McCain Camp: Palin's AIP Ties=Obama's Religion

When David Neiwert, an expert on extremist groups in the Northwest, and I concluded our exhaustive investigative report for Salon.com about Sarah Palin's involvement with the secessionist Alaskan Independence Party, we emailed the McCain camp a detailed synopsis of our findings and requested a response. We were met with silence.

But when Neiwert appeared on Tuesday on Rick Sanchez's CNN Newsroom, the McCain-Palin campaign went into full damage control mode, blasting out an indignant statement in the middle of the Neiwert's segment. The statement, written by McCain deputy communications director Michael Goldfarb, a neoconservative former Weekly Standard editor, reads:

CNN is furthering a smear with this report, no different than if your network ran a piece questioning Senator Obama's religion. No serious news organization has tried to make this connection, and it is unfortunate that CNN would be the first. We are trying to arrange to have one of the Governor's people come on air to respond in the event you do run this piece.

By referring to Obama's "religion," the McCain-Palin campaign, obviously attempted to provoke the most inflammatory charge leveled against Obama's character: What religion is he? Is he a crypto-Muslim?The McCain campaign also asserted an equivalency between Obama's religion and Palin's political ties to a far right group. The McCain campaign suggests that Obama's religion and Palin's politics are both beyond the pale, as it were. But the rapid response raises another question: Is this a disciplined campaign messaging operation? Does the McCain campaign really mean what it suggests?

The McCain-Palin response to our report came as the already beleaguered vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, was suffering a damaging series of setbacks, including the resignation of Alaska's rural affairs director, claiming as a reason the governor's lack of commitment to racial diversity in her administration. That blow immediately followed my video report in The Daily Beast on Palin's strained relations with Alaska's African-American community.

Though McCain-Palin campaign condemned the report on her links to the AIP piece as a "smear," the facts went unchallenged.

The campaign would not, and could not, discredit the revelation that Palin worked hand-in-glove with former AIP chairman Mark Chryson to undermine the character of her opponent in Wasilla's 1996 mayoral election and sought to advance Chryson's agenda once she was elected. As Chryson told us, Palin supported his lobbying to loosen local gun control laws, an effort he initiated to facilitate the formation of anti-government "Patriot" militias. Palin also invited him before Wasilla's city council to denounce a local ordinance to ban guns from schools and bars.

The McCain-Palin campaign also offered no explanation for why Palin attempted to appoint Steve Stoll, a John Birch Society activist, to the city council seat she had vacated, overlooking Stoll's reputation in Wasilla as "Black Helicopter Steve," a conspiratorial figure rumored to have buried high-powered automatic weapons in his front yard in case the New World Order arrived. When a council member who considered him a "violent influence" blocked Stoll's nomination, Palin considered consulting attorneys about a backdoor means of appointing him.

The strange saga that began during Palin's early political career, when she cultivated close political ties with an anti-government extremist organization that helped her advance her ambitions, now has turned increasingly strange as the McCain handlers seek to suppress factual reporting of her past. These tactics, especially equating Palin's politics with Obama's religion, only underline the questions about Palin's background, as well as about the McCain campaign's ability to control its message in the critical three weeks before Election Day.

Comments (59)

1. It doesn't appear that the MSM is in the tank for Obama and keep dropping subjects like this and troopergate.She is married to a former member and is known to be friends with anti government fringe people,but the MSM will keep mentioning Ayers and Wright,but forget about this.

   Posted by i'm nobody at 10/16/2008 @ 7:48pm

2. >>>Though McCain-Palin campaign condemned the report on her links to the AIP piece as a "smear," the facts went unchallenged.<<<

   This is the important part: THE FACTS OF THE REPORT WERE NOT CHALLENGED!!!

   Why would Palin attempt to further the political agenda of the chairman of a group that wants Alaska to secede from the United States of America?

   Why appoint a John Birch Society operative to replace her on the Wasilla city council?

   These are SERIOUS QUESTIONS that need answers!

   Posted by Metteyya at 10/16/2008 @ 7:54pm

3. I love the Right's excuse making for Todd Palin's membership in the AIP...

   essentially it's "He wasn't in it for the secession, just the partying!"

