September 23, 2002
-
Today’s rant, gentle readers, is about Alaska in general, and Alaskan politics in particular. Those of you who have been thinking about re-locating to here may change your minds after reading this. Alaska–The Last Frontier. Plain-talking, straight-shooting folks. A place where there is tons of freedom, and all are accepted. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Alaskans tend to be narrow-minded, racist, and homophobic. For instance, the mayor of Anchorage recently ordered the city library to shut down a gay pride exhibit. They were promulgating the unacceptable concept that gay people are people, and should have civil rights just like normal people. More upsetting, the Anchorage paper did a public opinion poll, and the majority of respondents actually supported this Nazi’s decision. Another thing–when an Alaska politician wants to safely smear another , he calls him a “liberal.” We have politicians who make Vlad the impaler look like Phil Donohue.
Part of the political insanity that has been going on is due to the fact that for years, Big Oil pretty much paid for state government. We have no state sales tax, no state income tax, and no politicians with the courage to speak the truth–i.e., that there is no way to have a balanced state government without eith stripping the Permanent Fund (more about that later) or imposing new taxes. The only tax besides federal income tax that most of us pay consists of property taxes. Wasilla (50 miles away, the site of the closest MacDonald’s, Wal-Mart and so on), has a 2% sales tax, but tere’s a $10 cap–that is, say yu buy a $20,000 new car–you pay $10 sales tax.
Right now, there is a gubenatorial race going on, and both candidates are lying, and smear ads against both candidates are polluting the airwaves on a daily basis. The Republican candidate, Frank Murkowski, has been a US Senator for 20-some years and has never accomplished anything worth mentioning. He routinely votes against funding for education, raising the minimum wage and votes for pretty much anything that will benefit big business. Well, duh–he’s a conservative. More troubling is that fact that, if elected governor, he will be able to appoint someone to sit in his Senate seat , and he refuses to give anyone a clue as to who this might be. During his campaign, the spouts generalities that anyone with two brain cells to rub together could refute, and when pressed to explain his plans, once said “I won’t try to explain that because I don’t have to.”
The Democratic candidate is Fran Ulmer, now lieutenant governor, is better, but not by a whole lot. She is trying to reduce the campaign to a one-issue race–she is pro-choice on abortion rights, and old Frank wants them to stay barefoot and pregnant. Where Frank is pushing a reaganesque voodoo economics plan, Fran says she would oppose any new taxes until the Constitutional Reserve Fund falls under a billion bucks–this is gonna happen real soon. But a columnist in the recent paper pointed out, correctly I think, that the first candidate to tell the truth will surely lose the election.
Meanwhile, we the people keep bitching about our lousy legislators and then re-electing them. I once read that people tend to get the governments they deserve–if so, what the hell did we do to merit what we have? I dunno. Thus endeth the rant.
In case you don’t know about the Permanent Fund, this is a huge pile of money ($15 billion or so, I think) which is invested in everything from real estate to the stock market, the proceeds of which are divvied up amongst the citizenry. This year, we will each get around $1500. Rich folks use this dough for trips to Hawaii, snowmachines, or tuck it away to pay for college for their kids. Folks like us piss it away on groceries, firewood, fuel oil, and the like. The Reserve Fund is a few billion and can be used to balance the state budget when there are income shortfalls (which is becoming a routine thing since the price of Alaska crude is sort of low).
Comments (6)
sounds to me like someone should take a baseball bat to those guys (and girls). How completely ridiculous…..if you were to label me, i think i would fall under the liberal catergory. I think people should be able to do whatever the hell they want as long as its not hurting somebody else (although there are exceptions to the whole hurting thing, like the “baseball bat to those guys” thing).
My friend, again i commend you for having the stones to live in hell. Cold, bitter, and governed by the mentally deficient.
~Jason
Alaska sounds like Alabama, politically speaking. I luv the no state tax thing though. We are taxed, taxed and taxed again. Crucified. All the time. Still, we are broke(the state), “We need more funds!”(the state)
Our present govenor wanted a state lottery. He got elected on that, but when it was voted on, the conservatist Christians campained against it and it was voted out. So the rest of us just take our money and give it to Georgia and Florida.
Darlin’, one of my readers asked if you’re my lover. You know that’s a question I can’t answer with a simple yes or no. I guess that’s given me another topic for a blog. Your blog, by the way, is eloquent and mostly on target, though slanted as usual. When are you going to tell about the Polish twins?
Man, when are those pigfuckers going to stop with the freakin’ oil already! There are so many alternative methods to producing energy, and I know there’s some shit we haven’t even thought of yet. Argh.
“Evolution has exponential timing,
It’ll be half as long ’til the next breakthrough that blows our minds,
It’s up to the people to brave forth with experimentation,
Move forward the species by using our imaginations.”
-311 “Evolution”
Don’t ya ever just get sick of the bullshit? They both sound like assinine idiots, but what politician doesn’t? If I had to pick, I’d go with Fran, simply based upon the fact she seems a smidgen less conservative…in other words, less tight assed, racist, and prejuidiced. Oh, by the way, sorry about the Bud K suggestion. I don’t know too much about the weaponry trade/bussiness in general. I had just found, as the average ‘layperson’ that their prices seemed pretty reasonable as compared to others. I have this curse of trying to be helpful, even if I’m not sure what I’m talking about. Great blog, by the way…and please tell Susu I’ll be writing her soon, and hope the roof is going relatively well. Smiles to you and yours.
I thought SuSu was your lover? whaaa?
Okay, “I won’t try to explain that becuase, I don’t have to” that’s bad. That’s like saying “just because”
fools