Happy Solstice

It's a day of celebration here, where we have 5 hours, 26 minutes, and 57 seconds of daylight. Tomorrow is a longer day... by 12 seconds. And soon we'll start gaining daylight by a rate of more than 5 minutes per day.

The sun is barely creeping above the horizon these days. Here it was a few days ago, at about its highest point.

It's technically the first day of winter, but we've been in winter for more than two months now. That was Dark Winter. Today is the first day of Light Winter.

Back on the mountain

It was a great day at Alyeska last Sunday. While the temps at the base of the mountain were around zero, an inversion put temperatures at the summit at a spring-like 30-40. And when the sun peeked over the surrounding mountains, it felt like March, not December.

It started with a typically stunning drive down the Seward Highway:

(The steam coming off the water happens when the air temperature is so much colder than the water temperature, also known as sea smoke.)

And then there was some skiing under a nearly full moon:

And then the sun came out. A great day.

Inheritance

Next in the series.

Science: Noncontiguous states not relevant to mortality

Some scientists produced a "death map," and look -- apparently no Alaskans or Hawaiians ever die. And you wonder why I'm here.

Looking around the web to see how this story is reported, my favorite headline is from FoxNews.com: "Death Map" Shows Where Americans Most Likely To Die. Those of you living in blue areas, cheers! You're unlikely to die. (Ever?) You might want to consider putting off retirement for a bit. Those of you in the red areas, I'm sorry to say that science has concluded that you almost certainly will someday die. Consider moving to blue area right away.

Assault

Next in the series.

Alaska's experiment with professional basketball has one problem

Other teams don't want to come here.

I mentioned a few months ago that Alaska has a new professional basketball team -- the Alaska Dream of the ABA. The season opener was scheduled for tonight in Anchorage against the Washington Raptors, but the Raptors refused to make the trip.

"We attempted to bring the other team up here to play," team owner Trey Davis said. "We tried everything. They just didn't get on the plane."

Davis bought plane tickets, ground transportation, and lodging for the stinking Raptors. Not to mention the $6,000 he plunked down to rent Sullivan Arena for the night. So instead it's an intrasquad game. Dream vs. Dream! This reminds me of when I would play NBA Showdown on the Super Nintendo and create a team of five Hakeem Olajuwons to play another team of five Hakeem Olajuwons. Now that was Dream vs. Dream.

Anyway, the Washington Raptors are now On My List, alongside Clay Bennett, Jamie Moyer, and wraps (the evil bastard cousin of the burrito).

Arson

Next in the series of Hutchins Hall stained glass.

Extortion

Next in the series.

The Golden Globes TV nominations

I don't know what the Hollywood Foreign Press is -- and I don't care enough to read its website -- but it just announced the nominees for the the Golden Globes. I've seen none of the nominated movies, but as you know I am a TV expert. Overall the choices are okay, but there are a couple big omissions. The nominees:

Best Drama:
Dexter
House
In Treatment
Mad Men
True Blood

The two inexcusable omissions are Lost and The Wire. Lost had perhaps its best season ever, and continues to display the most imagination on TV. The Wire had maybe its worst year ever, but was still head and shoulders above the field in terms of writing and acting. The Wire might be the best show of all time, but it was never even nominated for a Globe or an Emmy. Mind-boggling. The other show that deserves some recognition is Battlestar Galactica, but it only had 10 episodes this calendar year, so it probably hasn't done enough to qualify.

I would eliminate In Treatment, of which I only watched 10 minutes because it bored the hell out of me. I don't know anyone who liked it. Dexter and True Blood are great; House is entertaining but repetitious; and I've never gotten past four episodes of Mad Men, though everyone agrees it's a good show. So I would have dropped House and In Treatment to make room for Lost and The Wire. My winner: Lost. Will win: Mad Men.

Best Comedy:
Californication
Entourage
The Office
30 Rock
Weeds

As for comedy, I'm flummoxed that Entourage is nominated. That show has gone off the rails with bad writing and bad acting. It is only redeemable for Jeremy Piven. 30 Rock and The Office are awesome; I've only seen season 1 of Weeds, and it was very good. Never seen Californication. I would have added Flight of the Conchords instead of Entourage, and left the rest. My winner: 30 Rock. Will win: 30 Rock.

Wow. It's one degree outside right now.

Marine Law

The next in a series.

Bribery

Number two in a series: The Rod Blagojevich special.

The first in a series.

Michigan Law School's Hutchins Hall boasts a collection of stained glass windows featuring a series of crimes and legal concepts. I'm gonna post them.

The first one is a little weird because unlike the others it doesn't have a caption. There's another one entitled "Patent," so let's just call this one the introduction.

Roller derby

That's what people are playing on Anchorage streets these days. The roads are so slick with ice that cars are sliding all over the place. To wit, an unfortunately woman tried to stop at an intersection this morning, but hit an ice patch and slammed into the back of my car. Fun for me, now that I get to talk to insurance adjusters and auto mechanics.

Be careful out there, kids.

"I'm just a simple president."

You know what, I'm actually going to miss him.

I don't like book clubs.

This is why: “Who knew a book group could be such a soap opera?”

I know some book clubs succeed in not becoming soap operas, but it's rare. You have to have people who agree about what kinds of books they want to read, and then they have to actually read it... on time. And then you have to have people who are willing to talk, but they can't talk too much or else they'll become annoying. And then the discussion can't just turns into therapy about people's love lives. And then you have to have food that everyone eats.

But perhaps most dangerous is the exclusivity of the club -- if you limit the number of people allowed in the club, then you have politics and entrance requirements and rejections. And then there are the people who try so hard to get into the exclusive book club, then realize they don't like the books, but then don't want to quit because it was so hard to join in the first place. And then you're stuck reading the Da Vinci Code or some crap.

I confess I've never actually been in a book club. I make these observations because the other thing that happens is people complain about the book club to people not in the book club.

Alaska and Saudi Arabia

60 Minutes had a good report on Saudi Arabia's oil industry tonight -- one of the interesting points being that Saudi Arabia's national economy is almost entirely reliant on the price of a barrel of oil, and because of that, the country intends to discourage investments in the electric car, and hopes the United States will continue to be the biggest consumer of Saudi oil. When asked by Leslie Stahl if his country indeed intended to encourage high oil consumption in the U.S., Abdallah Jum'ah, the CEO of Saudi Aramco said, "And what's wrong with that?"

Exactly -- of course the seller of a product is going to want demand to remain high. The exchange made me wonder how an Alaskan official would respond to the same question. Because while the rest of the county is enjoying the low cost of oil, Alaskans are getting real nervous about it. Like Saudi Arabia, Alaska's economy is hugely dependent on the price of oil.

Last week, Sarah Palin announced a new government initiative to provide health care for children. The story the next day in the ADN, though, was as much about the project as it was about how the state planned on paying for it, now that oil is costing around $40 a barrel. According to the ADN, the price of oil will have to rise $20 to create a balanced state budget.

So there's at least one thing Sarah Palin and Abdallah Jum'ah have in common: low oil prices make them nervous. And it's another example of how Alaska's priorities are at odds with the rest of the United States, and how it would seem to be challenging for an Alaskan politician to make a run at a national office.

Christmas season is...

Establishment Clause season! Or so it seems, now that every year there's a new challenge about whether a group can display a creche on public grounds. This year the firestorm is in Olympia, Washington, where an atheist display was stolen from the capitol. This case is actually more of a Free Speech case than an Establishment/Free Exercise Clause case, mostly because I don't think the Supreme Court has recognized atheism as a religion, but it's still a fun little issue. I like when these cases arise because the Establishment/Free Exercise/Free Speech doctrines are so murky, with so many contradicting factors, that it's almost impossible to know whether anything is constitutional anymore. The only way to clear up the issue is to present more cases -- more opportunities for courts to clean up their own messes.

