Two women are organizing a huge Obama rally on the Ringling bridge in Sarasota, Florida this Sunday, Oct. 19th. Assemble at 11.45am. Contact Janet Guttridge for full details at heartwithwings1@comcast.com or sign up on their Obama webpage: Link It’s a 2.5 mile walk and Sarasota’s first political event to span the Ringling Bridge. One woman who lives in a condo near the bridge has invited friends to a brunch before they walk downstairs to wave signs. The Vets for Obama and a group of Hillary Women for Obama also plan to participate. A photo will be taken from a Helicopter and the event is being filmed by a German TV crew reporting on the American election. Please come and spread the word! A bus from Orlando may be chartered to take participants from Central Florida. Ask for details. Wear red, white & blue and bring posters & banners.
This is part of the Bridges for Obama in Swing States (BOSS), part of a worldwide grassroots initiative of Americans around the world showing their enthusiasm for Obama as a uniter.
A video of the bridge project was presented to Barack Obama in Boston at his 47th birthday by Democrats Abroad.
The video is now posted on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbBzEkXyu4o.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/159421/output/print
Palin Admin. Oversaw $26 Million ROAD to ‘Nowhere’A ProPublica investigation into the controversial earmark project.
Paul Kiel, ProPublicaSep 17, 2008 | Updated: 6:38 p.m. ET Sep 17, 2008When Lois Epstein approached Gov. Sarah Palin during a July 2007 meeting, she says she had a simple request: pull the plug on the construction of a $26 million dead-end gravel road that she saw as a waste of federal money. The road was part of the $398 million project to link Ketchikan and its airport on Gravina Island known as the "Bridge to Nowhere," and an earmark inserted by Alaska's congressional delegation had provided the funding. But construction had begun in June, and it didn't seem to matter that the infamous bridge--to which the road would have led -- would never be built. Every dollar spent on the project was a dollar wasted, Epstein thought.
Epstein, director of the nonpartisan Alaska Transportation Priorities Project, told ProPublica she handed Palin an editorial that had run the prior month in the Anchorage Daily News. The editorial, by Heritage Foundation fellow Ronald Utt, called the road a "wasteful" project with "little to no measurable benefit." It urged Palin to be "responsible and ethical" and "return the money to Washington" so it could be redirected to hurricane-ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi. Utt's piece reflected the consensus in Washington, D.C., and Alaska that no more money would be earmarked for the bridge project, which had become a symbol of pork-barrel spending.
"I gave her the Heritage Foundation piece and said this is not a good project and she should think about reappropriating the money," Epstein told ProPublica. Palin replied that her administration was "very close" on making a decision, Epstein said. Two months later, Palin announced the state would no longer pursue the $398 million design. The statement made no mention of the 3.2 mile access road to an empty beach, which by then was well underway.
Since her nomination as the Republican vice presidential candidate, Gov. Palin has stressed her reform credentials, singling out her handling of the "Bridge to Nowhere" as evidence. "As governor, I've championed earmark reform to stop Congress from wasting public money on things that don't necessarily serve the public interest," she said last week.
But a gravel road on an Alaskan island with 50 inhabitants doesn't serve the public interest, critics say. "This project isn't satisfying any specific transportation purpose or any public need," said Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense.
As ProPublica reported last week, Palin's administration is still planning to link Ketchikan (pop. 7,400) to its airport with the help of as much as $73 million in federal funds earmarked by Congress for the original "Bridge to Nowhere" project.
Palin declared in her acceptance speech she had told Congress, "'Thanks, but no thanks' to that Bridge to Nowhere," adding that if Alaska were to build such a project, the state would do so "ourselves." The campaign did not respond directly when asked by ProPublica whether Palin knew Alaska was stilling planning to use federal money to connect Ketchikan and Gravina Island.
Today, the McCain campaign issued a statement to ProPublica acknowledging that the project was ongoing and emphasizing that Palin had rejected the most expensive design for the bridge. The statement, however, did not address why Palin had not stopped construction of the $26 million road, which is called the Gravina Island Highway.
