The Pork Wars

It isn’t opposing the bridge to nowhere if you take the funds and use them for something else. OK.

Palin was also FOR Obama, before she was AGAINST him.

I should also be noted that, while taking the amount of earmarks Obama as seems remarkably excessive, Illinois is a big state, with a massive city. Hillary Clinton got a lot of earmarks too, but when you’re working with $$ in New York City, its a different ballgame. $27 mil goes a lot farther in Wasilla than it does in Chicago (or New York). But more importantly, Obama isn’t campaigning as an anti-pork crusader. McCain/Palin is. Obama released his earmarks during the primary (I think he was the first of the major candidates to do so–McCain doesn’t have any, I believe). He isn’t ashamed of the earmarks he secured, he clearly thinks they are necessary. If Palin really does believe she was working in a broken system (and, ya know, she was), she should say that. But just saying that you’ve always been an antiearmark crusader who always opposed the bridge to nowhere is disingenuous.

Alaska has a population of 670,000.
Illinois has a population of 12,832,000.
Palin approx. $667/person
Obama approx. $75/person

Obama spent millions in earmarks to help his wife and buddies like Father Pfleger in Chicago.
McCain has no earmarks.

The republicans have the nerve to give us a Vice Presidential nominee that has limited education, and no foreign policy experience. Zilch, Nada, None.
Living near Russia doesn’t count as foreign policy.
The republicans NOW claim they’ll create millions of new jobs. To replace the millions we have lost under the same administration?
And if you believe that, they have a bridge to Nowhere they’re trying to sell you on e-bay.

THANK YOU JAKE!
None of the TV media talking heads seems to be willing to point out the complete HYPOCRACY that is Gov Palin.
They all just raved about how she could read a speech (filled with flat out lies and false hoods) that was prepared by the BUSH speech writers …. That’s change?
Palin is another GOP puppet and a clone of what we have had for eight years. Johnny Maverick has old his soul to get elected. He has gone aganst many things he stood for just a couple years ago. If he will not stand up to himself, how will he stand up to his buddies in Washington?
Should Mr “I’ll veto wasteful earmarks and let you know the names of the people who propose them” get elected, the first name on the list should be Gov Pain!

Is Obama running against Palin or McCain? Can’t tell anymore. He seems more concerned about comparing his experience and record to hers. Kind of shows that maybe Obama should be the vice president candidate. McCain08 / Hillary 12

Sorry to seem naive here, but why are earmarks so bad? I mean some earmarks support worthwhile and important projects don’t they? I think its quite dangerous to posture that you are against all earmarks.

No Martin, you have that confused.
Senator Obama has proven that his community organizing skills have provided him with the best grassroots organization that beat the most powerful political machine in history.
His money comes from people like me. We want him to win this election, and the American people are depending on him to win this election. We’re tired of this Karl Rove government.

“Obama has spent $100 million dollars every day that he was in the senate”. Who’s lying?

Jackie, she requested earmarks decades ago? Palin was in the government decades ago? She was mayor just two yrs ago, now a Governor for the last year and a half.
Is it true when Palin took over as mayor she had $0 debt, but left them with $22 million in debt?
This pitbull hockeymom, with or without lipstick, does not have the knowledge or education to be #2. I’m sure the folks in Alask are still trying to figure out why she’s their Governor.

“Sorry to seem naive here, but why are earmarks so bad”
Earmarks are considered bad because they are slipped into totally unrelated bills to fund projects in local state districts. Many times they are done to favor of the politician wanting the earmark in support of the larger bill. The problem with earmarks is that they are inherently clandestine. In truth, these earmarks would never see the light of day otherwise and local communities would see no federal money. McCain\Palin demagogue against this practice. Bottom line, is if the earmark is for your district or City (Wasilla) your constituancy is happy since it creates jobs and betters the community and results in support for your re-election.

The purpose of the bridge in Ketchikan was to provide access to the airport on the thinly-populated Gravina Island. It would have opened the area to expansion, too.
Alaska’s congressional delegation earmarked 223 million dollars for the project, and an equal amount for a crossing of Knik Arm at Anchorage, and was heavily criticized for it.
Ultimately, Congress rescinded the earmark. The money still went to Alaska; Congress let Alaska keep the money, to use it for other, transportation purposes. It was then up to then-Governor Murkowski to decide whether to spend the money on the bridges, or on something else.
In September, ’06. Sarah Palin campaigned for governor in Ketchikan. She said that the bridge is necessary for town prosperity.
One year later, as the projected cost for the Ketchikan Bridge balooned to almost 400 million dollars, Murkowski Administration officials were saying that the Bridge project was looking less likely. Candidate Palin said that she was then focusing on less-expensive alternatives.
So much for mee flip-flopping.

