NEW CHAPTER
1 week ago
Friday, October 31, 2008
The Faint
So Wednesday night, I was to see a band I very much enjoy again, The Faint, with their supporting band, Over The Rainbow. With my friends Matt and Ricki in tow, we rocked a little club on Southside OKC and danced our asses off. It felt so good to be seeing these guys again and being comfortable in my element. It was such an emotional high for me, such as I often attain when rocking out to a band I enjoy, that I realized a couple of things. Events like these allow me feel as if I am not in Oklahoma anymore. I can leave behind the ignorance and machismo of the straight bar scenes and I leave the cliques and bitterness of the gay world behind. At events like this, people united by the love of a band don't care about the gay couple dancing together and the little emo boys and girls don't have to worry about getting pounded by drunk jocks and thrashed by back stabbing princesses. I was blessed to share this event with my friends and am really looking forward to my excursion to Dallas to see Cobra Starship.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Talons
Bloc Party's new single from their new album. One of my favorite bands of all time. A lot of people didn't care when two of the members came out of the closet a couple of years ago. No,it shouldn't matter if someone is gay on whether they can write good music, but in cases like their songs, I can identify better with the singer's lyrics. Like this song, right now, in my life.
And in the dark, it comes for me
Malevolent and without thought
Uprooting trees, destroying cars
Cold and relentless with arms outstretched
No boat nor brick
nor crucifix can hold it back
I have been wicked
I have been arrogant
And when it comes it will feel like a kiss
Silent about it
And when it comes it will feel like a kiss
And I cannot say that I was not warned or was misled
When it comes it will feel like a kiss
Awaken from dreams of drunken car crashes
You saddened my friends and claimed all my lovers
I try to stay still so it will not see me
Its talons rake the side of my face
I want you to be calm
You're such a slut
And when it comes it will feel like a kiss
Silent about it
And when it comes it will feel like a kiss
And I cannot say that I was not warned or was misled
When it comes it will feel like a kiss
And I didn't think I'd catch fire when I held my hand to the flame
And I didn't think it would catch up as fast as I could have run
Fate came a-knocking when I was looking the other way
A new disease came in the post for me today
And when it comes it will feel like a kiss
And when it comes it will feel like a kiss
And when it comes
(And when it comes)
And when it comes
(And when it comes)
And when it comes
(and when it comes)
And when it comes
It will feel like a kiss.
And in the dark, it comes for me
Malevolent and without thought
Uprooting trees, destroying cars
Cold and relentless with arms outstretched
No boat nor brick
nor crucifix can hold it back
I have been wicked
I have been arrogant
And when it comes it will feel like a kiss
Silent about it
And when it comes it will feel like a kiss
And I cannot say that I was not warned or was misled
When it comes it will feel like a kiss
Awaken from dreams of drunken car crashes
You saddened my friends and claimed all my lovers
I try to stay still so it will not see me
Its talons rake the side of my face
I want you to be calm
You're such a slut
And when it comes it will feel like a kiss
Silent about it
And when it comes it will feel like a kiss
And I cannot say that I was not warned or was misled
When it comes it will feel like a kiss
And I didn't think I'd catch fire when I held my hand to the flame
And I didn't think it would catch up as fast as I could have run
Fate came a-knocking when I was looking the other way
A new disease came in the post for me today
And when it comes it will feel like a kiss
And when it comes it will feel like a kiss
And when it comes
(And when it comes)
And when it comes
(And when it comes)
And when it comes
(and when it comes)
And when it comes
It will feel like a kiss.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Still Trucking Along
While I envision one day living in an America that no longer sees race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and/or ethnicity as the basis of how view and think we know someone, certain segments of society hold Americans back from this dream. Some people, as this article states, are scared of change. Many people think that racist, bigoted, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic people are dying out, yet the acts committed on college campuses speak against that. Unluckily many young people grow up and are products of their environment. Unlucky that is, when they learn stereotypes and narrow ways of thinking reinforced by family, friends, and/or their local community. This can be amplified by stereotypical images they see on television programs, the news and movies that continuously depict people in negative and stereotypical terms. What people like me, and hopefully like you, can do is try to educate people that are misinformed, question the media (news and entertainment) for more fair and equal representations on television, and basically by showing others that you are like them with the same needs, feelings, and wants as they have. And as a side-note, I do not believe the McCain camp themselves are responsible for views like this, even if these people do support him. This surpasses Republican/Democratic lines in that these people are just misinformed racists.
