Happy Birthday Moni, Ropi, and Alex

Today's a big day for birthdays. My daughter's, Hungarian blogger Ropi's, and family friend's Alex.



In addition I want to thank my wife for the greatest birthday present I ever got, my daughter.

Things People Search

Here's my latest of collection of search terms that got people to this blog:

• turning wife over to sexual demonic powers (Columbus Georgia)
  No comment - I think this got to the post on Eliot Spitzer
  
• i know my first name is steven (from Start.no, a Norwegian search engine)
  This turned out to be the title of a movie about a seven year old boy who was kidnapped, but it has a lot of words in common with What Do I know?
  
• how to tell if people dont like you (san diego)
  
• what do birds have in common
  With what? This got to post on ten common birds of Chiang Mai
• how to get ready for a dentist appointment in 1 day (Tennessee)

• western union, little india
  Sometimes people get exactly what (it would appear) they want.
  This got to this picture of the Western Union shop in Little India, Singapore
  
• interesting cow parsnip facts
  And they got to a long post with pictures and links on cow parsnips
  
• motor vehicle called hummer (from Malawi using Eng us)
  They got a picture of Senator Lyman Hoffman's Hummer
  
• charity ceo "reporting unethical behavior" (Chicago)
  doesn't sound good
  
• instructions for life
  That's a pretty ambitious request. They got Victor Lebow, then went on to Buddhism
  
• what do you do when the company act unethical
  another person with a real problem
  
• land hidden above alaska
  let me know if you find it
  
• preparation for porn
  I'm embarrassed to say What Do I Know showed up as #1 out of about 14 million hits for this one. They got something on Anchorage's Soapscum porn - theater production. I guess there aren't many posts that have "porn" and "preparation" in them together. By the way, that post has what used to be the most popular picture that people got through Google Images.
  
• how do they get you brain out when your dead
  This got them to the post on Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. BTW, I was getting enough queries for a while about how the name came about, I added a bit at the top of the post guiding people to Siberart's comment explaining it.
  
• "[Alaska Politician Name]" "[relative]" gay
  I hope this was a gay rights group just trying to make a connection, but rather doubt it
  
• unethical to take lower bids (Commonwealth of Kentucky Dept. of Information Syst)
  It's usually unethical to take higher bids. They got to the post on whether it was ethical for legislators to get discounts at the Baranof Hotel
  
• names of people for unclaimed money from chugach electric for year 1988
  My post on the Chugach list had links to get all the names. I hope they got some money. There were a few that were looking for that list.
  
• people that are not famous and born on december 10 200
  The post on famous people born in 1908 is one of the most popular (after Victor Lebow), and people get there looking for all sorts of dates, but this is the first one looking for people who were NOT famous.
  
• victor tile shop in jaipur
  Well, I have a post on Victor Lebow and another one about a shop in Jaipur (India). I think these folks got the shop, but not a tile shop.
  
• what's the difference between english and french weather (London)
  The first four words got them to the post on the difference between a hurricanes, cyclone, typhoon, and tornado?.
  
• palin's new ethics commissioner is a fraud
  Do we have an ethics commissioner?
  
• i now how to do chinse staircase but i do not now how to start it
  I had to look this up. It appears that a Chinese staircase is a stitch for what I would have called a lanyard. At Boondogleman.com you can see one.
  
• soap petrol tank
  This was a story about what I thought was a pretty obscure solution to a leaky gas tank. It never occurred to me that I'd have three or four people searching using these words.

And for those wondering what picture gets the most hits now, it's the Burmese dragon tattoo.

Falling Rain

The summer's most eagerly awaited sequel is now here. The end of the epic trilogy that began with Falling Leaves, then Falling Snow, is now at hand with the climactic Falling Rain.



I guess Doug, we won't be able to say, "Gee the weather was great until you got here." Actually, I'm working on squeezing out the last drops before you get here.

Palin and Monegan - What’s it all mean?

I don’t have any more facts than the rest of you who read the newspaper. Well, maybe a few insights from people who know the players, but not much. But I do know something about administration and human resources. The ADN's editorial this morning (there were also not one, but two different front page stories on the topic) called for an investigation of the Monegan firing:

The big question is whether Monegan was fired for not doing the Palins' bidding and firing Trooper Wooten. If so, that would be an abuse of office.

