(Graphic courtesy of Mike McIntee: mmcintee@mac.com Available as a bumpersticker at http://www.timescapemedia.com/Graphics/BumperSticker.jpg)
It may interest you all to know that the site of the I-35W bridge collapse has been designated as a crime scene:
There was some discussion about the area’s designation as a crime scene. While [Hennepin] County Commissioner Mark Stenglein (District 2) said he was “uncomfortable with that,” Jeremy Weiland, from the St. Anthony East neighborhood, said he was “very comfortable” with the designation. Weiland called the bridge collapse “a gross case of negligence,” likely referring to scrutiny of the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s (MNDoT) record of inspection and repair – or lack thereof – on the bridge.
“The last time I checked, negligence was a crime,” Weiland said.
Rhetoric aside, [Assistant Chief Sharon Lubinski of the Minneapolis Police Department] explained that the crime scene designation was tied to certain procedural and data-practice aspects of the recovery effort, such as the release of information. “There’s a good reason for it,” she said. She did not know when the scene might be declassified as a crime scene.
While in this case they are probably not talking about (though not officially ruling out) terrorism, it looks as if the crime-scene designation is mostly about keeping down the number of gawkers hoping to see a body get pulled from the water. But I agree with Jeremy Weiland.
Meanwhile, the catastrophe has done what the Democrats in the legislature were unable to do: Get Smilin’ Tim Pawlenty to actually back a much-needed tax increase:
A special session to deal with the aftermath of the bridge collapse is now likely and is almost certain to produce a gas tax increase, Gov. Tim Pawlenty said through a spokesman Friday. The funding would help whittle down the state’s massive $1 billion-a-year backlog in road and bridge construction and maintenance.
“The governor will work with legislators on a comprehensive and long-term approach,” said Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung. “We would expect that to include some of the governor’s ideas and some of the Legislature’s ideas and under those circumstances, a gas tax could be included.”
Pawlenty’s turnaround shows how much the political landscape had changed just 48 hours after Wednesday night’s Interstate 35W bridge collapse that took at least five lives and violently shook Minnesotans’ sense of safety.
Now if they could get Pawlenty to back the DFL’s original budget and tax plan that was offered earlier this year, we might be getting somewhere.
Ah, but wait! Looks like Pawlenty might be trying to wriggle out from his promise. Stay tuned, folks.
Related posts:
- Texas Governor Rick Perry’s Crime
- Graham: “If You’re Trying to Commit a Crime,” You Wouldn’t Brief Democrats
- Shibboleth: the Hate Crime Amendment
- RNC Leader Steele Confuses Dick’s Pre-Crime with Justice
- Late Night: Republicans to Re-Enact Famous Death Scene From “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” on the Floor of the House
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Advanced search
PW!!
PW!
almost
Negligence is a crime, and the people responsible for delaying repair and improvements on that bridge need to be held up as an example. We need to start holding these bastards responsible.
Didn’t the FISA issue come up right after the bridge fell?
The only difference a designated crime scene will make is allowing prosecution of construction formen as scapegoats, while the pols get away with murder.
marymccurnin @ 5
Actually, vice versa!
Hey PW – Am I right that you have 3 1/2 years more of Pawlenty?
Yikes.
A Thinkprogress headline:
Yes. This has been another episode of simple As to simple Qs.
Watch those exclamation points, CTuttle. I think you neglected a couple…
Hi there PW. I wish they could get rid of Pawlenty in 2008, but that will have to wait.
At least Norm Coleman looks to be a
gophergoner.Loo Hoo. @ 10
Damn, I can’t get away with nuthin’ here, I tells ya!!! ;-)
marymccurnin @ 5
Good point! Goes along with you previous comment that the FISA thing really doesn’t make sense. The have been wire taping and data mining from ‘02..the law means nothing to these people. To me the whole rush before recess has Rove all over it..a no win for the Dems. If they blocked it, soft on terror..it they passed it they piss off their base. And it sucked the air out of the bridge collapse.
THis hits the nail on the head. I hope Grover Norquist enjoys it.
Nick Coleman commentary from MN Star Tribune
Nick Coleman: Only Pollyannas can’t see politics is a part of everything
President Bush will visit the Twin Cities today. And he actually is going to get out of the plane.
By Nick Coleman, Star Tribune
Last update: August 03, 2007 – 10:11 PM
President Bush will visit the Twin Cities today. And he actually is going to get out of the plane.
But don’t expect to hear him say, “Heck of a job, Pawlenty.”
According to the pundits, the president’s response to the disaster at our end of the Mississippi is an effort to be seen as more compassionate than he appeared in 2005, when he just looked out the window of Air Force One after the levees broke in New Orleans.
…
But let’s not pretend his visit isn’t all about politics, too.
Everything about this disaster — except the heroic efforts to rescue and recover the victims — has been steeped in politics. And the most calculated political effort has been the posturing and spinning by public officials trying to act commanding while making sure they don’t get pinned with responsibility for the collapse.
