GET OVER THIS MESS !!! The Red Cross and other charity organization are important but this is a detrimental phenomena as an excuse for poor government oversight.
STOP THIS MESS, people feel compelled to be a part of. Please remember Katrina was never supposed to have happened. It was 100% preventable and so it this bridge collapse. Get a handle on this.
Big Rise in Pay for CEO's, Charity and foundation heads see 7.5% median gain in salary
By Harvy Lipman and Martha Voelz
In a year that saw the economy dip into its first recession in 10 years, salaries paid in 2001 to...
ALSO SEE:2002 Compensation SurveyHow The Chronicle's 2002 Survey of Nonprofit Compensation Was Compiled, Chief Executives Who Received $100,000 or More in Fringe Benefits, Employees Who Earned More Than Their Organization's Chief Executive
...the top executives of the nation's largest nonprofit organizations rose by more than twice the inflation rate, according to The Chronicle's 11th annual survey of compensation and benefits.
The heads of the biggest charities and foundations received percentage increases in pay more than double those paid to corporate chief executives last year, with a median increase of 7.5 percent.
That median raise was higher than the 6.7-percent gain in pay in 2000. The median figure for 2001 means that half the 216 groups that provided The Chronicle with information for both the 2000 and 2001 fiscal years increased pay by more than that and half by less....
Thursday, August 02, 2007
George Walker Bush is very, very worried about 'spending bills.'
He said he was sorry for all the trouble in Minnesota and stated he was praying.
Does this man do nothing but give American issues lip service? Yeah. He is more worried about money than he is about 'being' at a collapsing infrastructure that HE and HIS REPUBLICAN 'infrastructure' has CAUSED in these emergencies and resultant deaths.
What a jerk Bush and the Republicans are.
The American people need new representation in DC. Dear God, all he has to say is dollars and cents and tax cuts.
Someone SHUT THIS IDIOT OF A PRESIDENT UP !!!!!!
ONLY after deaths occur do Republicans come forward to 'invest' in infrastructure. OVERNIGHT. There are $5 million for emergency measures to provide the people of Minnesota with 'options' with a major thurway collapse to prevent lose of income and job attendance at work.
There is IMMEDIATELY $100 million for reconstruction of the bridge.
WHERE were these monies BEFORE people died?
The people of the USA need to identify the lack of leadership in the Republicans they elect. They are reactionaries for a reason. So long as nothing 'happens' they don't have to spend money, allowing the appearance of 'good government.' Good government does not allow deaths to occur and lose of 'function' of infrastructure that interrupt American lives.
This is an unforgiveable incident and all the leadership responsible for it through out of office ASAP.
Being a proud Minnesotan is 'rhetorical' political speech. Americans should not have to rely on having 'heroes' around to save their lives. Their lives should be guaranteed to them.
Get rid of these people. The Secretary of Transportation should be highly ridiculed and discharged from office for this tragedy.
"I'm sorry" is NOT good enough anymore !
I strongly suggest Bush put his veto pen away.
Bush to Congress: Finish Defense budget (click here)
Updated
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — President Bush said Thursday the Democratic-run Congress shouldn't leave Washington for its August recess without at least finishing a spending bill covering the Defense Department.
"In a time of war, one spending bill ought to take precedence over all the rest," Bush said in a speech before a meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council.
"Members of Congress ought to finish the spending bill for the Department of Defense before they go on recess so I can sign it into law," the president said. "We got troops in harm's way. They need to exercise their responsibility."
Congress is due to begin a month-long recess in about two weeks, and Bush said lawmakers must finish work on that defense bill even if they don't get to 11 other government spending bills by then.
But with the next fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, not a single one of the 12 annual spending bills for agency budgets and programs has yet been passed by the full Congress. Democrats are adding about $23 billion to Bush's proposed budget — or about 2% of the so-called discretionary budget covering non-security-related domestic programs. The White House has reacted with several veto threats, and the two branches remain entrenched in a protracted wrestling match over spending.
Bush threatens to veto extra spending (click here)
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) — President Bush warned Congress on Saturday that he will use his veto power to stop runaway government spending.
"The American people do not want to return to the days of tax-and-spend policies," Bush said in his radio address.
The House passed a $37 billion budget for the Homeland Security Department on Friday, but Republicans rallied enough votes to uphold a promised veto from Bush.
The measure — one of several annual spending bills that Congress began to consider this week — exceeds Bush's request for the department by $2.1 billion.
