Sarah Palin, liar liar, busy liar

There's an interesting article on Alaska Dispatch about Sarah Palin and Sudan:

As early as 2006, Reps. Bob Lynn, R-Anchorage, and Les Gara, D-Anchorage, prodded Palin to restructure the permanent fund to divest in Darfur.

"If this genocide were occurring somewhere on the American continent, or someplace in Europe," said Lynn in a 2006 letter to Palin, "would we invest Alaska's money with corporations that do business with the perpetrators? I don't think so. Genocide is genocide, whether in Darfur, Africa, or anyplace else." Gara added to the letter: "Given the thousands of good companies we can invest in, taking a moral stand against the unconscionable won't cost the Permanent Fund a dime."

Over the next two years, Lynn, Gara and others consistently lobbied Palin to support legislation to divest from Darfur, but the administration did not change course until two weeks before the end of the legislative session in 2008, which was too late for a bill to be passed, Gara said at the time and reiterated in a recent email.

But Palin, in a '08 vice presidential debate with Joe Biden, implied that she had advocated the state divest from Sudan from the moment she found out. "When I and others in the Legislature found out that we had some millions of dollars [of Permanent Fund investments] in Sudan, we called for divestment through legislation of those dollars," Palin said.

There. The amazing CEO of Alaska took a very long time to find out about the investments in Sudan despite having received letters about it for nearly two years, then acted too late for any measures to be implemented in the 2008 legislative session. She lied during the vice presidential debate, taking credit for something not due to her because she spent her busy days sitting on her hands about it.

Sheesh, she must have been terribly busy writing phony letters to newspapers, calling people names, arranging her children's travels on the state dime and drinking coffee: All the the real priorities of a busy governor, CEO extraordinaire...

Sarah Palin, lying as usual and being as classy as ever

Sarah Palin continues to have a very distant relationship with the truth...

Bristol and Sarah Palin - Spot the Similarities - UPDATE

From Yahoo:

Bristol Palin admits her recent change in appearance was due to a procedure — but not plastic surgery.

The 20-year-old daughter of 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin tells Us Weekly that she underwent corrective jaw surgery in December, a month after she finished third on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." Her face now appears thinner, with higher cheekbones and an angular jaw.

No plastic surgery?

"Yes, it improved the way I look, but this surgery was necessary for medical reasons," she told the magazine for its May 23 issue, which will be on newsstands Friday.


Palin said she had the procedure so her jaw and teeth could properly realign.

While growing up, she wore braces and a device to help correct an overbite. But she said her dentist warned her that she'd have to have surgery one day.

If we believe them, it seems the Palins use the services of very strange health professionals:

A dentist who believes that adding to the chin will correct an overbite, and in the case of Bristol's mom, a doctor who performs pelvic examinations and lab tests over the phone, then proceeds to see nothing wrong with travelling by air and road for over ten hours, seven hours after the first signs of labour, to deliver a premature baby with special needs in a hospital without an NICU.


I think both of them need a nose job...

UPDATE

This lovely young lady had big problems with her teeth, overbite was the least of her problems. Three years ago, she wouldn't smile. Look at her now.

She had a good orthodontist, who never mentioned surgery at all...

[A big thank you to the dear reader who sent me this photo.]

Your day will come, Sarah Palin

As we follow Sarah Palin's shenanigans, it becomes very difficult to tell who's the victim when she makes allegations against others. There are at least three young men who crossed her and two of them had their lives turned upside down.


Shawn Christie doesn't appear to play with a full set of marbles and the courts in Alaska don't seem to look at the whole picture when weighing the evidence against this young man. I think this case is more complicated than the picture presented to the public, even when we take Christie's admissions into account.



Sarah Palin (and her daughter) don't stick to telling the truth and nothing but the truth when giving evidence, as seen in David Kernell's trial. Kernell is serving a prison sentence for guessing (or shall we say googling?) the answer to the security question for Sarah Palin's Yahoo government e-mail account. Sarah Palin's open and transparent government...



Apart from custody proceedings, Levi Johnston has avoided the courts. He was accused of using his son Tripp to make money and promote himself. It's all a bit strange, when the person who made the accusations has just invited the cameras into her private life with the same son, in a house she's going to share with her new best friend and his brother.

Bristol Palin, "not" exploiting her son

There are two sides to every story and while I don't condone breaking the law to inconvenience Sarah Palin, I find the authorities tend to take Sarah Palin's statements at face value, giving her very unfair advantage against young people with few resources.

