Parnell Ignored Guard Rape for Years
“This culture of mistrust and failed leadership in the Guard ends now,” according to Gov. Sean Parnell, the failed commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard for the last four years. Unfortunately, if you’ve been paying attention, you know there isn’t the slightest chance that Parnell will hold himself accountable for ignoring years of guardsmen pleading for his help — in some cases with soldier rape victims and their advocates almost literally banging on the door of his office. Instead he’s in weasel overdrive in an attempt to escape responsibility for his inaction and blatant lack of concern. You…
Big Brother Feels Bad. Really.
Remember 1984? The book, not the year. You probably read it in high school. It’s a dystopian novel, published in 1949, that takes place in a world of perpetual manufactured war, state sponsored torture, omnipresent and intrusive government surveillance, and propaganda posing as news, all controlled by an elite and privileged “Inner Party” bent on squashing independent thinking and dissent in order to keep itself in power. The whole shebang is controlled by a powerful, merciless entity called “Big Brother,” who may or may not be just one person. No really, it’s just a novel. The hero of the story,…
Sullivan – The Deadliest Fail, Homer Edition
It’s almost become a sport now – like shooting fish in a barrel. In the primary debates, and now as we head into the general election, there is a new kind of question being presented to Senate candidates. It falls under the genre “How Alaskan are You?” In the primary debate between Mead Treadwell (the most Alaskan), Joe Miller (the next most Alaskan) and Dan Sullivan (the DC beltway guy from Ohio for whom these questions are intended) there were questions like: Have you eaten salmon this week? Have you ever been to Koyuk? Kipnuk? Kake? Will you retire in…
Wannabe for AK Senate Shoots Stuff
A DC operative from the Cleveland metro area, whose candidacy is responsible for gazillions of dollars worth of outside negative campaign ads flooding Alaska’s airwaves, is a little miffed that his opponent’s candidacy will also result in gazilions of dollars worth of negative campaign ads flooding Alaska’s airwaves. Now that the GOP establishment Senate candidate, Dan Sullivan, has dispatched with Tea Party candidate Joe Miller, and Alaska’s milquetoast Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell in the primary, he’s decided that anyone using Outside money to talk smack about his own candidacy is unacceptable. Because he doesn’t like that, and it makes him…
Top 10 Deleted GOP Sullivan Tweets!
The internet is forever… especially when you see stuff and grab it before it’s deleted. For progressives and left-leaning voters all three GOP senate candidates were nightmares on social issues. It got down to splitting hairs about which combination of mother or baby should be allowed to die while denying a medically necessary abortion. And in a state like Alaska where a rapist is allowed to sue for custody or visitation rights of his offspring when he gets out of jail (yes this is really true), you wouldn’t think anyone would want to force women to have those babies if…
Primary Post Mortem
Alaska’s primary election night is over, but the election itself is not quite done. About 14,000 absentee ballots remain to be counted, and the final results will not be known for days. That said, it will be a tough hill to climb for the passage of Ballot Measure 1, which would reinstate the ACES oil tax system put in place by former Governor Sarah Palin and a bipartisan coalition in the Alaska legislature. Sean Parnell, former ConocoPhillips lawyer and lobbyist, and Palin’s former Lt. Governor dismantled ACES with Senate Bill 21 which would give billions from Alaska’s treasury to the…
Election Central Live Blog
9:15pm Ok, Mudflatters… I’m martinied (is that a word) up, and here at Election Central. There’s a decent crowd and the first returns are coming in. I’ll report on the Republican Senate race and Prop 1, and anything else that is a surprise. Right now, the first numbers have come up on the big board: Sullivan – 39% Miller – 33% Treadwell – 23% Prop 1 Yes 50.01 No 49.9 Miller has a better showing than people expected. But, he did that last time. A 6 point margin can be made up in the remaining precincts. Prop 1 is an…
Mudflats Chats: Sen Candidate Mark Fish (L)
Mark Fish is one of three Libertarian candidates running for the U.S Senate seat currently held by Democrat Mark Begich. We sat down and talked about libertarianism, the Republican field, the Republican field, abortion, mining, and corporate personhood among other things. Grab a cup of coffee, and sit in! Libertarian Philosophy JEANNE DEVON: I guess I’ll start off with a philosophical question because sometimes I think it’s difficult, especially in today’s world where everything and everyone is so interconnected, to make a case for libertarianism. MARK FISH: It is difficult. DEVON: Because we’re interconnected people, and the actions of an individual…
Begich – “If you’re pro-choice, you’re pro-choice.”
“There is no middle ground,” says Alaska Democratic Senator Mark Begich when asked about his firm pro-choice stance. “I’ve never run from these issues. I can’t speak for other Democrats, I just know where I’m at. These are not issues that I run from. People know where I stand.” That might not be a controversial position for a Democrat in California, or New York, but in a state that’s voted for a Republican president every cycle since the Johnson administration, it sounds like a risk. Alaska carries a mere 3 electoral votes, and with the notable exception of a certain VP nominee…
Sullivan, Treadwell vs. Women
You’d think a vote for the Violence Against Women Act would be a no-brainer. You’d think this because opposing violence against women should be as controversial a position as supporting the troops or enjoying apple pie. If you live in Alaska, you’d really think this is an easy vote, because all three members of Alaska’s Congressional delegation—including Republicans Lisa Murkowski and Don Young—have supported the bill in the past. Senator Murkowski has gone so far as to lobby House Republicans on reauthorizing the law, and has signed on to a bipartisan letter of support which reads in part as follows:…