Messin' With Texas: Un-Paving Roads Rather Than Raising Taxes

I still can't quite wrap my head around this. Big oil has a boom in Texas. Big Oil makes more profits than any other industry ever has in the history of man. Their trucks are tearing up the roads. Texas is having a hard time paying for the roads, so. . .they're un-paving them! Not raising taxes on the oil companies, or figuring out some other sort of pay-for-play arrangement.

Their unofficial slogan is "Don't Mess With Texas." Maybe that's because Texas is already a hot mess.

[Excerpt]

Texas Converts 80 Miles Of Paved Road To Gravel Thanks To Lack Of Funds

Finding that thanks to shortfalls the budget is not equipped to handle safety upgrades on paved roads, the Texas Department of Transportation began converting 80 miles of roads to gravel on Monday.
Texas DOT spokesman David Glessner told the Texas Tribune that a lack of funding meant its “only option to make [roads] safer is to turn them into gravel roads.” For safety reasons, some speed limits on the unpaved roads will also be lowered to 30 mph. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

Bridge Falls into River in Washington State

They're not supposed to do that. Image from source, MSN.

Okay, if I bring up the subject of infrastructure spending, would that be considered "too soon" and "playing politics?" Would I be told, "now is not the time" to bring up something so obvious? Harumph. Sounds like nobody died, and that is a very good thing. Of course, this is a developing story, so that could change. Hope not.

[Excerpt]

Interstate-5 bridge collapses into river north of Seattle

A bridge on Interstate 5 has collapsed into the Skagit River north of Seattle sending cars and people into the river, the Washington State Patrol reports. Both north and southbound lanes of the freeway collapsed, according to the Washington State Patrol. . .


Read more at:  MSN

Is Our Country Crumbling?

I've been seeing and hearing from various sources a somewhat scary, connected bunch of stories. In several states, municipalities are grinding up their roads and reverting them to gravel. Towns are turning off their streetlights. Schools are cutting days of the week like some jobs already have. Teachers, Policemen and Firefighters are being laid off.

These are the basic, most important parts of our society that conservatives gloss over when ranting and raving about "socialism."  Everyone pays for them, and everyone uses them. But let's see, what pays for all that? Taxes! And what are we being told you must not raise? Taxes! And what are conservatives pressing to cut? Taxes!  Somebody please tell me how extending the Bush tax cuts for the richest 2% of Americans is going to keep paved roads paved?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

News of the Weird: Giant Blob in Maine Sewer

Photo from source, WMTW

Well, ain't that pretty? We had one of those several years ago, right here in Las Vegas. But I think ours was mostly grease and hair. One of these days, one of these sewer blobs is going to become self aware, and go on a rampage through a small town, eat up the movie house. . .

City Battles Giant Blob

A large, mysterious blob has taken over a major sewer line in the city of Lewiston, leaving public works crews stumped as to how to budge it. . .

Read more at: WMTW

Interactive Map of Deficient or Obsolete Bridges

Image captured from source, MSNBC.com

Now this is interesting (hat-tip to AmericaBlog.com). It's an interactive map of the US, with clickable states. Click your state, and it will tell you how many bridges are either structurally deficient, or obsolete. They also have a link that lists where those bridges are, county by county.

Lucky for me and my fellow Nevadans, most of our bridges are new, so our list is much shorter than others, like my home state of Ohio.

I think it's time we paid attention, and also paid to get these things up to code. Don't you?

Go there: MSNBC.com