Since "Annie Oakley" Palin has decided to steer her never-ending train wreck of a candidacy to scare the world of the the looming menace on the Alaskan shores known as Russia, I thought I'd do a little poking around the Teddy Tubes to see where the closest border in distance was geographically between the U.S and Russia. In fact it's only 2.4 miles. So be afraid. Be very afraid. More below the super scary fold. BOO!
"Gatling Gun" Sarah claims to have foreign policy experience due simply to Alaska's proximity to Russia. With that allow me to introduce you to the Diomede Islands.
The Diomedes consist of two islands, Big Diomede and Little Diomede. The Russians occupy the big one, and we occupy the little one. They are separated by the International Date Line (IDL) at a distance of 0.6 miles from each island.
The islands are located in the Bering Strait between Alaska's western border and Siberia's eastern border. Because of the IDL according to Wikipedia:
Because the International Date Line runs down the 4-km (2.5-mi) gap between the two islands, you can look from Alaska into "tomorrow" in Russia.
I'll bet "Winchester" Palin never thought that somewhere in Alaska you could look to the west and see 'tomorrow' in the evil confines of Siberia. Here's a QuickTime panorama of what Little Diomede looks like on a good day (QuickTime viewer required...download).
Both Diomede Islands are incredibly remote and sparsely populated. Little Diomede has no roads, airport, or harbor and supplies are delivered only by helicopter, weather permitting. I suppose if you have to get around you can hop on your "snow machine". Sorry Governor, but where I come from they're called snowmobiles. Even Senator Ted Tubilicious visited once, and here's his take on Little Diomede:
When US Senator Ted Stevens arrived to the island on October 29, 2002, for an overnight visit, he commented "I did not realize you were this remote". He arrived by a National Guard Blackhawk helicopter and it was a first time when the island was visited by a statewide elected official.
Great Ted. Maybe they could've helped you out pro bono by constructing an addition for your house in Anchorage out of baleen and walrus tusks.
So, in closing I thought I'd shed some light on the terrible calamity we as a nation may face if Big Diomede and Little Diomede ever decided to go all Falkland Islands on us. Just listening to "Remington Sally" spew the fear factor reminds me of the movie "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming" which sucks because it's a great movie and Palin's ruining it for me with her baseless fears and lies.
I'm a realist. People lie. They lie to cover a transgression they're ashamed of, or they lie to protect others. But to lie against overwhelming evidence to the contrary is simply inexcusable. If you're caught in a blatant lie, you're caught. There's no way out. Eventually your guile isn't quite as bullet-proof as you thought it would be no matter how smart you think you are. No matter how much you think you've covered your tracks there's always someone smarter out there to track you down. And that's where we come in.
Here's the movie trailer, and big tips to Alan Arkin:
I don't diary often since I don't consider myself to be nearly as prolific as others in the community (shocking, I know), but Sarah Palin scares the crap out of me. So, with my DKos birthday coming up on four years next month I'm trying to stay as engaged as possible and working locally for Barack. In those (almost) four years I've been here every day to get the news that unfortunately a vast majority of America gets a week later if they get it at all. I love this place, and I always will. On to November. Fight the good fight. I'll do my best to stick around for comments.