The Seventh Sense

Oh By The Way...

The Rapture is scheduled for today.  You can read the evidence here, but basically it all boils down to this sine wave graph (click to embiggen):

I hope you are using your last day wisely....

P.S.  Anyone up for some pre-rapture sexual adventures?

Terror Politics

I've largely refrained from posting about the Bush White House ever since Obama became president, but sometimes my self-imposed ban is hard to maintain.

Now that Bush is out of office, we're finding that the actual illegalities are just as bad, if not worse, than imagined.  The firings of the U.S. attorneys, for example, were politically motivated and were orchestrated from within the White House.  And today, we learned that Blackwater was contracted by the CIA to conduct overseas assassination, something which clearly violates U.S law.  And later this week, we're going to learn more about our torture practices.

And also today, we learn this about Tom Ridge, the very first head of the post-9/11 Department of Homeland Security [The source? Ridge himself, in a new book]:

• He was never invited to sit in on National Security Council meetings;
• He was "blindsided" by the FBI in morning Oval Office meetings because the agency withheld critical information from him;
• He found his urgings to block Michael Brown from being named head of FEMA ignored; and
• He was pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush's re-election, something he saw as politically motivated and worth resigning over.

For some reason, this last one gets to me.  It's a clear admission of GOP's use of scare tactics to influence politics, in this case, a national election.  We still see that tactic used effectively today.

Also, reflect on the meaning of that last item -- it was more important to the Bush Administration to win re-election than to have an accurate Terrorist Alert Level.

That's patriotism?

UPDATE:  It should be noted that the request to heighten the terrorism allert level came from Ashcroft and Rumsfeld, while the DHS's security experts and Ridge argued against.  It should also be that Ridge won.  He now writes:

"I believe our strong interventions had pulled the 'go-up' advocates back from the brink... But I consider the episode to be not only a dramatic moment in Washington's recent history, but another illustration of the intersection of politics, fear, credibility and security."

Quote Of The Day

In discussing the need for a balanced budget and PAYGO legislation, Congressman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) shockingly exclaimed:

"We're not going to cry 'emergency' every time we have a Katrina."

In other words, having a balance budget is of paramount importance, and we're not going to muck it up by spending money on emergency appropriations like we did when Katrina hit.

Here's here full quote and the video:

Let's agree that we're going to have PAYGO enforcement.  That we're not going to cry 'emergency' every time we have a Katrina, every time we have a Tsunami, every time we have a need for extra spending, that we don't go call for a special appropriation that allows us to circumvent the PAYGO rules.

One wonders if Blackburn now regrets her support of the "Emergency Appropriations" bill passed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (which took 1,436 lives).

Photos Found Show Air France Flight As It Broke Up

No, not really.  But this Bolivian news station thought so.  It aired photos which showed the plane breaking up and passengers being sucked out of the fuselage.

Unfortunately, the "footage" shown was actually from "Lost".

Compare With Katrina

This is how a President is supposed to deal with a potential flooding disaster:

Well before the waters of the Red River were expected to reach their most threatening levels here, Dennis Walaker, the mayor, received a telephone call from President Obama.

The president said Fargo would get whatever help it needed, the mayor recounted, gushing over how it felt for “just a big kid from a small North Dakota town” to get such a high-placed pledge.

The telephone call last week was but a hint of the degree to which the Obama administration, faced with what threatened to become the first major disaster of its short tenure, turned federal resources to the fast-rising rivers in North Dakota and Minnesota.

By all indications, the reaction — possibly, some here suggest, the overreaction — was a signal of lessons learned from the Bush administration’s widely criticized response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“We had federal people on the ground to the point where they were getting in the way,” said Pat Zavoral, the Fargo city administrator. “And we had National Guard people on the ground to the point where they were getting in the way.”

Grateful for the resources nonetheless, Mr. Zavoral added, “But that’s the way we want it.”

Redoubt

The Anchorage Daily has a nice photo set of the volcanic eruptions last week of Mt. Redoubt.

 

 

The volcano's continued eruptions have resulted in a whole new round of criticism of Governor Bobby Jindal:

Thanks to "something called volcano monitoring," to use the denigrating language of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, passenger jets did not fly into ash clouds when Alaska's Mount Redoubt erupted earlier this week.

Volcanic ash creates conditions akin to flying into a sand blaster. A KLM flight lost power in all four engines after it flew into the cloud created by a 1989 eruption of Redoubt.

The plane dropped by more than two vertical miles before its crew could restart the engines and land in Anchorage. No wonder Alaska Airlines canceled 19 in-state flights.... after Redoubt sent an ash plume 60,000 feet into the sky.

The eruptions of Redoubt carry a lesson that Jindal did not learn back when he was a Rhodes Scholar: Don't sneer at science.

Fargo Watch

Doesn't look good for the folks in Fargo and Moorhead, MN.  But it is nice to see what motivated citizens can do when they pull together:

   

 

Everything is closed.  Really -- everything.

But there's a good opportunity for floodblogging.

We Didn't Die On Monday

But it was a close call....

Videos of Flight 1549 Landing In The Hudson

From security cams at a New York pier:

A ten minute video (crash starts at 2:00) shows the speed of the current and rescue operations.  At about 3:12, you can see one of the passengers fall off the slippery wing into the cold water on the right hand side.

"This Miracle Brought To You By Unions"

Salon:

The fiercest opposition to the loan proposal -- and nearly a third of the 35 votes against ending debate on the deal -- came from Southern Republicans, and the ringleaders of the opposition all come from states with a major foreign auto presence. Not coincidentally, nearly all of those states -- except Kentucky -- are also "right-to-work" states, which means no union contracts for most of the employees at the foreign plants. The Detroit bailout fell victim to a nasty confluence of home-state economic interests and anti-union sentiment among Republicans.

Yes, the anti-union sentiment is big among southern Republicans.  Among them, Senators Shelby (R-AL), DeMint (R-SC), McConnell (R-KY), and Corker (R-TN).

But over at Daily Kos, diarist emptywheel reminds us of something:

They're calling it a miracle--the successful landing of a US Airways jet in the Hudson and subsequent rescue of all 155 passengers. They're detailing the heroism of all involved, starting with the pilot and including cabin crew, ferry crews, and first responders. What they're not telling you is that just about every single one of these heros is a union member.

There's the pilot:

What might have been a catastrophe in New York — one that evoked the feel if not the scale of the Sept. 11 attack — was averted by a pilot’s quick thinking and deft maneuvers,

[snip]

On board, the pilot, Chesley B. Sullenberger III, 57, unable to get back to La Guardia, had made a command decision to avoid densely populated areas and try for the Hudson,

[snip]

When all were out, the pilot walked up and down the aisle twice to make sure the plane was empty, officials said.

Sullenberger is a former national committee member and the former safety chairman for the Airline Pilots Association and now represented by US Airline Pilots Association. He--and his union--have fought to ensure pilots get the kind of safety training to pull off what he did yesterday.

Then there are the flight attendants:

One passenger, Elizabeth McHugh, 64, of Charlotte, seated on the aisle near the rear, said flight attendants shouted more instructions: feet flat on the floor, heads down, cover your heads.

