adn.com | The Highliner : Cook Inlet Salmon Task Force now set

The Highliner

Commercial fishing is a bedrock industry in Alaska, and has been for more than a century. Every year scores of fishermen net millions of migrating salmon, challenge the icy Bering Sea to trap king crabs, lay miles and miles of baited hooks for halibut, and scoop up enough pollock for a zillion fish sticks. And when fishermen aren't out fishing, they're usually talking about fishing. That's what this blog is all about. Cast your net here for commercial fishing news and notes. And if you've got a bone to pick, post a comment.

About me:
I've pounded the commercial fishing beat for the Anchorage Daily News since 1999. I hail originally from Tennessee. I've never fished commercially, but I've spent much time as a journalist aboard boats and inside fish-processing plants. Of course, I'm a big consumer of Alaska seafood. One of my favorites: canned sockeye.

Contact Wesley Loy at wloy@adn.com.

Cook Inlet Salmon Task Force now set

Posted by The Highliner

Posted: May 2, 2008 - 5:30 pm

Five state senators have been named to serve on the Cook Inlet Salmon Task Force, joining the five House members previously named (The Highliner, April 22).

The five senators are:

Sen. Lyda Green, R-Wasilla
Sen. Charlie Huggins, R-Wasilla
Sen. Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage
Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage
Sen. Tom Wagoner, R-Kenai

No word yet on when the warfare, uh, the hearings will begin.

Click here for a press release.

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10 May 21, 2008 - 4:37pm | hot4teacher

but back on topic...

The task force is holding a hearing tomorrow (May 22) in Soldotna from 3-9pm...and in Wasilla, next week, on the 29th. Looks like LIO's can tie-in for listen only, and Gavel to Gavel will stream it out out via the web. Fun for everyone!

9 May 14, 2008 - 9:28am | spotsboy

Anybody seen wesley?

What happened to the highliner blogspot? where did everybody go?

8 May 11, 2008 - 4:55pm | peter1

Perhaps this will help

Perhaps this will help clarify the questions of "1A" that continues plaquing Alaska bloggers:

"Hustler Magazine vs. Falwell", 485 U.S. 46 (1988).

The United States Supreme Court landmark decision pretty much casts its long shadow over all statements made about public figures today, although web blogs did not exist at the time. Never-the-less, the ruling was made during the Reagan-Bush 1 years, and will probably be around a long time:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hustler_Magazine_v._Falwell

May 11, 2008 - 9:12pm | peter1

The hurtle to clear for

The hurtle to clear for libel, slander, defamation is made even harder for public figures to win. Unfortuantely for Alaska, you are now in the Union, and would no doubt go up against the same taxing standard as Jerry Falwell discovered.

It would be interesting to see what your preeminent legal scholar and REAL pioneer judge, James Wickersham, would have to say about current Alaska fisheries imbeciles.

Of course, he was there prior to 1903 ("LOL"), and god forbid, buried in Tacoma, WA. (Double LOL).

Wickersham -

http://www.ptialaska.net/~tyhs/Wickersham/JamesWickersham.html

May 12, 2008 - 11:50am | staufen

Imbeciles?

Now now, Peter1... your shirttail theory is stretching it far beyond what jumping height your inseam can support. But your grouping condition begins to shed light... as to pluralities: Who would be the multiple plaintiffs versus the singular defendant? Are they all public figures?

Ouch, your hurdle just tipped over... but thanks for 'trying' to help...

For a successful challenge against a group defamation action under exemption to 1A the hurdle would be whether or not the OTHER family members -- having no presence in Alaska or a fisheries vortex -- are public figures when they are defamed in a case where their unique surname is abused willfully in order for the defendant to discredit one member of their family, but their good reputations were knowingly, maliciously targeted as well.

And once that hurdle cannot be cleared, there's often a clear difference between defamation and libel in terms of 'per se' and presumed damages etc. A judge would not look kindly when hate speech and porn references were malicious tools of the defendant's actions/words toward non-public persons. Add in the 'third party' factor of being deliberately paid to verbally assault others, and extend that co-defendant liability to ACC for a moment -- and you'll see that ACC should cut their boy loose and distance themselves from such malice. Add in two surnames, next... try a venue outside where the judges don't appreciate things like this...

PS: have any of the rest of you figured out that the Cook Inlet interests aren't even thinking of using a Highliner blog to resolve their concerns? Telling. Our hat's off to them...

May 12, 2008 - 12:46pm | peter1

"The principal meaning of

"The principal meaning of 'protest' in Shakespeare's day was 'vow' or 'declare solemnly,' a meaning preserved in our use of 'protestation.' When we smugly declare that 'the lady doth protest too much,' we almost always mean that the lady objects so much as to lose credibility."

You read too much into this post. It's intent is only to entertain (?) through newly-aroused thought and speculation the dark alleys of current Free Speech. Out of tens of readers on this blog (?), I'm not sure how you concluded that it's message was aimed solely at you, "but oh well".

Has blog Freedom of Speech been before the Supreme Court yet? It certainly must be getting close. Any rulings, pro or con, in Alaska could certainly make their way to higher courts out of state, the same path taken by Larry and Jerry, perhaps the two biggest American imbeciles of the 20th Century, not connected to Alaska fishing (is that possible?).

May 12, 2008 - 6:51pm | peter1

The question here of Free

The question here of Free Speech, no doubt, deepens in light of the fact that one blog party has already turned over documents to the FBI. It should not be of much consequence whether the number of boxes was two or 16, as is disputed here. The fact that the action occured, and has been admitted, certainly lengthens the shadow of what is legal "fair game", against those parties.

7 May 11, 2008 - 12:09pm | staufen

Go swim with the Pelicans, Toot...

Pelican 'bombs' bather in Florida

A woman required 20 stitches to her face after a pelican crashed into her in the sea off Florida, apparently diving for fish.

The bird, which died in Thursday's collision, ripped a gash in Debbie Shoemaker's face as she bathed near the city of St Petersburg.

The city fire chief said he had never heard of a diving pelican hit a person.

