WTF - Sarah Palin & the Alaskan Independence Party

More important than the pre-written canned speech - it was written before Sen. John McCain picked her to be his running mate - that Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) delivered before the Republican National Convention earlier tonight is the welcome video she delivered to the Alaskan Independence Party in March 2008.

Who cares about the Alaskan Independence Party?

If you haven't heard, the Alaskan Independence Party (AIP) has a motto: "Alaska First - Alaska Always." In addition, they have called for - on numerous occassions - for a vote on secession from the United States of America, similar to an action taken by the confederacy during the Civil War that began in 1860.

The Introduction to the Alaskan Independence Party website begins with the following quote by Joe Volger, a guy who ran for governor of Alaska three times between 1974 and 1986: "I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions."

The platform of the AIP is, as one would expect, centered on Alaskan issues. Although it is widely thought to be a secessionist movement, the Party makes great effort to emphasize that its primary goal is merely a vote on secession, something that Party advocates say Alaskans were denied during the founding of the state.

A plebiscite (or referendum) was, in fact, held in Alaska at the state's inception in 1958, but AIP members argue that voting was corrupt and that residents were not given the proper choice between statehood, commonwealth status, or complete separation -- something they say has been granted to other U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico.

And there's more...

The AIP platform states that the purpose of the party is to "seek the complete repatriation of the public lands, held by the federal government, to the state and people of Alaska in conformance with Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17, of the federal constitution ... To prohibit all bureaucratic regulations and judicial rulings purporting to have the effect of law, except that which shall be approved by the elected legislature ... To support the privatization of government services ...”

Before you view the following video, take a few moments to familiarize yourself with the Alaskan Independence Party here and here and here.

Gov. Palin Addressing the 2008 AIP Convention in Fairbanks, AK and undated excerpts from an AIP Meeting:

Gov. Palin to the delegates of the AIP: "...I share your party's vision to uphold the Constitution of this Great State [of Alaska]."

Here is the ABC News blog about Sarah Palin's involvement with the AIP:

September 01, 2008 6:52 PM

The campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., likes to herald the independence of its new running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Officials of the Alaskan Independence Party say that Palin was once so independent, she and her husband were once member of their party, which, since the 1970s, has been pushing for a legal vote for Alaskans to decide whether or not residents of the 49th state can secede from the United State.

And while McCain's motto -- as seen in a new TV ad -- is "Country First," the AIP's motto is the exact opposite -- "Alaska First -- Alaska Always."

After refraining from commenting on the charge for a day, the McCain campaign on Tuesday asserted that Palin was never a member of the AIP, and

Lynette Clark, the chairman of the AIP, told ABC News on Monday that Palin and her husband Todd were members in 1994, even attending the 1994 statewide convention in Wasilla. Clark was AIP secretary at the time.

This, it should be noted, does not square with official records.

Gail Fenumiai, director of the Alaska Division of Elections, tells ABC News that regardless of the impression given to members of the Alaskan Independence Party, "Gov. Sarah Palin first registered to vote in the state in May 1982 as a Republican, and she has not changed her party affiliate with the Division of Elections since that time."

Clark on Tuesday night said that she had been mistaken.

But for whatever reason, Clark thought that in 1994 Palin was a kindred spirit.

"We are a state's rights party," says Clark, a self-employed goldminer. The AIP has "a plank that challenges the legality of the Alaskan statehood vote as illegal and in violation of United Nations charter and international law."

She says it's not accurate to describe the party as secessionist -- they just want a vote, she says, adding that the members of the AIP hold different opinions on what Alaska should be.

"My own separate opinion as an individual is that we should be an independent nation," Clark says. Others in the AIP "believe that being a commonwealth would be a good avenue to follow." Some advocate statehood -- but a fuller statehood than exists now.

She doesn't know what Palin's position was.

"It never came up in conversation," Clark recalls. "But ...our platform was right under her nose."

Earlier this year, Palin sent a video message to the AIP for its annual convention, where AIP vice chair George Clark told the small crowd that Palin "was an AIP member before she got the job as a mayor of a small town –- that was a non-partisan 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. She also had about an 80 percent approval rating, and is pretty well sympathetic to her former membership."

A day after ABC News requested a response from Palin as to whether she was ever a member of the AIP, McCain campain spox Brian Rogers told ABC News that Clark's "allegations are false."

"Governor Palin has been a registered Republican since 1982," Rogers says, providing voter registration documentation showing her to be a Republican. "As you know, if she changed her registration, there would have been some record of it. There isn’t."

Rogers says that Palin didn’t attend the AIP convention in 1994, "but she visited them when they had their convention in Wasilla in 2000 as a courtesy since she was mayor."

