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EMPERORS OF THE NORTH:
Ted and Francoise Gianoutsos
(First of a series of 4 articles excerpted from an upcoming book entitled, Harmed for helping )
We Alaskans are very fortunate. We have 3 Emperors of the North - Greater Emperor Ted Stevens, Lesser Emperor Don Young, and Least Emperor Frank Murkowski. Actually Frank used to be the Lesser Emperor before he gave up his 22-year Senate seniority for the obviously less important 8-year term-limited Governorship so as to elevate his daughter Lisa to the position of Crown Princess-in-waiting - to be elected!
Now that the nepotistic deed has been done, many Alaskans have retro-actively connected the dots. Since December, lots of folks - especially Veterans - have told us, “That's the only reason that Frank ran - to appoint his daughter to perpetuate himself. Nothing else makes sense. All the baloney during the campaign was only a smoke screen to mask his own self-service.” Indeed, it is impossible to negate the obvious. That is why the outrage is so widespread and growing, especially among conservative Republicans who feel that they have been had.
The truth is that junior Senate seats - like Lt. Governorships and Vice-Presidencies - are not worth the proverbial bucket of warm spit. It's the top banana job that counts. Second bananas usually chafe under dominant bosses. That was self-evident with Greater Emperor Ted and Ex-Lesser-Now-Least Emperor Frank for 22 years. When Frank saw his chance to have a Murkowski in what will be the next senior Senate seat (after Stevens), he pulled out all the stops to put Lisa in it. But, in his cuteness he also got the chinese curse, screwed-up other Republican careers, and most importantly, put Greater Emperor Ted in a big succession bind.
The Greater Emperor has triple-twisted arms to catapult his son Ben to his own Crown Prince status as Alaska Senate Majority Leader in record time by appointment and election without opposition. The Greater Emperor was counting on putting Crown Prince Ben into the hereditary Stevens senior Senate seat. Crown Princess Lisa as the next senior Senator diminishes the Stevens senior Senate status, which defines Ted more than anything else.
This sets up a big problem in next year's Senate race. If Crown Princess Lisa is elected, she becomes the next senior Senator even if Crown Prince Ben is appointed by Least Emperor Frank to Greater Emperor Ted's seat. To have a widely perceived smarter Crown Princess Lisa in a U.S. Senate senior seat over a widely perceived not-so-bright Crown Prince Ben in the junior seat is anathema to Greater Emperor Ted (the so-called smart Senator) who is far more powerful than Least Emperor Frank (aka not the sharpest pencil in the box). Simply put, the Crown Princess is potentially a greater Emperor than her father while the Crown Prince is no Emperor, much less great!
Do all these dynastic royal family squabbles do anything good for Alaska? Of course not. Why is it happening? Simple, it's the inevitable result of Washington-generated arrogance. Almost all politicians and political aides who go to Washington get bitten by the power bug that causes the famous Potomac Fever. The longer that they stay there, the worse the arrogance becomes. Unfortunately, it seems to be genetically transmitted to heirs who get a lot more arrogant at a much younger age than their progenitors.
In the worst cases, Washington-generated arrogance leads to bad-faith betrayal of the Emperors own constituents and strongest supporters to boot. Such is the strength of the arrogance that the Emperors harm those, like us, who have helped them, and also harm all Alaskans by extension.
During the past 3 years, in proportion to our means, we have helped Emperors Ted, Don, and Frank, and Crown Princess Lisa, more than almost anyone else. Crown Prince Ben has not needed our help as he was appointed and ran unopposed for election. Whenever the Emperors and Crown Princess solicited our help and support, we responded. We gave, and gave, and gave - many thousands of dollars in campaign contributions - and in addition, for Least Emperor Frank, hundreds of hours of volunteer help in his gubernatorial campaign. With our Veterans Home efforts, we also motivated many Veterans to vote for Frank and against Fran.
Help and support, of course, are at best two-way streets. Help and support are far more effective when whole-heartedly returned to do more good. We asked for the Emperor's and the Crown Princess' support in four specific areas that would do a great deal of good for Alaska. We expected all of them to do the right thing to benefit Alaska. Instead, we got bad-faith betrayal and have actually been harmed for helping them. That harm has gone beyond us to affect all Alaska.
First, we will recount in this article how the bad-faith betrayal has harmed us personally with our own employment situations with the Federal Government. We start our story here because this bad-faith of betrayal of us, as two Alaskans, went on to affect a large group of Alaskans - Veterans - which we will cover in greater detail in our second article entitled, “Stiffing Alaska's Vets On Their Own Homes.” The third article, “Taking Trumps Giving With The Emperors Of The North”, will deal with the sabotage of our PFD Gift Assignment Philanthropy for the Alaska Common Good efforts. Finally, the fourth article will show why opening ANWR has failed, and how ANWR legislation can succeed for maximum benefit to Alaska and wildlife.
We start with ourselves and end with our state's economic future. We are relatively unimportant - just two Alaskans. Yet our justice compensation, which we have legally assigned (see addendum below) to benefit Alaska's common good - specifically, Veterans Homes - will do a lot of good beyond ourselves.
