Article: Alaska Seeks to Remake State's Image

[Nutmegger]

Gov. Frank Murkowski says it is time for an image makeover. He wants the state to hire a public relations firm to change the perception of Alaska and its people as greedy for federal dollars and all too willing to plunder the environment for profit.

~~~Snippy-Snip~~~

Ultimately, he wants to sway public opinion in favor of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

~~~Snippy-Snip~~~

Most Alaska politicians favor drilling in the refuge, which would fill the state's coffers like the trans-Alaska oil pipeline has done for decades. But environmentalists have fought back for a quarter-century, and in December the state was thwarted again in Congress.

~~~Snippy-Snip~~~

Alaska suffered another setback a few months ago during the furor over $450 million Congress appropriated for two "Bridges to Nowhere" that became symbols of wasteful spending. Late-night comics mocked Alaska, and a columnist at The Washington Post jokingly recommended the United States sell Alaska back to Russia.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060208/ap_on_re_us/alaska_freeloading

[snowbear]

1. Frank Murkowski is a complete IDIOT

--who will be out of office in November. While his approval ratings on SurveyUSA show him just above the Governor Taft of Ohio for the "worst Governor in the nation", local state polls here show him even worse than Taft.

He is a JOKE.

And BTW.. He hasn't just hired image makers for the state that hates him so much.. He himself has had Frank Luntz fly up to Alaska numerous times over the past 2 years to try and increase his own approval ratings.

Guess what? ...... It didn't work!

[Blue_In_AK]

2. It's okay to bash Alaska's politicians

(they deserve it), but please resist the temptation to bash ordinary Alaskans, if that was your intent. We're pretty cool, by and large, wouldn't you agree, Larissa?

[Nutmegger]

4. Bashing Alaska's politicians was the purpose

I wouldn't stereotype y'all just because these fools.

I also wanted to point out that it's yet another PR campaign for freaking ANWR. JERKS!

[Blue_In_AK]

7. Okay, you're off the hook...

:hug: The bashing does tend to wear after a while, and sometimes it's hard to tell where the politician bashing ends and the Alaska bashing begins. I love this place, and I'm kind of touchy.

[SoCalDem]

3. I have NEVER thought of Alaskans as greedy people

However, I HAVE thought of their politicians (and most of the rest too) as GREEDY, SNEAKY, LYING BASTARDS who were willing to SELL OUT their own people for political and monetary favor..

The Alaskan people DESERVE to get some benefit from the resources they have, just as ANYONE should..

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Thank you, SoCalDem

I couldn't agree with you more. Don't hate us for our Permanent Fund. When the oil started flowing, we were fortunate to have such politicians as former Governor Jay Hammond who cared enough about the citizens of this state to assure that each of us individually would reap some benefit from the extraction of our resources.

[pinto]

6. Hi Nutmegger. ...Re: Posting of copyrighted material.

Please limit posts of copyrighted material to no more than 4 paragraphs. You have time to edit your original post. (There's an hour edit time on posts.)

Thanks in advance.
pinto

[Nutmegger]

10. Edited...

Thank you Pinto for the heads up. :blush:

[pinto]

13. No biggie. It's just one of those things...thanks.

[Mythsaje]

8. I just got an e-mail last night

from an internet buddy who's an activist up there. He loathes this guy with every fiber of his being. His very atomic structure hates this guy and what he's trying to do.

[Blue_In_AK]

9. Your friend is not alone.

[Mythsaje]

11. I feel bad for him, actually...

He's on the fringe and he's really afraid of this government because of how outspoken he's always been. His cause has been the drug war, but now he's got a thousand targets that dovetail into it and he's starting to feel a bit...vulnerable.

[Blue_In_AK]

12. He's probably disturbed that Frank

is trying to recriminalize marijuana. Our Supreme Court has deemed it protected by the privacy clause of our constitution since 1975, but Frank and his henchmen are trying to change all that (again). They just won't give up. Kind of ironic considering that it would make criminals out of probably at least half of the Alaska state bar and several judges that I know of through personal experience.

[Mythsaje]

15. Yep...that's his bitch all right...

It's unlikely that they'll succeed, given what you said about the judges and state bar, but... <shrug>

[zanne]

14. Why are the world's most beautiful places...

The world's most screwed-up places? (Politically, I mean).