The debate

The initial take is that Kerry took it. Bush did better on radio, where you couldn't see his angry gestures and expressions. Let's see where the spin migrates in the next few days ...

The hackinator

So Loren Leman loses in court again ... shocked, shocked I am.

The man has no ethics. Now he's trying to blame the sponsors of the "Trust the People" initiative for the fact that he made politically motivated misleading statements on the ballots, because they "waited until the last minute" to point it out. Of course, the fact that he did not disclose his change of the initiative description to its sponsors, or announce that a changed version had been placed on the state's website could not have had anything to do with that.

Men like Loren Leman are the reason that we need a vigorously independent judiciary. He has no qualms about abusing his office for political advantage, and the courts are the only place he can be brought to heel.

Bush v. Hoover

Sean Cockerham has big news - the governor should not really take credit - or blame - for job creation numbers on his watch.

Watch out! Once you let out a big secret like this, you never know when they're gonna get you.

This is one of those odd things, though ... of course it's the overall state of the economy that controls job creation and loss, in the larger sense. If you're riding a boom, that's good luck, not good management.

At the same time, though, good government, especially on a local level, does play an important role in job creation. Not in the way that most Rs like to go on about (low wages, low taxes, no unions, no environmental regs, etc.). If you look at the States that have followed that plan (especially in the South - Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana), you'll see that they have high unemployment, low wages, and high job instability. Real job creation takes place in cities and states with a good quality of life index. Good education systems, so you have smart, trainable and flexible workers; good land use planning, so that it's a pleasant place to live; moderate taxes that are stable, so that you can count on services and plan your expenses ...&c.

When the economy starts moving, job creation happens in places that are primed for it.

Ol' King Coal

So Gov. Dorkowski says that Taiwan may be our next economic salvation ... a willing market for Cook Inlet coal.

I remember reading an article years ago ... Forbes was interviewing the new President of Honduras, who was touting his brilliant new economic development plan it was to ... ready? ...

Increase exports of raw goods!

"We want to be a banana republic in a positive way," he said. "We want to produce the world's best bananas!"

And now we here in Alaska have the same kind of visionary leadership! Gov. Frank Dorkowski, following the models set out by such econonomic powerhouses as West Virginia and Honduras, will lead us down the path to prosperity!

And if it turns out it's too expensive to produce, that's ok! We'll just gut the environmental laws, forego any tax revenue from coal-related activity, and subsidize the necessary infrastructure! Heck, otherwise that coal's just sittin' there!

Yessiree ... it's forward thinking like this that got Frank out of the banking industry ...

El Hacko

As I said, if you want Loren Leman to do his job, you have to sue him. And Eric Croft understands this guy ... always watch him, never trust him, never be afraid to call him into court for his BS ...

The ol' 180 redux

Much as I'd like to take credit for Gov. Dorkowski's reversal on the judicial appointment issue, all credit is due to the (very appropriate) hard line taken by the Judicial Council.

Now let's see Gov. Dorkowski's response - my guess is we'll see some attempts to punish the JC in the next legislative session - cutting its funding, allowing the Gov. to stack the board with his own appointments ... things of that nature.

This will test my theory of Gov. Dorkowski's nature - ethics, the law, and his responsibility to the public are meaningless to him. Everything is political, everything is partisan. and its all about him and his team getting theirs.

The ol' 180

Fall has returned, for now. Enjoy it whily you havethe chance.

September?!!??!!??

I know we live in Alaska, but snow at sea level on Yom Kippur seems a bit ridiculous.

Bridge over troubled locals

I like bridges - they're just cool. I love watching water flow underneath them, I love the way they look from a distance, I love the metaphors that flow from them ... they're just cool.

But I've never thought the Knik Arm Bridge was a particularly good idea. Are we really going to be able to build a safe bridge in an earthquake zone, on notoriously unstable soils (volcanic sandy silt), over water with enormous tidal shifts and icebergs 6 months out of the year?

And, if so, why? For a quicker trip to Wasilla? I thought we were spending millions on the new Glenn/Parks interchange for that same purpose.

The real reason Don Young (Anger Management Poster Child for All Alaskans!) wants to build this bridge, of course, is to open up the Susitna Flats to development. And the boon, of course, is to developers and land speculators. Is this really worth the many millions we would spend on such a bridge? Not to mention the other social costs that such sprawl would bring ...