They are members of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. Yesterday's accident should remind all of us that flight attendants are first and foremost safety professionals--they should not be treated like cocktail waitresses.

There are the air traffic controllers:

The pilot radioed air traffic controllers on Long Island that his plane had sustained a "double bird strike."

They're represented by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. Someday, they'll rename National Airport for the work these men and women do to keep us safe in the air.

There are the ferry crews:

As the first ferry nudged up alongside, witnesses said, some passengers were able to leap onto the decks. Others were helped aboard by ferry crews.

They're represented by the Seafarers International Union. They provide safety training to their members so they're prepared for events like yesterday's accident.

There are the cops and firemen:

Helicopters brought wet-suited police divers, who dropped into the water to help with the rescues.

They're represented by the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and the Uniformed Firefighters Association and Uniformed Fire Officers Association.They're the men and women who performed so heroically on 9/11--and they've been fighting to make sure first responders get the equipment to do this kind of thing.

Bob Corker and Richard Shelby like to claim that union labor is a failed business model.

But I haven't heard much about Bob Corker and Richard Shelby saving 155 people's lives. 

Yyyyyup.

Short Flight

From Flightaware (an free online service that tracks where flights are):

UPDATE:  Not much seen picture of the flight pre-ditching:

Praying For Rain

Funny.

Here's a video from last week of Stuart Shepard of Focus on the Family encouraging people to pray to God to send "rain of biblical proportions" to ruin the Democrat's big night in Denver. 

Now, with Gustav bearing down on Louisiana and ruining the GOP convention, I think God has indeed sent a message...

... to Shepard.

Heh.

Little Tremble in California

The Nevada Seismological Lab Helicorder webcam (in my righthand column) caught it:

UPDATE:  Happened six minutes ago as I write this. 

Data from USGS says it was a 5.8.  Epicenter is 3 km ( 2 mi) SW of Chino Hills, CA, which is an LA suburb.  Happened at 2:42:15 pm. EST, which is 11:42:15 am Pacific Time.

News reports just coming in....

UPDATE:  USGS says epicenter was 47 km (29 miles) ESE (103°) from Los Angeles Civic Center, CA.  It appears to have been 12.3 km (7.6 miles) deep, which is, as earthquales go, pretty shallow.  Could mean some structural damage.

Looks like many smaller aftershocks, too....

MSNBC reporting only minor structural damage

Hurricane Season

Not for nothing, but it seems to me that if you name a hurricane "Bertha", you're just asking for trouble.

Tropical Storm Bertha gathers steam in Atlantic

Rush's Not-So-Subtle Racism

Here's the big fat one, on his radio show, talking about the recent floods:

Limbaugh: I want to know. I look at Iowa, I look at Illinois—I want to see the murders. I want to see the looting. I want to see all the stuff that happened in New Orleans. I see devastation in Iowa and Illinois that dwarfs what happened in New Orleans. I see people working together. I see people trying to save their property…I don’t see a bunch of people running around waving guns at helicopters, I don’t see a bunch of people running shooting cops. I don’t see a bunch of people raping people on the street. I don’t see a bunch of people doing everything they can…whining and moaning—where’s FEMA, where’s BUSH. I see the heartland of America. When I look at Iowa and when I look at Illinois, I see the backbone of America.

Well, I don't know where Rush got his info about Katrina and New Orleans.  I mean, how do you go about "raping people on the street" when the street is submerged under 6 feet of water?

Of course, Rush ignnores the fact that the Katrina disaster was a disaster on an unheard-of scale.  I say that not to belittle what has been going on in the Midwest, but the two are hardly comparable.  The death toll in the Midwest stands at 24;   The immediate death toll from Katrina was roughly 1,800 (the exact number isn't known, and the toll continues to rise from long-term deaths).

But Rush makes the comparison anyway.

But we all know what Rush is saying.  It was the black people in New Orleans who were doing all the raping and pillaging and "whining", as they watched their friends, family, and neighbors drown.  But the good ol' white people of middle America?  They're not doing that.  And why?  Because they are the backbone of America.

Of course, the people in middle America aren't complaining about the lack of FEMA, because (unlike Katrina), FEMA is there.

It's sad when disasters expose the worst side of our nation's inherent racism.  Remember this from the Katrina coverage?

Yes, the young (black) man "loots" soda from a local grocery store, while the upscale (white) residents "find" soda within a local grocery store.  Got that?

Rush would probably look at the second photo and proclaim the two people to be self-motivated can-doers who embody the spirit of America, even in the face of terrible tragedy.  And he would probably look at the first photo and proclaim the black guy is a common street thug, taking advantage of tragedy to rip of whitie.

Can't believe that guy still has a radio show.....

Words vs. Deeds: McCain

Let the McCain basking begin --

John McCain, speaking in Katrina-devestated New Orleans -- June 3, 2008, on Obama:

The wrong change looks not to the future but to the past for solutions that have failed us before and will surely fail us again. I have a few years on my opponent, so I am surprised that a young man has bought in to so many failed ideas. Like others before him, he seems to think government is the answer to every problem; that government should take our resources and make our decisions for us. That type of change doesn’t trust Americans to know what is right or what is in their own best interests. It’s the attitude of politicians who are sure of themselves but have little faith in the wisdom, decency and common sense of free people. That attitude created the unresponsive bureaucracies of big government in the first place. And that’s not change we can believe in.

Emphasis mine.

That's a pretty ballsy thing to say in New Orleans. I guess McCain is really serious about dealing with unresponsive bureaucracies, right?

Hmmmm.  Not so much.  (H/T and graphic from The Talent Show)

Cleanup on I-80

My kind of traffic jam:

14 tons of spilled Oreo cookies snarl Ill. traffic

MORRIS, Ill. (AP) — Got milk? Police say a trailer loaded with 14 tons of double-stuffed Oreos has overturned, spilling the cookies still in their plastic sleeves into the median and roadway.

Illinois State Police Sgt. Brian Mahoney says the truck's driver was traveling from Chicago to Morris on Interstate 80 around 4 a.m. Monday when he fell asleep at the wheel and slammed into the median.

"The boxes came out of the trailer and boxes were ripped open," he said.

The crash about 50 miles southwest of Chicago remains under investigation.

Mahoney says no charges have been filed but both lanes of traffic remain closed while authorities remove the cookies.

Earthquake In Sichuan China

Sichuan University student takes video at 2:29pm in dorm.

Not Done Yet

Something west of us in Yadkin County brewing. Guess we're not out of the woods yet. Power is out lots of places. I-40 eastbound closed. I have power. (Yes, I'm blogging from my cell in bed)

Live local news stream available by clicking here

UPDATE (12:54 a.m.):  The tornado warning has been extended to 4 a.m., but it is pretty clear that if anything comes this way (meaning Forsyth County), it'll be over by 2 a.m.

13,640 people without power in Forsyth -- not me though.

No reports of injuries, but there are many places where damage is still being assessed.

Looks like the Yadkin tornado is heading to Pinnacle, north of me.

UPDATE (1:00 a.m.):  Yeah, it's over here.  Heading to Virginia....

