DUMBEST GRANT EVER
Someone vaguely mentioned this in the comments somewhere. It didn't really hit me until I actually came across it.
Yes people, $500,000 (FIVE. HUNDRED. THOUSAND. DOLLARS.) of FEDERAL GRANT MONEY was spent to paint the fucking airplane like a goddamn fish.
My god. Did we elect monkeys to run this fucking country? Did we elect borderline retards?
$500 grand. For a salmon-forty-salmon.
Fuck.
UPDATE: First, welcome all C&L visitors! Second, people have believed this was funding for the arts. This is NOT. This is advertising to try and get people to eat fish. If this was going towards funding artwork, I'd be more inclined to support it. But that's not the case. (Read the article by clicking the big fish for all the info.)
Yes people, $500,000 (FIVE. HUNDRED. THOUSAND. DOLLARS.) of FEDERAL GRANT MONEY was spent to paint the fucking airplane like a goddamn fish.
My god. Did we elect monkeys to run this fucking country? Did we elect borderline retards?
$500 grand. For a salmon-forty-salmon.
Fuck.
UPDATE: First, welcome all C&L visitors! Second, people have believed this was funding for the arts. This is NOT. This is advertising to try and get people to eat fish. If this was going towards funding artwork, I'd be more inclined to support it. But that's not the case. (Read the article by clicking the big fish for all the info.)
by MG at 9:05 PM
63 Comments:
Was me caught this this morning.
Iggy agrees with some things.
earier post:
Why else would Democrats and Republicans hold hands and sing on the Senate Lawn?
They hit pay-dirt.
Lot’s of money to funnel, Lot’s of Power, Lot’s of new legislation more control.
This is what they do with the extra money:
These same bastards gave Alaska 29 Million dollars for “Seafood Promotion”
Alaska Air was given 500,000.00 to paint one of their planes like a salmon.
http://www.alaskaair.com/as/www2/Promo/fishplane.asp
What Freakin Planet are they on?
Why is a commercial industry getiing kicks?
We are doomed; they are all bad apples.
It’s vote for bad guy or bad guy same family.
So ah they can fly it over that multi-million bridge to no where? Wonder how many armored vests that 500k could a bought.
I Wanda, I Wendy, I wonder!
Oh and I also want to point out your outing Condi piece garnered the most comments today. Sex and better yet lesbian sex rules once again.
Day ain't over yet.
*looks at watch*
Actually what amuses me most is that my post about right-wingers getting a taste of what it's been like to be a liberal for the past 5 years garnered all of TWO responses (and I believe one was from me). I guess that cut a little close to the bone or something.
Well, at least Hugh is happy to no longer hold the title of dumbest Grant ever, I suppose. (sorry, I'm in a really corny mood today lol)
I'm so happy to see my tax dollars at work, especially while Bush tries to remove certain species of overfished salmon from the endangered species list so they can be competely obliterated. Not to mention those piddly little issues like body armor for troops, MediCare, etc.
Phil
http://nomadechoes.blogdrive.com
I can't wait till it plunges into the ocean. Breathe through your gils, you rotten bastards.
Can understand the outrage of spending this at a time we are talking about reducing SS benefits "'cause there ain't nuff money" according to Bush, and I understand the cronyism grates, the outragous hypocrisy of the "Right" and their love of corporate welfare. Yes, yes yes. I agree.
But, this is a close call: what is art?
I do believe (I am an athiest, ok?) those on the other end of the political spectrum cried bloody murder when tax dollars were spent to fund (or display? who pays that close attention???) a crucifx in pee?
So, let's concentrate on the Corporate Welfare the Republicans love to saddle us to pay for angle, and less attention of the Pescador, si?
dearest farang: pay attention; read the post. the plane is not art, it is a commercial. i.e., it is... duhn duhn duhn... Corporate Welfare! Oh. My.
All right, gawddamnit - it was indeed done for a reason, cited right-cher:
"A 737 painted to look like a king salmon is intended to highlight Alaska Airlines' history of shipping large quantities of fresh seafood from Alaska to points all over the country.
Like - who the fuck cares?
I did like this little tidbit of information: The Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board (nonprofit) which gave the grant - Sen. Ben Stevens (who is also a state senator) is the son of Sen. Ted Stevens and the chairman of that agency's board of directors.
So....not only is Alaska getting a hunk-a-hunk of federal dollars but apparently nepotism is a requirement for office. (?)
Hey, leave 'em be. Since the Stevens' will be taking it up the
Oh, I don't mean to be disrespectful. Since Alaska will soon destroy their
wildlife refuge for a few barrels of oil, they deserve some consolation prizes.
It might be intersting to see who ended up with that $500K. I'm betting it wasn't the guy in the picture. He does nice work, BTW.
The stupid part is that this isn't even "art". It's ADVERTISING in the form of CORPORATE WELFARE for the Alaskan "Salmon" industry. They even admit it's like a "giant billboard".
So when are we taxpayers going to start paying for McDonald's commercials?
Great blog post. Sad story.
If you think $500,000.00 is a lot of money for one fish. You might be able to relate to this.
U.S. Senator Ted Stevens gave his son the CEO position of Special Olympics when the Olympics were held in Anchorage. Only after the fact, did volunteers, parents, donors learn that Little Ben had made $710,000.00 for being the CEO. This involved going to a couple of events and a few banquets. The military here in Alaska was recruited probably by dad, U.S. Senator Ted Stevens to do all the work. Volunteers gave up pay to help in the Olympics, they were really mad after learning Little Ben had been paid this astronomical figure.
This hurt the Special Olympics most. I will never donate to them again. If they have enough money to pay that kind of money to a CEO they certaintly don't need my $25.00 dollars.
The Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska is President Pro Tem of the U.S. Senate. He is third in line to be president after Bush and Cheney.
Yikes!
It's a bold promotional move to celebrate wild Alaska seafood and also the carrier's role in hauling millions of pounds of fresh salmon, halibut, crab, shrimp and other seafood out of the state each year.
It's not a bold promotional move. A bold heist maybe, though it's awesome that graphic designers are being paid to do something interesting, the increasing stupidity makes me wonder if they've been drinking wine out of the lead urns again.
The article goes on to say...
A local nonprofit [representing the Alaska fisheries industry] agency, the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board, gave Alaska Airlines a $500,000 grant to paint the jet. The money came out of about $29 million in federal funding U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska and his congressional colleagues have appropriated to the marketing board, created in 2003, to promote and enhance the value of Alaska seafood. The senator's son, state Sen. Ben Stevens, is chairman of the agency's board of directors....
The Alaska Airlines salmon jet is to make its local debut when it arrives as Flight 95 with a load of regular passengers and dignitaries at 11:48 a.m. today at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
http://www.adn.com/front/story/7038924p-6942571c.html
Such corruption seems like a parady, but it is oh, so true.
Hm. A quick back-of-my-ass calculation indicates that for $50 billion we could paint every airliner in the world to look like a fish.
If we'd spent the money that way instead of invading Iraq, the US would be a safer place today! And fishier.
As an immigrant from europe to the united states of embarassment, this is just one of the many reasons i miss europe.
when is this country going to come to its senses and realze that there are people who wont se the doctor when they have serious medical problems, because they dont have insurance??
when is this country going to deal with the fact that people cant afford to go to work, because they cant put fuel in their cars??
when is this counry going to start being carefull who it elects leader of the nation??
with all the problems this wonderfull nation has, it amazes me that we spend money on such insignificant things as painting a plain to look like a fish.
and people wonder why the rest of the world laughs at us.
i yurn for the days that america was respected.
Is this money coming out of that $200,000,000 bridge that links a town of five, including moose, to a town of thirty, including salmon?
Well, the link has some numbers on the job. 30 painters worked for 24 days to finish this job.
That's a lot of labor but assuming 8 hour days, that breaks down to $86.80/hour. Not bad work if you can get it.
Each worker earned $16,666.66 each if they were all payed equally for that Months worth of work. If they could sustain that rate, it's $200,000 per year, not outrageous but good money. (it also breaks down to about $86 per hour).
I wonder if all the money went to the painters. Hmn.
Ummm. I think Hastert is 3rd...and President Pro Tem is 4th.
I honestly don't think the $500,000 paint job is the problem. Your complaint should be over the $29,000,000 of taxpayer money to promote the salmon industry. If you're okay with the $29M, then what better way to promote the salmon industry than with a flying billboard that thousands will see every day at the airport?
