Westmoreland Appointment to Amtrak Board

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Most boards and commissions are dumping grounds for political hacks that want to stay in Washington when their elected political careers are over.

This seems to be such a case since this person was pretty much an empty suit in Congress.
 
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Bob Dylan said:
Most boards and commissions are dumping grounds for political hacks that want to stay in Washington when their elected political careers are over.

This seems to be such a case since this person was pretty much an empty suit in Congress.
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But he does get to vote on policies that apply to Amtrak on its Board. That is the main point. Whether the suit is empty or full is not the issue.
 
jis said:
Bob Dylan said:
Most boards and commissions are dumping grounds for political hacks that want to stay in Washington when their elected political careers are over.

This seems to be such a case since this person was pretty much an empty suit in Congress.
Click to expand...
But he does get to vote on policies that apply to Amtrak on its Board. That is the main point. Whether the suit is empty or full is not the issue.
Click to expand...
No empty suit likes to eliminate their own position.

At least not as long as a fat salary comes with the position.
 
cirdan said:
jis said:
Bob Dylan said:
Most boards and commissions are dumping grounds for political hacks that want to stay in Washington when their elected political careers are over.

This seems to be such a case since this person was pretty much an empty suit in Congress.
Click to expand...
But he does get to vote on policies that apply to Amtrak on its Board. That is the main point. Whether the suit is empty or full is not the issue.
Click to expand...
No empty suit likes to eliminate their own position.

At least not as long as a fat salary comes with the position.
Click to expand...
But removing food service and doing other downgrades do not necessarily remove the position. The whole idea is to keep it limping along without making any significant investment with good management. Any suit, empty or otherwise, is perfectly capable of fulfilling that requirement. Even a moron can fulfill that. ;)
 
President Donald J. Trump has named former Republican Congressman Leon Acton “Lynn” Westmoreland of Georgia—who as a member of Congress voted at least twice to defund Amtrak—to the Amtrak Board of Directors for a five-year term.
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Looks like he's trying to make Amtrak great again. Speaking of which, where did all the MAGA apologists go? Haven't heard so much as a peep in months.
 
Something about millionaires and golf? :ph34r:

Given the woes with Amtrak's website, I can't tell how many more folks of this ilk Trump can pack on the board. Hopefully the damage they cause is minimal.
 
The thing I'm wondering is: were his votes to defund Amtrak part of a larger bill? In other words, what often happens in Congress is that one has to vote on a multi-faceted bill as an "all or nothing" kind of deal. As in "if you want this part of the bill to pass, you must vote for this other part".

$0.02
 
Well, another piece of human garbage put in place to make trouble. But the great thing about a board is, he's going to be outvoted.
 
I am now going to say this publicly, Nate: dont draw fangs on those you oppose, nor halos on those you support. Westmoreland is a former politician and current political hack and a foe of Amtrak. I doubt, however, that he is a piece of garbage.

By stating so, especially publicly, you are only damaging your own credibility. You dont have to pretend to be Barney, or Mr. Rogers; there is nothing wrong with expressing your fears about problems associated with Westmorelands appointment. But your post is strictly a puerile ad hominem attack on the whole of a person I assume you know little about due to one specific (if important) issue you are at loggerheads with.

I think you have the enthusiasm and intelligence to be an important contributor to rail advocacy in this country, but you need to be careful with your public perception. If I were you, I would ask the mods to change the verbiage of your post; if they do so, they can feel free to remove my references to it.

The overall point, however is important to fully understAnd for everyone: our political allies are not angels, nor are our political foes devils. Which is why we should stick to the issues.
 
Green Maned Lion said:
I am now going to say this publicly, Nate: dont draw fangs on those you oppose, nor halos on those you support. Westmoreland is a former politician and current political hack and a foe of Amtrak. I doubt, however, that he is a piece of garbage.

By stating so, especially publicly, you are only damaging your own credibility. You dont have to pretend to be Barney, or Mr. Rogers; there is nothing wrong with expressing your fears about problems associated with Westmorelands appointment. But your post is strictly a puerile ad hominem attack on the whole of a person I assume you know little about due to one specific (if important) issue you are at loggerheads with.

I think you have the enthusiasm and intelligence to be an important contributor to rail advocacy in this country, but you need to be careful with your public perception. If I were you, I would ask the mods to change the verbiage of your post; if they do so, they can feel free to remove my references to it.

The overall point, however is important to fully understAnd for everyone: our political allies are not angels, nor are our political foes devils. Which is why we should stick to the issues.
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Well said.

If we looked hard enough, there is likely not a single pro-rail politician in Congress or the respective states with whom we are in complete agreement (with the inverse also true); There will always be some issue on which we may respectfully disagree.

Anymore, people seem to have trouble with respectful disagreement. If we were to actually sit down to dinner with some of the politicians and others often vilified on these boards, we'd often find them a pleasant individual, and perhaps both 'sides' have an enlightening conversation.
 
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A Voice:some of what you say is true about most politicians, but with the current political climate in this country, reasoning and compromise have become dirty words to the fanatical right!

