Got Snow?

Schools in Valdez, Alaska have never been closed because of snow.  Schools there have been closed only three times due to weather - high wind.   Valdez lies in a narrow valley surrounded by steep, high mountains, near the head of Prince William Sound.  Sometimes the way the wind funnels in there must be felt to be believed.  I’ll always remember flying out of Valdez one April day in a small twin engine turbo-prop airplane - the most bumpy and terrifying airplane landing or departure I have ever endured anywhere, anytime - and I’ve suffered quite a few of those flying around in Alaska.

This week, between Monday and Wednesday morning 68 inches fell in Valdez.  That’s almost 6 feet.  By Friday, 6-1/2 feet fell for the week, but still 6” short of the 5-day record set in 1996.

When told about a city paralyzed by 20” of snow, Valdez resident Tom McAlister said, "My God, our people don't even get out of bed for that . . . “

Valdez averages 330 inches of snow per year - that’s 27.5 feet for the mathematically inclined. The record so far is 581 inches in the winter of 1989-90 - but records have only been kept since the early 1970’s.

Valdez is very popular with ‘extreme skiers’ because of its deep snow and steep mountains.   There is no ski area there, so skiers must hike up the slopes, or resort to ‘heli-skiing’ which is taking a helicopter ride to the top of the mountain and then skiing down the breath-taking slopes.

So, try to keeping things in perspective when you feel put upon by a few inches of snow . . .

TOO BIG TO FAIL?

Over the past several months, we in our 'capitalist' nation have saddled ourselves with a huge problem.   When any bank or company is officially deemed ‘Too Big to Fail’, that is the base acknowledgement the entity has the power to put our entire nation in jeopardy.  What else could it be?

The situation may be compared to a lollipop so big it will choke its user.  Or, to a check so big it overdraws the account it is written upon, or to a load too heavy for its boat.  Whatever, it is simply,  TOO BIG.  And dangerous.  And, out of balance. And, it needs to be corrected.

How did this happen?  I believe the source of our problem is pretty simple when boiled down to it’s essential cause:  GREED.  And, it has happened before.  Many times in fact.  Whenever the fetters are removed and greed is unbridled, it inevitably results in economic disaster in the end.  The most recent example is the 1929 depression.  Unbridled and uncontrolled capitalism created an enormous economic bubble which burst.  All bubbles must burst, or at least ‘deflate’ in the end.  Politicians of the time, recognizing the basic causes, established controls through regulatory measures to prevent such an occurrence again.  Wish that we still had their wisdom, acquired through experience.

But, our legislators, of tragically short memories and imagination under Reagan, and later Bush I, then Clinton, and finally Bush II, removed almost all of the regulatory controls.  ‘Greed’ in the form of unfettered capitalism  ‘reared its ugly head’ in Sarah Palin’s immortal words.   The dire consequences of allowing the ‘free market’ to have its way, unrestrained by regulation is now familiar to all.  Trillions of dollars of wealth world-wide disappeared into thin air, and people lost homes, businesses, savings, pensions and their social safety net.  It is a crime of monstrous proportions, putting Bernie Madoff's scams to shame.

And greed in conjunction with the ability to buy legislation through campaign contributions has resulted in 'capitalism' morphing into what can only be called a ‘Corpocracy’  - a social welfare system for big business.  The ridiculous extremes to which this has gone is evident to everyone who witnessed the multimillion dollar ‘bonuses’ given to the very people who created the problems in the first place.  Bernie Madoff must be looking on from his cell in bitter envy - cooling his heels in federal prison while the architects of the biggest Ponzi scam in the history of the world are happily sailing merrily around the playgrounds for the rich in their megayachts.

The corporate giants in the finance industries over the past decade went on an uncontrolled rampage which ran the international economy in the ditch.  The fix?  The common man, in the form of the taxpaying public is now saddled with the enormous costs of restoring stability to our economy - including ‘bailouts’ to the very businesses who created the problems in the first place.  Our descendants, down to our grandchildren are now mortgaged on the alter of big finance.  It amounts to economic enslavement of the majority of our public.

I see only two ways to correct this imbalance.  One is to enact legislation to control the excesses which created our current problems.  There is some movement in this direction, but far too little, and very obviously, far too late.  I fear because of the death grip financial industries and big business have on our legislation we will never be able to enact real and meaningful reform.  Especially needed is Campaign Finance Reform.  There IS NO LOGICAL REASON an industry,  company or corporation should ever be permitted to be considered a ‘person’ and have the same first amendment rights of an actual person as now is the case.  None.  No non-person entity should ever have the right to donate money to a political candidate or PAC.  Never, no time.  Corporations’ rights as ‘persons’ should be limited to their contracts and activities in commercial business.

