PETA and the Palin Administration – the Unravelling.
I don’t know how to describe it. The unravelling of a scarf? A slow motion train wreck? The Twilight Zone? A playground fight? We’ve probably all witnessed escalating email flame wars of one kind or another. Once somebody steps over the line of civility, there is rarely a good outcome.
But, I have to tell you, I have never seen anything like the two unravelling scarves (I’ll go with that one) that are Sarah Palin’s Communications Director Bill McAllister, and Alaska Democratic House Representative Mike Doogan. Is there some strange alignment of planets? Unusual auroral activity? Toxic winds blowing over from China? Too much eggnog? Whatever it is, the Christmas holiday has brought out the inner 12-year old in both these notable politicos.
I have waited until after Christmas to bring this up because I just couldn’t make myself do it on a holiday that celebrates peace and brotherly love. But now it’s the morning after, and all bets are off.
First installment: Bill McAllister.
If you haven’t heard the latest on the scuffle between McAllister and PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), here’s a recap.
PETA got a phone call claiming to be from Palin’s office, threatening to sue if an online game in which players pelt the governor with snowballs was not removed from the site.
PETA posted this interaction on their blog.
Bill McAllister, within hours of the entry being posted on the blog, emailed PETA. Here is the exchange between McAllister and Ingrid Newkirk, President of PETA.
(Quick break to make popcorn. Butter…salt….OK, I’m ready.)
BM: Your website claims we have threatened to sue you. What do you base this on? Be specific.
IN: Dear Mr. McAllister,
We base this on a phone call. Why don’t you ask in your office and be specific as to on what grounds you can sue us? We know that we can use the game as it’s pure parody. I thought people in Alaska had a sense of humor? Ingrid Newkirk
BM: That’s not very specific. Who called? Name and title given? Did you even attempt to verify it was genuine? Or are facts just cumbersome?
IN: Do they train you to be rude?
(Munch, munch, munch)
BM: OK, so the bottom line is, you have attitude, but no facts. Sounds about right.
IN: No, YOU have attitude, and it’s a bad one, and so did your legal emissary who must have gone to the same charm school.
(Munch, munch, munch)
BM: Our still unnamed legal emissary, huh? Whether or not I’m charming in your eyes, at least I’m accountable.
IN: You will be when you die, don’t you think? Did someone put Red Bull in your water cooler? Are you now saying that no one called from your office, that’s my question, or did the person who called overplay his hand, or what, not that I really care any more?
BM:
Subject: RE: sorry?To answer the question in your subject line, yes, you are sorry.
I wouldn’t know if the person who (allegedly) called overplayed his (a man, then? – still waiting for more details) hand. No one here knows what you’re talking about.
Oh, you used to care? Which decade was that?
(Licking butter off fingers) Let’s keep this little conversation going shall we? How might it progress from here if it had continued?
IN: I’ll Paypal you a quarter so you can call someone who cares. Jerk.
BM: Takes one to know one.
IN: You wish.
BM: No YOU wish, you doodoo head.
IN: I know you are but what am I?
BM: Sticks and stones may break my bones…
IN: I’m rubber and you’re glue.
BM: Your mother’sa doodoo head.
IN: So is your face!
BM: Yeah, well my mother could kick your mother’s <screechy brake noise>
You get the idea. And the Anchorage Daily News got this response from McAllister when they asked him about the exchange:
“The bottom line is that no lawsuit was threatened or is being considered concerning their silly on-line snowball game, and I am certain the call, if it even occurred, did not come from this office. At best, they simply don’t care who the made the call, but just see an opportunity to continue their histrionic commentary on the governor. And of course that’s why they sent the e-mail exchange to you and Politico. (We didn’t know anything about this web-posting until Julia O’Malley e-mailed me about it yesterday.)
Oh, and I’m having turkey for Christmas dinner.”
He sort of held it together….until that last line. He just couldn’t help himself. Oooooo. He’s eating turkey. Maybe he can take a picture of himself eatingturkey and email it to Ingrid Newkirk. That’ll get her.
And really? A turkey reference? Oy.
Yes, PETA did participate in the snarky email exchange. However, Ingrid Newkirk is not running for office. But Bill McAllister is the press secretary for a sitting Governor, a public servant, a woman who was recently a Vice-Presidential candidate, a woman who wants to be her party’s nominee for president in four years, someone whose every move and every word are under a giant magnifying glass. And thisis the face Bill McAllister presents to the world as her official spokesman? The mind reels.
