Subj:   Amtrak Alert! Bush stooges fire David Gunn, race to kill Amtrak 
before Congress acts! 
Date:   11/10/2005 7:05:24 AM Central Standard Time 
From:    [log in to unmask] (Mathews Hollinshead)
Sender:    [log in to unmask] (Transportation 
Chairs Forum)
Reply-to: <A HREF="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]</A> (Transportation Chairs 
Forum)
To:    [log in to unmask]
    
    


Please contact via email or, better yet, call the US Capitol Switchboard 
(202) 224-3121 and ask for your senators or congressperson. Ask them to vote to 
reverse yesterday's firing of CEO David Gunn, and to suspend the authority of 
the current illegitimate Amtrak board. Pass this email to your friends to do the 
same. 


David Gunn is a turnaround artist who in three years brought Amtrak back from 
the brink of oblivion through practical internal changes. Bush's rump Amtrak 
board wants to liquidate Amtrak before Congress can act. Once Amtrak shuts 
down, national freight railroads within three months will rip out stations, 
platforms and other infrastructure necessary to restart passenger rail whatever its 
form. 


Leon Mineta, transportation secretary, has spent part of the past year 
touring the U.S. on a national campaign of lying and deceit in a futile effort to 
get the public to pressure Congress against Amtrak. The public and Congress have 
instead decisively refused to kill Amtrak and instead have acted to increase 
its pending appropriation for 2006 and authorizations for the next decade. The 
Bush Administration is racing to do by fiat what the public and its elected 
representatives oppose through the democratic process. Congress is on track to 
increase Amtrak's appropriation for 2006 and its authorization for the next 
decade. 


George Bush's rump Amtrak board of directors has only four of its seven seats 
filled at present, and two of the directors it does have are recess 
appointments that expire with the current session of Congress. Bush made those recess 
appointments to escape Senate confirmation process.


Below is New York Times coverage. 


<A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/10/politics/10amtrak.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/10/politics/10amtrak.html</A>


<A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/10/opinion/10thur4.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/10/opinion/10thur4.html</A>


<A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/10/national/10amtrak.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/10/national/10amtrak.html</A>


For four decades various anti-rail special interests, using Orwellian 
terminology like "Reform Council" and "Public-Private partnerships" have been trying 
to kill the future of national passenger rail. With this insulting firing of 
David Gunn, those interests have now decided to short-circuit the political 
process and cut any corner, regardless of public opinion, environmental merit, 
effect on urban development around stations or any other factor of benefit to 
the future of the country. 


Mathews Hollinshead
Transportation Chair
Sierra Club North Star Chapter
651-698-0260 (o)
612-209-3559 (cell)
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