Palin blasts Obama for ties to Palestinian professor

29 October 2008

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – Sarah Palin thrust Barack Obama’s relationship with a Palestinian academic into the national spotlight on Wednesday at a rally in Ohio — a tactic reminiscent of her repeated attempts to tie Obama to former radical William Ayers.

Palin kicked off her rally in Bowling Green by stressing, as she always does, that “it is not negative campaigning to call someone out on their record.” In recent weeks Palin has used that line to open up an attack on Obama’s tax plans. On Wednesday, she tried something different.

“It seems that there is yet another radical professor from the neighborhood who spent a lot of time with Barack Obama going back several years,” Palin said. “This is important because his associate, Rashid Khalidi, he, in addition to being a political ally of Barack Obama, he's a former spokesperson for the Paliestinian Liberation Organization.”

Khalidi — whose name Palin mispronounced — is currently a leading scholar of Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia University, and was a contemporary of Obama’s while on faculty at the University of Chicago.

Khalidi has been a stern critic of United States foreign policy towards Israel and has accused the country of “occupying” Palestinian territories, but he has denied acting as a spokesman for the PLO.

The Los Angeles Times reported in April that Obama praised Khalidi at a 2003 going-away party for the professor when he left Chicago. The McCain campaign has pressured the Times to publicly release a videotape of the event, but the newspaper has refused, citing the request of a source.

Palin said the public has a right to know what Obama said at the event.

“And the twist here is that there's a videotape of a party for this person, back in 2003, a celebration of him, and Barack was there, and we know some very derogatory things were said there about Israel and America's support for that great nation,” Palin said.

“And among other things, Israel was described there as the perpetrator of terrorism instead of the victim. What we don't know, what we don't know is how Barack Obama responded to these slurs on a country that he now professes to support, and the reason is the newspaper that has the tape, the Los Angeles Times, refuses to release it.”

Palin accused the Times of being Obama’s “pet newspaper” and said the paper would win a Pulitzer Prize for “excelling in cow-towing.”

The Republican vice presidential nominee was joined at her Ohio rally by Joe Wurzelbacher, known to the world as Joe the plumber. It was the first time the celebrated small business owner has appeared with Palin on the stump.

Palin described Wurzelbacher as “a fellow Alaskan” because he once lived near Fairbanks.

Commentary:
Rashid Khalid who is not Palestinian, but Canaanite and is associated with the PLO which now is known as global terrorist Interpol fugitive Mahmoud Abbas Terrorist Organization or Fatah. Khalid it was reported is associated also with terrorism and in the global community is considered armed and extremely dangerous.

As to my understanding, Khalid is also associated with Barack Obama.

Furthermore, Khalid has been known to have extreme anti-Semitism views of not just the Jewish Palestinians, but also Muslim Palestinians, which is understood by many also in the global community.

As Sarah Palin’s terms and rhetoric about Israel which is apart of the State of Palestine now, it was found to be a bit offensive and show’s she really doesn’t keep up with the political spectrum or at least read a fifty cent newspaper; lately.

But as for her bringing out Obama’s and Khalid’s association she is right on the money, just may not seem to have had all the information.

Palin testifies to investigator in ethics dispute

23 October 2008
By MATT APUZZO and JIM SALTER

ST. LOUIS – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin testified for two hours Friday in an abuse-of-power investigation that has been a distraction to her Republican vice presidential campaign. Palin's leadership was questioned this month in a stinging but largely toothless legislative report that found she violated state ethics laws by letting a family dispute influence her decision-making.

Palin is hoping the Alaska Personnel Board, which is running a parallel investigation, will clear her of wrongdoing. It's unclear, however, whether any conclusion will be reached before Election Day.

"She felt this was an opportunity to get an unbiased, independent review of the facts," McCain campaign spokesman Taylor Griffin said.

The board is investigating the firing of her public safety commissioner, Walter Monegan. Monegan claims he was dismissed because he refused to fire Palin's former brother-in-law, a state trooper involved in a messy divorce from Palin's sister. The controversy, known as "Troopergate," took on national significance after John McCain selected Palin as his running mate.

