Interesting Items by Alex Gimarc, Oct 2006

1. Campaign. As of the weekend, a Rasmussen poll had Knowles and Palin within a point of one another in their race for Alaska governor. Last weekend, both the local fishwrapper (Anchorage Daily News) and the more conservative Voice of the Times endorsed former governor Knowles for governor. The ADN did their endorsement because he is a leftist. The Times did the endorsement because they are closer to the oil industry and believe Knowles will be better for the oil companies than Palin, who has been campaigning as an outsider. Palin can take both of these Knowles endorsements as yet more proof to sell her campaign as an outsider and run against both papers. The three candidates have been debating daily in front of various organizations. The debates have been taking place daily, and have been getting in the way of other previously scheduled campaign events for weeks. Palin has been honoring her commitments to the other events and has not made every debate. Knowles, in predictable leftist reaction has been gleefully bashing her for skipping out on debates. The local fishwrapper has been reporting Knowles’ complaints (which may be backfiring, for who wants to elect a whining governor?). Overall, Palin has been improving both her message and its delivery. Knowles has st arted looking gray and tired and even a bit cranky. Our local conservative morning talk show host, Rick Rydell, who normally strongly supports conservative candidates, jumped out of the governor’s race ostensibly after reading a Palin letter a week or so ago defending herself against a fairly nasty democrat whispering campaign in the Bush. The letter was relatively innocuous, and about what you’d expect from someone playing it carefully with issues in the Bush. However, it could have better addressed a couple hot-button issues for those of us not in the Bush. One was power-cost equalization – which is a state handout to villages so they can afford to live out in the middle of nowhere. The other was a rural preference for subsistence – the unconstitutional, race-based preference for the taking of fish and game here in Alaska. While I understand the necessity to be politic with your responses while running for political office, I also believe that we should never pass up the opportunity to hammer home your support of equal rights under the law, smaller governments, and the elimination of preferential treatment (which is probably why she has successfully run for election and I have not). Any time you treat people differently based on where they live, for whatever high-minded reasons, you open the door for the sort of divisive, ugly race-baiting that politicians like Knowles have feasted upon forever. Knowles has done this before, and he will certainly do it again. Some of the locals believe that Rydell is simply stirring up controversy to jack up ratings for his show, for it is getting some real competition in the morning talk show slot from Laura Ingraham and Dennis Prager, national conservative shows on the air in the morning up here. If local conservatives decide that Rydell, who has been one of the real good guys up here for years, is playing his support in this race for governor for ratings, he and his show are in big trouble in the marketplace of ideas.

2. Gay Marriage. The Imperial Judiciary reentered the political campaigns last week in NJ, where the state Supreme Court ordered (ordered?) the legislature to write legislation that will either create full-blown same sex marriages in NJ, or create civil unions so sweeping that they may as well be formal marriages. The decision was hailed by all the usual suspects as a Gift of Divine Reason handed down from On High to us mere mortals. It was a split decision, with the minority demanding an immediate recognition of full-blown same-sex marriages statewide. Of course, the notion that the judiciary can simply order a state legislature to write something and pass it did not meet much discussion among the drive-by media. People on the right were justifiably outraged and judges legislating from the Bench once again became a major political issue at precisely the time when democrats didn’t need to address that issue. We have a similar issue up here in Alaska, where the Alaska Supreme Court ignored a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman and “discovered” a right for same sex couples to get the same benefits as opposite sex couples. The opinion was written with typical mealy-mouthed platitudes, all of which added up to usurpation of the power of the legislature and the executive to make and sign laws, and the purposeful ignoring of the very clearly expressed will of the people of Alaska expressed in a constitutional amendment defining marriage passed in the late 1990s. Governor Murkowski called another special session of the le legislature to approve legislation implementing this decision. We will hope the lame duck legislature hits town in a suitably surly mood, and writes some legislation that will get the attention of these wannabee legislators wearing black robes. Perhaps they will impeach a couple of the Knowles appointees. Perhaps they will create a constitutional amendment allowing them to overturn any Alaska Supreme Court opinion with a suitable majority – simple or two-thirds. Perhaps they will simply refuse to do anything, leaving the courts themselves to pay for the new benefits package. Whatever happens, I do expect it to be loud. Good.

