Can’t…keep…track…

Lately, there is so much going on, politically, in Juneau that I have found myself mentally “checking out.” As in, I am no longer properly absorbing what is going on with any great interest- it’s just too weird. And continuous. And weird.

Without having a large body of experience behind me, I am unsure of whether this is business as usual, whether this is just the nature of the game and whether we will always be overstimulated by the politicking, manuevering, blog bombardment, and press releases. Or maybe this is truly a crazier moment in time than most? The jaded observer probably sees it as the same stuff, different day. I think that when I “check back in” I will probably agree.

A partial recap (in no particular order…):
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Feature article in April edition of Conde Nast’s Portfolio Magazine blames Palin for standing in the way of the pipeline being built. Palin’s office responds via press release.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Palin is a no show for a scheduled meeting with legislators to discuss the stimulus. Press release warring between Governor/Legislators ensues.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Levi Johnston goes on Tyra and The Early Show. Among other things, he claims to have lived/stayed in Governor Palin’s house with Bristol. “Over my dead body,” replied the Governor. Someone is lying.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Wayne Anthony Ross’ Red Hummer (license plate: WAR)

Governor Palin’s Attorney General appointment (of Wayne Anthony Ross) is full of twists and results in an historic rejection of the Governor’s appointment (first time in our history). The broken relationship between the executive and the legislative branches in Alaska is apparent.

Points of contention during Ross’ confirmation hearings:
-GLBT (Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgendered) community comments
–Women
–Alaska Natives
-Recent legal opinion addressing the Governor’s Senate appointment
-Assorted other “incidents”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Juneau’s Senate appointment follows an uncharted course (taking as looong as possible) with two rejections by the Senate Dems and a strange “list” sent as the Governor’s third attempt at a suitable (DEMOCRAT) candidate. The list was found to be against the law. There is little budging on either side and Juneau is without representation still.

Tim Grussendorf (pictured below), first appointee. Until recently was a registered Republican.

Joe Nelson (pictured below), second appointee. Made a statement that he would consider running against Kerttula as a Republican in the next Senate election.

Alan Wilson (pictured below), third on the “list” submitted most recently (with Grussendorf, Nelson, Wilson being the Governor’s order of preference) by the Governor. Irrelevant but interesting sidenote: Wilson is married to the owner of Shoefly (where Palin’s infamous Naughty Monkey’s came from).

Denali or Mt. McKinley?

Picture of Denali

I was invited on Facebook to join a group who wants to properly rename different land marks in our nation. Mt. McKinley or Denali is one of the places they want renamed. I never knew the history before; I only knew Denali was the native name. Mt. McKinley was named by a gold miner who was showing support for the 1896 presidential election of William McKinley, who never visited Alaska, and William Jennings Bryan. McKinley favored gold while his opponent liked silver.

The State of Alaska officially recognizes Mt McKinley as Denali, and the US government acknowledged the name when Denali National Park was created in 1980. Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK, retired) introduced multiple bills to officially rename the mountain as Denali, but was constantly opposed by Representative Ralph Regula (R-OH, retired), who represented an area of Ohio that contains Canton, William McKinley’s hometown. Though Regula has retired, two other Ohio congresspeople, Betty Sutton and Tim Ryan have pledged to continue obstructing attempts to rename Denali.

Alaska State House Representative Scott Kawasaki (D-Fairbanks) recently introduced a resolution (HJR-15) to urge the US congress to finally change the name to Denali. Denali (or Dinale) translates to “The Great One” in Athabascan dialects common to native peoples north of the mountain, and is known as Doleika to the Dena’ina people in the south. By recognizing the prominent feature by a traditional name, Denali, the US government would take a step toward reversing years of cultural genocide of Alaska Native peoples.

I have always wondered what was with the two names, but having two names myself, never got interested enough to find out the reason. I am now considering how many other national monuments or land marks are binomial. Is it right for a place that is known as one name to its native people to be changed for political reasons?

