Why 'Shovel-Ready' Isn't, And Why Obama Won't Ever Create Jobs

Himself admits 'shovel-ready' never happened, and blathers about creating some sort of gubbermint bank for infrastructure projects (no moral hazard there, huh?), and the unemployment rate continues to climb, food stamp dependency rises monthly (36% of Alabama now on food stamps...), and somehow in Obamaland, it's all because dose wascawy Wepubwikans won't let him spend enough money.

This is just one example of what happens anytime anyone anywhere in our fair country wants to build a road, or dam, or drill an oil well, or open a quarry, or...

INDIANAPOLIS — Environmentalists have filed a lawsuit aimed at stopping construction of the Interstate 69 extension in Southern Indiana, claiming the project violates federal environmental laws.

Landowners affected by the I-69 project, Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads and the I-69 Accountability Project filed the suit in federal court in Indianapolis on Monday, a week after federal highway officials signed off on the final environmental review for the stretch from the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center to Bloomington.

The groups contend that the highway project threatens the endangered Indiana bat and violates the federal Endangered Species Act.

A spokesman for Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads said the group believes the state highway department underestimated in its count of nearly 1,500 geologic features such as sinkholes, caves and springs in the path of the latest approved section.

“I-69 should never have been routed through this extremely environmentally sensitive area,” Thomas Tokarski said.

It isn't like the State of Indiana didn't do its homework before they turned the first spade of dirt. It takes millions of dollars and years of time just to get over the regulatory hurdles, after the design work, putting the money together, etc. That's before anybody moves one shovel full of dirt.

Even with all that done, there's always an 'environmental' group to file suit on behalf of some endangered rodent, or eyeless fish that lives in a cave. 'Cuz every square foot of land is 'extremely environmentally sensitive'.

It's the classic shakedown, Chicago-style, always staged by enthusiastic Obama supporters. Pay us off, or we shut you down.

Locally, here in Tennessee, State Route 840 was stopped dead in its tracks by 'Native American' groups after the environmental scam stopped working. They claimed that aboriginal graves lay along the route, and would be disturbed. Turns out they couldn't show any line of relation between those graves, dating from centuries ago by aborigines who left nothing except bones and arrowheads behind, and any current 'Native Americans'. But there was a deal struck anyway, and a settlement, etc.

This is the verbiage that opens the TN-840 website:

In 1986, State Route 840 was initiated as part of the state’s Better Roads Program to provide economic growth by improving access to communities in Middle Tennessee. On the 78-mile route, 66 miles are open to traffic, with approximately 12 miles remaining in some phase of construction in Williamson County. The entire route is scheduled to be open to traffic by December 2012.

That's not a typo, ya'll! They've been trying to build this road since 1986! The congestion builds in Nashville, and opportunities are lost for real businesses, creating real employment, to set up shop in Middle Tennessee. It won't finish til December 2012, 'cuz they've just begun site prep on that final short stretch where all those 'Native American' graves are supposed to exist! Twenty-six years to build seventy-eight miles of road through the countryside.

There are dams that need building, wells that need drilling, quarries that need to operate, plants that need to open.

And we have a Federal government and its allies determined to crush all of the above, all the while yammering about 'Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs'.

Both these highways open up isolated regions of their states, and create opportunities for the starved small towns nearby to come back to life.

If Obama really wants to create jobs, instead of more millions dependent upon his largesse, he would be strong-arming every one of these bogus environmental groups, and tell them to sit down and shut up.

But he won't. 'Cuz he's more interested in shutting down the economy than in ever allowing it to prosper.