We’ve had several occasions to bust our buttons here at The Mudflats over the last few years. Readers and those in the blogging and journalism communities have been kind to us with various honors and praise over the years.

But today is an especially proud one for us. Our very own Shannyn Moore is taking her radio program to the other coast! The Shannyn Moore Show will now broadcast its first hour live as it happens in our nation’s capital! The over-saturated right wing airwaves and the bloviators who inhabit them love to talk about how Shannyn has “12 listeners.” It’s become a running joke in the progressive community to talk about these faithful dozen as Shannyn has appeared on national TV, substituted hosted for national radio programs with more than a million listeners, gotten a column in the Anchorage Daily News, hosted her own television show which is now in its third season, and contributed her wit and wisdom right here at the Mudflats.

With her amazing talents and abilities, it was only a matter of time before she achieved the national nod she so deserves. Nobody keeps Shannyn in the upper-left corner.

Not only will she be able to share her unique take on national issues, she’ll also be able to bring critical Alaskan issues to the attention of a much wider (and occasionally more influential) audience. This is very good news, indeed.

What that means logistically in Alaska is that The Shannyn Moore Show has now changed time slots and can be heard live from 6-9pm on KOAN 1020am. Same station, new time. The other good news is that it’s now socially acceptable to listen to Shannyn while curled up with a fuzzy blanket, and a glass of wine. Your boss never has to know.

In the meantime, Shannyn’s old time slot will now be taken over by yet MORE right wing nutjobbery in the form of Dan Fagan. And he’s given his old one hour time slot from noon to 1pm on KFQD to… (wait for it)… The Party Planner! Yes, Mayor Dan Sullivan’s “party planner” will be live and taking your calls during “Alaska Live With Bernadette.” It would be so easy to continue snarking, but today belongs to someone else.

Congratulations, Shannyn. Nobody knows better than us here at The Mudflats how hard you have worked, and how much you deserve this honor. And just as we did when you first went on the air at KOAN, we’re dusting off the happiest radio clip we could find. Here to salute you and commemorate your live DC debut are the yip-yips and their classic homage to the radio. It just became a bigger and happier place for you, and for Alaska.

~And they would’ve got away with it too… if it weren’t for that pesky Constitution!

The question is “school choice.” That’s what they call it, anyway. Anchorage is fortunate in that there is already a great network of 27 charter schools available for those who want a public school alternative. And America is fortunate that for our kids, attending school is a privilege to which everyone is entitled. Yes, education is an “entitlement program,” (oh, the horror) and we ought to be proud of that. It’s one of those instances when “American exceptionalism” really means something.

Republicans in the Alaska State House, like Republicans across the land, have put the institution of public education squarely in their cross-hairs, and the House Education Committee is attempting to usher through a bill known as HB145.

One of those leading the charge is Rep. Wes Keller of Wasilla. Keller was one of the five lawmakers who filed the suit to stop the legislative investigation of the Troopergate scandal, and is also an elder in Palin’s church whom she appointed to his seat.

My wrist hurts.

Really, more that it probably should. This is not good. I’m a writer, a photographer, I like to shake people’s hands. I need my wrist functioning.

And I haven’t even been arrested yet.

It’s 12 o’ clock, and there’s maybe 100 people here including the press. #D17 is not looking to be all it was cracked up to be, like an ‘N Sync reunion when Justin doesn’t show up. It was intended to be a celebration of the 3 month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement and its encampment at Zuccotti Park, and was supposed to be marked by a reoccupation in New York at the nearby Duarte Square, a vacant plot of land owned by Trinity Wall Street, a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of NYC.

It’s freezing. Well, maybe it’s not that bad, but I’m underdressed for the occasion, wearing a light jacket and no gloves or hat. An hour and a half into standing around at Duarte Park in Lower Manhattan, I thought I’d be running after occupiers and dodging kettling nets.

I get the standard shots – the wide above the head shot (for crowd count), the protesters children (cute sells!), the old school occupiers (Who knows? AARP might run a piece on OWS), the funny signs (always good for internet reach), and then the pretty portraits (30mm f1.4 Sigma, wide open, manual focus – shallow depth of field).

Now it’s 1:30 pm. Our sources inside the OWS movement tell us that since the organizers were pre-arrested** – one of which is some guy named Zach – they’re not sure anything is actually going down during the day, maybe not until 7 PM.

CS (still photographer), Andrew (still photographer), Brian (still photographer), Rosie (Village Voice writer) and I huddle in a group, trying to decide what to do. I hate to admit it, I’m the first one to say, “Screw it, let’s go home, warm up and recharge for the night.”

