George Bush president@whitehouse.gov

Dick Cheney vicepresident@whitehouse.gov

Transporation secretary (very anti-amtrak)
Norman Mineta norman.mineta@ost.dot.gov

John Mccain AZ senator
(as anti amtrak as they come)
John_mccain@mccain.senate.gov

Your local senators and representatives
www.saveamtrak.org

You might want to join my little campaign. I have sent e-mails to my friends asking them to go to download NARP's plan for Amtrak, ( http://www.narprail.org/plan.htm ) print it, and mail it to Norman Mineta. I'd like to see Mineta's office filled hip deep in copies of the NARP plan. Tell your friends to join in.

Mail it to:
Mr. Norman Mineta
U.S. Department of Transportation
400 7th Street, S.W.
Washington DC 20590

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Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth.
-Mr. Toy

Petitions with active signatures will get to some civil servant working in Mineta's office.

BUT...

SPAM-ish Stuff like what you proposed does not get out of the mail room for the "Office of the Secretary."

Your return address gets noted for a "bedbug" letter.

The contents go into the recycle bin before they ever leave the mail room.

Should mention, when you send him a copy of the NARP plan, you should also include a brief cover letter explaining in your own words, why you want a bigger and better Amtrak.

What I propose is not the same as sending him form letters written by someone else and mailed by lots of people, if that is what you are referring to as spam-ish.

Even if they get thrown out, someone in that office is certain to notice that a lot of people (voters) are backing the NARP plan. The idea is to get their attention. The more the merrier.

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Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth.
-Mr. Toy

Short version is: Passenger complained about bedbugs in his Pullman berth to the vice president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In time, the passenger got a sincere letter of apology and felt quite good, until another note fell out of the envelope ... from the VP to his secretary ... "Send this guy the d*** bedbug letter."

Mr Mineta is NOT an elected official. He is appointed by the President with advice and consent of the Senate. His accountability is not to lobbies, and certainly not to us as individual voters, but to Mr Bush and to the House and Senate committees responsible for transportation.

Any sort of correspondence from a private citizen is going to be received, passed to some newly graduated BA Poli Sci or Master in Public Administration, who will catalog the opinion for whatever internal tracking the Secretariat does, and then place it in the recycle bin. That young twenty-something will recognize the xeroxed or laser printed stuff for what it is, and promptly place it in the recycle bin too. If you are fortunate, you will get a pro forma response "Thank you for expressing your interest in American Transportation" over an autopen signature. If you are less than fortunate, your correspondence will go into the black hole of the recycle bin, to become the 2d generation newsprint grocery ads use.

Am I cynical in writing this? Heck, yes. Rail passenger-miles are at best a blip on the overall transportation schema of the nation. Subsidies: Damnably recent in our history. For the most part, rail has been thought of exactly as the folks at One Market Plaza didn't want it to be (but they made it that way): The OCTOPUS. Rail was something to be regulated tightly, lest it rip off the yeoman farmer.

Sorry. You caught me in full cynicism, not to mention a tummy bug.

Good night, John

quote:

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Mr Mineta is NOT an elected official. He is appointed by the President with advice and consent of the Senate. His accountability is not to lobbies, and certainly not to us as individual voters, but to Mr Bush and to the House and Senate committees responsible for transportation.

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Ah, but Mineta's boss is elected, and without Bush, Mineta is out of a job. Mineta plays a major role in determining the President's policy on Amtrak. Therefore we do need to put pressure on Mineta.

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Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth.
-Mr. Toy

The day he leaves office, the bare minimum he will have is a partnership in some very prestigous DC law firm, with the transportation law and lobbying folio.

He will make money hand over fist the rest of his days.

Get him discharged. Put him in that briar patch! And remember, he is the "honest man" carryover from the Clinton administration. He's not going anywhere until January 2005, at the earliest.

John

quote:

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Originally posted by Mr. Toy:
Ah, but Mineta's boss is elected, and without Bush, Mineta is out of a job.

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If Bush decides to kill Amtrak, or any significant portion thereof, his decision will be based to a large extent on Mineta's recommendations. If Mineta percieves significant public support for Amtrak, his recommendations will almost certainly be more favorable towards Amtrak than if he finds little public support, no? That's why, IMHO, putting pressure on Mineta is essential.

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Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth.
-Mr. Toy