Wickersham's Conscience

Jamie Smith has a way of capturing an entire argument in a drawing that WC admires very much. And he makes you smile; well, if you’re not a teabagger. Here’s three of his recent Joe Miller pieces. Jamie, WC takes you at your word that folks can “Feel free to rip off & repost.”

This last one is likely to annoy the copyright goons at Miller Brewing Company to no end, but it’s been years since WC has heard from his friend, Dan Conley, anyway. “Fair use” and all that.

UPDATE: Jamie has asked WC to say, “I swiped that ‘Genuine Daft’ classic courtesy of Packy89 via the original post over at A Bodenstown Perspective. Credit where credit’s due…
Linkage at:
http://inksnow.blogspot.com/2010/10/official-ink-snow-voters-guide.html

The October 15, 2010 issue of Rolling Stone features an article by Matt Taibbi that’s as furious a broadside against the Tea Party as anything the Teabaggers have ever loosed against liberals. Portions of the article may not be suitable for those with . . . tender . . . sensibilities. A sample:

[T]he Republicans managed to get back in the game anyway by plucking an assortment of nativist freaks, village idiots and Internet Hitlers out of thin air and training them into a giant ball of incoherent resentment just in time for the 2010 midterms.

It’s also a mighty pessimistic piece of political reporting. But in terms of what’s happened to the Tea Party movement, including Joe Miller, it’s pretty accurate.

Enjoy.

As WC has posted earlier, he supports Ethan Berkowitz for Governor. WC is not a huge fan of Berkowitz; he sometimes panders to the voters and some of his ideas are frankly weird. But if you can’t strongly support any of the candidates, then your only choice as a voter is to choose the lesser of two evils.

Sean Parnell in the APRN debates Friday night, when asked if the Earth is closer to 6,000 or 6 billion years old, dodged the question, saying, “Only God knows how old the Earth is.” Now WC thinks the Creationists are folks who ignore 99% of the evidence to cling to a badly translated book, written by men who thought the Sun circled the Earth. But at least Creationists have the courage of their convictions. Parnell lacks the courage to cling to Creationism and lacks the honesty to call Creationism hooey. In an effort to avoid offending the religious right, he has devolved into a spineless jellyfish.

Sean Parnell insists AGIA (the grandly named, Alaska Gasline Inducement Act) has worked. But he won’t release the proof. He insists it must be kept confidential until after the election. Heh. It would have been easy to write the “Open Season” rules to make disclosure much earlier. Occam’s Razor requires the simpler answer: AGIA is busted, but the voters won’t find out until after November 2. Parnell may be sitting on a busted flush, and dare not fold.

Sean Parnell sent WC an unsolicited email. In it, he referred to “Obama’s team in Alaska – Oberkowitz and Obenson.” Please, we’re all out of kindergarten now. Silly name-calling is a waste of my time and a politician’s energy.

Sean Parnell has filed two lawsuits in an effort to stop enforcement of the Endangered Species Act, a lawsuit to stop implementation of health care reform, and yet another lawsuit to lift the moratorium on off-shore drilling for oil and gas. Now WC thinks lawsuits and paying money to lawyers is great. Especially the paying part. But Parnell’s lawsuits don’t solve the problems. The Beluga whales have gone missing. Global warming is devastating Alaska’s polar bear populations. There is a very real crisis in health care. Filing lawsuits isn’t going to solve any of those problems.

Parnell is also rude, in the sense of having bad manners and giving needless offense.

And, for WC, Parnell is tainted by his association with his former boss.

Berkowitz has pandered and his idea for citizen ownership of an Alaska natural gas line has some problems. But at least they are ideas. Parnell doesn’t have many ideas; he has lawsuits and excuses. And the business about Creationism reveals far more about Parnell’s approach to tough issues than Parnell likely intended.

Which makes Berkowitz the lesser of the two evils.

Tomorrow is the 493rd anniversary of Martin Luther‘s posting his 95 Theses on the door of Castle Church, Wittenberg, Germany. To celebrate, WC offers his own 95 Theses, 95 reasons not to vote for Joe Miller. Trust WC, readers; it was difficult to narrow the field to just 95 reasons.

Have you taken your anti-nausea medicine? Rubber gloves and boots on? Good, let’s get started.

1. He engaged in unprincipled, unscrupulous behavior in an attempt to defeat a fellow Republican, Randy Ruedrich.
2. He lied to his employer about whether he had misused his Borough computer.
3. He lied to his employer about whether he had misused his colleagues’ computers.
4. He tried to stuff an electronic ballot box.
5. He tried to cover his crimes by deleting the cache files on his colleagues’ computers.
6. He blamed the victims for his crimes, the conduct of a scoundrel.
7. He appears to have committed a Class C Felony, Criminal Use of a Computer, AS 11.46.740.
8. He has attempted to minimize his criminal activities by claiming he performed the crime on his lunch hour.
9. He deliberately and falsely claimed he could not disclose his Borough personnel file because of the attorney-client privilege.
10. He quit the Borough in an unprofessional way that injured his client, the Borough.
11. He deleted his emails when he quit, injuring his client.
12. He allowed Randy Ruedrich and Ralph Seekins, among others, to claim he had done nothing wrong, when he knew he had.
13. He misled the voters about the seriousness of his misconduct at the Borough.
14. He allowed Randy Ruedrich and others to defame Jim Whitaker, when he knew Whitaker had spoken nothing but the truth.
15. He attempted to intimidate Jim Whitaker by filing a meritless lawsuit against him.
16. He attempted to conceal his misconduct at the Borough from the voters.
17. He attempted to stonewall the voters as to his conduct at the Borough, rather than coming forward with the truth.
18. He complains incessantly about invasions of his privacy while hiding critical information from the voters.
19. He has denied and continues to deny voters access to critical information about his past.
20. He was arrogant enough to believe he could get away with hiding his misconduct.
21. He was arrogant enough to say, or permit an undisclosed staffer to say, he was measuring the drapes for his Senate office.
22. He is arrogant enough to really believe he has “Mastered the law,” and posted the statement on his website.
23. He describes his career at the Borough, where he was disciplined for very serious misconduct, as “second to none.”
24. He believes himself to be smarter than Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ross Perot.
25. He is so arrogant he thinks the beard is attractive.
26. He has failed to timely file reports with election officials.
27. He has filed incomplete reports with election officials.
28. He believes a Constitution written in 1789 can be applied, unchanged, in 2010.
29. He believes social security is unconstitutional
30. He falsely claims that the social security system is bankrupt.
31. He falsely implies that privatization is the only solution to the funding challenges facing social security.
32. He falsely claims that Congress has “raided” the social security trust fund.
33. He believes medicaid is unconstitutional.
34. He has accepted the very Medicaid he claims is unconstitutional.
35. He believes farm subsidies are unconstitutional.
36. He has accepted the very farm subsidies he claims are unconstitutional.

