Bedtime in Alaska – The Daily Wrap Up
19 02 2009The Washington Post Still Cares!
Ahhh. I missed those big national news outlets. September and October in Alaska were almost surreal. Every time we turned around, journalists who never gave Alaska a second thought were suddenly camped out in the Captain Cook Hotel, and having coffee with anonymous bloggers before heading out to the wilds of Wasilla to go thumbing through public records. I loved it that the best and brightest investigative journalists in the land all had their laser focus on the Palin Administration. Frankly, back all those many months ago, we all had a lot to learn.
And now, The Washington Post has done it again. (Hand on heart) They still care… Their new, lengthy piece on Sarah Palin is a brilliant read. Definitely “cup of tea worthy.”
A couple of weeks before the Alaska legislature began this year’s session, a bipartisan group of state senators on a retreat a few hours from here invited Gov. Sarah Palin to join them. Accompanied by a retinue of advisers, she took a seat at one end of a conference table and listened passively as Gary Stevens, the president of the Alaska Senate, a former college history professor and a low-key Republican with a reputation for congeniality, expressed delight at her presence.
Would the governor, a smiling Stevens asked, like to share some of her plans and proposals for the coming legislative session?
Palin looked around the room and paused, according to several senators present. “I feel like you guys are always trying to put me on the spot,” she said finally, as the room became silent.
Wow. And that’s only the beginning. There are chuckles a-plenty, including an anonymous legislator calling Palin “Dan Quayle in a ponytail,” and Republican Rep. John Harris’ smiling remembrance of his description of Palin’s qualifications to be VP as being “old enough and a registered voter.”
I’ve heard various legislators refer to Juneau as “a lion’s den”, “not the same place” and “full of uneasieness.” And this legislative session is far from over. Buckle up.
Anyone Want to Vent?
If anyone’s going to be in Anchorage tomorrow, Thursday, February 19, at 4pm, you have an opportunity to drop in on a presentation by Representative Anna Fairclough at UAA. She’ll be the guest speaker for the Dept. of Journalism and Public Communications’ Brown Bag Lunch series. The lunch will be held in Room 158 of the Professional Services Building. That’s kind of a late lunch… You might want to eat a little something earlier, so you have your wits about you when you ask her about the statements she made last week.
Good Work from the “Good Guys”
Today 4 Democrats renewed a call on the Permanent Fund Corporation to cooperate in efforts to stop investing state funds in companies implicated in the 5 year long Darfur genocide. The Corporation is meeting today and tomorrow, and will reconsider its position opposing these efforts.
“Last year we tried hard, but failed, to get the Permanent Fund Corporation to offer proactive input, and help in crafting bill language they found workable. There’s a welcome openness at the Corporation this year to reconsider their position, and we are encouraged,” said Rep. Les Gara, who is co-sponsoring legislation to require divestment with Democrats Reps. Pete Petersen, Berta Gardner, Beth Kerttula and Republican Bob Lynn.
ConvicTed Has a Fan!
Seems there’s an Anchorage resident, and fan of Ted Stevens who’s been putting up some homemade signs around town, including in a snowbank in front of the Anchorage Daily News building. I always like a good caper, so this one caught my attention. Kyle Hopkins has posted a picture HERE on the ADN Politics Blog. The text of the sign reads:
Where’s the Justice?
Where’s the Crime?
Jail the Feds!
Free Ted!
I take exception to this sign on several levels. First, I’d argue that the “crime” to which our signmaker refers is seven felony counts of failure to disclose gifts totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, that answers that question.
Second, Ted is actually, currently, “free,” happily living in Washington D.C., and appealing the guilty verdict. There’s really nowhere from which to free him. So that takes care of that one.
But, finally, the thing that’s really disturbing. That sign needs to rhyme. The meter is there, and your brain just waits for it, and then the fourth line comes and it just falls totally flat. Am I right? Read it over again. It’s really a shame. It could have been catchy, but it isn’t. I prefer:
Where’s the Justice?
Where’s the Crime?
Jail the Feds.
It doesn’t Rhyme.
February 19th, 2009 at 9:49 AM
Like Wired Differently I had the same thought. Four separate signs to read as you drove along and then a fifth “Burma Shave”.
February 19th, 2009 at 9:51 AM
Yeah, what exactly are beavertails? Are they like fry bread/elephant ears/whatever they get called depending on where you are? If so, YUM!
February 19th, 2009 at 9:56 AM
fawnskin mudpuppy,
Beavertails are like the fried dough that you have at county fairs. I think one of the names the U.S. uses is Elephant Ears.
A CDN reporter just talked about there be more security than when Bush first came. He laughed and said the only reason security is needed is Obama would be ‘cuddled and hugged” to death!! Obama has a higher popularity rating than Harper, our Prime Minister. If you hear on your news that CDNs were PO’d that when Bush visited Canada for the first time, the protests were because he went to Mexico on his first trip — they have no clue. Couldn’t care less about that. We just never liked Bush and protested him from the get go on his first trip here and thereafter.
