The year in review

January

Hosted the sixth annual birthday bash for The Ester Republic. I missed sending out a few invitations, and heard about it later from those who didn't realize that they were welcome to crash the party.

Participated in BiPolar 2005, the annual midwinter transcontinental art show held simultaneously in McMurdo's MAAG and Ester. We had a live chat link.

March

The first John Trigg Ester Library Lallapalooza & Book Bash is pulled off, after much preparation, which turned out not to be quite enough, with a play and bagpipes and a ton of people. It was my first real foray into nonprofit fundraisers.

Later in March, I participated in Relik, a wonderful art show at the Annex, curated by Amy Cameron Luick.

April

Went to the Alaska Press Club conference. The Republic won two 2nd place prizes this year: Dan Darrow's cartoons and Carla Helfferich's editorial, "Cheering up the Left".

May

Hans and I built an enclosed porch, creating a bug-free zone (YAY!) and some more living area.

July

Became the first pinup girl to pose for the 2006 Women of Ester Calendar.

Grew a lot of tiny tomatoes and had a birthday. Picked raspberries.

August

Attended my dad and April's 20th wedding anniversary/70th birthday party. Saw a ton of people I used to eavesdrop on at parties when I was a kid and they were hanging out with my parents.

Picked blueberries.

September

Helped out Jamie Smith with his Katrina Animal Relief fundraiser: my second foray into nonprofit fundraising. Wangled him into helping out with the library bash next year (not really a hard sell, actually. The man's a book nut.)

October

Started relearning to knit (and purl! and cast off!)

Started this blog, as though I didn't have enough to keep me busy.

Foolishly volunteered to help out with the KUAC Task Force.

November

Attended a lot of KUAC Task Force meetings.

Attended the first Grassroots Gathering, hosted by the Fairbanks Grassroots Network, and met Aaron Selbig, editor of Insurgent49, who stayed with us for a couple of days. I ended up filling in for a speaker at the Gathering, and gave a talk on grassroots journalism/independent publishing.

December

Attended the KUAC Forum. Saw more people there than I've ever seen at any public forum or meeting.

Started the curtains project.

Tote that tome!

This morning, before heading off to work more on the ridiculously bright curtains I've been making with Amy's help, I updated the John Trigg Ester Library website. Kate Billington (the same person who's been teaching me to knit) came up with a great idea for maintaining the library:

Once a month, same day of the month, the JTEL will hold a "Love Your Library Soup & Stow" (or a Stew & Shelve) get-together for library volunteers and wannabe helpers. The idea is that members of the library board will bring something to eat and drink, such as soup and crackers and hot tea, and whoever wants to come help reshelve books or catalog new donations or vacuum the floor or whatever else needs doing can come down and have guidance and company for a couple of hours, and get fed for their trouble.

The first one will be a three-day affair, 2 p.m. on Feb. 24, 25, & 26th. The next month, March, will be the Lallapalooza on the 26th, but after that, every month, the 26th will be a regular excuse to tidy the library and get together with fellow bibliophiles.

Kentucky Greens

According to Gregg Jocoy, a South Carolinian, people in Kentucky can now, finally, register Green. Prior to Nov. 15, Kentucky didn't collect this kind of information from voters.

It's amazing what a struggle it is to simply allow for a variation of viewpoints in this country's political process. Change in political law (is that a redundancy?) that makes things fairer between the two major parties is hailed wildly as reform, even if it squelches third party ballot access. The Connecticut Campaign Finance bill passed recently, for example, was accompanied by much hoopla (particularly from the Democrats) because it made things cleaner for campaigning. Interestingly, it created two classes of parties: non-Democrats and non-Republicans have significantly steeper requirements in obtaining ballot access now than they used to. And it makes it tougher for them to get state help: for example, minor party primaries don't count—but major party primaries do. So this "reform", while an improvement in some areas, is even more unfair in others.

I find myself suspicious of the rhetoric of the Democratic party, because in practice, all across the country, this party actively works to reduce choice and to treat smaller parties, like the Greens, with the same viciousness and unfair treatment that they've seen from the Republicans. It's as though the point is to prevent the public from making its own choices, to make them ahead of time and then go through the rigamarole of voting to keep the public satisfied and calm and controllable.

Sort of like the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.

It's curtains!

