WP: Palin's Small Alaska Town Secured Big Federal Funds($27 million for town of 6,700)
Democratic Underground Latest Breaking News — ... and entrenched bureaucracies -- someone who has fought against corruption and the failed policies of the past, someone who's stopped government from wasting taxpayers' money." McCain's crusade against earmarks -- federal spending sought by members of Congress to benefit specific projects -- has been a hallmark of his campaign. He has said earmarks are wasteful and are often inserted into bills with little oversight, sometimes by a single powerful member of Congress. Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

Sarah Palin Hired Lobbyists To Bring In $27 Million In Federal Earmarks
Oliver Willis — ... At any point now, I expect Ashton Kutcher to jump out and tell us this whole Palin thing is just John McCain doing a “Punk’d” on the entire country. ...

small town...humongous federal earmarks
skippy the bush kangaroo — ... alaska gov. sarah palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog group. - wapo ...

Substantive Criticism of Palin
QandO — Not from the left, of course, but from the Cato Institute regarding Palin’s record on taxes: Palin supported and signed into law a $1.5 billion tax increase on oil companies in the form of higher severance taxes. One rule of thumb is that higher taxes cause less investment. Sure enough, State Tax Notes reported (January 7): “After ACES was passed, ConocoPhillips, Alaska’s most active oil exploration company and one of the top three producers, announced it was canceling plans to build a diesel fuel refinery at the Kuparuk oil field. ConocoPhillips blamed the cancellation on passage of ACES [the new tax]. The refinery would have allowed the company to produce ...

Palin aggressively sought federal earmarks for Wasilla
AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth — Is Sarah Palin really the wasteful spending fighter that the GOP would have us believe? How much federal money does a small town really need? This hardly sounds like a person who fights special interests and waste. If anything, she was part of the problem that McCain claims he wants to fight. ...

Investigating Palin
The Page by Mark Halperin — ... WashPost: Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 mil in federal funds for a town of 6,700 residents while she was mayor, a practice McCain has railed against. ...

Early Morning Swim
Firedoglake — ... Gustav down to a tropical depression, but New Orleans residents still can't return today.  GOP: enough of Gustav, let's get back to trashing Obama. Mavericky! McSame hires GOP hitman who slimed him in South Carolina.  Amy Goodman arrested in Minneapolis. More video and stories on the police work state in Minneapolis here and here.  Reformery! Palin hired lobbyists to net $27 million in earmarks. Teen pregnancy, Alaska Independence Party, Troopergate, Bridge ...

John McCain's Earmark Queen
TPMCafe — John McCain has made stamping out earmarks one of his main issues as a politician. Remember all the mileage he got out of opposing the $1 million earmark for a Woodstock museum? Given his strong and longstanding opposition to earmarks it is especially impressive that he would be willing to pick someone like Sarah Palin for vice-president. As the Washington Post reports this morning, Governor Pallin managed to secure $27 million (as in 27 Woodstock museums) in earmarks for her little town of 6,700 back when she was mayor. That comes to more than $4000 per person. While I have often mocked the anti-earmark crusaders as wasting our time with trivia ...

More Palin problems
Citizen Crain — ... on yesterday, today's Washington Post details another $27 million in earmarks (pork) which she lobbied for and got as mayor of her small town of Wasilla when she was mayor. That's over $1000 for every resident. As mayor, Palin was so into federal pork, that she hired a lobbying firm to get federal money. This is not the modus operandi of a fighter against pork. McCain introduced Palin as his compatriot against wasteful government spending. There is nothing wrong with that so long as it is true. But what we have is a myth. They are trying to tell us that red is blue and think ...

An Honest Question
Balloon Juice — What exactly has Sarah Palin reformed? I know that all I do is snark here, so work with me, as I am serious. I keep hearing she is some crazy reformer, when so far, the facts look pretty clear to me. 1.) She lied about canning the bridge to nowhere, and instead of canning it, used the money on other projects (but still built the road to the bridge). It saved the American taxpayers not one penny. 2.) She hired a lobbying firm to funnel earmarks to Alaska, sending millions to her former constituents at Wasilla. 3.) She ran a ...

