Real Security

Collapsing Bridges, Sinking Levees. It’s (Past) Time to Invest

Eric Lotke — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:47:02 -0400

Last year on August 1, the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed during rush hour. Thirteen people died and more than 100 were wounded. A school bus carrying 52 children teetered on the brink but did not fall.

This bridge is not alone. Our nation’s infrastructure is deteriorating, dying of old age and neglect.

Making Sense Alert:
Invest in America Now
How to talk about the need
for investment in our
common assets in tough
economic times.

Bridges and roads. The U.S. Department of Transportation reports that nearly 25 percent of bridges in the U.S.—over 152,000 bridges—are “structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.” Heavier vehicles, like school buses and delivery trucks, are forced to take lengthy detours for safer bridges. Nearly one in four miles of urban interstate is in “poor” or “mediocre” condition.

Levees and waterways. Earlier this year, thousands of homes and millions of acres of crops were destroyed after heavy rains overwhelmed obsolete levees along the Mississippi River. In 2007, the American Society of Civil Engineers found more than 150 levees to be at high risk of failing due to poor maintenance. Over a quarter of the dams overseen by the Corps of Engineers have exceeded the lifespan for which they were designed and need major repairs to ensure their safety.

Water and steam. A steam pipe explosion in Manhattan last year launched a tow truck 12 feet in the air, killing one person and injuring dozens more. The blast opened a 40-foot-diameter crater and spread toxic asbestos, closing off 40 square blocks for five days. Almost every state—from California, Hawaii, and New York to Alaska and North Carolina—has reported record breakdowns in water infrastructure. In the words of one expert, “an epidemic of breaking pipes is causing unprecedented havoc.”

These are just illustrations of the deadly danger of letting our infrastructure go unmaintained. America’s electric power grid, dams, water treatment plants, airports, and railways are all in dire need of repairs and improvements.

The solution is obvious. Repair and rebuild. Rebuilding our infrastructure provides jobs—good jobs that can never be outsourced—and an economic shot in the arm that we desperately need. The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that every $1 billion in federal highway investment creates 47,500 new jobs and generates more than $2 billion in economic activity.

The “greatest generation” built the Interstate Highway System and laid the groundwork for decades of economic expansion. Now it’s our turn to rebuild the highways and add high-speed rail to boot. We’ll be faster, safer and more efficient. Yes, it will cost money, and yes, we’re running deficits. But this is no time to run scared. These are long-term investments and they will pay off over time.

Don’t fall for the “pay as you go” trap or fear the “tax and spend” label. Real people are smarter than that. A new poll by Time Magazine and the Rockefeller Foundation finds 83 percent of the public supports “increasing government spending on things like public works projects to help create jobs.” Support is at 83 percent among the baby-boom generation who built the interstates, and a surprising 90 percent among the young generation Y who are watching them fall apart.

Let’s invest now to turn the economy around.

Are You Being Tracked? - Can They Do This? - "Yes We Can"

Philip Palij — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:26:36 -0500

A series of ongoing battles delineate the boundary of what, in the digital age, is personal, private life and information.

In a recent hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Al Franken reminded his fellow Americans, “People have a fundamental right to control their private information.” At the hearing, Franken raised an alarm about Carrier IQ’s software, CIQ.

Tomgram: Frances Fox Piven, The War on the Home Front

Philip Palij — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 05:55:19 -0500

The Tomdispatch.com website has for years provided an alternative voice to the tainted and simply unrepresentative mainstream media that parrots the views of the plutocrats and their relentless drive against democracy in America.

This story provides some perspective; thoughts from veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan wars to the betrayal of the ideals they thought they were fighting for.

The Class War Has Begun

Philip Palij — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 03:45:58 -0400

"Our Establishment, left, right, and center, did not see the wave coming or understand what it meant as it broke. Maybe it’s just human nature and the power of denial, or maybe it’s a stubborn strain of all-American optimism, but at each aftershock since the fall of Lehman Brothers, those at the top have preferred not to see what they didn’t want to see." - Frank Rich

War - "A state of open, armed, often prolonged conflict carried on between nations, states, or parties." - The Freedictionary

I know what you meant Mr Rich and I agree with the sentiment but you should use the term war, carefully.

Fingerprinting Those Seeking Food Stamps Is Denounced

Philip Palij — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 05:11:49 -0400

Taking aim at a practice she called unnecessary, costly and punitive, the speaker of the City Council, Christine C. Quinn, is asking the Bloomberg administration to justify requiring applicants for food stamps to be electronically fingerprinted.

Safe nuclear does exist, and China is leading the way with thorium

Philip Palij — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 02:51:03 -0400

US technological lead abandoned in the sixties because it didn't produce enough plutonium for nuclear bombs.

A few weeks before the tsunami struck Fukushima’s uranium reactors and shattered public faith in nuclear power, China revealed that it was launching a rival technology to build a safer, cleaner, and ultimately cheaper network of reactors based on thorium.

Telegraph Article: Click Link

Buying and Operating Cost Of 2,443 F35s is estimated to be $1.3 trillion

Philip Palij — Sat, 21 May 2011 04:11:01 -0400

The words Millions and Billions and Trillions are bandied around by office bound politicians and media commentators with such an abstract detachment the sheer scale and meaning of what they say is easily lost on ordinary people who budget in the tens and hundreds from day to day.

Just how many unnecessary war machines, how much corruption, and how much greed can 1.3 Trillion sustain over thirty years. Just how many wars will we have to start to justify them, how many threats must we create and magnify to justify them. War = Profits. Fantastic profits

Think like a CEO and board, have a cigar, and think of a convincing argument..... for war.

Bringing the 'Bush Six' to justice

Philip Palij — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 18:53:51 -0500

Today, the Centre for Constitutional Rights filed papers encouraging Judge Eloy Velasco and the Spanish national court to do what the United States will not: prosecute the "Bush Six". These are the former senior administration legal advisors, headed by then US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who violated international law by creating a legal framework that materially contributed to the torture of suspected terrorists at US-run facilities at Guantánamo and other overseas locations.

Terrorist by Association

Philip Palij — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 06:29:57 -0500

Joe Iosbaker, a Service Employees union steward, and Stephanie Weiner, a Palestinian solidarity activist, at home in Chicago. The FBI used their porch as a staging area before the September 24 raid. Watch In These Times' video interview with the couple in their home after "FBI political fishing expedition". (Photo by Peter Holderness)

NY Times Warning: Blue State Armageddon On The Way

Philip Palij — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 12:24:12 -0500

Watching this situation develop over the past few years has been like watching the sea withdraw before a terrible tidal wave sweeps all before it. This post is a pretty good summary of the meaning behind media signals being transmitted in increasing rapidity.

Please read through the consequences of a state bailout. it ain't pretty for the poor.