The leaves have grown on the trees. Hot is the wind. Summer is coming! SUMMER IS HERE!
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AKM is an acronym for AkMuckraker which is a name choice for the author of the great blog from Alaska called Mudflats with the subtitle Tiptoeing Through the Muck of Alaskan Politics. AKM has a very interesting new post, Troopergate’s Strange Bedfellows. Well, worth checking out, including perusing the over 200 responses so far. Will be interesting to see what happens up there on October 10.
Tags: AkMuckraker, alaska, strange bedfellows, troopergate
OK, there’s a great article in the latest New Yorker magazine with the title, The State of Sarah Palin, which happens to be online. I finished reading it yesterday and it gives a fine insight into not only her but Alaska as well: Alaska, that far-out state where Mastodon teeth are no big deal. Well, over 50% of the population are Independents, 25% Republicans, 15% Democrats, and they do have running water most places.
The article is by Philip Gourevitch who spent a few weeks up in Alaska interviewing her and discovering the lay of the land. The article has the sub-title, The peculiar political landscape of the Vice-Presidential hopeful. I came away from the reading with a better grasp of her personality and also that of Alaska.
OK, now that her popularity is in decline (see the chart below), I can say this will be my last word on this distraction. From now on it should be all about Obama! I agree with Anne Lamott in her post A Call to Arms.
Thanks to Matthew Yglesias for this chart from Research 200 Tracking and Poll Data.
Tags: anne lamott, democrats, distraction, independents, mastodon teeth, matthew yglesias, new yorker magazine, philip gourevitch, republicans, sarah palin
Mudflats nails it again, let us hope. Check her yesterday’s post Palin Throws Alaska Under the Bus. She leads in with the lead in paragraph from the Anchorage Daily News for yesterday morning:
GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is effectively turning over questions about her record as Alaska’s governor to John McCain’s political campaign, part of an ambitious Republican strategy to limit embarrassing disclosures and carefully shape her image for voters in the rest of the country.
Here’s what I think is her key paragraph epitomizing the mood — backlash against Palin — in Alaska today.
This is not going over well in Alaska. I’ll use my usual caveat that there are lots of Alaskans who happily subscribe to the “Sarah right or wrong” mentality, and will continue to do so. However, the progressive take on this whole latest mess is only slightly short of taking torches and pitchforks and surrounding the Attorney General’s office, demanding an end to the stonewalling. I’ve watched Alaskan progressives that I personally know go from saying, “Wow! I can’t believe I voted for a Republican!” to, “She’s doing OK. I don’t agree with everything, but I don’t regret my vote” to being so furiously seething angry they just can’t say anything.
Let’s hope she’s right. But it’s likely she does have her finger on the pulse of what’s going on in Alsaka.
Tags: alaskans, anchorage daily news, john mccain, progressives, republican strategy, sarah palin
Mudflats latest post is a storm warning! A legal blizzard is hitting Alaska. Suddenly five Republicans on the Legislative Council, consisting of eight Republicans and four Democrats, are bringing suit against the other members and the Council itself to delay the investigation until after the November 4th election, plus they are suing to remove two of the Democrats. This is the investigation of Palin’s dismissal of the Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan. Originally, the Council had voted unanimously to perform the investigation. Here’s what Mudflats says about Walt Monegan:
Walt Monegan was, in a word, beloved. He was beloved by the troopers he lead, the people he served, and basically anyone who had the privilege of working with him. He cared about people, the important issues, and he was the real deal. There are many Alaskans today thinking, “Who do these people think they are to come here, and tear down the likes of Walt Monegan?” You have to remember, the rest of the country is “outside”. We are “inside”. That feeling defines Alaskans. We don’t like the government coming in here and telling us how to run things, dammit. And we don’t like outsiders ripping apart respected public servants in our town.
Read the whole thing. It’s fascinating, very well written, and humorous to boot in spite of everything, or maybe because of it. There are already 133 371 405 responses.
See the typical moose below from which Sarah makes her burgers! This great moose picture comes from a Garrison Keillor article today, A liberal in moose country.
UPDATE: For a great slide show with music of the 50 photos taken at the anti-Palin rally in Anchorage on Sunday, Sept. 14, see here.
Tags: alaska, democrats, garrison keillor, legislative council, moose, public safety commissioner, republicans
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