Guest Post on Palin's Last Day

Nagging Questions....

I’ve decided I need to write, to see if it can help resolve some of the bad taste in my mouth that won’t seem to go away. Actually it feels more like an achy headache, if we’re going to use body parts analogies. So to write, to see if this can help provide catharsis for this person in my head. 

Sarah Palin is quitting today.  Resigning is too nice a word. It’s quitting. As for “reasons”?  If she’d been doing her job, there wouldn’t be any reasons. And if you believe she “has no plans”... Pa...Leeze.... 

This actually brings me to the crux of my problem. How many times can a person lie without it coming back to haunt them? In particular, how many times can a person of faith do that?

It galls me that she calls herself a Christian, a follower of Christ, and tells so many untruths so blatantly. I don’t want to put words in anyone else’s mouth, but isn’t this something integral to being a decent human being, much less a person of faith, that one doesn’t lie?

Didn’t she take an oath when she became Governor? Didn’t she put her hand on a Bible and swear? Is this her best? What was underpinning the faith that the people of Alaska had in her when they elected her? 

A friend of ours suggested having compassion for her. 

I thought, “ok, that sounds reasonable, I’ll give it a try...”  And I did squeak some up, for a small part of a day, sometime after she quit. I thought, “Gee, she must feel a little disappointed with herself” ... but then the compassion fizzled when I read, not much more than a day after she threw in the towel, an article she wrote which was published in the Washington Post, criticizing the President. Yeow, this woman has gall. 

How is it that the country is still talking about this woman, this person of lies and gall? And how is it even legal that she is collecting money from all over the country to pay her bills? Bills that wouldn’t be an issue, again, if she were doing her job. So people are paying her because she wasn’t doing her job? Ha, YEP, ye ssiree, that’s sure what it looks like. 

Last night on Shannyn Moore’s talk radio Shannyn expressed a feeling welling up, a feeling that soon we (the collective we) would be able to talk about the things that really mattered, like the environment, like moose hunting or berry-picking, like health care. And this morning I think, “This is it” - this is how to be healed from SP, from the media surrounding her - to start letting her go. I need to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear, to her, to the media, to the lies, to her spokespeople. How can anyone take what she says seriously? We can’t. She’s in it for herself, not for anyone else. Certainly not for this great State, where leaders typically knuckle down when the times get rough. Certainly not at this crucial time. She’s quitting, pure and simple. There is just no other way to slice this cake. 

Instead I will focus on what I usually focus on this time of year... putting up food for the winter, gathering my berry buckets and heading out to pick, thinking of catching a few more fish, watching the birds migrating to their winter homes, and hoping the first killing frost is still many weeks away. 

Catherine Senungetuk

Health Care Reform Rally

Then we wandered down the parkstrip to the Health Care Reform Rally. By old time standards, the 100 or so souls out in the rain - it started after the official end of the Governor's picnic, though there were still lots of people in line for food still - would have been a respectable crowd demonstrating about anything. But the standards have changed since last year's nomination of Palin for VP, and so this seemed like a pretty modest turnout. And it was impossible, in my too, too human brain, not to compare it to the crowds of people at the Governor's picnic. Sure, that was a long planned event, with different government agencies, different community entertainment groups, and free food. And an appearance by the best known governor in the US on her second-to-the-last-day of being governor. And the rally was hastily called. But when two things are right next to each other, most of us just can't help but compare.





There was food here too, but decidedly more up-scale, new agey food - salmon wraps and organic salads - and it definitely was not free!

































































While I was getting this picture, a women came up.

Woman: "Who's being killed?"
The sign holder: (some large number)are dying because they don't have insurance or other access to health care.
Woman: How do you know?
SH: Reading and informing myself.
Woman: Do you believe everything you read? The Media wants you to believe this.
Steve: [I couldn't help myself at this point] I beg your pardon. Why would 'the media' want national health care?
Woman: Because they want socialism.
Steve: Rupert Murdoch is a socialist?
Woman: Of course. [I had the impression she didn't know who Murdoch was]





If I'd been thinking I'd have turned on the video, but it was too depressing.

