Days of Glory/Indigènes

It's 1943. An older Arab walks through his Algerian village calling for the young men to come out and join the French cause to defeat the Nazis. It ends in 2005 at the war cemetery in Alsace. Crosses across the hill. Then Muslim graves in another section. And an old man, one of the those young African recruits, visits several graves, then returns to his modest room in town. Screen words scroll the story of soldiers from newly independent colonies losing their pensions in the 1960s, regaining them briefly, then seeing a new government reduce them once more. (Photo from IMDb.)

In between, we see these Arab men become soldiers, fight for France, initially in North Africa where they produce the first French victory over the Germans since 1940. We see them shipped to France where they are briefly treated by the liberated population of Marseilles, not as 'wogs' but as men, and through all the slights, small and large ("The tomatoes are not for you;" home leave for the white French soldiers, but not the Africans, etc.), through stirring calls to arms for liberty, freedom, and equality, through acts of great bravery, and cold deaths.

We can learn a lot from history. I can't help but see this movie as a primer of how the West has contributed to the Muslim world's distrust of us. This movie shows us that the African soldiers who fought for the French were men like the Europeans they fought with, men who believed in liberty, freedom, and equality. Men who came to see that those words in the mouths of most French, did not apply to them.

The West has conquered the rest of the world, first by force, then through commerce, first in the name of Christianity and then in the name of Democracy. The conquered weren't the ignorant, uncultured savages that Western myth created. Sure, many were poor and uneducated, but they had rich cultural traditions, which we, in our ignorance couldn't see, or if we did, we dismissed. The colonized peoples of the world wanted freedom from Western rule, just as the American colonists wanted to escape the English yoke. Ho Chi Minh was turned down by the West after President Wilson's post-WWI fight for freedom for colonized peoples was lost. It was after American rejection that he got Russian help to get the French out of Vietnam. We too take unsavory partners like Mushareff of Pakistan to get the Taliban out of Afganistan. Those colonized peoples of the world who believed the noble ideals of the colonists, were embittered by the hypocrisy of those who spoke them. This is not to say there aren't ruthless dictators in formerly colonized nations; that there aren't radical Muslims who stir up hatred through extreme interpretations of the Koran. But Western behavior in non-Western nations for the last few centuries has also left a conflicting legacy, including many people very receptive to the radicals. This is not a simple, black and white story. That's my point. As I get to understand things more deeply, they often get more and more ambiguous. (Though some become clearer and clearer too.)

I know those out there whose reaction to that paragraph (of course, that assumes anyone out there has even gotten this far - honk if you have) will echo one of the Republican talking points: How dare you say that we had any responsibility for the attacks of 9/11? Blaming the victim ("women wouldn't get raped if they didn't wear such provocative clothing," etc.) is only an acceptable argument when the speaker is not the victim. But I'm not blaming the victim. I'm not saying the West is responsible for the attacks. It is all far more complicated than that. I am trying to expand the possible ways we can think about why 9/11 happened beyond 1) we are good and they are evil; or 2) we are good and they are crazy; or 3) we are rich and they are jealous.

In the 1960s the South was forced by the rest of the United States to accept, at least legally, that black folks had the same rights, under the law, as white folk. This didn't comply with their learned segregationist narratives that whites were superior to blacks, that blacks in the south knew their places, and they liked how things were. They didn't see how the hypocrisy rankled 'their' blacks.' And 'their' black men, coming home after serving in WWII, no longer were willing to settle for second class citizenship at home. (The movie traced a similar situation with France's African colonial people's situation in the French army.) And I would hasten to add that there were white Southerners who saw and hated the inequities of the South.

Today, many Americans feel the same way about their privileged lives and their special moral place in the world, as white Southerner's felt about their privileged lives and special moral superiority over blacks. Giving up segregation, meant giving up status (the most educated black in the South had to sit in the back of the bus, while the least educated white could sit in the front), it meant giving up white access (over blacks) to higher paying jobs , it meant giving up cheaper labor for white businessmen, all because blacks would no longer be forced to walk behind the whites.

