Republican Family Values, part 26: Idaho GOP national committeeman Blake Hall loses job over stalking and lobbing used condoms on ex-girlfriend's lawn

By Pablo Fanque,
All This Is That Crime and Punishment editor

Blake Hall, a leader in Idaho GOP and national politics for almost 25 years, was fired Monday as deputy prosecuting attorney in eastern Idaho. He just resigned from the Republican National Committee. The former Idaho Board of Education member pleaded guilty last week to stalking his former girlfriend and is serving a two-week jail sentence. He also sentenced to a year of supervised probation. but for some reason, a six-month jail sentence was suspended.

On ten different days—Hall tossed semen-filled condoms onto his ex-girlfriend’s lawn. He had stalked her for half a year. His victim said, “I was so tired of being victimized. It is unimaginable that a 56-year-old would be so deviant.”

Between March and August this year, Hall often followed his victim to restaurants, movies and home. He ignored her repeated requests to be left alone, according to police records and court testimony.

The victim said Hall once followed her to a Walmart, and took her car keys until she agreed to “hear him out” concerning her marriage, according to the Idaho Falls Post Register.

Hall and his lawyer denied none of this. When he gets out of the hoosegow a couple weeks from now, he joins Ex-Senator Larry Craig in the unemployment line. And the Idaho Hall of Shame.
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Video: Bill Maher talks to Jeff Sharlet about The Family a/k/a The Christian Mafia

Thanks to Jeff Clinton for sending this on. I'd read about them before, and heard rumblings--but they actually seem far more nefarious than I'd been led to believe. Jeff Sharlet doesn't seem to be a nut at all--he's an editor at Harper's. This is not some wack job raving about Obama's birth certificate, his indoctrination at a Madrasah, or about which government agency bombed the WTC. This seems quite real. And spooky.



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Transcript of Sarah Palin's resignation speech & refrigerator magnet wisdom

By Jack Brummet
All This Is That Arts Editor

I am not going to argue about any of the paternity or sex scandals that Pablo Fanque outlined in his article here this morning. I AM going to talk a little about her speech (a transcript of which is printed below). Thanks to the Alaska Governor's office for providing the transcript of her July 3rd speech.

Let's face it, she looked and very much sounded jangled and crazed.

“It would be apathetic to just hunker down and ‘go with the flow.’ Nah, only dead fish ‘go with the flow.’ - Saran Palin, yesterday

The rambling announcement actually appeared scripted, which makes it even more stunning. The bottom line she reached via a twisted logic path was this: The only way the Palin Administration can “continue without interruption” and achieve her goals. is for her to step down immediately, with a year and a half left in her term. All in all, it was the most incoherent speech I have ever heard a politician make. It comes at the tail end of a week when several other Republicans on the hot seat made equally bizarre speeches about their own personal troubles.



As Gail Collins wrote in the New York Times last night:

"On Friday, Palin said that finishing out her term would be just too easy. “Many just accept that lame-duck status, hit the road, draw the paycheck and ‘milk it.’ I’m not putting Alaska through that,” she said. Apparently, she’s going to put the rest of us through it instead." - Gail Collins, NY Times

Transcript of Sarah Palin's resignation speech [courtesy, the Governor's press office]:

Hi Alaska, I appreciate speaking directly TO you, the people I serve, as your Governor.
People who know me know that besides faith and family, nothing's more important to me than our beloved Alaska. Serving her people is the greatest honor I could imagine.

I want Alaskans to grasp what can be in store for our state. We were purchased as a territory because a member of President Abe Lincoln's cabinet, William Seward, providentially saw in this great land, vast riches, beauty, strategic placement on the globe, and opportunity. He boldly looked "North to the Future". But he endured such ridicule and mocking for his vision for Alaska, remember the adversaries scoffed, calling this "Seward's Folly". Seward withstood such disdain as he chose the uncomfortable, unconventional, but RIGHT path to secure Alaska, so Alaska could help secure the United States.


People who know me know that besides faith and family, nothing's more important to me than our beloved Alaska.

Alaska's mission - to contribute to America. We're strategic IN the world as the air crossroads OF the world, as a gatekeeper of the continent. Bold visionaries knew this - Alaska would be part of America's great destiny.