But does salmon need $29M of taxpayer money to promote it?
The usual complaint, ho-hum. It should of been spent on "underprivaleged" black, brown, and yellow people. Does it get old to anybody else?
You are a bunch of Jesus Christ egaltarian fanatics all of you so called "atheist" liberal peices of shit. I don't give a shit about "helping" the undermench.
America if it were worth anything (it's not) would spend money to preserve it's industries (that they have already shipped overseas) not on bogus wars for Israel and the insane jewish god of the Bible.
YAY! My first troll of the day!!!
Sounds like a real sweetheart. Are you single?
I'm a pretty extreme leftist and I think think of this as a "splog" or "spam log." Using Arts grants as an example of wasted public spending sounds like something Ann Coulter would say. Also, you've got to realize that the only people that use the term "retard" are either developmentally disabled or still in third grade.
There is something fishy about that deal. Sorry, I just could not avoid the pun :)
Considering what the current government is doing to the salmon industry, I think it may well be worth the money. When the last wild
salmon has disappeared, this plane
will still be around to remind us of the god old days.
Hey anonymous that thinks of this as "splog" - this isn't money for the arts, it's an advertisement. If it was to promote the arts, I would be behind it, but it isn't.
Remember to read carefully before you say something that makes you look stupid. I do that plenty all by myself, you don't need to join me.
The best part is the drag created by painted planes. When the flying fishes get going, they will be swimming up stream. And.... eventually... the oil companies will be the big winners.. Again.
As for living salmon.. Its comforting to know that people no longer have to fish for salmon. Industry has polluted most of them to the point where people cant eat them. Ahhh.. and its only Wednesday..
Anon-4:47am is correct is stating "The Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska is President Pro Tem of the U.S. Senate. He is third in line to be president after Bush and Cheney."
Order of Presidential Succession
According to the Presidential Succession Act of 1792, the Senate president pro tempore1 was next in line after the vice president to succeed to the presidency, followed by the Speaker of the House.
In 1886, however, Congress changed the order of presidential succession, replacing the president pro tempore and the Speaker with the cabinet officers. Proponents of this change argued that the congressional leaders lacked executive experience, and none had served as president, while six former secretaries of state had later been elected to that office.
The Presidential Succession Act of 1947, signed by President Harry Truman, changed the order again to what it is today. The cabinet members are ordered in the line of succession according to the date their offices were established.
Prior to the ratification of the 25th Amendment in 1967, there was no provision for filling a vacancy in the vice presidency. When a president died in office, the vice president succeeded him, and the vice presidency then remained vacant. The first vice president to take office under the new procedure was Gerald Ford, who was nominated by Nixon on Oct. 12, 1973, and confirmed by Congress the following Dec. 6.
* The Vice President Richard Cheney
* Speaker of the House John Dennis Hastert
* President pro tempore of the Senate1 Ted Stevens
* Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
* Secretary of the Treasury John Snow
* Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld
* Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
* Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton
* Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns
* Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez2
* Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao3
* Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt
* Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson
* Secretary of Transportation Norman Yoshio Mineta
* Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman
* Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings
* Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson
* Secretary of Homeland Security4 Michael Chertoff
NOTE: An official cannot succeed to the Presidency unless that person meets the Constitutional requirements.
1. The president pro tempore presides over the Senate when the vice president is absent. By tradition the position is held by the senior member of the majority party.
2. Carlos Gutierrez was born in Cuba and is ineligible.
3. Elaine Chao was born in Taiwan and is ineligible.
4. In late July 2005, the Senate passed a bill moving the Homeland Security secretary to number 8 on the list. The bill is awaiting House approval.end.
from-http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0101032.html
The phrase "3rd in line" is what might mix some people up. Reminds me of when my wife says, "it's the next exit" when giving me directions while driving. To her it means the second exit to me it means well, the next freaking exit.
your fellow Human
Any artwork in the style of the faceless man, (psudeo-communist artwork) promotes consumerism, it therefore is corporate, "modern" art is all corporate, these get federal and state grants all the time.
The faceless man represents nothing but a raceless product buying unit.
