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Backed into a corner, SP finally addresses the crisis in Emmonak (not really).

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Blue_In_AK Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-17-09 02:30 AM
Original message
Backed into a corner, SP finally addresses the crisis in Emmonak (not really).
Edited on Sat Jan-17-09 02:31 AM by Blue_In_AK
From The Immoral Minority: http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/

Of course the first order of business for the Governor is to deny any culpibility.

As she released her state energy plan Friday, Gov. Sarah Palin defended criticism of her team's response to the economic crunch being described by people who live in the region.

"We want to make sure, of course, that no individual is hungry out there. And that nobody is cold out there," she said. "And we want to know if the community itself -- if anything fell between the cracks, between (the power-cost equalization subsidy program), energy rebate checks that were sent to each individual."

Palin said she's looking into a trip to Emmonak, which is one of roughly a dozen Y-K villages that make up the Wade Hampton Census area.


Nick Tucker's letter was printed in the Bristol Bay times on Monday, CC spoke out about it on her radio program "Cutting Edge" on Tuesday, I wrote my first post on this crisis at 6:42 a.m. on Wednesday, by the time we reached noon of the same day almost EVERY progressive blogger in Alaska had weighed in on the topic, and contributions started rolling in almost immediately following my post and increased throughout the day.

And earlier today Dennis Zaki left to go to Emmonak to film the situation facing the villagers for broadcast on various news outlets. By the way his trip was paid for with money raised by Alaska bloggers in less then THREE hours!

So all of this happened in a two day span of time. And our Governor? Well she is "looking into a trip to Emmonak". That is the difference between WANTING to do something and HAVING to do something.

Are you impressed with her response? Neither are the native regional leaders.

Though the underlying problems go back for generations, the picture of suffering villagers poses a tough political problem for Gov. Palin. Some regional leaders are already saying her administration has been slow to respond to a problem that has been brewing since the end of fishing season.

"Gov. Palin was out on the campaign trail, so why would she have given a damn? She was trying to get elected," said Naneng, the AVCP president.


Governor Palin can try to change the facts and spin her web of deception, but we know the truth this time don't we?



Anchorage Daily News link here: http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/657452.html "State officials Listen to village woes."
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rvablue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-17-09 02:44 AM
Response to Original message
1. KICK! Thanks Blue for always keeping us up to date on this disaster! n/t
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Blue_In_AK Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-17-09 02:54 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. Did you read the Daily News article linked at the bottom?
The comments are priceless. Sarah's going DOWN, taken out by a bunch of "pathetic anonymous bloggers." :evilgrin: I love the irony.
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ColbertWatcher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-17-09 03:08 AM
Response to Original message
3. Kick and rec.
I am sure that Alaskans will make sure Palin won't screw them over again.

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Hekate Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-17-09 05:26 AM
Response to Original message
4. KnR
:kick:
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Trajan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-17-09 06:01 AM
Response to Original message
5. K&R ....
Here is a :kick: to help boot that piece of ignorant slime back into the stone age ....
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tblue37 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-17-09 09:56 AM
Response to Original message
6. Is this her Katrina? nt
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Blue_In_AK Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-17-09 02:10 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. Many here are calling it that.
Edited on Sat Jan-17-09 02:11 PM by Blue_In_AK
She was warned way back in the fall that times were going to be desperate out there with the convergence of the dismal commercial salmon season, the high price of heating oil and the fact that the last fuel shipment couldn't be delivered because of weather, and she has chosen to do nothing about it. Now the crisis is here that everyone saw coming, and she's STILL not doing anything about it.

Alaskans have a long tradition of helping out their neighbors when they're in need -- a necessity in this sometimes harsh place -- as evidenced by the swiftness with which the "civilians" came together to get some attention and some aid out there. I don't think Sarah can call herself a true Alaskan given the way that she's responded to this.
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Blue_In_AK Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-17-09 02:31 PM
Response to Reply #7
9. More here from Progressive Alaska
Edited on Sat Jan-17-09 02:32 PM by Blue_In_AK
http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/2009/01/lower-yukon-community-crisis-awareness.html

Listening to a report friday evening, from Alaska Public Radio Network, by APRN's Janelle Everett (one of my favorites!), on Barrow's KBRW, I was brought to tears. Again.

Everett was reporting on the community responses from North Slope villages to the midwinter crisis in Emmonak and other lower Yukon villages. Please listen to her report http://aprn.org/2009/01/16/north-slope-villages-rally-to-help-emmonak/ , as she describes people in small villages, who themselves have probably been through the same experience as Emmonak's people, bringing together donations of food (even Beluga!), blankets, clothing, fuel and cash.

Some have been watching this crisis emerge longer than have others. The blog Real Alaska's Writing Raven, in describing the plight of the people of Adak late last summer, warned:


This is not the first Alaskan village to have to leave the land, and it won't be the last. How many residents will be forced into the city this winter? How many villages will be facing extinction?


