Alaska candidates for U.S. Senate spent Labor Day weekend meeting voters and trading insults in what's promising to be a point-blank battle as each paints himself as the sensible alternative to the other guy's radical views or failed ideas.

Joe Miller's campaign staff, after speaking with him right after the accidents he caused in Fairbanks on August 27th:


A Miller campaign spokesman said that Miller, an attorney, was not one of the drivers at fault. The former federal magistrate judge and Gulf War veteran was scheduled to argue in court Friday morning and had also agreed to be interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, according to campaign spokesman Randy DeSoto.

“We spoke about it briefly,” DeSoto said. “He said that he did some damage to his truck. I think he’s a little sore. We didn’t get a chance to talk about it a lot. From what Joe told me, it wasn’t his fault.”

That's two claims that the "judge" who has never been a judge didn't cause the accident that the police have now cited Miller for having caused:

FAIRBANKS - U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller has been issued a citation for his part in a three-vehicle accident that occurred Aug. 27 in Fairbanks. Another driver was also cited in the accident.

Alaska State Troopers cited Miller, 43, for “failing to exercise due care to avoid a collision.”

The accident occurred at about 7:30 a.m. on Geist Road.
And what about this "judge" stuff, and Miller's claim that he "stepped down from the bench" to indulge in politics:

Joe Miller has never been a judge; he has been a magistrate. A state judge is appointed by the Governor from candidates proposed by the Alaska Judicial Council. Joe Miller has been a candidate for a judgeship: the superior court in 2005, the seat Judge Robert Downes now holds. He withdrew his name just before the bar poll results came out: that’s usually an indication he was panned by his peers. A magistrate is appointed by the court to do ministerial tasks. A federal magistrate is much the same.

In his bio, Miller says, “In 2004, Miller stepped down from the bench to run for State Representative.” He was never on the bench; he was never a judge. He ran for the superior court, although he quit before he got fairly started.

He says in his campaign website he has lived in Alaska for 16 years. He told the Judicial Council in March 2005 he had “been an Alaska resident for 10 years, and has practiced law for 9 years. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1995.” So if he graduated from Yale in May or June of 1995, in March of 2005 he had lived in Alaska for something less than ten years. And in 2010 he’s lived in Alaska 15 years, not 16 years. Yale is in New Haven, Connecticut, not Alaska.

Miller also says in his bio, “He has represented clients in a wide variety of cases, a number of which have gone all the way to the Alaska Supreme Court.” As it turns out, “a number” is two reported Alaska Supreme Court decisions, one when he was part-timing at the Borough Attorneys’ Office and one domestic relations case.

I'd like to see our Alaska media really get off their butts and begin to intensely scrutinize this pathological liar. They could begin, by finding out what Miller's blackberry was doing at 7:30 a.m. on August 27th.

Quitterday - July 3rd.

Quitterday, named after the day in 2009 Palin announced she was aborting her term early in the third trimester, beat August 29th, the day in 2008 the McCain camaign lost all hope of winning the presidential election that year, by announcing he had chosen Palin as his running mate.

July 3rd .............. 162 votes
August 29th ........ 59 votes

It wasn't even close. Enough commenters at the post announcing the poll felt April 1st should be Sarah Palin Day, that I regretted not including it as a third choice in the poll. Others thought February 30th might be a good day to set aside for her.

Thanks for voting.

I. Longtime readers of Progressive Alaska probably know that PA was the first politically oriented Alaska blog to start covering the travels, essays, photography, environmental activism and projects of Erin McKittrick and Bretwood Higman. My friend Steve Johnson first made me aware of their trek on foot, packraft and skis, from Seattle to Unimak Island, in 2007 and 2008. In 2008 I produced three lectures by the couple at the University of Alaska Anchorage, during their winter stay in the city, and after the conclusion of what has to be regarded as an epic journey.

Erin's book about their journey, A Long Trek Home, along with Charles Wohlforth's more recent The Fate of Nature, represents nature and environmental writing at its very best.

Beginning June 4th of this year, they have gone on three important treks:

1. Surveying the area around the proposed Chuitna coal development on west Cook Inlet.

2. Trekking through the lands around the Healy coal mines near Denali National Park.

3. And exploring a large area in Arctic northwest Alaska.

They have directly affiliated with Nuka Research (oil spill response and risk assessment) and the DNR Division of Spill Prevention and Response in their treks this year. Here's Erin's description of their current trip:

On August 11, we touch down at Point Lisburne, for a month-long trek on the Chukchi Sea coast. Just inland, coal deposits lie undisturbed beneath the tundra. Just offshore, oil and gas deposits lie untapped beneath the waves. As the climate heats up, coastal villages erode into the sea. Summer sea ice shrinks, leaving stampeding crowds of walruses at coastal haulouts. The world here is shifting quickly, and nearly everything is uncertain.

Coal was first discovered here hundreds of years ago, and small-scale mines supplied coal to power small towns, and the ships plying arctic waters. But the only mines here are small-scale remnants, shuttered long ago when the world on moved to liquid oil. The only modern exploration effort closed down shop in 2009. It would seem that the coal here is merely a piece of geologic trivia - unexplored, undeveloped, and hidden in the far reaches of the inaccessible arctic. But over 4 trillion tons of coal may lie beneath Alaska's wilderness - perhaps 10% of the worlds total. Most of this can be found beneath the tundra in the northwest corner of the state - under the foothills of the Brooks Range, and on the coast of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. But coal is higher impact than almost any alterative. In my opinion, an increased reliance on coal is one of the darker paths we might walk down.

Their young son, Katmai, is accompanying them, and Erin is getting quite pregnant. As time goes by, and I discuss this young couple's amazing accomplishments with friends, I'm more baffled all the time about how little attention they have gotten in the national or Alaska press.