Factchecker, you mean when McCain was graduating at the bottom of his class? Obama was in school, getting an education.
He graduated from Columbia Univ with a political science degree, with a minor in foreign relations.
He then received his law degree from Harvard.
He also taught Constitutional Law at the Univ of Chicago.
Palin’s degree in journalism with a minor in sportscasting, doesn’t even allow her to teach a class in this country. But you delusional republicans somehow want to put her in charge of the country.
Not. This. Time.
We’ve had enough of Karl Rove running our country into the ground.

And, indy voter, you are not naive.
When it comes to the performance of state officials, those doing their job try to get as much of the “ear mark” money as possible before it goes to someplace like…Chicago…
But, according to Obama, trying to get federal funding for projects in your state is something that a governor should not do.
Such statements and attitude only show that Obama is about as experienced in state government as he is in federal government.
Anybody But Obama…

Right Jayhawk. It’s funny how McCain/Palin are trying to co-opt the change mantra from Obama/Biden.
They STILL have no original ideas of their own to work with. Palin brings investigation out the starting gate.
She doesn’t have the knowledge, the education, nor the experience.

==don’t mis-represent your role in trying to obtain that money and don’t demagogue against Washington providing that money. You can’t have it both ways.==
Palin wasn’t governor when Alaska took the money that Congress agreed to send the money that it said was to be used, not necessarily for the bridge, rather for transportation purposes.

Obama is not against earmarks.
What he has sought is transparency so that Americans know what earmarks are declared and they can make their own decisions about the relative worth.
He and Sen Coburn have pushed additional measures for their trasnparency law that make a database available to the public.
Obama disclosed every one of his earmarks during the primary campaign.

Original?
Obama?
Just about everything in the Obama campaign has been stolen from Axelrod to flip-flops.
Anybody But Obama…

==Wow. Brilliant strategy. Obama people trying to portray Palin as the Washington insider spending our tax dollars.==
It’s real entertainment, isn’t it.

Of course there is nothing illegal about earmarks.
The problem is Palin’s blatant LIE about her position on earmarks.

You make some good points, indy voter, many of which I agree with.
But the conclusion is wrong.
I was a Democrat for 34 years…until this year.
Now, I am “independent.”
We have the choice in this election between bad and worse.
My position is that Obama/Biden even goes beyond worse to worst.
As such, I will probably not cast my vote for either major party’s candidates and will support a 3rd party candidate (not sure which).
As it has since its inception, my state will be a “Red” state, so my vote is pretty much a moot point.
Such was my choice in the last election.
And, my choice in this election is…
Anybody But Obama…

Just as the loopholes in LOBBYISTS raising money for his campaign. He CLAIMS he is against special interest, yet he has made the most money from them. Obama TOO is a LIAR. THE DIRTY POLITICIAN…..

And when Congress gave that authority for the money to be used elsewhere that signaled the death knell of the bridge. All Palin did was call the official time of death.
The money then was used for the road to nowhere.
That’s not “thanks but no thanks” and her stated position on the bridge to nowhere is disengenuous.

One thing I have to admit about Obama: He is a smooth talker…not much more than that…but he IS a smooth talker.
Anyone who can rail against taking pork barrel money from Washington and have a record of requesting the equivalent of $1,000,000.00 a day for every day for about 4 years…
That’s a lot of pork…
A lot more than Sarah Palin got for Alaska…
Anybody But Obama…

Earmarks/Lobbyists…..equivalent lies…While Obama points his finger all the rest point back at him. The man who “Changed” the Democratic Party into the sexist, undemocratic party.
Obama: EGO BEFORE PARTY!

And I agree with you 100% indy voter. But I could swallow Dole, with all her knowledge and experience, if I had to. Not Palin. I will say, and KEEP SAYING, she doesn’t have the knowledge, the education, nor the experience to run this country. Her journalism degree doesn’t even allow her to teach a class in this country, let alone be Vice President.
They are trying to bring her up to speed on foreign policy and national security. They say she’s a quick study. All these other guys have been at it for years, but now she can have it all because she’s a quick study?
Remember how important foreign policy has been for the last 18 months. Remember how they raked Obama over the coals regarding his experience, but NOW foreign policy is not important? That is scary for this country.
I’m tired of this country electing officials based on nothing but lies.
McCain is now talking about transparency in government. That which Senator Obama has advocated for, for the last two years. Every policy he has proposed, this administration has adopted. I would rather have the brilliant guy than the one who graduated at the bottom of his class.

Obama says he wouldn’t waste our money if he were president but he just threw out 12,000 brand new flags. It’s gone from words just words to things just things.

