Do You Think You're Being Pissed On?

Perception makes all the difference. 

Some people think the Obama administration is pissing on them. 

Others think Obama is spraying them with cool water on a hot day. 

We jump to conclusions based on our past experiences and expectations as this video so humorously demonstrates. 




Thanks to Archi's blog where I found this after he commented here. We all need a good laugh every day.

A Break For Something Amazing

This is not my stuff.  See what Cal Lane does with this (LINK) tank.

Constitutional Amendment to Enlarge Alaska Legislature - Ballot Measure #1

[UPDATE: January 2014:  Here's the link to the July 2013 Proclamation Plan that was approved by the courts.  It has maps and other information.  This plan will be in effect until the 2020 census data and the new plan then.  For coverage of the Redistricting Board go to the Redistricting Board tab under the Blog Heading above or click here.]

 [UPDATE January 2013:  Although the current districts (here and linked in the Aug 2012 update) have been rejected by the Alaska Supreme Court, the 2012/2013 districts are in effect now.  There will be new districts for the 2014 election.]


 [UPDATE August 2012:  GO HERE FOR CURRENT - 2012/2013 - DISTRICT MAPS]

[UPDATE JULY 2011:  I blogged the Alaska Redistricting Board's process spring 2011 and an overview of all those posts is available at this redistricting page (or click the Alaska Redistricting Board tab just above this post) and you can find information on the process and the final new maps they created.  And yes, Southeast Alaska lost a seat as predicted.]

In addition to candidates, Alaskan voters will have two bond measures (A and B) and one Ballot Measure.  I sat through some of the committee meetings in Juneau during the legislative session where this proposed constitutional amendment was debated, and while I don't claim to totally understand it, I'll try and convey what I did get.  And I'll try to make it as easy and clear as I can. 

Basically, the change would be from 40 representatives and 20 senators to 44 and 22. 


WHY ENLARGE?

Primary Reasons:

• The 2010 Census will show an increase in population in Anchorage, Matsu, Kenai Peninsula and probably Fairbanks.
  
  
• This will necessitate redistricting to adjust for the increased population in part of the state.
  
  
• With the current number of districts, rural Alaska districts will lose seats to the urban areas.  That may not sound like a problem, however it will mean
  
  
• In rural districts, some of which are already enormous but sparsely populated and often without road access,  representatives and senators will not be physically able travel to many areas in their districts without enormous expenses and time allotments.  This is already a problem and will get worse.   In comparison, many Anchorage legislators can walk across their districts in a several hours. 

To get a sense of this, you can see on the map below how big some of the districts are.

Senate districts have letters (A, B, C, etc.) and two House districts (numbered 1-40) make up each Senate district.    So, House districts 5 and 6 are in Senate District C.  Senate District C is geographically the largest state Senate district in the United States.  To make it easier to see that on the map, I've added more red 6-C (Senate Seat C, House Seat 6) and 5-C symbols so you can see how huge Senate District C is.  You can double click the map to make it bigger or get your own, much larger, pdf of the map from the State Division of Elections.    I'd guess Senate District C is larger than most states.

Just for some perspective I've circled the Anchorage bowl which has 7 Senate districts.

Rep. Peggy Wilson of Sitka (House District 2) who introduced the House version of the bill, said there's one village in her district that costs her $1000 to fly to so she doesn't get there too often.  You get the point.  In some of the rural areas, people are scattered in small, isolated communities.  They are off the road system.  You can't easily get 300 people into a school auditorium like you can in Anchorage.  Or walk door-to-door and hit 200 households in a day.  So, legislators from these areas argue that if their districts get even larger, the quality of representation, of communication with their constituents, will get even harder.

I realize for people outside of Alaska who have never talked to one of their state reps, let alone their US Senators, this might not sound like a big deal.  But in Alaska, we all have access to these folks if we want. 

Primary reasons continued:


Federal Voting Rights Act. Besides the difficulty meeting constituents, visiting and knowing every part of their districts, there are some legal issues as well.  Alaska is one of 16 states monitored under this act.

Section 5 is a special provision of the statute (42 U.S.C. 1973c) that requires state and local governments in certain parts of the country to get federal approval (known as"preclearance") before implementing any changes they want to make in their voting procedures: anything from moving a polling place to changing district lines in the county. [emphasis added]

In Alaska's case, we are in this category because of violations of voting rights for Alaska Natives.  And the districts that would lose votes are in the rural areas with larger Alaska Native populations.  So, any changes in those districts will get special federal scrutiny to be sure that Alaska Native voting rights are not diminished.