"Governor Palin opposed a wasteful, unwise, and irresponsible funding plan that was not the best means for fulfilling the local community's needs," said Maria Comella in an e-mailed statement. "Governor Palin understood that a more cost efficient, sensible solution could still be implemented to satisfy the economic and infrastructural demands of the community. The Department of Transportation is currently evaluating alternative plans to meet these same demands."
Alaska's Department of Transportation is currently analyzing nine different alternatives (six bridges and three ferries), only one of which connects with the recently completed Gravina Island Highway. The only other proposed solution that would use a substantial portion of the road is a bridge with a price tag of about $254 million, said Malcolm Menzies, an Alaska DOT official. The alternatives range from a low cost estimate of $80 million for one of the ferry proposals to about $360 million, Menzies said. CLICK HERE for a map of the access road, the original "Bridge to Nowhere" design and the alternatives being considered by the DOT.
Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein, a Democrat, faults the Palin administration for building the road, which he said some have taken to calling the "road to nowhere." But it would be an excellent site for a footrace, he said. "It's a nice flat road. It'll be perfect for a 10K race. ...
Forget about linking John McCain to George Bush. Barack Obama would benefit from telling Americans that Sarah Palin is every bit as vacuous and unskilled as President Dubya ever was, and she's equally evasive of the media.
I'm shocked by the lack of confidence McCain continues to have in his insulting and dangerous choice of Sarah Palin. Aside from her abuse of power by intervening in personnel matters in Alaska, the blatant lie about opposing the "bridge-to-nowhere," and her laughable claim to be against congressional earmarks when Alaska is the leading per-capita recipient of those very same congressional funds, why don't we hear more from this co-maverick of his?
If Palin is ready on day one to be a heartbeat away from the most powerful job in the world, then why quarantine her from reporters while sending her out speaking the same stump speech on teleprompter she gave at the convention? I could hazard an intelligent guess, but there's clearly no need to discuss that or any pressing, relevant issues now that McCain has a token, pandering ploy of a runningmate. Who cares if she's competent when she excites the base (particularly the men) and values the "culture of life"--except of course the life of animals she wears around her neck and those she "field-dresses" for a novel snack (moose stew, for the record, is the puppy chow of choice for this self-described pit bull). I have a friend who is an Emmy-winning actor on a long-running daytime soap opera. He said yesterday that he was still dumbfounded he has "given more interviews to the press than Sarah Palin." Isn't this the woman that, if elected, could be one second away from having her trigger-finger on 'The Button?' With less than two months left until the election, don't Americans deserve and need to know where McCain's number two stands on the issues that really matter in our everyday lives? Not likely, it seems, since campagin manager Rick Davis admitted two weeks ago this campaign wouldn't be about issues, it would be about personalities. Hmm. Well, the problem with running a campaign on personality is twofold: a) McCain doesn't seem to have much of one without Palin; and b) the person-we'd-rather-have-a-beer with already had a crack at running the country and it didn't turn out so well, remember? For for all his good-ol' boy charm--never mind he was the very New England born, silver-spooned, prep-school, Ivy League elitist he likes to mock--and despite his [apparently] endearing inability to formulate two thoughts into a coherent sentence, these last eight years have been so disastrous to our economy, military and global credibility that we will be spending the next eight years just starting to clean up the mess. And although he loved Jesus, guns, and white people and appealed to the fundamentalist base, he's still not appealing--even when disguised in a skirt and lipstick with a Cracker-Barrell updo.