Our election was just before yours and within a short time after, there was a coalition formed by the minority groups to overthrow Harper. That’s how much he’s actually liked here. We have 3 main parties, 1 additional party in Quebec only and we have a 5th which hasen’t picked up much ground across the country. So it’s like the Mayor candidates for Alaska or Nader or Perot — the votes spread wider and there therefore it doesn’t mean the best person wins as you have spoilers. But then again, our 2nd strongest party had a buffoon running who’s been replaced already!!!!
I confess, I know more about US politics than I do my own.
February 19th, 2009 at 9:56 AM
Now I’m riled up and won’t be able to fire on all cylinders until we get what a beavertail is!!
February 19th, 2009 at 9:57 AM
ok…..mighty fine.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:02 AM
beavertails
http://www.recipezaar.com/Canadian-Beaver-Tails-119576
February 19th, 2009 at 10:08 AM
Yea, they are (like) Fry Bread. Now, when is the next Fry Bread selling occassion here in Juneau…?
February 19th, 2009 at 10:21 AM
crystalwolf aka caligrl,
Nummmmms! That quickly got added to my recipe file. Thanks!!!!
February 19th, 2009 at 10:25 AM
Canadian Neighbour: Ah, that must be a genuine recipe! I want to get Ann S. recipe for fry bread….also
February 19th, 2009 at 10:30 AM
crystalwolf aka caligrl,
That should be good. Me too! Maybe Ann S. will post it here if she doesn’t mind sharing it.
Have to laugh now as now that I am on my own, I can see dinner is going to be like the saying on a figurine I have “Life’s too short, eat dessert first!”
February 19th, 2009 at 10:32 AM
Just realized AKM posted a new blog. Off to read as I sit safely amongst the plane tires!!!!
February 19th, 2009 at 10:37 AM
@Canadian neighbour…I am from the Toronto area originally too. I lived in Orangeville (Caledon actually) and in the beaches. My son is in Barrie.
At lunch, I watched some of the news re: Obamas arrival here. Canadians just love love love this man! I only wish we had someone near his calibre. Perhaps someone will come along soon…”sigh”
February 19th, 2009 at 10:58 AM
Regi (07:41:03) :
Palin looked around the room and paused, according to several senators present. “I feel like you guys are always trying to put me on the spot,” she said finally, as the room became silent
Holy moose pucks.
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No, you idiot, they are asking what have you been doing while on the job!
I thought she had so much executive experience that she was gonna be a great VP/Pres. She can barely handle her mayor job, let alone the governor job.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:59 AM
Yum, frybread/elephant ears/beavertails….trouble is, they make me burp for HOURS!
On a more serious note:
SayNoTOPalinInPolitics said, “The one thing I’ve noticed about the us and them is that while we don’t care for Palin or think she should be in politics and while we don’t care for the repubs right now, I don’t think any of us in reality would want to actually physically harm them. We don’t talk the hate that they do.”
In the body of one blog entry seen yesterday at a certain Conservatives For Palin blogsite, the writer actually suggested this: “Someone asked about the Governor’s campaign clothes and Benet said that he cannot get an answer on what happened to them. Can we please have some people at the RNC shot, so as to motivate the others?“
When I zapped the writer on that hateful comment, he responded “I don’t want to see the RNC staffers killed, or even maimed – a really really painful wound would be just fine.”
Then he and some others called me a “Troofer Trash”". OMG!!! Hurt to the quick!!
This same bunch worships Michelle Bachmann almost as much as Palin. Yes, the difference between “them” and “us” — they’re a bunch of sociopathic soulless pitiless materialists.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:03 AM
@Paula (09:09:20) I think the Palin’s are in such deep debt they don’t possess a savings account. When you live so far beyond your means that you snatch every opportunity to falsify “taking” money from accounts (is this called embezzing from Alaskan citizens, or?) that you hope won’t be discovered, it is hard to think their mentality allows them to look ten minutes ahead, much less far enough to “save” a little of their ill gotten gains.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:48 AM
betzy – OPM (other peoples money)……..it’s the grifter m.o.
February 19th, 2009 at 2:36 PM
Hey, he thinks bevertails are delicious!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/19/obama-in-ottawa-makes-sur_n_168343.html
February 19th, 2009 at 3:00 PM
InJuneau(14:36:30) :
Hey, he thinks bevertails are delicious!!
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Oh, they are! But really fattening. They are popular as an after-skating-on-the-canal treat. (Because you’ve already burned off a ton of calories just staying warm and fighting the wind in both directions.)
February 19th, 2009 at 3:55 PM
Oops, should have been beavertails, and since word is they’re like fry bread, I’m sure they are wonderful (and we don’t even use the after-skating excuse to eat them either!).