Yesterday I began the excavations. Our house won't have to wait 5,000 years to have archeologists digging down through the midden heap to find interesting treasures; they could come over today and get enough artifacts for a good-sized dissertation.

I took a few more boxes out of the shed and brought them into the house. I took the boxes of wrapping paper back into the shed. I cleaned up a few small bags of trash. I burned a bit more. I organized the yarn. (That took quite a while. I included the many many balls of silly fuzzy yarn that I received for Christmas--great stuff.) I organized more interesting cloth bits, getting them ready for haulage OUT of the house, and then Amy came to get me and we lugged two garbage bags' worth of cloth up to the Stone's.

Amy is helping me make curtains for my windows. I've lived in this house for, oh, ten years, and I have no curtains. We have one blind, but no insulated curtains or shutters. Now, how silly is that? Windows are the most amazing heat-loss and heat-gain devices ever invented. We've got double panes in most of the windows, but the main living room and bedroom windows are triple-pane, plus a couple of smaller windows. Lots of heat loss in the winter, in other words. And they're dark at night. Wonderful in the spring with all the light and heat coming in, and sweltering in the summer.

I've been very interested for many years in alternative energy, passive solar design, all that good stuff, but simple, low-tech stuff that I can do myself (or with the help of a friend and a sewing machine)--duh! It's funny how, now that we are using the wood stove again, I'm realizing that there are a few easy things I can do to brighten up the place and make it warmer and cozier.

O tannenbaum

Okay, the cats have figured out that it's Christmas. Archie keeps getting up on the table (which is covered with tissue paper, wrapping paper, ribbon, books, dead flowers, mugs, bills, movies, more books, junk mail, and dishtowels) and batting all that wonderful crinkly-sounding stuff about. Miss Puss and her brother Hexer are prone to sudden dashes about for no discernable reason. Luciano just woke up. Betsy is wandering around eyeing the bows. I've just fed them all some catnip.

Now think about that. Every horizontal surface in the living room, kitchen, studio, office, and entry is covered with really cool stuff that makes the most delightful sounds when you bat it across the room or slide into it at high speed. And all those ribbons are shimmery and move in unexpected ways.

The only thing that is saving our house from destruction via stoned feline is the fact that we don't have a Christmas tree that they can knock over and start a fire with....

The fun is beginning, on the stairwell. Now I have a couple of looming stoned cats, one of whom seems to be thinking about whether he can make the other jump really high by sneaking up on her when she's not looking...

Merry Christmas and Happy Solstice, everyone!

Back to bridges

Had an interesting conversation with Cameron last night, and found myself agreeing with him, mostly, about the Knik Arm bridge. (Cameron's worked on the pipeline and various oil-related jobs for several decades.) His point was that a Knik Arm bridge would help open up western Alaska, provide Anchorage with some room to grow, and generally be good for Alaska's economic future. While I'm not altogether convinced that opening up Alaska to development is a good thing, we could agree quite happily that the bridge, if it is to be built, should be done right. (Too often "development" is synonymous with "really crappy, thoughtless development" in practice, particularly in Anchorage--just look at the boobs in the Anchorage assembly.)

The Green Party of Alaska commented on the proposed bridge design in its Sept. 27 press release:

The proposed Knik Arm bridge, even with a price tag of $231 million, is not designed to carry rail traffic nor to accommodate tidal power generation. The needed alternative transportation and clean energy generation would help support the development that the bridge would encourage and make Alaskans less dependent on fossil fuels.

This is a giant problem in Alaska. We simply don't have the infrastructure that others states have, and in this respect, Young and Stevens' attempts to get us a decent chunk of change to get it established is the right thing to do. The problem, however, is that they keep getting us money that gets wasted on poorly planned projects that are not designed with the future in mind. For those of you out there who may be transportation planners, let me clarify that I believe we just can't keep counting on oil being cheap enough to burn. It's way too valuable for other uses.

Which brings me back to Cameron's idea for using the bridge as a power generator. Rather than using the tides or ocean currents to power turbines, as is done in many parts of the world (China, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Scotland) and planned for many others (Canada, England, India, New Zealand, South Africa), one uses water pressure from weight on water-saturated soils (sand, silt, or loess covered with rock). Gravity creates pressure on the soil, and perforated tubes allow the water to escape the soil (replenished by more in the ocean) and well up the tube like a low-pressure fountain. I've done a search on the web and can't find a power generator that uses this method, but I may not be using the right search terms.

