What NPR isn't saying

This has happened a couple of times now on NPR's Morning Edition or All Things Considered (news programs, anyway): Radio personality A interviews expert B about the upcoming election and, in the first case, about the rise of absentee voting. Why, says radioperson A, do you think absentee voting is on the rise? Expert B, a political science professor at a prestigious university, answers that people are concerned about long lines, inconvenience, perhaps not getting to vote. Neither the expert nor the radio personality breathes a hint that perhaps people are voting absentee because the ballots are on PAPER. At least it's hinted at on the website.

There was another story this morning about the upcoming election, and again, careful discussions of everything except the electronic elephant in the living room. Why are Democrats concerned about the upcoming election? queried Steve Inskeep. Why is Rove so all-fired confident? Again, no hint that perhaps the Democrats are afraid that the election is rigged, that it has nothing to do with Rove having 'access to more information than most people', or his possible "November surprise." No asking if what Rove might know has to do with the keys to the software in those Diebold machines.

It's the question they aren't asking, the possibility they are being ever so careful not to mention—that's what's got people worried, whether it's a real threat or just a tinfoil hat conspiracy. Because, of course, if the election IS rigged, if the electronic voting machines and their software ARE hijacked, then getting out the vote isn't going to make a damn bit of difference. Voting on paper might, if everyone did it. But that won't be happening in this election, and admitting that one no longer lives in a country with free elections is pretty hard.

Exit polls are still the best predictor of actual voting outcomes there are. Let's hope the Dems have the balls to fight back this time if the election is stolen.

Again.

Young denying reality, as usual

Don Young: natural comedian.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, Young is convinced that there will be no Democratic takeover of Congress next week:

"I'm predicting we're not going to lose any seats," Young said. "My prediction is as good as anybody else's. The day after the election, we'll see who was right."

Hmm. I seem to recall another arena in which Young thinks his opinion is "as good as anybody else's": climate change science.

Alaska's lone congressman, Republican Rep. Don Young, went so far as dismissing the [Arctic Climate Impact Assessment] on Arctic climate change. He called it ammunition for fearmongers.
"My biggest concern is that people are going to use this so-called study to try to influence the way and standard of living that occurs within the United States," Young said.
"I don't believe it is our fault. That's an opinion," Young said. "It's as sound as any scientist's."

Representative Young is very unhappy with the Daily News, but its editor isn't worried:

"I would say that Don Young remains as articulate, clever and accurate as ever," Dougherty said.

I would agree with that considered judgement, and compliment editor Dougherty on his sagacious character assessment.

Repeal the Imperial Presidency

News stories, editorials, and blog posts critical of the Military Commissions Act keep appearing. Now the Berks County, Pennsylvania, Democratic Committee has passed a resolution calling for the Act's repeal:

Whereas by allowing the suspension of habeas corpus the Military Commissions Act of 2006 is in violation of Article One of the Constitution,

whereas by allowing the commander in chief to make the determination on what constitutes torture the Military Commissions Act of 2006 is in violation of the Geneva Convention.

Resolved that the Berks County Democratic Committee urges Congress to immediately vote to repeal the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and to pass a law that adheres to the Constitution of the United States and the Geneva Convention.

But this is only one part of the task.

For those of you who still don't think that the "Imperial Presidency" that Bush, Gonzalez, et al., are attempting to create is much of a big deal, take a look at this article on the revision of the Insurrection Act and the virtual repeal of the Posse Comitatus Act, via Section 1076 of the Defense Authorization Act for the Pentagon. Apparently not one senator noticed the seriousness of this vote, not even Senator Leahy of Vermont, who has since decided that it's worrisome. It was signed by Bush on the same day that the Military Commissions Act was signed, and gives Bush the authority to

declare a "public emergency" and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder."…The law also facilitates militarized police round-ups and detention of protesters, so called "illegal aliens," "potential terrorists" and other "undesirables" for detention in facilities already contracted for and under construction by Halliburton.

What it does is, in effect, repeal the Posse Comitatus Act, which protects the public from use of the military against it.