In short, (our book will have far more detail) we have suffered for 20 years now for refusing to participate in corruption - specifically, contract fraud - in the Federal Government Agencies, in Washington, where we both worked as senior-level career civil servants. At maximum, the justice compensation including back pay, back promotions, interest, and emotional damages, comes to some 10 million dollars. In addition, with our back years reinstated, at our current ages of 61, we are eligible for our full pensions at top-of-scale SES Level 6, at some $65,000 each, and our health insurance.
Having never been blessed with children, and with all four of our parents now dead, the 10 million dollars of justice compensation is far beyond any of our needs and wants. We simply feel that any Alaskans could live very well on 130 grand in pensions. We certainly could, and that's why the pensions are all we want. We also personally know of a number of bureaucratic crooks who facilitated the corruption and contract fraud, in which we refused to participate, who were rewarded for their dishonesty with promotions right to the top of the civil service ranks, and retired at top-of-scale. If the crooks can so retire, why should we, as honest civil servants doing our duty, merit anything less?
We have fought for our justice since 1982 and 1983 when we were illegally removed from our jobs and deprived of the honor and privilege of serving our country - which to us means a great deal. The Government has always stone-walled all of our efforts because, in Ted's case at Interior, the corruption went all the way to the top. That insured our blacklisting and subsequent punishment.
Our latest attempt to secure our justice came 14 months ago in January 2002, when we contacted the powerful Emperors of the North, and were stiffed by all three. We were not surprised with Lesser Emperor Don's refusal to even lift a finger. He had already stiffed us once before. Nor were we surprised by Least Emperor Frank's stiffing us. After all, Frank proved beyond shadow of a doubt with his appointment of Lisa, that his overwhelming concern is himself. The Least Emperor managed to betray us on justice, Veterans Homes, PFD Gift Assignment Philanthropy, and ANWR - N.E.W. (to be explained in the fourth article). A clean sweep of bad-faith betrayal for the Least Emperor. As ADN's Mike Doogan would undoubtedly say - only Frank is capable of such breathtaking arrogance.
But, Greater Emperor Ted is no slouch when it comes to arrogance and mean-spiritedness. Even though we put prima facie documents of Government wrongdoing against his own constituents and strong supporters directly in his Harvard-lawyer hands, it wasn't till September that he contacted Interior and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), where Francoise worked. He let us twist slowly in the wind until then, during his re-election campaign, all the while soliciting us for more contributions. In November, two weeks after his re-election, he sent Francoise a letter conveying OPM's old lies as to why she was not treated wrongfully. Greater Emperor Ted blithely accepted OPM's lies with nary a concern for his constituent and supporter.
Here we are in March, seven months after he contacted Interior, and the Greater Emperor continues to let Ted twist slowly in the wind. The Greater Emperor is not only, by far and away, first among Emperors of the North, he is also Chairman of Senate Appropriations - with maximum power over every Agency's budget - is Senate President Pro Tempore, is third in line of succession to the U.S. Presidency, and is the most powerful member of the Senate. He wants us to believe that Agencies that usually respond to Congressional contacts by run-of-the-mill members of Congress within days - weeks at most - haven't responded to the supremely powerful Greater Emperor in 7 months! Right. He wants us to believe that he can't get justice done for his constituents and supporters from the Agencies whose funds he appropriates. Right. He wants us to believe that he couldn't have directly appropriated, as we asked him to do, in the huge omnibus appropriations bill that he shepperded through the Senate that he dominates, our 10 million dollar justice compensation to the state of Alaska, to be invested in a U.S. Treasury Direct Account as the basis of the Alaska Veterans Homes Building and Endowment Fund, in a similarly creative accounting fashion that he appropriated federal funds to the Anchorage Senior Center to expand it. Right.
But, perhaps Greater Emperor Ted, Lesser Emperor Don, and Least Emperor Frank - not to forget Crown Princess Lisa and Crown Prince Ben - are upset that we are giving away our 10 million dollar justice compensation to Alaska to benefit the common good. Maybe they are incredulous that we ourselves are not profiting from our, albeit well-deserved, justice compensation. Maybe they don't understand giving to Alaska charities, rather than taking from them. After all, when Greater Emperor Ted appropriated millions of dollars to handicapped children in the Special Olympics, Crown Prince Ben received 750 grand, at a quarter million dollars per year for 3 years, as head honcho - a job that we, in his place, would have done for nothing as volunteers to help our state. Maybe they just begrudge us our pensions for being honest, and don't want to see honesty in civil service, or whistle-blowing, rewarded. Who knows?
If that is all that is holding up our justice, we would be glad to execute another formal, binding, legal assignment of our pension rights to Crown prince Ben to augment his meager Alaska Senate stipend, while Crown Princess Lisa is knocking down the big bucks in the U. S. Senate sitting in Ben's hereditary Stevens senior seat. Crown Prince Ben only has to inform us of his needs, and we would be happy to forego our pensions to liberate 10 million bucks for Alaska Vets - a group that the Crown Prince has not followed in his illustrious Dad's footsteps to join.
