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Blog : Alaska Politics
Happy trails - 11/8/2006 8:05 pm
Forty-two - 11/8/2006 8:01 pm
Election hangover - 11/8/2006 10:25 am
Tonight (updated) - 11/7/2006 12:18 pm
Full Moon - 11/6/2006 7:11 pm
Fishy photos? - 11/6/2006 12:08 pm
Smelly deal? - 11/5/2006 3:31 pm
Sunday best (part two) - 11/5/2006 3:18 pm
'It's going to be madness' - 11/4/2006 8:33 pm
Final push - 11/4/2006 8:26 pm
Ivan Moore - 11/4/2006 1:45 pm
Furrowed brow - 11/3/2006 2:20 pm
New poll (updated) - 11/3/2006 2:00 pm
Berkowitz - 11/3/2006 10:29 am
Predict the future - 11/2/2006 10:53 pm
Live debate (updated 9:37 p.m.) - 11/2/2006 8:19 pm
More on the e-mails - 11/2/2006 7:14 pm
Channel 7 debate (updated) - 11/2/2006 7:12 pm
Round two - 11/2/2006 4:20 pm
Read the e-mails - 11/1/2006 9:45 pm
TV debate tonight (updated) - 11/1/2006 11:02 am
Anchorage Rotary debate - 10/31/2006 4:58 pm
Posted by thetrail
Posted: November 6, 2006 - 12:08 pm
Both the Knowles and Palin campaigns used questionable photos in advertising recently.
First, the Knowles campaign sent out press releases Saturday and Sunday, drawing attention to a photo that appears in one of Palin’s campaign mailers.
The Palin mailer is critical of Knowles’ record on commercial fishing and touts Palin’s plans for the industry. One of the pictures on the flier is of two fishermen in a skiff full of cod.
Knowles supporters found a similar picture - same fisherman, same fish, same camera angle - on a stock photography Web site called Alamy.com, with the caption: “cod fishing west coast of Newfoundland”.
“Sarah Palin can’t be part of the solution if she can’t tell the difference between an Alaska fisherman and Canadians,” Knowles said in a statement from the campaign.
Palin spokesman Curtis Smith said the photo came from the campaign's advertising agency.
“If anything, it was an agency error, if it turns out that it was a photo that wasn’t (a) representation of Alaska,” he said.
Then today, the Knowles campaign ran a print ad critical of Palin, saying she snubbed business leaders and missed meetings. “Empty chair … empty promises,” reads the ad, which shows Knowles and Halcro sitting at a forum in front of a group of people.
In the photo, there’s a nametag set out for Palin, but she’s nowhere to be seen. (The picture was taken at a BP candidates’ forum Oct. 30. An organizer said Palin declined to attend the forum two weeks before.)
What’s also missing from the photo in the ad are four BP logos, which were digitally erased using Photoshop.
There was a large BP logo on a banner behind Knowles at the forum. But in the ad, the banner is blank. There were also BP logos on the three nametags.
Knowles spokeswoman Patty Ginsburg said the logos were removed because the point of the ad was not that it was a BP meeting, but that Palin wasn’t there. She said the image was symbolic.
“I think the point was it’s not about BP.”
(Incidentally, during the time I was writing this blog item, a woman called to cancel her subscription because she was upset we ran the Knowles ad, and someone handed me a fax from another woman who says her husband is a former commercial fishing permit holder and criticized the photo in the Palin mailer.)
17 November 6, 2006 - 9:23pm | alaskastraightalker
Republican national 'robo-calling' scam
on eve of election
The Associated Press reported on November 1 that the National Republican Campaign Committee was set to launch a national "robocall" campaign. Now that the effort is underway just before Election Day, writers around the blogosphere are tracking evidence of "Republican dirty tricks" across the country, while mainstream media coverage has been noticeably lacking.
The legality and appropriateness of such deceptive "robo-calls" quickly came into question. According to FCC rules, all prerecorded messages must "at the beginning of the message, state clearly the identity of the business, individual, or other entity that is responsible for initiating the call." Yet these seemingly forbidden calls continued through the weekend.
