The oil industry in Houston is laying off. It has been done very quietly and stealthily so far. Just you wait. 2009 is going to suck.

One would suppose with a Socialist president and Congress in the iron grip of Democrats, they will likely ban private ownership of passenger cars (only Party Members can have them), and citizens will be herded like sheeple onto trams to take them to their federally-assigned jobs.

Cuba got "CHANGE" in 1959.

Nor will anyone protest when told that "the chocolate ration was to be reduced from thirty grammes to twenty at the end of the present week."

Royko you must be either reality challenged or  maybe just joking. As far as socialists go Mr. McCain has lived off the government his entire 72 years, except for his POW time. He was born in a government hospital, his father and grandfather were admirals in the navy, he attended the Naval Academy courtesy of us taxpayers, he draws a navy pension, he's had government healthcare his entire life, he has all kind of bennies as a senator and now he has a $100 million sugar momma. How can you get more socialist than that? I have no problem with that except that he doesn't want anyone else  to get what he's gotten.

Sorry Royko, the US Guvmint has effectively Nationalized the banking system. Or have you been asleep? The Republicans at the Federal level have voluntarly drunk out of the cyanide-laced Kool-Aid. They have themselves become "Nosferatu".

So unless you're supporting Ron Paul for President, you really have no basis for differentiating between Republicans and Democrats on the basis of Socialism.

This "socialist" charge just isn't sticking. It's hitting the wall, and sliding down. Just like that Ayers thing, or that Secret Muslim thing, or that Obama was not really born in the USA thing, or the... shall I go on.

Shut up already!

The Republicans, to an even greater extent than the Democrats, have socialized losses and privatized profits.  That's why there's a libertarian party, otherwise known as paleo-conservatives.  Of course, most libertarians are completely confused about transportation policy, thinking that automobile-based transportation is "private" and public transit is "socialist."

The elephant in the bedroom is the national security state.  The US has been at war with somebody or another since 1947.  As long as the central government continues this wasteful insanity, living standards will decline.  There doesn't seem to be any way to stop this armaments juggernaut based on the two-party system in place now.  But all empires fail sooner or later from their own entropy, and whether they are nominally democracies or dictatorships, socialist or capitalist, doesn't make a bit of difference.  

Besides other pressing issues like health care, what is needed is an Interstate-II program, a massive investment in intercity rail and transit systems.  That would be the sane thing to do, creating a couple of million useful jobs building something that is really needed.

But I doubt if it will happen.  There are too many low-information ideologues like Royko.  The average USA person is so poorly informed that my bet is on the norm for all colonialist and tax-farming endeavors: entropy, thermodynamic death and collapse.  People often don't get what they want, but they usually get what they deserve.  

They must be joking! This transportation project is just going to continue to consume taxes at an even faster rate than they already have been.

APTA who lobbies on behalf of RTD and all the other transprotation projects are in denial that light rail is 19th century technology in 2008.Remember we had trollys all over the country at the turn of the century and we tore all the tracks up!

With renewable energy in the wings ,these light rail will be obsolete.

"light rail is 19th century technology"

Not to break your bubble, but so is the internal combustion engine.  Ever hear of a guy named Daimler?  Workable electric traction motors and internal combustion engines were developed at the same time.

Low.Information.USA.People.

Actually, NYC first welcomes cars to the city to reduce a pollution problem.  We have seen a avian type which produces a lot of manure at some of the rail stations.  Now think about horses......

....been at war with somebosy from 1947?  Is that not the start date of the never finished Gulf Freeway?

don,

You insult the men and women in uniform by that comment.  When he risked his life each time he was launched from the carrier deck, for your freedom to make such an assinine comment, it is not "living off the government."

Mr. Harrington,

I don't know where to begin to respond to your comment, and being out of town right now, I do not have time.

We will see if the Democrats rush to restore the institutions to the private sector, or will they just make the banks part of the ever-expanding bureaucracy.

Royko, as I said I have no problem with Mr. McCain except that he doesn't think anyone else should have the same priviliges as he has had. By the way, I also served 6 years in the military just like a lot of other men and women.

don,

I do not agree with McCain, and he has done more harm than good claiming to be a "conservative" when he is not.