One would think that this new-fangled world of electronic messages, and this “inter net” were still a mystery to him. Maybe he just doesn’t realize that whatever he says online doesn’t go away, and it can get passed around quickly to lots and lots of people. Want to know what I would have said if I were Palin’s press secretary?
Dear Ms. Newkirk,
I became aware today that you have published a post stating that someone from Governor Palin’s office threatened to sue PETA if you did not remove your online game featuring the governor. I assure you that the call you received did not come from this office. I do not know who placed the call, but it is not unreasonable to assume it may have come from a fan of the governor’s who was upset. I apologize for any misunderstanding regarding this matter, and request that you please print a correction on your blog as soon as possible. Feel free to call me with any questions.
Bill McAllister
That wasn’t particularly difficult. It took about 2 minutes. And, correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that I actually sounded like a grown-up. My hunch is that a letter of that type would have gotten a retraction printed, and very little other press. The way McAllister chose to handle it, managed to make him look like an adolescent, and will add yet another layer of embarrassment and perceived incompetence to the Palin administration, and how it conducts its affairs. This is OK with me, don’t get me wrong. But the degree to which this ridiculousness has risen makes me believe that Bill McAllister has slipped into some kind of political dementia. There’s really no other way to explain it. Maybe the campaign was just too much for him? I don’t know. And that was not the end of our story. His conduct has now opened the floodgates, and he is probably receiving critical emails.
And he’s been returning those emails with more snark, on Christmas Day no less!
Just for fun, look what Sarah Palin had to say about McAllister on August 12, 2008 when she announced he’d be her new press secretary:
“We are fortunate to have someone of Bill’s caliber joining our team,” Governor Palin said. “His talent, intelligence and incredible gift of communicating with the public will serve Alaska well. I am pleased he will be part of our efforts to build an effective, responsive and positive branch of government.”
Damage control at this point is probably futile. The story has been covered by a whole host of national and local blogs, the Anchorage Daily News, PETA, the L.A. Times, Slate.Com, the Daily Mail, and on and on. You can’t unring a bell, but if I were to give Mr. McAllister a piece of advice, it would be this: Just. shut. up. Do not speak. (He starts to speak) AA! AA! AA! (hand up) No speaking. Just shhhhhhh.
On second thought, what am I saying? Go ahead. Let it rip! I’ve got more popcorn around here somewhere.
For more news about what our Alaskan politicos have been up to over the last 48 hours, stay tuned for installment #2 of our Holiday Email Twilight Zone- Mike Doogan.
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I’m now a bit relieved not to have received any response whatsoever (not even a rude one) to my own communications with Alaska legislators. I would have cut off email privileges had any of my children ever engaged in any such McAllisterean spewing. Has anyone explained to this fellow that email, once sent, cannot effectively be “scrubbed”?
Peace be to all Mudflatters.
I hate both PETA and Sarah Palin so the idea that they are flaming each other is highly entertaining. This has got to be due to the law of mutual attraction.
It sounds like Mr. Mc Allister has a problem.
Everything and everybody that Sarah Palin is involved with has some sort of issue.
It will be interesting to see how Mr. Mc Alister represents Gov. Pallin as she attempts to be a Republican candidate for President and still fulfills her duties as Gov.
To be fair, the person responding from PETA was being childish, too. She should have simply recounted what they’d received, and let it go at that.
but as you say, McAllister is representing a public official, and definitely should be held to a higher standard.
It also sounds like Palin’s office has a bit of a problem with being oversensitive to public criticism. They should have just ignored it, no one would have paid any attention. Now it’s in the news. Idiots.
Before McAllister gets anywhere near a computer, he should come up from the basement and change out of his pajamas!
Both were petty and snarky, but it is quite amusing to read. The descent into madness is evident on both sides. But only one represents an elected official, the other represents an organization that tries to get me to donate funds to them. Neither one of their interests is presented positively in this exchange, to be honest, that is why I enjoy it so much.
I have just one word to say about all of this…… OY !!!