Ugly Election Incidents Show Lingering U.S. Racism
By Carey Gillam – Wed Oct 22, 3:36 pm ET
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – Two weeks before an election that could install the first black U.S. president, scattered ugly incidents have reflected a deep residue of racism among some segments of white America.
A cardboard likeness of Barack Obama was found strung from fishing wire at a university, the Democratic presidential nominee's face was depicted on mock food stamps, the body of a black bear was left at another university with Obama posters attached to it.
Though the incidents are sporadic and apparently isolated, they stirred up memories of the violent racial past of a country where segregation and lynchings only ended within the last 50 years.
And some feared that Obama could be a target for people who reject him on racial grounds alone. The Illinois senator leads Republican rival John McCain in polls ahead of the November 4 election and has a big following in many sections of Americans, from liberals to conservatives, black and white, poor and wealthy.
"Many whites feel they are losing their country right before their eyes," said Mark Potok, who directs the Southern Poverty Law Center that monitors hate groups. "What we are seeing at this moment is the beginning of a real backlash."
Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod said the incidents were disappointing but he said there were fewer than some had predicted.
"We've always acknowledged that race is not something that's been eradicated from our politics," said Axelrod. "But we've never felt that it would be an insuperable barrier and I don't think that it will be."
The latest incident occurred on Monday when the body of bear cub was found on the campus of Western Carolina University in North Carolina. Obama campaign signs were placed around the dead animal's head. School officials said it was a prank.
Earlier a cardboard likeness of Obama was strung up with fishing wire from a tree at a university in Oregon and an Ohio man hung a figure bearing an Obama sign from a tree in his yard. The man told local media he didn't want to see an African-American running the country.
ANGRY INDIVIDUALS
Potok said the displays of racism did not appear orchestrated as part of a campaign of racial intimidation, but were rather the acts of angry individuals. Their voices are often heard in radio call-back shows or letters to editors.
Many Americans "see the rise of minority rights, gay rights, women's rights as a threat to the world they grew up in and that their parents grew up in. They see huge demographic changes," he said.
"They see jobs disappearing to other countries, and now they see a man who is African American and who will very likely become president of the United States. For some of those people that symbolizes the end of the world as they know it."
He estimated there were as many as 800 white supremacy or nationalist groups in the United States, with at least 100,000 as "an inner core" of membership and many more on the fringes.
One such group, the League of American Patriots, last month distributed literature about why a "black ruler" would destroy the country.
Michigan State University professor Ronald Hall, writing in his new book "Racism in the 21st Century," said racism remains one of the most pressing U.S. social problems, though it now takes forms that are more subtle than the lynchings and mob violence seen decades ago in some parts of the country.
Some groups tagged with racist acts deny the charge.
In California, a Republican group said it intended no racial overtone when its October newsletter depicted a fake food stamp bearing a likeness of Obama's head on a donkey's body surrounded by fried chicken, watermelon and other images evoking insulting stereotypes about African-Americans.
Some acts have targeted not Obama's black heritage -- his father was Kenyan and his white mother was from Kansas -- but the false notion that he is a Muslim.
Read the rest of the article here.
And watch the accompanying video here.
Ugly Election Incidents Show Lingering U.S. Racism
By Carey Gillam – Wed Oct 22, 3:36 pm ET
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – Two weeks before an election that could install the first black U.S. president, scattered ugly incidents have reflected a deep residue of racism among some segments of white America.
A cardboard likeness of Barack Obama was found strung from fishing wire at a university, the Democratic presidential nominee's face was depicted on mock food stamps, the body of a black bear was left at another university with Obama posters attached to it.
Though the incidents are sporadic and apparently isolated, they stirred up memories of the violent racial past of a country where segregation and lynchings only ended within the last 50 years.
And some feared that Obama could be a target for people who reject him on racial grounds alone. The Illinois senator leads Republican rival John McCain in polls ahead of the November 4 election and has a big following in many sections of Americans, from liberals to conservatives, black and white, poor and wealthy.
"Many whites feel they are losing their country right before their eyes," said Mark Potok, who directs the Southern Poverty Law Center that monitors hate groups. "What we are seeing at this moment is the beginning of a real backlash."
Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod said the incidents were disappointing but he said there were fewer than some had predicted.
"We've always acknowledged that race is not something that's been eradicated from our politics," said Axelrod. "But we've never felt that it would be an insuperable barrier and I don't think that it will be."
The latest incident occurred on Monday when the body of bear cub was found on the campus of Western Carolina University in North Carolina. Obama campaign signs were placed around the dead animal's head. School officials said it was a prank.
Earlier a cardboard likeness of Obama was strung up with fishing wire from a tree at a university in Oregon and an Ohio man hung a figure bearing an Obama sign from a tree in his yard. The man told local media he didn't want to see an African-American running the country.
ANGRY INDIVIDUALS
Potok said the displays of racism did not appear orchestrated as part of a campaign of racial intimidation, but were rather the acts of angry individuals. Their voices are often heard in radio call-back shows or letters to editors.
Many Americans "see the rise of minority rights, gay rights, women's rights as a threat to the world they grew up in and that their parents grew up in. They see huge demographic changes," he said.
"They see jobs disappearing to other countries, and now they see a man who is African American and who will very likely become president of the United States. For some of those people that symbolizes the end of the world as they know it."
He estimated there were as many as 800 white supremacy or nationalist groups in the United States, with at least 100,000 as "an inner core" of membership and many more on the fringes.
One such group, the League of American Patriots, last month distributed literature about why a "black ruler" would destroy the country.
Michigan State University professor Ronald Hall, writing in his new book "Racism in the 21st Century," said racism remains one of the most pressing U.S. social problems, though it now takes forms that are more subtle than the lynchings and mob violence seen decades ago in some parts of the country.
Some groups tagged with racist acts deny the charge.
In California, a Republican group said it intended no racial overtone when its October newsletter depicted a fake food stamp bearing a likeness of Obama's head on a donkey's body surrounded by fried chicken, watermelon and other images evoking insulting stereotypes about African-Americans.
Some acts have targeted not Obama's black heritage -- his father was Kenyan and his white mother was from Kansas -- but the false notion that he is a Muslim.
Read the rest of the article here.
And watch the accompanying video here.
Monday, October 20, 2008
For Those GLTBF People Who Actually Support The McCain/Palin Ticket...
Wake up! Have some self respect and do some research on the issues. McCain supported an Arizona initiative to make a State Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage (I highlighted that with a posting at an earlier time and you can find it yourself). As of late, Palin has suggested that she supports the same rights for GLTB people and even has gay friends. Yet, her support for various groups and movements, the lack of theses "gay friends", and her own words show otherwise. I truly believe that any GLTB people that try to justify her views and/or overlook them are seriously lacking in self esteem. They somehow view the rhetoric that GLTB people's second class status in this country is acceptable. Some of these people argue that it should be a state's right to decide these issues as well, yet Palin herself has said she would support a national constitutional amendment against gay marriage. That does not sound like a Federalist to me, more like a religious right wing zealot set on imposing her religious views on those who don't live the lifestyle that she believes is a "choice." Let's remember the Tenth Anniversary of Mathew Sheppards' death and have some self respect for ourselves as GLTB people and not put Palin in the White House. The following information is provided by the Human Rights Campaign.
Palin says she supports federal constitutional marriage amendment
October 20, 2008
Chris Johnson
As tough fights to defeat state anti-gay ballot amendments wage on in Arizona, Florida, and California, Alaska governor Sarah Palin has come out in support of a federal constitutional amendment to prevent gay and lesbian couples from marrying. She made her statement in support of an amendment and "traditional marriage" during an interview with CBN News (founded by Pat Robertson) Senior National Correspondent David Brody (CBN has the video):
Brody: On Constitutional marriage amendment , are, are you for something like that?
