BREAKING: Conoco Rakes in Your Money
ConocoPhillips makes a lot of money. This seems like an obvious statement, but its one that Governor Sean Parnell, and his oily ilk in the Alaska legislature are hoping you and everyone you know will forget when it comes time to vote on the repeal of SB21. So they run around with their hair on fire yelling things like “Incentivize production!” and “It’s complicated!” and tell us that if we don’t start sobbing and throwing cash at the big 3 oil producers, and if we repeal SB21, well… they’re going to leave us for someone else like Libya or North…
Alaskans Call Out Bully Governor
About 80 people gathered in the spirit of righteous indignation today outside the Anchorage office of Governor Sean Parnell. Protesters called on Parnell to drop the administrations campaign to recoup legal fees from a lawsuit involving the proposed Pebble Mine project in Bristol Bay. He’s demanding a million dollars from 88-year old Vic Fischer, an original framer of the Alaska Constitution, and 80-year old former First Lady of Alaska, and others. The stalwart bunch fought the state and sued unsuccessfully for the public’s right to know about exploration work at the mine site. And if you’re wondering about the answer…
Alaskan Politicos Weigh In On Climate Change
In an article today in the Anchorage Daily News written by Lisa Demer our outstanding representatives were reached for comment on several different questions pertaining to climate change. While none of them out right denied what 95% of scientists now agree on – that climate change is caused by man… they’re answers danced around the truth. Mike Chenault’s was my favorite. When asked by the ADN. “Do you believe there is a human-caused element to climate change? House Speaker Mike Chenault slyly answered: “I think that there is. To what extent there is, is the argument, I believe.” Ok, Mike….
State Rep: Gay Families Don’t Count
“Special privileges to individuals who have in fact made a Life-Style Choice.” Thus spake Rep. Lora Reinbold (T-Alaska), demonstrating her commitment to efficiency in government by deftly working two played out falsehoods into one sentence. What she’s objecting to, according to a report by Amanda Coyne, is a new rule granting leave to state employees with a same sex partner suffering from a serious health condition. The Eagle River legislator claims LGBT couples don’t count as “family” and have “no legal standing.” The Alaska Supreme Court appears to view matters differently, ruling in 2005 that it is unconstitutional to deny gay couples…
Condescension from the Daft
Jon Stewart once said of President George W. Bush that “it’s not that he’s stupid, it’s that he talks to us like we’re stupid.” We have our own kindergarten dialect in the Alaska State Senate. During her last campaign, in a newly drawn district, Sen. Cathy Giessel used a Chamber of Commerce forum in Seward to greet her new constituents by showing the locals a map of their area—pointing out to them where they are, and what towns one passes en route to Anchorage. (Whoa, slow down, Senator! Even though…
Walker/Wielechowski – Right for Alaska
We like Sen. Hollis French, and respect him. He’s been an outstanding legislator. We think he’d make a good governor, and have donated to and voted for him in the past. Our issue with the senator’s contemplation of another gubernatorial run is not the candidate, but the fact that the candidate cannot and will not be elected governor. The problem is math. Sen. French retained his own state senate seat in his newly drawn district by the skin of his teeth. The statewide political terrain is far less friendly to him than West Anchorage. The far right made French the…
Gov Parnell Smacks Down Feds
Yesterday, a “Federal Overreach Summit” began in Anchorage. For two days, lawmakers and administration officials will gripe about the “feds” and what is described as intrusion into Alaska’s affairs. But the federal overreach discussed on the first day of the summit didn’t touch on Stand Your Ground law, or issues of reproductive choice, or gay marriage, or even voting rights which have been so much in the news as of late. This federal overreach is quite specific, and gets to the heart of what this administration considers important. It’s all about land use and resource extraction. A Department of Natural…
Walker & Wielechowski – Alaska First
It’s summer. I don’t watch TV in the summer. I fish. So I first heard about the Domino’s ad, “powered by pizza,” with its slam on halibut, by reading the Mudflats blog. Yes, I know, Domino’s “thought halibut was a funny word.” The ad shows a lonely man in a dark room spitting halibut into a pie plate as the announcer says, “No one ever had a world-changing idea over halibut. NO way…” Having just returned from my hometown, the “Halibut Capital of the World,” Homer, Alaska, I had almost 20 pounds of fresh halibut fillets on ice. (Thanks, Pop!)…
Alaska: Hand Out, Finger Up
The State of Alaska has one hand out palm up, and the other raised with one finger prominently extended — again. The upcoming “Federal Overreach Summit” to be held at the Dena’ina Center in Anchorage seemed like a tea party function. I don’t have a yellow flag with a snake on it or a three-cornered hat, so I didn’t pay much mind. Until this week. An email found its way to me from a Department of Natural Resources employee. Karrie Improte signed an email announcing the “very interesting news; on page 1 there is an announcement on the Commission sponsored…
What are Republicans Doing to Themselves?!
The Republican Party, after crushing defeats in the last two Presidential elections, and seeing newly elected members of Congress display racial intolerance, homophobia, and misogyny the likes of which have not been seen in recent history, has had to really sit down and do some soul searching. To their credit, Republican voters seem to have given some real thought to the condition of the not-so-Grand Old Party, and how it might be changed as they move forward to remain relevant, and serve the will of the majority in an evolving America. src=”http://ap.lijit.com///www/delivery/fpi.js#?z=186829&u=themudflats&width=300&height=250″> In that spirit, they’ve decided that Republicans simply…