Full Moon at Half Moon Bay

Our son and his roommate picked us up at the airport and we're now at their place just off the beach at Half Moon Bay. J and J and I walked Kona on the beach in the moonlight.

Here's the sound of the surf while you look at the iPhoto cranked up shots. If you look at the screen from the right angle, not only can you see my wife and son and his dog, but also their shadows and the surf.   [UPDATE:  The site I kept my audio, Jamglue, has shut down, and the audio I had there is, apparently, gone forever.  Sorry.]
Half Moon Bay surf under Full Moon by AKRaven

Looking toward Pillar Point, north of Half Moon Bay.

We left Anchorage a day after the full moon in January and we're due back tomorrow. The sun isn't quite full, but I used my poetic blogger's license with the title.

Chiang Mai Morning Bird Sounds - Mostly Koel

I'm taking the day off today and we're headed to see elephants with JP, who's doing his doctoral research on elephant behavior. But in the meantime, here are some morning bird sounds recorded this morning and yesterday. The scratchy noise in the background are the cicadas. There are other miscellaneous sounds like dogs barking and a couple of motorcycles. Enjoy. Just click on the yellow button with the black arrow.

Chiang Mai Morning Birds - Koel April 1, 2009 by AKRaven

Things Just Happen - Fixing Flats, Meeting a Monk and a Gaur Part 2

[Double click on any picture to enlarge it]


In addition to passing Wat Umong everyday on the way to work, I also pass a sign about Wildlife Conservation, but the road goes uphill. And it's hot. But one morning about a ten days ago, I rode up and discovered . . .well I'm not quite sure what. There's an office.



There's a huge bird cage full of bulbuls, and even when they're in a cage I can't get a good picture. I'd been thinking about cages and how awful it is to put birds in cages. This all arose from watching the birds off our balcony and how much space they use.









There were also some caged deer. I got to them from the backside so there were lots of fences between us.











And there was a free family of white crested laughing thrushes. I'm guessing this was the pair we'd seen at the garden restaurant behind Wat Ramphoeng a while back - it's less than a quarter mile away as the thrush flies. (It's on the tree trunk, lower left. Like always you can double click to enlarge the pictures.)




So as we walked around the lake after the monk chat and I saw a paved road that looked like it went out, I began to wonder if it went to the wildlife conservation area. It did. And now it was around five pm, cloudy, cool, and we saw the thrushes again. J moved very quickly when she saw a snake go by (I never saw it) and so we went past the picnic area to the nature trail.

It's the end of the dry season, so most things are very dry. But there was a small damned up lake and a kingfisher flew across. There were lots of birds, I got some on camera in just brief glimpses, not very good. And these red flowers.



Then we ran into this monk with a wheel barrow of old leaves and cow dung. He asked us what we were doing here - in curiosity, not challenging us - and we had a long discussion about birds, living things, where I work, Buddhism (this was where my Thai vocabulary began to fail me, but he did say that all living things love life more than anything else and there was a sign near by that said the same thing.) Which made it all the more curious when he spoke about an Alaskan friend - in the Air Force - who comes to Thailand frequently and is an avid fisher and hunter who likes antique guns. Then he told us there was a wild woowa. (I think cow must be the only animal we have in English for which there is no generic name for both the male and female - well I guess there's peacock too, and if I think about it I might think of more.) He said the monks can walk up to it and feed it and it licks their arms. Did we want to see it?





Well of course. So he walked us over to see if it was there. It was. It was this huge wild bull. Later I thought of the word gaur, googled it, and sure enough, that's what it was. It was staring straight at me in the distance as I tried to keep up with the monk. Joan stopped earlier. And it clearly wasn't comfortable with me either, so I stopped as the monk went on.


There were some small deer that appeared to be caged down there, but the bull was free and later ran off through the wildlife area. I have to say I was amazed to see a huge animal like that loose right here on the edge of Thailand's second biggest city. But from this area, it really looks like it's forest all the way up the mountain side of Doi (Mt) Suthep. And clearly this gaur has found friends among the monks who do feed it. I know we wouldn't have seen it had the monk not taken us over there (though we weren't far away) and that the gaur would have run off if we'd gotten close. As I think about it, it looked at us the way a moose does - trying to figure out who we were and whether we were a problem. We weren't wearing orange monk's robes.

