The Mudflats

This past weekend, almost 400 Coffee Parties took place across the U.S.  Each one was different, had its own agenda, and asked its own questions.  The people who attended were those who recognize that something is wrong in this country, but they don’t think drawing a Hitler moustache on something is the way to fix it.

Awesome and engaged Mudflatter ‘Valley Independent’ was our Boots On the Ground at the Coffee Party in Wasilla, Alaska.  She tells me she’s feeling more energized about politics than she has in a long time.  Here’s her report.

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from Valley Independent

The Coffee Party is off to a good start here in Wasilla.  The attendance wasn’t huge, but pretty darn good for short notice.  Thanks to Jay for organizing it, and to AKM and Shannyn Moore for helping to get the word out.

The Metro Cafe is a warm and sunny place on Lucille Street, a very busy north-south corridor in Wasilla.  I have been wanting to visit since they opened this summer, so this was a great excuse to do just that.  Their website is here.  Carmen and her assistant were lovely, and make great coffee.

It was fun and exciting to see some familiar faces from around town, and also to have the opportunity to meet several new people, all of whom are willing to work constructively on the challenges that face us on all political levels.

Several good suggestions were brought forth – we’ll be working on those at future meetings.  Speaking of future meetings, our next meeting will be at the Metro Cafe at 10 am Saturday, March 20th. This is a non-partisan event, so anyone who wants to engage in civil discussion about the issues and be a part of finding solutions is not only welcome, but encouraged to attend.

Phil Munger has a post with pictures on his blog, Progressive Alaska, found here.  Bill Hess also stopped by and is working on something for his blog, Wasilla, Alaska by 300, which can be found here.  Thanks to both of them.

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Well, well, well.

I wondered when Scott Brown, the truck drivin’, centerfold posin’ Republican defeated whatshername in the Massachusetts Senate race, what would happen.  The way I saw it was that any Republican who replaced Ted Kennedy would have one of two career paths:

a) Follow the will of the constituents he was elected to represent and quickly become one of the most hated senators in the Republican party.

b) Follow the will of the party he’s a member of, and quickly become one of the most hated senators in his home state.

It’s still far too early to make the call, but Scott Brown made the news again yesterday, and it wasn’t for trying to get his daughters a date, or horrifying the left.  He cast a procedural vote in favor of Obama’s jobs bill, breaking ranks with all those Republicans who could never ever get elected in Massachusetts.

He may be choosing plan A.

“It’s a small step, but its still a step,” said Brown whose endorsement of the bill was the shot heard round the blogosphere, sparking celebration on the left and a rash of unhinged outrage from the right.

The Huffington Post and Wonkette share some of the reactions on Twitter.

I thought I’d check it out myself and I have to say it made for some very entertaining reading with morning coffee.  Here are two recent ones.

jere7my #scottbrown Hey Teabaggers! How’s that hope-y change-y stuff workin’ out for ya?

patty_bray Which Enraged Scott Brown Facebook Fan Comment is your favorite? http://gawker.com/5478186/ #teaparty #scottbrown

Following the link to Gawker will provide enough entertainment to last the day.  They’ve been mining the web for all the best comments.  Or you can jump in to the live Twitter stream and watch it as it happens, HERE.

1. Mudflats Heckuva job, Brownie!  :0)   #scottbrown #jobs #tcot #GOP 15 minutes ago

I’ve tried and tried, but there’s really no way to actually describe Alaska Rep. Don Young. OK “idiot” works to a degree - but it’s so much more nuanced and complex than just simple idiocy.  Usually when confronted with the prospect of writing about Don Young, the best thing to do is just let him speak for himself. Watching an interview with him is fascinating. It’s like watching a chameleon, or one of those cuttlefish that change colors so fast you can hardly wrap your mind around what they were just doing before they’re on to something else. The problem with listening to him is that every once in a while he sounds like he’s making sense, just like a broken clock that is right twice a day.  And we grab on to that time because it makes sense, but then we find ourselves clinging to the hands of the clock while we hurtle into the netherworld of delusion, never quite sure how we got there.

So, buckle up.

Matt Felling got an opportunity he likely will never forget. This week, Lisa Murkowski was unavailable for her usual interview on the weekly segment  ”A View from the Hill,” and Felling got to sit down for a 20 minute in-studio interview with the man that we like to call Yon Dung – Congressman for All Alaska – the man who, in the face of mighty and compelling evidence to the contrary believes that a bolo tie with the Alaska State Flag, and his own signature monogrammed on his shirt make a positive and powerful statement of competence. 

