August 6, 2007 by karateexplosions.

At this point, there can be no doubt that the Bush administration supports the troops more than anyone. They give them training, they give them weapons, they give them explosives and body armor and money. The problem is that I’m referring to the insurgent troops.

The US has lost track of about 190,000 weapons issued to Iraqi security forces since the 2003 invasion, some of which will have ended up in the hands of insurgents, according to an official report published in Washington. Among the missing items are AK-47 rifles, pistols, body armour and helmets.

Keep in mind that there are approximately 160,000 troops in Iraq now, which means that we have lost more weapons than we have troops in Iraq. And did you catch that last part about the body armor? Well, guess how OUR troops are getting the body armor they need?

Still, she tried to remain supportive of her son and his fellow Marines. She helped organize a local bake sale that raised $4,000 for body armor to send over to Iraq.

At least the Bush administration supports SOMEBODY’S troops.

Posted in Iraq, Outrages, Politics, Current Events | 4 Comments »

August 2, 2007 by karateexplosions.

With the tragic events of last night’s Minneapolis bridge collapse during rush hour still dominating the news, some reporters and media personalities have begun asking the obvious questions of whether this disaster should have been foreseeable and whether the I-35W bridge disaster is just a horrible freak accident or a bellwether of things to come. A May 2006 Downtown Minneapolis Freeway Study has this to say:

I-35W Mississippi River Bridge, Industry Square/Washington Ave. Interchange (south of the River), and SE University Ave.–4th Street Inter-change (north of the River)—This area includes an important bridge over the Mississippi River that will need to be reconstructed or replaced in the coming years; it also includes interchanges with important local arterials near each end of the bridge.

But structural bridge repairs had been delayed as Minnesota legislators attempting to pass a gasoline tax to fund bridge repairs such as this one were met with veto threats by Republican governor Tim Pawlenty. When the legislature finally did pass funding initiative, Pawlenty made good on his veto threat. As Dr. David Levinson, Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Minnesota and part-time blogger going by the name of “The Transportationist“, noted:

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty recently vetoed a legislature-passed increase in the gas tax that could have raised money to repair bridges like this one. The latest gas tax would not have solved this problem, but previous taxes that were not passed (due in part to Pawlenty’s previous veto threat) may have, had the money been spent on this kind of thing.

But Governor Pawlenty is only part of the problem. For years, the Republican administration and Republican Congress have slashed funding for state programs and projects — projects including critical infrastructure maintenance, repair, and replacement.

Instead, a large amount of our federal dollars have gone to the war in Iraq. The Iraq War was a voluntary war; a completely optional military action. Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, was not involved with al Qaeda, and had nothing to do with 9/11. Our sanctions had impoverished, sickened and starved the population and they were not a threat to anyone — much less the biggest superpower in the history of the world.

$450 BILLION later, Iraq is a total disaster. Al Qaeda has resurged in popularity and influence as a result of our actions, and are able to operate relatively unmolested while U.S. troops remain pinned down in the middle of a sectarian civil war. And after five years of trying to rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure — some of which we destroyed in the first place, some of which has been attacked by insurgents as a result of our presence — many Iraqis still only receive one hour of electricity per day. One hour of electricity in 130 degree heat.

So what could that $450 billion have bought us if we weren’t pissing it away on an unnecessary war? Well, first of all, levees in New Orleans. According to a Washington Post article from 2006, the cost to rebuild the New Orleans levees to federal standards (there’s a scary phrase, “federal standards”) was $10 billion — “and there might not be enough money to fully protect the region”.
So we spend the $10 billion out of the $450 billion and that leaves us with $440 billion. So now what could we buy? How about a new I-35W bridge? Though I don’t know exactly how much it will cost to clean up and rebuild the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, I can compare some bridge construction proposals over in Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, and Kentucky where an 8-lane major interstate bridge in or near a large metropolitan area would cost approximately $1 billion.

So that leaves $439 billion left over. What’s next? Well, we could just build 439 more eight-lane metropolitan interstate bridges over the Mississippi just for the hell of it. But that’s probably not necessary. Maybe we should spend the money to renovate and repair other critical bridges and avoid a situation like this one happening. According to The American Society of Civil Engineers, it will cost $9.4 billion per year for 20 years to “eliminate all bridge deficiencies”. That’s $188 billion (not adjusting for inflation), leaving us $251 billion in change.

So what can you buy with $251 billion? Well, you could hire a $1 billion hooker for each Republican member of Congress and hope to get them to resign in shame and humiliation. Either that, or give 12 million students four-year college scholarships. Head Start for 33 million kids. Two million public housing units.

No amount of money can give us yesterday to do over again. It can only prevent yesterday from happening again tomorrow. And no amount of money could restore our national dignity if the richest nation on Earth allowed our critical infrastructure to literally fall around our ears. 99 days out of 100, “national infrastructure” is one of the most politically un-sexy topics out there. If we are to act on what we know, we must do it now, while people are finally, but no doubt briefly, paying attention.

Posted in Iraq, Outrages, Politics, Current Events | No Comments »