Thinking Right

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 23, 2008 8:04 AM | Link to this

Good morning all. I am certain Ariel Hart is a lovely lady, but I suspect she cannot tell rose seeds from Kudzu. After her informative article, I, as will be the case with every other con man in Atlanta, contemplate how to get a slice of the $50 billion the sheeple are about to cut loose from their own pockets. If this solution - another unprofitable government works project - reflects the quality of debate and thought in the Transit Planning Board, I do not doubt they had trouble getting a quorum.

I always marvel at the leftist mentality, here a plan likely requiring individual motorists to subsidize the mass transit riders. We all agree that mass transit will never pay its own way, as it is inherently uneconomic, cannot go most places where people need to go, and costs more than people would spend to transport themselves. Why do the leftists persist in their attempt to punish, by theft, the people who make this economy work?

One of Jim’s brightest regular contributors here - cannot remember who that is for the life of me, may be Midsouth, may be jm – always urges telecommuting as the obvious solution to congestion. The jbmlaw solution – rooted, as always, in blaming government for the entire problem - is to move all of state government to Macon, and to create a Federal corridor in Clayton County, near the airport, to get the bureaucrats entirely out of Fulton County. My sense is that the progeny of bureaucrats would fit nicely with the quality of the schools in Clayton County. With those simple changes, no meaningful infrastructure investment would be necessary.

Special note to the Blogfather: I think you misinterpreted my comments yesterday – I should have written more clearly. When I was talking about ANWR, I was not talking about ANWR – I was talking about freedom, and the normal, and expected consequences of government intervention in the affairs of private men. I broadly agree with you that, like global warming and traffic congestion, ANWR is an issue that does not sing to the heart at all times, but only when the underlying consequence of the government evil arises.

But Blogfather, those of you who do not read Dr. Sowell’s weekly columns miss a treat. He does not merely repeat the things I “know”. Dr. Sowell educated me today. Today he wrote on The Great Depression, Government vs. Free Private Economy, and his essay has direct implications on large government programs, such as today’s topic. I misbelieved that I already knew all there was to know. The unemployment rate in November 1929 – one month after the stock market crash – was 5%. The unemployment rate in June 1930 – eight months after the stock market crash – was 6.3%; contrast that rate to the present 6.7%. [By way of comparison, the last time the republicans controlled Congress, the unemployment rate was 4.5% (Oct. 2006). Even one year later (Oct. 2007) the rate was only 4.7%. But it began the slow rise around the time Speaker Pelosi declared the Bush tax cuts “dead,” and then the democrats passed the higher minimum wage, thus creating an employment disincentive. Great related line by Dr. Sowell last week: “Detroit and Michigan have followed classic liberal policies of treating businesses as prey, rather than as assets. They have helped kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. So have the unions. So have managements that have gone along to get along.”]

Continuing Dr. Sowell’s narrative today, it was only after the government started to intervene in the economy, to “stimulate” it (first by constricting free trade 1930, then by raising income taxes on the wealthy 1931, then by massive spending on public works 1933) that the unemployment rate began to soar, reaching 24.9% in 1933. Unemployment was still 19.0% in 1938, after five years of massive government intervention. Leftists were slow learners in the 1930s, too. Seemingly only World War II – when the government quit screwing up the private economy, due to the foreign distraction – saved the US economy. Governments cannot make things better – that is strictly the province of the private economy - but the government certainly can make things worse. Think “transit issues.”

By Redneck Convert

December 23, 2008 8:10 AM | Link to this

Well, I see Toyota lost a bunch of money too. There’s only one thing they can do if they want to be good Conservatives. Cut the workers pay. And if that don’t work and they lose more money, they need to cut the workers pay again. And if they are still losing money after that, they need to fire all the workers and then give the bosses a big bonus for cutting costs. It’s the American way, and if you don’t understand it then you are a pinko commie with a big red stripe down your back and a librul to boot.

Anyhow, like most rednecks I’m against this rapid transit stuff. People already pay sales taxes so city people can ride a train or bus and make traffic jams for people that don’t ride them. They want free rides on our dime. And it will never be enough for them. If they get their trains the next thing you know they will want us to build a train station right at their door and raise our taxes to pay for it. Then they will want us to build a moving sidewalk to their door so they won’t have to walk to the train station. What we need is plenty of new roads thru the tobacco fields and cotton fields where people don’t live. There is alot of Truth in asphalt. It’s the GA way and the American way. You don’t build a road to deal with traffic problems. You build a road to please voters for the next election. Us people that don’t live in cities want some freebies too and we vote Republican, not librul Democrat like the city folk.

Well, here we are just a day before Christmas Eve. I’m feeling mighty holy and excited. I hope the missus gets me a whole roll of Skoal but she don’t say nothing so I guess I’ll have to wait to see what Santa brung me. Me and little Sonny Zell George is going to be under that Christmas tree digging and tearing and jostling each other and getting all kind of suprizes. Have a good day everybody and don’t let them make a War on Christmas.

By Glenn

December 23, 2008 8:21 AM | Link to this

Ah jes’ wanna say, that’s one fine lede you got there, Mr. Wooten.

By gee, you think?

December 23, 2008 8:33 AM | Link to this

Wow! What a surprise that a right-wing neocon propogandizer that was founded by neofascist, Adolph Coors, and funded by big oil and auto interest would conduct a study that comes out against transit.

Wooten, may your self-serving drivel get stymied in a traffic jam and choke on Atlanta’s lovely and delicious air.

By The BlogFather of Scroll

December 23, 2008 8:33 AM | Link to this

I know you din’t just say taxes stunt growth and entitlements stunt productivity.

Oh no you din’t just say taxes stunt growth and entitlements stunt productivity.

Yeah, that Sowell’s a real genius. It doesn’t matter how you spin the data you mine, sir. Anyone who relies on historical comparisons of proportional statistical snapshots of economic criteria can prove that Communism actually won the cold war and that Marilyn Monroe was our defacto first lady during the Camelot years. SO what?

We have to deal with the here and now, and that 700 billion that was geschtollen from our coffers. We have to deal with the millions of americans who expect justice now that we have a black prez.

By finally exposing FDR for the economic gremlin he truly was, we can feel better about Eisenhower and Reagan, and Nixon and Bush? Great! I feel good. Now what about justice?

I WANT JUSTICE!!!!!!

jklol, I’ll meet you behind the gated community for a golf game at noon today, accompanied by our Blackwater guards who’ll be disquised as caddies. Nobody will suspect a thing, and if poor people show up, we’ll play through while our caddies mow them down. bwa….bwa haw….bwahabwahabwa

Mini-me, you complete me!

By Glenn

December 23, 2008 8:42 AM | Link to this

Let me say this as neutrally as I can do among friends. When I worked for UC Berkeley I worked for a small institute there, an ORU (Organized Research Unit) dedicated to physical — meaning geospatial — planning. [Mine was the least of roles: I planned for children.] My obscure unit provided several key members of the Clinton Admininistration, as indeed its leading light now has been tapped by the President-Elect for a prominent spot.

My point is that we had much to say about — and, please, get this, now — transportation vs. transit. Our role was to comment on the subject in terms of social science. That means that we looked at the effects of “transportation” (meaning, increasing hours of your life spent in gridlock) versus transit (meaning, that wing-and-a-prayer for which we take an extra penny off your every purchase).