Ryland at a boy and his computer puts it nicely:

Why is this bad? It sounds reasonable on the surface - if there's a flood or a terrorist attack, and the local cops can't handle the resulting disorder, send in troops to help. But the Posse Comitatus Act already says that military troops cannot be used as cops, so what it really accomplishes is to allow the president to declare martial law for any reason, including to arrest and detain protesters. All he has to do is say that people protesting the war are causing a threat to order, and that the local cops can't handle it - bam, martial law. Bye-bye, free speech zones.

I'm seriously beginning to wonder if the mid-term elections coming up will be the last national elections we ever have.

Yep, Ryland, me, too. And it is our Congress that is handing these powers to the president on a silver platter, rather like the Roman Senate gave to the Caesar, and how the Reichstag gave to Hitler through the Fire Decree and the Enabling Act. But then, as Kate-A points out, posse comitatus was endangered quite a while ago:

State and Federal troops have been deployed domestically many times to enforce State and Federal "law".

The time to yell about "gutting" the Posse Comitatus was a long long long long time ago. Posse Comitatus has been ignored at the whim of any president who wanted to ignore it. The government is now officially stamping a smiley face on what government has always done.

Germany was a democracy in 1932, but the government gave dictatorial powers to Hitler, and that was all she wrote.

Looks like we're heading the same direction. Gee, thanks, Congress. (Don Young, yea; Lisa Murkowski, yea; Ted Stevens, yea)

Ralph visits Ester

Sort of. Ralph Seekins recently came out to the fire station to visit with the firemen and talk about the station expansion that the EVFD has been trying to get since, oh, 1986, maybe longer. This is the first time I've ever heard of that Seekins has come to Ester to find out what folks out here want. He's never been to the Eagle, to my knowledge, unlike Gary Wilken, who would come by to talk to his constituents at least once a year.

Perhaps he's a little more worried by Joe Thomas' campaign than he's been letting on? Quite a few people out in the Ester area aren't happy with Seekins. Thomas has been talking to Esterites at the Fourth of July potluck, the post office centennial, and the annual fire department meeting. I think he was at the fall ECA meeting, too, but I'm not sure about that. At any rate, Thomas has been paying attention, and Seekins hasn't--at least not to Ester. People appreciate it when a candidate or a representative makes an effort--and notice it when they don't.

Couldn't have said it better myself

Phil Munger has written an interesting little piece on the media and Don Young. He quotes Howie Klein of Down with Tyranny:

(Howie Klein) writes “FBI insiders, or at least those with inside info from FBI employees familiar with the Abramoff case, are betting that almost instant indictments are looming for Alaska's Don Young, Florida's Tom Feeney, John Doolittle, Jerry Lewis, Duncan Hunter, Ken Calvert and Dirty Dick Pombo of the Golden State and Phil English and Don Sherwood of Pennsylvania, as well as for former GOP Crime Boss Tom DeLay.”

So, not only may Representative Young be in the minority party come November 7, he may be up on charges. But of course, this is sheer speculation at this point.

Still, an interesting thought, no?

Benson closing the gap

According to a press release from the Benson campaign, a new poll conducted by Hays Research Group on the 24th and 25th showed that both Don Young and Diane Benson lost ground with the voters. Young, who had on the 20th polled 52%, dropped to 43%, and Benson went from 36% to 34%--which means she is now only 9% behind Young, instead of 16%. That's just in one week, with the election less than two weeks.

I suspect people are upset with Young's unwillingness to actually campaign (although he doesn't normally make these tours of the state as a congressman...) and his failure to debate the issues. But I bet Benson's mostly negative campaigning hasn't helped lately. People are going to want to hear what she stands for, and what she plans to do, in more detail.

What is it with walls?

George Bush has signed the American-Mexican fence/wall bill into law today, and the Israelis have been building their "Separation Wall" between Israel and Palestine for some time. If you ask me, this is idiocy.

Didn't anybody learn anything from the example of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain?

Or, Why Minor Parties Aren't Taken Seriously

Dillon at An Alaskan Abroad caught this little item in the Anchorage Daily News:

Green Party candidate David Massie, who is rarely invited to these head-to-head matchups among the candidates, talked about taxing dandelions.