Now, a president who doesn’t believe that government can solve problems is coming because we have a big fat problem that is hard to ignore.
I’m sure he’ll be received politely and thanked for his support. But after he leaves, we can get back to the work of finding out what happened and why.
Friday, the carillon atop City Hall was playing “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.” Cringe-inducing, but apt. A bridge is down, and we are troubled.
If you think everyone should play nice about it, you are living in Pollyanna Land. We are in a bare-knuckled political brawl in this country, and the government is in the hands of government haters who want to starve it or, in the alleged belief of presidential ally Grover Norquist, want to “drown it.”
You can’t drown government. It is people who drown.
Friday, the Taxpayers League — the heart of the No New Taxes beast — called on us not to point fingers. They probably disconnected their phone and took down their sign, too.
…
Bottom line: It fell.
Is it political to be angry about that? So be it. Everything is politics. Politics is not a dirty word by itself. Politics builds bridges and schools and hospitals. And politics can make them fall down. Bad politics.
After Tim Pawlenty was elected governor in 2002, he made his running mate, Carol Molnau, commissioner of transportation. Tell me a better way to politicize transportation and control the spin on everything involving roads or bridges.
When Pawlenty vetoed the transportation bill in May, “Commissioner” Molnau was beside him, smiling. Dear, Minnesota. A transportation commissioner who grins while her department is being knifed is not a transportation commissioner.
Now, a bridge has fallen and people are dead. The buck has to stop somewhere. Molnau was in China when it happened. She probably kissed the Minnesota turf when she got back. Because a Chinese transportation commissioner whose bridge collapsed might lose her head.
We are lenient in Minnesota. Molnau can keep her head. She should lose her job.
…
ifthethunderdontgetya @ 11
Yeah. We blew it with Hatch — if we could have just kept him locked in a safe for the last two weeks, he’d be governor and we’d all be a lot better off.
Sorry I missed the Slyth thread going up — didn’t know it was going to run this afternoon!
Yup. Remember how that SUSA poll back in the spring — the one that had Norm beating Al by thirty-odd points — was spammed everywhere by the mainstream press? Yet when the far-more-accurate Rasmussen poll came out showing Al much, much closer than that, that poll got ignored, even though Rasmussen is the GOP’s preferred pollster.
Does ‘criminal negligence’ have the same slippery language in it that perjury has, like ‘intent’?
Pediphile blogger…is this guy for real or an out of work actor? CA now creating legislation…
Did the French Revolution start with a crumbling infrastructure, overtaxed peasants, and a overgrand aristocracy exempted from taxes?
AZMatt, Norm has violated St Ronnie’s canon! Hell, Et Tu, is more apropo!!!
Geez, AZ Matt @ 14.
I saw the author of that article as Norm Coleman. I’m reading & I’m reading & the furrow in my brow is getting deeper & deeper. I glance up at the author’s name & still see Norm Coleman. Finally, I stop to consider what I was missing. Really had me going, though.
Oh screw it. Collapsing bridges, collapsing mines, collapsing real estate markets, collapsing families.
The nation is a batshit crazy madhouse and somehow the no one seems to notice.
7 years after 9/11 and Democrats were just a few days ago cowed into believing that they would get the blame for a new terrorist attack in America.
As I said before, had Bill Clinton been in office on 9/11 the Republicans would have used that as a club to impeach him.
Nothing makes sense, the center ain’t holding so well.
-GSD
mui @ 18
I think the guillotines were in fine shape.
QuakerGirl @ 16
Yes, a very high bar needs to be cleared…
eCAHNomics @ 9
A bridge fell in Minneapolis and 5 people died. This is horrible. But over 1000 people died on the Gulf Coast and a major American city is, at best, crippled for decades. I think the comparison in not valid and I am really tired of it being made. /rant
GSD @ 21
Yup.
Whether its the maintenance of highway infrastructure in Minnesota or mine safety in PA, WV, and now Utah people need to come out from under the spell of the Republican “government is the problem” mantra.
Government will never be perfect. There will be disasters and tragedies under Democrats as well as Republicans, but the philosophy that Republicans have been selling, cut taxes and let the market forces “protect” the public is pure BS.
I sincerely hope people, particularly in the deepest of red states (Utah), will start to wake up.
eCAHNomics @ 22
“…Let them eat Cake…” ;-)
That’s because we’re the shining city on the hill.
Ever since Reagan, have wanted to use that phrase sarcastically. Now I can finally move on.
Speaking of Bill Clinton, he no likey the WSJ editorial board.
The author is Nick Coleman, not Norm.
comment got eaten?
marymccurnin @ 24
As I read it, it’s not comparing the tragedies, but rather how W will handle them.
CTuttle @ 12
Here’s how you get away with it, C Tuttle…you disguise some of those exclamation marks!!111one11eleven!!
