Saturday, August 30, 2008

At the Fair Today

Judy and I spent about eleven hours at the Alaska State Fair today. We womaned and manned the Alaska Democrats booth for six hours. Then we worked as volunteers for Valley Community for Recycling Solutions for another four hours. It was a gloriously spectacular day.

I was up early, on the phone with reporters from several out-of-state publications, answering questions about Sarah Palin.

When we got to the fair, more calls came in, as we were trying to deal with questions from booth visitors. And firedoglake was supposed to put up an article about Alaska's current political environment I've been working on and modifying for them this week.

I've been telling reporters since yesterday that Sarah Palin has about a 50/50 chance of becoming the next Tom Eagleton. Judy said to me after one really long call, "And I thought we were going to spend some time together today."

The Democrats' booth has to move next year. It is parked in what a friend familiar with Fair traffic calls "the DEAD zone." I've spotted a space I'll ask the party to consider moving to, where everyone passes.

Supposedly, there were McCain -Palin T-shirts being sold by 10:30 a.m. yesterday. They sold out by 8:00 p.m. today.

Recycling at the Fair is a big concern, with a huge volunteer roster. They fill one of those full-size dumpsters with cardboard, which has to be broken down flat, every day.

Judy and I walked around, pulling a cart, emptying trash cans of plastic and aluminum, into big plastic bags, for a few hours. Then I went around, gathering up cardboard boxes and breaking them down, from behind the booths on the Purple row.


A few people came by the Democrats' booth making rude gestures, or asking "Do you love burning American flags?"

God, do I love Alaska!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

The source of criticism of Sarah Palin is easily tracked. Legitimate criticism of Palin's lack of national and international experience, lack of fiscal discipline, poor executive decisions, and extreme views will come from the Democrats.

The smut will come from the Alaska Republican Party, itself, as the Reudrich Republicans circulate among the mainstream media at the Republican National Convention. Do you suppose the NSA would let us get a peek at Randy Reudrich's email right now?

clark said...

i hope you answered those pot shots, philip, and told them in detail all of the ways in which you hate america, hate the troops, want to surrender to the terrorists, want to take away everyone's guns and force people to marry homosexual socialists.

Anonymous said...

You are not exactly a bubbling cauldron of love, Phil. Were they making the hand gestures before or after they spoke to you?

I was at an Independence Day parade 2 years ago and some teen Democrats, who I'd smiled at because they were wearing Democrat insignia and I was Republican and we were all celebrating our causes, made a vulgar remark about my large family. (I was with my young children who were all 10 and under.) I just grimaced and moved on, later telling the kids that what the Democrat teens had said was very wrong and inappropriate.

You recycle, you volunteer and you are an awesome person. You can hate Sarah Palin, but you are hateful and it's hard to admire you when you are so full of vitriol! You are human, I'll love you anyway and pray for you.

Anonymous said...

Good Morning Prof,

cbl from fdl here :D

suggestion: I relocated my little Have You Had Enough cardtable to the slot next to the african american churchwomen's bake sale booth

huuuge difference.

chuckling as I recall my question to you of Alaskan succession of a few months back - dayum !

mad progressive props to ya