Saturday Progressive Blog Roundup - November 15, 2008

Progressive Alaska has been negligent in helping to get the word out on events today in Juneau, Fairbanks and Anchorage, as parts of the nationwide rallies in support of the LBGT community, in the wake of last week's passage of Proposition 8 in California.

There will be rallies at noon today:

Fairbanks - 800 Cushman Street

Anchorage - the Atwood Building

Juneau:

While Equal Rights supporters in Anchorage and Fairbanks hold Fight the H8 protests, Juneau NOW and their friends are holding a 'mobile protest' in solidarity:

I would like to be part of this national day of protest. So here's the plan and I hope you'll all join me. I'm going to put a sign in my car window and be a sort of mobile protester as I do my Saturday errands and schlep my kids to and from soccer games. I've attached my sign and would be honored if some of you want to use it and join me. -- E. Ross

Steve, at What Do I Know? has written a long, provocative and extremely thorough analysis of the shortcomings in pro-Proposition 8 arguments. It is certainly worth reading.

Alaska Real has been counting down the days left in the Bush Administration, by posting short essays and items on the ineptitude and crimes of President George W. Bush. riting Raven, beginning at #100, is now down to #66.

There wasn't a lot of Alaska blog coverage of the sentencing this week of former Allvest CEO and owner, Bill Weimar, for his mail fraud crimes. Progressive Alaska wrote a short reflective piece. Cliff Groh, at Alaska Political Corruption, has written a long essay on Weimar's sentencing, and his legacy. Groh was there, noting:

What was particularly surprising about the few people in the courtroom for Weimar’s sentencing, however, was that except for the defendant and his attorney it appeared that everyone there was either a federal employee or a member of the media. Even though Weimar lived in Alaska for 30 years before moving to Montana in 1999, not one friend or family member appeared to have come to support him as he faced prison. And the only letter in the file about the sentencing is from the administrator of a Montana domestic violence abuse prevention program who says that Weimar’s free work would be welcome community service.

Poignant. Groh also notes that I may have over-estimated the degree of danger Weimar might have been in, after his "cooperation" with the Feds became public last summer. As Groh states:

Munger’s suggestion that Weimar’s knowledge of dirty deeds committed by others as well as himself puts him at risk seems overblown given the prosecution’s statement at Weimar’s sentencing that he hadn’t given the feds anything that the government didn’t know already.

You don’t have to go as far as Munger, however, to know that the sentencing was a very sketchy portrait of an intriguing and troubling figure.

Groh is right, it appears in retrospect, but he doesn't challenge my assertion then that what Weimar has been (and others have been) convicted of, is only the tip of the tip of the iceberg.

Speaking of the tip of the tip of the iceberg, progressive Alaskan bloggers were all over the ongoing count of Alaskan votes, as Anchorage mayor Mark Begich passed convicted felon Senator Ted Stevens, in the race for the U.S. Senate seat occupied by Stevens since before I came to Alaska in the early 1970s. Progressive Alaska contained several articles, some by me, some by others, on various issues that could have or still might emerge during this complex, tedious process.

And, for the first time, it appears Progressive Alaska has been attacked by a fellow Alaskan progressive blogger:

No one was more frustrated by the early conspiracy-theory panic than they were...because the folks who were spreading it weren't talking to them. It also seemed like there were folks out there with a lack-of-understanding of Alaska's unique challenges, transportation and otherwise, who turned this into something it was not. At the very least, they sounded the alarm bell rather prematurely.

and:

There were some people especially worried about the Diebold machines and the GEMS tabulator...with legitimate concerns from past Alaska elections and problems in the lower-48. However, I was absolutely stunned that (to my knowledge) NONE of these people who were worried showed up at the absentee ballot counting at Division of Elections so they could actually look at the the tapes first-hand from each district count as they were coming out of the machines. The procedure was as wide-open as they could allow without danger of exposing privacy information. Media was allowed to film everything except (understandably) the individual ballots close-up. The openness of the Department of Elections was very different from two years ago under pageant queen Whitney Brewster and then Lt. Governor Loren "The Undertaker" Leman.

I'm sorry, Celtic Diva, but, as I've explained in the pages here, and on the phone with you, covering every possibility on a set of emerging issues like these, is important. Contrary to some peoples' claims, I've not stated there was or is voter election fraud in this election, only that the possibility, or - given the 2004 Knowles-Murkowski race information fiasco aftermath - probability, that it might exist. And I was working a 12-hour day on the day you reference.

As we learned in Florida in 2000, in Georgia in 2002, in Ohio in 2004, and so on, the quicker people look at all the issues that might come out as votes are looked at closely, if you react late, or wait for candidates to protest, you miss the most important times and circumstances for gathering evidence, for preserving documents.

So far - we're not done looking at this election yet - I've learned a number of things. I think all Alaskans, progressive, liberal, moderate and conservative, could agree that we might consider letting people here know that their vote DOES count, even when national results indicate an early-on-voting-day victory, as in Obama's case. Or when ALL polls seem to show a candidate like Ethan Berkowitz clearly thumping Don Young. Perhaps, in 2010, the League of Women Voters or the Alaska Democratic Party could run election day and pre-election day ads, encouraging people to vote, no matter what the pollsters or their radio or TV tells them.

And we covered Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. A lot. I'll skip her for now.....