A Visit to Ted's Anchorage Campaign Office

That was on Tuesday afternoon. Yesterday this YouTube was featured as the header of my article at the national progressive blog, firedoglake, where we concluded the two-week long poetry contest there, called TedFest! Earlier in the afternoon, I was the guest, along with KSKA/KAKM's John Proffitt, on a KSKA Community Forum program about blogging.

John is very savvy on web-based content. As we sat there across from Nellie Moore, answering her questions for listeners, John was blogging away, both at the base site for the program, and at his own blog, Gravity Medium. I had my laptop on too, and based on a comment from caller Bill Hess, I updated Progressive Alaska, to give Bill the photo credit for his amazing photograph taken of Latseen and Diane Benson, taken almost twenty years ago.

What a pleasure, working within the course of two days, with Nellie Moore, John Proffitt, Dennis Zaki, and the exceptional people at firedoglake. And making the guerrilla YouTube at the top here was a lot of fun. Both Dennis and I are getting a lot of positive feedback. Looks like Don and Sean get our treatment next, folks.

And - I'm hoping to introduce one of Alaska's finest new progressive voices to our readers here soon......

TedFest! - The Arraignment Edition

I'll be hosting the last installment of the blog firedoglake's Ted Stevens poetry contest at 5:00 p.m. Alaska time.

The blog entry includes a great YouTube Dennis Zaki from The Alaska Report produced, of the presentation of the 121 poems that were entered into the contest, and qualified, at Sen. Stevens' Anchorage Campaign HQ yesterday afternoon.

Dennis has been busy since yesterday morning, and it was so cool that he was able to find the time to help on this.

Thanks, Dennis!

Alaska vigils for Unitarian Universalist Church shootings

Alaska vigil for Unitarian Universalist Church shootings:

Anchorage: Wednesday at 7:30 pm


ANCHORAGE DATE:

Wednesday, July 30th 2008

TIME: 7:30pm

LOCATION: Anchorage Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
3201 Turnagain Street
Anchorage, AK 99517

There was a vigil yesterday in Juneau.

hat tip -- Bent Alaska

First Major Article in the National Media on One of Our Democratic Party AK-AL U.S. House Candidates!

Progressive Alaska has written extensively about the two Democratic Party candidates in the upcoming U.S. House Democratic Party Primary. Neither Diane Benson nor Ethan Berkowitz has been covered in depth yet by the national media.

I'm surprised. It is an exciting race, pitting the old guard against somebody who wants to and has the ability to help rebuild our Democratic Party from the ground up on real 21st Century lines, untainted by VECO, Fox News, Bill O'Reilly's producer, corrupt mortgage bankers, and the top executives at the war profiteering Carlyle Group.

The Nation's chief editor, and frequent MSNBC, CNN, PBS and ABC commentator, Katrina vanden Heuvel, has just finished a long, in-depth interview and article on Diane Benson. Let's hope it attracts more attention to her, this race, and on a new direction in our political future.

image by Bill Hess

St. Ted to Be Indicted in Minutes - uh, Make That - Hours

According to Talking Points Memo Muckraker, Sen. Ted Stevens will be arraigned in Federal Court Thursday at 9:00 a.m. Alaska time. The arraigning judge is the Hon. Emmet G. Sullivan. Sen. Stevens has also been ordered "to contact pretrial services for a preliminary interview before the arraignment," according to the report.

The federal prosecutors expected to handle the case are Joseph W. Bottini and James A. Goeke.

image by Dennis Zaki

About to Deliver a Series of Toobz

On my way in to rendezvous with Dennis Zaki at Sen. Ted Stevens' Anchorage Campaign HQ. Corner of Fireweed and Denali.

We'll be filming at 5:00 p.m.....

image - series of tubes - the firedoglake TedFest! Ted Stevens poems

He's Been Framed!

Just kidding......

Damn! We can't sit on our oars, Democrats and progressive independents. We need to keep attacking the morals, ethics, ineptitude and criminality of the Corrupt Bastards who run the GOP.