That, of course, is as absurd as the spectacle of the three super powerful Emperors of the North siding with the Government Agencies against their own constituents and supporters. Or is it? We Alaskans have seen more than enough fraud and waste of our taxpayer's money at all levels - federal, state, and local. We all have seen abundant corporate corruption and thievery. Why are our Alaskan leaders treating their fellow Alaskans so shabbily, betraying their support and help, and actually harming them?
The bad-faith betrayal gets more incomprehensible and harmful to Alaska when one considers the Emperors of the North's opposition to our efforts for Veterans Homes, PFD Gift Assignment Philanthropy, and N.E.W. - ANWR legislation as illustrated in the next three articles. We would dearly love to think that somehow the Emperors will turn around and do what's right. But that's unrealistic. They are far too powerful and far to stubborn to reverse course. They will have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to do what's right for us. We certainly can't do much dragging by ourselves. We are relative nobodies - neither rich or powerful, just persistent. Needless to say we would greatly appreciate our fellow Alaskans support.
If you feel that what we are doing is right, if you feel that what the Emperors are doing is wrong, please speak out. Let them know your feelings. Don't hesitate. After all, they are only “Emperors” - instead of our public servants - by virtue of their growing arrogance, and our prolonged tolerance!
ADDENDUM
ASSIGNMENT OF RIGHTS
We, the under-signed, Theodore N. and Francoise T. Gianoutsos, PO Box 143115 Anchorage AK 99514-3115, residing at 1441 East 17th Avenue unit 10 Anchorage Alaska 99501, do hereby on this 17th day of October 2002, assign our rights to all 10 million dollars of justice compensation that we have fairly and justly due us from the Federal Government for 20 years of harm done to us, to our home state of Alaska for Veterans Homes.
We make this formal notarized assignment of rights to our 10 million dollar justice compensation to our home state of Alaska for Veterans Homes from our hearts, because we sincerely believe that it is the highest and best use that we can put what to us is a very large amount of money that goes far beyond our own self-gratifying needs.
Over the many years that we have been fighting for our justice compensation, we have always said that we wanted it put to a better common good purpose, rather than for our own gratification. Indeed, most recently we have pledged all of it to 20 Alaska non-profits to be used for the common good. Senator Stevens has even congratulated us - see attached letter dated March 1, 2002 - for our generous gesture to Alaska.
During the past two months we have come to realize, with the very strong interest in our Veterans Homes effort, that the best possible use of our 10 million dollar justice compensation would be to concentrate ALL of it on the one common good entity that relates to all Alaskan lives - Veterans. Without the military and Veterans, Alaska and indeed America would simply not exist. Veterans who lay their lives on the line for America and Alaska literally make all else - including the common good - possible.
Therefore, we now formally and publicly make this gift assignment of our 10 million dollar justice compensation rights to Alaska and ask our senior Senator Stevens to appropriate every penny to the state of Alaska for Veterans Homes. We would be most pleased if our Governor of Alaska, Tony Knowles, would see to it that our gift is invested in a U.S. Treasury Direct Account in our names in the “Alaska Veterans Homes Endowment Fund” that we have already asked him to create within the Alaska state government to pay for the State's 1/3rd share of the building and 1/2 share of the operation costs of the first 3 real stand-alone Alaska Veterans Homes. Hopefully, our Treasury Direct Account will serve as an example for other Alaskan individuals, businesses, and organizations to follow with the establishment of their own substantial gifts to benefit Alaska's Veterans and the common good.
We are pleased that Senator Stevens has contacted both Interior and the Office of Personnel Management - see attached letter dated September 18, 2002 - to inquire about our financial claims. Senator Stevens has ample evidence, that we placed directly in his hands, of the 20-year harm done to us by the Federal Government for refusing to participate in corruption - specifically contract fraud - and for giving to our country by founding the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in the early '80s.
Senator Stevens knows that our 10 million dollar justice compensation is comprised of 20 years of back pay, back promotions, interest, and emotional damages. He knows that now that we are both 60 years old this year, that we are eligible for our pensions at top-of-scale SES level 6 pay rate. Indeed, if our American values mean anything at all, we deserve our back promotions and top-of-scale pensions more for being honest and serving honorably as civil servants, than the bureaucratic crooks who facilitated the corruption in which we refused to participate. The crooks got promoted at Interior and OPM as a reward for their wrongdoing. Surely, we merit our pensions and justice compensation for doing what was, and is, right!
Our combined pensions of some $130,000 before deductions are more than enough for any Alaskans - certainly for us - to live well on, here in the Great Land. We ask Senator Stevens to see to it that ALL of our 10 million dollar justice compensation does not go to us, but rather gets directly appropriated to the State of Alaska for Veterans Homes.
Signed - with loving gratitude for the opportunity to be Americans and Alaskans - this 17th day of October 2002, in Anchorage, with our signatures notarized as indicated below, by Ted and Francoise Gianoutsos.
SIGNED
Theodore N. Gianoutsos, 17 Oct. 2002
signed
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