Whatever is or isn’t in them, Palin emails will be BIG NEWS because MSM says so. UPDATE//Yo, these aren’t the Pentagon Papers!
June 9, 2011
There hasn’t been such a mass mobilization of mainstream media resources in anticipation of a single event since President Obama’s inauguration.
And The New York Times and Washington Post want readers to help sort through the whole mess.
It’s like a contest where the winners get to work for big, rich media organizations for no money.
You, too, can be an unpaid intern for a day or two or three.
I have no idea what they’ll find, nor how much redaction there will be in the 24,000 pages, but I am certain that the nearly 2,400 pages that are being withheld by the state of Alaska would make for far more entertaining reading.
In any event, plenty of media fodder to fill a slow weekend in June.
UPDATE:
How over the top is this media frenzy about emails from the administration of a half-term governor of a state with three electoral votes who was a defeated candidate for vice president and who has not held any elective office for almost two years?
It’s mass media hysteria. I’ve seen nothing like it in regard to government documents since Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers forty years ago.
And as The New York Times wrote at the time, the Pentagon Papers “demonstrated, among other things, that the Johnson Administration had systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress, about a subject of transcendent national interest and significance”: the Vietnam war.
Here’s the irony: the very same mainstream media whose paid pundits tell us over and over again how inconsequential Sarah Palin has become are treating the release of Palin administration emails as an event of transcendent national interest and significance.
The New York Times and Washington Post (see above) are asking members of the public to work without pay to help them sort through the emails, looking for nuggets of gold amid the dross.
MSNBC, Mother Jones and ProPublica have together hired technological experts to help them create a full database of the emails asap.
The ghost of Paul Revere set out on a midnight ride tonight to warn, “The emails are coming! The emails are coming!”
My question: given that almost everyone has agreed that Palin has become as irrelevant to our national discourse as a third tit on a mule, why–especially in this age of journalistic decimation–are so many major MSM outlets pouring so many resources down a dry hole?
The New York Times and Washington Post putting out help-wanted ads in order to attract volunteer labor to work on this story of transcendent national interest and significance?
Think about that for a moment: those twin pillars of MSM have never tried to shanghai crews of amateurs in advance to help them with any other story. But for the Palin emails it’s all hands to the pump.
Why?
All the experts tell us Sarah will not run for president next year.
If she doesn’t, her political career ended on July 3, 2009, when she resigned as governor of Alaska.
Yet the political chattering class can chatter about little else but Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. They remain obsessed.
As I write in THE ROGUE:
Sarah Palin practices politics as lap dance, and we’re the suckers who pay the price. Members of our jaded national press corps eagerly stuff hundred dollar bills into her g-string, even as they wink at one another to show that they don’t take her seriously.
Anybody who thinks I exaggerate need only witness the spectacle about to unfold over the weekend.
Posted in Joe McGinniss, mainstream media, Obama, Sarah Palin, The Rogue | 
Tags: internships, new york times, palin email, state of alaska, Washington Post
112 Responses to “Whatever is or isn’t in them, Palin emails will be BIG NEWS because MSM says so. UPDATE//Yo, these aren’t the Pentagon Papers!”
The best E mail from her last batch was” the puppy” delivery. That one made me sit up and take notice.
As I rarely read my own E-mails, or even listen to my call waiting calls, I certainly won’t bother with these. The best stuff has been taken away. Otherwise it would be like going through all my own bills. Boring.
But is sounds like a fun weekend for the right people.. Our temps feel over 100, hot and humid, with possible thundersorms. So the weekend E-mail feast for obsessive-compulsives who can tolerate this sort of thing should be a godsend.
I’m looking forward to their golden nuggets after sifting through all the outhouse material.
It will be the hanging chad moment of this year. Wasn’t that November and December in 2000 a riot? I was in China at the time, and the Chinese who spoke to me couldn’t understand any of it.
YES! I know I had fun with the first batch, which Crivella West so kindly did a database of and our blogs posted a link to. From searching and reading through a great many of them, I ascertained some of the extent of the role that Todd Palin played in the governorship of AK (and I hope this second batch will answer more of those questions and tell us more about what really went on behind the scenes); I saw examples of Sarah Palin’s misuse and abuse of state monies and accounts (including buying Bristol tennis shoes at one point) and the abuse of the travel funds by paying for the whole family to travel – and in most of these cases her staff was not only complicit in facilitating these charges, but actually helped to create the reasons why their travel could be paid for by the State. I think this batch of emails may be even more eye-opening and further proof of the extent to which she abused the office of Governor of the State of Alaska. And Parnell …. what was your role as Lt. Gov. exactly? How derelict were you in your duties as overlook what was happening, or …. were you as guilty of the abuse of your office as she was of hers?
SaraPAC appears to have committed a trademark violation for its use of the “One Nation” slogan on her us.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-brantzawadzki/sarah-palins-bus-tour-gui_b_872179.html
“At the moment, Eustis’s lawyers and SarahPAC’s are engaged. But by the time all is said and done, it’s entirely possible that one Kelly Eustis will be the proud new owner of a full-size, luxury tour bus, preloaded with his PAC’s name emblazoned on the side, in letters four feet high.”
I feel almost nostalgic daisey dem. We old timers on Palins tail do have some interesting memories tucked away being amateur sleuthes. Better than a murder mystery, and it even could be that.
I got back from China with a scorpian sting, and a torn hamstring, so was bed bound. I had loads time in front of the T.V. recovering, watching the Bush legal team stealing the Presidency maneuvers on National T.V. from start to finish. Too bad Gore threw in the towel. We wouldn’t be where we are today if he hadn’t given up the fight.
I hope they find something that can nail Palin once and for all , but am realistic. They will have blacked it out or kept it as personal e-mails. And that is the good stuff.
Still, the throng of intelligent and observant anti Palin devotees is larger now, and a long hot weekend makes sitting at a computer in air conditioned comfort trying to make sense of her mess almost better than a weekend at the shore.. or in the cool of a multi-plex.
