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November 3, 2024

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No Time for Tuckerman -

Thursday, August 3, 2023

The Quitter Returns! -

Monday, March 21, 2022

Putting the goober in gubernatorial -

Friday, January 28, 2022

Open Thread – Halloween Hat Tip to Senator Mark Begich

A nod to Senator Mark Begich who won the newly created Halloween Hat Tip Award for his unorthodox and completely awesome holiday activities. While the little ghouls and goblins rang doorbells for candy, Senator Begich visited his fellow Senators delivering these killer No Frankenfish buttons. Begich proposed legislation earlier this month that would make it illegal to sell, posses, and/or purchase genetically-altered salmon in the U.S. It has gained support from his Republican counterpart in the Senate, Lisa Murkowsi (R-Alaska)… Both Alaskan senators have questioned the economic and environmental impact of introducing genetically-altered salmon into the national food supply.  

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…

Vitamin Democracy – Save the Internet

Howdy, Mudflatters! Ready for your dose of Vitamin Democracy? This is where you get to feel important and participatory, and do things that members of free societies get to do – bug your representatives. We don’t ask you to bug them often, or unless it’s really important. This is one of those times. See the little guy with the ‘D’ and the hammer? That’s you. The scary looking green thing is the anti free speech force that wants to tell you how you can use the internet. And your job today is to whack that SOB right on the top…

Arrrrgh. Begich says, “Sink the Pirate Ship!”

Saving Alaska from pirates – it’s the sort of thing I’ll bet those adventuresome souls who join the Coast Guard dream about when they sign on the dotted line. If I’m right, then it was a good day for the crew of the Coast Guard vessel Munro, based out of Kodiak. They seized a pirate fishing vessel on the high seas about 2600 miles southwest of Kodiak, that was full of 30 tons of  illegal squid, sharks, and 10 miles of drift net. High seas driftnetting  has been illegal since the 1990s because of the indiscriminate netting and deaths of…

Senator Makes Controversial Appearance at Anchorage Hilton

There are two large hotels in Anchorage that are currently under boycott for mistreatment of workers – the Anchorage Sheraton and the Anchorage Hilton. On Tuesday, August 9, The Mudflats reported that three community leaders were expelled from the office of the General Manager of the Sheraton when they came to express the concerns of the community regarding the hotel’s labor practices. And Friday, The Hilton was the site for the latest event in a long history of protesting and picketing. That day, Senator Mark Begich was slated to address the Building Owners and Management Association (BOMA), and would have…

EPA v. Polluters – Senators Begich & Murkowski on the Wrong Side

  Alaskans have a (how shall I put this) prickly relationship with the EPA for the most part. You can live most anywhere in the lower 48, and chances are you’ve never had to personally interact with the EPA and don’t know anyone who has. You live in your house, you do your thing, and the only time it comes up is when you hear the Tea Party talk about how all them damn regulations keep mucking things up and killing business and jobs. But in Alaska, the EPA and its involvement in development both big and small seems to…

Palin Thanks (almost) Everyone for Bin Laden’s Capture.

I listened with the rest of the nation last night as the news leaked about the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of U.S. forces on the ground in Pakistan. And I listened to the President deliver (as usual) a thoughtful, respectful, address to the nation. And then, I wondered, what would critics of the president say? What would they say about the fact that Barack Obama as Commander-in-Chief did in two years what George W. Bush as Commander-in-Chief couldn’t do in eight? The last words in the President’s speech urged us to remember the unity we felt…

Senator Mark Begich Fights for Flight

Alaska is different. It’s said a lot, and it’s true. Things that work in the contiguous 48 states don’t necessarily work here. The lack of understanding by those “Outside” of this phenomenon contributes to Alaskans’ slightly xenophobic, and more than slight libertarian bent. “Get off my tundra, you meddlesome kids.” Nothing defines Alaska quite so much as the gigantic size and small population. We are far flung, and disconnected. When 1500 miles separates two towns, it’s hard to remember you’re supposed to be in the same state. Alaska is larger than many countries, and pretty darn empty when it comes…

Don Young Darkens the Door and Crosses the Aisle

Yes, the 20 term Congressman for All Alaskans (who voted for him) has decided that he will attend the State of the Union address for only the third time since 1974. Why isn’t he a regular? “Because I’m an old hunter,” he told APRN. “And when you have the president, the vice president, the speaker of the House, the president of the Senate, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Supreme Court, the diplomatic corps, and everybody together under one roof, it always gives me great concern.” Although I appreciate the Congressman’s caution and sentiments, the thought of Don Young holding the…

Murkowski & Begich – A Tale of Two Senators (and some guy from San Francisco)

It was a busy week last week. The giant metal gears in Washington D.C. were busy grinding up the hopes and expectations of those who voted for the President in 2008.  And then, just as suddenly, something hopeful started to happen. Alaska’s story of the last week is one of the more interesting ones. We are the only state in the union that has not had its 2010 Senate election results certified. Joe Miller, who is raising legal challenges to the apparent write-in victory of incumbent Lisa Murkowski, still has several courses of action he can take. We’ll know Tuesday whether…