Wednesday 5 August 2009

Sarah Palin's smokescreens


ADN on August 4, 2009:

The Alaska Public Offices Commission has refused Palin's request to keep secret the discounts that come from her husband's Arctic Cat sponsorship. APOC also said Palin needs to disclose all the gifts she received last year, rejecting her interpretation that she doesn't need to until after she gets around to actually opening the gifts.


Palin has told APOC "there are boxes of unopened mail at this point, even mail that was delivered in 2008."

APOC is giving Palin until Aug. 17 to make public "information related to the dollar amount of the discounts from Arctic Cat," as well as any gifts received in 2008 that she has not reported, said Holly Hill, the agency's director. Hill found that the state law Palin cited in arguing for an exemption from the Arctic Cat disclosure "only protects information submitted under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, and does not apply in this matter."

Palin's lawyer, Tom Van Flein, did not respond this week to questions about APOC's decision.

There are so many issues regarding $arah Palin clouded by smoke and mirrors... the latest brouhaha about suing Gryphen for mentioning a split between the quitter governor and her husband comes across as a tactic to divert the public's attention from more serious matters.

The hysteria seems to be widespread, with Bill O'Reilly saying Gryphen's post was a vicious attack on $arah Palin. How does a reference to a possible marital split qualify as an attack? What's vicious about it?

$arah Palin's supporters are blowing a trivial matter out of all proportion.

Are they going to report on APOC's deadline? Are they going to point out that $arah Palin is nearly one year late reporting the gifts? APOC have already cut her some slack, asking her to simply amend her financial disclosure even though gifts have to be reported within a certain period. Less than a month, if I remember it correctly.

Thomas Van Flein was very quick off the mark in his threats to Gryphen, but can't be bothered to send a reply to APOC.

While everybody is going nuts over a divorce that Gryphen didn't mention at all, $arah Palin's lack of ethics remains in the background, almost ignored...
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36 comments:

posted by Cheryl Harper said...

This comment was posted on palingates at Wordpress and I'm posting it here together with the post she's responding to, for context.

It's a good comment and I didn't want to leave it "buried" in the now abandoned Wordpress blog...
Regina

Submitted by Cheryl Harper on 2009/08/05 at 12:55pm

Kip Caudill – I cannot help but respond to your post. The run on sentence and spelling is something I would attribute to Sarah Palin, as is the spirit of your post. Like her, it does not make a good first impression of you or your organization. At first glance you appear uneducated, bitter and looking for a platform where anyone might hear you.

You said “this girl has been viciously attacked because of her Christian values.” I do not believe that to be true. As a Christian, and a registered Republican I not only voted for Barack Omaba, I worked for his campaign. In my opinion, Sarah Palin did not demonstrate even a base knowledge of vitally important issues. Her lack of knowledge, and her refusal to either admit her lack of knowledge or willingness to learn is the reason for the way in which my vote was cast. Nothing is Palin’s “fault” – it’s that dastardly “mainstream media!”

As for “Christian values” – Mrs. Palin was a pregnant teen without a husband, as was her own child which she chose to parade around. She continues to choose to battle a TEEN father publicly. Her “abstinence” preaching hits me as a bit curious. There have been numerous questions with regard to her ethics. As an American, I believe it is my right to have those questions addressed and dealt with when evaluating ANY political figure. Mrs. Palin’s hateful and divisive behavior during the champagne was sickening to me – and anything BUT “Christian.” It was Sarah who turned my vote. Anyone who chose to could verify her “facts.” Day after day she attempted to instill fear into Americans with her “pallin around with terrorists” diatribe. While I do not condone or support the acts of William Ayers that took place 40 years ago – a quick study of the man would tell you that if you have a child, at some point in time Williams Ayers has probably played a role in their lives. He is now a professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, holding the titles of Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar. He has edited and written many books and articles on education theory, policy and practice, and has appeared on many panels and symposia. Did Obama “pall around with a terrorist” last year? Probably not. To say he did would be rather like stating McCain chose a street whore for his running mate.