Why? The first reason would be to satirize the way government is always taxing things, he said. "Second, is if you actually did that, people would have dandelions in their yards, and if they did, they could make dandelion wine, and be taxed on that."

When a candidate says something stupid like this in a major party, it doesn't do the party much harm. Candidates say silly things all the time (just look at Don Young!). But when a minor party candidate says something like this, it reflects badly on the party. Never mind that the Green Party of Alaska has tried to get Massie off the ballot (he wasn't registered Green until the last day of filing, and didn't qualify as a legitimate candidate by our bylaws, and hasn't participated in GPAK meetings). Massie is most emphatically not endorsed by the Green Party of Alaska, but he's the fruitcake who gets quoted.

The interesting thing here is that Andrew Halcro was threatened with removal from the ballot if he didn't get a running mate, but the Green Party is saddled with a nut they've tried to get removed--even though he has no running mate--because, says the Office of Elections, we could, if we wanted to, provide the nut with a lieutenant governor candidate.

Right. So if no Green except Massie voted for Massie, would that still make him our candidate on a one-choice primary ballot? Massie got a grand total of, lessee, 926 votes. I suspect this total has more to do with the party line he ran on than with him personally.

But of course, I've never met him. Maybe he's not a nut. But the delightful quote above sure doesn't inspire much confidence.

Liar, liar, pants on fire!

Did we catch ol' Georgie in a big fat lie? Oh, yes, we did! Shame, shame on you, Georgie! Bad boy!

Runs with the sheep

Okay, now this is just too good to be believed. In criticizing the media for finding fault with elected officials (easy to do because they're out there in public where all their mistakes are visible and affect many, many, people), Don Young said this:

“A person can be the cleanest individual, but has a brother who likes to run with sheep,” Young said, adding that those who haven’t grown up on a farm might not know what that means.

I'm wondering if Michael Rovito, the author of the Frontiersman article in which this gem appeared, was able to keep from snorting out loud when Young proffered this sage bit of folksy wisdom.

Um, so what exactly are you trying to say here, Rep. Young? That the media shouldn't report on bestiality in your family? Or was that some lobbyist you were thinking of? It's pretty clear that the sheep in Congress these days are all playing follow the leader, and rubber-stamping whatever Mr. Bush wants. (Young's actually a bit of an old goat, striking out in odd directions from time to time, no matter what the criticism.) (Oh, hyperbole is SUCH fun!)

Young is obviously a natural comic. Now that Mr. Whitekeys has retired, perhaps Young could take up the baton?

Benson benefits

I've had a lot to say here about the general yuckiness of Don Young, but I haven't said much about why I think Diane Benson would make a better representative than he would. Here's a couple of reasons right off the top of my head:

1. Benson's a woman, a Tlingit, and actually spends most of her time in Alaska. She has very deep roots in this state. She's taking the time to talk with as many people as she can, from all walks of life. She seems to me to really care about people and their concerns. I think that the fewer rich white men supported by corporate money and the more minorities and women supported by ideals and your average joe that we have in Congress, the better for all of us.

2. Benson's a Democrat. It's a sure bet that at least the House of Representatives will be controlled by the Democrats after November, and that means that all those cushy committee appointments Young has right now will be whisked out from under him if he remains in office. Even with his seniority, he is going to lose his clout—and so will Alaska, unless we elect a Democrat. If Benson wins, then we will have a representative, who, though a freshman, will still be a member of the majority party. And that will be very important. The Congressional Democrats will want to hold onto Alaska, and will try to make Benson's first term a successful one, because helping her will help the party hang onto that seat in the next election.

3. Benson, unlike Young, can see the evidence in front of her eyes, and knows that we need to invest in alternative energy. That's where our future is. I've been running a series of articles by Brian Yanity on alternative energy resources in Alaska, and this state is a phenomenal powerhouse of wind, water, and sun. It's amazing, and I'm glad to see a candidate emphasizing this.

4. She's also addressing the health care crisis, and recognizes that getting health care affordable means that everybody benefits: "Healthier employees make better workers." (Young's got a 0% rating on public health votes by the American Public Health Association.)

