A brief AK political update...

After reading yesterday that our dear Governor's approval ratings have dropped once again, now down to 54%, an interesting article posted today that helps explain why still over half of the residents of this state are still eating up Sarah's b.s. sandwiches:

Tundra Drums: Reformer Palin takes on political machine again

Now that's some quality stuff, huh? The title alone was enough to make me lose my (yummy) Bethel Subway lunch. Mind you, this is the same "newspaper" that published an "article" by the CEO of a mining company last year, extolling the virtues of the new proposed mining project. But it's not just the little publications, the largest paper in the state and the most popular local network's evening news are often using the same kinds of ass-kissy, hometown hero, "she's our girl!" kinds of spins on their stories. Not editorials...pieces of supposed news.

In reality, I guess I should be impressed that 46% of Alaskans have managed to see through the smokescreen. Given what a "big deal" her V.P. nomination was, and how she put Alaska "on the map", she must be scared shitless at this point that her approval rating has dipped to where it is. Maybe people are noticing that while Alaska is facing a ton of vitally important issues at the moment, she's been too busy forming legal defense funds, forming her own P.A.C, and using state funds to travel the country on the paleo-religious-conservative meeting circuit. Not to mention farming out the trainwreck her extended family has become.

Ok, rant over. Watch for a Bethel trip report :-)

Hey look!

We made the news!

On CNN

CNN: In rural Alaska villages, families struggle to survive

I wonder if any of this attention is thanks to our lovely Governor's new national profile?

Unfortunately, she's too busy setting up her Political Action Committee and trying to figure out how to keep her name in the national headlines to actually do anything productive.

Time to get a Blackberry?

Cell phone coverage has made it to the village!

Tundra Drums: Cell phones the latest rage in Bush Alaska

So far, we can get a signal on Sara's pre-paid phone she bought in Anchorage last spring while she was there waiting for Isaac to arrive, but we can't actually use it as we're not on the same plan. We get 3 bars of signal, but the display reads "emergency use only". Still, it's good to know that it works in an emergency. As for my phone, it's on the Sprint network, so it's still useless 'til I get down to the lower 48.

But if GCI has brought a cell signal to Nunap, might internet be close behind? We can only hope...

Sounds like someone was going "Into the Wild"

Fairbanks News-Miner: Brooks Range hiker rebuked for rescue

Another link (with bonus rant)

Gentle reader, I hope you don't mind that many of my posts this year have been links to articles about our lovely state. It's just that we've been in the news, not to mention the lower 48's public consciousness, lately for some reason, and let's face it...the articles by the real, actual "writers" of the liberul media elite do a much better job than I ever could.

So! In that vein, here's an article from the ADN today about our use of wind power here in Kasigluk/Nunap:

Our view: Wind at work

Quite interesting to me, in that I think it provides a little bit of a roadmap to the viability and the way renewable energy is finally going to get traction in this country, at least in my humble and unenlightened opinion. Having less to do with concern about climate change, environmentalism, and worry about our "carbon footprint" (garbage disposal here consists of hauling trash out to a designated "dump" area on the tundra and setting it ablaze on occasion), and more about simple economic self interest. If wind turbines can generate energy in a local economy dealing with $7+ per gallon heating fuel, then hell yeah, we're on it.

Not that things like this would necessarily happen without the "pork" that Alaska gets from the Federal Government...you know, like the "Bridge to Nowhere". Sorry, venting again. I'm getting a little sick of reading all the Alaska-bashing on some of the lefty political blogs I frequent. Haha, we're still counting votes because they're arriving on dogsled...haha, we're all idiots who voted for a convicted felon...haha, we all want to "drill baby drill", shoot wolves from helicopters, and think we have foreign policy experience because we're by Russia. Well guess what, we need some of that "pork" because many places in this undeveloped state still are missing basic infrastructure like roads and plumbing. And those backwards, hillbilly rural voters whose votes they're now counting, more than a week after the election because the dogsled just arrived? Yeah, they just put Begich ahead of ConvicTed Stevens, even though we know not having Uncle Ted in the Senate will probably lead to less money and slower development out here. Yeah, you're welcome.

Haha!

What is up with all this national media attention lately out here??

Wall Street Journal - Are These the Shortest Commercial Flights in the U.S.?

Note to readers...as the person re-doing the school's website (at a snail's pace, admittedly), don't count on that link to the dog sleds working for long ;-)

The Election Day post

Okay, I'll readily admit I'm a big geek for politics (among other things, of course), so election days are pretty much like Christmas, Thanksgiving, St. Patrick's Day and Trivia all rolled up into one. We did it up right yesterday, with a family voting adventure and a party to watch results come in until late in the evening. Plenty of comments I could make about what voting here was like, not to mention the amazing results nationally and some not-so-cool state level results, but for now lets just take a look at some scenes from the day that was:

This is a video I cut together quickly from what I shot yesterday when we went to vote...sorry if it's a little Blair-Witch-y at the beginning, I'm just no good at the walking and the shooting.



