From my heart to yours, thank you.

I felt that my first post of the say should be hearty THANK YOU for all of you who donated money to my Pay Pal account yesterday.

As you know it was not my idea that Tuesday be a day to make donations to this blog, nor could I imagine ever asking.  But that does not mean it was not greatly appreciated.

Your generosity, and kind messages attached to the payments, were VERY kind, and it made me feel more than a little humble.

I would like you to know that I will not be spending the extra cash on loose women and fast cars. I will instead be spending the money on loose cars and fast women.

Obviously I am joking, mostly because my daughter can smell money for a thousand miles away and will undoubtedly come up with some emergency that can only be solved by emptying my bank account.

I know what you are thinking, "Can't you say no?'

Nope I cannot.

It turns out I love that little pain in the ass, who shoots me her mother's look when I am correcting her, and can NEVER SEEM TO GET HER DIRTY DISHES INTO THE DISHWASHER, too much to ever deny her anything.

Perhaps you would like to know that your generosity, and the money earned from Google ads, in the past have helped to:

• Purchase her a new transmission when her old one fell out of her motor-home on the way up here from Georgia.
• Purchase a ratty old couch that she could plop in the middle of my living room.
• Buy a truck for $500 that I thought would only last the summer, but which she is still driving a year later.
• Buy her a new Apple computer when her old one went belly up.
• Pay for her wisdom teeth to be pulled when she was in too much pain to even get out of bed.
• Purchase a Queen size bed because "I'm a grown woman Dad, I can't sleep in a twin bed anymore!"
• Buy her a new I-Pad for "her work."
• And pay for her gas when she was in between movie and TV gigs.

And believe me, even though I might complain all the time occasionally, I could not have thought of a better way to have spent any of that money. (Though I might have at least enjoyed SHOPPING for fast women.)

Anyhow I greatly appreciate that your generosity has allowed me to be the hero in my daughter's life when she desperately needed one. I don't think I could have managed it on just my salary.

Merry Christmas Angel!

So thank you again, and I hope I continue to provide entertainment, humor, and important factual information for many years to some.

Namaste my friends.

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.

Well I know what I'll be doing for the rest of this evening.

It just arrived at my front door a few minutes ago from Crown Publishing courtesy of Fed Ex.

And yes I peeked at chapter nineteen and it does indeed address babygate.

Update: I am barely into Chapter One and I am already reading about Todd bullying somebody.

It is Catherine Taylor the lady who rented Joe the house next door to the Palins for that summer.

I met Catherine at the house when Joe first moved in. She was very, very sweet.

Before she even knew who I was she leaned in close and said "You know what? I don't think she had that baby."

That made Joe laugh uproariously and he said  to her, "Do you know who you are talking to?

After we explained who I was she offered to sit down for an interview with me, but something made her get cold feet and it never happened. That is too bad, I imagine she had tons of information that I would have loved to post.

The fact that Todd bullied her pisses me off!

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.

Perhaps I was too quick to label yesterday's photo of Sarah Palin running as photoshopped.

Yesterday I posted a picture found on Gretawire of the Grizzled Mama running, that to be honest seemed very odd, which then led to many of us making the assumption that it was photoshopped.

Here let me show you the picture in question.

Now as the day unfolded numerous people rushed over here to correct my assertion that the photo appeared to have been manipulated. Other bloggers even wrote about how I had put my credibility in jeopardy by even suggesting that Sarah Palin had NOT run this race. And a few people whose opinion I respect said that they were not certain the picture was photoshopped either.

But you know sometimes I can be a real stubborn son-of-a-bitch so I was still pretty darn convinced that something hinky was going on here. But then I saw this picture:

Oh my god, what can I say?

Clearly this photo, which I am guessing was taken seconds after the first photo, shows Sarah "I am too a runner dammit!" Palin/Heath running so quickly that, not only do her feet not touch the ground, but she has just passed herself in the race. ("Laws of time and space do not apply to me, I am Sarah Palin bitchez!")

What can I say? Photos don't lie.

So let me take a moment to apologize.

First to Sarah Palin for assuming that just because she appeared virtually catatonic on Friday in Iowa, that she could NOT get herself healthy enough to place second in a half marathon, despite NOBODY in Wasilla ever seeing her running around town, nor on a treadmill at any of the gyms. Or that she would wait around for at least an hour after the race to have her picture taken with a Palin-bot (Who just happens to blog) to prove her participation.