At last, by Monday evening, some major television news sources began to report on the uproar over the robo-calls. ABC News reported on a "cease and desist" letter issued by the general counsel of the DCCC to his counterpart at the NRCC, while CNN offered some coverage of the growing fiasco.
November 6, 2006 - 9:49pm | alasscan
Yes, it is now on all the major cable news networks too. I channel surfed all the major news all day today. (What fun)
And some forms of the calls are very upsetting to people.
Yes, I did see the cease and desist news as well, and some other laws may also have been violated by the NRCC and their calls.
Far more alarming and disgusting are signs going up, and calls being made telling people they cannot vote, they are not registered to vote, or they will be arrested if they vote. Those are clearly breaking the laws and law enforcement in those areas are investigating.
Republican Party must be scared. Oh no wait, that is what we are supposed to be.
16 November 6, 2006 - 8:33pm | akallegro
Canadian Fish in pictures, English logos not. Is this what should be the final issue to sway everyone that hasn't decided yet?
How about this instead.
The next governor may sign a finacial deal for a gas pipeline, but they will be long gone before the first dime goes into the state coffers.
Unless oil climbs to 100-125 a barrel soon we will be unable to fund the current budget by as much as 50%. That is what should drive your vote. For me Tony's head in the sand approach to the shortages in his first go, and his refusal to face the facts in the PRS and TRS shortage sends me to Palin. Regardless of what happens with the gas line in the next year our real issue is how do we fund government in the next 10. It will be painfull and our govenor will have to be able to say no.
November 7, 2006 - 12:50am | ilovelucy
what do you know about retirement funds? Not much if you think the solution is to let current employees quit depositing money into them. The retirees have been promised retirement checks. The money, if it isn't in the bank (deposited by current employees) will come out of the Permanent Fund. You don't think a court is going to be sympathetic to the state of alaska saying it's broke, when it's got billions in the PF, do you?
Going from a defined benefit plan to 401k's is like buying a new car and dedicating your paycheck to car payments instead of your mortgage. You don't make the payments, you lose the house. Get it?
So no, Sarah doesn't have the answer. She doesn't get it. She has slogans, not answers. Slogans won't save your PFD.
November 6, 2006 - 8:37pm | alasscan
I wouldn't run in the direction of the candidate that was running as Lt Gov for Murkowski! This is a mess that he has been instrumental in creating and Palin supports him completely. I didn't forget.
I am voting Tony.
15 November 6, 2006 - 8:18pm | fourequestions
Benson seems to have exposed the soft underbelly of Young. Wouldn't a Halcro and Young debate be informative? Halcro traveling the state for the next two years asking some tough questions about the direction of Alaska and the country would be healthy.
November 6, 2006 - 9:22pm | jacekone
Benson restores my faith in women candidates. She is well-prepared and can deftly answer the tough questions. Kinda makes me wish she was the D in the gube race.
November 6, 2006 - 8:23pm | alasscan
We can't possibly live that long. Look how long it has taken Diane to try and corner Don Young into a debate?
Oops, guess we now know why he has been running from her.
Diane did a great job all by her self.
November 6, 2006 - 8:22pm | alaskastraightalker
Halcro has been saying that he may run for statewide office again.
Stevens is up in 2 years; Halcro- or anyone- would have to be crazy to run against him for a number of reasons.
That leaves Young. Do you think Halcro would run as an R, independent, or??
14 November 6, 2006 - 7:16pm | franan
....what great dramatic humor on channel 2 with Benson and Young - great camaraderie and fraternity - Steve McDonald is struggling to maintain control - what fun...
November 6, 2006 - 7:35pm | alasscan
You'd think after thirty three years he would be a whole lot better at this than Diane Benson, but that wasn't the case!
He lives in Alaska? Funny, he seems to be the only one aware of that.
