Update and More

As promised, I went to the Tea Party, and what a party it was! I've never seen so many conservatives in one place before, and I was glad to see that they are finally fed up with out-of-control government spending. I was also glad to see that the event stirred up anger and concern on the left. I think that when talking heads on liberal news outlets spew hate speech, they are sufficiently scared, and that brings joy to my heart. Their fear is the first glimpse of a possibility that conservatives are ready to hold elected officials accountable. Conservatives have been in a lull during the Bush years and turned a blind eye to the growing budget. To Bush's credit, until last year, the deficit was shrinking year after year. This was not due to 'budget surpluses' like those during the Clinton years (which were largely the last big hurrah for Social Security before baby boomers started to retire, FYI we have to pay back those surpluses with interest!) This was instead due to tax cuts that actually increased revenue! Economically, times were strange under the Bush administration because for the majority of the term, both inflation and unemployment were low. Usually, its one or the other, as we are learning right now (deflation=high unemployment) I credit those times to the tax cuts. But I digress. Even under Bush's plan, we were on an unsustainable spending spree and the Obama administration has merely made an already bad problem worse. Perhaps what people are starting to realize is that in tough times, Americans need unprecedented liberty, not regulation and handouts.

There has been little news on the DART front lately. The biggest waves have been made by the selection of an alignment for the second route through downtown Dallas. Personally, I am in favor of an alignment that stops at City Hall. I learned from an employee of the DPW that there is actually a section of the underground parking for City Hall that was designed to recieve a DART rail stop, knowing that the second alignment was negotiated a while ago. I also beleive that the city hall recieves a reasonable amount of traffic, both from employees and citizens. There is something civic about having City Hall as accessible as possible.

I wait impatiently for the opening of the Green line. I cannot express how much I want to take a rail to and from the airport. This couldn't be more true for DFW. Parking there is not cheap, and it is a good ways from the city. The current rail station at Centerport is not very convenient, and I have to jump trains from the TRE to the DART light rail, which is the least of the annoyances.