I have heard quite a bit about ocean thermal energy conversion, however, because of the Natural Energy Laboratory in Hawaii, which is exploring use of the island's abundant geothermal energy and the temperature differential between cold seawater and warmer seawater.

Alaska is on the Ring of Fire, and could likewise make use of such technologies for energy generation. We should be investing in these kind of projects, and looking at our transportation projects more broadly. Why spend millions of dollars on something that will be outmoded before it's completed? Until we start approaching Alaska's infrastructure needs with a bit of innovative thinking, we simply shouldn't be funding what will end up as albatrosses around our collectively cursed necks.

So I'm hoping that Stevens and Murkowski and Young will pay attention this time to the quality of the projects for which they are trying to get funding. It'll make their arguments stronger.

King George IV

So, lessee here, the prez-det can, uh, break the law by spying on the public without getting a warrant or going through the courts or paying any attention to the law whatsoever, because he's the president, and whatever he does in the "War on Terror" is, um, legal. And Congress can go hang itself for all he cares.

Sounds sorta like "royal prerogative" to me. Wasn't somebody impeached for this a while ago? You know, "Tricky Dick" Nixon?

Well, we didn't actually elect Mr. Bush either time, so I suppose he's gotten used to the idea that he isn't really a president, after all. He's just getting brazen about it.

Lisa, you did the right thing!

Lisa Murkowski was one of a handful of Republican senators who voted to continue debate on the USA Patriot Act, and against automatic reauthorization of the 16 provisions that are set to expire December 31. This was the right thing to do.

It astonishes me how so-called conservatives often seem so trusting of placing expansive powers in the hands of government.

Tell me, when the government can't tell the difference between a peaceful activist group and a terrorist cell, why on earth would anybody be willing to trust its judgement? No Nukes North, which may be opsterperous, is most certainly not a terrorist group, but guess what? They've been infiltrated and spied on. Now is that a waste of time, money, and effort, or what?

Fellow alternative press people

Aaron Selbig, of Insurgent49 in Anchorage, hung out on our couch for the last two nights, keeping our calico cat Betsy company (she liked that). Aaron was up here for the Grassroots Gathering held on the 8th, a guest speaker on the topic of media activism. It was absolutely wonderful to hang out for a bit with a fellow member of the alternative press, a breath of fresh air in the stifling, closed, media-hungry room that is the Tanana Valley.

Update on Aldridge

An alert reader found this webpage on Terry Aldridge's ethical confusions. The question that remains unanswered here, however, is how deep does this run? Is this happening in isolation, or is this simply the latest revelation in a pattern of corruption and ethical failings by many people and groups that we have seen unfold over the last several years?

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner's Dec. 4 opinion was excellent. The best bit was here:

If Mr. Aldridge does not, or cannot, present a credible defense, borough residents will have an assembly member whose actions cannot be trusted and whose words cannot be believed. Neither is acceptable in a public official.

It would be nice if ANY public official whose actions cannot be trusted and whose words cannot be believed were treated to this kind of criticism.

Addenda 12/9/05: Aldridge has accepted the inevitable, and has offered to resign, but he still fails to recognize that, despite his professed good intentions, he has done wrong.

Knitting and wool

In the last few months, I've been relearning how to knit. I first learned back when I was, oh, seven or eight, but I never learned to cast off or purl, so I couldn't finish anything. But I collected yarn, figuring that someday I'd get around to it. Well, now I'm in my mid-forties, and I've gotten around to it. I have a trunkful of interesting bits of yarn, and have discovered a new and expensive vice: knitting shops. Inua Wool, which is right nearby on Henderson Road, is a very dangerous place for me to go into. Not only does it have lovely yarns of every description, they are in bright and subtle colors, they're fuzzy and warm—and the store has books.

My only hope is not to go into Leah's store in the first place. Ha!

The other thing about taking up knitting is that I've been learning about wool, and the wool industry in Alaska. Basically, it's all about qiviut and the domestication of musk oxen, which I think is an excellent idea. I mean, why bring in all these animals unsuited to the environment and spend all that effort just trying to get them to survive? Why not start with an animal that can handle a hundred degrees below zero from the get-go?

But there are sheep up here, even in the Interior. I still have a few hanks of white yarn from Tanana Wools.

