Driving Around Oregon

Our original plans for the day got scuttled. So we had breakfast in a logger pizza place.








And then wandered slowly toward the ocean. Past lots of little rivers.








It was sunny, with a steady breeze, in the low 60s F. (about 16C)



























I tried to do some homework on this slug. I don't think it's a banana slug, but I couldn't find a picture that would match this one. It's about three inches long.
















He just stood there looking as we went over a nearby bridge. It didn't really look deep enough to jump from that high. He was still there when we came back.

A Day in Portland

We had lunch with Masami and Shpresha and Sharon, people I knew when I was a guest faculty member at Portland State University for six months in 2003-4.




After lunch they put me in my old seminar room to work on a few things and catch up with all the hits coming in about Palin. Like other Alaska blogs, apparently, this was my second highest hit day - 563 right now.








Later we walked around downtown before meeting friends for dinner. The sky was very blue, temps in the low 70s, as we passed the Art Museum.































In a little park area between streets the Oregon Ballet Theatre was practicing in a tent.













A costume store.


























One of the great book shops in the United States. Powell's is room after room after room on several floors or used and new books. A favorite place of our when we lived here.








































































We had dinner here with Gary and Roxanne who we knew from Anchorage and from when we lived here. It was great to see them again.







We checked the tram station near Marty's yesterday. It's about a 20 minute walk home from the end of the line. But both ticket machines at the stop were broken. We turned down Gary and Roxanne's offer of a ride home (way out of their way) and decided to board without tickets. The guy with the beard told us to push the emergency button and tell the driver who said we could ride free then. Then the two Obama canvassers got on. As we were pulling into one station we heard screaming at the other end of the train (about four cars away.) The driver came onto the loudspeaker calling for police. Who boarded immediately as we entered into the station. A young black woman and a young white woman slipped quickly off the train. The police - Wackenhut Security guys - stayed on the train to the end of the line where we got off. At the end we heard the driver reporting the incident - a white guy had been yelling racial epithets at a white girl and black girl sitting together.

Palin's Speech Made Biden's Speech Look Lame

As an Alaskan, I couldn't help but feel good about our Governor's speech accepting the vice presidential nomination. Well, she's only been announced. The nomination comes next week. But she was pure Palin. For those who are wondering, this is real. She's poised, comfortable, and speaks honestly. It was a real contrast to the older man standing next to her with the shit-eating grin on his face.

Palin has become a strong, confident speaker. Her nomination and, even more, her speech will is going to totally change this election. The Republicans did a great job of pointing out all her best points.

The Obama people better be careful when they attack Palin. I'm in a household here in Portland that's got Fox News on. They reported that the Obama people said Palin was in the pocket of big oil. If that's their research, they're in big trouble. She is clearly NOT in the pocket of big oil. But, as I said, I'm getting my news from Fox, so I have no idea if the Obama people really said that.

I did notice that when McCain introduced her and said that she'd stood up to vested interests, he left the oil companies off his list. But Palin didn't leave them off her list. And that has been her biggest coup.

I would say from what we've seen in Alaska, Palin is honest, serious about doing what's right, takes on anyone who she thinks is wrong. And she took on the big oil companies and so far she's won. But the Monehan firing also reveals some lack of experience and lack of sense of the protocol. The video is the first few minutes of this morning's speech.



For another video of Palin, see her introducing a several day workshop for legislators and the public on AGIA (Alaska Gasline Inducement Act).

There will be lots of contradictions in this race. The McCain folks have been blasting Obama for lack of experience. It isn't just about being governor for 18 months, it's also her exposure to different ideas and different people. She spent time outside of Alaska when she went to the University of Idaho. Other than that, I suspect she's spent more time outside of Alaska as Governor than she did since she moved to Alaska as an infant. I don't that she's been outside the US besides Canada. These gaps should cause concern. But who knows what the glamor and the media can do?

Marty and Jake

Fox Says its Palin for McCain VP

Photo at induction of Rabbi Michael Oblath October 2007.









"ARE ANY OF THE ALASKANS UP? McCAIN PICKED PALIN" is what woke me up this morning, 15 minutes ago.


My mind is spinning. Sure, we've heard her name was in the ring for VP, but it all seemed so far fetched.

The first time I saw her was a small group of people at the University of Alaska Anchorage when she was just starting to run for governor. Her hair was piled up on her head, she was in scuffed snow boots. She spoke openly and directly. A real person, not a politician. I liked her, but thought she was in way over her head. She said she didn't know to a number of things and even asked if the audience had suggestions. I knew at the time that she'd stood up the Randy Ruedrich, the Republican Party Chair of Alaska, and resigned from the Alaska Oil and Gas Commission very publicly saying it was because Ruedrich had a conflict of interest and she couldn't continue to serve. That was pretty gutsy.

Then, to many people's surprise, she actually beat sitting Republican Governor Murkowski in the primary. Well, by the time of the election, I think we'd all seen the polls so we weren't that surprised. But when she started to run it was a real long shot. The party stalwarts were all against her. She certainly was helped out when it came out the FBI had searched the offices of several prominent Republican officials.

