06.17.08
Straight Talk On Transportation
Electing more Democrats is the only way to change our current transportation situation. All you rural folks out there that just can’t bring yourself to vote Democratic because of social issues - the oft mentioned God, guns and gays - hopefully won’t wait until your land is paved over to make the switch. Make no mistake, while many in the Texas GOP are currently running away from the TTC, and using code words, they have no other plan to pay for new roads other than tolling. And sooner or later, if you keep electing Republicans they, and their corporate sponsors, will come after your less expensive, more profitable, rural land.
McBlogger, who does the best job of anyone of breaking down confusing ecnomics to terms we can all understand, has the skinny, Transportation Funding : You’re doing it wrong!
First off, the good news. Congress is looking at a 5 year, $1.5 trn transportation funding package. That should just about be enough to make the improvements we’ve needed for a long time. How much of that will come to Texas? That will depend on whether or not there is a change in our Congressional delegation. Specifically, the number of Republicans in it. More and we get less money. Fewer and we have Democrats there who, unlike the Republicans, will actually fight to bring more money back home. And then TXDOT will stop poor mouthing.
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Here’s the bad thing… in my district, I’ve got (at the Federal level) Michael McCaul who is basically a pawn of big oil and the road privatization interests. He has never met a publicly financed transportation bill he likes. But he has met a lot of privatization and toll bills that send him into the kind of orgasmic bliss usually enjoyed by porn stars. And old men on Viagra.
Needless to say, job number one is getting rid of his stupid ass and putting Larry Joe Doherty in Congress. To do that, you need to give him some money. NOW.
The other obstacle is, much like McCaul, really in love with privatization at the expense of the taxpayer. It’s Jr. John Cornyn, our favorite Senator who loves him some hunting with a ladies shotgun. However, we can easily replace him with Lt. Col. Noriega. All he needs is some of your hard earned money to beat that fossil and replace him in Washington.
This, my friends, is coming one way or another. Many of you reading this are fairly affluent so you will probably be able to afford the new roads. Some of you will not. At the end of the day, regardless of your financial situation, these roads are a good deal for NO ONE other than the companies who stand to gain from squeezing us for the next 50 years. That, truly, is why I am so adamantly opposed to privatization and tolls. It’s not conservative and it’s certainly not progressive. It’s wasteful and is a diversion of public resources to private greed.
You have a chance to stop it, but you have to act.
The double-talking chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, Sen. John Carona, has an opponent this year, Rain Minns.
Rain Minns needs your help! She’s running against the corpulent Sen. John Carona (R-Jelly Doughnut). The same Senator Carona who talks a big game about tolls, the TTC and TXDOT and always ends up giving in to what 39% and the Trans Commission want. This ‘man of the people’ is really only good at serving the people, by extending corporate welfare to as many of his contributors as he can. So they can eat more of our money than ever before, with government sanctions.
Dallas flipped blue in 2006 and this year looks to be even stronger. It’s time for Dallas to shed another incompetent R, John Carona. Give Rain some money so she can get her message out.
The more we get rid of in 2008, the less worries we have in 2009. Accountability comes in November.