What happened was, that we came down on the side of transit, longrun, and that put us into a tremendous fight with USC (the University of Southern California), which held that cars were ineluctably, effing cars [see Larry the Cable Guy]. Their quite reasonable argument was that Americans are hard-wired to automobiles (as in GA) such that it would be an egghead’s joke to think that hoochrunners ever would get their butts into trolleys every day.

USC was right.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 23, 2008 8:50 AM | Link to this

Totally unrelated item, Churchill’s Mom will enjoy this essay, Maggie Thatcher’s “Sarah Palin” years.

By findog

December 23, 2008 8:54 AM | Link to this

Jim,

Atlanta traffic has many problems, chief among them are the drivers. We could probably get more traffic relief by having cop pace cars on the interstates during rush hour. You’ve seen the cop pace cars, the cop in the middle lane going the speed limit keeping everyone at the safe steady pace the interstate is designed to handle. Inside the perimeter this is probably the only way to manage congestion unless we want to tear down the Varsity and the Olympic Village legacy dorms adjacent to Georgia Tech.

There was this crazy Texan that caused Clinton to win the presidency. He had a plan to raise the gas tax fifty cents to pay off the national debt. Many tree huggers claim the only way for us to go green is to artificially increase the gas tax to make hybrid technology cost effective. I no longer am a slave to the metro commute so the daily savings I realize in the recent changes in the cost of fuel is not as great as many others here in the Atlanta area but if we need revenue to improve mobility it should be done based on two basic principals. First is that all fuel taxes go to their intended purpose of supporting mobility and second that they be sufficient to meet the needs of the state and nation.

There is the paradox that raising the fuel tax to support expansion of our road network will reduce traffic in a classic supply-demand sense. Public transportation is an altruistic venture that probably will never financially succeed, as too Americans will go to great lengths to be able to savor the last vestige of freedom that only their personal conveyance provides. The State of Georgia needs to either embrace and fund mass transportation or accept our place in mobility rankings.

By lovelyliz

December 23, 2008 8:54 AM | Link to this

How about increasing public transportation infrastructure to ease traffic?

Or is that too obvious?

Or too socialist?

Or a smarter, better use of taxpayer $$$?

By Glenn

December 23, 2008 8:59 AM | Link to this

“…is that too obvious?”

Yes, liz, however lovely you are:

It’s too obvious, and you know it.

Come on. You know this stuff. I’m just ed.

By winkasdad29

December 23, 2008 9:00 AM | Link to this

Building more roads is not the answer - at least not the whole answer. I believe the improvement of the roads we have, along with some new construction will give some traffic relief. However, this metro area continues to grow, so it will take more than just roads to move people.

A balanced plan is needed. Let’s put aside our ideologies for a minute and think about the future. The future is:

• A new, state of the art air traffic control system that allows planes to be routed efficiently. The new system helps to minimize delays and takes some strain off overstressed ATC controllers. The current technology is no better than what was used during World War II.

• Inter-city high speed rail that could whisk you from Atlanta to Charlotte in 1 hour 45 minutes; ATL to Birmingham in 1 hour 10 minutes. Traveling speeds of 150-200 mph, downtown to downtown. Doesn’t sound like nostalgia to me.

• Bus Rapid Transit where buses travel in dedicated lanes or on dedicated “busways” (no other traffic but buses can access a busway). On surface streets, the buses are equipped with a sensor that changes the traffic signal to green to keep the bus on time.

• HOV lane extensions on I-20, I-75 & I-85. Where HOV lanes don’t exist, strengthen shoulders so express buses can travel on them during heavy traffic (GA 400 is a good example of this)

Federal and state goverments are responsible for providing the needs of the people. A need of the people is transportation. I think the buildouts need to take place first before private enterprise will heavily invest. This undertaking will cost a lot of money, but will benefit in the long run. Besides, it’s long over due.

By CJ

December 23, 2008 9:00 AM | Link to this

OK Wooten, where are they going to squeeze in more roads or add more lanes to our existing roads? Have you driven up I-85 lately? There is no available land to add additional lanes as you head north from the city. The Pay HOV concept outside the perimeter is rediculous and will only cause more traffic (those who don’t want to pay a fee) to clog up the other lanes.

Commuter rail is an intelligent opportunity! The rails already exist and they travel through suburbs that need quick access to the city. The only thing needed to make it work are stations along the way and the trains themselves!

In fact, here’s my proposal… Turn the former Doraville GM site (which is served by existing rail lines and is adjacent to a MARTA station) into a terminal where commuter rail terminates and MARTA picks up. Easy highway access (I-285) would allow any form of bus service to reach the terminal as well.

I have to imagine the same type of rail lines exist on the I-75 cooridor as well , I’m just not as familiar with that area.

By The BlogFather of Scroll

December 23, 2008 9:01 AM | Link to this

BTW: even a casual glance at our history going into world war two and a viewing of that pbs FDR documentary completely informs even disinterested observers about Sowell’s data.

It’s old news already absorbed by the well informed, pal.

When I say that I’m well informed I mean about everything. And it’s not just fashions, like dresses and shoes, it’s hats, it’s belts, it’s accesorizing properly, and it’s also about the universe, and god, and divorce lawyers, and Jupiter, and the devil.

Now do you finally understand what I say to you this day????

By ron

December 23, 2008 9:02 AM | Link to this

There’s been an interesting series of articles in The Miama Herald this weekend on how not to run a transit system.It has made interesting reading.It’s the same old saw,greed,corruption,nepotism.Nothing really new.It will undoubtedly be repeated in Atlanta.Keep building roads until everything is paved.How many lanes wide can one actually go before one has to build in layers?Then how many layers can feasibly be built?The answers to these questions is the lifespan of growth in Atlanta.

The cesession of the Bush tax cuts was the death of everything certain people hold dear.

It took a war to get us out of the Great Depression.Who are we going to attack next?We surely cannot sit on our thumbs and wait for someone to attack us.We have learned that the preemptive strike is the way of the future.But do we need a full scale war to get out of a recession or are they to be reserved for depressions alone? Capatalists and war seem to walk through this world hand in hand.

The alternative transportation in my area is expensive,but I doubt that it’s more expensive than owning a vehicle outright.Taking all things into consideration,public transport is less expensive than private ownership.The problem is convenience.I can’t go when and where I want on public transport.My down the road neighbors have given up their car and travel by taxi now.Two trips a month to town and the rest of the time they stay home.I’m not ready for that type of life.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 23, 2008 9:15 AM | Link to this

Dear Glenn @ 8:42, good morning. You have also educated me today, by proving to me that there are academics who are in touch with the real world. (There is surely a joke buried in the idea that an academic debate was infected by common sense introduced by a “Trojan.”). The great virtue of using “freedom” as a basis for policy is that it does not require us to forcibly change hearts and minds, but merely to react to the wishes and wants of the population.

By CJ

December 23, 2008 9:23 AM | Link to this

Nostalgia loses. I think this comment burns me up the most. Maybe if people like Wooten would travel abroad rather than staying pent up in a cabin in the North Georgia Mountains he would understand that rail is cutting-edge. In Europe, rail connects all of the cities and provides commuters an opportunity to not even own a car. Talk about reducing oil consumption!