Brian says he’s staying. He has to, and recommends that we all stay. Even if he didn’t have to, we all know he would anyway. He’s done Egypt and Greece already, so we kind of look to him for guidance. He’s known within his agency to be the one that will go for days without sleep just to get the shot. During the cleansing of Zuccotti he went for about 2 days without sleep, going from assignment to assignment carrying other people’s shifts. Our motley crew decide to take Brian’s advice and stick around until 3:30, and if nothing happened run home and file.

3:30pm EST.

CS and I are chatting, talking about brunch, warm coffee, French toast…suddenly Brian runs by.  We immediately follow blindly.

The crowd suddenly starts to move. Where? We haven’t a clue, but like the lemmings that photojournalists are, we follow (well, actually we run to the front of the crowd and walk briskly backwards while taking photos).

Immediately, I get that something else is going on. The crowd isn’t going anywhere in particular and the turns it’s taking seem to be just to throw off the police who are on scooters.

Then I go around a corner to get a wide shot of the march.

Like a ADD kid that hasn’t had his Ritalin, I very quickly get impatient, and see a scuffle with a cop and a protester, and run off chasing the pretty pictures, and I lose what will very quickly become the whole point of this charade.

I follow the protestors back toward Duarte Square. I know I screwed up, but maybe I didn’t waste the whole day.

Slowly we turn the corner to Grand Street and to my surprise (and quiet anger) I see several hundred protestors already there – some setting up a step ladder against the fence that surrounds the other half of Duarte Square. A purple flash of cloth, a Bishop, begins to ascend the wooden ladder that the protestors have propped against the fence, as if playing out some medieval storming of the castle. Except the castle is a park and the battlements are a standard wire fence.

The Bishop doesn’t wait for the other half of the stepladder – he runs to the top and then lets himself down the other side slowly. People quickly follow behind him, nearly falling on top of him. I’m stuck in the crowd about 20 feet away from the ladder.  I look to the fence and judge correctly that there’s no way in hell I can scale it myself, and then push toward the ladder. A path opens up and suddenly, as I tell OWS organizers that I’m going over, they’re all smiles and hands helping me and my gear over. Climbing over and taking blind shots from the top, I suddenly realize what a bad idea this is – I’m over and now officially in “criminal trespass” territory.

About 75 people are over, including CS and about 5 other journos that I can point out as pros. The occupiers start pulling at the fence bringing it upward so that the rest of the crowd can rush in – there are very few takers. This very clearly worries the people on my side of the fence, and worries me. Any moment now the police will be here, and numbers are the only thing protecting us from batons, plastic cuffs and a night in the clink. I give up on waiting for the shot of the protestors going all Steve McQueen under the fence and start grabbing every possible angle of the scene I can think of. Through the fence, the wide shot, the closeup…Then suddenly there’s a very large officer from the NYPD in my face yelling “GET THE F*CK OUT, NOW!”

Photojournalists understand that as “YOU HAVE ONLY FIVE MORE SHOTS TO TAKE AND YOU NEED TO START MOVING TOWARDS THE EXIT.”

CS flies by me yelling at me, “TIME TO GO, NOW!” For once he’s being the careful one.

I begin to comply and start moving towards the stepladder, the only “exit” I know of from this fenced in park. I, of course, continue taking shots though, moving towards my non-arrest, then I make it to the place where the stepladder used to be.

It’s not there.

Well, to be exact it’s on the other side.

Also, on the other side of the fence, where just moments before the protestors and other journos were pushing forward, now the police are pushing them back. I looked around and couldn’t place CS, Brian or any of the rest of my crew. I also noted, with growing dread, that I was the only person that wasn’t a member of the New York Police Department who wasn’t handcuffed face down in the gravel.

“SIT DOWN, NOW”

Shit.

“I’m press! I’m a freelance photojournalist.”

“DO YOU HAVE CREDENTIALS?”

By this, he doesn’t mean from my agency or from my paper, he means the officialNew York City Press Credentials issued by the New York City Police Department.

Yes, the NYPD, the boys in blue that are currently in the process of arresting me are the ones that decide whether I am a recognized member of the media. They will not of course take in account my years of work for The Guardian, the dozen or so pieces I’ve produced for BBC-TV, or any number of other works of journalism that I have done.

I don’t have NYC NYPD Press credentials.

So, I sat down. The officers went on to deal with other people, so I continued to take photos from my seated position. Once I had taken everything I could from this angle I called my boss (day job) Greg Palast.

