The View From ‘Nowhere’

The comment by most of you idiots regarding the "bridge to nowhere" are mostly just verbal vomit by the ingnorant and uniformed. Comments like "what are you going to do in the winter when the water freezes" , wow, do some geography research and understand what you are saying. Ketchikan is in the mostly temperate SE portion of the state that is generally warmer, with less snow than the majority of the midwest and east coast. For the person calling Pallin "Senator Pallin", what have you been smoking?? I thinki t's pretty clear by now that it is "Govenor Pallin". Before you start bashing people, places and things know what you are talking about. Now back to the bridge. While it may seem trivial to some, we as Americans all to often have a here and now mentality and fail to look to the future. While Ketchikan is not a large metropolis by lower 48 standards, it is a vialble and vibrant small community that needs to have the ability to grow. If you have ever been there you would realize how important an up to date transportation infastructure would be to help Ketchikan grow and remain econmicaly viable in the future by stimulating additional growth opportunities outside of fishing and tourism. When the airport was initially located across the channel it was with this ideal in mind but somehow, somewhere this seems to have been forgotten. As for most of you say something intelligent or keeps your traps shut!

As I have commented before that someday our so-called 'bridge to nowhere' will one day connect to the rest of the islands in Southeast Alaska and continue on connecting to the mainland. I see nothing wrong with that, it's happening everywhere, it's suppose to help the economy, help a community bring in business from the outside, how long can an isolated, small towns survive without bringing in business so our community can grow and prosper. Look at New York, plenty of bridges connecting to a small island, without those bridges that place wouldn't be growing, for some reason some people in Alaska are afraid of 'change' and growing so we can have a future for the children and great grandchildren. Sounds better when it's said, a bridge to the future, it's not for the older generation but for the younger generation. Their the ones it's going to benefit.

Can you spell POLITICAL? That is just what this article. This guy (or should I say "That Guy"?) is pictured standing there in his flannel shirt and bib overalls, unshaven, wearing an old ball cap putting out what is called the truth. Supposedly he wrote this article to defend his hometown. The flow and wording of the article though, clearly screams "professional writer". Something doesn???t match. This is a pig wearing a tuxedo. Notice how ???earmarks??? are so eloquently defended. Observe how Gov. Palin is backhanded and accused of lying. Clearly these words and presentation are those of a politically minded professional writer. I???m a retired cop and I can smell a con a mile away. How about some truth? It seems that the term 1% of the total budget is dismissed as being nothing to worry about. When your budget is over a trillion dollars, 1% is quite a lot of money. That money comes out of your pocket and mine. If the money is insignificant, why not put it through congress through legal bills that are ???titled??? for what they really are and have them voted upon by our representatives? That???s because they could never be justified and never passed and the general public would be aware of them. Instead, they are quietly tucked inside of defense spending bills and other bills that are assured of passing and never discussed. Fraud is what that is called. If earmarks were referred to by their true names they would be called ???vote buyers???. Members of Congress are allowed to circumvent the legal process in order to buy votes with billions of expenditures that could not survive in the light of day. Not to mention the fact that when the money is actually sent to the various local politicians, there is no follow-up to verify what the money was actually spent on or by whom. The little town in question may have actually wanted a bridge, but just how many people will really actually be using it to get to the airport? Is it the duty of the tax payers of the remaining 49 states to make it possible for the 14000 residents of a little town to drive over a bridge to get to the airport instead of taking the ferry? Put that to a vote of the people and see how far it gets when it cannot even survive a vote in Congress. Deceptive Politics is the goal of this story. Plain and clear.

To Mr. Choman,

This is a very obvious of ???Greediness???! If you wanted to grow with your business, you know very well that this is a part of it that what we called ???Growing Pains???. For regular working class they do not do what you did at your businesses. Prepare your ???Budgeting and Forecasting??? in a yearly basis and you know what I mean. The taxes are not taken out from your pocket Sir! It is a part of your ???Budgeting and Forecasting??? a certain percentage out of a total of 100% gross income goes to all your operating expenses, am I right Sir? So what the real issue here? Tell it to the people straight, if you do not want Obama???s tax plan that does not really affect your business so be it. Do not use it as an excuse to your political choice, please give me a break!

You can only capitalized this issue to the individual who does not run a business like you!

Thechef1955

HEY ALL OF YOU GOOD ALASKA PEOPLE. JUST REMEMBER WHY WE ALL MOVED TO ALASKA TO RID OUR BODY OF ALL THE SCUM IN THE LOWER 48. NOW THEY ARE TRYING TO TELL US WHAT TO DO. THE POOR SICK BASTERDS.

People on these bogs are fond of saying that the current economic meltdown was caused by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac underwriting bad mortgages. While Fannie and Freddie obviously are guilty of writing bad mortgages, and worse, guilty of lobbying Congress to allow them to do so with impunity, their actions are just a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to determining who (or what) caused the financial crisis we face today.

In 1929 the stock market crash caused the banks to fail, because the banks were in bed with the stock market. Back then, banks owned investment houses, so when the stock market fell, the banks fell too. This triggered the Great Depression. So in 1933 the Congress wrote laws that regulated banking, making it illegal for banks to own investment companies, mortgage guaranty companies or insurance companies. The idea was to keep key industries separated by a fire wall, so that if one industry failed the whole economy would not go down in flames.

But the Republicans under Bush deregulated the banking industry. Senator Phil Gramm wrote legislation (the Gramm Rudman Act, the Gramm Leach Biley Act, etc.) that stripped away the regulations in the financial and insurance industies. He pushed them through the Republican Congress and they were signed into law by Geo. W. Bush. John McCain voted in favor. Everybody said how great it is to deregulate and create free markets.

Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch each gave over a million dollars to Senator Gramm's re-election campaign.

The economic collapse that happened later was a direct result of the deregulation, and here's how: the banks wrote bad mortgages, then bundled the mortgages into investment vehicles that they sold all over the world, and they even got firms like AIG to insure the investments. It was all a house of cards.

If there had been no deregulation, sure we would have had a bunch of bad mortgages, and the mortgage guaranty and real estate industries would have suffered, but there would not have been a global financial meltdown, since the problem would have been contained in one sector of the economy. You can thank Geo W. Bush, Sen. Phil Gramm and Sen John McCain for the meltdown, since they were strong proponents of deregulation.

Furthermore, although Fannie and Freddie are now holding the bulk of these bad mortgages, Fannie and Freddie did not originally write most of these mortgages. They bought them after the fact, bundled by banks/investment companies. Fannie and Freddie got screwed by the Wall Street fat cats. And so did you, if you pay taxes.

What is Phil Gramm doing today? He works as a lobbyist in Washington, trying to make it legal for the Swiss bank he represents to sell Death Bonds in the United States. Nice guy, Phil Gramm. Incidentally, John McCain has said that he wants to appoint Phil Gramm as Treasury Secretary. Some people just can't learn from their mistakes.

Mayor Kiffer clearly illustrates the blatent abuse of the public trust by both the media and our elected officals. The Mayor's rebuttal to the media hype regarding Ketchikan's needs cleaarly illustrates why Govenor Palin is ill equiped and obviously unable to seerve as the Second in Command of our nation! If she cannot accurately, fairly and honestly represebt the needs of her State, how can she function as a national leader?
Dave Ostrom