Community forum on KUAC

The KUAC Task Force is hosting a community forum to gather input and suggestions from the public on how best to create good communication between KUAC and its audience. People will be able to testify in the same manner as at the borough assembly meetings, three minutes each to share ideas. The task force and some members of KUAC management will be there to listen to the public, but the proceedings won't be a Q&A. The whole thing will be recorded. The Task Force is setting up a Community Advisory Council, so that's one topic that will inevitably come up. The KUAC Listener's Alliance will probably bring up others.

The forum will be Wednesday, December 7, 7 pm at the FNSB assembly chambers.

The minutes of the Task Force's Monday meetings (4-6 every Monday at the Wood Center conference room E) and news about the task force are posted on KUAC's website. (The link to the minutes is to a pdf.)

December First Friday

We went to the Annex Friday night for In the Heart of Ester's opening and the calendar signing. It was great fun. All sorts of people wanted our autographs, and I greatly enjoyed writing things like, "A hot time in the Interior tonight!" and "Summer heat". Monique had managed to get a hundred copies UPSed ahead of the main shipment just for the opening. Several of us were there: Amanda, Amy, me, Hope, Margaret, Monique, Nancy G., Nancy S., Tinker. Bella, of course, is in Antarctica right now (she works with ice, for those of you who don't know her). A few of the others were also out of town, alas.

I've got a few paintings in the show and a couple of collages stashed in the back room, plus some of Jamie Smith's books, Doreen Fitzgerald's poetry collection, and, naturally, copies of The Ester Republic.

In the Heart of Ester has some wonderful stuff on display: t-shirts, felted slippers, hats, mittens, felted purses, kimonos; paintings by Sue Farnham, Okiko, Elizabeth Irving, Nancy Burnham; photographs by Sherri Schleiter; cards and prints by Diana, Sandy Jamieson, Fry; ceramics by Laura Hewitt; feather hair fods by Hope; and loads more that is definitely worth seeing.

Surreal world

Straight out of a novel or sick satirical skit on a late-night comedy show comes the latest news on our government's willingness to sell anything, anything at all to the highest bidder: corporate sponsorship of park projects and facilities. And the donors get naming rights for trails or other facilities, and use of National Park symbols AND personnel in advertising.
The plan, something that Interior Secretary Gale Norton calls "exciting", would put pressure on park superintendents to please donors, or avoid policies that displease them—at least, if they want to keep the park going. The administration doesn't want to pay for our parks' operation, so why not sell it off to the hucksters? This is just one step on the way to privatization of parks, which may seem like a good idea to some, but guess what? WE OWN THEM IN TRUST. Selling them off to some company, in whole or incrementally, as above, is selling our legacy to our children for chump change, baubles.
Welcome to the Surreal World of Corporatocracy.

Ethics issues

So, Terry Aldridge, Fairbanks North Star Borough assemblyman and one of the so-called "Gang of Six" before he was even sworn in, has been found by his fellow assembly members to have violated borough ethics with regard to the Fairbanks Economic Development Corporation. Not much of a surprise there, given the circumstances of the case. Aldridge is claiming he did nothing wrong, which seems to me revealing of a serious lack of comprehension of the difference between right and wrong.

Here's what the ethics board found, paraphrased from the News-Miner:

* His consulting contract wasn't disclosed to the borough or FEDC's board.

* Aldridge was chairman of the assembly's Finance Committee while it debated whether to triple a grant to FEDC. Aldridge didn't disclose his involvement and argued with the ruling that he shouldn't vote on it because he was FEDC secretary/treasurer.

* He took at least four trips on FEDC's behalf: Two to Lower 48 communities doing similar projects and two fishing trips in Alaska.

* Aldridge's explanation about his interest in the UAF business project doesn't wash. Aldridge told them his contract came after June 7; his first payment was in April and he'd traveled previously on FEDC's behalf.

But what really gets me is this charge:

"Borough attorney Rene Broker...said he did not immediately disclose his financial interest, said he wanted to be the director of the project once it began and lied when she asked about his involvement."

The question here is, why would a reasonably intelligent man in a public position such as this not recognize the behavior above as unethical? How could someone get into such a position without understanding that, for example, lying to the borough attorney is a really, really bad thing? Apparently, he knew his position was precarious, otherwise he wouldn't have lied in the first place. Or perhaps he misspoke? It happens...but still, c'mon, Terry! This should have been a no-brainer!

