About That Bridge

As of Wednesay, 1 August 2007, catostrophic bridge disasters were rare.   After the events of Wednesday, catostrophic bridge collapses remain rare, and will remiain rare. 

We have evidence in video form. and from the Northwestern University, Infrastructure Technology Institute.  Bridge disasters have happened about every decade or so.   There no reason to believe the frequency will not decrease.   We learn from our experience and get smarter.   Further, there is no evidence of anything which would suggest an increase in frequency.   Rare events do not become common events without a reason.

Just 24% give the president favorable ratings of his performance in handling the war in Iraq, but confidence in Congress is significantly worse – only 3% give Congress positive marks for how it has handled the war. This lack of confidence in Congress cuts across all ideologies. Democrats – some of whom had hoped the now Democrat-led Congress would bring an end to the war in Iraq – expressed overwhelming displeasure with how Congress has handled the war, with 94% giving Congress a negative rating in its handling specifically of that issue.  The online survey was conducted July 13-16, 2007, and included 7,590 respondents. It carries a margin of error of +/- 1.1 percentage points.

So reports Zogby.

As to how that disapproval breaks down, perhaps this is the best measurement:

To best show support for the troops, 42% believe Congress should fully fund the war in Iraq to maintain current troop levels, while 34% would favor attaching requirements for phased withdrawal to Iraq war funding. Just 18% said cutting all funding for the war in Iraq to bring troops home would be the best showing of Congressional support.

In other words the disapproval breaks down as close to 50/50 as no matter between those who support the war and those who do not.  Which, in turn, would seem to be of a piece with the last few elections, prior to the most recent midterm.  If you’ll recall, I suggested that the time, that the midterm was a one time result.  These numbers would suggest that estimation was correct.

These poll numbers would also seem to suggest that there is a huge split occurring in the democratic party, which currently finds itself being driven by its extreme left.  Ultimately, they won’t have enough unity to elect a dog catcher, much less a president.

Wonkette calls Alan Mollohan (salty language) corrupt, which he is.   In so far as she went, Wonkette did well.  She’d have done much better if she had remembered to refer to Mollohan as a democrat, which he is.

Personally I’d be willing to but Mollohan on the same Bridge to No Where as Ted Stevens.

More, Don Surber.

• So if this Muslin bakery in Oakland, was such a problem, and there was a number of murders linked to it, why do you suppose it is that it took the death of a “journalist” to put it on the front page of the nation’s newspapers ?  Didn’t the problem exist, before?  I guess that average Americans getting killed, or being threatened, is it news.  People involved in the media being killed or threatened, is.  So much for the “nobility” of the press.
• There is a lot of negative, surrounding the 35W bridge.  I don’t mean to make light of the tragedy, there.  But have you noticed that we haven’t heard much about Paris Hilton, or Lindsay Lohan, lately?  I guess if you dig deep enough, you can find a positive in anything.
• I see that the ever lovely and ever thoughtful Dizzy Girl has a new look to her site.
• Dizzy Scopio notes an unhappy anniversary.
• The reason that Sean Penn being a useful idiot didn’t make the papers, this time around, is because it’s already a well established fact.
• William Kristol makes note of the obvious, and as usual, the left is having a fit about it.  Look, guys, the New York Times poll was redone, because they couldn’t believe that their anti war propaganda was having so little effect.  The numbers the first time around, were what they wanted, so they tried it again.  At least the democrats in Congress got the numbers the way they wanted the second time around.
• I see the Senate has expanded Warrantless Surveillance .  It would appear that pressure were planning on both houses of Congress, is working.  In both houses the democrats are backing off of their entire word nonsense.  But one gets the sense that the commitment of the Democrats to our security, is limited to the degree of the insertion of a lit blowtorch into congressional backsides.
• The bottom line here is, Steve, that we have a number of people who are over reliance on the letter of the law, without understanding the vision that was behind it. I’ve been saying for years.

The democrats did not figuratively steal a vote in the House of Representatives.  They literally did.  Editor, Influence Peddler, has the story of a stolen vote.

The vote was a motion to recommit which would prevented benefits to illegal aliens.   Not only do the ‘Rats not want to stop to flow of illegals.  They want to give the illegals our tax dollars, and they willing to cheat to do it.

Shame on your caucus Mrs. Pelosi.

Oh, Shut up, David, and quit trying to make us believe that you have a fricking clue.  You don’t do it very well.

