Showing posts with label Alaska. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alaska. Show all posts

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Alaska Democrats Campaign to Reinstate Sarah Palin's Tax Policies

Alaska Democrats are campaigning to have former Gov. Sarah Palin's tax policy reinstated after Palin's successor, Gov. Sean Parnell, had it repealed this year, saying that it discouraged exploration. 

But Democrats liked the way it was in the Palin years and were able to gather enough signatures to make it a ballot measure for 2014, asking that Alaska voters repeal the new plan and keep Palin's, The New York Times reported.

"She was a transformational figure in Alaska politics," said Democratic State Senator Bill Wielechowski, a leader of the repeal effort. Tax policy had not caught up to the profits being made in oil in The Last Frontier. "People realized that for decades Alaska had not gotten a fair share."

Palin ran for governor as a reform candidate in 2006 after it was learned that the oil companies in the state were buying off state legislators in exchange for votes.

However, Andrew Halcro, president of the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, argues that while Palin's tax policies were popular at the time, they may have gone too far and have resulted in discouraging oil companies from drilling. 

"People were angry at the oil industry, angry at the Republican Party, angry at the lawmakers who got caught in the scandal, and she channeled that," Halcro said. "And so when she raised taxes, people were like, 'All right, you go get 'em.' But then the reality sunk in."

While Alaskan Democrats prefer Palin's tax policy, they are hesitant to solicit her support in repealing the new law because she has become a polarizing figure following her candidacy as vice president in 2008 and her resignation as governor. 

"She did the right thing. She put in a tax that was tough on the big guys," said Jack Roderick, age 87, former Democratic major of Anchorage Borough and leader of the repeal effort. But with her divisive image, including her in the campaign would "probably not be helpful."

Via: Newsmax


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Saturday, November 16, 2013

OBAMA RELYING MORE ON IMMIGRATION RULE CHANGES

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration will allow some relatives of U.S. service members living in the country illegally to stay, according to a policy directive issued Friday.

The nine-page memorandum is the latest in a series of immigration policy changes made by President Barack Obama since he took office. The department has long had the power to stop deportations for relatives of military members and veterans, but Friday's memo lays out how and when it can be used.

The latest order gives U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials the power to "parole in place" immigrant spouses, children and parents of current U.S. service members, reservists and veterans. The change means that those immigrants can apply to legally live in the United States.

Margaret D. Stock, an Alaska-based immigration attorney and retired Army reserve lieutenant colonel, said the latest directive would likely impact thousands of military families. "It is very significant," Stock said. "It will ease the strain on so many families and military members."

Peter Boogaard, a Homeland Security Department spokesman, said the policy change would help "reduce the uncertainty our active duty and retired military personnel face because of the immigration status of their family members."

Via: AP

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Saturday, November 9, 2013

The ATM Ate Healthcare.gov

I don’t need to belabor this point, but I think it is a point worth making.
Last year, Barack Obama blamed ATM’s for unemployment. In fact, Barack Obama is pretty sure that the rise of technology has caused unemployment, not his policies.
If he believes that, you’d think he’d hire a bunch of unemployed people to answer phones all day and process Obamacare manually instead of largely relying on Healthcare.gov and technology.
Surely the mass of unemployed in this country would be more efficient with pens, pads, and even mimeograph machines than a site that does not even work. Yes, he has hired some to answer phones, but he did not really put our money where his mouth is in this endeavor.
Good grief people! We can put men on the moon and send spacecraft from the 70′s into interstellar space, but in Barack Obama’s America we can’t even build a freaking website. For Pete’s sake, we put more people on the moon than signed up for Obamacare in Delaware, Kansas, and Alaska combined.
Barack Obama is now Jimmy Carter for that part of America who actually thought the real Jimmy Carter didn’t suck. Yes people, how you’re seeing President 404 Error is precisely how the rest of us saw Jimmy Carter.
Welcome to Barry O’s America.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Democrats Up in 2014 Vent Their Obamacare Anger in White House Meeting (Updated)