If the governor’s spokesperson cannot handle minor dust-ups on a state level, why should we think he’ll be her voice for anything beyond that. These next two years will be so challenging for SP, she just might throw her hands up and surrender. Off she goes to the barren tundra. Well we could all pray for that, right. And I hope the Alaska legislature gets ready for fleeting glimpses of SP, in February. I mean it’s a week off for CPAC, and then you have the Irondog, that’s good for another week. Just watch the per diems and travel expenses pile up. I hope that those legislators genetically marked grow a big pair of churchbells, maybe they could muster up enough inner strength, and ring them in her face. These are the folks that could derail any aspirations SP has, lets hope and pray they act as there constituents expect them to.
Yes. Emails from public offices should be written as if the public will read them. That said, I am reminded of the French taunting of King Arthur in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”
Both look silly and foolish, but the greatest shame goes to the one with the greatest stature and dignity to lose.
I’m fond of the train wreck analogy myself. It starts out at high velocity, but doesn’t come to a stop for a long time. De-railings continue to occur. Disarray and damage only increases, and one winces as yet another car derails, and threatens the cars behind it.
More popcorn please!
: )
OMG, are you just beginning to notice everyone paling (reference to her terrorist mantra) picks has the same backwardness and lack of intelligence she so aptly demonstrated these past few months.
Has Bristol delivered her bundle of joy yet?
There is a site about palin’s deceptions which is investigating trig’s birth and looking at the photos of sp during her alleged pregenancy.
When will Bristol deliver? Wasn’t she due on the 20th?
Here’s to the Alaskans who are standing up to evil ignorance…rah, rah, rah.
Happy New Year to ALL!!
I still blame PETA more for letting themselves get pranked. But I have one question, since I’ve never seen McAllister. It has been obvious since the summer that Palin’s main advisors are the firm of Howard, Fine, and Howard. But is McAllister more suitable to be played by Curly or Shemp?
Oh, my goodness… AKM, you might as well start stockin’ The Mudflats Shoppe with popcorn, too!
I believe as I posted in the forum on this that McAllister is the one who called PETA and then after he called realized he had overstepped his bounds and had to retract. So he started checking to see if it would show up. When it did he had to try to cover it up. So he sent the email trying to deny it happened. Then it just snowballed. He couldn’t call back for fear of someone recognizing his voice, so he had to do it by email, then he just let his sarcastic and snide nature take over. I think he has been taking lessons from Meg and Sarah, put too much lipstick on that pit bull and the snark came through.
A Hollywood publicist would give a troubled client the following advice-”Stay out of sight,and don’t say anything else…wait until the press moves on to the next story.” All of our current crop of ‘pop tarts’-Britney, Paris, LaLohan-have learned to follow this advice.
Failed VP candidate Palin (yes…she is a little bit too old) has a different problem. She hasn’t been getting enough attention.
AKM is right – there is some sort of breakdown going on up here. I am still in disbelief of the email exchange that happened on Christmas Eve with Rep. Doogan! I keep looking around for my locker at Junior High School – it’s got to be here somewhere! And the principal’s office has a sign on the door: “too busy to handle more juvenile snarkies right now – please take a number and sit in the waiting room.”
AKM – if you need any of those emails from Dec 24 forwarded to you, let me know!
Prup: Assuming they WERE ‘pranked’. Judging by the not-exactly-a-professional-press-secretary attitude displayed in this exchange, I could easily believe that BM was the original caller, and that these emails were intended as ‘damage control’.
(P.S.: Please cast Shemp. Curly’s my favorite!)
Belly laughs, served up with buttered popcorn–now that’s the perfect start to my day! SP and her merry minions are truly the gift that keeps on giving!
Is McAllister one of Sarahs high school chums ???? He certainly acts like the rest of the buffoons that are the Palin posse !!
Over the holidays, the conversation turned to politics and I was extolling the virtues of this website in order to find out about Alaskan politics in general and Sarah Palin in particular since several of my friends and relatives had absolutely no idea about her history. A brother-in-law asked about the kind of people who post here since many sites are infested with trolls and juveniles.
I told him that in my estimation, the posters run the demographic gamut but I think the average (mode) person here is a well educated (college to college+) female, 50 or above, progressive who were likely weaned politically during the Vietnam era. I meant all of that in a positive light but was wondering if I am at all accurate in that assessment.
TMH (09:29:04) … I told him that in my estimation, the posters run the demographic gamut but I think the average (mode) person here is a well educated (college to college+) female, 50 or above, progressive who were likely weaned politically during the Vietnam era.
