Alaska Bravely Leaps Backward!
As the rest of the nation boldly marches forward, embracing enlightened thinking, electing more women to the Senate than ever; the first immigrant and first Buddhist in the Senate; the first openly gay woman in the Senate; the defeat of every Republican who ever made comments about “legitimate” rape, “God-intended” rape, and “just a method of conception” rape; as they celebrate marriage equality, and expanded civil liberties; as they re-elect a historic President; as the country decided in a measured and sensible way to keep the faith, and continue the slow forward momentum, and to not believe lies that were proven to be lies, and to celebrate (dare we say it) bipartisanship…
.
Alaska says, “We’ll have none of that, thank you.” And then it belches the alphabet.
In a resounding cheer for partisanship, division, fiscal idiocy, homage to big oil, fear of anything not “white Christian conservative,” trust in multinational corporations, and sending the rights of women back to the 19th century, we have a brand new state senate!
Representative democracy in the Last Frontier doesn’t represent all that “getting along, and looking out for the interests of Alaskans” crap. It represents Conoco Philips, and British Petroleum, and the mighty Exxon! They will never do us dirty.
We now have the government that we deserve. And by “we” I mean “they.”
The day after the election, a big announcement was made in the parking lot of the Association of General Contractors. No more bipartisan coalition. It’s Republicans with a side order of Republicans and a thick drizzle of Republican sauce. Dessert? May I suggest a Republican. Here is the new cast of characters who’ll be running the show in January.
Senate President: Charlie Huggins
This bright shining star from Wasilla sat out the last legislative session in the minority, sulking rather than join the majority coalition. Wasillans have rewarded him with re-election. If you check the “Issues & News” page on his website, you’re greeted by a photo montage (samples below), and a quote which says:
“People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do.” Lewis Cass (1782-1866)
This explains why, I guess, he doesn’t feel he has to actually tell you what any of his issues are. We’ll have to wait and see what he does.
While he was not outright endorsed by Alaska Right to Life, the sentiment is that ultimately he’ll be on their side.
Senate Majority Leader: John Coghill
This bright shining star from Wasilla North Pole sat out the last legislative session in the minority, sulking rather than join the majority coalition. Wasillans North Polers have rewarded him with re-election. (Hey, I hardly had to change that at all!)
For 14 years, I have been a conservative advocate for the Interior, fighting for individual liberty, limited government, and economic freedom. I believe we must produce our way to lower energy costs and use our natural resources to build Alaska. I was elected with the focus of pursuing sound economics, constitutional rule of law, and standing up for those who have no voice – whether unborn, ill or elderly.
Coghill said abortion will be on the top of his agenda.
Rules Chair: Lesil McGuire
In the bipartisan coalition last session, McGuire quickly saw the lay of the land and hedged her bets. Genuflecting to the governor she had recently chastised, and appearing at the Petroleum Club, she all but threw her colleagues under the bus to assure her own relevance in the upcoming session. Rumor has it she was angling for a bigger spot, but Rules Chair it is.
And nothing screams “Rules Chair” like a legislator who got thrown off of an Alaska Airlines flight for a profanity laced diatribe, refusal to turn off her Blackberry, and hurling a glass of water when refused alcohol, and is escorted off the plane by police.
Rules schmules.
And finally your Finance Co-Chairs:
Kevin Meyer and Pete Kelly are both endorsed by Alaska Right to Life.
Meyer is an incumbent, and Kelly a newcomer. You’ll remember him as the one who said:
“This legislation will not end juvenile crime. It cannot protect kids from a popular culture that replaces the virtues of honor, bravery and chastity with the anemic values of open-mindedness, diversity and Earth worship.”
In 2001, the Anchorage Daily News charged that Kelly and his allies “could use a civics course” because they “displayed a shocking ignorance of the basic principles of American and Alaska constitutional government.” Nonetheless, Parnell still found it fit to give Kelly a state job, doing what, nobody really knows.
Yes, Alaska, these are the legislators at the wheel of the senate as we speed into the past. You just lie down in the back seat and take a nap. They’ve got this. They’ll let you know as soon as we arrive in the Petroleum Colony of Alaska.
Welcome to the fiscal conservatism of giving away $2 billion a year with no strings attached, filling up the pipeline with oil that may or may not be profitable, and keeping the government out of your lives!*
*except for the uterus part
The next two years will be telling. Jim Minnery and the Alaska Family Council will be winging their way to Juneau, the firewall is gone, Sean Parnell is doing a happy dance with the Big 3, and we will have a very very different legislature.
