Gerry Mander in Alaska

It has been an insanely busy month, and more excitement is coming down the pike.

The big news is from ol' Gerry Mander hisself, from a recent triumphant presentation in Alaska of How to Screw the Voters. Here's what will happen to the districts in which Goldstream and Ester lie, according to the News-Miner:

One notable shift at home: Ester, Fox and much of the Goldstream Valley would join a giant rural House district that includes scores of communities from across the state. It would straddle the Fairbanks area and stretch completely across Alaska — from the southwestern village of Holy Cross north to Arctic Village and southeast again to Chitina.:

Does this make sense at ALL? There was some of this before, too, almost as ridiculous: Coghill's district stretches from North Pole to Valdez.



Here's what Wikipedia says about gerrymandering:

In the process of setting electoral districts, rather than using uniform geographic standards, Gerrymandering is a practice of political corruption that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected, and neutral districts. The resulting district is known as a gerrymander.…

The two aims of gerrymandering are to maximize the effect of supporters' votes and to minimize the effect of opponents' votes. One strategy, packing, is to concentrate as many voters of one type into a single electoral district to reduce their influence in other districts. In some cases this may be done to obtain representation for a community of common interest, rather than to dilute that interest over several districts to a point of ineffectiveness. A second strategy, cracking, involves spreading out voters of a particular type among many districts in order to deny them a sufficiently large voting bloc in any particular district. The strategies are typically combined, creating a few "forfeit" seats for packed voters of one type in order to secure even greater representation for voters of another type.

Gerrymandering is effective because of the wasted vote effect. By packing opposition voters into districts they will already win (increasing excess votes for winners) and by cracking the remainder among districts where they are moved into the minority (increasing votes for eventual losers), the number of wasted votes among the opposition can be maximized. Similarly, with supporters holding narrow margins in the unpacked districts, the number of wasted votes among supporters is minimized.

While the wasted vote effect is strongest when a party wins by narrow margins across multiple districts, gerrymandering narrow margins can be risky when voters are less predictable. To minimize the risk of demographic or political shifts swinging a district to the opposition, politicians can instead create more packed districts, leading to more comfortable margins in unpacked ones.

There is a public hearing in Fairbanks April 19, Tuesday, 2 to 6 pm at the Fairbanks City Hall, City Council Chamber on the 2nd floor: If you would like to comment on the utter monstrosity of a jerrymandered redistricting, please come to this hearing! If you are in another city, other hearings are taking place also and you can find out more from the Alaska Redistricting Board's website. PLEASE NOTE that I have also heard that these hearings will end at 4 pm, not 6, so I don't know if they've been curtailed, expanded, or if this is just a rumor. Getting there early if you can will be important. I will be taking time off work to get there.

Interesting how they timed it for most people's working hours, hmm?

At any rate, you might consider whether it is equitable or reasonable for Ester's Senate district to include--and no, I am NOT kidding--Sitka, or for us to be in the same district as, say, Arctic Village. This won't help the Bush and it sure won't help Ester or Fairbanks or Goldstream (or Sitka or Holy Cross) to be properly represented. This is sheer stupidity. There are two official options, both of which are clearly attempts to split voting blocks, with no regard for whether the residents of these areas have any commonalities of need or location. This won't serve anybody well. There are a few privately-suggested plans, also shown on the Board's website. There are several organizations proposing options.

Of wingnuts and crackpots

I decided to remove the labels "Wingnut Wes" and "Crackpot Coghill" because these people are not always wingnutty or cracked. Despite my frothing posts below, and my serious lack of anything related to genteel, ladylike responses to these acts of heavy-handed legislative lunacy, these guys aren't two-dimensional and do come up with things I agree with and can support. Sometimes.

That said, I stand by my political viewpoint on these particular issues. And I froth for damn good reasons. The big, heavy club approach is inappropriate, and librarians should not be expected to act in loco parentis.

More stupidity on the state front: let's just kill a few pregnant women, why don't we?

