If This Isn't Socialism, What Is?

I have become a big fan of SEPTA, the Philadelphia region's bus, trolley and rail system, but it is chronically underfunded and can barely keep up with a recession-driven increase in riders. So it is great news that Generalissimo Obama's economic stimulus package will pump $200 million into SEPTA.

That money will go to "shovel ready" projects, a term widely derided by Republicans as a code name for pork.

So how's this for pork? Some 5,590 new jobs, include 1,915 in construction and 875 in materials companies, with the remaining 2,800 jobs for companies providing goods and services to the new construction and materials workers. SEPTA vows a fair-bidding process that will help get young African-American men from city neighborhoods into construction jobs.

Among the stimulus projects are a $36.7 million renovation of the Broad Street Line's Girard and Spring Garden stations, which are 75 to 80 years old, and $5.3 million rehab of four regional rail line bridges built between 1905 and 1930. Forty new hybrid buses also will be purchased for $18.6 million.