Friday, there was a press conference at which five former mayors of Anchorage pledged their support to the One Anchorage Voter Initiative–one that will provide the same legal protections to gay and transgender folks in employment, housing, finances and business that other folks already receive.

Per the press release:

The bipartisan group consists of:

US Senator Mark Begich;
former Alaska Governor Tony Knowles;
former Mayor Rick Mystrom;
former Mayor Jack Roderick, and
former Mayor Matt Claman.

“Across the nation, you see more and more communities passing similar laws because it’s the right thing to do,” said Senator Begich. “I am proud to see Anchorage take a stand and ensure that the city’s laws protect everyone fairly and equally.”

“This initiative is about giving all Anchorage residents the same legal protections,” said Former Governor Knowles. “I believe that if someone works hard and plays by the rules, they should be given a fair shake to earn a paycheck and put a roof over their family’s head.”

“When I talk with new minority residents of Anchorage, I often hear them talk about how welcoming and tolerant our city is,” said former Mayor Rick Mystrom. “As a former Mayor of Anchorage I’m proud of that and as an owner and operator of apartment buildings in Anchorage, this amendment is consistent with my beliefs and my company’s practices.”

The issues of fair hiring practices and equal housing trancend partisan politics among most reasonable people of all political persuasions.

Unfortunately, we have a group of well-funded unreasonable folks in this city as well.

As Mudflats has previously reported, Jim Minnery and the Alaska Family Council seem to be actively fundraising based on deliberate misinformation. They are also receiving expensive help from outside Alaska in the form of Religious Right legal group the Alliance Defense Fund that is mischaracterizing the initiative as a threat to religious freedom. Non-partisan Alaska employment law experts disagree.

For the religious right in Alaska, this is only the beginning. However, we have a very exciting solution!

To commemorate the 35 years that LGBT folks in Anchorage have been trying to get equal rights, One Anchorage launched a fundraising event called the 35/35/35 project. The campaign has been asking 35 supporters to then ask 35 of their friends to give $35.00 each.

The Mudflats One Anchorage Donation Page is RIGHT HERE!

Here at Mudflats, we decided to pool our Mudflatters, our Facebook pages and our Twitter followers to take it a step further…we would like to raise the equivalent amount to 350 of you donating $35.00 each!

You can find the Mudflats/One Anchorage Donation Page HERE!

If you can’t donate $35.00, give whatever you can. Our goal is $12,250.00 and I absolutely believe that we can do it! Equal rights for all is too important!

Please donate to The Mudflats/One Anchorage Donation Page!

Thank you all for your support and encouragement and don’t forget the most important thing of all…vote for equal rights on April 3rd!

As the immediate past Vice Presidential nominee, it’s hardly surprising that most people outside Alaska view Sarah Palin as a card-carrying member of the GOP establishment. Despite her husband Todd’s seven year dalliance with the secessionist Alaska Independence Party, and his quiet conversion to the GOP when his wife decided to run for office, Sarah has always been a party member—technically. Many are perplexed that Palin “suddenly” has turned against the very establishment that brought her national fame, and is now throwing her support (albeit not a formal endorsement) behind Newt Gingrich and against the party’s presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney.

What surprised onlookers don’t realize is that going from toeing the line as the party’s VP pick to her new role as bomb thrower is, to Palin, like slipping out of those shiny red high heels and into a nice comfy old pair of running shoes. She’s back in her element. The truth is that the only political tactic that ever won Sarah Palin an election—from Mayor of Wasilla to Governor of Alaska—was proclaiming herself the outsider, and railing against the powers-that-be. As the expression goes, she’s not the one inside the tent pissing out, she’s the one outside the tent pissing in. And she likes it that way.

In 2006, Palin was facing an incumbent Republican in the Alaska gubernatorial primary. Corruption was widespread in the Alaska legislature, and oil companies were purchasing their very own lawmakers, sometimes for as little as a few thousand dollars a pop. After an FBI raid, microphoned informants, hidden cameras in hotel rooms, and cash changing hands, 10 percent of the legislature (Republicans all) ended up indicted for bribery related offenses. The Governor at the time, Frank Murkowski, was trying to rush approval of a Petroleum Profits Tax—negotiated behind closed doors and highly favorable to oil companies who were eager to take as much as they could get at the expense of Alaska citizens.

It was easy to find fault with the Republican party in 2006, and Palin did just that. She rose up from near obscurity, red-suited, fresh-faced, like Joan of Arc ready to take on an army of evil-doers who were running the show. “The machine,” “the good ol’ boys’ network,” “the establishment,” “evil-doers”—these phrases flowed from her lips like a mantra. In fact, literal comparisons to Joan of Arc, King David, and the biblical Queen Esther peppered the emails of support she got from fans. Palin welcomed the allusions. She quite literally believed that God had called her to take on the fight. He had a plan for her. However, the political pragmatist in her knew not to wear her religious zealotry on her sleeve, and those who inhabited that world with her saw the wisdom in it. Mainstream they are not.

Palin’s is not a religion where a quick crossing of oneself in the end zone, a “God bless America,” or a sticky fish on the bumper of the SUV is sufficient. She lives in a world of divine interventions, laying on of hands, secret prayer teams, Providence, Destiny, casting out witches, prayer warriors, intercession, visions and dreams from seers sent through email, or on slips of paper passed at rallies… It is a Dungeons and Dragons world of magic, treachery, and Good with a capital G vs. Evil with a capital E. The world is pregnant with secret meaning. Signs are everywhere. One can imagine a long-ago Sarah as one of those children who plays dress-up, puts on the tiara and doesn’t just pretend she’s a princess—she becomes one.