3. Fox. Michael J. Fox, leftist and Parkinson’s sufferer injected himself in the election campaign this season with a series of p articularly despicable ads. Fox was filmed with either no meds or with too much meds, in full Parkinson’s tremor, speaking in support of whatever democrat the ad was designed to assist. He shot many ads for democrats in many different states, and concentrated mainly on the senate races. The basic message was that voters should support the democrat because the democrat supported embryonic stem cell research, which Fox believes will cure his disease. The very clear implication from the ads was that the Republican opposition to embryonic stem cell research was the single thing standing in the way of a cure for Parkinson’s sufferers. This message could not be more disingenuous, more distasteful, crueler, and more vicious. On top of it all, it was also a lie, for the only successful stem cell research has been using adult stem cells, p articularly that research using recovered umbilical cord stem cells. Apparently these ads were intended to run in every locale, quietly, under the radar, and only run a few times, sneaking quietly away after they made their false, fraudulent claims. Limbaugh, the talk shows, and the online media caught the democrats in the act, and brought the entire sorry episode out into the light of day – where all Hell broke loose. Very quickly, the left went after Limbaugh for blasting away at Fox, who was their designated victim for this affair. In true Ann Coulter terms, given that Fox is a Parkinson’s sufferer, he has absolute moral authority and is immune from all criticism and can say whatever he wants to say about anything at all and not have to stand up and defend himself. It took nearly a week for the noise to die down. If Mr. Fox wants to change his meds, shoot a bunch of false ads in support of his favorite democrat candidates, he ought to expect to have to dodge some incoming fire.

4. Muslims. Our friends from the Religion of Perpetual Outrage (Islam) had an interesting week. We found out via Little Green Footballs last Thurs. that the Somali cab drivers in Minneapolis that suddenly refused to carry fares with alcohol were acting at the behest of a fatwa from the local Muslim Brotherhood, the Muslim American Society. Then entire episode was intended to be a little push at American jurisprudence to see if they could find a weak spot and force local acceptance of a bit of Sharia Law. They were turned away this time around. But they will be back, and they will not quit. The second story had a Michigan judge throwing out a lawsuit by a Muslim woman against a rent car company because she refused to take off her head covering and scarf while testifying on the stand. The judge rightfully noted that if we can only see her eyes, we can’t tell whether or not she is lying – which may be the reason Islamists demand the veil and burka. Like the previous story, this attempt to force Sharia into the American courtroom won’t be the last attempt by the jihadis. For once, we have a good decision from a judge, one that will probably be contested by CAIR and the ACLU. Expect more of this, for the Islamists aren’t interested in becoming Americans. They are interested in America becoming Islamist.

1. Campaign. Latest on the gubernatorial campaign up here is that former governor Knowles (D) continues to creep up in the polls, now running even to slightly ahead of Palin. He has been running around the state promising the sun, moon and stars to everyone that will listen, and has not been confronted or forced to explain how he intends to pay for any of it. Knowles has also been pushing his experience as a positive, though he was one of the most despised men to leave office as governor when he left in December 2002. A lot of people haven’t forgotten about that. It is up to the Palin campaign to remind them why Knowles was despised and to educate new residents why he was also. Knowles has a cute little ad showing a couple betting a pile of chips on their choice for governor. The voice-over sets up the bet on who do they think will get the gas pipeline done. Of course, the money all goes onto the Knowles circle on the table. Interestingly enough, the dealer points the couple toward Knowles and away from Palin for the bet. Last time I checked, the dealer in any gambling joint works for the House, and rarely does anything that does not benefit the House. There is room in this ad for some nice political ju-jitsu against Knowles and his insider connections with the oil industry.

