Is Palin a pork queen?

[Jeepers]

I keep hearing that she was for the bridge to nowhere and that she procured 23 million for her town of 5,000 by hiring a lobbyist tied to Stevens...

I keep hearing both of these statements but noone fleshes out the truth on this... nor are those making the comments corrected...

 

[Gunny]

I keep hearing that she was for the bridge to nowhere and that she procured 23 million for her town of 5,000 by hiring a lobbyist tied to Stevens...

I keep hearing both of these statements but noone fleshes out the truth on this... nor are those making the comments corrected...

Do me a favor ... find a politician that does not lobby for their share of the pork and post the results.

I don't agree with pork-barrel spending, but I'm hardly going to villify one for what they ALL do.

How about that Democratic Congressman from Iowa a few years back who wanted several billion to build a rainforest in Iowa?

My personal opinion is that NONE of them get ANY of it. They account for every dime and the states and local municipalities can fund their own screwball shit.

 

[editec]

Yes.

Acting as a very small town Mayor she was quite the little K-Street networker.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, said an analysis by an independent government watchdog group.

But wait, there's more...

while Mayor of Wasilla, Palin oversaw the hiring of a lobbyist, Steven Silver a former chief of staff to now-indicted GOP senator Ted Stevens -- to help win federal earmarks for the city.

A town of 6.700 has a K-Street heavyweight on the payroll? Apparently Sarah (Earmarks the Spot) Palin did.

from 2002 to 2004 Silver listed as a client Jack Abramoff's lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig. On Greenberg's behalf, Silver lobbied the federal government on "issues relating to Indian/Native American policy," "exploration for oil and gas" and "legislation relating to gaming issues" -- the very issues that Abramoff headed up for Greenberg at the time. In other words, Silver appears to have been a part of "Team Abramoff."

Unlike most of the farfetched complaints fielded about McCain or Palin, this connections to Abramoff really is significant.

This lady is McCain's selection for VP

A up and coming Republican insider, she has obviously mastered lobbying 101, and she has the sense to employ the likes of Silver, a former associate of the notorious insider the beltway corrupt lobbyist, Jack Abramoff to do the deed for her, too?

And she's a reformer?! This woman has more clouds hanging over her head than Dixie does at the moment.

This begs the question: did McCain's VP-select group bother with a vetting process, or what?

 

[Gunny]

Yes.

Acting as a very small town Mayor she was quite the little K-Street networker.




But wait, there's more...



A town of 6.700 has a K-Street heavyweight on the payroll? Apparently Sarah (Earmarks the Spot) Palin did.




Unlike most of the farfetched complaints fielded about McCain or Palin, this connections to Abramoff really is significant.

This lady is McCain's selection for VP

A up and coming Republican insider, she has obviously mastered lobbying 101, and she has the sense to employ the likes of Silver, a former associate of the notorious insider the beltway corrupt lobbyist, Jack Abramoff to do the deed for her, too?

And she's a reformer?! This woman has more clouds hanging over her head than Dixie does at the moment.

This begs the question: did McCain's VP-select group bother with a vetting process, or what?

No substance to those clouds. They're as full of air as the people spinning and repeating them.

 

[jreeves]

Yes.

Acting as a very small town Mayor she was quite the little K-Street networker.




But wait, there's more...



A town of 6.700 has a K-Street heavyweight on the payroll? Apparently Sarah (Earmarks the Spot) Palin did.




Unlike most of the farfetched complaints fielded about McCain or Palin, this connections to Abramoff really is significant.

This lady is McCain's selection for VP

A up and coming Republican insider, she has obviously mastered lobbying 101, and she has the sense to employ the likes of Silver, a former associate of the notorious insider the beltway corrupt lobbyist, Jack Abramoff to do the deed for her, too?

And she's a reformer?! This woman has more clouds hanging over her head than Dixie does at the moment.

This begs the question: did McCain's VP-select group bother with a vetting process, or what?

Earmarks huh?
Change You Can Earmark | The Next Right
Obama funnels federal money to top campaign contributors

Although earmarking large sums of money to top supporters and fundraisers is a popular practice in both houses of Congress, not many people would expect such questionable activity from a shining star of liberalism and reform like Illinois Senator Barack Obama. Sadly, he is following a pattern of conspicuous allocations of federal funds. Just as he handed a million dollar earmark to his wife’s employers in 2006 (immediately after which her pay shot up from $121,910 a year to $316,962), Sen. Obama is now drastically increasing earmarks that go to his biggest supporters.