Even in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and DC the residents can truly never need to own a car because they all have rail to connect the cities and subways (way better than MARTA) within those cities to get around. Again, talk about reducing oil consumption!

If the Saudis cut off all our oil today, the Northeast and Europe would survive alright. The Southeastern US would be crippled.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 23, 2008 9:26 AM | Link to this

Dear ron @ 9:02, good morning. “Capatalists and war seem to walk through this world hand in hand.” You are correct for two unrelated reasons. (1) Capitalism thrives during war because the government does not endeavor to micromanage the domestic economy – the war effort consumes all government oxygen. (2) Capitalism – the inherent result of freedom – requires freedom to exist. There are always enslavers out there, people who would remove our freedom to cast economic votes. We always have the option of surrendering our freedom, to purchase an illusory peace. But the defense of freedom will similarly always require a willingness to breach the peace.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 23, 2008 9:32 AM | Link to this

Dear CJ @ 9:23, I think you err: “If the Saudis cut off all our oil today, the Northeast and Europe would survive alright. The Southeastern US would be crippled.” As the Northeast’s transportation infrastructure is substantially subsidized by Southeastern motorists, I think the gridlock would be worse there. Not to mention how cold they would get without either oil or global warming.

By CJ

December 23, 2008 9:34 AM | Link to this

This link goes to a PDF file that the Georgia DOT provides online and shows the extensive network of existing freight rail lines in Georgia. Can you imagine if passenger, commuter rail connected across the same network? Wow, that would make navigating Georgia way easier and provide huge opportunities for commuters.

By Peter

December 23, 2008 9:36 AM | Link to this

Jim,

You continue the way of the dinosaur, mass transit is a better option !

Go to Europe, and enjoy the experience……some day America will catch up.

Your argument sounds like your best friend builds roads for a living !

Hey Jim, has your Republican Governor done anything about the water issues we have had ?

I guess Praying for more Rain is the Republican answer !

By Do The Math

December 23, 2008 9:39 AM | Link to this

Here is the plain and simple path to better traffic: Move closer to work Sell your land back to the farmer. New capacity is far too expensive, rebuild and maintain old heavily used infrastructe. Outward growth of the region is not sustainable. Tons of affordable housing all around. Why doesn’t this happen? Because Atlantan can’t afford the school district they want and they’re generally racist.

By CJ

December 23, 2008 9:48 AM | Link to this

Ragnar (@9:32AM), you raise good points but you missed the point of what I’m saying completely. The guys in the Northeast have a way to get from and to work without every needing their cars. 95% of us in metro Atlanta do not. Their trains are by and large electric, so they can run on hydro-electric or nuclear energy.

Besides, if they run out of heating oil, there will be an increase in demand for electric heaters. They’ll find ways to stay warm.

Remember only a few months ago when gasoline was $4.50 a gallon? If we had transportation alternatives, we could have parked our cars, stopped buying gasoline, and forced prices down. Unfortunately, most of us have to drive to work, so that wasn’t an option.

By Glenn

December 23, 2008 9:48 AM | Link to this

winkasdad29:

I may be a surfin’-Yankee transplant, but sign me up. It awl makes sinse to me. It relly do. By God, why DON’T we do it, then? Seriously, why don’t we?

Damn. I drove all over this state in the mid-1970s, in a red-hot (and I mean stolen) Corvette, and I’ve never seen anything like the terrible things that Georgia hath wrought onnacounta its refusal to enact leash-laws over against land developers. And now the developers think they oughta be next in line for a federal handout.

Ya think maybe dese maroons mighta had sometin’ ta do wit dis fix we’re in?

By Ted Rogers, MD

December 23, 2008 10:07 AM | Link to this

Wouldn’t Blogfather of Droll be more appropriate, or is there one of those already?

By GaLiberal

December 23, 2008 10:10 AM | Link to this

Moron Jim said: It is routinely said that “we cannot build our way out of highway congestion.” In a practical sense, that’s true.

What MJ doesn’t tell you is that he wants to simply build more roads and yet he recognizes it is a futile effort. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. Building roads is a practical example. If you build roads, you simply encourage more cars on the roads. More cars means congestion which, as MJ would like done, means building more roads. How stupid can one become? Roads are the cancer of urban areas. Take the GA-400 connector for example. Prior to the connector, there were farms and large undeveloped areas. There was little traffic because people had to use surface streets to get around. Now, with the connector, there are no farms (except for the wealthy who just have lots of land) and hardly any undeveloped areas. Surface streets are routinely clogged so badly that traffic creeps along at horse and buggy speed. There are too many subdivisions, strip malls, and apartment complexes with more being built every day (at least until Bush killed the economy). So what’s MJs “solution” to the traffic problem? Build more roads. Where, MJ? Have the state use imminent domain and force people out of their homes? That’s Rethuglicon blasphemy. Where’s the money coming from, MJ? Not the state nor the cities. That would mean raising taxes and good little goose-stepping Rethuglicons know that raise taxes is bad. How about the federal government? Yea, they have lots of money just lying around to fund more road building.

It costs just as much to lay a mile of road as it does a mile of transit track any more. So why build roads when you can lay track with much less impact and carry probably 10x the amount of people with much less pollution. Not to mention reducing oil consumption greatly. I suspect MJs opposition to mass transit is more about his bigotry and racism and his presumed moral superiority than financial. See, only worthless poor blacks use mass transit. That makes it unsafe, too. I mean, just look at MARTA. So what if they are ONLY major metro transit system that gets NO state funding. Set MARTA up to fail then use it as the example of how mass transit is a failure. Typical Rethuglicon hypocrisy.

When you vote Rethuglicon, you vote against your own best interests. And MJs ranting to build more roads is living proof.

By Zeke

December 23, 2008 10:11 AM | Link to this

Right, Jim! Build roads, build bridges, expand current roads and PUT SUFFICIENT NUMBERS OF TROOPERS ON THE ROADS TO ENFORCE THE LAWS! Marta is a feel good-do good boondoggle agenda item of socialists and those that would turn the USA into a third world nation! Development of small homes and alley ways like third world countries! IF THE GOVE AND THE LEGILATORS IN GEORGIA AND ALL OTHER STATES WOULD TELL THE FED TO NOT SEND ANY MONEY TO THEM, AND, IN FACT THEY WILL KEEP THEIR OWN MONEY AND DECIDE WHAT PROJECTS AND LOCAL STATE PRIORITIES WILL BE FUNDED! GEORGIA, SOUTH CAROLINA AND OTHER SOUTHER STATES ONLY RECIEVE BACK ABOUT 92 CENTS ON EACH DOLLAR THAT GOES TO THE FEDS! iF WE USE ALL 100% OF THE GAS TAX AND OTHERS HERE, WE WILL BE BETTER OFF, AND, NO SOCIALIST FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MANDATES!

By scrappy

December 23, 2008 10:11 AM | Link to this

In order to add more roads, government of Atlanta would have to say NO to developers. I don’t see this happening.

