Instead of the blue screen of death, let’s call it the blue span of death. Like the bridge to nowhere, Microsoft has somehow gotten its hands on $11 million of the stimulus dollars to build a bridge that will connect Microsoft to . . . well . . . Microsoft.
This is another example of Obama deciding he knows what’s best and us winding up with a raw deal.
“It’s going create just under 400 jobs for 18 months constructing the bridge,” says Redmond Mayor John Marchione. “It’s also connecting our technical sector with our retail and commercial sectors so people can cross the freeway to shop and help traffic flow.”
Marchione applied for federal stimulus money after costs jumped on the project from $25 million to $36 million. Marchione says the increase in costs were due to a rise in construction prices and because the bridge will be built on a diagonal in order to connect Microsoft’s original East campus with a newer West campus that are split by a public highway.
Microsoft is hardly getting the bridge for free. The company is contributing $17.5 million or a little less than half the tab of the $36 million bridge, which would be open for public use.
In other words, the taxpayers of this nation are buying Microsoft a bridge that Microsoft could afford to buy itself.
Let’s hope the bridge doesn’t crash like Vista or it really will be a span of death.
Caleb Howe
bs
Moe Lane
Dan McLaughlin
Vladimir
Mark Impomeni
I remember this bridge that everybody was outraged about.
Achance Tuesday, March 31st at 10:39AM EDT (link)It didn’t increase the federal transportation budget by one dime that year and actually connected a real town to a real airport, it’s only link to the World that moved more than 20 mph.
It had people all over America, including quite a few here, calling for the recall of the Congressman who backed it, supporting his opponent in a primary, and pronouncing the places it connected to be “nowhere.” Yeah, I remember that. Where’s the outrage? Or is Renton, WA somewhere?
In Vino Veritas
And both are better uses of money
zuiko Tuesday, March 31st at 10:55AM EDT (link)Than putting in a 12 miles of light rail track that does absolutely nothing for traffic at a cost of about a billion dollars (plus the ongoing losses from operations).
Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
Was that necessary?
nohone2 Tuesday, March 31st at 11:41AM EDT (link)As a loyal RedState reader, a MS employee, and somebody who is not entirely happy about this bridge, I find the last line completely unnecessary. We complain around here about this Presidential administration trying to ruin business, but now we have RedState trying to discredit the product of an American company? Can I start complaining about Mac and iPhone, products which I use at home along side Vista?
We didn't discredit Vista, nohone2
Neil Stevens Tuesday, March 31st at 11:43AM EDT (link)Microsoft’s customers did by not buying it, and by kicking up such a stink that XP’s lifespan was extended.
And while you’re free to bash Macs… I’ll debate you anytime on which is better for which purposes.
Want to run for conservatives? Give.
There Is No Crisis
I’d rather everyone get along, but I’ll settle for everyone united in hating me for being a jerky moderator.
So does that mean...
nohone2 Tuesday, March 31st at 12:04PM EDT (link)if Vista is a failure, and so far this year that Vista’s marketshare grew while OSX marketshare shrank (http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/41581/113/), then the market has spoken and OSX is worse than Vista?
I have a Mac mini to do software development for my iPhone (have been thinking about contacting you to write an official RedState iPhone app). So as somebody who uses both OSes, this “Vista is a crashing pile while Macs are a heavenly panacea” bit is a tired routine.
Vista was a mess
manstreammedia Tuesday, March 31st at 12:10PM EDT (link)It really would have been nice if you folks had delayed vista about 2 years. It works fine, now.
Not what I said :-)
Neil Stevens Tuesday, March 31st at 12:11PM EDT (link)You’re comparing apples and oranges (heh). I actually didn’t say in my comment that Windows was bad *because* Vista flopped relative to XP. I’m just noting that the public eye it already *is* discredited. And it seems to me that the boys in Redmond would agree. One word: Mojave.
I’d never argue that Microsoft isn’t a *business* success. Far from it. MS pioneered the software-as-product business model and has done incredibly well at it. No argument there.
And I never called Mac OS a heavenly panacea. I just think that for many uses, it’s a lot better. The tradeoffs are a net gain.
Want to run for conservatives? Give.
There Is No Crisis
I’d rather everyone get along, but I’ll settle for everyone united in hating me for being a jerky moderator.
Marketing
zuiko Tuesday, March 31st at 12:26PM EDT (link)Just because your marketing is better doesn’t mean your product is any better, whether that product is Obama or the Mac. The marketing is what public perception is based on (in both cases)… not the reality of the situation.
Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
Isn't that what 'discredit' means? Public perception is altered?
Neil Stevens Tuesday, March 31st at 12:29PM EDT (link)I thought that’s what we were talking about. Perceptions.
Want to run for conservatives? Give.
There Is No Crisis
I’d rather everyone get along, but I’ll settle for everyone united in hating me for being a jerky moderator.
So perpetuating a perception
nohone2 Tuesday, March 31st at 1:23PM EDT (link)and using that perception, even though it may not be true is OK? Is that no different than the MSM, who create a perception then exploit it to move people to their own agenda?
Ironically, I am listening to Rush right now talk about individualism vs. following the crowd.
So perpetuating a perception
nohone2 Tuesday, March 31st at 1:23PM EDT (link)and using that perception, even though it may not be true is OK? Is that no different than the MSM, who create a perception then exploit it to move people to their own agenda?
Ironically, I am listening to Rush right now talk about individualism vs. following the crowd.
Users resist change
zuiko Tuesday, March 31st at 12:12PM EDT (link)A whole lot of people were still running Windows 3.11 long after Windows 95 came along. There are still plenty of servers out there running NT4. This is not new to Vista. Vista is fine. XP is fine.
Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
I'm a commie Linux user....
Brian Johnson Tuesday, March 31st at 1:07PM EDT (link)But, that’s neither here nor there
I have to agree that I find Microsoft needing $11M from the government unnecessary and wonder why a company as successful as they are would decide to take that money.
However, what I’m interested to know is, when are the mobs with their pitchforks and torches going to decide that the top earners at MS don’t deserve their pay now that they’ve shaken hands with the devil. Wonder when our “we know better how to run your lives than you do” government will let Microsoft know how to run their business.
I don’t like Microsoft, but I don’t think they deserve what’s going to happen when the devil comes for his dues.
Brian
well...
nricciar Tuesday, March 31st at 1:40PM EDT (link)you don’t become successful by spending $11 million on a bridge, you become successful by convincing someone else to spend $11 million on a bridge.
Oh and congrats on the using the one true OS
Happy Linux user myself.
It's like that line on The Simpsons
Neil Stevens Tuesday, March 31st at 1:51PM EDT (link)“I didn’t get rich writing checks!” – Bill Gates
Want to run for conservatives? Give.
There Is No Crisis
I’d rather everyone get along, but I’ll settle for everyone united in hating me for being a jerky moderator.
Microsoft is successful enough
baserunr Tuesday, March 31st at 2:23PM EDT (link)in its own right. If the cost/benefit analysis says the bridge is a good idea, they should fund it themselves. As a long-time MS shareholder, and a longer-time resident of these United States, Microsoft should itself build whatever bridge makes the most sense, or no bridge at all. But no part of it should be paid for by taxpayers.
“The day you think you know it all is the day your trouble starts.”
Can we first make sure that no one at Microsoft earns 'too much money'?
macbigot Tuesday, March 31st at 2:59PM EDT (link)I mean, really, if the tax payers are footing the bill for this bridge, we want to make sure that no one in their employ has more wealth than everyone else…
If there are any Microsoft employees making more than $500K, they need to redistribute it right back to rest of American taxpayers, now that ‘we’ have ‘bought’ part of this ‘ailing company’.
That’s just our government selling (I mean ‘being’…) Fairness.
You get what you vote for; not what you’re promised.
Government builds roads...
fmaidment Tuesday, March 31st at 6:23PM EDT (link)I’m not saying that private business couldn’t do it better and cheaper, but as they are a shared resource that is virtually impossible to fairly charge on the basis of use, we’ve given the responsibility to government.
If the bridge was a necessary bridge to ease traffic flow, then it was a reasonable thing to build. That Microsoft has covered almost $18 million is unusual.
The $11 million increase in cost just to connect Microsoft campuses, plus the Federal support of such a poor decision, is what I see as wrong, not the bridge itself…
Follow Me on Twitter
“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”
- - Thomas Jefferson, to Archibald Stuart, 1791
Doesn't sound like public use to me
Kyle-MI Wednesday, April 1st at 12:27AM EDT (link)From the article:
“And even though the bridge goes from a parking lot behind Microsoft’s West campus across a highway to an entrance of Microsoft’s East campus, Marchione says, people other than Microsoft employees would use the overpass.”
How much is Microsoft going to like people driving through their parking lot?