We appear to be at the cross roads of two parallel worlds. On one of these parallel worlds Sarah Palin is a maverick who cuts government spending. I know this because I keep hearing it on all the ads and in all of Palin’s campaign appearances. In the other parallel world Sarah Palin was a mayor and a governor who, instead of opposing government spending, brought in more earmarks per capita than any other state. I know this from many articles which look at the record of this parallel world. I would love for the two Sarah Palins to meet and for the anti-waste Palin to have a few words with big-spender Palin.
Some of the earmarks brought in by the wasteful Sarah Pallin are reviewed in The Politico:
“We’re not going to spend $3 million of your tax dollars to study the DNA of bears in Montana,” McCain has said during this year’s campaign, referring to a study he’s mocked for years of whether grizzlies need to keep their status as an endangered species.
Palin, meanwhile, has requested $3.2 million to be spent in part researching the “genetics of harbor seals,” in one of the state’s many requests for federal funding of research into Alaska’s fauna.
She’s seeking $1 million, for instance, for a project to investigate rockfish fisheries, a request that, according to the Alaska document, was presented to and refused by Congress last year.
“Our state’s economy depends a certain amount on tourism…and there are a lot of charter fishermen who have clients that want to come up fish for halibut, and likewise when they’re fishing for halibut they’re catching … rockfish as a by-catch in that fishery,” said Cleo Brylinsky, who heads up the rockfish project at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “So it’s important to our tourism economy that we have sustainable fisheries and well-managed fisheries,” she said.
The rockfish research is one of several requests for federal help studying marine wildlife, which, coming from another candidate, might have drawn McCain’s mockery.
Here are a few, with the state’s description of the project:
• $400,000: Alaska Invasive Species Program: Continues to comprehensively prevent, identify, and respond to the threat of invasive species on the Alaska environment.
• $494,900: Assessment of Recreational Halibut Harvest in Alaska: This is an ongoing effort to collect data on the recreational halibut fishery that is conducted by federal agencies though relying on the state for data.
• $2 million: Bering Sea Crab Research and Management: Researches Bering Sea crab productivity and sustainability as necessary to restore crab stocks.
• $3.2 million: Seal and Steller Sea Lion Biological Research: Funds monitoring of ice seal populations in Native villages, research on the species delineation and genetics of harbor seals to understand the declines in population and provide for population restoration, and continues research into Steller Sea Lion population decline.
There are also other earmarks received by Palin which McCain has opposed. Maverick John McCain would never pick someone like this to be his running mate, but we also seem to have two different John McCains from parallel worlds. Parallel worlds must be the explanation.
I know this because I keep hearing it on all the ads and in all of Palin’s campaign appearances. In the other parallel world Sarah Palin was a mayor and a governor who, instead of opposing government spending, brought in more earmarks per capita than any other state. I know this from many articles which look at the record of this parallel world. I would love for the two Sarah Palins to meet and for the anti-waste Palin to have a few words with big-spender Palin.