Republican VP hopeful Sarah Palin’s ties to third parties have been covered here and here. But the mainstream media — as well as the left-wing blogosphere — do not view Ms. Palin’s connections to the Alaska Independence Party quite as favorably.
Thanks to Eric Dondero of the Libertarian Republican blog for the tip.
Alaska Independence Party candidate for U.S. Senate, Bob Bird, also offered his thoughts on Palin in an IPR exclusive.
62 responses so far ↓
1 Mike Gillis // Sep 1, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Be a bit more accurate.
Not the “left-wing” blogosphere. The DEMOCRATIC Obama-zombie blogosphere.
2 G.E. // Sep 1, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Sarah Palin deserves to be hammered for her daughter’s sluttiness. You can’t present yourself as a “family values” candidate when you’ve failed to instill your own daughter with enough self-respect to abstain from pregnancy until voting age.
But the AIP? That’s one of the good things about Palin.
3 G.E. // Sep 1, 2008 at 9:36 pm
If I’m voting on family values, then the choice is clear: Obama all the way. He has a beautiful family. Unlike Barr, the baby murdering divorcee; McCain, the golddigger whose wife is a drug addict and whose running mate taught her daughter to have premarital sex without birth control; or Ralph Nader who doesn’t even have a family.
4 Mike Gillis // Sep 1, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Nader has a family, just not a wife and kids.
He’s a brother and an uncle, and there are several other families close to his to whom he’s a de facto uncle figure.
But this “family values” thing isn’t an issue. It’s just horseshit they throw out to distract us from real issues.
5 G.E. // Sep 1, 2008 at 9:39 pm
I don’t agree that it’s “horse shit.” I think family values are important. It just seems to me that the ones who tout it the most never live up to them, or even close.
6 Mike Gillis // Sep 1, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Naw, it’s bunk. The only possible way it could be relevant is if people push as a political issue and are hypocrites.
Otherwise, I could care less if someone has been divorce or had an affair in the past or if they get along with their ex-wife or grown kids or if they smoked pot in college or if anyone in their family has ever made a mistake.
All I care about is if a candidate has the same principles as me and whether they’ll stand their ground on those principles and do the right thing when its politically unpopular.
7 G.E. // Sep 1, 2008 at 9:46 pm
That’s most important. And that’s what we see with people like McCain and Palin.
However, I think that many of these “family values” issues speak to a person’s character, and thus, they are not “horse shit” or “bunk” to me.
8 Mike Gillis // Sep 1, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Then the issue is a candidate’s character and inegrity, not “family values”.
9 Deran // Sep 1, 2008 at 9:52 pm
G.E., you forgot to slander Cynthia McKinney; she’s a divorced single mother.
“Family values” and any kind of libertarianism (even libertarian capitalism); odd combo there.
Being a feminist, I’m all abt family values; I just value a broader range of what can be called a family.
I do think that birth control should be taught in schools to people starting at age 10 or so.
10 paulie cannoli // Sep 1, 2008 at 9:57 pm
If I’m voting on family values, then the choice is clear: Obama all the way. He has a beautiful family. Unlike Barr, the baby murdering divorcee; McCain, the golddigger whose wife is a drug addict and whose running mate taught her daughter to have premarital sex without birth control; or Ralph Nader who doesn’t even have a family.
I guess you have eliminated Baldwin from consideration?
11 Hugh Jass // Sep 1, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Why should family values have anything to do with an organization that’s only legitimate purpose is protecting life, liberty, and property? Also, a friend of mine is a second cousin, twice removed from Ralph Nader.
12 darren // Sep 1, 2008 at 10:26 pm
GE – I hope you have no kids and never do, or they might one day do something that falls short of your anarcho-libertarian ideals (or however you describe them). I assume if that happens you will take full responsibility, withdraw from public life, and exile yourself to an abandoned oil rig so you do not contaminate us with your hypocrisy as Sarah Palin has done.
13 citizen1 // Sep 1, 2008 at 10:36 pm
GE wake up and vote Baldwin.
