America is crumbling...

[Ian Gills]

...because it was not built properly.

Raise taxes to fix it and hire some European engineers.

They build things to last.

[Terry]

Well, how about that. Seattle finally made up its mind about something.
Which is: We hate our mayor!
No wait, Mike McGinn, only 1 ½ years into his first term, wasn't on the ballot Tuesday.
We decided: We want a tunnel!

Danny Westneat
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm..._danny17m.html

Talking about infrastructure.
After our last big earthquake, a major highway through town was on the verge of collapse in the next quake.
It's built on a major fault line. The mayor stalled and delayed the project as long as he could, hoping that we would all start biking to work instead of driving. The mayor doesn't personally own a bike, he borrows one to ride on. How cheap can you get?
Don't spend money to move people around. Leave an aging freeway in place that towers forty feet over the water front, and wait for something bad to happen?
It was finally decided this week that this route will be replaced; over the mayor's wishes. So the rainy city gets an underground tunnel that bypasses the waterfront, traffic will keep moving, and a major, aging, towering, overhead highway will be torn down and replaced before it comes crashing down on us.
We hope.
Good job, people of Seattle.

[Cookie]

Ian's got a bike,

What you should do, is to do what we did here. We got a whole bunch of people together and demanded to the city council that they fix our bridges before it is like the London bridge tune...

and, after many demands, they found the money, and have been fixing them for some time now.

But, you got to get active, not just complain, you got to do something about it. This group of people consisted mainly, of people who pay the tax dollars to travel the bridges daily.

We are a city of bridges so, this was no small feat. But, we did it! You do it. Organize a group of people who don't want to ride bikes to work, lol. and who pays their taxes.

Good luck.

[Terry]

You people are funny.

The bulk of the nation’s highway system was built in the 1950s and 1960s and is aging.
Isn't anyone else besides Ian noticing?

In Seattle, we're tolling 520 over Lake Washington for it's replacement, which will force more people over I-90 and around the lake. It would be nice to have a parallel freeway near the mountains so we wouldn't have to force everyone into the most congested parts of our area as they travel though. I don't know how many more cars can squeeze through. Traffic delays are becoming serious in the Seattle area.

http://www.newstimes.com/local/artic...ure-963618.php

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/02/us...-engineer.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/us...8projects.html

[Terry]

Do we spend more money rebuilding Iraq, or the US?

I would love to see some of that money spent here.

[Cookie]

Ian rides a bike. I bet he would suggest riding a bike to work. I think he has infact. Now, Terry, yes the roads, the bridges are old, and yes, infact, our group of taxpayers, including me, noticed this and we demanded to the city council they be fixed. You see, what you may fail to realize is that as a taxpayer you have a say!

Being there are 446 bridges in my fair city and how many in maybe, say, Ian's neck of the woods, I would say, we did very well. The cost of those bridges alone is without saying, as the cost of fixing your problem in your hometown.

The wheels turn slowly, but, unless you do something, instead of just complaining you will be riding a bike like Ian's.

We banned together ( instead of banning) and, we did something. Now, several of those 446 bridges you can safely walk across. One was fixed by creating a new walkway to the stadium. So, talk is cheap, but, actions is invaluable.

I will ask this, what is the solution?

[Terry]

So who gets the Iraqi oil after the US has invested over 2 Trillion dollars?
The big winners are Russia and China.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KL16Ak02.html

Instead of US Big Oil getting the lion's share, strategic competitors Russia and China turned out to be big winners.

[Cookie]

Fair is fair, Ian, how's the cleanup going after all these years on the river Thames? I hear you might actually introduce fish.


http://www.thames21.org.uk/

We could help by sending over some of our men with expertise in this.

[ballvalve]

So who gets the Iraqi oil after the US has invested over 2 Trillion dollars?
The big winners are Russia and China.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KL16Ak02.html

Instead of US Big Oil getting the lion's share, strategic competitors Russia and China turned out to be big winners.

Because we are the best armed military that lost its mission to bleeding hearts that give back our spoils of war. Idiotic.
Although in another war, we can handily take back that oil from China

The English will allow the new leaders of Libya, Al Queda, to give the oil to China also.

We already discovered the largest copper and lithium deposits on earth in Afghanistan, and ceded the rights to mine to China.

As to fixing Seattle, Since its due to slide out to the ocean entirely, its a bad bet for repairs.