Sarah Palin Is The Bridge To Nowhere

My friends Rachel and Scott started an synthpunk band in San Francisco late in the 70s, The Units. I signed them to my indie label, 415 Records and we released a groundbreaking record, Digital Stimulation. I never met Rachel's mom, the artist Helen Webber. For all the talk of woman of a certain age in states like Pennsylvania, I don't think anyone was thinking about Helen Webber, who is 80 and lives in Exton, PA. Rachel and Scott sent me this from Helen today:

SARAH 
PALIN
IS 
THE 
BRIDGE
TO 
NOWHERE.

Nowhere is a place where woman have no choice regarding their bodies,
and are forced to bear babies even if their pregnancy is a result of rape or incest.

Nowhere is a place where wolves, bears and other wildlife are hunted and killed
without mercy, at the whim of gun toting hunters.  

Nowhere is a place where we can spread lies about our political opponents without
regret or shame.

Nowhere is a place where we don't worry or care about global warming and the health of
our oceans, lands, and creatures because we are assured that whatever happens is "God's will".

Nowhere is a place where separation of state and church does not exist.

Nowhere is a place where government has the right to decide what books are in our public libraries.

Nowhere is a place 
from the Dark Ages,
where the rich and 
the powerful rule at 
their whim, where lip 
service is given to 
helping all the people, 
when in fact the powerful
help the powerful.

While you think about a Palin world view imposed on America, consider, to the sound of some of The Units' music, what we've just come through and ask yourself if you want more of this:

Does Your Truth Ever Feel Weak And Unimportant?

-by Decay

Palin was into Bridges to Nowhere before she was against them

I live in a bubble. I never watch TV, and haven't for years. I get all my information from the net and books, magazines, etc. My parents, sister, and brother (and their families) get all their information from TV. They believe Fox. They're all born-again Christians, or children of them. And most of them are very sweet and kind people.

When I first found out that Palin didn't sell the jet on eBay, and that it was sold at a loss, I researched it and came to the conclusion that McCain had repeated a lie he'd been told by Palin.

My sister called me to tell me that it was great that Palin would sell the plane on eBay, what a tough one she is, "we love her", etc.  (My family doesn't believe in abortion for any reason, just like Palin.) When I pointed out that the plane story was untrue and backed it up, there was silence, then some small talk about a cousin, and the call was over.

She hated me for saying that, and I assume still believes that the plane story is true; I'm a liberal dissembler.

If I can't get the plane story refuted, and the refutation agreed to, I have no hope on bigger issues. Iraq, economy, health care. The TV will be on and Gibson will set up the slow pitch and Palin will hit 
the whiffle, and McCain will grin.

My mother always uses the slag against Obama that he wants socialized medicine, so we'll have to wait for months to get an operation, or even see a doctor. "Like in Canada, where I saw this thing on the news where a lady needed this operation on her liver, and she couldn't get an appointment..."  When I point out that since my father was in the service, my parents get military health care, which is a big form of socialized medicine, that our whole family is lucky they have that plan, I get stares, silence. Nothing.

My sister told me once that she didn't care what Bush did, she'd vote for him no matter what because of the 44,000,000 dead babies. She's a one-issue voter-- abortion. She bought Bush's scam. She's the person who is invigorated by SP, and will start canvassing her town, spreading 
the plane story across back fences and in the market. She's on a mission from God now. (I might add that my sister was valedictorian of our High School.)

And here I am in this bubble of the internet. Not owned by Big Media... yet. I felt like I was in a bigger world, free to discover and be intelligent and make informed decisions, to help change things. But 
right now I feel like I'm on an island, surrounded by sharks. My truth feels weak and unimportant.

I've written my family off, as far as making a change. And I have to keep on living in my bubble, expanding it, looking for clues, being as smart as I can be.

Maybe one day the world will be the bubble.


