On infrastructure failure

[nadinbrzezinski]

Ok folks, I have avoided most of the story most of the afternoon due to the breathless way our media tends to do it... but 600,000 bridges in the US, and some of them may collapse is not fear mongering. What it is... FRAME THE MESSAGE, is a lower tax base due to the Republican Revolution.

In order to maintain brdiges, roads and other infrastruture, we need money. That money comes from a tax base... pretty simple right? We knew, before this tragedy, that the nation's infrastructure was falling apart. Conservative ideology says, we don't need to invest in roads, bridges, schools et al. This bridge collapse is a direct result of this ideology.

Make sure you emphasize this.

Lower taxes, means less money to maintain the commons. We continue on this road, more bridges will go down. more roads will suffer and the nation at large will become more like a third world nation.

Oh and to the victims, rest in peace... hope your families connect the damn dots. It is this policy of lower taxes that is directly related to the failure of this bridge, and the bridge that failed yesterday in California, and more to come.

[ellaydubya]

1. Second that!

Those were my thoughts exactly. With all the excessive rains and flooding this year, this needs to be a top priority and, as we know, it must begin with us. Make some noise!

[BeHereNow]

2. Off shore accounts contain the money needed to fix infrastucture.

The mega corporates have been stashing money off shore that SHOULD have been
paid into the tax base here at home- they've been doing it in
other countries for decades and now Americans are being
subjected to the same failing infrastructures that the rest of the world
has been victim to for a long time.
Welcome to republiCON values America.
It's going to get worse.
BHN

[Nikki Stone1]

3. They're letting the infrastructure rot so they can convince the public to privatize

That is, sell it off to private corporations who will then have control of every aspect of our daily lives. We vote to make them pay taxes and they will withhold what used to be public services.

[smtpgirl]

8. and the familiar shills and sheep won't disagree, just

as long as they have $100 more a week to spend on iPods, laptops, wireless.... Those dumbfucks don't even know how to use it either!!

[smtpgirl]

4. The US is suffering from infrastructure failure because

of lower taxes, a mantra that republicans are famous (NIXON, REAGAN, BUSH41/43) for and continue the business as usual to keep their greedy pockets lined.

When will they be accountable for the country's collapse of the basic needs in order to function day-to-day?????

Bridge to Nowhere????

In short, they don't GIVE A SHIT ABOUT US, only their investment accounts, blackberry's, the country club membership, and vacations in Europe.

Sound Familiar???

We will see more catastrophes such as these in the near future, you can't recover crumbling structures without rebuilding.

The purple line for the DC Metro comes to mind, the govt. wants smothering traffic on I-495, I-95, GW parkway, Rt. 7, Rt. 28, not to build a Metro line from Tyson's to Dulles.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. Here in Minnesota, our Republican governor has been in a frenzy of tax-cutting

since he took office. The libertarian greedhead Randites from the Taxpayers' League have him by the short hairs, and no matter how desperately tax revenues are needed, Timmy says no deal. The result has been roads full of potholes, unfunded public programs and crumbling, overcrowded schools -- in a state that used to be consistently listed as one of the best places to live in the U.S.

Whether this bridge collapse can be proven to have resulted from neglect due to lack of funds remains to be seen. But it wouldn't surprise me in the least.

[smtpgirl]

7. The bridge neglect is years in the making

When was that bridge erected?

How many Rebuplican representatives were in that district?

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. If you tried to research it, I'm willing to put my money on this

going back to oh Ronald Reagan's Presidency

[Bjorn Against]

15. In that district? None. But our GOP governor did just recently veto the transportation bill...

Because he thought a ten cent a gallon gas tax was not needed. He is going to be asked a lot of questions about those vetoes.

The people who get elected in Minneapolis are some of the most progressive law makers in the nation. The Green Party is actually more powerful in Minneapolis than the Republican Party is, it is one of the bluest (and greenest) cities you will find in America. Their voting records are clean on transportation issues, it is the Republicans at the state level who hold the most responsibility.

[ben_meyers]

16. Built in 1967

And there ain't a repub even allowed to live in that district.

[kikiek]

14. I have no faith at all in the federal investigators coming to tell us what went wrong.

They alter every report to their liking anyways.

[TahitiNut]

6. I guess we'll need another Great Depression and a new WPA.

Then we can start a new round of building it with taxpayer money and then selling it off to private interests.

[smtpgirl]

10. until then, when do we save for retiremement, when we have

been robbed by this mentality.

