Weekly Roundup, February 21-26, 2012

By Blueberry T

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Sunnyjane Names Names: Obstructionists in Congress

Sunnyjane got us started this week with her post on Congress’ “obstreperous obstructionists.” Try to say THAT 3 times, fast! Her post includes some delicious snark as well as solid information about the Tea Party’s obstructionist agenda and some of its primary practitioners. These include Representative Webster, the “right-wing social engineer” who unseated one of Congress’ most progressive members, Alan Grayson. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin is another TP darling and recipient of the Koch Brothers’ largess; he is the architect of the fiscally unconservative budget plan that would actually result in higher deficits and less governmental services. This is the first in a series that will name names and put facts and faces together to more accurately portray what these Teabaggers are really doing. The quote from John Adams (1776) is worth repeating: “I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace; that two are called a law firm; and that three or more become a Congress! And by God, I have had it with this Congress!” Sunnyjane ended with a quote from one of my all-time favorite songs. (This video includes some excellent photos/footage, too – enjoy!)

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Frank Bailey Resurfaces: Fined for Use of Palin’s Emails

Little did we know that this post on Frank Bailey’s unauthorized use of Sarah Palin’s emails would be just the beginning of another big email-themed week. Bailey was fined for his unauthorized use of emails that he received as a State of Alaska official. The tireless and fearless Andrée McLeod challenged the State’s handling of the information as privileged, since Bailey had broken confidentiality. My take: regardless of Bailey’s motivation, his book helped to shine some light on the dark secrets of Palin’s reign as one of the most incompetent, mean-spirited and mentally unstable politicians in the country. The post includes some of the juicy ;-) nuggets regarding Track’s parentage and Palin’s public spat with Newt.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Game Change

Sarah Palin says she will not watch “Game Change” next week…hahahahaha! This post puts together trailers from the movie, along with some interesting interviews. My particular favorite is the one where Steve Schmidt corroborates key facts revealed in Game Change: she was a last minute, virtually unvetted candidate, chronic liar, knew nothing of the world, was unprepared and unable to cope with the pressure, and had two personalities (or more), including “the Other Sarah.” I guess this interview was his way of absolving himself from responsibility for having pushed for Palin as VP candidate. (Too little, too late.)

There was a big blogging party here, following the release of more of Palin’s emails (including some from Patrick!!). Major H/T to KatieAnnieOakley, HopeforAmerica. Older_Wiser, juicyfruityy, Silver_Desert, HonestyinGov, ProChoiceGrandma and many others who continue to do a great job cyber-sleuthing!

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Lisa Demer’s Investigation into Babygate, Palin Staff’s Attack Against Her Revealed

Who knew that Babygate would reappear this weekend? The new trove of Palin emails contains some new information about the investigation by the Anchorage Daily News to determine whether Palin in fact gave birth to Trig. The emails include one from reporter Lisa Demer, who asked some very straightforward questions; I am going to reprint part of it here so everyone can see that these are not really so “flippin’ unbelievable.”

Regarding the questions about Trig, it is within the governor’s power to put this to rest for most people. Maybe not all but certainly most reasonable people would accept a definitive statement from her doctor. If Cathy Baldwin-Johnson were given written consent to talk to me one more time about the birth, the questions that I keep hearing could be answered. The questions for the doctor: Did you deliver Trig? If not, who did? Who is Trig Palin’s biological mom and how do you know that?

Here’s one more request that might help. Would the governor make available a copy of Trig’s birth certificate? We could mention in our story what the birth certificate says.
We’re also looking for explanation about the earlier medical history statement. That statement wasn’t direct enough for some people. There also is a side issue related to it. A simple explanation of how it came together, who wrote it, and why it was released so late on Election Eve would be helpful. Dr. Baldwin-Johnson could help on some of that. But that’s less important than the issue of Trig.

Does this sound like something that would elicit responses like “your inquiries about this are hereby permanently rejected” and “…we’re not going to let this evil stand”?

