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- jepaco, on 09/08/2008, -14/+125Palin seems to lie when she speaks. It could prove to be a problem for her.
- workfaster, on 09/09/2008, -7/+85Why is everyone so mean to Alaska's Empress of Earmarks?
- cadmiumpaint, on 09/09/2008, -2/+70she was against the bridge, but for keeping all the money.
- duckley, on 09/08/2008, -21/+77Palin.
Lies.
Period.
AND HIDES OUT HERE: http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Where_s_Palin_Se ... - TheJimid, on 09/09/2008, -10/+58Amazing teenage pregnancies and lies, is the GOP recruiting their candidates from Jerry Springer?
- inactive, on 09/09/2008, -2/+45Those Politicos in Alaska really know how to hack the system. Did you know that Alaska received more in pork barrels than their residents paid in taxes in last few years!!! Now think about that for the second.
- deadbaby, on 09/09/2008, -2/+40Democrats, it's time to get our eye back on the ball. John McCain is at the top of this ticket, not Sarah Palin. She's certainly a curious sideshow but she's not the main attraction. We should be talking about John McCain's record. He's basically getting a free pass right now on his message on tax cuts for the rich, constant never ending war, the hypocrisy of cozying up to Bush, the carefully crafted but completely meaningless "maverick" image, and most importantly his ridiculous belief that the economy is doing well under Republican leadership. These are the issues that win the election. What dress Sarah decided to wear on prom night has no meaning other than to satisfying the liberal circle jerk of outage to see who can write the most petulant blog post about her. Get your heads back into the game and focus on the real issues. You're falling into McCain's gimmick to deflect attention from him because he knows if the American people really learn about his career as a politician they will not want him to be President.
- digitalmischief, on 09/09/2008, -7/+42roads to nowhere, bridges to nowhere, and a republican ticket going nowhere... i sense a theme
- JohnnyDIGGme, on 09/09/2008, -5/+39I'm glad I'm Canadian.
- Meadow113, on 09/09/2008, -1/+35This link explains this better: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN31255370200809 ...
She kept the money anyway for the bridge: National fury over the bridge caused Congress to remove the earmark designation, but Alaska was still granted an equivalent amount of transportation money to be used at its own discretion.
She makes it sound like she turned down the money and didn't build the bridge, she just didn't build the bridge, she still got the money.
With the access road, she could either build the access road to nowhere or NO Money, so she built the access road to nowhere...
So much for being anti-pork...
Maybe someone in the nice media can find out where she DID spend that bridge to nowhere money, hmmm if you believe that will happen, I have a bridge to nowhere to sell you;) - sugarazor, on 09/09/2008, -8/+33Umm... the Bridge to Nowhere, selling the jet on ebay, Obama's never authored a piece of legislation, abstinence-only education works, firing her chef, and pretty much everything else she's ever said?
- bongfarmer, on 09/09/2008, -3/+27And John McCain made her famous
- Photokon, on 09/09/2008, -2/+23Free ***** is cool till you have to pay for it.
- radarbeam, on 09/09/2008, -4/+25I don't know...maybe her stance on the Bridge to Nowhere for example... Did you even read the freakin, article?
- vacax, on 09/09/2008, -8/+28Another Palin story ready to be buried as inaccurate by the Republican damage-control squad. Please be aware, however, that this is completely accurate.
- arTech, on 09/09/2008, -2/+22So she was for it before she was against it? Wait. That sounds familiar, but I didn't see any flip-flops at the RNC.
- sugarazor, on 09/09/2008, -8/+27"That luxury jet was over the top. I put it on eBay." - Palin
John McCain took it a step further and said she sold it for profit. And funny you ignore the other lies I pointed out. So please, go away trollboy, go collect your McCain Points or something. - GoneGreen, on 09/09/2008, -3/+20It actually wasn't to "Nowhere" it was actually to an island next to ketchikan island where the airport is. The bridge was however almost completely useless because they have ferries they currently use and the expense was completely unjustified....
- bongfarmer, on 09/09/2008, -1/+18Your right, but I'm paying about $5000 a year for university at one of the countries most expensive schools, nothing for my universal health care, and other such goodies
The point is the Canadian system is more transparent and accountable, wasteful spending is nowhere close to America, of course taking into account the smaller GNP. This type of stuff doesn't happen here. We kicked out the ruling federal party when something like 15 million(forget actual amount, ballpark) were spend inappropriately.(Althou there were other issues with that) - Photokon, on 09/09/2008, -2/+18That's because she no longer had federal funding. Of course she was against it after she had to pay for it. Who doesn't like free *****.
- sugarazor, on 09/09/2008, -4/+18Yes, hence the "for it BEFORE she was against it." She was all for it until it became a national embarrassment.
- radarbeam, on 09/09/2008, -5/+19No, you buried it because this article shows the true colors of the republican princess and you can't stand the heat on her.
- pintomp3, on 09/09/2008, -3/+17she is trying to have her cake and eat it too. she hired a lobbyist to get her small town $26 million in earmarks, and then turns around and claims to be a fighter against earmarks. she supported the bridge until the political winds turned against it. even as governor, she got more pork per capita than any other state. if she wants to say she was just getting the most for her constituency, that would be a perfectly honest and acceptable answer. instead she is lying and claiming to be the opposite.