Another reason, mentioned, mainly by urban legislators and generally not publicly, is that enlarging the legislature will keep some current legislators from losing their seats.  I can't imagine any legislator would put personal needs over public needs, so let's assume that their personal needs and the public needs overlap.

Redistricting Constraints

Voting Rights Act  - That was already discussed.


Alaska Constitution

The Alaska Constitution, Article 6, spells out requirements for house and senate districts.

[NOTE:  I like these boxes because they highlight key points for people, but they aren't accessible to the blind because they are images but the technology they have can only read text.  For any blind readers, the text of this box and the next are from Article 6, Section 6 of the Alaska Constitution.]

Alaska has, according to a Wikipedia chart based on 2005 population estimates of incorporated cities:

• 26 communities with populations of 1000 or more. 
• 123 communities with populations under 1000 including
• 89 below 500
• 15 with 100 or fewer people.

A lot of these are scattered about far from other populations and off the road system.

What does 'integrated socio-economic area" mean?  The Brennan Center lists the language above from the Alaska Constitution along with language from 23 other states and says they are versions of the idea of "community of interest."

Several redistricting criteria — like following county or municipal lines, or drawing districts that are compact — are in some ways proxies for finding communities of common interest. These are groups of individuals who are likely to have similar legislative concerns, and who might therefore benefit from cohesive representation in the legislature.

 I'm not sure how this criterion can even be met in Anchorage where many different types of communities - ethnically, politically, economically, etc. - live side by side.   Maybe they are united in their urban view of the world.


Other Issues



Cost

The original bills in the legislature called for increases of 8 representatives and 4 senators.  One of the questions that came up was whether there was enough room in each Chamber to house all the new legislators, plus whether additions to the capitol would need to be made to give everyone offices.  Cutting back to only six new legislators seemed to take care of most of the construction questions.  Below is a view of the House chambers.  There's room to squeeze in four more seats.  There's already an empty seat for the speaker who sits up front anyway. 

And the Senate should have no problem moving things slightly to fit in two more desks.

From the Legislative Website's Publication page

After HJR 38 passed the House State Affairs committee, with the change from 12 new legislators to six. I wrote following based on what was said in the committee.

This basically cuts the fiscal note in half. The estimated costs of the original resolution was about $4,470,000 million plus for each year and with the cut, it reduces the annual extra cost to $2,342,000. Also, wouldn't have to do any reconstruction changes.

If there have to be any new buildings, that will be more.  At one session Rep. Carl Gatto offered to build a new Capitol building in Wasilla.  Others suggested evicting the Governor and taking over the 3rd floor of the Capitol



A few more  points (which I haven't verified) made in the bill's Sponsor's Statement include:

• Alaska has the smallest bicameral legislature in the nation. 
  
  
• Since 1960 (Statehood was 1959) to 2006, 29 states have increased the size of their legislatures. 
   
• Of the nine smaller states (509,000 - 1,429,000) the average size of the legislature is 134 (compared to our 60). 
   
• The state budget has gone from $104 million in FY '61 to $7 billion today. 
   
• All redistricting plans, after 1960,  have been successfully challenged in the courts and any reduction in rural districts is likely to make such a challenge a certainty again. 

So, should you vote to enlarge the the legislature?

Urban legislators don't seem to care too much unless they are interested in rural Alaska.

This is an important item for rural Alaska.

No matter what happens, given Gov. Parnell's appointments  to the redistricting board [the only report I could find after ten minutes of googling about the make up of the board - not simply the appointments - is the Alaska Ear], my guess is that the plan will be challenged no matter what.

I believe that the voice of rural Alaska is not well heard in Juneau as most of the legislators are from urban areas.  The ratio will be worse, even with the extra seats.  The size of the rural districts and the expense of traveling to all the towns and villages in those huge, roadless expanses make representing one's district far more difficult than in urban areas.

But if we could allocate the extra $2 plus million a year that the additional seats will cost to rural Alaska projects instead, that might be a better deal all around.  But that would never happen.

According to Article 13 of the Alaska Constitution, it will take a majority vote to pass. (It needed 2/3 vote in both houses of the legislature.)