Downtown vinnings is a good example, where they just built 2 new high rise condos and a “live-work-play” area, but failed to build or expand any of the roads (all 2 of them) , plus there is a frequent train. Yeah, that was a great idea, but who was going to stop them?

By GaLiberal

December 23, 2008 10:15 AM | Link to this

Moron Jim said: It is routinely said that “we cannot build our way out of highway congestion.” In a practical sense, that’s true.

What MJ doesn’t tell you is that he wants to simply build more roads and yet he recognizes it is a futile effort. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. Building roads is a practical example. If you build roads, you simply encourage more cars on the roads. More cars means congestion which, as MJ would like done, means building more roads. How stupid can one become? Roads are the cancer of urban areas. Take the GA-400 connector for example. Prior to the connector, there were farms and large undeveloped areas. There was little traffic because people had to use surface streets to get around. Now, with the connector, there are no farms (except for the wealthy who just have lots of land) and hardly any undeveloped areas. Surface streets are routinely clogged so badly that traffic creeps along at horse and buggy speed. There are too many subdivisions, strip malls, and apartment complexes with more being built every day (at least until Bush killed the economy). So what’s MJs “solution” to the traffic problem? Build more roads. Where, MJ? Have the state use imminent domain and force people out of their homes? That’s Rethuglicon blasphemy. Where’s the money coming from, MJ? Not the state nor the cities. That would mean raising taxes and good little goose-stepping Rethuglicons know that raise taxes is bad. How about the federal government? Yea, they have lots of money just lying around to fund more road building.

It costs just as much to lay a mile of road as it does a mile of transit track any more. So why build roads when you can lay track with much less impact and carry probably 10x the amount of people with much less pollution. Not to mention reducing oil consumption greatly. I suspect MJs opposition to mass transit is more about his bigotry and racism and his presumed moral superiority than financial. See, only worthless poor blacks use mass transit. That makes it unsafe, too. I mean, just look at MARTA. So what if they are ONLY major metro transit system that gets NO state funding. Set MARTA up to fail then use it as the example of how mass transit is a failure. Typical Rethuglicon hypocrisy.

When you vote Rethuglicon, you vote against your own best interests. And MJs ranting to build more roads is living proof.

By Road Scholar

December 23, 2008 10:21 AM | Link to this

Many good points have been made concerning whether Transit improvements are needed, or that only roadway capacity is needed. Transit provides a future way of addressing the growth in Atlanta, at least when it starts back up again. Areas where you can have higher densities (activity centers) should be connected with transit.

Some argue just fix the Interstates. Well the cost for the portion of the I75/I575 corridor in Cobb County is $3 billion. Multiply that cost by the remaining segments of Interstates needing improvements and you approach or exceed $50 Billion. This does not include improving the arterials that cross the interstates to deliver/receive the traffic to the system.

By the way, where is the room for this expansion? Presently the cost of the land needed for the expansion dwarfs the construction costs. Some say “stack” the lanes for expanding I 285. OK. How do you build that? Keep the existing motorists safe and moving (remember no rubber necking!)? Maintain the overhead structures? Can everyone leave for 10 years so we can buils it? This will not work.

Transit provides the best benefit because it moves people and those peoples’ cars are removed from the road which benefits the other drivers, esp the trucks. How does your food and goods get distributed to the shopping centers and your home?Lower vehicle densities and improved headways could be of benefit in the short run.

An interesting result of transit is stress reduction. In focus groups observed, some would rather make a repeated daily trip on transit and use that time to read, sleep, or actually converse with fellow users. They arrive home rested, destressed, and ready to enjoy their families. They also tend to walk places, which contributes to their personal health. They take a car when the trip actually necessitates .

Planning, esp land use planning, has been poor at best. But it can never be too late to begin to envision our future, not just the congestion of today. Many say they need their cars every day; I bet that if transit was used seriously a few days a week by comuters, then overall congestion would decrease. Now if we can get the soccer moms from picking up their urchins from school and requiring them to ride buses, that would realy reduce traffic congestion. The kids may actually learn something.

Studies have show that if the intown Interstates are widened, the latent demand that had moved to the arterial and side streets will shift back onto the Interstates, making those improvements short term. While the arterials will “unload”, the air quality effects would negate any quality of life benefits.

By Daedalus

December 23, 2008 10:25 AM | Link to this

Wow. Still citing Wendell Cox as some kind of transportation guru? Once again claiming that “transit doesn’t pay for itself” while ignoring the fact that roads don’t either?

Let’s go over this again:

Wendell Cox is just a shill for pavement contractors. Of course he opposes mass transit.

Roads and bridges cost money. That money comes from taxes, ergo, roads are subsidized by taxes and don’t pay for themselves.

As for the Regional Transit Board, they’re delusional. Americans only want new roads and transit if someone else pays for them.

The remarkable void of leadership from Sonny Perdue, GRTA and the State Legislature on transportation means that our transportation infrastructure is at its high-water mark. GRTA will soon lose federal funding for operating its bus lines and they will start cutting back service. MARTA will never get the flexibility it needs to use its sales-tax revenues to adapt to the difficult economic times. Jill Chambers and the neo-cons in the state house will see to that.

I’d pick on GDOT too — no foresight, stubborn refusal to think of anything but pavement, but why kick them when they are down? I just think we ought to rename them the Highway Department, that’s all they are.

Enjoy your car! If you think that our incoming President is going to help Georgia out of its own mess after they way our Georgia GOP Congressman have called him a socialist, a Naxi, a secret muslim jihadist and uppity, think again.

Look out Alabama, here we come!

By Curious Observer

December 23, 2008 10:38 AM | Link to this

I humbly submit that hiring some good traffic planners would do wonders for resolving traffic congestion, without the addition of even one more road.

Coordination of traffic lights on surface streets and elimination of bottlenecks at entrances and exits of freeways would eliminate most of the snarls we see.

A cardinal example among many: the entrance from Buford Highway north to I-285 west puts the entering motorist into two lanes of exit-only traffic, with the need to undertake life-threatening maneuvers to get into a through lane. And why is this exit-only double lane always backed up, you might ask? It’s simply that the light at the end of the exit to Peachtree Industrial allows only ten or twelve cars through.

A second example: west-bound motorists on I-285 must take their lives in their hands to get into the exit lane for Georgia 400. Why? The same exit lane that serves Ashford-Dunwoody drivers also serves as the entrance lane for would-be Georgia 400 drivers. There was no thought whatsoever given to the design of the highways in that area.

A second badly needed change is an increase in the use of telecommuting (yes, Ragnar, I’m the one who keeps advocating it.) There is no reason for tens of thousands of cars to be on the roads during the same time period except for some bad managers who are so frightened of change that they cannot imagine that most employees can do the same work from home that they do in the office. Even the federal government is putting out mandates for agency heads to increase the use of telecommuting. Why, then, is private enterprise, supposedly the innovative sector, so reluctant? Why spend a fortune on office furniture and rent?

We have enough roads. What we lack is the exercise of brain power to use them efficiently.

By The BlogFather of Scroll

December 23, 2008 10:40 AM | Link to this

I loathe driving cars. I hate the internal combustion engine. I think it’s last century’s business. I’d rather walk anyday. Busses are inconvenient, but cheap, and you have share personal space with your fellow man, which is depressing.