5. Campaign finance reform!

6. She has a brief list of the basic issues and legislative goals on her website, but this doesn't reflect one of the best things about her: she's ELOQUENT. I heard part of her testimony at the Fairbanks Borough Assembly meeting on the Rumsfeld resignation resolution, and she was articulate, expressive, clear, and heartfelt. She spoke beautifully.

Dumb and dumber

Thought I'd add how I really feel about the entire Don "Dumber" Young situation. Did anyone hear his interview with KFAR yesterday? It was priceless!!!! Don should do Mastercard commercials.
I bet our Congressman is dumber than yours!

Diane Benson giving Don Young a scare

Don Young is treating Diane Benson, a Democratic Party candidate, as though she's a third-party candidate. It's interesting that she's being treated rather the way she was by Ulmer when she ran as a Green in 2002. (Shoe's on the other foot, hey, Dems? This is the problem with this kind of exclusionary, undemocratic tactic: it comes back to bite you. The party in power plays dirty....)
But Benson has a good chance of winning, more than perhaps any other candidate running against Young for quite a while. Benson showed 47% to Young's 53% in a straw poll by the League of Women Voters here in the Tanana Valley, and 36% to 52% in a more recent poll. That's better than anybody's done against Young in a long, long time, certainly better than last time (2004: Young 71%, Higgins (Dem) 22%).
Young is in trouble this time. According to the Anchorage Daily News:

Young calls himself the fourth most powerful congressman in America, but Metcalfe said that just puts him in a Republican clique that includes House Speaker Dennis Hastert, in trouble over his handling of the sex scandal involving House pages; former Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, indicted on charges of conspiring to violate campaign finance laws; and former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California, now in prison after pleading guilty to taking bribes.
Young's leadership PAC donated $5,000 in September 2005 to Cunningham's defense fund, according to an online database of Federal Election Commission records operated by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Other edgy topics for Young include his reported connection with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his campaign contributions from executives with Veco, the oil field services and construction company now under investigation by the FBI for possible influence peddling.
Veco executives have been Young's No. 1 campaign contributor since 1989, sending more than $200,000 his way since then, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Benson's got mostly grassroots support: 99% of her campaign contributions are coming from individuals. Only 56% of Young's contributors are individuals; 36% comes from political action committees.

After 33 years, we need some new material

Okay, folks, I'm taking a clue here from Volker Pispers and Helmut Kohl: It's been thirty-three years of Don Young, most of my adult life--no, wait--ALL of my adult life and then some--and it's enough! He's lampooned himself for so long that his bloopers are predictable. Comedians and editorial cartoonists can imitate Don Young better than he can lampoon himself (I mean, be himself)! We need some fresh material, somebody new we can make fun of!

I mean, come on, we've been making fun of Young since before he was elected the first time! There's only so long that joke about being beaten by a dead man, or living in a mailbox in Yukon, or the anecdote about him swearing at high school students while castigating obscenity, can get a good laugh.

Or maybe not. Perhaps there's a few chuckles to be got out of him yet.

But it would sure be nice to see a new face up there on the podium where we could be suprised by fresh, new possibilties. Personally, I don't think Young can be beaten for sheer entertainment value (although he certainly could be bested when it comes to, oh, something like attendence in Congress) . I suspect that Diane Benson won't embarrass herself with stupid gaffes about the public being "waffle-stompers" or "idiots." So we probably couldn't make fun of her that way. And the issues she's concerned about seem pretty relevant and down-to-earth, so I suspect we couldn't make fun of those--they make sense to too many people. Her legislative aims seem pretty worthwhile, too.

Nope. I bet we'd have more fun with watching the Republicans in Congress puffing up like frogs when she gets to work in Congress--somebody who's not out of touch with Alaska, with the Bush, with the ideas of fiscal responsibility and ethical campaigning and working for a living...

Heh. Now THAT would be funny.

(Bet you can tell how I plan to vote this election, hey?)

Done! Done, I tell you!

Bleah. Finally I am done with yet another issue of the Republic. Just have to take it in to the printer, and I can relax (right after I finish with the distribution and subscriptions and data entry, that is...).