There's a spirited holiday debate between Fox News's Megyn Kelly and Bill O'Reilly here... lots of yelling and fist pounding, if you're into that kind of "news". I'll give Kelly credit for appearing to know her First Amendment stuff reasonably well. O'Reilly's position is... confused.

And now the state capitol is turning into a "circus", according to a state senator, with "holiday" trees, creches, atheist signs, and soon a Festivus pole. And protests too. Nothing like the holiday season to bring us all together.

One man, making a difference

I know the Seahawks suck this year, but I still want to watch the games. It used to be that Alaska local stations would show every Seahawk game, home or away. But since it became clear the Hawks' season was lost (approximately late October), Seahawks games have not been on local TV. This weekend they play New England, and again the game was not listed on our schedules. Instead we were to get the Houston-Green Bay game. The Packers have replaced the Seahawks somewhat, now that the Seahawks aren't the automatic choice. I thought it was silly that we'd get Houston-Green Bay, so I set out to change things. So I emailed the local CBS station:

*******

To: KTVA
From: Dave

Hi,
I see that you're currently planning to show the HOU-GB game this Sunday, but I'd like to encourage you to show the Seattle-New England game instead. There are a lot of Seahawks fans here, myself included, who will watch the Hawks no matter how crappy they are. Especially in a game against New England. Please consider changing the game to SEA-NE.
Thanks, Dave

To: Dave
From: KTVA

Dave, we try to pick games that will be entertaining and enjoyable to the most viewers. I recognize that there are a lot of Seahawks fans, but they are not doing well this season. The Houston @ Green Bay game is a much better match-up and there are a lot of Green Bay fans here as well.

In addition, I understand that Fox 4 airs Seahawks games just about every weekend. We like to give viewers an opportunity to see a variety of teams play, and present the best possible matchups for the most entertaining football games.

To: KTVA
From: Dave

Hi Cyd,

Thanks for your quick response. I understand that it's a business decision for you, so I'll just make my best argument and let you decide. Actually, Fox 4 hasn't shown a Seahawks game since November 2 (excluding the Thanksgiving game), probably for the same reason you cite (the Seahawks suck). They've been showing us Green Bay games as well, when available. As a consequence, local Seahawks fans are starving for a televised game, while Packers fans have been spoiled.

Neither GB nor Houston will make the playoffs this year, as both are currently 5-7; this game therefore has no playoff implications. Casual viewers will likely not be interested in the novelty of seeing Houston, as the Texans were on Monday Night Football this past week. The SEA-NE game has playoff implications because NE is only a game out of the wild card, and needs a win to stay in the hunt. In my experience, casual viewers are always interested in the Patriots.

The obvious risk is that SEA-NE turns into a blowout, but NE is only favored by 4.5 points, so Vegas seems to think it should be close. (Green Bay is favored by 6 over Houston.) CBS seems to think its best game is NYJ @ SF, because that's where its #1 broadcast team (Nantz and Simms) is going. The #2 team, Gumbel and Dierdorf, is doing JAX @ CHI, and the #3 team, Enberg and Cross, is doing NE @ SEA. GB-HOU does have the benefit of Gus Johnson -- I'll give you that.

I'm sure you know the demographics of Alaska football fans -- I don't know how many Packers fans are here in relation to Seahawks fans. I do know that Hawks fans will watch our team play, no matter how bad they are. And I know there are a fair amount of Patriots fans here too, who would be glad to see their team broadcast locally.

At the very least I'd like to place a vote for SEA-NE. Thanks for being accessible and for letting me state my case.

Regards,
Dave

To: Dave
From: KTVA

Dave, great rationale! I will take this under advisement, but I don't think CBS will let me switch games at this point. But I'll check into it.

By the way, we welcome feedback from our viewers, so please free to chime in. You obviously have a lot of knowledge about the NFL, and I always like to hear different viewpoints!

*******

After all that, you'll be amazed and impressed to know that they didn't change the game and we're still scheduled to see Houston vs. Green Bay. At least I tried.

Friends in high places

How proud am I today of my friends? Quite.

My friend Becks is featured in an ADN article because she just sued to protect the walrus. There are quotes and everything. (I am hoping the lawsuit will finally determine the plural word for walrus.) Save the walrus!

And then there's former roommate and still-landlord Bill, who makes his way onto NPR to tell a curious nation what a Stanford fragrance would smell like. He uses the word "amalgam," as you'd expect.

I'm #5!

When you search for "viking attacks" on Google Images.

Listening to

3 degrees

I'm back in AK after spending Thanksgiving in Seattle, and Alaska welcomes me back the way it tends to: with cold darkness. We got a foot of snow over the weekend, and today the clear skies brought frigid cold. With three weeks until solstice, we're getting about 6 hours of daylight -- 9:50am to 3:50pm -- and losing more every day.

The skiers are excited about the snow, but of course, so are the voles. You know you were worried about the voles: "They would have had no cover whatsoever. The voles that were out there were just dead meat." Now they have their subnivean space back.

EDIT: Link fixed. Thanks. Bonus rodent link: Alaskan bats.

Workday

Each of these videos represents a little something about a typical workday.

Trucks.

Cat.

Balloon.

Penguin.

It's ski season!

Lifts open at Alyeska tomorrow.

McGee of the Day

It's been a while since we've had this segment, but it's back:

Last night, Jon Stewart referred to Sarah Palin as "Snowmachine McGee."

Miscellany

Some odds and ends:

• I blog like a woman. (Thanks Jay)
• I also blog like a "Duty Fulfiller": "The responsible and hardworking type. They are especially attuned to the details of life and are careful about getting the facts right. Conservative by nature they are often reluctant to take any risks whatsoever. The Duty Fulfillers are happy to be let alone and to be able to work int heir own pace. They know what they have to do and how to do it." Really?
• Well let me get the details of this one right. Sarah Palin gives interview in front of turkey slaughter. Happy Thanksgiving!
• Speaking of being careful about getting the facts right, Bill O'Reilly's squad of "journalists" gets San Francisco just right. You really can't take a step in that city without a gay homeless stoner prostitute trying to stab you with a hypodermic needle.
• Princeton uses Prop 8 as a precedent.
• Another crazy animal video (from t-dawg).
• Ted Stevens says goodbye. Say what you want about him, but there is a reason why people in Alaska love him so.

Meanwhile, I'm getting mentally prepared for the biggest football day of the year. Michigan-Ohio State starts here at 8am tomorrow, followed by Cal-Stanford at 11:30.

Frosty

The best 20 minutes of your day

Might be spent right here.

Senator Begich

It's not official yet, but he's got it locked down. Congrats, Mark.

UPDATE: It's official now. There was a senator in my living room.

My new exercise regimen

I was in the throes of eating a full pound of pulled pork the other day when I realized I should be exercising more. It's the time of the year here when exercise is hard to come by for me -- it's too snowy/icy to run, but it's not snowy enough to ski. And I'm too cheap to join a gym.

So that leaves one thing: Dance Dance Revolution. My landlord/former roommate left behind an Xbox and DDR, and it's a legitimate workout. When I've practiced enough I'm going to head to the mall and take on the junior high school kids.

Believe

This Stanford-USC preview has me believing there's a chance at taking the Trojans for a second year in a row. At 5-5, Stanford is one win away from bowl eligibility with only USC and Cal left on the schedule. A win would be so sweet. But I'm trying not to get my hopes up.

A helpful reminder: you can't spell "SUCK" without USC.

