Another new year is upon us. And we all know what that means: political fun and games in Juneau. Grab your popcorn and tune in to Gavel-to-Gavel on January 17th as the second session of the 27th Alaska Legislature gets started. Wait. Scratch that. You can probably wait until about ⅔ of the session is over before things really start to heat up.

It may not be all that entertaining though, compared to the political theatre we all witnessed in the last few days of the session last April. You remember it don’t you? In case you missed it...

I’ve tried to stay away from taking part in Palin bashing over the past couple years. That band wagon has been full enough, and paying her any attention only serves to legitimize her as relevant. And not to pile on as yesterday’s “leaked” insider manuscript further discredits her, but she still had the audacity to weigh in against union leaders in Wisconsin yesterday. Now she’s sticking her unwanted finger in labor’s own hornet’s nest.

Here’s a little exchange with a couple of smarmy Facebook posters on the Alaska Republican Party Facebook page. It includes comments from the page administrator, and underscores the attitude the party apparently has toward organized labor, not only in the state but at the national level as well.,

Watching the Channel 2 News at 6 pm Friday night, I caught the coverage of Mayor Sullivan rolling out his “See, I’m a budget-cutting conservative mayor, even if the citizens don’t want this” 2011 budget plan.

But what caught my attention most was the exchange between Assemblyman Mike Gutierrez and the mayor. The mayor, yet again, had lambasted the police union for their ad featuring a young officer who could be laid off if the mayor has his way.

"There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call The Twilight Zone."
—Rod Serling

I found myself there, in the Twilight Zone, Tuesday night. Actually it started almost thirty years ago to the week... doodoodoodoo doodoodoodoo (phonetic)...

The above title is the only conceivable way I can think of to convey the essence of what transpired at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia last week. I just hope the headline changes to "Will Stand Trial for Murder" in the weeks to come.

Don Blankenship of Massey Energy, the owner of the West Virginia mine has the blood of those dead workers on his hands. Why? Because he has long valued profits over people’s lives. He has made it his mission to break the unions over the years, so he can bolster his bottom line.

I solemnly and seriously resolve to do most of the following things over the next year:

1. Lose 75 pounds. No, really. I’m serious this year. So the goal is 199 lbs., a weight I haven’t seen since my senior year of high school. Unfortunately, this is probably the resolution most likely to succeed, and it won’t be any walk in the park.

2. To better understand why, even though I am probably politically right of President Dwight Eisenhower (who was a Republican), I am accused by large men with big mouths of being simultaneously a socialist, communist, and a liberal. Note: I presently think it is impossible to be any two of those things at the same time, so this will take some seriously in depth study...sigh. Either that, or the world will clearly recognize the idiots who make such assertions are simply not all that bright.

I was fortunate enough to receive one of the few civilian tickets to President Obama’s stop at Elmendorf Air Force Base today. Once again, it proved to be a moving speech by our commander-in-chief, with respect and honor of our military and a vow of unquestionable resolve to continue to support the men and women of our armed forces and their families. Here is the link to the text of the President’s speech. If you consider yourself a patriot you’ll read it.

I also was fortunate enough to be invited to participate on a panel yesterday for the inaugural taping of “Moore up North,” a television talk show hosted by local blogger and radio host Shannyn Moore. Its scheduled to debut this Saturday at 4pm on KYES Channel 5.

Dan Fagan is breaking promises with disingenuous information...again. I predicted his mea culpa from a few weeks ago would be short-lived. But it seems unless he isn’t bashing our new senator or the unions there isn’t much schtick left when you look behind the curtain.

Speaking of behind the curtain, more than ever, Fagan looks like that exposed character from the 1939 movie, but more appropriately should be called “the Wizard of Ooze.” Okay, for the sake of space I’ll just refer to him as “the Whiz,” which not coincidentally is defined in thefreedictionary.com as “to throw or spin rapidly.” At first glance I thought it said “spin rabidly,” which really would have been apropos.

We’re making our way back to San Diego on the Indian, a 65 foot fishing boat, based at H&M Landing. At the moment, we’re about 110 miles into Mexican waters.