Pelicans grow to up to 30 lb (13kg) and can dive from heights of 60 to 70 feet (18 to 21 metres).

Ms Shoemaker, 50, returned home on Friday, the Associated Press reports.

----- now that was interesting news ------

Bobby - as a bought and paid for lobbyist for crab vessel owners, you give a great compliment to all crewmembers currently standing up for their historical rights to revenues from the fisheries. We especially appreciate your clear message to all of the Public that personal greed overwhelms your desire to assist Alaskan FISHERMEN. It is clear that your attempts to set our agenda are a de facto admission that what the crewmembers are doing is scaring the living hell out of you and the perjurers at ACC.

As to the Bristol Bay case, I hardly need mention again the $25million Marubeni laid on the table immediately after Groundswell's issue of Abusive Transfer Pricing entered that case. That you, and Icicle, through a nefarious bill in the the legislature managed to steal a good portion of the fishermen's settlements is a fact that Bristol Bay fishermen will never forget nor forgive.

Don't even think of setting our agenda or pretend to tell us what to do, as you know we don't let crooks push us around. And as to your paid lobbyist blogging, it seems we are teaching you a lot ... again, more proof that you are scared. But you will never represent The Way, and the people cannot follow your unprincipled path, so your defeat is just a matter of the weather... (have you noticed that change is on the way? or is that what scares you most?)

As to Cook Inlet, many fine and knowledgeable fishermen there will take care for themselves. If you are so eager to help, why don't you ask some anti-commercial fishermen group to pay you to get involved, as others do across Alaska? Or is that the meta-purpose of your blog - to broadcast that you are a lobbyist-whore willing to throw principles to the curb for a buck and to backstab boots-on-deck commercial fishermen once again.

FYI: What pharmaceuticals were you on at the legislative hearings?, as I never gave a single word of testimony to the Legislature on the hair crab issue, so stop the lying, please. You're just pissed off that you've been exposed about your paid lobbying and do not have the people of that region as a client, but rather the monopolizers. And that an independent 'groundswell' of public opinion rose up to challenge your plans to take rights away from those fishing and give them to "vessels" - so that you can eventually have privatization special interest rationalizations in all species. Got to hand it to ya, Toot, you never falter from your greedy 'entitlement' plan to destroy most harvesters's rights while lying directly to them. Were we back at statehood formation, with a guy like you present, they'd have made a special law to evict you from Alaska, so you could return to your out-of-state sponsors.

PS: Please come to Kodiak in June, to let the crab fishermen you disrespect meet you and so that you can put your lies on the federal record. Or has ACC hired you just to verbally assault crewmembers/fishermen?

Again, ADN should stop providing a forum for your paid corruption.

6 May 11, 2008 - 8:46am | akwapsc

Maybe Taufen can help as he has a lot of time on his hands

4 May 5, 2008 - 8:24am | akwapsc

Where's Groundswell's boys, Taufen and Doctorman

The CW is that the folks in charge of this task force want to eliminate or severely reduce a commercial fishery in Alaska for the first time ever. Well, at least since SE seiners (we're the guys that Groundswell representative Shawn Doctorman calls "fags". ( a comment by the way which is a real insult to both gay people and seiners alike as I'm sure gays consider us seiners lower than pondscum)) lost Icy Strait in 1973 forever, and Noyes Island in July in 1985 forever.

But the real point here is that here is Groundswell, a purported champion for the little guy, is too busy doing their whackjob antics to help well over a thousand commercial fishing families on the beach in Cook Inlet. Some of the only stability the Cook INlet commercial guys have is the IFQ system and the Groundswell boys are too busy trying to eliminate IFQ"s for fishermen in the Bering Sea.

The ironic part of all this is that Shawn Doctorman is heading out to fish his daddy's halibut IFQ's as we speak so that he can send the check to fix up his dad's house and hot rod cars in California.

And he wants to get rid of all IFQ's, not just crab. Just ask him. He's against ALL IFQ's.

So you halibut and black cod guys, beware.

The crab fight set up by Groundswell, Doctorman and Taufen against commercial fishermen in the Bering Sea is your fight too.

And don't think for one second that the processors are going to be there to save you.

The processors are probably the ones paying for Shawn's airfare and hotel rooms since they will be the biggest winners of any move to destabilize the IFQ program.

Good fishing with your daddy's IFQ's there Shawners.

And don't forget your buddies in Cook Inlet, Steve and Shawn.

Best fishes
bobbyt

reply | flag this »

May 11, 2008 - 9:10pm | crabmandan

GREED

I cant believe the a.c.c. is stupid enough to pay you money but then nobody ever accused norwegians of being smart. bobby go back and read what you post, you are selling alaska's fisherman out for the almighty dollar.your dad would never do anything like that from what i gather from your writing. it sounds like he was a hard worker and did what was right. I hope you get a conscience pretty soon because nobody needs to be lonely and pretty soon your not going to have any friends. they are all going to be in JAIL.

Shawn D. and Stephen T. You guys are doing great work, keep up the fight. The tide is finally changing and the crooks know it!

May 12, 2008 - 11:33am | staufen

Thanks CrabmanDan,

the tide is going out ... and shackles getting ready...

5 May 10, 2008 - 7:12pm | staufen

Bobby T lobbies for Alaska Crab Coalition bandits

Check out recent APOC lobbyist registrations. Robert Thorstenson Jr. a.k.a. Bobby Toot, has the greedy perjuring thugs at ACC as a client. Toot is paid to oppose anyone who doesn't like ACC's directors' and members' lies (false testimony, perjury) to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. That he does so with defamations and ad hominems on this website makes the ADN - who knows this now - suspect for why they continue to allow akwapsc and jonnylum to aid and abet such criminal activity. It should be simple for Alaskans to understand - this is the second squad of the CBC and to continue to allow them to use this site is like VECO still having its Voice of Alaska page (not!).