Me: “Greg, I think I’m arrested, they told me to sit down, but they haven’t cuffed me yet. I won’t be making it into work later today.”

Greg: [Chuckles] “Ok Zach, we’ll get the word out. Keep me updated.

Realizing that this whole arrest and day would be for naught if something happened to my memory cards – I (slyly as I could) removed the card from my camera and shoved it into my wrist brace.

Blanking on anything else that could be done I just sit there for a moment somewhat dazed as an old Phil Och’s song starts to run through my head…

There’s nothing as cold as the freeze in your soul
At the moment when you are arrested.
There’s nothing as real as the iron and steel
On the handcuffs when you protested.

The zip cuffs weren’t that cold, and certainly weren’t made of out steel, just heavy duty plastic that would need to be cut using utility shears. The officer that put on my cuffs was nice enough to ask about my wrist brace and put them somewhat loosely around that wrist, but made up for it on the other. I got off easy. The kid sitting next to me didn’t; very quickly his cuffs started cutting off the circulation to his hands and the cold didn’t help much either. After being helped up from the ground by the police he begged for his hat and sunglasses that had been knocked off in his takedown by the officer. Sunglasses and snowcap pulled over his head he looked like a reject from a Cheech and Chong audition. His banner and prop mannequin arm were to be left behind (I didn’t ask).

Lining us up by the exit of the park, we were taken off in threes to our respective wagons. I was with Cheech and a bearded protestor from Canada who had a sad looking guitar case. He later confided with me that it wasn’t a guitar, but an axe (again, I didn’t ask).

It was now our turn to make the perp walk from the gated confines of the park to the paddy wagon.

Surrounded by about 40 police officers holding back protestors and photographers on both sides of us, we quickly walked to the awaiting wagon. I heard my name being yelled from both sides, on one Brian, and on the other CS. Trying to give them both good shots, I turned to one held a look for the moment and then to the other doing the same. I tried to look serious, but not angry – honestly I was just dazed and somewhat confused – still convinced at some point the police would wise up and release me, allowing me to get back to my job as a photographer.

That didn’t happen, of course.

Have I ever told you the one where the Bishop, the pastor and the photographer get into a paddy wagon together?

Yeah, I think not.

Bishop Packard is a tall man, dressed in purple robes he commands attention just by his presence. Sitting aside him is a pastor, across him, luckily enough,is someone who worked out of her cuffs. Which is why we have this video. In it the Bishop breaks down why the Occupiers decided to take Duarte Square.

Even churches have a 1% and a 99%. The good Bishop is in the 99% – Trinity Church…well, I think you got it.

The ride to One Police Plaza is a long one, and seemingly the bumpiest ride in all of Manhattan. But we’ve got the time – based on John Knefel’s reporting we have a long night ahead of us. The only problem is with each bump all of our cuffs get tighter and tighter. Cheech sitting next to me is in excruciating pain – the Bishop tries to see what we can do, but none of us can reach his cuffs to try to help.

When we finally make it to “The Yard,” as the police call it, it takes them another 40 mins to process us and remove the cuffs. Paul Bunyan, the guy with the axe and beard, seems to have it the worst – the officers can’t find a place to get the scissors between the cuffs and his skin.

Moving from the yard, finally inside I realize that they never took my cell phone – so I quickly tweet out a couple of photos before they notice.

Inside the cell I noticed that I’m one of the first in my wagon to be processed – though there is a priest, a minister of some kind, and about 12 other occupiers.

I decide to make an entrance by announcing loudly, “My goodness is that a Priest on the Group W bench!?!?!” (doing my best Arlo Guthrie voice). Everyone over 30 in the holding cell starts laughing. Then one of the younger priests starts…

“And I, I walked over to the, to the bench there, and there is, Group W’s where they put you if you may not be moral enough to join the army after committing your special crime, and there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly looking people on the bench there.”

Then with gusto – anyone who got the original joke starts singing…

You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant,
You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant,
Walk right in it’s around the back,
Just a half a mile from the railroad track,
You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant.

I think Arlo would be proud. We went on to have a good old time swapping war stories. The Bishop joined us 20 mins later, and we all cheered. About a dozen other guys followed over the next couple of hours as we learned about the night’s continued actions. We held stack, talked about the future of the movement – I held a small working group trying to explain how to get better media coverage, and prep people for questions and so on.

I wouldn’t say the time flew by, but it moved. My arresting officer processed me out in about 8 hours – no iris scan – just fingerprints. I was lucky – some of the protestors coming in had some battle wounds. One 19-year old kid had a shiner from what he said was getting punched in the face by a cop. Another, a main OWS organizer of #D17, was talking to us, reporting on the night’s activities and blood started streaming from under his winter hat. He calmly patted it with toilet paper and continued his report.

