Comment on Brace Yourself: This Is the Tip of the Iceberg for Oil-Induced Enviro Catastrophes

Yet the Obama administration is openly supporting not an outright ban on offshore drilling, but Kerry and Leiberman's weak-kneed concessions. Their bill does include provisions that allow states to ban operations within 75 miles of their coastlines, as well as a sweetener that allows them to siphon off larger revenue from those operations. Brace Yourself: This Is the Tip of the Iceberg for Oil-Induced Enviro Catastrophes, Scott Thill, Alternet.org

So, O.K., I turn on my TeeVee this morning and there's New York US Senator Chuck Schumer, and usually I put him in the provisional "good guy" column, saying something like, "We are not going to get a "clean" energy bill unless we have offshore drilling."

Schumer was immediately followed by recombinant DNA human-turtle mutant Mitch McConnell saying, "If we don't have offshore drilling we'll have fourteen dollar a gallon gasoline!!!" Of course my personal reaction was, "What's wrong with that."

Next I saw some bloated Louisiana, rednecked commercial fisherman pitching a bitch about how me makes more in one day of fishing than BP paid him for three days of cleaning oil off the Gulf! Oh, poor baby.

And what fuel do you suppose that poor lard-assed Louisiana, rednecked commercial fisherman uses to power his boat to go to the fishing grounds to make more in one day of good fishing than BP pays in three days of cleaning up the area of his livelihood? I'd say diesel fuel refined from petroleum, wouldn't you.

And I'll bet you even money that when that same bloated, rednecked Louisiana fisherman sets down to slam down a few watery Bud Lights with his buddies, he'll start bitching how big gub'munt ain't doin' enuff for 'em down here. Course he and they all hate big gub'munt 'cause big gub'munt dictates to 'em what they can catch. Then he'll start moaning how the price of diesel fuel's going up because of this oil spill; how it'll cut into his profits and he jes' cain't go on like that. And all his buddies will shout their assent.

Then some other barroom sage will interject, "Mubbe that offshore drilling ain't so bad. It brings in a lotta jobs fer young folk an' them oil rigs are good fer fishin'." And our lard-assed, rednecked protagonist and all his buddies will nod in agreement.

From the corner of the bar comes a voice saying he heard tell that that Nancy Peelosee and her California tree-huggin' pals wanna stop offshore oil drillin' altogether and that'll spell the end of commercial fishin' in Louisiana! And the bar will erupt in shouts of acclamation. Why thanks to them tree huggers the gub'munt tells us fishermen what we can catch and when we can catch it, shouts another. And a round of anti-government grumbling cascades round the bar.

And so we Americans are caught in a web of our own making. We say but we don't do. We bitch but nothing changes. The ideologically pure left's wishing to improve things for what it sees as the better feeds right into the lunatic right's paranoia about loosing its pathetic jobs and ways of life.
And that paranoia is kept at a fever pitch by constant feedback from right wing talk radio and FauxNews.

Two things are clear, we will never see any significant change in this country until somebody dies. Perhaps very many somebodies.

Secondly the forces of reaction have done a better job in studing and understanding the psychology of the working middle class, especially "white" working middle class, than its counterparts on the ideologically pure left. While the ideologically pure left says it stands for the interests of working men and women, they too often look at their leftist saviors as creatures from another planet.

Re: "Why Law Enforcement Officials Should Hate Arizona's Racist New Law"

"Why Law Enforcement Officials Should Hate Arizona's Racist New Law, Alternet.org

My Comment:
What the Arizona anti-immigration law really proves is the fecklessness of the Green Party and other ideologically pure leftist groups.

Why? Because Arizona is a clean money, clean elections state so Greens and other ideologically pure leftist political parties and individuals can not fall back on their standard excuse of lack of funding to get get the message out.

In fact when Arizona passed its clean money, clean elections law the Republican Party of Arizona feared a wave of liberal/progressive Democrats and more radical leftist parties sweeping state house elections. That ain't happened. In fact just the opposite occurred.

Clean money, clean elections has led to Arizona politics being the playground for Ayn Rand-cultists, George Lincoln Rockwell-groupies, John Birch Society-fellow travelers, Grover Norquist-lovers and other various and sundry flavors of right wing anarchists, homophobes and xenophobes.

Look at who's running for what in Arizona this fall and to date only one Green, a Richard Grayson, has declared. He's running against the incumbent Republican US Representative the aptly named Jeff Flake. On the Web site USElections.com Grayson is characterized as an "Attorney, NY Resident," traits which will not endear him with the former Midwesterners and Californians of white Arizona.

Face it, the United States is screwed. And it is the Baby Boomer generation that has screwed it. I mean we Boomers were supposed to be this great break from the "conservatism" of our parents. What a load of bullshit that was! We Boomers were supposed to be the generation of peace, love and understanding. What a load of bullshit that was! What is going down in Arizona and across the nation will not straighten out until the Boomers and GenXers are out of the picture, and that's going to take another generation. Thirty years! By then the damage may be irreversible. But by then, hopefully, I'll be dead.

Media should be ashamed of Tiger Woods ‘coverage’ - KansasCity.com

Media should be ashamed of Tiger Woods ‘coverage’ - KansasCity.com

Are we really that stupid?

Are we Americans really that stupid?

Of course this is a rhetorical question and of course the answer is yes. And here is why this morning:

Iowa Poll: 47% oppose health care reform effort
By TONY LEYS • tleys@dmreg.com • September 25, 2009

When asked how they feel about the overall health reform plans, 47 percent of Iowans say they're opposed, and 43 percent say they're in favor.

However, most Iowans say they like specific reform ideas, such as health care co-ops, a national insurance exchange, a requirement that employers offer policies, and a requirement that U.S. residents have coverage. Even one of the most controversial proposals, to create government-run "public-option" insurance plans, draws support from a slight majority. Iowans oppose only one of the six specific options noted by the poll - the idea of cutting payments to doctors and hospitals.

A national expert said the Iowa Poll's findings are consistent with those of many national polls. "When you talk about specific options, people tend to think they're pretty good ideas," said Mollyann Brodie, who oversees polling for the Kaiser Family Foundation. However, she said, many Americans worry that bills being debated in Congress will wind up costing too much and harming their families' medical care and health insurance.

