The Mudflats

I’d like to thank a very special “Boots on the Ground” reporter and friend, Mudflatter Geoffrey Dunn.  Dunn is finishing up a well-researched book due out this summer titled “The Lies of Sarah Palin.”  He’s having a hard time not making this a three-volume set.  He told me he’d call in a report after seeing Palin’s speech in Redding, California.  Media was barred from the event, so Dunn took one for the team and bought a ticket. 

He’d seen Palin before, in Alaska, but now she was coming to his home state, to “the Fairbanks of California” as he called it.  I was interested to see what his impressions would be, and eagerly awaited his phone call last night.  He’d scribbled notes furiously while sitting at the event, and in turn, I scribbled furiously during our phone call.  The following is a combination of his impressions and my own thoughts.

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The country music blared, the crowd was already on its feet cheering, the gigantic American flag was draped across the back of the stage, and red-jacketed, black high-heeled Sarah Palin strode on to the stage to thunderous applause.  This was not a VP campaign stop in 2008.  This happened yesterday in California, and it was Sarah Palin’s first speech after telling Chris Wallace on Sunday that it would be “absurd” for her not to consider a 2012 presidential run.  This was her first campaign speech for the presidential primary.

Palin’s appearance was hosted by the Sierra Cascade Logging Conference, and the Redding Convention Center was sold out.  2000 tickets that ranged in price from $50 to $75 a piece were gone  in less than an hour.  Another appearance was hastily added for a few hours later.  She is rumored to have pocketed $150,000 today.

Her mission was clear – generate grass roots support, and reforge her narrative for the presidential challenge ahead.  Gone were the snarky swipes at Obama, gone was the “mean girl” rhetoric, gone was terror talk.  She hammered home a populist message, punctuated with tales of her own accomplishments when she held elected office in Alaska - tales spun from the revisionist history found in her best-selling book, Going Rogue.

Free-market principles, and limited regulation were touted.  Big banks and big government were in the cross-hairs.  Environmentalists were the enemy-du-jour.  Palin was back in the “Real America” and the logging crowd was on its feet.

“You’re proof that the best of America is not all gathered in Washington, D.C.!”

“The government needs to stop playing politics with your responsible livelihoods!”

“You guys were doing ‘green jobs’ before they were cool!”

She said that she and her family knew what it was like to have a “politically incorrect” job because they’re fishermen.  Over and over the message was, “I’m one of you.”

The anti-evironmental sentiment could not have been clearer.  The one-time governor who sued the federal government over listing polar bears as an endangered species, came out swinging.  Global warming, she said, is ”a buch of snake oil science.”  She told the crowd how pleased she was that President Obama was not more successful at the recent climate conference in Copenhagen,calling the lack of progress “providential.”  She wanted him to fail.  Climate change is, she said, “bogus.”

Her speech was peppered with negatives – Van Jones is a communist, Nancy Pelosi boo hiss, but she was speaking with a voice designed to rally the troops. “Government bureaucracy has broken faith with the people that they are supposed to be serving,” was the message that was repeated over and over again.

She brought up the fact that the “lame stream” media had been making fun of her for having notes on her hand.  She’s a busy hockey mom, she told them.  She writes notes everywhere.  As a matter of fact, she had notes on her hand tonight, she told the crowd.  She showed the palm of her hand and read the words, “Loggers rock!”  The crowd went wild.

Eight year old Piper Palin made an appearance on stage at the end, and was acknowledged by her mom.  She stayed while Palin signed copies of Going Roguethat audience members had brought with them to get the coveted signature.   The book tour is officially over, and yet Palin is appearing across the country at events just like this.  She is no longer selling books.  She’s now selling herself.

She is using the same rhetoric, and the same populist appeal she used in Alaska when talking about the oil companies, and the corrupt Republican good ol’ boys.  Her establishment of “ACES” (Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share) which imposed heavier taxes on big oil is now in danger of collapse.  The Republicans she fought so hard against are seeking to dismantle what happened under her administration and pass new measures that would act as a billion dollar gift to big oil.  When Palin left office, it was under the guise of being able to help Alaska from the outside, rather than the inside.   But on ACES, her only bipartisan legacy, her voice is silent.  Instead she’s telling funny jokes to the logging industry.

“When a tree falls in the forest, and there’s nobody around to hear it….”

“what happens to environmental lawsuits?”

