I'm not necessarily defending this measure, but this isn't that different than air travel.

I've been pulled out of line right at the boarding gate for further searches and had to produce ID.

Well, on a train, they actually collect the tickets usually once everyone has boarded, and depending on the line, they continue to punch holes in your ticket throughout the train ride. So, randomly checking for ID once you're on the train isn't a whole lot different than pulling someone out of the boarding line at the gate for air travel. In both instances, they're checking your ID at the place where you actually turn in your ticket or boarding pass.

Pessimist. You wouldn't happen to have a Woody Guthrie song on you would you?

If I had the time, I'd whip one up for you!

This railroad thing isn't going away anytime soon, so if I find another post I'll include it for you.

The Bush administration is like an autoimmune disease -- overreacting to an infection and attacking the body it's supposed to protect.

Back in 1997, I took an Amtrak train from Austin to St. Louis to visit my Momma and to take possession of her old car. I paid for my one-way ticket with cash and was travelling alone. Up around Longview (in NE Texas), a guy comes up to me and starts telling me everything I had done over the past several hours and that he wanted to know more. Jesus! It was like the KGB. He was a plain-clothes cop who was obviously looking for drug-runners, but I'm an American, dammit. I shouldn't have to get interrogated like that just because the civil liberties crowd doesn't want the real criminals and potential terrorists being profiled and interdicted. If that cop knew so much about me ---and he certainly did--- he should have also known that I'm not some jiveass or weekend coyote.

I say take it to the ones who got it coming to them and leave the rest of us be.