Alaska’s Evita

Since the end of the campaign, Gov. Sarah Palin has been working on re-creating her political persona. Along with her new appearance (in an attempt to keep her “freshness” on the national arena), Gov. Palin is attempting to fix some of the things that didn’t come out quite as “down-to-earth” (both literally, and figuratively) as the McCain campaign may have wished. In that direction, she is “calling for an ambitious statewide goal of producing half of Alaska’s electricity from renewable sources by 2025,” reported the Juneau Empire back in January. Even though such proposals have been in the Alaska Legislature for a while, the governor managed to “steal” her fifteen minutes of fame from the lawmakers, some would argue non-surprisingly.

In another unexpected affection towards environmental concerns, Sarah Palin showed more practicality. Last Sunday, the Empire’s front page story talked about a court decision to halt the controversial road project out of Juneau (the town still has no road access). Very much supported by developmentalists, and unilaterally by Republicans, the construction was to be funded by the federal government (as almost anything related to Alaskan development), but was put on hold due to a lawsuit from an environmental group. The judge ruled against the road, stating that there should have been more attention attributed to the ferry system in the plan, and other alternatives to a road – maybe more environmentally friendly. But that same article notes the following:

The ruling appears to justify the decision by Gov. Sarah Palin to stop the Department of Transportation from issuing a contract to build the $350 million road until there was a favorable court ruling.

I am not sure I understand this correctly. So, in her infinite strive towards development, independence, fishing and hunting, and what being an “Alaskan” is all about, the governor suddenly became more concerned about this road that would connect the capitol to the rest of Alaska, and its environmental impacts? Rather (again, it seems), in her struggle between being a devoted moose-huntin’, fish-eatin’, g-droppin’ Republican and a devout proponent of the capitol move (to… Wasilla?), the latter prevailed. She would rather be an anti-developer than show for a split second that she favored Southeast Alaska.

In yet another recent article in the Washington Post, Sarah is piously compared with Eva Perón, Argentina’s sweetheart in a restless time. “She doesn’t care about the political establishment, but the people in the streets love her,” a legislative aid noted. No doubt, the populist tendencies constructing Sarah Palin’s public image are strongly correlated with that of Evita’s, but in different contexts. One was venerated by the public as the “protector” of the simple (or “shirtless”) ones, ignorant or indifferent towards the political interests behind it. The other is popular for her ‘reformist’ policies, but even those might not hold if her divisive attitudes towards her electorate continue for long.

Is This Really A Recession?

The newly appointed Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, made her first visit overseas as chief diplomat, to one of the most valuable US partner in financial matters, Japan. This happened on the same day that the $787 billion stimulus package has been signed by Obama. In his remarks, the president noted the importance of cooperation as far as the economy goes, and one could read between the diplomatic presidential lines, that he was pleased with the result:

What I am signing, then, is a balanced plan with a mix of tax cuts and investments. It is a plan that’s been put together without earmarks or the usual pork-barrel spending. And it is a plan that will be implemented with an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability.

Obama’s hopeful tone is still present in his discourse, and even though it went through many gaffs and blows from both sides of the political spectrum, the stimulus bill entails a compromise that was hard to come down to.

A crucial factor, perhaps even more important than the purely economic forces that would be required for this stimulus to do its job, is the necessary change in the psychic of the American investor (and consumer, for that matter). Since, it could be argued (admittedly more from the conservative stance) that the problem with the economy is actually the problem with the attitude of the consumer. The media played a big part in creating this atmosphere of panic, as they started talking about a recession back in the fall of 2007, when technically, a recession is defined, by mainstream economists, as negative economic growth (in terms of GDP) during two or more consecutive quarters. To my recollection, this hasn’t happened yet. Of course, unemployment has reached early 90s levels, but still, technically, this is not yet a recession.

It is however important that the bill gains international momentum. Hillary is doing internationally what the president is trying to do domestically. Reconstruct the trust in the American economy (the dollar would be a good start), and the psychic of the American and international consumer.