Democrats on Friday defended the extra money in the homeland security bill, noting it contains money to hire 3,000 additional border agents, improve explosive detection at airports and provides money to double the amount of cargo screened on passenger aircraft.
THE SAFETY RATINGS SYSTEM has been changed by The Bush Administration. The rating systems previous to January of 2001 need to be returned and scrutinized for IMPROVMENT rather than ratings that were 'rolled back' in their aggressiveness to protect people. I don't trust ANY of the changes The Bush Administration has made to the 'safety' infrastructure of government either. It allows them to say 'oops' we need to improve what we are doing. NO MORE. ONE of the importance of this collapse has to be the issue of what 'The Republicans have done to secure tax cuts OVER the safety and security of Americans' on all fronts. We have poisoned food supplies, collapsing infrastructures as well as the mess internationally and on any and all war fronts. This Republican leadership when they held majority have done huge amounts of damage to the well being of American and Americans.
I demand an investigation to all measures having contributed to this and the possiblity of this happening to other infrastructure in the USA. It is going to require 'huge amounts of money' to RETURN the American infrastructure to the safety of the people. Americans' well being have been marginalized to allow previous redundancy to safety to come into lack of that redundancy 'giving the appearance' of 'good government.' The UPGRADES to the American Infrastructure ahve been postponed and postponed and postponed to fund an illegal war. I think Bush and his administration and other Republicans call it 'prudent' government? I remind, these people believe in PUSHING Americans to their limits of heroship and prayerfulness to prevent and survive tragedy. Americans have become 'used to' these issues of tragedy (ie. Katrina, Americans learned they were 'on their own.) and their rewards are personal in 'atta boys' rather than their insured safety.
"Atta Boys" don't prevent infrastructure collapse that is catatrophic to American lives.
Sorry, to insult, but people HAVE TO come to terms with this !
...later...
Does this man do nothing but give American issues lip service? Yeah. He is more worried about money than he is about 'being' at a collapsing infrastructure that HE and HIS REPUBLICAN 'infrastructure' has CAUSED in these emergencies and resultant deaths.
What a jerk Bush and the Republicans are.
The American people need new representation in DC. Dear God, all he has to say is dollars and cents and tax cuts.
Someone SHUT THIS IDIOT OF A PRESIDENT UP !!!!!!
ONLY after deaths occur do Republicans come forward to 'invest' in infrastructure. OVERNIGHT. There are $5 million for emergency measures to provide the people of Minnesota with 'options' with a major thurway collapse to prevent lose of income and job attendance at work.
There is IMMEDIATELY $100 million for reconstruction of the bridge.
WHERE were these monies BEFORE people died?
The people of the USA need to identify the lack of leadership in the Republicans they elect. They are reactionaries for a reason. So long as nothing 'happens' they don't have to spend money, allowing the appearance of 'good government.' Good government does not allow deaths to occur and lose of 'function' of infrastructure that interrupt American lives.
This is an unforgiveable incident and all the leadership responsible for it through out of office ASAP.
Being a proud Minnesotan is 'rhetorical' political speech. Americans should not have to rely on having 'heroes' around to save their lives. Their lives should be guaranteed to them.
Get rid of these people. The Secretary of Transportation should be highly ridiculed and discharged from office for this tragedy.
"I'm sorry" is NOT good enough anymore !
I strongly suggest Bush put his veto pen away.
Bush to Congress: Finish Defense budget (click here)
Updated
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — President Bush said Thursday the Democratic-run Congress shouldn't leave Washington for its August recess without at least finishing a spending bill covering the Defense Department.
"In a time of war, one spending bill ought to take precedence over all the rest," Bush said in a speech before a meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council.
"Members of Congress ought to finish the spending bill for the Department of Defense before they go on recess so I can sign it into law," the president said. "We got troops in harm's way. They need to exercise their responsibility."
Congress is due to begin a month-long recess in about two weeks, and Bush said lawmakers must finish work on that defense bill even if they don't get to 11 other government spending bills by then.
But with the next fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, not a single one of the 12 annual spending bills for agency budgets and programs has yet been passed by the full Congress. Democrats are adding about $23 billion to Bush's proposed budget — or about 2% of the so-called discretionary budget covering non-security-related domestic programs. The White House has reacted with several veto threats, and the two branches remain entrenched in a protracted wrestling match over spending.
Bush threatens to veto extra spending (click here)
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) — President Bush warned Congress on Saturday that he will use his veto power to stop runaway government spending.
