Nick Coleman is a .....
Words fail me at this moment. The recovery effort has not even been completed....the dead still not all found and Nick Coleman presents us with this despicable diatribe.
"Minneapolis suffered a perfect storm of nightmares Wednesday evening, as anyone who couldn't sleep last night can tell you. Including the parents who clench their jaws and tighten their hands on the wheel every time they drive a carload of strapped-in kids across a steep chasm or a rushing river. Don't panic, you tell yourself. The people in charge of this know what they are doing. They make sure that the bridges stay standing. And if there were a problem, they would tell us. Wouldn't they?
What if they didn't?
The death bridge was "structurally deficient," we now learn, and had a rating of just 50 percent, the threshold for replacement. But no one appears to have erred on the side of public safety. The errors were all the other way." (emphasis mine)
There was a presser this afternoon. Governor Pawlenty spoke as did several experts in transportation and bridge inspection. All of the "experts" said that the "structurally deficient" label came because there were DESIGN and CONSTRUCTION flaws in the bridge that made it a candidate for close monitoring. I do not claim to be an expert, but the one national (NTSB?) expert said that welding techniques that were used in the 1960's were not as sound as they are today.
"Would you drive your kids or let your spouse drive over a bridge that had a sign saying, "CAUTION: Fifty-Percent Bridge Ahead"?
No, you wouldn't. But there wasn't any warning on the Half Chance Bridge. There was nothing that told you that you might be sitting in your over-heated car, bumper to bumper, on a hot summer day, thinking of dinner with your wife or of going to see the Twins game or taking your kids for a walk to Dairy Queen later when, in a rumble and a roar, the world you knew would pancake into the river." (emphasis again mine)
Now those of us who have been subjected to Comrade Nick's diatribes know that he is a DFL hack. For the most part, we read, we chuckle and maybe fisk and then shake our heads and say "what can you do? It's Nick Coleman..."
"If it wasn't an act of God or the hand of hate, and it proves not to be just a lousy accident - a girder mistakenly cut, a train that hit a support - then we are left to conclude that it was worse than any of those things, because it was more mundane and more insidious: This death and destruction was the result of incompetence or indifference.
In a word, it was avoidable.
That means it should never have happened. And that means that public anger will follow our sorrow as sure as night descended on the missing."
Here Nick is absolutely correct.
"For half a dozen years, the motto of state government and particularly that of Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been No New Taxes. It's been popular with a lot of voters and it has mostly prevailed. So much so that Pawlenty vetoed a 5-cent gas tax increase - the first in 20 years - last spring and millions were lost that might have gone to road repair. And yes, it would have fallen even if the gas tax had gone through, because we are years behind a dangerous curve when it comes to the replacement of infrastructure that everyone but wingnuts in coonskin caps agree is one of the basic duties of government." (again my emphasis)
There is a 1997 report that is being quoted by all of the reporters on this, that said that they knew about problems with this bridge back then. Elwin Tinklenburg (former Ventura Administration TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY) also came out and said that this is a result of "budget cuts" at MNDOT. If we knew about this in 1997, why didn't YOU do anything about it Mr. Tinklenburg? You (and your boss) gave us the Hiawatha Line.
"I'm not just pointing fingers at Pawlenty."
The hell you aren't Nick......you set out to write this with an Anti-Pawlenty meme in mind - just as you have always done.
"The outrage here is not partisan. It is general.
Both political parties have tried to govern on the cheap, and both have dithered and dallied and spent public wealth on stadiums while scrimping on the basics."
Neither party has tried to "govern on the cheap". They have long neglected roads and bridges. Road repair is not sexy, nor does it get you votes. Social programs on the other hand.....
Yes - poor choices were made. Suppose Governor Carlson had acted on that 1997 report and shored up that bridge. Suppose Governor Ventura had taken the $715 million that was put into the Hiawatha Line into fixing this bridge...We could go on for days...
It is way to early for ANYONE to be playing the blame game. We need to come together as Minnesotans and support those that were hurt, that lost loved ones. Let the investigation GET STARTED before you come to a conclusion Mr. Coleman. As a "professional" journalist, you of all people should know better!
Chad at Fraters takes Nick to task as does Sharkbait at Anti-Strib. They are both must reads!
