Read it and weap

[autorank]

It is time to pay our debt to ourselves and our children. Repairing our infrastructure is a great opportunity to shift to positive growth. But first, the "report card." Michael Collins

Fractured Priorities -- USA Gets a D in Infrastructure

While Wall Street gangsters raided the Treasury and Bush-Cheney invested over a trillion in destroying then "rebuilding" Iraq, the bridges, levees, power grid, and other vital elements of the United States infrastructure moved to a point of near collapse.


American Society of Civil Engineers

The Obama infrastructure package contains $300 plus billion to start this repair process. This is the first comprehensive program for infrastructure since the mid 1950's and a down payment on the $2.2 trillion required for the entire project.

Here's what we face according to the association representing engineers who will get the job done.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0902/S00017.htm

Also at: BuzzFlash.Net, American Politics Journal, SmirkingChimp.Com, e PluribusMedia, OpEdNews.Com, &
The Agonist

Michael Collins

[liberal N proud]

1. And the republican assholes would rather give more tax cuts

The just don't get it!

These things need to be addressed and funded. Funding projects to take care of these things will stimulate jobs which in turn will stimulate more jobs and the economy.


We must stop the republican assholes from preventing this further. The economy needs these deficiencies addressed, the country needs these things addressed.

[NashVegas]

3. Schools, Definitely

As noted in the OP header.

[autorank]

4. Truly and without doubt

"The forces of denial and failure may have lost an election but they're alive due to the Wall Street welfare program for their loyal patrons. Like sharks in a feeding frenzy, the Republicans were in lock step unity in opposing the rebuilding effort. Their alternative -- do nothing!" Fractured Priorities

[NOW tense]

2. C+ for Solid Waste! Isn't that where the tax cuts go?

[autorank]

5. rofl

The wasteful and useless non productive segment of the economy - PonziLand;)

[cascadiance]

9. If it's getting rid of solid waste in our infrastructure then it should be an F-!

There's so much crap that this last administration has filled our government and nation's infrastructure with now!

[autorank]

16. Bush Administration & Fellow Travelers - "F-" - expelled from school

Hey, there's an idea. Instead of criminal cases etc. against these folks, Congress could
just declare them persona non grata. They'd just have to get the heck out of the country,
period. It's unambiguous and final.

[cascadiance]

20. This is the only kind of "fitting tribute" that these wastoids deserve...

http://sfist.com/2008/03/31/presidential_me_1.php

[Greyhound]

6. Since the 50s is the key phrase here, IMO. n/t

[autorank]

15. Right, Ike did a bunch of stuff under the banner of national defense

Interstates galore and he did schools under that notion too - catch up with the ruskies!

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/rw96j.htm

[NMDemDist2]

7. sorry, it's "weep"

:cry:

[autorank]

14. That will teach me to use spell check one last time;)

[Blue-Jay]

8. I'm "weaping" as I type this.

:cry:

[ihavenobias]

10. K & R.

This topic can't be discussed enough, even though it's not "sexy".

[Me.]

11. London Bridge Isn't The Only One Falling Down

We need the whole shebang fixed, right across the country and one stimulus bill isn't going to do it either and...let's also get rid of the notion of privatizing roads etc.

As for the Gopers, their pick of Steele tells me they will never change. He has been shooting his mouth off and it is as plain as day that he's no Obama so as far as I'm concerned they can keep their noses out of our way forward.

"European leaders are trembling", riots are starting to break out all over the place. Take head.

[autorank]

17. That's how it started before the last big depression

Will Robers came back from Europe and said how much worse it was and he hoped we'd do something
about it but - alas - Hooverism. But we're on a roll here. This is just the deposit on the
larger job. The Repubs know that whih is why they're so nasty about everything. He's got them
turning down the "bipartisan" deal and tagging them with Rush (Oxy) Limbaugh as their leader.
Obama needs somebody in the WH he can share his thoughts with - like how stupid the Repubs are;)

[Me.]

21. That Would Be Take Heed

World leaders are also dumb as sticks. They're in Davos bemoaning those Americans, who had a financial strategy/structure that they adopted and followed and now it's all falling apart.

