The Alaska Republican Party Coup Saga Moves to Homer

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Photo Credit: dmcdevitThe State Central Committee (SCC) of the Alaska Republican Party will be meeting in Homer Alaska on Saturday May 25th for their quarterly leadership meeting. It should be a lively one.

This saga all began back in April of 2012 at the Republican State Convention where the state delegates elected Russ Millette as the new chair and Debbie Brown as the new vice chair. This represented a tremendous values shift away from the established party leadership that has ruled for over a decade.

From that moment on, the old guard has been working feverishly to nullify the state convention election results and keep their established leadership cabal in power indefinitely. Back in January, chair-elect Russ Millette was ousted by the smaller State Executive Committee (SEC) on the charge of failure to raise money just two hours before he was to be seated. Debbie Brown then advanced to party chair. She was likewise purged in a similar manner in April on the charge of failure to raise money. Both are appealing their removal from office at the upcoming SCC meeting in Homer.

In the meantime, a few of the individual political districts such as Districts 8 (Palmer), District 10 (Big Lake), and District 12 (Eagle River) have rejected this leadership usurpation by issuing individual district resolutions pledging to follow their duly elected leadership despite the noise and political machinations of those that have dug into the political system like Tennessee ticks.

As the meeting in Homer rapidly approaches, a new twist has been added in the form of an individual district resolution from District 30 (Kasilof & Homer) that proposes that the SCC confirm Peter Goldberg (or someone else) as interim chair until the September SCC meeting, at which time a new chair and vice-chair would be elected by the SCC. While on the surface this may look a lot like a compromise to promote unity within the Alaska GOP, in reality it would divide it like the Colorado River cutting through the sandstone of the Grand Canyon.

First of all if this resolution is adopted, the SCC would legitimize the coup d’état by confirming Peter Goldberg or someone else interim party chair. Secondly, this would disenfranchise the several hundred elected state delegates who voted at the 2012 Republican State Convention. Thirdly, this would sanction a “do over” election in a much smaller and controllable SCC venue. Lastly, this would upend and go-around any appeal that may be made by Russ Millette or Debbie Brown to keep their elected positions.

The crux of this issue really exceeds intraparty personality bickering. This is about something much larger and scarier that can affect every Republican and eventually every American. This is about the sacred respect for the succession of political power by majority vote. The U.S. Constitution and our Republican form of self-government are all built on the same foundation stone — the respect by both the winning and losing parties for the results of free and fair elections. In the past this mutual respect has provided for the orderly transfer of political power and has prevented many civil wars. The ARP is about to set a horrible precedent by nullifying a statewide election that if left unchecked, could spread like a cancer throughout our entire political system and eventually threaten the very foundation of our republic itself. We cannot allow this to happen.

The Republican State Central Committee (SCC) is composed of all of our elected state and federal legislators, the governor and lieutenant governor, as well others such as district chairs and bonus votes. Make your voice heard as to which direction you wish the Alaska Republican Party to go. It is my firm belief that the despite our current challenges and individual drifting, the Republican Party platform still rings closest to that of our Founding Fathers proclamation of individual liberty and limited government. It is up to us — you and I as rank and file Republicans, to dip our torch back into the pitch of freedom, relight it, and use it to guide the path of our footsteps much as it successfully guided our ancestor’s through two centuries of the darkest and stormiest nights into the green valleys of the greatest prosperity the world has ever known.

Fishermen Found Guilty, Although Court Agrees Subsistence Salmon Fishing is Religious

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Photo Credit: Alaska PublicNearly 50 fishermen were cited for illegal salmon fishing last June. Half of them pled not guilty and have been fighting it in court ever since.

In recent weeks, the fishermen had been waiting to hear a decision on whether they have the religious right to subsistence fish, even during state closures.

