Daily Mail claims that Todd and Sarah Palin are headed for divorce over revelations in Joe McGinniss book. I don't think they have ever NOT been heading for divorce!

Courtesy of the Daily Mail:

Sarah Palin could be set to lose both her marriage and her political career after the release of the explosive biography on the Tea Party darling. 

Friends close to the politician and her husband Todd say he is 'fed up' with the constant scandals that have plagued their marriage ever since she ran for vice president and is ready to file for a divorce. 

As well as kissing goodbye to her marriage, it has also been alleged that her advisers have told her to kiss goodbye to the White House fearing a bid would be 'political suicide'.

Well I don't really know how valid the Daily Mail's sources are, but I CAN say that I have been hearing about the Palins preparing for divorce for over two years now.

My guess is that Todd will not leave Sarah as long as it is financial lucrative for him to stay with her.

However as a man I cannot imagine how much all of this information about her affairs with Glen Rice and Brad Hanson being discussed all over television and the internet are affecting him right now.  After all a guy can only take so much, and it would be conceivable that Todd is just about at his limit.

I also agree with the rest of this article's claim that Palin is being told to forget any hopes of ever making it to the White House.

By the way I just finished Levi's book and will be writing about it sometime later this week, with some added information provided by his mom Sherry.

Joe McGinniss on Hardball.

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

This is a MUCH superior interview to the one Joe did on CNN, and though I usually am not a huge fan of Mathews, he is very respectful and even gives Joe the chance to answer a question without interrupting.

Professor Scharlott finally has the opportunity to publish his carefully researched article over at the Business Insider.

Courtesy of the Business Insider:

Three years ago, a sitting state governor and candidate for the vice-presidency of the United States, Sarah Palin, told a story about how she had given birth to her fifth child, Trig. 

Some details of this story quickly struck many observers as strange. As more information came to light, some observers came to suspect that, for unclear reasons, Palin had fabricated her pregnancy and lied about it--initially to her Alaska constituents and later to the country. 

Palin reacted angrily to this theory, and it was quickly dismissed as "nonsense" by much of the mainstream media and ignored during the 2008 Presidential campaign. Since then, attempts to settle the question once and for all have been met with silence or anger by those affiliated with Palin. 

Although Palin's supporters have successfully framed lingering questions about the Trig pregnancy as politically motivated attacks, the fact is that legitimate questions remain. And the one person who could instantly and forever put an end to the questions, Sarah Palin herself, has refused to address them. 

This article looks at some of the questions that remain about Palin's story. In my opinion, given that Sarah Palin was a vice-presidential candidate at the time she told this story--and is still often mentioned as a Presidential candidate--the world deserves a final, definitive answer to this question.

(To read the rest of this article please click the link at the top.)

Professor Scharlott left out a few portions that he considered might be too much for the average reader to absorb, including the different babies presented as Trig, but if you want to read the article in its entirety (Including a preponderance of foot notes) you can visit Scribd by clicking here.

Joe McGinniss really brought the babygate story out into the national spotlight so now is the perfect time to start writing about it and talking about it, to introduce the idea of the hoax to as many people as possible.

Personally THIS is what I have been working for, lo these many years, and I am beyond thrilled to see the story addressed by so many people, at so many different venues.

Wow, is September great or what?

As much as it pains me to say, I don't expect much from Levi Johnston's book. Update!

Some of you have been asking if I received an advance copy of Levi's book, the answer is no.

And considering the falling out that I had with Rex Butler and Tank Jones, I am not at all surprised.

The only contact I have had with anybody connected to the book, was when the authors contacted me to ask for Sadie's phone number, which I thought was rather odd since they were working with her brother.

Anyhow here is a rather troubling excerpt from this book:

We hear his side of the story about her pregnancy and the birth of their son. Levi says that Bristol was inspired when she learned her mother was pregnant.

“I’m the one, Bristol said, who should be having a baby. Not Sarah. . . . Bristol looked at me. Let’s get pregnant.” Levi says Bristol didn’t stop talking about having a baby after her mother’s new son, Trig, arrived. “When she started talking about it, I asked her about birth control, but she assured me that everything was safe. I only half believed her.” 

Later, he writes, “Bristol got pregnant on purpose. She had finally come clean, admitted to me that she hadn’t been taking her birth control pills. We were having a baby, end of story.” 

Now I have NEVER spoken to Levi about Sarah's "pregnancy," and he has never given any hint to his mother or sister concerning what he knows, but if Tank Jones is to be believed (And there was a time when I still think he WAS telling the truth), he certainly knows something quite different than what is in this book.

But even if I did not have access to that kind of information it would be obvious that Levi was not telling the truth.

He claims that "Bristol didn't stop talking about having a baby after her mother's new son, Trig, arrived."

According to the official account of his birth, Tripp was born on December 27, 2008, and was originally supposed to have arrived ten days earlier. In order for that to have been a full term pregnancy, Bristol would have had to be pregnant no later than mid to late March 2008.

Trig was born on April 18, 2008.  Why would Bristol STILL have been trying to get pregnant after she supposedly was already pregnant?

And besides that according to Mercede and Sherry they were BOTH talking about getting pregnant, so Levi's story about being surprised simply does not ring true.

As I am sure most of you remember I had an author all ready to help Levi write a book in December of 2009, but when it came to actually signing a contract Rex and Tank got cold feet and backed out.

Part of me wonders if they realized that with my participation, THIS version of reality would never have made it into the book, therefore they needed to find co-authors who would not question Levi's version of events?

Well I still have Levi's book pre-ordered on my Nook, so I will sit down tomorrow and read through it before passing any final judgement.  However from what I have seen thus far, I fear that Levi may have kept the truth at arms length.

Update: I received my copy of the book and have already read almost a third of it.

It literally reads like Levi actually wrote it!  I did not expect it to be good, but this is a whole new level of bad!

I kid you not, the majority of it is actually about hunting and hockey!

I am sorry Levi, I wanted very much for you to vindicate yourself, but this is just embarrassing.  If you had just refused to let Tank and Rex take over your life you could have had so much.

If anybody reads it and has a different opinion feel free to share, but I can not imagine that being the case.

To be honest I am not sure I can even make myself finish reading this damn thing.

Joe McGinniss puts it all on the line with "The Rogue."

"Stop reading this review! Stop it I say! The only truth is my truth, everything else is a lie!"

Now you are going to read a lot of reviews about The Rogue, that will be rife with spoilers and chock full of all of the best parts, like a movie preview that contains every important scene resulting in the actual viewing of the movie to be almost anti-climatic.

This review will NOT be one of those.

But I will tell you this.  Joe McGinniss does not hold back in this book. And in fact takes a rather stunning, and potentially reputation damaging risk.

And he does it for all of you.

Perhaps its best if I start at the beginning.

When Joe came to Alaska that summer in 2010, he asked to meet me for coffee on only his second day in our fair state.  We met at the Starbucks only about five minutes from my house, where we had a rather interesting conversation.

During that talk Joe asked me to explain why I continued to pursue Babygate.

You know that is one of those conversations that I am always hesitant to engage in with people, because I am never sure how they will respond. But Joe asked, so I carefully laid out my case.

Looking back on it now I believe that Joe was just trying to figure out if I was crazy or not. (Later I learned that a number of journalists and authors had been warned to steer clear of me.) Apparently Joe determined that I was not only NOT crazy, but that my questions concerning Palin's birth story with Trig were more than valid.

However he also informed me that if I expected him to pursue that topic I needed to find him people willing to talk about it, preferably with documentation or eyewitness accounts to share.

