Media Curves found that 61% of Independents believed Obama won the debate, while 38.89% favored McCain as the winner. On each of the eight topics, Obama was a clear winner among Independents, with his highest score coming on the Iran issue - two-thirds of Independents thought he won this question. And, it's hard to argue with these three post-debate polls at RCP- they all have Obama outperforming McCain.
These immediate numbers must be alarming to the floundering McCain campaign even if nobody on the left expects McCain supporters to come out and admit publicly. Then again, we didn't expect McCain supporters to come out against Palin publicly but they did because they have realized that she was that bad a choice.
Jon Stewart of The Daily Show gives one of his best performances as the true leader in punditocracy honesty and integrity when he looks at John McCains 10 day reaction to the bank crisis before parachuting into Washington like a human dirt dart:
They try to hide what it is using fancy words like credit derivatives. Over and over again they tell you it is too complicated for the average person to understand.
They are lying to you.
rdf at The EuroTrib sums it up in the simplest of terms for those of you that don't understand what the supposed bank crisis is all about:
Analogies are never perfect, but here's one using horse racing. Don't expect a perfect correspondence to the banking situation, but I think it is close enough for government work.
Joe goes to the track and bets $2 on a horse.
Two guys standing nearby get into a discussion and Fred says to Sam, "I'll bet you $5 that Joe wins his bet."
Next to them are Bill and Bob. Bill says: "I'll bet you $10 that Fred welshes on his bet if he loses."
Next to them is Sally. Sally says: "For $3 I'll guarantee to Bill that if Bob fails to pay off, I'll make good on the bet."
Sally then goes to Mary and borrows the $7 needed in case she has to ever pay off and promises to pay back $8. She doesn't expect to every have to pay since she believes Bob will always make good. So she expects to net $2 no matter what happens to Joe.
A quick calculation indicates that there is now 2+5+10+3+7 = $27 riding on the outcome of the horse race.
Question how much has been "invested" in the horse race?
Answer:
$50,000 by the owner of the horse who is expecting to recoup his investment from the winnings of the horse and other future deals. Everyone else is gambling, not investing.
The issue with the home market is that the only "investor" was the person who bought the home. All those engaged in the meaningless derivatives spun off from this are gambling. You can see how quickly the face value of all these side bets can exceed the underlying investment. Who is holding these side bets - not the homeowner? It is the people at the failing investment banks, hedge funds and similar enterprises. Notice that the bailout is being directed at them not the homeowners.
The real world is, of course, even more complicated. Over the last 30 years people have been allowed to place bets on everything starting with the value of stock averages. They might as well bet on the temperature in Newark at 8:00 AM.
So when you hear everybody saying this is a crisis caused by the housing collapse, be skeptical. We are in the midst of a classic pyramid or Ponzi scheme and there is no way out except for people to lose a lot of money. All that is different this time is that it is the taxpayers who are being asked for the cash.
I keep trying to explain to people how this is a scam and how the American people are going to be victims of it if they don't pay attention to it. They don't want you to know how simple this ripoff is. Does that explanation above sound so complicated?That is an explanation that needs to go viral!
The thing that really pisses me off - and that most of the people, journalists and politicians don't seem to get or, at least, some of them intentionally ignore - is that the mortgage aspect is just a tiny little part of the entire shitpile.
The mortgage part of it is what really started to show the cracks in this scam, and it is one of the very few parts of this ponzi scheme with real and tangible assets to show at stake - the bulk of the shitpile are scraps of paper with absolutely zero value.
While it may look superficially similar to the recent implosions of such investment giants as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Lehman, the takeover and bailout of AIG is quite different, and means that the market is entering the next and even more dangerous phase. What is driving the fall of AIG – and potential government losses that may far, far exceed the $85 billion bailout announced late on September 16th - is not mortgages or real estate (directly), but fears that AIG’s huge, global credit-default swap positions will unravel. The $62 trillion dollar credit derivatives market is 50 times the size of the subprime mortgage derivatives market, and is indeed larger than the entire global economy.
