McCain VP Still a Secessionist - Pics May Prove It

Considering just how well the McCain campaign vetted Sarah Palin before picking her as his running mate for the upcoming campaign, I wonder how Palin's "Patriotic" credibility will be viewed by his rabidly faux patriotic supporters when they find out that her idea of foreign policy experience may be in dealing with the government of the USA?

According to the AIP (Alaskan Independence Party), Sarah Palin was a member of their party and they mention this fact in videos where they outline their plans to infiltrate other organizations in order to push their platform:

In the first clip we see Palin address the AIP convention earlier this year:

This next clip is the 1st of 2 parts from the convention itself. About half way through the speech(at 6:00), the Vice Chairman of the AIP, Dexter Clark, says this of Palin: "Our current governor who I mentioned at the last conference, the one we were hoping would get elected, Sarah Palin, did get elected . . . .and there was a lot of talk about her moving up. She was an AIP member before she got the job as mayor . . . "

This last clip is a continuation of the speech from Dexter Clark, the Vice Chairman from the AIP. In it, he talks about the necessity of infiltrating the major national parties in order to further the goals of the AIP.

The AIP’s main aim is to secede from the United States, becoming either a territory or a sovereign nation. They aim to be entirely "self-sufficient" using profits from the oil and gas resources of the state.

On
their website, you’ll see this:

The Alaskan Independence Party can be summed up in just two words:
ALASKA FIRST!

And their 2008 platform:

To seek the complete repatriation of the public lands, held by the federal government, to the state and people of Alaska in conformance with Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17, of the federal constitution.

Governor Palin’s connections with the AIP are also furthered by her connection to Wally Hickel, a former Alaskan governor. Hickel was elected on the AIP ticket. He served as the co-chairman of Governor Palin’s campaign in 2006
Here is a quote from an interview Hickel did with the Alaska Dispatch:

When Palin was running for governor in 2006, Hickel appeared in advertisements supporting her and the Alaska pipeline.
"I made her governor," Hickel told me.

When asked earlier this year on CNBC about whether she’d be picked for McCain’s VP, Palin said, "We wanna make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans, and for the things we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the US, before I can even start addressing that question."

So, besides the fact that she doesn’t know what the VP does everyday, Palin wants to be VP only if it’s a good thing for Alaska?

Now this proves that she was once a member of the AIP, IMHO... Why would the AIP lie in that video and why else would Palin be willing to address the secessionists after being elected? Anyone outside of Alaska would consider that political suicide with those faux patriots on the right wingnut side of the aisle in the rest of the nation.

But there has been a lot of speculation on all of the fast disappearing Sarah Palin pics on the net being related to the fact that both Sarah or Bristol Palin were or are pregnant...

That is all just a canard, IMHO. A ruse to throw the dogs off of the scent of the real story they are covering up in all of those pictures. And it has nothing to do with any alleged nude pics of Sarah Palin.(NSFW!)

They may be trying to hide the fact that Palin is still a member of the AIP and that she is one of the highest placed members of the AIP that they have managed to elevate in politics thus far.

If I were a betting man, I would be willing to bet that there are a lot of deleted Sarah Palin pics with lapel pins and other paraphernalia that show her true anti-American allegiance to the Alsakan secessionist movement.

There is no way on earth that McCain honestly vetted Palin before he picked her as a running mate. No republican candidate that understands their own base would ever have let this get so far.

[update] ABC news Political Punch confirms that both Todd and Sarah Palin were members of the AIP:

Members of "Fringe" Alaskan Independence Party
Say Palin Was a Member in 90s

Officials of the Alaskan Independence Party say that Palin was once so independent, she was once a member of their party, which since the 1970s has been pushing for a legal vote for Alaskans to decide whether or not residents of the 49th state can secede from the United States.

And while McCain's motto -- as seen in a new TV ad -- is "Country First," the AIP's motto is the exact opposite -- "Alaska First -- Alaska Always."