Properly designed IFQs that are specifically for catcher-seller-fishermen only, who are actual participants in the fishery, organized under legally allowed antitrust exempt FCMA compliant associations, would often fit the bill - given restrictions on consolidation and other measures. But "Rationalization" programs with linked/forced-delivery cooperatives are enslavement, 'subversive' and unable to adhere to MSA and state requirements of maximizing the net national benefit. Combining coops (pollock, crab, rockfish) with exclusive buying/processing rights such as Processor Quota shares are de facto coercive monopolies designed to promote price-fixing paradigms.

Halibut and Sablefish IFQs, though not perfect, are not "Subversive Rationalization" programs like pollock, crab and rockfish. These programs have also been accompanied by illicit bookkeeping and tax evasions designed to do economic harm to the Nation and region (witness pollock ex-vessel prices at a fraction of what is paid in foreign ports for the same species and even what was paid in the USA pre-ratz). Whereas H&S IFQs are designed to free fishermen of plantation-level controls by processors (witness the fair prices paid ex-vessel to halibut fishermen), and to serve consumers with higher quality halibut year round.

Again, Bobby T is spewing propaganda, as the Groundswell Fisheries Movement itself has never professed ending H&S IFQ programs. As to a fishermen's 'groundswell' of awareness and action against many wrongs/crimes in fisheries, there are as many opinions as individuals who independently speak out - but that's hardly news in a democracy, and Bobby T is just propagandizing in order to attack the unassailable, because he needs a straw target to continue the greed. As if God forbid that he should actually have to face the real fishermen of Alaska, communities and citizens who oppose his brand of bought-and-paid-for lobbying, lies and machinations - and learn that he is simply in with the greedy minority with an elitist 'me' mentality. As in God forbid he should have to tolerate a democracy that opposes plantation lordships and his robber baron 'entitlement' mentality. And in serving his own greed, he has aided and abetted the Japanese-corporate takeover of "Occupied Dutch Harbor and Unalaska" and their tax evasions, as they extract US precious resources for their motherland and leave little profit behind. (Except that Groundswell and the IRS have improved that a bit.)

As to the billions missing, were the IRS criminal special agents and large-and-medium-sized business unit revenue agents able to violate the unreasonable non-disclosure protections afforded even foreign-owned and -controlled corporations who operate profit-hollowed affiliates on our shores, the transparency would reveal many examples of how it is done millions by hundreds of millions. Bobby T conveniently says "show me what's illegal for you to show me". What is needed to straighten out Alaska fisheries is greater Accountability and Transparency, especially the dollars spend lobbying and in campaign kickbacks by the corporatocracy who used chief crooks Ted Stevens and Don Young to privatize the public commons for the sake of a few special interests.

But Bobby T loves collecting both the illicit profits and the special interest welfare, and bleeding common taxpayers through earmarks and other bad uses of our Treasury, because he has never had the personal fortitude or integrity to make it as a real citizen. He valued all of the CBC, vocally supporting them, because he does not believe in a representative republic - he believes in a dynastic plantation of enslavement of the common people and enrichment for himself. Again, witness APOC lobbying records, and follow the money -- the millions extracted from you, the majority of America. End of story.

May 11, 2008 - 8:25am | akwapsc

Happy Mothers Day Steve

I don't have time to waste on here now. This monumental waste of my time sparring with you was just a post session celebration of our victory for the "good guys" on the hair crab/scallops bill that Groundswell testified ( you and Shawn) several times.

Here's Shawn's take ( he represents and even writes under the Groundswell moniker when you are incapacitated or travelling) on Crab Ratz. Watch out Dick Powell.

And I quote directly from Shawn.
====================================
Mr. Powell will give his IFQs back, so will Lu, and a bunch more! Limited duration quota are the answer, so no one ever ownes them in perpituity. That's one of our alternatives for crab ratz....convert IFQs to limited duration quota, so anyone that wants to fish in the future has access to go fishing.
=================

next I'll find his sellout of the working halibut and blackcod fishermen in the state.

bobbyt

May 11, 2008 - 8:44am | akwapsc

That was easy.

Here it is. This is Shawn speaking.
+++++++++++++++we've never thought of changing IFQs for h'but and BC, since we have the free market to sell our fish. Sure we'd like to see some type of cap on royalty rates, and better compensation for crew, such as the DFSU enjoys.

++++++++++++++++++++

Cap on halibut and black cod IFQ rates for halibut and black cod IFQ holders. And just what might that cap be, Groundswell. Nice to see you are representing the IFQ holders in halibut and blackcod. Didn't wait for that groundswell did ya.

And Lu. Lu has said he still opposes them and would do whatever he can to give back halibut and black cod IFQ's to the general public. Well, since you live at his house I think he is a prime sponsor of Groundswell.

And you know, there are a lot of public Alaska folk, esp. in Cook Inlet, who would like to have the fisheries resources go back to the public as well so you have an ally in KRSA and AOC. Giving back a public resource like halibut to sports users would be a noble role for Groundswell.

As for your FBI talk. Send them all, FBI, CIA, whomever.
I have nothing to hide. They know where I live.
As I have told you for quite some time now, and you and your buddy Vic have been attacking me and "alerting" authorities ever since 2001 now, "show me the money".

As for the CBC boys.
We have nothing to do with OIL.
But these folks were mostly Anchorage-based folk who we were courting- legally- to try to stem the tide against commercial fishing from the sport fishing quarters. We NEVER asked them to do anything weird. Most of them we never even asked them to do anything but treat commercial fishermen, especially Cook Inlet folk, with a fair yardstick.

You wouldn't know about that as I've never ever seen you help commercial interests against sports interests.
You just smear and slime your way against commercial fishing and fishermen in Alaska, all the while purporting to be for some noble cause. Pshaw!

You sure are slow. My APOC filings were all in by late January so you or anyone else on the planet has had nearly 4 months to check it out. 12 clients... Well only 11 show up as there is a filing glitch with WSI, the 12th.

If you weren't so busy making up weird "go to jail" cards and thumping your chest over your great work on ATF--- how'd that work for you in your famous 2003 Bristol Bay lawsuit by the way--- then maybe you'd be up to speed by a few months.

