Among the 62 lucky winners of this year's coveted Alaska Daily News Soapy Smith award was the government of King Salmon, AK. Back in September, tribal president, patriot and kiss-ass Ralph Angasan Sr. wrote a letter to Gov. Frank Murkowski pledging not to accept the Venezuelan government’s offer of low-cost heating oil to Alaska tribes, in protest of President Chavez’s criticism of Bush before the United Nations. Mr. Angasan wrote, "We stand firmly with our President, especially in times when so many bad people are out to get us."
In turn, Murkowski praised the leader’s willingness to put politics before the health and safety of his community. But funnily enough, the Daily News reports that “the community was never included in Chavez’s offer.” Oopsie
Still, the gaffe was enough to win the entire village the paper’s annual jackass award, named after the “American con artist and gangster who had a major hand in the organized criminal affairs and operations of Denver, Colorado, Creede, Colorado, and Skagway, Alaska from 1879 to 1898.”
