Cordova Fireweed

Just a quickie.  The fireweed is in full force in Cordova and attracting all sorts of flying critters.  And people seem to attached to it as well as the signs suggest.  We're headed out of internet contact - I'm assuming - for a couple of days at Child's Glacier.   I'm setting up one or two more posts for while we are gone.

Whittier to Cordova

A riverfall, not just a waterfall, was coming down the mountainside as we waited to get on the ferry in Whittier.

It holds 35 vehicles and two hundred and some people and gets from Whittier to Cordova and three and a half hours.  Too fast to see much.  And J didn't get seasick!

We sat 'out' in the solarium for a while.  It was protected from the wind, but after a while I was getting chilly and the noise was LOUD.

It was hard to read my book - The Lacuna - with all the scenery around us.  But I like the book.  And see?  There was some blue sky.

Looking overboard.

This is a very comfortable way to travel.  No pat downs or scanners either.

Almost in Cordova, which is on left (out of the picture.)

We're hoping to enjoy some Alaska time.  And visit friends.  

What Makes an Empty Lot "Empty"?

Language affects how we think about things. So, an empty lot is empty. Right?

In the US, an empty lot is one without buildings on it.  Despite the fact this piece of land has lots of flowers and grasses. It was woods once, of course, and not that long ago.  This vegetation has reclaimed it after someone bulldozed all the trees down.   It's home to birds and bugs.  And it filters rain water, keeping it from simply flowing into the sewers and out into the inlet.

We are human beings.  We need places to live.  We need common buildings for trade and other activities.  But we need a sensibility that sees that an empty lot isn't empty.  It's full of life and full of natural infrastructure that keeps our air and water clean, and provides habitat for small animals, insects, and the birds that feed on them.  And if we look closely, we see universes within universes.

Soon, riding around town, you'll hardly ever be able to see the mountains.  As fields get replaced by view blocking buildings.

I only intended to play with the idea of an empty lot, but it seems logical to take it a step further and raise Title 21.   You're going to be hearing more and more about Title 21 in the next couple of months.  After years of public process in which a new code was hashed out among all interest groups, Mayor Sullivan has asked attorney and former assemblyman Dan Coffey to go through and make title 21 more development friendly.  Developers had had years to get their issues raised and much of the ordinance was changed to accommodate their concerns.  Then the ordinance was provisionally passed by the Assembly.  The provisions were simply to make it consistent and clean up the language.

But Sullivan  seems to have hijacked this process and from what I'm told, Coffey has worked with the Building Association to change it even more to their liking.  Again, as I said, after all these negotiations and tradeoffs were made in public.  Now, they've gotten to work with Coffey out of the public light to make the code developer friendly and help keep Anchorage in the urban design dim ages.  It's not a done deal, but if people don't let their assembly members and the planning and zoning board know how they feel, it will be.

Cheryl Richardson has a compass piece on this you might want to check that outlines what has happened.  She's been a community activist for years, fighting for public transportation options and good urban planning.  She does it because she thinks it's important and doesn't get paid to do this.

Coffey claims the charges are baseless.   He's had $40,000 or so contracts from the city to revise the code to the Mayor's liking.  He's an attorney who favors the positions his clients want.  That's what attorneys do, so that's fine.  But as you read the two pieces, consider which account is more likely to be closer to the way things have actually happened.

US House Takes Economy Hostage

As I understand this, Congress has been using its credit card to fund a whole lot of things.  Some are required by past agreements - like Social Security and Medicare.  Others are discretionary, like sending US soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan.

And they've spent past their limit.  This has happened before and a mechanism has been put in place.  Congress simply passes legislation that raises the debt limit.  (You'd think the fact that they've passed bills authorizing all the spending would be enough, but when they hit a magic number, the president has to say 'pretty please' to be able to carry out all they've told him to do.)

If they don't do that, the US government's income won't be enough to cover all its debts.  The government will have to sort through the bills coming due and decide which ones to pay and which ones to stall or skip altogether.  Up until now, the US economy has been the most dependable and investors - individuals, corporations, and governments - have chosen the US economy as a safe place to invest.  Because of the US's reliability, they've been able to sell bonds and other financial instruments at relatively low interest rates.

