Saradise Lost - Book 5 - Chapter 62: Another Critical Palin Book Comes Out

Not that one - the one coming out, written by the guy who broke into Trooper Wooten's medical files and discussed them illegally;

nor by the guy who broached a series of fair labor practice laws and rules trying to out or fire a union worker;

nor the one by the guy who repeatedly put pressure on one of the finest Public Safety Commissioners in Alaska history to do the wrong thing.

Nope.

Nor is it the book soon to be published by the company whose biggest moneymaker in 2010 was written by the notorious homophobic, anti-science hate monger, Pastor Rick Warren. That book, by the way, was a rip off about Christmas.

Nope.

This is a different book:
Apocalypse Americana, by Sheldon Filger. Here's his animation of the book's plot:

The New Float - Part One

I'm getting ready to build a new float for the lake, to replace one I built in 1996. It was built with untreated wood and cheap paint and hardware. This one will be made from treated wood and the best paint and hardware for fresh water I can get. Hopefully, it will last until 2030.

It will be slightly larger than 12 feet by 8 feet. Here's the treated plywood.

And here are two of the four styrofoam logs that I'll cover with fiberglass wrap.

Saradise Lost - Book 5 - Chapter 61: Malia Litman's Letter to the U.S. Attorney

Activist, muckraker and author Malia Litman has filed the following letter with Kevin Seldis, Chief Criminal US Attorney for Alaska:

Kevin Seldis, Chief Criminal US Attorney

222 West 7th Ave.

Rm. 253 #9

Anchorage, Alaska

Via Fax 907-271-4054

Re: Fraudulent $1.2 M Tax Credit for Sarah Palin’s Alaska

Dear Mr. Seldis,

Thank you for taking my call today. I understand that Karen Loeffer is out of the office and the letter I faxed to her was given to you. Thank you for considering this matter.

I understand that you are very busy, and that this issue of corruption might normally be a state matter. However the fact that the tax credit was issued by the State of Alaska in violation of the express provisions of the law is evidence of corruption. Moreover, because I have brought this matter to the attention of Governor Parnell, and the film office, and they have either ignored my letters or indicated that they see no problem with the issuance of the tax credit, in spite of the fact that Sarah Palin herself has admitted the show was political in nature. Because of the refusal of the Alaskan government to get involved, I IMPLORE you to look into this matter.

I don’t pretend to be a criminal attorney. However a simple reading of internet sites would lead me to believe the Federal Government could get involved. For example The Hobbs Act, by its express language makes it a crime to obstruct, delay, or affect commerce by robbery or extortion. The statute, by a series of judicial decisions, including a United States Supreme Court decision (See, United States v. Evans, 504 U.S. 255 [1992]), has been extended to cover practices best characterized as bribery. In that regard, all that has to be shown is that a public official has obtained a payment to which he/she was not entitled, knowing that the payment was made in return for official acts.

This results in making the Hobbs Act similar to 18 USC §201 insofar as it covers bribery of a federal official. Sarah Palin was paid a substantial amount, over $2,000,000.00, for the making of Sarah Palin’s Alaska, and the company that produced it received $1.2 million in tax credits as a result of a law approved by Palin while she was still the Governor. Not only did she make the show with a political motivation, but she is now indicating an interest in running for President. She has also sought financial contributions through SaraPAC so the show would predictably help her raise money for her PAC. Additionally the tax credit is not available for the production of any film that is detrimental to the people of the state of Alaska, and as set forth in my pervious letter this show was detrimental to the people of Alaska. In addition to the failure to use proper child restraints and seat belts for the adults, and the promotion of teen pregnancy, Sarah Palin’s Alaska promoted unhealthy eating for children. In case there is some question in your mind about the severity of the problem in this country of childhood obesity, see the article out this afternoon regarding the damaging effects on children of unhealthy eating. http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/05/18/health-experts-attack-mcdonalds-but-can-they-bite-into-its-bot/?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl1|sec1_lnk3|64222. Sarah’s Palin’s Alaska was both a political advertisement and detrimental to the people of Alaska. Sarah Palin and Jean Worldwide used a state law for their personal financial gain in direct controversion of the law of the State of Alaska.

