Alaska Redistricting Board Withdraws Motion To Delay Trial

Last week the Alaska Redistricting Board filed a motion to delay the potential* trial scheduled for December 2013.  The lead attorney's radiation treatments are going to take longer than anticipated and he would not be able to attend.

The Alaska Democratic Party filed a motion opposing the Board's motion.  While they had immediately agreed to the first postponement, they wrote, there was too much riding on this to delay further.  It would put them in the same position as last time when there was not enough time to complete the process and an imperfect interim plan was put in place which the Supreme Court later determined had to be revised.  Thus the current proposed plan.

The Board's motion says:

COMES NOW, the Alaska Redistricting Board ("Board"), by and through counsel, and hereby withdraws its Second Motion to Continue Trial filed on October 39, 2013.  Given that there is no medical guarantee regarding Mr. White's ability to participate in any necessary hearing or trial should this court grant the Board's request to reschedule such hearing until January 2014, the Board and its legal counsel believe it best to move forward.  In this regard, the Board and its legal counsel recognize the importance of the issues involved as well as the need to have a redistricting plan in place without delay.  Accordingly, in the interest of the Alaskan voters, the Board withdraws its motion to further continue any necessary hearing or trial.

This is a markedly different tone from the Board, which in the past has tended to be aggressive in defense of its actions.  

*I write 'potential' trial, because the judge still has not released his omnibus order in which he spells out which issues he will make summary judgment on and which will require trial to resolve.  Potentially, all could be resolved by summary judgment, making a trial unnecessary, though I doubt that will be the case. 

Politics is like driving. To go backward put it in R. To go forward put it in D.

This was in a comment by "True Blue Majority" on the Daily Kos story about Former Speaker of the US House, 90 year old Jim Wright, being denied a voter ID card in Texas. 

The story quoted the Star-Telegram: 

Former House Speaker Jim Wright was denied a voter ID card Saturday at a Texas Department of Public Safety office.
“Nobody was ugly to us, but they insisted that they wouldn’t give me an ID,” Wright said.
The legendary Texas political figure says that he has worked things out with DPS and that he will get a state-issued personal identification card in time for him to vote Tuesday in the state and local elections.

Texas was one of the states that was covered in Section IV of the Voting Rights Act that was invalidated by the US Supreme Court last June.  If I understand it right, changes that affected access to voting had to be pre-cleared by the Justice Department before.

Section IV was the formula for which states were required to have pre-clearance.  The law which was created in the 60's identified specific problems the biggest problem states had  at that time.  The judges decided that since many of the issues that were mentioned no longer existed, the Congress had to come up with a new way of identifying the states that needed automatic clearance.  And now, free of the pre-clearance requirement, some of those states (and others that didn't need pre-clearance) are devising voting requirements that will make it harder for Democratic voters to vote. 

Texas is one of three states that I'm aware of - Kentucky and Alaska being the other two - that still have not resolved their redistricting plan.  Kentucky's plan got knocked in court just this past week.  A Nov. 1, 2013 post at the ACLU Kentucky site:

COVINGTON, KY – A panel of three federal judges late Thursday declared the ACLU of Kentucky and the ACLU Voting Rights Project winners in a redistricting lawsuit. In August, the judges sided with the ACLU (and the plaintiffs in a companion case brought by a group of Northern Kentucky voters) and held that Kentucky’s House and Senate districts established in 2002 were unconstitutional.

Shortly after this summer’s ruling, during a special session, lawmakers enacted new maps and filed a motion requesting the dismissal of the ACLU’s case as moot. On Thursday, the court once again ruled in the ACLU’s favor, making the temporary injunction permanent and clearing the way for the recovery of attorney’s fees.

And Alaska's is due back in court in December, unless the Court accepts the Board's request to postpone it until January.