List all my other clients.

I am proud to represent them but have recently been told by board members of my main client to not bother responding to your gibberish-- and you'd have to go back to 2006 to see you they are since APOC is so far behind they have no dollar numbers for even 2007, let alone 2008, --- anyways, I'm signing off as they think this is a monumental waste of mine, and especially their time.

And ACC. ACC did not know of nor condone any responses to brokebackdan nor to your sorry, pathetic, loser self. I posted personally, signed my posts personally, not with some phony group like Groundswell, that has no membership, no filing with the state of Alaska, no incorporation or nothing.

ACC is the sole, functioning crab group with significant membership at this time and it is you, my friend, who has perjured himself at the NPFMC, and not just for wearing those silly Kamono's either.

Good luck with that group you got there and when you go legit. maybe you can send in an application to UFA.

Gone fishing

bobbyt

May 12, 2008 - 1:28am | drdrmann

You are a total dipsh!t!

Go back to where you've been wrong about supposedly fishing my daddy's Qs and sending him a check. Better lay off the drugs...................as you have definitley lost your mind!

I speak for crewmen on many issues, but that you insinuate that I am speaking for h'but and BC IFQ holders is pure insanity on your part.

ACC and your liar Arne Thompson may be an official organization, but when the greater majority of the members live in Seattle and call it ALASKA CRAB COALITION, I'd say they are misrepresenting themselves. Just like you purport to be an Alaskan, so do you get a PFD?

ALL CONCERNED CITIZENS: Whatever the problems are with Cook Inlet Salmon fisheries, don't let Bobby T get involved. He just wants to share his blasphemy on every state/federal fishery that he can get his hands on, but he is just some seiner from SE. He's never left the cushy nest that his momma laid him in, and that his pappa stocked with fish.

Bobby T all your attacks on the bloggers on here are so pathetic, as most of us just want to protect family fishermen that want to have access to just go fishing and not come back to the dock and the rules have changed and the price has been ratcheted down by corporations that control processing.

If you only knew what it's really like to have friends! Not clients that pay you to put disinformation on the record.

OVER and OUT, GFY................

4 May 5, 2008 - 8:24am | akwapsc

Where's Groundswell's boys, Taufen and Doctorman

And he wants to get rid of all IFQ's, not just crab. Just ask him. He's against ALL IFQ's.

So you halibut and black cod guys, beware.

The crab fight set up by Groundswell, Doctorman and Taufen against commercial fishermen in the Bering Sea is your fight too.

And don't think for one second that the processors are going to be there to save you.

The processors are probably the ones paying for Shawn's airfare and hotel rooms since they will be the biggest winners of any move to destabilize the IFQ program.

Good fishing with your daddy's IFQ's there Shawners.

And don't forget your buddies in Cook Inlet, Steve and Shawn.

Best fishes
bobbyt

May 12, 2008 - 7:59pm | drdrmann

Fun trip in 3A

My pops, my brother, and I and my other brother-Jamie, Marcus, and Commando enjoyed our last halibut trip. It was kind of slow only 25,000 lbs in 3 days, but hey its about fishing and having fun. You're so out of touch, Bobby. Dad and I have fished halibut together since '79, and my bro since the early 80's when he wasn't in college or at ASMI.

We enjoy our halibut IFQs, but my pops would go back to open access any day to let the new guy get a piece of the pie.

Now I know why you've been called a clown! As I have told everyone from Bobby A to the press, we've never thought of changing IFQs for h'but and BC, since we have the free market to sell our fish. Sure we'd like to see some type of cap on royalty rates, and better compensation for crew, such as the DFSU enjoys. As everyone knows Bobby, the crews are being stolen from in Crab Ratz compared to their past historical compensation ratio and we want to be paid in a fair and equitable means and have access to get into the fisheries without having millions of dollars to purchase a piece of paper that entitles you to rent out the right for 70-50% of the gross receipts and be an absentee landlord.

You are really stupid! And don't blame it on your Nordic roots, as it's an insult to many good men from the Fatherlands N & S.

Cook Inlet has it's own set of select problems, and we'll let them deal with it. Not you, who has nothing better to do than chase people around on the blogs since you have such a miserable life waiting for the Feds to show up on your door step with their marching orders to take you away.

So how are your buddies Ben Stevens or Trevor McCabe doing? Promoting them today? Are you ready to follow them over the cliff?

YAF!

May 5, 2008 - 3:13pm | BD

Cheers to Groundswell

I was raised back east on Rush Limbaugh, church three times a week, and a guiding principle that you always voted Republican. I came to Alaska and continued, going so far as to vote for Ted, Don, and even Frank. Maybe it is because of ADN, maybe I just care more now that I am older, or maybe it’s just easier to follow what is going on in a small state but I have become disgusted by my representation. I will remain anonymous so that my father has no chance of finding out that I voted for the liberal Diane Benson.

Crab Ratz is another example of what sickens me about Alaska politics. Arrogance, favors for the rich and powerful, deceit, etc. all at the expense of the blue collar working man. There are many more schemes like it, including the Rockfish Pilot Program and the Southeast Seiner Buyout (what happened to the PWS seiners in this?), Adak, etc. I don’t have time to keep up on all the details but I believe there is a lot of crooked stuff going on and I am happy that Groundswell and others like Terry Haines are strong enough to stand up against this nonsense.

As for you, at first I found your rants mildly amusing, even your sticking up for Ben and Pete. Of course you would, who will you get favors from now? Nowadays, I just wish you would shut up and keep your New Years resolution to not post on here anymore.

May 6, 2008 - 8:50am | akwapsc

Onward Christian Soldier?

"I don't have time to keep up with all the details but I believe there is a lot of crooked stuff going on." Just brilliant, Mr. or Mrs. anonymous. I suppose that after 3 times a week at church, you now believe that there were biblical conspiracies as well. Maybe Steve Taufen and Terry Haines will convince you that some German monk "spiked" God's holy word as well. Good luck with that line of reasoning. Believe every thing you read, especially if it's produced by the McClatchy folks who have a vendetta against Ted and Don.