And we need to fight hard to elect Democrats with NO TIES WHATSOEVER to lobbyists and PACs whose membership roles represent the paradigm that Ted Stevens has been such a vital part of.

CNN is showing the FBI/DOJ press conference.

The Alaska Report is reporting that Senate rules require that Ted Stevens resign. Who will Sarah appoint? Sean Parnell? Todd Palin? .....?

Shannyn Moore tells me she called the Senate Rules Committee office. Although the office is unaware of a Senate rule that would mandate Stevens' resignation, they're "dusting off" some rule books that haven't been cracked open in a while. At this time, they feel the rule is a Republican Party rule. And as we all know here, the GOP always follows their own rules.

Update - noon: Phone ringing off the hook. Here's one great scenario that has some Democrats unnecessarily worried:

1) Ted wins primary
2) Sean wins primary
3) Ted steps down
4) GOP puts Palin on the U.S. Senate ticket in Ted's place
5) Combination of Sarah and Sean on national-level ticket draws fungelicals and GOP nutcases out to vote GOP in November, leading to Alaska GOP landslide
6) Talis Colberg becomes Alaska Governor
7) Bush pardons Ted

problem is, though, the Sean Parnell campaign is about 72 hours from imploding. More on that soon.........

image for Progressive Alaska by Darkblack © 2007

"A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth"

That could well be a framed quote on Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell's Juneau office wall. He's basically found a way to avoid any situation where he might be forced to "tell the truth" in a setting where his version of the "truth" can be compared to that of U.S. Rep. Don Young's version. He has yet to appear on the same stage as Rep. Young, at the same time.

That's too bad, because any opportunity for them to be compared to each other, will leave most voters looking forward to voting for either Diane Benson or Ethan Berkowitz, the Democratic Party contenders in the August 26 Alaska Primary.

There are currently four forums scheduled that match all the contenders for the AK-AL U.S. House seat:

August 4 Decision 2008: Anchorage KTUU Channel 2 News Congressional Debate
August 12 Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce Congressional Candidate Forum
August 20 Running: KAKM Candidate Forum for US House candidates
August 22 Soldotna Congressional Candidate Forum

There is also a Candidate Forum scheduled to be held by the Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce between Sean Parnell and Don Young, on August 1. According to Blaine Ashcraft, the Ketchikan Chamber's Executive Director, there are currently no plans for holding a forum there between Diane Benson and Ethan Berkowitz, but, he says, "that could change."

I'm particularly intrigued about Parnell's possible future appearances in these forums, because he did so terribly in the Hispanic Affairs Council of Alaska forum in May. As a Democrat, I want people to see our candidates and the GOP's. I'm convinced of five things:

1. When people see Benson and Berkowitz appear on the same stage with Young and Parnell, they will be more likely to vote for Benson or Berkowitz.

2. The more people who vote for our ticket in August, the more will vote Democrat in November.

3. If less than 75,000 people vote Democrat in August, Berkowitz will win.

4. If more than 85,000 vote Democrat in August, Benson will win.

5. In order for Democrats to elect Begich in November and to gain a majority in our state legislature, at least 80,000 need to vote Democrat in August.

headline is a famous saying by Michael Kinsley

Note to Anchorage Right-Wing AM Talk Radio Hosts - Talk About This, Assholes!

Yesterday, a sick Tennessee man who had been listening to too much Right-Wing hate messaging, shot nine people at a church. Two of the nine victims have died. The shooter, Jim D. Adkisson, age 58, is in custody. The Knoxville police have found a note, in which Adkisson gave, as one of his reasons for wanting to kill, as "his stated hatred of the liberal movement."

So far, very little attention to this sad event has been paid by the Right-Wing blogosphere. The Right-leaning broadcast media, are reporting the details in ways that underplay their role in creating an atmosphere of hate toward gays, non-whites, Latinos and Arabs, and toward - liberals.