14 Mike Theodore // Sep 1, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Hell, if I remember correctly, Bush was more “family values” than Kerry. Doesn’t mean much to me.
15 Steven R Linnabary // Sep 1, 2008 at 11:05 pm
GE-
You have obviously never tried to raise teenagers.
I was luckier than most. My kids still somehow turned out pretty good.
But, they did have their own ideas back then. No matter what I taught them, even by example (and I was a single father).
There are many areas to oppose Ms. Palin. Her parenting skills should be off-limits, IMHO.
My kids gave me my grey hairs. But they still turned out pretty good.
PEACE
Steve
16 pdsa // Sep 1, 2008 at 11:58 pm
@ Mike Gillis – Is it proper then to blame the McCainold’s machine for the asinine assertion the Obama’s birth certificate was forged or that he is a Muslim? Daily Kos has about as much credibility as Little Green Footballs and Powerline. The National Enquirer has more credibility than the three of them combined. Another point people fail to understand about Daily Kos is that it is a real community site, and has an ungodly number of members who are allowed to post on it. At least in that respect, it is much more ‘libertarian’ than the LP’s website blog which decided not to allow commenting to their driveling posts, and stated that the reason was because they hadn’t the time to police spam. Are they morons or liars? Any decent blogging system has good spam catchers. The WordPress feature that is used here, requiring an email address to comment, is a good first defense. The WordPress Askimet plug-in catches virtually all of what is left over. Askimet is available for use on almost every mainstream Open Source blogging platform in use today. What’s the LP leadership’s problem? They are control freaks. Does that make them authoritarian left, authoritarian right or simply power-mongering control freaks?
Daily Kos is not leftist in any rational sense of the word, they are a new phenomenon, wired political activists, and are part of a rising power that calls themselves “netroots”. They also generally identify themselves as “progressive”, which to me means centrist liberals who are ashamed to admit it.
The {right left} political dichotomy has no relation to contemporary reality. It is an atavistic scalar used to keep the voters within the two-party paradigm. If Daily Koas is indeed ‘leftist’, maybe more libertarians should learn to appreciate leftism, since at least they had the honesty and temerity to vocally criticise Obama for his FISA vote. Republican-leaning blogs don’t mention that McCain didn’t even have the decency to show up for the vote, and has only voted on ONE Senate roll Call since early April, do they?
Quit being a flatworlder tool of the status quo.
17 pdsa // Sep 2, 2008 at 12:16 am
GE is correct in one sense. Palin has been promoted as a “family values” mom, who is capable to lead The Nation. Her parenting skills are not off-limits, because she herself has brought it as a weapon to the political field of battle. She who lives by the sword…
I personally deign to use the tactic of attacking a candidate’s children, because for reasons mentioned in this thread, it is likely to backfire, and who amongst us is without sin, when it comes to our family relationships? Let them throw the first stone. Go To The Mirror.
In the case of Cindy McCain’s past drug habit, it is not proper to demean her character, but at the same time, it is proper to question how it could be that a Senator, who backed mandatory sentencing for drug offenses, could get his wife out from under a potential hundreds count federal felony drug indictment without her even serving one day behind bars. Maybe there is some super secret sentencing guideline that allows for a 100 step reduction in mandatory sentencing for the spouse of a Federal Politician?
Johm McCain should be attacked for this, not his wife, who made mistakes and got up within the maws of the draconian Drug War, which her husband was a party to. A Senator is NOT above the law.
So attacking Palin for her own inability to instill family values within her own immediate family is an ill-advisable weapon for its inherent tawdriness, but at the same time, a germane topic. She swings the damn sword, let her live or die by it.
18 G.E. // Sep 2, 2008 at 12:26 am
Deran – I have no reason to “slander” McKinney, nor to disparage her in a truthful fashion, because she does not present herself as a model of virtue like the Republican Party and Bob Barr (or do I repeat myself). The comment on Nader was just a throwaway because he’s a weirdo.
“Family values” and libertarian capitalism go hand in hand. It is the state that undermines the family.
Great. Start your own school.
