Thanks, I have one on the way!
:angry2: :angry2: :angry2: :angry2: :angry2:
Good point. It should also be noted that 52% of the residents did not vote for Walker. Only 52% of the residents who voted, voted for Walker. What was the overall turnout in WI? If it was X%, then only ((.52 x .X) x 100)% voted for Walker and that is likely way less than 50%.
I haven't seen a poll recently, but over the last year or so (basically during the campaign season), support for the MKE-Madison Hiawatha extension dropped with all of the attacks on the project. Go back two years ago and a majority of WI residents tended to support "high speed rail" or "passenger rail" improvements, whereas now the number is probably close to what you mention.
That's what I remember as well. Unfortunately several Republican politicians decided to use passenger rail as just another stick with which to attack their opponents and after enough anti-rail commercials and talk show interviews several pro-rail initiatives took a major dive in the public's perception. That damage is going to be hard to counter going forward no matter who is in office.
I'm never forced to vote for anything. I can simply leave my lazy arse in bed all day and read books. Fact of the matter is, I like John McCain, and if we didn't disagree with him on several key issues (rail being one of them) I might have voted for him last Presidential election. I like the man, and I generally like the nature of his performance on the hill. He is one of those politicians who actually seems to be genuinely interested in both the country as a whole and his constituents in particular.
I'm pro-rail, and I voted for Walker. I think the state really needs a belt-tightening all around and based on his record as Milwaukee County Executive I knew he could do it. The past decade has seen our state's structural deficits go up every year, and for the most part the last two governors simply used one-time fixes for each two-year budget. So while I'd really like to see the train go forward, I felt the overall state budget was more important and that Walker was a far superior candidate to Barrett in that regard.
Based on Walker's track record of dealing with transit in Milwaukee County, even during the gas price run-up in 2008, I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for him to change his anti-rail/anti-transit stance.
Good for him if he doesn't. A Toyota Prius should be in Websters, next to Hypocrisy.
GML, is there anything you don't complain about? Something you actually enjoy about life or someone you actually approve of? Maybe I'm just missing it but all I ever see is one derogatory statement after another. The few times I thought I saw you complimenting someone or something it turned out to be the back-handed variety.
So he's not insulting anyone. Unless they've crossed any number of arbitrary lines he's drawn in the sand. In which case maybe he has insulted them. But it's just an opinion he's expressing and not a personal attack because how could he know you'd be among the millions of people he just insulted without explanation. Well, that makes about as much sense as the average GML post I suppose. I wouldn't call most of them balanced so much as completely unhinged and reactionary. But maybe that's just me.
Tons of stuff. Otherwise my post count would blow AlanB's off the map. If what people are saying are in agreement with my perspective, I have no reason to lamely chime in with "Yes, I agree!" I have long suspected that there are people around here who agree with me more than you'd think, but don't respond for either the above reason or because they think they'd be ridiculed... or both.
I am not aware of what kind of car you drive, nor do I have any reason to be unless it is something fascinating with prancing horses or snorting bulls, tridents, flying letters, or statues of flying ladies on them. The solution to our energy problem, at least with respect to transportation, to my mind, is to limit personal vehicular mobility to the absolute minimum needed, and otherwise use mass transit. A Prius or other eco-friendly car is designed to create a palatable mechanism to extend excess personal mobility.
And, again I find myself agreeing with the GML.
Part of it was the Tea Party voters. The train service itself, due to a dishonest, malicious verbal assault via talk radio and Reason & CATO Institutes, became associated with the Democratic Administration, the Obama agenda, and an unpopular departing Democrat governor. Walker got elected partly because 1. he isn't a Dem, and 2. he's something of a "new face" on the political scene, and 3. he took full advantage of the "Tea Party" movement. He also associated his campaign rather closely with that of now-Senator Ron Johnson, a very successful businessman (think: deep pockets, considerable $$$ ). Please believe me when I say that the train was targeted for a smear campaign, with coordination via the Talk Radio circuit. It was a part of the R party platform, which worries me regarding the rest of train service across the nation -- the R's have hit on something when they use Obama's unpopularity against improved rail service.