I'd argue that we need to separate the issues better. There are, it seems to me, two key issues.


1. The firing. This happened. Everyone agrees. It is important to remember that a Commissioner serves at the pleasure of the Governor. The Governor need not give any reason for the firing. Commissioners are not regular civil service positions that have protections against arbitrary terminations. These kinds of protections for career civil servants are there so public administrators are protected from arbitrary termination without cause. Ideally, this allows public administrators to do the right thing despite pressure to do some shady deal for a boss.

But the higher ranks are exempt from those protections. These are known as political appointees. The rationale for these folks is that a new politician needs to have people loyal to her vision of how things should be, to the platform she was voted in to carry out. But if a governor (or mayor or president) no longer trusts or is comfortable with a political appointee, there are no legal impediments to instant termination. There may be political consequences, but there are no legal violations.

To call for an investigation of the firing of Monegan is a waste of time and money. What she did was legal and was her right. What can the result of the investigation be? Nothing.


2. Pressuring the Commissioner to fire someone for personal reasons.

On this the facts are in dispute. We don't know exactly what happened and the players disagree. In a previous post on whether it was ok for legislators to get discounts from the Baranof Hotel during the special session. I raised two key ethical problems for public officials - undue gain and improper influence. Improper influence occurs when someone takes criteria into consideration that are outside the normal process for making a consideration. The Department of Public Safety has a union contract with its troopers that spells out the steps for terminating a trooper.

When it becomes necessary for the Employer to initiate disciplinary actions against any member for just cause, such actions shall be administered in a fair and impartial
manner, with due regard for the circumstances of the individual case. (p. 19)

If attempts were made to cause the Governor's ex-brother-in-law to be terminated that were outside of this process, then we could be getting into improper influence issues.

Undue gain happens when someone gets, through use of their position, something that they are not qualified to get. In many ethics laws, this usually means something of value was exchanged. Doing harm to an enemy fits into this, certainly in the public's mind.

But let's look at some of the possibilities:

• What can a sitting governor say or not say to her commissioners?
  
• If a Governor hears of a wrong doing by a state trooper that was not a relation, would anyone complain if she mentioned it to the Commissioner and asked that he look into it? I think not.
• If the Governor herself feels harassed or sees questionable behavior by a trooper and mentions this to the Commissioner, would that be a problem? Again, I think not.
  Both of these situations would involve the Commissioner, rather than the Governor reporting to the individual trooper's supervisor. But we expect the Commissioner to be aware of what is happening in the organization and he could pass the tip on to the supervisor.
  
• If a member of the Governor's family is a trooper and the Governor has issues with his behavior, can she mention it to the Commissioner? She could be accused of covering it up if she didn't.
  
• And finally, the case at hand, if the ex-husband of the Governor's sister is a trooper and the Governor thinks his behavior raises questions about his fitness as a trooper, can she mention this to the Commissioner?
  

It is clear, that if the Governor lied to get the trooper fired from his job hoping this would jeopardize her ex-brother-in-law's custody of her sister's children, that this would be a problem. But, if she really believed that he was unfit to be a trooper because of behavior she witnessed or heard about, is telling the Commissioner about it improper influence? In the context of what is done all the time, I would say no. In terms of a perfect world where no one ever was in a gray area, it would be a problem. One also has to wonder why someone would want to jeopardize child support payments by getting him fired. But it does appear that the Heath family thought this trooper was not fit to be a trooper.

But we don't know the facts - whether her concern about his fitness was genuine or whether this was an emotional reaction against the man who she perceives as doing her sister wrong. And from what we're learning about the trooper, he's no gem either.

• Is the Governor responsible for what her relatives say to the Commissioner?
  
• If she told them to go tell him and this can be proven, then yes.
• If she said something like, "Do what you want, but don't involve me" probably yes.
• If she said , "Don't do it," but they did it anyway, probably no.
• Is the Governor responsible for what her subordinates say to the Commissioner?
• If they say it on her behalf, at her behest? Yes.
• If they say it without telling her and she notifies the Commissioner as soon as she finds out, I think not.
• What does pressure mean?
• The Governor says she never pressured the Commissioner. The Commissioner says she did. "Pressure" I would argue here is in the eye of the beholder. But like all things, the word "pressure" means different things to different people. There's probably a continuum from "offhand comment" to "threaten with a gun". I suspect that the Governor and the Commissioner would mark the spot where 'pressure' sits on that continuum in different places. She may think she just mentioned it to him. He may think that when the Governor mentions something, it is always more than idle chit chat.
  