The legislative inquiry found that Monegan's firing was proper but the pressure to fire the trooper, Mike Wooten, was not. Griffin says Palin stands by her decision to fire Monegan and her concerns about Wooten.

Palin and her husband, Todd, say Wooten was unstable and had made threats against their family. Wooten had also used an electric stun gun on his stepson.

Further Reading:

Palin has checkered history on ethics issues

US: What are the candidates hiding?

23 October 2008
by Kenneth P. Vogel

In the past week, Cindy McCain released two pages of her 2007 tax return, and Joe Biden let reporters review — but not copy — 49 pages of his medical records.

But those steps did not satisfy critics, reporters and opposition researchers, who pressed for McCain’s tax schedules and the previous years’ returns for her and her husband, Republican presidential candidate John McCain. And they demanded the results of follow-up exams given to Biden, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, after his 1988 aneurysms.

And those aren’t the only hotly sought but unreleased records that could shed light on the candidates — and the families of those candidates — who are seeking to run the country. With less than two weeks to go until Election Day, each presidential campaigns is accusing the other of withholding key documents that could answer outstanding questions about the personal and professional lives of the people at the top of the tickets, resulting in something of a transparency race subplot.

So, without further ado, here are 10 of the top missing documents from campaign 2008, in no particular order:

• Obama’s legal clients

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has boasted of his time working as a civil rights lawyer in Chicago. But the boutique law firm that employed him for parts of 11 years — now known as Miner, Barnhill & Galland — also handled matters that don’t fit under the civil rights umbrella, including contracts, real estate deals, incorporations and civil defense.

Obama, by some accounts, spent as much as 30 percent of his 3,700 billable hours on the last category.

Neither his campaign nor the firm will release a list of the cases on which he worked.

Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt asserted that “Sens. Obama and Biden have taken voluntary transparency steps as legislators and candidates that have allowed their constituents, the media and their political opponents to fully examine both men.”

LaBolt pointed to lists of hundreds of the firm’s clients that Obama attached to the mandatory personal financial disclosure statements he filed for each of his eight years in the Illinois state Senate.

Included on the firm’s client list was Rezmar, a development company co-owned by Obama’s disgraced former fundraiser, Tony Rezko, as well as developer William Moorehead. Moorehead was convicted of stealing more than $1 million from public housing projects he managed and developments he co-owned with Obama’s former boss, Allison S. Davis. Some of the thefts occurred while Moorehead was a client of the firm.

Obama billed between five and seven hours to Rezmar-linked projects, including incorporating nonprofits connected to the company, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Obama’s campaign declined to answer when Politico asked if he did any work for Moorehead.

• Palin’s e-mails

The electronic correspondence of Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is in high demand, not the least because she used a private e-mail account to conduct state business in what some critics claim was an effort to circumvent the state’s public record laws.

Her husband, Todd, often was copied on e-mails about state business, and a state investigation found that she allowed her husband to use state resources to try to settle a family dispute, further fueling demands that she release her electronic mail.

E-mails from her state account are subject to the state’s public records laws — and a court ruling this month seemed to indicate e-mails from private accounts also could be subject to the laws. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to be easy, or inexpensive, to get.

The state of Alaska is seeking to extend a deadline for producing the e-mails until Nov. 17 — nearly two weeks after the election — asserting that it is a laborious process to identify all of the relevant emails and have lawyers determine which parts can be released.

And since the state is refusing to wave its fees — including 10 cents for each printed page of e-mails, plus $960.31 for searching each state employee’s account — the cost to each person requesting the documents could run into the thousands of dollars.

• Biden’s earmark requests

The McCain campaign has worked to make earmarks a major issue in the race, with McCain and Palin blasting Biden and Obama as free-spending earmarkers.

The two have pounced on Obama’s earmark requests, which he voluntarily released going back to his first year in the Senate and which totaled $931 million.

Palin has had to explain her own earmark requests, which totaled $750 million during her two years as governor of Alaska.

And, though McCain has boasted of never requesting “a single earmark,” he nonetheless has taken heat for seeking cash for home-state projects, albeit through more transparent legislative avenues.