Your comment “get ready for war boys, we’re coming at you” is a curious one – and a curious comment from a “Christian” who apparently believes it is “his way or no way.” He only labels himself a “Christian”, perhaps not knowing the meaning of the word. I cannot help but wonder if your organization is one of those currently heckling the “town hall meetings.” Do you provide your membership dates of meetings and instructions on how to destroy them?

As a Christian, and an American I am disheartened by the nightly news of these meetings. Millions of Americans are without health insurance, or the ability to purchase health insurance. We are closer than we have ever been to getting assistance for these people……..and we will destroy those meetings. We have no intention of being “part of the solution” – we just want to raise hell in the name of Christian brotherhood. What do those folks accomplish – and how are their acts in any way “Christian.” If you HAVE a better solution to offer, I wish you would. Oh, how I wish you would! I have no time for your hate.

Your post is unsettling to me, and you sir (as well as the current Republican party) garner little respect from me.

regina said...

Post by Kip Caudill:

Submitted on 2009/07/06 at 2:57am

THIS GIRL HAS BEEN VISIOUSLY ATTACKED BECAUSE OF HER CHRISTIAN VALUES,THIS WORLD IS SECULAR HUMANIST,ATHEISTIC,I AM THE FOUNDER OF THE AMERICAN PATRIOT PARTY,IF SHE RUNS IN 2012,I WIL DELIVER HER 5 MILLION VOTES,GET READY FOR WAR BOYS,WE’RE COMING AT YOU,KIP

I had to split the comments because together they went over the character limit.

Regina

Dr. Something Something (Who Is Also A Christian) said...

Great response, Cheryl!

Well, someone needs to wake old Kip up and let him know that 5 million votes is not enough to get anyone elected, and will only split apart the Republican party. His support of Sarah Palin will splinter the GOP to the point of obscurity. Kip, you are helping to make Sarah Palin irrelevant--and branding her as a lunatic extremist.

Thanks, Kip! (Oh, and by the way, "Christian warrior" is an oxymoron, Kip. Jesus said to "Love thy neighbor.")

ProChoiceGrandma said...

What makes anyone think Palin will open those letters and boxes and truthfully report what is in them? Don’t be surprised if you smell smoke. It would have made more sense for APOC to send a truck to confiscate all those letters and boxes before something happens to them.

Anonymous said...

so Kip is planning to commit voter fraud? Thanks for the tip.

As for Palin being "viciously" attacked. let me remind these clowns of what they did to Clinton, over a suspected blow job. They had no proof for months, but they persecuted him. In the end, they set him up thru a variety of leaks, and produced their blue dress.

A blue dress is sort of like an Artic Cat logo.

Sounds silly on the surface, but much damage can be made with it.

They showed what a witch hunt looks like in 1997. And Clinton never violated ethics laws or misused his power like Palin has.

Christians indeed.

Anonymous said...

Van Flein displays himself as the childish schoolyard bully in that his comments directed at and personal info revealed of those who filed ethics complaints was totally unprofessional and his ongoing threatening of bloggers and yet doesn't have the balls to address the print media found at checkouts in the supermarkets, or the MSM for reporting lies according to his client, etc. Certainly doesn't give him credibility in the legal field with his actions.

I would suspect when the gravy train dries up, the law firm will throw him under the bus if Palin doesn't do it first. The law firm would be better off doing it now to preserve the firms credibility as his actins reflect on them.

It displays that Palin and Meg are also small-minded and thin skinned in their over reactions to bloggers, to Levi, etc. all being personal issues. They don't react or speak out about issues or foreign policies in that neither have the intellect to actually take those issues on.

Gryphen said...

Wow! Thanks regina, I REALLY appreciate your support.

Patrick said...

