Open Thread – Important Things
1) Take a look at the sidebar. Have you seen that guy? He was acting in a threatening manner to Mudflats editor Shannyn Moore in Anchorage Thursday night. Please help us identify him.
2) If you are an Anchorage resident, please sign this online petition which will be forwarded to the Anchorage Assembly. It demands the retention of independent counsel to investigate our disastrous election.
3) If you are able, attend the Assembly’s work session Friday from noon to 2:00, or however long you can. It will be held in the Assembly chambers downstairs at the Loussac Library, and the discussion will be about the election. Lots of free parking and seating. We’re glad they moved it.
4) Enjoy this, and smile.
That otter is way too cute!!! Great photo Ms. Muckraker!
http://instagr.am/p/JA02CVNDfx/ For bacon buffs everywhere.
While Sarah Palin seems to be able to legally (?) spend her PAC money on herself (image) after reading this, she’s likely to explore forming a Super PAC:
“In short, campaign finance experts said, super PAC managers can spend the money on whatever they like.
“Theoretically, they could buy a yacht and sail off into the sunset, drinking margaritas if they wanted to,” said Paul S. Ryan, a campaign finance expert at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. “In a nutshell, there are no restrictions.”
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/15/4415099/what-happens-to-funds-in-defunct.html#storylink=cpy
Excellent Rosen vs Romney piece on how Hilary Rosen was actually right to say what she said:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hilary-rosen-was-right-ann-romney-doesnt-speak-for-women-in-the-workforce/2012/04/13/gIQAqv3jFT_story.html?hpid=z3
Ms Mag from that foreign desert land over yonder. You should see the tender,young forty year old that cuts mikey’s hair and trims mikey’s whiskers. Of course if you did,she would throw rocks at me.
Gad, from where I sit, 40 really DOES look young. Cuidado, Mikey – she’s got scissors!
She’s adorable and I’m not. I like her anyway.Scissors or no scissors.
Don’t worry, mike. Rock beats scissors. You should, however, be cautious about paper.
File this under the heading you can’t make this stuff up. http://jezebel.com/5900996/kkk-tries-to-recruit-idahos-only-black-female-legislator
More on women’s choice: stay home from work (that is needed to help pay the bills and contribute to healthcare) to care for a sick child and risk losing her job or…?
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/04/14/464382/romney-paid-sick-days/
I hope people are still reading this open thread. This is a MUST read, since it’s clear that Willard M. Romney is going to be the Republican nominee:
http://godsownparty.com/blog/2012/04/willard-mitt-romney-is-he-or-isnt-he-the-proverbial-white-horse/?
Thanks for the link.
Sorry, but I am quite uncomfortable with the idea of posting a photo of someone and asking readers to help identify him. We don’t know anything about the incident or the other person or persons involved. Just putting someone’s photo here and asking the readers to ID him smacks of vigilanteism, and I’m disappointed that AKM didn’t recognize this.
About ‘choice’:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/75126_Page2.html
Comedy Central looks at SarahPac:
http://www.indecisionforever.com/blog/2012/04/13/sarah-pac-continues-fundraising-to-raise-awareness-of-sarah-pac
Ann Romney vs the average American stay-at-home mom:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/14/michael-tomasky-on-ann-romney-an-unrepresentative-woman.html
Babies are always cute. Get that guy who threatened the gal from Homer!
What happened to Shannon?
Coming late to this thread, what happened with Shannyn and the so far unnamed guy?
I’m not in Anchorage, so can’t help there. Also don’t get Twitter so in the dark there.
Me too.
Look! A bear studying the history of the Campbell Airstrip area (fighters hidden here during WWII).
http://www.adn.com/2012/04/13/2421834/spring-bear-in-bicentennial-park.html
Wow. Alaskan bears can READ?
Well, you know. Long winters. Gotta do something.
So do they read anything, and everything, that’s put in front of them? š
Alaskan bears fully fund their educational system and support all school bond measures and their ably run and fair elections. Most, however, had to pay out of state tuition for higher education, having attended Cal (bears) or UCLA (bruins). A very few attended Stanford (Cardinals, represented by a tree). There’s a good deal of competition between Cal and Stanford, mostly good humored, but it can spill over into their local elections. In one unfortunate incident, the tree was kidnapped, tied up and blindfolded in a attempt to steal the election. However, it was later revealed that Cal had been set up to take the fall for Wasilla Weasels who were trying to limit all the bears’ access to salmon fishing, a right under Alaskan law for all native bears.
All the weasels, except those employed by FOXY news were subsequently eaten at the end of hibernation. The tree was returned unharmed.
Ha !! š
Sounds like ike from miowa escaped confinement and hit the Left Coast for a while.
š š š š š š !!!!!!!
Yes, they’re just not allowed to vote.