And Americans have lived a life of privilege compared to much of the world. We have come to believe we are a special nation destined to lead the world. Yet our rhetoric of freedom and democracy hasn't always been matched by our deeds. We've backed ruthless dictators when it met our economic interests. We've treated non-white peoples with less respect than white peoples. (In all the immigration debate, I hear a lot more rancor against illegal Mexicans than I do about illegal Canadians.) We can say that our leaders have done this in our name, but in a democracy, we are all responsible for what our leaders do.

Saying that our actions caused people around the world to dislike us, is not the same as saying we are to blame for the attacks of 9/11. Nor does it absolve the attackers of their responsibility. But if we understand how the rest of the world thinks about us (and there is no unified "rest of the world" that has a single view of the United States) it will help us find ways to create a safer, more stable world, to find a way of exiting Iraq that will result in the least loss of life. Refusing to acknowledge that we as a nation do things wrong in the world, is no different from the many white Southerners who believed that their world was fine just the way it was, thank you very much.

Now that I've had my say, I'd strongly recommend the movie. Along the same lines, I also suggest you rent "The Battle of Algiers" another movie in French and Arabic about the Algerian independence movement. This is a movie that change my whole understanding of world politics and one I was glad to see was assigned to many American policy makers after 9/11. I guess George didn't see it.

Picnic with Yakov and Lisa

I played billiards with Yakov at the Anchorage Senior Center this morning while Joan and Lisa walked the bike trails. Yakov was 60 when he first came from Moscow to Anchorage for two months to visit his sister. He was a surgeon in Russia and Lisa did internal medicine. When Russia allowed Jews to leave, he and Lisa came to Anchorage to live. That was 1994. Both Lisa and Yakov are among my favorite people here. So warm and loving, so intelligent, Lisa has eyes that sparkle with fun and humor. In many ways Anchorage is not too strange for people from Moscow. They've taught us, for instance, a lot about finding mushrooms in the woods and recipes for cooking them. They taught me one of my only Russian words (but not how to spell it) - pagunka, or bad mushroom.


Yakov, until he had a stroke and heart surgery two years ago, was riding his bike everywhere, swimming every day, cross country skiing, and drinking vodka. Even though he's been studying English since he got here, it is hard for him. He told me today about problems learning English, "Old dog (that's me), No can learn new tricks."



He's not as energetic as he was, but he still drives with a bike rack on the car, or puts his bike on the bike racks on the city buses. Walking (that is for a mile or more) is hard for him because of a hip problem, but biking and cross country skiing are fine.

So after he beat me in every game, except one where he seemed to purposely miss the pockets, we biked over to a small lake to meet the women where we had picnic. A nice, relaxing, quiet day.

The Next Hurrah - Blogging one's life away?

How much do I need to know? How much time do I need to spend to keep up?

Here's what the Anchorage Daily News had to say in its "In Brief" section today:

Longtime Bush Aide to Leave White House

WASHINGTON — Dan Bartlett, President Bush's longest-serving aide and one of his closest confidantes, said Friday that he would leave the administration in the summer. Bartlett's is the latest and most significant departure in what has been a shrinking of Bush's inner circle. Bartlett, who turned 36 on Friday, has spent more than a third of his life working for Bush, starting as a junior policy aide when Bush ran for governor of Texas. Bartlett said he was leaving to spend more time with his family and pursue new career options. -Daily News Wire Reports

A quick Google search found an expanded copy of this on the Houston Chronicle website, which included:

By JIM RUTENBERG
New York Times

plus half a sentence more the ADN left out of the selection above, and then it went on further, though I suspect less than the original NY Times article. OK, Bartlett's a Texas boy, so Houston should spend more time than Anchorage.


But I've been reading The Next Hurrah a political blog that, while I've been reading it, has focused on the inner workings of the Department of Justice. I think I must have first found it when they were talking about the Alaska Legislative indictments - from a DOJ perspective, of course. It's refreshing to read well written, thoughtful discussions of the inner workings of government, by people who have much more access to the players than I have. They've been discussing the Libby trial and sentencing, the firing of the United States Attorneys, the Gonzales hearings, and other DOJ business. Yesterday I read Buh Bye Bartlett at The Next Hurrah. The post wasn't that long, but there were 68 comments dissecting every possible (liberal) interpretation of his leaving.

