NationStates Jolt Archive

...said his transportation chief, who flew with the president on Air Force One [over the collapsed bridge]. Yeah, buddy they had at least 2-5 years warning that the bridge was in danger of structural failure. There's a bridge in NJ that they showed on the news that I apparently have been on that is also rusting and decaying. WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY!!!

Link (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070804/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush)

MINNEAPOLIS - Flying over Minneapolis' collapsed highway bridge, President Bush got a bird's-eye view Saturday of the concrete slabs and twisted steel that once spanned the Mississippi River.

The president's Marine One helicopter circled the site several times during a 10-minute tour, allowing him to gaze down upon the muddy waters where some bodies are trapped. He saw pieces of the highway littered with vehicles, including a school bus hugging a guard rail. Rescue boats below helped in the search for victims.

Later, Bush put on an orange and red hard hat and walked around the bridge site. Yards from the school bus, he stood with Gary Babineau, a construction worker who helped rescue children after the collapse.

Bush also planned to receive briefings on recovery efforts and meet with families and some of the victims.

Still criticized for his administration's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina, Bush hurried to Minnesota soon after the I-35W bridge buckled on Wednesday. The collapse sent dozens of cars sliding in the Mississippi River, killing at least five people and injuring about 100 others.

"Clearly, this was not something that we expected to happen," said his transportation chief, who flew with the president on Air Force One.

In his weekly radio address, tape Friday and released before the trip, Bush said: "This is a difficult time for the community in Minneapolis, but the people there are decent and resilient, and they will get through these painful hours."

In Washington, Congress sought to direct $250 million to rebuild the bridge. A final vote was needed in the House on Saturday, but Congress would have to appropriate the money in future legislation.

Federal transportation officials have announced plans to investigate the agency responsible for inspecting highway bridges. (Do they even know what it is?) The inspector general for the Transportation Department said the inquiry would focus on the Federal Highway Administration's inspection program and ways to improve the agency's oversight of more than 70,000 bridges that have been found structurally deficient.

Federal and state officials, meanwhile, are working with the National Transportation Safety Board to understand why the bridge collapsed.

"I don't want to speculate before they get in and complete their work about what the cause was, but clearly this was not something that we expected to happen given the history of this bridge, the inspection process and how this bridge was rated," Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said during the flight with Bush to Minnesota.

She spoke about the need to find better ways in the future to prioritize spending on roads, bridges and other public works.

"We certainly have aging infrastructure here in the United States ... but I do believe that American highways and bridges are safe," Peters said. "But certainly we need to look to the future and make sure that we are spending our money where we need to be spending the money." (instead of on nonsense wars and pork?)

First lady Laura Bush visited Minneapolis on Friday to survey the wreckage. "Unbelievable," she said as she stood on a hill beside the eight-lane span, which once carried 141,000 vehicles a day.

The government has announced a $5 million grant to help remove tons of debris and reroute traffic from the major artery in and out of Minneapolis. The White House said the president would support the necessary funding to get the span quickly rebuilt.

"This is just the beginning of the financial assistance we will make available to support the state in its recovery efforts," Bush said.

Every time a disaster occurs in the U.S., the administration's reaction is compared with its slow response to Katrina, which devastated the Gulf Coast in August 2005.

In March, Bush visited survivors of tornadoes that ripped through Alabama and Georgia. In April, he offered words of hope at Virginia Tech after a gunman killed 32 people and committed suicide. In May, Bush went to Kansas after a tornado wiped out the tiny town of Greensburg.

This'll probably get merged, but whatever...

this really just shows that we need to stop interfering the problems of the outside world, until we fix our own problems here at home. health care, social security, education, and our infrastructure could all benefit from the money that goes to iraq

I'm just happily suprised they've not tried to blame "Terrorists".....

this really just shows that we need to stop interfering the problems of the outside world, until we fix our own problems here at home. health care, social security, education, and our infrastructure could all benefit from the money that goes to iraq

I'm just happily suprised they've not tried to blame "Terrorists".....