The Palinistas have already mobilized to flood the Times and Post with applications to work as unpaid interns on this project. The plan is to filter out any information from the documents that might be damaging to her. Though why would this worry them, since they think she’s perfect?
The whole endeavor strikes me as a bit ill-conceived, not the least because of the possibility of the Times’ and Post’s servers being crashed by a tsunami of emails from Palinophiles. How, exactly, are the crackpots with an agenda to protect Our Sarah from the minions of Satan/Soros going to be sorted out from people with a legitimate interest and the ability to read, comprehend, and analyze information? Yes, I realize that it’s easy to screen for the obviously demented and illiterate. But what about the more plausible-sounding applicants?
If the MSM is excited these emails will hold nothing. Television and print media are so far behind the true information cycle that its almost embarrassing. Everyone has to know these emails are as redacted as they could be. Sarah didn’t hire all those high school buddies into state government for nothing.
lilly lily: true, a lot of it will have been redacted, but I am hoping that there will be glimmers of enough substance reading between the lines (like in the case of the “puppy”) to entice more scrutiny. And though the first batch was also redacted; to me at least there was enough to show for example that her staff members actually helped creatively embellish travel requests/authorizations and expenditures for her and the family. Now why was that not acted upon? Why was that allowed to stand, yes, I know she had to pay “SOME” of it back, but not nearly all and some of those staffers remained in position under Parnell. Where was Parnell? So I hold out hope that there will be some crumbs in these emails that will lead some authorities to explore further into whatever issues around her governorship might unfold …. and maybe we will be tossed a crumb or two on babygate!
It is better than a murder mystery … I guess that is why I haven’t completed a novel since this began.
The palinistas can do their best but there are other people who are going to look them over and both NYT and WaPo know if their people redact or ignore and something comes forward from others who are looking them over (and they will) then they are going to look complicit in shielding her from harm
Joe,
MSNBC will have copies available on their web site, so we can each review the thousands of pages. Malia Litman
Your headline is perfect–you nailed it.
I hope David Kernell, convicted college-student “hacker”, from his post at the federal corrections facility in Ashland, Kentucky, is taking some small measure of satisfaction at imagining Palin twisting in the wind over this email dump. Without his scapegoating, how many of us would ever have known about the private yahoo accounts where state of Alaska business was being conducted and hidden from public view. David is due to be released in November. I, for one, have not forgotten what the Palin circus-mob and the slobbering media in attendance accomplished at that courthouse in Knoxville.
Have to agree with you Nancy D. If there’s a shitstorm within the emails, and I mean of the type that would end up with Sarah in an orange jumpsuit, I think the people doing the sorting and redacting would have had to do or say something before now?
Greta Van Susteren already has her knickers her in a bunch over this. Not to mention, her faithful “bloggers”, who believe Palin will be the next President.
Yuck… Just the thought of GVS’s knickers makes me sick … but she needs a real wake-up call or is it too late for her? She has lost what respect she used to have by hitching her wagon to SP’s falling star.
“Darfur would be the most loathsome thing she’s ever done.” Joe, you said it, and considering all the other loathsome things she has done, this one — so far — is the worst. There is nothing she will do to help the people of Sudan, except hand out some bibles, and maybe copies of the Constitution left over from her Blunder Bus Tour. It’s obvious the Sudan trip is just another photo op and sound bite.
Here’s a thought … others may have already had. I don’t know what time frame the emails covers, but won’t it be interesting to see what names (say, of politicians on the national scene, like McCain) pop up in said emails.
Thanks for mentioning David…what a mockery of justice. Palin could have given him a “get out a jail free pass” no way. The reading of the emails kind of reminds me of working for Arianna Huffington. She winds up selling the blog for milllions & you wind up with zilch It’s usery.
Does anyone know whether a judge will be reviewing the unreleased and redacted emails to see if their contents were correctly withheld?
Sorry, I should have linked.–The background is here, for those who have forgotten about the “heinous” offense. I do hope their perjuries will dog the Palin women into the near future. And certainly into all of the books and articles yet to be written about the spiteful and carelessly hateful Palin way of doing “payback”.
How anyone can continue to cover for these people and their pathology is forever beyond me. Let’s just hope it’s exit stage left; then fold their sorry show.
My understanding is that no one will review the unreleased emails unless one of the email requesters takes legal action to dispute the emails that have been deemed “privileged.” Hopefully one of the email requesters will look over the privilege logs and see some documents that look like they are worth fighting for. Of course, only someone with the ability to pay legal fees will be able to contest the matter.
if you Ever start to believe in government or in the ability of the masses to ever show concern or involvement in anything that really matters in their lives just open up the Internet and you soon will be brought back to earth.
government working for the people and employed by them suddenly have “privileged’ communications and the right to withhold any information they deem to be in their best interests.
so called media ,a bunch of corporate shills who know nothing more than how to look appealing in front of a camera race to tell everyone the “truth” and fail at all levels to ever uncover any investigative news.
every right wing loon imaginable gets a free pass to spew their idiocy over the air waves while the true progressive voices linger in isolation ,their integrity questioned at every turn.
for over 2 years people of conscience have had to watch this mentally ill palin create her own reality with the aid of a complacent and more often duplicitous press and now they feign interest in redaction while accepting no blame for their creation(s).
its enough to make you ill.
I read today that Palin isn’t totally off the hook over the use of private email accounts for state business, Andree has taken the lower court decision that said it was not illegal, to a higher court, and I totally agree with Andree, state business done behind the back of public scrutiny is wrong.
http://www.newsminer.com/view/full_story/7393709/article-Alaska-activist-appeals-ruling-in-Palin-e-mail-case-
“ANCHORAGE, Alaska – An Anchorage activist is asking the Alaska Supreme Court review a judge’s ruling that state law doesn’t forbid the use of private e-mails to conduct state business.
The case stems from a 2008 records request by Andree McLeod, which showed then-Gov. Sarah Palin and members of her staff had been using private e-mail accounts.
McLeod’s attorney, Don Mitchell, filed the appeal with the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Mitchell says Superior Court Judge Patrick McKay erred in his January ruling that state lawmakers did not intend for the law to prohibit the use of private e-mails in official state business.