This is why it is sometimes so difficult and frustrating for politicos to predict what Palin may do next. It all depends on what God wants, and how he delivers his message. The one constant is that if God opens a door, it’s not just an invitation to plow through—it’s a mandate. Palin has thereby become a living example of some sort of divine, political Peter Principle—she has risen to and exceeded her own level of incompetence.

She is not intellectually curious because she doesn’t need to be. She doesn’t know much because it’s not necessary that she does. And she really doesn’t have an overriding political philosophy, because she will be presented with people who will act as instruments of advancement and who’ll tell her what she needs to say. “God brought us together,” she told her inner circle as governor. Everything will work out as it was meant to be. She will arrive at whatever the destination is, whenever the time is right, with a small and tightly knit circle of confidants around her. She can only function through that inner circle.

As long as she is the devoted martyr, the populist Everyman, eyes gazing upward, standing strong against the forces of evil, suffering the injustices and untruths, little else matters.

And as much as Governor Palin hated the villains (the Alaska Republican Party), they hated her right back. She ousted Gov. Frank Murkowski with more than 50% of the vote in a three-way race for the Republican nomination. She clobbered popular former two-term Democratic governor Tony Knowles in the general election. And then once in office, she did the unforgivable. She worked with Democrats in the legislature to revamp Alaska’s oil tax policy, stuck a stake in the heart of Murkowski’s oil-friendly Petroleum Profits Tax, and replaced it with something called ACES (Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share). She wrote every Alaskan man, woman and child an energy rebate check for $1200 to help ease the cost of high energy bills. She went toe to toe with members of her own party in leadership positions, who’d built careers kowtowing to big oil. She praised Obama’s energy plan.

Of course, her administration wasn’t all smooth sailing. Despite the political talents she possessed, her own narcissism, obsessive tendencies, cronyism, middle school drama, truth twisting, and need to settle personal scores emphasized her incompetence as a leader. But using the GOP as target practice was a delicious indulgence for Palin—and its time has come again on the national scene.

Even during the 2008 race, it was almost unbearable for Palin to play ball and do as she was told. At that time, the opportunity ahead didn’t call for working with Dems and throwing darts at Republicans, nor did it call for compromise or praise where it was due. The door was open, and this time it called for brass knuckles. Nobody was going to tell her that Michigan was out of play. Nobody was going to tell her not to talk about Obama palling around with terrorists. Nobody was going to tell her to sit down and shut up on election night. Nobody puts Sarah in the corner.

Her latest quip for the 2012 election cycle  is that the Republican party is “Stalinesque.” Other than perhaps knowing that Stalin came from that country you can see from Alaska, it’s doubtful that analogy sprang forth from her own grey matter. But Palin has surrounded herself with a fresh new “inner circle” that knows of such things, and has been delivered to her. They are the Cyrano to her Christian de Neuvillette. They whisper “Stalinesque” and other smart things from the rose bushes, and she stands in the moonlight, speaking the mavericky words of insurgency to the camera, eyes shining, and beams of righteous light emanating from her like a halo.

In a 2009 email, after being uninvited to speak at a Republican event, Palin had quite a bit to say about Newt Gingrich, the man she now defends.

…Yes, (Newt/GOP) are egotistical, narrow minded machine goons... but all the more reason God protected me from getting up on stage in front of 5000 political and media “elites” to praise him, then it be shown across the nation. At some point Newt would have shown his true colors anyway and we would have been devastated having known we’d earlier prostituted ourselves up in front of the country introducing him and acting like that good ol’ rich white guy is the savior of the party.

Plus, I had nothing to wear, and God knew that too. Party machinery sucks. I can’t tell you how much I hate it – nothing ever changes – we went through it before and after the VP campaign… I’ve gone through it all my career. We just don’t fit into it, and maybe we should thank God for that. [From Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin - A Memoir of Our Tumultuous Years]

The blatant hypocrisy of it will not occur to her. That was then and this is now. Then, he was the establishment, the machine, the good ol’ boy, the goon—everything she despised. But now, Mitt Romney is the golden boy of the party and Newt has become the outcast—the misunderstood, the Rogue. It’s a new day of dress-up. A new fairy tale. Regardless of her costume du jour—newscaster, sex symbol, fisherman, hunter, hockey mom—she’ll be playing the same role.  And there’s a new good guy and a new bad guy. All she knows is that’s the way it worked out, and if this is where she was meant to be, then so be it.

It’s also interesting to note, that back in 2006, Palin’s other Republican rival was Fairbanks businessman John Binkley. Palin referred to him as “the machine candidate”, “Rich Man Binkley” with his “cheesy smile,” and even hesitated about using a particular local pollster because he was Binkley’s “mormon bro’” and it might affect his loyalty to her. Fair warning to Mitt Romney—Palin is no stranger to snarking at rich, smiling machine Mormons.

~John Binkley

Whether Palin will attempt to jump in the race this time, make her move at convention time, wait until 2016, or take a different path entirely will depend on factors as of yet unknown. A door will open, a cast of characters will present itself, and Palin will do whatever needs to be done. Whatever it is, rest assured it will not be with the blessing of the “machine.”

Last school year, I wrote a post about the proposed cuts in the Anchorage School District budget and how they would affect a family of a middle school student. It was then I became aware of the outrageous fees Mayor Dan Sullivan was charging the school district–for example: 100% of the salaries and benefits of those Anchorage Police–called Resource Officers–who only service the School District about 70% of the time. I tried to show how they were taking millions of dollars away from our kids. (Note: As of this week, these fees have not changed.)

Sadly, this week Jeanne wrote a post about this year’s cuts. They are much worse than last year and are precipitated by both Governor Parnell’s under-funding as well as Mayor Sullivan’s refusal to tax to the cap.