SEAS buyback has always been the buyback. They began it in 2001. I've worked on it as SEAS lobbyist/Executive Director since May 1,2003... 5 years with a job now.

PWS hasn't asked for one. I talk with their Pres. and Exec Directors all the time. They're on their 4th ED since I've been around. (CDFU)

As for my posting. I was too busy with the session to post, will be too busy traveling and fishing this summer to post and I just bought 5000 shares of McClatchy stock(ADN owner) so want to make sure my investment comes out right. I had heard that the news columns in this blog were beginning to get pretty small and few and far between as well.

bob thorstenson, jr.

May 6, 2008 - 9:40pm | peter1

So explain how ownership of

So explain how ownership of 5000 shares in a newspaper is going to cork dissent against you? You failed at it with the SEAS blog; why do you think it's gonna make any difference with McClatchy? Do you actually think things will get instantly better???? Sh_t runs down hill either way.

A big loud mouth reverend in Washington is always trying to stick his finger in the eye of Microsoft, by urging his parishioners to buy up their stock. He can't stand Gates' gay-hiring policies, common also to the little players like Ford and GE.

The dope just can't get it thru his thick walled cranium that Microsoft and public opinion eats the jackass up, everytime! But no, he just plods on and on and on and on, like the Duracell bunny.

Don't kid yourself - or the Highliner - you laid low after your unctuos pomposity exhibited New Years. Who do you really kid? Certainly not a "couple" miffed crabbers...............

May 27, 2008 - 11:27am | RATRIPPER

5000 shares corking dissent....

jr. spent almost a HALF MILLION DOLLARS to SHUT CRABLEWI UP!! McClatchy shares were around 9$ each, when jr. says he bought them. CRABLEWI hasn't been able to access HIGHLINER since then!! Very similar to OUR CRAB ACCESS being TAKEN AWAY!! Money is very powerfull, it can buy politicians, newspapers, and sway boardmembers votes. jonny was silent for a while, until jr.'s power/money move, then he immediately posted, to much DISSENT.jr. was able to post all last season, but too busy now? I presume that his bosses told him to SHUT UP!! and hired Ms.educated, who claims to have been taught alot, but seems to have learned very little.... What happened on New Years? RIPPER

May 27, 2008 - 7:42pm | peter1

If one 1/2 million dollars

If one 1/2 million dollars has been spent on crablewi then what's the bounty on Taufen's head? Certainly not less. And he is still around.

New Years blog was almost 6 months ago. Six months from now we will probably be looking at national unrest from food costs, including in Alaska. Newspapers have a hard time keeping some news quiet.

Btw, Trident has been advertising lately in slick, non-fish publications their success at vertical integration. Of course, the vast majority of readers have never heard the term, or that it is near-synonymous with monopoly. This is a brave new world, and it just keeps getting braver.

May 28, 2008 - 8:17am | akwapsc

you don't know me very well peter

unctuous pomposity never slowed me down.

having 13 clients whose work needed to be done during the leg session certainly did.

as for your disdain for Trident? what, did Chuck turn you down for a janitor job or something?

and you and your buddies math is pretty suspect.

5000 shares, not 50,000.

May 28, 2008 - 12:37pm | RATRIPPER

CORRECTION; 45,000$$

Thank you for correcting my math, we need accurate #'s to determine losses to the previous crab fleet. But even 45000$ to attempt control over free speech is appalling. Key statement "voices of dissent should be few and far between." Perhaps you gained shareholder voting power to bash "McLatchy's vendetta against ted & don", and correct how "mismanaged they are" Or silence news about the C.B.C.'s deeds, which go way beyond oil money. It seems the boys paying you to lobby the public, want you to shut up, too bad you can't control yourself. Maybe soon they will pay you to be quiet. As you seem to be all about the Benjamin's. Did they force you to release their liability with your brokeback "apology"? Similar to your ufa distance statement. And your ufa1 retraction/mistake? Also I heard you say you fished Alaska salmon for 28 years and took the money South, to live on over winter with no mention of physical work during winter. Is that how you got FAT? Maybe getting out of the stateroom, and helping the crew whom you "rarely speak to", but "read your computer over your shoulder" might help. Don't forget your crew licenses, as you have before. It is the skippers resonsibility to oversee his vessels legality. Alaska needs that license $ for fish infrastructure, science, and insurance. Also I see big $ spent to train and recruit new fisherman to enter fisheries that are being reduced fleetsize, but not catchwise. Big $ spent to lock out new entrants, what incentive is that to enter new feilds? Also can foriegn markets keep American fish for to feed their countries, and deny America food in the event of food shortages? I believe so. Will global market feed our villages on the Yukon? Yes, but only if they are the highe$t bidder$. By the way I live in the Valley and the non-returning Salmon in the toxic runoff of sewage/fuel laden Wasilla lake (Cottonwood Creek), and Big Lake (Fish Creek) troubles me greatly. But seems to go the way of the walrus, seals, orca, beluga, etc. that were here in Cook Inlet just a generation ago. Perhaps the oil slicks above and below waterline, steaming from the drill platforms in my Dad's day were a factor. Phosphorus from military bombing training exersize may be a factor. Or untreated runoff of Anchorages septics/storm drains and airports may play a role. De-icing fluid is recently proven to affect fish negatively. We must protect American JOBS and FOOD!! or suffer the consequences. Is it true you are having a multi-million dollar mansion built on Lake Washington, mr. Alaska? OVER

June 4, 2008 - 10:46am | Man_from_Unk

Guys from Washington state

Seattle's Glacier Fish Co. fishing up salmon by catch in the Bering Sea, salmon heading toward the Norton Sound to feed the poor, the seals and the whales.

Before we go national, we need to focus at the state level. We need to protect Alaska's jobs and food. We can't help the nation if we at first can't help ourselves.

