Oh, That’s Cold: Alaskan Weather And Politics

I have watched with endless fascination the rise of Sarah Palin, from little-known Governor of Alaska to McCain’s stunning, if gaffe-prone, VP candidate with a penchant for “terrorist” outing. And she is fascinating. Attractive, winsome, folksy and cute, Gov. Palin manages to get away with the bare minimum of actual governance in Alaska, preferring to live in her home in Wasilla, about 500 miles from the state capital, legislature and governor’s mansion in Juneau. She literally “phones it in” a lot of the time. Except when she doesn’t even phone it in, as with the recent stimulus bill meeting which infuriated her fellow Alaskan Republican legislators.

I’ve followed with interest her various adventures: the accusations of “pillaging Neiman Marcus coast to coast“, the soap opera-esque Troopergate, and the (I thought) charming footage of her chatting to the media, unconcerned by the turkey carnage going on behind her. Many criticized Gov. Palin and her handlers over that incident, I honestly thought better of her for it. True, it wasn’t the most picturesque location to do a stand-up, and it was sheer comedy gold, but I respected her for “just getting on with it” and appearing agreeably chipper in the process.

Now it seems Gov Sarah Palin is in hot water over an alleged conflict of interest regarding a familiar subject,  questionable clothing choices. It concerns her wearing some rather loudly branded and personally monogrammed Arctic Cat snow gear [pictured above with similarly upholstered daughter, Piper] while serving in her official capacity as Governor of Alaska and the guest starter at the Iron Dog snowmobiling event, where her husband Todd was participating as a racer and, along with his team mate, Scott Davis, was sponsored by (you guessed it!) Arctic Cat.

A photo of Gov Palin wearing her personalized snowmobiling outfit can also be found on her official gubernatorial website. Sports Illustrated magazine was also scheduled to be there to interview the First Dude for a piece about Alaska’s longest, hardest snowmobile race that runs from Big Lake to Nome to Fairbanks. This is how Sports Illustrated described Palin and Davis’ gear edge, thanks to Arctic Cat:

“Some Iron Doggers have spent upwards of $30,000 to finance a once-in-a-lifetime run into the wild heart of Alaska. Tapping their credit cards, they’ve shelled out $10,000 each for a 2009 snow machine, $10,000 more for an identical training sled, $2,500 for the race entry fee and a few thousand more for trailing airplane support. Palin and Davis, in contrast, have spent almost nothing. They are prodigiously sponsored, with their names monogrammed in script on their matching Arctic Cat jackets. (Palin even has the names of his five kids and his wife, SARAH, THE GOV, appliquéd on his snow machine hood.)”

In case anyone wanted to see it, here’s the ethics complaint:

The complaint claims Governor Palin violated of AS39.52.120 of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act, Misuse of official position:

(A) A public officer may not use, or attempt to use, an official position for personal gain, and may not intentionally secure or grant unwarranted benefits or treatment for any person;
(3) use state time, property, equipment or other facilities to benefit personal or financial interests

Alaskan blogger, Mudflats (more on them in another post) explained the conflict of interest thusly: 

“If the governor’s family benefits directly from a private sponsor,” the Mudflats continues, “(like getting a $5000 check from them) and the governor shows up to take an official role at an official event, representing all Alaskans, it’s a big fat no-no to show up plastered like a billboard with the official ‘gear’ and giant flaming logo of the company that’s been paying you money.” 

Gov Palin has slammed the allegations, describing the complaint as “asinine political grandstanding” and insists that, “I wore Arctic Cat snow gear at an outdoor event, because it was cold outside”. She also mentioned it at length during her speech at the Lincoln dinner on Friday night:

Unfortunately, this is not the first conflict of interest query to be leveled at the couple; in 2007, questions were raised after Todd Palin returned to his job with BP, one of oil-rich Alaska’s biggest petrochem producers. 

For all our differing viewpoints, it’s easy to see how Gov Palin inspires an almost rabid loyalty in her followers. And, boy, are some of them frothing at the mouth. 

Take, for example, Fox News anchor and $cientologist, Greta van Susteren, who, like her equally Xenu-addled husband John Coale [seen wearing black in the photo above], is a huge Palin fan, and whom famously got her panties in a bunch when CNN put together a list of politicos who made headlines for the wrong reasons. Greta complained on her blog, it caused something of a fuss, then CNN blinked and took Palin’s name off the piece. Greta has done several puff pieces on Gov Palin and her family, and is allegedly behind the dispatching of a Fox News ambush squad to Alaska to basically stalk liberal blogger Linda Kellen Biegel. It sounds similar to the one recently deployed by Bill O’Reilly to stalk and harass Think Progress blogger Amanda Terkel during a weekend vacation. Mudflats, another Alaskan blogger critical of Gov Palin’s leadership, was recently outed this weekend by a (get this) civil servant, none other than State House Representative Mike Doogan. 

While beset by the Troopergate scandal, during which she was accused of trying get her former brother-in-law and eponymous Trooper, Mike Wooten, fired, and then (allegedly!) fired Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan for not playing along, Gov Sarah was aided by a bunch of out-of-state Texas god-botherers who raised $185,000 for her legal defence fund. 