Hugh – Value is subjective. I do not want elected officials who legislate morality, but nor do I want ones who undermine it coercively. Nor hypocrites. And again, a person’s family speaks to their character. It is not the end all, be all, but it is a factor.
darren – How nice of you to wish me sterile. But I do have a two-year-old daughter, and yes, if she is impregnated at 17, I would consider my job as a parent a complete and total failure. But it still would not approach Palin’s level of failure, for I am not an outspoken advocate for taxpayer-funded abstinence only sex “education” nor am I an opponent of legal birth control.
citizen1 – “Family values” are only a part of it. Although I may vote for Baldwin, I am totally turned off by his anti-immigration rhetoric and his support for a 10% tariff, as well as several other things.
Steve: You are too kind to Palin. She politicizes her family to her advantage — it shouldn’t be able to be thrown back in her face? She wants a medal for not aborting her Down’s Syndrome baby, and now another one for her daughter getting knocked up and keeping it. I have never raised teenagers, but that’s besides the point. I don’t know your values, but I know Palin’s, and she utterly failed in instilling those values — values she’s politicizes — in her daughter. She can’t manage her household, let alone the country.
19 G.E. // Sep 2, 2008 at 12:27 am
pdsa = 100% on the money in topic #17
20 Mike Theodore // Sep 2, 2008 at 12:28 am
Ok, folks with children. Would you want your teenage kids dragged into the limelight because your opinions differ with what they did? The kids would be hounded by the press, and you’d probably feel like an ass.
21 G.E. // Sep 2, 2008 at 12:30 am
Palin and the Right Wing want to run everyone else’s family through coercive legislation. How can you people be such pussies to think their families — which THEY put in the spotlight to showcase how “family values” they are — are off limits?
It’s ridiculous, or as Trent Hill might say, “rediculous.”
22 G.E. // Sep 2, 2008 at 12:38 am
Look, 1984 is truly here when the Christian Right is hailing a 17-year-old girl having premarital sex and calling it “family values.”
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/01/palin.evangelicals/index.html
Is there any doubt that the only “values” these people care about is supporting the Republican Party?
23 G.E. // Sep 2, 2008 at 12:46 am
I mean.. Just look: The GOP is using this as an opportunity to attack Obama and his beautiful, wholesome, no teen-mom-having family:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/01/palin.evangelicals/index.html
Yes, it’s a “blessing” that your 17-year-0ld daughter got knocked up. MOTHER OF THE YEAR!
24 Arthur Torrey // Sep 2, 2008 at 1:03 am
Not saying that I’m glad the Palin daughter is pregnant, or that her parents may not have made mistakes – but I will give them credit for some issues…
1. Admitting it, and not trying to play games about it (granted it would be hard to keep secret much longer…)
2. Sticking to their stated principles and keeping the kid – would have been FAR easier to pack the daughter off to the nearest abortion center and eliminate the problem…
3. No knowledge of the daughters level of activity, but according to the MSM news this evening, it appears that Palin is saying the father is known, and will be marrying the daughter. In most circles this is known as “Doing the right thing” (and in some traditional cultures a couple would get engaged, but not “marry” UNTIL the woman was pregnant – important to show a couple was mutually fertile in a time when children are vital…)
ART
25 G.E. // Sep 2, 2008 at 1:11 am
Art – That all MAY be the case. But don’t be surprised if this story gets NASTY.
The girl, Bristol, is rumored to be the mother of Palin’s youngest. She was away from school for four months, allegedly with mono, right up until when the baby was born.
That was around 5 months ago.
Now she’s supposedly 5 months pregnant.
This news was supposed to shatter the other rumor, but it doesn’t… Did she get knocked up when she was out of school with mono?
It is totally pathetic that people want to pin a medal on this girl for not having an abortion.
Again, that is akin to giving a man a medal for not beating his mistress.
26 langa // Sep 2, 2008 at 1:20 am
If Obama and McCain were not a couple of socialist/fascist warmongers, then I might be a little more concerned about issues like this. As it is, however, getting worked up about issues like this seems to be like an inmate on death row complaining that the electric chair isn’t comfortable enough.
