The History Channel series ”Tougher in Alaska” is all about survival in an environment so harsh that most of us in the lower 48 can barely even imagine ourselves in some of the scenes the program brings to our television screens. The producers should do a segment on Alaska politics. While that particular activity takes place mostly indoors, out of the severely cold weather the 49th state experiences in winter, those who make the wrong political decisions can find their careers as frostbitten as the skier or snow machine rider who gets stranded out in the wilderness.
Politics Alaska style is a full-contact sport. They may play hardball in Illinois, but the game in Alaska is ice hockey, with a lot of body-checking and sticks in the face. And while it is not quite as messy as the Chicago way, the game played under the Northern Lights can be just as deadly to political careers as the contests in Illinois. This is one reason why those who have been close to the action in the great north warn others that they underestimate Sarah Palin at their own peril. She has been made tougher by playing the Alaska game. No matter how hard she gets hit, she always finishes the game. Palin is as much the happy warrior as the younger version of herself that went to the free throw line with a fractured ankle and still managed to sink the shot that iced the game.
Alaska’s governor has taken on some pretty rough opponents and beaten them. But it doesn’t come without a price. She and her family have been under attack by the national media for a few months, but the Alaska media and some eager co-conspirators have been just as tough on them at home, and it goes on year round.
Consider the recent situation surrounding the birth of her grandson. When the media reported that the governor’s daughter and future son-in-law had dropped out of high school, Sarah Palin’s protective instincts kicked in, and like a mama bear defends her cubs, the governor called the media to inform them that they had reported incorrectly. Both of the young parents were working on their GED diplomas, she said, and Baby Tripp’s dad was also an electrical apprentice on the North Slope.
What was the reaction of Palin’s political enemies to her defense of her cubs? Why to use the cubs against her, of course. The political hit men who have Palin in their sights in Alaska are no more above going after the young ones to get to the governor than are the likes of the deranged Andrew Sullivan and and unhinged Kossacks.
Dan Fagan is a radio talk show host and blogger in Anchorage. A former friend of Sarah Palin, he is now one of her most vocal enemies, and he has four big megaphones to aid him in his anti-Palin crusade - his radio show, his blog and a column in the local newspaper. The Alaska Daily News is a McClatchy newspaper, and they are always ready and willing to take Fagan’s words and spread them around through their chain of papers all over the U.S.
Fagan has charged that Levi Johnston is not qualified for the apprenticeship program he is enrolled in because the position has a federal requirement that apprentices have a high school diploma or an equivalent GED. So far the matter is still in question:
Fagan wrote that the director of the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. apprenticeship program confirmed that Johnston was enrolled in the program, but that he didn’t know if federal regulations prohibited those without a high school diploma from participating.
Fagan went further with his allegations, questioning how young Levi managed to get into the apprenticeship program, contending that there are long waiting lists for programs similar to the one in which Johnston is enrolled.
If this seems like pretty small potatoes to you, then you don’t realize how the game of politics is played in Alaska. It’s tough. Recall that this is where Gov. Palin was forced to endure the politically-motivated kangaroo court of an ethics investigation run by the legislature. Realize that when her opponents try to tell you how many Republicans were on the legislative committee that put the investigation in motion that the governor has as many political enemies within her own party as she does among the opposition, if not more of them. And it was all over a state trooper who is a disgrace to his badge. The state employee she is said to have fired wasn’t actually fired at all but offered another position which he refused to accept. And he was serving at the pleasure of the governor. He admitted as much until his union told him to shut up and say what he was told to say by his lawyer and by the union.
And so we come to the major difference between politics Alaska style and politics the Chicago way. Not long after Barack Obama had effectively secured a seat in the Illinois State Senate, the University of Chicago created a new position for which it hired his wife Michelle at an annual salary of $317,000. That doesn’t even raise an eyebrow in Chicago. Not even the fact that Michelle’s husband was part of the governing body which controlled funding requests for the hospital which employed her causes a stir. What about the facts that convicted felon Tony Rezko helped the Obamas buy their Chicago house, that Rezko’s lawyer is named as the owner on the deed and the lawyer pays all the taxes on the property? In Illinois, that barely evokes a yawn. As dirty as Chicagoland politics is, there is at least a code. Spouses and children are off limits. No one dares to break that code, unless there has been a divorce, and you want the records unsealed.
