inspectorzutto (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} inspectorzutto) wrote,@ 2008-09-04 07:05:00 |
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Palin
So! Anyone watch the RNC last night?
No kidding, folks. I almost threw up in my mouth. Sarah Palin had nothing but platitudes and emotionally charged "me-too" rhetoric that I swore at times was on the brink of "four legs good, two legs bad." I watched to the very end because I wanted to see anything about actual policy plans or concrete evidence of her track record.
The only really concrete, verifiable statement she made was that she vocally turned away federal money during a bridge-building project in Alaska. (This was in 2005; the almost $400 million funding for this bridge was being diverted by Congress to Louisiana for Katrina efforts.) This being the only verifiable statement she made, it seems a shame not to go and verify it.
According to Wikipedia (as of this writing):
"The Gravina Island Bridge (also known as The Bridge to Nowhere) was a proposed bridge to replace the ferry that currently connects Ketchikan, Alaska, to the Ketchikan International Airport on Gravina Island. The bridge was projected to cost $398 million.".
As far as I could tell, this was the one verifiable political fact she gave on stage - and the RNC commentators after her speech said she actuall contradicted herself. When campaigning for Governor of Alaska, she was the only candidate to voice support for the bridge and obtaining the federal funding for it. Later on, as Governor, she cancelled the project. Whether she did so before or after Congress decided to withdraw funding, I'm not sure.
"Bridge to Nowhere" Links / My sources (shared from a preliminary Google search)
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/w
http://www.smh.com.au/news/us-election/t
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravina_Isl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchikan,_
I admit, I wasn't a fan of her from the start. I'm still not. But I, with my devilishly liberal "open mindedness", was willing to sit through her entire speech, listening hopefully for a single intelligent remark - anything about her track record, her policy plans, the basis and fruits of her judgment. I was even willing to spend this entire morning reading up on her! And in the end I was disappointed.
---
Interesting extra notes here...
Also in Wikipedia, about Ketchikan:
Also in Wikipedia, about Alaska:
Population Density: 1.2/sq mi, ranked 50th in the United States
(Damn you and your liberal "facts", Wikipedia!)
Alright, so I'm sitting in Michigan. And my perspective is that Alaska is 1) tiny and 2) wealthy out the wazoo. This woman has what kind of experience edge over Obama?
Michigan's "per capita personal income in 2003 was $31,178 and ranked twentieth in the nation" according again to Wikipedia, and Michigan's population is stated as 10,071,822 (2007 est.). Looks like Palin has been governor of Alaska for 2 years (since November 2006), and that before that she had been mayor of Wasilla, Alaska from 1996 to 2002 (Wasilla being the fourth largest city in Alaska, standing at 9,780 people according to a 2007 estimate).
I have gone to a university that's practically larger than this woman's state in terms of population. University of Michigan has a student population of 41,042 (Wikipedia again), making it more than four times larger than the city Palin was mayor of for 8 years. I'm not even counting the host of faculty and grounds staff employed by the university, let alone the remaining population of Ann Arbor.
So! Anyone watch the RNC last night?
No kidding, folks. I almost threw up in my mouth. Sarah Palin had nothing but platitudes and emotionally charged "me-too" rhetoric that I swore at times was on the brink of "four legs good, two legs bad." I watched to the very end because I wanted to see anything about actual policy plans or concrete evidence of her track record.
The only really concrete, verifiable statement she made was that she vocally turned away federal money during a bridge-building project in Alaska. (This was in 2005; the almost $400 million funding for this bridge was being diverted by Congress to Louisiana for Katrina efforts.) This being the only verifiable statement she made, it seems a shame not to go and verify it.
According to Wikipedia (as of this writing):
"The Gravina Island Bridge (also known as The Bridge to Nowhere) was a proposed bridge to replace the ferry that currently connects Ketchikan, Alaska, to the Ketchikan International Airport on Gravina Island. The bridge was projected to cost $398 million.".
As far as I could tell, this was the one verifiable political fact she gave on stage - and the RNC commentators after her speech said she actuall contradicted herself. When campaigning for Governor of Alaska, she was the only candidate to voice support for the bridge and obtaining the federal funding for it. Later on, as Governor, she cancelled the project. Whether she did so before or after Congress decided to withdraw funding, I'm not sure.
"Bridge to Nowhere" Links / My sources (shared from a preliminary Google search)
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/w
http://www.smh.com.au/news/us-election/t
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravina_Isl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchikan,_
I admit, I wasn't a fan of her from the start. I'm still not. But I, with my devilishly liberal "open mindedness", was willing to sit through her entire speech, listening hopefully for a single intelligent remark - anything about her track record, her policy plans, the basis and fruits of her judgment. I was even willing to spend this entire morning reading up on her! And in the end I was disappointed.
---
Interesting extra notes here...
Also in Wikipedia, about Ketchikan:
Ketchikan (pronounced /ˈkɛtʃɪkæn/) is a city in Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska, United States and the southeasternmost sizable city in that state. With an estimated population of 7,368 in 2007, it is the fifth most populous city in the state.[1]
Also in Wikipedia, about Alaska:
Alaska (IPA: /əˈlæskə/, Russian: Аляска Alyaska) is a state in the United States of America, in the northwest of the North American continent. It is the largest U.S. state by area, and the 6th wealthiest (per capita income).[3][4]
Population Total: 683,478 (2007 est.), ranked 47th in the United StatesPopulation Density: 1.2/sq mi, ranked 50th in the United States
(Damn you and your liberal "facts", Wikipedia!)
Alright, so I'm sitting in Michigan. And my perspective is that Alaska is 1) tiny and 2) wealthy out the wazoo. This woman has what kind of experience edge over Obama?
Michigan's "per capita personal income in 2003 was $31,178 and ranked twentieth in the nation" according again to Wikipedia, and Michigan's population is stated as 10,071,822 (2007 est.). Looks like Palin has been governor of Alaska for 2 years (since November 2006), and that before that she had been mayor of Wasilla, Alaska from 1996 to 2002 (Wasilla being the fourth largest city in Alaska, standing at 9,780 people according to a 2007 estimate).
I have gone to a university that's practically larger than this woman's state in terms of population. University of Michigan has a student population of 41,042 (Wikipedia again), making it more than four times larger than the city Palin was mayor of for 8 years. I'm not even counting the host of faculty and grounds staff employed by the university, let alone the remaining population of Ann Arbor.