<snip> -- more




The report from Barrow is heart-wearming. Alaska's Frontier Airlines is shipping the supplies from Barrow to Emmonak for free. This is how people are SUPPOSED to respond to their neighbors in need.

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roguevalley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-17-09 04:52 PM
Response to Reply #6
10. its so bad out there when its cold that for weeks some places can't be reached.
imagine no heating, no food in severe weather and no one can help you. This seals it for a lot.
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JeffR Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-17-09 02:18 PM
Response to Original message
8. K & R.
Governor Empty Suit had better break out her pageant outfits and her flute. I think her career in politics is just about dead.

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CampDem Donating Member (364 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-17-09 05:12 PM
Response to Original message
11. This needs national media exposure!
Blue Thank you for posting updates here.

I am appalled by some of the comments at the ADN link about just letting "nature take it's course" and blaming the villagers for not planning for this. I don't understand how people can think this way. If something isn't done soon they will discover bodies of frozen elders and children clinging to one another for warmth.

What is wrong with these people? The rants about us liberals being led around by our emotions and whining all the time and how the government should not have to "bail them out" boggle my mind. These people sound racist to me. The same people who demand that rural people move to the city are the ones who make sure programs are all under funded. Leaders like Palin only reinforce this self righteous dangerous mindset. I think that unless Palin takes action soon she will end up destroyed over this situation.

I got to see Palin in person on January 2 at the statehood gala (I was performing) and I was able to observe her from about 20 feet away while she gave her speech. She made my skin crawl and I had to be careful not to let my revulsion show because the event was televised. I didn't want to commit a facecrime I guess. Listening to her and watching her made me want to grab her and walk her around the corner in the frigid cold to show her where the homeless teenagers hang out. I wanted to shake her shoulders and tell her about the people sleeping in the alley near where my car was parked.By the time I was free she was gone. She does not seem to have any humility or self awareness at all and just oozed around the backstage area like a spoiled, sociopathic diva.
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Blue_In_AK Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-17-09 05:28 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. I agree with you on some of the Daily News commenters.
They have to be newcomers, because no true Alaskan could be so callous and cold-hearted to their fellow citizens who are suffering. I assume you read Writing Raven's very insightful blog entry on the racism, "To Address Some of the Commentary." http://alaskareal.blogspot.com/2009/01/to-address-some-of-commentary.html

When I worked on Diane Benson's campaign for US House, we used to hear complaints all the time that Diane wasn't a good candidate because she only cared about women's and Native issues. While, of course, that's far from the truth, at least she has been ONE politician who has been willing to address these matters forthrightly and honestly without trying to gloss over the ugliness of it all. In this present instance, at least Lisa Murkowski and Don Young are expressing some concern -- all Sarah cares about is that the bloggers have made her look bad.

I sincerely hope that her reputation is irretrievably damaged because of her (lack of) response.

I understand from The Mudflats that Dennis Zaki is still stuck out at the airport waiting for a flight to Bethel. Weather conditions out there have prevented travel for a couple of days, but I think once he makes his trip and files his story, with video, maybe we'll get some national attention. I believe he's been in touch with CNN.
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CampDem Donating Member (364 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-17-09 06:15 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. Yes, that blog entry by Writing Raven is just right on
I agree with you about our politicians trying to sweep the ugliness under the rug. I wish Diane had won because she really gets it on every level.

Palin doesn't seem to be even capable of faking a proper response to this situation, kind of reminds me of Bush just sitting there on 9/11 and of course Katrina. It is pathetic that they are so emotionally stunted and/or oblivious that they need to be told by public outrage and handlers when to take action and what to do.

I sure hope Dennis can fly out soon so that there is video footage available.Thanks again for posting so regularly about this here on DU. I sure appreciate it and admire your posts very much.

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JeffR Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-17-09 10:01 PM
Response to Original message
14. Kick!
This is an important story.

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Blue_In_AK Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-17-09 11:39 PM
Response to Reply #14
15. Thank you, JeffR.
Here's another angle from The Mudflats: Rural Alaska in Crisis: The Real Tragedy of Troopergate (Funny how everything is so neatly tied together.)

http://www.themudflats.net/2009/01/17/rural-alaska-in-crisis-the-real-tragedy-of-troopergate/

We’ve all been listening to Sarah Palin for the last couple days saying things like “Both the lieutenant governor and I have offered to fly out there and see what we can do personally.” And then we hear Nick Turner, the local resident whose letter and cry for help, resulted in the current media firestorm about the lack of preparation that led rural villages across the state to their current state of desperation.

“I wish I could take Gov. (Sarah) Palin and walk her around in the houses here,” he said.

Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said the governor is monitoring the scene in Emmonak but, for now, has no plans to travel to the area.


