Thursday, August 02, 2007

White House to MN: It's your own fault

I've tried to move beyond the anger of the first year or more of this blog, but I simply can't help it tonight.

The first response from the Bush White House to the tragedy in Minnesota:

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the Interstate 35W span rated 50 on a scale of 120 for structural stability. "This doesn't mean there was a risk of failure, but if if an inspection report identifies deficiencies, the state is responsible for taking corrective actions," [White House spokesman Tony Snow] said.
Not our problem, dude. Is this a great country. Or what.

My other issue (already raised by other bloggers including Dangerblonde and People Get Ready) was the comparison to other major failures of public engineering. Among those mentioned were the Big Dig failure in Massachusetts and the explosion of an aging gas line in Manhattan.

One other small example of a public engineering failure, one which took over 1,700 lives and did over $100 billion in damage, wasn't mentioned.






Thanks for remembering, America.

Friday Morning Update: Thank you Rod Diridon of Marketplace, the NPR business show.

[Host Kai] Ryssdal: It's worth mentioning that it's not just bridges, as tragic as yesterday's incident was. It's water supplies and tunnels. It's the steam pipe that exploded in New York City a couple of weeks ago.

Diridon: It's the levees that we've recognized as being deficient in New Orleans. ...


// posted by Mark Folse @ 5:42 PM
Comments:
On the evening news it was stated that 30 people are missing.....my first thought was

I hope they won't still be finding bodies a year from now.

Yes, and it still pisses me off that so many in this country STILL don't know it was the levees, stupid, not the storm.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 7:02 PM CDT
 
The problem in this country is that the ruling elite, that 2% who own everything, cannot bring themselves to accept the Social Contract that the rest of us live under and respect.

Infrastructure is a necessity and a right. It also must be maintained.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 4:15 PM CDT
 
The Wall Street Journal story on the bridge collapse as it relates to recent infrastructure problems and the latest Time cover story both make the point that the levees failed.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 12:21 PM CDT
 
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