I obviously have not been paying attention. Just look at this crap that the Legislature is trying to pull! Wingnut Wes is at it again, along with our hometown fave, Crackpot Coghill. I am so mad I could just spit!

The Anchorage Daily News printed this story on Jan. 22:

JUNEAU -- A House committee approved a proposal Monday that would make a medical procedure widely known as a "partial birth abortion" a felony in Alaska. The House Judiciary Committee passed a bill to revise the current law so it conforms to federal standards. A floor vote -- and a spirited debate -- is expected later in the legislative session. No one spoke out against the bill during a brief public comment period.

Committee members debated an amendment that would allow termination of a pregnancy that "poses substantial risk of permanent injury to the pregnant woman's physical or mental health."

But bill proponents say a portion of the law not under revision sufficiently takes into account the mother's welfare if her life is endangered. The proposed amendment failed.

According to Life News, there's no time when this procedure (which is grisly and grueling and ONLY undertaken for serious medical complications) is ever medically necessary. What a load of waffle!

This is simply an attempt to enforce an unscientific, religious worldview upon the bodies of women who are in desperate need of medical help. I wrote about this in an editorial when the Supreme Court decided that women were too fragile to deal with regret and that therefore a ban on this kind of procedure was perfectly acceptable. Conforming to "federal standards" means conforming to sheer nonsense! This is RELIGIOUS WINGNUTTERY!

And you know what? women are going to die because of it. They won't be able to get the medical help they need, and so they'll get to die for some puffed-up self-righteous bastard of a legislator's religion.

So what else is new?

Metcalfe pins "VECO's Dirty Dozen"

This just in from Ray Metcalfe:

The following twelve legislators all have four things in common:
1. Every one of them has taken more than $10,000 from Veco.
2. When Veco owner Bill Allen asked to be relieved of his requirement to register as a lobbyist, they crafted and passed legislation ending Bill Allen's requirement to register.
3. When presented with hundreds of pages of evidence of Veco's bribery, each of them refused to respond.
4. When asked to admit or deny under oath whether or not [they] had taken advantage of the illegal polling, services that Veco's Vice President Rick Smith admitted having provided to over 100 of their favored candidates, every one of the still seated legislators below refused comment.

1. Mike Chenault, $32,000
2. Ralph Samuels, $10,250
3. Mike Hawker, $21,350
4. Lesil McGuire, $17,550
5. Lyda Green, $18,000
6. Kevin Meyer, $23,350
7. John Cowdery, $45,200
8. Con Bunde, $18,650
9. John Coghill Jr, $10,480
*10. Carl Gatto, $12,000 IMPORTANT ADDENDA (10/23/07): Gatto did not fulfil all the requirements for the Dirty Dozen list, it turns out. He did NOT vote to exempt Bill Allen from registering as a lobbyist. (Metcalfe sent this addenda out this morning, with his apology to Gotto. But he forgot somebody else: Richard Foster.) So our real #10 spot is taken by:
10. Richard Foster, $16,750
11. Fred Dyson, $21,700
12. Gary Stevens, $14,275

Watch closely as they go to bat for everything Veco fought for --- and remember them next election.

It'll be interesting to see how many of these legislators are exonerated and how many swept into the corruption investigations. One thing's for sure: Metcalfe's been right so far (although Ben Stevens is still unindicted).

The nastiness of HJR 9: "no other union"

Now, this is interesting. House Joint Resolution 9, sponsored/authored by Representatives John Coghill Jr., John Harris, Vic Kohring, Peggy Wilson, Bob Lynn, Carl Gatto, Nancy Dahlstrom, Mike Kelly, Mark Neuman, Bill Thomas Jr., and Bill Stoltze and introduced to the Alaska legislature February 12, 2007, would not just mean that employee benefits would be denied to gay couples and common-law (heterosexual) married couples by the state and any dependent organizations (such as cities, boroughs, universities), it would also prevent creation of civil unions as an alternative to marriage: "the only union that shall be valid or recognized in this state".