Time for a break. Take some deep breaths. You’re more than a third of the way. Ready? Then let’s resume.

37. He believes unemployment insurance is unconstitutional.
38. He falsely claimed that unemployment insurance is an entitlement program.
39. His spouse has claimed the very unemployment insurance he claims are unconstitutional.
40. He accepted a free undergraduate education from the U.S. Army, but quit the Army at the very earliest opportunity.
41. He called, or permitted an undisclosed staffer, to call his opponent a prostitute.
42. He permitted his security goons to assault and handcuff a newspaper editor who was asking him hard questions.
43. He has apparently committed or assisted others in committing the crime of Interference With Constitutional Rights, AS 11.76.110, a Class A misdemeanor.
44. He forced or permitted an undisclosed staffer to force Anchorage Daily News reporter Julia O’Malley to leave a meeting advertised as open to the public.
45. He has a demonstrated record of profound disregard for the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
46. He accepts the support of Sarah Palin.
47. He accepted money from a PAC, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, monies that are tainted by contributions from foreign corporations.
48. He has hypocritically complained that one of his opponents accepted money from a PAC.
49. He has suggested a Berlin Wall on the U.S.-Mexico border as a solution to illegal immigration.
50. He thinks the Federal minimum wage is unconstitutional.
51. He claims federal farm subsidies are unconstitutional, yet has personally accepted federal farm subsidies.
52. He has claimed he was a judge, when he was never more than a magistrate.
53. He is a global warming denier.
54. He has lied about the evidence for anthropogenic global warming.
55. He has ignored incontrovertible evidence in his claimed home state of Alaska that there is global warming.
56. He falsely claims two-third of Alaska is owned by the Federal government.
57. He falsely claims that Federal government has broken promises to Alaska.
58. He has intentionally disregarded the Republican Party’s Statement of Principles by refusing to disclose important information.
59. He has been called out for his conduct by moderate Republicans in an open letter dated October 20, 2010.
60. He has engaged in unseemly, inappropriate boasting about his military honors.
61. He has engaged in unethical behavior in violation of the Alaska Bar Association’s Code of Professional Responsibility (“the CPR”) by lying about his activities to a client.
62. He has violated the CPR by using computers in violation of the law.
63. He has violated the CPR by withdrawing as counsel without taking adequate steps to protect his client.
64. He has published campaign advertising that deliberately and materially misstates his opponents’ positions.
65. He has permitted others to publish campaign advertising that deliberately and materially misstates his opponents’ positions.
66. In his 2004 campaign against David Guttenberg, he supported government spending for education; now he opposes it.
67. In his 2004 campaign, he supported government health care; now he opposes it.
68. In his 2004 campaign, he was in favor of government spending; now he opposes it.
69. He has called for an end to federal spending in Alaska, even though it constitutes 40% of the Fairbanks economy.
70. He doesn’t even pay his Borough property taxes on time.
71. He cannot responsibly manage his own financial affairs; he has more than $100,000 in credit card debt.

Nearly done. WC recommends aspirin and a cold compress for the headache.

72. He is knowingly helping “camouflage a billionaires’ coup as a populist surge.”
73. He is a Tenth Amendment absolutist, but only so long as it serves his interests.
74. He has demanded national treasures like Denali National Park be surrendered to the State of Alaska, in violation of the Alaska Constitution.
75. He accepts, without criticism or apology, the parade of weapons-brandishing beer-bellies carrying his signs in a children’s parade.
76. While he waxes hysterical about the federal deficit, he hasn’t offered one specific proposal to substantively reduce it.
77. He has lied about the causes of the federal deficit.
78. By acting as a stooge for the Koch brothers, biggest supporters of the Tea Party, he is once against betraying Alaska to billionaires.
79. He rails against government spending, yet almost all of his life he has worked for and accepted government paychecks.
80. He opposes a woman’s right to choose.
81. He opposes abortion in the case of rape or incest.
82. He has single-handedly contributed to the overpopulation of the planet, when over-population is one of the great crises of our time.
83. He is, in the words of Paul Krugman, “the epitome of short-term, narrow-minded selfishness.”
84. He opposes meaningful health care reform.
85. He has ignored the fundamental economics of recessions, and risks prolonging and worsening the economic downturn.
86. Despite the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, he opposes a moratorium on off-shore drilling.
87. He has grossly exaggerated his legal experience.
88. He believes creationism should be taught in schools.
89. He has held at least six different jobs in 15 years, raising serious questions about his commitment.
90. His claimed beliefs and principles are belied by his actual conduct.
91. He is an unscrupulous opportunist.
92. He is too ignorant of Alaska’s economics and history to be a U.S. Senator.
93. He is too arrogant to be a U.S. Senator.
94. He is too dishonest to be a U.S. Senator.
95. He is utterly unworthy of your vote.

The opinions in this post are solely those of WC. This post has not been approved by any candidate. No expenses were incurred in creating this post. No electrons were harmed in creating this post.