Then the three way Iraq? When Joe Bidden and John Murtha brought that up he acted like a jerk. Now all of a sudden it is I I I, all his idea. Further, now that they do have a standing government and voted the fact is Diane is correct. We can't go tell them to split their country because we want it that way.
I especially loved the papers all over the floor and making Steve give him is papers back. Great comedy relief.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Diane!!!!!
November 6, 2006 - 7:21pm | franan
...goes to Don Young "I've got more than you do" - oh what fun - both of em did pretty good
November 6, 2006 - 8:08pm | realist
And I loved the I live in rural Alaska-no, I live in rural Alaska exchange.
Damn, we could have watched more such humorous encounters if Don had only deigned to debate Diane earlier.
Anyway, that was some much-needed comic relief.
13 November 6, 2006 - 6:27pm | eatrealfish
This woman wouldn't know the difference between a cod and a capelin. At a time when Ak fishermen have been trying to promote quality handling of their catch, that bogus mailer of a dry skiff full of Canadian codfish set alaska seafood promotions back 20 years. Ooops, just a little oversight. what's the big deal says Curtis Smith, one of her many male handlers. Palin is so full of fish platitudes, like with gulf rationalization. "We need to protect our fishermen and our communities." That's a plan?? Has she come up with one sensible, concrete idea of how she'll design a fair ratz program - which like it or not, will happen in some shape or form in the near future? Can you see her articulating the Pacific Salmon Treaty...international anadromous stream issues to name but a few....She is all empty talk and vacuous smiles and aw shucks bless your heart. And speaking of Clem Tillion in another post, her closest fish advisor - how quickly you pseudo fish fanatics forget that he was the champion of ifq's for halibut and black cod. How much does she know about those fisheries? How much does she know about Alaskas biggest fisheries - groundfish. Or the Bering sea crab fishereis?? Or the dive fisheries in Southeast?? No one will take this Gidget for Gov Go Go Girl seriously - the minute she opens her mouth and attempts to speak in a complete sentence. Her administration will constantly be in a reactive mode, covering up her flubs and misstatements and displays of temper. She is a Valley Girl in the truest sense of the perjorative term. Gidget is a no go for Gov!!!
12 November 6, 2006 - 6:27pm | eatrealfish
This woman wouldn't know the difference between a cod and a capelin. At a time when Ak fishermen have been trying to promote quality handling of their catch, that bogus mailer of a dry skiff full of Canadian codfish set alaska seafood promotions back 20 years. Ooops, just a little oversight. what's the big deal says Curtis Smith, one of her many male handlers. Palin is so full of fish platitudes, like with gulf rationalization. "We need to protect our fishermen and our communities." That's a plan?? Has she come up with one sensible, concrete idea of how she'll design a fair ratz program - which like it or not, will happen in some shape or form in the near future? Can you see her articulating the Pacific Salmon Treaty...international anadromous stream issues to name but a few....She is all empty talk and vacuous smiles and aw shucks bless your heart. And speaking of Clem Tillion in another post, her closest fish advisor - how quickly you pseudo fish fanatics forget that he was the champion of ifq's for halibut and black cod. How much does she know about those fisheries? How much does she know about Alaskas biggest fisheries - groundfish. Or the Bering sea crab fishereis?? Or the dive fisheries in Southeast?? No one will take this Gidget for Gov Go Go Girl seriously - the minute she opens her mouth and attempts to speak in a complete sentence. Her administration will constantly be in a reactive mode, covering up her flubs and misstatements and displays of temper. She is a Valley Girl in the truest sense of the perjorative term. Gidget is a no go for Gov!!!
November 6, 2006 - 10:04pm | mike_l
doesn't need to get the photo's right, when he has his golf buddy Fagan able to shameless pimp his candidate on talk radio.
November 7, 2006 - 12:58am | ilovelucy
I listened to about 5 minutes of Fagin's show today - I really try to listen to am radio just to hear the other side, but it's impossible. Fagin and his fools spent the entire time preaching to the tone-deaf choir, demonizing Democrats. They made absolutely no sense. They were trying to out-convince each other that Knowles is backed by extreme environmentalists. I guess they mean Paul Jenkins & Curtis Thayer and those guys. What I can't understand is how Fagin gets an audience. If he were smart or even entertaining, but he's not on the ball enough for that. He's ignorant and boorish. Ick.
