Laugh if you want, but even the Chinese know that it would be a fabulous idea to link Anaheim, CA to Las Vegas, NV by high speed rail, potentially creating 90,000 jobs in the process, which is why a Chinese export-import bank is looking to finance it after the US federal government decided not to.

The proposed rail line became a joke in DC after Republicans and FOX News lied to the public saying that it would be federally funded because, somehow, it's really hilarious to want to link Disneyland and the Las Vegas Strip, which are among the best known, most visited, most profitable tourist destinations west of the Mississippi.

Any state government would be thrilled to have either group of world famous resort properties added to their tax base, and it's a no-brainer that making it possible to travel from the one to the other in an hour, an hour!, makes a trip including both venues much easier, cheaper and more attractive to families that can still take vacations and are trying to please multiple age groups with their vacation dollar.

Consider that Anaheim's latest 2008/2009 revenue outlook showed around 30 percent of city tax revenues coming from hotel taxes, and 18 million visitors to the district that includes the Disney Resort properties and the Anaheim Convention Center. The Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine region finished 2009 with a 9.1 % unemployment rate, a full 3.3 % lower than the rest of California's, which, as you may have heard, is a state with serious financial problems at every level. Having Disney in residence has been a tremendous boost to the area, and the state as a whole, for its star power in attracting tourist attention.

In Nevada, the December, 2009 state unemployment rate was actually 0.1 % lower than the Las Vegas metro area unemployment rate, but the crater in visitors and gaming revenue that started in 2008 seems to be leveling off. Nevada residents are surely looking for any sign of good economic news right now though, as they also have a huge budget shortfall and they closed last year with the second highest unemployment rate in the country. Though trends aside, the Las Vegas Strip continues to be an economic powerhouse, pulling in $473 million in gaming revenues in 2009. That's more than half of the entire state's gaming revenues, which doesn't count hospitality, retail and entertainment revenue. In the third quarter of 2009, Las Vegas alone brought in over 9 million of Nevada's 13 million visitors.

The states of Nevada and California need real help and they should absolutely capitalize on their existing assets while they're digging out of these budgetary holes and it seems like reflexive West Coast bashing to suggest that they shouldn't get that help.

Now I realize that the West Coast, the State of California in particular, seems inherently unserious, perhaps un-American, to some people. Oh yeah, Republicans, we knew you were talking about us in 2008 when hardly a campaign speech went by without some rich jerk pretending to speak for 'real' Americans popping off about their loathing for the urban and coastal citizenry.

Through persistent mockery, the cities of Los Angeles (one county north of Anaheim), Hollywood and San Francisco are national insults, bywords for allegedly out-of-step morals and worse economic ideas. Though how that stands up to the fact that the movies, television shows and software produced in those cities are enjoyed by people all over the country, or that California is one of the world's ten largest economies thanks to its diverse industries, I don't know. Heck, California's cultural products are so popular and business in general so brisk, that it's taken around four decades for a totally dysfunctional state government held hostage by wingnuts to do to California what they've done to the rest of the country in less time.

And Vegas, Sin City, ha! Except that people all over the country save up to visit Las Vegas, go to the shows, shop, enjoy the all-you-can-eat buffets and stay in the many reasonably priced hotel rooms. (Anyway, that's what I've done when I've gone. Gambling bores me beyond tears, and don't get me started on the blinking lights.) A mining state turned a bare strip of desert into a national and international tourist mecca, and just about everyone wants to go at least once, if only to say that they did. It's an incredible achievement by any measure of capitalism, even if it isn't your taste.

The Republicans, who ran the US economy into the ground, think it's ridiculous to invest in California and Nevada tourism. The Chinese, who've managed their country's economy so well in recent years that they're a dominant force in nearly every major industry, think the same investment is a good idea and worth considering. Haven't we learned better as a nation than to take investment advice from Republicans while ignoring the example of China's enthusiastic converts to capitalism?

Though if red staters want to try hooking up tourist destinations like the Grand Ole Opry to high speed rail lines to bring in more visitors, just like they're doing with the Disneyworld corridor in Orlando, have my blessing. I'll wish them all well and won't make fun of their politicians for anything but hypocrisy. I won't laugh at whatever regional entertainment they're trying to capitalize on, at least, no more than I laugh at the silly things I usually enjoy. In every state, Americans are all just trying to make the very best of whatever it is that chance and history landed us with. We're all in this together, and that's no joke.