Commentary on the Central Platform in U.S. Politics

The Central Platform exists as much as the Left and Right Platforms exist. However, Centrists are never allowed to articulate their views in the national media. Generally, the media only give the views of Democratic and Republican strategist and let them tell the views of the center as they perceive them to be.

The Democrats and Republicans can never articulate the Central Platform because they do not understand it. They fear it, so they make petty comments like “The center does not have a clear identity” or “The center swings from left to right depending on circumstance” or “The center is un-informed”.

The truth is far from that simple. The center is more complex and pragmatic and that is the reason the right and left cannot wrap their little ideological views around it. The center is dynamic and alive and the most stable foundation to build a political movement on top of.

Both the left and right fear the coming of the “Centrist” because they know that the center has always been the key to political victory. 




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Petition for High Speed Rail

High speed rail is a proven method of transportation. Please sign this petition to help put High Speed Trains on track for America. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/gothicgreenhighspeed/


Please help spread the word. After signing the petition, please post this article to Facebook and tweet it on Twitter. 


Here's more information about high speed rail in case you want to be informed instead of just guessing about whether or not it's a good idea. According to Wikipedia, High-speed rail has the advantage over automobiles in that it can accommodate more passengers at speeds far faster than those allowed by car in most countries. The lower limit for HSR (200 km/h, 125 mph) is substantially faster than the highest road speed limit in most countries. Ignoring the few countries without a general speed limit, the speed limit is rarely higher than 130 km/h (80 mph). For journeys that connect city centre to city centre, HSR's advantage is increased due to the lower speed limits (and frequent traffic jams) within most urban areas. Generally, the longer the journey, the better the time advantage of rail over road if going to the same destination.

Moreover, railroad tracks permit a far higher throughput of passengers per hour than a road the same width. A high speed rail needs just a double track railway, one track for each direction. A typical capacity is 15 trains per hour and 800 passengers per train (as for the Eurostar sets), which implies a capacity of 12,000 passengers per hour in each direction. By way of contrast, theHighway Capacity Manual gives a maximum capacity for a single lane of highway of 2,250 passenger cars per hour (excluding trucks or RVs). Assuming an average vehicle occupancy of 1.57 people,[48] a standard twin track railway has a typical capacity 13% greater than a 6-lane highway (3 lanes each way), while requiring only 40% of the land (1.0/3.0 versus 2.5/7.5 hectares per kilometer of direct/indirect land consumption). This means that typical passenger rail carries 2.83 times as many passengers per hour per meter (width) as a road. Some passenger rail systems, such as the Tokaido Shinkansen line in Japan, have much higher ratios (with as many as 20,000 passengers per hour per direction). Congested roadways tend to be commuter – these carry fewer than 1.57 persons per vehicle (Washington State Department of Transportation, for instance, uses 1.2 persons per vehicle) during commute times. Congestion also causes the maximum throughput of a lane to decrease. (Source: Wikipedia)

Other resources include:

Midwest U.S. http://elpc.org/category/smart-transportation?gclid=CIq2z860uKcCFa1d7AodtzloAQ
California http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/

U.S. High Speed Rail Association http://www.ushsr.com/
High Speed Rail Plan Map http://www.ushsr.com/hsrnetwork.html
Federal Railroad Administration http://www.fra.dot.gov/rpd/passenger/31.shtml
Siemens High Speed Rail http://www.usa.siemens.com/entry/en/highspeedrail.htm?stc=usccc021828
Southeast High Speed Rail http://www.sehsr.org/
Shanghai Maglev Official Website http://www.smtdc.com/en/
The Pennsylvania Project High Speed Maglev http://www.maglevpa.com/
The Baltimore-Washington Maglev Project http://www.bwmaglev.com/
Transrapid-USA http://www.transrapid-usa.com/main.asp
The Monorail Society http://www.monorails.org/

This petition for a Comprehensive High Speed Rail Network is sponsored by:

The Sustainable Transportation Project

High Speed Rail: A Boondoggle?

Both Governor Rick Scott and Former Governor Jeb Bush called the plan for a high speed rail a boondoggle, but do you really know what a boondoggle is, other than a funny sounding word?

According to Webster’s Dictionary, a boondoggle means a project funded by the federal government out of political favoritism that is of no real value to the community or nation.

One might call tax cuts for the wealthy or tax breaks for the big oil companies a boondoggle. Is the plan for a high speed rail a boondoggle?

In 2000 Florida voters did not think so. In fact they voted by majority in favor of the high speed rail, however, Jeb Bush led an attack against high speed rail so that it was repealed in 2004. Here are some facts that you may not know about the 2004 repeal campaign. First, it was based on misinformation. The ballot itself revealed the fact of misinformation. It only tells the voter about the short term economic impact of the rail. It never fairly stated the ecological benefits, the long term economic benefits, nor the cost of subsidized highways that would need to be expanded, widened, and maintained as an alternative to the high speed rail. In other words, a direct comparison of the two systems was never put on the ballot. The ballot was slanted to give voters a false impression about high speed rail.

Secondly, Universal Studios funded a campaign through the infamous ACORN to go out and canvass lower income neighborhoods and spread the misinformation that high speed rail would negatively impact them. In fact, Universal opposed the project because the planned line would have connected to Disney World before heading to Tampa. After that project was killed, Universal supported a high speed rail that would connect to Universal, but their original lack of foresight stalled high speed rail and other commuter rail projects which would have benefited Central Florida and other parts of Florida.

Despite the fact that Jeb Bush got in bed with Universal Studios and ACORN to kill high speed rail, approximately 40% of voters still showed support of high speed rail. The remaining voters that voted to repeal high speed rail did so for one of two reasons:
1) They were ideologically opposed to it regardless of its benefits.
2) They were duped by the Republicans, Universal, and ACORN.

It seems funny now that a far left wing group like ACORN would side with Jeb Bush, but the fact of the matter is they did it for money.

Any intelligent and reasonable person can see calling the high speed rail a boondoggle is just plain nonsense. High speed rail is a viable project that will provide transportation to commuters who do not like to drive. Tourists will use the rail just like they use the much slower buses and Amtrak now.

Go ahead Rick Scott and try to kill high speed rail. You will only be hurting Florida, the state you were elected to govern for the good of the people. History will prove you made the wrong decision, and that's a fact.