The Weirdness and Dishonesty of the Miller Campaign Dominates the Pre-Election Headlines in Alaska and the USA - Updated

From Thursday's successful effort by Dan Fagan, Steve Aufrecht and others to get a lot of people to consider, or to actually sign up as write-in candidates in the November 2nd Alaska U.S. Senate election, through Halloween night, one strange aspect of Joe Miller and his campaign, or another, has dominated the major national web-based news aggregators:

Thursday:

1. Right wing talk jock Dan Fagan urges on his KFQD-AM Anchorage radio program, that people go down to the Alaska Division of Elections offices to file as write-in candidates for U.S. Senate, before Thursday's end-of-day filing deadline. As complaints gather at KFQD's parent company, Dan is told to take Friday off. The Miller campaign then tries to pump this into an example of the heavy-handed Lisa Murkowski once again suppressing dissent. 160 people sign up, ,making it so that the Division of Elections will not have an easy task explaining to voters how to write in Murkoski's name Monday and Tuesday, without also exlaining how to write in each name on the list for that office.

2. Anchorage TV station KTVA's planning for coverage of Thursday evening's Joe Miller rally at the Denai'ina Center, and for an interview with Miller gets recorded accidentally by a message machine at the Miller campaign. The rally itself, hijacked by Sarah Palin and turned into a self-promotion tool, is another Tea Party rehearsal for Christo-Fascism.

Late Friday:

Alaska Dispatch writer Jill Burke comes out with one of the best articles to emerge that ties together new information from Miller's personnel file release last Tuesday, with information already available and interviews with former Miller colleagues in Fairbanks. The portrait of Miller's mental health is quite shocking, as is the new detail on his penchant for security people who can't help but evoke remembrances of NSDAP SA thugs in the late 20s and early 30s Weimar Republic:

[C]onventioneers, including Simpson, couldn't help but note the unusual companions Miller had brought with him to the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage, where the meeting was held in 2008. She wrote in the Daily News:

Toward the end of the convention when it was apparent his fireworks had fizzled, in what can only be described as paranoid and bizarre, a security detail -- yes, pretend Secret Service suits with Aviator glasses and earpieces -- showed up to flank and apparently protect the silly, self-important Joe from a bunch of mostly middle-age Republican delegates who had voted against him and were now genuinely embarrassed for him.

Republican Andree McLeod -- a Palin critic -- also noticed Miller's not-so subtle security detail: three men and a woman, each equipped with walkie talkies and ear pieces. They were friendly enough, she recalls, and although it was obvious they were shadowing Miller, they would only say they were "on a security job."

McLeod doesn't recall the name of the security guard she spoke with at the time, but recalls he was proud of his business, which he identified as Drop Zone -- the same company that handcuffed and detained Alaska Dispatch editor Tony Hopfinger after the Oct. 17 campaign town hall meeting at an Anchorage public school.

When Miller left the convention hall and headed to the hotel's downstairs for a news interview, the guards followed and stood by at the door, McLeod recalled. When Miller went upstairs to another floor in the hotel, they stuck close and buzzed around him.

A short time later, McLeod noticed them guarding an elevator door, with one guard posted in front of the door and others on either side. When the door opened, out came Miller and the four security guards moved into a diamond formation around him -- one in front, one behind him and one on each side -- and they hustled Miller in a military-style march to a waiting SUV outside the Hotel Captain Cook. Once Miller and his entourage -- which included Palin aide Ivy Fry, according to McLeod, were safely on their way -- the guards cleared out.

"It was the most surreal thing I have ever seen," McLeod said.

The mental health portrait of Miller in Burke's article is even less flattering:

Days before he was caught using the borough computers for the poll, Miller had spoken openly with members of the borough office about a potential threat coming his way. The Alaska Republican Party was out to get him, Miller told them, and he warned them to be careful about what they did on their computers. Miller claimed a public records request was in the works aimed at scrutinizing employees' computer use, adding that, if granted, he feared it might reveal child pornography on his computer. If any inappropriate material was found on his computer, Miller told them, they needed to know it would be the result of a sophisticated setup -- someone hacking the Fairbanks North Star Borough's computer system and planting inappropriate material on his computer.

It was just a few days later that his colleagues discovered something was amiss with their computers, which upset and unnerved them given the timing to Miller's earlier warnings. Miller had been on their computers during lunch hour to vote in a political poll hosted on his own personal website. When they confronted Miller about it, he told one of his supervisor's, Jill Dolan, "not to worry about it (and) that he was not on a bad site," according to a written statement Dolan provided during the borough's subsequent internal investigation.

Saturday:

The Miller campaign feeds a recording of a phone message mistakenly left at Miller campaign HQ to one of the sleaziest web denizens malpracticing today, Andrew Breitbart. Breitbart, who created the intentionally false story on Shirley Sherrod in July, created a web version of the taped call, with a dubious transcript of what was purported to being said in the background. As often happens when Breitbart breaks a story, it somehow made national news, even before many had a close look at the charges made by Breitbart's site.

Sunday:

Sarah Palin goes on FOX News Sunday and falsely makes a string of claims about what the tape represents:

I’m saying that CBS reporters in the affiliate up there in Alaska on tape are saying, ‘Let’s find a child molester in the crowd as a supporter for Joe Miller; let’s blast that. Let’s concoct a Ron Paul moment there; let’s find any kind of chaos so that we can Tweet an alert saying, ‘Oh, there’s chaos. Joe Miller got punched.’ That’s sick. Those are corrupt bastards, Chris.”

As Sunday afternoon wore on, the authenticity of what Breitbart and the Miller campaign purported the tape to represent continued to be questioned, and some news sources finally realized that they'd been punked by Breitbart, Miller and Palin.