Artwork such as "pisschrist" complained popularly on the internet a few years ago as much as christianity is stupid for other reasons, was made by a psudeo-communist, therefore only tells two tales: reject christianity, buy the products, or reject christianity, reject the products, buy these products instead. It's consumerism also known as anti-racism. Anti-racism, is a life of materials.
What a waste of fucking money. I really think its time the federal gov't cut ALL funding for the arts.
Total waste of money to help artists throw dung at crappy paintings of the virgin mary.
Cut ALL funding for the arts and while we are at at it lets start cutting funds for PBS...they will do fine off of private and corporate donations donations.
Did anyone see the $2.5 million fountain the New Orleans levee board built last year?
Thats right folks Gov. Blanco and local politicians spent $2.5 million on a little fountain while their levee system crumbled.
The phrase "3rd in line" is what might mix some people up. Reminds me of when my wife says, "it's the next exit" when giving me directions while driving. To her it means the second exit to me it means well, the next freaking exit.
your fellow Human
Totally off-topic: It must be 'this exit' vs 'the next exit' argument. I don't think it's a gender thing. I'm a woman, yes I am and when you say to me, "the next exit" - that means, 'yep, the next freaking exit!'
Anonymous.. you're really not that ignorant. I just know it. Or, are you just another example of somebody not willing to accept somebody else’s culture? Please do a little research on Chris Ofili.
Besides.. if we cut the art funding how would we get stuff like this:
http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/davis/davis9-27-05.asp
on the fish plane...
they need to consider how it will negatively impact the eagle population.
After all the salmon they've eaten, when they see this mother coming, they'll think it is the end of the world
This is NOT just Republicans.
The House passed this; All of them had pork hidden somewhere.
The Hollyweird sign should be atop the Senate Building.
All the "hatred" finger pointing is a Grand Act.
When will America wake up, and realize they are ALL Corrupt Bastards.
"What's in your pocket"
Fine Iggy - they are all corrupt!
Now, do we focus our energies on the corrupt people WITH the power or corrupt people WITHOUT the power?
I would guess it's better to start with the ones in power since they have the power to FUCK US MORE.
It's an Alaska Air plane. Next thing you know, some other airline will be lobbyng for a free paint job on its aircraft. Maybe a big bratwurst for Midway.
What's a few hundred thou, anyway? It's not like there's a war on or anything.
Wow quite a bit flawed logic on this one. $500K to a private contractor comissioned for a painting that is most likely done in part by automated machines. Sorry but that does not qualify as funding for the arts. I would be O.K. with it if they were going to paint the plane for $500K (What is the normal cost of painting a plain) off the assembly line and then decided to have some fun. But private industry usually pays for that. Flying fish. Hah! The Christian symbolism is over whelming.
Seeing as how we are the most intelligent primates, its not a far stretch that some people paint with poop and call it art. Welcome to the monkey house. But the reason they are sucsessful at it is because people get pissed off about it. Other wise they would just be regarded for what they are, nut jobs flinging excrement around.
With some of the things people have said hear one wonders if its a,"Monkey see monkey do thing." For example:
"Consumerism also known as anti-racism. Anti-racism, is a life of materials."
WTF mate? A.) You make it sound like anti-racism is a bad thing. B.) True racism, and not just verbal bigotry, means that you deny economic, and governmental access to a group of people based on the topical perception that they are, "racially," differnt from you. (Genetically this is not so, as we all carry the same set of instructions for making humans in our DNA) When you break down the inner workings of consumerism and realize that supply and demand are vital to the equation, and will determine who can buy what; you can begin to see that economic disparity is inevitable in such a system. Hence consumerism actually helps to propagate rascism by helping to widen the economic gap.
Remember that old one about giving enough typwriters to enough monkeys and eventually getting back all of Shakespears plays randomly as a mathmatical inevitability? It really makes one wonder what other good books they may have written?
This type of philosophy will not fix anything. At BEST you will only temporarily relieve the symptom.
It’s like flip flopping a disease; treating an infection with a un-sterile tools.
The cause will remain.
How do you think it has gotten so bad?
It’s wasted effort; it’s time to amputate.
Since it's out tax dollars, can we get them to paint air force one to look like a big chimp??
At least then I could get a laugh out of it.
new ad campaign...