November 7, 2006 - 8:55am | mike_l
yes - welcome to the overweight corn-fed white boy audience. They don't like to think much, esp about politics. They look to people like Fagan for guidance. Pretty frightening. If only they knew they were getting duped by a guy is who is a buddy of Curtis -Palins's spokesperson.
November 7, 2006 - 9:09am | franan
And the irony is that they sound just the same as Knowles supporters - may providence protect those voters who simply vote their feelings and refuse to get wound up about it all
November 6, 2006 - 7:14pm | rfn
You'll get used to it in time.
Women have been voting for a couple of years now in case it had escaped your notice.
Or did you sleep through those years as it appears you may have slept through Tony's eight?
November 6, 2006 - 8:04pm | alasscan
or however that song went.....and yes I have been voting for more than a couple of years.
However, I have to agree with eatrealfish regarding Sarah Palin.
And I didn't sleep through Tony's eight years, but I am ferverently hoping the nightmare of the last four are over.
November 6, 2006 - 7:21pm | eatrealfish
...a lack of knowledge and articulation on important issues? A lack of attention to detail? This has nothing to do with women voting, or men for that matter - it has to do with an overblown ego by an unprepared, unsophisticated candidate who is out of her league. I notice you don't rebut any of the issues I raised. That's to be expected of a GIdget a GoGo Bot - because you expect and accept so little.
November 6, 2006 - 9:10pm | rfn
I do expect very little from Palin. Much less than we got in Tony's eight years.
Less unemployment.
Less giveaway to Big Oil.
Smaller deficits.
Less patronage growth in government.
Yes, I'd settle for far less than Tony has proven to offer.
November 7, 2006 - 1:01am | ilovelucy
well you won't get it with Sarah
Check out her stats as mayor. Gov't grew, she had a deficit. And she fired good people and hired her own less talented people. And now she's pimping for old white guy lobbyists. Wow - new energy!
November 7, 2006 - 1:43am | alasscan
but the budget became quite ugly.
Actually not much of it was a pretty picture unless you like taxes and broken promises and bigger goverment.
I guess I don't find that very attractive.
11 November 6, 2006 - 5:52pm | mike_l
I heard he had Palin by 3 points. Spin it any way you want, but her lead continues to dwindle.....
November 6, 2006 - 5:55pm | franan
...and I believe I heard the margin of error was 4 - could be wrong - so 3 points could be about right. And of course 500 folks polled is not the whole story either way
10 November 6, 2006 - 4:53pm | Loquitur
Anyone from Palin's camp care to share Dittman's numbers?
November 6, 2006 - 8:37pm | akallegro
if he had her by 7 he would have been on Fagan today. Its a dead heat and turnout will be the decision. Thats why Sarahs in Anchorage and Tony's in the bush.
November 6, 2006 - 5:20pm | Loquitur
Are you sure bout that?
Remember: Thou shalt not lie. God's always watching and listening!
November 6, 2006 - 8:44pm | Dusty
tony apologized to Halcro for calling him a liar re the Ethan statement.
November 6, 2006 - 5:24pm | franan
...that it is the Dittman street rumor - 2 sources - but since I'm not Dittman I don't know for sure that its true. Probably Dittman doesn't really know either come to think of it. But a sampling of 500 people is not the whole ball game either way. Could be a whole lot closer or even further apart for that matter.
9 November 6, 2006 - 3:08pm | rfn
Is the BP logos were removed because they disclosed the ownership of the forum and the ownership of one of the smiling faces. Heart and soul thereof, too.
I still says there is going to be NO pipeline until/unless it's in the best interests of Big Oil and Alaskans be damned.
8 November 6, 2006 - 2:59pm | marty2
Let's stop all the screaming and just vote already!
Isn't it nice that we get to vote?