It’s surreal – 11 years I’ve been doing this. Years of anti-war protests, hanging with black bloc, shooting in Wasilla, Bed Stuy, and the reservations of the Southwest – and jumping over a ladder is the thing that gets me busted.

As I stepped out into the cold, a free man, the dry cheese sandwiches that they gave us to eat still festering in my stomach – I thought back to something that the Bishop had said. “There’s a reason we’re all here in this cell together. This is a moment, and we need to keep is going.” I agree.

This is beginning to sound like some odd redemption story, but there’s no magical black man who can “acquire things” for me, and I’m not standing in the rain, finally free…There’s just the realization that none of us are safe – press, protestor or priest.

Welcome to Bloomberg’s New York.

**Yes, pre-arrested – we’re talking Minority Report stuff here. The police arrested an #OWS organizer for crimes that they assumed that he was going to commit later in the day.

08:16 – All is quiet in duarte park

11:26 – Blocked traffic to Holland tunnel for a bit…

11:27 – Things being thrown at crowd from apt buildings on varick and grand

11:39 – On the other side of the fence arrest very likely

11:41 – being arrested

1:50 -

1:51 – in processing

You can see Zach’s outstanding photography of Occupy Wall Street, and his other contributions to The Mudflats by clicking HERE.

This is a developing story and will be updated when more information becomes available.

Update: We’re happy to report that phone message was received by Zach this evening. He is out of jail, and is fine. He’ll have a criminal trespass charge on his record, he says, and will also have stories to tell and more photos coming soon. He thanks everyone for their love and support.

~Thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and more!

Enjoy today’s dose of random stuff on the half-shell! Links in the titles.

Brrrrrricane Makes Landfall

The Bering Sea megastorm that made landfall yesterday on the West Coast of Alaska did damage to buildings, caused massive erosion in some areas, and flooding in others. So far, thank goodness, there have been no reports of injury or loss of life. Hardy and sensible coastal Alaskans prepared well, and the Coast Guard rode out the storm with no distress calls to answer. The storm surge is expected to continue today.

Here is a clip of the storm as seen from Little Diomede Island, that place in Alaska where you actually can see Russia. Yesterday, they saw a lot more than that – like the third connex of the day being sucked out to sea. And that backhoe is sitting on what is normally a road. Scary stuff.

Bear Cub YouTube Star Probably Fine

The black bear cub that captured the hearts of the cybernation while simultaneously rendering massive amounts of produce unsellable, is probably doing fine according to Boyd Porter, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game wildlife management biologist. The little fella (the bear, not the biologist) scampered across yards of produce in a Ketchikan grocery store last month, and became a YouTube sensation. After being escorted out the back door by a customer with quick reflexes, the cub was never seen again, unlikely if it had been orphaned or ill, Porter said.

Sweet dreams until spring…

Pants on Fire!

Looks like the American public just bestowed upon Herman Cain the Order of the Flaming Pants. A new poll by Poll Position was conducted Tuesday night, just hours after he held a news conference to vehemently deny the sexual harassment accusations of a growing number of women.  He says the allegations are “totally fabricated” and blames the “Democratic Machine”.

What do Americans say? Overall, 43% think Cain is lying, and 38.8% think he is telling the truth. 22.2% have no opinion.

A new poll by Poll Position conducted Tuesday night just hours after presidential contender Herman Cain held a news conference to quell the sexual harassment scandal found that 43% of Americans do not believe Cain when he says the sexual harassment allegations against him are “totally fabricated.”

Women said they did not believe Cain 48%-27%.  Men said they did believe Cain 43%-38%.

You can see the details HERE.

One of Cain’s accusers has expressed interest in holding a joint press conference with the other women who have come forward with allegations of harassment.

New Dinosaur Discovery Named After Ross Perot?

A recent discovery at the Colville River, the fossil mecca up near Fairbanks gave an interesting hat tip to former presidential candidate Ross Perot. A brand new species was discovered and named for him. Was some paleontologist a die-hard Perotbot?  Or did they just have a good sense of humor? (Perot is a bit of a dinosaur himself at this point).  The old bones, discovered by Tony Fiorillo, held some amazing secrets.

Years of research by Fiorillo, curator of the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, and painstaking reconstruction by Ronald Tykoski, the museum’s chief fossil preparator, confirmed that this was a type of pachyrhinosaurus — a relative of triceratops — that had not been found anywhere else.

