The Alaska Support Industry Alliance—the trade group representing oil and gas industry companies, which is responsible for the bell-tolling “Faces of ACES” ad campaign, had its members in the capitol a few weeks ago, rallying for support to scale back the oil and gas tax known as Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share. The tax was passed under former Governor Sarah Palin, but has since proven unpopular with Republican lawmakers, including Governor Sean Parnell, as well as the industry.

Alliance directors and staff were handing out hammers (made with American hickory) with stickers on them reading, “ACES is broken, it’s time to fix it.” The hammers weren’t so popular with legislators who believe the tax is working just fine. Representative Les Gara (D-Anchorage), a defender of the tax, says he got rid of his, worrying it would explode. Perhaps not an unwarranted concern considering the Alliance was also distributing buttons that read “Less Gara.”

Speaking of Democrats and the “Faces of ACES” campaign, a new spin on the ads has popped up on the intertubes, called “Faces of Asses.” With what sounds like a donkey braying in the background, the screen reads, “Real politicians,” and shows black and white stills of Democratic legislators Representative Mike Doogan, Senator Hollis French, Representative Harry Crawford, House Minority Leader Beth Kerttula and others, and reads, “Real apologists for a bigger state bureaucracy.” Then Representative Gara appears, for a moment, until Lenin’s face is superimposed over his. The video concludes, “Alaska politics is broken. Isn’t it time for some new faces?” Former Governor Palin is sure pissy about the health care bill Democrats in Washington D.C. are trying to pass—it inspired her Facebook talk of “death panels,” and she posted, “Such a system is downright evil” on her page. But it appears her grandson, Tripp, is himself a beneficiary of socialized medicine. In court documents filed in the child support battle between Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston, it was revealed that the Indian Health Service insures little Tripp, because Grandpa Todd is of Yup’ik descent. Perhaps when Tripp’s old enough to talk, he can tell his Grandma how socialized medicine is working out for him.

Briefs likes the sound of the term “task force.” It’s tough. But when we read in the Fairbanks News-Miner that the leader of the Second Amendment Task Force, Schaeffer Cox, was arrested for felony assault with a weapon earlier this week, we wondered if perhaps he didn’t take that last word a bit too far. Especially considering that if convicted of a felony, Cox won’t be packing heat anymore, which might make it tough to retain his position with the pro-firearms task force.

bjk@anchoragepress.com