When to Question "The Decider"

Obama is way smarter than me. He, his cabinet, and his team of advisors face issues far more grave than I will ever have to deal with. Watching the news about the ongoing "recession", the developing presence of the Taliban in Pakistan, among many other world crises, I don't know how the man does it. But more personally, I have a hard time discerning when he has made a good or bad decision right in the here in now. The world of finance is so far over my head. Believe me, I'm a sucker for all these sales and promotions. So when the government says we need to hand more money to the banks, then I say fine, because I don't have another solution. Just like when Bush said we needed to invade Iraq because we would find WMD's. Admittedly, I said OK, let's go. But we didn't find anything, and it was most likely a hunt for oil. And now we've realized in retrospect what a poor decision that was. Not to say that Obama is currently making poor decisions. I think only time will tell for our current President- he has so many curveballs thrown at him, he can only do what is humanly possible. So, without possessing expert knowledge about Wall Street, foreign relations, healthcare, world history, oil, the economy (both housing and business), religions, etc. how can we keep up? How can we not blindly follow the President's decisions? And do we trust our media to keep us not just updated, but explain the context behind the situations at hand? I read several online news sources a day (granted, most of the time only the front page, because I just can't handle any more Bailout or Swine Flu talk), including one and sometimes two foreign papers to find the most broad perspective. But, I still never seem to get the "how things work" answers I need most of the time. And that's probably due to the fact that there is a limited amount of space- both in airtime on tv/radio and in columns in print- and you're to be expected to already know these things. So, if you don't, where do you find out the basics? Wikipedia? Please. If you have all, or at least some, of the answers, please leave a comment!

PS. In the title I mention "The Decider" which is from HBO's You're Welcome, America with Will Ferrell. Ferrell, in character as "Dubbya", jokes that he became "The Decider" after 9-11 happened. If you haven't seen it, check it out- pretty funny (wait until the kids are in bed; bad language). 

Transportation Policy Under Obama

I was pleased to hear that Obama is creating an office of Urban Policy, dedicated to strengthening our cities. Plans are in the works on developing public transit including rail, but there is also attention paid to roads and bridges, which has stirred up criticism for many reasons. Critics argue why we would want to spend any more money on the road system when there are so many negative consequences such as continued pollution from vehicles and encouraging more people to spend time stuck in traffic. The City of Boston spent billions of dollars on the Big Dig in attempts to relieve traffic, but studies have shown it hasn't actually helped in the big way people had hoped to validate taxpayers money spent on the project.

Public transportation is definitely the direction we are headed. And here in Dallas, DART is expanding the rail system in all directions. But, it's important that we don't ignore the highway system that we have already spent so much money, time and manpower to develop. Cars and other vehicles will still be a major means of transportation and shipping even if we do have an extensive rail system. We have done extensive research on alternative fuels that will allow the continued use of cars and other vehicles. Buses are another important means of public transportation. On my recent visit to San Francisco I was pleasantly surprised to see electric/hybrid buses connected to overhead wires! These buses reduce emissions and can connect people to remote parts of the city, which the subway system there does not. Also, the rail system will take years to complete. California is beginning work on it's high-speed rail system that will connect LA and San Francisco, but projected completion date is not until 2030! Can we afford to ignore our current means of transportation and allow our roads and bridges to crumble while we wait for a national rail system that connects us to every destination? We shouldn't forget the horrible bridge collapse that happened in Minnesota two years ago. There are dozens more bridges that could fail in the future if we discontinue or reduce maintenance on them.

I know it seems counter-productive to spend any more time and money on roads, bridges and highways, but we all need to be patient. The planning and construction of rail is in progress, but it will, like most urban policy issues, take time.