That leaves Biden, a Delaware senator, as the only candidate in the quartet for whom there is no public record of earmark requests prior to fiscal year 2009.

Biden voluntarily released his earmark wish list for that year, and it comprises 116 projects with a total price tag of $342 million, including $34 million for the University of Delaware, which since 2002 has paid at least $1.5 million to a lobbying firm in which Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, is a partner. The Obama campaign has said that Hunter Biden, who stopped his lobbying work last month, never lobbied his father.

• John and Cindy McCain’s taxes

After John McCain couldn’t immediately recall in an interview how many houses he and Cindy owned, the couple’s finances become an issue in the race, with Obama hammering McCain for being out of touch with regular folks’ economic concerns.

But beyond property records (which showed that Cindy McCain owns eight homes) and mandatory disclosure statements filed by John McCain (which showed that he owns relatively little, while Cindy and her children hold assets worth at least $24 million), McCain has been comparatively unforthcoming about his wealth.

McCain, who maintains separate finances from his wife, released his full tax returns for 2006 and 2007, while Cindy McCain, heiress to a beer distributorship fortune worth as much as $100 million, only released the first two pages of her returns for those years.

Biden and Palin also have released only two years worth of their tax returns, but their finances are substantially less robust than the McCain’s. In the years since it’s become de rigueur for presidential candidates to release their tax returns, only Ronald Reagan in 1980 disclosed less tax information than McCain.

Obama, by contrast, has released his returns dating back to 2000.

• Obama’s state Senate records and schedules

Obama’s Senate files became an issue after he pressed Hillary Rodham Clinton during their nomination battle to release the schedules from her eight years as first lady.

When her campaign demanded Obama release his state Senate files, he told reporters he did not “maintain a file of eight years of work in the state Senate because I didn't have the resources available to maintain those kinds of records.” The records “could have been thrown out. I haven't been in the state Senate now for quite some time," he said.

His campaign later said that "files pertinent to ongoing casework” were passed to his successor, but Obama didn’t save correspondence with the general public, state associations or lobbyists, or memos on legislation and correspondence with Illinois state agencies. Some of the records that have surfaced have done little to dampen the demand for a more complete accounting.

For instance, Obama signed a pair of 1998 letters on his state Senate stationery urging state and Chicago officials to provide taxpayer support for a housing project headed by Davis, Obama’s former law firm boss, and Rezko, who has since been convicted on federal corruption charges.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the pair reaped $855,000 in development fees from the $14.6 million project, which was entirely funded by city, state and federal tax dollars and was four blocks beyond the border of Obama's Senate district.

• Palin’s college transcripts

Palin attended five schools in three states before graduating from the University of Idaho in 1987 with an undergraduate degree in journalism.

A high school friend who attended three of those schools with Palin told the Los Angeles Times that the future governor got straight A's, but a Palin spokeswoman declined to comment when asked by Politico if Palin would release her transcripts. The Times also reported that none of the 12 former Palin professors the newspaper interviewed remembered her.

• Obama’s Columbia thesis

Likewise, there’s not a whole lot of information available about Obama’s time at Columbia University in New York, which he attended for three years after attending Occidental College in Los Angeles for one year, and from which he graduated in 1983.

His campaign would not release his transcripts, and it says it does not have a copy of his thesis, which dealt with Soviet nuclear disarmament and which has drawn intense interest.

• All four candidates’ medical records

Biden, who had two brain surgeries in 1988 to repair separate aneurysms, is not the only candidate to be less-than-completely open when it comes to medical files.

McCain — who is 72 years old, has battled skin cancer and was tortured during five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam — put his personal physician on a conference call with reporters to attest to his good health and granted selected journalists three hours to leaf through nearly 1,200 pages of records covering eight years. But the reporters were not allowed to photocopy or remove the documents, and they were prohibited from using cell phones or e-mail for expert assistance during the review.

McCain’s steps didn’t satisfy critics, including a group of nearly 3,000 doctors who demanded a "full, public release" of the candidate’s records.

