Opinion Streams

My readers may notice that I have not devoted much space to coverage of Sarah Palin, John McCain’s spectacled salute to Dan Quayle, on my blog. The reason: after her introduction to the U.S. as a lying, venom-spewing “pit bull” during her speech at the Republican National Convention, I largely regarded her as a waste of space on a blog devoted to issues of substance. My boycott, if you will, survived her bumbling interviews with Charles Gibson and Katie Couric (although I gave those interviews brief mention in other articles) and lasted through the VP debate. Since her handlers’ note cards helped her avoid looking like a total moron at the debate, however, Sarah Barracuda seems to have newfound vigor and is back in full lipsticked pit bull regalia, attacking Obama on non-issues and proclaiming that “the heels are on and the gloves are off.” Well, gosh darnit Sarah. Since you started it…

For someone who, during the VP debate, frequently chided her opponent for what she called “finger-pointing backward,” Gov. Palin certainly has no problem doing the same, pointing all the way back to 1968, to try and draw a connection between Barack Obama and someone who engaged in terrorist activities when Obama was eight years old (and Palin was four). Well, doggone it, since the Barracuda wants to start throwing incendiary words like “terrorist” around and talking about who’s “pallin’ around” with whom, why don’t we talk about that pesky little Alaskan Independence Party (AIP), which “First Dude” Todd Palin was a member of from 1995 – 2002 and which Sarah Palin supported so much that earlier this year, as Governor of Alaska, she greeted the Party’s convention by saying “Good luck on a successful and inspiring convention…Keep up the good work, and God bless you.” (She also attended the Party’s convention in 2006, while running for governor).

Well, the “good work” that that blessed Party was – and is – doing is promoting an agenda advocating the secession of Alaska from the United States. AIP describes itself as “An Alaskan political party whose members advocate a range of solutions to the conflicts between federal and local authority…all the way to complete independence and nationhood status for Alaska.” Yup, that’s right, secession, the same little act that sparked the Civil War and resulted in 620,000 dead U.S. soldiers.

So good ole Sarah Palin, who wants to “drill baby drill” in Alaska, supports a Party that illegally seeks for Alaska to secede from the United States, nationalize its oil pipelines and charge the U.S. to get oil from the reserves that she wants the U.S. to subsidize exploitation (ahem, exploration) of? (AIP’s FAQ page boasts of the “revenues from oil” that would “far exceed” any money Alaska receives from the U.S.)

Say it ain’t so, Sarah! While you’re running around talking about “country first” and accusing people of supporting terrorists, you’re supporting an entire political party that advocates treason! Is that an incendiary enough word for ya, Sarah Six-Pack? And just to be sure you don’t cover up your incompetence by accusing me of using a “gotcha” word, treason is defined by statute to include inciting, setting on foot, assisting or engaging in “any rebellion or transaction against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof.” Translation: secession equals treason.

Surely, Gov. Palin, since you obviously want an eight year old Barack Obama to have had the presence of mind to denounce the terrorist activities of a man he’d never even heard of, you must have known that the Party you bestowed a blessing upon was advocating treason. Surely you must have known that that Party’s beloved founder, Joe Vogler, whom AIP fondly memorializes on its website, is quoted by AIP as having said “I’m an Alaskan, not an American. I’ve got no use for America or her damned institutions.” Surely you must have learned, while you were “pallin’ around” with AIP, that Vogler, in a March 29, 1991 interview proclaimed that:

The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government. And I won’t be buried under their damn flag. I’ll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home. (Vogler is, in fact, buried in Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada.)

Please tell me that, during the seven years your husband was a member of the AIP, and during your subsequent gubernatorial proclamation that their work was “good”, you weren’t somehow oblivious to AIP’s continued affection for a man who, in that same interview, said “Nothing America could ever do would give my allegiance again”, before he derided our embrace of “queers” and asked if America were any different than Sodom and Gomorrah. Please tell me that you weren’t mindlessly pointing and winking when Vogler was reportedly colluding with the Iranian government – yes, Iran, you know, that rogue Islamic dictatorship that you apparently hate so much – to subvert America’s interests. Please, dear Governor, reassure me that your inability to comprehend even the simplest question doesn’t translate to a failure to appreciate that, as recently as March 11, 2007, while you were governor, AIP manifested its continued adherence to the treasonous ideals of its patriarch by actively pushing for a petition that would “authorize…independence from the United States”.

Surely, Governor Palin, you cannot be that dumb. And yet, while you accuse Obama of “pallin’ around” with a man whose actions he’s long since condemned, you have yet to speak one word against either the openly treasonous agenda of the Party you’re directly linked to or the man – Joe Vogler, whose mysterious disappearance and death were described as “a plastic-explosives sale gone bad” – that that Party idolizes (and did I mention that Vogler warned during his notorious interview that the U.S.’s “expropriation” of Alaskan land was the same type of activity that sparked the Revolutionary War?). Well, esteemed Governor, since your husband was a member (and you surely “pal around” with him, right?), since you bestowed a blessing on their “good work”, and since you seem to champion guilt by association, I have to conclude that you agree with the treasonous agenda of the AIP. So, Gov. Palin, when you speak of “country first,” which country are you talking about?

You can listen to Joe Vogler’s interview here.