Can’t We Call this “Counter-Terrorism Preparedness”?
Jared Bernstein (whose blog I still recommend) has responded to his 2-day PEPCO power outage by posting the crummy infrastructure report card the US got in 2009:
Check out the 2009 Report Card from the American Society of Civil Engineers:Aviation D
Bridges C
Dams D
Energy D+
Levees D-
Public Parks and Recreation C-
Rail C-
Roads D-
Schools D
Solid Waste C+
Transit D
Wastewater D-
America’s Infrastructure GPA: D
Estimated 5 Year Investment Need: $2.2 Trillion
Bernstein’s take (channeling Atrios) is that fixing all this infrastructure ought to be a good way to get 20 million people back to work.
But fixing just about every single one of these infrastructure problems is also a way to make our country more resilient to terrorism. Bridges? Dams? They make attractive terrorist targets, particularly if they’re already crumbling. Drinking water? Another vulnerability to terrorist attacks. Rails? We know Osama bin Laden was reviewing plans to derail trains (as it crossed a bridge–this one’s a twofer).
So can’t we start fixing this stuff and, rather than calling it stimulus, call it “counter-terrorism preparedness”? There’s no way, of course, the idiots in DC would support 2 trillion of stimulus, but their willingness to keep funding multiple wars in the name of terrorism–to the tune of trillions–show they might do so if we can give it a national security spin.
And between us? If we fixed things like levees and energy plants, we’d also be more resilient to things like earthquakes and climate change. Mind you, if Republicans found out about that, it’d be enough reason to defund it. So we’ll just keep that part a secret between us.
As a former homeland security/preparedness specialist for the federal government, I would hate to see maintenance of infrastructure labeled “counter-terrorism preparedness” because it means the government would then have an incentive to expand even more the already excessive secrecy that surrounds infrastructue and preparedness. But, it is ludicrous, as I believe you implied, to spend vast sums to prevent terrorists from destroying our bridges, while leaving the bridges even more vulnerable to destruction from our own neglect. This appears to be part of the government’s standing policy of preemption, which also underlies the efforts to eliminate freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution: Destroy stuff ourselves before the terrorists can do it. Hah! That’ll show those terrorists whose in control!
I agree completely. Whether emptywheel meant it to be or not, this should be taken as irony. To our “leaders”, keeping the condition of our infrastructure a secret would be far easier than actually fixing it, and making it a part of terrorism preparedness would give them all the excuse they need.
Correction: That should read “who’s in control.”
But, if our country was “more resilient to terrorism” then we wouldn’t have to be so damned scared of terrorists all of the time.
…can’t have that, now!
Emptywheel, long time no talk: I confess I’ve let my email lapse, and have not been anything like the regular reader of your blog I used to be (nor reader of ANY blog, having spent the last 1 1/2 years w/o easy Internet access). But thank you, thank you, thank you for your extraordinary industry… you and your work have meant so much to me. As you know, I’ve a longstanding interest in prophetic poetry, and thought you might appreciate the explicit reference to anthrax in “From Trollope’s Journal” [Winter 1861], the second-to-last poem in Elizabeth Bishop’s 1965 collection, QUESTIONS OF TRAVEL (a book which also contains “The Ballad of the Burglar of Babylon”, “Sandpiper”, “Filling Station”, and many other old favorites). Trollope was in Washington DC at the outbreak of the Civil War and offers a description of a forlorn scene which, at least in Miss Bishop’s reworking, was visible from Pennsylvania Avenue:
[…] There all around me in the ugly mud,
— hoof-pocked, uncultivated, — herds of cattle,
numberless, wond’ring steers and oxen, stood:
beef for the Army, after the next battle.
Their legs were caked the color of dried blood;
their horns were wreathed with fog. Poor, starving, dumb
or loving creatures, never to chew the cud
or fill their maws again! Th’effluvium
made that damned anthrax on my forehead throb,
I called a surgeon in, a young man, but,
with a sore throat himself, he did his job.
We talked about the War, and as he cut
away, he croaked out, “Sir, I do declare
everyone’s sick! The soldiers poison the air!”
Those are just the last few lines, the whole poem isn’t much longer but of course is worth looking up. FWIW we do have the right President in Obama and I’m quite sure he would agree with my conviction, and yours, that there is no such thing as a closed case. Give my best to Jane! xxxxx as ever, QS
Wow, that is pretty sweet. Thanks QS.
