United States Ports, Hoover Dam, and Urinetown

The cities of antiquity were known for their trading and commerce. Jerusalem was the intersection of camel trails. The Phoenicians were known for their maritime culture. Egyptian civilization was built on the Nile.  Even great inland cities were created on lake ports (Chicago), river ports (St. Louis), or as gateways over the mountains (Denver).

Next to its standing army, there is no other element of a society as vital to its security as its transportation and communications systems.  In times of peace, there is no structure as critical to the security of the economy as the transportation system.

Even without the concerns on international terrorism, there is no excuse for any portion of the control and management of any seaport, airport, railroad hub or interstate highway system to be any further than the Federal government and and those it licenses to manage and maintain these vital infrastructure elements.

We have seen the extension of Neocon efforts to privatize. 

In the name of national security our ports must be maintained with domestic management.  In the name of our economy, we must rethink exporting our future.

The next thing you know, Bush will propose selling the Hoover Dam and all of the water that flows over and through it to Bechtel, which now controls water, privately, throughout the world.

Bechtel took over the water supply in Cochabamba city, Bolivia, in end-1999. In the space of a few months the price of drinking water had risen by two and a half times. The reason was a government guarantee to the powerful water firm that user fees would remain the same in dollars, so every time the local currency fell the price would spiral. By January 2000, an aggrieved population had taken to the streets demanding the privatization deal be cancelled. The government had no choice but to give in, although Bechtel now threatens it with a $25 million legal battle for breach of contract.

Urinetown is just a few steps away:

Urinetown is an earnest tale of love, greed, and revolution.  The show is set in a town plagued by a 20-year drought, where water has become so scarce that private toilets have become unthinkable. At the mercy of a single dominating corporation who maintains a monoploly on the town's public amenities, the destitute citizens must pay towering taxes and fines to carry out their most private and basic of needs.