Giving corporations rights as persons is a form of ‘double representation’ wherein both the corporate owners individually, and the corporations themselves are counted as persons.

The other possible way to correct the current enormous imbalance is a popular revolution of some kind, which I fear is what we will actually see at some point unless things change appreciably.  People can only be subordinated for so long before they rise up to throw off their yokes and hang their perceived masters from lamp posts.  We have seen this many other times in history too.  I am surprised the perpetrators of the current frauds upon the public don’t perceive this danger.  I hope I am wrong.  Revolutions are so messy, disruptive, and so, well, revolting.

When the possible failure of a bank or insurance company, or combination, or any other entity can cause intolerable damage to the nation’s economic structure that entity has then become, ipso facto, “Too Big to Exist”.  That should be self-evident on the face of it to any reasonable person not blinded by ideological dogma.

And, that entity must be broken up into component parts, less dangerous to the public at large!


If you are interested in educating yourself on this subject, I highly recommend the current, and very topical book "BAD MONEY" by Kevin Phillips.  It is eye-opening in the extreme.

Homeless In Juneau, Alaska

“Get down off there!” - the shout came loud and emphatic.

*Startled, the homeless guy looked around.  A large policeman stood a few yards downhill with one hand on the butt of his Glock pistol and the other on his nightstick and with a seriously stern look on his face.

“What for?  What did I do?”  asked the frightened guy.

“You’re trespassing.  That’s what.  Now get your ass down here!” bellowed the stern cop.

Ralph, was shaken and visibly nervous, but nodded quickly and stumbled the ten yards or so down the steep slope to the level ground the cop stood on.

“What are you doing up there?” demanded the cop.

“Nothing.” said Ralph.

“You living up there?  Got a camp or something?” asked the rather large and intimidating policeman staring right at Ralph.

Ralph looked at his feet and said nothing.

“What about it?” demanded the policeman.  “I’ll run your ass in for trespass if you don’t speak up.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Ralph said.  “I got a sort of campsite up on the slope up there in the trees.  Until I can find a place to stay or something that is.”

“Well, you ain’t any more.” said the cop.  “All you guys camped out up there are on private property, and you’re trespassing.  We got complaints from the property owner and you’re outta there.  Right now.  Now, get gone while I’m still in a good mood!”

Ralph looked at the cop for a moment.  “Can I get my stuff?” he asked.  “I still got all my stuff up there.”

“Read my lips!” said the cop.  “I said, ‘Get gone!’ and I damned well mean it, before I run your ass over to detention.  And I mean right damned now!”

Ralph  turned and walked quickly away, before the cop had a chance to change his mind.  He’d had runs in with cops before.  Several times.  Maybe he’d try to sneak back and get his stuff after dark.  Before it got too cold.  He needed that sleeping bag.  He wondered where he could hang out until it got dark.

The homeless grey bearded man with the sad look in his eyes had been around some in his sixty years or so.  Now, he was in Juneau, Alaska in December, with no place to stay and no money.  No place to get out of the cold and it was sure to be colder tonight.  Ralph came to Juneau fifteen years ago to work on a fishing boat.  At first it was great.  He loved the work, and being on the water was wonderful.  So clean and elemental.  The work was hard but paid well when there was plenty of fish.  He got paid a share of the boat’s catch, and the guys were great.  Donny, the boat’s owner and business manager seemed to care a lot about the guys who did most of the work, two others besides Ralph.  It was almost like a family.  A family Ralph never had since leaving home at sixteen.

With no father at home and with his mother struggling to put food on the table, and three more younger kids to feed,  Ralph thought the best thing was to move on along to find some work and send money back as he could.  He lied about his age and got some minimum wage jobs to get by.  He couldn’t give much to his mom, but he tried.  He survived.  When he turned seventeen he’d joined the army - and was able to get an allotment to help support his mom and the other three kids.  Six months after joining up Ralph found himself slogging through the jungles of Vietnam as an infantry grunt on patrol in the boonies.

