Wasn't someone talking about our crumbling infrastructure YEARS ago?

[mrgorth]

Oh yeah. I remember now:

"There are some areas of our economy that require immediate attention and that are being ignored. Our infrastructure is one. At a time when the president has asked Congress for $87 billion to help rebuild Iraq, our school buildings ; there are 2,600 unsafe dams in the country; and a quarter of the bridges are in bad repair.
Instead of the reckless economic agenda this administration has pursued, I believe we need to focus on creating jobs, balancing the budget, and ensuring that working Americans can make ends meet. To create jobs, we've got to invest again, not just in infrastructure but in the research and development of the industries that will propel this country to the future, from broadband to biotech. And we need a special focus on small business, which is the single biggest engine of job creation. Small businesses stay in their communities, they don't move overseas."

Source: Winning Back America, by Howard Dean, p.153-4 Dec 3, 2003

[patricia92243]

1. I was going to say HOWARD DEAN - then I saw the very last line of your post. He was ahead of his

time.

[gratuitous]

2. May be, but he hollered during a rally

And CNN, which played the clip some 800 times in the week after it happened (even after it knew the specifics of the microphone Dean was using), decided that he wasn't fit to be president. CNN was aided and abetted in its efforts, naturally, by Fox, our good friends at the "liberal" New York Times and the "liberal" Washington Post, and so he was sunk.

It's inconvenient to keep reminding folks of how right he was and continues to be. So please stop doing that.

[Auntie Bush]

3. While I was reading that...I was thinking what a brilliant and sensible

suggestion of what NEEDS to be done. You might know it came from the mouth of the brilliant Howard Dean. Let's hope many people are listening and adsorbing the info and REACTING.

[mrgorth]

4. Nothing will happen

This country desperately needs a new works program like FDR put in place but it would cost money so it would be unpopular. The pugs would say that we would have to raise taxes for it and we would. Heaven forbid one less Hummer in the driveway.

[antigop]

5. Kucinich also

http://www.kucinichforcongress.com/issues/jobs.php

>>
Ironically, at the same time so many Americans can't find work, there is so much work to do. The crisis of our decaying infrastructure is something we see every day when we sit in traffic bound by orange barrels that line our highways. It is something that school children experience at their desks, crowded together under leaking roofs. In cities, municipal sewer systems overflow into rivers, streams, and estuaries. These events occur with increasing regularity as systems age. Infrastructure problems threaten our productivity, our economy, our environment, and our health.

It is time to put America back to work. It is time to address the twin crises by putting unemployed Americans to work rebuilding America's neglected infrastructure. The Kucinich plan will make that happen.
>>

[spinbaby]

6. Bill Clinton in 92

I distinctly remember him talking about infrastructure during his campaign.

[nealmhughes]

7. I know everyone in NYC was when I lived there...and that was 85-91!

After a major section of the FDR fell off and landed on a car just minutes after I had passed, the huge pane of glass fell out of a skyscraper in Midtown and cut off the legs of a German tourist and Tawana Brawley was scribbling on her person. Aah, NY in the late 80s! At least people had money then -- everyone it seems. Keith Haring was painting, and Evita was still on Broadway with Torchsong Trilogy and La Cage aux Folles, and one could see Steel Magnolias in the Village and go for a pitcher of rather cheap German beer at the Old Peculiar, walk downtown from 14th St. to the Battery and then ride the ferry on Sunday mornings. Ignoring the Staten Island slasher, the LIRR massacre, the Riverhead sniper, and chunks of cement falling upon one's head, what a glorious time.

[donsu]

8. YES! DAMS

dams all across the US, big and small are degraded or degrading.

just a matter of time, what with climate change causing tremendous rainfall in a short time.

[polichick]

9. Americans are so easily distracted from things that matter...

Yes, we've known for many years that our infrastructure is in horrible shape. We've known at least since the early 1970s that we need to end our dependence on oil. We've known that the planet is in trouble for decades. Yet, those who are determined to squeeze the last dollar from an outdated status quo use the media to distract us. Maybe it will come down to a real revolution ~ or maybe it's already too late.