Mammoth Oyster Roundup!
No, it’s not “mammoth oysters” like rocky mountain oysters. I just mean that this is an oyster round up of mammoth proportions! For those of you unfamiliar with the oyster roundup, it’s what we do here at The Mudflats when the stories come too fast to catch up. It’s a little homage to Lewis Carroll and his epic poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter” which includes the line about oysters:
Thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and more!
So let’s begin.
Anchorage – You’ve Been Sullied!
Show us the contract! I love it when Mel Green at Henkimaa gets all organized and meticulous. There were no pie charts this time, but there’s a great index, and sources, and arranged .pdf files. She’s got a great analysis of “Sullygate,” the breaking insurance skullduggery involving Mayor Dan Sullivan, Mayor George Sullivan, Mayor George Wuerch and various incarnations of the Anchorage Assembly since 1982. Dig in!
Strangely Absent
Any mention of the front page above-the-fold story about Mayor Dan Sullivan and his little $190,000 windfall from city coffers on KTUU Channel 2, Alaska’s most viewed news program. What gives?
(Insert Laughter Here)
Voices from the Flats contributor, and brilliant co-creator of Going Rouge – A Sarah Palin Coloring Book, Michael Stinson attended the recent taping of The Tonight Show with guest Sarah Palin. He decided to see what all the fuss was about, and use the opportunity to hand out copies of his coloring book to audience members and staff. His “boots on the ground” report is quite fascinating and presents a very different picture of what happened at the event. Far from the wild applause, cheering, and uproarious laughter that we thought greeted the ex-governor turned stand-up comic, there was actually applause and laughter piped in to the theater to cover up the sound of the crickets. Wow.
They added laughter where there was none during uncomfortable portions. Well, there was some laughter. Mine, of derision. During those pregnant pauses in her performance I was laughing long and loud, couldn’t help myself as much of what she was saying was utterly surreal, ridiculous, hypocritical – nonsense, spewed platitudes, pushed buttons. I was seriously thinking of leaving as it was getting hysterically unfunny.
After sitting through the taping of the show in the studio I can recount many portions where there was little or no laughter or response, but at the later broadcast they are smoothed over with applause and laughter that WERE NOT THERE at the taping. Groans, hoots, grumbling, or just dead silence – all missing.
You can read the rest over at Daily Kos.
***Stinson will be appearing on The Shannyn Moore Show today in the first hour – 11am Alaska Time***
Blogger Buzzzzzz
Local blogger, and citizen watchdog Linda Kellen-Biegel is going bald for charity. That’s right, she’s getting her head shaved in solidarity with cancer patients as part of the St. Baldrick’s Day event which will raise money for cancer research, and coincide with the festivities downtown at the start of the Iditarod. And the event will take place in…..(drum roll please)…..McGinley’s Pub! This establishment, of course, is partially owned by none other than our ne’er do well Mayor, Mr. Dan Sullivan. Will he be getting his head shaved for the cause? Doubtful. But Ms. Kellen Biegel definitely deserves some kind of large shiny medal for undergoing the head shaving AND the location. You can support Linda and help her reach her goal of $500 for cancer research HERE.
As for the other owners and employees of McGinley’s, I know not all of you can be in love with Dan Sullivan, so just emai me at akmuckraker(at)yahoo(dot)com. If you unburden your soul, you’ll feel better. I promise.
It’s Your Rainforest Too!
Yup, America has a rainforest. You don’t often think of it that way, but the Tongass National Forest is just that. It’s some of America’s last great untouched, ancient, and most biologically diverse forest area. And right now, a deal wending its way through Congress would turn over a large chunk of YOUR rainforest to a private corporation allowing clear-cutting and commercial development. Click HERE to read more and send a letter to congress.
A Confession
You know I love my Senator. No, not HER – Mark Begich. But I have to confess… I’m seeing someone on the side. Well, a couple someones really, if you must know. My latest Senatorial crush is one Michael Bennet from Colorado. I think he’s pretty swell, and I wrote him a letter telling him so. I don’t often do that, but this time I did. And now I’m on his mailing list, and I’ve been getting emails about how he’d like to change the rules of the filibuster. You can click HERE, to send your Senator a message that you’d like him or her to support Bennet’s proposal that:
Speaking of That Other Senator…
The formerly moderate, newly teabagginated Senator Lisa “Who’s Yer Daddy” Murkowski has decided that she’s going to hold hostage climate legislation – legislation that literally affects everyone on Earth – until we start talking about drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. My thoughts, and I know they are shared by other progressives in Alaska, are that drilling ANWR is not the worst threat to Alaska’s environment. Offshore drilling in Bristol Bay and points north, the Pebble Mine, and Chuitna coal are all potentially worse in my humble opinion. Anything that messes with water is always worse. However, to dangle the baby over the balcony and demand a ransom is a bit hard to take, especially from someone who used to be…. well… reasonable.