He hated the army and was scared to death every day in Vietnam - but the money was actually pretty good, especially with the combat pay thrown in.  And, when his year in Vietnam was up he asked his first sergeant to sign him up for another year ‘in country’, and then a year later, a third even.  The third was the bugaboo.  Halfway through was when Ralph got his ass shot off.  Or more correctly, blown off.  That was when somebody on his patrol set off a mine which killed two other men and loaded Ralph’s ass and back up with a ton of shrapnel.  But, it was his ticket home.

Two months in the hospital and some stateside time and then Ralph got his release from the army.  He hung around his mom’s for a week or so but soon headed out.  At first he seemed to do pretty well.  He got some pretty good work in construction, and then got a job with the power line folks as a lineman.  Hard work, but good money.  He got married even, but that didn’t last.  His wife said he was ’too into himself’ and left with a used car salesman.  After that Ralph just didn’t care much any more.  He quit the power company and banged around doing whatever work he could find.  Then he got in trouble with the law.

It was silly and stupid, really.  Ralph was hanging around with a guy from work who invited him over for a wiener roast and a few beers.  But it was more than a few beers.  This guy, who weighed about 300 pounds, hung out with a woman who was a deaf mute - and both of them drank like fishes.  Before long they were drunk as skunks, except for Ralph, who only had three or four beers himself.  But, Ralph was fascinated by the deaf mute woman and her strange sounding vocalizations, and somehow his interest got misconstrued by his fat friend who knocked him down.  What made it bad was the fat guy then just laid on top of Ralph and rolled around.  He wouldn’t get off and Ralph couldn’t get out from under.  He panicked, but managed to get his tiny pen knife hanging on his belt opened.  Pinching about a quarter inch of the blade exposed in his hand, he jabbed his huge friend in the side and belly until the guy finally screamed and rolled away.  But, then the deaf mute woman viciously attacked Ralph with the barbecue spatula.  He had no choice but to cut and run.

That might have been that, but Ralph worried about the the knife.  He thought it would be considered a ‘deadly weapon’, so he pitched it in the first trash bin he came to.  As it turned out, that was the very worst thing he could have done.

The fat guy swore out a complaint and Ralph’s arrest soon followed.  He was appointed a public defender since he had no money, and his lawyer said it was a legitimate self-defense, except for that discarded pen knife.  That made things into obstruction of justice and destruction of evidence.  Ralph got eighteen months in the slammer.  And, he did every day of it.  They said he had a bad attitude.  They were right.  He was pissed at the world and got in countless fights in jail.  After his release he did another two year’s probation, and reported to a court appointed probation officer once a week.  It was thoroughly humiliating and a real pisser.

After that Ralph couldn’t keep his mind on anything.  He had nightmares about Vietnam almost every night, often waking up in terror, reliving the wet heat and the jungle patrols, and the day he got his ass shot off.  He went to the Veterans Administration for treatment and was told he had an obvious case of PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  They gave him pills and advice, but the bureaucracy bothered him, so he quit going.

He only occasionally had contact with the rest of his family, maybe once in every two years or so.  His mom died and his siblings went God knows where.  Ralph was depressed most of the time feeling himself a failure and a loser.  The fishing job in Alaska became his salvation.  With that, for several years Ralph was pretty happy.  He got a little apartment with another guy and things were cool.

Then Donny, the boat’s owner died.  It was sudden.  The guy just keeled over at the supper table one night having liver and onions with his wife.  That was that.  The job ended, and the boat got sold.  Ralph was too old to get another fishing job, so he just took whatever pickup jobs he could find.  It wasn’t enough.  He gave up the apartment and became just another homeless guy in Juneau, Alaska.

The problem with Juneau, is, if you don’t have any money you can’t leave.  It’s not like other places where you can just walk away or hitchhike maybe.  The only way in and out of Juneau is by air or by water - ferry.  Both cost money.  Lot’s of money in fact.  Ralph didn’t want to leave anyway.  Juneau was the only home he knew - even if he didn’t have an actual home.

Even without a place to live a person can get by in Juneau.  A  fair number of people had semi-permanent camps in the woods overlooking downtown.  Many were bums and just plain drunks, but quite a few were like Ralph - just unfortunate, down-on-their-luck guys who couldn’t make enough money to live in a house or apartment, but could make enough to eat and live in a camp in the woods.  If they were let alone that is.  If asked, they all said that’s the way they wanted to live.  “Just leave us alone.” was the motto.