I want you to know that I did my level best.  I made phone calls, I sent e-mails, and I even went out to Wasilla to meet some of these people face to face.

But I failed.

Even after Joe left Alaska he said "Jesse I need something more than what I found up there."  So I tried some more, and  essentially ran off people who had once claimed repeatedly to be willing to talk to "the right journalist or author."  (If freaking Joe McGinniss was not "the right author" who in the hell were they waiting to interview them?)

But as you know I kept digging.  Sadly some of my more explosive posts on the topic occurred AFTER Joe had already submitted his manuscript. And still they did not really represent what could be considered concrete proof that she had faked that pregnancy.

So when I received my copy of Joe's book I did not expect much about babygate to be addressed. (I would be proven wrong about that.)

Essentially Joe decided to write a book that is more or less two books in one.

One book is all about Sarah Palin, and her upbringing, politics, and the celebrity status that she enjoys today. The other book is about Joe's experiences as the "most hated neighbor in America."

All through the book Joe weaves back and forth between these two narratives, using the incidents that happened to him in 2010 to illustrate what makes people so afraid to speak out about the Palins, and then revisiting Sarah's life story to better understand why she and Todd react to perceived adversity the way that they do. As well as how a lack of consequences in the past reinforced their vindictive natures today.

In the hands of a less gifted writer this could have been a confusing mishmash of conflicting timelines and seemingly unrelated pieces of information, but Joe knits the two narratives together almost seamlessly.

Essentially we learn, just like we did in Geoffrey Dunn's book, that Sarah Palin uses people up like tissue paper and casts them aside with virtually NO thought to how they might be affected by her callousness. And if anybody dares to challenge her right to treat them like garbage, Todd steps in and essentially intimidates them into accepting their fate without argument.

The level of anger that has built up over the years from taking this abuse, can best be illustrated by the rather unbelievable number of guns offered to Joe while he is staying next door to the Palins. (I cannot help but wonder if at least a few of these friendly Wassilians were not harboring a secret fantasy that Joe WOULD actually feel the need to use one of these firearms and forever remove the Palin plague from their lives forever. I know that seems harsh, but I have spoken to several of their neighbors who feel a great deal of animosity toward that family, and I do not see it as being out of the realm of possibilities.)

Despite the fear that Palin seems to instill in people, Joe manages to conduct a number of "on the record" interviews, with the participants agreeing to allow Joe to use their full names in his book. These include Wasilla resident Catherine Mormile, ex-Wasilla Mayor John Stein, Rev. Howard Bess, and Palin's former Head of Security Gary Wheeler. (More on Gary later.)

As most of us would expect the book also contains a number of interviews with people who would rather NOT be named in the book. However it is a hard case to make that THEIR anonymous information is any more damaging than the information provided by those willing to stick their necks out.

Essentially the information, whether anonymous or with names firmly attached, harmoniously blends together like colors sharing the same palette, to paint a picture of Sarah Palin that is clearly defined and altogether disturbing.

In one of my favorite interviews in the book Joe manages to get one of Palin's so called "friends" to speak to him, though oddly she also demands anonymity.

This person claims to have known Sarah for fifteen years, though it appears that she has really only had minimal contact with Palin mostly consisting of attending the same aerobics class and through a "Christmas ornament exchange" that Palin stopped attending several years ago. This interviewee did not have any real conversations with Sister Sarah, and in fact barely knows the woman, but hey at least ONE person does not hate the Palin family in Wasilla! (Though this poor woman laments the fact that she never received a card from Sarah when her father died, she also insists that Joe write down that Palin always "deals with stress with grace and dignity." Poor little Zombie rat!)

Anyhow you will read more about all of that in the many reviews still to be written about "The Rogue," as well as from Joe himself during his numerous upcoming interviews this week and next. So lets' move on to the reason that you all really wanted to read MY review.

What does Joe address concerning "babygate?" As it turns out, far more than any of us could have expected.

Throughout Chapter Nineteen Joe does not actually SAY that he does not believe Palin's version of events, but through quotes from Andrew Sullivan buoyed up by the suspicions of those that know her that she pulled a fast one, he leaves little doubt that he finds the whole thing virtually impossible to swallow.

At one point Joe addresses the fact that her flight to and from Dallas was the ONLY ONE ON WHICH HER SECURITY STAFF DID NOT ACCOMPANY HER. And in case you are a little slow on the uptake as to the reason why that was the case, her Head of Security Gary Wheeler lays out what would have transpired if he HAD flown with her: "if he'd been there and her water had broken at 4:00 AM on April 17, he would have whisked her to a Dallas hospital as soon as possible, and certainly wouldn't have let her fly to Alaska twelve hours later!" Of course he wouldn't. No reasonable person who cared about the Governor's well being would.

All in all when you see Palin's version of events presented in black and white, in an actual book written by a well known and highly regarded author, it quite literally defies all logic.

I am of the opinion that if anybody who was NOT a dyed in the wool Palin-bot were to read that chapter they would throw the book down in disgust afterward and proclaim, "The bitch lied!"

Which brings me to what I perceive as the heroism of Joe McGinniss.

Joe did not HAVE to address the pregnancy issue in his book, and doing so opens him up to a barrage of attacks from the mainstream media as well as what remains of  Palin's ardent supporters.  Leaving it out would certainly not have hurt sales, considering the rather salacious tidbits that are contained within its pages, and it is doubtful that including it will result in that many more sales either

In Frank Bailey's book he made excuses for why Palin did not appear pregnant.

Nick Broomfield, though he interviewed me for over an hour on the topic, seems to have avoided it completely.

To his credit Geoffrey Dunn addresses the "Wild Ride" head on but carefully avoids slanting his coverage one way or the other.

So WHY did Joe take the risk, when so many before him had avoided it like the plague?

My opinion?  He did it for his friend Andrew Sullivan. I'd like to think he did it for me. I KNOW he did it for you. And he did it because it was the right thing to do and SOMEBODY had to do it!

And because Joe took such a risk with his reputation, with his career, and, let's face it, with the sales of his book, he has very graciously teed up this subject in such a way that it is now positioned perfectly for Fred to come in with his book, focused solely on "babygate" and the media's malpractice in not covering it, and knock it right out of the ball park.

In my opinion heroism like that needs to be rewarded, so if you have not ordered your copy of The Rogue, please do so now.  I seriously doubt that you will be disappointed.

Gryphen's Sarah Palin checklist. A work in progress.

When Sarah Palin burst on the scene as John McCain's VP candidate and started fanning the flames of racism against Barack Obama, as well as making incredibly dangerous and fraudulent claims against our future President, I made a mental list of priorities that I wanted to help accomplish. (By the way this list evolved over time and now includes subjects that I was not even aware were coming down the pike in 2008.)

1) Stop John McCain and Sarah Palin from making it to the White House.

2) Reveal the truth behind the fantasy that Sarah Palin is a good and effective Governor.

3) Get her out of office!

4) Reveal the pathetic and controversial truth about Sarah Palin's personal mythology.

5) Provide a platform for those who know truthful stories about Palin, yet are afraid to report them to the press.

6) Direct focus on Palin, and her family's, attempts to grift money from her ignorant supporters, and report on how frivolously she spends that money.

7) Help journalists, authors, documentary makers, and anybody willing to tell the truth about Sarah Palin, make contact with sources willing to tell of their experiences with the Grizzled Mama.

8) Reveal to the widest segment of the American public possible, one of the BIGGEST, and most egregious, hoaxes ever perpetrated on them by a politician in our country's history. Babygate!

