Letter to the Editor
Young’s vote
Published Friday, July 18, 2008
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Stumble It!July 16, 2008
To the editor:
For those who read the congressional roll call in Monday’s News-Miner and looked over the actions of our representatives in Washington, D.C., an instructive message can be inferred from the vote cast by our sole congressman. For a man whose life has longer been lived in the District of Columbia than the state he claims to represent, it should be only under the motive of deception that he would vote to keep his actions secret. The question any Alaskan should ask is: Why would Don Young vote against the preservation of federal agency electronic records?
There may always be some argument about the need for secrecy in government and perhaps the destruction of evidence should be one of those privileges. For Rep. Young, the idea of accountability probably seems as foreign as the place in Alaska he once called home. This distaste to explain his actions might have been the basis for his vote. To listen to the man speak is to witness the height of human arrogance and self-entitlement. I think, however, he voted to preserve his share of secrets and corruption than to officially proclaim his actions beyond our simple Alaskan ability to understand.
Don Young seems pretty tight-lipped these days, and I guess we should feel lucky that he showed up to vote at all. Only 13 of the 447 members of Congress have missed more votes than him. It would be unfair though to throw up a statistic without explanation. Recently, our lone Alaskan Rep. Don Young has undergone an unprecedented amount of public criticism and that has kept him busy. Should it be any surprise that $1.1 million of his campaign finances have more recently been lining the pockets of lawyers fending off the justice department? His money might shield him from a federal investigation but we can only hope it won’t be enough to buy another re-election. If he loses, there’s no guarantee Mr. Young will return to Fort Yukon and pull out the tree growing through his house, but there’s always room in Washington, D.C. or Florida.
Community Discussion
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to be nit-picky, Young is our sole representative, not sole congress man, we have 3 of those. For those who may have forgotten their high school government class, Congress=House of Representatives+Sentate.
It is long past time for Don Young to go, seniority or not!!
This letter states Rep. Young has spent more time in D.C. "than the state he claims to represent". Then the author goes on to say, "only 13 of the 447 members of congress have missed more votes than him".
For anyone who hasn't figured it out yet, perhaps he misses out on more votes than some because it's a long way to fly from Juneau to D.C. just to vote on some useless measure in congress. This letter is pointless, just another democratic supporter manipulating facts to his own conclusion.
"For anyone who hasn't figured it out yet, perhaps he misses out on more votes than some because it's a long way to fly from Juneau to D.C. just to vote on some useless measure in congress. This letter is pointless, just another democratic supporter manipulating facts to his own conclusion."
Oh Boomba! Let me be the first to congratulate you on "your" ignorance of Donald's voter record...Voting History
Statistic: Donald Young missed 1247 of 9321 votes (13%) since Jan 5, 1993 (Extremely Poor relative to peers).
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/person.x...
Its called THE GOOGLE or THE INTERNETS.
I am going to let you try to figure out where Donalds house is (hint, it is not liveable in and it is not in Juneau)...go do some research and try to not make you and your party look so silly in the future.
Yo, Repubs;
I seem to remember DonnieBoy used to call himself "Congressman for All Alaska" so to nit-pick about this seems a bit off the mark.
Also, he very seldom has to commute from Juneau to vote in DC. More likely he is commuting from say Houston or the Bahama's. As noted above, he has a shack in Fort Yukon but it is usually boarded up and routinely gets covered in graffiti by his "neighbors" in Fort Yukon.
Time for a change Alaska! We need a Congressman who will actually work for us rather than himself and his cronies.
Did I miss something here? I thought Don Young represented Florida.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
T_A_C, you made my morning. Now I don't care if it's raining or how much I have to pay to fill up the SUV today.
Thanks and keep up the good work.
Time for Don and Ted to go away
Come on People,
Don Young has done more to benefit the state and its residents than imaginable. His years of public service and commitment to Alaska is something that should be honored not smeared. We need to send Don Young back to Congress for another term. In this time of federal financial crisis a freshman representative assigned to the bottom of the barrel committees will not do us any good. We must recognize the seniority our delegation has and keep them there as long as they are willing to serve.
Currentley the Highway Authorization bill (SAFETEA-LU) is in need of reauthorization, only Mr. Young can be counted on to bring home as much as possible for the residents of this state. Our Infrastructure needs major overhauls and Congressman Young has steadily been working to achieve that. As the Director for the Tetlin Village transportation department I know that I can count on the villages concerns being heard and addressed appropriatley by Congressman Young as well as Senators Stevens and Murkowski.
We need these people to contiunue to serve our great state.
Howard Mermelstein Director Tetlin DOT
The bottom line is Don Young can't stay there forever. Sooner or later he'll have to go, whether he resigns, decides not to seek reelection, or passes away, he won't be around forever. Now's as good a time as ever for some new blood and fresh ideas. Just remember, when Young was first elected he was a freshman too.
I'm glad Mr. Mermelstein brought up Senator Stevens - its time for him to go too. The best thing Uncle Ted could do would be to step down.
OK YouMustBeConfused, apparently I left a different impression than what I intended. Might I also say that in your ignorance, you automatically assumed I was republican because I poked fun at democrats. I was pointing out that the campaign strategy of every democrat from Jefferson to Clinton was pointing out every problem that republicans cause while doing nothing to fix them.
However, I agree with several people in this column. I agree that Rep. Young is very brash and downright rude when it comes to his job. I also think that I would rather have a representative who gives a damn about the legislation he wants passed instead of one who simply shakes his head and moves on.