The text of this bill does not match the advisory vote question (which asks that the legislature do a pretty crappy, mean-spirited thing), and instead does an even more crappy, mean-spirited thing--so the vote (or the bill) is deceptive. Here's the text of the bill:

Section 25. Marriage and related limitations. To be valid or recognized in this State, a marriage may exist only between one man and one woman. No other union is similarly situated to a marriage between a man and a woman and, therefore, a marriage between a man and a woman is the only union that shall be valid or recognized in this State and to which the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage shall be extended or assigned.

This is EXACTLY THE SAME TEXT as was placed before the legislature last year, and was resoundingly rejected by the public in hearings across the state.

And again, like last year, this text says nothing about being limited to state entities: this would apply across the board, to privately held entities like businesses, for example. Why? because it is an AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION! and it doesn't say that it applies only to public employees, or public benefits. Nope, this is a general amendment, written to discriminate generally. Even the League of Women Voters doesn't like it, due to the deception involved in the advisory vote language vs. the bill above, and the bass-ackwards procedure. They are recommending voting NO.

Me, too. I can't wait to see the first lawsuit brought by a business against the state for proscribing giving same-sex partners the benefits that opposite-sex partners get, if this stupidity passes.

And again, we have the same problem as before (since it's exactly the same text as before): this will mean that the Alaska constitution will cease to be about limiting the powers of the government, and become about limiting the rights and powers of the people in the form of social policy dictation. Top down, state to borough, state to city, state to private entity.

Coghill dissembles when he claims that the

Supreme Court has ordered Alaskans to pay for a benefit that the majority of people disagree with philosophically. Once the state requires same-sex benefits for partners of state employees, it is only a few more legal steps until private businesses are forced to provide the same benefits lest they “discriminate.”

The bill he has sponsored would require that businesses be denied the option of offering same-sex partners benefits. It requires that cities be denied that option. He says that the majority of people disagree with employee benefits for same-sex couples, but where's the poll? That would have been a much cheaper option, and more accurate (if done properly, by a reputable outfit that doesn't do push polls). No, instead, he wants this expensive and deceptive advisory vote, and it looks like he wants it to mask the amendment he's already sponsored that was REJECTED by the public the LAST time he did this.

Largo's problem in a nutshell

This quote from the Miami Herald narrows the problem with Stanton's firing down to the bare bones:

''I do not feel he has the integrity, nor the trust, nor the respect, nor the confidence to continue as the city manager of the city of Largo,'' said Commissioner Mary Gray Black, who introduced the resolution to fire Stanton.

''They're saying, we don't want to fire him because he's transsexual, we want to fire him because he won't get support from his staff,'' said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. "This was said when women were put in charge of people. When African Americans were first put in charge of people. It's just embarrassing that we as a society seem to learn about it a group at a time.''

And that's just it: this is EXACTLY THE SAME as bigotry and discrimination against blacks (the Jim Crow laws, for example) or women. Or Catholics. Or Native Americans. Or gays. Or people over sixty. Exactly the same damn thing.

And guess what? Mike Kelly and John Coghill and those like them are trying not just to make it LEGAL to discriminate against people who are in committed relationships with people of the same gender (and just how do we determine that? DNA testing? secondary sexual characteristics? what? what about hermaphrodites? where does that leave them?)--no, they're trying to REQUIRE that we discriminate.

This prevents cities or villages from bucking the trend, too. Here's the language of the advisory vote question:

Shall the legislature adopt a proposed amendment to the state constitution to be considered by the voters at the 2008 general election that would prohibit the state, or a municipality or other subdivision of the state, from providing employement benefits to same-sex partners of public employees and to same-sex partners of public employee retirees?

In other words, even a local branch of government can't make the decision for itself. It's a top-down governmental prohibition. This ought to get the Libertarian crowd pissed off. I hope.