If Levi Johnston is participating in the program without being properly qualified to do so, we will hear about it. It could be that he is enrolled in a pre-apprenticeship program for those who want to apprentices as electricians. In fact, such a program is offered by the Alaska Job Corps Center in Palmer, which is near his home and would be the likely location where he signed up. We don’t know yet. Either way, they wouldn’t put up with this Mickey Mouse stuff in Chicago, but it’s tougher in Alaska.
Saracuda hangs tough!
Scope Sunday, January 4th at 1:16PM EST (link)Josh- Your throwing the bait again!
You shouldn't pee in wells you might have to drink from
Achance Sunday, January 4th at 1:17PM EST (link)in a good rule in politics in Alaska as well as other places. For the next two years it really doens’t matter a whole lot what Republicans Outside think of Gov. Palin; it only matters what Alaskans think of how she governs the State. Her ability to effectively govern the State depends on her ability to get along with a bunch of people she’s shown little care for in her meteoric rise. There is a trail of politically dead and wounded bodies in the wake of that meteoric rise, and the dead and wounded are Alaska Republicans. Until she got the VP nod, she got along quite well with the Anchorage Daily News and the Democrats. You misrepresent Fagan, whose conservative credentials are impeccable. The Ds here would certainly be surprised to see him characterized as a liberal tool. He doesn’t have much love for the Governor and he has some good reasons, some of which I share as well. He is also a good friend of former Senate President Lyda Green, who is now a former senator thanks in large measure to the efforts of Gov. Palin.
I don’t know the facts of Levi’s apprenticeship. I do know that the good ones, the ones that might actually give you paying work, are very hard to get into if you’re not some sort of “legacy.” I do know that the Department of Labor has a lot of authority over both the programs and the funding and that the Commissioner of Labor is a good friend of Todd Palin.
Anyway, she has to govern our State and deal with our issues and nobody here on the R side much cares what anybody else thinks about her or what she does. So, I don’t know that politics is tougher, but I do know that it is personal, very personal, here.
In Vino Veritas
Alaska Is a BIG State
bc3 Sunday, January 4th at 9:48PM EST (link)Achance -
I figured byou’d be here and know you are not a Palin fan - in large part because she avoids Juneau and not only wants to do business from Anchorage and would prefer the state capital to be in Anchorage.
I did a little of research on Juneau, looks like a beautiful place, but it’s as remote as it can be. Located in the Alaska ‘panhandle” it is far more convenient to Canada’s Northwest Territories than mainland Alaska. Most state legislators in the “lower 48″ drive to their state capital (usually 2 hours or less)and come home weekends. According to MSM Maps, Juneau is a 21 hour drive from Anchorage. Then you have to take an auto ferry. That’s the equivalent of driving time from Detroit to Maimi.
I realize moving the capital from Juneau would negatively affect you and your colleagues, but it’s obviously in the best interest of Alaskans.
bc3
bc3, I don't know where you are, but
Achance Monday, January 5th at 6:18AM EST (link)you need to understand that ALL of Alaska is remote. Just to give you some perspective: The Boeing 737 is the Alaska State Bird, so we’ll talk in terms of travel by B737. Most of you in the Lower 48 think of Seattle as some remote and exotic place. SEA is four or five hours by B737 from civilized places like New York, Boston, or DC. It’s a really, really long trip from SEA to DC when you have some a@#hole attorney or left-wing computer weenie sitting beside you. It’s two hours from LAX to SEA, an hour and a half from SFO to SEA.