I hope the day will come when Sarah Palin will finally find herself as the defendant in a courtroom. I hope the authorites will give her the same treatment these young men were given. I hope her punishment will be just as disproportionate as David Kernell's. I hope the judge and the jury will disregard any extenuating circumstances. I hope they will notice her inevitable compulsion to tell lies. I hope she gets very long sentences for each of her crimes.


I also hope her family will be banned from capitalizing on her downfall and that we will be spared an endless series of reality shows featuring this very sorry bunch of people.

Sarah Palin, still lying about her record regarding the oil industry in Alaska

Sarah Palin, in her attempts to undermine President Obama, continues to make wild claims about her tough stance when she dealt with the oil companies in Alaska before she quit the office of governor.

Sarah Palin told Bill O'Reilly yesterday:

"... as governor of Alaska, what I did in dealing with the oil companies and I’ll betcha 75% of my time was being taken up by energy issues here in this state. I had to set up our Petroleum Systems Integrity Office so that we could be there on the front lines making sure what the oil companies were telling us was legit when they were dealing with their corroded pipes that we find out and other lax maintenance issues. It took us putting that as the highest priority to to protect our resources to protect our environment including not just the physical environment but the human environment here."

Some people (with better credentials and more integrity than Sarah Palin) beg to differ. Mudflats had an excellent article by Richard Fineberg back in February where he blows Palin's claims right out of the water. Fineberg looks at a series of spills and other incidents in Alaska and draws our attention to the performance of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and the ineffectiveness of Sarah Palin's much trumpeted Petroleum Systems Integrity Office, highlighting the inaccuracies presented by Sarah Palin in Going Rogue.

Prior to the election it had been revealed that BP had been trying to save money for years by cutting corners on oil pipeline maintenance on the North Slope. This was very serious: leaks and spills from corroded pipelines were all too common and harmed the environment plus led to production slowdowns. So one of my first priorities was to establish the Petroleum Systems Integrity Office (PSIO). With the creation of the PSIO, Alaska became the first state to require industry operators to document their compliance with maintenance and quality assurance standards, and to share that information with the state. Unfortunately, the next year the House Finance subcommittee gutted more than a third of the PSIO budget. I fought to get it restored and finally succeeded.

The preceding excerpt -- one of Palin's few curtsies to environmental considerations in her autobiography -- is a mixture of fact, wishful thinking and empty rhetoric. Demonstrating her characteristic failure to follow through, Palin abruptly ended this snippet without telling readers what - if anything - the new agency accomplished during its two years under her tenure. The Alaska spill sequence that silently shadowed her Lower-48 book tour in late 2009 clearly suggest that the oversight procedures Palin claims to have established to insure safe production and transport of Alaska petroleum were either not in place or not working as intended.

Review of state documents reveals further evidence that Palin's new unit has not been able to fulfill the tasks or deal with the problems that Palin outlined in the passage above. According to the executive order establishing the PSIO in April 2007, the new agency's first major assignments were to conduct a gap analysis to identify redundancies and holes in the government monitoring process, and to "evaluate industry oversight of . . . facilities, equipment, infrastructure, and activities." When Palin left office two years later, the gap analysis had yet to be completed and there was no sign of a PSIO evaluation of industry management oversight programs.

Sarah Palin was economical with the truth in Going Rogue and continues to lie on her Facebook page and in interviews with her Fox News colleagues.

Jason Leopold, an investigative reporter, examines and documents how BP deals with safety concerns in their Alaska operations in an extensive article on Truthout. (This article was crossposted by Shannyn Moore on Mudflats as well)

This passage from the article doesn't sit very well with Palin's claims:

Two BP management officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal matters, said budget cuts were largely the reason equipment was not upgraded or repaired, and indicated that much of it has yet to be addressed. BP's Alaska budget for 2010 is $1 billion, compared with $1.1 billion in 2009 and $1.3 billion in 2008.

Moreover, according to two BP Alaska officials, projects related to "safety and integrity" have been cut by 30 percent this year and BP’s senior managers receive bonuses for not using funds from BP’s designated maintenance budget, a company wide policy implemented by Hayward. Documents show that Hayward also implemented a cost-cutting directive following the oil spills in 2006 in Prudhoe Bay.

Let's look at what Sarah Palin wrote in Going Rogue one more time:

Prior to the election it had been revealed that BP had been trying to save money for years by cutting corners on oil pipeline maintenance on the North Slope. This was very serious: leaks and spills from corroded pipelines were all too common and harmed the environment plus led to production slowdowns. So one of my first priorities was to establish the Petroleum Systems Integrity Office (PSIO). With the creation of the PSIO, Alaska became the first state to require industry operators to document their compliance with maintenance and quality assurance standards, and to share that information with the state. Unfortunately, the next year the House Finance subcommittee gutted more than a third of the PSIO budget. I fought to get it restored and finally succeeded.