Gas and Insurance and maintenance costs of auto ownership are ridiculous. Add the monthly payments and you are approaching $1K per month just for the privelege of gridlock and watching some rube get two inches ahead of you as he cuts you off cause his time is just so much more valuable than yours dont you know.

All cars are death traps. All cars are rattletraps. All cars get filthy. Now I dont mind dirt, and dirty is okay, but I’m talking about filth, and man do cars get filthy. And the stink! They have invented clean smelling steam cars that dont stink, but the government wont let us have them! They WANT us to smell the stink. Aw, I dont wanna talk about it.

All I know is that people and cars make a stink like no other stink there is.

By Glenn

December 23, 2008 10:42 AM | Link to this

We can build our way out of congestion? That’s like saying we can smoke our way out of congestion.

The onliest person I ever did meet who could hold attention more than a minute with that kind of claptrap was a fellow named C.C. Meyers, the man who rebuilt the Southern California freeways prematurely and under-budget following the deadly Northridge Earthquake. CC’s answer was, and is, “cap ‘em” — meaning, double-deck any highway that’s chronically congested.

Just add a lung.

By Cindy

December 23, 2008 10:42 AM | Link to this

Ragnar, Concerning the ANWAR drilling:

First: Residents of Alaska get a kickback from oil-lease revenues in the terms of annual dividends, so yes, greed will prevail. What would be their opinion if they got no income from the Refuge drilling? However, the Native Alaskans continue to fight against drilling. I am sure the wildlife of the region, the true residents would also object to the drilling if they were counted.

Second: ANWAR is a protected Wilderness and does not belong to the “Alaskans”. George I issued an executive order that banned oil exploration on the outer continental shelf.

Third: The impact of the crude gained from ANWAR is less that 1.2% (.012) on crude production which would have very little effect on the price of gasoline. (It would probably increase the price as companies recouped the cost of drilling.) A much better investment would be to preserve the Refuge and use alternate sources.

By Glenn

December 23, 2008 10:52 AM | Link to this

O thanks, Thindy, that’th tho he’pful, that you’ve read your lit-tachur. Tho by all meanth, let’th not, and thay we did…

By Detroitdidit

December 23, 2008 10:55 AM | Link to this

Is Jim seriously suggesting we follow those regions that have reduced traffic congestion over the past 20 years - those centers of economic vitality and prosperity like Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo? Is that really the model to follow?

By Realist

December 23, 2008 11:04 AM | Link to this

These studies, as well as the efforts of this transit board is a waste of time, space, and resources. Do you know how many studies, steering committees, work sessions have taken place over the last 10 years concerning this very topic? Too many to count. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been wasted on consultants to produce ideas everyone knew would never be implemented. That is Metro Atlanta’s anwser to every transportation issue, “let’s not build anything, let’s just study it more”.

Does this transit board have the authority to raise it’s own taxes? Issue it’s own bonds? Raise any kind of revenue what so ever? Of course not. So it is a waste of time. Do you really think the State legislature will fund 50 billion worth of improvements?

Like I said, been there done that. This is nothing new. Stories like this have been coming forth plenty over the last 10 years. And nothing is ever done. It’s all an excercise in masturbation.

By Glenn

December 23, 2008 11:09 AM | Link to this

Realist,

Then what does it take to break the logjam? We see that economic disaster will not do it. The newspaper, for what it’s worth, hasn’t budged it. The Olympics didn’t matter, and neither did 9/11. So what will it take? A supremely willful Huey Long, a Kingfish? —What. What?

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 23, 2008 11:24 AM | Link to this

Dear CJ @ 9:48, I do not dispute the basis of your argument, as it is rooted in a campaign for energy independence. I think the efforts to energy independence – more nukes, more coal, more drilling - are primarily blocked by the people who advocate most earnestly for mass transit, who thereafter use their blocking maneuvers as a basis for advocating for mass transit subsidies by the taxpayers. So long as you support free markets – drilling, nukes, more coal, more natural gas – and oppose taxpayer subsidies, to mass transit or to other forms of corporate welfare that corrupt the markets, I am on your side. Anything that people want to purchase with their own money is good; any effort to compel people to buy for benefit of others is unworthy.

Dear Ga Liberal @ 10:10, you persuade me, let’s add a $5/passenger tax to all MARTA riders, and use those funds exclusively for benefit of the MARTA system.

Dear Daedalus @ 10:15, “Americans only want new roads and transit if someone else pays for them.” Whom do you assert pays the gasoline taxes? I attribute that to the drivers who actually use the roads.

Dear Curious @ 10:38, well-argued. You persuade me. No jokes, no mocking tone, although that is my character. You are right.

Dear Cindy @ 10:42, (1) I perceive you oppose giving the citizens of Alaska an ownership interest in the natural wealth controlled by the state. I disagree – I think such an ownership interest compels better stewardship. “Stewardship” does not mean “prohibition,” which is the end, the goal of the leftists. (2) That arbitrary act of Congress that made “ANWR” a protected wilderness is surely reversible; I always advocate correcting the mistakes of our leftist overlords. I do not share your reverence for the wisdom of Congress (3) The psychological impact of prohibitions – the Congressional declaration that we shall not lift a finger to augment the supply of oil – is highly beneficial to those speculators who would corner the market on oil futures. Only by allowing the free market to work can you keep the money-changers honest. That is, you subsidize the crooks when you play they game for their benefit.

By Gator Joe

December 23, 2008 11:24 AM | Link to this

Wooten: Should we expect anything else from the Flat-earth, Anti-science, Anti-environment crowd at Heritage, of course not. But then, how could people like you be expected to go beyond them for information. The answer is obvious, build it (efficient, clean public transportation-see Europe) and they ( the public) will use it.

By findog

December 23, 2008 11:42 AM | Link to this

Dearest Redneck @8:10

It is too bad Toyota did not check with you first. Those rice eaters decided to cut their NASCAR support ten to twenty percent next year. You and little SZG might start to only get one race in Hampton if this continues…

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 23, 2008 12:04 PM | Link to this

Dear Cindy @ 10:42, I am breach of blog etiquette. I think you are relatively new to the blog, and I have failed to welcome you. Your arguments are worthy, and I look forward to crossing swords with you. (And a word of advisory, our friend Glenn, whose wicked humor was directed your way @ 10:52, is surely the sharpest mind on the blog. He is the real deal. You would also find him charming in an appropriate setting. Don’t take him too lightly!)

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 23, 2008 12:10 PM | Link to this

Dear Gator Joe @ 11:24, by all means, build it. I hope you make a fortune with it. Just do it without taxpayer money.

By findog

December 23, 2008 12:15 PM | Link to this

Zeke @10:11 The great State of Georgia has for years told the US government not to send as much money as available here for transportation. It is done through our politician’s unwillingness to update our seat belt laws. I am sure Ragnar will be better able to explain how the federal government dictates to the state and local authorities what they want and the means of extorting it from them. When Obama asked for projects to get people working the only thing our DOT could come up with is repaving. Even with the prospect of funding coming available from the federal government and Sonny bonds they have yet to direct any efforts to the preliminary engineering required to improve our transit woes. All they have done is fund, “studies,” to tell them what Redneck could provide for free…

Further, our governor does not want to upset anyone like those people in Sugar Hill that blocked the northern arc. Maybe we should all head to the capital for a prayer session, if God can’t bring us rain maybe we can get some asphalt.

