Apparently there’s such a thing as the “Kay Bailey Hutchison Desalination Plant” in El Paso. It seems like an impressive facility and the kind of thing the West is going to need more of as the water runs dry. But what’s up with the name? The former senator isn’t dead — why is something named after her?
Hutchison helped secure more than $29 million in federal funds for the project, a partnership between the local water utility and Fort Bliss. The guaranteed supply of water from the plant eased concerns over whether enough was available for the thousands of troops transferred to the Army base.
Ahh, I see. So it’s like a philanthropist who gives the money to build a new hospital and has it named after himself. Except in that case it’s his money, not mine. Senator Byrd from West Virginia was obviously the master of this kind of thing, naming every second building in the state after himself because he was the one who scammed the money out of taxpayers from the rest of the country. Next thing you know, they’ll be naming the months of the year after themselves. Oh, wait, someone already did that.
As we drown under trillions in debt, this may seem like a small thing, but it’s not. The sense of entitlement of our political class is part of what’s gotten us into this mess. Legislation preventing any government property or any project supported by public funds from being named after any current or former politicians still living would at least send the message that this isn’t their money to dispose of as they will.
A desalination plant in El Paso???
El Paso is what, 500 miles from the nearest ocean?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDesert salt water.
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Mark: try a little research and thought, it will save you some embarrassment.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMakes me recall that when George Pataki was first elected governor of NY he stated how state funded projects would not have signs with his name on them. I was a huge backer of his in the Conservative Party of NY. It wasn't long after, maybe in his second term, that his name was on the signs. Who was it that said something about politics corrupting people?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere's the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Hall in San Antonio.
The Henry B. Gonzalez Elementary School in Dallas.
For your readers sake, according to Wikipedia, "while head of the House Banking Committee, Gonzalez invited the organization ACORN "to help legislators define the goals when they were devising the new legislation covering Fannie and Freddie."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI live in West Virginia, and your comments about the late Senator Byrd are completely wrong!! This is so, because:
1. Often, instead of a mere building being named after him, it was a highway, lock and dam, or radioastronomy dish that bore his name; and
2. Sometimes the thing was named after his wife, Erma, not him.
I think that sometimes he tried to deflect criticism by claiming that it was the grateful recipients of the booty who decided to name stuff after him, and that he had nothing to do with it. What's a pork-barreler supposed to do about it?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMy own state of Louisiana has a statutory ban on naming public buildings after living people. There are still are, of course, plenty of buildings named after deceased "Sr."s, after donations or legislative prowess by living "Jr."s, and the occasional hallway or room or even stadium field named after living folks (because they aren't "buildings"), but at least the sentiment is there, and it cuts down on some of the worst abuses.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEl Paso is in the chihuahua desert. The plant treats brackish underground water.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMy dad loved Kay Bailey Hutchison, to the point of being a groupie.
I never saw the attraction -- only that sense of entitlement. That sense seems to have emerged from her being a _woman_ senator (somehow a breakthrough in Texas politics). Sad really; but proof that Texas has that "progressive" streak.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe website for the El Paso plant says that it's desalinating "brackish groundwater", not river or ocean water.
It's long past time for massive desalination on the Gulf Coast and especially in California. Los Angeles has an ocean and plenty of sun, but it still relies on a loooooong aquifer from the mountains. No excuse for such inefficiency.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'll admit I didn't read the article, but could it be that the military folks named it that? Though I still don't like the idea of naming anything after a living person, if someone else does the naming (and it's not in the legislation authorizing the money and such), then I'm not as inclined to hold it against the individual.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is the Texas Way. Most their larger public works are named for the pol who got it for them.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou speak boldly *now*, Krikorian, but just you wait...the Tea Party won't be around forever, you know...and then you might wish you had chosen more wisely in your friendships. If a patron wishes to name something after themselves, who are we to begrudge the great?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseKBH is one of the queens of earmarks and pork.
It isn't just named for her. They commissioned a portrait of her to hang in the facility.
And you REALLY need to see the news photo of her admiring her portrait in the facility named for her, to appreciate the event:
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That photo utterly embodies, for me, everything that is wrong with Congress. Politicians landing funding for a project so they can then bask in the admiration, portrait and all. When alleged conservatives do things like this, it is little wonder that the nation is beyond broke.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSpeaking of Hutchinson and naming things after dead people, I've always been fascinated by the fact that the Hutchinson Parkway, north of NYC in Westchester, is named after Anne B. Hutchinson who lived in the 16th century. How many people from that era - aside from famous explorer-types like Columbus, DeLeon and generic 'Kings' and 'Queens' - have modern-day highways named after them?
Where I grew up I've seen roads named for local politicians in the 70's and 80's already renamed after presumably newer politicians, etc.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOoops, caught my misreading of Hutchison - gotta keep those glasses handy. But it doesn't change my point.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseActually, the parkway is named "Hutchinson River Parkway", after the river it parallels, which in turn was named after Anne H a century or more previously.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMy other pet peeve is the names of our ships of war. I have no problem naming them after cities or counties or states or battles. There's a long tradition for that. But, I have believed for a very long time that ships should only be named after people if those people have given the ultimate sacrifice for their country, or perhaps have been awarded the Medal of Honor.
John Murtha, a Congressmen who was as crooked as there has ever been called a half-dozen marines "war criminals" from the floor of the House Chamber, and for that, he has a ship named after him. It's criminal.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseScott: I couldn't agree more: External Link
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNo ship for Eisenhower, or Washington?
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