Jackson Free Press

Kennedy complained today that the media, such as The New York Times, have not done front-page stories on Sarah Palin's close ties to the un-American Alaska Independence Party in the same way that they are covering Barack Obama's acquaintance, Bill Ayers:

But if McCarthy-era guilt-by-association is once again a valid political consideration, Palin, it would seem, has more to lose than Obama. Palin, it could be argued, following her own logic, thinks so little of America's perfection that she continues to "pal around" with a man--her husband, actually--who only recently terminated his seven-year membership in the Alaskan Independence Party. Putting plunder above patriotism, the members of this treasonous cabal aim to break our country into pieces and walk away with Alaska's rich federal oil fields and one-fifth of America's land base--an area three-fourths the size of the Civil War Confederacy.

AIP's charter commits the party "to the ultimate independence of Alaska," from the United States which it refers to as "the colonial bureaucracy in Washington." It proclaims Alaska's 1959 induction as a state "as illegal and in violation of the United Nations charter and international law."

AIP's creation was inspired by the rabidly violent anti-Americanism of its founding father Joe Vogler, "I'm an Alaskan, not an American," reads a favorite Vogler quote on AIP's current website, "I've got no use for America or her damned institutions." According to Vogler AIP's central purpose was to drive Alaska's secession from the United States. Alaska, says current Chairwoman Lynette Clark, "should be an independent nation."

Vogler was murdered in 1993 during an illegal sale of plastic explosives that went bad. The prior year, he had renounced his allegiance to the United States explaining that, "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government." He cursed the stars and stripes, promising, "I won't be buried under their damned flag...when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home." Palin has never denounced Vogler or his detestable anti-Americanism.

Palin's husband Todd remained an AIP party member from 1995 to 2002. Sarah can be described in McCarthy-era palaver as a "fellow traveler." While retaining her Republican registration, she attended the AIP's 1994 convention where the party called for a draft constitution to secede from the United States and create an independent nation of Alaska. The McCain Campaign has reluctantly acknowledged that she also attended AIP's 2000 Convention. She apparently found the experience so inspiring that she agreed to give a keynote address at the AIP's 2006 convention and she recorded a video greeting for this year's 2008 convention. In other words, this is not something that happened when she was eight!

Previous Comments

ID

138891

Comment

If the GOP continues these vicious character assasinations, I'm sure that this AIP party issue will be resurrected in a big way which will be karma for Palin.

Author

lanier77

Date

2008-10-10T08:41:49-06:00

ID

138893

Comment

It is a serious indictment of the corporate media that they ignore Palin's terrorist, anti-American connections. Because she wears panty hose?

Author

FreeClif

Date

2008-10-10T08:53:59-06:00

ID

138898

Comment

Maybe Palin wasn't picked because she is a woman. Could she have been picked for her radical and racist views or a combination of all those things.

Author

Walt

Date

2008-10-10T09:28:31-06:00

ID

138906

Comment

Salon presents evidence of Palin's ties to militia groups, neo-confederates, secessionists and end timers: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/10/10/palin_chryson/print.html

Author

FreeClif

Date

2008-10-10T10:07:39-06:00

ID

138907

Comment

I hate to sound like a broken record, but it doesn't matter what Palin, says, does or is. The same is true for McCain. For people looking only through the lens of race, they're looking for only something to blame or reject Obama. Racist white folks have already forgiven racist white folks for all kinds of sins, indiscretions, racial discrimination and other offenses. Many racists, if not all, think forgiveness is necessary for racists or that harmful actions against blacks aren't sinful or indiscretions at all. This is the reason I have a hard time trying to reason with some people. If there is no moral center or standards abiding in all how can you be open to reason or morality?

Author

Walt

Date

2008-10-10T10:17:55-06:00

ID

138912

Comment

In case you missed it, the JFP ran Palin and the Fringe Sept. 9. Donna called it and I wrote it. That was over a month ago. It's all spelled out, including "evidence of Palin's ties to militia groups, neo-confederates, secessionists and end timers.".