Oh look…the Municipal Clerk in Anchorage is asking the Assembly to launch an outside investigation of the election:
http://www.adn.com/2012/04/13/2421663/clerk-calls-for-independent-review.html
Report from a very quick visit to the Assembly hearing. Some of the most pressing questions were not answered. And as I was close enough to notice, the assistant to the clerk in charge of elections looked none too pleased that she had to answer to anything. She seemed to reflect the attitude that she was being inconvenienced. seriously.
I hope all those who were supposed to be in charge of this election are being inconvenienced seriously.
OH, the cuteness is nearly painful…… Otter kittens….. oh oh oh…
I think she looks like any mom whose newborn has kept her up most of the night . . . and the next day.
Maybe she is looking for a babysitter ” Would you like to hold the baby? Please?”
Just before she runs away with a hurried, “I’ll be back in a few…” (trails off in the distance)
As long as she doesn’t pay in pennies. I’ll take the fish.
Clearly, that dude is delusional. Had Shannyn wanted, he’d be a pancake buried under fish slime. Don’t mess with a fisherman!
I wish you the very best with the sullied election. It is truly a disaster of voting rights and confidence, and I hope its epic proportions of ridiculousness helps raise consciousness and resolve in the long run. The good thing is – if this was Sully’s platform to move on to politics statewide – it’s sinking.
If it comes down to it (and I hope it doesn’t for Shannyn’s sake), I think both Carr’s and Fred Meyer grocery stores in AK have security videos at their entrances and parking lots. As well as records of WHICH “valued customer” bought WHAT/WHEN in their cash register records (is that a canteloupe in that basket?).
Of course, creepy stalker-type librul-hatin’ Teabaggers just HATE all that goddamn gub’mint intrusion into their privacy, because it sucks being held accountable for your scummy behavior.
Especially when it is private enterprise that purchases and operates the security system that invades their privacy rights in a public store and holds them accountable for their own scummy behavior.
RFD channel on telly just had a program on about the Alaska Sea Life Center and the flower essence program from some place called Homer. Ever hear of Homer? Got a serious ? for those in the know about salmon. Is a tired,worn out,nearly dead from spawning,beat up,ugly looking salmon human edible? They certainly don’t look appetizing,even though I admire their natural instincts and perserverance to reproduce.
Nope, not edible by humans at that point, but the bears and birds will still pick at them if necessary. They’re best when still silver colored.
Muchas gracias.
If I recall correctly, Homer is where our dear Shannyn hails from. It’s a delightful seaside town where I took one of my all time favorite photographs a few years ago.
The Sea Life Center is a great place to visit and is now the home of a sea bird (can’t remember the species) that my friend who works at the Bronx Zoo sent there when it wasn’t thriving in the Bronx. We actually got to visit the bird and were happy to see that it was doing well in its new home! (I can’t exactly blame it…I’d prefer Homer, AK over the Bronx myself! š )
Sealife Center is in beautiful downtown Seward. Go straight at the “Y” and you’ll come right to it about 38 miles down the road. Well worth the visit if you’re in town.
That is the most adorable photo – a proud mama showing off her baby.
I saw Shannyn’s tweets and post on facebook last night about creepy (scary) guy. The trouble is he has that sort of face that just blends into a crowd and makes you think you do know him. I’m sure I don’t, but he looks familiar. I hope you (the police?) find him soon and put a stop to his stalking.
Hilary Rosen’s point was right, but her choice of words was pathetic. She should have realized that as soon as she said it. I chose to be a stay-at-home mom and was thankful I had the choice. However, we were never in the Romney’s position. We had to make sacrifices to make that work. That said, I do understand Ann Romney’s anger over the remark – being a mom is hard work, whether you have one, two or five or more. But having a lot of money would have made it a whole lot easier, and we didn’t have that. And by the way, I did have jobs before we had children – teacher, secretary, hospital jobs, a factory job for a summer, and more.
This is Rosen’s full quote, according to the Christian Science Monitor, āWhat you have is Mitt Romney running around the country, saying, ‘Well, you know, my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues, and when I listen to my wife, thatās what Iām hearing.’ Guess what? His wife has actually never worked a day in her life. Sheās never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing, in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school, and why do we worry about their future.ā
You otters are very cute.
Too bad to mix it up the ugliness on the right side of the page.
OK, what is this adorable little critter showing off her baby? Am I the only one who doesn’t know?
One of my loyal subjects, although this is a representative of the “river” variant.
I love river otters. We have some at the Columbus Zoo and I find the adorable. I recall reading about a program in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park to re-introduce the river otters in undisclosed locations. I was thrilled.
We have a place here in the SF Bay Area where you can go out in canoes or kayaks and see river otters. They are really cool animals!
Otter! River otter.
Did you know that energy efficiency in building is a UN conspiracy? Neither did I:
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Houston-councilwoman-warns-of-U-N-agenda-in-city-3476017.php
I had the misfortune of living in Houston once. I wouldn’t recommend it.