27 Jim Rongstad // Sep 2, 2008 at 2:56 am
Wow! The level of discussion is really getting low here. It’s like the mainstream media! Meaningless tripe that diverts attention from what really matters.
28 G.E. // Sep 2, 2008 at 2:59 am
Thank you for adding to it and so elevating the discourse, Jim.
29 G.E. // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:00 am
I don’t think calling statist politicians out for their hypocrisy is at all what the pol-coddling MSM do.
30 Peter Orvetti // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:08 am
It’s hard for me to get worked up about this. To wit:
Many 17-year-olds have sex.
Some of them think abortion is immoral.
Ergo, some 17-year-olds will have babies.
There are really only two issues I see here: the hypocrisy of social conservatives on the matter, and the issue of teaching abstinence, birth control, or anything else in schools.
The first issue is a large part of why I’m not a Republican. As for the second, the fact that my old party tries to take away my right to solve it my own way — by homeschooling — is why I’m no longer a Democrat.
31 johncjackson // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:26 am
Yeah it seems like religious nuts want to give the Palins a medal for just showing up.
Not having an abortion even though the baby will have Down’s syndrome? Give me a break. Most of the PRO CHOICE people I know would not consider aborting a baby for this reason. My wife and I certainly wouldn’t. Parents who want a baby are still going to have the baby. Most people I know wouldnt even want to know ahead of time. And I’m talking atheists, not even religious nuts.
The 17 year old is keeping the baby? OH WOW. I would guess most PRO CHOICE families/women again would not consider an abortion in this circumstance. I don’t think a kid with a Governor for a mom and a “blue collar ( $100,000+ a year oil dude before resigning)” snowmobile champion commercial fishing First Dude dad would ever consider having an abortion. Oh wow shes keeping a baby- like 99% of girls in her situation do every day.
I’m reminded of a Chris Rock routine here but I can’t remember how it went- anyway it was about people expecting kudos for just doing what normal people are supposed to do.
Way to set the standards high, Family Values bullshitters!
32 G.E. // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:33 am
jcj – Ignore the racial angle, and skip to 2:15
This is the Sarah/Bristol Palin story — you hit the nail on the head
33 G.E. // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:35 am
This is the most racist comedy routine ever — and Michael Scott’s rendition of it is what prompted an emergency diversity training session on The Office.
34 Jared // Sep 2, 2008 at 7:15 am
I promise to keep and open mind and an open heart.
Daffy Duck
35 pdsa // Sep 2, 2008 at 11:26 am
Found the Problem
From a July 31, 2006, Eagle Forum Alaska 2006 Gubernatorial Candidate Questionnaire:
[-----
3. Will you support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?
Palin: Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.
]—–
Palin’s remarkable lack of knowledge in the field of American History need be noted also:
—–[
11. Are you offended by the phrase “Under God†in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?
Palin: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.
]—–
ROTFLMAO…
36 G.E. // Sep 2, 2008 at 11:37 am
Palin thinks the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance was an invention of the Founding Fathers.
Okay, I officially have NO RESPECT for her now.
37 Mike Gillis // Sep 2, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Ugh.
The Pledge wasn’t written until 1892 and the current version with “under God”, not until the 1950s.
Unless the founders did that via Ouiji board, Palin’s an idiot.
38 G.E. // Sep 2, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Yes. And she says she’ll “fight to defend” the Pledge written by a Socialist to instill obedience to the state in children/prisoners in public schools.
Maybe instead of huntin’ and fishin’ she should have been readin’ books to her children and instilling some of those family values she campaigns on.
39 Mike Gillis // Sep 2, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Why does a poem need defending?
What I’ll never understand about some right-wingers is why they treat symbols for patriotism as if they’re actual patriotism. Reciting some shit because you’re told doesn’t make you a patriot.
I’d rather defend the ideals and principles that those symbols were supposed to represent, rather than rabidly defending a poem or a piece of cloth.