And who is calling her on it? As much as it pains me to say so, it’s Joe Lieberman who called the inclusion of ANWR a “no-no” and a “deal breaker.”
I know! Let’s send both of them off to a small uninhabited island to work it out.
OK, Democrats. PAY. ATTENTION.
Republicans like a politician who stands up for what he believes — even if he believes the Republican Party is populated by a bunch of “knuckle-dragging Neanderthals.”
The candidate leading the Florida GOP primary to determine who will take on Rep. Alan Grayson, the Democrat who represents the Orlando-based district, is none other than Grayson himself, according to a poll paid for by his campaign. Grayson is a freshman congressman who has drawn scorn from the GOP and has quickly built a nationwide following of progressives.
thanks for the oysters, i was getting hungry here
(first)
“And right now, a deal wending its way through Congress would turn over a large chunk of YOUR rainforest to a private corporation allowing clear-cutting and commercial development.”
can’t they leave anything alone ???
Wow. His boots on the ground report from Leno’s joke of a show should go viral because all the rest of the nation saw was wild approval. Seriously, it should go viral because it was worked out like a piece of propaganda for Palin and Leno.
loving me some diva (linda that is). headed right over to the charity site to donate cause we gotta give props to our lady…not only for shaving her head, but mostly and too, there, for stepping foot in that den of you-know-what.
Laughing all the way to the bank
Palin did make one joke that clearly had Leno laughing out loud: She signed on with Pox to singlehandedly redress the “brokenness” of the MSM. To the “who, where, why and how” she picked up at Journalism School, we should also add “how much does the gig pay?”.
Her implication that Pox isn’t part of the MSM? That joke is on Murdoch.
I agree with fawnskin, tasty oysters for lunch. Thank you!
On the Bennett point, I have to disagree. He IS my senator & I’m watching the challenger. 1) He voted against the cramdown legislation & offered the excuse that the little banks did nothing wrong. That’s all well & good, but what about the people who make up his constituancy? 2) His latest offering has any & all funds coming back in from TARP going to paying down the deficit. If we weren’t flirting with 10% unemployment, it would be a different story. But doing nothing to create jobs, that will stay in this country, will only increase the deficit as well as further damage the housing market. He just came out with the ideas of doing things different when he saw that Romanoff (his challenger) is making serious noise & people are listening. And as far as the Public Option goes, we’ll see how far it goes. It could have been a non-starter from the beginning & just a way for him to polish his image here. I don’t trust him at all.
The other stuff is, as always, top notch.
I particularly like “The Walrus and the Carpenter” as the poem describes a hideous betrayal of the trust of the little oyster-bots by the lying, falsely sympathetic, blathering-on-and-on Walrus and (her) almost silent partner in crime, the Carpenter
Norwegian Blue @9 – I was JUST going to post that exact thought ! It’s a poem that well captures Granny Walrus and the oyster-bots. ( loved “oyster-bots” , by the way )
Nice Shannyn interview with our dear Michael “Symbolman” Stinson. I hope someone from the Leno camp leaks the original footage of the Palin segment, before the canned laughter was added. THAT would be fabulous.
Linda! Do we get to see a photo of your sheared head ?
Re: Rainforest – I can’t stomach hearing about clear-cutting. It makes me quite ill. Thanks for the link for the letter.
BuffaloGal — don’t worry, I got beaten to a pithy comment on Palingates just the other day, clearly GMTA*!
(as my 16 yr old informed me re: texting her, “Mom you think it’s cool to use those abbreviations, but when you do it, it’s not”)
*Great minds think alike
the norwegian blue–LOL!!
When we watched $P on Leno, my roomie said, “What’s going on? Did they bus in her supporters to fill up the audience?” I replied, “They dubbed in the laughs, cheers, & applause.” Well, if we had made a bet, I would have won. I’m glad AKM posted the link about the Tongass, I’ve been posting it on open threads, but unlike AKM, whose every word we devour, I’m never sure who’s reading my comments. About Walrus & Carpenter, I can still, many years after reading the Alice books, recite pages of Lewis Carroll from memory. TW&TC is one of them; Jabberwocky another.