Palin: I am, in my own, state, I have voted along with the vast majority of Alaskans who had the opportunity to vote to amend our Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. I wish on a federal level that that's where we would go because I don't support gay marriage. I'm not going to be out there judging individuals, sitting in a seat of judgment telling what they can and can't do, should and should not do, but I certainly can express my own opinion here and take actions that I believe would be best for traditional marriage and that's casting my votes and speaking up for traditional marriage that, that instrument that it's the foundation of our society is that strong family and that's based on that traditional definition of marriage, so I do support that.
This is from the same Sarah Palin who stated during the vice-presidential debate that she had gay friends - friends whom we've so far been unable to locate. I guess friendship only runs so deep when it comes to pandering to one's political base....
Watch our video of our Michael Cole travelling to Alaska to talk with members of the LGBT community about Sarah Palin:
Palin says she supports federal constitutional marriage amendment
October 20, 2008
Chris Johnson
As tough fights to defeat state anti-gay ballot amendments wage on in Arizona, Florida, and California, Alaska governor Sarah Palin has come out in support of a federal constitutional amendment to prevent gay and lesbian couples from marrying. She made her statement in support of an amendment and "traditional marriage" during an interview with CBN News (founded by Pat Robertson) Senior National Correspondent David Brody (CBN has the video):
Brody: On Constitutional marriage amendment , are, are you for something like that?
Palin: I am, in my own, state, I have voted along with the vast majority of Alaskans who had the opportunity to vote to amend our Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. I wish on a federal level that that's where we would go because I don't support gay marriage. I'm not going to be out there judging individuals, sitting in a seat of judgment telling what they can and can't do, should and should not do, but I certainly can express my own opinion here and take actions that I believe would be best for traditional marriage and that's casting my votes and speaking up for traditional marriage that, that instrument that it's the foundation of our society is that strong family and that's based on that traditional definition of marriage, so I do support that.
This is from the same Sarah Palin who stated during the vice-presidential debate that she had gay friends - friends whom we've so far been unable to locate. I guess friendship only runs so deep when it comes to pandering to one's political base....
Watch our video of our Michael Cole travelling to Alaska to talk with members of the LGBT community about Sarah Palin:
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Not That McCain Supports These People, but They Support McCain
This is what scares me!! These are exactly the people whom I refer to when I say that this country has a ways to go before race, ethnicity and religion are not an issue. A large proportion of people live in smaller, rural communities, and while a lot of them do not share these exact beliefs, they have some of the same fears.
Monday, October 13, 2008
I Thank Him For His Considerate Words
10/12/08
Senator Barack Obama issued the following statement today regarding the ten years since Matthew Shepard was murdered:
"Today, we pause to remember the heartbreaking and senseless murder of Matthew Shepard. A freshman at the University of Wyoming, Matthew was a young man committed to fighting for equality and changing the world around him. He was tragically taken from us far too early, an innocent victim of an abhorrent hate crime, and never had the chance to see his dreams realized.
In the ten years since Matthew's passing, Congress has repeatedly and unacceptably failed to enact a federal hate crimes law that would protect all LGBT Americans. That's not just a failure to honor Matthew's memory; it's a failure to deliver justice for all who have been victimized by hate crimes, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation. All Americans deserve to live their lives free of fear, and as Americans, it is our moral obligation to stand up against bigotry and strive for equality for all.
Today, Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Matthew's parents, Judy and Dennis, and to all whose lives have been touched by unconscionable violence."
Senator Barack Obama issued the following statement today regarding the ten years since Matthew Shepard was murdered:
"Today, we pause to remember the heartbreaking and senseless murder of Matthew Shepard. A freshman at the University of Wyoming, Matthew was a young man committed to fighting for equality and changing the world around him. He was tragically taken from us far too early, an innocent victim of an abhorrent hate crime, and never had the chance to see his dreams realized.
