Free Republic

Just how much clout does the gun lobby have on Capitol Hill? This week may prove to be a crucial test: A House-Senate conference committee is about to take up a massive transportation-funding bill that is pitting advocates of gun rights against security-minded members worried about the threat of terrorist attacks on Amtrak trains. Tucked into the measure is a controversial National Rifle Association-backed amendment that would cut off $1.5 billion in subsidies to Amtrak unless the federally backed national passenger-train company reverses its post-9/11 security policies and permits train passengers to travel with handguns and other firearms as part...

A push in Congress for broader gun rights is threatening to derail Amtrak and stall a transportation spending bill. Gun-rights advocates in Congress are pressing appropriators to keep a provision that would let Amtrak passengers check in handguns with their baggage. The provision, which calls for withholding $1.5 billion in Amtrak funding if the policy isn't implemented before April, was inserted into the $68.8 billion Senate transportation and housing and urban development spending bill as an amendment. All 40 Republicans, 27 Democrats and one independent voted for the amendment, sponsored by Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).Amtrak and its defenders in Congress...

“Any honest reading of history suggests that the federal government has quite an impressive record of rescuing institutions considered too big to fail,” suggests an article in the March/April 2009 issue of Washington Monthly. The first two examples cited by author Phillip Longman are Lockheed and Chrysler, which both received emergency loans from the government in 1971 and 1980, respectively. Both companies paid back their loans, with interest, and the government made no attempt to take a controlling interest in the institutions. In one of the largest industrial bailouts in recent history, however, the federal government took over the failing...

Amtrak is raising serious objections to a proposal that would allow passengers to stow unloaded guns in their checked baggage, saying the train operator cannot screen passengers' bags the same way airlines do. The Senate passed a measure last month that would allow passengers to declare and check a weapon on the trains, something airline passengers can do now, provided the weapon is unloaded and in a hard and locked case. But Amtrak and some House members are against the idea. The House did not include the provision in their version of the bill approved by the Senate. "That could...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, has introduced legislation with colleagues to allow the transportation of legal firearms on Amtrak trains. The Amtrak Secure Transportation of Firearms Act of 2009 is the companion measure to legislation introduced in the Senate by Senator Wicker. "Amtrak is a great way for Montanans to get around the country, but folks shouldn’t have to forfeit their Second Amendment rights when they climb aboard," said Rehberg, a member of the House Appropriations Committee and a recipient of the Golden Spike Award. "Current restrictions prevent Montanans who wish to legally transport firearms from enjoying the...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   Usual Suspects Attack Wicker Amendment   Friday, September 25, 2009   Last week, we reported on the Wicker amendment—a NRA-backed amendment to H.R. 3288 (the FY 2010 Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development appropriations bill) that would reform policies regarding the transportation of firearms on Amtrak trains.  The measure was adopted by the Senate on Wednesday, September 16, by a vote of 68-30, and would allow law-abiding Amtrak passengers the ability to securely transport firearms in their checked baggage while traveling by Amtrak train. Currently, passengers who choose to travel by passenger...

The jihadi threat to rail security By Michelle Malkin  •  September 22, 2009 10:15 AM The arrest of terror suspect Najibullah Zazi has re-focused Obama’s homeland security officials on the ongoing jihadi threat to rail security. Mass transit systems across the country are on renewed alert: A 24-year-old Afghan man at the center of an unfolding FBI investigation into a possible U.S. terrorism cell was ordered held without bond in Colorado Monday as authorities raced to learn more about an alleged plot using hydrogen peroxide explosives and who else might have been helping to carry it out.Meanwhile, authorities in Washington and elsewhere...

With all the howling this week over at the New York Times Editorial Board about Senate passage of the Wicker Amendment, its refreshing to learn that the Board of Directors of the Virginia Rail Express voted yesterday to let train riders carry loaded guns. While the Wicker Amendment passed by the Senate this week requires AMTRAK to let train riders check their unloaded guns in cases onto trains as is done by the airlines, the VRE Board passed a resolution just two days later (September 18, 2009) to let riders carry loaded guns. . . . However, as is the...

