Cross-Harbor Freight Tunnel Awakes From Bloomberg-Induced Coma

Well, Jerry Nadler has to be beaming today. The NYT reports that moribund plans for a Cross-Harbor Freight Tunnel are seeing new signs of life:

Two years after turning its back on $100 million in federal funds for planning better ways to move freight, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has spun around and decided to accept the money.

This is good news. The CHFT would provide a much needed way to efficiently move freight east of the Hudson River. Currently, rail freight has to go hundreds of miles out of the way (north, and back south) or be barged across the harbor, which is inefficient. The unfortunate result for us is excessive truck traffic on our roads and bridges, which severely damages our infrastructure, creates traffic jams, and leads to health problems due to exhaust levels.

This is a plan whose time has come. The tunnel would run from an existing rail yard in Jersey City to an existying rail yard in Sunset Park.

And wikipedia has a good primer on the proposed tunnel here.

Image credit http://www.moveny.org/

For rail geeks, here's a pdf on the history of the CHT idea.

John Edwards Poll Numbers

This sentence from drunken hobo Joe Klein sparked a thought:

The fact that the two leading Democratic candidates, Obama and Clinton, are
essentially running moderate campaigns--and that John Edwards' populism hasn't exactly caught fire--is an indication that the Democratic base isn't nearly as partisan as the Post seems to think it is.

I've said before and I'll say again, I think John Edwards platform and rhetoric is dead on. Edwards, I fear, hasn't had that special something, charisma, magnetism, je ne sais quoi, whatever, to make it resonate.

But maybe it's just the timing. Watch the housing market. We are headed into a recession in this country, though most people have no idea it's coming. The economic situation is going to get steadily worse between now and the election . . . and as it does, Edwards' star might start to shine a little brighter.

And apropos of nothing, my prediction is, Hillary will not be the Democratic candidate in 2008.

No To Phone Company Amnesty

Glenn Greenwald explains, in a way I don't have the patience to, why Congress must not approve any kind of amnesty to the phone companies for selling us all out to the Bush Administration.

It's also a useful look at just how intertwined the telcos are with our spying and military institutions.

If it weren't for the ACLU and the EFF, we wouldn't know any of this. It's truly mindboggling; it can be depressing if you're willing to sit back and watch it happen while sitting on your hands. But it doesn't have to be:

Tell the House and Senate leaders, NO AMNESTY! Firedoglake has a list of important numbers to call and let the committee members hear it, loud and clear. Use your voice. Call the Senators. Call the Congress.

Drunken hobo Joe Klein has a perch at Time magazine; you have your voice and toll-free numbers to call. Make your voice louder than his.

UPDATE: BoingBoing also has a good post up on this:

The administration's attempt to stop the litigation based on the secrecy
argument failed before the U.S. District Court, and the administration's appeal
is pending before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Unnamed sources have
informed reporters that the government and the telecommunications carriers are
deeply concerned that the 9th Circuit will allow the case to proceed, and now an
army of telecom lobbyists and administration officials is trying to stop the
litigation by persuading Congress to grant full immunity to the carriers.
The Hepting case, along with companion cases pending in District Court,
represent the country's best hope to test the administration's extreme view of
executive power in the crucible of judicial scrutiny, and to allow the courts to
determine whether we are truly a nation governed by law or by people.
It is
imperative that our society gets answers to crucial questions raised by the
warrantless surveillance program on the separation of powers and the scope of
executive authority. The courts must not be pulled from the fight, whether by
the state secret privilege or immunity legislation. It would be a travesty to
deny the opportunity for justice to those whose privacy has perished under a
presidential program, and to prevent the courts from determining whether the
Constitution supports the president's claim of unbridled executive power.

Court Street Reconstruction

Via Brownstoner,

CB6 voted to make the reconstruction of Court Street the board’s number one priority in their fiscal year ’09 capital budget requests for the second year in a row . . . . The project covers things like repairing the sidewalks and curbs from Atlantic to Hamilton avenues, and it’s supposed to mirror the recent reconstruction of Smith Street, which is partially credited with turning Smith into the retail powerhouse it is today.

No plans drawn up yet. It will be interesting to see what this looks like. Certainly some sidewalk improvements would be a nice addition to the neighborhood. I'm not sure this would be my top priority, but it could be a very nice touch.

Qwest/Nacchio: More DOJ Politicization

There are a few mind-boggling things about this week's news on Joseph Nacchio (former CEO of Qwest, prosecuted for insider trading).

First, this appears to have been another case of political prosecution by Bushco (Scott Horton at Harper's has lately been fantastic tying together these stories).

Second, and more important: this case shows that the Bush administration was already putting it's spying apparatus into place in February 2001 . . . long before "9/11 changed everything." They've been building their spying network since the beginning, and September 11th was just a handy excuse for what they were doing.

And here I thought I'd lost my capacity to be surprised.

Karl Rove's Politicization of the DOJ, and a Miscarriage of Justice in Alabama

Did Karl Rove push the politically motivated prosecution of Alabama Democrat Don Siegelman?

That's what a Republican lawyer has stated in a sworn affidavit. Keep an eye on this story, it's been simmering for a while now, and about to boil over into a national scandal.

Go back and read Scott Horton's (Harper's) earlier posts on the Siegelman case to get a handle on the depth of the corruption at DOJ and in the Alabama GOP. It truly is stomach churning to see that this sort of thing is so pervasive. Also check out this post at The Next Hurrah (good reading, as always, from emptywheel)

Ironically, Mrs. Gary is currently in Montgomery, Alabama for work. And for the past couple of days, it keeps coming up; yesterday it was the bible-thumping preacher who accidentally killed himself during a kinky . . . well, you wouldn't believe me if I told you, so here's the autopsy report. And today, another bombshell in the Siegelman case.

Roger Cohen On The Couch

Josh Marshall takes the unbelievably self-important Roger Cohen down a peg.