From SEA to Ketchikan is two hours. From KTN to Juneau is a little less than an hour. From JNU to Anchorage is an hour and a half, give or take. From ANC to Fairbanks is a little less than an hour. From FAI to Barrow or Prudhoe Bay (Deadhorse) is another hour and a half. In other words, it is almost five hours of flight time in a B737 from Ketchikan to Barrow, or about the same as from SEA to BOS or NYC or from NYC to London.
Inside Alaska, it is about an hour from ANC to Bethel. A little more than an hour from ANC to Nome or Kotzebue. A couple of hours from ANC to Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians.. About an hour from ANC to Kodiak
Alaskans don’t travel by car. Most Alaskans couldn’t tell you how far it is in miles from one place to another if their life depended on it unless it is someplace they fly to often enough to know how many miles Alaska Airlines gives you, e.g., it is 909 from JNU to SEA and 571 from JNU to ANC. Best I recall, it is 1547 from ANC to SEA. Anchorage people travel by car, but most of them don’t go anywhere. There’s a hardy few who ski at Aleyeska or Hatcher’s Pass and who may take Outside relatives to Mt. McKinley, 247 miles, but other than that, they commute to work and have as little to do with Alaska as possible.
Almost nobody in ANC has been to Bethel, Nome, Kotzebue, or even Fairbanks, and few of them want to go or know anything about any of those places other than a vague notion that they’re far away and are cold in winter. Juneau is not guiltless in this respect either. Few Juneauites have been anywhere at all in Alaska unless they work for the State and travelled on State business.
Most here consider themselves conservatives and one of the defining characteristics of conservatives is deference to the American Founders. Well, Alaska had Founders as well. Few of them shared the politics of the majority on this board, but they were in many respects as radical as the Founders of America. The Founders of Alaska conceived a new state. They understood its vastness, its strategic importance, and its natural resource weath. They also understood that because of its size and climate it would never be able to sustain itself on the property, sales, and income tax model that governments in the Lower 48 used. The deal was that ANC would have the railroad, the big airport, and the roads, FAI would have the other end of the railroad and the roads and the University, and Juneau and Southeast would have the seat of government. That gave some reasonably equitable distribution of State revenue. It has nothing to do with where every jobseeker and loser from the Lower 48 winds up because it is easier to drive there. And that’s what ANC and the Mat Valley are; the place where people wind up. Don’t get me wrong, I wound up there too and lived in ANC for a decade; then I moved from Los Anchorage to Alaska. Along the way I lived and worked in most of the State. I’ve literally been from Ketchikan to Barrow, from the Bering Sea to the Canadian Border, and to most places in between. I don’t have the myopia and xenophobia of the typical suburban ANC or Mat Valley resident who’s never been off the four-lane.
So, anyway, I promise I won’t give you any advise about how to run whatever pissant state you live in in the Lower 48. When you’ve driven the Kuskokwim on the ice, met a polar bear as you turned a corner in Barrow, or hung upside down from the seatbelts of a badly bent Cessna 207, maybe we’ll talk about how to run Alaska.
In Vino Veritas
Ties to Murkowskis & Big Oil
bc3 Sunday, January 4th at 10:07PM EST (link)According to an Alaskan posting on FreeRepublic.com today, Dan Fagan has close ties to the Murkowskis and big oil. As you said, I am sure there are a number of personal issues because Sarah Palin certainly ended “business as usual” in Alaska.
bc3
And what do you base the notion that
Achance Monday, January 5th at 6:23AM EST (link)she ended “business as usual” on? Do you even have a clue what business as usual is? Give me your assessment of just one Alaska issue that is in play this Legislative session.
Of course Fagan has ties to Murkowski and oil; so does everybody else in the State that doesn’t work for a union or a greenie group. You Palin sycophants are cultists who haven’t a clue what you’re talking about.
In Vino Veritas
Stop w(h)ining
Josh Monday, January 5th at 10:50AM EST (link)Dude, save me your village pump political observations. Whether you Alaskans like it or not, you’re in the big leagues now. Palin isn’t just your governor anymore, she’s also our national standard bearer. Lay off her, or we’ll load for bear and come and do some hunting of our own up there.
