Opposition Research on Sarah Palin
Thursday 10/16/2008
Max Blumenthal on Sarah Palin’s Radical Right-Wing Pals and Her Ties to the Pro-Secessionist Alaskan Independence Party 10/16/2008 Democracy Npw: "Now, this is the language of spiritual warfare that comes out of her church, the idea that behind reality is a secret spiritual world, a clash between Satan and God. And this is what they believe, and this is, you know, the Manichean worldview that informs Sarah Palin’s extreme conservatism. It’s why she treated someone like Howard Bess so harshly. And I went to this McCain-Palin press conference, which you heard and saw there, about the firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to ask how the theology of her church influenced her decisions in dealing with perceived political enemies like Walt Monegan. Of course, they treated it like an illegitimate question, but I think it really is an essential question to understanding how Sarah Palin thinks about the world. In a way, she’s more George W. Bush than George W. Bush was."
Sunday 10/12/2008
"Break the Back Of The Enemy" 10/12/2008 Atlantic: "A chilling video from Wasilla by Max Blumenthal that helps explain more deeply how Palin is a product of some of the most extreme forms of Christianism that exist."Saturday 10/11/2008
As governor, Palin at times bonds church and state 10/11/2008 AP: ""What a blessing that the Lord has already put into place the Christian leaders, even though I know it's all through the grace of God," she wrote in March 2000 to her former pastor. She thanked him for the loan of a video featuring a Kenyan preacher who later would pray for her protection from witchcraft as she sought higher office.
In that same period, she also joined a grass-roots, faith-based movement to stop the local hospital from performing abortions, a fight that ultimately lost before the Alaska Supreme Court.
Palin's former church and other evangelical denominations were instrumental in ousting members of Valley Hospital's board who supported abortion rights — including the governor's mother-in-law, Faye Palin."Palin violated ethics law, inquiry concludes 10/11/2008 IHT
At Palin Church, Jews For Jesus Head Says Terrorism vs Israel Is God`s Punishment 10/11/2008 Israel eNews: "Do terrorist attacks on Israel, as recently preached in Sarah Palin's current church, amount to divine judgment on Jews for refusing to accept Jesus as "Lord and savior"? Does Palin concur with Jews For Jesus head David Brickner in this belief?"
Palin plays Wright card, but Dems say she has her own pastor issues 10/11/2008 Jewish Chronicle: "They note Palin’s presence in church when speakers praised Jews for Jesus, suggested that terrorism in Israel was divine retribution for rejecting Christianity and argued that corruption would end if Christians took control of the financial sector. In addition, a prominent Democratic strategist and liberal bloggers have responded to Republican efforts to link Obama to a domestic terrorist-turned-education activist by noting that John McCain once served on the board of an organization accused of anti-Semitism."
Friday 10/10/2008
Alaska panel finds Palin abused power in firing 10/10/2008 AP Investigation ties Palin to 'extreme right-wing fringe' 10/10/2008 Raw Story: [With Video of Rachel Maddow show] "However, Blumenthal told Maddow that when he and co-author David Neiwert, who has been investigating anti-government militias since the 1990's, interviewed people in Palin's home town of Wasilla, they found that "Sarah Palin is far more intimately associated with the extreme right-wing fringe of Alaska than the media has acknowledged or than she is willing to acknowledge." Blumenthal said that Palin used former AIP chairman Mark Chryson and a local John Birch Society activist known as "Black Helicopter" Steve Stoll "to advance her political career on a local and state level -- and she sought to reward them with plum political appointments." In 1996, Chryson and Stoll helped Palin with her campaign of negative, character-based attacks on the incumbent mayor, and after Palin was elected she attempted to appoint Stoll to the seat she had formerly held on the Wasilla city council."
Meet Sarah Palin’s radical right-wing pals 10/10/2008 Salon: "Extremists Mark Chryson and Steve Stoll helped launch Palin’s political career in Alaska, and in return had influence over policy. “Her door was open,” says Chryson — and still is."
The Palins’ un-American activities 10/10/2008 Salon: "Imagine if the Obamas had hooked up with a violently anti-American group in league with the government of Iran."
Thursday 10/9/2008
Memo to Media: The Palin Rape-Kit Story Has Not Been 'Debunked' 10/9/2008 Alternet Sarah Palin: Country First Or Alaska First 10/9/2008 Black Star News, NY: By Robert F. Kennedy Jr
Wednesday 10/8/2008
Is Palin a Member of 'Spiritual Warfare' Prayer Group? 10/8/2008 Alternet "I Don't Mess With Black Men" - Palin's Racist Remark 10/8/2008 Counterpunch
Tuesday 10/7/2008
The Palins' un-American activities 10/7/2008 Sa;on Sunday 10/5/2008
Palin Nomination Stirs, Worries Jewish Delegates 10/5/2008 Jewish Week Remains of Alaska Separatist Are Identified 10/5/2008 NYT: [Palin's Alaska Independent Party founder Vogler killed in a plastic explosive sale gone bad.] - "Fingerprint tests show that human remains found in a gravel pit east of Fairbanks on Wednesday are those of Joe Vogler, the founder of the Alaskan Independence Party, who vanished in May 1993, Alaska state troopers said today... The blue tarp and duct tape in which the remains were wrapped, officials said, matched a description given by a convicted thief, Manfred West, who confessed last summer that he had killed Mr. Vogler in a plastic-explosives sale gone bad and had then buried him."
