The Chair of that committee was Sen. Fritz Hollings, a Democrat. He and
I wrote to him and he wrote back saying that "surely" states would not
revert. Harumph!
The South Carolina Highway Commission at that time was run by a bunch of
old Democratic cronies of Fritz's. At the time they were resisting a lot
of pressure in order to avoid metricating South Carolina's DOT. I
strongly suspect they put a bug in his ear.
Democracy: One man; one vote. Other men; not a chance. Reagan's one
advisor caused the U.S. Metric Board to be defunded. One Senator killed
the deadline date (but not the requirement) for state DOTs to metricate.
Jim
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Regarding the DOT regression from metrication, remember that it was the
Republican -controlled Congress that insisted on amending the Transportation
Act in that way. It was not politically feasible for Bill Clinton to veto that
bill over just that one amendment.
So, blame the Repubs for that gem, Brian.
Ezra
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Brian J White <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
At 11:12 2007-10-08, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Dear Paul,
Thanks for sharing this letter with us. I find it a bit surprising
that a state like New York hasn't got there yet.
Hopefully, now that they have a Democratic governor and (I believe)
a Democratic legislature, the atmosphere in Albany is more
progressive and open to adopting this kind of measure.
I wouldn't go that far. Bush Sr is who signed the Omnibus Trade Act
of 1988 and it was the Clinton administration that didn't further
some teeth with it. Also it was under the Clinton administration
that DOTs that had already started converting or already converted
got screwed because they removed the provision saying DOTs didn't
have to convert. So those that didn't came out smelling like a
rose...and those that did pretty much wasted the effort and have
since reverted unfortunatly.
As is fitting with our idiotic government's toying with metrication
over the years...a bunch of false starts and almost zero progress.
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(H) 931.657.3107
(C) 931.212.0267