I couldn't help but think how 'both sides' [I know, I know, there aren't just two sides, there are lots of different positions and we're conditioned by the socialist media - do I really need an irony sign here? - which puts everything into an either/or structure] are skeptical of the media (when it presents something they disagree with) and challenge the US government (for programs they oppose.) But they believe the most fantastical things if it seems to support their belief system and they are completely supportive of government programs that support their ideology. The conservatives seem to have managed to get the upper hand in this propaganda war. While liberals tend to support and oppose the government at different times, conservatives seem to have positioned themselves so they support the USA but oppose government in general. They pulled off a neat marketing and semantic trick there.

This was a pediatrician explaining her problems with the current health care systems.

Alaska Governor's Picnic Anchorage

The Governor's picnic in Anchorage today was well attended. These annual events have generally been non-partisan events in the past and I didn't quiz people about their affiliations or reasons for being there. And we didn't get there until the governor had already left. Not intentionally. We had friends of the kids over for brunch, so we got started late.


There were several government agencies prominently present, including the FBI, which had equipment available to test and a crime lab demonstration.




Some people clearly supported our governor.



Including the owner of the 55 Chevy in the old car display.




A LOT of people were there to eat. There were looong lines of people waiting for food/ You had to be a real Palin fan or very hungry or very patient to wait this long for a free hot dog or hamburger. But I didn't hear anyone grumbling about the lines.










































And there was plenty for the kids to do. With the blogging discussions we've had about pictures of kids, I decided to try just blurring any faces that might be clearly identifiable.

Birthday Hike at Winner Creek

We met up and drove down to Girdwood where we first had lunch at the Bake Shop. There were eight of us so we had to take two cars.











The upside of two cars is we could leave one near Crow Creek Mine where the trail ends up. Here's the map of the trail which begins just behind the tram at the Alyeska Hotel. The sign is at the bottom of the red trail (if you double click any picture you can see it larger, and see where it says "You are here" on the map - also where the N sign is.)























They've put in a fair bit of board walk on the trail. Part of me doesn't like the idea, but I remember the first time I started out on this trail, probably in the mid 80s, it was all mud, so we really had to turn back, even with boots on.













Something like this, but it got worse.











Eventually you cross a bridge over the gorge.























Then a half- [.2] mile[s] later you get to the tram to cross over the next gorge.















































While you could pull yourself across, having someone on either side pulling the rope for you really helps.

It's nice to still have non motorized machinery that functions as well as this pulley tram system.



























Here's the trail sign just past the tram.










Here we're close to the Crow Creek Road where we parked the second car. Then we ferried a few people back to the other car and then back to get the rest who hiked down the Crow Creek Road.












After we got home, we then went off to our friends' house for home made long-life noodles.







And then the cake.

All in all it was a very nice triple birthday party.

Happy Birthday Moni, Ropi, and Alex 2009

For the best birthday present anyone could ask for.

Alex, we're really glad to have you around to share this day.

This one takes a little more explaining. Ropi wrote the other day

I also bought him [his father for his birthday] Alaska Vodka [on the bottle it's spelled Alaszka. You can see it in the link.] In Hungary alcoholic drinks are very often given as gifts. Usually it is wine because Hungary is famous for its wines but my father doesn't like wine. . . I have never got alcoholic drink as gift because I scarcely drink alcohol.

So I figured he should get some real Alaska alcohol, and since he hardly drinks, a virtual bottle of Alaska Amber beer cooling on Exit Glacier is just fine.

Open Letter to Obama from Central and Eastern Europe with Open Blog Quiz

My Hungarian blogger pal emailed me a link to to the July 16 open letter to Barack Obama in the Warsaw Gazette from Central and Eastern European 'statesmen.'

Well, I stopped at that point and realized I only knew two of these folks. I didn't know if they were all statesmen, or men even. So I looked them up. And linked them all and gave you a very brief idea of who they are. The labels hardly tell the story. For those of you as ignorant as I of Eastern European politics, I'd urge you to at least look at the links of any two of your choice. It's pathetic that many of us Americans know more about each of Sarah Palin's children than we know about the people on this list.