Author

Ronni_Mott

Date

2008-10-10T12:57:58-06:00

ID

138914

Comment

Yes, that's a very good story. Palin immediately raised red flags for me because I had covered the militia movement (which was/is connected to the Independence Parties, Christian Identity and white supremacist groups around the country) after the Oklahoma City bombing. Palin's rhetoric is not surprising considering the company she and her husband have kept. And note that when she says that paying taxes is unpatriotic, she is parroting anti-American rhetoric of secessionist groups like the Alasaka Independence Party. Now she is taking that kind of kinda coded rhetoric nationally and working people into angry mobs. McCain seems to be in way over his head here, and is going to have to call the pitbull off before people are moved to violence. Mark my words: this is exactly how lynch mobs and urban riots were stirred up–with demagogues out there pushing these kinds of buttons. Palin's hatemongering must stop. This country is better than that in 2008.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-10-10T13:06:08-06:00

ID

138915

Comment

Right, I doubt that you found establishment types like Ross Barnett out murdering people, but they created the atmosphere with hatemongering, race-baiting speeches which incited the ignorant backwoodsmen and made them feel that they had the (Palin-type) wink wink endorsement to do their dirty work for them. If any violence goes down we are holding them and the Republican Party responsible.

Author

FreeClif

Date

2008-10-10T13:12:24-06:00

ID

138917

Comment

I'm still waiting and hoping Palin slips and goes into an uncontrollable tirade thereby calling Obama all kinds of racial slurs and names, beyond what she has already done. Surely, she has some experience at that on the playgrounds, phone or some other places. You don't just up one day and have that much hate for a man who treats you kindly or ignores you completely. Has Palen said a single thing to endear herself to blacks, even the black republicans, assuming we still have some blacks dumb and selfish enough to still be a republican after that convention and this race for the presidency.

Author

Walt

Date

2008-10-10T13:17:15-06:00

ID

138922

Comment

That Salon story linked above is really revealing how close Palin has been to the anti-American movement in Alaska: So long as Alaska remained under the boot of the federal government, said Chryson, the AIP had to stand on guard to stymie a New World Order. He invited a Salon reporter to see a few items inside his pickup truck that were intended for his personal protection. "This here is my attack dog," he said with a chuckle, handing the reporter an exuberant 8-pound papillon from his passenger seat. "Her name is Suzy." Then he pulled a 9-millimeter Makarov PM pistol – once the standard-issue sidearm for Soviet cops – out of his glove compartment. "I've got enough weaponry to raise a small army in my basement," he said, clutching the gun in his palm. "Then again, so do most Alaskans." But Chryson added a message of reassurance to residents of that faraway place some Alaskans call "the 48." "We want to go our separate ways," he said, "but we are not going to kill you." Though Chryson belongs to a fringe political party, one that advocates the secession of Alaska from the Union, and that organizes with other like-minded secessionist movements from Canada to the Deep South, he is not without peculiar influence in state politics, especially the rise of Sarah Palin. An obscure figure outside of Alaska, Chryson has been a political fixture in the hometown of the Republican vice-presidential nominee for over a decade. During the 1990s, when Chryson directed the AIP, he and another radical right-winger, Steve Stoll, played a quiet but pivotal role in electing Palin as mayor of Wasilla and shaping her political agenda afterward. Both Stoll and Chryson not only contributed to Palin's campaign financially, they played major behind-the-scenes roles in the Palin camp before, during and after her victory. Share this story on Digg: Thanks for your support. Palin backed Chryson as he successfully advanced a host of anti-tax, pro-gun initiatives, including one that altered the state Constitution's language to better facilitate the formation of anti-government militias. She joined in their vendetta against several local officials they disliked, and listened to their advice about hiring. She attempted to name Stoll, a John Birch Society activist known in the Mat-Su Valley as "Black Helicopter Steve," to an empty Wasilla City Council seat. "Every time I showed up her door was open," said Chryson. "And that policy continued when she became governor." When Chryson first met Sarah Palin, however, he didn't really trust her politically. It was the early 1990s, when he was a member of a local libertarian pressure group called SAGE, or Standing Against Government Excess. (SAGE's founder, Tammy McGraw, was Palin's birth coach.) Palin was a leader in a pro-sales-tax citizens group called WOW, or Watch Over Wasilla, earning a political credential before her 1992 campaign for City Council. Though he was impressed by her interpersonal skills, Chryson greeted Palin's election warily, thinking she was too close to the Democrats on the council and too pro-tax. But soon, Palin and Chryson discovered they could be useful to each other. Palin would be running for mayor, while Chryson was about to take over the chairmanship of the Alaska Independence Party, which at its peak in 1990 had managed to elect a governor. Read more. This woman is terrifying. I'm beginning to think that her comments about Obama are Orwellian and a projection of her own radicalism: change the subject of her associations by attacking the black guy. Of course, the kind of people she associated with up in Alaska will eat that up. And then go hurt somebody.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-10-10T13:26:59-06:00