New Spamming Trick (for me anyway)

There were two new comments on the post about Miller's admiration of East Germany's ability to protect its borders from its own citizens in my email box today.  Blogspot sends me emails of the comments as well as posting them.  This is especially helpful for comments on older posts that I wouldn't see otherwise.  While I can have the comments held until I review them, I don't need to do that.  (There was a month or two in the past where I did to monitor an interesting but sometimes abusive commenter.)  Blogspot's new spam filter does block some comments on its own that it suspects are spam which the blogger can then either delete or post.

Spammers try many different techniques.  The most common has been to say nice, but generic things about the blog, like "Gee, I really like your blog, it is very interesting."  The name and/or somewhere in the comment will be a link to their advertising site.

If they are good, they will even mention something from your post, "Your flowers are beautiful and I really like your blog."

But today there was a new twist, which got past the spam filters, even though the linked names of the commenters were Nail Fungus Cure and Impotence Pills.  When I saw the email the names instantly aroused my suspicions, but the comments were very relevant to the post.  And also familiar.  Familiar because they simply copied previous comments on that post. 

It's clear that humans are being hired to go to sites, figure out the captca codes and add some comment that is relevant.

But, according to Technologyreview, they are also sending solved captchas to be used automated spammers. 

But the inventors of CAPTCHAS probably didn't anticipate this: Hundreds, possibly thousands of laborers working for less than $50 a month to solve an endless stream of CAPTCHAS delivered to them by automated middlemen who sell the results to spammers in real time, so that their spam bots can use those solutions to post to forums and blogs as well as set up fraudulent email accounts, says a paper about to be delivered at the USENIX Security Symposium.

By the way, Wikipedia says captcha is an invented acronym for

"Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart."


This isn't a completely trivial post.  Spam costs time, money, and bandwidth.  But it's a a relatively easy post while I try to write something substantive on a talk at UAA Friday, a Senate race on the Hillside, and Ballot Measure 1 - the Constitutional amendment to enlarge the Alaska legislature.

Tony Hopfinger and Handcuffs on Moore Up North

My eyelids are drooping.  I've just erased what I was writing because it was . . . sooo boring.

(double click the photo to enlarge it)

We went to the old Fly-by-Night Club tonight, now reborn as Taproot, where Shannyn Moore has moved her weekly KYES talk show.  Taping was tonight and it should air Saturday on KYES, Channel 5, and on Shannyn's blog soon.  (The link is to the show two weeks ago with Tom Begich and Scott McAdams.  But you should be able to find tonight's show there too in a few days.)

See, it's still boring.  The show wasn't.  Tony Hopfinger, Joe Miller's first notch on his handcuffs, was on, and then there was a panel of journalists - Tom Brennen of the old Anchorage Times and now the The Anchorage Daily Planet on line; Craig Medred of the Alaska Dispatch now, and formerly an outdoor writer for the ADN;  and attorney and former legislator Eric Croft. 

I found the evening depressing.  Gallows humor was the standard as people discussed the man who handcuffed a reporter trying to ask him serious questions that he seriously doesn't want to answer.  Miller's in a dead heat in the polls with the US Senator he beat in the primaries, while Scott McAdams, the Democrat seems to be trailing badly.  Democrats used to win Alaska elections by having the right split the vote.  Murkowski seems to be trying to fight that history by selling the story that McAdams can't win, and if he did, he's not qualified, and that to save Alaska from Miller, they have to vote Murkowski.  Or not vote at all.

l-r Moore, Brennan, Medred, Croft

Then Medred proudly announces that he never votes because he thinks it's a conflict of interest for journalists to vote.  This is the guy who covered bears and backpacking most of the time he wrote for the Anchorage Daily News.  For crying out loud, this is the United States where everyone has the right and duty to vote.  Even judges.

To be fair to Craig, there are people who take his position as seen in these essays on whether journalists should vote at  Politico.  But I come down with Robert Niles at the Online Journalism Review.   Even if you don't vote, your objectivity is a myth.  Even the emotion free Data would be partisan because he'd rationally tally up the pluses and minuses of each candidate and figure out who would be best. Not voting is like academics using 'we' instead of 'I' to make their articles sound less subjective.  It doesn't really change anything except their myth of objectivity.  Better to simply tell readers your bias, write balanced articles, and let the readers judge for themselves. 

I look at everything that comes out as potentially tainted.  It seems like every webpage I opened today had an ad for Lisa Murkowski.  The narrative that a vote for McAdams is a vote for Miller may or may not be true, but it is also the political message the Murkowski camp is using to get Democrats to vote for her.