Lynette Clark, the chairman of the AIP, tells ABC News that Palin and her husband Todd were members in 1994, even attending the 1994 statewide convention in Wasilla. Clark was AIP secretary at the time.

[update deux] I had a conspiracy tag on this diary since I know that it was speculative... I removed it since ABC confirmed the basis for my opinion is factual. This sure as hell would be a good explanation for all of those missing pics. Imagine what the faux patriots on the right will say when they find out she didn't like the USA at all back in the 90s. And she may very well not like it much now.

[update trois] Oh My God... I did not look too much on the origins of the AIP but Gary from Covert History points out in comments that he has been digging into it:

Joe Vogler and the Alaskan Independence Party

In my previous post you will find a Youtube video of Sarah Palin warmly addressing the Alaskan Independence Party. What sort of organization is this and what is its history?

The AIP was founded by one Joe Vogler, who seems to be a rightwinger from way back.

And then he gets into Vogler quotes. Hate is a pretty strong word Mr. Vogler... Don't ya think? Anyways, Gary, thanks for the illuminating comment.

and The Jed Report sums up McCain's big problem with this pick:

McCain Camp Mum On Palin's Role In Alaska Secession Party

So it turns out that in the 1990s, Sarah Palin was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party whose primary objective is to secure a vote on whether Alaska should secede from the United States. Their party's motto? "Alaska First - Alaska First Always."

I'm sure McCain will eventually have to comment, but according to Marc Ambinder: "A McCain spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment." I'll guarantee you that we know more about Sarah Palin than does McCain or his campaign.

I am willing to guarantee that as well. Because I know I still have Palin news that I am working on! lol Right now all the McCain campaign campaign can do is shut their mouths on this huge story and hope the media don't start covering it like they should.

[update] The media everywhere is starting to pick up on this... I just watched David Schuster toss it out on MSNBC while interviewing some pundits and surrogates. And you could tell by the McCain flack's (?Andrea Tantaros?) reaction that she was taken aback - that flinch and look of "Say what?" - by this news before she plowed into her talking points on everything but the secessionist point.

John McCain has totally and thoroughly embarrassed his entire brigade of GOP talking point twits because they honestly do not have a clue about what scandal is going to break next.

Even Karl Rove acknowledged that she was a risky pick in his talk this morning with the Maine delegation. The soap opera is getting surreal. Sarah Palin's involvement with the secessionist Alaska Independence Party is just the latest punch in the stomach to a reeling Grand Old Party. She is a Buchananite who liked (and maybe voted for) Ron Paul? Now news of her daughter's pregnancy adds new poignancy to her 2006 campaign promise.

"Explicit sex ed programs will not find my support."

Lord have mercy, it's hard out there for a Republican pimp.

Many Republicans are going to wake up tomorrow just finding out about this and other scandals and they will still be behind on the next one. No matter how many lawyers the McCain campaign just got around to sending out to Alaska to actually begin vetting her properly, probably to legally represent Palin in the Troopergate scandal as well, this is not going to be a good week for any Republican that was counting on Sarah Palin to fix everything that is wrong with the John McCain campaign.

Afflicted with Mono Bristol Palin Conceived a Baby

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Palin's Troopergate Troubles Start To Spin Out of Control

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

McCain Pick Pot Head Palin Running From Impeachment

Anyone that thinks this is going to win over former Hillary Clinton supporters already firmly in the Democratic party fold don't understand the fact that Hillary supporters were and are strongly Pro-Choice for the most part.

Her lifetime membership in the NRA may help solidify one of McCain's many weaknesses in his own party base, as well as her advocating religion in schools under the banner of "creationism" may help solidify some of the Christian fundies, but I fail to see how any of it will get her anywhere with moderates or women, in general. Some of the Christian fundamentalists may even despise her just for the fact that she is woman seeking power.

As for her supposed record of cleaning up Alaskan politics and conservative cred?

Well? Palin did smoke pot and, yes, she did inhale:

Palin said she has smoked marijuana -- remember, it was legal under state law, she said, even if illegal under U.S. law -- but says she didn't like it and doesn't smoke it now.

Breaks laws but says it is OK... Sounds bush-like. IOKIYAR, to say the least.

Palin gave up on the Alaskan bridge to nowhere when it became a hot button showcase issue for Senator Steven's wasting tax dollars.

The $398 million bridge would have connected Ketchikan, on one island in southeastern Alaska, to its airport on another nearby island.

Gov. Sarah Palin said Friday the project was $329 million short of full funding.

"We will continue to look for options for Ketchikan to allow better access to the island," the Republican governor said. "The concentration is not going to be on a $400 million bridge."

And any doubt about her place on the ticket to distract from corrupt Republicans can be removed here:


Yep... She has an image as some kind of political reformer but she is just another booster of the Corrupt Bastards Club. Obviously the feelings are mutual:

I bet Governor Palin wishes she could take this commercial back.

Ted Stevens Endorses Sarah Palin

Oh yeah...

And she is running from possible impeachment in her state too:

Palin, who has previously said her administration didn't exert pressure to get rid of trooper Mike Wooten, also disclosed that members of her staff had made about two dozen contacts with public safety officials about the trooper.

"I do now have to tell Alaskans that such pressure could have been perceived to exist although I have only now become aware of it," Palin said.

But Palin said her decision to fire Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan last month had nothing to do with his refusal to dump trooper Mike Wooten.

The governor said evidence of what she called a "smoking gun" conversation, and other calls made by her aides, only recently surfaced as the attorney general started an inquiry at her request into the circumstances surrounding her firing of Monegan. Palin wanted the review because a special investigator hired by the Legislature is about to investigate the firing and a legislator has been quoted in a newspaper story talking about impeachment.

Got caught and threw others under the bus. Can you get any more bush than that? Yes she can... Here she tried to head off an investigation by having a farce inquiry of her own.

Gov. Sarah Palin is trying to find out what the Legislature's special investigator might discover as he probes her controversial firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

Obviously Sarah Palin wants the inquiry for ethics reasons... Not to head off any damaging information that might come up in a real independent investigation.

Questions have been raised since Monegan's firing about whether Palin, her family, or members of her administration pressured Monegan to fire Wooten, a Mat-Su-based trooper involved in a rough divorce from the governor's sister.

Image taken from here

Sarah Palin has Corrupt Bastards Club written all over her.

• Palin aide put on leave in firing flap
• Palin says staff's calls were not pressure
• Palin staff pushed to have trooper fired
• Excerpts from conversation between Frank Bailey and trooper Rodney Dial
• Palin aide says he acted on his own

Just so you know who and what the Corrupt Bastards Club is all about:

Alaska political corruption probe refers to a widespread investigation from 2004 to the present by the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service into political corruption of lawmakers in the Alaska State Legislature, focusing in particular on lawmakers' official actions in relation to the oil industry, fisheries, and private corrections industry. As of May 2007, the investigation has resulted in indictments against four current and former Alaska state legislators on corruption charges; and guilty pleas by two executives of the oilfield services company VECO Corporation to charges of bribery and conspiracy to impede the Internal Revenue Service. Indications are that further indictments may be forthcoming as the investigation progresses.

Former Representative Tom Anderson was indicted in December 2006 on allegations of extortion and bribery involving his support of a private corrections company. Anderson was convicted of all seven felony counts on July 9, 2007. Former House Speaker Pete Kott (R-Eagle River), former Representative Bruce Weyhrauch (R-Juneau), and current Representative Vic Kohring (R-Wasilla) were arrested and arraigned on May 4, 2007 on charges of accepting bribery and extortion related to their support of an oil tax law favored by the oilfield services company VECO Corporation.^[1] On May 7, 2007, VECO Corporation founder and CEO Bill Allen and Vice President for Community & Government Affairs Rick Smith pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Anchorage to charges of bribery and conspiracy to impede the Internal Revenue Service.^[2]

If you want to have a little fun...

