The Mudflats

Yes, we’ve had another “drive by” from flyinureye!  This one was inspired by the fact that when Governor Palin flew to the remote village of Russian Mission, escorted by not one, but two evangelical preachers (Franklin Graham and Jerry Prevo) to bring food aid to local residents, she brought…..homemade cookies, and some advice!  

So, a nod to the old saying about a picture being worth 1000 words, and a hat tip to flyinureye!

[A note to Mudflatters - Feeling a bit under the weather, so posting may be a bit sporadic. Will try to put up open threads if comments become too numerous]

We all know the scenario.  There’s a wedding and the invitations are sent out.  The envelope arrives in the mail box of Jim and Sally Smith.  The envelope is addressed to “Jim and Sally Smith” or “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”.  The host and hostess have a clear idea in mind of how this evening will go, how many people they are inviting, and why.  But invariably there will be one person who calls and says, “Are my kids invited too?”

The host or hostess, whoever has had the ill fortune to answer the call, is put on the spot.  What do they say?  If they are secretly hoping that the Smiths won’t show up, they may answer, “I’m so sorry, it’s adults only.”  If they really want the Smiths there, then the answer might be, “Sure you can bring them.  Gosh we love your kids.”  And even if neither of these scenarios is the case, our generous host and hostess may just not have the heart to say, “No.  Your children are NOT invited to my wedding.”  It’s kind of awkward, and people usually like to be nice, and not risk offending people.  So the invitation will be extended.

So, with that in mind, check out the new form on the Governor’s website.

Sarah Palin, who now has agreed to reimburse Alaskans for 10 out of 40 trips in which she billed the state for her children’s travel expenses, has figured out a great way to weasel out of future problems.

The form that constituents fill out to invite the governor to an event, now asks flat out, in flaming red letters:

Is the First Family invited?: *

(The asterisk indicates that this is a ‘required field’ and must be filled out before the form can be submitted.)

This raises a whole host of interesting questions.

Governor Palin has already told us that regarding her children:

“…the discharge of my duties should not prevent me from spending time with them.”

Does this mean that she is less likely to attend an event to which the “first family” is not invited?  And what is this whole “first family” concept anyway?  I don’t remember a Murkowski “First Family” or a Knowles “First Family” or any other “First Family” for that matter.

And who exactly IS the “First Family” that we mean when we click the box to invite them all to our event?  Trigg, Piper, Willow, Bristol, Track and Todd?  Oh, wait.  We forgot Tripp.  And what about Levi?  Do fiances count?  What if Track decides to pop the question?  Would his fiance count?  What about the governor’s parents, Chuck and Sally?  They were present on the campaign trail, so why not?  And if Bristol has another baby, would that baby be invited too?  Exactly how many extra mouths to feed, and hotel rooms to sleep in will the “First Family” need?

So, the person who wants to invite the governor looks at the form and decides that if they really want the governor to show up, they’d better invite the whole fandamily.

With all these questions swirling in our poor confused heads, let’s take a moment to read a memorandum from the Alaska Department of Law on the issue of travel.  The memo was written in 2004 by then AG Greg Rehnkes, and then re-released in March of 2007.  Read it HERE.

Tim Petumenos (the investigator whose findings on Palin’s ethics lapse in the Troopergate investigation somehow directly contradicted the Legislative investigation that found her guilty of abuse of power) has also used his magical skills to decide that only 10 out of the 40 trips the Palin kids took had more personal benefit than benefit to the State of Alaska.  He must have all kinds of complicated and impressive formulas to figure this stuff out.  I guess that’s why he gets paid the big bucks, because, call me stupid, but I can’t figure this out.  If it wasn’t in the best interest of the state to have the Pain children travel to attend the Startof the Iron Dog snowmachine race in Anchorage….then how was it in the best interest of the state to pay for the first family’s travel and lodging expenses to attend the Iron Dog Finish in Fairbanks the following weekend in both 2007 and 2008?  (Scratching head, stroking chin, rubbing temples and doing all kinds of things trying to figure this one out….but alas to no avail)

In addition to Petumenos’ impressive ethical travel calculation voodoo, he’s been trying to find some precedence to help him out.  But, there just doesn’t seem to be any.  It appears as if the former governors of Alaska just never seemed to have this problem.  Is it because they didn’t have kids?  No, it’s because they didn’t have bad judgment.  They just never billed the state for family trips because why would anyone possibly think that was appropriate?

And in exchange for Palin paying back about $10,000, he wouldn’t bother to check further.  As a matter of fact he’d just stick his metaphorical fingers in his metaphorical ears and go, “LALALALALALALALALA!” until the nasty media just goes away. 

It’s an interesting way of doing business.  It feels like studying the cultural anthropology of the Palin administration.  And one can’t help but wonder, knowing what we all know about the cultural anthropology of the IRS, what will happen when these two civilizations meet?

Stay tuned for the fun!

