Impressive, not impressive... WTF?!

Such was my reaction to the ongoing news today.

Impressive - Ken Salazar.
(from the Anchorage Daily News)

Not impressive - Palin rural advisor John Moller
(from the Fairbanks Daily News Miner)

WTF?! - Palin's latest action regarding her appointment craziness.
(from the ADN)

And I do mean crazy.

Mudflats and Celtic Diva do the best job of summing this up, I think, but let me sum up the Palin madness of late. This being just ONE of the issues she's seem to gone nutty over lately.

State Sen. Kim Elton took a job with the Obama administration, so it's up to Palin to appoint a new senator, which the democratic senators must confirm. The dems only submitted one name to her as a suggestion, a state representative who has spoken out against Palin's actions in the past.

Palin ignores this, and appoints a man who was registered as a republican until just a few weeks before. Naturally, the dems reject him. The Juneau dems submit FOUR names to Palin for consideration. Palin ignores this, and appoints a nice, unknown guy who has never run for public office. Naturally, the dems reject him.

The craziness took a whole new turn today, when Palin, who, by law, must appoint ONE person, "submits" three names to the dems. Just in this, she's not following the law. Need more crazy? TWO of the names are of people the dems have already rejected. The third person is yet another unknown, yet ANOTHER guy who wasn't even registered as a democrat until last month!

Mudflats and Celtic Diva do a better job of how many legal issues (not even taking in the ethical ones!) Palin caused with this latest, most bizarre act.

One of the more mind-numbing parts of this to me is why Palin is getting so frustrated for the dems not choosing her strange choices to represent Juneau, when she's never come up with a good reason for why she's not choosing any of the names the dems submitted. Why are her choices for a voice for Juneau more qualified than those the dems are submitting?

The people of Juneau voted, they voted democrat, and by law they need a democratic replacement. TWO of the names she's submitted weren't even democrats until March. With the end of the legislative session just days away, they have had no voice this session. WTF?

For the other two issues I was following today - or at least heard about - Salazar and Moller.

I removed the embedded video because it automatically started playing a commercial every time the blog was opened... annoying. So, here's the first of the two-part interview KTUU did of Salazar. For the second part, click here, or visit the KTUU site (they have some other coverage as well.)

Ken Salazar is the new Secretary for the Interior. He was up here to talk about oil (and this is the big reason Alaskans care about him right now) and offshore drilling, visiting Dillingham and Anchorage.

Although I'm SURE there's many thousands of Alaskans who will not agree with me here, it was gratifying to see how many Alaskans do. His visit to Dillingham was overwhelmed with local opposition to offshore drilling, and many, many Native people stood up to make sure he knew they opposed it.

So many times we hear the big voices with lots of money behind them, including many Native corporation voices, who are all for drilling and profit. I can understand these positions - jobs and revenue, building communities (though not as much as you'd think) and... well, more money.

But rarely is the local voice heard with much volume, and I'm very glad Salazar took the time to head to Dillingham. He made a point of saying the Dillingham trip was his desire and idea, to visit a rural location (you know, the people who will feel the NEGATIVE effects of oil accidents - because Anchorage sure won't) and hear what they had to say. I cringed to hear him say the ANWR bit (it's not going to happen,) NOT because I support drilling in ANWR, but because I knew at that moment about half of Alaska shut their ears to him. He had some intelligent things to say, very well thought out.

I've had some hope for this guy, as I was down in Colorado where he presented local Native tribes to open up the Democratic National Convention. Because, though I do have interest in the oil part of his job, like all Alaskans, he's also the Secretary over the Bureau of Indian Affairs. I was a little disappointed he didn't get to visit any Native sites or organizations up here, but I'm more glad he crammed Dillingham AND Anchorage into his "one city" visit. I just hope he'll come back to take a look at what we're doing with Native issues, health care, culture, social services, etc. up here soon.

For Moller... sigh.

This is the guy Palin appointed as her rural advisor, and I had some hope as he "describes himself as Alaskan Native" (I don't know what that means) and comes from rural Alaska.

I won't say much about his lackluster interview with the Fairbanks Daily News Miner on Sunday, because most of it was a lot of "I'm not really going to answer that question with anything but 'we'll see.'"

But his subsistence answer was strange to me:

Q: What about subsistence issues?
A: AFN (Alaska Federation of Natives) has had a position on subsistence. It doesn’t align with our constitution. If it’s going to be addressed, it needs to be addressed as a whole, the Legislature and the administration — that’s if it’s going to be addressed.

Uhh....