Rough Overview of the letter

Basically, the letter is a call for the US to not forget Central and Eastern Europe because of other more pressing matters like Iraq and Afghanistan. Things in CE Europe are changing and the democratic governments should not be taken for granted. New leaders don't remember how the US helped us gain our freedom. As the economy goes bad, many are becoming nationalistic. Russia is not as respectful of our new sovereignty as we would like. We write in the interest of the US as well as our own. And here are six steps we think would help.



I've got a few excerpts after the list of signers of the letter. This exercise also reminded me that an hour or so of googling can turn on some dim lights in an area that had been pretty much dark in my brain. While it may seem that there is too much to learn, so why bother, I know that we can be aware of much, much more than we are. Without that much work.

Do read through the names and brief descriptions slowly and attentively. Turn on some mental lights of your own. At least slow enough to be able, afterward, (yes a quiz) to write down:

• how many women are on the list? (most probably won't be able to tell from the names alone and will have to check links - there are pictures in all I believe)
  
  
• what are the countries represented?

And if you don't know where they are, here is a map of Central and Eastern Europe.

• Which countries are not represented?

The Signers

1. Valdas Adamkus [President of the Republic of Lithuania],
2. Martin Butora [Slovak sociologist, politician and former ambassador to US],
3. Emil Constantinescu [President of Romania from 1996 to 2000],
4. Pavol Demes [Director for Central and Eastern Europe of the German Marshall Fund of the United States since January 2000 and former Slovak Minister of Foreign Affairs],
5. Lubos Dobrovsky [Journalist, former Czech ambassador to Moscow,
6. Matyas Eorsi [Hungarian lawyer, politician, and candidate for Secretary General of the Council of Europe],
7. Istvan Gyarmati [currently President and CEO, International Centre for Democratic Transition in Budapest],
8. Vaclav Havel [Writer and Dramatist; One of the first Spokesmen for Charter 77; Leading Figure of the Velvet Revolution of 1989; Last President of Czechoslovakia; and First President of the Czech Republic],
9. Rastislav Kacer [lobbyist?, former Slovak ambassador to US],
10. Sandra Kalniete [Latvian member of the European Parliament],
11. Karel Schwarzenberg [Czech Minister - link goes to one of the only non-official sites here and gives more than the official image],
12. Michal Kovac [ first President of the Slovak Republic],
13. Ivan Krastev [Director, Center for Liberal Strategies, Sofia, Bulgaria],
14. Alexander Kwasniewski [former two term president of Poland, now faculty Georgetown University],
15. Mart Laar [former Prime Minister of Estonia],
16. Kadri Liik [Estonian journalist?, Director of the International Centre for Defence Studies],
17. Janos Martonyi[former Foreign Minister of Hungry].
    
18. Janusz Onyszkiewicz [Polish mathematician, alpinist, politician and a vice-president of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee (since January 2007)],
19. Adam Rotfeld [polish diplomat and researcher],
20. Vaira Vike-Freiberga [Professor Emeritus Montreal University and former President of Latvia],
21. Alexandr Vondra [Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs of the Czech Republic],
22. Lech Walesa [Polish co-founder of Solidarity, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and former President.]

Excerpts:

Leadership change is also coming in Central and Eastern Europe. Next to those, there are fewer and fewer leaders who emerged from the revolutions of 1989 who experienced Washington's key role in securing our democratic transition and anchoring our countries in NATO and EU. A new generation of leaders is emerging who do not have these memories and follow a more "realistic" policy. At the same time, the former Communist elites, whose insistence on political and economic power significantly contributed to the crises in many CEE countries, gradually disappear from the political scene. The current political and economic turmoil and the fallout from the global economic crisis provide additional opportunities for the forces of nationalism, extremism, populism, and anti-Semitism across the continent but also in some our countries. . .

Our hopes that relations with Russia would improve and that Moscow would finally fully accept our complete sovereignty and independence after joining NATO and the EU have not been fulfilled. Instead, Russia is back as a revisionist power pursuing a 19th-century agenda with 21st-century tactics and methods. At a global level, Russia has become, on most issues, a status-quo power. But at a regional level and vis-a-vis our nations, it increasingly acts as a revisionist one. It challenges our claims to our own historical experiences. It asserts a privileged position in determining our security choices. It uses overt and covert means of economic warfare, ranging from energy blockades and politically motivated investments to bribery and media manipulation in order to advance its interests and to challenge the transatlantic orientation of Central and Eastern Europe. . .

Six steps they recommend:

Therefore, we propose the following steps: [I've just given excerpts. You can get the whole letter at the Warsaw Gazette.]

First, we are convinced that America needs Europe and that Europe needs the United States as much today as in the past. The United States should reaffirm its vocation as a European power and make clear that it plans to stay fully engaged on the continent even while it faces the pressing challenges in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the wider Middle East, and Asia. For our part we must work at home in our own countries and in Europe more generally to convince our leaders and societies to adopt a more global perspective and be prepared to shoulder more responsibility in partnership with the United States.

Second, we need a renaissance of NATO as the most important security link between the United States and Europe. . .


Third, the thorniest issue may well be America's planned missile-defense installations. Here too, there are different views in the region, including among our publics which are divided. . .

Fourth, we know that NATO alone is not enough. We also want and need more Europe and a better and more strategic U.S.-EU relationship as well. . .

Fifth is energy security. The threat to energy supplies can exert an immediate influence on our nations' political sovereignty also as allies contributing to common decisions in NATO. . . .

Sixth, we must not neglect the human factor. Our next generations need to get to know each other, too. We have to cherish and protect the multitude of educational, professional, and other networks and friendships that underpin our friendship and alliance. . .

While left and right don't quite mean the same in these countries as here, I would say that a number of the people on this list would probably be seen as conservative in the US. Not sure about them all. KS, if you're checking your email at all in Hawaii, can you give us your take on what this means?

And thanks, Ropi for pointing this out. Since I unfortunately did not take your movie advice, I thought I'd better take your Central European politics advice.

And our first house guest arrived safe and sound from Beijing.

Time to Plan Your Trip to Thailand - Tourism Drops 22%

Thaivisa citing the Bangkok Post reports:

The tourism industry has hit a 49-year low and is expected to plunge by 22 per cent this year, according to the Tourism Council of Thailand.

With the airport shut down last year, more violent demonstrations this year, and H1N1 rates among the highest in Asia, it's no wonder that tourists are avoiding Thailand.

But lowest in 49 years? There were no tourists 49 years ago. When I went to Phuket in 1969, there were only a couple of two story Thai hotels downtown. The Erawan Hotel, now a gazillion story super hotel in the middle of Bangkok traffic, was a delightfully sleepy, but elegant, two story hotel with a wonderful lunch by the pool.

OK, there were some tourists back then, but I saw more tourists in my three months in Chiang Mai this year than I did in three years in Thailand in the '60s. Even if they count the US soldiers on R&R from Vietnam as tourists.


It just couldn't be right, so I checked the Bangkok Post article:

The tourism industry has suffered its deepest slump in many decades with the number of visitors expected to be down 22 per cent on last year, according to the Tourism Council of Thailand chairman Kongkit Hiranyakij.

It was the biggest plunge in tourism growth in 49 years, he said.

Now that's a totally different story. "Biggest drop in tourism growth" is a lot different from 'tourism hits 49 year low."

See how misinformation starts to flow?

In any case, there will be a lot of empty hotel rooms which means a lot of great rates. Time to check on line or with your travel agent.

I Should Have Listened to Ropi Who Didn't Like Public Enemies

Ropi posted this Saturday:

I watched a movie called Public Enemies as I mentioned in my last post. I do not know why girls in love with Johnny Depp. He isn't that great. . .

The movie was a bit boring. It was the alternation of long shooting scenes and boring nothing. It was totally outrageous when the bank robber went to the police station and asked one of the officers about a sport event.