By Cindy

December 23, 2008 12:23 PM | Link to this

Ragnar, Stewardship is taking responsibility of the care of something. That doesn’t mean prohibit. My objections are of the rape of a pristine environment, that would take centuries to heal. Especially of an environment that is not “owned” by any one person or any one state, but under the protection (and stewardship) of the US government. The drilling of ANWAR is based on GREED and GREED alone. It will not significantly lower gas prices, maybe not even minisculely. It will not bring about world peace. It will not fix Wall Street or the auto industry. It will not stop terrorist attacks. It will not reverse the damage to the US inflicted by the bush administration. LEAVE IT ALONE!

By findog

December 23, 2008 12:37 PM | Link to this

Cindy @12:23

I direct your attention to last season’s Ice Road Truckers. In it they portrayed the minimal footprint, ecologically friendly, and highly regulated development of the upper continental shelf. I like trees, have even considered hugging a couple in my lifetime. Problem with ANWAR is this absolutist leave it alone stand when measured against future funding of Saudi Madrassa schools for bin Laden wannabe’s is untenable to the average American. Truly enlightened minds would find a way to open it to exploration with tight controls to protect the environment.

And as Ragnar said, welcome – informed minds make for the best discussions.

By Cindy

December 23, 2008 12:50 PM | Link to this

Ragnar @ 12:37 That is typical “the sky is falling” conservative fear mongering. We import most of our oil from Canada. Last I checked they didn’t have madrassa schools. Unless you buy from CITGO where it is rumored to come from Venezuela. Al Qaida is being highly financed by illegal drugs. The Saudi princes would be offended. If we are in such fear of Saudi madrassa schools, why didn’t we invade Saudi rather than Iraq?

There could be a time when we need ANWAR, but the time is NOT now.

By Dan

December 23, 2008 12:53 PM | Link to this

I enjoy your columns though rarely agree with them. I think you need to expand your perspective on mass-transit. As someone who has lived in both Atlanta and DC, I can tell you that if Atlanta were to make a substantial investment into expanding train service into Cobb and other metro suburbs, that usage would increase at a corresponding rate.

Millions of people ride the Metro train into DC each week and that contributes greatly to relieving traffic congestion.

To take the coming funding and blow it on highway PORK as you suggest sadly misses the point entirely.

By Glenn

December 23, 2008 1:22 PM | Link to this

Would you people please, PLEASE work this out? Because if you don’t work out this who-goes-where-at-what-pace-and-cost thing, then I swear you’ll never touch the issue of public literacy — er, schooling.

By The BlogFather of Scroll

December 23, 2008 1:43 PM | Link to this

We are in oil utopia, you dolts, so if I read one more word about alternate sources of energy, when we got cheap oil plentiful oil and cheap cheap cheap oil, I’m going to put bengay in all your jockstraps and 30 weight in your wife’s douche bags, Okay?

stfu, idiots. WE won. We got oil back down cheap as it’s ever been. THe market is at the bottom. Buy.

and stfu.

morons.

By Maniac is accurate

December 23, 2008 1:52 PM | Link to this

Don’t listen to the Blogfather, who by the way just reveled himself as leader of an al Quaeda sleeper cell. Those terrists want to lull us back to sleepy apathy and mega oil consumption again so we’ll trip over our own foreskins so that when they jack the price up again it will be the death blow to America. It’ll suck hard when an Afghan cave looks luxurious next to our American stick and straw huts.

Unite against the Blogfather and bin Laden!

By Cindy

December 23, 2008 2:00 PM | Link to this

BLogFather, That goes back to my original question. Is this country stockpiling? I mean we have millions of acres to sit barrels of oil. Then when we need it we pick up the barrel rather than gouge the earth.

By Maniac is accurate

December 23, 2008 2:04 PM | Link to this

Oh, he’s probably reveling in his al Queda-ness, too, but I meant to right that he’d revealed himself, which is better than exposing himself I’m quite sure.

By The BlogFather of Scroll

December 23, 2008 2:19 PM | Link to this

Maybe I’m Bin Laden, maybe I’m not, but Maniac is a member of the Al KaKa Gay men’s choir and he teaches entire goat herds to baa along to classic jihad xmas songs like, “Allah I want for Xmas is my two fundemental truths…and “Oh tons of bombs oh tons of bombs…” and “Here’s comes Saddam’s claws, here comes Saddam’s claws..”

what a denuded jihadist! What a shia dope! What a sunni clod! What a clown cleric!!

bwa

By Bo Chambliss LOBBYIST

December 23, 2008 2:20 PM | Link to this

Good thing the bankers gave dad $2.5 Million…

Two months before IndyMac Bancorp collapsed in July, at a cost of $8.9 billion to taxpayers, a top federal banking regulator allowed the bank to backdate a capital infusion and gloss over its deepening problems, the Treasury Department’s independent investigator said Monday.

In what industry analysts said was an example of the excessively cozy relations between high-flying subprime lenders and federal bank regulators, the Office of Thrift Supervision’s West Coast director allowed IndyMac’s parent company to backdate an $18 million contribution to preserve its status as a “well-capitalized” institution.

Investigators reported that similar officially approved backdating appears to have occurred at other financial institutions, though they did not name them.

IndyMac, based in Pasadena, Calif., was one of the nation’s biggest subprime mortgage lenders at the time. But analysts said it was already in trouble when the maneuver occurred, because of rising default rates and a big stockpile of subprime loans on its books that investors abruptly refused to buy.

By Hillbilly Deluxe

December 23, 2008 2:28 PM | Link to this

Building more roads just brings more traffic. Just look at the last 50 or so years as an example.

By Bo Chambliss LOBBYIST

December 23, 2008 2:48 PM | Link to this

Some of the country’s biggest commercial real estate players are asking the government for help, as their $6 trillion industry of hotels, office buildings and shopping malls faces a record amount of debt coming due in the next few years.

Trade association executives said that in the past few weeks they have met with members of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, congressional leaders, and officials at the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve to make their case for assistance.

In the next three years, they pointed out, an estimated $530 billion of commercial mortgages will come due for refinancing — with about $160 billion due next year, according to Foresight Analytics, based in Oakland, Calif. But with the credit markets virtually collapsed, thousands of those properties could go into foreclosure or bankruptcy if owners are unable to get new loans.

By Glenn

December 23, 2008 4:59 PM | Link to this

So you know, but won’t tell. That speaks to me.

For a number of years I hadn’t thought to number I’d seen The Thousand-Yard Stare from really good people, people really qualified to plan the best for any city we love. Yet always, surrender. Surrender before the developer-forces that were overtaking Georgia — a new Army of the River of the Dollar.

In my day, in California, we had state senators who represented those interests. The best, and most corrupt, of them I knew and cared for, and he for me. But in Georgia you send whole U.S. Senators all the way to Washington to represent the interests of meat-grinding Georgia into dirt-simple greed. It’s one of the more jarring aspects of relocating to this state from a state that’s openly and shamelessly bankrupt.