9) Draw back the cloak of secrecy that shields those that supported, and used Sarah Palin for their own nefarious reasons, to reveal them to the American public.

10) Help to make sure that another potentially dangerous politician, like Sarah Palin, George Bush, or John Edwards never gets close to the White House again. (I only include Edwards because his adultery could have made him a very easy person to blackmail into supporting policies that could have done our country great harm.)

So let's see how I've done.

1) After her defeat I received a lot of heartfelt thanks from many of the visitors here.

But in my opinion it was mostly undeserved.

I did only a small part in getting the truth out about Sarah Palin, John McCain, and the Republican party.

Others like Katie Couric, Keith Olbermann, Charlie Gibson, and even Tine Fey deserve FAR more credit than I do.  Of course ultimately the real thanks should go to Sarah Palin herself for being such an incredibly unqualified, and gaffe prone candidate.

(Half-check mark for me.)

2) I helped to found the Alaskans for Truth, and used my blog and networking, to get the truth out about Troopergate, the per-diems she paid herself to stay in her own house, the free travel vouchers she got on behalf of family members, the cronyism that riddled her administration, etc., etc., etc., to my fellow Alaskans.

(Check mark!)

3) I don't actually know how much I helped to accomplish this, but she's out! (Check mark!)

4) I don't believe there are too many people who are now unaware that the idyllic life that the Palins paint for themselves is pure mooseshit. Check mark!

5) I helped Mercede start her blog, wrote posts containing information from anonymous sources about the Palins that they could not get published in other places, helped Shailey get her story out in the National Enquirer, on this blog, and later on her own blog, tried to help Levi get his book written two years ago when it would have made a huge impact, and have maintained a blogroll linking to blogs ("Sarah Palin's Least Favorite Blogs") that have done some truly ground breaking work on getting the truth out about Klondike Kardashian. (Check mark!)

6) From SarahPAC, to "Sarah Palin's Alaska", to Dancing with the Stars, and even to Palin's 2012 Political Prick Tease, I have tried to rake away the Palin bullshit to lay bare what is REALLY taking place as often as possible.

(Half check mark. I could have done better.)

7) I have provided support to Geoffrey Dunn, Nick Broomfield, Joe McGinniss,  as well as others, and I have helped them as much as I could to make contact with people living in Wasilla, and around Alaska, that have stories to tell about the REAL Sarah Palin. I have certainly not provided ALL of their sources, and in fact all of them have made very impressive contacts of their own, but I did what I could. Some truths remain unrevealed.

(Half check mark.)


8) Most of this work has taken place right here on this blog, or on one of the blogs in the IM blogroll, but with Joe's book we are finally seeing the bizarre story reaching a much larger audience, and hopefully with the release of Fred's book , a much larger audience still.

(Pending check mark I hope to give myself soon.)

9) The Koch brothers, Fox News, the Dominionists, and the Republican party have all had their hands up the back of Sarah Palins blouse working her like a ventriloquist dummy voicing on their behalf crazy inflammatory things like "death panels," or "palling around with terrorists.'" Or ginning up racial hatred toward Barack Obama or the Muslim community.  This is clearly a work in progress, but I believe that we have made some significant connections between Palin and her puppeteers that have caused them some serious blowback and have forced them to abandon her in order to move on to less controversial marionettes.  However now that we know how they operate we can remain vigilant and help to identify the NEXT empty vessel that they fill up with their rhetorical poison.

Looking at you Rick Perry!

(Half check mark.)

10) This has ALWAYS been my ultimate goal, even while I am recognizing the possible futility of ever making it a reality.

Sarah Palin was chosen to be McCain's VP for the most superficial reasons imaginable.  She was attractive, she had faked having a Down Syndrome child to cement her pro-life position, she had hacked various polls to make herself seem popular in Alaska, and she was considered a Christian.

And that my friends was the whole package.

The fact that this occurred should have sent an electric shock of realization to the American population that candidates for the most important political positions in our country were being selected by shadowy figures who have determined that we are so simple minded that we could be seduced by a horribly unqualified pretty face, trained to read talking points off of cue cards.

If this had worked, and it came much closer to working than I think most of us want to admit, it would have furthered a continuing change in the political realities of our country that could have proved devastating.

This change has been orchestrated by the Republican party and started with Ronald Reagan, an actor who played the President, to George W. Bush, a simpleton who played a cowboy playing a President, to a Sarah Palin, a telegenic spokes model who played a Governor, who could have been groomed to play the President, once John McCain kicked the bucket served out his term and she ran in 2012. (Insert scream of horror here.)

Ultimately THIS is what the American voting population needs to be educated about, and Sarah Palin is the perfect example to illustrate that lesson. After reading what Frank Bailey, Geoffrey Dunn, and Joe McGinniss have written, it is clear that the information is now available for any of those who want to really understand how completely broken the political system is in this country.

Now all we have to do is help to encourage people to read the information that is now available, and the information that is still coming, about Sarah Palin, and then use that to vet the shiny new politicians that are just over the next horizon.

That sounds simple, right?  Yeah right.

Well I am not giving up.  After coming this far, there is NO WAY I am just walking away now.

Are you with me?

If you are then I perhaps someday this item will have a check mark as well. But not yet.

Apparently Brad Hanson wishes that somebody would have told HIM that he denied having an affair with Sarah Palin!

As I am sure most of you are aware, after the revelations in Joe's book came out once again revealing that the conservative Christian, Sister Sarah had knocked boots with Todd Palin's ex-partner Brad Hanson, the Palin camp issued this denial:

In a statement released through Palin allies, Hanson again denied the allegation. 

"This is the same old story that went around in 2008. It is a complete and outright lie," Hanson said. "Todd and Sarah Palin have been good friends for many years, and in fact we still own property together. We sold a former joint business venture for business reasons, nothing more. These attacks are shameful and those making them seem to be out only to destroy good people and make money doing so."

When this came out I thought it was interesting, because my understanding was that when the National Enquirer first broke the story Hanson stayed mum on the topic, and refused to be interviewed.Why would he come forward now?

Well, perhaps he didn't.

Once again according to the National Enquirer, it appears that Mr. Hanson was unaware that he made an official statement:

BUT did Hanson actually say and approve that statement? 

When ENQUIRER reporter ALAN BUTTERFIELD went to speak to Hanson yesterday at his home in Alaska, Hanson seemed surprised that an official statement had been issued on his behalf. 

Butterfield said Hanson appeared perplexed and confused when asked about the statement. 

After being asked several times if he had released the statement, Hanson finally told Butterfield: “I think so,” and then he added, “Let me know what you think about it.”

Well THAT us rather interesting isn't it? He "thinks" he released a statement? How does one NOT know that they contacted the AP and told them flat out that there was no affair?

Another thing that confused me is WHY Palins would bother having Brad Hanson release statement in the first place, when HIS sexual tryst with Palin was barely creating a ripple next to the tsunami of the revelation that she had hooked up with basketball start Glen Rice?

But now it makes sense.  Glen Rice is a famous, successful athlete who cannot be intimidated.  Hanson is living under Pain's thumb Wasilla.  If she says he made a statement denying the affair, then by GOD he made a statement denying the affair!

One other thing that is driven home in Joe's book time and time again, is how terrified so MANY people living in Wasilla remain of the Palins and their vindictive nature.

My guess is that Hanson, as he did in the past, will refuse to say any more on this topic.

But let me just let all of you know that THIS affair is probably the worst kept secret in the Valley, and I have heard it repeated by more people, often with NO prompting, than any other scandalous information about Sarah Palin. With the possible exception of the fact that she was a horrible mother.