Health and peace.
i really like this website. But, having said that, the Tongass land would go to a private corporation–yes–but it’s a private Native corporation. And they’re just trying to make the last of the land selections owed to them under ANCSA. Even with the addition of this last bit of land…Southeast Natives will only own 3 percent of their original homeland (almost all of it is a national forest). And a lot of the Native land will be set aside to protect sacred and historical sites…and to provide low-impact eco tourism opportunities for the villages, which are really hurting right now.
#14
dahli22 Says:
March 5th, 2010 at 2:51 PM
i really like this website. But, having said that, the Tongass land would go to a private corporation–yes–but it’s a private Native corporation. And they’re just trying to make the last of the land selections owed to them under ANCSA. Even with the addition of this last bit of land…Southeast Natives will only own 3 percent of their original homeland (almost all of it is a national forest). And a lot of the Native land will be set aside to protect sacred and historical sites…and to provide low-impact eco tourism opportunities for the villages, which are really hurting right now.
——————————-
You may have a valid point about the land going to a ‘ private Native corporation ‘.
However…. in listening to one of Shannyn’s radio Shows this week she pointed out that Corporations like ” Blackwater ” are being allowed to invest and become PART OF some of these native organizations so that they can influence them and have a Vote there as well. It’s all about influencing the Boards they can sit on. Just like the Board that Shannyn talked about on todays that want to start shooting and killing wolves again. The Board is comprised of Hunters and Businesses that derive profits from the decisions they make…. favorable to more hunting.
It’s all Verrrrry shady of course… Blackwater doesn’t want people to know this. It’s all about gaining influence like a Shareholder would in a Corporation.
They are trying to ‘ use ‘ these Tribes and their tax statuses.
I don’t know if THAT is the situation in this case though. But… it happens.
Who are members of this ‘ private ‘ corporation..?
Another comment on Senator Bennet. He seems to be becoming something of a folk hero to many in the blogosphere. However, here in Colorado we know that he is doing many of the things he is doing because he is in a tight primary race. Senator Bennett was appointed to fill the senate seat that belonged to Ken Salazar, the current secretary of the Interior . He was appointed by our Democratic governor, Bill Ritter, who passed over a very popular and deserving Democrat, Andrew Romanoff, the former Speaker of the House. Bennet was serving as the superintendent of schools in Denver at the time of his appointment, and was not widely known across the state. The best reason anyone could come up with to explain why Ritter had appointed Bennet over Romanoff was Bennet’s ability to raise vast sums of money, because of family social and past work connections across the country. He has certainly done that. Romanoff, on the other hand, has accepted no PAC money for this campaign. Though many Democrats in Colorado have no quibble with Bennet and many others are thrilled to see him step up to the plate these past few weeks, party regulars also recognize that Romanoff’s connections across the state are deeper, his knowledge of the state profound, his integrity is stellar, and his positions are (and always have been) progressive. He polls ahead of Bennet against the Republican senate candidate. He may very well win the caucus vote in two weeks. If so, I hope the blogosphere does not hold their disappointment over Bennet’s loss against Romanoff. Anyone interested in more information on Romanoff can find it at Andrewromanoff.com. I suppose we in Colorado should consider ourselves lucky to have two quality candidates running. I wish we could share one of them with others who have only “hold-the-nose” choices.
Glad to hear the “real story” about Palin’s debut on Leno. Confirms my initial impression that the laughter was added on.
The clue was Palin’s behavior and performance…..just what you’d expect from a person facing a largely unappreciative audience. Sarah’s not used to that. She schedules adoring venues and purrs like a cat in front of those adoring fans. She wasn’t purring on Leno….she was like a cat on a hot tin roof.
Yet one more time….Palin is shown to be a fake. Leno needs to apologize to his audience in America for the deception. I know I won’t watch the creep until he admits or apologizes for trying pass off Palin as a winner
On the subject of “oysters”……Hey, Meg!! The world is not “literally Palin’s oyster!” She bombed on Leno after all.
On the subject of laughter – I watched the Palin segments on line and thought at the time that the laughter seemed odd and a little over the top – After reading the story about the added laughter, I went back and watched again (I know – sigh). What I noticed is that there was no interaction between Palin or Leno and the audience as there usually is when the audience reacted to comments or jokes. Usually you see someone look toward the audience and some bit of give and take – this was missing and supports the premise that the laughter was added. I am also willing to bet if anyone had the patience for it, that they could find the same whistles, laughter and reactions from other segments – such as the one with the snowboarder gold medal winner where there was a lot of enthusiastic applause and such.