North, To Alaska

Guest blog time. My dear friend from USAF pilot training years ago, and bush pilot extraordinaire up in the great State of Alaska, has provided some local color to the shenanigans taking place up that way. Here is some insight from Wasilla Willie:

"What a sick mess our politics has become.  In stead of debating the issues up here this last week, the strategy pundits, and I use the term loosely, are forcing the voters to focus on minutia like what is " unauthorized assistance" at the polling place!  What a waste of time for the state courts to deal with - rulings about whether a list of names of write-in candidates is violating state law.

Has anyone noticed that all the other candidates are provided on the printed ballot?  To argue that a list of the write-in candidates is "illegal" and "excessive assistance" at the ballot box is ludicrous!  Anyway, someone had a court rule that names could not be provided at the polls for write-in candidates.  The other side got another court to "stay" that ruling.  Then the other side raised it to the State Supreme Court.  On Thursday or Friday the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that a list of write-in candidates could be provided if voters asked for it at the polls.  True, a voter should be smart enough to know who they want to write-in and how to spell their candidate's name, but to debate the legality of a list of write-ins at the polls is trivial, ridiculous, and a waste of time.  So, on Tuesday, we will have Lisa and other, if any, write-in candidates on a list that voters can see at the polls if they ask.  But the plot thickens.

This decision irritated Dan Fagan, a local conservative radio talk show host.  He immediately encouraged his listeners to hurry up and register as write-in candidates before the Friday deadline in an obvious attempt to make it more difficult for all those voters who were going to vote possibly for Lisa but didn't know how to spell her name. As a result of Fagan's encouragement, we now will have 200 write-in candidates for review if requested.  Give me a break !  The latest in this caper is that Fagan was fired after this advocacy by the station manager for "exceeding station policies".  I guess Fagan is a Miller supporter which I am also, although Lisa did help with some prodding to get Medicare to finally authorize a local hospital here to include lap band surgery (less expensive and less intrusive than bypass surgery) for those on Medicare.

So this has been a large part of the local media focus this last week before the mid-term elections.  And I'm sure the local news will debate whether or not Fagan should have been fired.  Fagan is no Juan Williams and should not be another diversion but probably will be.  On Saturday night news I heard that there is yet another court challenge to the latest status of the "too much help" issue.  Will we ever focus on the issues?  I guess not.

Will Lisa pull this one off?.... I don't think so, but it might be close.  Lisa was "caught" in a "good old boy" deal on the Kenai a few years ago when she was purchasing a property way below market price.  When the details of this deal became public, she backed out of the deal with little political repercussion.  She grew up under her dad's political machine and methodology and apparently is willing to participate in some of the shenanigans that got her dad, Ted Stevens, and others in trouble. The Kenai caper has been mentioned in Miller ads.  Lisa just is too close to the "business as usual" crowd for me and I hope Joe Miller gets a majority to avoid the expense and time wasted for a run off.  Tuesday will be a long night, particularly if Alaska voters will determine the outcome of the required tenth additional senatorial seat."

Wasilla Willie

"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want."  ---Tori Filler