So, stock up.
Governor Scott McAdams. Has a nice ring to it.
I missed this somehow.
http://newsminer.com/view/full_story/20759850/article-Rep–Guttenberg-wins-in-sprawling-Interior-House-District-38?instance=home_news_window_left_top_2
We’re rid of Rep Dick for now (Hopefully for forever)
Shucky durn 🙂
Well, considering there is a tinsy, tiny, bit of intel, that acts like a hurricane for Alaska…
See, there is a trust fund kid in Alaska…worth 100 million born and funneled thru Catholic Social Services and adopted out…ask Sarah…she got her hand caught in the cookie jar and resigned…ask her why…;)
Anyways…those funds that were funneled without the “birthright” owner as Senator Hollis French coined…so now we have a stale mate…almost 47 years later…love the irony…and the trust account is said to be worth HUGE money…like in the trillions of dollars folks…huge money…
When the birthright owner takes the matter to Washington DC…and presents it in federal court…to all the panel of judges…uh…well…I wouldn’t worry too much about what the officials try to do in Alaska…
They will be forced to sign over major interests, stock ownerships of oil stocks and other of businesses established with that HUGE trust fund…to the birthright owner…
Hopefully Senator Hollis French can officiate the occasion…bring pens…and the media…
Given the election results, there’s a 100 percent chance of ALEC bills in this year’s legislature. We need to be even more vigilant than usual. There’s also a 100 percent chance of a renewed effort to pull funding from the public schools for vouchers. Too bad they can’t envision making the public schools so great that all the parents will want their kids to go there.
Oh darn it all, I was just going to print up my “Firesale on Burkas” sign. Now I may have to hold off on that.
Sorry…it was time to break up the cozy coalition.
Why? Jobs Jobs Jobs. Bloated Govt spending….
Where are our 20,000 N Dakota type jobs.. Why is Alaska’s total taxation the highest in North America..
N Dakota oil tax rate is less than 1/2 of Alaska taxation load !!.
In lieu of actually working for Alaska….these job killing assassins painted every opponent as
as “kinking the dog” or a “wife beater “.
**contributor – Shannyn Moore… bitter / arrogant / inability to compute
economics and reality. Like most leftist /democrats/ media types….offerring over the top advice
on running the railroad./refinery/ world wide markets & resources.
.
The markets meanwhile saw….. Nat Gas pricing down 2/3.. Oil prices are dropping worldwide…
5 years ago… *{ ACES } killed the oil refinery that was planned on the slope. So oil has to travel thousands
of miles, to Puget Sound and then return to Alaska….Real smart..
Gunny French & Willy-kowsky…held the kill switch . Every union worker or private sector
employee knows …they did nothing but try to push our future and current ecomony in front of
a bus. By deed they show arrogance / & no respect for the operation of a business ecomomy.
Both these captains of industry…. are heavily financed by unions & green interests. Willy-kowsky
Conflict of interest??? Willy-kowsky is the IBEW attorney !!
So…while opponents kick the dog & beat their wives….Mudflats Blog…
— What are your ” kids” going to do for a living? Urgent attention is needed to refill the pipeline.
How can you ignore ….resource industries contribution to the state tax income.
Why is Alaska Business Environment….rate bottom of the list in comparison to other states.
You are a silly lil duck , aren’t you?
Quacking your way through a talking points memo full of ad hominem,strawman,circular reasoning, and repetition fallacies and something which looks startlingly and clearly like an existential fallacy.
The bipartisan working group responded last year with a clear response to Mr Van Meurs’ criticisms :
http://newsminer.com/pages/full_story/push?blog-entry-Confidential+report+by+oil+consultant+rips+Parnell+tax+cut+bill%20&id=15894480
and the House and Gov refused to budge.
Don’t think jobs were in the minds of the senate? Pfft!
They were on the lips of the House and the Gov but not in the details of their work, hon.
We just have to keep reminding most of them that last year they said Parnel’s tax plan was stupid. The plan hasn’t changed. The only question is whether their intelligence has changed. Or course we will say that in a very respectful manner.
Alaska is like a crime scene. Given all the natural resources (including oil) and such a small population, it should be the most advanced and intelligent. So sad….
Yeah….we agree ….the democratic coalition & green gang…has pushed us in front of the bus.
