We should be talking about the ROAD to nowhere. Great article in newsweek about it.

[Hamlette]

When Lois Epstein approached Gov. Sarah Palin during a July 2007 meeting, she says she had a simple request: pull the plug on the construction of a $26 million dead-end gravel road that she saw as a waste of federal money. The road was part of the $398 million project to link Ketchikan and its airport on Gravina Island known as the "Bridge to Nowhere," and an earmark inserted by Alaska's congressional delegation had provided the funding. But construction had begun in June, and it didn't seem to matter that the infamous bridge--to which the road would have led -- would never be built. Every dollar spent on the project was a dollar wasted, Epstein thought.

Epstein, director of the nonpartisan Alaska Transportation Priorities Project, told ProPublica she handed Palin an editorial that had run the prior month in the Anchorage Daily News. The editorial, by Heritage Foundation fellow Ronald Utt, called the road a "wasteful" project with "little to no measurable benefit." It urged Palin to be "responsible and ethical" and "return the money to Washington" so it could be redirected to hurricane-ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi. Utt's piece reflected the consensus in Washington, D.C., and Alaska that no more money would be earmarked for the bridge project, which had become a symbol of pork-barrel spending.

As ProPublica reported last week, Palin's administration is still planning to link Ketchikan (pop. 7,400) to its airport with the help of as much as $73 million in federal funds earmarked by Congress for the original "Bridge to Nowhere" project.

snip

A campaign led by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) to redirect the funds to a New Orleans bridge damaged by Hurricane Katrina failed. But Congress amended the legislation allowing most of the money to be used for any transportation project in Alaska.

For reasons that remain unclear, the bill left intact language requiring that $48 million be spent on "earthwork and roadway construction" for the Gravina Access Project.

Palin could have canceled the contract upon taking office. The governor has that power, said Roger Wetherell, spokesman for Alaska's DOT, and Federal Highway Administration spokesman Doug Hecox said that he could think of "a number of examples" of states canceling projects begun by a previous governor's administration.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/159421/page/1

Here is a great interactive map here with all six proposals to link Ketchikan to the airport. Only the original expensive Bridge to Nowhere would use the road to nowhere. It really does appear to be a complete waste of OUR money.

http://www.propublica.org/special/map-palin-admin-oversaw-26-million-road-to-nowhere-09171

None of this would matter (so much) had she not made this a reason to vote for/support her.

[BearSquirrel2]

1. They are directly contradicting facts now ...

Before it was always a matter of contorsion of reason. Now they are just contradicting facts and telling lies so bald face that even the right wing media can't ignore.

They got a big bounce from Palin but that did not last very long. It's plain and clear that she is a pretty, corrupt half wit. Caribou Barbie is clearly the best moniker for this lady.