The “glory days” of the Wall Street Journal you speak so fondly of, is precisely why it got bought up.  It’s version of journalism in the 90’s didn’t have nearly as much on the ball as its editorialists did.  That became startlingly clear enough following September 11th. The readership caught on, and then so did the advertisers.
The readers and advertisers who left the paper, were in the end the same ones that have been leaving newspapers all across the country, and for the same reason; the drop-off of both readers and advertisers was and remains in direct relationship to the amount the paper leaned left.  In the end, the editorial section, which was the only bright spot in the paper, was not enough to keep it afloat.

Perhaps with a little balance being added to the newsroom, by the new ownership, the paper can find its way again.  I certainly hope so.  But that you fail to identify the papers biggest problem as such, tells me that you yourself are being blinded by your own idealism.  Time was, that kind of blindness put one in a rather precarious position in the news business.  As it is, you’re one of many.  Which is why the mainstream media has been failing so dramatically of late.

Or, is it that moving the paper away from the left, is your biggest fear?  It would certainly explain your reaction to Murdoch be the owner. Don’t worry, there are plenty of people all over it The Daily Kos and the Democratic Underground who think (?) as do you.
Time will tell if Murdoch can turn that situation around at the Wall Street Journal. If he does manage it, it will not be because he’s been listening to people like yourself.

Today we honor a Captain from the 82nd Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team for valor in combat in Samarra, Iraq. In addition to the Silver Star, CPT Goltry was awarded two Purple Hearts for wounds received in action as well as the Combat Infantryman’s Badge.

That’s McQ’s latest offering to Project Hero, over at Q&O.

Go and read the whole thing.

Not to take anything away from Bruce, or his efforts, but I am struck this morning by the idea that any one of the subjects under the category of Project Hero pretty much writes itself.  Writing, often requires embellishment.  The subjects that Bruce passes along to us every week, require no such embellishment .  There is no salesmanship required.  All that is required, is the truth.  Nor is there any shortage of these subjects to write about.  Such heroes, you see, are all around us.

Project Hero, is a worthy attempt on McQ’s part to remind us that we have heroes among us. Further, that these need to be honored as such. We at BitsBlog are proud to lend our voice to such a project.

Joe Strummer, call your office.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo‘s campaign stood by his assertion that bombing holy Muslim sites would serve as a good “deterrent” to prevent Islamic fundamentalists from attacking the United States, his spokeswoman said Friday.

“This shows that we mean business,” said Bay Buchanan, a senior Tancredo adviser. “There’s no more effective deterrent than that. But he is open-minded and willing to embrace other options. This is just a means to deter them from attacking us.”

On Tuesday, Tancredo warned a group of Iowans that another terrorist attack would “cause a worldwide economic collapse.” IowaPolitics.com recorded his comments.

I admit myself being torn here, between a certain level of sympathy for the comment, and being up all that the sheer stupidity of publicly suggesting it before actually doing it.

In all candor, I suggest that Barack Obama has lowered himself to an also ran, with similar comments about Pakistan.  How can I not suggest that Tom Tancredo is not being at least equally stupid?

Left wing apologist and all around idiot, Ezra Klein:

AN ODD CLOSE. As the Military and Progressives panel came to an end, a young man in uniform stood up to argue that the surge was working, and cutting down on Iraqi casualties. The moderator largely freaked out. When other members of the panel tried to answer his question, he demanded they “stand down.” He demanded the questioner give his name, the name of his commander, and the name of his unit. And then he closed the panel, no answer offered or allowed, and stalked off the stage,

Wes Clark took the mic and tried to explain what had just occurred: The argument appears to be that you’re not allowed to participate in politics while wearing a uniform, or at least that you shouldn’t, and that the questioner was engaging in a sort of moral blackmail, not to mention a violation of the rules, by doing so. Knowing fairly little about the army, I can’t speak to any of that. But it was an uncomfortable few moments, and seemed fairly contrary to the spirit of the panel to roar down the member of the military who tried to speak with a contrary voice.

Go ahead, Ezra, and tell us about how the left supports the troops.  Apparently, those in uniform are not good enough to speak to Democrats.

Clark’s comments, while technically correct, reek of one sidedness.

The Kossacks charged the soldier with “being a plant”, and “engaging in moral blackmail “.  How?  Simply by being a soldier?  If that’s true, then what of the general?

I understand that there are different protocols in play, when speaking of a retired officer.  But if the complaint is to be moral blackmail, simply because of the speaker being in the military, let’s ask the question: is there anyone in the room who didn’t know that Wesley Clark was a general?  Is not, his waving like a flag the fact of his being a retired general also not “moral blackmail”?