$175,000 down the drain so far

So far, due to our so-called conservative legislators' bull-headedness, the Division of Elections has spent $175,000 on printing up ballots for the special advisory vote (lots cheaper to just take a poll, guys). And it's none other than North Pole's John Coghill who sponsored this stupid $1.2 million advisory boondoggle in the first place.

Hooray for Mike Doogan, who's got a sense of fiscal responsibility and is trying to head off this colossal waste of money.

Amazing, the effort and expense so much of our legislature is willing to go to so that a segment of Alaska's population can be relegated to second-class status. Just makes me feel all rosy and proud of our great state.

Not.

2006 in review

January

Plans for the 7th annual birthday bash fell through after nasty cold weather made it impractical. Hmm. Sounds like this year, although the 8th birthday bash is still on schedule.

The car died, the heater blew up, the house froze. We're still paying off the debt.

Redesigned the Republic.

February

Our local supporters of theocracy (Seekins, Coghill, Kelly) introduced a constitutional amendment to make it impossible for benefits to be offered to anybody but legally recognized spouses. The bill was written so broadly that heterosexual, unmarried or common-law couples would be affected, as would private business. Kelly, whose manhood seems to be easily threatened, is still ranting about the dire awfulness of offering (gasp!) health benefits. Apparently equal work does not deserve equal pay, in his eyes...

The state of Alaska decided it wouldn't release the 2004 voting data/database to the Democratic Party.

Don Young was implicated in the Abramof scandal.

The Green Party of Alaska got back on the ballot.

The Ester Republic held its 7th annual birthday bash. Delivered the Publisher's Picks for the first time.

March

Don Young voted for a food labeling bill (it passed) that prevents states from requiring stricter labeling than the feds. This means that, contrary to the unanimous vote of the Alaska Legislature, we can't require that GM fish or farm fish be labeled as such.

The second Library Lallapalooza and Book Bash raised a bunch of money for the Ester library but frayed the librarians' tempers. We resolved to be more relaxed and better prepared for it next time.

April

We got hit with a huge tax bill which we're still paying off.

Hans and I went to Anchorage for the Alaska Press Club conference. The Republic won third place for Jamie Smith's editorial cartoons.

May

The Republic's new office, the Old Post Office Espresso Publishing House & Art Gallery, was moved into the village square by Scott Allen.

Amy Cameron, Kate Billington, and I had our show, Vanishment, at the Annex. I sold a few pieces!

June

It snowed.

The new Republic office held its first opening on June 5 for the first Ester Art Walk.

Fairbanks Open Radio started up its website.

I gave Hans an electric guitar for his birthday. He's had fun all year frightening the cats with it.

Al-Zarqawi amazed the world by dying once again (for something like the third or fourth time). This time he wasn't able to get resurrected by the State Department or Bush's press secretary, as before.

We went to a Scandihoovian solstice party on Happy Road (read: St. Patrick's) where the partygoers took turns (in between drinking akvavit and mead and eating sild) charging down the road as horse and chariot and whapping a knight of the Crusades upside the head with an axe. Later a large malfunctioning trebuchet provided life-threatening entertainment by pitching boulders directly up. And then down again.

Senator Ted Stevens earned his nickname as "Tubes" Stevens for an unfortunate choice of words (and evident lack of understanding) regarding the Internet and e-mail.

July

Hosted Carnival of the Green #35.

Had my 45th birthday and felt old.

A new low in Alaska politics was struck: Frank Murkowski sent me (and far too many others) a piece of propaganda on his oil/gas proposal, disguised as "information," and featuring a photo of Murky Frank from 20 years ago. The net effect was that practically the entire state started wondering how to bill him personally for the expense of producing this little green gem.

August

Tim Easton, Rod Picott, and a bunch of local musicians appeared in a concert at the Malemute Saloon to benefit the Ester library. Wahoo!

Pat Davis and Chris Barefoot died.

