Bet you never thought this space would be asking you to help send Alaskans to Washington, D.C. Well, I am.
Alaska’s only high school marching band remains on its own to raise money to cover a trip to Washington, D.C. , to march in the inaugural parade.
PALMER — The Colony High School marching band will have to continue raising funds for a trip to Washington, D.C., without monetary help from the Mat-Su Borough School Board.
The board voted 3-3 Monday on a decision of whether to give the band $15,000 to help cover expenses for a trip to play in the Jan. 20 Inaugural Parade.
Board members opposed to covering the band’s $15, 000 shortfall said it would set a bad precedent and open the board to many more requests for special funding.
Marching band director Jamin Burton said he disagrees.
“How many other groups will be invited by the President-elect to play?” Burton asked after the vote failed.
That notion seemed to be one reason the board members in support of the funding found it to be a good idea.
“I think it’s the right thing to do,” Colver said of the funding. “It’s history in the making.”
Still, Welton, who said she received a threatening letter attempting to influence her decision, said setting a precedent where the board acts like a bank is bad.
However, the band and its supporters say the youngsters will march one way or the other and fundraising will continue.
The Colony High School marching band is the only marching band in the state, and was invited to play in the inaugural parade over scores of other bands that applied to do so.
The band is receiving some help from Alaska Airlines, which waived its second bag luggage fee for the students. A church in Fairfax, Va., has agreed to lodge the band.
Burton said anyone who wants to donate money to help the band get to Washington, D.C., can still do so at any Wells Fargo Bank. There is also a Web site, www.chsmusicboosters.com., that will accept online donations.
So far, a gauge on the Web site shows 12 percent of the $45,000 the band still needs to get to the Inaugural Parade.
You really cannot blame the school board and I am not calling them out on this. There are kids in bands in similiar situations all over the country right now. Part of it, I admit, is the irony. The other is that these kids will be representing kids from all over Alaska and they’d like to know the other states know they are here, especially on the 50th Anniversary of statehood.
Rare is the moment when it’s clear that, regardless of the outcome of an election, you are living history.
Thus begins the somewhat surprising endorsement of Barack Obama by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, deep in the red heart of North Central Texas. In 2004, the newspaper endorsed George W. Bush and it joins the more than 30 other major dailies which have switched support to the Democratic Party candidate after endorsing the GOP in the last election.
The endorsement says the elections of Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clintons were major times when the nation wanted a new direction and went to the polls for a major change of course.
Today, the American people aren’t just asking for change; they are demanding it.
The economic inequities are no longer tolerable. As remarkable as it is to say during a time when U.S. troops are actively engaged in wars on two fronts, Americans are looking for a visionary leader who will focus first on the daunting domestic financial crisis that has upended so many lives.
The nation has experienced the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression, an enormous stock-market plunge among the worst in history, record-high energy prices, and an ongoing war in Iraq that has exacted an agonizing cost in lives, dollars and international prestige.
The Star-Telegram editorial says Obama’s intellect, eloquence and leadership of his campaign have shown him to be the prescriptiion for what ails the country.
Obama provides the prescription for America’s ills at this moment: a fine, inquisitive intellect, paired with an eloquence that allows him to articulate a message with clarity and substance; an ability to inspire people of all ages, races and ethnicities who never before were engaged in the political process; and an unflappable temperament that allows him to weather a barrage of withering personal attacks.
Under his leadership, the Obama campaign has been amazingly disciplined, efficient and effective. Those same talents will be essential for the difficult work ahead to rebuild the nation’s faltering economic institutions and restore citizen confidence.
At the same time, the newspaper admits many of Sen. Obama’s plans, such as tax reform, could founder on the shoals of GOP opposition.
Vice presidential candidate picks may have been the deciding point. (more…)
Darn that ol’ “gotcha” media. What’s Sarah Saks Pack to do? She’s got to manage all this “to do” over $150,000 in clothing and accessories for her and her family at posh stores such as Nieman-Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, plus trips to that bargain store Macy’s.
Dang it, a hockey mom’s got to look her best on Main Street. You can’t have Joe the Plumber outdressin’ Sarah Saks Pack. What would they say in Wasilla?
Now all these troubles started with that pesky ol’ Politico (wouldn’tcha know it?).