May 28, 2008 - 8:34pm | peter1

You'll want to google the

You'll want to google the name PAUL STAMETS for possible answers to Alaska's waste hazards. Paul is known world wide now for his revolution in fungus bioremediation of hazardous waste sites. He is very well established in his trade, and claims fungi will even eliminate nuclear waste radiation!

Sounds to good to be true? Maybe, but the U.S. Government takes his work very seriously. Recently, Stamets was developing mushroom strains to combat threats of small pox terrorism in the U.S.

There is a large and growing number of Stamets followers, and websites detailing his visionary know-how. And yes, he's from Washington.

http://www.fungi.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Stamets

And only 15-20 years before Hanford radioactive waste reaches the Columbia which WILL kill the entire river, and possibly all surrounding ocean systems...........

May 28, 2008 - 9:44am | peter1

Unctuos pomposity never

Unctuos pomposity never slowed you down, and it sure makes great comedy.

"Did I say disdain?"

I said U.S. corporations are now advertising near-monopolies in language the public is too misinformed to comprehend. That's not disdain - that's a fish fry baby!!!!

Get a clue and go back to your 13 clients.

May 7, 2008 - 8:34pm | akwapsc

the main reason i bought mcclatchy

was to make money.

they pay an 8% dividend.

plus the stock is down so much it has to go up.

but the reason the stock was in my sights was because I want to go to a stockholders meeting someday and let them know how mismanaged the ADN is.

bobbyt

May 8, 2008 - 2:08pm | dirkwells

Cause ADN editors know how to win friends & influence people

Like how to keep your paper attractive to your readership by calling some of them idiots...

Liberal talk radio

I don't know the real reason liberal radio talk show host Aaron Selbig was sacked from KUDO-AM. Maybe it was the lousy ratings. Maybe it was that he dared go where the station's offstage masters at IBEW didn't want him to go.

I do know this: Liberal talk radio is a lousy business proposition.

And there are good reasons for that.

No. 1 -- Liberals have minds of their own. Unlike Rush Limbaugh's dittoheads, they don't respond like Pavlov's dogs when the master rings their emotional bells.

Liberals operate higher up the brain stem than most talk radio listeners. Liberals use their heads; conservatives go for the gut. (The term "liberal" in liberal arts education doesn't mean getting politically indoctrinated; it means thinking for yourself.)

Second, liberals have real jobs during the day. Jobs that require using their brains. They aren't sitting around in T-shirts and boxer shorts all afternoon, beer in hand, yelling from the Barcalounger, "You tell 'em, Rush!" Liberals aren't stickin' it to the man by goofing off at their dead-end jobs and listening to rants on the radio while munching fatty snacks jimmied out of the company vending machine.

Most commercial talk radio listeners are looking for entertainment, not enlightenment. They enjoy a rhetorical circus. They don't care if facts get in the way of a good argument.

Liberals have a reality-based view of the world. And let's face it -- reality is soooo B-O-R-I-N-G.

Liberal talk radio is a great sedative. If I'm having trouble getting to sleep at night, I can slap on the headphones, cue up a podcast of NPR's "Talk of the Nation," and I'm off to dreamland in no time.

The popularity of right-wing talk radio would be irrelevant, just a quirk of the American communications market, if it weren't for the political implications. Dittoheads can be stampeded into mass action that frightens politicians who might otherwise do the right thing.

For this sad fact of American life, I blame the educational system. Students these days just don't learn to think for themselves.

The biggest sign of trouble in American education is not low test scores. It's not abysmal graduation rates. It's the continuing commercial success of right-wing talk radio.

-- Matt Zencey

May 10, 2008 - 9:08am | franan

matt zencey??

Are you the same Matt Z from the ADN???

thanks

May 8, 2008 - 7:16pm | peter1

Where does this go with

Where does this go with manipulation of your state's fishing industry, though? Conservative Republicans have been there a looong time, and wouldn't have succumbed in the past to stupid radio. So why all of a sudden? Did we just go stupid?

How does your ADN prevent Chinese fish imports into the U.S.? How does ADN warn consumers of Alaska fish processed in China? How does ADN stop alleged filth in Adak fish plants, that ends up on US dinner plates? How about the SOCIAL-ECONOMIC impacts from social engineering programs in fisheries (which is what crab ratz has become)?

Today's PI shows Icicle pollack roe, up for bid, at big Seattle roe auction (business section front page). Too expensive today. Go to Japan for Russian pollack roe tomorrow. No complaints about outsider meddling, please.

May 6, 2008 - 10:39pm | peter1

"Social engineering" is what

"Social engineering" is what you've gotten into with crab ratz, and you're paying the price for not known anything about it.

Hawaiian Natives and rationalization ain't gonna be nearly as hard as angry fishermen. Why do you ignore this? Marie Antoinette would be proud! 5000 shares!!!!!

May 7, 2008 - 8:32pm | akwapsc

You are more preoccupied with me

than I am.

What. Do you want to be my political handler now or something.

I'm just a dumb Icelandic-Norwegian fisherman trying to feed his kids.

I know all about crab ratz. Do your history checking buddy.

I've been here since day one.

bobbyt

May 9, 2008 - 1:18pm | peter1

Here's some help on the dumb

Here's some help on the dumb part, a definition of rationalization:

"Means-end rationality is used to precisely calculate that which is necessary to attain a goal. Its EFFECTIVENESS VARIES WITH THE ENTHUSIASM OF THE WORKERS for the changes being made, THE SKILL WITH WHICH MANAGEMENT APPLIES THE RULES, and the degree to which the rules fit the job."

Elwell, Frank W., 1999. "Industrializing America: Understanding Contemporary Society through Classical Sociological Analysis." West Port, Connecticut.

Wikipedia.

As far as the history checking of crab "ratz", it doesn't matter. Ratz, in one form or another, has been in Alaska long before you ever got there.

Ratz programs established the Hawaiian Islands sugar and pineapple industries. There, the people were easier to placate, but production would have been lost if stupid management ruled. That's from personal experience of ratz history: an uncle managed all Hawaiian Islands pineapple production for one of the oldest and biggest players. His childhood? Grew up on the west coast of Kodiak.