But if the US starts to default on some of its debts, then its credibility will go down.  And its credit rating.  A slow cascade of collapses is likely to happen.  Government contractors who don't get paid, will stop paying their creditors and both will lay off employees.  Those employees will spend less money and the places where they normally would spend money will run into trouble.  The recession will get worse.

That's the scenario economists of all stripes have been painting.  The Republican leadership has even said not raising the debt limit is unthinkable.  A Wall Street Journal article said it threatened the US' special standing in the world even.

BUT, there are enough Republicans in the House who have decided that if it is so unthinkable, they can make demands on the President and he'll have no choice but to comply if he wants to raise the debt limit.  So, instead of just passing the bill to increase the debt ceiling to equal the budgets they've passed, they've taken this vital piece of legislation hostage and have told the president that if he doesn't meet their demands, the debt ceiling increase is dead.  

Sounds like a kidnapper or a hijacker to me.

Essentially, they are saying, if you don't meet our demands, we will let the air out of the American economy.  We've got the debt limit increase hostage, and if you don't bow to our demands, we're killing it.  We know it won't be pretty, they are saying, but the ends (apparently) justify the means.  Yes, we know people will get hurt, but they'll get hurt worse in the long run if we don't reduce the national debt. The President agrees the debt needs to be lowered.  But he understands that government spending, during an economic slump, is necessary until the economy revives.  And he doesn't want to hurt people already hurting.  So he wants to include taxes on the wealthiest Americans as part of the debt lowering strategy.

I've looked up terrorism and there's little agreement on a definition.  It seems officials want definitions that paint their enemies as terrorists, but are careful that they won't fall into that category themselves, so they can't agree.   While the House Republicans seem to be acting on their conservative ideology (one of the definitions of terrorists) one might argue that they aren't using violence to terrorize the population (another part of the most basic definitions of terrorism.)  So, technically, we might not call them terrorists.

But if they cause an economic crisis that worsens the US economy, I'd argue that they will cause far more deaths (because of cutbacks in services at all levels) and damage than the terrorists who took down the World Trade Center.   House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, for one, is willing to risk the standing of the US economy to get what he wants.  Back in April:

In exchange for raising the debt limit -- long a routine move allowing the Treasury Department to borrow more money -- House Republicans will demand further concessions to shrink the government, Cantor said.

"There comes at times leverage moments, a time when the president will capitulate to what the American people want right now," he said. "They don't want to raise taxes, they don't want borrowing to continue out of control."

[I went to the original source - Fox News - but could only find their transcript which was substantially the same, but either they garbled it, or they quoted Cantor verbatim.  It seems the Huffington Post (above quote) captures it pretty accurately and more eloquently.] 

It's common for politicians - and all those trying to wield power for whatever goals - to make their demands in the name of the people, rather than to say, it's simply what they themselves want.  Cantor calls it a "leverage moment," and from a purely utilitarian perspective, it is.  Other leverage moments include when someone has a gun at your head on a dark, empty street.  Or when someone's kidnapped your spouse and now demands $200,000 in unmarked bills by Friday or else.

(While there are times when 'leverage points' might reasonably be taken advantage of, one that risks the US economy and the well being of people around the world, is not one of those.  However, I would say that the Democrats need a modern day Tip O'Neil to help them work the rules of the House to counter this.)

I just don't see how this is different from blackmail.  If you don't do what we want you to do, we're going to inflict severe damage on the economy.  These are small minds at work.  The way they solve problems is by force, by bullying.  By tearing down, not by creating new options to work this out. These guys don't trust anyone who doesn't think like they do.  Maybe, because, like most of us, they believe others think like they do, and they think:  "Take no prisoners."  There's a reason they are called "Young Guns."   Subtlety and nuance doesn't seem part of their grey matter.

That's how  I see it.  Could I be wrong?  It's happened before.  If we default, will the world sigh a breath of relief knowing the Republicans are finally getting the US finances in order?  I wouldn't bet on it.

Moni, Ropi, and Alex - Happy Birthday

This is a great day for a birthday.  May the year be interesting, fun, and fulfilling for you all.

Judge Rules Against Redistricting Board and Keeps Cases in Fairbanks

Chris Eshleman at the Fairbanks News-Miner reports that Judge McConahy ruled the court challenges to the Alaska Redistricting Board's redistricting plan will be heard in Fairbanks in January.