   LOL

   Posted by Maskdelta at 10/16/2008 @ 7:58pm

4. The link in the article above doesn't work, but you can find the Salon report here:

   http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/10/10/palin_chryson/

   Posted by Metteyya at 10/16/2008 @ 8:02pm

5. keep it up, mad max!

   expose the america hatin' treasonous, traitorous nature of this lipstick wearing pig!

   who IS this sarah palin????

   Posted by dexter666 at 10/16/2008 @ 8:17pm

6. Mask-Saying that he joined the AIP to party is like saying that someone joined the KKK in order to roast marshmallows at the cross burnings and to wear sheets for fun..

   Posted by i'm nobody at 10/16/2008 @ 8:23pm

7. hey mad max!

   push this with some 527's, with msnbc, with whoever! i think the people would LOVE to hear about this!

   shove that dagger in...and TWIST!!!

   Posted by dexter666 at 10/16/2008 @ 8:29pm

8. love this one hah ha ha,she supported ARMED miltias FROM A SECCESSIONIST wow if thats not sedition i dont know what is, helicopter steve??wow !! wow!! city council wow!!! he burys weapons around the city in case the new world order takes over??????WTF???? WOW!!! I REALLY HOPE THE DNC GETS ALL OVER THESE KOOKS FROM THE TUNDRA.

   HEY FBI look over here seditionists ARMED MILITIAS LOOKY LOOKY.

   hell they are all kooks too we all know that. they only thing the fbi cares aboput is making sure that the drug supply is unhindered on its way from latin america to the inner citys of america.

   all those dirty fbi agents that got busted for murder with the mob just proves the whole agency is dirty

   they are investigating acorn HA!!!

   WHAT A HOLES armed militias big differance ...

   oh well i am just pissing in the wind here any how like the republican neo con fbi is going to turn on there butt pirate in chief john CONTRA mccain to actually enforce the LAW for america and american citizens.

   THE LAST TIME THEY DID THAT WAS TO BUST THE KLAN IN 65 and only because they wanted to break the klans power as a threat to themselves as the big dog in town. now they are all together one big happy KOOK riddeled family of neo con facists. WE ALL KNOW IT WAS THEM THAT KILLED jfk as well

   Posted by reality check at 10/16/2008 @ 9:37pm

9. Palin also invited him before Wasilla's city council TO DENOUNCE A LOCAL ORDINANCE TO BAN GUNS FROM SCHOOLS AND BARS.

   schools?

   bars?

   you betcha!

   Posted by frosty zoom at 10/16/2008 @ 10:04pm

10. Posted by i'm nobody at 10/16/2008 @ 8:23pm

    Or because you were a "Reconstruction re-enactor"!

    LOL

    Posted by Maskdelta at 10/16/2008 @ 10:35pm

11. Mask-Good one.

    Posted by i'm nobody at 10/16/2008 @ 10:38pm

12. larry, larry....

    you sure seem on edge.

    something wrong?

    Posted by frosty zoom at 10/16/2008 @ 11:30pm

13. All of the major news networks reported on the Palin's connection to the Alaska Independence Party....I tried to find out if belonging to a party that wanted to secede from the United States of America would disqualify a candidate for Vice President of the United States of America, no replies....don't believe what you read?....just check a search engine like Google, and do a search for Alaska Independence Party.

    Posted by txgatorman at 10/16/2008 @ 11:49pm

14. lvliberty-I'm glad that you managed to call someone names on every board and then run away.If a democrat belonged to such a group you would call them a traitor,but in your loving Christian pastor way you decided that name calling and dishonesty was best.Of course,you did not address the issue or show bigotry,but just did some name calling and then ran away.No American would accept this.Only a traitor would.

    Posted by i'm nobody at 10/16/2008 @ 11:55pm

15. something wrong?

    Posted by frosty zoom at 10/16/2008 @ 11:30pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    yeah - apparantly he is a supporter of america hating tresonous traitorous seditionous seccesionist right wing militias!!!

    Posted by dexter666 at 10/17/2008 @ 12:01am

16. With a dash of Diebold, splash of voter suppression, & Florida, Ohio, etc, burn- as in 00 and 04,

    Obama/Biden 273

    McCain/Palin 360

    Posted by winyahn at 10/17/2008 @ 12:31am

17. Posted by winyahn at 10/17/2008 @ 12:31am |

    Geez! they're never good at facts, or math either. Since there's 538 total electoral college votes, you gave Mac and Caribou Barbie 95 too many. OOPS! Obama wins.....