Next thing you know, the land developers of Georgia will join a class lobbying Washington for fiduciary relief in these really, really hard times, what with the Yankees coming down fumma Ohio and sech places with their different ideas ‘bout howta run a steam train…

By The BlogFather of Scroll

December 23, 2008 6:01 PM | Link to this

Steam is clean. They have clean smelling steam cars but the feds wont let us have them. They want us to smell the stink. Aw, I dont want to talk about it. I’ve seen so much stink you wouldn’t believe…

By GaLiberal

December 23, 2008 10:40 PM | Link to this

I guess Bush likes to pardon criminals instead of keeping them in prison. What do you Rethuglicon bootlicking fascists have to say about this list:

_William Alvis III of Flushing, Ohio. Possession of an unregistered firearm and cocaine distribution.

_John Allen Aregood of Riviera, Texas. Conspiracy to harbor and transport illegal aliens.

_Eric Charles Blanke of Parker, Colo. Counterfeiting.

_Steve Doyle Cavender of The Villages, Fla. Conspiring to import, possess, distribute and dispense marijuana.

_Marie Elena Eppens of Lynden, Wash. Conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute marijuana.

_Eduviges Duvi Gonzalez-Matsumura of Clovis, Calif. Aiding and abetting embezzlement of bank funds.

_George Clarence Greene Jr. of Gray, Ga. Mail fraud.

_Richard Harold Miller of Tallahassee, Fla. Conspiracy to defraud the United States.

_Charles Winters of Miami. Conspiracy to export, and exportation, of a military aircraft to a foreign country in violation of the Neutrality Act of 1939. (Pardon granted posthumously.)

Bush commuted the prison sentence of Reed Raymond Prior of Des Moines, Iowa. Prior was convicted of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.

I guess Bush didn’t find any pedophiles or rapists that contributed to the Rethuglicon party so he could pardon them. Oh well, just another example of the hypocrisy of the Rethuglicons.

When you vote Rethuglicon, you vote against your own best interests. And Bush releasing criminals is living proof.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

December 24, 2008 8:08 AM | Link to this

The exchange late yesterday between PoFo and Maniac was truly funny. Reminded me of the old 1960s movies (Godzilla v Mothra genre) except funnier. Better than Fred Allen v Jack Benny. I could never keep up with either PoFo or Maniac, so the clash of the board’s humorist-titans made my day.

Everyone other than GA Liberal may wish to skip over the next post.

Dear Ga Liberal @ 10:40 last night, “I guess Bush likes to pardon criminals instead of keeping them in prison. What do you Rethuglicon bootlicking fascists have to say about this list:” GA Liberal, you are right, amazing list, not a single FALN terrorist nor any scam artist on the scale of Marc Rich. Bush is a piker in his use of the pardon – does he not realize how much money he could make with his pardons, as President Clinton proved? He has pardoned only half as many as President Clinton, and no sociopaths on a scale with the Clinton-freed criminals.

“I guess Bush didn’t find any pedophiles or rapists that contributed to the Rethuglicon party so he could pardon them. Oh well, just another example of the hypocrisy of the Rethuglicons. When you vote Rethuglicon, you vote against your own best interests. And Bush releasing criminals is living proof.” I suppose you missed the big news, GA Liberal, published yesterday by Taranto. I would agree that “rapist-in-chief” was always a democrat title, but it turns out the pedophiles are all democrats too:

Remember Wade Sanders? He was one of the “band of brothers”—Swift Boat veterans who supported John Kerry’s presidential campaign and appeared onstage at the 2004 Democratic National Convention before Kerry’s “reporting for duty” speech.

On the campaign trail, Sanders was one of Kerry’s nastiest surrogates. In August 2004, he likened the president to a “trapped animal.” In September, he compared Karl Rove and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth chief John O’Neill to Josef Goebbels. He repeatedly referred to the president and his men as “chicken hawks,” an especially nasty term because it is slang for a child molester as well as a derisive term for a nonveteran who favors a strong defense.

Sanders, who also served as a deputy assistant Navy secretary during the Clinton administration, continued his anti-Bush campaign even after Kerry’s defeat. In a December 2004 op-ed for the San Diego Union-Tribune, he lectured the president on “the heavy responsibility of command”:

Let me, for a moment, address the commander in chief directly:

Sir, with all due respect, you would be well advised to acquaint yourself with the level of responsibility and accountability that accompany the title. If you really want to fill those shoes, if you want to parade about in uniform, if you want to use our men and women in uniform as your personal props, then please honor moral and ethical standards that go with the job.

In 2007, Kerry attempted to use his Senate position to settle a personal score, scuttling the confirmation of businessman Sam Fox as ambassador to Belgium because Fox donated money to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. (President Bush gave Fox a recess appointment.) In a March 2007 Washington Times op-ed, Sanders railed righteously against Fox:

Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but one of the lessons drilled into me by the military and preserved through the memory of friends who were lucky enough to come home from Vietnam alive, is that truth matters above all else. And as a military man, it doesn’t matter much who is being attacked—John McCain, Max Cleland, John Kerry, or Jack Murtha—I just don’t believe that assaults on the military records of veterans belong in our politics. Nor do I believe that those who finance smears of decorated Vietnam veterans deserve to represent America on the world stage… .

Those of us who are real swift boaters know something about judgment and responsibility for our decisions.

The following month, in a letter to the editor of the Boston Herald, Sanders harrumphed:

Yes, I am a member of Kerry’s ready reserve of Swift Boat vets and unlike those who served with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and their ilk, I serve with honor, integrity and exercise sound judgment. Fox would do well to reacquaint himself with those qualities.

Sanders is back in the news. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that he “pleaded guilty yesterday to a federal charge of possessing child pornography”: The investigation into Sanders began in October 2007, according to a statement filed in the case by San Diego FBI agent John Caruthers.

Another FBI agent working undercover signed on to a file-sharing computer network and entered a search term that is used for accessing child pornography images.

Among the responses to that search term was one for a specific computer address that the agents eventually traced to Sanders’ home in South Park in San Diego. The agent then obtained a list of files that were being shared on the computer and downloaded 11 files, including at least two that contained images of child pornography.

On May 2, 2008, agents executed a search warrant at Sanders’ home and seized his computer. During the search, Sanders admitted he had downloaded child pornography using the file-sharing program, but said he deleted the files once he noticed they were downloaded, according to the FBI statement.

Sanders acknowledged in court that he had “possessed computer files containing 600 images of minors, including a 21-minute video that depicted girls engaging in sex acts with an adult man.” But don’t worry—his motives were “pure and innocent”:

In a telephone interview last night, Sanders said he had downloaded the files as part of his research for an article on the sexual exploitation of children in foreign countries. He said his work for the Clinton administration had included aiding victims of child sex abuse in the former Yugoslavia.

“I have no sexual attraction to children whatsoever,” Sanders said. “There was no evil intent.”

Sanders, a lawyer, said he didn’t realize federal child pornography laws barred downloading or viewing the material even by researchers. He said that is why he decided to plead guilty.

“I thought since my motives were pure and innocent, that would make a difference,” he said. “I’m technically guilty of the crime.”