Talked today with a friendly acquaintance who works in the financial service industry but who has a degree in civil engineering. Guy about 50. Asked him about the bridge collapse. Said it was probably harmonics caused by the jackhammer. Then said this: that he has changed from republican to democrat for one reason, that the U.S. needs to raise taxes to deal with infrastructure problems, and the republicans won’t support the needed tax increases. This from a guy who WAS a republican for about 25 years.
AZ Matt @ 30
OOOPS!!! My Bad!!! :~)
CTuttle @ 27
Brioche.
I can picture Barbara Bush saying something like that while playing with her pearls. Oh wait! She did say something like that about the Katrina victims.
Jonathan @ 34
You should check out Cenk Ugyar’s confession on Crooks and Liars. Seems his whole family switched to Dem because fo Bush.
Does anyone know why the mine cave in Utah doesn’t have the nations attention like the collapse in W. Virginia?
-GSD
CTuttle @ 23
There have been tons of criminal negligence and nothing other than a hearing or two follows. So who has ever been convicted of criminal negligence and why? What does it take? Or, was this some appeasement to victims in some terrible case but never really acted on. However, the rest of us feel some sense of comfort with it being part of law. Is it a cotton candy law?
ifthethunderdontgetya @ 33
Entirely too much work! :P
mui @ 37
Thanks.
Loo Hoo. @ 29
Only a knuckle dragger could like the WSJ editorials.
I have been told, but have never tried to confirm, that the Bancrofts are actually fairly liberal but that they think their audience likes a red meat editorial page. If that’s the case, we’d have to get John Dean to write them a book: Liberals Without Conscience.
feel a bit dumb, but what does DFL mean?
eCAHNomics @ 32
W will handle this one just swell. His handlers want the Rethugs to have a nice convention in the Twin Cities in ‘08…the bridge reconstruction will be full steam ahead.
Didn’t Dubya have a fundraising date with Normie in Mpls this weekend? How’d that work out? At least it got him into town on a fast track…so glad he could spare a few minutes for the bridge collapse.
GSD @ 38
IOKIYAR
Democracy Now on the bridge collapse.
Jonathan @ 34
That’s exactly it. The sane people are leaving the GOP. They may not agree with right on down the line — I saw a number of them who were wondering why there was so much fuss over the FISA bill — but they’re not evil, not like a lot of the ones they left behind. They want what they think is best for America.
Urban Pirate @ 43
Democratic Farmer Labor
QuakerGirl @ 39
No, It’s primarily because Public Officials are generally shielded from ‘Frivolous’ law suits, and established the bar so high!!!
AZ Matt @ 14: I love Nick Coleman. He’s related to our Mayor, Chris Coleman — and not to our doofus, Norm Coleman.
All except for the Democratic members of Congress ones. Ooops, forgot that sane was a condition.
Phoenix Woman @ 50
LOL!!!
GSD @ 38
Can you make a guess?
The Bushista regime is turning everything they touch into a crime scene. They are the very worst. But crumbling public infrastructure has to be dealt with far more responsibly by both parties.
For instance the Clinton administration not only refused to budget many public infrastructure projects already identified, but bombed public infrastructure severely in Iraq, moderately in Serbia, and lightly in the Sudan. They enabled the Israelis to destroy public infrastructure in the Occupied Territories and the Gaza Strip.
The concept of allowing decay of recognizedly failing public structures is beyond being a “crime of negligence.” It is, in a sense “collective punishment” of one’s country’s own citizens. Whenever such inaction, or action, as in the case of bombings – the Lebanon oil spill of a year ago comes immediaty to mind – create gross environmental degradation or mass deaths – as in Katrina – it should be punished along the lines of war crime violations.
my lost comment said i think repugs will look after minny-stpaul… different ethnicities affected – just keeping it real…..
Prairie Sunshine @ 48
I was guessing dumb f*cking liberal.
Dire Fog Lake?
Ed*ard Teller @ 54
ET, you’re right. But these days I’m thinking the Bushitas aren’t going to be getting justice in our courts.
eCAHNomics @ 32
Golf first. Photo Op. Lights and generators and emergency equipment flown in especially for the occasion. The Chimpy takes a picture trying to look “presidential,” makes a few promises or prayers. Afterwards Chimpy leaves and takes all the emergency equipment with him. Forgets his promises. Goes back to breaking brush on the ranch.
Hmmm. @ 57
LOL
Phoenix Woman @ 47
Which is why I worry about the coming realignment. When Bush is gone, will they remain Dems? Will they try to turn the Dems into Eisenhower Republicans? Some of the most vociferous “progressive” blogs are by ex-Reaganites.
GSD @ 38
For the same reason 3500 (or 35000) soldiers dying is less dramatic than 9/11. Same reason why a missing white woman or 3 falsely accused duke students stay above the fold for months.
No rich white people will die in the mines or Iraq.
Actually saw a rightie blog quoted other day (paraphras of) “fuck ‘em, they signed up for the military”. Same thing with the miners, I guess. “They chose it”. Not my feeling at all, of course.