Tightening

Latest numbers show Begich slicing 2,000 votes off Stevens's lead, and now trailing by less than 1,000. This batch represents half the votes to be counted today, so the totals will move again before the day is done.

UPDATE - 3:55 pm: Begich is now up by a grand total of three votes.

UPDATE - an email to me and two others: "Thank goodness the 4 of us voted."

UPDATE - 9:00 pm: Begich now up 814. More to come on Friday or early next week, from districts most believe to be friendly to Begich.

UPDATE - Friday, 4:00pm - Begich now up 1,061. And for those of you watching the State House District 7 (Fox, AK) race, Republican Mike Kelly now leads Democrat Karl Kassel by 1 vote, 5,000-4,999. No, not that Carl Kasell.

What Sarah P. and I have in common

We both ate moose chili last night. It's good.

At the link is yesterday's interview with local media. If you're like me, you might be ready for a break from hearing her speak; trying to figure out what she's saying is sometimes like playing a game of Sudoku -- you know all the individual words, but she leaves it up to you to put them in the right order.

Anyway, if you're brave enough to listen to one more interview, my favorite part is when she says the media should have simply consulted her medical records during that controversy about Trig. Yes, those very medical records that were never released, despite repeated requests from the media.

(You might be ready to forget about her for a few years, but some of us aren't so lucky. She's still my governor.)

And we're back to normal here in Alaska

Anchorage man catches African cat in dipnet.

Yup.

From artist Patrick Moberg.

Not stolen

Rumors are starting to stir that perhaps something fishy was going on up here during the election. But from what I've heard, the election was clean. As verified by poll watchers, turnout was simply down. Why it was down we still don't know. But as far as anyone can tell there was nothing dirty about it.

As an aside, crunching the numbers in the Begich race leads to a hopeful conclusion that Mark may squeak it out. But we'll have to wait to find out.

Figuring out Stevens-Begich

I spent today trying to understand the Stevens-Begich Senate race. The question on everyone's mind: how does a convicted felon win re-election?

First things first: it's not over yet. There are still 60,000 or so votes to be counted (early votes, absentee votes, and question votes), and Stevens is up about 3,500 right now. The Begich campaign indicates that there is reason to hope that things can still turn around. But why is this race even close? Two reasons.

First, Republicans came out and voted for Ted. I asked a coworker why they'd do that, Ted being a convicted felon and all. He gave three reasons: 1) they're Republicans, and they don't want to vote for a Democrat; 2) they don't care what people in the lower 48 think; and 3) they have a loyal 40-year relationship with the senator. There is a genuine emotional connection to him. Ted's strategy since the conviction was to tell voters that the trial was a sham, and that he did nothing wrong. His loyal supporters believed him.

Second, Democrats didn't vote. Relative to 2004 and previous years, turnout in Alaska was low. It's unfathomable that this could be so, with Sarah Palin on the national ticket, plus two competitive races for congress. But it's true. Turnout was low, and it appears that the side that stayed home was the Democrats. It's truly bizarre. I don't get it. Nobody does.

It's going to take 10-15 days before this race is decided. And if Ted comes out ahead, then it gets really fun. Will he be pardoned? Will the Senate expel him? If so, who runs for his seat? Maybe you've heard of our governor?

Autumn photos

A few weeks of photos are now up on Flickr. The set is an odd mix of weird Anchorage weather, scenes of an idyllic Chicago fall day, a scary-ass clown, and a trip to Talkeetna and Hatcher's Pass.



I can't apologize enough about the clown.

Happy and confused

That's how I feel as I head to bed tonight. I'm obviously thrilled that Barack Obama won the presidency -- the magnitude of this election has not sunk in yet, and may not for a while. I watched the returns in a bar in Anchorage, and people were very excited. No Palin fans there.

But the more I think I know about Alaska, the less I really do. It appears the people here are going to re-elect Ted Stevens and Don Young (although we probably won't know for sure about Stevens for a few days). This result defies explanation. I'm too tired right now to even begin trying to wrap my head around it. At the very least, this is embarrassing.

And then California's Prop 8. Although votes are still being counted, it appears that it will pass. Again, I'm too tired to begin trying to express my disappointment.

Confused, but happy still.

Happy Voting Day

This is always the day when I am most proud of my country -- the day we demonstrate the peaceful transition of power. Surely there are still problems with the logistics, what with the long lines and instances of voter fraud and voter suppression, but it's still a remarkable day. Enjoy casting your ballot today.

Here in Alaska it's probably the most exciting election the state has ever had. Our governor is on the national ballot, and our two long-serving congressmen are in very heated battles. A truly historic day. I saw dozens and dozens of people standing on snowy, frozen sidewalks this morning waving signs for their candidates.

I'll give credit to George W. Bush -- his miserable presidency has knocked the complacency right out of the electorate.

Some US Supreme Court action

The US Supreme Court just granted certiorari on a case our office is working on in conjunction with the Innocence Project. I did a small amount of work on the (unsuccessful) cert opposition.

Alaska is one of six states that doesn't have a law providing convicts with access to DNA testing that wasn't available at the time of conviction. The 9th Circuit said a convict has a right to access DNA testing, and now the Supreme Court will have a look.

Congrats to the Phillies, except for Jamie Moyer.

I hate that guy. And he's still a jackass, as it's painfully obvious that he's the mystery pitcher who ripped Bud Selig this week. (Thanks for the link, Murph.) Curse you, Jamie Moyer.

Otherwise I'm happy for long-suffering Philly fans. I'm rooting for all the long-suffering cities, in hopes that the trend will continue and someday Seattle will celebrate a non-WNBA championship. Dare to dream.

Glad that's over.

I passed the Alaska bar exam.

Ted questions

If Ted Stevens continues his campaign and wins reelection, and then retires, what happens?

If Stevens wins and then resigns, there will be a special election to fill his spot. This rule was enacted after former Senator Frank Murkowski appointed his daughter Lisa to take his Senate seat when he became governor. There are two versions of the law, though. One passed by the legislature which allows the governor to appoint someone to be Senator until the special election takes place, and the one passed by ballot initiative which does not give the governor that power. The AK supreme court would have to figure out which one is in effect.

Why isn't it clear which law will be in effect?

The ballot measure came later, but it's not clear whether it has the authority to overrule the legislature. All sorts of Constitutional (17th Amendment) and Supremecy Clause issues are involved.

Ted

I still don't think I can comment on the case, so I'll just put the news out there.

Ted Stevens convicted on all counts.

People here will still vote for him.

Back in the AK

Got back into town last night, and was greeted by 15 degrees of warmth. While I was gone, the media elite at the Anchorage Daily News endorsed Barack Obama for president. I wouldn't have expected that two months ago. But at this point it's not really a surprise.

While I was gone I also received a bewildered email from an early childhood education expert who could not believe Sarah Palin would attempt to demonstrate her interest in helping special needs children by bashing research conducted on fruit flies. At this point I'm not surprised by anything Sarah Palin says or does, but this was a pretty astounding blunder.

More later, but for your amusement, there's this.

I'm #2!

When you search for "upsidedown starfish" on Google Images.

Hello from real America

Or fake America... I'm confused at this point where the real, pro-Americans live. I'm in Minneapolis, home of anti-American-hunter Michele Bachmann, and it's been fun seeing her ads on TV. Plus the ads from the Franken-Coleman senate campaign.

This weekend I'll be in Chicago, and I'm pretty sure that's not real America.

Time killer

The eyeballing game.

Tried it once, scored a 2.38. Enjoy.