2. Cosmic Rays. A Danish research team published research demonstrating a connection between incoming cosmic rays and the formation of low-level clouds in the atmosphere. The link has been tested and experimentally verified – unlike most climatological research these days. Cosmic rays are very high energy p articles that hit the e arth. They come from many different places, outside the solar system, outside the galaxy, from Jupiter’s radiation belts. Because they are heavy p articles, the slam into the upper atmosphere, creating a shower of secondary p articles and knocking electrons off of atmospheric molecules. When you knock electrons off atoms / molecules, you induce a charge in them; the more cosmic rays, the more charged p articles in the atmosphere. Charged p articles end up forming more clouds in the lower atmosphere where most of the water vapor is located. This effect tends to work with solar output. When the sun is more active, we tend to get a bit more evaporation, introducing more water vapor into the atmosphere. But fewer cosmic rays get through, leading to a bit less cloud formation. When the sun is quieter, the opposite happens, and more clouds are formed. So the researchers have identified the link and the actual mechanism connection solar output and cloud formation – something none of the man-made global warming enthusiasts have managed to do over two decades of yammering. Additionally, the computerized models the global warming enthusiasts do not consider cloud formation, cloud cover, or changes in reflectivity of the surface (albedo). They all fail because they cannot be run backwards in time and accurately predict yesterday’s weather from a run st arting today. Note also that the cosmic ray connection to cloud formation also works to decrease greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere. The most significant (in overall mass) greenhouse gas is water vapor. When you condense it into water droplets and remove it from the atmosphere in the form or rain or snow. The play of mankind in this process? Zip. Zero. Nada. Steven Milloy’s JunkScience.com has a more extensive discussion of this finding. Interesting reading. http://www.junkscience.com/Greenhouse/Cosmic_rays_and_climate.htm

3. Weldon. The FBI and someone in the Justice Dep artment decided to enter his reelection campaign last week with a series of raids which included his daughter’s home and that of a close political ally. They claimed to be looking for evidence of corruption, influence peddling between Weldon’s daughter’s dealings with a Russian energy corporation. Note that no such series of raids have taken place in Nevada where Harry Reid pocketed $700,000 profit with the sale of property he didn’t own. Note also that William Jefferson, democrat, Louisiana, is still walking the streets after being caught red-handed with $90,000 in cold cash stored in his freezer. He is running for reelection, by the way. Apparently Weldon got too close to something with his pursuit of the Able Danger group at the Pentagon. If he or his daughter is guilty, I expect they will be prosecuted, convicted and jailed. If not, what is there to be gained by a series of highly public raids three weeks before a hotly-contested election except to give the democrat opponent a leg up in the campaign? Captain’s Qu arters, Tues.

4. Leaks. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra (R, MI) suspended a democrat staffer last week for leaking a copy of the National Intelligence Estimate to the NYT. The staffer worked for ranking member Jane Harmon (D, CA). The staffer was suspended pending investigation. Apparently the staffer requested a copy of the NIE from National Intelligence Director Negroponte three days before it was leaked to the NYT in September. If true, this boy is going to spend some time in Club Fed. Captain’s Qu arters, Fri.

5. Belugas. We saw the latest propaganda out of local greens and greens infesting the National Marine Fisheries Service last week with a breathless front page story about the decline of beluga whales in Cook Inlet. According to the greens, the numbers have been dropping significantly over the last decade, down to around 300 from a high of 600 or so. Local whale hunters, Alaska natives, who get to take one or two belugas yearly, vehemently disagree, and believe the feds and greens are deliberately undercounting the whales – just like they did with spotted owl populations in the Pacific Northwest fifteen years ago. The whale hunters are on the water regularly, know the water well, and know how the populations of mammals in the Inlet change over time. Cook Inlet is notoriously nasty water, mostly gray muck due to the outflow of glacier-fed rivers and streams. You normally can’t see more than a couple inches through it. The game for the feds and the greens is to find a sufficiently small population of belugas, designate as habitat and cordon off a sufficiently small area for them to swim and forage for food (belugas eat salmon and often chase schools up and down the various arms of the Inlet), deliberately undercount them, and sue to have them designated endangered. Once listed as endangered, the greens then can use that listing as a vehicle to fight oil and natural gas exploration in the Inlet; a vehicle to fight the construction of the Knik Bridge across the Knik Arm; a vehicle to enforce crystal-clear discharge of liquids into the Inlet itself, the previously described muddy mess. It’s a nice game and one they have played well nationwide for decades. As a local salmon fisherman, I am not real happy seeing belugas around in August, for they do take a number of fish. On the other hand, their presence also indicates the presence of salmon and makes it easier to find them. They are regularly beached on the mud flats of Cook Inlet. One incident several years ago had over 60 belugas beached on a tidal flat. Apparently they were fleeing a pod of Orcas. Most were freed at the next high tide. Anchorage Daily News, Mon.