Some news: Brendan Joel Kelley from the Anchorage Press will publish a large story about Levi Johnston on Thursday, following a 4 1/2 hour interview with Levi which happened on Monday. Dennis Zaki from the Alaska Report will probably have something to say quite soon, too.

Anonymous said...

$arah's tactics are starting to wear a little thin. Every time she pretends to be offended by some mean spirited remark or another, she plays the victim. I think that we could do a scientific study, and graph the number of contributions to her various funds and compare with a time line of perceived insults. It's a fund raising device, pure and simple. (She also does this "getting back at someone" thing to keep her name in the media. How else can we pay attention to her if she isn't always under attack? It's not as if she has ever done anything).

A picture is worth a thousand words, and I don't know if there is a graphic out there for "slings and arrows." But, I can imagine the picture shows a perfectly made up $arah, with hair extensions, short skirt and bright red shoes, shielding herself with one arm from the "onslaught" of ethics complaints, bad publicity, jokes and rumors, while all the time the other hand, down at her side, is dropping dollars into her funds. I think that I've used up my thousand words, but you get the picture.

Kyra said...

Take a little vacation during what is supposed to be a slow news time ...

Anyway. Not to side in any way with Mr. Van Slime, excuse me, Flein, but he's just doing his job. Ethically, he has to do what his client wants and which I'm sure he is paid very, very well to do. He probably - very quietly so she can't quite hear him - tells her there is no case, but if she wants to sue, than he'll sue (or at least threaten to). It's just more money in his pocket.

No way would he go after any big names, but he probably figures that Gryphen and other bloggers are vulnerable and have no resources to fight back (yeah right. look how fast Linda raised the records fees!). If he actually filed a suit, Gryphen's Paypal button would probably get worn out!

I think that SP sees how much deference is paid to Bush/Cheney et al after leaving office and how much power (some) ex-office holders have and somehow counts herself one of that group. Delusion anyone?

Anonymous said...

So far, the people that Sarah seems to go after are Alaskans: Gryphen, Shannyn, for example. A website that questions Trig's parentage is not from Alaska, and is still standing. Regina is not in the US. There are those in the MSM who regularly criticize Sarah. Maureen Dowd is a prime example of biting articles. National Enquirer wrote about a supposed affair between Sarah and a former business partner of Todd.

Sarah has used other strong arm tactics besides threatening to sue people. Remember the episode with the former brother-in-law. Outside of Alaska, she doesn't seem to generate the same kind of muscle. For example, the Fire David Letterman Rally attracted more media people covering the event (35) to the pathetic few (15) who showed up to yell at Letterman for Sarah.

Anonymous said...

On KBYR, Eddie Burke just announced that Gryphen will be on the air in a few minutes! http://tinyurl.com/lauz3r

GinaM said...

Listening to Eddie Burke now and he said he invited Gryphen but he declined. He has that Riehl guy. He almost as bad as Eddie. They are saying that Gryphen OUTED himself.

Anonymous said...

Gryphen did not "out" himself. McCain and Riehl had ground sources in AK who helped. They also obtained a copy of the AK for Truth petition sent to Palin and Colberg, checked out every Anchorage resident name and cross checked with FEC contributions. They further cross checked other public records and guessed at the Griffin name. It was all on McCain and Riehl websites. They work together. Riehl is a horrible journalist and has been soundly criticized for his ignorant and abusive writing and language. He also attempts to be a criminal investigative journalist, so he is very aware of what is available in public records. They did a lot of research over 24-48 hours before they jumped on the Facebook page. They put out a lot of smoke screen sometimes with very little verification. If they scream loud enough, they distract from the shallow and vicious muckraking they call journalism.

Gryphen has done a great job BTW. I really like his writing. He is warm and compassionate and demonstrates a lot of feelings in many facets.

10 cats

GinaM said...

10 cats

That Mccain guy also wrote a book with $P's ghost writer that Vincent chick. Also the C4P's were saying that $P was visiting Vincent this past weekend. Those two Riehl & Mccain are a little too happy to rip Gryphen or as one of there crazy commenters said, they are going to destroy Gryphen.

