mrchad9 wrote:A major league douche from a political party that dislikes the federal government, but wanted the feds to build a
$398 million bridge from the mainland to an island with 50 people on it... to replace the ferry that runs every 15-30 minutes.

Never got built. But Sarah Palin still used federal money ($25 million) to build a road to where the bridge would have been, even after the project was cancelled.

Don't forget that part!

Chadley - I had no idea you were so anti-conservative???

Remember, don't kill the messenger...

Ha! But actually not so much anti-conservative as anti-hypocrite. I voted for Arnold twice!

Fletch wrote:Supposedly he was co-mingling re-election campaign funds to get some work done on his house - some people view it as corruption, others an accounting error (US law is very fuzzy on what politicians can and cannot do with campaign funds).

Not exacly ... I believe the charge was that he allowed an oil field services company (VECO) to do a quarter million dollars worth of work on his house, did not pay for all of it, and didn't report it as a gift as required by federal law. I don't think anyone claims the law was vague on this point--the defense was that Stevens wasn't paying attention and thought he had paid for everything.

chugach mtn boy wrote:

Fletch wrote:Supposedly he was co-mingling re-election campaign funds to get some work done on his house - some people view it as corruption, others an accounting error (US law is very fuzzy on what politicians can and cannot do with campaign funds).

Not exacly ... I believe the charge was that he allowed an oil field services company (VECO) to do a quarter million dollars worth of work on his house, did not pay for all of it, and didn't report it as a gift as required by federal law. I don't think anyone claims the law was vague on this point--the defense was that Stevens wasn't paying attention and thought he had paid for everything.

I had a feeling you were going to clear that up for us. Buuut, I will throw my 2 cents in and claim that federal and state campaign finance laws are extremely vague. What a politician calls income vs expenses, vs debt (my personal favorite is when a politician "loans" their campaign money), or contributions is open to some very loose interpretations of the law.

But in the instance of Mr. Stevens, im not informed enough. My understandig was that VECO threw money into the same pot Mr Stevens was pulling from in order to pay for his remodel. Like you said, Stevens came up a little short on what was "his" versus what was a "contribution" and reported it incorrectly (didn't he blame the miss on his wife?). Anyway, you know more about it than me, so I will defer to you. Thanks for the clear up.

By the way, as an Alaskan, what are your personal thoughts on the guy? (definitely not trying to start a political thread here... sorry if it comes out that way )

mrchad9 wrote:Ha! But actually not so much anti-conservative as anti-hypocrite. I voted for Arnold twice!

Me too. During one of the debates, he had me at "you're income tax proposal's have so many loopholes, I could drive my Hummer through it!"

Or my personal favorite...

Reporter: "Sir, did you ever engage in any wild sex orgies when you were bodybuilding or in Hollywood?"
Arnold: "yes, but I never knew I would be Governor someday."

You could hear his advisors all slapping their foreheads in unison...

But in all honesty, that job would ruin anybody... CA needs to start over from scratch... too many band-aids...

Fletch wrote:By the way, as an Alaskan, what are your personal thoughts on the guy? (definitely not trying to start a political thread here... sorry if it comes out that way )

Heh heh--I'm in a position where I better not take you up on that invitation, one way or the other. But I enjoy reading everybody else's comments, so don't hold back on my account!

chugach mtn boy wrote:

Fletch wrote:Supposedly he was co-mingling re-election campaign funds to get some work done on his house - some people view it as corruption, others an accounting error (US law is very fuzzy on what politicians can and cannot do with campaign funds).

Not exacly ... I believe the charge was that he allowed an oil field services company (VECO) to do a quarter million dollars worth of work on his house, did not pay for all of it, and didn't report it as a gift as required by federal law. I don't think anyone claims the law was vague on this point--the defense was that Stevens wasn't paying attention and thought he had paid for everything.

Sounds kind of like the woman who shot her husband six times and then claimed she didn't know the gun was loaded!

chugach mtn boy wrote:Heh heh--I'm in a position where I better not take you up on that invitation, one way or the other. But I enjoy reading everybody else's comments, so don't hold back on my account!

What position is that? Why not? I'm also curious.

And are you a Murkowski or a Miller man? Let's open this up!

(Well said Buz)

chugach mtn boy wrote:

Fletch wrote:By the way, as an Alaskan, what are your personal thoughts on the guy? (definitely not trying to start a political thread here... sorry if it comes out that way )

Heh heh--I'm in a position where I better not take you up on that invitation, one way or the other. But I enjoy reading everybody else's comments, so don't hold back on my account!

No worries. I don't blame you. We've probably explained as much as we can for EF... the rest is up to him...

chugach mtn boy wrote:Senator Lisa Murkowski is pushing legislation to require the US Board of Geographic Names to name Peak 13,895 (the south summit of Mt. Hunter) "Stevens Peak," after the late Senator Ted Stevens.

The peak is "S" in this AAJ photo:

If she wants to name it, then they need to make her solo the damned thing.

The peak should be named after Harry Reid. Stevens was an inferior piker.

rlshattuck wrote: . . . or wait, Palin Peak . . . that's got a nice ring to it.

Palin right next to Mt. Hunter. BAM!

BobSmith wrote:

chugach mtn boy wrote:Senator Lisa Murkowski is pushing legislation to require the US Board of Geographic Names to name Peak 13,895 (the south summit of Mt. Hunter) "Stevens Peak," after the late Senator Ted Stevens.

The peak is "S" in this AAJ photo:

If she wants to name it, then they need to make her solo the damned thing.

Best idea ever. She can name it whatever the hell she wants if she completes it.

Well the bill's passed both House and Senate already--seems to have taken only about 2 weeks (so much for gridlock!).

No wonder this country is so messed up.
We have mountains/peaks named after politicians, CEO misers and businessmen and ballparks, concert venues and ampitheaters named after
corporations & banks. Says a lot about who our leadership and representitive's admire and look up to.
By the way, this post was brought to you by Starbucks, General Mills and Colorado State University.

I'd rather see it named something more appropriate like, Washburn Peak or the likes.

mrchad9 wrote:Hmmm... So they have a peak officially named McKinley that everyone refers to as Denali.

I guess now they will have a Stevens Peak that folks can call Mount Corrupt Douchebag.

Freakin awesome!!!