By comparison, Obama, who continues struggling to quit smoking and has a family history of cancer, has released only a one-page letter from his doctor proclaiming him in "excellent health," as well as "lean and muscular with no excess body fat."

"Palin has yet to release her records, but seemed to express a willingness to do so in a Wednesday interview with NBC’s Brian Williams."

• Obama’s small donors

Obama boasted that half of the record-breaking $605 million his campaign raised through the end of September came from small donors.

But this summer, when a coalition of eight good-government groups asked both presidential candidates to voluntarily release information on small contributors, only McCain complied, posting a list of all his donors on his website. (Federal election rules only require campaigns to report the names, addresses and occupations of donors when they have given more than $200.)

Obama’s small donors recently created headaches for his campaign, with news reports highlighting letters from the Federal Election Commission directing Obama to return contributions from people who exceeded the $4,600 individual limit by giving donations in under-$200 installments. Some were from previously undisclosed and apparently fictitious donors.

Obama said he returned the excess contributions; the FEC also asked McCain to return donations that exceeded the $4,600 individual limit.

• McCain flight records

McCain’s presidential campaign used a legal loophole to hopscotch the country in a jet owned by a Cindy McCain-controlled company, King Aviation, for cut-rate fares, according to The New York Times.

The paper reported that during a key five-month stretch when McCain was struggling to raise cash and gain traction in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination, the jet, a Cessna Citation Excel, was used almost exclusively for campaign purposes. The campaign reimbursed the company substantially less than it would have cost to charter a similar jet, the report said.

McCain’s campaign continued paying King for use of the plane through the end of last month. FEC records show McCain’s payments to the company total $477,000 since the summer of 2007.

But the campaign declined to release records detailing how much it paid for specific flights, which could permit calculations about whether the campaign was paying full charter rates.

From the beginning of 2007 through May 2008, King earned $303,000 for Cindy McCain and her dependent children, according to McCain’s presidential disclosure form.

Palin has checkered history on ethics issues

Charlie Barrett, of Washington, wears a Pinocchio nose in protest of the vice presidential Republican nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, near a campaign fundraiser where Palin was scheduled to speak in McLean, Va., on 13 October 2008.

14 October 2008
By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE and JUSTIN PRITCHARD

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose reformer image took a hit in a report concluding she abused her powers to settle a family score, has skirted state ethics rules before for personal benefit and used her office to help friends and supporters, according to an Associated Press review of records.

Palin's first try at statewide office, after six years as mayor of Wasilla, was an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor in 2002. To raise money, she improperly used her City Hall office and equipment, city records show. A year later she would make headlines by blasting a fellow Republican for, among other things, improperly using his government position to boost his campaign.

Then, in 2006, Palin won the governor's race with a vow to reform state ethics. But in less than two years, she has repeatedly taken actions that violated her own stated standards for ethical behavior — if not state law. In the process, the Republican vice presidential nominee has become much like the old-school politicians she attacked during her rise to power.

Some examples:

_She pummeled opponents for giving oil companies and other businesses too much control of state government. Yet she appointed the founder of an engineering firm that received $6.8 million in state business as head of the transportation department.

_She has accepted dozens of gifts worth tens of thousands of dollars since taking office, including two free trips last year that she failed to report on disclosure forms, despite criticizing state legislators for the gifts they take.

_She is under another investigation, accused of misusing her office to campaign against a voter referendum calling for tighter mining regulations. Her husband, Todd, has accepted free trips from a mining company to look at their proposed new site.

_Another ethics complaint, unresolved, accuses her staff of finding a state job for a friend and campaign contributor.

Last week, an investigation by the Alaska legislature found that Palin, running mate to Republican presidential candidate John McCain, abused her powers when she and her husband improperly pressured the state public safety commissioner to fire her sister's ex-husband, a state trooper. The brother-in-law was never fired, but Palin fired the commissioner in July.

"It's all about the power, and it frightens me," said state Rep. Beth Kerttula, a Juneau Democrat who like many in the minority party have supported Palin on some issues, including energy policy. "She doesn't seem to know where the boundaries are."

