The View From ‘Nowhere’

I guess the US's "Manifest Destiny" was a ticket to nowhere as well.
I agree with this article. In order for "nowhere" to become "somewhere" it needs a bridge.
Unfortunately the needs of the people in that town has become a national joke. Palin should have defended her constituants, but betrayed them for political gain. Vote her out of office Alaskans. You deserve better.

Mr. Kiffer never said a word about getting money from the Federal Government nor did he ask any of you to pay for it. He was just sayin' that the bridge is not "nowhere" but "somewhere." Ya'll need to cool down!

Infrastructure is generally paid for by the Feds. Since other states have been getting infrastructure built on the gov. dime for decades prior to Alaska getting funds. We are playing catch up, and while this project may not have been necessary, a road to our capital would be nice. I am sure that many other states have gotten $$ for silly projects also.

I am against earmarks. But the "bridge to nowhere" got a lot more attention than deserved. A lot of commentors wrote that "they don't want to pay for the bridge" and "their town doesn't get any money" Actually, many towns do. Look at tiny Owensboro, Kentucky. An earmark of nearly $60 million went for the face-lift for downtown Owensboro, and another 10 million for the waterfront restoration of a nearby town, and $3 million for a community youth center in Owensboro and $10 million to finish an impressive Ohio River bridge linking the area to the Interstate 64 corridor. Wow. $83 million in less than 4 years for a small slice of Ohio. Oh, and that bailout money? Want to know where it went, besides paying for AIG execs to go pheasant hunting in England? In the bailout package, there was a $2 million tax benefit for makers of wooden arrows for children (say what?!?!?); a $100 million tax break to benefit auto racetrack owners (how in the ...); $192 million in rebates on excise taxes for the Puerto Rican and Virgin Islands rum industry (they must have been drunk to put this in there); and $148 million in tax relief for U.S. wool fabric producers. Maybe all the congressmen got nice new wool jackets for throwing this in.
I hope whomever wins stops the earmarks. Its ridiculous.

Why doesn't Alaska use the tax money to build the "Bridge to Nowhere" that it gave back as a rebate to Alaskans? I'm tired of my taxes going to Alaska to support a bunch of people who claim to be survioralists who are really surviving on the taxes of the lower 48. Get a ferry on E-Bay like your Gov. tells us about selling the Gov's airplane.

mccluretiger,
sound like you need a hovercraft ferry.
why don't you crack open a book on post-1900 transportation.

Cry me a river. You're lucky to have an airport in such a sparsely populated area. Your state gets more Federal tax dollars per capita than any other. I don't have a problem with that, since your are large in square miles and have unique climate and geographical issues. However, why the hell should the Federal government pay for every convenience and pet project in every state?

Can someone explain to me what is wrong with having a good ferry service? Right now it is every half hour year round, and every 15 minutes in the summer. Want to spend a few million and spruce up the ferries? Fine. Want to improve the dock? Fine. Something a small town could maybe justify. But no, they need a $400 million dollar bridge? Please.

Charge a tax to the 250,000 tourists and those who will use the airport and pay for it honestly.

Now maybe we have heard everything: The Bridge to Nowhere is Justified? As an Independent I???ve tried to be and advocated being objective and rational while, as we all realize, there is simply a lot of pressure to keep us from doing either. It would be easy to say that we can???t trust anything said but then how could we ever measure. Today all of the candidates, including John McCain, find fault with the Bush-Cheney administration and strongly advocate that real change is absolutely needed, so it could be as simple as determining who to believe? By anyone???s measure Sarah Palin is different, short on qualifications and extremely bold for sure, yet many feel she is impressive and then Senator Obama doesn???t have real extensive qualifications either and presents, impressively but none the less, a bold approach. McCain accuses Obama of flip-flopping yet anyone would have to be blind not to recognize that McCain has literally been all over the place. Obama is attacked for all kinds of irrational, far fetched, off the point things but that seems to say more against the critics than against Obama. McCain and Bidden both have long running experience but nothing that impresses as being with commanding control or to the point of instilling complete confidence. We could just identify with the political parties but then that leaves us divided between conservative and liberal, between more of the same or change, concentration on Special Interests and a select few or on everyday concerns and there really is no end to those emotional debates. It goes on but the result is simply the same as there is little reality to base a rational and objective decision on, no real help to be counted on as being honestly complete and yet the problems today are drastic and our needs are formidable. For me it comes down to simply accepting some of what the candidates say, finding a consistency I can identify with, and then on seeing it supported in their history and in logical probability. In my thinking, John McCain has a history of doing whatever works best for him politically, including strongly supporting the Bush-Cheney policies and only now, at the last minute when desperate, faulting those same policies and advocating change. Sarah Palin???s bold, aggressive, self-focused personality (to even using her baby as a prop) disgusts me and is as if she would be a real problem if in any higher office (it could be said she already has been a problem in her current office). Joe Bidden seems to be very qualified and as if he would be a real asset to the president and to the country as vice-president. Barack Obama???s history and current presentation seems very consistent in offering a thoughtful, rational and conscientious approach to everything, including being able to solicit cooperation and provide direction in getting things done and to honestly benefit everyone. Rationally and objectively, to me, the decision seems to be logically sound for Obama-Bidden.