Unfortunately, few people understand credit derivatives, or the full risks to the United States and global markets and economies. In this article, I will take a Credit Derivatives Primer that I published in the spring of 2008 - which anticipated this exact type of event - and update it for the current situation. Through reading this article, you should be able to greatly increase your knowledge of what credit derivatives are, and why they are a far greater danger than subprime mortgages. We will end with introducing some concepts about how individuals can protect themselves and even profit from these unprecedented market conditions – something you won’t find in recent financial history or conventional investments.
On September 1st, few knew that AIG, the largest insurance company in the world with over $1 trillion in assets, was in deep trouble. By September 12th, the rumors about major trouble were everywhere. By September 15th AIG’s corporate life expectancy was being measured in days, and the question was: bankruptcy, buyer or bailout? By the evening of September 16th, the federal government had massively intervened, making an $85 billion loan to AIG in exchange for a controlling 79.9% equity share of the company.
Welcome to the brave new world of credit derivatives driven collapses. A world that is far more dangerous than the world of subprime mortgage derivatives. A complex world that because of its sheer size can potentially cause more damage in a matter of days than the subprime mortgage derivatives caused in their first year in the headlines.
Given what we know about the closed door meetings on Capitol Hill, I want to know what the meeting insiders - from the corrupt Bush administration on down to the supposedly surprised Senators and Representatives and including all of the other government officials that have known or just found out about this - have done with their own investment portfolios in the last little while.
Sure, Spitzer should have de-socked before his career-ending indiscretion. But we should revisit the prophetic message that was lost to the tsunami of Spitzer's scandalization two weeks later.
Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime: How the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping In to Help Consumers, Feb. 14, 2008. Washington Post.
Several years ago, state attorneys general and others involved in consumer protection began to notice a marked increase in a range of predatory lending practices by mortgage lenders...These and other practices, we noticed, were having a devastating effect on home buyers. In addition, the widespread nature of these practices, if left unchecked, threatened our financial markets.
Spitzer's omen went further to note that not only did the White House do nothing, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye after 50 state Attorneys General and many legislative attempts failed to halt the worst of the predatory lending excesses.
The AGs and their banking superintendents fought the Bush Administration's use of a Civil War era banking provision which established federal preemption of all state predatory lending laws and the new rules which emasculated state consumer protections from national banks.
Shortly before Stone's November tip finally mobilized national law enforcement to rescue Americans from the perverse activities of Spitzer and his calf-length socks, he left a final warning:
When history tells the story of the subprime lending crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners, the Bush administration will not be judged favorably. The tale is still unfolding, but when the dust settles, it will be judged as a willing accomplice to the lenders who went to any lengths in their quest for profits. So willing, in fact, that it used the power of the federal government in an unprecedented assault on state legislatures, as well as on state attorneys general and anyone else on the side of consumers.
We're now to let Industry's insider dictate the terms under which we'll spend the heritage of our grandchildren to repurchase the bloody bag of instruments of our rape?(em. mine -CM1)
The Spitzer investigations were dogging just the mortgage aspects of the entire shitpile that bushies are trying to sell to us... Which would have eventually exposed the entire underbelly of this well before the Bush administration wanted to.
They try and tell you, over and over again that it is too complicated to understand. BULLSHIT!
All you really need to know is that the bushies have been holding on to this to use it as an election issue.
The thing that really pisses me off - and that most of the people, journalists and politicians don't seem to get or, at least, some of them intentionally ignore - is that the mortgage aspect is just a tiny little part of the entire shitpile.
The mortgage part of it is what really started to show the cracks in this scam, and it is one of the very few parts of this ponzi scheme with real and tangible assets to show at stake - the bulk of this shitpile are scraps of paper with absolutely zero value.
While it may look superficially similar to the recent implosions of such investment giants as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Lehman, the takeover and bailout of AIG is quite different, and means that the market is entering the next and even more dangerous phase. What is driving the fall of AIG – and potential government losses that may far, far exceed the $85 billion bailout announced late on September 16th - is not mortgages or real estate (directly), but fears that AIG’s huge, global credit-default swap positions will unravel. The $62 trillion dollar credit derivatives market is 50 times the size of the subprime mortgage derivatives market, and is indeed larger than the entire global economy.
