Anchorage Gets a Homophobic Mayor - New England Gets Gay Marriage

--- by E. Ross

It's a good news, bad news week at Bent Alaska, and it's only Wednesday. The bad news is that Anchorage elected Sullivan to a three year term as mayor.

As a member of the Assembly, Dan

1. tried to block domestic partner benefits in Anchorage after the state Supreme Court granted them,

2. led the opposition against selling a municipal building to Out North, and

3. tried to block a PFLAG-sponsored display in the high schools.

On the Assembly, he was unsuccessful in these efforts against us. We hope that he will continue to be unsuccessful in pushing a far right social agenda in his role as mayor.

The good news

Gays and lesbians disappointed by the local news can take comfort in the great national progress on equal rights: Gay marriage is legal in Maine today, and might be legal in New Hampshire by next week.

The legislature of Maine passed a same sex marriage bill yesterday and Gov. Baldacci signed it today, the first time a governor signed a marriage equality bill without a court ruling.

The New Hampshire legislature also passed a marriage bill today. Gov. Lynch has five days to sign, veto, or ignore the bill. Will NH be the 6th state to legalize our marriages? (The current 5 are Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and Maine.)

The D.C. city council voted 12-1 to recognize same sex marriages, and Mayor Fenty is likely to sign the measure.

Marriage bills are also progressing in New York and New Jersey. New York already recognizes out-of-state same sex marriages.

Palin Plummets in Tailspin Toward House of Cards

cross-posted at Oxdown Gazette

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who was the most popular politician in the USA a year ago, is now far less popular in Alaska than US Sen. Lisa Murkowski, whose father Palin beat to become governor. Her positive rating is now at 54%, and her "very negative" rating is up from 3% a year ago, to 25%.

A new Hayes Research Group poll was published early Wednesday. On May 7th, 2008, just less than a year ago, Palin's popularity stood at 86% positive. It is now down to 54% pro-Palin. This 32% drop isn't as startling as her rise in unfavorables, though. The May 7th 2008 poll put all her unfavorables at 8%. This week, they stand at 41.6%. They have increased more than five-fold in a year when our governor was on a national ticket. How often does that happen?

I predicted this mid-50s poll a few weeks ago.

She just finished what is widely regarded as an awful job overseeing her own agenda during one of the most unproductive legislative sessions in Alaska history.

Saradise Lost - Book 2 - Chapter 49 -- What a Difference a Year Makes

Hayes Research Group on Sarah Palin on May 7th, 2008

Hayes Research Group on Sarah Palin on May 5th, 2009

Pretty much where I predicted the governor would be about now.

Tell me what you think she can do to shore up those numbers.

Saradise Lost - Book 2 - Chapter 48 -- The ADN, Stuck in the Middle of This

At 9:40 a.m. this morning, the Anchorage Daily News posted an article at their politics blog, about Bristol Palin's appearance on national television this morning, where she backtracked from her "sexual abstinence isn't realistic" pragmatism, to a position more in line with her mom's insistence that for everyone else in the world, unlike for Sarah Heath and Bristol Palin, abstinence works.

The ADN PoliBlog post, written by David Hulen, was typical ADN boilerplate stenography, including videos of Bristol Palin's TV appearance, and of Levi Johnston's TV appearance on another venue this morning. Hulen's piece was almost entirely derived from quotes you can find anywhere. They were strung together in humdrum fashion.

I do the same thing here at Progressive Alaska. Especially if I know I've beat outlets like the ADN by minutes, hours or days (anytime after 5:00 p.m. on Fridays usually works until at least the ADN Sunday edition) on a worthwhile story.

Last night, before the TV interviews, The Mudflats was way ahead of the ADN and all the rest of us. As AK Muckraker just explained to me over the phone, when she heard the name "Candies Foundation," a bell rang. She did some checking, discovering that the foundation with which Bristol is working, comes up with a wide array of products, ads, and philanthropic endeavors.

AK Muckraker put up a post last night, called Celebrating Mixed Messages. The photo at the top of this post (thanks, Mudflats) is one of the candies.com's least provocative fashion (as in femdom boots) ads.

The Mudflats article links to a number of statements which show how manipulated young Bristol appears to be in this present scenario. The ADN poliblog post wouldn't dare to be so critical of the Palins' duplicity and hypocrisy.

The ADN poliblog entry, now up at their site for about nine hours, claims to have all of 25 comments. 18 of them show up. The Mudflats post, up since late last night, now has 342 responses. All of them show up if you scroll down through the pages of interesting conversation.

This is another example of how and why ossified response structures like the ADN, for instance, are becoming less relevant on some topics than rapid response structures like The Mudflats, for instance.

And, more or less, PA predicted that what is happening with Bristol's manipulation in the media was inevitable. On November 15th, and on February 16th. Once again - the ADN wouldn't have and couldn't have dared to discuss what was to many of us, blindingly obvious.