- toetagger, on 09/09/2008, -2/+15They like to think they're self sufficient conservatives with no taxes etc... but then they get the rest of the country's tax payers to pay their way.
- bugsy187, on 09/09/2008, -2/+15I think the real issue is that she's a pretty lousy candidate, but some people support her for some bizarre reason.
She was the best the republican party could find? You guys really want to stay in Iraq basically indefinitely?? Have you learned NOTHING from the past 8 years?? - McNally, on 09/09/2008, -4/+16>Maybe she needed the money for the access road so she could put in a ferry boat terminal to replace the bridge.
Sorry, no. No new ferry terminal has been built or even proposed.
>Maybe the cost of the bridge was crazy expensive because they'd be building it on permafrost and environmental restrictions placed on the project made normal construction methods impossible.
Again, no. Ketchikan is probably the better part of 1000 miles south of the nearest area where permafrost is a major construction issue -- our climate here (I live in Ketchikan) is temperate coastal rainforest. Our winters in Ketchikan, thanks to warm ocean currents, are wamer and less severe than those in the northeastern, midwestern, and Rocky Mountain states. Average winter temperature in town is in the high 30s -- usually only have a few weeks per winter where the temperature falls below freezing.
There's currently no compelling reason to build the access road on the Gravina Island side, except that "free" money was available for the project and there is a local constituency that wants it built (even so, the town has been pretty divided about the proposed bridge and there's a substantial portion of the local population who approve of the project's cancellation.) As far as the access road is concerned, I believe that if the state or local governments had been required to raise even 10% of the money to build it it wouldn't have happened. And in my opinion if you can't bring yourself to pay 10% for something when someone else bears 90% of the cost, chances are you didn't really need it enough to ask them to bear 100% of the cost.
That said.. Palin's not any worse in this regard than any other Alaska politician (and is substantially better than some.) However, she's not the budget-cutting maverick she's trying to make herself out to be, either. - bugsy187, on 09/09/2008, -2/+14Just imagine if Obama's V.P. was almost completely inexperienced, had a pregnant daughter, lied about earmark spending, kept trying to sell nonsense about being from a small town and tough, and kept pushing private religious views.
- omegared, on 09/09/2008, -1/+12ya i guess us Canadians understand something, you know there should be revenue to pay for stuff, instead of increasing the national debt. How much is America's debt? Canada is paying down the nation debt every year since 1995. Taxes in Alberta are 10% provincial and no sales tax.
god i wish Canada could spend billions like America. Taxes are stupid, future generations can pay them. - sugarazor, on 09/09/2008, -6/+17So we're arguing semantics? You mean to tell me that the "I put it on ebay" line wasn't to imply it was sold on ebay? What about McCain saying she sold it at a profit on ebay? So since you mentioned *****, nice spin there, Trolly McTrollerson.
- bongfarmer, on 09/09/2008, -2/+13The cost of the bridge was determined in 2005. She didn't know this in 2006 when she made the comments? Is incompetence better?
- arTech, on 09/09/2008, -1/+11@superkendall: She's using it for he campaign ads. That's what I call lies. She doesn't even say she was "for it". She's claiming she's always been against it. You see the difference here?
- Taiyoryu, on 09/09/2008, -2/+12I can thank Palin for one thing. For putting a spotlight on Alaska and showing how inequitable the redistribution of federal taxes has been.
Arizona, the second fastest growing state in the nation, will receive just $18.70 per capita in federal earmarks this fiscal year. By comparison, Alaska — with roughly a tenth of Arizona's population — is set to receive $506.34 per capita, the highest in the nation, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group which tracks earmarks.
Alaska 1st, Ariz. last in pork spending
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-03-22 ...
And note that article is from March, LONG before Palin came into the picture.
Talk about getting a free lunch. Alaska residents get a profit sharing dividend from the Alaska Permanent Fund of approximately $2000 per eligible person. If dependent children are eligible as well that's like $8000 per household. If earmarks for Alaska amount to only $500 per person, and each Alaskan is bringing home 4 times that simply by being a resident for one year, the state doesn't even NEED earmarks. They can most certainly afford to fund their own improvement projects. Instead, they keep their oil money, and then request handouts, I mean earmarks from the federal government. - mbonzo531, on 09/09/2008, -2/+12@superkendal: This isn't a discusion about Obama, we're talking about Palin. Just because when a republican ***** up and then claims that the democrats did something equally as bad doesn't mean you can take the blame off of them. Stick to the subject.
And for your information the surge hasn't work. What has worked is the bribes that the US is handing out to the local gangs. People are still dying, I don't care if its ten less people a month. Choose your words carefully, the situation was horrific, now its slightly less horrific because of the bribes. - tb0n3, on 09/09/2008, -0/+10I actually lived in Ketchikan, AK about eight years ago and I can say from experience that the first "bridge to nowhere" is absolutely rediculous. The only reason residents of Ketchikan have to cross over this relatively narrow body of water is to go to the airport. The ferry runs frequently, takes about five minutes and costs (when I lived there) $4 a person and you could take your car along with you. As for the people living on Gravina Island, well they moved there before there was an idea for a bridge and most of them own boats and use them to commute to work each day. By the way, this body of water ALMOST NEVER freezes over as Ketchikan is the most southern town in Alaska.