The ultimateungulate has this description:

Body Length: 250-330 cm / 8.3-11 ft.
Shoulder Height: 170-220 cm / 5.6-7.2 ft.
Tail Length: 70-100 cm / 28-40 in.
Weight: 700-1000 kg / 1540-2200 lb.

The dark brown coat is short and dense, while the lower legs are white to tan in colour. There is a dewlap under the chin which extends between the front legs. There is a shoulder hump which is especially pronounced in adult males. The horns are found in both sexes, and grow from the sides of the head, curving upwards. Yellow at the base and turning black at the tips, they grow to a length of 80 cm / 32 inches. A bulging grey-tan ridge connects the horns on the forehead.

Ecology and Behavior

Where gaurs have not been disturbed, they are basically diurnal, being most active in the morning and late afternoon and resting during the hottest time of the day. However, where populations have been molested by human populations, the gaur has become largely nocturnal, rarely seen in the open after 8:00 in the morning. During the dry season, herds congregate and remain in small areas, dispersing into the hills with the arrival of the monsoon. While gaurs are dependent on water for drinking, they do not seem to bathe or wallow. When alarmed, gaurs crash into the jungle at a surprising speed. Gaurs live in herds led by a single adult male. During the peak of the breeding season, unattached males wander widely in search of receptive females. No serious fighting has been recorded between males, with size being the major factor in determining dominance. Males make a mating call of clear, resonant tones which may carry for more than 1.6 kilometers. Gaurs have also been known to make a whistling snort as an alarm call, and a low, cow-like moo. The average population density is about 0.6 animals per square kilometer, with herds having home ranges of around 80 square kilometers.

Family group: Small mixed herds of 2-40 individuals. Adult males may be solitary.
Diet: Grasses, shoots and fruit.
Main Predators: Tiger, leopard.

Distribution

Tropical woodlands in India, Indochina, and the Malay Peninsula.

Countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia (Peninsular Malaysia), Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Viet Nam (IUCN, 2002).

I'm used to eucalyptus trees from growing up in Southern California, but I've never seen bark like this. It's a piece of art. The monk showed us a birds nest just on the other side of trunk.
He also said the cicadas sounded different before and after the rain, better before. Now I know where they got the sound they put in table saws. It's from the cicadas, but amplified a bit.

(click on the black arrow in the yellow square) Chiang Mai Forest Cicadas uploaded by AKRaven



As I said it is the dry season. Though the Thai New Year is coming up next week and the rains should be coming before long. The Songkran festival is when people soak each other with water and Chiang Mai is supposed to have the wildest Songkran festival. The moat around the old town has been filled with water and there were even people swimming in it Saturday when we came back from Mae Sai.





He said that a hummingbird like bird feeds on these tiny pink flowers. We see a bird like that from our balcony.







We walked back through the Wat grounds which has words of wisdom posted here and there on trees. Then we walked back to pick up my tire from the bike shop and headed home.


We've seen the signs for the Heinrich Böll Foundation when we first got here, but never actually found the place. Since the sign is right near the tire repair place, we decided to try to find it. We ended up at this compound at the end of a small back street. (Sorry it was getting dark, but I still think a little blur is better than the artificial light of a flash. This is what it really looked like.) And as I looked to see if the tiny street went further, I realized that it ended in part of the Wat Padaeng temple grounds just a short ways from our building. The dogs didn't like us cutting through their property, but they stayed up on the hill and did their barking from there.

When we got home and put the tire back on the bike, I discovered that the rear tire was now flat, so we took the bike back to the bike shop where he pulled out two thorns and put on two patches. At 20 Baht a patch, I was now almost $2 down because of thorns. It would be another 20 Baht when I discovered the rear tire flat again Monday (yesterday) morning and he found another thorn he'd missed in the bad evening light. But he had a good sense of humor and when I told him I hoped we wouldn't meet again soon, he said I could come by just to chat.

