Uncle Ted Redux

Here is another view on how Alaskan's feel about Uncle Ted, from Amanda Coyne, Guardian, UK:

Local pollster, Ivan Moore, who is from England but has lived in Alaska for 20 years, goes so far as to say that Stevens doesn't have a "chance in hell" of winning this election. He said this while sitting in a bar in the hardscrabble interior town of Fairbanks. A sign above the bar read: "We love Senator Stevens." Around Alaska, bumper stickers read: "I'll vote for Ted 'till he's dead." One local talkshow caller summed up a fairly common sentiment in Alaska when he said: "I'll vote for a guilty Republican over a liberal any day".

These are the people Moore calls Ted's rock-solid base. He thinks that accounts for about 35-40% of Alaska's populace, which is why Moore doesn't foresee a blow out on election day. He predicts that Begich will win it by about 15 points.

What awaits the diminutive man who wore a Hulk tie on the Senate floor when he was prepping for a fight, always for something for Alaska (roads, more money for septic systems for Alaska Native villages, airstrips and post offices, bus stations and federal buildings)? Maybe it's prison. Maybe it's here, back home, among the people who will always call him Uncle Ted. The people who will say: He might be a crook, but he's Alaska's crook. He's just one of us.

Makes me think that even after he is dead, he will haunt Alaska; a ghosly presence. And what a good halloween costume that would be- ghostly, ghoulish, old Uncle Ted, dragging his ball and chain.

Kleptocracy Convicted: The Fall of a Banana Republic:

I heard the verdict-I was totally in shock. In my head, I thought that he would be convicted, but in my heart I am not sure that I ever really believed it. I was ecstatic! I was amazed. But now, some hours later, I am rather more sad; sad that I lived my entire adult political life in the Ted era. But what has been has been. I have been telling people here in Tucson that I am a political refugee from Alaska, though I don’t think anyone really understood what I was talking about. I came here after two failed campaigns for the legislature, precisely during the era of Republican ascendancy, when Palin began her rise to fame as Mayor of Wasilla, on a right to life platform.
I ran for the legislature to uphold the team, so as not to have uncontested sets on the ticket. But when you lose it’s so personal. Especially when you lose to someone like Pete Kelly a graduate of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, or John Coghill, a Baptist minister from North Pole, now in his tenth year in the legislature. I always thought of them apart of a right wing mafia, even though, 10 years ago, we had no proof. They were all so sanctimoniously smug. Cynthia Henry and Sue Hull both supported Frank Murkowski and year after year, worked for the good of the Ted Stevens machine. For the last ten years Alaskans have said that the economy was a three legged stool, oil money, state money, and ted Stevens. And the last few years, there has been a lot of teeth gnashing over what would happen to the state budget if Ted died.
But when you lose its so personal. You always hope that your race is going to be the one that rides in on a political monster wave. Or that your opponent will make that big mistake, that you will be the El Tinklenberg, who benefits from the major gaffe of Michelle Bachman, who called for the investigation of half of congress for un-American beliefs: Or that you will be the James Webb who rolls into office on the George Allen ‘macaca’ gaffe. Whatever it is, there is always a portion of luck in a campaign and a quantity of hope.
But when you lose its so personal.
Ted’s forty years reign was really a patronage machine, and a kleptocracy; crony capitalism with the spoils spread around to everyone. But the stealing was from the American taxpayers, and the beneficiaries were all Alaskans. Of course, some Alaskans got more than others. It’s really just the sadly typical pattern of a resource colony. Where there is no price to pay for spreading the spoils, because there are no taxpayers.
But the price was paid by those of us who lost the opportunity for political careers. And who had to watch while the citizens turned to spoilsmen, and voted for Ted and Don year after year. I appreciate those democrats who stuck it out through the Republican legislatures. Here is a shoutout to you David Guttenberg, Scott Kawasaki, Johnny Ellis, Les Gara, Ethan Berkowitz, Beth Kertulla, Joe Thomas. You are all tougher than I am.
So what happens next? Ted is still running, and Alaskans, under sway of the Ted can do no wrong mythology may still vote for him. The story they are spreading is the usual: “Its those damn feds, out to get us again. They just don’t understand how we do things up here in Alaska.”
Linda Wertheimer said on NPR today that Alaskans have such love for the man that we call him Uncle Ted. Well, it’s not love, it’s just that he is like the rich uncle that you don’t dare offend.

