Elise Sereni Patkotak

As dear sweet Emily Litella used to say, if it isn’t one thing, it’s another. If it isn’t bird flu, it swine flu. Poor pigs… just when they were getting a good reputation as the other white meat and people were starting to forget the old image of them wallowing in mud, this comes along. God do they need a good PR person or what?

Seems like being a politician in Alaska nowadays automatically calls for a fund to collect donations to pay legal fees. I wonder what that says about the quality of politicians we are blessed with right now? Or maybe it says even more about how sadly polarized our political landscape has become. Instead of any attempts at statesmanship or compromise, we hurl accusations and insults at each other, accuse each other of illegal activities and then we complain that those same politicians aren’t doing their job because they are spending so much time defending themselves. Either they are all really crooked

After winning the Revolutionary War, our forefathers met for not quite four months and came up with the United States Constitution, a document that still shines as a beacon of common sense and decency towards all men. No, it wasn’t perfect. And we should all rightfully be ashamed of some of the compromises done that allowed such horrors as slavery to continue. But for its time and place, it is a work of wonder and genius.  Men coming together from a wide group of disparate areas to create a country. Men who put aside their personal beliefs and differences to

I guess I have to give credit where credit is due. And Wayne Anthony Ross is due both credit and kudos. I predicted he wouldn’t last six months in the job of Alaska Attorney General before creating such controversy that he would be forced to resign or be fired. But WAR apparently does not like that kind of challenge. He showed me he could create enough controversy after just two weeks on the job, before ever even being confirmed, to get his ass kicked by the august body we call the Alaska Legislature all the way back to Anchorage.

Way

There was a time, when I was young, that I walked in 30 below weather and reveled in the feel of the cold and the challenge of the environment.

Now I’m freezing when it’s 40 above.

Just another low blow from that nasty bitch, Old Age.

There are some who live in Anchorage who revel in the sunshine. I say to them, go live in Arizona if that’s what you want. Here in Anchorage, we revel in rain. Especially when that rain washes away a winter’s worth of dirt and volcanic ash so I don’t have to do it.  Let it pour!

As I see it, the problem is that with the end of the session, we no longer have politicians confined to one place where the herd can easily be spotted. Now they are out mingling among us and we have no way of knowing who they are since they blend in so easily… a not unusual problem when your legislature consists, for the most part, of bland looking white men.

In Anchorage, that’s the brief period between the completion of break up and the appearance of the first mosquito. This year, that period seemed to extend for almost ten minutes. Sigh.

Some members of the national GOP are saying that Sarah Palin is one of the party’s standard bearers right now. I think that’s wonderful. In fact, I think it’s so wonderful that I, as an Alaskan, am willing to make the sacrifice of giving her to the national party now as their leader and not making everyone wait until her term in the governor’s office is over. I’m that much of a patriotic American.

Take her, please take her.