Saradise Lost - Book 4 - Chapter 18 -- Palin = Again Squared

In response to a few of the incoming images of reverberations from the Crazy Woman's ongoing under-the-bus book tour, I posted an entry on Tuesday that featured an episode from MSNBC's Countdown. The Olbermann episode helped vindicate statements about the CW I've made in the past.

On Wednesday, though, one of the best scholars in the field on knowing Palin's base assailed some of the other material in Olbermann's anti-Palin polemic. Bruce Wilson's essay, posted several places, chastises Olbermann for his hesitancy to call Palin's religious beliefs what they are, in that Wilson observed Olbmann only covered one area of many Palin brought up this past week regarding endtimes belief paradigms. The area Olbermann centered upon was an Israel thing centered on the Rapture. I covered aspects of that last week.

Wilson observed:

In a November 24th, 2009 segment of MSNBC's Countdown, Keith Olbermann asserted that Palin's religious views are not unusual, in terms of American culture. That might be true if giving Samurai swords to graduating religious students, claiming Christians can learn to raise the dead, and advocating the religious cleansing of unbelievers, is normative within Christianity.

Recent statements from Sarah Palin that appear to be rooted in end-times theology have sparked renewed discussion on Palin's religious beliefs [1, 2, 3, 4]. But none of the commentary on the subject - from Jeffrey Goldberg, Frank Rich, Keith Olbermann, and others refers to what's actually taught at Sarah Palin's churches, even though there's extensive evidence on that subject. This story present a case, heavily substantiated with video footage from Sarah Palin's most important church, the Wasilla Assembly of God, which radically challenges emerging liberal media narratives that purport to explain Palin's religious beliefs.

But Palin's Church Does Not Teach A Pre-Trib Rapture, and over the course of the past year, working together with a research colleague, I have extensively documented that Sarah Palin is tightly associated with the top leadership of a newly formed Christian tendency called the New Apostolic Reformation. The goal of the movement ? - This is not about the "Rapture." It's about Christian supremacy.

This is not speculation.

Read Wilson's article.

Leah Burton's continuing saga on how the CW lower-48 under-the-bus tour is playing out religiously is the best blog coverage by someone with extensive Alaska knowledge:

While running around conservative pockets of America, appealing to her “base”, referring to Obama as “backassword”, she is fueling the tide of hate against our president. For gods sake people…we must get the message out. This woman is a walking talking disaster.

Palingates, which has become far more visited than any conservative Palin blog niche, including C4P, doesn't blanch at calling Palin's stuff what it is, either. Here's a video from this past week that caught Palingates attention:

Happy Thanksgiving

Saradise Lost - Book 4 - Chapter 17 -- I Can't Resist

Jeremy Lansman - Part III

I. Progressive Alaska has carried two previous articles about Alaska broadcast icon and iconoclast, Jeremy Lansman. Owner of Channel 5 TV, KYES, and the KWMD radio broadcasting conglomerate, Lansman is an historic figure in broadcasting nationwide, not just here in Alaska.

Unlike some of the cardboard-and-papier-mache local media figures, Jeremy recognized early on the substantial talents of Shannyn Moore. Since before Moore became the TV image of Alaska on MSNBC, Jeremy and I have hoped Moore would get a try-out on local television. Finally, when nobody else came through, Jeremy did himself. He has opened up the Saturday 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. hour on his TV station to Moore Up North. Its first two episodes have aired. Here's a youtube link to last week's episode, which features survivors of Sarah Palin's Alaska bus tour.

The third episode was recorded Tuesday evening at Bernie's Bungalow in downtown Anchorage. A half hour before the show was to begin, the place was packed with a studio audience, technicians, Moore's TV show guests and a lot of exuberant conversation.

I'm not going to give up too much about this upcoming Saturday's episode, but Moore conducted what is probably the definitive interview with Tank Jones, whose most recent incarnation is as Levi Johnston's bodyguard. Those who know Tank, though, are aware he's a great raconteur of Alaska stories, and has some profound views that he mixes with his rich sense of humor. He's wise too - a gigantic Yoda who tells stories like Yogi Berra.

Moore had a panel on science and education in Alaska, featuring gubernatorial candidate Ethan Berkowitz, Alaska Public Radio Network commentator Steve Heimel and University of Alaska professor, Rick Steiner. The panel continued ongoing local discussion on both Steiner's case and on the issue of why Alaskans undervalue education and what that can do for our citizenry.

This show is getting better every week. Fast. Be sure to tune in Saturday, where Moore is painting Alaska bluer, one new hour at a time.