ID

138923

Comment

Ronni deserves credit, though: She reported much of what's in that Salon piece about the Constitution Party connections and such a month ago.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-10-10T13:32:26-06:00

ID

138924

Comment

This is chilling: Emboldened by his nomination by Mayor Palin, Stoll later demanded she fire Wasilla's museum director, John Cooper, a personal enemy he longed to sabotage. Palin obliged, eliminating Cooper's position in short order. "Gotcha, Cooper!" Stoll told the deposed museum director after his termination, as Cooper told a reporter for the New York Times. "And it only cost me a campaign contribution." Stoll, who donated $1,000 to Palin's mayoral campaign, did not respond to numerous requests for an interview. Palin has blamed budget concerns for Cooper's departure.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-10-10T13:33:14-06:00

ID

138925

Comment

True. The JFP makes me proud to be a Jacksonian!

Author

FreeClif

Date

2008-10-10T13:33:59-06:00

ID

138926

Comment

STRANGLY, I have found myself agreeing with Pat Buchanon on something. He stated that McCain might be going too far, but that it was something for the American people to decide. I agree. If a majority of this country is so ignorant as to fall for this "okey doke" again, then it deserves to be ground further into the earth. I believe it was Abraham Lincoln who said people get the government they deserve.

Author

FreeClif

Date

2008-10-10T13:39:04-06:00

ID

138927

Comment

A Republican, and former McCain supporter, Frank Schaeffer compares McCain-Palin rallies to "lynch mobs" in the Baltimore Sun: John McCain: If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as "not one of us," I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence. At a Sarah Palin rally, someone called out, "Kill him!" At one of your rallies, someone called out, "Terrorist!" Neither was answered or denounced by you or your running mate, as the crowd laughed and cheered. At your campaign event Wednesday in Bethlehem, Pa., the crowd was seething with hatred for the Democratic nominee - an attitude encouraged in speeches there by you, your running mate, your wife and the local Republican chairman. Shame! John McCain: In 2000, as a lifelong Republican, I worked to get you elected instead of George W. Bush. In return, you wrote an endorsement of one of my books about military service. You seemed to be a man who put principle ahead of mere political gain. You have changed. You have a choice: Go down in history as a decent senator and an honorable military man with many successes, or go down in history as the latest abettor of right-wing extremist hate. John McCain, you are no fool, and you understand the depths of hatred that surround the issue of race in this country. You also know that, post-9/11, to call someone a friend of a terrorist is a very serious matter. You also know we are a bitterly divided country on many other issues. You know that, sadly, in America, violence is always just a moment away. You know that there are plenty of crazy people out there. Stop! Think! Your rallies are beginning to look, sound, feel and smell like lynch mobs.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-10-10T13:39:42-06:00

ID

138928

Comment

All of this might be true, Donna; however Palin is white which make her the "right" choice over Obama's unclean team. So what if a white person goes on a tangent or does something seemingly unamerican. They're still white and salvageable because the detour was accidental and repairable. Now as it relates to blacks, such detours or minor indiscretions are windows, doors and peep-holes into their souls, true identities, and their hidden visions and plans to crate a socialist and communist movement to take back what whites have worked so hard to build and secure.

