Everything Else

The Dept. of Hopeless Security is classifying the movie TRON as sensitive to national security per Kuro5hin.


No really. It's not April 1st yet. It also appears that the FBI is sending out National Security letters under the Patriot Act to get retailers to hand over all copies of the film (of course they don't want to pay for them.)

Commentary: Duh! And the movie wasn't even that good.

Found via: Reddit

Even though the Illiana privatized toll road has been downsized we still need to talk about transportation policy and mass transit in NW Indiana and in Indiana in general. Here's my thoughts on the matter:

1. Extend the South Shore rail road to both Lowell and Valparaiso. Frankly this is years overdue and needs to be addressed.

2. Bus service - both fixed route and flex route needs to be expanded. I am not a big fan of busses, but they have their place. Outlying towns (like Hebron) that are not on one of the rail lines need fixed schedule bus service to take them to a rail line, market town or other transportation hub. It is important that all bus-stops be clearly marked and routes and timetables published. Right now the bus stops are not well marked, if they are marked at all, and this discourages adoption of mass bus transit use by the public. Every bus stop is an advertisement for the bus service, but people will not use what they do not know about. This is also the problem for flex route (or bus on demand) service, it is a good idea but publicizing it is going to be difficult. I see bus service as a stop-gap measure with the goal being light rail along heavily used corridors. 100 years ago we had light rail connecting the whole region but that got killed off by the automobile.

3. Rim connections - The South Shore lines proposed are all spokes leading into Chicago, but there needs to be scheduled mass transit service around the rim of the area: (e. g.: Chesterton/Porter to Valparaiso to Hebron to Winfield to Crown Point and back or something). I guess busses would due for a start but light rail would be even better because light rail need not be dependent on roads or subject to rush hour gridlock and traffic jams.

4. Ring City transit - I still say the E. J & E. railroad line would make a perfect rim commuter railroad around Chicago. See map. It would take Illinois, Indiana and probably the Federal Government working together to set something up but I bet passenger and freight could both use that line.

5. Interurban from NW Indiana to Indianapolis - Probably should go from NW Indiana to Lafayette to Indy, high speed, multiple times daily. Indianapolis needs to make connections to re-anchor NW Indiana away from Chicago's orbit. They really have not done much since Interstate 65 was built in the 1960's. Folks in Indianapolis are not thrilled to have the South Shore feeding people into Chicago, but unless they offer an alternative, nobody in NW Indiana is going to look towards Indianapolis for economic, or cultural opportunity.

6. Land routes around the southern tip of Lake Michigan - frankly this needs to be addressed. I'm not sure building more highways for trucks, like the Illiana, is the best way to solve this. Perhaps dedicated high-speed fright rail corridors, owned by the Feds with private railroads paying trackage rights would be the way to go given our dependence on foreign oil and the pollution problems. The bottom line is that this problem needs a coherent transportation plan from the Federal government and Indiana and Illinois. Right now Washington cannot seem to apply itself to anything but the war in Iraq so I don't see anything happening on this front for years.

Senators are finally questioning some of the provisions of the Real ID Act.

It's about time. Too bad they did not do this before they voted on it. Real ID (both the electronic chip scheme and the card) are more than just ID's they are internal passports to track (and control) the movements of free citizens in their own country. Bad. Somehow we managed to fight the entire Cold War without resorting to internal passports, although it was suggested and soundly defeated. Worse, Real ID is an unfunded mandate on the States and that is bad law. The idea that I cannot set foot inside a US Court or a Social Security office or board a train without showing my internal Real ID passport is absolute BS - I helped pay for those buildings with my taxes and I will be damned if I will be denied entry. The backlash against Washington on this is going to terrible when people find out that granny can't get her Social Security case heard without a Real ID. Just wait - this is going to be nasty.

Some of the states like Vermont, Maine and Missouri are openly questioning whether they should implement Real ID. Unfortunately, Indiana is fully in favor of it. Another reason NOT to vote for Mitch Daniels.