CONFUSED IN OH
you should be more concerned with the double talk your candidates are making
mccain was already the reigning champion of flipflops this year. Looks like Palin is in contention.
Who will win? the competition is fierce

Concerned in OH, Senator Obama was not part of the cleanup crew in Denver.
I know you probably think he should be, but he wasn’t, so stop blaming him for the flag fiasco. They were probably made in Taiwan anyway, who cares?!
Oh, maybe we could give them to China to relieve some of our debt with them? Run that past Palin, I’m sure she’ll think it might work. She could write to them to ask.

John:
Doesn’t Old Joe Biden represent a state with the same amount of electoral votes (hence, similar in population) as Alaska.
One should then ask the question of how much pork barrel money Old Joe Biden has secured for his state, Delaware, over his 36 year tenure of change in the U.S. Senate.
And, now, an investigation is getting underway as to how the Biden estate/mansion was financed.
Perhaps with a little pork?
Anybody But Obama…

Palin’s whole platform is as a “reformer” and hater of earmarks, which has proven to be utterly false.
Obama’s record on pork is irrelevant. His campaign platform has not been about pork. Besides any citizen who says they are against pork is a liar. Why, because your state benefits from all the pork your reps can get for you. You reap the rewards of it. What you are against is any other state/community getting pork.

Jay,
If you want to criticize Biden, you will need facts. The importance of Queen Sarah’s crown is how she LIED on her first public appearance as the VP pick. Maybe her ride is the ‘crooked talk limo’!

==When Palin says “I told Congress, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’ on that bridge to nowhere,” it implies Congress said, “Here’s a check for that bridge” and she responded, “No thanks, that’s wasteful spending; here’s your money back.”
That’s not what happened.==
Palin was not governor at the time. Murkowski was.
Congress earmarked the money — $233 million for the bridge. Congress removed that earmarked.
However, Congress sent the money to Alaska any way and told them that they could use the money for other, transportation purposes. They are doing that now.
Palin was for the bridge when the earmark would have paid for it.
However, the cost for the bridge inflated to near, or over, $400 million. Then, she said that the money could be used better for other, transportation purposes. The money is being used today for other transportation services — that is, a road on the island to the airport.
== New paragraph Fact is, Alaska took the bridge money, and then just spent it on other projects.==
Not exactly true.
When Congress sent that money, after removing the earmark, it told Governor Murkowski that he could spend the money on other, transportation projects. That is what’s happening now.
== Palin did make the final call to kill plans for the bridge, but by the time she did it was no longer a politically viable project. We rule Palin’s claim is Half True.==
You rule wrongly.
She didn’t make any call to kill any bridge. Governor Murkowski, during whose era all this occurred, and other Republican officials of Alaska said at the time that the bridge probably would not be built, given its cost. That’s when Palin changed her mind, saying that the money from Congress could best be used on other, transportation projects.

OBAMA IS A MAJOR PORK spender. How noble of him to NOT speak against himself.

well let’s play then
Pork cessation is not the center piece of Obama’s campaign is it.
McCain usually resort to using the “Pork Line (I’m gonna makem famous blabla)” to wake his crowds up when they have drifted off during his boring stump speeches.

McCain ain’t lying. He does call out people who abuse pork.
WHEN PALIN WAS MAYOR OF WASILLA, JOHN MCCAIN CALLED HER OUT ON HER EARMARKS. SHE WAS IN HIS PORK HALL OF SHAME THAT YEAR.

“McCain ain’t lying. He does call out people who abuse pork.
WHEN PALIN WAS MAYOR OF WASILLA, JOHN MCCAIN CALLED HER OUT ON HER EARMARKS. SHE WAS IN HIS PORK HALL OF SHAME THAT YEAR.”
Hilarious.

Jayhawk,
I actually think the Obama years will look more like the Clinton years than the Carter years. I know one thing…Republicans really don’t have a clue. And, as the son of a truck driver and factory worker who has done well but worries about where my children will prosper….Republicans offer nothing and absolutely no support (except crocodile tears) for the squeeze are feeling right now…So, I will take my chances with Obama. Good luck to you…

jhw:
Partial answers don’t count.
And, you didn’t answer the question.
How much pork barrel money has Joe Biden secured for Delaware over his 36 years in the Senate?
Not just for 2008.
While you’re at it, why not include the figures for the pork that Old Joe Biden has secured for interests outside of Delaware?
And, once again, not just for 2008.
While it may not quite stand of to the equivalent of $1,000,000.00 requests for each day in the Senate that Obama has, the figure should be significant.
But, Old Joe Biden is also going to have to answer some significant real estate financing questions that will probably point to some pork that went somewhere other than Delaware.
Seems Old Joe refused to answer any questions when asked.
Hmmmmmm…..
Anybody But Obama…

Obama, on the Obama Bunch Show:
PALIN, PALIN, PALIN…..