Sarah Palin, after losing a bid for the Lt. Governorship in 2002, was awarded a consolation prize: a seat on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. She famously resigned as a commissioner to protest fellow commissioner Randy Ruedrich’s ethics violations: he used Commission computers on Republican Party business and possibly leaked confidential information. That ethical stand, that apparent principled action, started Palin on her road to fame.

Now, Palin’s personal pick for the U.S. Senate, Joe Miller, has admitted to a far worse ethical violation: he not only used his work computer, he also used his colleagues’ work computers, on Republican Party business. And he tried to hide it. And he lied about it. Repeatedly. Joe Miller’s actions, by any objective measure, are far worse than the stuff for which Palin called out Ruedrich. What would Palin do?

Appear on stage last night in Anchorage to support Joe Miller, of course. Give him a hug and a peck on the cheek in front of the whole world.

The only way to distinguish between Palin’s conduct with Ruedrich and Palin’s conduct with Miller is that it serves Palin’s immediate self-interest to support Joe Miller – he’s not Lisa Mukowski – now and it served Palin’s self-interest to attack Ruedrich then.

Which tells you everything you need to know about Sarah Palin.

And tells you everything you need to know about Joe Miller, who will accept support from a self-centered hypocrite like Sarah Palin.

Erika Bolstad, writing in the Anchorage Daily News, reports Joe Miller asked people to pray for him. Those who are criticizing him “represent the way of the past, not the future,” Miller reportedly said. He called on his supporters to pray for them. If honesty, ethics, morality and simple decency are “the way of the past,” then we all should be praying for something else entirely.

WC recognizes that most Teabaggers aren’t exactly deep thinkers. They seem to seize on simple slogans from their candidates, no matter how flaky those candidates may be. The unreasoning, uncritical acceptance of Joe Miller would seem proof enough. So at the risk of arguing to those who don’t care, WC proposes to look at the Republican assertions and assumptions.

The Republicans are emphatic that they will keep the Bush tax cuts that would otherwise expire December 31. They strongly oppose even modest tax increases on the extremely rich. No surprise, really; look who is paying for their extraordinary expensive campaigns. So there’s not going to be any additional revenue to balance the budget.

The Republicans do talk about budget cuts, but they are amazingly vague about where those cuts will be made. There are two very expensive wars still under way. There’s a badly bloated Department of Defense. There’s all kinds of special earmarked projects. But all those big ticket items are apparently off limits. None of the Republican leadership is talking about picking off those low-hanging fruit. While they scream and moan about the deficit, nothing specific is being offered.

Oh, there is the new Republican Pledge to America, a Pledge that once again seems to consist of a combination of specific, detailed plans to increase the deficit by lowering taxes alongside vague assertions of intent to reduce it.

Thomas Friedman has noted the disjunct. He said,

A dysfunctional political system is one that knows the right answers but can’t even discuss them rationally, let alone act on them, and one that devotes vastly more attention to cable TV preachers than to recommendations by its best scientists and engineers.

In Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5, a national task force found that the U.S. is now

sixth in global innovation-based competitiveness, but 40th in rate of change over the last decade; 11th among industrialized nations in the fraction of 25- to 34-year-olds who have graduated from high school; 16th in college completion rate; 22nd in broadband Internet access; 24th in life expectancy at birth; 27th among developed nations in the proportion of college students receiving degrees in science or engineering; 48th in quality of K-12 math and science education; and 29th in the number of mobile phones per 100 people.

What has happened to our country that Teabaggers can parrot the lines fed them by billionaires who are out to screw them? How have our billionaires become so greedy that they will lie, cheat and steal to stab through the heart the very country that made them rich? Americans spend more on potato chips than the United States spends on research and development.

And Joe Miller tells us we need to repeal the 17th Amendment? The ship is sinking while Murkowski and Miller are fighting about what song the orchestra should play?

WC is basically an optimistic fellow. But Lord, it’s getting hard.

Okay, if you’ve already read Vic Fischer’s outstanding essay in Sunday’s Anchorage Daily News, you can probably skip this blog post. WC has never met Vic Fischer, but his record of public service, research and writing are admirable in every way. And WC was pleased to have him weigh in on Miller and Murkowski.

Understand that Vic Fischer is one of the two surviving members of the 1955-56 Alaska Constitutional Convention. When he says,

As authors of Alaska’s Constitution, we never thought we were legislating details for future generations. Like the U.S. founding fathers, we intended to create a framework that would function in a changing world, as the needs and society evolved in ways that neither they nor we could anticipate. If Miller doesn’t like certain programs, he needs to convince Alaskans of his views, not blame the Constitution.

He’s not talking hypothetically. This is Alaskans’ James Madison, our Thomas Jefferson, telling us that Miller is dead flat wrong in clinging to a static Constitution. When Vic Fischer says, “He’s a phony constitutionalist with ideas imported from the lunatic fringe,” his opinion is entitled to more weight than an entire convention of teabagger hypocrites.

Fischer’s comments on Lisa Murkowski are equally telling.

While I like Lisa Murkowski personally, her extreme partisanship over recent years has been very disappointing to me. Since joining the Senate leadership, Lisa has voted with her national party almost every time, even when it hurts Alaska.

Fischer points out that Murkowski has bought her power in the Republican leadership by altering her positions to absolutely toe the Republican party line, even where it has been at the expense of the State of Alaska and her own principles.

Knowing Lisa, some of her votes are hard to believe. Hard to believe she opposed two highly qualified female Supreme Court nominees. Hard to believe she voted against the Indian Health Service. Hard — almost impossible — to believe that in one vote last December, she opposed funding for Anchorage’s Abused Women’s Aid In Crisis, Covenant House Alaska, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Alaska.

This is no rabid Democrat speaking; this is one of Alaska’s founding fathers, a basically conservative man. And in just two sentences, citing to inarguable facts, he shows the truth about Murkowski: she has surrendered her principles and the interests of her constituents to obtain a leadership position.

And so Fischer endorses Scott McAdams. WC can only echo Fischer here, “I’m voting for Scott Adams because he is for Alaska, and I value his values.”

