Negotiating With Healthcare Terrorists
We’re just a few days from launch for critical portions of the Affordable Healthcare Act. Republicans in Washington, D.C., are so freaked out they’ve taken the economy hostage and threatened to shoot it. Conservatives with “support the troops” on their car bumpers have no problem cutting off paychecks to soldiers in a doomed bid to “protect” Americans from affordable health care. I’ll bet the list of things they want before they’ll agree to pay the nation’s debts was made by cutting words out of magazines and pasting them on a piece of paper. In case I’m being too subtle, this…
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…
1 Simple Act You Can Do to Save Alaska
On this day when even the most ardent curmudgeon can’t help but feel a little patriotic stirring, even if it’s only for what has been… or what might yet be, you have something to do, Alaskans. Santa says. And so does this guy. Yes, I am talking to YOU. NOW. This is the last week to sign the petition to repeal the most devastating legislation Alaska has ever seen – Senate Bill 21 (SB21). You don’t have to think of him as Uncle Sam. He can be Uncle Jay (Hammond), or Uncle Wally (Hickel), or Uncle Bob (Bartlett), or…
Shills Get Physical
If you wait long enough you’ll have agreed and disagreed with just about everyone. I’m no different. I’ve found myself defending people I wouldn’t walk across the street to slap on a good day when it came to certain issues. It’s just what happens. This time, I’m walking across the street. The same Alaska GOP that subverted the will of Alaskans through an illegal gerrymandering of the state Legislature and brazen attempts to prevent Alaska Natives from voting apparently now has a new tack for undermining the public will: paid hacks are verbally and physically interfering with Alaskans who are…
Pebble Mine – Got Plans?
What’s for dinner? “No plans.” Really? You sure have been looking at that menu a long time. “NO plans.” Um. Alright. “Stop asking me questions.” So no plans for dinner? “No. Absolutely not. But we’ll be feeding 2500 people dinner for five years. The tax and tip will be ballparked between $136 million and $180 million – and that would be on top of the $1.2 billion per year for groceries.” How do you know all the particulars with no plans for dinner? “Shut up. I said we don’t have a plan.” Really. That’s what the Pebble Partnership is telling…
When is Fishing a Crime?
“If I got the means to do it, I will do it,” Phillip said. “Even if you are breaking the law?” asked his lawyer, James Davis Jr. “Well, if it comes down to feeding my family, yes,” Phillip answered. A radio report from KYUK in Bethel made me pull over the Subaru this week. I was listening to the story of Bethel fishermen being prosecuted by the state of Alaska for subsistence fishing during a state-ordered closure. This was Les Misérables, Alaskanized. Last summer these Native fishermen defied a fishery closure to catch salmon to feed their families. The…
March Against Monsanto
Monsanto shouldn’t be immune from the U.S. justice system. That’s why I’m co-sponsoring legislation to eliminate the Monsanto rider. The Monsanto rider stripped the courts of their power to halt the planting of genetically modified crops that could be dangerous to people or the environment. I will keep working on this issue because genetically modified crops can be just as dangerous as genetically modified fish. I’ve always opposed Frankenfish—and I oppose special legal exemptions for Frankenfruit companies too. ~Senator Mark Begich, D-AK Anchorage will be making history when we participate in the first ever global March Against Monsanto! Join over…
The Best Bill in Juneau
During the hearings, and vote on SB21, (the governor’s oil tax plan to give billions to oil companies in exchange for absolutely no promise of anything) did you find yourself wondering why Sen. Peter Micciche who works for Conoco Phillips was allowed to vote to give his boss a windfall? Or why Sen. Kevin Meyer who also works for ConocoPhillips was allowed to do the same? And then there’s Rep. Mike Hawker whose wife works for the oil industry. Before critical votes, you’ll hear a legislator like Micciche and Meyer pipe up and say they’d like to abstain from the…
Is Guantanamo Who We Are?
It is hard to imagine being abducted, away from your family for eleven years, chained, beaten, with no hope for freedom even when your captors know you did nothing to be there … that is the case for eighty six men held at Guantanamo Bay prison facility. Neighbors turned in rivals, bounties were paid, and many times the wrong person was taken simply for wearing a certain brand of wristwatch in the days that followed the invasion of Afghanistan. The United States had no evidence of wrong doing in many cases and has concluded no charges could be filed against…
Palin Denied Lemonade Lawsuit Fees
Some of you are about to have a flashback. What will cause this flashback? Three words: Piper’s lemonade stand. I realize that most of you are still here, but some of you were just transported back to the post-election days of 2009. I’m not doing this just to have fun yanking you around (although that was kind of fun). This is actually relevant to a little piece of news that developed yesterday. A federal judge on Wednesday ruled against Sarah Palin, denying her request to be compensated for more than $22,000 in attorney fees she spent in a case against…