Sad Super Sarah Sunday

Well, they convicted stevens today, and I am thinking about a post to celebrate, but while I get in the mood, check out this Sad Super Sarah Sunday in a bunker in Anchorage's Kincaid Park, from an Anch. blogger on Daily Kos

Ted Stevens and Bill Allen

Ted Steven’s may be correct that he didn’t know about and didn’t want the gifts which Bill Allen, and others, bestowed on him. (See Dana Milbank in theWashington Post and Anchorage Daily News) But that’s the problem, Stevens has been in office so long, that it seems he feels immune to the rules. And he was friends with Bill Allen so long, that he seemingly could no longer separate Bill Allen’s interests from his own. They operated as a unit, a team. Bill Allen and his lackeys built a deck, hoisted an expensive barbeque onto it, dropped off furniture and expensive sculpture. And Bill and his friends felt free to use the house. It was all done in a “what’s yours is mine” style that Stevens would have us believe is “the Alaskan way." That Allen was a contractor and Stevens a powerful U.S. Senator probably came to be seen merely as convenient to this long standing friendship. That, I repeat, is the gist of the problem. That Stevens failed to report the gifts, the added expense, is just the symptom of the problem. But that is how the typical prosecution for corruption goes. Rarely is the principal fingered for actual “corruption.” Instead, convictions come on ancillary charges: failing to report, or failing to pay taxes. In this case, the charge is not based on a quid pro quo: the prosecutors have alleged that Allen received favors, but they are not trying Stevens on these charges. But again I repeat, the problem was, is, that Stevens has no notion of separation between what is good for Bill Allen and Veco and what might be in the interest of the state.

Sarah Palin and the AIP

You really have to check out this new item on Progressive Alaska,
Saradise Lost - Chapter One Hundred-Thirty --
Video of David Neiwert, the Pacific Northwest's leading expert on Right-wing terrorists, on CNN today: He and Max Blumethal of Salon have been doing a lot of digging into Sarah's connections with the AIP- my favorite conspiracy theory.
He calls them a group much like the Patriot groups.
for all you deeply committed conspiracy stalkers, here is a link to David Neiwert's own blog, with much more detail.

Debate Number Three

The debate was just generally boring. I thought that McCain was weakest on health care. I just can’t understand why Obama does not hit him on the issue of people with pre-existing conditions. What happens to them? (Us, actually)
And on education, the only idea McCain has is vouchers, but not everyone can get vouchers; vouchers are actual an expensive solution, and the only other thing he says is we can’t throw money at the problem, which is the oldest idea in the Republican playbook.
Obama was good in responding to the expected Ayers attack by responding with who he does associate with.
And I thought that McCain was sarcastic. especially towards the end. And McCain is acting like ACORN is some kind of subversive organization, like a communist front. The truth is that they are just a community development organization.
And then the Republicans are the only ones who could drive the economy into the toilet, by cutting taxes, running a war, and shoveling money out the door for all their special interest friends. So they run up a ginormous deficit, and then complain that the other guys are going to raise taxes!
Of course they are going to raise taxes on someone! Someone has to pay for all of this