• Again, we don't know what she said. If we had a tape, we could play it and let people vote whether it fits their idea of pressure. We know she didn't say anything like, "You fire that guy or else" or anything even remotely close to that. If she had, then Monegan wouldn't have been so surprised when he was fired.
  

• What might be the outcome of an investigation?
  
• The investigators find clear proof that the Governor used her position to pressure Monegan to fire the brother-in-law.
• They don't find clear proof.
  

• If they find clear proof, what can they do?
• This hardly seems something that we would impeach a Governor over, especially when her popularity ratings are much higher than the legislators' ratings. If Bush can authorize torture, manufacture excuses to get into Iraq, and on and on without there being impeachment proceedings, then this option is going nowhere.
  
• There could be a vote of censure
• They could end up doing nothing
  

• Who wins and who loses here?
• Winners
• people who don't like the governor - they get the satisfaction of seeing her embarrassed and her golden glow tarnished a bit
• people who might benefit from the Governor being weakened
• The Oil Producers - AGIA passed last night in the House, but as John Coghill said when urging people to vote for the bill, there are no winners yet, we're just a little closer and we have a little more information. There is still a lot of negotiation to do. This still has the Senate vote and a weaker Governor can't negotiate as hard
• Sean Parnell's political opponents - He's been closely linked to Palin. If damage to her rubs off on him, then that helps Don Young in the primary. If Parnell beats Young in the primary, it helps Berkowitz or Benson, whoever wins the Democratic nomination. If this causes Parnell to lose to Young, this would also help the Democrats who believe they have a better chance against Young than Parnell.
  
• the legislature - they've been unable to stand up against Palin's popularity; if that lessens, then they gain
• Who loses?
• The Governor
• The Lt. Gov and US house candidate Sean Parnell
• The people of Alaska
• The time and money spent on this by whoever investigates
• The spiritual loss when people find out she's not superwoman
• The National Republican Party as they watch what they've billed as a rising political star
  

I'm sure others can add more people I've forgotten


Ultimately, as I think the chess pieces several moves ahead to see where this might go, I see much ado about nothing. This wouldn't have been a blip on the Alaska political scene five years ago, but then neither was buying votes outright. But unless there's evidence she strong armed Monegan, it is highly unlikely anything will come from this investigation beyond "he said, she said." In the end I think it will be the difference between their interpretations of "pressure."

This did not cause the Governor to lose the AGIA vote, but the timing of this was terrible. Her opposition didn't make up this issue just before the AGIA vote. She created it by firing Monegan. If she thought she'd done anything wrong, surely she would have waited until after the AGIA vote to fire him . But given we've seen several politicians sent to prison for things they think were ok, that isn't a foolproof argument either. Or maybe she's lived in such a positive publicity bubble for so long that she thinks she can't do wrong.

Part of me would like to see the ethical bar raised a little further. So an investigation would cause people to think more carefully about all their conversations. Another part of me thinks that we have to let governors and legislators have a sense of freedom of thought and speech that doesn't cause them to say nothing for fear of violating something.

One way out of this would be for the Governor to acknowledge that ex parte communications with a Commissioner for personal family gain is totally inappropriate and that she knows that and wouldn't do that. However, she has come to realize from this whole discussion that as Governor, perhaps people weigh her words much more heavily than they did when she was just Sarah Palin from Wasilla. So, what she thought was merely casual communication may have been interpreted as pressure by the Commissioner.

Now, let's get back to work solving the trooper shortage, alcohol problems, finding more and diverse energy sources, and on and on.

24 yeas - 16 Neas - AGIA Passes

AGIA yes.

There was a call for reconsideration and the vote changed to 28 yeas 12 nays.

AGIA Hearings On-Line Now

You can listen to the legislator is debating AGIA still now this evening. You can watch or listen here:

http://www.ktoo.org/gavel/stream.cfm

click on watch or listen. You can use windows media player.

They should be voting before they go home tonight, unless the anti folks stall this long enough to prevent a vote.