I've been doing this now for almost nine years. That's quite a while. This part, the last four or five days before printing, are always hellish. I stay up until the wee hours of the morning, writing announcements and cramming things in and trying to make sure I haven't forgotten everything, routinely working miracles of layout that nobody else will really notice or appreciate (except for my husband, who gets to chuckle over my cries of exultant triumph when I cram a 700-word article into a 600-word space). This issue was a doozy--32 pages, 8 more than my usual, and with several last-minute items.

Of course, I always forget something, or have to bump something because there just wasn't room, and when the paper actually comes out my eye immediately locks on to the obvious typo on contents page or my editorial or in the main spread.

It always takes me at least 24 hours longer than the point at which I think I'll be done in just one more hour. Without fail. And for some reason every month I keep thinking that yep, I'm almost finished, just another hour. You'd think I'd have figured it out by now.

Nope.

But when that paper comes out, and I'm at the Eagle handing out contributor copies to my neighbors, and I see half the bar with their nose in the magazine--ah, the satisfaction. People actually want to READ the thing.

Makes me feel like I'm doing something worthwhile after all.

Another reason the Military Commissions Act is bad

The National Post, a Canadian newspaper, reported today on a US military gag order placed on a lawyer, Lt.-Col. Colby Vokey, for Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, who has been in Guantanamo since he was 15, in 2002. He is now 20 years old. Khadr charges that he has "been beaten, held for long periods in stress positions and locked up in solitary confinement for months at a time."

So why the gag order? Well, it turns out that the paralegal, St. Heather Cerveny, working with his lawyer, overheard a conversation by Guantanamo guards in which they bragged about striking or beating detainees, apparently as a regular practice. The Post interviewed Vokey, Cerney, and Muneer Ahmad, a criminal defense lawyer also working on behalf of Khadr.

President George W. Bush is expected to sign a new bill next week on the special military commission system for detainees in the war on terror held at the U.S. base in Cuba.
"This is more than a coincidence," said Ahmad. "Sgt. Cerveny's sworn statement reveals exactly what is wrong with the new law. It permits the abuse of detainees to continue, it immunizes wrongdoers and it strips the courts of the power to ever hear complaints of such abuse.
"The president wants us to believe there never was abuse at Guantanamo and that there isn't abuse now. Sgt. Cerveny's statement shows that just isn't true."

There's good reason the American Bar Association opposed the Military Commissions Act.

Correcting a serious error about Don Young's vote

My, Representative Young is getting a lot of press from me these days. I made what is, to my mind, a significant error in my critique of Don Young's voting record. In item #9, where I took him to task for not having shown up to vote on the USA PATRIOT Act, I accused him of having gone ahead and voted for extending the sunsetted provisions. I looked this up at the time, but evidently not on a reliable website. Young did not, in fact, vote to extend. So far as I can tell, his Libertarian streak was going strong, as he voted against every extensionof its liberty-infringing powers.

My apologies, Rep. Young. I just wish your Libertarian streak was functioning when you voted on the Military Commissions Act.

Go fly a kite!

Wired News had this interesting article today on a windpower turbine that uses kites to generate electricity at high altitudes.

This idea has been explored in the form of "flying electric generators", too: tethered windmills that fly at 15,000 feet or higher.

Kite flying: fun and good for the environment, too!

Don Young isn't crowing about this vote

Interesting. When I go look at Don Young's website, I find a list of all kinds of bills he's proud to have voted for and announces all over in press releases and whatnot, but he's not letting on that he voted to allow the president to have despotic powers. I checked out his campaign website, too, and although he's got lots of military and homeland security bills that he voted for listed, his vote for the Military Commissions Act is nowhere to be found.

Funny, that.

Holding Rumsfeld accountable in Fairbanks

Last night, and the Thursday before, the people of the Tanana Valley turned out to hold Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld accountable for the lousy job he's doing. In a government by the people, it is vitally important that, if our elected representatives are unwilling to hold their appointees accountable, that the people do it themselves. And it's quite clear that the White House and Congress are unwilling to call incompetents on the carpet.