In the ten years since Matthew's passing, Congress has repeatedly and unacceptably failed to enact a federal hate crimes law that would protect all LGBT Americans. That's not just a failure to honor Matthew's memory; it's a failure to deliver justice for all who have been victimized by hate crimes, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation. All Americans deserve to live their lives free of fear, and as Americans, it is our moral obligation to stand up against bigotry and strive for equality for all.
Today, Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Matthew's parents, Judy and Dennis, and to all whose lives have been touched by unconscionable violence."
Some Truth to The Hype
"He Lied" About Bill Ayers?
October 10, 2008
McCain cranks out some false and misleading attacks on Obama's connection to a 1960s radical.
Summary
In a TV ad, McCain says Obama "lied" about his association with William Ayers, a former bomb-setting, anti-war radical from the 1960s and '70s. We find McCain's claim to be groundless. New details have recently come to light, but nothing Obama said previously has been shown to be false.
In a Web ad and in repeated attacks from the stump, McCain describes the two as associates, and Palin claims they "pal around" together. But so far as is known, their relationship was never very close. An Obama spokesman says they last saw each other in a chance encounter on the street more than a year ago.
McCain says in an Internet ad that the two "ran a radical 'education' foundation" in Chicago. But the supposedly "radical" group was supported by a Republican governor and included on its board prominent local civic leaders, including one former Nixon administration official who has given $1,500 to McCain's campaign this year. Education Week says the group's work "reflected mainstream thinking" among school reformers. The group was the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, started by a $49 million grant from the Annenberg Foundation, which was established by the publisher Walter Annenberg, a prominent Republican whose widow, Leonore, is a contributor to the McCain campaign.
(FactCheck.org, which is nonpartisan, also receives funding from the Annenberg Foundation. But we are in no way connected to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which finished its work long before we came into being in late 2003.)
And the rest of the article can be found here.
October 10, 2008
McCain cranks out some false and misleading attacks on Obama's connection to a 1960s radical.
Summary
In a TV ad, McCain says Obama "lied" about his association with William Ayers, a former bomb-setting, anti-war radical from the 1960s and '70s. We find McCain's claim to be groundless. New details have recently come to light, but nothing Obama said previously has been shown to be false.
In a Web ad and in repeated attacks from the stump, McCain describes the two as associates, and Palin claims they "pal around" together. But so far as is known, their relationship was never very close. An Obama spokesman says they last saw each other in a chance encounter on the street more than a year ago.
McCain says in an Internet ad that the two "ran a radical 'education' foundation" in Chicago. But the supposedly "radical" group was supported by a Republican governor and included on its board prominent local civic leaders, including one former Nixon administration official who has given $1,500 to McCain's campaign this year. Education Week says the group's work "reflected mainstream thinking" among school reformers. The group was the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, started by a $49 million grant from the Annenberg Foundation, which was established by the publisher Walter Annenberg, a prominent Republican whose widow, Leonore, is a contributor to the McCain campaign.
(FactCheck.org, which is nonpartisan, also receives funding from the Annenberg Foundation. But we are in no way connected to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which finished its work long before we came into being in late 2003.)
And the rest of the article can be found here.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Another of the Same
Please read this full news article after you've watched the previous news clip concerning Sally Kern. Then it might be easier to understand my point concerning these two women. Not that Democrats haven't gone after hot topic buttons that they differ with Republicans, Conservative Christians, especially these two women have and are resorting to hot button issues when it is apparent they know little about the issues at hand. It is also easier to "rally the troops" with issues like abortion and gay rights rather than tackle issues these two women don't fully understand, in this case the national economy and national security. The latter two issues just happen to be what are the major concerns for most Americans at this time and point. I am glad Palin finally acknowledged her radical right wing views. The McCain camp was obviously trying to skirt those under the rug to avoid upsetting more moderate and independent voters, but when things don't well in your campaign you resort to different tactics. I do give McCain props for telling his so called "supporters" to treat Obama with respect, and then they booed him. Lovely.
