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…
Open Thread: September 11th
It’s been 12 years since a group of Saudi men took two planes and flew them into the World Trade Center Towers. It’s sparked two wars in the Middle East, over five thousand dead Americans, and hundreds of thousands of Afghans and Iraqis. Bin Laden was killed… eventually. Now with drones flying in the sky over Yemen, dropping bombs on sheepherders and JSOC killing wedding parties, we stand at the precipice of a new war – one with Syria – yet another Middle Eastern country. We considered an attack by commercial aircraft an act of war, but our Secretary of…
Inconvenient Private Sector Jobs
Time to don your rain ponchos, because Republican heads are going to be exploding across the state. This is one of those times when philosophy and reality are on opposite sides, and the confused elephant brains of the majority of the GOP in Alaska are going to have to out themselves, or change sides. Ah, another inconvenient truth. ” Ready? Guess what industry is the largest private sector employer in the State of Alaska? Oil? <<<HOCKEY BUZZER NOISE>>> Mining? <<<REPEAT ABOVE>>> Nope, it’s fish. A recent report issued from the McDowell Group for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute reveals: The…
AK Teens Rate Credibility of Famous Figures
A group of Anchorage high school juniors in an advanced placement class were asked to do the following in class: Analyze the following list of famous figures. Rank them from 1 on down based on their credibility. Remember to weigh honesty, wisdom, and credibility equally. Margaret Thatcher Martin Luther King, Jr. Sarah Palin Hillary Clinton Bill Gates Sandra Day O’Connor Martha Stewart Thomas Jefferson Lady Ga Ga George W. Bush Barack Obama Anthony Weiner After each student had compiled his or her personal list ranking, they were asked to come together as a class, and present one list that they…
Palin: In or Out, or In… Or Out. Maybe.
In the never ending edge-of-your-seat boredom that is Sarah Palin’s future “political career,” we’ve got some hot breaking news! Remember how she wasn’t considering a senate run in Alaska? Then, she was… unless someone other than Joe Miller and Mead Treadwell stepped up to run. Nobody has. Still just them. Yet now she says she currently has no plans to run. Someone else can do it. But she’s also not ruling anything out. She’s not closing the door. Back in the day, an open door was God’s message to “plow through.” Now, it’s merely an option. It’s just there, open,…
Detroit: An American Autopsy – Book Excerpt Part One
Charlie LeDuff is awesome. He’s the ultimate local news man. You may remember his name from a post I did on a hilarious but pointed broadcast on police response time. A couple of months ago he released Detroit: An American Autopsy – it looks amazing and couldn’t have been better timed. I’ve just started reading it and highly recommend that you do as well. You’ll notice in the excerpt below he even has an Alaska connection. Look for part two tomorrow, and my review of the book in a couple of weeks. (I’m not that slow of a reader… just…
Gov Parnell Smacks Down Feds
Yesterday, a “Federal Overreach Summit” began in Anchorage. For two days, lawmakers and administration officials will gripe about the “feds” and what is described as intrusion into Alaska’s affairs. But the federal overreach discussed on the first day of the summit didn’t touch on Stand Your Ground law, or issues of reproductive choice, or gay marriage, or even voting rights which have been so much in the news as of late. This federal overreach is quite specific, and gets to the heart of what this administration considers important. It’s all about land use and resource extraction. A Department of Natural…
Grizzly Man Director on Texting and Driving
It’s quite obvious that it’s dangerous. We all know it kills. Anyone that denies these facts is stupid, or wantonly ignorant. Yet nearly all of us do it. I’m hoping that for a moment, while you’re reading this, and watching the video below, you’ll keep this in mind next time you get a text while driving. It can wait. Werner Herzog, the acclaimed filmaker – Alaskan’s know him best as the Director of Grizzly Man – produced this film for AT&T on texting, it’s worth watching.
Domino’s Apologizes to Alaska – Is it Enough?
BREAKING: The War on Halibut is heating up. Domino’s Pizza has sent an apology for offense to the state of Alaska, and the fishing industry as a whole over their new “Powered by Pizza” ad campaign that disparages Alaska’s beloved halibut. The furor in Alaska began whenThe Mudflats weighed in (HERE) after seeing the Domino’s TV commercial which claims “no one ever had a world-changing idea over halibut. No way,” as an actor spits halibut out of his mouth and on to the plate in disgust. Alaskans across the board were angered by the slight to our tasty and beloved…
Domino’s Pizza Trashes Alaska Seafood
Why do you hate Alaska, Domino’s pizza? The new “Powered by Pizza” ad campaign for Domino’s Pizza asserts that good ideas and American innovation begin over pizza. It’s the food of brainstorming sessions, cutting-edge garage bands, and geeky future startup pioneers. Domino’s isn’t really my thing, but it’s a clever, upbeat sort of ad—something a little different, and inoffensive. Or so I thought. They seem to have taken a cue from our former half-term governor who isn’t content to simply promote her own ideas, but must also create a fictitious “evildoer” to knock down in the process. And we, on…