But it’s not just Anchorage that is suffering. Fairbanks, Juneau and many smaller and more rural schools are in deep trouble if things don’t change. The worst part: this is all orchestrated as part of a larger and more national attack on public education. Alaska is just next-in-line.

For over a year now, I’ve watched how the anti-public school drama has played out in Alaska on multiple fronts. From the Municipality of Anchorage to the Legislature to the Governor’s Office to outside organizations, the forces at work are performing a complex dance in multiple venues…a dance that is impossible to follow unless one is a complete research nerd (and then, only tenuously). I’ve wanted to write about it all in that context…I’ve started a number of posts. However, I haven’t been able to figure out how to present it. I started writing a list, like an outline…

…and realized that was the best way to start.

So here is a list of the characters in this drama and the means they are using to achieve their agenda — a summary of their activities so far. Jeanne and I will be writing multiple posts in the future on these education issues. This gives you a place to look up the various characters and refresh your memory about their place in the story.

Disclaimer: I want to emphasize that while the characters supporting these false “reforms” in Alaska seem to be Republican, the issue is not a partisan one. From what I can see, the majority of Alaska’s Republican Legislators are not yet “sold” on this bill of goods and are more than happy to receive input from their constituents.

The problem: Like every other Alaska issue, these strategies are generally pushed forward by those religious ideologues and/or those beholden to businesses/corporations who want privatization across-the-board. These businesses/corporations who are pushing this “education reform” agenda can do so with tons of money and the help of friendly politicians. We must contact our State Senators and Representatives to counter any misinformation. I hope this and future posts help you to do that.

Leading the attack:

– Governor Sean Parnell — I covered some of the issues with the Governor at the beginning and discuss his budget below. Since the election, Governor Parnell has truly shown his religious extremist leanings and tea party philosophy, which includes a strong “Christian” influence in the interpretation of law. An alarming number of his appointees also seem to reflect his beliefs.

– Representative Wes Keller — Originally appointed by Sarah Palin to fill a vacancy in the Legislature, Mr. Keller is a religious extremist and tea partier through-and-through. He is a state chairman for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Mr. Keller is the sponsor/creator of House Bill 145 and House Joint Resolution 16 (see below) with some help from ALEC’s “model bills.”

– Senator Fred Dyson — He wasn’t appointed by Palin but “ditto” to everything else. Dyson is sponsor of the companion legislation in the Senate, SB 106 and he attended the ALEC Conference with Keller last year.

– ALEC — A slightly re-worded summary from Pro Publica — I encourage you to follow the link and read the entire post: “For decades, a discreet nonprofit called the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC has brought together state legislators and corporate representatives to produce business-friendly “model” legislation. These “model” bills form the basis of hundreds of pieces of legislation each year, and they often end up as laws.”

– The Friedman Foundation — Per the Nation: “For most of the half-century since economist Milton Friedman first advanced the idea of school vouchers, it’s been the ultimate weapon in our educational debates, always ticking just under the surface, never quite going off. But after last November’s Republican statehouse victories, the right, sometimes abetted by Democrats and liberals, has brought back vouchers and school privatization with a vengeance.”

The Foundation has been heavily involved in most of those voucher battles across the country. As I will discuss below, they have turned their sites on Alaska by conducting a poll of residents regarding school vouchers.

– Mayor Dan Sullivan — I have recapped some of the Mayor’s anti-education moves at the beginning of this post and Mudflats as a whole has covered many more. His “Education Summit” is ongoing and I discuss it below.

– Jim Minnery–Minnery’s Alaska Family Council lists “School Choice” as one of their top issues. Minnery has been a proponent of changing the AK Constitution in order to use State money for religious education since back in 2008, as this email between Gov. Sarah Palin and then Atty General Talis Coleberg shows.

– The Catholic Archdiocese of Anchorage It’s not hard to guess the motivation behind the Archdiocese’s push for school vouchers, as reflected in the “Catholic Anchor.” A story in the Chicago Tribune on what the results of Indiana’s voucher program revealed: “…Just as backers had hoped and opponents feared, a new statewide school voucher program in Indiana is draining money from public education and offering new life to struggling parochial schools.” My understanding is that the economy has taken a serious toll on the enrollment in parochial (as well as private) schools in the state. Last year, one of them had a Senior graduating class of three. These schools may be counting on our State money to keep them afloat.

– KIPP Charter Schools — I included KIPP on this list even though their only actual appearance in the state was in the form of Dr. Mike Feinberg, who taught 5th grade for three whole years with Teach For America and then founded the “Knowledge Is Power Program” (KIPP) Charter Schools. The reason I list them is because the presentation by Feinberg at the Education Summit (third video, first speaker after Superintendent Comeau) sounded like he was trying to sell a Veg-O-Matic or a set of Ginsu knives rather than inform a group about education alternatives. And it makes sense…Alaska is a rich oil state with a surplus when most other states have deficits. You could almost see the man drooling.

The Artillery:

– Governor Parnell’s Operating Budget (HB 284 — starting on page 8) — The Governor promised that his budget was a “full funding of K-12 Education”. In actuality, the budget doesn’t even cover inflation (which averaged 3.16% in 2011) and now has school districts across the state scrambling to cut much-needed programs. How much of a slap-in-the face was it to K-12 Education in Alaska? The “Teaching and Learning” line-item in the Department of Education budget makes up the bulk of the money shared by every school district in Alaska. If the budget stays as-is, Alaska schools will receive a little over $237 million this year…an increase of about $3 million from last year or about 1.3%. However, the Office of the Governor “Executive Office” line-item (which includes the Governor’s Staff) will be receiving over $13 million this year — an increase of almost $2 million or over 13%!