The questions about Breitbart's Miller story have only served to fuel the growing outrage that this cad has been asked to provide content for ABC's Tuesday evening and night election coverage. David Brock from Media Matters has challenged Palin and Miller to release the entire tape of the KTVA incident:

Sarah Palin has made serious accusations of journalistic malfeasance. Either Palin accurately described the tapes, or she did not. America's news consumers need to know the truth about these serious accusations. The public in Alaska needs to know the truth so they are fully and correctly informed before they cast their ballots Tuesday. Palin has a responsibility to release the full, unedited tapes publicly and to all media.

What Breitbart, Miller and Palin succeeded in doing however, was to take the news cycle focus away from a brilliant piece of investigative journalism by Jill Burke, and hijack this important pre-election weekend from the world of solid journalism into the fantasy world so well represented by Palin, Miller and Breitbart.

They are so good at playing victims, there should be a special award.

Update - Late Sunday:

The conservative Public Policy Polling has just announced results of the most recent poll:

Miller 37% --- McAdams 30% --- Murkowski 30%

The most interesting finding:

Miller is winning despite having the worst personal favorability numbers of the three candidates. Only 36% have a positive opinion of him while 59% view him in a negative light. McAdams is by far the most popular with 50% rating him favorably to only 30% with an unfavorable one. Voters aren't very enamored with Murkowski either, giving her a 37/53 approval rating.

How can McAdams be so much more popular than Miller yet still be trailing the race? It's because 92% of the small group of voters that does like Miller is planning to vote for him. But only 56% of the voters with a positive opinion of McAdams are intending to cast their ballots for him, while 31% of them are going for Lisa Murkowski.

The high number of voters who like McAdams, dislike Miller, and are voting for Murkowski place the race in a whole different light than has been thought of the last few months. Murkowski's campaign, rather than propping herself up at the expense of Miller, may actually end up propping Miller up at the expense of McAdams. You never know how things would have unfolded in a two way race but Murkowski seems to be taking a lot more voters away from McAdams than she is from Miller.

For what it is worth, this is the highest McAdams has polled.

FAUX Reporter Undercuts Palin's Lie re KTVA and Liar/Racist Breitbart

Raw Story has the story. I can't get their video to embed here:

Sarah Palin went to war against an Alaska affiliate of CBS on Sunday, but she got little back-up in her struggle from her employer, Fox News.

Fox reporter Dan Springer says he could find no evidence of bias against Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller by CBS affiliate KTVA.

Palin surprised Fox's Chris Wallace Sunday with the claim that reporters from the CBS news affiliate in Anchorage, Alaska, had conspired to create negative news stories about Miller.

--- snip ---

On Fox`s America Live later Sunday, Dan Springer reported he could find no evidence to back up Palin's concern that KTVA is running a smear job against Miller.

"We actually had some of our staffers look at some of the more recent articles and stories that KTVA has done to see if there was any obvious bias or hit pieces against Joe Miller and we couldn't find that. We could not see any obvious signs of bias or hit pieces don by KTVA against Joe Miller," Springer said.

KTVA general manager Jerry Bever told Politico's Ben Smith Sunday that "while the recording is real, the allegations are untrue."

"The Miller campaign's analysis of the recording is incorrect in many material ways ranging from personnel involved in the conversation, the interpretation of conversation snippets and the reported transcript of the perceived garbled conversation," Bever said.

That prompted Washington Post blogger Greg Sargent to wonder if Palin had fallen for yet another Andrew Breitbart-led instance of misleading journalism.

"Is another Andrew Breitbart Web site production about to be unmasked as bogus?" he asked.

Help Get Scott and Harry To DC & Ethan and Diane to Juneau - Give Your Friends Rides to the Polls

Each of us might have at least one friend who cannot get to the polling place easily or at all on November 2nd. Go down your lists of friends. Check out those who might not vote for one reason or another. Offer them whatever help you might be able to contribute.

image - Fairbanks McAdams supporters. They are organizing to help people get to the polls. hat tip to Mauimom from fdl

Breitbart, ABC Election Coverage and KTVA Tape to Become National Issue by Monday - Updated

I. Before sensationalist publicity seeker Andrew Breitbart created his newest, most likely fake scandal, ABC News was already under heavy criticism for its announcement last week that it will feature Breitbart as a commentator on its Tuesday evening and night 2010 election coverage.

They later either ratcheted back his involvement or clarified it, announcing he would only appear "on-line."

Now Media Matters for America is using the KTVA tape "scandal" as the basis for a bigger push against ABC:

Late last week, ABC News came under fire for allowing discredited conservative Andrew Breitbart to participate in their election night coverage. (ABC later announced he would only appear online.)

Now Breitbart's websites are accusing an Alaska CBS affiliate of gross journalistic misconduct by alleging the station's assignment editor and reporters were "conspiring to set up some type of smear of Joe Miller," the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat in Alaska. The allegations stem from a partial voice mail recording posted on the site.

KTVA, the station in question, is denying the charges, saying, "the allegations are untrue." General Manager Jerry Bever said, "The complete conversation was about what others might be able to do to cause disruption within the Miller campaign, not what KTVA could do."

Breitbart, as you'll recall, has become infamous for promoting deceptively edited videos mercilessly smearing Shirley Sherrod as a racist and falsely accusing ACORN of aiding in child prostitution nationwide. And even when not releasing deceptively edited tapes, Breitbart has a long history of flat out lying.

He also served as a mentor and promoter of James O'Keefe, the criminal who allegedly planned to sexually harass CNN reporter after trapping her on a boat filled with sex toys.

