Day 1171: Always Worth A Trip To Wisconsin
November 10, 2008 - Filed Under family & friends, midwest, photographs, travel, wisconsin
My hopelessly-cute, twin godsons in their tuxedos. Don’t miss their little Chuckies!
Day 1167: Akron Obama Party Ends With Gunfire
November 6, 2008 - Filed Under government, midwest
I wonder if my parents were at this party (I keed, I keed).
A bouncer at an Akron bar was shot after ejecting a patron as a Barack Obama celebration that attracted nearly 400 partiers overflowed into the street.
… After the shooting, a large crowd filed outside the bar, which is located in a small strip to the west of Main Street near Exchange Street. A glass marquee was shattered as the party was ending.
About a dozen police units used pepper spray to disperse the crowd. There were no other injuries and no arrests were made.
And they say the socialists will take your guns away.
Day 1160: Pattern Recognition
October 30, 2008 - Filed Under federal flood, midwest, new orleans, photographs, recovery, travel, wisconsin
The flood line is emblazoned onto every New Orleanian’s retinae. It doesn’t wash off easily, no matter how many blinks. Even today, more than three years after The Flood, I will catch sight of one on an unclaimed or even an inhabited property. My breath will unwittingly catch itself. It doesn’t cover easily, even under coats and coats of paint and time. Imagine my surprise when I caught these yet remaining lines from the June 2008 flood while traveling through Rock Springs, Wisconsin this September. The familiarity was stunning.
Rachel Hulin is working in Wisconsin to get out the vote and discovered the following in Wausau, not exactly a liberal hotbed within the Dairy State: “There is plenty of solid Obama hope around here, but also some serious vitriol. Here’s the latest propaganda that’s being stuck to mailboxes in Wausau, under the guise of the Obama campaign’s seal … The man who brought this flyer in was an older Democrat. He thought it was absolutely real.” 0 comments #
Day 1140: Of Monorails And Mass Transit
October 10, 2008 - Filed Under culture-society-history, energy, government, louisiana, midwest, new orleans, wisconsin
The Capital Times: Madison could have Amtrak within 3 years, DOT says
… With bipartisan, veto-proof support, Congress last week passed legislation that could finally put a Chicago-Madison-Milwaukee high-speed passenger Amtrak rail in place. The bill authorizes $3.4 billion in grants to fund rail corridors across the country. White House officials say President George W. Bush, never a big supporter of Amtrak, will sign the legislation.
“This is a huge victory because Congress is acknowledging we’ve got to move toward a world-class mass transit system in this country, said state Department of Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi.
No matter what I think of Tommy Thompson and the kickbacks he is rumored to have received from transportation contractors, Wisconsin has some of the best roads in the nation. Check this out:
The push for an Amtrak service linking Chicago, Madison and Milwaukee began about 10 years ago, when then Gov. Tommy Thompson, who also served as co-chairman of Amtrak, tried to get the ball rolling with a Midwest rail initiative. But the plan dropped off the map, and Amtrak has suffered from Congressional neglect.
Adulthood has brought me to the disgusting, yet realistic, conclusion that some government graft is pardonable if the end result is taxpayers getting what they paid for.
On reading this, I wondered why such a concept has not been signed off on for this region. Forget the congestion on I-10 and never-ending construction, how about a train which connects all major Gulf Coast cities? Almost immediately, Oyster dashed my hopes to the ground (guess he was in a “singlehandedly bringing down” kinda mood today).
Or, how about this? Instead of a modern airport connected by high speed rail, what if we build a centralized regional stable filled with thousands of really fast flying unicorns?
[Apologies for the sarcastic pessimism, but if we can't build a single prefab cottage three years after an epic disaster ... I'm not holding out much hope for supertrains flying over the swamps, pressing N.O and Red Baton closer together. But it's pretty to think so.]
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