[pleah]

12. I wish the dems would just tell the thugs to STFU and pass the

the thing already.

[autorank]

13. I agree

I think that this 'bi partisan' offer was made by Obama with the knowledge that the robots couldn't play
ball. Now the public saw that they had a chance and did nothing! Compassionate Chicago style;)
although I wouldn't mind a little fast Eddy Vrdolyak style now and then (or from now on).

[DemReadingDU]

18. Fixing infrastructure would put thousands to work

People need jobs to earn money to pay the bills.


:hi:

[Joe Chi Minh]

19. ... and paying taxes, if paid enough, creating a virtuous circle throughout,

in any case.

[wiggs]

22. Curious: what percentage of the stimulus package goes toward these

infrastructure projects?

[kster]

23. K&R.nt

[MagickMuffin]

24. From Meet the Press: John Kerry vs. Kay Bailey Hutchison

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28964188/

partial transcript below:

SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON (R-TX): You know, David, that's the key point. I think we need to take a look at the big picture and really look at what this bill does, and the amount of it. Eight hundred billion dollars, we're talking about basically a trillion when you add the interest, on top of a $10 trillion debt. We need to look at the enormity of it. And everyone agrees that we need stimulus. We do. But when we're talking about redoing this bill, if we're talking about just adding more, I think we will be wasting a lot of money and adding to the debt. My focus would be on more infrastructure; I agree with Senator Kerry and others. For instance, military construction, that is one of the points that we have $7 billion out of 800 billion in this bill. It's something that we're going to do anyway. I think we could have a policy of looking at the spending for infrastructure that is going to be needed, but we move it up, rather than things that might be temporary or create temporary jobs that wouldn't lead to a future. Military spending, military construction, those are going to be jobs in America. And we can look at the five-year plan that the Department of Defense already has and let's just move up everything that is ready right now.

On the other hand, on tax cuts, I think tax cuts should be strong, I think they should be a lot and I think they should be something that will have an impact.

MR. GREGORY: Right.

SEN. HUTCHISON: Five hundred dollars a person hasn't worked. We've got to do something that makes business want to create jobs.


SEN. HUTCHISON: Well, yes. But I hope that the jobs would be created in the private sector so that they would continue in the economy. We're talking about a quick fix that does make people start investing again, and, and tax cuts. If you talk about 2001 after 9/11, it was the tax cuts that stimulated the economy and started the stock market to go in the right direction, and then capital spending and then the economy was going in the right direction. So I think tax cuts cannot be forgotten as stimulus. But when you're talking about the spending...


SEN. HUTCHISON: It is the tax cuts that caused the economy to start going in the right direction. It was the 15 percent capital gains and dividends break that made people go back into the stock market. It was lowering everyone's tax bracket. It was having $1,000 per child tax credit and lowering the marriage penalty. Those are good tax cuts. And I disagree with Senator Kerry. On the last eight years we have increased spending. We've increasing--increased spending on military, certainly the war on terror has had a lot of infrastructure and buying of equipment for the war on terror. We have neglected our highways. *The Highway Trust Fund has increased exponentially. I think that what we're talking about now is not the result of low taxes, it is the result of the, the mortgage crisis and the subprime lending and these derivative packages that the fancy people on Wall Street started putting together...

* The Highway Trust Fund: The Loop 820 highway in Northern Tarrant County is suppose to be expanded from a 4 lane highway to 10 lanes which 4.5 miles of this highway will become a Toll Road. This Loop has been neglected for over 20 years, this was supposed to have been expanded 10 years ago, but it has been constantly delayed. This part of the County has grown so much that the highway can not support the cars that travel on it daily. The traffic IS so bad there are wrecks on this stretch daily.

If the Highway Trust Fund is doing sooo well then how come Loop 820 is considering bids from foreign countries :shrug:


But you noticed KBH only cares about the military and Stock Market. Her husband represented one of the biggest frauds in December 2001 ENRON. I'm sure the Hutchison's made out like bandits on Enron jerking over their employees pensions, and the "investors" by their actions.

