GC, i have never aspired to being an elitist; there is no fun in it. you can go spend your time with your Ritz Carlton , golf club crowd. i will sit under the almendra tree with a few of my buddies, get me a servicio, and play a spirited game of dominoes with real people. that way, if i get bombed, i know that the real people will help me home. your Ritz Carlton boys will rush to the cellphone to see if there is any rescue service in the area, then, when they fail to locate one, will leave you for dead because the chateaubriand is getting cold!

She walks and talks like a republican, but she will kill McCain before she is done! Boy she us slippery when wet! Others would say, "she just manages the business appropriately".

Sarah Palin thinks she is a better American than you because she comes from a small town, and a superior human being because she isn't a journalist and never lived in Washington and likes to watch her kids play hockey. Although Palin praised John McCain in her acceptance speech as a man who puts the good of his country ahead of partisan politics, McCain pretty much proved the opposite with his selection of a running mate whose main asset is her ability to reignite the culture wars. So maybe Governor Palin does represent everything that is good and fine about America, as she herself maintains. But spare us, please, any talk about how she is a tough fiscal conservative.


Palin has continued to repeat the already exposed lie that she said, "No, thanks," to the famous "bridge to nowhere" (McCain's favorite example of wasteful federal spending). In fact, she said, "Yes, please," until this project became a symbol and political albatross.


Back to reality. Of the 50 states, Alaska ranks No. 1 in taxes per resident and No. 1 in spending per resident. Its tax burden per resident is 21/2 times the national average; its spending, more than double. The trick is that Alaska's government spends money on its own citizens and taxes the rest of us to pay for it. Although Palin, like McCain, talks about liberating ourselves from dependence on foreign oil, there is no evidence that being dependent on Alaskan oil would be any more pleasant to the pocketbook.


Alaska is, in essence, an adjunct member of OPEC. It has four different taxes on oil, which produce more than 89% of the state's unrestricted revenue. On average, three-quarters of the value of a barrel of oil is taken by the state government before that oil is permitted to leave the state. Alaska residents each get a yearly check for about $2,000 from oil revenues, plus an additional $1,200 pushed through by Palin last year to take advantage of rising oil prices. Any sympathy the governor of Alaska expresses for folks in the lower 48 who are suffering from high gas prices or can't afford to heat their homes is strictly crocodile tears.


As if it couldn't support itself, Alaska also ranks No. 1, year after year, in money it sucks in from Washington. In 2005 (the most recent figures), according to the Tax Foundation, Alaska ranked 18th in federal taxes paid per resident ($5,434) but first in federal spending received per resident ($13,950). Its ratio of federal spending received to federal taxes paid ranks third among the 50 states, and in the absolute amount it receives from Washington over and above the amount it sends to Washington, Alaska ranks No. 1.


Under the state constitution, the governor of Alaska has unusually strong powers to shape the state budget. At the Republican Convention, Palin bragged that she had vetoed "nearly $500 million" in state spending during her two years as governor. This amounts to less than 2% of the proposed budget. That's how much this warrior for you, the people, against it, the government, could find in wasteful spending under her control.


One thing Barack Obama and McCain disagree on is an oil windfall-profits tax. McCain is against it, on the theory that it is a tax and therefore bad and also on the theory that it would discourage domestic production. Obama is for it, on the theory that if oil companies can make a nice profit when oil sells for $50 per bbl., they can still make a nice profit when it sells at more than $100, even if the government takes a bit and spreads the money around to those who are hurting from higher oil prices.


Although Palin's words side with McCain in this dispute, her actions side with Obama. Her major legislative accomplishment has been to revamp Alaska's windfall-profits tax in order to increase the state's take. Alaska calls it a "clear and equitable share" tax. The state assumes that extracting oil from the tundra costs about $25 per bbl. and takes as much as 75% of the difference between that and the sale price.


Why is a windfall-profits tax good for Alaska but not for the U.S.? Well, it's obvious, isn't it? People in Alaska are better than people in the rest of the U.S. They're more American. Although there are small towns and farms and high school hockey teams in the lower 48, there are fewer down here, per capita, than in Alaska. And there are many more journalists and pollsters and city dwellers and other undesirables who might benefit if every American had the same right to leech off the government as do the good citizens of Sarah Palin's Alaska

hateitorloveit, i will respond to your article when i have read it ten more times, just to let it sink in. i cannot remember when i have read anything quite like this article. thank you, thank you. you made my day. i am ridiculed by some on this board for being Mr Facts and Data. i will take the heat, because the guy who ridicules me is not a bad guy, just misguided.

how in Gods name can a people who ridicule muslims for being rabid extremists, seek to be led by someone who states that soldiers going to Iraq is "a mission from God"? or who asked congregants of a church to pray for the Alaska Pipeline? are we living in the Middle Ages still?

Dont be sucked in Dread,

Alaska has NO Sales tax, none, and :

Tax Burden By State
If all other things are equal, a state with a lower burden is a more attractive place to retire than a state with a higher one. To get a true sense of which state is less expensive, you need to look at state and local tax burdens. Only then do the low tax states stand out.