Who knows.
BTW all and mods, I’m changing my moniker to Grouch Potato. I’m more cynical now I guess, seems more appropriate .
mui @ 59
I did forget aboout the convention. That, indeed, changes everything.
The Bush administration is one huge crime scene. Everything they do everyday is either illegal, or a coverup of previously broken laws.
juslin @ 55
I was gonna make a similar remark along those lines…
Mui,
That is why I asked.
-GSD
Great moments in Marie Antoinette-dom:
Barbara Bush said, “people of different races” had told her that when her son flew over the disaster area on Day 3 of the crisis, “it made all the difference in their lives.”
Governor Pawlenty is calling a special session to pass the bridge and road maintenance bill he so haughtily vetoed just a couple months ago, and has said he’d even consider raising taxes. This from the man who has used “no taxes” as his driving political force.
Pawlenty knows this is a spike through his scrotum, politically speaking. He has no more power or influence over politics in this state. His party has suffered sweeping defeats in the last two state elections, and he’s the last Republican in the executive branch. We may even be seeing the end of the GOP in the state as a major force.
People in Minnesota have been screaming about our worsening roads for his entire administration (five years so far). He’s been playing at government, like all Republicans do. Now people are dead, and it’s on his hands. He will be remembered for letting one of the busiest bridges in the state collapse, nothing else.
Ed*ard Teller @ 54
Hear! Hear! Infrastructure is a huge part of what gov’t is for and about. If it takes prosecuting Clinton to make a point to future leaders, I’m for it.
Hmmm. @ 57
Loo Hoo. @ 56
Thanks. (smile)
And the Lord maketh his face shineth upon thee…
that woman is certifiable!
GSD @ 66
And she will be remembered through time for remarks like that.
nonplussed @ 70
Those people in the Twin Cities should count there lucky stars…they’re getting a new bridge. BabsyBu
GSD @ 66
Clarence Thomas and Alberto Gonzales both told her that?
If one wants governmental services, then it has to be paid for. That means taxes. What Bush has done with Afghanistan and Iraq by not raising taxes to pay for these so called wars is absolutely criminal. We will be mighty lucky if Rove hasn’t set the stage for a full on economic depression. I am outraged.
There have been rumblings from all sorts of corners about our infrastructure problems for at least a decade. That would have been something good to have spent our surpluses on when we had them. Or there would have been so many worthy uses for that money, but instead we will probably spend money for decades trying to lower the deficit while we replace infrastructure and fight global warming and try to end wars and figure out how to continue to feed the world’s population and maintain the world’s health. It’s hard to understand why anyone would want to be President. Consequently it must have fallen to the least among us to do, someone so power hungry that only amassing large amounts of power would satisfy his overwhelming sense of ego. Democracy, gotta love it! What’s next?
It made all the difference in their lives, GDS? How is that possible?
Grouch Potato (nee Urban Pirate) @ 62
And this with Jane Hamsher’s favorite holiday coming up?
Argggggggggghh!!!one1!!
hey ctuttle great minds run…… lol
Barbara Bush is crass.
GSD @ 66
Well is there a difference between the two companies the miners worked for. Also difference in media and political atmosphere as well. Does any politician have a stake in keeping it quiet? I wish I knew more about the tragedy. Maybe Tula will come along and write a post.
The empress dowager Barbara has said repulsive things, but that quote is definitely ugh.
Also folks, Bush knows that he is boxing with a bunch of ham and eggers now. Rove has weathered his storm, the Libby damn has held so now they have their mojo back.
It is obvious that low polls and the public perception that they are criminals and goons has no impact on their self-esteem
Now they have proven their adversaries to be stooges, inept and not dangerous to their mission so it is going to be full speed ahead.
The Democrats who joined in gang-raping the tattered constitution don’t know how much damage they have done.
-GSD
juslin @ 78
True! And the Lake teems with’em!!! ;-)
eCAHNomics @ 22
No. It started with a fiscal bankruptcy that could have been avoided, even though the French had gone into debt to finance America’s Revolution. They got the deficit under control in the early 1780s, but the ministry that managed it was thrown out and replaced by people who were a lot like the rethugs. They busted the budget. The Dutch, who financially were in the same position vis-a-vis France as the Chinese are vis-a-vis the US, refused to roll over the debt: the rest is history.
The other thing. The revolution started out with people like us, and then went off the rails.
You never know.
It ain’t over…Karma’s one pissed off biatch.
Based upon the WMD-Iraq fiasco, if our government came out tomorrow with a story that the bridge disaster was the work of ‘militants’, would you believe them?
With respect to the mining disaster, there’s no confirmation on the fate of the miners yet. And it’s underground (not as TV-genic). And the company seems to actually be doing responsible things and it sounds like the miners have functioning and proper safety equipment.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 79
That lass lacks the class to be crass. She’s merely an ass…
deleted by author.
