It was a busy evenng. Major topics discussed during the “public” portion of the meeting were:
Homophobic parents are their biggest problem. One solution: their newest project is to provide taxpayer-funded homosexual-friendly homes for “gay” kids to live at, and persuading them to leave their parents' homes.
State funding they're seeking from the legislature in upcoming 2009 budget.
Plan and strategies for lobbying the legislature over the next several weeks, to get the funding they seek at a time of tight budgets.
Pro-homosexual “training” sessions for teachers in schools.
Learn more about Massachusetts agenda (This stuff is really disturbing and will soon merit an entire DarkPenguin Feature) from our friends at MassResistance HERE
“Big Dig” Another Colossal Failure
The saga of another overly ambitious and poorly conceived government scheme has fallen apart before our very eyes as the scandalous “Big Dig” in Boston crumbles after 18 years of construction and an expenditure of $14.7 billion.
Unfortunately typical of these huge expenditures of taxpayer money, the people were sold a bill of goods about how the “Big Dig” would solve Boston’s traffic problems. When the first cost estimates were prepared, the project would cost $2.5 billion. By 1991, the cost was hiked to $6 billion, then $7.5 billion, then $10 billion and eventually ballooned to $14.7 billion when the final numbers were tallied. Herein we have the classic government overrun of 500 percent and the project is falling apart at its very core. Are we not all very tired of the government wasting billions of tax dollars on failed defense contractors, NASA, FEMA, and their programs to solve poverty and the war on drugs?
The grand scheme envisioned far more than just the “Big Dig” to solve Boston’s congested highways. At its earliest stages, taxpayer watchdog groups accurately predicted the Central Artery Project (aka the “Big Dig”) would become a bottomless pit for tax dollars, and who cares how much it would cost because the federal government would pick up two-thirds of the tab, so its “not our tax dollars.” President Regan vetoed a highway bill in 1987 in part because he said the “Big Dig” couldn’t be justified. But that didn’t stop the vultures in Congress. They overrode his veto.
We’re not simply talking about just the 3-ton panels that fell and killed a woman a few weeks ago. Oh no, there are far more severe problems with the project. In 2004 a severe breach flooded 250 gallons a minute of water into the tunnel. Engineers have counted over 1,000 leaks sprouting from the walls and ceilings, which have greatly damaged the steel supports, as well as the fireproofing and drainage systems.
Inspectors have recently uncovered
thousands of additional ceiling defects in the I-90 tunnel system, dramatically expanding repairs needed to open highway segments
now expected to remain closed far longer than first imagined. An engineering review of the Interstate 90 tunnel network found that
steel ceiling brackets do not meet safety specifications in nearly 3,300 locations, a fourfold increase in defects since initial inspections.
But how could $14.7 billion be spent with so many problems? According to experts, the project was built with faulty bolts and inferior concrete. It sounds like Tony Soprano had a hand in the concrete delivery business.
Governor Mitt Romney described the ongoing bloat associated with maintenance of the tunnels, “What we have is a systemic failure of accountability as to how the money got spent. We have hundreds of people manning the turnpike tolls who make $60,000 to $80,000 a year, with some electricians earning $300,000 with overtime.” As one example of the government drunken sailor mentality, $23 million was spent on ramps spanning the Charles River, which had to be demolished because 1) they did not meet community approval, and 2) they went nowhere.
Who made piles of money from this little venture?
In a conference call yesterday afternoon, Sarkady and Connors said Newbury selectmen Chairman Vincent Russo has filed funding requests with U.S. Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, and Congressman John Tierney for three projects:
$3 million for studying and repairing the south jetty at the mouth of the Merrimack River.
$750,000 for dredging the Merrimack River channel, in addition to the $654,000 obtained by Tierney in an appropriation for the current fiscal year.
$500,000 to deposit the dredged sand directly onto the beach at Plum Island.
The money would cover the federal government's 65 percent share of the cost. The remaining 35 percent, about $300,000, would have to be borne by state and local funding sources. Sarkady and Connors said they will ask the state to sponsor the onshore deposit of dredged sand. As the sponsor, Connors said, the state could contribute up to $225,000, leaving a $75,000 local share.