Last November voters identified corruption as the number one issue affecting their vote, in short: vote the bastards out! We here at the C.B.C. couldn’t agree more but there are plenty more of these bastards out there in politics, the media and big business so let’s hear more about them. Play Who’s Your Corrupt Bastard? our award winning national contest ripped straight from the headlines of Alaska politics where you can win fabulous prizes and call out your favorite corrupt public figure. Peruse The Bastard Files for a look at current nominees. We are also the official headquarters for the now infamous Corrupt Bastard Club Gear - perfect for that corrupt bastard in your life.

[update]This post has been updated here:

"Palin's Troopergate Troubles

Start To Spin Out of Control"

Buzz This! at buzzflash news...

The GOP Convention: Snoozefest or Disaster?

As the Democratic party convention wrapped up with an outstanding speech by Barrack Obama, today, the GOP is attempting to weather the building political storm by distracting the media with what will be their pick for Vice Presidential candidate.

On the trail today: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who is celebrating his 72nd birthday, will reportedly announce his vice presidential pick in Dayton, OH. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and his vice presidential candidate Joseph Biden (D-DE) will launch their presidential campaign in Beaver, PA.

You have to remember that McCain was deemed second fiddle to Bush by the GOP voters in 2000. Now they are waiting to see whom the heir apparent to bush failures will pick as his third rate choice. I looked in my "tomorrow file" and found a picture encapsulating all of the fun and excitement to be expected at the GOP convention:



This, of course, if they even decide to ever have a convention.

It appears that the GOP is having second thoughts about holding their snoozefest, blaming the weather, but the reality is that the few moderates remaining in the party don't want to even be seen with these incompetents.

Republicans are trying to back out
of their convention.-- Update: Katrina

Keith just reported on the Washington Post that the Republicans are considering postponing their convention. Their excuse? The Hurricane. Are you serious? This is the same party that 3 years ago basically IGNORED Katrina. I guess you could say they learned their lesson, but honestly. . . this is pathetic. Keith said it best "well, that's some reaction to the Obama speech."

Republican officials said yesterday that they are considering delaying the start of the GOP convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul because of Tropical Storm Gustav, which is on track to hit the Gulf Coast, and possibly New Orleans, as a full-force hurricane early next week.

The threat is serious enough that White House officials are also debating whether President Bush should cancel his scheduled convention appearance on Monday, the first day of the convention, according to administration officials and others familiar with the discussion.

They must REALLY be worried about this hurricane, Bush is even willing to not speak at the convention if it DOES take place.

Oh, and here's the best part:

Senior Republicans said images of political celebration in the Twin Cities while thousands of Americans flee a hurricane could be dubious. "Senator McCain has always been sensitive to national crisis," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds, noting that the senator postponed announcing his presidential candidacy in 2000 because of the war in the Balkans. "We are monitoring the situation very closely."

Hmm, so your example is WAR. Maybe because McCain couldn't use KATRINA. What was he doing when Katrina hit?

The "funny" thing about all of this was that Republicans were praying for rain to mess up Obama's speech. Again, in the words of Jon Stewart "Why does God Love Barack Obama?"

Quite fitting. The McCain campaign, whether from the turgid top of their ticket or down to their sickly surrogates, has been a disaster all on its own. A sure sign that McCain is the epitome of 4 more years of Bush.

GOP: Houston, We have a Problem...

During "Morning Joe" today Scarborough recounts the reaction of Murphy to Obama's speech last night by sending an eMail to his fellow Republicans during the speech that was simple and to the point:

"Houston, we have a problem..."

That may go down in history as a serious understatement... Watch Barrack Obama's speech and see for yourself:



[update] Now, Peggy Noonan is on "Morning Joe" embarrassing herself with the pure pedestrian BS she is trying to insert into the mundane and outdated pundit class' dialog.

