What the hell is wrong with spending $2oo mil. on re-sodding the National Mall?

[bushmeister0]

Seriously. How much do the Republicans hate our country?

The Mall has been a national disgrace for decades. As a percentage of the federal budget, $2 mil. is a drop in the bucket to make our National Mall look like something approaching the grandeur we supposedly ascribe to our nation's Capital (and, perhaps, giving some of the homeless vets living rough in DC some gainful employment, which they are always looking for)!

I understand the Republicans hate everything to do with the notion of federalism, therefore, the symbol of that federalism should be torn down at every turn, including making our cherished Mall look like an Appalachian trailer park, but the Democratic majority -- the Party the nation overwhelmingly elected into power -- shouldn't be squeamish about insisting on finally doing something about not making the show-piece of America look like a scene out of Logan's Run, for Christ's Sake!

The only thing missing at this point is a '49 Ford pickup sitting on cinder blocks in front of the Lincoln Monument!!!

The disconnect between the people we send to DC to do our business and the people that actually live in the city, is just stunning. Our glorious leaders never leave their limos (zipping back and forth around the federal district with motorcade protection) long enough to ever to go out and actually look at the crappy city that's crumbling around them.

Shame on them!

I guess, though, that initial House appropriation is off the table now, because it's so damn embarrassing. Condoms and grass, tax and spend liberals. Run and hide little liberals! Lush Bingbang has spoken!

[Botany]

1. Sod does not last

Seed rocks

[elleng]

2. Why do you say its been a disgrace for decades?

.

[bushmeister0]

3. Have you seen the Mall in the past 15 years or so?

It kinda looks like this . . .

[elleng]

12. I LIVE in DC!

I used to walk across it every to get to/from office. Lets NOT overstate our cases, please. Photo is NOT the mall!

[bushmeister0]

17. Calm down. That was just a joke.

I was born in DC and after moving around a bit was back from 2001 (I was there on 9/11) to 2004. I was ashamed at how bad it looked the entire time I was there.

Amd I also remember, that when I would visit in the nineties, I could visit all the museums, federal buildings and the congress at ease, which is no longer the case.

[elleng]

20. Sorry I missed the joke!

Lawn isn't easy to keep, considering the traffic and climate. Did w cut down on up-keep? And when was it they started cutting back museum hours? for $, and then for 'security,' 9/11?

Its always great meeting visitors who ask about and admire the place!

[bushmeister0]

25. I was born there! Don't talk to me about visiters!

We can spend untold zillions to bomb the hell out of whatever country we're unhappy with this week, we can keep up the Goddamn Mall, smartass!

Where are you from and when will you be moving on, like everyone there does, sooner or later?

I just can't afford to live there anymore, how do you?

[elleng]

31. So sorry, RUDEass,

I've been here for 30+ years, raised children here in spite of lousy public schools, I had nothing to do with anyone's decision to keep up the mall or not, and I'll probably stay.

[bushmeister0]

35. I'm not being a rudass, you accused me of being a tourist!

And why don't you have any thing to do with anyone's decision to keep up the Mall?

You freaking live there. Don't you care?

As I've already said, paying people to keep up the Mall would surely pump money into the local economy, thus at least maintaining the status quo, albeit lousy.

What you need is representation in congress.

Maybe, in the next term.

(I see Obama hasn't changed the tags on the Beast, yet.)

[elleng]

37. I accused NO ONE of being a tourist.

End of conversation.

[bushmeister0]

40. Oh behave! My God, this some dumbass discussion page.

We're not saving lives here. Get a grip!

[Virginian]

24. Hey, that was a good one.

The "Monument" is a little too tall and the "reflecting pool" seems to be a little deep and needs the weeds cut. And there is the "Capitol" with a skinny dome.

I don't think I have ever seen anyone IN the reflecting pool. As a kid, I was told that the water was so bad, it would eat your foot off if you tried wading. It worked, I never waded in it.