Oh, and that well you’re talking about was in fact a pool of petty corruption. Small fries compared to BlagoRahma, I’m sure, but corruption all the same.
Form is temporary, class is eternal
Save it, bub
bs Monday, January 5th at 11:11AM EST (link)Achance has more knowledge of Sarah Palin in his pinky finger than you would hope to obtain in the next four years. He has a slightly different view of the world than we do. You may not like what he says (many here haven’t at times), but he speaks from first-hand, personal experience in AK government.
Now I’ll let Art eviscerate you.
Decorum is fo’ suckas
Achance is not the only person in Alaska.
Josh Painter Monday, January 5th at 11:32AM EST (link)With all due respect, he has his opinion of her, but it is not the majority opinion.
Palin’s approval ratings, although down since she was associated with the disaster that was the McCain campaign, are still in the miid-sixties, which is very good.
So the number of Republicans who do not approve of her, added to the number of Democrats who disapprove of her simply because she’s a Republican, added to the number of independents who disapprove of her, is a sum which remains smaller than the number of Alaskans who approve of her.
- JP
“An armed society is a polite society” - Robert A. Heinlein, “Beyond This Horizon” (1942)
Didn't say it was
bs Monday, January 5th at 11:51AM EST (link)and you’ll note that I mentioned that there are those here who disagree, present company included. My point was to the implication that AC is some yahoo with no detailed knowledge of Gov. Palin.
I happen to be a strong supporter of the Gov myself, as you are (maybe not AS strong, but up there..
).
Decorum is fo’ suckas
Who cares what he's got in his pinky?
Josh Monday, January 5th at 11:54AM EST (link)I merely observe he’s whining about Palin without giving any proper cause. First he talks about personal likes and dislikes and all the people whose frozen feathers she ruffled on her way up, as if that sort of vilage gossip matters to anybody. Then he switches to issues, finally to (perceived lack of) accomplishments.
I think the bottom line is our W(h)ino doesn’t much like the lady. That’s sad for him, but not something he should bother us with.
And my point still stands: she’s not just your governor anymore, she’s our national standard bearer. To quote Disraeli: damn your petty village dislikes, stick to your party!
Form is temporary, class is eternal
dude....wipe your feet....
$peciallist Monday, January 5th at 12:06PM EST (link)In your one month and two posts here, josh,
Achance Monday, January 5th at 3:29PM EST (link)you’ve demonstrated exactly nothing. Now, if you’d like a substantive discussion of Gov. Palin’s positions and performance as Governor, why don’t you start by laying out your understanding of her AGIA iniative and why you do or do not support it. Then we can move on to the pros and cons of the billion dollar forward fund of education, or the Resource Rebate. And since you’re such a fan of hers, you’ll know all about the legalities of executive privilege in her use of personal email for State business. Show me you have a clue about any of that stuff and maybe I’ll give a damn what you think.
In Vino Veritas
Come hunting anytime, Josh.
Achance Monday, January 5th at 1:05PM EST (link)Just remember, I can live in your world, I’m betting you wouldn’t last long in mine. And all she is to me is a governor, one of many I’ve known, and not a very good one.
In Vino Veritas
It must be the wine talking
Josh Monday, January 5th at 4:05PM EST (link)No dude, I’d survive just fine in yours, but you actually have to be sane to live in mine.
As for your policy questions:
- AGIA: generally suspicious of these sort of inducement payments, but understanding of the need to nail this one down before opponents of the deal try to break open negotiations for the umpteenth time. On these sort of intractable dossiers, unless you keep moving forward, the whole thing falls apart.
- forward funding education: given that your constitution (art. 7) makes the state responsible for maintaining a system of public schools, this seems perfectly acceptable to me. In Europe (look it up, it’s somewhere far, far away) this measure is generally used as a cost controlling measure (people tend to negotiate less vigorously about what’s further into the future).
- resource rebate: provided it’s a one-off and indeed linked to the renegotiated (previousy rather corrupt-smelling) deal with the northslope oil companies, it’s fine with me.
