John McCain on Amtrak

McCain smells old and oily to me.

Why not Florida? The I4 corridor could sure use some sort of rail system and I'd bet that it could support it.

McCain is probably right about rail only being good for the Northeast and West Coast. I can't imagine taking a train from say Seattle to Austin. However McCain's comments do conveniently overlook the fact that a huge part of the US population happens to live on the West Coast and Northeast! So what if it doesn't serve people in North Dakota or Alabama. Just because something isn't available to everyone doesn't mean it shouldn't get funded.

Even though this site is non partisan, it's pretty clear which presidential candidate (and which national party) is going to support pro-environmental legislation more strongly.

If you think the environment is important, I suggest you vote that way.

Of course someone else might read this as an entirely positive article. "Way to go McCain, stick it to those tax sucking luddites! Jet planes and sportscars, that's today's America!"

just saying.

He will happily subsidize nuclear and coal, though, and has been subsidizing oil.

How about texas? there is a great system that runs from OKC to Ft Worth to Austin to San Antonio. How about building a system from Dallas to Houston.

@ JSDryer,

While the site is non partisan ( ie not exhibiting blind, prejudiced, and unreasoning allegiance ) it also seems to be more than occasionally biased and insular.

Honey, humor and constructive challenges to their candidates will get regular Treehugger Republican readers ( rTRr ) to focus on the environmental message.

As well it might make the rTRr feel they are able to introduce the friends/family members to Treehugger's environmental message without worrying about offending their political sensibilities.

Like I said, if you care about the environment and real change in the energy/transportation infrastructure of this country, then there's only one way to vote, and it doesn't get around on the Straight Talk Express.

@Anonymous

You are comparing regional services to transamerican services--apples and oranges.

Maybe you don't think that creating a line from say "seattle to austin" would make sense, but why not revamp regional rail services in the southern states and the northwest?

@TP,

Well, we can only hope to be in the position Britain is in these days where the Conservatives introduce environmental and privacy legislation that's even more left than Labour. The Republicans, with their emphasis on staying in the graces of K-Street lobbyists will continue to use that money to cloud all sorts of issues from tobacco to global warming. If Obama wins, I really hope he follows through on his promise to reduce the influence of corporate lobbyists, then issues can be decided on their merits instead of being determined by who can cloud the most.

@JSDreyer

As was stated before, it is hard to recommend Treehugger to my fellow Republicans because of the way opinions are voiced here (often directly in the article). I continue to read Treehugger because I try to continuously re-evaluate my actions and see what reasonable changes I can make to reduce my impact on the environment. The problem I run into on the site is that values I will not change continue to be denigrated by people who come off as entirely self-righteous (as they are wont to describe the religious conservatives). I do not think it is evil to have children, eat meat, drive a car, live in the suburbs, or vote against using my tax money to socially engineer people into believing as I do. On the other hand, I teach my children to use less water, electricity and recycle, try to reduce the meat I eat (because of the cost of the additional resources involved), changed jobs to go from a 110 mile to a 7 mile round trip, started an account to save for a solar array, and try to be a positive example to others.

Sorry for the run on sentences, but the point is that I am moving in the direction most here would see as an improvement over previous generations, but I cannot point to this site as a reference for said generation as their values are often attacked. Focus on positive suggestions and common ground and a lot more progress towards your way of thinking will be made.

Air travel is subsidised. Motor vehicle travel is subsidised. Travel via water ways is subsidised. Rail was subsidised in the beggining. The Same is preaching to the choir. Converting that, choir would be as difficult as, converting a Baptist to Catholicism or vise versa.

I listened to Biden's speech last night, and there was a huge mention of Amtrak being one of the things McCain is getting wrong. He even wove his commute on Amtrak into a very compelling narrative about the middle class.

I think that if he and Obama get elected it will usher in a new era in rail travel in the US.

I stand with Old_Wolf. He is right.

I try to see all sides. Regardles of who the crowd is, I try to point to this site often to highlight new technologies, or attempts at new technologies.
Yes, you get more flies with honey than with the other stuff. I try to show impact to people's wallets. That is usually the biggest motivator. Or a little nationalism ... why not build alternative tech stuff here and wean off the oil from head-cutting murderers?
John McCain had many good things to say about the development of the Chevy Volt. Let's hope that car and its powertrain do well.
I was just thinking about taking a train trip from New York City to Maine or Rhode Island or something and taking my bike with me so I don't have to rent a car.
I hate the idea of flying now. I would love to stretch out on a train and see all the 'flyover country' usually obscured below the clouds. I have no problem with using tax $$ to beef up the rail system we have and make it work better.
vsk

@old wolf:

"I do not think it is evil to have children, eat meat, drive a car, live in the suburbs, or vote against using my tax money to socially engineer people into believing as I do. "

1.Don't go to attack ads for your information.
2.You know what? Me too. But I sense that I'm voting for the o-ther guy. You know what? He eats meat, has more than one child, has a car, lives (or lived) in the suburbs and doesn't believe in "socially engineering" people (??). If by that you meant regulating for the sake of our health I totally accept it with valid scientific evidence.

3.Where you part of that group of people that in the 80's thought eliminating lead from gas was "nanny state" too?