Even critics concede that Palin deserves credit for working with legislators to toughen state ethics laws and for providing more information to taxpayers about state spending. She advocated restrictions on lobbyists' giving, increased disclosure requirements for public officials and posted state spending details on the Internet.

Palin also risked her own political future by exposing unethical behavior by other public officials, even those in her own party.

But they say she often claims the ethical high ground when she hasn't been above questionable behavior herself.

"She's very good at reading the public's discontent and pandering to it," said Larry Persily, who worked in the governor's Washington, D.C., office until resigning earlier this year.

Palin faced questions during her 2006 gubernatorial race about her use of the Wasilla mayor's office four years earlier to run for lieutenant governor. Palin used city staff and office equipment — including a fax machine, computers for e-mail and a City Hall phone number — to run her campaign, according to city records.

She apologized for those transgressions in 2006, but only this month acknowledged to the AP that the city initially paid for a campaign flight in that 2002 race and that weeks later she reimbursed the city.

"According to people who worked with her at the time, the travel agency inadvertently billed the city rather than her personally," McCain campaign spokesman Taylor Griffin said in a written statement. "To ensure that it was corrected immediately, she reimbursed Wasilla and the campaign later reimbursed her. It's an example of Gov. Palin's commitment to the highest standards of ethics."

Palin brushed the issue aside when she ran for governor, arguing it was nothing more than an opponent's smear campaign.

She has cast herself as Alaska's ethics watchdog. In her most dramatic move, she revealed in 2003 that the state's Republican Party leader was campaigning from his state job. She then challenged incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski two years ago on a platform of government reform.

After her victory, though, Palin reverted to political tradition, rewarding even marginally qualified friends and campaign backers with high-level positions.

A friend from her Wasilla High School class was named to manage the state's agriculture office after a career in real estate. A family friend and campaign worker became head of the state agency that distributes dividend checks to Alaskans from oil revenue. Her real estate agent's husband received an appointment to the state real estate board.

Palin's biggest political splash was from attacking the big oil companies that she said ran the state. She challenged their political power, and promised voters that her administration would avoid cozy relationships with business.

But one of her first cabinet appointments didn't live up to that pledge.

Leo von Scheben, a co-founder of Anchorage-based USKH Inc. engineering firm, took over the state's Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, and his firm's state business increased, records show. USKH received $6.8 million in state transportation contracts last year, up 13 percent from $6 million the year before.

Von Scheben stopped taking a salary and all benefits from the company when he stepped into the state job. But he didn't sever all financial ties. Von Scheben receives annual stock payments that he arranged before he left the company in 2007 that will continue for 10 years, according to his financial disclosure forms.

Von Scheben said he has recused himself on projects pursued by the firm and that others in the agency select companies to receive state business. He said he believes his appointment may have cost his former company state business, although he doesn't regret taking the job.

"If the state can't draw on some private sector people, they're missing out," he said.

Palin claims passage of broad ethics reforms as an accomplishment following state corruption scandals. But Palin didn't report as gifts two free trips she received in 2007 as legislators were debating the new ethics law.

"This is simply a rare oversight, nothing more," campaign spokesman Griffin said when asked about the omissions by the AP.

Palin has, in fact, reported most of her gifts on her annual financial disclosure forms, something her predecessor never did, according to Alaska Public Offices Commission records.

The unreported paid trips:

_The $2,988 cost of Palin's April 2007 flight and hotel in Scottsdale, Ariz., for a four-day conference was paid by the James B. Hunt Jr. Institute of North Carolina, a nonprofit education policy group. Palin received the same free trip as dozens of other governors invited over the years to attend the annual summit, institute spokesman April White said.

_A May 2007 overnight visit with her three daughters and her parents attending a family reception at Mt. Chilkoot Lodge in Skagway, Alaska, was paid for by friend and former deputy campaign treasurer Kathy Hosford, one of the lodge's owners.

"We weren't open and it was just on a friendship basis," Hosford said.

The Palins used two suites valued at $150 each, said Sharon Leighow, a spokeswoman in the governor's office.

