Go sign it - the only way to ease the pain of high gas costs is to start building alternatives, not deluding voters into thinking the oil-based transportation system has a future.
2 comments:
Seriously, does it matter that the Hollywood writers are back from being on strike when we have presidential candidates pandering short sighted and stupid ideas to the politically and economically illiterate???
Who needs those writers when we have these guys to laugh at?
If Obama does not win N. Carolina... what does it say about the state?
By the way, if a 3 month gas tax holiday would result in 21,000+ lost jobs in California alone, what would it do to the whole country? 150,000 lost jobs?
If -18 cents per gallon has such a negative impct on jobs, what would a tax increase result in? That is what I want to know!
One of the major challenges we face in this country is restoring the link in voters' minds between taxes and services. We've had 30 years of tax cuts in California and all we have to show for it is a collapsing infrastructure, collapsing schools, a health care system in tatters, and a middle class barely able to hang on.
Doesn't mean any tax is a good tax and any spending is good spending - but this mindless anti-government mania has gotten this state into a serious crisis. It's time we took responsibility for our state - and its fiscal future.
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