14 thoughts on “Tweet of the day”

  1. LysanderSpooner

    I agree with your assessment of the governor. He is a principled, hard-working guy who has the best interests of Alaskans at heart.

    Reagan, however, did not defeat the Soviet Union without a lot of outside help and a whole lot of good timing.

  2. alaskapi

    You, of course, have every right to say and think whatever but please, can we have an end to the phony outrage over the poor Dems dealie?
    As a 42 year member of the Democratic Party, I’m finding the whole poor-babies-got-their-votes-chucked routine laughable coming from folks who normally spend a lot of time ridiculing Ds.

  3. Lynn Willis

    Jon,
    I appreciate your optimism; however, we are much too early in the process to be making even the most modest claims of success. We are in “pre-feed” and that is all we know for sure. Only three parameters actually count; confirmed financing for the project, a known supply of gas to sell, and firm contracts to purchase that gas. When those parameters are in place – we have a project and not a second before.
    I closely followed the AKLNG debate in the legislature and found it to be motivated more by adjournment than by any other parameter. Why did they wait until the final year of the two year session to have this inquiry and why not continue into this summer to gather more facts and information at which time they could have gathered for a vote on the legislation? Again, this is all great fodder for the debates where hopefully Alaskans will get a sense of the viability of this project from two perspectives.

  4. Jon K

    Lynn, I can understand your frustration w this administration. What I cannot understand is why you refuse to educate yourself on the AK LNG project to understand just how much progress has been made. Every mega project goes through a stage gated process: conceptual, pre feed, feed and than final investment decision. While we are in a pre feed, this is a major accomplishment. It means 500 people working on the project to do the leg work on permits and cost estimates. If we make it through pre feed and into feed there is a very good chance the project gets sanctioned. Moreover, the reason why we will be are in good shape to make it through pre feed is bc the companies have spent a ton of money under Agia to better understand how to produce the gas, treat it, and move it down a gas pipeline. This work is being incorporated into the current effort.

    I don’t mind your skepticism but you really need to better understand just how far we’ve come – and don’t look at press releases. Look at actions: who is leading this project, how much experience do they have, how many people have been hired, what are they spending their money on, what are our potential customers saying.

  5. Garand Fellow

    With the exception of the United States winning WWII and saving the world, and President Ronald Reagan defeating the Soviet Union without firing a shot I cannot recall anything better than par or sub-par performance by any government. It’s not the people that is the problem; Governor Parnell does as well or better than any Alaska governor has done, as I explained. It’s that expectations of government are far too high. Governments promise more than they can deliver, spend more money than they have, and spin the truth as they write their histories. They market a product just as P&G markets soap.

    I do not fear anything Californians do today that they might officially condone in the future. It’s all entertainment to me. Mexico claims to want it back, and Mexicans may be taking it back right now.

    Governments murdered upwards of 100 million of their own people during the 20th Century, and no one should bet that record won’t be broken in the 21st. Alaskans have a governor upon whom we could depend to fight on our side, and not every American can say that.

  7. Anonymous

    Tom,
    I might well be just as frustrated 4 years from now. I can assure you I am frustrated now and I am more than willing to face that possibility. I have had to fire people after they just couldn’t perform and I am ready to fire Parnell for exactly that reason. The Governor position calls for a leader not just a partisan politician who cannot say no to his fellow partisans then simply wait to react to one crisis and/or scandal after another. Parnell simply cannot lead.
    Regarding the latest gas line; do you understand the concept of “Pre-Feed” and “Feed” leading to FID (Final Investment Decision) and how we are barely into the process and how much that decision process is going to cost? There will not be, before the election, any more probability of this AKLNG project succeeding than there was when AGIA was going to be the future. So spare me the “vast gains” propaganda because the signing of a couple of MOUs’, an article by a FERC director justifying his job, staffing a new state department with high cost state employees, and a trip to Asia, do not a project make. All that has been done before and not a molecule of gas has been realized.
    Apparently, now Parnell and like thinkers are now willing to keep deficit spending based on nothing but expectations. I was very glad to see Mayor Dan Sullivan broach the issue of the need to direct more (if not all) Permanent Fund earnings to pay for this level of spending even if it means a significant impact on your PFD.
    I understand Walker faces exactly the same problems; however, as I stated, a five year effort by Parnell qualifies him now for unemployment. I await the debates for any evidence I am wrong.

  8. Harry

    I am so sick of the way everyone is acting this election cycle. Negative ads are making my head spin. The nefarious reorganization of the Democratic party ticket makes me sick to my stomach. The political backroom deal makers like Vince Beltrami are ruining the state. VINCE BELTRAMI HAS BECOME THE NEW BILL ALLEN. Not in a corrupt way, but, in a bad way still.
    And the lies, lies and more lies from politicians. This year the award has to go to Mark Begich.
    Let’s hope for better, expect more and support candidates with real ideas and self worth. That would be a lovely change. Please vote.

