Maine sucks, Washington rules, and Fairbanks (possibly) does the right thing…

Ok so the hangover from (not-quite-super, bordering-on-remarkable) Tuesday has ended, and so I bring you the Citizen Sig recap of Tuesday’s election results.

In New York City, billionaire Michael Bloomberg gives term limits the middle finger as he wins a third term as city mayor, albeit with some stiffer-than-expected competition.

Upstate, self-described Glenn Beck protege Doug Hoffman got beaten by democrat Bill Owens in the NY-23  congressional race.  Some perspective: for the first time since the freaking Civil War, NY-23 is now represented by a democrat.  Oh yeah, that sure is a stinging rebuke to Obama alright.

In Virginia, Bob “Women should be barefoot and in the kitchen” McDonnell beat Creigh “Who?” Deeds to become the state’s next governor.

New Jersey saw Chris Christie (R-Fatty) unseat Governor Corzine (D-Baldy) in what was really a case of “Neither of these two men should be governor.”

Maine decided that it prefers the 12th century to the 21st century, voting to strip gays of the right to marry.  Way to go Maine.  I hope you have a TERRIBLE lobster harvest.

Washington state on the other hand decided to act like a freaking adult by roundly approving R-71, the so-called “Everything but marriage” amendment.  Suck it, bigots.

And right here in Fairbanks, it looks like Luke Hopkins has edged out Tammie Wilson to become our next borough mayor.  Congratulations Fairbanks.  You didn’t put a complete incompetent in charge of the borough.  Be proud.  Of course, in the event that the absentee ballots come back and Wilson is declared the winner, reverse that.  Screw you Fairbanks.

All results are courtesy of Nate “I have a political crystal ball” Silver, except for the Fairbanks results which are courtesy of Tom Hewitt’s reporting at the UAF Sun Star Twitter feed and most CERTAINLY not courtesy of the News-Miner’s crap-tacular new website.  Boo on you, News-Miner.

 

Cheers.

Oh racist Alaskan bloggers, how I hate you so much…

In the course of my surfing for links tonight, what should I happen upon but this delightful blog called Alaska Pride. I know I’m in for an…interesting read when the blog proudly labels itself  “as Alaska’s most politically incorrect blog.”  That’s usually just code for “I’m a raging homophobic racist DON’T JUDGE ME!”

And sure enough, I was right.

Here’s the headline for a post from last Thursday, “Nicholas Showers-Glover Found Guilty Of Murder, Chimps Out In Anchorage Courtroom.”

Yep, way to really “educate Outsiders about the real Alaska” as your tagline says.  Way to show the rest of the country and the entire world that we’ve got our fair share of racist fuckwits right here in the 49th state.  Stay classy, Alaska Pride.

Nicholas Showers-Glover Found Guilty Of Murder, Chimps Out In Anchorage Courtroom

Let’s show some bipartisan unity by roundly rejecting Tammie Wilson

Look folks. I know that local elections aren’t as sexy as the presidential elections are. The candidates are homelier and maybe they smell a little funny but face it: Tammie Wilson and Luke Hopkins have far more ability to affect your life here in Fairbanks than Barack Obama ever can. One of these two people, conservative christian republican Tammie Wilson and fiscally conservative democrat Luke Hopkins, will be our next borough mayor. And I seriously hope for all our sakes that it’s Luke Hopkins.

Sure, I can hear you now. But Sig, you’re a godless liberal, of COURSE you’re gonna support the democrat. To that I say “Actually I’m an agnostic, and if you don’t want to take my word for it, why not listen to what current borough mayor Jim Whitaker, republican, has to say?”

So there you have it. On Tuesday, Novermber 3rd, show some civic duty and vote for Luke Hopkins for borough mayor.

The Onion: Victim of fatal car accident tragically not Glenn Beck

Victim In Fatal Car Accident Tragically Not Glenn Beck

The Onion is brilliant. This particular piece is so brilliant as to border on the sublime. My favorite quote from it is “There’s nothing harder than Glenn Beck outliving your child!”

OFA wants to ruin Halloween…what next, Christmas!?

Allow me to preface this by saying I’m a democrat. Big surprise, right? Anyway, I’m happy Obama is in office. Yay Obama. But seriously…this email that I got yesterday is going a little too far…

William –

This Halloween, Organizing for America is asking Alaskans who support health reform — whether you live in Sitka, Wasilla, North Pole, or Barrow — to stay home on Halloween night as part of a Healthy Halloween Reverse Canvass.

Instead of going door to door, let people come to you, and give them a flier about President Obama’s plan for health reform and a “Health Insurance Reform Now” sticker. With the full Congress about to consider health insurance reform, it’s critical for us to get the word out now and build support in Alaska.

Click here to sign up.

Make sure to sign up today to allow time for us to mail you the materials you’ll need.

It’s easy. All you need to do is stay home on Halloween night (this Saturday, October 31st), give trick-or-treaters information about the President’s plan, and ask them to get involved.

Together, we can make sure that this Halloween the only scary things Alaskans encounter are witches, ghosts, and goblins…and not big insurance companies who promise treats and only give you tricks.