When asked if Palin ever identified herself as a member of the AIP, Rogers said, "No, she's a lifelong Republican."

The AIP platform states that the purpose of the party is to "seek the complete repatriation of the public lands, held by the federal government, to the state and people of Alaska in conformance with Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17, of the federal constitution ... To prohibit all bureaucratic regulations and judicial rulings purporting to have the effect of law, except that which shall be approved by the elected legislature ... To support the privatization of government services ...”

Walter Hickel, a former Republican governor, was elected to the governorship in 1990 as an AIP member -- the third-largest party in Alaska -- with a plurality vote of 38.8%. A Seattle Post-Intelligencer story that year said that "Hickel is running with the Alaskan Independence Party, a fringe group advocating that the 49th state declare itself a sovereign nation. But he's not a separatist; he's an opportunist: the Independence Party was the only 11th-hour ticket to the general election."

Hickel returned to the Republican Party in 1994; he endorsed Palin in her gubernatorial run in 2006. Subsequent AIP gubernatorial candidates did not fare as well as did Hickel, garnering less than 2 percent of the vote.

Lynette Clark says that Palin is "a fine individual. She's forthright and she puts Alaska first."

She is not a fan of McCain.

"I can't understand why in God's name she has aligned herself with a candidate who opposes the development of our republic and Alaska's resource wealth," Clark says.

Read the ABC News article about Sarah Palin & AIP here and here.

Read the LA Times article about Sarah Palin's involvement with separatist Alaskan Independence Party here.

plez sez: WTF?!?

some have said that she was a member of AIP until she ran for mayor of wasilla, ak, while others contend that she has been a lifelong republican. some say that she attended the convention in 1994, others contend she attended in 2000 when she was mayor of wasilla. no one disputes the fact that her husband, todd, was a member for 7 years (now he is undeclared). as has been the case, since her unvetted behind was dragged out of the backwoods of the alaska high country into the presidential campaign of america, we get more "he said-she said" stories about gov. sarah palin.

another round of rumors. more unsavory innuendo. more backpedalling and side stepping by the mccain campaign than a high school football team's two-a-days! more clarification of palin's muddled past. and more people scratching their heads saying, "WTF?"

how much will be enough?

take off your rose colored glasses for a moment here and let's peep into my plezWorld crystal ball:

• let's imagine the outrage and utter condemnation that would've rained down on Barack Obama if it had even been hinted that he'd attended a National Communist Party meeting.
  
  
• Michelle Obama was pillaried for the mere suggestion that she had only just begun to be proud of america, what if she had actually been a member of the National Socialist Party or the Black Panther Party? Would Barack Obama be the Democratic presidential nominee today?

the reason for this LONG "A" election cycle was to get to know the candidates. to kick the tires. to run 'em around the track a few times. john mccain has had since april 2008 to vet every single republican on his long list for vice president, yet he waits until the eleventh hour to pick an unvetted unknown who hails from the remotest region of the country... the most INDEPENDENT region of the country. the only state in the country with an Independence Party that advocates secession from the United States. the last time there was even a serious discussion about secession was during the period leading up to the civil war in the late 1850's! The last time there was a serious discussion about state's rights was in the era of desegregation and integration during the 1950's and 1960's!

And whether she was an active participant or just a casual observer... Gov. Sarah Palin has given "aid and comfort" to the Alaskan Independence Party as recently as March of this year!

Is this the person we want "one heartbeat away from the presidency"?

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oh yeah, about the speech... she got a chuckle out of me a few times. she reads damn good off that tele-prompter thing! it was obvious that the speech was written for her with SHORT GEORGE W. BUSH-LIKE sentences, with plenty of pauses for roars of applause from the audience.

basic republican fare: the democratics want to raise your taxes (even though, Barack Obama spoke of tax breaks for the middle class), we're thisclose to winning the war in iraq (huh? who are we fighting in iraq), a call for more drilling for domestic oil (off shore and in alaska - drill baby drill!), light on specific policy items and heavy on partisan rhetoric (like her running a town of 6,000 people and a state of only 670,000 has been this big test), and the obligatory family values introduction of her brood (the 4-month old baby is officially a campaign prop, they passed him around mid-photo op to make sure he got in each picture - yes, i know that there is a crude joke in there somewhere, but plezWorld ain't going there! and they even dressed up and presented the f...in' redneck who knocked up her daughter).

if you had a checklist of basic republican talking points, you know the contents of the speech (sprinkled with an occasional rye joke at the expense of their competitors).

once again, no introspection, no deep thought, no real concern for folk other than the republicans sitting in the arena - what we call in the "business" boilerplate. she gives good tele-prompter!