Does the phrase 'I was for it before I was against it' sound familiar? It was used by the Republican's on Democratic candidate John Kerry in a previous election. That phrase alone was key to the demise of John Kerry. When Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin was asked about the bridge to nowhere, ABC news September 15, 2008 stated 'she was for it before she was against it'. In another interview, Palin was asked about the Bush doctorine. Anyone in politics should know what the doctorine means even if we do not. It was so obvious that Sarah Palin did not know the facts, that NBC Saturday Night Live on September 13, 2008 used Palin's ignorance of the facts to open the show. The Republican's would go ballistic if Joe Biden made such a mistake. Barack Obama accurately uses change as a foundation for his message and now John McCain is using it as well. The words 'experience and judgement' were used against Barack Obama. Sarah Palin now makes 'experience and judgement' an acceptable talking point because she is a 'reformer'. Sounds like a double standard to me. John McCain said in September 2008 that 'The economy is fundamentally sound'. He abruptly reversed his position on the economy when he was informed of the seven hundred billion dollar economic bailout plan. If you are an undecided voter, please look at the facts and make an informed descision by voting for Barack Obama.
Sarah Palin is testing the Mainstream Corporate Media. She is daring the media to call her on her lies. ThinkProgress notes that she had dropped the mention of the the Bridge to Nowhere after having to admit to Charlie Gibson that she had supported the bridge and had campaigned in favor of it. Then, Sarah dusted off the untruth and began spouting it again (emphasis mine):
Voiceover:
"Palin keeps lying and denying her support for a bridge for 50 people that would cost $398 million dollars. And McCain's plans, the same as Bush's, are a bridge to nowhere for the middle class. He'll sell out America--again. You want a fourteen-trillion dollar national debt? Another stupid war? Seven dollar a gallon gas? Tax cuts for billionaires--again--when we just can't afford it? Wise up, middle class. Don't be fooled again by McCain and Palin and George W. Bush's Republican Party. McCain and Palin are a Bridge to Nowhere. I'm Barack Obama and I support this message."
Watch Sarah Palin Dodge the Bridge to Nowhere Question.
Read the full transcripts here
The following are just a FEW of my objections to Sarah Palin as nominee for VP:
Achem.
Sorry.
Kinda went off the rails there ... mixing flames, broken back metaphors w/ white supremists. I'm a little worked up over this stuff in case you couldn't tell.
Whew, so, moving on ...
But in Palin's meager defense, she did give taxpayers quite a chunk of change--$1200/every man woman and child in the state. You can do that when you're oil rich. So maybe she has high approval ratings in her state, but how hard was that to accomplish in a mostly white, conservative, evangelical population that got an extra $1200 in their pockets? What's not for them to like? But does anyone really think she has anything to contribute to reducing a $10 Trillion debt in a $14 Trillion economy [or dealing w/ the worst Financial crisis in our economy since the Great Depression}? You think she can fix that by cutting taxes? [of course, I’m speaking in the ghastly case of a Palin-McCain administration]. Not only that she has a history of secretiveness and NOT reaching across the aisle. All you have to do is google and dig a little. And trust me, if I can get this, that means it's not rocket science.
But in Palin's meager defense, she did give taxpayers quite a chunk of change--$1200/every man woman and child in the state. You can do that when you're oil rich. So maybe she has high approval ratings in her state, but how hard was that to accomplish in a mostly white, conservative, evangelical population that got an extra $1200 in their pockets? What's not for them to like?
But does anyone really think she has anything to contribute to reducing a $10 Trillion debt in a $14 Trillion economy [or dealing w/ the worst Financial crisis in our economy since the Great Depression}? You think she can fix that by cutting taxes? [of course, I’m speaking in the ghastly case of a Palin-McCain administration]. Not only that she has a history of secretiveness and NOT reaching across the aisle. All you have to do is google and dig a little.
And trust me, if I can get this, that means it's not rocket science.
"Fascist writer Westbrook Pegler, an avowed racist who Sarah Palin approvingly quoted in her acceptance speech for the moral superiority of small town values, expressed his fervent hope about my father, Robert F. Kennedy, as he contemplated his own run for the presidency in 1965, that "some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in pubic premises before the snow flies."It might be worth asking Governor Palin for a tally of the other favorites from her reading list."
"Fascist writer Westbrook Pegler, an avowed racist who Sarah Palin approvingly quoted in her acceptance speech for the moral superiority of small town values, expressed his fervent hope about my father, Robert F. Kennedy, as he contemplated his own run for the presidency in 1965, that "some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in pubic premises before the snow flies."