7:09 - Recessed until 8:15pm

8:20 - People are back in the chambers, but the sound is background music. They aren't back in session yet

8:26pm - they are back on - Rep. Samuels

8:33pm - Rep.Ralph Samuels has gone through all the failed business projects that the State of Alaska has invested in. Now he's saying that Trans Canada's interests are only to take care of their shareholders. They have no interest in our State Interests. Trans Canada needs the gas in their hub. We're going to guarantee them a price in their hub instead of negotiating them on the cost of the gas.

It would be interesting to make a list of the predictions these legislators are making so we could see who was right down the line.

Samuels: The oil companies are making business decisions and we're making a political decision. Time is on our side now. We can wait. No customers, No Credit, No pipeline.

Gardner: I want to clarify. Eagle River rep said TC will go to the FERC and try to get the highest price they can, but so will all the others.

Seaton: Some are forgetting why we're in this position we're in now. We could see declining oil production that would lead to huge budget gap in a few years. We have money now because of high oil prices. The probability is that oil prices will fall back down and before we get a project going we'll be looking at budget deficits. So were here. Stranded Gas Act problem was that we had to prove it was stranded. The process we're in got us around that big hurdle. We now have a licensee who guarantees...??? ...we don't have to prove anything.
What is the difference between AGIA application and DEnali? The must haves: Denali people didn't like the must haves. They put them in their powerpoint, but when we asked them here, if they would commit to expand if there was nominated gas, etc. He said no we can't do that - goes back to owners - Conoco and BP. That's the point that makes the most difference to us. Why would C and BP say they want to spend all this money to ship someone else's gas? They wouldn't. Of all we talked about the only thing that was different - they didn't want an open pipeline and rolled in rates. These companies are shipping every day in Canada that have rolled in rates. What's the difference between ehre and Canda? Ak has the upstream. We'd be left with a monopoly pipeline producer group. That's why we're here - the must haves.

Cissna: I wasn't going to talk, but I've had so much time I wrote a long speech. One of my early Alaska jobs was working for an independent oil company and got to learn about oil companies very well. What I learned - saw the huge power of people who came to the state. These huge multinational corporations saw us as tiny weak player. That was 40 years ago. That power was nothing then. Also, see how Alaskans have grown more and more dependent on oil and federal money and separation of government and the people. We've become like dependent people do. We don't see the choices we could make, we got locked into how things are. What I see with AGIA - we have many issues going down hill as we focus on one thing - our relationship with these multinational corps. AGIA brings a card into the picture. It makes a statement about our being sovereign. ARe there problems? I gotta tell you. We have huge problems no matter because Alaska is very small. AGIA gives us one card that we can play here. We have a chance to really take some control. I think this is the chance to do something really good for the state.

Coghill wrap up.

Vote coming up 8:49pm

8:50
Rep. Coghill - let me tell you why I'm going against some of my friends and for AGIA. Over the years we've had oils. We've given out leases. Those who got the leases were the winners. Our life has been prosperous because of those leases. We picked some winners to do those leases and we began.
Here we find ourselves again with those leases not being produced. Timing and econonocs paly a big role.
When we put out the rfa based on conditions we set up. If nobody showed up - I would have said, a competitive process, we asked too much. But Trans Canada showed up. We picked the winner based on the application process we put forward. Is that picking a winner? As far as TC and their credibility? Yes. But getting it all done? No, because no gas going to market. We're picking someone who will work with us to get us to market. We have to pick a partner. we're defining who's at the table and what they look like. Aligns 1) what we think the state should have getting the oil to market. 2) gets us lined up with a pipeline dealer who knows how to do this.
Some people called this buying something. It has costs and rewards. Rewards for us, knowing what it will cost to get our gas to market at reasonable terms. Negotiating complete? No. STill have to find alignment. I think our case stronger knowing who the pipeline builder is and how they get to their costs. Or we could wait for the producers who have their leasers - owners of lease, of oil, of pipe - going before FERC. Who are we then? We aren't surrendering our ability to tax etc. - we know at least one part of what's going to hapen is agreed upon. That's good. ARe we getting at tax deal right away? I don't think so. Still under negotation. If you go in under position of strength, you have a little more....
Some people spoke elequently about why we shouldn't own it - and some spoke eloquently against owning. This just gives us a good partner that helps us understand things we don't know. This forces information out into the open. Should they walk out because it wouldn't work with us, we get the work project so we can see all the costs. It might be worth it for us to walk out sometime. But not looking for way out. How do we get the parties lined up to get Alaska guys sold for value beneficual to us, the oil companies, the pipeline, and the customers. There may be better ways to do this, but this is the best we have available.
Through a competitive process we got ourselves a good partner who can help us get that alignment we need to be successful. I hope you join me in granting this license so we can go together in a certain timeline with a certain product for the benefit of Alaska.

