Interstate Bridge Collapses In Minneapolis
By Jamie Tuesday Jul 31, 2007 8:38pm
From the AP:
The entire span of an interstate bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River during evening rush hour Wednesday, sending vehicles, tons of concrete and twisted metal crashing into the water.
The Interstate 35W bridge, which stretches between Minneapolis and St. Paul, was in the midst of being repaired when it broke into several huge sections.
The Homeland Security Department had received no indications Wednesday night that the collapse was related to an act of terrorism, department spokesman Russ Knocke said in Washington.
"We continue to monitor the situation. At this time, there's no indication of a nexus to terrorism," Knocke said....read on
(emphasis added)
The part I highlighted doesn't seem to be sitting well with Malkin:
DHS issued a statement that the collapse “does not appear to be an act of terrorism.” Isn’t it too early to say anything meaningful about what it “appears” to be? Couldn’t they maybe, I dunno, say nothing until they actually know something?
It appears she is upset that a chance to play into fear has been squashed. True she could be right. Perhaps it is terrorism- the terrorism of our collapsing infrastructure.
John Amato: Jamie, I never noticed Malkin doing that before...cough...cough...
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The consequences of deregulation/privatization are coming home to roost.
Poor Malkin, no terrorgasm for her.
It's terrorism all right but of a different kind. It's the terrorism of spending a trillion dollars in Iraq killing people while the infrastructure of this country goes into the sink, literally.
After looking at the photos, it certainly does seem a bit strange that such a long span collapsed all at once. I was left a bit curious myself.
Shep Smith sounded disappointed.
it's only going to keep happening more and more often. in Montreal a chunk of an overpass collaped a while back.
first!
I heard a cement pouring outfit was getting sued millions the other day for delivering watered down concrete loads for large construction projects, (so the bastards could save money.)
It really is interesting. They talk so much about the Clinton Administration being weak on terrorism - and point to so many instances of terrorists acts during his admin. - so why is the same not true for bevy of infrastructure related disasters that have plagued us during the Bush era?
Think about it. These things are happening because this Republican government is not doing the job we pay them to do, from transportation to emergency management to energy to the FDA. All in an effort to deregulate industry.
Im slow on weed.
From Malkin's Blog:
Joshdavis @ 8:
But look at the profits!
I forgot to mention the mining disaster in W.V. that killed about 10 people (?) I think. The list is endless.
It's not terrorism. It's our f'ing infrastructure falling apart while we waste billions on a needless war. We are only a few years away from becoming the Soviet Union. One major city is gone. Which will be the next one?
Ouch.
I hope that everybody from Minneapolis, regular readers of this site and casual, is okay ...
Angela @ 4:
Everyone is an armchair civil engineer these days....
One major city is gone. Which will be the next one?
Whatever the next city is to get flooded over cause we didn't do anything about the polar ice caps.
Its skinflints not funding infrastructure!! Our non governing Govenor won't govern and the skinflints win!!
Lindy
Couldn’t they maybe, I dunno, say nothing until they actually know something?
No, because allowing unfounded rumors to circulate and frighten people would be a GOOD thing, apparently for Michelle.
Jeebus. She's so transparently EAGER for a terrorist attack. What a despicable person.
Same problem up here in Canada. We had a overpass fall apart in Montreal.
Thanks to Gov. Tim Pawlenty and his Know-Nothing, tax-hating supporters. If you want to live in a decent society, with a decent environment and decent infrastructure, you have to pay something for it. It's called being civilized. The Rethugs are cretins all.
@10
I pity her. It seems like all she has is fear and hatred.
Don't give up hope yet... they MAY find a link to terrorism, and might be able to use the "fear" card... maybe Rudy Giuliani will make a statement about this like, "this bridge collapse was not related to Al Qaeda, but it is the TYPE of thing they will do, and ONLY I CAN SAVE YOU FROM THEM..."
On both my visits to the USA, in 1984 and 1994, I was horrified by the state of many of the bridges I saw there. Here in Europe, no bridge would ever be allowed to deteriorate to that extent. But then, people's tax money here is spent on maintenance of the infrastructure, and the rich don't get tax cuts (except that Bush-clone Sarkozy has just granted a huge tax-cut to the very rich). I fear for the USA, and I fear for France.
"3 dead as Mississippi River bridge falls amid rush hour in Minneapolis"
"The Department of Homeland Security had no indication that terrorism played a role in the disaster, Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minnesota, told CNN."
bd: But terrorism DID have a role in the disaster: BUSH MADE UP THE "WAR ON TERROR" AND TOOK 1 TRILLION OF OUR TAX DOLLARS AND SPENT IT IN IRAQ, INSTEAD OF HERE IN AMERICA WITH OUR AGING INFRASTRUCTURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A Republican, of course, brings up "terrorism", instead of tax dollars going towards Iraq!