Says it all really.

Roads and bridges will never be brought up to speed - it will cost billions of dollars and thanks to Reagan and subsequent GOP candidates, people believe taxes are the work of the devil and will be appalled that nothing has been done but will be damned if they pay any more taxes to get anything done. I guess they will wait for money to "trickle down" into the bridges and repair them by bonding to the steel.

Roads and bridges will never be brought up to speed - it will cost billions of dollars and thanks to Reagan and subsequent GOP candidates, people believe taxes are the work of the devil and will be appalled that nothing has been done but will be damned if they pay any more taxes to get anything done. I guess they will wait for money to "trickle down" into the bridges and repair them by bonding to the steel.

while I would generally agree with you TPH... here it's the opposite. our GOP Govenor wants to use the Highway Funds to repair our roadways and bridges but our Dem controlled state senate and house wants to use the Highway funds to fund one time studies and projects that would better be funded by special funds or general funding.

Roads and bridges will never be brought up to speed - it will cost billions of dollars and thanks to Reagan and subsequent GOP candidates, people believe taxes are the work of the devil and will be appalled that nothing has been done but will be damned if they pay any more taxes to get anything done. I guess they will wait for money to "trickle down" into the bridges and repair them by bonding to the steel.

Yes, thats obviously the problem. Not incompetence or stupidity or anything.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN -- The Department of Homeland Security announced today that yet another evil terrorist plot has been foiled thanks to increased surveillance authorized by the Bush administration. An interstate bridge on route 35 West in Minneapolis had collapsed on its own, preventing terrorists from blowing it up just moments later. One witness stated, "The bridge made a loud rumbling sound as it fell," and a civil engineer was quoted as saying, "the bridge became unstable just before it collapsed." Sources at Fark.com and The Daily Kos have concluded that the collapse was yet another false flag attack against American citizens at the hands of the current administration and Halliburton.

Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff revealed that counter-intelligence message interceptions (recovered from an iPod in Cuba) indicated that Al Qaeda affiliated terrorists were in the midst of executing a sophisticated operation to bomb that very bridge "sometime later on the very same day." But thanks to shoddy construction work being done on the structure, the bridge prematurely collapsed into the Mississippi on its own. An anonymous source, Charles Pugh, was on the scene and confirmed that the bridge collapsed just moments before a group of thirty Middle Eastern men arrived with jackhammers. "It's another victory in the war on terror," declared President Bush in an evening speech to the nation, comparing it to the steampipe explosion in Manhattan two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, a Taliban spokesperson familiar with the plot to blow up the bridge was dismayed, saying "To be honest, this rush-hour collapse was more effective than anything we could have planned." Osama Bin Laden is reportedly already scripting a new audio tape urging his followers not to give up, but to learn from this failure.

Republicans seized the opportunity to point out that recent budget allocations have helped protect the country from this being a terrorist attack. White House press secretary Tony Snow explained, "By taking money away from the federal transportation budget, the resulting underfunded construction work on the bridge helped it collapse on its own, before the terrorists could get to it." He went on to emphasize that the Iraq War was is an integral part of the War on Terror, as it allows terrorist to "blow up bridges over there, so they don't have to blow them up over here."

Source: Un-News (http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)

Logically, if a bridge is disfunctional enough that it needs work done on it (and they were working on it at the time of the collapse, which is why only two lanes were open), IT SHOULD BE OFF-LIMITS! I can see them applying it to other things as well...

"David Beckham's right arm is dislocated? That's okay -- soccer doesn't use arms, so we can operate on him during his next game!"

"The leftmost engine on our B747 won't work, but that's okay -- we can have people work on it while it transports people using the other engines!"

"Energy consumption is near the limit, so I think we'd better keep the nuclear power plant up and running while they replace the radiation shielding!"