[Feedburner notes:  This one took four hours to get on other blogrolls.  I posted.  Waited about 15 minutes, then manually pinged it.  Nothing happened.  I repinged it several times.  Then I copied and republished the whole post.  Nothing happened.  I pinged it again.  Nothing happened.  I deleted the new version and pinged again.  About 20 minutes later it showed up on the other blogrolls, four hours after it was posted.  I don't know if it would have gotten up by itself in four hours or whether my manually pinging makes a difference.   I'm keeping these notes so I can tell if there is a pattern.  It's easier to put them here, but maybe I'll create a separate page eventually.] 

"“the coldest year in the future will be warmer than the hottest year in the past”

This is why I think that climate change is the most important issue we face.

From the New York Times several weeks ago:

"To put it another way, for a given geographic area, “the coldest year in the future will be warmer than the hottest year in the past,” said Camilo Mora, the lead scientist on a paper published in the journal Nature."

• It's not simply that temperatures will be hotter.  That's bad enough.  Despite news headlines about tornadoes and hurricanes, heat kills the most people per year.  From the National Weather Service:

Click Image for Bigger, Sharper View

"Unprecedented climates will arrive even sooner in the tropics, Dr. Mora’s group predicts, putting increasing stress on human societies there, on the coral reefs that supply millions of people with fish, and on the world’s greatest forests."

•  More than the raw heat will be the havoc the changes cause to many environments
• Even if you don't care about the coral reefs themselves, the changes will affect the fish available for humans to eat.  
• Even if you live in Alaska and think, "Hmmmm, more comfortable winters,"  the havoc of perma-frost melting will affect all the roads and buildings and airports and other infrastructure built on it.  The migration patterns of salmon and other fish we take for granted will change.  Or perhaps the water will warm enough to disturb their life-cycles.
• And crops everywhere will be affected by changing temperatures - some crops won't grow, rainfall will be disturbed with inundations in some places and droughts in other places (as we're starting to see already.)
• Insects and other critters that eat crops will be found in new places

And yes, eventually people will adjust to the new reality, but the disruptions that are coming without serious efforts to slow down climate change will cause horrendous suffering.

I have children and a new granddaughter who will inherit that world, so it matters to me.

And even if you think this is extreme and it might not happen or we can adjust without the disruption.  Even if you think this is an unlikely scenario, it's such a catastrophic event that everyone should want to prevent the possibility even.  Just as we endure the security at airports in the off chance that a terrorist will want to board one of the planes. 

“Go back in your life to think about the hottest, most traumatic event you have experienced,” Dr. Mora said in an interview. “What we’re saying is that very soon, that event is going to become the norm.”

At today's Citzens Climate Lobby meeting we heard on the national phone link from Evangelical Christian Eric Sapp whose consulting firm "helps political, non-profit, business and government entities better understand America's rich and complex faith landscape."   His message was that Climate Change is accepted by the vast majority of people and the Evangelical community is receptive to the issue.

My sense is that without the Kochs and others who are spending huge sums of money to foment doubt about climate change, we would have been past this issue long ago.  Call your legislators and tell them you believe that climate change is real, caused by humans, and they need to stand up to the bullies who deny climate change and start working on stopping the carbon use that is radically changing our planet's climate.  Or a letter to the editor.  Or both.

Every other issue you can think of is dwarfed by this one.  As we start fighting over resources because our food and water supplies are disrupted by radically changing climate, all the other issues will get worse.  This, over the years, will disrupt civilization more than anything else.  The sooner we slow this down, the less damage and disruption there will be.  Your children and grandchildren and great grandchildren (even if you are only 15 now) will thank you or blame you depending on whether you start taking action to get our politicians to take action.  It can be done.  See the Citizens Climate Change website to see what people are doing. 

[Feedburner worked right away for this post.  I didn't have to manually ping it either.]

Redistricting - The Bad News (Unless You're A Republican) for Left or Right Brained Folks

As I've been writing about the Alaska Redistricting Board, I've tried to present things as objectively as possible.  But when you start talking about gerrymandering, some people think you are taking sides, even when you are simply presenting facts.  Here's some national context on the impact of biased redistricting around the country.  And why I've spent the last three years carefully covering the Alaska Redistricting Board here.  This stuff matters, even though it's mostly invisible.