I have partially transcribed the interview below. I pulled out the best bits. If you want the entire crazy cuttlefish experience you can play the whole thing.

On Alaska Statehood -
“I arrived here the year they voted for statehood, and I wasn’t over excited about that by the way, I have to say that. Had no idea I was going to be a congressman, but I came up here for the “last frontier” and I figured if we became a state we might lose that, and in a way we have – through legislation, and designation of lands and the restriction of use of state lands because of proximity to federal lands… but it’s been a great ride.”

Attention Alaska Natives.  Please note the bold section.  Don Young, your only elected official in the United States House of Representatives actually thinks that maybe it would have been better if we had not become a state, because it meant the “designation of lands.”  Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act anyone?  He’d rather not have had to deal with all that pesky “giving you rights to your land back” and stuff.  What an inconvenience.  And statehood?  Meh.  But gee, since we had to go and bee a state (eye roll) he may as well suck it up and be a congressman for 37 YEARS!  (Deep breath…)

On His Ties to Corruption and the Ongoing FBI Investigation -
“Well and you know, that’s old news. It’s been three years. I’m confident when I started I tried to explain that there’s nothing wrong. This is led by innuendos and uh, and by rumors. Um, if I didn’t believe I was totally innocent, I wouldn’t be running. Uh, but this is the way this system works. And so my job is to make sure the explanation when it is appropriate will be made, and we’ll see, you know, it’s what occurs and I just have to continue to stick my guns and make sure that I present my point of view in the sense that I’m not allowed to make any more comment that I just did.”

Why  has he spent millions of dollars on attorneys in the last two years?  Why is he being investigated by the FBI?  pfft…  That’s old news.

Is Congress Broken?
“… there are groups of people now that don’t want to be legislators. They just want the idea of power within their party. And I argue that isn’t necessarily good, because we’re not doing what we should be doing and we transfer more power to the executive branch. The executive branch gets stronger stronger through the ages it passed regulatory laws. Here in Alaska you’ve got the beluga listing of endangered species. That’s from a regulatory law, not from the act itself. And I go the the polar bear – that’s regulatory law. The Clean Air Act itself is from being use as a regulatory law because we don’t have the capability of putting it together to say “no more.” You know I’m surprised congress has and I’m going to actually been promoting this with I call “we can do it” party – stop funding these agencies when they’re doing things against the intent of the congress. That’s the way to solve this problem. We don’t fund them, they can’t do it.”

Sooo… if the EPA wants to regulate the Clean Air Act, or if we want to use the Endangered Species Act to protect belugas and polar bears, Don Young says we should just cut funding to the EPA?  Yeah, that’ll show ‘em.

On His Re-election -
“I know some people, even in Alaska, “Oh you gotta get rid of Don Young,” Ok, get rid of him. What have you got? Nothing. Because hostility will still be there only more so because I’m one of those people that do work together with people and will continue to do that.”

If there are any U.S. Representatives out there who want to talk to me about how Don Young is such a great uniter and even the Democrats want to keep him around, and how if he leaves everything is REALLY going to go to Hell, feel free to email me.  The way I see it, is if we get rid of Don Young, we’ve got Harry Crawford.  I can live with that.

On the Biggest Problem in Congress -
“Now, back East, we’ve gotten into this trap now – most people, frankly from the urban areas, now if you really want to know the truth, that’s the biggest problem of our congress. Most of the congressmen are elected from San Francisco, Miami, New York, Kansas City, Dallas, Houston, L.A. and Seattle. They have no concept what Alaska’s about or their own states as far as that goes. Now I feel sorry in California, I came from California originally, but they have elected a bunch of dodos in the congress because they don’t have any understanding of the state. They’re ruining that state. They’re about 22 billion dollars in the hole, and they’re driving business out right and left, not through taxation but they can’t do anything. And Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Terminator… he’s terminated the state of Alaska as far as I’m concerned. I just think it’s a terrible thing. and they lost contact with the people and that’s where the angst comes from with the Tea Party.”

Yes, you heard it here, the “biggest problem in congress” is…. representative democracy!

Matt Felling points out the concept of representative democracy-

“But that doesn’t keep democracy healthy. Most democracies have collapsed. Most social countries, countries that were empires collapsed because of the concentration of power in the urban areas because they have little knowledge of what’s going on on the outside. Check the Roman Empire. Why did the Roman Empire collapse?

#1 because they were the most intellectual group of people in the world at that time, as we were.

#2 – they got so intellectual they thought they didn’t have to grow their own food so they bought it, which we do.

