The Observation Deck

Henry Lamb, executive vice president of the Environmental Conservation Organization and chairman of Sovereignty International presents a take in America's infrastructure fire sale that can be considered in the context of not only Ken Blackwell’s ideas for Ohio’s Toll Road but the type of sell-offs of local public infrastructure one might anticipate under the structure of global capital and free trade ideology tendered by and for global elites, sell-offs that may one day be proposed for Lakewood.

Of course, the low saving rate of Americans, outsourcing, off-shoring, immigration are all factors that lead to the inevitable fire sale and the shift in accountability from local political representatives and diminished sovereignty.

So there are issues of policy, political economy and sovereignty raised in the piece that have global, state and local implications. Lamb's piece also reveals how the global corps interface with the pols.

It's not simply a partisan thing. The Elephants and the Donkeys have both sold out the U.S.A. under Neo-Con and Neo-Lib ideologies designed to trim down the blubbering middle to the 80%/20% wealth distribution model.

Let's not forget Clinton and Gore delivered for Chinese Hutchison Whampoa Limited, a mega corp Lamb mentions.

I therefore heap up some Lamb on the international financing of public infrastructure.

“The Chicago Skyway Bridge is a 7.8-mile toll road built in 1958 to connect the Dan Ryan Expressway to the Indiana Tollway. In 2004, the facility was leased for 99 years, for a one-time payment of $1.83 billion, to the Skyway Concession Company, LLC, owned by Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte S.A., and Macquarie Infrastructure Group.

This same consortium won a 75-year lease for the 157-mile Indiana Tollway for $3.85 billion…..

Cintra has also formed a consortium with Zachry Construction Company in San Antonio...

In December 2004, the Texas Transportation Commission selected this consortium to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor. The proposal included a bid of $1.2 billion to build and operate the first segment of this facility as a toll road. Zachry Construction Company has invested heavily in political campaigns of key Texas officials.

The Trans-Texas Corridor is a member of the North American SuperCorridor Coalition.

Greg Carey, managing director at Goldman, Sachs & Company, told the Texas Transportation Forum last June, that this method of financing should not be limited to highways, but should include airports, bridges, tunnels, parking facilities, ports, rail, water and sewer systems, power facilities, hospitals, government-controlled liquor stores and "... anything else that produces revenue."

The American Water Works Company, a subsidiary of Germany's utility mega-corporation RWE, already provides water to 18 million Americans in 29 states.

Carey also told the group that all but 14 states had already changed their laws, or were now considering legislation, to allow this "international" financing of public infrastructure.

This relatively new method of financing infrastructure has excited government officials who see these public/private partnerships as win/win solutions. Government gets an infusion of cash and is relieved of the burden of daily operations. The private sector is eager to invest in long-term projects that promise a payback of as much as 61 times the investment.

But the users don't win…..

In anticipation of the Trans-Texas Corridor, the Kansas City Southern Lines set up a Mexican subsidiary to purchase the National Railways of Mexico, with 2,600 miles of track that reaches to Mexico's ports in Veracruz and Lazaro Cardenas.

These ports are owned by another international mega-corporation: the Chinese Hutchison Whampoa Limited…..

The so-called "free trade" enthusiasts have no problems with this international ownership of strategic infrastructure…... Enthusiasts claim that this transfer of public infrastructure to private partners is the free market at work.

But it is a process that is rapidly erasing the concept of national sovereignty. Is it smart to allow America's crucial infrastructure to be controlled, if not owned, by foreign companies? Kenneth Orski reports that one of these toll projects in Stockholm has been used as a demonstration project to show that pricing can be an effective way to decrease automobile use and force public transit use…... “

For more:
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51688

Can and will Stickland say anything substantive and progressive about Blackwell's big idea on the Turnpike?

Does he have the guts? Or do politics dicate he say too much for risk of alienating elite powers?

Kenneth Warren

Ken

What really hit me most reading this was that Americans have gotten stupid and lazy, allowing ourselves to paint ourselves into a corner. Tollbooths are one thing, like selling the Japanese the Grand Canyon and the Empire State Building. Hard to take home! But selling bridges and water companies, boarders on insane. At that point I really want to see the trail of money.