Then at what she said to Bill O'Reilly:

"... as governor of Alaska, what I did in dealing with the oil companies and I’ll betcha 75% of my time was being taken up by energy issues here in this state. I had to set up our Petroleum Systems Integrity Office so that we could be there on the front lines making sure what the oil companies were telling us was legit when they were dealing with their corroded pipes that we find out and other lax maintenance issues. It took us putting that as the highest priority to to protect our resources to protect our environment including not just the physical environment but the human environment here."

I do hope these two well documented articles, which contradict Sarah Palin's statements, are picked up by the MSM and somebody points out that she keeps harping on a dodgy note, exposing her to a wider audience for the phony she is.

UPDATE

Bill O'Reilly said on Fox that Sarah Palin also "doesn't know how to stop that leak":

+++

In addition, the "Washington Post" already wrote on Monday that the Obama administration does indeed accept foreign offers, which contradicts Palin's accusations:

"We'll let BP decide on what expertise they do need," State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid told reporters on May 19. "We are keeping an eye on what supplies we do need. And as we see that our supplies are running low, it may be at that point in time to accept offers from particular governments."

That time has come.

In the past week, the United States submitted its second request to the European Union for any specialized equipment to contain the oil now seeping onto the Gulf of Mexico's marshes and beaches, and it accepted Canada's offer of 9,842 feet of boom. The government is soliciting additional boom and skimmers from nearly two dozen countries and international organizations.

In late May, the administration accepted Mexico's offer of two skimmers and 13,779 feet of boom; a Dutch offer of three sets of Koseq sweeping arms, which attach to the sides of ships and gather oil; and eight skimming systems offered by Norway.

UPDATE

Sarah Lied to Bill-O! - Gov. Murkowski began Arctic Pipeline Technology Team, NOT Sarah!

We received an interesting document from an alert Alaskan with a long memory: Andree McLeod, who's a Republican and a very resilient watchdog of local politics. Sarah Palin keeps saying she had to set up the Petroleum Systems Integrity Office as if it was a novel idea and completely her own. Here are the screenshots of a press release dated April, 2006:

Lying again, Sarah?

Sarah Palin can't see the truth from her kitchen window

Sarah Palin has been going on and on about how her new neighbour could see right into her kitchen: "He's 15 feet away from my kitchen window!"

That's what she told Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity and what she wrote on Facebook:

"Yes, that Joe McGinniss. Here he is – about 15 feet away on the neighbor’s rented deck overlooking my children’s play area and my kitchen window."

It really bugged me that I couldn't remember seeing a kichen window on that side of Palin's property, so I sifted through my files and found the window! But it has a venetian blind that appears to be permanently down. These photos were taken on several different occasions (click on pictures to enlarge):






Sarah Palin is technically right, there is a window 15 feet away from the house nextdoor, but the deck faces the lake, not that side of her property. There might be a window on that side of the neighbour's house, but Joe McGinniss would need to have X-ray vision to see anything.

Sarah also made a remark about Piper's bedroom window.

"Wonder what kind of material he’ll gather while overlooking Piper’s bedroom, my little garden, and the family’s swimming hole?"

Piper's window is too high to be seen from the deck, which, as I said above, is not directly opposite that side of Palin's house.

No deck facing the Palins' kitchen or Piper's bedroom

Could Sarah Palin be distorting reality and exaggerating just a little bit?

Here's a nice article about Sarah Palin's fence and how it may be in breach of Wasilla's municipal codes.

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Bristol Palin's problem with the truth

Bristol Palin seems to be having some difficulty in keeping her message straight.





Here's Bristol Palin having a hard time at the Time 100 event, together with one of her cousins (the one who sold her auntie's Naughty Monkeys shoes on ebay), Britta Hanson and her sister Piper.

Poor Bristol. It must be really hard going to a baseball game in Arizona, then flying to NYC for an evening rubbing shoulders with very famous celebrities...

Her employers must be incredibly sympathetic, giving her so many days off from a full-time job. After all, buying formula and diapers must cost a fortune and the $1,750 Tripp's father pays every month don't cover any of it, let's be fair. It must be lonely to live in an apartment in Anchorage all alone, with only a room mate and Tripp for company. (Sorry if this sentence doesn't make sense. She said she lived alone, and then she had a room mate, I got confused...)

Bristol is a single parent earning a living to support herself and her child, all by herself. She has to pause before considering an evening out with friends, but it could be much worse if she didn't have all the opportunities, if she didn't have a famous, supportive family. (Oh dear, I'm confused again.)