But then, we have all kinds of delightful examples of shameless, brazenly unethical behavior in high places by people who haven't got a clue about ethics: Frank Murkowski, Ben Stevens, Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham, Dick Cheney, George Bush....

Torture Ted strikes again

...out, that is. Senator Stevens' record on torture is looking worse and worse, and this time he's got help from Senator Lisa Murkowski. This report from the Irregular Times describes how both Stevens and Murkowski voted against an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, proposed by Senator Carl Levin of Michigan. The purpose of the amendment was to "establish a national commission on policies and practices on the treatment of detainees since September 11, 2001." The amendment failed, 55 to 43, with only one Democrat voting against it. On reading the text of the amendment, it appears that the reason it failed was that it would be too thorough, and could look at any policy or any person responsible, whether in Congress, a private company or contractor, or even (gasp!) the White House. Weird how the Republicans are starting to look like the Pro-Torture Party. Guess our senators just don't want people looking too closely at those slimy things that the White House administration has been breeding under the rocks...

Here's part of the text:

SA 2430, SEC. 1501. FINDINGS.

Congress makes the following findings:

(1) The vast majority of the members of the Armed Forces have served honorably and upheld the highest standards of professionalism and morality.

(2) While there have been numerous reviews, inspections, and investigations by the Department of Defense and others regarding aspects of the treatment of individuals detained in the course of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, or United States activities to counter international terrorism since September 11, 2001, none has provided a comprehensive, objective, and independent investigation of United States policies and practices relating to the treatment of such detainees.

(3) The reports of the various reviews, inspections, and investigations conducted by the Department of Defense and others have left numerous omissions and reached conflicting conclusions regarding institutional and personal responsibility for United States policies and practices on the treatment of the detainees described in paragraph (2) that may have caused or contributed to the mistreatment of such detainees.

(4) Omissions in the reports produced to date also include omissions relating to--

(A) the authorities of the intelligence community for activities to counter international terrorism since September 11, 2001, including the rendition of detainees to foreign countries, and whether such authorities differed from the authorities of the military for the detention and interrogation of detainees;

(B) the role of intelligence personnel in the detention and interrogation of detainees;

(C) the role of special operations forces in the detention and interrogation of detainees; and

(D) the role of contract employees in the detention and interrogation of detainees.

For previous posts on Alaska's senators and their stance on torture, go here and here. I've got posts on Lisa Murkowski and civil rights of detainees here and here.

Greenland is melting

...and Siberia is boiling, releasing huge quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than C02. The oceans are acidifying due to additional C02, which could potentially affect their fecundity.

Alaskan glaciers are retreating too. We are up a very nasty creek indeed.

Donation info to help Latseen Benson

To help the Benson family, you can donate to a special fund set up for them.
Make checks to:
Latseen Benson Donation Account

Key Bank
601 W. 5th Avenue
Anchorage, AK 99510-0420

or you can go to your local Key Bank office.

Information from Rancho Spenardo.

You've condemned the innocent, Lisa

In voting for the Graham amendment, Lisa Murkowski and Ted Stevens have voted to take away any chance that the wrongly accused could have an impartial court review their case. Innocent people, people the military even KNOWS are innocent, are still being held in prison at Guantanamo Bay. Why? and under what delusions are our senators operating that makes them think that it's okay to imprison the innocent, or the military is infallible, or that it's okay for people to be held in chains and without access to the courts, all on the basis of a suspicion, or of being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Our senators cannot honestly claim to be on the side of justice.

Addenda 11/20/05: more on these two detainees at Obisidian Wings.

Lisa Murkowski and freedom

Senator Ted Stevens has been pretty consistent in voting for measures that reduce civil liberties protections, going so far as to vote for the allowance of torture, although he doesn't view it like that. Senator Murkowski, on the other hand, has shown some spine on this issue, if inconsistently so. Both Stevens and Murkowski voted for the Graham amendment to the Military Authorization Bill, which would strip the federal courts of jurisdiction over applications for habeas corpus brought by those declared enemy combatants (i.e., those in Guantanamo Bay or other detention sites).

This vote by Murkowski is confusing, given her stance in regard to the reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act. She is one of a few senators on a negotiating committee who are objecting to the conference report on the reauthorization. She prefers the Senate compromise, seeing it as offering "modest protections for civil liberties."

So...only US citizens should be treated justly? or only US citizens not deemed enemy combatants?