Sarah Palin's ties to secessionist Alaska Independence Party

That John McCain -- he's such a maverick!

Just when you thought you had him figured out, McCain threw another curveball -- picking rookie Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whom he barely knows, as his running mate.

As ex-Democrat Joe Lieberman told the Republican convention Tuesday night, everyone recognizes McCain's "record of independence. ... God only made one John McCain, and he's his own man."

Uh-huh. Some might call it reckless for a 72-year-old to offer the vice presidency of the United States to someone with as little national experience as Palin. The McCain campaign calls it showing independence.

Still, don't be too hard on Palin. Like McCain, she's independence-minded -- very, very independence-minded. And, it turns out, there's much more to her than you might at first have thought.

Granted, a week ago Palin -- ex-mayor of Wasilla and a runner-up for Miss Alaska -- probably couldn't have explained the difference between a G-string and the G-8, or between a demolition derby and a diplomatic demarche. But who among us can? Policy, my friends, is boring.

The Democrats will tell you to pay attention to party platforms and their endless fiscal policy and intelligence reform plans. Don't you believe those hectoring elitists! You just stick to thinking how sweet it is that Sarah totally stands behind daughter Bristol's "decision" to get pregnant, marry and have a baby at 17. Don't trouble yourself with attending to tedious details, such as Sarah's record of slashing funds for programs to support teen mothers -- or her opposition to abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.

It's untrue that Palin has no foreign policy experience, anyway. In fact, she appears to have seriously flirted with the idea of trying to turn Alaska into a foreign country. How many vice presidential candidates can put that on their resumes?

Over the years, Palin has actively courted the Alaska Independence Party, or AIP, an organization that supports Alaskan secession from the U.S. To be clear, we're not necessarily talking about friendly secession either: As the AIP's founder, Joe Vogler, told an interviewer in 1991: "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."

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. could learn from this man.

Share Vogler's sentiment? You can purchase a "Joe was right!" T-shirt on the AIP's website for $25. The AIP's website also provides helpful links to other secessionist groups, including the Southern Independence Party of Tennessee (which boasts of going after "these Politically Correct Liberal Communist[s]"), Ulster nationalists and Chechen separatists.

The McCain campaign denies that Palin ever joined the AIP. But while it is in dispute whether she attended its 1994 convention, she did visit the 2000 one and addressed AIP conventions in 2006 and 2008. Her husband, Todd, was a registered AIP member from 1995 to 2002, and the AIP leadership certainly considers her one of their own.

Video footage shows AIP Vice Chairman Dexter Clark describing Palin at the 2007 North American Secessionist Convention as an "AIP member before she got the job as a mayor of a small town -- that was a nonpartisan job. But you get along to go along. She eventually joined the Republican Party, where she had all kinds of problems with their ethics, and well, I won't go into that." (No need to. The Alaska Legislature's ethics investigators are on the case.) Apparently with Palin in mind, Clark then went on to urge AIP members to "infiltrate" the major parties.

So what does Palin currently think of the AIP? Hard to know -- she's been keeping mum -- but this year she told AIP members: "I'm delighted to welcome you to the 2008 Alaska Independence Party Convention. ... Keep up the good work!"
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-brooks4-2008sep04,0,5675222.column

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Rachel
• Maddow
• pat
• Buchanan
• Alaska
• Independence
• party
• Barack
• Obama
• Sarah
• todd
• Palin
• speech
• john
• Mccain
• Joe
• Biden
• debate

[thinkingcitizen]

Who cares how she is registered? She has the gaul to accuse Obama of palling around with terrorists and she not only pals around with Vogel she speaks at his convention? She is a lying hypocrite. She is very dangerous. She is an extremist, she's ignorant, she's dishonest, she's in favor of fossel fuel usage over developing clean alternatives. McCain & Palin are running attack ads because they can't even run on their own qualifications. How could anybody consider voting for them?

[ImanZaineb]

You are right, but then should Sarah Palin, a longtime supporter of the AIP, be Veep of the United States? Forty-nine states or just her one state that she's protecting from Russia?

Simply a conflict of interest.

[vladpros2000]

@thinkingcitizen HAHA you liberals make me laugh!!!! I laugh at your western ways hahah :D

[vladpros2000]

It was Russia's first.

[cinnciwillrise]

@thinkingcitizen it's liberal fags like you that make us all look bad

[rallycsx]

I don't owe anyone money because some other white person screwed over someone. No one but me is entitled to my money. Blame the evil white people right? Fuck your blanket statement about white people. YOU are the racist fucktard.

[TheAlaskan42]

go AIP

[brewersrule1978]

From alkh3myst (Part 2):

"No more exploitation of Asians to build the nations railroads. No more denial of business loans, and the right to vote. No more 'no Jews allowed' at the Country Club. No more making Chicanos feel unwelcome in what used to be THEIR country. As long as 'set asides' were only going to whites, everything was fine. But affirmative action is discrimination against a privileged group? Get over yourself - and learn how to compete, like the rest of us. Stop whining!"

[brewersrule1978]

Check out the tolerance in my inbox from alkh3myst (Part 1):

"Oh, so you WEREN'T attacking and being insulting when you made a false accusation against the next Justice of the United States Supreme Court. My first post was merely to correct your mean-spirited lie. I have better things to do, and won't be responding to any more of your all too predictable, Rush Limbaugh-esque distortions. Face it, your free ride is over, "Mr. Charlie". There will be no more cattle prods and fire hoses."

[brewersrule1978]

Boy, Evel Knievel couldn't have made that jump to calling me racist. I am trying to understand why, if a white person said the same thing multiple times, you'd find that racist but she is not. Further, I'm trying to understand how you think socialism works when it's failing in other countries, CA, and NY NOW. I'm not angry, you obviously are by your attacks and insults but if you want to hold onto that anger, go ahead, and blame others for everything. Even Obama said "no excuses" to NAACP.

[alkh3myst]

I just take it that YOU are a racist. White people in America have shamelessly exploited every other ethnic group since this country's founding, and by so doing, have accumulated the greatest financial hoard of all time. I guess you didn't get your share, hence your anger. And now they have run the ship of State, and the US economy aground. Maybe now it IS time for 'wise' members of other ethnicities to take the helm away from you bunglers.

[brewersrule1978]

Uh, according to the American Bar Association, she is a member of the group you mentioned, which is what I was referring to. That org supports driver's licenses for illegals, amnesty programs, and no enforcement of existing immigration laws. THAT group has ties to the radical La Raza, the leftist party you mentioned. Maybe YOU should be more honest in your analysis instead of downplaying things like libs like to do? FAIL. I take it you don't think her statements about white men was racist?