Miller Welcomes Dan Sullivan Into the U.S. Senate Race

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Fairbanks, Alaska. October 15, 2013 — Today U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller welcomed Dan Sullivan into the U.S. Senate race in Alaska.

Campaign spokesman Randy DeSoto stated, “Competition is good for the Republican Party. We look forward to a healthy debate about how to best restore what has been our nation’s true birthright: to live in a land where our constitutional freedoms are secure and where the American dream is alive and well. We trust during the course of this campaign the primary voters will learn the clear distinctions between the candidates and their views of the role of government in our daily lives.”

Sullivan joins Miller and Mead Treadwell, who officially announced his candidacy last month. John Jaramillo and Kathleen Tonn have also indicated they will seek the Republican nomination.

Senate GOP Blocks Dems from Extending Debt Limit Beyond 2014 Midterm Elections

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Photo Credit: Cliff Owen Senate Republicans on Saturday blocked a bid by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to extend the nation’s debt limit until after the 2014 midterm elections.

In an 53-45 vote, the Senate failed to win the 60 votes necessary to advance the debt-limit measure to a floor debate. The bill would increase the federal debt by an estimated $1.1 trillion.

Every Democrat supported the measure, though Reid switched his vote at the end to preserve the right to bring the motion up for another vote later.

Republicans criticized the legislation as politically transparent. Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) and two other centrist GOP senators have instead proposed raising the debt-limit only until Jan. 31, 2014.

During the vote, a large number of Democratic senators huddled around Collins (R-Maine). Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), the other two GOP centrists backing the Collins plan, joined her.

Read more from this story HERE.

Special Counsel to Investigate Armed EPA Mining Raid in Alaska

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Photo Credit: jkbrooks85Alaska’s governor, Sean Parnell, announced Thursday that a special counsel has been named to investigate raids by conducted by federal and state authorities near the town of Chicken.

“Alaskans deserve to know all the facts in this case,” Parnell said in a Thursday press release. “While these facts are being gathered, I will continue to be vigilant in defense of Alaskans’ liberty and personal property.

Anchorage attorney Brent Cole will be asked to determine, among other things, whether any laws were violated and if different actions could have been taken. The report is due within 90 days.

A spokesman for the federal Environmental Protection Agency, at the time, did not deny that agents wore body armor and carried guns, but said it was not a “raid.” The task force included members from 10 state and federal law enforcement agencies.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Slams Feds for Keeping Hunters off Land

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Photo Credit: Alex SlitzAlaska lawmakers accused the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of violating federal law by shutting down hunting on its lands during the government shutdown, saying a 1980 law guarantees state residents must have access to the land.

“It seems that agencies are working harder to keep people off federal lands than they have ever worked before to get them to visit federal lands,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Republican, who questioned the Obama administration’s decisions during the week-old shutdown.

The National Park Service has faced scorching criticism for closing not just parks, but even parking lots and drives that don’t require continual monitoring or upkeep. Other federal land management agencies also are facing criticism.

A tour guide who had a group at Yellowstone National Park accused the Park Service of “Gestapo tactics” in trying to prevent visitors from viewing any of the sites, saying that while they were allowed to remain at the lodge in the park, they were not allowed to do much else — including walk on the boardwalk paths outside the lodge or visit the park’s geysers.

And when he took the tour bus with his group along the road and stopped to photograph bison, he said, a ranger drove up behind them and told them they could be charged with trespassing.

Read more from this story HERE.

Senators Murkowski, McCain and Kirk Signal Willingness to Work with Dems to Raise the Debt Ceiling Without Conditions

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The United States government is expected to hit the debt ceiling in less than two weeks, and Senate Democrats have said they’re ready to raise it with a “clean” bill to avoid default on the national debt. Reports that Senate Republicans would consider supporting such a bill began to roll in on Monday.

Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) have all floated the idea of voting for a clean debt limit increase, according to reports by Politico, ABC News and Public Radio International.

Though these Republicans seem willing to meet Democrats in the middle, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has made clear that the House won’t budge.

Earlier this year, Senator Murkowski stated that she did not believe the debt ceiling should be used as political leverage in seeking to obtain spending cuts from the Obama Administration and Senate Democrats.

Read more from this HERE.

Coded Message from the Alaska National Weather Service? ‘PLEASE PAY US’

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Photo Credit: Yahoo

Photo Credit: Yahoo

Someone at the Anchorage, Alaska, branch of the National Weather Service seems to have a very important message regarding the federal government shutdown: “PLEASE PAY US.”

The acrostic message appears to have been included in the first paragraph of a weather alert issued from the office on Friday. In an acrostic message or poem, the first letters of each sentence in a paragraph combine to spell out a word that is separate from the larger text.

Read more from this story HERE.

Open for Business: Gov’t to Erect $98,670 Outhouse in Alaska

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Photo Credit: Romtec

Photo Credit: Romtec

The Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently paid $98,670 for the purchase and installation of an outhouse at the Swede Park Trail Head in Alaska.

The purchase includes a single-vault Romtec 1011 “Aspen Single” prefabricated waterless toilet and its installation at the parking area for the trail head.

KJ Mushovic of the BLM tells CNSNews.com, “Almost half of it (contract expense) is for the cost of the toilet.”

The Oregon based company Romtec lists the “Aspen Single” model on its website for “as low as $9,999”, but the BLM says the price they paid likely includes shipping to Alaska.

“And the cost of all the materials that will have to be taken to the site, Mushovic said. “There will be earthwork that’ll have to be done.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Top 5 Reasons ANWR and Area 51 Are Alike

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area_51Joe Miller gave the keynote address at the Nevada Republican Party’s Unity Dinner last night in Las Vegas.