Before hosting Breitbart on Tuesday, ABC News must investigate the veracity of his claims and demand his site publish the entire voicemail message. Moreover, ABC is obligated to determine whether Breitbart's site is lying about the topic and context of the conversation.

ABC News put its credibility on the line when they offered a noted liar like Breitbart a platform to spread his misinformation. Now it's their responsibility to verify his accusations and hold him accountable for what he says.

Update - 4:30 p.m: Commenters at the Alaska Dispatch article on this are coming up with serious inconsistencies between Bretibart's transcript of the KTVA message tape and what the commenters perceive to be what was actually being said.

Why am I not surprised?

Also, Shirley Sherrod's attorney, Roe Sanders, is calling ABC's hire of Breitbart for election night coverage racist:

Shirley Sherrod's longtime attorney criticized ABC News for allowing Andrew Breitbart to appear as a commentator on its Election Night web coverage, comparing the planned appearance to rewarding a Klan member for burning a cross.

Rose Sanders, who has known Sherrod for decades, said Breitbart's appearance on ABC's Tuesday night online coverage following his distortion last summer of a video clip of Sherrod is tantamount to rewarding a racist.

In an interview with Media Matters on Sunday, Sanders said: "Having him on that show is like rewarding a Klansman -- giving a Klansman an award for burning a cross on Shirley Sherrod's house."

Sanders referred to Breitbart's controversial July 19 posting of an excerpt of a speech that Sherrod gave in front of an NAACP group. Breitbart claimed that the clip showed her engaging in racial discrimination as a federal official.

The tape resulted in Sherrod being fired July 19, but she was later offered a new USDA job -- which she declined -- after it became clear that the video Breitbart posted had been deceptively edited.

KTVA's Statement on Breitbart's Tape

Here's KTVA TV's written response to Andrew Breitbart's newest fake scandal:

A press release issued Saturday October 30, 2010, by the Joe Miller campaign claims that KTVA personnel, "openly discuss creating, if not fabricating, two stories about Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, Joe Miller." KTVA General Manager Jerry Bever says, "It's unfortunate that this recording has happened. It's unfortunate because it does not accurately reflect the journalistic standards of our newsroom and the garbled context will no doubt leave more questions than answers. The Miller campaign's analysis of the recording is incorrect in many material ways ranging from personnel involved in the conversation, the interpretation of conversation snippets and the reported transcript of the perceived garbled conversation."

"While the recording is real, the allegations are untrue," said Bever. "The recording was the result of a cell phone not being hung up after a call was placed to Randy DeSoto, Joe Miller campaign spokesperson, Thursday afternoon to discuss Joe Miller's appearance on that evening's newscast. That phone call was placed near the end of a coverage planning meeting in our newsroom regarding that evening's Miller rally in downtown Anchorage. The group of KTVA news personnel was reviewing potential "what-if" scenarios, discussing the likelihood of events at the rally and how KTVA might logistically disseminate any breaking news."

Bever continues, "The perception that this garbled, out of context recording may leave is unfortunate, but to allege that our staff was discussing or planning to create or fabricate stories regarding candidate Miller is absurd. The complete conversation was about what others might be able to do to cause disruption within the Miller campaign, not what KTVA could do."

While Bever would not discuss any personnel issues linked with the recording, Bever says "Have we had internal discussions about the level of professionalism we need to bring to our conversations, internally and externally? Of course we have, this is a lesson to learn from."

Media Matters for America is demanding a release of the "full" tape, whatever that means. Once again, Breitbart's people have a longstanding reputation for messing with video and audio tape in ways that, to be charitable, distort the accuracy of what has actually occurred:

"Sarah Palin has made serious accusations of journalistic malfeasance. Either Palin accurately described the tapes, or she did not. America's news consumers need to know the truth about these serious accusations. The public in Alaska needs to know the truth so they are fully and correctly informed before they cast their ballots Tuesday. Palin has a responsibility to release the full, unedited tapes publicly and to all media."

The Alaska Dispatch is already covering this story. So far, The Anchorage Daily News is not.

Palin on FAUX on the KTVA Tape & on Fagan Suspension

This story (see article at PA below) now heads several news aggregator sites, including memeorandum.

Breitbart to Save Joe the Teabagger? Probably Not

I. Andrew Breitbart, one of the most disgusting personalities to disrupt the public discourse in past decade, is peddling what he claims is proof that Anchorage's KTVA-TV News is trying to make stuff up about Joe Miller:

The following voice mail message was inadvertently left on the cell phone of Joe Miller campaign spokesperson Randy DeSoto.

The voices are believed to be those of the news director for CBS Anchorage affiliate KTVA, along with assignment editor Nick McDermott, and other reporters, openly discussing creating, if not fabricating, two stories about Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, Joe Miller.

Breitbart's biggovernment.com website offers what it considers to be a transcript of the purported buttcall message. They've also posted a youtube of the recording:


I don't trust Breitbart or his staff. They don't have a very good record in terms of presenting fact in many of the stories they have come up with. This may actually be KTVA reporters doing what Breitbart's site purports them to be doing. Or it may not.

II. Meanwhile, Jill Burke at The Alaska Dispatch, has penned what may be her best story yet on the 2010 Alaska U.S. Senate race. Here's an excerpt:

Days before [Miller] was caught using the borough computers for the poll, Miller had spoken openly with members of the borough office about a potential threat coming his way. The Alaska Republican Party was out to get him, Miller told them, and he warned them to be careful about what they did on their computers. Miller claimed a public records request was in the works aimed at scrutinizing employees' computer use, adding that, if granted, he feared it might reveal child pornography on his computer. If any inappropriate material was found on his computer, Miller told them, they needed to know it would be the result of a sophisticated setup -- someone hacking the Fairbanks North Star Borough's computer system and planting inappropriate material on his computer.

