Alaska Airlines Captain Passes Out During Flight

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The Alaska Airlines pilot who lost consciousness during a Seattle-bound flight Thursday night, prompting an emergency landing, was suffering from food poisoning or a stomach virus, an airline spokesman said Friday.

The co-pilot of Flight 473 safely landed the jetliner in Portland, Ore., after declaring an emergency to get priority care for the pilot, spokesman Paul McElroy said. All of the airline’s pilots are trained to fly single-handedly.

McElroy said the pilot was in good condition Friday at a hospital where doctors examined him. The airline declined to release the pilot’s name or age.

The Boeing 737-700 with 116 passengers and five crew members left Los Angeles at about 6:30 p.m. and had been scheduled to arrive in Seattle at 9:30 p.m. It touched down in Portland at about 9 p.m.

The pilot lost consciousness near Eugene, Ore., and hit his head, McElroy said. He then later regained consciousness and left the cockpit. A doctor aboard the flight tended to the pilot in the cabin until the plane landed and was met by medical personnel on the runway.

Read more from this story HERE.

Outrage: Alaska’s Senators Support Transfer of F-16’s and M1 Tanks to Muslim Brotherhood Government in Egypt

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While Egypt burned, Alaska’s United States Senators voted yesterday to table an amendment that would have blocked the sale of advanced military weaponry to the Muslim Brotherhood-controlled Egyptian Government whose leader has recently made headlines for calling the Jews “bloodsuckers” and “descendants of apes and pigs.”

Apparently our delegation is impervious to the fact that the very organization that spawned Osama Bin Laden, and the terrorist organization Hamas, will be the recipients of US arms. The goal of these dangerous extremists is a global caliphate.

One has to wonder how putting such dangerous weapons in the hands of an anti-Semite whose credo calls for jihad and martyrdom will help to stabilize a region that is already in turmoil.

In case you’re wondering, the Muslim Brotherhood’s creed reads as follows: “Allah is our objective; the Quran is our law, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.”

The amendment in question was put forward by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.

See video below:

Old Guard CBC Stages Coup in Alaska GOP

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WASHINGTON, DC, February 1, 2013 – In a hastily convened meeting Thursday night the outgoing leadership of the Republican Party of Alaska staged what amounts to a coup to oust the incoming Chairman and seize control of the party.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the controversy over the election of reformer candidate Russ Millette to the Chairmanship of the Alaska GOP. Millette is a Republican Liberty Caucus member who represents the more libertarian/conservative wing of the party and party insiders did not want him to take control of their party and institute reforms.

During the lame duck tenure of the outgoing State Executive Committee, party insiders raised various charges against Millette and his Vice Chair Debbie Brown, which observers categorized as “trivial” and “irrelevant,” amounting to little more than vague financial questions and accusations of not being enough of a party loyalist. No actual rule violations of any substance were raised.

A plan was put forward to hold a hearing on the charges at the installation meeting of the Executive Committee on February 1st. Then, to the surprise of party members who described the action as “a sham” and “a witch hunt,” the hearing was moved forward a day so that the new committee members would not yet be seated or have a vote on the accusations.

Even more troubling to many party members was the notification right before the meeting that outgoing Chairman Randy Ruederich had cleaned out the party treasury of $35,000 and transferred the money to a bank in Juneau out of control of the Executive Committee, a classic “rule or ruin” tactic designed to make sure that if the new leadership takes over they will have no money to fund party operations.

Read more on this story HERE.

School Choice and NEA Opposition

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Word on the street is that the NEA is desperately stalking the halls of the capitol in Juneau trying to keep a lid on the movement to bring school choice to Alaska. And they have quite a lobbyist on the payroll.

According to State of Alaska public disclosures, Alaska NEA lobbyist John Alcantra makes $57.83 per hour. Assuming a 40 hour work week, that’s more than $120,000 annually. If his listed wage does not include health benefits and retirement, it would not be unreasonable to assume that the total cost for Alcantra tops $150,000 a year. Solidarity, indeed.