Saturday 10/4/2008
McCain campaign surrogate invokes the Holocaust 10/4/2008 America Blog: "Then there was the Jews for Jesus leader who spoke at Palin's church, with her in attendance, in August, and told the congregation that terrorist attacks in Israel are God's punishment for Jews who refuse to convert to Christianity."Wednesday 10/1/2008
The Palin Payoff: How Sarah Brings in the Christian Cash 10/1/2008 Alternet AIP former chair: "The fires of Hell are glaciers compared to my hate for the American Government" 10/1/2008 Daily Kos: "You get to think why the hell do I owe them anything and then you get mad; and you say to hell with them; and you renounce allegiance; and you pledge your efforts, your effects, your honor, your life, to Alaska; that is how I do it; I am an Alaskan; they know it; I've told them to go to hell in every way I can in a nice way; I took a case to the Supreme Court believing in the Supreme Court, but I'd rather be tried in a whorehouse with the madam as the Judge; there is more Justice in a whorehouse than in the Supreme Court; and if they don't like they know where they can go; ..... and if you think I am ever going to forget that, the fires of Hell are glaciers compared to my hate for the American Government, and I won't be buried under their damn flag; I'll be buried in Dawson and when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones back to Alaska, back to my country."
Experts: Palin's religion misunderstood 10/1/2008 Politico: "An unusual video showing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, being blessed by a Kenyan bishop against witchcraft has rattled liberal bloggers and fueled scorn among her detractors, but religious experts say the matter has been blown out of proportion by ignorance and intolerance." [Intolerance for the witch hunters who kill witches in Africa?]
Sarah Palin, Joe Vogler, and The Alaskan Independence Party 10/1/2008 YouTube
Sunday 9/28/2008
Conservatives Begin Questioning Palin’s Heft 9/28/2008 AP: removed from Fox News siteSaturday 9/27/2008
Sarah Palin's Foreign Policy Follies 9/27/2008 Time Magazine Friday 9/26/2008
Sarah Palin ‘witchcraft’ flap all smoke and no fire 9/26/2008 Boston Herald: "Catholic League President Bill Donohue echoed that sentiment, saying witchcraft is a “sad reality” in Kenya that has resulted in scores of deaths." [resulted in hundreds of death as people kill accused witches]Palin should step down, conservative commentator says 9/26/2008 CNN: "“If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself," Parker also writes. "If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true." Parker, who praised McCain's "keen judgment" for picking Palin earlier this month and wrote the Alaska governor is a "perfect storm of God, Mom and apple pie," now says Palin should step down from the ticket. “Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves," Parker writes. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first. Do it for your country."
Thursday 9/25/2008
Florida Congressman: Palin 'Don't Care Too Much What They Do With Jews and Blacks' 9/25/2008 ABC: "If Sarah Palin isn’t enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention," said Hastings. "Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks. So, you just think this through."Did Sarah Palin Really Say She Wouldn't Hire Blacks? 9/25/2008 Alternet: "But in a phone conversation, Gwen Alexander of the African-American Historical Society of Alaska stuck by her contention that Palin made the racially charged retort. She also charged that Palin did not support or even officially acknowledge the group's annual Juneteenth Commemoration. June 19 is celebrated as the date of slave emancipation in Texas. Alaska is one of 13 states that has designated it an official holiday. Other Alaska governors have sent the traditional greetings and acknowledgements to the Society. Alexander says Palin snubbed the group."
WITCHCRAFT IN WASILLA 9/25/2008 American Prospect: "But Palin's vacuousness on any substantive questions point to a more -- pun intended -- fundamental concern. Given that many of her followers believe Palin is anointed by God, and she said in her 2008 Wasilla Assembly of God speech that she believes in the spirit of prophecy and revelation, you've got to wonder how much that, in her mind, is a substitute for facts, analysis, and policy-making. It might very well explain why she acts so confident despite her utter lack of preparation to be vice president of the United States. And that is one hell of a scary faith-based initiative."
Palin once blessed to be free from 'witchcraft' 9/25/2008 AP: The Muthee story hits the corporate media, in a predictably watered down form: "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."
Palin once blessed to be free from 'witchcraft' 9/25/2008 AP: "On a visit to the church in June 2008, Palin spoke fondly of the Kenyan pastor and told a group of young missionaries that Muthee's prayers had helped her to become governor. "Pastor Muthee was here and he was praying over me, and you know how he speaks and he's so bold," she said. "And he was praying 'Lord make a way, Lord make a way' ... He said, 'Lord make a way and let her do this next step.' And that's exactly what happened." Muthee returned to the Wasilla church last weekend, where he gave a series of sermons over three days. Palin was campaigning in Florida. The Rev. Zipporah Ndiritu, who studied under Muthee in the Kiambu, Kenya-based Word of Faith Church, said the bishop is revered among evangelicals there. In a phone interview from Mombasa, Kenya, she said church doctrine focuses on ridding the world of demons — and witches. "Even in the days of Jesus Christ, according to the Bible there were witches who were manifesting through demonic forces," she said. "You can seek from the Lord, and if you find demonic forces you cast them out."
Sarah Palin's 'Rev. Wright' or a big nothing? Watch and read for yourself 9/25/2008 Dallas Morning News
Video shows Palin in anti-witchcraft prayer 9/25/2008 Guardian, UK: "The video, available on YouTube, shows Palin standing in front of him at the service, head bowed, her hands held by two members of the congregation. Muthee, in the sermon, calls on church members to try to gain footholds in centres of influence, such as politics and the media, and praises Palin for her bid to become governor of Alaska. He spoke about the hindrances she faced from her enemies. "In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, every form of witchcraft is what you rebuke. In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, father make away now," Muthee said."
Palin pastor: 'Israelites' run economy 9/25/2008 Jewish Telegraph Agency: "It's high time that we have top Christian businessmen, businesswomen, bankers, you know, who are men and women of integrity running the economics of our nations. That's what we are waiting for. That's part and parcel of transformation. If you look at the -- you know -- if you look at the Israelites, that's how they work. And that's how they are, even today."
Kenyan witch-hunter blessed Palin 9/25/2008 Press TV, Iran: More details on Muthee's story here than in the AP reports.