I often wonder why the climate change deniers and those who would do away with environmental regulations dislike their children and grandchildren so much. I worry about the world we, those of us already grandparents, are leaving behind. What will it be like in fifty or seventy-five years if no one heeds all of the warning signs?
It makes absolutely no sense to me either, beaglemom. Whether or not you believe in climate change, wouldn’t you just naturally want to leave a cleaner and healthier planet for your children and grandchildren?
For all their caterwauling about ‘family values’, they certainly don’t seem to care too much about the future generations, do they? Let’s use up all the finite resources willy nilly, let’s not worry about how our industry pollutes the earth and let’s not work to develop newer, cleaner, safer energy sources and machines because TODAY is all that counts and as long as I got mine, to hell with everyone else.
With those kind of ‘values’ being promoted on the right, I’ll stick to the tree hugging, greenie lefties, thank you very much!
I will never understand why the word “conserve” tends to upset so many people who call themselves conservatives. Isn’t one the root word of the other?
Maybe if they were presented with it in economic terms they would embrace it. If you CONSERVE energy, you pay less money, thus CONSERVING your wealth.
In addition, the idea that there are no possible improvements in efficiency that can be developed, or new sources of energy that could be discovered is a slap in the face to every engineer in the field. Engineers, no matter what their particular interest, live to tweak and improve upon…well…everything!
*sniffs archly*
As for the two photos – that man is certainly intimidating looking and I hope you are able to identify him.
The other photo is just precious. I know we too often ascribe human emotions to animals when it’s not accurate or appropriate, but you just can’t look at that picture and not believe that that mom is all kinds of proud!
Thanking you Leenie 17..for that exact comment..”all kinds of proud”. The face..the paws protectively..holding babykins..yes..a proud..proud parent.
Seriously,I thought she was trading her bundle of joy for food for the family for the rest of the month.
Bravo! Go Hilary!
And now a few words from Hilary Rosen:
“Now let’s be clear on one thing. I have no judgements about women who work outside the home vs. women who work in the home raising a family. I admire women who can stay home and raise their kids full-time. I even envy them sometimes. It is a wonderful luxury to have the choice. But let’s stipulate that it is NOT a choice that most women have in America today.”
and:
“Let’s put aside for a moment his views on women’s health issues — such as his pledge to repeal funding for Planned Parenthood or repeal title X — which provides important health services for poor women, and true anecdotes (such as when he was a Bishop in his church, he actually went to a congregant’s hospital room and told a young single mother who had just given birth that she was shaming the church and should give her baby away). Let’s put those issues of respect and health dignity away.
“Let’s just focus on his economic record on behalf of women. When Romney ran Bain Capital, less than 10% of the senior workforce were women. And he said in his 1994 Senate race that it was because he had trouble finding qualified women to be executives. Is there a woman alive who believes that?”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hilary-rosen/ann-romney-women_b_1419480.html
With the GOP jumping all over this non-controversy, it’s time we stand up and voice our opinions! I happen to agree with Ms. Rosen’s points in this piece. It is about choice, and choice is a luxury that few woman in the US have today. Lucky Ann Romney could make a choice to have five children and stay at home to care for them (along with the staff, of course, which was such a blessing while she was at the club). And if the GOP has their way, women will have even fewer rights about their choices in the future. I also think that from Sarah Palin to her BFF VP wannabe Congressman West to the Ailes gang at Fox, the right wing will regret putting this particular issue front and center.
The right wingers who are screaming the loudest to smear Ms. Rosen are ignoring that important word that Ann Romney made such a point of using: CHOICE.
The vast majority of women do not have the choice of staying home and being a full-time mother. Most have to work AND be a mother…they don’t get to pick one of the other depending on their mood. And Romney and his GOP cohorts are trying their best to remove all support systems that poor women and single mothers have to help them manage both roles and raise happy, healthy families.
In addition, the GOP has been waging an all-out war on abortion rights and access to contraception, both of which help women control when and how they have families so that they DON’T end up desperate and living off of those terrible government programs the Republicans are trying to destroy.
It’s so nice that Ann Romney had a choice and I am happy for her and her family that she was able to choose to raise her sons full-time. However, her husband and the party he belongs to are doing everything they can to take those kinds of choices away from anyone whose bank accounts are not large enough to warrant secret off-shore stashes in the Cayman Islands.
As I said in another thread, the first disgrace is that our so-called press corps allowed Ann Romney to get away with the impression that she was a hard-working, stay-at-home mom. Just google up the photos of their multiple homes/mansions. Anyone who spent more than 3 seconds reading Rosen’s comments would realize that she didn’t say stay-at-home parents don’t work. She was pointing out the obvious – that Mitt and Ann Romney are not your average family and trying to pass as one is just a lie. Disgrace #2 is how the Democrats stampeded in terror when the Republicans started screeching. Sometimes I think that if a Republican walked into the middle of the floor of the Democratic National Convention and yelled that anyone who didn’t support an invasion of Canada was unpatriotic, we’d likely be fighting in Montreal the next week.
