That bridge collapse was horrific and spectacular but there is a more important point

[Skidmore]

to be hammered home and is one that I revisit from time to time. It is concerning our public priorities and keeping people employed in our cities and towns. First, we have an infrastructure that we are unwilling to spend money to maintain or repair, quite often being willing to not repair a bridge or a road or a public facility over putting up funds to attract a stadium or a conference center. This has got to stop! Second, we could keep a substantial number of people employed to restore our infrastructure or building new infrastructure. It is essential to national security and to the common good of the people of this nation that we have a functioning and well-maintained infrastructure.

Now, can we get our "leaders" attention? How many more people must die before we learn to invest in our nation's infrastructure and our future. Katrina and now this--both huge failures of infrastructure. It is not a matter a slapping a little asphalt into a pothole or shoring up a levee. We need to have a plan to clean our house and to redesign it around new energy alternatives. Beyond the rhetoric giving lip service to endlessly "exploring" possibilities that Congress gives, lies a whole world of harsh reality. I'm demanding that policy be established which get action going on these critical issues. Energy and infrastructure, and when I call my elected reps, I'm gonna link it to jobs.

[Horse with no Name]

1. As long as there are Republicans, DINO's, Blue Dogs and the DLC

our infrastructure will continue to decay. They are only willing to spend money on war.
When the plastic money is gone...people are finally going to wake up and feel the burn and there won't be anything we can do.
This drunk bastard in the WH has wiped out our entire Savings Account and is in the process of breaking open all the piggybanks in the house. There won't even be pennies left to be rolled when they are through.

[malaise]

6. Bingo

The Federal government rated this bridge structurally deficient in 2005. They're going to get what's coming to them.

http://www.startribune.com/10204/story/1338970.html
<snip>
The highway bridge that collapsed into the Mississippi River on Wednesday was rated as "structurally deficient" two years ago and possibly in need of replacement.

That rating was contained in the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Bridge Inventory database.

Many other bridges nationwide carry the same designation that the I-35W bridge received, Aamodt said.

A score of 80 percent or less indicates some rehabilitation may be needed; a 50 percent score or less indicates replacement may be in order.

The I-35W bridge was rated at 50 percent. The rating data was provided to the Star Tribune by the National Institute of Computer Assisted Reporting.

The inventory data also summarize the bridge's status as "structurally deficient." Bridge components are ranked on a scale of 0 to 9, with 0 being "failed" and 9 being "excellent."

In 2005, the bridge's superstructure -- meaning the physical conditions of all structural members -- was rated at 4, records show.
------------------------------

The loss of life here will be small compared to what will happen in the future. Fugg all neo-cons and fugg MSM who are so preoccupied with bullshit while the country is going to hell in a bread basket. The Association of Civil Engineers also said that 27% of bridges have serious problems.

[Horse with no Name]

7. Weren't the levees in NOLA rated deficient by their standards too?

The republicans have done a great job of selling taxes as strictly welfare to the American people and the Democrats have done a piss poor job in explaining that it also goes to the infrastructure of keeping our country in safe and good working order.
What should make millions of people angry is the money that was funded to "The Bridge to Nowhere" could have gone a long way in fixing this bridge. More people were killed today than would have been served by that particular pork barrel bridge.
But like Katrina, the anger will wane when the next celebrity gets a DWI.

[malaise]

10. Putting government in a bathtub

means putting citizens in rivers.

All of MSM bawling about infrastructural deterioration today have been silent for years.

[WilliamPitt]

19. Even simpler

As long as we're on a wartime economic footing, etc...

[Solly Mack]

2. "How many more people must die ..." You're asking a nation that

is killing its own troops ,as well as the Iraqi people(and not just Iraqis), for lies and trumped up evidence.

Such a nation doesn't care how many people die...for whatever reason.

[Ganja Ninja]

3. Yup! Always plenty of money when it comes to helping an oil ...

company get access to a well field. Never any money to take care of Americans.

[Robbien]

4. The last transportation bill passed in Congress was just lobbyist pork

It was the largest transportation bill ever with almost none going to repair roads and bridges.

[rodeodance]

5. I think Kerry--and now Edwards do great work in their campaigns in linking

energy and jobs-------putting the nation to work for our present and our future

........Energy and infrastructure, and when I call my elected reps, I'm gonna link it to jobs.

[radfringe]

8. unless the republics can steer this work to their buddies

and collect a "referral fee" they will whine about raising taxes

[Skidmore]

12. The Republic callers on CSPAN this morning are whining about

whether people "want the government to take care of them" or to take care of themselves. That the economy is doing just great. Well, people in a functioning society are part of a collective whole in which each person makes a contributiont the functioning of that society. This type of labelling by the Republics is exactly why people don't step up to the plate and vote in their own interests.

[DUlover2909]

9. 2 trillion wasted in Iraq

might do some good to many domestic programs like our infrastructure. But Bush is playing his little game of RISK in real life, so we can all just suck it until he's done.

[LibDemAlways]

17. Welcome to DU. Couldn't agree more. Unfortunately those

who vote "R" don't understand that the "smaller government" they crow about comes at the expense of their own safety and well-being. Getting people to vote for their self-interest should be a no-brainer, but the propagandists have them convinced that killing Iraqis is more important than looking out for the interests of Americans here at home.

[liberal N proud]

11. We will see other infrastructure failures before this is corrected

Our systems have been neglected by these "less government" republicons for so long. This bridge is not alone, there are thousands of others.
And bridges are not the only thing that have been neglected. This nation is falling apart because of poor maintenance practices.

[Bitwit1234]

13. Add the people of Minnesota to the list

of destruction caused by crumbling infrastructer, that could have been fixed if all our taxpayers money hadn't been funneled to Iraq, FOR THE BENEFIT OF BUSH'S FAMILY AND FRIENDS.

[Norrin Radd]

14. k+r

[DeSwiss]

15. It was the first thing that came to my mind too... n/t

[Psyop Samurai]

16. Oh, but you see, these are all "unintended consequences"...

...nobody could have predicted. (Nevermind published reports) "Mistakes were made".

Can you imagine accepting such excuses from a teenager?

No, it is all perfectly predictable, and it is all clearly connected.

I call deliberate treason - on ALL of it.

[LibDemAlways]

18. As long as people continue to value "no new taxes"

and vote for repukes who promise "smaller government," we can only expect more of the same.

Of course you are absolutely right about the need for a functioning and well-maintained infrastructure, but getting people to make it a priority and vote for rather than against their own self interest is a big hurdle to overcome.

[Terri S]

20. $100,000 a minute for the war in Iraq

This bridge disaster was actually the tip of the iceberg. Everything is falling apart at home, while all these obscene amounts of money are squandered on a trumped up war that's been f'ed up at every point. Death and destruction in Iraq is just part of the death and destruction caused by this administration's policies. When in God/ess's name is ANYONE....ANYONE AT ALL going to get to the public airwaves and shout it to the mountain tops!! And the SOB * had the freaking audacity to say the bridge collapse was the DEMS fault for not giving him an adequate budget???!!!!!

:grr::grr::grr::grr::grr: