Politics: May 2009 Archives

Hot Air: Pelosi + Haiku = Pelosiku

"I am not lying
Except for what I just said
And what I'll say next"

"My nose doesn't grow
(Way too much rhinoplasty)
But my stitches twitch"

Reason Foundation - High-Speed Rail Plans Should Be Called Moderate-Speed Rail

"And that conflict between freight and passenger service is one of the little-noticed problems with what really should be called 'moderate-speed rail.' You can optimize a rail network for freight or for passenger service, but not for both. The current US rail network is optimized for freight, and as a result, rail's share of US freight ton-miles is about 40 percent. By contrast, Europe's network is optimized for passenger trains, and as a result, rail's share of freight ton-miles is only 10-15 percent. Wendell Cox has crunched the numbers and estimated that the carbon-intensity of goods movement is about 25 percent higher in Europe than in the USA." Emphasis added. The Sand Springs Railroad stopped passenger service in 1955 because it interfered with more lucrative freight operations.

RealClearPolitics - HorseRaceBlog - Shifting Sands of PA Politics Endangered Specter

"...the political dynamic in the Keystone State has shifted, not so much against the GOP (at least on the presidential level), but against Arlen Specter, who has - during his twenty eight years in the Senate - failed to develop a durable political connection to Western Pennsylvania....

"The interpretation from the wise political sages in Washington, D.C. is inevitably going to be about how the hardened, conservative rump Republican Party is so intolerant of a moderate like Arlen Specter that he had no choice but to bolt. However, this is quite an oversimplification. There is a big geographical component to this story: the west [of Pennsylvania] has become more important in party politics, and Specter has long been weak in the west."