– House Joint Resolution (HJR) 16 — A resolution which, if passed, would place an amendment to the Constitution on the ballot, allowing for public (education) money to go for a “public purpose.” According to the text of the resolution, it still specifically does NOT allow state money to go towards private or religious institutions. However, it DOES seem geared to allow state funds for privatized education. Also, I have been told of one more possibility (which will require more research)…it could leave open the option of a for-profit business that owns a religious school receiving funds. From Wes Keller’s Sponsor Statement:

HJR 16 opens some of these doors for both public and private education by allowing the release of funds to more than just public schools. This Constitutional Amendment allows those students seeking to excel in secondary and post secondary education to attend a school that meets their needs.

Like I said…more research…

– House Bill (HB) 145 (Senate companion bill SB 106) — Titled the same as the ALEC template voucher bill, HB145 is intended to establish: “…the parental choice scholarship program to be administered by school districts for the purpose of paying the cost of attending grades kindergarten through 12 at public and private schools…” In other words, it will establish school vouchers with State of Alaska money.

At this time, it suffers from some major drawbacks:

1) It’s unconstitutional per Article 7 Section 1 a) State money cannot be used to fund private or religious education (see HJR 16) and b) We must “establish and maintain a system of public schools open to all children of the State,” — since many village parents will be unable to utilize this “choice” (voucher), it could quite possibly get decimated in the courts.

2) Because there have been amendments on top of amendments in an attempt to get it to work, it is a huge pile of gobbledy gook that most of the members of the House Education Committee don’t even completely understand, based on their Friday meeting. Those pushing the bill (Rep Keller, Rep Dick) seem to think it’s been in the Education Committee “an embarassing” amount of time and just needs to get moved along…whether it functions or not.

**There is another meeting scheduled for Wednesday Feb 1st and I intend to send my testimony to the Committee beforehand. I encourage you to do the same.**

– “Alaska K-12 School Choice Survey” — Several months ago, I was listening to a conservative show when the host started discussing a poll that proves Alaska wants to have vouchers private charter schools. It turned out to be a poll that was funded by the Friedman Foundation. The host was quoting numbers over 60% in favor of various types of alternative education…pretty impressive. When I researched the poll, I discovered the most important question:

How familiar are you with [Charter Schools/Virtual Schools/School Vouchers] in K-12 education? Not that familiar/Never heard of it — 62%

So basically, the vast majority polled had no idea what these folks were talking about. So, when these Alaskans who were quite used to receiving free money in the form of a Permanent Fund Dividend Check each year were asked a question worded like this:

“An education savings account allows parents to withdraw their child from a public district or charter school and recieve a payment into a government authorized savings account with restricted but multiple uses. Parents can then used these funds to pay for private school tuition, virtual education programs, private tutoring or saving for future college expenses. In general, do you favor or opppose this kind of savings account system?”

61% were all for it!

Note that 61% is about the same percentage of folks who had no idea what “school choice” really is. In other words, the same percentage of folks who know what all of this means said “no” to the free money.

Another note: if you look at the survey demographics, only 13% were Alaska Native. That does not match the State of Alaska demographics according to the 2010 Census, but it does match the Municipality of Anchorage demographics. In other words, while these folks were claiming that their “sample size” was Alaska, it was probably just Anchorage.

Why is that significant?

Anchorage School District already has really nice charter schools within the system (and there is no reason we can’t have more). If you ask someone from Anchorage about charter schools, especially if they don’t know about the lower-48 kind, that will completely skew their responses.

– The Education Summit — Per Municipal Code, Mayor Dan Sullivan’s roll in enacting School District changes is generally signing or vetoing what’s been passed through the School Board and the Anchorage Assembly. However, being that it’s an election year, he adopted the role of Superintendent by collecting corporate and private business money for an Education Summit. It was set up in three parts:

1) He hired Viewpoint Learning, a company of professional “handlers,” then hand-picked a mostly-conservative 100 participants. They brought up seven panelists. All but two of them were clearly pushing a privatized charter school and/or voucher agenda, four of them worked for organizations whose funding was provided directly by privatization advocates and only one had proof of an education plan with long-term success…a non-privatization pro-union strategy in Finland.

2) Now in phase 2, The Mayor’s Office is currently asking for Anchorage residents to attend the “community conversations.” This is the only time that the general public will have any input n the “scenarios” reached during the Education Summit. I’ve already signed up for one and I encourage everyone to do the same.

3) There will be a “Capstone Summit” in June where some of the Summit participants and some of the Community Dialogue participants will get together and finalize “recommendations.”

To be continued…

Last week, I listened-in on an Alaska Public Offices Commission hearing regarding an old friend of ours here at Mudflats, Mr. Bob Griffin.

You remember Bob:

– In April 2011, he ran on his status as a veteran and a pilot in order to win a seat the Anchorage School Board (he lost), in a campaign best-known for the accusations of illegal yard signs. He was also one of Mayor Sullivan’s chosen-ones in that campaign, receiving donations from the both the Mayor and his wife.

– In May 2011, Mr. Griffin showed some questionable judgement through the methods he used to conduct an unscientific study for a local conservative organization.

– In July 2011, he was appointed by Mayor Sullivan to the Budget Advisory Committee advising the Municipality and the School District on how they should budget their money.

On Griffin’s campaign website from last year, he went out of his way to make us feel good about donating to his School Board effort. He stated: “I haven’t accepted any special-interest donations for my campaign, only small individual contributions…”

However, it’s what Mr. Griffin did (or didn’t do) with the donations he received that got him in trouble.