But before you start thinking that Palin is just a carbon-spewin’, polar bear drownin’, coal burnin’ destructionist, she did concede that she does consider herself a conservationist. “I named my daughter Willow.  Isn’t that granola enough for them?”  Apparently that’s all we environmentalists (assuming that we are “them“) need to make it all better.  Just get fringe right wing presidential wannabees to start naming their children Rainbow, and Tofu and Daffodil, and everyone will live happily ever after.

In 2006 it was Conoco-Phillips;  at the Tea Party last Saturday it was terrorism; today it was the environmentalists, but the formula is the same.  Each day and at each event, she will create a custom-made dragon and ask the crowd to join her in the slaying.

As the overwhelmingly white, older, working-class crowd made its way out of the building, it was obvious that they were impressed, and there wasn’t anyone who didn’t believe she wouldn’t be running for President in 2012.  To Palin, these sell-out crowds who give her ovation after ovation mean one thing – God has opened another door, and she’s ready to plow through it.

1.5 Million Astro-Turf Seeds for Alaska

by Shannyn Moore

On May 15, 2008, the federal government put polar bears on the endangered species list. I figured if George W. Bush said they’re endangered, there were probably 11 of them left and we should put them in zoos. It took exactly one week for half-governor Palin to respond with a threat to sue.

www.visionsofthewild.com

At the time, the ADN reported:

She and other Alaska elected officials fear a listing will cripple oil and gas development in prime polar bear habitat off the state’s northern and northwestern coasts.

Palin argued there is not enough evidence to support a listing. Polar bears are well-managed and their population has dramatically increased over 30 years as a result of conservation, she said.

Climate models that predict continued loss of sea ice, the main habitat of polar bears, during summers are unreliable, Palin said.

Good Lord, I thought we had moved on.

This week the Legislative Council allocated $1.5 million for a conference and public relations campaign to sully the Endangered Species Act. Six members of this council are appointed by Senate President Gary Stevens (R) and six by Speaker of the House, John Harris (R).

It was reported in the ADN:

The effort was conceived as a national public relations campaign aimed at creating a “grass-roots” call for limits on the Endangered Species Act. The Legislative Council has solicited bids from public relations firms willing to organize a conference in Anchorage on the act, with the findings to be used in the public relations effort.

“Grass-Roots”?!   More like astroturfing!

Eddie Grasser, a legislative staffer for the Outdoor Heritage Caucus which is chaired by John Harris (R) and Charlie Huggins (R), organized the quest for public relations solicitation.  A quick Google of Mr. Grasser shows he packs quite an agenda.

Mr. Grasser is the President of the Hunter Heritage Foundation. A 501(c)3 organization “formed to promote conservation of Alaska’s fish, wildlife and wild places…” Their website offers no membership or donation button. No data base came up with any verification of a 501(c)3 status-it was only listed on their site. They do list their corporate sponsors, though: Alaska Chapter Safari Club International, Alaska Friends of NRA, Northern Dynasty/Pebble Project, British Petroleum, Conoco Phillips, Agrium, Tesoro , Anadarko Petroleum, Shell Oil, Alyeska Pipeline Company, Alaska Tanker Company, and the City of Wasilla, to name a few.

Mr. Grasser has one up on Obama. He’s the President twice! Not just of the Hunter Heritage Foundation, but he is also the President of the Outdoor Heritage Foundation of Alaska. Another 501(c)3 that has a remarkably similar mission statement about fish, wildlife, etc. The last event listed was in 2007 and was the launch of the website. Their business license is active. They have no site link to join their organization or donate to their cause. Mr. Grasser has his home listed as the address for the organization. They too have a list of sponsors: The Alaska Outdoor Council, Safari Club International-Alaska Chapter, Alaska Friends of the NRA, SCI Kenai Chapter, British Petroleum, Conoco Phillips, Pebble Partnership/Northern Dynasty, The NRA, PacWest, Shell Oil, Pioneer Natural Resources, Clay Cartridge Company, ACS, Udelhoven Oilfield Services, Anadarko Petroleum, Tesoro Alaska…you get the idea.

I’m curious if PacWest has an interest in the $1.5 million dollar job. They sponsor Mr. Grasser’s organization and have offices around the country. In February 2007, Pac/West announced that former U.S. House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo was joining the firm as a “senior partner.” Previous Pac/West campaigns had backed Pombo’s “attempts to rework the Endangered Species Act and open the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve to oil drilling.” Rolling Stone magazine listed Pombo at number seven in their article The Ten Worst Congressman. “No member of Congress has worked harder to savage America’s natural resources than Pombo.”

