For what it's worth, here are my final answers to the Fairbanks News-Miner questionnaire. The questions were posted earlier. (I just read that the top British general is calling for the UK to get out of Iraq ASAP.)

My name is Bill Ratigan. I am 58 years old and have lived in Alaska continuously since 1987. I worked for the state ferry system for 29 years, before retiring two years ago as Chief Mate. I have one daughter, aged 17. My hobbies include chess, basketball, reading, and hiking. I have no arrest record.


1. The reckless policies of the Bush administration have brought us to the brink of economic ruin. To date, we have wasted some $500 billion in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with many thousands of lives. We must stop the hemorrhaging by bringing our troops home NOW. I would sponsor legislation to repeal the tax cuts for the super-rich enacted by the present Congress, tax estates over $1 million, close off-shore loopholes, and confiscate the obscene war profits of the Bush/Cheney crony capitalists like Halliburton.

2. You cannot expect people living in an insane situation to act sanely. The overwhelming majority of Sunnis and Shiites, oppose the U.S. presence and support attacks against Americans. Withdrawing our forces would give Iraqis the chance to break the cycle of revenge and begin to heal. Instead of hundreds of billions spent on destruction, we should give Iraqis the money to rebuild their shattered infrastructure, providing much-needed jobs and hope.



3. Congressmen make enough money to pay their own travel expenses. Private corporations should not be allowed to offer free or cut-rate air travel to any elected official, or to “arrange” federally funded trips, as Jack Abramoff’s lobbying firm did for Don Young’s trip to the Northern Marianas, which resulted in maintaining legalized sweatshops there. Elimination of any hint of favoritism is expected and mandatory in a representative democracy.



4. Yes. Then we would know the real costs of Don Young’s pork. For every $500,000,000 bridge to nowhere that few people want, how many other useless projects are funded in other states?



5. I believe that ANWR should be our true permanent fund. Its value is only increasing. Let future generations decide on its development. In NPRA, Teshekpuk Lake is an internationally significant wildlife habitat and should continue to be protected. The federal government also plans to lease nine off-shore areas to drilling, including Bristol Bay. As with Teshepkuk Lake, Bush policy reflects a cavalier disregard of the great risks to the environment.



6. All women deserve the right to a clinically safe abortion in any certified medical facility, including military clinics, whenever they find it necessary. And it should be part of a universal free health care plan. Let’s reduce unwanted pregnancies and guarantee that all children, regardless of income, have full access to the American Dream. Does Don Young side with Bush, who opposes contraception, as well as freedom of choice?



7. Americans should have free access to OUR public lands and waters for recreational purposes. Commercial users should be regulated and charged fees to protect sensitive areas and prevent overuse.



8. Global warming is an undeniable fact, disputed only by the “flat-earth society”, and CO2 emissions are the principal man-made cause. Even President Bush says we must break our addiction to oil, but his policies have the opposite effect. We should cap C02 emissions by 2010 and reduce them by 80% by 2050. Alaska should be at the forefront in developing alternative energy sources, like hydro, wind, tidal, and solar.



9. Our health care system is geared to maximizing profits of the huge insurance and drug companies and hospital chains, rather than patient well-being. Our life expectancy is near the bottom among advanced countries. Viagra’s great, but we need antibiotics to fight drug-resistant TB. Congress should enact a nationalized health care plan, ensuring free top-quality medical care for all, and basing programs and research on public health needs, including preventive medicine.

I’m pleased with the debate generated by my last post and encourage other readers to participate. I added a personal comment (the penultimate, I believe) in which I made reference to “environmentalist terrorists”. I almost immediately regretted this and considered deleting it and correcting the language. Instead, I will leave it and address the issue here.

I am opposed to all forms of terrorism, including eco-terrorism. The question of terrorism was laid to rest 100 years ago by the Russian Social-Democratic Party, who had to break with the narodniks, revolutionaries who sought to overthrow tsarism with bombs and assassinations. Acts of individual terrorism only serve to strengthen the forces of repression, and assassinated tyrants are usually replaced with even more reactionary specimens. But above all, terrorism is politically bankrupt because it sows the poisonous illusion that there is a short cut in getting rid of a tyrannical regime. The Russian Marxists determined that there is SIMPLY NO SUBSTITUTE for the united mass action of working people, backed by the progressive middle class, in destroying a hated despotism. In this sense terrorism is just like religion: it implies, “WE don’t have to act because God, or the terrorists, will solve our problems.”
Now it is Bush himself who resurrects the question. His policy rests on the illusion that terrorism is actually an effective tool in fighting against a global super-power.
Bush and bin Laden have a symbiotic relationship (which may explain why the latter has not been taken out). Bush seized on the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 to launch the long-wished-for program of military domination in the oil-rich Middle East and central Asia, and he continues to use timely statements by Al Qaeda leaders to terrorize the American people and justify destroying democratic principles like habeas corpus, which go back 800 years and more. In return, Osama has a recruiting tool that no amount of money could buy. And the malignant cancer resulting from the symbiosis grows at an alarming rate.
Bush and his coterie can offer no arguments in support of their attempt to overturn a judgment made a century ago – none exists. They must rely on befogging a large segment of the population in an atmosphere of blind terror, where rational thought is Public Enemy No. 1! If the Tsar of All the Russias had such sophisticated tools as Fox News, perhaps his heirs would rule today!

