Monday, September 08, 2008

EBAY WASN'T EVEN SARAH PALIN'S IDEA

I knew Sarah Palin didn't actually sell that Alaska jet on eBay and didn't make a profit on it, as John McCain has claimed (as it turns out, she couldn't complete the eBay sale and the plane was sold through a broker for a loss) -- but hey, she did have the clever, original, mavericky idea to use eBay ... right?

Wrong.

Bob Somerby explains:

...trying to sell the plane on eBay wasn't a hockey mom's savvy idea; it was standard practice in Alaska.... This was part of Kyle Hopkins' report in the Anchorage Daily News:

HOPKINS (12/13/06): The state's chief procurement officer, Vern Jones, said it's not unusual for Alaska to sell big-ticket items on eBay because the site is cheap and has a big audience.

It cost the state a few hundred dollars to sell an old state ferry, The Bartlett, for $389,500 in 2003, he said. "They got more for that then they expected."

Tuesday night, the state was auctioning 38 items on the site, including three aircraft -- two Super Cubs and a Cessna. Two of the planes have already reached the minimum bids set by the state, meaning Jones expects them to sell for sure.

Selling assets on eBay was standard practice for the state....


The story Somerby cites is here; it was announcing the newly sworn-in governor's decision to use eBay; therefore, at that exact moment, the state already had more than three dozen items for sale there.

Palin really is a fraud, isn't she?

No comments: