TheAgitator.com
Congress’ Monument to Itself Springs a Leak
Friday, June 5th, 2009In our March print issue, I wrote:
In the early 1990s, Congress got the idea that America needed an underground facility where tourists could escape D.C.’s sticky Augusts and biting Februaries while lining up to tour the Capitol. Estimated cost: $70 million.
In the 15 years since, the project has morphed into a sprawling, $621 million, three-story, ostentatious shrine to “the legislative process.” In other words, Congress built a tribute to itself. The new building, which opened in December (three years late and $300 million over the revised budget), includes a TV studio (with make-up room) for members to record messages to their constituents, a 450-seat dining area, two orientation theaters, an auditorium, and an exhibition hall.
Part of the delay and added cost came after September 11, where a plan to vamp up the facility’s security turned into a second round of add-on bells and whistles.
But there is one thing Congress apparently forgot to factor into its massive monument to itself: The possibility of rain.
The most appropriate monument to Congress would be a giant screw being drilled into the ass of a figure representing the nation.
To paraphrase P.J. O’Rourke: if you wrote this in a satire novel, you’d get drummed out of the Subtle Fiction Writer’s League.
That the facility will require frequent costly repairs isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.
Aresen “The most appropriate monument to Congress would be a giant screw being drilled into the ass of a figure representing the nation.”
lol damn Aresen that’s perfect!
A seam in a pipe failed. Whenever someone points out what a waste unionized construction is, some union shill conjures the specter of non-skilled plumbers or electricians being turned loose on the nation and the damage they would cause. Damn Congress and their cost-cutting ways not using highly skilled and motivated unionized subs to complete this building. If only another $40 million had been allocated.
Jesus Christ. Everyone involved with this project– from conception to construction– should be in fucking prison.
Politics is amazing. You forcefully steal people’s hard-earned money and spend it on shit like this, and you still get to keep your job.
Because people aren’t hurting enough to care to acknowledge to themselves and to others that things are extremely wrong, and that they are mad as hell and will get off their ass and do something about it. And I’m not talking trying to work within the controlled and broken political process, which will never yield positive, real, substantial change.
So Congress didn’t consider rain or water damage. In a city which gets torrential downpours in summer. Which was built on a swamp. Where National Mall used to have canals.
I am so glad these idiots aren’t running our major banks or auto industries.
Not that this didn’t suck, because, of course, it did, but there has been a truly biblical amount of rain in DC recently.
My basement needs a bigger bailout than Bank of America.
Ba-dum-ching!
I’ll be here all week. Don’t forget to tip the waitresses.
Aresen: Like a bent over Statue of Liberty?
Veteran LAPD Detective Arrested in Love Triangle Slaying
http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-lapd-detective-arrested-for-murder,0,256921.story
I was wondering what the rest of the story would be. It’s a doozy. Seems she did this in 1986, 3 years after starting on the LAPD. They knew she was part of the triangle, but decided to investigate in another direction. Cough cough.
Makes me wonder what she did that someone decided to nail her for the murder…
What a bunch of idiots. The fact is that the facility was designed with storm drains, which means the designers certainly did consider the possibility of rain. The facility probably has hundreds, perhaps even thousands of seams in the storm drain system – the fact that one failed is no suprise – odds are in favor.
Well thank God its all right. It was paid for from an inexhaustable supply of money so its ok.
SJE: If you need me, I’ll be off fitting myself for a noose. *sigh*
Just another example of what the 12 year Republican majority brought about.
1. Radley links to a story that says: WASHINGTON – The new $621 million visitor center at the U.S. Capitol needs ceiling repairs Friday after a broken storm drain caused rainwater to gush inside.
Eva Malecki, a spokeswoman for the Architect of the Capitol, says a failed joint in the drainage system caused the flood at about 5 p.m. Thursday. She says the water didn’t cause significant damage and was cleaned up within an hour.
2. Radley concludes: Congress apparently forgot to factor into its massive monument to itself the possibility of rain.
3. My conclusion: Like many people, Radley can be a real jerk sometimes.
[...] waste known as the Capitol Visitor Center to flood on Friday. The irony, of course, is that the Capitol Visitor Center was designed solely to protect tourists from the weather. As the Agitator points out, it has “a TV studio (with make-up room) for members to record [...]