Knut Wicksell @ 83
It’s a good thing to review that history at this time.
Knut Wicksell @ 83
Ach. Corrected by a real historian. Well I wouldn’t want to imitate the French Revolution Reign of Terror part.
GordonM @ 61
The way things are now, we should be lucky to have our government run by Eisenhower republicans.
In passing: thanks so much Ralph Nader.
Ann in AZ @ 75
I think you pose an incredibly important, thought-provoking question: why would anyone want to be the next president. Makes me wonder. Makes me suspicious.
The terror, the terror.
-GSD
“….refused to roll over the debt….” A quick economics question, if I may…How often does China get to decide whether to roll over the debt or not?
ifthethunderdontgetya @ 77
Harrrrrrr.
I read a funny article a while back – putting potential husbands into stereotypes and funny labels. Two stood out – “Old man grumpus: Negatives – self evident” and “Wide-eyed Dreamer: Negatives – will grow up to be Old Man grumpus”. Sigh.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 85
I’ve been waiting…now that they got their vote, they may not…the fact that they’ve designated it a “crime scene” is the next best thing.
Personally, I designate what happened to NOLA as first a horror scene, then a crime scene, and at this point..an ongoing act of terror against the citizens who have lost everything..complete with PTSD..and no end in sight. But, I’m but a stupid blogger in PJ’s eating cheetos.
They have no conscience whatsoever…
RonD @ 94
I read an analysis by a Chinese economist that talked about China deciding when to call in their chips.
You know, they decide when they want to suffer some economic pain instead of having it thrust upon them.
They seemed to believe that they could pick up much of the consumer slack within their own borders.
-GSD
after kicking dems to the curb over the weekend bushco has his smirk and swagger back… look out america!!
juslin @ 98
that hautitude irks me the most about him.
Actually, infrastructure inprovement was a core part of Clinton’s election platform, both to create jobs in the near term and to make the economy function better over the longer term. I don’t remember why it didn’t happen, but think it was something like they planned to do deficit reduction first, and by the time that was underway, Clinton was in trouble with Congress & couldn’t get infrastructure spending through. So I think it’s uncharitable, and possibly inaccurate, to say that he refused to fund it.
juslin @ 98
I am sizzling.
If China yanks their money, I would see that as a possible precursor to a PRC move on Taiwan. Cripple our ability to intervene.
I am very angry with my party tonight. Lahoma is trying to calm me down.
Heck, I wrote a report on it in 1978. You could tell from the spending rates and the economic depreciation rates all the way back then that they weren’t keeping up with the decay. But as you would know if you lived in NYC in the 1970s, infrastructure can deteriorate well beyond reasonableness & safety before they act. At least NYC had an excuse – it was broke.
GSD @ 81
Quoting myself from epu-land in the last thread:
Good evening dear friends.
eCAHNomics @ 100
I agree, eCAHN, Newt’s Contract on America Ham-Strung many of Clinton’s initiatives!
‘Evening, TexB ma’am!
Elliott @ 89
Trotsky and Lenin were always referring back to the French Revolution as early as the pre-1905 Revolution.
The problem we have in this country is that most people can’t identify their class interests because they’ve been lied to for so long, made to believe that there is no class in America, only a financial structure.
On making the scene of the bridge collapse a crime scene, I have no problem with that depending on who’s controlling the investigation.
If the NTSB ceded control to the FBI then the case that comes to my mind is TWA 800 and I, for one, never felt comfortable with the conclusions of that investigation nor with the way evidence was handled. I’m even less comfortable with the way the WTC crime scene was handled. I was an investigator and everyone I know who worked these cases feels that there was negligence in the way they were handled.
RonD @ 102
Won’t happen. T* would lose, but they promise to bomb Shanghai back to the 70s, and have made other threats that they can make good on. The airforce is reportedly superb. It’s a stalemate.
Stick together.
TexB @ 106
hi TexB, how you doing?
TexB @ 106
Aloha, Ma’am!
GordonM & GSD
W could well have now made himself unprescutable. Made congress share blame on everything.
TexB @ 106
Hiya!
I’ll tell you where the crime scene is. The Oval Office.
LS @ 111
Or hang separately…!
nonplussed @ 70
And He maketh the craziness flow from the mouths of Bargoyles….
Hi Betsy!
We are going to vote Democratic in 2008. And then look the hell out, Democrats.
GSD @ 97
The thing you have to understand about China is they are always making dire threats. I once sat at a convention listening to an economist(before the changeover) make threats about HK out of anger, that didn’t materialize. It’s the heavy handedness of China that causes them to lose friends right and left. Friendships here are gone tommorrow.
Governor Pawlenty has just announced his alternative to using taxes to pay for bridge safety in Minnesota.
He is going to use the same method he has forced us to use to fund our schools – bake sales.
That’s right – there are going to be little tables set up at each of all the bridges classified as “Structurally Deficient,” with banana nut bread and little pies baked by volunteers. Buy one or two, and the money will be saved up in glass jars for the costs involved in repairing that particular bridge.
