[QUOTE=tugsailor;79190]Yes, he was corrupt, but no more so than most politicians.[/QUOTE]
Have we really degenerated to that point where political corruption is so casually accepted?
Those people really are a waste of oxygen. I believe that we should setup a camp on Adak for the bastards. All they should get from the American taxpayer is a weekly shipment of old bread paid for out of the retirement kitty amassed by Alaska politicians who haven’t been caught yet. If a week goes by without catching a crooked politician then there is no reason to schedule a flight so let them catch a seagull or go hungry, they aren’t worth a flight just for food.
If we really do get the politicians we deserve, we are in deep deep shit.
[QUOTE=Steamer;79185]Ted, Lisa, Frank, Sarah … what a cast of characters! There must be something in the water up there that does something particularly weird to what passes for brains in the type of whackjob personality that goes into politics.[/QUOTE]
Don’t forget Don. The perpetual congressman for life!
What’s your take on Begich? As corrupt or just learning still?
[QUOTE=tugsailor;79190] While I am normally gleeful when corrupt politicians get taken down for corruption, I was actually sad when they ruined Ted over relatively minor corruption![/QUOTE]
Agreed, getting Ted over that was pretty small of the DoJ. If they couldn’t get him on something bigger, then they should have just pressured him to resign at the end of his term and just retire to be paid hansomely for his great largess over the years as the man who delivered. Of all the sins, the fisheries giveaway is something that has sickened me since it happened and every time I am in Ballard or Dutch I literally feel it deep in my gut. I worked as master for Bob Desautel and Kari Swasand on their vessel MT MITCHELL for three years and I always felt “dirty” for lying down with them. Desautel is a scumbag plain and simple, but the old man Swasand was at least a gentleman even tho he got a HUGE quota of both Pollack and Cod from his very good friend Ted. Swasand’s son, Chris is a fucking young silver spoon puke who never once had to go work on the boats before taking over his dad’s fortune. I hate that little piece of shit!
Thank God the State managed fisheries is still competitive even tho I am no fan of the Bristol Bay cowboys. What happened to fishing for men who didn’t become fishermen just to get rich? When it was just a life passed down from father to son for generations? I could have gone that route but chose instead to get my license and not fish but it is still in my soul. I was born in a fishing family and I still wonder about a retirement someday with a nice little 43’ Little Hoquiam Boatshop troller and fishing out of Sitka until someday when I drop in the cockpit with a heart attack and they find my boat making slow circles out there with my hand on the gurdies… Either that of taking rich guys out on Salmon fishing expeditions and after hammering the fish all day, anchoring up in a desolate bay and hammering scotch all night with em just like the Duke’s captain did with those Hollywood legends on the WILD GOOSE!
I really like that option a lot more but I need to be able to afford a classic boat like the Duke’s old minesweeper…
[QUOTE=tugsailor;79190]REPLY I guess you never hoisted a few beers with Ted at Humpies? Ted was a very down to earth and likeable guy. He knew just about everyone that had been in Alaska for a few years. Yes, he was corrupt, but no more so than most politicians[/QUOTE]
I met him and he was a very likeable fellow but so are all the most corrupt. It’s how they get their positions and why they don’t get the shiv from those they take care of. His son was a very down to earth guy who swore for years when he was crabbing that he’d never become his dad…then look what happened!
[QUOTE=c.captain;79204]Don’t forget Don. The perpetual congressman for life![/QUOTE]
It really ought to be life without possibility of parole. It is simply beyond comprehension that the record that man has created isn’t seen by the Justice Department as the index for the User’s Guide to Bribery and Political Corruption!
I was working in Ketchikan during the height of the “Bridge to Nowhwere” scam. It is amusing that everything you read now claims it was a project to replace the little car ferry that runs over to the airport. At the time it was an enormous bridge that ran across to Pennock Island with another arch across the shipping channel (high enough to clear the cruise ships) to Gravina. And, would you believe, Gravina is where friends of Don and other fine citizens happen to own a great deal of land that lacks only road access to be worth jillions of dollars …
[/QUOTE]What’s your take on Begich? As corrupt or just learning still?[/QUOTE]
Amazingly neutral … either he is really really good, or just incredibly good at it or is still building the framework for a machine that will make the others look like punters.
[QUOTE=c.captain;79208]Agreed, getting Ted over that was pretty small of the DoJ…[/QUOTE]
You get the bastards any way you can. Look how they got Al Capone. Personally, I don’t think it is too petty to nail the bastards for an unpaid parking ticket and send them away for life. They don’t have any qualms about using the tiniest technicality to rob you blind and destroy the nation in the process.
There should be a separate set of laws that apply to political corruption and it need not include all the niceties that protect common criminals. The mere stink of corruption should be all it takes to send them packing and if there is a shred of evidence, they should be reduced to poverty and denied public assistance. It should not be illegal to kick one of them if they are found sleeping in a doorway.
[QUOTE=c.captain;79139]
So Lee, it’s been awhile, you still down South America way?
.[/QUOTE]
Yes, Still in Mexico. To say it is challenging is an understatement. I enjoy working with the people from Mexico, but the government regulations are tremendous. You need a law degree and a PHD in negotiations to work down here. I will be here for as long as they will have me.
[QUOTE=Capt. Lee;79231]Yes, Still in Mexico. To say it is challenging is an understatement. I enjoy working with the people from Mexico, but the government regulations are tremendous. You need a law degree and a PHD in negotiations to work down here. I will be here for as long as they will have me.[/QUOTE]
Ah, I thought you were Brazil way. Either way, the Latin way to doing business is more than an exercise in patience and the ability to hold one’s tongue in check.
Actually the Permanent Fund check is not near enough for a snow machine!
[QUOTE=Steamer;79176]Ain’t that the truth!
Appalachia by the sea is what I call it. It is kind of funny in a sick way but the Last Frontier is filled with strong independent characters who cling so hard to the government tit they have made welfare a bootstrap program by comparison.
Run up the inside passage in Southeast and you know when a town is around the bend because you can see the Federal Building sticking up above the trees, unless it is blocked by the State Building of course. Nothing gets built or done unless the federal funding is in place first. When Sarah said she could see Russia from her house she really meant she could see Russian style socialism. Up there it wears a set of Carharts and claims it don’t need no stinkin gummint … mind you, they say that on the way to cash their permanent fund check so they can buy a new snow machine.[/QUOTE]