CRAZY

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Regina, for reposting those comments. And for providing the info about the gifts and stuff. I really appreciate all you are doing to expose Palin's web of lies. Keep up the good work!!

Lisa K said...

Patrick is the interview going to be at adn.com

Patrick said...

The interview with Levi Johnston in the "Anchorage Press" can be found here:

http://tinyurl.com/kjgrk7

Anonymous said...

Regina and readers, initially I was disappointed with Levi's article in the Anchorage Press, the one Patrick mentions above.

But them something struck me, Levi says HE was 17 when Bristol got pregnant. Their birth dates are on here somewhere and I've searched a bit and can't find the post where that was discussed at PD either. But, I think Levi is a little older than Bristol. If he was 17, I believe he may be saying she was 16. At the Repub convention, I recall Levi being 18 and Bristol 17. Can anyone cross check these dates? I can't help but wonder if Levi was dropping a hint and I know readers here can find that info and check it.

Thanks,
Susan in MD

Anonymous said...

Dan Riehl has bragged about being in contact with Palin attorney Van Flein. RS McCain has bragged about co-writing with Sarah Palin's ghost writer. This situation reeks of a Set up by Sarah Palin and her goons (and I apologize in advance for insulting real goons with that comparison), and smells like collusion to me.

Susan in MD said...

Dan Riehl is also bragging that the school administration has talked to him about Gryphen. There are federal laws that prohibit that. I think he's lying just to make it "appear" as though he is credible.

basheert said...

Dan Riehl is just another "stupid". He epitomizes what is wrong with people.
Sarah Palin is a public figure who chose to be a public figure. Gryphen is not a public figure, he is a blogger. He is not in politics and has rights under the Constitution just like we all do, the Freedom of Political Speech.

I believe these morons are throwing all they have at Gryphen - it is an intimidation tactic because if Gryphen folds, they prove their tactics work and can be effective.

So far, nothing has worked with ANY of the bloggers and no one has shut anyone up or sued anyone. Shannyn stood in front of Van Flea's office and said "sue me" and (insert crickets).

If they were serious about attacking Gryphen based upon his blogpost, then why the pedophilia rumors they are trying to spread? Why did someone threaten to kill him in the schoolyard? Why the vicious threatening emails to the school where he worked? If this is truly a "lawsuit" for what Gryphen said when he said "SP and Todd are split", WHY the vicious personal attacks and why bring in the low-IQ people like Riehl?

Does the word overkill come to mind? It's just like the healthcare debate.

There is a group of people that plan to spend all of their time TELLING you what to say, think and do. This is all about controlling your ideas and your speech. We are now in a class war.

SP will split the GOP in two - which is great for us.

They never learned the first rule in politics - when you find yourself in a big hole, STOP DIGGING!

If they really believe these tactics will shut people up, they are very sadly mistaken. In this country, we stand up for our rights and if they want a yelling match, they'll get one right back in their own faces.

No one is going to stop people from speaking the truth. Especially people like Diehl. Van Flea is just sitting back collecting C4P money - hey why not?

This is all SP's doing - she honestly believes when the war is over, she's going to be The Queen.

Yeah - and pigs with lipstick fly! There are many of us who are watching all of this - and we have our own minds and our own opinions and these scare threat tactics are going to backfire SO badly that they won't know what hit them.

They are killing themselves - their brains aren't dead yet, so they don't realize it.

This is still MY country too - they are not taking it away from me or my kids.

jo said...

Susan,

I left a comment about Levi saying he was 17 and he's 19 now, also in print and on the air there have been slips that refer to her grandchildren not grandchild. Trip is only 6 months or less. I think he was born later than Dec. 27, after all they didn't roll out photo opt. until Feb. 18th. So we don't really know when he was born either.

Anonymous said...