It is estimated by the Tax Foundation that the nation as a whole will pay on average 9.7% of its income in state and local taxes in 2008, down from 9.9% in 2007 primarily because income grew faster than tax collections between 2007 and 2008.

New Jersey residents paid 11.8%, topping the charts. New Yorkers were close behind, paying 11.7%, and Connecticut was third at 11.1%. The top 10 were rounded out by Maryland (10.8%), Hawaii (10.6%), California (10.5%), Ohio (10.4%). Vermont (10.3%), Wisconsin (10.2%) and Rhode Island (10.2%).

Alaskans pay the least, 6.4 percent in 2008, but Nevada is close at 6.6 percent. In four states the residents pay between 7 and 8 percent of their income in state and local taxes: Wyoming (7.0%), Florida (7.4%), New Hampshire (7.6%) and South Dakota (7.9%). Four other states round out the bottom 10: Tennessee (8.3%), Texas (8.4%), Louisiana (8.4%) and Arizona (8.5%).

Source- http://www.retirementliving.com/RLtaxes.html

Tax burden by state;

ALASKA
Sales Taxes
State Sales Tax: The state currently does not have a sales and use tax. However, some jurisdictions impose local sales taxes that range up to 7%. Anchorage does not have a sales tax.
Gasoline Tax: 8 cents/gallon
Diesel Fuel Tax: 8 cents/gallon
Cigarette Tax: $2.00/pack of 20 (Anchorage - add $1.32)

Personal Income Taxes;
No state income tax
Retirement Income: Not taxed.

Property Taxes
Property taxes are assessed in 25 of 161 municipalities. Homeowners 65 and older (or surviving spouses 60 and older) are exempt from municipal taxes on the first $150,000 of the assessed value of their property. This also applies to disabled veterans. Intangible personal property is exempt from taxation. Call 907-269-6620 (Anchorage) or 907-465-2320 (Juneau) for details.

Inheritance and Estate Taxes
There is no inheritance tax and the estate tax is limited to federal estate tax collection.

For further information, visit the Alaska Department of Revenue site.

Source-http://www.retirementliving.com/RLstate1.html

The Alaskan Oil rebate program has been going on for quite some time and was initially started to help the state gain population.

Article on windfall profit proposed by Palin, One must take this with a grain of salt as it is the state of Alaska doing this to the businesses of Alaska not federal govt. going nationwide.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aYdZoyTvFrTc&refer=home

And the Alaskan education budget increase;

Source-Education week magazine, a product of the NEA

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/speced/2008/09/gov_palins_budget_for_special_1.html

Earmarks by dollar value per resident Alaska is number 1, overall dollar amount by state Alaska is somewhere in the upper middle.

Source:- OMB-
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/earmarks/preview-public-site/statesc49e.html?source=APP&mode=agencies

Tex I dont know if there is any hope for these neocommies and lefty weanies who are so depressed because my beloved Sarah is kickin their ass in the polls....they must remember it was Barry who awoke the Sexism monster when he did not even vet Hillybilly for Vice Prez oink oink....now everyone who is not with their radical weanie agenda is a quote"goober trailer dweller" they will be sorry for making fun of real people who work hard and defend their country....shame on them

Dread my good and great friend very seldom are you in possession of the facts just "data and statistics" which you use to twist to suit your agenda....which is so evil and demented we shall not speak of it in public and Dread please stop sucking up to and brown nosing this propagandist" hateitorleaveit" he is probably a paid stooge of the obamanable snow job or worse a Neocommie....Although you think of me as a goober and trailer dweller I unlike you do not go to family reunions to meet chicks...You shoild stop saying hurtful things about my beloved Sarah you are just demonstrating the oinker tactics of the weanies oink oink and digging a deeper hole for the community organizer with the nice house to crawl out of ....Sexism is an ugly thing and misogyny goes hand in hand with it... we must be diligent.....I hope you dont think I have dealt the slimy sex card from the bottom of the deck Dread.....Just like the IRS I am here to help you

Obama's lead has slowly gone away even before Sarah Palin was announced as VP. As it looks now it will be the Dems who will be trying to steal anything to stay in power.

Note: This is a NBC / WSJ poll

WASHINGTON - Republican John McCain has nearly erased Democrat Barack Obama’s national lead and turned the presidential contest into a dead heat, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

In that poll, Obama holds a narrow one-point lead over McCain (47-46 percent), which is down from his three-point advantage in August (45-42 percent) and six-point edge in July (47-41 percent).

The findings from this survey — which was conducted of 860 registered voters from Sept. 6-8, and which has a margin of error of plus-minus 3.3 percentage points — are consistent with other recent national polls showing the race to essentially be tied after the conventions and vice presidential selections.

Looking inside the numbers, McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin as his running mate appears to have not only attracted female voters, but boosted McCain’s association with changing the country’s direction, and energized members of the Republican Party.

Tex the latest Gallup poll had John McCain ahead of Barack Obama by an astonishing 10 points among likely voters. A Washington Post poll had that lead at only two points, but clearly showed a McCain surge - especially among women. This wasn't what Democrats were expecting when they left Denver - yet they have nobody to blame but themselves........barry should have picked Hillybilly