Slog

As a Michigander, I'm pretty sure that picture isn't of the Ambassador Bridge. It looks like the Mackinac Bridge, to me, which connects our Lower Peninsula to our Upper Peninsula. However, depending on which side you live on, we do think of that bridge as a bridge to nowhere. :)

As a Michigander, I'm pretty sure that is a picture of the Mackinac Bridge, which connects the Lower Peninsula to the Upper Peninsula. Depending on which side you live on, I suppose that too could be seen as a bridge to no where. ;)

Also, it isn't entirely true that there is "utterly no backup" to the Ambassador Bridge, as there is a tunnel to Windsor as well. Though it could not handle the sort of traffic that the Ambassador Bridge handles. Also, the Blue Water Bridge between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia isn't that far away.

alan, i corrected the image.

Good eye, Michigander.
The bridge & more info:
http://en.wikipedia.or/wiki/Ambassador_Bridge
I remember crossing into Windsor when I was in high school. It had the regular customs stop at each side. I hope it has improved since the late 80's. But, I doesn't sound like it! Maybe Mr. Moroun's background needs to be checked for any terrorist connections...? Why is he white-knuckling the bridge, even into his 80s? Does he make loads of money a minute or does he love the power?

Is there a better metaphor for the American manifestation of free-market capitalism than a privately owned bridge linking two economies, with no alternate route? Fuck terrorism, that's the worst monopoly ever.

Why are there are privately owned bridges in public locations?

Blech. Poor Michigan--especially Detroit. Our time there (in the bubble of Ann Arbor) was lovely for the most part--until our fellow residents started passing constitutional amendments against gays and blacks. Michigan is well on its way to becoming a low-tax/low-service state like Mississippi or Alabama. And with the help of people like this Matty Moroun, Michigan's race to bottom accelerates.

More inchoate ramblings.

News flash:

the world has risks.

it has risks if you have a capitalist system. If you have a communist system. If you have well regulated social democary type capitalism. If you have not so well regulated capitalism (what we have in the USA) with all kinds of private scams like this bridge monop0oly which one private dude has figured out to keep via special interest lobbying.

So Charles, what do you propose to do about it?

Distribute machine guns to enact a commie system?

Campaign finance reform?

Ensure lobbysists only can give freef ood if the legislators stand up versus dist down -- Sen. Obama's huge reform?

Why don't you write some more factual reporting on how this bridge monopoly needs to be broekn up via competition instead of making a ludicrous analogy to the meltdown of Fannie Mae and Freddie MAc where, it seems, management lied about their capital base?

The notion that "they both have risk, so they are connected" is trite. It tells us nothing about what to do. Is the lesson to have public ownership fo all housing?

No housing loans?

Better regulation?

Sending Fannie Mae execs to jail?

I guess it's more fun to just spout off.

Meanwhile if you don't like monopolies then you should get behind the natural gas pipeline as this helps gas compete with oil.

Right?

Or a massive infrastructure plan -- if Obama has one, it's sure being kept secret -- that would include bridges, tunnels, rail, broad band, and so on.

We eagerly await the next random problem that pops into your mind and the connection to the Fanne/Freddie bailout.

How about the lack of investment in public schools? Not enuf light rail in Seattle? The public "bailout" (literal) of NOLA-in-a-bowl?

Guaranteed student loans oh my god that's the government socializing risk again -- this proves capitalism is going to die!!!!!

It's the same as the thought. Of it. It is the end. The end is the failure to materialize the flesh and bone and muscle of labor. The flesh and bone incorporated into the Windsor Bridge. And Palin is a nazi. She appropriates the actual labor of work in memes about caribou and mooses and sno"machines". This is all tied to globalization. Sea routes across the Arctic. The polar bears are the materialization of the nonrealization of flesh and bones of physical labor.

Marx. Kant.
Cant. Rant.
Red fish. Blue fish.
Box on Knox on blocks on Fox.

What-ever.

does the article ever acknowledge that there is also a tunnel connecting detroit and windsor?

(I see that the same picture of the Mighty Mac, originally included in this post, has been mislabeled as the Ambassador Bridge on the epa.gov website, BTW.)

Anyway, no, things have not improved much at the Ambassador Bridge (or at the Blue Water Bridge, or at the Windsor Tunnel.) Car traffic takes forever, and semis are lined up for miles and miles on both sides to cross.

The debate about building a new bridge gets tossed around in Michigan about every 10 years or so, always with the same results: nothing. How this one guy seems to do such a good job at controlling the MI Legislature is a mystery to me.

Given the Michigan economy right now, (Highest unemployment in the country. Yay! We're #1!) it seems unlikely anything will be done in the near future either. Even the "bridge to nowhere" was supposed to utilize some Alaskan state funding.

