Art Machine
Just another former infatuation junkie

Lately, Sarah Palin has been telling people that there’s a fundamental difference between how she sees America and how Barack Obama sees America.

I’ll grant her this. If Obama’s anything like me, then he probably doesn’t see America as a giant snake devouring Alaska whole.

That cartoon above comes directly from the website of the Alaskan Independence Party. This would be the party that Todd Palin was a registered member of from 1994 to 2002, when he shifted to “undeclared,” and whose leadership – according to several sources – collaborated with Sarah Palin while she was in office and supported her bids for both Mayor and Governor.

The year before Todd Palin joined the AIP, their founder – Joe Vogler – was killed. If you believe Manfried West’s confession, Vogler was killed in a plastic explosives buy gone bad. If you believe Lynnette Clark, the chair of the AIP, then Vogler was executed by the United States government.

But that’s all ancient history, right? The Palin’s haven’t been associated with the AIP since 2002, right?

Well, she did record this video for their 2008 convention in which she tells the AIP “Keep up the good work, and God bless you.”

Vogler’s most famous quote by far is the one that the AIP itself likes to cart out when they talk about him. That’s when he said: “I’m an Alaskan, not an American. I’ve got no use for America or her damned institutions.”

Of course, if you happen to be passing by the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, you could always stop in at the Oral History Program in the Rasmusen Library. There, you can hear an interview with Vogler from 1991, where he said:

The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government. And I won’t be buried under their damn flag. I’ll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home.

For that matter, you can also visit his grave. But not in Fairbanks. In Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. He didn’t want to be buried in the United States, remember?

Of course, Vogler was actually willing to talk to Iran. In fact, he did. And got Iran to sponsor his statement to the UN regarding American “tyranny.”

Here’s the AIP claiming Sarah Palin as a member (they’ve since said no, only her husband was a member) and discussing their support for her.

Lynnette Clark told David Talbot, “She’s [Sarah Palin] Alaskan to the bone … she sounds just like Joe Vogler.”

Would that include when Joe Vogler said,

When the [federal] bureaucrats come after me, I suggest they wear red coats. They make better targets. In the federal government are the biggest liars in the United States, and I hate them with a passion. They think they own [Alaska]. There comes a time when people will choose to die with honor rather than live with dishonor. That time may be coming here. Our goal is ultimate independence by peaceful means under a minimal government fully responsive to the people. I hope we don’t have to take human life, but if they go on tramping on our property rights, look out, we’re ready to die.

BTW – If you stop by the AIP’s website, you can find that cartoon on their “Statehood Primer.” And you can also find that they favor forcing the federal government to give up all ownership of land in Alaska (including, presumably, national parks and military bases) as well as disenfranchising any member of the “federal military.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 9th, 2008 at 2:04 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.