A Confederacy Of Dunces.

The failed GOP Confederacy seems incapable of new ideas. It is painfully obvious that when they can't win by attacking an idea's merit--which is most of the time--they fall back on the only strategy left in their tattered playbook: attacking it as "pork." Conflating "pork" and "stimulus," the GOP Confederacy's Jefferson Davis--Sanity Secessionist Rush Limbaugh--coined the fringe-right's newest term "porkulus", with obedient ditto-ditz Michelle Malkin immediately parroting the Oracle of OxyContin every chance she gets.

Such is the case with high-speed rail. Some of the benefits of rail investment include highway congestion relief, job creation, a decreased dependance on foreign oil, increased capacity and better economy of scale in cargo logistics, and environmental considerations. It would behoove us as a country to consider that high-speed trains are currently in operation in France, the U.K., Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Taiwan, and Japan, with expansion and upgrades underway in China, as well.  

But to the GOP Confederacy, projects such as high-speed rail investment are "porkulus." Malkin calls the investment in a revenue-producing high-speed rail line between car-clogged and congested Los Angeles and Las Vegas "pie in the sky."  

I could practically see her eyes rolling as she typed:   

A Hill staffer points out this morning that Reid and Obama are pushing for an $8 billion earmark in the conference report (shhh! there are no earmarks, remember?) to “construct high-speed rail lines, quadrupling the amount in the bill that   passed the Senate on Tuesday. Reid’s office issued a statement noting that a proposed Los Angeles-to-Las Vegas rail might get a big chunk of the money.” 

The Hill staffer notes that Reid earmarked $45 million last year for the public magnetic levitation train project — which is in competition with a completely privately funded rail project being built along a similar route. 

No wonder they won’t let us see the bill before they rush to cram it down our throats.    

That "privately-funded" rail project? The Southern California hub would be situated in Victorville, which to residents of greater Los Angeles and Orange counties might as well be Vladivostok. It is also likely that any privately-funded infrastructure project will employ non-union labor to build and maintain the line, at much lower wages and benefits for workers. I  haven't seen anything to dissuade me from believing that the profit incentive would likely result in higher ticket prices than in a publicly-funded system. Without federal support, maintenance costs may also escalate.     

Harry Reid favors a magnetic levitation rail system (MAGLEV), with a hub in densely-populated Anaheim, also home to a very lucrative mouse.

In an earlier missive, Malkin criticized an Oakland-to-Los Angeles high-speed rail proposal. Her weak argument--"Who in their right mind would take this high-speed rail line?"--was answered on November 4th, when Californians passed Proposition 1A, which is a first step toward a state-wide high-speed rail system.

California just isn't a GOP Confederate state.

More Malkin:

Okay, where to begin? It currently costs $49 one-way to fly Southwest from Oakland to Los Angeles. That flight takes about an hour and fifteen minutes...(m)ore data for you: It’ll take you about six-seven hours to drive from Oakland to Los Angeles on the I-5– and at current gas prices, it’ll cost you a mere $25 (with a few more bucks if you stop by In-N-Out!)...     

You show me someone who claims to have flown commercially between Oakland and Los Angeles in an hour and fifteen minutes from the time they walked into the departure terminal until they walk out of arrival, and I'll sell them a watch, because theirs has stopped working.   

And the vast majority of passengers on flights between the Bay Area and Southern California are business travelers, many of whom work on their laptops while in flight. An all-day road-trip isn't what they are looking for. Plus, it's quite difficult to put the finishing touches on that soon-to-be-due business proposal while cruising on the 1-5, frequent bottlenecks and dead stops notwithstanding.  

For many, high-speed trains would be an attractive option to congested airport terminals and flight delays, or to playing the Road Warrior.    

Memo to Rush and Michelle: Maybe the GOP Confederacy should just secede. 

Better luck this time.