#3 they didn’t have any workers cause they’re all intellectuals so they can imported workers.

#4 they didn’t have their army. They had mercenary armies so they ended up losing their empire collapsed because they stopped producing and that’s what this country is beginning to do – started about 35 years ago and if we don’t change that around there’s no way we’re going to get out of this morass.”

Nope, the Constitution as it lays out representative democracy doesn’t keep democracy healthy.  We’re all doomed because of all that book learnin’.  We’re just too damn smart.  If this is true, Rep. Young can rest assured he’ll be the last man on Earth.  It’s back to the fields for the rest of us.  Come on San Franciscans – put down your textbooks and start growing your own food. 

And let’s get rid of Black Water, our mercenary army….  Hey, wait a minute.  SEE?  I told you!  That’s one of those moments when the broken clock is showing the right time.  So, let’s leave it there.  Part II of Adventures with Don Young will be coming soon.

And should any of this have inspired you to part with a few bills in your wallet, here is a link to Harry Crawford’s website.  He’s a decent guy, a hard-worker, a great Alaskan with good ideas, a hand-shaker and a deal maker, and someone who gets along with people.  Anything you can throw his way brings us one step closer to ending the embarrassment.  CLICK HERE to help Harry give ‘em Hell!

Well, the CPAC straw poll results are in, and guess who’s going on the hay ride?

I’ll give you a hint. Remember how Sarah Palin just said, in Arkansas that the Tea Party crowd “have to pick a party?”

Well, take a typical Tea Partier, remove the racism, and the ignorance, and the psychopathology, and the bad spelling. Leave in the fiscal conservatism, the constitution, and right to life, and what do you have?

The winner of this year’s CPAC straw poll!

Presenting their analysis on the results is the conservative blog “Race for 2012″
(drum roll please….. and no it’s not Palin. Remember, I said REMOVE the ignorance.)

Here’s [sic] the numbers: Ron Paul wins almost a third of the vote, crushing the establishment candidates. There were 2,395 people who cast ballots — over six hundred more than last year. (snip)

Ron Paul – 31%
Mitt Romney – 22%
Sarah Palin – 7%
Tim Pawlenty – 6%
Mike Pence – 5%
Newt Gingrich -4%
Mike Huckabee – 4%
Mitch Daniels – 2%
Rick Santorum – 2%
John Thune – 2%
Haley Barbour – 1%
Other – 5%
Undecided – 6%

Ron Paul has ended Mitt Romney’s three-year run as conservatives’ favorite for president, taking 31 percent of the vote in the Conservative Political Action Conference’s annual straw poll.

Results of this year’s poll were announced just as the crowd prepared for the conference’s keynote speaker, Fox News host Glenn Beck.

Yes, Republican Congressman Ron Paul has just knocked Captain Hair-do off the block. And it wasn’t a squeaker – he got pounded.  And Sarah Palin, whose showing last year was 11% has seen her support drop by a little more than 36%. It appears as though the Tea Partiers have indeed made their “choice” of party, but with the choice did NOT come their desire for Palin to hold office. Verrrry interesting.

But back to the analysis:

53% think we need a better field; 46% are fine with it. A majority here — people like me! — want more choices.

This means nothing, obviously. Ron Paul’s cult will follow him to the ends of the Earth.

But yes, we have been invaded by loons.

The big loser is Sarah Palin. The poll was almost 2/3 male, and Palin is more popular among men. Imagine if the poll was 50/50 — yeesh. Her absence this weekend was glaring.

So, let me get this straight. The people that paid good green money to come and bask in the glow of Glenn Beck – they’ve got it together. But the Ron Paul supporters? They’re loons. Got it.

And it would appear as though the “big loser” is in part responsible for the “invasion of the loons.” Yeesh, indeed.

Of course, Palin herself was nowhere to be seen at CPAC. She’s never been there to my knowledge. She’s been half-committing and completely committing for years now, but always finds a way to back out – usually at the last minute. Last year her giggly fan-base at Team Sarah were all a-flutter, cashing in their frequent flier miles, looking for deals on hotel rooms, and setting up carpools from hundreds of miles away, just to see Palin as the keynote speaker. Palin denied ever committing, leaving fans, and organizers slack-jawed and scrambling to find her replacement.

Undoubtedly eyebrows are raising across the GOP establishment, or as Palin would call them “the machine.” Apparently “the machine” has been recalibrated, and the …. Paul-bots (?) are celebrating. They will sleep tonight with visions of sugarplums and the demise of the Federal Reserve dancing in their overactive little heads.