McLeod argued that Palin and the governor’s office had a responsibility to save e-mails related to state business, and that private accounts obstruct the public’s right to inspect records.”
Also too, Mother Jones will be in AK tomorrow scanning to electronically load the emails……..
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/06/palin-email-mojo-goes-alaska-video-twitter
“……..In the meantime, though, we thought that this Alaska adventure was an awesome way to give readers a window into the investigative process. So even before Corn’s reporting team starts zeroing in on the stories told by the emails…and before our web team ingeniously assembles a searchable database for you all to read the emails yourselves…I’ll take you along for the ride, from maddeningly tight airline connections to Juneau activist crash pads to the presumable circus campout being planned by a who’s who of media at the state Capitol Friday morning. We’ll be posting blogs, tweets, photos and videos in real time, starting with the one at the top of this post.
How to keep up with the latest? If you’re savvy to the Twitters, keep an eye out for the #PalinEmail hashtag, where our whole crew will be sharing its labors through Friday and the weekend. And if you’d like to ask me questions or see anything in particular covered while I’m in Juneau, give a holler on the email or the Twitter. Hit me up anytime: I’ll be pulling an all-nighter Friday, after all. Or, since it’s Alaska in June, an all-dayer.
Journalism: It’s all about sacrificing the body!”
I thought the best one was the AA emailing Todd because the health insurance co. had repeatedly asked for Trig’s birth certificate…. Todd’s response: “I called, thanks”
http://www.crivellawest.net/palin/pdf/1397.pdf
Crivella West is putting them online again this time around. Not sure if they’ll be up tomorrow, though.
That was probably part of the game Sara and Parnell played – if they redact too much then someone will sue for more. If they let too much out someone might sue for more because they think there is something even to the point of criminal buried in there. One interesting thing will be to see if there are any mentions of Thoma there. We know she emailed with Frank – or did she? What he reported should be corroborated in emails. If there are a bunch of redacted emails from that time then someone may go after them. Tough choice but I would have crossed my fingers and crossed out as much as I could. Then again Joe has said the media is out in force. They wouldn’t come if they suspected there was nothing there. Hard to imagine someone inside didn’t leak to someone there was going to be material worth reading
What is the deal with Greta? She seems to idolize Sarah and I just don’t get it.
The same people who have covered for $P right along have had nearly 3 years to sterilize those emails. How many did they conveniently ‘lose’ in addition to the ones being withheld? Alaska politics is CORRUPT.
Only if someone goes to court to get the 2400 will there be anything worth reading.
True that Alaska politics is corrupt and has been for a long, long time.
The emails may be heavily redacted but it will only make the upcoming “treasure hunt” all the more fun.
From those emails already released we know that discussions of Palin’s misdeeds were filled with obtuse, even “coded,” language.
In order to catch every bit of incriminating evidence, the people who redacted this new mountain of emails would have had to know as much about the details of Palin’s innumerable misdeeds as Palin herself.
And even HER knowledge pales in comparison to all the information accumulated and analyzed by the many anti-Palin blogs and readers who are dedicated to exposing her seemingly limitless perfidy.
Hopefully, between her nosediving popularity and the release of these new emails, we’ll soon put an end to the grisly Mama’s constant stream of scams, lies and obstructionism.
Thanks, Mary, for providing that link. This is the e-mail I have been commenting on forever. It is from the State of Alaska, Benefits Div., to…”Gov. Sarah Palin” asking her for her newborn’s birth certificate. It took me over a week to figure out why her insurance company was asking “HER” for a b/c, when we knew it was Bristol who gave birth to Trig. Well, thanks to Dr. CBJ putting the paperwork in her name, that problem was taken care of.
To me, it is proof Bristol gave birth on April 17/18, 2008 and Sarah sent the claims for his birth to her insurance comapny for payment.
Why no one will pay attention to this very important piece of information, is absolutely beyond me.
The Feds need to come in and shut down the whole gov and rehire new people and start all over.
The Alaskan people should demand that. Instead they re-Elected Parnell SP v 2.0???
She is still the Gino up there. She still uses SOA resources to harass others. Nothing has changed except she’s free to grift around the “Outside” where we don’t want her sorry ass!
Do we really want “the Feds” coming in and shutting down state and local governments and taking over?
I don’t think so.
–Joe
June 10th – a date which will live in infamy?
o/t I was at Laura Novak’s blog and she has a post up about the Gusty photo. She also posts a link to the you tube video of Gusty talking about the “conspiracy theorists”, etc. and it also shows the interview she supposedly did with sp the same day the photo was taken. In Laura’s post there are two photos, the one of sp with Gusty while being interviewed and then a second photo of sp with McAllister and Carpenter, which Gusty said she took.
In the photo of sp with the two men, she has on a necklace. In the video of the interview, I could not see a necklace in any of sp’s closeups???? Can someone else take a look at this and confirm whether or not I am missing something in the video? And if I am correct that the necklace is missing in the interview then what happened to it?
Thank you:)
So are you suggesting that silly letter Sara got was supposed to stand in for a birth certificate? If that’s the way they run things in Alaska then we should all move there. It does beg the question of his “I called them” and no one writing back asking what they talked about. He called them doesn’t imply any action to take the load off. Did they simply submit a letter and Sara got her “medical bills” covered? Or did they submit Bristols bills and they were covered because she was a minor? That brings people from the Insurance company and the state benefits department into the story. How many people are tied up in this mess?
Well if that’s gonna happen I better get out my trusty steed, my handy rifle and my big bell to warn the Feds that the State is armed and not giving up their guns! And I’m gonna be busy, because then I have to ride to warn Alaskans that a big fight is gonna break out between the Feds and the State and we residents aren’t giving up our guns so watch out!
I’m not quite sure how to accomplish this since I live in a town with no roads, within the largest state in the union. I may have to drink a beer or two to plan this one out before I saddle up!
I think my reply is at least as ridiculous as yours.
