http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26742379/

Republican AG Talis Colberg, who was appointed by Sarah Palin, said that subpoenas issued will not be honored by state employees.

What are they hiding? Let's get the facts on the table so people know what they're voting for!

It's crystal clear that the GOP is going to do everything possible to stonewall the investigation that Sarah Palin abused her powers as Gov.

Doesn't the moral majority, who undoubtedly support Palin, want to know the truth? If they had any morality whatsoever, the answer would be yes. Unfortunately, they're dirt bag pieces of shit masking themselves as moralists.

I agree with your harsh assessment Vitalogy. The parade of dancing skeletons keeps streaming out of her closet.

With the election season upon her, Palin thinks that special needs children are a handy prop. It does not change the fact that she cut half the funding for Special Olympics. Kids are just accessories like those expensive Kawasaki frames she wears to look smart.

Remember the off the cuff quote of an avowed bigot and anti-Semite in her speech? Some folks thought I was kidding, but Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. sure as hell noticed it. Westbrook Pegler said of his father in 1965, "some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow flies."

It might not be long before the reasons for her five college tour come out. Looking at the institutions that she attended and the time period that is represented, it could easily lead one to wonder if she was a recruiter for the brownshirts. Though it is pure speculation, it certainly fits the pattern of her behavior thus far and merits further investigation into the background of her, her family and her associates.

Littlesongs..your latest remarks about palin. remind me of the new yorker mag. when they had obahma on the cover with a turbin and his wife with guns. this is a new low in posting for you. their is a lot of brown thou. where is that flat head sovel.

O'Rieley last night took on the troopergate story on his "is it legal" segment with 2 of Fox's legal eagles and basically said there was nothing here...they read 1000's of emails just released regarding incident...Palin vindicated.

So because O'Reilly discussed it, she's off the hook? Not so fast. In the real world, judges and jury's make these decisions, not partisan radio/TV hacks.

I have no doubt she did what she's accused of. Proving it is always a different story. Just ask OJ.

Steve, with all due respect, I remember that era quite well. My high school experience in Portland was tainted with many things. Not the least of which was having to deal with organized racist youth on a daily basis. Violence was occurring throughout this area and the attacks on my friends are still seared into my memory. Many of us were already quite well acquainted with the murderers of Mulugeta Seraw before that tragic night in 1988.

With so little known of the background of this candidate, the electorate is forced to extrapolate based on her daily behavior and the snippets of her past left unburied by a much sharper garden tool. Much of the information we know is based on the words that she chooses and the company she keeps. No candidate of any party should be able to glibly quote bigots, reactionaries and fascists without casting a pall on their integrity. No officeholder should be affiliated with a separatist movement without raising doubts.

In light of the history of this region, I still believe that the questions are quite valid and deserve a thorough and complete answer.

Vitalogy is right. As far as Troopergate goes, there is plenty of evidence that she was using her position to get her former brother-in-law fired. As both a mayor and a governor she sent numerous emails, made phonecalls and asked surrogates to help her get him off of the force. A bi-partisan commission voted 14-0 to investigate and she agreed just weeks ago to cooperate with the Alaska state legislature. Her recent cries of partisanship are simply more lies.

dear littlesongs--i too was around pdx when we had that terrible episode with the skinheaeds. may they all rot in jail, for the henious chrimes they committed. but with no solid proofe and only speculation...why the accucation. the alaska sepertaist movement is a local thing, not tied in with the nazi nut jobs. your talking about. its been around since alaska statehood. their attitudes are similar to ore. pioneers how many in oregon felt back in the 1800's.please don't confuse the pinoeer spirit, with hatemongers.who i also don't like either.

Steve, in her first and only major speech, she quoted one of the most hateful men in the history of our land. It was not a rookie mistake, it was a calculated move. Speaking Pegler's words with a straight face makes her dangerous and unfit to lead. A small-minded small town mayor in Dixie could quote George Wallace and have much the same effect. If any other candidate for national office used such vile sources, they also would have raised serious doubts about their belief in the America we cherish.

littlesongs--i'm unfamiler with the quote you are using. please expand. also the fokes in alaska have been mad at D.C. since statehood. for every dollar they send to D.C. in taxes they get less than a dollar back. and since they are above canada, some of them want to leave the unions. its been a fight since the 50's.

........What is Palin hiding.....

I'm guessing a tummy, so she wears a girdle.

Let it all hang out.

"also the fokes in alaska have been mad at D.C. since statehood. for every dollar they send to D.C. in taxes they get less than a dollar back."

Uhh, you may want to check your facts on that one. From what I've read, Alaska is a welfare state, getting more than double back from the treasury compared to what it contributes.