Vote your values, not your fears. Vote McAdams.

---

 

The opinions in this post are solely those of WC. This post has not been approved by any candidate. No expenses were incurred in creating this post. No electrons were harmed in creating this post.

A redacted set of documents from Joe Miller’s personnel file were released by the Fairbanks North Star Borough this afternoon. In the event, Miller decided not to appeal Judge Burbank’s decision, and to permit the documents to become public. While the details are important, the heart of what they say is this: Miller has blamed the victims, lied, lied again, and lied yet a third time. He has permitted those who support him to lie and mislead. He has permitted those who support him to slander and besmirch Jim Whitaker, whose earlier report was correct in every material detail. And yet people still trust this liar, and apparently will still vote for him. It passes WC’s understanding.

Miller did use his colleagues’ work computers at the Fairbanks North Star Borough Law Department to try and “stuff the ballot box” in an unspecified poll. He did so without their knowledge or consent, and attempted to conceal his activities. His clumsy efforts to conceal his misconduct included deleting the cache files on their computers. The effort was clumsy because it immediately demonstrated someone had done something to the computers. All this happened at a time when he was the only person in the office.

When confronted with his actions, Miller initially denied it. He lied. He said he hadn’t used the computers. He had.

He changed his story. He admitted he had used the computers, but lied about what he had used them for. He claimed it was for a proper purpose. It was not, and he knew it was not.

Caught in the second lie, he blamed his colleagues for failing to secure their computers: he blamed the victims. But his colleagues, of course, were entitled to trust him. The work premises were secured; he was the only one there. And blaming the victim for your crimes is despicable. “They left the money laying there where anyone could take it.” Or, “She was dressed like she wanted it.”

Only when called out for breaking his colleagues’ trust did he admit that in addition to using his colleagues’ computers improperly, he had used them for an improper purpose. Twice improper, actually. For a personal purpose and for a political purpose.

He had also used them for what may very well have been a criminal purpose. He had set out to inject false and misleading data in a poll. WC has already noted how closely that matches the elements of a Class C Felony, Criminal Use of a Computer, AS 11.46.740.

Miller permitted his fellow Republicans to call Jim Whitaker a liar, when Whitaker came forward with the truth. Randy Ruedrich, Glen Biegel, Mike Rostad, Ralph Seekins; all attacked Jim Whitaker, Miller’s former boss, accusing his of distorting the facts, siding with President Obama and telling patent lies. Miller knew Whitaker had told the truth. Miller permitted the false and improper attacks on Whitaker despite knowing they were wrong in every way.

Miller even filed a complaint against Jim Whitaker, accusing him of violating the law. It was another kind of deceit, another effort to keep the truth form coming out, or to punish and intimidate anyone who came forward with the truth.

Miller famously announced he wasn’t going to answer any more personal questions. That, too, is now revealed as a kind of lie. It wasn’t that his privacy had been invaded; it was that newspapers and bloggers were getting too close to the truth, and Miller used stonewalling to avoid embarrassment, to avoid telling the truth.

Miller has played the voters for fools. He assumed that his misconduct and his lies would never become public, or that if they did, they wouldn’t matter. But voters are only fools if they choose to be. WC thinks that the average voter’s reaction will be outrage.

Miller, in a transparent effort to defuse the pending impact of release of his redacted personnel file, has minimized the event. But Miller’s lies, both about the event and about covering up the event, should make even the most unthinking Tea Party voter ask himself, “How can I believe anything this guy says?” That voter should ask herself, “Is he lying to me now?” Ralph Seekins, however much WC may disagree with his politics, has no patience with lies. What will Ralph Seekins do now?

In his email confession to his boss, Rene Broker, dated March 17, 2008, Miller wrote, “Lying was wrong, and there is absolutely no excuse for it. I accept whatever punishment you feel is appropriate.”

Lying is still wrong, Mr. Miller. And the lies, half-truths and deceptions since March of 2008 involve still more lies. WC isn’t in the business of punishment; that’s the job of District Attorneys, juries and judges. But you absolutely do not deserve the trust, confidence or votes of Alaskans. WC questions your fitness to be a lawyer. But WC is absolutely certain you are unfit to be a U.S. Senator.

WC and his loyal readers took a day off from politics; alas, the election is so close that only one day may be permitted. WC now returns to Election 2010 in general and Joe Miller in particular.

President Harry Truman famously had a sign on his desk that said, “The Buck Stops Here.” Passing the buck had the same meaning in 1948 that it has to day. The guy in charge can’t pass the buck – or the blame – to someone else.

Joe Miller doesn’t understand this. At least four times now, he has blamed his staff for what appear to have been his mistakes, but, and more importantly, he doesn’t recognize that a mistake by staff is, in every sense that matters, his mistake.

Example #1: Calling Lisa Murkowski a Prostitute.

Miller sent out a Tweet saying, “What’s the difference between selling out your party’s values and the oldest profession?” Of course, Miller blamed the Tweet on a staffer, and denied it was aimed at Murkowski. But voters aren’t required to place their brains in escrow for national elections. Of course he said it. And blamed a staffer.

Example #2: Tweeting About measuring for Drapes.

Miller visited Washington, D.C., chiefly to accept contributions from national PACs, but incidentally to visit what he regarded as “his” office. He tweeted out, among other things, that he was going to “do some house hunting” while visiting Washington D.C.  That absolutely sounds like Miller to WC. Someone on Miller’s staff recognized that might just be a trifle arrogant, and an anonymous staffer was once again blamed for the “inappropriate tweet.”

Example #3: Handcuffing a Newspaper Editor.

Miller’s security goons infamously assaulted and handcuffed Anchorage Dispatch editor Tony Hopfinger for asking him questions Miller didn’t want to answer. At first, Miller accused Hopfinger of assaulting someone and of taking advantage of the meeting to “create a publicity stunt.” Since then, he has backed away from the security goons completely.

Example #4: Refusing to Allow Julia O’Malley to Remain.