Unfortunately, few people understand credit derivatives, or the full risks to the United States and global markets and economies. In this article, I will take a Credit Derivatives Primer that I published in the spring of 2008 - which anticipated this exact type of event - and update it for the current situation. Through reading this article, you should be able to greatly increase your knowledge of what credit derivatives are, and why they are a far greater danger than subprime mortgages. We will end with introducing some concepts about how individuals can protect themselves and even profit from these unprecedented market conditions – something you won’t find in recent financial history or conventional investments.
On September 1st, few knew that AIG, the largest insurance company in the world with over $1 trillion in assets, was in deep trouble. By September 12th, the rumors about major trouble were everywhere. By September 15th AIG’s corporate life expectancy was being measured in days, and the question was: bankruptcy, buyer or bailout? By the evening of September 16th, the federal government had massively intervened, making an $85 billion loan to AIG in exchange for a controlling 79.9% equity share of the company.
Welcome to the brave new world of credit derivatives driven collapses. A world that is far more dangerous than the world of subprime mortgage derivatives. A complex world that because of its sheer size can potentially cause more damage in a matter of days than the subprime mortgage derivatives caused in their first year in the headlines.
But whom exactly will all of the taxpayer money benefit?
A little clue to Joe and Suzy Sixpack: Unless you own a bank or one of these other failing businesses, it ain't you! And the beneficiaries of said scam are already out there trying to seed the blogosphere with disinformation on it:
I get emails like this sometimes, from insiders who know what they're talking about, and over time I've learned that while they may be insiders all that means is they have access to more gossip. That gossip often doesn't turn out to be true.
In any case, a straw man is being erected. There is no crisis which requires $700 billion to Hank Paulson's friends THIS WEEK. That's the argument. There may be serious problems in the financial sector which require government attention. There isn't something which requires an insane act of Congress NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW.
I am sitting here listening to the hearing on this and all I keep hearing is “think about this from the American taxpayer who is already on the hook”… BS
The only people already on the hook are the one’s that own these banks.
Rush into the Iraq war… fear! fear!FEAR! Rush into the patriot act! fear! fear!FEAR! Rush into fixing (PRIVATIZE IT, DAMNIT!) social security… fear! fear!FEAR! Rush into a bailout of incompetent banks... Fuck the fearmongering!
Banking disaster? Only if you own one of these failed banks… I am not buying this “bush reality” - not even a little bit.
It all looks like a massive transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich for no other purpose than to support their failure at our expense.
The fear of a looming recession? We are in it whether or not these banks fail and it is going to get worse whether or not these banks fail. I have a great idea! Let a couple of these banks go under and watch what happens? If I were a betting man, I would be willing to bet someone will profit off of it, and we will still be in a recession.
You want me to buy your shitpile? Not just NO! But...
With our economy in crisis, the US Government is scrambling to rescue our banks by purchasing their "distressed assets", i.e., assets that no one else wants to buy from them. We figured that instead of protesting this plan, we'd give regular Americans the same opportunity to sell their bad assets to the government. We need your help and you need the Government's help!
Use the form to submit bad assets you'd like the government to take off your hands. And remember, when estimating the value of your 1997 limited edition Hanson single CD "MMMbop", it's not what you can sell these items for that matters, it's what you think they are worth. The fact that you think they are worth more than anyone will buy them for is what makes them bad assets.
I have a stack of papers sitting beside my desk - not to mention the rolls of it in the bathroom - that I can value at trillions of dollars too!
Alaksa State Representative Les Gara (D) of Anchorage, just released the following press release, plus a big stack of supporting paperwork. Another shout out to Les Gara, who has been fearless and forceful about speaking up in this matter.
It was a unanimous vote from a Republican controlled committee that voted to start the investigation but now it appears to be a truly bipartisan effort to get to the truth in Palin's Troopergate scandal and they are getting pissed at the rovian tactics being used by the Palin-McCain campaign's herd of lawyers. Palin has tried cutting off the real investigation by doing a farce investigation of her own.
We could easily think of the connection of Sarah Palin to Thomas Muthee, a man who hunts people he accuses of witchcraft, as just a story of harmless eccentricity, a humorous anecdote to giggle about.
Only, it’s much more than that. It’s part of a larger story, a gruesome story in which accused witches have their hands hacked off or are burned alive. It’s a story in which children are accused of witchcraft by the tens of thousands.