While I understand that the Hobbs Act is limited to conduct that “obstructs, delays or affects interstate commerce [commerce between two or more states],” this requirement is

hardly any requirement at all since all that is needed is a small or practically

negligible effect. Certainly the fact that Sarah Palin’s Alaska was broadcast across the country, and the DVD of the show is being sold in every state in the country, surely that constitutes “interstate commerce.” There may also be a RICO violation as well. As the Chief Criminal US Attorney in Anchorage, I am sure you are more familiar than I with possible Federal laws that have been violated.

Federal prosecutors are “given broad weapons to prosecute public corruption, especially with respect to state and local corruption, where the pertinent statutes empowers them to challenge almost any unlawful, questionable or unethical conduct of a public official.” http://apps.americanbar.org/rol/publications/asia_raca_prof_hutter_prosecuting.pdf. Because it is now obvious that the state of Alaska will do nothing to ensure the refund of the $1.2 MILLION DOLLAR tax credit awarded to Jean Worldwide for the production of Sarah Palin’s Alaska, I implore you to do what you can to bring the offending parties to justice. I stand ready and willing to assist in any investigation you choose to undertake. Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,

Malia Litman

Saturday's Forecast

hat tip to Andrew Sullivan

Lucid Nation - World's Guiltiest Pleasure - May 21 - Judgement Day

I've been a fan or member of Lucid Nation since 2004, when founding members of the punk rock group, Tamra Spivey and Ronnie Pontiac interviewed me for Newtopia Magazine. Soon afterward, I realized that their music is some of the best politically motivated rock music being created anywhere.

Here's one from 2010, that Tamra has reposted, on this coming week's - heh, heh - Rapture event:


Lyrics:

Worlds Guiltiest Pleasure

Just saw it on the news today
Theres a meteor headed our way
Jehovahs playing marbles with our sky
He dont care who lives or dies

Storms and earthquakes and a burning sun
Miserable sinners each and every one
The four horsemen of the apocalypse
Just got shot down by some bad ass Crips

Its the end of us all again
Its the end of us all

Worthless posers, shameless hussies
Waiting around for the equator to freeze
Cell phone brain rot its in the Bible
Revelations foretold the American Idol

Survival aint an option
No Halliburton reconstruction
Gones the new human condition
Were talking worldwide destruction

Its the end of us all again
Its the end of us all

Israel, the Wailing Wall
The Temple on the Mount and Pope John Paul
The signs are everywhere plain to all
The human race ends with a fall

Pestilence and famine and all the plagues
Every mountain and island out of place
The devils gonna have his fun
A red moon is on the horizon

Its the end of us all again
Its the fundamental illness
Of our human masochism

Saradise Lost - Book 5 - Chapter 60: More Lies

Palin's pathetic response to Obama's pathetic speech:

Dear Mr. President, please allow our ally, PM Netanyahu, to respectfully arrive through the front door this time. Thanks,Concerned Americans.

First, a look at some of the other trash coming out on what was basically a reiteration of longstanding official U.S. policy on Israel's borders:

President Obama reverses the policy of Harry Truman, Ike Eisenhower, Jack Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jerry Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

The issue that Obama is being trashed over is his statement:

The United States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders with Palestine. We believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.

First, he said "1967 lines." That rules out Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy.

Lyndon Johnson was aware that those borders were about to be assaulted but did not warn the Egyptians, who were about to have their air force completely destroyed on the ground. Yet, during the Six-Day War, Israelis, through their supporters in the USA, held massive June 7th 1967 demonstrations in Lafayette Park, condemning LBJ. When he was approached by his aides Larry Levinson and Ben Wattenberg, with their request he address or send a message to the rally, he blew up (pp. 106-107, The Attack on the Liberty, James Scott):

The president exploded on Levinson soon afterward in a hallway confrontation outside the Oval Office that left the aide "shaken to the marrow." "You Zionist dupe!" the president shouted, raising his right fist. "Why can't you see I'm doing all I can for Israel. That's what you should be telling people."

The official US post-Six-Day War positions on the borders of Israel have essentially been those of the United Nations:

Although we have expressed our views to the Foreign Ministry and are confident there can be little doubt among GOI leaders as to our continuing opposition to any Israeli settlements in the occupied areas, we believe it would be timely and useful for the Embassy to restate in strongest terms the US position on this question.