How can a resource like The Discovery Channel be wasting their time with the Palins and their warped vision of Alaska, when they or another "nature" channel could positively inspire young people with the real - not fake - expeditions of Erin, Hig and Katmai?

erin & hig in a tiny raft, and hundreds of sea lions

Palin sitting on a dead anmal

The Palins and a bear by a creek


There have been a few good articles about the family, even one in the New York Times. Uh, that would be the NYT Garden & Home section, though. The gossip blog, GAWKER, in an article about the NYT piece, called erin and hig "The most irritating New York Times couple ever." Though the blog piece was snark, some of the commenters didn't realize that.

Local coverage has been sporadic. Craig Medred, having written the first comprehensive article about them in the Alaska press, back in early 2008, has not revisiting the couple's adventures since moving to the Alaska Dispatch, even though he's indicated to me he would like to.

Mike Campbell at the Anchorage Daily News wrote an article about the present trek, just as it was starting. It is worth a complete read.

II. If you are a member of Cook Inletkeeper, as Judy and I are, it is time to submit suggestions for the 4th annual Alaska Muckraker of the Year award. The three previous recipients were:

2007: Ray Metcalfe, former Alaska legislator, present community activist and anti-corruption icon, who some claim was key to starting the FBI investigation of Veco and the Alaska legislature. Ray's probably the person most responsible for keeping Tony Knowles from going in and fucking up the Scott McAdams campaign right now. Ray's got more up his sleeve on Tony.

2008: Riki Ott, the world's leading expert critic on the toxicity of oil spill dispersants. Ott's two books on the Exxon Valdez oil spill and her efforts to de-person large multinational mega-corporations got her the award. Her efforts this year, down in th BP oil spill area in and around the Gulf of Mexico, warrant a Macarthur Award, at least. She is helping to save lives on a daily basis.

2009: Jeanne Devon, creator of Alaska's most important multi-topic political blog, The Mudflats. Devon has also been covering the Chuitna coal project area this year, and in the wake of the BP oil spill, helped raise national awareness of the continuing presence of oil on Prince William Sound.

For 2010, who is out there that has been doing high quality research into problems normally taken on by "muckrakers"?

Muckraker: primarily, a reporter or writer who investigates and publishes truthful reports involving a host of social issues, broadly including crime and corruption and often involving elected officials, political leaders and influential members of business and industry.

In a number of instances, the revelations of muckraking journalists led to public outcry, governmental and legal investigations, and, in some cases, legislation was enacted to address the issues the writers' identified, such as harmful social conditions; pollution; food and product safety standards; sexual harassment; unfair labor practices; fraud; and other matters. The work of the muckrakers in the early years, and those today, span a wide array of legal, social, ethical and public policy concerns.

Erin and Hig list the issues they seek to perform research upon as:

Alaska Coal
Alaska Fisheries
Alaska Metal Mining
Alaska Oil and Gas
Climate Change
Forestry
Renewable Energy

They haven't, like Metcalfe, exposed high-level corruption or shady deals. They haven't, like Ott, directly challenged huge energy monopolies, lectured nationwide in favor of a consitutional amandment, or gone to the Gulf to educate thousands of coastal dwellers and fishers. They haven't, like Devon, created an online international community of responders to a host of issues.

The detail of their work and its potential long-range implications are difficult to assess, and their ongoing studies often end up buried amongst the effors of groups with which they collaborate or to whom they report.

Other Alaskans certainly should be considered for 2010 efforts. Preeminent among them is Shannyn Moore, for the sheer volume and quality of output from her daily radio show, and weekly TV interview hour. Shannyn has been on Cook Inletkeepr's board of directors, though, so some might think the award inappropriate. Not me, though.

Who are some others, besides Erin & Hig, or Shannyn Moore, who have been our outstanding muckrakers in 2010?

image - Katmai and hig, picking berries near Cape Lisburne

McClatchyDC reports that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says that the annual budget deficit for 2010 will be $1.3 trillion. That's $27 billion less than the CBO predicted in March 2010, and $71 billion lower than the 2009 deficit. Measured as a share of the total economy, it's 9.1 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the second largest in the last 65 years. The worst was in 2009, when it measured 9.9 percent of the total economy. This is also posted on McClatchy's Planet Washington blog.

Read the 112-page CBO report HERE. You can read a shorter executive summary HERE.

The CBO projects that during the next few years, federal budget deficits would decline as a share of GDP if the current-law assumptions about fiscal policy in CBO's baseline came to pass. This includes the assumption that the Bush tax cuts will be allowed to sunset. Under those assumptions, the deficit would drop to 7.0 percent of GDP in 2011 and 4.2 percent in 2012 and then would reach a low of 2.5 percent of GDP in 2014. For the rest of the 10-year projection period, deficits would range between 2.6 percent and 3.0 percent of GDP, close to the average of 2.6 percent of GDP experienced over the past 40 years.

In response to the initial report, some smart-aleck posted the following comment to the McClatchy story:

ohce wrote on 08/28/2010 08:53:07 PM:

National debt when Bush took office: $5.7 trillion
National debt when Bush left office: $10.6 trillion
Source: treasurydirect-dot-gov

O.K., fair enough. That means that the overall national debt under Bush grew by $4.9 trillion over an eight-year period. That's an average of $612.5 billion per year. In contrast, the national debt under Obama is now currently at $13.5 trillion according to the ticker on my sidebar. That's $2.9 trillion in ONLY two years, an average of $1.45 trillion per year.

The national debt has grown over twice as fast under Obama than under Bush. Try again, lefties.

Found the following graphic posted on the Salt Lake Tribune's Out Of Context blog. It originates from FiveThirtyEight, a blog by Nate Silver recently absorbed by the New York Times. The purpose is to show which Republican senators match the partisan makeup of the states they represent. Utah Senator Bob Bennett and Alaska's Very Own Lisa Murkowski are in blue because they lost their reelection bids. Note that both senators are both below the line, slipping into a more "liberal" territory than is expected someone supported by the more conservative electorate in both states, although Silver acknowledges that Alaska is somewhat idiosyncratically so. Viewed in another way, this graphic shows that Bennett and Murkowski are in the same partisan ballpark as most Republicans in the Senate, though they come from states more conservative than most.



The graphic above plots the ideological positions of Republican senators. Along the horizontal axis is the partisan orientation of the state, ranging from more liberal (left) to more conservative (right), according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index. On the vertical axis is a statistical representation of the senators’ voting records, according to their DW-NOMINATE scores. These scores run from -1 (very liberal) to +1 (very conservative); the more conservative senators are plotted toward the top of the chart. Finally, the dashed line represents how conservative we would expect a Republican senator to be, based on the partisan composition of her state. The further below the dashed line that the senator appears, the more liberal he or she is, relative to the state. Those far below the line, from a Republican point of view, are arguably not pulling their weight, and are frequently labelled as "RINOs".

And this was the primary contention of Joe Miller and his supporters during the primary election campaign; namely, that Murkowski was a RINO. Bennett's defeat in Utah was almost anticlimatic; solid conservative opposition to him arose nine months in advance and polls showed him clearly in trouble long before the Utah State Republican Convention in May 2010 where he got knocked out in the second round of delegate voting. In contrast, Murkowski was almost blindsided; she had no serious opposition until Joe Miller jumped in late in April 2010; by the time she reacted and adjusted some of her political positions, Miller had built up too much of a head of steam, and propelled past her on August 24th.

The lesson learned: In this era of strong conservative backlash fueled by Tea Party activism, any Republican Senator who is considered too liberal in a conservative state could be in jeopardy. Orrin Hatch is starting to sweat bullets in Utah. If we were to plot Joe Miller on the above chart, he would likely fall significantly on the other side of the line, closer to Jim DeMint or Tom Coburn.

But because we are an "idiosyncratic" state here in Alaska, that could potentially backfire on Miller. Nate Silver is one of the few who takes Scott McAdams' challenge seriously; he notes that McAdams is already within single digits of Miller. Miller can and probably will defeat McAdams, but he must take him seriously.

Staff

It's a lot easier to get elected governor when your name is on the ballot.

Shannyn's complete program featuring Andrew Halcro is HERE.

The news last week that the State of Alaska is looking into the voluminous evidence of ex-Veco chief Bill Allen's child sexual abuse that appear to go far beyond mere allegations, was welcomed by many. The Anchorage Daily News (finally!) published a short editorial, praising the decision:

There are no guarantees that the state will pursue the case, but Alaskans should be glad that Attorney General Dan Sullivan is reviewing the sex-abuse investigation of former Veco president Bill Allen. The decision this summer by the federal Department of Justice to drop the case against Allen -- a convicted felon and key government witness in the state political corruption scandal -- angered many Alaskans and left alleged victims wondering why they endured the pain of coming forward.

Investigators from both the Anchorage Police Department and the federal government concluded they had a solid case, at least worthy of a grand jury indictment and then trial.

The feds declined to pursue the case. They gave no reason. Federal silence led naturally to speculation that the feds made a deal with Allen to spare him charges involving sexual abuse of minors. That's not a deal anyone should make.

So now the state's top law enforcer has ordered a review of the case. Beyond that he's saying nothing. Reticence is right until the review is done. But the review is essential to make sure justice is done, and to make good on Gov. Sean Parnell's pledge to stand against sexual assault, abuse and domestic violence.

If the AG finds sufficient grounds to go where the feds won't, he shouldn't hesitate.

Last month I wrote that, in the wake of the U.S. Justice Department's decision to not pursue the evidence against Allen, we could hope the Municipality of Anchorage or State of Alaska would take up the case. The attorney general's reaction to reading about the case (it has been in the news for years, General Sullivan) seems visceral enough:

No one at the Department of Law, including the Anchorage district attorney, knew about the woman's allegations before they were detailed in an Aug. 21 Daily News story, Sullivan said.

"I can tell you that we were just as concerned about this case as anyone else who read that article," Sullivan said.

Anchorage police had been working with a trial attorney in the federal Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section in Washington, D.C., for two years. Investigators on the teen's case said the prosecutor and his supervisor supported taking it to a federal grand jury, but they were overruled. Police were given no explanation.

"Everyone expected the case to go federal. And that was it," said police Lt. Dave Parker, explaining why police didn't go to state prosecutors initially.

Sullivan's comments came during a press briefing Thursday related to threatened Steller sea lions. He was asked whether the state intended to pursue a case against Allen and was ready with a written statement.

"A team from the criminal division at the Department of Law met with the (Anchorage police) investigators last week," Sullivan said in his statement to reporters. "We also have obtained the police file and investigative report concerning this case and are reviewing it."

He didn't take questions and said he couldn't comment further "given that this an ongoing criminal investigation."

It should be remembered that the Anchorage Police had intended to reopen the case themselves, back in early 2008:

By RICHARD MAUER

Published: February 3rd, 2008 06:01 AM
Last Modified: April 18th, 2010 08:11 AM
Anchorage police have reopened an investigation into allegations that Bill Allen, the government's key witness in the ongoing corruption inquiry and once a leading political force in Alaska, had sex with an underage girl in the mid-1990s.

The investigation originally began in 2004 as an offshoot of the scandalous Josef Boehm sex and drug ring, according to Detective Kevin Vandegriff, who worked with federal investigators on the Boehm case.

But when federal prosecutors asked Anchorage police to suspend the investigation shortly after it began, the department complied, he said.

The Allen investigation was dormant until December, when it was reopened, said Capt. Gardner Cobb, the city's chief of detectives. The evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Allen, now 70, was contradictory and never strong, both Cobb and Vandegriff said.

But Vandegriff decided to go back into the case, interviewing witnesses and reviewing the record, "to make sure there's nothing else out there that we're missing," Cobb said in an interview in December. Vandegriff is still following leads and the investigation remains open, APD spokesman Paul Honeman said Friday.

The specific allegation was sexual abuse of a minor, Cobb said, a crime for which there is no statute of limitations.

That was two and a half years ago.

