February 25, 2009 · 12:45 AM

Did light-rail-deriding Jindal get lost en route to ‘30 Rock’?

By John Katsilometes

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal stunk up The Joint – I mean, stunk up the joint – last night with his response to President Obama’s speech to Congress. Given his first opportunity for a televised nationwide address, the hyper-folksy Jindal instead seemed like he was auditioning for a role in the stage revival of “Mayberry RFD.” In a 12-minute performance that could be titled "Pap-A-Palooza," Jindal took another shot at the high-speed rail line that would link Las Vegas to Anaheim, which to the Louisiana governor is actually “Disneyland,” all of it. I was expecting him to next criticize any government bailout of the U.S. auto industry because, good golly, those cars might be used to transport people to Las Vegas. But the light-rail moment wasn’t where Jindal really went off the tracks. If you are a fan of “30 Rock” on NBC, you probably detected something eerily familiar in Jindal’s singsong delivery. So did Jason Linkis of The Huffington Post. Link here to see what I’m talking about.

Light rail is really a 21st century buzz word for trolley cars such as run in Denver and Minneapolis. What was spoken of was "high speed rail", meaning standard-gauge railroad trains operating at over 200 km/hour (124 mph) such as one sees between Boston and Washington. Amtrak has studied several corridors. LA-LV is one of them, because the Union Pacific track is there, in pretty good shape and hosted passenger trains until 2002. By the way, how did your byline get on the "Stripped" column?

Posted by: rrbill on 2/25/09 at 11:20 a.m. (Suggest removal)

To answer the latter question, "accidentally." I edit Stripped, and in the posting of that blog I inadvertently put my byline in the byline field. Human error.

Posted by: John Katsilometes (Staff) on 2/26/09 at 10:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Discussion:

In an effort to increase the dialogue on our blogs, we will be requiring Facebook accounts to leave comments on lasvegasweekly.com blogs. We believe that Weekly readers are likely to have Facebook accounts already and more apt to comment on this site with that account rather than have to create an account with us. If, however, you do not have a Facebook account, click here to sign up for one. If you have questions, comments or concerns about this new commenting policy, please let us know.

For any other questions related to commenting on Weekly stories, please read our full policy.

Las Vegas Weekly Photostrip

View all photostrip photos

Facebook Activity

Featured Cocktail

Cocktail of the Week May 23, 2012
by Sabrina Chapman

Rhumbar’s Scorpion Bowl stings so good

Ready to celebrate the official start of summer? Prepare for takeoff. Memorial Day Weekend picks up speed with the addition of Rhumbar’s Scorpion Bowl ($49) to the weekend’s party lineup. ...
Read more...

SMS Alerts