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Friday, January 28, 2022

Open Thread – Homage to a Governor

I thought it would be nice to have a little visual metaphor, an homage, if you will, to Governor Sean Parnell, and his “not so special” session, which came to an abrupt end today because the governor pulled the little whistle string and then drove that train right off the rails. (More to come on that)

And here are some soothing strains to play out the legislature, particularly those rational and hard-working members of the Senate Resources Committee. Well done.

Comments

comments

Comments
40 Responses to “Open Thread – Homage to a Governor”
  1. Pinwheel says:

    Curiously, the resemblance between Gov marshmellow and Mayor bizarre frightens me. I see the only possible solution in “Vitamin Democracy” !! We each must hold each of our representatives accountable. Not tomorrow. Today.

    If you are not used to speaking up for yourself, or your mother, daughter, sister, touch base with Mudflats.net.

    nem

  2. bluejay says:

    He is our street pusher. We are his addicts and we will pay, sooner or later. The fat cat drug dealers. They remain rich and untouched. However if you feel like trying to kick the oil habit…pump up your bike tires and get ready for BIKE MONTH!

  3. Moose Pucky says:

    Conductor Zero. Oooops.

  4. mike from iowa says:

    Ingenious-simple effective imagery even rwnj can grasp.

  5. Mo says:

    Meanwhile, back at the Stand Your Ground booth:

    Wife charged with attempted murder in Fairbanks case
    FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — A Fairbanks woman charged with attempted murder is being held without bail in the Fairbanks Correctional Center.

    According to a criminal complaint, 46-year-old Christine Louise Mills’ husband was shot multiple times with a .22-caliber rifle.

    The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that Mills called Alaska State Troopers on Wednesday afternoon to report the shooting. Troopers say Mills told them that her husband had assaulted her and that she had fired a gun at him.

    Mills was arrested Wednesday evening and charged with attempted murder. Her husband was admitted to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital where staff said he had about five gunshot wounds and required surgery.

    Mills was arraigned Thursday in Fairbanks.
    (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner)

    • beaglemom says:

      Women and non-white males have no rights with regard to “stand your ground.”

  6. Zyxomma says:

    Here’s a great idea:

    http://cleanenergyvictorybonds.org/about

  7. zyggy says:

    How much did it cost the state for his lobbying oil company session?

  8. hedgewytch says:

    I watched the KTUU piece on this last night. It really seemed to me that Parnell et al was really hoping that the Legislature would have continued on blindly after the legislation was pulled. Then he could have come back and taken and said that any subsequent work by the Legislature would have been void. But they were smart, they checked the rules and regs, and saw the trap that they could have fallen into.

    Now its the Governor who looks like a putz. But that’s because he is.

  9. Zyxomma says:

    Happy Arbor Day, everyone. Hug a tree in gratitude, it feels good. What doesn’t feel good? The news from the Gulf of Mexico:

    http://enenews.com/state-officials-shut-down-shrimping-in-gulf-amid-scientists-finding-deformities-and-horrifying-creatures-media-attributes-closure-to-lesions-then-retracts

    Eyeless shrimp, lobsters and crabs with their legs falling off — and Shell wants to drill in the Arctic?

    • leenie17 says:

      Some of our primary students were invited to a special Arbor Day ceremony at one of the city parks. I was doing testing so I didn’t get to go, but they all came back happily clutching tree seedlings.

      Not quite sure what the kids who live in apartments are going to do with them, but hopefully at least a few will get planted in our fair city!

      • thatcrowwoman says:

        National Honor Society finished painting a mural in the library today:
        a beautiful tree fills a wall,
        the branches stretched gracefully,
        leaves green, with a dusting of glitter, also, too.
        The tree roots become pages;
        the tree grows from the open book.

        Inscribed underneath:
        Libraries are not made; they grow.

        Many thanks for the nudge, Zyxomma. I was all set for Tu b’Shevat, but I didn’t realize/remember that this is Arbor Day.
        Serendipity.
        {{{{{NHS and Zyxomma}}}}}
        L’Shalom and good Shabbos.

      • merrycricket says:

        I learned that it was arbor day while at our local nursery today. It was herb sale day. 🙂
        Worked all afternoon weeding the potatoes and salad greens and planting the herbs.

        Went with my brother today to help him get his first computer ever. He has a new job and must have a laptop for work. Sunday evening, I begin teaching him how to use it. Pray for me. 😀

    • Baker's Dozen says:

      Does the arctic have shrimp? I don’t see a problem here.

  10. thatcrowwoman says:

    Those “Special” sessions sure come with a hefty price tag, eh?
    Fiscally conservative? Sure, since taxpayers pick up the bill.

    Today I’m singing the Shut Down the Library Blues.
    We still have 5 weeks of school left!
    Bitter blues. It just ain’t right.

    “Give just a little bit more, take a little bit less…”
    Thank you, AKjah, those Moody Blues put me in a better place this Friday morning,
    fighting fire with fire, er, blues with Blues.

    *off to occupy the library*

    • Martha Unalaska Yard Sign says:

      thatcrowwoman – what’s going on with the library?

      • thatcrowwoman says:

        End of Course exams for Geometry, Algebra, and Biology, all computer-based, state-mandated, will require every computer on campus, including those in the library. The library is reserved for the next 3 weeks: Mondays and Tuesdays for testing, Wednesdays-Fridays for make-up tests and Virtual School, which is a whole ‘nuther rant for another day…

        I’m used to being closed the last 2 weeks of school for inventory,
        but 5 weeks closed is a terrible disservice to our students.

