The View From ‘Nowhere’

Americans don't like pork barrel spending, other American people's pork barrel that is. So if posters are really serious about pork barrel spending, then writing your own senator/congressman of your own state/district and tell them to vote against any and all federal money that may come into your own state/district. Then follow through by organizing voters to vote against their own representatives that vote for federal money to come to their own state/district. I guarantee that if every one does that, there will no longer be any pork barrel spending.

You make a valid point Mayor. I think what McCain and most others who speak of earmark reform are trying to change is the earmark process. Granted this will add time to getting things dumb but that could be easily fixed by Congress itself. Both parties are a bunch of lazy people. I am sure they seem super-duper lazy to an Alaskan. They get payed a huge sum of money. They get great benefits. They have never in their lives put in a full year of work. Congress needs to double the time they are in session and half the time they put into stumping. This election year started almost 2 years ago. It is just retarded. The arguement you just made should have got its time on the floor of Congress for all Americans to hear. From what I hear it would have been approved.

To ProudAlaskanGirl
There are "FAR" more positives about Alaska than to alllow those DIPS---Ts who talk out their Butts like DANHAAN27..
I would jump at the chance to relocate to your area and get away from all the Bulls--- of the lower forty-eight,
and "YES" some smartass is going to tell me not to let the door hit me in the ass. But jerks like that, should have a window installed in the navels so when they have their heads up their asses, they will be able to see where they are going "NUFF SAID"

Reading these some of these comments can make a person sick, as americans we should be helping each other not bitching and bashing others down. Get a grip people.

Why on earth... Here in America.... can't we get someone like Mayor Kiffer elected as President. The man has made more sense in this one article than anything I have heard in the previous or even past election campaigns. It's obvious he knows what all of America needs to survive, Not just the big dogs.

Thanks for this eye opening article. Best of luck to you and your community.

You know what is really funny? All of you socialist liberals telling them they can't have bridge, but your OK with spending trillions on socialized medicine so we can all stand in line to get treatment. Your beloved Comrade Senator from Ill. won't be able to pay for everything he wants by just taxing the super rich. Do the math...

Why on earth... Here in America.... can't we get someone like Mayor Kiffer elected as President. The man has made more sense in this one article than anything I have heard in the previous or even past election campaigns. It's obvious he knows what all of America needs to survive, Not just the big dogs.

Thanks for this eye opening article. Best of luck to you and your community.

Casylius, you are a voice of reason & sanity. Thank you for your astute assessment of the situation.

Ketchikan does need a bride, I have been there several times and can see what the mayor is saying. Good luck on that project! Jennifer

Why can't we just all get along.

Very well said. I've never been there but I am sure there are many people who will now go just to see what all the fuss was about, I at least hope that for all the things that were said your town could get some tourist revenue out of this. Your article was written very well and understood.

Americans don't want pork barrel spending, other people's pork barrel spending that is. So if posters are serious about cutting pork barrel spending, write to your own senators and congressman to vote against any and all legislation that brings federal money to your state/district. Then follow through to organize voters to vote against representatives that brings federal money to your own area. If every one does that, I guarantee that pork barrel spending will stop. This is a representative government after all.

The cost of the bridge is $398M. Divide it up to 50 residents of the town, each should get $7.96M per person.
You do not see what is wrong with it. We can give the town $100M for ferry people for 100 years for free at $1M a year.
Here we do not even have fund for build new school or buy book. Keep it up the irresponsible spending and we will bankrupt this country. It is shown how irresponsible the Alaskan representatives were - See why Steven is now heading to jail. This was the Republican at work - taking tax money to feed big corporate on "pig" (pork barrel) projects

Oh my goodness, is this "article" with all of the "facts" actually in the print edition? Okay, you got me, NOW I'm laughing.

fROM WHAT I HAVE HEARD. ALASKA HAS ABOUT400 BILLION DOLLARS IN ITS COFFERS. WHY SHOULD THE TAX PAYERS OF AMERICA PAY FOR THERE BRIDGE?

Thank you Mayor Kiffer. I had no idea about your community and what the truth is about the bridge. I kept asking "What the heck is the bridge to nowhere?" and it just sounded really weird to hallmark something named like that, as part of a campaign. I was confused and skeptical. Now that I know more about it I'm wondering about the "Sarah Palin became John McCain's vice presidential nominee, and there on national television was our governor bragging (not quite truthfully).." statement. What wasn't truthful? Americans voting for the next president need to know all the facts.

Having been stuck in Ketchikan when my plane was grounded, I agree that you guys need a bridge. As far as Palin's politics when it comes to places in Alaska outside of Anchorage, we don't really exist - hence her sneaky but not so sneaky attempt to move the capital to Anchorage. However, as you said, "But we will get over it. We will even make up with our governor, no matter what happens on Nov. 4. That's what Alaskans do."

I think we've totally lost the ability to look beyond ourselves and try to put ourselves into our neighbor's shoes to solve problems for the good of society. Everyone is just trying to grab as much as he can for himself and screw the other guy who, if the gov't helps him out, is somehow quilty of unfairly hurting the "real people." I live in new York and am watching most of my friends, good, hardworking people with families lose their jobs, savings, and houses simply because they made the decision to get a college degree and work in finance. Meanwhile, these same people are being stigmatized across american as greedy fat cats who deserve to go down. I think there's a real lack of empathy in this country for other people's unique problems and this article nicely added some perspective.