Anchorage Daily News columnist Julia O’Malley tried to attend a Miller “Meet and Greet” event on October 21. Her primary reason was to watch Miller interact with his supporters and maybe interview those supporters. She was thrown out of the event by a Miller campaign worker who wouldn’t identify herself. Four days later, O’Malley got a response to her blog post, “The policy of the Miller campaign is that reporters are welcome to all public events. The staff member in question was under the mistaken belief that the Thursday night event was just for volunteers and not open to the public.” (This policy would come as a surprise to Tony Hopfinger, WC suspects.) Once again, Miller blames a staffer.

BOTTOM LINE

It’s never Miller’s fault, even though it is his campaign. The buck never stops with Miller. If he’s elected, God forbid, he gets to pick a staff. His current campaign staff is easily the biggest group Miller has ever attempted to supervise. And his campaign has been plagued by missteps, bone-headed mistakes and horrible judgment. Not just the four examples here. WC thinks the decision to try to hide his personnel file, the decision not to answer “personal questions,” and the lawsuit against former Mayor Jim Whitaker reveal more than Miller might intend about his dubious management skills.

And his even more doubtful ability to hold himself accountable.

Yet another reason why his election would be a disaster.

WC is heartily sick of politics in general and Joe Miller’s antics in particular. November 2 cannot come soon enough. But while we wait to see if Joe Miller appeals Judge Burbank’s decision, or the contents of Miller’s redacted employment file, WC declares a time out from politics and invites his readers to spend a little time with birds, instead. Specifically, with some of Interior Alaska’s waterfowl.

Northern Shovelers are a big-billed – some would say enormously billed – dabbling duck. Like Mallards, they have a greenish-black head, but the bill is unmistakeable in the field.

Horned Grebes are diving waterfowl, usually found on smaller ponds. Both adults feed their zebra-striped young.

Red-necked Grebes are bigger cousins to the smaller Horned Grebes. They prefer larger ponds and lakes. Again, both adults feed the kids.

Barrow’s Goldeneye are usually present in Fairbanks during spring migration. They prefer to nest in mountain lakes. Another diving duck, the drakes have a white triangular patch on their face, distinguishing them from the Common Goldeneye, with its circular white patch.

Of course, all of these photos feature liquid water. As mild as the Fairbanks winter has been so far, there’s not a lot of liquid water around right now. Nor any of these duck species, all of whom have moved on to southern climes. Which may prove that some ducks are smarter than some Alaskans.

WC is generally not a fan of country music. Nashville cliches and blatant appeals to ignorance and intolerance. But Kathy Mattea, especially in the last ten years or so, has been an exception.

Tonight at Hering Auditorium, she sang a lot of songs from her most recent album, Coal, some of her old stand-bys, including Nanci Griffith’s “Love at the Five and Dime,” and even the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter.” While there were a few country clunkers, they were outnumbered by great songs from Darrell Scott, Tim O’Brien and Mattea herself. “Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses” may have won an award, but it wasn’t the best song she did tonight.

That would be the a cappella rendition of “Black Lung,” done in her tearing contralto voice. Hazel Dickens wrote that song about her late father. Legend has it that during the Congressional Black lung hearings in 1976, her testimony to Congress was an a cappella version of that song. WC has heard Pete Seeger sing that song, but this version was better. Mattea did Hazel Dickens proud.

She was backed by David Spicher on upright bass, Eamonn O’Rourke on mandolin and violin, and Bill Cooley on lead guitar. They were comfortable with each other, obviously enjoying the show and tight and clean on harmonies.

A wonderful concert. Thanks to Trudy and Mase for pulling it together.

WC reader Paul reminded WC that some folks are already doing early voting. WC isn’t that good at planning. But perhaps it is time for WC’s voting guide to go up.

WC approaches this blog post with some trepidation. For many years, WC would carefully cut out the newspaper ad from the Interior Taxpayers Association. WC would take it with him to the voting booth. And then he would carefully vote exactly the opposite of the way ITA directed. WC recognizes there’s a real risk that this post will serve the same function for some of his readers. But that’s the chance you take.

U.S. Senate	Scott McAdams. As he says, “Vote your values, not your fears.” We are all worried that the Teabagger’s Toy will win. It’s a fear. Don’t give in. McAdams is sensible, intelligent, informed, experienced and electable.
U.S. House	Harry Crawford. Anybody but the Don.
State Governor	Ethan Berkowitz. He has his problems, and WC has been critical of him from time to time. But he’s still far superior to the quasi-incumbent.
Senate District D	Joe Thomas. Joe has done a decent job in his first term. He’s probably the only high school classmate of WC’s that WC can recommend be in the State Senate.
Senate District E	No recommendation.
House District 6	Woodie Salmon. Woodie has his problems, but overall is a decent guy doing a decent job.
House District 7	Bob Miller. WC has known Mike Kelly for 40 years. He’s better than his brother, and a charming man, but his positions on every substantive issue are simply wrong.
House District 8	David Guttenberg. He beat Joe Miller. Enough said.
House District 9	Scott Kawasaki. Intelligent, Unbelievably hard-working. Completely honest. Listens to constituents.
House District 10	Steve Thompson. Yeah, he’s a Republican but he was a pretty good city mayor and is a moderate.
House District 11	Bert Cotttle. WC doesn’t know a thing about Mr. Cottle, but he isn’t Tammie Wilson. Wilson’s view of property rights is utterly selfish, the quintessential horrible neighbor. WC hopes she chokes on the fine particulates she helped put in Borough air.
Bonding Proposition A	Yes. $600 million in Veteran’s AHFC bonds. New housing, new construction, new jobs.
Bonding Proposition B	Yes. A smorgasbord of projects, with something for each region. In Interior Alaska, it’s a new life sciences building at the University. New construction, new jobs and an expanded campus.
Ballot Measure No. 1	Yes. Eight new seats in the Legislature will make it a litttle harder for the Republican majority to gerrymander districts.
Supreme Court – Justice Fabe	Yes. Vote to retain Justice Dana Fabe. She’s an outstanding jurist. Ignore the character assassination and last minute attacks.
Court of Appeals – Judge Mannheimer	Yes. Vote to retain David Mannheimer. A good judge at a thankless task.
Superior Court Judges	Yes. As to all 4th Judicial District Superior Court Judges. We’ve had better, and a few of them are annoyingly slow at getting decisions out. But they are all honest and competent, and should be retained.  It’s a qualified Yes as to Third Judicial District Superior Court Judges. In particular, Judge Kari Kristiansen gives WC some real concern. But she was recommended for retention by the Alaska Judicial Council. Perhaps she has matured into the position.
District Court Judges	No, as to District Court Judge Richard Postma. He is one of the very few judges since statehood who has been the subject of both Alaska Commission on Judicial Conduct complaints and Alaska Judicial Council Do Not Retain recommendations.  Yes, as to allother District Court Judges.