And about the executive privilege thing: are you in fact Andrew Halcro? Only he is sad enough to ask about something as irrelevant as this.
Now will you kindly never bother me with this stupid local politics stuff again?
How about a deal: you work hard to get her re-elected, then I will work hard to get her a house and a job in Washington DC in 2012. That way, we both get what we want. Live and let live, dude.
Form is temporary, class is eternal
She's nothing more than a local politician that some of you have the hots for.
Achance Monday, January 5th at 4:57PM EST (link)And actually, I’ll do my damnedest to make sure she doesn’t win the primary. If she wins the primary, I’ll actually take a hard look at the Democrat, but I’ll probably ride for the brand.
In Vino Veritas
Wow Art, that was weak....
Attack Mode Monday, January 5th at 5:05PM EST (link)Sorry man, but Josh addressed your points one by one, the least you could have done was counter on the issues.
As far as Palin in the primary and what you would do in the general, I think you went a bit far there…weren’t you pretty upset about the ouster of Stevens because of precisely the type of reasoning you are using to justify voting Dem against Palin?
BTW, still waiting for that email to let me know you have completed and posted a diary on nuts and bolts politics. Seriously, I want to know the ins and outs and you have the knowledge…share it brotha.
“Land of the Free and Home of da Whopper” Peter Griffin…Family Guy
conform and celebrate diversity….or else!!!
Steel-Belted Radial Right Winger
“I’ll create 5 million jobs from out of unicorn farts and pixie dust” Justatron paraphrasing Obamessiah…yes I love it that much.
See my response to Vegas below, aaron.
Achance Monday, January 5th at 7:08PM EST (link)I’m not bothering with some smartass two post wonder. As to the rest, I’ll get around to a substantive diary when the spirit moves me. I’ve written lots before on organizational structures and such; look at the archives.
In Vino Veritas
I feel obligated to return her affection
E Pluribus Unum Monday, January 5th at 5:08PM EST (link)It’s just the way I am. But for what it’s worth, it’s not true love. My heart belongs to Salma Hayek.
Carthago delenda est
Do your conservative t-shirt shopping at EPU Gear. Save the conservative muse, save the world.
That's it, you really are Andrew Halcro
Josh Tuesday, January 6th at 4:37AM EST (link)You know, the guy who got his clocks cleaned by Palin in the debate and then got his ass whooped for good measure as well on election day - and has been whining about Palin ever since. A sore loser, basically.
Here’s the deal, Andrew: she’s an opportunist who works with other people’s appointments and isn’t averse to the odd policy compromise? Big deal. Politics is the art of the imperfect. Reagan raised taxes to balance the budget and legalized abortion as governor. He’d never win the nomination today based on that record. And yet he’s still he best thing that ever happened to this country.
All I care about is that Palin’s the greatest communicator we’ve produced since Reagan, and that she’s solid on the issues that matter nationally: war and peace, culture of life, second amendment etc. What do I care about her position on ‘unrestricted general funds available for appropriation’. A president has assistant deputy OMB directors for that sort of piffling stuff.
I note that I offered you a deal to help you get rid of your perceived problem in 2012 and you rather continue your guerilla war against the standard bearer of your own party.
Form is temporary, class is eternal
That profile in sycophancy says more about the sorry state
Achance Tuesday, January 6th at 10:37AM EST (link)of the candidate/leadership cohort in the Republican Party than about Gov. Palin’s “ability.”
Both her tax “reform,” ACES, and her gasline contract, AGIA, are the political equivalent of vaporware. In the process of marketing this vaporware she managed to completely alienate the Producers of Alaska’s oil and gas and to give a half billion dollars to a Canadian company that is probably laughing uncontrollably at the Alaskan rubes as it spends the money that it doesn’t have to do anything for. Unfortunately, AGIA and ACES are both the sort of vaporware that gets lots of advance orders and sends the stock through the roof enabling the owner to sell that stock at enormous profit before all the suckers figure out that they didn’t buy anything. Obviously, you bought a bunch of the IPO.