According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.
The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.
The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August.
After all, all of Sarah Saks Pack’s clothes were for Alaska, don’t ya know? She had to get new duds for her and the first dud dude.
Who hasn’t dropped $75,000 in one day’s shoppin’ at Nieman-Marcus? It’s so much easier now that the Nieman’s chocolate chip cookie recipe was leaked to internet and we aren’t buyin’ all those expensive cookies.
Sarah Saks Pack turned to the Chicago Tribune for a shoulder to cry on.
“That whole thing is just, bad!” she said. “Oh, if people only knew how frugal we are.
“It’s kind of painful to be criticized for something when all the facts are not out there and are not reported,” said Palin, saying the clothes are not worth $150,000 and were bought for the Republican National Convention. Still, she has been wearing pricey clothes at campaign events this fall. She said they will be given back, auctioned off or sent to charity. Most of them, she said, haven’t even left the belly of her campaign plane.
Oh, sure, some people will say , “$150,000 worth of clothes and accessories for one week? Isn’t that a bit excessive?”
Some unthinking folks will say, “Most of them haven’t left the belly of the campaign plane? Don’tcha think she might have too many then?
“I mean you could sell half of them and get a pretty nice cabin somewheres.”
That’s just what those ol’ terrorists want you to think.
There is no Shoppin’-gate. Someone from the Republican Party sent someone out to buy all these things for Sarah and her family. Then, someone else told her to wear them.
Like the good “maverick” she is, she did as she was told and didn’t ask questions. After all, remember that good ol’ sayin’ in The Village - “Questions are a burden to others. Answers are a prison for oneself“.Ya know, I think that’s part of the GOP platform. If it isn’t it sure oughtta be. Sarah, you could use that in your speeches.
Now, they are fussin’ that a $13,200 campaign “communications consultant” turned out to be Sarah’s makeup artist, who actually made more than McCain’s makeup artist (You go, girl! Oops! Can we say that in this campaign?) Darn that ol’ Washin’ton Post. However, that is all old news from last month’s expenditures.
Finally, not that Shoppin’-gate wasn’t enough to put poor Sarah through, the durn ol’ New York Times has to get it’s oar in. It says that Palin’s makeup artist – Amy Strozzi – got a raise and a new title.
Ms. Strozzi, who was nominated for an Emmy award for her makeup work on the television show “So You Think You Can Dance?”, was paid $22,800 for the first two weeks of October alone, according to the records. The campaign categorized Ms. Strozzi’s payment as “Personnel Svc/Equipment.”
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell says he will vote for Sen. Barack Obama for president.
“I think he is a transformational figure, he is a new generation coming onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I’ll be voting for Sen. Barack Obama,” Powell said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Powell said he was concerned about what he characterized as a recent negative turn of Republican candidate Sen. John McCain’s campaign, such as the campaign’s attempts to tie Obama to former 1960s radical Bill Ayers.
“I think that’s inappropriate. I understand what politics is about — I know how you can go after one another, and that’s good. But I think this goes too far, and I think it has made the McCain campaign look a little narrow. It’s not what the American people are looking for,” he said.
The retired, four-star general said the financial crisis, which he called “the final exam” for the presidency, showed him Sen. Obama can handle the job, while Sen. McCain failed.
“Obama displayed a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge,” Powell said.
“He has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president,” he said.
In a long and decorated Army career, President George W. Bush’s former secretary of state attained the rank of four-star general. Gen. Powell first really came to the public eye as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Operation Desert Storm.
Gen. Powell said he is not voting for Sen. Obama because of race.
He said Sen. McCain’s judgment concerns him.
But he said McCain’s choices in the last few weeks — especially his selection of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his vice presidential running mate — had raised questions in his mind about McCain’s judgment. “I don’t believe [Palin] is ready to be president of the United States,” Powell said flatly. By contrast, Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, “is ready to be president on day one.”
Powell also said he was “troubled” by Republican personal attacks on Obama, especially false intimations that Obama was Muslim and Republicans’ recent focus on Obama’s alleged connections to William Ayers, the founder of the radical ’60 Weather Underground.
Stressing that Obama was a lifelong Christian, Powell denounced Republican tactics that he said were insulting not only to to Obama but also to Muslims.
“The really right answer is what if he is?” Powell said, praising the contributions of millions of Muslim citizens to American society.
“I look at these kind of approaches to the campaign, and they trouble me,” Powell said. “Over the last seven weeks, the approach of the Republican Party has become narrower and narrower.”
On Fox News, Sen. McCain said the endorsement came as no surprise.
“I’m also very pleased to have the endorsement of four former secretaries of state — Secretaries [Henry] Kissinger, [James] Baker, [Lawrence] Eagleburger, and [Alexander] Haig — and I’m proud to have the endorsement of well over 200 retired Army generals and admirals,” McCain said. Source: CNN
Gen. Powell says he has no plans to campaign for Sen. Obama.
Alaskan Democratic state rep challenges truthiness of the Palin “Truth Squad”
Les Gara takes on the Palin “Truth” Squad part 1
Democratic State Rep. Les Gara confronts Palin mouthpiece Meg Stapleton over smears of Alaskans made by McCain-Palin campaign trying to deflect reporting of the facts of “Troopergate”. A state legislative council special investigation found Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power, violating the state’s ethics law, in the family campaign to have her ex brother-in-law fired. Palin claims she was cleared of any wrongdoing. Yes, she actually said that. It was as though she never read the report. Hmmmmm.
Today, at the breakfast table, I was surprised to find this editorial from the stately. conservative Dallas Morning News – Palin’s Troopergate actions disturbing. Keep in mind, this is a newspaper more than likely to endorse McCain/Palin short of some cataclysmic campaign meltdown scandal. It sets out the case plainly. Palin is lying, although the language is not quite that blunt.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin claims the Troopergate investigation clears her of wrongdoing in the firing of her public safety commissioner, which it does not. source: The Dallas Morning News
DMN editorial writers chastise the Alaska governor. Her “spin” – as they so politely put it – isn’t fooling anyone. In fact, it raises questions both about her candidacy and McCain’s choosing her.
Ms. Palin would be wise to quit trying to spin her way out of this mess. It would be far more plausible if she admitted error but said she and her husband acted out of fear – perhaps misplaced – for the family’s safety. But to claim vindication when the report is actually fairly damning should give even McCain-Palin supporters pause. source: The Dallas Morning News
DMN writers try to compare “Troopergate” with Hillary Clinton’s “Travelgate”.
Her behind-the-scenes machinations against the White House Travel Office – engineering the dismissal of career employees, apparently for the benefit of the Clintons’ Arkansas cronies– were legal but unethical. source: The Dallas Morning News
DMN writers forget that it was the Palins’ “behind-the-scene machinations” which exactly were the illegal acts outlined in the report. However, the comparison is fair enough based on using public power for private purposes.
Finally, the DMN reminds Gov. Palin of something of which she should not have to be reminded, as it quotes the report.
Compliance with the code of ethics is not optional.
So, Sarah Palin was not “really” a member of the Alaska Independence Party, she says. Her husband was.
ST. PAUL, Minnesota – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s husband, Todd, twice registered as a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a fierce states’ rights group that wants to turn all federal lands in Alaska back to the state. Sarah Palin herself was never a member of the party, according to state officials. Source: MSNBC emphasis added
So, she just was sleeping with the enemy.
“Enemy?” you ask.
Yep, enemy, I answer.
How else can you explain these words from the founder of the AIP?
“The fires of Hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government, and I won’t be buried under their damn flag! I’ll be buried in Dawson, and when Alaska is an independent nation, they can bring my bones home.”
You can get an even better idea from “Mudflats”, an Alaskan political blog with an insight into the doings of upper one that is way beyond the understanding of us in the lower 48.
Strangely, in light of this new patriotic furor, the following video has not gained much traction in this election. It surfaced some time ago, and I’ve posted it here before, but its worthy of another look. This is a meeting of the Alaskan Independence Party. The speaker is Vice Chairman of the AIP, Dexter Clark. A partial transcript is below. It’s worth watching in full.
The Alaskan Independence Party believes that Alaska may have become a state against its will. Anyone in the party today, is likely there because they think Alaska would do just fine without the rest of the country being attached to it. The image, on most maps, of Alaska detached from the rest of the country in its own little box works for them just fine.
