You know how I always say, “Standpoint is everything”? Well . . .
UPDATE: As you see, the man in this opening shot of the video is Joe Vogler, America-hating founder of the Alaska Independence Party. Maybe you need to read David Talbot’s piece in Salon today. It includes this passage:
… Vogler wasn’t just a blowhard either. He put his secessionist ideas into action, working to build AIP membership to 20,000 — an impressive figure by Alaska standards — and to elect party member Walter Hickel as governor in 1990.
Vogler’s greatest moment of glory was to be his 1993 appearance before the United Nations to denounce United States “tyranny” before the entire world and to demand Alaska’s freedom. The Alaska secessionist had persuaded the government of Iran to sponsor his anti-American harangue.
That’s right … Iran. The Islamic dictatorship. The taker of American hostages. The rogue nation that McCain and Palin have excoriated Obama for suggesting we diplomatically engage. That Iran.
AIP leaders allege that Vogler, who was murdered that year by a fellow secessionist, was taken out by powerful forces in the U.S. before he could reach his U.N. platform. “The United States government would have been deeply embarrassed,” by Vogler’s U.N. speech, darkly suggests [AIP chairwoman Lynette] Clark. “And we can’t have that, can we?” …
I can’t wait to see what Sarah Palin has to say about Salon tomorrow, but let’s hope McCain encounters a sudden need to opine upon this tonight. Might be too much to expect from friendly Tom Brokaw, though.
The opening of the video shows this 2007 North American Secessionist conference as being held in Memphis-so horrified I googled it and, “whew”, it was in Chattanooga-which is located in the *other* state of TN.
I will say, however, that Memphis so holds to freedom of speech that we have had 2 KKK Rallies in the past 4 yrs without incident.
Don’t miss the update to this post.
All of the secessionists are following that plan – many of them no longer pay dues, and are no longer listed as members of their respective groups so they can have a plausible deniability. If you’ll notice that a number of people (in the south, particularly), who claim to be EX members of the LoS (League of the South) or the C of CC (Council of Conservative Citizens) are running for public offices this year. Their claims to have left these organizations for various reasons are tenuous at best. It appears that the strategy is, indeed, to put a Republican label on it, and get in office. One wonders if the loonies think they can undermine the government from within.
Or perhaps I’m the looney, for thinking they can’t, considering how well the neoconservatives have paved the way. Timberrrrrrrrr…….
Listen to Palin on the stump these past few days; she is ranting about Obama in a way too similar to Volger for comfort. She is inciting hate and John McCain is egging her on, not just for Obama where one person in the crowd shouted ‘kill him”, but for the media as well, where another person shouted to an African American cameraman, “sit down *Boy*”.
That I do not believe this tactic will work today when people are truly struggling and very concerned about the economy makes it no less despicable.The fact that these are the same two people some Americans want to put in charge of this great country simply renders me speechless.