The two reporters who have spent the most time on the Allen information, derived from the case against former Alaska Industrial Hardware head Josef Boehm, are Tony Hopfinger (sometimes writing with Amanda Coyne on this) and Richard Mauer (who has been joined at times, or reinforced, by Lisa Demer. Articles on Boehm and this go back to 2004. Many of these articles are now almost impossible to find, with Hopfinger and Coyne's very pivotal piece having been removed not just from its place of origen, but from many mirrors and caches:

Gone from Steve Aufrecht's January 31st 2008 article at What Do I Know?


Gone from the comments in my December 13, 2009 article (multiple disappearances - see the comments).

In the comments to a November 21, 2008 article at Talking Points Memo on a related matter, in the comments, there is this item:

From the February 10th 2004 edition of the Anchorage Daily News.....

XXXXXXXXXXX

In a police station restroom in December after his arrest on a crack cocaine charge, Anchorage businessman Josef F. Boehm teased an officer with a remarkable comment: He could, he suggested, tell police something about missing women in Anchorage.

According to transcripts of court proceedings, the officer, after hearing the remark, took Boehm to FBI headquarters downtown to talk to federal authorities, where Boehm went further: He said he might have information on two female torsos that washed up on Turnagain Arm shores last year.

Whether his claim was genuine or a bargaining ploy is not known. Police say they have not found a link between Boehm and the two dead women.

The link in that comment has since gone cold.

As I wrote in my August 22nd post about this:

If Bill Allen were Alaska Native or African-American or Arab-American and Paula Roberds a fifteen-year-old blonde from a prominent Anchorage family, how differently would the case against Allen be proceeding at this time?

I venture to say that the case would not have been dropped by the U.S. Justice Department. Not only that, but had Allen been a person of color, and his victims white, the whole way the case has been handled since his name surfaced in the investigation of Josef Beohm for child sexual abuse would have gone down a different set of routes.

Although the Federal government has dropped their case, Allen violated a number of Anchorage and Alaska statutes. Were Roberds white, rather than Yupik, and Allen black, tea party wannabees would be all over this by now.

Gov. Sean Parnell would be announcing the creation of a team to prosecute Allen very publicly.

Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan would be coming home early from a vacation to announce that Anchorage should take the lead in the prosecution, not the state.

Let's hope that the state doesn't find some lame reason to dead-end justice once again on this, one of the strangest sets of cases in Alaska history. If it weren't for a few reporters and bloggers, most notably Tony Hopfinger and Richard Mauer, this case would have been forgotten.


Update already: Steve Aufrecht has found much of two articles by Coyne, or Hopfinger and Coyne cached here, as downloaded texts from their originals. Thanks, Steve.

image - Tony Hopfinger

The news last week that the State of Alaska is looking into the voluminous evidence of ex-Veco chief Bill Allen's child sexual abuse that appear to go far beyond mere allegations, was welcomed by many. The Anchorage Daily News (finally!) published a short an editorial, praising the decision:

There are no guarantees that the state will pursue the case, but Alaskans should be glad that Attorney General Dan Sullivan is reviewing the sex-abuse investigation of former Veco president Bill Allen. The decision this summer by the federal Department of Justice to drop the case against Allen -- a convicted felon and key government witness in the state political corruption scandal -- angered many Alaskans and left alleged victims wondering why they endured the pain of coming forward.

Investigators from both the Anchorage Police Department and the federal government concluded they had a solid case, at least worthy of a grand jury indictment and then trial.

The feds declined to pursue the case. They gave no reason. Federal silence led naturally to speculation that the feds made a deal with Allen to spare him charges involving sexual abuse of minors. That's not a deal anyone should make.

So now the state's top law enforcer has ordered a review of the case. Beyond that he's saying nothing. Reticence is right until the review is done. But the review is essential to make sure justice is done, and to make good on Gov. Sean Parnell's pledge to stand against sexual assault, abuse and domestic violence.

If the AG finds sufficient grounds to go where the feds won't, he shouldn't hesitate.

Last month I wrote that, in the wake of the U.S. Justice Department's decision to not pursue the evidence against Allen, we could hope the Municipality of Anchorage or State of Alaska would take up the case. The attorney general's reaction to reading about the case (it has been in the news for years, General Sullivan) seems visceral enough:

No one at the Department of Law, including the Anchorage district attorney, knew about the woman's allegations before they were detailed in an Aug. 21 Daily News story, Sullivan said.

"I can tell you that we were just as concerned about this case as anyone else who read that article," Sullivan said.

Anchorage police had been working with a trial attorney in the federal Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section in Washington, D.C., for two years. Investigators on the teen's case said the prosecutor and his supervisor supported taking it to a federal grand jury, but they were overruled. Police were given no explanation.

"Everyone expected the case to go federal. And that was it," said police Lt. Dave Parker, explaining why police didn't go to state prosecutors initially.

Sullivan's comments came during a press briefing Thursday related to threatened Steller sea lions. He was asked whether the state intended to pursue a case against Allen and was ready with a written statement.

"A team from the criminal division at the Department of Law met with the (Anchorage police) investigators last week," Sullivan said in his statement to reporters. "We also have obtained the police file and investigative report concerning this case and are reviewing it."

He didn't take questions and said he couldn't comment further "given that this an ongoing criminal investigation."

It should be remembered that the Anchorage Police had intended to reopen the case themselves, back in early 2008:

By RICHARD MAUER

Published: February 3rd, 2008 06:01 AM
Last Modified: April 18th, 2010 08:11 AM
Anchorage police have reopened an investigation into allegations that Bill Allen, the government's key witness in the ongoing corruption inquiry and once a leading political force in Alaska, had sex with an underage girl in the mid-1990s.

The investigation originally began in 2004 as an offshoot of the scandalous Josef Boehm sex and drug ring, according to Detective Kevin Vandegriff, who worked with federal investigators on the Boehm case.

But when federal prosecutors asked Anchorage police to suspend the investigation shortly after it began, the department complied, he said.

The Allen investigation was dormant until December, when it was reopened, said Capt. Gardner Cobb, the city's chief of detectives. The evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Allen, now 70, was contradictory and never strong, both Cobb and Vandegriff said.

