Levi Johnston is a punk

By Jennifer J. Foster

I try very hard to ignore Levi Johnston.

Sarah Palin’s ex-son-in-law-to-be (how’s that for a sideswipe with fame?) is such a disgusting, conscious-less individual, it makes me physically angry to think that anyone pays him any attention at all.

Can you imagine the horror his now-infant son will someday feel as he learns of how his father aired his family’s dirty laundry, even to the point of his sexual history with his mother, in the name of money and fame?

But last night, in his latest desperate attempt to snatch some fleeting moments of fame from the underbelly of the discarded-remnants gutter, Johnston showed up with self-described D-lister Kathy Griffin—who is disgusting in her own right—at the Teen Choice Awards.

... as her date.

Eww.

I don’t know for whom this is more embarrassing: Johnston, who clearly thinks of himself as some sort of manly “stud,“ or the washed-up Griffin, who was toting around a dude young enough to be her son. I know they say that the only bad publicity is no publicity, but I’m pretty sure those rules don’t apply when you have a child—which Johnston, obviously, does.

And then I realized it: Johnston and Griffin are both obnoxious blemishes on the complexion of humanity.

Even more than being perfect for each other, they deserve each other. 

I wish them long lives of happiness ... in complete obscurity.

Despite stimulus funds, dangerous bridges ignored

By Jennifer J. Foster

I meant to call your attention to this Associated Press article last week.

Written in part by former AP-Alabama reporter Brett Blackledge (who, you may remember, won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the corruption rampant in the state’s two-year college system), the story examines how the federal stimulus funds are impacting the repair and replacement of substandard and failing bridges across America.

The bottom line: They’re only impacting the repair and replacement of about half of the substandard and failing bridges across America.

Here’s an excerpt:

Tens of thousands of unsafe or decaying bridges carrying 100 million drivers a day must wait for repairs because states are spending stimulus money on spans that are already in good shape or on easier projects like repaving roads, an Associated Press analysis shows.

President Barack Obama urged Congress last winter to pass his $787 billion stimulus package so some of the economic recovery money could be used to rebuild what he called America’s “crumbling bridges.“ Lawmakers said it was a historic chance to chip away at the $65 billion backlog of deficient structures, often neglected until a catastrophe like the Minneapolis bridge that collapsed two years ago this Saturday.

States, however, have other plans. Of the 2,476 bridges scheduled to receive stimulus money so far, nearly half have passed inspections with high marks, according to federal data. Those 1,123 sound bridges received such high inspection ratings that they normally would not qualify for federal bridge money, yet they will share in more than $1.2 billion in stimulus money.

To be fair to the president, these poor decisions are not all his fault. State leaders are failing their citizens by—prepare yourself for the shock!—playing politics with the money.

I’m usually a fan of the premise that the government closest to the people makes the best decisions for those people. I guess the proper application of that premise in this situation would have had the feds sending that bridge money directly to local boards and councils, like county commissions, and allowing its expenditure with the consent of the state governments where the bridges in need of repair are on state roads.

Local city council and county commission members across this country should be asking lots of pointed questions of their leaders in their state capitals. This is worse than your usual governmental outrage. It is downright dangerous.

Back to the story’s lead: The bridges that need repair but are being ignored number IN THE TENS OF THOUSANDS, and they carry 100 MILLION DRIVERS PER DAY.

These state lawmakers had just better hope that their poor decisions don’t end up being lethal.