6. Reid. The latest example of Harry Reid’s fiscal malfeasance was the discovery that he had used campaign donations to pay year-end tips for workers at the Washington DC hotel he stays in while in DC. This is a patently illegal use of campaign donations and could result in substantial fines or jail time should anyone take the time to prosecute. Reid went into “oopsie” mode, claiming mistakes were made, and filed a correction to his campaign disclosure papers. Captain’s Qu arters, Tues.

1. Campaign. Last week saw the democrats out in the Bush return to their roots, with a nasty, racist whispering campaign against Republican nominee Sarah Palin. The campaign appears to be conducted via the auspices of former state senator Georgianna Lincoln of Fairbanks. Lincoln is an Alaskan Native, a strong democrat, and has been at the forefront of native rights and native separatist issues for decades. She has passed along a series of e-mails claiming that Palin is anti-Native, uninterested in the native vote, and an opponent to a rural preference for subsistence (the last one is true). Palin responded with a superbly written letter to all Alaskan Natives, comparing her bonafides to Knowles and any of her detractors in the Bush. Alaskan Natives put Knowles in office in 1994 via a wildly split conservative vote (mainly Perotistas and Alaska Independence P arty), a bit of vote buying (10 gallons of snowmachine gas for each voter), and with Knowles promise to drop the state’s appeal to the Katie John subsistence case in federal court. He did, essentially turning over management of fish and game statewide to the federal subsistence boards. He also spent eight long years playing off native interests against non-native interests in a breathtakingly cynical bit of race-baiting. The buzzword for Knowles was the mythical rural-urban divide, which he helped create, widen and exploited for political purposes for two long terms in office. Alaskan natives were far worse off after Knowles left office than they were when he was elected. We will hope they don’t make the same mistake again. Unfortunately Georgianna Lincoln’s e-mail string indicates that my hope will not be realized.

2. You Tube. Video hosting site You Tube has st arted censoring conservative, anti-leftist and anti-Muslim videos. Their excuse has been that the videos violate their rules of propriety, rules that bar videos intentionally insulting to any p articular group. These rules have been used as an excuse to expunge a variety of videos posted by conservatives making fun of Islamist anger. They have tossed a Michelle Malkin video and have put restrictions on viewing of a hilarious video produced by one of the Zucker brothers as a Republican campaign ad this election season showing Madeline Albright toadying up to Kim Jong Il, terrorists and other current Bad Guys. On the other hand, they have a number of snuff film videos posted showing American troops in Iraq being killed by Islamists. No problem viewing those. You Tube was just purchased by the leftists running Google for over $1.6 billion. And it was purchased at just the time where its censorship of conservative, pro American, anti-Islamist videos has become increasingly heavy-handed and onerous. I expect the marketplace will make its own decision about these leftists and alternatives will grow in the marketplace on the net.

3. Reid. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) was outed as the recipient of over $1.1 million, a $700,000 profit in a land deal for a parcel of land that he hadn’t owned for three years. Apparently there was no bill of sale or taxes paid on the land. He did not report either the investment (although it is difficult to invest in something you don’t own any more) in Senate ethics disclosure paperwork. Reid has played a great game in Nevada, where the feds own over 90% of the land in the state. He has orchestrated land swaps and transfers between the feds and locals over the years in a way that will benefit him and his sons and son in law (all of whom are local Commissioners) - so much for the culture of corruption. AJ Strata of the Strata Sphere has written extensively about Reid’s corruption over the course of the last week. Go read it. One of my correspondents believes that this leak came out of the information gained by the Clintons when they illegally looked at over 1,000 FBI files during their first year or two infesting the WH. If this indeed was a bit from the Clinton Hit Squad Database, it also implies that the data is current and they have been actively updating its contents over the last decade. This leak may be intended not only to remove Reid as Minority Leader so Hillary can replace him, but as a message to the rest of the democrats, who are just as dirty as Reid (why else do they always scandal monger?) not to cross her.