But Vandegriff decided to go back into the case, interviewing witnesses and reviewing the record, "to make sure there's nothing else out there that we're missing," Cobb said in an interview in December. Vandegriff is still following leads and the investigation remains open, APD spokesman Paul Honeman said Friday.

The specific allegation was sexual abuse of a minor, Cobb said, a crime for which there is no statute of limitations.

That was two and a half years ago.

The two reporters who have spent the most time on the Allen information, derived from the case against former Alaska Industrial Hardware head Josef Boehm, are Tony Hopfinger (sometimes writing with Amanda Coyne on this) and Richard Mauer (who has been joined at times, or reinforced, by Lisa Demer. Articles on Boehm and this go back to 2004. Many of these articles are now almost impossible to find, with Hopfinger and Coyne's very pivotal piece having been removed not just from its place of origen, but from many mirrors and caches:

Gone from Steve Aufrecht's January 31st 2008 article at What Do I Know?


Gone from the comments in my December 13, 2009 article (multiple disappearances - see the comments).

In the comments to a November 21, 2008 article at Talking Points Memo on a related matter, in the comments, there is this item:

From the February 10th 2004 edition of the Anchorage Daily News.....

XXXXXXXXXXX

In a police station restroom in December after his arrest on a crack cocaine charge, Anchorage businessman Josef F. Boehm teased an officer with a remarkable comment: He could, he suggested, tell police something about missing women in Anchorage.

According to transcripts of court proceedings, the officer, after hearing the remark, took Boehm to FBI headquarters downtown to talk to federal authorities, where Boehm went further: He said he might have information on two female torsos that washed up on Turnagain Arm shores last year.

Whether his claim was genuine or a bargaining ploy is not known. Police say they have not found a link between Boehm and the two dead women.

The link in that comment has since gone cold.

As I wrote in my August 22nd post about this:

If Bill Allen were Alaska Native or African-American or Arab-American and Paula Roberds a fifteen-year-old blonde from a prominent Anchorage family, how differently would the case against Allen be proceeding at this time?

I venture to say that the case would not have been dropped by the U.S. Justice Department. Not only that, but had Allen been a person of color, and his victims white, the whole way the case has been handled since his name surfaced in the investigation of Josef Beohm for child sexual abuse would have gone down a different set of routes.

Although the Federal government has dropped their case, Allen violated a number of Anchorage and Alaska statutes. Were Roberds white, rather than Yupik, and Allen black, tea party wannabees would be all over this by now.

Gov. Sean Parnell would be announcing the creation of a team to prosecute Allen very publicly.

Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan would be coming home early from a vacation to announce that Anchorage should take the lead in the prosecution, not the state.

Let's hope that the state doesn't find some lame reason to dead-end justice once again on this, one of the strangest sets of cases in Alaska history. If it weren't for a few reporters and bloggers, most notably Tony Hopfinger and Richard Mauer, this case would have been forgotten.


Update already: Steve Aufrecht has found much of two articles by Hopfinger or Hopfinger and Coyne cached here, as downloaded texts from their originals. Thanks, Steve.

image - Tony Hopfinger

OMG . . . Last week's stunned silence over the Miller victory has morphed into a frenzy of speculation and action -- things are moving so fast it's impossible for even the most devoted earwigs to keep ahead of the gossip curve. But here goes:

Tha Mat-Su Democrats have a booth at the Alaska State Fair in Palmer. It is at the south side of the fair, near the red gate, along the green moose trail, sandwiched between honey products and woven clothing, across from the Alaska Girls clothing booth.

Here's a picture of the booth in 2008, right after I had finished giving it a fresh paint job and cleaning.

Early on Saturday, Democratic Party U.S. Senate candidate Scott McAdams had spent a couple hours meeting people, answering many questions. All through the day people came by the booth, especially to sign up for signs, ask how to donate to a number of candidates, or to buy our new T-Shirts that reads:

Take America Back Forward!

Throughout the main week of the fair, people who have stopped by the booth have also said that they had voted for Lisa Murkowski in the GOP primary, and will now vote for Scott McAdams. Others said that they had voted for Joe Miller to get him to win, and will now vote for McAdams.

There was a lot of enthusiasm for the Berkowitz-Benson ticket, with a huge amount of criticism about the stagnancy of the Parnell administration. People seem to like the idea of two Democrats who had challenged each other in the hardest fought primary contest in recent Alaska Democratic Party history working together now. And Ethan's idea on sharing ownership of the gas pipeline elicited curiosity, mostly positively driven.

Judy and I worked the booth from 4:00 p.m. today until closing. It rained 95% of the time we were there. Sometimes rather hard, sometimes just a constant drizzle. We found people generally more courteous about Democrats than in 2009, less than in 2008. We were prepared for more negativity than we encountered.

Judy and I took turns in the evening, so both could enjoy the exhibits. There were three enormous, award-winning pumpkins. The winner - 1,001 pounds:



After I toured the fair, Judy headed out to see the exhibits.

We have a board that announces upcoming candidates at the booth or tries to explain Democratic Party issues in Alaska. I decided to change the board at about 8:00, and compare Scott McAdams to Joe Miller on a few issues. Here's my board:

As I was working on the board, a Mark Begich staffer and his wife wandered by and joined me in the booth. He helped me finish up the sign. I put it on the easel.

Within five minutes I saw a couple of people with Joe Miller signs walking by. Then I saw one of them again. I walked out into the rain, watching where he was going. He stopped next to Joe and some other campaign people, two booths down.

They walked toward our booth. When Miller saw the words "Democratic Party of Alaska," he sort of sniffed derisively. As he walked in front of me, I said, "Hey, Joe, I just finished a sign comparing you and Scott McAdams on some issues. Wanna check it out?"

He looked at me with that same derisive leer.

"It's right here. I finished it about ten minutes ago. Is it OK?"