For somebody who keeps such punishing hours, with a full-time job and a baby she can't switch off, Bristol looks the picture of health at the Time 100 dinner and at her appearance in The View. Yes, it could be worse. Bristol could have a sudden urge to tell the truth (for a change) and risk the wrath of her oh so supportive mother!

Poor, poor Bristol. She has endured so much in such a short time! Those threatening boys who managed to by-pass the Secret Service and reached her front door in the middle of nowhere in Alaska, the pictures of her newborn baby being splashed all over the internet in September 2008 after that bad boy guessed her brainy mom's security question for her (no government business) personal Yahoo e-mail account, feeling isolated without her cellphone or a landline, cut-off from family and friends, receiving horrible e-mails, anonymous phone calls and text messages from all over the country, living alone, struggling to buy diapers and formula for her 28 month old baby, it's all too much for a single parent!

At least other members of the family are just for show and don't say much.

I wonder if Willow had to look after Trig, as both of them missed out on all the fun...

Poor, poor us, having to be subjected to so much BS from this "honest, truthful, hard working" family! OK, I'll give them the last one. They do work hard. They seem to be all over the country all the time, lying their heads off, it must be tiring.

UPDATE

Whatever happened to Bristol in the last twelve months?

Bristol in May 2009 and May 2010

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Sarah Palin, teabaggers, ego, greed and lies...

Sarah Palin wrote (cough cough) an op-ed for Usa Today, explaining her reasons for speaking at the Teabaggers convention in Nashville. Some sections didn't go unnoticed:

Later this week I'll head to Nashville, where I'll have the honor of speaking with members of the Tea Party movement. I look forward to meeting many Americans who share a commitment to limited government, common sense and personal responsibility. This movement is truly a grassroots, organic effort. It's not a top-down organization; it's a ground-up call to action that already has both political parties rethinking the way they do business.

Recently, some have tried to portray this movement as a commercial endeavor rather than the grassroots uprising that it is. Those who do so don't understand the frustration everyday Americans feel when they see their government mortgaging their children's future with reckless spending. The spark of patriotic indignation that inspired those who fought for our independence and those who marched peacefully for civil rights has ignited once again. You can't buy such a sentiment. You can't AstroTurf it. It springs from love of country and the knowledge that we can make a difference if we just stand up and stand together.

I thought long and hard about my participation in this weekend's event. At the end of the day, my decision came down to this: It's important to keep faith with people who put a little bit of their faith in you. Everyone attending this event is a soldier in the cause. Some of them will be driving hundreds of miles to Nashville. I made a commitment to them to be there, and I am going to honor it.

But participation won't be limited to those in Nashville who have a ticket. It's much bigger than that. Because the Tea Party movement is spread out across the country — with no central offices or annual events — this is an opportunity to connect with like-minded folks. Yes, there will be speeches given in a room in Nashville. But we'll also be speaking with thousands of Americans watching online at twitter.com/SarahPalinUSA, or through various news outlets. And the conversation will continue on my Facebook page.

I will not benefit financially from speaking at this event. My only goal is to support the grassroots activists who are fighting for responsible, limited government — and our Constitution. In that spirit, any compensation for my appearance will go right back to the cause.

Sarah Palin skirted the subject of Tea Party Nation being a commercial endeavour. She didn't elaborate on it and quickly changed the subject.

Sarah says she's committed to the cause and will speak because she's keeping faith with people who put faith in her, that the faithful are going to travel hundreds of miles to drink from her fountain of knowledge. It's not the money, nooo...

How will the compensation go right back to the cause? There is a maximum that can be donated to PACs, provided she is allowed to make contributions to SarahPac herself. FEC rules are very difficult to search and somewhat confusing. Will she put her hand in her pocket (God forbid!) and donate directly to various teabagging candidates? Will we have to check each candidate's disclosures to spot her name as a donor and add them all up until the total reaches $115,000 less the Washington Speakers bureau cut?

Sarah knows nobody will check. (The SarahPac financial disclosure alone is migraine inducing and points to some dodgy dealings. The majority of donations to candidates were made almost as an afterthought, at the last possible minute.)

Words are cheap, Ms Palin. We want to see the deeds.

I love how Sarah changed her tune on the rules about broadcasting her speech. It started with the usual proviso of no cameras or other recording devices allowed. Then it was open to friendly media only. Now it's a free for all and all about Sarah... her twitter, her Facebook page. At least she included other media outlets. So far, the broadcasting of the event is been negotiated with PJTV, FOX News, CNN and Reuters TV.