Poll participants who expressed negative attitudes about the debate in Washington, D.C., were asked to rank reasons for their feelings. Their top-ranked reason was the sense that "members of Congress are not being truthful about what is and is not being considered." Next came feelings that the proposals would be too expensive and that the plan "sounds like socialism."

Oh, jesus christ, "sounds like socialism." Do the morons who say things like that even know what socialism is? Again this is a rhetorical question this time, however, the answer is no.

As an example of how stupid those contacted by the Iowa Poll are, from the same news story:

Poll participant Carol Cox of Clinton agrees with all of those statements.

"I think the cost is going to be so much more than they say it's going to be, and it feels like we're getting closer and closer to socialism," Cox, a Republican, said in a follow-up interview.

Cox, 61, said she's always had good insurance through her husband's work as a school administrator, but her volunteer service brings her in contact with people who have no insurance. She wants private-market reforms that will help cover such people, but she doesn't think the government needs to expand public programs to achieve that goal.

Cox plans to sign up for Medicare when she's 65. She thinks Medicare generally is a good program, but she worries that it will be hurt by politicians' efforts to add other public insurance plans. "I'm afraid they'll rob Peter to pay Paul," she said.

And

[Barbara Larson, 66, of Knoxville] said she and her husband have been happy with their health insurance, which for years was through Blue Cross and now is through Medicare. She noted other polls showing most other Americans feel the same way. Some Americans are uninsured, and the country should help them, she said. "But when 80 percent are happy, why do we have to revamp the whole insurance system to cover a small percentage?"

Here we see the magnanimity, the humanity of the oldest of the aging Boomers. They got theirs so fuck everybody else.

And the stupidest "argument" against a public option and mandated insurance I have heard in this "debate" from Republicans and Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh is that young, healthy people think they don't need health care insurance. Anyway, society will take care of them if they have a traumatic accident or a serious illness, right?

Well, way don't we take this "libertarian" argument against a socialist medical system and extent it to its "logical" conclusion and tell these young, healthy anti-mandated health care insurance kids: "If you get your leg cut off and you don't have medical insurance, society has no obligation to treat you. Bleed to death. If you're 25-years-old, get cancer and don't have insurance, society has no obligation to cure you."

Yes sir, Jimmy Carter was so right when he said America deserves government as good as its people.

Remember, folks...

I don't want to hear a peep...a whimper...a squawk...or a squeak out of any of you when the Taliban march into downtown Kabul, round-up a bunch of women and begin murdering them for the television cameras in the soccer stadium for imagined offenses to the Qur'an, a book no one can read much less understand. Once again an Abrahamic religion rears its ugly head.

I don't want to hear or read one word about how terrible the Taliban is because these turbaned punks, many of whom are the sons of our old mujahideen buddies from twenty years ago, stop little Afghan girls from going to school.

And I especially don't what to hear one word of surprise or shock or indignation when our fighting soldiers and Marines march off those airliners and up to the TV cameras and tell the world, they could have finished the "job" (that "job" being to kill as many Afghans as humanly possible) if the politicians and "liberals" hadn't stabbed them in the back!

Believe me, we will hear interviews echoing those sentiments from returning G.I.s and Marines once some one pulls the plug on this thing in Afghanistan. Why? Because this is an All Volunteer Force, the bastard child of anti-Vietnam war activists and Richard Nixon, midwifed by free market Jesus, Milton J. Friedman. Our men and women in uniform are there because they want to be there. never mind if it is because of economic necessity, just don't take my son to be a soldier. Take the neighbor's boy.

Another reason many returning vets will be ungrateful because President Obama or the Congress or whomever pulled their sorry asses out of Afghan quagmire is because they were doing "God's" work killing and/or converting heathen Muslims. Remember this Alternet.org article from April 21, 2007 Birth of the Christian Soldier: How Evangelicals Infiltrated the American Military, by Michael L. Weinstein and David Seay, Thomas Dunne Books? Or how about this news story from Agence France Presse from February 13, 2008 US military accused of harboring fundamentalism. Or This one from Democracy Now! from May of this year: “The Crusade for a Christian Military”: Are US Forces Trying to Convert Afghans to Christianity?

Won't that be just great. A bunch of pissed off ex-Marine, ex-paratrooper snake-handlers and holy rollers ready, willing and able to convert the country to their twisted "Taliban" version of Christianity by force if necessary. Quite frankly, I think I'd rather we funnel off these armed and dangerous Jesus-loving pinheads off to fight and die, especially die, in a pointless war in a foreign land than hand them jobs in our civilian police departments.

Whatever the out-come in Afghanistan, it will not be pretty. But a percipitious withdrawal, say within 90 days, will have even uglier repercussions domestically.

Please think about it. You have been warned.
posted at Alternet.org

More "poor" Paula....bleech

Here's an update to yesterday's post concerning the American Idol "judge" Paula Abdul and her whining campaign for a bigger slice of the American Idol-pie.

That paragon of American journalistic excellence, People magazine is polling its online readers on the question: Should Paula Abdul come back as a judge on American Idol?

Here's a sample of the comments

Silkrose July 20th, 2009

Yes, she should be back. I would miss her.

barbara July 20th, 2009

i love Paula. Yeah….. whatever she & the CEO’s decide. I, for one, would LOVE HER TO COME BACK. but it’s out of my hands ~~~ GO PAULA….”"” YOU “”" ARE THE FASHION DIVA~~~~~~~~~~

nichol July 20th, 2009

If Paula goes, im not watching and im asking my friends to do the same.. They brought Kara in hoping we’d get use to her and it would be ok to dump Paula but i dont think so..

Michelle July 20th, 2009

KEEP PAULA IT WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME WITHOUT HER PLEASE KEEP PAULA PLEASE

SA July 20th, 2009

Paula is AMAAAAZING… our generation just sucks so we don’t appreciate such artists from the past. She should be back!

I could go on but what's the point. You'll notice the major of posters seem to be female and young.

And scattered throughout the comments are some very pointed remarks, almost to the point of hatred, on new "Idol" judge Kara DioGuardi, a woman whom I, and I suppose anyone, knew anything about until her addition to the "Idol" judging staff. Though Ms. DioGuardi does have at least one fan

Danielle July 20th, 2009

I think Kara is a good judge. She actually makes sense, unlike Paula. I think Paula should have been gone a while ago and the addition of Kara was a smart one. Honestly I have to fast forward on my DVR every time Paula talks because I literally cannot watch her. She makes me cringe. I find that she says the same things over and over again and I also think she takes whatever Kara says and paraphrases in her own jumbled words. It’s time for Paula to move on so this show can continue to thrive.

