Aides to Sarah Palin have asked the Republican National Committee to remove her name from an invitation that suggests she might attend a series of committee fundraising events timed to coincide with next week's Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans.
Though Palin will speak on Friday at the SRLC, a gathering of top Republican officials and an early cattle call for potential 2012 presidential candidates, the former Alaska governor will not be participating in any RNC fundraising event, a Palin adviser told CNN.
It's difficult to make sense of the moves made by Sarah Palin's camp. Some decisions and statements from former aides were already a bit chaotic, but Meg Stapleton seemed more predictable. Since Meg was pushed under the bus by Jason Recher, things have become even more puzzling.
We have to keep jumping back and forth to guess what the master plan might be. What's driving the bus forward? Politics? Money? Religion?
Sarah Palin went rogue on purpose. Without any particular allegiance, she can slip into whatever mode seems more profitable at the time. She supported some Republican candidates and became the Queen of the Teabaggers, pushing her simplistic anti-government agenda. She tried to be the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan, but hasn't mentioned his name in a long time, so perhaps that didn't work out very well.
Sarah Palin has been exploring a number of different avenues since she quit as governor for the good of Alaska. Author, Fox News contributor, TV presenter, speaker, Facebook blogger, twitterer. Her main aim is to stay in the headlines. If a controversy is not readily available, she creates one. And she has props for each occasion. Her family, Alaska, the Republicans, the Teabaggers, God, unborn children, Israel, the military... they are all props.
SarahPac made some eleventh hour token donations to political candidates in order to justify its existence, but in reality it seems to be a nice piggy bank for Sarah Palin and her cronies.
Sarah Palin is a cynical opportunist. If she made her money in the same way as Octomom or the Gosselins, if she grew an extra head and became a freakshow, if she decided to fake another fifteen pregnancies for a reality show, if she made millions of dollars from any of these things, all would be well. The problem is that politics is her main theme. That's why she's dangerous.
This following was no.5 in the top ten 2009 editorial cartoons in the TIME annual competition:
Sarah Palin already appears in several other categories. I hope her targets and inflammatory rhetoric won't find their way into some sinister list in 2010.
She's not the only dangerous person around but seems to be one of the most pernicious and high profile among many. Others may have genuine concerns and are driven by their fears. Sarah Palin's sole motivation appears to be money and she doesn't care about the consequences of her poisonous statements, it's all about her bank balance...
Take the money away and Sarah Palin, with her "servant's heart," would sit down and shut up very quickly. (Our friend Ennealogic has a very good and very graphic analysis of Sarah Palin's metaphors) .
If somebody tries to cover his/her tracks, I get excited. Why? Because if you dig deep enough, the internet will reveal it all.
In my post yesterday I mentioned that the website "www.uptownswomencenter.com", which is now deleted, was registered with Vicki Garza, who runs a marketing company in Dallas. This URL was given to the media in Dallas by the office of the mayor, and it redirected automatically to the "palin4life" website, as explained in our first post.
Vicki Garza has disappeared from the registration overnight! The website is now registered to the anonymous provider "Domains by Proxy".
For a moment, I was annoyed with myself because I didn't take a screenshot of the original registration yesterday, which was on the name of Vicki Garza. But then I remembered: The internet is a LARGE place. Everything can be found. ;-)
This screenshot is taken from a PDF-document, which can be downloaded HERE. It is the report of the fourth quarter of the Downtown Pregnancy Center.
Also in this report, we find many heartwarming pictures of mothers with their babies and also pictures of Vicki Garza standing next to Governor Rick Perry, taken at the "Light of Life Gala 2009":
What do we find in other reports of the "Downtown Pregnancy Center"?
Well, we find the details of the exact project that "www.palin4life.com" is fundraising for - this report can be downloaded HERE. Excerpts:
What else is there to say about Vicki Garza?
Well - thanks to our great reader "sallyngarland, tx" we now know that Vicki Garza has a very special relationship to Sarah Palin, because Vicki Garza created the website "PrayForSarahPalin" back in 2008. From a news report:
"An advertising executive from Texas has launched a website encouraging Christians to pray for Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
Vicky Garza runs the Garza Creative Group in Dallas. The businesswoman, mother of five, and grandmother of seven says she got the idea for the website the day Governor Palin made her acceptance speech. Within two weeks, PrayForSarahPalin.com was online, with a goal of having someone from every zip code in the nation participate.
"Everyone right now can see what a spiritual battle is [lingering] over the United States of America [at] this time, specifically that we're going through the election process," she explains. "I really set this up so it could be a ministry tool, so when someone comes up to people and starts talking about the elections, they can call people to pray."
It is more beneficial for Christians to pray, Garza contends, than it is for them to bicker and argue over politics."