Our destiny to be reached by responsibly developing our natural resources. This land, blessed with clean air, water, wildlife, minerals, AND oil and gas. It's energy! God gave us energy.

So to serve the state is a humbling responsibility, because I know in my soul that Alaska is of such import, for America's security, in our very volatile world. And you know me by now, I promised even four years ago to show MY Independence... no more conventional "politics as usual".

And we are doing well! My administration's accomplishments speak for themselves. We work tirelessly for Alaskans.

We aggressively and responsibly develop our resources because they were created to be used to better our world... to HELP people... and we protect the environment and Alaskans (the resource owners) foremost with our policies.

Here's some of the things we've done:

We created a petroleum integrity office to oversee safe development. We held the line FOR Alaskans on Point Thomson - and finally for the first time in decades - they're drilling for oil and gas.

We have AGIA, the gasoline project - a massive bi-partisan victory (the vote was 58 to 1!) - also succeeding as intended - protecting Alaskans as our clean natural gas will flow to energize us, and America, through a competitive, pro-private sector project. This is the largest private sector energy project, ever. THIS is energy Independence.

And ACES - another bipartisan effort - is working as intended and industry is publicly acknowledging its success. Our new oil and gas "clear and equitable formula" is so Alaskans will no longer be taken advantage of. ACES incentivizes NEW exploration and development and JOBS that were previously not going to happen with a monopolized North Slope oil basin.

We cleaned up previously accepted unethical actions; we ushered in bi-partisan Ethics Reform.

We also slowed the rate of government growth, we worked with the Legislature to save billions of dollars for the future, and I made no lobbyist friends with my hundreds of millions of dollars in budget vetoes... but living beyond our means today is irresponsible for tomorrow.

We took government out of the dairy business and put it back into private-sector hands - where it should be.

We provided unprecedented support for education initiatives, and with the right leadership, finally filled long-vacant public safety positions. We built a sub-Cabinet on Climate Change and took heat from Outside special interests for our biologically-sound wildlife management for abundance.

We broke ground on the new prison.

And we made common sense Conservative choices to eliminate personal luxuries like the jet, the chef, the junkets... the entourage.

And the Lt. Governor and I said "no" to our pay raises. So much success in this first term - and with this success I am proud to take credit... for hiring the right people! Our goal was to achieve a gasline project, more fair oil and gas valuation, and ethics reform in four years. We did it in two. It's because of the people... good public servants surrounding the Governor's office, with servants' hearts and astounding work ethic... THEY are Alaska's success!

We are doing well! I wish you'd hear MORE from the media of your state's progress and how we tackle Outside interests - daily - SPECIAL interests that would stymie our state. Even those debt-ridden stimulus dollars that would force the heavy hand of federal government into our communities with an "all-knowing attitude" - I have taken the slings and arrows with that unpopular move to veto because I know being right is better than being popular. Some of those dollars would harm Alaska and harm America - I resisted those dollars because of the obscene national debt we're forcing our children to pay, because of today's Big Government spending; it's immoral and doesn't even make economic sense!

Another accomplishment - our Law Department protected states' rights - TWO huge U.S. Supreme Court reversals came down against that liberal Ninth Circuit, deciding in OUR state's favor over the last two weeks. We're protectors of our Constitution - federalists protect states' rights as mandated in 10th amendment.

But you don't hear much of the good stuff in the press anymore, do you?

Some say things changed for me on August 29th last year - the day John McCain tapped me to be his running-mate - I say others changed.

Let me speak to that for a minute.

Political operatives descended on Alaska last August, digging for dirt. The ethics law I championed became their weapon of choice. Over the past nine months I've been accused of all sorts of frivolous ethics violations - such as holding a fish in a photograph, wearing a jacket with a logo on it, and answering reporters' questions.

Every one - all 15 of the ethics complaints have been dismissed. We've won! But it hasn't been cheap - the State has wasted THOUSANDS of hours of YOUR time and shelled out some two million of YOUR dollars to respond to "opposition research" - that's money NOT going to fund teachers or troopers - or safer roads. And this political absurdity, the "politics of personal destruction" ... Todd and I are looking at more than half a million dollars in legal bills in order to set the record straight. And what about the people who offer up these silly accusations? It doesn't cost them a dime so they're not going to stop draining public resources - spending other peoples' money in their game.