FOX's Hitler Hannity with Marl Fuhrman insinuating that terrorists are involved in the bridge collapse is on the tube right now...
DHS issued a statement that the collapse “does not appear to be an act of terrorism.” Isn’t it too early to say anything meaningful about what it “appears” to be? Couldn’t they maybe, I dunno, say nothing until they actually know something?
Malkin's words are, by definition, terrroristic -- in-and-of themselves.
Well fix our highways...as soon as the Bush administration can figure out a way for his cronies to make $$$$$$$$$$$ off it!
The Freepers are already "conspiracy theorizing" that this was a result of a "controlled demolition"...Pajamahedeen Declare Terrorism Responsible
They have to make this a terror act, in order to continue justifying living in their Moms' basements, safe from the "big, baaadddd turrists"
Our infrastructure is collapsing.
Now there's another slab of concrete proof of terrorism right there. Clearly, genetically altered termites from Russia have been sold as biological weapons to Iraqi terrorist groups, then were smuggled across our unprotected borders by immigrants and have since been released by sleeper cells of underground lesbian gangs to wreak havoc on our supremely constructed steam pipes and highways, all villainously designed to-to... to make us feel bad about ourselves, or something. Well that's what i heard on Fox anyway.
this is what happens when you put conservative republicans in charge of crap. the basic stuff like roads and bridges don't even get taken care of.
Big Dan @ 24:
fight the boogeyman there, so we dont have to repair roads and stuff here...
The entire republican party is eager for an attack... Santorum, Guiliani...
But it goes without saying MM is terrorism's cheerleader. Rah, rah, rah!
I attended grad school at the U of M in the mid seventies. During that time I lived on University Ave SE and walked over this bridge almost every day either on my way to or from the west bank campus. At this time, the bridge had been closed to auto traffic because it had been in such poor repair that parts of it started falling onto barges passing beneath it. The Army Corps of Engineers, I think it was, condemned the bridge and ordered it rebuilt or repaired. Just before I left the city in the late 70's, the bridge was reopened. I'd say a repair on an interstate bridge that lasts 30 years or so, is a badly done repair. What a tragedy!!
thats nothing....What about our social security plan in the next 10-15 years?
We're doomed!!!
"Couldn’t they maybe, I dunno, say nothing until they actually know something?"
As opposed to releasing the wrong and misleading info and terrifying people?
I used to drive over that bridge every single day. I have friends who were heading home from work and were going to cross that bridge. This is scary stuff, but I seriously doubt it would be terrorism. More likely it was caused by a structural flaw, crack or something to do with the road work that was going on at the time.
To want this to be terrorism is completely sick.
Well, the thing is - if it fell down naturally it would look a lot different than if it blew up. I mean come on - I'm sure they had at least one person in the construction trade there that could say one way or the other with reasonable certainty.
You know, it's sad that she has to rush to such judgments though - apparently she has little faith in her commander in chief to protect us and our bridges. All I keep hearing is how we havent been attacked on US soil since September 11th 2001, and that it's because of the vigilance of the Republican party, yet a bridge collapses and Republicans run around screaming "Oh my god!!!!111 Terrorists!!!11".
Then again this is the same group of people who started screaming TERRORISM over an advertisement for a cartoon.
Dr. Matt @ 10:
Sweet Flippin' Jeeziz- who was it, Cathy Lee Gifford, foaming off about ":these people" meaning Muslims, when it was the homegrown version that perpetrated the Oklahoma City bombing? What a shithead
I was wondering how long it would take for the 'this is what terrorists can do to us' crowd was going to adopt this.
Fuck. Them. Sideways.
It's been incredibly hot all week in the Twin Cities and work was being done on the bridge, which has a fairly old structural system. I'd say that the structure was stressed from freeway revisions and when one section of the structure failed and the rest buckled too. My sister takes a bus that crosses that bridge about that time of day so it's been a scary evening. She had come home early today but is pretty rattled. The whole city is in shock.
All of our tax dollars (nearly a trillion of them) are feeding the war machine and the BushCo empire.
Our infrastructure is simply falling apart, like our healthcare protection has fallen apart.
When's enough going to be enough? I suspect, never.
Spending billions over there, so we don't have it to spend here...
Privatize interstate road systems then limit the ability of the individual to sue corporations. Solved
Hate is Michelle Malkin's bread and butter. I am sure she has already completed the draft of a vitriolic column to be submitted to the New York Post tomorrow just in case it is confirmed as a terror attack. Trust me this is how their mind works. First the VT shootings ( remember Debbie Schussel then? ) and now the bridge collapse. It's really frustrating for them that the Muslims didn't do it. They are looking at the illegal immigrant ( construction crew ) angle at Freerepublic.