You need a bridge that costs hundreds of millions of dollars. I have no problem with your getting it; I just don't want to pay for it. If you need it that badly then build it yourselves. I live in an area with about the same population as yours and we'd be crazy to ask for a federal hand out of a quarter of a billion dollars for a single project.
I understand that each citizen of your state gets a $2,000 check each year. If you need this bridge so badly then why don't you pool that money for the next decade and a half and use it to buy your bridge. Paying for it yourselves is more in the great Alaskan tradition of self reliance than asking the rest of us to borrow money from China or Saudi Arabia or somewhere else so that we can build it for you. You could probably get a much better deal doing yourselves than the feds would get anyway.
I really feel sorry for your lack of land in the state with the greatest land mass. A short boat ride and an hour and a half plane ride will get you to somewhere with plenty of land and better weather as well. If it's any help to you, five generations ago my family were dirt poor Europeans and their children took a much more dangerous and difficult journey and wound up in roughly the same place that you can get to in that hour and a half.
Maybe in this case it would be better for you not to try to convince us how deserving you are. The issues that you are having in your community are not new and I don't see any compelling reason why they should have become the problems of the rest of the country when we have much greater problems to contend with anyway.
Good luck and stay warm this winter.

Alaska already gets the extraordinary treatment by bringing in more tax dollars than it contributes - states like California and many others, does the contributing - but hey, your taxes are low (make sense? ...NO). Seems like we've given enough - if you've got money from your vast natural gas reserves, enough that people are getting fat checks from the government, AND it's a situation that even Palin seems to be a credible public official - then Alaska looks to be in good enough shape to do it yourselves. In one breath, I hear Alaska is tough (and rich), and the other side of the mouth is asking for a handout. WTF?

This is from an article on MSNBC, "McCain's advisers acknowledge that his way back is difficult, but they maintain that there is a way. It requires a combination of smart campaigning, traction for his arguments."

OK. Since when has his campaign appeared smart and what arguments are you referring to other than attack dog Plain Palin making no sense on everything that comes from her forked tongue? Are you referring to his incoherence? His incompetence for choosing Plain Palin in the first place? His knack for lying to the American public and the blind that follow him and actually swallow the hate that rolls from his tongue? His under dog, right where he has us schtick? He's a maverick? What argument? What policy?

If McCain finds a way to fight back it will be from the Republican Strong Arm tactics of abusing the power they have relished in for so long. Divide and Conquer. There is no United We Stand with these people. Their ideology is, "If we fall, you fall too."

And Brad Blakeman, the Republican Strategist, is an example of the desperation the Republicans are facing. Instead of answering the question about Palin's wardrobe, he reflects the question to question Senator Obama's love for his grandmother. This is a hideous representation of anything America stands for. Blakeman's a bigger loser than Bachmann. They are all nuts.

Ketchikan, Alaska doesn't need a bridge to Gravina Island via Pennock Island. There are people in Ketchikan that oppose the bridge to the airport and the 50 people or fewer that actually live on Gravina Island. It is a great waste of tax payer dollars, $415 million dollar proposed bridge.
My Tlingit Tribe has live in the Ketchikan area since time and memorial, Taan ta Kwaan (Sealion People). Pennock Island we have tribal burial grounds where the proposed bridge will link up with the bridge and will cause further desercration of our graves but we have been ignored through out this process of the proposed bridge. Ketchikan doesn't need a bridge to no-where. Gov. Palin built the Road to Nowhere costing taxpayers $32 million dollars that does nothing on Gravina Island. So, Mayor Kiffer doesn't represent us that don't want the bridge built. We have a great Airport ferry service in Ketchikan that works and makes Ketchikan unique.

Don Hoff Jr.
Past - Councilman/Vice-Mayor of the City of Ketchikan

My Tribe has been there for more than five generations. Ketchikan doesn't need a bridge to no-where. The proposed bridge to Gravina Island via Pennock Island. Pennock Island is our Tanta Kwaan (Sealion People) graveyard site. The bridge would cause further desercration of our tribal graves. The costs of $415 million dollar bridge to Gravina Island where only 50 or fewer people actually live is insane. America can not afford any more wasted spending of my or your Taxs dollars. Not everybody that lives in Ketchikan wants a bridge to Gravina Island. But Gov. Palin approves a $32 million dollar road on Gravina Island and doesn't go anywhere nor can you drive on it...wasted tax money. Stupid mines comes Stupid ideas is a theory I have. Ketchikan doesn't need a bridge to Gravina Island via Pennock Island.

Don Hoff Jr.
Past City Councilman and Vice Mayor - City of Ketchikan

Instead of making up with Palin, you should recognize that Obama agrees with you that earmarks are not our biggest problem right now, in light of just how little of an economic ripple it creates. I don't have a problem with you being funded to help your community; I can think of a few more in dire need, too.

I think Obama is the kind of man who will help folks like you. McCain and Palin will give all the money to big corporations and those already wealthy. Instead of that money and means "trickling down", the greedy just get greedier as they put into office those who streamline their way to more power and wealth. Those who break their backs working hard ,... including small business, get left behind.

Maybe they should ask the Alaskan Indie party to fund the money for that bridge to somewhere.