It was just a few days later that his colleagues discovered something was amiss with their computers, which upset and unnerved them given the timing to Miller's earlier warnings. Miller had been on their computers during lunch hour to vote in a political poll hosted on his own personal website. When they confronted Miller about it, he told one of his supervisor's, Jill Dolan, "not to worry about it (and) that he was not on a bad site," according to a written statement Dolan provided during the borough's subsequent internal investigation.

Yet, there is no evidence that the prospect of illicit materials existed anywhere but in Miller's fears.

In the hundreds of pages of public records produced by the borough regarding Miller's employment, there is nothing to suggest that the borough ever had concerns about child pornography or other inappropriate material being found on his computer.

My favorite comment on Breitbart's article (at the Sea of Pee):

If it was not obvious before, this should convince those of us who still had doubts that the lamestream media is the hit squad of the Democrat Party. The LSM are cashing in their previous reputation as news organizations to spread disinformation, to malign opponents, and to prejudice public opinion. This is classic soviet propaganda as practised by Joseph Stalin, Maxim Gorky and Vyacheslav Molotov. Alinsky, father of community organizing, was an sdmirer and staunch supporter of Stalin, and Alinsky's Rules for Radicals is a tactical handbook widely used by the Left. To these people, truth has no significance.

My favorite comment at Burke's AKD article:

Joe Miller was telling office colleagues about a public records request that might find child pornography on his computer. Um. Either he is incredibly distrustful of the Republican party (his own party), he is mentally ill, or he had child pornography on his computer. None of those choices say "Senator Miller."

Debate for the State: Ethan Berkowitz vs. Sean Parnell

Rally to Restore Sanity Live Stream

Here's the link.

Hat tip - Jane

Compare These Two Ads

Click to enlarge (no pun intended):

Beck Tirade Results in Another Death Threat Against His Target - A Question for Alaskans

I. Glenn Beck went on a tirade early this week against the moderator in a League of Women Voters candidate debate in the Illinois 8th Congressional District. His team went about vilifying the woman who had initially objected to a candidate request for everyone attending to recite the pledge. When the audience began reciting, she joined them. Here's what happened in ensuing days:

Evanston police and the FBI say complaints have been filed over possible Internet death threats directed at two League of Women Voters officials stemming from a candidates debate in Grayslake.

Criticism started flying around cyberspace over volunteer moderator Kathy Tate-Bradish's perceived lukewarm reaction when she was asked if the Pledge of Allegiance would be recited before the 8th Congressional District debate on Oct. 21.

FBI spokesman Ross Rice confirmed Thursday that League of Women Voters Illinois Executive Director Jan Czarnik filed a report claiming she and Tate-Bradish have received Internet death threats. Czarnik triggered criticism after saying the pledge request was “phony patriotism” from a candidate's supporters.

“Her complaint has been received and is receiving due consideration,” Rice said.

Czarnik wrote the FBI that an Oct. 23 Daily Herald story on the debate she was quoted in was “turned into a cause celebre by Glenn Beck and Fox News.”

Since then, death threats have appeared on “right-wing websites,” said Czarnik, who provided printouts to the FBI. She also reported menacing posts on Fox News Channel's Facebook page and Beck's website, The Blaze.

“We don't say the Pledge of Allegiance at our events and we should be shot or hanged?” said Czarnik, who went to the FBI on Wednesday. “Who are these people?”

Who are these people, indeed. Well, here's their Fuhrer:


As their Fuhrer requested, this DID go viral, just in a different way than you or I think of that term.

II. So how many candidate debates have you been to where they recite the pledge? Did they recite the pledge before the Glenn and Sarah Show in September? Did they recite the pledge before the Joe and Sarah Show yesterday in Anchorage? And where's Glenn's American Flag pin?

Anyone here have any information on how many GOP or Tea Party events they've been to where the pledge was NOT recited? I've been to several Tea Party events, and it was recited at some, but left out at others.

Side note: This is the 105th post at PA this month. The last month when this blog carried this many articles was April 2009, the month Alaskans defeated Sarah Palin's Attorney General bid for Wayne Anthony Ross, who is now the attorney for Drop Zone.

We won that one, and we may win this one.

Go Scott!

Go Ethan and Diane!

Go Give 'Em Hell Harry!

Dan Fagan Suspended. Does This Help Miller? - Updated: Over 160 Write-In Candidates

According to Kyle Hopkins at the Anchorage Daily News:

KFQD 750 AM host Dan Fagan says he learned today from his general manager that his 2 to 5 p.m. show had been canceled after a representative of Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s campaign called to complain. Fagan said he's not fired and that the status of the show will be "re-evaluated" on Monday.

The caller said “that I should be punished for electioneering and that I may have violated electioneering laws,” Fagan said.

The conservative radio host, a supporter of Republican nominee Joe Miller, rallied voters to register as write-in candidates to protest an order by the Alaska Supreme Court that would allow election workers to show voters a list of write-in candidates.

The decision was expected to help Murkowski’s write-in bid by making it easier for people to get her name right on the ballot. Fagan argues that it amounts to illegal electioneering on behalf of the state, rewarding candidates who failed to win a spot on the ballot in the primary elections.

Dennis Bookey, general manager for Morris Communications' Anchorage Media Group, could not be reached for comment this afternoon. The company includes six Anchorage radio stations such as KFQD 750 AM and KWHL 106.5 FM.

