So Mike Rowe is gonna add Congressional Lobbyist to his list of done jobs

Jstas

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/29/wednesdays-intriguing-people-27/?hpt=T2

Mike Rowe

Two years ago, the Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs" host launched a private effort to end what he called America's "war on work." He set up a website called MikeRoweWorks, and video-blogged about the way vocational schools were seeing their number of applicants decline, and how trade labor was being marginalized. Additionally, he talked about how there weren't enough welders, pavers, pipefitters and other skilled workers to keep America's bridges and roads from "literally falling apart."

Rowe's mission could reach critical mass Wednesday when he arrives on Capitol Hill with members of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. They'll lobby Congress to pass a bill requiring that the federal stimulus funds directed toward transportation actually be spent. To date, Rowe and company claim, only 3 percent of the funds allotted have actually been distributed.

The spending won't just mean safer highways and roads, Rowe said. It will mean more jobs for America.

"Our infrastructure is the connective tissue that keeps our polite society out of the ditch," Rowe said in a statement Tuesday. "Fixing the infrastructure is a job that will have no end."

Pretty cool, I think. I like seeing a celebrity use their fame for an issue that will make a difference instead of some pie-in-the-sky ideal that they think we should care about. I hope they can change some minds and make a difference.

bobman1235

Mike Rowe is my hero.

vc69

Ditto.

ryanjoachim

bobman1235 wrote: »

Mike Rowe is my hero.

Agreed.

amulford

He's right. The infrastructure in this country is crumbling and if it isn't addressed a very large portion of the population is going to lose these civilized "luxuries".

There is a huge amount of funds set aside for these long overdue repairs. It needs to be spent, and I mean spent on actual repairs, not doled out to political cronies for pork barrel projects or hoarded up by governmental "feasiblity studies".

The trade unions are in decline. Skilled workers are becoming scarce. Building trades as a whole are being undermined. (something you can thank the lax enforcement of immigration laws, but we don't EVEN want to get me started on that...) There seems to be some sort of stigmata attached to working with your hands anymore.

I applaud his efforts. About time someone went to the Hill for some other than special interests...

fishbones

Good on him!

tonyb

Really it's the lack of will from your state that lets bridges crumble. Every year each state gets x amount for Highway repairs,varies by state of coarse. This was never intended to be the only source of money to fix infrastructure but to suppliment the states. Too many have relied on that fed money as the only source for improvments.
Bridges are very expensive, any given state will employ more people by spreading those fed dollars around so it looks to the average voter that they are doing something good. Have you ever wondered why they rip up streets that they may have just done 5 years ago ? It creates a visual all over the state for voters versus a couple bridges here and there. Chicago is a perfect example,every summer almost every expressway is under construction and rarely does a bridge in need get attention. The unions lobby,er...pay, lawmakers on what projects to fund, that will employ the most union workers, and guess what,bridges ain't one of them. This past couple years, that fed money has become less and less thus yours truely has been out of work for over a year now. Thats what happens when you rely on the fed for your survival and you have state officials who don't know how to live within a budget.

Sherardp

I like Mike, he's a cool dude in my book.

Danny Tse

Only 3% of the stimulus funds directed towards transportation has been spend? Why are they holding onto the money?

I must say that there has been a lot of transportation-related construction happening in the Bay Area, beginning about 2 years ago. But then we are talking about freeway overpasses that have holes on the road surface where you can see underneath. Or bridges with safety ratings lower than the one that collapsed in Minnesota. Not to mention city streets that haven't been repaved in 30+ years.

Still, what are they waiting for?

ohskigod

amulford wrote: »

He's right. The infrastructure in this country is crumbling and if it isn't addressed a very large portion of the population is going to lose these civilized "luxuries".

what? you mean actually spend the trillion dollar stimulus on something that will actually have a marked, measurable, and noticable benefit?


now thats just crazy talk right there. :rolleyes:;)

messiah

bobman1235 wrote: »

Mike Rowe is my hero.

Amen to that!

dorokusai

Good for him in regards to trying to do something positive for the working man. I believe Mike is a Balt-tee-more Marylander to boot, so screw you rest of the nation.

hearingimpared

He's a good man!

Knucklehead

So Mike Rowe is gonna add Congressional Lobbyist to his list of dirty jobs

John, I fixed the title for ya.

I like him as well.

markmarc

Mike Rowe correctly points out the dropping number of skilled trained workers. How do we increase that number? BRING BACK Industrial Arts classes to our jr high and high schools. 30% of high school graduates end up in a noble trade career, yet we have all but destroyed that type of education in favor of hiring more foreign language teachers (my high school in 1980 had 6 for 1600 students, it now has 12, while 4 shop teachers are down to just one) for the 3-5% that will use that in their career.

Many of our behavior problem students are the type that excel in hands on shop classes, and smart administrators used shop class as a carrot for good behavior in regular classes.

tonyb

markmarc wrote: »

Mike Rowe correctly points out the dropping number of skilled trained workers. How do we increase that number? BRING BACK Industrial Arts classes to our jr high and high schools. 30% of high school graduates end up in a noble trade career, yet we have all but destroyed that type of education in favor of hiring more foreign language teachers (my high school in 1980 had 6 for 1600 students, it now has 12, while 4 shop teachers are down to just one) for the 3-5% that will use that in their career.

Many of our behavior problem students are the type that excel in hands on shop classes, and smart administrators used shop class as a carrot for good behavior in regular classes.

Very good point. Pretty much all have been done away with here. Some kids just aren't book smart and will never make it to college. Alot of these kids learn by showing them how to work with their hands and thus can become productive members of society by learning a trade instead of being a drain on society and it's welfare programs.