========================
Male over 50 myself progressive/liberal 4 year degree
The Mudflats forum has a list of members by state, here:
http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,3753.0.html
you could look at their profiles. Some people have indicated their age and gender. You could go there and check your estimation.
A large majority of the Moderators here are female. I don’t know why…
AKMs age and gender ? AKM ain’t talk’in …
Regina Wilson
Has Bristol delivered her bundle of joy yet?
Not to my knowledge but the longer this pregnancy goes on, the more I’m convinced that the Palin family put all their faith that this pregnancy would come a month early like the last one did.
Yep, Palin looking for more attention – Look how they are picking on me!
Or, sadly, PETA has been known to do a few things to get attention, too…
But BM’s reply is so – so – so – words fail me! How can anyone be such an idiot? Well, he always could run for office… looks like he has the basic qualifications.
And – I am female, not only over 50, but over 60! YIKES! When did that happen??? – and post grad…
In regards to what Bill McAllister wrote, “Thou doest protest too much, me thinks”.
A new category for ‘Numbskullery’. AKM, is this a sub-category under You Can’t Make This Stuff Up? (Can’t help it. I’m a librarian. I’m all about the bibliographic control.) Winky-face emoticon.
I’m assuming the Doogan post will be entry #2 in this new category…
Happy Boxing Day! (This post lends new meaning to the day.)
My vote is for Todd Palin being the original incensed caller threatening to sue PETA…
Like someone observed over on the PETA commentary, he probably didn’t tell either his domineering wife or her publicity lackey. I’d be willing to bet this PETA-threat phone call went down pretty much the same way the first few telephone calls to Wooten did…
…Has Bristol delivered her bundle of joy yet?
If it’s a girl, they’ll name her Crystal and if it’s a boy they’ll name him “Meth” ew.
TMHNo Gravatar (09:29:04) :
“average (mode) person here is a well educated (college to college+) female, 50 or above, progressive who were likely weaned politically during the Vietnam era.”
——————-
Well, you nailed me.
As to the other, I’m wondering if the Sarah herself started this. Just like her to get in a PI$$ing contest with PETA – maybe she sees her star falling, also, maybe, also.
Oh, and TMH? I like categories for information. For people? Not so much. In your effort to reduce us all to a type, you forgot to mention race. Whaddaya think? The one that’s usually at the top of the list of boxes to check?
PETA needs to contact their phone provider and ask for a trace on the “call”………even if the person did the lame *67…….it can show up………..wanna bet on Todd ???
I like AKM’s response to PETA, is it exactly how BM (hehe)should of responded…I do think it is something up there, in the water whatever, this is reposted from the other night:
The real obvious, is that MOST ALL the politician’s up there in Alaska are very unprofessional….PERIOD! Look at our Doogan/Dyson emails. These people are dolts! They have obviouslly never seen higher education…perhaps not even high school! Prob. someone from Teamsarah called PETA (you know to “protect her”) and Bill instead of just sayin’ that Barbies office didn’t make the call, thank you very much, acted all, Alaska politician on them. And its in emails on the INTERNET like Doogan’s/Dyson’s for everyone to read and see how very stupid and what imbeciles they are…
Now I know, we have some very smart Alaskan muddpuppies, here, anyone want to run for office b/c the people, of Alaska, well they really need professional, intelligent people up there in office, it is severely lacking and being shown to the world starting with Barbie:
Of course, it’s a fungible commodity and they don’t
flag, you know, the molecules, where it’s going and
where it’s not. But in the sense of the Congress
today, they know that there are very, very hungry
domestic markets that need that oil first. So, I
believe that what Congress is going to do, also, is
not to allow the export bans to such a degree that
it’s Americans who get stuck holding the bag without
the energy source that is produced here, pumped here.
It’s got to flow into our domestic markets first.
As AKM says YCMTSU!!!!
And to add to the above post, either “teamsarah or first dud” as someone suggested….
Will someone PLEASE tell AK government employees how to use email?
Don’t they have an appropriate use policy?
So effing stupid!
I love the category Numbscullery . Now what is the origin of that word?
“Oh, and I’m having turkey for Christmas dinner.”
And what the hell????
After the Turkey “fiasco” He says that???? Numbsullery, is a understatement!