Nothing like using your God to incite violence on women, among the many other victims of their violent and godly pursuits, eh? Some of you may be unaware of just how crazy Sarah Palin's religion is. What? You don't believe me?
In the United States of America, we’ve got freedom of the Press guaranteed in our Constitution, right there in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. And why do we have freedom of the Press in the USA? It’s for a very good reason: So that reporters can write freely about political candidates’ hair!
Irregular Times has spent a good amount of time over the last couple of weeks trying to alert American journalists to the serious threat of a theocratic conspiracy that claims a goal to “invade”, “infiltrate” and “penetrate” American secular government, taking it over in order to push a narrow, right wing religious agenda. That theocratic conspiracy comes through Sarah Palin, the political newcomer we know very little about, and we’re tipped off to it by Thomas Muthee, the favorite witch hunter of Palin’s home church.
It isn’t just that Thomas Muthee incites violent mobs, or gives supernatural protection to Sarah Palin from witchcraft. It’s that Thomas Muthee campaigned illegally for Sarah Palin in her own church, announcing that Palin would enter government in order to implement what that church thinks is the will of God. Palin’s church responded to that call to arms with enthusiasm, and then Sarah Palin came right out of the audience in order to pray with Muthee that the theocratic mission would be accomplished, “in Jesus’s name”.
Oh, but never mind that. That’s just details of the story that have to do with preserving the Constitution, and not going back to the religious vigilante churches of colonial times. What is that, when compared to Sarah Palin’s personal sense of style?
THE CRIME AND THE COVER-UP.... At her kickoff event in Ohio yesterday, Sarah Palin boasted about having rejected congressional funds for the infamous "bridge to nowhere." Soon after, we realized that Palin wasn't telling the truth about one of her signature issues, on her very first day as a candidate for national office.
Now, some might say this is excusable, because Palin's remarks were written by McCain campaign aides, and the McCain campaign barely knows who Palin is. That's probably true.
But lying about an alleged abuse of power is far more serious.
Remember the expression, the cover-up is worse than the crime? It's plainly true in the case of Palin firing Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan. Take a look at this video, from the ABC affiliate in Alaska, and notice that Palin seems to have been caught, rather blatantly, misusing her power and then lying about it.
While we're at it, read this rather extraordinary report from the Washington Post about just how embarrassing this scandal is for Palin.
For that matter, let's not forget that Palin fired the Alaska Public Safety Commissioner for the most dubious of reasons, and then replaced him with a guy facing a credible sexual harassment accusation, and who was out of the job two weeks later. What a great example of sound judgment.
Interestingly enough, the right wing only seems to want to address Palin's charges concerning Wooten being an asshat, but they completely ignore the very credible evidence of serious abuses of power and the fact that their family was directly involved in some of the asshat things Wooten did, as well.
I am sitting back and laughing because, outside of Alaskan Blogs, there were maybe about a dozen Blogs that had even one of the many stories I had bundled together on Friday about Palin being a pothead, her "Bridge to Nowhere!", whether or not she will be inducted into the Alaskan CBC... And, of course, the impeachment story, known as Troopergate, that many Blogs were playing catch up on.
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?
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.
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:
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.
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.
Alaska political corruption probe refers to a widespread investigation from 2004 to thepresent 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.
I am doing the best I can to be out ahead of everything that is "NEWS" here, more so than usual... And I think I have been well ahead of the curve on the biggest stories of the campaign in the last month or so. Certainly running with pack of Bloggers that are lookin' way back over their shoulders at the flailing and floundering Traditional Media.
And there is still a lot more to come on this pitiful Palin pick...
I am just not irresponsible enough to start posting based on rumors of her daughter being - or having been - pregnant, or any of the other weird and wacky stories floating around the internet concerning the birth of Trig. But, apparently these stories worry the right wingnuts enough to start refuting them before they make any big splashes in the news. Go figure?
Here we are talkin' about someone that not only should never have been picked as McInsane's running mate, but she knows she is completely unprepared for this, via kos:
In an interview just a month ago, she dissed the job, saying it didn't seem "productive." In fact, she said she doesn't know what the vice president does. Larry Kudlow of CNBC's "Kudlow & Co." asked her about the possibility of becoming McCain ticket mate. Palin replied:
Palin replied: "[A]s for that V.P. talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the V.P. does every day?
So, if McCain had made his selection six months ago, the squeaky-clean governor meme would have made a little more sense. But, Sarah Palin is currently under an ethics investigation by the Alaska state legislature. The details of this investigation read like a trashy novel, and I suspect that the players will soon have newfound celebrity on the national stage. I’ll try to explain for all you non-Alaskans who suddenly have good reason to want to know more about Sarah Palin. For those of you not interested in trashy novels, feel free to skip ahead. Here it is…what we in Alaska call “TrooperGate”.
Sarah Palin’s sister Molly married a guy named Mike Wooten who is an Alaska State Trooper. Mike and Molly had a rocky marriage. When the marriage broke up, there was a bitter custody fight that is still ongoing. During the custody investigation, all sorts of things were brought up about Wooten including the fact that he had illegally shot a moose (yes folks this is Alaska), driven drunk, and used a taser (on the test setting, he reminds us) on his 11-year old stepson, who supposedly had asked to see what it felt like. While Wooten has turned out to be a less than stellar figure, the fact that Palin’s father accompanied him on the infamous moose hunt, and that many of the dozens of charges brought up by the Palin family happened long before they were ever reported smacked of desperate custody fight. Wooten’s story is that he was basically stalked by the family.
After all this, Wooten was investigated and disciplined on two counts and allowed to kept his position with the troopers. Enter Walt Monegan, Palin’s appointed new chief of the Department of Public Safety and head of the troopers. Monegan was beloved by the troopers, did a bang-up job with minimal funding and suddenly got axed. Palin was out of town and Monegan got “offered another job” (aka fired) with no explanation to Alaskans. Pressure was put on the governor to give details, because rumors started to swirl around the fact that the highly respected Monegan was fired because he refused to fire the aforementioned Mike Wooten. Palin vehemently denied ever talking to Monegan or pressuring Monegan in any way to fire Wooten, or that anyone on her staff did. Over the weeks it has come out that not only was pressure applied, there were literally dozens of conversations in which pressure was applied to fire him. Monegan has testified to this fact, spurring an ongoing investigation by the Alaska state legislature. But, before this investigation got underway, Palin sent the Alaska State Attorney General out to do some investigative work of his own so she could find out in advance what the real investigation was going to find. (No, I’m not making this up). The AG interviewed several people, unbeknownst to the actual appointed investigator or the Legislature! Palin’s investigation of herself uncovered a recorded phone call retained by the Alaska State Troopers from Frank Bailey, a Palin underling, putting pressure on a trooper about the Wooten non-firing. Todd Palin (governor’s husband) even talked to Monegan himself in Palin’s office while she was away. Bailey is now on paid administrative leave.
As if this weren’t enough, Monegan’s appointed replacement Chuck Kopp, turns out to have been the center of his own little scandal. He received a letter of reprimand and was reassigned after sexual harrassment allegations by a former coworker who didn’t like all the unwanted kissing and hugging in the office. Was he vetted? Obviously not. When he was questioned about all this, his comment was that no one had asked him and he thought they all knew. Kopp, defiant, still claimed to have done nothing wrong and said to the press that there was no way he was stepping down from his new position. Twenty four hours later, he stepped down. Later it was uncovered that he received a $10,000 severance package for his two weeks on the job from Palin. Monegan got nothing.
After extensive news coverage about all this nasty behind-the-scenes scandal, which is definitely NOT squeaky clean, Palin’s approval ratings fell to 67%, still high, but a far cry from the 90% number that’s being thrown around so glibly by the Republicans today. Alaskans are quickly becoming disillusioned once again.
You will find about 800 comments there now, and a lot of it concerns rumors from locals on the Palin kids' origins, so to speak. They are debating whether Sarah Palin was ever pregnant OR if their daughter Bristol is or has been pregnant OR if Sarah Palin had the amniocentesis tests done because she might have been considering having an abortion, among other interesting subjects.
All of these issues are things that should instantly kill Palin's already lukewarm support from the Christian Fundamentalists, Christianists, and Christofascists IF they are proven true. You have to remember that while most of these groups may celebrate her far right wing religious positions, there are many among those groups that don't like women that go to work, never mind chasing that supposed manly power.