Oh, this is SO worth it. First, I believe that no matter how carefully the state of Alaska reviewed the emails, they’ve missed a lot. I’m sure there are lovely, fine and intelligent people in Alaska, but I’m not sure they’re in the state government. Especially when so many of them were appointed by Sarah.
Second, every single time a piece of information is released, somebody has a brainstorm and realizes how this impacts other information. I’m continually amazed by the range and depth of knowledge of the people who read and comment on the Alaska blogs. At first, it was just the occasional, “Hey, wait a minute- she said THIS, but then THIS OTHER THING can’t be true!” Now every time Sarah opens her mouth, we have people eager to find her lies, her exaggerations, and her downright self-contradictions. It’s very entertaining. And I’m convinced Sarah reads the blogs. For one thing, Bailey wrote that she did. So- hey, Sarah! We ARE laughing at you!
The more people and points of view we have reviewing these emails, the better. The more we’ll learn. The weight of evidence mounts up. I’m beginning to believe we’ll see a perp walk someday- if the IRS ever investigates her finances.
I find it ironic that you comment on the “political chattering class” being obsessed by Sarah. She sells. If she doesn’t, why would you write a book about her?
I used to work in insurance for years. One of my job functions was to add newborns to policies. Newborns were automatically added to the mother’s policy effective the date of birth when the childbirth claim came in . It was easy to determine the date of birth obviously because it is the same date as the mother’s surgery. . The only time we asked for the birth certificate was if the baby was adopted. Then we added the baby as of the date the adoptive parents took custody.
More than likely, Palin had a major medical policy and this would have been the case with her policy. . There was never any need to ask for a birth certificate unless the baby was adopted. The State of Alaska insurance info can be googled and it gives the types and some rules for the addition of newborns.. Her insurance records will never be made available because of privacy but I would bet they hold the answer.
I dont understand it either, especially because nothing came of Todd’s emails. There was nothing there. And remember, that “puppy” was a black lab, a dog that Chuck still owns and we’ve all seen.
Ugh MSM. You are PATHETIC. We’re literally dealing with a worse econ situation than FDR and we have a president who doesnt hold a friggin candle to even FDR. I REALLY hate to mirror the bots, but THAT should be in the headlines. BAHHH I’m so freaking glad I did NOT major in journalism. I would feel embarrassed.
If the Dominionist inspired Palin can be exposed for what she is–no one who should be let near a govt office again–there could be a good outcome of all this hoopla. Just look at the lineup of those running under the GOP banner already (even though Palin is still playing political cock-teaser).
I’m all for exposing any of these frauds by whatever means necessary, even if it is through a press that aligned itself with George Bush (most egregiously, Judith Miller and the NYT on Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction”) so much so that he stole another election in 2004.
Or do we simply allow all the frauds to get away with everything? I don’t think so. I’m for lots more sunlight on all of them.
You are a bot. I love when you people make all of this about the President. It isn’t. (That was your tell)
It’s about a woman who has put herself in all of our faces about how open her administration was, now she wants to be president. Get it? Almost every line of these emails will probably be redacted by saint Sarah’s embedded minions from high school. We shall see how honest the perpetual liar is . . . .Black pages, Sarah is a liar with a whole lot to hide. And let’s face it, the 2400 emails they aren’t showing would probably put her in jail.
I agree, VictoriaJ, the 2400 pages of emails are where you will find the most incriminating evidence against the Grifter. Doubt very much if the released emails contain anything harmful to her. Her lawyers made sure of that.
Ivyfree, you are so right! I know they’ll have missed stuff, just like in the last round. Not only are they not looking with the same optics, they just don’t know Sarah like we do! And I agree Joe is appearing a little oblique here. The more people paying attention to what Sarah does, the more potential sales for his book, right?
I’d like to see him write a couple of sequels, actually: “The Selling of Sarah Palin 2008” and “The Selling of Sarah Palin 2012”. I think that would be a far greater public service than exposing Sarah as “A Rogue”. We know she’s insane… err “a rogue”… she told us so!!
😉
I want to know who is propping her up, and why.
I want to know who hates America that much.
Sarah made the gamble that going on her One Nation bus tour would endear her to Americans while distracting the media from the Dunn and Bailey books. Now there is heightened interest in the emails. Presumably, she had enough input into their selection that she thinks they would do less damage to her than the books.
After her upstaging of the Romney announcement on her “family vacation,” it may also be that the Republican leadership finally sees how uncontrollable she is and wants to shut her down. I’ve become convinced over the last 10 years that conservatives own enough of the media that they control which stories get play and which don’t.
It could also be that the Edwards and Weiner scandals have gotten everyone in the media in a feeding frenzy. Their staffs are so minimal at this point that they need to conscript ordinary citizens to do their work.
Joe, just to be a devil’s advocate here, I can think of one reason the MSM is playing up these emails bigtime (besides the fact that anything to do with Sarah Palin attracts “lookie-loos”, eager to see the wreckage).
Premise: The MSM gave her a pass, not only on the faked pregnancy, but on virtually all of her other ‘gates. The only thing that seemed to get any national play was Troopergate, and in the end they didn’t even really contest her statement of having been exonerated of all ethics improprieties. I didn’t hear that the Alaska Fund Trust got any traction… there was a shitload of money involved there and I still don’t know to this day whether she paid it back.
Premise: The public has an attention span of five minutes, and “nobody” (no talking heads or their news editor) wants to regurgitate “old” stuff, especially if it’s old corruption stuff with nothing “breaking”. Corruption stuff is usually too complicated and boring: doesn’t fit into the five minutes. The guy with the cash in the freezer, we’ll remember, but subtler forms of misbehavior seem to make people’s eyes glaze over, or at least that’s what the MSM would have us believe, in large part because they have intentionally made themselves incapable of presenting complex stories in a way that people can understand, along with the perhaps more pertinent fact that corporate media are constitutionally incapable of reporting the real levels of existing corruption and malfeasance.
