ALASKANS FOR TRUTH PAC - FOLLOW UP TO TROOPERGATE REPORTS

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[smiles]

I don't know where you carry yours, but I keep my PAC money tucked into my cleavage. 

Maybe Mr. Doogan will let me sit on his lap and whisper my grievances into his ear? 

Another traditional, effective method. Not that I recommend it. He seems like the biting type.

@ Steve -- He does seem rather pitbullish, doesn't he? Since when did the servants become so aggressive towards those they have been elected to serve? <sigh> I will be so happy to see the old Bushco vanguard leaving office!

Oooh... everybody stop, hey, what's that sound?  Do I sense a new Mudgroup approaching... Oh my! Look at those stampeding steeds! The riders with their armor shining in the light of the sun! Is it...??? could it be...???

<cue the foley guy, insert sound of the hunting horn>

The Vanguard Army of Bloggers, Forum Posters & Friends of The Lord of Truth hath arrived in Mudville!!!

Oh look! They're passing out Sign Up applications! Quick! Somebody get out the Mudflats Knighting Weapon! Line forms to the left! I get to be first!

<smiles kneels down and bows her head, imagining one of the girl Mods dressed as Glenda, the Good Witch of the North, tapping her shoulders with a Magic Wand>

******TWINK******

Henceforth and herewith -- I hath been annointed, Lady Smiles, Member of the Vanguard, Army of the Lord of Truth.

Gee, do I feel powerful!

Deal with it, Doogan.

<grin>

Next?

[SMR]

ANYONE WHO HAD TO PUT UP WITH DOOGAN'S B.S. WILL LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!

CHeck out this link I found to email rules for state employees!  I love it I love it I love it!!!!!!!

http://www.archives.state.ak.us/pdfs/records_management/email.pdf

Hey, Doogan must have forgotten to read this bit under the heading of NETIQUETTE:

BE PROFESSIONAL: Be professional and mindful what you say about others. Remember, email can be forwarded to others, downloaded and shown around, or subpoenaed for court cases. Do not write anything that is libelous, obscene, discriminatory, offensive or racist. Send anything by email that you wouldn't mind hearing on the evening news!

[the problem child]

Alaskan's For Truth has a letter to the editor in the Anchorage Press. re: their January 2 article, "Digital Smackdown".

http://www.anchoragepress.com/articles/2009/01/07/news/doc49656f284b7b1749623881.txt

While it is tempting to take Mr. Doogan’s response and address it line by line, we are confident that voters will come to their own conclusions about his level of respect, or lack thereof, for those engaged in the political process and for those who make their opinions known to him. Busy Alaskans would like to believe that when they take the time to contact their legislature about an issue, that their government and its representatives will take their concerns seriously.  This comment and many others coming from Rep. Doogan on this matter give the Alaska voter a particularly disturbing window into his thought process.

Digital Smackdown if you missed it earlier:
http://www.anchoragepress.com/articles/2009/01/07/news/doc495aa7157db1f618269835.txt

[SMR]

WHY DOOGAN SHOULD NOT HAVE ANY POSITION OF IMPORTANCE W/IN LEGISLATURE -- BACK TO SCHOOL FOR YOU DOOGAN, LEARN SOME MANNERS!!!!!

I've removed my name from this, but did include it in all emails that I sent Mr. Loser.

I sent the following off to all representatives, and the responses that I received were positive/supportive.  Presumably those who were feeling as crotchety as Doogan (those who failed to respond to ANY of my emails, either before or after the Doogan Debacle) knew better than to send me a similarly shite email, lest it become fodder for blogs or some other media, or maybe be the cause of another letter from me to their peers.


Dear Representative,

Recently I received a very dismissive and contemptuous response from your fellow Representative, Mr. Doogan, a response that was also sent out to several others, with the names and email address of all recipients listed.  I hope that you do not share Mr. Doogan’s opinion that constituents are not at liberty to contact state legislators to voice their concerns.

Although I am represented by Ms. Fairclough, being a resident of Eagle River, I feel strongly that when Representatives act in concert to make policy decisions that affect each and every Alaskan, regardless of whether or not they are a resident of your particular area, it behooves each of you to respectfully consider the concerns of every Alaskan willing to contact you.

The comments of Representative Doogan were disrespectful and unprofessional, to say the least.  A short excerpt from his response to me:

Sorry this response took so long, but I wanted to make sure that all of your often-identical emails had reached me, and to do a little research on a couple of points you made.

