Oct. 31: Palin's readiness; state elections Web site

A provision of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act restricts outside employment. It says: "The head of a principal executive department of the state may not accept employment for compensation outside the agency that the executive head serves."

Senior Assistant Attorney General David Jones said the section likely applies to the governor but it's not clear what constitutes "employment."

"Clearly, the intent of the statute is to make it clear these are full-time jobs. If you are a commissioner, for example, you can't be working in the private sector. But does that mean you can't go out and give a speech now and then for an honorarium? I don't know. I don't know that we have interpreted it for that purpose in the past," Jones said.

WHAT STEVENS MEANT BY ‘NOT CONVICTED’: "A conviction does not formally take place until a judge enters final judgment upon sentencing," reports The New York Times. "The guilty verdicts, Sen. Ted Stevens said, were 'a temporary situation,' an incremental setback until a judge throws them out or Stevens wins on appeal."

Meanwhile, Stevens friend Bill Sheffield, the former Alaska governor, says Stevens is “pretty up,” even though it’s hard to tell that from his angry and determined appearance.

EAGLEBURGER, VOTERS SAY PALIN ISN’T READY: Lawrence Eagleburger, secretary of state under the first President Bush and a McCain supporter, said “Of course not” when asked in a National Public Radio interview whether a Vice President Palin would be ready to lead the country in a crisis. He added that she wouldn’t be the first VP in the same situation.

"So the question I think is, can she learn and would she be tough enough under the circumstances if she were asked to become president? Heaven forbid that that ever takes place," he said. "Give her some time in the office and I think the answer would be, she will be adequate. I can't say that she would be a genius in the job, but I think she would be enough to get us through a four-year — well, I hope not. ... Get us through whatever period of time was necessary, and I devoutly hope that it would never be tested."

He also said Barack Obama is not prepared to handle a national emergency: "I don't think under the best of circumstances the opposition presidential candidate would be able to figure out" how to handle most crises.

You can hear all of Eagleburger’s NPR interview, including his Palin comments, here.

Politico points out that Eagleburger “is a noted straight talker who has strayed off-message before.”

The latest N.Y.Times/CBS News poll indicates most voters don't think Palin is up to the job of vice president. The poll seems to show she is a drag on McCain’s chances to be president.

All told, 59 percent of voters surveyed said Palin was not prepared for the job, up nine percentage points since the beginning of the month. Nearly a third of voters polled said the vice-presidential selection would be a major factor influencing their vote for president, and those voters broadly favor Sen. Barack Obama.

PALIN’S PARENTS GO DOOR-TO-DOOR IN VEGAS: Chuck and Sally Heath, parents of Gov. Palin, spent two hours knocking on doors in a Las Vegas neighborhood this week, reports the Las Vegas Sun (photo included). They were accompanied their son, Chuck Jr., and Todd Palin’s parents.

The Heaths were a hit with McCain supporters, such as Nancy England, a homemaker and registered independent who clearly didn't anticipate the visit and answered the door in a tank top and boxer shorts. "Oh wow! Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed, with her 3-year-old son, Bo, beside her in the doorway. "We're already on your team!"

Then they met an Obama supporter.

Greg Beard is voting for Obama, he said, because of the economy. "I'm about to lose my house," he told Sally Heath. "I can't put up with eight more years of what I've been through."

Vegas TV stations have video reports here and here. The Rebel Yell newspaper of the University of Nevada Las Vegas has a Q&A with the Heaths here.

BEST STATE ELECTION SITE: The American Prospect, the left-leaning magazine, says in a blog post that the state of Alaska has the best election web site in the U.S. – “remarkably user-friendly … replete with schedules, how-tos and candidate/party overviews, the site even furnishes visitors with three choices for unofficial election results.” The Alaska Division of Elections site is here. Worst state sites? Minnesota and South Carolina, says TAP.

DITKA CAMPAIGNS WITH PALIN: Former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka is joining Palin on a campaign bus swing through Pennsylvania today, reports the Washington Post. The blog post includes a photo of the pair.

PALIN, BALDWIN DISTANT COUSINS: They didn’t know it when they met on “Saturday Night Live,” but Gov. Palin and actor Alec Baldwin of “30 Rock” are distant cousins, says a Hawaii-based genealogy project. Ancestry.com recently found Palin to be a distant cousin of President Roosevelt and Princess Diana.

SHARING THE WEALTH: As the McCain/Palin ticket fans charges of socialism against Obama tax proposals, Fox News and others are taking a look at statements made by Palin about the purpose of the Alaska Permanent Fund. Some of her words sound a lot like those spoken by Obama to Joe the Plumber.

'SAME OLD, SAME OLD': The New York Times today pans Gov. Palin’s energy policy speech, delivered this week to employees of Xunlight Corp., which manufactures solar cells.

And then, boom, came the same old fix: “Drill here, and drill now.” For all the talk of a clean break, expanding domestic oil-and-gas production remains the centerpiece of Palin’s strategy — one that greatly exaggerates the benefits of offshore drilling, remains obtusely wedded to older, carbon-intensive energy sources and almost completely ignores the dangers of climate change.

MILITARY TO HELP MOVE NEWTOK: “U.S. Marines, Navy Seabees and soldiers from other branches will provide manpower, engineering and heavy equipment to assist residents of the Western Alaska village of Newtok as they build a new village not far from the old one,” reports Alaska Newspapers Inc. The old Newtok site is threatened by erosion from the Ninglick River.

VOLUNTEER CASKET MAKER HONORED: Peter Moore of Emmonak received the Alaska Federation of Natives public service award at the AFN convention last week. The Tundra Drums has a profile of the 76-year-old, who has just retired. And Gladys Jung, a renowned Yup’ik educator, volunteer and activist who died in September, was given the AFN’s Elder of the Year award. The Tundra Drums also has Jung’s story of her family’s long journey from St. Michael to Akiak in 1928.

CUTTING LIBRARY HOURS OR SNOW BERM REMOVAL: The Seward City Council is facing that kind of decision as it reviews the results of an “Efficiency Study” while building a new city budget, reports The Seward Phoenix Log.

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM RECENT NEWSREADERS:

The view from ‘Nowhere’ (Newsweek)

Native corporations facing a loss in Alaska (N.Y. Times)

Democrats join defense of Palin, natural gas pipeline (Juneau Empire)

Win or lose, Palin seen by many as future of GOP (N.Y. Times)

Sarah the Diva, looking past John the Runner-Up (Washington Post)

Palin spends $50G on remodel jobs (Boston Herald)

Tragic flaw: John McCain, man (Washington Post Writers Group)

Alaska on “The Electoral Map” (N.Y. Times cartoon)

Palin favors friends and donors (L.A. Times)

Palin’s path to the nomination (The New Yorker)

Find previous Newsreader columns here.