Stevens is Corrupt

Ted Stevens protected $350 million for projects the Pentagon did not want, wasting taxpayer money on what would become dead-end ventures.
With the protection of Stevens and other Senators, one Mr. Cantrell, engineer for a defense department contractor became his own lobbyist for programs the Pentagon did not want. Eventually, he decided to work the system to benefit himself, keeping dozens of programs going, each one kicking back thousands of dollars between 2001-2007. Until he was indicted.
Mr. Cantrell had placed several friends as lobbyists or consultants working on his behalf with friendly contractors, allowing them to bill the government for the costs, even though federal law prohibits paying any expenses associated with lobbying.
As the Eric Lipton in the New York Times presents it: Corrupt individuals working networks of defense department contractors and willing Senators to keep unwanted programs alive simply to generate profits. Or was it Senator Stevens and others using men like Cantrell to keep projects and programs in the pipeline, keeping them real enough to generate home state funding?
Here is the meat of the matter- Uncle Ted Stevens, protecting giant useless Alaska projects, larding up the Pentagon budgets, while keeping up a steady drumbeat of fiscal conservatism, All this while attacking Democrats for being “tax and spend liberals,”
The whole project of missile defense could continue its wasteful ways because, with Republicans in control, there was no one to investigate. Even when the Pentagon itself tried to investigate, Stevens called them off.
This is the crony capitalism that Stevens has supported for forty years, while Alaskans keeps sending him back because we get our kickback too.
Pentagon officials tried to kill the project. “Stevens’s office called to insist that the Kodiak project proceed, Admiral West and Lt. Gen. Edward G. Anderson, then the head of Army Space and Missile Defense Command, said in interviews.”
The military men backed off, and the construction at Kodiak continued.
Mr. Cantrell said he knew that building a new launching facility in Kodiak was wasteful. “It doesn’t make sense,” he said. “The economics of it, they just don’t work.”

Demagoguery

Rep. John Lewis condemned Palin –McCain tactics:
Wash. Post- The Trail

Although McCain and his Republican running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, have toned down their rhetoric against Sen. Barack Obama in the past day, Lewis warned of "another destructive period in American history" if the negative attacks from both the candidates and their surrogates don't cease.
"As one who was a victim of violence and hate during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign," Lewis said in a statement. "Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse."
He warned, "As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all. They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy. We can do better. The American people deserve better."

McCain responded that this was a character attack!

McCain hit back hard with this statement: "Congressman John Lewis' comments represent a character attack against Governor Sarah Palin and me that is shocking and beyond the pale. The notion that legitimate criticism of Senator Obama's record and positions could be compared to Governor George Wallace, his segregationist policies and the violence he provoked is unacceptable and has no place in this campaign. I am saddened that John Lewis, a man I've always admired, would make such a brazen and baseless attack on my character and the character of the thousands of hardworking Americans who come to our events to cheer for the kind of reform that will put America on the right track.

I personally can't believe that Senator McCain had the gall to respond to Rep. Lewis with such disrespect. McCain seems to be losing his way, lashing out at anyone who dares to criticize either him or Palin. Lewis was absolutely right, the Palin-McCain campaign has been infusing their speeches with coded phrases and appeals to prejudice and anger. This is the kind of demagoguery associated with the KKK, the kind I thought we no longer tolerated in this country. Thank you Rep. Lewis for speaking up. Shame on you Senator McCain.

Un-American

David Talbot in Salon has picked up the Alaska Independence Party story,

"My government is my worst enemy. I'm going to fight them with any means at hand."
This was former revolutionary terrorist Bill Ayers back in his old Weather Underground days, right? Imagine what Sarah Palin is going to do with this incendiary quote as she tears into Barack Obama this week.
Only one problem. The quote is from Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American who founded the Alaska Independence Party. Inconveniently for Palin, that's the very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd, belonged to for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier this year. ("Keep up the good work," Palin told AIP members. "And God bless you.")
Before his strange murder in 1993, party founder Vogler preached armed insurrection against the United States of America. Vogler, who always carried a Magnum with him, was fond of saying, "When the [federal] bureaucrats come after me, I suggest they wear red coats. They make better targets. In the federal government are the biggest liars in the United States, and I hate them with a passion. They think they own [Alaska]. There comes a time when people will choose to die with honor rather than live with dishonor. That time may be coming here. Our goal is ultimate independence by peaceful means under a minimal government fully responsive to the people. I hope we don't have to take human life, but if they go on tramping on our property rights, look out, we're ready to die."
This quote is from "Coming Into the Country," by John McPhee, who traipsed around Alaska for his book published in 1976.
Read the rest of the story

Palin and Alaska Independence Party

If Sarah Palin can go after Obama by suggesting that he “pals around with terrorists,” then I think her connection with the infamous Alaska Independence Party is fair game.
Sarah speaking to this group would be like a presidential candidate giving a pep talk to the confederacy before the Civil War. How can she say she “loves America,” and somehow insinuate that Obama loves America less?