For left brain folks - here's the redistricting song.






For right brain folks, here's the the analysis of how no matter what the Democrats do, the 2010 redistricting round has produced an almost vote proof Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

Redistricting Likely to Hamper Democratic Efforts in 2014, Study Finds

By JEREMY W. PETERS

Thanks largely to the way Congressional districts were drawn in the latest round of redistricting, even a dramatic wave election like the one in 2008 that swept President Obama into power and added to Democratic majorities in Congress would do little to alter the composition of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, a new, nonpartisan study found.
FairVote, an organization that examines voting patterns and laws, predicts that Republicans will maintain control of the House in 2014 unless Democrats meet the unlikely threshold of winning 56 percent of the vote nationwide.

Read the whole April 2013 New York Times blog post here.


But the Soviet Union was toppled and women have the right to vote, so nothing is impossible.  Though the new wave of state voting legislation that seems aimed at stopping Democratic voters (blacks, Hispanics, students, women) that followed the Supreme Court's decision to invalidate Section IV of the Voting Rights Act makes women's and other likely Democratic voters access to voting harder.

You think I'm exaggerating?  Just listen to former North Carolina county precinct GOP  chair Don Yelton talking to Assif Mandvi about the new voter ID law.  (He's former because he was asked to resign after this video went public.)

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

From Media-ite: 

"He insisted that the voter-ID law is “not racist” before admitting that he’s been called a “bigot” in the past. He defended a picture of President Obama “sitting on a stump as a witch doctor” as making fun of the “white half” of the president. He said if the law “hurts a bunch of lazy blacks who just want the government to give them everything, so be it.”
When Yelton started throwing around the “n-word” and complaining that only black people are allowed to use it, Mandvi stopped him to ask, “You know that we can hear you, right?” It only made things worse that Yelton’s ignorance was presented in contrast to the reasoned arguments of Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), the historic civil rights leader, who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It turns out, this isn't racism or sexism, it's about keeping Democrats from voting.  What is it about humor that can get to the truth so much better than actual news shows?  That gets people like Yelton to say what he says?
The whole video is definitely worth watching.  Don't miss the end where they have suggestions for suppressing Republican voters.  (Remember, this was on a comedy show.)

And here's another one today on this from the Business Insider,  "Why Republicans Can Keep Screwing Up And Still Control The House."

#redistricting at Twitter has been a helpful source.  I found about the Yelton video at Immoral Minority.

Redistricting Board Asks Court To Push Trial To Early To Mid January

There's a motion before the Court dated 30 October 2013 from the Alaska Redistricting Board asking the Court to further delay any necessary trial until early to mid January.  It turns out that the Board's lead counsel Michael White's radiation treatment schedule will take longer than what he originally understood.  I'll give you the wording directly from the filing, the judge's response, and then some of my thoughts at the end. 



From the Board's motion: 

“As the Board previously explained, Mr. White is required to undergo a series of 30 radiation treatments as part of his treatment plan.  Mr. White had discussed these treatments with his team of doctors at Virginia Mason Hospital and believed the radiation treatments would commence as soon as he returned home in mid-October, concluding by the end of November.  The Board and Mr. White relied upon this radiation schedule when it filed its Unopposed Motion to Continue Trial on September 27, 2013 and asked for a continuance until early December. 

Mr. White returned home from Seattle on October 12, 2013, and met with his local radiation oncologist on October 14, 2013 to schedule the radiation treatments.  Mr. White’s local radiation oncologist explained that he would have to undergo several pre-radiation appointments over the following two weeks before he could actually begin treatment, thereby postponing the previously understood radiation schedule.  In this regard, the radiation oncologist works with a physicist to create a mesh mask of Mr. White’s face and digitally map his face to focus the radiation on the affected areas thereby improving the efficacy of the treatment.  This complicated process takes several weeks.  Accordingly, Mr. White will not begin his radiation treatment until October 30, 2013.  He will undergo thirty daily treatments, five times each week, except for Thanksgiving and the Friday after, completing treatment December 12, 2013, which is during the currently scheduled trial.  Mr. White’s doctors have informed him he cannot leave Anchorage until the radiation treatment is complete, and that he will need at least two weeks after concluding radiation to recuperate sufficiently to participate in any legal proceeding in this case. 