Or does it not qualify as “moral blackmail” because Clark is a Kossack?

Seems to me the complaint is on very shaky ground.  And frankly, I don’t give them that much credit for having thought the matter through that far.  The most likely scenario is the moderator saw that he was actually going to have to deal with somebody who was actually there, and made on the basis of that exposure disagree with what was going on , and went into full panic mode.  Liberals have a tendency to do that when faced with facts.

And remember, my friends, this is the mess that all of the Democratic presidential candidates chose to stroll into, whilst abandoning the DLC meeting.

Leaving aside the issue of Chris Dodd (Moron, Massachusetts) and Bill O’Reilly (the combination of which last night was enlightening in the extreme, but I still found it difficult to determine whom to cheer for) and their conversation, and it’s content, the overall picture of the real intentions of the Democratic party, are coming through loud and clear.  Like what you see, America?

And by the way, Ezra, thanks for proving my long-standing point about all this so very clearly..

Others Blogging:

Michelle Malkin,

Q&O

And The Jawa Report 

Um…. Oops…. The Breck Girl does it again… so reports the only NEWSpaper in NY:

August 3, 2007 -NY POST- WASHINGTON – John Edwards, who yesterday demanded Democratic candidates return any campaign donations from Rupert Murdoch and News Corp., himself earned at least $800,000 for a book published by one of the media mogul’s companies.

The Edwards campaign said the multimillionaire trial lawyer would not return the hefty payout from Murdoch for the book titled “Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives.”

Kurtz makes note of it, as well. So do Captain’s Quarters, Sister Toldjah, National Review, NewsBusters.org, TigerHawk, and Hot Air

While much of the lame stream media are simply awed by celebrity,such as the idiot who thought it would good idea to inteview the murderer of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, some listeners are not so awed;  Question to Simpson:

Was it tougher to break 2,000 yards in one season or slice thru 2 necks in one night.

Allah Pundit, Hot Air, has the video.

Good news for Dennis Kucinich’s presidential campaign.   He just secured the all important moonbat vote.  Mrc. Sheehan has endosed Kucinich.

Read entire article.

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I said the other day that that bridge collapse in Minneapolis, would end up being a political tool. I pointed up one leftie blogger yesterday, and have noted several more in my travels.  (The one I mentioned, by the way, is now squealing like a stuck pig that I misrepresented his intentions, which of course I did not.)

But, of course, here come the remainder of the democrats, Dirty Harry Reid at the head of the mob screaming the old Bill Clinton line “invest in America” .  Politico says:

It took less than a day for the disastrous bridge collapse in Minneapolis to turn into a political uproar on Capitol Hill.

As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) opened the Thursday session of the Senate, he warned that the bridge disaster was a “wake-up call” regarding infrastructure investment across the country.

…

“This is what I worry about every day. The lack of investment in infrastructure is frightening,” Murray said. “This is what [Bush] is threatening to veto — investment in infrastructure for [roads] we go to work on every day.”

And, of course, the Democrats join together in the Iraq Chours:

Reid even suggested that Bush has been too distracted by the Iraq war and post-Sept. 11 national security needs to focus on the country’s water, sewer and transportation infrastructure.

“Since 9/11, we have taken our eye off the ball,” Reid said.

All that, of course, is utter nonsense.  The agreement under which that bridge, and indeed, most bridges on the Interstate system were built, specifically stated that the state… not the federal government was responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of that bridge, even though it was to be kept to Federal upkeep standards. It should be further noted, the state government up in Minnesota is rather heavily weighted toward the Democratic party. So, whose fault is this, again?  Of course, their push, lately, in terms of spending tax money, has been toward spending on welfare programs such as health care, etc.. infrastructure, ends up being a poor stepchild to socialist spending.

As such, laying this at the feet of congressional Republicans, is disingenuous at least, and in truth ludicrous.

The argument, of course, is that the collapse of that bridges caused by lower taxes.  The complaint, is that because of those lower taxes and the resulting lower income, we are unable to support our infrastructure. This, of course, assumes two things, which are not true:

1. Tax cuts produce lower income in the tax coffers
2. The whole thing is a zero sum game.

Even if we assume both, just for the sake of argument, does it not stand to reason that if we were spending less on social programs, and direct payments to citizens, out of the Federal and state treasuries, that we would be able to spend more on infrastructure issues?