The design of the website looks pretty similar to "palin4life":
The Whois DNS record of "prayforsarahpalin" looks very familiar to the one of "www.uptownwomenscenter.com" (which redirected to "palin4life"), too:
Vicki Garza herself was not shy to explain her support for Sarah Palin - this video can be found on the "PrayForSarahPalin" website:
+++
Do you think that this is everything?
No! ;-)
Vicki Garza has also published a book in 2004 called "Faith Adventures". It is quite a read!
In the book, she also explains how she worked at companies for oil and gas exploration - and in her book she mentions that "God told her" that she should "own" an oil and gas exploration company as well!
We don't know yet whether she is still involved in the industry. There is a "Vicki Garza" mentioned to be an employee of the Oil & Gas drilling company "Transocean" in Houston, Tx, but this could be a different person.
Vicki Garza says in her book that she "charted her new corporation", an oil and gas exploration company. What's its name? Curious minds would like to know.
Therefore I would like to conclude this update with some heartwarming excerpts from Vicki Garza's book "Faith Adventures" - funnily, the "godly style" reminds me of Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue":
+++
It's particularly touching that Vicki founded her advertising business because God made a prophecy:
+++
UPDATE:
Surprise! The "www.uptownwomenscenter.com" website is back to life again and now displays a beautiful picture of the "object of desire", together with the announcement that Sarah Palin "will be at a gala at the Fairmont Hotel to cast our vision for this fabulous new center" on April 30, 2010.
We have another surprise, because the website claims that the "Uptown's Women Center" is also 501(c)(3) organization! Now we have two of them!
Thanks to the Dallas Observer, which kindly linked to Palingates in a new story, we now know the exact location of the shiny white building which is the "object of desire": It's the so-called "White House", with the exact location: 2401 Turtle Creek Blvd., Dallas, TX 75219.
Several members of Cienda Partners were appointed by the Mayor of Dallas to serve as the leadership team of the Dallas Faith Communities Coalition (“DFCC”). The DFCC works with both non-profit and for-profit homebuilders and volunteer talent from Dallas’ many faith communities to build affordable housing in the city and assist with the city’s new homeless shelter."
The Mayor of Dallas, who will give participants of the "palin4life" fundraiser a "special welcome":
Coincidence?
+++
UPDATE 5:
More discoveries - including some real oddities!
Thanks to our reader "lurknomore" we are now able to finally establish the link between the owner of 3503 Fairmount Street, which is "TC Holdings, L.P." and "Cienda Partners, L.P.". Although the common address already indicated a connection, we now learn that Barry Hancock, the owner of "Cienda Partners, L.P.", is also the owner of "TC Holdings, L.P."!
HERE is the company Tax Record for "Cienda Partner", and HERE for "TC Holdings".
The market value jumped from $ 368,480 in 2005 to $ 1,450,000 in 2008! How could that happen? Did they discover an oilfield on the property?
Well - maybe they invested a lot of money there and increased the market value?
We know the answer - it's a clear NO.
The Downtown Pregnancy Center themselves said in the report for the third quarter 2009 that this building is "beautiful on the outside", but is "in need of a total renovation on the inside":
So what the heck is going on here?
Any readers with property knowledge, please come forward! I for my part cannot see any logic in this.
Many people were confused and outraged about CSU Stanislaus inviting Sarah Palin to headline their black-tie event in June, considering the positions of their president, Dr Hamid Shirvani:
His management focus is, first and foremost, on bringing a humanistic perspective to decision-making, with a focus on ethics and transparency in institutional behavior.
Humanism is a worldview and a moral philosophy that considers humans to be of primary importance. It is a perspective common to a wide range of ethical stances that attaches importance to human dignity, concerns, and capabilities, particularly rationality. Although the word has many senses, its current philosophical meaning comes into focus when contrasted to the supernatural or to appeals to higher authority. Since the 19th century, humanism has been associated with an anti-clericalism inherited from the 18th-century Enlightenment philosophes. The term covers organized non-theistic religions, secular humanism, and a humanistic life stance.
Dr. Shirvani is also in demand as a book reviewer in the field of architecture, and has spoken, lectured and made numerous conference presentations on higher education, art, architecture, and urban design.
What would Dr Shirvani write about Sarah Palin's Wasilla?(Click on the link for more photos)
CSU Stanislaus has changed a lot in the last 50 years. So have some of the people who were very vocal regarding the Vietnam war in the 60s but have changed their views since then, such as Jon Voight.
Another member of the board of the CSU Stanislaus Foundation is quite interesting:
Matt Swanson is a visionary leader in agri-business, manufacturing and pet-supply retail. He serves as president of both Associated Feed & Supply, a leader in the animal feed industry, and Virtus Nutrition, a developer and marketer of value-added feed ingredients for dairy cows. He is president of Nutrias, which manufactors vitamin and mineral supplements for livestock, poultry and companion animals. He is also founder and president of Pet Extreme, Inc.