Professor Scharlott offers a $10,000 reward for PROOF that Sarah Palin gave birth to Trig Paxson Van Palin.

$10,000 reward poster

For immediate release: 

$10,000 REWARD OFFERED FOR PROOF SARAH PALIN GAVE BIRTH TO SON TRIG 

NEWPORT, KY (September X, 2011) – A journalism professor at Northern Kentucky University has posted a flier on the Internet offering a $10,000 reward to anybody who can provide verifiable and irrefutable proof that Sarah Palin is the birth mother of Trig, the boy she claims she delivered on April 18, 2008. 

The flier shows two pictures of Palin, one taken 23 days before the alleged birth, the other five days before April 18, 2008. The pictures show a seemingly impossible change in the progress of Palin's pregnancy in that 18-day span. 

Over the last three years, numerous Internet sites have made the argument that Palin must have faked the birth. Circumstantial evidence supporting their theory includes the fact that no hospital has verified the birth, Palin waited until her seventh month to claim she was pregnant and often appeared remarkably slender for a 44-year-old mother having her fifth child, and Palin has never released Trig's birth certificate. Palin supporters have said that pictures can be deceiving, and that it is absurd to think she faked the birth. 

Brad Scharlott, an associate professor of journalism, has read rumors online for years, and is now offering the $10,000 reward because he wishes to find the truth about the controversy. 

"The circumstantial evidence that Sarah Palin pulled off a pregnancy hoax, possibly to enhance her political standing, seems overwhelming," Scharlott said, but added that he is still open to the possibility that Palin did give birth to Trig, and would gladly give the reward money to anyone who provides proof. 

The flier says that acceptable proof would include, but not necessarily be limited to, medical records, a birth certificate, or notarized statements from hospital personnel involved in the delivery. 

For full details on how to claim the reward, the flier can be found at Scribd.com: http://www.scribd.com/doc/65089616/10-000-reward-poster or seen below. 

How is THAT for upping the ante?

You know $10,000 might even be enough to tempt somebody VERY close to the Mama Grizzly!

Bristol, Willow, Track, Todd are you paying attention?

Never ones to let an opportunity to grift go by, Palin-bots use Joe McGinniss book as excuse to plea for more donations to SarahPAC. While also encouraging Todd Palin to commit assault and battery.

This comes from the site of Stacy McCain, the same little racist cockroach that helped to make up ridiculous stuff about me back when I did the "Splitsville" post, and threatened to out Audrey if she did not stop blogging, so I do NOT encourage anybody to click this link unless they have a strong stomach and a stiff drink at the ready.

Now get ready to witness the puffed out chest and bow legged strutting of perhaps the most pathetic little mama's boy on the internet.


Joe McGinniss deserves The Mother of All Ass-Whuppings, and Todd Palin ought to give him exactly what he deserves. 

So I’m asking readers to go make a $25 donation to SarahPAC to help defray Todd’s legal expenses when he shows up at McGinniss’s first book signing and pounds that scurvy worm into a bloody pulp.Please give $25 to SarahPAC, so that we can bail Todd Palin out on that assault charge — and then fly him to the next Joe McGinniss book signing to deliver yet another brutal ass-whupping. 

Lather, rinse, repeat. 

Just give $25 to SarahPAC, you see, and we’ll cover Todd Palin’s legal expenses and fly him to wherever Joe McGinniss appears in public, turning McGinniss’s book tour into a nationwide beatdown tour. 

After McGinniss gets out of the hospital from his first ass-whupping, he’ll probably get a restraining order against Todd. Still, Random House will be forced to hire armed security to protect Creepy Joe because, hey, what’s a restraining order to an insulted husband who’s got thousands of loyal supporters donating $25 each to cover his legal expenses?

I don't think that ANY of us are surprised that the Palin-bots response to somebody telling the truth about Sarah Palin is to threaten the source of that truth with violence. After all we have seen that time, and time again.

Little Stacy even goes so far as to make up imaginary news stories that might be printed if his violent little boy fantasy were to play out:

New York Post, Oct. 6, 2011 
PAPA GRIZZLY 
Author of Palin Smear Book Hospitalized,Todd Charged After ‘Brutal’ NY Assault 

Joe McGinniss underwent emergency surgery Wednesday night after police say the author was beaten senseless by Republican presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s husband Todd at a Manhattan party where McGinniss was signing copies of his new book about the former Alaska governor. 

“It was one of the most brutal attacks I’ve ever seen,” said Venona Wineglass, who was waiting in line to get her copy of the controversial anti-Palin book signed at the Upper West Side reception when, she said, Todd “came out of nowhere” and began punching McGinniss. “He was just like bam, bam, bam, and it took three guards to pull him off.” 

While police charged Todd Palin with assault and resisting arrest, his wife was campaigning in South Carolina, two weeks after officially announcing her GOP presidential candidacy. Her campaign spokesman refused comment on the McGinniss incident, while the candidate — currently a distant third in polls, behind Rick Perry and Mitt Romney — told a rally in Spartanburg, S.C., that she wants to “focus on the issues important to ordinary Americans and not be distracted by the lamestream media.”Surgeons at St. Lukes Roosevelt Hospital expect McGinniss to be able to continue his book tour despite his injuries . . . 

Does anybody else imagine that this fucktard is using his special velvet tipped tweezers to rub one out as he types out his violence riddled homoerotic fantasies?

What is sort of surprising is that he would encourage Todd Palin to commit a crime that might get him locked up in a local jail somewhere far from the apron strings of his wife, or the protection of his Alaska friends.

Can any of you imagine what would happen to Todd Palin in jail? Somehow I think that he would emerge with a whole new respect for what Glen Rice did to Sarah back in '87.

Now I do understand why little Stacy has this hero worship thing going for Todd.

I mean Todd IS from Alaska, and people in the lower forty-eight are inordinately impressed with that.

And sadly for little Stacy he DOES look like this...

..so probably anybody who is NOT a chain smoking, asthmatic, with bad teeth probably seems like a God to the pathetic little cockroach.

However Stacy's little fantasy will of course remain unfulfilled as everybody who knows the Palins knows that Todd is a pathetic bullying cuckold who has spent many years hiding behind his wife's skirts.

Simply put he will not do a damn thing!  Not unless Sarah can hire somebody to ghostwrite some balls for him that is!

I know it is hard to learn that your hero has feet of clay, but hey little man that's not the worst of it.

Your heroine also has boobs of water!

Joe McGinniss's interview on the Today Show, and "Todd Palin's" written, not in person, response. Update!

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And here is Todd's ghostwritten response:

"This is a man who has been relentlessly stalking my family to the point of moving in right next door to us to harass us and spy on us. He traffics in innuendo and falsehoods. A few years ago he interviewed members of Sarah's administration for a magazine article, and afterwards they said that he was the most disingenuous and intellectual dishonest writer they'd ever dealt with. He's spent the last year interviewing marginal figures with an axe to grind in order to churn out a hit piece to satisfy his own creepy obsession with my wife. I'd ask that people consider these facts when evaluating his latest lies." 

"I'd ask the fathers and husbands of America to consider our privacy when one summer day I found this guy on the deck of the rental property, just 18 feet away next door to us, staring like a creep at my wife while she mowed the lawn in her shorts, unbeknownst to her that he was prying. As well as our teenage daughters while they tried to enjoy our traditional Alaskan summer days outdoors. Joe's son told the media he advised his dad not to move from the East Coast to become our next door neighbor, but said his dad 'was just waiting for Todd to be out of the picture.' Sarah has never spoken to this intruder into our lives, our friends and family don't speak to him, so we have no idea where he would come up with content for his book. He was on our doorstep one day trying to make conversation with our son until Track cut the conversation short after discerning Joe's odd behavior, and I spoke to him one time when I saw him 18 feet away, just to find out who he was. He took that conversation and reported it to the media as me 'threatening' him."