"The American people do not want to return to the days of tax-and-spend policies," Bush said in his radio address.
The House passed a $37 billion budget for the Homeland Security Department on Friday, but Republicans rallied enough votes to uphold a promised veto from Bush.
The measure — one of several annual spending bills that Congress began to consider this week — exceeds Bush's request for the department by $2.1 billion.
Democrats on Friday defended the extra money in the homeland security bill, noting it contains money to hire 3,000 additional border agents, improve explosive detection at airports and provides money to double the amount of cargo screened on passenger aircraft.
THE SAFETY RATINGS SYSTEM has been changed by The Bush Administration. The rating systems previous to January of 2001 need to be returned and scrutinized for IMPROVMENT rather than ratings that were 'rolled back' in their aggressiveness to protect people. I don't trust ANY of the changes The Bush Administration has made to the 'safety' infrastructure of government either. It allows them to say 'oops' we need to improve what we are doing. NO MORE. ONE of the importance of this collapse has to be the issue of what 'The Republicans have done to secure tax cuts OVER the safety and security of Americans' on all fronts. We have poisoned food supplies, collapsing infrastructures as well as the mess internationally and on any and all war fronts. This Republican leadership when they held majority have done huge amounts of damage to the well being of American and Americans.
I demand an investigation to all measures having contributed to this and the possiblity of this happening to other infrastructure in the USA. It is going to require 'huge amounts of money' to RETURN the American infrastructure to the safety of the people. Americans' well being have been marginalized to allow previous redundancy to safety to come into lack of that redundancy 'giving the appearance' of 'good government.' The UPGRADES to the American Infrastructure ahve been postponed and postponed and postponed to fund an illegal war. I think Bush and his administration and other Republicans call it 'prudent' government? I remind, these people believe in PUSHING Americans to their limits of heroship and prayerfulness to prevent and survive tragedy. Americans have become 'used to' these issues of tragedy (ie. Katrina, Americans learned they were 'on their own.) and their rewards are personal in 'atta boys' rather than their insured safety.
"Atta Boys" don't prevent infrastructure collapse that is catatrophic to American lives.
Sorry, to insult, but people HAVE TO come to terms with this !
...later...
A word about seatbelts/safety restraints for children. By the way Bob Herbert has addressed an Op-Ed this year regarding the nation's infrastructure.
It is important for people to wear safety restraints in cars. A New Jersey Governor found that out the hard way. This bridge collapse and the 'amazing' stories of survivors speaks loud and clear to the reality of such an important and simple safety measure. When the USA government mandated safety restraints for people of all ages in moving vehicles on roadways they did a great deal of service to the country.
The reason there are 'few' injuries where people have 'ridden' WITH their cars in the fall, is because they were falling at the same rate and in the same direction of the car. Where people were NOT 'trapped' under concrete or metal they will walk away unharmed.
Imagine being in a ferris wheel at a carnival. What keeps a person in the seat as the 'basket' they are riding in goes round and round and up and down? That same principle applies to seat beats and the 'idea' of maintaining people's safety turning turbulent movement.
So, what occurred and not to make light of the seriousness of the impact to all people as they will 'feel' the fall, sometimes three stories, over time; they won't immediately experience serious injury because they were wearing seat belts and fell at the same rate/speed/velocity and direction as their vehicle.
The Governor of Minnesota needs to declare a state of emergency and deploy the Minnesota National Guard to assist in the recovery. That's my opinion. Actually, I think 'The Guard' should have been deployed as soon as it occurred. There is no way a local or county emergency department can handle this. There just isn't. This is catatrophic.
April 5, 2007
Our Crumbling Foundation
By BOB HERBERT
Fifty-nine years ago this week -- on April 3, 1948 -- President Truman signed the legislation establishing the Marshall Plan, which contributed so much to the rebuilding of postwar Europe. Now, more than half a century later, the U.S. can't even rebuild New Orleans.
It doesn't seem able to build much of anything, really. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the U.S. infrastructure is in sad shape, and it would take more than a trillion and a half dollars over a five-year period to bring it back to a reasonably adequate condition.
If there's a less sexy story floating around, I can't find it. It certainly can't compete with the Sanjaya Malakar saga, or with the claim by Keith Richards that he snorted his dad's ashes with ''a little bit of blow.''
But, as we learned with New Orleans, there are consequences to neglecting the infrastructure. Just a little over a year ago, a dam in Hawaii gave way, unleashing a wave 70 feet high and 200 yards wide. It swept away virtually everything in its path, including cars, houses and trees. Seven people drowned.