According Lynette Clark, Chairman of the Party, Todd Palin was a member, and Sarah as a candidate for Governor appeared at the AIP Convention in 2006, and sent a welcoming DVD to the membership at the 2008 AIP statewide convention.
Radical separatist Joe Vogler, the party founder, did not mince words when he expressed his distaste for the US. Greg Sargent on TPM dug up what Joe had to say in a 1991 interview, only a few years before Palin attended its convention:
"The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government."
He also said this: "And I won't be buried under their damn flag. I'll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home."
Joe friends honored his intentions, he is still buried in Dawson City.

Today, the party’s web site is a bit more circumspect. They say they seek only a new state constitutional convention, they don’t specifically claim that they want independence from the US.
However, on their questions and answers page, the clearly address the issue of giving up American citizenship.
Q: Would I lose my U.S. citizenship?
A: Depending on the form of independence, several forms of citizenship would be possible, including the retention of U.S. citizenship or dual citizenship. However, considering the moral, educational, and economic decay of the U.S., Alaskans' who hold themselves to a higher standard might very well decide to at least maintain an arm's length distance from a country in decline.
Want more? Here is a video of Dexter Clark at the separatists’ convention.

We cannot let this one pass.

They're Tougher in Alaska:Fairbanks Turns Out for Obama

Anyone who doubts that they are tougher in Alaska should look at these pics of the Fairbanks for Obama Rally on Saturday. It was about 22 degrees, note the down jackets and the snow on the ground. Go Alaskans!
I got these from Orbitaldiamonds who siad she doesn't remember who all the speakers were, but here are some: The first was a veteran, the next two were naturalized Americans talking about the awesome privilege of voting, there was a guy playing guitar and singing, two guys from UAF talking about the "Barack the Vote" event coming up soon that's going to have lots of local bands. There were others, then I was the last speaker. I froze a bit, and wound up ad-libbing even though I agonized over that speech last night. It was mostly applause lines and I got lots of compliments afterward." You Go Girl!!!

Sitting around the Kitchen Table in a 13,000 square foot, $12 million home with 13 bedrooms and 14.5 bathrooms

Former McCain Home Up for Auction in Arizona
A 15,000-square-foot home formerly owned by John and Cindy McCain is scheduled to be auctioned on October 25. The home sits on 2.7 acres and has 13 bedrooms and 14.5 bathrooms. The home also is listed with Sotheby’s Realty for $12 million.
After they married, the Arizona Senator and his wife moved into the home, built by Cindy's parents, and stayed for 20 years. The McCains raised their children Jack and Megan at the home. They sold it to the current owner, real estate developer Jane Popple, in 2006 for more than $3 million.
Popple described at herself as a “McCain fan”. And boy is she doing him a favor selling it right now!

Blogging the VP Debate

Here was the high point:
Biden says that China builds some number of coal plants per month,and yet John McCain thinks the only answer is Drill Drill Drill.
Its “Drill Baby Drill,” she corrects him.

And Sarah said we need to look at reality from Main Street, Wasilla. I don’t know if everyone has been reading the columns from LA Times, but see the video from columnst Steve Lopez who visits the hometown.

