topcover -- commentary and news blog

With Douglas Island as background, the 399 foot-long US Coast Guard Cutter Polar Sea makes way in Gastineau Channel Wednesday afternoon in prepartion to mooring to to Cruise Ship Dock in Downtown Juneau. The 13,000 ton displacement icebreaker and her crew are taking a four-day break in the Capital City before heading south to conclude an 101-day long patrol at her homeport of Seattle, Washington. The Polar Sea and her sister cutter, Polar Star are America's most powerful icebreakers. By using the 75,000 horsepower produced by three gas turbine engines, the Polar Sea and Polar Stat are capable of ramming and breaking as much as 21 foot-thick sea ice. This mission was the first ocean science mission in a decade for the Polar Sea -- the cutter was manned by Coast Guard personnel who supported several teams of scientists who conducted multiple research studies.

To get to the point, I haven't been feeling well lately. I've a suspicious lump under my right pectoral muscle. Plus I have a bonus thyroid nodule. Though we have a good hospital here, the Department of Veterans Affairs would have me travel to Anchorage next month to get biopsies/removal. I've had it and I can no longer recommend a career in the military due to the inadeqacies of the VA.

I lost the mayoral election last month and my opponent was elected to his fourth term. I did my best. There is no shame in that -- nor in trying).

Laika celebrated her 12th birthday in October. She is doing well and is due for geriatric exam next month. She seems to be enjoying her old age and the new snow.

More news when I have it.

The Juneau city clerk certified my mayoral petition and APOC paperwork this morning -- meaning I'm on the ballot for the 6 October CBJ municipal election.

As it stands, it just maybe be myself and current Mayor Bruce Bothelo competing for the office. The filing deadline is 17 August.

More soon.

I'll be on the History Channel Tuesday evening. The show is "That's Impossible." The episode deals with weather warfare. It airs at 10 PM Pacific Time.

Enjoy!

The Juneau Empire now knows of my intention to run for the office of Mayor of the City and Bureau of Juneau. I'll post their story when it runs and follow-up with a detailed explanation of what my campaign shall focus upon.

For the most part, the race won't start until later next month and the election is in early October.

Governor-two-more-weeks-Sarah, the Dude and extended family walkabout downtown Juneau this evening.

I stalked the Governor tonight and landed the only interview since this morning's bizarre stepping down speach. You would think at the least that national media would be dogging her. Nope. I got a few questions in before being schooed off by Todd and the security guys.

Governor, how has the reaction being to your stepping down?

"Great, really positive."

How so?

"Just great."

Great for who, you?

"Yes, for me, for Alaska and for America. It is the right right thing to do."

Why?

Unanswered.

What are you in town for -- will you be in tomorrow's parade? (She was due to participate)

"I at least will be watching." (BTW: she is not very well-liked here in Juneau).

So, there it is. This global media can suck it.

Clipping along at nearly 20 knots Tuesday afternoon, the massive Norwegian Pearl dwarfs her dimunitive defender: a 25-foot SAFE utility boat and crew from US Coast Guard Station Juneau.

The Pearl is one big pig. At 965 feet in length and displacing 93,500 tons, she is nearly the size of an American aircraft carrier. The Pearl carries 2400 passengers and is typical of the kind of new cruise ships that visit Juneau daily during tourist season (we get around a million visitors a year).

Seaman Anthony Utton mans a M240 machine during a security sweep of Juneau's main harbor. Station Juneau has two 25-footers and one 47-foot motor life boat. The highly manueverable SAFE boat has a crew of four and can reach speeds in excess of 40 knots due to it's twin four-stroke 225 horsepower engines. Station Juneau conducts random security escorts of visting cruise ships -- maintaining a 100-yard exclusion zone around them.

Thanks again (as always) to Station Juneau for taking me out.