And one "Idol" fan does get the equation right

Valerie July 20th, 2009

First, this is just a ploy by Abdul to get more money and more press…

Secondly, if they are going to have a singer as a judge, they should at least be able to sing. Abdul couldn’t sing her way out of a paper bag unless it was over-engineered with too much reverb and dubbing, etc.

Get someone in there who knows what they are talking about and has something constructive to say.

Yes, this is all bullshit publicity engineered to boost the ratings of Fox television's flagship program. A leaking flagship that is set to crash on the rocks of bloated salaries, inflated egos and diminishing amateur talents.

But the saddest fact of the "People" piece is those who are defending some one who clearly does not need defending. Ms Abdul will get her money and the stupid show will go on.

But in the skinner-box that is early twenty-first century America, the pigeons are dancing to the tune paid for by Wall Street's elite. As long as the unwashed remains fixated on the comings and goings of "celebrities," whom the right wing bloviating class labels "Hollywood liberals" and "liberal elite," then the folks who brought you the Dot Com-bubble, the housing-bubble and the TARP bailout-bubble will happily continue in their criminal ways.

Right Wing Lunacy From the Inbox

I have no idea where this bullshit comes from or who thinks it up because as usual there is no attribution, no references cites and certainly no name of anyone who wants to take "credit" as author. Anyway, here's the latest from the wing nut world of tin-foil hats:

Very Interesting questions

More questions, and this time some good questions.

While I've little interest in getting in the middle of the Obama birth
issue, Paul Hollrah over at FSM* did so yesterday and believes the issue can be
resolved by Obama answering one simple question:

What passport did he use when he was shuttling between New York, Jakarta , and Karachi ?

So how did a young man who arrived in New York in early June 1981,
without the price of a hotel room in his pocket, suddenly come up with the price of a round-the-world trip just a month later?

And once he was on a plane, shuttling between New York , Jakarta , and
Karachi, what passport was he offering when he passed through Customs and
Immigration?

The American people not only deserve to have answers to these questions,
they must have answers.

It makes the debate over Obama's citizenship a rather short and simple one.

Q: Did he travel to Pakistan in 1981, at age 20?
A : Yes, by his own admission.

Q: What passport did he travel under?
A: There are only three possibilities.
1) He traveled with a U.S. Passport,
2) He traveled with a British passport, or
3) He traveled with an Indonesia passport.

Q: Is it possible that Obama traveled with a U.S. Passport in 1981?
A: No. It is not possible.
Pakistan was on the U.S. State Department's "no travel" list in
1981.


Conclusion:
When Obama went to Pakistan in 1981 he was traveling either with a
British passport or an Indonesian passport.

If he were traveling with a British passport that would provide proof
that he was born in Kenya on August 4, 1961, not in Hawaii as he claims.
And if he were traveling with an Indonesian passport that would tend to
prove that he relinquished whatever previous citizenship he held, British or
American, prior to being adopted by his Indonesian step-father in 1967.

Whatever the truth of the matter,the American people need to know how he managed to become a "natural born"
American citizen between 1981 and 2008..

Given the destructive nature of his plans for America ,
as illustrated by his speech before Congress
and the disastrous spending plan he has presented to Congress,
the sooner we learn the truth of all this, the better.

If you Don't care that Your President is not a natural born Citizen and in Violation of the Constitution, then Delete this and go into your cocoon.

Destructive nature of his plans for America as illustrated by his speech before Congress? Which speech? What destructive plans? Continuing the Wall Street bailouts begun by George W. Bush's Treasury Secretary Henry "ex-Goldman Sachs CEO" Paulson? The stimulus package designed to keep welfare queen Red States like Texas, Alaska and South Carolina in the fiscal black?His willingness to talk to leaders of countries that wing nuts don't like, such as Fidel Castor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or the Russian two-headed monster Vladimir V. Putin, and Dmitri A. Medvedev?

And where is the proof that Obama traveled to Pakistan in 1981 with either a British, Indonesian or any other passport other than a U.S. passport? There is none in fact,...American citizens traveled freely to Pakistan in 1981. FactCheck.org, June 5, 2009, More "Birther" Nonsense: Obama's 1981 Trip to Pakistan

Every time I read some right wing lunacy like this I get a little more steamed. Why? Because I am devoted to the truth, no matter how ugly, no matter how unsettling. And what really steams me is that somewhere there is some one or, more likely, some organization funded by the same folks who surreptitiously funded reactionary Christian fundamentalists like R.J. Rushdoony, Jerry Falwell, Bill Graham; funded right wing talkers like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly and FoxNews.

Is there a conspiracy?

Yeah! There is a conspiracy. It is a conspiracy to keep Americans at each other's throats over trivia like whether or not the United States is a "Christian" nation, it is not, and whether we should all walk around with a pistol strapped to our hips; whether queers have the rights to fight and die for their country and get married and go through the joys of divorce court. Oh, fuck, that's real important shit. Whenever the history of this era is written, future historians will undoubtedly conclude, early Twenty-first Century Americans were some of the pettiest, stupidest human beings ever to infect the face of the Earth and the tragic fate that befell them couldn't have happened to a more deserving group of people.

In some ways I wish John McCain would have won the 2008 presidential election; then like William Henry Harrison die a month after taking the oath of office leaving us in the tender mercies of President Sarah Palin. Then the dumb bitch could start another unwinnable war, this time with Iran.

At least with a President Palin the death march of the United States would be over quickly. What we are experiencing now is a death by inches.

*Family Security Matters (FSM) originated in 2003 as a project of the Center for Security Policy, a hawkish security policy think tank and advocacy group. Soon after its formation FSM claimed to represent "security moms". While generally supportive of President George W. Bush's domestic and international security policies, FSM have had their differences with the Republican administration over issues such as immigration policy[1], U.S. policy towards Russian Presdient Vladimir Putin[2]. Since the Democratic ascendancy in the 2006 mid-term elections, FSM have also published criticisms of the Bush administration -- such as those by Newt Gingrich -- for being too cautious in their strategy in the Middle East.[3] SourceWatch.org

Hey, Public Library of Des Moines, thanks for making a little girl cry

I just sent this email to the PLDM:

I just returned from the North Side Branch Library.