If this explanation sounds familiar, you probably are thinking of Bernie Ward, the liberal San Francisco talk-show host who in August was sentenced to seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty to distribution of child pornography. As the San Jose Mercury News reported, he claimed he was working on a book:

[Ward’s] lawyer urged [Judge Vaughn] Walker to impose the lowest possible sentence, saying Ward began downloading the images as part of journalism research that went awry, spiralling out of control when he began drinking heavily. Doron Weinberg, Ward’s attorney, told Walker the child porn downloading “spanned a brief period in an exemplary life.”

Don’tcha just hate when journalism research goes awry? To ensure that things don’t spiral out of control, we’ll give Sanders the last word: “Those of us who are real swift boaters know something about judgment and responsibility for our decisions.”

GA Liberal, we Rethuglicons do not share your values, your “judgment and responsibility.” You guys may be in to kiddy porn, but you are proud of what you are. And as you said, “I guess Bush didn’t find any pedophiles or rapists that contributed to the Rethuglicon party so he could pardon them.” I suspect you are right.

By Voldemort

December 24, 2008 11:28 AM | Link to this

Add road capacity for traffic relief?

Where, Mr. Wooten?

Through what neighborhoods?

From whom do you propose private property be taken to facilitate capacity expansion?

Whoever initially finances them, why is it that the so-called “conservative right”, who ruefully decry the leftist leanings of transit proponents, prefer to perpetuate one of the nation’s larget social programs in the system of public roads and highways?

Please extract your head from the asphalt- and concrete-filled bucket of the Heritage Foundation and road builders’ industries to realize that a relinace exclusively on roads for surface transportation, helped get us into the deficit of a healthy economy and efficient urban mobility.

By GM

December 24, 2008 11:52 AM | Link to this

As the GM of a facility belonging to a large multi-national producer of concrete, your more roads solution sounds good to me Jim. But the private me realizes that this is Atlanta and looking back in time all more roads do for Atlanta is make room for more cars, create worse traffic, and more misery. The point of any future exercise should be to take cars off the roads to reduce traffic and the misery associated with it. Of course maybe using your model Jim, by building more roads to accomodate more cars and more misery that the eventual result will be that businesses no longer want to come here because of nightmare traffic congestion that we guarantee will only get worse because we only know how to build more roads. So the natural consequence eventually would be loss of industry and jobs thus creating a mass exodus from Atlanta that in the end most definately will produce, voila….less traffic for those of us that remain. Good thinking Jim. You’re a genious. I nominate Jim Wooten for Traffic Czar. You’re doing a great job Wooty.

By Daedalus

December 24, 2008 12:02 PM | Link to this

Ragnar — I’m sorry you cannot understand this point — you stated:

Dear Daedalus @ 10:15, “Americans only want new roads and transit if someone else pays for them.” Whom do you assert pays the gasoline taxes? I attribute that to the drivers who actually use the roads.

I was thinking that the readers of this blog have some deductive reasoning. I was mistaken. Americans, especially Georgians, always oppose taxes for infrastructure. While the majority of Georgians may want new roads, they certainly don’t want to pay for them with new taxes or tolls. They simply want them to appear, perhaps by spontaneous phenomenon, wholly formed and ready for traffic.

Six and half years of Sonny fiddling and the Republican legislature back-stabbing each other has resulted in zero growth in infrastructure. Why? Because the GDOT has mismanaged its gas tax revenues and can barely keep up with operation and maintenance. Increased costs for construction have outpaced revenue growth. Thus, zero expansion of infrastructure.

Georgia loses out on federal transit funds when it competes with cities like Charlotte, Houston and Dallas because those cities have effective local leadership and significant support from the state. We don’t have any of that. The Republican controlled suburbs won’t work with the City of Atlanta or MARTA on transportation, and Sonny and GRTA are about as useful as potted plants.

However you miss the real point, Conservatives always whine that mass transit requires government subsidies, while ignoring the fact that roads are also built with subsidies (i.e., taxes). If you did some research you’d also learn that federal transportation funds (which is where Georgia gets the majority of its funds) do not come solely from gas taxes on users — it also comes from general revenue (i.e., income taxes). Thus, your assumption that roads are only built with gas taxes paid by drivers is simply wrong.

Enjoy your car because we are not getting out of gridlock in our lifetimes.

By TonyPC

December 24, 2008 12:09 PM | Link to this

It’s not fair to judge the efficacy of transit solutions until a truly usable system exists. MARTA works for maybe 10-15% of Atlantans as an efficient way to travel. Only a few cities (New York, Boston, maybe D.C.) have systems that work for the majority. We cannot pave our way out of the traffic mess; we might as well try expanding an existing approach. (And while we’re at it, cost-effectively improve other transportation options through bike lanes, sidewalks, traffic calming, and generally, walkable communities.

By stop watching Fox news

December 24, 2008 1:21 PM | Link to this

Saying that transit is not an answer is a short term view of Atlanta, Georgia, the southeast, and commuting in general. However, it is only part of the solution. Proper city planning is needed in Georgia. We’ve let developers throw up subdivisions and in some cases even dictated roads. He need effective city planning and stop urban sprawl in correlation with an effective mass transit system for the southeast.

Notice how I said the southeast. It would be much more efficent and easier to catch a train from Atlanta to Birmingham, or fly into Atlanta and ride a train to Macon, Savannah, or Jacksonville instead of getting a connecting flight.

By Reid in EAV

January 8, 2009 7:48 PM | Link to this

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, then Jim Wooten is worthy of a straitjacket, a comfy padded room and lots of nice, friendly people to tell him everything’s OK.

Seriously, how much have we spent on highway infrastructure in this country? How many times have we built new highways? Widened existing highways? Added better interchanges for “smoother flow?” Chopped through existing urban neighborhoods for new lane-miles?

And with all of those capacity-expanding projects, have the promises of “an end to congestion” ever been met? For perhaps a few months, shortly after the ribbon-cutting, yes. But eventually, since the driving is initially so “easy,” and highway driving is free of marginal costs (no peak or congestion pricing), the new or bigger road fills up just like the old one. Same plan, same result — no surprise when you’re building subsidized infrastructure that costs the same to use regardless of the aggregate demand.

Meanwhile, we get dirtier air, greater dependence on foreign oil and a quality of life that’s rendered just a shade above homeless if one doesn’t own a car. (Not that owning a car is any great picnic, as any Atlantan can tell you.)

And now Wooten, backed by exceedingly suspect “research” from the discredited industry shill Wendell Cox and his cronies*, thinks we’re stupid enough to believe it when he suggests that doing the EXACT SAME THING will bring about a DIFFERENT result.

Simple common sense will tell you that if ever it was time to look at new approaches — like increased transit, high-speed rail and lowering zoning barriers to mixed-use communities — it is now. Clearly, what we have been doing for the past 63 years isn’t working, and only intellectually dishonest, fact-distorting industry-fellating hacks like Wooten will say any differently.

(*Sorry, I’m a libertarian-leaning conservative and therefore have an affinity for Heritage, but I’ve looked into these numbers enough to know that they’re extremely selective at best, BS at worst. Follow the money — Cox’s backing comes from road and highway interests, and by Wooten’s intellectually dishonest intransigence on this issue, I’m beginning to suspect that he’s also in the hip pocket of the same folks.)