Tornado!

Well, this would be kind of exciting if it wasn't so scary. All's fine here in Lewisville - the worst has passed. But Greensboro is having a rough time.

Myanmar Relief

World Vision:

The government of Myanmar has invited World Vision to provide assistance in the form of zinc sheets, tents, tarpaulins and medicine. The agency is coordinating with authorities to explore an airlift of emergency supplies into the country from one of its global warehouses.

World Vision assessment teams have been deployed to the hardest-hit areas to determine the most urgent needs. The agency is already providing clothing (sarongs and t-shirts) as well as tarpaulins and blankets to 100 households in the capital, along with 10,000 kg of rice and 7,000 liters of water.

World Vision estimates that up to 2 million people may be affected by the cyclone. The organisation has several community development programmes in areas hit by the path of the storm...

Direct Relief:

Direct Relief has contacted partners in Thailand and other neighboring countries, some of whom also run programs in Myanmar, to offer assistance to medical relief efforts for people affected by the storm.

The Myanmar government has yet to issue a formal request for international assistance - historically, the country rarely invites outside groups to provide assistance, even in emergencies...

International Rescue Committee:

The International Rescue Committee is dispatching an emergency team to Myanmar to rapidly assess needs and lay the groundwork for urgent assistance for people made homeless by the weekend's devastating cyclone.

The IRC team will begin to assemble in Yangon Tuesday.

"The communities hit by the cyclone and the government face enormous challenges in responding to a disaster of this scale," says Greg Beck, the IRC's Asia regional director, speaking from Chiang Mai, Thailand. "With our years of emergency experience, we're hopeful that we can help bring critical assistance to the people of Myanmar." ...

You can help by donating to the Red Cross/Red Crescent, Doctors Without Borders, Save The Children, UNICEF, or the World Food Programme, all of which are providing assistance in Burma.

10 Worst Natural Disasters By Death Toll - A Comparison:

1. 1931 Yellow River Flood of China – 1 million to 3.7 million
2. 1887 Yellow River Flood of China – 900,000 to 2 million
3. 1557 Shaanxi earthquake of Shaanxi Province, China – 830,000
4. 1970 Bhola cyclone of Bangladesh – 200,000 to 500,000
5. 1839 India cyclone – 300,000
6. 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami – 283,100
7. 526 Antioch earthquake of Syria – 250,000
8. 1976 Tangshan earthquake of China – 242,000
9. 1975 Bangiao dam failure of China – 231,000
10. 1138 Aleppo earthquake of Syria – 230,000

Get Out Of Reno

Big earthquake coming?

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Scientists urged residents of northern Nevada's largest city to prepare for a bigger event as the area continued rumbling Saturday after the largest earthquake in a two-month-long series of temblors.

More than 100 aftershocks were recorded on the western edge of the city after a magnitude 4.7 quake hit Friday night, the strongest quake around Reno since one measuring 5.1 in 1953, said researchers at the seismological laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The latest quake swept store shelves clean, cracked walls in homes and dislodged rocks on hillsides, but there were no reports of injuries or widespread major damage.

Seismologists said the recent activity is unusual because the quakes started out small and continue to build in strength. The normal pattern is for a main quake followed by smaller aftershocks.

"A magnitude 6 quake wouldn't be a scientific surprise," John Anderson, director of the seismological lab, said Saturday. "We certainly hope residents are taking the threat seriously after last night."

Well, if it happens, I'm sure FEMA will be there to help, just like in New Orleans....

World Hunger

I've been meaning to write about this for a long time, because it's one of the most underreported stories (in my opinion) of the year.

The issue is world hunger.

Now, for those uninformed, you probably are aware that this is a constant problem.  But the problem of world hunger NOW is absolutely alarming.

The reason for the alarm?  Rising food prices.  They are absolutely skyrocketing.

Take, for example, the price of wheat, a worldwide staple of diet:

The same hold true for corn:

As well as rice, which is up 74%.

This has created a crisis with the World Food Bank.  Says Robert Zoelick, President of the World Food Bank:

"In Bangladesh a two-kilogram bag of rice ... now consumes about half of the daily income of a poor family," he said. "The price of a loaf of bread ... has more than doubled. Poor people in Yemen are now spending more than a quarter of their incomes just on bread."

What's driving up the prices?  Droughts, financial market speculators, and increased demand.  With corn, a lot of it is being channeled into making biofuels such as ethanol.  World grain stocks are at record lows and next year’s prices depend on the success of the next harvest in the northern hemisphere.  And it doesn't look good.

The food crisis is so bad, that it is even affecting us here in the prosperous United States.  Just recently, Sam's Club (Walmart) and Costco decided to limit the amount of bulk rice that individuals can buy, something they have never had to do before.  That's right -- there's a run on rice, as people clamor to stock up on it, and both chains are concerned about their ability to supply it in the future.

Could we all be the next Joads?

So, what can you do?  Educate yourself.  Donate.  Support local activities.  It's important.

Meanwhile Back East...

Roofs are collapsing in New England.  It's so bad that the New York Times has taken notice:

LACONIA, N.H. — It has been a great winter for skiers in central and northern New England, but the heavy snowfall has become a nightmare for municipal budgets and the owners of dozens of buildings whose roofs have collapsed.

A mill complex under renovation in Laconia, a building at a summer camp in Concord, N.H., and a Wal-Mart distribution center in Lewiston, Me., are among the buildings whose roofs have collapsed in the last three days under the weight of snow made denser by rain and ice from a storm that swept through this week. Schools across the region have closed because of weakened roofs.

“I’ve lived here for years, and I’ve never seen damage like this,” said the Rev. Shirley Marcroft, who with her husband, Dave, is pastor of New Life Church in Campton, N.H. The church’s roof caved in and part of the building collapsed Wednesday night because of the snow.

Ms. Marcroft said the food pantry lost $4,000 worth of provisions she bought last week.

And from today's Concord Monitor:

Two more buildings have added to the rash of roof collapses in Concord in the past month. Most of a multi-purpose building at Camp Spaulding was flattened to the ground under the weight of snow and ice, and a garage on South Main Street partially collapsed.

Two families were evacuated for the night from abutting apartments while engineers assessed the damage

Paul Smith Elementary School in Franklin also was closed yesterday after custodians noticed part of the roof sagging, the Associated Press reported.

Concord Fire Marshal Sean Toomey warned that snow becomes denser as it melts. While it may look as if there is less on a roof, the amount there may be heavier, he said.

The roof on a large garage attached to the back of 59 S. Main St. partially collapsed yesterday evening under more than 2 feet of snow. The storefront of the building is home to Main Street Payday Advance. There are two apartments in back. Electricity was cut off, and the building closed for the night.

I remember some pretty sever winters when I was a kid in Concord, but as I got older, the winters got milder.  But even when the snows were bad and heavy, I don't think I recall hearing things being this bad.

Bad Brew

Tornado warnings for the Triad tonight.

And I have rehearsal in a trailer.

In a trailer.

With tornado warnings.

A freakin' trailer.  Them things be tornado magnets.