Here is my summary:
Biden led off, noting how disastrous the last 8 years of the Bush administration have been for the economy.
Then, in a colorful image Sarah suggested that, Joe Six Pack needs to get together with the hocky moms Sarah said to Stop Greed and Corruption on Wall Street, and “We need to demand strict oversight.” She said this more than once, and it sure sounds odd—is “Strict oversight” the same as regulation? Since when do republicans support regulation?
Then Sarah got back to cutting taxes to create jobs. She seems to forget that the 8 years of Bush tax cuts did not create jobs. Except maybe in Iraq.
Sarah claimed that Obama voted to increase taxes 49 times….is that true? Biden- charges that it is exactly not true. Using the standard that the Gov. uses, he says, McCain voted to raise taxes 449 times.
Gov. Palin will not answer on issue whether McCain supports regulation. She does brag about reducing taxes in Alaska. Of course, Alaska has a huge budget surplus this year, and Alaskans generally pay no state taxes. I thought that was disingenuous.
Then Gwen Iffil asked what will you cut, to accommodate the latest bailout?, the question that Jim Lehrer asked the candidates, and which they did not answer.
This time, Biden does better that Obama did when he was asked the question, saying that we can’t cut things like job creation. Sarah comes up with nothing that they had on the table that would now be curtailed. And John McCain has not made any promises that he will not be able to keep. We thought this was a real misstatement, or misunderstanding of the question, perhaps intentionally.
Then Palin answered a question, trying to get to the idea that “energy independence is the key to America’s future,” but on the way there, she sure took a lot of detours, I don’t even know what she was trying to say.
Then on global warming, Palin said that there are real changes, but there are also cyclical changes, “I don’t want to argue about causes, but we need to look at what we are going to do about it.” She claims that she was the first governor to establish a climate change sub-cabinet. Then she says that we need to establish energy independence for that reason also. She does want to conserve fuel, and clean up the planet.
Biden here manages to draw a clear distinction, saying warming is clearly man-made- if you don’t understand the cause, it’s impossible to come up with a solution. But as Biden points out, McCain has voted against alternative energy 20 times.
And, they definitely disagree about the war. When Biden claims that the Bush Administration has been a diplomatic failure, Palin says that the Bush administration has not been an abject failure. And then she calls for “an end to the blame game,” too much looking backwards, we will learn from past mistakes, and uses this to segue back to McCain platitudes about maverick, change is coming, etc. etc. She used this tactic repeatedly, to distance McCain-Palin from Bush.
But, said Biden, past is prologue. I haven’t heard anything he said, about how McCain’s policies will be any different from Bush. We, Obama-Biden will make significant change so that we will be the most respected nation in the world.
When Biden tried to draw a distinction, saying that he had voted for the resolution authorizing the war, but had actually opposed going to war, Sarah really made fun of him, “It’s so obvious that I am a Washington Outsider. You voted for, it was a war resolution, but now you say that you are against it. You supported McCain’s strategies.”
I am sure that those who supported Palin before will have their support reinforced. And she definitely projected appealing personae. But I doubt she convinced many democrats, Biden got in a number of points of difference, on funding for health care, education, and especially ending the war. McCain voted against S-CHIP, the violence against women act. McCain has not supported any funding for education, not early childhood, not funds for states to implement NCLB.
Palin on the other hand, unapologetically supports the idea of American exceptionalism, America as the shining city on the hill, an example to the rest of the world, a beacon of freedom, etc. etc. It’s a kind of empty patriotism, with a closing dig at mainstream media.
Biden closes closer to home: Respect, honesty, work hard, you can accomplish anything, we are running to reestablish that certitude for everyone.

What to Do Now

Like everyone else, I have been wathcing this crisis unfold in slow motion. I was STUNNED when the bailout plan failed yesterday. In retrospect, I don't know why I was so surprised. It was no secret that no one liked it. On the right or the left. In the end that's why if failed. So, what to do now? this suggestion from the Working Families Party:Forget the right wing republicans and craft a plan that addresses ordinary Americans,
• Cover the $700 billion price tag with a "millionaire's tax" and a surcharge on financial transactions
• "Reregulate" Wall Street, including breaking up big banks
• Temporarily nationalize companies that need government help
• Require banks that get assistance to renegotiate mortgage terms for struggling homeowners
• Couple the bailout with an economic stimulus package
See more: Elizabeth Benjamin, The Daily Politics

Deal or No Deal update! Chaos! Pandemonium! Theater!