        That being said, it’s better than last school year, when the library was closed the equivalent of one of every 3 days. (Yes. Really. I counted.) Next year looks even better. We have a new assistant principal who “gets it” and is pushing for another computer lab (or 2) next year so the library can be a library and not a just a testing center and Virtual School. Of course next year, the state is mandating End of Course exams in additional subjects, and all high school students must also complete one on-line “Virtual” course before graduation, but are they providing us with the computers and the capacity to comply? Will a lab or 2 be enough? Meh.

        It was a busy Last Day, and a good Last Day.
        Lots of student checked out their final (up to 3) book(s) for the year; all books due by May 11. (Yes, the library is closed, but we’ll have a BookMobile in the commons outside the caf during lunches so students can return books. They can’t come to the library, we take the library to them, such as we can.

        It was a busy Last Week,
        a mostly good Last Week,
        and now
        now I have a weekend ahead of me.
        🙂

        • mike from iowa says:

          Do liberians put sneaky little libary identifications in every book on page 25 like when I wuz a kid,back when? Just curious if I could snitch a book from your libary if I am ever in the forest.

        • Baker's Dozen says:

          Of course they’ve shut down the libertarian. Ron Paul’s done disastrously in the polls and needs the money to keep his campaign going!

          • beaglemom says:

            I read last week that Ralph Nader supports Ron Paul – who never saw a regulation that he liked. I wish Ralph Nader would just go away. He and Sarah Palin can retire to some unpopulated island and complain about the world to each other.

    • leenie17 says:

      I know it’s frustrating but hang tough, TCW…you’ll find a way to make a difference for your kids whether the library is open or not!

      We finally finished the last day of state math testing for the year….yayyy!!! The State DOE has admitted to two mistakes on the math test and threw out an entire reading passage and associated questions on the 8th grade ELA test because they didn’t make sense. I’ve also heard that there were other mistakes on tests for other grades and I found a second one on the 4th grade test. For the $32 million NY has paid to Pearson to create this garbage, we should get tests without mistakes. After all, the kids (AND their teachers and schools) are penalized if THEY make a mistake!

      One of my kiddos did make me laugh this afternoon when she was told she had to write an explanation of how she arrived at her answer for the math problem. She looked at me and proudly stated, “I knew it in my brain!” Yeah, okaaayyyy, but that’s not gonna get you any credit on the test, honey!

      Now the only tests left are the district tests for 1st and 2nd grade and the state science test (written and performance) for 4th grade. Is it June yet?

      • thatcrowwoman says:

        Pearson!
        Ptuiii!
        Ptuiii!
        Ptuiiii!

        {{{{{leenie}}}}}

        • thatcrowwoman says:

          Pearson (Ptuiii! Ptuiii! Ptuiiii!)
          is Florida’s source for End Of Course exams also, too.
          I’m usually not prone to violence, but I could slap me some Pearson.

          Why do I hear Gomer Pyle hollering, “Citizen’s A-rre-est! Citizen’s A-rre-est!”?
          A-rre-est Pearson the Citizens United? or A-rre-est me for slapping ’em?

          • leenie17 says:

            I’ll bail you out of jail. Unless, of course, I’m in the cell next to you! 🙂

      • mike from iowa says:

        Leenie 17,wuz that the hare and pineapple challenge race test question that got thrown out?

        • leenie17 says:

          Yuppers!

          I was surprised to come across a link to a NYS Ed pdf file of the story and questions earlier this evening. Feel free to peruse what our 8th graders are expected to make sense of. And I thought the 4th grade talking yam story I had to interpret a half-dozen times was bad!

          http://usny.nysed.gov/docs/the-hare-and-the-pineapple.pdf

          And remember, everyone…pineapples don’t have sleeves! (Yes folks, that was actually listed at the end of the story as the ‘moral’.) Sheesh!!!

        • leenie17 says:

          By the way, mikey, did you send some of your stinky skunks my way tonight?

          There’s a noxious aroma wafting in the air around my house and wending its way through my closed windows. It’s a powerful stench those critters have!

          • mike from iowa says:

            I sure didn’t. Wouldn’t do that to any normal human person,only rwnj. I read about the hare and pineapple a week or so ago. No wunder our children isn’t learning. Many thanks for the link.

    • Pinwheel says:

      tcw, don’t want to be difficult. Costs of State of Alaska government, including the legislature, never fall on resident citizens. Costs are paid from funds provide thru Oil Taxes.

      • thatcrowwoman says:

        No worries, Pinwheel, no difficulties, eh?
        Oil Taxes fund Alaska’s state government?
        *synapses firing*
        What a concept.
        I stand corrected and am glad resident citizens’
        taxpayer money wasn’t wasted on your special session
        like happens when special sessions are called here.

        I’d welcome any of those special session dollars in my (public high school) library
        and put them to much better use, also, too. 🙂

  11. AKjah says:

    Excellent choice on the visual metaphor. But i thought this might be more suited for our bedraggled congress critters.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dzRdyC0abA

  12. goI3ig says:

    The oil companies have vowed to fight on. They will take their inside man under their wing to prep him for the next session.

    • ISeeVillagesFromMyHouse says:

      They put surprisingly little resource into this endeavor. It was dying on the vine in testimony as the Administration floundered to support their own case to take away a surplus-winning formulation away from the State’s coffers.

      I’ll just bet they miss the good old Corrupt Bastard’s Club days. And a smarmy little oil support contractor.

    • Pinwheel says:

      Before the next session we have a State offices primary election, and a National/State election. If you have followed recent events in Anchorage, election process/execution, registered voters in Alaska have lots to worry about.