Wednesday 9/24/2008
Shocking Footage of Palin Praying with 'Witch Hunter' 9/24/2008 Alternet: "On the first night of services, Muthee implored his audience to wage "spiritual warfare" against "the enemy." As I filmed, a nervous church staffer approached from behind and told me to put my camera away. I acceded to his demand, but as Muthee urged the church to crush "the python spirit" of the unbeliever enemies by stomping on their necks, I pulled out a smaller camera and filmed from a more discreet position. Now, church members were in deep prayer, speaking in tongues and raising their hands. Muthee exclaimed, "We come against the spirit of witchcraft! We come against the python spirits!" Then, a local pastor took the mic from Muthee and added, "We stomp on the heads of the enemy!"
Behind the Christian right's enthusiasm for Palin's conservative credentials is a visceral sense that that she has come from them, not to them. Some right-wing evangelicals even believe she has messianic potential. As former Christian Broadcasting Network vice president Jim Bramlett wrote, "Sarah is that standard God has raised up to stop the flood. She has the anointing."Your wicked liberal spells and curses cannot hurt Sarah Palin 9/24/2008 Guardian, UK: includes video - "We need God taking over our education system... If we have that in our schools, we will not have kids being taught how to worship Buddha, how to worship Mohammed. We will not have, in their curriculum, witchcraft, and sorcery. Is anybody hearing me? The other area is in the area of media. We need believers in the media. We need God taking over the media in our lands... And the last area is in the area of government. Hello? We need believers there. We need men and women of integrity. You know, as the secretaries of state. We need them right there. People that are born again, spirit-filled; people who know God, and who are serious with God."
On Banning Books and Hunting Witches 9/24/2008 Huffington Post: "Lynch mobs have killed hundreds of Tanzanians whom they accuse of witchcraft as black magic hysteria sweeps East Africa. Most of the usually elderly victims have been beaten or burnt to death by gangs of youths. Some old women have been singled out simply because they have red eyes -- regarded as a sign of sorcery by their assailants. The condition is actually caused by years of toiling in smoky kitchens cooking family meals. ... Police say 357 suspected witches have been killed in the past 18 months, but the Ministry of Home Affairs believes that the true figure is much higher. A departmental survey said as many as 5,000 people were lynched between 1994 and 1998."
The Witch Hunter Anoints Sarah Palin 9/24/2008 The Nation: "Muthee's mounting stardom took him to Wasilla Assembly of God in May, 2005, where he prayed over Palin and called upon Jesus to propel her into the governor's mansion -- and beyond. Muthee also implored Jesus to protect Palin from "the spirit of witchcraft." The video archive of that startling sermon was scrubbed from Wasilla Assembly of God's website, but now it has reappeared."
Sunday 9/21/2008
Sarah Palin's Troopergate Scandal Reveals Her Fundamentalist Street Cred 9/21/2008 Anchorage Daily News: "Kenai City Police Chief Chuck Kopp was a rising star in Alaska's Christian conservative movement. He was a frequent speaker at local religious and patriotic gatherings. He was school board president of Cook Inlet Academy, the fundamentalist Christian high school in Soldotna his missionary-educator father founded. Kopp also was on the board of Port Alsworth's Tanailan Bible Camp, also founded by his father... Palin's connection to what Jeff Sharlett has called "elite fundamentalism" is of interest now that she is an election and a heartbeat away from the presidency. Franklin Graham has been the keynote speaker for the Alaska Governor's Prayer Breakfast the past two years. According to their Web site, the organizers believe, "God directs the affairs of Man and is the ultimate authority over human events." The Alaska Governor's Prayer Breakfast is connected to the National Prayer Breakfast sponsored by The Fellowship Foundation, also known as "The Family," which espouses similar beliefs. The Family is headed by Doug Coe, one of the most influential evangelicals in Washington, D.C. Coe's group tends to operate behind the scenes organizing small cells attended by the power elite, mostly Republicans. George Bush was saved in such a cell while in Texas.
Elite fundamentalists believe, according to Sharlett, not only in religious determinism but that they are personally chosen by God to be in positions of power."Saturday 9/20/2008
Sarah Palin Heaps Praise on a Witch Hunting Preacher 9/20/2008 News Blaze: "Americans recoil in horror when we remember the Salem witch trials, which resulted in the hanging of fourteen women and five men. We gain some comfort knowing that this outbreak of religious hysteria took place in 1692, and that in the ensuing centuries we have rejected the superstitious belief in evil Christian-hating witches.
But some Christian sects still believe in the existence of evil witches who cast demonic spells and seek the destruction of believers."Friday 9/19/2008
Polls Show Palin Is Starting to Drag Down McCain 9/19/2008 Daily Kos: "Since Sept. 13, Palin's unfavorables have climbed from 30 percent to 36 percent. Meanwhile, her favorables have slipped from 52 percent to 48 percent. That's a three-day net swing of -10 points, and it leaves her in the Sept. 15 Diageo/Hotline tracking poll tied for the smallest favorability split (+12)** of any of the Final Four. [UPDATE: The Sept. 17 Diageo/Hotline tracking poll shows Palin at 47 percent favorable and 37 percent unfavorable--an even narrower +10 split.] Over the course of a single weekend, in other words, Palin went from being the most popular White House hopeful to the least."Keith Olbermann & Shannyn Moore: Pastor Problem 9/19/2008 MSNBC: Summary of the Bishop Muthee witch hunter story on the Keith Olbermann show, with video. First US mainstream media to break the story. Features Alaska talk show host Shannyn Moore.
Witch Hunter that Prayed Palin into Office is Coming Back to Wasilla! 9/19/2008 Mudflats, Alaska: "I just had coffee with fellow blogger and Anchorage talk radio phenom Shannyn Moore. While we were fuming over the McCain hijacking of the Troopergate investigation, she got a call from MSNBC. They asked if she’d come on Keith Olbermann’s show tonight to talk about ‘the witch hunter’. The witch hunter, aka Pastor Muthee, was the guest pastor from Kenya that appeared at Palin’s church, The Wasilla Assembly of God, and “prayed over” Sarah to help her become governor… When Shannyn was talking in a serious, businesslike way about coordinating with a major media outlet to discuss the ‘witch hunter’, it struck me how absurd this is. We both started to laugh so hard, we couldn’t stop. Our governor believes in the power of a guy who believes that demons live in pythons, and witches cause traffic accidents. She believes that a Kenyan witch-hunter prayed her into office. Ladies and Gentlemen, behold the Republican candidate for Vice President of the United States of America, and tell me what that says about the Presidential candidate who nominated her."
