Palin's 'Nowhere Project' still using federal funds
By Steve Hynd Saturday Sep 13, 2008 8:30am
Sarah Palin said in her acceptance speech at the RNC that "If our state wanted to build a bridge, we were going to build it ourselves." She said pretty much the same to Chris Matthews, Charles Gibson and at every campaign stop.
But it turns out she isn't doing it by herself after all. The federal government is footing a chunk of the bill for the replacement program that would link Ketchikan to its airport.
Gov. Palin’s administration acknowledges that it is still pursuing a project that would link Ketchikan to its airport -- with the help of as much as $73 million in federal funds earmarked by Congress for the original project.
"What the media isn't reporting is that the project isn't dead," Roger Wetherell, spokesman for Alaska’s Department of Transportation, said. In a process begun this past winter, the state’s DOT is currently considering (PDF) a number of alternative solutions (five other possible bridges or three different ferry routes) to link Ketchikan and Gravina Island.
The DOT has not yet developed cost estimates for those proposals, Wetherell said, but $73 million of the approximately $223 million Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Rep. Don Young (R-AK) earmarked for the bridge in 2005 has been set aside for the Gravina Access Project.
The full details are at ProPublica.
So - how many different ways has she been untruthful about the Nowhere Project now? I confess I've lost count.
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Palin is playing on Romney's "we need conservatives in the White House" to turn this mess around meme. I ain't buying it at all--so, what we really need is for the Republicans to come and save us from the Republicans? Palin is just a pretty face on the ugly and divisive GOP that only seeks to get 50.1 percent support to win then "governs" for the profits of 2% of that 50.1%.
But but but - she's a cree-yist-yin; she's not perfect, she's
bugfuck nutsforgiven by the endless source of the 6,000 year old universe!Sarah Putin....fascist psycho. A compelling reason for Republicans to vote for her. They love Dumbya and he's just a common psycho.
Let's be fair. She probably doesn't know if she's telling the truth or not. She's just reading her lines.
Republic party = Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them(C) [thanks al franken!]
and the Lying Liars who support them (eff you, so-called liberal media)
Old man and his pig @ 3:
putin loves his country. I don't see that in sarah.
Uncle Bruno @ 4:
she'd like us to believe that
some truth:
PAGE 1 NY TIMES
PALIN'S RECORD AS MAYOR OF WASILLA AND 2 YEARS AS GOVERNOR
Personal Vendettas...
Censorship...
Cronyism...
Secrecy And Lying...
I betcha their next move is a highway from Anchorage to that vacation paradise Adak.
I seem to recall long ago that there were plans to link Alaska to Russia, either by rail or road.
I am going to form a succesionist party here in Missouri and recruit our new Governor to advocate succeeding from the union in order to bribe the federal government into giving my state more tax revenue than we take in.
La gente dell'americano di buon giorno.
Nowhere Woman staring Sarah Palin
John McCain, High Priest of Palintology
BULLETIN!!: I finally figured out a fool proof way to determine if mccain/palin are lying. You can do it too. Look closely to see if their lips are moving.
The news out of the US is depressing. I need to ask a question, When they take polls, are cell phones included?
Many people I know "only" have cell phones. So are THEY Pollable?
OK.
If we call Palin the devil it might just work with all those conservatives. They understand simple sentences (I think). Plus, it indicates religious familiarity of the liberal left. Yay!
♠♠...Bangkok Bob...♠♠ @ 13:
I doubt they poll cell phones. Especially as they have incoming charges as well (by default at least).
I wonder how much the Federal government paid for Sarah the Impaler's collection of wolf paws.
♠♠...Bangkok Bob...♠♠ @ 13:
no cell phones included. the polls are lying.
the very frequency of the post-RNC polling should give pause. notice, however that there is more selective polling being done ..... because barack is kicking mcC*nt's ass among all but the biblical 'base'.
there will continue be a lot of lying, manipulative garbage coming out of the press.
♠♠...Bangkok Bob...♠♠ @ 13:
I think they use the, Who's Who in the KKK, directory and balance it out with, Famous Expatriate Nazis.
SNL LAST NIGHT!
those ladies are funny
Palin still defends her position on the bridge to nowhere.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008176778_palin13.html
Well of course they are the unorganized masses can never get organized enough to act to stop it.