John Tracy, president of the Anchorage public relations and advertising company Bradley Reid, said he called Bookey upset about Fagan’s show at about 11:30 a.m. today.

Tracy said he first called someone at the Murkowski campaign – he wouldn’t say who – to tell them he was making the complaint. The campaign person didn’t object, he said.

“I’m not claiming that what (Fagan) did was illegal. I simply feel it was wrong,” Tracy said. “I feel it was wrong as a broadcaster to try and rig an election in this way by offering prizes.”

Tracy’s company produces television and radio commercials for the Murkowski campaign, and -- he assumes -- is an advertiser on Morris Communications stations.

Nobody has ever confused John Tracy with Dan Fagan. I couldn't imagine John Tracy doing radio as does Dan. Fagan worked in TV news for a while, but moved on to radio, where he's thrived, and grown in stature.

I was asked to write a blog post on Thursday encouraging people to go down to the Division of Elections and sign up as write-in candidates. I was too busy to even contemplate whether or not that might be a good idea. Progressive blogger Steve Aufrecht did blog about it, with a post titled "You Have 90 Minutes to Be a Write-In Candidate for US Senate." I suspect the same friend encouraged both Steve and me. It wasn't Dan. It wasn't the Murkowski camp. Nor was it anyone tied to the McAdams camp or campaign.

Did Dan go over the line in the way he encouraged people to sign up? Probably. He goes over the line all the time. It strikes me as silly that a somewhat pompous fixture in Alaska journalism like John Tracy, who has slightly less charisma than Sean Parnell, was the one who is taking the credit or blame. This may be the most bold move John has taken in years.

What happened will only help Miller on the most basic level. Teabaggers will feel even more aggrieved than they already always do.

Hopefully, though, the silliness of these last minute negative postures will serve to further highlight the differences between Scott McAdams' positive, sensible campaign, and the negative blame games and power politics so tirelessly trotted out by Miller and Murkowski.

Update - 10:15 p.m:

Conservative activists encouraged backers of Republican nominee Joe Miller to file as write-ins over the past two days and dozens have heeded the call.

Along with the slew of new GOP write-in candidate, dozens of others filed to run as Democrats or independents, bringing the total number of write-in candidates for Tuesday's Senate race to 160.

Ethan Berkowitz for Governor - by Andrew Halcro

The choice is clear; a governor who has fire in his eyes or one that has exhibited the backbone of a jellyfish. A governor who is willing to stand and take the heat, or one who has been hiding behind Sarah Palin's skirt for the last four years.

Ethan Berkowitz has earned my vote.

Sean Parnell has not.

I'm sorry, I cannot close my eyes and vote for Parnell simply because I am a Republican. I'd rather have a Democrat who moves right than a Republican who moves backwards any day.

Parnell has had more than enough opportunity to demonstrate the leadership skills that this state needs, but has failed on every level.

Parnell has been a steadfast supporter of AGIA, even advocating for it in op/ed columns, saying it was the only way to get a gasline. In April of 2007, he looked across the table and told me that negotiating with the producers was too difficult so AGIA was necessary.

This is a guy who is clearly not up to the challenge.

In December of 2007, Parnell advocated for crippling taxes on Alaska's oil & gas industry, telling industry executives that they should be thankful because now they had stability. He ignored the warnings that the new taxes would cripple investment, instead he followed the lead of a governor who wouldn't last through her term. It wasn't until an election eve conversion that he admitted that the taxes he supported in 2007 were hurting Alaska's economy.

This is a guy who is clearly not up to the challenge and lacks the capacity to understand basic economics.

Last spring he pushed the legislature to adopt legislation that would have increased health care coverage for women and children, and then vetoed that same bill saying he didn't understand what it included.

This is a guy who is clearly not up to the challenge and mistakes quiet resolve for cluelessness.

For the last year plus Parnell has kept on arguably the worst Natural Resource Development Commissioners in recent history. Instead of making necessary changes to mend relationships with the resource development community and get Alaska's economy moving, he has refused to make the hard decisions.

Even Parnell's advocacy of lowering the cruise ship head tax was only because the state faced a lawsuit over a portion of the tax that violated federal law.

This is a guy who is clearly not up to the challenge and feels the status quo is the way to go, even when the state is going off the equivalent of an economic cliff.

Meanwhile, although I don't agree with Ethan on all issues, at least I know he will have the backbone to get Alaska's economy back on track and abandon the status quo.

Like the old political saying goes; It's about the economy stupid.

That's why I'm voting for Ethan.

It Can't Happen Here. Or Can it?

It Can't Happen Here is the 1935 novel and 1936 play by Sinclair Lewis, the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. The most famous misquote from the book is:

"When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and waving a cross”

It isn't in the book. Although it is almost always attributed to the author, nobody seems to be able to come up with a where or when he said it. One thing for sure about it is that it has never been more true than now.

Great Americans have warned us of the dangers of false prophets, invoking flag and cross for a long time. In 1798, James Madison wrote to Thomas Jefferson, “Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged against provisions against danger, real or pretended from abroad."

In the late 19th century, Friedrich Nietzsche observed, "A good war makes sacred any cause."

Watching the interplay between the growth of the Tea Party phenomenon, Sarah Palin and other false patriots, it is tempting to add that even a bad war, or set of bad wars, can render sacred any of their causes.

The play It Can't Happen Here deserves a revival. Many of the people who invoke the continuing validity of Lewis' premise - a fascist takeover of our government, following the selection of a president who unleashes his Minute Men and his dictatorial bent - are Tea Party supporters, such as Michael Savage. Savage's interpretation of Lewis is absurd and unpalatable.

