And the terrorists? Grover Norquist and the rest of the greedy bastards who decided to keep hacking away at government subsidies for just about everything that benefits ordinary people, deciding it was high time they crowded out the weak and powerless runts of the litter in favor of those giant corporations who want exclusive access to the government teat.

They don’t use bombs or planes. They use Blackberries and ballpoint pens. (Oh, and congressmen.)

Their attacks on government have terrorized us all, in ways big….

And small. Like this morning, when a power outage shut down train service all along the Northeast corridor.

My train coasted, just barely, into 30th Street Station, where we were told to get off and take the subway or bus. As masses of people tried to push their way through the exits, I announced, “Keep voting Republican and you’ll get a lot more of this.”

“You’re preaching to the converted, honey,” a lady behind me said. “But we still have two more years.”

“Six more months,” I said, loud enough for everyone to hear. (I do love a captive audience.) “If we take back Congress, he can’t do a damned thing.”

“That’s true,” she said. “But what does he have to do with this?”

“He keeps cutting the Amtrak subsidies and they don’t have enough money to maintain the lines,” I said. “And yet, he says we need to cut our dependence on foreign oil.

“I really wonder what it takes to get people to connect the dots between the Republicans and things like this.”

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

With terrorist and natural disaster threats, and gas prices at $3 a gallon, the United States needs an affordable, reliable rail system more than ever. Yet as Amtrak this month celebrates its 35th birthday, it faces a dangerously unpredictable fate.

The Bush administration tried to zero out Amtrak funding in 2005, and Congress had to fight to restore $1.3 billion. Last fall, the Amtrak board fired railroad president David Gunn, despite his widely admired efficiencies and managerial reforms.

This year’s dollar-and-cents battle looks less ugly, but Amtrak still faces a long haul.

President Bush claims that he wants to wean the country from its oil addiction. So why is he campaigning to dismantle this key alternative to highway travel? Bush proposes downsizing Amtrak, devolving funding to the states, or breaking it up. Those strategies won’t help; they’ll do harm.

It’s true that, despite efforts to improve Amtrak’s structure and funding, “we have a system that limps along, never in a state of good repair, awash in debt, and perpetually on the edge of collapse,” as former Transportation Department Inspector General Kenneth M. Mead told Congress last September.

Amtrak has a debt of more than $3.5 billion, annual operating losses topping $550 million, and antiquated work rules. But it cannot overcome those problems as long as it’s stuck in a yearly tug-of-war between fiscal conservatives with the unrealistic expectation of “self-sufficiency” and rail enthusiasts seeking European-style subsidized trains.
The ideal lies somewhere in the middle - stable, adequate aid coupled with fiscal accountability.

Those demanding that Amtrak run by market principles alone blithely ignore billions in annual government highway and airport assistance. Amtrak support is a wise transportation “investment” akin to air traffic controller contracts, bridge repair money and airport expansion or highway bonds.

Just so you realize: They plan to take everything away. Things you haven’t even thought of yet, they’re plotting to ruin. So don’t sit on your ass for this mid-term election and stop making excuses. Give money, volunteer, do something.