As governor, as I've said in previous posts, she was the right person at the right time. She stood up to the oil companies on the Petroleum Profits Tax (also known as Petroleum Production Tax) and got it raised. Then she stood up to the big oil companies over AGIA (Alaska Gasline Inducement Act). After the previous governor had negotiated privately with Conoco-Phillips and BP to build a natural gas pipeline to the Lower 48. She had reinstated the commissioner of Natural Resources who'd resigned because of how Murkowski was negotiating. They set up conditions the State insisted on and put out a Request for Proposal requiring them. The big oil companies didn't turn in any proposals. But an pipeline company from Canada did. Then the oil companies put in a proposal after the deadline, which didn't meet the state requirements. Palin was able to get the legislature, in special sessions over the summer, to approve Trans Canada's bid to get a license.

Meanwhile she's been on the cover of Vogue magazine and did other such national publicity work. Her biography came out and the book was simply a PR job on the sweet but strong willed girl who grew up in Wasilla. I found it hard to stomach. This was not a serious book.

And now we're seeing some of the inexperience coming to the surface in the way she handled the firing of the head of the State Troopers. It has come out that her staff and family have been pressuring him to fire one of the troopers - who just happens to be her ex-brother-in-law.

This is a woman with a lot of internal strength. She also has very limited experience outside of Alaska and in public office. She was mayor of a town of about 74,000. She's been governor almost two years. She's floated on a bubble of strong moves against the oil companies, supported by the FBI's investigation into oil related corruption in Alaska and three ex-legislators convicted and a number of other people indicted and/or pleading guilty. Her physical beauty has certainly been a major attention getter - she's been called the hottest governor in the USA. She has a son serving in the Middle East and a newborn child with Down's Syndrome. When he was born in April, she said she had her family to take care of and was not a candidate for Vice President.

I think this is a woman with a lot of smarts and strengths. But she also has had probably the least experience of any Vice Presidential candidate in my lifetime. If, in ten years, she proved her mettle, I'd say she'd be a long shot candidate. She'd have been through the rough and tumble. Right now, she's only had amazing successes. The Monehan firing has been the only bump. She isn't used to failure.

But the US and Republican image machines can make a lot of this woman and they will. I'd like to say she could surprise us. But I have to say she also has a huge amount to learn. She hasn't been tested in the rough and tumble of national politics or even the primaries.

No one can say American presidential politics is dull.

Martini Glasses Then and Now

Marty has been educating us on a lot of things. I finally caught one important then-and-now history lesson on video.

Alaska Dominates Menu

Went to a Seafood place tonight in Portland.

Google Searches

I continue to find interesting ways people got to this blog.

• doing' it to it like pruitt used to do it to it
• lots of people, mostly from towns that have McClatchy papers, have been checking on Gary Pruitt. But what is this one about?
• why do i know things before they happen
• I'm sure this person didn't find the answer here
  
• meaning of wild hair up his butt
• Bingo, I had a whole post answering this question.
  
• gary pruitt needs to go
• more pruitt
  
• how can you know if a person is wearing a wire
• well I did discuss the ethics of wearing a wire, but not how you could tell
  
• battered Gary Pruitt
• yak a mai noodles (Lisbon)
• Google seems to first look for the whole phrase. They it looks for the words in a post. Then on the blog as a whole. So this person got the post on Yak and Yeti restaurant. There have been various posts on noodles. How Google decides which post to send the person to I have no idea.
  
• where do the japanese flight attendants eat sushi in anchorage?
• This actually got them to Yamato Ya where the Japanese flight attendants go. But the post didn't say that. But it had a picture of their sashimi.
  
• charlie in on golden pond
• Charlie, who own's Charlie's Bakery, used to own a restaurant called Golden Pond. This is explained in the post so all those words were in one post. But it wasn't what the searcher seems to have in mind. A few South Africans have checked out Charlie's Bakery. I think there must be one there too.
  
• downey gunk in my washing machine
• Downy gunk? This one got to one of the Maytag posts
  
• what do hfh look like?
• This person got to the Habitat for Humanity post (same as Yak and Yeti post.) If that's what they meant by hfh, then they got a picture of what HfH housing looks like. At least one project.
  
• buy companies that can be run by gary pruitt (Fresno Bee)
• fly horses fairbanks to seattle (Lemon Lima)
• I reviewed a short movie called Dear Lemon Lima that was set in Fairbanks. They were going to film the long version in Seattle. I suggested if the French crew that filmed Crossing Alaska With Horses could do it in Alaska, the Lemon Lima team could too. I don't think that's what they were looking for.
  
• how to resign because of inability to do job
• I did talk when people should resign
  
• are thoughts sin
• The Spitzer posts gets hits like this now and then
  
• fire gary pruitt
• us marshals polo shirts
• Here's what the Google preview on this one looked like:
  "... almost everyone had on a yellow polo type shirt with a royal emblem on the chest. ... US Marshals Flying Vic Kohring To California Monda…"(Yahoo search)
• if i was born in 1908 how old would i be?
• Math is so hard. I wonder if my post on people born in 1908 answered the question for him.
  

House Boats

Now these are really HOUSE boats.

Dems Viewed from Portland

Various Alaska bloggers are covering the convention from Denver. Celtic Diva, Alaska Raven, Dennis Zaki are blogging. Delegate Kimberly Pace has been sending reports to Bent Alaska.

I'm getting to watch bits and pieces here at Marty's condo in Portland, Oregon.



This whole convention extravaganza is starting to look unseemly to me. Part of it is the media highlighting any hint of controversy over and over again. But all the flash and partying seems so wrong when the Dem message is that the economy is hurting so bad. And all those corporate sponsors. What happened to campaign finance reform?