[MNJohnnie]

Well one thing you will not hear today in all the grand standing and political demagoguery about the I35 bridge collapse is how this is a wound we Minnesotan’s inflicted on ourselves.

This collapsed bridge is a very teachable moment if Conservatives have the guts to grasp it. This is a very good example of possible consequences when existing transportation dollars are repeatedly been misapplied by both the State, and the Federal, Govt.

The problem here is not that Government, at all levels, lacks the money to spend on infrastructure repair, the problem is the Govt, at all levels, repeatedly misspends the funds it does have.

This bridge was determined structurally deficient in 1990. It was build using 1960s engineering norms that were now out of date.

Maybe during the 1990s the State of Minnesota diverted over a billion dollars of State, and Federal, infrastructure dollars into an eco-freak boondoggle light rail project between down town Minneapolis and the Minneapolis airport. The prject was called the "Hiawatha Light Rail Corridor". Maybe Minnesota politicians should of been tending to their existing infrastructure instead of wasting our money for political “legacy building” and “prestige” projects.

Using the currently stated cost for rebuilding the bridge at $250 million, for the cost of the light rail project this bridge could of been completely rebuilt from scratch 5 or 6 times during the 1990s.

This “Hiawatha Light Rail”project was largely the brain child of the Metropolitan Council . Either as the head of the council, or one of its most politically connected members, at the time was former VP Walter Mondale’s son Ted Mondale.

The sadly ironic thing here is the terminal for this billion dollar waste of state and Federal transportation dollars is about 1 mile from the bridge that collapsed.

Here is the link to the the website about the line. The bridge that collapsed is the one on the map where 35W crosses the blue line of the Mississippi River in the upper right of the map.

http://www.metrocouncil.org/transportation/lrt/lrt.htm

Additional information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiawatha_Line

http://www.metrotransit.org/rail/station_detail.asp

[anita]

All absolute FACTs. If only ANY of the MSM host or reporter do this research & report truthfully!

[Mo1]

This “Hiawatha Light Rail”project was largely the brain child of the Metropolitan Council . Either as the head of the council, or one of its most politically connected members, at the time was former VP Walter Mondale’s son Ted Mondale.

That Billion dollar project was the brain child of Mondale's kid??

I had not known that

[rodguy911]

Great post MNJ we have to get this to talk radio tomorrow they can have a lot of fun with this since it will never ever see the light of day in the msm/dbm. Your choo- choo comments on EC's show yesterday were priceless great radio.

Looks like the Minnesotans were just copying the European model for rail since they guide all elite L/W wackos.

[eeevil conservative]

MUAH!!!

I am so glad you are okay.....You were the first thing I thought of when I heard about the bridge....

[AliVeritas]

Mansfield has uploaded the rest of the AQ Zawahiri, Gadahn video. Read this for background, links:

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/

[AliVeritas]

Does Iran have designs on Bahrain?

From Memri we find this disturbing piece
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=IA37907

Tension has recently developed between Iran and the Gulf states, particularly Bahrain, in the wake of an op-ed by the editor of the Iranian daily Kayhan, Hossein Shariatmadari, who is an associate of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The op-ed, which depicted the Gulf regimes as “not legitimate” and claimed that Bahrain is an inseparable part of Iran and should be returned to it, provoked angry reactions in the Gulf[...]

For those who really want to get into it (I hope all)
http://www.rumorofwar.blogspot.com/