I have been watching cable news all day and I am more confused than ever.
John McCain thinks that the economy is in free-fall, and the situation is so serious that he has to “suspend his campaign.” Yet the Republican House members are holding up any kind of a deal. First, the congressional leaders met all day, and by 1pm, they said they had a deal. Then congressional leaders went over to the White House to meet with President Bush and the two presidential candidates, for "the meeting." Supposedly carefully staged, right? No. Angry words. "Chaos, pandemonium, theater," is how George Stephanopolous described it. The deal fell apart, McCain shrugged his shoulders, what can anyone do?
Apparently there is a trio of right wing Republicans holding this up. They are so far right that “after Dick Cheney appeared before House Republicans on Tuesday night to sell them on the proposal, lawmakers emerged howling about the "enslavement" of taxpayers and the "confiscation" of taxpayer money, and they likened the vice president's sales job to that of a used-car salesman or a shady realtor.”
"We may be looking at national bankruptcy and the road to socialism," said Jeb Hensarling, one of the ringleaders, after hearing from Treasury Secretary Paulson Tuesday morning.
So, is this a depression in the making? A potential calamity? If so, and John McCain is trying to show “leadership,” is he then going to lean on his Republican colleagues? Or should we just all forget about any kind of bailout? Maybe its not as imminently calamitous as John McCain and George Bush say.
Or maybe the House Republicans are just providing cover for McCain and refusing to settle on anything, so he can say that there is no deal and there should be no debate, and go home.
I think John McCain owes it to the American people to appear on the stage at Oxford Mississippi tomorrow night to explain.

"Numbingly Desperate" "Gamble" "Transparent"

McCain is so infuriating. He can’t even just run a campaign on the issues. It's all about his handlers, warmed-over Bush staffers, positioning him as this, or positioning him to look presidential, or authoritative. Who are these guys? Who thought up the stunt to refuse to participate in the debate? In my opinion this just makes McCain look like he doesn’t know what to say, has no plan, and knows that he will lose the debate.
So, here is a wrap-up of some commentators:

"McCain's proposal to suspend campaigning was dismissed as "erratic," grandstanding and even "somewhere on the stupidity scale between plain silly and numbingly desperate" by former Republican congressman Mickey Edwards (Okla.)
Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post

John McCain is a gambler by nature, and the bet he placed Wednesday may be among the biggest of his political life.
Dan Balz, Wash. Post

But Harold Meyerson, in the Washington Postwins the prize with McCain's ploy was transparent
Slipping in the polls? Concerned that Americans may be paying more attention to the declining economy -- and even supporting economic regulation again -- than to your own stellar leadership abilities?
What's a Republican presidential nominee to do?
If you're named John McCain, the answer became apparent yesterday afternoon -- make the solution to the economic crisis all about you. Suspend your campaign. Pull out of tomorrow's debate -- Change the terms of the nation's economic discussion from the course we should take, and the defects of the laissez-faire model that got us here, to the indispensability of John McCain, leader of leaders.

But the McCain plan for victory this November never counted on Americans picking McCain on the basis of the issues,
As his strategists saw it, they had to confine the discussion to a comparison of the character of the two candidates. Alas for McCain, reality intruded over the past week, distracting the public from McCain's stellar attributes as a decisive leader with news of an impending economic collapse. So the task for his managers has been to diminish this new story to just one chapter in the ongoing saga of John McCain, the man who rides to the rescue.

Also see Meyerson's insightful
Wall Street's Just Deserts
During the late, lamented Wall Street boom, America's leading investment institutions were plenty bullish on China's economy, on exotic financial devices built atop millions of bad loans, and, above all -- judging by the unprecedented amount of wealth they showered on the Street -- on themselves. The last thing our financial community was bullish on was America -- that is, the America where the vast majority of Americans live and work.

McCain's Free Lunch

Sam Stein on Huff Post
McCain, in his 26 years in Congress has been a strict champion of deregulation. As [Stein's colleague] Nico Pitney reported: Back in October 1999, when Senate Republicans led by Phil Gramm were deep in negotiations on key legislation to deregulate the banking industry, McCain was at a primary debate in New Hampshire touting the benefits of such a measure.
"There's a number of reasons why we are experiencing this almost unprecedented prosperity," McCain said back then. "Among them are a lack of regulation, free trade, and most importantly, we are going through a revolution the likes of which the world has seldom seen."

Chicken!!!

The latest in McCain’s flip-flopping, now he wants to back out of the debate, because he’s chicken- he knows he will lose, he can’t hack it. What a fluff.

Family Feud!