Sarah Palin's greed and ego match each other in their monumental proportions. Her mendacity is in a category all by itself...
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Reality, Palin style

The Palin family has a penchant for presenting their lives in a very strange fashion, as if they inhabited a parallel universe.

These paragraphs come from People Magazine, from a June 2009 spread.:

Bristol Palin, 18, has logged more of those "other things" than some people twice her age. In just the past nine months, she has weathered a partisan and personal presidential campaign that catapulted her mother, Alaska GOP governor Sarah Palin, into enduring celebrity and controversy; a failed engagement to boyfriend Levi Johnston that played out in the national media; and, most indelibly, a pregnancy that made her both mother and poster child. Five days after giving birth to Tripp Easton over her Christmas break, she returned to classes at Wasilla High and finished the year with, she says, a 3.49 grade point average.

Her mom may be governor, but there is no nanny in the Palin house. Bristol gets up—usually twice during the night—to feed Tripp, who sleeps in a hand-me-down crib in her bedroom, and she says she has tapped out at least one school paper with her son crying in the background. She pays for diapers and formula by working part-time.

CG posted a brilliant comment on the "In Touch..." thread about the Palins and their attitude regarding education. I refer to a couple of paragraphs:

To get a diploma (as opposed to a Certificate of Achievement), Alaska requires 21 credits and the HSGQE. "All students take this in the spring of their sophomore year, and continue to take portions on which they are not proficient at least once yearly while they are in school."

So this teenager, who missed school to do public appearances for her mother, changed schools in the middle of the term at least 3 times, partied the whole time, stopped attending school, got pregnant, traveled the country during her mother's vice-presidential campaign, delivered and cared for a newborn at the beginning of the last semester of her senior year, while being a primary caregiver to her special needs baby brother and working two jobs, was still able to earn 21 credits and pass a rather rigorous graduation exam, with absent parents and no one to help her. On time.

I find it difficult to accept Palin's account of events.

In the latest issue of the In Touch magazine, we learn that Bristol gets up at 4 a.m. to work in a doctor's office all day and attends college classes at night.

Again, not easy to believe.

Why do the Palins insist on exaggerating or distorting everything to the point where people start smelling a rat?

In their efforts to present a good image, they invariably over-egg the pudding then act outraged when people start doubting their stories and asking a few questions.

In "Going Rogue", in the chapter where Sarah Palin describes her thoughts after the sonogram that showed Trig had a thick neck, etc, she says:

God knew me: I was busy. Got to go-go-go. I'd always yapped about how lucky I was that my kids were all healthy over-achievers, self-sufficient. Now, I thought, I've got a tough job and other kids who need me. I just couldn't imagine how I could add a baby with special needs and make it all work.

Why did she have to say her children were all over-achievers, when we know very well that they are not? In what fields did they over-achieve? Track played hockey, Bristol played basketball. Were they out of this world this world in their endevours? No. They played games and enjoyed them, which seems good enough, but there's nothing outstanding in terms of achievement.

While Track's army service is honourable, it can hardly be described as over-achievement.

Bristol may have been a good enough student before her pregnancy adventures started, but she is no Einstein. All her children have erratic attendance records and we only have Sarah Palin's word about how well they do in school.

The Palins love to have well paid cover stories in various gossip magazines and their stories are always too contrived, full of hyperbole.

The latest spread for "In Touch" magazine is only the latest example. Bristol's appearance in the photos of what is a staged birthday party for Tripp, the images contradict the tale of a young mother struggling to juggle too many balls. Not that we would expect to see a bedraggled Bristol, covered in baby sick or anything like that. Her image is, shall we say... manicured? But the whole picture falls down when it comes to the details. Apart from Bristol and her mother, everybody else is in extremely casual clothing for a party. Not a gift to be seen, the only other small child in the picture is Trig, where are the other little guests? There are subliminal messages stencilled on the wall, Tripp is the only one enjoying some cake, somewhat isolated from the rest of the guests. It all points to a badly devised scene, not helped by a lousy photographer.

Why can't they just say Bristol is doing her best to meet Tripp's needs, that she's re-evaluating her priorities and trying to plan for the future in a different way, given the change in her circumstances? Why can't they have pictures of a true family scene?

Why can't they simply be honest?

In Time Out with Sarah Palin, she anwered questions from Fox fans and here's what she said about Trig:

I have become a more passionate and a more patient person, and more committed than ever to make sure that individuals, groups, families become empowered to assist these beautiful individuals who do need and deserve a little bit more care than others – not necessarily looking for government to provide, but empowering those who have that compassionate heart – and I do think that every American has that in them, the desire to make this world more welcoming to these individuals – I would never have had that perspective on this issue, had Trig not been gifted to our family.

