Sarah Palin and her dirt.....now let' talk about her dairy gate

[Taylorcofan]

The Media will be abuzz today with the surprise of John McCain’s
choice of Sarah Palin as his Vice Cheney candidate.

But there’s some dirt hiding under the rug...

What is the history...who does she support...and when she talks about
“open and transparent” government, what does that mean?

Put your snow boots on, people...and let’s have a look...........at
this one

First we've had gas gate, trooper gate and milk gate.....So that’s the
story for today...

Vice Cheney Nominee Palin, the fresh face with executive experience
that McCain has brought to the table, is giving away half a billion
dollars in taxpayer money to the Big Gas/Big Oil (for openers), has
overseen the end of a “dairy industry subsidy” she couldn’t save,
pulled the blinds down on “open and transparent government”, kind of
“hired” her husband to be an unofficial “Personnel Director”, has
apparently decided that the mantra of “anti-spending” is much more
important than public safety—even while her State is the recipient of
more than $11,000 in Federal spending per Alaska citizen--and she’s
going after her sister’s ex-husband, and of course, there’s also that
bipartisan “abuse of power” investigation she’s now dealing with...

Now Sarah we want to know about the milk business.

Matanuska Maid, the State’s largest dairy, was owned and operated by
the State from 1985 to 2007, basically to provide an outlet for the
State’s eight dairies and to provide a local source of milk.
Unfortunately, the Dairy has been losing money, requiring the State to
basically subsidize the industry by operating a money-losing buyer for
the locally-produced product....and providing loans to the local
dairies.

In a radio conversation, Governor Palin stressed the importance of the
dairy to the State’s citizens, reminding them that “a local food
supply is very important”. She wanted the public to know that they had
nothing to fear about the future of the Dairy. She was excited, at the
time, and was looking forward to the prospects for the Dairy in
private hands, as it was at the time being readied for auction.

As it turns out, the “local” supply is anything but local. For years
the dairy has been buying the majority of its milk from out of state
(60% of milk processed by Matanuska was imported in 2006)...and as it
turns out, there was something to fear...at least there was if you
were one of the State’s eight “Class A” dairy farmers...or one of the
Dairy’s two senior managers, who were racking up about $50,000 a year—
each--in travel and entertainment costs (including multiple “working
lunches” on the same day...), based on this unusual business standard
for what are, more or less, State employees:


“Long standing practice is that we are allowed to use our judgment
when determining whether an activity has merit for travel purposes. We
do not have limits established for these costs.”
Nobody was interested in buying the money-losing operation.

The State has signed a lease agreement for the dairy’s equipment that
seems to have foreclosed any chance that the facility would ever
return to that business; and in the summer of 2008 they tried again to
sell the asset, lowering the price from $3.5 million to $1.5
million...and there was success...and as a result the State of
Alaska’s citizens can patronize a new heated storage facility that,
obviously, cannot process the local food supply that is apparently no
longer so important. (By the way, that imported milk the Governor
worries about: $3.99 a gallon in Anchorage...the average price in
Seattle--in 2003? $3.52)
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Not bad for two years in office, eh?