Your koolaid argument no longer works. When you embrace, adore and worship someone you heard about SEVEN days ago, your credibility is pretty much gone.
Your koolaid is getting warm.

50% of Obama donations are for $200 or less.
He has well over 2 million donors.
By comparison only 25% of McCain’s donations are $200 or less, he has the highest percentage of people giving the max donation.
The people are funding Obam’s campaign.
McCain is raking in shady money from people like Sargeant. He’s already had to return $7,500,000 already. Why does McCain get so much dirty money?

“Your koolaid argument no longer works. When you embrace, adore and worship someone you heard about SEVEN days ago, your credibility is pretty much gone.”
Wow…absolutely devastating!

The dems DID NOT throw away flags after the DNC. This was a lie spread by Karl Rovians.
McCain stooping to such dirty politics and outright lies is really quite pathetic. He no longer has any honor.

Palin is a habitual liar.
Obama has never made a case that he said thanks but no thanks to earmarks. He never made this a campaign issue.
Palin did. Lied on national tv how she said thanks but no thanks to earmarks. Not only did she request earmarks for wasteful projects in Wasilla like a park and sports arena, but the Bridge to Nowhere was her baby. And she is still requesting money from the lower 48′s pockets for other wasteful projects like the Road to nowhere, and a project to have a train leading from Wasila to Senator Stevens home area.
A Liar. Can’t be trusted

“Obama says he wouldn’t waste our money if he were president but he just threw out 12,000 brand new flags. It’s gone from words just words to things just things.
Posted by: Greg | Sep 6, 2008 4:25:27 PM
____________
Obama doesn’t know the word “DONATE”… unless whatever’s being “donated” is for him!
He could have sent those flags to Chicago to be distributed to tghe city’s public schools.
instead, he chose to literally “trash”
12,000 American flags.
And don’t tell me there’s a “dignified” way to “trash” the symbol of our country, other than by fire!

Yes Palin is a lier as we can see, we see how easy it is for her to lie. Should she become VP, she would be just another Republican like, Bush and McCain. Change with her I do not think so.

==Palin has lied and continues to lie.==
Actually, she hasn’t. However, that won’t stop you from saying that she has. That’s why McCain/Palin will win.
== She has taken many, many earmarks for her state.==
That’s her job, to get money for the people she represents.
== In fact Alaska per capita gets more earmarks than any other state.==
You’re jealous of her success.
==Frankly, what is wrong with this?==
If somebody hands me money, who am I to question it?
== Most earmarks go to projects that are worthy. ==
The individual state gets to make the call.
==The problem isn’t the pork, it’s the LYING about it. It’s centering your entire platform on a LIE.==
She didn’t lie.
==Frankly it is a campaign strategy that will fail because she wasn’t thoroughly vetted==
However, she was, to the satisfaction of McCain and others.

Why has McCain had to return so much money? Over $7,500,000 so far as of July.

–bc46– Obama has been and is still a member of the Chicago Machine, the most powerful and corrupt political machine in history. That is where he has received his political education.

Concerned lied again.
Though the earmark was requested. The funding did not make it to the budget that was approved.
That you know of the request is because Obama believes in transparency.
If concerned has proof that Michelle’s hospital received that money, he should present it.
If not, its just another lie by concerned busted. Shal we throw it on the pile?

Governor Palin can not spend federal tax dollars unless they are appropriated by Congress”
Sheparded through by senior Senators Ted Stevens and Don Young.
You remeber Ted Stevens who was a big factor in bringing Palin into the warm fold of the Republican party machine.
That was before he was indicted on some very serious charges. Even now Palin hasn’t decided whether to endorse him or not. Old friends and all that.

==Why would I be jealous of her success.==
It revolves around your allergy to McCain/Palin.
== You don’t know who I am or what level of success I have achieved in my own life. ==
Irrelevant to what I was saying.
==I don’t know anything about Palin, because she won’t talk to the media, so I am unable to determine what her accomplishments might be.==
There is information every were about her accomplishments.
== I would love to hear her explain the discrepancies in her statements.==
You mean what you PERCEIVE as discrepancies.
== But until now, all I know is that she has either flat out lied or embellished the truth. ==
That’s what the Lib websites are telling you.
==Unless you are insinuating I am jealous of her looks, which would be odd and frankly sexist.==
As a man, I am naturally sexist. I notice the difference between men and women, and I like that difference, and I take advantage of that difference.
== Are you voting for her based on her looks?==
No, but I notice her good looks. It’s just part of the package. It’s not part of the package on which I base my vote; but I am more politically and socially attracted to what somebody says if what is pleasant about them includes looks.
== How pathetic. ==