Remember, individual Liberties do not disappear overnight, they erode away gradually until one day you wake up and realize that you are no longer free.

The Indianapolis Star reports that Governor Daniels has dropped plans for the Indy Commerce Connector Toll by-pass around Indianapolis and the Illiana toll road East of I-65.

Good news indeed. However he still wants to build the 10 mile section from the Illinois and Indiana state line to I-65 as a privatized toll road. I still object to that. To be sure I think it should be a toll road, because money is tight for new roads but it should be built and managed by the state.

The Indianapolis Star article suggests that because Daniels cannot pawn these two toll roads the proposed I-69 connection between Indianapolis and Evansville is in doubt. I say, Daniel's should revisit the provisions of I-69 with the Indiana Legislature and build I-69 as a publicly owned and operated toll road. Especially if that road is intended to be a NAFTA super highway, I say toll the heck out of it.

(Actually, if they are going to condemn a right of way between Indianapolis and Evansville they should make it wide enough for dedicated high speed freight and passenger rail to run alongside the highway too and not just a highway.)

The other way to build I-69 is to raise motor fuel taxes for the entire state and dedicate that to building I-69 as a freeway. I'm less enamored by that because in my experience once a tax is imposed you never get rid of it and it only goes up never really down. Government's appetite for money is endless.

Rich James and the Post-Tribune try to spin opinion in favor of the Illiana Toll Road. I guess that is an op-ed piece even though it is not plainly marked.

Anyway, Rich James misses the point:

While the land issue is real, all the opposition talk about foreign operators, environmental concerns and the fact that the road would be a toll-way is little more than window dressing. It's like piling on once the tackle has been made.I don't really care who runs the road. And there wasn't a peep when foreign firms bought Mittal and Amoco.

People are wary of a "privatized" toll road. People are still upset about how the Indiana Toll Road was leased to a private company for 75 years and they don't want a repeat with the Illiana. It also does not sit well with voters for the state to take land and then turn it over to a private company. Based on our previous experience with the Indiana Toll Road lease, many people are just not willing to trust Mitch Daniels with the authority to start negotiating lease and construction agreements with private firms before a proper study has been done to see if the Illiana toll road needs to actually be extended east of I-65.

Nobody has looked at other alternatives like a state owned rail corridor that would separate fast freight, passenger and commuter trains around Lake Michigan. Nobody has looked at the environmental impact, water shed impact, and yet Mitch Daniels wants to have carte blanche authority to proceed before any of these studies are done. Why?

People have a good sense when they are getting the bums rush. SB-1 is the bums rush.

I don't trust Mitch Daniels. He pretty much used up any trust I had in him with the Toll Road Lease and the way he tried to sneak SB-1 through the legislature.

Here's my bottom line: if all the studies say the Illiana toll road needs and can be built then it should be built as a toll road, built, run and managed by the State of Indiana for the public good. People might be willing to surrender their property for the common good but not to be coerced by the power of the state for the benefit of a private enterprise.

How you go about building the case for great public works is just as important as the project itself.

I think C.A.P.I.T. should use video to get the point across about the quiet rural life they want to protect against the Illiana Toll road. Here is how to do it.

1. Most digital cameras wil also shoot video. Make a 2-3 minute video.

2. Scene 1. Start out filming documentary style with a host narrating while standing X number of yards away from a quiet, picturesque county road in south Porter County. Pan around to show scenery.

3. Scene 2. Now film next to I-94 during rush hour. Have the narrator talk the same distance away from the interstate as they did in the previous scene. The traffic noise should be horrendous.

4. Scene 3: back to quiet countryside and tell people that this is what we want to preserve.

5. Don't ask me how to do the technical stuff. I'm not sure how to edit digital video but software must be available to do this cheap. It would be great to watermark the video with "no-illiana.com"

6. Post to some place like Youtube.com.

7. Get the link out to people via the news group, website and email. If it is good, then it will spread virally from there.

What you are demonstraiting very graphically to people is that nobody wants to live next door to all the noise, muck and pollution of a superhighway. Sometimes seeing and hearing the difference will help people understand.