On October 14, 2011, the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) Staff filed a complaint against Bob Griffin. In the complaint, they alleged that he “filed inaccurate and incomplete campaign disclosure reports for the 2011 Anchorage Election” and “failed to disburse surplus campaign funds within 90 days of the election.”

During the investigation, it got even more interesting.

The APOC Staff discovered that Mr. Griffin also:

–accepted a cash contribution “in excess of the statutory limits”;

–accepted anonymous contributions;

–converted campaign funds to personal income, and…

–did not forfeit the anonymous funds to the State of Alaska.

After hearing and reading the Staff report, we can see that the money amounts involved are small. However, that’s a point that cuts both ways. It should have been easy for Mr. Airline Pilot to rectify the problem. APOC Staff gave Mr. Griffin from July 26, 2011 to October 14, 2011 to fix the errors in the reports and rectify the financial issues…three 1/2 months. Griffin was warned in September that if he didn’t fix the problems, APOC Staff would be forced to file a complaint. However, the thing that makes me shake my head in utter disbelief is the blatantly disrespectful, disgraceful and uncaring behavior exhibited by Bob Griffin during the entire process. The fact that this is a Mayoral appointee is beyond-the-pale.

Directly from the Staff Report:

Staff acquired the full scope of Respondent‟s violations through the investigation process. After the Complaint was filed, APOC Staff repeatedly requested Mr. Griffin‟s bank records, both orally and in writing. The bank records were not provided voluntarily and Staff subpoenaed the records from Mr. Griffin. The records were not provided until the original due date of the staff report, November 14, 2011.

Respondent’s records showed a number of irregularities. While the records did show the majority of the campaign money was disbursed in a timely fashion, deposits did not match the reported contributions. Moreover, cash withdrawals were made from ATMs in various states. Mr. Griffin told Staff he transferred money from his personal checking account into the campaign account to access cash on work layovers in Hawaii and California because his personal bank cards were not working. However, due to bank fees for the withdrawals, Mr. Griffin withdrew $11.75 more than he transferred.

Staff asked for detailed bank records for the campaign account. On November 21, 2011, Mr. Griffin provided specific records to help explain the discrepancies. At that time, Respondent self-reported an undisclosed contribution of $250 during the 24 Hour reporting period and $64 dollars in undisclosed, anonymous cash contributions (one from March 3 and one from March 25). As of the date of this Staff Report, no 105 Day Report has ever been received and the public still does not have information regarding that reporting period.

That brings me to the day of the hearing, January 12, 2012. I called-in to the teleconference number at APOC, expecting a hearing like the ones I’ve attended before. However, all we heard was the Staff report because Mr. Griffin was too craven to show up and testify.

As a result, the Commission was left with only the Staff Report on which to base their ruling:

After consideration of the Staff report and evidence, the Commission adopts the Staff report in full including the recommendations that Respondent forfeit $79.61 to the State of Alaska; return $100 to Rob Timmons within 60 days; pay a civil penalty of $4000 and pay $1700 for Staff costs; and, that Respondent attend an APOC candidate training program prior to running for office again.

$4,000 is one of the highest civil penalties I’ve ever seen lodged against a candidate.

Meanwhile, we have this deplorable, corrupt individual serving as an appointee to Mayor Sullivan. (Sound like Bill Sheffield, anyone?) Currently, Griffin is shadowing School Board and Assembly Meetings and giving budget advice. Bob Griffin did not turn in one accurate finance report from his own campaign! What business does he have giving anyone advice?

After all, in Griffin’s own words…from the blog on his campaign site titled “Privilege to Serve”:

During my 20 years as an Air Force fighter pilot and Army attack helicopter pilot, I made a pretty universal observation about my coworkers: the best public servants are not very motivated by money; many of the worst ones are.

Yes, Bob, we couldn’t agree more.

Mr. Mayor, get rid of this guy.

—————————————————————–

If you want to contact Mayor Sullivan about Bob Griffin:

Use this EMAIL FORM.

Call the Mayor’s Office at (907) 343-7100

If you wish to contact the Anchorage Assembly about Bob Griffin:

Here is the email for all Assemblymembers: wwmas@muni.org

If you would rather call your individual Assembly member, here is the PHONE LIST.

by Linda Kellen Biegel

When “One Anchorage” was preparing to file their now-successful petition with the city to place their initiative on the April 3rd ballot, most supporters and those experienced with similar campaigns agreed that it would be very difficult to provide a rational argument against the initiative itself. As it states on the website:

“The One Anchorage Initiative simply provides to gay and transgender Alaskans the same legal protections that we already provide to other persons in Anchorage in employment, financial practices, housing, and restaurants, department stores and other businesses.”

In other words, to fight against the language of the initiative, you would have to somehow advocate that firing someone from a job or denying someone housing based purely on their sexual orientation or gender identity is somehow acceptable. As I have discovered in my discussions, even some of the most conservative or religiously fanatical folks are unwilling to openly advocate for that.

So, what happens when extremists discover that the truth about their stance is a losing argument? They turn to lies, half-truths and misdirection…especially those organizations desperate to hold onto their very best fundraising issue.

True to form, Jim Minnery has done just that in a recent begging email to the followers of Alaska Family Council. Featured in Shannyn Moore’s most recent opinion piece, Minnery begins his plea by describing a “recent” case in the UK where a “Christian couple” was denied a foster parent license because, according to the email, “they are unwilling to tell the children in their care that homosexuality is a morally equivalent lifestyle to heterosexuality.” The email then goes on to claim: “According to the British high court, “traditional Christian views about sexuality are harmful to children.”

Obviously, the most important thing about this email is that a ruling in the United Kingdom has absolutely nothing to do with a ballot initiative in Anchorage, Alaska. We had an entire war a few hundred years ago to make that decision.