UPDATE FROM HOWIE: MORE INFO FOR DECAY'S SISTER

A.P. has been a strong McCain backer but even that organization couldn't sit back and wacth the lies pouring out of the campaign about Palin's supposed heroism in stopping the infmaous Bridges to Nowhere. A.P. debunked the lies today. Of course, whether or not it will matter to folks like those described above... nah.

A new ad from John McCain's presidential campaign contends his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, "stopped the Bridge to Nowhere." In fact, Palin was for the infamous bridge before she was against it.

THE SPIN: Called "Original Mavericks," the ad asserts the Republican senator has fought pork-barrel spending, the drug industry and fellow Republicans, reforming Washington in the process, and credits Palin with similarly changing Alaska by taking on the oil industry, challenging her own party and ditching the bridge project that became a national symbol of wasteful spending.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton came back with fighting words. "Despite being discredited over and over again by numerous news organizations, the McCain campaign continues to repeat the lie that Sarah Palin stopped the Bridge to Nowhere," he said.

Burton said McCain would merely carry on supporting President Bush's economic, health, education, energy and foreign policies, and that means "anything but change."
THE FACTS: Palin did abandon plans to build the nearly $400 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport. But she made her decision after the project had become an embarrassment to the state, after federal dollars for the project were pulled back and diverted to other uses in Alaska, and after she had appeared to support the bridge during her campaign for governor.

McCain and Palin together have told a broader story about the bridge that is misleading. She is portrayed as a crusader for the thrifty use of tax dollars who turned down an offer from Washington to build an expensive bridge of little value to the state.

"I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere," she said in her convention speech last week.

That's not what she told Alaskans when she announced a year ago that she was ordering state transportation officials to ditch the project. Her explanation then was that it would be fruitless to try to persuade Congress to come up with the money.

But that crazy Palin and her family! I think folks sympathize with her because they feel like they know them-- from every Jerry Springer Show they've ever watched. I don't know if Keven is on the up and up or not, but... I guess we'll find out in seven months.


UPDATE: EVEN FOX CAN'T ABIDE THE PALIN LIES

OK, Decay's family doesn't read socialist media like the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, or Newsweek, but... he said they believe Fox. Unless they only believe the 30 second propaganda spots on Fox, they may have learned something about the whole Palin deception thing. Yesterday Chris Wallace slapped McCain lobbyist/campaign manager Rick Davis around... on Fox.

Like Ted Stevens, McCain Is Offering Only A Bridge To Nowhere-- And A Collapsing One At That

I had finally pulled myself from the fast-paced Ted Stevens corruption indictments and started on a story about bridges-- not Bridges to Nowhere, real bridges that real people need everyday. And then there was a huge shaking at my house-- and, as it turns out, throughout Southern California. So now the Ted Stevens corruption story is completely off the air and instead we have All-Earthquake-No-News-Whatsoever-All-Day on CNN. How many ways can you say "There was no damage but it was scary?" Wolf Blintzer has brought his expertise to the question now. So back to bridges...

You probably heard McCain and his slimy surrogates whining about Obama politicizing the Iraq War and how wants to lose the war so he can win the election or some kind of scurrilous Rovian claptrap. His paid advertising goes beyond negative and into sheer vicious desperation. The Washington Independent points out that McCain running ads that are unrelated to objective reality and that FactCheck.org slaps them down as fast as the oil companies give him the money to put up new ones.

Anyone who has been following the story of Sen. Barack Obama's "snub" of wounded American troops during his visit to Germany last week could tell right away that Sen. John McCain's latest attack ad did not tell the whole tale. In its latest analysis, FactCheck.org, the nonpartisan fact-checking website at University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of Public Policy, confirms that the ad-- like many of McCain's recent ads-- plays fast and loose with the truth.

McCain is coming off as a vicious, cranky, nasty old man and, as Charlie Cook pointed out today, the more the public sees of him, the less they like him.