I agree that Rep. Young has made poor decisions in the past, but show me someone with a perfect record and show everyone how big of a liar you are. I am not a republican or a democrat, but I will continue to vote for Don Young. He has a crude assertiveness to his work but he still gets the job done.
Lets see...he's crude, rude and he makes poor decisions but you will keep voting for him? Wow!
P.S. Yes, he does get the job done...for Florida!!
Bambi...I never called you a Republican? You stated he has to fly from Juneau to DC...either you are new here or you just dont know where he lives?
I gave you his voting record...I gave you the drive to do some research...you come back with nosensical democrashing? Get back on topic, do the research.
Yup, and so will the rest of Alaska!
ummm.... let me guess.... a great alternative to don young would be diane benson? or ethan berkowitz?
i don't care if don young misses votes that have no interest to us here in alaska. he can go to florida and do what ever people do in florida and miss those inane votes. he does a lot of fighting for alaska. and believe me, with our delegation gone, you WILL miss what they do. alaska is treated like a colony, not a state as it is. i have a degree in geography, i can recognize colonial economic infrastructure when i see it, and alaska has it.
Old habits are hard to break for the GOB (Good Ole Boys) party. Wash DC is in for a HUGE make over. BTW, "IF" Don Yong resides in FL so much, he can explain how NO taxes equals less police, less firefighters, less teachers, less overall services PAID with tax dollars.
Please pick the candidate, not the Party.
And VOTE!
Solarmark you need to read up on Coconut Grove. Its in the GOOGLE.
I think that the Dems should keep the heat on about Don Young's attendance record. That is such a good tactic, no wonder that every Dem challenger has used it for the past 30 years. It has worked so well with Alaskan voters. Like we dont realize the geographic hardship of representing us. We're just "pore ignarant rednecks up in dese parts".
Now the Florida thing might have legs. But please remember, the Congressional Check Bouncing brouhaha had legs also. As I recall, Congressman Young has served many a term since that controversy.
No. The main consideration in this election cycle will be "Do Alaskans want to send a Democrat to the House, just to give more power to the ultimate moonbat, the Communist Speaker of the House, the Bay Area's finest, Nancy Pelosi?
Parnell. That's the answer.
I dont hear you typing!!! COCONUT GROVE!! Go!
Yo g! Why do you guys always start typing with bad spelling...hence..."pore ignarant rednecks up in dese parts".?
I never have understood the rights hang-up on education. You always type out these silly sentences with bad spellings and complain that you are not edgumucated? Your fearless leader is a YALE grad. Your party leaders are all Ivy League? Whats up with the disdain for "smarts"?
YMBC---
I have no disdain for "smarts". My cultural and political heroes have all been well equipped in our English language, culture, and ability to reason. Some in other cultures. My mind has always been curious.
I thought that you, an often sarcastic wit yourself, would recognize sarcasm from the other side. I guess that I was wrong. The "edgumacted" schtick is solely because of the aspersions cast by liberals on the ability of conservatives to comprehend basic expressions and concepts.
In a nutshell, you think that we are dumb. You think that the President is dumb. And you think that you are smart.
Why not continue the charade?
ps. If it matters, all of your party leaders are Ivy League, also.
"In a nutshell, you think that we are dumb. You think that the President is dumb. And you think that you are smart."
it called projection...and this is not about a race to the bottom of the toilet bowl, g.
Yo g, I am banking on your curiosity...shed the disdain and you have a bright future ahead of you.
He will be out, or by vote or by jail time.
We don't think the "President" is dumb, we KNOW he is dumb. His daddy bought his diploma from Yale just like he bought him out of duty in Vietnam. As for Donnie boy - you rightwingers are going to have to accept that Young and Stevens cannot last forever. We eventually will have to replace them and we might as well do it one by one now and start building seniority once again. Goodbye Don Young.
Now there's 3 peas in a pod. 3 jokers in the deck. YMBC, EuMesmo, and akjak.
I dont want to sound harsh, but you guys aren't really that smart.
The 3 of you all need to read a couple of history books (preferably not comic books, or Rolling Stone Magazine), and then study a little bit of the English language. It is a useful tool when you want to communicate thoughts, or understand what other people are expressing to you. Maybe round out your education with some consideration of an opposing point of view.
It could take some time.
akjak, this president is anything but dumb, he just ha an agenda, he is a oil man with power to rase oil to reccord high. He and his boddys are making more money with this war than they ever wanted. But I agree with you about Don Yung, this is the perfec time to replace him. Think about. Most of the congressman are going to be replaced soon. Look at its popularity. The ones that do it first will hold the seniority.
Glacierles,
forgive me for my poor english, I am studying english by experience only. You should have seen me seven years ago. The only languages I could speak were Portuguese, Spanish and some French. Now I can speak English pretty good and can even write some. So, how many languages do you speak? BTW, I don't have any pretention to be that smart - I'm not.
Don't worry EuMesmo - Glacierles has to elevate himself by putting other people down. A clear sign that he ain't up there. I am impressed with the languages you speak - I only speak one. I agree with you that Bush may have been smarter than we think - he and his oil buddies (including daddy) had every intention of going to war with Iraq to get way richer than their dreams. Sure enough, it worked. My belief is that W. is just a puppet, however, and a dumb one at that, who had little to do with the plan and implementation of this successful money-making scheme.
We may replace him but it will be a republican. Left wingers from Ester and Goldstream will not win.
Pat
Thank you akjak, anybody can learn a language if needed, that is the only reason that I speak those languages, not because I am "smart" but out of necessity.
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