A far more palatable absurdist approach to "It Can't Happen Here" is Frank Zappa's 1966 version:


Keith Olbermann, once again taking on his Edward R. Murrow persona, lambasted the Tea Party's similarities to the craziness that has launched fascism in other places at other times.

Part One:


Part Two:


Judy and I were both disturbed at the Christofascist ambience of Thursday's Joe Miller rally at the Dena'ina Center. Every Alaskan who is concerned about the fake patriotism these fear mongers represent needs to watch this entire video (sorry about the ad at the top). And as you watch, here's a handy checklist. When one of the speakers brings up a point on the list, check it off:

How Stupid is Sean Parnell? - "Only God Knows"

Late October First Snowfall

Neklason Lake is icing over. Yesterday there was none. Tomorrow, unless it starts blowing hard, the lake will be iced.

The front yard.

Looking upward through cotoneaster, willow and spruce boughs.

Looking through a frosted greenhouse window.


Snow fluffing in the cracks between homemade concrete blocks.

The Alaska Senate Race Could Go Anywhere

The Scott McAdams campaign decided Wednesday evening to initially feed the results of the Hays Research poll, the first to show Joe Miller in dead last place, to the blogosphere. Influential Alaska media outlets have openly declared for Lisa Murkowski, and the campaign felt it would be better to give initial spin to new media than to outlets who might spin the poll results adversely to McAdams' campaign, which gained new wind in its sails Thursday as a result of the fresh breeze.

Very early Thursday, the results were announced first by the Alaska blog, The Mudflats, then a few hours later, in a front-page post at Daily Kos by Kos.

The poll, as related here earlier, shows Miller now in third place, with Sen. Murkowski in the lead, and Scott McAdams within margin of error: Murkowski - 34%, McAdams - 29%. Miller - 23%.

The Hays poll was commissioned by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, who are supporting McAdams. A few hours later, a poll funded by the Murkowski supporting PAC, Alaskans Standing Together, came out with markedly different results: Murkowski - 43.5%, Miller - 29.1%, McAdams - 22.5%.

Both of these polls were taken just before the most damning information yet to emerge on Miller had been digested.

A lawsuit filed in mid-October by The Alaska Dispatch (Murkowski), The Anchorage Daily News (Murkowski) and The Fairbanks News-Miner (uncommitted), seeking disclosure of the parts of Miller's personnel file at the Fairbanks North Star Borough as an attorney, ended with publication of voluminous information on Miller's duplicity while working there. The facts that came out also contradict many recent Miller statements about what such a disclosure might reveal about his job performance.

The plain, bare truth of what Miller did, attempting to influence an election for the chair of the Alaska Republican Party, in early 2008, is this:

He checked before he came in that day, to make sure everyone in the office would be gone. Then he hacked four borough computers, used by his colleagues in their work as attorneys. After he was done trying to influence the scenario in which he hoped to take control of the Alaska Republican Party by creating fictitious input sources, her realized that he had to cover his tracks. So he tried to delete the record of his hacking. doing this screwed up caches involving ongoing legal work by his colleagues on cases he wasn't part of. When he was caught, this is what happened:

In the short span of time the employees were trying to get to the bottom of what had happened, Miller lied no less than four times:

He told them he'd had to use another computer because he couldn't access the website he needed to get to on his.

He claimed he had to clear the cache or the website might block his access.

He initially denied being on more than one computer.

And he claimed he was visiting a professor's website at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

In a written account of events offered by one of Miller's co-workers -- identifed in an earlier records release as "employee 3" but now known to be Jill Dolan, Miller's acting supervisor at the time -- Dolan states that the office staff felt none of what Miller was saying made any sense and that he was acting bizarre.

Miller had also been talking about threats he had recently received, but wouldn't offer specific details. Dolan also didn't trust his stories about the computer use because he had, some time earlier, been asking a lot of questions about accessing the computer servers and wanting to make sure they were safe from hackers.

He insisted his colleagues were "overreacting" and even attempted to shift the blame to them.

"He maintained the whole time he did not violate the computer use policy and that actually all of us did for not securing our computers," Dolan wrote.

In the short span of time the employees were trying to get to the bottom of what had happened, Miller lied no less than four times:

He told them he'd had to use another computer because he couldn't access the website he needed to get to on his.

He claimed he had to clear the cache or the website might block his access.

He initially denied being on more than one computer

And he claimed he was visiting a professor's website at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

In a written account of events offered by one of Miller's co-workers -- identifed in an earlier records release as "employee 3" but now known to be Jill Dolan, Miller's acting supervisor at the time -- Dolan states that the office staff felt none of what Miller was saying made any sense and that he was acting bizarre.

Miller had also been talking about threats he had recently received, but wouldn't offer specific details. Dolan also didn't trust his stories about the computer use because he had, some time earlier, been asking a lot of questions about accessing the computer servers and wanting to make sure they were safe from hackers.

He insisted his colleagues were "overreacting" and even attempted to shift the blame to them.

"He maintained the whole time he did not violate the computer use policy and that actually all of us did for not securing our computers," Dolan wrote.

I was angry enough after reading the documents released, I called in to a right-wing AM radio show Wednesday:

Phil: I read through the sequence of lies he told [his employer], and it's incredible. He keeps on making new stuff up.

I ran the Whittier boat harbor for five years and hired and fired a lot of people. I ran the Cordova Center, the state's biggest halfway house for two years, hired and fired a lot of people. I sent people back to prison from there.

Had any [employee] done what Joe Miller did to me, I would have had him fired. Had they appealed it, they would have LOST. I sent people back to prison for less than what Miller did in Fairbanks.

Stieren: Thank you, Phil.

Phil: Bye.

