Dept. of What Comes Around:

The firm that designed the fateful Interstate 35W bridge has asked the National Transportation Safety Board to reopen its investigation into the Aug. 1, 2007, collapse.

The request by Pasadena, Calif.-based Jacobs Engineering Group was made in a 19-page letter sent within the past few weeks to the NTSB and obtained by the Pioneer Press….

“Most agree now that the NTSB it got wrong,” said victims attorney Chris Messerly, citing work by Boston-based engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti, which was hired by the victims. “They thought the initial cause was the gusset plate, and everyone knows now it was the frozen bearings.”

Frozen bearings? When the hell did they decide this was about frozen fucking bearings? I just searched Google News and of all the news stories on the entire planet, only this PiPress article comes up when you search for “frozen bearings.”

A steel truss structure, the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River was partly supported by large roller bearings set atop piers, which allowed the bridge to flex during hot and cold cycles, relieving tension on the bridge’s steel beams and connector plates, known as gussets.

But according to state inspection reports, one of those bearings was locked. And the collapse occurred on a hot summer day, when tons of construction materials were loaded on top of the bridge as part of a resurfacing project.

Congratulations to Bush’s NTSB for keeping the truth buried until well after Gov. BridgeFail got his sorry ass re-elected. And congratulations to Gov. BridgeFail for somehow getting this story buried on a Saturday.

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Another Minnesota bank shut down by the FDIC.

See also Digby on how banks want to change the rules to let them get away with more, longer.

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I know it’s just to burn Obama, but I like that the NY Times has finally discovered the real unemployment rate.

17.5%

There, now don’t you feel better?

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We know there is a statistically significant association between having more than one deployment and P.T.S.D.

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Best Joe Lieberman jokes ever!

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Tom Tancredo storms off set after being challenged by Markos Moulitsas on The Ed Show.

Apparently Tancredo didn’t like be reminded of how he dodged the draft during Vietnam. You’d think he’d be over that by now, but I guess a coward is always a coward, and leaving the stage was the only response Tancredo had to Markos’ facts.

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News flash: There are 237 millionaires in Congress.

Now what I’d love to know is this: how many have taken money from or invested with Goldman Sachs?

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Julio Ojeda-Zapata reviews the Microsoft v. Apple battle of the commercials.

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They took down the atheist ads on buses in Des Moines, then put them back on the buses but now they’re about to experience some pro-Christian ads.

A profitable controversy for public transit folks, I guess.

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Uploaded some music last night. Details here.

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And, as Atrios so often says, Mars, bitches.