Uhhhh, our representatives will do it! Dat's what we voted dem' into office for them fur'
Isn't there some way to push this home? Ask her directly: "Words are cheap: You still have $73 million of the money congress gave you for the bridge. Will you agree to give it back?"
OR: "You say you are taking on the good old boys. Well, Ted Stevens is under indictment, and he is the most notorious earmark hog in the senate. [Well, next to Robert Byrd, but perhaps we can quietly pan away from that one. I don't recall Byrd ever running on an anti-earmark platform.] A couple of days before you were nominated for VP you removed from your website a commercial from Stevens endorsing you. Well, words are cheap: are you going to urge Alaskans to vote against Stevens for the Senate? Are you going to vote against him yourself?"
OR: You say you "Took on the oil companies. You did that by raising taxes on them. Does this mean you are in favor of the taxes on oil company profits that Obama supports and McCain opposes?"
CoIntelPro for Pronktastic Victory Over SCLM, DIEBOLD, ESS and SEQUOIA! @ 19:
Thanks CoInTel, I've been trying to catch that. : )
Who owns this island? Does the state own the land for the airport yet? If not does someone stand to make a ton of money once the bridge is built, when the state buys all the previously worthless land?
ppcli @ 22:
Excellent idea, but alas a dream me thinks.
CoIntelPro for Pronktastic Victory Over SCLM, DIEBOLD, ESS and SEQUOIA! @ 5:
I kinda like the word "Republic"... One suggestion is "The Old Party".
Matt Damon just HAD to say it and now I can't sleep: "She's gonna have the nuclear codes."
By the way, Isn´t a govenors job to grab as much money as they can for their citisens that elected them (of the money thats out there to grab, for states)? Saying "thanks but no thanks" is like saying, "no, my citisens will bite the bullit and sitt out the cold upp here" so I will look better if i run for office someday.
Lipstick on a fraud
Obama raised $66 million in August, and added 500,000 new donors. His best month yet. Thanks McStinky and Palin!
Money is Americas God
22
ppcli Says:
Isn’t there some way to push this home? Ask her directly: “Words are cheap: You still have $73 million of the money congress gave you for the bridge. Will you agree to give it back?
You nailed it! ANY decent reporter would have done so long ago.
Had she been asked this, her attempts to justify keeping the money would have done much to sour that "mavricky mom" image among many of her supporters.
This country is fu*ked up
You know, from reading that article it seems that all Palin did was change her objective of a single bridge to nowhere to some alternative method linking the two areas together. She basically is saying: Okay. Since the federal funds are here and because a bridge to nowhere is politically hot I will just take that money and fund some other means to link the areas together when my DOT guys figure it out. Then, when that is built with the federal money we might later on build a single bridge to nowhere using state funds if we need it.
L.A. Confidential @ 32:
Just the leadership and the fucktards that put them in office................oh wait!
Right now we are living in the dark age of politics. When the kinds of politicians such as Palin can gain so much celebrity because she had five children and she is a creationist, there is darkness to our thinking.
Palin has lied to the American public and I might add her own children from the first speech. She did it boldly and aggressively. We've lived for eight years with boldfaced liars and this country can't afford it anymore.
This country has to decide if we want the dark ages to continue for years and years to come because if McCain is elected this country will cease to exist as it is OR we need to have the courage to move forward. It's like we're a bunch of people who are seeing how electricity works for the first time and we're afraid. Obama and Biden are logical choices just as electricity was a logical step over candles.
When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord does not work that way so I Became a Republican, stole one and asked him to forgive me. Emo Philips
StirFry @ 29:
All the money in the world won't deflate the bubble Palin and McCain are riding. It's absolutely ridiculous that as of Sept 14th, you can confidently say that it's John McCains election to LOSE. I don't want anyone to every tell that BO is the "best politician of this generation". His campaign is weak(lets get him on age and piss off the seniors who hate us) and the candidate is weak (too much of an ego to pick Hilary).
God help us.
Vote for me and I'll do everything for you! I'll be lookin' out for your interests!