I wouldn't take anything for granted.  While corporate Native Alaska has ponied up nearly $1 million to support Murkowski, village Native Alaska may not be as ready to buy into this.  And some Alaskan Native youth see McAdams as their candidate and are speaking out about it.   With people hanging up on robocalls and with cell phones not being called by most pollsters, it seems to me people should vote for the person who best matches their values rather than playing voter roulette in an attempt to outsmart themselves. And if Joe Miller wins?  He's one person out of 100 in the Senate.  The world won't end.  (But it will probably be meaner and harsher.)

But I did meet an interesting couple from Homer who sailed the world for 15 years before picking Kachemak Bay as their home.

Do You Know the Five Pillars of Islam?

Nihad Awad, according to a flier handed out at the talk at Alaska Pacific University (APU) last Friday night, is "the national executive director and co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest non-profit Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States."  The rest, from my notes, is an abbreviated version of what I heard him say. [Translation:  my rough notes should not be taken as authoritative word on Islam, but the spur for you to find out more. Like at the website of the Islamic Community Center of Anchorage  which broke ground for their masjid last week.]

He began briefly talking about growing up in a refugee camp in Aman, Jordan and learning about the US by watching television - one of two sets in the camp.  Hollywood doesn't send out a good image of the United States he said.  Nevertheless, it was a place that he wanted to see for himself one day, but never dreamed he would be able to.

Schooling in the camp wasn't very good.  It was in a tent and he didn't learn much.  But something must have worked because he got a chance to go to college in Italy, where he learned Italian and got a degree in engineering.  And eventually he made it to the United States.  He is now proud to be a United States citizen.  The talk then turned to his understanding of Islam.


Muslims, he said, believe in the same God as do Christians and Jews.  He was surprised when he learned that in the west they talk about Allah as though this were a different Muslim god.  Allah is simply the Arabic word for god.  He cited a survey that found that 10% of Americans believed that Muslims believe in a moon god.

You're not a Muslim, he said, if you don't believe in Jesus and the miracles of Jesus, in Moses, and in Abraham.  A difference is in the nature of Jesus.  For Muslims, I think he said, Jesus is a prophet, not God.


Mohammad did not write the Koran, he said.  He couldn't have because he was illiterate.  It was revealed to him over 23 years by the angel Gabriel.   He pointed out that millions of people today have memorized the whole Koran in Arabic.  (This reminded me how remarkable the human brain is and how we are all capable of far more than we realize.  Before radio and television many Americans also memorized the bible.  Now we can't even memorize our passwords.)


He said there are five pillars of Islam:

1. Declare there is only one god.  (Sounds like the first of the ten commandments)
2. Daily prayer, five times a day - He said that talking to God five times a day was a great source of peace.
3. Giving charity - to the poor, orphans, the stranded, etc.  "You're not a good Muslim if you go to bed full, but your neighbor is hungry."
4. Fasting - the sick, travelers, pregnant and nursing mothers are exempted.  
5. Pilgrimage - The Hajj

[These match the five pillars of Sunni Muslims according to Wikipedia, but Wikipedia says Shia's five pillars are different.]

He also talked about Reason and Human Rights.


Reason

• God asked us to use our heads
• Education - obligation for men and women
• Independence of Women - equal responsibility to build and protect the family, women keep their own names

Human Rights

• Dignity is important
• In charge of the environment - shouldn't waste the earth
• Sanctity of human life - "Killing of one innocent life is equal to killing all mankind."  Conversely, "Saving one innocent life is equal to saving all mankind."

Not your image of Islam?  That was the point of the talk.  Just as Awad got his first (false) image of the US through television, he said Americans get their view of Islam through the news media.  It's like outsiders basing their opinion of  Christianity on people like Hitler and Timothy McVeigh.

Here's the end of his talk:





One of the questioners was about the book I'm reading for this month's book club meeting - No god but God. Reza Islan argues that the battles we see in Islam today are not about the West and Islam, but rather they are a modern reformation among Islams, a struggle for who will define Islam. Will it look to the past or will it adjust to the modern world. He suggests that Islam in the US can and should play a major role in this debate. Did Awad agree, asked the questioner.

He did. He believes that real Islam is very consistent with American ideas of equality and justice and thus US Muslims have a critical role to play in the world of Islam.

[Again, this is my take on what happened - leaving a lot out.  If something doesn't look right, contact Nihad Awad to get clarification.  And then leave a comment to correct my errors.]