luncheons021 073112 445x296 Democrats Up in 2014 Vent Their Obamacare Anger in White House Meeting (Updated)President Barack Obama heard an earful at the White House Wednesday from Senate Democrats running for re-election next year who are fuming about the Affordable Care Act’s rocky rollout.
During a two-hour meeting that was not on the president’s public schedule, the president met with 15 Senate Democrats facing the voters next year, as well as Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Michael Bennet, D-Colo.
Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska issued a release after the meeting torching the administration.
“It is simply unacceptable for Alaskans to bear the brunt of the Administration’s mismanagement of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and that is the message U.S. Senator Mark Begich delivered to President Obama today,” his office said in a statement blasted to reporters.
The release went on to say that Begich complained about “an unworkable website, technical glitches and inaccurate information about peoples’ individual situations. Begich demanded the administration fix the problems immediately so Alaskans, including the 55,000 eligible for subsidies to lower monthly premiums, can realize the many benefits due to them as a result of the health reform law.
“Alaskans should be appreciating the critical benefits of the Affordable Care Act but there is an understandable crisis in confidence because the administration has yet to get it off the ground,” Begich said.
Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado said he let the president know just how upset he is about the troubled health care law. He sent out a release saying that he had pressed the administration to extend the enrollment period due to the problems with HealthCare.gov, ensure that the data on the website is secure and make other modifications.
“The rollout of HealthCare.gov has not been smooth — to say the least — and I shared the concerns of Coloradans directly with the president,” Udall said in the statement. “Consumers should have the time they need to shop for a plan and enroll after the widespread problems with the website are fixed. I urged the president again to extend the enrollment period to give consumers enough time to make an informed decision about their family’s health insurance options. I also told the president that, for the Affordable Care Act to succeed, consumers need to be confident their personal information is secure. We need to do everything in our power to protect the online marketplace from hackers and cyberattacks.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Alaskan Company Suspends Obamacare Enrollments, Cites Faulty Subsidy Calculator

Enroll Alaska, an organization that was specifically created to aid Alaskans in enrolling for Obamacare, has thrown in the towel, at least for the time being.

As the Peninsula Clarion reports, Enroll Alaska has been able to enroll a grand total of only three people since the launch of the health-insurance marketplaces on October 1. It has now given up entirely on that goal, at least until Healthcare.gov, the federal health-care exchange, gives Alaskans accurate figures on the subsidies they’re eligible for.

According to Enroll Alaska, the exchange is telling people that they’re eligible for a subsidy $100 less than what they actually qualify for. Spokeswoman Tyann Boling said that Enroll Alaska discovered the issue after comparing manual calculations with those generated by the website. 

Alaska isn’t the only state to have difficulties with a subsidy calculator. Washington’s state-run health-care exchange, Washington Healthplanfinder,overestimated subsidies for approximately 8,000 people. 

Via: NRO
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Wednesday, October 23, 2013

North Dakota's other big money-making opportunity

A handful of counties in North Dakota are churning out more oil and gas than the entire state of Alaska. Welcome to the Bakken, the jewel of The Rough Rider State.
But a look beyond the drillers working the state's Bakken field reveals many players who see another opportunity: building North Dakota's infrastructure.
In May, environmental nonprofit group Ceres released a report that drillers in the Bakken are flaring—or burning off—more than $100 million in natural gas a month. That's nearly one-third of all the gas drilled in the region, and it's a figure that has tripled in the past three years. The practice is so prolific that NASA says astronauts can see the region's flares from space.
The problem? While drilling in the Bakken has increased the nation's supply of natural gas, the buildout of the pipelines that transport it has not been able to keep up. Drillers with a glut of gas are left with two options: release their excess supply into the atmosphere untreated or burn it off. They typically choose the latter.
It's not an option that the drillers like. Burning product is essentially burning money. Last week, North Dakota's mineral rights holders launched a series of class action lawsuits against the state's biggest drillers over the lost revenue.
Some pipeline builders have sensed an opportunity. Earlier this month, Energy Transfer Equity agreed to buy PVR Partners for $3.8 billion, while Crestwood Midstream announced a $750 million deal to buy privately held Arrow Midstream Holdings. Crestwood will become one of the biggest processors in the Bakken after the deal. 