    Posted by Arty at 10/17/2008 @ 01:03am

18. Posted by lvliberty1 at 10/16/2008 @ 11:09pm

    My, my, Larry. You sure don't sound like a good Christian, or much of a minister there. You sound like a 7-year old on recess, actually. So...where's the bigotry, Larry? I mean, even for you, that's a stretch. Where in the article is there a hint of bigotry? Do you support the right of states to secede from the Union? That's a serious question, Larry. Your side of right-wing theocratic fanatics has managed to tear this country into multiple semi-warring factions, Larry. Do you think it's time for a divorce? Should those of us in the blue states leave the red ones to fend for themselves and take our significantly greater contributions to the general treasury and go our own way? Maybe we were wrong to drag the Confederacy back into the Union? I'm serious - where do you stand on secession? Because the Palins are/were involved with a secessionist political party. One whose founder had some pretty hateful comments about both America and its flag.

    Posted by jmusolino at 10/17/2008 @ 01:41am

19. jmusolino-As far as luvvy is concerned it's okay to hate America as long as you are a far right wing religious fanatic,like Palin.

    Posted by i'm nobody at 10/17/2008 @ 01:50am

20. Posted by i'm nobody at 10/17/2008 @ 01:50am

    Sadly, people like Larry and the right wing in general truly loathe all that America is supposed to be. In their narcissism, they see themselves as autocrats, and the rest of us as their minions. Democracy is a very bad idea in their view, since, to reflect an idea promulgated by, among others, Pius IX, "error has no rights". Of course, these people all maintain that it is they, and only they, who know what constitutes "error". I'm truly curious about Larry's views on secession. As far as I know, he's in California, and he would then have to determine whether he would uproot himself to join the Confederacy, or the Theocracy, or whatever. But you're absolutely right about Larry and the rest of them - they do indeed hate America and all that it has represented over the years.

    Posted by jmusolino at 10/17/2008 @ 02:13am

21. jmusolino-I wouldn't count on him giving you a straight answer to your question about secession or much of anything else.I have a fair number of conservative views,but prefer liberals,even married to one, because of the reasons you stated about the right and far right,in particular, which where luvvy is..I'm into freedom and this modern right bunch is not despite their claims to the contrary.They aren't like my parents generation of conservatives(WW2 generation).They want to force their views of theocratic"morality" on all of us and bomb everyone.

    Posted by i'm nobody at 10/17/2008 @ 02:43am

22. Who's Sarah?

    Who cares?

    She's Alaskan voters' problem.

    For the rest of us, it's President Obama &, we pray, a whole new ballgame.

    Posted by sloper at 10/17/2008 @ 03:50am

23. Posted by i'm nobody at 10/17/2008 @ 02:43am | ignore this person | warn this person

    thanks...

    i used to like some conservatives before the nineteys. i know politics is a hard game and always has been, but there has been a certain viciousness that has grown on the right wing that is at least as scary as the late sixties/early seventies SLA'ers and weathermen underground...and i think that rabid edge is turning the center off as much as the lefty wackos turned the center rightward in the late seventies...

    i really do wonder if we will see a return to 90's style rightwing fringe terrorism and martyrdom seeking craziness a la abortion bombings, oklahoma city, ruby ridge and waco...

    well...at least we have the USAPATRIOT act to deal with such nowadays...

    (a dubious consolation...)

    Posted by dexter666 at 10/17/2008 @ 07:58am

24. Once again the rev. shows his true colors. He presents the typical pseudo-christian "head in the sand" response to any alligations that may uncover the truth.

    More and more I have come to realize how much I love Bush. "Thanks Dubya for the near destruction of the republican party."

    Posted by Truthman at 10/17/2008 @ 08:46am

25. "Thanks Dubya for the near destruction of the republican party."

    Posted by Truthman at 10/17/2008 @ 08:46am

    Add Reagan & Limbaugh to that list.

    Posted by winyahn at 10/17/2008 @ 09:01am

26. You really are a smarmy little jerk aren't you Max?------Posted by lvliberty1 at 10/16/2008 @ 11:09pm

    I encourage everyone to get online...or simply break out a King James or American Standard Bible...

    and turn to "Titus 3:2"

    and see if it sounds like LVLIB at all?