ThinkFast: September 2, 2008
Think Progress — ... McCain announced Palin as his vice presidential pick. As mayor of Wasilla, AK, Gov. Sarah Palin hired a lobbying firm to secure nearly $27 million in federal earmarks. The Anchorage-based firm has “close ties” to Rep. Don Young (R) and Sen. Ted Stevens (R), who was indicted in July. “The Wasilla account was handled by the former chief of staff to Stevens , Steven W. Silver, who is a partner in the firm.” Ten percent of Americans “are unemployed, discouraged from seeking work or underemployed,” up 25 percent from last year, according to a Rutgers University labor ...

Election Central Morning Roundup
TPM Election Central — Republican Convention Reconvening Today, Minus Rudy The Republican National Convention will be meeting again today, with prime-time programming set to go ahead after yesterday's cancellation from Hurricane Gustav. But there have been some major changes: Rudy Giuliani has been bumped from the schedule completely, and will be replaced tonight by Fred Thompson and Joe Lieberman. Both Presidential Candidates Off The Trail Neither Barack Obama nor John McCain have any public events scheduled for today. Biden In Florida Today Joe Biden is campaigning today in Florida, with stops in Deerfield Beach and West Palm Beach. Biden's relative ...

Sarah Palin sought, got federal pork
The Swamp — by Frank James Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin apparently likes a good earmark as much as most other politicians. The watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense found that when Palin was mayor of little old Wasilla, Alaska she hired a well-connected law firm to lobby for nearly $27 million in earmarks. That's the kind of spending Sen. John McCain, the all-but-official Republican nominee typically rails against as pork. The TCS report, which the Washington Post evidently got an exclusive on, suggests that Palin, who McCain recently named as his running mate, isn't the anti-earmark crusader that the man on the top of ...

Another Potential Palin Problem
PoliBlog: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts — While not as dramatic as pregnant teenagers or investigations into abuses of power, there is another possible problem with Palin, and that is her pursuit of earmarks as mayor and governor. The LAT reported yesterday that Palin relied on earmark system she now opposes. On Friday, when McCain introduced her as his running mate, she said she “championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending,” the legislative technique used to slip projects into appropriations bills without rigorous congressional review. But under her leadership, the state of Alaska has requested 31 earmarks worth $197.8 million in next ...

Bringing home the bacon
Political Animal — BRINGING HOME THE BACON.... To hear John McCain tell it, one of the biggest problems with the political system in Washington is the way in which the federal government spends money. Special interests hire lobbyists, quietly secure lucrative earmarks, and tax dollars are wasted on pork-barrel projects. The problem, though, is that McCain's running mate ...

Hullabaloo — ... , which is kind of a big deal - a secessionist group which possibly has ties to separatist militias. The earmark story has gone national - turns out that as mayor she had a personal lobbyist that secured around $27 million in federal earmarks. There are at least ...

Sarah Palin, Earmark Queen
Outside The Beltway | OTB — Sarah Palin, Earmark Queen Steven Taylor has an excellent rundown of Sarah Palin’s reliance on earmarks during her tenure so far as governor and especially during her tenure as the Mayor of Wassila. Of particular interest to me in the articles linked is this piece : In fiscal year 2002, Wasilla took in $6.1 million in earmarks — about $1,000 in federal money for every resident. By contrast, Boise, Idaho — which has more than 190,000 residents — received $6.9 million in earmarks in fiscal 2008. All told, Wasilla benefited from $26.9 million in earmarks in Palin’s final four years in office. “She certainly wasn’t shy about putting the old-boy network to use to bring ...