It's pretty insane - my staff and I spend most of our day dealing with THIS instead of progressing our state now. I know I promised no more "politics as usual," but THIS isn't what anyone had in mind for ALASKA.

If I have learned one thing: LIFE is about choices!

And one chooses how to react to circumstances. You can choose to engage in things that tear down, or build up. I choose to work very hard on a path for fruitfulness and productivity. I choose NOT to tear down and waste precious time; but to build UP this state and our country, and her industrious, generous, patriotic, free people!

Life is too short to compromise time and resources... it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: "Sit down and shut up", but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out. And a problem in our country today is apathy. It would be apathetic to just hunker down and "go with the flow".

Nah, only dead fish "go with the flow".

No. Productive, fulfilled people determine where to put their efforts, choosing to wisely utilize precious time... to BUILD UP.

And there is such a need to BUILD up and FIGHT for our state and our country. I choose to FIGHT for it! And I'll work hard for others who still believe in free enterprise and smaller government; strong national security for our country and support for our troops; energy Independence; and for those who will protect freedom and equality and LIFE... I'll work for and campaign for those PROUD to be American, and those who are INSPIRED by our ideals and won't deride them.

I WILL support others who seek to serve, in or out of office, for the RIGHT reasons, and I don't care what party they're in or no party at all. Inside Alaska - or Outside Alaska.

But I won't do it from the Governor's desk.

I've never believed that I, nor anyone else, needs a title to do this - to make a difference... to HELP people. So I choose, for my State and my family, more "freedom" to progress, all the way around... so that Alaska may progress... I will not seek re-election as Governor.

And so as I thought about this announcement that I wouldn't run for re-election and what it means for Alaska, I thought about how much fun some governors have as lame ducks... travel around the state, to the Lower 48 (maybe), overseas on international trade - as so many politicians do. And then I thought - that's what's wrong - many just accept that lame duck status, hit the road, draw the paycheck, and "milk it". I'm not putting Alaska through that - I promised efficiencies and effectiveness! ? That's not how I am wired. I am not wired to operate under the same old "politics as usual." I promised that four years ago - and I meant it.

It's not what is best for Alaska.

I am determined to take the right path for Alaska even though it is unconventional and not so comfortable.

With this announcement that I am not seeking re-election... I've determined it's best to transfer the authority of governor to Lieutenant Governor Parnell; and I am willing to do so, so that this administration - with its positive agenda, its accomplishments, and its successful road to an incredible future - can continue without interruption and with great administrative and legislative success.

My choice is to take a stand and effect change - not hit our heads against the wall and watch valuable state time and money, millions of your dollars, go down the drain in this new environment. Rather, we know we can effect positive change outside government at this moment in time, on another scale, and actually make a difference for our priorities - and so we will, for Alaskans and for Americans.

Let me go back to a comfortable analogy for me - sports... basketball. I use it because you're naïve if you don't see the national full-court press picking away right now: A good point guard drives through a full court press, protecting the ball, keeping her eye on the basket... and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can WIN. And I'm doing that - keeping our eye on the ball that represents sound priorities - smaller government, energy independence, national security, freedom! And I know when it's time to pass the ball - for victory.

I have given my reasons candidly and truthfully... and my last day won't be for another few weeks so the transition will be very smooth. In fact, we will look to swear Sean in - in Fairbanks at the conclusion of our Governor's picnics.

I do not want to disappoint anyone with my decision; all I can ask is that you TRUST me with this decision - but it's no more "politics as usual".

Some Alaskans don't mind wasting public dollars and state time. I do. I cannot stand here as your Governor and allow millions upon millions of our dollars go to waste just so I can hold the title of Governor. And my children won't allow it either. ? Some will question the timing. ? Let's just say, this decision has been in the works for awhile...