II. Earlier on Tuesday, Alaska Public Radio's Talk of Alaska featured one of the better programs the series has recently aired. Last month program producer Steve Heimel had hoped to schedule a debate between Prof. Steiner and UAA President Mark Hamilton. It didn't work. I've seen some of the emails, and my view is that Hamilton bullshit Steve and Rick and never showed good faith. Whether he was intentionally toying with Steiner or not is hard to tell, but that was my suspicion from the beginning of Hamilton's correspondence with Steiner.

Along with Steiner, Heimel featured Chris Hedges of the Nation Institute, who has just published his seventh book, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle. Hedges' analysis of a lot of what is currently structurally wrong with our declining American civilization mirrors my own. He was able to add a lot of national perspective to what has happened here to Steiner.

Here's a link to the excellent hour-long program.

And here's Chris Hedges, talking about Empire of Illusion last month:

Saradise Lost - Book 4 - Chapter 16 -- Palin Violates Ft. Bragg & Army Policies - Should She Be Allowed to Do the Same at Ft. Hood?

Here's local North Carolina media coverage of Palin's book signing on base at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina:


...and this piece of Sarah puff porn:


In the first video, Palin's father campaigns for Palin's 2012 presidential bid on camera, on base. In the second video, made before Palin's Monday Ft. Bragg appearance, she is clearly campaigning for GOP or Tea Party candidates in 2010, when answering a reporter's question.

Palin has flown from Florida to eastern Washington's Tri-Cities, where she will spend the Thanksgiving weekend in the Atomic City - Richland, and run in a 5K benefit event in Kennewick, for the Red Cross, called the Turkey Trot.

And today Palin stated on FAUX News, that she might consider running for president on a ticket that includes Glenn Beck:


Regarding Palin's scheduled upcoming appearance next week at Ft. Hood, so many people have been protesting to the Ft. Hood Public Affairs Officer, that their answering services and emails went down sometime about mid-day Wednesday. Palin is clearly running, as her father stated at Ft. Bragg.

Earlier in the week, discussing the possibility of mounting a protest to Palin's Ft. Hood appearance, I was reluctant to participate. I felt that instead of objecting to or trying to stop the appearance, people should just try to document it, looking for more material about dominionist groups on base in the USA. But after Ft. Bragg, I think it IS appropriate to try to block her from even appearing on base at the mourning Texas post. Others are concerned too.

I wonder how Franklin Graham's non-profit, Samaritan's Purse is dealing with all their Palin stuff on their 2009 1099 IRS forms? Alaskans were concerned about her sole trip to the beleaguered lower Yukon last winter with Graham, a clearly partisan and faith-based mission.
Her ties to Graham appear to be deepening. Here's Graham's plane - owned by his non-profit, Samaritan's Purse, at Asheville, NC, Sunday evening:

Saradise Lost - Book 4 - Chapter 15 -- More Vindication for Progressive Alaska - More Questions About the ADN

Back on September 3, 2008, when Progressive Alaska published Saradise Lost - Chapter Sixteen -- Palin's Views on the End Times, no Alaska news outlet called, emailed, texted or knocked on my door to question the veracity of my claims about Palin's millennialist beliefs. Nor have any of them contacted me since, even after the post elicited over 100 out-of-state newspaper, TV, radio and blog contacts; or when the journal New Scientist named me a 2008 Science Hero, along with President Barack Obama.

Over the past ten days, with the publication of the Crazy Woman's book and her many media appearances, it has become increasingly clear that not only does the information I printed then have far more veracity than Alaska media bothered to uncover themselves, but that the views she revealed to me in June 1997 are part of a package that now endangers our country more and more every day:


In the past I've criticized the Alaska media, particularly the Anchorage Daily News, for minimizing Palin's nutty religious views and nutty political affiliations. Even as a national consensus among progressives, liberals and moderates has emerged that she is indeed perhaps more dangerous than wacky or mavericky, the Alaska media still puts on their kneepads and sucks her off every time they get some face time. The first part of KTUU's "exclusive" interview with the Crazy Woman is a case in point.

Whatever.

Going back through the ADN's coverage of the CW in their Sunday paper "Who's Up/Who's Down?" niche, the "Ups" far, far outnumber the "Downs." When will these reporters and/or editors do their fucking job on helping out here?