The same day Palin visited Skagway, executives of the Anchorage-based VECO Inc. pleaded guilty to offering bribes to five legislators. Palin, mingling with old family friends and town residents, spoke briefly with local reporters during her visit, calling the corruption developments "atrocious" and promising change.

"There are problems in state government," Palin told The Skagway News, "and on our watch it is our responsibility to show people that we are going to clean things up."

Persily, who said he left Palin's administration because he didn't enjoy working in Washington, said Palin is skillful in "attacking the 'good ol' boys.' The good ol' boys that Palin is talking about are those that can't help her politically."

Democratic state Rep. Mike Doogan said Palin, even as she bends or breaks the rules herself, acts as if she invented ethics in Alaska.

"It's insulting to those of us who have always done the right thing," he said.

Further Reading:

Sarah Louise Heath Palin Background Report Profile 1964-1997 with Public Records and 2006 Addendum

Democracy's arctic edge

12 October 2008

By Victor S. Navasky

Speaking as one who spent almost two years in Alaska, even though it was more than 50 years ago, even though I was only in the peacetime U.S. Army, even though I merely rose to the rank of private first class (53rd Infantry Regiment, Fort Richardson, just outside Anchorage), even though as a member of headquarters company I was issued snowshoes, whereas most Arctic Frontiersman (as our regimental insignia identified us) were issued skis, and even though Alaska was not yet a state, I believe I speak with authority when I say that at least in those years, Governor Sarah Palin's much-mocked claim that Alaska's proximity to Russia gives one a leg up on matters of national security was, in effect, official U.S. policy.

Consider Operation Moosehorn. It was the winter of 1956 when the whistle blew and we dutifully packed our rucksacks and moved from the heated comfort of our Fort Richardson barracks to the snows of Big Delta, a few hundred miles to the north, where we set up our tents in temperatures, believe it or not, as low as minus 70 degrees, Fahrenheit.

The reason for our maneuvers? As our commander explained it: When the Russians invade the United States they will cross over from the Soviet island of Big Diomede to the Alaskan island of Little Diomede ("You can literally see Russia from Little Diomede," he told us - I kid you not), and then they will invade the Lower 48 by way of Alaska through Canada. "You," he assured us, "are our first line of defense." As the editor of "The Moose Hornblower," the mimeographed paper officially charged with covering these maneuvers, I can attest that these were his very words. (I can also attest that our headline on the final day was "Moosehorn Blows at Midnight.")

Such an invasion never took place, but that, I like to think, may have been precisely because the specter of taking on us Arctic Frontiersmen was too frightening for the Soviets to contemplate. Be that as it may, Palin can take solace in knowing that she is not the first to identify Alaska as foremost to U.S. national security.

Palin also may find a lesson in a civilian event I was lucky enough to witness during my Alaskan tour of duty. It began on Nov. 8, 1955, when 55 elected delegates from across Alaska (a number chosen to match the 55 in attendance at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787) descended on the University of Alaska in Fairbanks for their constitutional convention. It lasted for 76 days, long enough for me to take a furlough and hitch a ride to Fairbanks. The idea was to adopt a constitution, elect a Washington delegation (two senators, one representative) and then knock on the door of Congress, applying for admission, which happened on Jan. 3, 1959.

At the time, I thought the high point of the convention came after testimony from representatives of the National Municipal League and the American Political Science Association advising that constitutions should be short and general, and deal with fundamental principles; whereupon a fisherman-delegate from Ketchikan, which then billed itself as "The Salmon Capital of the World," rose to make a motion that the constitution include a provision banning fish traps.

When another delegate explained that while that might be a proper subject for legislation, a constitution should deal only with matters of principle, life-and-death matters as it were, the man from Ketchikan responded, "In Ketchikan, fish traps are a life-and-death matter."

The result was a document half the size of most state constitutions - and that included a provision for a ballot measure outlawing the use of fish traps in commercial salmon fishing, to be voted upon along with the constitution itself. (And as soon as the constitution was ratified, the ordinance abolishing salmon fish traps was passed.)