So how much do I really need to know? The ADN brief paragraph? Or The Next Hurrah's version? As I ponder this, first it seems that someone has to watch closely every branch of government and various corporations as well. Second, when something important happens they need to send the alert beyond the confines of their blog. Of course, if the general public gets word something is happening they can google the term and find these specialized blogs, and good reporters are also monitoring them for tips. Third, citizens need occasionally to dip into these much deeper than normal discussions of an issue just to get a sense of how an administration or a party looks under a microscope, rather than the superficial documenting of events from the mass media and the spin industry.

Keeping up with The Next Hurrah takes way too much time for me to read the posts and all the comments on a regular basis, but it's nice to know it's there and I can peek when I want. But now I'm wondering about the blog communication across ideological lines. Clearly Hurrah's bloggers believe they are keeping the Bush administration's feet to the fire, making sure wrong doing is exposed and corrected. While there are disagreements, I haven't seen anyone challenge the basic assumptions that the DOJ is in crisis because of Gonzales and the Bush administration. But surely conservatives felt the same when they were going after Clinton. Some have argued that Rove really doesn't care about decency, the law, or other common values; he only cares about winning. But no doubt there are liberals who fit that category too. A number of the posters at Hurrah can't resist the catty remark now and then, and a number would take glee if Bush were impeached. Even if he deserves impeachment, it would be a sad day for the US. And I know as I write these words, that most of us can't help but feel good seeing a criminal brought to justice. But how do we prevent those emotions from taking us beyond reasonable?

How can people with differing ideological stances get past the bluster and posturing and the need to be right, the need to win, and look at the facts that are available and the various reasonable interpretations of those facts? I remember during Watergate the Republicans on the committees, while making sure Nixon got a fair hearing, recognized their duty to the citizens of the US was a higher duty than protecting their party from scandal. They knew the party would take a big hit, but the violations were clear and most did what was right.

For various reasons, discussed by many - such as redistricting which favors the extremes rather than the middle - we are in a different era. There are more nasty, greedy zero-sum players. Perhaps bloggers can play a positive role in forcing the mainstream media and legislators to do a better job of reporting on government and of governing.

Being a Tourist at Home - Anchorage Saturday Market

After the traveling we did this past year, it was fun on Saturday to play tourist at home in Anchorage. Anchorage Market and Festival started as the Saturday Market, but now it seems to have gotten branded and logo'd. But it is still a good way to spend a weekend afternoon - checking out the Alaskana, the tourists, the food, and the entertainment. Here are some pictures from this last weekend.





















Greg Frisbee is a San Francisco performer who is up for two weekends at the market. His juggling,fire-eating, and general comedy show drew a big appreciative crowd that filled his hat after the show.





Mary Ann Koury is from Wichita, Kansas and has been coming to Alaska summers to volunteer in Kodiak raising money for the Russian Orthodox Church.

































If you don't want a quart of birch syrup...











you could get a birch bark basket instead.










Or get your picture taken in parkas on a dog sled. I've got a picture from Korat, Thailand Chinese New Years of people getting pictures taken at the festival there as ancient Chinese royalty.











Lincoln Riley had a Whaling Commission hat on and I thought he might be in town for the International Whaling Commission meeting this week. But it's just an old hat. He's from Unalakleet but he lives in Anchorage now and goes to Unalakleet for the summer to go fishing.






Victor and Carolyn are Lincoln's brother and sister-in-law.




Or buy some children's books.







Or something from
The Quilted Raven. The link doesn't work yet as I post this. She said the website is coming soon, so try it again later if it doesn't work yet.

Three Other Views of Chabon at Loussac

In my quest to map Alaskan bloggers, I found three others who blogged about Tuesday night's talk at Loussac by Michael Chabon.

http://gatogrande.blogspot.com/2007/05/you-put-me-in-building-with-pie-and-i.html

http://littleboats.blogspot.com/2007/05/saw-michael-chabon-here-last-night.html

http://leafingthrough.typepad.com/leafing_through/2007/05/chabon_youre_so.html

Sears, are you listening? Leak part of washer design?

