Open Thoughts- Monday Social Justice Music

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo...

This morning I attended the groundbreaking  of the new $49 million Normal, Illinois Multimodal Transportation Center.   The facility has been on the drawing board for nearly a decade, but thanks to a $22 million grant from stimulus funds, construction is beginning on this project that will serve intercity train and bus riders, local public transporation, airport shuttles, and taxis.  The new facility is located only two blocks from the Illinois State University campus and stradles a 24-mile network of local bike paths.

snip

Very quietly, Normal, Illinois has become one of the busiest Amtrak stations between the Rockies and the Allegenys.  In fact, between California and Central Pennsylvania only the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Louis Amtrak stations serve more passengers than the tiny facility in Normal.  In addition to Illinois State, the Bloomington-Normal area is also home to the headquarters of State Farm Insurance, Country Financial Insurance Company, Illinois Wesleyan University, Heartland Community College, Lincoln College Normal, and the only Mitsubishi Motors assembly plant in the US.

By "Central PA" the diarist means Harrisburg, which has a direct Amtrak line to Philly.  I know b/c my town is on it: our train station is two blocks from my job & we get some customers either going to or coming from Amtrak trains.  There are at least two trains daily that connect directly to NYC (one going & one coming back, IIRC).

Anyway, the diary made me happy: I love trains.  If you like public transportation, it might make you happy, too.

The station will be multi-use, BTW.  This project sounds like a win-win.  Yay!


English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White  

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo...

BTW, I read his first Soldier Town diary, and while you certainly don't have to read it to enjoy Soldier Town II, you might want to read it anyway -- just b/c CV is such a strong writer.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White  

Just watched a good friend of mine get banned there today.  Okay she kinda coulda avoided it, but still.
I know her (turns out we worked with each other years ago but never really knew each other until we met on a blog, lol), and I'm absolutely positive that she's done more to move our country forward than at least 99.9% of the people that attacked her there (today and in recent days), but whatever.

It was all basically because she was outspoken in urging us not to prostrate ourselves before The Lord Almighty Obama.

Granted, she could have done it with a bit more tact, but she did definitely expose the double standard there.  She was basically banned for insisting on using the word Obamabot (you know the type, and though they deny it they absolutely exist, particularly on dKos - witness the numbers of fanboys/fangirls who have his name or one of his catchphrases in their username... they're the ones who protest that they aren't the loudest, lol).

But yet, it's apparently a-fucking-okay for the very same whiners there (many of whom have probably never worked a campaign or knocked on a door in their life) to tell us that we can "shove our ponies up our ass", and shit like that, with no repercussions at all.

The hypocrisy there burns these days.

Me?

I've decided I'm just staying out of the shit there from now on, and I'm gonna do my own thing.  Advocating for historical preservation, and whatnot...

;)

When it comes to politics, nobody in their right mind should take those people (mindlessly advocating electing "More Democrats", even if they're Blanche Lincoln or Ben Nelson) seriously anyways.

That's why this is my home.  We don't have to make excuses for the Max Baucus' of the world when they advocate for policies that will ruin our country.  We call them on their bullshit.  And it isn't because we're "purists", it's because we refuse to accommodate and make excuses for cowards and traitors.  Let Fox News do that.

Remember how everybody there was shocked (shocked!) when Bush won in 2004?  I wasn't.  You know why?  Because I live in the real world, and I saw what was coming.  It's quite telling how the so-called "Liberal" Online Echo Chamber was taken for a loop (and maybe even played a role in our defeat through complacence and shouting down our fellow liberals who brought up objections to the way John Kerry was running his so-called "campaign").

But yeah, we don't know dick.  We can go "vote for Nader", or something, according to them.  Except we didn't.  We voted for the loser they put up, and we got our asses kicked by the Worst President In History.  I knocked on doors that day, until my knuckles bled, as a field supervisor in one of the most solidly Democratic towns in North Jersey, and the apathy was thick enough to cut with a knife.

"Yeah, the polls close at 8 and it's gonna be tight", I'd say.

"Well, okay we'll see.  But dinner's on right now, sooooo...", they said.

The lesson here is that in the real world, people aren't foaming political fanatics, and apathy is a very real concern when "our" politicians give us the finger.  Instead of calling us trolls and whatnot, I'd suggest the Keepers Of The Funk over at dKos actually take heed and pay attention to the fact that there are many, many, many people like me and my friend pfiore8 and others who have finally left the Democratic Party (probably for good) this year.

Oh, I'll vote for Obama over Palin or any other Republican in 2012 surely, but that doesn't mean anything beyond the fact that Republicans are deadly and scary enough to force me to vote for someone I don't even like, from a party that made it clear I'm no longer welcome to dance with them.

I ain't voting Green yet, but well just keep pushing me, Dems.  Like pf8 said, instead of attacking us they should view us as canaries in the coal mine.  I will to this day defend my friend (and former NJ governor) James McGreevey to the death.  I love the guy, and I'll always maintain that he caught a raw fucking deal.

Now think about that.  

Somebody who's willing to go to the wall for Jim McGreevey, is feeling that he's no longer welcome in today's Democratic Party?

Heh, well I guess maybe 60 or 70 million Americans are also "trolls".  And they call us "purists".  Pffffffttttttt....

Excerpt:

The director of the Tate Gallery, Sir Nicholas Serota, warned that "what you will see across the country is organizations closing, theaters going dark, galleries being closed." The BBC  is trying to make the case for keeping the $226 annual license fee that television viewers pay the government each year. The police say planned cuts in the antiterrorism budget would make it harder to fight against Al Qaeda.

Public-sector unions are planning a series of strikes in the fall to protest both the expected job losses and proposals to reduce benefits for those whose jobs are eliminated. Charities - which Mr. Cameron has said should take over some of the responsibilities now held by the state - say that they are at risk of collapse because they are so dependent on government money.

And the chief executive of the Supreme Court, the country's highest, said she did not know whether the court would be able to function at all if its budget were cut.

"A 40-percent cut causes us some problems," the chief executive, Jenny Rowe, told the Guardian. "We couldn't actually deal with any casework, in fact, with a 40-percent cut."

In Coventry, Mr. Mutton said that the council was bracing itself for an uncertain future.

"The worst bit is yet to come," he said. "We're not just talking about cuts in services, but real people losing their jobs, not being able to pay their mortgages, families becoming homeless. I don't want to be scare-mongering, but this is the kind of consequences we face."