Sarah Palin's Interview with Hannity Night 2 9/19/2008 Real Clear Politics: Hannity is a white supremacist - see Hannity Denies Past Association With White Supremacist But Evidence Suggests Otherwise and Max Blumenthal Probes Hannity's History With Talk Radio's 'Angry White Men' -- and Fanning the Flames of Racial Politics
Sarah Palin Witch Hunting Pastor Returns to Wasilla 9/19/2008 YouTube: Summary of Muthee story, with details on Kenyan witch hunting, where even 100 year old women are burned.
Palin's Witch Hunting Pastor 9/19/2008 YouTube, MSNBC: Keith Olbermann show segment on Palin's Bishop Muthee, witch hunter.
Thursday 9/18/2008
TrooperGate 9/18/2008 Countdown, Keith Olbermann Hackers Access Palin's Personal E-Mail, Post Some Online 9/18/2008 WaPo
From basket case to boomtown without a dime of aid 9/18/2008 WorldNet Daily: Description of Palin's Bishop Muthee at work in Kenya, published 6/05 - "Their first priority was to figure out what on earth was the source of the trouble. After six months of research and prayer, it became obvious that it wasn't economics or politics, but a person – one oversized, 40-something woman named Mama Jane. She was a witch. Forget pointy hats and broomsticks, she was the real thing. I'll concede that the majority of "witches" are cranks and dabblers who possess no special powers at all. But in dark places worldwide, there are millions of exceptions, and she was one. Typically, witchcraft is evidence of evil, but there it was the source of evil. Three factors convinced the Muthees of her powers. First, the top government and business leaders visited her continually, afraid to do anything without her approval. The keyword: fear. Second, at least once a month, someone would die in a horrible traffic accident on the dusty little road right in front of her divination house, called Emmanuel Clinic – though it wasn't a clinic and had nothing to do with Emmanuel, the Christ."
Wednesday 9/17/2008
Palin staff won't testify in trooper probe, AG says 9/17/2008 CNN: "Palin initially denied that anyone in her administration or family had pressed for action against Wooten, whom she has branded a "rogue trooper." But in August, two weeks before her nomination as a vice presidential candidate, she acknowledged that members of her staff had contacted Monegan's office nearly two dozen times about the trooper. An aide was suspended after being taped telling a state trooper lieutenant that the Palins were concerned that there had been "absolutely no action for a year on this issue."Palin under fire over African pastor friend who waged witch-hunt against woman he believed caused car crashes 9/17/2008 Daily Mail, UK: "According to accounts of the witch-hunt circulated on evangelical websites, after Mutheee spoke out against Mama Jane many villagers demanded she be stoned. Police raided her home and shot a pet python which was believed to be a demon. Muthee,who said he became a pastor after "God spoke" to him in 1989, has frequently referred to this witch-hunt in his sermons as an example of the power of “spiritual warfare”."
Co laczy Sare Palin i kenijski mlot na czarownice? 9/17/2008 Interia, Poland: "Kandydatka na republikanska pania wiceprezydent - która sama siebie zwie uszminkowanym pitbullem (choc senator Obama wspominal niedawno o innym uszminkowanym zwierzeciu) -opowiada, ze zawdziecza swoja pozycje gubernatora Alaski modlom pewnego kaznodziei - Thomasa Muthee."
Palin credits witch-hunting pastor with her run to the governor’s office 9/17/2008 Minnesota Independent: "She has recently called Muthee “awesome,” despite the fact that Pastor Muthee still refers to his witch hunt more than decade ago against the aforementioned Kenyan woman as an example of the power of “spiritual warfare.” And Palin showed her support for Muthee only three months ago at an Assemblies of God event that marked the graduation of students from the Wasilla Assembly of God’s Masters’ Commission, an organization that believes Alaska will be the refuge for American evangelicals upon the coming “End of Days.”
Former Federal Prosecutor Speaks Out About Palin 9/17/2008 Motley Moose: "When asked why we were attacked on 9/11, Sarah Palin answered because the terrorists hate our freedoms. While she has been derided for her lack of foreign policy experience, she may have come up with the most innovative program yet to deter terrorists: taking those freedoms away. Just like many Middle Eastern countries, Mayor Palin punished the women of Wasilla for reporting rape. Her administration charged them substantial fees for the rape kits used to prove the crime. After being attacked, a Wasilla woman could look forward to being billed up to $1200 in return for a grueling forensic pelvic exam."
Palin credits electoral success to witchhunter 9/17/2008 Raw Story: "According to accounts of the witchhunt circulated on evangelical websites such as Prayer Links Ministries, after Pastor Muthee declared Mama Jane a witch, the townspeople became suspicious and began to turn on her, demanding that she be stoned. Public outrage eventually led the police to raid her home, where they fired gunshots, killing a pet python which they believed to be a demon. After Mama Jane was questioned by police – and released – she decided it was time to leave town, the account says. Pastor Muthee has frequently referred to this witchhunt in his sermons as an example of the power of “spiritual warfare”. In October 2005, he delivered ten sermons at the Wasilla Assembly of God, the audio of which was available on the church’s website until it was removed around the time Mrs Palin’s candidacy was announced. The blog Irregular Times has listings and screen grabs of the sermons."
Sarah Palin's wasteful ways 9/17/2008 Salon: "She poses as a fiscal watchdog, but when Palin was mayor, she grabbed city funds to give her office a pricey "bordello" makeover."
Transformations I - Trailer Clip 9/17/2008 sentinelgroup.org: Triumphalist segment on Muthee in Kenya.
PALIN TRUTH SQUAD: BURNING BRIDGES IN ALASKA 9/17/2008 Shannyn Moore: "The “last straw,” Meghan-Super-Spokes-Model Stapleton said, was a July trip Monegan planned to Washington D.C. to seek federal money for investigating and prosecuting sexual assault cases. You would have thought he was planning to lobby Washington D.C. for a new super trooper jet-boat, complete with lightening bolts, water cannons, cup holders and satellite television. If it is true Monegan was fired for trying to drum up funds to protect Alaskans, I’m more disturbed than if he was fired for NOT carrying out an old family proxy vendetta against Trooper Wooten. Four days before Walt Monegan was fired, John Katz, the governor’s special counsel and inaugural PTSer, in a July 7 e-mail, noted two issues with the trip: the Governor hadn’t agreed the money should be sought, and the request “is out of sequence with our other appropriations requests and could put a strain on the evolving relationship between the Governor and Senator Stevens.” Why the continuing theme of subverting the treatment of epidemic sexual assaults in Alaska?"
Palins Kirche mit Extremisten verstrickt 9/17/2008 Tages Anzeiger, Switzerland: Muthee witch hunter story is mostly untouched as yet by mainstream US media, except for the Drudge report, which links to the London Times article. Many US media executives read the Drudge report, so they are in denial.
Tuesday 9/16/2008
Targeting cities with 'spiritual mapping,' prayer 9/16/2008 CSM: published in 1999, details Pastor Thomas Muthee's spiritual warfare - "Russell Spittler, provost at Fuller Theological Seminary, in Pasadena, Calif., suggests that the practices flourish most among Pentecostals. "Pentecostals approach Scripture literally, so they see the world populated with demons. It is not a far step to start naming them, assigning them territories, devising prayer strategies. For Pentecostals, 'spiritual warfare' is not a metaphor - it's reality."What is the Wasilla Assemblies of God Trying to Hide for Palin? 9/16/2008 Irregular Times: "Why is the Wasilla Assembly of God trying to cover up the sermons that Thomas Muthee gave? We know, thanks to that video of Sarah Palin from June 8, 2008, that she was in close contact with Muthee in 2005. One thing they may be trying to cover up is Thomas Muthee’s history as a witch hunter. Muthee gained political power in Kenya by accusing women of being witches, and stirring up popular fury against the supposed witchcraft. That’s a dangerous game. People have been burning accused witches in Kenya recently."
Palin linked electoral success to prayer of Kenyan witchhunter 9/16/2008 London Times: "The pastor whose prayer Sarah Palin says helped her to become governor of Alaska founded his ministry with a witchhunt against a Kenyan woman who he accused of causing car accidents through demonic spells.At a speech at the Wasilla Assembly of God on June 8 this year, Mrs Palin described how Thomas Muthee had laid his hands on her when he visited the church as a guest preacher in late 2005, prior to her successful gubernatorial bid.In video footage of the speech, she is seen saying: “As I was mayor and Pastor Muthee was here and he was praying over me, and you know how he speaks and he’s so bold. And he was praying “Lord make a way, Lord make a way.”
Monday 9/15/2008
Fired Official: Governor Sarah Palin Did Not Tell the Truth to ABC 9/15/2008 ABC Sarah Palin and the Thomas Muthee Witch Hunt 9/15/2008 Irregular Times: "Sarah Palin has been linked to a witch hunt. No, not a figurative witch hunt, the kind in which people are made to feel pressured and discriminated against. I’m talking about a real witch hunt, in which a woman is accused of witchcraft by someone seeking political power, and the woman is forced to flee her home in fear of her life. That’s what one of Sarah Palin’s favorite preachers, Pastor Thomas Muthee, has done. Muthee wanted to get control over the town of Kiambu, Kenya - a place just outside of Nairobi. Not content to set up a church and slowly gain the trust of the local inhabitants, Muthee decided to get publicity and gain political power through a piece of cruel theater. Muthee chose a local woman named Mama Jane who happened to work as a fortune teller. Mama Jane had never caused much trouble before, but she was an important target for Muthee, because she was a close associate of town’s leaders. Muthee accused Mama Jane of being a sorceress - a witch who was engaging in spiritual warfare to curse to town of Kiambu."
The pastor who clashed with Palin 9/15/2008 Salon: "I pushed her on the earth's creation, whether it was really less than 7,000 years old and whether dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time. And she said yes, she'd seen images somewhere of dinosaur fossils with human footprints in them."
LIFE BEGINS AT RAPE…ASK MAYOR PALIN 9/15/2008 Shannyn Moore
Sarah Palin and the Thomas Muthee Witch Hunt 9/15/2008 YouTube
Sunday 9/14/2008
NYT: Palin Personally Sought To Ban Book From Library 9/14/2008 TPM: "But in 1995, Ms. Palin, then a city councilwoman, told colleagues that she had noticed the book "Daddy's Roommate" on the shelves and that it did not belong there, according to Ms. Chase and Mr. Stein. Ms. Chase read the book, which helps children understand homosexuality, and said it was inoffensive; she suggested that Ms. Palin read it.
"Sarah said she didn't need to read that stuff," Ms. Chase said. "It was disturbing that someone would be willing to remove a book from the library and she didn't even read it."Saturday 9/13/2008
Very Bizarre 'Holy Laughter Annointing' Theology at Sarah Palin's Juneau Church 9/13/2008 Alternet Christian Fundamentalism Permeates the Republican Party: Sarah Palin’s links to the Christian Right 9/13/2008 Global Research: "As one researcher familiar with the history of the Third Wave Movement or Dominionism describes, ‘The Third Wave is a revival of the theology of the Latter Rain tent revivals of the 1950s and 1960s led by William Branham and others. It is based on the idea that in the end times there will be an outpouring of supernatural powers on a group of Christians that will take authority over the existing church and the world. The believing Christians of the world will be reorganized under the Fivefold Ministry and the church restructured under the authority of Prophets and Apostles and others anointed by God. The young generation will form ‘Joel’s Army’ to rise up and battle evil and retake the earth for God.’4 The excesses of this movement were declared a heresy in 1949 by the General Council of the Assemblies of God, and again condemned through Resolution 16 in 2000."
