Day: August 26, 2006

CYA is Not an Effective Infrastructure Policy

Trish

If you thought the government response last year to Hurricane Katrina was bad, stay tuned.

Blogger and Washington analyst Christian Beckner is predicting more trouble ahead, as the Bush Administration continues to ignore domestic needs and divert domestic funding while pre-emptively blaming state and local governments for impending disasters.

The Seattle Times notes a growing list of failures.

The Commission on Public Infrastructure at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, said in a recent report that facilities are deteriorating “at an alarming rate.”

British oil company BP announced this month that severe corrosion would close its Alaska pipelines for extensive repairs. Analysts say this may sideline some 200,000 barrels a day of production for several months.

Then an instrument landing system that guides arriving planes onto a runway at Los Angeles International Airport failed for the second time in a week, delaying flights.

Those incidents followed reports that the National Security Agency (NSA), the intelligence world’s electronic eavesdropping arm, is consuming so much electricity at its headquarters outside Washington that it is in danger of exceeding its power supply.

“If a terrorist group were able to knock the NSA offline, or disrupt one of the nation’s busiest airports, or shut down the most important oil pipeline in the nation, the impact would be perceived as devastating,” Beckner said. “And yet we’ve essentially let these things happen — or almost happen — to ourselves.”

Wait, there’s more.

The Commission on Public Infrastructure at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, said in a recent report that facilities are deteriorating “at an alarming rate.”

It noted that half the 257 locks operated by the Army Corps of Engineers on inland waterways are functionally obsolete, more than one-quarter of the nation’s bridges are structurally deficient or obsolete, and $11 billion is needed annually to replace aging drinking-water facilities.

So how does our courageous leader respond? Does he step up to the plate and do the hard stuff? Has he ever?

President Bush, asked about the problem during a public question-and-answer session in an April visit to Irvine, Calif., cited last year’s enactment of a comprehensive law reauthorizing highway, transit and road-safety programs.

“Infrastructure is always a difficult issue,” Bush acknowledged. “It’s a federal responsibility and a state and local responsibility. And I, frankly, feel like we’ve upheld our responsibility at the federal level with the highway bill.”

What Pres. “I’ve Never Made a Mistake or At Least Taken Responsibility for It” is saying kinda sorta worked when he tried to defend himself for blowing it during Katrina. It gave the rightwing pundits something to harp on, the idea that maybe local officials were really to blame for the multi-state disaster. And as we know, if a dodge kinda sorta worked once for this idiot, he’ll trot the same horseshit out again and again.

The only problem with all the talk and no action is that in the meantime, our country is at risk. And CYA is not a policy.

Harris View of the World Pisses Off Jews, Other Non-Christians, Christians, Democrats, Republicans, Gays, Straights, and Model Airplane Enthusiasts

Trish

Florida Jews and other non-Chrisitians are expressing outrage at U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, who recently stated that only the twice-born are fit to hold office.

Since He chooses our rulers, He chose Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton as surely as He chose Katherine herself. God sounds a little conflicted.

As PR Editor Buck noted, statements by Harris published in the weekly journal of the Florida Baptist Convention surpassed even her own unmatched record of looniness. Others are starting to agree.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said she was “disgusted” by the comments “and deeply disappointed in Rep. Harris personally.”Harris, Wasserman Schultz said, “clearly shows that she does not deserve to be a Representative . . .”

State Rep. Irv Slosberg, D-Boca Raton, demanded an apology, saying the statements were “outrageous, even by her standards.

“What is going through this woman’s mind?” said Slosberg. “We do not live in a theocracy.”

…Ahmed Bedier, the Central Florida Director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, said he was “appalled that a person who’s been in politics this long would hold such extreme views.”

Bedier said most Christians would find such comments “shameful.”

…The criticism was not limited to Democrats.

Ruby Brooks, a veteran Tampa Bay Republican activist, said Harris’ remarks “were offensive to me as a Christian and a Republican.”

“To me, it’s the height of hubris,” said Brooks, a former Largo Republican Club president and former member of the Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee.

And Jillian Hasner, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said: “I don’t think it’s representative of the Republican Party at all. Our party is much bigger and better than Katherine Harris is trying to make it.”

What did Harris say to get everyone so upset? It’s best to read it for yourself. […]