“Obviously, it’s a tremendous thrill to have that level of photo-documentation at the moment of discovery. And this enhances it. This is the wildest dream possible,” he said.

They have named the dinosaur species Pachyrhinosaurs perotorum…

So the bones were from a pachyrhinoceras? Rhino —> RINO? Could it be some political Reference? And really, if you think about it, they’re actually RINO DINO bones, so which would it be? My brain was spinning.

Turns out that the expedition was funded in part by Ross Perot, and hence the honor of the name. Not as amusing, but certainly understandable.

Let’s Get Ready to RuMMMMble!

Ladies and Gentlemen – I give you the event of the season, the show to end all shows, the Great Alaskan Oil Tax Debate this coming Monday at Noon at the Student Union’s North Cafeteria at the UAA campus!

In this corner, wearing white and current reigning cham-peen of facts and figures – Rep. Les Gara! (*whaaaaaaa! Crowd goes wild noise*) In the other corner, wearing oil, the Deputy Commissioner of Revenue representing Governor for the Big Three – Seanoco Parnellips! Let’s get ready to rummmmble!

 Thursdays in the Mud!

Don’t forget to tune in today at 1pm Alaska time (2pm Pacific, 5pm Eastern) for Thursdays in the Mud! I’ll be on the air with Shannyn Moore for my favorite hour of the week (provided I can get out of the driveway through all this snow!) You can tune in to 1020am or 95.5fm in Anchorage, or stream it live at 1020koan.com.

Also, tonight is the taping of the second episode of season three of Moore Up North! Join Shannyn and company at the Taproot on Spenard Road at 5:15 for great conversation, great yam fries, and more fun than should be allowed on a Thursday night!

Howdy, Mudflatters! Ready for your dose of Vitamin Democracy? This is where you get to feel important and participatory, and do things that members of free societies get to do – bug your representatives. We don’t ask you to bug them often, or unless it’s really important. This is one of those times.

See the little guy with the ‘D’ and the hammer? That’s you. The scary looking green thing is the anti free speech force that wants to tell you how you can use the internet. And your job today is to whack that SOB right on the top of his thick bumpy skull. Here’s the deal.

A dangerous resolution could come to a vote as early as next week in the Senate. We’re bringing it to your attention because if you are reading this, it affects you (Yes, YOU!) in a very real and personal way, because right now you are online and you are using the internet in a way and at a speed that you probably take for granted.

An overwhelming majority of Americans want an open Internet. Completely open. Period. We don’t want corporations blocking or impeding what we say or do, or where we go online, and how fast we do it. We want every website, from the biggest like Amazon and Google to sites operated by millions of smaller businesses, local retailers and blogs like The Mudflats, to be treated the same, with no fast lanes for companies with deep pockets.

Our pockets here at Mudflats Central may be shallow, but we all know how important independent content and non-mainstream media are in today’s world. The 2008 election taught us that. There was a reason that this site clocked in at hundreds of thousands of hits a day. This is where people came to find information that they couldn’t get elsewhere. If large corporations had gotten special treatment, and the little guys just got the scraps, none of the Alaska bloggers could have done what we did, or had the impact on the national discussion that was so needed at that time.

Even today there are events like Occupy Wall Street, where the mainstream media had to be dragged to cover it, kicking and screaming the whole way. It is the boots on the ground, independent journalists and local blogs that are so critical in driving the news that the media conglomerates would rather you not know.

So, here’s what you need to do today. There is a thing called the “resolution of disapproval” (S.J. Res. 6) against what is known as Net Neutrality. Net Neutrality is the name given to the free and open internet that shows no preferences. The neutral net feels the same way about Amazon that it does about The Mudflats, and that’s the way it should be.

There are extremists in the pockets of big corporations who plan to push this resolution through the Senate, and soon! This resolution would hand over control of the Internet to companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon while stripping the FCC of any authority to protect users’ online rights. It’s not pretty.

Here’s where you come in, gentle reader. All you have to do is click HERE and you will be taken to a list of senators. You will be asked to do one of three things – thank your senator if they are on the right side, nudge them if they are not committed, and “spank” them if they are flat wrong and want to lock up the internet for their corporate cronies.

If you are not sure who your senators are, just enter your zip code, and you’ll find that out, and learn what you get to do to them. There are only a handful of thank yous involved, so I am pleased that I have one.

I’ll be thanking Senator Mark Begich, and nudging Senator Lisa Murkowski. Imagine that. No spankings for me!

