All of the Excitement...

Surrounding the imminent inauguration of one Barack Hussein Obama, further aligned by the calendar and perhaps the stars with the birthday of Martin Luther King, is a wonderful thing to behold for both my demographic (we used to say ""my generation") of Boomers who came up in the North. Even more so for my particular life circumstances: Chicago Heights by way of South Chicago, then on to Upstate NY where there were probably three black families in a working class town of 10,000. Old enough to remember MLK's untimely - or perhaps timely, death (if you're going to die for the cause of racial equality, why not 1968?), yet young enough to reasonably expect to see at least Obama's 1st full term. Seems all that ennui from after Barack's election has dissipated at least until the last inaugural ball. And no, we're not dressing up, chilling champagne and pretending while watching TV, the way some people dress up for soap opera weddings, or suit up to watch football games. I'm way too sophisticated for that. Doesn't mean I won't cry a little, if only from the relief of the humiliation of 8 years of #43 and dodging a Sarah-Palin-death-by-meteor-for-America.

I also had to cry a little when I learned that Julian Michels, AKA "my other dad," had quietly left this planet on January 14. Julian, who went by "Mike" among his many friends and fellow scientists in the little town of Norwich NY, or "Hoo-le-Han" among his six (including me) rambunctious children, was a tall man with a necessarily stoic and calm demeanor. In my memory, his only "vices" were the occasional glass of Thunderbird wine, and a predilection for the "Condensed Reader's Digest" versions of contemporary literature. He and Mae (AKA "my other mom," who took her leave of the planet ahead of Julian, probably to get their room ready at the elder hostel-of-whatever-comes-next)also possessed an impressive - and to me - ancient collection of National Geographics. Julian and Mae were kind and generous, especially with meat, mashed potatoes, corn-on-the-cob and iced tea, almost any evening, even if I'd already eaten dinner once at my house. Julian and Mae's son Jeff writes that Julian's departure leaves five smaller families where there was once one. Five families, but six kids - 'cause even after 40-some years, I'm still one of them.

Hang 'Em High...

Is the movie quoted by Alaska State Representative and ardent Republican, Jay Ramras.
As reported in the Anchorage Daily News, death penalty fan Jay Ramras was fittingly (yet unknowingly) ironical in his statement: "I'm like Clint Eastwood on this issue, 'hang 'em high.'"

It appears that Ramras and like-minded Republican legislators are attempting to bring the death penalty, gone since 1957, back to Alaska.

Notice the perverse brio of Ramras'boast (one wonders if he's also inclined to quote Groucho Marx in DUCK SOUP: "Line them up against the wall and 'pop goes the weasel!'"").

However, Rep. Ramras is evidently knowledgeable about neither Eastwood nor the western film genre. In the 1968 movie, the words "hang 'em high" were spoken not by the character played by Eastwood, but by "Hanging Judge Fenton," played by the recently departed Pat Hingle.

So where’s the irony? Ramras and other death penalty advocates should note that the man hung in the film was played by Clint Eastwood, condemned by an overzealous justice system for a crime he did not commit.

Anyone here remember...

Trooper-gate? You know, where Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was accused of using her office to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from the Alaska State Troopers? And when that never happened, she had the commish of public safety cashiered? And the state's legislative ethics committee found that Sarah had violated the law, yet a hand-picked (by Sarah) state personnel board found her not guilty of any ethical or legal infractions? Well, get ready for parts II and III.

First, we have a state drug investigator and the troopers union alleging political meddling (see today's www.adn.com for details)in the belated arrest of Sherry Johnston. Sherry Johnston is the mother of Levi Johnston, who's sire to the baby of Bristol Palin, who is Sarah Palin's daughter...got that? It seems that the state's drug enforcement unit had enough on Levi's mom to arrest her for trafficking in OxyContin (Rush Limbaugh's favorite) back in October, but they were told in so many ways not to make the bust until after the November presidential election. This is according to AST Drug Investigator Kyle Young, who was involved in the case, and the Alaska Public Safety Employees Union. If allegations prove true, Governor Palin's once seraphic rep will suffer again.

Then comes this nugget from Alaska Daily News opinion writer and local right-wing radio host Dan Fagan, further accusing Sarah (or surrogates) of setting up her erstwhile son-in-law (the aforementioned Levi Johnston) with an electrician's apprenticeship up on Alaska's North Slope. On its face, it might not seem that egregious a thing, save for the fact that Levi is not qualified (no high school diploma, no GED), and he shot to the head of a 100-person waiting list, and no one, including the people who are in charge of the apprenticeship program, can explain why. As a former Illinoisan, I'm reminded of Richard K. Daley's Chicago, no?

Fagan goes on to postulate that Governor Palin's numbers have been suffering steadily since going under the bright lights of national political scrutiny, and that these revelations do not help her. Polls, Fagan says, indicated that should Sarah challenge U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski in 2010, Sarah would lose big. He even claims Sarah's chances for a 2nd term as governor are only 3 in 10.

If nothing else, all this makes for an interesting next couple of years here in the "Greatland."