But, like almost every other place in America, the powers-that-are in Juneau would not abide the homeless in their city.  It just ‘looked bad’ they said.  “They drive away business” was another frequently heard complaint, and, “they’re all just a bunch of alcoholics and thieves” was often heard.  All that was true, to one degree or another.  But, instead of applying some imagination and a bit of money and effort to fix the problem, the powers that be chose instead to attack it with a full frontal assault by law and fiat.  Simply put, it became illegal to be down-on-your-luck and homeless and exist in Juneau, Alaska.

If you've never been there,  Juneau, Alaska is a beautiful place, summer or winter.  A salt-water channel crowds the narrow strip of level land the city sits upon smack dab against an almost vertical wall of 4000 foot mountains virtually overhanging the city’s downtown area.  Tall Hemlock and Sitka Spruce evergreens almost stick their limbs into the downtown office buildings and shops.  Yards away from the city center, bears, mountain goat and deer play.  The bears enter town at night and become problems raiding unsecured garbage cans.  In fact, there is a city ordinance against bears too - that is, against persons leaving unsecured garbage for them to raid.  A very sensible ordinance it is too.

Juneau began as a mining town, based on gold.  Huge gold mines once existed virtually downtown, and their hundreds of miles of tunnels still lace the mountains nearby.  Mines require vast amounts of electricity to operate, and these built their own dams and hydro-electric plants.  Some of the electricity was also sold to the residents and businesses of Juneau.  In the early 1900’s a private company was formed to buy electricity from the combined mine dams and resell it.  That was the birth of “AEL&P” - Alaska 
Electric Light and Power company.  In 1972, AEL&P purchased all the dams and associated electrical generating properties from what remained of the mining companies, the last of which had ceased production early in WWII.

However, since 1973 most of AEL&P’s power has come from the Snettisham project,  built at US government expense, and later purchased by the State of Alaska.  The state made a contract with AEL&P allowing the company to sell electricity generated at Snettisham. In exchange, AEL&P must maintain the plant and pay off 35-year bonds issued by the state when it bought Snettisham from the federal government. That includes the 44 miles of towers and transmission lines used to deliver the power.   AEL&P has an option to purchase the Snettisham project but has declined to do so.  Why should this privately owned company so so, when it was virtually given to them with no investment on their part?

Yet, this is the very same company which failed to provide recommended avalanche protection for the transmission towers.   Seven towers were wrecked by an avalanche in early 2008.  AEL&P simply raised electrical rates almost 500% to cover their costs of repairs - and then some I would guess.  One of the repaired towers was damaged AGAIN in early 2009 by yet another avalanche - still not provided with protection.

Why am I giving you this information about a privately owned power company in far off Juneau, Alaska, and how is that pertinent to the homeless Ralph’s predicament?  Very simple really, this private company owns the land where the homeless, Ralph among them, made their camps in Juneau.  And, this is the same privately owned company which demanded the police evict all homeless persons from their camps.  That was the extent of their ‘homeless solution’.

When Ralph sneaked back to the campsite after dark, he discovered all his possessions, along with everyone else’s, had been gathered up and destroyed by the Juneau Police Department, enforcers for the powers that be.  Ralph did not sleep that night.  He was too cold and he was too busy walking around trying to stay warm.   But I’ll bet Joe Corbus, the majority stockholder of AEL&P didn’t have a problem.  I imagine he slept warm, comfortable and unbothered in his million dollar mansion down on the shore of Gastineau Channel, in Juneau, Alaska.  And, I’ll bet too, he dropped at least a dollar bill in the collection plate at his church the following Sunday as well.

 *’Ralph’ is a fictitious character, based on several different characters I know in Juneau, Alaska.  But, AEL&P and Joe Corbus are all too real.

Reality Denial Disorder

Once a rich politician, arch-conservative

Clinging to blind partisan dogmas, hallucinative,

Compelled always entirely to misstate

And implacably unable to play straight,

Became incredibly, regressively, degenerative.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 "Is something wrong with the Senator?" asked the new intern of an aide to the senator.

"Waddaya mean?" said the older and far wiser aide.

"Well, I've only been here a few weeks I know, but it sure seems like he doesn't pay much attention to things, or what people tell him.

"Like what?"

"Well, like I spent over three weeks doing research for him on this National Health Act bill.  He just looked at the cover page on my report and threw it in the trash.  I haven't got much experience under my belt yet, but I do have my master's degree in political science and graduated #2 in my class.  I do know how to bear down and do good, solid, factual research."