She has done nothing of the sort! We have never come across any articles about Trig's therapies or what challenges they face on a day-to-day basis. Believe me, we pay a lot of attention to all things Palin. It's all about God and gifts and her humble heart. The key words here are "not necessarily looking for government to provide". They are loaded words.

The lies are too numerous to list, but we have SuperBristol, statutory-raped Willow, persecuted Piper for her lemonade stand, all the work Sarah Palin does on behalf of children with special needs... all fitting in with the message Sarah Palin wants to put out for her fans.

Between the glossed over articles in gossip magazines, irate phone calls to said mags "to put the record straight" and outraged Facebook notes, Sarah Palin comes across as a deeply dishonest person.

We can observe a pattern: Bristol is better than Levi, useful in a custody battle, the Palins are better than everybody else. They have God, they make the right choices, they can look after themselves, forever victimized by the bloggers and the media, useful to appeal to her base.

There's always an agenda behind every word. Sarah Palin is not honest about any of her children or herself . Every story is built around her personal goals.

Now Sarah Palin has some airtime on Fox News. We don't know if her contract is for a one-woman-show or if these poor children will have to make regular appearances, but even if she just talks about them, we can be sure of one thing: it will be exaggerated, distorted and will serve only to "progress" her twisted agenda, either for power or just the money.

Phil Munger of Progressive Alaska has a good post about Willow and her recent troubles.
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Sarah Palin, vetting, AIP... (videos)

Whoever searched YouTube looking for a hot candidate to run with John McCain must have seen this video as well as the one with Janet Napolitano.



I love the way she explains how babysitting and waitressing gave her a good grounding on how to conduct herself in the world of politics. Her choice of books is fascinating... But hey, she jumps off the screen!

Did the internet search miss this video?



Sarah failed to say that the "couple" of legislators who were targetting her consisted of ten Republicans and four Democrats. They chose a VP candidate who didn't know what the VP does all day!

How did they miss this one? Or didn't it worry them enough?



Frightening...

Is being a member of the AIP a good or a bad thing?



This one is hilarious! ( H/T to Barb Dwyer). Please pay attention to the AIP guy towards the end. What did he say about Todd? OK, this one wasn't available during the vetting, but it's too good, a pleasure to watch.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Understanding Real America in Wasilla
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

During the campaign, Sarah Palin must have decided that the AIP was bad news after all.

Palin blasted out an e-mail with the subject line "Todd" to Schmidt, campaign manager Rick Davis and senior advisor Nicolle Wallace, copying her husband on the message.

"Pls get in front of that ridiculous issue that's cropped up all day today - two reporters, a protestor's sign, and many shout-outs all claiming Todd's involvement in an anti-American political party," Palin wrote. "It's bull, and I don't want to have to keep reacting to it ... Pls have statement given on this so it's put to bed."

Schmidt hit "reply to all" less than five minutes after Palin's e-mail was sent. "Ignore it," he wrote. "He was a member of the aip? My understanding is yes. That is part of their platform. Do not engage the protestors. If a reporter asks say it is ridiculous. Todd loves america."

She responded with another e-mail, adding five more names to the "cc" box, all of whom traveled on her campaign plane.

"That's not part of their platform and he was only a 'member' bc independent alaskans too often check that 'Alaska Independent' box on voter registrations thinking it just means non partisan," Palin wrote. "He caught his error when changing our address and checked the right box. I still want it fixed."

Clearly irritated by what he saw as Palin's attempt to mislead her own campaign and apparently determined to demonstrate that the ultimate authority rested with him, Schmidt put the matter to rest once and for all with a longer response to everyone in the e-mail chain.

"Secession," he wrote. "It is their entire reason for existence. A cursory examination of the website shows that the party exists for the purpose of seceding from the union. That is the stated goal on the front page of the web site. Our records indicate that todd was a member for seven years. If this is incorrect then we need to understand the discrepancy. The statement you are suggesting be released would be innaccurate. The innaccuracy would bring greater media attention to this matter and be a distraction. According to your staff there have been no media inquiries into this and you received no questions about it during your interviews. If you are asked about it you should smile and say many alaskans who love their country join the party because it speeks to a tradition of political independence. Todd loves his country

We will not put out a statement and inflame this and create a situation where john has to adress this."

I made a screenshot of the Alaska voter registration form:

Sarah was telling porkers... independent voters don't have box for "independent" to tick!

The Alaska Independence Party website have changed some of their rhetoric since I last visited. On their homepage and introduction, they now put less emphasis on secession than they did before... but they have an interesting Q & A section. Many questions reflect concerns regarding the loss of Federal money, loss of social security, federal pensions, etc. They seem to want the best of both worlds, but the answer to the question about citizenship is quite clear:

Q: Would I lose my U.S. citizenship?