Palin heightens rhetoric on abortion
JOHNSTOWN, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin charged into the culture wars Saturday in Pennsylvania, painting Sen. Barack Obama as a radical on abortion rights.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks at a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Saturday.
1 of 2
The stop comes amid news that Palin violated Alaska ethics law by trying to get her former brother-in-law fired from the state police, a state investigator's report for the bipartisan Legislative Council concluded Friday.
Ethics woes aside, Palin focused her attention on abortion -- an issue that rallies the conservative base but some say alienates independent and women voters.
"In times like these with wars and financial crisis, I know that it may be easy to forget even as deep and abiding a concern as the right to life, and it seems that our opponent kind of hopes you will forget that," Palin told a crowd in Johnstown. "He hopes that you won't notice how radical, absolutely radical his idea is on this, and his record is, until it's too late."
Palin has mostly avoided raising her opposition to abortion rights on the campaign trail since she was tapped as Sen. John McCain's running mate, a fact she readily acknowledged in her remarks. Watch more of Palin's views on abortion »
But Palin said Obama's record on the matter is too extreme to be ignored, and she spent 10 minutes of her 30-minute speech discussing abortion.
"A vote for Barack Obama is a vote for activist courts that will continue to smother the open and democratic debate that we deserve and that we need on this issue of life," she said. "Obama is a politician who has long since left behind even the middle ground on the issue of life."
Obama opposes any constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade and disagreed with Supreme Court ruling to uphold the "Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act." He did not cast a vote on Prohibiting Funds for Groups that Perform Abortions amendment in 2007.
Palin opposes abortion in all cases, including rape and incest, except when a mother's life is in danger, and said she believes Roe v. Wade should be overturned and the decision given to the states.
And the rest of the article can be found here.
Palin heightens rhetoric on abortion
JOHNSTOWN, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin charged into the culture wars Saturday in Pennsylvania, painting Sen. Barack Obama as a radical on abortion rights.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks at a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Saturday.
1 of 2
The stop comes amid news that Palin violated Alaska ethics law by trying to get her former brother-in-law fired from the state police, a state investigator's report for the bipartisan Legislative Council concluded Friday.
Ethics woes aside, Palin focused her attention on abortion -- an issue that rallies the conservative base but some say alienates independent and women voters.
"In times like these with wars and financial crisis, I know that it may be easy to forget even as deep and abiding a concern as the right to life, and it seems that our opponent kind of hopes you will forget that," Palin told a crowd in Johnstown. "He hopes that you won't notice how radical, absolutely radical his idea is on this, and his record is, until it's too late."
Palin has mostly avoided raising her opposition to abortion rights on the campaign trail since she was tapped as Sen. John McCain's running mate, a fact she readily acknowledged in her remarks. Watch more of Palin's views on abortion »
But Palin said Obama's record on the matter is too extreme to be ignored, and she spent 10 minutes of her 30-minute speech discussing abortion.
"A vote for Barack Obama is a vote for activist courts that will continue to smother the open and democratic debate that we deserve and that we need on this issue of life," she said. "Obama is a politician who has long since left behind even the middle ground on the issue of life."
Obama opposes any constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade and disagreed with Supreme Court ruling to uphold the "Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act." He did not cast a vote on Prohibiting Funds for Groups that Perform Abortions amendment in 2007.
Palin opposes abortion in all cases, including rape and incest, except when a mother's life is in danger, and said she believes Roe v. Wade should be overturned and the decision given to the states.
And the rest of the article can be found here.
Sally Kern Blinded By Her Hatred Again
Rather than talk the issues, which looks more and more like she knows little about, she sticks with the issue that got her elected and noticed nationally. Especially with the way the economy and country have taken a downturn Kern still decides homosexuals are the cause of America's decline. Lovely woman. Please watch this video.
http://www.koco.com/video/17684102/index.html
http://www.koco.com/video/17684102/index.html
Thursday, October 09, 2008
The Person With No Sin Shall Throw The First Stone....