    Posted by Maskdelta at 10/17/2008 @ 09:25am

27. dexter-I'm your middle of the road type with views that could put me on either side,but must go with liberals on most everything and prefer that people who lean to the left be in charge because you guys have a heart and care about your fellow humans something that is lacking in the modern right..My wife is,very much, a liberal and I view attacks on liberals as an attack against her and will respond to that attack, as a spouse should.I believe you are correct and we will see a rise in right wing violence.

    Posted by i'm nobody at 10/17/2008 @ 09:29am

28. Posted by i'm nobody at 10/17/2008 @ 09:29am | ignore this person | warn this person

    heck - before the rise of reactionaryism i considered myself something of a moderate...

    but when the center of discourse lurched rightward i guess i became a treasonous, traitorous flaming lefty!!! lol...

    now what???

    ;)

    Posted by dexter666 at 10/17/2008 @ 09:45am

29. dexter-It is funny how many moderates suddenly were considered to be lefties because so many on the right moved to the far right and made moderates appear to be flaming lefties by comparison.

    Posted by i'm nobody at 10/17/2008 @ 10:16am

30. So, a couple of tidbits from my local newspaper that seemed interesting...

    First, remember how when Bush decided to start illegally wiretapping telephone conversations to/from anywhere outside the country? Turns out, the feds are investigating reports that a ton of those calls being monitored are from/to jounalists, aid worksers, and (wait for it) our OWN military servicemen. And, the folks doing the listening, are "sharing the salacious details" of really 'initimate' conversations.

    So, doesn't that kind of lead us to one of 2 conclusions?...

    Either we who complained that the unchecked gov't ability to conduct wiretaps would end up being misused and abused WERE RIGHT!

    or

    The wingnuts who claimed these wiretaps would be used only against the terrorists were right...and our government now considers that terrorists are...

    ...journalists, aid workers, and our OWN military servicemen.

    Hmmmmmm.

    Posted by Lillian at 10/17/2008 @ 10:16am

31. The other tidbit from my local newspaper that seemed interesting...

    It seems that several newspapers, media outlets, the AP, etc. have been submitting public records requests for Sarah Palin's emails. They want to see what she's been saying from her governemt office, her government computer, using her govvernment email system, regarding her government position.

    Her response?...It'll cost $15M per request to produce those records! That's right...she's trying to claim it costs $15M per request for PUBLIC RECORDS!

    Her rationale? 'The IT guys came up with a number of hours it would take'...then she applied a random dollar figure per hour, based on a government shcedule for IT consultants. Never mind that the IT guys don't know jack about the cost of consulting...and never mind that the IT guys are ALREADY on the payroll...at considerably less than the quoted $15M.

    But of course, they claim they aren't...you know...obstructing or delaying any invsetigations or anything.

    I think the feds need to investigate this case of...

    ...extortion!

    Posted by Lillian at 10/17/2008 @ 10:26am

32. Lillian don't be surprised at anything the facists do. They spread the lie about the MSM as a sourse of left wing propogandia. THERE IS NO LEFT WING PRESS!!!!!! That is part of the "BIG JOKE" that has been played on the American public that has never been to Europe and read their press. Try reading "Inventing Reality- The Politics of the Media." I forgot the authors name, I read it around 15 years ago.

    Posted by Truthman at 10/17/2008 @ 11:27am

33. Gary Kamiya in SALON has a withering account of Reagan Youth Bimbo Palin and her concepts of governance as an instrument through which to settle personal scores:

    http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2008/10/14/troopergate/

    I was particularly struck by the passage in which Monegan tells T-Palin (impersonating a government official) that if he prosecuted Wooten for killing a moose, he would also have to prosecute S-Palin's sister (who had the hunting liscence) and her father (who susbequently butchered the moose). Now get this. T-Pal did not care: He simply wanted a selective prosecution by the state to be enacted against the one party against whom he held a vendetta.

    As Bob Altemeyer, the Canadian social psychologist, disucusses in his studies of authoratarians, this is typical of them: For the authoritarian ass-wiper, the state's laws do not apply equally to all, but she should be re-aligned with one's prejudices.

