Minnesota Bridge Collapse Revisited
When my bro got married a few weeks ago, I had a chance to hang out with my aunt and uncle from the Twin Cities (siblings, not spouses). The aunt is Aunt "Don't Tell Me I Killed Wellstone!" but I was curious about my uncle and had a few chances to talk to him. In particular, I wanted to ask him about Rep. Keith Ellison and the rumor that the bridge was in his district. He said he didn't think so (he's in St. Paul, btw, which is the smaller "twin" of Minneapolis). I finally got around to checking and guess what? The bridge certainly IS in Rep. Ellison's District 5. You can see an interactive Google map on his official site. Zoom in and look for the gap in I-35.
Now check out what Ellison had to say about 9/11 when he addressed a group in Minneapolis prior in early July (the collapse happened August 1).
He is, of course, the first Muslim to hold a seat in the House of Representatives. Two further items that I need to pin down are: did he really sit for an interview with Wolf Blitzer to discuss his comparison of 9/11 to the Reichstag fire on the SAME DAY that the bridge collapsed? And is his district home to the highest concentration of Muslims in the Twin Cities?
I blogged about this last summer when it happened -- especially about the bizarre television coverage we saw on the West Coast, when the local news was completely focused on the collapse and the national news (which would typically be redone for West Coast audiences when there was major breaking news) was eerily silent. My thought at the time was that they dared not say anything until they knew how their Supreme Overlords were going to want it spun. The fact that the spin was not pre-packaged and ready to trot out (Harley Guy: "And then I saw the bridge collapse, mostly because the buildup of pigeon shit was just too intense") made me wonder... what if this was an attack on an "uppity" Muslim from a group who did not arrange the cooperation of Americans ahead of time?
Edit: Holy shit... this was on CNN less than 2 hours before the collapse. Rep. Ellison does some uncomfortable-looking backpedaling when asked directly by Blitzer if he ever meant to imply that there was a "Bush-led conspiracy" leading to 9/11. This starts at about 3:50.
holy shit, Cass, 2 hours before...
you are one hell of a digger. if only the MSM were populated with investigative journalists/writers such as yourself.
this is really sick, to see Ellison backpedal like that! calling himself a "rookie", apologizing profusely. not to mention how obnoxious Blitzer was in his cross examination. my god.
2 hours before the collapse - very suspicious. Is it possible that Ellison was  intimidated by a warning/threat prior to this interview something to the effect of a possible event in his area??
what is Ellison doing now? how sad. it was so good of him to compare the Reichstag to 9/11.Â
wow - impressive research Cass
i had assumed the bridge was not a "terrorist" incident. Bridges do fall, especially fracture critical ones like that. Such structures are also easily susceptible to sabotage - with a design like that, a single cut with even a hack saw by hand in the right place could take it down. Although sitting under it cutting it would be a risky operation; unless you stopped traffic first! I remember they talked about work being done on the bridge by a contractor. Weren't there video cameras trained on this bridge at all times?
What a message that would have been to anyone paying close enough attention in the muslim american community - the man links the reichstag fire to 9/11, a bridge falls in his district on the very day that fact is publicized very clearly.
what coincidence?
p.s. this is blog node number 911Â
Thanks --
Tahooey and Kate, but really, it was pretty easy to connect the dots thanks to youtube!
The one video of the collapse itself is a security camera vid, short and low-res, that you can see at the Wikipedia entry:
yes, i viewed that last night on wiki
i really think that poor bastard was threatened/punished..it just fits
is this how the mossad/mafia operates?
Chertoff's DHS's immediate response that "this was not an act of terrorism" struck me as weird...
and then there's this:
"Although the Board's investigation is still on-going and no determination of probable cause has been reached, interim findings in the investigation have revealed a safety issue that warrants attention," said NTSB Chairman Mark V. Rosenker. "During the wreckage recovery, investigators discovered that gusset plates at eight different joint locations in the main center span were fractured. The Board, with assistance from the FHWA, conducted a thorough review of the design of the bridge, with an emphasis on the design of the gusset plates. This review discovered that the original design process of the I-35W bridge led to a serious error in sizing some of the gusset plates in the main truss."[9]
Speaking of coincidence...
While bizarre events have entirely surrounded the preceding weeks of my life, today weirdness of the highest order transpired. Last night was, once again, eventful -- it just wasn't too pretty, and I think it's best to just not go there. Anyway, at noon I took a walk, occasionally sat, smoked & wondered, then went to the bakery. Afterwards, I took a little detour to a bench at the station, rolled another cig, and headed home. As I went around the station's corner, a lonesome poker card lying face-down on the sidewalk caught my eye -- only hours before and two stone throws away, someone I hold in very high esteem had been...coquetting with a certain variant of poker, let's just say. Being the ever curious and not afraid to dig in the dirt guy I am, I picked the card up, and in the instant before I turned it over thought to myself: "Queen of hearts, eh?"
And sure enough, so it was.
Coincidence?
"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh" --Voltaire
PS: "laughs" phonetical cousin certainly would fit this story just as well, though. And great catch, cass! Sorry that lately, I'm only blabbering off-topic...