First, high-speed rail is not light rail, it is heavy rail. It is also not mass transit in the usual sense of the term which is urban transit. High speed rail is inter-city links not local commuter transit. I live several months a year in France, and I ride high speed trains (TGV) quite regularly. My little cottage is in SW France, 350 miles from Paris. When I want a fix of Paris, I ride the TGV - 1:50 for the whole trip. When I get to Paris, I ride the Metro which is light rail but not high speed.

The Japanese, German and Spanish high speed systems are also inter-city not local. The Tokyo, Madrid and Berlin transit system are not high speed. But, they actually serve the city not just the suburbs like American systems (New York and maybe Chicago being the only exceptions). Commuter transit does not need to be high speed and thinking that it does simply escaltes the cost of commuter transit and leaves no funds for inter-city transit.

Citi has experienced enoumous actual losses. JPMorgan and BofA fare less. Citi actually wrote subprime mortgages including NINA loans whereas the other two did not. They did take losses from collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) containing significant tranches (slices) of subprime garbage in the secuitized pool. But, both of these banks remain modestly profitable. They will be the first to recover.

There is a lot of real idiocy among so-called centrists here. There hasn't been an extreme left in America in more than 30 years. Run of the mill liberals in the 60s, 70s and 80s are now called extreme leftists? WTF? There is definitely an ultra extreme right but no extreme left at all. This is just pathetic nonsense. Among registered Democrats, fully half are liberal and left yet we are sold out every single time there is a Democrat in the White House.

I am sick to death of holding my nose every election and voting for some DINO who has sold out to corporate America just as thoroughly as any Repub. Will Obama be better than Bush? Yes, almost certainly. Will he actually advance us to where we really need to go? Absolutely not. He won't even try. Pathetic and sad.

Better than Bush is simply not a high enough bar. What is it about DLC scumbags and other centrist know nothings that make them worthy of any respect at all? Better than Bush? That's an incredibly low standard. Why should I remain a Democrat at all? I no longer have an answer fot that.

If you want to pontificate, you do have the right to do so, but it would be nice if you actually knew something before you spew.

1- WWI? WTF? Every country involved in the European part of the war was at least nominally Christian. The least Christian country involved was France. The most Christian countries were Germany, Austria and Russia. You really need to do some reading here.

2- The Naz were Christian, all of them. Germany was one of the most Christian countries in the world at the time of the holocaust. Every Jew, Roma, Slav, homosexual and others murdered in the camps were killed by Chritians, every single one. A few senior Nazis did dabble in the occult, but, bozo ( a necessary perjorative in this case), nothing about the occult is secular or atheist.

3- Stalin was a mass murderer, yes, big time, but not one person was killed in the name of atheism or secularism. All were killed in the name of Leninism. And don't even start with Marx. Marx was an academic not a revolutionary, and he never called for revolution. He didn't believe that revolution coulkd be made, he believed that it would occur organically in highly developed industrial states. That's why Lenin was in Switzerland in 1917. The concept of created revolution with top down dictatorship was pure Lenin, nothing to do with Mark who believed in the 'withering away of the state'. Please, a little knowledge here rather than pure ignorance.

4- Mao and Pol Pot were also mass murderers but never in the name of atheism or secularism. All in the name of leninism or communism or Maoism.

5- The Congo? WTF? The U.S. assassinated Lamumba the supposed atheist and communist. We supported Mbutu, a Christian who murdered two million with our total support. He later saw himself as god, but we still supported him.

6- The Romans were not Christians but they were very religious. Can't you read?

Your post was consummate ignorance. Learn something before you stick your feet in your mouth up to your thighs.