The Senate voted on Wednesday to allow Amtrak passengers to carry unloaded and locked handguns in checked baggage, even though Amtrak officials had raised concerns that the proposal could present “numerous challenges.” The provision, which was introduced by Senator Roger Wicker, Republican, as an amendment to a housing and transportation spending bill, is the latest in a string of Senate votes aimed at expanding gun rights. It passed 68-30, with a group of 27 Democrats and one independent, mostly from states where gun rights are widely supported, joining all 40 Republicans in voting for the measure. Under the Wicker amendment,...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- A measure to put Amtrak passengers on the same footing as airline passengers, allowing guns in checked-through baggage, was passed by the U.S. Senate Wednesday. The legislation, part of the transportation and housing appropriations bill, was approved 68-30. It would deny federal subsidies to Amtrak if it doesn't change its rules. The House version does not include the provision. Domestic airlines allow licensed gun owners to transport their weapons in their checked-through baggage. One senator said the gun measure "is going to put a severe burden" on Amtrak, CNN reported. But the measure's sponsor, Sen....

I’ve just been on Amtrak’s website to see how much it would cost for a single day, round trip adult ticket from Metro Park, NJ (MET) to Union Station (WAS) on September 12, 2009. When I do this, the total cost is $224.00. Note that this is for the 121 Train departing at 6:20 AM and the 182 Train leaving DC at 7:20 PM. When I enter the same itinerary for one week later, September 19, 2009 and select the same trains the total round trip cost is $98.00. The dramatic price difference confuses me and I can’t explain why...

Here is shocking video from a camera on the front of an Amtrak train in Michigan that collided with a car carrying five teenagers on July 9. The car reportedly went around warning barriers and drove right into the path of the train. All five passengers were killed. The video shows the collision. You can see the car dart right into the path of the train, and then you can hear the train's brakes stopping the train. You cannot see the car stuck to the front of the train in the video, but at the 2:25 mark of the video,...

First it was I.G. Walpin who was investigating BO 's supporter on the misused of Americorp funds. Now it is I.G. Weiderhold for investigating Amtrak’s activities. The Inspector General Act, amended last year and CO-SPONSORED by Barack Obama to: require the President to notify Congress in writing within 30 days the reasons for removing an Inspector General from office. Did Obama knowingly break the law on this one or did TOTUS forget to tell him he couldn't do it.

Link provided below. USA Today cannot be posted on FR.

Amtrak has wasted little time using its $1.3 billion slice of the federal stimulus package, unveiling the first of 81 passenger cars to be restored with the help of economic recovery funds. Passenger car no. 25103, damaged a few years ago in a yard collision but now completely refurbished - complete with that "new car" interior smell - was shown off Monday at Amtrak's maintenance facility in Bear. More than 100 hard-hatted workers joined Amtrak president and CEO Joseph Boardman in celebrating completion of its restoration. The car, refitted at a cost of about $687,000, will rejoin the Amtrak fleet...

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. (KABC) -- Southern California may be known for its sunny skies, but the city of Laguna Niguel's reputation for the past three decades has revolved around the moon. Actually thousands of moons. Each year a crush of people line up along the railroad tracks in the city and bare their backsides to every Amtrak train that passes by. But now the sun may be setting on this mooning tradition. "Hopefully it will be a much smaller event this year," said Mayor Robert Ming, Laguna Niguel. Mayor Ming says last year the crowd numbered 10,000, a problem when...

(07-10) 17:00 PDT OAKLAND -- A man who lay down on the tracks in front of an Amtrak train in Oakland had limbs severed but was taken from the scene alive this afternoon, authorities said. Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham said the eastbound Capitol Corridor train No. 536 was leaving Jack London Square when it struck the man at Webster Street at 3:37 p.m. The man lost some limbs and was hospitalized in critical condition, police said. Further details were not available, and the man's name has not been released.

The biggest event of the year in Laguna Niguel, Calif., is coming up on Saturday, but Mayor Robert Ming has a message for those planning to attend: Keep your pants on. For 30 years, the town has played host to an affair dubbed "Moon Over Amtrak." Crowds line Camino Capistrano, a road that runs along the railroad tracks, and pass the day dropping their trousers every time a train rolls by...

CANTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (July 9) - An Amtrak passenger train carrying about 170 people struck a car that had skirted a gate at a road crossing near Detroit on Thursday, killing all five people in the sedan, authorities said. The crossing has a gate and flashing lights that apparently were working when the car approached, said Sgt. Mark Gajeski, a police spokesman. Based on witness accounts, "it looks like they probably did go around the arm. They went around the gate," Gajeski said.