There were so many people that they weren't able to finish taking testimony on resolution 2006-37 (PDF), and so will be holding a special meeting next Wednesday. That makes three meetings on this subject. The testimony has been running about three to one in favor of the original and strongest resolution.

Contact the borough assembly here.

Back to the bone

Fairbanks will get what it pays for, and apparently, it doesn't want to pay for much. The propositions that Fairbanks voters passed on Tuesday are going to hurt them, despite the crows of victory right now.

A certain city firefighter was at the Eagle last night, and he's looking for a new job. He figures he has a few months before the money runs out, but he's tired of being on tenterhooks about whether Fairbanks gives a rat's rump about public safety. And apparently, the city doesn't. Or at least, the voters seem to think that the staff of the police and fire departments and whatnot don't need to make a living.

Well, Fairbanksans, you will find out just how much things actually cost when the city council, et etc., has to start cutting services, so start writing up your new propositions now for next October's ballots to set things right.

Government does certain things much better than private enterprise, volunteer groups do certain things better than government or private enterprise, and private enterprise does some things better than either. But no one mode of getting things done is The Answer to All. Fairbanks is going to find this out the hard way, it looks like.

Why hemp is illegal

Great Britain has seen the light. In 1993 the ban on hemp cultivation was overturned in the UK. (Hemp is still, stupidly, illegal in the US, of course.) A quote on it from this article in the Guardian:

The hemp community has been shouting about the environmental benefits of the plant for years. An oft-quoted statistic is that hemp has more than 25,000 natural uses - ranging from food and oil supplements, made from its seeds, to strong industrial materials processed from its woody outer core. It is fast-growing and can thrive in British soil with little water and with no pesticides or other soil-polluting chemicals.

So why was it illegal there? Well, according to Kenyon Gibson, a researcher and author of the book, Hemp for Victory,

the misrepresentation of hemp as a dangerous narcotic has been pushed for decades by international conglomerates, who are well aware of the threat that the plant poses to their trade.

"It was the large multinationals who helped ban hemp decades ago, and it's the large multinationals who are still ensuring that natural alternatives to their products are being sidelined even in this time of environmental chaos," Gibson says. "Look at how many trees we could save by investing in a global hemp paper industry. Look at its potential to contribute to natural ethanol, yet we're lagging behind countries such as Brazil which are making great strides in creating fuel from domestic products."

"I'm a war [crimes] president!"

Given the load of folderol Bush presented us on Iraq and Saddam, I am continually amazed at the follow-the-leader mentality exhibited by Congress, even in the most blatant, egregious war powers pushing that Bush does. I was incorrect on the Military Commissions Act: it doesn't provide for retroactive exoneration/pardon/CYA for possible war crimes committed by this administration to 2001, it covers their butts all the way back through 1997.

I'm not sure if it will cover our Pro-Torture Congressional Trio, though...wonder if they've considered that?

Mike Musick wins a seat on the assembly!

Mike Musick was elected to the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly yesterday, with a resounding 62 percent. The News-Miner has an article about the results, and here's what they say about Mike:

The race for the vacant Seat G pitted Musick against [Bonnie] Williams, with Musick taking 62 percent of the votes.

“I think we both ran a good, positive race,” said Musick, who credited his win to help from his wife, Ritchie.

In his campaign, Musick, the project manager on the recently completed Cold Climate Housing Research Center, promoted energy efficiency as a way for the borough to save money and called for training programs to prepare residents for gas pipeline jobs. He said the assembly should also consider property tax exemptions for seniors and others....

[Charlie] Rex and [Nadine] Hargesheimer both expressed confidence in Musick’s addition to the assembly. “I think Mike’s going to be a good assembly member,” Rex said. “He’s well-versed on borough issues.”

I think his election was in part a result of the general annoyance that the electorate felt for Bonnie Williams, but I think the other part was just that Mike made good sense and he listened to people. Pretty much what you want in an elected official.

And this makes the first win for a member of the Tanana-Yukon Green Party in far too long. I think that as people like Mike get into office, more of the public will realize what Green philosophy, government policy, and public service means, and will stop succumbing to the fear-mongering tactics and stereotypes thrown out there by the likes of Don Young.