Okay, maybe I'm stretching it a little, but..

I love how people are blaming this on Bush.

The bridge was the responsibility of the State of Minnesota. All the Federal Government does is inspect the bridges and let the state know the results of the inspection. They did their job.

The state of Minnesota fucked up and decided they would rather spend money on three new stadiums to replace the only 25 year old Metrodome. The total estimated costs of those three stadiums is over $1.7 billion. Most of which is publicly funded. I'd love to see how this is somehow Bush's fault.

Logically, if a bridge is disfunctional enough that it needs work done on it (and they were working on it at the time of the collapse, which is why only two lanes were open), IT SHOULD BE OFF-LIMITS! I can see them applying it to other things as well...

Actually, the 'work being done on it' was resurfacing. so to your analogy...

"we need to lay down another layer of asphalt. close the road completely!"

Huzzah for the all knowing, all powerful Government! HUZZAH! :rolleyes:

Roads and bridges will never be brought up to speed - it will cost billions of dollars and thanks to Reagan and subsequent GOP candidates, people believe taxes are the work of the devil and will be appalled that nothing has been done but will be damned if they pay any more taxes to get anything done. I guess they will wait for money to "trickle down" into the bridges and repair them by bonding to the steel.

I'd much rather we just don't spend the 100 billion we're wasting in Iraq in Iraq, and instead use it to work on America's infrastructure instead of raising taxes.

We've got the money, we're just dithering it away abroad.

I'd much rather we just don't spend the 100 billion we're wasting in Iraq in Iraq, and instead use it to work on America's infrastructure instead of raising taxes.

We've got the money, we're just dithering it away abroad.

We dither it away on the military in general, not just abroad.

Logically, if a bridge is disfunctional enough that it needs work done on it (and they were working on it at the time of the collapse, which is why only two lanes were open), IT SHOULD BE OFF-LIMITS! I can see them applying it to other things as well...

"David Beckham's right arm is dislocated? That's okay -- soccer doesn't use arms, so we can operate on him during his next game!"

"The leftmost engine on our B747 won't work, but that's okay -- we can have people work on it while it transports people using the other engines!"

"Energy consumption is near the limit, so I think we'd better keep the nuclear power plant up and running while they replace the radiation shielding!"

Okay, maybe I'm stretching it a little, but..

I love analogies. :)

I love how people are blaming this on Bush.

The bridge was the responsibility of the State of Minnesota. All the Federal Government does is inspect the bridges and let the state know the results of the inspection. They did their job.

The state of Minnesota fucked up and decided they would rather spend money on three new stadiums to replace the only 25 year old Metrodome. The total estimated costs of those three stadiums is over $1.7 billion. Most of which is publicly funded. I'd love to see how this is somehow Bush's fault.

Who blamed Bush? I'm poking at the ignorance of a Bush official that there were warning signs and then they go and say there weren't.

What do you expect from American sports? lol

I'd much rather we just don't spend the 100 billion we're wasting in Iraq in Iraq, and instead use it to work on America's infrastructure instead of raising taxes.

We've got the money, we're just dithering it away abroad.
Whether or not we were in Iraq, money would be going to the military.

...said his transportation chief, who flew with the president on Air Force One [over the collapsed bridge]. Yeah, buddy they had at least 2-5 years warning that the bridge was in danger of structural failure. There's a bridge in NJ that they showed on the news that I apparently have been on that is also rusting and decaying. WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY!!!

Link (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070804/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush)



This'll probably get merged, but whatever...

Not expected to happen? You've been getting warnings for years, dipshits! Please don't come up with lame excuses like that.

Whether or not we were in Iraq, money would be going to the military.

In addition to regular military spending, we've spent like $500B in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The problem with infrastructure repair is that it's just not a 'sexy' budget item.

