Parnell’s Contemptible Appointment
In a recess appointment, Governor Sean Parnell has named Dianne Blumer to be Alaska’s new Labor Commissioner.
Always interested in Parnell appointments to such important jobs, I checked her facebook page. Ah…ironic on the day Facebook went public, Mrs. Blumer hasn’t figured out her privacy settings.
See, her facebook is listed under “Dianne Kiesel-Blumer”.
Kiesel, Kiesel, Kiesel…why does that name sound familiar?
Oh, that’s right, the pre-married Dianne Kiesel was found in contempt by the Alaska State Senate for ignoring subpoenas during the Senate’s Troopergate Investigation. She wasn’t alone. Todd Palin and eight other state employees had the same finding.
The vote was 16 – 1. Republican Con Bunde voted against it stating he thought there should be penalties attached.
I’m still checking, but I have yet to find another commissioner appointed, in the history of the state, who had been found in contempt of the Alaska Senate.
Pretty easy to figure out why Parnell didn’t appoint Mrs. Kiesel-Blumer during the session. He wouldn’t have the votes.
Captain Zero, no hero for Labor or Alaska.
http://juneauempire.com/state/2012-05-21/new-labor-commissioner-has-history-juneau
alrighty, then.
juneau empire weighs in…
a couple days out from appt but certainly not too far out
You are absolutely right. Thanks go to the Juneau Empire. Now, how about the Anchorage Daily News? Anybody home in there?
No. No one there since 2008. Only click counters and web designers competing with HuffPo for obnoxious advertising & visual assaults.
check the comments out…someone claims all she has is a GED. Remember Corey Rossi who had a high school education? He didn’t understand what his staff (all with advanced degrees) were telling him. Are we going to have the same problem with her? Probably.
The text of the Feb. 2009 contempt resolution SR 5 from the 26th Legislature can be found at
http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_fulltext.asp?session=26&bill=SR5
Nickelback – This Means War – Word is Palin is stalking again…and Parnell covers it all up!!!
Both the Anchorage Daily News and the Juneau Empire had stories on this appointment. As of late Saturday morning, neither one mentions anything about Kiesel-Blumer’s refusal to cooperate with the Alaska Senate’s investigation. So much for our news media. …… My guess is that this is Parnell’s hissy-fit in retaliation for the Senate’s rough handling of Parnell’s attempt to unilaterally and gratuitously reduce the amount multinational oil corporations pay for Alaskan oil. Parnell operates at the emotional level of a 10-year-old, my apologies to all 10-year-olds out there. Working for the good of Alaska? Not so much.
There seems to be quite a few “Big Men” in Alaska operating at the “emotional level of” ten year olds. My list is long.
Props to AKM for turning up this particular worm under the post-session rock.
bad day for Alaska.
something about p’s in ak politics doesnt fit well to me.
So long as only a minority, or small majority of eligible voters partake in elections, the extremists will be advantaged.
Take a quick look at how elections are done without regard to the latest travesty that occurred in Anchorage. They are held on a work day, Tuesday, when a lot of working people simply cannot find the time to go and vote. They are held at a time of year when the weather is likely to be bad. And now new constraints are being imposed on who can and cannot vote. The minority is trying to secure and perpetuate its control over the majority. It is that simple.
Historically speaking, it would be unwise to think that there is any recourse to which the minority will not resort, in order to preserve their control.
The first question one should ask when discussing politics is do you vote?
Apparently in Anchorage seven out of ten people you asked at random would answer no. How is that representative government?
Even worse and more alarming, if you ask ten random people in Alaska if they vote, ten will say they DO.
I have yet to find even ONE person who admits to voting for either Sarah Palin or Sean Parnell. Not kidding, not exaggerating. Either all my friends, family and acquaintances are liars, or they’re all telling the truth. Which can only mean that none of them actually voted.
After learning about some of the shenanigans in play in Anchorage’s latest attempt at running an election, CG, I don’t think I’d be so harsh in judging “my friends, family and acquaintances” when it comes to them doing their civic duty of voting. Those running elections in various spots aroung AK seem to be running them according to their own haphazard ‘rules’ (more often than not, made on the fly and not relatable to — or in direct conflict with — statutes, rules, regulations, etc…), with great incompetence, and with a jaw-dropping and sanity-defying lack of *any* sort of accountability. With than in mind, your buds just might be telling you the truth when they said they’d voted… beth.
You are right – we don’t have a “representative government” and our elected officials know just that so they take advantage of their positions for as long as they can. The people are getting exactly what they are crying about because they are allowing it to happen.
Let me just put this out there, as a disclaimer of sorts…
The only time I voted republican was when Hammond ran for Governor.
“I’m embarrassed by Alaska’s republicans.” says the husband…
Just as bad as having Franci Havemeister as the Director of Agriculture because she “loves cows.” Give me a break. This is disgusting beyond words.