Well this is clearly the work of somebody who is NOT Todd Palin.

The opportunity to write THIS kind of statement is exactly why Sarah made those "creepy" references about Joe when he first moved in next door. The idea was to create a meme that he was a pervert, and possible pedophile, in order to lay the groundwork to dismiss his book out of hand when it was finally published.

And if the book had come out only a few months after Palin's Facebook post, that might have worked like a charm.

The question is now with EVERYTHING that has been revealed about Palin in articles, books, Nick's movie, and the blogs, and how similar it all is, will that actually be enough to discredit McGinniss and keep his book from selling?

I think the answer to that is no.

By the way here is today's Doonesbury strip.

Update: Okay since everybody is asking for it, THIS is what Joe McGinniss would have seen if he had actually been staring at Sarah Palin in her shorts.

Feel free to "ogle" away.

Just when you thought Sarah Palin's month could NOT get any worse! Update!

Some more tidbits have emerged concerning Joe McGinniss's book "The Rogue." You might want to sit down for these.

Courtesy of the Daily Mail:

Sarah Palin snorted cocaine off a 55 gallon oil drum while snowmobiling with friends and had elicit affairs with a top NBA star and one of her husband's business partners, a new book sensationally claims. 

In revelations which could strike a devastating blow to the controversial politician's hopes of joining the 2012 presidential race, Mrs Palin is said to have taken the class A drug with her husband, while smoking marijuana at college in secret liaisons with one of her professors. 

Joe McGinniss's book The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, which is due to be published on September 20, also alleges that the former governor of Alaska is far from the traditional family woman she claims to be. 

Mrs Palin, 47, had a one-night stand with Miami Heat basketball star Glen Rice less than a year before she eloped with her husband, the book claims. 

She is said to have met the 6ft 8ins player in 1987 when he was playing in a college basketball tournament in Alaska and she worked as a sports reporter for KTUU television. 

It is also claimed that she had a six month affair with Brad Hanson, who ran a snowmobile dealership with her husband Todd - a betrayal which led to Todd dissolving their business. 

The author writes that after college Mrs Palin developed a 'fetish' for black men. 

She allegedly had a tryst with basketball star Glen Rice in her younger sister Molly's University of Alaska dorm room, while she was dating Todd and just nine months before the couple were married.

A friend said Mrs Palin spent the night with the basketball star but could not confirm whether they had sex, according to the National Enquirer.'I remember Sarah feeling pretty good that she'd been with a black basketball star,' a source told the magazine. 

The athlete is said to have confirmed the night of passion in Mr McGinniss's book. 

Glen Rice confirmed the one night stand?  Oh damn!

While there is nothing surprising about the marijuana smoking, or even the cocaine use, (Everybody in the Valley tokes up and does a little blow at one time or another), and virtually EVERYBODY knows about her affair with Brad Hanson,  the fact that Sister Sarah hooked up with an African American basketball star is going to blow her Teabagger supporters minds!

You know what? Maybe THIS helps to explain Palin's weird obsession with President Obama?

I think it also might explain why Todd is such a pathetic bully.  Here is a guy whose wife has emasculated him at every turn. Marrying him while carrying another man's baby, banging a physically imposing basketball star, and hooking up with his business partner while he was out of town working to support the family. Sucks to be Todd!

I think it puts a whole new spin on Shailey Tripp's story as well.

Man I am really sorry for all of you who cancelled your pre-orders for "The Rogue."  THIS book is going to drive the final nails in the coffin of Palin's public persona.  I simply don't see her recovering from this.

And hell Fred and Levi's books are still yet to come!

Update: By the way this is what Palin looked like during the time that she was a KTUU sports reporter in 1987.

Do you think perhaps Rice was drinking that night? Or that perhaps HE had a fetish for wonky eyed female sports announcers?

You can almost smell the desperation in this plea from SarahPAC.

"Pony up bitchez! Mama needs some new shoes!

Courtesy of the US4Palin:

Dear SarahPAC Supporter, 

During these tough economic times, struggling families and individuals across America need leadership and solutions. In his address to Congress last week, our President offered only recycled proposals that have been proven to fail. 

Increasing spending and expanding government control over the lives of hardworking Americans is not the solution to our broken economy. Mortgaging the future of our children and grandchildren will not ensure a better situation today, but it will ensure greater burdens in the future. 

With the Presidential election right around the corner, Governor Palin has to make the important decision of whether or not to run for office. You’ve supported SarahPAC’s past efforts to defeat Obama liberals across the country, and I’m asking for your help again. 

Let’s show Governor Palin that she has our support as she faces this crucial decision! 

America is facing a tough road back to prosperity, but we can get there with commonsense conservative leadership from Governor Palin and the support of the Tea Party Revolution she led during the 2010 mid-term elections. 

Our President has failed to take the initiative required to ease the economic difficulties facing our nation, and we need real change. 

Will you support Governor Palin with a generous donation to SarahPAC today? 

Thank you for your continuing support of Governor Palin and SarahPAC. You can also help her by sharing our message with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter! 

Sincerely, 

Tim CrawfordTreasurer, SarahPAC 

This is beginning to feel like an abusive marriage.

 "Honey I promise to NEVER hit you (up for money) again! I love and need you(r financial support) and this relationship is too important for me (to help pay my bills and make me feel relevant) to give up on it. Won't you please give me just one more chance (to get all of your money before I run out of time and everybody KNOWS I am not running)?"

I have a number of theories as to WHY we are seeing yet another plea for money from the Palin panty sniffers at this time. Here let me list them for you:

• Palin KNOWS she has only limited time before Joe's book comes out and wants to scoop up as much cash as possible before she has to go into hiding.
• Family needs new influx of cash because Levi's book is destroying the chances of Sarah's back up grifter Bristol, to continue making money by marketing herself as an innocent teen mom turned abstinence preacher. And she can't turn around and market herself as what she is, an emasculating harpy bitch who manipulates everybody around her, because her mother already has that role locked up.
• Sister Sarah's last wig bit right through her botoxed forehead, and now she requires a serious of very expensive rabies and distemper shots.
• Todd has seen the writing on the walls and is renegotiating his contract before agreeing to continue to pose as her happily married sexually ambivalent husband and hand bag carrier.
• In anticipation of the media onslaught to come after Levi, Joe, and Fred's books hits the stands, family has decided to equip the Palin fortress with a moat and some machine gun turrets.
• Five words, "Shailey got her cellphone back!"
• In light of recent revelations Palin needs to hire a personal trainer and some look-a-likes to help her prepare for a marathon, find somebody to ghostwrite a book that she can put her hoofprint on that will actually sell, and pay some of those darkies to pose as friends of the family to address the charges of racism.
• Need to hire better comment writers to monitor The Immoral Minority and convince visitors that, (1) Sarah doesn't pay attention to blogs, (2) Gryphen is just making stuff up, (3) the Palin family is a close loving family as proven by pictures that nobody ever sees, and (4) Bristol has only been pregnant three one time, and that was only because she was date raped by Levi Johnston.

Not to be cynical (Which as we all know I NEVER am!) but somehow I don't believe that Palin is going to be able to shake much pocket change loose from these people this time.  I mean, yes they are extraordinarily slow to recognize the obvious, but even the blind man will eventually realize that the elevator which seems to be taking forever to reach his floor is in reality just a coat closet.

