The future does not hold flying cars, it holds......monorails?

I try to be open minded. There's nothing more frustrating than trying to have an intelligent conversation with someone who refuses to see that there is another side to the argument - it doesn't mean that you have to agree with the other side, but just acknowledge and respect the fact that there is another side.

The $787 BILLION stimulus bill that was recently signed into law has been a topic of debate for some time. I think most agree that some kind of stimulus is necessary to help our faltering economy - but how and where that money is spent is still a heated topic of conversation.

Congress was supposed to post the bill 48 hours before it was signed so that the public could view it and see how their hard earned tax dollars were going to be spent. Surprise, surprise - this didn't happen. Why? Because Nancy Pelosi did what she does best - threw a royal hissy fit over some issue with the bill, making it impossible for it to be posted for public view until it was too late.

The result? A $787 billion passage of a stimulus plan that no one in the House or Senate read through completely. As if this weren't bad enough, 8 billion of those dollars are earmarked to the building of a MONORAIL system between Las Vegas and LA!!! Okay, did no one in the US government see that Simpson's episode Marge vs. the Monorail? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

"What's the word?" "Monorail!!"

With all of the problems this economy is facing, why on earth was this pet project tacked on to the stimulus package? An acquaintance of mine informed me that this is a great idea because of the high gas prices and heavy traffic that plague that SW route. Okay, fair enough - but when a plane ticket on Southwest Airlines costs $57.00 to fly between Las Vegas and LA and only takes an hour - I just don't see the immediate need for a monorail system. Even if there were a need for that kind of system, shouldn't the state governments be footing the bill for this?

Monorail at Disneyland - Walt Disney was a genius!!!

There have been some rumors that this stimulus package might not be enough to boost our economy. I just can't imagine how on earth Congress or the President will have the face to come back to us in a few years and demand more money after this debacle. Am I way off base here? Is there something more to this monorail system that I'm just not seeing? I mean, I did see that they're looking at putting one in around Mecca....maybe this is the transportation of the future? If someone has an intelligent argument as to why our hard-earned tax dollars are paying for this - please let me know, I am really struggling to see the other side of this one.