Socialism

CG emails:

To summarize:
- 3% increase in marginal tax rate for those making over $250,000: socialist
- proposal for government to spend $300 billion to buy up and renegotiate mortgages: cool

Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Yep. Everywhere you look, McCain is now talking socialism. I guess he's for a flat tax, then? If not (and I don't think he is), I'd like to hear him explain why he favors a progressive tax system, and we'll see if his explanation doesn't sound a little like the socialism he accuses Obama of.

ADDED: McCain and Palin explain why the $700 billion bailout wasn't socialism, and apparently it was because the economy really needed help. McCain: "That's the reason why we have governments, to help those who need help, who can't help themselves, and in a time of crisis, to step in and do what's necessary to preserve the lives and futures of innocent people." Oh. The "but we have to help poor people" exception to socialism. Of course.

AND: Is McCain going to drop Medicare and Social Security, too? Perhaps he forgets that he's on Medicare?

Accusations without conclusions

That's what I'm seeing from the McCain campaign lately. They accuse Obama of committing some sort of transgression, but they don't follow the logical process to a conclusion. They don't say why it matters, or what result may arise from such a transgression, instead letting the accusations fester in the imaginations of the voting public. Inevitably there will be people who come to some false, rather disturbing conclusions, at which point the campaign disclaims ever having made such a false, disturbing conclusion itself. Let's take two examples.

First, Bill Ayers. They're doing everything they can to link Obama with him, without explaining why it's important or what influence the association could have on Obama's presidency. They want voters to make their own conclusions. This is what Sarah Palin does when she says "our opponents see America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who would bomb their own country." That link -- imperfection and terrorism -- is not explained. I really don't know what it means. The only rational interpretation of that statement is that Palin thinks Obama wants to solve America's imperfection through terrorism... but of course she doesn't say it that way. That's for us to conclude.

And take this mailer, for example. The ingredients are simple -- "Terrorist" + "Obama" + "Not Who You Think He Is" -- but they don't say what the ingredients add up to. They're not seriously saying that Obama himself is a terrorist, right? Ha! No one would ever draw that conclusion. Oh, wait. The Sacramento County Republican Party somehow got the idea that Obama = Osama, and therefore Obama should be waterboarded. [shiver] Of course McCain would, when asked, condemn such a conclusion. But what, then, does the Ayers link mean? How would it affect the next four years? No one will answer that question. Not when the question itself is so effective in stoking fear and doubt. And since McCain has lost on the issues, fear and doubt is all he has left. (For an example of the campaign at work, here's a truckload of crazy.)

Example #2, Acorn. Now, I don't want to give the impression that I think that voter fraud is in any way acceptable. Voting rights has been one of my pet projects lately, and the fact that voting in this country is still an insecure process is bewildering to me. That being said, this entire Acorn controversy is all hat, no cattle. (If either candidate really cared about voting rights, they'd be talking about the true evil: gerrymandering.) The process is the same as the Ayers attack: Obama is connected to Acorn, Acorn does bad stuff, and therefore... you draw your own nefarious conclusion. They're not saying that Obama is trying to rig the election, but if you want to believe it, they won't stop you. In fact, they'll give you a little push. Because Obama is not who you think he is.

In fact, the Acorn controversy is overblown. Acorn may well be guilty of voter registration fraud -- McCain has made a lot of noise about Mickey Mouse being registered to vote -- but the connection to actual voter fraud is specious for one simple reason: Mickey Mouse is not going to walk into a polling place and vote. Unless he has ID. If someone gained access to the polls because of a fake ID, that would be voter fraud. Simply registering thousands of nonexistent people does not give anyone any more votes. Voting experts agree, there is no evidence that invalid registrations lead to any more votes. Again, I'm not condoning Acorn's activities. But when McCain ties Obama to Acorn, and then the campaign alleges that someone is trying to steal the election, the trap is set. An accusation without conclusion. I find it to be an especially cowardly way to campaign.

ADDED: Watch as the disturbing conclusions are made (outside a Palin rally).

Michigan Law realizing that there's life past the LSAT?

Michigan Law announced recently a new plan, the Wolverine Scholars Program, that allows Michigan undergraduate students with a minimum GPA of 3.8 to attend the law school if they agree not to take the LSAT. My initial reaction is that it's a cool move -- any attempt to buck the traditional grades/test-scores system is a welcome step. Reward homegrown students who have excelled in class by letting them skip the heinous LSAT. Nice.

The more cynical commenters out there, though, believe that UMLS is up to some trickeration -- that the program is "a barefaced attempt to take advantage of the U.S. News rankings." Hmm. Fair point. Why ask that they not take the LSAT? If you're going to admit them anyway, why not let them take it if they want to? Are they trying to game the system by upping the schools GPA average without risking a drop in the LSAT average? As Above the Law put it, maybe the school is saying: "Please, please, please don't take the LSAT. Because if you get a 167 we probably have to accept you anyway. And if you get a 175 you will better deal us for a lobster dinner."

But the school appears to have honest intentions. Dean of Admissions Sarah Z says the program will be too small to influence the US News rankings, but will succeed in trying to recruit bright homegrown Wolverines to stay on campus. She is right that UMLS is in a weird position -- a "public" school that really only gets about 1% of its funding from the state; a state school that gets most of its students from out of state. I understand the school's desire to try to get back in touch with its Michigan roots. And I'm pretty sure if I have the chance to go to a good school without going through LSAT hell, I'll take it. I'm with you, Z.

Debate 3

I'm interested in tonight's debate for two reasons:

First, Barack has basically dared McCain to bring up Ayers during the debate ("Well, I am surprised that, you know, we've been seeing some pretty over-the-top attacks coming out of the McCain campaign over the last several days that he wasn't willing to say it to my face," said Obama), and McCain has responded by saying he will bring it up. Seems to me that McCain is walking into a trap. I doubt Obama responds by talking about the Keating scandal, but instead he goes with some sort of "There you go again, distracting voters when we've got a financial crisis on our hands," etc. If I'm McCain, I don't take the bait. Stay away from that briar patch.

Second, McCain has to have some sort of trick up his sleeve. Another political stunt, along the lines of the Palin pick and the "suspension" of his campaign. George Stephanopoulos: "Can he pledge to serve only one term? Can he challenge Barack Obama to more debates? Can he announce a bipartisan cabinet? Those are all conceivable long balls. But there's not a whole lot he can do, at this point, to change the dynamic in one debate."

He's got to do something besides talking about earmarks, my friends.

The cost of campaigning in Alaska

Just got a fundraising email from the Mark Begich campaign, seeking donations for the final push in his Senate race against Ted Stevens. It provides a helpful list of just what it costs to run a statewide campaign in Alaska:

Your contribution WILL make a difference:

- Contribute $30 to buy a Begich radio ad in Bethel.
- Contribute $75 to send Mark's yard signs to Kodiak.
- Contribute $125 to send our absentee ballot flyer to 300 voters.
- Contribute $300 to put a Begich TV ad on prime time in Anchorage.
- Contribute $600 and you'll be the one to send Mark to Juneau for one last campaign swing.

Does that make you more likely to donate, knowing that a small donation is actually enough to buy something?

Biggest story of the week

Has nothing to do with Sarah Palin. No, the story people were talking about last week was that Alaska finally has a Target. Actually, we have two new Targets -- one in Anchorage, and one in Wasilla. People are really happy.

"It was like they were giving it away for free, how excited I was," said Deirdre Cronin, running her hand down the soft cotton of a little girl's shirt. At first she couldn't decide what to buy, there was just too much to take in.

My friend MLB was so psyched, he took pictures.

I would make fun of all this Targetphilia if I didn't love Target too.

I'm #3!

When you search for "runaway beer" on Google images.

Reunion weekend

Here are pictures from a weekend in San Francisco and Stanford:

I suspect the impact of Troopergate, at this point, is zero.

