NYT op/ed on Republican PORK - PORK - PORK in Alaska - YOU'RE paying!

[Nothing Without Hope]

You may have heard something about the huge, egregious piles of unneeded funding to the states of Republican officials in the recently signed Transportation Bill. Well, you might not realize just how huge and egregious this thing really is.

Really, REALLY huge and egregious.

Just when you thought they could sink no lower - here comes Alaska's Frank Murkowski. You may have heard of him in another of his starring roles - fighting conservation groups to push for oil drilling in sensitive areas of Alaska. There was also that little matter of the private jet plane...obvioiusly, he's an important fellow and deserves the finest. Well, the Bush Administration gave him a BIG thank you in the Transportation Bill, and we're all going to be paying for it.

Because of the 4-paragraph excerpt rule, I can't give you more of this amazing story, especially the part that explains that the road that Murkowski is planning to build in a place that does not need a road will ultimately cost about $300,000,000 and will literally GO NOWHERE!!!

And then there's that $230,000,000 bridge...

http://www.allhatnocattle.net.nyud.net:8090/bush_223M_Bridge_to_Nowhere.jpg

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/20/opinion/20lende.html?th&emc=th
Op-Ed Contributor

Alaska's Road to Nowhere

By HEATHER LENDE
Published: August 20, 2005
Haines, Alaska

YOU have probably already heard about the pile of cash going to Alaska from the federal transportation bill. There's about a quarter of a billion dollars for a bridge to connect the airport on Gravina Island to Ketchikan (population 14,000). The bridge will rival the Golden Gate and Brooklyn Bridges in length and height.

Then there's $230 million or so for "Don Young's Way," a bridge between Anchorage and a swampy, undeveloped port, which is named for the man who got us the money, Alaska's lone congressman.

But it's the $15 million designated for a road between Juneau and Skagway that is dearest to me. Haines, the small town I live in, is close to Skagway - separated from it only by the waters of the upper Lynn Canal, which is not a canal at all, but the longest fjord in North America. The transportation money will go toward the first road ever to be built along the canal. Actually, the project will cost about $300 million to complete, but Gov. Frank Murkowski assures Alaskans that he'll get whatever he needs from the federal government.

The communities directly affected - Haines (population 2,400), Skagway (population 870) and Juneau (population 31,000) - have voiced opposition to the road for a host of good reasons: it is a waste of money; with at least two dozen avalanche chutes, it will be too dangerous to drive in winter, which is most of the year; we already have a fine ferry system that gets us just about everywhere we need to go in all kinds of weather; some places are too nice to be paved over.

(snip)

According to the Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_H._Murkowski), Frank Murkowski was Senator of Alaska until he ran successfully for governor in 2002. He then appointed his own daughter, Lisa Murkowski, to his unexpired Senate seat. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Murkowski) She actually doesn't sound too bad as Republicans go - she's one of the few pro-choice Republicans and did not support Frist in his nuclear option quest - but her dad is no prize. According to Wikipedia's juicy entry on him, "of July, 2005, according to a poll, Murkowski has the second lowest approval rating out of the 50 governors, only Robert Taft of Ohio is ranked worse. His approval rating is only 31%, while his disapproval rating is 61%. Murkowski has been involved in a bit of controversy over his desire to purchase a private jet to be used by himself and Alaska State Police." Obviously Bush's kind of guy!

Compare the hundreds of millions totally wasted in the Transportation Bill to placate Murkowski in Alaska with the painstakingly researched and budgeted funds obtained by Rep. John Conyers for his district in Michigan:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=159x3819
Thread title: Conyers is for the people, not the pigs. In the just-signed Transportation {Bill...}

Here's Rep. Conyers list, so you can contrast it with Murkowski's wasteful, stupidly chosen windfalls:

Project / Funding

• Replace buses in the city of Detroit / $6.3 million
  
• Build a bus maintenance facility in the city of Detroit / $3.8 million
  
• Study and determine replacement options for the Trenton Channel Bridge / $3.2 million
  
• Construct a railroad grade separation on Fort Street north of Van Horn Road, Trenton, County of Wayne / $1.6 million
  
• Ford museum / $1.2 million
  
• Wyoming Ave. reconstruction from Eagle Pass to Michigan Avenue under a railroad bridge / $800,000
  
• Repair M-10 corridor from I-696 to downtown Detroit / $800,000

Sort of hard to see Rep. Conyers and Senator - now Governor - Murkowski as government officials in the same country, isn't it?

[rusty charly]

1. why do i have a feeling

that this road actually DOES lead to something? it hasn't been revealed yet, but i wouldn't be surprised if eventually it leads to something related to ANWAR drilling.

[Nothing Without Hope]

2. Wouldn't surprise me a bit. Ole Frank knows how to butter his bread. n/t

[acmejack]

3. Either that or his buddie's land

Just waiting to be developed.