    Posted by PhilMcCrevice at 10/17/2008 @ 11:55am

34. What I love is that, Repubs like LVL constantly wail about socialist Democrats ad Anti-war liberals being traitors to their country however when a group proposes seceding from their country he defends it because they are Republican. I speak of making my country a better place and I am a traitor to people like him, they speak of seceding from their country and they are justified. The doublethink is amazing. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 10/17/2008 @ 11:55am

35. Posted by Cccomfo1 at 10/17/2008 @ 11:55am |

    C-3,

    The truth is much starker: LVLIB is a shitbum. He is a veins-bursting-lips-trembling enraged shitbum, mangy and feral for having ignored the basics of social interaction for as long as he has.

    Aside from carrying the banner for George W. Nineeleven up to the bitter end -- and make no mistake, he IS George W. Nineeleven as he campaigned on it as some kind of perverse "triumph" in '04 and he has ownership of it for that -- LVLIB has compiled a gruesome record of America-hating on this webpage.

    LVLIB has...

    * Praised Joseph McCarthy, the self-hating rightist who appropriately enough drank himself to death, as a "great American".

    * Fallen over himself fashioning apologetica for the infamous Pat Robertson-Jerry Falwell jerkoff fest on televsion in the week after 9/11.

    * Called liberals "sub-human" on this webpage, even as he brazenly demands deference for his alleged warrior herioics.

    LVLIB has also claimed to have come back from the dead (!!!), that climate change is a hoax in terms that would even embarrass James Inhofe, and -- get this -- LVLIB has even praised his own sexual performances.

    Yes, LVLIB is a real shitbum, a self-hater who has spent his whole tawdry life denying the obvious and blaming other people for rightwing failures and shitbummery.

    Posted by PhilMcCrevice at 10/17/2008 @ 12:10pm

36. Off-topic but just wondering:

    These blogs have been cleansed of late -- quite thankfully -- of the gruesome and malodorous streams of anal seepage that have stained this webpage in the manner of underwear "bacon stripes" under the byline of "JOHN MAASCH"/"JOMA"/"JOMAMMA". This has co-occurred with the financial collapse as bankers gorge themselves and then impudently pass the bill onto passerbys. Anyone know what excuse JOMAMMA has proferred? Perhaps he is lining up lawns to rake in Lincoln, NE (his new "company")?

    Posted by PhilMcCrevice at 10/17/2008 @ 12:19pm

37. Posted by PhilMcCrevice at 10/17/2008 @ 12:19pm

    Nebraska getting ready to have a big "flouride in the water" vote in several counties...

    maybe MAASCH needs to store up distilled water and grain alcohol to perserve all his precious bodily fluids?

    (J/K, JM)

    Posted by Maskdelta at 10/17/2008 @ 12:37pm

38. Its funny how MAX's indignation bursts forth at an attack on his candiate yet his own are somehow always justified.

    How do you respond to that Max?

    Max?

    Posted by CHIP THORNTON at 10/17/2008 @ 12:51pm

39. If we're going to divide the country up we would have to do it in more than two pieces since most on the left are not socialists and because those on the far right,like luvvy,prefer a more theocratic state and not our constitutional republic.They wish to make their views of morality,like abstinence only education,anti gay marriage because of what the Bible says,etc,a requirement.Some on the right aren't into a religion based constitution and would need their own country.

    Posted by i'm nobody at 10/17/2008 @ 1:00pm

40. MASKD,

    Or perhaps JOMAMMA (as well as other haters like KHMER-ROUGE-PONTI and LVLIB) are working on their carefully cultivated cuts and bruises so that they can boo-hoo over having had their right to vote halted by (drumroll) ACORN thugs! Or, what the hell, by Barack & Michelle in a black ski masks!

    Assaulting one's self and/or one's country and its values and then indignantly blaming someone else are, after all, keystones of the rightwing way. Read on for the sickly actions of one young rightwinger who was worthy of a home-schooled education in some fundementalist creep's basement -- and who knows the rightwing script:

    "Princeton student faked attack, e-mail threats December 17, 2007, 4:56 PM

    MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) -- A Princeton University student who argued that his conservative views were not accepted on the campus confessed to fabricating an assault and sending threatening e-mail messages to himself and some friends who shared his views, authorities said Monday.