Day one was craziness. The kind of crazy that made me forget all the partisan, bickering, labeling, crap that seems to have gotten in the way of trying to do what’s best for Americans and Alaskans, and which seems to occupy way too many of my conscious hours.

My lifetime best friend invited me to go on this private charter trip he does every year with a customer of his. His customer is one of three brothers who’ve done this trip every year for over a decade. The brothers, some offspring plus a handful of friends they’ve known for years comprise the whole group. The entertainment value is much more than just the fishing, which has been pretty darned good.

Another day older and deeper in debt.

The Healy locals call it Glitter Gulch. Its a hodge podge of store fronts and hotels catering to tourists in the canyon near the entrance to Denali National Park. The Nenana River rumbles in the background. The shrill whistle of the Alaska railroad train echoes in the canyon as it passes by on the mountain side on these warm clear summer evenings.

It may not be a mining company, but the old adage of “the company store” is alive and all too well near Denali.

Doyon/Aramark Joint Venture (JV) is “the company store” in most of Glitter Gulch. They apparently own or manage most of the enterprises from gas stations to hotels to restaurants. Its the modern day Pullman Town, where the company controls most of the jobs, over 1000 in and around Denali Park, and most everything else in Glitter Gulch.

I like the idea of the AK Voices blog endeavor by the ADN. However, I’m starting to feel like I’m in a competition. Kevin Clarkson is the winner hands down for most pieces published but he’s starting to become predictable. I’m trying to avoid doing so, but eventually I’ll probably fall into the same trap. Still, I’m feeling inadequate with my literary output over the past couple weeks.

So much time has been devoted over most of the Alaska bloggers postings (AK Voices and others) recently over what I like to call the “how dare anyone challenge the mighty-Prevo ordinance” that lending my opinion on that topic now seems like unnecessary folly.

I’m trying to sleep on the plane. I’m on Alaska Airlines flight 131, the non-stop from Chicago to Anchorage. Its about a six and a half hour jaunt. Its that restless fitful sleep, a half hour here, ten minutes there, interrupted by flight attendants, the occasional bit of turbulence, and my squirmy seventeen year old.

But the conversation in the row behind me has me wide awake and typing now. Sometimes you can’t avoid overhearing the conversation. I’m in the window seat, and with my seat tilted back and a glance over my right shoulder, I’m amazed to see the deep voice coming out of the kid in the aisle seat. He looks twelve, but he’s probably about 17, as is the young man in the center. They’re from Kenai. I can’t see the guy directly behind me, but he lives in Chicago. If he hadn’t said so, the unmistakable twang absolutely gave it away. He’s engaged the two young men in a conversation about backtrolling for kings on the Kenai, chasing halibut near Montague Island, and other pursuits I’m fairly familiar with. I can’t help it. I’m all ears.

I ‘m going to try real hard to avoid having this blog serve as little more than a response to the logical fallacy of ADN’s apparent favorite columnist, Dan Fagan. But today was one of those days where Fagan went off again on labor unions. I can’t just sit idly by and let his drivel stand as anything close to resembling fact.

Today on his radio program he had a guest named Mark McKinnon, who lives in Texas and was a media advisor for President “W,” the most anti-union, anti-worker president in U.S. history. McKinnon was calling in to blather on against the Employee Free Choice Act. He went on with all the usual blatantly false statements opponents of this Act usually rely on: “it takes away the secret ballot” and “a federal bureaucrat will impose a contract telling you how to run your business.”

I've hit the big league now for sure. Thanks Matt Z for giving me the space. I'll be playing around for the first few posts I'm sure, trying to figure out how this thing works.

I always get screwed up trying to put in all the HTML parentheses and commands and stuff, hopefully I can muddle through this experimental phase before too many people start reading this blog. Not that I expect many to.

However, I will leave the commenting feature on initially until the anonymous hate mongering nazi-commenters start hurting my feelings. I think I still have some left.

Anywho, yes I'm a union boss, and yes I'm damn proud of it, and of the good work our unions do in Alaska. Suck it Fagan! Can I say "suck it" on here? I'll probably blog about a lot of issues affecting working families, but its summer in Alaska, and I would be remiss not to discuss fishing. Of course I'll post pictures of larger fish than the average Alaskan catches, or else I'll photoshop them if necessary!