Until just that minuet when I walked up and the automatic doors did not open did I have any idea that the branch would not open until 1 P.M. For me that is no big deal

However at the same time that I arrived at the North Side Branch another fellow and what appeared to be his grand daughter approached. When the little girl learned the library was not open it broke her heart.

I am sure the change in opening times is due in part to summer vacation schedules for library employees. I am also equally certain that the change in library opening times is due to budgetary constraints. Of course the library and all other city departments would have adequate funds if we in the neighborhoods were not forced into subsidizing all the tax credited, tax forgiven and tax increment funded development projects in downtown for the well-heeled and well-connected.

I understand this. But a little girl does not.

Thank you, Public Library of Des Moines, the city council, Polk County, the State of Iowa and the United States government for our skewed, regressive tax system that is ruining an economy and making a little girl cry.

Sieg heil! mein teacher!

Oh, key-rist, as if this country is militaried-up enough already, now idiot Des Moines Independent School District Superintendent Nancy Sebring proposes setting up a "charter school" along military lines, reports this AM's Sunday Des Moines Register

Des Moines school officials want to open a charter school for boys that draws from traditional military principles, such as leadership and self-discipline.

A formal proposal and price tag are months away, but Superintendent Nancy Sebring said it could include a separate facility for an estimated 50 middle school boys. Fall 2010 is the target opening date, she said.

The military theme is more about resilience and physical well-being than rigid reform, Sebring said.

I have no problem with public schools requiring kids to wear uniforms. Nor do I object to public schools experimenting with single-sex class rooms whereby teaching is geared to the needs and intellectual developmental levels of the two sexes. But a military charter school? Aren't the Boy Scouts and ROTC enough?

According to The Register news story Sebring thinks, a military-themed charter school will somehow, perhaps magically, lower the Des Moines School District's dropout rate. Huh?!

Why doesn't the dumb bitch just ask the kids at Des Moines' high schools why they might drop out? Why doesn't she order some sort of outreach and survey program toward kids who've already dropped out and ask them why they quit school? I'll bet you the reasons why kids drop out have little to do with lack of self-esteem or self-discipline. I'd hazard a guess that most kids drop out for economic reasons, like helping mom pay the rent. And I'll bet there are even some kids who drop out because they're aren't intellectually challenged by the school curriculum.

But this brilliant school administrator's idea is to take the district's hardest cores, put them in one school, give them bootcamp-style training and expect them to come out model citizens. If anything the little bastards will graduate from Sebring's charter bootcamp as better gang leaders or cops (also a criminal gang.)

No word on opinions of Sebring's proposed charter bootcamp from the Des Moines School Board's resident nutcase Jonathan Narcisse.

Update!

Stale news story from Thursday's Washington Post

ATLANTA -- The U.S. Marine Corps is wooing public school districts across the country, expanding a network of military academies that has grown steadily despite criticism that it's a recruiting ploy.

The Marines are talking with at least six districts _ including in suburban Atlanta, New Orleans and Las Vegas _ about opening schools where every student wears a uniform, participates in Junior ROTC and takes military classes, said Bill McHenry, who runs the Junior ROTC program for the Marines.

None of the Chicago military schools made "adequate yearly progress" last year, meaning they fell short of basic standards under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Let's "save" the old building by moving it, selling it on eBay

What's the logic in this:

A preservation group in Des Moines is turning to a popular auction website in hopes of finding a buyer for a historic structure.

The opening bid on eBay is $26,000 for the Continental Oil Company building.

It opened in Iowa's capitol city in 1933 as a gas and service station. The 26-by-44-foot building with a terra cotta roof is in the architectural style of Spanish Mission Revival. It was saved from the wrecking ball by being jacked up and moved, but now needs a permanent home.

Sarah Oltrogge, spokeswoman for Des Moines' Historic East Village, says too many buildings in the area are being flattened. "We really didn't want to see another building go down and this one particularly has inspired so much conversation because it is unique looking," Oltrogge says.
Radio Iowa

Now hold on for a second, why do we need to move the old gas station in order to save it? I mean it is was in a perfectly good location for, quoting Ms. Oltrogger again,"...a coffee house... or "...a great small office for someone. I mean there are new condos, shops, office complexes and a couple of gay bars in the neighborhood so the old Conoco/Dewey Ford gas station should stay in situ as it were.

But things ain't that simple here in the city of real estate developers and insurance company kingpins. Last August JSC Properties Inc, owned by James Cownie, a relative of Mayor Frank Cownie, decided a parking lot would look pretty nice at the old gas station's 203 E. Grand location.

Rather than fight Cownie the residents and business owners of Des Moines newly fashionable "East Village" ponied up funds to move the old gas station and put it up for auction on ebay.

I'm sure the "East Villagers" are hoping that some wealthy, community spirited local will purchase the structure so they can continue enjoying it.

I'm hoping that since they didn't stop Cownie's parking lot plan that some well-heeled pick from California or Texas buys the old building and ships it, brick-by-brick to Los Angeles or Houston.

The Department of You Get What You Pay For

In an effort to save the taxpayer some money the Des Moines City Council in its infinite wisdom "privatized" the groundskeeping duties of the city parks to one A + Lawn and Landscape. Reports Jason Pulliam in the May 30, 2009 edition of The Des Moines Register:

City officials say lackluster groundskeeping over the Memorial Day weekend will prompt them to issue refunds to people who rented shelters at a south-side Des Moines park.

The City Council earlier this year voted unanimously to privatize mowing and custodial services at 73 public parks as part of a larger plan to save taxpayers about $3.3 million a year. But the appearance of Ewing Park, 5300 Indianola Ave., and some others has not measured up.

The privatization of mowing and custodial services was a key piece of a plan to save taxpayer money and help address a tight city budget. Parks department personnel made up the bulk of 88 employees who lost their jobs to help fill a roughly $7.5 million hole in the 2009-10 budget. Some of the employees were rehired after the parks department restructured.

Said moronic Better Business Bureau chief and Des Moines city councilmember-at-large, Chris Coleman: "It can be frustrating, but I haven't heard any complaints, and I'm not going to overreact and say this is some way related to the privatization[.]"

Yeah, right, Chris.

More Who Writes This Shit??

The things one finds in his email Inbox:

DO I HAVE THIS STRAIGHT?

HIS FATHER WAS AN BLACK AFRICAN MUSLIM FROM KENYA.
WE HAVE SEEN PICTURES OF HIS AFRICAN FAMILY.

