This is not the first time weapons have gone missing in Iraq. This war is a mistake. The surge is an even bigger mistake. The surge has failed because it was supposed to give the Maliki government enough breathing room to make political concessions. Maliki has not done this instead the Iraqi parliament has gone on vacation while Americans continue to die in Iraq every day. This is a shameful record. Both Bush and Maliki have shown how truly incompetent they are.

Because there is a difference, a D- is different from a D, otherwise you wouldn’t have brought it up.
Even the website your link to, if you look at 2005, gives out D-’s in some areas, not just D’s.
For example, drinking water received a D-, which was a drop from a D in 2001.

If you built a bridge at D, the very first flaw or accident would destroy a very important and expensive public asset, and most likely kill people.
Well doesn’t that really depend on what the flaw is? Maybe when they chiseled a name into it, they misspelled it. That would be a flaw, but it won’t mean doing the bridge over again, or the deaths of anyone.

If you insist on using absolutes, please use correct absolutes. If a rating scale isn’t flat grading, (just A, B, C, D, F) which ASCE is not, but also uses +/- then an A+ is not an A which is not an A- etc, all the way down the line thru F-.

Sure it does, theres still a D- before you F(ail)

You’re wrong. Why do you insist on shaving the difference between D and D-? D is the last point on the line before failure. If you stand at D, there is nothing left. If you built a bridge at D, the very first flaw or accident would destroy a very important and expensive public asset, and most likely kill people.

D might be your standard of performance. It is not mine. It is not an acceptable standard of performance for any public works infrastructure.
Probably shouldn’t have the gov’t do anything then.

Comment by squegeeboo — August 6, 2007 @ 12:16 pm

D is also for Dead, after all.

A D leaves no margin for error, no factor of safety, no durability over time.

D might be your standard of performance. It is not mine. It is not an acceptable standard of performance for any public works infrastructure.

Comment by Matthew — August 6, 2007 @ 11:33 am

Matthew: Thanks for this!

Comment by veritas — August 6, 2007 @ 12:22 pm

My pleasure. It was a link that you posted some months ago, BTW, that led me on the path to this one, so thank you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgfzqulvhlQ

?

———

Sure.

Arlen Specter faking outrage and saying Bush needed to be investigated over warrantless wiretapping because it was illegal, and then not doing a f-king thing about it.

Same for Lindsey Graham.

And Sen. Pat Roberts saying he’d release Phase II of the investigation over intelligence used to go to war and how it was used by Bush, and doing everything in his power to stall.

And Bush saying we’d leave Iraq if the Iraqi government asked us to, and ignoring them when they do just that.

And Bush saying America wouldn’t be nation builders or world police.

And Bush saying he’d return honor and integrity to the WH, yet throwing up Executive Priviledge every time he doesn’t want any oversight of his administration, including the National Archives efforts at making sure that classified documents were being handled properly, and efforts to find out info about the Pat Tillman death (just what IS Bush trying to hide in this latter issue??).

And Rummy saying he knew where the WMDs were, then 3 years later lying about it and saying he didn’t say those words.

Heh.

And now a man with a tape recorder up his nose…..

———

Ummm, no. The suggestion is that a D is better than a D-… this is coming from Squeege, not Pete.

As for grading the condition of, among other things, our bridges, Pete is right. A “D” is unforgivable and unacceptable, whether it is a “-” or a “+.”

At least the Republicans do what you know they will do. Dems say one thing and do the opposite – ALL THE TIME. I don’t know how you can vote for them. You are better off voting for Green Party or other Independent candidates, yet you keep giving license to Dems, who, in the end, do exactly what Republicans would have done.

Comment by Pyrrho — August 6, 2007 @ 11:42 am

—————

Like Bush and Powell and Bartlett saying that we’d leave Iraq if the Iraqi gov’t asked us too, and not a care in the world about what would happen to the region after we leave.

Yet if a Democrat so much as whispers that we need to leave Iraq, oh hell no. Mass hysteria would ensue, and only the generals on the ground will determine when we can leave.

Hasn’t that been roughly standard for the past decade at least?

At this moment, 35% clearly makes this a force to contend with. The MSM would like these voters to go away but they will soon have to reckon with this growing number. In actuality, this number is now larger than the percentage of Registered Republicans so it can legitimately be said that the Republican Party is the “Third Party” right now.

Shafting the people and giving away our civil liberties is definitely NOT what we elected them to do and as far as I can see it, there’s no reason whatsoever for 41 democrats to have betrayed the trust of the people.

What this gang of 41 did over the weekend is reprehensible and capricious and definitely needs to not go unnoticed.

Architects and Engineers for 911 Truth is a growing organization. Here Richard Gage, a San Francisco Architect, lays out the case:

http://911blogger.com/node/10025

Comment by Matthew — August 6, 2007 @ 11:33 am

Matthew: Thanks for this!