Saradise Lost - Book 4 - Chapter 61 - Gore-Gate? WTF?

I. Let's see if the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch, APRN, KSKA, KTUU or any of the other "courageous" Alaska media has the balls to tear this set of lies to shreds:


I'd put the odds of any of them giving these, to quote the Crazy Woman, "bogus" lies the challenges they deserve as very low. The blog Think Progress tore the performance to shreds yesterday, though:

The “revelation” of leaked e-mails at the University of East Anglia that Palin is referring to certainly do not debunk global warming. An investigation by the British government’s House of Commons’ Science and Technology Committee found “no evidence to support charges that the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit or its director, Phil Jones, had tampered with data or perverted the peer review process to exaggerate the threat of global warming.” “What is it about Mr. Gore that drives right-wingers insane?” Paul Krugman has asked. “For the truth Mr. Gore has been telling about how human activities are changing the climate isn’t just inconvenient. For conservatives, it’s deeply threatening.”

The Think Progress article has over 750 comments, which is about 50% more comments than there were people who attended the Tea Party Convention Palin addressed this past winter.

Does anyone want to bet me a dinner at the Club Paris that the ADN will come out tomorrow - Sunday - with a "Thumbs Down" on Palin for having performed what may be her most dishonest and sleazy performances this past week, regarding nuclear arms control, illegal militant Zionist expansion and climate change - among other lies? Instead, the ADN will more likely praise this increasingly dangerous person for, for, well - who knows?

They'll think of something.

II. Along these lines, journalist, commentator and author, Charles Wohlforth has written a great essay at the Alaska Dispatch, regarding the lack of trust Alaska's political elite engenders through the years. For me, the Alaska political elite includes the editors and publishers of our major mainstream and web media outlets. Here's part of Wohlforth's description:

The Alaska political elite can't be trusted to protect the Alaska environment. Not even on a basic level. So how do we get to a world where local people have the power to care for their own ecosystems?

That's a fundamental question. I've spent a lot of time thinking about it, and it will take me a number of posts (and my book) to address it. For now, I'd like to establish the alienation of Alaska's leaders from its people and their place.

Like other Americans, Alaskans as a whole hold most of their elected leaders in contempt. Moreover, the Alaska political elite pursues a strongly anti-environment direction that doesn't reflect Alaska's culture or the will of its people.

Three quick examples of that. Predator control. Opposed repeatedly in Alaska referenda, repeatedly strengthened by the state. Cruise ship environmental and business controls. Imposed by a strong public vote, rolled back as far as possible by the state. Climate change. Serious academic research shows the vast majority of Alaskans believe in it, want to do something about it, and don't trust state leaders when they talk about it (they do trust scientists and their own neighbors).

I experienced a vivid example of this a few years ago listening to our Anchorage public radio station, as Senator Con Bunde, R-Anchorage, and Representative Mike Doogan, D-Anchorage, talked about conservation of the polar bear in the face of climate change on a show called "Community Forum." Bunde said (and I paraphrase), that if it comes down to the polar bear or the Alaska economy, he would take the Alaska economy. Doogan quickly agreed.

Just to make clear, they said the extinction of a keystone Arctic predator is less important than the temporary exchange of money among 600,000 of our species's 6 billion members.

Wohlforth goes on to describe the disconnect between our politicians and editors, and real people:

There are certainly good, honorable, hard-working, public-spirited people in public office. One of the sacrifices they make when they serve is the contempt and disrespect of the people they represent, and the low expectations that drag down everything they try to accomplish.

Many people in office don't know how the public see them. Everyone treats them with respect and even honor. Our politeness, and greed, assure they're in a bubble.

Then, every so often, a controversy erupts that drags them down further, like that concerning how much lobbyists can spend on legislator meals without disclosure. The most telling part about that issue was that it passed with a few jokes but not much outrage, because legislators hiding their free lunches is about what people expect.

It's reasonable that those who want to bring real change to our relationship with the environment don't want to get involved with this system. It's a daunting realization, but our government will remain a foe of ordinary people in this cause until it is fundamentally transformed.

I'm looking forward to reading Wohlforth's book, The Fate of Nature, when it comes out late this spring.