"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." -- Grover Norquist, leading Republican advisor
How many bridges around this country are either structurally deficient or "obsolete"? 159,000. ("Obsolete" means that the bridges routinely carry more traffic than the designers intended.)
How much would it cost, over the course of twenty years, to fix all of America's infrastructure problems? Less than the Iraq war will probably end up costing. See here.
6 comments:
Norquist's theory has one gaping flaw. Republicans took control of the government, then proceeded to drown themselves. Their credibility is finished for decades. The only way they will be able to maintain hold of power in this country is continued manipulation of the elections.
This is off-topic, but I found in the OpEdNews of Rob Kall's that more members of the House have signed on to the HR 333 to impeach Cheney -- beyond the supposed "magic number" of 17 which will provoke Re. Conyers to bring the measure forward in his Judiciary Committee. Did we understand him correctly? If so, will he follow through?
"All told, 19 congress members have signed on as cosponsors of H. Res. 333, a bill proposing articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney. H Res 333 cosponsors include, Dennis Kucinich, Jan Schakowsky, Maxine Waters, Hank Johnson, Keith Ellison, Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee, Albert Wynn, William Lacy Clay, Yvette Clarke, Jim McDermott, Jim Moran, Bob Filner, Sam Farr, Robert Brady, Tammy Baldwin, Donald Payne, Steve Cohen, Sheila Jackson-Lee. Nine are African-American, 10 are white. All 19 are from urban or suburban areas, three from the South, five from the Midwest, five from the East, and six from the West. One, Jan Schakowsky, is Chief Deputy Democratic Whip. Let's hope she starts whipping!
Twenty-eight congress members have signed onto H Res. 589, a bill proposing the impeachment of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The cosponsors are Jay Inslee, Xavier Becerra, Michael Arcuri, Ben Chandler, Dennis Moore, Bruce Braley, Tom Udall, Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio, Hank Johnson, Steve Cohen, Keith Ellison, David Wu, Yvette Clarke, Darlene Hooley, Betty McCollum, Timothy Bishop, Barney Frank, Carolyn Maloney, Ed Perlmutter, Tammy Baldwin, Shelley Berkley, Raul Grijalva, Ed Pastor, Ellen Tauscher, Rush Holt, Jim McGovern, Gary Ackerman."
I grew up in that area, we used to have 'keggers' up and down the east bank of the river, we had a couple right under that bridge.
We would have to keep moving them as the 'pigs' would bust us though.
What I remember about the bridge, being an avid skeptic of all things built by humans, was its constant hard shaking, I had thought it was too flimsy even back then when it was relatively new('72-'75) when it was only three lanes in each direction.
Then they added wings towards the outside creating two more lanes.
Needless to say I wasn't surprised (after the shock wore off)...
Flo.
Being in the building trades my entire working career and watching all the corners cut to make a buck, there was too much weight on the deck at that one area where they shaved the old concrete down to the rebar (thus the 50 ft high cloud of dust just before the collapse when the rebar pulled out), the deck collapsed onto the flimsy cross braces below and toppled it down and sideways bringing the rest down with it.
Every time I see a collapse similar to this it's usually because they do not put re shoring underneath to make up for what had been structurally removed...we'll see...
I used to live a couple of blocks from that bridge . . . It was a slab of pavement on a steel frame-- quite ugly... But it looked no more ready to fall than any other bridge in America . . .
It's so unbelievable.
Here we are spending sums beyond anything the world has ever conceived on a war that's not getting us anywhere.
Thanks, Bush... Though I do appreciate his appearance in Minneapolis, where he offered his condolences to people in "this part of the world."
Yes, Bush referred to Minnesotans as people in "this part of the world."
Coleman, Did you ever climb it when the semis would be going over ?
That thing shook like a MFer
Flo
Getting closer...Something I didn't know about, a 100 tons of gravel lying near the deck shave off ? wow
Flo
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/08/us/09cnd-bridge.html?ei=5065&en=dfa3aa04d82c27f4&ex=1187236800&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print
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