Pozonsky-gate. The Plot Thickens.
But wait, there’s more! Not only did the hiring scandal of former Pennsylvania Judge Paul Pozonsky into the Parnell administration touch strange corners of Alaska politics, it seems that the Judge’s checkered history in Pennsylvania is not just limited to destruction of evidence in 17 drug cases, but it now appears he’s been doing some inappropriate favors for frackers in the name of keeping information from the press and the public by inappropriately sealing records. Are we shocked? No, we are not. Alaska politics are such that it takes a lot to consider something scandalous, let alone a soap opera….
Alaska Readies for Voter Photo ID Bill
Rep. Bob Lynn, R-Anchorage, the chairman of the House State Affairs Committee, reportedly plans to introduce a voter photo ID requirement in the Alaska Legislature. He says this photo ID law isn’t based on the so-called “model statute” developed by the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council, a national organization that promotes conservative model legislation. Even though Lynn is a member of ALEC. In state where village residents, who famously vote Democratic, don’t have or need a photo ID, this law will provoke a lawsuit before the ink is dry on Captain Zero’s signature. It’s all about equal protection. If you have a photo…
Pozonsky-Gate Demands Answers
I hate messy breakups, and boy did we have one this week. Former Pennsylvania Judge Paul Pozonsky resigned as a workers’ compensation hearing officer for the State of Alaska Thursday, just days after I started asking exactly how he got hired. Pozonsky apparently got the job after a closed application process was reopened just long enough for him to apply. For some reason, the fact that the former judge was under investigation by a Pennsylvania grand jury for ordering the destruction of evidence in 17 court cases, and that he resigned from the job last June after being stripped of…
The Audacity of Failure – She’s Back!
She ran for governor of Georgia in 2010 and lost. Then she took one of the most beloved and successful non-profits on the planet, set it on fire, and shoved it out to sea like a viking funeral pyre, before resigning in disgrace. Then she wrote a book with the painfully prosaic title “Planned Bullyhood,” in which she called members of Planned Parenthood “a bunch of schoolyard thugs.” So, what’s next for Karen Handel, disgraced and ostracized former head of the Susan G. Komen foundation? She’s considering a run for the U.S. Senate, of course. If she ran, she would…
Weed, Serial Killer & Berlusconi!
Egyptian President Muhamed Morsi has decided he likes democratic reform when it brings him to power, but finds dictatorship preferable once there. Speaking of “same as the old boss,” disgraced Italian Casanova Silvio Berlusconi is poised to make the most implausible political comeback since Bibi Netanyahu Richard Nixon. Don’t make us come over there, Syria. Mining companies in Canada are discovering these renewable forms of energy are pretty nifty, especially when they’re the only ones available to you. Oh, the irony. Colorado and Washington went to pot a month ago, and now Uncle Sam has to decide how firmly…
Latinos Roll The (R)s
Off The Cliff And Into The Fire President Obama plans to push for comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship, early in the new year. The LA Times reports that this will be the President’s legislative priority once we’ve resolved the fiscal [insert metaphor of choice here]. If you think the debate over taxing the top 2% has put the GOP in a bind and on the wrong side of public opinion, just wait until the party has to confront immigration reform. Post-election navel gazing by Republicans has boiled down to content-free variations of “we have to do a…
Jenny Sanford for U.S. Senate
News broke today that Sen. Jim DeMint (T–SC) is quitting the US Senate to head up the Heritage Foundation. The reason for DeMint’s abrupt departure is unclear. Assuming there are no skeletons that were about to come to light, or someone having dirt on him—and there’s no indication such is the case—my own guess is he may have realized the future for himself and his Tea Party caucus in the Senate isn’t very bright. DeMint’s is a minority caucus in the minority party. Because he’s been such a thorn in the GOP establishment’s side—recruiting and organizing primary opponents to Republican…
Is Pozonsky Eligible for AK Bar?
This past weekend, Shannyn Moore broke an important story in the Opnion Section of the Anchorage Daily News. She revealed that Governor Sean Parnell hired a new hearing officer for the Workers’ Compensation Board…Paul Pozonsky, a former judge from Pennsylvania. …a “former judge” who was stripped of his ability to hear criminal cases in Pennsylvania this past June and immediately resigned. Jeanne Devon followed-up with a fascinating back-story showing the family connections that give the Pozonsky’s influence over some of the most powerful individuals in Alaska, past and present. Both articles raise many questions as to the circumstances surrounding Mr….
OMG! Liberal Palin Freak Out!
I think I heard something… That familiar grinding sound like when you’ve worn through a pair of brake shoes. Shhh… Hear that? Ah! Yes. I’ve got it. That metal on metal noise used to be Alaska’s governor. She’s managed to grab a moment in the spotlight again by… wait for it… saying dumb stuff. Shocking. After the last election cycle in which her party was soundly thrashed, she lost her one remaining claim to anything remotely serious. She’s now no longer the immediate past Republican Vice Presidential nominee. That embarrassing mantle is now worn by Congressman Paul Ryan. That makes…
Parnell Hiring Scandal leads back to Dyson, Kopp, Palin
Chuck Kopp, Chief of Staff to Republican State Senator Fred Dyson, and a two-week Palin administration official, dismissed over a sex scandal is now at the center of another firestorm – the controversial hiring of his brother-in-law Paul Pozonsky by the Parnell administration. Pozonsky, a Pennsylvania judge under investigation for destroying evidence (including crack cocaine and cash) in 17 criminal cases was hired by the Parnell administration as an Alaska hearings officer. He was given the job despite his late application, the fact that the current investigation has stripped him of his ability to hear cases, and that he was…