.......dirt bag pieces of shit masking themselves as moralists.......

or socialists.

or populists.

or muslim.

or whatever someones opinion.

The only thing for sure is we as a people remain divided, and THAT is not a good thing.

My info. was from the past. The last time i checked was in the 70.s or 80.s and that was the gripe back then.If you have newer numbers please post. regards steve

Perhaps we are not as divided as we think.

My gut says it's more like thirds. During the early Bush years, I think the division was more polar, but all the failures tend to unite people.

Despite our ideological differences, we share a lot of common interests not really being addressed.

There are the 23 percenters, of course. They are going exactly no-where. On the other side, we've got left leaning die-hards that behave similar to the 23 percenters, then there is the rest of us.

That rest of us third is bigger than the other two combined, IMHO.

The perception of us being divided is, I believe, an artifact of our essentially two party system, corporate traditional media focusing on a race instead of issues and progress and remedies and all the implications that come with that, and a general tendancy to express politics along a one-dimensional left-vs-right space when the reality is a two dimensional one, a-la political compass.

Thank You missing kskd--I have long felt, that most of us have a common interest. we may not agree on all things. but in the grand picture. most everyone wahts things to work out. we are not going to fix this mess by fighting. it will take a lot of hard work together, to solve many of this countrys problems. it has been the media with the diehards on both sides that has kept us split up as a country. I hope after this latest election, we can start to rebuild this great country. and quite fighting as a people.

Alaska consistently ranks in the top 3 welfare states: http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/22685.html

I hear that Steve.

If it happens, it will be a welcome time!

Honestly, before I started hashing this stuff online, I saw the division more than anything. After having conversations with people, it's clear we are not all that divided. Approaches to solving problems are all over the map, but not the problems.

Steve, first of all, you are incorrect about some basic points. Alaska is not further north than Canada. Alaskans often get more federal funding per capita than any other state, but you are correct in asserting that everyday people do not always share the dividends. For every dollar they have sent south and east, many thousands have returned in infrastructure, public works, defense and corporate subsidy. They also pay no state income tax, often have no property tax, and the energy companies essentially bribe the citizens for the right to pollute their backyards. Part of the effort of the governor to meddle in the affairs of the state troopers included her desire to bust their union, so you may be right on that point regarding leadership and labor.

I want to be perfectly clear: I love Alaska. I have been lucky enough to know wonderful people over the years who call it home. There is no place like it on earth. Life can be a struggle, the cost of living is enormous, the weather is unforgiving and poverty is rampant, but the terrain is gorgeous and that always draws people back to her shores. It also has a rich aviation history from Wien to Reeve to Jefford that has always fascinated me. Despite my misgivings about their leadership and my opposition to drilling in the ANWAR, Alaska is not the issue. Alaska and Alaskans need not prove their value, it is Palin who is under the microscope.

With all that said, let us get to the main thrust of the argument. Here is the full transcript of her speech from NPR. The seemingly innocuous words she chose were, "We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity." On the surface, nothing of note, somewhat cliched and relatively harmless. One could find similarly prosaic things said by Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini when they wished to stir folksy feelings. It would not change the rest of their message, nor would it be acceptable to quote them, even when they pandered in kind. Like the fascist leaders of the past, her context was not only one of simple-minded nationalist celebration, but of anger and bitterness against many different Americans.

I originally posted articles from the Wall Street Journal and Politico that exposed this troubling reference, but her quotation of Westbrook Pegler has also been noted by the New York Times, Time magazine, and the Jewish Journal to name a few. Recently, she sat through a sermon that asserted that Jews deserved the terrorist attacks. The discussion of her positions is global now. This is clearly a disturbing pattern to many people. You cannot shake hands with the devil and then say that you were only kidding. You cannot attack a wide range of your fellow Americans using dog whistle, caged euphemism and double talk without being held responsible. We were introduced to her as a nation in a negative way. In the weeks since, nothing has changed. Her oft-cited beguiling beauty may hide a very ugly soul.

If a candidate single-mindedly concentrates on the things that divide us, rather than the things that unite us, they have not earned the right to lead the United States.

littlesongs. i saw the quote. we grow good people....it sounded o.k. but who is pegler. and who wrote her speech. she was reading from a telepropter. and thnak you for a fine discussion on things. I really enjoy chatting with you.

Thnak you????? No caps at the beginning of sentences?????

Grammer Police, Spelling Cops, get him!

To get acquainted with Westbrook Pegler, a good place place to start is Wiki. His columns were published for years, but not many are available unabridged on-line. However, there are some early works, like The Lynching Story from 1936, a short bit about two men hanging in California.

