Terrorists, Secessionists, Sarah Palin and Guilt by Association
I was appalled (and annoyed) this weekend by the newest wave of hypocrisy to come spewing perkily forth from the ever-smiling, ever-smirking, perfectly lipsticked mouth of Governor Palin. I'm actually starting to enjoy (for comedic reasons only) her interviews that are nothing more than disconnected prepositional phrases laced with stock GOP pablum. But accusing a sitting U.S. Senator of "palling around with terrorists" is crossing the line.
Finally informing us what she reads, Palin said that yesterday, while leafing through her daily copy of the New York Times, she came across a story on Senator Obama and William Ayers, the 1960s militant and member of the Weather Underground, the radical and violent anti-war group. And faster than you can say "Darn right!"she saw her opportunity - and her duty. Clearly, she must inform an unknowing nation that Obama is guilty by association with Ayers.
You, Governor, should know better. As I and many journalists have noted, you have strong ties to the Alaska Independence Party. While it was finally revealed that you technically were not a card-carrying member of the AIP, it was discovered that the First Dude, between his life of high adventure in helping you rule your northern fiefdom, his competitive snowmobiling and fishing, was a member of the organization for many years.
Yes, it is a free country. You get to associate or marry whomever you want, no matter how distasteful. Yes, Senator Obama served on a board with William Ayers, a former member of the Weather Underground and now a college professor and activist in Chicago. However, Senator Obama has clearly distanced himself on numerous occasions from Professor Ayers' actions in the 1960's. This is a non-issue. Perhaps that is why you have decided to focus on it -- better a non-issue than having to learn and think about real problems that affect everyday people, like health care, the economy and education. Those, I suppose, are just too gosh darned hard.
All snarky comments aside, I do have a concern, Governor. A big one. You have never distanced yourself from a radical secessionist movement aimed at the breaking up of the Federal Union. You, Governor, have never stated a single time that the AIP is not only wrong-headed, but outright dangerous. Instead, you have videotaped welcoming comments for their annual conventions. Instead, you have a "close association" with a known former member of a radical, right-wing, well-armed and well-funded political party whose founder damned the United States as virulently as Reverend Wright did. While Reverend Wright enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame, and was rightly slammed for his vitriol by patriotic writers on both Left and Right, the AIP happily continued along its way, spewing anti-Americanism more in line with something Fidel Castro would say on a May Day celebration in Havana.
And you stood there Governor, like a caribou caught in the headlights. And you still stand there, but now with the audacity to stand at the top of your glass castle throwing rocks at other people. There is a big, big difference between a limited association with someone who had committed a crime 40 years before, and being married to a man who supports the destruction of the United States.
Who has the closest terrorist association, Governor? Who? If you believe Senator Obama to be the buddy of terrorists, don't make an unsubstantiated claim. Call the FBI and demand an investigation. If you are just grandstanding for a crowd of racist isolationists who fear the idea of a successful black man who worked his way up from nothing to become a success--a modern day Horatio Alger story if there is one--you should be deeply ashamed of yourself. Look to your own house before you start throwing rocks Governor. For who among us can cast the first stone? Seem like you can Sarah, seems like you are the only exception to the Scripture since about 32 AD.
I am a loyal American. When Election Day happens, and if the GOP wins, I want to know that the person who is literally a heart beat away from the Presidency is a person I can trust to do the right thing. Someone who will place national well-being above some perverted concept of secessionism, who will not associate with people who are worse, far worse, than a liberal college professor who was immensely foolish -- and wrong -- in the 1960s.
Yes Governor, I question your patriotism and your loyalty to this Republic. And I have a hell of a lot more evidence to question your loyalty to the Republic than you do to question Senator Obama's.
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OK...so I checked out the Alaska Independence Party. Here is their platform:
http://www.akip.org/platform.html
Doesn't look like the platform of a "a radical secessionist movement aimed at the breaking up of the Federal Union" to ME. In fact, the very first plank says:
"To effect full compliance with the constitutions of the United States of America and the State of Alaska."