And based on over 50 years of personal experience,some politicians are so slimy you want to take a shower after being around them! YMMV
 
This guy is probably Joe Boardman light. Just another bureaucrat looking to ride it out with a taxpayer salary to fill his pockets until retirement.

The bottom line is that congress puts together the budget and votes to fund Amtrak. The president can recommend but has little to do with that. If you consider that defunding Amtrak would be political suicide for most in congress, I say it will never happen. The small town and rural areas of the country depend on rail transportation as much as people do on the East and West Coast. IMO, Amtrak will be kept afloat for political purposes but not expanded.
 
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My concern is not that Congress will defund Amtrak, but that the Amtrak Board will misuse or make ineffective use of funds appropriated for Amtrak, and thus make it difficult to have Amtrak operate as an efficient organization. lord knows that is already a problem, and appointments like this do not improve matters.

Let me take this opportunity to remind you of the damage done to service by one errant CFO appointed by political manipulation of a spineless CEO by an errant Congressman in a leadership position in Congress in the recent past. Hopefully that illustration will clarify what my fears are. If ones plan is to hollow out and destroy Amtrak from within, one could not have dreamed up a better appointment.
 
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A Voice said:
There will always be some issue on which we may respectfully disagree. Anymore, people seem to have trouble with respectful disagreement. If we were to actually sit down to dinner with some of the politicians and others often vilified on these boards, we'd often find them a pleasant individual, and perhaps both 'sides' have an enlightening conversation.
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Our previous leader was respectful, gracious, and forever open to compromise. Even when it left him weakened and isolated as a result. Meanwhile our new leader is a childish and vulgar affront to the very concept of civil discourse and mature understanding. You have repeatedly lamented that a man who has done everything he can to inflame our emotions and burn every bridge he touches and turn each American against each other isn't granted enough respect by the same people he attacks and berates and belittles. Elections have consequences, and one of the repercussions of this last election is that those who mocked compassion and attacked basic civility no longer have any right to expect it from others.
 
Devil said:
Our previous leader was respectful, gracious, and forever open to compromise. Even when it left him weakened and isolated as a result. Meanwhile our new leader is a childish and vulgar affront to the very concept of civil discourse and mature understanding.
Click to expand...
I would certainly not disagree with you initial statement, but I hold firm to mine. It doesn't matter how much you dislike the president, his attitude, or the people who put him in office. He is not the devil, he is not God, he certainly isn't an angel. He is a man, with strengths, weaknesses, good points, and bad points. The people who put him in office are PEOPLE with families, hopes, dreams, strengths, and weaknesses. And there is no way for me to advocate for improvements if I don't understand them as people, understand why they believe the things they believe, and why a person who puts forth the persona our president has got enough votes to be put into office.
By not demonizing or deifying people, you can reach the higher plane of understanding them. When you understand them, you might have a chance of formulating the tools required to make them see things as you see them. Without doing that, you haven't got a snowballs chance in heck.
 
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Green Maned Lion said:
Devil said:
Our previous leader was respectful, gracious, and forever open to compromise. Even when it left him weakened and isolated as a result. Meanwhile our new leader is a childish and vulgar affront to the very concept of civil discourse and mature understanding.
Click to expand...
I would certainly not disagree with you initial statement, but I hold firm to mine. It doesn't matter how much you dislike the president, his attitude, or the people who put him in office. He is not the devil, he is not God, he certainly isn't an angel. He is a man, with strengths, weaknesses, good points, and bad points. The people who put him in office are PEOPLE with families, hopes, dreams, strengths, and weaknesses. And there is no way for me to advocate for improvements if I don't understand them as people, understand why they believe the things they believe, and why a person who puts forth the persona our president has got enough votes to be put into office. By not demonizing or deifying people, you can reach the higher plane of understanding them. When you understand them, you might have a chance of formulating the tools required to make them see things as you see them. Without doing that, you haven't got a snowballs chance in heck.
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I'm not in disagreement with your general position and I think you made a valid point. Maintaining decorum is something that should be encouraged and respected, with or without an eventual compromise or other payoff. Willingness to respectfully engage ideological adversaries with civility and maturity is a good thing. For example, even though I'm atheist myself I still share numerous common goals and shared motivations with Pope Francis. But there is a point at which I have to call a spade a spade and dispense with people who are willing to promote false equivalency. The last nine years didn't suddenly vanish simply because someone desires to replace an inconvenient fact with disingenuous nonsense.
 
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I am not atheistic, I am a happily and strongly practicing Jew. But I can certainly agree with you about Pope Francis. A good man, irrespective of anything else.
 
Westmorland may be put in a bind about Amtrak service to Atlanta his home turf. Unconfirmed GA DOT report that could not find said that traffic may double on I-75 north of Atlanta in 4 years. It already has 6 - 9 lanes each way from I-285 north to I-675 then 4 lanes further north.
 
Bob Dylan said:
A Voice:some of what you say is true about most politicians, but with the current political climate in this country, reasoning and compromise have become dirty words to the fanatical right!
Click to expand...
Why would you expect politicians of any persuasion to carry on honest, intelligent, and respectful discussions regarding the important issues of the day when professors at elite universities can't seem to do so. And very few of them I would call fanatical right.
 

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