Watchdogs are an endangered species in the Age of Obama. The latest government ombudsman to get the muzzle: Amtrak Inspector General Fred Weiderhold. The longtime veteran employee was abruptly "retired" this month -- just as the government-subsidized rail service faces mounting complaints about its meddling in financial audits and probes. Question the timing? Hell, yes. On June 18, Weiderhold met with Amtrak officials to discuss the results of an independent report by the Washington, D.C., law firm Willkie, Farr and Gallagher. The 94-page report has been made publicly available through the office of whistleblower advocate Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. It...

WATCHDOGS are an en dangered species in the Obama Age. The latest government ombudsman to get the muzzle: Amtrak Inspector General Fred Weiderhold. The veteran employee was abruptly "retired" this month -- just as the government-subsidized rail service faces mounting complaints about its meddling in financial audits and probes. Question the timing? Hell, yes. On June 18, Weiderhold met with Amtrak officials to discuss the results of an independent report by the Washington law firm Willkie, Farr and Gallagher. The 94-page report has been made publicly available through the office of whistleblower-advocate Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). It concluded that the...

Nobody would fault you if you haven't really heard much about this currently brewing catastrophe, what with ABC whoring itself to the President to slang the rocks of nationalized healthcare to the American public in prime time, or with the greatest tax increase in the history of all the universe ready to be sprung upon us by congressional democrats, but nevertheless IG-Gate is now growing into a swine flu-like pandemic.

Last week, Sen. Charles Grassley raised questions about the sudden “retirement” of Amtrak IG Fred Weiderhold: As a senior member of the United States Senate and as the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Finance (Committee), it is my duty under the Constitution to ensure that Inspectors General, which were created by Congress, are permitted to operate without political pressure or interference from their respective agencies. Inspectors General were designed for the express purpose of combating waste, fraud, and abuse and to be independent watchdogs ensuring that federal agencies were held accountable for their actions. I understand that Inspector...

WASHINGTON - The inspector general of Amtrak unexpectedly resigned Thursday night, becoming the third such federal official to leave prematurely since the Obama administration took office and the latest in a string of potentially controversial moves involving government watchdogs. Discuss COMMENTS (6) Fred E. Weiderhold, a 35-year veteran of the agency who was responsible for rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, is the most high-profile change among the group of senior government officials who have responsibility to conduct independent investigations of federal agencies and institutions. “As Amtrak’s first and only Inspector General, Fred has made important contributions in helping the...

In a video post dated June 2, 2009, Breitbart TV reporter Scott Baker reveals that – shocker – Whoopi Goldberg was lying about Glenn Beck’s lying. What’s more, Barbara Walters didn’t check her facts before the Baxter-esque duo ambushed Beck on his May 20 appearance on ABC’s “The View.” The video – embedded at right – is quite long, but I’ve broken down below the information offered in it. First up in Baker’s video is a recap of what was known before his investigation. Beck rode the Amtrak Acela from Connecticut to Washington D.C., and along the way, encountered Walters...

Some analysts say the federal government's effort to prop up the nation's largest auto manufacturer is eerily similar to a 40-year effort to revive the nation's ailing railroad system. Billions of taxpayer dollars later, Amtrak still needs the government to survive -- and critics say General Motors appears to be headed down the same track.

WASHINGTON, May 04, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- States for Passenger Rail Coalition Chairman Frank Busalacchi today released remarks applauding the celebration of National Train Day. The event will be celebrated here and in other cities across the country May 9. "National Train Day is an important time to celebrate the vital role trains play in our nation's transportation system," Busalacchi said. "Passenger trains are reemerging as an important way to move people in all parts of America. They are energy-efficient, pollute less than other transportation modes, and ease congestion on highways and in the air. Our challenge is to make...

<p>Vice President Joe Biden, who infamously advised Americans against entering confined transportation spaces during the current swine flu outbreak, will enter the Wilmington Amtrak train station in Delaware this morning.</p> <p>For all 36 years of his long Senate career, Biden used the Wilmington station daily on his commute to and from the Capitol. Which means that Biden was riding the rails as a U.S. senator way back when the current president was on an elementary school playground.</p>

Despite His Own Flu Warning, Biden Takes Train Home Known for speaking freely, Biden told NBC's "Today" show on Thursday that he had urged family members to avoid airplanes and subways for fear of contracting the H1N1 flu virus FOXNews.com Friday, May 01, 2009 WASHINGTON -- One day after saying he wouldn't travel in tight quarters because of the swine flu scare, Vice President Joe Biden rode a train Friday from Washington to Delaware.

