Palin’s Been Punked?
Popcorn alert! I said yesterday that those of you who were placing wagers on whether Palin would show up at the speaking engagement that’s been announced in Hong Kong needed to make an adjustment. Normally the going odds if you’re betting whether she’ll show are 50/50. Maybe she will, and maybe she won’t. Like plucking petals off a daisy… She’s coming….she’s coming NOT. The appearance in Hong Kong will be the first time she’s actually been paid to speak, so my take was that this dramatically increased the odds that she would be speaking. This isn’t some lowly Anchorage church…
Voices from the Flats – John Aronno from the Planned Parenthood Booth at the Alaska State Fair
Planned Parenthood in the Mat-Su Valley by John Aronno I’ll start off by answering your question: 15 minutes. 15 minutes is the time that it takes from the moment you sit down at the Planned Parenthood booth, to the moment where an older woman calls you a Nazi and alleges that you kill babies. At least that was my experience. I suppose it takes a lot more time to let sink in the fact that we passed out, easily, forty or fifty condoms to teens in a state that left the rest of the nation in the dust in terms…
Palin Goes to Hong Kong to Share Her Wealth of Knowledge About Geo-Politics.
Well, this is one for the books. Sarah Palin, in her first commercial speaking engagement after abdicating the governorship of Alaska, will visit Hong Kong to speak (for an undisclosed sum) to the CLSA Investors Forum at an annual conference of global investment managers. Really. Previous speakers have been Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Alan Greenspan, and the group claims: “Our keynote speakers are notable luminaries who often address topics that go beyond traditional finance such as geopolitics,” company spokeswoman Simone Wheeler said in a statement. “We just felt it would be a fabulous opportunity for CLSA clients to hear…
The Palin Notification Act.
Please join Governor SARAH PALIN & nationally known conservative STAR PARKER Thursday, August 27th 7:30pm at Change Point Church Anchorage The Alaskans for Parental Rights campaign was developed to return to parents the right to oversee abortion decisions their underage teenage daughters might be unfortunately considering. ******************************** So says the notice from Change Point Church, one of Anchorages 2 mega-churches that will be pushing hard for the Parental Notification act. This announcement has appeared all over the internet, far and wide – state blogs, national blogs, Palin blogs, you name it. I’ve known about this appearance for days now. Apparently…
CRUDE. Another Example of Why You Should Never Ever Trust Chevron.
As if we needed another reason to remind us what big trans-national oil companies will do when they can. Right here in Alaska, Chevron allowed six million gallons of oil to sit unchecked on the shores of Cook Inlet in the path of an erupting volcano. Bob Shavelson of Cook Inletkeeper described it on Mudflats. Despite months of warning, there was no actionable plan in place to address a catastrophic spill from the facility. The spill contingency plan required by laws passed after the Exxon Spill didn’t address a 6 million gallon spill, and it didn’t even envision oil from…
Voices from the Flats – Oil Lust & Dodging Bullets
Bob Shavelson is a reformed attorney with backgrounds in biology, chemistry, and environmental sampling and compliance. He was Editor-in-Chief of the University of Oregon’s Journal of Environmental Law and Litigation, and has considerable experience in toxics, the Clean Water Act, and Right-to-Know issues. Prior to joining Inletkeeper in 1996, Bob worked in the United States Senate, Oregon’s Senate Majority Office, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium, and the University of Oregon’s Ocean & Coastal Law Center. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the National Waterkeeper Alliance and the Cook Inlet…
Odds and Ends
Getting Those Damn Rats Out of Alaska No, not those kind of rats. And not really the whole state…but still, it’s a victory. I’m talking about actual four-legged, snaggle-toothed, beady-eyed, bird-killin’ varmints. The ignominiously named “Rat Island” appears to now be completely rat free. I’ve been following this story for a while, so I was glad to hear that the latest news was good. The down side to the rat eradication is that the poisoned pellets used to kill them also killed gulls and bald eagles in the process. Since Rat Island has been infested with rats for 230 years,…
Alaska “Deathers” Heckle Sick People (Updated with Photos)
I am taking a break. This was a strange and disturbing morning. I started the day with a big cup of coffee, and an 8:30am arrival at The Egan Center in downtown Anchorage. That’s where the special session of the Alaska State Legislature is meeting today. They have two things on their plate – voting on whether to overturn ex-governor Sarah Palin’s rejection of the stimulus money for energy efficiency, and whether to confirm Craig Campbell as Lt. Governor. The joint session convenes at 1:00, so I had time to pop over and attend a press conference Organizing for America held…
Pebble Mine, Dirty Gold, and the Corporate War on Alaska’s Salmon.
[This article is cross-posted at The Huffington Post] A lawsuit was filed today claiming that all Pebble Mine’s state permits violate the Alaska constitution. Skulduggery surrounding Pebble Mine? Imagine that. On the receiving end of these legal accusations is the State Department of Natural Resources. The suit was filed today on behalf of eight communities in the Bristol Bay area by plaintiffs including Vic Fischer, one of the drafters of the Alaska Constitution, and Bella Hammond widow of the revered Governor Jay Hammond who had previously said “I think Jay would first and foremost think of protecting that area, mainly the fish and…