REFLECTIONS

Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue:
1. Miller 2. Lisa 3. Biodiesel
4. 10-10 5. Togiak 6. Waivers

1. Miller. Republican candidate for US Senate from Alaska, Joe Miller had a better week in the campaign last week than he has in previous weeks. The Murkowski personal assault on him continued unabated, with the latest charges being that he started an expansion on his home in Anchorage before he could afford it (as in he took out a loan). As a Magistrate in Fairbanks, he hired his wife as a clerk. The Murkowski-friendly media was shocked, simply shocked that he could do such a thing. This last claim forced the Clerk of the US District Court to issue a statement saying it was legal, that Miller had inquired before the hiring and was told that it was legal and proceeded. He terminated the employment when a federal judge serving on the Circuit opined that the hire may be illegal under federal law. Miller finally got to face Murkowski in a 3-way debate in front of a group of native interests. He was middle of the road, straight conservative in all his responses, a refreshing thing to hear from a candidate for any office at any level. He also responded last week that he opposed the federal minimum wage on any number of grounds. As big labor controls the Alaskan congressional delegation, and has done so for decades, this was great news, and elicited the expected response from the other two candidates. He was also asked about the 17th Amendment, and suggested that it be repealed, to put the states back in charge of congress. Lisa Murkowski on the other hand believes that the states are administrative districts of the federal government rather than fundamental foundational building blocks. Miller clearly gets it, and understands the basic roles of the states and the feds. We will hope that he is in the position to do something about it after November. There was a Miller sign-waving demonstration here in Anchorage Saturday afternoon. It was not particularly large, but was getting a lot of support from passing traffic (horn honking and waving). He is getting pounded, but does seem to be returning fire nicely.

2. Lisa. The Murkowski campaign seems to be running on the proposition that Joe Miller was poor after graduating college and getting out of the Army, so he is not qualified to be a senator. This is at the heart of her personal attacks against him. She then uses those personal attacks as a vehicle to brand him as a hypocrite. But she has not given anybody a reason to vote for her, other than to say that she wants to go back and finish the job she is doing on us in DC (sorry, that is “for” us). But because she has persisted in running the personal attack routine straight out of the democrat party handbook, she has opened herself for similar attacks. Unfortunately for her, these ones are far more serious than the cost of an indigent fishing license. Early last week, a Lisa-friendly attorney sent a threatening letter to Alaskan broadcasters demanding they not run any Tea Party or Tea Party Express ads aimed at Lisa until they properly vetted the ads and their contents. The letter was clearly meant as a threat and intended to shut down all anti-Murkowski ads during the final month of the campaign. As usual, Lisa did not call off the lawyers. Instead her campaign tried to justify the heavy-handed, thug like threat with the claim that the Miller and Miller-friendly ads are all just a pack of lies and don’t deserve public airing until their facts have been properly checked and verified. Damn shame that the Murkowski campaign does not hold themselves to the same high standard of conduct. Nice try – but incredibly arrogant and abusive. Essentially, the Lisa lawyer is saying that if we disagree with any of your ads, you better not air them. During her first term, Lisa was sold a property on the Kenai River at a cost about $300,000 below the fair market value of the property. There was an ensuing public outrage and the sale was rescinded. What was not commonly known at the time was that the State of Alaska – with her father Frank Murkowski as governor at the time – built or improved a state road to improve access to the property. As always, it is Good to be King (or Princess). This took place in 2007. At the time, Dan Fagan of The Alaska Standard wrote an article that appeared in the local fishwrapper blasting her for accepting goodies from the politically well connected. The article was reprinted in The Alaska Standard last week. Last week the Miller campaign released some information discovered on Murkowski’s financial disclosure statement that shows that she had over $330,000 invested in Wall Street financial institutions that benefitted from her yes vote in favor of TARP in 2008. While she may not have known that the Obama administration was going to turn TARP into a slush fund to take over vast swaths of the American economy, she sure has been quiet about their misuse and abuse of TARP and has done nothing to stop the Obama administration from using TARP as a slush fund. Perhaps she does not want her own money invested on Wall Street to be at risk. Lord knows, I certainly wouldn’t. According to the Opensecrets.org, Murkowski took over $217,000 in campaign contributions from the very well connected Wall Street financial institutions that her yes vote on TARP managed to rescue. The Press release mentions Goldman – Sachs, CitiGroup, JP Morgan, and Morgan Stanley. This is a bit too cozy for words. Imagine what the Murkowski campaign would do to Joe Miller if he had this sort of conflict of interest that financially benefitted him after a vote. Message to Lisa: When you live in a glass house, you ought not to throw stones. There are people out there just itching to return fire.