However, I decided to do a little research to discover how far these folks were willing to stretch the truth and sow misinformation in order to generate the necessary faux-outrage on this side of the pond.

As it turns out, Minnery and his friends went pretty far:

–The email claims this ruling is “recent.” According to the press in Great Britain, the ruling was made in February of 2011, almost a year ago. I guess “recent” is in the eye of the beholder.

–The email insinuates that the Mr. and Mrs. Johns were denied foster parent status to prevent them from simply “discussing their objections” to homosexuality with those “small children” (5 to 10 yrs old) who would be in their care. In actuality, The Derby City Council (whose rejection of the Johns’s application was the basis for the case) gave a more accurate statement of the issue: “It would be inappropriate for the council to approve foster carers who cannot meet minimum standards. It would be difficult and impractical to match children with Mr and Mrs Johns if they feel that strongly.” In other words, since a child’s sexual orientation is not generally known at that young of an age, it would be impossible for the City to determine which children would eventually discover that they were LGBT and could suffer harm from such discrimination under their roof.

–Finally, as far as I can determine, the alleged quote attributed to the British High Court ruling (“traditional Christian views about sexuality are harmful to children“) is a complete fabrication. I was unable to trace it to any UK publications. No published accounts of the ruling which contain the actual language have anything which even resembles that quote. On the contrary, I found Lord Justice Munby’s written decision to be worded quite differently:

“However, it is important to realise that reliance upon religious belief, however conscientious the belief and however ancient and respectable the religion, can never of itself immunise the believer from the reach of the secular law. And invocation of religious belief does not necessarily provide a defence to what is otherwise a valid claim.

Some cultural beliefs and practices are simply treated by the law as being beyond the pale. Some manifestations of religious practice will be regulated if contrary to a child’s welfare. One example is the belief that the infliction of corporal punishment is an integral part of the teaching and education of children and is efficacious … And some aspects of mainstream religious belief may even fall foul of public policy…”

I was also unable to trace that quote to anything published in any part of the world at the time of the actual ruling. However, I did discover the same story, almost word-for-word, in a post from December 29, 2011…less than 1 month ago and a few days before the AFC email. This appeared on the blog for the Family Policy Institute of Washington (FPIW). FPIW is affiliated with James Dobson’s Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, as is Alaska Family Council. FPIW also has a recent history of attempting to circumvent campaign disclosure law.

I took you through the analysis of that email because it’s important to see what strategy the religious extremists have at play and what a difficult job they actually have. You see, those of us who support One Anchorage have a much easier task. We don’t have to try and remember which lie we told on what day. We don’t have to memorize language to “pretty anything up” and make it sound better or different than it is. The best, most effective language to describe the ballot initiative is the initiative itself. The best, most effective arguments in favor of the initiative are the true stories of LGBT discrimination in Anchorage…all of us know at least one…and the fact that this initiative will make any future incidents illegal.

The best news of all is that the most effective person to spread this information and make these arguments is YOU!

One Anchorage needs you to be a phone bank volunteer and spread the word. Because, while our opponents’ message is full of half-truths and misinformation, they are using it to raise money and get voters out on April 3rd. If One Anchorage can get enough volunteers, we can arm folks with the truth about the initiative when they go to the polls.

Please SIGN UP NOW!

I was also told by the phone bank folks that there will be nightly contests and prizes as well as some great camaraderie!

So please, SIGN UP and help One Anchorage! You never know WHO you might meet…

[Former candidate Michele Bachmann, with her husband Marcus (in pink shirt and tie) says farewell to the race. Photo by Chris Carlson/AP]

Let’s do a quick Countdown of Crazy, and touch base with the best of the best of the Republican party and what they have to offer us in country leading potential.

6) Michele Bachmann

Rumors began last night that Michele Bachmann was going to drop out of the race for the GOP’s presidential nomination. Then she told a close group of friends she’d be staying in, and that she was the one true conservative who could take on Baraaack Obaaama.  But now, in the cold clear light of the Iowa morning sun, she has rethought her position again, and has decided to bow out of the race, after what was ostensibly a last-place finish.

But even “the best campaigner in the family” was slacking on the job yesterday. Marcus Bachmann was apparently off buying doggie sunglasses for the family dog Boomer, which the candidate revealed in a speech for no particular reason. Note Marcus Bachmann’s classic reaction to his wife’s revelation below.

She then went on to thank her children, consulting a list so she could remember them all.

This morning, our favorite crazy-eyed Sarah substitute threw in the towel.

“Last night the people of Iowa spoke with a very clear voice and so I have decided to stand aside,” she said at a press conference this morning in Des Moines. “I believe if we are going to repeal Obamacare, turn our country around and take back our country we must do so united and I believe we must rally around the person our country, our party and our people chooses to be that standard bearer.”

Although she had her brief time on top, placing first in an Iowa GOP poll last summer, the more she spoke, the lower her numbers went. With little support or money left, her time was up and the crazy train made its last stop, in Des Moines.

5) Rick Perry

“Governor Good Hair” Perry was also widely rumored to be dropping out of the race. The following was even tweeted by one of his staffers:

 @Ssmith06: 25 degrees in Aiken, South Carolina. My boss just quit his Presidential campaign and bars close in 30 minutes. Shit.

Can’t take that back, red-faced staffer.

It turns out that rumors of the candidate’s demise were exaggerated, and Perry will stay in the race – at least until South Carolina. He himself tweeted his intent, along with a picture of himself running by a lake, Palin-style,  and giving a thumbs up.

@GovernorPerry: And the next leg of the marathon is the Palmetto State…Here we come South Carolina!!!