The late William F. Buckley wrote a largely apologetic puff piece about Westbrook Pegler in the New Yorker back in 2004. Not long after, Pulitzer Prize winning African-American author Diane McWhorter criticized Buckley and painted a vividly different view of Pegler in Slate magazine.

Former shrub scribe, Matthew Scully, wrote the speech. On the script, he even spelled out "new-clear" instead of nuclear. It was a very odd pairing in retrospect. A vegetarian and animal lover spun the phrases that may put a proud moose killer into the White House.

Bear in mind, by all accounts, the Westbrook Pegler quote was ad lib, and not in the original speech. She alone decided to cite him. Unless Scully says otherwise, the reference to a notorious reactionary racist belongs solely to her.

Steve, I thought it was good to bounce some thoughts off one another too.

littlesongs--thank you for more info. at first this morning i thought you were another knee-jerk liberal who was reacting to anyone who he thought was a bible thumper. now that i see you are an intellegent, educated person, with well thought out arguments. i have a different picture of you. IMO I don't see either side as being evil to the core. fear is a strange thing. it can cause people to think bad things of others when they are not as bad as things are. thats why im not to worried who wins the election. both sides have there good and bad points. I also want to thank you for a most thought provoking day. It was a real pleasure chatting with you. regards steve.

O'Rieley last night took on the troopergate story on his "is it legal" segment with 2 of Fox's legal eagles and basically said there was nothing here...they read 1000's of emails just released regarding incident...Palin vindicated.

O'Reily had what legal eagles on? Fox News legal eagles? On FoxNews's payroll? O'Reily is the last person I would watch to find out if a Republican is innocent. He is so far right he makes W look like Stalin.
Ok.. So W is like Stalin. That's not the point~ O'Reily isn't someone I go to for the truth.

You would think that someone who is "Inthemiddle" would want to recieve/look for information from the left and the right?
Who would you consider someone from the right that you would trust...speak the truth? Just interested....

Joe Scarborough.

Who would you consider someone from the right that you would trust...speak the truth? Just interested....

President Dwight David Eisenhower and George Will when he is writing about baseball.

In all seriousness, there are quite a few conservatives who have shared lukewarm feelings, deep doubts and troubling observations about the McCain-Palin team over just the last few weeks. Some of them still support the ticket and some do not. I have found a handful for you to sample:

David Brooks
Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska
Elizabeth Drew
Representative Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland
Richard Cohen
Ross Douthat
Rich Lowrey
Rod Dreher
Carly Fiorina
Kristen Soltis
David Frum
Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy
Alex Knapp
Matthew Bishop
Ellen Meder
Philip Klein
Condoleezza Rice
George Will
Charles Krauthammer

To wrap it up, here is a double dose of Joe:

Joe Scarborough
Joe Scarborough

I wanted to concentrate on the most recent developments on the right side of the aisle and gauge reaction. If I had included the many Republicans who have endorsed Obama over the past months, this list would be much much longer.

Do I trust these conservatives to tell the truth? No. To be fair, I do not trust any single source for information. I like to see what people think regardless of political stripe, but it does not always change my mind.

Who would you consider someone from the right that you would trust...speak the truth? Just interested....

It sure as hell would be O'Riely.

I hate to bring up Westbrook Pegler yet again, but new information has come to light.

Late in his career, Pegler wrote columns for the journal of the John Birch Society. He was asked to leave the publication in 1964 because his blatantly anti-Semitic views were drawing unwanted attention. That attention included scathing reports by the Anti Defamation League that also exposed many JBS efforts against the Civil Rights Movement.

To give you an idea of the kind of person that joins this group, another former JBS member, Tom Metzger is well known to anyone familiar with Northwest history.

This picture of Wasilla city council member Sarah Palin posing behind her desk was provided to the Associated Press. It ran with a profile in the New York Times published just a few days ago. Upon further examination, the magazine right on top turned out to be a fresh copy of The New American, the journal of the John Birch Society.

IMO-the john birch society fokes are a little too narrowminded for my taste. some of the posts lately remind me of sen. joe mccarthy. If you were at a meeting, you were a commie, if you had a friend who was a commie. that made you a commie, If you had certin books or mag. in your possision.you were a commie. anyone notice a similarty in some of the recent posts and sen. joe??

All I've seen the last 8 years is the similarity of thinking between the conservatives and Sen McCarthy. Only now we're talking terrorism instead of communism.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

We have a winner!

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/918/2

Fear based politics. Very interesting read, given the current thread tangent.

All this and that...I just hope we DONT see an election like we had in 2000...Instead of election night it turns into election MONTH.