The Board previously requested a continuance of trial so that Mr. White, the Board’s lead counsel, could participate.  Given the recent discovered change in circumstances, the Board requests the Court grant another short continuance until early January so that Mr. White can, in fact, participate in trial.  The Board understands the tight time frame within which the Court and the parties are operating in this matter, and does not make this request lightly.    The Board met on October 24 and discussed that it would be greatly prejudiced if its lead counsel was not permitted to participate at trial given his extensive knowledge of the facts and unique legal issues involved in this case."

They go on to point out that

“A trial may not even be necessary should this Court resolve the issues in its omnibus order on the currently pending summary judgment motions.” 

The judge knows this.  And by now I'm sure he knows if he's going to call for a trial.  Given the wording of his last continuance, I assumed he thought that at least some of the issues will need to be heard in trial.

The Board finally says that Mr. White will be medically unavailable until early January 2014 and asks that the Court reschedule until early to mid-January. 


On October 31, 2013 the judge ordered:

"On 30 October 2013 the Board filed a second motion to continue trial.  The plaintiffs shall have until 1 November 2013 by noon to file an opposition.  The Board will have until 4 November 2013 by noon to file a reply."

What Does This All Mean?

There are a lot of issues swirling around in my head.  Foremost is a sense of the uncertainty of human existence and I want to take this chance to send my best wishes to Michael White and my hopes for a speedy and full recovery.  Over the last few years  covering the redistricting process, I've been treated in a fair and forthcoming way by Mike as have other members of the media.  He did this while also working vigorously on behalf of his client, as is his duty.


Some Issues That Scream Out At Me

Michael White's role in this case.  I don't think this can be overstated.  Michael White has been with the Board from early on and attended just about every meeting, watched every step of the way as the maps were prepared.  I doubt there is anyone who has as comprehensive a knowledge of what the Board has done.  His ability to talk about the case and recall the smallest detail is amazing - whether it's the state law, the federal law, a court case, or the redistricting process itself.  Plus he knows all the players.   Without White representing the Board, the Board's ability to defend its actions is greatly compromised.

White's co-counsel, Nichole Corr,  has been to a few meetings and I'm sure that she's been doing a lot of work on briefs all the while.  I'm guessing she's doing a lot of work now so that she can handle some or all of the work if it comes to that. 

That said, the Board's gone into the courtroom with an advantage over the plaintiffs whose attorneys have worked extremely hard, but who simply cannot know the details the way White does. 

Timing

a.  Timing of the Redistricting Process

Originally, the Board set up a fairly leisurely schedule and planned to have their third Plan completed by January 2014.  The plaintiffs challenged that pace arguing that there wouldn't be time for all the possible legal appeals if they waited until January 2014 to present their plan and the Court agreed telling the Board to get moving.

Basically the plan has to be finalized and in place by the end of May so that candidates for the August primaries will know their districts and so the State can prepare election materials.  May is cutting it pretty tight for those involved in the election.

The Board's original January target date would have given the appeals process four months to work itself out.  The current process proves the plaintiffs' point and vindicates the judge's decision to force the Board to move much faster.