A: Depending on the form of independence, several forms of citizenship would be possible, including the retention of U.S. citizenship or dual citizenship. However, considering the moral, educational, and economic decay of the U.S., Alaskans' who hold themselves to a higher standard might very well decide to at least maintain an arm's length distance from a country in decline.

Independent or not independent? They seem to want to keep all the balls in the air, but they lean towards secession...

And Sarah Palin is hopefully heading to the political scrapheap!

More posts about Sarah Palin and the AIP on palingates.

Phil Munger of Progressive Alaska also thinks it's scandalous that Sarah Palin was considered vice presidential material.
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Sarah Palin, Steve Schmidt, Rachel Maddow, Senator O'Biden... - UPDATE - New info!

Rachel Maddow showed more footage of the teaser for Steve Schmidt's 60 Minutes interview on her show.

O'Sarah... your lies keep coming back to haunt you.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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UPDATE (by Patrick):

(h/t) BanditBasheert - thank you!

What looked like a slow news day has suddenly become much more interesting!

Andrew Sullivan on the Daily Dish surprises his readers with a "nugget" which today has been published in the New York Times:

"In the days leading up to an interview with ABC News’ Charlie Gibson, aides were worried with Ms. Palin’s grasp of facts. She couldn’t explain why North and South Korea were separate nations and she did not know what the Federal Reserve did. She also said she believed Saddam Hussein attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001."

This quote was taken from the book "Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime", written by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. It will be published on January 11, 2010.

Andrew Sullivan comments:

"But it became almost immediately clear that she knew nothing about anything, had a private life that you usually see hashed out on Judge Judy, covered up her total lack of governing competence with so many lies they were hard to keep track of, and had next-to-no knowledge of any domestic or foreign policy issues, including energy. Isn't that enough to regard her nomination is a total farce, the biggest insult ever delivered to voters since ... well, Dan Quayle, who was far more informed, smart and serious than Palin ever was.

The idea that this person was qualified to run a country in one of its most serious crises, economically and militarily, beggars belief. The recklessness it revealed in McCain showed that he too was simply unqualified for high office, gambling with the core security of the US for cheap tactical advantage."

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EDIT:

Please don't miss the excellent article by Sarah Jones at "politicususa":

Political Apocalypse Coming; GOP Guns for Palin

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UPDATE 2 (by Regina)

O'$arah Palin is just like her fans: uninformed, incurious... just plain ignorant.

The people who comment on Granny Sarah's Facebook page are not running for office and have never been governors, mayors or council members. We could overlook their profound ignorance, but the same level of ignorance is not acceptable when it comes to somebody who feels qualified to chastise the president of the US on his actions and policies.

Here's a sample of their mentality:

Love Sarah Palin - feel like a kindred spirit. I pray for you each day -- that God would place you in the leadership role picked out especially for you -- hopefully POTUS!

i love you! you're a girl after my own heart. God bless you!

Sarah Palin is the woman that most women want to be like. She is everthing rolled into one. Go Sarah!

Another Hockey Mom and mom hockey player joins your list of friends.
Go girl!

Sarah- I continue to be grateful to you for the time you are dedicating to educating the public and getting our country back on track..God bless you and your family in 2010

Reading the book now...she's so REAL!

Sarah...we appreciate you!! Wow um with facts of history, pronouncing foreign names (perfectly) and take on a bit less casual demeanor than you have now. Speak with conviction and emotion. Which Glenn Beck and catch some of his urgency. Just a suggestion from a supporter.

We need you for President, but we don't deservre you. And I wouldn't wish that job off on anyone that I respect as much as I do you.

Sarah, I just finished reading your book. The last two paragraphs brought tears to my eyes as you thanked your family and God and invited others to seek Him. I don't know you personally, but I count you as my new best friend! Have a great day!

I read your book and was very impressed. You came across as a very knowledgeable, unlike our current administration.Keep up the good work.

It's so good to know that there are still some of us out there that still have common since. Sarah, keep fighting for the normal citizens of this country.

My son gave me a copy of "Going Rouge" for a Christmas present, Sarah, and, at halfway thru it, I love every page so far. You funny. I liked especially the part where you schooled the GOP elite by whupping Murkowski's hind parts in the primary for Governor. Todd's the man!!

I think you are great. We need more Lady's like you around.

Sarah, I just finished listening to your book on tape and I am even more impressed than I was before. Your views, observations and opinions reflect my own. Your honesty and integrity are so refreshing. I didn't think there was anyone else out there would could reflect my way of thinking - but you absolutely do.