First... that's not an answer. Second, why are we bringing up the AFN stance? Natives don't all get a vote in the AFN, so it's not the end-all or be-all for Native people. It's an important organization for sure, but ask the average Joe Native what AFN's stance is on subsistence and 9 out of 10 wouldn't be able to tell you. Third... I don't even understand what the last part of that answer means!

So it's snowing on Easter, the volcano is still erupting, earthquakes are shaking my house, and Alaska politics are doing the impossible - getting even nuttier.

Is there a nice, boring state I can hide out in for awhile? Just until I'm sure we're not getting sucked into some wierd 8th dimension of a black hole? Anyone?

_

Soon-to-be-Senator Mark Begich's to-do list for Obama

Can I say one more "Yea!" for Begich!?

With the win over forever-Senator Ted Stevens a certainty tonight, I want to emphasize just how much I believe our new Senator is going to get done. He's always got something going on, a new plan, new implementation of something, and I don't know how many times he's pushed something ahead and I've gone, "Ooh - good idea!" He's a smart guy who surrounds himself with smart people.

I hope to soon be sharing his accomplishments and hard work in D.C. One of his most recent newsletter announcements (before the win was certain):

Begich Offers “To Do” Suggestions for Obama. President-elect Obama should develop a national energy policy and visit Alaska to see first-hand Alaska’s enormous energy potential and our unmatched natural beauty. That’s Mayor Mark Begich’s suggestion for two items on the new president’s “to do list” requested by MSNBC. Begich was among 205 mayors in 48 states who responded to the news network’s request for what Obama should focus on. “As America’s energy storehouse, Alaska should play a central role in supplying our nation’s energy needs, including the oil and gas beneath ANWR and development of Alaska’s enormous natural gas reserves," the mayor said. As the only state he has yet to visit, Begich invited Obama to Alaska. See the full story at: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27583162/

Don't count us crazy yet! - UPDATED!

Begich (D) is now leading (convicted felon) Stevens (R) by THREE votes!

Per the Anchorage Daily News:

The elections division still has over 10,000 ballots left to count today and thousands more through next week, but the latest numbers show Mark Begich leading Sen. Ted Stevens 125,019 to 125,016.

The new numbers, reflecting nearly 43,000 absentee ballots counted today, are from all over the state. Election night, Ted Stevens led the Democratic Begich by about 3,000 votes.

The huge democratic push for early and absentee votes is paying off huge!

UPDATE: By the way, Begich won his first mayoral election by 18 votes! Just sayin' - the man can pull it off!

NEWEST UPDATE: At 8:37 Alaska Time (about 12:37 a.m. ET) the Anchorage Daily News announced it was 132,196 to 131, 382 - Begich leading Stevens by 814 votes!!

Everybody loves Begich

Or at least all the convention-goers love Begich! From all across the nation, these Democrats love to talk about Mark Begich.

I assumed people would not know him by name, being an Anchorage mayor. Although everyone is mentioning the Stevens corruption (more on that later in the week,) I figured that Begich would be more known as just "the democrat" that is finally really challenging Stevens - and not well-known outside of Alaska.

Boy was I wrong.

From the more expected places, like the AFL-CIO rep at the delegate meeting (see earlier post) shouting (and I mean shouting!) "God bless Mayor Begich!" - to delegates to press to people we meet on the street and light-rail, the people are rooting for Begich. Some of them have asked us to "Tell Begich, 'Good job!'" or "Tell that Mayor of yours to keep it up!"

I met these two gentlemen (above) when they were talking right by me, and I overheard the name "Mark Begich." The guy on the left, from Trick or Vote (actually a pretty cool idea - take a look) laughed when I interrupted and asked if they were talking about Mayor Begich - "You must be from Alaska!"

But the guy on the right, the one who brought up the name Begich, is from London! (That's like the third guy I've met from London...) He's absolutely certain Begich will take the election.


These are two Texas delegates, and were so excited when they heard we were from Alaska. They are cheering on the "red to blue" movement, but were really cheering on Mark Begich. They gave us some encouraging messages to take back to him (I think everyone also assumes all Alaskans know all other Alaskans,) and actually knew a decent amount of his political and personal background.


Celtic Diva wears a Begich button, to which I've witnessed a few, "Mark Begich... hey, are you from Alaska?"

Just yesterday alone, I talked with people from Wisconsin, Colorado, California, Washington (state), Tennessee, Florida, West Virginia, New York, Rhode Island, Oregon, Iowa, Maryland, Texas and England who all knew of Mark Begich and his run for the U.S. Senate seat, and were cheering on Alaskans to get him there.