Work, Lunch, Assessment,Sunbird, Heinrich Böll

Bird Call and Construction Wat Ramphoeng uploaded by AKRaven

I heard this bird outside my office window. It was somewhere in the tree on the temple grounds. I put these two pictures together so you can get a sense of the view. Yes, the orange is monks' robes drying. I spent a lot of working on the vocabulary of the work plan so I understand

• what they are supposed to do and what they have completed, and
• so I have the vocabulary to talk to them about it.

I also worked on a couple of pages on how to run meetings. I had the English knocked out in 30 minutes. Then I spent a long time getting the right Thai words - and not sure I did all the time - and plugging them into the page. Mostly I cut and pasted from Thai2English.com, but I'm also getting better at remembering where the Thai letters are on the keyboard. Since my keyboard doesn't have Thai letters on it, I've cut out pictures of the keyboard and taped them to my laptop. I'd say I remember about 15 or 20 now. If I only knew how to spell right. I really need a Thai spell checker on my computer.






I was invited to lunch that someone had brought into the office - sticky rice and various kap. When you eat a meal (as opposed to snacks) you "eat rice." All the curries and other dishes that go with the rice are "kap khao" or 'with rice." One interesting dish was kwitdiao noodle, but not as a noodle. Rather a big piece was used to roll up vegetables.


In the early afternoon Grib showed up. She's the local American Jewish World Service coordinator. It was time to do some assessment since I've been here almost a month. So we sat outside with Pet, my boss, and talked about how I'm doing outside. I said I eat, I work on the computer, watch birds... and Pet added "takes pictures." We got her a copy of my workplan - Pet got her the Thai version. I'd emailed one to New York when Dorcus had asked for it, but I'd forgotten to get a copy to Grib. We all agree it is overly ambitious. But it also includes local people working with me on each part so they can follow up when I'm gone.

The good news is that I think my perception of things and Pet's are similar. Since it was almost all in Thai, (I had to explain what 'getting up to speed' means) I'm not going to say I'm 100% sure what the others said. Language is still an issue - which is why I'm working hard to get enough of their workplace vocabulary - potential, negotiation, coordinate, state agency, experience, reform, take action, proposal, etc. - to be able to talk about work more easily. I also explained about A.D.D. when I got distracted by the sunbird and pulled out my camera. I'm pretty sure it's an olive backed sunbird - that dark throat on the yellow, the long curved beak, and hummingbird like activity all seem to fit.

When I said that Pet and I don't say a lot to each other, but we communicate without words, he looked surprised and said, "how did you know?" The workshop I did Monday was the kind of thing he wanted his staff to do and he'd like me to do more. He also told Grib how much time I spent in preparation - showing how I'd typed the handout in Thai. Too much time? Should I have an assistant? Grib asked. At this point, I replied, doing it myself means I'm learning it. After a while, having someone else type the Thai would be a lot easier and faster. Right now I'm trying to understand the organization before I start doing too much. But the short time I have left - about six weeks - does focus things and I will get, I'm already, moving with a sense of urgency. It was a useful chat for us all I think.



Right next to us were some of the election posters of the candidate the organizations here were supporting, but who lost. I'm still trying to get the vote count. Someone gave me the url of a Thai website, but I didn't have the time it would take to find it in Thai. I might not even know it if I did find it.



I've been taking different routes to work and back just to know the little streets around here. I was also trying to find a little place on the map called Pie Sabai which appears to be a little Western style bakery in the neighborhood. I saw it several times when people were taking me around in their car or motorcycle looking for a place to stay, but haven't been able to find it since. Even though it looks on the map I have to be on the way to work. But here's a picture of the sunset on the way home - it was about 5:45 and by 6:45 it is dark.

I also found out the Heinrich Böll Foundation is very near us. At least that's what the sign says, I didn't find the foundation itself. He's a Nobel Prize winning German author for those who don't know.

