Blind Faith, Blind Ambition or Blind and Clueless?

Right around the turn of the 15th century, Desiderius Erasmus uttered some resounding words.

“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” – Desiderius Erasmus

Simple, profound and succinct.

So how is it possible with so many well educated people in the United States to end up with such a high concentration of stupidity in elected representatives both locally and in Washington, D.C.?

In a recent article by Scott Wong, writer for Politco, he cites the following:

“Aides to House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) downplayed the lawsuit’s significance, pointing out that the project met the Army chief of engineer’s standard of being economically sound and environmentally sustainable.”

In short, the aides or House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) are being naive to place blind faith in the Corps.

There is little if anything economically sound about spending in excess of $2 billion dollars to do what can generally be done for less than the anticipated $3.6 million dollar annual maintenance costs projected for the Fargo Dam and FM Diversion.

As for being environmentally sustainable? Really…???

Allowing the wholesale encroachment of Fargo’s urban development into the last natural flood plain adjacent to the city is considered environmentally sound?

Even more disconcerting is the increasing of future flood levels as a result of those actions.

FACT: The 40.8 foot 2009 flood crest would have been considerably lower, had Fargo and Cass county been more diligent in preserving natural flood plain and less eager to foster develop higher risk areas to placate their friends pushing for development.

So to recap:

Fargo outlines what it wants…
The USACE says, YEP, we can design it…
They explore a MN diversion to build a ND dam and diversion…
They move downstream impacts upstream…
They attempt to move the process faster that usual…
They end up being caught up in review due to their shoddy fast-tracking…
The entire process template is created by the Corps…
The criteria to be met meet are outlined by the Corps…
All opposition is cited as footnotes and dismissed by the Corps…
All “milestones” and “authorizations” are internally approved by the Corps…

Kinda like the fox watching the hen-house…for “altruistic” reasons…

It is truly sad to have representatives like House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) and his aides placing blind foolish faith in the “money eating machine” that is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has three projects in the region over budget by at least 70 plus percent and one of those being half done and awaiting funding re-authorization and the other (completed in 2005) already needing over a million dollars in repairs.

“A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth.” – Albert Einstein 

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