The Free Press Action Fund has organized this useful tool, and you can check out their website when you click the link. Here’s what they have to say:

A handful of corporate hardliners in the Senate is introducing a “resolution of disapproval” that would give phone and cable companies unrestricted power over the Internet. We need your help to ensure your senators don’t support this free speech-killing resolution.

The resolution would destroy existing Net Neutrality protections and strip the FCC of its authority to protect Internet users from carriers that seek to block our right to speak freely, connect with one another and share information on the Internet.

Please pick up the phone now and call your senators. Tell them: “Don’t sell out our basic right to communicate online. Vote ‘no’ on the resolution of disapproval.”

Now take your vitamin, and tell us how it went in the comments!

**DON’T FORGET TO SHARE THIS ON FACEBOOK, OR TWEET IT TO YOUR FOLLOWERS, USING THE BUTTONS BELOW**

And yes, Shannyn and Linda, we can have cake!

I’ve seen many Mudflatters comment about recent posts and how they wish they could go far and wide. Recently, we’ve added a feature that will let you help posts do just that! Please note at the top and bottom of all posts, there is now a way that you can share your favorite articles to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media links. You can even share via email. So have fun sharing the MudLove in all kinds of ways.

By Ken Morris
(Co-author with Frank Bailey and Jeanne Devon of Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin

“My problem is I do have the fire in my belly…”
~Sarah Palin discussing a run for U.S. President with Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, May 19, 2011

Where to begin? After about 18 months of living in the rabbit hole of Sarah Palin’s head while co-authoring Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin—insider Frank Bailey’s factual account of being side-by-side with the candidate, then half-term governor and failed vice presidential candidate—I listened to the above quoted interview in dismay. It wasn’t because of the words themselves; I’ve read and listened to hundreds of thousands of Sarah’s words (and Todd’s for that matter) these many months, poring over previously unseen documents that form the basis of our book . Rather, I continue to listen to statements that demonstrate that despite untold riches, up and down celebrity, and diminishing credibility, Sarah Louise Palin remains as incapable of introspection as ever. No lessons learned.

There is no greater testimony to the truthfulness of what is in our book than Sarah’s cavalier and typically misleading dismissal of the contents, without a single specific example. She said that Blind Allegiance (without naming the book, naturally) contains, “…hoarded emails from a disloyal former staff member…compiled by a hateful blogger and those are going to be released…taken out of context.” Sarah and her people, by the way, saw an earlier unethically released version of the manuscript, initially leaked by rival author Joe McGinniss, who disgustingly described co-author Devon as “whoring” herself by working with Bailey. They know what’s in Blind Allegiance and they know it is dynamite. They also are aware that nothing was taken out of context, and that the extensive use of Sarah’s own words, verbatim, assure the reader of that fact. By mid-week next week, after the book release, anyone reading the text with even a grain of objectivity will understand who speaks the truth.

Sarah also suggested in her Van Susteren interview that everyone should just focus on what she’s said and done “recently.” The not too subtle message she wanted to impart was, “ignore the emotional and intellectual instability coursing through 400 pages of Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin. Irrational rants and rages from governors, un-vetted vice presidential running mates, and presidential candidates aren’t an issue.” Naturally, Sarah Palin could not be more wrong. The emotional makeup of any person running for high office—especially one seeking the most powerful position in the world—is vitally important. Do we want Sarah Palin anywhere near the proverbial red button at 3:00 a.m.—especially after being angered by some recent slight like being denied a speaker’s role at the Wasilla High School graduation? (Read Blind Allegiance and you’ll understand the tease).

Continuing her Q and A with VanSusteren, Sarah suggested that she will not respond to “…little petty stupid things” that are a “waste of time” which, she noted, is our most precious commodity. Without spoiling for readers the suspense of Frank Bailey’s amazing journey from Palinbot to eyes-wide-open critic, let me just suggest that as a wasting-time-on-petty-things-person, Sarah Palin is exhibit one, two, and three.

She won’t, she said, “take the bait” by dignifying the book with a response and suggested, as if she were the only adult in the political/media room, that Greta and her colleagues do the same. In other words, since there is no rebuttal to documented truth, the way to discredit is to simply ignore.

In a fit of honesty that is ironic for its lack of self-awareness, Sarah claimed she wanted “voters…to do their own homework.” She, personally, also wanted to “make sacrifices in order to help mankind…” If, as she suggested, voters do their homework, and realize as we did what sacrifices Sarah made as a quitting-half-term-governor and mega-millionaire, she won’t have a political leg to stand on. In other words, she really doesn’t mean what she says.