You should refer to Prime Minister Eshkol's Knesset statement and our awareness of internal Israeli pressures for settling civilians in occupied areas. The GOI is aware of our continuing concern that nothing be done in the occupied areas which might prejudice the search for a peace settlement. By setting up civilian or quasi-civilian outposts in the occupied areas the GOI adds serious complications to the eventual task of drawing up a peace settlement. Further, the transfer of civilians to occupied areas, whether or not in settlements which are under military control, is contrary to Article 49 of the Geneva Convention, which states "The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

The Nixon administration followed suit:

The expropriation or confiscation of land, the construction of housing on such land, the demolition or confiscation of buildings, including those having historic or religious significance, and the application of Israeli law to occupied portions of the city are detrimental to our common interests in [Jerusalem]. The United States considers that the part of Jerusalem that came under the control of Israel in the June war, like other areas occupied by Israel, is governing the rights and obligations of an occupying Power. Among the provisions of international law which bind Israel, as they would bind any occupier, are the provisions that the occupier has no right to make changes in laws or in administration other than those which are temporarily necessitated by his security interests, and that an occupier may not confiscate or destroy private property. The pattern of behavior authorized under the Geneva Convention and international law is clear: the occupier must maintain the occupied area as intact and unaltered as possible, without interfering with the customary life of the area, and any changes must be necessitated by the immediate needs of the occupation. I regret to say that the actions of Israel in the occupied portion of Jerusalem present a different picture, one which gives rise to understandable concern that the eventual disposition of East Jerusalem may be prejudiced, and that the private rights and activities of the population are already being affected and altered.

My Government regrets and deplores this pattern of activity, and it has so informed the Government of Israel on numerous occasions since June 1967. We have consistently refused to recognize those measures as having anything but a provisional character and do not accept them as affecting the ultimate status of Jerusalem. . . .

and:

Israel, as occupant of the territories seized during the fighting in 1967, is bound by the Fourth Geneva Convention--that for the protection of civilians--but Israel refuses to apply the convention.

President Ford's administration:

Clearly, then, substantial resettlement of the Israeli civilian population in occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, is illegal under the [Geneva] Convention and cannot be considered to have prejudged the outcome of future negotiations between the parties on the location of the borders of States of the Middle East. Indeed, the presence of these settlements is seen by my Government as an obstacle to the success of the negotiations for a just and final peace between Israel and its neighbors.

President Carter's administration:

This matter of settlements in the occupied territories has always been characterized by our Government, by me and my predecessors as an illegal action.

Again, Carter:

And I let Mr. Begin know very clearly that our Government policy, before I became President and now, is that these settlements are illegal and contravene the Geneva conference terms.

Mr. Begin disagrees with this. But we've spelled this out very clearly on several occasions in the United Nations and other places that these settlements are illegal.

President Reagan's administration:

The United States will not support the use of any additional land for the purpose of settlements during the transition period. Indeed, the immediate adoption of a settlements freeze by Israel, more than any other action, could create the confidence needed for wider participation in these talks. Further settlement activity is in no way necessary for the security of Israel and only diminishes the confidence of the Arabs that a final outcome can be fee and fairly negotiated.

President Bush I's administration:

Since the end of the 1967 war, the U.S. has regarded Israel as the occupying power in the occupied territories, which includes the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. The U.S. considers Israel's occupation to be governed by the Hague Regulations of 1907 and the 1949 Geneva Conventions concerning the protection of civilian populations under military occupation.

and:

My position is that the foreign policy of the United States says we do not believe there should be new settlements in the West Bank or in East Jerusalem. And I will conduct that policy as if it’s firm, which it is, and I will be shaped in whatever decisions we make to see whether people can comply with that policy. And that’s our strongly held view.

President Clinton's administration:

The Israeli people also must understand that . . . the settlement enterprise and building bypass roads in the heart of what they already know will one day be part of a Palestinian state is inconsistent with the Oslo commitment that both sides negotiate a compromise.

President Bush II's administration:

Consistent with the Mitchell plan, Israeli settlement activity in occupied territories must stop, and the occupation must end through withdrawal to secure and recognized boundaries, consistent with United Nations Resolutions 242 and 338.

There is nothing in President Obama's statement that is significantly different from statements from the administrations of all his predecessors, dating back to the beginning of the present occupation.

All of the GOP candidates are aware that Zionist organizations are openly threatening to withhold funding from his 2012 campaign. Palin has been the most cynical in her approach to this, as she believes all Jews who don't to convert not just to Christianity, but to her particular flavor, will roast in Hell for eternity.