SALMON,
It's the other pork.
mmmmmm... bratwurst
For pure surrealism, this is by far my favorite post on this thread:
"Any artwork in the style of the faceless man, (psudeo-communist artwork) promotes consumerism, it therefore is corporate, "modern" art is all corporate, these get federal and state grants all the time.
The faceless man represents nothing but a raceless product buying unit.
Artwork such as "pisschrist" complained popularly on the internet a few years ago as much as christianity is stupid for other reasons, was made by a psudeo-communist, therefore only tells two tales: reject christianity, buy the products, or reject christianity, reject the products, buy these products instead. It's consumerism also known as anti-racism. Anti-racism, is a life of materials."
Um, what?
So, with Chertoff in line at number 8, it looks like we'll hve to impeach nine people to get down to somebody halfway decent as a stand in.
I think we'd hit Comptroller of the Coast Guard before we'd start finding any quality people.
Aside from the stupidity of the grant itself, Why would it cost that much to paint a fish on a plane? Cost of the paint? Cost of the 'artist'? I read about an airfield that needed to be improved. They said it would cost one hundred million dollars. Why? The amounts are beyond absurd, even beyond the absurdity of the jobs in the first place.
People have stopped eating salmon and fish because of the mercury in them. Advertising this fish on a plane won't make me eat more of it. Or eat it at all.
Alaska Airlines spent 500K of Federally supplied and then locally allocated grant money on this paint job, which was farmed out to a paint shop which then hired 30 people for 24 days, also along the way design persons and others spent time and got paid to plot the thing out, so that all the nice painters knew where to put the paint, and then the folks that make the paint got an order, and the freight folks that shipped it got some work and along with this a positive commercial image is created for Alaska and one of their key resources. It's better they spend the 500k doing something like this rather than pissing it away on more miltary toys for the boys or some other such dumbass useless project. They were going to spend the money anyway, at least this way there is quite a bit of the money moving down stream. So, no point in getting pissed at this, now bridges to nowhere being built in Alaska now that's worth getting pissed at.
There seems to be some incorrect statements in the comments.
The original "pisschrist" piece was not funded by the government. Some grant money was used to produce a book about the museum exibits that included a picture of "pisschrist". One picture in a thick book can really tick some people off.
An artist did not throw poop at a painting. The piece was created in Africa where use of elephant droppings in art is culturally accepted. The Brooklyn Museum thrives on contraversary.
How 'bout the 3 billion, that's right, three billion just loaned to United Airlines out of the taxpayers pocket? And you complain about relatively cheap art?
Now United will have no obligation to pay pension to it's workforce, in fact it now has legal obligation not to pay pensions. The CEOs and top management will get ever more filthy rich, and the blue collar workbase will get shat upon for years of loyalty.
This is America and it is nothing to celebrate. America is bullshit. It's just a Bunch of individuals with no loyalty to anyone or anything trying to get to their desert island before anyone else burning bridges along the way. BTW, to break the "maoist tranvestite civil rights" losers who may be lurking, I say the above as a non-communist. (commies are evil dualistic zionist supremacists; same thing as the worst of capitalism) "Minorities" who's lives are a joke (played as serious to our high class elites, as to confound lower class European "white" peoples) have nothing to do with class struggle.
Geez Anonymous, that's probably the most labels someone's ever thrown out in these comments! How about "left-handed, neo-con, jingoist, albino pot-bellies who sympathize with NAMLBA"?
Just makin' this shit up as I go.
We helped an independent commercial fisherman paint his truck with a wild salmon, too: www.salmonnation.com/community/cohorts.html (scroll down to K-Lyn Fisheries).
Wild salmon support many things, economies, cultures, physical well being and ecosystems.
Kudos to Alaska Airlines and the Uncle Sam for supporting wild salmon.
Anon @ 4:22 --
Why not just come out and say what you are if you aren't a communist. Do you march a lot? Do you still call it the Third Way or is there a new, snappier name? Do you have a poster of Francis Yockey? And what boot polish do you reccomend, you little beetle eyed creep?
He's a Nazi.
Anonymous said...
"It's better they spend the 500k doing something like this rather than pissing it away on more miltary toys for the boys or some other such dumbass useless project."
Indeed, the pen being mightier than the sword, why shouldn't paint take precedent over armor... or other such dumb-ass, useless things?
