With all of the media attention of the crash of the bridge in Minnesota yesterday, renewing the calls to invest in the nation's infrastructure, one might expect the Bush administration to take a position that would finally gain it some much needed public support. They need only display a bit of sympathy, even. Instead of maintaining and repairing our own country, we're off building another that blows itself up daily.

It has been reported that the bridge that collapsed scored a 50 out of 120 on recent safety assessments, enough to qualify for a Structurally Deficient rating. For some reason, however, the Secretary of Transportation in this Administration of Ineptitude and Cover-up said that just because it was structurally deficient does not mean it was "unsafe."

What blinders are these people wearing? The bridge collapsed and killed and injured dozens of people. Does this not prove that it was unsafe? How much more evidence would be needed? If a rating of Structurally Deficient does not qualify as unsafe, then maybe the definition of deficient is different for the federal government from the rest of the English-speaking world. Alas, twenty-five percent of America's half-million bridges are in the same category, just waiting to collapse and kill more people. Think of what the $12 Billion a month we spend in Iraq could do here in America!

Even more amazing than such ignorance was the callous attempt to blame somebody other than the federal government for the problem. Tony Snow, White House Press Secretary, which basically translates to publicly funded spin doctor, commented that "if there were problems" with the bridge, then the responsibility to fix them fell to the State of Minnesota. If? If?!? Again, are we ignoring the obvious fact that indeed there was a problem with the bridge, and many others like it? It collapsed! There is no hypothetical if. Furthermore, while it may be technically correct to place responsibility of ensuring the safety of roads and bridges to the various states, it is the government's responsibility to oversee such measures, to ensure they are done and to distribute and fund the various monies necessary to achieve a level of safety that the federal government has the right and ability to mandate.

The fault, of course, is not only the White House for failing to push for such measures despite years of reports from engineers that it is necessary, and not only the states for failing to close infrastructure deemed deficient, but the Congress for failing to act on funding and guidelines.

Instead, the federal government argues about troops in Iraq, money in Iraq, the number of dead people in Iraq, the slacking government of Iraq, and ignores the needs of Americans. Well, not completely ignore. They did manage to determine how they can get the most money for some soon-to-be available radio bandwidth: by allowing already megalithic companies to dominate them without allowing room for the smaller companies. Way to go government.