This should answer the question as to WHY the Teabaggers are drawn to Sarah Palin.

And if that was not enough to make you sick to your stomach,  Garry Trudeau also added this snippet from Joe's book:

"Wasilla was so white that there was only one African American in the entire school system. One day when the boy was in junior high school, Todd, then a senior, and two friends waylaid him by the gravel pit adjacent to Wasilla High and beat him up, simply because he was black. 'Sure, Todd was a racist bully, but that just made him one of the guys. Growing up black in Wasilla was hell.'" — from The Rogue, by Joe McGinniss

(Cartoon and text courtesy of  Doonesbury.com)

I have to tell you that this just sickens me. I am so ashamed that this person became the living representative of my state.  And I want all of you to know that not ALL Alaskans are ignorant gun toting racists.

But clearly our half term Governor and her pimp of a husband are.

Perhaps later, when I am not quite so pissed off, I will tell you a story about my brush with racism and how I handled it. I will give you this hint, Todd Palin would have had a VERY different experience if he had gone to my high school!

Sarah Palin trots out new serious political pundit image, as illustated by her new serious political pundit wig.

To watch the video just click the picture. Warning, it does take you to a Fox News site so take your Maalox first.

According to Klondike Kardashian now that CNN has hosted this "Tea Party" debate they have moved from "Lamestream" media to the Teabagger ass kissing media, which greatly pleases this insignificant political prick teaser. Good job CNN!

Palin has a favorite new term that she just learned, "Crony Capatalism," which she uses repeatedly during this interview to essentially smear the whole group of GOP candidates at one time or another.

However she really brings out the long knives when Greta mentions Rick Perry, the HPV vaccine, and the suggestion that the reason he went with the program was due to possible payoff from the manufacturer of the drug. Here Palin goes for the jugular and starts throwing charges of, her new favorite term that she just learned about, "Crony Capitalism" all over the place like a Ninja star.

She even compares Perry's decision to make the vaccination semi-mandatory to HER decision, around the same time, to NOT go with the program.  Essentially creating as much space between Rick Perry's policies and hers as possible, which is a complete turnaround to how she described "Governor Good Hair" only  few short months ago. You know BEFORE he threw his Texas sized hat into the ring and rustled all of her Teabagger support away from her.

At the end of this interview Greta asks the question that she is apparently contractually obligated to ask concerning whether or not Palin is still considering throwing her wig hat into the ring to run for President? I almost feel sorry for Greta who appears to be very tired of this dog and pony show, but Palin leaps on the question like a feral Wasillian and implies that she LOVES the fact that by staying out she can still influence the subjects that the OTHER candidates take on, including her favorite new term she just learned about, "Crony Capitalism."

This interview was just as bizarre and full of misinformation, attacks on our President, and barbs thrown at her own party as usual, the only REAL news seems to be that she is now blatantly, and aggressively, attacking Rick Perry, which seems to suggest that the sources who have said she is angry with him for very personal reasons are probably dead on.

Oh and of course the OTHER news from this interview is that whatever was on Palin's head from her LAST interview has clearly escaped and is undoubtedly still at large in the greater Wasilla area.

Residents should remain vigilant!

Shailey Tripp gets her belongings back from the APD. Well MOST of her belongings anyhow!

I accompanied Shailey's mom to the police station here in town yesterday to finally retrieve the items seized in her prostitution case from the police evidence room.

We entered the police station and presented the paperwork that Shailey had given her mother, and about twenty minutes later they came out with a clear plastic bag full of evidence bags that were sealed with police tape, and a box sealed in a similar manner. You can see them pictured below.

However there WERE some items that were not given back to Shailey, including one of her cell phones, despite the fact that the prosecutor told her that there was NO reason why they should not be returned. So Shailey's attorney is going to be filing some papers in the next few days to force the police to release the rest of her belongings.

However Shailey's mom (Who is a darling woman by the way.) has mailed the items you see pictured above to Shailey's attorney and they should be there sometime tomorrow. So fairly soon we should be hearing some very specific bits of information from Shailey on her blog. (She told me that some of the REALLY sensitive info was included in the returned items, so she already has access to some very explosive proof.)

By the way for those who are constantly calling Shailey's story in to question, I want you to know that I have done some checking around, and that it is EXTRAORDINARILY unusual for the police to withhold evidence that has been released by the prosecutor. 

Essentially this is simply never done, therefore it does not exactly take a Sherlock Holmes to understand that the police are doing this to protect themselves, or on the orders of somebody who is NOT associated with the prosecutors office.

Stay tuned.

Now we're talking! First review from a "boots on the ground" Immoral Minority reader directly from TIFF.

Here is the full review from long time IM reader Stepahnie:

Hey! 

I just got home from the movie and wrote this up for you. 

The movie was really well put together with some people I haven't seen interviewed before.The best part was the question and answer. It's amazing to see people in Toronto know how dangerous Sarah would be in the White House. 

Nick was very fair and at the end he said he was glad to be done with Sarah Palin. He said it was tiring! 

I hope you enjoy my thoughts! 

I headed down to the AMC theatre where Sarah Palin You Betcha! was premiering. About a hour before it was about to start I lined up and there were already people waiting. There were two different movies lining up but the majority of the people were there for the Sarah Palin movie. They started letting us in and the theatre was full. A staff member from the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) always introduces the movie. He introduced Nick, Joan and the rest of the film crew, and stated there would be a question and answer after the film. The TIFF staffer then said, I’m the token American on staff and my personal opinion is Sarah Palin’s a crackpot, enjoy the film. 

As someone who reads the blogs, and for a Canadian probably knows way too much about Sarah Palin, I wasn’t sure if there was going to be any new information in the film, but Nick Broomfield’s approach to the film was very refreshing. Mixed in between the interviews would be commercials such as the bumpit, and evangelical Jesus will return to the earth clips. The humour kept the movie light. 

The movie followed Sarah’s political career from mayor, to governor to vice president candidate. Mixed in between were interviews from those that know her best. 

Nick had interviewed Chuck and Sally, the best part, in my opinion from that interview was that Chuck trained his dog to fetch antlers. There was also a clip of Nick talking to Chuck on the phone where he had decided this was a “hit piece” and that they scan and review opportunities for Sarah and if it’s a hit piece they don’t run these opportunities by her. 

Nick hit on some of the big scandals, her need for an enemy, her religion, affairs, love children, and of course troopergate. A big theme of the movie was her evangelical religion and the impact of that. Nick wasn’t able to interview any of Sarah’s classmates, so they went to Egypt to interview the only one willing to speak. I forget the lady’s name but she said regardless of your view of Sarah, the fact that most of her classmates were members of the Assembly of God, speaking out against Sarah is like speaking out against their religion and that’s just not done. 

She spoke of how she had never heard about hell until Sarah and her classmates told her she was going to hell, and how if you weren’t part of the Assembly of God you weren’t included in events, or “in the loop.” 

Another telling interview was with the former head of police John Ward, who said “your boss shouldn’t lie to you or the people she represents that’s what disappoints me the most.” 

The crowd was shocked with Lyda Green’s interview where she was disgusted with the interview Sarah did on the Bob and Mark show. Lyda said, “Sarah knew I had cancer, she sent me flowers, Bob and Mark may not of known, but Sarah did.” This actually made the audience gasp. 

Mercede Johnston talked about how when there was no need for her family anymore the pain that Sarah and Bristol caused. She said Levi’s comment about going on the national stage with the Palin’s was that he had to shave, and was told to smile, wave and say nothing. 