The odds that the federal government will ever get its hooks out of Chrysler or General Motors are slim to none, regardless what President Obama says. Why? In one word, Amtrak. There are reasons why Chrysler and General Motors are failing, and they have nothing to do with hard luck. Both companies are top-heavy, paying more for union labor (and retirees) than their competitors and, since the 1970s, have turned out cars that consumers want in dwindling numbers. The Big Three (that includes Ford) have higher costs and have gotten an image as lower quality than some foreign competitors. Toyota...

WASHINGTON (AP) — One day after saying he wouldn't travel in tight quarters because of the swine flu scare, Vice President Joe Biden rode a train Friday from Washington to Delaware. Known for speaking freely, Biden told NBC's "Today" show on Thursday that he had urged family members to avoid airplanes and subways for fear of contracting the H1N1 flu virus. "I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now," Biden said. The comments infuriated the travel industry and triggered several revisions from the Obama administration, whose official advice is less severe. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano commented, "If he could...

At 1745 daily an Amtrak Cascades train pulls out of Vancouver and heads south to the US. An Amtrak train Sleek but not speedy: US trains are restricted in how fast they can go It is scheduled to arrive in Seattle, in Washington State, four hours and 20 minutes later. Even allowing for customs at the border it is hardly a speedy way to cover 157 miles (252km), although the scenery is nice. But if Washington State's Department of Transport succeeds in grabbing some of the cash on offer from the other Washington - 2,300 miles away - the Pacific...

Book a train from Washington, D.C., to Chicago, and you’re in for a ride that takes 17 hours, 35 minutes. Given the choice between that and a two-hour plane trip, it’s little wonder that most Washingtonians prefer to fly, despite the security searches and the long lines at Reagan National. It is also little wonder that some airlines still make money, whereas Amtrak, America’s near-monopoly provider of inter-city passenger rail service, requires huge annual subsidies. But what if inter-city train service became much faster? President Obama wants to offer Americans such an option, and to that end he has promised...

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. — The Laguna Niguel City Council wants to eclipse the annual ritual of mooning Amtrak trains and encourage thousands of partiers to pull up their pants. The council voted Tuesday to ban consuming alcohol in public and urinating in public to crack down on the 30-year-old tradition. City officials said the vote does not ban mooning but is meant to discourage rowdy behavior. -- "Most of the people who come aren't locals. Because of the Internet, it's gone worldwide," city spokeswoman Meg Waters said. "It's not a local family event. It's just gotten bigger and bigger."

[audio player] You never know what’s going to come out of Joe Biden’s mouth. But we’ll bet you didn’t expect this. Biden was a Union Station yesterday, bragging up Obama’s $1.3 billion “investment” in train stations and rail lines. The error-prone vice president was apparently unaware of a near-by microphone. When one of his former Senate colleagues called him “Mr. Vice President,” Biden replied with what is reportedly one of his favorite phrases:......

Vice President Joe Biden, once a regular rail commuter, said Friday that $1.3 billion for Amtrak in the economic stimulus package will go toward long-overdue infrastructure upgrades and expanded passenger rail capacity. Speaking at Union Station, Biden said $105 million will be spent to replace a 102-year-old Connecticut bridge on Amtrak's heavily traveled Northeast Corridor. Another $82 million will be used to repair old rail cars and put them back into service. The national passenger railroad, long criticized for its reliance on government subsidies, has strong support from the Obama administration. As senator, Biden commuted for decades between his home...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Vice President Joe Biden continued the administration's rollout of the recently passed economic stimulus package Friday, highlighting $1.3 billion in federal funding for Amtrak. The money for the rail service, which carried almost 29 million passengers in the previous fiscal year, will go primarily to infrastructure repair and improvement. The $787 billion stimulus plan includes a total of $8 billion for improvements in rail service, a crucial investment to help ease traffic in the congested northeast corridor running from Boston, Massachusetts to Washington, Biden argued.

"Taxpayers Clearing House Prize Patrol" throws cash at Tim Geithner after a hearing, presents oversized checks executives at AIG, CITI, Goldman and confronts Sentator Olympia Snowe with a large check to sign in her office. They also confront Sen. Schumer! The Patrol also gives invoices to mostly black taxpayers. One taxpayer yells for Obama! A must watch.

GARYSBURG, N.C. -- Amtrak officials say they removed a passenger who was behaving suspiciously from a train in North Carolina on Monday. The Silver Star was headed to Miami from New York when it stopped in Garysburg, N.C., near N.C. 64. That happened just before 7 p.m. about 30 miles east of Rocky Mount. Officials declined to say what the passenger was doing.