And let me apologize to my visitors for automatically assuming that a woman who faked a pregnancy, substituted one baby for another, and whose daughter appeared on nationally televised dance contest while pregnant (Which she covered up for by claiming she was just more fit than the other contestants.), would EVER fake a marathon race.

I mean seriously, WHAT about this person would convince me to never take what she does at face value, and to always remain skeptical until I have proven to myself, without a shadow of a doubt, that we are NOT all being manipulated by somebody famous for her manipulative nature?

What was I thinking?

Brad Scharlott gives Sarah Palin the chance to put the Babygate question to rest for good. Did she take it?

This was from the conversation that Brad and Laura had on her blog yesterday:

LN: People probably wonder why bloggers don’t go to Palin directly and pose their questions. And perhaps snorting, “Oh right, like she’d answer me” isn’t a good enough answer. Instead, I asked Rebecca Mansour many times on Twitter to respond to my blog posts. And I invited her, many times, to do an interview with me. It was only fair. And she was predictably mute.You, on the other hand, went directly to Sarah. Tell us about that, Brad. 

BS: I’ve revised my original Babygate paper as a magazine article. A couple of weeks ago I sent that to Sarah Palin’s Wasilla address, and she received it on August 15, according to the USPS tracking service. In a cover letter I asked her to respond to the article, and I also asked six specific questions that stem from it, such as whether she was truly pregnant in 2008 and whether she wore a fake pregnancy belly when Andrea Gusty interviewed her. I told her I planned to publish the article within a month, and I promised her I would include her response with it. Of course, she has not responded. So what can we concluded from that? 

LN: One, she’s too big for us. And I can honestly understand that (although word has it that she is afraid of me.) There are a lot of demands on her time. Why? I have no idea. But there are. Two, why add fuel to the fire? To respond to you and/or me, or any blogger, lends credence to what we are saying. She’s hoping we’ll go away. Three, like I said in an earlier comment. We use subjects and verbs. And we use them in agreement. I think Anon on Gryphen's blog is right: that scares her. 

BS: Well, if she did NOT perpetrate a hoax, there would be an extremely important reason to respond to my letter and article. In that cover letter, I wrote:“As you may recall from your journalism studies in college, you are considered a ‘public figure/official’ for First Amendment purposes, in light of NY Times v. Sullivan. By providing you this opportunity to respond to my paper, I trust I am demonstrating beyond any doubt that my article bears no ‘actual malice’ towards you.”Since I was forewarning her that I plan to publish the article, by NOT responding she essentially forfeits any conceivable opportunity to sue for defamation. That is not the same as admitting she is guilty, of course, but could you imagine an innocent high-level politician ignoring an article that made such sensational allegations of wrongdoing? After all, I’m not just any crackpot. Palin knows my paper in April made news around the world.

You know one of the reasons that has been offered up as to WHY Palin does not simply produce the birth certificate and do away with all of this speculation, is because IT WORKS FOR HER!

The argument is that because people keep bringing up this issue that it makes THEM seem like lunatics, and by refusing to shut them down Palin appears above it all and is essentially taking the high road. (In fact Palin often brings up the "conspiracy" about Trig's birth in her speeches. It ALWAYS gets a laugh and a smattering of applause from the audience.)

Now this theory was all but rammed down my throat by a good friend who wanted desperately for me to drop the subject. (I won't out them here, but I am sure most of you can figure it out.) But of course I never did, because I never bought into that theory. Nor did I believe that keeping the investigation into babygate alive was actually helping her.

Oh sure it gave her a laugh line or two for a speech, but does anybody really believe it helped to sustain her popularity?

But for the sake of argument, let's just assume that it did. Let's assume that much of Sarah Palin's ability to garner sympathy and appear relevant stemmed from the fact that her supporters felt she was persecuted by these "crazy" liberals who had the gall to suggest that she would fake the birth of her own child.

However the Sarah Palin of today is significantly less popular than the Sarah Palin of two years ago. We are currently witnessed the crumbling of her political aspirations, the desertion of many of her past supporters, and the dimming of her relevancy to the media.

Yet the investigation, and number or people discussing babygate, is now larger than ever.

Even an author as well known as Joe McGinnis has publicly addressed it, and there is a book coming out whose sole purpose is to introduce the topic to an even wider audience.  So even if the argument could have been made two years ago that the subject of babygate was helping Sarah Palin in some way, that argument certainly could NOT be made today.