Grasser has been in his position as the “Outdoor Heritage Caucus” staffer since June of 2006. Soon after, the ballot initiative process had begun to ban aerial wolf hunting. I wrote about this extensively in September of 2008. Prior to that, the half-governor allocated over $400,00 of state funds to “educate” Alaskans on the benefits of shooting wolves and bears from planes. Not to be outdone, Lt. Governor Sean Parnell, who was in charge of the state Division of Elections, ensured the ballot language would be as confusing as possible-A YES vote on aerial wolf hunting would ban the practice. A NO vote would maintain the status quo! The aerial wolf hunting ballot proposition was defeated in the August election.

The Safari Club Press release RE: Prop 2 2008 – SCI’s Alaska Chapter president, Eddie Grasser added, “The misinformation spread by the proponents of this ballot initiative was amazing, but not surprising considering these individuals are not Alaskans and do not understand Alaska’s wildlife and ecology. Many organizations rallied together to ensure that Alaskan wildlife management remained the prerogative of the state Department of Fish and Game – not out-of-state extremist groups.”

Wow. That meme is just wrong. There are many “Real Alaskans” who worked hard on the ballot initiative and voted for it. Mr. Grasser seems to consider anyone not agreeing with his ideology to be part of “out-of-state extremist groups”.

While running the NRA booth at the Alaska State Fair in 2008, Time Magazine caught up with him for a story they were writing about VP candidate Sarah Palin:

Across the row from the State Fair livestock pavilion — with its champion pigs, giant cabbage and 900-lb. pumpkins — Eddie Grasser mans an NRA booth. Palin is a lifetime NRA member — a demographic that has not been particularly high on John McCain — and Grasser couldn’t be more excited about the governor he calls Sarah. Like Grasser, everyone here seems to be on a first name basis with their politicians. “It’s just one of those things about Alaska politics,” says Grasser.

What Time should have followed up with: Then why didn’t you support her when she ran for Lieutenant Governor?

From Mother Jones – And the day before the Republican primary, in an August 26, 2002 email to Eddie Grasser, a leader of the Alaska Outdoor Council, a lobby for hunters and firearms owners, Palin expressed her disappointment at not receiving the AOC endorsement. She pointed out that she was a “lifetime member of the NRA” and a recipient of its “Defender of the 2nd Amendment Award.” In the email–which promoted her campaign positions–she objected to the process used by the AOC in endorsing one of her opponents in the Republican primary contest: “The AOC stated the endorsement was based on candidates’ answers to the AOC’s ‘extensive questionnaire’…but in reality there was no questionnaire sent to Lt. Gov. candidates.” She asked if she could “use the AOC’s email address book to remind our members of my positions.” And she encouraged Grasser to visit her campaign website. This email–also sent via her official Wasilla city account–was addressed to over 300 people in addition to Grasser.

Grasser was Beverly Masek’s chief of staff. Masek pled guilty to conspiracy, and awaits sentencing.

In 1988, he was listed as an occasional lobbyist and Vice President of the Alaska Professional Hunters Association. The article, written by Craig Medred, points out the conflict of interest Grasser found himself in when he would host, guide and list as an “assistant guide” the Alaska Fish and Wildlife Protection officer Sgt. Robert Boutang.

Eddie Grasser is not an elected official. He’s a back-door lobbyist. Not many “Grasser-roots” here, but a whole crop of astro-turf.

Please contact the legislators on the committee listed above. Their address links are provided. Alaska has a hard enough time growing grass without the astro-turfing effects of corporate back-door lobbyists.

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More on these developments at TPM Muckraker HERE

Linda Kellen Biegel is the proprietor of the Blue Oasis blog and has done an outstanding job of following up on many issues involving ethics complaints, ethics legislation and how we can hold our elected officials accountable to us, the people who elected them.

While it takes effort to participate, and give testimony, and maintain contact with your legislators, the price of apathy is too high.  Thanks to Linda for doing all the work required to understand what’s going on, and sharing it with the rest of us.  We owe her a debt which is easily paid by participating to make the system better for everyone.

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Alaska Legislature – Public Testimony Today Regarding Changes to the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act

By Linda Kellen Biegel
A couple of weeks ago, I did a post on the three bills proposed by members of the Legislature to supposedly “fix” problems with the act.  As I discuss in the post, two of the bills, HB 254 (Rep. Bob Lynn) and HB 263 (Rep. Mike Doogan) try to make things more confidential by having complaints dismissed if the complainant exercises his/her free speech rights by even stating that they have filed one.  The bills fail to address a much more pressing problem…that the Governor has hiring/firing authority over the very Board that is supposed to hold him/her accountable.

I share a list of reasons why those bills are a bad idea:

1)  In Alaska, the general public is not permitted to ask the Attorney General/the Department of Law for an official “decision” on an ethics issue.  It can only be done by certain Government Employees, a public officer or their legal representative.  The only way the general public can get a LEGAL RULING from the State of Alaska on an issue of ethics is to file a complaint.

2)  Ethics complaints from the general public against public officers are based on public information, not employment records, etc., to which the general public does not have access.  As there is no airing of information made confidential by Alaska Statute, there is NO REASON for the process not to be completely public.

3) During my experience with the complaint process, I constantly heard the meme from the Palin camp that “If these were ethics complaints against a legislator, mentioning them to the media would have them thrown out.”

According to an amendment to the Legislative Code of Ethics, yes that is true, for now. (covered in number 4)

However, there is a really big difference in how the Legislative Ethics Committee is selected:

The ethics committee has nine members: two senators, two representatives and five public members. The committee is divided into a House Subcommittee and a Senate Subcommittee for the purpose of considering most complaints. Elected officials, who serve two-year terms, are appointed by the leadership of the appropriate body with the concurrence of two-thirds of the full membership of that house. The public members, who serve a three-year term, are selected by the Chief Justice of the Alaska Supreme Court and ratified by two thirds of the full membership of the legislature.

as opposed to the appointing/firing authority of the Governor over the Personnel Board.

The current Board has repeatedly demonstrated unprofessional behavior towards the public, has stalled on holding Palin accountable for The Alaska Fund Trust, and there is a tendency of their hired guns to obfuscate and ignore legal precendent in their decisions.

4)  As I read the Attorney General’s conclusion, the two House Bills in the Legislature right now could actually violate free speech rights if taken to court.  This could even indicate that the Legislative Ethics provision for complaint dismissal could possibly be thrown out if a case ever makes it to court.

5) I mentioned The Alaska Fund Trust earlier.  I have checked into it and STILL nothing has happened with the case or it would have been made public.  Did anyone notice that if the report had not been leaked to the public, we would never know that THE ALASKA FUND TRUST IS A POTENTIAL ETHICS VIOLATION (if she spends it)?

What’s the Personnel Board waiting for, the two-year statute of limitations to be up on ethics violations so Palin can spend the money?

To me, this is the single-largest piece of evidence that there are MORE PRESSING problems that need fixing with the Executive Branch Ethics process than a lack of confidentiality.

Perhaps…maybe…a lack of accountability?

Today, there is Public Testimony regarding the proposed changes to the Executive Branch Ethics Act:

(H)ADMINISTRATIVE REGULATION REVIEW JOINT COMMITTEE *Feb 08 Monday 3:00 PM CAPITOL 17

+  (9 AAC 52) Proposed Regulations Relating
to Executive Branch Ethics (TELECONFERENCED)

— Public Testimony —

+  (15 AAC 55.280 – 15AAC 55.811) Proposed
Regulations Relating to Oil and Gas Tax
Credit and Heating Value of Gas (TELECONFERENCED)

– Public Testimony –

Executive Session

Anyone can participate in the teleconference at one of the Legislative Information Offices (LIOs) across the state.  Click on the link to find one near you, if you don’t live in Anchorage or Fairbanks:

Anchorage Legislative Information Office
716 W 4th Avenue, Suite 200
Anchorage, AK 99501-2133

Main (907) 269-0111
Fax: (907) 269-0229
TDD: (907) 269-0260
Anchorage_LIO@legis.state.ak.us

Fairbanks Legislative Information Office
1292 Sadler Way, Suite 308
Fairbanks, AK 99701

Main(907) 452-4448
Fax: (907) 456-3346
TDD: (907) 456-5076
Fairbanks_LIO@legis.state.ak.us

If you cannot participate in the teleconference, here are the members of the Administrative Regulation Review Joint Committee.  Please send your comments to each of them (click the links for their email addresses).

CHAIR:  Representative Keller
VICE-CHAIR:  Senator Olson
MEMBER: Representative Gatto
MEMBER: Senator Kookesh
MEMBER: Representative Guttenberg
MEMBER: Senator Meyer

Hooray! Our fair city has maintained the highest possible bond rating! Woo-hoo! Yeah, baby!  Hip hip….. Hey, what’s the matter over there? (We look quizzically at the sad, sad star). Turn that frown upside down Mr. Star!  This is great!  It means we all have to pay less money for things than we would if the city had a lower bond rating.