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — When Joe Biden — U.S. senator and Delaware resident — was running late for his trip to Washington, the train conveniently was delayed by some unknown mechanical difficulty. Biden, now vice president-elect, joked on Saturday that Amtrak conductor Gregg Weaver and his colleagues often found a way to make sure he made the train. "There was always some mechanical difficulty that lasted for a minute or two," Biden said with a smile. "I have to admit that now."

WASHINGTON (AP) — Throngs of well-wishers are expected to line the tracks as President-elect Barack Obama travels by train from Philadelphia to Washington the weekend before his swearing-in as the 44th president, prompting heightened security along the rails. The 137-mile route will be manned by thousands of police officers from the 40 jurisdictions in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Washington, D.C., that Obama's train will pass through, officials with Amtrak said Thursday as it outlined security plans for the inauguration. Crowds are expected to gather at numerous spots, including overpasses, parking lots and commuter train stations, as Obama retraces the journey...

HELENA, Mont. (AP) – Holiday travel for more than 3,000 Amtrak rail passengers was disrupted when 16 rail cars carrying new automobiles derailed over the weekend in northwestern Montana. Crews were still working Monday night to rerail the cars and reopen the Burlington Northern Santa Fe main line. The derailment caused Amtrak to cancel its eastbound Empire Builder passenger train between Seattle and Minneapolis on Sunday and the westbound train between those cities Monday, said Vernae Graham, an Amtrak spokeswoman in Oakland, Calif. She said other Empire Builder trains along the route were delayed, including one that was 22 hours...

Barack Obama has evoked Abraham Lincoln ever since launching his campaign at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill. Now he plans to arrive in Washington the same way that Lincoln did in 1861, with a train trip that will include stops, speeches and crowds along the way. On Jan. 17, Obama and his family will start the day with an appearance in Philadelphia, where they will board a chartered Amtrak train. The train will stop in Wilmington, Del., where the Obamas will be joined by Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. Then comes a stop in Baltimore before the...

President-elect Barack Obama will board a train in a month and retrace Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural journey to Washington, D.C., but hopefully with much less mayhem. At least, there will be less time for anything to go awry. As opposed to Lincoln’s two-week trek in 1861, Obama’s journey will begin and end on Jan. 17, setting off from Philadelphia and making a stop in Wilmington, Del., to pick up Vice President-elect Joseph Biden Jr. and his family, and a stop in Baltimore for an unspecified event. The entourage, aboard a chartered train, will arrive in the District in the evening.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama will travel by train from Philadelphia to Washington before his Jan. 20 inauguration, officials said Monday. The Sat., Jan. 17, train trip along Northeast corridor commuter tracks will also allow for a Wilmington, Del., pick-up of Vice President-elect Joe Biden. The rail journey is designed to give Americans who can't attend the inauguration a chance to glimpse Obama along the route, The Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) reported. Emmett Beliveau, executive director of the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Committee, said the train's route is a recreation of the one taken by another Illinois senator, Abraham Lincoln, en route from...

NEW YORK (CBS) ― The world's economic fears were violently pushed aside on Wednesday by another global threat -- terrorism. A massive coordinated attack was launched in Mumbai, India just hours after the FBI warned that Al Qaeda may be targeting New York's subways and railroads. If Al Qaeda terrorists have their way there will be chaos and mayhem here this holiday season, a mass transit bomb plot that would probably affect all the subway and train lines at Penn and Grand Central stations. "The threat is serious, the threat is significant, and it is plausible," said Congressman Peter King,...

Heightened Security In Place At Penn Station; Attack Could Paralyze Transit Between Boston, Washington Cops, Feds Armed With M16s On Patrol For Forseeable Future ### The world's economic fears were violently pushed aside on Wednesday by another global threat -- terrorism. A massive coordinated attack was launched in Mumbai, India just hours after the FBI warned that Al Qaeda may be targeting New York's subways and railroads. If Al Qaeda terrorists have their way there will be chaos and mayhem here this holiday season, a mass transit bomb plot that would probably affect all the subway and train lines at...

One has to wonder what the DHS has been doing for the past 7 years. http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=20200234&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8

"110 MILES AT t 20 PER NILE »22 00 TOLLS 3 00 TRAIN FARE WILMINGTON TO ... 10 (FOR PAYROLL ABSTRACT SEE TABLE OF CONTENTS I 8085 JOSEPH R BIDEN JR: FEB 25. ..."

We've heard a bit about how Joe Biden commutes every day to and from his house. It looks like you and I pay for that commute.