By proclaiming, “My problem is I do have the fire in my belly,” she once again demonstrates a monumental tin-ear. Truly, stomach-flames are the least of her “problems.”

*********************************

www.kennethmorris.net
Author: Man in the Middle and The Deadly Trade.
Available for pre-order:
Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin: Release date: May 24 from Simon and Schuster (Howard Books)

She will run, she won’t run, she will, she won’t, she will…

Everyone is weighing in. Everyone is asking. Hints are being dropped. Money is being raked. And yes, I believe that Sarah Palin is getting ready to inflict herself upon the nation once again. The national spotlight beckons to her like yummy brains to a zombie. (Here, you can imagine her doing a robot walk with stiff knees and arms stretched out muttering “Must…Have…Attention…”)

But before the official announcement is tweeted to the world, the ‘lamestream’ media must do its due diligence and feel around for any kind of hint, or indication that the inevitable is going to happen. This time it was Greta Van Susteren’s turn to ask. Now, if you recall, Palin has called her the most influential journalist today. OK, it was because she couldn’t actually think of any journalists, nor could Todd when she asked him, and then conveniently she saw Greta standing there like the back of a flash card – but at least it was some kind of answer.

The full clip is 10 minutes, but we’re going to start about 5 and a half minutes in – partly because I find Newt Gingrich uninteresting, and partly because it would involve transcribing five additional minutes of Sarah Palin. I’m fairly certain at this point that one loses 10 minutes off the end of life for every minute of Palin transcription, and frankly I’m worried about what my tally is at this point.

So, let’s roll ‘em! (As always, my comments appear in red)

Greta Van Susteren: I know you haven’t made a decision, but do you have a fire in your belly? Do you really want it?

Sarah Palin: Ohhhh… that’s a great question. I think my problem is that I do have the fire in my belly. (I think her problem is that ALL she has is a fire in her belly) I am so um… adamantly… um supportive of the good traditional things about America and our free enterprise system, and I want to make sure that America’s put back on the right track and we only do that by defeating Obama in 2012. I have that fire in my belly. It’s a matter for me of some kind of practical, pragmatic decisions that have to be made. (Oh, really? Do tell…)

One is, with a large family, understanding the huge amount of scrutiny and the sacrifices that have to be made on my children’s part in order to uh see their Mama run for President. But, yeah, the fire in the belly – it’s there.

(This puts me in mind of a passage from the recent book The Lies of Sarah Palin by Geoffrey Dunn in which we learn that the family meeting in the living room when she polled her children to find out if they wanted her to accept the VP nomination, and they all said “Go for it, Mom!” actually went something like this:

When the Palin family entourage landed in Ohio, Palin took [McCain aide Steve] Schmidt aside and asked him to tell her daughters the news about her selection. She hadn’t told them yet. Neither had their father. (snip) Bristol, as Schmidt knew, was pregnant.

After hearing the news and realizing their young lives were about to be turned upside down, a “strained silence” followed. And thus concluded the family meeting and the “vote.”  But, I digress.)

GV: You talk about your children… Haven’t your children been through sort of the hell of it?  (See above) At some point, you just reach the saturation point. I imagine for children of politicians, they’ve heard it all. I mean is there really anything, … in terms of the personal cost, haven’t they heard it all?  (Translation = Greta calls BS on Palin’s excuse.)

SP: Yeah, and you know, that’s a good point, and I know that my kids have heard it all, and yet you know the darts and the arrows keep flying. You see that movies are being made, books are coming out… um, hoarded emails from a disloyal former staff member (points at Frank Bailey) have been compiled by a hateful blogger, (points at self) and those are going to be released. (points at the Blind Allegiance Amazon page where you can pre-order this season’s most highly anticipated political memoir. Wink.) Things like that that are taken out of context and told a story around ‘em.

(I particularly like the fact that Palin does not call Bailey “dishonest” or “disgruntled” but “disloyal.” Apparently being on the receiving end of getting thrown under the bus doesn’t agree with her.)

GV: That kind of stuff sticks in the beginning, but after a while it’s like you know – really?

SP: Yeah, yeah, really.

GV: I mean even in our business, every day I get emails saying how terrible I am on TV and I do this and I do that, and I’m all these horrible things, but you know after twenty years on TV it’s like yeah OK. (I wonder if any of those emailers criticize her for saying things on national TV like “it’s like you know really?” and “it’s like yeah OK”?)