7 November 6, 2006 - 2:07pm | SitkaSpruce
Let me get this right -- the Canadian fish photo is someone else's fault? We farm our fish policy papers out to a PR firm? Doesn't anyone look at this stuff before it goes out? Hello...Any fisherman on the campaign to point out the obvious Canadian connection?
This just adds insult to injury in fishing communities like Sitka, where we're STILL waiting for Palin to show up and talk to us.
I'll be shocked if she gets 10 votes here.
6 November 6, 2006 - 2:07pm | alaskastraightalker
The difference is the people in the Knowles photo ....
are Alaskans and the photo was taken in Alaska, while the fish and fishermen in the Palin photo- in a mailer to Alaskan fishing people- were CANADIAN! And the photo was taken in CANADA.
So the Canadian photographer gets the royalties.
5 November 6, 2006 - 2:02pm | realist
Both campaigns have done stupid things
The above is another example. But I thought that maybe the stupidest was the they-accused-us-of-accusing-them-of-accusing-us-of-being-racist indignation face-off. People get punchy at the end of campaigns, I guess.
November 6, 2006 - 5:30pm | GeordieBC
The blog itself is getting quite punchy too!
I can hardly read some of the stuff that's been on here the past few days...it's going to self destruct Kyle!!Thank goodness it will all be over soon...then it will be Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss. I used to sit next to Michael Moore in the Quaker church I was raised in in Michigan and he used to say that in church about politicians...He would say, "it's just like the Who in Won't Get Fooled Again..."
November 6, 2006 - 2:14pm | akisok2
... I kinda like the ADN ad. I thought it was clever. And as for removing the BP logos -- isn't that a legal issue? And does it really detract from the message?
The point of the ad still hits home to me -- Palin is a no-show.
4 November 6, 2006 - 1:41pm | mike_l
is what Palin supports. Forget about our right to privacy. Big Brother will now have access to your medical records and then "leak" them to talk radio shows when it suits her personal agenda:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/11/06/abortion.records.ap/index.html
3 November 6, 2006 - 1:38pm | fourequestions
Palin has fish advisors like Clem Tillion, Linda Kozak and many others. Does she let her PR firm do her fish policy or her fish advisors? Ask Tillion and Kozak what they thinks of this picture. Ask Tillion and Kozak if they support the salmon lying in the mud which is the picture next to the Canadian cod fishing photo?
November 6, 2006 - 10:20pm | captrichie
I missed the Palin fish ad, but after reading the obviously democrat entries here, it must have been labeled "Alaskan fishermen in Alaskan Waters catching Alaskan fish in a boat built in Alaska," right? If it wasn't labeled that way, but was instead a photo of "some" fishermen "somewhere" picked solely to ad visual references to a subject; why are you trying so hard to make her look like she was trying to pass it off as Alaskan? That's the best you can do?
November 6, 2006 - 10:40pm | eatrealfish
No, it was clearly labeled as a stock footage photo from a canadian company called Alamy as Newfoundland cod fishermen - a simple web search ID'd the pix. It might seem a small thing, but the fact that the Palin pawns wouldn't even bother to take the time to represent an Alaska fishery is an insult. Like her dragging salmon thru the mud at her setnet site. Great quality and respect for the resource there!
2 November 6, 2006 - 1:36pm | mike_l
the "critics" are the Palin supporters on this blog.
Free press/media from the RGA and now the Dan Fagan show. It doesn't get any better than this.
Of course, Knowles is having to bust his butt to raise money to pay for his TV, Radio, and Print ads.
Like I said before, she may be conservative, but she will bring financial ruin to this state. She is anti-oil, and is surrounded by Prop 2 and LNG route supporters. We may be poor, but at least we're conservative -should be the new bumper sticker. Mine will say: Don't blame me - I didn't vote for her.