But Alcantra and his posse have a reason to be rattled. School choice is an issue that has commanded bipartisan support in other states as well. Study after study shows the benefits of school choice for all the kids, including those from lower income families and ethnic minority groups.

Two separate polls conducted (Braun Research and Dittman Research) show a healthy majority of support for school choice among Alaskans. While Alaska’s education performance continues to lag behind other states, the Senate majority coalition being used by Progressives in the legislature to obstruct good legislation was defeated in the last election cycle.

If you haven’t called your State Representative or Senator to voice your opinion on school choice, be sure to do it. According to reports from Juneau, the Republican caucus will be discussing education in the near future.

There are a number of obstructionists inside of the Majority caucus who will make it their goal to characterize this issue as divisive and toxic. Some are genuinely more concerned with losing a reelection bid than obstructing public policy that is good for Alaska. Others are simply ideologues.

Given the nature of the caucus, and with Mr. Alcantra roaming the halls of Juneau, your help is needed to get this legislation moving. If you would like to see school choice become a reality in Alaska, call or email your representative and senator.

Palin, Fox News Part Ways

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NEW YORK – Fox News Channel is parting ways with former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, ending her three-year tenure as a contributor on the network.

While Palin’s time at Fox was occasionally rocky, the network’s news executive, Bill Shine, said Friday that “we have thoroughly enjoyed our association” with her.

“We wish her the best in her future endeavors,” said Shine, Fox’s executive vice president for programming.

A person familiar with discussions between Fox and Palin described the parting as amicable, saying that Fox and Palin had discussed renewing her contract but she decided to do other things. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

Palin’s lawyer in Alaska, John Tiemessen, had no immediate comment on her exit. Palin’s last appearance on Fox News was Dec. 19 on Greta Van Susteren’s show.

Read more from this story HERE.

Anchorage Assembly Takes Up Title 21, Accepting Public Comment

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Pay attention, folks. If you are concerned with the government telling you what you can and cannot do with your private property, then you must comment on the Title 21 code being considered by the Anchorage Assembly. If you think the government should be able to tell you how many windows you can have on the street facing side of your house, then don’t comment. If you think the government should be able to tell you how many bushes and trees you should have in your yard, then don’t comment. If you think the government should be able to tell you that you have to have a covered front porch, then don’t comment.

If you have saved enough of your hard earned money to finally move out of rental housing and now want to build a new home to your design specifications, then don’t comment. If you want the government to tell you where and what type of sidewalk you must have, then don’t comment. If you want the government to tell you how large your garage can be, then don’t comment.

If you believe that a small active segment (the spandex crowd) of our population should be able to tell you what is “aesthetic”, then don’t comment. If you believe in centralized planning by academic urban planners, then don’t comment.

If you believe you own your property and the government should butt out with its overreaching regulations, then do comment. If you believe low income housing will be even more expensive and crowd out the 99%, then do comment.

Read more HERE.

Former Clinton, Obama Officials Call For Halt to Arctic Drilling

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Former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta and former EPA administrator and Obama climate policy director Carol Browner officials have changed their tune and are now opposed to oil and gas drilling in the arctic. They argue that a “series of mishaps and errors” have them convinced it can’t be done safely and responsibly.

“We were open to offshore oil and gas development in the Arctic provided oil companies and the government could impose adequate safeguards, ensure sufficient response capacity and develop a deeper understanding of how oil behaves in ice and freezing water,” write Podesta and Browner, both now working at the liberal Center for American Progress.

“Now, following a series of mishaps and errors, as well as overwhelming weather conditions, it has become clear that there is no safe and responsible way to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic Ocean,” they added.

Podesta and Browner argue that despite reports warning about potential hazards of arctic drilling and advances in technology and expertise, Royal Dutch Shell has shown it is ill-prepared for arctic drilling. The two go farther to argue that arctic drilling should be stopped altogether.