[bushmeister0]

30. Well, buster, Michael York and Jenny Agutter had NO FEAR!

And as inhabitants of the Dome they didn't know anything about having their feet eaten off by reflecting pool nasties.

[grasswire]

4. I think they had to repair it after the Clinton inauguration, too

...if I remember correctly.

[CC]

5. Glad I'm not the only one that thinks spending some

money on the Mall is a good thing. I also want them to clean out the reflecting pool and keep it clean like they used too. I hate the way they (repukes) have let it deteriorate. :grr:

[bushmeister0]

7. Maybe. Once Grover Norquist gets his Reagan memorial!

[bushmeister0]

6. Check this out: 25 million people visit the National Mall every year.

It's our 'front yard!' Common', let's have some self respect!

http://www.nps.gov/nationalmallplan/Timelapse.html

[Virginian]

21. It would put many grate people to work in DC.

No, that is not a misspelling. There are Great people in DC and there are Grate people in DC, the homeless who sleep on the steam grates to keep from freezing on cold nights.

[kenny blankenship]

8. New plan: Let us grow weed on the National Mall

and we'll make 200 million dollars.

sod.

[bushmeister0]

9. I think if he were here today, TJ would agree!

I know Ben Franklin would!

[Webster Green]

10. We'll make a lot lore than that..

Make me the Weed Czar! :hippie:

[aquart]

11. Keep harping on Republican lack of patriotism.

Refusing upkeep for our national monuments is a disgrace.

[The_Casual_Observer]

13. I saw it in 1999 & it looked terrible. I figured they were getting ready

to do something with it. I guess it was supposed to look that way.

[Virginian]

27. They reseed parts of it throughout the summer.

You'll see a snow fence where they are trying to get grass to grow.

It needs some durable zoysia grass or something if you want it to stay green in the heat of summer.

Then they will have the Folk Life Festival over the 4th of July and the tents will kill off what the drought hasn't.

There are a lot of grassy areas in the federal triangle, It would put a lot of people to work maintaining it. They already have people to put the bulbs out in the springtime. Just look at the tulips, how perfectly even they are around cherry blossom time.

[xchrom]

14. the Mall should be at it's greenest, most sparkling best ALL the time. nt

[bushmeister0]

16. It's a crying shame the way they treat it.

The ugly concrete barriers and the wooden road blocks everywhere don't help either.

You don't see any of that shit on Red Square. Are we really that cowardly?

[Bread and Circus]

15. I don't think that would have long lasting impact on the future economy.

I agree w/ nixing that.

[bushmeister0]

18. Hey, if paying someone to dig a hole and then paying them to fill it up again

is what it takes, then so be it. That's what stimulus means.

Wake up.

Like Harry Hopkins said: "People don't eat in the long run, they eat every day."

Read your history!



http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1610.html

[Bread and Circus]

34. Well, I guess I'd rather they spent it on something else either more vital (like food for hungry)

or something that had a more long lasting economic impact (like more money to recreate our grid).

[BirminghamExaminer]

19. It would put regular people to work and for some reason the GOP thinks that's bad

[bushmeister0]

22. Well, what is work and what is a job? That's the guestion.

I present Michael Steele:

"STEELE: What this administration is talking about is making work. It is creating work.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But that’s a job.

STEELE: No, it’s not a job. A job is something that — that a business owner creates. It’s going to be long term. What he’s creating…

STEPHANOPOULOS: So a job doesn’t count if it’s a government job?

STEELE: . . . .That is a contract. It ends at a certain point, George. You know that. These road projects that we’re talking about have an end point. As a small-business owner, I’m looking to grow my business, expand my business. I want to reach further. I want to be international. I want to be national. It’s a whole different perspective on how you create a job versus how you create work. And I’m — either way, the bottom line is…

STEPHANOPOULOS: I guess I don’t really understand that distinction.

STEELE: Well, the difference — the distinction is this. If a government — if you’ve got a government contract that is a fixed period of time, it goes away. The work may go away. That’s — there’s no guarantee that that — that there’s going to be more work when you’re done in that job."

