Cherry picking the argument - volcanoes and high speed rail.

[pinto]

The Republicans have chosen to cherry pick aspects of the Democrat's (and it definitely is ours) Economic Recovery Act for their media talking points. Old tricks of theirs when catapulting the propaganda. And the MSM often lets them get away with it.

One is to pull one piece of a broad funding bill for ridicule of the whole. The other is to push the idea that funding is *already* allocated to a specific project.

The volcano monitoring funding is one piece of monies going to the USDGS, meant to rebuild existing, yet aging, technological infrastructure. It's not a *new thing*, Gov. Jindall.

High speed rail funds are being allocated as part of the larger transportation aspects of the bill. A mag-lev train from LA to Vegas is *not a given*, Republican talking heads. Projects will go out to bid and there are more than one in the planning stages.

While there are arguments to be made, pro and con, about a lot of this huge recovery bill, misdirection and misinformation benefits none of us. Cherry picking the talking points may work well on a sound bite but it's not a policy. And it's not part of a solution.

President Obama apparently feels we're all smart enough to handle this like adults. The right wing ought to give it a try.

[Why Syzygy]

1. Monitoring volcanoes anything like repairing levees? nt