  9. Tom F.

    Lynn Willis’ diatribe is ridiculously short-sighted. However, he has the riight to feel this way and cast his vote accordingly. I suspect that if Mmr Walker wins, Lynn will be just as frustrated and angry 4 yrs from now. Parnell has made vast gains on the gas pipeline. Walker wants to start over. Isn’t that what Palin did ? That resulted in hundreds of millions of gollars to TransCanada and years of delay. Now, I see tha seam Palin groupies like Scott Heyworth and Harold Heinz lining up with Walker. Hey Lynn, do you remember how well that worked out? Walker will drive up the deficits. Hey Lynn, are you listening to their proposals? It sounds like this: we will fight defecits, fund education at a higher level, build roads, lower the cost of health care, guild this and that, increase wages of teachers and government workers and the list goes on.” You never hear about them cutting anything. Walker and Mallott are two zeros added together. My math says 0 + 0 = 0
    I’ll stick with Parnell

  10. Lynn Willis

    Garand,
    I understand that par or sub-par performance is good enough for some, not for me. Fears such as humans marrying animals and extreme partisanship are justification for some to support Parnell but not to me. Parnell supporters are now reduced to a: “well, my guy is bad but your guy certainly will be worse” argument. That does not bode well for the incumbent. Sometimes just a clear history of performance can be a justification for change.

  11. Garand Fellow

    While I might have hoped for more progress from Governor Parnell, he has delivered as much for his years in office as did any of his predecessors. And he hasn’t been impeached, hasn’t built anything comparable to the grain elevators, and hasn’t bought an executive jet. No offspring of his has produced a bastard.

    I don’t believe a natural gas pipeline will bring NS natural gas to market in sufficient quantity to materially augment state revenues within the lifetime of any living adult. But SB21 is bringing in more money today than ACES would have, and that is a significant Parnell accomplishment.

    Those who believe a NS NG pipeline cannot happen very soon and that therefore spending on it today is a waste of money can expect a potential pause in the spending when one gentleman’s high-3 PERS multiplicand is over $350,000, and that other gentleman has retired from TC with a golden handshake commensurate with how much he has harvested from Alaska state government. I have no idea how long we must wait for that but I do know that for at least the next 5 weeks Alaskans need to be told that pipeline construction will begin soon and state revenues will gain $3 billion to $4 billion per year from NG sales before cash reserves are depleted; such is democracy.

    If anyone can see any accomplishments whatsoever in the backgrounds Bill Walker, Byron Mallott or any of the fine men and women working on a pipeline at state expense right now that recommend the Walker-Mallott ticket over Governor Parnell then I would like to visit that constructed project (or at least be able to read about it – because at least in North America there is no such project).

    I was grateful to Governor Parnell for refusing the Medicaid bump enabled by ObamaCare. I was proud that he did not meet with President Barack Hussein Obama. I could easily find 100 Alaskans within the next 30 minutes who agree with me.

    I believe he handled the National Guard mess in an orderly fashion, like any attorney would but perhaps not as an experienced manager would. The first time I took business law I took it from an Arab attorney who was an accomplished businessman (and a great professor) but I cannot say I have since met an attorney who is a good manager.

    If Alaska must one day adopt a so-called broad-based tax it will be a sales tax. But state and municipal government have grown so large, and accumulated so many debts and obligations, that the debate is at least a generation away because it would be so costly for the relatively small amount of net state income to be derived. California will be seriously debating legalizing marriage between humans and their pet animals before Alaska seriously debates a state income tax, but one day both will happen.

    Deficit spending will continue so long as there is surplus cash, and it may continue afterwards because there will be capacity to issue additional debt. That will be true no matter who is elected on November 4, and it is probably true in all 50 states. I hope the media will ask the Walker-Begich ticket just what programs they propose to eliminate in order to balance the operating and capital budgets with forecasted unrestricted revenue, but I would not bet the media will do that. At current ANS prices I would guess the FY2015 deficit might amount to about $2.6 billion.

  12. Mae

    I swear that is the only photo of Parnell smiling.
    Or grinning or something like that. He never does.

    In this photo his eyes glitter and actually match his smile. Rare.

    And that is about the only thing nice I have to say about the guy.

  13. Lynn Willis

    Yes I suppose some could “expect” an easy re-election for Sean Parnell. Parnell’s entire term in office can be described using the term “expected”. I once had expectations for Governor Parnell. I expected him not to violate the Constitution by creating jobs for sitting legislators, expected him to exercise his line item veto authority and not put us in deficit spending, expected him not to continue to pay millions to Trans Canada for a obviously non-viable pipe line project to Alberta, expected him to at least meet the President of the United States when both were in Anchorage, expected him to not spend all that money on the state crime lab, expected him to finally decided to build or not build projects such as the Knik Arm Bridge and Susitna Dam, expected him to at least comment on the folly of the Anchorage LIO remodel if not direct a criminal investigation into the contracting for that job, expected him to not to allow the Sulfolane spill at the North Pole Refinery to spread without mitigation, expected him to not be so motivated by a national party agenda that he would deny health care to thousands of Alaskans, and finally expected him to not ignore the pleas of the women soldiers who were abused in his National Guard. Yes, I had expectations for Sean Parnell.
    Now after five years in office all he can offer me is another “expected” gas pipe line, “expected” increased oil production revenue and an” expected” personal income tax and loss of my PFD to pay for his ineptness.

  14. Justin

    This is a very creative tweet. Clever as can be. This “unity” ticket thing disgusts me. It was wrong that the voters who participated in the Democratic primary had their votes tossed out by the party’s power brokers. Then, the marriage that was made by Bill”I have no principles” Walker and Byron “too lazy for my own good” Mallott is ill-conveived and all about hate, not the good of Alaska. The “unity” ticket is a desparate coaition of lies. At least, Parnell has values and character. I don’t always agree with Parnell, but, I’ll take him over Walker any day.

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