Tag Archives: Alaska politics

Three things I did at lunchtime

By Mel | Published: Thursday, 25 June 2009
This post has nothing to do with the Anchorage equal rights ordinance — aren’t you glad for a break? — but two of the things I did have to do with two of our staunch allies in that fight.  The third is just for fun.  We need it. One. I’ve been aware for several days of Linda [...]
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Equality Works fundraiser

By Mel | Published: Saturday, 16 May 2009
Usually Friday nights for me are home nights. After all, that’s the night “Battlestar Galactica” is on!  Except that… “Battlestar Galactica” is over [sigh].  But [brightening up] at least I have the DVDs! Okay, well, that’s the night “Dollhouse” is on!  Except that… “Dollhouse” had its season finale last week [sigh].  But [brightening up] — we [...]
Posted in Alaska politics, Ordinance | Also tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Channel 11 interview, part 1 (the video)

By Mel | Published: Wednesday, 13 May 2009
It was a surprise to me: around 10:30 or so this morning I got a call at work, on my direct line, from someone identifying himself as a reporter. I’m not entirely unused to getting calls from reporters — faculty in my department are often asked to comment on this or that issue in [...]
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Same-sex marriage: A personal history

By Mel | Published: Saturday, 9 May 2009
Good news from Maine Wednesday: its legislature passed, & its governor signed, a law making it legal for same-sex couples to marry.  This makes Maine the 5th state in the U.S., after Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, & Iowa, to grant the same civil rights & responsibilities of marriage granted to heterosexual couples, to lesbian & gay [...]
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WAR goes down! 23 yeas, 35 nays!

By Mel | Published: Thursday, 16 April 2009
WAR goes down! 23 yeas, 35 nays.  Repeat: Wayne Anthony Ross will NOT be Alaska Attorney General. We fought the good fight, people, and we WON! The lima beans of the state are dancing. And so, I bet, are Alaska Natives, women who’ve suffered from domestic abuse & other violence, and all of the friends and allies [...]
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Alaska newspaper editorials against WAR

By Mel | Published: Thursday, 16 April 2009
At least one of Alaska’s daily newspapers have come out editorially against the confirmation of Wayne Anthony Ross to be Alaska’s attorney general: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner — “Reject Ross: Nominee for top legal post is wrong man for the job” (April 16) The ADN is doesn’t really like him, but is quite a bit more week-kneed: Anchorage Daily [...]
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WAR’s antigay letter to the Alaska Bar Association, 1993

By Mel | Published: Wednesday, 15 April 2009
You’ve heard about it, now here it is: the famous letter written by Wayne Anthony Ross to the Alaska Bar Association and published in the Alaska Bar Rag in the early 1990s (turns out it was 1993) which referred to LGBTQ Alaskans as “degenerates.”  My friend Steve passed it to me earlier today after an [...]
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Jay Ramras: “We won’t necessarily be coloring within the lines”

By Mel | Published: Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Representative Jay Ramras, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, doesn't seem to mind joining Alaska attorney general-nominee Wayne Anthony Ross — not to mention Gov. Sarah Palin herself — in coloring outside the lines of Alaska state law.
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Pro-WAR = anti-LAW

By Mel | Published: Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Just last night I posted about the opinions that Alaska attorneys with direct experience dealing with Attorney General-nominee Wayne Anthony Ross have of WAR’s mediocre legal abilities: His middling scores on the Alaska Bar Association surveys when he applied for seats on the Alaska Supreme Court and Court of Appeals are not simply statistics, but indicative [...]
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Anti-WAR letter: Opposing Wayne Anthony Ross

By Mel | Published: Tuesday, 14 April 2009
I’m a writer-blogger, not a political blogger — though I did try it out a little last fall after Palin became a vice-presidential candidate. But it proved too emotionally exhausting for me, & other Alaska progressive bloggers were doing it better. Sometimes, though, you gotta take a stand on something. So here’s the [...]
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