The View From ‘Nowhere’

drunta wrote: "What the mayor didn't do... is explain why I should pay for it. ... I have my own bridges and road maintenance to pay for and my own community's economic needs to finance."

Drunta,

Your bridges and road maintenance are paid for from the same federal highway funds that maintain our highways and bridges across the nation. Yes, they're your tax dollars, but they're also Alaskans' tax dollars as well, and they are as entitled to them as your own community.

Here's my explanation of why you should pay for it: The standard of living that you enjoy would be impossible if not for the federally-funded transportation infrastructure that maintains roads and bridges throughout the country, regardless of a given state's revenue picture.

Do you enjoy Florida oranges, Washington apples, Maine lobsters, and/or (let's not forget) Alaskan king crab? How do you think these items arrive at your grocery store, stiill fresh? Do you think Scotty beams them there?

What if those Florida oranges had to detour around Alabama and Mississippi, or be transferred to a rail car to travel through those states, because their taxpayers simply couldn't afford to maintain highways? Do you think that the oranges would still be as fresh when they arrived at your local grocer? And how much would they cost, if your purchase price included several such transfers between rail and trucks? (This is not a dig against Alabama and Mississippi -- my reference is based upon geographic considerations, not economic ones. If Alabama and Mississippi had no highways, this would mean a long detour through Georgia for freight trucks entering and leaving Florida. If I-10 didn't run all the way from Florida to California, it would be nearly impossible for Florida's orange growers to supply more than half of the country.)

That's the problem with most Americans -- we just don't see the bigger picture. We'll make a big deal out of our tax dollars building bridges in Alaska, without bothering to consider the obvious fact that Alaskans pay taxes which help us to maintain I-10 so that we can all enjoy Florida's oranges, and so that Florida can benefit economically from the sale of its crops.

Why should you pay for it? Because you benefit from it. It's that simple.

drunta wrote: "What the mayor didn't do... is explain why I should pay for it. ... I have my own bridges and road maintenance to pay for and my own community's economic needs to finance."

Drunta,

Your bridges and road maintenance are paid for from the same federal highway funds that maintain our highways and bridges across the nation. Yes, they're your tax dollars, but they're also Alaskans' tax dollars as well, and they are as entitled to them as your own community.

Here's my explanation of why you should pay for it: The standard of living that you enjoy would be impossible if not for the federally-funded transportation infrastructure that maintains roads and bridges throughout the country, regardless of a given state's revenue picture.

Do you enjoy Florida oranges, Washington apples, Maine lobsters, and/or (let's not forget) Alaskan king crab? How do you think these items arrive at your grocery store, stiill fresh? Do you think Scotty beams them there?

What if those Florida oranges had to detour around Alabama and Mississippi, or be transferred to a rail car to travel through those states, because their taxpayers simply couldn't afford to maintain highways? Do you think that the oranges would still be as fresh when they arrived at your local grocer? And how much would they cost, if your purchase price included several such transfers between rail and trucks? (This is not a dig against Alabama and Mississippi -- my reference is based upon geographic considerations, not economic ones. If Alabama and Mississippi had no highways, this would mean a long detour through Georgia for freight trucks entering and leaving Florida. If I-10 didn't run all the way from Florida to California, it would be nearly impossible for Florida's orange growers to supply more than half of the country.)

That's the problem with most Americans -- we just don't see the bigger picture. We'll make a big deal out of our tax dollars building bridges in Alaska, without bothering to consider the obvious fact that Alaskans pay taxes which help us to maintain I-10 so that we can all enjoy Florida's oranges, and so that Florida can benefit economically from the sale of its crops.

Why should you pay for it? Because you benefit from it. It's that simple.

I have no problems with a community trying to defend its needs and reputation. What the mayor, didn't do, however, is explain why I should pay for it. Alaskans pay no state income taxes. In fact, they pay their own citizens from oil revenues. The bridge would have been on par in size and cost of the Golden Gate bridge. It would have been beautiful and appreciated by the local citizens. But if they need it so darn much, then should finance it with their own tax dollars and not mine. I have my own bridges and road maintenance to pay for and my own community's economic needs to finance.

If it had been widely reported that 14.000 people lived in Ketchikan the "bridge to nowhere" tag would been shown to be the obvious fiction that it is.

More and more disturbing stuff on Obama's past and his real intentions are just starting to surface.

As I predicted over a year ago .... Obama is a big fraud and America is being duped !!

Evidently ( if it was really agreed the bridge would be built ) our government does not always do what it says. On the other side of the coin earmarks should be outlawed, anything worht it's salt should be able to stand on its own not piggy back on something that actually benefits our country as a whole. Wake up America it is not just what benefits you, your community or your state, but rather should be what is in the best interest of the United States of America.

The Wall Street crisis was planned the night of Obama's meeting at Bill Ayres home to put Obama in The White House. Together they put a beautiful plan into place.

This Strategy was first elucidated in the 1966 issue of 'The Nation' Magazine by a pair of radical Socialist Columbia University professors, Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven.