Ropi and I have some things in common, such as blogging. Although we read each other's blogs regularly, we don't agree on many things. So when he wasn't impressed with Johnny Depp, it gave him less credibility as a movie reviewer for me.

But I should have listened. He was even right about Depp. What a waste of money, of talent, of time. It was like seeing the John Dillinger template from Powerpoint (if they had one.) All form, no content. The script was pedestrian, the characters had no depth at all, none of them. The cinematography was routine. They used up lots of fake blood, lots of machine gun blanks. I kept looking at my wife and mouthing, why are we here?

So, Ropi, how much did it cost to see this in Budapest? In Anchorage, at the newest and slickest theater in town, the regular cost would be $9.75, but we got Senior Monday tickets for $6.00 each. Here's the whole price list:


Adult Evening $9.75

Adult Fri/Sat after 6pm
(*Price also applies to Special Advance Showings) $10.00

Child (1-11) /Senior (62+) $6.50

Adult Matinee before 6pm
(Sat/Sun/Holidays before 2pm) $6.75

Early Bird First Matinee Showtime (7 days a week).
Note: Check below for multiple listings of a movie (i.e. Digital, Regular, 3D, etc.) to find first showtime. $6.00

Seniors Day - All Day Monday $6.00

Military $7.50

3D Attraction - Normal Ticket Price Plus Premium $2.25

Preparing for Summer Visitors

When I had sabbatical in 2003-2004 we rented our house and made one downstairs room into a storage room for a lot of our stuff. It never completely reverted back into a real room and it was still a storage room when we had house sitters while we were in Thailand earlier this year.



But the son of a good friend and colleague from Beijing will be visiting us for a month beginning Wednesday. Thursday both our daughter and son will arrive, one for two weeks and one for the weekend. We have some birthdays on Friday. And a week later my college roommate and his wife will stop by for two days before they cruise back home. All good fun. So the long slow rehabilitation of that downstairs room has been speeded up.



At this point, I could just put all the miscellaneous stuff into boxes and sort them out later, but we've been postponing the inevitable too long. My mother's garage is a model of what I don't want to do. So I've been going through stuff that's accumulated and putting things where they belong, in the trash, or in a donate box.

Eventually I want to clear the room out completely and make it into more usable space, but for now it will hold a mattress on the floor for the weekend. And maybe while the kids are here, they will find some things that they are now ready to take, trash, or give away.

More Thoughts on Alaskan Bloggers' Impacts

Since I wrote about this hastily last week in response to Erik Boehlert's post on the contribution of Alaskan bloggers, I've had more time to think about it.

It seems I left out the biggest contribution of the so-called progressive blogs.

Bloggers have given Alaska liberals a media presence, a sense of identity and of political efficacy. The blogs have become a place where local Alaskans can see a more progressive view of the world than has been available from any other regular public source, ever. The Anchorage Democratic caucus that brought together masses of Alaskans to vote for Obama in February 2008 was a physical event that energized Alaskan liberals like nothing we'd ever seen. The energy and spirit of hope there took everyone by surprise. People looked around and said, "I didn't know there were so many of us."

The blogs documented that event faster, more thoroughly, and more graphically than other media did and kept that spirit going. Every day the blogs posted critical progressive interpretations of local Alaska events. For years 'liberal' was an Alaskan epithet and it seemed that liberals needed to be added to the the anti-discrimination ordinance. When the red/blue state concept emerged, no one had any doubt what color Alaska was. Having places to go to find like-minded thinkers, to get documentation for what one suspected, to learn about events of interest was an awakening for liberals in Alaska. And people who didn't identify themselves as liberals could find blogs that debunked the myth that all liberals had horns. (They could find a few horned liberal blogs too.)

I doubt we'll ever find out if Palin really was spooked out of office by bloggers or whether she just thought that we were a believable scapegoat. There may be some truth, though, what some have said about no local politician being so closely fact-checked by watchdogs.