No polls that take this new information into account have yet been announced. They probably won't be until Sunday or Monday. I suspect no polls will emerge from the Miller campaign between now and the election.

Miller's average between the IBEW and AST PAC polls is 26.05%. His negatives in the Hays poll are extremely high - 68%.

On the other hand, one has to be up here in Alaska to sense the ambience of how the millions of dollars poured onto this guy's campaign might make a difference, even in the face of so many damning episodes, one after another, for weeks. The Tea Party Express-funded ads in all media are slick. Miller talks the talk. Some of what he says, particularly about how awful congress is, resonates. Alaska has been noted for being an extreme low information voter environment. Miller is the only pro-life candidate among the three, and hundreds of pastors will be exhorting the faithful on his behalf this coming Sunday.

But yet, on another other hand, Thursday evening in Anchorage, somewhere between 300 and 1,500 people showed up at a Miller event at the biggest venue in Alaska, the Dena'ina Center. Even with Sarah Palin there in person, and Michelle Bachman (via video feed) in attendance. Why Miller has done this on election eve is bizarre, as Palin is less popular here than is President Obama. This is an extremely interesting video of the event, posted at a conservative web site:



Palin is still the most divisive political figure in Alaska, even as Miller's negatives are higher than hers. Another local pollster did weigh in Thursday morning. Ivan Moore hasn't released a poll on this, but he's tracking trends for The Anchorage Press:

After the reassignment of the 5 percent who can’t be bothered to vote a write-in, the vote changes to Lisa 35.6 percent; Joe 33.5 percent; Scott 30.9 percent. Then after a 10 percent chunk falls off Lisa through invalid write-in ballots (the equivalent of the invalidation of about 9,000 votes), the final result becomes Joe 34.7 percent; Lisa 33.3 percent; Scott 32.0 percent.

OK, we’ve got a real problem here, people. Joe wins.

The crazy thing is this. If the nonpartisans, instead of breaking 50–30–20 to Lisa–Scott–Joe, instead go 50–35–15, then Scott wins. If Lisa, instead of getting 50 percent, gets 52 percent of the nonpartisan vote, she wins. It really is poised on a knife-edge.

I took Ivan up on it and spun a quarter five times. Two tails, three heads.

So this is what we do. We need to engineer a little unity in the No-Joe vote. I’m flipping a coin. No, I really am. Heads it’s Scott, tails it’s Lisa. OK? Is everyone agreed? OK?

OK. I took Ivan up on it.

I spun a quarter five times.

Two tails, three heads.

Don't rob Scott to stop Joe: Moderates should back McAdams

[My friend Dan O'Neill has written a powerful op-ed piece on why we must back Scott McAdams, especially with Joe Miller starting to rapidly lose support]

--- by Dan O'Neill

I’d like to especially address Democrats and moderate independents who are trying to figure out how to vote in the U.S.

Senate race. Most of us broadly in the center, and those of us left of center see Joe Miller as an extremist and the worst choice to be our next senator. But I think it is a big mistake for moderates to vote for Lisa Murkowski. And here’s why: Scott McAdams can win. Polls that show him running several points behind the others have structural flaws. As I understand it, telephone surveys do not call cell phones, which is how you reach young people nowadays. These polls can underreport younger people’s views, and young people often trend toward the Democrats.

Pollsters have been mentioning Lisa by name, whereas the actual ballot will not. I think a truer analysis makes this a three-way race where anyone can win, especially as Miller’s campaign self-destructs. (It’s beginning to look a lot like the 1998 Lindauer fiasco.) Lisa was a moderate during her time in the Legislature. But if you read about her votes as a senator in recent years, you see she is not a moderate. Pick your issue area.

Women’s issues? Lisa won’t quite say whether she is pro-choice, but her votes say plainly enough: According to Pro-Choice America, Lisa votes in support of their interests only 25 percent of the time. Same low rating with Planned Parenthood: 25 percent. She voted to ban access to abortion for women who opt into the new health insurance arrangement; she voted against a bill to improve the availability of contraceptives to women; she voted against domestic violence protection.

She voted no to elevating Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan and appellate Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Environmental issues? Lisa introduced a resolution (written by lobbyists) and led the Senate fight to gut the Clean Air Act and end the EPA’s authority to regulate carbon emissions. On global warming legislation, a Mother Jones magazine writer calls her the “most effective obstructionist” in Congress.

Alaska projects? Lisa voted against $10 million for the Denali Commission (though, somehow, she takes credit for the appropriation); she voted against erosion control for Bethel; against suicide prevention in the Arctic; against funding for Abused Women’s Aid in Crisis, Covenant House, and Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Alaska.

Lisa consistently voted against moderate positions and in favor of the more belligerent features of the Republican agenda. More than 90 percent of the time this past year she voted with hard-line Sen. Mitch McConnell, including voting against every single appropriations bill — bills that included 89 projects for Alaska that totaled more than $400 million.

No amount of reasoning could induce her to compromise. She wanted a leadership position in the Senate and she spent bipartisanship, compromise, rationality and Alaska’s interests to get it.

And when a right-winger declared against her in the primary, she instantly positioned herself as the shrillest ultra-conservative in the race. Now, for the general election, she re-positions herself as a moderate. Lisa puts Lisa first.

What is the cost of voting for McAdams? Joe Miller might win. And what’s the cost of that? Miller would have one vote in the Senate, as did Lisa. Either way, it’s a lost vote for moderates.

If Joe should get in, judging from the almost daily revelations about him during this campaign, it’s hard to imagine he could last a full term, let alone be re-elected. By contrast, if Lisa gets in, she likely will be there, voting against us, for as long as her daddy was.