Last chance, Alaska media, before the bloggers get back to getting to the bottom of another one of those Palin messes you left behind for us to clean up for you:

Obama Will Almost Double the Role of Blackwater in Afghanistan

A scathing article by Jeremy Scahill, author of the definitive book on the mercenary company once known as Blackwater, has appeared in The Nation, called Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan. The criminally-run firm is also waging war against Afghanistan and - this information is newly public - Uzbekistan.

War has become immensely profitable for Blackwater, and its owner, Erik Prince, wants to destroy Islam. His firm, according to Scahill, is involved in all sorts of questionable operations in central Asia. His war - paid for by U.S. tax dollars - was so compartmentalized under the Bush administration, that the President didn't even know about it. That may have continued up until publication of the article.

The fact that Obama's administration has widened the role of incredibly expensive mercenaries in Iaq, Afghanistn, Pakistan and elsewhere has long troubled me. Some of my Lower 48 blogging friends are preparing to bring the new revelations about the illegality of Blackwater's secret operations to the attention of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, upon which Sen. Mark Begich sits.

Here's Jeffrey Scahill on Grit TV today:


And here is Scahill on MSNBC's Morning Joe:


The increasing evidence that President Obama is expanding illegal or questionable war policies of the Bush administration is troubling, to say the least. Here's Glenn Greenwald's view on what it all seems to be adding up to:

So, to recap: we have indefinite detention, military commissions, Blackwater assassination squads, escalation in Afghanistan, extreme secrecy to shield executive lawbreaking from judicial review, renditions, and denials of habeas corpus. These are not policies Obama has failed yet to uproot; they are policies he has explicitly advocated and affirmatively embraced as his own.

Here's a new film by Robert Greenwald that touches upon aspects of this problem:

Saradise Lost - Book 4 - Chapter 14 - Jane Hamsher vs. Sarah Palin vs. Howard Dean on Health Care

I wrote a diary Saturday for the blog firedoglake's niche, the seminal, called Jane Hamsher vs. Sarah Palin on Blanche Lincoln - Guess who Won? It compares Palin's Saturday tweet regarding Sen. Lincoln to Hamsher's indefatigable efforts on helping line up last Saturday's votes.

Here's Jane today on Countdown:


Here's Joe Scarborough, reacting to having Palin compared to Gov. Dr. Howard Dean:


Here's Howard Dean on aspects of Saturday's strategy and the upcoming open debate:


It ain't over.....

Chicago Teabaggers Heckle Woman Who Lost her Daughter-in-Law & Unborn Grandchild

More information here.

Saradise Found - Chapter 18 -- The Crazy Woman Will Keynote the February Tea Party Convention

Here's the scoop:

Nashville Tennessee, February 4, 5 & 6, 2010. Palin's keynote will be at 8:45 a.m. on the 5th. Her topic is rumored to be the 9 principles and 12 values of the 9/12 Project:

The 9 principles are:

1. America is good
2. I believe in God and He is the center of my life
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday
4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
6. I have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

The 12 values are:

1. Honesty
2. Reverence
3. Hope
4. Thrift
5. Humility
6. Charity
7. Sincerity
8. Moderation
9. Hard work
10. Courage
11. Personal Responsibility
12. Gratitude

Here's part of the Tea Party Convention's biography of Palin:

In Alaska, her top priorities included fiscal restraint, limiting the size of government, resource development, education, equitable oil valuation as well as transportation and infrastructure development. Palin fought for ethics reform and transparency in government.

Palin has a long record of achievement and experience in public office. Prior to her election as Governor, Palin served two terms on the Wasilla City Council and two terms as the mayor of Wasilla. During her tenure, she reduced property tax levels while increasing services and made Wasilla a business-friendly environment, drawing in new industry.

Under her leadership as Governor, Alaska invested $5 billion in state savings, overhauled education funding and protected Alaska's natural resources. She created Alaska's Petroleum Systems Integrity Office to provide oversight and maintenance of oil and gas equipment, facilities and infrastructure and the Climate Change Subcabinet to prepare a climate change strategy for Alaska.

During Governor Palin's first year in office, three of her administration's major proposed pieces of legislation passed—an overhaul of the state's ethics laws, a competitive process to construct a natural gas pipeline and a restructuring of Alaska's oil valuation formula.

Palin is past chair of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, a multistate government agency that promotes the conservation and efficient recovery of domestic oil and natural gas resources while protecting health, safety and the environment. She also served as chair of the National Governors Association (NGA) Natural Resources Committee, which was charged with pursuing legislation to ensure state needs are considered as federal policy is formulated in the areas of agriculture, energy, environmental protection and natural resource management.

This movie trailer is NOT from the Onion: