I would love to have high-speed trains…but I'm skeptical… I would rather go for broke. If we're going to get trains, I would rather go massively, head-over-heels into debt and hope that the war-level spending will stimulate the economy and create jobs and leave us with something useful…rather than a train that barely goes faster than my car—but provides less convenience and costs more….  John Tantillo has a marketing and branding blog on which he publishes weekly brand winner/loser post. Last week, he named “The Train To Nowhere” the loser, and he makes some very good points, asserting that it does not respond to any real need but instead follows the “build-it-and-they-will-come” model adopted by the now infamous American automakers. But with the added side-effect of disincentivize the development of alternatively-powered vehicles, with any (unlikely) success also putting further strain on already-struggling airlines. Since the supposed “high-speed” rail would not even be considered as such in other countries, Tantillo characterizes this proposal as greenwashing: “Thus another sin against marketing: window-dressing your brand as something it is not.”
Full post: John Tantillo's Brand Winner… And Loser: The U.S. Navy and the Train To Nowhere.

I just love how anything north of San Francisco and south of Portland just doesn't exist!!!That's weed country… the Lost Coast, indeed.

Well now this is good news, more federal mass transit programs! I would have to guess that the one we currently have just isn't losing enough money fast enough for the President's tastes. (begin the “if it works in Europe and Japan it can work here!” debate which pretends that there are no real differences between the US, Europe and Japan)

YAY! Now everybody can go to Macon, GA so they can… well I'm just saying, you can go to Macon and umm… you can… look, there's lots to do in Macon, okay?

Awesome—the rail network we already have is in the hole by the billions and the taxpayers bail it out every year…and now the One wants to expand on that failure and sink us even further into financial ruin. Does he want to screw his country or is he just not that bright?

Yes! Texas! Eat it, Wyoming!

God, we SO need some REAL mass transit improvements in this country. I've not doubt that this will be blown totally out of the water by all the douchebags who think that the Founding Father's idea of heaven on earth was Wal-Mart, and who think taxes mean socialism if the wealthy are paying their fair share, but still—it would be awesome if it happened.

I love this idea. It would make the journey from Orlando to Miami so much easier.