The board's attorney, Michael White, sounded fairly confident at last Monday's meeting that the case would be consolidated (the two Fairbanks challenges and the Petersburg challenge) and was hoping the trial would be in Anchorage.  When I talked to him after the meeting Monday he said he was hoping a decision to move to Anchorage would come before the Friday hearing in Fairbanks.  In the memo to the board on the lawsuits he concluded with:

We recently filed a Motion to Consolidate and Change Venue of City of Petersburg, et al. v. State of Alaska, Alaska Redistricting Board, to move the case to Anchorage.  The Petersburg plaintiffs do not oppose this motion.  Plaintiffs in both Fairbanks cases oppose changing venue to Anchorage.  The motion also requests the court consolidate the Fairbanks proceedings with the Petersburg case in Anchorage.  We asked for expedited consolidation of this motion requesting a decision by Thursday, July 21.  [bold emphasis added]

But based on the FNM article, the judge is going to hear the case in Fairbanks in January.

A judge said this morning he’ll consolidate challenges to state redistricting plans and plans to hold a January trial in Fairbanks.

Three parties, including the Fairbanks North Star Borough, are suing over the Alaska Redistricting Board’s map of tentative state House and Senate districts.

Superior Court Judge Michael McConahy met today for the first time with attorneys for all three parties. The state, after any appeals to the Alaska Supreme Court, will need final jurisdictional maps in place by early summer to guide residents interested in running for public office.

Clearly, having the case in Fairbanks gives the Fairbanks plaintiffs home court advantage.  That doesn't change the legal basis of the challenge, but it does have an impact.  Board attorney White, for example, will have to either commute by air to Fairbanks or stay there in a hotel or with friends. He won't be able to drop into his office as easily.  The Petersburg plaintiffs will have an even further commute.  But according to the Eshleman piece, the court will accommodate them:

McConahy said the trial will travel to Petersburg for witness testimony before returning to Fairbanks.

But, the attorneys still need to go to Fairbanks to keep up on all the details. And Fairbanks residents will be able to attend the trial. 

Having a Fairbanks jury that understands the neighborhoods involved does mean that the deliberations will be made by well informed jurors which would not be the case in Anchorage.  As much as I listened and watched, I simply could not absorb what was said about Fairbanks the way I could about what was said about Anchorage.  It's just the way the human brain works.

In fact, only one board member was from Fairbanks (none were from Anchorage).  Bill [Jim] Holm is a former Republican legislator who lost his 2006 reelection bid to Democratic representative Scott Kawazaki.  For both the draft plan and the final plan, Holm was the one who prepared the Fairbanks plans (outside of the public meeting) which was then presented to the board who made no substantative changes.  Already in the draft plan, Holm had cut off the communities of Ester and Goldstream.  I already knew that Ester (nicknamed the Ester Republic*) was considered a liberal bastion and from the discussions it sounds like Goldstream may lean left of the rest of Fairbanks too.

HTML Tables *From the blog Ester Republic: "Ester earned its moniker when a former Fairbanks North Star Borough assemblyman, Joe Ryan, proposed that downvillage Ester be zoned for mining only, as opposed to the General Use zoning still current. While it is true that there are many mines in the area (three right in the village and one nearby), there are also other endeavors (such as residences, bars, rentals, artists' studios, etc.), so Ester showed up en masse to the pertinent borough assembly meeting and told Mr. Ryan and his compatriots just what they thought he could do with his idea. The measure failed, Mr. Ryan got annoyed and, in a letter to the editor, accused Esteroids of living in the People's Republic of Ester. Ester generally (and the capitalists in particular) thought this was pretty funny, and took to referring to their village by this new title. The name stuck, and Ryan became known, in the village at least, as the Father of the Republic. (So now you have an idea of what Ester humor is like.) He was later invited to judge the 4th of July Parade one year, but, alas, declined."

In the final plan, Ester and Goldstream were still amputated from the rest of Fairbanks and put into a district (38) that stretches out to the Aleutians, creating a district that combines surban Fairbanks residents who live a short drive from shopping malls and the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus,  to Native villages off the road system, like Hooper Bay, where people use 'honey buckets' instead of sewers.  Below is a video tape made by local resident Jacqueline Agnew in 2004 and 2005 showing the how they empty the honey buckets and offering a tour of Hooper Bay.