Now, if there is any group whose positions on making land use policies should be taken with a truckload of salt, it would be the developers and real estate investors. They do not care what a city looks like or whether it is pleasant or safe to live in - they want to make money. This is not bad, of course - quite to the contrary, there has to be an incentive for such beneficial economic activity to take place. But their energies have to be directed in a way that makes what is good for them good for us as well. We need plentiful parks, attractive houses that provide some opportunity for communal interaction, good energy efficiency and construction standards, trails connecting various neighborhoods and commercial districts, streets that discourage traffic congestion, areas of concentrated development that reduce sprawl, redevelopment of blighted areas to reduce sprawl, enough open space to allow wildlife to live in the city and to allow healthy watersheds. The market incentives that developers respond to will provide none of these things.

Developers will tell you that all of this simply drives up the cost of housing - raw land development with fewer of the requirements described above is much cheaper, and allows for affordable housing. But, do you really believe they're interested in saving you money? When multi-millionaire developers cry that you're taking bread off their tables ... well, use the salt, folks.

Anyway, like I said, when these folks are pushing for a big government project, it's appropriate to ask a lot of questions. Sometimes there are good answers. Sometimes there are not.

Seems like some G-Hill residents have some questions - good ones, too. And it doesn't seem like there are any answers at all ...

Please go back under your rock

Why is it that Loren Leman always has to be sued to get him to do his job? Why is he unable to separate his ethical responsibility to the public from his political point of view? Why is he, in short, such a schmuck?

Leman's ballot initiative hijinks continue, this time with the "Trust the People" initiative - AGAIN. The same as it was with the marijuana initiative, and pretty much else he's done since he's been in office.

Leman is a hack. He is a hack because he always thinks of his party first, and his responsibility to the integrity of the political system last. He thinks only of his personal views on morality, and never of his ethical responsibility as a servant of the public.

Bare Country

This story got me thinking - it sure seems like there've been a lot of fatal bear encounters this summer. Maybe it's just that it's been a dry, sunny summer with lots of trail use, maybe bears are just getting more and more accustomed to people around here. But I use the trails a lot, and, though I've seen plenty of bear sign, I've never had any kind of trouble ... anyway, I'm glad this fellow's alive, and I'm sorry for the bear.

And if you elect me your Friend-in Chief ...

My Dad was a master of the splenetic catch phrase - it was his preferred vehicle for imparting his collected wisdom. And now, having reached my own crabby middle age, it seems I am doomed to repeat some of these gems to my own children because ... well, they're just true.

The one that comes to mind whenever I read a Richard Cohen column is: "The world is not a meritocracy." (Actually, the political ascendency of one G.W. Bush is the quintessential exemple of this particular truism, but that's not the point today). As a muddleheaded purveyor of establishmentarian fluff, Cohen is unsurpassed ... well, I certainly can't put it better than James Walcott does here.

Another topic I wish I had time to discuss more fully - the infantilization of politics. In Washington today, the pundits tell us that it's all about the "personal qualities" of the candidates, getting to know them "as a person," establishing an "emotional connection," blah blah blah, like it's some big encounter group.

Listen, folks, I don't hate President* Bush - I don't know the man, and I'm never likely to meet him, so I can't say I have any personal feelings about him at all. I don't make any personal or moral judgments here - I make political and ethical ones. And the fact that our political media can't tell the difference anymore is at least close to the root of the impoverishment of our national dialogue.

The American Kleptocracy

The ADN front pager on State Republican Party Chair (and ethicist extraordinaire) Randy Reudrich only scratches the surface of the ethical bankruptcy at the heart of the RPA. This is a group of people, after all, who purport to believe that government is incapable of effective action in any field of endeavor - why do you think they are so eager to be in the driver's seat of such a jalopy?

Of course, it's not just Alaska. Ed Kilgore of NewDonkey has a good take on the rotten heart of the RNC as well. The ascendency of this particular group bodes ill not just for our government now, but for the future of our society at large. As we've seen, kleptocracies are very difficlut to dislodge once they've taken hold.

And anyone who thinks that thugs like Randy Reudrich, and, on the larger scale, Tom DeLay and Rick Santorum, are not worth worrying about ... well, they're simply not paying attention.

But, to end on a brighter note, while you'd have a long search finding something that Sarah Palin and I agree about, policy-wise, I have to salute her actions - both while in office and in resigning from it. Political disagreements are one thing - unethical (not "immoral" - that is a private matter) behavior is entirely another. I am heartened to see that at least one "rising star" of the RPA understands her ethical responsibility to the public, and is willing to live up to it.

Feelin' the love ...

This editorial and this article seemed to strike a chord together.

The editorial, by Steve Haycox, posits a question that has been dogging me for months - by any honest, non-partisan measure, the presidency of GW Bush has been a miserable failure, yet he receives the unwavering support of a distressingly large percentage of the electorate. How can this be?