The Horrendous Mistake That Is Sarah Palin
Comments from Left Field — In one of its most recent ad drops, the Obama campaign deals with Sarah Palin’s selection as running mate just about perfectly: I believe I have made the observation several times in the past that one of the key reasons why Barack Obama is now the Democratic party’s nominee is because he plays chess while everyone else around him plays checkers.  Perhaps the single best illustration of this fact can be found in the Politico’s multi-part piece, “Relentless”. What we saw in the grueling primary battle between Barack Obama and ...

Palin, Like McCain And Bush, Doesn’t ‘Care’ About Bringing Budget ‘Under Control’
Wonk Room — ... UPDATE: The Washington Post reports today that Palin “employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor.” ...

Palin's Lobbyist Has Abramoff Ties
TPMMuckraker — It looks like Sarah Palin's claim to represent a cleaner brand of politics could be about to take a bruising. The Washington Post reports today that, while Mayor of Wasilla, Palin oversaw the hiring of a lobbyist, Steven Silver -- a former chief of staff to now-indicted GOP senator Ted Stevens -- to help win federal earmarks for the city. But Silver appears to have additional ties that could further undercut Palin's image as a squeaky-clean reformer. According to Senate lobbying disclosure reports examined by TPMmuckraker, from 2002 to 2004 Silver listed as a client Jack Abramoff's lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig. On Greenberg's behalf, ...

McCain’s Bad Judgment: How In The Hell Could He Miss All Of This?!?
Firedoglake — ... Thus far, we've discovered Sarah "Reform" Palin is actually L'il Miss Pork, having hired folks with deep ties to Don Young and Ted Stevens to hoover in $27 million dollars in federal earmarks for her town of 6,700 residents during her tenure as mayor: ...

Palin's Golden Touch
Daily Kos — And another day brings another embarrassment for John McCain. This time, the Senator, who publicly condemns earmarks (to the point that he even has an anti-pork barrel spending video game on his website), learns that his running mate actually condons them. A lot: ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 1 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog. [...] In fiscal year 2002, Wasilla ...

McCain’s Big Gamble Raising Big Issues
Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines — ... John McCain wanted to shake things up with his unexpected nomination of an unknown “outsider,” at least when it came to the political scene in Washington, D.C.—but by Tuesday, as reports about issues from Sarah Palin’s home life and professional past circulated in the news, some McCain allies (and certainly many detractors) wondered how much his unconventional move might cost his campaign. ...

Today on Doing Time - Tuesday September 2nd, 2008
The Latest on Air America — PALIN PALIN PALIN There’s almost (but not quite) too much to talk about today. Republican VP pick Sarah Palin is finally being vetted … by the media and by Air America . So far we all know her teenage daughter is pregnant . We’ll talk about what this will do to the Palin image in the right wing, and ask what topics are fair game for campaigning and what are off limits? Should we ignore her family issues? We also know that Palin loves pork, and is great at snagging it for her hometown. She doesn’t believe global warming is caused by human activity, she used to want Alaska to secede from the USA and she thinks the founding fathers ...

No More Excuses Available For Not Having A Republican Party Convention
DownWithTyranny! — The Republicans are going to try again. They say they'll get their convention going today, "Who Is John McCain?" Night. They even have Bush speaking today (although via satellite, not in person)-- along with Holy Joe Lieberman and method actor Fred Thompson. (What happened to Rudy? They didn't approve of his new outfit?) So how's it going so far? Intrade now has a wagering proposition on whether Palin will be withdrawn as veep before election day. The bid/ask is now at 17/18-- not very attractive odds this morning. Worse yet, some of the very groups McCain had hoped to rally to his banner with her selection, are turning away from the GOP in ...

Whose Budget is Bigger?
The Opinionator — “Experience” is a topic Barack Obama has tended to avoid during the presidential campaign, yet when CNN’s Anderson Cooper told him yesterday that Republicans are saying “that Governor Palin has more executive experience, as mayor of a small town and as governor of a big state of Alaska,” the Democratic candidate replied: “Well, you know, my understanding is, is that Governor Palin’s town of Wasilla has, I think, 50 employees. We have got 2,500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. You know, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month.” The Corner’s Byron York doesn’t dispute Obama’s math, but thinks he might consider her current ...