.........Praying for a clear winner...

fivethirtyeight.com is suggesting there's a somewhat high possibility this year that the two candidates could tie in the Electoral College! (269-269). In that case, the election would be thrown in to the House of Representatives; the Senate would pick the VP. Biden would get to vote for himself.

While the Democrats would almost surely still have a majority in both houses next January, what if McCain wins the majority in the national popular vote? Will the House still go against the will of the people and vote for their own party's candidate, Obama? Interesting possibility. Hasn't happened since 1824, and it wasn't pretty then.

Andrew

.....similarity of thinking between the conservatives and Sen McCarthy......

I say it's time we tried the direct opposite...

>>Praying for a clear winner

hate those magnifying classes and pudgy eyeballs.

A tie!!

Holy crap. That will go to the courts for sure. There won't be a Democrat picking anybody. Bush showed the way on that one.

Better vote early, and bring your friends. It's either a solid win, or a mess for the Democrats this year. Elections have become too messy and convoluted for it to work any other way.

as they say vote early and often.

Well I don't say that. Republicans do.

Bring your friends means, get them to cast their vote too.

or if you live in the east, vote absentee in your home state then go to the polls at the winter home in Florida....

Hmmmm maybe THAT's why Florida and Ohio are always at the center of things!

I know what Palin is hiding.....


A BIG pair of balls that her husband DOESN'T have....

So, I am sure you all have heard about Pastor Thomas Muthee, the witch hunter and spiritual mapper that blessed Sarah Palin. She also gave him credit for helping her win the mayoral gubernatorial races in Alaska. In case you missed it, here is the footage of Palin with Muthee blessing her and praying for protection from witchcraft.

Woven among the hocus pocus and strange fringe messages that the Pastor delivered was a very interesting blend of prosperity gospel and bigotry:

"The second area whereby God wants us, wants to penetrate in our society is in the economic area. The Bible says that the wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous. It's high time that we have top Christian businessmen, businesswomen, bankers, you know, who are men and women of integrity running the economics of our nations. That's what we are waiting for. That's part and parcel of transformation. If you look at the -- you know -- if you look at the Israelites, that's how they work. And that's how they are, even today."

Another Pastor echoed similar sentiments in that sanctuary. What makes her church so worried about Jews? Maybe it was television.

Littlesongs--you may be confusing a referance to how GOD blessed his people in the old testament with racism. its not the case. making a referance to the old testement is not wrong. and whats wrong with finally haveing ethical people running things.and whats wrong with wanting GOD to bless your life?? regards stevethedj

"ethical people running things."

HA!

If she were an ethical person, we wouldn't be uncovering abuses of power and other ambiguities within her term in public service.

GOD and ethics are two different things.

There seems to be the assumption that because someone claims to be a Christian, that automatically they are bestowed some sort of unassaiable ethic.

Even though just recently we've seen many examples where just the opposite is true.

Personally, I would never hire a plumber with a fish on the back of his truck.
He may be a perfectly ethical person, but the fact that he feels he can trade on his faith seems "fishy" to me.

No kidding.

It's bad enough I have similar considerations and all those solid people, who are religious, really should think about the impact of that on the general perception surrounding their faith.

Frankly, see a fish, and the chance of that person being a complete nut-bag goes WAY up.

Shouldn't be that way, but it just is.

my reference to ethics was to littlesongs post. to bad you are not about to see the contex.

OK.. give some context then.

Who are these "ethical people" that you would like to see running things?

Their a lot of people of faith, who live ethical lives. that don't screw you over in the name of Jesus. Who are not out to lie, cheat and steal as much as they can from whoever they can. When I was a Real Estate Agent, I lost some deals because I would not cut corners. I stood on my ethics. Were in the mess we are in right now because a LOT of people did cut corners. regards steve

I know this is purely anecdotal, but it certainly left me with a lasting impression. Many years ago, my father, representing his firm, entered into a business relationship with a man who spoke repeatedly of his Christian faith and how it shaped both his personal life and professional dealings (on Sunday’s, he was an evangelical minister). This man royally screwed over my father's firm, absconding with a large sum of money. After that, my father was VERY reluctant to do any sort of deals that involved persons who wore their religion on their sleeve, especially evangelical Christians.

In fact, I just recently watched a report on television of a businessman in the Seattle area which speaks of his faith in Jesus (going as far as to call his company a “Christian company”) but is notorious for ripping off customers.

I am personally loathed to trust anyone who of their faith -- I become instantly suspicious. To me, it's code for untrustworthy.

"Their a lot of people of faith, who live ethical lives."

I don't doubt that for a minute.