The current Plan was finalized July 14, 2013.  It is now November 1 and the Board is asking the trial to be postponed until January - six months after the Plan was completed.  That's two months more than they said was necessary last year.  And if the judge has problems with the plan and tells the Board to make changes?  How long will that take and how long will the appeal of the new plan take?  The Board's original plan was declared unconstitutional by the Alaska Supreme Court and they approved an interim plan because there wasn't enough time to make a new one in time for the election.  No one wants another interim plan.  No one. 

b.  Timing of White's Treatment

White's expectation of when his radiation treatment would be complete was wrong.  Skeptics might question why his Seattle doctors were two weeks off in their estimate of the time of the radiation.  Or why, if White learned about the extra two weeks on October 14, it took another ten days for the Board to meet about this, and six more days to inform the Court.  I do not see any game playing here at all.  White has gone through a life altering experience - physically and emotionally - and I give him lots of slack on processing this information and conveying it to others.  Looking online, I found an oral cancer site and a cancer research site that both said a mesh mask could be made pretty quickly, so it is very reasonable for his Seattle doctors to assume that and for Mike to find here a doctor who is using a more complex mask and procedure.  The Mike I have come to know over these last couple of years is a bulldog.  I'm sure that before he accepted this delay he researched and questioned his doctors and tried to find a way to be ready by December. I wouldn't be surprised if he was still arguing with the doctors when he met (telephonically) with the Board and they gave him a couple days to be sure before he asked for the postponement. 

c.  Timing of White's Recovery and the Case

It sounds to me Mike is taking the optimal recovery time in his request for a delay.  What if he has a normal recovery, or a slower recovery?  The surgery was in his mouth and I assume the radiation will be as well.  Even if his mind is totally back to normal, what about his speaking ability, and his energy level?  How will a week of court time affect his recovery?  And what happens if he needs more time?

The case may not be settled in January.  If the Court has serious problems, the Board will no doubt appeal that to the Alaska Supreme Court.  And, of course, the plaintiffs could appeal if it went against them.  We'll be in February by then.  What if changes will have to be made to the maps?  Can they be made and appeals be done in time for the 2014 election?  It could be tight, but I expect that any changes would be to specific districts and, despite the Board's ripple affect arguments, could be done without changing the rest of the map.  The Board made just such surgical adjustments to a few districts and was able to leave all the rest unaffected in 2012.

And Nichole Corr, and possibly another attorney at Patton Boggs, has had a couple of months now to get up to speed on this.  They've got six more weeks to cram before the currently scheduled December date and about a month more if the trial were postponed until January.

If the Board were to ask for another delay, I'd expect that the probability of the court appointing a master to fix the map goes way up. 


[I really am working on a post about District 5 and possibly 3.  It's just complicated. I'll try to post it soon.]

Last Minute Scary Mask Ideas For Halloween

Repacking My Bike Bearings at Off The Chain - When People Are Better Than Books

I went to Off The Chain Wednesday to fix a flat.  I know, I shouldn't have to get help to fix a flat, but the nut was on so tight I simply could not get it loose.  And I've been wanting to go to Off The Chain - Anchorage's do-it-yourself bike cooperative to work on my bike sometime.

I learned about this place when I posted about Bikerowave - a similar place in L.A - and a reader pointed out there was also such a place in Anchorage. 

As  you can see from this picture, I got way beyond changing a tire, and that's one of the reasons I love the concept of these kinds of places.

There's such a difference between trying to figure out how to do this in a book and having a real live human being gently walking you through the steps.  Pointing out where the tools are, and even how to use them if necessary.  But he doesn't do it for you, but he'll give you as much help as you need to do it yourself.  The picture above came after this next set of pictures.

That scruffy looking old dish turned out to be a high powered magnet so that all the parts I put it were safe from spills.  Though I did drop one ball bearing.  (They had plenty of others, though I found it.  Another I found stuck to the blue magnet after I got a new one.  If you look carefully at the top photo, you'll see there are ten ball bearings.  One didn't fit right, because there were only supposed to be nine.

Anyway, you can see where the ball bearings are housed.  The top image of it, shows it after I took the ball bearings out, but before I cleaned it.  The one on the right is cleaned.  And then I added new grease.

 Then, I was ready to put the bearings back in and take the picture at the top.

Here's where I did most of my work.  A steady stream of folks came in and started working on their bikes.

