Survivor Juneau

--- by Shannyn Moore

By the day, the Alaska State Government is beginning to resemble an episode of Survivor. There are 2 tribes; the Red Tribe and the Blue Tribe. There are reward challenges and immunity challenges. There is Tribal Council. People get voted off the Island. There are strategies and strange alliances; hidden agendas.

After Day One of Attorney General Hearings, folks in Juneau are looking around the room to see if it’s just them…or does everyone else realize Palin’s appointee, Wayne Anthony Ross, is not quite right. He’s better suited for an immunity challenge that would have him wrestling with Levi Johnston. Johnston, meanwhile, is on a tell-all media tour after he earned permanent immunity for fathering Palin’s grandchild. Instead of publicly scolding Levi, the governor should send him a thank you card for distracting the national tribe.

Many have already been voted off the Island. Former AG, Talis Colberg voted himself off the Island-in a sort of kamikaze hari kari act to save the Queen. Then there was Tim Grussendorf. He went before the Alaska Survivor Tribal Council and was voted off once it was learned he was a mole from the other tribe. Joe Nelson is the next player to appear on Survivor Juneau. His fate is to be determined. Everyone plays this game. The Governor, in fact, tried to promote herself to the Big Island and was voted off by the National Survivor Tribal Council.

But back to W.A.R. His own testimony reveals a racist, abrasive, interrupting bully, completely paranoid about the federal government. I imagine Wayne and Todd throwing back beers around a fire, trading secession strategies. I knew W.A.R. was a colorful character, and by that, I mean controversial candidate, but didn’t know the depth and extent of his pathology.

“Subtle like a chainsaw,” is a phrase my pop used to say. Palin’s pick must have had Husqvarna and Stihl for parents. VROOM! VROOM! Her choice should have her gender card recalled. The legislature, acting as the Alaska Survivor Tribal Council, need to form an alliance and reject Wayne Anthony Ross for Attorney General. Send W.A.R. back to his bunker…let him count his guns, and mutter about how the ERA took rights away from men. Time to vote him off the island.

My friend, Mudflats has meticulously dissected the words of W.A.R.

The following is a testimonial letter from Leah Burton. Realize as you are reading her words, she is talking about a man who would be, if Sarah Palin has her way, the Attorney General of our state; the highest law officer in the land. A man who condoned rape? WTF?

April 7, 2009

My name is Leah Burton. My father is former Commissioner of Public Safety, Richard L. Burton, who served under both Governor Hammond and Governor Hickel. I grew up in a law enforcement environment. Mr. Ross testimony today in response to Senator Hollis’ questions about domestic violence and sexual assault victims enhances my testimony as to his prejudice on this very serious topic, especially given that, “Alaska rates among the top 5 states in the nation for per capita rates of domestic violence.” (FBI/UCR 2007)

From 1989 through 1997 I lobbied on behalf of families and children in Alaska with regard to child support, custody, abuse, abandonment and neglect. In the course of that time my efforts put me in conflict with a group known then as the Dads Against Discrimination (DADS), and later renamed the Alaska Family Support Group.

Mr. Ross is one of the most successful attorneys in Alaska in his representation of the members of this organization and others who sought to avoid payment of child support through several means, not the least of which was to fight for custody.

In 1991, the DADS group held an area wide meeting at a Denny’s Restaurant in Anchorage near DeBarr & Bragaw. I chose to go and sit in the main area of the restaurant near the opening of the meeting room where they convened so I was able to hear what they had to say and find out what plans they had for the upcoming legislative session.

At that point they still did not know what I looked like so I was able to sit there unnoticed. The meeting was well attended, Steve Strube was the head of the group at that time and another known member, John Grames (who Strube referred to as his Lt.), was also in attendance along with enough other members to fill the room. They were delighted to have Wayne Anthony Ross in attendance as a guest speaker.

Numerous comments were made that were appalling, not the least of which were remarks by Mr. Ross which included the following; “If a guy can’t rape his wife…who’s he gonna rape?” and “There wouldn’t be an issue with domestic violence if women would learn to keep their mouths shut.”

Other members made their own contributions such as, “We have the right to discipline our wives and children without the interference of government in our lives!”

These comments were greeted with laughter and affirmative responses by the group. Given the fact that they had referred to me in recent months as a “femi-nazi”, the comments I was witness to at this meeting, while abhorrent, were unfortunately not surprising.

This announcement by Governor Palin is a slap in the face to all single parents who have no choice but to rely upon the State Department of Law to support court orders for child support, as well as those persons who need the Department to enforce criminal laws against sexual assault and domestic violence. Mr. Ross is the antithesis of the type of person that should be the Attorney General. This has been clearly demonstrated by his own words and actions in public.

In closing, I am not alone in my assessment that anyone who condones, and contributes to that type of hateful and harmful discourse clearly does not have the judgment necessary to represent the people of the State of Alaska as their Attorney General.

Given his other special interests and his stated opposition to subsistence rights and other Alaska Native issues, I have brought this forth as yet another dimension of Mr. Ross’ demonstrated inability to represent all the people of the State of Alaska fairly and impartially.

His clear racial and gender prejudice raise serious concerns with regard to his ability to represent all residents of the State of Alaska fairly and impartially as their Attorney General.