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| January 18, 2007 Editor’s Desk by Aaron Selbig, insurgent49  It’s been a speechifying week here at Insurgent Headquarters.Last night, Governor Sarah Palin gave her first State of the State address and, afterwards, received a standing ovation and rave reviews from legislators of all political stripes. It was a good speech. Particularly, the manner in which she delivered it, with no cue cards or Teleprompters and with her trademark energy and enthusiasm, was inspirational. From a public speaking standpoint, we’ll give her an “A”. Getting past style points and into the actual meaty substance of her address, however, the best we can do is a “B minus”, not so much for what was contained in the speech, but for what wasn’t. Gov. Palin started out with what will be the centerpiece of her administration, the procurement of a natural gas pipeline project from the North Slope. She used firm language while laying out her plan to legislate requirements for the gas producers, repeatedly stating that any gasline project will be constructed “on our terms”. Good. It’s refreshing and long overdue to hear an Alaskan governor who “gets it” that the natural resources on the Slope belong to the people of Alaska and that it will be a privilege for producers to share in the wealth. Too many times, however, we have heard Alaskan politicians merely pay lip service to the idea of developing Alaska’s renewable energy resources, of which we have plenty. Unfortunately, Gov. Palin seems to be following that course, so far. Time will tell. Next, the Governor got into what was on the minds of many voters in the November election: ethics reform. With the dark, swirling cloud of an ongoing FBI corruption investigation over the heads of the state Legislature, everybody and their brother (even Republicans) are talking about how to reform ethics oversight in our government. Gov. Palin, in her speech last night, announced that her administration would be authoring its own ethics reform package to be submitted for legislative approval. She sensibly called on the Legislature to take her ideas and their own, and come up with a plan that combines the best elements of them all. Excellent. This is music to the ears of all who care about expunging the culture of corruption that exists in our state government. As for how the ethics law will look in the end? Well, again … time will tell. So far, the honeymoon between Sarah Palin and the state Legislature continues. No one has had their toes stepped on yet, everyone seems to be willing to work together on ethics reform and a gas pipeline project, and the new Governor’s energy and willingness to do the state’s business out in the open instead of in secret are a very refreshing change from the last administration. So when will the honeymoon end? Probably when it comes time for the Governor to submit her annual budget. She talked last night about cutting $150 million from the state budget, but did not say where those cuts were going to come from. Somebody is bound to not like Palin’s budget ideas, and it will be interesting to see how she plans to pull this off while fully funding education, tightening oversight of oil pipeline maintenance, and restoring the Longevity Bonus to those who were cut out of it by the last administration. Still … it was a good speech. There was something glaringly missing, however. Throughout the roughly 45-minute speech, Governor Palin neglected to even mention what her plan is to address the fact that Alaska consistently leads the nation in a variety of social ills, particularly sexual abuse. What are we going to do, Governor, about our number one ranking in reported rapes? What is the plan to deal with Alaska’s off-the-chart numbers on drug and alcohol abuse, suicide, fetal alcohol syndrome and sexual abuse of minors? We heard the Governor talk about the seriousness of these issues during the campaign, and we certainly hope that she hasn’t forgotten about them just because she is now in office. We still have hope that she will tackle the glaring social problems facing our state. It just would have been nice to hear about it in her first State of the State address. Aaron Selbig is an activist and media junkie who resides in an undisclosed location in downtown Anchorage. He is the winner of a 2006 Alaska Press Club award for Best Editorial Writing, host of KUDO 1080 AM's 'The Aaron Selbig Show' and a co-founder of Insurgent49. Aaron may be contacted at editor@insurgent49.com 'Editor's Desk' appears on insurgent49.com every Thursday. |
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