But you know what might help Sarah Palin at this point?  Producing proof that Trig is her biological son.

Imagine how much attention it would garner if Palin were to suddenly come out and show the world that the crazies were wrong all along, and that she was just playing them for a bunch of fools. Think of how she could play up how her family was victimized by these horrible people who went after her precious children so aggressively all to prove something that her evidence now demonstrated to be false.

Hell her smiling face would be all OVER the news, her potential political career would be revitalized, and the donations would come pouring in.

Not only that but imagine her joy at embarrassing Joe McGinniss, Professor Scharlott, Laura Novak, and Andrew Sullivan. Not to mention squashing the reputation of a certain pain-in-the-ass Alaskan blogger.

Yep, if ever there were a time to finally shut all of us up for good, this would be it.

So what do you say Sarah? Are you ready to finally put us all in our place?

Let's get a few things straight about my dedication to Babygate.

You know the internet is a big place, and there is no way I could possibly know what is happening on every corner of it.  In fact I often don't even know what is happening on the blogs in my very own blogrolls.

I just don't have the time to read all of the posts, and I especially don't have the time to read the comments. (Hell folks sometimes I only have time to skim the comments on my own blog.)

However occasionally I receive an e-mail, or a comment on IM, asking the most bizarre questions imaginable. And I have to wonder if it is a serious question, and that they are really that ignorant, or whether or not somebody is just fucking with me.

Usually it turns out that it was the result of a conversation that was started, or even an apparently definitive statement that was made, on another blog.

So let me address a few that have cropped up recently. (And no folks this will NOT become a regular feature.)

1) Have I stopped working on Babygate?

Seriously?  Somebody actually suggested that, and people BELIEVED them?

Why in the hell would I have put so much time and effort, and suffered such attacks on my character, if I was not determined to stick it out until the end?  Does THAT even sound like me?

You know that same meme has come up before.

It was being bandied about right before my "Tale of Two Babies" post, it was being talked about right before I introduced all of you to Fred, I remember hearing about it right around the time I posted the new pictures of Levi, and I even heard about it right before I wrote the "No Longer a Conspiracy Theory" LESS THAN ONE MONTH AGO.

Now ask yourself, do I REALLY seem like somebody who is no longer working on Babygate?

And then ask yourself this, "What would be the motivation of somebody making such a claim?"

2) Has Gryphen been paid off/threatened/convinced by Sarah/Mercede/Levi to NOT reveal things he knows about Babygate?

Number one I CANNOT be paid off. Period.

And nobody has ever even tried that approach with me, because I am pretty sure that even somebody as arrogant and ignorant as Sarah Palin herself realizes that I would be writing the next day's post in my head the entire time they were providing me with the material.

As for threats, well you know what they did, and you know how I responded. Does anybody really think my defiant attitude has changed in these last few years?

Did Mercede convince me not to tell some terrible secret about her family?

Well that would be the most reasonable of the unreasonable assumptions, because I would do just about anything for Sherry and Sadie. But NO that is not accurate either.

It IS true that there are things I know concerning what is going on with the Johnstons that I am not talking about, but it is not babygate related, nor is it a "terrible secret." And besides much of it will be revealed in the coming months, just like Sadie's Playboy shoot which I kept silent about until the news broke elsewhere.

3) Is Gryphen the mysterious "Anonymous" commenter from the "Nick Broomfield" post?

Wrong again. And I am a little unclear as to what my motivation would be for posting comments anonymously.

For the record I have NEVER posted anonymously on my blog, or any other blog.

I really only know of one blogger who did that regularly, or used a variety of screen names to hide their identity, but he was never a truly legitimate blogger, only a parasite. (I am sure that most of you will have little difficulty unraveling this particular mystery,)

4) Is Gryphen "Fred?"

Nope.  In fact I have never even met Fred.

However hopefully very soon all of you will have a much better idea of who Fred is, as well as his progress on the babygate book. There is even talk about a website, and I will gladly post the link when everything is up and running.

I am sure there are other questions and imaginative suppositions out there, but hopefully this will keep the conspiracy theories down to a low roar for at least a couple of weeks.

Let me add a few more bits of information.

It may not seem like it, but I actually DO have a real job.  In fact I am never NOT on the job.

Therefore I am not always able to sit down and write a long post, such as this one, and may only have time to post a link and jot down a few thoughts, before being called away to do what I am actually paid to do.

