The View From ‘Nowhere’

Mayor Kiffer, well said! I'm also from an island with a bridge to "nowhere" - Kodiak, which got a bridge to Near Island when the city harbor needed to expand, and had nowhere else to go. Now there is a harbor on Near Island, with plenty of room for the fishing fleet and the rest of the community. Mayor Kiffer, do yourself a favor. Vote for Obama, that's what most Native Alaskans will do, even if the white majority does vote republican as usual.

It sure is nice to see someone come out and tell it like it is. nice going mayor. i lived in alaska for 20 years and dont think we up there had any problem with the bridge. kinda nice instead of a ferry. bob

Sam 244, you don't know what you're talking about when you estimate "a couple dozen people a day" would use a bridge from Ketchican to Gravina Island. As Mayor Kiffer wrote, 250,000 people pass through the Ketchican Airport every year, and those who are not merely connecting to another flight, which they would more likely do in Anchorage, have to get across to the town for lodging. I stood in a long line behind well more than "a couple dozen" people late at night when I flew into Ketchican to connect with the Alaska Marine Highway. I would take a wild guess that you're a "drill baby drill" kind of guy. Keep in mind that building communities on wild terrain like Alaska's requires a little more engineering than in the lower 48.

Good Job Dave Kiffer. It's nice to hear the sensible voice of reason, instead of the rantings of political footballers. Keep it up. You'll get that bridge yet.

littledogs1
The old saying ???Be careful what you wish for you might get it??? may apply here.
If Obama is elected I would not be surprised as Biden said that we are tested with an international crisis, only this will be a world wide collapse of markets. It will be a result of unemployment unseen in this country since the 1930s.
Being a small business operator, when Obama and Biden insist I do my patriotic duty and take the hard earned profits from my company and pay it in taxes so that the government can give it to people that did not earn it, it will not make my bills and expenses disappear nor will I be able to raise my prices because that would mean the loss of some clients completely so I will be forced to let go of staff just like all the small business with 10,000,000 or less in revenue. These are the companies that more than half of all Americans work for. 6% unemployment will look great in two years. Obama???s promise that only people making 250,000 or more will see a tax increase will go by the wayside as he tries to raise funds to pay the added burden and everyone who still has work will be paying more in taxes. This is probably what Biden meant when he said that they would need your support because it would not appear that they were doing the right thing when the test came.

@c4tys

You truly are ignorant my friend. The best you can do is summarize a person by labeling them a communist, that's pretty freaking weak. The damn story (if you noticed) isn't even about Obama. But you don't really care about that being is all you have to do is troll boards like this all day and night. I never collected food stamps and go to work everyday. So go back to listening to your hypocritical drug addicted Rush Limbaugh and memorize some more of his hate spewing rhetoric. It's a beautiful country and I can vote for whomever I wish and no matter how many renecks like you that spew this hate you can't do a damn thing about and if you don't like it get the hell out of the country yourself.

I am so very happy to see that this has finally made people have a conversation on politics.....ask yourself this???? did the last four years have a majority of democrates? I will answer that one for you the Democrates voted to pass the Bridge to Nowhere..They were the majority and they passed it with the Republican party.I was born and lived in Ketchikan for the first 18 years of my life. I left there in 1986 and visit frequntly. I know that the community needed to have a better way to make it to the airport. Who out in real America has to wait for a ferry to get to their airport???? It is not only the fact that traveling to the airport is difficult it also the fact that Ketchikan has very little area to build..unless of course you want to build on one of the many granite encrusted lots that takes you weeks and weeks to drill and dynamite to get down to a surface that can be built on. The politicians in our government dont work for you and I ....they work to get re-elected the next year....WhenTed Stevens added this Bridge to the package he did it for his state.....this would bring jobs and infrastructure to an Alaskan community....Don't think your Senator or Congressman hasn't done the same for your state as well. Earmarks are a way of life in D.C, and the American people pay for it!! I say to you!!!! Stand up for your rights......quit voting party lines like you do every election year! Vote for the person who will shake up government......Who believes what you believe.....Read between the lines and vote AMERICAN!!!!!!!
I think a new party needs to rise up to the occassion a party that stands for the people of the USA...let us call it the AMERICAN party.....

