Boy I hate to say this... But Tweety is making sense...

[WCGreen]

He says the democrats should go into the republican districts and show the crumbling of the American Infrastructure on a bridge by bridge, highway by highway, damn by damn basis...

Brilliant.

Don't talk about it, show the people what is wrong and demand that their Representative do something about it...

Ellison, who is a feisty fellow, still had no stomach for making infrastructure repairs into a partisan issue...

Wanna a bet the GOP will be doing this soon.

They know how to fight.

We no how to spout beautiful but meaningless rhetoric.

Soar to heights on the winsome words while the guy that talks normal cleans your clock.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Now, THERE'S an idea I can get behind.

We should have been doing this long since.

People need to see how these damn Republican ideas (not fixing the infrastructure, for instance) can really wreak havoc with their lives...

Recommended.

[Ruby the Liberal]

11. He's been on that rant for a while now. The Chris Matthews Jobs Plan

I love it.

1. Work with local dem leadership in each district
2. Get with the city planner/engineer and find out which bridges are not up to code.
3. Pinpoint them on a map
4. Drive to them and take pictures
5. Put the map + pictures in the local media (TV and print)
6. Demand something be done, and let your (R) reps stand up and explain why they refuse to do anything about it.

Hook is that people will see this, realize their kid crosses that bridge 10x a week in a bus and demand action.

Go Tweety!

[Maraya1969]

27. We can easily do this ourselves by calling our reps about broken down

roads and bridges around each of our respective areas. Will they just continue to ignore the problem?

[kentuck]

2. I wish Tweety was advising the President....

He could help him.

[WCGreen]

5. It pisses me off that so many of these new democrats forget about

how we got to be the party of the people for decades...

Constituent assistance and jobs in the district.

[Armstead]

6. Ellison is not a new Democrat -- He's a progressive

[WCGreen]

21. New I mean as elected after 1996...

I should have made that distinction.

[Angry Dragon]

8. Only if the President listens

[Ruby the Liberal]

13. How far we have fallen

Could you imagine just 3 years ago, holding Tweety up as the voice of economic reason who should have an office in the WH?

[Oceansaway]

3. k & r..nt

[malaise]

4. Yes he's right on this issue

I don't know what's wrong with Democrats these days.

[hifiguy]

7. Tweety has been pounding that idea all week

and it is a really fine bit of political thinking. He must be on his meds recently or has finally figured out how batshit insane the Repigs really are because he has been taking it to them.

I am disappointed that my otherwise estimable congressman doesn't want to make this a partisan fight. It is one Democrats can win.

[Armstead]

9. You're right. Tweety is right. And Ellison agreed with him.

[liberal N proud]

10. The Democrats also need to make infrastructure a National Security issue

The GOPers don't like to sound like they are against National Security.

We need the highways, railways and airports to protect the citizens of this country.

[proud patriot]

12. yes Yes YES

[mzmolly]

14. He's been saying that all week, and I agree with you.

It's a great idea. :toast:

[Ilsa]

15. And two nights ago Rachel Maddow was stamping "Approved!" on

facsimiles of M. Bachmann's Congressional requests for infrastructure job projects. Rachel was saying how MB was right to request the stimulus funds for infrastructure.

[nenagh]

16. DU friends...

Could the wonderful photography section if DU... who are so talented..

Take this on as a project..

Photograph the crumbling infrastructure in their area.. & document where the photos were taken..

The photographers of DU are so superb.. their photos could really accentuate the structural breakdown of the infrastructure..

Just an idea.. :)

[CaliforniaPeggy]

18. Post your idea in the Photo group...

It's a great idea!

:hi:

[ashling]

17. I'll try this again

The other day I started a thread trying to get people to start naming infrastructure needs (prospective infrastructure/jobs projects) in their regions and communities. Name specific bridges, schools, water treatment facilities, water distribution systems, etc. that are at risk or in need of repair/upgrade. I encouraged LTTEs, letters to Congresspeople, etc. to get this thing rolling.

I got nothing.

So I am asking again. I think that we need to flood specific info. on this sort of thing into the press rather than waiting for someone else to do it.

[City Lights]

19. I'm wondering why the Democrats can't come up with stuff like this on their own.

It's so easy. So obvious. So effective.

[WCGreen]

20. I want to apologize for the typo's in the OP...

I am using Mrs. WC Green's computer while mine is in the shop. I'm not all that comfortable with the "pad" instead of the mouse and don't get me started.

Anyway, I had to post and fly because she needed to use HER computer for something SHE to do on HER computer.

She's a sweetheart and I am grateful she let me use her computer...

[LuvNewcastle]

22. I suspect that won't work and here's why:

Republican districts have been getting improvements all along. Reps and Senators from the South, for instance, are some of the longest-serving members of Congress and they're overwhelmingly Repub. They have positions on the most important committees and get what ever they want in appropriations bills. Mississippi received huge amounts of money after Katrina; much money was needed, of course, but the spending went far beyond helping with costs from the storm damage. MS still gets money for projects all the time.

If you need improvements in your Democratic district, you need to get your Rep./Sen. on it now. The Republican plan is to wait until the infrastructure begins to crumble and then say, "See! The government can't do anything right." If you need improvements in your area and you want to get it done with government workers paying living wages, you'd better start fighting for it now before the contract gets awarded to some politician's brother-in-law who pays $9 per hour. At least, that's how they do it down South.

[eridani]

23. Stopped clocks n/t

[csziggy]

24. It would easy, too - there were lists of projects proposed for the Stimulus

I know our area had a list of the projects proposed for using stimulus bill money:
http://www.leoncountyfl.gov/Admin/PIO/pdf/2-24-09_Final_Project_Descriptions.pdf

I am not sure how many were completed or even started.

Every community probably came up with projects that needed doing. We could check on those and see if all got addresses. The way some of the Republican politicians were turning away stimulus money, I bet some did not. And THOSE are the areas that most need to be done the way Chris Matthews has been proposing.

This is an easy thing for us DUers to do, even those of us who are house bound - find those stimulus project lists (I Googled my county and "stimulus projects") and see if all them have been finished. Send the list of those not completed to Obama and to our Congress critters. Demand that they get done, not only so jobs are created but to rebuild our infrastructure for the future.

[Cleita]

25. Tweety is actually going left again after his

big romance with the Bushes. He really didn't like the Clintons. I used to read Tweety's OP eds in the SF Chronicle so many years ago and he was liberal then. I really liked his writing back then. When he got his TV show he became an ass. I watched him for a long time hoping I would see a glimmer of the Tweety of those SFChr. Op eds. I stopped watching until recently. He's turning back, but I don't trust him, although he does have a lot of inside DC information.

[dkf]

26. It's strange to me that the locals let things deteriorate so badly and wait for the Feds to do

Something.

Why is there never local activism? Shouldn't this be the type of thing that you CAN raise taxes for since people see the results?

[WCGreen]

30. The reason for that is because the federal government has jurisdiction

on certain project, the state and the local governments are also so constrained...

[Hosnon]

28. I like Tweety. nt.

[CrispyQ]

29. Get that guy from "America's Inspector" or whatever that show was called.

He's a little brusque, but he gets right in there & pokes at the decaying structures pointing out exactly what the structure supports. I've seen a couple of his shows & it is alarming that our federal government is ignoring the decay of our infrastructure.