September 2008

From the Wall Street Journal: Record Contradicts Palin’s “Bridge” Claims

Despite significant evidence to the contrary, the McCain campaign continues to assert that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told the federal government “thanks but no thanks” to the now-famous bridge to an island in her home state.

From LATimes.com: New election low: distorting the fact-checking

News outlets and independent truth squads seem to agree that the McCain camp’s distortions on Barack Obama have gone too far.

I think we’re all used to some bending of the truth in politics, but I think the blatant lies told by McCain and Palin have gone too far.  And it’s not just me saying it.  Hopefully, the public will see through it, but once we again, we did vote Bush/Cheney for a second term after it was known that they had mislead the public about the Iraq war.

Karl Rove spins Wasilla into the second largest city in Alaska.  In Karl Rove’s mind it’s true.

See the “second largest city in Alaska”- Pictures of Wasilla, AK (via CityKin)
For those of you who actually care about facts, the second largest city in Alaska is Fairbanks.

Go to Punditkitchen.com for a refreshing irreverent look at politics and current events.

see Sarah Palin pictures

see Sarah Palin pictures

From NYTimes.com: Blizzard of Lies

Op-Ed Columnist Paul Krugman writes:

Did you hear about how Barack Obama wants to have sex education in kindergarten, and called Sarah Palin a pig? Did you hear about how Ms. Palin told Congress, “Thanks, but no thanks” when it wanted to buy Alaska a Bridge to Nowhere?

These stories have two things in common: they’re all claims recently made by the McCain campaign — and they’re all out-and-out lies.
…
Take the case of the Bridge to Nowhere, which supposedly gives Ms. Palin credentials as a reformer. Well, when campaigning for governor, Ms. Palin didn’t say “no thanks” — she was all for the bridge, even though it had already become a national scandal, insisting that she would “not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that’s so negative.”

Oh, and when she finally did decide to cancel the project, she didn’t righteously reject a handout from Washington: she accepted the handout, but spent it on something else. You see, long before she decided to cancel the bridge, Congress had told Alaska that it could keep the federal money originally earmarked for that project and use it elsewhere.

So the whole story of Ms. Palin’s alleged heroic stand against wasteful spending is fiction.

The outright lies are what I find so disturbing about the McCain campaign.  Do I fault Palin as governor for taking the money for her state?  No.  That’s what governors do, try to get as many state projects funded as possible.

I just think it’s wrong for her to come out and claim that she’s a reformer by repeating something that is false over and over.  It’s almost like if you say something that’s a lie enough times it somehow becomes true.

The lying has a deeper impact, causing the public to become more and more cynical about politics.  The only way to change things in this country for the better is to get more people with newer and better ideas to serve the country.

From Bloomberg.com: Palin Boosted Oil-Company Taxes While Alaska Had Budget Surplus

Alaska has no state income, property or sales tax.

“It’s like Dubai. It gets enormous royalties and taxes and fees of various types from oil,” said Chris Edwards, an economist and state budget expert at the Cato Institute, a Washington group that advocates low taxes and small government.

It blows my mind that the Republicans put forth Palin as a “tax-cutter” when Alaska has no state income, property, or sales tax.  In fact Alaska’s economy is so different than the rest of the nation, anything she might have learned as governor really doesn’t apply anywhere else. 

She’s never had to make a tough choice on spending because of the near limitless supply of money coming in from taxes from high oil prices. 

David Letterman interviews Barack Obama.  Shows how ridiculous the “lipstick on the pig” thing really is.  “Silly Season” indeed.

From Mouseprint.org: Skimpy Peanut Butter

This is especially diabolical.  The jars appear to be the same size, but the Skippy jar on the left has an indentation in the bottom which reduces the amount of peanut butter in the jar. 

These are hidden price increases.  People remember prices, but don’t remember product sizes.  Companies are using this to pass on price increases without appearing to do so.

For more product downsizing and interesting “fine print” reading, visit Mouseprint.org

I noticed that gas prices rose by nearly 25 cents yesterday.  This when the price of oil has dropped to $103 dollars a barrel, a 30% drop since its high in July.  Price for gasoline today at $3.77 represents only an 8% drop since the July high of $4.08/gallon.  If you look at the 1 year charts for gas in Cincinnati and the price of oil, they mirror each other pretty closely until the price starts to drop.  A corresponding drop in gas prices of 30% would make gas around $2.86/gallon.  They’re always quick to raise prices, but slow to decrease prices.

I don’t think we’ll ever see gasoline below $3.00/gallon again unless the government gets involved.  I think that the oil companies are happy that we’re now conditioned to accept +$3.00/gallon gasoline.  Why lower prices when we are happy when we see “cheap gas” at $3.25/gallon.  It’s all relative, but we’ve gotten used to higher gas prices.

Crude Oil Price Chart

From Cincygasprices.com: Cincinnati Gas Price Chart

From Profootballtalk.com: JOHNSON LOOKING AT A HALF MILLION PRICE TAG TO BECOME “OCHO CINCO”?

The issue is the NFL’s contractual commitment to Reebok, and whether Johnson will pay the production costs for the unsold inventory of “C. Johnson” jerseys.

Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com suggests that, for a player of Johnson’s stature, the number will be in range of $500,000.

$500,000 is not an insignificant amount even for a player like Chad Johnson.  This might be a large enough stumbling block to keep him from changing his jersey.

It’s kind of strange though, I wonder who pays for all the leftover Green Bay Brett Farve jerseys.

From ESPN.com: IAAF asks jumper accused of drinking at meet to explain conduct

Track and field’s ruling body wants Ivan Ukhov to explain his conduct at the Athletissima meet in which rival high jumpers said the Russian had been drinking vodka and Red Bull during the competition.

Ukhov failed with each attempt to clear the bar Tuesday before being asked to stop competing at the Swiss meet.

…

Alcohol is not classed as a performance-enhancing substance and is not formally prohibited in athletics competition.