I challenge Anchorage's most anti-Muslim, anti-liberal radio personality, Dan Fagan, to admit one single itty-bitty smidgeon of co-responsibility in the creation of an atmosphere that helps nutcases like this finally go over the edge. I doubt he will.

Nor will his other employer, the Anchorage Daily News, spend a millisecond evaluating how their elevation of Fagan's stature by cross-platforming him also shares responsibility for this.

Progressive Alaska has addressed this issue before, regarding Fagan's spreading of disinformation about Muslims that can - and does - fuel hate.

Intentionally spreading disinformation to the degree Right-Wing fear warpers do isn't a crime, and in most cases, isn't a tort. But it is intrinsically wrong, morally. The reaction from our side to this shouldn't be attempts to stifle or censor creeps like Fagan.

It should be to avoid patronizing their sponsors.

As the Pacific Northwest's outstanding expert on the role of AM radio in hate rhetoric, David Neiwert, stated this morning, regarding this shooting:

No one’s saying that the culpability is a legal one. The culpability is moral. When you incessantly indulge rhetoric of the kind we get from the right on a regular basis, this is what happens. From Tim McVeigh to Eric Rudolph to Chad Castagana, there has been an endless parade of these folks whipped into acts of terrorism by the irresponsible rhetoric of people like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh. I don’t advocate legal sanctions but commercial ones.

image courtesy of David Neiwert

erin in hig in Anchorage in September - Where....?

Erin McKittrick and Bretwood Higman are spending the mid-summer weeks in Seldovia, where "hig's" parents live.

"I've been mostly working on my book," writes erin, "while Hig's been working on an image database (so we can put all our photos up free and map-linked online), and we've been juggling canning fish, building a shed, visitors, etc..."

They'll be passing through Anchorage in mid-September, on their way down to Seattle for a visit with more family there.

Last January near the beginning of their mid-winter Anchorage respite from their 4,000-mile motorless trek from Seattle to Unimak Island, Mariano Gonzales, Chairman of the UAA Art Department and I hosted erin and hig at the UAA Fine Arts Recital Hall. They gave a fairly stunning presentation of slides and videos from their trip up to that point.

At their January presentation, erin and hig filled the hall. At least 200 people wanted to hear, see and learn from this amazing couple, who are, as erin observed in her talk then, "just normal people, doing something that isn't quite normal." Anchorage coverage of their trip up to that point, and of their Anchorage visit was high quality, but surprisingly sparse. Shannyn Moore interviewed the couple on her KUDO talk show, and Craig Medred wrote a detailed feature article on their trek for the Anchorage Daily News. In February, APRN's AK series caught up with them.

I've been surprised at how little regional and national coverage the successful conclusion of their trip attracted. My personal view is that people who prove how much we can do on our own with no impact on the planet isn't news, because we're a civilization in rapid decline.

Alaska media and Alaska public figures have been spending most of the time since erin and hig looked across Unimak Pass, talking and writing about the necessity of more drilling, more mining. Our two Senators, our U.S. Representative, our Governor, our Lieutenant Governor (when he comes out from underneath the Governor's skirts) and the Mayor of Fairbanks, have all touted a "clean coal" power project at Eielson Air Force Base within the past two weeks. erin and hig walked 4,000 miles to question the wisdom of ideas like that, ideas like the Pebble Mine, ideas like offshore drilling in Bristol Bay.

Had erin and hig been eaten by bears, theirs would have been a national story. The ADN would have sent a crew of four to the site. KTUU would have spent anything it would take to get THAT story out on national TV first. But their success, its pure simplicity and utter directness is anti-thematic for the development crowd.

I'm wondering whether or not to produce erin and hig's show again at the UAA Fine Arts Recital Hall, or at a larger venue, such as Wendy Williamson Auditorium. We could possibly present their multimedia lecture twice at the smaller venue, or once at Wendy Williamson, which holds four and a half times as many guests - 910 seats.

Any thoughts.....?

images by erin