STUPIDITY KEEPS FLOWING FROM ILLINOIS

It appears to your Commander that each and every time I open newspapers from Chicago there is another stupid suggestion flowing from the political hierarchy. Now recently elected Governor Pat Quinn has asked Amtrak CEO Joseph Boardman to conduct a study for establishing a high-speed Amtrak direct connection from Chicago’s Union Station to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/automotive/traffic/ct-met-getting-around-0221-20110220,0,5105703,print.column

Does the Governor not know that his state is several billions of dollars in the hole? Does he not know that Amtrak is already a financial disaster, and does he not know that the Chicago Transit Authority already runs the subway Blue Line trains directly from downtown to the airport? I wonder just how much this inquiry will cost Amtrak to conduct, and they are already a failed business operating on federal grants. If it costs Amtrak it really costs the American taxpayers, because we prop-up this federally promoted financially failed venture. Now Quinn is considering digging the hole deeper, because the idea could only be built with federal dollars.

How can any sane political figure even contemplate such an idea in view of the State’s financial condition and the persisting economic debt facing the country? I know that Quinn’s inquiry is just that, but there are certainly many other priority projects that should be considered before wasting anymore of the taxpayers precious dollars on damn-fool ideas. If the Illinois and the country were flush with money that would be one thing, but Illinois is broke and the good old USA owes billions.

Politicians across this country keep trying to bail-out Amtrak, and force feed high-speed rail travel down our throats. You cannot compare travel in the USA to that in Europe and the Far East because it is an apples and oranges discussion. Priorities just never seem to enter politicians' minds these days…only ideas that may attract votes, promote re-election, and spend dollars wastefully on the backs of flat-broke tired and abused taxpayers.

God help us from these greedy self-serving corrupt fools who we keep electing to high office. Perhaps the taxpaying voters are the real dummies.

COMMANDER GRANGER