And while his politicization charges against Obama aren't sticking, they are coming back around and biting McCain in the ass. What does all this have to do with bridges and earthquakes? Glad you asked. Early in the campaign McCain came up with a highly politicized pseudo-proposal for an irresponsible-- and impossible-- gas tax holiday. In just another of many examples of McCain not having any idea what he's talking about, his gas tax would devastate infrastructure maintenance (like in roads and... yes, bridges). No wonder he likes Minnesota Governor Pawlenty so much; he actually promulgated policies that did contribute to the collapse of a major bridge.

So while evangelicals are warning McCain that he will lose millions the bigoted voters he's counting on if he picks Romney as his running mate, and while Huckabee is getting laughs on Fox by comparing him to Dole and calling him angry, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials are not enthusiastic about his gas holiday demagoguery. In fact they say they need $140 billion "to make major repairs or upgrades to one of every four bridges in the United States."

While Bush was wasting billions, maybe trillions, on enriching his friends, relatives and campaign contributors with unaccountable "spending" in Iraq, the nation's vital infrastructure has been deteriorating through lack of attention for years. In May, we talked about some serious proposals from Andy Stern and Kathleen Sebelius that an Obama Administration is going to have to take very seriously. The latest buzz about Sebelius as his VP choice means it would be. (Personally, I'd prefer Andy Stern, but Sebelius is a far better choice than Evan Bayh, Tim Kaine or Joe Biden.) Back to bridges and the report from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials:

152,000 of 600,000 bridges are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

..."States are doing their best to improve them, but construction costs are skyrocketing... forcing states to delay needed repairs," said Pete Rahn, head of the Missouri Department of Transportation and the group's president. "Without a national commitment to increasing bridge investment, we will see a continuing spiral towards deterioration and, ultimately, bridge closures in order to protect the traveling public."

This isn't the kind of grist for McCain's mill. It bores him. He only likes talking about war. This is the kind of stuff he can hire people to take care of.

PART II OF THE ALASKA REPORT: DIANE BENSON vs DON YOUNG

A couple days ago Phil Munger reported on why Diane Benson would make an extraordinary representative for the people of Alaska (rather than for a bunch of bloodsucking corporations). In fairness I thought I should find someone to write about Don Young, her Republican opponent. Again, I turned to my friend Phil, who has generously offered to take me halibut fishing in Alaska. Like most people who have watched Young's unscrupulous career unfold, Phil has not been too pleased with the antics his congressman has been pulling down in DC. Young's contemptible, extremist voting record is bad enough, but his consistent pattern of criminal behavior is what has Alaskans of all political stripes seriously thinking about abandoning him. Phil's report:


Don Young's Connections to Jack Abramoff

Philip Munger
October 14, 2006

Don Young and Jack Abramoff first crossed paths in 1997. Young had "sponsored a bill to hold a vote in Puerto Rico on statehood for the U.S. territory. Abramoff was a lobbyist for a group called Future of Puerto Rico that wanted the same thing." The bill passed the House but died in the Senate.

Beginning in 1999, Young became involved with Abramoff in scams designed to bamboozle Americans into believing that products produced under slave labor-like conditions in the Mariana Islands were "Made in the USA." Young, as chairman of the House Resources Committee, had oversight responsibilities over working conditions in the Marianas and the Marshall Islands. In spite of this responsibility, Young neglected to raise questions regarding working conditions in either Island group while touring the Pacific Ocean territories on trips subsidized or arranged by Abramoff.

Young has never been confronted on his failure to take action on labor abuses in the Marianas at that time which included forced prostitution and abortion, harsh working conditions, a rapidly growing narcotics trade and illegal garnishment of employee wages. Throughout the period of Young's stewardship over the islands, working conditions worsened as sweatshops erected there replaced the American textile and clothing industry one shop at a time.

Chinese crime boss and sweatshop owner Tan Siu Lin was able to launder money through Abramoff to a number of GOP legislators and committees at the same time the US Interior Department was issuing reports to Young about horrendous working conditions and the growth of organized crime at Tan family-owned businesses in the Marianas.