(Oh, I forgot that there's also a train tunnel from Detroit to Windsor as well, and I believe there's one between Port Huron and Sarnia, so the Ambassador Bridge is definitely not without "utterly no backup", but it's closure would still be a big fat hairy deal.)

OK.

Slog loves to report it whenthe Gallup Daily Tracking Poll shows Obama ahead by 8 points.

Woo-hoo, gulp gulp gulp.

but then when he loses four points they don't report it.

then he lost two more and they didn't report it.

Now he's lost five poitns in ONE DAY and McCain is THREE POINTS AHEAD and Slog doesn't report it.

RCP Average 08/29 - 09/06 -- 46.0 45.2 Obama +0.8
Gallup Tracking 09/04 - 09/06 2765 RV 45 48 McCain +3
Rasmussen Tracking 09/04 - 09/06 3000 LV 48 48 Tie
Hotline/FD 09/02 - 09/04 916 RV 46 40 Obama +6
CBS News 09/01 - 09/03 734 RV 42 42 Tie
CNN 08/29 - 08/31 927 RV 49 48 Obama +1

So now Obama has a 0.8 point lead in the rcp averages.

And soccer is more important it seems.

The campaign is on a downward trend for several weeks starting with Germany, the week long vacation in HAwaii, the choice of boring dull 30 years in DC Biden (opening the flank to the McCain is a maverick look I picked a woman attack)
and Obama's totally inarticulate attempts to hone an economic message.

Quick everyone:

what's the message, in 15 words or less?

"Change you can believe in"= not economic.
"You can't just make this stuff up" = not economic.
"Palin is for pork" = eh, kind of drifting to something economic.....inarticulately....

What we are witnessing is not the merger of a monopoly Ambassador bridge with the bailout of Fannie Mae in some kind of Marxian mumbo jumbo....what we are witnessing is a steady, steady downward trend in this election in which Obama's general 3-6 point lead for many months is now GONE.

Oh well who gives a shit let's wwatch soccer players and attack messengers for being trolls and put our heads in the sand cuz we got a great big straw down there that let's us go

gulp gulp gulp gulp gulp gulp gulp...do not look at those polls....gulp gulp gulp ....do not look at McCain stealing change....gulp gulp gupl ....do not look at McCain being maverick picking a woman....gulp gulp gulp...wow that 30 veteran Biden is so cool, do you know he takes the train every day, what a solid, wise choice adding experience and all....gulp gulp gulp....

WTF? The government can seize a house in emminent domain for a business but can't squeeze an essential bridge? Come on, neocons. Flex and grab it!

How do the state-by-state polls look, PC? Oh, right. Thanks so much for your concern.

For PC:
"What matters is who wins the greatest number of electoral college votes. Each state is assigned a number of electoral college votes - roughly consistent with the population in the state - and it is winner take all in each state election, with 270 electoral college votes needed to win. And this is where John McCain and the Republicans are in trouble.

Rather than the national polls, what matters are the trends in each of the states: ie, an average of all the polls taken over a period of time. If these are examined, Obama has about 260 which look fairly strong while McCain has 176. The Democrats also have 46 which are "lean", ie, they are marginal at the moment but could be carried in the election. McCain has 64 which look "lean". (pollster.com).

If all of these "lean" states went McCain's way, he would still come up short - whereas Obama needs only 10 of these states to win.

Then there are about 102 that look "toss-ups": states like Nevada, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, New Hampshire and even Florida. If there was a swing to the Democrats on November 4, then these states would easily give the election to Obama."

Bidenis on TV. He's against federal funding for abortions and he refused to attack Lieberman, saying "look Liebermanis a good friend of mine...his kids were at my kids' wedding," etc.

I highly doubt Palin would refuse to attack a GOP member who spoke at a D convention saying the GOP choice was unqualified.

Is there no hardball in these Dems?.

This post worked way better with the first image. That bridge looked creepy, cold and long over dark water.

@15,

Wow, they're all putting their mukluks on in Hell: PC has raised its first valid point.

Mr. X, i'm with you on that one. valid and in less than 100 words.

We must remember that Obama's positive demeanor is intended to sway the kind of people who avoid politics altogether because they find it to be a nasty and hopeless business. I don't think we'll have any idea whether this strategy is effective until election night, because I suspect this kind of person also tends to hang up on political polls.

You people disgust me.

One reason Democrats often don't come out swinging with the cheap character attacks as effectively as Republicans do is that it isn't to their benefit -- it cuts across the message of being more effective and responsible in public policy. The GOP concentrates on character attacks because they need to avoid discussing policy, on which their record speaks for itself. The Republican appeal is well-crafted to allow for the lowest common denominator approach -- all they need to get across in this election is "the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know," i.e. sure our guy is going to continue fucking you over just like we're doing right now, but at least you know what to expect. The other guy might fuck you over in some new way that you're not used to yet!