Writing about babygate requires new information, time to research that information, and time to write out the post that best utilizes the new data.  And often while that is going on there are other important stories that I feel should be addressed, so it may take me awhile to get a babygate post ready for your consumption. (I actually have just such a post on the back burner right now.)

And another thing, this blog is not JUST about Sarah Palin and babygate. In fact when I started the blog in November of 2004, I did not even know Sarah Palin existed. So even though the work to reveal her lies and obfuscations have often dominated my posts, I fully intend to continue on well after Sarah Palin is nothing more than a $100 question on Jeopardy.

Anyhow I hope that answers some of your questions, and puts some minds at ease.

As always thank you for visiting my humble Alaskan blog, but do yourself a favor once in a while and step away from your computer and enjoy the last of this great summer.  It will be winter soon enough and I don't want any of you blaming me for keeping you inside while the sun was waiting for you to come out and play.

Namaste my friends.

A sneak peek at Nick Broomfield's documentary, "Sarah Palin--You Betcha!"

I heard about this scene.

The guy following behind Nick, as he is escorted out, is Marc Hoeferlin one of his assistants.

Nick also filmed the incident in Anchorage, where I was escorted out of the book signing after Todd recognized me and Sarah said: "Oh you are the one who is trying to destroy my children!"

I have no idea if it made it into the final cut, but both it, and my interview afterward, were filmed by Nick and his crew.

I think it looks pretty good, what do all you think, is it worth the price of a ticket?

"Sarah Palin--You Betcha!" Nick Broomfield's Palin documentary will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Here is the press release courtesy of Tiff.net:

Sarah Palin – You Betcha! Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill, United Kingdom

World Premiere

Nick Broomfield's quest for the real Sarah Palin involves battling the icy snows of Alaska in mid-winter to speak to the school friends, family, and Republican colleagues that in previous days gave their heart, soul and belief to the charismatic, charming, intoxicating ex-hockey mom. But it's not all plain sailing. People are frightened to talk; Wasilla makes Twin Peaks look like a walk in the park. It's a devout evangelical community – 76 churches with a population of only 6 thousand, and the Crystal meth capital of Alaska. Broomfield brings his celebrated wit and determination to cracking her story.

Well I have to say I'm intrigued, even though I already I know most of this stuff.

I really enjoyed getting to meet, and hang out with Nick and Joan, and I KNOW they were able to get access to some very knowledgeable people when it came to Sarah Palin, so the film will be far more revealing, and informative, than that ridiculous piece of propaganda by Stephen Bannon. That I can promise.

I don't know if any of my IM visitors are living near Toronto but the 36th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 8 to 18, 2011, so if you get the chance to see the documentary I would LOVE to get a short review.

You know if you would not mind.

P.S. Nick's documentary is not the ONLY Palin related thing that now has a title. I spoke to the authors of the "babygate" book yesterday and they have narrowed their choice down to a handful of possibilities.  I will let you know what is decided just as soon as they are ready to release that information.

As promised here is the update on the long awaited book about Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy, and the culpability of the American press for not revealing the deception.

Just smile Todd. Trust me, NOBODY will ever figure out what we did.

Thank you for patiently waiting through the weekend for this update.  With no further ado, I will let Fred fill you in on the book's progress and just when we can expect to see it in our local bookstores.

The book is nearly finished, and large sections of the book were turned into our publisher's legal department in late June. We are still shooting for a release date within the next four - six weeks. 

However, there have been some hold-ups, and I'll share the status of that now. I noticed that after Gryphen kindly posted my request for title ideas back in May, many people asked if there were going to be any great new revelations in the book. Would we finally have the answer? At the time, the answer to that was - honestly - no. 

My original hope for the book was to, first, present, in one place, an iron clad summary of the material that have been collected by multiple researchers that Sarah Palin's pregnancy with Trig was not as presented to the public in March and April of 2008. One way that the mainstream media has been able to ignore the story is that the bits and pieces have been scattered on multiple blogs and websites, and presented piecemeal. Each piece, then, is argued about and ignored individually. The weight of the story, however, when presented as a coherent whole, becomes overwhelming. Crafting this "coherent whole" was and continues to be a very difficult job. For example, there are actually about fifty separate photos from the time frame of March 4th through April 18th that are relevant to the story, and tough decisions had to be made about what material to put in the book and what to leave out, since we simply cannot use it all. The main market for the book is going to be those who know almost nothing of the story. Too little evidence and the story falls flat. Too much and the main point - that the media ignored terribly glaring inconsistencies in multiple areas - gets lost. 

