C4P to Ramras: What "Legislative Business"?

KTUU has an article up which mentions our post about the hypocrisy and absenteeism of Rep. Jay Ramras (RINO-Fairbanks), who, by the way, once made a sexist "vagina" comment about Gov. Palin (we'll continue to remind you of that every time we mention him).

Ramras still feels no shame in criticizing Gov. Palin's 36-hour trip to Indiana to speak at two charity events:

"Everything gets done just like in an NBA basketball game -- in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter, and the last five, seven, 10 days of the session are the equivalent of the last two minutes of the fourth quarter in an NBA basketball game" Rep. Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, said. "Every player should be on the court -- that includes House leadership, Senate leadership and the governor. It's hard to be on the court, in the Capitol, when you're in Indiana."

It also didn't help that a Web site called Conservatives4Palin.com is attacking Ramras' own attendance record. But Ramras says many of the days he missed were to attend to legislative business.

And while Palin's staff says she has nothing to do with this Web site, it doesn't build any good will.

Interesting that they don't mention the number of days that Ramras was absent from Juneau. In case you missed it, it was 32 days (as of April 14th) out of a 90 day legislative session. Here's a nice visual for you:


Ramras says that "the days he missed were to attend to legislative business."

What "legislative business" is there outside of Juneau? Perhaps he was referring to his tax-payer funded junket to DC. Perhaps he meant the weekends that he skipped town. Alright, we'll subtract the DC trip from his 32 absences. We'll even remove any other day that the rest of the do-nothing lawmakers weren't meeting.

But what about the following days in which Ramras was absent (please keep in mind that he chairs the House Judiciary Committee and sits on the House Special Committee on Energy):

Feb 6 - House in session

Feb 19 – Joint House and Floor session

Feb 20 – House in session (technical session) and Joint Judiciary Committees Confirmation Hearings

Feb 27 – House in session

March 10 - House Special Committee on Energy

March 28 - House Special Committee on Energy

April 4 - House Special Committee on Energy

We would like Ramras to please explain what "legislative business" occurred on those days. I was under the impression that the legislature met in Juneau. When the House is in session and your committees are meeting in Juneau, why would you have "legislative business" outside of Juneau? What sort of "legislative business"?

Please clarify, Jay. We're all dying to know.

Gov. Palin's staff released a detailed itinerary for her weekend trip to DC on January 30th. She met with her DC staff to discuss the need for crucial concessions for Alaska in the stimulus package's shovel ready provisions. She also met with key Congressional leaders at the Alfalfa dinner that Saturday. It was a weekend trip, and the AK legislature did not meet on Saturday, January 31st or on Sunday, February 1st. She took a 2:30 a.m. red-eye flight to DC on Friday, January 30th and returned to Alaska on Sunday afternoon.

She's been very open about her time away from Juneau. Her staff always releases detailed itineraries.

We would now like to see Ramras' detailed itineraries please. Show us what "legislative business" called you away from the House while it was in session and while your committees were meeting, Jay.

Ramras got a raise this year that more than doubled his salary. He's paid $50,400 for 90 days of work. We'd like to see his "time card," please.

We realize that he will now claim that there are 60 lawmakers but only one governor. That's true. But the governor works all year round. Legislators work during the legislative session. It seems especially crucial that they actually show up when the legislature is in session. Don't you think?

It's true that Gov. Palin "has nothing to do with this website," and we would never want to do anything that would in any way make her job more difficult.

Deep down, I don't think we've made her job more difficult this week. I think we've just exposed the hypocrisy of her critics. And we will continue to expose it because no one else seems to want to.

We didn't make anything up. We simply linked to the Legislative Journal and scoured the audio archive at ktoo.org's Gavel to Gavel in order to point out that Jay Ramras, who criticized Gov. Palin for her 36-hour charity engagement, has been absent from Juneau for 32 days (as of April 14th) out of a 90 day legislative session.

She has been attacked relentlessly by these do-nothing ankle-biters. They've gotten away with this for months and perhaps years. We're not going to let them anymore. They're now taking umbrage because someone is finally fighting back.

Ramras is upset because the absurd criticism that he fired at Gov. Palin ended up backfiring on him. He's a hypocritical bully, and bullies are always rendered impotent when their erstwhile victims are no longer afraid. We're not afraid of him, and we're not ashamed of exposing his hypocrisy.

Gov. Palin has had to deal with idiot bloggers harping on her and saddling her with half a million dollars in legal debt for frivolous ethics complaints.

How does it feel to have some bloggers going after you for a change, Jay? Don't worry, we don't intend to burden the Alaskan taxpayers with frivolous ethics complaints. We'll simply write the truth about you based on what's available in the public record. And there's plenty in your public record to keep us busy for years.

Don't blame the governor for our actions. C4P takes full responsibility for our posts. We promise to treat you exactly as fairly as you've treated Gov. Palin.

Here's the KTUU video:



UPDATE by RAM: I think Ramras' absenteeism is affecting his job. He really needs to pay more attention to his work. I think the good people of Fairbanks deserve better. Take a look at how poorly prepared he is to answer a simple question about a bill before the House.