I think the real question is how can we be more accurate with inspections? Why does it always take a tragedy before Americans react?

I drove over that bridge for 8yrs. My friends son is still missing, or can't be reached.

Why aren't Americans more proactive? Why are we sooooo complacent? We are all soooo smug until a tragedy hits.

First, and foremost, skyspy, I hope your friend's son will be okay.

Second, the inspections weren't inaccurate; the government's response to them was plainly and willfully inept. Folks, this is an unfortunate lesson in the real meaning of modern day "small government". It is one thing for people to say that they're for small government that doesn't interfere with their lives or that they want to pay less in taxes. Neither of those, standing alone is a bad thing.

However, as a country, we have elected people who run on a platform of asserting as fact that government can't do anything right and promising to fix "broken government". (It's funny that no one ever asks them exactly how they'll accomplish that.) Now, if a person is successful in being elected by pointing out how "broken" the government is, and they get campaign contributions (which are really gifts because they aren't tax deductible) from companies who have an interest in making a profit from charging the taxpaying public for doing what used to be done by the government, what is the likelihood that the politician will fix what is broken within the government and prove that government can do something right? What is the likelihood that he will, instead, break government even more so that he can get contracts awarded to campaign contributors (who then contribute more to his re-election bid)?

I contend that our country is not smug; it is, instead, penny wise and pound foolish. We are so busy being happy about a measly $300 tax refund that we don't understand the real impact of what the politicians don't fund in order to pay for that refund.

Yesterday it was the I-35 bridge; a few weeks ago it was an 80-year old steam pipe in NYC. Our infrastructure is aging and we are fiddling while the representatives we elected to run the empire burn it down and charge us for the water to fight the fire. The next big trend in "smaller government" and public finance is that they're selling the maintenance and operation of the infrastructure in 99-year, long-term public/private partnerships. (Note: the public never truly benefits from these deals as much as private industry does.) In fact, the Atlanta Regional Commission is planning to sell the maintenance and operation of I-75 on the north side, meaning that the private partner is likely to make I-75 North a toll road. At first blush, that doesn't sound so bad but remember that the consequence is that the private toll road operator can hike the toll as far up as they want in order to make the profit margin they want and that could be very bad.

But, take heart; we can still buy SUVs and pay Shaw (a subsidary of Halliburton) to rob us blind for doing what the government used to do a whole lot better for a whole lot less.

Your smaller government at work.

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If you and I are always in agreement, one of us is likely armed and dangerous.

Well done!
The hypocrites want local government only, no taxes for the federals, but hate broken bridges and roads, and many other things, which they have no intention of fixing by paying higher local and state taxes. They blame "welfare!"

I talked to my friend late last night, she has reached her son and he is fine.

I agree our smaller gov. is not working. Everytime the gov contracts something out to a private company the cost goes up, and the safety goes down. Look at the mess with them contracting out Flight Service stations. Most pilots can't get through to this private company. They have very few workers, and most seem to have been very poorly trained.

It is frustrating because we the taxpayers just sit back and let it happen. The money to pay for safety has to come from somewhere, but nobody wants to pay higher taxes to make it happen. Then when a tragedy happens everyone stands around with big crocodile tears pointing fingers. The beat goes on in America.

about raising taxes or spending tax money wisely?

Since you have some savvy about the FAA and ATC(skyspy); are aircarriers right in their opinion that Part 91 operators are not paying their fair share of the proposed ATC initiatives?

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All of them nearly.
A bad dude!
Pilots should not have to work 100 hours per month (portal to portal). I said work, not attend. 30 of that is on the tarmac.
ATCs should all have a buddy sitting beside them to help!
I think Carrier pilots work somewhat more hours per month! Maybe per week!
1200 hours per year that is 3 hours per day for a seven day week. With a couple of days off per week it would be 5 hours per day.
Those seats can get hard.

Like it or not, by law, they were not allowed to strike and they did. Reagan warned them before hand what would happen.

I'm still trying to decipher the rest of your coded message.

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As in all thing most republicans do, Reagan didn't think about what would happen at retirement time when all of the ATCs would retire at the same time! They will get what they want NOW and to heck with the future!
I doubt all of the ATCs would have voted to strike if given a chance to survive if they didn't.

it was OK that they went on strike. Taft-Hartley be damned. They didn't care that they shut down US air commerce and in the process disrupted the lives of countless people employed in that field. They went on strike and believed that they can hold the air transportation system hostage and guess what it, didn't work for them. Maybe we should be like the French and have labor strikes every other day.

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As a private pilot I think the aircarriers are right they are not paying their fair share. I don't think the taxpayers should have to fund or pay for my expensive hobby.

I also think private contractors cost the taxpayers way too much for too little service.

So how much more should you pay for your hobby? And how do you pay for it, annually, by the flight, fuel taxes, or......?

I don't think the idea of contractors itself is bad but, the oversight could be improved upon. In other words are we, the taxpayers, getting a return on the money spent on a project.