Devi Mandir Chiang Mai

SND_2556 uploaded by AKRaven









We met at Devi Mandir, Chiangmai's Hindu temple. First I met M. who works in my compound but for a different NGO (non-governmental organization, the international word for non-profit) that is working on sustainability. She's been working at home mostly which probably explains why I haven't met her yet. Me and S. and Grib were also there. Mike, who met in Chiang Mai last year when he had just arrived to work for the AJWS was also there, coincidentally, with his brother. The services reminded a lot of Anchorage, though here the room was filled with Thais. The person who led the prayers, a powerful yogi according to Mike, told us afterward he doesn't speak Thai and so he did the talk in Hindi since most of the Thais here do not understand English either (nor Hindi). But they did know the chants. And, as you can see in the pictures, this is a much more ornate temple than the one in Anchorage.

It turns out that Mike lives just down the street from us, less than a quarter of a mile away.

There was a heavy downpour while we were in the Temple, the first rain since I've been here. I was also able to pick up a good (save looking) electric teapot and what I thought was a hot plate at the Central Department Store at the mall. But I'm not sure how to make it work and the box says induction cooker. I have to look it up on line.

Unfuck the World - From Kathryn Blume's Boycott

Click the yellow button.
unfuck-the-world imported by AKRaven

I had no idea what we were going to see. Friends called, they had extra tickets, did we want to go? But I like the intimacy of Cyrano's and we wanted to see our friends, so sure.

It didn't start out well for me. This woman (Kathryn Blume) walked out onto the pretty empty, stage with the painted floor. You can see it in the picture before the performance. As she started to tell her story, it came across stagy, rather than genuine. I hate that. But as she continued I started getting used to it, and I think it also got more real sounding. It was funny because all the voices she did sounded more real than her own voice. Huh?

Well, there were two stories going on. First was the Kathryn Blume telling us how and why she wrote this play - basically she felt she had to do something about Global Warming. She'd write a movie that would star George Clooney and Susan Sarandon, the First Lady who starts a national women's Boycott of sex until the President signs the Rio Treaty on climate change.







The second story is the movie itself, which she acts out - a whole slew of characters including a frog. The onstage action switches between the two stories. But it all came together for me at one point when one of the characters challenges us all to "unfuck the world." That is, I realized, what the environmental movement is all about. And then there it was as a song. After the play the song was on the speakers again, so I caught enough on my camera to put it up here.


I wasn't sure the sound was good so I bought a CD when I left. I was feeling a little bad about posting the music from the CD, but I did buy the CD. But I looked at www.arthurblume.com and there was the song out in the world for anyone to download. So that was a better way to go.

Kathryn did get her own voice much more natural and the play manages to get a global warming message out and be funny at the same time. It'll be here through January 27 at Cyrano's.

The Enigma that is Vic Kohring

Here's some of what his defense attorney said about him in his opening argument:

John H Browne Opening Argument uploaded by AKRaven

(audio edited from court recording posted on ADN's site today)

It's true that he's a giant teddy bear of a man. He seems to smile at everyone he looks at in court, as if acknowledging an old friend. He asks the prosecutors how their lunch was after the noon break in a cordial tone you might use with someone you know well.

I'm trying here to put down what I know from observing him in court and from what he says on the surveillance tapes that have been played.

• His legislative bio says he was born in Waukegan, Illinois in 1958.
• It also says he received a B.A. in Management Science in 1987 and an M.B.A. in 1989, both from APU.
• He's anti-government and anti-tax. (according to his attorney's opening argument and Kohring himself on some of the tapes)
• He's pro big business and certainly pro-oil development. A couple of times he called Rick Smith (all the calls that have been introduced into court are ones where Vic goes through Rick Smith to get to Bill Allen if I recall right) to tell him that he's been working on a bill that includes even more incentives than just the investment incentives for major oil companies.
  

The other side of the picture.

• He's a humble sheet rocker, when he's not in the legislature. (Defense attorney Browne)
• He lives in a trailer in Wasilla and sleeps on a couch in his legislative office in Juneau. (Browne)
• He did not have enough money to eat. (Browne quoting Bill Allen)
• The only employment his legislative bio lists was government related - such as his legislative work and membership on the Wasilla Planning and Utilities Commission and the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation
• The only heading his legislative bio lists related to business is "Business and Professional Memberships" which include just: Palmer Chamber of Commerce and Wasilla Chamber of Commerce.
  

