Its an old old story! Same old - same old!

Buy up a going concern that just happens to provide good service for its customers and also serves a societal need; transfer all its valuable assets to other subsidiaries, then dump it back on the public's lap - broken and defunct.

By the way, any company that gives Good service is vulnerable to hostile take over, as it always costs a bit extra to give good service. Their stock market standing is therefore always a little softer.

The hedge funds are already sucking up the CSX and to the Florida East Coast; and demanding deep cuts in capital improvements and other corner cutting. Looks like they will get their way, too. So after these railroads go broke, who' gonna have to pick up the pieces - US! the taxpayer - again. So who's next, BNSF? Wall Street already held ATSF's Krebs back (specific threats were made), preventing the transcon double-tracking from being completed years ago.

Oh! and it seems no one noticed that ALL of Southern Pacific's land grant holdings (which were intended by congress to subsidize the railroad in perpetuity), got ripped off during the SP+ATSF merger debacle. They "divested" themselves of the railroad, but kept everything else, including the land grants. Actually, it was RIPPED!

So why were we so surprised when, not long after being RIPPED OFF of most of its assets, SP's finances collapsed. The rest is sucky history!

Its all well and good that businesses are in business to make money. But who the heel said it was supposed to be done by ripping it off the rest of us! - wreaking havoc with thousands of other businesses that also are there to make money. This sort of thing has happened time and time again in virtually every industry. Seen your newspaper lately? Mine is a mere shadow of itself, just weeks after being taken over.

Since government really is pretty useless and good for nothing anyway; the could at least fulfill at least one of its proper functions - that of keeping the economic playing field level - keeping consentrated economic power from dictating to and ripping everybody else off.

So find me a politician between here and the hot hinges of hell (democrat, republican or whatever) that will actually do anything about it. - HA! - A pox on all their houses!

And after paying for all the voter bribing gimicks of this democrat conress, there won't be anything left to put the humpty-dumpty railroads back together AGAIN! Enjoy them, such as they are, while you can.

OPB