Sullivan, Treadwell vs. Women
You’d think a vote for the Violence Against Women Act would be a no-brainer. You’d think this because opposing violence against women should be as controversial a position as supporting the troops or enjoying apple pie. If you live in Alaska, you’d really think this is an easy vote, because all three members of Alaska’s Congressional delegation—including Republicans Lisa Murkowski and Don Young—have supported the bill in the past. Senator Murkowski has gone so far as to lobby House Republicans on reauthorizing the law, and has signed on to a bipartisan letter of support which reads in part as follows:…
The Weekend Off – News You Missed
Alaska Fairbanks News Miner – Pro-Begich super PAC takes on Treadwell JUNEAU, Alaska – A super PAC that supports Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Begich has a new ad that, for the first time, takes on Republican Senate hopeful Mead Treadwell. Put Alaska First’s ad also features Republican Dan Sullivan, the presumptive front-runner in the race who has been a target of the group for months. Alaska Dispatch News – Nixon took time out from Watergate to plot politics with Young, Coghill Forty years after Richard Nixon resigned the presidency in disgrace, the secret tapes that proved his role in the Watergate…
Alaska GOP Candidates Go to Extremes
We all know that guy. You know, the one who no matter what story is being told, he’s got one up on it. If you got a mosquito bite he punched a bear. I’m watching the Republican primary for U.S. Senate closely and they all seem like that guy. Who can out-crazy whom? Case in point this week was the questionnaire filled out by the candidates for an organization that raises money on hating gays and trying to control the reproductive choices of women. The group claims to work for Alaskan family values but doesn’t weigh in on minimum wage…
Sullivan Waffles on Eggs – One of Them May Be Yours.
Back in April, Alaska Republican Senate primary voters got to listen to their three candidates try to figure out who the lifey-est candidate of all actually was. It’s been a gigantic run to the right on pro-life issues by the three men running for the office, each trying to be more hard core than the others. They were asked whether they would support a so-called “personhood bill” called the Life at Conception Act introduced by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) that defines life as beginning the moment that little swimmer cracks the eggshell. The bottom line of this bill is that it…
Breaking: America Wants Sarah Palin to STFU
Recently, NBC/Wall Street Journal/Annenberg took a poll. They asked Americans if they think the ex-half-governor of Alaska, who didn’t become the Vice President of the United States, and who quit her job “governing” to spend the last six years turning gibberish into books, wearing glittery belt buckles, and subsisting on diet Redbull and the tears of the intelligentsia, should be speaking on the issues of the day. A solid majority, 54% of voters, think she should push her lower jaw up until it won’t go any farther, and hold it locked in that position. If this poll were an election, it would…
GOP Leader Threatens Sexual Assault Council
Speaker of the House Mike Chenault (R-Nikiski) is throwing rape victims under the train to get the governor’s out-of-state buddy on an Alaska gasline board. You’ve got to hand it to him; the lengths to which he will go to demonstrate his lack of common decency are not half-assed. In a state where 37 percent of women report having experienced sexual violence, and where rape statistics are three times the national average, Mike Chenault proves that for those like himself, there are more important things. Like getting the governor’s Texas buddy on the gasline board. The premise of Chenault’s latest legislative…
GOP Senator – Birth Control Irresponsible
I had a plan to write a column that was going to make the Anchorage municipal elections coming up to be the sexiest most riveting thing you’ve ever read. Then someone did something stupid in Juneau, so you’ll have to wait a week while I sort this doofus out. First, the reporting on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders from Kyle Hopkins and Marc Lester for the Anchorage Daily News has been incredible. Disturbing, and incredibly needed. Two percent of children born in Alaska have FASD. We need solutions and education. Sadly, we have a “think tank” formed by Sen. Pete Kelly…
Ms. Underestimated in Fairbanks
FAIRBANKS – Despite recent attempts by Republican Borough Assemblyman Lance Roberts to bully the Fairbanks Co-op Market into no longer carrying Ms. Magazine, this week a new shipment arrived and was stocked on the shelves. Roberts stated that he felt the magazine’s support of reproductive choice for women was tantamount to the Co-op Market condoning “genocide,” and announcing on his Facebook page that feminism was “heresy.” When Roberts learned of the Co-op’s decision to discontinue selling the publication, he beat his chest in his own newsletter, reveling in the outcome of his threats to boycott the market, and the fact…
Contraception’s Bang for the Buck
JUNEAU, AK—Opposition to abortion rights has been the political hallmark of Alaska State Senator Fred Dyson (R-Eagle River). He is also, as these ironies invariably go, opposed to expanding contraceptive access. “By and large, sexual activity is recreation,” the senator intoned today during floor debate on SB49. “The state shouldn’t finance other people’s recreation.” Does the senator favor elimination of all state parks? What of the Department of Fish & Game—some of which relates to subsistence, but which also serves recreational endeavors? Is he aware that it is public, state-financed roads taking us to our state’s ski resorts, or does he imagine…
GOP Official Ms. Fires
FAIRBANKS, AK — A far-right elected official on the borough assembly has demanded Ms. Magazine be pulled from the shelves of a local grocery store. Lance Roberts does not like the publication’s support for the reproductive rights of women, and demanded the Fairbanks Co-op Market pull the magazine from its shelves so that other shoppers couldn’t make up their own minds on the matter. The store has complied with the politician’s demand, and in his newsletter a gloating Roberts is doing a little end zone dance: The Co-op Market had some left-wing political magazines they were selling, and at that time they…