Just Me @ 40:
Exactly!
i live here in the twin cities.
there has been construction work on that bridge for awhile now.
im fairly certain that is was a bad accident. terror? come on!?
if terrorists did this then they are the kind that wear hockey helmets and drewl.
they managed to kill 3 people! wow good score!
Does terrorism include ignoring our infrastructure? Why don't we privatize a few more things and give some more tax cuts to the rich. We don't need no tax money. The market will take care of the interstates. meh
Malkin is a skank--who cares what she and her pals think. From the comments that I read, those clowns sound very disappointed that it wasn't a terrorist attack.
What a bunch of sick jerks.
Just this morning in our papers, (Massachusetts) it was reported that over 90% of the bridges in this state are in a state of severe disrepair.
OMG. What if God did it?
don't we pay Israel to demolish Lebanese bridges, pay for their reconstruction. ....then pay for their demolition........pay for their recon.......demo.......recon.....
I see there is a photo of the bridge on Google Earth with the title 'Mafia Bridge'. Is this a comment on the construction standards used when the bridge was built?
Not to be just a nother Parrot... but, could the nightly news and th enewspapers for once in their lives get a relvant quote from someone?
As in, "Officials at the budgetary office say the bridge construction should have been completed 20 years ago, but tax cuts and prioritizing remaining funds toward consturction of sports stadiums delayed the inrastructure repair until it was 'situation critical'."
We can dream of real news, can't we?
41 Miss Kitty,
You win the thread, everybody can go home now!!
How long before we find out that the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is a "loyal Bushie" who's never had a driver's license and knows nothing about civil engineering, bureaucratic administration or vehicle safety standards but is nonetheless doing "a heckuva job?"
wonder if all guard/reserve support options are deployed in Iraq?
Jason,
If your scenario is actually true, I imagine we would hear about that.....tomorrow.
So, how is Karl Rove planning to use this to help Norm Coleman get re-elected?
Funny Bush doesn't mention Katrina, tornadoes, floods, collapsing bridges, northeast blackouts, exploding steam pipes, hurricane. His speaches and radio addresses are just all terror all the time. There is no profit from oil in the real disasters we face at home so the Bush -Cheney regime tries to scare and divert us with the with the ones that are happening, imagined and otherwise, half a word away. The "otherwise" being the real threats of terrorism he has made worse due to his Big Oil misadventure in the middle east.
For as many armchair civil engineers posting, there are just as many of you ruling out a controlled demolition as if you have evidence supporting that.
Noone knows what caused this. It could have been poor repair conditions, it could have been a controlled demo, it could have been a terrorist hit, but noone knows so noone can truthfully say at this point.
How about waiting a few days until the evidence can be collected, instead of labeling people with different ideas as "conspiracy theorists"?
It is extremely ironic that alot of people who are on the "far left" that post here, are just mirror images of the "far-right" crowd that they disdain so much. Already throwing out baseless accusations against those with different ideas, and already apparently "knowing" the reason of this bridge collapsing, in spite of the fact you have no evidence whatsoever to support your position.
Open your minds people, you have more in common with the Foxsnooze crowd than you even realize.
Immigrant @ 43:
Maybe Malkin was on that bridge? Hey, if Coulter can say she hopes Edwards gets killed in a terrorist attack, I'm just saying....
Ummmm,that 'bridge to nowhere' would come in handy now TED.
This IS Terrorism!!!
It's terrorism by George W. Bush and Co.
And the elite.
This is terrorism by neglect.
Impeach and remove Bu$h, DICK, Congress and the Supreme Court!!
a 40 year old bridge collapses..why?Maybe because of a lack of retrofitting?Lack of funding?yep.Their too busy spending funds on this illegal war in America...the war against Democracy.
Consumer @ 57:
Well said consumer. So many don't get that extremism is the problem and enemy and not the right, middle or left.
MSM fact checking misses again!
The bridge connects Minneapolis to Minneapolis.
The work they had been doing was solely to the deck of the bridge, and not the super structure.
well we just got back from a trip along the Oregon coast, and as Canadians, we were shocked at the state of the infrastructure....so this doesn't seem surprising.
MeMyselfAndI @ 15:
Seriously.
However, I myself, actually have a bachelor's degree in CE. ;)
If the pins holding bridge sections are weak, you can bet your damned ass that entire sections will drop out. This is exactly what happened in Connecticut over the Mianus River in 1983 because no one inspected the bridges in decades and the pins rotted out. Of course that was in a pre-9/11 world and no one was so goddamned fucking quick to jump on the terreriss/conspiracy bandwagon.
Man, even the Romans kept their country in better shape than us...
Span under repair collapses. Sounds like repair was put off too long. Perhaps due to tight budget?
Meanwhile DHS continues to justify it's budget...
It's Bill Clinton's fault.
