Crashing, Burning and Politics

Yesterday a car collided with my bus. It was a very minor incident, no one was injured- in fact, no one inside the bus noticed it at all, the car hit the windowless rear of the bus and bounced off- the damage seemed limited to a headlight and a bumper, but still...you gotta wonder how one manages to rear-end a bus.

Anyway, local traffic got more interesting this morning. Interesting traffic is never good.
To the north, I-95 had been the scene of a fiery crash(above) which shut down all southbound traffic for hours when a tractor-trailer apparently collided with three other trucks that were parked , somehow causing the" carpeting materials" in one of the parked trucks to burst into flames:

Three tractor-trailers were parked along the side of I-95 south near the rest area. Police are investigating whether the drivers had pulled over to sleep or for some other reason. Police don't believe it was for an emergency.

A tractor-trailer driven by 47-year-old Wilson Greene of Richmond swerved to the right, Cunningham said. It hit the rear and middle tractor-trailers on the shoulder. The middle one hit the first.

The middle truck was carrying the carpet material that was on fire much of the morning, Cunningham said.

This afternoon there was a much more serious incident less than a mile away. We could see the traffic jam from the office.

An accident involving a tractor trailer and other vehicles has shut down Interstate 95 North at the Belvidere Street exit.

According to Richmond Fire crews, a tractor trailer flipped over and burst into flames. There are reports that several people were trapped. State Police reported several vehicles were also engulfed by the flames.

8News has learned there one person has died in this accident and five other people were injured, three of those were seriously wounded.

There is no word yet on how long the northbound lanes will be closed but expect major traffic delays in the area.

I saw the eyewitness accounts on TV. What they described was horrible, it seems that the fire occurred under a bridge and the tunnel formed by the bridge and the highway walls served as a sort of oven, roasting the trapped vehicles- it's amazing that there was only one fatality.

Speaking of burning disasters, has anyone noticed that Bush is still president? The Democrats dropped back and punted on the war budget, but at least five members of the House had the balls to say out loud what many of us are thinking:

(APN) ATLANTA – US Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) has become the fifth total co-sponsor of US Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s (D-OH) bill to impeach Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney, Atlanta Progressive News has learned. In addition to Kucinich, the additional three Members of Congress who have signed on to H. Res 333 are US Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-IL), William Lacy Clay (D-MO), and Albert Wynn (D-MD).

"This Administration has continued to erode the trust of the American people and enough is simply enough," stated US Rep. Clarke in a press release issued first to Atlanta Progressive News.

"H.Res. 333 was introduced to the House of Representatives by Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio on April 24, 2007, and asserts that the vice president manipulated intelligence to make the case for going to war with Iraq, falsified a connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda, and has threatened aggression against Iran," US Rep. Clarke says.

Amen! This from Rep. Wynn (D-Spine):

"Vice President Dick Cheney is the architect of the Administration's deception about the war. Cheney persistently and deliberately deceived the Congress and the American people about the existence of Weapons of Mass Destruction and the alleged link between Saddam Hussein and the attack on September 11th. There should be a serious dialogue about the conduct of this Administration. Cheney should be held accountable for purposely misleading the American people. Despite the obvious lack of success on the ground, Vice President Cheney continued a barrage of propaganda claiming that we were winning the war and successfully rebuilding Iraq which is patently false. His statements and representations about the situation inIraq amount to malfeasance for which he should be taken to task."

Remember, this is the same country that impeached a competent President for lying about blowjobs. It's not unreasonable to ask that BushCo be held accountable for Iraq, is it?

If it's unreasonable to ask that, then let's be unreasonable.

"If you would be unloved and forgotten, be reasonable."
-Eliot Rosewater, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater
( Kurt Vonnegut, 1965)