This should work just as well as it has for our public school system.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 116
Where they are running a criminal enterprise.
btw, doesn’t RICO cover that?
Well, I fly out tomorrow afternoon, and I blew out a tire on the wheelchair tonight. inner tube completely gone. So now I know the name, address and directions to a medical supply place between here and the airport. And I am guessing that if they sell wheelchairs and tires, that they’re equipped for minor repairs.
French revolution:
Knut Wicksell @ 83
Yes. And the American “Revolution” was triggered when the Brit treasury was handled by prior incarnations of our current rethugs, and they decided to raise taxes on the rabble in america. (The similarity is only enforced by the fact that enforcement costs were thousands of times greater than any possible revenue.)
I put the “Revolution” part in quotes because it wasn’t one. It was breaking away – the ruling power within the colonies hardly changed.
heyy TEXB
how are you? home or still in chi-town? hope you feel fine ;)
CTuttle @ 117
That’s exactly right.
eCAHNomics @ 114
Maybe for FISA violations, but, there’s a whole lot of other illegalities waiting in the wings!!!
GordonM @ 125
Wasn’t some of that to pay for the French & Indian War?
Let’s have us some more wars.
TexB @ 106
Good evening, TexB. Come for a little commiseration–and I know I have–to make sure there are still some sane people around?
CTuttle @ 128
And just who the fuck is going to hold them accountable? The Congress? The UK? The French? Putin?
Good God. He’s got dirt on most of Europe for helping with CIA black sites.
This recent collapse of the Capitulation Wing of the Democrats has empowered Bush greatly.
-GSD
Joni Mitchell:
I came upon a child of god
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, where are you going
And this he told me
I’m going on down to yasgurs farm
I’m going to join in a rock n roll band
I’m going to camp out on the land
I’m going to try an get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe its the time of man
I don’t know who l am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devils bargain
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
GSD @ 131
We are.
this nation has been plagued since bushco took the reins….again karma is indeed a bitch! call me crazy but its a bit strange imo
ls@132
you wrote the lyrics to my fave joni mitchell song – wow!
eCAHNomics @ 114
On some things, maybe. But he can be prosecuted for war crimes (torture, to start). The Constitution gives treaties first class status and he ignored them. But even if he’s never prosecuted here, there are 192(?) signatories to the Geneva Conventions.
juslin @ 134
You are not crazy.
My lady tells me the reason I get so upset at my party is that I am 1/2 white and only 1/2 Native American. And that if I was full on Cherokee as is she, I would be cool. We laugh. We’re going for our usual nightly swim. And then another movie, reading, and then lights out. ;0)
GSD @ 131
Tsk, Tsk, Leahy, Waxman, Conyers, Fiengold, Whitehouse, Schumer…
LimaBN @ 122
Someone could bake him a Rebarb Pie.
Have a good evening OKK
CTuttle,
Sorry, but I am so fired up.
-GSD
On a lighter side. The GOPervert in Florida who apparently was so intimidated by the sight of a Black man that he offered cash for a BJ has a page on the State of Florida’s website.
Check out his hobbies.
Hmmmm.
4.5 in Nevada today.
3.9 Utah an hour later.
Could there be underground testing going on in Nevada that triggered the Utah event?
TexB @ 141
You too….
kiddo and Lahoma ;0)
mui @ 110
No it won’t. They have a good thing going here.. economy’s growing at 11% a year, their primary strategic rival is bogged down in a wildly unpopular war, Taiwan’s pretty darn quiet these days… they’re not about to really stir the pot. And we know they won’t either, and our rethugs-in-charge are as happy with this arrangement as are their spiritual cousins in Beijing. All these two complementary sets of anti-democratic thugs have to do is sit back, rattle their respective sabers occasionally and continue on about their business of getting rich, shredding their respective constitutions and stomping on the the rule of law and civil society within their respective borders. All in all, a great arrangement…
Remember when shrub’s housing secretary actually made a formal request of China’s treasurer to help bail out our struggling housing market by buying low-grade mortgage-backed securities? Shrubco actually sees Chinese investment as the main way to cure American’s of our debt problem. The bosses in Beijing and the White House deserve each other.
Have fun Lahoma and OKK.
GSD @ 131
You mistake current leaders for countries. (A mistake that’s been made in the last 2 Sunday night threads.) Black sites are hugely unpopular in Europe. Recall how close Pinochet came to ending his days in a European prison. Check the last time Kissinger ventured across the pond.
Same Agencies to Run, Oversee Surveillance Program
Washington Post – 53 minutes ago
By Walter Pincus The Bush administration plans to leave oversight of its expanded foreign eavesdropping program to the same government officials who supervise the surveillance activities, and to the intelligence personnel who carry them out, …
LS @ 143
Well, let’s not forget that there was talk and then supposedly a scuttled test of Divine Strake.
