Rep. Don Young Loses it in House Resources Committee Meeting (Video)
Apparently someone put something in Don Young’s oatmeal this week. OK, yes… he’s got something in his oatmeal every week, but this week he got an extra helping. Or perhaps he jus needs a bran muffin instead. Or perhaps the propeller beanie he wore to the Resources hearing a few days ago was a liiiitle too tight. Whatever the reason, our “Congressman for All Alaska” was busily at his favorite hobby of seeing how many Alaskans he can get to put bags over their heads. This time, his display came when speaking with Dr. Douglas Brinkley, an “ivory tower elite,”…
Beanied Congressman Don Young Addresses Interior Secretery Salazar
Dear Rest of Nation, You may have many things – cheap airline tickets, world-class museums and symphonies, outlet stores, the vineyards and orchards, good public transportation, five star restaurants, and fabulous architecture. But we have things too, like the best salmon in the world, soaring mountain vistas, drive up coffee stands, downtown moose… And, I feel confident in saying that you do not have a Congressman who wears a propeller beanie while questioning the Secretary of the Interior. And we do. Here is Don Young, “Congressman for All Alaska,” at a Natural Resources hearing in our nation’s capital. He addresses…
Vulture’s Picnic – My Home is Now a Strange Place (Installment 4)
Here is the next installment of Greg Palast’s new book Vulture’s Picnic. He has allowed The Mudflats to bring you Chapter 7 – My Home is Now a Strange Place in its entirety. This is an exclusive excerpt, just for Mudflatters. I find it absolutely riveting. If you need to catch up, here are links to the first three installments. Installment 1 Installment 2 Installment 3 ********************************** Chapter 7, continued By Greg Palast STEINHATCHEE, FLORIDA We also needed witnesses. I needed insiders who would spill to outsiders. To find them, I needed a hound dog. I needed a blonde. I…
Clueless Racist Casey Reynolds of KFQD Speaks to Environmentalists
There are some times when you tune in to right wing radio in this town, and the jaw-dropping willful ignorance is so overwhelming, so stupefying, so abhorrent, that no commentary is necessary. There are times when all you have to do is print a little bit of transcript, and let them out themselves for who they are. This could be one of those times. I really don’t have to say anything. I could just print a paragraph for you – a few lines spewed forth from the yammering maw of right wing talk show host Casey Reynolds on KFQD 750am…
A Tale of Transfer – How Northrim Bank Lost My Money
I have to confess, I felt a little wistful about Move Your Money Day. The idea was that on Saturday, November 5, everyone who was fed up with the big banks, their unsound business practices, their bailouts and bonuses, should pull their money out of those banks, and instead open an account at a local bank or credit union. I thought this was a great idea, and I planned to promote it on the blog. But that’s where it would end for me, because I already have my money in a local bank. I’ve had multiple accounts, both personal and…
Governor Sean Parnell Supports Destruction of Thriving Salmon Habitat for Coal
Mudflats readers will remember coverage over the last year of the issue of the “Unsuitable Lands Petition” that Cook Inletkeeper and the Chuitna Citizens Coalition submitted to the state. Basically, what this petition did was to put forth the idea that certain areas are just plain unsuitable for coal strip mining – specifically the areas directly on either side of the Chuit River (above), and its tributaries that were deemed “important salmon habitat” for Cook Inlet. The petition, if successful, would ensure that a narrow ribbon of land – 50 feet on either side of tributaries, and 100 feet on…
Working Hard Representing… Who?
‘Tis the season for political fundraisers. Invitations come via email, and Facebook, and robocall, and some still even come the old fashioned way and arrive in the mailbox. Each invitation tries to sound a little exciting, a little different, a little “stand out from the crowd.” Well, this is one that definitely stood out. We’ve got two candidates – Neal Foster, and Donny Olson. They’re both from Nome, and they are both running for re-election to the state legislature – Foster in the House, and Olson in the Senate. Now, let’s put on our reading spectacles and have a careful…
After Three Years, the State Requests Another Extension for the Palin Email Release
~The Alaska Department of Law hard at work on the Palin emails Remember when our former governor was nominated to be the VP candidate? And we were all like, “What? Really? You’ve got to be kidding me!” I know. It seems like a lifetime ago. Back then, in days of yore, people in the Lower 48 didn’t even know how to pronounce her name. “Is it Pallin?” they asked. “Who is this woman? We know nothing about her!” And so journalists started doing what journalists are paid to do. They investigated, and they asked (utilizing public records requests) to see…
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…