Saradise Found - Chapter 7 -- Limbaugh's Latest Remarks on Palin, and a New DNC Web Ad

Here's a transcript of Rush Limbaugh's remarks about Sarah Palin, from his Tuesday radio program (thanks to Dave Neiwert):

You know what's more confusing to me is why the people that don't like her don't like her. That's what gets me scratching my head. The people on our side, not the left. I understand -- the left is scared to death of her. The left is still out there trying to destroy Sarah Palin. She's up in Alaska, they're filing ethics complaints against her every week, forcing her to have to have a legal-defense fund. They're trying to break her! They're trying to make her go broke so she won't be able to have a political future. They're scared to death of her. If they aweren't, they'd leave her alone, they'd let her go moose hunting! And that would be it!

Why -- you see how easy the conventional wisdom is? The conventional wisdom is that Palin is a dork, that Palin is an idiot, that Palin's unsophisticated, or Palin's this or that, she doesn't know the lingo or she has a bad wardrobe, all this irrelevant stuff! To try to destroy her, to destroy her credibility with people, to impugn her. I just listened to what she said, I liked what she said, and I liked the way she said it. It's no more complicated than that.

Here's a brand new Democratic National Committee Web Ad:

A Call to Arms!

The most chilling paragraph in the unfortunate Anchorage Daily News editorial on May 3rd, that criticized citizen activists for filing ethics complaints against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was this one:

If you file a complaint against a legislator and then blab to the media about it, your complaint is automatically dismissed. That protection doesn't apply to ethics complaints involving the executive branch. It should.

First of all, the entire editorial was one of the most unprofessional ever penned by the ADN editorial staff. Its research was incredibly faulty. It endorsed a position of less strenuous ethics laws in a state that is in the midst of sending ethically challenged politicians to prison at a rate of about 2.7 per year, in spite of state laws that are so weak the Feds have to step in to bust our political crooks.

Secondly, it seemed to indicate that the writer (anonymous, at that) knew something about what is going on here that the complainants didn't. But its lofty tone disallowed the readers from being in on the "goodies."

Is the ADN stretching the story out to build readership in the narrative of the editorial? Or, more likely, are they having to creatively deal with their latest harangues from state employee Bill McAllister and Palin employee Meghan Stapletongue?

The McCain-Palin 2008 campaign forever changed Alaska politics. Until September 2008, we were mostly an under-informed state. Politicians took advantage of that. Since then, as the nation looked at our ways in a manner that was glaring, some took their responsibility more seriously than others.

As the crowds outside of Palin appearances were documented by Alaska bloggers and Outside bloggers for their racist, millennialist and anti-science makeup, we challenged local media to cover that. They didn't.

As Palin became the biggest American political joke of the 21st century, Alaska bloggers challenged local media to cover that. They didn't.

When, after the McCain-Palin ticket's historic loss, Alaska media failed to gauge it for what it meant in terms of Palin's role, and Alaska bloggers challenged our media to assess that, they started to turn on us.

When the major failures of Palin during the 2009 legislative session became clear, Alaska progressive bloggers told a far more accurate and comprehensive story of that, and of the emerging rural Alaska food and fuel crisis, than did Alaska's established media. During that time, the resentment of some organs of Alaska's traditional media toward emerging media has grown, though it is sometimes subtle.

Alaska's progressive bloggers' role in covering most of the ethics complaints against Gov. Palin is common knowledge among people who closely follow Alaska politics. But, just like the Anchorage Daily News, for instance, has never given a fair assessment of Ray Metcalfe, they aren't even close to considering giving us one. Nobody is holding their breath waiting for a fair evaluation, though.

Instead, they couch their resentment against our increasing role in Alaska media with veiled stuff hidden in exceedingly poorly written editorials, like their paean to Wayne Anthony Ross' Attorney General confirmation, their endorsement of Anchorage Mayor-elect Dan Sullivan, and their uninformed bullshit about ethics law.

While the ADN calls for more protections for our governor, Alaska's bloggers are helping to create the ADN's and other media outlets' successor formats. Monday, Alaska progressive icon Jeremey Lansman put Camille Conte back on the air. Briefly. But more may come from this.

Lansman's operations need a better signal on the FM airwaves. This potentially new paradigm needs a comprehensively thought out, monetized and publicized format.

I'd like to see the IBEW have the courage to audit where their money went between Aaron Selbig's termination and last week.

Selbig had a few months that came close to breaking even, one month that may have even done that. From what I hear, that wasn't the case in their KUDO financing since the April, 2008 changes. Why?

I'd like to see something like Lansman's duct-tape, solder, perspiration and quirky genius machinery go up against Alaska's ossifying media empires, head-to-head, face-to-face, hour-to-hour, with good, honest publicists promoting the packages.