SP: Well, exactly Greta and I’m at that point of saying, “Yeah, you know, whatever.” (Yes, her blase almost zen-like attitude in which she lets all this roll of her back is inspiring) It’s gonna keep on comin’ and I feel like I have a prayer shield in front of me that deflects a lot of that.  I just want to make sure that for my loved ones, for my parents, for my spouse and my children and those close to me, that they have that that tool to deflect also so they’re not adversely affected. (Sooo… she’s hogging the “prayer shield” tool and leaving the rest of the family out there unprotected?)

GV: Well, all the candidates that decide to run – they’ve got to know that we’re going to go after them, and we’re going to hopefully do it with good manners, but we’re going to be very aggressive, prying into everybody’s past… (Uh-oh…)

SP: OK then Greta, what you, and you can help lead your colleagues in this mission – come after us based on our record, based on our present day statements about what we intend to do to, for, and with this country. Don’t come after us for little petty stupid things like… (Like our past, or previous decisions, ability to use good judgment, honesty and integrity, contents of emails, stuff like that. Nothing to see there.)

GV: Then don’t take the bait. (Zing! And let the stammering, finger-pointing, defensive, strained explanations begin!)

~”Hateful” screen capture of Sarah Palin

SP: Here’s the bait. Here’s how we do it. Here… here is how the bait though is almost impossible sometimes not to nab. Somebody emails the other day from a tabloid and says, “We hear a story about one of your kids.. bla bla bla.” And they have the facts so wrong that obviously… and they say they’re gonna write the story no matter what and if you don’t respond, then the record won’t be set straight, (Get ready, she’s about to nab that bait!) so dang it, you gotta respond to at least get the facts out there that that uh can help set the record straight. Well, boom, you just, you just took the bait. Now they have an opportunity to perpetuate whatever story it is that they have.  (OK, so they’re going to write a story regardless, and you take the bait, and then they run the story. So the reason it’s impossible not to take the bait is because you take the bait. Now, I see.) I think it’s sick. I think it’s ridiculous. It’s such a waste of time. Time is our most precious resource. I’m tired of wastin’ it.

~Bait

So yeah, I’ll take you up on that, in me being committed to not taking the bait, and you being able to lead your colleagues in just gettin’ the facts out there – who, what, where, when and why in reporting. Hammer away at our records and our intentions and what our view for America is. Lay off the petty stuff.

(Yes, I’m sure Greta is pleased that they’ve reached agreement in this fictitious bargain she never agreed to – Sarah Palin not taking the bait, and Greta Van Susteren leading the mainstream media in a crusade to not report anything negative, or go digging for facts, and to remind themselves of the 5 w’s of Journalism 101. I can see how this is a brilliant career move for Greta.)

GV: Well, you know this is going to be an interesting season. Whoever runs, whether you run or not, and I hope we can go after everybody aggressively, and anybody’s got any dirt though, really bad things in the past you know, voters need to know that. It’s fair. Some of it’s ugly, but it’s fair…

SP: That’s fair. (But… but… but you just said…)

GV: Arnold Schwartzenegger’s a perfect example if he were to run again. If he’s going to betray his wife and his children, maybe he’ll betray the voters, so I think it’s a legitimate topic. And some of the stuff stings and hurts, but it’s the process and I guess that’s where you know you’ve gotta have that fire in your belly to take it.

SP: It is. And that’s fair for the media to come after candidates based on that kind of criteria – what really matters and have their past actions been a reflection of their character and how perhaps they would govern and try to lead, so that is very fair. (We grip the arms of our chairs to steady our inner ear from this instant 180 degree change in position. Then we realize that she has suddenly remembered that even though she doesn’t want the media doing it to her, this is what she did and intends to do with Obama. How will she reconcile the two positions? Let’s watch…) What isn’t fair though is when it’s only one-sided, when it’s only the conservatives, say, who get hammered away at.. um those things that the press wants to know. You know, we, um, the perfect example of um the media one-sidedness is Obama’s record not being explored – his associations in the last campaign not being explored, and now revelations of maybe some of his upbringing, some of his background, certainly his associations, how they impact his world view and how that affects his decisions today.

(And suddenly on the table is marital fidelity, “associations”, upbringing, background, more “associations”, world view, and how all these things affect decision making. I’m imagining this would include, oh… I don’t know… emails from her campaign and gubernatorial administration. Wouldn’t you think? Oh, but she’s a conservative and they’re always getting picked on…)

GV: I, you know, I, I, I, think that’s you know it’s I mean everyone should be challenged the same way equally… (Wow)

And I think at this point, we’ll leave these two masters of the word salad, and suggest that if Sarah Palin continues to have a fire in her belly that she take an alternate solution than foisting herself on the American people in a presidential run.