YKos '07: Screening Series

So we just screened "Crashing The States," the netroots film that follows two bloggers through the 2006 election, touring 20 campaigns, 26 states, and over 10,000 miles. It was very well-received (though the white levels looked way hotter on the projector than on the computer). It was a bigger group watching it than I expected, too.

OK, so I'm completely out of touch with the news, but this bridge collapse in Minnesota is ominous. E. coli conservatism strikes again. 30 years of tax cuts at the expense of infrastructure and here's what you get. Here's a good rundown.

But it was all a moot exercise anyway. Literally wielding a big red VETO stamp to appease the no-tax crowd that remains hell-bent on a something-for-nothing relationship with government, Gov. Tim Pawlenty deep-sixed the bipartisan transportation bill. "How dumb can they be?" he sneered of the lawmakers who dared approve a tax hike to fix the state's roads.

"The governor hammered through a plan that doesn't pay for itself," says state Sen. Steve Murphy (DFL-Red Wing), "and so now for the first time in the history of the state, the Department of Transportation is broke. What that means is if someone drives through a guard rail it is not going to be replaced very soon. If someone breaks an axle on a pothole, it is not going to be filled very soon.

Damn.