4.Does it frustrate you that you really care about the environment and making a difference and leave a great world for your kids while the guy you're ideologically closer to yells "Drill It"?
If you truly realize the contradiction and disagree with both candidates just vote blank.

The reason Treehugger appears partisan is because one guy stands for some environmentally sound ideas and the other does not.

It's not politics- it's common sense and we're all on the same boat.

I second that; Old Wolf makes a lot of good points. With what you're doing, who cares what your voter reg card says? Kudos to you for your efforts. I've never actually heard of anyone moving to shorten their commute by that much. That's awesome.

But at whoever said that a train ride from Seattle to Texas would be unreasonable, it can be done. I took a similar ride from the top of the other coast to Southern Texas in 2002, and it's the trip that converted me to a train traveler. If a person wants to get there the same day, Okay, that's not going to happen. But aside from "green" reasons to take the train, it's just fun. :^)

(though maybe my idea of fun is...slower than other people's)

@ Old Wolf, VSK
I applaud your efforts. And, despite being a progressive liberal, I see value in conservative ideology: fiscal responsibility, low government intrusion in our lives, lower taxes (when it makes sense), self-reliance, a lack of willingness to get involved overseas. I would love to see a government and press that debated these issues on the merits so that we could come to solutions that best improve our country.

That's not what we've had the past eight years. We've had an administration that has, as Scott McClellan put it, run a "permanent campaign." They have ignored the will of congress, aggressively stifled dissent (of government workers, politicians, news orgs, and private citizens), broken laws, installed incompetent overseers in every government bureau (loyalty over competence!), spent more money than any previous administration, run the national deficit to almost 10 trillion dollars, spied on Americans without warrants, tortured, invaded sovereign nations on false premises, etc. etc. And congress (both Repubs and Dems) completely abrogated their powers of oversight (either willingly or by being browbeaten) of the executive branch. It's little surprise that the top historians in the world view this as the worst presidential administration ever.

So if people are a little bit short with Republicans right now, obviously there are reasons. That being said, I hope that people of all stripes come here and learn how we can make our country and the planet a better place.

As for the election, looking at both the platforms and voting records of both men, as well as the general ideology of both parties makes it clear that if we are going to implement the kind of rapid change we need to avoid multiple crisis (energy, environmental, transportation, etc.), voting Democratic is the way to go.

@JSDyer

My take, and likely a few others will agree, is that most people can ignore the political messages in the comments, but that the posts themselves should be written with a focus on Treehugger's core message - as I've said before - saving the environment is not about politics. If a task this massive is to be successful we must involve the great majority of people.

******************

@the writers of Treehugger

On this website please forgo political machinations and negative-only political ruminations -- work towards environmental unity.

In posts which highlight political figures; write in an environmental challenge, or acknowledge a person or group from their own party whom the highlighted political figure could emulate on an environmental front. Make certain that the environmental message of this category of posts are first and foremost for readers of all political stripes of the Treehugger site.

This simple but continuous effort on your parts has the potential to bring thousands of people closer to the environmental movement.

***********

@ Everyone

Here - should be neither red nor blue, but an honest green.

So that's ONE area where McCain doesn't mind losing to Russia.

Somehow, THEY have no problems supporting a comprehensive rail network (for passenger traffic as well), stretching across 11 time zones, from Petersburg to Vladivostok, including some of the least-densely populated areas of the globe. Yet in the USA, we're supposed to believe it's only viable on the coasts?

In that case, I'd like to know why the Russians are so much more efficient than we are, so we can duplicate their success.

Biden may ride Amtrak, but he does it in the NE Corridor, not out in the far west. Sounds to me like McCain's thinking on AMTRAK is very, very sound. Even in the NE corridor and far west, it is dubious that trains will pay for their capital investment as well as operating expense --- and that's making the rosy assumption that they can pay for operating expense. Let the states where trains make sense pay for the investment and operation of commuter trains.

That's a nice bus... where is it manufactured?

Mc Cain doesn't like Amtrak because of the route amtrak takes through his state - they dropped the route to Pheonix - why I can't remember right now, but because of that - he never liked amtrak. It is the only way to travel, Very Relaxing and scenic - the only way to actually see America if you're not driving around. Yes the Corridors on the east / west and midwest are the busiest, but the long-distance trains offers some the only real transportation option in their town. The Govt spends so much money bailing out Wall Street and Iraq, Why not spend it to improve their national passanger rail system network. Now with gas prices so high - Amtrak Ridership is a record highs.

Keep in mind that while John McCain is anti-Amtrak, that does not make him anti-passenger rail. He is just frustrated with Amtrak's overreliance on government subsidy. A few years ago he sponsored a bill that would allow for the eventual privatization of Amtrak. S 1958 a couple of years ago. govtrack.us

"In posts which highlight political figures; write in an environmental challenge, or acknowledge a person or group from their own party whom the highlighted political figure could emulate on an environmental front."

@ TreeHugger:

Patrol's concerns reflect my own, as I've said on here a number of times before. I would prefer to read an article/entry more geared toward advocating how to change McCain's opinion on an environmental issue (and not be indirectly told whom I should vote for or against).