The ONLY thing all the Palin sycophants know about her with any certainty is that she carried a special needs baby to term and apparently either instilled a pro-life attitude in Bristor or insisted upon same - actually, under Alaska law Bristol could have just disappeared for an afternoon and “resolved the issue” without so much as a by your leave to her parents. The rest of what most of you know is an image manufactured by the McCain campaign and the very little bit of print and video that is out there about a person who was quite obscure prior to McCain’s selection of her. If the majority of the Republican Party is willing to consider her the national standard bearer on such a thin reed, the Party is in even worse shape than I thought.
She’s a Republican officeholder with some national name ID, much of it negative, that’s it. I was the good Republican soldier while she was the nominee. I feel no such obligation now. She’s the Governor of MY state and she and her administration make decisions that directly effect my life and livelihood and the welfare of my children - at least the two who haven’t abandoned Alaska’s stagnant economy, low wages, and high costs. So, what she does here is the only thing of any importance to me.
In Vino Veritas
Palin took on the old boy network in AK
Vegas_Rick Monday, January 5th at 5:30PM EST (link)One cannot help but infer, from his commentary and posts, that Achance was part and parcel of that network. He has been very short on specifics and very long on generalities when it comes to Ms Palin’s qualifications to be our standard bearer.
He insinuates that the Murkowski’s, Stevens and Young are really not all that bad. “We” in the lower 48 got what we wanted when Stevens was convicted, he said. Etc., etc, etc….
I think one of the good ‘ole boys is just unhappy to not be one of the good ‘ole boys anymore.
Achance, this should NOT be taken as an indictment of your contribution to the site. I read and enjoy most of your posts. You are certainly the most knowledgeable around here on the subject of Alaska. You just seem to be a little vague in your descriptions of Ms Palins shortcomings.
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” Calvin Coolidge.
Not really Vegas_Rick.
Achance Monday, January 5th at 7:06PM EST (link)I was more an outsider who knew some of the “old boys” and I could do some things for them and they could do some things for me. The rap against anyone who isn’t inside is always that they want to be inside and that definitively isn’t true in my case. I was as sick of the old boys as the next one, so much so that I just retired and walked away back before the ‘06 election. If I’d wanted to, I could have stayed until the end of Murkowski and in all likelihood even stayed in a Palin Administration. I have a reputation for loyalty to whoever is paying me. If I don’t like you, I won’t work for you. If I take your money, I won’t work against you. I’m very much a dance with who brung you kinda guy, which is the root of my issues with Sarah Palin.
She was the consumate “good ol girl” and those “good ol boys” that she loves to castigate as a part of her maverick/reformer persona put her in high places; she built her career on the bodies of the people who helped her. That spot on the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission was a pure patronage reward to her from Frank Murkowski and it sure as Hell wasn’t about her comprehensive knowledge of the oil and gas industry. There ain’t a whole lot of oil and gas stuff with the PTA or the Wasilla City Government. I know EXACTLY what happened in her famous “outing” of the State Party Chair, and it ain’t what she says happened. No, I’m not saying she’s lying. I am saying her version is a combination of her own ignorance of the situation and a nice spin she’s adopted.
She’s assembled an administration comprised primarily of holdover congenital ‘crats, mostly Knowles appointees. We should have fired them in Murkowski but didn’t for various reasons few of which were good reasons. On top of what is essentially the Knowles administration, she has brought a few trusted Wasilla buddies, none of whom know a thing about running a large organization, a few people with some legislative staffer experience, and an assortment of people with various beefs against the Murkowski Administration, e.g., most of her Natural Resources and Revenue people - the folks who brought us AGIA and ACES.