On January 4, 1999, Abramoff was hired to represent the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Abramoff’s main mission was to stop legislation pending in Congress, which would have raised costs of clothing manufactured by the Tan family and other clothing manufacturing interests there.

On February 21, 1999, Young visited the Marshall Islands. As soon as he returned to Washington, DC, Young killed House Resolution 730, which called for the implementation of US labor laws in the Marshalls.

On February 2, 2000, Young called Abramoff’s assistant Jennifer Calvert to ask for use of Abramoff’s MCI skybox for two upcoming fundraisers. The request was granted. The fundraisers were held March 30 and July 24. Young failed to report use of the skyboxes, as required by Federal law, until early 2006-- after the Abramoff scandal broke and was splashed all over the national media.

Later in the summer of 2000, Abramoff’s lobbying firm, Preston, Gates and Ellis, held a pricey tribute for Don Young at the Republican National Convention.

In 2001, Abramoff moved to the firm of Greenburg Traurig. In a January 4, 2001 proposal to represent the government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Abramoff wrote about his confidence in Don Young’s ability to quash legislation prejudicial to the Tan family business interests. But Abramoff also complained about Young's removal from the Chair of the House Resources Committee, saying, "The loss of Chairman Young’s authority cannot easily be measured or replaced." [He was replaced by someone equally corrupt and someone who was quick to pick up where Young left off: Dirty Dick Pombo.]

But Abramoff wasn't yet done with Young. We know of at least two more scams. On March 21, 2001, Abramoff staffer Tony Rudy met with Young's staff to "start gathering signatures on letter to chairman," an unclear reference to a Marianas official.

During the remainder of 2001, Young or his staff met or had discussions with Abramoff agents at least eleven times, May 25, 29 and 31; June 5, 8, 13 and 25 (twice); August 22; and December 13 and 21.

In the summer of 2002, Young's senior counsel, Duane Gibson, went to work for Abramoff. This is in itself highly interesting given the almost daily parade of GOP staffers and ex-staffers under fire, indictment or both.

In September 2002, Young sought to intervene with the General Services Administration on behalf of Abramoff, who at that time was seeking preferential treatment for a group of his Tribal clients who were bidding on a proposal to develop the Old Post Office Complex site in Washington, DC. Although Young merely wrote two letters to the GSA recommending the tribe's business consortium, he received a $7,000 contribution from two of the partners in the deal. Irregularities in this business deal have led to the indictments and convictions of David Savafian, GSA chief of Staff, Congressman Bob Ney of Ohio, and, of course, Ambramoff. [Just today the Sacramento Bee confirmed that Young House crony John Doolittle is also being investigated for the FBI for his role in the Abramoff corruption scandals. It is widely believed that after Doolittle has been indicted Young and Montana Senator Conrad Burns will be the next up for thorough investigations by the Feds.]

On November 21, 2005 Abramoff’s partner Michael Scanlon pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe a member of Congress and other public officials. January 3, 2006 Abramoff pled guilty to three felony counts, conspiracy, fraud, and tax evasion, involving charges stemming principally from his lobbying activities in Washington. He is purportedly continuing to cooperate with Federal investigators but in the world of Gonzales/Bush "Justice," Alice Fisher has led the investigative team. Fisher has been tied to fundraising for GOP crime boss Tom DeLay’s legal defense team.

In February 2006, the Anchorage Daily News published an editorial and a story that covered some of the Young-Abramoff links detailed above. Young responded on February 7, 2006 with a long letter to the editor of the News. Young claimed, quite falsely, "I have never had any personal or professional relationship with Abramoff." Young concluded, "I find the Daily News' editorial suggesting an unethical link between myself and Abramoff to be reprehensible. You need to get your opinions [sic] straight and quit attacking my integrity." The Anchorage Daily News followed up on February 19, 2006, with an article detailing some of the Young-Abramoff links.

