awesome. and the walls come crumblin down and the walls come crumblin' crumblin'
w0rd -- tony Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace. -- siddhartha gautama On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 11:49 PM, Gruss Gott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > SUMMARY - She lied. Surprise! > ----------------------------------------------- > * It wasn't her idea; Alaska had been selling state assets on eBay for years. > > * The plane never actually sold on eBay. > > * Alaska lost money on the deal. > > -- > > http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/10/palins-ebay-story-what-ac_n_125361.html > > What is left unmentioned is that Palin didn't come up with the idea to > sell the plane using eBay in the first place. Moreover, because of the > unique purchasing terms of the aircraft -- which required the state to > make payments amounting to $20,000 per month even if the jet wasn't in > use -- the decision not to hire a broker to help sell the property > appears in hindsight to have been a costly mistake. > > Before the Alaska Republican took office, it was something of a > standard operating procedure for the state to try to sell such > big-ticket items using the online auction site. Officials had been > doing it since at least 2003, three years before Palin became > governor. > > "It was the practice of the state to dispose of items such as this via > eBay prior to listing the jet," Vern Jones, Alaska's Chief Procurement > Officer, acknowledged on Tuesday. > > Despite being a normal state procedure and, in the end, a costly one, > Palin has highlighted her decision to put Alaska's luxury jet on eBay > in every speech she has given since being chosen as McCain's vice > president. It is a significantly abridged version of what happened. > > By the time she was elected, there were many state items being offered > on eBay. As the Anchorage Daily News reported on December 13, 2006, > nine days after Palin took office and the day she announced the jet > posting, the state was "auctioning 38 items on the site, including > three aircraft -- two Super Cubs and a Cessna... Other items for sale > included two sets of used helicopter floats ($300) and King Air > exhaust stacks ($500)." > > Back in 2003, the state sold an old ferry, The Bartlett, for $389,500. > As Jones noted in a Daily News article at that time, "it [was] not > unusual for Alaska to sell big-ticket items on eBay because the site > is cheap and has a big audience." > > The state jet, in contrast, was not a good fit for eBay. Palin never > actually sold the aircraft online (though, unlike John McCain, she > never claimed that to be the case). But more important, while the jet > sat unsold, Alaska was on the hook to pay $62,492.79 every three > months as part of the initial purchasing deal. > > In other words, if the state wasn't going to use the aircraft, there > was an imperative to get rid of it. And as her administration waited > for a bidder to match its minimum offer, those payments added up. > > Twenty days after putting the jet online, the Palin administration had > to reissue the listing. The minimum bid had not been met. By April, > the jet still had not sold despite three additional attempts. > Eventually, Palin signed a contract with an Anchorage aircraft broker > to help succeed where eBay couldn't. In August 2007, eight months > after it was first put on sale, the jet was sold to an Alaskan > businessman for $2.1 million -- $600,000 shy of the purchasing price. > > "The eBay thing didn't work out very well," Dan Spencer, director of > administrative services for the Department of Public Safety (the > individual charged with trying to get rid of the plane) told the > Anchorage Daily News in April 2007. "I am [tired of dealing with it]," > he added. "I don't know about anyone else." > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:268684 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
