$231 million on bridge to nowhere instead of $105 m for levee

[laureloak]

New York Times
Sep 1, 6:06 PM (ET)
By RON FOURNIER

<snip>
Just last year, the Army Corps of Engineers sought $105 million for hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans. The White House slashed the request to about $40 million. Congress finally approved $42.2 million, less than half of the agency's request.

Yet the lawmakers and Bush agreed to a $286.4 billion pork-laden highway bill that included more than 6,000 pet projects for lawmakers. Congress spent money on dust control for Arkansas roads, a warehouse on the Erie Canal and a $231 million bridge to a small, uninhabited Alaskan island.

How could Washington spend $231 million on a bridge to nowhere - and not find $42 million for hurricane and flood projects in New Orleans? It's a matter of power and politics.
<snip>

[NMDemDist2]

1. kicked and nominated n/t

[bribri16]

2. Get it out there and log it into the "Books of Outrage" for later use.

Kicked and recommended.

[Patsy Stone]

3. Knight-Ridder 8/31/05

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4633807&mesg_id=4641603

[meganmonkey]

4. I have been dropping that statistic on EVERYONE I know

who doesn't blame bushco yet.

Irrefutable.

Kicked and nominated

(but you may want to add a link!)

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

5. From Salon.

A bridge to nowhere
Alaska's Gravina Island (population less than 50) will soon be connected to the megalopolis of Ketchikan (pop. 8,000) by a bridge nearly as long as the Golden Gate and higher than the Brooklyn Bridge. Alaska residents can thank Rep. Don Young, who just brought home $941 million worth of bacon.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Rebecca Clarren

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/08/09/bridges/index_np.html

Aug. 9, 2005 | A mess of thorny devil's club and salmonberries, along with an old chicken coop, surrounds the 40-year-old cabin where Mike Sallee grew up and still lives part time on southeast Alaska's Gravina Island. Sallee's cabin is the very definition of remote. Deer routinely visit his front porch, and black bears and wolves live in the woods out back. The 20-mile-long island, home to fewer than 50 people, has no stores, no restaurants and no paved roads. An airport on the island hosts fewer than 10 commercial flights a day.

Yet due to funds in a new transportation bill, which President Bush is scheduled to sign Wednesday, Sallee and his neighbors may soon receive a bridge nearly as long as the Golden Gate Bridge and 80 feet taller than the Brooklyn Bridge. With a $223 million check from the federal government, the bridge will connect Gravina to the bustling Alaskan metropolis of Ketchikan, pop. 8,000.

[RC]

7. 50 people and the airport has 10 commercial flights a day?

Let me guess North West using 727?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

10. My guess is that it might be connected to ANWR. and oil drilling.

[FloridaPat]

6. How about offering $75 mill to the Sunnis to approve their new constitutio

How about a $1 billion a week for a way based on lies.

[mod mom]

8. How about the 9 billion unaccounted in Iraq?

[Spike from MN]

9. I've been thinking the samn damn thing.

You know any bill to rebuild NO and other areas that were destroyed by the storm will be long on pork and short on real help for the evacuees.
And if Don Young tries to get his name on a street in NO he needs to have the crap beat out of him.

[ourbluenation]

11. The transportation cmte chairman is from Alaska

he gets what he wants...