If there is blame to be placed at the financial level of governmental involvement, it is the irresponsible, and frankly unconstitutional spending on socialist programs that is forced us to cost cutting on infrastructure.  As such, we have no guarantee whatsoever that sufficient monies would be diverted to infrastructure, were taxes to be raised.  No, we would find more in the way of social spending and misdirected earmarks.  Infrastructure, would still go wanting.  Further yet, is the idea that the democrats have held sway in Minnesota for many years.  If infrastructure was such a hot item for them, where was the action on the matter?  Similarly, let’s look at the democrats who held sway in Congress for all those decades.  If infrastructure was such an issue to them, why is it that they never fully addressed it?  Spending too much on social programs, perhaps?

At the risk of putting too dramatic to face on this, I suggest that that bridge in Minneapolis went down the other day under the weight of the social spending programs the state is forced to divert its money to.

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Funny how they never mention that one. No, their answer is more taxes.
Further, we don’t even know what the cause of the failure of that bridge was yet.  We probably won’t know until after the election.  Thing is, the Democrats desperately need a talking point that they can latch onto before the election.  So, between now and then, we’re going to hear about how Minneapolis is all the fault of the Republicans and their tax cuts, which of course has a translation that all Americans will understand as uniquely Democrat party:

You’re not paying enough taxes.

I think you know the correct response to that one.

Do the Democrats really want to run on a platform of raising taxes?  If the Democrats really want their fight to end up on this particular ground, I say:

Bring it on….This will be the easiest presidential cycle for Republicans since Reagan/ Carter … or perhaps Mondale… both of which wanted to raise your taxes.

Addendum:(Bit)

Boortz agrees, and adds a couple salient points… saying in part that they’d like…

…us to believe that more taxes would have saved these people, and it is all the Governor’s fault for refusing to increase those taxes. The fact is that the problem wasn’t low taxes, the problem was fiscal irresponsibility.

Let’s take a look at Citizens for Government Waste’s “The Pig Booklet” for the state of Minnesota for the year 2006. Take a look at all of the “pork” projects. I’ll give you a taste of a few:

• The state bailout of the Minneapolis Teacher’s Retirement Fund, which puts state taxpayers on the hook for $972 million in unfunded liabilities
• A new $776 million Twins Stadium to be paid for with a Hennepin County sales tax increase — (approved by state legislators with no voter referendum)
• $97.5 million for the Northstar Commuter Rail line
• $34 million in subsidies to ethanol producers that have seen a 300 percent increase in profits in the last year
• $30 million for bear exhibits at the Minnesota and Como Zoos
• $12 million to renovate the Shubert Theater in downtown Minneapolis
• $1 million for a replica Vikings ship in Moorhead
• $500,000 for a skating rink in Roseville
• $310,000 for a Shakespeare festival in Winona
• $129,000 for state art grants for North Dakota museums and theaters

And the list goes on and on, folks. This was all tax money spent in Minnesota while that bridge remained un-repaired. Now we’re told that the problem is that taxes weren’t high enough.

LONDON -AP- A man critically burned after allegedly crashing an explosive-laden Jeep into Glasgow Airport died of his injuries Thursday, Strathclyde Police said.

Kafeel Ahmed, 27, had been in the hospital for a month with burns from the alleged attack on June 30, which followed a day after two failed car bombings in London. The other man in the car, Iraqi doctor Bilal Abdullah, has been charged with conspiring to set off explosions.

“We can confirm that the man seriously injured during the course of the incident at Glasgow Airport on Saturday June 30 has died in Glasgow Royal Infirmary,” said a spokesman for Strathclyde Police, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with force policy.

If there was ever more pathetic example of a human being I certainly don’t know of one. I mean, here’s somebody who arrives in Hell, precooked, after screwing up his own suicide.

And, Kafeel?  It isn’t 72 virgins, it’s 72 Raisins. Not that either will have anything to do with you, now.

The rest of the comments that I could add to this post, I’m not even going to bother to do, given that I’ve done it so often before.  Just consider them added in absentia, or something.

But the takeaway, from this, aside from all that, is a serious consideration of the kind of mentality that attempts this kind of stunt at all, much less screws it up so badly.  We are often told, that we should be negotiating with these people.  How, pray, does one negotiate with such a mentality?

The answer, of course is, it’s impossible to do so.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) bills herself as a Moslem American civil right groups, but acts like a supporters of terrorism.   Now what looks and acts like a duck, has been identified as duck.  Counterterrorism Blog is reporting the FBI has linked CAIR to HAMAS:

The executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Nihad Awad, participated in a three-day summit of U.S.-based HAMAS members and supporters in 1993.

So when will the lame stream media quit fronting for CAIR as if she were some kind civil rights group?

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