Dear Mayor Kiffer,
I hope that you and your constituents will take some comfort from knowing that not everyone in the lower 48 got lost in the "earmarks" and Palin controversey. A few of us had good geography courses and knew of the historic importance and peculiar location of Kethcikan, and were able to understand the importance of the bridge.
Meanwhile, you have written a splendid brief for the bridge, one that is remarkably lacking in bitterness. It should persuade a lot of people and even leave some of them with red faces. I wish you luck in finding funds for your bridge to somewhere. Maybe Gov. Palin could pledge a percentage of revenue from any new drilling pursuant to her "Drill Baby, Drill" theme.

Best wishes,
Dan Derby

I am a resident of Anchorage. I can attest that the bridge was needed. There is also another bridge that is badly needed that would cross the inlet from Anchroage to the land just 2 miles away. Anchorage is out of land to build on and a bridge would open up tens of thousands of acres just out of reach. It would also provide a quick route for those who live in Wasilla and Palmer a way to access Anchorage and reduce gas consumpton. This is an example of how the media twists a story to protray it in such a way as to promote their own agenda. Many in the "lower 48" do not understand the unique challenges we have in our state. We do not have the infrastructure that you probably take for granted.

Robert

(CNN) -- Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin likes to portray herself as an average American working mother.
But how many typical moms get $150,000 worth of merchandise from stylish stores and have strangers pay for it?

This week's revelation about the purchases was just one more surprise in the fast rise and apparent fall of the Republican Party's sudden superstar.

Remember, it was only two months ago that Palin was just the popular governor of Alaska, still an obscure figure in American politics. That changed in late August when John McCain chose her as his running mate.

Within days, she was generating the biggest excitement the McCain campaign had ever enjoyed, captivating the Republican Party, swelling the crowds at its rallies and drawing media coverage that overshadowed the Democrats.

One McCain advisor told me then that one of the practical problems she discovered as she criss-crossed the country was that she didn't bring enough clothes.

It seems her family didn't have enough clothes either, because suddenly there was some serious shopping.

A single visit to the fashionable department store Neiman Marcus cost more than $75,000, but that was only half of the total. The bills ultimately went to the Republican Party, which means that although they probably didn't know it, party donors paid for them.

Palin's problems go beyond clothes, though, to her very candidacy. In recent days, prominent Republicans, from former Secretary of State Colin Powell to Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan, have publicly criticized her lack of experience.

Ordinary Americans agree. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that in early September, when Palin was just starting out as a candidate, 47 percent of voters had a positive opinion of her, compared to 27 percent who felt negatively.

Now 47 percent have negative feelings, compared with 38 percent who feel positively.

And the new poll found that concern about Palin's qualifications is voters' top concern about McCain, ahead of every other issue in the election.

Voting day is less than two weeks away and most polls suggest that Barack Obama is headed for victory. The surprise is that Palin went from being McCain's best asset to his biggest problem. And the Republicans don't have much time, or an obvious way, to fix it.

dimitri is correct. Why should the lower 48 pay for a bridge to enhance tourism and hunting/fishing for a town that size when the State of Alaska is giving their citizens oil profit sharing and tax exemptions and Palin never stops bragging about what good shape Alaska is in while the rest of the country is in a recession and has been for several years now despite what Bush says.

You have all this money, you have a "reformer" who claims she "gets things done" at the cheapest price (which is repeatedly proven not to have been the case) and you claim to be hardy independent people who hate the people from places like California who pay FAR FAR more in tax dollars than they get back from Washington (Incidentally Neocon idiots, do you even know that 8 states pay more in than they get back in taxes, while 12 get about the same back as they put in and the other 30 states take the welfare money from California, New York, etc.. and get MUCH more back in Federal money to YOUR state than you paid in. In FACT, EVERY SINGLE SOUTHERN STATE GETS BACK AT LEAST6 TWICE IN FEDERAL TAX DOLLARS THEIR CITIZENS PAY IN FEDERAL TAXES, You're always running your mouths about "independence" and no welfare and no govt handouts and YET you are the worst in the country at taking HANDOUTS. The South is the worst, the midwest is next. So just stop your Neocon bullshirt and get real for once. If they want the damn bridge they have the moneyt to pay for it themselves and you neocon tax welfare slime need to shut up. You weren't paying for the bridge anyhow. Taxpayers in 8 states were and Palin out and out stole the money.