September

Our Congressional delegation voted unanimously to give the US president dictatorial powers via the Military Commissions Act. Through some fancy-pants redefinitions, the term "accused" became synonymous with "guilty" and "torture" became softened to "interrogation". Christians everywhere were shamed by Reverend Louis P. Sheldon, who appears to think that medieval standards of justice are appropriate when somebody Muslim has been suspected of, well, anything.

The Ester Post Office celebrated its 100th year of service to the "Arts & Mines of Ester". I stood up in front of my neighbors and made a speech, and -- astonishingly -- had fun doing it!

October

Don Young demonstrated his legendary prognostication skills once again with his firm pronouncement that the Democats wouldn't take over the House.

Ralph Seekins, theocratist (see above), deigned to visit Ester's firehouse to discuss the possibility of not bumping the expansion project from the top of the list anymore and maybe funding it this year. If, of course, Mr. Finance Chair got back in office. Funny, when he was in office he didn't seem too interested in what Ester or its fire department needed.

In a stunning display of fiscal irresponsibility and plain stupidity about the history of walls on borders, Congress and Bush pass into law the American/Mexican fence bill. Never mind the delightful price tag it comes with.

The borough assembly played ostrich and voted down a resolution that would have called for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation.

Mike Musick tromped Bonnie Williams and won a seat on the borough assembly.

November

The American public, sick to death of the corruption in Washington, threw the bastards out. Alas, Diane Benson only gave Don Young a scare with 40% of the vote. Alaska's voting lunkheads stuck us with Yon Dung for another two years. Ralph Seekins and Jim Holm got tossed out on their ears, and David Guttenberg was reelected with flying colors.

A flap commenced with GVEA and certain fishy financial figures were promoted by our electric utility. Much fuss commenced.

December

GVEA's G&T proposal failed, with a whopping 21% turnout. GVEA's CEO and board president demonstrated clearly that they didn't believe that the membership had a clue. It was, according to them, just a problem in public relations, rather than anything substantive. Well, now the membership knows where the problem lies.

Solstice and Christmas and New Year's all came again much too quickly, but it finally dawned on me that next year, I should take vacation the week BEFORE, and maybe I can get what I need to done in time!

The land of the not-so-free

The latest attempt to enshrine religious bigotry in our state constitution has been brought forth by (surprise) John Coghill, Bob Lynn, Mike Kelly, and Ralph Seekins and the Senate Judiciary Committee. In essence, it says you can't pay benefits or incur obligations etc. to a couple if they aren't offcially married. Lots of attention is being paid to the same-sex couples, but common-law heterosexual couples would also be blasted by this amendment. It is utterly, grossly, despicably appalling that these busybodies think it's just dandy to mess about with job benefits just because they have a massive phobia about certain sexual (or marital) practices. They claim that it will "defend marriage", as though marriages are falling apart due to job benefits like this in Massachusetts, or Denmark, or wherever else same-sex or common law marriage or civil union is legal. And, of course, it reflects the will of the majority (given that the public passed a discriminatory marriage definition a bit ago)—but it also is a clear example of the tyranny of the majority oppressing a minority. Sheesh! Just how silly can they get? Here's the verbage:

A RESOLUTION
Proposing an amendment to the section of the Constitution of the State of Alaska relating to marriage.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:
* Section 1. Article I, sec. 25, Constitution of the State of Alaska, is amended to read:

Section 25. Marriage and related limitations. To be valid or recognized in this State, a marriage may exist only between one man and one woman. No other union is similarly situated to a marriage between a man and a woman and, therefore, a marriage between a man and a woman is the only union that shall be valid or recognized in this State and to which the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage shall be extended or assigned.

* Sec. 2. The amendment proposed by this resolution shall be placed before the voters of the state at the next general election in conformity with art. XIII, sec. 1, Constitution of the State of Alaska, and the election laws of the state.

At least the public seems to be viewing this as the folderol it is.

As Marsha Buck said, "What happened to liberty and justice for all?"