Today, politics

Since I can't seem to find my Christmas spirit anywhere, allow me to take a swat at local politics instead :)

First and foremost, our Governor. Or Governator, depending on your point of view. To many, she can do no wrong, make no mistakes, or say anything that can possibly be misconstrued. To some, she is the Alaska version of the Anti-Christ and is as rotten an administrator as she was a mayor. To the rest of us.....well, let's just be nice, shall we?

I think about the course of events since Sarah Palin took office. With political capital to squander (approval ratings in the 90's-wow, that's never happened before!) she first trotted out ACES.

At the time, oil companies were enjoying some of the highest profits on record, period. The general feeling was: We ain't getting our fair share! She proposed a change in the tax structure, and the legislature (in what appeared to be a misguided attempt to garner brownie points with her) went even further with ACES. The end result is that the State of Alaska has the highest tax structure in the world. Think about that-the entire stinking world! I heard that it approaches 87 percent. You can read an awful lot about that tax structure on local blogs, just do a simple google search. If that doesn't work, you can also read the Governor's spin on it, right from the state's own website. So a lesson was learned by those companies who are already invested in the state leases and development activities: The state can punish your operations at a whim-and will. Just how this encourages production, I have no idea.

Then a while after, came AGIA. Man, it sounded so good at the beginning, really. Get a company on board whose expertise is building pipelines-and if we have a pipeline, the oil companies will drill and ship-yippee, all future budget problems resolved! So the Governor turns down anyone local, gets a foreign company to bid and hands them half a billion dollars to boot. I have a hunch the seeds of this boondoggle lie in former Governor Murkowski's "behind closed doors" meetings which resulted in a plan which would have tied up the favorable tax structure for forty five years. People probably would have been mostly behind that plan if he hadn't done it in secret, and there had been clear provisions to revisit the tax incentives as markets changed. But oh well, we got AGIA, giddily passed at warp speed by the sycophants in Juneau that we sent down there to represent us.

During the AGIA process, we had Troopergate, the investigations, and the results of that. Then of course the Governor's inclusion on the 2008 Presidential ticket, and all of that hoopla. And also the corruption invenstigations which has lead to convictions for some of our representatives, resulted in Don Young being stripped of any power, and of course, allowing Mark Begich to win against Ted Stevens, who was convicted of failing to report.....well, you get the drift. Bad times to be in Alaska politics.

Meanwhile, Comissioner Tom Irwin was a loose cannon-and still is. First, they vacated the Pt Thomson leases up at Prudhoe. Now, I am conflicted over this: Yes, they did not do what they said they would for 20 umpteen years-but honestly, it wouldn't have mattered because the place is too far from pipelines to move it anyway. But once the price of oil was way up, it made more economic sense to go forward. And they wanted to renew the lease. But no the state cancelled the lease, and now there is a law suit over it which will no doubt tie it up for a long time. (If Exxon can drag out the Valdez settlement for nearly 20 years....well, you can imagine) Next up is another lease, which they have refused to renew even though the two companies have said it will take 18 months to two years just get the drilling rig up to the Slope. Ah, nope that is not good enough for Mr Irwin who apparantly feels that even just building an ice road for exploration is not acceptable either.

So here I am, once a proud Wasilla area resident-a person who has met Sarah Palin, who spoke at city council meetings and who was excited about someone coming in to "clean house" down there in Juneau.

And what did I get for my expectations? An entire administration who seems determined to undermine development at every turn, who hands out union contracts like candy at Halloween, who has acted to stop investment in this state, etc. Then, to top it all off, she trots out a new budget this week.

I swear I do not know what in heck they are smoking down there in Juneau. A six percent reduction, but not across the board. And based on what appears to be an astronomically high price for oil. With what is happening around the globe with the economy, I personally think that $74 oil is another pipe dream the administration is trying to shove down our throats.

Sad part is, it will pass. People are too afraid to stand up to the Palin machine and her popularity. She has surrounded herself with people who cannot think beyond what is politically expedient, who are poor advisors at best, and a crowd of "yes" men and women who jump to do her bidding. I am beyond disappointed that this person, who I originally believed to be conservative, has turned out to be just another tax and spend nightmare :(