4. Norks. The best epithet against the North Koreans I have seen recently is to combine the words “North” and “Korea” into Nork, which is similar to the name of the Lord of the Rings bad guys, the shock troops of the evil wizard – Orcs. And if the North Koreans are going to act like Orcs, perhaps we ought to oblige them. All that being said, it appears that the North Koreans tried to test a nuke a week ago when they popped something just smaller than a kiloton in an underground test. The test gave the Bush administration, which is still in an internal war with the intelligence community, yet another opportunity to embarrass the intelligence community, which did not predict the test. We see yet again that the intelligence community is broken – in my mind irreparably – and ought to be dismantled and replaced with a real intelligence community now operating out of the Pentagon. The test itself was small, something less than a kiloton, which led to speculation that it was a failure, a fizzle, demonstrating contaminated plutonium, or a fake. It took over a week for observers to detect radioactive leakage from the test. The test shook loose significant reaction from the Nork’s neighbors. To the North, the ChiComs supported a US resolution aimed at keeping the Norks from exporting nuclear technology or fuel, although they and Russia did not sign on to military force to back up that blockade. South Korea, which had been trending strongly pacifist over the last few decades immediately got the message, as their appeasement oriented government st arted talking about arming themselves with nukes. Japan, the Big Dog in this entire fight st arted talking about the possibility of obtaining nukes for themselves. Some observers believe they can build operable weapons in less than a month. Finally, there is Taiwan, which has not been publicly discussing nukes, but certainly can build them within months should they choose to do so – which would irritate the ChiComs a lot. The key to this entire mess is China, and should they decide that Kim is no longer amusing, they can get him deposed and install a more reasonable government in North Korea in a matter of days. There were also reports of Iranian observers on site for the test. What do we do? Essentially the same thing we are doing today: Continue to tighten the diplomatic noose. Continue to tighten the military and economic noose. Continue to push for regime change. Kim wants reunification. I say it is long past time we give it to him.

5. Foley. The latest on the political timing of the Foley dirty trick was written by AJ Strata in his Strata Sphere. It appears that the perps had been shopping the Foley e-mails around for over a year to the media, which did not pick up the story for immediate publication at the time. However, there must have been some coordination between the media and democrat fundraisers, for Foley’s democrat challenger st arted getting an unexpected influx of campaign donations from major democrat donors outside Florida st arting late last year. Strata names donors from MA, NY and TX. The game here was to float the relatively clean e-mails to the House leadership while withholding the damning IM exchanges. After the story broke, both the e-mails and IM messages were released and then treated as the same pile of known messages by a media that was p art of the orchestrated political hit. This was clearly a planned, coordinated political hit, aimed at stealing a safe House seat along with depressing the conservative, evangelical turnout next month. That sort of coordination is patently illegal, although I expect nobody will ever get prosecuted for it. But it does certainly demonstrate the depths that the democrats and their lackeys in the drive-by media will sink to win an election. Keep that in mind when you consider whether or not to vote next month. Don’t reward them for this.