We all know the story ‘;pkl

As I woke up this morning, I laid there for a minute and listened. Hmm… I don’t hear howling wind. Maybe the blizzard has passed. The last few days we have been homebound due to severe blizzards hitting our area; whiteout conditions for several days, with breaks only rarely. Thankfully, we did have a break last night for about an hour while we took Cecelia to the clinic to get her immunizations, unfortunately when we left the clinic whiteout conditions were setting in again.

After we returned from the clinic and were eating dinner, the winds kicked up (reportedly, 50-70 mph). So here we were eating dinner, and I hear this weird noise. Thunk, thunk, bang, boom, thunk. Like someone is walking/falling across our ROOF?? I look at hubb. What in the world was that? Our chimney pipe had blown off! I let him finish eating and donned my winter gear, boots, goggles, and head lamp and headed out to try and locate the chimney. Of course because I had spent so much time putting on ALL of my winter gear, the pipe landed right by the porch door. I could have just walked out with a hoodie on and picked it up! LOL! But then another problem arose. The wind was whipping around so much that it was making a snow drift OVER our exhaust pipe to our oil stove. The stove kicked on, and started making unusual noises and my hubby jumped up and donned his winter gear and had to go dig it out. All night we had to keep going out every hour to check and make sure it wasn’t getting drifted over.

During these past few days of blizzard conditions our Elementary School Co-Ed Basketball team got stuck in Scammon Bay. They have been there since Saturday; I believe they made it home today. We kept hearing reports on the VHF radio from the school announcing that they were well, and had had their clothes washed, and were doing just fine.

Well, needless to say, there were NO planes coming in, so there was no mail. I did pick up a couple of boxes today, and ALAS… I just heard a plane fly over, (standing up doing a terrible imitation of Tattoo from “Fantasy Island” … DE PLANE, DE PLANE!!! Yes I AM that OLD!) so there should be boxes tomorrow.

I spoke to Jon Moller, the Rural Advisor to Gov. Palin on Sunday. He said he was going to be coming back to the YK Delta this week but I am assuming he couldn’t make it due to the weather. Mr. Moller asked me for a list of needy villages I had mentioned to him when I met him in Emmonak at the store. I gave him my list and then he asked me to prioritize it by need. Additionally, he asked for contact information for all of the villages so that he could forward that to Samaritan’s Purse. [Editor's Note: Samaritan's Purse is Franklin Graham's organization. Graham, an evangelical minister, flew to Russian Mission with Sarah Palin last week.]

I received a call from Samaritan’s Purse on Monday, and answered their questions, plus gave them additional contact information from the phone book for villages he didn’t know how to reach. They said that they would be sending 35 boxes of food here to Nunam Iqua, one for every needy family. When I called back on Wednesday, to get more information and check on the status of their delivery they appeared to be quite busy. I was told that they would call me back and answer my questions and give me a date to expect delivery but so far I haven’t heard anything.

Today I was interviewed by “Indian Country Today” for an article! I made certain to emphasize the fact that all of my efforts are only working due to mudpuppies and anonymous bloggers! The reporter emailed me back stating that she would make certain to include the information about the people in their “PAJAMAS”.

GO Mudpuppies and Anonymous Bloggers!!! MORE POWER to the keyboards!!! (paused in writing to do the “Happy Dance” from Perfect Strangers)

I did receive and distribute over 150 lbs of food on Tuesday, Feb. 24 here is where it came from:

1 box from Fairfax , Virginia

1 box from JB Bush a donation order

1 box from Easton , Connecticut

1 box from Milwaukee , Wisconsin

2 boxes from Victorville , CA

2 boxes from Norman , Oklahoma

1 box from Richfield , Minnesota

1 box from Museum Source in Anchorage , AK (Quyana for the reusable bags!)

3 boxes from Merlin, Oregon (QUYANA for all the reusable Walmart Canvas Totes!)

$250 donation from Clayton , GA , a donation made by a church in honor of one of our MUDPUPPIES!!! *wink* J.R. for stove oil.

$20 from Savannah , Georgia for stove oil. ( Quyana M.T)

$20 cash from NYC, NY (Quyana NY H for helping put some gas in my snowmachine for deliveries)

$25 from New York , New York (Quyana M.E.M.)

There have been other cash donations made that are in the City Office, when I get a chance I will go over and record where they are from.

I am still working on my Yup’ik Cuisine story, and hope to have it to AKM soon, assuming Cecelia is feeling better and lets me get some writing done. Well I think that’s about it for now. I need to finish my dishes and bring in some more wood. I’ll have another update in a couple of days.

I encourage you all to visit http://anonymousbloggers.wordpress.com and join the discussions we are having on coming up with LONG TERM solutions for rural Alaska .

Also I hope to start a diary on Anonymousbloggers about my normal day to day activities. So you can, sometime in the future, visit the site to see more about life here in Nunam Iqua from me!

QUYANA CAKNEQ Pajama Clad Mudpups and Anonymousbloggers!!! YOU are what is keeping my people across rural Alaska warm and fed this winter!!