
My "yearrrrghhh!" of the day:
Q [Ken Herman, Cox News Service]: Quick follow-up. A lot of the consequences you mentioned for pulling out seem like maybe they never would have been there if we hadn't gone in. How do you square all of that?Relations? Relations?! Like these kind of relations?
THE PRESIDENT: I square it because, imagine a world in which you had Saddam Hussein who had the capacity to make a weapon of mass destruction, who was paying suiciders to kill innocent life, who would -- who had relations with Zarqawi.
.Sorry, Mr. President, I clearly interrupted you mid-answer. You were saying?
“Here we had targets, we had opportunities, we had a country willing to support casualties, or risk casualties after 9/11 and we still didn’t do it,” said Michael O’Hanlon, military analyst with the Brookings Institution.
Four months later [Fall 2002], intelligence showed Zarqawi was planning to use ricin in terrorist attacks in Europe. The Pentagon drew up a second strike plan, and the White House again killed it. By then the administration had set its course for war with Iraq.
[...].
[PRESIDENT]: And so my question -- my answer to [Ken Herman's] question is, is that, imagine a world in which Saddam Hussein was there, stirring up even more trouble in a part of the world that had so much resentment and so much hatred that people came and killed 3,000 of our citizens.No sir. You most definitely have not. But you definitely had some kinda "relations" with us..
(H/t to Dan Froomkin for isolating the "yearghh" quotes from Monday's briefing; Screenshot of the South Park Movie Saddam inflagrante w/devil courtesy of these guys)
Links to this post:
Create a LinkFor me (I had the same jump in pay), I'm single, no kids, and wanted to stop helping rich fucks get richer so they can lobby to defund all the things that help our society progress so they stay in power. Education is the biggest root of our issues in the US (Trumps election was the big turning point for me), and I wanted to do the most possible to change it. I work at low-income school getting paid 30k/yr and I have a BS in CS, a BBA, and an MS in CS. In my opinion, I can do much more for these people helping educate them and build empathy than building any sort of application/software/AI (my dissertation was on Reinforcement Learning in humanoid robots and attempts at "Embodied Learning" to teach robots in a manner fundamentally similar to how we learn as babies)Well it looks like a certain anti-transit guy has crawled out from under the rock he has been under for awhile.
Of course his like usually use gross generalizations to try to make his point. Of course he mentions all trips along Interstate 15 but that includes both private and commercial vehicles plus vehicles traveling through the area.
What they don't say and never will is the percentage of traffic that rail is capturing in the corridor it specifically runs.
Also the highways are already an large integrated network, that rail has yet to achieve.
Talking about cities around the world that are using congestion pricing. The New York Legislature killed congestion pricing for New York City but other cities are using it or proposing it.
Photos of the BRT line in Eugene, Oregon. Eugene has been used as an example of a successful BRT system (even though it only recently started-it was successful a year before it was running!!). Little hard to compare the new service to existing bus service when the regular bus service required fare payment but the BRT line is Fare Free.
Steve makes some good points on the arguments people make for having free parking at the park N ride lots. What would be the result if UTA started charging at TRAX stations or the Park N Ride Lots?
In 2002 Miami voted to increase taxes to get an increase in transit service and two extensions of their Metro Rail System. Now bus service is proposed to be cut and there has been little to no progress on the extensions of MetroRail. Compare that to our area where we have seen some great progress in just a short amount of time.
If Obama is elected will it be good news for Amtrak because Biden rides Amtrak?
taking place on Constitution Boulevard in preparation for the beginning of TRAX construction.
Traffic Impacts: Current impacts to motorists should be minimal at this time; however, there will be minor lane restrictions as other utility companies work along Constitution Boulevard. As construction proceeds, we will personally visit with residents and businesses in this area to keep them informed.
Construction Activity: Off-road construction continues to take place along the south side of 3100 South just east of Constitution Boulevard. Crews have torn down seven homes along the south side of 3100 South to make room for TRAX construction. Currently third party utility companies are working in this area.
Construction Activity: TRAX construction continues to take place on Decker Lake Drive.
Crews in this area continue to install sewer lines and other utilities on the west side of Decker Lake Drive. As crews complete the preliminary utility work on the west side of the street, they will then switch to the east side of the street. It is anticipated that crews will switch from the west to the east side of Decker Lake Drive by mid-September. Utility work along Decker Lake Drive is anticipated to take place throughout the next several months.
Traffic Impacts: One lane of traffic is operational in each direction on the west side of Decker Lake Drive and access to businesses is maintained. On August 28 and September 4 and 5 nighttime construction work will take place along Decker Lake Drive between Research Way (2270 S.) and 3100 S. between the hours of 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. Please be mindful of workers in this area and obey posted speed limits. Currently, all lanes of traffic are operational on Research Way at 2770 South.
Traffic Impacts: Motorists should be aware that Lester Street is temporarily closed at approximately 2770 South and the Crosstowne Trail. It is anticipated to open near the end of August.
Construction Activity: Construction crews continue to pothole and install utilities in this reach.
Construction Activity: Crews have removed the old track along Andy Avenue and have started potholing for utilities in this area. We will continue to update businesses along 600 West regarding construction in this area.
Reach 1 – Third party utility relocations are taking place on Constitution Boulevard prior to TRAX construction.
Drive. Access is being maintained in this area.
Reach 4- Crews have started concrete reinforcements beginning at Redwood Road and are heading East on the Crosstowne Trail. The Crosstowne Trail is currently closed in this reach but will once again open when TRAX begins operations.
Reach 6- Crews Continue to pothole and install utilities in this area extending through South Salt Lake.
If you have further questions not answered by this report or any comments regarding the project, please contact toll-free 24-hour hotline at (888) 800-8854 or e-mail csaley@rideuta.com or thope@rideuta.com. You can also visit UTA’s Web site at www.rideuta.com.
Just a reminder that UTA will run Sunday schedules on Labor Day.
TRAX and buses run their Sunday schedules while Front Runner does not run.
For those who are interested in the BYU Football shuttles, here is the information from UTA.
Following is a list of BYU home games, times they begin and the price that will be charged to ride the BYU Football Shuttle from the two locations in Utah County.
Image via Wikipedia Previously, I have discussed how we can take currently auto centric areas that are not working such as 4500 South and State Street and turn them into a more pedestrian and transit friendly area. Not only would this make the area more pleasing but it would also help boost bus ridership giving people the opportunity to live near the transit lines.
Now, I want to take a little closer look at this proposal using this same area. There is already construction on TOD near the Murray North TRAX station so lets walk across the street and see what we can do.
Since the new Deseret Industries building has already been built and is pretty auto centric, we will look at the couple of blocks north of 4500 South.
First of all you would need to rebuild a few blocks of Main Street that are not very pedestrian friendly. With the construction of the new developments by the TRAX station, this will increase the need for a more pedestrian friendly environment.
Then you will need to design the housing. If you look at the successful old cities compared to what we have now with suburban cookie cutter developments, you will notice that there is a range of prices. This has worked well in Daybreak were there is everything from Condos all the way up to expensive homes all located in the same area. In other words there is no economic segregation that creates walls between people.
I have also discussed the need to have affordable units so that people who need transit can access it easily. As part of having affordable housing is the need for work/live units. While these are going to be part of the Cottonwood Mall development, these of course will out of the price range we are talking about. As I have mentioned many times when new developments are built smaller locally owned businesses are usually the first to get the boot. By building affordable work/live units, this will give people new opportunities to have their own businesses and control their own dest