Her Majesty's Canadian Ship Edmonton (MM 703) gets underway this morning (Friday). The Edmonton and her sister ship, HMCS Whitehorse made a portcall in Juneau Wednesday as part of a training cruise. Both ships are classified as coastal warfare vessels but work mostly as minesweepers. The Edmonton was launched in 1996 and she is 181 feet-long and displaces about 970 tons. Their are 12 ships in the Kingston class -- all armed with a single 40mm Bofors cannon and two .50 cal machine guns (and various small arms). When required, they can support and deploy an undersea ROV (remotely operated vehicle) system. Both Edmonton and Whitehorse call Esquimalt, British Columbia their homeport.

Yours truly appears on the season finale of UFO Hunters tomorrow (Wednesday 25 February) night at 9 pm (Alaska time). The episode is called "Area 51 Revealed." Joining me is Interceptors Campbell and Merlin along with other Dreamland luminaries and hangers-on and, of course, the regular cast of the show.

Enjoy and feel free to post your thoughts below.

The the 44th peaceful transferral of power from one US administration went off without a hitch.

President Obama gave a great acceptance speech -- one of the best ever. He was honest, somber and yet holds the promise of hope. Now the hard and necessary work lies ahead. Our nation and planet are in dire shape. We all must do what we can and I simply wish I could do more.

I wish my new President, his cabinet and family well. However, fair is fair I will not hold back when he and his people make mistakes and missteps.

As for Bush, the verdict is in: worst president ever. Unless he is at some point is held responsible for possible/probable domestic and war crimes, let us not speak of him again. History will judge him, Cheney and their cronies harshly and they will no doubt remain our shared shame for years.

Now, to the future. The journey is uncertain and the work shall task us greatly. Go Obama!

Back in 1989, when first running for mayor, I remember dealing with the subject of ensuring that Juneau made the most of it's nearly ideal primary source of electricity: the Snettisham hydropower facility that transmits electricity via high voltage lines to Juneau. Rather than putting the entire line underground and underwater, Alaska Electric Light & Power, in it's very finite wisdom, elected to rebuild a portion of the line lost last year, in the very same way it was.

So add some epic snowfalls topped off by a climb up to 40 on the thermometer combined with a load of rain and this afternoon an avalanche took out a tower in the same spot as last time.

Gee, who could have figured out this was going to happen.

Now, Juneau will live off expensive and carbon-spewing diesel generators until AEL&P can, once again, rebuild it all in the same place all the while getting emergency local, state and federal funds.

Palin and her hillbilly buddies want to move the State Capital in a big way. They used last avalanche-induced outage as a prime reason to move to Wartsilla. She, and they, will undoubtedly use this re-screw-up as just another nail in Juneau's coffin.

Nice job AEL&P...

By the way, I plan to run for mayor this year.

The Israeli Defense Force has begun it's ground assault on the Hamas rocket firing areas of the Gaza Strip.

I am no war-monger and I both support Israel and a Two-State Solution to the obvious right for the Palestinians to have a country. However, once the Gazan's elected Hamas to lead the splintered Palestinian state, all bets were off. Israel has every right to go after the military wing of Hamas, to eradicate the Kasam rocket production facilities and secure the launching areas (let me remind you that the Kasam rocket is, as all rockets are, unguided and are therefore only a terror weapon).

Unfortunately, more Palestinian civilians will die. War is horrible, ugly shit and to think otherwise is foolhardy. The death-loving Arab and Muslim cults will use these deaths as a reason to continue cynically using civilians as shields (most Palestinians die in fighting with the IDF due to Hamas's collateral location of military sites within the general population. Other Arab and Muslim states will bitch and whine about Israel and the US but I say: what the fuck are they doing for the Palestinians besides keeping them in squalor and using them as a symbol (a death symbol, mind you)?

Israel is our ally and we will support them. We must also ensure that the non-Hamas Palestinan's receive food, fuel and medical aid. President Obama will have to do whatever he can to forge a new way of doing business in the Middle-East. Nice that our current idiot-manchild President is "managing" the situation from his ranch in Texas -- what an ass (and let me remind you that he has taken nearly 1000 days off during his ruinous eight-year presidency).