As a U.S. Senator, Barack Obama sought more than $3.4 million in congressional earmarks for clients of the lobbyist son of his Democratic running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware.
Records show, according to the Washington Post, Obama succeeded in getting $192,000 for one of the clients, St. Xavier University in suburban Chicago.
Yet, Obama’s campaign purports a hard stance against the world of lobbying in the nation’s capital.
An analysis (for The Washington Post by Taxpayers for Common Sense) of Hunter Biden’s firm’s lobbying business found that its clients collected $2.7 million in earmarks in the last fiscal year.
And, Obama has the nerve to question earmarks and pork in other candidates?
Anybody But Obama…

“Late in the Iowa Caucus campaign, Obama criticized John Edwards for serving the same “Washington special interests” that Edwards claimed to oppose because Edwards received support from independent labor-based groups (“527s”) affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Obama knew very well (a) that Edwards had spoken against large corporate interests, not labor and (b) that capital, not labor, exercises dominant influence over the federal government. He also turned around and started taking money from the same exact groups prior to the Nevada Caucus. It was all very disingenuous, to say the least. “

“Addressing civil rights activists in Selma, Ala., Sen. Barack Obama traced his “very existence” to the generosity of the Kennedy family, which he said paid for his Kenyan father to travel to America on a student scholarship and thus meet his Kansan mother.
The Camelot connection has become part of the mythology surrounding Obama’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. After Caroline Kennedy endorsed his candidacy in January, Newsweek commentator Jonathan Alter reported that she had been struck by the extraordinary way in which “history replays itself” and by how “two generations of two families — separated by distance, culture and wealth — can intersect in strange and wonderful ways.”
It is a touching story — but the key details are either untrue or grossly oversimplified.
Contrary to Obama’s claims in speeches in January at American University and in Selma last year, the Kennedy family did not provide the funding for a September 1959 airlift of 81 Kenyan students to the United States that included Obama’s father. According to historical records and interviews with participants, the Kennedys were first approached for support for the program nearly a year later, in July 1960. The family responded with a $100,000 donation, most of which went to pay for a second airlift in September 1960.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton acknowledged yesterday that the senator from Illinois had erred in crediting the Kennedy family with a role in his father’s arrival in the United States. He said the Kennedy involvement in the Kenya student program apparently “started 48 years ago, not 49 years ago as Obama has mistakenly suggested in the past.” “

More Washington Post details on the pork/earmarks to Hunter Biden:
The Obama/Biden investment in Hunter Biden’s salary has paid large dividends.
With so many friends among his father’s colleagues, Hunter didn’t need to meet with Dad to score pork for his clients.
It’s a sterling example of how members of Congress, such as Obama and Biden, offer hypocritical sanctimony on their relations with lobbyists while ensuring that family and friends get their share from the public trough.
One particularly interesting case involves a private Catholic university.
Democrats insist that school vouchers for urban parents would violate the Constitution because the parents might choose to send their children to parochial schools.
However, since Hunter Biden signed St. Xavier University, a four-year, 5,600-student institution run by the Roman Catholic Sisters of Mercy in Orland Park, IL as a client, he has managed to secure them over $300,000 in federal grants.
Hunter specifically landed St. Xavier U after telling them he could get them government pork.
This is the kind of activity against which Barack Obama rails about on the campaign trail.
While in the Senate, though, Obama actually enables it through these kind of quid pro quo arrangements that give the appearance that Biden has no conflict of interest.
In contrast, John McCain doesn’t do earmarks at all — not for himself, not for his friends, and not for his political allies.
One candidate talks the talk, and one candidate walks the walk.
The former picked a porker who took almost $7 million from lobbyists and lawyers over the last 20 years, sources which this candidate has demonized for months on the stump.
The latter wants to end the practice altogether and promises a confrontation with both parties in Congress if elected.
Anybody But Obama…

Who gives a damn about some ancestral crap.
I CARE ABOUT MY MONEY, MY JOB, MY FAMILY, MY HEALTHCARE, MY HOME, MY FUTURE.
AND I CARE ABOUT SOMEONE LYING TO ME ABOUT MY TAX PAYING DOLLARS BEING USED FOR A DO NOTHING PROJECT, While lying to me on national TV like I was some unintelligent idiot, expecting me to really believe it.

