Back to the Sidewalk – Again!
The high drama of last summer’s sidewalk sitting may be back again in September. Mayor Dan Sullivan didn’t like that a homeless man protesting his draconian attitudes and policies toward the homeless was sitting outside City Hall on the sidewalk. He glowered out of his window in the tall tower, gazing to the sidewalk below and decided to bring the long arm of the law down upon the lowly “protester.” And then, to the mayor’s horror, he realized that there was actually no law prohibiting Anchorage residents from sitting on the sidewalk. It really hadn’t been an issue during the…
Happy Centennial to the Territory of Alaska
In April of 1912, a little debate was going on in the House of Representatives. A congressman stood, and said something that changed the course of history. “The time has gone by when all women looked after the kitchen and the dining room. Now they go into offices, school rooms and factories, where they do a man’s work, and they should have the same economic and political rights as men. . .” And so at the insistance of Victor Berger, a socialist Congressman from Milwaukee, the Alaska legislature was empowered to give women the right to vote, and they did…
Murkowski Urges Akin to Step Down
Republican War on Women? What War on Women? There’s no War on Women. That’s just delusional Democrats trying to manufacture controversy and put words in the mouths of poor ol’ Republicans. Ohhhh, what those desperate Dems won’t sink to. That’s what Republicans would have you believe. Then, there’s what actually happens, and what comes out of their mouths. And it’s not just Republican men, although they’ve gotten the bulk of the attention. Back in June, a group of 24 Republican House women – a sort of firewall, if you will, to protect the image of the Party with women by…
Paging Hunter Thompson
You’re going to want a can of BrainScrub within reach after reading about the “church bus.” (h/t to Nick Nice of Madison, WI.)
Bob Bell is Oh So Super Special
You know those politicians whom nobody can stand – the ones that think the rules apply to absolutely everyone? No exceptions. Except for them. I got one for you. Remember that scandal that had Director of the Alaska Division of Wildlife Conservation, Corey Rossi, in the headlines for weeks? Rossi and his croneys from the Board of Game got busted flying into rural Alaska and pretending to subsistence hunt muskoxen for food. You see, there’s a really really expensive way of hunting muskoxen, and there’s a much less expensive way. One way, you have to enter a lottery for a permit…
Obama’s War and Peace
Editor’s Note from Shannyn Moore: I have had this conversation with John several times. I am glad he wrote his thoughts down, and we welcome him as the latest guest author here at The Mudflats. My best advice is to let it set in. We bite the shiny hooks of not-so-breaking news every day. President Obama has to be more than Not-Mitt. Sometimes being an progressive voter makes you feel like a refugee from the Island of Dr. Moreau. Some morally inverted, twisted character from a Céline novel. Just breathe. Just read. Just push for a better America. Oh, and…
Open Thread – Troll Season
A friend of The Mudflats, Chicago art teacher Brandi Martin mailed the below hilarity into Mudflats Central last night: Some troll on Twitter told me that “keeping a gangbanger in school is like keeping a cat in a litter box.” Then he berated my one-sided liberal bias in the classroom (since he knows f*** all about it—I almost never discuss politics in class). I said it won’t be one sided for long, I’d give all 150 kids his Twitter handle and he could enlighten them. Why tell me, when he can just tell the gangbanger directly? I won’t, but I…
In My Alaska Garden: Harvest!
Though a little later than expected, we are finally seeing the (literal) fruits of our labor in the hoop house! I’ve been sick for the last three weeks and haven’t felt much like writing or anything else. I wanted to at least get the pictures out to you of what’s been happening in the hoop house. I have a lot more near-future writing about what I’ve learned and the changes we want to make for next year. Let me know how everything is going in your garden!
Open Thread – Anarchy in the UK
At this point the only thing that we haven’t seen is Colin Powell and Hillary Clinton announcing that weapons of mass destruction have been found at the Ecuador embassy. Only then will the farce be truly complete. —Tyler Durden WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has made his first public appearance in two months, from his asylum within the Ecuadorian embassy in London: