Alaska Legislative Seating Charts and Energy Legislation

Alaska's top progressive political blog, subarctic mama, highlighted a Fairbanks News-Miner story about nutcase Fairbanks Representative Mike Kelly (R - Taliban) and his quaint views on the role of women in domestic violence in Alaska:

It just seems to me that the message is clear here, that the female — the other half of the population — is falling down because they’re doing stupid things marrying the beasts among us, or shacking up with them. The guys that are brothers and uncles and fathers and stuff are not taking care of this problem. I just think it’s one more thing that insidiously is on government, and it bothers me.”

subarctic mama goes on to take "Burka" Kelly to task, citing the true situation in Alaska in regard to domestic violence:

I can imagine Kelly’s dream Alaska. Unburdened by the evil of government, it’s a place where tribal bands of men defend the honor of “their women.” It’s a place where public schools have been dismantled and religious private schools predominate. Maybe a store would sell burqas printed with Alaska flags.

Kelly's remarks were so offensive to the then-expectant Representative from Bethel, Mary Nelson, that she requested to be moved away from sitting next to Kelly.

And this week, during the debates in finance committees over the bizarre idea of tacking $500 or so onto PFD's that might go up to $2,000 this year, legislators are hard put to find ways to sit or stand next to their opponents on this and other issues.

The cost of these "energy rebates," paid out to every Alaskan, whether the person needs it or not, is, in my view, a very stupid idea. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez seems to have a better idea of where energy money in Alaska is needed: in the bush. What the legislature seems to be headed toward is bribing us. What a tough decision this must be for them, eh?

The cost of these bribes to voters will be $305,000,000. The amount proposed by Gov. Palin, in her State of the State address, for a Renewable Energy Fund, was $250,000,000. Palin's new Energy Czar seems to be steering away from such a rational idea. He's indicated so far, that if people just close their doors and windows, put some duct tape over this, some caulking over that, everything will work out OK in the bush. Another example of subtle or not-so-subtle racism from one of Palin's hires.

Update: I worked in community corrections for about seven years. I was trained as a domestic violence intervention specialist, and dealt with families of victims and perpetrators of this ugly dynamic for even longer than that. In light of that, I find Mike Kelly's remarks from a week ago not only ignorant and reprehensible, but totally despicable.