"Oh that," said the more senior aide.  "He probably just doesn't like whatever real facts you uncovered.  It  was nothing against you personally, or your work."

"You mean the Senator doesn't care about facts?" asked the intern incredulously.

"Nah," said the aide.  "Not unless they agree with his own doctrine he doesn't. And, like always, his doctrine is strictly in line with that of his major campaign contributors.  My guess is the Senator's just trying to train you into his ways.  You know, he's been in Washington a long time now and has developed a pretty bad case of RDD."

"RDD?  What the hell is that?"

What's RDD?  Oh hell.  I guess you ARE still pretty wet behind the ears, aren't you?  RDD is "Reality Denial Disorder".  It's a very common disease, and almost all top politicians get it by their second  terms in office.  Damned few of them don't.  Their party doesn't matter.   It's pretty serious and clouds their judgement and affects their personal lives too.   Else, why would anyone ignore obvious cause and effect realities to pick up some queer in a public restroom or fly off to Argentina to meet some bimbo?  RDD can be pretty serious all right."

"Reality Denial Disorder?  I never heard of it!" said astonished intern.  Is it like a neurological disease?"

"Well, I don't know if there have been any formal studies on RDD or not, but everyone who's been around politicians any time at all time knows about it - and that's what we call it.  It's a lot like ADD - Attention Deficit Disorder.  You know, they just can't or won't get their minds around anything not in line with their own dogma.  It's a psychological impossibility for them."

"RDD!" mused the intern.  "Well, I guess I must still have a lot to learn."

"Oh yes," replied the aide.  "There's all kinds of things to learn about our senator.  Important things.  For example, he also has HPD, NPD, and worst of all maybe, GCD!"

The intern stared at the aide in dismay.  "What in hell is all that?" he implored.

"I guess I'm gonna need to get you a book." the aide replied.  "HPD is "Histrionic Personality Disorder".  You know, when someone gets all dramatic and works up an artificial passion.  NPD of course is "Narcissistic Personality Disorder", which is self-explanatory and pretty damned bad all by itself, but when it comes coupled with GCD, it's almost impossible to deal with. GCD is "God Complex Disorder" if you don't know that one.  Our senator has it all.  He's such a major pain in the ass, if I weren't trying to work myself up to a lobbyist job, I'd tell him 'sayonara' and 'kiss my ass' today."

"Well, I'm sure glad you enlightened me on all this." said the intern.  "In fact, right now I feel like I've just come down with a bad case of HWD myself."

"HWD?"  asked the aide.  "That's a new one on me.  What in hell is that?"

"Oh hell, you know." said the intern.  "That's that good old  'Hank Williams Disorder'." 

"I'm moving on!"

Irony Versus The Art of Disinformation

(Click on photo to enlarge)

The caption beneath the picture of the glacier reads:

"TAKU GLACIER, ALASKA, IS A RIVER OF ICE STRETCHING 270 SQUARE MILES, YET THE PETROLEUM ENERGY HUMBLE SUPPLES AMERICA COULD MELT IT AT THE RATE OF 7 MILLIONS TONS A DAY!"

Perhaps a more prophetic ad was never run in history:   In 1962 Humble Oil ran a two-page ad spread in Life Magazine.  Humble merged with Standard Oil to become the oil industry giant EXXON, now EXXON-MOBIL.  Blogger David Roberts places this one in the running for "All Time Millenial Award for Maximum Irony".   I totally agree!

The ad itself reads as follows:

"EACH DAY HUMBLE SUPPLIES ENOUGH ENERGY TO MELT 7 MILLION TONS OF GLACIER!


This giant glacier has remained unmelted for centuries.  yet, the petroleum energy Humble supplies -  if converted into heat - could melt it at the rate of 80 tons each second!  To meet the nation's growing needs for energy, Humble has applied science to nature's resources to become America's Leading Energy Company.  Working wonders with oil through research, Humble provides energy in many forms - to help heat our homes, power our transportation, and to furnish industry with a great variety of versatile chemicals.  Stop at a Humble station for new Enco Extra gasoline, and see why the "Happy Motoring" Sign is the Worlds First Choice!"

The supreme irony is that EXXON-MOBIL is the same company which spent millions to disparage the idea of mankind cause climate change.  Using proven tobacco industry tactics, EXXON financed (even founded!) 'think tanks' with many millions of dollars to dispute scientific findings and muddy the waters over this issue.  The right-wing big business lobby is still at it today, using any means fair or foul to cast doubt over an issue upon which about 95% of all scientists agree.