The article, I believe, dances around the answer. A community council meeting about whether a fence around a military reservation could be moved to accommodate some pre-existing trails apparently degenerated into an angry confrontation when one participant said that the real motivation of those who wanted to save the trails was anti-military sentiment. How could they argue about a trail, one person asked, when soldiers were dying in Iraq? You don't support our troops! You hate the military!

Where the heck did THAT come from?

I'll have a lot more to say about this issue, but this is related to what Juan Cole has termed the "Partisan Epistomology" that seems to dominate public discourse today. In plainer terms, for many people, truth itself emanates from a partisan viewpoint. What President* Bush says is right, because President* Bush says it. Those who disagree are not only wrong, but entirely wrongheaded ... indeed, evil. And the emergence of facts that don't support your view are simply proof of the bias and partisanship of those who state them.

It seems to me this approach has been tried before ...

What he said ...

Sen. Elton's editorial has the right take on the efforts by Jimmy C. and Gov. Dorkowski to unravel the Constitutionally-mandated judicial appointment scheme. I had thought about posting Jimmy C.'s earlier editorial about it, but his arguments were simply so lame that I couldn't think where to begin.

So, if any of you are tempted at all to take Jimmy C. at his word, please don't be such saps. This is not about a more democratic system (or he would support the amendment calling for direct election of replacement Senators who are not his daughter), or any other principle of note. It is simply about cronyism and the arrogance of power.

I just hope the JC has the fortitude to stand up for itself.

That Grassy Knoll Thing

So it looks like CBS is backing offof its earlier statements on the Killian memos. They may be forgeries, they may be reproductions of documents that actually existed, they may have been beamed in from outer space ... who knows? Certainly not Dan Rather.

While this is certainly a bizarre little episode, and if they are forged documents, the forger deserves the scorn heaped upon him, let's try to keep our eye on the ball here. As I said earlier, not even the White House or the Bush campaign denies the substance of what is in the documents, and what the other released documents unequivocally show is that President* Bush simply blew off major portions of his last two years of TX ANG duty, and has been lying about it ever since. If there is anything relevant about this debate, that is it.

and the continuing ability of RoveCo to spin his blundering charge out of any sort of trouble is simply uncanny ...

and that's all I have to say about that.

Killian on the Grassy Knoll

Well, the Trolls are out, now trying to discredit the new documents released from President* Bush's military files after a FOIA request from the AP. The argument is that they must be forgeries, because ... well, because of some incomprehensible mumbo-jumbo about IBM Selectric typewriters and typefaces, etc.

First question: Where was all of this concern for strict accuracy when the Swift Boaties were making things up about John Kerry?

Second question: Are you people nuts? Wait ... on second thought, don't answer that.

Anyway, knowing that the standards are higher for telling the truth about Bush than for telling lies about Kerry, CBS did its homework on this. Note also that the White House is not questioning the veracity of the documents.

They're real, folks. Not that they tell anything about George W. Bush that anybody who has been paying any attention didn't already know.

Jets and Terror

So now there is apparently some sort of "debate" about whether this site and others gave Gov. Dorkowski a raw deal in criticizing his (for he is, unfortunately, the Chief Executive of the State) proposal to use federal "homeland security" funds to purchase a new luxury jet.

Let me be clear. I don't oppose this because I oppose everything Gov. Dorkowski proposes, or because I don't like the idea of him (as opposed to future or past governors) getting a nice ride. It's got nothing to do with Gov. Dorkowski per se.

I oppose this because it is an egregious misuse of limited federal homeland security funds. For two million dollars, you could hire 20 cargo inspectors to police our harbors, or security guards to watch over nuclear powerplants, or Arabic translators to tell us what is going on in the Middle East, or just more cops on the street. Make no mistake, I am uncomfortable with the perqs that government officials have been giving themselves at any level (why can't the Gov. fly coach with the rest of us?).

But this is pork barrel spending of a whole different order, an it is exponentially more vile. Terrorism is a real issue. There are real homeland security needs going unmet, and that money is needed. This isn't a game. If there is another terrorist attack, are we to tell the widows, widowers, and orphans, "Well, we let this bomb slip through the ports, but the good news is that the Governor of Alaska has a real nice jet."

Let's try not to miss the big picture here, folks.

Big Mark

Sometimes, when I get discouraged about the national political scene, I am able to calm myself down by focusing on the local. Not that I agree with everything Mark Begich does, but his general approach to government is a spot-on model of New Progressivism: it's results-oriented, focused on providing infrastructure to improve local quality of life; it seeks to be efficient and frugal; and it's non-ideological.

Big Mark has been hampered - and significantly so - by the bumblings of previous mayors, particularly by the inexcusable pandering of the insufferable Rick Mystrom, which unnecessarily impoverished future governments for years to come. But, for the first time I can recall, city government actually has direction - a philosophical (as opposed to ideological) template based on an understanding of what good government actually is. Here's hoping he can stay at it.