Premise: The MSM, in some way, does want to give Sarah Palin the boot, because she is starting to make them look like fools, even to themselves. Greta is sick of her, most people on FOX are sick of her…
Premise: The MSM needs something “new!” and “breaking!” that might give them the chance to scuttle her. They may continue to cover her the way they’ve been covering Britney, Snookie, the Kardashians, etc.—she’ll refuse to stay out of the public eye, for one thing—but even if they don’t come up with a smoking gun… even if they only end up with a vague case that Todd seemed to have been doing all the governing, they MAY acknowledge material that will allow them to finally write her off (after the requisite month or two of polemics and hand-wringing and laments for what “could have been”, of course), without—and this is the beauty part—WITHOUT having to enter into any of the OLD stuff that, in their criminal negligence, they overlooked in the past. They can drag out their favorite phrase of the last decade or so: “Who could have known!” “We’re just as surprised as you!”…
This may just be wishful thinking… :-/
—-
Since you’ve spent time in Italy, maybe you’ve heard the phrase “inzuppare il pane” (dipping the bread). The mainstream media today is all about bread-dipping. Tutti devono inzuppare il pane… anche tu, no? 😉
Good question. Why such importance to sift through her e-mails? Media played her as a formidable match to any candidate and kept reminding us how she represented her christian conservative base, and now they act like there’s some dirt to find and everyone chow down.
Everything about SP, leaves a trail of ambiguity with it.
Well the fact that Greta’s husband set up SarahPAC does leave some room for questioning old Greta’s journalistic integrity. Laughing all the way to the bank.
Jesus Christ was a progressive voice during his time. The power holder of his time had to have him killed in order to shut him up and stop influencing people. Some people (i.e., republicans, corporate oligarchs, the religious right, dictators, oppressive regimes) just want to keep the masses in the dark ages and laboring for a pittance in order to support the wealthy power-brokers. History repeats itself.
I am reading about these redacted emails and believe that there will be no new news here especially since no one is overseeing the redacting. However, some number of people have read the emails and have had continuous access to them. Of this group, some number of them have kids in college, mortgages to pay, health insurance premiums or just may want to retire early.
The truth is that there is a great deal of money to be made by someone possessing copies of intact emails. If Andee wins her case, everything changes. Eventually, we will see the emails as they were written. We are all Capitalists and what could be more entrepreneurial than selling emails? It’s the American way. I am also counting on the likelihood that someone with access to the emails may be less than smitten with the granny grifter. With 6 out of 10 people disapproving of her, I like the odds.
We live in an age of “reality” television. Scripted sitcoms and dramas may be gone for the time being, but I believe we’ll soon tire of watching Ramona fighting with Jill, what Kate’s eight little devils are up to, whether or not Kim Kardashian’s ass will grow any bigger, and Paris Hilton….oh, who the hell cares anymore! My point is that Sarah Palin’s ascent in the political hemisphere was perfectly timed with the growth of reality TV. She’s not a public servant, she’s a celebrity. Whether or not she EVER actually entered government to make the world a better place is irrelevant now, as the past (nearly) three years in the national and international news have changed the whole ball of wax. Money, money, money, money….isn’t that how Trump’s obnoxious paean to himself “The Apprentice” begins, hasn’t Sarah Palin ALWAYS craved the glamourous life (even if her version of “glamour” once meant driving two hours to see IVANA Trump!)? Palin wants to be either this century’s Aimee Semple McPherson, the first “true believer” superstar, or else she just gets off on stirring up trouble. The media is her enabler, and the American people are her target (with crosshairs, that may be a LITERAL statement!). I agree the press is going overboard with expectation that these e-mails will reveal anything, but as her lawyers had first dibs on seeing them and redacting anything unflattering, I expect nothing revelatory. But ONE DAY….ah, one day….the lies, the manipulation, the intimidation she has regularly used against her perceived “enemies” IS going to bite her on the ass. Hard. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving piece of….fill in the blank.
Hear Hear!
The emails matter because they are the only primary sources we have of Palin’s performance, other than interviewees. What will be important in them, I wager, are not details or nuggets, but the big picture. How much of the governance was up to Todd, how much the family traveled, how gum-smacking crude these people are, how vindictive Palin is, how poor a mother. Who the real heroes are, like the state employees who kept asking for evidence of the children’s appearances on state business. . . This is what WaPo meant by spotting patterns. However, those of us who’ve followed Palin in the blogs for years already know all this stuff by sheer common sense!
AMC movie theaters across US to run Palin film.
Note the purpose of the movie is to ” make money
not to get her elected to anything!”. So is she running or not?
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/56686.html
Uh, sorry to be That Guy, but really? Couldn’t you have found a less-sexist, less-misogynistic metaphor for Sarah Palin than a stripper? Anything to compare her to besides someone involved in sex work? I get it — it’s a “powerful” turn of phrase, but it’s also really facile, and it’s also a phrase inexorably tied up with her gender — you would never have described Huckabee or Romney or Bush in such language.
In an earlier age, would you have called her a ‘strumpet’ or a ‘whore’ as a means of buffeting your argument?
This is what the feminist movement means when it critiques contemporary discourse among American liberals: the same grotesque sexist tropes are trotted out by liberal men as by conservative men.
it was so very strange to have a paper trail of the e-mails and the cost involved.
Hopefully, once people get their packages, the information will be loaded onto CD’s. I doubt if there is much to behold in the e-mails. What may be noted, however, is the LACK of Dr. visits – nothing the coordinates with her stories about amniocentesis, considering abortion, etc.
There may be plenty of inter-family e-mails – especially since Todd was the governor in everything but name.
I also would never describe Bachmann, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi or Barbara Boxer in such terms.
It’s only Sarah who acts that way. Do you honestly think mainstream media fascination with her has nothing to do with her perceived sexuality? How can the image of a stripper not come to mind when you watch the tease she’s currently performing about will she or won’t she run for president?
–Joe
I thought it was a chocolate lab.
So Chuckie got it through Sarah contacts and her government E-Mails?
I always wondered about the “puppy” especially since the cap on Trig was labeled “MY PUPPY.”
Another instance of the Palin humor.
You know, I think the lap dance metaphor is off. In a lap dance, you get what you pay for. It’s dirty, sure, but it’s honest.
