On Saturday, January 10, 2009, in Anchorage, Alaska, a convicted sex offender came forward to claim a $500,000 jackpot.  Okay, that’s not bad, right?  But, here’s the “things that make you go hmmmm” part:  The jackpot was the result of an Alaska lottery, called Lucky Time Pull Tabs, that donates its proceeds to a nonprofit group, Standing Together Against Rape, which, among other services, offers support to sexual assault victims!  It seems that the convicted sex offender is a two-time offender as he was convicted in 1993 and 2000 for sexual abuse of a minor!

According to Nancy Haag, the nonprofit’s executive director, “It’s not how we had envisioned the story going.”  Uh, Nancy, that is the understatement of the year (so far anyway).  According to FBI statistics, Alaska has the highest per capita number of rape cases in the United States.  Haag further stated, “With a ranking that high, it’s ironic that the person who wins is a convicted sex offender.”

Efforts to reach lottery organizer Abe Spicola, who owns Lucky Times Pull Tabs, were unsuccessful late Monday. But Spicola told the Anchorage Daily News that the winner “was going to buy a house and said he was going to donate part of it to God, and, you know, charity.”

Talk about irony, right?

Wow, when it rains it pours! Senator Ted Stevens has now lost his lead to Anchorage mayor, Democrat Mark Begich. Stevens is only in the race because he is highly revered for his decades of public service. That has to explain it right?

Last month, a federal jury in Washington, D.C., convicted Stevens of lying on Senate disclosure forms to conceal more than $250,000 in gifts and home renovations from an oil field services company.

Begich would be the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate race in Alaska since the mid-1970s, and a win would put his party one step closer to a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority in the Senate.

This is where it gets kind of cruddy. If Stevens were to win he could face expulsion if he declines to step down. Fellow senators have already called on Stevens to resign if he wins. The reason this is of interest has to do with Governor Palin. Yes, that same Palin.

A special election would more than likely be necessary if Stevens wins and Palin is interested. I think that is rather opportunistic of her, but it may fit into her grand plan. “My life is in God’s hands,” Palin said. “If he’s got doors open for me, that I believe are in our state’s best interest, the nation’s best interest, I’m going to go through those doors.” I wonder if God has it planned for her to step on Stevens’ neck on the way to the Senate.

The only other question I have is, how long does it take to count ballots anyway? They must have had some hanging chads in Alaska or something. I know for a fact all absentee ballots were to due a long time ago. I know this because I voted, absentee, in Alaska.