It’s so sad….a job is a terrible thing to waste.
this is so discouraging; it almost makes me nostalgic for Uncle Ted (almost) who @ least made sure that some of the spoils funded human services and projects in southeast, south-western, & the remotest of villages. without Stedmann (yeah he got re-elected but lost his committee) the moderate leg. voice has been turned way down. but there is still hope for Johnathan K-T.he worked his hand off going door to door and village to village.I dislike Parnell almost as much as I dislike Karl Rove.Parnell,Palin’s final kick in the teeth to Alaska before she sauntered off on her tour bus to hawk her books to ‘real America’. Interesting story re our Rules Chair: who does she think she is? Alec Baldwin?
Moose Pucky prefers to think of it as shape-shifting. Welcome to the era of Harriet Drummond and Geran Tarr in Alaska’s House. And fingers crossed for Jonathon Kreiss-Tomkins in SE who leads incumbent Bill Thomas by 44 votes, pending the count of about 1300 absentees. Thanks to Republicans Sen. Bert Stedman, SE, and Sen. Gary Stevens, Kodiak, for having the class to not be part of the Wasilla-Wing group. Perhaps we’ll have a bi-partisan minority??? We’ve got ’em on quality. The people and critters must remain vigilant.
1300 absentees and an unknown number of question ballots. (Should know how many by tonight.)
Fingers, toes, eyes- all crossed !
Who are the Senators for re-election next? The 20 will be staggered, so aren’t some have to run again in 2014. ? Governor ?? So lets rest well, and return another day. n
I made the mistake of heading off to hullabaloo next, and David Atkin’s piece recounting what we can look forward to in Alaska:
“Your “small government principles” involve voucherizing Medicare and Social Security, destroying alternative energy investment, wrecking and privatizing education, eliminating assistance to the unfortunate, and allowing private corporations to poison our air and water.”
http://www.digbysblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/no-conservatives-new-sales-pitch-wont.html
And more. But — heh heh – Obama won, pot legalization in Washington and Colorado, three new women senators, with extra frosting in that one of them is gay, another is Elizabeth Warren, back in black to fight for consumer affairs. 55 Democrats in the Senate now, and Harry Reid looking to kick ass on the filibuster. And did I mention that Obama won? Popular vote AND electoral college? Without help from Wall Street, to whom he now owes zero favors?
Suck it, Alaska Repubs.
5 new women Senators–Warren, MA, Baldwin, WI, Heitkamp, ND, Hirono, HI, and the Republican woman from NE.
Alaska: Arkansas North. ever since 1974.
Alaska, I love you, but this is one of the reasons I won’t move to your state. Now Hawaii is the most progressive young state. Alaska, not so much anymore. It’s a shame.
Kudos Hawaii. You mean you are going to leave it in our hands here in Alaska??? Oky, doke. We’re on it. Think of it as our 2010 election.
Same pathetic state of affairs here in Arizona. Maybe it is just an alphabetical curse, some weird divine nursery-rhyme-like gimmick: “Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas… BACKWARDS!!!!”
You know folks will be blaming the horsepunky
which comes out of this outfit on Juneau all too soon don’t you?
Our clear clean water and brisk fresh air will be slandered , our people will be maligned.
It plays out every time voters in Alaska won’t slap their own hands for voting a bunch of yahoos into office.
It happens as soon as the yahoos start appearing on Gavel to Gavel and folks can see the reality of that which they wrought.
Here we go again.
Pffft!
Not going to happen on Pi’s watch.
Bad Feeling? That is an understatement. This bunch will need to charter a short yellow bus to ride to the capital building.
The who’s who of right wing extremists has seized the reigns. If you’re a state employee, a woman, or a gay person, your life has just taken a turn for the worse. The only thing missing from Juneau is Jim Minnery and Jerry Prevo.
They no doubt will serve as the brain trust for this administration during the next legislative session. The writing was on the wall after they completed their redistricting plan. Since the last batch went to prison, they had to resort to plan B which was gerrymandering.
I’m wondering where their former hero Sarah is during all of this? ACES was her baby and it’s about to thrown out with the bathwater. The only hope is that the “middle ages” legislation that will undoubtedly follow, is tossed out by the Supreme Court.
While the rest of America moves forward the ignorant in our state vote in the vary people who will screw us all in the end.
What really cooks my mudflats goose to a crisp is how little we will end up with after all the wealth of Alaska has been extracted.
M. Paul
Yeah, you only have to look at Norway, and what they got for their oil.
No, don’t. It will make you cry.
I have a very, very bad feeling about this……..
I foresee protest signs in my future. I’m getting too old for this stuff. Didn’t we do all of this 40 years ago?