Rail Report: Step by Step

• gov. christie of nj (r) has stopped construction of the new rail tunnel to manhattan to see if we can afford it.
  U.S.   | October 05, 2010
  Plan to Expand Rail Service Imperiled at State Level
  By MICHAEL COOPER
  Republicans running for governor in a handful of states could block President Obama's plan to build high-speed rail.
• Elections Have Consequences
  I know mass transit's like some invisible other world for people who don't use it, but the fact is a lot of people use it. 24 trains per hour run through the existing tunnel, and a second tunnel would double that capacity. And Christie is going to kill it.
• OPINION   | October 06, 2010
  Paul Krugman: Railing Against Rail
  By PAUL KRUGMAN
  What would Dagny Taggart say?
• Gov. Christie has probably never taken the train in his life.
  N.Y. / REGION   | October 07, 2010
  Christie's Silence Spurs Worry for Train Tunnel
  By PATRICK McGEEHAN
  Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey could scuttle the biggest mass transit project under way in the country.
• For the money we spend deporting people ($9 billion) we could build the tunnel
• OPINION   | October 08, 2010
  Op-Ed Columnist:  The End of the Tunnel
  By PAUL KRUGMAN
  American politics these days is anything but rational. Example: Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey just canceled the Hudson River tunnel project.
• OP-ED COLUMNIST: Policy at Its Worst
  The veto of a railroad tunnel by Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey is a bigger loss than it might seem.
  

  DAN O RAMA!

• Russian Narco Subs
  I suppose that it makes sense from a personal standpoint that if you were once an elite, and are now unemployed and no longer have your status, that you would sell your services to the highest bidder. Hiring these people and paying for security at dangerous sites in the former Soviet Union will seem very cheap in retrospect if a rogue nuclear weapon is used.
• Demise of Climate Legislation
• What is it about Palin and Twitter? Is it that 140 characters represents the maximum length of Palin's attention span? 
• Art riches revealed in apartment that was abandoned for 70 years
• Pledge for America hooey
• Barton Gellman's Time piece on right-wing militias
• I've been using the phrase "slow-motion coup" to describe the slow take-over of our political process by billionaires and their Big Money friends. (The "billionaire's coup" has gone international, by the way; Karl Rove has been consulting in Sweden.)
  But Digby points us to another "Creeping Coup" — this one in the military. She examines an article in Politics Daily
• Apple loses software patent verdict
• BUSINESS   | October 06, 2010
  At Flagging Tribune, Tales of a Bankrupt Culture
  By DAVID CARR
  Under Sam Zell, the Tribune Company was bankrupted by debt, and employees describe a profane and alienating workplace.
• Tweet: Important fact about NATO supply lines being attacked: they're often protected by contractors & secured through bribes
• BUSINESS   | October 08, 2010
  Flawed Foreclosure Documents Thwart Home Sales
  By ANDREW MARTIN and DAVID STREITFELD
  The shoddy preparation of foreclosure documents is hammering the market, especially in the worst-hit states.
• For the American Taliban, Christianity is about KICKING ASS, not about compassion.  That'd be news to Jesus.
• Big fan of George S. Kaufman. I'd love to take the course he jokingly mentions. Those were humorists.
  OPINION   | October 08, 2010
  Dick Cavett: The Titan and the Pfc.
  By DICK CAVETT
  The late Eddie Fisher was but one of many targets of George S. Kaufman's withering wit.
• Democrats step up during foreclosure crisis
• I’ll Be Your Savior, Steadfast and True
  In my imaginary world, along with fountains that spray mojitos, talking dolphins, self-cleaning litter boxes that not only clean the box, but carry the remains to the trash, and a Pirates team with over a .500 record once every decade, we would have a functioning press corps with ombudsmen who were less concerned with the delicate feelings and emotional state of wingnuts and lunatics and more concerned with the factual errors that appear on their op-ed pages.
  But who am I kidding? That part about the Pirates and the press will probably never happen.
• American Exceptionalism Gone Wrong
• The confirmation is new to me. Never thought much about her is actually "real." quote: It took journalists poring through financial disclosure forms to discover that Sarah Palin had paid a Los Angeles blogger $22,000 to script her "Internet messaging."
  
  OPINION   | October 10, 2010
  Op-Ed Columnist:  Facebook Politicians Are Not Your Friends
  By FRANK RICH
  The Web, with its potential to hold politicians accountable, has also given partisans license to find only the "facts" that fit their prejudices.
• OPINION   | October 10, 2010
  Editorial:  Thank You and Good Luck
  It is hard to overstate how far the newly retired W.M.A.P. satellite carried us in our understanding of the universe.
• Roger Ebert tweet: The true face of today's American racism. Uncensored and cruel. Read this and weep.