In fact, this decision comes after much consideration, and finally polling the most important people in my life - my children (where the count was unanimous... well, in response to asking: "Want me to make a positive difference and fight for ALL our children's future from OUTSIDE the Governor's office?" It was four "yes's" and one "hell yeah!" The "hell yeah" sealed it - and someday I'll talk about the details of that... I think much of it had to do with the kids seeing their baby brother Trig mocked by some pretty mean-spirited adults recently.) Um, by the way, sure wish folks could ever, ever understand that we ALL could learn so much from someone like Trig - I know he needs me, but I need him even more... what a child can offer to set priorities RIGHT - that time is precious... the world needs more "Trigs", not fewer.

My decision was also fortified during this most recent trip to Kosovo and Landstuhl, to visit our wounded soldiers overseas, those who sacrifice themselves in war for OUR freedom and security... we can ALL learn from our selfless Troops... they're bold, they don't give up, they take a stand and know that LIFE is short so they choose to NOT waste time. They choose to be productive and to serve something greater than SELF... and to build up their families, their states, our country. These Troops and their important missions - those are truly the worthy causes in this world and should be the public priority with time and resources and NOT this local / superficial wasteful political bloodsport.

May we ALL learn from them!

*((Gotta put First Things First))*

First things first: as Governor, I love my job and I love Alaska. It hurts to make this choice but I am doing what's best for Alaska. I've explained why... though I think of the saying on my parents' refrigerator that says "Don't explain: your friends don't need it and your enemies won't believe you anyway."

But I have given my reasons... no more "politics as usual" and I am taking my fight for what's right - for Alaska - in a new direction.

Now, despite this, I don't want any Alaskan dissuaded from entering politics after seeing this REAL "climate change" that began in August... no, we NEED hardworking, average Americans fighting for what's right! And I will support you because we need YOU and YOU can effect change, and I can too on the outside.

We need those who will respect our Constitution where government's supposed to serve from the BOTTOM UP, not move toward this TOP DOWN big government take-over... but rather, will be protectors of individual rights - who also have enough common sense to acknowledge when conditions have drastically changed and are willing to call an audible and pass the ball when it's time so the team can win! And that is what I'm doing!

Remember Alaska... America is now, more than ever, looking North to the Future. It'll be good. So God bless you, and from me and my family - to ALL Alaska - you have my heart.

And we will be in the capable hands of our Lieutenant Governor, Sean Parnell. And Lieutenant General Craig Campbell will assume the role of Lieutenant Governor. And it is my promise to you that I will always be standing by, ready to assist. We have a good, positive agenda for Alaska.

In the words of General MacArthur said, "We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction."
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Sarah Palin resigns as governor: "We're not retreating; we're advancing in another direction."

Ted Stevens escapes the hangman's noose and the hunters become the hunted

illustration by jack brummet

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

The Justice Department moved today to drop all charges against former Senator and current douchebag Ted Stevens of Alaska, who just barely lost his seat last year after being convicted on seven felony counts of ethics violations.

Stevens faced serious prison time over the charges. But the judge, Emmet Sullivan, has been reluctant to stick him in the hoosegow, because of the earlier accusations of prosecutorial misconduct.

In an utterly depressing and incredible new development (about which rumors have bounced around for months), Justice Department lawyers told a federal court that they had discovered yet another instance of prosecutorial misconduct (it must have been egregious!) in the case and asked that the convictions be voided. Attorney General Eric F. Holder Jr. said that "in the interests of justice," there would be no new trial.

And, now, the hunters become the hunted (there may be a little justice after all). It appears that at least some of the prosecutors who tried Stevens on ethics charges would now face ethics charges themselves and be sent to a "don't drop your soap" federal prison.
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Buyer's remorse:::::::::McCain campaign calls Sarah a whack job:::::Her team fires back::::::::::Palin goes rogue::::::Let the finger pointing begin!

An Awkward Embrace

The wheels have long since fallen off the McPalin bandwagon, and the finger pointing has begun. In public. The McCain camp clearly has a case of buyer's remorse, and the Palin wing feels like they have been kept under wraps and aggressively over-managed.

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, writes about a “demoralized” McCain campaign: “Palin is going to be the most vivid chapter of the McCain campaign's post-mortem. … Those loyal to McCain believe they have been unfairly blamed for over-handling Palin. They say they did the best they could with what they got.”



Anonymous McCain campaign leakers have now called Governor Palin a “diva," and even “a whack job.”