We got our new stackable Kenmore washer-drier last week. Rick, the salesman told us that if we take a trip, we should wipe dry the rubber seal at the door because water can get caught in the folds and get moldy. So yesterday I went to unload the new washer and there was a small puddle on the floor and I could see drops going down the face of the washer. It took our Maytag 32 years to start leaking.


After negotiating the 800 number computer voices, getting cut off, starting all over again, someone scheduled a service person to come this morning. That's good, no waiting. They also suggested asking for the machine to be replaced if the service guy couldn't make an easy fix of it.

Kyce came this morning and basically said:
K: "They all do this. Just put a cloth on the floor. It's the condensation on the door when you open it."
Me: "You're saying that they are built to leak?"
K: Squirming a little, "Well, all front loaders do this."
Me: "They don't leak at the laundromat"
K: "Well, those are $3000 machines, built for abuse."
Me: "We only did three loads. We haven't abused it."
K: "No, I wasn't suggesting you abused it."

Anyone have a front loader? Does it leak every time you wash?

Also, today Joan put it on normal for the first time. I thought they were doing construction work outside. It turned out it was spinning really fast.


[Update April 21, 2017 - We figured out why it was leaking shortly after this post and it hasn't been a problem since.  In fact it works well and uses much less water than the old Maytag.]

Morels

Each year the morels come back in our back yard. Two the first time a couple of years ago, now there are four. Maybe I should look around to see if there are others hidden in the leaves.

Michael Chabon and the Names of Yiddish Sitka

When my book group picked The Yiddish Police Union by Michael Chabon, I was excited. I loved his Pulitzer Prize winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Then I heard that Title Wave was having him up for a talk and book signing. So we got the book and free tickets for the talk (unlike the Sedaris talk.) I won't go into the book much - there's been plenty of press on it: in the New York Times   (I guess it's a lot easier for New Yorker Michiko Kakutani to imagine that "Mr. Chabon has so thoroughly conjured the fictional world of Sitka" than it is for this Alaskan living in the state's largest city of 260,000 people, nearly half the state's population, to imagine an urban center of over 2 million people in Sitka);  in The Jerusalem Post (no, Mr. Freeman, Sitka is not in the tundra), or on Terry Gross' Fresh Air.  I'll just focus on a part that intrigued me that I haven't seen covered elsewhere - the names of people, places, and things in this fictional Sitka. So you need to know that the book's basic premise is that Sitka, Alaska was designated as a temporary homeland for post-Holocaust Jews.

Last night was Chabon's talk - at Loussac Library's Marston Theater because Title Wave wasn't big enough for all the people who wanted to attend. I got to ask Chabon how he came up with all the various names of streets, buildings, places, and characters. A few I could already figure out. Bina Gelbfish (Goldfish), for example, always wore a bright orange parka outside. Others I could work out through google. Max Nordau (the book opens in the Zamenhof Hotel on Max Nordau Street) was an early Zionist who argued for a homeland for the Jews. On page 3, we read,

Landsman puts his hand on Tenenboym's shoulder, and they go down to take stock of the deceased, squeezing into the Zamenhof's lone elevator, or ELEVATORO, as a small brass plate over the door would have it. When the hotel was built fifty years ago, all of its directional signs, labels, notices, and warnings were printed on brass plates in Esperanto. Most of them are long gone, victims of neglect, vandalism, or the fire code.

And the fact that Yiddish became the language of Chabon's Sitka. Google quickly tells us that Zamenhof was the originator of Esperanto, the language that was supposed to become an easy to learn universal language. The Dnyeper Building overlooks the Schvartsn Yam, just like the actual Dnieper River flows into the Black Sea. And when you read the book, the last name of Shemets (shame, scornful whispering, according to the Yiddish dictionary online) makes sense for both Hertz Shemets and his son Berko.