Sorry about being late to comment on this; I was in California for my 10-year college reunion, and enjoyed my vacation from Alaska politics. But I'm back now, and while I was gone the Troopergate report was released.

I was able to pick up bits and pieces from friends, and the report's conclusion was apparently that Palin broke no law in firing Walt Monegan, but her actions in pressuring Monegan were unethical. Turns out this wasn't completely right -- in fact she did break the law, AS 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

From the report:

"The evidence supports the conclusion that Governor Palin, at the least, engaged in 'official action' by her inaction if not her active participation or assistance to her husband in attempting to get Trooper Wooten fired [and there is evidence of her active participation.] She knowingly, as that term is defined in the above cited statutes, permitted Todd Palin to use the Governor’s office and the resources of the Governor’s office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired. Her conduct violated AS 39.52.110(a) of the Ethics Act...

"Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda."

It's pretty clearly stated there. She broke the law. Yet amazingly, Palin is now saying that she has been vindicated by the report. Which is a weird thing to say, when the report clearly states that you broke ethics laws. I understand that she's trying to spin, but it makes her look like she doesn't understand the report. She should do what her defenders are doing: just admit you pressured Monegan to fire Wooten because you thought he was a bad guy, and if that's an ethics violation, so be it. Don't try to tell me the report says something it doesn't. And don't give us a laundry list of easily debunked reasons for firing Monegan (e.g., the "unauthorized" trip to DC that was in fact authorized).

I doubt this report will have any impact on the election. People who like Palin will just call the report a political hit job (somehow orchestrated by a legislature controlled by Republicans), and Democrats will just add it to the list of times when Palin has stretched the truth.

If nothing else, Troopergate has introduced my good friend, the Safety Bear, to the world.


Photo by t-dawg.

First snow

This was how it looked Tuesday morning. It was melted by midday, but more was expected tonight.

Watching the snow level drop

Let's start with the first termination dust:



Then a few days later, the snow level moved down a bit more:



And then a bit more:



It's snowing outside right now, so maybe tomorrow we'll see snow on the streets. (That's the view out my office window, by the way. And there are a few more fall photos on Flickr.)

It's snowing.

In case I had forgotten where I live, the weather just reminded me.

2008

It is already the worst sports year in Seattle history, with the Sonics having their worst year ever and then completely disappearing, and with the Mariners also having one of their worst seasons ever. Now with the Seahawks looking miserable and the Huskies sitting at 0-5, we might be looking at the worst sports year for any city, ever.

Goodbye, Sarah

We won't see her answer questions for the rest of this election, I think. She even said as much toward the end of the debate -- no more filtering through the mainstream media. No more interviews!

I don't totally buy into whether someone "wins" a debate like this, where it's structured to prevent interactions between the candidates and followups from the moderator. This was just a lightning round Q&A, allowing each candidate to spew prepared remarks. One difference: Biden generally answered the questions as asked, while Palin told us that she was going to answer whichever questions she likes. Inasmuch as the debate allowed for give and take, Biden was much more reactive and spontaneous. Maybe it's because I listen intently to every Palin interview, but I didn't hear anything much beyond her normal routine. She honestly bored the crap out of me. And if we take the time over the next couple days to examine what she actually said when she wasn't rehashing her greatest hits -- and when she wasn't winking at us -- I think we'll find that some of her answers were a little frightening (e.g., she wants to preside over the Senate, and in other ways expand the powers of the VP?).

Biden, I thought, was very good. He screwed up when he said the office of the vice president is defined in Article I of the Constitution (oops), but otherwise he seemed on the ball.

If I'm forced to decide who "won," I'd look at it two ways. If I had bet on the money line, Biden was clearly better. But if we're betting the spread, I'll assume Biden was giving Palin two touchdowns, and in that case Palin probably covered.

But congrats, Sarah, you did well, and it's nothing but scripted speeches from here on out!

AND: Want a live blog? Here's one from Maia, placing herself right in the middle of Palinmania at the Peanut Farm.

AND: Turns out Joe was right about where the VP's role is defined in the Constitution. Although Art. II describes the Executive branch and defines the line of succession, Art. I defines the VP's role in the Senate. Thanks Bill for pointing that out. And sorry Joe, you were right.

AND: Turns out neither Biden nor Palin (nor I) really seemed to understand the historic role of the vice president, as described here.

Sarah on the attack

That's the plan, according to Politico: attack Biden. I think it's a smart plan, and it has a good chance at being successful. It's risky for Biden to retaliate, but if he just absorbs the shots he may look weak. I'm actually more interested to see how Biden handles himself tonight, because I'm pretty sure I know how Sarah will do.

My bold prediction: the consensus will be that Palin wins the debate tonight.

Sarah Palin on jurisprudence

So here's the long-awaited clip of Sarah Palin's inability to name a Supreme Court decision other than Roe v. Wade that she disagrees with. And yeah, it can't be heartening to McCain supporters that this is their VP nominee.

The problem is not that she doesn't know any other Supreme Court cases; as I noted here, of course she does. Exxon Valdez v. Baker was a huge story in Alaska this summer, and Sarah was publicly critical of the opinion. I can't say for sure that she knows many more cases, but she does know at least one more. So the problem is that she was unable to name it, and it's perplexing that she couldn't. Especially when we saw her have such trouble naming newspapers or magazines she reads. Again, of course she reads at least the Anchorage Daily News, but she was unable to name it.

My theory is that she is so concerned about the political ramifications of naming something that she just freezes. She doesn't have a quick enough political mind to know which answers are safe, and which are dangerous. For some reason, simply answering truthfully is not an option.

But whatever. This interview is most concerning to me not because she can't name another case, but rather because she appears to misunderstand how our constitutional government works. She says she agrees that there is an inherent right to privacy in the federal constitution, yet believes the states should interpret that right however they wish. That, of course, makes no sense. States can interpret their own constitutions however they like, but there is only one interpretation of the federal constitution that applies to all the states. If there is a right to privacy in the federal constitution, it applies in the same way to all states. This isn't something that only lawyers should know; the people aiming to lead our government should really know it too.

She also appeared not to realize that "right to privacy" is an extremely controversial and loaded phrase, representing the cornerstone of Roe v. Wade. Conservative legal thinkers will no doubt be unhappy to hear she thinks it exists. I won't be surprised to hear her explain in the days to come that she was misquoted and she in fact does not believe there is a right to privacy in the constitution. Which will be interesting because she pretty clearly states that she thinks it exists.

Man, running for vice president is hard. You sure have to know a lot of stuff, don'tcha?

Let Palin be Palin?

That's what conservative pundits are saying, but I wonder who they think she is. They've only known her for a month. Why do they think the flustered candidate who appeared in the Couric interview is not the real Palin? It's never been more obvious than now that pundits just make shit up.

There were questions here about whether she was like this when she ran for governor two years ago. The answer: yes and no. The issues she discussed during that campaign were generally the ones she knew well, and she did better. But she also had a tendency to use "word salads" -- her go-to phrase during gubernatorial debates, when she didn't really have an answer to the question, was to "put her faith in the people of Alaska," whether or not it was relevant to the question. (Don't be surprised if she uses these words on Thursday.) Since she became governor she hasn't had to talk too much about things outside her comfort zone.

The other big difference is that the media scrutiny here is obviously only a small fraction of that of the national media -- nobody really makes too big a stink out of it when Sarah doesn't answer a question too succinctly or completely. Plus, this state is mostly Republican, so no one was looking to punch a hole in the folksy veneer.