Not that I disagree with the concept of secession in principle mind you - but a little fact checking just MIGHT be in order before going off on a rant.
See Robert Mackey's Profile
From their website:
The Alaskan Independence Party's goal is the vote we were entitled to in 1958, one choice from among the following four alternatives:
1) Remain a Territory.
2) Become a separate and Independent Nation.
3) Accept Commonwealth status.
4) Become a State.
The call for this vote is in furtherance of the dream of the Alaskan Independence Party's founding father, Joe Vogler, which was for Alaskans to achieve independence under a minimal government, fully responsive to the people, promoting a peaceful and lawful means of resolving differences.
Understand that the Confederate States of America believed they were "upholding the Constitution" in 1860-61 from interference by Northerners (specifically abolitionists).
Alaska was admitted to the Union without any sneaky tricks, but in accordance to US Constitutional processes and the will of the people of Alaska. The AIP wants a re-do; Joe Vogler, the founder of the Party, is actually buried in Canada as he refused to be buried on American soil.
Make your own judgments from that information.
"The AIP wants a re-do": Then let them HAVE a re-do! Again, what is everyone so afraid of? Quebec has voted more than once on secession from Canada, it failed to fly, and no one raised a fuss about it. When has there ever been a "permanent" social contract?
And you're correct in that the CSA believe they were acting Constitutionally when they seceded. The majority of the Founding Fathers agreed that the right to secede was necessary to keep the Federal government in line.
So I think it's a bit of a stretch to associate the AIP with Jim Crow, etc., when all they were doing was quoting Davis to make a specific point.
Clearly, you haven't seen the video clips of their meetings, which leaves no doubt as to what they are really about.... Words like 'infiltrating government' and 'backing Sarah Palin for governor' are words that have been spoken in their closed-door meetings by their top officials...all on video...
Do you REALLY think the AIP is stupid enough to put their real agenda on their website?
Well, just a few weeks ago their I believe their site linked to, among other things, a Chechyan separatist groups with links to Al Qaeda. Has it been cleaned up?
A person running running for a top spot in the GOP-- the party of Lincoln, the party whose place in American history is saving the UNION-- may be friendly to forces that seek to break that union apart. Not to mention that if her friends in the AIP won it would undermine the entire idea that drilling for Alaska oil would be a "domestic" energy source. If we elect a person who'll oversee the dismantling of the union, perhaps we should just move all the Union soldiers out of Arlington National cemetery, because we don't seem to believe in the cause they died for.
You can debate the fine points of the meaning of the word "radical," but isn't it a problem if the vice president (and with a 70+ cancer survivor running mate, very possible president) is luke-warm on the idea of a UNITED States. Who cares where Obama buts his hand during the pledge of alegiance, do the Palins even believe that little poem?
If this is unfair, let's hear Palin address the issue, just once. As governor, she might need to pacify those nuts. As VP though, she needs to disassociate from them. What does she want to be?
Her association with the AIP comes awfully close to the definition of sedition. Is this someone that our country wants as its VP?
SEDITION?!?
I feel like engaging in "sedition" every time I file my taxes! So I guess about 100 million Americans will have to be rounded up and put in the Gulag, eh?
Well since 1 out of every 424 Americans (U.S.A.) are in prison right now whats another million right.
I'm not sure if it counts as sedition if you are asking to vote and set up a legal process for it. I think you have to have evidence of organizing violent actions againt legally constituted authority.
BUT, she has accused people of not being patriotic in wanting to remove our troops from another country, while governintg a state where dismantling our nation is a moderately important interest group. Let's just hear ONE statement that her firends in the AIP are wrong. Even a mind rebuke.
Well, the "Choir" is appalled as well, but I am more appalled that undecided voters and those who haven't drunk all the kool-aid already, won' see this information on the TV networks. The McCain smear machine has geared up for their final push, assisted by their cohorts and enablers in the media.Where is the outrage?