PIP…Palin in Pants…….Yes….that is you Sean!
Hmmm . . . contempt of the Senate, and rewarded with a big fat state salary by Parnell.
No coincidence there.
Maybe Mitt will draft her to be VP. She’s just as qualified as Palin.
I hate to say this on this blog – but, Parnell is an ass and absolutely no better at governoring and selecting his administration members as was Palin!!!
Mr Parnell was furious over the contempt citations
http://www.adn.com/2009/02/06/681638/senate-finds-ten-in-contempt-over.html
For those of us out here in everyday people land, we think Senator French was correct- as was the bi-partisan working group which found them all in contempt.
The use /”service” of such a narrow group of people in both of these last 2 administrations, with all the overlap and so on, really lets Alaska down. No new ideas, no innovation, no will to try to meet our issues and problems from a slightly different angle , lots of pulling the curtains down on open govt… am totally sick of it!!!!
Letting “Alaska down” is the burden of the people. More voices are needed. It’s a good thing I like to talk.
Maybe if anyone would have paid any attention during the freakshow Joe Miller campaign, they might have noticed that we were supposed to elect a Governor also instead of letting him mail in his election.
Folks, explain me to again why Parnell is the governor and how he got elected?
Oh, that’s right, I remember now. There was an election and people voted for him.
We just keep doing this over and over.
I give up.
Back then, he was the better choice of two to most of the voters who voted him in.
Shannyn. So wonderful, at least, to have you shining on the daylight.
Agreed. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
My heart goes out to thinking Alaskans who are sh*t upon over and over by their “elected” officials. What will it take to get a clean team of people who actually care about fellow Alaskans rather than those who care only about the $$$ they are likely reaping under the table – and beside it, and over it…..
My heart, too.
What I think it will take, unfortunately, is for the oil to dry up. An economy that depends on resource extraction (whether it’s timber, gold, oil, gas, copper, coal, etc.) is unsustainable. What really p*sses me off is that these r@tf*cks are willing to sacrifice renewable resources (e.g. salmon) that have sustained the population of Alaska for ages (IOW, since AK has had a human population) for the empty, unfulfilled promise of jobs, when it’s truly for the sole benefit of greedy corporations and their lickspittles (yes, Parnell, I’m talking about you). Couple that with the Dominionists who vote in lockstep because of their fetus fetish, and I’m afraid AK politics are screwed for many moons to come. I wish I were wrong, and hope to be proven so.
I’m not waiting for the “oil to dry up.”, I’m doing what I could now by talking about the lack of trust I have in some of our leaders and state workers. People forget that they work for us.
I’m beyond being teed off about the “sacrifice ‘of’ renewable resources (e.g. salmon)” – I’m concerned about the CDQ program having access to millions and millions into the billions of Public Dollars with no oversight from the State and Federal government. Destroying the culture and tradition of thousands of Alaska Natives is uncalled for especially when they are the TRUE owners of those Public Dollars.
Just more of the same up there, huh? I feel for all of you that pay attention and are invested in seeing things done right.
Parnell is just further evidence that people who hate government are unfit for public office. Bill Maher is fond of saying: “Conservatives who don’t believe government works get themselves elected just to prove themselves right”. Right-Wingers like Parnell appoint anti-environment freaks to environmentally-sensitive jobs, union-hating scabbissimos to labor, critically-thinking challenged ideologues to education, etc, etc.
The generic irony embedded in the DNA of the Right is that they brand themselves as patriots when, in fact, they HATE the principles of revolution. They are ANTI-disestablishmentarians, not revolutionaries. They are lackeys to the ‘establishment’ that they claim to hate. During colonial times, they would by Tory agents fighting against the liberalization of trade in order to preserve the monopoly of Crown Corporations. Parnell’s boot-licking of Conoco betrays that Tory sensibility. Can’t you imagine him sniffing and dispensing with rowdy liberals with a wave of his lace hanky? He even looks like a g0dd@mned Royalist.
ugh…verb agreement: “Conservatives…work” not “works”
Disagree! It’s “…government works….” not “Conservatives…works”!
You’re totally right, it’s “…government works….”
Your subject and verb are in complete agreement, and your reasoning is flawless. Well said.
Proof it’s not WHAT you know, it’s who you’re willing to do ‘whatever’ for….
Or just who you’re willing to do. LOL
Pretty sure I can’t swear the way I want to in these comments so. What the fing f was this fer fing thinking. Why can’t I be on the corrupt easy money side for once? How do these people get in?
They are voted in by registered voters.
Ugh!
And her qualifications are…? She has a great deal of experience watching laborers during construction season from her car perhaps? She used to hold the stop and go signs for road construction? Yikes!
Don’t be so quick to judge. Maybe she was a crossing guard and had a life-long love of construction. Or maybe it was a life-long love of watching men in tight jeans workin on construction sites. I dunno.
Disgusting.