After all that has been written on Mudflats it would seem appropriate for someone to create a new series for cable like the old TV shows, Dynasty, Dallas, Hotel. My pick is “Affairs of State” about the misadventures and mismanagement of a fictional state….Oh heck..lets call it Alaska. All this stuff that AKM writes about is great fodder for a sensational new TV series. This stuff is so unbelievable it shakes you to the core when you realize..WOW its really true. Of course the writer would have to change the names to protect the guilty. What fun..it would run for years. All those cliffhanger endings each season…failed bids for new office..secret births…Senate seats in jeopardy..politicians running a muck. The popcorn industry would literly explode in growth. He He
Affairs of State … starring? (Since this is fantasy, I think it’s okay if the actors are already dead or not contemporaries)
Okay, I’ll start it off… Tilda Swinton as AKM (love the gender ambiguity thing she does so well…)
Grumpy in Illinois…….why not a comedy?…and why only on cable?
We could try a new version of “Get Smart”….we would have to reverse the roles….Palin could be the bumbling, stumbling Maxwell, and the Dud could be sidekick Agent86.
I think the Palinistas are having a bit of a melt down, too much attention makes toddlers act up. Bill needs a nap.
Interesting that B.M. didn’t know if anyone from the governor’s office called, suggests (yet again) that they have no control over what goes on in the Atwood building. No one checked out the phone call with the bad French accent and no one knows if someone called PETA to bitch about the website. Maybe if they moved Mrs. Palin’s office to Juneau, there’s be less staff to wrangle and they wouldn’t act like a herd of turkeys.
I can’t wait for part 2 on Mike Doogan.
“TMH — I told him that in my estimation, the posters run the demographic gamut but I think the average (mode) person here is a well educated (college to college+) female, 50 or above, progressive who were likely weaned politically during the Vietnam era. I meant all of that in a positive light but was wondering if I am at all accurate in that assessment.”
~~~~~~~~~
Well, you pretty much described me right there, IF my Associates Degree counts as college.
Definitely politically weaned during the Vietnam War – if becoming politically active during 5th grade counts???? Remain committed progressive (and rabble rouser when needed). . . .given a t-shirt that says “bitch – not just a word, but a lifestyle!” from a person who was very p.o. at my opinions. . . I wear that shirt with PRIDE
@TMH — I told him that in my estimation, the posters run the demographic gamut but I think the average (mode) person here is a well educated (college to college+) female, 50 or above, progressive who were likely weaned politically during the Vietnam era.
———————————
47, female, living in Ireland though born in Australia (Irish parents). I was afraid of the Vietnam war in Australia as there was a danger my brothers would be conscripted.
Educationally wise, I have spent around 15 years in college earning 4 degrees. Not all at once.
I never play online games, yet I had to try it just to get the satisfaction. Love the little yelp she gives when you pelt her with the snowball. It was tough to get there with my laptop since I don’t have a real mouse…
Yes, PETA lady was more childish and rude, but she pushed his buttons and he was unable to remain professional (if he was in the first place) nor was he able to disengage. She really got to him…I love this place! I’m going to follow Alaskan politics for the rest of my days….
@ Wired: “Happy Boxing Day! (This post lends new meaning to the day.)” LOL
(is as good a meaning as any I’ve heard….truth is, nobody really knows anymore….gotta love the Brits and their “traditions”).
AKM…..waiting for installment #2…….starring Rep. Doogan……..Well?
(like eating popcorn….I’m hooked again…)
Dr. Phil just used the you can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig remark, lol……..ouch……wonder what memories that brings back to his audiance, the show is about Parent Alienation Syndrome (losing your right to see or have a relationship with your children and what people will go through for that right)…….I just turned it on and caught the lipstick comment.
ps……I just now got back onto the new mudflats web site using internet explorer……googlechrome was still defaulting to 404 error message…..but I haven’t rebooted the computer either, that may help?
Me, also too, waiting for 2nd installment.
I only got as far as the second level in the PETA game.
also, too, I like having access to those email records, lol…….Gov. Palin must be modeling the email thing after Rove and our outgoing MO Repub Gov. Matt Blunt…….she even got a mention in this last write up. Running in the same circles me thinks, palin around with corrupt repubs and behaving like them…………wake up Alaskans! smell the stink.
