Last Thursday, Jason Avery and I spent the day on Capitol Hill meeting with Alaska’s congressional representatives and advocating for federal programs. We were not looking for pork barrel funding – just continued funding for competitive programs that fund facilities and activities. We met with Senator Begich, one of Senator Murkowski’s aides and finally with Congressman Young.
Here’s a photo from a meeting i had with him a previous year…
A few days ago i upped my text messaging limitation from 1,000 to unlimited. Here are 8 good reasons to do so.
Google stuff. I don’t use it enough but this might be even faster than logging onto the web with a phone. Check out Google’s SMS tools. Easily check the weather, definitions, airport conditions and delays, calculator, translations and flight status. Seriously, this might be the most underused text tool ever.
Like many people i listened to Obama’s speech this morning. It was good. I’ll admit a little cynicism that pointed out the propaganda of a regime change. One part of Obama’s speech caught my attention. He specifically called out “the makers of things…”
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted – for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things – some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
I consider myself a Maker. I read Make: magazine and contribute to Instructables. I tinker, tear apart and build. I suppose i also consider myself a doer and definitely at times have been a risk-taker. I can’t say that i consider myself one that carries the nation up a rugged path toward freedom though.
I found it more valuable to put today’s speech in perspective by reading George W. Bush’s inaugural address from 2001. Time will tell what kind of a leader has just started his term.
I’m just saying this – speechwriters don’t make the decisions for the president.
I get a little disappointed when voting for President. If you don’t vote along with the majority in your state then it doesn’t really feel like your vote matters with our Electoral College system. That said, when you vote you also usually have other things to vote for. Ballot propositions and local elections can hang in the balance and every single vote counts.
Take the race for State House District 7 in Fairbanks. There is a 1 vote differnce. They’re recounting. If it ends up a tie then a coin toss will determine the winner. Anyone that wanted Kelly’s challenger Kassel to win and didn’t hit the polls is realizing that they should have cared just a little more. Those wishing that Kelly continue on feel the same if they didn’t leave the house on election day.
I’ll remember this story to tell my apathetic friends next time they mention that they don’t vote.
I’m following this race rather closely because Karl Kassel was the Parks and Recreation Director in Fairbanks for a number of years. He also was raised near Rochester so we have a thing or two in common.
Looks like an office will be opening up in the Senate building. I took this photo in February of 2007.
I’m not jealous of the troubles he has inherited. A troubled economy, an unwinnable war, and citizens with high hopes.
While in Juneau between flights i saw this sticker on an electric transformer. It seems like this may end up summing up the election today. I’m watching the news and reloading websites like most people that are interested.
I just picked up a new Diebold counter for the paper ballots that Alaska uses. The Pool is the only voting place in Petersburg. I wonder if we’ll be hearing a lot about Diebold in the next few weeks.
I guess i’m feeling old suddenly. Petersburg elected it’s youngest councilor “in recent memory” yesterday – Sara Stoner. She’s one of the original FFF regulars. I was listening to the regional news that announced election results for other SE communities and heard that Janine Gibbons was elected to the Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly. Cena went to school with Janine. And i also heard that Scott McAdams was elected as the Mayor of Sitka. Scott was the student body President at Sheldon Jackson College the year after i was. He was also like me – a transfer student that lived in family housing. As a coach for the Sitka High School football team he tried to help me get a team started in Petersburg quite a few years ago.
Nice to see my peers getting involved in the local politics! Congrats to all of them!
She has so much in common with Optah, Angelina Jolie, and Jennifer Anniston now!
The news and political blogs are buzzing about Sarah Palin’s former membership in the Alaskan Independence Party. The goal of the AIP is for the citizens of Alaska to have a vote to see if Alaska should become a state. Liberal blogs are calling her membership in the party unpartiotic and saying she was a member of a sepratist organization. Let me show you something from the Alaska voter registration form. Imagine filling out this form as a young person.
We’re all a little bit savvy about US politics. We know there are two major parties and that everyone else seems to be called “Independent” by the media. So as you go down the checklist you see Democrat, Republican, Libertarian… ah! Independent! That’s me! Take a look at the number of Alaskans registered in the parties in 2006…
That’s right – more “Independent” voters in Alaska than all the other parties combined. But “independent” in this tally is actually those that checked “nonpartisan” or “undeclared” on their form. I am certain that many new voters accidentally register for the Alaskan Independence Party thinking they are saying they are an independent. When they read their first election booklet then they get their first glimpse of the platform that the “independent” candidate has.
Happened to me.