Outside our polling place...



Isaac got to celebrate the event by getting his first solid food - avocados! There's video of this somewhere, too...I may spare you that.



Sara showing off the Obama Victory Cake I made...did I mention I'm a huge nerd? But we figured if we couldn't celebrate with beer...



Yeah, we party like rock stars here in Nunap.

Goodness!

My oh my, Alaska's a hot topic lately...

BBC: Alaska village faces eroded future

Newtok's a village in our school district, over on the coast (obviously)

If you've ever wondered...

...about why we're living in a dry village up here, and just what that means, read this:

Bootleggers Playing Hide-and-Seek on the Tundra - New York Times, 10/12/08

Long, boring catch-up post.

Oof, I really have let this get away from me, haven't I? If you're still checking here, thanks...hopefully your persistence will begin being rewarded again soon. It's been a combination of lack of post-worthy things going on, the ease of just posting tiny updates on Facebook instead of trying to expand them into blog posts, and the fact that most of what I'd want to post in this election season would have been more suited for my old blog, and not this "Alaska Journal" specific blog. My days are pretty locked into a routine of bottles, diaper changes, and naps (while trying to fit in some school projects and other things where possible), but here goes a bit of a last-3-weeks roundup :-P

A day or two after my last post was the pushed-up date for my first Alaska PFD check. Woohoo! A nice little chunk of change. So, like many Alaskans, first thing I did was purchase some plane tickets. In my case, back to WI for xmas break. In order to save a few hundred dollars, we decided I would fly back a week early like I did my first year up here, so I'll be back in the midwest starting 12/14. Just in case you were wondering.

This year's check was even larger than originally expected, thanks to an additional $1200 tacked on by the legislature (supposedly at the behest of our Governor...you may have heard of her recently), for the expressed purpose of ofsetting the insane cost of living increases out here in rural Alaska, specifically the cost of energy. Well, in many cases, it's having another effect...people are just moving from the Bush into the hub cities, or even into Anchorage. In Bethel, I've even heard a term coined for it..."energy refugees". Now, I'm not up at school enough to be really "in the loop" as far as knowing exactly what's going on all that much in the community, but from what I hear, most of the moving that's going on here is for other reasons, but it seems (to my admittedly narrow perspective) that there's more people moving away from the village. It's by no means scientific, but we're appearing to fit the pattern. Shrug.

Speaking of Alaska news (how's that for a segue?), there was a story on the Anchorage news last night about people here paying more attention to the political news, blah blah blah, and how it can raise stress levels. They even interviewed a therapist who said people who are feeling overstressed by everything should know when to "take a break"...which I found a bit amusing, seeing that I did just about the exact same thing a few weeks back. I dunno, the whole selection of Palin and the lying BS of the Republican convention Alaska attention politically...my head was threatening to explode, so I just decided to stop paying attention for a couple weeks. And guess what...it worked. I managed to save my sanity and not go completely bonkers before election day. I hope.

One thing that's been interesting is all the attention Palin is bringing to Alaska politics. Some has been good, but most of it has been of the negative variety. While national scrutiny has blown open the Troopergate deal and the Stevens trial, it's also basically put the McCain campaign basically in control of state government, acing as council for the Governor and basically maneuvering the day-to-day operation of state affairs to the best benefit of the GOP presidential campaign. In the short term, it's helping Palin and McCain (even though Caribou Barbie's approval rating has gone from 82% to 68% here as news of some of her more...interesting...positions have come to light, McCain/Palin has basically locked Alaska's 3 electoral votes up at about a 15 point lead...you may think AK was going red anyway, but Obama had cut it to a 5 point deficit in August!), I think it's going to hurt Alaska's "solid red state" status long term. I mean, the state is still super "independent"-minded, plus lots of oil interests, etc...but when the newscasts every night are the latest gaffes by our ever-more-obviously imbecilic Governess, followed by daily coverage of our senior Senator's trial and our longtime Representative's scandals and poll deficit...well, let's just hope we can crack this ice yet.

Let's see, anything I'm forgetting? Oh, I had the chance to chaperone a trip to Bethel a couple weekends ago. Got to shop, eat out (gyros!), and watch some of the best cross country runners in the state. I was even able to bring back some goodies for Sara (sushi, anyone?) thanks to some miracles of scheduling right before we left. All in all, it was a good time and a nice 24-hour break.