Mike Wooten talked about how when Todd was on the slope the children were farmed out to other people’s houses. He also said the Chuck didn’t like being around little kids, and would yell at them and tell them to play outside, then he used the same words to describe Sarah being home alone with the children. He said Chuck called all their mutual friends and threatened them to stay friends with the Heaths/Palins and not with him. He spoke very passionately and it was great to hear him speak so openly. 

Of course Gryphen was interviewed, I quite liked when he went through his Sarah Palin pictures showing how he picks what picture to use with a blog post. Nick asked his opinion on “the flying monkies” aka the palin-bots, and used Jesse’s story of what happens when you “cross” Sarah Palin. 

I saw the movie with my sister who doesn’t know anything about Sarah Palin and was most shocked at her need for an enemy, her lack of knowledge and how her religion drives her. 

The best part about seeing the movie at TIFF was question and answer afterwards. Nick and Joan were about to answer questions for about fifteen minutes. 

Someone asked how he was able to get people in Wasilla to speak to him. Nick stated that the people of Wasilla were extremely friendly, and invited them over to dinner before even interviewing them and that he got to know them. 

Another person asked what is the difference between Sarah and other politicians? Nick said that Sarah represents a change in American politics and how a majority of her base is poor and uneducated, and how that lack of understanding is how they can vote against their interests. 

He said Sarah uses an emotional message, which is not rational. 

Joan piped in that we need to remember almost fifty percent of Americans are irrational. 

Nick said Sarah uses the message of the “American Dream” and how you don’t need to rely on government. 

Nick was asked about Sarah and what he learned. He said Sarah’s religion and upbringing in Wasilla has shaped who she has become. He talked about how the first seven years shape who a person becomes and Sarah has this very strong good vs evil viewpoint. He spoke about how Sarah couldn’t just fire someone; she would make sure they would never work again. 

Someone asked if Nick or Joan had seen the Undefeated. They both shook their heads and asked if anyone in the audience had, no one raised their hand. 

Nick ended the question and answer with the fact Sarah was the biggest spending mayor in Wasilla’s history. How she raised oil taxes which many Republicans had opposed and she used democrats to pass the legalisation. 

He talked about how she didn’t really have a clear side on issues and jumped around the map, and how scary that would be for someone in the White House. 

The TIFF staffer ended the question and answer with a reminder that this movie would be coming out and to tweet, blog, and tell your friends because this message needs to get out. 

The movie is a great way to get a lot of the issues we talk about out to the general public. Nick uses humour, interviews and clips to bring a well balanced and fair look at Sarah Palin. 

I’d say it’s a must see, and hope it will get the message out to the “lame stream media.” 

Thanks,Stephanie

Now THAT is a review! Thank you very much Stephanie, I and the many readers of The Immoral Minority are very grateful that you were able to watch this premiere on our behalf and for the VERY impressive review that you have provided for our enjoyment.

Some things I cannot do.

I always dread this day.

It is the day that I have to keep my television turned off, and avoid my favorite internet news sites.

It is the day that it seems EVERYBODY wants to talk about what I don't ever want to talk about again.

And why should I? Even ten years later I remember every single thing about that day.

The phone call from my daughter telling me to turn on the television. "Daddy they are attacking New York!"

The day spent watching something happen which my mind refused to accept was even possible.

The next days spent watching the disaster over, and over, and over again. Until I could close my eyes and see every detail play out like I was watching it happen right in front of me.

Weeks spent wondering why, who, and how.

And just when the images had faded into the darkness of my psyche it was the one year anniversary, the two year anniversary, the three year anniversary, and here they came again, playing in a loop on every station, on every television, every year. The attacks only happened once, but through the power of the recorded image they continue to attack us again, and again, and again.

The news stations say they do it so that we won't forget. Who could forget?

Like all Americans alive at that time, I will NEVER forget.

So today I thought I would pay my respects to those who lost their lives on that fateful day, by living mine.

I went up to my favorite place and spent the afternoon appreciating the vastness of the world around me.

Absorbing the beauty that surrounded me.

Listening to the music that nature played for me.

And marveling at the images which inspired me.

After I finished my hike I felt revitalized, and renewed, and not a drop of sadness remained.

Perhaps some will decide I am not a "good" American for not sharing in our national grief. But I have already shed so many tears, and feared so many faceless enemies, and yet it changed nothing.

So today I decided it was not just something that I cannot do, I decided it was something that I should not do. And I do not believe I could have made a better choice.

If every year on 9-11 our nation succumbs to an overwhelming sense of loss, and spends the day re-watching the handiwork of those who wanted to terrify us, who wins then?

Well today, for THIS American, the bad guys lost.

Fear mongering Sarah Palin style.

Courtesy of the Alaska Dispatch:

Political bogeymen are Palin's touchstones. She's tried her hand with a variety of these to varying success. Not that long ago, Palin said it was the federal deficit that was ruining the economy. But having now lost the budget ceiling fight, she appears to have abandoned the deficit. It appears she believes the answer is to warn of capitalism as the root cause of America's downward spiral. 

This message has the dirty word "socialism" written all over it. It sounds in fact a lot like what presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs was saying in 1912. Could Sarah Palin run for president based on the platform of the Social Democratic Party of the United States? Or is it that attacking "crony capitalism" is just another easy for Palin to appeal to the masses? 

Quick: what do "pallin' around with terrorists," "death panels," "lamestream media," and "crony capitalism" all have in common? Fear mongering. 

Palin might not know much about what she reads, as she made evident in the infamous Katie Couric interview of long ago. But she clearly understands how to capitalize on the fears of Americans. When she was running for governor of Alaska, Palin instinctively perceived Alaskans were fed up with what they took to be a rotten establishment controlled by the "Corrupt Bastards Club," filthy-rich Big Oil and an arrogant governor who thought he deserved a private jet. 

And when she quit as governor, there were new fears toward which to turn the people's attention. It was in her resignation that she warned of the "political operatives (who) descended on Alaska." 

Nonresidents of Alaska might not fully understand the appeal to provincial fears inherent in the latter statement, but Alaskans live in a land where it is normal to despise and fear Outside interests. Palin's husband, Todd, is a former member and current supporter of the Alaska Independence Party, an organization that began by advocating secession from the United States. It has since tempered that view somewhat, but still wants to keep the federal government at arm's length. Alaskans really would like to be a foreign country north of Canada receiving a ton of U.S. foreign aid and advice, but not having to take any of the latter. Think of the place as sort of the Pakistan of the Arctic and you'll get the idea. 

And that is the environment that forged Palin. She knows all about playing people's fears. She first ran for mayor of Wasilla on the issues of gun control and abortion. The city of Wasilla was not involved in either issue. The city had no gun control. The city wasn't financing any abortion. But Palin understood she could whip up the fears among the electorate by suggesting her opponents might be for the former and against the latter. 

Bogeymen helped Sarah get elected mayor and then governor. This she obviously understands. Since she quit office, she's been trying to play the Alaska game on a bigger stage by whipping up national fears.

Craig Medred is dead on with this description of Palin's fear based approach to politics and that she learned it in one of the most distrustful places on the planet.

I live in Anchorage, which rural Alaskans disdainfully refer to to as "Los Anchorage" while claiming it is not the REAL Alaska. And they are not exactly incorrect about that.

In my part of Alaska we are only about five years behind the times compared to the rest of America, but many other places they are still dreaming of the day that they will have indoor plumbing and talk to their friends everyday via short wave radio.