The Palin-Whatshisname Ticket 9/13/2008 NYT: "This was made clear in the most chilling passage of Palin’s acceptance speech. Aligning herself with “a young farmer and a haberdasher from Missouri” who “followed an unlikely path to the vice presidency,” she read a quote from an unidentified writer who, she claimed, had praised Truman: “We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity.” Then Palin added a snide observation of her own: Such small-town Americans, she said, “run our factories” and “fight our wars” and are “always proud” of their country. As opposed to those lazy, shiftless, unproud Americans — she didn’t have to name names — who are none of the above. There were several creepy subtexts at work here. The first was the choice of Truman. Most 20th-century vice presidents and presidents in both parties hailed from small towns, but she just happened to alight on a Democrat who ascended to the presidency when an ailing president died in office. Just as striking was the unnamed writer she quoted. He was identified by Thomas Frank in The Wall Street Journal as the now largely forgotten but once powerful right-wing Hearst columnist Westbrook Pegler. Palin, who lies with ease about her own record, misrepresented Pegler’s too. He decreed America was “done for” after Truman won a full term in 1948. For his part, Truman regarded the columnist as a “guttersnipe,” and with good reason. Pegler was a rabid Joe McCarthyite who loathed F.D.R. and Ike and tirelessly advanced the theory that American Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe (“geese,” he called them) were all likely Communists. Surely Palin knows no more about Pegler than she does about the Bush doctrine. But the people around her do, and they will be shaping a Palin presidency. That they would inject not just Pegler’s words but spirit into their candidate’s speech shows where they’re coming from. Rick Davis, the McCain campaign manager, said that the Palin-sparked convention created “a whole new Republican Party,” but what it actually did was exhume an old one from its crypt."
YouTube censors viral video documentary on Palin's churches 9/13/2008 Talk to Action: includes video - "Most Americans do not want an American jihad to conquer the world in the name of God let alone a global nuclear war. Judging from the churches Palin attends and from her public statements we have to take very seriously the prospect of having a Vice President, a heartbeat away from the United States presidency, who holds such apocalyptic goals."
Friday 9/12/2008
Attorneys: Gov. Palin's record on Alaska Natives 9/12/2008 IndianZ: ethnic cleansing: "1. Palin has attacked Alaska Native Subsistence Fishing
2. Palin has attacked Alaska Native Subsistence Hunting
3. Palin has attacked Alaska Tribal Sovereignty
4. Palin has attacked Alaska Native Languages"Out of bounds! Palin confuses Iraq with al Qaida 9/12/2008 McClatchy: "You'll be there to defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the deaths of thousands of Americans," Palin told an Army brigade in Alaska that will ship off to Iraq later this month."
Sarah Palin's Church tied to Jesus Camp Armageddon Dogma 9/12/2008 Salon: "The Third wave is dedicated to raising an army of young soldiers to fight in “Joel’s Army.” The Joel’s Army movement is a Neo-Pentecostal belief concocted from an esoteric reading of the second chapter of the Old Testament Book of Joel, in which an avenging swarm of locusts attacks Israel. In their convoluted view, the locusts are a metaphor for the minions of Joel’s Army. Believers in the Third Wave movement are focused on training a young "Joel's Army" to become an Armageddon-ready military force of young people with a divine mandate to physically impose Christian “dominion” on non-believers of the United States and the world... Third Wave Joel's Army believers are hard-core Christian dominionists, meaning they believe that America, along with the rest of the world, should be governed by conservative Christians, and ruled by a conservative Christian interpretation of biblical law. There is no room for democracy or pluralism in the doctrine of Joel’s Army dogma, just theocracy."
Thursday 9/11/2008
Gov. Palin's treatment of Alaska Natives 9/11/2008 IndianZ Wednesday 9/10/2008
Is Palin a Magnet for the Extreme Right-Wing? 9/10/2008 OpEd News: "Palin's and her husband's dalliances with the Alaska Independence Party (AIP), which advocates the secession of Alaska from the United States is the tip of a web of organizations that count among their membership extreme right-wing elements, many of whom also participate in Republican Party candidate selection and the lobbying of Republican members of Congress on behalf of Big Tobacco, Big Mining, Big Agra, and the small arms and defense industry clients.
The AIP is part of a network of extreme right-wing secessionists around the country, many of whom are linked to white supremacist causes. In 2006, the AIP participated in the first North American Secessionist Convention in Burlington, Vermont. Also attracted to the convention were a number of Southern secessionist movements, including the League of the South; the Southern Caucus; the Southern National Congress; and Christian Exodus, which advocates the secession of South Carolina as an independent republic governed by the Ten Commandments as the foundation of law."Tuesday 9/9/2008
Sarah Palin and the Wasilla Church of God 9/9/2008 Democracy Now: "New revelations about Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin continue to raise questions about how her religious views might affect her decisions on public policy. Much of the scrutiny has focused on Palin’s church, the Wasilla Assembly of God. This past a week, a video emerged of Palin telling students there that the US invasion of Iraq is a task from God. Her comments have raised concerns she could see some government actions as inevitable or preordained as part of a theocratic belief in “end times.” "Sarah Palin’s Churches and The Third Wave New Apostolic Reformation 9/9/2008 End Times Prophetic Words
Palin and The Fringe 9/9/2008 Jackson Free Press: "The extreme right is declaring a third-party victory with Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin on the presidential ticket this fall. “News of Sarah Palin’s ties to the Alaskan Independence Party inflamed the left yesterday, and what a joy it was to behold!” crowed League of the South board member Michael Tuggle on the League’s “Rebellion” blog. The “LS Blog” button on the League’s home page, dixienet.org, links directly to Rebellion (subtitled “Current events and commentary from a Southern perspective. The most powerful political forces of our time—localism, secession, and confederalism—vindicate the Southern Cause”)."