Second, there is not much that can be done to satisfy your requests or demands or whatever they are. More on that in a moment.

I am, frankly, astonished that Mr. Doogan received several emails that were identical to mine.  I suppose that I should be encouraged that so many of my fellow born-in-Alaska-work-in-the-oil-industry-former-Republicans took the time to contact Mr. Doogan about the issue of our Governor’s ethics & accountability lapses.  Following are excerpts from my original emails to Mr. Doogan, copies of which were also sent to you, all signed with my name and town, though no reply received:

I am writing this email to encourage you to take action following the recommendations of the report compiled, at the request of yourselves, by Stephen Branchflower.  I also request that you follow up on several much-needed actions in regard to the persons who flagrantly broke the law in the course of said report.

I am angered by the recent statement of Governor Palin’s spokesperson, Bill McAllister, who said that the only people interested in seeing these issues followed up are “ultra left wingers.”  I must take issue with that, and further state that not only do I not have any idea who he is referring to by that phrase – it certainly could not be this particular Alaskan, but wholeheartedly repudiate the divisiveness and partisanship that the term implies.

I am a born & raised Alaskan who has spent the majority of her life in Alaska.  Until this election, I have voted for the Republican presidential ticket since voting for George H.W. Bush, apart from voting George W. Bush in for a second term.  My disgust with our governor far outweighed any that I may have, or formerly had, for John McCain, and was the reason that I changed my voter registration to Undeclared following her placement on the GOP presidential ticket.  She does not represent my Republican values or beliefs, and certainly does not represent the best that the Republican Party has to offer in the way of politicians.  Does that make me an “ultra left winger?”  I rather think that that makes me a conservative voter that places ethical & prudent leadership before party line.

There are many crises facing the state of Alaska right now, and you, as an elected official, are duty-bound to support Alaskans.  First and foremost, in my mind, is your obligation to enforce the legal and ethical standards of our elected and appointed officials.  If that is not done there can be no credibility within our government, and no assurance that any action taken is clearly in the best interests of Alaska or Alaskans.

Following Mr. Doogan’s initial snide response, and subsequent emails he wrote in response to the emails of outraged recipients – all of which I was unfortunate enough to receive, being on the CC list -  Mr. Doogan elected to disparage all who contacted him as a whole,  so I sent the following email, to him alone:

Mr. Doogan,
I will address your highly offensive email response later.  For now, let me say the following:
1) I was born & raised in Alaska.
2) I am a registered voter in Alaska.
3) You continue to send out these emails with my name and email address, sending them out to people that I do not know.
4) I am not part of any "organized campaign."
5) I used to read your column regularly and have some respect & admiration for you.  I do not any longer.

Sincerely,


Mr. Doogan was so good as to send me the following extremely rude and unprofessional response:

1. Born here? Good for you.
2. Registered voter? Again good for you. But not a registered voter in House District 25, who are the folks I represent. So if you have public policy concerns, you should address them to whoever actually does represent you.
3. Name and address? When you sent an email to a public official -- me -- it became part of the public record. That's not some matter of so-called Internet etiquette, it's Alaska law. So "people you do not know" have a right to it. Beyond that, I am completely opposed to anonymity in public discourse, as it only brings out the worst in people.
4. Organized campaign? For someone who is/was not a member of an organized campaign, several of the points in your original email were the same as those raised by most of people who emailed me. How did that happen? Coincidence?
5. Respect and admiration? While it is always nice to have respect and admiration, in this regard I am far more concerned about doing my job to the best of my ability, which doesn't leave a lot of room for worrying about respect and admiration from people I don't know and who don't know me.

Mike

PS: Oh, yeah. And the offensive email? Try reading it without the spin imparted by an anonymous blogger and see what you think.

 It is a disappointment to me that Senator Doogan feels free to disparage and insult constituents exercising their obligation and right to participate in the democratic process embraced by the United States of America.  Further, it is my understanding that any emails or letters that I send to legislators are only “part of the public record” in the sense that my name and contact information may be made available to a member of the public only if they obtain it through the proper channels and after providing a legitimate reason for doing so.  If I am wrong about that, I welcome the correct explanation for the term “part of the public record” as it applies to communications between constituents and legislators.