But the best answer is that Alaska politics is simply a different beast. Being a former mayor of a small town is a huge benefit to someone running for political office in Alaska because roughly half of the state's population lives in very small communities. Folksiness -- real authentic quirky Alaskan folksiness -- is generally a trusted asset. I don't know if any state is more provincial in its politics, so simply being "Alaskan" is the most important quality a politician can have.

Yes, I did say here that I thought she'd be a competent vice president. I still think she can be, but the prospect scares me a lot more now than it did then. I thought she'd be better on the campaign trail. I didn't expect all the problems, as documented here. (She has been a competent governor, though in truth she has not been tested at all, being blessed with a budget surplus and a friendly legislature.)

I still expect her to do well in the debate on Thursday. I think she does better when she has an opponent, as opposed to a neutral interviewer. She will definitely use her fair share of meaningless platitudes, but I expect she'll clean up the awkwardness and the stumbling, and overall beat the low expectations she has set for herself.

ADDED: Andrew Halcro, a conservative Independent who ran against Palin for governor in 2006 adds some insight into her debate style:

"Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers and yet when asked questions you spout off facts, figures and policies and I'm amazed. But then I look out into the audience and I ask myself, 'Does any of this really matter?' " Palin said.

Top 3 Game

I was lucky enough to be in the Big House on Saturday to watch Michigan's improbable 27-25 win against No. 9 Wisconsin. Down 19-0 at halftime, I've never seen them look worse. Countless turnovers, and not a single first down. Midway through the third quarter they flipped the switch, scored 27 straight points, and held on for the win. The crowd was nuts, and it was awesome to be there.

I have five years of Big House football under my belt, and this was one of the three best games I've seen. The other two are the Braylon Edwards game (against Michigan State in 2004) and the 1-second-left game (against Penn State in 2005, also ending 27-25). That's a pretty sweet set of games.

Go Blue! 1-0 in the Big Ten!

Let's Go Blue

I'm on the road in Troy, MI (home of the fictional band Stillwater from "Almost Famous"), where I watched the debate last night. Quick reaction is that both candidates did well, succeeding in showing where they differ on war and tax policy. I'm thinking it's hard to say it was anything but a draw; but if you were predisposed to liking one candidate over the other, you may have thought your candidate won.

More importantly, Michigan plays Wisconsin today. Let's go Blue, beat those Badgers!

Two things on this crazy day

1. John McCain's decision to suspend his campaign would have appeared sincere if he had agreed privately with Barack Obama to do it together, instead of announcing it unilaterally and asking Obama to join him. Obama's response -- that he still intended to debate on Friday -- was so predictable that the only conclusion is that McCain's move is pure political theatre. It's a stunt, and it even comes with talking points. (David Letterman wasn't too happy about it.)

2. Sarah Palin had another interview, and it must be getting really difficult to defend her at this point. It wasn't good; she has the odd ability to make the interviewer look really smart. (The video is here; extended version here.)

ADDED: And now here's the video about... sigh... her foreign policy expertise because we are close to Russia. It just might be the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Here you go

As discussed here, Palin's popularity in Alaska has declined over the last three weeks. Not among Republicans, who still love her, but there's a sizeable drop with Independents and a big drop with Democrats.

So that was a nice fall. All four days of it.

Winter might already be here. It was 39 degrees on my drive to work this morning, and there's already snow in the mountains... slowly descending toward Anchorage.

An Alaska problem

There are enough people in Alaska who are excited about having an Alaskan on the national ticket that the McCain campaign doesn't have to worry about losing the state. But there is an increasing number of people here who are discovering that their governor is not who they thought she was. If she loses in November, I think she's going to find herself meeting a lot more resistance when she gets back to Juneau. The reasons why (I base these observations on conversations with a great number of people from across the political spectrum -- people who have known her for a few years and are not taken in by her celebrity appeal):

The biggest reason is Troopergate. Her behavior in this matter is not making any friends here. First, Walt Monegan has been a respected public servant for more than three decades, and Palin now has resorted to trashing his reputation. Second, she reneged on her summer promises to cooperate fully with the investigation, when she welcomed the legislature to look into the matter. Nobody buys this line about the investigation becoming too partisan for her to cooperate; it wasn't partisan 3 weeks ago, and we all know where the partisanship is suddenly coming from. Third, we don't like that New York lawyers are now running the state Department of Law. We all know that our Attorney General got bullied into refusing to honor the subpoenas, and nothing annoys Alaskans more than having lower-48ers come up here and tell us how to run our state.

Next, she has a truth problem. Maybe she's not lying, but she often engages in doublespeak, confusing the issue so much that it's hard to tell what the truth is. Or she's lying. I don't think we knew she had that deceptive side to her.

Next, she turned her back on her Alaskan history. The term "Bridge to Nowhere" is offensive to people in Ketchikan and to Alaskans in general. The state was embarrased by all the scorn that was focused here a few years ago, and to hear our own governor use the phrase as a punchline has been extremely disappointing. Oh, we noticed that she didn't use the phrase when she gave a speech in Fairbanks a couple weeks ago, but was back out using it again when she was back down south a couple days later. And we also remember that she supported the bridge before it became a target of national ridicule, and for her now to brag about killing the project is not only dishonest, but it's insulting.

Next, we know now that her campaign promises of government transparency were never kept. It is clear now that she conducted state business on personal email accounts, apparently for the sole purpose of evading public records laws. When this campaign is over, she's going to have a lot of questions to answer about that. And watching her run as a government "reformer" is a little funny now that we know she purposely skirted laws that attempted to make government more accessible to the people.

Last, she's a chicken. She hasn't had a single press conference, and has only had one real interview. Her campaign changed the debate format so there would be less give and take, less opportunity for followup questions. We thought she'd be able to speak for herself, and do the state proud. We like toughness up here. Palin has claimed to share that toughness, often quoting that famous phrase, "Alaska, where men are men, and where women win the Iditarod." But her apparent fear of taking questions from reporters -- or otherwise speaking without prepared remarks -- has been embarrassing.

She can afford to do all these things now because she's in no danger of losing the state this fall. But if she's still in the governor's mansion in January, she's going to find that her campaign tactics may have repercussions.

George Will likes baseball

Until now, that's the only thing I thought we had in common. But Will and I agree that John McCain lost his head last week.

Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.

If I'm a conservative, I'm not sure what to think of John McCain right now.

Joe Biden locks down my vote

It might have been politically stupid, but Joe Biden just won me over.

"I was out in Ohio," he said, clutching a football. "I told the folks in Ohio that we'd kick Ohio State's ass!"

Yeah! Oh how I hate Ohio State.

It'll go over well in Michigan, and likely everywhere else in the Big 10 for that matter. And if this is the reason Obama lose Ohio, I'm okay with that. Go Blue!

The McCain campaign is now running my state.

That's my conclusion, after the latest developments in Troopergate. The Alaska Department of Law has reversed course on everything they promised they would do, and now appears to be taking orders from a national political campaign instead of enforcing state laws under the Alaska Constitution. This is all very disturbing to me.

Read the report and watch the video here.

Dumb

Barack is trying to clear some space for himself on the low road with a Spanish-language ad that appears to include a fair number of distortions. Although not quite as bad as the McCain whoppers, this is exactly the kind of stuff I've been railing about, and hoped Obama wouldn't do.

It's especially dumb when there are legitimate arguments to make -- e.g., McCain abandoned his stance on comprehensive immigration reform during the primaries. They should stop airing this ad immediately, and stick to real arguments.

"When you have to swim, the lion doesn't care about eating nobody."

That's all I have to say about that.

Now she's really done it

Okay, I really thought I was going to stop writing about campaign lies. I tried to imagine a new lie that would get me off the shelf and back blogging about it again, and I couldn't think of one. More bridges? More earmarks? Who cares. But this... I didn't think she could hit so close to home about something I care about so much.