Legislators File Suit
I just can’t believe that we get such good theater- the Republicans falling out with each other and fighting in public, its like a family fight at a restaurant. In front of God and Everyone
Here is the story in the NYT, (don’t you just love getting to read about our family feuds in the national papers?) Lawsuit Is Filed to Halt Alaska DismissalInquirey
I thought that it was Sarah’s Republican enemies who had gotten the whole Troopergate thing going, like her good buddy Lyda Greene, but maybe I am reading it wrong. Now, apparently she has some of her most conservative friends running defense for her. Represented by one of those conservative legal outfits: Liberty Legal Institute, which is based in Texas and which has a history of taking up conservative causes. House speaker John Harris actually supported the investigation, but has now changed his mind, and now wants to derail it. Wonder what kind of appeals to reason the McCain heavies are throwing down on the table?
Don’t forget the legislative Council, 8 republicans snd 4 democrats approved the investigation unanimously. Now, ADN/AP reports, Harris says, in a letter, that what "started as a bipartisan and impartial effort is becoming overshadowed by public comments from individuals at both ends of the political spectrum” I mean, what did he think would happen? No comments? No politics?

Celtic Diva has a rundown of who the group is who is suing to stop the investigatin, including arch conservative Rep. Mike Kelly, from Fairbanks, as well as Rep. Wes Keller, Rep. Bob Lynn, Sen. Fred Dyson, and Sen. Tom Wagoner

Both Diva and Progressive Alaska believe this all may have something to do with Moneghan’s pro-active work to deal with Alaska’s high rate of sexual assault and domestic violence.

see also the Alaska Politics Blog at Anchorage Daily News.
It will be interesting to see if the MSM really get the inside story- word is that there are 7 folks from ABC on the ground. what a circus!

Can’t stop reading About Sarah

Is there a cure for this addiction?
One of the amazing think about the last few weeks has been the onslaught of national news and network journalists into the intimate spaces of the Alaska we call home. I cannot remember this ever happening before. Sure a few famous people came up on vacation and wrote about Denali, or a fishing lodge, or a cruise vacation. But now they are buying lattes at the drive in espresso places, hanging out in Wasilla City Hall, secret service agents reportedly renting bicycles, and the coast guard patrolling Lake Lucille.
There was Charlie Gibson strolling with Sarah on the grounds of Wedgewood Manor, and anchoring from Downtown Fairbanks, in front of the new state courthouse. And te next night there they were in front of the pipeline at Fox. Too bad they didn't pan around to John Reeves' junk heaap across the road. It was truly extraordinary.
Now the MSM is finally getting beyond the hype with which Alaska was always able to sell itself, from the Chamber of Commerce, the petroleum drill now alliance, and the visitor industry. Alaska was free to tell any story it wanted about itself, because no one was there to challenge. Now the news people are challenging the image of Sarah that she has created for herself. Alaskans have to realize that a bear skin rug with the head still on, or a cozy living room full of hunting trophies is not just an everyday decorating choice, and that not everyone celebrates Alaska’s culture of guns and rugged individualism. Sarah challenges the men where they live: in the individualistic space of the wilderness and hunting privilege. In particular she challenges the conservative men who still uphold these values as markers of masculinity, while the liberal city dwellers have long since given this up. She upholds the conservative views of gender roles, even while running for vice president. I mean, you didn’t see Cheney running on his ability to hunt and fish. But Sarah can precisely because she is a woman.
Even Maureen Dowd was in Alaska, and who else could equal Sarah for snark? “Our new Napoleon in bunny boots (not the Pamela Anderson kind, but the knock-offs of the U.S. Army Extreme Cold Weather Vapor Barrier Boots) is ready to face down the Russkies and start a land war over Georgia,” she writes.”Sarah has single-handedly ushered out the “Sex and the City” era, and made the sexy new model for America a retro one — the glamorous Pioneer Woman, packing a gun, a baby and a Bible.
I have to disagree here: I think the new image is a bit more up to date babe in camo with M-16 along with that bible.
Although its hard to picture Maureen getting too far from the Marriott in Downtown Anchorage, she did somehow find out about bunnyboots.
And did anyone catch Saturday night live?
Careful listeners, such as myself, noted that “Palin” announced that she was the “Mayor of the crystal meth capital of Alaska!” Guess all those network sniffer dogs finally found the true Alaska.

