Dennis Zaki Blog - AlaskaReport

Phillip Munger and I paid a visit to Ted Stevens’ campaign office yesterday afternoon. It was like visiting a morgue. The place was quiet and smelled heavily of fresh paint.

We delivered a series of tubes to Ted from Phil’s contest.

Cover Blown…

I followed Don Young around today like stink on a monkey at the Labor/Union picnic in Anchorage. He was not too happy about it. Don eventually came up to me and said “Who are you working for?” I told I’m just a guy shooting pictures. A couple of chumps with him asked around to try to find out who I was. They didn’t.

Just before Don left, a friend of mine asked Don about the passing of the FISA bill that gives immunity to telecom companies so they won’t testify against President Bush.

In the video Donald says that trial lawyers are responsible for the FISA legislation.

Another Corrupt Bastard Club Charter Member Bites The Dust

One week after the FBI’s corruption grand jury met, VECO crony Lyda Green is suddenly dropping out of her re-election race. After a talk with FBI target John Cowdery, I’m sure she’s getting indicted it’s just a coincidence that she’s bailing out right now.

VECO home repair recipient Green says she “takes polls with a grain of salt.” Uh huh. But in an ADN article Saturday, Green now claims that is the reason she’s dropping out. Friday she claimed she was leaving because it was all Sarah Palin’s fault with no mention of humiliating polls showing a massive defeat looming.

As Philip Munger speculates, there’s more to the story.

Somebody knocked down VECO crony Lyda Green’s campaign sign Monday at Trunk Road and the Palmer/Wasilla Highway crossing in Palmer.

I swear I didn’t do it!

THE FIX IS IN !!! Call the FBI !!!

Look who skipped out on the AGIA forums in Anchorage this week. These 9 Corrupt Bastard Club suspects made it to Lyda Green’s fundraiser Wednesday night - but couldn’t make it to the discussions on Alaska’s largest project ever.

Maybe they’ve already fixed the vote so they know there’s no reason to show.

All 9 of these legislators are already on our unofficial list of future prison inductees. Coincidence? Let’s hope the FBI is still recording phone calls! MBK are you listening ???

UPDATED
From Ray Metcalfe
Veco’s Dirty Dozen
10/21/2007

The following twelve legislators all have four things in common:

1. Every one of them has taken more than $10,000 from Veco.
2. When Veco owner Bill Allen asked to be relieved of his requirement to register as a lobbyist, they crafted and passed legislation ending Bill Allen’s requirement to register.
3. When presented with hundreds of pages of evidence of Veco’s bribery, each of them refused to respond.
4. When asked to admit or deny under oath whether or not had taken advantage of the illegal polling, services that Veco’s Vice President Rick Smith admitted having provided to over 100 of their favored candidates, every one of the still seated legislators below refused comment.

1. Mike Chenault, $32,000
2. Ralph Samuels, $10,250
3. Mike Hawker, $21,350
4. Lesil McGuire, $17,550
5. Lyda Green, $18,000
6. Kevin Meyer, $23,350
7. John Cowdery, $45,200
8. Con Bunde, $18,650
9. John Coghill Jr, $10,480
10. Carl Gatto, $12,000
11. Fred Dyson, $21,700
12. Gary Stevens, $14,275

Six of the nine pictured have taken VECO cash over $10,000.

Another coincidence I’m sure.

It’s official. Wednesday afternoon at 1pm Jake Metcalfe will end ended his sleazy campaign to unseat Don Young. 

Robert Dillon reports on his blog that Jake Metcalfe is leaving the U.S. House of Representatives race.

Metcalfe has been under pressure to drop out since his political adviser was linked to websites attacking fellow Democratic candidate Ethan Berkowitz. The adviser, Bill Scannell, resigned last week but never admitted guilt and the websites have remained online.

The controversy over the websites damaged Metcalfe’s reputation, but the real campaign killer was his inability to raise the kind of money necessary to be considered a serious contender. Metcalfe raised less than $50,000 in the first quarter.

So now it’s down to Diane Benson and Ethan Berkowitz.

For a good laugh check out Philip Munger’s latest post about the Jake Metcalfe scandal.

As Phillip Munger writes in a blog posting, The Conference to Nowhere….? you can’t make this stuff up. Alaska’s taxpayers are funding a study to debunk global warming and its affects on polar bears. I posted a story on AlaskaReport also.

Did you know that Legislators and their staffers fly to Puerto Rico, the East coast, Hawaii, and all over on the State on Alaska’s dime every year… but Lyda Green won’t approve travel to Anchorage to discuss AGIA? We’re working on a story about this on AlaskaReport.