With three exclamation points, who knows what could happen!?! Next step, The White House!!!  But first, he’ll be taking a few days to go home “back to the ranch” in Texas, as it were, to spend some time in prayer and contemplation!!!

4) Newt Gingrich

What happens when you put a Newt in the corner and poke it with a little stick? It gets angry, that’s what. And you wouldn’t like it when it’s angry… Heck, you don’t even like it when it’s not angry. Then, it’s just being a condescending, mean-spirited, blowhard, that’s completely out of touch with human beings.

That’s our #4 boy, and he doesn’t much care for Mitt Romney (spoiler alert!) the winner last night. He spent a good deal of time after the caucus praising people who weren’t mean to him, and shooting poison arrows at a certain someone who had something to do with a certain organization who ran certain negative ads.

Romney’s super PAC — like those informally affiliated with Rick Perry, Barack Obama and others — is staffed by friends and former staffers. Election rules permit these super PACs to raise unlimited amounts from the superrich and — thanks to the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United – corporations. The candidates may help raise money for these super PACs. Super PACs must reveal their donors on a monthly or quarterly basis, though they accept donations from nonprofit organizations that are not required to reveal their donors (and argue the practice is legal). The main limit on super PAC activity is that they may not coordinate their activities with the candidates or their campaigns. But this is a more formal than consequential restriction, since the super PACs are staffed by those who know well what the campaigns want.

He had called Mitt Romney a “liar” saying he knew more about the spending of the SuperPAC Restore Our Future and their negative ads than he let on.

Who’d a thunk that one of the first to feel the nasty teeth of the Citizens United ruling would be the likes of Newt Gingrich. And this is nothing compared to what we can expect in the general election. Have the Tums handy for the next ten months, and get ready for some down and dirty playground ass-kicking behind the monkey bars at 3:30.

3) Ron Paul

Scoring more than half of the vote in the 18-24 age group, and 43% of independent voters, there’s no doubt that our goofy, delusional uncle had a good night. He emerged, for Iowans as the non-religious wingnut alternative to Mitt Romney. His supporters and staff are mighty proud.

Paul’s campaign manager crowed:

“There were three tickets out of Iowa, and Ron Paul earned one of them. One of the three tickets, the one belonging to Rick Santorum, is a dead-end due to Santorum’s weak fundraising and lack of national campaign organization.

“This is now a two way race between establishment candidate Mitt Romney and the candidate for real change, Ron Paul.”

But Paul still comes in behind Newt Gingrich in national polls. Perhaps Paul’s rapid supporters, and financial assistance to those same SuperPAC ads that Romney helped to fund will take care of that.  Shhhhh… Don’t anger the newt!

2) Rick Santorum

Sex-obsessed loathsome guy came in second, only eight votes behind. How about that. It’s as though everyone who hates Mitt Romney just let someone pick the name of one of the other candidates out of a hat and everyone flocked to support them, until they learned about them, or until they said something about Libya (the continent where Republican candidates go to die). Then a new name was chosen, and the process was repeated. Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich… and now Santorum. His moment in the sun happened to come at the right time.

Either that or the country really is ready for a man who would annul all same-sex marriages, outlaw abortion, ban contraception, let insurance companies reject you for pre-existing conditions, and get rid of food stamps. What. People are obese – they don’t need food stamps! And while we’re at it, we need to do something about all those disruptive gay soldiers who shouldn’t be allowed to protect our freedom in close quarters.

And the winner is…

1) Mitt Romney

Nobody likes him. He won anyway.

Miscellaneous 

And how could we forget ol’ what’s their names?

Jon Huntsman
Being sane and all, he was all but completely ignored in Iowa. Understanding his devastating liability, he ignored them too – mutual snubbing. Next stop, New Hampshire.

Herman Cain
The Herminator got an impressive 58 votes. Yes, that’s right. Fifty-eight Iowans, knowing their guy was out of the race and why, were so committed to the world’s most infamous gropey pizza man, and so enamored by his “likability” that they left their homes in the cold to write in his name. Kind of makes you feel all warm and gooey, in a horrified, “are you kidding me” sort of way.

Other
There’s our girl! We knew she’d pop up eventually. She got lumped in with Johnson and Roemer whom nobody has ever actually seen. But, even if every single one of the 117 other votes went for you-know-who, there’s the maximum ground-shattering force of the “Palin Earthquake.” Sorry, Iowans. That was no earthquake – just a big truck full of crazy rumbling by on the street on its way to nowhere.

And what does all this mean? How important are the Iowa caucuses, really?

Just ask last year’s winner – President Huckabee.

Well, folks, the Iowa caucuses are drawing to a close. It looks like it’s basically a tie between the loathsome one and the reprehensible one, with the goofy delusional one coming in third. The batshit crazy one and the stupid frightening one may drop out. The angry mean hypocrite is really pissed, and the sane one has been completely ignored.

It’s been a nail-biting night of irrelevance!

More tomorrow.

Why does Sarah Palin hate puppies?

Apparently they have little to do with “faith, family and freedom.” Forget the whole “man’s best friend” thing, and that Fido actually means faithful, and Americans tend to like their family dogs.  As the black cat is to the wicked witches of legend, so the dog has become the symbol of secret Muslim Kenyan poseurs who are coming to take your guns.

Just ask Sarah Palin, who is outraged…. OUTraged I tell you, over the White House Christmas card, which doesn’t show the baby Jesus, or a giant magical star, or wise men, or a manger. It shows Bo Obama, the White House dog sleeping by the hearth where a Hellfire burneth, in a room with no visible tree… just some presents under an atheistic table, with some pagan poinsettias on it. For all we know, there’s a gay wedding ceremony happening on the other side of the room.