Republicans Plan Attack Against Hope

I heard this out of the edge of my brain the other day,
"Republicans attack Hope" catchy- eh?
I mean how can you run a campaign against hope?
turns out you have to turn to fear, fear of hope,
New Group Won't Attack Obama But Will Target "Hope" and Push Fear Leadership for America's Future was formally created on Thursday by a Sacramento, Calif.-based attorney, Thomas Hiltachk, according to a form registering the so-called 527 group with the Internal Revenue Service.

The organization's slick Web site includes a 30-second video that shows images of war and misery around the world as an announcer gravely warns of the dangers of putting America in untested hands.

"It's not always the world we dream of. It can be belligerent and unpredictable, where an unsure response can have lasting consequences for generations," the announcer says over a montage that includes a plane crashing into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and video of an American flag fluttering at the gutted site after the terrorist attacks. "No matter how eloquently spoken, hoping for change won't change the world. Only the strength of experience can do that."

But wasn't Roosevelt's message to the nation at the height of the last major depression
the only thing we have to fear is fear itself?
keep it in mind

Cintra’s Way with Words

OK, its mean, and a bit snarky, but Sarah herself started with the snarky tone in her acceptance speech. Cintra here on Salon is one of the better analysts of Palin as an anti-feminist feminist.
Women, it's time to get furious.
McCain's running mate is a Christian Stepford wife in a sexy librarian costume.

Sarah in Fairbanks, re-visited

I tried live-blogging Sarah in Fairbanks.
What I do not manage to get into live blogging is nuances.
Its ironic to hear the Fairbanks all-Republican crowd cheer about cleaning up the corruption in Juneau- they were the ones who were all supporting Murkowski, and Murkowski was the man who was in the Back Rooms with all the oil executives. Sarah is touting “no more closed door meetings”; her supporters were the ones who never ever complained about the closed door Republican caucuses where all the business in the State Senate was done for about 10 years. I want to know how many of them gave money to Vic Koring and the other corrupt politicians.

Drill Baby Drill

Giving new meaning to the phrase, the corruption at the Denver office of the Federal Mineral Management Service, where the employees are charged with marketing in-kind royalty oil A kind of privatized function according to on account I read.
A story in the Washington Post [and everywhere else] paints a picture of an agency run amok with employees boozing it up, toking it up, teeing it up and snorting it up with representatives from the big oil and energy companies, from which the Minerals Management Service collects billions of dollars in royalties annually.
Mary Ann Akers in the Post
One of the female employees had a business selling sex toys on the side. The same MMS Chick admitted to having intimate relationships with two oil industry employees, including a "one-night stand" with a Shell employee (which she told investigators she didn't consider to be inappropriate because one-night stands, in her opinion, are not personal relationships).
So we wonder when we'll see that lad mag cover blaring: MMS Chicks Bare All... Drill, Baby, Drill! Any bets?
The truly pathetic part is that, despite the reports allegations that the employees left millions of tax-payer dollars on the table in negations with the oil companies, the Justice Department has so far declined to prosecute!!! How can this be?


WHAT MAKES PEOPLE VOTE REPUBLICAN?
Why in particular do working class and rural Americans usually vote for pro-business Republicans when their economic interests would seem better served by Democratic policies? We psychologists have been examining the origins of ideology ever since Hitler sent us Germany's best psychologists, and we long ago reported that strict parenting and a variety of personal insecurities work together to turn people against liberalism, diversity, and progress. But now that we can map the brains, genes, and unconscious attitudes of conservatives, we have refined our diagnosis: conservatism is a partially heritable personality trait that predisposes some people to be cognitively inflexible, fond of hierarchy, and inordinately afraid of uncertainty, change, and death. People vote Republican because Republicans offer "moral clarity"—a simple vision of good and evil that activates deep seated fears in much of the electorate. Democrats, in contrast, appeal to reason with their long-winded explorations of policy options for a complex world.
Jonathan Haid from the edge 9/22/07