WC’s Photo Show: A Virtual Tour

By popular demand – well, a couple of requests – here are some snapshots of WC’s photos hanging at River City Cafe.

Shorebird Group, with Rock Ptarmigan

WC grouped the photos into families, for the most part. Here are the shorebirds, accented by a pair of Rock Ptarmigan. The Semipalmated Plover in the lower left was pretty popular. You can see the photos hang from cooper rails near the ceiling; it makes it a struggle to align the photos. And the long pieces of monofilament stretch over time.

Passerine Corner

The southeast corner of the Cafe was set up as a Passerine corner, with a decent selection of different species. The bright red Pine Grosbeak male was probably the species the drew the most comments in this group. Down in the lower left is a photo of a pocket gopher in his hole, warning folks of a hole in the floor.

Waterfowl, with a Gull and a Tern

The west wall was waterfowl and a couple of Larids. The Trumpeter Swans were very popular, which again demonstrates WC has no idea what will be popular and what won’t. A total of 22 photos were on display.

Horned Grebe Courtship

Finally, here’s a sample of one of the gallery-wrap shots as delivered for printing. It’s also the image WC uses on his business card. Horned Grebes in mating plumage are among the most spectacular Alaska birds.

The show was a reasonable success, highlighted by one sale, one promise and a handful of promises of followup. We’ll see if there are enough sales to, you know, pay for the show.

Speaking of sales, all of these photos in gallery-wrap mounts, are available for $150 a piece.

The photos will be up until April 30 if you are downtown. Thanks again to Bobbi Eller, owner of River City Cafe,  for hosting WC’s work.

This will be the last bit of shameless self-promotion for a while. But there are Snow Buntings in town; spring migration, and more bird photos, may be happening soon.

Tales from Wasilla: Rep. Wes Keller and the Girl Scouts

Representative and Vulgarian Wes Keller (R., Wasilla)

Is it something in the water? Why do Valley elected officials act like they are mentally ill? Why do they reinforce the stereotype of Valley Trash?

State House Rep. Wes Keller (R., Wasilla) was acting as chair of the House State Affairs Committee. He’s vice chair; you’ll see in a moment why he isn’t usually trusted with the gavel.

The occasion was a hearing before the House State Affairs Committee on SCR 17 honoring the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts. And to celebrate the Year of the Girl.

The hearing went well, up to a point.

Then acting chairman Keller  asked the 21 year old UAF student speaking in support of the joint resolution the following non-question:

I’m sure you are aware of the information that’s floating around the Internet, and I’d like to give you the opportunity to respond to your connection, the Girl Scout connection, with Planned Parenthood and the activist role in that — is there a connection? Is there not? Frankly, I haven’t looked into it but I see it’s out there. I just wondered if you want to make a statement on that.

The Anchorage Daily News has an audio clip here.

The Senate Concurrent Resolution passed the state senate unanimously back on February 17.

Understand, Rep. Keller hadn’t read any of these fearsome rumors himself, but he knew they were “out there” on “the Internet.”

Memo to Rep. Bob Lynn, Committee Chair: “Oops.”

Two points, Rep. Keller:

1. You can find almost any rumor you want on the world wide web if you look hard enough. Why, now there’s even a rumor you are a rude, discourteous, credulous idiot.
2. WC thinks you are pretty much “out there,” too.

It’s got to be something in the water…

Yankee Politician Ain’t Got No Soul

On of WC’s favorite folksingers, the late, great Dave Carter, wrote:

i don’t know, but i’ve been told
a yankee politician ain’t got no soul
my mama said it and i believe it’s true
they don’t give a damn about me and you

cause they just doin what they do best
workin for the rich, and stealin from the rest

Dave Carter, “The Promised Land” 2001

Representative Paul Ryan (R., Wisconsin) has proven Dave Carter is right. Ryan’s soulless budget does exactly what Dave Carter’s mama told him: it steals from the poor and works only for the rich. It’s as fundamentally dishonest a budget as WC has seen. So, naturally, it’s been endorsed by The Mitt.

Workin’ for the Rich

Mr. Ryan’s budget would slash corporate taxes, slash the taxes on the rich and continue the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich already in place. Altogether, they would cut some $4.5 trillion over the next ten years, as best anyone can tell. A trillion her, a trillion there; it adds up.

Understand, these tax cuts are based on the long-discredited notion that by lowering taxes on the rich, they’ll spend more and invest more and we’ll all prosper. The popularity of the lie traces back to David Stockman, part of Ronald Reagan’s first term staff. He long ago disavowed the idea. In fact, if you think about for longer than Paul Ryan wants, you’d conclude we can’t possibly be having a recession right now, because the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich made the economy better.

No, this budget plan is the product of Mr. Ryan’s wealthy donors’ generous campaign contributions. And his personal interest in protecting his own considerable net worth.

Stealin’ from the Rest

Famously, Mr. Ryan and his Teabagger colleagues are zealous about balancing the budget, reducing the national debt and protecting the U.S. from fiscal irresponibility. So how does he find the money to meet the deficit, and the huge $4.5 trillion in additional deficit his budget would create?

He doesn’t say.

Oh, sure, he proposes to steal from the poor by slashing Medicaid in half. Mr. Ryan is under the delusion that the poor don’t need health care, or if they do, they can simply eat less and pay for it that way.

Oh, wait, Mr. Ryan proposes to slash all other federal programs by 75% by 2050. Except social security and Medicare which, you know, might get him in trouble with his constituents. But if you exclude social security, Medicare and defense – can’t be messing with defense, now – even cutting 75% of spending won’t balance the budget.

So either Mr. Ryan is lying about the three sacred cows of federal spending or he plans to increase tax revenue by cutting tax preferences. In fact, he even broadly hints that’s what he will do. But he doesn’t tell WC or anyone else which tax preferences. WC is pretty sure it won’t be tax preferences for the rich. Perhaps it will be the mortgage interest deduction, which helps folks like WC buy a home? Or perhaps the charitable deduction, which helps take care of the poor?

Or perhaps Mr. Ryan’s dishonest budget isn’t about balancing the budget, but instead is about political posturing while doing his payback for those fat cat campaign contributions? What Dave Carter said: “Workin for the rich.”