The 2012 campaign funding from traditional Jewish sources is more in play than it has perhaps ever been in American presidential contests. The organizations, PACs and post-Citizens United groups that hate Obama because he is black or who always tend to back the candidate most supportive of continuing Israeli expansion no matter what else, are ill at ease over the recent changes in the Middle East and North Africa. Their traditional support of Democrats is very much in play.

Palin's fake Star-of-David is on the rise.

Congratulations, Britta and Track

I've known this was in the works for a while, but didn't want to write about it. Rev. Duane Hanson, the bride's father, is one of the people in the Valley for whom I've always had the highest respect. The last time we spoke was a while ago, when he delivered the eulogy at Herbie Nayokpuk's memorial service, and I played Taps. Duane had gotten to know the Nayokpuks when he was a young minister in Shishmaref.

Good luck to the young couple.

Keep away from Sarah!

Saradise Lost - Book 5 - Chapter 59: Jesse Griffin's Interview With Geoffrey Dunn

Five Chapters to Saradise Lost in a row. That has not happened at Progressive Alaska in a long, long time, if ever.

Why? Because the demise of so many of Palin's rivals for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination over the course of May has quickly changed the terrain, or at least it appears that way. Hence Book 5 - Chapter 56, on how her main shrine is treating her rivals.

I wrote a short review of Dunn's book as part of a May 7th on-line event hosting him at firedoglake. The next day Patrick at Politicalgates posted an interview with the author.

Today, Jesse Griffin has posted an interview with Dunn that is the first detailed look at how the author views the changes in the GOP political map in this short interval of about ten days. Apart from the quality of the interview - Jesse asks some fascinating questions (sort of reminding me of NPR's Terry Gross) that bring a lot out of Geoffrey - is the inclusion of Dunn's views on the recent pre-campaign developments:

All of a sudden the planets have once again aligned in her favor. Trump got thrown out of the race. Huckabee dropped out, which creates a huge hole for Palin. Gingrich has self-immolated. Romney is made of cardboard. Pawlenty of recycled cardboard. Palin is the only one with any charisma or juice.

The Gallup poll indicated that she has the most name recognition of any candidate. I mean, how many people know who Mitch Daniels is? She will no doubt see this as a sign from God that a door has opened. Also.

The fact that she just sent out 400,000 letters to South Carolina this week indicates that she is still positioning herself for a run. She can’t win Iowa—she has no organization there—and she can’t win New Hampshire –where she is disliked by Republicans (see my book, wink)—but she can win in South Carolina, so if she enters the race there, well it’s a free for all, and with Huckabee out, well she can roll in the South…she plays to the Southern conservative evangelicals who have a real problem with a black president.

Dunn doesn't think she can win the 2012 final race and the White House. He has more faith in the American voter, the American media and the electronic voting system than do I.

Go read the Griffin-Dunn interview at the Immoral Minority.

Go read Geoffrey's book.

I'm hoping to get my copy to deliver to the Wasilla Library soon. Can't wait to film that one.

image - Geoffrey Dunn and Jesse Griffin

Saradise Lost - Book 5 - Chapter 58: De Marban's Monegan Interview - "What Does Loyalty Mean to You?"

The Alaska Newspapers syndicate is running Alex DeMarban's interview with Walt Monegan, the steadfast Marine and Alaska Public Safety Commissioner, who refused to be loyal to his boss over a higher principle. Monegan is now serving as director of the Alaska Native Justice Center.

I've known Walt since I gave him and some other Anchorage Police Department officers a tour of the Cordova Center, Alaska's largest halfway house, when I was running it in 1991. He asked a lot of questions, some hard to answer.

Of the questions Alex asks of Walt now, the most interesting to me is how his dismissal went down:

[J]ust before I left, my final week, I was scheduled to fly down to Bristol Bay and observe the Alaska Wildlife Troopers, the Brown Shirts, in the Bristol Bay fishery. There'd be the marshal in town to keep everyone civil. So I was going to spend Monday through Friday on the fishery, and I moved from one boat to the other, from the Enforcer to the smaller boat.

While I was on the boats, I'd put in a request to meet with the chief of staff about issues on the upcoming gubernatorial picnics. And I said we should talk about this. And while I was there, by satellite phone, I was advised that I have a meeting with the chief of staff on Friday at 3 o' clock at the governor's office in Anchorage.