His varied interests in film and music culminated in founding The Creation Lab, Turlock’s own recording and video studio. He also serves as president of the California State University, Stanislaus Foundation Board and is a Turlock Christian Schools board member.
Sarah Palin doesn't have any known connections with dairy cows apart from Dairygate, but perhaps the clue is in the last sentence.
Mr Swanson is a member of the executive team of Harvest Crusades, started by a Greg Laurie, who sits on the board of directors of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse.
Well, it didn't take long to find that last missing piece of the puzzle...
Sarah Palin is very enthusiastic about the Samaritan Purse. She travelled with Franklin Graham to Western Alaska to dish out some cookies and Evangelical pamphlets to Alaska Natives who were going through a very serious crisis and didn't hesitate to pass her baby-prop Trig to Franklin Graham when she arrived for a visit with Franklin's father, Billy Graham, during the "bus" tour to promote Going Rogue.
Franklin Graham was the speaker at the Alaska Governor's Prayer Breakfast in 2007 and 2008. He was also influencial in Sarah Palin's choice of Commissioner of Public Safety after she fired Walt Monegan. Unfortunately, Graham's protege, Chuck Kopp, had a few demons, having been previously reprimanded for sexual harassement when he was police chief in Kenai.
I can understand Sarah Palin's and Matt Swanson's motivations, but I have difficulty in understanding Dr Shirvani's inclination to sell out his humanistic soul.
Sooner or later, most people seem prepared to sell their souls to the real devil: MONEY.
Sarah is currently on a tour to meet "real Americans" all over the country. We know that it's a lucrative tour, as her regular $ 100,000 speaking fee is no secret anymore. On April 30, 2010 she will be in Dallas, Texas, at an event for an obscure organization called "palin4life".
The real Americans she is going to meet then will need big pockets. Very big pockets. But the good news is: All you need is $ 1,000. This will give a ticket for the dinner, but don't expect to get close to Sarah. Touching will cost ya. If you want the "VIP reception", you will need to spend at least $ 10,000 - per person. This will make you a "silver"candidate.
Strangely, two tickets for $ 25,000 apparently give you the same return as two tickets for $ 10,000 each, but I don't even want to try to understand it.
Therefore, it seems that a lot of people will pay a lot of money to see Sarah. $ 75,000 for four tickets surely is a lot of bucks to see the Queen of the Quitters. Definitely out of reach for the ordinary teabagger.
Therefore, we have several reasons to become curious.
This is what we have found out so far:
Don't expect to find any details anywhere about this organization called "palin4life". You won't find anything. No contact name, no address, nothing. The website is registered with an anonymous provider, and no information is given on the website.
However, on their hompage "palin4life" claims to be a "501(c)(3)" non-profit organization. Where have we recently heard that before? Oh yes, Sarah Palin's "Alaska Fund Trust", the one with the missing reports and the unresolved ethics complaints, can "donate unspent funds to qualified 501 (c)(3) organizations". Could there be a connection? We don't know, but it immediately caught our eye.
Further investigation reveals more curious details:
There are clues, and they only point in one direction. The website states that this event "benefits a new women's center in uptown Dallas". A property, apparently costing $ 1.8 million, is supposed to be bought:
"Heinbaugh (mayor's chief of staff) responds, "It's a fundraiser for the Uptown Women's Center. He's doing a welcome." The mayor's chief of staff also sent the URL for the UWC, which redirects you to Palin4Life.com. But, as it turns out, the Uptown Womens Center will be a satellite office of the Downtown Pregnancy Center on S. Ervay, which has been eying a location on Turtle Creek Boulevard and needs money in order to make the purchase."
So it will be a fundraiser for a "satellite" of the "Downtown Pregnancy Center". Why not say this right from the start?
"Join the Downtown Pregnancy Center for its annual "Light of Life" fundraising dinner and gala. Keynote speaker, Texas Governor Rick Perry, will be honored for his leadership in the pro-life cause as the Downtown Pregnancy Center celebrates 252 babies saved last year.
Who:
• Rick Perry, Governor of the State of Texas • Carolyn Cline, Executive Director, Downtown Pregnancy Center"
So why all the secrecy? Why set up a new organization and give no information about the people behind it whatsoever? Why not organize a fundraiser directly for the "Downtown Pregnancy Center"?
As always: No easy questions, no straight answers when Sarah Palin is involved. She surely loves Texas. At least that we know. The announcement on the website of "palin4life" that it "will be her only appearance in Dallas in 2010" seems somehow premature to me. Just a hunch!
Aides to Sarah Palin have asked the Republican National Committee to remove her name from an invitation that suggests she might attend a series of committee fundraising events timed to coincide with next week's Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans.