Sarah Palin Vetting Document 9/9/2008 Sarah Palin Exposed: "Looks like at least somebody vetted Sarah Palin. No, it wasn’t John McCain. It was the Alaskan Democratic Party back in 2006. One of my readers brought up the Sarah Palin vetting document that was put together during Palin’s 2006 gubernatorial campaign."
Palin Billed State for Nights Spent at Home 9/9/2008 WaPo: "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business."
Monday 9/8/2008
AIP Official On Tape Saying Sarah Palin Was A Member 9/8/2008 Mirror on America: "Vice Chairman of the AIP (Alaskan Independence Party) Dexter Clark is seen on video at a 2007 Convention mentioning Sarah Palin as a member.
"the Governor" was a member "before she ran for the Mayor" of Wasilla...and he goes on to mention that she is still "sympathetic" to the AIP."Todd Palin's AIP Sympathetic To White Supremacist Group 9/8/2008 Mirror on America: "AIP Vice Chairman Dexter Clark didn’t think of the League of the South — a neo-Confederate group that promotes the Confederate flag and seeks an independent Southern republic — as a strange ally for the Alaskan Independents, the third largest political party in the northernmost state. Alaska Independence Party has no problem rubbing shoulders with White Supremacists groups. In fact Clark, who went to the 2007 Second North American Secessionist Convention, went out of his way to legitimize groups like the League of the South when interviewed by the Anchorage Press."
Sarah Palin's Demon Haunted Churches - The Complete Edition 9/8/2008 Talk to Action: extensive researched borrowed by the London Times
Sunday 9/7/2008
Sarah Palin's Media No-Show 9/7/2008 Consortium News Sarah Palin's Churches and The Third Wave: New Video Documentary 9/7/2008 Huffington Post: "Thomas Muthee visited Wasilla Assembly of God and gave 10 consecutive sermons at the church, from October 11-16 2005. As both Palin and Wasilla AoG Head Pastor Ed Kalnins have attested, Thomas Muthee 'prayed over' Sarah Palin and entreated God to "make a way" prior to Palin's successful bid for the Alaska governorship. Muthee made a return visit to the Wasilla Assembly of God in late 2008. Thomas Muthee's Word of Faith Church is featured in the "Transformations" video which details an account on how Muthee drove "the spirit of witchcraft" out of Kiambu, Kenya, liberating the town from its territorial demonic possession and enabling a miraculous societal transformation. The "Transformations" video set is used as an argument for social improvement through spiritual instead of human means, and as the best method for fighting corruption, crime, drugs and even environmental degradation. In the video, producer George Otis declares that after Thomas Muthee and his followers banished the "spirit of witchcraft" from the town, the crime rate in Kiambu dropped almost to zero, along with the rate of alcoholism, and according to Otis most of the residents of the town joined churches. The "Transformations" video has helped spark a network of 'Transformation' ministries and mission organizations and 'transformation' has become a buzz word for change based on supernatural instead of human efforts."
Sarah Palin's Secret Emails 9/7/2008 Mother Jones: "The Palin administration won't release hundreds of emails from her office, claiming they cover confidential policy matters. Then why do the subject lines refer to a political foe, a journalist, and non-policy topics?" [contains PDF with 78 page list of redacted email subject lines and To lines]
Saturday 9/6/2008
Sarah Palin, Anne Kilkenny and the Authority to Ban Books 9/6/2008 Associated Content: "And then there was the citizen's letter from Wasilla resident Anne Kilkenny that has been circulating on the internet. Time magazine and the New York Times have gone on record that the allegations in the letter have been corroborated."Palin's 'Trooper-gate' Cover-up 9/6/2008 Consortium News: "Now, rather than cooperate with an independent counsel assigned to examine whether Palin fired the state’s public safety commission because he refused to fire her ex-brother-in-law from the state troopers, Palin, her husband and seven witnesses close to Palin are resisting giving testimony. Moreover, on Tuesday, just one day before giving her widely acclaimed speech to the Republican National Convention, Palin took the unusual step of filing an ethics complaint against herself – to move the investigation to the state personnel board whose three members are appointed by the governor. Palin’s decision to, in effect, turn herself in so she could get a hearing before more sympathetic investigators was known by the U.S. news media before Palin’s speech, but was rarely, if ever, mentioned by TV pundits filling hours of air time with chatter about her charisma, her moose hunting and her 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy."
Sarah Palin's Churches and The Third Wave 9/6/2008 Vimeo
Friday 9/5/2008
A Dissent on Palin's Success 9/5/2008 Consortium News Thursday 9/4/2008
An Open Letter to Gov. Sarah Palin on Women's Rights 9/4/2008 Alternet: "According to press reports your water broke while you were giving a keynote speech in Texas at the Republican Governors' Energy Conference. You did not immediately go to the hospital -- instead you gave your speech and then waited at least 11 hours to get to a hospital. You evaluated the risks, made a choice, and were able to carry on your life without state interference… When Pamela Rae Stewart, allegedly, didn't get to the hospital quickly enough on the day of her delivery, she was arrested in California on the theory that she had violated the rights of her fetus.
When Laura Pemberton chose to give birth at home in Florida, a Sheriff came to her house. Doctors believed that she was posing a risk to the life of her unborn child by having a vaginal birth after having had a previous c-section and were in the process of getting a court order to force her to have a c-section. The sheriff took her into custody during active labor, strapped her legs together and forced her to go to a hospital where an emergency hearing was taking place to determine the rights of her fetus. She was "allowed" to represent herself. A lawyer was appointed for the fetus. This woman, who vehemently opposes abortion, nevertheless believed in her right to evaluate medical risks and benefits to herself and her unborn child. She was forced to have the unnecessary surgery and when she later sued for violations of her civil rights, was told fetal rights outweighed hers."Palin's secession flirtation 9/4/2008 LA Times: "It's untrue that Palin has no foreign policy experience, anyway. In fact, she appears to have seriously flirted with the idea of trying to turn Alaska into a foreign country. How many vice presidential candidates can put that on their resumes? Over the years, Palin has actively courted the Alaska Independence Party, or AIP, an organization that supports Alaskan secession from the U.S. To be clear, we're not necessarily talking about friendly secession either: As the AIP's founder, Joe Vogler, told an interviewer in 1991: "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government. ... And I won't be buried under their damn flag.""
