Posted on 08/01/2007 4:28:27 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
Just turned on the news. 35W bridge collapsed in the Mississippi River. Cars, trucks, semis.....
Fires burning, tanker trucks, at least one school bus, more than ten cars......
Just now breaking.......
“Call me a bushbot, but few know that President Bush went down there, and pulled children out of the water, into helicopters, carried them to the Navy ship that was the only source of food, water, and the most important thing at that time, a hot shower. The back of his shirt was wringing wet with sweat and dirt.”
You’re not serious?
I saw that and agree.....
Hopefully you have already seen this, but just in case.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1ab_1186054443&p=1
Why? We have people here convinced some “accidents” were really terrorism - they think TERRORISM is being covered up!
Which actually has a bit more validity, I think - people love to beat on “evil companies”, excuse and protect Moslems, and also, the gov. might be concerned about mass hysteria. I think they’d rather cover up terrorism.
Case in point: TWA 800
Ocean going ships go upstream from the Huey Long. Baton Rouge is about as far as they get.
Very serious.
Have you seen photos of him handing out Christmas presents to children in foster centers?
Have you seen him in a church each Sunday visiting a different denomination or faith each time???
Bet the answer is no.
Did it happen??? The answer is yes to all.
It's called gravity.
You can't see it, but it is there.
I’m good. Thanks for asking. I left downtown Mpls about a half-hour before the collapse. Headed south on 35W.
I’m glad I got outta downtown when I did. I hear it was gridlock because of police/fire getting to the site as well as spectators going to and from the site. Also, the Twins were playing at the Metrodome.
Get ready for the brown fecal matter to start hitting the fan though. The Dems are already saying that this sort of thing happened because we didn’t raise the gas tax. They (including media hacks like Don Shelby aka “DFL Don” are insinuating it.
The Dems are gonna try to hang Pawlenty and Molnau out to dry for this one.
LOL! Hell...being a Jaquar, that’s three strikes already!
Ooops! Sorry, forgot that - it was Baton Rouge, not NO. Wrong bridge!
The Feds just coughed up some recovery money....http://www.startribune.com/10204/story/1339588.html
What the hell do we pay taxes for?
For shoddy education, short sighted bureaucrats and to line the pockets of politicians!
The Clintonianly, correct response is, “I feel your pain, let’s blame the Republicans and spend more money on the NEA (of course, by that I mean for the children.) and The Department of Human Services (a/k/a, Department Socialistic Services)”.
Think about how and when these structures came into being. When these projects were built, the states were going to get most of the use from them and therefore pay their share to maintain them. However, we see that as usual, the rest of the nation gets put on the hook for replacement of the bridge and the President gets blamed for the state’s poor decision making.
Notice how social programs (vote machines) outweigh infrastructure interests in most states and the states forget that they ever had any obligation to spend money to maintain the pork that their congressman brought home.
People vote for politicians that bring home the new projects, the new “education” and welfare programs. They bring dollars to the “popular groups”. Building new bridges is flashy, it gets ribbon cuttings and press coverage. Repairing the infrastructure is dull and boring. The labor unions lack the clout they once held and anyway, their leadership is paid for.
For the media, commerce is dull and boring and pisses off the environmentalists. Just think how not having this massive concrete structure or a way across the river helps to cool the planet. This is a road that cars won’t drive on. Of course, next week they will realize that commerce goes on and that people are driving more miles to the next bridge to carry on business. That will then become another reason attack the federal government for causing inconvenience and extra pollution.
As to the poor unfortunate souls who were maimed and killed as well as their families, we can offer our condolences and our prayers. Knowing that injury and wrongful death suits will soon follow; I do not hold the same prayers and good feelings for the parasite trial lawyers that will convolute the entire tragedy.
Someone last night mentioned that a dam near this bridge failed about fifteen years ago. I AM NOT an engineer and I have never built a bridge, but I’ve been involved with building plenty of buildings and I know structural failures from stress do occur and they often have no impact because of things like redundancy and them being built stronger than they needed in the first place. However, two totally unrelated structural failures even years apart can have devestated effects.
I live in Virginia, so I didn’t even think of it until someone else mentioned it, but Minnesota has yearly temperature swings of over 100 degrees and the yearly expansion and contraction of steel is going to be much more pronounced here than in more moderate climates. And if someone taking up the old surface accidently damaged an expansion joint, it could have created a ripple effect.
As far as the idea of unions, substandard designs, etc., this is not as big a concern as people seem to think. You just don’t build a bridge and walk away. The engineers who designed it do their inspections, as do the state, Army Corps of Engineers, etc.
His voice took on a totally new tone and was very serious as well as soothing. Surprised me.
OK, the Airline bridge in Baton Rouge makes more sense.
gLAD YTOU LOVE RAIL...But in a city like Minneapolis/saint paul it makes ZERO sense. Things are way to spread out here for it to work. Manhatten, Tokyo, places with millions in very small area’s yes. Minneapolis, a total joke and absolutely laughable.
Just saw Norm Coleman speak on the news in Minnesota on KTSP.
You in Minnesota are very lucky to have such an intelligent and common sense person representing you.
I hope you get to see (hear) what he said to the reporter, in response to questions about what he intended to do, and was already in the process of doing about this disaster and other potential disasters.
It was the most intelligent dialog I have heard, and surprising coming from a politician.
Once again, hat’s off.
Actually all bridges are falling. It’s just a very slow process, but gravity ,like rust, never sleeps.
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