No to "MEDIUM' speed rail

No to the plan to build a "medium" speed rail from Milwaukee to Madison and then extend to Chicago and Minneapolis.  

Most people who know me are wondering at this point if I have lost my mind.  They know in the past I have supported rail.  I still do but I support "high speed" rail not this stuff where the trains will only go 110 miles an hour.

If we were talking of building a system that the trains would travel 160MPH plus then I would support it.  But a train that only travels 45 mph faster than the highway speed limit is not going to attract the kind of ridership that will be needed to make such a line economically viable. When add in the time of getting to the station waiting for the train then finally getting to your final destination I am not sure you will have saved any time.  

We may reduce our carbon footprint but that is not going to be enough to fill the train.  The service will have to either save us time or a great deal of money.  At 110mph it is not going to save us the time and even if gas goes back to $4.00 it will not save us that much money.

If we are going to put money into a system then let us do it right and not half way.  Some will say that we have to make the compromise and build this system then latter we can come back and up-grade.   I think we all know that would not happen.  If we can not afford to build it right then we should not build it at all.

Health Insurance & your tax dollar

Just think about this.  Each of the thousands of WALMART stores offered their employes health insurance.  The health insurance was not offered from the corporate office but each of the stores had to go and find their own.

That would not make any sense.  It would be expensive.  You would not get the same kind of price break and it would not be even.  One store may make each employe pay $1.00 for the insurance while the next store could make each pay $5.00.

The same would go for the retirement plans.

So why does it make sense for Wisconsin governments to do this.  Why should each county, city, town, township, school district and whatever else we have out their have their own plans.  Maybe it is time to combine them all under the state plan.  The same ones that the Wisconsin State employees have.  

We would give the option to any school district to come into the state plan immediately or wait until their current contract is up to switch over to the state plan.

This may be the one issue that could get the unions and the business community on the same side.  The insurance industry would not like this plan as they could see some of them being frozen out of the market and the unions would not like because they could not control the funds.  SO BE IT.

We need to modernize how we finance and spend our local tax dollars.

Obama best pick

At this early stage I will nominate Defense Secretary Gates as the best pick President Obama made for his Cabinet. 

The reports of the Defense budget made yesterday was almost great.  Not everything a lefty like me wanted to see but it goes a long way in the right direction.  

First I am wondering if GW new the kind of person he nominated for this post.  I am sure that President Obama knew what he was getting.  I am thinking that what GW may be thinking about him is the same as Eisenhower was thinking about Early Warren when he said that if he only knew.

Image that a Defense Secretary does not believe that he agency can not just ask for the moon and expect to receive it.  Image that a Defense Secretary thinks that he has to fight the wars of today and not of yesterday.  That the odds of fighting another WW II war are small and that is not the place to put our money.  WE need to take care of the troops that we have now and the ones that have served the country with honor.  

I also am happy that the Presidents of the United States and Russia are going to talk about reducing the number of nuclear weapons.  First they are expensive to maintain.  The constant maintenance on the missiles and the number of plains that have to be maintained to deliver these weapons. Not to mention that they are getting old and will soon have to be updated.

The threats that we face today are from the much smaller countries.  The threats are not so much against us as they are to our allies.  I worry about the weapons that are in the hands of countries like India and Pakistan.  I realize that Israel feels the need to have the weapons as it is surrounded by states that are not friendly but it also makes the case from the neighbors to have one also.  That does not make me feel any safer.

Back to Gates.  I am sure that their is going to be opposition coming from congress.  First the congressman from whose district the plants are that were going to build these projects and also the those on the RIGHT who feel that Obama is not strong enough on defense.  Let us write our congressman and support this budget.  We need the money for health care. That will be a strong defense of our country

Humility

Humility.  

That I think is the reason that I have come to like the Obama administration.

For most of the 70's, 80's, 90's and especially the last 8 years I have seen and heard the leaders of this great country say things my country right or wrong.  Usually what they meant was that we were never wrong.  Do not criticize our country.  You can kick the hell out of anyone citizen of this country or another country that does not agree with "us".

Now here is what I mean by HUMILITY coming from this administration.  

Secretary of State Clition goes to Mexico and tells them that all the violence related to the drug cartels is not all their problem.  The United States has to bear some responsibility.  If the United States did not have such a market for the drugs they would not have this problem.  If most of the guns that are used in this violence did not originate in the United States they would not have this problem.

President Obama last month sent a message to the people of Iran.  In this message he for the first time called the country by its right name the Islamic Republic of Iran.  What a difference from the last four years when Iran helped us in Iraq and a month latter Bush puts them on the Evil Empire list.

Just yesterday the Attorney General pulled the plug on the prosecution of the ex senator from Alaska.  One week before the election he was convicted of filling out some forms wrong.  The prosecution made the point that he was being bribed by some oil people from Alaska.  He may very well have been guilty.  But the Justice department broke some many laws an rules to get the convection that they would have had to have a re-trial.  They did not provide all the documents they had in their possession and may have know that one of the key witnesses lied on the stand.

I think, for what little it is worth, that this shows an administration that has enough faith in the citizens of the United States as well as in itself.  An administration that is willing to ask the citizens of this country to look at the truth and to make the sacrifices that are needed to make us a better country.  No more of this just go out and shop.