Sarah Palin's hometown rallied around her as mayor - now Republicans wonder if the rest of America will warm up to the surprise pick from cold country.
Though her mother-in-law has doubts.
Faye Palin admitted she enjoys hearing Barack Obama speak, and still hasn't decided which way she'll vote."
A former top Justice Department prosecutor now working for John McCain's presidential campaign has been helping to direct an aggressive legal strategy aimed at shutting down a pre-election ethics investigation into Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
The growing role of Edward O'Callaghan, who until six weeks ago served as co-chief of the terrorism and national security unit of the U.S. attorney's office in New York, illustrates just how seriously the McCain campaign is taking the so-called "troopergate" inquiry into Palin's firing last summer of Walt Monegan,
Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner.O'Callaghan emerged publicly for the first time this week when he told reporters at a McCain campaign press conference, in Anchorage, that Palin is "unlikely to cooperate" with an Alaskan legislative inquiry into Monegan's firing because it had been "tainted" by politics.
The "tainted with politics" claim? I guess it is based on the fact that 3 Republicans and 2 Democratic members on a committee looking into claims of Palin's abuse of power voted to go forward with subpoenas and a formal inquiry...
In a picture supplied by Sarah Palin's family to the Associated Press, Palin appears with some rather odd reading matter: The magazine of the ultraconservative John Birch Society. The picture, dating to 1995, when Palin was a member of the Wasilla City Council, ran beside a profile of Palin in Saturday's New York Times. The magazine, The New American, is sitting on top of her calendar on her desk, unopened.
The Society is generally considered to be well on the right of the American political spectrumand has been described as "ultraconservative" on its own website. However, due to various changes in the personalities, tactics, and ideologies within the conservative movement, the Society has been greatly marginalized since the 1960s among mainstream conservatives.
This afternoon, the director of Division of Elections in Alaska, Gail Fenumiai, told TPMmuckraker that Todd Palin registered in October 1995 to the Alaska Independence Party, a radical group that advocates for Alaskan secession from the United States.
Besides a short period of a few months in 2000 when he changed his registration to undeclared, Todd Palin remained a registered member of AIP until July 2002 when he registered again as an undeclared voter.
There appears to be some conflicting reports on the Sarah Palin's membership which we hope to clear up soon. But there is no doubt that they both attended a 1994 convention, as well as Sarah Palin's video address to the group in 2006 (Video Below).
But make no mistake about the significance of this when you consider that as the "First Dude/Dunce" of Alaska, Todd Palin, has been seen having a significant hand in Alaskan politics not typically allowed for a person with the status of citizen, given his access to what is claimed as supposedly confidential information, information that Sarah Palin refuses to release to the media or any other citizen based on obviously and demostrably false claims of "executive privilege" Sounds like the corrupt bush admin. all over again, eh? Now wonder McCain likes her.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Gary gets into Vogler quotes and here is but one example among many:
"The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government and I won't be buried under their damned flag...and when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home to be buried in my country."
Hate is a pretty strong word Mr. Vogler... Don't ya think? Anyways, Gary, thanks for the illuminating comment.
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 quatre] 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.
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.
I think I may be getting closer to nailing down Sarah Palin's connections to the AKIP. But considering trying to keep up on all of the other Palin scandals breaking so fast it is hard to dig on. Added to the multiple scandal factor is the fact that the AKIP connections are very computer savvy, if I am even on the right track?
This afternoon, the director of Division of Elections in Alaska, Gail Fenumiai, told TPMmuckraker that Todd Palin registered in October 1995 to the Alaska Independence Party, a radical group that advocates for Alaskan secession from the United States.
Besides a short period of a few months in 2000 when he changed his registration to undeclared, Todd Palin remained a registered member of AIP until July 2002 when he registered again as an undeclared voter.
There appears to be some conflicting reports on the Sarah Palin's membership which I think I have found the way to clear up. But there is no doubt that they both attended a 1994 convention, as well as Sarah Palin's video address to the group in 2006 (Video Below).