$500,000 would have purchased protection for over 800 combat troops, and would likely have saved our economy vastly more by ameliorating expenses accrued due to injury and death in battle.
Surely with all the pork being dealt, a few center-cuts might have been set aside for saving soldiers, instead of porking them, too.
Thanks, Congress. And may you forever live in interesting times.
Human said...
"The phrase "3rd in line" is what might mix some people up."
Thanks for clarifying this. I was really confused.
You see I, and I'm sure millions of others, thought it was Jesus.
Anon 11:32
Then, go ahead, always side with the establishment, all they have to do is call the opposition a "hater" and you will buy their useless product to prove desperately that you are a "anti-racist".
Tool.
Salmon jet lures federal fund questions
MARKETING: How has $29 million in federal money been spent so far?
By LIZ RUSKIN
Anchorage Daily News
Published: October 6, 2005
Last Modified: October 6, 2005 at 06:43 AM
WASHINGTON -- The Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board, created by U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens in 2003, made a big splash this week with a high-profile project: a $500,000 grant to Alaska Airlines, mostly to paint a giant king salmon on one of its jetliners.
But what else the marketing board has bought with the $29 million in federal funds it has received isn't so clear.
The law that created the board says AFMB must submit an annual report detailing its expenditures to the secretary of commerce. But the board's executive director, Bill Hines, said he is not allowed to release the report to the public.
"A lot of that information is confidential and proprietary," he said.
The board's chairman is state Sen. Ben Stevens, R-Anchorage, who did not return telephone calls Wednesday.
His father, U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, created the board in a 2003 appropriations bill, saying he wanted to help Alaska seafood compete against imported farm-raised stocks. The state's commercial salmon industry was in crisis, with a value that had plunged 73 percent in a decade. The board was one of several initiatives aimed at reviving the industry.
Sen. John McCain, a regular critic of special funding programs Ted Stevens establishes for Alaska, took a shot at the marketing board when it was up for its second $10 million appropriation.
"Is there something wrong with these fish that warrants such an expensive program to convince us to eat them?" the Arizona Republican asked during debate last year.
The board's structure, as Stevens established it in federal law, is unusual. The board is an independent nonprofit, and its members are appointed by the commerce secretary. Hines, the director, remains an employee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The board's money -- about $10 million a year -- comes from something called the Saltonstall-Kennedy Fund. The fund is derived from duties on imported fish and awards grants to develop American fisheries.
The Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board hasn't produced an annual report for public review, Hines said.
It also has no official Web site, he said. Some of its meetings have been open to the public, he said, but the locations and meeting times aren't advertised.
Hines did, however, provide a PowerPoint presentation that gave a general accounting of the board's budget. The bulk of the money, $12 million, has gone to salmon processors, and more than half of that has gone to the processing titans: Ocean Beauty, Peter Pan, Icicle, Trident.
Hines said the board took a new "performance-based" approach with salmon marketing. Rather than award grants based on merit of individual proposals, the board offered grants based on the amount of salmon each processor had bought.
"It's all based on the amount of fish purchased, so the more you purchase, the more you get," he said.
The grants, though, do come with restrictions.
"They have to submit a proposal for how they would spend that money, and that proposal has to do with marketing," Hines said.
Grantees have to file reports, which the board scrutinizes, he said. Information provided to the board is often sensitive, he said, because companies wouldn't want competitors to know their plans.
The PowerPoint slides also show the board gave $4.5 million to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, a state-chartered organization created in 1981, $3 million to a group that promotes Alaska pollock, and $1 million to promote herring in Japan. It also gave out numerous smaller grants.
Some of the grants, such as the money to promote a branding initiative called Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers or the Japanese herring campaign, have received attention in Alaska fishing circles.
Hines was willing to discuss how some of the companies proposed to spend their grants but said the full accounting was in the report he could not release.
"I am not allowed to just release that report," he said. "That's what I was told (when) I talked to folks in D.C."
He didn't want to be more specific about where the instruction came from.
"I don't think that's important," he said.
He also said that the report didn't belong to the board because he had filed the original, as required by law, with the Department of Commerce.
The Daily News has filed a formal request for the report from the Commerce Department and is awaiting a response.