It might be worth asking Governor Palin for a tally of the other favorites from her reading list."
I've been very disappointed at the mainstream media at their inability to identify a lie and call a lie a lie. The "bridge to nowhere" discussion goes on and on. The republicans continue to tout is as evidence of Palin's success at reform. The fact is, yes the bridge didn't get built, but Palin and Alaska kept the money anyway! They DID NOT give the money back, they just diverted it to another pork project. What happened to America's ability to call out someone who is telling a blatant lie? I don't care if someone is a man or a woman, black or white, rich or poor, from Alaska or Florida. If they seek to intentionally deceive the people of America someone needs to stand up an call them out!
In case you're wondering, here's the definition of a "lie" according to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary:
1 : to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive
2 : to create a false or misleading impression
The "bridge to nowhere" story as the Republicans tell it is clearly a lie and we need to stop pretending it is a bedtime story.
By Josh Marshall, Talking Points MemoPosted on September 9, 2008, Printed on September 10, 2008
Yesterday we posted this video chronicling Gov. Palin's big lie about stopping the Bridge to Nowhere. Quick viral videos, though, move very quickly. So we've now prepared this annotated guide to each statement and answer cited in the video -- including transcripts, at length selections of video and more. So if you weren't satisfied with the sound bite lie you can now have the at length version too.
© 2008 Talking Points Memo All rights reserved.
To quote a wise and honest man: ENOUGH! Are we really going to let the Republican Machine of Attack and Distortion – R-MAD – derail us from our defining moment in history? Hell No!!! The only way to fight R-MAD is to get mad (as hell and not take it anymore). The only change McCain offers is a few pennies for the middle class compared to many dollars for the wealthy. The only change McCain has shown is in his positions. The McCain of old was an occasional maverick senator with his honor in tact; the McCain out on the campaign trail is a flip-flopping neo-con, devoid of any scruples, who will say and do almost anything to seize power. McCain is worse than an irascible old man who is somewhat detached from the issues of the day; he is an angry, bitter and impulsive warrior who has cares only about settling old scores. And most of all, McCain is a cynical and sly politician who -- far from putting country first -- has put the extreme right wing of the Republican Party first by placing Sarah Palin potentially a heartbeat from the presidency.
McCain is Cheney squared! And Palin – a neophyte governor short on work ethic and intellect but long on charm and political acumen – is Bush cubed!
Make no mistake about it; we are in the fight of our lives. We cannot allow Republican bigots and elitists to beat us by characterizing our candidate – a black child of an interracial marriage who was raised by his single white mother and grandparents – as somehow not one of us; we cannot allow Republican corporate welfare mongers to defeat us by branding us as fiscally irresponsible; we cannot allow the Republican whores of lobbyists to cast themselves as pure reformers; we cannot allow Republican sexists, who would consign women to carry to term pregnancies caused by rape and incest, to pretend they respect women’s rights simply because they’ve elevated a token to the vice presidency; we cannot allow Republicans to once again feign empathy for the middle class while lining the pockets of the rich; we cannot allow Republican disbelievers of global warming to bamboozle us into a “drill first ask questions later” mentality; and we cannot allow the Republican squanderers of our American blood, treasure and standing overseas to seize from us the mantle of security.
Why? Because we are Democrats; we stand for something. We are the party of Jefferson, Roosevelt, Truman, and Kennedy. And truth be told, if Lincoln were alive today, he would be with us as well and if Clinton had been just a little more disciplined he would have also made the list.
Simply put, we cannot afford four more years of Bush-Cheney-Rove and we will not let this nation be taken there across the McCain-Palin bridge to nowhere worth going – at least not without a damn good fight!
Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2008
To all CNN journalists and news producers, Part IV:
Good to hear you finally reporting some facts today about Palin's claims about the infamous Bridge to Nowhere, including her support for it while running for Governor. Your anchors and reporters are now, finally, making clear she didn’t say “no thanks” until Congress changed the funding formulae and the bridge would no longer be almost completely funded by U.S. taxpayers.
