As a former resident, and someone who has travelled throughout the state extensively, I can tell you that Alaska is like no other state in the Union.

True, Alaska is a state. But unlike every other state in the lower 48 and Hawaii, Alaska truly is the last frontier. There are only three major cities in Alaska, if you want to call them that. Anchorage, which is the largest, would be considered a small city anywhere else in the lower 48. Alaska being approximately 1/3 the size of the lower 48 geographically does not have an extensive highway system. There is one 2 lane highway that runs from Anchorage to Fairbanks further North. Juneau, which is the state capital, is isolated from the rest of the state by mountain ranges and the ocean. The only way in and out of Juneau is via plane, or boat.

Outside of these three cities, to get to pretty much anywhere else in the state you need to fly. It is the federal govt. that supplements the state and helps keep it going. The federal govt. helps pay for construction and maintenance of all those airfields all over the state. The federal govt. helps subsidize power, road infrastructure, port facilities, and airports.

Alaska is a very strategic state. It lies within visual site of Russia. There are active duty Air Force and Army bases across the state. Alaska bases our new anti-ICBM intercept missiles between Fairbanks and Delta Junction. Beyond the obvious need for all those airfields to support the widespread civilian population across the state; the military has to be able to use many of those same airfields as auxillary airfields if necessary; thus a lot of the federal money going toward subsidizing rgw maintenance of those airfields.

The North Slope of Alaska has vast quantities of America's oil reserves. Something we very much want to protect. Alaska has vast natural resources; from oil, to lumber, to gold, and many other important minerals.

It is the Senetor of Alaska that gets huge amounts of federal funding through Congress. It is not the Governor of Alaska who procures the funding. Long before Sarah Palin was ever Governor, Alaska has a long history of aquiring huge amounts of federal money. This has always been the case. It hasn't mattered if it was a Republican or Democratic Governor and/or Congress. Alaska, literally as a frontier state needs more federal funding than most every other state in the Union. And in fact, I believe that Alaska does recieve more federal funding per capita than any other state. But lets be clear and honest about this; this is not a Sarah Palin thing. Like I said, this has been going on long before Sarah Palin was even the Mayor of Wasilla; much less the Governor of the state.

- 67GTO

PS. Ask Sabre about this. As a former Air Force pilot, I'm guessing he could tell you some more about Alaska from the militarie's perspective.