Do you consider being a person of faith a prerequisite for living an ethical life?

It is hopeful that with ethical teaching, that person would at least know better. And if there actions don't follow their words. Give them the boot.

If you ask some Christians, it isn't about living an ethical life. It's about asking Jesus to be their Lord and Savior. Ethics plays not part in the deal. You could be the world's biggest cad, but if you're "born again" you're on the express bus to Heaven. According to some Christians, if you an atheist but spent your life saving dying children from disease and starvation, you're still going straight to hell.

I would not want to be riding to heaven on the ticket of the person who says thay are saved. but are not living a good and ethicical life. you will know them by there fruit. Jesus said "not everyone who says lord lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.I want to do my best to make sure that I live right.regards

Just because someone runs to the rail, and says the "magic words" dosen't save them. You have to live a moral and ethical life. I.E. You can't live like hell and expect to go to heaven. I'm having a real bad day. sorry I have been testy today. regards

Being a righteous person means that you make right choices. Talpdx...sorry your father got taken by a so called christian. Christians are not perfect and we all still make mistakes/sin daily but I daily pray/cry out to a God that I know speaks to my conscience/spirit/mind and guides me to be a better man to serve my fellow man...wha-lah...a Christian...not perfect...just forgiven!

You're not forgiven, you're brainwashed.

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat, there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits.

I am a businessman. I am a radio broadcaster. I am an entertainer. I have never, nor do I feel compelled to put out a "Fish" anywhere in my advertising, ( I don't trust people who show the Fish symbol too) nor do I wear any clothing that suggests I have a belief system.

The proof is in the work I provide for my clients. Many don't know or even need to know about my own faith. If those conversations take place fine but it's about my performance as a business- person that matters most.

A few years ago I did chose to make a business decision that did compromise my own ethical standards. I was swayed by greed. Nasty thing. It cost me a friendship and my own self-respect.

I learned from that experience that I never, EVER, want to go down that road again. Today my wife and I have an ever-growing business that is thriving even in these hard times.

To keep this on topic; the more I hear and read about Sarah Palin the more I am keenly aware I don’t want here anywhere near 1600 Pennsylvania Ave in Jan.

I just saw Governor Palin talking about the US/Russian relationship in an interview broadcast on CBS. She was dreadful. I can recognize the "emotional" appeal of making her McCain's running mate. But that lasts all of a few days. As we are increasingly seeing, she's simply not qualified to be vice-president. A trip to Henry Kissinger's office isn't going to undo the obvious.

I can't believe how terrible she sounds - really. Many Republicans - the ones who haven't been bold enough to speak out publicly - must be privately horrified.

Andrew

>>You're not forgiven, you're brainwashed

not according to God's Word, and I'll believe that more than what man says and so have many millions for thousands of years.

On topic, if there was no Youtube, this would not be a thread....it's outa control here.

Katie Couric wasn't asking Governor Palin something out of left field. Palin wants to be Vice President of the United States -- and as such she should be ready to answer these questions fairly easily. If Al Gore would have answered Couric's questions in the same manner as Palin when he was running for vice president, the GOP would have crucified him.

McCain and Palin are lucky that her interview occured during this bailout mess or it would have received a good deal more play.

not according to God's Word, and I'll believe that more than what man says

Hmm . . . you've stated a contradiction. God's Word was written by man.

So, is man wrong now, but not then?

I'm thinking both man and God know you're just BSing.

Chris-thank you for sharing. you are a good person. its easy to make a mistake along the way. you are one of the persons that i would trust most in this world.
skeptical- you live up to your name.

skeptical- you live up to your name.

I have a brain and know how to use it. This is what people speaking for God fear most.

I fear thee NOT.

Skeptical writes:
This is what people speaking for God fear most.

I think most of them have departed this site.

Has anyone noticed, Ms. Palin hasn't logged a lot of camera time lately.

Oh yeah. Her interview with Katie didn't go well at all!

She's clearly way out of her element. Sharp, not afraid and all that, but just way out of her comfort zone.

In a way, I feel for her. She's being managed and will shoulder all the risk in the end. When she returns to Alaska as Governor, she will come home to a lot of people now really aware of where she stands and some media focus on Alaska that's way outside the norm.

Part of what allowed her to do what she does is Alaska being generally off the radar. Now that's not true.

Given the pressure to come, perhaps she will reconsider some of her choices in leadership. Then again, she probably won't and will get what she gets.

Had she said no, most of this crap would run mostly under the radar, leaving her to build a greater base of power to move up with later on.

Palin is in over her head.

...but way above her pay grade.

Her pay grade should be about $2/hr over the min wage.