Two Days, Two Points Of View

President Bush, yesterday, to the Conservative Political Action Conference, criticizing Democrats:

“They tend to think Washington has the answers to our problems...”

President Bush, today, on tornado damage:

"People have got to understand here in the region that a lot of folks around America care for them. And I'm here to listen, to determine -- to make sure that the federal response is compassionate and effective. I don't want people to think something is going to happen that's not going to happen. And therefore when we say something is going to happen to help them get their feet back on the ground, it will happen."

One wonders what would happen if Bush delivered his "Washington shouldn't help" rhetoric to the people of the devestated tornado regions in the South.

But it always amazes me how we can elect people who are hostile to government to actually RUN the biggest government in the world.  It's kind of like putting Ralph Nader at the head of General Motors.  And then complaining about the results.

Storms

A Tennessee blogger:

While everyone else was busy watching the Primaries, or "American Idol," the storms that ripped through Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee were busy killing...

I'm still a bit surprised that this is still just a media footnote.

Red Cross here; United Way here, phone might be better: (901) 433-4300.

Mount Saint Helen's Warming Up Again

It's been 28 years...

Geologist John S. Pallister was flying over Mount St. Helens when he spotted something unusual.

Pallister, a private pilot who works in the hazards section of the U.S. Geological Survey's Cascades Volcano Observatory, noticed a line of steam coming from a zipper-like fracture line atop the growing lava dome in the crater of the southwest Washington volcano.

"It was interesting enough to take some pictures," Pallister told The Columbian newspaper of the Sunday flight.

After landing, he learned that a 2.9-magnitude earthquake had registered on seismographs at the observatory in Vancouver. That was followed by a small tremor that lasted nearly an hour and a half, an unusually long period, punctuated by a second quake of 2.7 magnitude - all in the same period in which he saw the steam.

Along with the shake, rattle and roll, tiltmeters registered alternate ground swelling and deflation near the lava dome, which has been growing in the crater since the fall of 2004.

All are typical signs that magma, superheated gases or both are moving through conduits beneath St. Helens, which blew its top with devastating force on May 18, 1980, leveling 230 square miles of forest and killing 57 people.

Blogging Like Molassas

Been kind of busy lately.  Also got ingested by, of all things, a book.  Yes, it's true -- I found time to read.  (Well, actually, I don't have the time, which is why there is light blogging and a pile of dishes in the sink.  But I digress).

It's Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molassas Flood by Stephen Puleo.

I'm not going to recommend this book because I know that history isn't a lot of people's bag.  But ever since I was a kid, this story fascinated me.  Come to think of it, I've have a "thing" for historical American disasters: the Johnstown flood (David McCullough's book on the subject is one of the best history books I've read), the Titanic, and the subject of Dark Tide -- the Great Boston Molassas Flood of 1919.

I think I first read about the Great Molassas Flood as a child, in a Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not cartoon.  21 people died -- either crushed by buildings which were flattened by the massive surge, or by asphyxiating in the gooey liquid. 

Every so often, I would try to find a book on the subject.  A few years ago, I searched in earnest, only to discover that there was no single book on the subject (only a handful of random articles in old history magazines).  Sometime last year, I discovered that somone recently wrote an entire book on the subject -- Dark Tide.  It's been sitting on my shelf for a while, and I finally opened it.

The story has intrigued me for a number of reasons.  For one thing, the idea of a molassas flood is, well, kind of funny (not the fact that 21 people died, of course, but the flood itself).  But I also wondered why.  I mean, I knew a storage tank burst, and that caused over 2 million gallons of molassas to spill into the North End of Boston at 35 mph (that's two tons of pressure per square foot).  But why was molassas being stored there in the first place?

As it turns out, molassas is a by-product of sugar kane (it's what's left when you extract the sugar), and this particular molassas was used for munitions.  Fermented, it contains ethanol.  So the tank was built  to capitalize on World War I. 

And it was built rather hastily.  Because of time pressures, the tank was never properly tested (by filling it with water).  It noticibly leaked since its construction, and for several years (children in the neighborhood would often collect the molassas from the ground in cans); the company's response was to paint the tank -- changing it from green to brown, making the "tears" dripping from the tank less noticeable.

The book is also an intruiging look at the era and its politics.  The country was in the midst of a flood of a different type -- a flood of immigrants.  The Boston's North End, once a stronghold for Irish immigrants, was transitioning into an Italian neighborhood (like it is today) as the Irish people assimilated and moved up the social chain (including the Fitzgeralds, grandparents of the Kennedys).  It was also the time of great social upheaval, with anarchists (including Italians) bucking against the capitalist system and the greedy corporate fatcats.  It was the time of Leopold and Loeb, and socialists in the IWW (in fact, the corporate owners of the tank, as well as much of the public, were quick to blame the tank's rupture on an anarchist's bomb -- this turned out not to be the case).

Anyway, it's a fascinating little piece of American history that few people know about.  And that's why I haven't been blogging.

Breaking News: Richardson Bows Out Of '08 Race; 6.5 Magnitude Off Of Oregon Coast

The two are not apparently related.

California Boy Is Al Qaeda, Apparently

Fox News and conservative blogs have been falling all over themselves trying to -- forgive the pun -- fan the flames of fear by suggesting that the California wildfires were intentionally set by (cue dramatic music) al Qaeda.  Read here and here and here and here and here and... all these.  While evidence suggested arson, nothing other than paranoia suggested that al Qaeda was involved.

So naturally, this comes as no surprise:

A boy playing with matches has confessed to starting a wildfire that destroyed 63 structures near Los Angeles, officials said on Tuesday.

The unidentified youngster, believed to be a preteen, was questioned by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department investigators on October 22, a day after the Buckweed fire started rampaging across 38,000 acres in the Santa Clarita area, 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

The boy "admitted that he had been playing with matches," said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.

It was initially believed that downed power lines had started the fire.

The boy was sent home after confessing, and the District Attorney's office will consider whether to press charges.

You would think that those who pointed to al Qaeda would have egg on their faces, and maybe exercise more caution before they engaged in Chicken Little the-sky-is-falling speculation and fearmongering.

You would think...

FURTHER THOUGHT:  Is al Qaeda responsible for this, too?

Fake News

FEMA holds a press conference with itself:

The agency gave reporters 15 minutes’ notice before the press briefing, making it almost impossible for most reporters to get FEMA’s DC offices (which are nowhere near downtown or Capitol Hill). But the agency didn’t want to hold a press conference on national television without questions, so FEMA employees stood in and gave Johnson the chance to “wax on and on about FEMA’s greatness.”

Of course, that could be because the questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters. We’re told the questions were asked by Cindy Taylor, FEMA’s deputy director of external affairs, and by “Mike” Widomski, the deputy director of public affairs. Director of External Affairs John “Pat” Philbin asked a question, and another came, we understand, from someone who sounds like press aide Ali Kirin.

Asked about this, Widomski said: “We had been getting mobbed with phone calls from reporters, and this was thrown together at the last minute.”

The administration pays pundits to toe the Bush line, and it sends out fake-news segments for local TV stations to air, so I suppose it stands to reason that it would host press conferences with administration employees pretending to be reporters.