Here's a link to the Mianus River Bridge disaster (Wiki). Yes... it only took one of those pin assemblies to rot and break to cause an entire collapse of the bridge section. When I tested steel and concrete stress while getting my CE degree, I saw what a catastrophic failure looks like from one part that broke. You don't need no terrorist, conspiracy theory, controlled explosion, or other dazzling bullshit that doesn't pass Occam's Razor to explain it.
Dr. Matt @ 10:
Malkin is a fear-mongering bigot. I live in St. Paul and travel this section of 35W frequently. It is a single span steel girder bridge, 40 years old. It is currently under-going reparis and maintenance. This IS a case of our crumbling infrastructure finally falling down and money that should be used to support our common systems is being sucked down the endless pit of death that is Iraq - how about the burst steam pipe in NYC and the nightmare that was "The Big Dig" in Boston?; a 2001 report on the bridge did say it had point of fatigue in its structure. I questions whether the people who inspected it were qualified, or cronies that Bush gave jobs to like his buddy "heckuva job Brownie." We don't know what happened yet. It could have been bad steel - we simply don't know. But, to even implicate the Muslim population of the Twin Cities is abhorrent and Malkin (and her ilk) should be yanked off the air by their hair.
Clinton's budget surplus could have repaired a lot bridges, steam pipes and levees.
Thanks to the "fiscally conservative" GOP, we no longer have to worry about that.
The homeland security report crap was totally unnecessary. The f-ing bridge fell down because of Americans would rather spend their tax dollars bombing Iraqis instead of fixing their bridges and schools etc. Don't blame Clinton, blame Reagan. Why do Republicans hate America?
The other thing you get a glimpse of by statements like Malkin's is how perversely and irrationally she views the world.
There's this great tool for thinking called "Occam's Razor": All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one.
Take your xanax and think about it for a sec, Michelle... deliberate acts of sabotage and terrorism are extremely rare in most parts of the world, including Minnesota. Human error and/or the natural toll of time on heavily used systems like highways, bridges, levees, hell, your shoelaces for that matter, etc. on the other hand are very common. It's terrible and it's sad but it's explainable and probably preventable.
Anybody who's instinct is to hit the panic button and put terrorism into play in this kind of situation is either paranoiac and lives in vague constant fear, or is trying to stir shit up, or both.
I'll put Malkin down for "both"
Boy, I'm glad I'm not one of those paranoid right-wing conservative fear mongers that jumps every time someone says "boo!"
My immediate reaction to then news wasn't "was it terrorism?" It was more like "must of been some sort of structural failure."
If Malkin had any sense of intelligence she would know that many Interstate bridges are reaching their lifespans or are close or exceeding their daily load capacities and many are in need of both cosmetic and structural repair. It's a big issue in the US right now. Plus bridges who have columns in moving streams are susceptible to movement of sediment and erosion around their footings.
Terrorism is the last thing that should come to mind.
These fools are just looking for an excuse for terrorists to strike. It sounds like she is dissapointed. They actually sound like they want us to be attacked. That's ass-backwards thinking. They want us to be harmed to prove a paranoid point. Arghh!
We continue to monitor the situation. At this time, there's no indication of a nexus to terrorism," Knocke said.
I swear if I hear "nexus" one more time... What they're really saying is that they can't link it to al qaeda. And if they tried then even an idiot would know they were full of it.
nexus != link.
First, my heart and prayers go out to the people who were killed or injured by this, as well as their friends and relatives. However, not terrorism? Sorry, I'll reserve my conclusions on that.
Are we missing the point that Minneapolis is the site of the 2008 GOP convention? Boy, will this get a lot of play on that!
lewisnclark @ 73:
THAT'S Occam's razor. No wonder the convenience store clerk look so bewildered when I brought by my Mach III razors back to switch with the Occams razor. I thought it was a better blade. Boy is my face red.
"Couldn’t they maybe, I dunno, say nothing until they actually know something?" Doesn't anyone else here find this Malkinism deliciously ironic. If she adhered to this standard herself the world would be a better and much quieter place.
An Average Joe @ 76:
The GOP convenstion is in St. Paul, not Minneapolis.
An Average Joe @ 76:
I thought the Republican convention was going to be in Tehran with the other religious zealots.
use of road salt in the winter speeds the corrosion. roads and bridges in cold weather
states don't last as long as they do in warmer climes.
I don't think this is really the time and place to make a political point. I think either the right or the left trying to make political hay out of this before all the bodies have even been recovered is loathsome.
I just hope the death total doesn't mount much from the current count of 6. I have driven over that bridge thousands of times during my time in college and I cannot really fathom what happened.
But this might be the time to keep those affected in your thoughts as opposed to worrying about Malkin or any other idiots who would try to exploit this for their own gain. There will be plenty of time to dissect their responses later.
pussy_galore @ 38:
Reich-wingers already blaming Muslims....f*cking disgusting.