HIS MOTHER WAS A WHITE AMERICAN ATHEIST FROM KANSAS.
WHERE ARE THE PICTURES OF HIS AMERICAN FAMILY?

HIS FATHER DESERTED HIS MOTHER WHEN HE WAS ONLY TWO YEARS OLD AND WENT BACK TO AFRICA BY WAY OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. HOW? WAS HIS FATHER WEALTHY?

HIS MOTHER MARRIED AN INDONESIAN MUSLIM AND THEN MOVED TO JAKARTA WHERE HE WAS ENROLLED IN A MUSLIM SCHOOL.

WHEN HE REACHED HIGH SCHOOL AGE HIS MOTHER SENT HIM TO HAWAII TO BE WITH HIS WHITE GRANDPARENTS AND HE WAS PUT INTO AN EXPENSIVE PRIVATE SCHOOL. HE LATER WENT TO HARVARD UNIVERSITY. HOW? WERE HIS GRANDPARENTS RICH?

HE LIVES IN A $1.4 MILLION HOUSE OBTAINED THROUGH A DEAL WITH A WEALTHY FUNDRAISER. HOW?

HE "WORKED" AS A CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST IN CHICAGO. HE HAS NEVER HELD A PRODUCTIVE JOB OR RECEIVED A PAY CHECK THAT WAS NOT GOVERNMENT-FUNDED AND/OR TAXPAYER SUPPORTED.

THE PRESIDENCY IS NOT A CIVIL RIGHTS POSITION, NOR IS IT SUBJECT TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION SET ASIDES; ON-THE-JOB TRAINING WON'T CUT IT.

HE ENTERED POLITICS AT THE STATE LEVEL AND THEN THE NATIONAL LEVEL WHERE HE HAS MINIMAL EXPERIENCE.

HE IS PROUD OF HIS "AFRICAN HERITAGE" (A FATHER WHO GOT A WHITE GIRL PREGNANT AND DESERTED HER).

WHERE IS THE PRIDE IN HIS "WHITE HERITAGE"? (A MOTHER WHO FLAUNTED CONVENTION AND DID NOT BELIEVE IN GOD).

SOME MIGHT THINK THERE WAS NOT MUCH TO BE PROUD OF EITHER WAY.

HE BELONGS, AND HAS BELONGED FOR OVER 20 YEARS, TO AN "AFRO-CENTRIC" CHURCH IN CHICAGO THAT HATES WHITES, HATES JEWS, AND BLAMES AMERICA FOR ALL THE WORLD'S PERCEIVED FAULTS. (INCLUDING CREATING THE AIDs VIRUS IN ORDER TO INFLICT IT ON AFRICANS).

HE REPEATEDLY WHITEWASHES THE PASTOR, HIS CHURCH AND THE MEMBERS WHO CHEERED AFTER HEARING VITRIOLIC TIRADES AGAINST AMERICA.

HE COULD NOT CONFRONT HIS PASTOR BUT HE WANTS US TO BELIEVE HE CAN CONFRONT NORTH KOREA AND IRAN ?
YEAH RIGHT ! !

DURING HIS VERY BRIEF TIME IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE HE HAS MANAGED TO AMASS THE NUMBER ONE ULTRA LIBERAL VOTING RECORD OUT OF THE ONE HUNDRED MEMBERS.

HE HAS VOTED CONSISTENTLY FOR BIGGER GOVERNMENT AND HIGHER TAXES. HE HAS VOTED FOR BIG ENTITLEMENTS AND LEGISLATION THAT WOULD SEVERELY CURTAIL AMERICA'S ABILITY TO FIGHT TERRORISM AND TO PROTECT OUR BORDERS AND OUR NATIONAL INTERESTS AROUND THE WORLD.

BUT, HE IS A GOOD ORATOR. ISN'T THAT A COMFORT?

YEAH, I THINK I SEE HOW WELL HE COULD UNITE THE COUNTRY.

I THINK THE TRUTH IS THAT HE HOPES NO ONE WILL PUT THE PIECES TOGETHER.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO OUR NEW CHIEF PILOT. HE HAS NEVER FLOWN AN AIRPLANE, IN FACT HE HAS NEVER EVEN SAT IN THE COCKPIT, BUT HE SAYS HE HAS RIDDEN ON PLANES BEFORE. WE ARE SURE HE WILL GUIDE US SAFELY THROUGH THE STORMS WE MAY ENCOUNTER ON THIS FLIGHT. PEOPLE WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? HAVE YOU NEVER HEARD THE STORY ABOUT THE WOLF HIDING IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING SO HE CAN DESTROY THEM FROM WITH-IN ? THE HAND WRITING IS ON THE WALL, DO YOU NOT HAVE EYES TO SEE IT ?BINGO IS THE ONE !

THINK LONG AND HARD BEFORE YOU VOTE FOR THIS GUY!

You would think that by now people would be savvy enough, sophisticated enough to question an anonymously authored, unattributed email purporting to be truth. But, alas, no.

Of course the most stinging "criticism" this list of half-truths and innuendos raises against Obama, besides being mothered by an atheist and being pastored by a "racist," Black, Christian minister, is that he never in his life worked a "productive" job, meaning in the private sector for a bank, lending institution, real estate, so on and so forth.

Of course this e-missive overlooks the fact that the never-mentioned "Senator" John McCain has sucked off Uncle Sugar's tit for his entire life. He was born on a Navy base in the Panama Canal Zone, both his father and grandfather were admirals in the U.S. Navy; after graduating fifth lowest in his Annapolis Naval Academy class of 1958 he went on to an distinguish himself by promptly getting shot down over North Vietnam and taking up residence in the so-called Hanoi Hilton for five years.

Here we pick up the narrative of McCain's life from the Web site Biography.com:

Though McCain had lost most of his physical strength and flexibility, he was determined to continue serving as a naval aviator. After a painful nine months of rehabilitation, he returned to flying duty, but it soon became clear that his injuries had permanently impaired his ability to advance in the Navy.

His introduction to politics came in 1977, when he was assigned as the Navy's liaison to the U.S. Senate. In 1980, after marrying his second wife, Cindy Hensley, McCain moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and began working on establishing connections in politics. He was first elected to political office in 1982, easily winning a seat in the House of Representatives when his well-known war record helped overcome doubts about his "carpetbagger" status.

