[2008-09-12 Additions Sarah Palin has never been to Diomede. When not collecting per diem, Palin is Where is …. nearest US capitol]
Before Google Earth and Terraserver and the rest was the PARC research lab of Xerox (inventor of the mouse and of GUI, I believe). They no longer run the map.
I still prefer their perspective to depict spatial relationships in many contexts. Here is plotted Fairbanks Alaska (red square), the Yukon River in Alaska, the International Dateline (purple line), and the rest of the US.
Just a step over the dateline, where it passes closest to Alaska, is Russia. Juneau is about 3 meridians east. Wasilla is about the lower west corner of the red square.
Compare Alaska to lower 48 distances
This is the best map to show the relationship of Alaska to the lower 48. National geographic has overlaid Alaska such that it demonstrates Alaska stretches from Jacksonville FL to San Francisco CA. I’ve added markers for Russia and Little Diomede, Bethel, Wasilla, and Juneau.
- Where in Alaska relative to US 48 – http://ykalaska.wordpress.com/2006/03/31/where-in-alaska-relative-to-us-48/
hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/gmdctr1.ctr00037
The National Geographic Society’s incorporation of illustration with relief cartography portrays the grandeur and uniqueness of the Alaskan landscape in relation to towns, highways, and parks. Regarded as pioneering map illustrators, the National Geographic Society frequently adopts this techniques in maps produced as part of its exploration studies. This Alaska map was included as a supplement to the May 1994 issue of the National Geographic magazine.
Location map of Diomede Alaska
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Governor Palin’s government directly negotiated fishing and other border sensitive issues directly with the Russians. She possesses direct knowledge about the sizeable U.S. Air Force and Navy presence in her state–and that presence largely exists to patrol and shadow Russian air and naval forces along the Alaskan border and the polar ice cap. Often these patrols involve nuclear armed aircraft and naval vessels. The men and women in the U.S. military who operate these bases live in Alaska and extensive details about those operations are routinely understood by Alaskan state government officials.
Alaskans also trade directly with Russians and Canadians.
Gov. Palin has never been to Diomede and has never seen Russia. So, our foreign policy rests on how well someone draws the map of Alaska (see http://ykalaska.wordpress.com/category/maps especially Where is… State of Alaska – http://ykalaska.wordpress.com/2006/06/13/where-is-state-of-alaska/
What’s her special insight with Korea’s missiles, then, and their famine? Where is… Bethel from Pyongyang – http://ykalaska.wordpress.com/2006/07/07/where-is-bethel-from-pyongyang/
Where is… Bethel’s Kamchatka Peninsula – http://ykalaska.wordpress.com/2006/06/13/where-is-bethels-kamchatka-peninsula/
Oh, I was hoping someone else would comb through Joe’s comment above and correct the mistaken impression that the US Constitution allows state governor’s to negotiate international treaties for the country (remember Advise & Consent? or check through Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub for what the Constitution and history actually mean).
As Governor, Palin would not have direct knowledge of our “sizeable Navy presence” unless she went to the Anchorage port. (Bethel’s port is too small except for Navy landers. Nunapitchuk could host the Navy qayaq.) We don’t even have a Coast Guard presence along the Melt Rush, until just recently when a cutter went north for a visit. What border issues, unless referring to those Canadians? Our grocery stores are Canadian (see Where is Bethel Canada)
extensive details about those operations are routinely understood by Alaskan state government officials. I wouldn’t say “routinely” or “understood” judging by the lack of any emergency preparedness by the state in our Bering Sea region. We don’t even have an emergency shelter in Bethel, despite the official Mass Disease Pass to such, issued by the State of Alaska. Our National Guard was sent to Kuwait, reducing the numbers of trained men available in our communities for even shipwreck emergencies.
Anyway, I think this may answer the question as to the foreign policy expertise gained by living in Wasilla, Alaska–
http://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/index.php?showtopic=24008&st=5020&gopid=644829&
The godwits spend more time in Russia and North Korea twice a year than Palin. At least they have an actual fly-by-night foreign and defense policy.
http://www.andrewhalcro.com/brutal_honesty_parcing_palin