Palin took full advantage of the fact that she was surrounded by undereducated God fearing people in Wasilla, who placed faith and church attendance well over the importance of a college education, and played on their emotions until they were afraid NOT to vote for her.

And sadly Palin has learned that there are Wasillians ALL over the country, in small towns and poor communities, who are every bit as responsive to her brand of hateful rhetoric, and scare tactics, as their Alaskan counterparts.

That is the secret of her success, and that has also been the key to her defeat.  Educate the masses and you take away her influence.  Revealing the truth about her, and shining a light on her numerous gaffes and public relations disasters, has slowly chipped away at her support, until today we see her as a mere shadow of her former frightening self.

But I am not convinced that we are completely finished yet which is why I still want people to read the books coming out about Palin this month and take the time to watch Nick Broomfield's very humorous documentary.

Information is like Kryptonite to Sarah Palin, so the more we learn, the less she, and those like her, can affect us in the future.

The first reviews of Nick Broomfield's "Sarah Palin: You Betcha!" are in! Update!

Courtesy of the Guardian:

For its first third, Nick Broomfield's documentary feels worthy of a toast by the Tea Party. Our bumbling Brit, gamely kitted out in red-check lumberwear, heads to Wasilla, Alaska, where he's charmed by Sarah Palin's parents – plus Chuck, their antler-sucking puppy – and nods politely at gasps of adoration from wide-eyed Palin pals. 

He and his subject even seem to hit it off when Broomfield requests an interview at a book-signing: "You betcha!" is her dazzle-grinned reply. 

Such apparent eagerness to be amiable only makes the last hour the more devastating. As Broomfield encounters more and more local people, and his requests for interviews are batted away with increasing energy, so the picture of a woman who appears to have made more enemies that most of us have seen episodes of the Sopranos sharpens into focus. 

One after another classmates and relatives come forward to grind axes and shiver at the prospect of a Palin presidency. They're joined by former campaign managers, chief strategists, PR agents, mentors, preachers and policemen, all singing from the same hymn sheet: Palin's ruthlessness and venom for revenge knows little limit. 

You Betcha! works too as a portrait of how place can produce personalities: Wasilla is a defensive, isolated community where even Palin's detractors vote Republican, wear stars and stripes braces, and keep their beauty queen tiaras wrapped carefully in cake tins. It's a city where prom-queen politics can bleed far into adulthood, and one man's theory about how Palin still acts like "the most popular pre-teen girl" rings right when you hear her giggle at enemies being insulted, or watch her chew gum. It's the stuff of high school horror movies: can you stop the most popular girl in school from stabbing you in the back?

Now does that sound like the Sarah Palin that we all know and loath or what?

Tomorrow the film will have its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.  There will be few "boots on the ground" there on behalf of IM readers so fairly soon afterward we should be able to read reviews from those who are well versed in the personality and bizarre behaviors of Sarah Louise Palin.

On a similar note I am supposed to be receiving an update on Fred's babygate book so you can all look forward to learning a little more about that in the near future as well.

It has been a great summer, and it looks like the fall will be equally satisfying for all of us who have been anxiously awaiting the end to the Grizzled Mama's reign of terror.

Update: The LA Times has a review as well.

The sum total of Broomfield's research — whether with a former Wasilla mayor (and Palin mentor), a fired legislative advisor or a town gossip who was once close to the Palins and Heaths — is of a personality who can turn quickly and decisively against her allies and sees the world in strict with-us-or-against-us terms. 

What first might strike some filmgoers as a matter of standard political maneuvering soon becomes more pathological. As Stephen Schmidt, the John McCain advisor who initially advised choosing Palin for the ticket but wound up souring on her, says, Palin has "40 or 50 or 60 feuds" going at any one time. 

Broomfield's approach of talking mainly to enemies (perhaps not by design, since her current allies were surely not running around giving interviews to him) can give the sense of a stacked deck. Still, the very fact at Palin has so many enemies in the first place, and from within her own campaign and party, is telling. (Broomfield juxtaposes a lot of these interviews with an attempt to sketch out Palin's belief system from her church and other affiliations; those moments pack less punch.) 

At the end of this review the critic mentions that this documentary may suffer due to the fact that Palin is no longer considered a viable Presidential candidate and that her influence is waning dramatically. And that is a valid observation.

I recently suffered a rather  pointed attack from some who are usually on my side of the fence after I wrote that I thought Palin might be suffering poor health as well as a potential mental breakdown, and then again when I suggested that her participation in the half marathon race in Iowa was very likely staged. (By the way that remains my opinion today.)

At first I must admit that I was quite surprised at the blow back, but then I realized that the people who were the most upset at me were those who had a financial interest in Palin remaining a viable Presidential candidate or influential force in politics.  They weren't concerned that I was wrong, they were concerned that I was right.

Wall Street Journal interview with Nick Broomfield.

Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal:

“We didn’t go there determined to bury Sarah Palin,” says Broomfield about his 10-week jaunt to Wasilla, Alaska for his latest project “Sarah Palin ­ You Betcha,” a documentary about the former Vice-Presidential candidate (which premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday). 

“That was why we went,” explains the filmmaker: “To get an insider’s portrait; we think we approached it with an open mind.” 

“I think you get a fairly complicated portrait of her,” continues Broomfield, “as someone who is very charming and engaging, and who has an incredible ability to make people feel that they’re very special.” 

On the other hand, continues Broomfield, “Time and time again, she seems to turn against the very people who have done the most to promote her career. I was surprised at the level that people spoke of her need for an enemy. That was the most consistent thing: her feud-like vindictiveness against those who worked with her.” 

While Broomfield describes Wasilla as an evangelical community ­ “with strong loyalties and a lot of fear” ­ he says the documentary crew was gradually able to gain access to people, spending a lot of time with Palin’s parents, friends, Republican colleagues and former co-workers. 

Those who appear in the film include John Bitney, Palin’s legislative director when she was governor, Colleen Cottle, a former Wasilla councilwoman, GOP Senator Lyda Green, and Laura Chase, Palin’s campaign manager during her first run as Mayor. 

“I think there was a real sense ­ at the time we were there, in October to December last year — that was she going to run for President and she had a good chance of getting in, and that prompted a number of people to speak out who had previously been quiet, because they felt that she was sufficiently dangerous,” says Broomfield. 

Broomfield’s efforts to capture Palin on camera were rebuffed, however. “I asked her on film if she’d give me an interview, and she said you betcha I will,” which is where the title comes from,” he says, “but it never materialized.” 

After spending several months following Palin around the country and interviewing those who knew Palin, even journeying all the way to Egypt, where one of Palin’s former high school classmates now lives — Broomfield says he’s given up trying to figure out whether Palin will actually run for president. 

“I think she’s frightened of being accountable; I think she’s frightened of the kind of scrutiny that she will have to face up to, and at the same time, she needs the spotlight and it’s hard to know what she would do if she didn’t run,” he says. “But I kind of think she won’t.”

Well it appears that Nick really DID develop an understanding of Sarah Palin while he was up here.  I have to completely agree with his assessment.

What he says in this interview jives EXACTLY with what everybody that I know has run up against while trying to research Sarah Palin. Few people will talk, and those that do live in constant fear of retribution from Palin and her supporters.

Nick did talk to a couple of people that I have never been able to get close to, like Mike Wooten and Laura Chase, so this might have more bombshells in it than Palin was probably expecting.

By the way, that part in the preview where Palin agrees to talk to Nick (which of course she never did.) was at the same Anchorage Costco book signing where only about a half hour later I was given the boot.

I don't know about all of you, but the more I hear about this film, the more I want to see it.