Hackers recently got into computers at a legitimate climate change research center.   Emails and other documents stolen from there were then published  - in Russia of all places.  The attempt is to show a 'coverup' by scientists who agree on human influenced climate change - a huge majority of all scientists - and further muddy the waters.

The timing of this release of course,  has no relevance to the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled to begin December 7, 2009.  Yeah right.  Just like the timings of the current releases of new recommendations for the frequency for pap smears or breast cancer exams has no relevance to the national health care debate or the passing of the National Health Act.

Can we, the public, ever learn to effectively counter all the billions of 'influence dollars' spent by corporate vested interests?  Not bloody likely given recent history!

On Becoming Non-Republican

I've never joined a political party, but I used to think I was more Republican than anything else. I voted for the occasional Democrat, yes.   I had great respect for what I read of Harry Truman who was before my time.  But the preponderance of my votes over the years went to Republicans, including more than once I  pulled the 'straight Republican' lever in the booth.   Republicans seemed to talk more my way and I eventually began to think of myself as 'Republican' even though I never formally joined the party.

I was cheered in the early 80's when my neighbor in New Bern, North Carolina was elected city mayor as a Democrat, and the very next day switched parties.   I did wonder a little at the time at the oddness of that.  It did seem a bit on the duplicitous side - but no matter.  Republicans seemed more like me, and therefore, her becoming one seemed justified.   I ignored the duplicity.

Then I moved to Alaska - a solidly 'Red State' then and now, almost.  I didn't move there because it was a Republican state, but didn't mind that either.  The people I met seemed more open and natural than the ones I'd known back east.  I think it's just the  'western' way.  I lived in a small island village in southeast Alaska and loved it.  We were in the midst of the largest national forest in the country - the Tongass National Forest.  I worked everyday with a guy who cheerfully identified himself as a 'tree hugger', and an officer in a small environmental group interested in protections for the forest.  He invited me to a meeting.  I didn't think I had much in common with the tree and bunny hugger crowds but went anyway out of curiosity.

The people I met at the first meeting - only a half dozen or so active folks - seemed salt of the earth and passionately dedicated to their cause.  There was a carpenter, a fisherman's wife, a couple commercial fishermen, a shipbuilder, a traveling fruit and vegetable trucker, a retired wildlife biologist and a few others.  Most were solid members of the local community and just plain folks.   One woman was the real spark plug and the cohesive glue holding the group together.  As an ex-Forest Service employee she had inside knowledge of how things worked in that peculiar bureaucracy. She was also one of the bravest people I ever knew.  In the interests of privacy, I'll simply call her 'Astra' here, after the Greek goddess of justice.

As an outsider from back east I was viewed with some suspicion, but I was intrigued and came to more meetings, eventually joining the group and becoming involved.  A year or so later I even became a vocal activist too and an officer of the group.  How did this come about?

At the time there were two huge pulp mills in the Tongass region, one of which was Japanese owned.  Both were multi-national corporations holding 'sweetheart' deals with the Forest  Service in the form of long-term contracts (fifty years!).   When the pertinent facts were boiled down to reality, particularly the fiscal ones, the stark result was the virtual corporate rape of a US national forest at American taxpayers' expense.  At the time, every timber industry job on the Tongass National Forest ended up  costing the US taxpayer $40,000 to $60,000.  Today it is even higher - much higher. As an actual, real fiscally conservative American I could not understand this.

But the timber industry, like all resource extraction industries maintains a powerful lobby.  The entire Alaska congressional delegation - all Republican at the time - were all doing the bidding of timber, oil and mining interests. They were vocal and strident in their defense of big  timber interests.  But,  American taxpayers were (and still are) being cheated at their own expense.  A real tragedy was that precious irreplaceable old-growth forests, valuable for lumber, were being chipped up to make toilet paper.  Trees not chipped up were shipped 'in-the-round' overseas to Japan and Korea. There was little effort to add value to the commodity.  Alaska, and the Tongass National Forest were treated as part of a third world country - no American jobs were involved beyond the acts of felling and transporting the timber,  and the taxpayer subsidized acts of building the access roads.