Cool, thanks. Hope you are well?
Just about what we’ll spend in the sand pit wars.
Does the 2.2 trillion take into account the corruption necessary to pull this off ?
OT Scott Horton Lecture tonight in town, 2 hours so cool.
http://www.peacecoalition.org/component/content/article/39-cfpa/250-tortureandterror.html
Scott Horton in Princeton NJ tonight @ 7 pm go to CFPA for more details
Obvious point…looks like the American Society of Civil Engineers needs to buy a few more congress-critters like the war profiteers.
Still one of the best bluff calls out there, as istr early attempts by the critical infrastructure people to get moved up the agenda were met, not with crickets, but with active counter moves.
(Though Deep Harm’s caveat is worth thought; still, is fear of excessive secrecy the reason for inaction? I doubt it.)
PEPCO’s performance in Montgomery County the last few years has indeed been awful: frequent outages, far too long delays before power is restored.
Maryland politicians’ frequent promises to pressure PEPCO to improve always end up empty: the latest measure was utterly toothless. PEPCO must give big campaign contributions.
Now that big shots in D.C. are having to suffer from PEPCO’s performance, maybe somebody will see to it that this will change.
Oh God, I’m just so scared of terraists ( like Greenpeace etc..) We need to spend trillions making sure they don’t force us to use trains or bicycles! The ‘Merican way of life depends on it.” Your either for us or for the terraists.
4 more years of President Putty or a Republicon will only bring us more in line with 3rd World banana republics.
Yep: which is *exactly* the GOAL of the upper 1%. Make USA more like Cuba, and it’s a clear winnah for the PTB.
With a report card like that, I’d say “Grounded”, until it improves.
That’s the mom in me.
The plutocracy will never improve infrastructure. It takes money and that money is reserved for the pockets of the plutocracy.
Thanks for the post, depressing as it is, and for keeping it on the radar, so to speak.
I’ve had conversations about this – that is, spending our hard-earned money on infrastructure repair/maintenance/enhancement, rather than on War, Inc – with conservatives I know. Generally get a blank stare/eyes glaze over and/or get some blather about, of all things, “Oil dividends” which “we” (ha ha ha) are “reaping” from these Wars, Inc. and so on.
There is less than no will on the part of the “people” to really address this, addicted as most have come to be on our useless, but distracting, media and other entertainments. Citizens simply don’t give a sh*t, and they shrug their shoulders and ignore the ever-increasing power outages, bridges collapsing for no apparant reasons and so on.
I guess as long as our populace is “happy” with the status quo, that’s way it’s gonna be. It’s clear that there’s waaaaay more money to be made by killing people – both domestics and furriners – with fancy-schmancy technolog-y killin’ machines than in spending the same funds on fixing roads, bridges, water supply, etc.
Too bad, so sad, get used to it. I have *no* hope that most citizens will give a sh*t… pass meh the beer, babe… moooaarrr Jersey Shore… etc.
Fixing our infrastructure would be a very good investment for our future. It would also help pull the economy out of the crapper, put a lot of people to work and lower the unemployment rate. This is precisely why the republicans would never let it happen. They spent the first two years of Obama’s administration making sure nothing that would really help the economy got implemented. That was their plan for the 2010 elections and it worked out just the way they wanted it to. So, why in the world would the republicans change their tactics now going into 2012? The economy getting better is bad for republicans, so why would they want to help?
With respect, it wasn’t just the goal of so-called “Republicans.” The so-called “Democrats” had the exact same goal, and the Plutocractic Uniparty got their wish! Look ma: shitty recession is continuing ad infinitum and the nation’s infrastructure continues to crumble whilst NO new jobs are created!!!! Yippeee! A huge WIN for the upper 1%!
Both so-called “parties” are complicit and responsible, imo. Neither is “better” than the other.
I like to think of him as President Putty. In the hands of Republicans and corporations he’s ……………..
Putty is too kind a description. You can make a variety of home improvements with putty.
I like to think of him as President Putty. In the hands of Republicans and corporations he’s SILLY PUTTY
Fixed it for you…
With an effective Madison Avenue ad campaign those D’s can be turned into A’s in the mind of a clueless public.
The legacy that the bean counters want to leave our kids and grand kids that they feign concern for will be quadruple the cost to repair the infrastructure of the nation if we kick the can down the road compared to what it would cost today.