Presidential Candidates Respond To California Fires

First, the Democrats:

John Edwards has been out front in responding to the fires in Southern California, both on  his website and through One Corps.

Barack Obama offers this statement of support for the fire victims and his website prominently features the following message:

California needs us.

...with a link to California Volunteers.

Hillary Clinton's website features a "How to help" link, which leads you to a page with her statement of support as well as a listing of LA Times' recommended resources including The Salvation Army and the local Society For The Prevention of Cruelty To Animals.

In addition to linking to important resources on his website, Chris Dodd said the following in a speech to the IAFF's Occupational Health and Hazards Convention:

"As you know, Governor Schwarzenegger has had to ask other states for help because so many of California's National Guard, who provide critical support to the citizens while you are fighting the fires, were deployed to Iraq. In a Dodd Administration, never again will our houses be on fire because our troops are taking fire in Iraq. Never again will our first responders be left without the support they need because our President failed to do what it took to keep our communities safe. That is why in 2008, nothing will be more important than leadership that can get results that make us stronger and more secure. That's the first responsibility of an American President."

And Bill Richardson, who was one of those Governors who sent equipment and personnel to California, posted at The Huffington Post and Calitics asking a crucial question: Where is Our National Guard?

Today, we all extend our sympathies and prayers to those devastated by the wildfires in California. Millions of Americans are impacted by this natural disaster.[...]

Now the Republicans:

Rudy Giuliani: Nothing.
John McCain: Nothing [Actually he now has a link to a resources page, you have to really look to find it.]
Mitt Romney: Nothing.
Fred Thompson: Nothing.
Mike Huckabee: Nothing. A 30-minute interview with Glenn Beck on his front page, too, Beck is the guy who claimed that some of the people who lost their homes hate America.
Duncan Hunter: It's his frickin' district and it's hard to find anything outside of this news article.
Tom Tancredo: Nothing.
Ron Paul: Nothing. But he's doing a "Hollywood fundraiser" tonight He announced yesterday that he's doing a Hollywood fundraiser in which a "portion" of the $2,000 a plate dinner will go to the Red Cross.

UPDATE:  Help!  I'm experiencing a RonPaulolanch!

UPDATE #2:  More GOP ho-humming of the wildfires.  In this case, it's Dick Cheney.  During a cabinet meeting yesterday, Vice President Cheney fell asleep on camera while President Bush was discussing wildfires in California. A Cheney spokeswoman “laughed it off,” telling CNN that the vice president was “practicing meditation.” CNN’s chyron reported that Cheney was seen “meditating” — rather than sleeping — during the cabinet meeting.

San Diego: Local News Reporter Gives Live Report Of His House Burning Down

Sad:

Correction To An Earlier Post

The California wildfires are not -- repeat, not -- the fault of al Qaeda.

We are now informed by the rightwingnut machine that the deadly fires are the fault of homos and gay marriage supporters:

They shook their fists at God and said, "We don't care what God says, we will issue our legal brief to support gay marriage in San Diego!" Then Mayor Jerry Sanders mocked the Christian vote and signed off on this rebellious legal document to support same-sex marriage.

And then the streets of La Jolla under the Mt. Soledad Cross began to cave in.

They shook their fists at God and said, "We don't care what the Bible says, We want the California school children indoctrinated into homosexuality!" And then Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law the heinous SB777 which bans the use of "mom" and "dad" in the text books and promotes homosexuality to all school children in California.

And then the wildfires of Southern California engulfed the land like a raging judgment against the radicalized anti-christian California rebels.

The preceding was from mind of "former homosexual" and "pro-family" activist James Hartline (pictured above).

We here at The Seventh Sense seriously regret the erroneous reporting in our earlier post.

RELATED:  Former FEMA director Michael "Heckuva Job" Brown ("Brownie"), who handled the Katrina disaster soooo well, wants everyone to know he's available for media interviews and advice.

Thanks, Mike.  Don't call us; we'll call you.

Fox News Blames California Wildfires On Al Qaeda

Seriously, will these guys ever shut up?

UPDATE:  Glenn "I Should Be On Fox" Beck should shut up too.

UPDATE:  More silly speculation with this head-banging-against-the-wall evoking statement:

Although a new Osama bin Laden video was issued at almost exactly the same time these fires began, and might have contained a coded command to his operatives to carry out planned arsons, it makes sense that al-Qaida has claimed no credit for the fires....

bin Laden would probably be embarrassed, in the wake of his astonishing terrorist “achievement” on 9/11, to be seen resorting to mere fire setting around the homes of innocent people.

That's right.  The absence of bin Laden taking credit for the fires only increases the possibility that he was responsible for them.

RELATED:  Interesting satellite photos from NASA.

RELATED:  KPBS is really making the best use of the Internet.  They're using Google Maps to show, in real time, the current emergency status of the entire San Diego area -- burned areas, evacuation zones, which roads are open and closed, where the evacuation centers are, all of it.

Reverse 911

Not much to say about the terrible fires in California.  It's all very sad.  But this underreported aspect to it caught my eye:

Our posting about the wildfires mentions that officials in San Diego used "reverse 911" calls to notify residents that they had to evacuate. We hadn't heard of this practice. Thankfully, Debi Jones at Mobile Messaging 2.0 knows about the technology.

"The disastrous fires burning in San Diego have initiated a service used by the city and county government to inform and update residents. Mandatory evacuation orders have been communicated via reverse 911 on both landline phones and mobile phones," she writes. "The messages are prerecorded and as I’ve said, three messages have been received on my phone. The first was an evacuation order. The next message was a notice that San Diego schools are closed until further notice along with the instruction to keep children inside and restrict their activity levels (smoke and ash is so thick in the air that keeping it out of your house is impossible during large fires). The third message was information on evacuation centers that were still open as several are already full."

County officials estimate, based on census data, that their calls have reached more than 500,000 people.

Wired reports that these calls aren't reaching everyone. "Those who rely on VoIP or cell phones exclusively are also out of the loop, because the system doesn't know to call them. But the city has a website where residents can register a non-landline number and associate it with their address. It's been up and down," the publication says.

Wired says some residents have taken to calling their home phone to see if their answering machine picks up. If it does, the house is still standing and the juice is still flowing.

Also, it looks like Twitter is coming into its own with the San Diego fires as the "front line" up-to-the-minute source.

Humberto's A Sneaky Little Bastard

He becomes a hurricane just before he strikes the United States.

Figures.  A Mexican using deception to cross the border.

Disaster Preparedness

Six years after 9/11, and two years after Katrina, it still looks like FEMA and the country's disaster preparedness plans are still a disaster:

Robert C. Bohlmann, emergency manager for York County in Maine and spokesman for the International Association of Emergency Managers, warned at the hearing about a "major disconnect" between that legislation and the new National Response Framework (NRF), which states that the secretary of homeland security is in charge of managing domestic incidents.

Testifying before a House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee, Bohlmann said the framework -- streamlined to about 78 pages from its predecessor, the 427-page National Response Plan -- lacks substance.

"The draft NRF that we have reviewed appears to be more like a public relations document rather than a response plan or framework," Bohlmann said.