Blue Buddha @ 65:
Thanks Blue. Gosh, I didn't mean to sound anything like people imagined! All I said was that it seemed strange to me and I was curious and suddenly people think I'm on Malkin's side? I'm a scientist, but a biologist, so I just didn't know if this was a possible outcome of neglect. Thank you Blue for convincing me that it is. I was in Oakland when the quake brought down sections of the bridge and freeway, but that was a big quake! People, please don't be so quick to judge others for comments in a blog. They can so easily be taken out of context. I hate the terrorist fear mongering as much as anyone here and refuse to let it get to me myself.
libsechumanist @ 79:
Actually it is being shared by both cities. I wish it was somewhere other than my town. It will suck.
Eyewitnesses to the collapse said that there was no explosion before the bridge collapsed, it just dropped. I think that the folks here who are deriding us for not viewing this as terrorism are somehow hoping that this is terrorism in order to justify their paranoid world view. If you want it to be terrorism, just turn it into a 'straw man' argument about this being what terrorist can do to us, then go back to hiding in your basements. Get your paranoia away from me.
Trying to cover things locally here.
holy cannoli, our country is literally falling apart at the seams, and there isn't a thing being down about it.
Big Dig disaster last year. That was terrorists. Right?
I finally figured out which bridge this is. At first I thought it was the 35w bridge going over Black Dog Lake between Burnsville and Bloomington (but that bridge is a lot higher), but I finally figured out it's the section which is a major cross over between downtown Mpls and U of M or on your way to N. St. Paul.
I grew up there, but haven't been there for 20 years. I'm shocked to say the least.
Thing Fish @ 67: The bridge wasn't under repairs, the roadway on the bridge was. In other words they weren't doing structural work, they were doing road work. There are 2 seasons in MN, Winter and Road Repair....
If they haven't cleaned up the river in the last 20 years, the survivors who fell into the water are going to have to be treated for Hepatitis and other potential toxins/diseases. That section of the river was notoriously polluted, but again, this was 20-25 years ago.
As anyone checked to see if Rush Limpballs and Jonah Goldberg were going over the bridge in Rush's Escalade. That could have done it.
#14. Thanks. It's too bad I had to get that far before anyone expressed any sympathy at all. It's C&L. I would have expected better. To all of you who, later, managed to express human emotion, rather than simple ideology...I apologize. Priorities, people. This is not political. It's still quite possible that 1 or more of the people I care about are dead. Get over yourselves.
tr @ 81:
this makes sense....dollars to doghnuts says this will be the reason for the collapse......wasn't OBL seen there 3 years ago spreading salt(snark)I would expect booosh to say that it was terrorism.BOOOOO
Northeast blackout, 911, Katrina, steam pipe explosions, bridges collapsing...if all this happened when Clinton was in office Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson would have said its Gods punishment on America for electing a morally bankrupt godless presidential administration and that we have strayed from the path of the lord.
I live about two miles from the bridge. I talked to a few people that were in the area when it collapsed and they said they heard a low rumble, saw some dust rise from under the bridge, and then it fell into the water. There was no report of any explosion. The civil engineers they have had on on our local news have stated that because of the type of bridge it is when one part goes it all goes. They had been doing construction on the bridge for the last couple of months. Whether this had anything to do with it remains to be seen. The Govenor stated that it had been inspected in 2001, 2005 and 2006 and no structural damage was found. I'm sure we'll learn more in the next couple of days, but as of now it sounds like a terrible accident. Sorry to disappoint the terrorist crowd. And An Average Joe is absoultely corrcect. The Repubs will use this at the convention in St. Paul, even just to point out how quickly emergency crews responded in the wake of 9/11. Thoughts go out to all the families involved.
Well, this is how crazy I am: when I first read about this, a terrorist attack never even occurred to me. I assumed it was our decaying and neglected infrastructure. But maybe that's because I drive across the Chesapeake Bay to work every day on a bridge that looks as if it'll crumble if I sneeze too hard.
But suppose for a second this *were* a terrorist attack. Why the hell didn't Big Daddy Bush protect us from it? I thought he was making us all safer here by fighting them over there!
oh lord..... it's GOTTA be "terrist" or our cause is lost !
jesus, these people are batshit crazy. The infrastructure of this country is going to shit, but blame it on terrorism first before trying to actually fix the problems we already know about. Ted Stevens knows how to use "govment" money to fix bridges to nowhere, but an aging bridge in MI is a target of jihad..... game over.
After seeing this other picture of the collapse I'd be wondering if there was a kid with a red cape seen anywhere near by.