So, that means we have an anti-tax, anti-government, pro-big oil, and presumably pro-business in general man with undergraduate and graduate degrees in business, who on his professional legislative resume lists no private sector work in his 49 years. And by all accounts he has very little money - he lives in a trailer and while in Juneau from January to May, sleeps on the couch in his office. Some of that poverty might be explained by the fact that he is supporting, presumably, the household of his wife and step-daughter who live in Oregon. Of course, explaining that as the reason for his not having enough money to eat is a little embarrassing since he's supposed to maintain a residence in his district. But since he lives in a trailer in his district and most other legislators have to support two households while in Juneau, that doesn't really explain it.

What about his sheet rock business? We know from the previous trial that Pete Kott continued to be active, when the legislature was not in session, installing hardwood floors. And his legislative bio lists him as " Owner & Associate, Kott's Hardwood Flooring: 1996 - present" though his business support was tempered by his pro-union stance.

I can't see anything in Kohring's bio that accounts for the time between his high school graduation in 1976 and his graduation from college in 1987. Was he in college for 11 years? Was this when he did sheet rock work? And there were four or five years from when he received his MBA in 1989 until he was elected to the House of Representatives. Did he start a business? What did he do? It isn't reflected on his legislative bio. Why not? Wouldn't such a pro-business candidate want to emphasize his private sector work experience?

Why does such a strongly anti-government advocate only list government work on his official bio?
What influences in his life have led him to be a staunch supporter of business on the one hand, and a state legislator who is so poor he sleeps on his couch in his legislative office? A vow of poverty may be a noble thing, but I can't recall it being part of a pro-capitalist ideology. And the ideology doesn't fit with someone taking cash handouts from lobbyists. He said in a surveillance tape when he asked Allen for a loan to cover his credit card debt that he didn't want any payments that he didn't work for. What non-legislative work did he do for Allen in exchange for the $600 to $700 we saw on the video, not to mention the other times Allen says he gave him money because he felt sorry for him?


Browne called him one of the hardest workers in the history of the Alaska legislature, ever. Surely such a hard worker with an MBA could have earned enough money when the legislature was not in session to live off his $24,000 legislative pay plus more than $150 per diem. Do Alaskans really want people managing the state's budget who can't manage their own personal budgets? Here's a staunch anti-government, no-tax zealot, who won't vote for any legislation that raises taxes, even though the oil companies being taxed support the bill. He did say he would be willing to vote for it if the assessment of 20% were called a fee instead of a tax.

This is a man, it seems to me, who has painted himself into a corner by signing a no-tax increase pledge. In the 2006 session he was faced with what he sees as legislation necessary to develop the gas pipeline, which he sees as critical for the state. But he can't vote for it because he signed the no tax increase pledge 12 years earlier, though it's ok to tell others to vote for it. It's commendable for a politician to stick to his promise. But not when it's a promise that now is going to do harm to the state and people of Alaska. It made more sense to him to stick to a principle he espoused before he had any legislative experience or apparently business experience than to say, "After 12 years in the legislature, I now realize that life is more complex than I thought. There are times when voting against a tax will do more harm than the tax will do. Since the oil producers - the people being taxed here - are saying this bill is essential to getting the gas pipeline built, I'm going to make an exception here." Nixon went to China, but Kohring couldn't vote for the PPT bill.

So we have a man of contradictions. A man with degrees in business who is too poor, despite a hefty per diem, to afford a place to stay other than his office when in Juneau. Why?
Is he simply ignoring his personal needs to earn a living in his zeal to serve his constituents?
Is he just unable to succeed in the entrepreneurial ventures he's studied and he believes in so strongly?
Are there other explanations?

He is quite unique and leaves me scratching my head trying to understand these seeming paradoxes.

[added Oct. 30 - For a similar assessment in a very different style, read Michael Carey's take on Vic Kohring.]