On the day after Christmas in Portland, Ore., a sinkhole opened up like something from a science fiction movie and swallowed a 25-ton sewer-repair truck. Authorities blamed the sinkhole on the collapse of aging underground pipes.
Blackouts, school buildings in advanced states of disrepair, decrepit highway and railroad bridges -- the American infrastructure is growing increasingly old and obsolete. In addition to being an invitation to tragedy, this is a problem that is putting Americans at a disadvantage in the ever more competitive global economy.
Felix Rohatyn, the investment banker who helped save New York City from bankruptcy in the 1970s, has been prominent among those trying to sound the infrastructure alarm. Along with former Senator Warren Rudman, he has been criticizing the government's unwillingness to invest adequately in public transportation systems, water projects, dams, schools, the electrical grid, and so on.
He recently told a House committee that Congress should begin a major effort to rebuild the American infrastructure ''before it is too late.''
''Since the beginning of the republic,'' he said, ''transportation, infrastructure and education have played a central role in advancing the American economy, whether it was the canals in upstate New York, or the railroads that linked our heartland to our industrial centers; whether it was the opening of education to average Americans by land grant colleges and the G.I. bill, making education basic to American life; or whether it was the interstate highway system that ultimately connected all regions of the nation.
''This did not happen by chance, but was the result of major investments financed by the federal and state governments over the last century and a half. We need to make similar investments now.''
Politics and ideology are the main reasons that government has turned away from public investment over the past several years. Zealots marching under the banner of small government have been remarkably effective in thwarting efforts to raise taxes or borrow substantial sums for the kind of public investment that has always been essential to a dynamic economy.
That this is counterproductive in a post-20th-century world should be as obvious as the sun rising in the morning. There is a reason why countries like China and India are racing like mad to develop their infrastructure and educational capacity.
''A modern economy needs a modern platform, and that's the infrastructure,'' Mr. Rohatyn said in an interview. ''It has been shown that the productivity of an economy is related to the quality of its infrastructure. For example, if you don't have enough schools to teach your kids, or your kids are taught in schools that have holes in the ceilings, that are dilapidated, they're not going to be as educated and as competitive in a world economy as they need to be.''
Mr. Rohatyn and Mr. Rudman are co-chairmen of the Commission on Public Infrastructure at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. They believe that failing to move quickly to address the nation's infrastructure needs -- through the establishment of a national trust fund, for example, or a federal capital budget -- could lead to long-term disaster.
But words like trust fund and long-term and infrastructure find it very difficult to elbow their way into the nation's consciousness. We may have to wait for another New Orleans before beginning to take this seriously.
The reason there are 'few' injuries where people have 'ridden' WITH their cars in the fall, is because they were falling at the same rate and in the same direction of the car. Where people were NOT 'trapped' under concrete or metal they will walk away unharmed.
Imagine being in a ferris wheel at a carnival. What keeps a person in the seat as the 'basket' they are riding in goes round and round and up and down? That same principle applies to seat beats and the 'idea' of maintaining people's safety turning turbulent movement.
So, what occurred and not to make light of the seriousness of the impact to all people as they will 'feel' the fall, sometimes three stories, over time; they won't immediately experience serious injury because they were wearing seat belts and fell at the same rate/speed/velocity and direction as their vehicle.
The Governor of Minnesota needs to declare a state of emergency and deploy the Minnesota National Guard to assist in the recovery. That's my opinion. Actually, I think 'The Guard' should have been deployed as soon as it occurred. There is no way a local or county emergency department can handle this. There just isn't. This is catatrophic.
April 5, 2007
Our Crumbling Foundation
By BOB HERBERT
Fifty-nine years ago this week -- on April 3, 1948 -- President Truman signed the legislation establishing the Marshall Plan, which contributed so much to the rebuilding of postwar Europe. Now, more than half a century later, the U.S. can't even rebuild New Orleans.
It doesn't seem able to build much of anything, really. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the U.S. infrastructure is in sad shape, and it would take more than a trillion and a half dollars over a five-year period to bring it back to a reasonably adequate condition.
If there's a less sexy story floating around, I can't find it. It certainly can't compete with the Sanjaya Malakar saga, or with the claim by Keith Richards that he snorted his dad's ashes with ''a little bit of blow.''