Getting back to my faux pas on the environmental movement, what I had in the back of my mind – when it should have been front-and-center – was a quote from Don Young: “Environmentalists are a socialist group of individuals that are the tool of the Democrat Party. I'm proud to say that they are my enemy. They are not Americans, never have been Americans, never will be Americans.” So I apologize to environmentalist readers, most of whom are neither terrorists nor socialists, and I solicit your input on ANWR, NPRA, etc.

Finally, I’m having more trouble than I expected in solving the burning questions of the day in 70 words or less! Here is my draft answer to one of them.

6. Should women serving in the military overseas be permitted to use their own money to obtain abortions at U.S. military clinics if the host country allows such procedures? Explain.

6. All women deserve the right to a clinically safe abortion in any certified medical facility, including military clinics, whenever they find it necessary. And it should be part of a universal free health care plan. Let’s reduce unwanted pregnancies and guarantee that all children, regardless of income, have full access to the American Dream. Does Don Young side with Bush, who opposes contraception, as well as freedom of choice?

Below is the questionnaire from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Some of these are tough so I'll need your help. I'll be sending it off in a week.
I am also providing my draft answers to the first two questions at the bottom. Feel free to criticize. Is the French too highfalutin?

Please answer the following question in 100 words or less:

1. The Government Accountability Office in September said that "under any reasonable set of expectations about future spending and revenues, the risks posed to the nation's future financial condition are too high to be acceptable." Would you raise taxes, cut spending, do both or do neither? Explain.

Please answer the following questions in 70 words or less:

2. What should the United States do in response to the sectarian violence in Iraq?

3. Should private corporations be able to offer free or cut-rate air travel to members of Congress? Explain.

4. Should the House adopt rules that require identification of congressional earmarks and their sponsors in all bills?

5. Should any area of the North Slope, whether in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, be held off-limits from oil development? Explain.

6. Should women serving in the military overseas be permitted to use their own money to obtain abortions at U.S. military clinics if the host country allows such procedures? Explain.

7. Should federal land managers charge fees for access to public land or waters? Explain.

8. Should the United States cap or otherwise regulate emissions of carbon dioxide or use of carbon-based fuels to combat global warming? Explain.

9. What can Congress do to fight rising medical costs?


1)“Après moi, le deluge” [“After me, the deluge”]. So George W. Bush might say – if he understood any history. The reckless policies of his administration have brought us to the brink of economic ruin. To date, we have wasted some $500 billion in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with many thousands of lives. We must stop the hemorrhaging by bringing our troops home NOW. I would fight to repeal the tax cuts for the super-rich enacted by the present Congress, tax estates over $1 million, and confiscate the obscene war profits of the Bush/Cheney crony capitalists like Halliburton.

2)The Bush Administration has failed completely to meet the most fundamental obligation of an occupying power: to provide security. Let’s give Iraqis a chance, along with the money to pay Iraqi workers and contractors to rebuild their shattered infrastructure.
American troops are “a catalyst for violence,” says Congressman Murtha. “It's time to bring them home.” The 172nd Stryker Brigade should be searching for weapons of mass destruction at Fort Wainwright

Though we are small in number now…TAKE HEART! With 16 US government “intelligence” agencies combing the Internet for “unlawful enemy combatants” – including US citizens – I am certain that this blog has more readers than the few who comment.
[One section of the recent National Intelligence Estimate that went largely unreported states: “Anti-US and anti-globalization sentiment is on the rise and fueling other radical ideologies. This could prompt some leftist, nationalist, or separatist groups to adopt terrorist methods to attack US interests. The radicalization process isoccurring more quickly, more widely, and more anonymously in the Internet age, raising the likelihood of surprise attacks by unknown groups whose members and supporters may be difficult to pinpoint.”
No mention of “Islamo-fascists” or “jihadists” here, they’re talking about you and me.
In conclusion the NIE states: “We judge that groups of all stripes will increasingly use the Internet to communicate, propagandize, recruit, train, and obtain logistical and financial support.”]