So, jhw,
Obama thinks pork is good?
Or, Obama only questions pork he and Old Joe Biden don’t provide?
Obama must get up every morning and say, “Do what I say, not what I do.”
Anybody But Obama…

Let’s consider Obama’s stirring tale for the Selma audience about how he had been conceived by his parents, Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham, because they had been inspired by the fervor following the “Bloody Sunday” voting rights demonstration that was commemorated March 4.
“There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama,” he said, “because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born. So don’t tell me I don’t have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don’t tell me I’m not coming home to Selma, Alabama”
Obama was born on August 4, in 1961, and the Selma march occurred four years later, in 1965. The New York Times reported that and when the senator was asked about the discrepancy later that day, he clarified: “I meant the whole civil rights movement.”
Lies, Lies Obama Lies.

So many high cost projects haven been in the “think tanks and on the table since the 1970s when the Alyeska Pipeline was started. Alaskans and oil companies wanted to build a gas line along side of the oil line but Congress said no. A deal was made with Canada that a line would be built when Canada drilled his gas wells in western Canada. So many projects have been stopped or delayed by the Democrats and the environmentalist. The other bridge northwest of Anchorage has been on the table since the early 80s.
Only about 1% of the land in Alaska is privately owened by individuals or companies. The remainder is owned by federal, state, local governments, native corporations and military. A residential lot or small acerage is very expensive. In fact, everything is expensive because everything has to be shipped in including food, furniture, vehicles, clothes, building materials, etc. There with the exception of some home grown foods, you must pay extra for shipping costs.
Few people in the south 48 are very informed about Alaska, its people, its resources or its problem.
Natural resource are sold from federal lands to Korea, Japan and other countries and these revenues are three times what Alaskans get back from Uncle Sam. In fact, Alaska is a “gold mine” for the US federal government.

John McCain doesn’t call his earmarks, he just would give billions of tax paying dollars to BIG OIL as his campaign is controlled by Lobbyist who are lobbying for big oil companies.
Wrap it up how you want, that looks like an EARMARK to me.

JHW539–
Good point. When Obama voted yes for that FISA bill, I was ticked. My husband had all but decided to vote for Bob Barr after that. In fact, we did not contribute to Obama’s campaign again until after Sarah Palin’s speech. She fired us up alright. Her denigration of the work of community organizers prompted us to make a large donation to Obama that very night.
I do find it incredibly odd that people who couldn’t pick Sarah Palin out of a lineup a week ago, now support her with such devotion. It diminishes their credibility significantly.

Look at concerned runaway and change the subject.

“I do find it incredibly odd that people who couldn’t pick Barack Hussein Obama out of a lineup half a year ago, now support him with such devotion. It diminishes their credibility significantly. ”
hmmmmmmm

You didn’t defend the the fact that she didn’t lie, you spinned her lie.

Samantha,
Obama has already explained the selma statement… so yawn !!
_______________________________________
Obamabot subtext: My candidate is honorable because when he lies about his past and commits a felony by sniffing cocaine at least he admits to it.

==You didn’t defend the the fact that she didn’t lie…==
I defended the truth. She didn’t lie.
==…you spinned her lie.==
No, you spinned what actually happened.

Alaska’s well-known “Bridge to Nowhere” is among the most criticized federal earmarked projects, cancelled last year by the state’s governor and John McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin. Palin, however, has brought home her own share of pork, according to an examination by Taxpayers for Common Sense that was reported in the Washington Post. During the four years she was mayor of the 6,700-resident town of Wasilla, Palin hired the Anchorage-based law firm Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh to represent the small town on Capitol Hill. The result was nearly $27 million in federal earmarks in the final four years that Palin was mayor, including $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs and $15 million for a rail project, the Post reported.
Despite her success in getting federal funds for Wasilla, McCain introduced Palin as his partner in fighting wasteful spending. Palin said that as governor, she “stood up to the old politics-as-usual, to the special interests, to the lobbyists, the big oil companies, and the good-ol’-boy network.” The Alaska governor has been outspoken against Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens, who was indicted in July on corruption charges, though the law firm she hired to bring in the earmarks has connections to both lawmakers.
Palin was mayor of Wasilla from 1996 until 2002 and the town spent $96,000 on lobbying from 2000 until 2002. Overall the town has spent $300,750 on lobbying since 2000. In the first six months of this year Wasilla has spent $20,250 on lobbying efforts, about half of what it spent altogether last year.

“Can you cite where he “questions earmarks and pork”? ”
Mr. Teflon vest doesn’t HAVE to!
He has his BLOGGERS… …. do it for him,
That’s how he’s gotten this far.
But be careful who you wish for…..
Be very very careful

Samantha,
He didnt lie! He just wasnt clear about it!
Admiting you lied is more honourable not or in your case lying more.
Fight with truth Sam!
Republicans have crewed this country its time for change Obama 08

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PALIN’S EARMARKS AND OBAMA’S IS THAT
PALIN’S BENEFITTED HER STATE!
Many of Obama’s… BENEFITTED THE OBAMAS…. AND THEIR ERSTWHILE CHURCH …AND THEIR FRIENDS!
—————————————
Obama’s… BENEFITTED THE OBAMAS…. AND THEIR ERSTWHILE CHURCH …AND THEIR FRIENDS ?
Can you point them out eyeswideopen ?
I really wish you guys would stop the lies!

