Oil prices, Sharia law and a super hero stopped in his tracks

A bit of a diversion into politics. This place is going sort of nuts. First, the silent governor appointed a guy to a council that chooses judges for the governor to pick from for his nominations. In an interview, the guy he named said he thinks extra marital sex should be against the law. Wow. As the cliche goes, wrong on so many levels. Imagine the overcrowding in prisons if that were the law of the land ,,, and how much lawbreaking would be going on INSIDE. Today he withdrew from the nomination saying he didn't want to distract from the important work of the Judicial Council. Thank you so much.

This next one will take some explanation. There is a tax structure set up for the oil companies here that among other things has a graduated scale that goes up when the oily's profits rise. Of course the industry had objected to that for years. The silent governor, who used to work in the oil industry, made it his legislative priority this year to repeal that tax. He says the cut is to induce the industry to do more exploration, development and production In Alaska, however there is no guarantee that will happen. Since the Legislature has been in session, that has been the primary issue. The state revenue department said repeal would cost the state about $2 billion a year in lost income. Nevertheless, a repeal bill passed the state House but the leader of the Senate said earlier this week there will be no oil tax cut in this session, which would effectively kill it for at least another year. Then yesterday, the head of Conoco Phillips Alaska said the company would invest UP TO $5 billion in Alaska next year if the tax cut passes. Talk about your blackmail. "Up to" is no guarantee they WILL spend that much or any. Any amount, even $5, could qualify as UP TO $5 billion. Politics is often a matter of compromise though that seems a lost art these days, so, with compromise in mind, I have a better solution. How about you do this Conoco, you spend UP TO $4 billion and we will keep our $1 billion which is paid ostensibly because the people of Alaska own that oil, not you and not the governor and not the Legislature.

OK, now that is solved, there's this. As the rich in this country (read Republican overlords) continue their assault on the rest of us, a state Legislator here, MY representative in fact, entered a bill attacking public employees' collective bargaining rights. Good grief. I doubt there is a working person in this country who doesn't owe some part of his income to a union somewhere back in history (think six degrees of separation) and yet now as governments give away billions to industry (read above, or better yet look into the subsidies provided to the oil industry just to do what they do while they make obscene profits) the regular old workers with collective bargaining take the blame for the economic problems. There is way too much involved in that issue to put in a short blog post but you get the idea. Give billions to profit-hungry industries and blame teachers and policemen and firemen, that's the ticket. Fortunately calmer heads prevailed in Alaska and the bill was withdrawn. But, the guy was not to be dissuaded from pushing another outrageous issue. He actually introduced a bill in the Legislature that would make it illegal for an Alaska court to make a judgment based on sharia law. Are you kidding me? Sharia law? Make women wear burkas and allow honor killings? Hey Gatto, we have a Constitution and more than 200 years of precedent law. We won't be stoning anyone anytime soon. The thing is, I get to vote when that guy runs again next year. I already have a campaign slogan for him: Gatto's gotta get gone.

Enough of a rant I guess for one day. The only thing left is this headline that showed up today: "Arctic Man delayed by blizzard." Lots of interpretations for that one, aren't there, but in the long run this question: Who is this Arctic Man and what kind of a wimp is he to claim that title and be stopped by a blizzard. Hell i walked the width of Wasilla Lake in a blizzard yesterday and it was in the Governor Interrupted's home town where being a liberal is a shooting offense. Ok some explanation for Outsiders. Arctic Man is a gathering every April in the Hoodoo Mountains (Not kidding). As many as 12,000 people show up in motor homes with snowmachines and form the third or fourth biggest city in Alaska for a few days. It is based around a competition where a snowmachiner tows a skier up a mountain, then releases the skier to ski down, picks him up at the bottom for a tow sometimes at as much as 80 mph to the top of the next hill before another ski to the finish line. There are other events, too, but mostly it is a huge party. Still you have to admit it does seem a bit ironic that Arctic Man can be stopped by a blizzard.

As the Beatles and Muppets used to sing: "Letter B, Letter B, there will be an answer, Letter Beeeee.