-GSD
You know, the type of weapon that would be used against Iran.
GSD @ 142
I take it the water spigot in the Loo represented the ‘water’ in his pursuit of his hobbies!!!
Loo Hoo. @ 146
;0) ;0)
GSD @ 148
I got more coming in a second.
GSD @ 148
Heaven help us when that happens
UN Worker Is Accused of Falsifying Visa Letters
New York Times – 26 minutes ago
By ALAN FEUER A Russian citizen working in New York for the United Nations was arrested yesterday on charges of using the organization’s letterhead to create fake documents that allowed several Uzbek citizens to illegally obtain visas to enter the …
methinks okk will be having a very nice evening ;o) and gsd – too funny for words that gopervert site – hehehehehe
“Seismographs recorded movement near the area that was “consistent with a mine-type collapse,” Walter Arabasz, director of the University of Utah Seismograph Stations, told the Deseret Morning News.
“Now we have to go back and look at more careful analyses to be able to defend with more certainty whether the originating event was an earthquake or whether it was a seismic event caused in a mine environment,” he told the Salt Lake City, Utah, newspaper.”
Hi all. Since traffic seems to be slow, I’ll post some good news. And, that would not be about politics. The rental car company hasn’t called me yet about the cosmetic damage that occurred when I backed the car into the ditch. Hi, GSD! If it’s okay to talk about the Yankees, I guess it’s okay to mention this.
He got his degree from Valencia Community College… an Associates Degree in African American Studies. hahahahahaha
Check out the pictures. he seems to like that black microphone.
(ok. I made up the african american studies part)
And all the people were singing…
The Band – The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Live) 1976
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKbiNCLbsrA
More from Raw on seismic “event”…
http://www.rawstory.com/showou…..topstories
Have they resumed underground testing?
the ‘93 sub-par rating of the I35W Bridge occurred during Democrat Paul Wellstone’s first term as Minnesota Senator. Wellstone, from St. Paul, is as guilty of negligence as anybody else.
*The test is a detonation of a 700 ton buried heavy AN/FO charge above a tunnel structure. The main purpose of the test is to study ground shock effects on deeply buried tunnel structures. Of secondary interest is the airblast produced by a buried charge and its modification as it propagates over the local terrain. Scheduled for the summer of 2006, as of 01 April 2006 the test was planned for 02 June 2006.
-GSD
of course leninsky – dont’cha know its ALWAYS THE DEMS FAULT!!!
AK 47 story has made it to CNN. Where were they made????
US uses M-16’s as far as I know
Leninsky @ 160
Yea, nice of you to grasp for straws and blame a dead D Senator there partner. One senator, for your information, cannot control what Republican Gov has. Any more rabbits in your hat?
LS @ 159
As GSD had pointed out, it would certainly seem so! In violation of the Nuclear Test Ban treaty, oh wait, didn’t Yoo weasel us outta it?
GSD @ 81
What GSD said bears repeating, so I did. The worst days may be just before us. I feel like those may be the falls we hear ahead, just now coming into earshot. Do you hear them? Do you?
GSD @ 162
Yup.
Mean spirited troll at #160.
AK 47 story even made it to YouthINKLeft tonight. Posted by the mysterious young lady who pops onto the internet in 5 minute chunks. Nice to see her hanging out with kids her own age though.
What are they mining in Utah?
Leninsky @ 160
Yep. A whiny douchebag comes slinking from the ether to blame a dead man.
-GSD
TexB @ 170
Dang, the Lassie hasn’t made an appearance in days, did ya lock her in the closet while ya were in Chi-town??? ;-)
ACK!!!!
Gibson radio show executive producer: Edwards “whored his wife’s cancer as a fundraising gimmick”
On the August 3 edition of Fox News host John Gibson’s nationally syndicated radio program, the show’s executive producer, who goes by the name “Angry Rich” on the program, claimed Democratic presidential candidate former Sen. John Edwards (NC) “whored his wife’s cancer as a fundraising gimmick.” He also went on to call him “a fraud” and “a pansy.” Gibson referred to Edwards as “the Breck Girl,” “Silky,” and “the biggest fraud running for president.” Gibson and “Angry Rich” were attacking Edwards for saying that Democratic candidates should give back campaign contributions from News Corp., the parent company of Fox News Channel, while accepting advance and expense money from HarperCollins, another News Corp. division that had published a book written by Edwards; Gibson played an audio clip of Edwards stating that money was donated to charity. They also attacked Edwards for his refusal earlier this year to participate in a debate co-sponsored by Fox News.
Loo Hoo. @ 170
probably uranium
Loo Hoo. @ 170
Gold plates?
-GSD
Also, the US was supplying the Iraqi military with AK’s because that is what the Iraqis were familiar with using.
As to their place of production, don’t know.
LS @ 167
I think ES took care of it rather nicely.