Is McCarthyism making a comeback?
http://www.care2.com/causes/allen-west-the-democrats-in-the-house-are-mostly-communists.html
I love Paul!
Oh. Not Paul? Nevermind.
Shannyn, I’m sorry you were harassed. Here’s some great news from Vermont:
http://www.care2.com/causes/vermont-senate-resolves-to-overturn-citizens-united.html
Looks as if this old creep harassed Shannyn whilst shopping. Were you able to complain to the store management about him? Perhaps some of the cashiers recognize him?
That is the cutest photo for Friday the 13th (a blessed day; don’t give in to triskaidekaphobia). Friday is the Goddess’s day; 13 is one of the Goddess’s most sacred numbers–there are thirteen moons in a year, vs. 12 solar months, and a woman for much of her life will have 13 menstrual periods in a year.
Virginia, you need a new Speaker of the House. Watch this Washington Post video, and see how low some men will go in their war on women/defense of ALEC:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/house-speaker-defends-alec-berates-liberal-activist/2012/04/12/gIQAzmA4CT_blog.html
Whatever happened to Virginia is for lovers?
Hahaha. The same state that wouldn’t permit overnight guests in an efficiency apartment!
Does Anchorage have a hostage rescue/negotiation squad or did silly Sully defund that program? Certainly looks like Alaska is ready for a federal government takeover and I mean now!
Adore the ‘parenting’ photo. Wish I was able to ..cruise about..and help make an ID..as to the fellow. A good use of cell phone abilitys. Lets hope he was just a grumbling old fellow..but..hang in there..and he will be identified..in time. It took us 7 months for the perps who were running small time car thefts, trailer breakins..around our road area/subdivision area..to be ..nabbed. We are a happy lot out here now..as everyone..knows the 2 teens..by sight/stature..etc. That picture..will be all over town by the noonhour..stand tall..and news should be..forthcoming. In my case..with an ice pick..in my purse..no cell..I would have not let the fellow hassle me..as we were in a community store area. A ..level look and up and down eyescan..then the photo..and do not let any like that try for..intimidation. You guys may be more ladylike..remember..out here..I carry a lovely..bootknife.
That picture should be in the dictionary next to the word “cute”!
And now a bit of news for you–the whole kerfuffle about Ann Romney is not about her at all! Never mind that the unfortunate statement about Mrs. Romney (never experiencing having to balance a family budget on a showstring) was made by a CNN contributer who does not work for the Obama administration nor does she work for the DNC (in fact, her contract with CNN forbids it). This is all about Obama’s war on conservative women and his on-going war against Sarah Palin, dontcha know! At least according to Mrs. Palin who, on Hannity, inserted herself into the debate:
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/palin-to-hannity-hilary-rosen-outrage-highlights-divisiveness-that-is-represented-by-obama/
I think Hilary Rosen was absolutely correct. As usual, the Republicans took a snippet from what she said and then lied. Nothing new there. And then, Sarah Palin butts in. I truly wish that Sarah Palin would just go away. And I wish that the tabloids would simply refuse any phone calls from all of the crazies in Wasilla. We all need a rest from them.
PS. The photo is adorable.
I agree. Rosen could have been clearer, but her point is valid: Ann Romney has struggled with health issues, but she has never struggled to put food on the table and raise children at the same time. She may listen to other women, but I’ll bet her friends are in the same financial stratosphere as she is. Anyone who has multiple expensive horses for physical therapy… no way she can identify with a woman who uses public transportation to try to get to public health services.
And it’s despicable that the Catholic League would condemn Rosen for being a lesbian raising children.
Birds of a feather flock together. . . Ann Romney only knows her own kind.
So now Ms. Palin is supporting “the elite” is she?
Greta is supporting Rosen and saying she was misunderstood. Yeah, Greta, and so nice she doesn’t align herself always with SP.
That is one of the cutest photos I’ve ever seen on an otherwise surly Friday morning. Thank you so much!
Yes, definitely menacing. I am on the verge of rolling over and capitulating to any and all demands.
I hope everybody has a lovely weekend.
I think you missed the photo of the man on the right side. I almost missed it too. Too bad it wasn’t put directly in the middle of the page.
Oh man, I certainly did! Thank you for making me aware of it. I was swept away by the bigger, happier photo.
I’m sorry – I’m not trying to make light of what happened to Shannyn. I was simply so focused on the critter photo. Clearly, I need to go find coffee. I was up until 2 a.m. and the alarm goes off at 5.30.
I hope someone identifies him and the issue is sorted and settled. Be safe, everybody.