Archive for January 13th, 2008
January 13th, 2008
Why is it that when we talk about mass transit funding, it’s invariably called a “bailout,” but when we write about road dollars it’s always called “road improvements?”
Transit has been chronically underfunded for decades because that’s the way the road lobby has wanted it. They don’t want people riding in buses and trains because it means they get to build and widen fewer roads.
Cars are popular, and I like to drive mine, too. It’s just that we’re running out of room for new superslabs, and we say we’re concerned about reducing pollution.
If we could take an additional 10 percent of the motorists off the roads in the crowded urban megaplexes, we would save billions in road costs.
Here’s a compromise: I’ll go along with calling mass transit funding a “bailout” if we can call road funding a “road contractors subsidy.”
By the way, kudos to state Rep. Chuck Jefferson, D-Rockford, for keeping his word and voting for the Chicagoland mass transit funding.
January 13th, 2008
Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama have the Big Mo, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll that just went live on the Internet.
January 13th, 2008
The UK, where snooper cameras spy on you from every street lamp, is turning into a fascist state, slowly but surely. The latest? They’re going to start implanting prisoners with microchips so they can track them — presumably forever. Now, I have no problem with my dog having a chip in his ear, and I know a few people with chips on their shoulder, but chipping someone who has paid his/her debt to society is wrong. The story, in today’s editions of The Independent, says that the chips, once implanted, are nearly impossible to remove.
January 13th, 2008
Winnebago County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen promised me that he would see to it that the black covering over the windows in the lobby of the Hotel Winnebago would be removed. He’s made good on half his promise. The covers on the State Street portion have been removed. But the glass on the Winnebago Street side is still blacked out. The effect is still hideous. C’mon, Scotty, let there be light.
January 13th, 2008
The Republican race for Winnebago County state’s attorney has so far produced just one TV commercial, and that’s by Phil Nicolosi, the appointed s.a.
In it, he says he’s been prosecuting criminals for more than 20 years.
Well, yeah, but … They were misdemeanors prosecutions, for traffic-related offenses or ordinance violations, during the time he was was the attorney for Loves Park, Roscoe and Rockton.
I’m sure he did a good job, but it’s hardly a crackdown on serious crime, as the ad would have us believe.
So, where is his opponent, Chuck Prorok? Outside of a mailer, I haven’t seen him on TV or heard his ads on radio. Against the onslaught of the well-funded Nicolosi campaign, Prorok had better get something on TV, and fast, if he wants to get any kind of a message out.