I’ve always thought of Sarah doing more of a fan dance, you know the type. Always teasing, making you want to see. You have no idea what’s behind those fluffy fans (well, some of us do), but you stick to your seat hoping for a peek.
I don’t care how much money the grifter makes, or who contributes their hard earned money outside of the big boys who give her big bucks. I also don’t care what happens to Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, toad or ma and pa kettle. They will make their own misery, I don’t need to bother, though Ma and Pa are quite smug, with their Sarah. Oblivious.
I do care who is President. THAT impacts on myself and every member of every family in the U.S.A..
To me that is the important goal in my following the witch. Keep her out of the White House.
If it means she needs to be prosecuted for things she has done in the past. That will keep her out of the White House. A good goal.
She is a sexual shiny object for a lot of people. Who really cares if she does or doesn’t put out for anyone, it is all a big tease. LOOK AT ME, LOOK, I’m Queen Esther. WHO in their right mind pretends to be a incarnation of a Biblical Character, who may or may not have existed. The bible is full of characters who represent an idea. Moses did not exist if you listen to some reformed Jewish clergy. ( from a Rabbi I heard at a boys Bar Mitzva.)
Does she truly believe her babble? I don’t know. She is a fraud and pathological liar who may have reached a stage where she does believe in her own version of reality.
I certainly don’t.
And anyone who would vote for her based on their finding her a MILF is a damned idiot.
I totally agree with you. I thought she ratcheted up the sexuality on her bus tour too. There was one interview where she was sitting in the back of an SUV where she actually thanked the reporter for being patient and then gave him the sexy pout. It was a moment where the way she uses her sexuality was disgustingly apparent.
Lilly lily, if we’re going to let $arah play a re-incarnation of some Biblical personage, I want it to be Jezebel. She was Ahab’s wife/queen. She wrote letters to generate the wrongful death of Naboth and all of his sons, so that Abah could confiscate Naboth’s vineyard. Jezebel, like $arah, signed somebody else’s name to her letters. Also, she put her hair up in a strange tire-like configuration and wore heavy face paint. When she was pushed out a window and died, . . . . . . . 2 Kings 9:35
Many concluded the necklace is also in the Gusty photo, and creates an occasional glint of light, though too small to be seen at the distance and at the resolution uploaded to flickr (which was lower resolution than the original).
I would say Sarah & her bots set back the feminist movement about 30 years. These so called church ladies have been rough on women….their position on abortion & pro choice is neanderthal.
So Bailey said she was paranoid about her personal E-mail, and purged and erased them from the files.
Now those, would be the real deal. The rest, as they are, redacted, I’ll let the thousands of curious people who don’t really know her history play the game. They are fresh enough to see something that others following this crazy lady since the campaign might not see.
Even children can often see fraud, for example the child in the fairytale, The Emporers New Clothes. “The Queen is in the Alltogether, as naked as the day she was born.” Only Parnell and all the people who the Queen put in place have redacted and covered her tracks and covered her nakedness.
LOL.. Huffington has also jumped on the bandwagon seeing it as an oportunity to get more slave labor.
I’ll give the N.Y. Times, Mother Jones and the Washington Post a pass, but not Huffington.
I will be following the Alaska Dispatch version of this as an Alaskan. The ADN has stricken from my list of reliable Alaska media for a very long time.
I am prepared to once again be very angry with this Twit for stomping all over the flowers and spreading her vindictiveness in my home state. These people she has trashed include my neighbors, my friends, my representatives, my family. The communities she has dissed include my home, and the homes of my family & friends, and of my ancestors. This is a time when I don’t really care about the national press or anything else – this brings it HOME. This brings our distrust and disdain for this creepy woman right back onto our doorsteps.
A lot of Alaskans are going to be very pissed if they pay any attention – we are a very small town and many of us have been out-of-proportionately impacted by this sleazy liar. It’s a perfect time for her disappearing act – she knows she better get the hell out of Dodge for awhile.
OK, back to regular programming.
… and why does history repeat itself?
Because too few attempt to learn from history, we are doomed to repeat those past mistakes.
I couldn’t agree with you more. I question how many Alaskans will really be watching this – or will they just believe whatever they read in the ADN or the TV news?
Do the majority even KNOW about the email dump? Do they care? I find those around me totally incurious about politics unless they are directly negatively impacted by it.
The emails are coming, the emails are coming! Ring those bells, Paul Revere!
Looking like a needle in a haystack. MSM & Sarah Palin are once again at the helm.Even when she’s hiding she’s still the center of attention. Think I’ll sit this one out.
Fan dances exhibit artistic skill and subtlety. Palin’s routine simply requires her to be comfortable with a consistent, yet dizzying array of vulgarities. Joe’s metaphor works fine for me.
Yes, that is the question & has been all along. Who is fueling this insanity. The organization behind “the Rogue” is indeed what we are after. They have kept this snarky, mean spirited, mentally ill woman in the press for four years now & are somehow trying to sneak her in the backdoor & make her President of the US. What gives?
LOL. About what can be expected.
Blanks so far.
twitter is being spammed by palinbots. There seems to be a group playing their silly little games.
How many people are going to talk about the Nigerian Prince scam? I would guess thousands of times by the bots.
It is going to be a replay of the Wikipedia nonsense on Paul Revere with her bots.
She also had on her big boob bra for most of the trip. It was absent in DC. She was definitely “selling it” no doubt at all. Pouty, cutsey, playing up to any & all media she saw. All that was lacking was the pole. Nothing misogynistic about criticizing her flagrant sexual behavior at all. She uses it all the time.
What a tough cookie. She didn’t want Friday, Trigs date of birth, listed as a day off.
Absolutely incredable.
What did she do, tough Alaskan broad that she is, go out in the fields to pick cotten and bale hay right after 6.30a.m. on Friday, after the easiest pregnancy and delivery ever recorded by woman?
This stuff is insane. Tough as nails, or she wasn’t pregnant and didn’t deliver any child.