So were is McCain's experience in the vaunted "private" sector. The only reference I find is this line from the Web site Keep and Share.com, "In 1980, McCain married Cindy Hensley and moved to Phoenix, where he went to work for his father-in-law's Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship." So two years working in his father-in-law's beer distributorship is all the experience in the "private" sector John McCain has on his resume. Two years later off to the U.S. House and back on Uncle Sugar's tit up to the present. Talk about your "Washington insider."

Of course our wing nutty friends rationalize this away. "Duh, McCain spend five years prisoner of war...he hero...he only get from 'Murican people what he deserve."

And, as I've pointed out before, this garbage works particularly well on white, suburban men, and women, who like to proclaim loudly and often how hard working they are at down at the bank, lending institution, real estate office and so on, as they put their feet upon the desk and lace their fingers behind their heads. The other audience for this type of propaganda are lower-working class whites, those most adversely effected by the looming economic depression (which "President" John McCain says he will do nothing about.) Perhaps this email, and others like it along with electronic lynchings by association, helps explain McCain drawing even with Obama in the latest presidential polls. These types of sub rosa campaigns are very effective because they appear to be written by an average Joe, like me, and so appear to echo the thoughts of the person, or persons, forwarding the email. But they are dishonest.

Once again let me paraphrase Jimmy Carter in noting that America deserves a government as good as its people. And if John McCain wins in November that can only mean that the American people are truly stupid, easily influenced, emotional babies who get exactly what they deserve.

Why didn't she get an abortion?

The latest pretty-white-girl-goes-missing-pretty-white-girl-found-dead story concerns one Maria Lauterbach, USMC, who reportedly wandered away from Camp Lejeune sometime before Christmas. She has been found murdered along with the fetus she carried since an alleged rape sometime in April of last year.

On discovering the burned bodies of Lauterbach and her fetus in a shallow grave Saturday Onslow County, NC. Sheriff Ed Brown said,"...[The] little hand was about the size of my thumb. The little fingers were rolled up[.] One of the things that will probably stick with me for a long time, and forever, is that little hand, the way those fingers were turned, that had been burned off the arm. That is bizarre. That is tragic. And it's disgusting." And disgusting it is. But that little hand also begs the question: If Maria Lauterbach is a rape victim why did she decide to carry the child of a brutally, violent act to term? Why did she not get an abortion?

From the little personal information in cyberspace about Ms. Lauterbach one can neither conclude that abortion was not an option because of religious conviction or she was, indeed, involved romantically with her killer, Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean.

But if she had had an abortion, after reporting the alleged rape, she might yet still be alive. And if not at least a fetus would not be a murder victim.

This is a case where abortion really would have been a blessing.

On Obama's church and economic mal-distribution

hey et, this was an email i got from a co-worker on obama - my response are on top.

thought you would find it interesting.

they seem more a black PRIDE church than a black SUPREMIST (sic) church

• To have a church whose theological perspective starts from the vantage point of Black liberation theology being its center, is not to say that African or African American people are superior to any one else.

• African-centered thought, unlike Eurocentrism, does not assume superiority and look at everyone else as being inferior.

• There is more than one center from which to view the world. In the words of Dr. Janice Hale, “Difference does not mean deficience (sic).” It is from this vantage point that Black liberation theology speaks.


what's wrong with being a muslim (sic)?

and you can get in trouble for sending this kind of politic and religious stuff at work.


Now I do know that we get a lot of stuff through our email, but this one certainly is an eye opener!!

Obama mentioned his church during his appearance with Oprah. It's the Trinity Church of Christ. I found this interesting. Obama's church: Please read and go to this church's website and read what is written there. It is very alarming. Barack Obama is a member of this church and is running for President of the U.S. If youlook (sic) at the first page of their website, you will learn that this congregation has a non-negotiable commitment to Africa. No where is AMERICA even mentioned.
Notice too, what color you will need to be if you should want to join Obama's church... B-L-A-C-K!!!
Doesn't look like his choice of religion has improved much over his (former?) Muslim upbringing.
Are you aware that Obama's middle name is Mohammed (sic)? Strip away his nice looks, the big smile and smooth talk and what do you get? Certainly a racist, as plainly defined by the stated position of his church! And possibly a covert worshiper of the Muslim faith, even today. This guy desires to rule over America while his loyalty is totally vested in a Black Africa!
I cannot believe this has not been all over the TV and newspapers. This is why it is so important to pass this message along to all of our family & friends. To think that Obama has even the slightest chance in the run for the presidency, is really scary.
Click on the link below: This is the web page for the church Barack Obama belongs to:


http://www.tucc.org/about.htm

I want to thank my friend Older Music Geek for forwarding this bit of unadulterated race-baiting. Again this e-mail begs the question, who writes this shit and why?

Well the "why" is very clear. It's the oldest con in American history: divide the poor and working class along racial lines so they won't fight back against their wealthy, corporatist exploiters.



And anyway what's so unusual about an all African American church? Christian church denominations in the United States, whether we like it or not, are and historically have been segregated due to past and present prejudices, attitudes and mere physical location within a community. Does that mean the de facto racial separation of American Christian denominations is inherently bad? I don't know? Yet should we not be equally outraged that Mike Huckabee was pastor of the predominantly "White" Beech Street First Baptist Church of Texarkana, Arkansas from 1986 to 1992? Or how about Hillary Clinton's nominal affiliation with the predominantly "White" United Methodist Church? And about Mitt Romney's Mormonism, I won't go there. But a word of caveat here: The above named politicians all desire to rule over American while their loyalties are totally vested in White Europe!

Furthermore the denomination, United Church of Christ, of Obama's home church is not a "tradition" black church denomination. In fact its roots are embedded in the soil of Congregationalist New England, not the slavocracy of the old South. In other words, Barak Obama's church is black with white roots.

But what really galls the writer of the above e-mail is found in Trinity Church's mission statement:

We are called out to be "a chosen people" that pays no attention to socio-economic or educational backgrounds. We are made up of the highly educated and the uneducated. Our congregation is a combination of the haves and the have-nots; the economically disadvantaged, the under-class, the unemployed and the employable.

The fortunate who are among us combine forces with the less fortunate to become agents of change for God who is not pleased with America’s economic mal-distribution!

Imagine that. A Christian church daring to question the validity of the "free market" economy! Daring to challenge the "some are winners the rest losers" mentality of too many, mostly white, suburban and young, Americans.