That's basically the main scam politicians are selling
Geegee @ 26:
How about a nightmare: Sarah has the codes and decides to hunt moose with nukes in Russia. That's what I dreamed about last night.
She'll say:
"See. All the more reason to abolish earmarks because of the potential for abuse. You can count on me to do that when I'm in Washington!"
mark my words.
Sarah Palin is an empty suit as is John McCain. Maybe we should be calling this ticket: "Old-Timer/End-Timer 2008"
Much more fitting.
See you later. I'm already pissed and about to explode after only 15 minutes on the internet this morning.
bob @ 27:
Good Lord, you're right!!! How evil of her. Betcha Obama never did that. Or Shrillary. Or Gore. Or Howard Dean. Or..................................
How can I vote for Palin? She was never a POW.
Whos brilliant idea was it to put teddy bear Chuck freaking Schumer against that rat Rudy 9u11iani.
Another brilliant move by the BO campaign!
I wish the voting registration site would stay somewhere on this site. I can send people to this site to get set up for voting and in the process they can read the truth.
until we get the down lowd
here's the link
http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/palin-hillary-open/65...
here's the imbed
♠♠...Bangkok Bob...♠♠ @ 36:
Me too, but then I wanted a car, then a Truck, Then A Van, Then House, THEN 7 HOUSES, THEN MONEY AND MORE MONEY AND MORE MONEY. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I don't care about forgiveness, I WANT TO RULE THE WORLD!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
KayInMaine @ 41:
Hey .... Now that's a Pretty Good Slogan,
"Old-Timer & End-Timer 2008"
Old man and his pig @ 3:
Why give a guy like Vladimar Putin such a bad name by comparing him to Sarah Barracuda?
At least when he shoots Siberian tigers he's on the ground using only tranquilizer darts! He's not shooting them from helicopters after they've been run to death and are exhausted.
IMHO, Palin is the fascist here, not Putin.
Hahaha, defeatists all up and down this thread. Just stay on the side-lines and keep out of the way.
♠♠...Bangkok Bob...♠♠ @ 49:
Yep. It pretty much sums of these two empty suits. Together they will finish off what George Bush started by saying gawd wanted endless/needless wars to save the top 5% of America. And their right wing wacko supporters will eat it up.
StirFry @ 51:
And here's an example of an Old-Timer/End-Timer supporter!
Why do you hate the world so much? You must be in the same camp as Sarah Palin and her husband Todd who want Alaska to secede from America because they hate America and because they want Alaska to be the next Saudi Arabia run by a couple of Oil Maggots who...hate America! Oh yes, something tells me the morning of 9/11/01 Sarah & Todd were jubilant and we're in the streets dancing along with the Palestinians on our tvs that morning and were passing out candy to the Alaskan Youth.
It's not too late to dump Biden and replace him with Matt Damon. I mean, if the Pork Princess is qualified, why not...?
By the way, Isn´t a govenors job to grab as much money as they can for their citisens that elected them (of the money thats out there to grab, for states)? Saying “thanks but no thanks” is like saying, “no, my citisens will bite the bullit and sitt out the cold upp here” so I will look better if i run for office someday.
Good Lord, you’re right!!! How evil of her. Betcha Obama never did that. Or Shrillary. Or Gore. Or Howard Dean. Or…………………………….
No Im just saying that she is out there on the campaign braging every day that she said thanks but no thanks. I have not heard Obama or anyone else say they turnd down money. You can still be against earmarks, but if you are a govenor (Obama, Hillary were not) you can still take your share if it´s in play.
wrapped in a flag, thumping a bible
chris [not the troll] @ 54:
Naaaaah, we don't to sink to their level by putting in a pretty person with no brain in their head. We like Biden because he's going to expose the fool Sarah Palin is. I mean, really, after 7 years she had no idea what the Bush Doctrine is, but yet, had not problem putting her son on a plane to Iraq! What a dumbass. Of course, what Sarah isn't telling her Alaskan Jackboot Licking Youth is her son, Track, is on his way to Iraq because it was going to be jailtime for him! Yep, Ms. Right Family Values had a son who couldn't keep out of trouble, so the Family made him choose between jail or the military. Little does Track know there's such a thing as the Bush Doctrine and he could end up in Iran taking on that sized military...all because him mom taught him that abstinence is the key to happiness! *shaking head*
What else has this woman taught her kids at the direction of her husband (who looks as those he would be stumped taking a general math quiz)? I'm thinking not much! It's "everything goes!" in the Palin household. No rules, no laws, but when someone asks you if you have rules, you lie and say, "Well of course we do. We go by God's Plan and so far we are acing it!".