Moi @ 91:
Thanks, moi, for setting us all straight. We'll try to be more thoughtful and considerate in the future, if only for you and the one or more people you care about.
gallery @ 96:
There was enough money under Ted Steven's mattress to repair this bridge.
Didn't I see an FBI Memo about Mooslums driving salt trucks?
My car stopped the other day. Whilst initial reports from my fuel gauge claimed the gas tank was empty, and if I had maintained a level of gas in the tank the car would have continued. However, what the fuel gauge didn't say was whether a terrorist plot to remove gas from my tank was involved.
Therefore, here, I will make public comment that a terrorist plot was involved and there is aconspiracy to cover it up. The proof of this the lack of evidence of a terrorist plot being involved.
Thank you.
=my2c
Gbear
You sound a little sarcastic, but I appreciate the sentiment. If I'm wrong about that...sorry. I'm a bit freaked out. No one that is closest to my heart is unaccounted for. If that were the case, I wouldn't be here. However, there are a number of people that I am acquainted with and consider to be casual friends who commute that way.
These postings affirm the thoughts I've had since the NYC street exploded and steam blew as high as the Chysler Building a few weeks ago.
Whenever I've traveled to Europe or Canada in recent years I was struck by how clean and sound roads and bridges etc. appear there. The same with Asian cities today.
The comments from Canadians and others who have visited the US are insightful.
This country is a bunch of crumbling crap.
What has our national treasure been spent on instead of our cities and its people?
How can the spending been justified?
Well, it can't be justified. (See Iraq).
Another reason to punt the neocon cut taxes, cut domestic spending, screw America tories.
Third world here we come.
BC @ 101:
Something similar happened to me. Not too long ago I was about to get up from the toilet, reached for the toilet paper and it wasn't there. Terrorist plot? I'm more inclined to think it should have prioritized making sure there was a roll there before I sat my ass down.
We've seen what neglect, corruption, and mismanagement have done in Iraq. It was only a matter of time before those chickens came home to roost here. Imagine just a fraction of the billions spent on the war or rebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan spent on repairing our own crumbling infrastructure (or even spent on things the troops actually can use rather than further line Halliburton's pockets...or spent on taking care of those troops grievously injured in Shrub's adventurism). Even Hermann Goering knew the equation regarding guns and butter. If the blame went high enough up on this, I don't doubt that finding a way to pin it on terrorism would be contemplated.
Malkin - what an appropriate name for this socially parasitic piece of garbage.
Mal - meaning bad or abnormal
Kin - meaning spawn or child
Malkin is truly a bad seed that has writhed up through the putrid soil into a bloated and ugly weed.
Probably Malkin is pissed off that any illegal alien who was hurt in the accident is being treated for free.
[Deleted. Racist-Sitemonitor]
"I'll never have to get another job again if it's terrorism. We can gravy train this until 2050"-Jesse Malkin
Moi, yes I was being kind of sarcastic but I'm a little freaked out too. Sorry. I was scared for my sister this evening so I know how you feel, but I also felt a need to rant about how this is going to be used as an example of what terrorists might do. I hope all your friends are safe. As far as casualties go, it could have been much worse.
C&L makes Fox "News".com
I live in the Twin Cities and both Ventura and Pawlenty have been underfunding and shafting MNDOT for years! This is what you get when you back-burner infrastructure improvements to give tax breaks to the rich. Period.
The movie "Idiocracy" is neither science fiction, nor a comedy.
Discuss...
So whats Bushes comment.
"People will pick themselves up by their bootstraps"?
babalooey @ 107:
Dude, you're no better than Malkin -- and arguably worse -- with that kind of racist, misogynist shit. Get lost, creep.
Meanwhile, seven years after 9/11, I'm not exactly seeing a lightning fast, tightly orchestrated federal response to this disaster....
[Quote edited-Sitemonitor]
L.A. Confidential @ 113:
No, they should go shopping.
Okay six years. Still.
Hopefully Calatrava will build a new one for us.
I live 10 minutes from the aforementioned bridge.
>>
We need to engage in straightforward dialogue when it comes to where we are spending our money. We work too hard to let it go to overly-abundant, wasteful concepts.
We need to reaffirm and redefine what it means to be an American. Like it or not, billions of people around the world are trying to mimic our current standard of living, and getting closer to achieving it.
We can't even sustain it ourselves.
We exhaust all corners of the Earth.
Do we have more room for 3 times as many similar first world consumers than we have today at this level of per capita consumption??
Should we reconfigure what we are preaching to be the best life one can have on this Earth?
Should we aid those up-and-coming first world countries by removing the stone in the road,
the very same in which we tripped over?
Should we change as a people?
Should we promote actual freedom?