He glanced at it for about ten seconds, then gave an even more derisive snicker. A female staffer with him started berating me, but I was concentrating on what Joe might say, as he began beating his folded umbrella against the board.

"That's a lie. That's a lie. That's a lie......"

"Which ones, Joe?"

First off, he stated that he has a graduate degree in business at UAF, which is true, so my sign was inaccurate in that respect. Then he stated he has been in business for himself for the past seven years, while Scott has been on the government dole for at least as long. Then he stated that he has a parent on medicare, so why would he cut that off. Or medicaid. Or social security.

Then he stated:

"And I'm a severely disabled Veteran. Why would I cut that one off?"

I replied, "OK," thinking I didn't know Joe Miller is a 'severely disabled Veteran.'

We moved on from the sign to the debate or debates. I asked him if he was going to debate Scott. He replied "We've been in touch."

I replied, "I'm looking forward to it. Good luck! You're going to need it, from what I've heard from Guttenberg."

When I mentioned the name of David Guttenberg, he gave me the only acid look of the encounter. Had I been more prepared and we had video going, that might have been the time to get a Joe Miller meltdown moment going, but it was not to be.

We shook hands, and Joe and his small party wandered on down the green moose hoof trail in the rain.
Within minutes, a member of his staff came back and took pictures of the sign. Then, about five minutes later, he came back again and took closeups of the number of the booth, painted on the edge of the pavement.

Throughout the last two hours of our stint at the booth, Judy and I continued to answer questions from curious Alaskans about Scott, Ethan, Give 'em Hell Harry and others.

Tha Mat-Su Democrats have a booth at the Alaska State Fair in Palmer. It is at the south side of the fair, near the red gate, along the green moose trail, sandwiched between honey products and woven clothing, across from the Alaska Girls clothing booth.

Here's a picture of the booth in 2008, right after I had finished giving it a fresh paint job and cleaning.

Early on Sunday, Democratic Party U.S. Senate candidate Scott McAdams had spent a couple hours meeting people, answering many questions. All through the day people came by the booth, especially to sign up for signs, ask how to donate to a number of candidates, to buy our new T-Shirts that read:

Take America Back Forward!

Throughout the main week of the fair, people who have stopped by the booth have also said that they had voted for Lisa Murkowski in the GOP primary, and will now vote for Scott McAdams. Others said that they had voted for Joe Miller to get him to win, and will now vote for McAdams.

There was a lot of enthusiasm for the Berkowitz-Benson ticket, with a huge amount of criticism about the stagnancy of the Parnell administration. People seem to like the idea of two Democrats who had challenged each other in the hardest fought primary contest in recent Alaska Democratic Party history working together now. And Ethan's idea on sharing ownership of the gas pipeline elicited curiosity, mostly postively driven.

Judy and I worked the booth from 4:00 p.m. today until closing. It rained 95% of the time we were there. Sometimes rather hard, sometimes just a constant drizzle. We found people generally more courteous about Democrats than in 2009, less than in 2008. We were prepared for more negativity than we encountered.

Judy and I took turned in the evening, so both could enjoy the exhibits. There were three enormous, award-winning pumpkins:



After I toured the fair, Judy headed out. We have a board that announces upcoming candidates at the booth or tries to explain Democratic Party issues in Alaska. I decided to change the board at about 8:00, and compare Scott McAdams to Joe Miller on a few issues. Here's my board:

As I was working on the board, a Mark Begich staffer and his wife wandered by and joined me in the booth. He helped me finish up the sign. I put it on the easel.

Within five minutes I saw a couple of people with Joe Miller signs walking by. Then I saw one of them again. I walked out into the rain, watching where he was going. He stopped next to Joe and some other campaign people, two booths down.

They walked toward our booth. When Miller saw the words "Democratic Party of Alaska," he sort of sniffed derisively. As he walked in front of me, I said, "Hey, Joe, I just finished a sign comparing you and Scott McAdams on some issues. Wanna check it out?"

He looked at me with that same derisive leer.

"It's right here. I finished it about ten minutes ago. Is it OK?"

He glanced at it for about ten seconds, then gave an even more derisive snicker. A female staffer with him started berating me, but I was concentrating on what Joe might say, as he began beating his folded umbrella against the board.

"That's a lie. That's a lie. That's a lie......"

"Which ones, Joe?"

First off, he stated that he has graduated with a graduate degree in business at UAF, which is true, so my sign was inaccurate in that respect. Then he stated he has been in business for himself for the past seven years, while Scott has been on the government dole for at least as long. Then he stated that he has a parent on medicare, so why would he cut that off. Or medicaid. Then he stated:

"And I'm a severely disabled Veteran. Why would I cut that one off?"

I replied, "OK," thinking "I didn't know Joe Miller is a 'severely disabled Veteran.'"

We moved on from the sign to the debate or debates. I asked him if he was going to debate Scott. He replied "We've been in touch."

I replied, "I'm looking forward to it. Good luck! You're going to need it, from what I've heard from Guttenberg."

When I mentioned the name of David Guttenberg, he gave me the only acid look of the encounter. Had I been more prepared and we had video going, that might have been the time to get a Joe Miller meltdown moment going, but it was not to be.

We shook hands, and Joe and his small party wandered on down the green moose hoof trail in the rain.
Within minutes, a member of his staff came back and took pictures of the sign. Then, about five minutes later, he came back again and took closeups of the number of the booth, painted on the edge of the pavement.

Throughout the last two hours of our stint at the booth, we continued to answer questions from curious Alaskans about Scott, Ethan, Give 'em Hell Harry and others.

- I. I've lived in the Mat-Su Valley since 1983, moving here after over ten years in the Prince William Sound communities of Cordova and Whittier. We moved here because we felt it would be a good place to start and rise a family. It has been.

We watched the Mat-Su go from being a strangely healthy mix of views to becoming a place where the far right dominates many aspects of politics and public discourse. When we arrived from Whittier in the late summer of 1983, all of the Valley's elected officials were Democrats. Some, like Jay Kerttula, Ron Larson and Katie Hurley were Alaska political icons of the first caliber. The state's leading figure in the Green Party, Jim Sykes resided (and still lives) in the Palmer area.