In the video, she discusses a future water and wastewater system, so I checked online to see if it is complete. I found this state budget item. You can see the yourself it's not scheduled for completion until 2016.  And this is a only budget request.  Let me check if it was funded.


I checked the FY 2011 budget and the only item listed for Hooper Bay was for Boat Harbor and Barge Loading Reconnaissance for $300,000.   The FY 2012 budget doesn't seem to have it either.  Just more Boat Harbor funding for Hooper Bay. Since I had a video for Hooper Bay, I decided to see what I could find on Ester.  This is audio over slides of the Fourth of July parade in 2009.



I believe that we humans have a lot more in common with other human beings who live in different cultures than we generally think.  Surely living in a remote Thai province for two years helped me come to this conclusion.  And as I look at the videos, while it is clear that residents of Ester and Hooper Bay live in very different worlds and have very different needs from their legislators, they also have some very human similarities.  But the state constitution says the districts should be socio-economically integrated and clearly that is not the case here. The question before the court will be whether there was any way to follow the Voting rights Act  which requires keeping the nine Native districts without creating a district that is so clearly in violation of the Alaska Constitution. I guess I should also note that while it appears district 38 is the focus of the Fairbanks' challenges there are other issues and, of course, Petersburg's challenge is totally different.

It's way too nice out to blog

So, that's it for now.

"Healing Qualities of the Flute"

I was listening to Earthsongs on KNBA just now and a Native American flute players Aaron White and Anthony Wakeman were asked about whether they thought that his flute helped people with spiritual healing.  He said that people had told him it did - he mentioned a therapist he knew of who played the flute as part of the healing.  (I found this video of them on Youtube.)




And I thought:  We all know that music can change our mood, radically.  Why has modern medicine focused so much on physically putting things into our body and neglected the mood altering qualities of music.  If music can change our mood, surely there is potential for other healing changes.  This is acknowledged.  At Providence here in Anchorage they have a harpist who plays for patients in their rooms.

I know that there have been studies, say, that show that patients in hospital rooms with windows facing trees heal faster.  But this approach is basically the fringe element of medicine and doctors mainly heal by putting chemicals into our bodies.

image from Sage Press

There's already a journal called Music and Medicine.   (Click on the image to go to the July 2011 table of contents.)



What if there was an institute with a $2 billion endowment to study the healing qualities of music?

Two billion you say?  Wikipedia says there are 1210 billionaires in the world today.  The top 20 from the Forbes list of billionaires have a total net worth of $641 Billion.

That's 20 people, who own $600 billion more than the Alaska Permanent Fund ($41.5 billion as of May 31, 2011).  So, $2 billion isn't that much if only 20 people in the world have $641 billion.

Talking Back to Racism: What They Did v. What They Are Conversations

A friend showed me this video last night at the Healing Racism in Anchorage steering committee meeting.  Talking about race is usually hard in our society.  In the video Ill Doctrine says you should focus on what the people did, not what they are. 

But the presentation is what makes it so worth watching.

Invest three minutes of your time.  Too long?  Just watch the first 30 seconds, you can spare that.  But see for yourself, it's like potato chips, you can't just watch a few seconds.





Video Tip: It's easier to learn from mistakes than from perfection and this film illustrates the importance of your background. I'd point out to future film makers something to pay attention to when you're doing a film like this.

He didn't do it all in one breath. There are lots of cuts where they edited different versions together. Nothing wrong with that. This would be hard to do well in just one take. But when you do that, try to get a neutral background. If they hadn't gotten the door on the left in the background, it would be a better film.  But, professionals keep telling me that you can overcome video problems if you have good audio which this video does.  And the foreground is done well.  Only strange people like me watch the background.

Race Conversation Dilemma:  At about 1:47, he says, "Just think how a politician or celebrity gets caught out.  It always starts out as a what they did conversation, but . . . they start doing judo flips and change it into a what they are conversation."

He doesn't tell us how to counter that manoeuvre.  Maybe one could say, I never questioned your character, I questioned your behavior, and that's on the record.  You're the one whose changing this to your character.  But that's a bit lame.  Any other thoughts out there?

Where's this? Please Don't Decorate the Caribou

I did a 'where's this' post a couple of times, thinking I'd make it a regular feature.  But I haven't.  I do have a backlog of stuff - the Alaska summer is competing with this computer for my attention - and I'm not sure where else this picture fits. 

So, where's this?