3. Biodiesel. When you start making public policy based on junk science, all sorts of awful things start happening. Most recently in California, which passed stringent anti-carbon dioxide rules in 2007 in response to the manmade global warming fraud. The new California air quality standards have been a major impediment to all business and property rights in California for nearly four years, and have helped in no small part to destroy the productive portion of the California economy. Last week, the California Air Resources Board announced that they had “overestimated” the amount of pollution by a mere 340% – off by a factor of four – and would have to revise their regulations. The air quality regulations were mainly an assault on any and everything powered by diesel – particularly large diesel engines. It was putting most construction firms in financial limbo due to the costs of meeting the new regulations. But due to the “new” estimates, the regulations are going to have to be revised. CA greens aren’t happy about this. And the bureaucracy is gaming the revisions such as to delay them until after the elections in November, when the state government is going to change – hopefully to the better. Basic lesson here: Never, ever traffic in or make policy based upon junk science.

4. 10-10. There is a green activist group that calls itself 10:10. The name comes from their goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 10% in 2010. They commissioned and funded a 4-minute video starring former X-Files actress Gillian Anderson called “No Pressure.” The video had green teachers, rulers, and various in charge types pushing a red button and blowing up those who did not agree with their goals. The video started in a British classroom. There was more blood and gore than in a Freddy Kruger movie. To these pocket tyrants, wannabee fascists, failure to agree with them is subject to a death sentence. And this we have seen the heart and soul of the greens – where terrorizing children to meet their favorite political goals – by whatever means – is perfectly acceptable. There was the predictable outrage after the video was posted, and 10:10.org tried mightily to remove everything from the web. The State Controlled media did their part, by refusing to carry any news on the event, the video, the aftermath, or even 10:10.org. But the net is an interesting thing, especially when you start threatening people who don’t agree with you with instant death. Videos were captured and reposted. You can find them easily. One location is Anthony Watts’ Watts Up With That.

5. Togiak. Our Federal Masters in Alaska of the US Fish & Wildlife Service announced last week that they would be requiring permits for float and fishing trips on several rivers in the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge. They will be requiring permits on at least three prime fishing rivers in the Refuge and to a wildlife viewing area. For some reason, they expect the State of Alaska to fight the new requirements. Governor Sean Parnell, who is in a very tight fight for election will be smart to use this as a campaign issue against democrat Ethan Berkowitz. It is long past time for all federal lands to be transferred back to the many states to do with as they see fit. This is little more than federal bully boy garbage, and ought to be stopped instantly. If they keep this up, I do not expect the locals to react kindly, which would be fine with me. ADN, Tues.

6. Waivers. Yet one more example of the lawless and unconstitutional fascists that currently infest our nation’s capitol came last week when HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius granted a series of waivers to corporations and unions that were sufficiently politically connected and showed excellent begging skills. The NY State Teachers’ Union along with MacDonald’s were granted waivers that allowed the union and Mickey-D’s not to drop employees from health care coverage to comply with requirements passed in ObamaCare. Nice to know that law applies equally to everyone – except of course, when it doesn’t. Also nice to know that there is a stable, open verifiable process for making requests and getting approvals. Of course, all corporate supplicants will be turned down 15 seconds after the polls close on November 2. None of the unions will be denied their requests. Welcome to the Brave New World of ObamaCare.

More later — AG

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.

Note: Interesting Items can be found also at the following locations: MatSu Valley News and the home page. Rod Martin’s The Vanguard site is also a long-time supporter of this column. Alex Gimarc is a long-time member of the previous Town Hall Conservative group.