And Abramoff-Young links keep popping up. Former Abramoff colleague, David Safavian, was convicted on June 20, 2006 of false statements and obstruction of justice involving his collusion with Abramoff while Safavian served as Chief of Staff of the Federal General Services Administration. Although Safavian has been pinned mostly for the well-known golf junket to Scotland, which has also brought down Congressman Bob Ney of Ohio, Don Young's name came up in another aspect of Safavian's trial, the aforementioned Old Post Office Complex area development scam. There is a possibility that more information about Young's involvement in this crooked deal will come out in Safavian's pre-sentence investigation report, which is due for completion soon.

Along with Safavian, Federal prosecutors have convicted former Chief of Staff to Rep. Bob Ney, Neil Volz, for his role in deals which cut quite close to Young's involvement in the Old Post Office Complex scam and his subsequent contributions from Abramoff's clients. The May 25, 2006 Cleveland Plain Dealer article on Safavian has Volz testifying regarding Young. "In his testimony, Volz, who worked with Abramoff (as did Young’s chief counsel, Duane Gibson) after leaving Congress, detailed how the lobbying team received assistance from several Republican lawmakers, including Reps. Ney, Shelley Moore Capitol (W.Va.), Don Young (Alaska) and Steven LaTourette (Ohio)."

Liz Ruskin, the reporter who wrote the Anchorage Daily News stories critical of Young, left the paper in mid-2006. As of October 9, 2006, the Daily News has found no replacement for Ruskin, who reported on Alaska's Congressional delegation. According to their publisher, Patrick Dougherty, they have nobody assigned to cover Young during one of the most important national elections since World War II.

More articles are coming out every week as more information on Abramoff's criminal network come to light. Today's Los Angeles Times carries a long feature by Peter Wallsten, titled "Displease a Lobbyist-- Get Fired." In the article Wallsten chronicles Abramoff's long reach by having Allan Stayman fired in 2001, with Ken Mehlman's help. Stayman was the chief State Department negotiator for agreements on working conditions in the CNMI while Young also had direct responsibility for those conditions.

Alaskans should hold our sole Representative in what will be a Democratically-controlled Congress far more accountable about his dealings with Abramoff through the years, and his failure to look after the welfare of the citizens and residents of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands when he was statutorily responsible for the welfare of those people.


UPDATE: IF YOUNG WINS RE-ELECTION HE WILL OFFICIALLY BE THE STUPIDEST PERSON IN CONGRESS

Many people who have watched Young over the years think it's impossible to be any more of a moron than Alaska's one sole congressman. But according to Radar, which published a ranking of the 10 stupidest members of Congress, Young is only #2. The good news, #1, Katherine Harris, is leaving Congress. Here's the entry about Young:

The scene: Fairbanks, Alaska, 1994. Congressman Don Young, already in office for 20 years, is on the stump preaching the virtues of Newt Gingrich's Republican revolution to a group of high school students. Just look at all the wasteful things the federal government does with taxpayers' money, he tells them. The National Endowment for the Arts, for example, funds art involving "people doing offensive things... things that are absolutely ridiculous." One student asks, "Like what?"

"Buttfucking," replies the great scourge of obscenity and instructor of youth.

Young's performance remains a classic in the annals of congressional idiocy, offering that rare, supremely unselfconscious moment in which one of our nation's legislative solons lets his addled mind graze freely. But the real irony of this legendary gaffe is that the congressman lecturing on government waste was the very same man who, years later, would be responsible for Alaska's fabled Bridge to Nowhere, a $233 million project constructed entirely of pork. And it's the same man who, when asked about his state's outrageous $941 million transportation bill, boasted "I stuffed it like a turkey," before adding that detractors of the bridge-equal in length to the Golden Gate but connecting to a town with a population of 50-could "kiss my ear."

UPDATE: MEET MR. PORK

The new issue of Rolling Stone rates Young the third worst congressman in America-- and that is saying a lot!