    Nava claimed to have been assaulted Friday by two men off-campus, police said. But he later confessed that scrapes and scratches on his face were self-inflicted, and that the threats were his work, too, said Detective Sgt. Ernie Silagyi.

    (Nava) found himself at the center of one campus controversy recently when he wrote a column for the student newspaper, The Princetonian, criticizing the school for giving out free condoms, which he said encourage a dangerous "hook-up culture." A debate followed on the opinion pages of the paper.

    A short time later, Nava made his first rereport to the university public safety office that he was receiving threatening messages in his campus mailbox. A friend says Nava told him one message read, in capital letters: "ONE MORE ARTICLE AND YO WON'T LIVE..."

    Posted by PhilMcCrevice at 10/17/2008 @ 1:01pm

41. Posted by lvliberty1 at 10/17/2008 @ 12:51pm

    I happen to love it. I don't like going to places like Texas or Alaska. Hick states where when I walk into a store I get stared at by shop owners because my skin tone is a bit darker than theirs. If you are holding those as representative of the beauty of the old and glorious America then I am glad I wasn't around for it and glad to be rid of it.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 10/17/2008 @ 1:18pm

42. Nice work Phil & Co. Maybe the rev. will go to El Salvador (God help them). He does not belong in the U.S.

    Tell me rev., if Obama wins, do believe that the "system" should be destroyed? In other words, do you believe in an overthrow of the government? You want two countries, why not one country based on your beliefs?

    Posted by Truthman at 10/17/2008 @ 1:26pm

43. Posted by lvliberty1 at 10/17/2008 @ 12:46pm

    What everybody has to understand is...

    LVLIB doesn't really love America.

    He loves his evangey Christian/right-wing ideology...and as long as Dubya and the GOP Congress ran things, he was fine with the ol' USA.

    But America? In general? Or AMERICANS more specifically?...not so much.

    Remember this is a guy who rejected OUR intelligence estimate for Iran dropping their nuke program...over Israel's.

    AND who, if given a choice between destroying the United States, or seeing a permanent treaty between Israel, Palestine, and the Arab neighbors which "gave away" "Biblical/Historic Israel"....

    would gladly see us wiped off the map, as long as it salvages "God's plan" for Israel.

    (BTW, he will at first DENY this...then extrapolate on it, refine it, re-word it ((but essentially leave it the same))..and then agree that it IS his view!)

    Posted by Maskdelta at 10/17/2008 @ 2:01pm

44. Dear Red States:

    We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and the entire Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

    To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss. We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue; you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

    Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 p ercent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms. Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

    With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines, 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 10/17/2008 @ 2:25pm

45. all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy an d Seven Sister schools plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT. With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia. We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

    Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the war, the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

    Finally, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.

    Good luck, Blue States

    ...Funny email sent to me at work. Maybe we should let those states secede. Looks like we get most of the good stuff.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 10/17/2008 @ 2:26pm

46. The least organized organization I've ever worked for.

    Posted by madlib at 10/17/2008 @ 2:25pm

    You serious?

    I assumed you to be an attorney or some other similar professional.

    Posted by Benchrest at 10/17/2008 @ 2:28pm

47. CCComfort .... LOL

    ALL: To see what the radical right are really like see:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRqcfqiXCX0

    Posted by leftofcenter at 10/17/2008 @ 2:42pm

48. Looks like we get most of the good stuff.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 10/17/2008 @ 2:26pm

    except the oil.........

    Posted by frosty zoom at 10/17/2008 @ 2:54pm

49. I think actually that either Alaska or the little property lot we own in El Salvador are looking better all the time.

    Posted by lvliberty1 at 10/17/2008 @ 12:46pm

    beware the contra karma....

    Posted by frosty zoom at 10/17/2008 @ 2:56pm

50. Posted by madlib at 10/17/2008 @ 2:54pm

    No, I was not being sarcastic.

    You know your stuff, and present it well. It was just a hunch.

    Posted by Benchrest at 10/17/2008 @ 3:13pm

51. beware the contra karma....

    Posted by frosty zoom at 10/17/2008 @ 2:56pm

    Speaking of which, how's that Harper thing going?

