The Wall Street Journal, a solidly rightwing publication, has published this story about Sarah Palin's ham-fisted, subsidy-loving, poor decision making in Alaska. You know Sarah Palin is a fraud and bad for our country's economy when the WSJ publishes an article about her.
Once again, Sarah Palin demonstrates herself and the GOP presidential candidate, John McCain, to be clueless liars. She has also demonstrated herself to be firmly in the pockets of her cronies and special interests, and that she is very much like Bush Jr: when she (or her cronies) wants something, she does it and does not consider the consequences. Her claims of being a fiscal conservative and against earmarks and government hand-outs are destroyed by even a cursory look at her history in Alaska. Yet John McCain chose Sarah Palin, without obviously no vetting, to be the person to run the country should he be elected and die in office (statistically, a 30% likelihood). This article by the Wall Street Journal documents how Sarah Palin stopped a failing Alaskan (deeply in debt) creamery from closing its doors because local ag interests would not get subsidies without the creamery there. She then got the entire creamery's board fired, replaced it with her own people (the Chairman being one of her high- school friends) and then 6 months later, after the company had suffered another $800,000 of losses and was $800,000 more in debt, they closed down the creamery. (BEGIN QUOTE) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122152654971140245.html SEPTEMBER 16, 2008 Creamery Case Has Palin Critics Taking Aim at Fiscal-Conservative Claim By JIM CARLTON ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin promotes herself as a small-government conservative. But when Alaska government officials wanted to shut down a money-losing creamery, the governor overturned the decision after dairy farmers near her hometown complained the loss of subsidies would cripple them. On June 8, 2007, a board overseeing the 71-year-old state-run Matanuska Maid creamery announced the business would close after amassing $1.5 million in red ink since 2005, the result of a run-up in milk prices and other essentials. "I feel we are safeguarding the public interest in the decision that has been made," Mac Carter, chairman of the Alaska Creamery Board, said in a letter to the Palin administration. Gov. Sarah Palin overturned a decision to close a money-losing creamery. On June 16, 2007, Gov. Palin attended a rally by dairy farmers near her hometown of Wasilla who pleaded that the creamery stay open to help them and other members of the local dairy industry. "Things are kind of a mess right now with what's happening with Mat-Maid, and we're going to clean it up," the governor said at the event. She then sacked the creamery board and replaced it. The new board, headed by one of her childhood friends, ordered the creamery kept open. Six months later -- after the business racked up more than $800,000 in additional losses, according to state officials -- the new board ordered it closed again. The candidate's handling of the matter has been fodder for some critics challenging her credentials as a self-proclaimed fiscal conservative. She has also been criticized for securing federal earmarks as mayor of Wasilla and, as governor, for raising taxes on oil-industry profits. "I think what happened here was her personal desire to satisfy a local constituency, versus what is right for the state," says Lyda Green, president of the Republican-run state senate and a political rival from Wasilla. The McCain-Palin campaign wouldn't make Gov. Palin available for comment on that. But Brian Jones, a campaign spokesman, said Gov. Palin is a proven cost cutter who has vetoed more than $500 million in "wasteful" government spending and ordered state officials to cut back on earmark requests, among other things. "We will gladly match her record of reform and fiscal responsibility to either Barack Obama or Joe Biden," Mr. Jones said. Mr. Jones also defended her action on the creamery, saying the governor was acting prudently. Supporters of Gov. Palin say she was motivated primarily by a desire to save the creamery's 70 jobs and help the handful of local farmers reliant on it. They say she helped keep the small dairy industry from collapsing by giving the farmers time to find new places to sell their products. "It takes good leadership to say, 'Wait a minute. Let's take a look at this before we shut this down,' " says Kyle Beus, a former local dairy farmer. Matanuska Maid has had a checkered financial history. Formed by a farmers' cooperative in 1936, the creamery was taken over by the state in 1984 after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following a legal dispute. One of the employees, Joseph Van Treeck, was named chief executive in 1985 and went on to run a mostly profitable business for the next two decades. But financial conditions at the creamery deteriorated rapidly in 2005. The creamery, 20 years ago, depended on local dairy farmers for most of its milk. To meet growing demand for its milk, yogurt and other dairy products, though, Mr. Beus, who used to sell milk to the creamery, said the factory had to import most of it from the Pacific Northwest over the past decade. Until about two years ago, milk and fuel prices were low enough to support profits. But a 50% run-up in milk prices between 2005 and 2007 -- combined with soaring energy prices and increased competition -- sent Matanuska Maid into a tailspin. After the state board ordered the creamery closed, Gov. Palin -- with an entourage that included her husband, Todd; daughter Piper; and representatives of the news media -- showed up at Matanuska Maid's two- story plant and requested a tour. Although the governor's office said at the time that the visit had been scheduled, plant officials said they got little advance notice. Workers told her she would have to be accompanied by Mr. Van Treeck, who was in a Creamery Board meeting at an Anchorage hotel about two miles away. After he declined to leave the meeting, board member Rhonda Boyles says she, Ms. Boyles, warned him, "Joe, this will be on the 10 o'clock news." Within days, the governor replaced the entire Board of Agriculture and Conservation, which oversees the Creamery Board. The new agriculture board then appointed itself as the Creamery Board and named Kristan Cole -- a grade-school classmate of Gov. Palin -- as the chairman. The new board reversed the closure and removed Mr. Van Treeck as CEO. He filed a suit in Alaska Superior Court charging he didn't get what he was owed. The case is still pending. Ms. Cole declined to comment on the suit. She blamed mismanagement by the past regime for part of its financial problems. She said the creamery failed to rein in spending, for example, as milk prices were rising. Officials of the old creamery board dispute that. The decision to keep the creamery open at first looked good. In June 2007, it posted a small profit. But the next month, Matanuska Maid posted a $300,000 loss -- its biggest ever in a month. Ms. Cole attributed that, in part, to the cost of going through a near-closure. The losses kept mounting until the new board in December decided to close the business down. "The governor got into this position because the farmers were her constituents in Wasilla," says Ms. Boyles, a retired restaurant owner in Fairbanks. Ms. Cole said the extra time allowed the farmers to find new buyers, including a private creamery that recently opened near Wasilla with a federal grant. Meanwhile, the state has raised $2.9 million from the sale of property, equipment and inventory and is seeking to sell another parcel appraised at $1.3 million. "At the end of the day, farmers are still working, and that's a positive thing," Ms. Cole says. (END OF QUOTE) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