KBR Involved In Human Trafficking?

The Washington Post reports on Dick Cheney's Halliburton subsidiary KBR:

KBR, Partner in Iraq Contract
Sued in Human Trafficking Case
By Dana Hedgpeth

A Washington law firm filed a lawsuit yesterday against KBR, one of the largest U.S. contractors in Iraq, alleging that the company and its Jordanian subcontractor engaged in the human trafficking of Nepali workers.

Agnieszka Fryszman, a partner at Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, said 13 Nepali men, between the ages of 18 and 27, were recruited in Nepal to work as kitchen staff in hotels and restaurants in Amman, Jordan. But once the men arrived in Jordan, their passports were seized and they were told they were being sent to a military facility in Iraq, Fryszman said.

It's not like that hasn't been an ongoing problem...

From the Chicago Tribune in 2006:

Iraq war contractors ordered to end abuses
By Cam Simpson

The top U.S. commander in Iraq has ordered sweeping changes for privatized military support operations after confirming violations of human-trafficking laws and other abuses by contractors involving possibly thousands of foreign workers on American bases, according to records obtained by the Tribune.

Gen. George Casey ordered that contractors be required by May 1 to return passports that have been illegally confiscated from laborers on U.S. bases after determining that such practices violated U.S. laws against trafficking for forced or coerced labor. Human brokers and subcontractors from South Asia to the Middle East have worked together to import thousands of laborers into Iraq from impoverished countries.

Two memos obtained by the Tribune indicate that Casey's office concluded that the practice of confiscating passports from such workers was both widespread on American bases and in violation of the U.S. trafficking laws.

...snip...

Although other firms also have contracts supporting the military in Iraq, the U.S. has outsourced vital support operations to Halliburton subsidiary KBR at an unprecedented scale, at a cost to the U.S. of more than $12 billion as of late last year.

KBR, in turn, has outsourced much of that work to more than 200 subcontractors, many of them based in Middle Eastern nations condemned by the U.S. for failing to stem human trafficking into their own borders or for perpetrating other human rights abuses against foreign workers.

KBR's subcontractors employ an army of workers to dish out food, wash clothes, clean latrines and carry out virtually every other menial task. About 35,000 of the 48,000 people working under the privatization contract last year were "Third Country Nationals," who are non-Americans imported from outside Iraq, KBR has said.

"Pipeline to Peril," which was based on reporting in the U.S., Jordan, Iraq, Nepal and Saudi Arabia, described how some subcontractors and a chain of human brokers allegedly engaged in the same kinds of abuses routinely condemned by the State Department as human trafficking.

And from the NewsStandard in 2004:

Forced labor added to charges of U.S. crimes in Iraq
by NewStandard Staff

May 5, 2004 – Four Muslim Indian citizens say they and about 20 others were abducted by US military personnel in Kuwait and forced to engage in menial labor for troops at an unspecified base in Iraq. They said they were paid $200 a month while forcibly held, enduring countless assaults on the base by Iraqi insurgents in addition to forced labor. After months of captivity, sixteen of the men managed to escape and make their way home to India. One of the men said he was beaten by American personnel when he demanded to be allowed to leave the base. The men said soldiers told them the military had paid a Kuwaiti firm $1000 a head for the laborers and, thus, they would not be allowed to leave. The US embassy in India said it is investigating the allegations.