I was later to discover that the issue had special significance for Alaska, where fish traps were usually operated and owned by people from "the Outside," as Alaskans say, and seen by the fleets of Alaska's independent fishermen as a symbol of exploitation by absentee commercial interests. Where Washington was long unwilling to ban "Public Enemy No. 1," as the fish traps were known back then, the drafters stepped in - perhaps, Governor Palin, tough government regulation hasn't always been such a terrible thing for Alaska.

By the way, fishermen weren't the only ones whose rights were secured. Written at the tail end of the McCarthy period, the constitution even protects political smear victims, a timely reminder at a moment when our own national presidential campaign threatens to take a dirty turn.

Although I spent only a brief time in Alaska, and too many of my non-military hours were devoted to consuming more than my share of mooseburgers and whooping it up with the boys at Anchorage's latter-day Malamute saloon, which stayed open until the sun set, and in summer the sun never seemed to set, as you can see, Alaska made a deep impression on me.

Odd as it may sound, what I miss most (other than the multicolored northern lights zinging around the firmament) is the weather, mainly because of the way in which the fierce Alaskan winters functioned to unite the populace against it. Parka-clad Sourdoughs and Cheechakos, rich and poor, would huddle and joke and complain together; there's nothing like an Alaskan ice storm to get democratic camaraderie going.

One freezing night, William A. Egan of Valdez, the convention president (who like me had hitched a ride on a truck to get to Fairbanks), interrupted a contentious floor debate to announce that "the temperature is now about 40 below and if the delegates have their cars out there, they probably should start them in order that they will start."

I'm not sure that this story holds any moral for the Republican candidate for vice president of the United States, who has her own views on the limits of what we can do about climate change, but she should know that by the time the delegates returned, tempers had cooled, and the spirit of compromise that enabled this convention of, yes, mavericks to agree on what many political scientists now regard as a model document, prevailed.

Now that I think about it, Palin could do worse than take a refresher course in her own extraordinary state's extraordinary constitution. The document is, after all, a short one.

Victor S. Navasky, the chairman of The Columbia Journalism Review and publisher emeritus of The Nation, is the co-author of "Mission Accomplished! Or How We Won the War in Iraq: The Experts Speak."

Sarah Louise Heath Palin Background Report Profile 1964-1997 with Public Records and 2006 Addendum

I just happened to came across this background report thinking it would be interesting to share, on Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and who is also the current vice president running mate with Sen. John McCain.

With Palin and McCain all over the map along with Barack Obama on the issue’s, along with out right lies and mud slinging; it makes for somewhat interesting reading, among other things.

Palin is differently not the one to call a good asset with the current US economic crisis, from her track record from what I have read; which is she would make the US economic snowball fly faster down the hill to and avalanche of woe.

Also, it is a wonder from different article’s I have read, if she would return to the Salem Witch trials of 1692, where no one was safe; kind of like US President George W. Bush Anti-terrorism frenzy to cover-up his crimes, which honest people are being harmed on a daily bases.

Palin apparently also has a history of being rather ‘whiney’ and has troubles telling the truth, on numerous occasions. As well as has a history of questionable immoral behaviors, for example, past scrapes with the law and some drug use.

As to health care, Palin’s answer was, “No-Answer’s."

I am still trying to figure out in 2003, how anyone could have an office furniture and equipment increase of 117%; but Palin did?

In a nut shell, if McCain and Palin where in office, it would be another four or eight years of sorrow and bailing the boat; hadn’t the American’s and the global community had enough with US President George W. Bush in the White House?

It is rather interesting that I just uploading this document for people to review and a short time later, the document mysteriously is deleted? What was someone trying to hide? Something of this nature, more questions Palin’s or McCain’s creditability.

Sarah Louise Heath Palin Background Report Profile 1964-1997 with Public Records and 2006 Addendum - Upload a Document to Scribd

Further Reading:
Sensitive Palin ethics report kept secret, for now

Sworn to secrecy, Alaska lawmakers have begun reviewing a lengthy and politically sensitive investigative report focusing on whether Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her authority as governor.

Biden sees son, Delaware troops off to Iraq

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., salutes after addressing the crowd at a deployment ceremony for his son's Delaware Army National Guard unit bound for Iraq.