Secondly, the thrust of the book was to show how and why the mainstream media first during the campaign and second, since, have ignored the story

The "smoking gun" was the presentation of all the material together in such a way that the weight of the evidence made the idea that she had faked the pregnancy plausible beyond any reasonable doubt. As I am an attorney, the reasonable doubt angle is one that I explored a great deal in the chapters on the pregnancy evidence.This was, as I said, the original plan for the book.

Then, on June 10th, thousands of pages of Palin's emails were released. Within 24-48 hours, the Palin apologists were shouting, "There's nothing to see here!" and encouraging everyone to move on, even though no one could possibly have read even a fraction of the mail in that time. 

One extraordinarily interesting discrepancy was pointed out by Gryphen in his blog on June 13th, when he shared the enormous disconnect of Palin sending herself a draft copy of the letter she intended to release to friends and family after the baby was born. This letter was sent six weeks before Palin's announced due date and eleven days before the child's announced "birth." Numerous other media outlets had already commented on the letter, most taking the position that it actually "proved" Sarah Palin was Trig's mother, with none noticing the eye-popping discrepancy that she referred to her pregnancy in the past tense and as "easy" when she still supposedly had six weeks to go.

This discovery led me to believe that there was "plenty to see here." I put any new writing and editing on hold as I, with the help of two very dedicated research helpers, have pored over emails. Our persistence has paid off. The bread crumbs are tiny (more like crumbs of crumbs), but the trail is there. No, of course there is no email stating, "I woke up this morning and decided to fake a pregnancy." If there were, it would have been found weeks ago and the story would be over. 

But, as any good Catholic school-boy knows, there are sins of commission, and sins of omission. 

Those who spent months (paid for by the state of Alaska) redacting Sarah Palin's emails likely pulled out a lot of "commissions," but they missed the omissions, because they could not possibly know what to look for. We did. I can now tell you with confidence that there will be new material in the book. After almost three years, there is more to find...

I'm sorry that all of you who have been waiting for the book will have to wait a bit longer. Prior to the release of the emails, I believed that an August 15th release date for the book was realistic. Now, I am working terribly hard to make this all come together by September 1. 

Also, for all who are wondering about a title, we have made a decision, but are not yet releasing it.
Fred

Apparently my office is surrounded by this great place called Alaska. So I thought I should get out and take a look at it.

My friend, Dennis Zaki, and I have been talking about taking the families on a camping trip for two years now.  Finally I ran out of excuses and we planned to hit the road last Sunday night. Oh boy?

I loaded up the old Durango, made sure my I-Phone was fully charged, and headed off to Sutton, Alaska.

Yep that's Sutton, Alaska on that map. What? You can't get a good idea of what Sutton is like from just looking at a map?

Well here let me show you a picture.

 
What? You would like to see more of Sutton? Well you my friend are out of luck because, besides the fire station where we were standing when we took this picture, this IS Sutton, Alaska.

You see in Alaska the difference between "town" and "smattering of buildings built fairly close together" is virtually non-existent.

I do believe the founding of most towns goes something like this:

"Hey Frank, did you notice that somebody went and built a bait shop next to the gas station/house of ill repute?"

"Yeah I did."

"Well daggumit, I think we got ourselves a town here Frank!  Whatchyou wanna call it?"

"Hell, let's name it something purdy, like Chlamydia."

"Nah, don't be ignorant, that sounds too French!  Let's call it something that will always demand respect, like Wasilla!"

"Perfect!"

(So now you know how Wasilla got its name. Go ahead, look it up!)

From Sutton (Or as I called it, "That building standing all by itself.") we turned left and headed up toward the area where Dennis swore there were tons of fossils to hunt and a breathtaking view of the mountains.

That was the good news.

The bad news is that THIS was the road that led to it.

Yes, in Sutton THAT is considered a "road."

I knew it would be difficult when I passed a mountain goat walking the other way shaking his head and going "Fuck that, I am going back."

But I am an Alaskan dammit. so onward we go.

It really wasn't so bad if you drove three miles and hour and kept your sphincter squeezed shut the entire time. (Here is the link to the video that Dennis shot just in case you think I am exaggerating.) Finally we got past the rough part, and I stopped to stretch my legs and do a little vomiting.

Okay back to the vehicle. (If you are noticing my gray hair I should probably inform you that it was golden brown when I started up that "road.")