Sarah Palin is going to the hottest president of the United States...

I am halfway through your book--got it for Christmas--and I love your way of writing. Feel as though I am in a room with you and we are just talking.

After Jesus, you are the best person in history!

Sarah, I am reading your book. It is so good to know you a lot better than the media has portrayed you. I am just a Mom and a regular person and your values are mine and I have a friend with a downs syndrome child. She is now 14 and just no assistance for her is available in this area which is home of Wal Mart in Arkansas. God Bless You!

Yes, Sarah Palin for President of these United States of America in 2012! Go, go, go Sarah. We need a bonified conservative like yourself in the White House.

I rest my case.
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Sarah Palin's open and transparent deals - UPDATE

The issue of Sarah Palin's transparency returns...

We're glad that this particular topic will not go away. Sarah Palin harped on this note since her gubernatorial campaign, continued on the same note in the vice presidential roadshow and made several references to being open and transparent in "Going Rogue".

Sarah Palin used her influence and her Personnel Board to hide her transgressions from the public when she was governor.

But her accountability is still in question.

Alaska Dispatch (Part 1 and Part 2) obtained copies of some e-mails sent from Sarah Palin's yahoo account and they are very interesting:

Certain recipients had their names redacted, but some of them are easily recognizable as government officials, such as Kris Perry, Frank Bailey, Ivy Frye, Talis (Colberg) and Meg Stapleton. Hardly family or friends. We suspect her chief of staff, Mike Tibbles, was also included among the recipients:

Another e-mail was sent to quite a number of government officials:

I love the tone of Sarah Palin's e-mails. Yes, she's definitely transparent, but NOT open. Her intentions are quite transparent, but she certainly didn't want to be open to public scrutiny.

This video shows it very clearly:



Two years later, Sarah Palin and her family still adhere to the same old style.

Bristol Sheeran Marie Palin has started her very own LLC (Limited Liability Company)
The NAIC code 541820 is listed in the state of Alaska simply as Public Relations Agencies:

But in the document NAICs Definitions 2007, on page 444, we find an expanded definition of Public Relations:

So what is BSMP, LLC all about?

Our friend Archivist, of So it goes... , believes it's a convenient way for the Palins to get their hands on SarahPac's money:

IF Sarah decides to pay BSMP LLC $500,000 to 'consult' ... she CAN do that.

It's a FRONT to absorb the PAC funds... avoiding tax on Bristol's earnings is small potatoes compared to being able to essentially PAY HERSELF out the the PAC to 'consult' and 'endorse' candidates!

Bristol doesn't have to do a thing, all she has to do is accept the 'fees' for the 'Political Consultations'. And Sarah can 'pay' for 'Political Consultations' out of the PAC ... most of those donations by Sarah's schmucks are going to stay in the Palin family; some of it will pay for travel to speak and she might give $2000.000 here and there to 'candidates of her choice' ... but ... she can blow the whole wad on 'Political consultations' if she wants to! Political Consultations with BSMP LLC, her daughter's company. A daughter who barely has a High School education...

On page 428 of the NAICs document, there's an overview of the 54 sector as a whole:

Bristol does not have a high degree of expertise or training, does she?

Rachel Maddow has weighed in as well:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Rachel didn't appear to buy Van Flein's explanation.

We don't buy it either... the Palins may not be open, but they're all too transparent.

I suppose we'll have to wait for the next SarahPac accounts to be disclosed. Does anybody know when it's due?

(Click on pictures to enlarge)

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UPDATE:

Celtic Diva has a very important post regarding the harassement of the judges in the Bristol Palin v Levi Johnston custody case. Sarah Palin's supporters have a protest organized on Facebook. I made some screenshots of the protest page and of Sarah Palin's own Facebook page, where the link to the protest appears unchallenged and unmoderated.

EDIT: A PDF-copy of the facebook page can be downloaded here.

This is the event page:

The link was posted on Sarah Palin's official Facebook page:


Bree Palin has obtained screenshots of Jessica Beehive's and Eddie Burke's Tweeter postings:



The Facebook Barracuda Brigade are simply supporters of Sarah Palin, but they were allowed to post their link on Sarah's own page. She's responsible for the content of her only "official" platform.

Jessica Beehive and Eddie Burke are much closer to Sarah Palin. They're both in Alaska and Eddie Burke in particular has very good access to the whole family.

Sarah Palin has not condemned this campaign to harass the judges, which makes her just as guilty as the rest of her misguided supporters.

We know she reads the blogs, so we may see a twit or a Facebook note about it in the near future... or not.

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