Three things I did at lunchtime

This post has nothing to do with the Anchorage equal rights ordinance — aren’t you glad for a break? — but two of the things I did have to do with two of our staunch allies in that fight.  The third is just for fun.  We need it.

One.

Linda Kellen Biegel & Mel Green at an Equality Works fundraiser in May. First time we'd seen each other in years! Click through to the Flickr page to see the C4Per complaint & my reply to it. As of this writing, the complainer has no photos or contacts in Flickr -- looks like she got a Flickr account only to register her Stapletongue-inspired C4Per whine.

I’ve been aware for several days of Linda Kellen Biegel’s (Celtic Diva’s) effort to raise funds to pay for a records request that the Palin administration,with its much vaunted commitment to (pretended) transparency is wanting to charge an arm & a leg for.  The importance of the work Linda is doing with this records request is only underscored by Palin & supporters latest attacks on Linda & other progressive Alaska bloggers.  Most recently, another notch in Palin’s bedpost of victimhood:  the latest screed from Palin mouthpiece Meghan Stapleton claiming that Linda’s satirical photoshop of rightwing talk radio host Eddie Burke as a babe in arms to Mama Palin is a “descecration” of Palin’s “iconic” mother & child relationship with her son Trig. (I don’t know if Stapleton is Catholic, but really: Sarah & Trig Palin are not, in fact, Mary & Jesus.) Read Gryphen’s summary at Immoral Minority of this absurdity which is now being picked up by national media.

• Update: See AKMuckraker’s recounting of events on Huffington Post.
• 2nd update: Shannyn Moore also has a fine acount of events.

Why do the Palin people not get this political humor that visually demonstrates Burke’s too-tight relationship with the governor?  Because it’s that too-tight relationship that Linda’s records request is intended to expose.  And they’ll do whatever they can, no matter how ridiculous, to try to put a stop to it.

So I went to Linda’s site & donated some of my hard-earned cash to the records request “government transparency for a huge cost” fee.  Please do so too.  Here’s the FAQ telling you more about the records request & how to donate.

Two.

It was my privilege to finally meet Shannyn Moore a few minutes after she finished testifying in support of the Anchorage equal rights ordinance on the third night of public testimony (June 17).

I heeded AKMuckraker’s request and added my support to send Shannyn Moore to Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh in August.  Click through to add your support too! You can be sure that if Shannyn can go, she’ll bring back what she learns in service to a better Alaska.  You can read Shannyn’s blog here.

Three.

A check of my blog stats shows that yesterday someone had visited an old post from last October called Sarah Palin & intermittent Gunderson syndrome.  I couldn’t remember what it was about so visited it myself.  Oooh, funny: a collection of satirical videos from the Palin’s vice-presidential campaign that will be especially enjoyed by fans of the Coen Brothers’ movie “Fargo.”  I discovered that on porting this post from an older blog site, the code for the embedded YouTube videos had dissappeared. I’ve readded, & also included links to their original home pages on YouTube in case this happens again.  Enjoy!