November 6, 2006 - 1:59pm | jacekone
Sarah is just a social conservative. In no other way has she demonstrated true conservative principles, most likely because she has NONE. A true conservative would have strong, well-articulated postions borne of much thought. Those positions may be unpopular, but she would definitely be able to defend them, if she was a conservative. Sarah, is just another republican up for sale. Since she is an unknown quantity -she is a disgrace to true conservatives. Most importantly, a true conservative would never acquiese to new taxes, which she has already done.
1 November 6, 2006 - 1:34pm | mark_springer
This just in- Don Young has agreed to appear with Diane Benson on the Channel 2 news tonight. Steve McDonald will handle them for about 15 minutes during the newscast.
Don is clearly feeling the heat...look for the blood drained out of a few faces late tommorow night!
My cast card:
Norman Ayagalria, Senate Seat S
Diane Benson, US House
Andrew Halco, Governor
November 6, 2006 - 4:30pm | thetrail
After talking about the gube race, I asked Ruedrich to predict the Young-Benson race yesterday. He said he hasn't been following it as closely, but that he doesn't see Young winning by the same margin as usual.
"This is the first time he's had an organized opponent in a decade."
-- Kyle
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18 November 6, 2006 - 10:14pm | jtgranger
"Can't tell the diffrence
"Can't tell the diffrence between a Alaskan fishermen and Canadians"
Wow, there's a example of intellegent design by Knowles.
I wonder if he knows about Canadian participation in Alaska Commercial Fisheries?
I doubt it, Prince Rupert, being so far from Juneau, and those larger canneries they own here, and there are also a problem, like the Japs, and their ownership of many Alaska Fisheries.
Or could it be those Seattle Seven, Tony's favorites, stinking more than Clem, Ted, Ben, Don, or son, Art, another a great example of cluelessness, according to their illegal Chignik Co op scheme. Illegal even in the Alaska Supreme Court
Where do these politicians go to school?
I seem to have trouble figuring out, if the state or the federals are less intellegent?
Like that confusing Crab Ratz, letter from the Anti-trust division. Wow could someone give a comprenhensive reading class to Ted and his friends, regarding Senator Sherman's Act of Congress?
And Ted's Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee? Not For Long, Always low IQ, Always.
Wow! What a concept, from the state that has never in it's history complied with that Constitutional Doctrine?
As the Justice Frankfurter wrote, about some confused politicians in Alaska, before there was such a thing as it's statehood act.
Blacks Law Dictionary 7th,
per se violation: see, Senator Sherman's Anti-trust Act.
CHAIRMAN?
WHAT A CONCEPT!
And could it be, tweet, tweet, tweet,
One would think that Senator Stevens would understand the power of the Federal Judiciary.
Of course we all know Knowles dosent, or fixing this minor problem would have happened long ago.
But he will, coming soon to a Courtroom near you, as with a few other governors.
Of course you truly must wonder why Paulin would want the position. With election she is also liable under the U. S. Law and Supreme Court orders.
"The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experiance."
"Three generations of imbiciles are enough"
"And their trips are no less troublesome to their neighbors, than if they sprang from guilty neglect"
"even a dog distinguishes between being stumbled over and being kicked"
"A man has an animal of known ferocious habits, which escapes and does his neighbor damage. He can prove that the animal escaped through no negligence of his, but he is still held liable. Why? It is, says the analytical jurist, because, although he was not negligent at the moment of escape, he was guilty of remote heedlessness, or negligance, or fault, in having such a creature at all. And one by whos fault damage is done ought to pay for it.
A baker's man, while driving his master's cart to deliver hot rool in the morning, runs another man down. The master has to pay for it. And when he has asked why he should have to pay for the wrongful act of an independant and responsible being, it has been answered from the time of Ulpian to that of Austin, that it is because he was to blame for employing and improper person. If he answers, that he used the greatest possible care in choosing his driver, he is told that that is no excuse; and then perhaps the reason is shifted, and it is said that there ought to be a remedy against some one who can pay the damages, or that such wrongful acts as by ordinary human laws are likely to happen in the course of the service are imputable to the service."
Why do Alaskans, vote for some of the most corrupt versions in recent history?
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