Above you can see most of the shop.

To get to the ball bearings I had to take the freewheel off.  I'd never figured out how to do that.  In picture A there's a black hole in the middle.  I painted it pink in photoshop so you could find it easily.  B shows the special tool you need to loosen the flywheel.  It's that bolt like item and it has protrusions that go into the pink hole and a similar one on the other side.  Then you loosen it.

You can read a book and figure out how to do this.  But it's so much easier and faster and fun to have a human being help you.  In a place where they have all the spare parts and tools you might need.

The guy who helped me, Dave, is in the middle in the green t-shirt and gloves. 

At Bikerowave they have a sign in sheet where you put your name, time you arrived, and what work you are doing.  Then they charge you $7.50 an hour for bike stand time plus parts which were ridiculously cheap. 

At Off The Chain they have a donation box and recommend $5 an hour.  Dave and the other helpers are volunteers. 

A lot of things are better to read.  But fixing a bike, especially when you try things you've never tried before, is so much easier with a human guide than a book.  And unlike a place like REI where you drop your bike off and it disappears into the back to be repaired, at this place, getting your bike fixed is a learning experience.  And it's affordable. 

Here's a link to Off The Chain's website, which says:

"Off the Chain is a low cost, volunteer run, 501(c)(3) bicycle collective open to the Anchorage community. Off the Chain teaches people of all ages and backgrounds how to repair bicycles and strives to increase bicycle ridership, awareness, and safety through community service and education.
Shop
Off the Chain is open to the public during shop hours. During open shop hours you have access to our tools, library and advice from our volunteer mechanics. We have an inventory of refurbished bicycles, used parts and basic new parts available."

  Winter hours are 3-7 on Wednesdays and Sundays 3-8pm.  But call first - 907.258.6822 - to be sure they're open.  If they don't have a volunteer or two, they won't be open. 

It's on the West side of the old Matanuska Maid building between Northern Lights and Benson. 

Things People Sent Me - Service Dog Attacks; Maria Kang; US Wealth Distribution Ignorance; Internet Security; And More

People have been sending me links - not for the blog necessarily - and I've got all these open windows that I need to get rid of.  So here are some things you might find of interest. 

Large number of Attacks on Service Dog

"Frequency and Location of Attacks The Seeing Eye 2011 dog attack and interference survey revealed that 44% of respondents (324 out of 744) had experienced at least one attack. Of those, 58% were attacked more than once. Findings also showed that 83% (617 respondents) had experienced interference by an aggressive dog. The vast majority of attacks (80%) and interference (83%) occurred on a public-right-of-way such as a sidewalk or roadway. In cases involving the most recent attacks, 74% happened when respondents were being guided by their dogs within 30 minutes walking distance from their homes. Most of them (80%) travel by foot within their neighborhood on a daily basis."

The complete survey is available at Seeing Eye.

Op-Ed: “Looking Good” is Overrated: One Mom’s Response to Maria Kang

This is an opinion piece at The Feminist Wire and begins:

Maria Kang, you look fabulous.  I fully commend you for the work you put into a goal that was important to you, and I congratulate you on your success.  I admire you for your self-reflective journey, your honesty in your writing, and your acknowledgment that everyone is different.  I looked pretty good before I got pregnant, but nothing like you. I also have an eight-month old baby, and a couple of older kids at home.  I have to say, I certainly don’t look nearly as good as you do now!

I'm not swimming in that part of the internet where the Maria Kang poster appeared so it was all new to me.



XKCD -  Poster "20th Century Headlines Rewritten To Get More Clicks"

I can relate to this as I generally resist the temptation to make my post titles a little sexier.  My rule is that it has to be directly relevant to the post.  And I've even posted once or twice about the phenomenon of writing headlines for clicks - such as the use of lists of the X Most Awesome Ys.   The only trouble with the poster is that you have to know about things that happened more than ten years ago to get what the rewritten headline refers to.  Some examples at the link:

1955 - Avoid polio with this one weird trick 
1989 - You won't believe what these people did to the Berlin Wall (Video)



Remembering Hugh Fleischer  -

Please join us for a memorial service honoring the life of Hugh Fleischer in the Tikahtnu Ballroom of the Dena'ina Convention Center, 600 W. 7th Avenue.