Remainders: "Transpartisan"
Jonathan Martin's Blog — ... the most sarcastic campaign ever. Byron York reveals the Bristol rollout -- the McCain campaign gave the heads up to 40 culturally conservative leaders. A Lowry emailer wonders if the Palin/Clinton dramas will end up setting back women in politics. Redstate pounces on the Palin oppo dump. Yuval Levin defends the McCain vetting process. The Ron Paul convention! Palin met with AIPAC today. She has an earmarking past. Huffpo scrounges up the inevitable Palin pastor video.

But, but, but...she loves Jesus!
Agitprop: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Propaganda — ... Actually, there are many more important issues besides a love-grandchild as to why Sarah Palin is a bad pick for McSame, not to mention the nation. Selecting such an obviously inadequate imperial manager means we're so much closer to collapse than we thought we were. ...

Palin’s lobbyist was Abramoff’s lobbyst.
Think Progress — ... The Washington Post reported today that, as mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin hired a lobbyist to secure nearly $27 million in federal funds for the town, and that the lobbyist, Steven Silver, had “close ties” to Rep. Don Young (R-AK) and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). TMPMuckraker has found that Silver ...

Sarah Palin: Earmark Queen Of The Earmark State
Wonk Room — In 2000, Sarah Palin, as mayor of the Alaskan town of Wasilla, hired a Washington lobbyist to secure federal earmarks for her community. This is not totally atypical in her state. Alaska’s government receives more money per capita in federal earmark money than any other state, despite being the only state in the union with no income tax and no sales tax. They fund their government primarily with petroleum money, and recently distributed oil profits to its citizens in the form of rebate checks. But even in her heavily earmarked state, Sarah Palin was the earmark queen. From 2000 to 2003, she secured over $27 million in ...

Palin As Reformer? Not Quite...
TPMMuckraker — As we get ready for the big Sarah Palin speech tonight, it's worth taking a moment to step back from the charges of negligent vetting and media sexism, to focus on what really should be the heart of the issue. The McCain campaign has presented Palin as a squeaky-clean reformer, who took on corruption in Alaska, and will help to bring a new brand of politics to Washington. But a flurry of reports over the last few days significantly undercut that image. To be sure, Palin's claims to be a reformer aren't toally without merit. Before becoming governor, she went after the state GOP chair, Randy Ruedrich, for doing work for the party on public time and ...

Sebelius Accuses Palin Of Deceiving Voters
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... "I live in the American heartland, and have been a governor [here] for six years," she said. "I don't know any mayor in any small town in Kansas -- and we have a lot of mayors of small towns -- who hires a lobbyist and goes after earmarks the way Sarah Palin did." On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that, as mayor of Wasilla, Palin secured more than $27 million in federal earmarks for a town with only 6,700 residents. ...

RJ Eskow: Rapid Response Playbook: 15 Counterpunches to the "90% Bush/Pork Barrel Palin" Convention
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — We've just seen the end of a four-day orgy of lies and gratuitous, harsh, baseless attacks. There's nothing like watching mean white people get all hepped up on Bloody Marys and Ovaltine, then attacking anybody who doesn't look or act like them. (Anybody miss Rep. Westmoreland's "uppity" comment about Sen. and Mrs. Obama?) Sure, I was moved by John McCain's recounting of his prisoner days. And the conclusion of his political speech was great political theater. But that's all it was: theater. Time to fight back, hard, and not by staying on the defensive. Here are fifteen clear, forceful statements Democrats and independents can use to to counterattack. ...