In 2006, Sen. Obama requested an earmark $300,000 to replace and update the projector system at the Adler Planetarium. In 2008, he requested $3,000,000 for replacement of the projector system and other equipment in the Sky Theater. For reference, this is three times the amount he earmarked for the HIV/AIDS Policy and Research Institute at Chicago State University. While the Adler Planetarium earmarks look normal on the surface, there is a catch. The Chairman and two of the Vice Chairman of the Adler Planetarium Board of Trustees raised a total of almost $250,000 for Sen. Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign. The Adler Planetarium was probably pleasantly surprised when they found that their earmark increased by $2.7 million dollars, in other words, by a factor of ten.

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Frank Clark, stands out amongst Obama supporters. On Sen. Obama’s website, Mr. Clark is listed as a bundler who raised in excess of $200,000 for the Senator’s Presidential campaign. In 2004, Mr. Clark donated $5,000 to the then State Senator Obama’s U.S. Senate bid. In 2005, Mr. Clark became the Chairman of the Board at Adler Planetarium, and in 2006 Sen. Obama earmarked $300,000 to the Planetarium. Then, in the same year that Mr. Clark’s involvement in the Obama campaign skyrocketed to raising an excess of $200,000, Sen. Obama’s earmark for the Adler Planetarium increased tenfold to $3,000,000.

 

[Ravi]

I keep hearing that she was for the bridge to nowhere and that she procured 23 million for her town of 5,000 by hiring a lobbyist tied to Stevens...

I keep hearing both of these statements but noone fleshes out the truth on this... nor are those making the comments corrected...

There was a good run down of it on NPR yesterday. Pretty ironic for someone that claims to be for reform and against pork, but keep in mind she is a Republican.

 

[DiveCon]

There was a good run down of it on NPR yesterday. Pretty ironic for someone that claims to be for reform and against pork, but keep in mind she is a Republican.

shes a piker next to Obama

 

[DiveCon]

shes a piker next to Obama

and remember, shes not the top spot

 

[Jeepers]

shes a piker next to Obama

Hmm.. did I mention Obama in the name of this thread? If so, please highlight that. If not please start your own... I am wondering how Palin is a reformer on pork if she has been bringing it in and spending it like a drunken sailor... 23,000,000 dollars for a town of 6,000... Hell, I dont think britney spears spends that much...

And.. How can she make the claim that she was against the bridge to nowhere?

 

[Caligirl]

She can make the claim about being against the bridge to nowhere, because she was.

That was after she was for it.

She also:

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative”. During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%.

This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents. The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren’t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million.

Now, the conservative base may have every reason to be excited by her. She's pretty, she's strong, she has a big family. She is someone they instinctively relate to. I have felt that way about the odd politician now and then.

But, her record does not look to me to be a good match for what she runs on during campaigns.

I admired McCain for a lot of reasons, and he is still an honorable formidable candidate for president, but this choice was terribly disppointing. There were lots of wonderful republican women he could have chosen that would not have alienated the middle and the fiscal conservatives.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

She can make the claim about being against the bridge to nowhere, because she was.

That was after she was for it.

She also:



Now, the conservative base may have every reason to be excited by her. She's pretty, she's strong, she has a big family. She is someone they instinctively relate to. I have felt that way about the odd politician now and then.

But, her record does not look to me to be a good match for what she runs on during campaigns.

I admired McCain for a lot of reasons, and he is still an honorable formidable candidate for president, but this choice was terribly disppointing. There were lots of wonderful republican women he could have chosen that would not have alienated the middle and the fiscal conservatives.

What? That crap about she should stay barefoot, in the kitchen and home with the kids didn't work well, so now you are going to claim this?

 

[Caligirl]

You are misquoting me. I don't do that to you.

 

[editec]

No substance to those clouds. They're as full of air as the people spinning and repeating them.

No substance?

Dream on, broomstick cowboy.

 

[AllieBaba]

"She's pretty, she's strong, she has a big family."

Hell, so is Obama.

 

[Jennifer.Bush]

the money went to build roads and things of that nature, nothing she should be ashame of

 

[Jeepers]

the money went to build roads and things of that nature, nothing she should be ashame of

Really.. 47million... I seriously dont have a problem with that.. pork is what you send your people to congress to get.. you get pork for roads, bridges, infrastructure, research or to bring in foreign firms and whatnot...

But...

You dont make that part of your platform... you dont make that part of your personality, you dont make that part of your record....

If...

The record shows the exact opposite....

 

[Jeepers]

z-zz-zzz-z... Yeah.. thats what I thought.

 

[DiveCon]

the money went to build roads and things of that nature, nothing she should be ashame of

exactly
she did what she had to do to improve her town

 

[AllieBaba]

crickets

 

[Jeepers]

exactly
she did what she had to do to improve her town

its pork dumbasses.. she is running against it... there is a conflict here. My fear with you cats is that the conflict is actually in intellect and reading comprehension...