He didn't vaccilate in dumbness, though. Try that shtick anywhere outside Alaska.....

May 9, 2008 - 8:36am | staufen

Clearly you meant...

that you led UFA into not taking a position against Crab Rationalization when it counted, because you want privatization for salmon, too.

No, you're just "a dumb" guy (stop insulting Northern Europeans!) operating on greed and corruption. Since day one? All about it? That sounds like an admission of being part of the conspiracy/racketeering since 1992. Please send the FBI the evidence!

You know we're just stringing you and lum-scum out to see what you'll post, so keep it up please... as your mistakes keep adding up. You should get JHBrowne as an attorney, as he's used to tolerating his clients shooting off their mouths despite their lawyer's advise.

May 8, 2008 - 4:36am | peter1

Being dumb and involved in

Being dumb and involved in crabratz from day one? What a combination...

May 5, 2008 - 2:02pm | staufen

One twisted sister ...

... must have helped you write that nonsense.

Have you ever understood the definition of a groundswell? Or the purpose of such a movement? No. And you still don't. Neither do you understand the duty of citizenry. So, while responding to you is fruitless, others might appreciate some clarity.

Isn't it up to the Cook Inlet folks to take responsibility and individually and collectively get involved, to protect their rights? Who are you to define the day-to-day efforts of Groundswell? I know, it's just a variation on the old divide and conquer mentality you can't shake.

Why do you clowns attack where there is no attack?
Oh yeah, the old lawyer BS of deny, decry, defy, distract, deflect, etc. How's all that going for you?

Your capacity for backward thinking and public relations lying is unsurpassed, Toot. It is the vessel owners and quota lords, and processors, with the aid of corrupt politicians and a conflicted regional fish council that "set up" a "crab fight". Every sane and conscious person involved knows that. They also know that the processors are not paying Shawn or any other crewmembers to undo the existing coercive monopoly system. And sane and informed folks also know the goal is to restore the historical participation rights to about 35% of all crab revenues to those who actually fished/harvested the crab on board the vessels at-sea -- which somehow you can't wrap your head around as being "fishermen."

For the New England and Gulf States, any Limited Access Privilege program (e.g. a Ratz) requires a referendum approved by 2/3 of the fleet - meaning vessel owners, skippers AND CREWMEN. You insult their intelligence and Alaskans simply because you can, because that's easier than doing the right thing to fight for Equal Rights that are Constitutionally guaranteed. Some leader you've turned out to be.

If you attended Council meetings and participated in a public process with the rest of us, instead of operating as a behind-closed-doors lobbyist looking out only for your select faction and special interests, you'd be informed.

Hint, if you want to quit getting labeled for your homophobia, quit calling crab fishermen 'brokeback'. But, apparently that would be as tough for you as the hint "Just Say No". Or, "go see a mental health doctor - and show him all of your blogs (and the subpoena)".

You're simply trying to construst a fight where there is not one, and reframe things by accusing people already fully engaged in fishermen rights issues of not being all things to all ... when the truth is that fishermen everywhere must engage and do the job for themselves. BTW, halibut and sablefish crews were not covered by a federal law that required crew contracts, as were over 20T crabbers - an important distinction regarding legal rights.

And I have always pointed out the clear law-based distinction of FCMA-type seller-only IFQ rights - which broke the price-fixing backs of the major halibut processors - from bastardized and non-FCMA covered rationalization cooperatives and linkages in pollock, crab... rockfish. Halibut IFQs did not fail in that regard, the regulators screwed up the caps and other issues.

As a former owner in Icicle, you of all folks know (and personally feared) that properly designed IFQ systems can grant fishermen the seller-power that Congress intended be exempt from antitrust laws, specifically because of the operation of cartels and coercive monopolies. But, as a stockholder, you benefited from the price fix. Rather, personally profited!

Repairing an unrational and corrupted Ratz program by restoring contractual and equitable rights to fishermen is not a move to change a different kind of program. And if you were truly a fishermen representative, you wouldn't even play the game of whoring out the fears that certain players want to hit the streets about going back into the halibut q's re crew -- you just love creating F.E.A.R. - false event appearing real. Toot, you fooled no one.

Groundswell's unpaid job was to educate fleets and communities on issues that explained the missing billions, and motivate by stepping forth and showing some how to get some things done (like stopping mergers, getting federal investigations going, having Treasury reclaim defrauded funds etc.).

It is the citizen's duty of others to follow the lead (or pick up where they left off before under a bad council and corruption in Juneau since the early 1990's) and start looking out for themselves. We can help where appropriate, when asked by appropriate people. You are not an appropriate contact, nor do you have a say.

And the very idea that 'Groundswell' ever thought that the major Ratz processors invested in the criminal takings and tax evasions and price-fixing would be there "to save" us is not even a plausible thought. What were you taking when you came up with that twisted propaganda?

PS: again, you are invited to Kodiak for the June council meeting, so you can personally meet some of the crab crewmen and members of the community you continually dis.

In closing, the most likely conclusion one can reach from reading your twisted-windmills is that you are highly unnerved in this waiting for the indictments stage. Good luck with that impatience and the grip of craziness it has on you.

May 6, 2008 - 9:12am | nscrabber

Explanation please

I don't understand the following. Are you saying congress exempted fishermen from the antitrust laws? How did they do that?

"properly designed IFQ systems can grant fishermen the seller-power that Congress intended be exempt from antitrust laws, specifically because of the operation of cartels and coercive monopolies"

May 7, 2008 - 1:08am | staufen

Proper IFQ meaning one fit for FCMA too...

Exempt regarding vertical integration or certain other structures given adherence to specific requirements of the Fishermen's Collective Marketing Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 521-522, of 1934.

A properly designed IFQ system, limited strictly to "fishermen" can be the basis of seller-empowered vertical integration under a fishermen-only FCMA structure. The law reads in part:

"The Act premits persons engaged in the fisheries industry as fishermen to act together for the purpose of catching, producing, preparing for market, processing, handling and marketing of their products. This immunity is patterned after the Capper-Volstead Act. This Act also provides for the enforcement by the Department of Justice of cease and desist orders issued by the Secretary of the Interior if interstate or foreign commerce is restrained or monopolized by any association of persons engaged in the fisheries industry as fishermen."