CoIntelPro for Pronktastic Victory Over SCLM, DIEBOLD, ESS and SEQUOIA! @ 19:
Tina Fey did a great Sarah Palin impersonation, but over all I think SNL needs a whole new cast of "not ready for prime time players" and a staff of new writers as well.
You'd think in all of NYC they could come up with better than I saw last night. Plus the Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps was totally out of his element as a host. He should have stayed in the pool. As to the "musical guests"?? What did the producers do? Walk out onto Broadway and swipe up the first crew of guys walking around with their pants totally off their asses, hand them some shades and a few mikes and yell, "Action!"?
After last night I realize why I quit watching SNL in the mid-eighties. It's just not funny anymore.
bob @ 55:
Alaska is the biggest welfare/Federal contract state in the nation. Hardly any jobs there and the jobs that are available are in the oil/fishing industry. I bet it's normal up there for 13 year old girls to get pregnant and then go out on welfare, which ultimately helps out the whole family in the end. Sad really. Of course, Sarah will make sure no one knows this and she sure as hell doesn't want anyone to know that the population of Alaska is 670,000 which is the size of a small city in the rest of the lower 48. How embarrassing!
Our nation will be screwed if the Old-Timer/End-Timer ticket gets in the White House. However, it will make George Bush & Dick Cheney very happy that these two people will continue to carry out their lies, deceits, and policies for them.
KayInMaine @ 41:
Personally I've always liked the Father Time/baby new year comparsion but the old-timer/end-timer 2008 fits even better.
See? Now there you go running around telling truths about Sarah Palin... Have you no shame?
Funniest thing I've heard in a while... Sarah Palin: Lipstick on a Twig.
Anybody read this NYT article?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26691018/page/4/
It says she drove out the career people and replaced them with childhood friends and church buddies, and that her administration purposely used personal e-mail accounts for public business to try to avoid subpoena risk.
The combination of loyalty, secrecy and spiteful vengeance positively reeks of Bush/ Cheney.
Abbybwood @ 58:
The opening skit with Tina Fey was pretty funny, but I hoped there would be more of the same later. Sadly, no.
I didn't have high expectations for Phelps being very funny, but I was disappointed that the producers put so much on his plate, despite knowing he was awkward. "The Phelps Diet" skit was a great concept to me (I'm thin and can put away tons of food without gaining an ounce; I just can't afford food anymore...), but it fell flat.
Widespread @ 62:
Yeah, but the devout hypocrites I know LOVE that kind of shit. They live for it, like 3rd graders during recess making up 'secret clubs' and laughing at the kids that didn't get to join.
chris [not the troll] @ 64:
Because she's such a "serious candidate" for the office of the VP, she will put her husband Todd in charge of the Pentagon and will say, "My husband was with me the day I viewed Russia from Alaska and this kind of experience he's had with Russia will make him the best Secretary of Defense in the history of our nation!".
*rolling eyes*
Eight more years of cronyism and paybacks to those people whose qualifications amount to that of a paperboy/girl.
Sarah Palin - put OUR money where your mouth is, and return OUR 73 million!!
A colleague of mine who lives in GOP-infested Orange County said she was speaking to a woman who overall didn't agree with many (if any) of Moosegirl's positions, but was smitten by her anyway. Brainless, starry-eyed swooning. Sickening.
tofubo @ 47:
Oh I want that on an ad. People would watch it.
BigIslandDave @ 67:
I just read a letter from the Startrib in Minneapolis. This woman was from Tonka Bay. So, might I add that these star gazers are filthy rich. They're not worried about the economy. What do they care about the war in Iraq? Bold face lies? Doesn't matter. She's one of them.
If this bridge to nowhere is so bad, then why are you not calling out Obama and Biden for voting yes for the project?