If I was an Alaskan, I’d be furious. Do you know how much “man hour” time it must have taken
to actually go through each of these emails redacting information? I would say hundreds, maybe thousands, I don’t know. But it took 2 1/2 years! Why should the tax payers pay for that when the woman quit.
I know they got paid for the emails but still it took up the time of state workers. If they truly were transparent, they would just say HERE and turn them all over. If she had nothing to hide it wouldn’t have taken so long.
And now there will be nothing there of interest.
It is all a big media circus and a waste of time for all sides.
Committing journamalism by random lot:
@shushwalshe: The first e mail I took out of the box. A poem sent to a group including the gov of Alaska. #palinemails http://j.mp/jpyPWq
Bwa ha ha
I agree with you Joe; the media is once again falling all over themselves for Sarah Palin. And I do believe sex has a lot to do with it; a lot of editors (and some reporters and pundits) with hard ons (can I say that because I have always thought that). But some of those pundits (i.e. Bill Kristol) are having second thoughts about their one-night-stand, if you will. Let’s hope they all get over it, but that does not look like it will happen anytime soon.
I just watched the last part of Hardball. Chris was having a discussion on the Palin emails and he ended that discussion by saying, among other things, that he couldn’t wait for McGinniss’s book to come out in September. I would imagine that you are already booked to appear on Hardball. I’ll be watching.
The buzz for your book is beginning Joe. I hope it rockets to Number One.
Joe – Did you announce who had the best suggestions for The Final Chapter of “The Rogue” Contest? I think you said you were going to do it this week. Thanks.
Thank God Chris Matthews finally got over his crush on Palin. He was so giddy & irritating when talking about her.
Will do over the weekend. Just wrapped up final editorial work on last chapter yesterday.
–Joe
Joe
on Hardball (msnbc) Chris M mentioned u and said Hi to u 🙂 He is looking fwd to ur book.
Joe, did you see this?
“As the media swarms over Sarah Palin’s emails has anyone thought to ask why the personal information of those who wrote emails critical of Palin was not redacted?……..
http://www.politicususa.com/en/sarah-palin-critics-info
One has to assume that much of what was redacted might involve people’s actions who are still in government jobs. Once again Sara has people doing her dirty work for her while she remains above the fray. The emails were never going to bring her down. Rather they are going to provide snippets of information that can lead to new paths to follow or give out small signs that there were lies and half truths circulating, For example, why are they seemingly obsessed with making sure everyone is on the same page regarding Trig’s birthdate? And why are they getting questions from their insurance company about needing a birth certificate. When we submitted our claims for two children they never asked for a BC, they could see the bills were for labor and delivery and they went through just fine. And the last point is to see where the redactions take place. For example the Dairy seems to be heavily redacted, as do emails about negotiations with the oil companies. What I’m hoping is that Joe will have found more information about these issues in his own personal search and they will be in his book
Sara just painted a crosshair on each and every one of them. I wouldn’t doubt a bit that some bad things start happening to those people. And if there’s blood shed it on her and Parnell’s hands. I’m not sure I want to be Parnell if that happens. Leaving your own constituents hung out to dry for the Palin lovers to seek revenge against is not smart governing. I wonder if something happens to them if they or their heirs seek remedies in the courts.
My guess would be that the media outlets think there is stuff there to find. That suggests to me that actually they are more open to various stories than you may think. You can’t do some stories though without solid evidence. Maybe there is evidence in them there emails…..they think…possibly.
….It shows she sells too. Stories about her sell, so she is going to be with us for a good deal longer unless some kind of major scandal comes along which knocks her out.
I hope she does actually run. Primaries are long and the inter party fighting changes the political dynamic. I see it as more likely that her political career will be ended by running. She is always the victim of the cruel liberal elite media, but when conservatives land some blows it will be much harder for her to play that game. I’m hoping her supporters will look upon her in a different light when that happens. …I’m just hoping she is in at least 2 debates. Wow that will be fun.
Let’s hope not. I experienced the hate first hand last summer, and it wasn’t pretty.
State of Alaska has much to answer for here. So much else redacted, but not contact info of anyone who dared to criticize her?
Not an accident.
–Joe
You BET it’s not an accident! Thought of you first when i read it.
The only positive thing about the critics’ contact information not being redacted is that journalists can follow up with those people and find out how they’ve been threatened. That is a story in itself.
IF media does follow up, which I doubt. This is proving to be such a big, embarrassing bust for MSM that they’ll disappear as fast as they descended on Juneau and will not care about the aftermath.
–Joe
I agree with you Search4More. I find it positive that so many media outlets are scouring the emails. They are looking for and hoping to find ‘something’ juicy. Hopefully it will be something juicy that will put SP behind bars.
I expect to be one of those targeted. I’ll let you know… maybe there’s a lawyer out there wanting to make a name for him/herself? The media DOESN’T CARE.
“The media DOESN’T CARE.”
Frosty, why is that!!??
Joe?!?!
This is the key to the whole fucking thing… not Sarah’s nonsense.
It could be anyone’s nonsense.
WHY DOES THE MSM ENABLE PSYCHOPATHS!?!?!?
For profit.
–Joe
Looks like you called this one. Nothing to see here.
Class action suit a possibility? For all those who may suffer the special experience of confronting the WGE with her fraudulent nature?
Knowing it had antiquated technology to undertake this request – even back in 2008 – why didn’t the State of AK mandate a specialized firm to electronically convert and collate these emails (i.e. as MSNBC/MotherJones/ProPublica did with Crivella West)? What’s the most telling in this email dump debacle is the content highlighted in the privilege log. Joe’s and curious’ earlier exchange where privilege doesn’t apply to her detractors that appear in print is indeed no accident. There are blatant and troubling inconsistencies with the reasons given as executive/deliberative process in the log. But alas, any further delving will more than likely disappear in the night like the content of those emails … unless the media pulls up their socks and demonstrates some vigorous investigative journalism. C’est la vie?
Sheez! Not a friendly place for anyone who is employed in the media. I am NOT part of the editorial process. I remember asking one of the anchors why little was covered about SP and her background including “babygate.” I was told by said prominent anchor that everything was looked at and there was nothing to it……oh dear. It is not fun being a wee nut in the machinery of this type as am I.
