One of my favorite "local" stories from here in California is the political elite's fascination with 18th century technology and their strange impulse to impose it on the people when the free market has already ruled decisively against it.

However seemingly mysterious their motivations, this little article lays bare the true reason the politicians here in the formerly golden state have decided to waste literally billions of the dollars of hard working Californians.  As always, it's all about the political payoff.

From the article:

   "California’s high-speed rail project would be a bad idea in the best of times, but the state is handling it so poorly it almost seems like it’s trying to fail. The LA Times reports that Tutor Perini Corp. beat out five companies to build the train’s first 29 miles. Tutor Perini submitted the lowest bid, but it ranked lowest on design, safety and engineering and has the least amount of bullet-train experience (none). It’s also already in a lawsuit over construction issues with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Agency.

Buried deep into the LA Times report is a clue as to why this lowly contractor won the day over Spanish firms that have actually built bullet trains before:

Before Tutor Perini was selected some financial analysts predicted that it would win the competition only because of its chief executive’s close ties to organized labor, one of the project’s biggest supporters.

Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA), the chairman of the U.S. House subcommittee on rail, reckons that the union-tied company’s low bid shouldn’t be trusted, and that it will push up costs with “wild change orders and wild price increases” to “make money on the back end” as the project rolls forward."

You see, it's not about trains, or bullets, or efficient transportation, or anything other than a tribe of corrupt political elites attempting as hard as they can to buy the assistance and votes of enough powerful people to be re elected.  They don't care a whit if there ever really is a bullet train, nor whether it ever makes any money.  There are millions of idiot taxpayers to fleece if money is needed.  It's all about the vote buying.  

If there was ever a more "in your face" plan to screw the taxpayer for raw political advantage, I don't know that I've ever seen it here. 

If there was ever a more compelling reason to tar and feather the entire political elite here in California, and then use the power of the state to confiscate all their personal wealth to make a least the smallest dent in the financial chaos they have created, I haven't yet seen it.

After all, they are the ones who are using the power of the state to confiscate all of our hard earned wealth, only to waste it, so turn about is fair play, correct?