Babies that come from having sex with your relatives are okay in Sarah Palin's world. she said so during the Gibson interview.
kbass @ 70:
Because I believe this, as with most earmarks, are imbedded or attached to other bills. Obama and Biden may have voted for that allocation indirectly through their vote for the bill it was attached to, which probably had absolutely nothing to do with Alaska or bridges.
Gretchen the aspiring elitist @ 72:
I believe you to be correct on this Gretchen. It's how they conflate the issues. It's like playing snooker.
Can we please stop talking about this slut and talk about the jerk who hired her?
If we don't he is going to die on us and we will loose the chance.
Ms. Bungle meet grampa Bungle
shes a chip off the WcCain block, she screwed up buying some land for their NHL sized hockey arena,
Wasilla (pop 7000) taxpayers ended up paying $1.3M more.
a mere $200 dollars extra per resident, or maybe she just dumped it onto a handy earmark, and the other poor saps (lower 48) ended up paying for her mistake.
WaPo article via MSNBC
Just as WcCain is a royal screwup and typical Republican passing on his mistakes to the unwilling taxpayer,
so is his protege, they are birds of a feather.
Sarah 'ban it all' Palin unvetted by ignoramus WcCain, but approved by the eager waiting fundie xtian Repugs.
75
ferrofluid (Obama + Biden = 2008) Says:
"a mere $200 dollars extra per resident"
Enough to buy an eight-ball of meth for every man, woman and child in Wasilla...
Palin is NOT Putin, she is Dick Cheney in drag!
Here is something else to ponder... Why have they changed the term "Christain Conservatives" into the generic term Evangelicals?
Because the Moonies are now part of the Republican party and they do not worship Christ, they worship the Rev. Moon because he told them that HE is the Messiah.
So, no more confusing Christian terms for the Moonies, they are now part of the Evangelicals.
You see... Evangelical sounds so much nicer than MOONIE!
kbass @ 70:
the project was hidden within a huge bill....voting against the bill meant killing funding for many other real things
why dont you learn how washington works
you cant...you are an ignorant buffoon
oh...and congress did ultimately cut the funding...mostly
but most of the monies still went to alaska...the welfare queen of the united states
and did palin send that money back? nope...she spent it on other useless projects to keep her high school chums gainfully employed
sarah palin...welfare queen
Arliss @ 77:
not evangelicals....not christian conservatives
christo fasicsts
these people do not believe in the religion of jesus
they do not believe in judeo-christian principles
they make it up as they see fit
they change the laws and precepts of the bible to fit their perverted world view
they are the bastard children of Father Coughlin
fastfeat @ 76:
but not enuf to pay for all those bastard children that are born in that town
check the hospital records....seems a good 70 percent of kids born in that town are from out of wedlock births
it is a den of iniquity
Here's the truth from the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) , the folks that publish the famous "Pig Book" each year about government waste. They looked carefully at the record and found that was Palin's predecessor, Frank Murkowski, who asked for the pork, and Ted Stevens got it in the bill. Candidate Palin had agreed that that island did need some kind of bridge, but was worried about the cost. As soon as she took office, she canceled Alaska's matching funds that were needed for the project to get started, and in July formally got the bridge canceled. She never favored spending $400M on that bridge, and led the effort to cancel the project, over the objections of "business as usual" Republicans. See details here.
As a side note, there was an effort in the Senate to divert some of the federal funds to rebuild a bridge in New Orleans that was damaged by Katrina, but both Senators Obama and Biden voted against repairing that bridge. (McCain wasn't in town for the vote.)
Women in Ak held a anti Palin Rally. They say over 1400 people showed up. Me thinks not everyone in AK likes her.
Youtube video tells it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGvKy-5yFz8&NR=1
Of course not everyone likes her. The oil companies don't like her. The bridge construction companies don't like her. The abortionists don't like her. And the hidebound crony politicians don't like her. But the folks who like politicians who consider themselves to be public SERVANTS really like what's she's doing there.
