LarryMullen's POPAngel
Blue Crack Distributor
A_Wanderer said:There is no such thing as a bridge that can't fail.
This is true, but how about giving proper funding so that they can be made safer? Who is going to argue against that?
A_Wanderer said:There is no such thing as a bridge that can't fail.
A_Wanderer said:There is no such thing as a bridge that can't fail.
phillyfan26 said:
Did you hear the woman in the article I posted?
phillyfan26 said:
I'm not a liberal, so that whole partisan argument of yours can fly out the window.
Snowlock said:
I'm not arguing that. If the states need the funding they should get it. I think "need" needs to be defined and to us layman it isn't yet. But this has nothing to do with the war in Iraq.
phillyfan26 said:
I don't think the War matters much at all. I think it matters a little bit in any situation involving budget, but really it doesn't touch this issue too much. I didn't bring it up. I certainly don't think it had anything to do with this collapse.
But it's not solely a state issue. The federal government needs to step up in a much bigger way.
Actually, we're in tremendous debt. Which means we cut back on things we need, and continue to spend on what we don't. That's politics, baby.
phillyfan26 said:
I don't think the War matters much at all. I think it matters a little bit in any situation involving budget, but really it doesn't touch this issue too much. I didn't bring it up. I certainly don't think it had anything to do with this collapse.
But it's not solely a state issue. The federal government needs to step up in a much bigger way.
Snowlock said:You're response here was to mine saying there's no need to politicize this. The implication of the statement is our bridges are in disrepair due to a lack of funds generated by Iraq. That directly implicates/involves Iraq.
But I'm not going to argue with you over what we were arguing over.
unico said:
no i think you had a very good point about all the infrastructure building our administration is so focused on over there, and yet i've yet to see the same quality of improvements on our own.
how about them levees?????
unico said:
1. you realize it was scheduled to be rebuilt/replaced in 2020 right?
2. this one sure needs fixing now, doesn't it? are we going to wait until more bridges fall before more funding goes into the transportation dept? YES, other bridges around the nation are going to be inspected, but as ntalwar said, the president did not say he will increase funds to other rebuilding efforts beyond MN. he didn't say that he wouldn't, but so far he hasn't said that he would.
3. what?
4. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-2388 is this the bill you're speaking of? i hope not, because in bold print it says "this bill never became law"
LarryMullen's_POPAngel said:
Sarcasm directed towards posters who obviously haven't read or watched a single news item about the war and saying "haha that bridge collapsed" are so far apart in terms of everything I won't even bother trying to explain it to you. Obviously you skew things to suit your way of thinking which, from what I've seen this morning, is quite warped.
phillyfan26 said:
Well, I think, because of our political system, this issue will get delayed and complicated, like most issues. That's my issue here. It's unfortunate. I think it's something we need to fix now.
arw9797 said:I haven't bothered to read all of the bickering comments. I came to this thread because people died a few days ago....15 minutes from where I live on a bridge I drove on all the time. I don't care what you think about the government or President Bush or the Iraq war. Please show some respect to those that have to deal with this tragedy. My entire city is in mourning right now.
I do not look at this as government problem or a lack of anything by anyone. I've lived in the Twin Cities my entire life and they are always doing road constuction to make the roads better. I've traveled all over the country and I can't say the same for some of the places I've been to. I've traveled on roads that look like they've been in need of repair for years. Here, if there's a hole, it's fixed immediately. We're taxed heavily for it but I'd rather the work get done then not. Our winters put a beating onto the roads, so where there's not ice on the roads, they're getting fixed. The bridge was being worked on. It's been under construction all summer. Thankfully because of that, only 1/2 of it was open to cars or more people could have been injured or died. The people working on it were just "patching it up" and didn't think it needed to be replaced for another 8-10 years. It's a MAJOR bridge in the Twin Cities. I refuse to believe that if the people put in charge of repairing this bridge knew it was unsafe, that they would let 100,000+ cars drive on this daily not to mention their crew working on it daily for the past few months. I also refuse to point the finger at the government on this. How was anyone to know that out of all of the unsafe bridges in the entire US that this one would fall? It was being repaired! Who cares when it was scheduled to be replaced? Do any of you have any idea what replacing this bridge would do to the traffic in this area? They have to be a replacement road and bridge before they could tear down this entire bridge and redo it. This isn't a tiny little bridge on a country road. My state government wasn't sitting back waiting for it to be 2020 in order to fix the bridge. They were planning how to route the traffic that would be affected. I've seen first hand how they do this because all they ever do in the Twin Cities is road construction. The highway in front of my house needed a new bridge and in order to to this they had to build a bridge around the bridge to accomodate the traffic. It took months to just build the temporary replacement. This bridge is nowhere near the scale of the 35W bridge.
Believe what you want. I don't care. You don't live here and don't have to deal with what's going on right now. Thanks for turning this thread into another debate about Iraq and W. He's going to be in town tomorrow. So not only do we have to deal with finding alternative roads to drive on to and from Minneapolis and St Paul but we have to deal with the road closures all along the way to the bridge because his high and mighty wants a tour of the damage. Awesome.
How was anyone to know that out of all of the unsafe bridges in the entire US that this one would fall? It was being repaired! Who cares when it was scheduled to be replaced? a
Do any of you have any idea what replacing this bridge would do to the traffic in this area?
Irvine511 said:i think we can safely say that much money is being wasted in Iraq that could be better used at home.
that is not to say that the bridge would not have fallen had Al Gore won the presidency in 2000, but it is to say that we have enormous problems to deal with here in the US regarding the safety of our citizens that actually aren't caused by nefarious "evildoers," and that this bridge is an example of a problem that America has to deal with -- crumbling infastructure -- that, to many, is far more pressing a need than removing a troublesome dictator and setting ourselves up for an impossible occupation and exploding the deficit.