Fran Ulmer Named to Gulf Oil Disaster Commission
(Grabbing a bull horn and facing south) Attention! Attention! Can I have your attention…. please! Is everyone paying attention? Hey you in North Dakota! Up here! Thank you. You’ll see before you a woman – an Alaskan woman – a smart, talented, savvy, skilled, competent, innovative Alaskan woman with…. leadership skills! THIS is the kind of Alaskan woman we all wish had been monopolizing media coverage for the past two years. Just wanted to get on the record with that. Fran Ulmer, Chancellor of the University of Alaska, Anchorage has been named by President Obama to be one of the…
An Open Letter from Rural Alaska to the Parnell Administration
~~CC Strongheart happily plays in a late summer puddle in the Village of Ugashik, while her mother Ann seeks answers about her future from the State of Alaska.~~ Dear Governor Parnell, Mr. Moller, Ms. Jollie, Mr. Black and others; After reading the article in the Dispatch I am gravely concerned and worried even more so than before about what this winter will bring to rural Alaska . Not only is the lack of both subsistence and commercial fishing, greatly diminishing our ability to put away fish for the winter but also the lack of funds brought in from commercial…
Politicizing the Anchorage School District
Now that the Town Hall meetings in Anchorage are over, and Senator Mark Begich has left the state for Washington D.C., what’s a poor bored wingnut to do? Well, after drumming their fingers for 24 hours, waiting for new marching orders, they’re off and running again. Trying to get everyone health care is bad enough, but behold the latest ‘moral outrage’ that President Obama is inflicting on the poor innocent children according to the conservatives. On Tuesday, September 8th, that man is going to be on the TeeVee, in schools across the nation telling the children that education is important…
Mark Begich on the Public Option, the Kennedy Legacy, and Being Bold.
~~~Mark Begich at his June Anchorage Town Hall Meeting on health care, calling on a constituent who actually raised her hand to speak. Ah, those were the days. I’m going to confess right now, that after 2/3 of a term of Gov. Sarah Palin, and a vice presidential run, and all the Twittering Facebooking adventures of the last year, I thought if I ever heard the word “bold” again come out of the mouth of an Alaska politician, I was going to run screaming into the hills, or smash myself in the head with a brick. So nobody was more surprised…
If It’s Good Enough for Them, It’s Good Enough for Us.
The blogosphere is full of tributes to Senator Ted Kennedy today. The left is mourning. Some on the right are not. Ted Kennedy was a consummate negotiator. He never gave up without a fight, and he knew what was right. He lived a life of privilege, fiercely devoted to serving those who did not. I was reading the comments from Sarah Palin’s facebook page, and over on Fox News. I wondered to myself how it was possible that the very people that Kennedy fought for all his life, to give them a living wage, and to give them the…
1 – 2 – 3 … Jump! Entering the Blogosphere.
At Netroots Nation, I attended a lot of panel discussions because I thought they’d be valuable for me, and for Mudflats. But there was one that I looked at and thought… I’m going to this one for YOU. So many of you donated to make the trip possible, and voted for my scholarship, this was my way of saying thank you with some tangible information that will help you make change where you are, whether you’re in Alaska or not. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to start a local blog? Do you have a blog already…
Voices from the Flats – Oil Lust & Dodging Bullets
Bob Shavelson is a reformed attorney with backgrounds in biology, chemistry, and environmental sampling and compliance. He was Editor-in-Chief of the University of Oregon’s Journal of Environmental Law and Litigation, and has considerable experience in toxics, the Clean Water Act, and Right-to-Know issues. Prior to joining Inletkeeper in 1996, Bob worked in the United States Senate, Oregon’s Senate Majority Office, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium, and the University of Oregon’s Ocean & Coastal Law Center. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the National Waterkeeper Alliance and the Cook Inlet…
Netroots – Turning Red Districts Blue: Organizing for Change
One of my favorite panels at Netroots Nation was the panel discussion entitled Turning Red Districts Blue: Organizing for Change. Panelists were David Atkins (moderator), Darcy Burner, Adam Lambert, Democracy for America’s Arshad Hasan, Matt Browner Hamlin, and Eden James. Matt Browner Hamlin spoke about his time as Mark Begich’s online communications director in the 2008 campaign. MBH: The challenge in Alaska is how do you get from a population which is only 23% Democratic to a vote of 50% +1. It was a big hurdle. Most Alaskans are registered as Non-Partisan. What helped the Begich campaign was the…