There is a wealth of information regarding state employee email communications available through internet searches.  I offer the following link as one of the many that contain information that clearly applies to the communications that I received from Representative Doogan, underscoring their shortcomings:

http://www.archives.state.ak.us/pdfs/records_management/email.pdf

I do not expect a groundswell of support from the legislature for any efforts to follow up on the findings of the Branchflower report; the deafening silence is, I feel, a good predictor of a failure to act.  However, I will continue to voice my concerns and press for action, as is my right.  And I feel that it is important that Alaskan legislators know that the treatment that I received courtesy of Mr. Doogan reflects poorly on all of you.  Silence from fellow legislators in the face of such behavior by a compatriot renders each and every one of you complicit.  Such behavior by an elected official should not be condoned or tolerated, by either other elected officials or Alaskan voters.

Sincerely,

(Signing my name and town, in full, as always)

[Forty Watt]

Wow!  The impressive quality of your writing doubly underscores just how pathetically juvenile Doogan's diatribe is.  SMR 

[Julia O]

4. Organized campaign? For someone who is/was not a member of an organized campaign, several of the points in your original email were the same as those raised by most of people who emailed me. How did that happen? Coincidence?

I wonder how it has never dawned on the good Mr. Doogan that often completely unacquainted people who have an IQ above room temperature might all notice when a much-reported blatant injustice has occurred and comment separately on said injustice.

 

[caligrl wolves eat palin]

Great email/letter! He is a complete and total ASSHAT! He doesn't realize I guess that HIS EMAILS become public also.
I sent all his his emails I received when he sent "reply" and they sent reply to the Leg. BCC.
This guy, or all of them must of had a helluva party on  NYE 'cause that was the same day Barbie ranted to people mag. and ADN!!!
My heart goes out to you in Alaska.

[the problem child]

Great letter, SMR! I was hoping you would eventually post it. I guess that means that the silence continues to be deafening?

[CO Almost Native]

SMR:

Congratulations on an eloquent and to-the-point letter; quite a contrast to Doogan's correspondence.  Is he a representative of the people?  I think not.

[SMR]

Still deafening silence from the legislators.  No surprise there.

Given the fact that action on the troopergate issues is dependent on the AG, it is even more critical that we make a public & loud show of our support for the bill regarding an elected AG.

Time to get loud again, Alaskans!  Now that the legislature is back in session, it's time to drum up support and pressure the legislators to do right by citizens of Alaska.

SP is not making decisions that are in either the long- or short-term best interests of Alaskans.  How SPs decisions that promise to empty state coffers, erode opportunities for real oil & gas development, and install cronies into positions that allow them to defraud the state are less important than the budget for the coming year is a mystery to me!

Oh yeah, thanks for the nice words about my letter.  I was soooooooooooooooooooooooo angry when I received the first one, just got angrier and angrier and angrier until Doogan the Doofus finally STFU.  WHich is why I didn't reply beyond my tiny little blurb to him alone.  I was biding my time, getting over my fury, so that I could write a letter that I would not regret once the holidays were over.  I did not want him harshing my holiday mellow!  That pissing on the holiday parade was the worst part of the whole thing!  If he was going to be an a$$hole, he could at least have waited until after xmas!

[sweetlucy47]

Hey all... I just noticed something I hadn't noticed before...

The diatribe that Palin is on now... remember what it is... ANONYMOUS BLOGGERS....

 A quote from Doogans email I just saw in SMR's post from Jan 12:

                                     

Try reading it without the spin imparted by an anonymous blogger

[SMR]

If Deep Throat, who did the United States an amazing favor in outing Nixon, can remain anonymous for his entire life as a source, certainly AKM and others can do so as well.

One would think that Doogan, as A) a journalist, and B) a person of an age that made him a front-row viewer of Watergate, would understand that anonymity has its place, its quite legitimate place.

So a big F-You, or MIDDLE FINGER, or UP YER KILT, or whatever to anyone who disputes that a writer's anonymity has value.

HEY MR. JOURNALIST DOOGAN GUY -- DID YOU FORGET THAT YOUR NEWSPAPER PEERS HAVE GONE TO JAIL TO PROTECT THE ANONYMITY OF THEIR SOURCES?????????????

[sweetlucy47]

But I just thought it was just funny that now they are both on the same thing... anonymous bloggers... they whispering in each others ear or something... for them both to be harping on the same meme...

[SMR]

Yes, I know.  So worn out, isn't it?  They both suck.

[Quince]

SMR, that is one spectacular letter.  I applaud your taking the time and care to actually respond to that insulting drivel, and it was a masterstroke to clue the rest in on how badly it reflects upon the legislative brethren.  Miss Manners would be proud to the point of delicate Victorian vapors.