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Sunday, February 8, 2009
Mark Sanford: We’re closing in on a ‘savior-based economy’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In an interview with CNN on Sunday about the federal stimulus package, Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina succeeded in uniting economics and sacrilege.
“We’re moving precipitously close to what I would call a savior-based economy,” Sanford said.
See the clip below.
More from Sanford:
“A savior-based economy sort of is definitial of what you see in Russia or Venezuela or Zimbabwe or places like that where it matters not how good your product is to the consumer but what your political connection is to those in power.
“”And if you think about the power that’s been granted to the fed of the Treasury, it has savior-like qualities. Everybody knows that we’re in an economic slowdown. But the consideration now is, if I can just get my word, if I can be the plaintiff to the right person in Washington D.C., I can get these things fixed.
“That is quite different than a market-based economy where some rise and some fall but there’s a consequence to making a stupid decision.”
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Politics and a maglev train: Where they connect, and where they don’t
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One of the more curious spots where science intersects with politics in Georgia can be found at the end of a red dirt road in west Cobb County, amid the scrubland of U.S. 278.
A series of concrete pylons support a 2,000-foot rail of aluminum and steel. A sleek fiberglass shell — converted from the white, upside-down hull of a seagoing yacht — occasionally glides along the track’s length, levitating on a force field of electromagnets.
Tony Morris, a civil engineer from Georgia Tech, has been selling a poor man’s maglev train as a cure for metro Atlanta’s transportation ills.
Over the last several months, a parade of politicians have made the pilgrimage to see the showpiece of American Maglev Technology and its president — U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey, a handful of state lawmakers and local elected officials, even a delegation from the state Department of Transportation.
For each visitor, Morris or an assistant flicks a switch, and the former yacht rises a half-inch or so, floating nearly friction-free. Morris puts his 51-year-old shoulder to the hovering mass of steel and plastic, and pushes it a few inches up the line, all by himself.
“Impressive,” said Isakson. “Intriguing,” said state Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock).
Most VIPs are treated to brief, near-soundless ride in the cabin, controlled by a joystick hooked up to a laptop computer. Morris said he’s reached speeds of 35 mph on the short track. Computer modeling indicates he might reach 120 mph on a longer stretch.
But a maglev train in Shanghai, built with German technology, zips across an 18-mile strip of China at 260 mph. And that’s what Georgia rail enthusiasts want between Atlanta and Chattanooga.
“If we’re talking about a greater plan that goes from Chicago one day, to Miami one day, a 120-mile-per-hour vehicle — it’s pointless,” said Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.
But high-speed maglev in the United States is the pipedream, says Morris. At $200 million a mile, no government is likely to come up with the money in the near future. And the straight lines required by such speeds would create a “moral” nightmare of land acquisition, he says.
The engineer says his low-speed maglev train, by using unoccupied interstate right-of-way, could be had for a tenth of the cost. But more than thrift, Morris sells impatience — frustration with all the talk, and nothing but talk, when it comes to moving people by rail.
Morris and his company have been angling for $45 million offered up by the Federal Railroad Administration. Hence the demonstrations for local politicians, who were offered the possibility of immediate action.
”The whole world is study-weary right now,” Morris said. “Rather than do another environmental study to figure out what flora and fauna will be rendered extinct in Calhoun as a result of this system, let’s build something.”
Morris proposed an experimental, $57 million maglev line between Kennesaw State University and Town Center mall in Cobb. His company would front any matching funds. “Since we need to put people to work, this summer, we could be putting in columns,” Morris said.
But one of the state’s several transportation agencies must make the application, due this week, for the federal money. And none will agree to a partnership with Morris and AMT.
This isn’t the story about a man with vision frustrated by a reluctant bureaucracy. There’s more to it than that.
Seven years ago, Morris and AMT began an effort to build an experimental, one-mile line across the campus Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. Technical glitches and funding shortfalls buried the project.
Morris shrugs it off as a learning experience. Trial-and-error that resulted in a better, current creation. “It’s a messy business to create technology,” he said.
But this is exactly where science and politics fail to connect.
Politics, especially in hard times, is all about the sure thing. “The whole problem is, [Morris] wants you to be the pilot,” said Sam Olens, chairman of the Cobb County Commission. “If it doesn’t work, you’re a goat. It’d be great if he’s right.”
Morris is on to other projects. His best prospect, right now, is a maglev line moving freight out of the port of Los Angeles.
In the meantime, he offers this thought to ponder while you sit in traffic: “Sometimes, people have to give politicians the permission to take a well-calculated risk.”
Photo credits: Sean Drakes, Calvin Cruce/AJC