And make no mistake about the significance of this when you consider that as the "First Dude/Dunce" of Alaska, Todd Palin, has been seen having a significant hand in Alaskan politics not typically allowed for a person with the status of citizen, given his access to what is claimed as supposedly confidential information, information that Sarah Palin refuses to release to the media or any other citizen based on obviously and demostrably false claims of "executive privilege" Sounds like the corrupt bush admin. all over again, eh? No wonder McCain likes her.
A phone number search for a number I got out of AKIP archives sent me to this dKos Diary by Ash Meerstrand... It appears he had the same lead I was on. The phone number:
The claim that the AIP held meetings in the town where Palin was mayor while her husband was a member can easily be confirmed using Internet Archive. Meeting information from that time (the first set is from 1998, the other 2000):
Wasilla ,Alaska
Country Kitchen Restaraunt,
411 W. Parks Highway, Wasilla
Tuesdays at 7:00 PM
Wasilla, Alaska
Nobody's Inn Restaraunt,
W. Parks Highway, Wasilla
Tuesdays at 7:00 PM
Call 376-8285
It's only 8pm in Wasilla, Alaska. Is it too late to investigate? Wasilla has only about 9,000 people, and about 5,500 people lived there in the year 2000, so maybe there could be someone there that would know if Todd or Sarah ever showed up.
I edited out the "image source" and formatting crap so you could see the plain email addy for the "same phone" number contact. I was unable to find another reference on a quick Google of that eMail BUT I also did on a search of "web-ak". Info on website addy for this site
Excerpted from the website description:
Alaskan owned and operated, Web Alaska offers web services for Alaskans and outsiders alike. Compu Doc offers computer repair and services thoughout South Central Alaska.
The following is a first hand account of a gentleman who has a story to tell about his experiences with Sarah Palin. I am granting him this venue to say what he has to say because firstly, it gives us another non-press view of a soon-to-be mainstream name, and secondly, the person giving this account is a Geek with Guns (and used to host this website for me when I needed his help).
"I just wanted to let you know ... Sarah Palin who McCain just picked as the next vice president is one of the most honest people I have known. I have known her for over 15 years, been in her house and have had numerous conversations with her, in person, on the phone both for personal issues as well as political issues.
"She is an excellent choice and this might have even saved McCain from going down in history as a loser in the presidential race. Sarah is one elected official that I can’t say anything negative about. And after 15 years of knowing her if there was something that was bad I would have known it.
"This lady has contacted me personally to get help discovering how one of her co workers was abusing his state office because she didn’t believe she could trust the states department of law. The guy later copped a plea, paid a hefty fine and lost his state job but this was after she quit her 2000 / week job and was forced to go public to expose his corruption. By the way he was/is the chairman of the state republican party "She is VERY approachable which is going to make the insiders and secret service crazy."Wanted to let you know."
Mark Chryson Wasilla, Alaska
If you would like to know more about the personal experiences of Mark in regards to Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin, Mark has given us permission to present the following contact information for that purpose, and offered his phone number up for that purpose as well (which I will decline to provide here do to the GwG haters).
mark [at] web-ak.com - Email Mark Chryson by removing the [at]
I have not verified the credibility of "Geeks with Guns," BUT remember how she hacked computers to out the Alaska Republican chairman...
But Fenumiai adds that Palin's husband Todd was a member of the AIP from October 1995 through July 2002, except for a few months in 2000. He is currently undeclared.
As part of their pushback against the charges of Lynette and Dexter Clark of the AIP, the McCain campaign says that Palin did not even attend the AIP convention in Wasilla in 1994.
But another former AIP official -- Mark Chryson, chairman of the AIP from 1995 to 2002 -- tells ABC News that "Palin was at the convention in 1994. She was there."
Was she a member?
Chryson can’t say. "She may have been, I do not know," he says. Their records don't go back that far.
"Ask Sarah," he suggests.
I'd love to. But she hasn't exactly been making herself available to the press.
Former AKIP chairman Chryson, friend and neighbor of the Palins for over 15 years. Chryson was in charge of Wasilla meetings for the AKIP. And Todd Palin was a member almost the entire time Chryson was in charge.
Chryson can't say if she was a member of AKIP? Or he won't say it knowing it would doom her politically.
This may turn into the missing link if we dig enough... heh
Side Note: This diary is just a follow up on Secessionist Sarah diary I did earlier that I felt deserved to be more than just an update in an outdated diary.