George Stephanpolous also wrote: "The Alaska governor herself has been pushing out on her own against McCain's handlers. In recent days she has been speaking her own mind about what she thought of McCain's strategy in Michigan, and what she thought of his decision not to go after Rev. Jeremiah Wright. "

From Atlantic Magazine: "There's a faction within the McCain campaign has begun to whisper about Gov. Sarah Palin to reporters. The faction includes staff members and advisers who consult with staff members. It does not seem to include any members of the senior staff, although the definition of the senior staff here is a bit elastic. This faction has come to believe that Palin, perhaps unwittingly, subconsciously or otherwise, has begun to play Sen. McCain off of the base, consistently and deliberately departed from the campaign's message of the day in ways that damage McCain."

Politico.com reports: "'She's lost confidence in most of the people on the plane,' said a senior Republican who speaks to Palin, referring to her campaign jet. He said Palin had begun to 'go rogue' in some of her public pronouncements and decisions. 'I think she'd like to go more rogue,' he said … 'These people are going to try and shred her after the campaign to divert blame from themselves,' a McCain insider said, referring to McCain's chief strategist, Steve Schmidt, and to Nicolle Wallace, a former Bush aide who has taken a lead role in Palin's campaign. Palin's partisans blame Wallace, in particular, for Palin's avoiding of the media for days and then giving a high-stakes interview to CBS News' Katie Couric, the sometimes painful content of which the campaign allowed to be parceled out over a week."



The New York Post said: "Things have gotten so tense between Palin and her traveling staff, an insider said, that she's overruling their advice — which was evident last week when she ignored GOP aides piling into waiting cars at a Colorado event and strolled over to the press corps for an impromptu talk."

From the Cable News Network web site: "'She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,' said [a] McCain adviser. "She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom."

UPI reported yesterday that "At a Tampa rally yesterday, Palin blasted the RNC for buying her a $150,000 wardrobe, calling it "ridiculous." Unsurprisingly, these were not the remarks that were sent to her in the morning by the McCain campaign.

New York magazine's Daily Intel column online reported that "The idea of Palin as running mate was sprung on McCain at the very last minute by his two strong-willed advisers, Fred Davis and Steve Schmidt. This weekend's New York Times Magazine story reveals just how short a time period it was between when Davis and Schmidt unilaterally presented their case and when the announcement was made by McCain (five days). According to the story, McCain made up his own mind, but in retrospect he may regret the timing and spin."

Whew!

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Palin-McCain campaign wheeled into the I.C.U.

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

What a week for the John McCain-Sarah Palin Presidential juggernaut! Video clips of their rallies show crowds screaming “treason!” or “terrorist!” at the mention of Mr Obama's name, and at times even darker imprecations like “kill him!” and “off with his head!"

As we wrote earlier, McCain has been forced to appeal for calm, responding to boos from a crowd on Friday: “I have to tell you he is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president.” He later snatched the microphone later from a woman who suggested Senator Obama was an Arab.

This past weekend, civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis said the atmosphere at Republican rallies was similar to those of George Wallace, the segregationist presidential candidate. “Senator McCain and Governor Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division.”

At a weekend campaign event in Iowa, McCain was forced to repudiate a pastor who introduced McCain saying that millions of foreigners were praying to “Hindu, Buddha, Allah — that his opponent wins”.

Most Republican insiders and even the rank and file openly admit the McCain-Palin campaign has been desperately adrift, flailing against the economic storms, farcically suspending the campaign to fix the economic problems facing the nation, and having to carry the increasingly heavy baggage of Governor Palin. An Alaskan legislative commission on Friday concluded she had "abused her powers as Alaska Governor by trying to orchestrate the sacking of a state trooper who was her former brother-in-law." Sarah Palin's rallies have generated ugly racial sound clips and both she and McCain appear unable to control their supporters.

In short, it's about time to break out the oxygen and put this campaign in the I.C.U.

Time to pull the draw sheet over the patient?—click to enlarge

Over the weekend, in between trying to seem like a decent person (and possibly rescue some good will for when he trudges back to the Senate in defeat) at his increasingly hate- and invective-filled rallies, John McCain huddled with advisors, struggling to formulate an economic plan that won't be laughed off the stage at this week's debates. We'll see the fruits of those discussions in just a couple of days.