She’s been an opportunist at every step of the way and her actual governance has been characterized primarily by pandering, e.g, the Resource Rebate. The Democrats developed the meme that Murkowski’s taxation changes were too generous to the Industry and she jumped on it. Maybe it was, but it was what it took to get the producers to actually make a deal to bring gas to market - Gov. Palin’s AGIA line doesn’t have any gas and no way to get anybody to give it any, and TransCanada has a half billion dollars of Alaska’s money. Her ACES revenue/taxation plan places Alaska at the mercy of the Industry’s accountants. Since it is based on “profits,” the vertically integrated producers can put the profits wherever in the stream is most advantageous to them. Neither Alaska nor any other government has the staff, skill, and resources to do battle with Exxon over whether they made that billion here or in Texas or in Nigeria. That’s why we abandoned any notion of revenue based on anything other than volume way back when she was Sarah Barracuda on the HS basketball team, well actually, way back when she was in grade school. If the Government isn’t just bought off from pursueing it at all, we’ll be in court with the Producers for the next twenty years trying to figure out just how much they made last year and what they owe in taxes. See, e.g., the twenty year saga of the Exxon Valdez damages.
Leaving aside the unconstitutionality of a dedicated fund, the Education forward fund takes all the pressure off Alaska’s profligate school districts. When they have to go to the Leg every year and beg, they can be held accountable. Now there’s no way to say “no ticky, no money” when they waste money.
I guess I’m glad the Resource Rebate didn’t go into the Permanent Fund because it would have been lost in the market meltdown, but I’m not a big PF fan anyway. What Alaskan’s really needed though was some help with energy prices, not some money for a new flat screen. One thing that might have helped with the brutal heating oil and diesel prices in rural Alaska would have been to enter into a fixed price contract at less than the market with one of the refineries to produce refined product for Alaska use only. That would have genuinely helped the people in rural Alaska with their $7-10/gal. fuel. With the pander bucks, who knows where the money went, but I’m willing to bet Alaska Airlines got more than anyone else.
As I’ve said here before, I don’t think I ever worked for a political manager who didn’t have a list of people he didn’t want to become former employees. I’ve made lots of them into former employees and I’ve told my principal it couldn’t be done in many instances as well. If the Tpr. Wooten thing had come to me, I’d have looked at it and if it could be done, he wouldn’t even be a memory and any union grievance would be strictly duty of fair representation. If I looked at it and concluded I couldn’t do it, if I’d have heard anything more about it or been pressured in any way about it, I’d have ratted off whoever was doing it so fast it would make your head swim. Reporter’s numbers fall trippingly off my fingertips. The whole TrooperGate mess was simply incompetence at the staff level that she compounded by first welcoming a look at it without knowing what might show up and then by trying to hide stuff. She WILL eventually be forced by a court to give up all that stuff she’s tried to hide. If you know that going in, why do it? Did nobody tell her? Did they tell her and she didn’t listen? My usually reliable sources tell me that you DO NOT tell her things she doesn’t want to hear. That’s a bad, bad trait in a political executive.
Now I can get lots and lots further down in the weeds about budget and personnel issues and labor relations issues, but it’s the sort of stuff that makes most people’s eyes glaze over. But if it is your belief that I don’t have substantive issues but rather have some sort of sour grapes thing going, well, we can talk about subfunds of the general fund and their Constitutionality and we can talk about the meaning of the phrase “unrestricted general funds available for appropriation” when some OMB weenie uses that phrase. We can tallk about all those holdovers she’s left around who run the government for their own benefit rather that the benefit of the People. I can keep going.
In Vino Veritas
First impressions
Neil Stevens Monday, January 5th at 5:10PM EST (link)[ ] Substantive post
[x] Bad attitude
[x] Definitely trollish
[x] Silly slur against Alaskans
[x] Mind-boggling rejection of local expertise
Want to run for conservatives? Give.
There Is No Crisis
It's a real shame
heshtesh Sunday, January 4th at 1:42PM EST (link)when a large percentage of the American populus is to ignorant to posses the deductive skills to separate what is relevent and what is not. Unfortunately a significant percentage reminds me of computers garbage in garbage out.
Sarah Palin soon as possible we need HELP!!