So despite her offers to fly out there and help personally, as long as it means she doesn’t actually have to do it, her staff is all bent out of shape at the accusations that she doesn’t care. Because she does care. Really.

The head of the Division of Community and Regional Affairs said she is

troubled by media coverage that Gov. Sarah Palin is sitting idle despite the cry for help in the Lower Yukon River village of 800. Palin has been very engaged in mobilizing staff and has orchestrated the response, Jollie said. “It’s a priority for her,” she said. “She’s been asking for updates and information, all week as matter of fact.”


Caring doesn’t fuel the fire, and caring doesn’t feed the belly. What this state needed was a leader who was thinking ahead, able to comprehend the impending crisis, rallying the troops and the state government to use creative solutions to keep this from happening. This was not a last minute problem. This didn’t just happen out of the blue. The Palin administration cannot claim, with any sense of veracity, that they didn’t know this was coming.

Now, let’s play a little game. I call it: Name That State Employee.

Let’s just suppose for the sake of our game, that we can turn the clock back, and the date is….oh….July 12, 2008, six weeks before Palin’s VP nomination. On that day, one of the state’s commissioners wrote a letter to the governor’s office, fellow commissioners, and state leaders including Attorney General Talis Colberg who now heads up the Governor’s new Rural Subcabinet. Here’s an excerpt:

Given the gathering storm of a questionable fishing season, and the escalating price of fuel in our state, there will be serious stress placed upon communities and residents who will struggle with the coming winter’s challenges. Last week I had asked our Troopers and Fire Marshalls to outreach both to these communities, and to your departments in a cooperative effort to mitigate issues that will arise like: theft, domestic violence, substance abuse, suicide; and, accidental death that all can come from sinking reserves of fuel, money and hope. Teamwork will never be so important.


Just let that sink in for a moment. Here’s someone who, in the first week of July, had already called for community outreach to prevent the situation that is happening now from happening in the first place. JULY. Whoever this commissioner is, he obviously knows what he’s doing. He obviously has vision and is able to look past his own nose, and see the storm coming. Here’s someone who cares deeply about the people who are in the path of the oncoming train, and has the desire and ability to help ahead of time. And what, if you were governor, might you want to do with someone like this? If you were Sarah Palin, you’d fire him.

That’s right, the commissioner in question was Walt Monegan, and the excerpt you read was from a letter he sent announcing that he had been replaced, and urging those with the power to do so to keep the crisis in rural Alaska from happening. He no longer had a job, but as he wrote this letter, he was still able to have a broader perspective, and leave with a parting request that these issues be handled properly, for the sake of these people, his fellow Alaskans on whom the storm was about to descend.

And that, my friends, is the real tragedy of Troopergate. Sarah Palin’s personal agenda, and the consuming need to get rid of a commissioner who wouldn’t and couldn’t legally fire someone she didn’t like, has brought down suffering on thousands of innocent people in this state. The fact that legislators may refuse to even issue a statement saying that the governor was wrong in firing Walt Monegan, means that this can happen again. It means that our elected representatives are turning a blind eye to the mechanism that removed this person from his office; a competent and effective leader who would have helped to curb the effects of this crisis. They are allowing middle school politics to affect matters of (literally) life and death.

So, whether or not Governor Palin flies out to Emmonak, and whether or not she ever decides to actually issue a statement on this tragedy, which she has yet to do, the fact remains that if she really cared, she would have been thinking about these people last July, like Walt Monegan was.

I asked Walt Monegan if he wanted to comment on the situation in Emmonak, and other rural communities. Here’s what he told me.

‘Standing amidst disaster is not the time for blame, it is a time for action. Mr. Tucker’s letter was a call to arms, and everyone who can should help our fellow Alaskans. Let’s get our neighbors out of danger now and work collectively to ensure that no Alaskan ever has to face such dire choices again.’


Mr. Monegan is a gracious man. And while I agree wholeheartedly that this is the time for action, and I celebrate the action that has come from this community and others, we also need to remember when it comes time to vote for elected officials, who was paying attention and who was not.



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JeffR Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-17-09 11:48 PM
Response to Reply #15
16. Seems all the knots are in the same thread.
Monegan continues to impress as a person of real integrity, kind of the anti-Palin.

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Blue_In_AK Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-18-09 01:06 AM
Response to Reply #16
17. I hope something good comes from this.
The issues are complicated here between urban and rural, the dominant culture and the Native culture, and racism is a serious issue. If we can all realize our common humanity and help these people in their time of need, it's a giant step forward for all of us. I'm proud of the way people are coming together here -- in spite of our governor. I guess you call this "community organizing."
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JeffR Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-18-09 02:00 AM
Response to Reply #17
18. I heard someone insinuate that being Mayor of Wasilla was more
important than being a community organizer. Can't remember her name. Oh, wait. Yes, I can, because she just won't go away...

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