[update]Some preliminary digging on Mark Chryson, and this ain't pretty:
Okay, so Walter Hickel is widely believed to have just run on the Alaskan Independence Party ticket because he felt the Republican nominee was too liberal, since he was a major advocate for statehood in the first place. He did, however, threaten to "take our star off the flag."
This was documented once on the AIP's website until 2000, and it still has a reference here: http://www.akip.org/history1.html
The audio is from her 2006 inaugural speech, which I already wrote about, but failed to mention that. Nevertheless, here it is again: http://www.gov.state.ak.us/audio/inaugural_v1.mp3
Now, the Alaska state government may be scrubbing their website, but so far it's mostly as far as links go. If you poke through Internet Archive, even if their robot crawler didn't copy the old 2007 web page, odds are it'll still be hosted somewhere on their servers and accessible via Internet, if you just remove the Internet Archive part of the URL.
That might be a good place to dig.
You can't see them on the 2008 website, and http://www.gov.state.ak.us/... is "forbidden," but here's a link to 212 audio files.
dKos again, and this is some weird, scary and wacky stuff:
Okay, it appears that web-ak.com is a webhosting company that is owned by this friend of Palin's. I went to this site and had a look around. Under the links page, we find something called the "Waco Holocaust Museum". Now, note that this is on the links page and is hosted on the same domain. In fact, it appears to be the only thing on the links page on the same domain. At the bottom of this Waco page, there are more links, a big list of them at the bottom. Half the links don't work (archive.org anyone?), but the ones that do work include:
"Seventh Seal" An 'apolitical' history of the Axis (Nazis).
"The Confederate Memorial Association"
"Brasscheck" Appears to be a 9/11 truther site.
"Real History Archives" Assorted conspiracy theories.
"Brood of Vipers" More conspiracy theories.
"Final Conflict" Incoherent website about Nationalism. The page has an article "Did six million really die?"
Enjoy!
There are also hundreds of photos, gifs and other stuff stored in zips with file titles like /death/burial.jpg, /death/waco/burial.gif, /death/coffin.gif, /waco/coffin.html etc.. This is one wacko dude.
http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/web-ak.com/
McCafee site advisor shows 4 ZIP files that can be downloaded from the site... Virus free and all. But they look like they are just stuff for his wacky website. I really don't think I want to sift through them after looking at the site.
at the bottom of the waco page:
Published by Public Action, Inc, a news and news analysis service. All commercial rights are reserved. A full statement of terms and conditions for copying and redistribution is available in the Museum Library. "Waco Holocaust Electronic Museum," "SkyWriter," and the sky writing logo are trademarks of Public Action, Inc.
All original material is copyright 1996-2000 by Carol A. Valentine, on loan to Public Action, Inc.
Postal Address: Carol A. Valentine, PO Box 10933, Burke, VA 22009
This page last updated February 28, 2001
This Page is mirrored courtesy of Web Alaska
Not "hosted by web-ak"
"This page is mirrored COURTESY OF WEB-AK"
Interesting choice of outfits to offer freebies there...
More dKos comments because I had to wonder if he goes to Sara Palin's "non-demonicnational" church:
I couldn't find anything to that effect. But I did find a choice quote by him in an apparently defunct guestbook on the akip site that does not appear to be accessible from the main page.
This guy is seriously out there. He also derides someone else who posted to the guestbook as being "government educated" on Feb 25, 2001.
and a second reply:
Sorry about the second reply, but did you notice the article linked at the top of the Waco page called "The FBI's Catholic Church"? It seems to be trying to make the argument that Waco was a plot by the Catholic church because some FBI agents happen to be Catholic. These people are seriously lunatics.
Chryson is as loony as a right wingnut can possibly get... And seems to like reading from, hosting and linking to radical/bigoted/plain-freakin'-loony stuff.
And this is the guy who was the leader of Todd Palin's political party when he was a member? As well as their neighbor who ran the local AKIP meetups? And Sarah Palin got help from him to bring down the Alaskan GOP chairman according to Chryson's words.
And the media gave him a public stage to give a Sarah Palin testimonial. WTF???
John McCain, his stepping stone wife 