Tuesday, November 5 at 5:00 PM

Where: Dena'ina Convention Center/Senior Activities Center 

This is a real difficult one for me.  Hugh died recently after making all sorts of contributions to the Anchorage community and the event is being held at exactly the same time I agreed to be on a panel at UAA.   But it looks like things will go on later than the panel and I can come by then.


Pounding Pavement By Heal Or Toe -

 I think this was sent to me as a follow up on my post about barefoot running.  This NY Times article says, "not so fast" and points out that people who land on the ball of their feet get problems too, just different ones from the people who land on their heals.  And this is particularly poignant because I have had problems with my right heal (ok Harpboy?) and that's where the article says 'barefoot' runners get problems.  I finally got an appointment with a podiatrist for next Monday to see how to start running again without permanently damaging my heal.  The person who made the appointment said the doctor is a runner. :)



9 Out Of 10 Americans Are Completely Wrong About This Mind-Blowing Fact 
  I think this came from an email too.  It's a video that compares:

1.  What Americans think the distribution of US wealth should be.

Screen shot from 9 out of 10 Americans Are Wrong video

In this one the richest make roughly 10-20 times more than the poorest.  


2.  What Americans think the distribution is.

Screen shot from 9 out of 10 Americans Are Wrong video

In this one the richest make roughly 100 times more than the poorest. 

3.  What the distribution of wealth in the US actually is.

Screen shot from 9 out of 10 Americans Are Wrong video

The video gives a different ratio on this one - the average CEO makes 380 times what the average worker in the company makes. 

4.  What the distribution actually looks like when you cut off the top of the curve that goes out of the picture and re stack it onto the graph.

You can see the repasted tip for the top 19%, but the narrator of the video says they had to make a whole new column off the chart to show how much the top 1% has.  It comes to 40% of the wealth in the US.  While the bottom 80% has only 7%.

The point of the video is that our understanding of reality is totally wrong.  And I would suggest when you hear Republicans charging people with trying to foment class welfare, it's part of the campaign to keep the American public ignorant of the reality.

I haven't check this video's numbers, but even if he's off by a lot, it would still be shocking.   Here's the whole video at You Tube.

I can't tell when it was posted, but it says that it's been watched 11 million times and there are 37,000 comments. 



Ten Steps You Can Take Right Now Against Internet Surveillance - This comes from the Electronic Frontiers Foundation.

   "The good news, if you can call it that, is that much of what the NSA is doing is mass surveillance on everybody. With a few small steps, you can make that kind of surveillance a lot more difficult and expensive, both against you individually, and more generally against everyone. . .

1. Use end-to-end encryption.
2. Encrypt as much communications as you can.
3. Encrypt your hard drive.
4. Strong passwords, kept safe.
5. Use Tor.
6. Turn on two-factor (or two-step) authentication.
7. Don't click on attachments.
8. Keep software updated, and use anti-virus software.
9. Keep extra secret information extra secure.
10. Be an ally.

The link gives more explanation of each of the steps.  If you wouldn't leave your house or your car unlocked, why would you leave your data unlocked?  Because keys and locks are easier to understand than encryption.  And that's what NSA and others take advantage of.

[UPDATE Oct. 30, 2013 12:28pm - Feedburner note - this one posted within 30 minutes.  Let's hope this becomes the norm again.]

Jury Duty Day 2 And More Feedburner Complaints

As I said at the end of the last post, I didn't have to go in today and it was a beautiful day.  Worked at home most of the time.  Called in today and they don't need any jurists tomorrow.

