I'm part of a neighborhood group and we're having a meeting tonight with several subjects, one is how the Southeast High Speed Rail corridor will affect our neighborhoods and how to get a win-win for everyone... which is possible and we're creating, one city council member at a time...
One of our group insists on dragging in his ideology, and is always citing right wing talking points to show us how we should be opposed to high speed rail completely. Which would negate any effects on our neighborhoods indeed, but most of us are very much in favor of the rail projects, but he tries anyway.
I have tried to get him to quit trying to 'broaden the scope' of what we're working on, but he insists I'm trying to stifle free discussion... [eyeroll]
I'm only telling him our neighborhood group isn't the forum for that discussion, he needs to take that argument elsewhere, there are plenty of avenues for that. (Even more now that the Popes just bought themselves the NC state house... now I have to keep myself from going off topic... bad highacidity, bad ;-)
Anyway, to the point of my request:
This person has sent around another attachment to convince us of his view... he scanned it instead of sending a link, which was bad enough, but after sharpening in Photoshop I was able to read it (heh).
Here is a link to the article in Newsweek: High-Speed Pork -Why fast trains are a waste of money.
I broke my own rule and replied with a one-paragraph refutation of the article, along with another request to stop and why I think he is 'derailing' (pun intended) the real work we are trying to accomplish. I hope he can take my second point to heart, but he only responded to my response to the article, mainly to tell me he's NOT alone (his caps) and I probably couldn't find facts to back up my opinion.
What he was referring to is my necessarily quick refutation was that the writer is known for his ideological spin which makes any so-called analysis suspect, that he's cherry-picking from outdated information, and making that mistake so many on the right-wing make: that things will always be as they are now... in other words that population and energy costs will not increase, which is a patently false assumption.
I have read over the years a lot here on dKos about rail issues, and being that my head is already spinning with lots of other facts, figures and an upcoming Thanksgiving visit with my family (wish me well, please), I wanted to ask the rail mavens here to read the article and post some quick figures to respond with if needed.
I'm not usually one to avoid doing my own research, so as a long-time member I ask for the indulgence of the community... just in case I have to confront this gentleman. All politics are indeed local...
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help me!
Update: Thank you al so much, these comments and links are an invaluable one-stop shop for info on this issue! For the record, our meeting went well, despite said gentleman printing up copies of the Newsweek article and placing one on each chair in the room! What a jackass... later I found out he is indeed a teabagger.
Gee, I'm shocked.