Archive for the ‘Mark Begich’
Open Thread – Lights On!
Thanks to all who contacted their legislators regarding SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) yesterday. Google didn’t go dark, but included a link to take action against these two bills and got over 4 million people to make their feelings known. That’s some pretty impressive online activism. Wikipedia, Reddit, and a [...]
Teflon Don Strikes Again – Young Cleared of Ethics Charges
Charges that Alaska’s one and only congressman took money for his legal defense fund illegally… (where have we heard THAT before in this state?) have been dropped, and Don Young has been cleared. The complaint stated that he’d taken too much money from an out-of-state bazillionaire donor with massive corporate interests in offshore drilling. In [...]
The Tragedy and Strategic Failure of the F-22
By Elstun Lauesen Franklin C. Spinney was a staff analyst attached to the Department of Defense’s ASD/PA&E (Tactical Air Division). In 1991 he wrote an independent position paper on why the F-22 should not have been approved for engineering and development. His objections were two-fold: first, the production of the F-22 didn’t make strategic sense [...]
Begich and Murkowski – Alaska’s Constitution-Optional Senators
Let’s play a little game. Imagine this scenario, and then tell me in what country this story takes place. You wake up and go to work. Maria, in the next cubicle over, isn’t there. And she isn’t there the next day. You and your coworkers come to find out that military officers knocked on her [...]
Crude Awakening – Intro and Discussion for Your Reading Pleasure
I had great fun hosting Firedoglake’s book salon yesterday. Authors Amanda Coyne and Tony Hopfinger were there to answer questions about their new book/stocking stuffer Crude Awakening – Money, Mavericks and Mayhem in Alaska. For those of you who weren’t able to make it, below is my introduction with a link to the conversation at [...]
Open Thread – Crude Awakening Book Salon TODAY!
Join me and author Amanda Coyne of Alaska Dispatch today at firedoglake.com for a book salon featuring the new release Crude Awakening – Money, Mavericks and Mayhem in Alaska by Coyne and co-author Tony Hopfinger. Details below. Hope to see you there! [Cross-posted from Alaska Dispatch] Jeanne Devon, AKA AK Muckraker, who runs the popular [...]
Where’s Don? Rep. Don Young is Most Absent Member of Congress
Once again, Alaska has topped the charts. Even though we have but one lone congressman, he holds a dubious dishonor. Yes, folks, Don Young is the least present member of the United States Congress. Representative Don Young of Alaska likes to get around his home state, and he does not let his voting schedule get [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Us vs. Them in a Back to Basics War
~Free market under-regulated air in Beijing, China It’s become increasingly clear in the past months that the Environmental Protection Agency is squarely in the crosshairs of the Republican Party. But it’s not just insignificant or annoying rules and regs that irritate the right. The battles being fought are elemental and huge – The Clean Air [...]
Oyster Roundup – Theft, Shakedown, Hot Sauce and More…
~Thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and more! [The Walrus and the Carptenter, Lewis Carroll] A half dozen on the half shell. Slurp ‘em up! (Links in the titles) Rick Perry, Evangelical Economist Rick Perry thinks that God crashed the economy on purpose to teach us a lesson and return [...]
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 [...]