Despite the significant geographic differences between Alaska and Nevada, the two have one important trait in common: the majority of each state’s land is owned by the federal government. In Alaska, Uncle Sam holds the title deed to over 69 percent of the Great Land, outranked only by Nevada, where the feds control a whopping 84 percent. Ten states have more than a third of their land owned by Washington, DC. Miller, if elected, wants to work with other western states to bring those percentages down significantly.

Of course some of the best known federally controlled land in Alaska is ANWR and in Nevada, Area 51. What you may not know is that there are actually many similarities between them. Here are the top five:

5. Both are set aside as a federally controlled refuge: ANWR for animal wildlife, and Area 51…it’s classified.      

4. Both have limited accessibility: ANWR is accessible only by sea and air, Area 51 is only accessible by those wearing black suits and sunglasses who go by Agent G or Q…  

3. Both are said to contain vast treasures hidden underground: ANWR, oil and natural gas, and Area 51, state of the art flying machines and some say even the Ark of the Covenant.

2. Trespassing on either will lead to a heavily armed federal agents descending upon you from above. If only the federal government could find the same sense of urgency in enforcing our borders. 

1. Finally, spending any length of time on the ground in either location could lead to close encounters with species unfamiliar to most people. 

Chill Sets In At Alaska-Based Federal Agency After One Boss Asks DC to Shut It Down

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Photo Credit: Eileen Ogintz

Photo Credit: Eileen Ogintz

A tiny, federally-funded agency based in Anchorage is fighting for survival, and its biggest enemy may be within.

The Denali Commission, an economic development authority set up with earmarks obtained by the late Sen. Ted Stevens, came onto the radar of budget hawks in Washington when its own inspector general wrote lawmakers to tell them they were wasting taxpayers’ money.

“At this point, I recommend that Congress no longer send Denali an annual “base” appropriation,” Denali Inspector General Mike Marsh wrote in a a June 23 letter to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. “This will give Denali an incentive to leave the federal nest and chart its own course as a federal entity.

“This will also give the State of Alaska an incentive to find and fund its own solutions for the residents of “bush” Alaska — as it should,” the letter went on to state.

But that stance came as a surprise to the men and women who work with Marsh at Denali, which seeks to promote rural development, power generation and other infrastructure needs in Alaska.Commission Co-Chair Joel Neimeyer told FoxNews.com his agency does important work, worthy of federal funding. The apparently did not know about Marsh’s lobbying efforts until contacted by the Washington Post this week.

Read more from this story HERE.

Creepy Trolls at Alaska Dispatch Cyber-Stalk Joe Miller’s Pregnant Daughter

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biased_media_lies_Ak Dispatch

[UPDATE: After receiving numerous untoward comments on her own web page from Alaska Dispatch readers, Kelsey Miller wrote her own response to this unwelcome intrusion on her and her husband’s privacy. You can read it HERE.]

Just when you think the media can’t go any lower, along comes online news blog Alaska Dispatch to put the ‘ass’ in class. These folks are proving to be the kind of ‘journalists’ that have to look up to the supermarket tabloids.

On Wednesday an anonymous editor reported a post on Joe Miller’s personal Facebook page (not his political Facebook page) to raise funds for his daughter and son-in-law who are serving as Christian missionaries in Mexico.

Along with a description, replete with false juxtaposition of Joe Miller’s political views on limited government and personal responsibility, Alaska Dispatch also provided a link to the couple’s personal blog, and a picture. They are expecting their first child and, due to their status as full-time missionaries, solicited funds from their network of friends and donors to cover the cost of her maternity, as well as funds for a reliable vehicle.

Alaska Dispatch was obviously trying to score cheap political points, but anyone familiar with the evangelical missionary movement knows that fund-raising of this type is standard operating procedure. In fact, some mission organizations require deputation to raise a support team of regular donors and prayer partners.

Dispatch_Kelsey_Page_1

Not only is this type of trolling by putative news organizations inappropriate, it could come with significant liability should it expose anyone to harm.

Children of politicians have always been considered off-limits, at least until Sarah Palin came on the scene. Now it appears the Alaska media is gearing up to give Joe Miller ‘the Sarah Palin treatment.’

Apparently the Alaska Dispatch’s hatred for Joe Miller cannot be satiated by lies and gratuitous smears. Now they stoop to attack his children. Have they no shame?

It’s a rhetorical question. There is no sewer these people won’t plumb in an attempt to get someone else dirty. They are cellar-dwellers.

The Alaska Dispatch appears to be a mere political mouthpiece that owner/publisher Alice Rogoff-Rubenstein is funding to protect her husband’s multi-billion-dollar empire, a massive recipient of corporate welfare. The Carlyle Group largely subsists off of federal contracting and ANC tax offsets.

FEC reports indicate that Ms. Rogoff-Rubenstein has given political donations to both Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich. Enough said.

Alaska Dispatch should remove said post, and offer a public apology. If you agree, you can contact Alaska Dispatch at (907) 743-0744.

Also, as the currency of an online publication is the traffic to its blog, I encourage you to NOT go to their website or click on ANY of their stories.

To ensure that Alice Rogoff-Rubenstein ends her political meddling in Alaska, she needs to understand that most Alaskans see through her media-charade and recognize it as nothing more than a tool to perpetuate crony capitalism.

(As of tonight, Sept. 26, 2013, Joe Miller is discontinuing his personal Facebook page. If you would like to connect with Joe on Facebook, please like his political page.)

[UPDATE: After receiving numerous untoward comments on her own web page from Alaska Dispatch readers, Kelsey Miller wrote her own response to this unwelcome intrusion on her and her husband’s privacy. You can read it HERE.]