At the moment, I'm going to keep watching the Brewer game while Isaac naps...with the Twins out of the playoffs thanks to a coin-flip and some shady dealing from MLB, and the Packers facing an uphill road to an 8-8 season thanks to brutal injuries, the Brewers are the only think I've got going at this point. And they're down 3-0 at this point in game one. Yee-haw.

*cue trumpets*

Sen. Ted Stevens indicted!

Hee!

So Geo Beach from "Tougher in Alaska" was on the Daily Show last night...and Jon Stewart even made a reference to teachers!

Yeah, I'm a geek...but I'm totally nerdy for Jon Stewart. Not as bad as Sara though...I think she has a bit of a crush :-P

Watch it here!

BTW, if you've never watched "Tougher in Alaska" on the History Channel, you should. The actually do a lot of filming in rural Alaska...even out in our neck of the woods a few times! Some shows just focus on the "touristy" areas around Anchorage and Southeast...

Oh, it's on now!

It's gonna be a fun fall...

Alaska Chants for Oh, Oh, Oh, Obama - HuffPo

Obama campaign establishes beachhead in Alaska - APRN (audio link)

FU, NCLB

Yeah, 'cuz I'm sure schools in "rural" Maryland and Illinois have *way* worse problems then in the Alaska bush. Mmmhmm. Morons.

Late-June Update

Not to break up my string of picture-posts, but no pictures today (seems like the facebook users have been getting the better end of that deal this summer, eh?), but I just wanted to post an article I read about fuel prices out in the Bush. Mostly because they interviewed one of our neighbors in Nunap for the article.

But seriously. Dude, weak.

I can't even imagine what living out there (or here, once we're back) would be like for us if we DID have to pay for our heating fuel, and if our gas needs weren't simply for "fun", boating and snowmachine-wise. As it stands, airplane seat and chartering prices have skyrocketed...making flying in for fun (or simply to get in/out) a real pain.

*sigh*

Not that I can really complain...it's everyone else in the village that has it rough. But what can I say, I'm whiney.

Why dry?

Yeah, I grumble about the fact that I can't get beer here. I've even had an ongoing debate in my head, trying to reconcile my previous attitudes about "bootlegging" as I've known it to exist, mostly as a romantic outlaw period during national Prohibition, versus the obvious destructive effects "bootlegging" has in this part of the country on a daily basis.

Articles about the issue appear pretty regularly in the state news, and on occasion I think about posting links, but rarely do. But this recent article in Alaska Magazine entitled Turning off the Tap got to the heart of the issue, I think. It's a real battle...some people want alcohol totally banned, all across the region...others want it legal. Still others like the ban, if only because it's a profitable business venture to buy $10 bottles of rotgut and bootleg them into villages where they can sell them for $150.

So yeah, if you've ever heard me complaining about not being able to drink up here, and wondered exactly why that was...read the article.

Dang.

Well, I know one emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Alaska Southeast that isn't going to invited to any village feasts any time soon!

What to do with dying villages?

But it all seriousness...with any distance from the obvious emotional and cultural issues involved...does he make a good point? I don't know. I don't think so...but I'm not so certain that maybe there isn't something there.

But don't tell anyone I said that, ok?

Bears!

So never mind about the Polar Bears getting killed off by global warming...how's about we worry about them heading this way and eating me!!

From the Anchorage Daily News (though I first heard it on APRN this morning):

Wandering polar bear pays with life.

A polar bear that drifted 250 miles south of Alaska’s north coast to Fort Yukon was shot and killed after it charged a hunter, a Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story says. Community residents didn’t believe first reports that a polar bear had come that far from its usual territory and was in their region, but half a dozen hunters began tracking it when the reports persisted, according to the story.

Two hunters caught up with the animal outside of town on the Porcupine River and one of them shot it with an AR-15 after it came out of a brush pile and charged him. “I shot from the hip, seven or eight times,” said Zeb Cadzow. “If I had gotten it to my shoulder, it would have been on top of me. It happened so quick; by the time it was down, it was about 10 feet from my feet.”

Why do I think Stephen Colbert might have something to say about this when he comes back with new episodes??

*cue halleluja chorus*

New York Times: Some Airlines to Offer In-Flight Internet Service

One of the airlines mentioned? Alaska. Yeah, how nice will it be to be able to get online during the six-and-a-half hour flight between Chicago and Anchorage? A much better use of $10 than the "digi-players", that's for sure :-)

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they equip the long-haul planes by spring. If so, I might have to invest in an extra laptop battery so I get my money's worth out of the flight...heh.