New Oil Rigs Shipped to Alaska Cause Pants to Ignite!
~Shiny new oil rigs bound for Prudhoe Bay, Alaska If you listen to the oil companies, their lobbyists, and the cadre of legislators and elected officials they’ve purchased over the years, you’d think it’s the end of the world. They run in circles, hair on fire, rending garments, pounding their own foreheads with their palms and wailing, “Nobody wants to invest in Alaska anymore! It’s too hard! We’re too regressive! The poor oil companies can’t make a living! They’re going to go somewhere else if we don’t give them everything they want! Aaaaaaaa!” It’s an ugly sight. First, of course,…
Oyster Roundup! Bastards Flee, Palin Flops, and Traffickers Wed
~Thick and fast they came at last and more, and more, and more… Corrupt Bastards Seek to Flee the Scene of the Crime Former Alaska Speaker of the House Pete Kott (R), and former Alaska House Rep. Vic Kohring (R) have asked for a new venue for their impending retrial. Both were successful in having their guilty conviction overturned, and getting new trials. They successfully argued that the prosecution had withheld evidence about their main witness that might have been helpful to the defense. You see, surprisingly, the oil companies had a nefarious bad guy bribing legislators. Nelson Mandela must…
The Pipe and the Pump – The Price We Pay
By Rep. Les Gara Do you want to be bound, by contract, to pay natural gas prices that are double what is paid in the Lower 48 – for the next 20 or 30 years? How’s that for attracting business to Alaska? How’s that for your pocketbook? The folks who held the press conference on Tuesday didn’t mention any of that, did they? Unfortunately, the gasline debate has devolved into competing sound bites. Those pushing the project want you to think the lights will go out tomorrow if you don’t do what they propose. It’s bad policy to scare people…
Governor Sean Parnell Gives Alaskans Brain Freeze
By Shannyn Moore It’s summer in Alaska. Days are long and the fish are running. For most of us, it’s the season for rain-gear and fleece, fishing tackle and clam shovels, not torches and pitchforks and recall petitions. That’s lucky for Gov. Sean Parnell. A few weeks ago, Attorney General John Burns addressed a federal ruling on roads in the Tongass by saying, “Today … more so than at any time since statehood, Alaskans’ ability to manage and to responsibly develop its state’s resources is under an unprecedented and coordinated assault by federal regulatory agencies and environmental organizations.” We hear…
Corrupt Bastards 2.0 Has Launch Date
Good news for Alaskans that have been jonesing for their Corrupt Bastard fix. It’s been a while. The trials of the self-named Corrupt Bastards Club were the best pieces of legislative and judicial theater around, and had Alaskans who normally didn’t pay attention to politics riveted, and infuriated. They may not have been keeping up with the ins and outs of Alaska oil and gas taxation and policy, but at the very least they expected their legislators not to blatantly sell their votes right to the oil companies. Silly Alaskans. Not only did we discover that our legislators sold out,…
How the Alaska House Gave Away State Sovereignty to the Federal Government
By Rep. Les Gara I’m not a big fan of failure, and not a big fan of spending money on wasted Special Sessions. I’ve now voted three times, including yesterday, to pass the Coastal Zone Management bill that passed the Bi-Partisan Senate Monday, but surprisingly failed by three votes in the House yesterday. Failure to pass the bill gave away a big piece of state sovereignty to the federal government. Click HERE for a link to my speech on the House Floor on why I believed the bill should have passed, or read the text at the end of this…
Alaska Outlaws Synthetic Cannabis – What’s the Big Deal?
Synthetic cannabinoids, originally intended to mimic the effects of medical marijuana, have now been criminalized in Alaska with House Bill 7, signed by Governor Sean Parnell. The bill will take effect on July 7. These products have been changed from Schedule 2A to Schedule 3A controlled substances. Alaskans caught possessing less than 12 grams of substances like Spice or K2 (both recently for sale in Anchorage and Fairbanks smoke shops) will face a misdemeanor. Possession of more than 12 grams becomes a felony, effective next Friday. The bill also criminalizes sale of K2, Spice and other synthetics, often marketed as…
Sean Hannity Tries to Cover for Palin’s Lies About Genocide
Imagine how our friend Representative Les Gara felt when he returnd from a peaceful fishing trip to find that Sean Hannity and the Palin apologists over at Conservatives4Palin were calling him a “liar”. That in itself means nothing, of course – only that someone said something less than flattering about Sarah Palin, and knees jerked in response. Remember, these are the people that go on Wikipedia and literally attempt to change history rather than admit that Sarah Palin utters anything but the unvarnished truth. But just on principle lets set the record straight. It’ll be a nice treat for the…
Palin Emails: Todd is a “private citizen”…except when he’s not…
I have a little bit of personal experience with this Palin email thing. However, mine were so redacted, they were no fun at all. So, like many others, I’ve enjoyed making up my own searches of the awesome 2011 Palin Email Database, courtesy of MSNBC and Crivella West. The REAL fun happens when I’m searching on one topic and stumble upon another quite accidentally. For example, I was doing a search on a lobbyist name or two and found this email from Palin’s assistant/residence manager: From : Erika Fagerstrom [erika_fagerstrom@gov.state. ak.us] Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 1:43 PM To: Governor…