Meet Sarah Palin’s radical right-wing pals
Extremists Mark Chryson and Steve Stoll helped launch Palin’s political career in Alaska, and in return had influence over policy. “Her door was open,” says Chryson — and still is.
Editor’s note: Research support provided by the Nation Institute Investigative Fund. For Salon’s complete coverage of Sarah Palin, click here.
By Max Blumenthal and David Neiwert
Read more: Alaska, Politics, News, 2008 election, Sarah Palin
Video: Interview with former Alaskan Independence Party chairman Mark Chryson
Oct. 10, 2008 PALMER, Alaska — | On the afternoon of Sept. 24 in downtown Palmer, Alaska, as the sun began to sink behind the snowcapped mountains that flank the picturesque Mat-Su Valley, 51-year-old Mark Chryson sat for an hour on a park bench, reveling in tales of his days as chairman of the Alaska Independence Party. The stocky, gray-haired computer technician waxed nostalgic about quixotic battles to eliminate taxes, support the “traditional family” and secede from the United States.
So long as Alaska remained under the boot of the federal government, said Chryson, the AIP had to stand on guard to stymie a New World Order. He invited a Salon reporter to see a few items inside his pickup truck that were intended for his personal protection. “This here is my attack dog,” he said with a chuckle, handing the reporter an exuberant 8-pound papillon from his passenger seat. “Her name is Suzy.” Then he pulled a 9-millimeter Makarov PM pistol — once the standard-issue sidearm for Soviet cops — out of his glove compartment. “I’ve got enough weaponry to raise a small army in my basement,” he said, clutching the gun in his palm. “Then again, so do most Alaskans.” But Chryson added a message of reassurance to residents of that faraway place some Alaskans call “the 48.” “We want to go our separate ways,” he said, “but we are not going to kill you.”
Though Chryson belongs to a fringe political party, one that advocates the secession of Alaska from the Union, and that organizes with other like-minded secessionist movements from Canada to the Deep South, he is not without peculiar influence in state politics, especially the rise of Sarah Palin. An obscure figure outside of Alaska, 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.
You can read the rest of this informative article here.
Extremists Mark Chryson and Steve Stoll helped launch Palin’s political career in Alaska, and in return had influence over policy. “Her door was open,” says Chryson — and still is.
Editor’s note: Research support provided by the Nation Institute Investigative Fund. For Salon’s complete coverage of Sarah Palin, click here.
By Max Blumenthal and David Neiwert
Read more: Alaska, Politics, News, 2008 election, Sarah Palin
Video: Interview with former Alaskan Independence Party chairman Mark Chryson
Oct. 10, 2008 PALMER, Alaska — | On the afternoon of Sept. 24 in downtown Palmer, Alaska, as the sun began to sink behind the snowcapped mountains that flank the picturesque Mat-Su Valley, 51-year-old Mark Chryson sat for an hour on a park bench, reveling in tales of his days as chairman of the Alaska Independence Party. The stocky, gray-haired computer technician waxed nostalgic about quixotic battles to eliminate taxes, support the “traditional family” and secede from the United States.
So long as Alaska remained under the boot of the federal government, said Chryson, the AIP had to stand on guard to stymie a New World Order. He invited a Salon reporter to see a few items inside his pickup truck that were intended for his personal protection. “This here is my attack dog,” he said with a chuckle, handing the reporter an exuberant 8-pound papillon from his passenger seat. “Her name is Suzy.” Then he pulled a 9-millimeter Makarov PM pistol — once the standard-issue sidearm for Soviet cops — out of his glove compartment. “I’ve got enough weaponry to raise a small army in my basement,” he said, clutching the gun in his palm. “Then again, so do most Alaskans.” But Chryson added a message of reassurance to residents of that faraway place some Alaskans call “the 48.” “We want to go our separate ways,” he said, “but we are not going to kill you.”
Though Chryson belongs to a fringe political party, one that advocates the secession of Alaska from the Union, and that organizes with other like-minded secessionist movements from Canada to the Deep South, he is not without peculiar influence in state politics, especially the rise of Sarah Palin. An obscure figure outside of Alaska, 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.
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