[Deleted. Racist-Sitemonitor]
gbear @ 109:
I hadn't gotten past comment #14 (I was so pissed), so having read further, I'm glad your sister's OK. Peace. But, I have a problem with fighting insane fire with insane fire. I'm probably a dumbass, but I think that intelligent human beings should respond, first and foremost, to the issue at hand. It makes me fear for our future that the left is as quick to turn a tragedy into politics as the right. Do we really want to become our enemy? Is the response in the first 13 comments really what you want to see as a human being?
I wonder when Republicans will start blaming the bridge collapse on Clinton.
That only three were killed tonight would be a miracle.
Of course we all pray a minimum number of lives were lost in this tragedy.
I think comments here are mostly about alocation of our tax dollars and the motives
the right exhibits as they try to fear-monger the event to serve their agenda.
This just in: Instead of building another bridge, Senator Ted Stevens has suggested building a series of tubes across the river.
Glen @ 121:
I don't thing anyone is blaming Bush for the bridge actually collapsing anymore than they blame him for the steam pipe explosion or the northeast blackout but rather how he has turned a record budget surplus left him by the previous president into record deficits, money that could be use as preventive maintainance for these problems.
So is this what it's going to be like?
A gas explosion in Manhattan and they blame terrorists?
A delapidated bridge collapses and they blame the terrorists?
I'm surprised they didn't blame the collapse of the levees in New Orleans on terrorists.
When they're not blaming terrorists for the decaying infrastructure, they're blaming liberals for the deteriorating public education system, they're blaming gays for destroying the family, they're blaming the poor for creating poverty.
These proponents of individual responsibility need to step up to the plate and take responsibility for SOMETHING. ANYTHING.
i live in minneapolis and i'm fine. the people i know are fine, which is awesome. i just hope that the death count stays below 10.
the bridge was under construction for a while now. that was most likely the cause for the collapse. NOT sabotage or terrorism. i wish people would stop with that crap talk.
Minnesota Lefty @ 111:
Hear, Hear! I live just south east of the Cities. I was away from the area from '99-'05, and I couldn't believe the condition our roadways were in when I came back home. Your quote sums up my feelings entirely!
"" Workers have been repairing the 40-year-old bridge's surface as part of improvements along that stretch of the interstate, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported on its Web site."
==> there is no way a structurally sound 40-yr old bridge can be weakened w/ resurfacing job. The load carrying components (beams, bolts, etc) must have been compromized. The poster above says the bridge was poorly built to start - 30+ yrs ago in constant repair /closings, pieces falling down on the river barges passing below.
Sabotage, or, idiot/ corrupt outsourced contractors 'saving' money against the contract specs ?? How were the specs written, ANY quality control procedures involved ??! The US Corps of Engineers were also in charge of NOLA protections - we all had seen what happened. Who knows what steel grade was used (IF as specified) for the load-bearing parts when the bridge was initially built. And, how much cement vs. sand in concrete. Customarily the government contracts are awarded to the LOWEST bidder, often w/out regard to quality. Etc, etc, etc..
The WHOLE nation is FALLING APART, any which way. The junta and Parliament of WHORES push gazillons of OUR/tax / $$$$$ into Iraqui bridges being 'rebuilt' by Halliburton on a weekly/ monthly schedule, over and over. Nobody knows how long a Halliburton bridge of any size would last: it gets 'Iraq'd' as soon as it stands again.. Then, we also finance the Israeli WALL to keep Palestinians in check .. We don't have enough money to finish the US Southern border WALL to keep the 'Mexican terrorists' away - easy to see why this bridge collapsed: our priorities are based on Cherftoff's gut/ booosh colon(sans polyps) and it is official now.
Nationwide there is a trend (C&L was writing of it few months ago) to SELL all the NATIONAL/ interstate (ie. ours, the taxpayers..) infrastructure before it falls apart totally, to the highest bidders for the short term profit, which will be used to close federal/States' deficits. There never was a US system of correct record keeping of ANY of the public assets - they were not considered much of assets until fairly recently, in the time of boosh, and cholera. Think of blood squeezed out of a stone.
Sick insinuations about terrorism on a bridge w/a 30+yrs record of falling apart are quite disturbing: we'll not live long enough to get anything fixed in our lifetime.
Glen @ 121:
Reich-wingers are blaming Muslims. No comment about that?
Glen @ 121:
So, should we blame Muslims? Is that ok by you?
Built in America, by Americans, back when they built things right.
Malkin and like-minded pundits are constantly claiming expertise in fields about which they know nothing, and displaying scant ambition to learn more. Is she an engineer? No. Has she conducted or at least participated in DHS anti-terrorist investigations? No. Is she a coronor? No. Is she a consultant for the Department of Transportation? No.
Do law enforcement agencies think Malkin's hard-hitting empirical research agencies is the best thing to come along since phrenology?
Well, no.
Thus we have the petty novelist-cum-global warming expert.
Thus we have the senator who watches a video for an hour and decides he's a neurologist.