Kudos to Anderson Cooper. He's the first CNN person I've actually heard state flat out that Palin did NOT return the federal money earmarked for the bridge (though I’ve read differing amounts of between $100 to $230 million). Why is that so important? Because Palin's stump speech goes something like this "I said thanks, but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere. If we want a bridge, we'll build it ourselves." The clear implication is that Alaska, thus Palin, declined the money, saving U.S. taxpayers. Truth is, U.S. taxpayers didn’t save a dime. Alaska and Palin were just given free rein to spend it anyway they wanted. It’s a very significant difference since Palin is erroneously citing the bridge to nowhere as one of her strongest claims to being a reformer against pork barrel spending.
Kudos to Jeffrey Toobin again. I appreciated his pointing out to Campbell Brown the difference between a journalist and a strategist. (I believe he was referring to Bay Buchanan’s comments about why Palin is being protected from the press.) That distinction can NEVER be made often enough. In fact, in my opinion, you’d be better off having fewer partisan strategists (they’re just mouthpieces, after all) and more journalists and real analysts like David Gergen.
Kudos to the male commentator (I missed his name) on the AC 360 panel that chided the media for spending so much time on nonsense issues and so little time on digging out facts about Palin’s record. The discussion was about the lipstick on a pig brouhaha and everything the gentlemen said was correct. You and other media are falling for the McCain sucker punch and creating endless discussion about tempests in teapots. Meaningless drivel that you shouldn’t waste more than 20 seconds on. Remember, your job is to report facts, not play the diversion game started by a candidate’s campaign.
As far as McCain’s claiming Biden sunk to a new low by bringing up Palin’s opposition to stem cell research — uh, not in my book. Palin has paraded her family in front of the public, including her young son with Down’s syndrome. She specifically brought up her special needs son in her acceptance speech, she’s talking about it. In my book, pointing out her extreme position on stem cell research and its effect on the possible future medical benefits is fair game.
I’m sure you’re aware of the interview Palin gave where she criticized Clinton for pointing out sexist treatment. Instead of whining, Palin said, Clinton should “work harder, prove yourself to an even greater degree that you’re going to be the best candidate.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA15XU23kEc) A bit ironic, don’t you think, now that the McCain campaign is claiming sexist treatment and will keep her away from interviews until the press treats her with “respect and proper deference.” Maybe you should point that out.
And here’s the link to the Wall St. Journal article that needs to be checked out and reported:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122065537792905483.html Her performance in office is extremely relevant because the McCain camp has claimed Palin has more executive experience than either Obama or Biden.
Overall, good job. Keep reporting facts on the record of this unknown figure would could be vice president one heartbeat away from president. Don’t fall for the diversionary sucker punches.
After all, if you don’t report the facts, who will? Fox?
Respectfully,
Gov. Palin continues to flog the lie that she told Congress "no thanks" on the Bridge to Nowhere.
Congress cut the funding. She canceled the bridge because she didn't want to pay for it. She kept the money even though the bridge wasn't built. She did have them build a road to the were the bridge would have been though.
Yes, it is a road to nowhere. But hey! It meant jobs that everyone else in the country paid for!
You can check the timeline published by TalkingPointsMemo.
Alaskan TV news gives a reasonably straight story about the bridge and about her enthusiasm for Congressional earmarks for Alaska.
John McCain has mastered audacity this week, while losing himself more or less completely. Let's review!
Exploiting 9/11 for political gain: The film at the RNC was inexcusably vile and inappropriate when all decent outlets had self-imposed a moratorium on such painful and traumatic footage. But since pain and trauma are now campaign strategies of the RNC, it is to be expected of them. Still makes us want to vomit, but to be expected. Kind of like spoiled seafood.