David Horowitz summarizes it as:

"The strategy of forcing political change through an orchestrated crisis. The "Cloward-Piven Strategy" seeks to hasten the fall of Capitalism by overloading the Government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.
unquote

Obama begin with ACORN by funneling millions into their organization. He then trained ACORN to stage protests in banks to force them to issue risky loans or they would be threatened to face racial charges. ACORN was trained to intimidate financial institutions into giving ???Ninja??? loans to people with NO assets, NO job and NO income, who couldn???t afford these loans.

That caused the housing bubble two years ago it was by ACORN's actions they were able to destroy our credit system.

As this played out, D-Barney Frank and D-Chris Dodd were able to cover up the millions of improvident loans to these bad risky house buyers. And Barney Frank and his chums successfully were able to block all of President Bush's attempts to put a rein on this problem.

So Fannie & Freddie was forced to purchase all these failed subprime mortgages.

Then both Frank and Dodd denied that there were any problems, and refused the Bush Admin. requests to set up a regulatory agency to watch over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and they were still pushing for these agencies to go even further in promoting sub-prime mortgage loans almost up to the 'minute they failed'.

Democrats then blamed Bush saying it happened on his watch knowing it would hurt the Republican Party in the election setting it up that Barack Obama could use this to his advantage.

Karl Marx once compared a Revolutionary struggle with the work of the mole, who sometimes burrows so far beneath the ground that he leaves no trace of his movement on the surface.

Barack Obama is that Marxist mole !

Obama's Links To Radicals Starting To Surface!! www.newsmax.com/timmer

Obama-Farrakhan Ties Are Close, Ex-Farrakhan Aide Says

A former top deputy to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan tells Newsmax that Barack Obama???s ties to the black nationalist movement in Chicago run deep, and that for many years the two men have had ???an open line between them??? to discuss policy and strategy, either directly or through intermediaries.

???Remember that for years, if you were a politician in Chicago, you had to have some type of relationship with Louis Farrakhan. You had to. If you didn???t, you would be ostracized out of black Chicago,??? said Dr. Vibert White Jr., who spent most of his adult life as a member and ultimately top officer of the Nation of Islam.
White broke with the group in 1995 and is now a professor of African-American history at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
White said Obama was ???part of the Chicago scene??? where Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. and radicals would go to each other???s events and support each other???s causes.
???Even though Chicago is the third-largest city in the country, within the black community, the political and militant nationalist community is very small. So it wouldn???t be uncommon for [Obama and Farrakhan] to show up at events together, or at least be there and communicate with each other,??? White told Newsmax.
The Anti-Defamation League has denounced Farrakhan and his Nation of Islam as a ???hate group.???
Farrakhan has called Jews ???bloodsuckers,??? ???satanic??? and accused them of running the slave trade. He has labeled gays as ???degenerates.??? In a 2006 speech, the ADL again condemned Farrakhan when he said: ???These false Jews promote the filth of Hollywood that is seeding the American people and the people of the world and bringing you down in moral strength. ??? It's the wicked Jews the false Jews that are promoting lesbianism, homosexuality. It's wicked Jews, false Jews that make it a crime for you to preach the word of God, then they call you homophobic!"

Number of unrepentant terrorist friends with anti-American views for Obama = 57

Number of unrepentant terrorist friends with anti-American views for McCain = 0

The choice is obvious...vote for the patriot and war hero...JOHN MCCAIN!!

Hurrah to Dave Kiffer for defending Ketchikan's (in)famous bridge. When I first heard the news about the 'bridge to nowhere' awhile back (pre-Palin), I smelled a rat. I wondered, as Paul Harvey would say, what was the rest of the story, and got digging. It didn't take long to find out that 'nowhere' was the airport and then I wondered who stood to win (developers) and who stood to lose from this deal (the ferry owners). At any rate it clearly wasn't a 'bridge to nowhere and once again the country was being led down a rosy path by the media with a very misleading story.
Time passes and enters Sarah Palin. If I needed a good reason not to vote for her I wouldn't have to look past her comments on the bridge. If I could find out in a few minutes of research that the story about the 'bridge to nowhere' was so much hot air and that the bridge was easily justified, why was the governor of the state bad-mouthing it? Sounds like a wishy-washy opportunist to me.

Two central issues in the election Barack Obama is wrong and misleading:

1) No tax increases to those earning $250,000 or less promised by Obama, then he
lowered this figure to $200,000, then the "Gift that keeps on Giving" Joe Biden says
the number is $150,000 and just yesterday Gov. Bill Richardson says the figure is
$120,000 ...and now a videotape is disclosed where it shows Obama recently stated
that in the interest of fairness with taxes is around $80,000.00!!
Sounds like good old fashion Democratic ???reverse auction ???tax policy they implement
after they break their campaign promise to the American people.

2) On national security ...Obama???s own VP running mate Joe Biden ... ???mark my words,
this guy Obama is going to be tested by a generated international crisis within 6
months of his Presidency..I guarantee it??? Obama will meet with USA's enemies with
no pre-conditions!
John McCain???s surge strategy in Iraq is working and its saving the lives of young
American men and women in uniform serving there...Obama won't admit to this day
the surge is working and he voted to cut funding for these military forces !!

John McCain is Commander-In-Chief material ....Obama is just a cardboard "cut-out"
candidate of the DNC.