Open Thread – Don’t Judge
Anyone who thinks that animals don’t have personalities needs to rethink that assumption. This is Buf the Dog, with our houseguest Ladybug in the background.
Parnell Tries to Silence Alaskans
If Alaskans’ drinking water, children or fishing streams are at risk, Alaskans should have a say. That’s the radical supposition of Rep. Les Gara (D-Anchorage). The governor, on the other hand, proposes to eliminate public input on pesticide use that could contaminate waters where Alaskans fish and get drinking water. Did you expect anything less? “If someone’s plans risk poisoning our drinking water or fishing streams, Alaskans should have a say,” said Rep. Gara. “Alaskans have a right to fish our streams, drink our water, and hunt without fear that our resources will be contaminated by toxic pesticides. If the…
Uncounted Ballots: A New Can Of Worms
I’ll admit it…I’m tired of the Anchorage Municipal Election of 2012. It’s a kind of migraine-inducing, bone-aching, paralysis-producing exhaustion that I’ve rarely experienced. I know that’s how I felt after our team of 10 qualified voters and fabulous volunteer observers worked their butts off on the hand recount. The team “observed” and went above and beyond to report the issues and the craziness that happened during this hand recount. However, they did not stop there. The Team also poured (and continues to pour) time and energy into further investigation of the election issues in general, going way-beyond their “job description”…
Alaska Gets Gouged
I’m never surprised by the unabashed glee with which those on the right shill for the rich and powerful, but the Republican support for the fuel price gougers here in Alaska has even me flabbergasted. Alaska’s gas prices are through the roof. Why? Oiligopoly. Two refiners control virtually 100 percent of the gasoline market — with Tesoro controlling 80 percent and Flint Hills, owned by the Koch brothers, controlling 20 percent. You know the Koch brothers: job creators extraordinaire. They’ve enjoyed a decade of low taxes, fired 13,000 workers since 2007 and seen their net worth skyrocket from $34 billion…
Shell Drill Ship Runs Aground (updated)
Remember last week when Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said, “I don’t believe there will be an oil spill?” He was talking about Shell’s offshore arctic drilling in the Beaufort and Chuckchi Seas. I wonder if anyone asked Ken Salazar if he “believed” that Shell wouldn’t even be able to get the drill rig to the drilling site without running it aground? Because, guess what? It did. Well, they didn’t say it “ran aground.” The official story from Shell’s spokesman Curtis Smith (who may or may not be Sarah Palin’s former spokesman Curtis Smith) was: “Today, while moored off the…
Young Denies Existence of Big Trees
~Photo of delusional person by John Schoen. Do NOT believe your lyin’ eyes. This post is about Don Young. Periodically, Alaska’s one and only congressman makes it a point to embarrass the thinking residents of his fine state. Some times it’s by yelling at his fellow legislators, or insulting them. Sometimes it’s an outlandish stunt like banging the penis bone of a walrus on the table while the House is in session, or wearing a propeller beanie to demonstrate how silly wind power is. But this one is just bizarre. And for Don Young, that’s saying something. But first, let’s…
“Potentially uncounted” Municipal Ballots Found
Just when you thought the Anchorage municipal election of April 3, 2012 had come to a completely unsatisfying and maddening conclusion, there’s this. Sent out to the press at 6:30 on a Friday night (where news stories go to die) was an announcement from City Hall which ironically began: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE And followed up with this: “Anchorage Assembly Chair Ernie Hall and Municipal Clerk Barbara Jones announce that 141 potentially uncounted ballots in total from three precincts in the April 3, 2012 municipal election were located in precinct election bags on July 11, 2012. The 141 ballots were found…
Ineligible to Run – House Candidate Bachmeier
After a ruling by Alaska Division of Elections Director, Gail Fenumiai, House District 13 in Anchorage will have one fewer candidate on the August 28 primary ballot. If candidate Barbara Bachmeier wants her name on the ballot, she’s going to have to go through the courts. You may remember Bachmeier from the recent Anchorage Tea Party forum. She is also the one who signed up for the Democracy for America Democratic training academy last year. And she even applied for, and won a scholarship courtesy of the generosity of former Democratic Senate candidate Scott McAdams. And then she took…
Who Let the Dogs Out? Romney at the NAACP
Who Let the Dogs Out? Romney’s speech at the NAACP Today, Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney will be addressing the 103rd National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Convention in Houston, TX. No. Really, he will be. Unless he gets a cold at the last second or maybe the family dog gets sick from the ride over – he will be speaking at the convention that has the theme “This is my power. This is my decision. This is my vote.” The likelihood that any of the people in the convention hall will be using their power, decisions or…
Green
WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS NOTHING POLITICAL WHATSOEVER One thing you can say about mid-July in Alaska is that it’s never going to get greener than this. The last of the early blooming wildflowers are still just hanging on, and the late bloomers of summer are coming into their own. Leaves and grass are everywhere. You can practically smell the chlorophyll. The picture below was taken in my backyard, which you all tend to see in one form or another fairly regularly. There are a couple dead spruce in the shot… victims of the infamous and deadly spruce bark beetle. They…