No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

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Archive for the 'Transportation' Category

January 13, 2010

Who Knew, I’m A False Positive!

by Shoebox @ 5:36. Filed under Law and order, Transportation.

ACLU Official Says It Is Not Realistic to Screen Air Passengers Against the Full Terrorist Watchlist

Get this:

Former FBI agent Mike German, now a terrorism expert with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said that using the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) of 400,000-plus names to screen airline passengers was not realistic, and added that it was “fundamentally ridiculous” to think the list was not flawed.

Oh, yeah!  It’s particularly HIGHlarious for those us caught in its hilarity!

“One of the most disappointing things about the whole review of this situation was this idea that the terrorist watch-listing system is not, itself, broken, which is fundamentally ridiculous,” said German.

Ah yup!  Big 10-4 there!

German said on Monday that the terrorist watchlist system has been broken “for years,” pointing out that names were added to the list incorrectly while others were kept on the list after investigators had cleared them of any involvement with terrorists.

Well, I guess I should be thankful that my portion of the list has only been broken for 11 days!

“There were people who were put on the list appropriately because they were under investigation, but when the investigation cleared them, they weren’t taken off the list,” said German.  “There were people who were known terrorists, there were people who he [the IG] identified as known terrorists who were not on the list.”

Oh, don’t forget about the people who were put on the list inappropriately and whose paper work you “just can’t find!”

“The whole listing process is broken and needs a fundamental overhaul,” said German. “We’re creating a system of tremendous false positives. We’ve created a system that creates hundreds, and probably hundreds of thousands, of false positives every day.”

Hey, hey, over here.  I’m false positive number 1!

January 12, 2010

Trust Us!

by Shoebox @ 5:20. Filed under Politics - National, Transportation.

That seems to be what the TSA is asking us to do as they look to deploy the full body scanners.

This article at Cnn.com outlines a battle between a civil rights group and the TSA over the capabilities and the implications of those capabilities, that the scanners have.  The civil rights group raises concerns about the storage and security of body images that are scanned.  The TSA claims that the scanners have no ability to store or transmit the images.  “Not so,” says the civil rights group who points to the design specs of the machines which required an ability to store and transmit an image.  “Relax,” says the TSA.  The store and transmit functionality is only there for testing of the machine.  The TSA further claims that no one at the airport can put the machine into “test mode” and that the machine itself has no storage capability.

You’re kidding right?  Why is it that bureaucrats continually think that the public is so naive and gullible?

First, technologies have advanced to the point where the scanning or processing device has no storage capacity on it.  Even so, is it really so difficult to have storage devices somewhere else on the network?  What?  they claim no network?  Well, that doesn’t pass the smell test.  The TSA tells us repeatedly that the people who review the scans are sitting somewhere completely removed from the scanners themselves.  Is the TSA suggesting that the images are being sent to these people via carrier pigeon? Or, do they want us to believe that the scanner and the viewing device are hardwired across the airport?  Are there cables running across the runways to some building on the other side of the airport?

Second, does anyone really believe that the scanned images are not being stored?  No images are being stored for training purposes?  No images are being stored to review in the event of a later identified security breach? The TSA is so confident about its legal position that it will save no images to combat the ACLU lawsuits?  Like hell.

Listen, I’m not saying not to do the body scanners.  Personally if I thought they would make us safer, I, like most men, don’t care.  Hell, I’ll walk through naked and not bat an eye although there may be a few TSA folks who would scream like someone just shot them in the retina with a laser!  On the other hand, most women I know react in abject horror to the notion of their under things (and I don’t mean clothing) being seen on a scanner. 

I’ve chronicled my own travails with the TSA.  You’ll have to take my word for it (unless you were at the Christmas DR where you could have personally verified it), I’m no threat to anyone.  But, under the guise of “doing something,” the TSA has made it significantly more inconvenient for me to fly.  I’ll guarantee you that if I got on board a plane, told everyone I was on the TSA list and asked if they felt safer as a result, not a person (assuming Mrs. Shoe wasn’t on the plane) would raise their hand to say, “Yes! 

The fact is that until the TSA is willing to start doing some level of profiling, be it identity or behavior, these scanners will not make us any safer than the scanners and processes being used today.  The only thing these scanners would do is allow the Obama administration to point to them and claim that they had done something in response to the Christmas bombing attempt. In short, this looks like yet one more “solution” brought to you by the people in housed in the Alfred E. Neuman federal building. Their only request is to trust them!

November 19, 2009

Delays have consequences, DOT edition

by steveegg @ 19:02. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin, Transportation.

A few years ago, Governor Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/HoChunk-For Sale) and Milwaukee Mayor Tom “Milk Carton” Barrett conspired to delay the rebuilding of the Zoo Interchange, which links I-94, the northwest terminus of I-894, and US-45, in order to focus on rebuilding and widening the stretch of I-94 between the Mitchell Interchange (just north of the airport, which links I-94/US-41, the southeast terminus of I-894, and I-43) and the Wisconsin-Illinois state line. Indeed, with the effective elimination of funding for engineering work in the FY2010-2011 budget, the delayed target start date of 2014 was considered ambitious.