Pete Kott Trial Day 11 - Pete All Afternoon

There was a lot said, not much earthshaking and I just don’t have time to cover it all. Pete Kott took the stand and covered things like:

• Why he keeps $30,000 in cash in his closet. (Is it alone on F Street while he and Deborah are in Anchorage? I hope the burglars don’t read the newspapers.)
• He never asked for a poll to be done, never used it.
• Old campaign fliers that showed he used the slogan “Experienced, Proven Leadership” since his second campaign (implying that the fact it was on a 2006 flier didn’t prove that he took Dave Dittman’s polling advice to stress leadership.)
• He’s never taken a bribe from Bill Allen.
• A blow by blow account of the November ‘04 legislative coup by 13 Democrats and 9 Republicans that would have had Pete Speaker of the House for two days.

He talked about his life:

Born in Flint, Michigan. Dad worked for GM. So did Kott after high school. But in 1969 he joined the Air Force. He had postings in Texas, Thailand [Taiwan according to ADN] (where he met his wife), Turkey, New Mexico, and Florida (where he got a BA in Criminal Justice and a Masters in (dare I say it?) Public Administration. That’s two MPA’s out of two legislative corruption trials. Really, we teach ethics. But these are things that faculty can’t really test (unless students cheat on their assignments) for, and in the short time students are in graduate school it isn’t easy to change fundamental values. And many could argue legitimately that we shouldn’t. But the basic standards of the field? But I digress.

He ended his Air Force career in Anchorage where he also started teaching political science at Whalen Baptist College. A student who read the chapter on when to run for office, pointed out that after reapportionment, Kott’s district had no incumbent. So Pete ran. He loves being a legislator.

All this testimony, starting at 1:30 and going till 4:30, seems to be intended to contrast the real, living Pete Kott with the often drunk, foul mouthed, guy the jury has seen and heard on tape. And he looked much more impressive on the stand under the friendly questions of his attorney. He even looked like he was talking directly to the jury. But he may have only been looking at his monitor.

What about his relationship with Bill Allen? Well, they were introduced by Ramona Barnes who had taken Kott in when he joined the legislature and they bonded on a bus on Sakhalin Island, Russia, a state paid trip.

He and Bill hit it off so well, he thought, because

• we liked each other
• his immediately family was not so immediate - son and sister moved away. He was by himself and I was too sort of
• we had a lot of things in common
• hands-on trying to scratch through a living - he did much better than I
• Our beliefs in developing natural resources

This is pretty close to verbatim:

Bill Allen was very knowledgeable. He was my number one source of information. Before lobbyists, They have their own interests. Bill and Rick always gave me an honest answer.

It was at this point that the lady behind me laughed out loud. I was also thinking, Bill Allen didn’t have his own interests? Didn’t he get fined for lobbying when he wasn’t registered as one?

Then at 3:20 pm Wendt started asking Kott about the PPT legislation. Detailed information about it. Starting with page one of the legislative history. Line by line. Translating every coded term. (PPT was the Petroleum Profits Tax that was the highest priority of Veco.)

2/21/06 FN1 Zero DNR
3/30.06 RES RPT CS 1DP 1DN 2NR 3AM

This went on until 4:30. Actually, I have to admit, that while I thought I would fall asleep for sure, learning the code was kind of interesting.
FN= fiscal notes DNR= Department of Natural Resources - they had zero fiscal notes

RES = Resource Sub Committee
RPT = Report
CS = Committee Substitute
So the Resource Sub-Committee reported the bill out with a Committee substitute bill

1DP = 1 Do pass
1DN = 1 Do not pass
2NR = 2 No recommendation
3AM = 3 support the Amended bill

This is how the seven sub committee members voted on the bill.

But why are we doing all this?

It appeared to me that Defense was trying to make two points:

1. Kott had no impact on the bill.
2. Kott actually voted to raise the tax, not lower it.

The first time he got to vote on it was May 7,the second to the last day of the regular session I think, There was one other vote when it was unanimously voted onto the floor for debate. Even though the Senate bill was passed first and so became the working bill for both houses, and the Senate had voted for 22/22 (I think) instead of 20/20 (20% tax; 20% credits for new investment), the Finance subcommittee had voted it back down to 20/20 before it got to the floor of the House.