After I moved to Alaska also came Newt Gingrich's  'Contract With America' and the 'conservative Republican' capture of Congress.  If things were bad before they quickly got worse.  The final straw for me was when Gingrich as Speaker of the House  threatened to 'train wreck' and shutdown the US government over the budget - and partly did so in fact.  Apparently that was too much for lots of others too and Gingrich was eventually forced to resign as Speaker.  Roundly castigated, Gingrich  petulantly gave up his house seat and quit Congress altogether.  Nor was he the only one.  A whole slew of Republicans left Congress voluntarily (i.e., QUIT) saying it was 'no longer any fun' under a Democratic administration.  Incidentally, I've noticed the same phenomenon of Republican quitters lately too, with Sarah Palin being a prime example.

I contrasted the so-called conservative Republicans with Astra,  the head of our little environmental group.  Here was a person, an otherwise unexceptional wife and mother, who sacrificed most of her personal time, not a little money, and heroically faced a great deal animosity and slandering by powerful and ruthless forces arrayed against her.  She was publicly attacked in the local and regional papers, ostracized by many in the community and continuously threatened with lawsuits known as 'slap suits' designed to discourage opposition to the corporate rape of our publicly owned forest.   Specialists were hired by the industry group, 'Alaska Forest Association' to form opposition groups disguised as 'grassroots' organizations.   Local loggers and other industry employees joined up and held loud meetings, much like the 'Teabaggers' of today.  Some even physically threatened Astra and her family with destruction of her property, assault, personal injury and death.  Yet she persevered through it all.  As I said, she is one of the bravest people I ever met.

But, Astra was very effective, using every legal option available to her, including the support of major national and regional environmental groups.  Today, because of their efforts, those two huge pulp mills are gone from the Tongass National Forest, and some of the timber harvest there now receives at least a modicum of value added processing.  With the mills gone, the level of harvest is now down to about 10% of its former volume, although still very heavily subsidized by the taxpayers.  At least the old growth forests left aren't being slaughtered wholesale to make toilet paper anymore.  In my mind Astra is a genuine hero.

Through Astra's example, and with the scales falling from my eyes,  today when I see the label 'Republican' my reaction is to look the other way.  At my core I'm a moderate.  I've watched the GOP be captured by radical fringers intent on ridding the party of all moderate or progressive elements.   The end result is the GOP morphing into a club for an weird assortment of non-intellectual, belligerent southerners, evangelicals, militia types and disgruntled westerners who regard thoughtful deliberation with anyone as a social disease. And, my heretofore 'middle of the road' leanings are now considered by GOPers as 'liberal', 'socialist' and worse.  So be it.  The GOP 'Big Tent' of yore is now down to a doll house on the edge of a cliff. Fortunately for everyone,  I believe that to be a decidedly self-limiting situation.

Today's GOP extremism reminds me of the words of comedian Pat Paulsen who only half-jokingly 'ran for president' in Richard Nixon's time as a member of the STAG party (Straight Talking American Government).   When asked if he considered himself 'left-wing or right-wing', Paulsen's priceless and very apt response was:

"Well actually, I'm kind of a middle-of-the-bird.  I've always felt that if you have too much left-wing or too much right-wing, all you do is fly around in circles."

The Quitter who Twittered

"THE DIM-WITTED TWITTER"

There was once a dim witted twit who twittered,
She quitted her governor's job with all its glitter.
And, promised to never, ever leave Twitter.
But soon did so with nary a back-look nor  titter.
Then, later behold! About-faced and unquitted Twitter!

Yes, this dim-witted twit recanted and re-twittered,
She twittered about this and that and the other,
Death panels, Russia and Obama's mother.
Hoping everyone forgot the job so blithely quittered.

Oh, she twittered, and twittered and twittered,
On subjects she hardly knew quit from quinolla,
She expounded on Levi, McCain, Trig and Angola.
On Sesame, governments, church and pipefitters.

She shamefully twittered and twittered and twittered,
While the country grew quite weary and so jittered,
All tired of her nonsense and now sadly embittered,
While the sheen on her star dimmed and quite flittered.

Nonetheless, she persistently, mindlessly twittered,
Ignoring all pleas, imprecations and screams,
Plugging always her twisted, evangelical dreams,
Until husband Todd so wanted to jump up and hit her.

May we never hear again all those perfidious twitters,
Playing so to fears, paranoia, religion and bitters,
Plainly,  insanely, chasing her own lost fame and glitters,
Yes, next time give us at least a rational bullshitter!