And what a heretical revelation! "God" is not withholding "his" anointing from American because of "fags". Nor is "he" displeased with abortion. Nor does "he" love guns almost as much as "he" loves the Jews. No. "God" is pissed that a mere ten percent of the American people control almost 72% of the nation's wealth and out of that ten percent, the upper one percent control nearly 35 percent to that total. "God" is pissed because income for the average American hasn't appreciably risen since 1973! "God...is not pleased with America’s economic mal-distribution!"

No wonder the Huckabees, the Romneys, the Clintons, the Bushs don't want this message to get out.

What do Europeans know about border security?

What do Europeans know about border security that we "smart" Americans don't? Here's what a report from the German Der Spiegal.de says:

On Friday, for the first time ever, Germany and Austria will no longer have passport checks on any of its borders except on the frontier with Switzerland. Nine new countries -- Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Malta -- will officially become part of the Schengen Agreement, the European treaty that allows for border-free travel. Switzerland will, in 2008, join Norway and Iceland as non-EU members of Schengen. As of this weekend, travelers can go from the easternmost tip of Estonia all the way to the Atlantic coast in Portugal without encountering a single border official (airport checks are to remain in effect for the first few months of 2008).

Meanwhile we "intelligent," "brave" American must surrender a passport at the Canadian and Mexican boarders after January 31, 2008.

Update on passport

Well, no surprise here, I canceled the goddamned thing. Yeah, and I'm out a hundred twelve bucks. But does that mean I'm going to let it rest? Hell, no! I received a privacy release from and sent it and a letter back to Congressman Leonard Boswell's office yesterday after a telephone discussion with "Michael" at the Charleston Passport Center.

This doesn't get any better. Now "Michael" tells me that "a documents expert" at the passport center determined that the bottom portion of my birth certificate is missing. I guess that's the portion where Polk County embedded the microchip in 1950!

What really pisses me off is that some goddamned GS-4 is making the claim that the birth certificate, that laid in my safe deposit box for eleven years, had been deliberately tampered with by parties unknown, including myself. When I get the birth certificate back I'm going to the Polk County Recorder's Office and ask if anything's amiss. If I'm told that it looks like a bona fide Polk County issued copy of a birth certificate, I'm going to ask for an affidavit stating the birth certificate is on good shape and forward that information to Senator Harkin's and Congressman Boswell's offices. If it comes back looking like was mangled in some sort of machinery I'll forward that information to Harkin and Boswell's offices too.

And if my birth certificate comes back all chewed up I'm going to be pissed. But not because it's torn, spindled and mutilated but because these passport jackasses lied. If they'd sent me a letter saying ",Sorry, but the machine ate your birth certificate, can we have another"...yeah, sure, I'd be pissed but I'd understand.

But what "Michael" and his merry band of GS-4s have done is question the very authenticity of my citizenship. That's something no one, especially not the federal government, has the right to do to anyone.

Passport! Schmassport!

You know, I can't say I've been too terribly happy to say I'm an American for some time but now I'm pissed off. This "security" state bullshit has gone way too far. Let me tell you why.

My 83-year-old father wants to winter in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas for perhaps the last time. I'm driving down with him and then I'm flying home. In the spring I'll fly down to the McAllen airport, help him pack up and drive him back home. That's not the problem.

You see we like to cross the Rio Grande into the little Mexican border town of Nuevo Progresso for an authentic Mexican meal. We had Thanksgiving dinner at Garcia's Restaurant above the Canada Store on Ave. Benito Juarez last year and the food and friendly service were wonderful.

So between then and now the Department of Homeland Security says that Americans coming back from Mexico and Canada, starting January 31, 2008, must possess a passport. So, thinking I'm doing the right thing, on October 19 of this year, I go to my credit union, open my safe-deposit box, retrieve my birth certificate where it has lain for the last eleven years and go to the passport office in the main Post Office. I fill out the application form, have my photo taken, surrender my birth certificate, which at the time the lady handling the application found in perfect order, and wrote out two checks, one to the State Department for $67 and another to the Postal Service for $45. This is so simple I don't know why I never did it before. So far so good.

But when I open my mail on November 5 I find a letter from the Charleston (SC) Passport Center tell me that there's a tiny corner cut out of the bottom of my birth certificate (this was how some asshole named "Michael" described it to me over the phone last night.) A fucking tiny corner missing from the bottom of my birth certificate?! What the fuck?! Did Polk County have micro-chips embedded in that missing corner of my birth certificate in 1950 or something?! What the fuck difference does it make?!

Anyway, you can't talk to anybody from the U.S. State Department Passport division over the phone about this, you can't email anybody and get any satisfaction and the fucking Charleston Passport Center is closed to the public! This is MY government we're talking about here. A fucking federal facility not open to the fucking public! The only way one can contact the Charleston Passport Center is via snail-mail, something I don't really mind, but it is childish. Here's the reason given for this petty behavior by my government:

The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative is a result of the Intelligence Reform and Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA), requiring all travelers to present a passport or other document that denotes identity and citizenship when entering the U.S.


The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on February 22 its intent to propose, as part of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), significant flexibility regarding travel documents required for U.S. and Canadian children as part of WHTI requirements for U.S. land and sea border entry in 2008.


The goal of the initiative is to strengthen U.S. border security while facilitating entry for U.S. citizens and legitimate foreign visitors by providing standardized documentation that enables the Department of Homeland Security to quickly and reliably identify a traveler.
Travel.State.gov

Got it? "...to quickly and reliably identify a traveler."

But you know what, folks?! This isn't for security's sake. This isn't going to keep terrorists out of the country. This is about harassment and humiliation. This is bullying by the Department of Homeland Security. But that's what this government is now all about; it bullys and harasses its employees, bullys other sovereign nations, humiliates illegal immigrants and harasses, humiliates and bullys it citizens in thousands of little ways on a daily basis.

LTE: October 21, 2007

I find John Carlson the least professional, least reliable, not to mention least readable, of all the Des Moines Register's in-house columnists. However in a column in The Sunday Des Moines Register, "Biden takes a hit by funding vehicle that saved Iowans," October 21, 2007, Carlson hits a new low in journalistic sloppiness.

At one point in his column, an homage to Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) military vehicles and Delaware Senator Joe Biden, Carlson states as fact, Iowa City antiwar activists confronted the Democratic presidential candidate with placards reading "Impeach Joe Biden." Yet in doing a cursory Google search to prove, or not, Carlson's allegation, the only Web page with the requisite criteria was Carlson's own column!