So apparently Sarah Palin is a Seahawks fan, which is not uncommon for NFL fans up here. I learned from Sports Northwest that she's a member of the Mat-Su Seahawkers, a booster club, and this delighted me. In fact I was thinking about voting for her because she's just like me.

But then... no. I can hardly bring myself to type it... but she told a Pittsburgh newspaper that she cheers for the Steelers. The Steelers!

What self-respecting Seahawks fan would ever cheer for the team that made off with our Super Bowl trophy? Do not think for a moment that we aren't still bitter about that game. There's a frickin wikipedia page dedicated solely to the reaction to the officiating. We are still very upset about that game. Where is her loyalty? Where, I ask you? Dear God does this woman have no soul???

You hurt me, Sarah. You hurt me real bad.

Okay, I'll stop

Mickey Kaus convinces me that complaining about McCain's lies will get me nowhere:

Lecturing the public on what's "true" and what's a "lie" (when the truth isn't 100% clear) plays into some of the worst stereotypes about liberals--that they are preachy know-it-alls hiding their political motives behind a veneer of objectivity and respectability.

Who, me?

Even Karl Rove says McCain is lying

I did not expect this:

"McCain has gone in some of his ads -- similarly gone one step too far, "[Rove] told Fox News, "and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the '100 percent truth' test."

Now, I don't know what the "100 percent truth test" is. I'm trying to think of a definition where failing the "100 percent truth test" does not mean "lying," but I can't come up with anything.

Perhaps only Rove is wise enough to know that associating oneself with McCain's lie-spreading campaign is going to have repercussions someday. I, for one, will not forget the people complicit in this unapologetic effort to distort and misrepresent known facts.

ADDED: The Seattle Times's Danny Westneat summarizes my feelings about McCain. Where did the man we once respected go?

Politically active

It was a busy weekend for political activity here in Anchorage. First, Anchorage mayor and future U.S. Senator (facing off against Ted Stevens) Mark Begich was in my living room for a fundraiser. This is how Alaska politics works -- it happens in people's living rooms. Here he is, with my roommate Bill (it's Bill's house):



Then there was the "Alaska Women Reject Palin Rally" in midtown Anchorage. An estimated 1,500 people came out to voice their opposition to Sarah Palin. The rally demonstrates that the entire state of Alaska isn't as enamoured with the governor as is imagined. (It got some pretty good press coverage too.) Photos are here. The signs were great, many with an authentically Alaska feel:

Congratulations

To my parents, who celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary today!

A general rule

Anytime someone writes a thoughtful piece (with clips!) about Walter Sobchak from The Big Lebowski and shows me that the movie was even better than I thought it was... it'll get a link.

More on that education ad

It really deserves its own post. I mentioned it here, but I don't want it to be muddled in with the rest of the deception that has come out of the McCain campaign lately.

First, read this [ed. note -- link fixed]. You'll see the ad, you'll see why it's blatantly misleading, and you'll see why it was so sick.

Putting aside for a moment the mere fact that the ad is fallacious, the thing that really disappoints me is the subject matter. They take a bill that was designed to help protect young children from sexual predators and otherwise to teach age-appropriate sex education, and they distort it into something that makes it look like Obama is trying to show graphic material to kindergartners. It's despicable, and they should be ashamed.

Where did this come from? When, and why, did they flip the switch and go into slime mode?

Now that the national media is catching on to the McCain campaign's penchant for misrepresentations and outright lies, I wonder how long it will take for voters to catch on. The Republicans have succeeded in convincing people that the press is biased. At this point the press could show the people a white rock and describe it as a white rock, but the people will walk away convinced it was black.

ADDED: Sigh. Just to prove that the McCain campaign doesn't give a crap what I think about their distortions, they released another ad. Factcheck.org, a site which McCain has cited favorably (and, of course, in doing so distorted what Factcheck.org had said), again calls it "particularly egregious." Shine on you shiny diamond, John McCain.

AND: I think I'm going to stop writing all these down. First, it's hard to keep up. But most of all I think it's swallowing my soul.

I CAN'T HELP MYSELF: About that last ad, here's the strategy:

[T]he spot began airing yesterday in at least one market. It was caught, assumedly by Obama's camp, and fed to Factcheck.org, who promptly found multiple distortions.

But that has become the order of the day for Team McCain. They've made plain that they care little about such truth-squadding, especially when there are heartstrings to play on and a message to drive.

Keeping with this strategy, "Disrespectul" is less TV ad than political bait. McCain's campaign is trying to rule out of bounds criticism of Palin and daring Obama and Biden to keep it up. And in tempting Democrats to keep up the focus on Palin, they're hoping for a continued back-and-forth that only fires up the GOP base, keeps the focus on identity and character and mutes discussion of core issues on which Republicans are viewed in low esteem by much of the public.

"Palin says she's ready to step in as president"

That headline almost made me throw up.

Other people may have different reactions, and that's why it's such an important headline. If you read that headline and you're excited about the idea, then by all means vote for her. But it seems that not enough people consider it a real possibility at this point -- they're so in love with "Sarah" the celebrity.

We need to have more headlines with "Palin" and "president" in the same sentence. It'll be like a "Scared Straight" program.

John McCain is losing me

I really thought he'd be better than this, that he'd help elevate political discourse. I thought his honorable service to the country would translate to an honorable campaign. But apparently not.

First there were the repeated misrepresentations regarding the Gravina Island Bridge, then this despicable ad, then the mock outrage and cries of sexism about an innocuous phrase. To which Slate says:

All campaigns must change in order to handle the arrival of a vice-presidential candidate. To accommodate Sarah Palin, John McCain's Straight Talk Express has now installed a fainting couch.

I guess so.

And then the latest ad, claiming that the Obama campaign has "air-dropped" 30 lawyers in Alaska, which is certifiably false according to the Obama people here in Anchorage (some of whom I know personally), and that he's out to "destroy" Sarah Palin. Cue the shots of hungry wolves.

As you can see from the previous posts I've written, I'm no McCain-hater. I had high hopes that, after he was taken down by unethical Rovian politics in 2000, he'd hold himself to a higher standard. But he hasn't. I hold Barack Obama to that same standard.

I tend to think none of this is really McCain's idea, that instead he may have lost control somewhat of his campaign now that it's swept up in Palinmania. But that's no excuse. The last few days have been shameful.

ADDED: An excellent analysis of McCain's strategy can be found here. Basically, it's working, and there's nothing my righteous indignation can do about it.

AND: Just so they're all in one place, here's one more ad that's based on the lipstick faux outrage. This one is so obviously misleading and out of context that CBS told them to take it off YouTube, but it's still on McCain's website. I really can't believe McCain would let this happen to his campaign. How very disappointing.

Things you can't talk about without insulting Sarah

1. Teen pregnancy.
2. Birth defects.
3. Lipstick.

I'm pretty sure mooseburgers are on that list too, but Obama has been wise to avoid the topic.

When will they quit with the bridge?

I continue to be amazed that John McCain and Sarah Palin keep talking about the Gravina Island Bridge. The day after she was announced as the VP pick and claimed she had said "thanks but no thanks" to the bridge, the Anchorage Daily News immediately pointed out that she had campaigned in favor of the bridge and had defended the project. Only after she became governor, and after the nation ridiculed the idea, and after congress stripped the money for the bridge did she finally halt the project. And even then she kept the money for other things, and built a useless road to where the bridge would have been. There is no getting around those facts. The campaign should have stopped talking about it immediately.

