Top National Security Priority Railroaded

[kmack]

Railroading Security: According to the Department of Homeland Security, the nation's top priority should be protecting America's railways from terrorist attacks. But when the District of Columbia recently ordered trains loaded with chlorine gas and other "ultra-hazardous" materials to steer at least two miles clear of the nation's capital, the department sided with the rail company CSX Transport, which went to federal court in April to block the D.C. measure. In its court filing, Homeland Security argues that the city's action poses a threat to "national security, public safety, public health and a strong economy." The former head of CSX, John Snow, now serves as treasury secretary in Bush's cabinet.

source

take away our right for national security (patriot act), make us wait 2 hours to board our planes for national security, and now the top priority for our national safety (railroads) is sidelined because of some company insiders. This shit speaks for itself.

 

[NotGonnaDoIt]

Yet Bush was re-elected, what a surprise.

 

[The Monkey]

4 threads in a row?

 

[Direwolf]

So lets get this straight: DC wants hazardous materials being transported on railroads to not come withing two miles of it? And a railroad company went to court over being ordered to do so? And won? And this is supposedly because of a "connection" between the Bush administration and the railroad company?

Exactly why isn't this possibly just a clear-cut legal case? If the stuff doesn't go through DC it's going to be traveling through elsewhere, and should something go wrong people will still die. I'd be pissed if the legislators where trying to protect themselves at the expense of someone else, but this looks like just the opposite. Whats the gigantic problem?

 

[kmack]

So lets get this straight: DC wants hazardous materials being transported on railroads to not come withing two miles of it? And a railroad company went to court over being ordered to do so? And won? And this is supposedly because of a "connection" between the Bush administration and the railroad company?

Exactly why isn't this possibly just a clear-cut legal case? If the stuff doesn't go through DC it's going to be traveling through elsewhere, and should something go wrong people will still die. I'd be pissed if the legislators where trying to protect themselves at the expense of someone else, but this looks like just the opposite. Whats the gigantic problem?

the problem is THE TOP PRIORITY for our national security is safe railroads. do you know about the no fly zone around dc??? about the patriot act?? well now we have a large amount of deadly agents travelling a few miles away from DC. my question is, in a world where we lose our rights for national security, why a train carrying chemical agents isnt being rerouted around DC. i dont think its as clear cut as we want.

 

[Direwolf]

To be fair, I think their concern over the railroads has come in the interest of advoiding another Madrid situation. Chemicals being transported are a threat, but I can understand a company bringing them to court on this issue since it would have a massive impact on their business.

That they won isn't all that surprising either. I'm not going to claim to know precisely how much traffic such as this is routed through DC, but I'm going to guess its a considerable amount. There are dozens of perfectly reasonable reasons that the court may have decided to side with the company, although I'm not well enough acquainted with the case to know the reasoning they cited.

 

[Maxi]

Hazardous chemicals are transported close to where you live by the ton every day, stuff that if it came into contact with other substanses or caught fire would give off VERY toxic fumes.

It's WAY more common than you think.

 

[Direwolf]

I remember that here there was an uproar for a month or two when someone pointed out that toxic waste was being transported on our highways nearby. It quickly died down and everyone involved looked really stupid when it came to light that these transport shipments have been going on regularly for years and years without event.

 

[Gray Fox]

So what planes had been flying years and years wthout them beeing hijacked and crashed in buildings, it doesn't mean it's not a serious threat. In fact terrorist are more likely to use different methods to strike every times so that it's hard to predict what they will do. Fact is that washington is highly populated and that such materials should not be carriied trough DC but outside where the population is less dense, and yet this administration allowes this.
But Kmack once again you make threads which are unnececairly, republicans know that Bush has made the world a lot unsafer, they know he is activly ruining the enviorment, that the first election Gore won, and that the second one Bush only won becasue of the diabold machines. They don't care, they don't mind beeing hypocrits, they just elected him because they like their guns, their SUV's, their low taxes for their employers, their gays discriminated. You should have reliazed it by now.

 

[Direwolf]

Yes! America loves him because they're stupid ignorant assholes!

...ooooorrr.....because most Americans have a different point of view than yours, that has nothing to do with SUVs, guns, or gays. Theres some fundamental difference between how they think about him, and it has a lot to do with the fact that most Americans don't believe he actually did screw with the elections, ruin the environment, or has some evil plan to destroy the earth.

As for the DC population argument, that means that all potentially harmful traffic should be routed outside of all population centers. Since these centers are also the hubs of the railroad network in the US, that would be absolutely impossible.

 

[Gray Fox]

NO I said that republicans are ignorant assholes, and that a good dialog is not possible with you cause , well your all insane, hypocritical insane bastards, it's quite amazing. It's more productive to talk to a wall then a republican, it's quite funny and scary at the same time.

And there are more then enough tracks outside big cities, and there are always other ways to transport.