US citizens there’s hope, Blunt chose not to run (he wouldn’t have won anyway) AND WE VOTED IN A DEMOCRAT GOV!!! YES WE DID AND YES YOU CAN!
http://crooksandliars.com/2007/04/13/4-years-of-roves-emails-go-bye-bye/
http://crooksandliars.com/2008/01/10/missouri-gov-matt-blunt-has-an-email-problem/
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2008/12/04/special-prosecutors-file-lawsuit-alleging-blunt-violated-sunshine-law/
ya better watch your actions Gov Palin and her administraion……people are watching.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/columnists.nsf/tonymessenger/story/626F09089A32495D862575070015C0D2?OpenDocument
new thread alert
What else can you expect from the people who brought us “up close and personal” to dying turkeys?
love this place! I’m going to follow Alaskan politics for the rest of my days….
————————————————————–I’m hooked.
ZERO respect for PETA. They are a very extreme, uncouth organization. I respect the goal of protecting the rights and well-being of animals, but PETA’s goals are often incredibly misguided and uninformed. They are belligerently militant.
While McAllister could have started out his inquiry with a little more politeness, the PETA woman had just as much responsibility to helpfully give him some VERY SIMPLE information. Especially given PETA’s reputation as an asshole of an organization.
Can’t stand Palin and her whole crew, and the hypocrisy she represents, but if I had to take sides I’d side with McAllister.
The British royal family have a saying.
In a crisis, do nothing.
Perhaps we could all put this on a postcard and send it to Bill?
Are Palin and ALL her cronies mentally ill? My God.
Onion – they won’t stop now………this is such an easy and big target…….Bill really should shut-up .
It’s the “S.S. Delusion” captained by Sarah……..onward thru the fog……..
Well, PETA is definately the more juvenile of the two. How so, you say?
Because PETA forwarded ALL of the e-mail exchange to a media outlet without permission of both parties. That is a violation of internet/email ethics protocol. Since when has ethics stopped PETA from doing anything? (PETA kills)
As to Bill McAllister’s professionalism, from what I read here he seems to fit right in with what I’ve read of Palin’s administration. I doubt she’ll find any fault with the exchange, except perhaps that McAllister was having turkey instead of moose.
The Palin Administration has consistently displayed a total lack of the ability to just STFU when needed. Troopergate would have been a non-event if Sarah would have Stopped Talking about Monegan when she had an underling fire him. He gave her a pass when she canned him — he was silent for a week or two. She kept yammering about it and it all blew up big-time.
It’s painful to watch this administration do things that are so dumb, so often.
Bill McAllister used to be a good journalist. It’s disappointing to see a good guy go over to the Dark Side, apparently so willingly. He hasn’t figured email out yet, and doesn’t seem to realize that email doesn’t disappear into the ether once you send it. That it’s like a boomerang that’ll keep whacking you upside the head. The PETA emails on both sides are stupid. (I think Frank Bailey or Todd made the phone call, unless it really was B.M.)
On another topic: Mike Doogan is one of my favorite people that I’m not related to, and his normal tone of voice is, and has always been, snarky. I find humor in snarky-ness, but I have a strong dose of Irish ancestry, so maybe it’s genetic. (Doogan is a fellow Irish-American and he knows more and funnier Irish jokes than I do, which is annoying.) I don’t think Mike was being unprofessional in that email; I think Mike was being Mike the legislator who used to be a journalist and is a writer. He knows the power of words, unlike SWWNBN.
So, as you roast Doogan on these pages, please know that he has someone among you who admires him. He’s a very serious legislator; he keeps asking the most important question: “how are we going to pay for it?” Ethics and fiscal responsibility are the drums that Mike keeps beating in Juneau, to the dismay of some of his fellow legislators. So be gentle, dear Mudpups. He really is one of the good guys. And if you don’t want to be gentle, don’t be surprised if Mike can give as good as he gets. (I think he’s probably got good reasons for backing off of the issue and maybe he’s not telling ya’ll what they are.)
Alaskan politics are so interesting because we have two degrees of separation here, not seven. Literally. This is a very small state on a very large piece of real estate, and we have natural resources that are worth a bazillion bucks — oil, gas, gold, zinc, timber, fish, crab, and scenery that’s pretty enough to break your heart. Too bad you can’t eat the scenery or heat your home with it.
Grewingk-(Hi
) After receiving all the emails and snarkyness from Doogan, I went to his state page and found a whole page about Ethics, at one point he said…
” Second, there’s the recipe for cooking a frog.