Between 1983 and 1994 the power of the political center and left diminished as more people moved here from the bible belt to work in the oil industry. The fundamentalist and evangelical communities exploded, and between 1992 and 1996, they all but completely took over political power. My first interest in politics in the Valley involved meeting with people concerned about creationists taking over our school board.

Throughout the 15 years or so of far right political domination, those of us fighting for sanity have won battles here and there, mostly at the town, school board, utility board and borough levels. At times some of us have compared what we are attempting to do here in Star Wars-like terms, as we fight off the storm troopers of Vic Kohring, Bev Masek, Scott Ogan, Bill Allen and Sarah Palin.

II. Today, U.S. Senate candidate Scott McAdams will be meeting with our Mat-Su Democrats in the morning. Then he will be meeting Alaskans in the rain at the State Fair in Palmer. Then he will be off to attend a fundraiser for Harry Crawford (call 376-7457 for directions to this RSVP event). He's already been out here several times on forays into the heart of the Darth Vaderesque Koch Brothers' astroturf evil empire, known as the Tea Party Express.

Come meet Scott at the Fair, from about noon to 2:30. He will be at the Democrats booth (near the red gate) and walking around.

Here's a sample of what we're up against, folks:



Update: Scott McAdams listening to the Mat-Su Democrats Executive Committee this morning in Palmer:



Two hat tips to John Aronno at The Alaska Commons

I. I've lived in the Mat-Su Valley since 1983, moving here after over ten years in the Prince William Sound communities of Cordova and Whittier. We moved here because we felt it would be a good place to start and rise a family. It has been.

We watched the Mat-Su go from being a strangely healthy mix of views to becoming a place where the far right dominates many aspects of politics and public discourse. When we arrived from Whittier in the late summer of 1983, all of the Valley's elected officials were Democrats. Some, like Jay Kerttula, Ron Larson and Katie Hurley were Alaska political icons of the first caliber. The state's leading figure in the Green Party, Jim Sykes resided (and still lives) in the Palmer area.

Between 1983 and 1994 the power of the political center and left diminished as more people moved here from the bible belt to work in the oil industry. The fundamentalist and evangelical communities exploded, and between 1992 and 1996, they all but completely took over political power. My first interest in politics in the Valley involved meeting with people concerned about creationists taking over our school board.

Throughout the 15 years or so of far right political domination, those of us fighting for sanity have won battles here and there, mostly at the town, school board, utility board and borough levels. At times some of us have compared what we are attempting to do here in Star Wars-like terms, as we fight off the storm troopers of Vic Kohring, Bev Masek, Scott Ogan, Bill Allen and Sarah Palin.

II. Today, U.S. Senate candidate Scott McAdams will be meeting with our Mat-Su Democrats in the morning. Then he will be meeting Alaskans in the rain at the State Fair in Palmer. Then he will be off to attend a fundraiser for Harry Crawford (call 376-7457 for directions to this RSVP event). He's already been out here several times on forays into the heart of the Darth Vaderesque Koch Brothers' astroturf evil empire, known as the Tea Party Express.

Come meet Scott at the Fair, from about noon to 2:30. He will be at the Democrats booth (near the red gate) and walking around.

Here's a sample of what we're up against, folks:


Two hat tips to John Aronno at The Alaska Commons

Every month Judy and I monitor the water quality on Neklason Lake, where we've lived since 1995. The water quality of the lake is remarkably good. Ancient runs of Sockeye and Coho salmon spawn in the lake. A natural run of Rainbow trout thrive on the food supply. Grebes, Bald eagles, osprey, kingfisher, Glaucous and Bonaparte gulls, hawks, sparrows, kingfishers, loons, and several kinds of ducks grace its waters and the skies above. River otters and muskrats putter around the surface at dawn and dusk.

Last Monday, at the beginning of our late August monitoring session, Judy is counting pairs of grebes.


I'm lowering the Secchi disk. It disappeared at just under five meters.

The Quanta rig. We lower it a meter at a time to the deepest part of the lake, about 17 meters. It measures pH levels, (EC) electrical conductivity, (SAL) salinity, (DO) dissolved oxygen, (ORP), redox, temperature, water depth and turbidity. Also, my book which I read as we await the Quanta unit to stop moving at each new depth. This month's read, Alex Ross' The Rest is Noise, the best book on 20th Century music I've yet enjoyed.

Looking westward, toward the lower end of the lake, where Cottonwood Creek drains into Little Neklason Lake.

The water sampler, about to be lowered to two meters, for its intake.

Strider, relaxing in the warmth of the far-too-rare sunny day.


The pH measurements we've been getting have concerned Ralph Hulbert, the water quality guy we report to. Part of the reason we like doing this volunteer work for the Mat-Su Borough is that it gives either Judy or me a chance to meet up with Ralph once a month. He's a treasure trove of knowledge about Valley history, and a vibrant conversationalist.

Scott Christiansen wrote a marvelous portrait of Ralph for the Anchorage Press back in late June. It's such a great article, I'm just going to say "Go read it!"

Ralph has had us doing extra "upstream" samples, beginning in July, to investigate where the elevated pH might be coming from. He determined then, from our sample where Cottonwood Creek comes into Neklason Lake, that it is probably coming from Cornelius Lake, the next lake up, and the highest lake in the Cottonwood Creek system.

Here's where we took one sample today, where Cottonwood Creek, above Cornelius Lake, crosses underneath Settlement Avenue, the first of many places where this creek goes underneath a Mat-Su road.

Here's the clarity of the water above the culvert. It is quite cold. It emanates from springs about a half mile or so above here, back in marshy woods.

We then drove down to Engstrom Road and parked the Outback, took the canoe off the roof, and paddled up to the middle of Cornelius Lake. Judy took a sample at the deepest part.

Then we went to where Cottonwood Creek emerges from the marshes at the upper end of the lake, and took another sample.