I'll have to work until 80, but I have a back up plan.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Yes to all of you

there is much of what you say, but it time to make the point. This is happening due to lack of infastructure support. No measure of privatization will solve this. And by the way, this has been going on not since shrub took over, but since Reagan took over

It is time to put an end ot the Republican Revolution

[smtpgirl]

11. I'm all for it!!!

Reagan had a paper govt., that's all, nothing more. And the Republican rubes followed suit.

Bush is bad for country.

[smtpgirl]

13. We are all lockstep, so WHY CAN'T WE WIN??????

[eridani]

17. As long as we have Republicans, who needs terrorists?

NOLA and the steam explosion in NY have the same causes.

[smirkymonkey]

25. Apparently not enough people were killed to cause sufficient

outrage. :sarcasm:

Seriously, I sometimes wonder what it's going to take to snap people out of their complacency. The Republicans know we are too overworked, stressed out, underpaid and unfortunately - many of us - tuned out to get sufficiently outraged enough to turn en masse upon THEM.

[KT2000]

18. Absolutely!

In addition to the repug politicians slashing taxes, there are the idiots who get ballot measures that wipe out entire sources of taxes - and most people do vote for them

[MADem]

19. Mitt Romney killed a woman because he line-item vetoed a tunnel inspection here in MA n.t.

[Cogito ergo doleo]

20. The late, great, United States.

This is affecting me like Katrina did for some reason. With Katrina, it was like a parent seeing one of its kids being run over by a Mack truck and saying, so what.

One of the things I've realized in the assault of the * years is how much I love this country, and how I had the idea that the principles of Constitution were cast in stone, and the country would always strive toward higher ideals. Forget the higher ideals - just rational thought says you don't lose a city, you don't sit by while people suffer and you don't worry about bridges collapsing in the USA -- all in the name of tax breaks.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. Reaching for the historian's hat

we've been here before.

in many ways, this is 1927 all over again

New Orleans has drowned more than once, and under republicans

This carelessness for infrastructure is a republican disease

So frame the damn issue... all of this is ... the ME culture encouraged by these guys, instead of the WE culture

Yep, it IS patriotic to pay taxes.

[fed-up]

22. the overpass in CA is 15 miles from me-it is NEW/under construction-construction supports fell

I didn't like the way they had traffic routed so I have been taking the back roads through Durham when I have had to go to Oroville the past few months.

no shims, no clamps, which keep beams secure
according to person on KHSLTV news

http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_6518207

Highway 149 overpass construction supports collapse
By GREG WELTER - Staff Writer
Article Launched: 08/01/2007 02:26:27 PM PDT

Click photo to enlarge

Emergency crews respond to Highways 70 and 149 Tuesday morning after construction scaffolding...

Steel beam scaffolding for an overpass being constructed at Highways 70 and 149 collapsed Tuesday morning, trapping a Federal Express driver inside the cab of his delivery truck, and injuring a worker who fell with the twisted metal.
The driver, Chico resident Robert Sylvester, 45, was traveling northwest on 149 at 7:15 a.m. when steel beams erected over the roadway just hours before came crashing down.

One beam sliced through the hood; the second came down on the cargo area of the box-style delivery van.

Rescue workers at the scene said Sylvester was pinned inside the cab of the truck by one of the 3,000-pound beams, which pressed the dashboard against his lap.


http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_6520287

Highway 149 reopened; injured men recovering
By E-R Staff
Article Launched: 08/01/2007 06:19:29 PM PDT

Highway 149 reopened to traffic at about noon today after heavy metal construction supports that collapsed Tuesday were removed, and the rest of the structure was secured.
The cause of the accident remains unknown.

The two men injured in the incident are recovering.

EARLIER: Highway 149 overpass construction supports collapse
FedEx driver Rob Sylvester, 45, of Chico, who was trapped in his delivery van for almost three hours, escaped with only a badly sprained ankle and scraped nose.

Jeffrey Doll, a carpenter working on the "false work" erected to support construction of an overpass, fell about 50 feet when it collapsed and broke his lower leg, pelvis and left elbow.

[OwnedByFerrets]

23. K & R

[KillCapitalism]

24. Ignoring our infrastructure + overpopulation/urban sprawl played a role.

I wonder what the traffic flow in vehicles per day was in 1967 vs. 2007. I'm not sure you could find such stats, but I'm willing to bet it would be at least 250% higher today than in 1967 with the explosive population growth and urban sprawl we've experienced in the last 40 years.

[troubleinwinter]

26. You forgot the dams.

I recall a report perhaps 2 years ago about how many dams are aging and weakened and in danger of collapse.