My two cents.

UPDATE: I just read my digest of the No Illiana Toll Road discussion group and noticed Dave Canright suggested something similar yesterday only for radio. Great minds...

They should do both.

Most people are surprised when they find out I am a registered Democrat. All through the 1960's, 70's, 80's and 90's on a national level the Democratic Party and I have been pretty much diametrically opposed with me being a traditional conservative with a major libertarian streak. But I am a registered Democrat because the Indiana county I grew up in was so heavily Democrat that the only way to have any say over who got elected locally was in the primary. The Republicans never stood a chance for local and county elections.

I had always intended to switch to the Republican Party if I moved somewhere else.

Well I moved, but so to has the Republican Party, philosophically, on a national and even on a state level here in Indiana. I used to think the liberal Democrats were a danger to individual liberties, balanced budgets and national defense, but then came George Bush and the neocon's who have taken over the National Republican Party. They have "spent money like drunken sailors", done major damage to fundamental individual American liberties, undermined Federalism when it got in their way and seem more than willing to just hand the keys to the country over to mega-corporations. In short all my fears about what would happen if Democrats had unchecked power were proved right except it is the Republicans who proved to be the threat to all those things and more. George Bush and the neocon Republicans are the worst of Big Government, Big Brother, Big Spending (and IMO small competency) personified.

I cannot tell you how much it shocks me to say that.

So as long as the religious fundamentalists, the neocons and Bushistas have control of the GOP I want nothing to do with them.

I noticed a Brink's Armored Car driving around Northwest Indiana with Texas license plates. Seems like they are awfully far from home. Why are they operating locally with plates from Texas? Does not seem right.

I do not like the way Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and the then, rubber-stamp, Republican Indiana Legislature, leased the Indiana Toll Road (Interstate 80 and 90 in Indiana) for 75 frellin years to a private company: ITR Concessions. Nor do I like the way Mitch Daniels is trying to cram a privatized Illiana toll road down the throats of residents either. To protest I am going to...

Boycott the Indiana Toll Road.


I mainly use the toll road to go East to South Bend or on trips to Ohio and the East. Looking at a map, I think I'll use U.S. Hwy 20 which runs roughly parallel to the toll road and appears to intersect the Ohio Turnpike with an interchange about 60 miles into Ohio at Toledo. Boycotting the Indiana Toll Road is about the only way left to show my displeasure with this 75 year privatization deal since it is over and done with, but I sure do not have to give them my money.


If anyone knows of a better route than US 20 that will join me up to the Ohio Turnpike please let me know. You are also welcome to join me in the boycott.

Update: Link to better version of the map.

I'm hearing a lot about Interstate 69 which Governor Daniels wants to build between Indianapolis and Evansville, Indiana. I hear that they want to make it part of the NAFTA highway plan.

So with global warming and dependancy on imported oil from unstable parts of the globe why are we only building highways for NAFTA trade? Seems very uneconomical to me.

Seems to me we should be building a land transportation corridor. This would mean condemning a right of way large enough for 1. a super highway, 2. a fast passenger (Interurban plus high speed Amtrak) rail line between Evansville and Indianapolis, and 3. a dedicated fast rail freight line. I guess we couldn't build it all at once but we could certainly condemn the right of way and design the highway to incorporate rail lines running either alongside or up the middle.

This should be done with any new long distance interstate highways. In fact a modified version should be done for shorter super highways around urban areas, plan to add a commuter rail line to the right of way.

The fact remains that driving trucks from Mexico to Canada and back is a huge waste of fuel. All that freight should run in containers on trains. But if you really have to build a superhighway you should plan for the future.

Source: No Illiana Toll Road Discussion Group

I finally got around to emailing all the Indiana House members from NW Indiana expressing the reasons why I oppose the Illiana toll road. I don't think it was too long for an email, but I felt they deserved some reasons rather than a short one line note saying I am against it but not saying why.

I guess I will email the Governor too, although frankly I doubt he is listening.