You don’t cook a frog by throwing it into a pot of boiling water. The frog will hop out. You put the frog in a pot of cool water,turn the heat up gradually and – voila! – the frog is cooked.”
Well you know I just had to ask….
“Well what happened? Or are you (all) cooking her like a frog?”
So far haven’t heard back, I expect a smart A$$ reply…I just can’t understand why NO one is willing to Do anything against Barbie, Ok, she WAS a VP candidate, but isn’t now. Are they just waiting for IRS, Federal Authorities to come in a “clean house?”. She’s not that great of a governor, building pipelines to nowhere, bridges to nowhere, promising the sun and giving (the finger) to the people of Alaska, What is it?? Why won’t anyone take action?
“…his incredible gift of communicating with the public”.
“Incredible”, incredible that anyone thought he could “communicate” at all.
His running start at a diatribe reads like the ten year old trolls that fill too, too, many blogs, and have generally ruined intelligent discourse on the net. Present blog excepted, of course.
Rankle
@TMH (09:29:04) :
Well, that partly fits me. I was born during the Vietnam War (making me rather under 50), would tend to self identify as progressive, gender-unidentified (though most readers here have prob. figured it out), and college+3yrs. educated. You’re doing pretty well!
@crystalwolf a.k.a. caligrl(21:57:48) :
What do you want us to do? She’s the sitting Gov in a state with a shitload of Repugnicans who love her. We can’t just throw her butt out into the snow this week to make you guys happy, ya know?
As frustrating as it is, we have to let the wheels of justice and truth grind slowly over them who so richly deserve it. Hold your britches on, will ya???
We can’t unseat them that quickly and may not be able to unseat them at all, with so many wingnuts up here. The Mudflats is the first real vocal showing of the strength of Blue Alaska I’ve ever seen. Every time I drive to town, I expect the windows of my car to be broken out, because I have an Obama and a Berkowitz sticker on it. And I live near one of the bluest towns in Alaska.
Every time I put an Obama sign up on our ranch gate, it was torn down within 12 hours. So I kept putting them up. The Paul Seaton sign (R. Homer, State House) was never torn down. (We vote for the person, not the party. Seaton is a good representative for our district.)
BTW, the blue collar portion of this state would love to see that gas line get built. We’d be working!! woo hoo!! My SO helped build the oil pipeline when he was a kid; working on the gas line would finish his career in the building trades. My SO worked with notable personalities like David Guttenberg (D. Fairbanks) and Harry Crawford (D. Anchorage) on building projects around Alaska. Those guys were just pups then, too. They grew up, ran for the lege and won. And they’re great voices in the State House for working people.
I went to welding school in SF to work on the pipeline, but got a job in Bethleham Shipyard (3rd St. and 20th in SF) making too much money to quit, so I stayed for awhile. I want one shot at the big bucks, before I’m too old to play. My pipe welding certifications are current, just for that job. Just in case.
This isn’t California, caligirl. Come visit. You’ll see that this place isn’t like any place you’ve ever been before. I know. I was raised within rifle shot of where you live, and that’s exactly why I moved to AK. We have breathing room up here. All you can stand.
The law of averages and karma are real and awaiting Sarah and her posse of buffoons……..be patient……..the “S.S. Delusion” will hit something !!!
I can tell that AKMuckraker has either been a teacher or has children.
grewingk, hang in there. There will be that very last straw, the one little thing that tips the balance.
I hope.
And, as for “perceived incompetence?” It doesn’t seem to be perceived, it seems to be a full-blown manifestation.
Me thinks it will be an avalanche………
@grewingk
most of us know how hard the people of alaska have worked to try to make things better in alaska. It is not like any of our other states are all that great. I am hoping after Obama gets in it will make some of the worms crawl away. Yaa to a better america.
Bill McAllister “used to be” a well respected news reporter in Anchorage. What has happened to the man? Is he losing it? So many lies he has to tell in so little time – Palin won’t be around in two years, so who is going to hire a newsman on the edge with a reputation of being a “yes man” who is not able to report the news truthfully. Seems he has totally lost his professionalism, and is hanging on to Palin’s skirt. How demeaning. If he has any intelligence left, he would tell Palin to handle her own dirty work, because he is picking up what little self respect he might have left, and he’s gettin’ out’a Palinland.
WakeUpAmerica (10:38:24) :
I can tell that AKMuckraker has either been a teacher or has children.
———–
Or listened to children, or been one with siblings.