I'm still a lot frustrated by feedburner not pinging other blogs in a timely way.  Here's an example of what I mean.  This is the Blog List from  Off and On The Alaskan Parkinson Blog 

I posted that at about 6pm yesterday and it only got to other blogs around noon today. [UPDATE 11:30pm Actually, I put that post up twice to see if the second one might be picked up when the first one wasn't.  I didn't check which one the links went to.  I would guess the second one would have been picked up and so the first one - had it been a different post altogether - never would have made it to the other blogs for their readers to link from.]   For a lot of posts, it probably doesn't matter, but if I'm posting something timely, it does.  Or if I post several posts in a day, they may not all get up.  I'm trying different things, and there are some instructions from feedburner about the code I could fix.  If I understood the html code well enough to be sure I wouldn't make things worse.


And then sometimes it works right away.  Grrrrrrr. [UPDATE 9pm:  This one seems to have gotten up pretty quickly.  The first person I can see through Sitemeter getting to this post from another blog was about 45 minutes after it was posted.  So it worked fine this time.  What about next time?  I'll start keeping track on the posts until it either goes away on its own or I figure out how to fix it.]

Jury Duty Day 1

There was a line outside the court building for going through security when I got off the bus this morning downtown.  But we could keep our shoes on.

The jury assembly room is on the second floor.  I checked in and got a one page form to fill out - name, profession, past jury experience, organizations you belong to, hobbies.

Another third of the jury assembly room is to the right

It's a big room.  The phone call yesterday said they were taking jurors 1-415.  I had my computer, but never took it out.  I'm reading Vic Fischer's autobiography and I find it fascinating.  He was born in Berlin to American parents in 1924 - a time and place I've had a lot of interest in and have recently read about.  I just wanted to read.  So it was fine that I wasn't called in the first three groups - about 40-50 in each group.  But then they asked those still left there to fill out another form.  This one asked about whether we had experienced sexual abuse, knew anyone who had, or had been involved in organizations related to this issue.

Our group got sent to the third floor and we were called in alphabetically, so I was number 2.  The jury selection, we were told, was going to take the rest of the week.  Prospective jurors would be questioned in some cases individually.  It probably could have been done a lot faster if the judge hadn't talked so slowly.  And he said 'uhhh' so many times that I checked my watch for a minute.  25 times.  That's almost one 'uhhh' every other second!  The days would be from 8 to 1:30pm I think he said and only Monday through Thursday.  Then the trial would last through the week of November 11. 

He went through the questions again on the questionnaires we'd sent in when we first got the notices.  Anyone not an American citizen?  Anyone not over 18?  Not an Alaskan resident?  No one raised their hands.  For that last question he said, "Good, because the names are taken from the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend applications."

Then we were asked if we knew the defendant, his attorney, or the prosecutor - who were all in the room - or any of the potential witnesses.  Their names were put up on a screen and read.   A woman knew all the police officers.  Turned out she's a police dispatcher.  Said she doesn't know them personally, just as a dispatcher.  He kept her in the pool but said the attorneys would surely have more questions. 

Then we got to scheduling.  "Does anyone have an important activity that will interfere with this trial or would take a financial hit because of the schedule?"  Another man said he had a doctor's appointment next Monday morning.  The judge said they could accommodate that.  I said I had a plane reservation for November 7 to visit my 91 year old mom who is not well.  I was excused.  As I was leaving another woman said she was the sole support for a young relative and couldn't take that much time from work.  I think she was excused too.  By then it was about 1pm. 

We have to call in each night this week to see if our numbers are called again.  The judge said that last week there was judge training in Girdwood, so things were extra busy this week.  (I called.  I don't have to go Tuesday.)
 

Then I walked across rainy and darkly overcast downtown Anchorage to meet J for lunch.

Past these Russian dolls looking out the closed gift shop window at the rain.

This car hood catching and mixing rain drops. 


















Past the Club 25 building and Cyrano's across the street.












There seemed to be a number of new places I hadn't seen before, like the Bubbly Mermaid.










And across the Museum grounds.