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I could write for days about the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, the steam pipe bursting in Manhattan, crumbling schools, and the general failing of our national infrastructure. You will eventually say bleh and stop visiting.So I'm going to try to cover this in one post, as concisely as I can.*Contrary to right wing rhetoric that has become something of a national mantra, I believe that government has a role in funding and managing the common things we all use. Roads, schools, parks, bridges, hospitals, libraries, etc. I pay my taxes, understanding that they are membership dues, if you will, that we all must pay to live in a free, developed, thriving nation.I also believe that the policies our state and federal legislatures set, regarding both taxes and infrastructure development and maintenance are far more important issues to all of us than say, for example, legislation and policies directed at sex and personal behavior.Today a caller to C-SPAN's Washington Journal summed up exactly what's wrong with how our fellow citizens have saddled us with elected officials who run on so-called moral issues. Once elected, these hypocrites nibble around the edges of those mostly sex-obsessed issues to pacify their base voters. They also line their pockets and set themselves up for re-election through infusions of corporate money donations, traded for the privilege of allowing lobbyist to write legislation for them. When they've had enough, they arrange for their next gigs as lobbyists where they will become fatter, richer, meaner.When asked to answer the question "Which political party is better for our economy?" the caller, a Republican, noted that Democrats are "probably" better for the economy overall, especially for average Americans. The moderator questioned the caller, "Then why do you vote Republican?"The caller, without hesitation which might have conveyed some shame at her stupidity, piped up something along the lines of I'm a Christian and I vote on the moral issues and I thought that the Republicans better represented my views.....And here we sit, privatized, Christianized, politicized and crumbling. Sorry, had a Jesse Jackson moment there.I've been monitoring the coverage of the bridge collapse. Suddenly, the media has discovered that our nation's infrastructure is suffering from neglect. We've been treated to the shaved infrastructure of Paris, Lindsey and Brittany enough to make me wonder if there's something in California's water that prevents the growth of pubic hair, but rarely have we seen stories about the state of our roads, bridges and other common structures.Fair enough, public works does not a sexy story make. And I suppose it would be asking too much for our national attention to focus laser-beam-like on dirty, gritty topics like road construction and repair when TomKat might be pregnant again or some white woman is missing and feared dead.I won't shit you, when I sit in dreaded construction traffic on I-75, I curse the barrel barriers, the uneven pavement and the idiot drivers who can't figure out how to merge into reduced lanes. I moaned my way through the rebuilding of Chicago's Kennedy Expressway in the early 1990s. I've been known to point out that in Georgia , they must not be able to spell all the words needed to make a "Road Construction Ahead" sign.Nevertheless, and no matter how pissy I may be about it, road construction and repair is but one necessary pain in this modern life. Since I didn't even have the brains to look up on a fucking map how close or how far our community of choice would be from work when we immigrated from Illinois to Chicago, I've got a fat lot of nerve giving anyone the business about anything.Even with my seemingly inbred cognitive skills, I get that someone has to pay for the infrastructure. Like I tell the family regarding the neat and clean house they live in , the laundered clothes they wear and the food that is prepared and served...this shit doesn't happen by magic.So yes, I'm prepared to point the finger at those who've painted government as the problem. I blame those who claim that paying taxes is like being robbed and who declare with utter certainty that taxpayer dollars are mismanaged, without fail, by government. (I'm looking at you "libertarians" especially those for whom I work. You know who you are.)Up yours, Grover Norquist and the jacuzzi waders who want to shrink and strangle government in a bathtub.Fuck you, CATO Institute. Those Bush tax cuts that were enacted just as we entered this obscenely expensive war? How are they working out for the general economy?For all those "average Americans" who think that taxes are unnecessary, I ask you..........Who will fight your fires?.......Who will prevent and investigate crimes?.......Who will teach your children?.......How will you get around in your SUV without roads?Do you really think you can manage all that on your own? Look, I live next door to you, work for you, stand in line with you at the grocery store. Hey neighbor! You can't replace those broken mini blinds in your west-facing window. You there for whom I work! You can't find a fucking trash can to toss your left-over lunch into. You with the full grocery cart, walking obliviously through the parking lot! Your car is filthy and your trunk is literally overflowing with crap.Do you really think you can personally handle all those things we pay taxes for and take for granted?I just read this to The Honey who tells me it's a little scathing. Perhaps. I'm not aiming for nice. I hope that we'll see a real national debate on the necessity of investing in our country. In the next few days, we'll hear about infrastructure. We'll learn about shelved, dusty studies that predicted bridge trouble, and told the sad tale of structural deficiencies. We'll be pilloried by pundits who explain that states are responsible for their roads and bridges.The media is going to be more interested in the human interest stories, of course. Who lived, who died, who performed daring feats of rescue. Day two and there seems to be a need to know what the collapsing of the bridge sounded like......the kids on the bus will end up on Oprah, what do you want to bet?And then, before it all disappears like a puff of dust after the last piece of concrete disintegrated, we'll hear one or two peeps coming from people who will be labeled and dismissed as "far left." They will point out that this mess is part and parcel of bad government at the hands of Republicans. You know, those people who like to win elections so that they can be the government in a way that makes us all hate government.Finally, the story will cycle through. We'll be back to celebrity twats, tales from rehab, back-to-school local coverage, the September (yawn) non-report telling us of all the progress in Iraq and weather as news. The political media will again focus on the 2008 goat rodeo, as Tengrain puts it. But what will we want to know of our potential president (assuming the elections haven't been declared a national emergency by the Bushitas)? Obviously, we'll want to know what they plan to do about Iraq. We'll want to know if they have a reasonable plan for addressing international terrorism and the world's perception of the U.S. But will we be required to wrestle the elections from those whose ministers tell them that the most important values are those that address what those celebrities do with their twats? Or will we actually get to find out who, if any, understand that it's time to address the nation's common needs?Lay your bets, people, because I don't trust our fellow citizens or our media to understand the gravity of the situation.*Nevermind

Useful info from other dads,and it's New Zealand based!!