I said this in April and it’s clear that we can’t impoverish more Americans just because the Republican Party insists we must cut taxes for the wealthiest 2% or else they’ll stand by and watch our country go into default if they don’t get their way. That’s what I call major blackmail.
http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12605
On a related matter, I almost punched my car radio/drove off the road recently when I heard one of “the government’s” latest “public service announcements” about how we should all go out and “volunteer” to cure the nation’s problems. [Jon Bon Jovi is pushing this crap.]
On this particular ad, someone who identified herself as an “AmericaCorps volunteer” talked about how she got such great satisfaction from “teaching kids to read.”
I thought a) you’re getting PAID to do this “volunteer” stuff kid; b) there are PLENTY of these “volunteer opportunities” out there. Rather than asking citizens to do them without pay, why don’t we appropriate some of our TAX DOLLARS and pay teachers, day care workers, folks who build & clean the highways, etc.
Between this and David Brooks’ inane column [“advice to graduates”] of a couple of days ago, it seems like Obama et al.’s plan for the future is for us to become a nation of unpaid interns.
Many of us have volunteered for years. My wife and I raised our granddaughter when her own mom had some serious problems. We got her through high school and now she’s married and doing well on her own. We didn’t get any government aid or money. We did it because we wanted to help. I’ve volunteered through our church to help disadvantaged kids in a reading program. I volunteer (as do millions of others) to help raise money for scholarships and charity events. There’s nothing wrong with volunteering if you are so motivated. If not, then that’s your personal choice.
PS, I never listen to anything other than music when I drive. If I ever listened to Screech Radio I would have been in multiple accidents over the years.
I have volunteered (and come from a long line of family members who volunteered) for a variety of issues in part because I truly believe it is not only good for others, but, also good for the individuals “soul”. However, having said that, Mauimom has a valid point. At a time when millions of people are losing their homes, unemployment remains high, jobs are outsourced, wars are endless, there is a general unease about our future, and we have an unresponsive government, well… is becoming a volunteer “the solution”.
Unfortunately, it is more likely at this point in time that “volunteerism” is being promoted not solely for it’s societal benefits, but as a way to find “free labor”. If we appreciated our teachers and others in the public sector and were willing to compensate them appropriately, volunteering would just be a bonus to society.
As I recall, we bombed the hell out of Saddam Hussein’s water treatment plants, and other infrastructure in the Clinton 90’s in an effort to weaken the government and create popular discontent. Did we do this on the assumption that the populace would revolt? Our government (along with a lot of lobbying by the greedy corporatists) is doing it to us. So, populace: REVOLT!
The Romans had solders build roads Obama is Commander and Chief just repurpose solders to fix things. Draft a bunch of Union members into the army at Union wages to get the job done. I trust the Army Corp of Engineers more than KBR.
If we are going to rebuild our infrastructure we can’t let KBR or Bechtel build America like they *cough * built Iraq.
I’m willing to bet that in the last ten years, far more Americans have been killed by inadequate infrastructure than by the 9/11 attacks.
Not to mention that lack of health insurance is, by a couple of orders of magnitude, a bigger killer of Americans than al-Queda was.
We have over a trillion dollars in gold in Fort Knox. Plenty of cash to start rebuilding stuff plus that gold does not earn interest gold prices are high right now because the dollar is weak so what better time to put that gold gathering dust to work.
Problem is a lot of people think it is gone already. hence why we have had no audit of fort knox
on a different note Timmy has just taken another $66 billion from federal retirement to fund the ongoing US debt. By the time he gets to august at the rate he is gong he will have plundered $200 billion from the fund.
Funny there is no audit of Fort Knox Ron Paul if he was serious about the Presidency he would be pushing that angle.
Who is timmy?
Geithner
This is brilliant, EW!
You could call it “Hardening America” or some other phallo-centric term to get the saggy Tea-publicans to associate it with the imagined potency of nether regions they haven’t seen in decades.
I like that–hardening America. We might slip it by them while they’re obsessing with Weinergate.
Yes, but the things on that list only affect the lower classes. A report card for the world of the rich would tell a very different story.
And that is the entire plan.
Making it easier for the middle and lower classes to rise up and threaten their rulers is something the oligarchs will never, ever do.
So civil engineers have decided that the government should spend more on civil engineering projects…
I bet the farming association will come out with a study that shows we should invest more in farmers next.