Redstate as a source?
LOL.
What’s next free republic?

PORKY PALIN-
No but good pick up Australian born to American parents (raised in both countries)and working for a canadian American company (TD AMERICA TRADE) in Cali : )

Samantha,
“He didnt lie! He just wasnt clear about it!
Admiting you lied is more honourable not or in your case lying more.
Fight with truth Sam!
Republicans have crewed this country its time for change Obama 08″
_____________________________________
With supporters like you I don’t think that Obama needs opposition!”He didnt lie! He just wasnt clear about it!
LOL LOL
“Fight with truth Sam!”
KINDA HARD TO TO THAT WHEN YOUR CANDIDATE OBAMA LIES SO MUCH…OOOPS I MEAN WHEN YOUR CANDIDATE OBAMA IS SO UNCLEAR ABOUT MANY THINGS.
LOL

Concerned: Obama outspent competition 4 to 1
Truth: Obama spent $272M while Hillary alone spent $234M
Concerned: Obama spent $500M
Truth: Though formidiable Obama has not yet raised $500M let alone spent it. Last FEC records show thru July Obama had spent $323M
concerned: Obama gave $1M to his wife’s hospital and they in turn gave her a $300K raise.
Truth: Obama requested an earmark for the hospital that ultimtaley did not go thru. Michele’s raise was in line with other VPs and a reflection of the success of her Urban Intiative.
The truth will always win over concerned

I will not vote for Wilma Flinstone.

eyes open wide.
yOU SEEN NOT TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEN OBAMA’S CRUCH RECIVING MONEY FOR JOBS TRAINING DURRING HE WORK IN THE STATE GOVERNMENT AND HIS FEDERAL WORK!
THE CHURCH WAS GIVEN MONEY TO PROVIDE SERVICES FOR JOBS TRAINING AND POVERTY REDUCTION!
SOrry shift key was stuck–

==ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Gov. Sarah Palin’s church is promoting a conference that promises to convert gays into heterosexuals through the power of prayer.==
YYYYEEEAAAA!
==”You’ll be encouraged by the power of God’s love and His desire to transform the lives of those impacted by homosexuality,” according to the insert in the bulletin of the Wasilla Bible Church, where Palin has prayed for about six years.==
PRAISE THE LORD!
==She …opposes gay marriage and spousal rights for gay couples.==
No, she recognizes that everybody is either mail, or female, and that those who claim to be homosexual are either mail, or female.
She knows that laws that define “marriage” as being between “man” and a “woman,” or a “male” and of “female,” include those who claim to be homosexual.
So, she knows that, for instance, a man who claims to be homosexual may marry a woman who is heterosexual, or claims to be homosexual.

On March 25th, the Chicago Tribune reports that an extensive search found no basis for an episode Obama recounts about a picture he ran across in Life magazine of a “black man who had tried to peel off his skin” in a failed effort to use chemicals to lighten it.
Obama writes that “seeing that article was violent for me, an ambush attack.”The Tribune continued: “Yet no such Life issue exists, according to historians at the magazine. No such photos, no such article.
When asked about the discrepancy, Obama said in a recent interview, “It might have been an Ebony or it might have been … who knows what it was?”At the request of the Chicago Tribune, archivists at Ebony searched their catalogue of past articles, none of which matched what Obama recalled.”
_______________________________________
Wow Obama sure is unclear a lot.

Obama:I Wrote and passed a tough Nuclear Bill
However the bill was rejected by his own party for its pandering and lack of all regulation – mainly because of your Nuclear Donor, Exelon, from which David Axelrod came.
___________________________________
So was Obama lying or was he being unclear?

Ryan C.:
Oh, Republican Mafia, you mean the way Obama runs his campaign What a joke!

Moneyman and Porky Palin: Don’t be so sure that McCain cannot win the election. Is that why he is in a virtual dead heat with your brainless leader?

Mary Anne –
It isn’t just young voters. So keep on hoping.
I don’t understand why anyone who is “gray” would vote for a man who wants to privatize social security.
Also, you have lived your life. The future of this country should not be in your uninformed hands.