4 October 2008

DOVER, Delaware— Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden told his son and other Delaware National Guard troops on Friday that his heart was "full of love and pride" as they prepared to leave for Iraq.

"We take comfort in the knowledge that you are the best-trained, best-prepared group of citizen soldiers that our country to this day has ever sent into harm's way," Biden told members of the 261st Signal Brigade at a ceremony outside the state Capitol.

Biden's son Beau, Delaware's attorney general, serves as a captain and a lawyer in the 261st. The unit leaves Sunday for Fort Bliss, Texas, where it will train for about six weeks before heading to Iraq.

The normally loquacious senator spoke only briefly, telling his audience at the outset that his son had advised him: "Dad, keep it short. We're in formation."

"As you serve and look out for your brothers and sisters in arms, your families here at home promise you that we'll look out for one another," Biden said.

Biden's Republican rival, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, gave a similar farewell talk in Alaska last month to the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, which includes her oldest son, Track, a 19-year-old private. She told the unit that its year-long assignment to northern Iraq would be a "defense of America, in America's cause. And it's a righteous cause."

The two candidates debated Thursday night in St. Louis. On the subject of Iraq, Palin told Biden that the timetable for troop withdrawal that he supported was "a white flag of surrender in Iraq."

Palin accused Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama of voting against funding for U.S. troops in combat and chastised Biden for defending him, "especially with your son in the National Guard."

Biden did not immediately reply to Palin's mention of his son, but he said Obama had once voted against funding because it lacked a timetable for troop withdrawal. He then noted that McCain himself had voted against funding tied to a withdrawal timetable.

Biden did not mention the debate or the campaign at Friday's ceremony, which was similar to others he has attended, except for the heavy security presence around legislative mall and the unusually large crowd, which numbered roughly 1,000 people.

"I've come here many times before, as a Delawarean, as a United States senator. But today I come, as you prepare to deploy, as a father," he said. "Stand strong, stand together, serve honorably and come home to your families and loved ones."

While Biden received a supportive welcome, Suann Ritter of West Grove, Pennsylvania, said she was unhappy about the attention his presence drew.

"This is turning into a circus instead of what it's supposed to be, a private ceremony," said Ritter, whose husband, Sgt. Donald Ritter, is being deployed for the fourth time. She noted that other units that have deployed from Delaware have not received the same attention. "It's just not fair."

Major Gen. Frank Vavala, adjutant general of the Delaware National Guard, noted that Biden has attended several deployment ceremonies for National Guard units and said the fact that he is a vice presidential candidate can't be dismissed.

"Sen. Biden is the father of a soldier. He has every right to be here," Vavala said.

Palin once blessed to be free from 'witchcraft'

24 September 2008

By GARANCE BURKE

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -A grainy YouTube video surfaced Wednesday showing Sarah Palin being blessed in her hometown church three years ago by a Kenyan pastor who prayed for protection from "witchcraft" as she prepared to seek higher office.

The video shows Palin standing before Bishop Thomas Muthee in the pulpit of the Wasilla Assembly of God church, holding her hands open as he asked Jesus Christ to keep her safe from "every form of witchcraft."

"Come on, talk to God about this woman. We declare, save her from Satan," Muthee said as two attendants placed their hands on Palin's shoulders. "Make her way my God. Bring finances her way even for the campaign in the name of Jesus. ... Use her to turn this nation the other way around."

Palin formally announced her bid for governor a few months later, in October 2005.

Palin does not say anything on the video and keeps her head bowed throughout the blessing. The Republican vice presidential candidate was baptized at the church but stopped attending regularly in 2002.

A spokesman for the McCain campaign declined to comment. A person who answered the phone at the Wasilla church confirmed the video was from May 2005 but declined further comment.

Palin was baptized Roman Catholic as a newborn.

Pentecostals are conservative in their reading of the Bible. Unlike most other Christians — including most evangelicals — Pentecostals believe in "baptism in the Holy Spirit." That can manifest itself through speaking in tongues, modern-day prophesy and faith healing, which includes the laying on of hands.

Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for the McCain-Palin campaign, has said Palin attends different churches and does not consider herself Pentecostal.