Author

Walt

Date

2008-10-10T13:40:56-06:00

ID

138929

Comment

I fear that McCain is sick and doesn't know what is going around him, and very unsavory people have taken over–essentially Schmidt and the Palins. For all we know, Todd Palin and his buddies are putting the hate in Sarah's mouth. It has to stop, though.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-10-10T13:41:10-06:00

ID

138930

Comment

So, the McCain campaign thinks that the nasty bigots and hatemongers in their crowds of late are "regalar people." Anyone else insulted? Barack Obama's attacks on Americans who support John McCain reveal far more about him than they do about John McCain. It is clear that Barack Obama just doesn't understand regular people and the issues they care about. He dismisses hardworking middle class Americans as clinging to guns and religion, while at the same time attacking average Americans at McCain rallies who are angry at Washington, Wall Street and the status quo. These "regular people" are calling Obama a "terrorist" and yelling to "kill him" without McCain and Palin telling them to stop. Thanks for the contempt for the American people, McCain and Palin. You people are harking back to the 1960s. You're disgusting.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-10-10T14:18:28-06:00

ID

138931

Comment

What do you expect from people who believe we lived among dinosaurs? Yabba dabba doo? Chris Matthews said he has not heard people carry on like that at mass gatherings since the sixties. If the wingnuts do get elected the final phase of the demise of this country's prestige will be complete. Wingnuts will be happy and the rest of the world will laugh at us for another four years.

Author

FreeClif

Date

2008-10-10T15:17:20-06:00

ID

138942

Comment

Walt, that won't be laughter you'll be hearing from the world because they're going down with us. Look around. I once accused my dad, who grew up in 1930s Austria (Hitler annexed the country in '37) as "seeing Hitler in every closet." The McCain/Palin hate-mongering is exactly the type of propaganda Hitler used to kill 6 million Jews. Take that any way you want to. I'm not from the South, so I don't have the black/white racial reference. I sure have the Christian/Jewish frame and the hawk/dove frame from the 60s, though; this isn't any different. Just substitute a few epithets. Substitute the n-word, jew or radical for "terrorist." When you add the flammability of economic insecurity freaking people out, you have a deadly brew of blame that gets people killed. McCain knows that even if Palin doesn't.

Author

Ronni_Mott

Date

2008-10-10T17:52:32-06:00

ID

138944

Comment

I doubt Palin cares. She lives in a very insular world, and has made no secret about that. She makes Bush look like a worldly intellectual. Meantime, back in Alaska, they should be releasing the Troopergate report soon. Also today, courts have told the state and Palin's administration that they cannot destroy all her and her operatives' secret e-mail from all those accounts: The state is bustling to try to comply with a court order issued today that requires Gov. Sarah Palin and everyone else in the governor's office to preserve all e-mails issued from private accounts that concern state business. The state didn't fight activist Andree McLeod's request for a temporary restraining order to force Palin, the GOP vice presidential nominee, and her office to hold onto the private e-mails, said Mike Mitchell, an assistant attorney general. Anchorage Superior Court Judge Craig Stowers ruled largely for McLeod after a hearing today. "We entered into the hearing ... willing to work to preserve those e-mails that do relate to state business that may have been sent to or from private accounts to the extent they can be preserved at this point," Mitchell said. The state is going to try to find out which governor's office employees used private e-mails for state business and then try to preserve those e-mails and pull them into the state's e-mail system, he said. It is so clear that this woman is going to be going through so many investigations over upcoming years, regardless of where she is working. It's remarkable how quickly she got herself mired in scandal and corruption. I still cannot believe McCain is putting our country through her.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-10-10T17:58:44-06:00

ID

138954

Comment

I feel like saying something but I don't know what it is other than JESUS help us, please don't let people get KILLED in this election.

Author

Izzy

Date

2008-10-11T01:16:29-06:00