The case of “The Bridge To Nowhere” resurrected in GOP debate

Posted on February 24, 2012 by admin

One of the most overused and least well understood political attacks in modern memory is one that was levied against former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum several times in Wednesday night’s Republican debate; voting to fund Alaska’s “Bridge to Nowhere.” Congressional horse-trading and the lathering up of bills with amendments, funding pet projects and other pork make legislative attacks a double edged sword. It turns out that Democrats and Republicans alike are guilty of supporting the bridge and many for some very good reasons. Days before a pair of crucial primaries, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum clashed Wednesday night in a testy debate that magnified small differences and underscored the big stakes in their neck-and-neck presidential fight

The never-built bridge, which was slated to cost hundreds and millions of dollars, has been used as a classic example of government waste and was often cited during the 2008 presidential race. It was intended to be built to replace a ferry which connects Ketchikan to an island that contains the small town’s airport.The renewed interest didn’t seem to please Karl Amylon, the city manager of the Salmon Capital of the World. Continue reading →
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Elizabeth Smart has gotten married

Posted on February 23, 2012 by admin

SALT LAKE CITY –  Elizabeth Smart has gotten married. A family spokesman says the Utah woman who was kidnapped by an itinerant street preacher at knifepoint at age 14 and held captive for nine months married Matthew Gilmour on Saturday in Oahu , has married her Scottish fiance at a Mormon temple in Hawaii.

The wedding came several months ahead of scheduled plans for the nuptials after news of her engagement last month drew widespread media attention.

A family spokesman said Smart married Matthew Gilmour, of Aberdeen, Scotland, on Saturday on Oahu’s North Shore.

“Elizabeth’s desire was for what most women want — to celebrate her nuptials in a private wedding with family and close friends,” family spokesman Chris Thomas said in a statement. “She decided, about a week ago, the best way to avoid significant distraction was to change her wedding plans and to get married in an unscheduled ceremony outside of Utah.”

The 24-year-old Smart is in her last year at Brigham Young University. She met Gilmour while doing Mormon missionary work in Paris.

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Prop 8 unconstitutional and the new religious reality

Posted on February 9, 2012 by admin

Words matter for the proposition 8, and we believe the march toward legalized marriage for gay and lesbian couples is not only right but inevitable if this country is to fulfill the promise of equality under the law for all its people. But how this indisputably just result is achieved is important, in no small part to ensure that it is sustainable.

With same-sex marriage assured in Washington after Wednesday’s vote in the State House, all eyes are on whether the opposition will mount a successful referendum campaign this fall to overturn the law.

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