On the way to the campsite we stopped to collect fossils. 

 As you can see there were indeed fossils. LOT'S of them. The kids LOVED it!

We also found some petrified wood. (Insert Hugh Hefner Viagra joke here.)


After finding about two dozen fossils, and feeding the local mosquitoes until they were too full to fly and could only stumble drunkenly along the path, we got back into the Durango and headed to the campsite.

Okay you have to admit that IS pretty gorgeous!

Before we built our fire, and burnt ourselves some dinner, we decided to pitch our tents.(You know I have such a juvenile sense of humor that I had to lower my head to hide the smile that spread across my face every time somebody said "pitch a tent." No it is not likely that I will grow up any time soon, but thanks for asking.)

Dennis pitched his tent ("giggle") near the edge of the cliff because he wanted to have the best view of the mountains in the morning. I informed him that where I pitched my tent ("snicker") I had virtually the same view while completely avoiding the risk of stepping out to urinate in the middle of the night and plunging to my death. He was not amused.

After we ate we started talking politics. We talked about Rupert Murdoch's crumbling empire, the insanity of the Teabaggers, and puzzled as to why people were still fooled by Sarah Palin's magically fluctuating breast size.

After we had exhausted those subjects, and many more, we turned in.

Though the view was spectacular, the ground was so hard that I got up several times in the night to check and see if somebody had paved under my sleeping bag when I was not looking.  There was no pavement, but I swear that the ground was so unyielding that I woke up with bruises on my soul.

I was also trying to find a signal for my I-Phone to moderate comments and check e-mails while lying in my tent, which had me flailing my hand around like a lunatic for much of the night. (I did manage to moderate over a 120 comments despite poor service, and shooting pains in my back from lying on the section of petrified earth that was serving as my bed. You're welcome.)

After a fitful night I awoke at 5:30 A.M. (just like every morning) to get my cup of hot coffee and surf the internet, before suddenly realizing there was NO coffee, and there was NO internet. WTF? Who lives like this?

However the view that morning WAS pretty stunning.

After building a fire, and leaning over the cliff to snag a signal in order to moderate more comments, and to make sure my robo-posts posted successfully, I kind of got bored. After all, I am an internet junkie who is always surrounded by multiple electronic devises feeding me information 24 hours a day.

In other words, I was jonesing bad!

I wandered around for about an hour, peed on some bushes, and prepared a blueberry bagel with cream cheese for my breakfast. About that time everybody else started getting up as well, and after all of the others were fed, Dennis and I looked at each other and realized that we had squeezed pretty much all of the entertainment value out of the whole camping thing and needed to get back to our jobs, coffee, and, of course, the internet.

So we packed up our things, peed one more time on the bushes, and started on the long roller coaster like drive down the mountain. (Just as harrowing the second time as the first time, by the way.)

All in all it WAS a lot of fun.  But after I arrived home I remembered what is always my favorite part of the whole camping experience, and that is the long hot shower I take afterwards.

Oh did THAT feel GOOOOOD!

We are currently in discussion about another overnight camping trip. I have no idea when, or where, we might go, but Dennis just vetoed my first suggestion of camping in my backyard so I can access my Wi-Fi all night and have a hot cup of coffee in the morning.

Some people are SO difficult.

(Here is a panoramic view that Dennis stitched together using several photos, so that you can enjoy the same view we did without having your fillings knocked loose on the way up.) 

I am off camping right now, but I thought I would share some pictures and memories with you this Monday morning.

I am away from my computer and can only hope that this posted correctly in my absence.

I do have my I-Phone with me so, if I am still getting service, I can moderate messages and retrieve a stubborn post that might get stuck in the weeds over at Blogger.

The other day my daughter brought me some pictures that I had not seen in years which she had squirreled away in various picture albums. While looking through them I was amazed at how quickly the memories came flowing back.

Not yet three months old but already occupying the center of an entire family's universe.

She knew she was not supposed to go up those stairs, hence that mischievous look.

I blame my daughter for interrupting my early writing career. It is kind of hard to write the next great American novel when SOMEBODY keeps fooling with the typewriter.

It did not make any difference where we were going, she was always excited about riding in the car. "Let's go to outer space Daddy!' "Your wish is my command" I would reply, and off we would go to whatever magical place our imaginations could take us.

We had nothing in those days.  I worked a low paying job, and was constantly struggling to make ends meet, but in my memory they were the very BEST of times.

