For the record, I didn't vote for SP, but I have to admit I was more-or-less impressed with the first few months of her term as governor. Her downhill slide began with Troopergate and if you remember that scandal, it involved the Kenai when she appointed Chuck Kopp as the head of the Dep't of Public Safety. Chuck had a few skeletons in his closet, namely having several sex harassment charges brought against him by women who worked for the city of Kenai. He lasted about two weeks on that new job when the news about the charges escaped the gravitational abyss of the Kenai City Council . I'm not writing now to rehash those memories, but it seems that the current governor has now appointed a former Pennsylvania judge to a state job. That non-Alaskan seems to have used his connection to Chuck Kopp and the christian right in Alaska to get the appointment. Oh, and that ex-judge is under investigation for illegally destroying evidence in a drug case and 16 other criminal cases and has a domestic violence restraining order against him. He was removed as a criminal court judge as a result and resigned shortly afterward. The PA judge in question, Paul Pozonsky, is married to Chuck Kopp's sister, Sarah
Alrighty, let's check out the chain of events.
1) Chuck Kopp was asked to step down as head of DOS after 2 weeks and given $10,000 for the bother. He then took a law enforcement position in King Salmon for a while.
2) Chuck and his wife are hired by AK Senator Fred Dyson. Chuck is Dyson's Chief of Staff.
3) There's an opening for a state job, a hearing officer for the AK Dep't of Labor. Yes, the department that is suppose to promote Alaskan hires.
4) The application process for that job closes. Interviews are conducted and maybe even some qualified Alaskan was about to be hired.
5) For some reason, the hiring process was re-opened and there was one more applicant, Paul Pozonsky. He got the job despite being from out-of-state, despite being under criminal investigation and despite being in violation of the ethical standards listed for employment for the position.
I guess the Alaska Republican Party is really all about family values, well if you are in the right family.
Check out a PA TV News spot about him here.
Read more about the story at the ADN here or at the Mudflats, here and here.
The War On Tomatoes
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*The war on drugs is a joke. We spend $40 billion a year, and the proof
that it's a failure is that any kid can get almost any drug they want in
any c...
3 weeks ago
3 comments:
The Sara to Sarah email is just nasty, vicious and catty. When prayer fails start flailing. Hell has no fury like a PO'd religious woman.
"The Last Refuge of the Scoundrel: Religion and Nationalism in Global Perspective"
Abstract:
The relationship between religious and political institutions, or religious and national loyalties, is an eternally contested one. A part of the reason for this tension is ideological: most of the major world religions teach that adherents should primarily be loyal to a set of religious doctrines and/or to fellow believers or humanity in general rather than to the nation or national government. There are notable historical examples of conflict between religious and state officials, but there are as many occasions of a close link between religion and the state. To test the effect of religiosity on nationalism, we analyze data from the 57 countries of the 2005-2008 wave of the World Values Survey, a survey that includes measures of both religious commitment and national loyalty. We find that individual religiosity boosts individual nationalism, and that religious countries tend to be more nationalistic. In disprortionately religious countries, individual religiosity has a stronger effect on nationalism than in less religious states. Finally, this interaction effect is particularly strong in political democracies. These data disconfirm the theory that religion promotes a transnational identity, and confirm the view that political elites coopt religion for their political gain.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1901494
Looks like the Paul Pozonsky is done working for DOL as a hearing officer. My question is what is his severance package? Did the State pay for his move to Alaska and will the State pay for his next move?
I just saw that too. Kinda funny, aside from Shannyn's ADN OpEd and bloggers, not much press about it all. I wonder why?
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