$205,075 spent to relocate a "wild" bush

[IronWing]

And here we have the justification: government made a law that it was forced to follow. We can justify all sorts of fun things using this sort of circular reasoning.

Laws can be changed. I'd just assume that agencies obey the laws on the books. The alternative, agencies disregarding laws, is worse.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

lol Asian women.

 

[Jhhnn]

Heh. Righties obsess over the dumbest stuff, especially on a slow outrage day. Free Marketeer contractors always bend over the govt on "extras", always, because they're in control of sub contractors.

The highway gets built, people get paid, and bay area traffic maybe gets a little better.

It's not like the bills run up in our little Neocon adventure in Iraq, is it? It's not even a drop in the bucket of the money we'll spend caring for the Americans who got shot up & blown up in the process, either.

Wasteful? Sure. As compared to what is the more important question, and by that measure, the heroes of the Right are the biggest offenders in history.

 

[Moonbeam]

How much was Cheney's heart transplant?

 

[Ninjahedge]

Well, they had to find a heart that would not reject HIM.


That took a lot of cash.

 

[CycloWizard]

Laws can be changed. I'd just assume that agencies obey the laws on the books. The alternative, agencies disregarding laws, is worse.

I'd prefer to have laws that make sense in the first place. Nonsense is nonsense no matter how one tries to justify it.

 

[Throckmorton]

And here we have the justification: government made a law that it was forced to follow. We can justify all sorts of fun things using this sort of circular reasoning.

So you don't think we should protect endangered species from extinction?

 

[Ninjahedge]

Throck, if that means I can't get to work 5 minutes earlier... NO!!!!

 

[werepossum]

Before I take a position either way I'd want to know if this bush growing "in the wild" is actually genetically different from those available at nurseries, because they seem to me to be identical. If it is identical, then this was a monumentally stupid decision. We could simply buy a butt load of nursery plants and replant all around in "wild" environs. The fact that it was found in a highway median seems to make this highly unlikely to be an actual "wild" species, as highways are typically built by grading the entire width, including median, to subsoil. If on the other hand this species (or subspecies, opinions seem to differ) is genetically unique, then saving it was the right thing to do.

 

[Genx87]

And here we have the justification: government made a law that it was forced to follow. We can justify all sorts of fun things using this sort of circular reasoning.

That is really the issue. Govt creates the red tape that causes a plant that is found in the median of a highway and can be purchased for 16 bucks a plant cost 128K in a recovery plan.

 

[Genx87]

So you don't think we should protect endangered species from extinction?

This is an endangered species? Sounds like I can buy about 8000 specimens from the local nursery for the cost of this program.

 

[Jaskalas]

So you don't think we should protect endangered species from extinction?

Tell you what, support state's rights and I'll vouch for California paying whatever it wants to protect those ever important plants. So long as I'm not paying for it I won't care.

 

[Ausm]

That really didn't cost that much to relocate GWB...

 

[OutHouse]

crap i really need to get on the email list that can bid on stupid shit opps i mean government sponsored fleecing of the taxpayers.

 

[OutHouse]

So you don't think we should protect endangered species from extinction?

why fuck with nature. more stuff has gone extinct than what is alive on this plant today.

 

[Mxylplyx]

For 25K, I would have flown across the country myself, hired a few Mexicans and a flatbed truck, and had it done in an afternoon.

 

[CycloWizard]

So you don't think we should protect endangered species from extinction?

WTF are you talking about? From my post, which you quoted:

And here we have the justification: government made a law that it was forced to follow. We can justify all sorts of fun things using this sort of circular reasoning.

How the hell can you even attempt to state anything about my stance on environmental protections from that statement?

 

[Ninjahedge]

Everybody often squawks about all of this until they see what really goes on in a lot of these cases.

The legal fees and operational costs for simply letting a chicken cross the road are astronomical, but we are as much to blame for this as anyone else (we are the ones that keep saying that the egg crosses before the Chicken and then it goes to court...).

Jokes aside, there are many instances of waste, but many are not as simply delineated as the classic $500 wrench (A shipment of wrenches + a nice "bonus")

 

[ElFenix]

houston metro is planning on paying $100,000 to move an oak tree that's in the middle of the light rail expansion project. not sure of the historical value of this oak tree (we've got some old ones around here).

 

[Ninjahedge]

Moving that oak may be the only way they got the municipality to agree to a rail line running through it (among other things).....