Let me add another note.  I was reminded of a conference I attended in India several years ago.  In one panel on Islamic justice in Pakistani villages, the panelists all said that Islam in the villages was still mixed with local tribal traditions that were not based on Islam.  It is often these non-Islamic tribal customs that result in the abuses of women and others that lead to outraged Western headlines pointing at how primitive Islam is.  

"I've been a Democrat my entire life" What does that mean?

This ad in today's newspaper caught my eye.  What exactly does it mean to be a Democrat?

• Does it mean you're registered as a Democrat?
   
• That you give to Democratic candidates?
   
• Or that you vote for Democratic candidates?

To me it means all three, and I'd think the same for Republicans.

There was a time when no one would dispute that Bill Sheffield was a Democrat.  But as governor he went through impeachment proceedings and sometime after that he became less loyal to Democrats and regularly and publicly supported Republicans with fundraisers and funds.

I don't know if he kept his Democratic registration or, obviously, how he voted.  However, since 2000 his campaign contributions, while not completely snubbing Democrats, heavily favored  Republicans.  And Murkowski is a name his checkbook knows well.   


This is no sudden conversion.

To me this ad implies that he's breaking with his life long tradition to now support a Republican in this election.  That is clearly NOT the case as his federal campaign contributions show.  (The state numbers are much harder to get from APOC.  What I saw wasn't as lopsided, but it was clear that there was missing data.)

My quick count reveals the dollar amount of his federal contributions runs 5 to 1 for Republicans.  Not exactly what my vision of a "Democrat my entire life" would do.  It would have been called treason had a Republican funded Democrats 5 to 1. 

The following comes from OpenSecrets.

SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRE	7/1/10	$250	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRE	6/5/10	$250	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRE	3/29/10	$400	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM J ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	PORT OF ANCHORAGE/EXECUTIVE DIRECTO	3/29/10	$500	Begich, Mark (D)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	PORT OF ANCHORAGE/DIRECTOR	3/25/10	$500	Murkowski, Lisa (I)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	PORT OF ANCHORAGE/DIRECTOR	3/5/10	$500	Murkowski, Lisa (I)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	PORT OF ANCHORAGE/DIRECTOR	1/18/10	$500	Democratic Party of Alaska (D)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRE	9/29/09	$500	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	PORT OF ANCHORAGE/DIRECTOR	9/19/09	$250	Murkowski, Lisa (I)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM J ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNICIPALITY OF ALASKA/DIRECTOR	8/4/09	$500	Inouye, Daniel K (D)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRE	6/30/09	$500	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRE	4/28/09	$1,000	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM J ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	PORT OF ANCHORAGE/EXECUTIVE DIRECTO	3/25/09	$1,000	Begich, Mark (D)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM J ANCHORAGE,AK 99501	RETIRED/RETIRED	11/4/08	$300	Stevens, Ted (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRE	11/3/08	$500	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRE	10/16/08	$500	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM J ANCHORAGE,AK 99501	RETIRED/RETIRED	9/20/08	$300	Stevens, Ted (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM J ANCHORAGE,AK 99517		8/25/08	$500	Inouye, Daniel K (D)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM J ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	PORT OF ANCHORAGE/EXECUTIVE DIRECTO	6/12/08	$500	Begich, Mark (D)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRE	5/31/08	$300	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRE	5/31/08	$1,200	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRE	1/10/08	$500	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	PORT OF ANCHORAGE/DIRECTOR	10/12/07	$500	Democratic Party of Alaska (D)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	PORT OF ANCHORAGE/DIRECTOR	9/11/07	$500	Democratic Party of Alaska (D)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM J ANCHORAGE,AK 99501	RETIRED/RETIRED	9/4/07	$300	Stevens, Ted (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM J ANCHORAGE,AK 99501	RETIRED/RETIRED	9/4/07	$700	Stevens, Ted (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRE	8/9/07	$1,000	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRE	4/12/07	$500	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	PORT OF ANCHORAGE/DIRECTOR	12/30/06	$1,000	Stevens, Ted (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	PORT OF ANCHORAGE/MANAGER	10/23/06	$500	McGavick, Michael (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	PORT OF ANCHORAGE/DIRECTOR	7/11/06	$500	Stevens, Ted (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	PORT OF ANCHORAGE/MANAGER	4/20/06	$250	McGavick, Michael (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRE	4/19/06	$500	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	PORT OF ANCHORAGE/DIRECTOR	1/12/06	$500	Democratic Party of Alaska (D)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	PORT OF ANCHORAGE/DIRECTOR	12/15/05	$1,000	Stevens, Ted (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRE	11/3/05	$500	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRE	8/3/05	$500	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	PORT OF ANCHORAGE/DIRECTOR	7/15/05	$500	Stevens, Ted (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRE	3/31/05	$1,000	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM J ANCHORAGE,AK 99501	MURI OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRECTOR	7/16/04	$500	Northern Lights PAC (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNI OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRECTOR	6/30/04	$250	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	MUNI OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRECTOR	6/30/04	$250	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99501	MUNI OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRECTOR	7/31/03	$500	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM J ANCHORAGE,AK 99501	MURI OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRECTOR	7/30/03	$250	Northern Lights PAC (R)

SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99501	MUNI OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRECTOR	5/29/03	$250	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, BILL GOVERNOR ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	PORT OF ANCHORAGE	5/28/03	$250	Murkowski, Lisa (R)
SHEFFIELD, BILL GOVERNOR ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	PORT OF ANCHORAGE	5/15/03	$250	Murkowski, Lisa (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99501	MUNI OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRECTOR	4/24/03	$1,000	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99517	PORT OF ANCHORAGE	2/2/03	$250	Murkowski, Lisa (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM J ANCHORAGE,AK 99501	MURI OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRECTOR	9/5/02	$500	Northern Lights PAC (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99501	MUNI OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRECTOR	5/23/02	$500	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99501	MUNI OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRECTOR	3/31/02	$500	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, BILL MR ANCHORAGE,AK 99509	PRES/CEO	8/29/01	$500	DNC Services Corp (D)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99501	MUNI OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRECTOR	8/9/01	$250	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM ANCHORAGE,AK 99501	MUNI OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRECTOR	7/31/01	$500	Young, Don (R)
SHEFFIELD, WILLIAM J ANCHORAGE,AK 99501	MURI OF ANCHORAGE/PORT DIRECTOR	7/30/01	$500	Northern Lights PAC (R)
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Joe Miller Is NOT Dr. Hugh "Bud" Fate's Son-In-Law

Sen. Dyson introducing Joe Miller

At Sunday's 'town hall' meeting at Central Middle School, Sen. Fred Dyson introduced Joe Miller to the audience.  As part of the introduction, Dyson said he knew the Joe Miller was a great guy because he was married to Hugh "Bud" Fate's daughter.  Dr. Fate [a Fairbanks dentist who served on the University of Alaska Board of Regents for years as well as in the legislature], he continued,   wouldn't let any of his daughters marry someone who wasn't first rate.

Hugh Fate son-in-law Dan Sullivan

Well, my brain started whirring at that point.  I'd been in the confirmation hearings last February in Juneau for state Attorney General Dan Sullivan [no, not the Anchorage Mayor of the same name]  and it seemed to me that Bud and Mary Jane Fate were there and introduced as Sullivan's father-in-law.  If Joe Miller was married to the Fate's daughter, then he and AG Sullivan would be brothers-in-law.  Interesting.

Well, I got caught up in writing about Miller's comments on East Germany, and put this on the back burner.  But today as I was getting ready to post this I wanted to see if I could find something that showed that Kathleen Tompkins-Miller was Fate's daughter.

An old legislative site for Fate had a section on family:

Kathleen Tompkins-Miller

Family:
Wife - Mary Jane
Children - Janine, Jennifer, Julie, Al H. Woods
Twelve Grandchildren

No Kathleen.  But, of course, Miller would have corrected the record at the time if it weren't true.  Wouldn't he? 

Now I started scratching my head.  I called Rep. Bob Lynn who had been at the Sunday event.  I'd gotten to know him while I was in Juneau and had talked to him Sunday.  He recalled Sen. Dyson making that introduction, so I hadn't been wrong about that.  He said he thought there was a connection to the Fates but wasn't really sure.  I mentioned the Dan Sullivan connection - Rep. Lynn had been in the confirmation hearings - and he thought, well, maybe that was it.  He wasn't sure.

I called the Miller headquarters on Northern Lights, but I was told no one there had been to the Sunday event and they didn't know.  They recommended I call Fred Dyson.

