Democratic Congress Lowest Approval Rating in Gallup Poll History!

[Xavier_Onassis]

The problem is the actual definition of pork barrel. I think the Lawrence Welk Monument and the Bridge to Nowhere are pretty well-defined, but most of the others do make like easier for at least some citizens, and some may apprear to make everyone safer.

I would nominate TV Marti for immediate cancellation from this area. No one listens to it. The signal is jammed.

Radio Marti is useless in its present condition. The Juniorbushies took it away from the Voice of America and turned it over to rightwing Cuban Miami radio stations, and all they do is broadcast propaganda. Cubans don;t listen to it because it is just the mirror image of Radio Habana.

[sirs]

ummmm.....................yea                     

[Plane]

The problem is the actual definition of pork barrel. I think the Lawrence Welk Monument and the Bridge to Nowhere are pretty well-defined, but most of the others do make like easier for at least some citizens, and some may apprear to make everyone safer.

I would nominate TV Marti for immediate cancellation from this area. No one listens to it. The signal is jammed.

Radio Marti is useless in its present condition. The Juniorbushies took it away from the Voice of America and turned it over to rightwing Cuban Miami radio stations, and all they do is broadcast propaganda. Cubans don;t listen to it because it is just the mirror image of Radio Habana.

Why is the signal jammed?

Do the people know it is no good without ever hearing it?

[Xavier_Onassis]

The Cuban government jams TV Marti.

Tapes made for TV Marti are often distributed around Miami.

The goal of TV Marti is to provoke dissent and discontent in Cuba. But the only people that ever see the TV shows made for it are refugees who have already become disaffected with Cuba and are now in Miami. It is basically a multi-million dollar boondoggle run for the benefit of a few local Cuban fatcats who produce these shows.

Radio Marti simply rebroadcasts Miami talk shows and Castro-hating demogogery that everyone can hear on Radio Mambi and WQBA.

[Amianthus]

That bridge to nowhere was also a popular plan among the people who would be building it.

I'm sure the people living on the other end had a few thoughts about it as well.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I'm sure the people living on the other end had a few thoughts about it as well.
Yeah, both of the them.

There were others, but that family ran the ferryboat.

[Amianthus]

I'm sure the people living on the other end had a few thoughts about it as well.
Yeah, both of the them.

There were others, but that family ran the ferryboat.

The 2,005 local census lists a population of 7,410. In addition, there are roughly 500,000 people using the ferry every year that go between the town and the airport. Actually, the family who runs the ferryboat would be against the bridge - they charge $5 per person and $6 per vehicle each way, and they are currently the only way between the airport and town, so they have a stranglehold on the business.

[Xavier_Onassis]

The 2,005 local census lists a population of 7,410. In addition, there are roughly 500,000 people using the ferry every year that go between the town and the airport. Actually, the family who runs the ferryboat would be against the bridge - they charge $5 per person and $6 per vehicle each way, and they are currently the only way between the airport and town, so they have a stranglehold on the business.
=================================
Actually, the island is uninhabited. It's Ketchikan that has the 7,420 people.

There are two ferries. Perhaps they belong to the same people, maybe they belong to the State of Alaska.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6q__0-krUo

That would not be 500,000 people, but 500,000 trips, and as I said, the family with the ferryboat would be against the bridge. It would be a rather long bridge, as long as the Golden Gate, and no one is forcing anyone to live there, ok?

If there are in fact half a million trips across the straits, then perhaps there is enough money for these folks to pay for the bridge themselves, rather than asking Uncle Sugar to do it.

I would imagine that there would also be a toll on the bridge, in addition to its huge cost.

[Amianthus]

Actually, the island is uninhabited. It's Ketchikan that has the 7,420 people.

The island has the town's airport. It's a bridge from the airport to the town.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Any way you look at it, federal money to build a Golden Gate style bridge for under 8,000 people when there is already an adequate ferry is clearly porkbarrel spending. The ferry hardly has any sort of monopoly on transportation to the island, because the main industry of Ketchikan is fishing. The harbor is full of boats. I imagine that nearly everyone there has a buddy with a boat.

San Francisco did not enlist the feds to build the Golden Gate Bridge. The people of Ketchican can build a bridge on their own nickel, if they want one badly enough.

[Amianthus]

San Francisco did not enlist the feds to build the Golden Gate Bridge.

Well, they asked, but in the midst of the Great Depression, the feds decided other projects were more in need of their funds. It has since received federal funding for upgrades and maintenance, however.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I am going out on a limb here and saying that the Golden Gate Bridge is more important to the people of the US than any Ketchikan airport bridge. Lots more San Franciscans than Ketchikanners paying taxes, too.  The Bridge to nowhere is just a bridge to almost nowhere, and it is a pretty good example of a pork barrel project. Not quite to the degree of the Welk Memorial, but not far behind it.