It seems you are one that does not know the real Obama ....should have watched hannity last evening . He exposed obama and his CLOSE association with some nasty radicals.
Details?
Oh, yes, some nasty radicals who wanted to overthrow the current government in power, like George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. How dare people disagree with those who are in power, and commit violent acts, how unpatriotic!
"should have watched hannity last evening"
That's akin to saying "should have read Pravda last evening."
I don't have to ask if Hannity, O'Reilly, or any similar Republican propagandist ever talk about the current hands-off policy of the Bush administration on Osama Bin Laden, or Bush's deep business ties to Salem Bin Laden (Osama's deceased brother who funded George W Bush's first business venture 'Arbusto Oil' 30 years ago). Considering how weak the USA looks in light of Bush/Cheney's extremely questionable decison to not go after the terrorists responsible for 9.11, it's extremely ironic for any Republican to accuse a Democratic candidate of being alligned with "terrorists."
The hands-off policy of the Bush administration on Osama Bin Laden (not to mention their hands-off policy on the anthrax terrorist - who got away scott free while a dead man was framed) is one of the most serious issues our darling "liberal media" has never reported on.
You silly, delusional person. You actually watch Sean Hannity and take it seriously? SERIOUSLY?? Try getting some other perspective on life and the news. Sean Hannity and frankly, all of Fox News is a propaganda tool of the right-wing. Remember learning all about 'propaganda' in Social Studies when you were in grade school? Only then, it was applied to the Soviet Union. Communist propaganda. Try to figure this out!
Nasty radicals? The Bush family? He talked about the Bush family's 40 year ties with the Bin Laden family?
Oh right - never mind.
Rewatched the debate. Not only did she say "nucular" several times but she said "infastructure" twice. I can't deal with that.
That 'nucular' was hilarious, isn't Sarah Palin a great parody of Tina Fey's SNL character?
The last person who said nucular and had ANY credibility was Eisenhower. And even he looks good mostly in retrospect.
BRAVO!!!!!
Actually, while the leader of the Alaska Independence Party recanted and said that Palin was not a member, several other members refuted that assertion. I don't know what the truth of the matter is, but based on comments she has made on camera (available on youtube) she certainly was not at strong odds with their agenda.
She is not at strong odds with any agenda. She praised Obama before she was picked by McCain, now she slams him. She was pro Alaskan independence before she was governor now she is pro US. Guess that's what they call 'mav'ricky'! I say it's hypocritical flip-flopping!
HuffPost's Pick
Thank you for this information. Even if she is a mere sympathizer, we need to be very alarmed. For, did I miss something--did she actually CONDEMN the movement? The group quotes not only "President Davis" on its website but also quotes the movement's founder Joe Vogler. I just listened to a tape (online) of Vogler explaining the foundation of his group, upon moving from Texas to Alaska, after he was run out of Texas by the FBI. Vogler's opposition to the US opened from his hatred of FDR as a *** communist for engaging the United States in WWII, which we had no business fighting in, according to this person. This is not just a kooky secessionist movement. This is a movement that advertises its racist and anti-Semitic habits of mind on the internet by insider cues or allusions that are obvious to anyone with elementary skills of textual analysis. Here is the link to the tape of Vogler on the topic of FDR and the foundation of the party (item #1). http://uaf-db.uaf.edu/jukebox/yuch/htm/jvog.htm. The worldview of this group would seem identical to that of Westwood Pegler. All of this is very relevant to her present message: for who, exactly, is Joe Six-Pack?
So I was thinking a supporter of the AIP would not look kindly on honoring the Civil War section of Arlington National Cemetary, but they would also question to honor the sacrifices of our WWII dead as well?
And yet she questions people who want to leave Iraq after how many years?
She needs to disassociate heself from that group, LOUDLY, or go back to Alaska and watch for Russians.
Please address the radical issues and ties that Sean Hannity was trying to link to Barack on his show tonight. He is doing everything he can to scare the American people.
