Monday, July 27, 2015

The stupidity of American voters

Hillary Clinton Pledges to Install 500 Million Solar Panels if Voted President | TIME


Hillary Clinton 
Democrat 
liberal 
economy 
government spending 
taxes 
government waste 
2016 election 
vote 
Silver Spring Transit Center 
public-private partnership 
silverspringtransitcenter.blogspot.com 
Paul S. Sarbanes Transit Center 
Purple Line 
Montgomery County MD  






Saturday, July 18, 2015

Homily gibberish from Catholic priests

What is it about some Catholic priests who don't put a lick of preparation into their Sunday homilies? Who go on-and-on talking irrelevant nonsense--who talk down to their congregation.

"my sister in law got notified by the credit card company that someone had fraudulently charged to her account. ... pray the breviary so that you can connect with Catholics who lived millenia ago. ... Listen! ... you need to focus! ..." 

clueless; totally clueless. 

one day a week--Sunday. your homily. your feeding the flock. and you don't have the time to prepare it beforehand? It's your job! DO IT!

  • No, Father, it's you who needs to listen.
  • It's you who needs to focus
  • Focus on your job. 
  • Focus on your weekly homily. 
  • Prepare for it in advance (DUH!). 
  • Stop talking gibberish
  • Stop rambling. 
  • Say something intelligent for a change.


Wednesday, July 8, 2015

missing something

Judge Dismisses Purple Line Advocates’ Lawsuit Against Town of Chevy Chase - Bethesda Beat

World peace? Eradicate hunger & poverty? Save the environment? Passion for these is understandable. But, a 16-mile rail line in the burbs with dubious ridership projections and a $2.5 billion initial price tag (before the first shovel is turned)? What am I missing here?





Purple Line
Montgomery County MD
Prince George's County MD
Chevy Chase MD
WMATA
public-private partnership
Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
Maryland Transit Administration (MTA)
Silver Spring Transit Center
Paul S. Sarbanes Transit Center
Gov. Hogan





Monday, July 6, 2015

a drop in the bucket

http://wamu.org/news/15/07/03/prince_georges_and_montgomery_counties_work_to_bring_down_purple_lines_price_tag

$50 million is just 2% of the current projected cost for the Purple Line ($2.5 billion). We all know what happens to the cost after the project begins--just look at the Silver Spring Transit Center public-private partnership. What's needed is a Gov. Hogan type to cut the federal portion of the project, which would give the rest of us in the other 49 states and US territories a break. Frankly though, after the Silver Spring Transit Center public-private partnership debacle, we all deserve a break from public-private partnerships altogether.




R M-S, What is your source? According to the Federal Highway Administration (Office of Highway Policy Information - Policy | Federal Highway Administration) the cumulative ratio of HTF apportionments and allocations to payments from 1956 to 2011 for Maryland is 1.24 and for Virginia is 1.11. Virginia receives less than Maryland, not more. (Go to the Federal Highway Administration website. Search "FE-221". The 1.24 and 1.11 above are for 2011. There is a more recent report for 1956 to 2013. The cumulative ratios for Maryland and Virginia from 1956 thru 2013 are 1.23 and 1.12 respectively. While the ratios are slightly different than from 2011, Virginia receives less return for their payments than Maryland.)

Yeah Right, As a federal taxpayer (and METRO patron), I "sweat" wasteful spending, e.g. the Silver Spring Transit Center public-private partnership. I "sweat" wasting more public money on the Purple Line PPP before the public knows how and why the Silver Spring Transit Center PPP failed so poorly. This begins with knowing what'$ behind the non-competitive $election of the private firm$ that were $elected for the $TC. I would expect my local friends in MD, as well as my friends from here to the west coast, to be equally concerned if a local county politician from VA picked his private political friends to design, build or inspect a public works project that turned out to be a waste of their federal taxes.


Purple Line
public-private partnership
Montgomery County MD
Prince George's County MD
Gov. Hogan
Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
Maryland Transit Administration (MTA)
WMATA
Silver Spring Transit Center
Paul S. Sarbanes Transit Center

Office of Highway Policy Information - Policy | Federal Highway Administration




Thursday, July 2, 2015

Maryland's Purple Line winners & losers

Maryland's Purple Line: The Winners and Losers

"also BIG $ winners: developers, public-private partnership partners (politicians, private engineering firms, private contractors) 
also BIG $ losers: taxpayers (federal, state & local)
a draw? no. BIG $ always wins; taxpayers always lose."




Purple Line
Montgomery Co. MD
Prince George's Co. MD
public private partnership
Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
Maryland Transit Administration (MTA)
Gov. Hogan
Silver Spring Transit Center
Paul S. Sarbanes Transit Center