crust - read my posts.

OK, I went carefully through all your posts and found this (which I had missed earlier, apologies) that is the one responsive bit I found:

Is Palin embellishing the story when she says she looked congress in the eye and said "no thanks"? Without question!

So it sounds like you're tacitly agreeing that this part of Palin's story is false. And of course Palin knows that she didn't tell Congress anything. As she said at the time when she killed the bridge it was more like the other way around:

It's clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island

So this is a knowing falsehood, in other words, a lie. A lie she has told at least 11 times. A lie that was a signature line for her. I say "was" because it looks like she hasn't made that claim since Sept. 15, so hopefully she's finally stopped telling at least this whopper.

My own cynical view of politicians is that ALL have dishonest tendencies, the categories for which are legion,

Agreed.

ranging from the benign dishonesty of lofty campaign promises to the true definition of lying displayed by President Clinton's "I did not have sex with that woman."

Actually he said 'I did not have sexual relations with that woman', which he parsed by using the primary definition of sexual relations (genital to genital sex). This was certainly intended to deceive, but is technically not a true lie*. On the other hand Palin saying that she said 'thanks, but no thanks' to the federal money for the bridge is not parsing of definitions it is a true lie. She did take the money (as any governor would) and used it for other things. Making the claim that she did not take the money is a lie (not just an embellishment). You may not think it is an important lie or that all politicians do it but lie it is.

The point being the mileage gained by employing the swath of dishonesties in between is wholey largely dependent upon the viewers political perspective. The right's ranting on about Obama's lying about accepting public funding carries about as much weight with the left as does the left's rantings about McCain's lying about the bridge to nowhere.

Agreed.

Is Palin embellishing the story when she says she looked congress in the eye and said "no thanks"? Without question! But so is Obama when he says he is the post-partisan agent of change.

Palin's embellishment is a lie.
Obama saying he will bring change to DC is an aspirational claim and political boilerplate, not a lie.

In fact, my bottom of the barrel 'joke' is no worse that what one can hear on any broadcast or cable comedy and pundit shows issued on a daily basis against any number of conservatives/Republicans.

Nor is it any worse than you can here on a daily basis from talk radio and cable pundit shows directed at liberals/Democrats. Don't let your political blinders make you think that the media distortions are one sided.

But I'm not the one calling Bristol, or posting here message online, or digging through emails,

That would be a lone hacker and an online gossip rag. Your joke does not place you at the level of the hacker or the rag, but it does place you with the unfortunately large choruses on both sides of the aisle trying to use it to score cheap political points.

* using Webster's and OED's primary definition, "to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive."

BTW all given examples other than aspirational statements meet definition 2 of lie, "to create a false or misleading impression."

No, you are the one using a 17 year old girl to score a cheap point.

Nice to see the moral preening anjin-san.

I'm not the one calling Bristol

No, you are the one using a 17 year old girl to score a cheap point.

Its nice to know the character of the people you chat with.

But, by all means, hide behind moral equivalency.

anjin-san - But I'm not the one calling Bristol, or posting here message online, or digging through emails, or...

In fact, my bottom of the barrel 'joke' is no worse that what one can hear on any broadcast or cable show issued on a daily basis against any number of conservatives/Republicans. .

And I dont pretend it is lofty...

Astounding how humorless the left is when tables are turned back upon them.

they're off calling Bristol Palin

Your right bains, that is cheap. You using a teenager to make a crappy political point sucks.

Sort of like McCain telling jokes about how ugly Chelsea Clinton was when she was a teenager.

Real Classy.

question: where have all the Obama supporters gone?

answer: they're off calling Bristol Palin.

The reason I linked it rodney, was it comported with memory. I havent bothered running the actual facts down because, frankly, there are a number of boneheaded commenters here that are not concerned with fact. I recall another little mentioned turn of the story where after taking office, Palin saw staggering new numbers for the Gravina Island bridge, and that was the proverbial straw.

The nutroots can rail all they want, but the bottom line is that Palin stopped a multi-million dollar project birthed from corrupt earmarking endemic in the US Congress. (have fun with that turn of phrase Palin-haters).

Alaska's congressional delegation endured withering criticism for earmarking $223 million for Ketchikan and a similar amount for a crossing of Knik Arm at Anchorage.
[...]
Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said Saturday that as projected costs for the Ketchikan bridge rose to nearly $400 million,

From the above quote, just the Ketchikan bridge went from 223 million to around 400 million. From other links (I'll have to find again) Alaska kept the unearmarked money, but only allocated about 100 million for the bridge, with the state needing to make up the rest.

I saw the wiki entry, but other sources have a slightly different view.

What I'm not going to try to derive (and certainly haven't found) is the volume justification for a $200 Million bridge...

No. The approved federal "earmark" was $203M, with $195M already approved from the state coffers - total cost of the bridge when first proposed was $398M.

Yearly traffic through the airport is 200,000; it is the second largest airport in southern Alaska. ferry traffic across the Tongass Narrows is 350,000.

what would you expect her to do?

Ask for his resignation and forgo personal attacks designed to cover her own mishandling of the affair.

Shall we post Palin's bio to compare?

Absolutely. How many jobs has she held where she put her life on the line to serve country/community?