Alaska voters outside of Interior Alaska will note that their candidates aren’t addressed. Sorry. WC has strong opinions, but won’t impose them outside of his neighborhood. Judges are another matter; WC and his colleagues appear in front of them all.

Ultimately, vote your conscience, not Wickersham’s. But vote.

The opinions in this post are solely those of WC. This post has not been approved by any candidate. No expenses were incurred in creating this post. No electrons were harmed in creating this post.

Margaret and Helen is one of the most popular blogs on WordPress. They get in some lovely zingers, like this one:

And I find it odd that Sarah Palin can see November from her house but she couldn’t see a teen pregnancy coming if her life depended on it. Maybe if she spent more time at her house rather than at Tea Party rallies, one of her children might actually graduate from those abstinence only classes with a passing grade.

Ooh. Burned.

The Anchorage Teabaggers have launched a last minute hatchet job on Supreme Court Justice Dana Fabe. They even brag it’s too late for her to do anything about it: “There is not much time left before the election so Fabe will not be able to campaign against this group or a grassroots effort.” Election by ambush. So much for fairness.

And because they don’t think there is time for Justice Fabe to respond, they don’t care if their accusations are true or not. So they lie about her. Repeatedly. Outrageously. WC has long since given up on expecting honesty from the Teabag movement. But this is sinking to a new low.

WC has watched a lot of Alaska Supreme Court justices come and go over more than three decades of practicing law. Justice Fabe is honest, fair, balanced and scrupulous about following the Alaska Constitution. The Teabaggers’ real beef is with the Alaska Constitution, but they lack the intelligence and moral courage to admit it. Instead of taking the Constitution on, they attack the messenger.

It’s painful and tedious to untangle this web of deceit, but let’s look at some of the Teabag accusations:

Teabagger Claim: Justice Fabe wrote the opinion striking down Alaska’s law that required parental consent before a minor’s abortion.

Reality: This one is complicated. In 2001, the parental consent issue came before the supreme court for the first time in Planned Parenthood on appeal from Superior Judge Tan’s decision that the statute was unconstitutional. Justice Fabe didn’t write the decision, but she voted with the 3-2 majority to send the case back to the superior court for additional factual findings. The case came back to the Alaska Supreme Court in 2007, and this time Justice Fabe wrote the majority opinion for a 3-2 court. But look at what she said:

And contrary to the arguments of Planned Parenthood, we determine that the constitution permits a statutory scheme which ensures that parents are notified so that they can be engaged in their daughters’   important decisions in these matters. But we ultimately conclude that the Act does not strike the proper constitutional balance between the State’s compelling interests and a minors’ fundamental right to privacy. [Emphasis added.]

Writing for the majority, she found that it was constitutional to require parental consent, but that the Alaska Legislature had botched the task.

Bottom Line: The Teabagger position is deceitful and misleading.

---

Teabagger Claim: Justice Fabe wrote the infamous Valley Hospital decision which ordered the Mat-Su’s Valley Hospital, a non-profit cooperative, to perform abortions – even though the hospital’s Board had voted to not offer this service.

 

Reality: Chief Justice Compton wrote the 1997 decision. Justice Fabe didn’t participate in the supreme court appeal. Judge Fabe, while still a superior court judge, wrote the trial court decision. Which Chief Justice Compton and the unanimous Supreme Court affirmed. It wasn’t even close.

Bottom Line: The teabaggers have misled readers.

---

Teabagger Claim: Justice Fabe wrote the opinion for the Alaska Supreme Court that invented a constitutional right for a taxpayer-funded abortion.

 

Reality: Hello? Taxpayers paying for something? In Alaska? Alaskans don’t pay State taxes. We live off oil companies. We clip permanent fund dividends. But setting aside the false premise that Alaska voters are actually paying the State for anything, if you look at what Justice Fabe actually said, as opposed to what the Teabaggers claim,

Alaska’s Medicaid program funds virtually all necessary medical services for poor Alaskans — “regardless of race, age, national origin, or economic standing” — but it denies funding for medically necessary abortions. Alone among Medicaid-eligible Alaskans, women whose health is endangered by pregnancy are denied health care based solely on political disapproval of the medically necessary procedure. This selective denial of medical benefits violates Alaska’s constitutional guarantee of equal protection.

The Perdue decision is really about medically necessary abortions. The Teabaggers also make it sound like the Alaska Supreme Court staked out an extreme position. Not so:

Our conclusion is supported by the majority of jurisdictions that have considered comparable restrictions on state funding of medically necessary abortions: these state courts have concluded that, under their state constitutions, government health care programs that fund other medically necessary procedures may not deny assistance to eligible women whose health depends on obtaining abortions.

Bottom Line: The Teabaggers have lied and deceived twice on this one. Alaska simply followed the majority rule.

---

WC appreciates that his readers can only tolerate so much legal analysis before their eyes glaze over. So WC hopes that his readers will trust him when he says that the other so-called extreme positions are equally deceitful, untruthful and deceptive. If there are comments asking for it, WC will walk through the Teabaggers the other bogus claims as well.