The trial resumed May 20 in Bethel and the fishermen packed into the courtroom with some people left standing in the hallway. It was a trial by judge and Judge Bruce Ward, in a gentle voice, said the court found that the state’s need to restrict King salmon supersedes the fishermen’s right to religious practice.

“The court wants all parties to know that this was a very difficult decision to make,” Ward said. “This was not easy.”

The fishermen were challenging the state based on a free exercise clause of the Alaska constitution, arguing that subsistence fishing is a religious practice and that when they fished last summer during closures, they were practicing their religion.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Volcano’s Ash Prompts Flight Cancellations

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Photo Credit: APAn Alaska volcano eruption is prompting regional airlines to cancel flights to nearby communities, including a town that reported traces of fallen ash.

Pavlof Volcano released ash plumes as high as 22,000 feet over the weekend, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Clouds obscured the volcano Monday, but U.S. Geological Survey scientists said seismic instruments at the volcano show continuing tremors.

“Seismically, it’s been pretty steady over the last 12 hours,” geologist Chris Waythomas said late Monday morning.

The abrasive ash has not risen enough to threaten international air traffic passing over the volcano-rich Aleutian arc, Waythomas said. Ash emissions have gone high enough, however, to affect flights of some smaller planes.

Anchorage-based regional carrier Penair has canceled a dozen passenger and cargo flights to several remote communities since Sunday afternoon. The communities include Sand Point, which reported a dusting of ash Sunday.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Talks Liberty Topic: The Future of The Alaska Republican Party

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Russ Millette, host of Alaska Talks Liberty, will be featuring various guests this week. They will be discussing The Future of The Alaska Republican Party. Please tune in to his radio show Tuesday May 21st at 3 PM AK Time.

See flyer below for details:

Judge Shafts Joe Miller in FNSB Case

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Photo Credit: KTUUIn yet another dubious move by the Alaska Court System, Judge Stephanie Joannides awarded the news blog Alaska Dispatch an inordinate sum totaling almost 100K in legal fees from the Miller v. FNSB court case. Joe Miller was ordered to pay 85K, this despite the fact that the majority of the fees were billed either before Miller intervened in the case or after they were a relevant party to the case.

The Alaska Dispatch remained party to the case long after the Anchorage Daily News and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reasonably withdrew, and had agreed not to petition the court for legal fees.

To any remotely objective observer, the Dispatch had no legitimate reason to remain party to the case outside of the source material they may have been able to gain through first-hand observation of the Borough depositions, a raw profit motive, or perhaps prurient interest.

In fact, Dispatch attorneys even admitted that they had no reason to be in the case, given that Mr. Miller had filed no action against them. Yet they still sought fees long after the case was decided in their favor, and from actions they had unilaterally undertaken, dating all the way back to Sept. 2010, weeks before Miller intervened in the case.

How is Miller responsible for expenses accrued by the Dispatch’s lawsuit against the Borough before he chose to intervene? Or for the debts accumulated long after they ceased to be a relevant party to the case?

Following is the breakdown of the fee schedule stated in Mr. Miller’s appeal:

“According to Alaska Dispatch’s counsel, he billed 123.1 hours of attorney’s fees from September 9, 2010 through October 19, 2010, when Mr. Miller intervened in this lawsuit; 34.6 hours from October 20, 2010 through October 26, 2010, when Alaska Dispatch obtained its relief; and 291 hours after October 27, 2010, while the cross-claims and third-party claim between Mr. Miller and FNSB/Whitaker were being litigated.”

Equally troubling is how Judge Joannides was assigned to the case in the first place, and subsequent revelations that she had a financial relationship with a Dispatch employee.

Under normal circumstances a judge would be assigned through a random selection process. However, in the FNSB case, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court intervened and hand-picked Judge Joannides. This is a very rare move, perhaps unprecedented outside of this particular case.

Moreover, Judge Joannides had rented her basement apartment to an Alaska Dispatch employee, but claimed that the fact was irrelevant to the case. This begs the question of whether it was a random coincidence. Does the Judge have further relationships with other folks at the Dispatch?