[Blue_In_AK]

7. It's nowhere near ANWR

but I think Frank has some business interests down there.

ed. You got it, Acme. I think that's it. There was some stuff in our local news about it a while ago, but I kind of skimmed over it. Just your typical republican corruption stuff, which they ALL seem to be into.

Frank's jet is another real bamboozle. The people turned it down in an election, the state legislature has come out against it, and he's going ahead with it anyway. AND he's buying one from Outside for a million dollars more than one that's been offered to him from within the state because it has better bathrooms and more baggage space. Puh-leeze. His ostensible reason for needing the jet? To transport prisoners to Outside prisons (a lot of our prisoners get sent to private prisons in Arizona). Yeah, right. Somebody suggested in a LTTE yesterday that a flight plan for Frank's jet should be posted in the newspaper every single day. I agree wholeheartedly. He is SUCH an asshole. I still find it very hard to believe that he honestly won the gubernatorial election against our very fine former lieutenant gov under Tony Knowles, Fran Ulmer. Now, THERE was a class act. It makes me weep.

[Nothing Without Hope]

4. This is worth a read. The corruption isn't even subtle - look at Bush's

smirk as he signs this travesty into law. Hey, HE's not paying for it!

[Nothing Without Hope]

5. kick n/t

[Blue_In_AK]

6. Many of us here are embarrassed to death by this.

Our republican "representatives" - Congresspeople, governor, etc. -- have a long history of doing exactly what they want to enrich themselves and their friends, all in the name of doing what's best for "Alaskans." I've about had it with them.

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. No wonder, and it looks like most other Alaskans agree with you:

From the Wikipedia entry on Frank Murkowski in the opening post:

"As of July, 2005, according to a poll, Murkowski has the second lowest approval rating out of the 50 governors, only Robert Taft of Ohio is ranked worse. His approval rating is only 31%, while his disapproval rating is 61%. Murkowski has been involved in a bit of controversy over his desire to purchase a private jet to be used by himself and Alaska State Police."

[Blue_In_AK]

9. I am still convinced that Alaska is not as "red" as everyone

thinks and that there has been some skullduggery going on here the last few elections since 2000. Frank Murkowski should never had won the governor's race over Fran Ulmer who was clearly the better candidate, he never should have appointed Lisa to his vacant Senate seat, and Tony Knowles should definitely have defeated her last November. Only a last-minute campaign blitz by Ted Stevens equating Tony with (gasp!!) Daschle, Kerry and (oh, no!) Hillary pushed her over the top.

We had a lot of support the other night at our Cindy vigil from passing drivers, and there are some very good Democratic state legislators from Anchorage. Of course, I don't know how it is out in the Bush, but it's hard for me to imagine that the Native villagers would be backing these republican assholes and their special interests.

[Nothing Without Hope]

10. Judging from the enormous amounts of cash giveaways in the

Transportation Bill, I'd say the Bush Administration REALLY wanted Murkowski & Murkowski in power in Alaska. Election fraud was very widespread last November. I've been concentrating on the flood of data (but too little of what is REALLY needed) for Ohio, but there's bound to be a lot for Alaska too. With so much skullduggery on Nov 2, who knows what might have happened in AK - but there's bound to be some information posted that could give an indication.

[roseBudd]

12. Cheryl Bellucci daughter of Triad Election Systems founder & lead

programmer for Triad bragged on a taxidermy forum about getting to count votes in Alaska in a suspicous way. Wonder what Alaska election a Triad employee "counted" ballots in Alaska?

A Better Way?
This response submitted by Cheryl B. on 5/25/99.

Hmmm... I've been reading this thread about numbers on ballots with interest. You see, I work for a company which counts ballots for county boards of elections in five different states. In fact, I got to count ballots in an election in Alaska last month... uh, maybe I shouldn't bring that up.

The problem with ballots is that they must be unique, that's where the numbers come into play. I agree with Michelle that in this day and age, it is very easy to reproduce colored items (observe the massive undertaking our government is going through with the redesign of our paper money). With the system we use, the ballots have unique stub numbers that are assigned to each voter. Those stubs are torn off and at that point the ballot is "disassociated" with the number... BUT, that is done at the polling place where someone has verified your identity. That is very hard to do when mailing comes in to play.

[Blue_In_AK]

13. In '99?

That's so long ago, but it must have been a special election or something. Aren't most of the elections in even-numbered years?

[roseBudd]

15. Unfortunately no DUer has been able to figure out what election...

she is referring to, just by Googling.

[snowbear]

11. And just think...

While we're waiting to drive across the 230 million dollar "Bridge to Nowhere", we can sit over at the new....

--->> :wow: 1.5 million dollar bus stop !!! :wow:

They asked for money for a new bus stop by the museum this past summer, and were shocked when U.S. Senator Ted Stevens secured $1.5 million for it!

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/10588

[Nothing Without Hope]

14. Wow - just THINK of the amenities that might be offered by a

bus stop that took 1.5 million dollars to build! (Besides a VERY happy contractor)

[roguevalley]

16. Frank the Bank has land over there. We are a monarchy don't

you know. The Princess Lisa was appointed to our senate seat by the King. End of story.