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Holy S**t! The October surprise? It Depends®

By Pablo Fanque,
All This Is That National Affairs editor
Washington, D.C. 9-18-2008 12:15 AM EDT

No one quite expected this October surprise, if it comes to that. All This Is That received a tip over the weekend from a G.O.P. insider that John McCain is incontinent and wears adult diapers around the clock.

I jumped onto the story Sunday, after Jack Brummet called from the All This Is That offices. The first call I made was to sources in the Democratic Party. Interestingly, they wouldn't touch the story. The first two people I called told me to drop it. "Pablo, this story is going nowhere. This is just some crap a blogger cooked up in San Francisco."

My next call was to a Democrat I knew would never lie. She may not tell me the truth, but she would never lie about the facts. "Look, just drop it," she said. "We can't even come within 50 miles of this story. Yeah. I've heard some stuff. But there is no way we're going to touch this story. We have nothing to gain and everything to lose. If it comes out, fine. But no way is it coming out of here."



"How so?," I asked? "Look, Pablo. . .the second this story comes out, the McCain campaign will tie it to the P.O.W. years. This malady, this incontinence, will be attributed to his years in the prison camp. It will become a net positive—another hero's scars—and we will be skewered for playing the politics of personal destruction. And the McCain campaign will milk the P.O.W. angle for another month. I did hear some Dem P.A.C. has been working this, and they have photographic evidence, and someone willing to talk."

I called a Republican friend who works for the R.N.C. "How high are you, Pablo? The Democrats are putting their heads in the sand on this one. They'll bide their time in hopes the story emerges elsewhere. They're way more spooked than we are on this one." "But why has nothing been mentioned in the press? Or the blogs and websites, even?" I asked. "You thought the John Edwards story was bottled up? No one wants to make the first move! Yuk."

The story slowly percolates, and it may be only a matter of time before it hits the mainstream media. There are rumors at least one tabloid has enough evidence—flimsy and otherwise—to break the story in the next week.
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Hollywood Newsroom's Sarah Palin Naked Photoshop Contest

The Hollywood Newsroom has just announced their SARAH PALIN NAKED PHOTOSHOP CONTEST. Thanks to Dean Ericksen, fellow blogger and proprietor of Almost There In No Time for this tip. Environmentalist, ethicist, and all-round excellent homo sapien Ericksen comes up with this stuff from Gawker and Defamer so we don't have to. I believe his gym is on the same block as his work. . .which plays out OK. Whenever I read Gawker or Defamer, I almost always feel like I could use a shower. . .
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Is it just the lefties, or is something fishy with the Sarah Palin maternity news?

One of our readers emailed me yesterday (I hesitate to use his/her name because it wasn't clear if it was OK), saying that "It's a backdated story intended to clear the air. In a few weeks Bristol will 'miscarry.'

Well, yeah. The original story, whether it offended you or not, had some salient points. The story about the flight back to Alaska after the Governor's water broke, the birth at a small town hospital, and the photographic evidence of a very unpregnant looking Sarah Palin not long before the birth, and some of the other facts and factoids, give one pause. I don't really want this story, or the rumors and innuendo, to be true. I'd rather have a fair dogfight. But the original story, and the sudden press release about Bristol's pregnancy. . .it just doesn't quite fit. There are a couple of pieces of the jigsaw puzzle missing. Even my wife, who is probably one of All This Is That's most skeptical readers (and whose IQ bests JFK's) says these stories just don't make sense....something is wrong, something is being left out. I don't know what it is. Yet.

I'd much prefer this story died and that we got on to the serious business of political Hardball. But something is nagging at me, and I don't feel like we have this story wrapped up with a bow quite yet. Maybe the story dies out tomorrow, once the Republican convention gets into full swing (now that their plans to heroically jet down to New Orleans have fizzled). Or maybe tomorrow we get hit with the next shock wave. In the end, I am sure the story will not be as nefarious as some of the hyper-left blogs and websites are hoping it may be. But I don't think we have the full picture yet. I am so befuddled by this whole imbroglio that I am turning it over to our National Affairs Editor Pablo Fanque to follow up. Along with the whole next 65 days of this political season. I prefer more solid ground like poetry, art, music, Alien Lore, pranks, and conspiracy theories!

