Perzel: Don’t Sell Turnpike To Bin Laden & Co.

John Perzel has a big ol’ op-ed in this week’s Northeast Times. It’s about his opposition to the privatization of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Perzel’s plan is to tax commercial vehicles who fill-up in New Jersey and travel through Pennsylvania on the way to Ohio. Yes, this will most certainly work. But Perzel has another reason to not lease the turnpike: Foreign companies might buy it, and that’s an affront to everyone who died on 9/11.

I am not making this up. Emphasis mine:

But there’s an even larger risk as the governor actively seeks foreign investors.

The east-west turnpike that connects Pittsburgh and Philadelphia also serves to connect the rest of the state with interlocking state and interstate federal highways that are crucial in an emergency, as well as for transportation of military cargo from Pennsylvania’s military supply depots to the Port of Philadelphia and beyond.

Do we really want the major highway used by our military and the state police controlled by foreign interests who have no stake in Pennsylvania’s security? [...]

Foreign control of our roads is a frightening prospect in our post-9/11 America, and not a route Pennsylvanians should travel.

Yes! The workers who currently staff the turnpike will suddenly transform to communislamofascists when some Australian company buys the road! Thanks for protecting us, John Perzel!

Don’t lease the turnpike to foreign investors [Northeast Times]
Dec. 6, 2006: East India Turnpike Company?