Here's a lone male Sockeye, wandering up and down the slough, perhaps looking for a mate.


The edge of the extensive marshy area at the east end of Cornelius Lake.
There has been a summer-long project of widening and straightening Engstrom Road. The west edge of Cornelius Lake is part of the project. The contractors and Borough seem to have taken care of the shoreline. A new, larger culvert has been put under Engstrom. I was tempted to paddle thrugh it and ride down Cottonwood to our lake, so as not to have to deal with the car-canoe thing again. Judy talked me out of it.

A bit of Lazy Mountain and Matanuska Peak, through the clouds, over Cornelius Lake. What a day!

Each week, KAKM gathers commentators for a review of the week’s news, politics and public affairs in Anchorage and Alaska. Topics for this week are expected to include:

• Lisa Murkowski concedes to Joe Miller
• Legacies of Frank and Lisa Murkowski
• Will Walker run as an independent?
• Begich says the city will be short $18 million in 2011
• What can Don Young still do for us?

Download Audio (MP3)

HOST: Michael Carey, Freelance editorial writer, Anchorage Daily News

GUESTS:

• Paul Jenkins, Anchorage Daily Planet
• Mike Bradner, Alaska Legislative Digest
• Libby Casey, APRN

KSKA (FM 91.1) BROADCAST: Friday, September 3 at 2:30 p.m. and Saturday, September 4 at 6:00 p.m.

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PARTICIPATE: Send e-mail to anchorageedition [at] kakm [dot] org

No men are better at being repressed, closeted homosexuals than prominent Republicans and their, ahem, supporters. In the wake of Sarah Palin's pronouncement earlier in the week, on Sean Hannity's radio program, that Vanity Fair author Michael Joseph Gross, is "impotent, limp and gutless," a number of Republican males may have subliminally reacted to her challenge, showing their manliness in declarations of love for other guys. Here's CNN conservative commentator, Erick Erickson, professing his undying love for Teabagger, Joe Miller:

I so totally have a man-crush on this dude. He calls the Democrats ’socialists’, says Barack Obama is ‘bad for America’, and wants to privatize social security.



OK, Erick.

White supremacist and Teabagger lover Robert Stacy McCain has a man crush on Todd. His web site is sporting a picture of the guy on one of Todd's rods, the one embellished with "Mystik" stickers, not the one Todd prefers, the hotter rod, with "Woodys" stickers.

And who is this guy, hanging out with and bragging about his "relationship" with the First Dud? Here's Max Blumenthal on McCain, back in 2009:

So who is [Robert Stacy] McCain?

A former staffer for the conservative Washington Times, McCain has managed to become a player on the far right fringe, stirring controversy almost everywhere he goes. McCain was recruited to the Times in 1997 from a small paper in rural Georgia by former Times managing editor Fran Coombs. Under the watch of Coombs and editor-in-chief Wesley Pruden, both Southern conservatives with connections to white nationalist groups, McCain turned the Times’ “Culture Briefs” section into a bulletin board for the racist right, promoting articles from racist publications like the Occidental Quarterly and the Virginia-based neo-Nazi leader Bill White, who has described McCain as a friend. McCain was himself a member of the neo-Confederate group, the League of the South, which favors a “second secession” from the United States and has been labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In his spare time, McCain busied himself by ranting about interracial marriage on an online message board. "[T]he media now force interracial images into the public mind and a number of perfectly rational people react to these images with an altogether natural revulsion,” McCain wrote. “The white person who does not mind transacting business with a black bank clerk may yet be averse to accepting the clerk as his sister-in-law, and THIS IS NOT RACISM [caps in original], no matter what Madison Avenue, Hollywood and Washington tell us."

According to former Washington Times reporter George Archibald, during a discussion in the newsroom about civil rights in August 2002, McCain rose from his desk to defend slavery as “good for the blacks and good for property owners.” “He is just a complete animalistic racist,” Archibald told me. Marlene Johnson, the Times’ former arts section editor and an African-American, told me McCain was “an avowed segregationist.”

When I began reporting on McCain’s racial exploits for an article for The Nation, which was published on September 20, 2006, I began receiving unsolicited late night phone calls from McCain. In one such call, McCain refused to respond to the allegations leveled by his colleagues. Instead, he insisted I come to the Raven Grill, a dive bar in Washington DC’s Mount Pleasant section, to meet him and someone named “Carlos.” I simply repeated my request for a response to the charges. McCain again refused. Finally, the bizarre phone calls stopped.

That's the guy hanging out with Todd and Sarah in Wasilla this week.

Don't you love the CNN headline playing while Erickson is hoping he can French kiss Joe the Teabagger ASAP?

TEA PARTY BEATS THE ESTABLISHMENT

A note: I'm not beating on these guys over whether or not they're gay. It is a pity, though, that so many of the prominent GOP figures who have either come out on their own, or were busted, have done everything possible to make the lives of anyone in the LBGTQ community as miserable as possible.

Update - 5:00 p.m. Friday: Todd Palin and I were in lines this afternoon at a business in Wasilla. I had to go sit in the waiting area while my problem was being dealt with. When Todd was done, I asked him questions about Robert Stacy McCain. It went like this (paraphrased):

Phil: Hey, Todd. Phil Munger

Todd: Oh, hi.

Phil: Were you aware that Robert Stacy McCain, the guy you were hanging out with earlier in the week has a reputation as a white supremacist and has been considered a racist by an organization funded by the B,nai Brith?

Todd: Well...

Phil: There've been lots of articles about it. He's a member of a group that wants the South to secede again, and doesn't think inter-racial marriage is a good idea.

Todd: Lots of articles, huh. That doesn't mean anything.

Phil: The Southern Poverty Law Center's articles about McCain's friends and organizations he's belonged to or belong to are very well researched, even footnoted sometimes.

Todd: Well, I just found out about the guy.

Phil: A lot was written about McCain when there was a possibility he'd be helping Sarah on her book, Todd.

Todd: I'll look into it.

Phil: You should. Nice talking.