Politicians – Judge Them By Their Deeds
By Shannyn Moore “Go out and preach the gospel. And if you must, use words.” — St. Francis of Assisi This week I watched the GOP round-table debate. It still startles me to hear words and moral claims from candidates who must believe we’ve never seen their deeds. I’m a big believer in the separation of church and state … but let’s suppose we were a “Christian Nation,” not just a nation made up of Christians, Jews, Muslims, old believers, pagans, atheists and free-range hippies. Could we, this new “Christian Nation,” pick the Beatitudes as our rule of law?…
How Many Brownies (and Alaskan Jobs) Did Lisa Murkowski Just Give Away?
Friday afternoon, the offices of the AFL-CIO in Anchorage were hopping. Look at the sinister faces of all those “union thugs.” That’s one thing I’ve never understood. How can any Alaskan, in a state with the second-highest union density in the country, think of unions as “thuggery.” Union men and women are your neighbors, your friends, your kids’ soccer coaches, your fellow church members – people who work hard, and enjoy good jobs with benefits that let them enjoy life and give back to their community by volunteering, putting money into the local economy, sending their kids to college… all…
Murkowski Votes Against Jobs, Deficit Reduction, Veterans, Teachers, and Taxing Millionaires. (Rally!)
The Constitution. We’ve seen it wrapped around buses, misspelled on Tea Party signs, hailed and praised by the “back to basics” Republicans who tell us that if we just went back to the wisdom of the founding fathers, life would be good again. It’s been waved like the flag, held up like holy writ, and revered as the greatest document ever written. Yes, the right loves them some Constitution – unless of course it means that they don’t get their way. It’s kind of like the Bible. Just don’t pay attention to all that healing the sick, and taking…
Jesus Loves the Little Children – Governor Sean Parnell? Not So Much.
Sean Parnell, the man that his former boss Sarah Palin called a “brother in prayer” has made his priorities known. Remember that favorite Sunday School hymn, “Jesus Loves the Little Children?” Remember how Jesus’ priorities were all about healing the sick, and helping the poor, and doing unto others as you would have them do unto you? Well, our born again Christian governor is just exactly NOT like that at all. Last year, Sean Parnell (and I am not making this up) vetoed a bill that would have provided Denali Kid Care (the state health program that gets 70% matching federal…
Captain Zero Gets Smackdown from Locals on Coastal Zone Management
Remember when Governor Sean “Who Needs the Feds” Parnell, and a bunch of Republican “Who Needs the Feds” legislators decided to push to abolish Alaska’s Coastal Zone Management program? When the bill to extend the program failed in the State House, Alaskans effectively gave away their local voices, and turned control of our coastal issues over to… the Feds. Now, Alaskans are free to offer their opinion, and the federal government (who understandably doesn’t understand Alaskan issues to the extent we do) is free to pat us on the head, pinch our cute little cheek, and ignore us. It’s a…
The Golden Calf and the Bronze Bull – What Would Moses Do?
~Photo by Zach Roberts By Shannyn Moore I remember wondering what gold tastes like. As a child sitting in Mrs. Harris’ Sunday school class, I listened raptly to her recount the biblical tale of Moses coming down from Mount Sinai armed with the Ten Commandments. He’d spent the last 40 days and nights meeting with God. Moses unleashed his fury when he saw what his people had been up to: drinking, partying and worshipping a golden calf made from melted jewelry. Moses smashed the tablets carved with God’s handwritten laws, ground up the idol and made them drink it. Those…
Sarah Palin and the Long, Shiny Road to Irrelevance
Sarah Palin is not running for the presidency. I’d been waiting to hear that since the day after the 2008 presidential election, which is ostensibly when she began running for the presidency. From the moment she “went rogue” on the campaign trail, calling out then-candidate Obama for “pallin’ around with terrorists,” and contemplating an unauthorized trip back to Michigan to try to win a state that the McCain campaign had given up on, she had ideas and plans of her own. She lamented in her book Going Rogue that the campaign had shackled her. Why couldn’t they just “let Sarah…
Sarah Palin is at ‘Drop Dead’ +4, and Just Getting Started
Maggie Haberman and Ken Vogel of Politico got some interesting buzz today. Apparently they each have sources who tell them that a certain (looks around the room) “mystery candidate” has had someone at her OR HIS law firm, (shifts nervously) make a few strategic phone calls to certain early primary states (nudge nudge) to find out when certain filing deadlines for a certain high office in the executive branch might be… (wiggles eyebrows) This particular law firm, called Baker Hostetler employs a particular lawyer named Mark Braden. Mr. Braden represents… SarahPAC, Sarah Palin’s political action committee. Go figure. A certain…
Diebold Voting Machines Can Be Hacked for $10, and How This Could Save Your Thanksgiving.
I roll over lazily, stretch, yawn, and open one eye… I do a combined gasp/shriek, recoil a little, and bury my face in the pillow. Yes, my strange bedfellow is still here. I thought he left after the 2010 election, but apparently not. Given that you all know how I feel about former U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller, that I agree with virtually none of his political philosophy, and that I am grateful every day that he is not in Washington, D.C., he does bring up an interesting point to the readers of his website. The topic of the article…
Don Young Wants to Annihilate the Last 20 Years of Federal Regulation.
Don Young… what can you say? He’s Alaska’s one and only congressman, and he’s been Alaska’s one and only congressman since 1973. That’s 38 regular years, which feels like 95 in Don Young years. He defies explanation. He’s sort of a combination of the old curmudgeon in the neighborhood that sits on the porch telling the local kids to get off his lawn; the crazy uncle you see at family gatherings that drives you nuts, but loves dressing up like Santa; and the monkey with the typewriter who occasionally types a word, but the rest of the time flings poo. …