Sometimes it was just she and I together, playing in the park, watching "Mary Poppins" for the hundredth time, playing dress up while drinking imaginary tea, or simply bike riding around Anchorage together looking for trouble. 

After her mother and I split up, I had a couple of short lived romantic flings. But the only relationship that I ever really put all of my energy into was the one with this gorgeous little girl.

I guess I always knew the others were going to be temporary, but that being Daddy was going to last forever.  And so it has.

Teabaggers dramatically losing support in Utah. Yes, I said Utah!

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

Life is good if you're a tea party Republican from Utah. With all that momentum, there's little reason to doubt the the movement's long-term viability in the Beehive State. Right?

Well, no. A recent poll conducted by Brigham Young University's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy shows that overall support for the tea party in Utah has dropped from 53 percent during last year's elections to 46 percent in April.

Among independent voters, support for the tea party has plummeted by nearly fifty percent, potentially helping moderate Democrats. But for "strong Republicans," support for the tea party climbed from 76 to 82 percent. The poll issues a clear warning for candidates like Chaffetz, Hatch—and, down the road, even Lee—who hope a hard push to the right will secure their political futures.

The takeaway: as the tea party continues to consolidate its support among Republicans, independents (i.e., the voters who end up deciding elections) are drifting away in increasing numbers. Whether this trend continues taking hold in Utah—the heart of the conservative heartland—could be a bellwether for its national viability.

News Corp suffering potentially fatal fallout from their phone hacking scandal, turnout for Sarah Palin's movie and Bristol's book sales almost non-existent, and now support for the Teabaggers falling like the Palin family IQ. 

Didn't I tell you that this was going to be a great summer? Perhaps next time you won't doubt your Uncle Gryphen so much.

Time for a July 4th hike up my favorite mountain.

One of my all time favorite places in Alaska is a local hiking trail which leads to the top of Flattop Peak.

Last year I made this hike about fourteen times during the summer.

Due to some unforeseen complications concerning my job, I have not been able to make it up even ONCE this summer. So since today was a holiday, and there were no phone calls to worry about, or projects that required my immediate attention, I decided to set aside about an hour and half and commune with nature. (Fortunately for me, this nature is only about a ten minute drive away from my house.)

The first part of the hike is called Blueberry Loop and even it can be a little taxing for those unaccustomed to steep hikes over rough terrain.

As you see in Alaska you can ALWAYS find someplace that does not yet realize that it's summer time. ("Hey snow, its' freaking July! Melt already!")

This sign lets you know that you are leaving the easy trail and that it is time to put on your big boy (or girl) pants.  I have climbed this peak hundreds of times so I am filled with confidence that I wll fly up the mountain. (And by "fly" I mean stumble over rocky outcroppings like an Alzheimer's patient, while sweating profusely, and using wildly inappropriate language.)

This is where it starts (That's right "starts") to get more difficult.  I often see families with small children heading up this trail. They are usually still smiling and getting along well at this point but another hundred yards or so up the trail that happy family dynamic starts to fall apart. (If you want to hike up without hearing the sounds of crying or complaining children and impatient parents, you have to go on a weekday.)

I call this the halfway mark, though in fact it is actually a little more than halfway.  However this is where the hike gets serious as you can see from the sign. People have fallen and had to be rescued or, in some cases, even suffered a fatality. (One of my great fears in life is that I will fall and have to be helicoptered down the mountain. I would NEVER live down the humiliation.)

Seriously is somebody adding more rock to make this damn thing higher?

The view from the top.

Breathtaking don't you agree? Though considering that I was still sucking wind and trying to slow my heart rate when I took this picture I did not exactly need the view to take my breath away.

Still, in my opinion it is one of the most beautiful views in Alaska!  And the fact that you have to risk life and limb to see it only makes it more so.

Well time to head back down.

Oh did I tell you that the descent is the most treacherous part of this particular hike?  Wish me luck!

Nick Broomfield's documentary might make it virtually impossible for Sarah Palin to weave her web of lies ever again.

I kind of hesitated to weigh in on Nick's film, mainly because I had promised not to let the cat out of the bag.. 

And as all of you know once I make such a promise, I NEVER break it.

However, now that EVERYBODY is talking about it, I guess the cat has officially escaped the bag.

First I will let the Guardian describe for you just who Nick Broomfield is, and why Sarah Palin should be pooping cinder blocks.