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Sarah Palin announces her daughter is pregnant, and will marry the father

The Palins

After the blog explosion over the weekend (including All This Is That) over the maternity of her son Trig, Sarah Palin put the wild speculation and rumors to rest by announcing that her daughter Bristol is five months pregnant, and will marry the father. The crux of the speculation is that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child's out of wedlock son.

"We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us," the Palins' statement said. "Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support."

John McCain knew about the pregnancy when he chose Palin last week as his running mate, and decided that it was not a deal-breaker.

Campaign officials said the news of Bristol's pregnancy has been released to squelch the "mud-slinging and lies" circulating on liberal blog sites.


John McCain and Sarah Palin, from the mid-calf down
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Triggate: daughter Bristol, not Sarah Palin is the mother of her newborn "son"?

Sarah Palin 7 months pregnant in 1989


Sarah Palin "7 months pregnant" in 2007

Is Sarah Palin not the mother of her newborn "son"? If this has even a whiff of truth to it--and it looks like it does--the Presidential race just got even more interesting. Daily Kos is claiming, along with other blogs and websites, that Sarah Palin claimed to be the mother of her recently born child, when in fact it was her 17 year old daughter's son.

More possible evidence?



If this is true, the next question is, how did they cover this up through the vetting process? Or were McCain's team so eager to get her on board, they didn't think it would be that big a deal? Is McCain himself part of a cover-up?


Check out the Daily Kos for more potential pictorial and video evidence...

When not even Matt Drudge has picked up the story, you have to wonder about its veracity...but on the other hand, the story on Kos is pretty convincing, and damning.


It may be time to call in Joe Lieberman!!!

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Senator Larry Craig (yes, he's still a Senator) to skip GOP Convention in St. Paul

Senator Larry Craig (R. - Idaho), in his element

Among prominent no-shows to the Republican Convention in St. Paul later this month(indicted Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon, Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine,...every one facing major challenges to their re-election), is none other than Senator Larry Craig. He'll be busy working on an appeal that could allow him to change his guilty plea on bathroom cruising and footplay charges. The appeal will be heard in Minneapolis (the scene of the crime) the week after the G.O.P. coronation of John McCain...
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The Home Stretch: The Last Year of The Bush Fiasco Begins Today

The inaugural parade/motorcade passes by the Presidential
reviewing stand


One year from today, at high noon, President Bush and Sub-President Cheney's terms in office will expire as Chief Justice Roberts swears in the new President.

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

This oath must not count for a lot; I can think of numerous specific violations of the oath by President Bush. But all that aside, it really is a time to celebrate the last year of Good King George's Reign of (T)Error. The glass is rising! Selah.



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Former Press Secretary McClellan says Bush, Cheney, Rove, Libby, and Card lied and covered up CIA identity leak

In his forthcoming book, the former White House press secretary Scott McClellan says President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney lied to the public about the role of White House aides in leaking the identity of a CIA operative, and were involved in the cover-up.

McClellan recounts a 2003 news conference in which he told reporters that strategist Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were "not involved" in the leak involving operative Valerie Plame.

"There was one problem. It was not true," McClellan writes, in an excerpt of the book released yesterday. "I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest-ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president's chief of staff (Andrew Card) and the president himself."

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It's become so fashionable, they have their own web site: Republican Sex Offenders

I don't know if Democrats are able to "score" without offending, or if it's just the preferred modus operandi of the G.O.P., but the Republicans have accumulated a formidable record in the sex-offender sweepstakes. Republican Sex Offenders is compiling a rapidly growing list of G.O.P. miscreants.

jack writing in from Newport Beach, California
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Dear Senator Larry Craig: Send me an autographed photo, and stay the course!

click to enlarge

On his web site, Senator Larry Craig invites us to write him for a signed photograph, which I did, and also passed along my best wishes that he not let himself be railroaded by these trumped up charges!

Recent articles on the Senator on All This Is That:

Senator "Wide Stance" Larry Craig defends his men's room actions and swears "I am not gay" - Bonus content: Link to a latrine debacle reenactment

Another Republican cork soaker takes a fall: Senator Larry Craig busted in the men's room scouting for man on man action
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