Stolen Message: Absent any ideas of his own, John McCain has now coopted the "change" message of Barack Obama. That's pretty audacious and then some. And quite unbelievable. Hey, there's his slogan: "Change That Is Unbelievable". Listen John, if you haven't managed more than one or two pieces of major legislation in 30 years, and Obama passed one like yours in his first term, I think it's pretty clear who's the change agent in this race. Changing your positions and your moral believability is not the change WE need, though it may have been the change McCain needed to try and win. Maybe a better slogan would be, " A Changed Man :( ".
Lies, big lies, and outrageous lie-bombs: The "Bridge To Nowhere" queen, who kept the money despite her current "no thanks" message about it, has now lied seven times about that boondoggle, five of the lies coming after the debunking of the lie. McCain falsely claims that Obama has never faced his own party on anything, when in fact he confronted both parties with effective ethics legislation, akin to Mccain's ONLY senatorial achievement on campaign finance. The campaign of Mccain keeps falsely claiming that Obama will raise taxes despite the truth being that 95% of Americans will get tax breaks (and despite the tax that McCain will impose on our health care benefits from our employers even as he refuses to extend healthcare in a civilized way). That's pretty audacious, I'd say! Hair-blowing-back audacious. I just change the channel now every time Nancy "Lobbyist-cum-spokesliar" Pfotenhauer comes on the t.v. Oh, there's another lie: the plan to come down on lobbyists when in fact the whole campaign is being run by them. Wooey, thats AUdacious (in an Alice in Wonderland kind of way...).
The new ad on "education": Claiming that Obama's only accomplishment is passing a bill to provide sex education to kindergarteners when in fact that bill was to protect kids from predators is about as politically vile as one can get, and truly marks McCain's departure from the sphere of decency. By the way, I thought his only accomplishment was being a community organizer (say it with a sneer)? McCain can't even keep his lies straight anymore I guess. This ad--exploiting children's protection for political gamesmanship--is such a thick pool of vileness that I lost that last little tiny sliver of respect I used to have for the former hero. Oh yeah, he sacrificed that label this week. Heros don't need to play cynic, and shouldn't. Play cynic, and you are not a hero anymore, sorry.
Cease and Desist? Not!: By my count, McCain has now OFFICIALLY stolen the use of four songs and been asked to cease and desist by all four copyright holders. This week his answer was to just keep using one of them. If he can't be trusted with intellectual property rights, how on earth can he be trusted with our government? It was more important to celebrate the meanness of SP than to abide by the law. But that, truly, is symbolic of the woman, I suppose, as she bent and manipulated whatever laws were inconvenient to her in Alaska.
The Audacity of Soullessness
Barack has conveyed the audacity of hope to many of us over the past few years, but the new audacity is really all McCain's (another theft, I suppose)--the audacity of being a lying, politically savage dishonorable man whose soul is now permanently tarnished. I don't use "soul" language or moral recrimination lightly--I really mean it when I say it. This will be the week we all remember how good a time John McCain had out on the trail with Sarah, selling his soul to Karl Rove for the enjoyment of saddling our country with another four years of war, and a 25% chance (those are the mathematics of VP succession) of being governed by a bigger liar and more mean-spirited person than himself.
McCain/Bush Morph
The audacity of all this is such as to leave our jaws dropped. How...on...earth....could....he.....?? we might say. But McCain has learned the lesson of his master, GWBush: you can because you CAN and because you DO. It's a particularly vile example of the Jesuit maxim, "Better to ask forgiveness than permission". Except the Bush--Rove--McCain strategy is "Better to do the unpermitted and unforgiveable" and thumb your nose at those who might morally balk at the strategy. I think even the press is stunned, but since they've been semi-neutered for years by the emergence of the reality-challenged right-wing alter-press, they barely know what to do. Asking some real questions would be a start, thnx.
John McCain (really, Karl Rove is behind this, but it's YOUR campaign, John), you have sacrificed your manhood, nay your very humanity, this week. It's a tragic fall story about a former hero. It's ugly, it's vile, and it excites people who are moved by the lizard brain. Congratulations, Mr. McCain, for exciting your "base". How base.