Chabon's answer to my question about how he came up with the various names offered some extra insights one can't track down on Google. He'd read to us in his talk about a 1997 article he wrote on finding a Yiddish traveler's phrase book and imagining where it might be used. He was alerted to the Yiddish Online Discussion Group Mendele that was discussing his article. While the first post referred to the article as

a delightfully humorous essay regarding Uriel and Beatrice Weinreich's little paperback phrase book "Say It in Yiddish"

other discussants were not as amused. (If you go to the link, search for Weinreich to find the various parts of the thread, which starts at June 24, 1997.) He also got an indignant letter from Beatrice Weinreich, by then the widow of Uriel. He wrote back an apology, but, as he told us, she didn't accept his apology.



So when he started to talk about how he named the characters in the book, he began by saying, Bina (Gelbfish, the ex-wife of the main character) was the nickname of Beatrice Weinreich. Many are names of important Jews as I mentioned earlier with some relationship to this fictional Jewish homeland. And some of the less savory characters in the book are named after people in the Mendele forum who were especially vocal in their displeasure with the original article on the phrasebook. I've now read through a number of the entries in the debate on Chabon's book on Mendele. I trust that Chabon, given his manner at the talk, was giving a friendly nod of recognition to his critics at Mendele. Certainly, contributors like Robboy ('the gaunt giant, Roboy') were thoughtful and respectful in their criticism . And I hope that they appreciate being immortalized in this book by a Pulitzer Prize winning author.

Update: I've added three other views of Tuesday night in a later post.

ADN Story: Fed's Eye [Ted] Stevens' Home Remodel

Someone said the other day that there are so many FBI agents in Anchorage working on the investigations of corruption that they keep bumping into each other.

Today the Anchorage Daily News (ADN) published another episode in the unfolding story - this is the first one that directly names the senior Republican US Senator Ted Stevens. Rich Mauer writes among other things:

How the Girdwood home fits in with the broader investigation, or what possible crimes are being investigated, is not clear. There was a brief, unexplained reference to residential remodeling in the government's statement of facts that accompanied Allen's and Smith's guilty pleas. The sentence, preceded by a listing of a dozen Veco-related enterprises around the world, said: "Veco was not in the business of residential construction or remodeling."

Asked whether that line related to the construction at Stevens' Girdwood home, Persons first said, "I'm sure it does." When pressed, he said he wasn't certain.

Bill Allen and Rick Smith are the two VECO, a key oil-field services company that has made significant political contributions, executives who have confessed to bribery, extortion and other misdeeds that were captured on tape in their Juneau hotel suite last year. One sitting and two very recent state legislators have been indicted and two state senators are mentioned in the indictments as Senators A and B. These are generally assumed to be John Cowdery and Ben Stevens, Ted's son.

Person's is a Stevens friend and neighbor who oversaw the construction while Stevens was in DC.

Augie Paone, owner of Christensen Builders Inc. of Anchorage, said in a recent interview that it was Bill Allen who hired him to complete the framing and most of the interior carpentry at Stevens' home. Before he could send a bill to Stevens for work in progress, he was directed to provide it first to Veco, where someone would examine it for accuracy, he said. When Veco approved the invoice, he would fax it to the Stevenses in Washington, he said.

Paone said that as far as he knew, Stevens and his wife, Catherine, paid his bills themselves. He said he sent at least $100,000 in invoices to the Stevenses in Washington. They paid him from what he said appeared to be a checking account opened for the project. The checks, imprinted with the couple's names, had single- and double-digit serial numbers, he said.

The project involved jacking up the existing one story house and building a new foundation and new first floor and then lowering the original house onto the newly built first floor. But there were problems in the construction.

Paone said he was called in late that summer to rescue the project.

"Bill Allen and some of the Veco boys, some of the Veco guys, were the ones that approached me and wanted to know if I could give them a hand," Paone said. "I did it more as a favor, you know. It's one of those things when somebody is the head, and packs that much power and asks you for a favor, it's kind of hard to say no."

Paone said that by the time he finished his work in late October or early November, he had sent Stevens more than $100,000 in invoices for his own work.