"Minneapolis suffered a perfect storm of nightmares Wednesday evening, as anyone who couldn't sleep last night can tell you. Including the parents who clench their jaws and tighten their hands on the wheel every time they drive a carload of strapped-in kids across a steep chasm or a rushing river. Don't panic, you tell yourself. The people in charge of this know what they are doing. They make sure that the bridges stay standing. And if there were a problem, they would tell us. Wouldn't they?
What if they didn't?
The death bridge was "structurally deficient," we now learn, and had a rating of just 50 percent, the threshold for replacement. But no one appears to have erred on the side of public safety. The errors were all the other way." (emphasis mine)
There was a presser this afternoon. Governor Pawlenty spoke as did several experts in transportation and bridge inspection. All of the "experts" said that the "structurally deficient" label came because there were DESIGN and CONSTRUCTION flaws in the bridge that made it a candidate for close monitoring. I do not claim to be an expert, but the one national (NTSB?) expert said that welding techniques that were used in the 1960's were not as sound as they are today.
"Would you drive your kids or let your spouse drive over a bridge that had a sign saying, "CAUTION: Fifty-Percent Bridge Ahead"?
No, you wouldn't. But there wasn't any warning on the Half Chance Bridge. There was nothing that told you that you might be sitting in your over-heated car, bumper to bumper, on a hot summer day, thinking of dinner with your wife or of going to see the Twins game or taking your kids for a walk to Dairy Queen later when, in a rumble and a roar, the world you knew would pancake into the river." (emphasis again mine)
Now those of us who have been subjected to Comrade Nick's diatribes know that he is a DFL hack. For the most part, we read, we chuckle and maybe fisk and then shake our heads and say "what can you do? It's Nick Coleman..."
"If it wasn't an act of God or the hand of hate, and it proves not to be just a lousy accident - a girder mistakenly cut, a train that hit a support - then we are left to conclude that it was worse than any of those things, because it was more mundane and more insidious: This death and destruction was the result of incompetence or indifference.
In a word, it was avoidable.
That means it should never have happened. And that means that public anger will follow our sorrow as sure as night descended on the missing."
Here Nick is absolutely correct.
"For half a dozen years, the motto of state government and particularly that of Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been No New Taxes. It's been popular with a lot of voters and it has mostly prevailed. So much so that Pawlenty vetoed a 5-cent gas tax increase - the first in 20 years - last spring and millions were lost that might have gone to road repair. And yes, it would have fallen even if the gas tax had gone through, because we are years behind a dangerous curve when it comes to the replacement of infrastructure that everyone but wingnuts in coonskin caps agree is one of the basic duties of government." (again my emphasis)
There is a 1997 report that is being quoted by all of the reporters on this, that said that they knew about problems with this bridge back then. Elwin Tinklenburg (former Ventura Administration TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY) also came out and said that this is a result of "budget cuts" at MNDOT. If we knew about this in 1997, why didn't YOU do anything about it Mr. Tinklenburg? You (and your boss) gave us the Hiawatha Line.
"I'm not just pointing fingers at Pawlenty."
The hell you aren't Nick......you set out to write this with an Anti-Pawlenty meme in mind - just as you have always done.
"The outrage here is not partisan. It is general.
Both political parties have tried to govern on the cheap, and both have dithered and dallied and spent public wealth on stadiums while scrimping on the basics."
Neither party has tried to "govern on the cheap". They have long neglected roads and bridges. Road repair is not sexy, nor does it get you votes. Social programs on the other hand.....
Yes - poor choices were made. Suppose Governor Carlson had acted on that 1997 report and shored up that bridge. Suppose Governor Ventura had taken the $715 million that was put into the Hiawatha Line into fixing this bridge...We could go on for days...
It is way to early for ANYONE to be playing the blame game. We need to come together as Minnesotans and support those that were hurt, that lost loved ones. Let the investigation GET STARTED before you come to a conclusion Mr. Coleman. As a "professional" journalist, you of all people should know better!
Chad at Fraters takes Nick to task as does Sharkbait at Anti-Strib. They are both must reads!
Labels: 35W Bridge collapse, Nick Coleman, Star Tribune
posted by The Lady Logician at
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