Remember That Bridge To The 21st Century?

I was wondering about the read of this shot from Minneapolis.  A contemporary path of association might start off with spectacle, progress to victimhood, then arrive at blame.

To put the frame in perspective, however, consider the image after taking in examples (1 2) of bridge-building projects by the WPA.  (These links, and all the work on the project list, by the way, come from New Orleans, 1937 – ’41.)  With that influence in mind, it’s a shame the photo couldn’t as much be an infrastructure call to arms.

And then, there were these nuggets from Friday’s YearlyKos conclave:

From Sidney Blumenthal:

I was riding with my son yesterday in the car and he said: “We’re building bridges in Iraq so we don’t have to build them over here.”  The question is, who is responsible?  This [picture] is a challenge to the MSM as well as a chance for the blogs to show their chops.  (I mean, Anderson Cooper was out there reading from a copy of Thornton Wilder’s “The Bridge of San Luis Rey.”)

And from George Lakoff:

“Accountability, to conservatives, means:  who is accountable … below me.”



(image: David Denney/Star Tribune, via Associated Press.  August 2, 2007.  nytimes.com)