Anderson@Large

Alaska Native Firms Get Money for Nothing

Many in the mainstream media are in the grip of Palin Derangement Syndrome. Another Alaska phenomenon should also feel the hot glare of the media spotlight: Alaska Native Corporations.

From Day One, I have been tracking stimulus spending and minority business enterprises. To date, the total value of federal stimulus contracts awarded to 8(a) firms is roughly $2.7 billion, including $1.5 billion in sole source contracts.

Alaska Native Corporations have received a disproportionate number of 8(a) contracts. A ProPublica analysis found that through September, ANCs have received $832 million in direct stimulus contracts:

Through September, ANCs had won stimulus contracts worth $823 million for 742 projects, according to the most recent government data. More than 350 projects, or nearly half, rely on subcontractors to do at least some of the work.

By comparison, all other stimulus contractors subcontracted more than 5,600 of nearly 26,000 stimulus projects, or 22 percent. Other minority-owned firms hired subcontractors on 33 percent of their projects.

[...]

The stimulus reports suggest that ANC subcontracting sends a substantial portion of revenue to outsiders. Of the $470 million in ANC stimulus projects that are at least halfway completed, native corporations awarded about $200 million to other contractors, ProPublica found.

ANCs play by a different set of rules. A 2009 investigation by the Senate Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight found a majority of ANCs exceed 8(a) size requirements.

ProPublica notes “ANC subsidiaries have come to dominate the SBA program”:

While other firms in the program have a limit of $3.5 million on contracts for services and $5.5 million on contracts for goods, ANCs are exempt and have won awards exceeding $100 million.

The exemption makes ANCs a potentially lucrative partner for large firms acting as subcontractors. And government contracting officers turn to ANCs to avoid lengthy competitions and meet their small business contracting goals. ANCs also may compete for contracts.

And get this: While other minority firms have a nine-year limit on participation in the 8(a) program, ANCs can stay in perpetuity. In fact, ANCs are among the largest federal contractors.

If you agree with Senate Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight Chairman Claire McCaskill that ANCs' “contracting preferences also create the potential for waste, fraud, and abuse,” make some noise.

The new sheriff in town, House Oversight & Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, wants to hear from you.

Let Issa know ANC's unfair competitive advantage hurts your ability to create jobs.

Tucson and America

In his remarks at the memorial service for the victims of the Tucson gunman, President Barack Obama said:

But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized -– at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who happen to think differently than we do -– it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.

[…]

For the truth is none of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious attack. None of us can know with any certainty what might have stopped these shots from being fired, or what thoughts lurked in the inner recesses of a violent man’s mind.

Obama continued:

For the truth is none of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious attack. None of us can know with any certainty what might have stopped these shots from being fired, or what thoughts lurked in the inner recesses of a violent man’s mind. Yes, we have to examine all the facts behind this tragedy. We cannot and will not be passive in the face of such violence. We should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospects of such violence in the future. But what we cannot do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other. That we cannot do. That we cannot do.

As we discuss these issues, let each of us do so with a good dose of humility. Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let’s use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy and remind ourselves of all the ways that our hopes and dreams are bound together.

In the spirit of the moment, I will resist saying “I told you so” to those who without a shred of evidence blamed Sarah Palin and tea partiers for the act of a mentally deranged individual.

Instead, I will echo Obama:

May God bless and keep those we’ve lost in restful and eternal peace. May He love and watch over the survivors. And may He bless the United States of America.

One Lone Lunatic and the Looney Left

In the wake of the assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Gibbons, some on the left have taken aim at Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement.

It is sad that anyone would try to exploit the acts of this lunatic.

With no evidence, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said Jared Loughner may have been motivated by “the vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in and day out from people in the radio business and some people in the TV business.”

Dupnik has since toned down his political rhetoric.

He noted that Loughner “targeted the congresswoman specifically; there's considerable evidence to substantiate that.” Three days later, no one knows what motivated him:

While you can't prove what the motive was in this case, I think we know that people who have troubled personalities are being subjected to the anger and emotion that is being created in this country, and I think we need to at least look into our hearts and souls and think about it.

The standard of acceptable political speech must not be measured by what might set off a mentally ill individual. Anything, including an actress, can incite political violence.

As Jon Stewart observed:

Many are reflecting and grieving and trying to figure things out. But it's definitely true that others are working feverishly to find the tidbit or two that will exonerate their side from blame or implicate the other. And watching this is as predictable as it is dispiriting.

Stewart continued:

We live in a complex ecosystem of influence and motivations and I wouldn't blame our political rhetoric any more than I would blame heavy metal music for Columbine.

[...]

You cannot outsmart crazy. You don't know what a troubled mind will get caught on. Crazy always seems to find a way. It always has.

The looney left is not troubled by the absence of evidence of motivation or double standards. In their worldview, the absence of evidence is evidence that Loughner was politically motivated. In their desire to demonize Sarah Palin, the term “target” has become the new n-word.

Never mind that terms like targeting, cross hairs and bull's eye are part of the lexicon of every political campaign, pundit and blogger.

Many on the left applauded when a film director placed former President George W. Bush in an assassin's cross hairs.

While I abhor guns and violence, the attempts to make political hay out of a national tragedy are deeply troubling.

Tragedy in Tucson

The attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the killing of six innocent victims and the wounding of 14 people defy comprehension. Words cannot convey my reaction to the horrific events that unfolded in Tucson this weekend.

President Barack Obama calls for a national moment of silence TODAY at 11:00 am EST:

I call on Americans to observe a moment of silence to honor the innocent victims of the senseless tragedy in Tucson, Arizona, including those still fighting for their lives.