I think McAdams’ message is right: Don’t vote your fears, vote your values. This guy’s the true moderate in the race. He ran a terrific campaign, and he’s got a real shot. If he loses, it will be a damn shame if he is defeated by the very people who share his values.

Cenk Uygur on Rachel Maddow's Interview with Joe the Teabagger

Ouch! - New Poll Out - Joe the Teabagger Down to the Bottom of His Base: 23% - Updated

This is bad.

Joe the Plummeter.

Even Papa Pilgrim would get 22% from Joe's base:

A pretty stunning new poll of Alaska's Senate race shows Joe Miller, the Republican candidate and clear favorite since his primary win, suddenly dropping to third place. And third place is a bad place to be, days before an election.

The poll shows Sen. Lisa Murkowski, whom Miller vanquished in his August primary with the help of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party, presumably taking the lead as "write-in candidates" — effectively meaning her — got 34% of support. Democrat Scott McAdams is in second with 29%, and old has-been Joe Miller is now at 23%.

Update: Ivan Moore joins me in predicting a third-place finish for Joe the Plummeter:

After the reassignment of the 5 percent who can’t be bothered to vote a write-in, the vote changes to Lisa 35.6 percent; Joe 33.5 percent; Scott 30.9 percent. Then after a 10 percent chunk falls off Lisa through invalid write-in ballots (the equivalent of the invalidation of about 9,000 votes), the final result becomes Joe 34.7 percent; Lisa 33.3 percent; Scott 32.0 percent.

OK, we’ve got a real problem here, people. Joe wins.

The crazy thing is this. If the nonpartisans, instead of breaking 50–30–20 to Lisa–Scott–Joe, instead go 50–35–15, then Scott wins. If Lisa, instead of getting 50 percent, gets 52 percent of the nonpartisan vote, she wins. It really is poised on a knife-edge.

So this is what we do. We need to engineer a little unity in the No-Joe vote. I’m flipping a coin. No, I really am. Heads it’s Scott, tails it’s Lisa. OK? Is everyone agreed? OK?

Ivan goes on to predict "tails."

I'm more optimistic. Three out of five came up "heads" for me.

Joe the Teabagger Campaign Death Spiral Watch - Day 17: Fill in the Blanks

I. The release of some items from Joe the Teabagger's Fairbanks North Star Borough personnel file related to his suspension after committing a few felonies as he hacked his colleagues' computers by stealing their passwords, then deleted confidential material from those computers' hard drives in a lame, almost insane attempt to cover his tracks, his layers and layers of lies as he denied he had committed those crimes, open up all sorts of possibilities as to how out-of-whack this imposter actually may be.

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank has been writing about Joe occasionally. Today's WaPo contains his most recent piece, titled "What's Wrong with Joe Miller?"

Some journalists and bloggers have been stalking the Alaska Republican Senate nominee to see whether he's receiving military disability benefits, and, if so, for what. The court-ordered release of documents from his last workplace, the Fairbanks North Star Borough local government, only deepens the mystery. The judge had medical information redacted, causing the documents -- a series of 2009 e-mails released late Tuesday -- to read like a Mad Libs exercise. (We encourage readers to fill in the blanks in the comments section of this post.)

Writes Miller to a colleague in an e-mail:

I'm scheduled for _______ in Anchorage on Monday, _______ is Thursday in Anchorage. I don't know what the recovery time is and won't know until after my _______ on Thursday. Apparently, the _______________my _______.

Miller also writes:

"Although the ______ is serious, it's my understanding that this type of _____ does not have an extensive recovery period."

And then this:

"Again, although the reason for the leave was for my ______ (completed), ______ (completed), and ______ (canceled but being rescheduled locally), it was submitted as personal leave."

And this:

"I canceled my _____ with VA in Anchorage yesterday and am now trying to reschedule with Wade."

Milbank goes on, later in his essay:

Whatever the blank was wrong with Miller, his colleagues seemed to agree that he was under a great deal of pressure and was not to be trusted.

He wasn't. And isn't. One commenter at Milbank's piece decided to fill in the blanks:

figured out the blanks:

"Again, although the reason for the leave was for my ______ (completed), ______ (completed), and ______ (canceled but being rescheduled locally), it was submitted as personal leave."

"Again, although the reason for the leave was for my shock treatment (completed), lobotomy brain surgery (completed), and mental health counselling (canceled but being rescheduled locally), it was submitted as personal leave."

Be my guest to fill in the blanks your own way in the comments.

II. Wednesday morning I called in to Dave Stieren's KFQD show (hour two, from 8:26 to 8:57). There wasn't much of an exchange, as I had no time for Stieren's BS, just enough time to comment:

Phil: I read through the sequence of lies he told [his employer], and it's incredible. He keeps on making new stuff up.

I ran the Whittier boat harbor for five years and hired and fired a lot of people. I ran the Cordova Center, the state's biggest halfway house for two years, hired and fired a lot of people. I sent people back to prison from there.

Had any [employee] done what Joe Miller did to me, I would have had him fired. Had they appealed it, they would have LOST. I sent people back to prison for less than what Miller did in Fairbanks.

Stieren: Thank you, Phil.

Phil: Bye.

III. Anchorage's Dan Fagan has just had his last defense of Joe Miller posted at the Anchorage Press' web site. I suppose it will also be in today's print edition. In an essay that does not once mention the word "lie," Fagan concludes:

The media is saying with this election cycle, “Hell yeah, we will take down Joe Miller. Eventually something we throw at him will stick.”

I must have missed something, Dan. What didn't stick? Your BFF, Joe the Teabagger is getting pretty goopy by now with all the stuff that has stuck, don't you think?