Thus we have the evangelist who figures Jesus would be cool with an assassination or two.
"Before the dead could even be identified, the far left were already politicizing this tradegy"
~Bill O'Reilly, post dated for August 2, 2007
Mother nature is a tough cookie in Minnesota. Those 30 and 40 degree below days have a big impact on all roads and all concrete.
Yeah. A while ago a huge piece of steel fell off a Toronto office tower.
Where's Chicken Little when you need him?
So this is one of those Bechtle built bridges. The ones built under the Nixon infrastructure contracts.
Most of our bridges around here (excluding interstate highway system) are about seventy years old.
And most of our cities subterranean works are eighty to one-hundred, thirty years old. This should present a huge concern.
But what firm put this 60's era project together and who did they get their concrete and steel from?
I go to the U of M and live in Minneapolis part of the year, and I have been over that bridge a few times and it was a beautiful bridge. I am sad to see it go and the people who were on the bridge at the time if fell. My gosh, what odds though, to be on the bridge when in collapsed! There must have been billions of cars that went across the bridge and then you suddenly are one of the cars when it collapses..... my goodness I can't even imagine
Dr. Matt @ 134:
No shock there. The conservative parasites can't get a terror story out of the tragedy so Dildo makes up bullshit about the left politicizing it and [Deleted. Racist-Sitemonitor] Malkin just mentions it on her blog as possible terrorism.
And then the conservative parasites get their kneepads on and lap it up.
Moi @ 119:
the thing is.. all our $$ is being spent for war and our infrastructure is literally going down the tubes.. we won't need terrorism to finish this country.. the government's lack of taking care of our country will be the real terrorism... and it will still look like war. We have been left behind.
Hey....what happened to the [RACIST] Malkin posts? They were HILLARIOUS!
[Racism, yeah a real laugh riot-Sitemonitor]
From the American Society of Civil Engineers, a report card of the country's infrastructure.
http://www.asce.org/reportcard/2005/page.cfm?id=103
At this site you will also find the Action Plan the ASCE presented to the 110th Congress.
No partisanship here.
This is just a horrible tragedy, and my thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by this disaster. May God steer you through these difficult times.
The Champ is out.
I can already see the headline:
Pat Robertson says: "Bridge collapse God's punishment for electing muslim Keith Ellison, D-Minneapolis".
Well, we all know how people came to America to reach for the "dream." I am strongly considering that moving to another country will bring me a better life than the one I am living now. I no longer believe in the American dream. I believe I can assume a better life in France or England now that the American dream has been brought to shambles by our current leadership. I am so sick of this America.
J² @ 33:
And it goes without saying that if they get the terrorist attack that they are looking for, that they are no longer protecting us in our own country, huh?
Such a grand tragedy. Thoughts and prayers to those who have been affected by this event.
Pazuzu's Petals @ 130:
""The rise of Idiot America is essentially a war on expertise. ..
Everyone is an expert, so nobody is....
"It's more than a general dumbing down of America—the lack of self-motivated thinking: clear, creative thinking. It's like you're happy for other people to think for you. If you should be worried about, say, global warming, well, somebody in Washington will tell me whether or not I should be worried about global warming. So it's like this abdication of intellectual responsibility—that America now is getting to the point that more and more people would just love to let somebody else think for them."
..The rest of the world looks on in cockeyed wonder. ...
. It is the ultimate standard of Idiot America. How does it play to Joe Six-Pack in the bar?
... The best thing about American crackpots used to be that they would stand proudly aloof from a country that, by their peculiar lights, had gone mad. Not today. Today, they all have book deals, TV shows, and cases pending in federal court.
"It's delusional, allowing delusion to be the basis of policy making. Once you've told the big lie, you have to substantiate it with a sequence of lies that's repeated. You can't fix a policy if you don't admit it's broken."
..Nonsense is a no-lose proposition. For Idiot America is a place where people choose to live. It is a place that is built consciously and deliberately, one choice at a time, made or (most often) unmade. ".....
http://www.aboyandhiscomputer.com/Greetings_from_Idiot_America.html
Greetings From Idiot America
CREATIONISM. INTELLIGENT DESIGN. FAITH-BASED THIS. TRUST-YOUR-GUT THAT. THERE'S NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO ESPOUSE, PROFIT FROM, AND BELIEVE IN UTTER, UNADULTERATED CRAP. AND THE CRAP IS RISING SO HIGH, IT'S GETTING DANGEROUS.
by Charles P. Pierce
America is a fucking disaster......democrats or republicans, but obviously more republicans..................Christ I swear to god you would be better of in Europe.... right now not that that is bad.....but bad for America......Asia however.......is probably worse...just a pisshole of shit
[Deleted. OCD trollage or a pay job? You be the judge....]
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