State Sen. Jim Shockley of Victor, who heads the panel hearing bills to crack down on drunken driving, was cited Friday for an open container after an off-duty sheriff's deputy saw him drinking a beer on Interstate 90, Missoula police said.
"He pulled off on the Orange Street exit and city officers were able to locate the vehicle and pulled him over," Missoula Police Detective Sgt. Bob Bouchee said Wednesday.
Shockley - a 2012 Republican candidate for attorney general, the state's chief law enforcement and legal officer - said he was drinking a beer and tomato juice* concoction when he was stopped.
So, do we celebrate that the person heading this committee to crack down on drunk driving has a personal understanding of the issue? Or do we cry? At least the Missoulian did its homework a bit and gave this background:
Montana outlawed open containers in vehicles in 2005 in legislation sponsored by Sen. Gary Perry, R-Belgrade. The Senate approved the bill on second reading on Jan. 29, 2005, by a 46-4 vote, and on third reading two days later on a 45-5 vote. In both instances, Shockley voted "no."
I guess he's still voting 'no.'
"It's just another reason for police to pull you over and check for something illegal in your car," Shockley told the Associated Press at the time. "This is what we consider our freedom and this is our right: If you're not drunk, you shouldn't be pulled over."
What if you are working on getting drunk?
I'm constantly amazed at how important alcohol is to so many people. I wonder how many people reading this have a drink in their hand or just had one. I'm not judging, just observing.
I've mentioned that the Alaska bloggers and media have been very helpful and cooperative of one another. While I think that covering how the media cover stories is important, sometimes I wonder if this doesn't get a little incestuous. I just want to raise this point now and maybe when I've been able to sift through my thoughts on this I'll do a longer post on it.
Meanwhile, here are some leftovers from yesterday at the convention - filling in some details, and odds and ends. First, the delegates:
The Democratic Party Website explains how many delegates there will be and how they were to be selected. I should have read that before I went to the convention yesterday. Things would have made more sense.
Here's a peek at the list of candidates the Obama delegates had to vote from.
Representative Gruenberg explained to me the precise purpose of the legislative special session starting June 3.
I got to meet Celtic (pronounced Keltic) Diva, who is the blogger chosen to be the official Alaska blogger at the Democratic National Convention in August. I should have recognized her without someone having to tell me - she's hiding in plain sight on the header picture picture on her blog. Her coverage of this weekend's convention will probably be the most insightful, she's left it to the rest of us to post while driving, so to speak. She's putting her notes in the garage for a few days to figure out what happened and how to write about it. [Later: I also met Matt Browner Hamlin who was introduced as the blogger honcho who is here to run Mark Begich's campaign website. He seemed decent enough in our short hat. He has posted his observations of the convention on Daily Kos and the Mark Begich blog.]
Like a rare bird among birders, Mary Beth Kepner's appearance attracted a lot of attention among the bloggers and reporters (Alaskareport, ADN, Progressive Alaska, who covered the political corruption trials last year. Kepner is the FBI agent who initiated and ran the whole investigation into Alaska's political corruption. She sat next to the prosecution throughout the trials, but inside security at the courtroom, no cameras were allowed. (Computers and cellphones were allowed for the Kott and Kohring trials for attorneys and members of the press and no one that I know of violated the no camera rule by using their cell phone or computer to take pictures inside security.) And Kepner must have taken back ways through the building back to her office since I never saw a picture of her. So, everyone had their cameras out for this rare sighting. As everyone else has reported, she said she's an independent and was only at the convention to hear John Dean speak. This wikipedia excerpt shows why an FBI agent might be interested in seeing Dean.
As White House Counsel, he became deeply involved in events leading up to the Watergate burglaries and the subsequent Watergate scandal cover up, even referred to as "master manipulator of the cover up" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).[1] He was convicted of multiple felonies as a result of Watergate, and went on to become a key witness for the prosecution, resulting in a reduction of his time in jail.
For the record, he said last night that he knew nothing before the burglary and that he had thwarted another Liddy plan to firebomb the Brookings Institute. If I recall right, this was when he was signing books, not in the speech, but it's all kind of a blur.
And Kepner breaks all one's stereotypes about FBI agents. So, will seeing her picture and hearing us report she's a real person, change people's stereotypes about what women can do or about the FBI? Just a little? Or just convince you that bloggers are overly gullible?