Things must change, but for now it will be the skill and might of the Israelis which will put Hamas in it's place. I am so sorry that it will take the blood and loss of both average Palestinian's and Israeli's to do the job.

In the past month and a half, Laika had surgery and has fully recovered (no evidence of a return of cancer either). Obama winning means we are not moving to Japan next month. Palin not winning means I'm going to keep a close journalistic watch on her (as I live less than a block away from the Capitol. I scored a top corner apartment having lots of windows, light and decent views. Add to all this, last week I was in Seattle last week being interviewed for another upcoming History Channel show on weather modification.

iPhone shot: On location in Seattle's new City Hall for shooting the wx mod show. A compelling visual environment that was used to good effect by a talented crew. I'll post when the show is to air. Interesting fact: the shingle like material on the right of the image are large shaped sheets of titanium.

What is in store for me? I want to overhaul topcover but I'm still waiting for blog.mac to update (otherwise, I have to trash the entire blog and start over). Resolution should happen soon. Otherwise, I'm looking to see old friends visiting during the holidays. There will be snowboarding at Eaglecrest and I would like to visit Japan again this winter to work on a missile defense story.

I wish everyone a Merry X-mas, Happy Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

Friends wanting to see what I'm up to: add me on Facebook.

I spent week before last in the outback of the Southern Nevada guiding and being interviewed for the last episode season 2 of the History Channel's UFO Hunters. Original Interceptors Glenn Campbell, Peter Merlin and I have various roles on a segment dealing with our favorite remote classified flight testing facility located at Groom Dry Lake. Being television, things were of course, shot out of sequence. However, and as always, I didn't talk about anything I didn't know wasn't accurate and factual.

The episode airs at the end of November or the beginning of December. I'll post the date when I hear it.

Your reporter being interviewed by Ted, a MIT scientist and one of the stars of UFO Hunters.

Check back tomorrow as I'll post images and words from my past week in Nevada being part of an upcoming episode of the History Channel's "UFO Hunters" show.

Meet the new commissar, same as the old commissar.

So comrades, based on only two "real" journalist interviews, have you enough data to make the personal call that Sarah Palin isn't up to the job of Vice-President of these still mostly United States?

I told ya.

She may seem a capable leader.

That is a myth.

She may appear to be earnest and sincere -- just like "Joe Six Pack."

That is a smoke screen for unbridled ambition, superstitious beliefs (yes, her religion again) and a heapin' helpin' of plain ole' ignorance.

Don't be fooled people. Palin isn't what she seems (she peaked as a frickin' 2nd place beauty queen and feels the world should adore her hotness -- or else). You are being sold a fairly-well-crafted load of lies (remember she is being kept a vast distance away from any credible journalists -- that is right, Fox and right-wing radio don't count for crap).

Haven't we had enough of those in the past seven years?

I hope Biden tears here to shreds. If she can't handle "The Best Comb-over in American Politics" how the hell could she ever deal with Vladimir Putin, Hu Jlntao or Kim Jong Il?

I mean really folks...

Go Joe!

Thanks to Ted for the graphic.

During a bit of sunshine (a rare thing this year): A crew from US Coast Guard Station Juneau in their 47' Motor Life Boat conduct hoist (note the empty basket) training Tuesday morning with Air Station Sitka flyboys/girls in a HH-60J Jayhawk.

Swiss aviator, test pilot and inventor Yves Rossy (a.k.a. Fusionman) successfully flew under jet power across the English Channel today.

Fusionman during a test flight. You gotta know that the world's elite special operators won't be happy till the have their own jetwings.

In a world swirling the bowl, Rossy gives me hope. He exemplifies many of the best attributes in humanity -- intelligence, vision, skill and the willingness to fully commit oneself to the mission all the while being a rather humble man. He has realized our primordial dream of flying just as the ancient gods allegedly did.

All hail Fusionman!