Well, despite his best efforts to sabotage the city’s bond rating, Assemblyman Bill Starr will just have to be happy with a good grade.  He did his best.  With an impressive show of melodrama and a breathless trip to the FBI to turn our city in, he tried his best to tank that AA rating.  He tried to convey to the powers that be that our super-great bond rating was based on fraud.  Mikunda Cottreell, the fine, upstanding company who did that audit (and is one of only two firms in the city who are even capable of doing this type of audit) must not be very pleased with Mr. Starr. .

“Standard & Poors’ affirming the Municipality’s AA bond rating is just further proof of the professionalism and integrity of the information provided by the Begich Administration,” Hasquet said in a statement. “You can rest assured if Standard & Poor’s was concerned about the bond rating, they would make it known in short order.”

Assemblyman Bill Starr recently contacted the FBI asking them to investigate the claims of Begich administration wrongdoing. He did not return request for comment.

But Hasquet hopes this will quiet him and other critics.

“Hopefully, Mr. Starr and his cohorts will stop trying to make headlines and start focusing on the real issues facing the city,” she said.

Mayor Sullivan says this is not about what has happened in the past but about where we are now.

The entire editorial staff at Mudflats (me) says, “Whatever.”  The Sullivan administration, Mr. Sad Starr and their cohorts have been doing nothing but whining and grousing about the previous administration since they took office.  Mr. Sullivan thinks the Senator’s chair looks a lot more comfy than the Mayor’s chair and apparently believes the “piss and moan” strategy is the best way to get there.

So what was the last bond rating when Mayor Begich was still in office?  Care to hazard a guess?   Yes.  That would be the same excellent AA bond rating we just got.

In other words, (according to the current administration) we got a good ratingduring the second term of the Begich administration, and we got the same good rating in the first year of the Sullivan administration, and the sky is falling and it’s all Mark Begich’s fault even though we don’t look to the past but only live in the present, both of which look good.

Grab the hand rail if you feel dizzy.

And as soon as you recover your balance, grab your wallet.  Because next thing on the administration’s “to do” list is to have a “forensic audit” done.  “But, didn’t we just have an audit done,” you ask?  Why, yes we did.  “And didn’t the results of that audit lead to our super-fantastic AA bond rating?”  Why, yes they did.  “And aren’t audits expensive?”  Why yes, as a matte of fact they are.

So what gives?   What you’re witnessing is a waste of time and money which will pay for negative advertising against Mark Begich and for Dan Suliivan.  It’s the price of a witch hunt, and we get to pay for it.

I found that after watching the entire Sarah Palin Tea Party speech and accompanying interview last night, I needed to find a “happy place.”  It ended up being the Deep Oceans episode of the incredible series Planet Earth.  And it was probably that that got me thinking about whales.

The dvd had some incredible footage of blue whales.  I’ve never seen one in person. I know that they do swim in arctic waters, but don’t often make it close to shore.  But a very respectable runner-up on my whale wish list is the fin whale.  They don’t get all the glamor and attention of the largest whale.  They live in the  perpetual shadow of their larger cousins as the second-largest whale.  I didn’t know much about fin whales until I had the good luck of ending up in the middle of a pod of them.

These whales, unlike the big blues, swim right up into Resurrection Bay near Seward.  I’ve been on a boat in Resurrection Bay more times than I can count, but I’ve only seen these gentle giants a couple of times, and never quite like I did this day.

There’s realy no good way to describe their bigness.  No matter how many ‘really’s I put in front of “big” it just doesn’t do it.  And multiply that indescribable bigness by nine whales and you’ve got a moment you’ll never forget.   The engine was cut and the only sounds were the sloshing of the waves against the side of the boat, a few sea birds, and the incredibly loud, forceful puffing spouts of a pod of 80-foot whales.

They are baleen whales (filter feeders) and are also known as common rorqals.  Unfortunately they are uncommon when you go by the numers, and are considered to be an endangered species.

There was no doubt they were curious about the boat.  We weren’t going anywhere, and with the whole big bay at their disposal, they headed our way, and the nearer they got, the more amazing it was.  They finally swam right past the boat, two of them gliding directly underneath as we held our breath watching their long sleek bodies through the water as they kept going and going and going.

If I’d been wearing dive gear, nobody could have kept me in the boat.