November 21, 2024
Thursday, August 3, 2023
The Quitter Returns! -Monday, March 21, 2022
Putting the goober in gubernatorial -Friday, January 28, 2022
Time. It is precious, they say. It flies, they say. And former Republican Party Chair, former Dunleavy Chief of Staff, and now former University of Alaska Regent Tuckerman Babcock has none of it. Again. As Alaska Republican Party Chair, Babcock was the chief architect of the cannibalization of that Party. He loved the purity test, and if you were a Republican in the legislature and you weren’t far-right authoritarian enough, you were in his crosshairs and some extreme fringy candidate would be drummed up to run against you. And those monsters wasted no time destroying their makers. “RINO!” they cried….
Alaska has lost its longest serving member of Congress, Don Young, who took office in 1973. He was 88 years old and the majority of Alaskans have never known another Congressional Representative. He’s like the Queen Victoria or the Ramses II of the Great Land. Young has yet to be interred, awaiting March 29 when he will lie in state at the US Capitol, and guess who’s already willing to fill his “huge shoes” 72 hours after his death? Yep, the former half-governor has decided she’d like to un-quit politics now. After ditching the governor’s mansion permanently to skip off…
POLITICAL THEATER Oh, fantasy! I love that genre! This week’s big dose of live entertainment fiction was Governor Dunleavy’s State of the State address, and thank goodness we didn’t have to pay for a ticket. The state of the state, (often referred to as the SoS) was an SOS indeed, and was met by those who’ve been in the thick of the Dunleavy disaster with slack jaws and utter disbelief. Dunleavy apparently believes that Alaskans have the long-term memory of a goldfish and have completely forgotten the first three years of his administration and the vital state services he fought…
*unless they don’t Today, Donald Trump and whatever remains of his organization issued a proclamation/extortion notice to his BF(maybe forever) Governor Mike Dunleavy. He will completely and totally endorse Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s reelection campaign! Why? Because, the Florida retiree says, he’s a strong conservative. He hearts the Constitution, “including the second and tenth Amendments.” He says Alaska needs Mike Dunleavy “now more than ever” which has earned the Tall One his “Complete and Total Endorsement [sic].” UNLESS Dunleavy endorses Lisa Murkowski. That’s right. Even though Trump proudly endorsed Governor from Wasilla 2.0 the first time and thinks he’s done a…
You go for years without thinking about Thomas Van Flein, former Palin attorney and current Chief of Staff of Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona), and then wham – he’s everywhere. And in a very bad way. Van Flein’s boss was censured by Congress yesterday for posting an anti-immigrant anime video which depicted Gosar murdering Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and attacking President Biden. Censure doesn’t happen very often. The last time the body believed a member deserved that particular level of smack-down was in 1983. Two Republicans voted with Democrats in the mostly partisan vote. While censure doesn’t have legal teeth, it…
Aug 3, 2023
Mar 21, 2022
Jan 28, 2022
Dec 28, 2021
Nov 19, 2021
SEN. DAN SULLIVAN ADDRESSES THE LEGISLATURE BUCKLE UP To say it was mind-numbing to listen to Sen. Dan Sullivan in his address to a joint session of the legislature is an understatement. To say that was surprising wouldn’t be true. Mind you, he’s not up for reelection until 2026. His job security is solid. He doesn’t need to pander and whip up “the base” to get votes any more. This was the perfect opportunity to deliver a positive address, looking to the future, reassuring the 44% of Alaskans who didn’t vote for him that maybe he wasn’t so bad, and…
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED The legislature finalized House Bill 76 this week that allows Alaska to keep millions of dollars in critical federal covid-related funding. But it didn’t come easy. The House passed their version of the bill back in March, then it went to the Senate, which brought it to the floor with 41 amendments, and only 2 days to spare before the money evaporated. Republicans had some doozies. Majority leader Shelley Hughes (R-Palmer) had an amendment which said that “biological girls should play biological girls, and biological boys should play biological boys” in high school sports. Minority Leader Tom Begich (D-Anchorage) pointed out…
THE DEATH OF IRONY Who is responsible for this atrocity? Senator Peter Micchiche (R-Soldotna). This week he talked on air to Dan Fagan (AK right wing radio host who lives in Louisiana) about Anchorage politics. It was pretty rich. Micchiche thinks that Anchorage took this whole deadly pandemic thing way too seriously and… wait for it… “destroyed an economy.” This insightful piece of economic nonsense comes to you from the Senator who cast the deciding vote on SB21, the infamous 2013 legislation which has taken BILLIONS with a B directly out of Alaskans’ pockets and deposited them into the already-gigantic…
WAR OF THE MIDDLE SCHOOLERS The Middle-School-style social media spat between anti-masker Sen. Lora Reinbold and the Governor’s office (in which they are both losing and that’s fine with us) has claimed a new victim. Former sycophantic right-wing radio hack, Dave Stieren, who is now making six figures working for the governor’s ham-fisted communications team has received a smack-down. Sen. Reinbold made a post on her official page complaining about the fact that she’d been fined $250 for taking her mask off during a meeting, and that therefore she was a victim of the “mask tyranny” being “pushed” by…
SHOW ME THE MONEY It’s budget time in Juneau, and we’re looking at a strange set of circumstances that is complicating the process. Weirdly, it’s a giant influx of cash! You were not expecting that, were you? Joe Biden’s amazing American Rescue Plan means Alaska will receive about $1.1 billion, plus hundreds of millions more for education from K-UA, tribes and local governments, and infrastructure projects. You’ll recall Sen. Murkowski, Sen. Sullivan, and Rep. Young all voted against this bill. Guess they are not interested in bringing home the bacon anymore. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Now, the Alaska House and Senate must determine how to legally invest the money for the greater good of all Alaskans. Thankfully, there…
TODAY IS THE DAY! If you’re in the Anchorage Municipality, don’t say we didn’t tell you this one is important! You get to decide whether Anchorage has a responsible, decent mayor or a homophobic Alaska Family Council homeless-hating right winger. (yikes!) You also get to decide whether you get thoughtful, intelligent school board members, or ones who joke about corporal punishment and obsess about racism not existing on their social media posts. And if you’re in Midtown you get to pick between keeping Felix Rivera, a caring hard-working Assembly Chair, or letting a bunch of Q-azy, anti-masking, storm-the-Assembly-chambers wackos turn out to vote…
“IT’S UNBELIEVABLE” This is perhaps the best way to sum up the confirmation hearing for Alaska’s third Attorney General under Gov. Mike Dunleavy held in the Senate Judiciary Committee this week – a post from the Chair herself. Reinbold, unsurprisingly, spent the bulk of the time complaining about having to follow rules, “drilling down” on the nominee’s opinion on separation of powers, the executive branch overreaching on civil liberties, and the governor’s mandates on “cloth face coverings” in government buildings. “As you know in the building we have negative tests but we still have to wear these,” she said. And…
No, it’s not a sketchy Irish law firm – it’s this week in the Alaska State Legislature. THE BUDGET LOOMS It’s that time in the legislative session, when all the budget subcommittees that take on little bite-sized pieces of the big budget and make recommendations, are starting to wind down. Soon all those little pieces will reconnect and we’ll be on to the next phase. But for right now, part of the draft budget includes a controversial line item we’ve been keeping our eye on. Remember a few weeks ago when there was a hearing about the Dunleavy administration’s move…