Bridge to Nowhere Finds a Supporter
Yep that's right, while reading some of the the worst of the blogosphere yesterday I found what could be the only supporter of Republican Senator Ted Stevens' infamous "Bridge to Nowhere". The pork-barrel project that became a cause celebre to both fiscal conservatives and power hungry Democrats has had little to no open support from anybody in the lower 48 states and the earmarked spending has become shorthand for all that is wrong with congressional finances.
Strangely this single supporter is a Democrat. Maybe not all that surprising after reading her blog, Ellen's Illinois Tenth Congressional District Blog (succinctness is not a strong point over there) has been maintained by attorney Ellen Beth Gill who was a representative to the 2004 Democratic Convention from the IL 10th. Ms. Gill (if I may call her that) is currently blaming her, um, nemesis Congressman Mark Kirk, the Republican who currently represents the IL. 10th. Ms Gill has something to blame on Mr. Kirk nearly every day (sort of pathetic but hey it's her life) and last weekend she has resurrected a post from June '06 in order to blame the Republicans in general and Mark Kirk specifically for the, ahem, infrastructure problems of South East Alaska. Ms. Gill was helpful in pointing out the post from last year as it is hysterical; the post is titled "Imagine, no way to get to O'Hare".
Comparing the air field in Ketchikan, Alaska to one of the world's busiest airports is utterly inane but a few peeks at her comment sections show that she knows her readership, very well. On Sunday Ms. Gill blamed Mr. Kirk for helping to defund a bridge for 20 people a day but is now very happy that our nation may, in the end, spend millions of dollars to save time for a few Alaskans and a few wealthy tourists.
As a friendly note to Ms. Gill; O'Hare is a serious piece of infrastructure that affects millions of people in the tri-state area and around the nation; and I'm not even talking about the air travelers. To see an example of O'Hare's importance to the non-traveller Ms. Gill and her cohorts may want to take a drive along the southern boundary of O'Hare Airport. Drive down Irving Park Road west of Narraganset and take a look (to the north) at the traffic coming out of the O'Hare shipping terminal. For some further education they should trail those trucks that leave O'Hare and follow them down to the Joliet area, a booming trans-shipment are for the entire Midwest. It could be an educational field trip of sorts. Then they could try the same excercise in Ketchikan, the amount of industry that is reliant on airtransport is underwhelming and it is hard to imagine the industry that would rush to take advantage of easier access to the Ketchikam airport other than tourism. I guess that somebody has to stick up for the wealthy fishermen of the 10th district and their desire to catch (non Lake Michigan) salmon and Ms. Gill fits the bill.
If it matters I attended Joseph Sears School and New Trier East High School with Mark Kirk.
Strangely this single supporter is a Democrat. Maybe not all that surprising after reading her blog, Ellen's Illinois Tenth Congressional District Blog (succinctness is not a strong point over there) has been maintained by attorney Ellen Beth Gill who was a representative to the 2004 Democratic Convention from the IL 10th. Ms. Gill (if I may call her that) is currently blaming her, um, nemesis Congressman Mark Kirk, the Republican who currently represents the IL. 10th. Ms Gill has something to blame on Mr. Kirk nearly every day (sort of pathetic but hey it's her life) and last weekend she has resurrected a post from June '06 in order to blame the Republicans in general and Mark Kirk specifically for the, ahem, infrastructure problems of South East Alaska. Ms. Gill was helpful in pointing out the post from last year as it is hysterical; the post is titled "Imagine, no way to get to O'Hare".
Comparing the air field in Ketchikan, Alaska to one of the world's busiest airports is utterly inane but a few peeks at her comment sections show that she knows her readership, very well. On Sunday Ms. Gill blamed Mr. Kirk for helping to defund a bridge for 20 people a day but is now very happy that our nation may, in the end, spend millions of dollars to save time for a few Alaskans and a few wealthy tourists.
