Oyster Roundup – Jail Break, Flaming Pants, and Commie Frog
~Thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and more! This is Alaska… A 30-year old man escaped from jail during a bathroom break in the remote Western Alaska village of Alakanuk. It’s been nine years since Kevin Patrick has escaped from the Alakanuk jail during a bathroom break. This time his arrest was for drunk driving. The last time it was for assaulting a police officer with a shovel. After the first jail break, he was caught and arrested by trooper Eric Spitzer in a now infamous case where Patrick sued the state for the trooper’s…
Feds Say the Oil and Gas Industry’s “White Whale” is Endangered
As Thanksgiving approaches, let’s all give a big helping of thanks (and an even bigger ladle of sarcasm gravy) to Sean Parnell for yet again wasting our money. Thanks, governor. Cook Inlet has a problem. It used to have a large, healthy population of beluga whales. The population of about 1,300 animals was large enough, even, to support subsistence hunting. But back in the 80s, something started to happen. The population of these magnificent creatures began to decline. In the early 90s, it was still possible to drive along the scenic Seward highway, south of Anchorage and spot what at…
Crude Awakening – Intro and Discussion for Your Reading Pleasure
I had great fun hosting Firedoglake’s book salon yesterday. Authors Amanda Coyne and Tony Hopfinger were there to answer questions about their new book/stocking stuffer Crude Awakening – Money, Mavericks and Mayhem in Alaska. For those of you who weren’t able to make it, below is my introduction with a link to the conversation at Firedoglake at the bottom. Enjoy! ************************* “Only in Alaska.” We hear that said up here in the Last Frontier all the time. In the case of the rise of Sarah Palin, the fall of Bill Allen and the larger-than-life legacy of Ted Stevens, it is…
Open Thread – Crude Awakening Book Salon TODAY!
Join me and author Amanda Coyne of Alaska Dispatch today at firedoglake.com for a book salon featuring the new release Crude Awakening – Money, Mavericks and Mayhem in Alaska by Coyne and co-author Tony Hopfinger. Details below. Hope to see you there! [Cross-posted from Alaska Dispatch] Jeanne Devon, AKA AK Muckraker, who runs the popular Alaska-based website The Mudflats, is hosting an online discussion Sunday, Nov. 13, of “Crude Awakening: Money, Mavericks and Mayhem in Alaska.” The discussion will be held at Firedoglake Book Salon. “Crude Awakening” was penned by Alaska Dispatch founders Amanda Coyne and Tony Hopfinger. Coyne will…
Herman Cain’s Blinkage – An Unscientific Comparative Study
Many have commented on Herman Cain’s vigorous denial of sexual harassment allegations on Fox News the other day. As I watched the interview, something struck me. As someone who is intrigued by nonverbal communication of all sorts, I found myself mesmerized not by what Cain was saying, but by what he was doing. Blinking. I had to watch the clip a second time because I couldn’t even concentrate on the words the first time through the rapid-fire visual blink assault. Then I thought to myself, “Wow. I wonder how many times a minute he’s blinking? I bet it’s a lot….
Open Thread – Eeeeeek! The Paven!
It just wouldn’t be Halloween without something really scary. This year’s winner? Zombie Palin! Hey, it may be the only way she ever finds any brains. And now a special Halloween treat for your internet basket. Back in October of 2008, Mudflatter Eddie Fireplace Palin delighted us all with his poem The Paven, inspired by Edgar Alan Poe’s The Raven. I thought it might be fun to repost – just for old time’s sake, and because the notion of our might-have-been Vice President will remain terrifying regardless of how irrelevant she may be. The Paven Once upon a midnight…
After Three Years, the State Requests Another Extension for the Palin Email Release
~The Alaska Department of Law hard at work on the Palin emails Remember when our former governor was nominated to be the VP candidate? And we were all like, “What? Really? You’ve got to be kidding me!” I know. It seems like a lifetime ago. Back then, in days of yore, people in the Lower 48 didn’t even know how to pronounce her name. “Is it Pallin?” they asked. “Who is this woman? We know nothing about her!” And so journalists started doing what journalists are paid to do. They investigated, and they asked (utilizing public records requests) to see…
Sarah Palin and the Long, Shiny Road to Irrelevance
Sarah Palin is not running for the presidency. I’d been waiting to hear that since the day after the 2008 presidential election, which is ostensibly when she began running for the presidency. From the moment she “went rogue” on the campaign trail, calling out then-candidate Obama for “pallin’ around with terrorists,” and contemplating an unauthorized trip back to Michigan to try to win a state that the McCain campaign had given up on, she had ideas and plans of her own. She lamented in her book Going Rogue that the campaign had shackled her. Why couldn’t they just “let Sarah…
Sarah Palin Will Not Seek the GOP Nomination in 2012 – Country Comes Third
Sarah Palin will not run for president. Here is her letter to supporters: October 5, 2011 Wasilla, Alaska After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order. My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last…
Open Thread – Palin 2012: Drop Dead +5 (UPDATED)
With so much going on in the world these days, it can be difficult to keep track of information. Even critical information on which our mental health and the fate of the world depends can slip through the cracks sometimes. For instance, even the most Die Hard Palinbots seem to have forgotten that the woman leading the charge of the ambitious albeit incompetent and delusional forces of the Tea Party has missed her own self-imposed deadline. Sarah Palin said that the end of September was to be her “drop dead date” in terms of her decision to enter, or not…