"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality." --Bishop Desmond Tutu

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Threat to the Union?

Salon has an in-depth investigative piece on the Alaska Independence Party and it's influence over Sarah Palin and her personal beliefs.
An obscure figure outside of Alaska, [Mark] Chryson has been a political fixture in the hometown of the Republican vice-presidential nominee for over a decade. During the 1990s, when Chryson directed the AIP, he and another radical right-winger, Steve Stoll, played a quiet but pivotal role in electing Palin as mayor of Wasilla and shaping her political agenda afterward. Both Stoll and Chryson not only contributed to Palin's campaign financially, they played major behind-the-scenes roles in the Palin camp before, during and after her victory.
So let me get this straight. On the one hand, we have Obama who served on a board with 20 other people from all sides of the political spectrum (chaired by a former ambassador appointed by Reagan), one of whom happens to be William Ayers, a reformed radical from the 1960s. This is enough forPalin to decry Obama is "palling around with terrorists?" Really? That's the best you got?

On the other hand, we have Sarah Palin who's political carrer was launched by two guys who are part of a radical secessionist movement that seeks to destroy the Union, affiliates with other groups, including white supremicist groups in the Deep South. She recieves political and financial support from these unreformed radicals, and she's pointing fingers? That takes a lot of chuptza, lady.
Chryson maintains that his party remains committed to full independence. "The Alaskan Independence Party has got links to almost every independence-minded movement in the world," Chryson exclaimed. "And Alaska is not the only place that's about separation. There's at least 30 different states that are talking about some type of separation from the United States."

And what about the original secessionist movement, the Civil War (or, if you're from the South, the War of Northern Agression)?

Chryson makes no secret of his sympathy for the Lost Cause. "Should the Confederate states have been allowed to separate and go their peaceful ways?" Chryson asked rhetorically. "Yes. The War of Northern Aggression, or the Civil War, or the War Between the States -- however you want to refer to it -- was not about slavery, it was about states' rights."
Clear enough for you? Sarah Palin's supporters don't think the Civil War was about slavery. Color me surprised. They're racists. Shocking...

Go read the whole article for more on Sarah's friends in the AIP.

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