Sarah Palin, aspiring book banner? 9/4/2008 LA Times
Wednesday 9/3/2008
Sarah Palin and the Jewish community 9/3/2008 Jerusalem Post Sarah Palin's Jewish Problem 9/3/2008 Salon: "In his talk at Wasilla on August 17, 2008, with Palin in the audience, Brickner described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" on Jews who have not converted to Christianity. "Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television," Brickner said. "It's very real. When [my son] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment — you can't miss it."
Tuesday 9/2/2008
Palin's Church May Have Shaped Controversial Worldview 9/2/2008 Huffington Post: "Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God," she exhorted the congregants. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."Sarah Palin and Christian Dominionist Theocracy 9/2/2008 Huffington Post: by Chip Berlet - "The goal of the Constitution Party is to restore American jurisprudence to its Biblical foundations and to limit the federal government to its Constitutional boundaries. If you are unclear about what this means, read the book of Leviticus in the Bible. Biblical law as interpreted by these folks means the death penalty for homosexuals, adulterers, and recalcitrant children."
The Christian Right, Dominionism, and Theocracy 9/2/2008 PRA: by Chip Berlet
The Sarah Palin Church Video Part One 9/2/2008 YouTube: "JESUS, GIVE US A PIPELINE!"
Transformations: A Documentary Trailer 9/2/2008 YouTube: "Muthee made his experiences into a video called Transformations, which documents his "spiritual warfare" against demons and occult practices. Spiritual warfare is more common in Latin America and Africa, where the concept of day-to-day demons has a stronger hold. The video's trailer is available here."
Monday 9/1/2008
Jewish Democrats: Palin is out of step with Jewish public opinion 9/1/2008 Haaretz Sunday 8/31/2008
Questions Raised: Is Sarah Palin Actually the Mother of Her 5th Child? [Photos + Video] 8/31/2008 Alternet: "Checking with the Anchorage High School that Bristol Palin attended, reporters were given word that her family had taken Bristol out of school due to contracting infectious mononucleosis. The amount of time Bristol was absent shifts from five to eight months.
Mono can last anywhere from two weeks to three months, but an eight month infection is a freak oddity. Yet it remains a common excuse given by girls in private & Catholic schools around the nation when pregnancy comes into play. Not the first time, not the last time."Sarah Palin and the Alaska Independence Party. Palin addresses AIP convention 8/31/2008 YouTube
Saturday 8/30/2008
Sarah Palin and Feminists for Life 8/30/2008 Alternet 'Troopergate' inquiry lurks for Palin 8/30/2008 Anchorage Daily News
McCain VP Pick Has History of Clashes 8/30/2008 Consortium News: "For two years, she stayed out of politics, acquiring a business license for a marketing and consulting company named Rogue Cou, “a classy way of saying redneck,” Palin told the Anchorage Daily News in a June 2005 interview."
2 Top Alaska Newspapers Question Palin's Fitness 8/30/2008 Huffington Post: "His paper found a number of leading Republican officeholders in the state who mocked Palin's qualifications. "She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?" said Lyda Green, the president of the State Senate, a Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla. "Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?" Another top Republican, John Harris, the speaker of the House, when asked about her qualifications for Veep, replied with this: "She's old enough. She's a U.S. citizen." "
'Arming' for Armageddon - Militant Joel's Army Followers Seek Theocracy 8/30/2008 Southern Poverty Law Center: "As the church begins to take on this resolve, they [Joel's Army churches] will start to be thought of more as military bases, and they will begin to take on the characteristics of military bases for training, equipping, and deploying effective spiritual forces," Joyner wrote. "In time, the church will actually be organized more as a military force with an army, navy, air force, etc." In a sort of disclaimer, Joyner writes at one point that God's army "will bring love, peace and stability wherever they go." But several of his books narrate with glee what he describes as "a coming civil war within the church." In his 1997 book The Harvest he writes: "Some pastors and leaders who continue to resist this tide of unity will be removed from their place. Some will become so hardened they will become opposers and resist God to the end."
Friday 8/29/2008
Sarah Palin: Dominionist Stalking Horse 8/29/2008 Daily Kos: "A look at the home website of Palin's church tends to be revealing. Among other things, a particular Assemblies buzzword associated frequently with Hillsong A/G and New Zealand Assemblies churches shows up ("Destiny", here, is a buzzword for "Joel's Army", and is being preferred even as the phrase "Joel's Army" is getting enough negative spin that even the Assemblies is now having to do some rather massive spin control); cell churches are promoted (of the same sort that are linked to short-term and longterm psychological damage and are among the most coercive tactics ever documented in spiritually abusive groups). The church, like a number of other large Assemblies churches, is the center of a dominionist broadcast TV center whose programming is carried across multiple channels in Alaska."McCain's Hail Mary Pass 8/29/2008 The Nation: "Choosing Palin kills the "experience" argument. Republicans must have recognized from their own market research that it wasn't working for them. For two months or more, McCain and his handlers have smeared and slandered Obama, mocked his star quality talents, belittled his lack of tenure in Washington back rooms and accused him of unpatriotic egotism. Clearly, their internal polling told them this line of character attack wasn't grabbing the public. Playing the wise old man was not going to be enough to overcome McCain's other significant handicaps, his somewhat doddering style and memory lapses, his deadly embrace of right-wing cant and G.W. Bush."
Saturday 8/9/2008
Palin's Churches and the Third Wave 8/9/2008 Information Clearinghouse: extensive linksSunday 7/27/2008
Joel’s Army the manifest sons of deception! 7/27/2008 The Prophetic Years