I’d never heard of this party until today, but its FAQ page claims,
Q: What is the Alaskan Independence Party?
A: An Alaskan political party whose members advocate a range of solutions to the conflicts between federal and local authority; from advocacy for state’s rights, through a return to territorial status, all the way to complete independence and nationhood status for Alaska.
Q: Aren’t most Alaskan Independence Party members a bunch of radicals and Kooks?
A: The party has its share of individualists, in the grand Alaskan tradition. No longer a fringe party, the A.I.P. is a viable third party with a serious mission and qualified candidates for elected offices. …
Q: Didn’t we vote for statehood already?
A: The vote for statehood was invalid because the people were not presented with the range of options available to them. Further, the federal government has since breached the contract for statehood on numerous occasions in over a dozen serious and substantial instances.
Q: Under independence, what would happen to all the federal controls and regulations?
A: We believe that controls should be exerted by the lowest possible governmental unit. The people of Alaska can better decide what controls need to be in place than can bureaucrats in Washington. Specific local regulation might be either more or less restrictive than current federal regulation. The point is that it will be our regulation, not Washington’s.
Q: Would I lose my U.S. citizenship?
A: Depending on the form of independence, several forms of citizenship would be possible, including the retention of U.S. citizenship or dual citizenship. However, considering the moral, educational, and economic decay of the U.S., Alaskans’ who hold themselves to a higher standard might very well decide to at least maintain an arm’s length distance from a country in decline. …
You know what else it claims? That Sarah Palin was one of its members before she was mayor of Wasilla, “but to get along to go along, she joined the Republican Party.” I’m not kidding.
Folks, you need to click these links and watch these YouTubes. Then we can talk about John McCain’s judgment and fitness for the Presidency (never mind Palin’s).
Well, this new piece of information presents a whole new lens through which to view Palin’s comments regarding the job of VP: “We wanna make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans, and for the things we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the US, before I can even start addressing that question.”
Ah, you laugh now, but wait until Russia invades Alaska to protect the fledgling Alaskan Republic’s autonomy!
(Also: we need a post on today’s C-L story on the MSSC: with the prospect of Chief Justice Diaz on the horizon, some on the court are thinking it’s time to start having the justices elect their chief, rather than adhere to the Legislature’s suggestions in its “statutes.”)
This is just sick. McCain is sick. Any party that would nominate and support him is sick. They all need a period of rest and recuperation out of the public eye.
Coming right up, Anderson — just got ahold of that story.
Lotus, may I suggest that you go easy on this Palin woman for this reason: she’s near flame-out. No telling what’s going to happen with that first post you gave us about using her office to intimidate the ex of a family member. I believe Democrats need to let her s-l-o-w-l-y twist in the wind as an example of McCain’s executive decision making. This ain’t going to get better for the Republican party — it’s going to get worse and, before we know it, she’ll be gone!
But..3rdsouth, what if she isn’t gone before we know it? And what if she & McCain win? And what if his cancer returns? And what if she becomes our president? And then, what if the middle east erupts?
GG, she’ll be gone before we know it, and she and McCain won’t win, and if they do we better hope neither his cancer nor his lack of lucidity return. She will never be allowed to remain a heartbeat away from the Presidency, and the Middle East will damn sure erupt a couple of times during the next administration. Now, with all that said I’ll issue the usual bon mot: “He’s been an American military hero, and she’s been….well, she’s been….lets see, she’s been…..might perky!
“She will never be allowed to remain a heartbeat away from the Presidency”: Are you suggesting we would then have a shadow prez? Also, if she drops out to “spend more time with her family”, then who? I read somewhere that Romney, Jindal and Hutchison turned McCain down-that would surprise me with Romney especially but you never know. Can’t imagine she’d be interested at all (her name was never short-listed that I ever heard) but there’s always Olympia Snow with tons of experience and cred.
I agree. Olympia Snow would be qualified and expected. She can pass the vetting. But apparently the Maverick doesn’t do, or have his staff do, vetting until AFTER he announces his choice. He’s proving to the nation that the “Maverick” name is deserved, but not for reasons we might expect. I don’t think it matters that she has a daughter who is expecting a baby — babies are miracles from God. It’s the deception she’s apparently practiced in the bridge to nowhere, the troopergate scandal, the YouTube shockjock interview where she ridicules a woman rival as a bitch and belittles her cancer diagnosis, and the reports (unconfirmed) that she made Bristol stay out of school five months for “mononeucleosis” that won’t pass either party’s aroma test if they pan out. If she were a Democrat, the pregnancy of a daughter, embraced from the beginning as a blessing, would not be an issue. It’s the cover-up that undoes most folks in her position, but if the Youtube shock jock broadcast is real — laughing as a shock jock calls another woman a “bitch” and belittling her cancer — that’s what will make even the Maverick drop her like a hot potato.
I wish I could be as sure that this will all fall apart. As for the Alaska probe, a Republican-dominated legislative committee is investigating whether Palin dismissed Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan after he refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced Palin’s sister. So, what’s to stop some “interference” here from some folks from high places w/a vested interest? Say, a delay in the report being released-sometime say after Nov 4th? Not like that hasn’t been done before.
Just correcting the record here: Sarah Palin was not a member. Even the New York Times had to retract.