OK, cool. So I get into Dillingham. I call my wife. I ask her, "Can you meet me (at the Anchorage international airport) and bring me a suit?" I'm dressed in jeans and flannel shirts, right, this is boats. So she drops off a suit, I arrive in, I change into my suit and I go straight to the governor's office, and Mike Nizich and I were sitting at the conference table in the governor's office.

And that's when he informs me, "The governor would like to offer you the position of the director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board."

"Umm, I take it that means I'm no longer the commissioner of Public Safety."

"That's correct."

"When is it effective?"

Immediately.

Oh wow. My head wasn't even in that part of the world, you know. So I asked a couple questions. I asked, "Was it Mike Wooten?"

"No, the governor just wants to take it in a different direction."

"Which direction?"

"A different one."

"Ah, OK. Well as far as that job is concerned, I'm not interested."

He said, "Well, think about it. Talk to your wife first, I'll call you tomorrow."

"I can do that. I'll do that."

I explained this was out of the blue. I didn't know anyone was ever mad at me. No one ever yelled at me. No one ever said, "Watch it, one more time." There wasn't any of that. It was just, "Wow."

But I understand it's an at-will position, you can be dismissed for any reason, or no reason at all. That's what I did as chief (in Anchorage) and I was chief for five and a half years.

So, I asked if there was going to be a replacement and Mike Nizich told me there was a short list.

OK.

"And the acting position will be the deputy commissioner, John Glass?"

"Uh, yes."

"Have you told him?"

"No. Do you want me to tell him?"

"Please."

"Sure, I can do that."

So I got up and shook his hand and told him I'd talk to him tomorrow and I left. It was a shock. So I contacted all my directors, I talked to John. I called my wife first, and she goes, "What happened?"

"I don't know. I don't know."

And as the media rose to this, once it became public, it was actually the governor herself who narrowed it down for me. I suspected that Wooten might be a part of it.

But it was, "Walt wasn't doing enough for the alcohol in the Bush."

Well, that'd never been a complaint to me. But then a reporter said, "So, then why you'd offer him the job of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board director?"

Saradise Lost - Book 5 - Chapter 57: Alan Grayson - 10 Reasons Why Sarah Palin Will Never Be President

--- by Alan Grayson

Yesterday Chris Matthews said, on the air, that Sarah Palin is "profoundly stupid."

Well that's a little, I don't know, kind of, maybe, a bit blunt.

Matthews was trying to explain why Sarah Palin will never be president. The answer is obvious, I think. Everyone would rather have Tina Fey as president. Sarah Palin and Tina Fey are both very funny. The difference is that Tina Fey is intentionally funny.

I have to say, though, Chris, that you could have made the point with a little more subtlety. For instance, you could have shown a drawing of Palin wearing a t-shirt saying "I'M WITH STUPID," and an arrow pointing up.

Or, Chris, if your show were as clever as Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life, you could have offered these 10 additional reasons why Sarah Palin will never be president:

(1) Palin doesn't know who is buried in Grant's Tomb.

(2) Palin couldn't tell you when the War of 1812 was fought.

(3) Palin has no clue about the color of George Washington's white horse.

(4) Palin wonders on what day Latinos celebrate the Cinco de Mayo.

(5) Palin isn't sure what weighs more, a pound of bricks or a pound of feathers.

(6) Palin has no idea in what month the October Revolution took place.

(7) Palin is baffled by the question of who came up with the Monroe Doctrine.

(8) Palin would very much like to know who fought in the French and Indian War.

(9) Palin is puzzled as to who wrote "The Autobiography of Malcolm X."

(10) Palin is at a loss regarding what were JFK's initials.

Well, one thing is for sure. Sarah Palin will never figure out how to get to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

I'm not saying that Sarah Palin is dumb. But I'm not saying that she's not.

When Palin came to my district 10 days before the 2010 election to inform Central Florida that I am a "jackwagon" (video [posted below], with 11 views as I write this) -- I thought to myself: "Wow, I didn't realize that you could fit nine letters onto one palm."

Jonathan Swift once wrote: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in a confederacy against him." Sarah Palin, you'll never be President of the United States. But at least you are the natural-born leader of that confederacy, now and forevermore.