    Posted by Benchrest at 10/17/2008 @ 3:16pm

52. If lvliberty actually moved to Alaska and got to know who some of these people are and who they are connected to he would come running back to California with his mixed race wife..

    Posted by i'm nobody at 10/17/2008 @ 3:39pm

53. Posted by frosty zoom at 10/17/2008 @ 2:56pm

    I just wonder what is it that the GOVERNMENTS of Alaska and El Salvador share in common that would attract LVLIB?????

    Posted by Maskdelta at 10/17/2008 @ 3:52pm

54. The McCain camp has a lot of nerve to get all indignant about anyone pointing out Sarah Palin's ties to the AIP after weeks of the despicable campaign tactics of McCain and, especially, Palin. I have heard the claims that Obama is "unpatriotic," that he "pals around with terrorists," and that he "doesn't see America" the way "you and I do." Obama was 8 years old when Bill Ayers, now a respected college professor, who has served on committees with Republicans as well as Democrats over the years, was a radical in the '60s. Aside from the fact that Obama had nothing to do with Ayers' early politics, this is a case of unimaginable hypocrisy on the part of the riot-inciting Palin.

    I guess MCain's ties to G. Gordon Liddy are off-limits, too, even though according to Carl Bernstein, "During the same period that Bill Ayers was a member of the Weather Underground, Gordon Liddy was making plans to firebomb a Washington think tank, assassinate a prominent journalist, undertake the Watergate burglary, break into the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist, and kidnap anti-war protesters at the 1972 Republican convention." In addition, he offered advice on how to kill agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms by aiming for the head "because they wear bullet proof vests."

    Can anyone in the McCain campaing spell D O U B LE S T A N D A R D?

    Probably not.

    Posted by LeeAnnG at 10/17/2008 @ 4:10pm

55. I'm going to make a wild guess and say that Frosty Zoom knows a little something about music.

    Posted by madlib at 10/17/2008 @ 3:36pm

    no more than anybody else.....

    ain't but two kinds:

    good

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRONbnyNpu8&fmt=18

    and

    not good.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwIGZLjugKA&fmt=18

    best of luck with the guitar works.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 10/17/2008 @ 4:13pm

56. maybe this will change his "mind":

    "Obeidi is a 49-year-old Palestinian American who runs an art gallery (featuring prints of bears and wolves) with his 82-year-old father Mousa Obeida, a refugee who left Ramallah in the 1950s and counts himself as Alaska's first Muslim. Osama Obeidi acknowledged that the Anchorage Muslim community has never reached out to the governor either--nor did it have any dealings with previous Alaska governors. "We don't like to get involved in politics," he explains. Still, the lack of contact has left Alaskan Muslim leaders underwhelmed about Palin's presence on the national ticket. "Maybe she doesn't know we have a community of Muslims here," said Lamin Jobarteh, a Wells Fargo banker (originally from Gambia) who is president of the Islamic center."

    http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stu

    mper/archive/2008/09/11/palin-and-alaska-s-muslim-population.aspx

    THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!

    Posted by frosty zoom at 10/17/2008 @ 4:21pm

57. AH HA!

    El Salvador president vows to keep troops in Iraq

    The Associated PressPublished: October 6, 2008

    SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador: El Salvador's president says he'll keep troops in Iraq alongside U.S. forces as long as Baghdad needs them.

    President Tony Saca estimates that could be "one more year," but says it depends on circumstances. He says his country will be there "with the coalition until it finishes its work."

    In his words, "We're going to finish what we started."

    El Salvador has about 280 soldiers in Iraq and is the only Latin American nation that has had forces there since the war started in 2003. Five Salvadoran soldiers have died serving in the Middle Eastern nation.

    Saca spoke Monday while presenting medals to troops returning from a six-month stint in Iraq.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 10/17/2008 @ 4:23pm

58. except the oil......... Posted by frosty zoom at 10/17/2008 @ 2:54pm

    Get that from you guys. Or don't use oil.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 10/17/2008 @ 6:58pm

59. I'm going to try and start another business modding and customizing guitars if anyone is interested. I'm going to make a wild guess and say that Frosty Zoom knows a little something about music.

    Posted by madlib at 10/17/2008 @ 3:36pm

    Where are you setting up shop?

    Posted by jmusolino at 10/18/2008 @ 02:48am