Palin and Van Flein knew Gryphen's ID. They have been in contact with McCain and Reihl. McCain and Vincent did write a book together. Palin knew the letter was merely a threat. She is the one who outed Gryphen. McCain and Reihl want to confuse the nuts that read their blog because their garbage incites them.

McCain and Reihl play the dirtiest tricks and they remove things. At one time it was a big deal for them to "prove" Palin did not out Gryphen. Also, that they did not out him by way of Palin. They make a big deal that Gryphen outed himself. It is bogus, to cover for Palin. If this did go to court outing someone is serious.

McCain and Reihl also have tried to say Zaki outed Gryphen. Outing Gryphen is when McCain and Reihl learned from Van Flein what Palin and Van Flein knew. Why do you give info to journalists like them?

McCain and Reihl both lie. They intend to destroy any blogger when they can start one of these scorched earth smear campaigns. The reason can be flimsy, confusion helps them. In this one it is a topic Palin wants to take on, d-i-v-o-r-c-e. How simple for her to play happy couple for a controlled media. Controlled because she will not be put anywhere her handlers won't be in charge.

basheert said...

How interesting that it "appears" that Van Flein is giving information to radical bloggers to protect his client so it does not appear to come directly?

Does he have no ethics? Is he held to no standard?

He'd better watch himself - when you swim with sharks ...

Anonymous said...

Stacy McCain is the one with contact. Diehl said something about an interview with Van Flein. Diehl will gladly take the sword for Palin, he would be a martyr. He'd do the same for McCain, I betcha. Sarah Palin will always have protection. Todd did it when she was small potatoes.

It "appears" they are aware that Levi will be telling his side of things. Whether he directly exposes Babygate is yet to be? What he knows would certainly unravel her lies. Gryphen has written about both Levi and Babygate and they want to be sure he has no credibility. Taking out Gryphen is an important step for them. They will attack Levi again. How they are going to take care of that is yet to be seen. It doesn't look good for Palin to personally attack by way of Meghan. They have a load of astroturfing lunatics that can deal with that. The Washington Times and Fox will help Palin.

Anonymous said...

We had a crazy sue happy rich control freak around here, Vanity Fair wrote an article about her. Behind the scenes the lawyers are going at it for what can go to print. By the time our local crazy VF article was done it was well purged.

Levi must have back up. He doesn't want to give his book away either. He hasn't been direct about Babygate. He is saying he was living in the house before August 29, 2008. I am confused about dates. When did he date Bristol? When was Bristol dating the other boyfriend? He said he dated Bristol for 3 years? How long and when did he date his other girlfriend?

My opinion is that Babygate is what gets to Palin the most, it's not about protecting a daughter but protecting Palin's fraud. Gryphen is her example to scare all bloggers and to make any Babygate talk look like crazies make no sense or they are evil. She wants CNN and MSNBC to know they will look nuts to even mention a Babygate angle.

basheert said...

He also stated he lived IN THE HOUSE right around the time Tripp was born in December. SP denied it, and his response was "my stuff was there".

I believe that was during the Tyra Banks interview.

Anonymous said...

I know for a fact that McCain and that other creep were outing Gryphen on other blogs on the internet. I contacted Gryphen about it when it happened and I informed the creep doing it that what he was doing could be considered harassment and cyber stalking. There was that case in SC where someone who did what McCain and this loser are doing got in big trouble for it. The proof is all there, and you add the collusion charges and the fact that it's a federal crime, crossing state borders, and things don't look so good for the Palin freaks.

Another psycho bites the dust. no big loss. there are more roaches where he came from who are willing to go down for her, and take this country with them.

Disgusting behavior of thugs full of hate. So full of rage and hate they would rather this entire country burn than do anything to help it get better.

Anonymous said...

If you are worried they are going to stop soon, look at this!
http://www.thesarahpalinblog.com/2009/08/anti-palin-internet-troll-is-exposed.html
There is no telling how much of this is going on. They are on a mission.
Gryphen is just the first that they are going viral over.
I'm not a lawyer but now is the time to get to the bottom of this and end it.