God bless the women of Alaska-well, some of them, anyway, for trying to hold one from amongst them accountable-the one who happens to be in charge-which is courageous and necessary.
why is it that everything she(palin) wants(drill, baby drill) is God's will and why would God make such a blunder by telling her everything-except what the bush doctrine is?
jaja @ 84:
I am sure the dems were behind this attack on Palin. Folks, Palin may be in the wrong business, because of her strong faith in Christianity. She has good intentions to cut the indecent, immoral acts within the political environment. She has created enemies. BTW, if both parties are hating each other, perhaps, martial law is the best solution. Let GWB think over this option just to keep order in the nation. Do you like that?
EZ @ 86:
Site monitor, will you do something about this lunatic?
BigIslandDave @ 87:
What are you? Woman/mother hater?
Now Palin states that those in the "DO NOTHING" Congress are working hard for Alsakans. Make up your mind lady.
Also while McCain berated the "DO NOTHING" Congress and the politics as usual in Washington DC, what has he been part of for the last 22 plus years?
These two have got to get a better gimmick. We the People are not that dumb.
I'm calling on everybody here to contact the mainstream media sources (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR, PBS), and tell them to either report what Propublica found - that the Bridge to Nowhere is not dead - or contact that Alaskan DOT ans ask them what's going on with the bridge proposals and how much federal money will be wasted on a Goldengate-like bridge for 50 people.
When I borrow funds/money from the bank for a commerical real estate project (using my own funds/assets as collateral) I'M REQUIRED (by Truth and Lending Laws) to sign that those "loan proceeds will only be used for the designated (approved) project": I can only draw the approved funds in incremental amounts pending verification by a Bank Official, or Bank designated Architect who is required to physically review the project and validating the approved project has reached "pre agreed upon stages". Otherwise those percentages of approved funds will not be disbursed/released. And, if the project is NOT the loan approved project ALL loan proceeds are cancelled and the feds called in to investigate.
How is it that Palin can accept 27 million dollars of Federal Funds for the "Bridge To Know Where" (for which the PORK BARRELL PROJECT WAS APPROVED), then cancel the project after the funds have been allocated and then use those funds for other projects not disclosed in the Pork Barrel project authorization?
Pehaps someone with national media connections might move this question to the public venue to secure answers and explanations. I'm getting now response from those I contact with my questions regarding the Laws and quidelines governing "Pork Barrel Funds distributions and their uses for projects other than the Congressional approved project?"
When she vetoed the bridge in the first place she did not realize that doing so that meant that the fed funds would go back to washington and she couldn't move them somewhere else. So in a turn around she said she didn't really cancel the project, only decided to look at alternatives so when they proved to be more expensive than the actual bridge she could kill the project and keep the money for other state projects. Actually she is taking the money and hiding it all over the books to build the road to Juneau eventually (the plane and boat only accessible capital of Alaska) by building a tunnel right through the mountain which was her predicessor's idea but he didn't have funds lying all over the place to waste on such a project.
For those who live in older and more developed states, the problems and needs of a state like Alaska seem extreme. Alaska if fucking huge; and 65% of that sucker WE THE PEOPLE own. It has only been a state since 1959 and needs all the infrastructure, roads and shit that it can get. Fault her this way and that, but bringing home the bacon is her job and it helps Alaskans and the USofA. Lumber, sea food, gold, oil, minerals, and more on a scale a lot larger than Texas of California. Oklahoma has been a state since 1907, but without Sen Kerr in the 1940s and 1950s, to 1963........there could not be the dynamic state that Oklahoma is today. For developing states in the midwest and west, this part of Sarah's record is OK and completely understood. You need to go elsewhere to bash her with success. good luck
douglas in oklahoma @ 93:
Finally someone who understands. We are a young state and need the funds to build our infrastructure. Imagine trying to build the Goldengate now or highways through national parks, hell for that matter imagine trying to build any of your highways down in the lower 48 in todays climate. When they were first constructed, there was no groups looking at eco effects or national park land concerns, it was we need this road or rail, make it happen, damn the nature in the way. Now in order to develop the infrastructure that the lower 48 has, we have to jump through all these hoops, get all kinds of studies done, permits acquired and all that takes money. Sure you see it as a bridge to nowhere, but all your bridges were to nowhere once and then stuff grew up around it, which is what we want to accomplish. Everyone is so quick to judge that no one ever looks back and tries to figure out how their own state was first paved and bridged.
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