Our parents and their parents and their parents made any sacrifice to build this country, protect the family unit, and make this country strong. In 15 years we have undone a majority of the hard work they gave their lives to. For what? SUVs that no one can afford to drive both financially and morally anymore? A house and lifestyle beyond our means, that when the smallest thing happens like a tax raise it causes us to cry and threaten to move.

I know I am speaking to the choir leader, but this country is screwed in so many different ways, and "America" fell for it hook line and sinker. Refinance, credit cards, over extending, and now the bankers will come for what is theirs. This country is set up for a massive failure of unprecedented levels. No manufacturing, no industry, very little technology, no money, and now no friends in the world. This my friend is screwed up very bad.

Luckily we live in Lakewood. We can fish, and drink water.


.

Jim:

I am sorry to say that the privatization of the infrastructure, including water, is the handwriting on the wall, going back to Pappy Bush.

We might not be as lucky as you imagine.

Check out Title 3 Executive order 12803 of April 30, 1992
57 FR 19063 / May 4, 1992

TEXT: By the authority vested in me as president by the laws of the United States of America, end in order to ensure that the United States achieves the most beneficial economic use of its resources, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Definitions. For purposes of this order: (a) “Privatizationâ€Â

Mr. Warren,

Please remind me what Ken Blackwell's plan to privatization the turnpike has to do with selling our water system. (Four Paragraphs or less please ) You lost me after the third scroll-I think you were talking about the whole slippery slope thing.

Maybe we could have a separate agency build it's own alternative route and see which one is better run. You know kind of like the libraries.

You are an incredibly smart man and I respect you very much but you and Jim are depressing me with your grim view of our world. Maybe you guys just need a hug.

Let me know if I can help.

The Compassionate Conservative,

Colleen Wing

Colleen:

I was making a broad ideological point about the privatization trend and the sell-off of public assets.

It is, indeed, a depressing scenario, one democrats and republicans have had hands in, turning over public assets to global capital consortia, calling politics and favoritism efficient economics.

Beyond Ken Blackwell's idea, which I would peg to a larger trend and hereby contest, I believe people need to wake up and scrutinize the ideological premises and the political practices unfolding with the privatization trend.

Kenneth Warren

Ken--- Are you therefore eschewing the embrace?
Stan

Colleen Wing wrote:You want to know what boggles my mind?
Why would the Mayor author such a divisive and unnecessary post?
There have been many discussions on the Lakewood blogs about the evils of partisan politics.
This isn't a Democrat town, it is a town with the majority being Independents.
Personally, I choose to focus my attention on my own party. As the President of the Lakewood Republican Organization it is my responsibility to educate voters in Lakewood about the Republican candidates. And I will continue to do so.
It is good to know that our local schools are available to, I assume...rent, for rallies for candidates.

Blackwell's campaign commercials are so nasty I would vote against him even if I agreed with the general statements of his campaign(which he has no likely way of enforcing).

I feel it hard to vote for a candidate who is personally responsible for the errors in the absentee ballots submitted in the May primary.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/14534725.htm

The absentee ballots had to be counted by hand because there was a compatibility problem between the optical scanners that read the votes and the printers that count the votes, Ellis said.

My vote was among those absentee ballots. As a college student who lives in Washington DC, and sees corrupt politicians working on a daily basis, it is against my morals to put a man like Blackwell in the Governor's office. We already have enough corrupt politicians in Washington as well as Columbus, and continuing this tread would be unthinkable.

Blackwell is connected and responsible for the Diebolt errors in the May primary. He needs to come up with a better solution quick, because right now, I'm not even convinced that my vote will count come Nov. 7th.

I have no opinion on the governor's race, but I wonder if race is an issue.

Will Ohio ever elect a black governor?

Doug

..

DougHuntingdon wrote:I have no opinion on the governor's race, but I wonder if race is an issue.

Will Ohio ever elect a black governor?

Doug

I don't think race is as big an issue in elections as it once was. It has been made very clear that if a candidate sings the right tune, people will vote for them. Blackwell is doing that very well, singing the usual hosanahs of "My Opponent is a Tax and Spend Liberal" coupled with a song called "Gay Marriage and Abortion is What You Get if you Vote for _______." They are old tunes but the jukebox keeps playing them.

Phil