For plunder!

Well, you can't accuse Gov. Dorkowski and his boys of lacking gall. The ADN's report on Chief of Hacks Jim Clark's meeting with the Alaska Judicial Council makes clear that Dorkowski has decided to "draw a line in the sand" on the judicial appointment issue we discussed earlier. Again, cronyism is the one principle a man like Dorkowski is willing to defend - state appointments should be nothing but a cronyist requards system, unhindered by any girlie-man BS like "the Alaska Constitution" or "qualifications."

Right on, Frank - this state really needs to model itself more after Louisiana of the Huey Long era.

Clark's not-so-veiled threat was to send the entire issue to the Legislature - that hotbed of impartiality - to "re-examine" the nomination process. I can see Jimmy C in his pinstripe suit, cracking his hairy knuckles: "Ya know, dat's a nice little nomination process ya got der ... I'd just hate to see anyting happen to it, yanowuddimean?"

Problem is, Jimmy C. and the Dork don't have a leg to stand on, and Alex Bryner knows it. The nomination process is specifically outlined in the Constitution, and the Constitution gives the Judicial Council the authority to write its own bylaws. So the only way to force a change in the JC's bylaws is by Constitutional amendment. The legislature can propose such a change, but they can't enact it into law - that takes a popular vote.

And what do you think the people would have to say about giving Gov. Dorkowski more power to appoint his cronies (or relatives) to powerful state jobs than he already has?

Of course, the danger here is that the JC also has its politically-appointed members, and they may simply capitulate to the Dork's threats. But I think there is some real concern in that body for the integrity of the process - and rightly so. I also think that Justice Bryner has the backbone and the necessary level of disdain for Dorkowski's croneyism to shame the JC into doing the right thing.

At least I hope so ...

False Patriots

I was at one of Alaska's fine military bases today, in line to get some paperwork done, when one of the MPs felt compelled to tell a woman standing in line in front of me that he "took exception to" her window sticker. She looked non-plussed for a moment, and then, trying to salvage an uncomfortable moment, brightly said "yeah, but that's what great about this country - we can all say what we believe." To which the MP groused, "yeah, well this freedom of speech thing goes too far, in my opinion."

I was sure this window sticker had to say something offensive about the military, but I was wrong. It simply said "W is for Warmonger." A pure political opinion - nothing about the military, just criticism of a politician. And this is free speech "going too far."

Then I ran into this column by William Saletan of Slate. It's worth reading the whole thing, but here's my money quote:

"In a democracy, the commander in chief works for you. ... Not every country works this way. In some countries, the commander in chief builds a propaganda apparatus that equates him with the military and the nation. If you object that he's making bad decisions and disserving the national interest, you're accused of weakening the nation, undermining its security, sabotaging the commander in chief, and serving a foreign power—the very charges Miller leveled tonight against Bush's critics.

Are you prepared to become one of those countries?"

Clearly Sgt. Hofstadter is not only prepared, but welcomes the opportunity to become one of those countries. I just hope a lot of people are more sensible, and know that patriotism is much greater than the cramped partisanship of fools like him.

Homeland Pork

Borealis has the scoop on the feds' rejections of Gov. Dorkowski's most egregious peaen for pork (i.e. the oh-so-necessary "homeland security" luxury jet). This one isn't just about Gov. Dorkowski playing games, though. This is just a small chapter in the ongoing saga of the Bush Administration's grossly inappropriate and foolhardy mishandling of homeland security generally.

This is a real issue - harbor and port security funding is laughably inadequate, security funding for chemical plants, nuclear power plants, and the water supplies of our major population centers is virtually non-existent ... the list goes on. Yet Bush's homeland security funding is nothing to him but another political tool - Colorado (an election battleground state) gets more money than New York; per capita funding for homeland security efforts in Montana outstrips that of NYC by 4:1 (thank goodness all of Ted Turner's buffalo will be safe ... wait, he's a Democrat ... mebbe give it to that Yogi Bear fella).

The man is just dead set on turning America into a Third World country ...

So the ADN finally gets the scoop on Cheryl Heinze, several months late. The existence of an FBI investigation certainly raises questions about what else may be lurking in Heinze's file. Regardless, if a legislator doesn't recognize that its inappropriate for her to "hint" that a company with a significant legislative proposal that falls under her influence should give her a "consulting" job ... well, then you've got a real problem.

It's not just Ogan ... it's not just Heinze ... there is an entirely unethical culture in Alaska politics right now, and the Republican leadership is at its heart. It's not even "what's good for business is good for Alaska" anymore - it's "what's good for us is good for us ... and screw you."