He's tackled Kurt Cobain, Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur and Heidi Fleiss. Now British documentary-maker Nick Broomfield has turned his attention to Sarah Palin, darling of the American right and potential candidate for a US presidential run next year.

Broomfield's as-yet-untitled film reportedly offers a critical examination of the former US Republican vice presidential candidate via interviews with her parents, friends and ex-colleagues from his subject's time as governor of Alaska.

Broomfield is known for working with minimal crew, often in a "gonzo" reporting style. His Palin film is the film-maker's first documentary feature since 2006's His Big White Self, about the South African far-right leader Eugene Terre'Blanche, which was screened on More4. The film-maker's two most recent features, 2006's Ghosts and 2007's Battle for Haditha, adopted a docudrama approach, using untrained actors to play themselves in dramatic roles.

Broomfield's films have attracted controversy in the past. An interview with Courtney Love, ex-partner of the late Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain, for the documentary Kurt and Courtney, was so damning that Love successfully campaigned for the movie to be removed from the lineup for the 1998 Sundance film festival. A version was eventually screened in cinemas without any of Nirvana's music, after Love refused to allow it to be used.

Essentially Nick turns the harsh light of reality on his subject, and cuts right through the carefully constructed media facade that they hide behind.  Which of course is the very thing that Sarah Palin fears the most.

This is what Sarah Jones of Politicususa had to say about Broomfield:

Derek Malcolm of the Guardian once said of Nick, “If Broomfield took up wedding photography, the divorce rate would be even higher.” This is not the man you want helming a documentary of you if you are hiding under a perilously constructed myth.

Peabody winner Broomfield also holds numerous other prestigious awards, from First Prize at Sundance to a 2006 Bafta Award for his contribution to the documentary genre. If that doesn’t impress you, Broomfield’s filmography includes “Aileen Wuronos: The Selling of a Serial Killer”, “Biggie & Tupac” and “Kurt & Courtney”.

I’ve already heard that Broomfield exposes Palin for who she is, and that is not a good thing for Sarah Palin. The truth may even shock average Americans who don’t follow politics.

Now since I am still honoring my promise to Nick I can only share a few innocuous things with you about what I know of the film.

I know that Nick interviewed a lot of the main players in Palin's political life.. A LOT of them!

I know that he attempted several times to interview Sarah Palin herself, but I am not sure that he was ever successful.

Nick and his crew interviewed me a number of times as well, in a number of different locations, including the office in my home while I was blogging. So you can imagine how exciting THAT footage must be to see on film!
Nick also managed to make it to a number of Palin's book signings (Including one you might have already read about), and speeches all across the country.

Hint: One of these hands might belong to a British filmmaker.

I cannot say definitively how the documentary will treat Sarah Palin.  I do know that Nick wanted to be as fair as possible, and to get a well rounded vision of who she was by interviewing people who liked her, as well as people who actually know her. (That is a little snark for my English friends.)

I believe I can also share that Nick was very thorough in his research and did check into some of the scandalous stories about the Palins, as well as to conduct interviews with people who had grown up with her, worked with her, or had been impacted by her in one way or another.

Personally I think this film has the potential of impacting the Palin mythology in a way that the books may not be able to do, in that it is a visual medium which does not require the ability to read.  Even the simplest of Palin loving simpletons should be able to understand the moving pictures well enough to finally realize that their Queen is in actuality the Court Jester.

Okay maybe I DO have some idea of how this documentary will treat Sarah Palin. After all it is attempting to show the REAL Sarah Palin, and we all know how unflattering reality is to the Grizzled Mama, now don't we?

Just when you thought the RAM Tweets could not be any more scandalolus. Wrong again Spanky! Update!

This comes from the same guy who has been posting all of the other tweets from RAM, and the same guy who sent some of them to the Daily Caller.

In other words it looks legitimate, which would reinforce what I have believed about RAM's relationship with Palin all along, and WHY she has dropped off the face of the planet.

Update: Oops looks like it might have been too good to be true.  If THIS tweet is to be believed that is:

I also stumbled upon THIS interesting tweet from RAM alluding to a planned dinner with the Alaska bloggers that Phil Munger attempted to set up quite a while back, before RAM was officially working for Palin.

 I always KNEW she cancelled because of me. Not that it breaks my heart any.

Still it is kind of hurtful considering I am the ONLY one who seems to be actively trying to find out what happened to her.  I even put her face on a milk carton. (Well on the internet anyway.)

Remember if anybody sees her, first stifle your scream of horror, and then contact me immediately!