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I guess an added fuel tax would be the best way. I would hate to have to give a controller my credit card number every time I got lost and needed their help. I don't think they would have time to copy it, and I wouldn't want to take my eyes off of the sky to give it to them. A fuel tax would be the easiest way to pay for my time in the air.

Are you a pilot? You seem to know alot about the current controversy.

I don't want to pay extra taxes for bike paths along the side of the road, and you shouldn't have to pay for my air time.

when the earth was cooling off, I owned a Cessna 120 and then later advanced to a Cessna 150. I was a CFI and an A&P (still hold) and for a while I dabbled in the general aviation scene until the the airlines called. All of this was in the Southern California area. Flew all sorts of neat things and ferried new A/C from the Wichita area. Unfortunately the pay s%&ks.

Soon after I went to discover the roots of powered aviaition which was of course was cycling.

Now as for paying for bike routes and etc, do a little research exercise (Google) and see how Fayette County funds roads projects. From there, look at the national policy TEA-21 and how Georgia has to follow design criteria. I don't necceassrly look at it as a hobby, I rather see it as an alternative to the automoblie. I'm sick of paying &*^%@*! prices for gasoline.

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MINNEAPOLIS- A gathering of protestors filled the mall area at the University of Minnesota carrying signs that read "BUSH IS A TERRORIST" and "ANOTHER CONTRACT FOR HALIBURTON?"
The hastily organized event featured a list of speakers, including recently ousted university professor Ward Churchill, television personality Rosie O'Donnell and film producer Michael Moore.

Churchill charged the Bush administration with "attempted genocide," noting that there was an "inordinate" number of latinos crossing the bridge when it "just happened" to collapse. "We saw a bus filled with latino children and a paralyzed latino man--A PARALYZED MAN, for God's sake!--only narrowly escape the deaths that this administration intended for them," Churchill said. "The timing was simply too precise for this to have been a coincidence. This was clearly yet another event orchestrated by this white supremacist administration."

O'Donnell said that, after repeatedly watching the Army Corps of Engineers footiage of the collapse itself, she was convinced that this was no accident. "First, bridges don't just fall down for no good reason. I've crossed lots of bridges in my life and not one of them ever fell down. But even when they do, it is never like this. Whole sections of the bridge remained horizontal during their plunge to the river. This could only happen if the bridge was deliberately "pulled" as a result of carefully placed charges being set to go off simultaneously. Bush did this. I know it!" O'Donnell also said that close examination of the video reveals the telltale puffs of smoke, typical of such charges, just before the collapse. When asked about the administration's alleged motive in the causing the tragedy, O'Donnell suggested that it was intended as a "diversion" to turn media attention away from the "failed war in Iraq."

Moore, however, offered a slightly different theory. "With the collapse of this bridge, commuter traffic will be diverted along several significant alternate routes. A preliminary study shows that these routes are strewn with gas stations owned by oil companies with Saudi connections. There is not even ONE Citgo station along these routes. Clearly, this president is out to benefit his Arab buddies while sticking it to his critics around the world." Citgo is a Venezuelan owned company that many critics have suggested benefits the strongly anti-Bush government of Hugo Chavez.

Nicely done!!!!

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I don't follow you at all!
The Governor surely didn't say what you said! It was last rated a 4 out of a possible 10 rating for safety.
Now you surely know that much of the federal gasoline tax collected by the federal government is returned to the states for transportation and road maintenance.
The problem is they don't check on them as to how they use it! Reagan did away with those employees 25 years ago! Just as he did OSHA, EPA, and others.
The states did not pick up the slack with new employees.
Let me ask you this: If you want Georgia to do everything the federal government is now doing for Georgia, as far as money contributions, are you ready and willing to pay for it in Georgia tax increases? Or, simply don't do any of it?
Want 30% Georgia taxes on income, triple the gas tax, double the property tax, and hire all the people to do it?
If you "conservatives" had a lick of sense you would know that the states simply are much less responsible (52 of them at last count) than is the federal government.
I would hate to change the system totally! What a mess.

Really. Did we add a couple since Hawaii? What system are you referring to that you would hate to change?

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System: Converting all responsibilities the feds now have to the states and their financing. Want to do it tomorrow?
The South shall rise again!

15 other US territories. Why do you just single out Samoa and PR? (BTW, it's American Somoa) All responsibilities? Not hardly.

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The quotes from my post are in this article on CNN. I took them from the article about 2/3rds of the way down.

Cut and paste the URL and see for yourself. If I tell you something was taken from an article, next time maybe you'll believe me.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/02/bridge.structure/index.html

I believe you but not what you thought you read.
The Governor is trying to cover up two reports that indicated the bridge scored a 4 out of 10 upon inspection. The reports exist.
Normally a 4 is considered needing attention now but safe to keep open, depending upon the bridges use as to tonnage, weather, etc,
Politics and reelections have caused our 160,000 bridges to be ignored! Roads same way. Dams same way. Power production same way. Safe food same way. Oil refining same way.
Every Senator and Congressman not elected last time need to be sent packing!