http://www.google.com/maps?q=Ketchikan,+AK,+USA&sa=X&oi=map&ct=title

It’s more productive, (and entertaining), to go after Stevens for his “inter-tubes” comments, and lack of support for internet freedom then drummed up phony issues like this one.

As far as making the rest of the country pay for it, we should have said the same thing about the 3rd runway here at SEATAC. They are building the darn thing over a huge ravine using fill from the now demolished King Dome, yet another stupid idea.

If you must attack Republicans then do it over something they did that is actually wrong. This isn’t. This is not a “bridge to nowhere”, it’s a bridge to connect a an important airport to the mainland. Right now people and goods have to take a ferry to get from the airport to Ketchikan, the 1/5th largest city in Alaska.

Geeze.

It’s been privately owned land for decades, mostly farms. It is by no stretch “tundra.” That’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s forest, like Anchorage and most of the land in the lower latitudes. There is tundra in the area, but it’s at about 5,000 feet in elevation. I suppose there is tundra at sea level in some areas of the state, but I’ve never seen it; it would have to be a lot farther north.

There’s a reason it’s sparsely populated – it’s about a 65-75 mile drive from the nearest town of any size – Wasilla – and an additional 50 miles from there to Anchorage. There’s a lot more land between Wasilla and McKenzie Point, and most people bought property closer to someplace with a grocery store and a post office. I mean, we can be tough up here but we’re not completely living in caves.

But as-the-crow-flies, it’s quite close to Anchorage, just a couple of miles.

The issue of the bridge is about GEOGRAPHY – not cronyism, although I’m sure that won’t stop cronyism from being a part of it. Because I see the bridge as being a good idea does not mean that I have ever supported it being federally funded. I agree – Exxon can pay for everything as far as I’m concerned. To make the assumption that I’m standing in line for a ‘gravy train’ or that I wouldn’t support a bridge being built from some other funding is extrapolating without any basis.

I’m no fan of Stevens and Young, nor either of the Murkowskis or the present governor Sarah Palin. Not by a long shot. I would walk across the street to avoid them.

But neither am I personally responsible for what they or everyone else in Alaska does anymore than other people posting here are responsible for everything their representatives or state governments do that is wrong.

As far as the increase in property values – McKenzie Point has long been a place to buy large tracts of land at reasonable prices. Look at the land prices listed. They are about $10,000 an acre. Where in your states can you buy undeveloped land adjacent to wilderness areas for $10,000 an acre? And property prices have gone up all over the place ever since I’ve been here, about 17 years. I bought a modest home in Anchorage for $106,000 five years ago this coming August. It is now appraised at $146,000. Am I guilty of cronyism? Not hardly. It’s just the way land prices have been going, and part of it is due to my earlier comments – Anchorage has run out of land that can be developed without sacrificing parks and greenbelts and wildlife, and people in Anchorage don’t want to do that.

You know, there is enough in the world that is terrible that we don’t have to make it up as Think Progress did with this issue. Things are bad enough, we don’t have to make them worse. And making things appear worse than they are is its own moral failing. And treating people to sarcasm and hostility without foundation is not a lot better than exploiting them without considering how your behavior affects them. People want to feel good, and not a lot else exists. People want to feel good and they aren’t really very good at it. People like Don Young and the assorted Republicans that have trashed the country (the entire planet for that matter) for the past nearly 30 years think they are entitled to feel good no matter what destructiveness they wreak or who or what they hurt.

But being destructive to people is being destructive to people, and it all counts. It’s all equal. If you don’t like them doing it, maybe you should take control where it counts the most and where you have the most power and don’t do it yourself. To anyone.

All of Stevens’ and Young’s failings aside, if this article is any indicator of the quality of information that comes out of Think Progress, it’s not worth viewing. It’s dishonest, inflammatory, and destructive in its own right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Stevens

Think Progress vents their spleen at EVERY opportunity…..but to all it an ugly spleen mught be a bit judgmental…heh-heh.

But overall one can easily get away and see some untouched land and wildlife and because of the relatively small population there is a live and let live attitude.

Blaming Don Young and Ted Stevens is too easy, not that they don’t deserve some of it. But they are only 1/50th of a system that is rotten to the core and has been for a long time. I don’t blame anyone for not liking it, but I do blame anyone for boorishness and venting their ugly spleens at the slightest perceived opportunity.

Don’t tell me. Fat cat Hastert owns land in Alaska. Let’s all support a 10-lane freeway to the North Pole. Seriously, it might be a good idea.

In 75 years Alaska is going to be the place to live. I just read the other day that by 2080, or so, the average summer temperatures will be ten degrees warmer. For Phoenix the average summer temperature would be close to 120 degrees; Atlanta close to 100 degrees. That IS bad news.

“[This administration] has a well-established history of overstating the deficit early in the year and then taking credit when it turns out to be lower than projected, even if it has done nothing to make that happen.” –nonpartisan budget analyst Stan Collender.