Let's hope nothing happens like an earthquake, major hurricane, etc.

Possible Hurricane?

We managed to avoid Dean and Felix, but this one is off our shores:

000
ABNT20 KNHC 071515
TWOAT
TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
1130 AM EDT FRI SEP 7 2007

FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC...CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO...

1. THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY HAS BECOME MORE CONCENTRATED THIS MORNING
   WITHIN THE AREA OF LOW PRESSURE LOCATED BETWEEN BERMUDA AND THE
   SOUTHEAST U.S. COAST.  UPPER-LEVEL WINDS ARE BECOMING INCREASINGLY
   FAVORABLE FOR ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENT...AND A TROPICAL DEPRESSION OR
   TROPICAL STORM COULD FORM LATER TODAY.  AN AIR FORCE RESERVE
   HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT IS SCHEDULED TO INVESTIGATE THIS SYSTEM
   THIS AFTERNOON.  THE LOW IS FORECAST TO MOVE GENERALLY WESTWARD OR
   NORTHWESTWARD DURING THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS...AND INTERESTS ALONG
   THE EAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES SHOULD CLOSELY MONITOR THE
   PROGRESS OF THIS SYSTEM.

[Note: Post updated with most reevnt information as of 2:00 p.m. today]

Katrina Doctor Tells Story

The doctor who was accused of murdering patients in New Orleans as Katrina approached (fortunately, the grand jury refused to indict her) recounts the heart-wrenching facts of those days in Time.  A snippet:

In normal triage situations, the sickest people are treated first. But my understanding is that conditions were so bad, you and the other medical staff switched to a reverse triage or battlefield approach. Tell me about this.
The conditions were unbearable. Inside the hospital it was pitch black, with odors, smell, human waste everywhere. It was very rancid. You would take a breath in and it would burn the back of your throat. The patients were very sick. That’s when we had to go from triage to reverse triage because we came to realize if patients aren’t being evacuated, [we had to deal with what we had]. Basically it was a general consensus that we’re not going to be able to save everybody. We hope that we can, but we realize everybody may not make it out.

What were the categories?
We divided patients into groups one, two and three. Patients in category one are able to sit up and walk and are not very sick. Patients in three are critically ill, “Do Not Resuscitate.” The ones in category two were sick, but doing much [better than those in category three]. The triage system was very crude—we’d write the number 1, 2 or 3 on a sheet of paper and tape it across the patient’s chest with their hospital records. There was limited use of flashlights. There were limited batteries. [Parts of the hospital] were pitch black. I’m talking jet black. Very dangerous. It was pitch dark in inner rooms.

What is the reverse triage process like?
Let me tell you, for a patient to be triaged—typical triage isn’t that difficult. Reverse triage is heart wrenching. Absolutely heart wrenching. You place patients into categories. With boats coming and going we could evacuate patients who could sit. There were elderly couples—how do you make that decision who can go when one was sick and the spouse wasn't? Do you let elderly couples go together as husband and wife? Some of these couples had been married 50 years.

I can't possibly imagine what it must have been like, as a doctor, to be called upon to make decisions about who is to live and who is to die.

Two Years Ago Today

With a strong nod to Digby...

7AM CDT — KATRINA MAKES LANDFALL AS A CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE [CNN]

7:30 AM CDT — BUSH ADMINISTRATION NOTIFIED OF THE LEVEE BREACH: The administration finds out that a levee in New Orleans was breached. On this day, 28 “government agencies, from local Louisiana parishes to the White House, [reported that] that New Orleans levees” were breached. [AP]

8AM CDT — MAYOR NAGIN REPORTS THAT WATER IS FLOWING OVER LEVEE: “I’ve gotten reports this morning that there is already water coming over some of the levee systems. In the lower ninth ward, we’ve had one of our pumping stations to stop operating, so we will have significant flooding, it is just a matter of how much.” [NBC’s “Today Show”]

11:13 AM CDT - WHITE HOUSE CIRCULATES INTERNAL MEMO ABOUT LEVEE BREACH: “Flooding is significant throughout the region and a levee in New Orleans has reportedly been breached sending 6-8 feet of water throughout the 9th ward area of the city.” [AP]

MORNING — BROWN WARNS BUSH ABOUT THE POTENTIAL DEVASTATION OF KATRINA: In a briefing, Brown warned Bush, “This is, to put it mildly, the big one, I think.” He also voiced concerns that the government may not have the capacity to “respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe” and that the Superdome was ill-equipped to be a refuge of last resort. [AP]

MORNING — MAYFIELD WARNS BUSH ABOUT THE TOPPING OF THE LEVEES: In the same briefing, Max Mayfield, National Hurricane Center Director, warns, “This is a category 5 hurricane, very similar to Hurricane Andrew in the maximum intensity, but there’s a big big difference. This hurricane is much larger than Andrew ever was. I also want to make absolutely clear to everyone that the greatest potential for large loss of lives is still in the coastal areas from the storm surge. … I don’t think anyone can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not, but there’s obviously a very very grave concern.” [AP]

MORNING — BUSH CALLS SECRETARY CHERTOFF TO DISCUSS IMMIGRATION: “I spoke to Mike Chertoff today — he’s the head of the Department of Homeland Security. I knew people would want me to discuss this issue [immigration], so we got us an airplane on — a telephone on Air Force One, so I called him. I said, are you working with the governor? He said, you bet we are.” [White House]

MORNING — BUSH SHARES BIRTHDAY CAKE PHOTO-OP WITH SEN. JOHN MCCAIN [White House]

11AM CDT — MICHAEL BROWN FINALLY REQUESTS THAT DHS DISPATCH 1,000 EMPLOYEES TO REGION, GIVES THEM TWO DAYS TO ARRIVE: “Brown’s memo to Chertoff described Katrina as ‘this near catastrophic event’ but otherwise lacked any urgent language. The memo politely ended, ‘Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities.’” [AP]

LATE MORNING — LEVEE BREACHED: “A large section of the vital 17th Street Canal levee, where it connects to the brand new ‘hurricane proof’ Old Hammond Highway bridge, gave way late Monday morning in Bucktown after Katrina’s fiercest winds were well north.” [Times-Picayune]

11AM CDT — BUSH VISITS ARIZONA RESORT TO PROMOTE MEDICARE DRUG BENEFIT: “This new bill I signed says, if you’re a senior and you like the way things are today, you’re in good shape, don’t change. But, by the way, there’s a lot of different options for you. And we’re here to talk about what that means to our seniors.” [White House]

4:30PM CDT — BUSH TRAVELS TO CALIFORNIA SENIOR CENTER TO DISCUSS MEDICARE DRUG BENEFIT: “We’ve got some folks up here who are concerned about their Social Security or Medicare. Joan Geist is with us. … I could tell — she was looking at me when I first walked in the room to meet her, she was wondering whether or not old George W. is going to take away her Social Security check.” [White House]

8PM CDT — RUMSFELD ATTENDS SAN DIEGO PADRES BASEBALL GAME: Rumsfeld “joined Padres President John Moores in the owner’s box…at Petco Park.” [Editor & Publisher]

8PM CDT — GOV. BLANCO AGAIN REQUESTS ASSISTANCE FROM BUSH: “Mr. President, we need your help. We need everything you’ve got.” [Newsweek]

LATE PM — BUSH GOES TO BED WITHOUT ACTING ON BLANCO’S REQUESTS [Newsweek]

Bush, two years ago tomorrow....

