Hot off the presses from Salon:
Freedom Fighter
Sept. 10, 2008 | "Country First!" That's the Republican battle cry this presidential season. But don't try selling that slogan to Lynette Clark, chairwoman of the Alaskan Independence Party, whose motto is "Alaska First -- Alaska Always." Clark -- a blunt-spoken, gravel-voiced pioneer in the Alaska independence movement -- spoke with me from her home outside Fairbanks, where she and her husband, Dexter, another veteran Alaskan freedom fighter, work a gold mine claim. Clark was born in Illinois, moving with her family as a child to the Alaska territory in 1951. But, she says, "in my heart and mind, I'm an Alaskan. I don't identify myself as an American."
They've got the video of Palin's videotaped address to the AIP this year, as well as some more interesting background from Clark.
For instance, this damning quote from Clark: "As I was listening to her, I thought she sounds like what we've been saying for years. I thought to myself, 'My God, she sounds just like Joe Vogler.'" That was her impression on first meeting Palin at an AIP convention, in 2006.
Yes, Joe Vogler. He of the "fires of hell are glaciers" remark and the plastics explosives deal gone bad.
One more piece of background that only got peripheral mention earlier, the AIP claims that Vogler was on the verge of making his case to the UN when he died:
Vogler was close to achieving one of his major goals: speaking before the United Nations (despite his antipathy toward the international body) on Alaska independence. According to the AIP, Iran had offered to sponsor Vogler's appearance -- which surely would have been an unsettling moment for the United States in the U.N. assembly.
Yes, Iran.
Nice folks, huh? (Actually her closing quote about Washington being whored out to the highest bidding corporations is right on - but I guess I still have a problem with the whole violent secessionism thing.)
Now, I have a few more questions unanswered. It's pretty clear that the Palins have a long-term relationship with this group, at this point, whether or not Mrs. Palin actually signed her voter registration card that way. That's not how people measure membership in a group anyway. And if you've done any political work, you know that most people don't pay real close attention to their own party affiliation. People you think are clearly Democrats turn out to have never changed their registration from R, or vice versa.
But she seems to have been a regular attendee at these things. And they clearly knew her, and liked her. And their keynote speaker this year talked about how she used her Republican membership to go along to get along, and that others should infiltrate in this manner.
So she's one of them.
And the fact that she recorded a video address instead of attending in person doesn't lessen her attachment, IMO, it strengthens it. For one, she had to prepare and tape the address. Who helped her? Was this done with State money? (It looks like it was - it was certainly done by a professional.)
Also, one more thing that's been bugging me. One of the interviews I saw - I think the minor league baseball one - the guy asks her why she was inaugurated in Fairbanks instead of Juneau, and she says something about honoring the Alaska Constitution. Is that significant? Fairbanks is where the constitution was created and signed, before AK became a state. Is there some kind of AIP thinking that the Alaska Constitution should be the law of the land, instead of the US Constitution? And an attachment to Fairbanks, which is where the AIP is headquartered and holds its conventions. Just another possible tie-in I thought of.
Now I only wish the rest of the RWCM would get on the stick and report this. Christ, Obama got them talking for six weeks solid about questions on his patriotism because he wouldn't wear a freaking flag pin. But now we have a candidate in the race with a long-term involvement with a self-proclaimed America-hating secessionist group, with possible terrorist tendencies, and there's not a peep that a single low-info voter might hear.