But my response is that this sort of scrutiny should be applied to all politicians. Certainly the conservatives had mastered the art of coordinated spin with their daily talking points with which to go after national Democrats - but that was different. The talking points came from the Republican Party and were repeated in various media from newspapers to talk shows to tv news. At their most blatant they took some fact out of context and made up false and maligning stories - swift boats, palling with terrorists - to create non-existent scandals. No wonder some Republican critics of Alaskan bloggers assumed the bloggers were fed from the White House.

But the Alaska bloggers I know are a loose group of independents who occasionally share ideas with each other to see if others know something they are looking for
Basically they use the internet or personal contacts to fact check and analyze the public announcements of the Palin administration and other Alaskan issues. Sometimes they cover events live. If Palin's speeches and press releases hadn't been so full of holes, the bloggers wouldn't have been nearly so busy.

And there are no deep-pocketed tax-exempt think-tanks sending money to support Alaskan bloggers. From what I can tell, the Alaskan bloggers have done whatever it is they've done, on their own time and dime. Though some have successfully explored an alternative to salaried journalism. They've found that through Pay-Pal they can raise some needed cash, from their readers, to cover unusual costs of their blogging addiction. Linda's paid her public records request bill this way and Dennis got some of his transportation to rural Alaska paid for this way. But no one's making a living of this.


Bias Charges Probably Have Some Merit

But there is something in the Palin supporters' charges about how she was treated differently than a man would be. I think male officials do generally get more respect than female officials. Men look like the definition of American success. They can buy a few sets of the same suit, a few blue and a few white shirts, and basic striped ties, and they are set. You could take a homeless guy with a 'work for food' sign off the corner, clean him up, put him in a dress-for-success suit, get him to stand up straight, and people would treat him with respect. Because he would look like the image of American success - the model set by every president we've ever had.

Women officials always get comments on what they wear. And what their hair looks like. Always. They can't buy ten of the same dress or suit. They have to change their look every day.

So people like Gov. Sanford or Sen. John Ensign or Sen. Ted Stevens just have to look the look and not say anything obviously stupid and they get a pass. There was very, very little official media scrutiny of Stevens until they found out the FBI was on his case. He was a US Senator in a suit. (He also knew his facts and how to put sentences together. No reporter had nearly the knowledge of Stevens on issues nor the access to information that might raise questions. And he had a temper. All that made it much harder to challenge anything he did.) But right off the bat, a man (especially if he's white) wearing a power suit gets respect from people in authority and from people in general. It's sad, but true.


A woman walks on the stage or into the studio and she's already 'marked,' Deborah Tannen's term, as different from the norm. She can't be invisible in a dark pinstriped suit - because even if she wears one, she's a woman in men's clothing. And if she wears a dress she's not in the standard, invisible cloak of success. We see her legs and red shoes. Alaskan bloggers played this game too.

Even if the commentators like what she's wearing or how she does her hair, the fact that they mention it trivializes her already. They're talking about what she looks like, not about what she's thinking. (Sure, men's looks get commented on too, but only when they stray from the norm. So Edwards' $400 haircut got press because men aren't supposed to be so vain about their looks, the way we expect women to be.)

So, on that point, the criticisms of Palin being treated differently because she's a woman have merit. (But to be fair, she also contributed to the attention every time she opened her mouth.) But the answer isn't to back off on her.

Instead male politicians should all have a swarm of bloggers parsing their speeches and press releases to see if they make sense. (See this example of Leonard Pitts parsing Mitt Romney's words, which - because it's so unusual - also suggests men's empty words generally get less scrutiny than Palin's.) They should have the public record regularly scrutinized to find discrepancies between what they say and what they do. They should all have people checking and posting the connections between their earmarks and their campaign financing, and asking questions about their first class travel and speaking fees from people with public policy issues the official is deciding.

With bloggers posting more of this information I suspect a lot more sham public servants - not just those who shoot themselves in the foot on some non-policy issue by flying off to Argentina to see their soul mates -will find that incumbency loses its some of its glow.

So, in addition to giving Alaskan liberals a media presence, a sense of identity and of political efficacy, maybe Alaskan bloggers will give other bloggers a model of how to track their local politicians.