I have decided to delete a comment for the first time, not because of its abusive language and tone, but because it included correspondence that I don’t wish to make public. I can take harsh criticism, but life and the election season are too short to put up with insults that upset my focus. I refuse to be brought down by ranting personal attacks, so I’ll have to ignore them.

* * * * * * * * *

KTUU TV in Anchorage sent out a questionnaire to all candidates. The station serves a large audience (it’s on cable in Juneau) and has begun broadcasting the responses. Most of the questions deal with issues facing state government, so I only answered three. Q’s and A’s are given below.
Tomorrow you will be tested with a tougher questionnaire!

6) Gang violence has become of increasing concern in Anchorage. This summer, the Legislature approved and the governor signed a bill allowing temporary detention of material witnesses. What more can be done to combat gang violence without infringing upon civil liberties?
6) I believe that gang violence must be combated at its roots, which are poverty and the resulting hopelessness, drug and alcohol dependency, and intolerable school dropout rate. Prisons are schools for crime – including gang violence – and part of the problem, not the solution. While breaking the cycle won’t be easy, one (relatively simple) step in the right direction would be to insist that every poor student, of all races, be given 100% full support (educational, financial, counseling, etc.) to work toward a career in teaching, or other socially important work. This would provide hope for today’s students, and the promise of even greater benefits in the future

7) The Supreme Court has ruled that public employers must offer health benefits to same sex partners of their employees. Critics say this goes against a 1998 initiative on the definition of marriage. Supporters of the ruling say it's a matter of equal protection. Do you accept this ruling of the court, and if not, would you support a constitutional amendment to overturn it?
7) I believe that every man, woman, and child, whether publicly employed or not, is entitled to free top-quality medical care. As for gay rights, I believe that what happens among consenting adults in their bedrooms, their living rooms, or their computers, is none of the government’s business.

9) Should the State continue the road and bridge projects initiated by the Murkowski administration? Specifically do you support the $45 million Juneau Access Project, the $330 million Ketchikan Bridge Project and the $600 million to $1.5 billion Knik Arm crossing. If so, how will they be funded?
9) These projects are unpopular, they trample on the environment and stand to benefit only a few landowners on the other side. $45 million is just the down-payment on the Juneau road, which is permitted only as far as the Kensington Mine – a huge corporate welfare project. If elected to Congress I would try to get this money redirected to more urgent needs, such as improvements of our highways, streets, ferries, and railroad.

Duncan Moon, the news director for Alaska Public Radio Network, has denied my request to appear on Talk of Alaska. I will be corresponding with the FCC on this. My initial letter to APRN is attached below. Duncan Moon’s e-mail is: dmoon@aprn.org.
Meanwhile, I have been getting a bit of press, at least in Southeast (the Panhandle, to you “outsiders”). The Ketchikan Daily News and the Daily Sentinel of Sitka published front page articles a couple of weeks ago, and Ketchikan and the Juneau Empire ran opinion pieces this week, albeit seriously truncated in the latter case. And the public radio stations in Ketchikan and Juneau (and maybe others) aired a five-minute story, earlier this month.

Dear APRN:

I am a candidate for the U.S. House seat on Nov. 7, 06. I am writing to request that I be given equal time with the incumbent, Don Young, who was on your show, Talk of Alaska, Sep. 26, 06.
I believe I am entitled to equal time because I represent a significant segment of the electorate, who believe that impeachment of President Bush and Vice-President Cheney should, at the very least, be publicly discussed. I know this because over the summer I talked with many thousands of Alaskans, of whom around 4000 signed the petition to put impeachment to a vote. These people deserve to have their voice heard on Talk of Alaska.

To suggest that having the Democratic candidate on the show represents the full spectrum of debate is preposterous. On the same day (Sep. 26) the House approved a record military budget, including $70 billion more for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, by a vote of 394-22. My program calls for not one cent more for these wars. When has this view been expressed by a guest on your airwaves?
One of the primary goals of my campaign is to break the grip of the “two-party” stranglehold on American politics. For obvious reasons, Republicans and Democrats agree that this question is totally out of order. In other words, they express the same viewpoint, which is the opposite of mine.

At the end of Tuesday’s show we were informed that next week’s guest will be gubernatorial candidate Andrew Halcro. Though running as an independent, his politics are not substantially different from the two major parties. If “popularity” is the standard for inclusion in your debate, I point out that Mr. Halcro claimed to have collected 4200 signatures to get on the ballot. I turned in over 4800. I have no problem at all with Mr. Halcro appearing on Talk of Alaska, so long as candidates for Congress – with truly diverse views – be accorded the same privilege.

Sincerely,
Bill Ratigan