Jim Geraghty over at National Review’s Campaign Spot has declared Gov Palin’s repeated ethics allegations as the work of “lefty foes attempt to bankrupt Palin family”, phrasing which is meant to evoke evil commies snatching candy from baby Trig’s adorably pudgy fist, rather than concerned citizens exercising their right to hold elected officials accountable for their actions. 

Speaking ill of “Sarah”, as so many of her followers simply call her, is verboten over at Team Sarah, Gov Palin’s online fan club. Admittedly, Gov Palin has no control over the group, but it’s sad that she hasn’t disavowed some of the more, umm, psychotic babble that’s being espoused there. An admittedly imperfect article by Amanda Coyne on Alaska Dispatch about the online community drew some TeamSarah members to comment on the Alaska Dispatch page.

Amanda Coyne wrote this about the TeamSarah community:

“TeamSarah.org was founded to advance Palin’s vice-presidential candidacy. Now the group sees her as their presidential candidate for 2012. The group boasts it has more than 60,000 members. At any given time, you’ll see as many as 60 people in the chat room, where you’ll find an endless stream of ranting about President-elect Obama. Is he a Muslim? (Probably.) Is he Socialist? (Definitely.) Another Hitler or the anti-Christ? (If not, he certainly carries the stench of evil).”

Coyne also uses snippets of online chat to describe some of the more racist and unhinged banter than goes on, as well as to make clear that there are intelligent, rational TeamSarah commentators too. Many TeamSarah members were outraged, others were dismissive. A TeamSarah fan, who goes under the moniker SavantNoir, said this:

“I actually had the pleasure of speaking with Amanda, and she did tell me she was a liberal, and asked if I was going to expose her to the room as a ‘troll’. I told her no, that I would not, that opposing points of view are welcomed, so long as the person remains respectful. This is not only my personal beleif, but it is also the desire of the Management at Team Sarah, whom emailed all Members and ask that they be just as resepctful of Liberals as we would expect them to be resepctful of us.”

Some of the other commentators were less restrained, but markedly more hilarious and deranged! Someone billing themselves as “Mrs Nancy Kilkeary” stated firmly, if confusingly:

“Go look up Obama and Odinga on google. Yes this is the person you think is capable of defending our Constitution and protecting us from enemies both FOREIGN and domestic. Good grief! He is not the fantasy you gullible people have created, and never will be. He is a marxist and his change is communism. Did you know Hitler wasn’t a German citizen either, he was from Austria.”

Ah, those wily Austrians, so different from Germans. Also, I do love the way wingers think Obama is both a Marxist and a Hitlerian fascist. How does he manage to reconcile those vastly differing ideologies? Meh, I suppose the “Anti-Christ” can do that sort of thing. Another TeamSarah commenter, “laura” remarked on the Alaska Dispatch page, (and this one is my favorite for the sheer scale of its crazy),:

“I am absolutely thoroughly convinced Obama is the 666 beast of Revelation. He has been hailed as a messiah. Farrakhan announced Obama, also, to be the messiah of Islam - Mahdi. The world is seeking to worship him as they move to worship new age world leaders. This is exactly what the Bible predicted would happen. He has sought to institute a one world government by his Global Poverty Act. He is a socialist. He is advancing global socialism. He has “claimed” to be a Christian - yet says Jesus is not the only way of salvation. New Agers have said he as a “Lightworker” (they worship Lucifer and are Luciferian… any reference they make to light is the light of Lucifer).

Yes, absolutely, I believe he is the 666 beast of Revelation.

You don’t like that I believe that??

What’s your point??

Did you want to worship him and be part of his one world government??

Only history in retrospect will change my mind. Unless it is without question proven wrong - ABSOLUTELY I believe he is the 666 beast of Revelation. I wasn’t “in on” the Team Sarah chat… but how dare anyone mock people for believing the Bible and watching for the beast to arise?? You may end up worshiping him.

Ahmadenijab has been rebuilding the Temple of Mahdi. He’s been saying for years now that he expects Mahdi (the Islam messiah - the antichrist to Christians) to come into prominence January 2009.

The Bible states that the 666 beast will rise from a superpower nation that sits on the seas - a historically wealthy nation that is the center of world trade and commerce.. The symbol of the nation, per Revelation 18, may be an eagle.

Sure sounds like the USA to me. It has to be European per Bible scholars - but America has her roots in Europe and was an English colony before revolution made her a Sovereign nation.

Everything lines up biblically for Obama to be the 666 beast.

ABSOLUTELY I believe it personally.

Anyone who doesn’t learn form prophecy is destined to… fulfill it anyway.

Your national REAL ID cards are coming soon. Next step - maybe you’ll need a microchip for ID…. and to buy and sell.

These are the last times and we are watching for the antichrist to arise as Christians. ALL CHRISTIANS who believe the Bible watch for the antichrist to arise to fulfill scripture - and Obama lines up perfectly.

He’s even viewed as a person who may create world peace. That’s apocalyptic and also a sign of the antichrist - exactly what the Bible says the 666 beast will do.

Give me a break if you want to secularize Christians and stop us from watching for the 666 beast to arise. Biblical Christians always have and always will. The Lord Jesus Christ commands us, “Watch and pray lest ye be caught sleeping”.

I think the writer of this article… is FAST ASLEEP.

Grace.”

After watching Sarah Palin rabble-rouse for presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, or perhaps more accurately herself, I somehow doubt she’ll be pouring cool water on the flames of some of her fans’ more unhinged rhetoric.