Citizen activism in Alaska
From The Mudflats. http://www.themudflats.net/?p=38970 I am so proud of Alaskans for seeing through this scam of a giveaway to Big Oil.
Moments ago, the Alaska Division of Elections announced that they had received enough valid voter signatures to put the question of repealing SB21, the massive giveaway of state money to oil companies, on the primary ballot in August of 2014.
After achieving his stated goal of a Republican majority in the State House and Senate (albeit using redistricting lines later found to be unconstitutional), Governor Sean Parnell got the vote he wanted in the 2013 legislative session. The vote in the Senate was made possible by two legislators who are literally employed by ConocoPhillips.
Last month, Parnell signed into law Senate Bill 21 (SB21) giving billions from Alaska’s coffers to BP,Exxon, and ConocoPhillips. Alaska got the short end of the stick, and is now beginning the hemorrhage of billions of dollars from education, public safety, parks, roads, and bridges. The oil companies, the most profitable corporations the world has ever known, stand to gain those billions, with no strings attached. The governor, his supporters, and the oil industry lobbyists’ rationale for the massive giveaway is that it will “incentivize” more production of oil on Alaska’s North Slope. Hopefully. Maybe. If they decided to. Or not.
Fortune Magazine even took note of the situation, speculating in a recent article, “The industry got a coveted tax cut from the state, but did it overreach."Oil companies operating in Alaska scored a long-awaited victory this spring when Gov. Sean Parnell signed legislation significantly cutting state taxes on oil profits. But even before Parnell put his pen to the tax cut bill, opponents were seeking to overturn it, raising questions about whether the industry was too ambitious in its lobbying efforts—and whether the legislation will ultimately ramp up production on the state’s North Slope as promised.
Did it overreach? Alaskans seem to be saying yes, and saying it quite decisively.
<snip>
.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I sort of choke up every time I hear it. 
I can't do much to help, but I will contact my son and make sure he's up on all this - he probably is, but I'll give him a mother's mandate if he's not.
"Treadwell appears to have colluded with Art Hackney and the anonymously-funded organization “Alaska Resources Committee” to organize a withdrawal of signatures from the petition to repeal SB 21. According to a report in the Frontiersman and theAlaska Dispatch, Treadwell told Hackney that the “Alaska Resources Committee” could collect signatures via an unsecured web form and then submit them to the Lieutenant Governor’s office to be withdrawn from the petition. Treadwell, as Lieutenant Governor has the sole statutory responsibility of overseeing the Division of Elections, including impartial administration of citizens’ referenda such as the one Hackney’s organization is attempting to sabotage. - See more at: http://www.themudflats.net/?p=38970#sthash.gltxMUsG.dpuf"
Repuglicans are such universally corrupt frackers it never ceases to amaze...
Agony
He's another snake-in-the-grass. I think it's pretty "hinky" when the guy in charge of elections is running for a major national office and won't step down.
I'm hopeful that Sean Parnell will be a horrible memory after 2014. He took over after Sarah quit, won re-election in 2010 (NOT running on this abominable SB21), and has declared again for 2014. I'm hoping he'll be taken out during the primary. There's actually a fairly decent Republican running against him. I'm hoping that Sen. Bill Wielechowski, who appeared in the linked video, will be our dem candidate. He's wonderful. We call him "the best Bill in Juneau."
May 17-29. We couldn't believe we had four straight days of sunshine in Sitka. Has to be a record.
Dirty Socialists! 