RJ Eskow: Rapid Response Playbook: 15 Counterpunches to the "90% Bush/Pork Barrel Palin" Convention
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — We've just seen the end of a four-day orgy of lies and gratuitous, harsh, baseless attacks. There's nothing like watching mean white people get all hepped up on Bloody Marys and Ovaltine, then attacking anybody who doesn't look or act like them. (Anybody miss Rep. Westmoreland's "uppity" comment about Sen. and Mrs. Obama?) Sure, I was moved by John McCain's recounting of his prisoner days. And the conclusion of his political speech was great political theater. But that's all it was: theater. Time to fight back, hard, and not by staying on the defensive. Here are fifteen clear, forceful statements Democrats and independents can use to to counterattack. ...

Credit Where It’s Due
This Modern World — In tonight’s speech, John McCain used a line I’ve heard him use more than once on the stump : I’ve fought the big spenders in both parties, who waste your money on things you neither need nor want, and the first big-spending pork-barrel earmark bill that comes across my desk, I will veto it. I will make them famous, and you will know their names. You will know their names. He’s already lived up to half of his promise : nationalenquirer.jpg I’m not sure if introducing the country to Porky Palin and her federal money-addicted town is exactly what he had in mind though.

Credit Where It’s Due
The Talent Show — ... I’m not sure if introducing the country to Porky Palin and her federal money-addicted town is exactly what he had in mind though. ...

Sarah Palin the ‘Earmark Queen’ of AK Left Wasilla $20 Million in Debt
Crooks and Liars — After finishing as a runner up for Miss Alaska 1984, Sarah Palin went on to be crowned the state’s Queen of Earmarks and its Empress of Fiscal Irresponsibility. Wonk Room: Sarah Palin: Earmark Queen Of The Earmark State In 2000, Sarah Palin, as mayor of the Alaskan town of Wasilla, hired a Washington lobbyist to secure federal earmarks for her community. This is not totally atypical in her state. Alaska’s government receives more money per capita in federal earmark money than any other state, despite being the only state in the union with no income tax and no sales tax. They ...

Sarah Palin will change the way government does business
The Moderate Voice — And let’s face it, she has some experience in this area. In fact, Sarah Palin has apparently made some major changes in the way Sarah Palin does business, and has done so in only six months. Buried at the very end of this Washington Post article on Palin’s somewhat-dubious history as a champion in fighting the “old boys network” regarding pork-barrel spending comes this little-noted statistic. In February, Palin’s office sent Sen. [Ted] Stevens a 70-page memo outlining almost $200 million worth of new funding requests for Alaska. For the ...

Chris Wallace Fact-Checks Sarah Palin’s Bogus ‘Bridge To Nowhere’ Claims
Think Progress — ... Today on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace tried to pin down a straight answer on Palin’s bridge position from McCain campaign manager Rick Davis. When Davis refused to acknowledge Palin’s misleading statements, Wallace detailed her support for millions of dollars in earmarks, including the bridge: ...

Frank Rich: Palin and McCain’s Shotgun Marriage
The Latest on Air America — By GottaLaff Please read the whole thing, but until you do : Even more fraudulent, if that’s possible, is the contrast between McCain’s platonic presentation of his personal code of honor and the man he has become. He always puts his country first, he told us: “I’ve been called a maverick.” If there was any doubt that that McCain has fled, confirmation arrived with his last-minute embrace of Sarah Palin. [...] Most of the rest of the biography supplied by her and the McCain camp is fiction. She didn’t say “no thanks” to the “Bridge to Nowhere” until after Congress had already abandoned it but given Alaska a blank check for $223 million in taxpayers’ money anyway. ...

Palin Retrospective
Newshoggers.com — I'm late to the party but it's still an amusing game to guess why Sara Palin threw in the towel. For the moment I will take her at her many words. Take your pick. Meantime Jotman has the definitive Palin Timeline for future reference and posted a compelling CNN iReport video which, although it is more an indictment of the US Supreme Court, will be an undeniable part of her ...