“True Christians?” Hardly.
I grew up in the First Organic Free Range Christian Church of Homer. OK, It didn’t say that over the door, but it seemed like it at the time. I played piano for the congregation and was always asking questions. I know. You’re shocked. Irreverent? I didn’t mean to be. I just wanted to figure it all out. I had patient teachers and living examples and was on the winning Bible Bowl team. I no longer attend a church. I have a hard time reconciling what many churches say with what Jesus said. This week a friend sent me…
Alaska GOP Senate Race – Cirque de SoLame
Politico just ran an article focusing on the Alaska Senate race, but boy did they get the headline wrong. “Fears?” First of all, when you “fear” something, it means you generally don’t want it to happen. Fearing a GOP civil war in Alaska, for some of us, is like fearing the circus, or fearing Christmas. Oh, no! Jugglers, and cotton candy, and entertaining acrobatics! And who is that scary guy stuffing my stocking with gift cards and chocolate truffles?! Hold me! Second, the use of the future tense seems a bit… late. The GOP Civil War “may” be coming to…
Alaska Defends Abuse of First Alaskans
I read a story in the Daily News last week and felt sick. A tribe found a non-tribal man unfit to parent a child from the tribe. The man then proved their judgment sound when he kidnapped the child’s mother and almost beat her to death. The Parnell administration has now swooped in, four years later, to defend the abuser. Why now? Why this guy? Why are state resources going to defend a convicted wife-beater? I realize Michael Geraghty, the state’s attorney general, doesn’t want to explain these decisions to “lay people” like you and me. That’s unfortunate because we…
This Week in Equality – The Right Wept.
This was a huge week for America. The reaction of the Right Wing has been curious to me. I wonder if we aren’t watching the suicide of a political party. The Supreme Court agreed there is discrimination against certain citizens who want to vote, but a slim majority of justices were okay with that. Seriously? Yes. Not a shocker. With few exceptions, the Roberts Court has been a recurring disaster for everyone except the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. I guess Republican senators felt better about approving a path to citizenship for undocumented people — now that it will be easier…
SCOTUS Sticks it to Alaskans
Tuesday morning, the Supreme Court of the United States decided on a 5-4 vote to gut the Voting Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 has a central provision, Section 5, that requires some state and local governments, mostly in the South, and also in Alaska, to get permission from the Justice Department or a federal court before making changes in their voting laws. Indeed, it was the Voting Rights Act that was at the heart of successful efforts to stop states attempting to cut back on early voting hours and instituting voter identification laws that would have dramatically affected minority…
Voting Rights Act Decision Nears on Anniversary of Evers Death
Sometime in the next couple of days the US Supreme Court will decide if crucial components of the Voting Rights Act will stand. Which is why when I saw this court room sketch posted on the excellent SCOTUSblog I felt the need to post it. From right to left you see Jess Jackson, Al Sharpton and then on the left John Lewis. All of these men, to varying degrees fought hard for this act – and lost many friends along the way. Greg Palast, who has been at the forefront of fighting the Right’s (and sometimes the Left’s) push to limit…
Election Good News!
Yes. Election. Good. News. Let’s just sit with that for a moment. As always, there are the last ballots to be counted, and write-in votes to be scrutinized, but here’s where we stand so far: Bettye Davis for School Board handed Don Smith his walking papers (and his rear end) with a decisive 54-45 victory for the seat Smith currently occupies. Bettye is amazing in her own right, but Don Smith’s latest shenanigans and nastiness didn’t help his cause. Davis recently lost her established State Senate seat after Republican redistricting sliced up her former district. It’s good to have her…
Greg Palast asks, ‘How Do You Steal a Dream?’
How Do You Steal a Dream? Supreme Court hears suit to kill Voting Rights Act For Care2.com By Greg Palast, author, “Billionaires and Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps” Video Produced by The Mudflats’ own, Zach D Roberts. Sign the petition to Defend Martin Luther King’s Dream Act – here. Read Shannyn Moore’s piece on how Alaska plays into all this – at the Anchorage Daily News Jim Crow is alive and well — and he has mounted a new attack on the law Martin Luther King dreamed of: the Voting Rights Act. February 27, the…