It is true:
We, the people did not vote for them;
We the people don't even know their names;
We the people did not vote for their regulations;
We the people didn't even know of these restrictions - until . . . .

So now in my town, we have already had the RV police, the car repair police, the lawn police, the house color police, the water police, the weed police; the smoke detector police; the toilet tank police; the garbage can police; ad infinitum . . . . ; and now the fireplace police; all demanding we prove to them our compliance to some do-gooder's pet notion.

Still amazing to me is the time a city "Code Enforcement Officer" came to the door and demanded immediate entry into my home to inspect my toilet tanks. Of course, I refused him entry - told him he needed a warrant, and to get one he needed probable cause - which he didn't have. A few days later I got a call from city hall threatening me with arrest. I told them I'll see 'em in court then! They skipped me and went on to a less vigilant citizen. Too bad there are so many of those! And too bad there are so many little hitlers around too.

Now, they ask us to rat on our neighbors about their use of fireplaces. ---- THEY CAN GO TO HEEELLLLL! ! !

Has anyone read George Orwell lately ?
Who needs to read it - we're living it !

----------------------------------------------------
Fact is though:

That we the people, DID elect the legislatures, the goobernator, the Congress, the President. . . . . .

They gave away the store (delegated to bureaucrats) - little by little - over the last few decades. --- while we the people slept.

The big time media failed to report much of what they were doing - while we the people ignored the reports of others.

Then they kept on giving away the store - little by little - while we the people kept on ignoring it.

Then the big time media kept on burying it on the back pages, if reported at all - while we the people kept on snoring.

Now some gov't agency or other, seems to control every detail of what was once private and every single aspect of life as well.

We the people have no one to blame but ourselves.

---

Now, another apparently little known fact:

There are legitimate purposes for government. Among those are to "establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common Defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty...." _{(preamble to the Constitution)}. Moreover, Article 1 section 8 grants Congress broad authority to "regulate commerce ...among the several States". It has chosen to do so by appointing bureaucrats and commissions, such as the SEC, STB, FRA, FTC, FAA, etc; and to require state commissions such as ABAG and the MTC.

Critical to promoting the general welfare and to promoting liberty, is the ability of the citizenry to move freely about without significant restriction or undo difficulty; and without having to ask every private landLORD for some whimsical consent to cross parcel after parcel of land necessary to the journey. Using the power of government then, to establish and maintain publicly owned rights of way, and to provide for the public's right of "common carriage", is in fact legitimate. It matters not at all to the Constitution, whether that is done by government chartering so-called private companies to do the job in return for profit; or whether it be performed directly by the government itself as a money loosing public service. We may politely disagree, but I personally don't give a rip how it gets done - so long as it gets done.

I think though, that most would prefer the private enterprise method, as would I. But private companies can only function well, where all their activities can bring something down to net. They must drop any activity which doesn't. That could leave citizen mobility very limited and fragmented. Much of what is needed to provide for open mobility simply will not ever make money for anyone. But it will promote the general welfare and the blessings of liberty.

Since not all of us will ever again fit on the freeway, and since there is no profit to be made in common carriage of people, that means public transit agencies must be created and funded to provide the needed carriage. As flawed as we the people have allowed our government to become, there is little other option, but to use it as best we can.

And of course, despite what our politicians keep promising us (and we keep believing), resources will always be finite. Resources must therefore be allocated to where the ridership actually is, or at least our best guess as to where it will be. So Congress mandated that a unified regional approach be set up for each region of the country, to help it allocate those limited resources. That is the function of ABAG and the MTC, which are organized and appointed to according to state law. After MTC approval of a funding request by any local agency out of the transportation budget allocated to the region, Congress then specifically appropriates the grant money by vote.

That congressional appropriation is by no means automatic. It gets debated. It gets lobbied pro and con, it gets voted in or out. For example: The San Francisco Airport Extension of BART was voted down several times due to its ridiculous high cost and also due to opposition from the airline lobby. It consistently fell just a few votes short. Sadly, in my opinion, instead of cutting out the 100 million per mile in stupid silly bells and whistles (such as subway under an existing defunct railroad r.o.w. with already limited xings), a deal was made with the airline lobby for an extra surcharge to the normal mileage based BART fare into the airport. The airline lobby then provided the needed votes. Scumbags !

Reality is, that the costs of BART, CalTrain electrification, VTA light rail, E-BART, Capital Corridor capacity expansion, and even SMART, are all way too high. In fact, light rail costs per mile are not significantly lower than BART's costs. All are many times the costs incurred by private railroads (even UP - go figure). We must stop throwing so much money and start throwing some intelligence at it instead.

If we could just stop our local politicians from demanding all the extras, and make municipal contracting law more like corporate contracting law, these costs would come way down (at least by half). Of course, MTC could add "cost responsibility" to the required mix if they just would; but they are themselves politicians, beholden to those bell ringers and whistlers who appointed them.

If you citizens would or could actually get the politicians out of the MTC, replacing them with actually accomplished business and engineering professionals, you might even like the result.

OPB