Fishermen have never had to stand for the plantation mentality and the price-fixing by the majors (esp. Japanese corporate fisheries/trading companies). They just accept that enslavement, willingly, because it is their comfort zone. But that is all changing. Ratz programs showed the remaining ones how easy it is to have their heads on the chopping block next.

That's what makes Bobby T's propaganda undigestible. He was always set up on both sides in order to self-deal, but never willing to have UFA become a FCMA compliant cooperative - FISHERMEN ONLY - and leave the corruption in the dust by taking control for the sake of the family-based fishers and establishing Alaskan-based vertically integrated firms.

Has anyone heard whether or not Icicle sold out the stock of only the top managers, or did the forklift drivers and others get to cash out too? It would be most interesting if the sellout was nothing short of a golden parachute maneuver for the few Icelandics and others at the top of the pyramid scheme.

May 7, 2008 - 8:40pm | akwapsc

Not that it's your business

But senior management had to hold onto a lot of their stock.

ALL of the others got 100% and I know of at least a dozen folks who got well over a million and a half dollars who were working the slime line, mechanics, etc.

There were probably over 50 employees who got over half milliion and more like a hundred mid to lower lever employees who got over a quarter million dollars or more.

The lucky guys are the ones at the top though, as the company will grow so their share will double over the next 5 years.

And they deserve every penny of it.

Of course, the employees are still waiting for their share of the 2% that NMFS ripped off with the federal crab scam that fined Icicle out in Adak. Even so, with that 2% hanging in the balance the Icicle employees did quite well.

bobbyt

May 9, 2008 - 9:17am | staufen

Congratulations (TIC).

As they say, Crime Pays.

I am sure that all the Bristol Bay fishermen appreciated their cut, too (TIC).

Now, seriously, have the decency to pay the $3.44 million NOVA fine.

May 5, 2008 - 7:56pm | hot4teacher

enough already...

...c'mon can't you guys keep it in the crab ratz thread? Is it too much to scroll down the page?

May 5, 2008 - 8:49pm | staufen

Huh?

You on da wrong page for crab ratz... but then again, you are correct... fast typist so it just flows. And thinking about it more, Bobby T knows nothing about crab ratz except that his seiners coveted it as a way to salmon IFQs and as a processor-owner he coveted it for the coercive monopolist profits. End of story, actually - except for the part that Bobby T can't get - it is he who is making the very idea of a citizens-based groundswell fashionable, because who wants to be led around by a clown like he?

May 6, 2008 - 9:08am | akwapsc

"the missing Billions"

this is getting good Taufen.

I seem to always miss my education lesson from Groundswell about the missing $2 Billion a year from the Alaska fishermen's pockets.

Can you let us in on that one again because since I sold my Icicle stock, I want what's coming to me as a fisherman. This summer is salmon season 33 for me. Another 33 and I can retire.

Certainly the price of my Icicle stock couldn't have reflected a well-thought-out plan with great locations, great experienced management, a great fleet ( who were once mostly owners of the company) and great vision by my father and my mother's father.

Certainly they aren't a solid company, just a bunch of cheaters who launder money in the Cayman Islands....

And if I profit from a company, owned 62% by it's employees, mostly Alaskan employees, that my family built from scratch in 1965, what business of that is yours. We stuck with this business through thick and thin for nearly half a century. And what did you want my granddad and dad to do, leave the stock to Groundswell?

Now most of that investment has to be with "outside" companies like McClatchy. So once I was a "bad" processor and now I'm a "bad" outside company owner. So long as I'm "bad" to you, that's good.

You know, Taufen, I recall a movie with Brad Pitt, where he is analyzing crazy people and he says, " I wonder if they really know they're crazy or if they just say this stuff and really believe it?"

That's you buddy. $2 billion a year.

That's crazy talk. Show us the numbers.

Show me the money, Taufen.

bobbyt

ps and you have come out against halibut and black cod IFQ's. when you were gone and your buddy Shawn, a true blue Groundswell rep, came out against them. You'd better check with your team.

and i personally had a conversation with Lu Dochtermann when he told me that he was trying to get rid of the halibut IFQ program. no this was not in 1990 but in 2007.

better watch the troops and keep your story straight.
but that's probably psychologically impossible as well, as Brad Pitt would have surmised.

May 7, 2008 - 1:22am | staufen

Boy, you think you got us there, Toot...

No one can compare with your gene pool.

3 May 5, 2008 - 1:28am | jerrydfuller

Wagoner

I personally have had some hesitations in trusting this man's judgement. He was the Senator that nominated Sen. Ben Stevens as President of the Senate a few years ago. Hope his judgement has improved.

2 May 3, 2008 - 7:51pm | browburk

Green and Huggins

should make the Senate side of the Task Force completely free of bias, and completely open and transparent. It will be wonderful. I wonder why Wagoner signed up for this circus side-show?

1 May 3, 2008 - 7:24am | Man_from_Unk

Declining salmon stocks

I hope the Cook Inlet Salmon Task Force take a look at the declines from all over the state. I also hope they take a closer look at the state management infrastructure and the biggies fishing pollock in the Bering Sea. Fish tagging technology has been around a long, long time and we need to know where our salmon go to mature before they return to our rivers and streams to spawn. It's as simple as that.

May 3, 2008 - 11:30pm | CRABLEWI

VERY TRUE

VERY TRUE. We need to take a closer look at our fish stocks, our managers, and who may be trying to influence them and polititians. More info is quickly coming out under Wes's "RIP UP CRAB RATZ page. IT'S SIMPLE. SIMPLE TRUTH!!

October 30, 2008 - 1:56am | megal_i

download to ipod shuffle

download to ipod shuffle without itunes(sync to ipod without itunes) or transfer windows to ipod without itunes.

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