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Tom is author of the blog ‘It’s a Kwazy Life: Analyzing the Sanity in Politics That Control Our Lives’ and is also a Construction worker in Anchorage Alaska. This story first appeared at his blog HERE.

Anchorage Sets New Record for Longest Snow Season

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Photo Credit: cb6379232 days – it took over 30 years for Anchorage to set a new record for the longest snow season on record.

The National Weather Service measured 2/10ths of an inch just after 9 p.m. Friday and 1/10th Saturday morning – breaking the old record of 230 days set in 1981-1982.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Volcano Shoots Lava up Hundreds of Feet

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Photo Credit: APAlaska’s remote Pavlof Volcano was shooting lava hundreds of feet into the air, but its ash plume was thinning Saturday and no longer making it dangerous for airplanes to fly nearby.

A narrow ash plume extends a couple hundred miles southeast from the volcano, which is 625 miles southwest of Anchorage, said Geologist Chris Waythomas of the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

The eruption that began Monday seemed to be slowing on Saturday, but Waythomas said that could change at any time.

“Things could ramp up quickly,” he said.

There are no flight restrictions because of the eruption, but pilots are being told to use caution and pay attention, Waythomas said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Conservatives Respond After IRS Commissioner Ousted (+video)

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The head of the Internal Revenue Service was ousted amidst controversy that the agency had targeted certain political groups. According to the U.S. Treasury, the IRS delayed processing applications for groups tea party-affiliated groups. Those groups are already very critical of the federal government. Those CBS 11 talked to say firing the head of the agency does little to ease their fears about federal bias.

Since 2010, the Treasury Inspector General said, the IRS has not been fair in processing applications from certain groups seeking tax-exempt status. President Barack Obama addressed Americans in a press conference where he called the scandal an “outrage.”

He announced the resignation of acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, but former Alaska tea party candidate Joe Miller said that’s not enough. “The people that made that decision, they need to be prosecuted. The house needs to be cleaned. The IRS [needs] to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Mark Fish is one of the founding members of Alaska’s tea party movement. He said government scrutiny is exactly why his tea party group in Alaska opted not to file tor tax exempt status. “You know, with current events, it looks like some of those fears have been founded.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Remote Alaska Volcano Erupting with Lava and Ash

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Photo Credit: APA remote Alaska volcano continues to erupt, spewing lava and ash clouds.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory said Thursday a continuous cloud of ash, steam and gas from Pavlof Volcano has been seen 20,000 feet above sea level. The cloud was moving to the southeast Thursday.

John Power, the U.S. Geological Survey scientist in charge at the observatory, estimates the lava fountain rose several hundred feet into the air.

Read more from this story HERE.

China Seeks Foothold in Arctic Group As Competition Heats Up for Region’s Resources

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Photo Credit: State DepartmentChina is one of several countries hoping to obtain a foothold in a grouping of nations with territory lying within the Arctic Circle, a resource-rich area of fast-growing economic and strategic significance.

Beijing’s application for observer status at the Arctic Council, which meets in northern Sweden on Wednesday, requires the approval of all eight current members of the intergovernmental body, and some analysts are urging the United States to block it, pointing to China’s territorial disputes with neighboring countries and some of its policies at home.

The rising importance of the Arctic lies in its huge oil and gas potential, and experts predict virtually ice-free summers in the coming decades, making the region more accessible and navigable, and triggering concerns about potential harm to sensitive ecosystems.

A much-cited U.S. Geological Survey study in 2008 found that “the Arctic accounts for about 13 percent of the undiscovered oil, 30 percent of the undiscovered natural gas, and 20 percent of the undiscovered natural gas liquids in the world.”

Geopolitical competition among Arctic nations has been heating up in recent years, and a Russian security strategy released in 2009 warned of the possibility of military conflict over the region’s resources.

Read more from this story HERE.