Since the invasion, human trafficking became a problem for people forcibly brought into Iraq and for the citizens of Iraq, as well. From Time Magazine in 2006:

Stolen Away

Safah is part of a seldom-discussed aspect of the epidemic of kidnappings in Iraq: sex trafficking. No one knows how many young women have been kidnapped and sold since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq, based in Baghdad, estimates from anecdotal evidence that more than 2,000 Iraqi women have gone missing in that period. A Western official in Baghdad who monitors the status of women in Iraq thinks that figure may be inflated but admits that sex trafficking, virtually nonexistent under Saddam, has become a serious issue. The collapse of law and order and the absence of a stable government have allowed criminal gangs, alongside terrorists, to run amuck. Meanwhile, some aid workers say, bureaucrats in the ministries have either paralyzed with red tape or frozen the assets of charities that might have provided refuge for these girls. As a result, sex trafficking has been allowed to fester unchecked.

"It is a problem, definitely," says the official, who has heard specific reports from Iraqi aid workers about girls being kidnapped and sold to brothels. "Unfortunately, the security situation doesn't allow us to follow up on this." The U.S. State Department's June 2005 trafficking report says the extent of the problem in Iraq is "difficult to appropriately gauge" but cites an unknown number of Iraqi women and girls being sent to Yemen, Syria, Jordan and Persian Gulf countries for sexual exploitation. Statistics are further made murky by tribal tradition. Families are usually so shamed by the disappearance of a daughter that they do not report kidnappings. And the resulting stigma of compromised chastity is such that even if the girl should resurface, she may never be taken back by her relations.

A visit to the Khadamiyah Women's Prison in the northern part of Baghdad immediately produces several tales of abduction and abandonment. A stunning 18-year-old nicknamed Amna, her black hair pulled back in a ponytail, says she was taken from an orphanage by an armed gang just after the U.S. invasion and sent to brothels in Samarra, al-Qaim on the border with Syria, and Mosul in the north before she was taken back to Baghdad, drugged with pills, dressed in a suicide belt and sent to bomb a cleric's office in Khadamiyah, where she turned herself in to the police. A judge gave her a seven-year jail sentence "for her sake" to protect her from the gang, according to the prison director.

What did bringing freedumb to Iraq mean to people like Dick Cheney?

Originally, after Halliburton started racking up lucrative no-bid contracts, Dick Cheney tried to claim he had nothing to do with Halliburton. From CBS in 2003:

Cheney's Halliburton Ties Remain

Cheney said Sunday on NBC that since becoming vice president, "I've severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest. I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't had, now, for over three years."

Democrats pointed out that Cheney receives deferred compensation from Halliburton under an arrangement he made in 1998, and also retains stock options. He has pledged to give after-tax proceeds of the stock options to charity.

...snip...

Cathie Martin, Cheney's spokeswoman, said the question is whether Cheney has any possible conflict of interest with Halliburton, "and the answer to that is, no."

Cheney was chief executive officer of Halliburton from 1995 through August 2000. The company's KBR subsidiary is the main government contractor working to restore Iraq's oil industry in an open-ended contract that was awarded without competitive bidding.

According to Cheney's 2001 financial disclosure report, the vice president's Halliburton benefits include three batches of stock options comprising 433,333 shares.

From Raw Story in 2005:

Cheney's Halliburton stock options
rose 3,281% last year, senator finds

An analysis released by a Democratic senator found that Vice President Dick Cheney's Halliburton stock options have risen 3,281 percent in the last year, RAW STORY can reveal.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) asserts that Cheney's options -- worth $241,498 a year ago -- are now valued at more than $8 million. The former CEO of the oil and gas services juggernaut, Cheney has pledged to give proceeds to charity.

...snip...

“Halliburton has already raked in more than $20 billion from the Bush-Cheney Administration for work in Iraq, and they were awarded some of the first Katrina contracts," Lautenberg said in a statement. "It is unseemly for the Vice President to continue to benefit from this company at the same time his Administration funnels billions of dollars to it. The Vice President should sever his financial ties to Halliburton once and for all.”

Cheney continues to hold 433,333 Halliburton stock options. The company has been criticized by auditors for its handling of a no-bid contact in Iraq. Auditors found the firm marked up meal prices for troops and inflated gas prices in a deal with a Kuwaiti supplier. The company built the American prison at Guantanamo Bay.