I left a message on Dyson's answering machine and followed up with an email.  [Update Oct. 20, 9:30am:  Dyson's office called this morning and when I said I'd gotten the answer, the woman said 'good' and hung up before I could ask anything more.][Update later Wednesday:  Email from Fred Dyson said he confused Sullivan and Miller and thought Miller hadn't corrected him so as not to embarrass him.]

I called another legislator who didn't know, but suggested I call Dr. Fate in Fairbanks.

Joe Miller

When I explained to Dr. Fate why I was calling he laughed and said that Sen. Dyson was confused.  No, he was not related to Joe Miller in any way.  In fact he'd asked Dyson whether Miller had refuted him.  (Fate had gotten calls about this immediately after the meeting.)  He asked me if I'd been there and if I'd heard any refutation.  I told him I hadn't heard any correction.

Dr. Hugh "Bud" Fate

Dr. Fate said he was well known in the state, particularly in Fairbanks, and he was a little miffed that Miller hadn't corrected the record about Miller's relationship with Fate.  He made it clear that there was no connection between himself and Joe Miller.


I asked if he was supporting Miller.  He said he'd just made up his mind that he is voting for Lisa Murkowski.

[Dr. Fate's photo is from

his old legislative website.]

So,  I'm wondering if Fred Dyson is changing his assessment since Joe Miller hasn't, in fact, been vetted by Dr. Fate.  Miller just let the folks at Central Middle School think he was Fate's son-in-law without correcting the record.  Or maybe he hadn't been listening to Dyson.

Daily Kos See Comments on Halcro Blog Suggesting Miller is Playing Games with his Taxes

There may be a good explanation for this - like for the East German comments and for having a posse to handcuff aggressive reporters.  But it also might explain why Miller doesn't want people looking at his Fairbanks personnel files. 

A friend sent me to this Daily Kos post, but it comes from Andrew Halcro's blog, and Progressive Alaska  is also connected.

Basically the story, based on review of Miller's campaign disclosure information, says that he's valued his Fairbanks office, which he owns, at $50,000 to $100,000.  He also pays himself rent for the same amount according to the disclosure forms (posted at the link.)  But, Fairbanks assesses the value of the office at only about $25,000.

He also lists his income as an attorney at about $59,000.  So, after paying rent of $50,000, his earned income would only be $9,000.  So, by paying himself rent higher than the value of buying the property outright, the post suggests that he's moving his income from earned income subject to payroll tax to unearned income, not subject to that tax. 

We'll see how this turns out.  But it shows the power of blogs.   Lots of people give each other ideas and can check on lots of things AND they have a place to put their thoughts where others can see them and follow up.  Not like the old days when if it didn't get into the daily newspaper or tv news, there weren't any outlets to get the news out.  

US-Republikaner nimmt Berliner Mauer als Vorbild

[US Republican takes Berlin Wall as Model]

Most of what I post here has a relatively small audience, maybe 300 hits a day, sometimes more, sometimes less.  But the post with audio of Alaska US Senate candidate Joe Miller's using East Germany as a model of how a border can be secured has gotten a lot more attention.  Today, so far,  there have been 2,500 hits from links all over the place.  Not much compared to some of my fellow Alaskan bloggers, but a lot for this modest platform.

This one at Der Spiegel is my favorite.  After all, they know more about the East and West German border than most of the others. 

Tea-Party-Bewegung
US-Republikaner nimmt Berliner Mauer als Vorbild

Joe Miller before Sunday talk at Central Middle School

Joe Miller: "Wenn Ostdeutschland das konnte, dann können wir das auch."
Mit der Berliner Mauer gegen Flüchtlinge aus Mexiko: Joe Miller, erzkonservativer Senatskandidat der Tea-Party-Bewegung in Alaska, hat die Grenzbefestigung der ehemaligen DDR gelobt.

Washington - Sarah Palin behauptete einst, sie könne von Alaska aus Russland sehen. Wie sehr der eiserne Vorhang in dem US-Bundesstaat noch eine Rolle spielt, hat jetzt der Senatskandidat der US-Republikaner gezeigt. Joe Miller, ebenso wie Palin der Tea-Party-Bewegung zugehörig, lobte die Berliner Mauer als Vorbild für die Abwehr illegaler Einwanderer in den USA. Die DDR habe ihre Grenze wirksam gegen Übertritte gesichert, sagte Miller auf einer Wahlkampfkundgebung in Alaska, von der am Dienstag ein Audiomitschnitt im Internet veröffentlicht wurden.

The rest is at this Der Spiegel post.

You can see evidence of this German link in the most recent comments.