A bridge too obvious

"Conspiracy theory" is a term that is used to discourage thinking in unconventional ways, ways that allow for the possibility that prominent politicians and elected officials sometimes involve themselves in illegal and/or amoral activities.

--David Cogswell

Ahhh, the stench of truth. After giving the pols and the MSM a couple of weeks to back up their bullshit posturing vis-a-vis cutting waste, fraud, and abuse in government spending such as the recently passed Energy and Transportation bills, it's left to Page A-26 to point out the pair of soiled underpants in the middle of the room.

Last month, Katrina revealed how bare the cupboards actually are, and there was much huffing and puffing and blowing of hot air all around. The politicians were outraged at their own overspending and the MSM ran the bloody "pork barrel" shirt up the flagpole, punctuating their noble work with particularly aggregious examples of government overspending such as the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere." In fact, considerably more attention and real estate was given to sexy earmarks in the large appropriations bills than was given to the fact that one party controlled the legislative process, that one party dictated the legislative agenda, that one party controlled every committee and sub-committee, that one party had the power to veto anything not in the best interest of the American people, that one party was more responsible.

So Page A-26 sat back and waited for a thorough congressional investigation of fraud, excess, and abuse, and for an in-depth, Katrina-aftermath, looking-for-bodies, breaking-news type of outrage and activity from the press. But instead, nobody has really done anything, and just a couple of days ago, the Republicans were back at it with another extended roll call, arm-twisting vote for a bloated energy bill rife with corporate giveaways. Yet again, the Main Stream Media (MSM) has failed in its duty to inform and thereby protect the American people from it's duly elected government.

Of course, this is just one of many, many such episodes in the last five years. In general, and specifically with this Administration (and by that I mean the Republican party, because let's be clear here, Bush is just a handpuppet that stumbled into enough political serendipity to convince his handlers that maybe he could be trusted to drive by himself. Lately, even his handlers have been forced to admit [privately and off the record, of course] that he's an incompetent boob.), there is a grassy knoll, there is a conspiracy behind every event, there is an uber cabal of powerful in this country who set the national agenda and for whose personal agendas we are all just means to an end.

Tom Delay did intentionally subvert campaign finance laws in order to gain political advantage for himself and his party; Bill Frist did take advantage of insider information to unload his HCA stock before it tanked, and he has known of his HCA assets despite blind trust laws prohibiting such knowledge; Karl Rove and Scooter Libby absolutely did illegally out Valerie Plame in political retribution for her husband's public comments about the rationale for war and they did perjure themselves about it when testifying before the grand jury; the Administration's fiscal and political priorities are responsible for the Katrina aftermath debacle. These are not just a series of coincidental incidentals. There is a guiding hand behind it all, and each of these little indiscretions are just the barely visible tips of a much larger underground network of skullduggery, kind of like aspens, which "turn in clusters, because their roots connect them."

If the politicians wanted to clean things up, they could. If the MSM wanted to investigate or report the facts, they could. Instead, politicans want to perpetuate their corrupt relationships with big-money political supporters and the MSM, which is just one more corporate appendage, is impotent in the face of political nefarity.

Take for example, "The Bridge to Nowhere." This simple, $300 million dollar swindle cries out for further review. The MSM has had a grand old time citing the Gravina Bridge as an example of scampish porkbarrel politics, but with many a rueful shake of the head or ironic, insider smirk, MSM anchors, reporters, and commentators consistently missed the point.

The press got caught up in the little stuff -- that this bridge would connect Ketchikan, Alaska (population 14,000) to Gravina Island (population 50). To them it was just a bridge to nowhere. The story was that Congress was so inefficient and mismanaged that they would spend upwards of $300 million to build a bridge that serves no purpose. Time and again the question was asked, "how could they allow this kind of pork to go through in these dire deficit times?" But that is not the question they should have been asking; the right question is "why are they building this bridge?"

To the people behind this bridge con, which is fronted by Representative Don Young (AK), the money appropriated for it in the 2005 Transportation bill is not earmark spending, it's an investment in future profits.

Real information about the Gravina Bridge is hard to come by. Of course, we know the critical stuff, like this bridge will be as long as the Golden Gate bridge and as high as the Brooklyn Bridge. Who cares? How is that relevant? It's not, it's just another example of ninth-grade journalism class reporting. Gee, I wonder how many football fields long the bridge will be? In fact, you can't even find an MSM article that specifically focuses on the bridge, let alone one that provides the entire history of its proposal or identifies the silent partners in this deal.