Yep!
So it is crosshairs “get the critics of Sarah Palin” time once again. What a witch.
If anyone gets any vicious mail or threats of any kind, because their names and e-mail and phone numbers were released, they should file a class action suit against Alaska and Sarah Palin. As concerned Alaskans they had every right to complain about her and Toads actions. They cover her, toad and Bristol and their hides, but expose anyone who dared cross the Palins by complaining. Dirty pool.
I haven’t gone into the released documents, except for her Trig comments. For example wanting to be paid for the day he was supposedly delivered, as she signed a bill. Most women would be sleeping after a delivery, and sure wouldn’t be petty about each day they were on a maternity leave. And considering the wild ride and all the plane trips one would think she would be exhausted. But not Sarah Palin , fronteirswoman and grizzley supermom.
Don’t governors or government workers receive maternity leave?? She knows every paid loophole, and she didn’t apply for that?
Gee, she didn’t remember the day he was born? And her murder of the word accuracy is absolutely astonishing. The woman has problems.
As usual problems with Disqus at Politicalgates. I stopped posting because it was so erratic and frustrating. I cannot get into the comments which should be interesting. Usually I don’t waste my time, but I do like the people and their comments so will attempt to check it out later.
So on the the Washington Post, the NY Times for a few hours of investigative reporting by an amateur sleuth. From what I read at Mother Jones it sounds like any critic in Alaska will have to watch their back. A set up by Sarah and her Political Hack Pals in Alaskan high places. They should get a kick in their rears by any Alaskan who has been set up in Sarah Palins nasty cult following and their vicious attacks.
Abysmal behavior. Really rotten.
And the high school mentality & bullying continues. Alaska seems to be thumbing their nose at the lower 48 again. I believe there was 14 delays on these emails. Did anyone really expect to find anything in them? Duped again.
The failure of the Parnell administration to redact the personal information of third parties (who, not coincidentally, were critical of Palin) is especially significant. That’s because the state of Alaska has an express right of privacy in its constitution.
The state’s handling of these emails: inept, petty, vindictive, illegal, and wasteful of public resources.
Sadly, that’s a too-common aspect of the Alaska I know.
I am spreading the word that the one thing the lawyers and sharpie wielders didn’t redact is the contact information of people who sent critical emails to Palin when she was governor. And no, I don’t think something like that was “accidentally” overlooked. Yet another deliberate attempt to set up retribution against anybody dissing the Queen. I know I wrote at least one scathing email to that witch. Since I’m already aware of one person close to me who has had personal contact info outed to the Internet because of this, I’m expecting my email to show up in the pile too, with my contact info. If you sent emails to Palin when she was governor, you might want to keep an eye out for stalkerbots.
Well I wasted another few hours on her tacky highness.
All I can see is others doing all her work while she swans around as a photogenic and visable governor while angling for another higher position.
Champagne in the cellar for her use, in Juneau, but Todd is supposed to drink beer in the garage?
No doctors appointment scheduled for pregnancy checkups.
And an Alaskan enemies list being released for her bots.
@lilly lily: “wanting to be paid for the day he was supposedly delivered, as she signed a bill.”
That right there should be picked up by some “journalist”, because A.) the bill was signed on the 19th, not the 18th…
http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_bill.asp?session=25&bill=SB%20149
and B.) here we have Sarah instructing someone on April 26th to go back and modify the official calendar to make sure that the bill-signing is registered on the date of the 18th in her agenda, after the fact.
This is just plain fraud.
Furthermore, she didn’t even *have* to sign the bill on the 18th OR the 19th. She had a window of time, apparently. (Sorry I can’t find where I just read that or I would link to it. I believe it was in a comment at Politicalgates.)
How does she keep getting away with these things!?!?
I believe the reason these emails are such a big deal has actually been provided by $arah herself: if she had released them right-away, there would have been no big deal. However, she twisted and turned and wriggled for three whole years to try to keep them out of the public view. THAT is why it is such a big deal. If she had dumped them all w/o much fanfare and redacting (just take out the headers), people would have not clamored to read every sordid little detail. By now, people have had three years time to pay attention to her and to see what kind of nutcase she is – so, now people WILL try to find her Achilles heel in the emails.
If she had been open from the get-go, people would MAYbe have cursorily read through them, and then discarded them.
NOW, however, they will be sifted through with a very, very fine-toothed comb, and EVERY little detail will be published and put out for all to see.
She has made herself into a Nixon by her own fault.
I need to read a good book or see a engrossing movie to clear my brains palate of this shallow bitch. Can take only so much in a day. And I’ve had it after a few hours.
Basically her only concern seems to be her image and how she appears, as a brand for her rise in politics. No actual work time, except for image building.
A political hack of the lowest order.
I’ll let others bore themselves into a narcoleptic stupor.
Almost migraine enducing.
But we all knew that before this e-mail release.
Joe,
Others posted here that Chris Mathews mentioned he was looking forward to reading your book. Have his people contacted you to schedule an appearance on Hardball?
Is it too early yet to let us know what MSM roll-out you anticipate for your book and on who’s shows you expect to be a guest ?
Setting the TIVO for sure!
Thank you for your work.
I expect to be on Hardball. My publisher is in the process of arranging things for the fall. It’s too early for me to be specific–still more than three months until publication–but the roll-out should be intense and extensive.
–Joe
It appears that Chris has gotten over that “tingle” he had for Ms. “Fraud of the North Country” and that’s encouraging indeed.
I do, however get frustrated with his interviews in that he rushes them, talks a mile a minute, interrupts his guests and rarely lets them respond to a question before hitting them with another. (sort of like this last sentence.. lol!)
Anticipate this and prepare yourself for his whirl-wind approach…millions will be watching!
Agree.
Crazy Pelosi has got to turn out to be one of the most liberal people in politics throughout the actual region. It’s laborious with regard to me personally in order to believe how folk can easily reelect her inside his or her suitable intellect.