Mark Vinsel, executive director of the United Fishermen of Alaska, said he'd like to be able to tell his members of the grants available through the marketing board.
"I've been looking forward to them having a Web site," he said. "Without a Web site, I haven't been able to regularly communicate to UFA's 1,300-member e-mail list in the way we have with (other grant programs)."
Actually, the AFMB does have a Web site, although it's still under construction.
The site alaskafisheriesboard.org contains information about the organization.
"It's not an official Web site. It should not be launched," Hines said when asked about it Tuesday. On Wednesday, the site was carrying a red disclaimer saying it was under construction and that "none of the information contained herein has been approved as official content."
The site listed the agency's 11-member board of directors and gave a partial breakdown of entities that received grants and for how much, although it doesn't say what the grants were for. The AFMB board includes representatives of seafood companies, fisheries groups, Carrs/Safeway, Lynden Transport and former Ted Stevens aide Trevor McCabe, who is a business partner with Ben Stevens.
The official location of the agency's office was also unclear. The bylaws on the unapproved Web site say the principal office is in Juneau, where Hines said he lives. Hines, though, said that the office is actually in downtown Anchorage and that the board pays for an apartment for him to stay in there. His business phone is his cell phone, he said, although the organization does have a phone in the Anchorage office.
He declined to disclose his salary, which is paid through the Department of Commerce. Hines said his board members do not receive salaries but are paid $500 per meeting, in addition to per-day expenses.
Ben Stevens, the board chairman, did not list his AFMB membership on his Alaska Public Offices Commission financial disclosure forms for the past two years. The APOC form requires legislators to list profit and nonprofit boards on which they serve. Stevens did list his membership on other nonprofit boards. He was appointed to the AFMB board in late 2003.
A spokeswoman for Ted Stevens said he recommended his son and other members of the marketing board to the commerce secretary for appointment, but she said the senator made his recommendations from a list Gov. Frank Murkowski sent.
The Alaska Airlines promotion is getting national attention, not all of it positive.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., told ABC News this week that the money was a waste.
"I don't think anybody's going to buy Alaskan seafood because they see a fish on the side of an airplane," he said in a segment broadcast Wednesday on "World News Tonight."
Keith Ashdown, spokesman for Taxpayers for Common Sense, acknowledged the plane has a lot of "wow" factor. He e-mailed news of the publicly funded paint job, saying "We couldn't make this up if we tried."
Hines said the salmon jet has been a big hit. He called it a "flying billboard."
"It's advertising," he said. "For four to six years, we're going to have that plane flying our message."
In fact, he said, he the message may outlive the board.
"In light of what's going on today, with (Hurricane) Katrina, with Rita and other problems, I'm not optimistic that we're going to get another appropriation this year," he said.
The board was created when the market for Alaska fish was terrible, and it's now much better, he said.
"We have fulfilled our mission," he said. "We have run our course."
Daily News reporter Wesley Loy contributed to this story. Reporter Liz Ruskin can be reached at lruskin@adn.com and Loy can be reached at wloy@adn.com.
Well I do this kind of thing for a living and if you think THAT's something you should read about the farmer that got a government grant (in the form of a monthly check) to grow weed!
I am surprised nobody mentioned that the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board, and Alaska Airlines Salmon jet, are funded by the Saltonstall-Kennedy fund, which is from duties on imported seafood, and intended by then Senator John F. Kennedy to be used for domestic seafood promotion. The real concern is that very little of this fund ever went to Alaska programs until recently, even though Alaska produces half of the countries seafood.
you dumbass, you didnt pay for a fucking thing, you dont live in Alaska. And another thing, go ahehad and let all the US food markets go bankrupt, then youll be complaining your cunt off because a loaf of Chinese bread costs 10 bucks, a gallon of Ethiopian Cow Milk costs 15. Granted, I could have put that 500 grand to better use, but with the declining support of US markets, the 500 grand is a small part of saving part of the American economy.
You dumb bastard. You agree that the 500 grand could be put to better use, yet call me a dumbass.
You just showed veryone here just what kind of a moron you are. GRATZ TO YOU.
PS: Way to jump on this hot news story. FROM LAST FUCKING OCTOBER. And you call ME a dumbass.
Post a Comment
<< Home