 

But visit Justice Fabe’s web site. And then tell your friends not to fall for this sleazy attack. Justice Fabe is a fine supreme court justice. She works hard, and has made wonderful contributions to the legal system and to those who are trapped in the legal system. The Alaska Judicial Council recommended she be retained. WC will go further: Justice Fabe is as good as any state supreme court justice in our country. She’s far better than we deserve. Let’s not lose her to a mess of lies and shoddy tactics.

So vote to retain her. Tell your friends not to fall for this low-life trick. Even your pro-life friends need to understand that it is a mistake to pick a jurist on a single issue, however passionate you are about the issue. Especially when you may be wrong about the jurist’s position on that single issue.

Vote to retain Justice Fabe.

The opinions in this post are solely those of WC. This post has not been approved by the candidate. No expenses were incurred in creating this post. No electrons were harmed in creating this post.

Joe Miller preaches a static U.S. Constitution, a document whose meaning doesn’t change over time. Every word has precisely the same meaning today that it did 221 years ago. To which WC says, “Piffle.”

Let’s take just one example: the U.S. Air Force. After all, Joe Miller is a West Point graduate, and, if only briefly, an officer in the U.S. Army. Presumably, he has met actual members of the U.S. Air Force. WC can only wonder what he may have said to them.

The U.S Constitution, at Article I, Section 8, provides:

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

Note there is no mention of an Air Force. Army; check. Navy; check. Air Force? Not a word. Under Joe Miller’s Constitution, there can’t be a national Air Force because it isn’t expressly authorized by the U.S. Constitution.

“Wait a minute,” you say. “Orville and Wilbur Wright didn’t get an airplane to fly until December 1903. In 1789, the Founding Fathers couldn’t imagine aerial warfare.”

Doesn’t matter, says Joe Miller. Powers not expressly given to the federal government are reserved to the States by the Tenth Amendment.

WC thinks Joe Miller’s position is stupid, even for Joe Miller. The very smart men who wrote the U.S. Constitution couldn’t foresee 221 years of change. More importantly, they knew they couldn’t foresee the changes. Even the changes in their own lifetimes had made that clear.

WC has cautioned before about the danger of simple solutions. More fundamentally, the powers of the federal government have been debated since Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. The Hamiltonian view prevailed, and has been the basis for governing the country since. Miller thinks all of the U.S. Supreme Court cases upholding that interpretation since are wrong. While some citizens might admire his chutzpah, no student of law or history thinks he is right.

Reconcile your constitutional claims and the Air Force, Joe.

“You are what your record says you are.”

Bill Parcells, NFL Football Coach

The news on Candidate Miller comes in so fast that it can be hard to keep up. So as a civic service, WC offers an UPDATED primer on the Miller Follies, offering all of the links – well, most of the links – to all of the stories – well, most of the stories – in one convenient blog post. To assist his readers, WC has once again included an Ignorance and Hypocrisy Score for each issue.

Joe’s Position	Joe’s Reality	Ignorance & Hypocrisy Score
An Alaska Native corporations PAC can’t contribute to political campaigns because some dollars might be federal contractor income	Joe, you can’t be serious? This from a guy who accepts Chamber of Commerce monies, where part of the money comes from foreign corporations?	+5
A fence like East Germany built can control illegal immigration	Joe, you can’t be serious? A 1,969 mile-long Berlin Wall?	+10
A nosy reporter asking hard questions can assaulted and handcuffed	Joe, you can’t be serious? The First Amendment doesn’t apply to you?	+10
You don’t have to reveal why your last employer, the Fairbanks North Star Borough, disciplined you.	Joe, you can’t be serious? You want to stonewall your job interview? Even your fellow Republicans are calling you out.	+7
It’s time for me to measure my Senate office for drapes	No false modesty here, Joe. Just unmatched arrogance. Oh wait, you say that was a staffer.	+3
Social security is unconstitutional	Social security is perfectly constitutional; Joe’s parents rely upon it.	+1
Social security is insolvent and unsustainable	Social security is solvent through 2037. Between now and then, revenue must be increased or expenses lowered. The fixes are easy.	+1
Unemployment insurance is unconstitutional	Unemployment is perfectly constitutional; his wife has even used it	+5
Medicaid is unconstitutional	Wrong again on the law. And even though you criticized Senator Murkowski for voting for the extension, it turns out you’ve used it.	+5
Federal farm subsidies are unconstitutional	Again, they have been found constitutional by the US Supreme Court; anyway, Joe’s accepted farm subsidies,	+5
The federal minimum wage is unconstitutional	Once again, the program has been expressly found constitutional by the US Supreme Court. And, in any event, it merely sets a floor.	+2
There’s no conclusive evidence of global warming	Well, there’s today’s report in the Anchorage Daily News: “Arctic Report Card “tells a story of widespread, continued and even dramatic effects of a warming Arctic.” The most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 (the Fourth Assessment): “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal.” That Report was prepared by 620 authors and editors from 40 countries, and reviewed by more than 620 experts and governments.	+5
Two-thirds of Alaska is owned by the federal government	Simply wrong. Alaska has pretty much all of what it agreed to accept at Statehood. It’s in the Alaska Constitution. You know, “strict constitutionalism”?	+2
The federal government hasn’t turned resources over to Alaska	Easy words to say, but short on specifics. In fact, the U.S. has conveyed almost all state land selections and is current in all of its royalty payments to Alaska	+1
Powers not expressly granted in the US Constitution are reserved to the states	That’s not what you said when you ran against David Guttenberg in 2004.	+5
Wants to repeal the 17th Amendment (direct election of senators	Can you imagine the Alaska selecting Joe Miller to the US Senate?	+5

If WC has left out any important bits, and other instances where Miller’s political claims and the real world are seriously at odds, WC invites you to please pass them along.

The flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico into the U.S. is undeniably a problem, although there have been sharp declines in recent years. But Joe Miller’s solution – a Berlin Wall across the southern border of the U.S. – is an obscene, despicable idea.