They don’t like the way the statehood vote was worded, and Clark explains why.
The basic argument of the Alaskan Independence Party has always been the number one plank in our platform – the question of our vote to become a state. So…the most blaring disparity in that vote was the definition of an eligible voter. Among those qualified to cast a ballot were 41,000 American soldiers and 36,000 dependents. Now, to the native population of Alaska, to me, these were occupation troops! And they were made eligible and, in fact encouraged to vote. There were educational meetings held on the military bases. I can’t imagine them telling anyone that anything but that statehood would be very good for the military – in fact they still have 6, 7 big bases and numerous smaller holdings in the state. Statehood would be good for the military. Now can you imagine the international uproar if American troops had all went and got their purple fingers in Iraq?
After Clark’s discussion of the American ‘occupying troops’ getting the right to vote on Alaska statehood, he goes on to say that Alaskans should have been able to vote to remain a territory, become a commonwealth, become a state or become an independent nation. In reality, voters were only given the option: Statehood? Yes or No.
Now, we get to the interesting part, just before 6:00 on the video.
“Our current governor, we mentioned at the last conference, the one we were hoping would get elected, Sarah Palin, did get elected. There’s a joke, she’s a pretty good looking gal, there’s a joke goes around we’re the coldest state with the hottest governor. (laughter) And there was a lot of talk about her moving up. She was an AIP member before she got the job as a mayor of a small town — that was a non-partisan job. But to get along and go along — she eventually joined the Republican Party, where she had all kinds of problems with their ethics, and well, I won’t go into that. She also had about an 80% approval rating, and is pretty well sympathetic to her former membership.“
What Clark is saying here, is that Palin’s philosophical loyalties lie with the Alaska Independence Party, but in order to get elected, she had to distance herself from the AIP and pretend to be a Republican, because that was the only way for her to get elected. But not to worry, Clark reassures those in attendance, her heart is still with us at the AIP, and her sympathies are with our agenda, namely, Alaskan ndependence.
He goes on:
If there is ever a time that is right for change, this is it. [snip] The pitfalls of an organized political party – you don’t have any control over who joins that party. They put the X next to it on the registration form, and if they join the — go into the primary, and win that primary, they’re your candidate, like it or not. I think Ron Paul has kind of proven that. He’s a dyed -in-the-wool Libertarian. He came to Alaska and spoke as a Libertarian. And he put the Republican label on to get elected. That’s all there is to it. And any one of your organizations should be using that same tactic to infiltrate.
Palin claims to have been a member of the Republican Party since 1982. Clark is telling us that Palin ‘marked the Republican box”, but she isn’t one. He loves the fact that she got elected. He’s already dreaming about ripping one of those stars off the flag. And though Sarah Palin’s membership is not documented officially, there is no dispute that Todd Palin was a card-carrying member of the AIP as recently as 2002 when his wife was the mayor of Wasilla. After that, he decided to change his registration to “Unaffiliated.”
How does the rest of the country feel about the concept of Alaska secession, especially considering the strategic importance of the oil reserves in Alaska of which Governor Palin is so fond of reminding us? Works well for the nation of Alaska, but not so well for the truncated version of the United States of America it leaves behind.
And finally, here’s the quote of the day from AIP founder Joe Vogler.
“The fires of Hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government, and I won’t be buried under their damn flag! I’ll be buried in Dawson, and when Alaska is an independent nation, they can bring my bones home.”
Sarah Palin, meanwhile, is saying that the fact that Barack Obama served on the same non-profit board as Bill Ayers a Weather Underground member 40 years ago, “is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.” She continued, “This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America,” Palin said.
Here’s Palin addressing last year’s Alaska Independence Party’s convention.
So, how does Sarah Palin “see Ameirca?” Does she see it as “so imperfect” that one of its 50 states needs to vote on whether it wants to secede from the Union? Should a political party in this state “target its own country,” and if successful, devastate energy reserves, and compromise the national security of the rest of the nation by taking its oil, and leaving? Maybe, maybe not. But you just watched her tell the group whose purpose it is to vote on that issue to “keep up the good work.”
If Senator Obama had made such an address to an Illinois secessionist party, or any other group who wanted to make off with 13% of the nations oil supply, what would be said about his patriotism?