1. Campaign. The gubernatorial campaign up here in Alaska has shifted into its whining phase, with the democrats complaining about outside money coming into the state in the form of pro-Palin (R) ads run by the Republican Governors Association. Apparently the ads are doing some damage, as Knowles is squealing like a stuck pig. The local fishwrapper ran an editorial demanding the anti-Knowles ads stop. Knowles has demanded that Palin tell the Governors Association to stop. Of course, he knows she can’t for such communication would be coordination between the Palin campaign and the Governor’s Association, which is illegal under state campaign laws. Interestingly enough, nobody has investigated green and union money and in-kind contributions received by the Knowles campaign so far. Knowles is running around the state, riding in Bob Gilliam’s personal jet, promising free money to everyone that will vote for him. Don’t know how this all is working yet, as the polls are moving around a bit. He has also been running a p articularly obnoxious spot promising to have a contract for a natural gas pipeline signed by May of next year. Should Palin choose to play (and she shouldn’t) this could quickly degenerate into an “I can name that tune in three notes” one-upmanship game. Knowles and the ADN could have had their pipeline contract months ago if they had come down strongly in support of Governor Murkowski’s flawed proposal. They didn’t. For that matter, Knowles could have had a natural gas pipeline contract had he chosen to pursue such a thing during his eight years infestation of the governor’s mansion during the late 1990s. Some of us expect Knowles to simply dust off what was already negotiated and rejected by both the legislature and voters and sign it once elected, claiming a Great Victory for Democratic Alaska. Palin ought to call his bluff and demand details. Her plan ought to include a proposal for an immediate repeal of provisions of Knowles’ Stranded Gas Act that require all negotiations for a natural gas pipeline to be done with the current producers. The Act, which was passed during Knowles term in office because he said he needed it to negotiate a natural gas pipeline contract, essentially gives any single producer a veto over the actions of the other two and shuts out entirely the natural gas companies that may have interest, expertise and actually want to build a pipeline and produce the gas. It also appoints the governor as the negotiator for the natural gas pipeline. Once the legislature returns to Juneau in January, they ought to be able to do this in a matter of days, Palin can then use the current contract as st arting point, strip out the objectionable provisions, and open new negotiations for a pipeline, with signature intended for early summer. Goal of all of this is to move beyond the next step in the process, something the three big North Slope producers have refused to do. Palin can also make great political hay by pushing a quick “bullet” line from the North Slope to south-central Alaska, which is quickly running out of natural gas.

2. Gays. Democrats and the drive-by media moved effortlessly from bashing the Republican leadership in the House to a more general bashing and threatened outing of gay Republican members of congress and gay members of their staff. The radical homosexual community was either completely quiet or complicit in outing gay Republicans and staff to the media. It appears Foley’s game was to sidle up to under-age pages, some of whom were gay (thank you, multicultural and tolerant public education), and didn’t move from overly friendly to overtly sexual until they left the program and were over 18. As an aside, this is one of the reasons that the Boy Scouts don’t want gays in Scouting, and one of the reasons that gay activists and their leftist supporters do. As the week progressed, it became clear that this entire episode was an attempt to suppress Christian and Evangelical conservative votes for Republicans in November. The media and democrats even manufactured a variety of polls demonstrating as a matter of fact that the election was now over, and Republicans should simply give up as they have already lost. Don’t believe it. Matt Drudge ran an interesting story Monday late that a number of pages knew that Foley was gay, and were exchanging sexually suggestive IM messages simply as a vehicle to laugh at him. In response, the Soros-funded democrat dirty tricks squads rolled out three other former pages with the same accusations against Foley as the first allegation. Unfortunately for the media, all three were over 18 when the festivities took place. Political fallout from this is going to be interesting, for the radical gays are p articipating in this smear – going along with the democrat and media carried notion that homosexual activity is disgusting, wrong and that the House leadership ought to be doing more to protect our children from sexual predators. This is also the view of a lot of conservatives, who are they accused of homophobia for that attitude. I guess it is all right now. By p articipating in this mess and being quiet during democrat and media gay bashing, the radial gays have managed to marginalize themselves in much the same way as the feminists did in 1998 with Monica and the various Clinton sexual peccadilloes. Too bad for them.

3. Arizona. The Ninth Circus overturned an Arizona law that required voters to show proof of citizenship at polls. The law was passed as a citizen initiative over the strong opposition of democrat governor Janet Napolitano (of Anita Hill fame). The law was intended to keep illegals from voting, which it did during primary elections in September. The Ninth Circus agreed with opponents that claimed showing proof of citizenship discriminated against minorities and the poor. They showed little concern over the voting franchise itself, not believing that illegals voting was a problem in Arizona or elsewhere. Free Republic, Weds.