Also she was the Junior Senator from Texas when her buddy Phil Gramm decided that there shouldn't be ANY government regulations. We now see where that got us, into the state of affairs we are now experiencing.


Heaven help us if she wins the Texas Governors office. Because she doesn't know the First thing about governing.


Thanks for posting:hi:

[autorank]

28. Thats wild

I ran into her at DFW in about '92. What an imperious person she is, like she owned the airport.

Nobody paid attention to her.

Foreign firms bidding on the roads there, now that's not nice is it.

:hi:

[DCKit]

31. I just watched that this morning....

and I couldn't believe nobody called her on her unmitigated bullshit.

However, I did notice that John Kerry looked as if he was in acute pain.

[cherish44]

25. Geez that's pathetic

Oh I thought that was George W. Bush's 8th grade report card...


Seriously though, why wasn't this problem taken care of years ago BEFORE this country was in a depression?

[autorank]

29. Good point...

Why wasn't it taken care of ... because infrastructure doesn't vote. It's more productive
to enable Wall Street theft

Enough already!

[BeFree]

30. Land of the free....

....and home of the brave.

Yep, we are free to ignore all these problems.

And gawd are we brave to go on living like there are no problems?
America IS populated by some special folks, eh?

At least, for today, I see no shadow. That means 6 weeks of.... what?
I wonder about Obama, did he see his shadow today? Did he watch the game last night?
Does he know he has some real enemies in the beltway?

So, the question is: what can we do to help him?

[liberalla]

26. Thank you for writing this and creating an easily understood,

concise, explanatory article. This is perfect for sending to friends who are awaking from their Republican coma (or slumber/hangover).

Big thumbs up! :thumbsup:

K & R, too. :)

[lonestarnot]

27. A casualty due to gas line infrastructure occurred just this a.m., private residence

klablooey. Outta here.

[AtomicKitten]

32. It will be hard for the wingnuts to argue against infrastructure.

Although I fully expect them to try to make room for another shot at implementing their stale trickle-down tax cut scheme.

K&R

Your first photo says it all:

[Occam Bandage]

33. That casts some pretty hardcore asparagus on our infrastructure system. nt

[KoKo]

34. Kick because this could get lost in the frenzy.........

:kick:

[stellanoir]

35. Ahhhhhhhhh our crumbling infrastructure is so heartwarming.

You forgot the Big Dig debacle brought to us through the wonders of Bechtel.

Then there is the DOT in my dinky state that replaced a bridge with. pilons that had 8 foot air pockets which required more than the cost of the pilons to repair.

Yikes.

Or the new bridge in Providencia which as my elder bro noticed had bolts disconnected at weld joints.

Ahhh that would be two months after its installation.

The world is riddled with graft and incompetance.

Cheers.

[autorank]

36. Graft, incompetence ... what state are you in young lady;)

:hi:

[stellanoir]

38. today

I seem to be in a state of perpetual motion thus far.

They had to destroy the bridge that the air pocket bridge replaced. It had been designed by Monsieur Eiffel of the Eiffel Tower fame.

So we had a blown up bridge BBQ on the shore at which we had a real blast. LOL

As Dr. Who used to say and I used to quote to my son when he was little and something broke "entropy is a galactic problem."

:hi: back atchya

[Two Americas]

37. see if I can bail you out here, auto

"Weap" really should be a word, in my opinion. Pretty rare that any arrangement of consonant(s)-vowel-vowel-consonant(s) is not a word in English.

I mean, come on! We have reap, leap, steep, jeep, creep, seed, deaf, weed, head, stead, read, dead, beep, and on and on.

Besides, "weap" looks like it should be a word.

Did a little research, and "weap" is only used as an acronym. There are two examples:

- Women’s Economic Agenda Project

- Workshop Editor Appreciation Program

Now, I think we can work either of those into your meaning, somehow.

"Read it and show auto's editor some appreciation!"

"Read it and support the Women’s Economic Agenda Project!"

But wait! I have it!

We Enjoy Autorank's Posts (WEAP)

"weap" - verb. The act of collectively reading and enjoying the work of a particular online writer.

So come on, folks. Read it and weap!