A Daily Kos diarist writes: "The tragic lesson of Katrina is what will happen when men and women who openly despise our government -- who brag they plan to weaken it until they can drown it in a bathtub -- are allowed to govern. After telling the nation that they and only they could keep us safe from any and all threats, the neo-clowns were caught off guard by a Weapon of Mass Destruction called 'water,' arising from a storm that could be seen lumbering toward the Gulf Coast from the surface of the moon for a week."

Scenic Trails

I heard this story on NPR a few weeks ago.  It broke my heart:

The first morning of my visit to Scenic Trails, I was walking the path between some trailers when I bumped into a man named Tim Szepek. He was young, tall, and solidly good-looking. I asked if I could speak to him for a moment and he agreed. We found a spot of shade beneath a tree, and I started with what I considered a casual warm-up.

"What's it like to live around here?" I asked.

"Well," he replied, "I'll be honest."

"Ain't a day goes by when I don't think about killing myself."

And so began my time in Scenic Trails, a FEMA trailer park deep in the Mississippi woods where 100 families have lived in near isolation for close to two years.

Though Szepek was the first resident to tell me he wanted to commit suicide, he certainly wasn't the last. The day I spoke with him, three other residents confided the same.

The second person was Stephanie Sigur, a 28-year-old mother of two. She was sitting in front of her trailer at a picnic table, her daughter on her lap, when she explained that if it weren't a sin, she would have blown her brains out months ago.

"I know it's a bad thing to say because I'm a parent," she told me as her toddler played with her hair, "but I can't live like this no more."

Stephanie Sigur and Tim Szepek aren't alone. According to a recent study of 92 different Katrina FEMA parks published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, suicide attempts in Louisiana and Mississippi's parks are 79 times higher than the national average. Major depression is seven times the national rate.

When I first read those numbers, I found them hard to believe. But after three days at Scenic Trails, they made a lot more sense.

The residents there, in essence, are trapped. It is no longer possible for them to live outside the trailer parks. Prior to Katrina, most of the people who now live in the parks were renters.

Along the Mississippi coast, a family of four could rent a two- or three-bedroom apartment or small home for around $500 a month. But when the storm wiped the Mississippi coast clean, it took out all the housing infrastructure that supported these people. Most of them are minimum-wage workers who live paycheck to paycheck. Today, a two- or three-bedroom apartment in Hancock County, where Scenic Trails is located, costs $800, $900, even $1,000 a month. This is an impossible amount of money for the people who live in the parks, and there is no immediate end in sight. FEMA says it would like to close the parks, but state and federal government plans to rebuild low-income housing for Mississippi coast residents have yet to break ground. Housing experts says it will probably take years to produce enough low-cost housing to move people out of the parks.

And so they are stuck. And the place they are stuck is not the kind of place you would want to spend an extended amount of time. For two years, many have lived in travel trailers intended for weekend use. Families of four housed in a space the size of most people's living rooms.

Worse, as time wears on, the communities around them seem to be falling into a kind of madness. At Scenic Trails, almost everyone at the camp has been burglarized at least once. Meth and cocaine addiction is rampant, and residents seem to be turning against one another.

Recently, the park has seen a rash of animal mutilations. One resident told me that her cat had come home bleeding — a long, thin razor cut along its leg. Another resident said his dog's throat had been cut, and several people reported that someone in the camp had been feeding anti-freeze to dogs.

No one seemed to have a particular suspect in mind. There was no specific theory of why. That was just the way things went at the camp nowadays. With no way to leave, people were angry and frustrated, and so they act out.

On the animals. On each other. On themselves.

But you should listen to the full audio...

Dean Is A Baaaad MothaF-- (Shut Yer Mouth!)

Here are the key records that Dean either broke or otherwise affects:

1. With a minimum central pressure of 906 millibars, Dean was the ninth most intense hurricane ever observed in the Atlantic basin (for comparison Hurricane Katrina's minimum pressure was 902 millibars).

2. That 906 millibar pressure reading was at landfall, making Dean the third most intense landfalling hurricane known in the Atlantic region and the first Category 5 storm at landfall since 1992's Hurricane Andrew.

3. When measured by minimum pressure, six of the ten most intense Atlantic hurricanes--Wilma, Rita, Katrina, Mitch, Dean, and Ivan--have occurred in the past ten years.

Most intense Atlantic hurricanes Intensity is measured solely by central pressure
Rank	Hurricane	Season	Min. pressure
1	Wilma	2005	882 mbar (hPa)
2	Gilbert	1988	888 mbar (hPa)
3	"Labor Day"	1935	892 mbar (hPa)
4	Rita	2005	895 mbar (hPa)
5	Allen	1980	899 mbar (hPa)
6	Katrina	2005	902 mbar (hPa)
7	Camille	1969	905 mbar (hPa)
	Mitch	1998	905 mbar (hPa)
9	Dean	2007	906 mbar (hPa)
10	Ivan	2004	910 mbar (hPa)
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce

Read also: Hurricane Dean: 1 Of 10 Most Intense Atlantic Hurricanes Ever Measured

Not Looking Good

I Can't Follow This Utah Mine Story Anymore

It's too depressing.

I would be nice, at some point, to focus on mine safety and the people who appoint to oversee that:

It turns out that the guy in charge of mine safety for the federal government, Assistant Secretary of Labor Richard Stickler, couldn't even get approved by the Senate back when it was under Republican control because his own record on safety issues was so questionable. President Bush had to put him in with a recess appointment.

Perhaps it's not time to assign fault while active rescue operations are underway. But once that's over, maybe it would be worth the networks taking a tenth of the time they use milking ratings from these mine sagas and cast a little light on how a lot of this is preventable if the mine owners would stop breaking the rules and the federal government stopped looking the other way.

Little Late, Isn't It?

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) has always, like a good little Republican, been strongly against raising taxes (especially against the wealthy).  In the past two years, he has twice vetoed legislation to raise the state’s gas tax to pay for transportation needs.  Needs, like, oh, building better bridges.

Now, with at least five people dead in the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge here, Mr. Pawlenty, a Republican, appears to have had a change of heart.

“He’s open to that,” Brian McClung, a spokesman for the governor, said Monday of a higher gas tax. “He believes we need to do everything we can to address this situation and the extraordinary costs.”

The linked-to New York Times article above is interesting in that it points out a peculiar dilemna when it comes to political spending.  You see, politicians love to spend money on new stuff.  They get a nice photo-op at the ground-breaking ceremony and so on.  But spending money on the upkeep of existing stuff?  Well, that's just not very exciting to them.

That's got to change.

RELATED:  Wingnut Michelle Malkin plays the racist card and plames the Minneapolis bridge collapse on... illegal Mexicans.