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Two Constitutional Wrongs Don’t Make a Right: Why Conservatives Should Just Say “No” to Nullification

A number of states, including Missouri, Kansas, and Alaska either have passed or are considering state laws intended to invalidate federal statutes, most notably, federal gun laws. Many have modeled their bills on Montana’s “Firearms Freedom Act,” which was recently struck down by a federal appeals court. In so doing, they have drawn upon the political doctrine of nullification, according to which individual states have the right to pass legislation voiding any federal law that they believe to be unconstitutional.
Their inclination to do so is understandable since states are facing an increasingly overbearing federal government seemingly intent on infringing on state prerogatives and on the individual liberties of their citizens; however, this 

The History of Nullification

Historically, nullification has an ignominious lineage. Its chief architect was John C. Calhoun, former Vice President, Secretary of War and State, and U.S. Senator from South Carolina, who used the concept of nullification to defend states’ rights against federal tariffs and, ultimately, challenges to the institution of slavery.
The core premise behind Calhoun’s concept of nullification is that the states were, prior to the framing of the Constitution, independent sovereigns that consented to be bound by federal law only on certain conditions and that they retained enough of that sovereignty to “veto” unconstitutional federal laws. Yet the Constitution contemplates not a league of independent sovereigns but a federated republic. After 1787, the several states were not independent sovereigns in the same sense that Spain or France were independent sovereigns—for instance, they could not wage war, maintain diplomatic relations with foreign nations, or coin their own money. And, in the federated republic that was forged by the Constitution, duly enacted federal laws cannot be vetoed by individual states, even where they appear to encroach upon state prerogatives.
That is why James Madison, in opposing what he considered to be unconstitutional federal laws, did not press for legislation voiding those laws. The Virginia Resolution, which Madison drafted in 1798 in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts, were intended as “a legislative declaration of opinion on a constitutional point.”[1].

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

PALIN: 'BOMB OBAMACARE'

Former Alaska Governor and Tea Party darling Sarah Palin had a simple message on the eve of President Barack Obama's address to the nation on Syria and the "Exempt America" rally: "Bomb Obamacare."

Palin tweeted the call to action the night before Tea Party Patriots and ForAmerica's blockbuster rally on Capitol Hill for defunding Obamacare, which Breitbart News will broadcast from 10AM EDT to 5PM EDT on Breitbart.com Tuesday. 
Palin linked to a SarahPAC video that shows footage of Obama calling her a liar for claiming Obamacare had "death panels." Palin galvanized the Tea Party against the Affordable Care Act, leading up to the historic 2010 midterm elections which saw Democrats lose the House of Representatives. 
The video shows liberal anchors like Ed Schultz and Keith Olbermann mocking her and others citing Politifact, which claimed Palin's "death panels" talking point was the "lie of the year" in 2009.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Gold miners near Chicken cry foul over 'heavy-handed' EPA raids

When agents with the Alaska Environmental Crimes Task Force surged out of the wilderness around the remote community of Chicken wearing body armor and jackets emblazoned with POLICE in big, bold letters, local placer miners didn’t quite know what to think.
Did it really take eight armed men and a squad-size display of paramilitary force to check for dirty water? Some of the miners, who run small businesses, say they felt intimidated.
Others wonder if the actions of the agents put everyone at risk. When your family business involves collecting gold far from nowhere, unusual behavior can be taken as a sign someone might be trying to stage a robbery. How is a remote placer miner to know the people in the jackets saying POLICE really are police?
Miners suggest it might have been better all around if officials had just shown up at the door -- as they used to do -- and said they wanted to check the water.

Lots of Federal land in Alaska

Alaska’s vast Interior, which sprawls to the Canadian border, has been the site of federal-local distrust in the past. It was near this area, 130 miles northwest of Chicken, that National Park Service rangers pointed shotguns at, then tackled and arrested a septuagenarian, for not stopping his boat in midstream of the Yukon River in the fall of 2010. Jim Wilde, 70 years old at the time, had been ordered to prepare to be boarded for a safety inspection.
Wilde didn’t much like that demand. He swore at park rangers and then headed for shore and a meeting on terra firma. Wilde was arrested and taken to the jail in Fairbanks, more than 100 miles away. He was later tried and found guilty by a federal magistrate for failing to comply with a lawful order from federal agents.
The state of Alaska, as a whole, can be a place of deeply-rooted mistrust between locals and the agents who try to enforce federal rules.
Alaska has more federally owned and managed land than any other U.S. state. More than 65 percent of its land is under some sort of federal control.  A multitude of federal parks, preserves and wilderness areas are patrolled by agents from more than a dozen U.S. agencies. Many of the people in rural parts of the state, which are either under federal control or border federally-managed areas, have more contact with federal officers than they do with representatives from the state.

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