If everything were truly on the up-and-up, these inquiries could have simply been answered with little ado, and that would have been the end of the story. But no. Instead, attack-dog McAllister insulted Demer, threatened ADN and stonewalled the investigation. This is not the way someone acts when they have nothing to hide. This post includes some of the backstory, the Michael Carey interview affirming that the ADN newroom was well aware of the rumors that Trig was Bristol’s son, not Sarah’s. There are many links to a lot of the background information, going all the way back to the Palin’s Deceptions days, and the last update includes some of the key photos, proving that she was not “as big as a house” – that was just another Palin lie.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

More on Palin and her Staff’s Attempts to Stifle the ADN Babygate Investigation

The new emails provide more interesting revelations about the reaction to Lisa Demer’s investigation into Trig’s birth. Palin and her staff went into crisis mode – which to them means attack mode – when Demer made inquiries about Bristol’s attendance at school. Staff immediately recognized that Demer was trying to put together a timeline of pregnancies, and was approaching Providence Hospital to obtain additional information regarding Trig’s birth. They chose to launch a pre-emptive strike – McAllister’s words. Why would anyone need to launch a pre-emptive strike, if they had nothing to hide? That is the key question. The answer is that they did have something to hide. The Babygate Saga continues… as it will do, until the truth is finally acknowledged.

In which photo does Palin look "big as a house"?

Dates: Left 3/14/08. Center: 3/26/08. Trig's Reported Birthdate 4/18/08.

Photo on Right: Palin late in first pregnancy, with her son Track in 1989.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

No Birth Certificate for Trig?

The plot thickens. Thanks to Older_Wiser, we can now see that the Palins did not have a birth certificate for Trig, five weeks after the day his birth was announced. The State of Alaska requested documentation of his birth for his health insurance coverage to kick in, and from the emails, it is clear that 5 weeks after his reported birth, the Palins did not have a birth certificate for him. (Or, more likely, they didn't have one that named them as his parents.)

Some comments and links:

Indy_girl: ".......Sarah Palin's reaction to the rumours in the emails quoted above is very telling. If one of her secrets is brought up (and there are many of them), then she screams and rages until hopefully the whole affair will calm down again....."
This is a very typical reaction for someone with characteristics of NPD, especially a pathological liar. They cannot STAND to be questioned, or to believe that ANYONE has the audacity to question THEIR version of events, even if they cannot provide any proof. Instead of rationally giving facts to support their side of the story, they erupt in rage, both in an attempt to intimidate the questioner(s) and in order to distract from the issue at hand.

SLQ: I can just imagine that conversation:
Sarah: "DO something!!"
Colberg: "Absolutely, we will take care of it right away. I just need to get a few facts, because we can prove they have made untrue statements about Trig's birth, and we can sue, because lying about a child's birth is probably malicious."
Sarah: "Why do you need to know anything? He's my son. I said so."
Colberg: "Well, we need evidence. A birth certificate? A photo of you in the hospital holding Trig? Or . . ."
Sarah: "Never mind."

Enigmaplanner: Hell, JCos, Todd Palin owns a Maverick. It's a broken down piece of shit with dim headlights, a wrinkled rear end and no power! He calls it, Sarah.

Older_Wiser: Good grief, she wants to charge SOA to take Piper to the Iron Dog? http://www.documentcloud.org/d... This woman has NO ethical boundaries whatsoever.

Amy1: John McCain and his senior staff are the ones who would be the most damaged if the hoax were exposed and the electorate cared. They are the enablers (because surely they will not implicate the GOP folks above them who were also enablers, like Murdoch with his $7M cash transfer in the form of the book advance). Does anyone think for one moment that Steve Schmidt doesn't know everything we do, plus more? …

BanditBasheert: If you have never ever seen a pathological paranoid narcissist before, you've seen one now. When you read these emails, you can see everyone hiding under a desk, covering up anything and everything they knew she'd FREAK out about… they KNEW she was insane, inept, not dependable, and paranoid.

Mellybel said what many feel: Standing proud, Patrick. So glad I've been on board with you and your intrepid work.

Molly_WI: I noticed also, too, that SP is texting while she's driving, by her own admission. Fool.

Palinoia, who is very knowledgeable about health insurance, had some very interesting (long) comments on the question of coverage for Trig. Look at the Sunday comments to learn more.

Alwaysthink recommended this article by Bob Sloan on ALEC.

Sunnyjane pointed out this great comment by Martin Bashir: The Liar, the Hypocrite and the Adulterer and cheered us with this photo comparison of Rom[o]ney event vs. Obama events four years ago.

HonestyinGov linked to WaPo on fact checking the GOP debate.

Patrick found this great clip of the In the Know panel of pundits reacting to President Obama, courtesy of the Onion.

Bell Peppery found this email, which proves that in December 2008, ADN was asking all the right questions; this certainly belies later statements by Julia O’Malley and others. (Later highlighted by Patrick in the Saturday post.)