Two Updates from the Comments - Wednesday, 3:40 p.m:

Jeremy Lansman wrote:

FYI - I am working on rebuilding the 92.5 KWMD translator. It is broadcasting silence now, but when we get audio back into it it, I hope before Friday, should extend a good signal to Eagle River and much of Mat-Su. As KWMD (FM) is solid in central Kenai, and much of South Anchorage its coverage should be roughly comparable to KUDO (AM). The important question is where is the funding for local hosted programs of a different political outlook than those on KENI, KBYR and KFQD? It would be nice to think that some more progressive business people would support alternatives to the right wing media blasters, but I won't hold my breath.

And commenter Roger linked to an excellent article written yesterday by my firedoglake friend bmaz. It is about other aspects of new media vs. old, particularly, the case of the Boston Globe.

image - Camille Conte & Jeremy Lansman broadcasting on Monday - by Steve Aufrecht

Do the C4P Folks Hope She Shoots the Bear - or Mitt?

From the endlessly entertaining folks at Conservatives4Palin:

YIKES! - The Green Crab Invasion of Alaska Coming? Probably

At Wesley Loy's new blog, Deckboss, Loy has posted an article on the probable appearance soon in Alaska waters of the Green Crab. From the article provided by NOAA:

Green crabs top out at about 10 centimeters (4 inches) across. They displace native species with their voracious eating and breeding habits: clams, oyster, mussels, marine worms and other crabs fall prey. Green crabs also devour herring, salmon bones, or canned cat food, which are most commonly used to bait the traps.

The crabs appear to be moving northward on the currents. Scientists have found them in substantial numbers on the outside coastline of Vancouver Island in British Columbia and speculate that they may have already spread northward to the Queen Charlotte Islands. Vigilant monitors have not yet found any green crabs in Alaska, but the estuaries and sheltered coves of Southeast Alaska are the most likely first sighting points.

Green crabs can also hitch a ride in ballast water of ships.

So in Dutch Harbor, Homer, Kodiak, Tatitlek, Whittier, Valdez, Cordova and Chenega in western and south-central Alaska as well as Glacier Bay, Sitka, Juneau and Ketchikan in southeast Alaska, dedicated individuals are regularly wading into the shallows to check their traps.

upper image by Linda Shaw, NOAA

Sen. Begich Recommends Alaska Chief Justice Dana Fabe for Upcoming U.S. Supreme Court Vacancy

From Sen. Mark Begich's office:

As President Obama faces his first Supreme Court vacancy, U.S. Sen. Mark Begich has recommended the consideration of Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice Dana Fabe. Sen. Begich sent a letter to the president today urging him to consider Fabe for the seat.

“As you prepare to fill the upcoming opening on the United States Supreme Court, I urge you to consider one of the finest judges my state has produced in 50 years of statehood – Alaska Supreme Court Justice Dana Fabe,” Sen. Begich writes in his letter.

Chief Justice Fabe has a varied and distinguished 33-year legal career in Alaska. The first woman appointed to Alaska’s highest court, she is currently serving the last year of her second three-year term as Chief Justice of the Alaska Supreme Court. Justice Fabe’s colleagues have chosen her as the Chief Justice in 2000 and 2006.

“As a modern day Alaska pioneer, Chief Justice Fabe has served the state of Alaska with distinction befitting proper consideration for the United States Supreme Court,” Sen. Begich said.

“As Alaska’s first female Supreme Court Justice and Chief Justice, Justice Fabe has served with steadfast respect for the judicial process and the rule of law."

Attending school on the East Coast at Cornell for undergraduate studies and Northeastern for Law School, Fabe received her Juris Doctorate in 1976 and then came to Alaska. Starting as a clerk for Justice Edmond Burke in 1976, she has served in several areas of the Alaska judicial system, including Chief Public Defender for Alaska and on the Anchorage Superior Court.

Over her career, Justice Fabe has tried criminal and civil cases and defended those standing before the courts. Her experience on both sides of the bench has granted her a unique perspective on how legal decisions impact the average citizen.

“President Obama is looking for a Justice of unique character who will bring a real-life understanding and perspective to the Supreme Court. With her varied background and unique legal expertise, there is no doubt in my mind that Chief Justice Fabe would make an ideal U.S. Supreme Court Justice,” Sen. Begich said.

The current U.S. Supreme Court vacancy is subject to the intended retirement of Justice David Souter at the conclusion of the court’s current term.

Two YouTubes On The Current Nuttiness on the Far Right

Guys like this one must get their political messages through the fillings in their teeth:


My friend Max Blumenthal investigates gun nuttiness. When Max stayed with us in Wasilla, one of the places I brought him was Chimo Guns, one of my favorite weapon stores. Here's Max at a big gun show in the Lower 48:

BTW, I own two shotguns, two pistols and three rifles, and love to shoot.