In August, the Department of Transportation placed weight limits on three of the bridges in the interchange due to deterioration:

- The northbound US-45 bridge over eastbound I-94 – 30 tons (3/4ths of the 40-ton national legal limit)
- The bridge connecting southbound US-45 and eastbound I-94 over westbound I-94 and US-45 – 35 tons
- The bridge connecting northbound I-894/US-45 to westbound I-94 over eastbound I-94 and southbound I-894/US-45 – 40 tons (which precludes use by any trucks with overweight permits)

Now, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that the DOT has issued a call for bids for the emergency replacement of those three bridges because follow-up inspections revealed that the three structures wouldn’t last until even 2012 as the supports are cracked and corroded. The estimated cost is somewhere between $12 million and $22 million, depending on how the replacements are done, with anticipated completion by Memorial Day weekend 2010.

Complicating matters are the closure requirements:

- No closures affecting more than one bridge at any time
- Except for a single weekend full closure per bridge, all shoulder or single-lane closures must be between 11 pm and 5 am

Given the other bridges in and just south of the interchange are of the same age, I have to wonder whether they’ll last until they’re replaced sometime after 2014.

August 17, 2009

The eventually-inevitable Barrett-Peters question

by steveegg @ 9:48. Filed under Transportation.

Headless Blogger asks it:

What was Trolley Tommy doing driving to the State Fair when there was cheap and convenient mass transit available to him?

Before some lefty decides to go off half-cocked, allow me to answer:

- Tom Barrett lives in the Washington Heights neighborhood (for you out-of-towners, it’s a very nice neighborhood west of the Stadium Freeway (US-41) between Vilet and North Avenues). Assuming everybody gathered at his house, the best transit option would be Route 76 (specifically, the one that goes to Southridge via 76th St.).

- That trip involves a 10-minute walk to 60th St, a bus ride to 76th and Greenfield, and an 8-minute walk into the fair. Given Barrett did not park on the Fairgrounds, I doubt walking would have been a problem.

- I don’t know the ages of his daughters or his niece, so I do not know whether they qualify for the $1 one-way trip given to those under 12 years. I do know that he and his sister would have been charged $2 for a one-way trip, so that would be $8 just for the two of them. Depending on the ages of the children, the total cost would be between $14 and $20.

- Speaking of parking, I don’t know whether Barrett availed himself of the lawn parking services that many of the residents around the Fairgrounds offer. If memory serves, they typically charge between $5-$10, with the higher amounts closer to the Fairgrounds. In fact, parking on the Fairgrounds is $10 during the Fair.

In short, Barrett made the economical decision that driving himself, his sister, two of his daughters and his niece to the Fair would be cheaper than taking public transit. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

September 10, 2008

Yoohoo, Socialized Medicine Fans….

by Shoebox @ 5:21. Filed under Transportation.

High oil prices suck!   Airline fare prices are up, gas prices are up, prices for any good that uses petroleum to make it, or transport it, are up!

High oil prices suck!   But there is a silver lining.

USAToday reports with this headline:

Survey: Public transit pressures could hurt riders

Huh? What? How can that be? Haven’t the mass transit folks been crying, pleading and cajoling people to “Keep the Earth Green!” and ride mass transit? Yet, now that more people are riding mass transit, they’re having problems?

I’m sure you’re thinking, “This is temporary. They’ve gotten so much additional business so fast, they have a short term problem until they add more buses or choo choos or some other form of communal sweat sharing transportation vehicle to the inventory.” You might think that, but you’d be wrong!

According to the President of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), which represents transit agencies:

“We’re going to see more (fare) increases and more service cuts at a time when the nation is trying to encourage people to use public transit.”

It’s easy to understand the rate increases. Heck, they’re selling as much as they have. Any capitalistic marketer would increase their prices in a similar situation. But, decrease their service? How can they do that? Wouldn’t they want to add as much as they can while the demand is there? Yes they would, if they were making a profit!

The problem with public transportation is that they sell their service at a loss. Depending upon the system and the city, public transportation takes in between $.20 to $.50 for every dollar they spend. They epitomize the old marketing joke about selling at a loss and making it up in volume!

The transit systems all have budgets (of some kind) and because states and municipalities can’t print their own money, the transit systems must manage their systems within those budgets(at least until they come back and strong arm another tax increase from the morons taxpayers). The result is that when they have more ridership than their budget will handle, they cut services (routes) to try to manage to their budget.

What’s this got to do with socialized medicine? It works the same way.

If the US implements socialized medicine, there will be a budget for it. When services are provided for free or below their market rates (as we see in mass transit), the demand for the product inordinately increases because there are no natural price restrictions. Unfortunately, there will be restrictions on how much can be spent on the system, even if the Govt. is printing money. If you have no restrictions built in on the pricing side and you have a budget to stay within, there will have to be restrictions on the cost side. The result will be just like what is occurring to mass transit; services will be cut or rationed.

If you like the idea of the Govt. managing healthcare, stop and talk to someone who is dependent on mass transportation. Ask them what they think of the fare increases and the route cuts.

High oil prices do have  a silver lining; they teach us why socialized medicine won’t work.

August 18, 2008

Reason #983 to not leave commuting up to government

by steveegg @ 9:38. Filed under Transportation.

(H/T – Fred)

The Racine Journal Times reports that the bus drivers’ union in Racine, who have been working without a contract since July 1, is conducting a no-notice strike.

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