But, as we learned with New Orleans, there are consequences to neglecting the infrastructure. Just a little over a year ago, a dam in Hawaii gave way, unleashing a wave 70 feet high and 200 yards wide. It swept away virtually everything in its path, including cars, houses and trees. Seven people drowned.
On the day after Christmas in Portland, Ore., a sinkhole opened up like something from a science fiction movie and swallowed a 25-ton sewer-repair truck. Authorities blamed the sinkhole on the collapse of aging underground pipes.
Blackouts, school buildings in advanced states of disrepair, decrepit highway and railroad bridges -- the American infrastructure is growing increasingly old and obsolete. In addition to being an invitation to tragedy, this is a problem that is putting Americans at a disadvantage in the ever more competitive global economy.
Felix Rohatyn, the investment banker who helped save New York City from bankruptcy in the 1970s, has been prominent among those trying to sound the infrastructure alarm. Along with former Senator Warren Rudman, he has been criticizing the government's unwillingness to invest adequately in public transportation systems, water projects, dams, schools, the electrical grid, and so on.
He recently told a House committee that Congress should begin a major effort to rebuild the American infrastructure ''before it is too late.''
''Since the beginning of the republic,'' he said, ''transportation, infrastructure and education have played a central role in advancing the American economy, whether it was the canals in upstate New York, or the railroads that linked our heartland to our industrial centers; whether it was the opening of education to average Americans by land grant colleges and the G.I. bill, making education basic to American life; or whether it was the interstate highway system that ultimately connected all regions of the nation.
''This did not happen by chance, but was the result of major investments financed by the federal and state governments over the last century and a half. We need to make similar investments now.''
Politics and ideology are the main reasons that government has turned away from public investment over the past several years. Zealots marching under the banner of small government have been remarkably effective in thwarting efforts to raise taxes or borrow substantial sums for the kind of public investment that has always been essential to a dynamic economy.
That this is counterproductive in a post-20th-century world should be as obvious as the sun rising in the morning. There is a reason why countries like China and India are racing like mad to develop their infrastructure and educational capacity.
''A modern economy needs a modern platform, and that's the infrastructure,'' Mr. Rohatyn said in an interview. ''It has been shown that the productivity of an economy is related to the quality of its infrastructure. For example, if you don't have enough schools to teach your kids, or your kids are taught in schools that have holes in the ceilings, that are dilapidated, they're not going to be as educated and as competitive in a world economy as they need to be.''
Mr. Rohatyn and Mr. Rudman are co-chairmen of the Commission on Public Infrastructure at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. They believe that failing to move quickly to address the nation's infrastructure needs -- through the establishment of a national trust fund, for example, or a federal capital budget -- could lead to long-term disaster.
But words like trust fund and long-term and infrastructure find it very difficult to elbow their way into the nation's consciousness. We may have to wait for another New Orleans before beginning to take this seriously.
It's my concern. There has been deluges of rain all along the Mississippi/Red River river system.
I realize the crytalline rock is stable but it is also erosive. There is also sedimentary rock that could have eroded.
There is an important witness. A young girl on the bus stated the 'bus' first went 'up' before it plummeted. That would have been a 'see-saw' effect. In other words the section opposite the school bus would have collapsed first. With the breaking of the structure of the joint where the bus was, there was nothing to prevent it from plummeting down into the river after the initial structure failure.
The bridge would have collapsed 'first' opposite the bus location. If that was the first location of the collapse it could be the riverbed or banks that would have undermined the integrity of the bridge structure.
There are geological integrity issues that the Army Corp could be called on to validate. There are currently mudslides in New Mexico as well due to flooding of the Red River.
Rescuers Search for Minn. Sewer Workers (click here)
Friday July 27, 2007 10:16 PM
By AMY FORLITI
Associated Press Writer
ST. PAUL (AP) - Searchers in boats continued looking Friday for two workers who were feared dead after getting caught by a surge of water in the underground sewer system here and possibly swept into the Mississippi River....
...Kasper said Lametti and Sons, the contractor that employed the two men, had a good reputation for safety. ``It was a fluke thing,'' he said.
According the National Weather Service, nearly a half-inch of rain fell in St. Paul in about 30 minutes.
In neighboring Minneapolis, 16 children and adults were pitched into the water when five sailboats capsized on two city lakes. Authorities said the boaters got to shore safely.
High winds and hail damaged crops, trees, homes and vehicles in the Twin Cities area, authorities said....
I hope this perspective is helpful to all the possibilities. Good luck to all the rescue and recovery efforts. Sympathies to the family of those lost.
Good night.
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