Carlson implies that only Biden, out of the Senatorial Democrats running for the White House, supports the troops in Iraq. Had Carlson merely cross-checked to Register blogger David Goodner's October 10 entry he would learn that Biden, like the other Democratic presidential candidates, did not vote on the full National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 to which the Biden MRAP amendment is attached. A further check is found at the Web site which shows that not only did Biden skip the defense funding vote but so did Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama, Christopher Dodds and Iraq war supporter John McCain.

In this age of Internet connectivity and Google searches Carlson has no excuse for playing fast and loose with facts.

Carlson, like all Americans, is guaranteed the right to address his opinions. However, the use of half-truths, implications and innuendoes in the guise of fact, placing editorial opinion on the border of propaganda, has no place in the arsenal of the responsible journalist.

Clarification on Smiling Jack's Snake-Oil Show

I found a Wikipedia entry on the medical home con...cept that I mischaracterized the other day as "psycho-babble bullshit." What I really meant is, it's marketing-twaddle bullshit, which is even worse than psycho-babble. Anyway here's what the Wikipedia entry says:

Central to the Medical Home approach is the premise that patient-centered care requires a fundamental shift in the relationship between patients and their primary care physicians. There must be a higher degree of personalized care coordination, access beyond the acute care episode, and identification of key medical and community resources to meet the patients’ needs.

O.K., that sounds reasonable but scroll on down and see how the con...cept gets twisted.

Some suggest that the blended fee-for-service and partial capitation in this system mimics the “gatekeeper” models historically employed by managed care organizations. There are important distinctions between care coordination in the medical home and the “gatekeeper” model. In the Medical home, the patient has open access to see whatever physician they choose. No referral or permission is required. (Sounds reasonable, doesn't it, ES) The personal physician of choice, who has comprehensive knowledge of the patient’s medical conditions, facilitates and provides information to subspecialists involved in the care of the patient.(Here's where it gets interesting) The gatekeeper model placed more financial risk on the physicians resulting in rewards for less care. The Medical Home puts emphasis on medical management rewarding quality patient-centered care.

Let me see, as I understand this the "medical home" concept shifts the emphasis for insurance payments away from medical "specialists" to primary care physicians. From the Wikipedia article,

Primary care physicians, on average, earn about $90,000 less than the average specialist.[10] ...[T]he current health care payment system values medical procedures more highly than health maintenance and disease prevention through patient collaboration. The Medical Home concept moves payment towards a greater emphasis on physicians and their mid-level associates collaborating with patients to ensure health.

In other words it's a "share the wealth" program for neighborhood family docs and their more highly remunerated specialist friends. At the same time by "sharing the wealth" the unstated purpose of the "medical home" con...cept is to limit and over time reduce the number of medical specialists. Limiting the growth of medical specialists is controversial within America's medical community but as the pie for cardiologists, plastic surgeons, etc., become smaller more medical students will opt for the "general practitioner" degree. This explains former Iowa governor and current Des Moines University president and CEO Terry Branstad's inclusion on Smiling Jack's little snake-oil show.

So long story short, "medical home" just means the insurance industry and the health care industry works in coordination to shift the fee scale emphasis away from specialists to family docs and their staff. Like I said it's a share the wealth scheme designed to get kids, who'd otherwise enter medical school with thoughts of becoming millioniares by being dick-doctors or pussy-physicians, to think about being a kindly, old neighborhood sawbones, albeit one with a $90,000 per annum boost in income.

But won't this mean we, the sick public, will pay significantly lower healthcare insurance premiums.

Nope.

Obsessively, relentlessly in your, or some one's, pocket

Des Moines-based MidAmerican Energy says it’s interested in building a natural gas pipeline on the North Slope of Alaska.

David Sokol, MidAmerican chief executive, told Petroluem News that MidAmerican and unnamed partners plan to submit an application to the state this fall.

The deadline for applications is Nov. 30.

In 2004, MidAmerican proposed building a $6.3 billion, 745-mile natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to the border with Canada’s Yukon Territory. The company later withdrew that application[.]
Des moines Register

Awww...ain't that nice.

Here's some more of what the Register didn't tell us:

The only thing that could stand in the way of MidAmerican’s application, [Sokol] said, was if the FBI investigations and indictments of Alaska State and U.S. lawmakers would somehow “circle back to implicate any of the producers. If they do, our concern is the process might negatively impact a gas line project from a timing standpoint.”

Applications for a project to take North Slope gas to Lower 48 markets have to be filed under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act by Nov. 30. Strongly supported by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, AGIA passed at the end of the 2007 legislative session despite intense criticism from the North Slope’s three oil producers and gas owners, BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil. The three mega-majors, which own controlling interest in the 800-mile trans-Alaska oil pipeline, have indicated it’s imperative they also own controlling interest in a gas line in order to keep project costs down. They say AGIA, as written, won’t work.
Petroleum News.com

So just what is the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act so favored by Republican Governor Palin?

Supposedly it is designed to start "competative" bidding for the construction of a natural gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope oil fields. But there is a sweetener and this is what undoubtedly drew MidAmerican.

Sec. 43.90.110. Natural gas pipeline project construction inducement. (a)
15 Subject to the limitations of this chapter, a license issued under this chapter entitles the
16 licensee or its designated affiliate to receive
17 (1) subject to appropriation, state matching contributions in the form of
18 reimbursements in a total amount not to exceed $500,000,000, paid to the licensee
19 during the seven-year period immediately following the date the license is awarded;
20 the payment period may be extended by the commissioners under an amendment or
21 modification of the project plan under AS 43.90.210; a payment under this paragraph
Governor's office Alaska, pdf

And here's another tidbit the Register didn't have room to report, once again from Petroleum News story cited above:

So, what about costs? Gas prices are high now, but what if they drop? Opponents of an independent gas line say the producers will be more concerned about keeping construction costs low because they’ll be shipping gas in the line, whereas a pipeline company such as MidAmerican isn’t going be as worried about cost overruns because it can simply charge a tariff based on whatever the pipeline costs them to build.

So MidAmerican, the utility company obsessively, relentlessly at your service, if this deal goes through recoups part of its contruction costs by a handout from the Alaska state government, then can turn around a jack up our natural gas bill some time in the future.