“The Obama administration shouldn’t issue any new permits to Shell this year and should suspend all action on other companies’ applications to drill in this remote and unpredictable region,” write Podesta and Browner.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska’s RINO’s Fail to Remove Liberty-Minded Chair-Elect; Kangaroo Court to Reconvene February 1

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Alaska’s Republican Party (ARP) leadership failed in its attempt last night to remove Chair-elect Russ Millette, a constitutional conservative, as well as vice-chair elect Debbie Brown, from the ARP.

Their efforts fell flat after a motion by Fairbanksan Ralph Seekins to allow Russ Millette a continuance so that he would have time to prepare a defense to the charges raised by leftist ARP Rules Chair and Ruedrich confidant, Frank McQueary.

The charges against Debbie Brown were raised by chairman Ruedrich himself, alleging financial improprieties. The fact that the charges were raised by a chairman who apparently not only transferred tens of thousands of ARP dollars to the Murkowski-supporting Juneau Capitol Hill club without proper authorization just a few weeks ago, but who also seems responsible for a significant FEC fine for financial improprieties related to VECO has many within the party scratching their heads.

It also is shocking that this same chairman was reportedly entrusted with hundreds of thousands of dollars for Joe Miller’s direct mail campaign in 2010 but who has refused to disclose the database evidencing that he actually spent the money for Joe Miller instead of Lisa Murkowski, as suspected by some party members.

To make matters worse, the inquisitors had the gall to confront Millette on who he supported for president in 2012 – despite the fact that the very people asking the questions failed to support Republican-nominee Joe Miller in the 2010 US Senate race. The fact that none of the Alaska press in attendance reported on this extreme hypocrisy reflects that little has changed since their efforts in 2010 to sink the anti-establishment candidate with false stories.

Russ Millette commented after the kangaroo court that McQueary had “brought up charges that he’d never seen before.” He stated that the “whole thing, the charges, were totally bogus.” Millette also noted that “most of the minds [on the ARP executive committee] seemed made up.”

Millette was amazed at the effort to remove him, suggesting that the effort by party-insiders to keep RINO’s in charge of the party would devastate its cohesion. If he were allowed to take office, Millette claimed that he would “unite [and] bring the party together.”

During the hearing last night, he was supported by a number of conservatives who waved signs outside of the ARP headquarters in Anchorage:

Stay tuned for the continuance of Ruedrich’s efforts to unseat his successor on February 1.

State’s Rights Bill Protecting Alaskans’ Right To Keep And Bear Arms Introduced

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photo credit: housemajority

(SitNews) – Alaska Speaker of the House Mike Chenault (R-Nikiski) introduced a bill on Wednesday defending Alaskans’ Second Amendment rights in light of President Barack Obama’s announced plans to curb gun violence.

“We began work on this bill before the President’s announcement today, and now I’m extremely glad we did. Twenty-three Executive Orders have been signed into law without a review from Americans’ elected representatives,” Chenault said.

Chenault said, “Tragedy is not a license for federal encroachment of constitutionally protected freedoms. We can all agree that what happened in Newtown, Connecticut was an absolute tragedy. But what we fundamentally disagree on is how you meet the challenge it presented. The President is using it to further his liberal agenda to try and disarm and disenfranchise law-abiding Americans from their enshrined Second Amendment rights. No one should be comfortable with that, regardless of where you sit on the issue.”

“As a father, I prayed for those who lost children in the incident, and was sickened that someone would prey on our children,” Chenault said. “The President shouldn’t parade out children and pull on emotional heart strings on something as important as executing orders to circumvent the Congress and weaken the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Former Fairbanks Representative Mike Kelly stood up for Alaskans’ gun rights during the 26th Legislature, and I hope to carry on his legacy with this new bill.”

Read more from this story HERE.