As I mentioned above, up to now we knew that the FBI was investigating VECO, the oil field support company, for bribery and extortion of Alaska legislators. The two top VECO executives have confessed and one sitting and two recent legislators have been indicted. Another former legislator was indicted last fall, but on what seems a separate issue. We also know that two more state senators have been investigated, but not indicted. These indictments are expected soon. One of the two is Ben Stevens, Ted's son.

In September 2005, Rich Mauer wrote

State Sen. Ben Stevens held a secret option to buy into an Alaska seafood company at the same time his powerful father, U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, was creating a special Aleutian Islands fishery that would supply the company with pollock worth millions of dollars a year.

And since Bill Allen, the head of VECO, has confessed to various counts and worked out a deal with the FBI, we can assume that he also may have talked to them about who paid for remodeling Ted's Girdwood house.

And finally, since this is a Republican administration in DC, the skeptics can't say it is a Democratic witch hunt.

How did Carnival Cruise Lines get US taxpayers to buy them a $28 million train depot?

Our friends Harry and Michelle, former Alaskans, stayed with us a few days before catching a Princess Cruise to Vancouver yesterday. Yesterday morning I took Harry to the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport to return his rental car. We passed the Bill Sheffield Depot, which in 2004 won an American Institute of Architects Award.[Depot picture not my picture, from AKRailroad site]

Later we took them downtown to catch the bus to Whittier where they get on the cruise ship. Getting the tourists and their luggage from here to there is like an assembly line. I knew this already from taking other visiting friends to catch their buses to the cruise ships and from people who work for the cruise line.
You can get a sense of the enormity of the business from looking at all the luggage lined up at the hotel for just a few of one day's set of passengers.



But what got me thinking, and which you can't see completely on this picture, is the sign on the bus that says "Holland-America Tours" and the sign on the post to the right of Harry's head that says "Princess Tours." People had told me a lot of the cruises were all owned by the same company, so I started googling when I got home. Here's what I found.

The Princess Cruise Line, along with Holland America, is owned by Carnival, the largest cruise line company in the world, with a 2006 net profit of $2.279 billion In addition to Princess and Holland America, Carnival owns, as their website lists, "our brands:"

Carnival
Princess
Holland America
Cunard
Aida
Costa
P&O Cruises
Ocean Village
Seabourn
P&O Cruises Australia

Different financial sites lists their competitors as Royal Caribbean Cruises, the second largest, with 2006 net income of $633.9 million. The other two listed are TUI AG (a German firm) and Hong Kong based Star Cruises.

Alaskans heard a lot from the cruise industry prior to last fall's election because Ballot Measure 2 called for strict regulations of the cruise industry - including putting rangers on all the cruise ships to monitor them in Alaskan waters and requiring them to disclose the commission they get from Alaskan vendors they send passengers to. Despite a very expensive industry sponsored campaign against it, Ballot Measure 2 won. In this last legislative session there's been a lot of public concern because of legislative attempts to water down the new regulations. So, we aren't ignorant of the cruise industry and its influence. But I started thinking.

Back to the Bill Sheffield Depot at the airport. Anyone who asks a few questions knows that, despite the arguments when it was first proposed that supporters argued that it would help ease commuter traffic in Anchorage. The Alaska Railroad's 1998 Annual Report says about the Depot:

Anchorage International Airport
What It Is: A $28 million project to develop a state-of-the-art rail
station at the Anchorage International Airport. The station will be
the centerpiece of all passenger services development at the
Railroad, connecting Seward, Whittier and Girdwood, making
commuter services to Wasilla and Palmer a more viable option. (p.10)

In the Chairman's message it even gives a time estimate:

And by 2005, we hope to be
carrying commuters from the Matanuska-Susitna Valley and Girdwood into
Anchorage with safe, cost-effective, environmentally friendly rail transit.(p. 1)

The originally arguments that this train spur would help Anchorage commuters was never too convincing since it only would go from the airport to downtown and that's not where most commuter traffic goes. There's nothing here about cruise lines, yet today, in May 2007 the only people who ever use the airport depot to get on or off a train are cruise ship passengers.

