WPost: Alaska Would Be More at Home in Russia

[occuserpens]

WPost goes clinically insane.

Steven Pearlstein. Alaska Would Be More at Home in Russia http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/22/AR2005112201854.html

Sell Alaska back to the Russians.

The timing couldn't be better. The market value of Alaska's 4.5 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, plus the gas, timber and copper, are at or near all-time highs, while Russia is flush with $50 billion in petrodollars it doesn't know how to invest. And with the Kremlin still smarting about losing all those unpronounceable republics, Alaska would be just the sort of strategic acquisition to appeal to President Putin's imperial instincts.

And if you figure a price of $1 trillion, the investment banking fees alone should be enough to add several points to U.S. gross domestic product.

[Fenris]

1. Wow that's evil...

With Alaska free from the political grip of environmentalists in Washington and Marin County, Alaskans would be able to drill and fish and clear-cut to their heart's content, unlocking value that could never be realized as long as they are in the United States. And politics here will finally be free of the endless fights over Tongass and ANWR, sea lions and caribou.

Ah, so it's satire. Damn good, too. :D

[tx_dem41]

2. Ummmm....you do realize its a tongue-in-cheek column, don't you?

It also takes some jabs at Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) at the end of it.

[...of J.Temperance]

6. Did you

Vote in my poll? The one in GD.

[tx_dem41]

8. I did now.

Voted for option B.

[...of J.Temperance]

9. Okay

Fab :)

[occuserpens]

10. As I already pointed out, WPost is insane

[depakid]

3. I think it's a great article!

I'm surprised that the Post even printed it!

Well written, appropriately sarcastic and dead on in some of its observations:

<snip>

Let's face it: Although it's been American territory for nearly 140 years, Alaska has more in common with post-Soviet Russia, where government remains at the center of the economy and political power is in the hands of a small, shadowy group of oligarchs, who use it to enrich friends and family. It's a milieu in which Alaska's reigning oligarch, Ted Stevens, should feel very much at home.

[Spinzonner]

4. And we have a Bridge to Nowhere to sell them too

[...of J.Temperance]

5. I just can't figure the Post out sometimes

I mean, you get mouthbreathers like Dan Balz, Dana Milbank and Ceci Connolly.

And then they print something like the above article.

What a confusing newspaper they have there.

[Jackpine Radical]

7. Well, actually, I'm all for it.

Any state that has as many of the benefits of socialism as they do, and still votes Republican, oughtta get cut loose.