Sunday February 22, 2009, 1:31 pm
The "Sin Express"??? I hope the train goes other places.

Sunday February 22, 2009, 5:29 pm
Thanks Jacqueline.

Monday February 23, 2009, 7:45 pm
PLEEZE stop listening ot RepubliCON$

Just when you think we finally heard the single most outrageous Republican excuse for trying to obstruct President Obama's agenda for change, something like this comes along.

Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, a national GOP figure, actually said that one of her excuses for 'just saying no' to President Obama's economic recovery bill was because "we're running out of rich people in this country." Huh?

Isn't she the one who hid in the bushes to spy on a gay rights rally in a park? Some (many?) politicians are morons. And they keep getting elected by bigger morons.

*sigh*

Monday February 23, 2009, 10:31 pm
HSR LIE JUST WON'T GO AWAY.... Once a claim makes its way onto the approved list of Official Republican Talking Points, it's there to stay. Even after a claim has been exposed as completely false -- sometimes, especially after it's been proven false -- GOP figures will just keep repeating it.

When it comes to the stimulus package, we have a few too many examples to choose from. The marsh-mouse preservation spending
is obviously a good one, but the notion of Harry Reid securing an $8
billion earmark for high-speed rail between Los Angeles and Las Vegas
is a genuine Republican classic.

Here's reality: as negotiations on the package wrapped up, Rahm Emanuel secured an extra $8 billion for high-speed rail. The Maine and Pennsylvania Republican "centrists" approved, and the bill progressed. The $8 billion is not directed at any specific state or project.

Regardless, conservatives quickly began arguing that the $8 billion
was Reid's idea, and would go exclusively to connect Los Angeles and
Las Vegas with HSR. "Tell me how spending $8 billion," House Minority
Leader John Boehner asked, "in this bill to have a high-speed rail line between Los Angeles and Las Vegas is going to help the construction worker in my district." The argument doesn't really make any sense -- not every infrastructure bill
is going to benefit every worker in every district -- but more importantly, the $8 billion earmark doesn't exist in reality.

And yet Boehner and his cohorts kept repeating the lie, and now it won't go away. Here's John McCain today:

"So, we will be seeking fair and transparent use of the money. I believe that Arizona can compete with any other state or locality to get the much-needed money. Already we're seeing a good example. There was $2 billion in the Senate bill of the stimulus package for light rail; there was zero in the House. It came out of conference -- only Democrats, no Republicans in the room - with $8 billion for light rail. And guess where it's going to go? A light rail between Las Vegas and L.A. Everybody knows that.

"Could we have competed for that money? Maybe so. So it's business as usual in Washington, and I think that Americans are generally very disappointed. Sorry for the long answer."

He should be "sorry," but the problem isn't the length of the answer, it's the blatant dishonesty of his answer.

It's certainly possible that McCain just doesn't know what he's talking about. Maybe he saw someone repeat the lie on Fox News, and assumed it was true. McCain has never been especially detail-oriented, which is why he manages to make patently false claims with some regularity.

But this one is especially egregious, and not just because there is
no $8 billion for light rail between L.A. and Vegas. As Matt Yglesias explained, "The thing that John McCain wants where different states can compete for the high-speed rail money is what the bill already says. Except McCain has piled ignorance onto dishonesty by confusing high-speed rail (advanced passenger trains that run between cities) with light-rail (relatively low-capacity trains used for intra-city mass transit)."

So, in this case, McCain is not only lying, he's confused about the subject on which he's lying. He then insists, "Everybody knows that," as if those who accept reality are somehow ignorant.

It's a helpful reminder of why policy debates with congressional Republicans don't usually go well.

Permalink

Tuesday February 24, 2009, 11:06 pm

Bobby Jindal Panned By Both Parties "Amateurish," "Laughable, A "Missed Opportunity"

Republican Governor Jindal was $tupid enough to repeat the same dumb lie about High Speed Rail, even after
David Shuster smacks down Rep. Darrell Issa's lies

When California Congressman Darrell Issa brings up the right-wing stimulus lie du jour -- the so-called "train to Sin City" -- David Shuster delivers a well-deserved smackdown, practically laughing at Issa for having the balls to spread that lie on his show. Good stuff. Bravo, David. Watch Issa start squirming as Shuster unloads at around 4:30.

ISSA: When we see $8 billion into a train to Sin City as part of a stimulus, we reject it.

Wednesday February 25, 2009, 2:01 am
Blue i don't know where you live but you are wrong on the train my friend. This has been talked about for the 35yrs i have lived here pal and it keep getting shotdown by the voters here. With all the reveune the hotels have taken in through the years this was supposed to have financed with private money but calf didn't want any part of it. Their comments were what's in it for us. Nothing in fact to them, so why don't the casino's not own up? It was them who are to profit, once again let the government build it right. And BUILD it they will at a cost to us taxpayers. But the real point here as a nation we lag behind on high-speed rail on the whole just look at japan sweden and other nations that have this from of transportation and it's cost effective, why not the Greatest Nation on earth. It shouldn't link just 2 states but the whole nation, whow we could really put people back to work again and reduce the effect of oil.

Thursday February 26, 2009, 1:14 am
And hey by the way i'm a independent pal not a republican. My guess is you go along with the new U.N resolution.