Fast forward to her acceptance speech at the convention, and I say to my roommate that I'm pretty sure we won't hear any more about the bridge. Then she says it again, the same line about "thanks but no thanks." What in the world are they thinking? If they want to paint her as a maverick, you've got other examples that aren't made of bullshit. Why keep citing this example when it has been disproved? The media is compelled to look further into it, finding more examples of the statements she made in favor of it. ("'We need to come to the defense of Southeast Alaska when proposals are on the table like the bridge,' Gov. Palin said in August 2006, according to the local newspaper, 'and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that's so negative.'" I mean, ouch.)

And then they do it again and again on the campaign trail. And of course the media keeps pointing out that she's not being honest. And then McCain puts out an advertisement, again saying she stopped the bridge. It seems finally the Obama campaign has had enough, and on Monday Obama finally responded, pointing out that she was for it before she was against it. And the campaign released an ad of its own. And now today, Palin is getting thrashed in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and the AP.

Why do they keep opening themselves up to this? If they'd dropped the bridge talk after the first day, they could still talk about ethics reform or budget cuts in general. But now they've forced people to talk about Palin's history of requesting and accepting earmarks, and now they've got a credibility problem because they're repeating a line that just isn't true. This seems to me incredibly dumb. I know people are infatuated with Sarah right now, but the best way to wake them from their euphoric state is to show concrete evidence of deception.

She'll surely be asked about it as soon as she consents to taking questions from the press. We'll see how she plays it.

I'm #3!

When you search for "shake a chicken" on Google. Actually, I guess Foley is #3. I wonder if that's what the Google user was looking for -- a scary dude waving a chicken leg at you. Probably not. Turns out "shake a chicken" is from the lyrics to the song "Let's Have a Party."

A letter

Dear All My Friends Who Didn't Visit Me In Alaska This Summer (which is almost all of you),

Good call. You missed the coldest summer in a long time. There were only two days above 70 degrees all summer, where the average summer has 16 such days.

And now summer is over. The leaves are falling, and it's unlikely to reach 60 degrees again this year.

Here's what it looks like:



That's about it... leaves and campaign signs.

So, hope you enjoyed your warm summer. Next summer has to be better than this one, so give it some thought.

xoxo,
Dave

P.S. Don't be a wimp; try the winter.

Strange, strange world

Today's sign that things have been turned upside-down around here, now that Sarah Palin is a national celebrity, is the front page of Slate.com, which features the headline "Welcome to Wasilla!" and invites you to watch a video slideshow of Wasilla.

The crazy thing is that this slideshow was written, photographed, and narrated by my friend Alex Sheshunoff. He's a freelance writer but I thought all he did was play Settlers of Catan. I didn't know he was doing anything for Slate. This is just all too weird. At this rate, don't be surprised if Me Gusta! is on NPR next week.

While I'm at it... some other good links. My friend Myster authors the highly read blog Own The Sidewalk, definitely check it out. And then one of the better Alaska politics blogs is probably Mudflats.

Withholding judgment

I'm going to wait until I see the Seahawks play with some real wide receivers before I judge this year's team. The WRs they had out there at the end of the game today should all be on a practice squad somewhere, not getting actual playing time in an NFL game. The top four receivers are now hurt, which is just bizarre.

Terrence McGee kicked our butts today.

A week later

After a week of Palinsanity, here's what I think has happened:

1. The GOP has neutralized its argument that experience matters
2. The GOP has neutralized its argument that being a celebrity candidate is a bad thing
3. The GOP has neutralized its argument that skill at delivering a scripted speech belies a lack of substance
4. The GOP has admitted that the last 8 years were a mess
5. The GOP has reignited the culture wars, pitting "small town values" against urban "community organizers"

Not a bad week.

Maybe it wasn't Bavasi's fault

It's becoming clear that the reason the Mariners suck right now is primarily because of it's very top leaders -- Howard Lincoln and Chuck Armstrong. It was they who decided on the Kenji Johjima extension, and it was they who decided not to trade Jarrod Washburn. It should have been clear a long time ago, but now it's obvious that the M's will have a hard time competing with those two in charge. I'm beginning to think I was too quick to blame Bill Bavasi, and that he only did the best he could with those two buffoons making a lot of the decisions.

On the flip side... yeah Brandon Morrow!

Pork. It's what's for dinner in the last frontier.

There are two big reasons why the selection of Sarah Palin on this national ticket doesn't make sense. The first is her lack of experience, but you knew that already. The second is specific to Republicans in general and John McCain in particular: Alaska runs on federal pork barrel spending, and can't live without it. Every Alaskan politician promises to get more of it, and thanks in large part to Ted Stevens, they get it.

According to the NYT article I linked to yesterday, about a third of Alaska's budget comes from federal dollars. We get -- by a large amount -- more federal money per person than any other state in the country. I'm not saying the money's not needed; it's entirely possible that this state -- after having only 50 years to build its infrastructure over 650,000 square miles -- simply needs federal money more than any other state. But regardless of the purpose, the fact remains: Alaska gets itself a ton of pork.

Sarah Palin's pursuit of federal earmarks is no different. She may not be guilty of quite the excess that Stevens, former Gov. Murkowski, and Rep. Don Young are famous for, but both as mayor of Wasilla and as governor of Alaska she has pursued hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks -- far more than a purported "reformer" would like to admit.

The reality is that she has to do it. She wouldn't have a favorability rating around 80% if she didn't snag earmarks, even in a state with 80% Republicans. The federal money helps buoy the state coffers, which eventually end up sending cold hard cash back to the people in the form of a Permanent Fund Dividend check. This year, because of the high price of oil, every man, woman, and child in Alaska is getting $3,200 next month (in recent years it's been around $1,800). Any governor who failed to deliver a hefty PFD check would be voted out of office. It's just what the people expect the government to do here. And it wouldn't be possible without federal dollars.

McCain, of course, campaigns against earmarks. He authentically despises them. He and Stevens openly hate each other. Yet he has picked a running mate for whom requesting earmarks is part of the job description. And, once Palin comes clean on the matter, it will make for a very odd couple.

Palin's insistance so far on portraying a "reformer" image and condemning pork barrel spending is already costing her some credibility in the state. Her calling the Gravina Island bridge the "Bridge to Nowhere" is offensive to the people who actually live in Nowhere (a.k.a. Ketchikan, AK). And people remember that in her campaign for governor she was in favor of the bridge, and only scrapped the idea once it became the focus of national ridicule. She still kept the money, though, and spent it on other things, including the road that led to the bridge... which really now is a road to nowhere since there is no bridge to be built.

None of this is Palin's fault. It's just the way the system works in Alaska. It's the reason Ted Stevens may win reelection despite a federal indictment. The state is addicted to federal money, the people expect it, and it is genuinely the governor's duty to get more. She has only been doing her job. Unfortunately for her national campaign it's at odds with McCain's big issue.

That's just what you get when you associate with Alaska politics -- it gets a little messy.

ADDED: More on Palin's history with earmarks in this morning's ADN. She's definitely cutting back, which is possible in this time of high oil prices. But she can't cut back too much. And what happens when the price of oil drops again?

McCain spoke tonight and zzzzzzzz

I really like John McCain, but he is the cure for insomnia. I thought they might have him speak in a townhall-type format, which suits him so much better, but unfortunately not. He just doesn't look or sound natural when he's behind a podium.

As for the content -- as much as I was awake for -- I think it was good. It was much more positive and forward-looking than any other speech this week, although his calls for nonpartisanship ring a bit hollow after the vitriol slung by Rudy and Palin last night. (Sorry John, they work for you.) And his attempt to appropriate the Obama "Change" theme... the claim that "change" will come by electing more Republicans... well, at least he's trying.

His personal story is moving, though, and it deserves to be told. We could use more John McCains in our government.