When they say "check out some of his (Gryphen) postings, if you must, by clicking here" it take you to McCain blog of lies.

basheert said...

The Dumb and the Dumber.

It is astounding at how many really incredibly dumb people there are.

All of these people are a threat to every one of us.

We are now in a civil war - and it has a racist base.

Lisa K said...

Basheert you are so right I can't even believe everything going on. It also seems like in the health care fight, these people are so ignorant they have no idea how they are being used by the health care industry. There so anti government, they don't even realize Medicare is a government plan. Palins followers swallow all the nonsense given to them wthout question.
And can you believe our wonderful Az senators? They disgust me.

sandra said...

This is a frightening change in events. Thugs are taking over democracy.

I never read the Health care proposal. 1000+ pages are too much to digest. There are bound to be changes. The entire "debate" is really centered on philosophy. But the oponents are draping themselves in the flag of "liberty" to avoid hard decisions on health care financing.

Remember "Soilent Green?" Tomorrow is coming, and we must have some options.

Anonymous said...

Talking about thugs. This was in a comment @ Immoral Minority. Is there anything they won't do?

The last paragraph.
http://wonkette.com/262247/dr-lauras-cretin-son-having-fun-torturing-people-in-afghanistan
The dude did what he was accused of and look who shuttered it for him. He was guilty and got off.
There were screen captures and his buddies from Michigan knew what he'd been up to since school. The military needed snipers and they didn't want to lose him or ruin the right wing propaganda campaign for his mother. O'Reilly does the same kind of help for the doc as he does for Sarah Palin. If it has not all been shuttered check out O'Reilly and Tammy Bruce. There are many similarities to what they are doing now.

Anonymous said...

There is an unfortunately parallel here, the brutal thugs trying to intimidate a normal discourse about the health care proposal, disrupting a normal meeting with mugger tactics. And, then we see the same kind of intimidation to shut some one up, meaning a blogger who repeated some information that he heard and believed. Reminds me of a former governor's husband, sitting in her office, making phone call threats to have a former brother-in-law fired. When the husband and the governor didn't get their way, they fired the guy who wouldn't fire the brother-in-law. I remember episodes during the Bush administration when people showed up at one of the President's appearances wearing a T-shirt with a political slogan that didn't exactly go with the Bush message. They were ejected from the rally. There is something wrong when the only way to deal with an different idea is to shout them down or try to shut them up.

ProChoiceGrandma said...

Nailinpalinnow wrote a great article about Scientologist John Coale:
http://nailinpalinnow.blogspot.com/2009/04/palins-coale-keeps-scientologys.html

It is VERY long, but the important part is about how the Scientologists will use an aggressive offense to deflect from something they want to cover up.

It makes me f*ing furious that the dimwit Orley Taitz gets so much airtime on MSNBC or anywhere else to spout her lies about President Obama’s birth certificate and newspaper birth announcements. But Taitz is too stupid to have developed this birther movement herself. I would like to know who REALLY is behind the Obama birther nutjobs. It smells a lot like a Scientologist John Coale psychological warfare technique. Evil thug, but smart. They went on the offense with this “birther” story as an aggressive defense to debunk the evidence of Sarah Palin’s fake pregnancy.

The originators of the Obama birther movement know it is ludicrous and fruitless, but the whole point of their “birther” movement is to make it seem that if anyone even mentions Sarah Palin’s fake pregnancy, they can point a finger to claim that the fake pregnancy theory is just as crazy, even though we now have several pictures showing Sarah Palin was NOT pregnant right up to 10 days before Trig’s presentation on 4-18-08. IMHO, Trig was born in January 2008.

Ennealogic just wrote an article about 5-week premature babies that everyone should read if they are still inclined to believe Trig was “born” on 4-18-08.
http://threebrain.blogspot.com/2009/08/what-5-week-preemie-really-looks-like.html