As a friendly note to Ms. Gill; O'Hare is a serious piece of infrastructure that affects millions of people in the tri-state area and around the nation; and I'm not even talking about the air travelers. To see an example of O'Hare's importance to the non-traveller Ms. Gill and her cohorts may want to take a drive along the southern boundary of O'Hare Airport. Drive down Irving Park Road west of Narraganset and take a look (to the north) at the traffic coming out of the O'Hare shipping terminal. For some further education they should trail those trucks that leave O'Hare and follow them down to the Joliet area, a booming trans-shipment are for the entire Midwest. It could be an educational field trip of sorts. Then they could try the same excercise in Ketchikan, the amount of industry that is reliant on airtransport is underwhelming and it is hard to imagine the industry that would rush to take advantage of easier access to the Ketchikam airport other than tourism. I guess that somebody has to stick up for the wealthy fishermen of the 10th district and their desire to catch (non Lake Michigan) salmon and Ms. Gill fits the bill.
If it matters I attended Joseph Sears School and New Trier East High School with Mark Kirk.
Labels: Bridge to Nowhere, Democrats, Ellen Beth Gill, Ellen's Illinois Tenth Congressional Blog, Mark Kirk
posted by El Rider at 12:38 PM
6 Comments:
I think you've nailed our friend Ellen pretty well. On Ellen's blog, everything from the deforestation of the rainforests to the importation of bad pet food is all Kirk's/Bush's/Cheney's fault, and none of them actually seem to get the ridiculousness of their position. But, as with any group of zealots, you can't change the minds of the true believers.
TA
The sad thing it, if Ms Gill could stop making a new post every day about how much she hates the current Congressman and how evil the Republicans are, she might be a good blogger. Every so often she brings up something other than politics and she often does a nice job with that.
Do you think she dreams up all that vitriol all by herself, or do they have talking points for people like her? Do you think she gets paid to do it?
My best guess is that Ellen is fed a good deal of stuff by the 10th Dems/Lauren Beth Gash operation, but Ellen does a lot on her own. It's just her and her cat (and mom Corinne), so she apparently has a lot of time on her hands. She's also front and center on the "10th Dems U" program, teaching courses on using the Internet effectively in campaigns today.
A zealot, but a troublesome zealot.
TA
I think it would be nicer if she would spend some time saying something good about her candidates. There are plenty of genuine independents who want info, not trash talk, and its a shame that the Democrats spend so much time on that.
I'll bet she's a conduit for a number of politically motivated staffers (on their own time, I should imagine) who ghost her stuff. No one person has that much time as my research shows has a job.
I'll bet she has a husband and kids, too, but she keeps them out of the picture. She only shows us what she wants us to see.
Hi Publia and Team America,
You guys are right, Ellen's blog is very strange; one would think that a prolific blogger and an attorney would write better and use a little logic. Whether she is a budding spinster or the mother in Cheaper by the Dozen you guys are probably on to something concerning assistance on her blog. On the other hand people like Dr. Sanity put out great stuff everyday, I think that she once wrote that she spent two hours one morning on a piece and I believe it; in the "blog big or go home" equation she is in the "blog big" camp.
Ellen's commenters are also a little bit strange, they have their rap and they stick to it; I still get a kick out of the "chickenhawk" thing that they have going on over on that side of the bloggasphere. They think that they are clever with an argument that can only be satisfied by a person who is currently several thousand miles away, they remind me of children. Btw, I Googled "Mark Kirk" the other day and got a Dan Seals ad on top as a pay ad.
Ellen's people are definately living in some sort of different universe than I one I do, but they manage to get a lot of propaganda out there and do a fair amount of web 2.0 stuff. If you substituted a religion or a race for Kirk or Bush, the blog might end up looking a lot like a hate site. A lot of bullies seem to leave comments; all in all they are not a pretty lot. Today, some woman was using her blackberry while driving and that was George Bush's fault. Could you believe?
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