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Politics : High Tolerance Plasticity -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: S Shaw who wrote (20780)	2/28/2004 4:03:24 PM
From: kodiak_bull	Respond to of 23153

Scott, I certainly don't know what the Feds offered Martha, but my feeling is that they wanted her to cop to a crime and that the entire prosecution would never have taken place against a private citizen. A few dollars and goodbye. One thing that seems clear is they overplayed their hand and now would look ridiculous if only we could identify and hold accountable the idiot decision makers. It would great if we could hold government accountable for all their screw ups and fraudulent activities. In my town, the traffic department is constantly screwing up the traffic patterns, invariably using the most expensive method possible to solve the smallest problem. Example: we had a nice wide street connecting two medium usage thoroughfares. So people would use it to cut from one to another, often exceeding the 25 MPH speed limit. Simple solution: put in a couple of 4-way stop signs at the intersections, total cost, maybe $500. Instead, they poured several tons of concrete to make "swerves" which would force traffic to slow to 25 MPH. For the low, low cost of about $200,000 they now have rendered the street extremely dangerous for bicyclists (who have to "swerve" into traffic at each of the swerves, destroyed half of the parking spaces and made truly dangerous for motorists, bicyclist and pedestrians a previously safe boulevard. Of course, nobody in government is willing to step forward and take credit for this disaster, or all the other rotaries, speed bumps and other hazards. This is a small, local example, but we all know about California's energy "deregulation," the WPPS debacle up in Washington, the abuse of special prosecutors, etc. Ah, the arrogance of power . . . KB