Voting now

Sky's Family Flies Home to Juneau

Sky's little sister got the ok to leave the hospital today. Everyone was happy. Here Dad shows her off after having fed the baby while Mom is packing her stuff.










After finishing the bottle, she looks pretty contented.











And after getting outside for the first time in her life, she also had her first car ride. First to our house, then a second ride to the airport and home to Juneau.

Short Hatcher Pass Walk Before Blogger Fundraiser

There was a party in Wasilla to help raise money to send the official Alaska blogger representative to the Democratic Party - Linda at Celtic Diva who invited Alaska Real to join her. Since we were going to drive all the way out to the Valley, we decided to go a little early and get some quality nature time in Hatcher Pass, one of my faorite spots.

Naturally we left much later than we planned, but we got a little time lazing on the rocks at the main river and then went for a short hike.

There were lots of flowers out, including this monks hood.

Everything was so lush and green. Who could landscape something this amazing?

Labrador tea.

Blue bells

Near the top we found flowering skunk cabbage.

Looking back down and across the valley.

We crossed a short bridge.

Cow Parsnips

Wild delphiniums

Green, lush, thick green, wherever you looked.

Except for the dots of color of the flowers - wild roses here.

A fiddlehead fern just budding - ready for picking and eating.

By the time we got to the fundraiser, I had used up my need to take pictures. I figure there were enough other bloggers there to document the event. But there were many luscious looking cakes for auction. This is the least ymmy looking, but I couldn't resist the interesting color coordination.

And when we made it back to Anchorage, I couldn't resist this shot of the rainbow welcoming us home.

Bugs, Boleta, Barbecue, and a Tacky Green Russula

Sky found a lady bug on the deck yesterday. He's here from Juneau while his new baby sister gets strong enough to go home. Pam, at Grassroots Science had written about lady bugs, something she heard on NPR:

Calling all kids! Cornell University wants you to find and photograph ladybugs. John Losey, a professor of entomology at Cornell University, hopes children will help document ladybug populations around the
country. Some native species are dwindling, while exotics are on the rise. To participate in the project, go to the Lost Ladybug Project Web site or send an e-mail to ladybug @ cornell . edu

So I decided to take a picture. The bug wouldn't hold still, but this one on M's hand gives a sense of the color, spots, and size.



Then he found this dragon fly, who did hold still. It was only afterward that we saw it was eating some other bug with little wings. It looks to small to be a fly. Not sure.




Sky was a regular explorer of our backyard and soon came up with this boleta. It was perfect. The recent rains had stimulated a lot of mushrooms, but such a beautiful boleta.








Sky wanted to keep it and we wanted to barbecue it - since the coals were already hot. He wasn't too happy when I sliced it up and put it on the grill. It was more than delicious.





But he found some more mushrooms. Looking at my mushroom field guide, I think this is a tacky green russula. There were five or six. Says "good" under edible.








Here are the gills.

Thinking Clean

Sky's baby sister was born two weeks ago prematurely. She's at the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at Prov. We went to visit the other day. Before you can go into the room, you have to put all your stuff into a locker and scrub your hands up to your elbows for two minutes. Then someone takes you in.

OK, this gets your hands clean, but what about your clothes, shoes, face, hair? What it really did was make me think about clean and dirty. Even though I'd just scrubbed up, I didn't want to touch anything. I looked at the door knob, all the surfaces, and thought, is that clean? I didn't want to hold the baby. What if I breathed bad stuff on her? What if she got infected from something on my shirt?

I did take the baby, who felt so very light, and held her while the tube of milk emptied through her nose. There was a mixup - Mom had planned to breast feed her, but for some reason this was set up. The baby doesn't have to work so hard this way I was told, but it seems so wrong for a baby to feed through a tube in her nose.

I'd left my memory card connected to the computer so no pictures. Was my camera clean enough to touch with my newly scrubbed fingers anyway?

And I'm still thinking about how dirty everything is. Making me stop and wash my hands for two minutes had a powerful effect on my awareness.