- Ajajadude, on 09/09/2008, -2/+12I think we already knew that. What's being said is that she, at one point, supported it. And, for some strange reason, decided it would be a great idea to spend $24 million on the Road to Nowhere.
- Rowan187, on 09/09/2008, -0/+8besides, the ferrys are fun to ride and seriously take FIVE minutes. If they built the bridge then they'd have to start expanding other things over there at our airport. Like a parking lot? lame! I can't wait until our town gets over this stupid bridge. (yes I'm from Ketchikan)
- hangingchad, on 09/09/2008, -5/+13I'm all for looking at the big picture. HOWEVER, I have a big problem when she uses the whole I opposed the bridge to nowhere, fought the old boy network corruption, I'm an agent of change angle as a campaign platform. This is an outright lie to the American public. By your own words, she is just like any other governor, she is no agent of change.
I understand she is trying to get the most for her fellow Alaskans. Maybe that's why she was a part of the Alaskan Independence Party.
By the way, 300 Million is 300 million....don't devalue the currency more then it already has been. A million here, a million there, and sooner or later it's gonna add up to real money...sheesh. - inactive, on 09/09/2008, -2/+10If you are so confident, why are you spamming the thread with hit & run comments that are basically just childish insults?
- btschul, on 09/09/2008, -4/+12http://www.cdobs.com/archive/our-columns/obama-and ... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2077718/p ... http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/09/figures- ... http://wordpress.com/tag/obama-and-biden-vote-for- ... http://blogwonks.com/2008/09/08/obama-and-biden-vo ... http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Obama_and_Biden_ ... http://www.foundingbloggers.com/wordpress/2008/09/ ... http://messageboards.aol.com/aol/en_us/articles.ph ... Is....is that enough? Should I go on?
- napk, on 09/09/2008, -2/+10That's from 2007, Chief. The history on this story goes back a bit further than that.
- rednip, on 09/09/2008, -1/+9It should be noted that the cost ran higher than expected, and stopped it the federal government money wouldn't cover it. So in the end, she killed it rather than even partially funding it with good Alaska money, but kept the all of the money for other important Alaskan projects.
It's funny that Ms. Earmarks from the state of Earmarks is actually making them an issue. Give it another week or two, when McCain drops all of his convention bounce and more, she'll quit the race citing 'family problems'. - stonewall123, on 09/09/2008, -3/+10Its not the support for the bridge that had people up in arms. Its the fact that these are talking points she has used in major speeches (i.e. RNC). She could not have given a worse example of how she is against earmarks.
- Ajajadude, on 09/09/2008, -3/+10...the topic of the article?
- inactive, on 09/09/2008, -10/+16The woman is a Jesus Freak soccer mom with no economic or foreign policy experience what-so-ever. Why is she even on the ticket??
- mbonzo531, on 09/09/2008, -0/+6@COINTELPROAgent: oh yes the omnipotent Obama has proven me wrong. I hope you know my comment wasn't supporting Obama and you were just being sarcastic. Like I said earlier most Pro-McCainers are making this an issue of McCain v Obama in every political topic posted on Digg. The truth is that this is a Palin v Palin topic. She contradicted herself and thats what should be analyzed in discussion, not Obama's stance on the war. Its typical Republican ***** to have a major *****-up and then make a desultory attack on an opponent to make the people forget about their incompetence.
- Lemmsjid, on 09/09/2008, -3/+9People aren't attacking Palin over the "Bridge to Nowhere" project itself. It was well within her job description as governor to fight as hard as she could for federal dollars. The part that angers us is that she led the public to believe that she had rejected it outright. She also led us to believe that her rejection of it should indicate to us that she, as Vice President, would similarly reject other pork barrel spending. Well, she didn't reject the Bridge to Nowhere, so we can no longer draw that conclusion.
You could even argue that the "Bridge to Nowhere" is a classic New Deal (liberal) project, where even though the value of the end product is debatable, you are still pumping money into the local economy by keeping infrastructure workers employed and working. Perhaps Palin is a closet liberal :). - hangingchad, on 09/09/2008, -2/+8She killed it after it became a source of national embarrassment. If she initially approved it, she must have been thinking that this is in the best interest of the Alaskan people. However, as soon as it got too hot in the kitchen, she dumped it and took all the credit for being a "maverick". So much for looking after your fellow Alaskans' interests.
This would be like Bush pulling out of the Iraq War now saying he won't support this wasteful spending and then claiming he's a fiscal conservative and an agent for peace. - Ajajadude, on 09/09/2008, -3/+9Hmmm, you still seem to dodging the Bridge to Nowhere point that was brought up and focusing on the semantics of a statement that doesn't really matter.
- Meadow113, on 09/09/2008, -5/+11We are criticizing her for LYING about doing it.
- magus_melchior, on 09/09/2008, -3/+9Kneejerk reaction.... bury.
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