While googling I found out that on May 7 of this year, Anchorage Daily News published a letter from a David McCargo of Anchorage:

"About a year ago I called Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport to inquire about scheduled train service to and from downtown Anchorage. The person who took my call was not even aware that there was a train station at the airport, which started me wondering why we spent almost $30 million to build one. My next call was to the Alaska Railroad, which was worse than trying to get through to an airline representative in Bangladesh. After considerable persistence, someone finally called back to say that the only way that I could get to the airport by train was to book a cruise from Vancouver."

I further found a Railways enthusiasts' website that had a page entitled "Lines with obscure passenger services" with this interesting tidbit:


"Anchorage, Airport Branch Junction, AK - Anchorage Ted Stevens International Airport US28
This spur line - approx. 2 miles long - is used only by chartered trains for various cruise companies (including Holland America, Princess, Carnival, Royal Celebrity and Radisson). On days when a relevant cruise vessel arrives at Seward, a train leaves there for the airport in the morning (journey time 4½ hours) and returns at about 1330 from the airport to Seward to connect into the vessel's evening departure. Tickets are obtainable only from the cruise line concerned. Reported: August 2005"

So how did the cruise lines, Holland America, Princess Lines, and Carnival principally, get this $28 million depot and train spur between downtown Anchorage, and the ports of Whittier and Seward to take their passengers directly to the Anchorage Airport? Rattling some old brain cells and working google leads to this narrative.

Bill Sheffield (for whom the Depot at the airport is named) owned Sheffield Enterprises, which eventually was a chain of 16 hotels in Alaska and the Yukon.
1982 - Sheffield is elected Governor of Alaska and serves until 1986
1987 - Sheffield sold Sheffield Enterprises to Holland America. His number two man at Sheffield Enterprises, Al Parish, eventually became a vice president of Holland America.
And from the Alaska Railroad website we get the following:
April 1995
Former Governor Bill Sheffield is appointed to the Board of Directors and elected chairman.
1997
Former Governor Bill Sheffield becomes CEO and President of the Alaska Railroad and John Binkley is named Chairman of the Board of Directors.
1997
Alaska Railroad develops a program of projects with plans to build new depots and docks, improve rail infrastructure and modernize through new technology.
2001
Former Governor Bill Sheffield retires from the Railroad. Patrick K. Gamble, former Four Star Air Force general, named new CEO and President of the Alaska Railroad Corporation.

So, Sheffield has close ties with Holland America - which eventually gets bought by Carnival which owns most of the ships cruising in Alaska - because he sold his company to them and his number two man becomes a VP for Holland America. When he retires as governor he becomes head of the Alaska Railroad and pushes for a train depot (which bears his name) at the Anchorage airport. Uncle Ted, as Alaska's senior US Senator is affectionately called, gets $28 million funneled to Alaska from US taxpayers to build the depot at the Anchorage Airport (which bears his name.) Since it was completed in 2002 it has only been used by summer cruise line passengers and is closed most of the year.

Now I think Sheffield and Stevens believe that what they were doing was in the best interests of the State of Alaska. And most Alaskans appreciated the federal largess that Stevens has sent our way, though many have smirked a bit at some of the excesses like the train depot. But the so called "bridges to nowhere" have brought attention to the cumulative effect on the US budget of all the special earmarks Congress has slipped in. And in this case, there is a project whose sole beneficiary in its first five years has been the cruise ship industry.

Did I mention that Carnival and its subsidiaries also own in addition to the Sheffield Hotels, a series of Princess Hotels, where many, if not most, cruise passengers sleep when they are on land. And they own Grayline of Alaska which their cruise passengers travel in when they aren't on the railroad. And they steer their passengers to shore based shops and services for which they get a hefty commission. One of the reasons Ballot Measure 2 passed was to give passengers more information about the business relationships between their cruise ships and the businesses they recommend.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the Baranof Hotel in Juneau, where the Veco executives were taped by the FBI bribing Alaska politicians, is part of Holland Alaska.

June 7 update: For a more recent post on cruises see New Pirates of the Seven Seas
For more on the Airport RR Depot,
click here.