Sign up today:

http://ak.barackobama.com/HalloweenAK

Happy Halloween,

Jonathan

Jonathan Teeters
Alaska State Director
Organizing for America

I loves me some healthcare reform, don’t get me wrong. Yay public option. But this? This WON’T HELP. Did you think this through Jonathan Teeters, Alaska State Director of Organizing for America? Did you think about the kind of reaction you would get from people when instead of candy you handle little Johnny or Susie a flyer espousing the virtues of “Medicare plus 5?” Assuming that Susie or Johnny’s parent doesn’t mistake you for a Jehovah’s Witness, you’re still likely to get a rather hostile response from them. I mean come on, do you really want to be like those people who hand out toothbrushes on Halloween? At least some kids like toothbrushes. Long story short, bad idea Jonathan Teeters, Alaska State Director of Organizing for America. Bad idea.

Also, let me preemptively say it is also a bad idea to hand out turkeys stuffed with healthcare flyers for Thanksgiving, and it is DEFINITELY a bad idea to give your kids the gift of a healthcare brochure for Christmas. Otherwise, there may be some angry children in the house of Teeters this winter.

Yes Men prank the Chamber of Commerce…and it’s glorious!

Sometimes real life is FAR funnier than anything fiction can throw at us. Bravo to the Yes Men for their hilarious and truly effective hoax. With this and the rush of high profile departures (including Apple, Nike, and several major energy companies) over their regressive and harmful stance on climate change, one certainly hopes that there is some serious heartburn going on at the Chamber. It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of people.

Jay Ramras wants to be a “rain-maker,” hints at expanding role of Lt. Gov.

The Anchorage Press has an interesting article about Jay Ramras’ announcement that he will be seeking the office of lieutenant governor in the 2010 election. Especially noteworthy in that article is Ramras’ stated intention, originally quoted in a Dermot Cole blog entry, of using the role of lieutenant governor to be a kind of “rain-maker” and ambassador. It seems as if Ramras has designs on expanding the role of the job beyond simply maintaining the state seal and authorizing notaries. When Lieutenant Governor Parnell suddenly and unexpectedly became Governor Parnell this past summer, I think it served as a kind of wake-up call as to the importance of the number two job. I mean, stop and think for a second…”Governor Ramras?”

Certainly Ramras’ bid has people talking. Yours truly moseyed on down to Big Daddy’s BBQ hear what the folks at Drinking Liberally had to say.

Jay Ramras running for Lt. Gov.

So Rep. Jay Ramras (R-Food Factory) has decided to run for lieutenant governor. Wow.  Many folks were surprised when “Jay-Bird” dove into politics back in 2005.  Now the man most famous for his chicken suit and his nation-wide wife hunt has decided to take the second highest-ranking job in the state.  Stay tuned to this blog, because tonight I’ll be heading over to Drinking Liberally to poll some…well…drunk liberals about their opinions of Ramras and his bid for higher office.

Sarah Palin to go on Oprah. Yes, really.

I’m becoming increasingly bored with “news” concerning our ex-governor, but this particular story grabbed enough of my attention as to motivate me to post it here.   Sarah Palin will be a guest on Oprah one day before her ghost-written autobiography is released.  All the good jokes for this have already been made so I’ll refrain from trying to top them.  But suffice to say I think that’s going to be a very…interesting and possibly even uncomfortable interview.

Rubbing elbows with the Alaska State Senate Finance Committee

Tonight the Alaska Senate Finance Committee hosted a reception at the Morris Thompson Cultural Center in downtown Fairbanks, following a day spent at UAF discussing budget issues.  A surprising number of important folks showed up at the event.  Attendees included state senators such as Joe Thomas, Joe Paskvan, and recently-nominated John Coghill, as well as state reps such as Jay Ramras and Mike Kelly.  Non-elected officials included Labor Commissioner Click Bishop and the chancellors for UAF, UAA, and UAS.

The reception was catered (and had some rather tasty sesame teriyaki beef cubes) and saw a fairly decent turnout by the voting public.  I interviewed a number of officials in attendance, including Joe Thomas, John Coghill, borough mayor candidate Luke Hopkins, Jay Ramras, and UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers and asked them what they thought about the day’s results.  The answers were mostly a uniform “thought it went really well”.  Chancellor Rogers called it “a really good dialogue”, while Rep. Ramras said that the transcripts of today’s meetings would be “extraordinarily valuable” to outgoing UA President Mark Hamilton’s successor.  Of course, Ramras also credited the 90-day sessions with spurring these discussions onward.  Why it’s almost worth the tax dollars used to fly the legislature to Juneau for all the special sessions they’ve had to host.

I took the opportunity to poll the pols about Governor Parnell’s new “Governor’s Performance Scholarship”.  While everyone said that it was good for the governor to be focused on education, responses varied when asked how to go about doing it.  Coghill and Ramras were all for the merit-based scholarships, although Ramras cited concern with the governor’s ‘fence off $400 million’ approach to funding it.  Joe Thomas and Brian Rogers, while pleased with the talk of scholarships, mentioned that they’d prefer to see more money going into needs-based scholarships.

EDIT: The News-Miner has characterized yesterdays meetings as tense.  I got that feeling myself, especially with Rep. Ramras and Sen-Nominee Coghill’s thinly veiled criticism of the university financial practices.