The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 to stop the outflow of citizens from Communist East Germany to democratic West Germany. After World War II and the creation of a divided German, the exodus of East Germans was dramatic. By 1961, 25% of the total population and as much as 50% of the intelligentsia had left. East Germany erected the wall to stop the flow of its citizens to freedom and opportunity.

West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt called it the “Wall of Shame.” East German guards had orders to shoot to kill if East Germans tried to cross the Death Strip, the no-man’s land between the two concrete fences. And kill they did; perhaps as many as 200-300 desperate East Germans died trying to escape. Many were shot by their own soldiers. The guards sometimes let fugitives bleed to death in the middle of this ground, as in the most notorious failed attempt, that of Peter Fechter (aged 18). He was shot and bled to death, in full view of Western media, on August 17, 1962.

Nor was the Wall of Shame particularly effective. At least 5,000 East Germans escaped via a variety of methods while the Wall was in place.

And this wall was only 97 miles long. Joe Miller apparently wants to build a Wall of Shame along the entire U.S. – Mexico border, a distance of more than 1,969 miles.

Will American soldiers shoot immigrants trying to escape from poverty and despotism to the United States? Will Joe Miller build two fences, separated by a Death Strip? For a time, East German soldiers would let the citizens they shot lie in the Death Strip, bleeding to death. Will Joe Miller, the virulently “pro life” candidate, allow Central Americans to also lay in his Death Strip, bleeding to death?

When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, the world rejoiced. There were tears of joy, dancing on the fragments of the wall that weren’t torn down by citizens with sledge hammers. Do you suppose there will be similar rejoicing when Miller’s Wall is built? Will another Ronald Reagan appear to say, “Mr. Miller, build this Wall up,” instead of “Tear this Wall down”?

Miller said, “We have the capacity as a great nation to obviously secure our border. If East Germany could do it, we could do it.”

WC agrees the United States is a great nation, easily great enough to find a way to address the problem of illegal immigrants. Without emulating a brutal East German Communist dictatorship. Without machine gun nests at regular intervals. Without shoot to kill orders.

And without electing anyone, absolutely anyone, who would suggest otherwise.

WC was privileged to be in Kokhanok, Alaska earlier this week, for the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Kokhanok Wind Project. Kokhanok is on the southeastern shore of Lake Iliamna, in southwestern Alaska.

Getting anything there by land is ludicrously complex, with multiple barge transfers, truck hauling and barge landings. Fuel for electricity, by necessity, arrives via air, and is terribly expensive.

But what Kokhonak has in abundance is wind. After a long granting and permitting process, Kokhonak was able to install two Halus Power Systems remanufactured 90 kW wind turbines for a hybrid wind-diesel. When the wind blows, and it does most of the time, the wind turbines will supply all of the community’s electricity; if the wind dies down, batteries provide a 20 minute buffer, allowing diesel generators to come up without a break in electrical service.

The two wind turbines were dedicated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, a quite good student poem and student essay, and mercifully brief speeches by elected officials. When fully operational, the system has the potential to save the community about $75,000 or more a year, depending on the cost of diesel delivered to Kakhonak.

It’s the kind of win-win deal that green projects need to be. It will result in less fossil being burned, reducing CO2 by a bit. And it should save money, too.

WC offers his congratulations to everyone involved. And thanks for inviting WC to attend.

There’s not much WC can add to this amazing letter:

Except to ask: Why didn’t other prominent Republicans sign? Randy Ruedrich? John Coghill? Gary Wilken? Does the Republican Party’s  ”Statement of Principles” only apply if the candidate feels like it? Or doesn’t have something to hide?

WC has been away. While he was away, Joe Miller’s hired muscle assaulted, handcuffed and attempted to have Alaska Dispatch editor Tony Hopfinger arrested at a public event. Hopfinger’s real alleged offense? Persisting in asking questions that Joe Miller didn’t want to answer.

Joe Miller is famously a defender of the U.S. Constitution, even if it is an early 19th Century version of the U.S. Constitution. Now voters can see that constitutional rights, like unemployment compensation, social security, medicaid and publicly-funded education are Joe Miller’s constitutional rights, but not available to others. So long as he is defending Joe Miller’s rights; they are absolute. When it comes to Joe Miller defending other peoples’ rights; not so much.

When he was assaulted by Joe Miller’s hired muscle, Hopfinger was exercising his constitutional rights as a member of the press under the U.S. Constitution, First Amendment. And ended up handcuffed. By Miller’s “unarmed” bodyguards. And the hired muscle is itself linked to some nasty characters, that you might think a smart politician would avoid.

Joe Miller, famously, “mastered the law” after three years of practicing law. But perhaps another criminal statute escaped his mastery:

AS 11.76.110. Interference With Constitutional Rights.

(a) A person commits the crime of interference with constitutional rights if 

(1) the person injures, oppresses, threatens, or intimidates another person with intent to deprive that person of a right, privilege, or immunity in fact granted by the constitution or laws of this state; 

. . . . .

(c) Interference with constitutional rights is a class A misdemeanor

 

Alaska is not a third world country or Russia, where politicians inconvenienced by reporters can have the reporters locked up. Although Joe Miller doesn’t appear to be completely clear about this. No, Joe Miller, or persons acting under his direction, threatened, intimidated and oppressed Tony Hopfinger. At least in WC’s world, being handcuffed is oppression. Miller, or persons acting under his direction, did those things to Tony Hopfinger with the intent to exercise his rights under the First Amendment.

WC was interested to see that while the Anchorage Police Department isn’t charging anyone with a crime, the Alaska State Troopers are looking into unspecified matters. Alaska Dispatch reports,

Now, DPS spokeswoman Megan Peters says DPS is conducting an investigation based on numerous inquiries from reporters. She declined to say who or what DPS is investigating, just that “we deemed it appropriate to look into the matter.

It’s good odds that the Troopers are looking into Interference with Constitutional Rights. If they aren’t, they should be. Just because an ex-governor can see Russia from her window, doesn’t mean our politicians can act like they are in Russia.