Another line in the record looked so innocent:

5/7/07 (H) AM NO 20 Adopted Y21 N19

On May 7, in the House, Amendment Number 20 was passed 21-19. This was the famous (among wonks) vote when Weyhrauch voted wrong. He voted to raise the tax to 21.5 by mistake, and they had to get the vote rescinded. Under questioning from his attorney, Kott said

I made the motion to rescind. Rep. Weyhrauch came to me. And I believe...(I didn’t catch it quite, but it was something like votes should be what people really meant, not mistakes). Anyone on an issue of this magnitude, if someone made a mistake, I wanted to be sure everyone voted their conscience.

That sounds pretty noble. But you know that the defense is going to play the tape I posted last night in which Kott, from the floor, calls Smith in Room 604, and tells him what happened and they’re going to rescind the vote and revote. Here you can listen for yourself:
Rep. Pete Kott to Veco VP Rick Smith phone call

So then the next line of the history of the bill:

5/7/07 (H) RESCIND ACTION ON AM20 Y22 N18

By now I bet you can read that without translation. Rescind the vote on Amendment 20 passes 22 to 18.

Kott said he was surprised it was rescinded 22-18. Someone beside Weyhrauch changed his vote. If only Weyhrauch had changed his vote it would have been 20-20 and the 21.5/21.5 would have stayed. "On an issue this contentious, I just thought if only Bruce Weyhrauch changed his vote, it wouldn't pass."

Do you think that Pete Kott, if the original vote had failed and a Democrat had asked to have it rescinded so he could vote his conscience, would agreed? Listen to this the audio of what Kott told Smith right after the vote:

Rep. Pete Kott and Veco VP Rick Smith phone call

These simple cryptic lines hide so much. Defense was trying to show that Kott never did anything to help Veco get the bill passed. He has to know these tapes are going to be played in the cross examination.

The second main thing he was trying to get across was on the next lines:

5/8/07 (H) AM NO1 BEFORE THE HOUSE

5/8/07 (H) AM2 TO AM1 ADOPTED Y22 N17 E1

If I understood this right, there was a new amendment to raise the level from 20/20 to 22.5/22.5. (Veco wants it to stay at 20/20). But Kott is able to get AM2 passed 22-17 (I don't think he told us what E1 was) AM2 amended the AM1 changing the 22.5/22.5 to 21/21. So, instead of an Amendment raising the original 20/20 to 22.5, Kott's amendment had it only go up to 21. In essence, he lowered the amended level of 22.5 to 21, thus, I'm assuming, limiting the damage.

But Wendt characterized this as Kott's only real action on this bill was to raise it from 20/20 to 21/21 - the opposite of what Veco wanted. And the opposite of what happened. Cute. But I'm sure the prosecution will easily knock over this house of cards.

So at 4:3o (yes there was 70 minutes on this) the jury left and the attorneys talked about the schedule. I think that is worthy of a post by itself and not being buried down here at the bottom of this long post that only three people will see to the bottom. But for those of you who made it this far, the prosecution expects to begin its cross examination of Kott in the afternoon tomorrow for a few hours. I would guess this will be the most interesting part of the trial.

FBI Wire-Tap Tapes and Videos

I've just looked at the material made available by the Prosecutors through the Anchorage Daily News.. From the couple that I've opened, it looks like this (on first count):

• 46 audio (wma or wav) files dated September 17, 2007. The first two are Kott audio files.
• 14 video (wmv) files dated September 17, 2007.
  
• 38 audio files dated August 24, 2007. The couple I opened are from the Anderson Trial. I assume they all are.
  
• 24 video (wmv) files dated August 24, 2007. These are from the Anderson Trial also I assume.
  
• 25 pdf files dated August 25, 2007. The two I opened are from the Anderson trial

Here's the first audio tape on the list. Kott in Juneau talking to Smith at Riley's Bar in Anchorage. Kott sounds like he's been drinking. Someone named Trotter takes the phone from Smith and Kott tells him he's in Barbados, warden of the prison, and checking out the ladies. He then tells Smith he wants a job. Wants to be a consultant.

FBI tape of Pete Kott 01 uploaded by AKRaven


Here's a video. I couldn't get onto Viddler, so I uploaded it to YouTube, but had to pick a small file. This one isn't anything remarkable. At least the videos have the date and time on them. This is May 9, 2006 in Suite 604 at the Baranof. Rick Smith, Veco VP, is trying to call Pete Kott at 12:21 am. Bill Allen, Veco CEO, walks out of the bathroom.