We left the Alaska State Fairgrounds in Palmer at 11:15pm. It is summer in Alaska, though it was still raining. Despite my wish to ride my bike as much as possible, the 40 miles to the convention, in the rain, was beyond my resolve. Besides, my wife was going with me and while she enjoys the bike we got her last summer, she isn't into long distance biking. But we managed to stay behind slow cars in both directions. Here we are near Eagle River, it's about 11:40pm now.
And the rain has finally stopped. It sure smells good out after the rain.
It was a good day. I'm afraid that I wasn't well focused on the details of the delegate count, but rather on capturing the look and feel of the convention. I've never been to a Democratic convention in Alaska even though this is my 31st year here. And I'm not alone. But a LOT of people were there today and it's pretty clear that Barack Obama got most of us there. Well, the chance to actually see and talk to John Dean, which I did before we left, was a big draw for me. While I was posting the beginning of his speech, J was getting an autographed copy of his new book, Broken Government which was the basis of his presentation to the convention.
John Dean just finished telling us how awful life will be if John McCain wins in November. While I'm waiting for the video to upload, let me just say I spent the summer of 1973 glued to the radio and television set listening to the Watergate hearings. I remember John Dean being the highest member of the Nixon administration to stand up and say we did wrong.
Frank Vondersaar and Ray Metcalfe , US Senate candidates spoke to the convention while I was eating dinner. I'm afraid I wasn't paying enough attention. Here's the beginning of Mark Begich's speech.
Right now John Dean, President Nixon's personal attorney who told the Watergate hearings what was actually happening and helped blow open the Watergate Scandal, is answering questions after his prepared remarks in which he lambasted the current Republican administration and the dangers to the Supreme Court if another Republican is elected.
I posted a clip from Ethan Berkowitz' speech earlier. But I didn't have anything from Diane Benson's speech. (They are the two Democratic candidates for the US House Race.) David Shurtleff of APRN offered me his audio copies of the two speeches. I've mentioned the cooperation and helpfulness of the Anchorage media and this is a great example of it. Thanks David. So I'm getting them uploaded as I write now
The delegate candidates are going up and giving 10 second speeches on why the others should send them to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. The video gives you a sense of what things are like right now. There are lots and lots of candidates. Kay Brown just told me there were 265 to start with, but many have withdrawn or just aren't here and are being dropped from the ballot. But it does seem to indicate the excitement here that so many people have signed up to be among the 18 delegates to go.
I'm saving this next video at higher quality, so the download will take a bit longer. People are still telling the convention why they should be chosen to be one of the delegates. The last candidate - Zipkin - just did her talk and now the very last one, a write-in candidate who was accidentally left off the ballot.
You might also what to check the ADN blog, Sean Cockerham is across the table writing.
OK, so they have counted the delegates here and that determines how many Obama and Clinton delegates go to the Democratic convention. I'm not sure how this works out since there were about 77% of the votes for Obama. But you can listen to the video and hear the details. I can barely keep up with my videoing, uploading, posting, and paying attention to what's going on.
Right now the Obama and Clinton delegates here are supposed to be voting for the delegates who will go to the National Convention in August.
I'm balancing off speed and quality, downloading these clips at lower quality so that I can get them up faster. Sorry.
I tried to video directly to youtube from the camera. It worked, but you can see that the video quality is low. This was the counting of the Obama delegates.
It appears that Viddler is down and so all my viddler videos are (temporarily, I hope) not working, including the first post here. So I've switched to YouTube. Talking to state rep Max Gruenberg.
Ron Z a delegate from my district talking to Assembly member and University Professor Sheila Selkregg chatting.
Katie Hurley, Chief Clerk to Alaska's Constitutional Convention. Katherine Torkelsen Alexander Hurley was born in Juneau to Norwegian immigrants on Seward's Day. She has been a public servant in the territory and state since December 1940 and is the proud mother of three children and four grandchildren. Despite her 86 years, she remains a vigorous activist.
Figuring out how to do this is going to take a bit. I'm going to save the videos at a low quality so it all goes faster. Right now people are dividing up into precincts. Here's the video of Ethan Berkowitz, US House Candidate. Unfortunately I got here too late to capture Diane Benson's speech. Maybe I can get her to say something directly to the blog later. [Both speeches are now posted here thanks to David Shurtleff at APRN.}
[viddler seems not to be working so I'm reposting from youtube.]