4. Discontent. We sit about a month out of the next national election and the leftists have thrown their October dirty trick over the transom and are pushing it for everything they are worth. They have pulled out all the stops and are orchestrating the political hit, the media play of it, and manufacturing polls demonstrating the political brilliance of the dirty trick. Note their success in changing the conversation from the war on terror to sex – homosexual sex – with young adults over the age of 18 whom they are referring to as children. Sex always wins out in this discussion. Every time. So what do we as conservatives do? Well the first thing to do is to not stay home in November. It is to turn out and vote. Get your friends, associates, neighbors, enemies, supporters, dogs and cats, dead people (if you’re a democrat) and anyone else you can think of to the polls. There are more of us than there are of them. And if we turn out, we can’t lose. This election is no more nor less important than any other has been during w artime, but it is important – as they all are. I have had it with spineless, gutless, limp-wristed conservatives who wander around weeks before an election crying about all being lost. The Foley Affair was their first dirty trick this campaign season. It won’t be the last one. If we fall for it, we lose. If we fight them with the same vigor, fire and passion that they bring to the table, we win. They count on us to give up and sit home. They plan on it, which is p art of the explanation for the nature of the Foley / CREW / Soros / democrat dirty trick. They can’t handle anyone fighting back, which is one of the reasons they hated Tom DeLay so viscerally. It is why they also hate Limbaugh. They hate conservatives fighting back and normally can’t stand it when we do so. So let’s fight back. Laugh at them while we do so. And be of Good Cheer, for we as conservatives have the future in our hands. All we have to do is reach out and take it. The time to bash people on our side of the aisle is after the general elections while they are in office and during the primary campaigns. We need to support the most conservative candidate during the general election – and we can’t do that by sitting home on Election Day. So don’t.

1. Knowles Jet. The three candidates for Alaska governor held a debate in Ketchikan , Southeast Alaska, last weekend. Two of the candidates, Sarah Palin (R) and Andrew Halcro (I) flew into town on the daily Alaska Airlines flight. The democrat, Tony Knowles, who has been running hard trying to portray himself as something other than an insider, rode into town on a private jet, a Westwind II, donated by Bob Gilliam, Chief Investment Officer of McKinley Capital Management, a $6.4 billion firm. Interestingly, Gilliam also owns a lodge in the Iliamna region of Southwest Alaska, near the site of the proposed Pebble Mine – something he strongly opposes. According to a Feb article in mineweb.net, Gilliam has donated over $2 million so far to NGOs fighting the mine. Now he has donated a jet to the democrat candidate for Alaska governor, who also opposes the mine. Who says politics is complicated. All you have to do is to follow the money. In this case, follow it from the anti-development crowd to the pockets of your favorite democrat. Lew Williams, Anchorage Voice of the Times, Sat.

2. Veco. The local fishwrapper (Anchorage Daily News) ran a long article Sunday intended to inoculate their candidate of choice, Tony Knowles (D) from his past ties with one of our local oil service companies, Veco. Veco is currently under FBI investigation for influence peddling with a number of state legislators. It has also been a significant contributor to a wide array of conservative candidates in past election cycles. As such, it was always a target for the other side to remove from the game. Don’t know who dropped the dime on them, or if the investigation is based on anything, but the bottom line is that they have been removed from the current election cycle. The fishwrapper has run a number of articles on Veco since the feds began serving subpoenas several weeks ago, all intended to paint Veco in the worst possible light and do worse than that to anyone who had taken a dime from them in the past. Knowles, the ADN'’s candidate for governor, was a significant recipient of Veco campaign donations in the 1990s. Apparently he got caught up in the anti-Veco crossfire and needed a shot of rehabilitation. The paper ran a story Sunday, front page, above the fold, that took nearly 70% of the column space on the back of the A-section of Sunday’s paper explaining away Knowles’ past connection with Veco. Now, the fishwrapper normally doesn’t do this sort of rehab job unless there is a poll somewhere showing their boy is getting harmed by their action. We will see if it works. Personally, I don’t have a problem with Veco. The oil industry is such a large player in this state that they ought to have significant political clout as a special interest. For Goodness’ sake, everybody else does, including but not limited to the greens, unions, commercial fishermen, Native Corporations, etc. It appears to me that the Veco ownership saw an opening, took an entrepreneurial approach, and filled a need over the course of 10-15 years. If they stepped outside the bounds of propriety, I expect they will be crushed by the feds – deservedly so. If they didn’t, I expect they are out of the political game for good as a result of the investigation, and their oilfield service business may or may not survive. This is a contact sport.

