I've taken a look at the transit section of the Boxer amendment to the Lieberman Warner Climate Bill The legalize of these bills can get a little thick so I tried to translate as best I could for the transit section.  The whole thing can be found here.

Update: The diary was originally titled Obama Visits Mecca of Track and Field.  After a few comments and my own conscience catching up with me, I decided to change it.  The last thing I want to do is be the person that starts a rumor or gives Rethugs amo.  It's sad that I even have to worry about this but the spin machine on the other side knows no bounds, or what metaphors are.  I've also posted a second video.

Barack Obama made an appearance today at the Mecca for Track and Field, The University of Oregon's Hayward Field in Eugene.  This will be the home to the 2008 Olympic Trials and has been the home to some of the greatest track athletes that the United States has ever seen.    

Thomas Freedman writes today on why the gas tax strategy is stupid and why we're not investing in alternative energy.  Man are the politics of this country stupid.

It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away. Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer’s travel season. This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way to build our country.

Anyone need an arabian horse judge? Political appointments are nothing new.  The fact is though that the Bush administration's blatant cronyism is going to end up selling us down the river, literally.  In an article in the Washington Post on Monday, there was a profile on two Bush appointees to the DOT that showed how badly we need a democratic president.  

We know that cars cost a lot of money. Aside from the up front capital cost, operations cost people at least $8,000 per year. But ever since cars were produced for the working man by Henry Ford, it looks as if the purchase and ownership of these vehicles has cut into American wealth accumulation.

Cross Posted at The Overhead Wire

I got an email in my inbox this morning discussing the trouble that was had by independents in voting in the Democratic primary.  I typed it into the DKos search and found nothing covering this issue.  I'm cautious as to its accuracy but there have been several newspaper reports such as the Sacramento Bee which state that 94,000 independent voters in LA County might not have been counted in the Primary.  

Links below the fold...

This diary discusses the ideological push to discontinue big transit projects that would provide mobility and accessibility to areas which need it the most.  The Bush administrations answer?  Build more roads, let the EPA do what it wants, and stop building rail projects such as the Metro extension to Dulles airport.

UPDATE: Senators Dodd and Shelby have proposed an amendment to kill the rules that would put into law the ridiculousness from my post below.  Please send them some E-Love to your Senate member on the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee.

The Federal Transit Administration(FTA) has issued a notice of proposed rule making (NPRM) for the New and Small Starts program that provides funding for major fixed guideway capital projects such as Light Rail, Heavy Rail, and Bus Rapid Transit. The proposed rules are alarming on a number of levels. Most notably in that they downgrade the importance of land use and economic development despite congressional direction to the contrary, and they propose to redefine the definition of fixed-guideway to include transit funding for highway lanes that use tolling schemes.

More after the jump  

No it's not Darfur, but it is something that goes ignored.  It is the amount of people who have died in car accidents in the United States since 9-11.  But no one is saying anything, and there has been no uproar.

This diary is actually going to be titled, Transit Oriented Development 101: Affordability, Mobility, and the Environment.  If I leave something out, I'll cover it in a 202.

Daneel has been putting together a series of diaries on rail transit and BruceMcF has written a diary asking that folks don't pit buses against rail.  Yes!  It's all about networks and I'll tell you why below the fold...

While Al Gore and Much of the Democratic Leadership in the United States is thinking about Global Warming and the effects of greenhouse gases and carbon emissions, several cities (progressive and conservative) in the United States have already started addressing the issue with alternative transit options, primarily rail transit.  In fact, cities see the attraction of young graduates and highly skilled workers as such a key policy that there is a new exciting phenomenon taking place where they are starting to compete against each other to say that they have the best and most extensive system: We're Calling It The Transit Space Race

More below the fold

Of course we know that Bush called us out on our addiction to oil in last years state of the union and then this year made some suggestions on how to lower the addiction, even asking for a 20% reduction.  But he only expects us to get there by alternative energy sources for our cars...the same cars that allow us to build in sprawling energy inefficient patterns and take up on average 19% of our family budgets every year.  Well this is a great benefit to the auto industry and the oil moguls who are looking to break into these markets, but how about saving the American People more money by building more transit facilities?