40 Trent Hill // Sep 2, 2008 at 4:51 pm
I just recieved notice from the chairman of the Alaskan Independence Party that Palin was at their 1994 State Convention, and was a registered member prior to Palin’s running for Wasilla City Council.
The AKIP is getting all kinds of attention.
41 pdsa // Sep 2, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Schlafly Shills At The Alaska Eagle Forum deleted the Gubernatorial Questionnaire post on their blog since I posted the link earlier.
Here’s the Internet Archives’ Link
Should somebody tell them that the Memory Hole doesn’t work when they are using Goggle’s free blogging platform? Is this evidence of Intelligent Design’s errancy?
42 paulie cannoli // Sep 2, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Why does a poem need defending?
What I’ll never understand about some right-wingers is why they treat symbols for patriotism as if they’re actual patriotism. Reciting some shit because you’re told doesn’t make you a patriot.
I’d rather defend the ideals and principles that those symbols were supposed to represent, rather than rabidly defending a poem or a piece of cloth.
I agree.
43 darolew // Sep 3, 2008 at 3:01 am
Really, I could care less about Sarah Palin’s kid. She’s running for vice-president, not World’s Greatest Mom. Is she a crappy mother? Maybe. Would she be a crappy (vice-)president? Yeah — but for very unrelated reasons.
44 darolew // Sep 3, 2008 at 3:11 am
Also, I feel like adding that abstinence-only campaigns and “family values” rhetoric are worthless.
Two-thirds of high school seniors have had sex (according to Reader’s Digest). Some of them are bound to get pregnant. Not so long ago, it was normal to get married by age 17. Teenagers have been having sex since the dawn of the human race. By our cultural standards it seems wrong, it isn’t very healthy, and most 17-year-olds are barely mature enough to take care of themselves let alone children;–but that’s how it’s been for thousands of years. Sure, it’s stupid, but that’s human nature.
No amount of “family values” are going to win against nature.
Even education about birth control can only go so far, seeing as it’s fighting an uphill battle against human stupidity.
Teen pregnancy has always existed and will most likely continue to exist. It’s nothing to get too ruffled over, in my opinion.
45 José C // Sep 3, 2008 at 3:54 pm
“Why does a poem need defending?”
Because left wingers, atheists, and groups such as the ACLU will stop at nothing to destroy it.
Because left wingers, atheists, and groups such as the ACLU will stop at nothing to prevent me from saying it in public.
Chief Justice Rehnquist characterized Newdow’s attempt to prevent the saying of the Pledge of Allegiance as a “heckler’s veto”:
“To give the parent of such a child a sort of “heckler’s veto” over a patriotic ceremony willingly participated in by other students, simply because the Pledge of Allegiance contains the descriptive phrase “under God is an unwarranted extension of the Establishment Clause, an extension which would have the unfortunate effect of prohibiting a commendable patriotic observance. ”
Someone should not have veto power over a word or words in the Pledge of Allegiance because if this were so nothing could be said in public because there will always be a word or some words someone will not like.
46 G.E. // Sep 3, 2008 at 3:59 pm
The poem was written by a socialist, you moron, and anyone who defends it is himself a socialist.
47 donald raymond lake // Sep 3, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Well gee GE, we are reviewing KOS here!
I am no Republican, in fact the ‘ liberal’ shot gun has beeen pointed at me at times for decades.
KOS, Kommunist Obnoxious Smears, and one more proof that both parts of the duopoly establishment are just horrible! I hate Dems, I have the GOP, and KOS is just terrible!
48 G.E. // Sep 3, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Thomas DiLorenzo refuses to say the Pledge.
Is he an “atheist, left winger”?
Absurd.
Anyone who attempts to destroy the Pledge is a true patriot. Anyone who defends it is Commie scum.
49 Ross Levin // Sep 3, 2008 at 4:02 pm
GE, does anyone ever live up to your standards?
50 G.E. // Sep 3, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Sure. I list these people as my heroes on my MySpace page:
I think I’ll add Thomas Woods to that list after yesterday.