3. AEA Lawsuit. The Alaska Education Association in concert with the superintendents of several Western Alaska school districts filed a lawsuit late last week intended to get state courts to order the legislature to provide adequate funding for state schools. This is an old argument, as the majority of the villages do not collect property taxes, do not otherwise financially support public education, and typically use the state-funded and provided school buildings as local community centers. Last year, the state legislature provided $1.054 billion for public education statewide. This is not sufficient for the unions or greedy school districts in bush Alaska, so they are trying to get the courts to step in and appropriate ‘mo money.” It is not like we are spending small dollar amounts for education here in Alaska. Here in Anchorage, the largest school district in the state averages over $13,000 per student for a student base of just under 50,000 kids. School districts in the Bush spend more than that, some above $30,000 per student. Over the years this disparity in spending has really irritated legislators from Southcentral Alaska, for they represent incorporated areas – state and local governments – that actually tax themselves to cover a substantial portion of education spending. Bush Alaska does not, yet continues to whine and bellyache for an ever increasing dollar flow into their local schools. Now they are in court along with the teachers’ union attempting to force more money out of the legislature. Those of us who have been watching the state courts for years fully expect them to find for the union and the school district, define some bogus dollar amount for public education statewide, and then order the legislature and the next governor to deliver it – essentially appropriating money. When that happens, the next legislature and governor need to come down hard on the courts, the union, and school district that filed the lawsuit. The court needs to be ignored, possibly have its budget cut. And the legislature should seriously consider a constitutional amendment limiting all state judges to a single ten year term in office, retroactive. They also should consider impeachments and removal from office of judges that are ordering the legislature and governor to appropriate and spend money. For the union, the legislature ought to consider right to work legislation. For the Bush school districts, the legislature needs to forcibly incorporate the Bush and require property taxes to match state education funding. School vouchers for public education in Alaska is also an appropriate response. If they want to play, I expect the legislature and the next governor to play – and play this game bluntly, harshly and brutally – so there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that political disputes ought not to ever end up in court here in Alaska again. An attention getting step is in order here.

4. Foley. The latest dirty trick out of the Clinton and Soros war room was the breathless revelation that a homosexual Republican member of Congress from Florida had been e-mailing and IM-ing congressional pages with overly-friendly and suggestive messages. Of course Foley immediately resigned from the House, claimed he was an alcoholic and went into rehab. The drive-by media and democrats went into scandal hyperdrive for the remaining week, demanding that everyone who knew that this sexual predator was taking advantage of young men also immediately resign. And finally, the media and democrats immediately st arted counting congressional seats they would pick up as a result of this dirty trick, five weeks out from the election. So what is going on here? Simply an attempt to suppress the evangelical turnout for Republicans. Nothing more. Nothing less. Democrats and media have been demanding who knew about Foley’s interest in young men over the years and want them to resign over the coverup, for they put the young men at risk. Interesting concept, that. For we found out last week that Brian Ross of ABC News, who broke the story, had it in hand since August 2005. As the week went on, the e-mails and IMs were found to be up to three years old. Finally, Foley’s interest in young men was well known in the House and on the Hill for at least 11 years – making all of this simply a well-timed, orchestrated political hit, not unlike the last-minute revelation of Bush’s DUI in November 2000. There will be blow-back on this, for there are a lot more dirty democrats than Republicans in congress, and if the game is now to go after every single one who has made an inappropriate pass at any under (or over) aged employee, I say let the Games begin!

5. Western Street . Finally, ran across a couple articles on American Thinker last week. They followed in form and substance a Max Boot commentary in the LA Times regarding hardening of attitudes toward Muslims and Islamists. As usual, the citizenry is far ahead of the intelligentsia, and are well on their way to deciding that radical Islam, its apologists, its government supporters, Mosques, and practitioners are a threat to their well being and future. When that happens, the military response to Islamist excesses will be huge and devastating. And we will end the current festivities the old fashioned way. The West will not submit to Islam. Its practitioners, if there are any left afterwards, will unconditionally surrender. All three articles caution the Islamists and the Wahhabi Imams that continue to run their collective mouths against the West and continue to practice jihad to be careful what you wish for, as the people of the West know how to make war, and do it quite well once they get st arted. They don’t want us to st art, for we will finish the conflict on our own terms.

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.

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