Michelle, who INSPECTS those bridges?  And is there any indication that those who worked on the bridge did a bad job?

Disaster Porn

It's rare that agree with James Lileks, but I agree with him here.  Describing a news story (available here) which lets you listen to the screams of the children on the bus in the Minneapolis bridge collapse (one of the children called her Mom and left a voice mail immediately after it happened), Lileks writes:

You know what? I don’t want to hear the screams from inside the bus. I don’t want to hear someone’s kid shrieking in panic, begging her mom to come save her. Why would I?

This is the point in the story where we start to debate what’s news, and what’s just disaster-porn. I’m not making the comparison here, because they’re different events in every way. But nothing about 9/11 hit me as hard as the memorial wall on Grand Central Station, a collection of all the fliers and MISSING posters people had stuck up at the site after the Twin Towers were destroyed. They were mute, handmade pleas, and believe it or not, they didn’t need a voice over that said “for now the family sits and waits, wondering what the news will be” or whatever generic tag gets slapped at the end of the grieving-survivor boilerplate story.

I understand why they do those stories, but I have a hard time watchng them. I don’t want to wonder if the cameraman’s wondering how close he should go on the face to get the tears, because on one hand this person is experiencing great private grief, but on the other hand the light is hitting that teardrop just perfectly. Mostly I want them to leave the people alone. I don’t need to be told what they’re feeing. I can guess.

Yeah.  I tend to agree.  I think I am at that point, too.

Vox Populi (and Minneapolis Bridge Collapse Updates)

James Hafner of Coon Rapids, MN wrote a letter to the editor of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, complaining about the new Minnesota Twins stadium (the groundbreaking ceremony, now postponed, was to take place today).  In his letter, Hafner wrote:

It sure looks like Carl Pohlad and the Twins could have paid for the entire stadium project and had enough leftover to finance a few lakeside estates, an overpriced jewelry store and still made a handsome profit on their investment. In a period of crucial funding shortfalls for roads, bridges, libraries and crumbling public infrastructure, local government officials decided building a stadium for a billionaire was more important.

Less than 12 hours after that letter was published in the morning paper....

UPDATE:  Some good amateur photos of the event here and here.  To be honest, I don't quite understand why people are videotaping their TV and uploading it to Youtube.  (I have a TV, people!)

MORE:  Law Professor Dale Carpenter:

I cross the 35W bridge that collapsed tonight at least twice a day to go to and from work, often during rush hour. Tonight I left my office at about 5:45 p.m. and took the 10th St bridge right next to the 35W bridge in order to avoid the congestion created by the recent construction on it. It went down about 15 minutes later. If I'd taken the 35W bridge, as I usually would, there's a decent chance I would have been delayed in the congestion and stuck on it when it collapsed.

As I crossed the Mississippi River tonight, I looked over and saw the cars jam-packed on 35W and remember thinking, "Thank God I didn't go that way."

MORE:  This article suggests that vibrations may have brought the bridge down.  Hmmm.  Let's see.  A bridge known to have some cracking in the supports.  A work crew operating machinary on the bridge.  A train passing underneath (causing vibrations).  And bumper-to-bumper traffic weighing on the bridge.  I'm no civil engineer, but I think they add up to the disaster we saw.

MORE:  What Digby said (Echoing my sentiments yesterday) --

Governments all over the country have been robbing Peter to pay Paul, shifting money to immediate needs like health care and child welfare and hoping against hope that the roads and bridges and buildings built during the new deal era held up. "No New Taxes" has been the rallying cry for decades now, but nobody ever said how we were supposed to pay for the things we all take for granted. And, of course, when things like this happen, the wingers blame the government and everyone decries taxes even more.

Minneapolis Bridge Collapse

Cheryl doesn't like driving over bridges.  I could never understand that.

But okay.  Now I can a little.

Think back a few weeks ago to the exploding steam pipe in the middle of Manhattan, and perhaps you'll recognize that one of the big issues to face this country in the next decade or two is our aging infrastructure.  Things are, quite literally, falling apart.

And let's not forget one of the biggest infrastructure warning signs, the failure of some dams in New Orleans.

The Greensboro News & Record had an editorial on this subject just a week ago, just following several incidents of sinkholes plaguing the streets of that city:

It's like one of those Parade Magazine brain teasers. What do these have in common? Hurricane Katrina. Flight delays nationwide. A blast of steam in New York. A traffic-stopping sinkhole on Wendover Avenue.

The answer is actually a no-brainer. Aging infrastructure. And far from being a secret, the nation's civil engineers have been warning about it for years to little response.

Let's face it, the decay of roads, bridges, water and sewer lines, dams and levees, the air traffic control system and electrical grid isn't sexy. But our lives can depend on sound infrastructure and our economic health certainly does. Still, we have deferred maintenance for so many years that a huge bill is about to come due. The Wendover sinkhole was caused by broken pipes laid in 1929 and 1930. Jolson was on Broadway when Manhattan's 83-year-old exploding steam pipe was installed. The levees that gave way in New Orleans were accidents waiting to happen. And the air traffic control system is a relic.

In 2005, the American Society of Civil Engineers reported that it would take $1.6 trillion to bring the nation's vital structures up to snuff. Its report card for North Carolina gave the state a D for airports, dams and roads; a C for bridges, schools, drinking water, waste water and storm water; a lone B for rail. Overall, a C minus.

The looming bill for North Carolina is huge and may not fully take into account an anticipated population increase of 50 percent. It does figure on $28 billion for needed road and bridge work, $6 billion for waste water and $3 billion for drinking water.

The numbers are imposing, but the cost of neglect can be even higher. Fuel is wasted in epic quantities by inadequate roads that slow transit and commerce. Immense business losses are incurred when flights are late 30 percent of the time. And how can you put a number on a New Orleans swept away and half its population displaced?

Much of Europe had to be rebuilt after World War II, and it has continued to fund improvements. Newer economies have new infrastructure.

We are forced to play catch-up. A public infrastructure commission chaired by banker Felix Rohatyn and former Sen. Warren Rudman recommends a national investment corporation to streamline financing of improvements through government-backed bonds.

Whatever shape a fix takes, a fix is urgently needed. Every candidate for state, local or national office should be forced to say how and when he or she intends to fund the upgrades needed to keep us safe, to keep up with population growth and to keep us competitive.

You can see the ASCE report card on the nation's infrastructure, broken down by state, here.   One thing the civil engineers recommend?

Congress must enact the National Infrastructure Improvement Act to establish the National Commission on Infrastructure of the United States.

The Commission would study the present condition of the nation's various infrastructure systems and report to Congress by 2009 on the capacity of our infrastructure to support the national economy, the age of the systems and possible methods to finance improvements.

Sounds like a reasonable first step.  Now, it's too early to tell if the tragic Minneapolis bridge collapse was due to the fact that it has been neglected (indeed, some sketchy reports indicate that there were improvements being made to the bridge at the time of the collapse -- i.e., a jackhammer was working on it).    But regardless, I think we're going to see more of this type of news -- bridge collapses, pipe explosions, dam breaks, etc. -- in the years to come, unless we do something about it.