Call him on his relationship with Nat Turner. Sean and Fox News will serve as free negative adverising for the McCain campaign until election day.
Don't let him destroy everthing that Barack stands for and the campaign has worked for. America needs positive change that will unite Americans versus dividing us.
Please address these accusations head on and expose them for what they are trying to do.
Except that people who have the slightest open mind have already learned that Fox is a propaganda machine. Yes the kool aid drinkers will start to spread those lies but we need to put out our own narrative rather than trying to shade theirs. The smears need to be addressed through a web site or press releases, but you don't want our candidate entirely dancing to the tune set by Hannity and that ilk.
Address smears head on, but don't let them distract us.
here is the motto of the Alaska Independence Party (appears on Forum page): "The contest is not over, the strife is not ended. It has only entered upon a new and enlarged arena. President Jefferson Davis, address to the Mississippi Legislature 1881. " See http://www.akip.org/forum.html. Consulted this evening, 10/5. I note this in case this quotation disappears tomorrow. The white supremacist implications of this choice of quotation (of motto) is so incredibly obvious that I am amazed no one has raised this. Yet the Alaska Independence Party is presumably off limits, because the democrats need southern votes, and so any attack on this group for its apparent endorsement not only of the confederacy, but also of Jim Crow (introduced throughout the south in 1881) is impossible? In the web page of this group, as in Sarah Palin's whole discourse, it is all about signaling, about nodding to the unspeakable. I am having trouble retrieving the whole speech on line at the moment; when I searched the quotation, I am just led to confederate websites. Please post info about 1881 speech.
If Alaska were its own nation, how would it make do without its trove of federal earmarks? (AK receives the most $$$ per citizen.) Did the secessionists stop to think of that? Or did they think they'd continue to received US $$$ as foreign aid?
I think this guilt by association is dangerous game by both campaigns. Neither of them are angels or saints. I can understand Obama not wanting to be swiftboated. He needs to go to McCain and do some straight talk about how distrutive this could be for both of them, including Ms. Palin. I can see stuff coming out about her wacky church, pastor, and visting minister. Also, as mentioned one could begin to explore the Alaska Independent Party and her " affiliation" with them. This is a real radical group. McCain and GOP should not go there. They have to know that Obama is not Kerry or Gore. He will not allow himself to be treated by GOP the way Gore/Kerry were. All of this is just a distraction.
Palin does indeed have a "glass castle". While she's so busy trying to establish a link between Barack Obama and William Ayers and they being "fellow travelers" .. Let me present some statements and you decide ..
There is a photograph provided by her family of her reading the John Birch Society magazine.
She used a quote of W. Pegler in her acceptance speech at the RNC. Pegler is a known bigot who also happened to write for the JBS. While the GOP has tried to claim this was a quote written for her by a Bush speechwriter, I have also read Palin's statement that she "adlibbed" the speech because the teleprompter didn't work.
In 1983, Palin attended North Idaho College, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Many of you may not recognize Coeur d'Alene or why this is important. That's okay... it's been a few years and some things have changed. During the late 70's and 80's, a very short distance from Coeur d'Alene, a "compound" was set up. This was the compound and future "homeland" of the Aryan Nation/Christian Identity movement. Members of this group would go to NIC to recruit and to harass black and Asian students. I do know that terrorists from this group were responsible for the murder of Alan Berg in 1984.
Does any of this tie Palin to the Aryan Nation, no, not really but there is a closer relationship than Barack Obama's to William Ayers' past with the Weather Underground.
By choosing her as his VP pick, McCain is Palin around with disaster.
HuffPost's Pick
This article should be on the FRONT PAGE of every newspaper in the UNITED STATES! Well written - so enjoyed it I've became a fan! Look forward to more of your writings!
There are over 1200 diggs for this article - come on HUFFERS digg it up to the TOPIC of every MSM!
Wright "damned" America for it's treatment of blacks.
AIP "damns" America for it's existence.
Huge difference.
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