AK GOP = anti-Palin
Just_Saying Sunday, January 4th at 3:03PM EST (link)Many of those active in the Republican party in Alaska were very much against Palin during the election, and actively worked against her election. Things have gotten worse; they’re still trying to make her unpopular with the voters. Along with the out-of-state Obamabots, she’s been getting creamed in the blogs lately…
Probably will be a Democrat as governor next time, if the voters don’t see through the sham of the Republican activists.
Really sad…
.
You've got your "mavericks," we got ours - just sayin'
Achance Sunday, January 4th at 3:25PM EST (link)And on just what do you base your conclusion that the “Republican activists” are a sham. You know a fleeting image crafted by a Presidential Campaign. We know a political figure and an active Governor. Some of us even know a little about Alaska and Alaska issues. Some of us don’t agree with her on some major Alaska issues.
In Vino Veritas
Often for Personal Reasons
bc3 Sunday, January 4th at 9:54PM EST (link)As I stated above, there are a lot of personal issues involved, For example the value of your property would obviously be affected if Palin is successful in moving the state capital to Anchorage (which appears to be a wise decision). Juneau is like having Michigan’s capital on the Minnesota border of the Upper Penninsula.
bc3
Maybe she'll wink at you. nt
Achance Monday, January 5th at 6:44AM EST (link)In Vino Veritas
Governor Sarah Palin, a force for good.
atemely Sunday, January 4th at 3:52PM EST (link)I posted a comment on Dan Fagan’s article on adn that his article is insignificant on the 50th anniversary of the statehood of Alaska and to remind Alaskans toThank the Lord, they had officials 50 plus years ago who had the foresight of statehood rather than a commonwealth like Puerto Rico or an independent nation like Cuba which was overtook by Castro the same year of Alaska statehood. The most important issue for me is Gov. Palin’s pro-life words and deeds. I have never heard or read of a governor or prominent elected official in any state or country have a DS baby during her term. 90% of DS babies are aborted. Gov. Palin and her husband handled their responsibilities to God well. Alaska and our country will be handled responsibly as well by Sarah Palin. My wish is that Gov. Palin will speak at the March For Life rally at the Washington mall on Jan 22, 2009. Maybe for the first time major media will cover the well attended ‘not anymore Catholic thing’ rally.
Sarah Palin - not just talk
Just_Saying Sunday, January 4th at 6:36PM EST (link)Well said, atemely. I was taken with Palin’s courage when I read about Trig’s birth in the spring, and remain a staunch Palin supporter.
Don’t know whether Governor Palin should venture towards DC during the inauguration — she’s got lots of work in Alaska during the next 3 months. Perhaps a later March for Life rally would be better-timed for everyone.
.
I lost a friend over a argument about Palin
Josh Painter Sunday, January 4th at 4:49PM EST (link)Well, a web friend, anyway. We had met on a Fred Thompson support site many months ago. She went all ballistic on me over Ted Stevens. According to her, Stevens was the best thing that ever happened to AK, and now it’s Sarah Palin’s fault that a Dem has Saint Ted’s Senate seat. I didn’t have the heart to remind her that Stevens’ own corruption is what brought him down, not Palin.
Most Alaska Republicans I have encountered that don’t like Palin seem to have liked the old guard (Stevens, the Murkowskis, etc,) just fine.
- JP
“An armed society is a polite society” - Robert A. Heinlein, “Beyond This Horizon” (1942)
Columnist for Anchorage Daily News
bc3 Sunday, January 4th at 10:24PM EST (link)If you check the website http://www.adn.com, it appears Dan Fagan is a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News.
bc3
She is a good governor
indym Sunday, January 4th at 11:11PM EST (link)and a good person. She stands up for her convictions and beliefs even though they may not be popular. Her family life is complicated just like most families. I am not an Alaskan so I do not know the political winds there. But I think that Gov Palin will have no problem raising money for a reelection in 2010. She has a ton of support just about everywhere and I can only assume in Alaska as well. The liberals will never love nor respect Palin becasue she represents everything they despise. Palin will be the calm in the midst of the Obama storm.