[Blue_In_AK]

18. Frank is truly amazing

the way he completely disregards the will of the people of Alaska. His arrogance as regards the jet is mind-boggling. And don't you just love it that he and Ted won't even talk to certain members of the press who are critical of them? Seems to be a republican prerequisite.

[Nothing Without Hope]

22. The fact that he is (by polls) very unpopular in AK and a darling of the

GOP, with favors and hundreds of millions of dollars, makes me wonder all the more whether the GOP "help" him and his daughter with elections with a bit of electronic voting machine "massage." Seems to me, this needs some investigation. Or does he control all of that too? He really sounds like the Boss of Tammany Hall New York during the LAST age of the robber barons.

[Blue_In_AK]

23. Oh, he's really horrible, you have no idea.

There was some question about the senatorial election last year (Knowles/L. Murkowski). They were basically tied right up until the end, with Tony Knowles (Dem) having a slight lead, but there was a huge push at the end for Lisa from national republican types, saying that a vote for Tony would doom ANWR. (Even though Tony, being an astute Alaskan politician, supported drilling -- you have to assume you're going to lose here if you don't). Also that Ted Stevens would lose his leadership position if there was a Democratic majority - I forget which chairmanship it was - even though because of term limits or something he had to give it up this year anyway. They didn't mention that part.

Anyway, there was enough of a question about the result of the election that we got the money together for a recount (thanks to help from DU), but Lisa ended up "winning" it by about 3%. We do have paper ballots here, so everything appeared to be on the up-and-up, but it's hard to say. I really don't have much faith in our elections at this point. Tony Knowles was a popular Anchorage mayor for two terms, a popular state governor for two terms, and I believe he should have won. Lisa Murkowski was merely a fairly inexperienced state representative when her dad appointed her to his senate seat when he left to run for governor in 2000. That action created a huge uproar here, and the people voted last year (in the same general election that Lisa "won") to hold special elections to fill vacant congressional seats rather than have appointments. It seemed odd to me that people would be so against her appointment and still elect her.

As for Frank, I know of him from way back in the '80s when he was the head of Alaska National Bank of the North. As a paralegal, I worked on a lawsuit against him and his bank for bilking a native corporation of millions of dollars in questionable investments. The bank ended up with a $10 million judgment against it and folded. Frank went on to become a 20-year, ineffective senator, based on what, I have no idea. As governor, not only he, but various members of his administration, have had numerous ethics challenges -- including the head state republican committee guy, Randy Ruedrich, and Frank's attorney general, who had conflict-of-interest issues and had to resign.

Alaska's politics are almost as much fun as Texas.

This may be more than you wanted to know, but there you have it.

[Nothing Without Hope]

24. That is just fascinating. What a slimeball! As a native Texan, I am

thinking Molly Ivins should consider Alaskan politics as a hobby to complement her incomparable coverage of Texas politics. Just THINK of what she'd do to Frank the Bank!

Thanks for this. Until I started researching this article, I never heard of either Murkowski. Geez! My sister-in-law lives in Anchorage, but the most I know if Alaska comes from reading John McPhee's Coming Into the Country years ago. Alaska really does sound like a wilder version of Texas in some ways. Even its geology is wild - very interesting stuff, shows its long-term history over hundreds of millions of years is wild and fast-moving too! I'm going to have to get up there for a visit some day.

I am wondering just what the GOP thought it was buying with the hundreds of millions in bogus projects in AK. Clearly, the politicians can take in graft and promise jobs (who cares if no one needs what they produce) - but this really does seem excessive even for dirty politics.

[Nothing Without Hope]

17. kick n/t

[kerrygoddess]

19. Thanks for posting this

I wrote about it when it first passed in the PORK Bill! Excellant piece from the NY Times.

[paineinthearse]

20. I remember similar post the day of/after the signing

...but I am tired from working at a 10-act folk festival and too lazy to search.

Be my guest.

Nominated.

[Nothing Without Hope]

21. I posted on what Conyers wrote about the important funds he got for his

district in the Transportation Bill and mentioned that there were huge bogus outlays for Rethugs in it. That great captioned photo of Bush signing a bill was in there too. But this current post is more on the new NYT piece on the Alaska nonsense. You can smell the corruption all the way to us on the other coast.

Here's the earlier thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2004936
Thread title: Conyers is for the people, not the pigs. In the just-signed Transportation {Bill, for example, it's enlightening to compare the carefully chosen, highly practical and necessary funding for transportation that Conyers has obtained for his Michigan district with the bloated pork-laden bequests to some GOP favorites.}

[Nothing Without Hope]

25. Too bad that so few people saw this thread. It shows GOP waste. n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

26. I'm still trying to refer people into this thread - the scope of the waste

in Frank "The Bank" Murkowski's domain is stunning and needs to be more widely known - along with the unforgiveable pork handed out to other GOP favorites - all from a deficit budget with so many poor denied their basic needs.