But jeez: What standard am I setting so loftily here? Not being a Nazi? That’s a pretty low criterion.
51 donald raymond lake // Sep 3, 2008 at 4:12 pm
GE, could not agree with you more on the politicized, mangled Pledge, sooooooo different than the simple, better 1892 original coined by BAPTIST LAY PREACHER and socialist union organizer!
And the John Phillip Suasa instrumental ‘Star Spangled Bannana’ pushed by the Marine Corp in 1931. Wood Guthrie’s ‘My Land’ is much better and sooooooooooooo singable!
Standards? Keep your %@&#%$@# religion out of secular public administration and its whorish hand maiden: politics!
52 donald raymond lake // Sep 3, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Ross, whom would want to live up to GE’s ‘standards’? Or Cody Qurik’s or horrible, horrible John McCain Insane’s, or Steve Gordon’s, or Johnathan’s or every other activist in the [so called] Constitution Party or the [so called] reform movement.
Letters, person to person, electronically, folks are known by their enemies as well as their friends —–thank good ness!
53 José C // Sep 3, 2008 at 4:23 pm
GE:
I have said the Pledge of Allegiance since I was six and I am proud of it. I say the Pledge of Allegiance at patriotic events and I am proud of it.
When I am at an event and the National Anthem is played I proudly stand at attention with my left hand over my heart and I do not and will not apologize for it!
When in uniform I salute the flag of the United States with honor. I feel obligated to do it to honor those that died at Bunker Hill, Trenton, Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Pearl Harbor, . . .
But you (and the ACLU) would not understand that.
54 G.E. // Sep 3, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Jose – What YOU do not understand is the FACT that that Pledge was written by a defrocked socialist minister with the intent of instilling obedience to the state in the child-prisoners of public schools.
Honor those who died in service to the American Empire? There is no honor in being a pawn in a globalist chess match. The more appropriate emotion is sympathy, mourning, and rage against the machine.
55 G.E. // Sep 3, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Jose’s version of patriotism = socialism.
Mine = the patriotism of Thomas Jefferson and Sam Adams.
56 pdsa // Sep 3, 2008 at 5:17 pm
GE, You’ll get absolutely no argument out of me on #55. Sam Adams was one fiery SOB, wasn’t he?
57 Trent Hill // Sep 3, 2008 at 6:23 pm
“Anyone who attempts to destroy the Pledge is a true patriot. Anyone who defends it is Commie scum.”
Ron Paul says the pledge at every Veterans event he attends. =)
Damn Commie.
58 G.E. // Sep 3, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Saying it and “defending it” are two different things.
59 Mike Gillis // Sep 3, 2008 at 7:14 pm
and by “defending it” they mean fighting against reverting it to its original pre-1950s nonsectarian form.
60 Mike Gillis // Sep 3, 2008 at 7:20 pm
And besides even if someone WAS trying to destroy it, so what?
I’m far more worried about people who want to destroy the very things these symbols represent, while maintaining superficial poems, pieces of cloth and songs.
As one of those “atheist/leftists” I have no problem with the pledge (though I have a problem with it being mandatory), I have a problem with the Congress under the Eisenhower administration injecting sectarian religion into it to stick it to their rival in the Cold War.
Defending a symbol is a waste of time. Defend the ideals that the symbol is supposed to represent.
What Jose is doing is like trying to save a marriage by keeping a wedding ring emaculately polished and perfectly preserved. Even if someone stole the ring and destroyed it, it wouldn’t impact the actual sanctity of my marriage.
The ring is a symbol, and symbols while they have value, are not synonymous with the things they represent.
61 Trent Hill // Sep 3, 2008 at 7:26 pm
The Pledge of Allegiance is a poem, no more no less. One that is supposed to inspire patriotism–and to some people it does. I know people who say it, knowing that to them it means the upholding of our country’s founding fathers,respect for federalism and lust for freedom. But to most–it is a state-worshipping icon. But once again GE, you are generalizing those who attack it and those who defend it.
62 G.E. // Sep 3, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Can’t you ever let me have some fun, Trent?
Shhheeesh.
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