Oh and by the way, I live in Oklahoma, a poor state. I don't want my tax dollars going to Alaska to pay for a bridge they can afford to pay for themselves when 83% of our bridges are considered unsafe or near unsafe status.

SHUT THE HELL UP FOR ONCE NEOCONS AND SPEND SOME TIME LEARNING ABOUT WHERE THE MONEY COMES FROM AND WHERE IT GOES. AND GET OFF THE TAXPAYER WELFARE AND PAY YOUR OWN WAY IN YOUR OWN STATE. CRACKERS.

While Kiffer makes some compelling arguments the one comment that really bothers me is the one referencing the fact that earmarks "only" make up 1% of the budget. Well, one percent of hundreds of billions of dollars is a hell of a lot of money and money which should not have to be spent. ANY earmark is unacceptable. If a government official wants or needs money for a project they should have to request it and it should be voted on - after the public has been duly informed. This cavalier attitude about money by the government has got to stop, The government should have to balance their budget just like I have to balance mine - enough is enough.

I have been to many of the small towns and larger towns in Alaska And I do not forget the reason for the purchace of Alaska was for from the Russians. For our defence from other countries. I dont think that any one knows that one one of our great battles during one of the world wars was on Alaskan soil defending us from the commies. How many other areas of Amercan soil have had a war break out on in the last 80 years besides Pearl Harbor. We defended that part of the country strong and no one has tried to do it again. Alaska
is a great part of the United States that "we" Americas use daily. Lets not forget the Seafood industries, mineral industries, the oil industries and with the future to come, the fresh water industries. It has been in the plans for other lower states to use the fresh water that flows from the mighty rivers that flow into the oceans from Alaskas mountains. Will the pipe-lines for fresh water be pumped to states like California and Nevada or other states that will need fresh water in our future. I would think so. Will that water be pushed from hubs in small towns as such in this discusion. I would think so, if California wants water. Will transportion reasons go up in Ketchikan. I would also think so because this would end up being one of the larger pump hubs in S.E. Alaska.
Or are we prepared to pay more for water than we our for gas. Looks like we are all ready doing such. Dissanti water from Coke costs about $5 per Gallon if you buy at retailers price. You can get 2 gallons of good drinking water for about $5 at at Sam's or Costco, but you will need a membership. We have to look at the future and not politics for this reason.
How many Billons of $ have been spent on our boys and girls dying in a land that we are not welcomed in?
For the price of oil.
We need to spend money in Alaska like we do everywhere else for reasons other then everyone else.
Lets think what Alaska haves to offer, Besides Voting rights and someone that no one has heard of in the lower states' Pallin"

You're pretty funny Ron. You completely ignore the truth that Alaska has the surplus to pay for their own damn bridge and choose to do the common garden variety neocon hate then claim others are being "disrespectful'. There is nothing I could say or do for the rest of my life (and I'm 23) that could ever equal the amount of ignornace, hate and stupidity that you neocons spew on a daily basis.

An interesting story and I abhor broken promises as much as anyone else, but that does not change the fact that this whole project was a complete waste of money. Apparently the government built the airport in the wrong place. OK, a pity, but why should the taxpayers in oher states have throw good money after bad to the tune of 400 Million to fix it?
And like many other commentators, I still don't understand what is so wrong with that ferry. It is old an poorly maintained? Buy new ones and start maintainng them properly! That would cost a fraction of that 400 million. If you miss one, you might miss your flight? Give me a break. Try planning your trip with some common sense. Everybody runs that risk, whether it is due to missng ferries, delayed trains or raffick jams. That's why sensible people make sure they have plenty of time to check in.
It costs money? Oh Boohoo, so does a train ticket, or gas and that bridge wouldn't be free either. I shudder to think what he tolls would have to be like to make up for the price and incidentally, that bridge has to be maintained too. Any idea how much that would cost in the long run? Not to mention the jobs that would be lost whan that ferry service collapses as wil inevitably do.