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/michael_steele_government_work_not_same_as_job/

See, when he bused in those homeless dudes from Philly to pass out phony campaign litt in MD, when he was running for the Senate, that was work, not a job. It's confusing for dumb-asses like to understand.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8156535&mesg_id=8156809

[ContinentalOp]

23. I'm going to have to disagree with you here.

It would be AWESOME if D.C. looked like those scenes in Logan's Run! The '49 Ford isn't such a bad idea either.

[bushmeister0]

41. I agree. Particularly, these scenes in Logan's Run!

[zagging]

26. The huddled masses and boids

That's why. The reflecting pool is a cess pool because of the geese and ducks. The whole thing is a stinking crap hole, and if the park service tried to move the quackers and honkers, they'd be flayed by animal activists. And we could resod the mall every week from here to eternity and it would be trampled underfoot from here to eternity. There are too many events and visitors to keep it green. Pave it and paint it green.

[bushmeister0]

28. Oh, that's a good suggestion.

And why not put a Wal-Mart in front of the Licoln Memorial, too. That way the RVers could get a prime spot for national occasions.

[zagging]

29. May as well

Everything else between Lincoln and the capital dome is on sale, cheap.

[bushmeister0]

32. Supossedly, that's what is going to change with this new administration.

[zagging]

33. The president, for all his power

can't control the institutional corruption within the body of congress. Whether or not the Obama administration acts ethically, congress is bought and sold.

Now, back to all them stinking birds and the grass. How would you propose to get rid of those winged shit factories, and just how much trampling can a blade of grass take?

[bushmeister0]

36. Well, where the Lincoln Memorial is today, it was a swamp before.

And where the Washington Monmument is, it was an abattre for Civil War soldiers.

Change happens.

[zagging]

38. But, seriously...

What about the birds and grass? You want to drop all that money on grass that is going to burn up and get stomped into dust by milling herds of overstuffed gawkers? Fine, you don't want to paint it? How about astro turf? I think chlorine in the long pond would get rid of the resident waterfowl. They could at least get some volunteers to oil the freakin bird eggs.

[bushmeister0]

39. Astro turf is fine, as long as my Miami Dolphins don't have to play on it.

And I think if Obama keeps up this bi-partisanship crap, some oil tanker can take care of the freakin' bird eggs, down the road.

There are still some dinosaurs living in the Senate who will surely whet the appitite of some oil moguls with pull bent on drilling on the Potomac.

[GreenTea]

42. Republicans don't want any more union workers....

They are objecting to all that's in the Jobs Bill (Stimulus) to avoid more union workers, as republican ideology dictates, and since Reagan, almost all good paying jobs have all but gone away much to the delight of the rich & corporations, hence the mess we are in.

The republicans and their corporations have had their way for so long by stopping unions, for more corporate profits, they will cut anything in the bill that may enhance unions/workers voices.

I hope unions will come back in full force to help our economy, workers and our country.

When unions were at their strongest so were wages, jobs and our country's economy, but republicans & corporations want it all.

[stray cat]

43. Would you donate money to sod it - because if you pay taxes you would be.

If they asked you to donate money for each of the things in the stimulus package would you give a donation to sod the grounds or for something else?

[bushmeister0]

44. They don't usually ask for donations, they just take. They call them taxes.

This year, I wound up "donating" $2,400 to the governemnt.

But still I'd rather they re-sod the Mall than any number of other things more nefarious they do with our taxes.

[Earth_First]

45. As a landscaper who deals with sod installation fairly regularly...I don't suggest it.

The initial maintenance and upkeep on newly installed sod is spectacular. If given even the slightest amount of time to dessicate, the seams begin to shrink and you've basically rendered yourself into topdressing and seeding the affected spots. For an area that receives the amount of traffic that the national mall receives, the best option is to dethatch, aerify, overseed and let nature take it's course.

[bushmeister0]

46. "Dethatch, aerify, overseed." I like the cut of your jib!

Sounds like good old American know-how to me. I like it; makes sense, saves money . . . it'll never work.