If Obama starts coming off overtly negative and goes on the attack he risks seeming scary to people, and Fear plays to his opponent's strategy. Thus, the relentless message of "hope" and "change." He must promise change while reassuring voters that they won't be forced to pay any kind of price for change. And he can't afford to appear angry.

So can we all agree all transportation infrastructure components and investments are not all good - or even equally good - from a community-wide perspective?

And does it not follow from that precept that community-wide costs for proposed new transportation infrastructure investments, and the manner of paying said costs, MUST be carefully evaluated by a public that gets to vote on whether to give some politicians the green light to start spending public money with utter abandon?

Just sayin' . . . .

Maybe I am just not getting it, but why is it obvious that a government-owned bridge is preferable to a privately-owned bridge? It sounds like the bridge has been run well for decades and serves the public well.

And why is it somehow horrible for the bridge owner to try to prevent taxpayer-funded competition against his business?

I thought this was about the deflated downriver region of Michigan?

You guys wouldn't know the difference between Fort and Ford if it were tattooed on your arm! HAHAHAROFLLMA I got nothin'.

In other words, Republicans need to depress voter turnout and Democrats need to increase it. Being the more popular party and all.

Nasty people like Susan Hudgens here serve the Republicans well in this regard, poisoning the well with their daily swill.

@21, I agree with you that Obama would be risking a lot to appear angry, but can we agree that really sucks? There's a lot to swiftboat McCain and Palin for, and our failure to do so may lose the election. Biden can afford to appear angry, so why the hell is he being such a doormat? I thought that's why he was picked, cuz he was going to be such a great attack dog. Instead I have to hear everyone start a sentence with "now I understand McCain is a great man and a war hero, and I respect him very much." Arrrrrghhh! Stop that! Just stop it!

I'm all for seeing that people's bank accounts don't become valueless.

However, I don't see why this has to involve propping up the same people who created the problems in the first place.

Why are there are privately owned bridges in public locations?

1. Hey, a free bridge!
2. Much harder to get two separate countries to agree how to build something and who's going to pay for what, than for one company to work with two separate countries to site the bridge, with little expenditure on their part.

Gallup today:

-before the two conventions, "The presidential race was dead even at 45% to 45% among registered voters."

--then "Obama reached a point where he had 50% of the vote and an eight percentage point lead."

-now "Obama's lead has ... disappeared totally, and McCain sits on a 4-point advantage."

OK a shift of 12 points in a few days. Do not worry. Attack the messenger. Polls are meaningless (except when they show Obama 8 points ahead, then they are meaningful enough to make into a Slog story). Nothing is happening. We don't need a better message, we don't need to focus volunteers any differently than we are doing already, there will be a magical turnout bump due to the ground game. Obama should keep on engaging Palin directly, for sure. Everything is hunky dory, maybe today we will get Slog stories on soccer and bridges to Canada again.

And more:

--Chuck Todd on MSNBC advised Obama to tour with Clinton to raise her profile so she can more effectively take back those Walmart women (who will feel like MS media is attacking Palin just for working and having kids -- like a very snotty WSJ editorial today).

--When challenged that Palin hired a lobbyist and asked for earmarks, the McCain campaign dude said every mayor does it, and ***Obama backed a million in earmarks including one for his wife's hospital.***

Wow. I don't know if this is true. If it is false -- we should be trumpeting this to the high heavens.

But if it's true we should shut the fuck up attacking Palin on earmarks as it's worse to ask for earmark for your wife's hospital where she is getting ~$250K a year in a new job after you became a politician.

Tind would $mack of old style politics k(the old $cratchiscupeus dorsalis meum, $cratchiscipo dorsalis tuem game) and kind of undermine the whole premise of change.

Maybe some reporters out there could report some facts on this.

This sounds like a very good time to say, "Fuck you, private bridge owner, we're building another one a mile down. If you don't like it, too bad."

Please. How many American billionaires live in Michigan or Ontario? Probably as many or less than lived in New Orleans.

Oh, and Michigan has lots of them evil dangerous Muslims, too.

I was born & raised in Windsor Ontario.

It's not true that there isn't an alternative - and I'm not talking about the downtown to downtown tunnel which couldn't handle freight traffic.

It's an hour north in Sarnia/Port Huron where they did indeed build a second bridge (in addition to the train tunnel) as well as freeway bypasses which keep goods flowing from Toronto to Chicago

Windsor & downtown Detroit is dead/dying - I see no point investing more money there - it's a dead end.