It will be a time for us to come together as a nation in prayer or reflection, keeping the victims and their families closely at heart.

For some, it is a time to pump up the volume and pin the blame on Sarah Palin.

In an e-blast, CREDO Action wrote:

Sarah Palin has a special responsibility and opportunity in the wake of the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. For it was Sarah Palin and Sarah Palin alone who earlier put the crosshairs of a gun on Rep. Giffords. And so far, Palin's response has been Facebook prayers for the victims and an official denial that her widely distributed map involved gun sights at all. This is obscene duplicity at best.

Let us be clear. We do not know why the shooter targeted Rep. Giffords. Sarah Palin did not arm him or pull the trigger. We do not know if the shooter admired, loathed or ignored Sarah Palin. We will eventually know, and that will be a different accounting.

Since you don't know, here's an idea: Hold your fire until the facts are known.

Georgia on My Mind

In the wake of President-elect Barack Obama’s Electoral College landslide, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid crowed, “a permanent change has taken place.” That was then.

Today, Republicans are trumpeting Sen. Saxby Chambliss' double-digit victory over Jim Martin in the Georgia Senate runoff. Chambliss won 57 percent to Martin’s 43 percent.

Voter turnout was light in an election that turned on voters showing up. And as surely as night follows day, the mainstream media blame black voters.

The Washington Post reports:

Martin appeared to suffer from a lower turnout among African Americans. Fewer than a quarter of people who cast ballots early in the runoff were black, compared with more than a third in the November vote. Black voters overwhelmingly favored Obama and Martin.

And this from the New York Times:

A little more than two million people voted in the runoff, compared with 3.7 million on Nov. 4. In heavily black Clayton County, just south of Atlanta, Mr. Martin’s vote was less than half what it was in the earlier election. Only 9.2 percent of registered Georgians cast early votes in the runoff, compared with 36 percent in the general election.

The Los Angeles Times offered this:

Lesson for Democrats: Figure out some way to get the African American voters to come out a second time for the white guy.

Black voters were not motivated to "come out" for Martin who had dissed Obama in the Georgia presidential primary election.

During the 2002 Senate runoff election, then-Louisiana state senator Cleo Fields told Sen. Mary Landrieu, “If you don’t respect us, don’t expect us.”

While Chambliss brought in Sarah Palin to mobilize the base, Martin held a rally with Ludacris. Talk about a ludicrous get-out-the-vote plan.

As Ludacris would say, “It wasn’t us.”

Party at the Polls

For nearly two years, the pollsters and pundits have had their say. But tomorrow is the day we’ve been waiting for. A record turnout of voters -- history makers -- is expected on Election Day.

When the votes are counted, history will have been made. We will have the first African American president, Barack Obama, or the first female vice president, Sarah Palin.

To ensure that your vote is counted, know your rights before you head out the door:

• Verify your polling location.
• Play it safe and bring a government-issued photo ID such as a driver's license, non-driver photo ID (hey, I’m a New Yorker) or passport.
• Don't "flaunt your vote." Leave your Obama or McCain t-shirt, buttons, cap, etc., at home.
• If your name is not on the voter registration list, ask for a provisional ballot.

Sure, in most states you can wear campaign clothing to the polls. While my colleague Eugene Kane got the memo, his local police department considered a "Blue State '08" t-shirt electioneering and detained a Wisconsin state senator.

So, you can either be a fabulous history maker or you can look fabulous. Consider: If you throw a hissy fit about the First Amendment, you will add to the delay.

That said, don't let long lines discourage you. Your vote is your voice. Don't leave the polling place without voting.

If you encounter a problem, call 1-866-MYVOTE1.

Still Undecided After All These Months

The presidential campaign seemingly has gone on forever, but I had not met any truly undecided voters until yesterday at the TimeWarner Summit: Politics 2008, co-hosted by CNN and Time magazine.

Sure, there were the three white voters from Arizona with whom I shared an elevator in Philadelphia. They said they were "undecided," but their body language screamed Bradley effect. I think they were reluctant to tell my friend and me that they were not supporting Barack Obama.

With Election Day just three weeks away, I finally met some undecided voters. For their own reasons, they wish to remain anonymous. Suffice it to say, they are white females who are members of the United Federation of Teachers.

Both seemed sincerely conflicted that they have lingering doubts about Obama, who has been endorsed by their union.

Yes, they are Hillary Clinton supporters, but John McCain Sarah Palin is not an option. Still, they are not ready to pull the lever for Obama.

Sammie (not her real name) told me:

I will probably vote for Obama but right now, I’m still very torn. I’m concerned about the people he’s surrounded himself with and some of his ties.

Sammie’s colleague Dee Dee (not her real name) added:

I have the same concerns. The issue is the people who are surrounding him, Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers…I keep changing depending on what they’re talking about.

With 21 days to go, McCain will keeping talking about Ayers and controversial associations like ACORN.

Speaking of associations, Obama rightly threw Rep. John Lewis under the bus for saying McCain was "sowing the seeds of hatred and division." Lewis compared McCain’s and Sarah Palin’s criticisms of a political rival to the hate speech of segregationist George Wallace.

In an interview with CNN's Dana Bash, McCain said Lewis' comments "stopped me in my tracks":

I never believed that John Lewis, who is an American hero whom I admire, would ever make a comment of that nature. He even referred to the bombing of a church in Birmingham. That's unacceptable.

The notion that McCain and Palin are inciting a "lynch mob mentality" at campaign rallies was debunked by Jonathan Klein, president of CNN/US:

It is clear from reporters who are there that these are a few isolated incidents. But they are dominating coverage and have become the media narrative.

Is there a liberal bias in the press? You betcha!