That's right, silent partners. For every in-your-face Don Young or skulkingly guilty Frank Murkowski, you can be damn sure that there are a host of special interests lurking in the shadows of this bridge rubbing their hands together in anticipation of future riches. This is not an example of porkbarrel spending, this is grand theft infrastructure.

There is almost no road system at all on Gravina Island and Ketchikan's tiny network of paved roads is not even linked to the mainland. There are no hotels or resorts or industries or available services on Gravina. But there will be as soon as that bridge is built. And that's the point. As soon as that bridge is built, some people are going to make a shitload of money on this deal and those are the people that are making sure that this particular earmark is more important that Medicare funding or fully funding Social Security.

This is greed, not incompetence. The politicians try to mislead the public with blustering about excess, fraud, and abuse, then they turn around and exceed, defraud, and abuse. Think about it, why would they build a bridge to nowhere. Well, the greedy are always looking for their next score. If you are a powerful politician with close ties to the levers of power and industry, and vice-versa, you use your connections to create the future.

Page A-26 has no doubt that while there may be nothing in the Alaskan town at the far end of the proposed bridge right now, you can bet your vastly undervalued dollar that there's going to be something there as soon as that bridge is built. Something like resort hotels (and possibly casinos), seriously upscale summer lodges for the wealthy, new businesses like Fred Meyer, McDonalds, Jiffy Lube, and Exxon gas stations, and lots of lots of suddenly very expensive real estate.

Now if the press had any interest in actually investigating stories instead of just parroting "news," somebody would start researching property records, government road-building contracts, and other development-related materials to see who is going to make off like a CEO on this bridge to nowhere deal. Mark these words: by 2015, most of the primary growth forest will be gone and there will be a thriving, up-scale resort town where a sleepy little village of 50 now stands. And those 50 residents will probably be living in dumpy apartments in the Fourth street neighborhood of Anchorage after they get Eminent Domained right out their homes (right, conservative Supreme Court?)

A quick Google search on the bridge project reveals the silhouettes of some sketchy motivations behind this bridge, sketchy motivations that do not seem to hold up in the light of day.

For example, Youngites like the mayor of Ketchikan cite the need to replace the inefficient ferry system with a much more user-friendly multi-lane superhighway bridge, you know, to handle all that back-and-forth traffic between the bustling bedroom community of Gravina Island and the industrial metropolis of Ketchikan. Turns out that most people without a financial stake in the bridge think that the bridge will actually add time and inconvenience to the commute. Imagine that. A bridge miles out of town that turns a five-minute ferry ride into a 15-mile drive probably isn't going to do much for the 50 or so people who might have a need to move back and forth between Gravina and Ketchikan (most of whom don't have cars anyways because there's no freaking roads on the island), but it sure as hell is going to make it a lot easier for fleets of logging trucks to get all that prime Gravina timber to market.

Even better, supporters say the bridge will revitalize Ketchikan, but local folk think that the ferry is actually a significant draw for the tourist trade. Others complain that the bridge will pose serious navigational hazards and the bridge will detract from the local economy and quality of life (page 9). Never mind the fact that it will go right through a native burial ground.

So remind me again, who is actually going to benefit from this bridge? Who are these special interests? My first stop would be the major donors lists of Represenative Young and the RNC. In addition to real estate, infrastructure, and tourism interests, this new bridge will also open up Gravina Island to cost-effective resource extraction that will negatively impact the environment (page 12). Tiiimmmbeerrrr!



So all the earmarks of Teapot Dome, Tammany Hall-level graft are there, but the one entity capable of bringing the truth to light, the MSM, has already moved on. They are happy to shout "pork" and "pork barrel" and "earmarks" from the highest rooftops when it gets them ratings, but as soon as some smokin' chick lawyer with a face like a thespian mask and legs like hot-buttered Jesus gets nominated for the Supreme Court, the MSM is off whoring around for better ratings and the excess, fraud, and abuse is set aside until it once again becomes ratingsly convenient.

I'm sure the real Gravina Bridge story is a good one, and if the MSM had any interest in serving their public mission, they'd go after this one with Woodward and Bernstein-like zeal and follow the money right back to the levers of power.

Aw fuck it. Have you heard what happened to Taylor Behl?