Senator Obama has sent tax payer money to his racist/hate mongering church that is building its former hate mongering pastor a big mansion. I can think of no bigger waste of money from the pockets of American workers.
Rev. Wright, “D## D### AMERICA”. But we want your taxes so we can send more money to Africa and other interest.
Obama or his supporters should not say a word about expenditures in Alaska.

==Give it your best shot in November because we will all be giving it our best shot to have Obama defeated! ==
Where have I indicated that I believe other than you? I want McCain/Palin to win, too. They will.

The Obama campaign has spent four times as much money on their campaign and the polls say the two are in a dead heat. Money may buy corruption but hopefully it will not buy the election.
At this point, I could not vote for Obama for pooper-scooper supervisor.

By the way McCain/Palin, going to lose in November just like I told you Hillary would lose and that she would not have a floor fight. I was right and you were wrong about that.
Obama is inevitable, can’t you smell the future, it is unstoppable now.

The jury is in, Paulin is two-faced. If as he says, McCain fully vetted Paulin then he by extension is also two-faced or lacks reading in any case they must not become Vice President, President ELECT.
Vote Obama – Biden!!

“How wise was it for Sarah Palin to mock tens of thousands of people who work for little or no money?”
An Obama supporter’s fantasy. Palin and Gulliani mocked “Community Organizer” Obama. WHAT? oh, someone who recruits union memebers and rounds up winos to vote on election days.

McCain was stupid to select the Queen of Mean.
His entire message of being a moderate and ‘bipartisan’ Senator is totally in shatters: he belongs to the religious fringe. They have become the face of his campaign which was already totally paid for by Big Corp, that other fringe group Americans love to hate. The foreign policies of his campaign are dictated by the Neocons. These are the three fringes most associated with Bush/Cheney and Obama and Biden will have no problem pointing that out to the voters. When the race is over come election day, Palin-McCain will have polled in the lower thirties nationwide.
Being perceived as a moderate and a bipartisan was the entire reason the race was still close. The Palin-bump (pun intended) is already stalling. It can only go down for them. The more we learn about Palin, the more voters will turn away.
Palin-McCain don’t have any prospect for expanding their ‘base’ right now. Their only hope is that their base will still be as blinded by Dominatrix as they are after just 1 week of Palin-hysteria. Anything that was supposed to be positive about the Dominatrix has been dumped on the American public in carefully scripted appearances. The negatives will be highlighted in the coming months.

geevil: “Like obama’s words regarding promising to take public financing?”
And what were Obama’s words exactly? For instance, what did he say about outside groups (527s) and their role in the campaign and what McCain could do about that? And what was McCain’s response about what he would or more exactly wouldn’t do about those 527s?

“Engineers, for which Obama requested $33 million? How sad is it when a senator has to request money for a Federal Agency to be able to do its job properly.”….
That WASN’T the biggest>
Look again!

The dems have all the control of congress.
Reid will have a filibuster proof majority in the senate.
Pelosi will have a huge majority in the house.
We need McCain there to veto there out of control spending.
Obama loves pork.
This election is so clear. We need a balanced government with McCain vetoing the out of control spending from reid and pelosi. Not with Obama and pelosi and reid.
We need balance. McCain has even said he would testify weekly before congress.
McCain is the CIC we need not Obama.
This election is so clear.

>>> future imperfect:
Mary Anne–
How wise was it for Sarah Palin to mock tens of thousands of people who work for little or no money?
______________
Sarah Palin mocked ONE man who made a big “magillah” about his service as a community organizer….. because he was putting down HER experience as a mayor of a small town!
Quit the phoney caterwauling!

Some context might be helpful. Illinois has nearly 13 million residence, Alaska fewer then 700,000. Obama has been in the Senate 3-1/2 years, while Palin has been Governor less than 2. So Palin’s requests amount to $330 per person per year, dwarfing Obama’s $20 per person per year.

‘Here’s one highlight: Obama sought money for the University of Chicago Hospitals. Wife Michelle works for the University of Chicago Hospitals, appointed in spring 2005 as vice president for community and external affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals. She is now on leave from the job to campaign for her husband. Top campaign adviser and friend Valerie Jarrett is the Chair of the University of Chicago Medical Center Board and also Chair of the Executive Committee of that board. She has also been named Vice-Chair of the University’s Board of Trustees. “

Yup, I think a lot of politicians are guilty for earmarks. However, which Governor, and or Senator were actually trying to create jobs, and energy for the nation, and which was claiming their earmarks for for those poor and destitute?
As for Michelle….she got the raise, when the hospital got the earmark. Coincidence? Also to note… they turn away those constituents they say they are trying to help, if said constituents don’t have valid insurance.
It must be nice to sit on the pedestal of hypocrisy, and look down your nose, at everyone else.

Sorry- you can take that out. I got the wrong thread.