~The Obama’s Christmas card. Note the lack of Christmas symbology and the cold anti-family sentiment, represented by Bo…. the “dog.” (shudder)

The fact that it’s actually far more festive than either the George W. Bush Christmas cards, or the Ronald Reagan Christmas cards is, of course, completely irrelevant. THEY are not secret Muslim Kenyan anti-American freedom haters, who stay up late nights designing “Christmas” cards that are mere symbolic collages meant to be used as (forgive the analogy) dog whistles to the rest of the secret Muslim anti-American freedom-hating community.

~For contrast, look at one of the George W. Bush Christmas cards. Note the flag, which practically screams “Hallelujah, Christ is born!” Also featured are the symbols of faithfulness and family, the Bush family dogs, Mrs. Beasley and Barney.

~And look at this one from the Ronald Reagan – Palin in pants.  The hint that there may be a warm glow in the fireplace, the stirring portrait of a generic founding father, and the manifestation of the virgin birth itself – greenery in the window. Clearly, the Reagans wanted to portray the true reason for the season.

Now that we’ve established that there is the right sort of dog (Bush dogs) and the wrong sort of dog (Osama Obama dog) I’m sure the Palins would be proud to have their family Christmas picture with their dog, who is undoubtedly a Christan as well. Remember? They were gifted an adorable little puppy whom they named Agia (after the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act… awwww). But, wait a minute! What ever happened to little Agia? Well, nobody seems to know. It wasn’t long after Alaska’s first family welcomed the little fuzzy bundle of unconditional love into their home, when Agia got… disappeared. Gone, without a trace, never to be mentioned again. The missing Palin.  I’m not saying that she really does hate puppies… I’m just sayin’.

But, back to the matter at hand. The above clip from Rachel Maddow says it all.

Looking for a fun and unique stocking stuffer for the progressive on your list? Here’s one to check out from the creators of Going Rouge: the Sarah Palin Coloring and Activity book, Julie Sigwart and Michael Stinson.

From their website, which includes excerpts from the book:

We rewrote the Lewis Carroll Victorian classic “Alice in Wonderland,” and recast beloved Wonderland characters to reflect the current crew of Tea Party sympathizers, media, and politicians who seem to have gone Madder than Glenn Beck, the March Hare! Curiously enough, they fit like a glove! Alice stars as an “Independent Voter” who must somehow navigate this bizarro world populated by Tea Party crazies!

[Just so our fans know, this is neither a coloring nor comic book, it's the entire Carroll classic completely rewritten, word for word!]

You can read our full release here, and we’ve also posted excerpts from the book:

Chapter II:The Pool of GOP Candidate Tears
Chapter V:Advice from BigCaterpillar.com
Poem:You Are Old, Father Media

Order your copy here today!

~Thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and more!

This is Alaska…

A 30-year old man escaped from jail during a bathroom break in the remote Western Alaska village of Alakanuk. It’s been nine years since Kevin Patrick has escaped from the Alakanuk jail during a bathroom break. This time his arrest was for drunk driving. The last time it was for assaulting a police officer with a shovel. After the first jail break, he was caught and arrested by trooper Eric Spitzer in a now infamous case where Patrick sued the state for the trooper’s excessive use of force during the re-arrest. The half million dollar settlement from the state wasn’t enough to keep Patrick out of trouble, apparently. He was last seen heading out of town on a green Arctic Cat snowmachine…

Kommie the Frog

A decade ago we learned the shocking news that beloved teletubby Tinky Winky was a secret gay icon (why else would he have a triangle shaped antenna and carry a magic bag?). And now, Fox Business shares with us the horrifying revelation that the Muppets are communists. That’s right – those seemingly charming and loveable characters who have free access to the innocent psyches of children are really freedom-hating capitalism-destroying commies. Pinko pigs and red frogs are on the march. It’s totally easy to see. The antagonists in their latest propaganda film are Big Oil, and it’s spokesman Tex Richman. It’s only a matter of time before one of these Muppet movies shows Gonzo shopping in the state store, and Big Bird winning all the speed skating events at the Olympics.  Don’t fall for the Muppet Manifesto, America. Keep Comrade the Frog at arm’s length.

The Attorney of the Flaming Pants

Remember when Municipal Attorney Dennis Wheeler lied to the Assembly and told them that the ordinance they were about to vote on, restricting the right to sit on city sidewalks, had been “run by the ACLU” and that they had no problems with it? Well he didn’t and they do. The Anchorage Daily News finally picked up on it (see link above), and at tonight’s Assembly meeting in the Loussac Library, Dick Traini will seek to have the law rescinded or repealed, ADN reports, because Wheeler “wrongly indicated” that he had talked to the ACLU.

Hold the Onion

No, this is not a satirical piece from The Onion. This is an actual Ron Paul ad. It is airing on TV in the key early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Wow.

Trump Pulls a Palin

Why do conservatives like to make up words? I guess I do too, but I don’t actually pretend or think they’re real ones. Palin was the champ of that. Remember “refudiate?” And who could forget “mandation?” Well, Donald Trump has just announced that he’s going to help out some lazy inner-city youth learn work ethic by making them “apprenti.” Yes… “apprenti.”

[Newt] Gingrich, who found himself in hot water last month for saying America’s child labor laws are “truly stupid,” called on Trump to create an “Apprentice”-style program for 10 inner-city New York children to teach them “work ethic.”

“We’re going to be picking 10, young, wonderful children, and we’re going to make them ‘apprenti,’” Trump said after a high-profile meeting with Gingrich on Monday. “We’re going to have a little fun with it, and I think it’s going to be something that is really going to prove results. But it was Newt’s idea, and I think it’s a great idea.”

Nope, Newt won’t give up on child labor for the poor. Maybe all it needs is a TV show!