I tried to say it more politelya few days back, got a little sympathy from a few other backwaters where the Republican party still holds a little sway, sort of. Still, I keep coming back here and finding more crap like this!
What the fuck is the matter with you people?
Listen... I haven't read dKos obsessively for five years -- and donated to progressive candidates nationwide, and bent the ear of anyone here who would listen to me about progressive politics and ideas for decades now to put up with crap like this.
Yes, we have oil wealth here. We have barrels full. We have so much of it that we honestly don't give a flying fuck that we lost 1/4 of our state savings account in a matter of months -- because we are still the only state in the black. We can each crap out a million or two before 10 AM and not even flinch.
It's too bad we lost the money on Wall St., but I can tell you that it had absolutely nothing to do with Sarah Palin. The budget reserve is constitutionally protected, the Permanent Fund balance is protected in perpetuity, and the negotiations with Big Oil are ongoing and the current governor stands to influence the process very little, years later.
You can call us a welfare state if you want to, but at least do it from an informed perspective. The people in Louisiana and Texas don't get checks from oil drilling in their backyard, right? But last year everyone in Alaska got $2,000? Correct! Everyone got the same $2,000, whether that represented 20 percent of their income or 0.005 percent. I challenge you to find a more progressive social program anyplace. Should each of us send the money back to Exxon, Chevron and BP? What would you wise citizens counsel us to do? Distribute the money amongst everyone in the country? It wouldn't be worth the effort -- a $1 billion annual payout is significant split 600,000 ways -- 300 million ways, not so much. Besides, the state's consitution says the resources belong to the people and will be developed to benefit the people of Alaska. Why the other state constitutions don't say the same is a mystery to me.
And maybe Alaska does take $1.78 for every $1 it gives, but so what? It's the same urban-rural inequality that exists elsewhere, everywhere. We have a lot of remote sites and challenging logistics. I know what this attitude must seem like, but come up here for awhile, look around -- you'll get it.
I'll bet I dislike Palin more than any of you. Because I have to be humiliated by her every day of the week, in ways you can't imagine. And I think back to our previous governors like Bill Egan and Tony Knowles and Jay Hammond, and it just makes me sad that a nimrod like Palin put us on the map and got people thinking and talking about Alaska again.
That's it. I feel better having vented a bit. Have a nice Tuesday. I'll be thinking about all you elitist, sniping fuckers when I'm riding my bike to work tomorrow morning in the bitter cold and darkness. Not complaining, just avoiding buying gas, since we pay 80 cents over the national average.