Cities have budgets for things like this. It has nothing to do with the money going to fund the war.

this really just shows that we need to stop interfering the problems of the outside world, until we fix our own problems here at home. health care, social security, education, and our infrastructure could all benefit from the money that goes to iraq

Cities have budgets for things like this. It has nothing to do with the money going to fund the war.

And the money that is bonded to infrastructure usually is driven to the general fund via way of the governor/mayor using his financial emergency clause that allows local and state governments to dump funds from bonds and dump them into the general fund.

It's really silly. The ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) released a study that shows that 37 percent of bridges are structurally deficient. I would like to see:

-that study
-the ASCE definition of structurally deficient
-if they mean only bridges and not overcrosses

In addition to regular military spending, we've spent like $500B in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the last 5 years? Please tell me you don't think that's a large number. We've probably dedicated about that amount to general infrastructure demands over the last 5 years.

Cities have budgets for things like this. It has nothing to do with the money going to fund the war.

What are you talking about? NYC can't even pay its police officers a decent starting salary. They keep losing Homeland Security money, despite being on TOP of every terrorism hit list, above or equal to DC.

In the last 5 years? Please tell me you don't think that's a large number. We've probably dedicated about that amount to general infrastructure demands over the last 5 years.

Your point?

What are you talking about? NYC can't even pay its police officers a decent starting salary. They keep losing Homeland Security money, despite being on TOP of every terrorism hit list, above or equal to DC.

The Department of Homeland Security has nothing to do with infrastructure of the nation.

Your point?

$500 billion doesn't buy as much as you think. Hell, consider our balooning Defense budget (how much is that at currently, btw?). We spend A THIRD of that shipping oil from the Middle East.

Aside from any of that, there's a seperate budget for the infrastructure of the nation, so no, saying that "Iraq War moneys = Less for Infrastructure" fails.

Actually this is the one time I'm blaming minnesota, not Bush. Pay clsoe attaneiton, sicne Atma NOT blamingBush is a very rare event.

And I don't know abotu how they do things where you are, but over here they close down the section of the roads they're working on it. Not far from my house, for example, they had to do work on a bridge a few years ago. Instead of just closing down one of the lanes, they made a temporary metal bridge and rerouted traffic to it so there was no risk of what happened to the minnesotan bridge.

It is really pathetic that people are using this to criticize Bush or complain about Iraq. Doing stupid things like that just lower your credibility.

There are a lot of bridges in the US that have serious problems because they are old and in serious need of attention. State governments are responsible for making sure they are in good repair and have the funding.

I live near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (William Preston Lane Jr Memorial bridge for you pedants) which is in desperate condition. I would not be surprised if the older eastbound span collapsed at any time. The MTA collects a lot of money in bridge tolls but it all gets spent on other programs while the bridge is never properly repaired. Corruption is rife in Maryland, so work contracts on the bridge go to cronies who do shoddy work for vastly inflated prices.

It is almost constantly being worked on - but again, slow and shoddy work by cronies. When they screw up and do something wrong, they still get paid and get a new contract to repair what they did wrong the first time.

Traffic exceeded capacity long ago, so closing even one lane for work causes massive traffic jams. The two spans are 4.4 miles long and go over a major shipping lane - not exactly a situation easily remedied. The problem with the east bound now is with the actual pylons - not something you can really fix - the bridge needs replacement.

We've got the money, we're just dithering it away abroad.
Who doesnt like dithering a broad?

The Department of Homeland Security has nothing to do with infrastructure of the nation.
You're attacking an irrelevant part. The other guy said cities have money for this when they don't.

$500 billion doesn't buy as much as you think. Hell, consider our balooning Defense budget (how much is that at currently, btw?). We spend A THIRD of that shipping oil from the Middle East.

Aside from any of that, there's a seperate budget for the infrastructure of the nation, so no, saying that "Iraq War moneys = Less for Infrastructure" fails.

It buys a lot of better stuff than the enormous costs to come from Iraq and Afghanistan.