Sunday, October 12, 2008

Snow on the Mountains, Our Produce Finally Arrives, and Palin Abused her Power as Governor

It's Sunday in Unalaska and I am mulling over the events of the last few days. Our fresh organic produce was set to fly in on Thursday but nothing is simple out here in the Aleutians. Pen Air bumped it the first day, the plane had to turn around for weather the second day, our boxes were bumped again yesterday (for PASSENGERS, good grief!), and today, finally, we have our corn and green beans and cabbage and plums and grapes and taters and more, most of which are none the worse for wear, thankfully. When I was out in Nikolski for my job last year, one of the locals referred to Pen Air as "When Air," which completely cracked me up. He stated, "When Air comes when When Air wants to; it's the only game in town!"    So true! Now I do not want to get on the bad side of Pen Air because it's the only way in and out of Unalaska except when the ferry is running in the summer time and I don't want to take the chance of being put on some sort of Bering Sea No Fly List, but let me just say that it does get a bit annoying at times. On the other hand, what other airline still gives you as many cookies, chips and/or soft drinks as you want (free!) and has flight attendants who can handle the most drunk (okay, drunk enough to be having a good time but not too drunk to be denied boarding) and unruly passengers in the world? Once I was the only female on a plane full of fishermen who had just finished their season and let's just say they were enjoying themselves immensely, alternating with threatening to fight each other in the aisle. The flight attendant calmly took care of all of them and then sidled up to me to say, "Hi sweetie; you are my only pearl amongst all the swine." Said with a smile and genuine affection, not to be misconstrued as anything near a slur toward those guys, so don't anyone get angry and start threatening me or Pen Air, okay?

Yes, there is snow on the mountains. I ordered some new wintersilks and some heavy cotton tights so, to quote Flavor Flav, "you know what time it is."

And then the really big news is the fact that the Legislative Council agreed to release the Branchflower report regarding the "Troopergate" issue (huge thanks to these legislators, including mostly Republicans, so who can say it was "politically motivated"?) This spells out the conclusion that Sarah Palin did abuse her power and behave unethically as Governor. I am in awe of the audacity of the McCain Palin campaign who have tried to spin this as a vindication for the Governor and saying that she was cleared of any wrongdoing. In what universe is that happening? Yes, as Governor, she has the right to let any of her Commissioners go for whatever reason. However, it is noted in the report that Walt Monegan's refusal to fire Palin's ex brother in law was a factor in Monegan's firing from his position as Public Safety Commissioner. I will not go into all of the details as there are many others doing a fabulous job of blogging about this on a daily basis such as Celtic Diva, Alaska Real, Mudflats and more, so look at their blogs and get all the scoop. The good news is that the real Sarah is becoming more and more evident to the populace across the country. And hurray for Alaskans for Truth who pressed to get this report released to the public, who held rallies and circulated petitions and called for all of us Alaskans to speak out. The power of the people cannot be denied!

Speaking of our Sarah, I cannot get over the angry people and violent language being used at the Republicans' rallies these days. Honestly, do we really want elected leaders allowing folks to yell out racial slurs, call Obama a "terrorist" and shout "kill him?" Seriously?? So McCain had to play nice and tell people that Barack is not an "Arab" and that they do not need to be "scared" that Obama might get elected. At the same time, McCain's ad keeps on a'runnin', calling Obama "dangerous." Okay, does McCain not get the connection? It is appalling that McCain and Palin are so desperate that they will stoop to just about anything any more, it seems.

And lastly,being a South Jersey girl, I have to send a shout out to the Philadelphia Flyers fans who held up the Obama/Biden signs while Sarah was dropping the puck at the hockey game the other night. Go, Philly!

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