CTuttle @ 173
Heck no. Let her go off to Corpus and South padre Isl with other teens and the parents of one of the girls. But I have the laptop, so she’s got little web access down there.
TSF, I hear it and I am paddling upstream as fast as possible!
Sounds like preparation for bunker busting sites in Iran.
The Utah mine is a coal mine. The miners were working about 4000 feet from the entrance.
Eureka Springs @ 178
We’re doomed
TexB @ 178
Jez wonderin’!!! 8-)
AZ Matt @ 179
that’s dreadful
Look. We don’t know this is what occurred, but there are some strange things about the reporting.
It was reported that there was ‘an earthquake’ and that was then changed to reports that the collapse itself was the source of the seismic activity.
Needless to say the way things are going I don’t know what to think.
-GSD
TSF- did you come away from yKos with any sense of optimism? Bec. I am having a hard time keeping mine going.
GSD- at least you have 2 good reps. Which one is yours?
GSD @ 182
Has Bush even mentioned this?
ya think leninsky is serious? was hoping he/she is being snarky…..but i can be wrong
The largest cause of mine collapses… mining.
GSD @ 184
Here is the USGS link to the quake info. Mine collapses can generate small earthequakes.
A roadsalt mine in central New York collapsed a few years ago and measured 2.5.
Fortunately, there were no workers in the mine and nobody was hurt.
Valley Girl @ 185
Paul Hodes. It doesn’t appear that Charles Bass will try a re-match against him. Bass recently said his reading was that he’d lose worse than the last time.
Carol Shea-Porter has a tougher GOP leaning district and it looks like she’ll get the rematch with Jeb Bradley.
Both have been great voters and are doing NH proud.
-GSD
J. Steven Griles has a new number now -28950-016 – with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Inmate Griles
juslin @ 187
The Name? How about Trotsky instead? ;-)
I thought seismologists could pinpoint source locations with amazing accuracy?
AZ Matt @ 190
well, that’s one down.
Eureka Springs @ 192
through triangulation, no?
Eureka Springs @ 193
Usually!
GSD- and/but, the Senate race looks like one to follow. Seems like Shaheen will win, if she runs, but irrc, she is not altogether progressive.
NEW YORKER
The Black Sites
A rare look inside the C.I.A.’s secret interrogation program.
juslin @ 186
Serious, but a pinhead. No way a Senator has anything to do with response to individual bridge reports. This is a long-term issue that has to do with budgets, priorities, time lines, revenues, professional competence and ethics. Besides this was a state-controlled bridge.
TexB @ 174
Just when I think I have run out of outrage!!
I just forwarded a quote and a link to The American Cancer Society through their contact page.
Now, who are this asshole’s advertisers?
OT: Any Air America listeners here…any word on why Mark Riley was fired? Don’t get to hear it that often, but aways liked him, and tonight they’re talking about him being let go for “financial concerns,” which is usually B.S. Man, they’re really making it hard to like that network.
Bush’s old budget boy too!
-GSD
TRex up!
LATE NITE
Negligence in general is a tort, not a crime. Negligent homicide is a crime.
Blub @ 145
Strange. I always thought that as well. Even during the Clinton years.
Aside from that, moving in on Taiwan is a lose /lose situation for everyone for too many reasons.
Any gas tax increase should be for Republican-registered vehicles only since it was Grover Norquist Republican “anti-tax” policies that led to the bridge collapsing and people dying.
In fact, a huge gas tax on only Republican-registered vehicles should be levied to pay for Bush’s war over in Iraq, or at least defray the current budget-busting expense for Bush’s completely unncessary (and totally insane) invasion of Iraq.
Some of this Republican-registered gas tax could even go to fighting the real terrorists over in Aghanistan, which Bush blew off to go after Saddam Hussein and Iraq’s oil.
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Impossible to implement, I realize, but still amusing to think about.
It would at least shift the burden of all the damage the “culture of corruption and lies” Republicans have done to our country onto them, and only them.
Governor Pawlenty has just announced his alternative to using taxes to pay for bridge safety in Minnesota.
He is going to use the same method he has forced us to use to fund our schools – bake sales.
That’s right – there are going to be little tables set up at each of all the bridges classified as “Structurally Deficient,” with banana nut bread and little pies baked by volunteers. Buy one or two, and the money will be saved up in glass jars for the costs involved in repairing that particular bridge.
This should work just as well as it has for our public school system. With similar results.
In Japan, a leader in Pawlenty’s position would first resign in shame, then probably throw himself under a train.
eCAHNomics @ 22
Actually, the guillotine was invented to deal with those responsible for the crumbling infrastructure, overtaxed peasants and overgrand aristocracy.
I think ex-senator Paul Wellstone (from Minnesota) just rolled over in his grave and got the last laugh of Rove & Chaney. He’s saying something like “Where is all our money going?” Think about it and re-watch the video.
Paul Wellstone was murdered. Six out of ten people from Minnesota will agree with this.
I was just in Minneapolis last week. They’re well informed.