This is just to give you a sense of what's in here - and what people have been listening to at the trial.

Three Republican State Legislators Indicted

[June 24, 2008: For a much more thorough and informed overview of the Alaska US House and Senate races see this post by Phil Munger at Progressive Alaska.]

OK, two are former legislators. Alaskan's have known since August when another legislator was indicted and it was clear the FBI had been to other legislators' offices that something like this was coming. The Eagle River (suburb of Anchorage) voters at least were smart enough to vote out Pete Kott already in the primary, but the Wasilla folks reelected Kohring in the fall. According to several stories in the Anchorage Daily News(ADN) today the three offered and worked to deliver any help VECO, an Anchorage based oil and gas support company, needed with legislation. In exchange they got cash and promises for jobs. Some of this was pretty blatant and the Daily News reported last summer at one point how VECO lobbyists called legislators over to talk to them during the session and seemed to be giving instructions.

Here's an different exchange on the House Floor. First you hear the Speaker recognize Rep. Wehrauch, one of the indictees. This is May 8, 2006 in the legislature. He has just introduced an amendment which passed. Then there is a recess. Weyhrauch gets the floor and apologizes that he wants to rescind the amendment he just introduced. Then Rep. Berkowitz, a Democrat, blasts Weyhrauch charging that he's changing his mind because the lobbyists told him to. Weyhrauch gets the floor again and says he's been impugned and it isn't true. Berkowitz then gives a civics lesson about how legislators are there for the people of Alaska, not for company lobbyists. (This is described in today's newspaper, the audio, from Gavel to Gavel, the state's coverage of the legislature, is from the ADN website.)


[If the audio is not on, first turn up your speakers. If that doesn't work Click on the Yellow Square) First Rep. Weyhrauch speaks, then Berkowitz.
floorexchange2 uploaded by NoKnow

Some thoughts and questions:
1. Liars can sound convincing if we know nothing about them and the context. Just listening we don't know if Weyhrauch or Berkowitz is right. In hindsight, Berkowitz was on the mark and Weyhrauch was lying.
2. This raises new questions aboutWeyhrauch's strange adventure last week when he fell off his boat and swam an hour to shore and spent the night with the mosquitoes until he was rescued the next day. Was the accident really a suicide attempt and he changed his mind in the water?
3. How did the FBI bug the room at the Baranof Hotel? A reliable source who I trust and should know says the hotel knew nothing about bugging the room. And that makes sense. The fewer people who know the safer. So did they do it on their own? Did the VECO lobbyists cooperate with the FBI and does that mean they won't be indicted? The mission of thePublic Integrity Section of the Justice Department which brought the indictments says, "The Public Integrity Section oversees the federal effort to combat corruption through the prosecution of elected and appointed public officials at all levels of government. The Section has exclusive jurisdiction over allegations of criminal misconduct on the part of federal judges and also monitors the investigation and prosecution of election and conflict of interest crimes. Section attorneys prosecute selected cases against federal, state, and local officials ..." Although their language only mentions public officials, their 2005 Annual Report gives an example of a non-governmental target. "On November 21, 2005, former public relations specialist Michael P.S. Scanlon pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud from January 2000 through April 2004." Scanlon worked for Abramoff. Maybe they should add non-governmental targets to their statement.
4. The ADN says a "Senator A" also listed in the indictments did not run for reelection. Of the three who fit that description, two have denied being the person (one was having a baby at the time) and a third, who refused to comment, is US Senator Ted Steven's son, Ben. Will Uncle Ted be able to protect his son? Is there anything that needs protecting?
5. The Baranof Hotel ought to frame the newspaper article and put it in Room 604 so future guests will understand the historical significance of the room they're in. This is where VECO and the boys did their trading of favors. (I know, we should wait until the conviction, but the taped conversations reported in the paper are going to be hard to explain in court. And...
6. These indictments were brought by a Republican Administration. And given the PR fiasco of the firing of the Federal Prosecutors, I guess whoever is in charge of this is safe, even if Republicans are the target.