No Horse Hockey, No Bull Puckey, No Games

... Dear Levi, as I am sure you have learned by now, I have followed your public career since August 2008. I realize that you have been absorbed into a world that you did not create. You accidentally stumbled onto a public stage that has increased your public visibility a hundredfold, yet all you ever wanted from life is to be a quiet young man in the northern wilderness.

Unlike most of the millions who are fascinated by your life story and what you might reveal to the world, I am not that far from your viewpoint on life. My dad taught me his favorite skills of hunting and fishing when I was not yet in high school. I sent my lure off the small fishing skiff from my green casting reel with my dad thousands of times when I was a kid. I got my first .22 rifle for Christmas when I was ten, a bolt action from the Sears catalog. My mom used it to keep the squirrels out of her pecan trees decades after I was grown and out of the house. My more modern .22 semi-automatic Remington with a ten-shot clip and scope waits silently in my bedroom closet. I don't get to use it nearly as much as I would like now that I live in the city. You probably even know a few displaced Southerners personally. We may live in the city as adults, but we have always relished the simple joys of country life.

Come home to me, Levi. Tell me your story in confidence. I am not in the game for money. I never have been. I could have written a book about your nemesis for a fraction of the cost in time and effort, and sold a lot more copies for profit. But you know I didn't do that. I told the story of America's sad downfall, its weakness of heart and soul. You know I have little trust of the same people that have repeatedly deceived you. I am an outsider just like you. I want you to tell your story, not for the satisfaction of all the I-told-you-sos that you are so weary of meeting. I want you to tell your story for the deep truth that it holds, for the release of the burden on your soul and your future. You are probably too young to realize it now, but you still have your whole life in front of you.

Your mom was framed, set up, sent to a life of public disgrace solely for the purpose of protecting some very bad people. Her crime was pathetically minimal, but we both know the punishment was meted out to the fullest extent of a very misguided law. There is nothing we can do about that situation now except to move you and your family to another state far away. From my perspective, you should have done that even before your mom was entrapped, but we cannot alter a fate that has already been sealed. We can only do the right thing now. Pick a town and a state far from Alaska and move there, and take Sherry and Mercede with you. Begin a new life for the sake of all of you. No other choice will offer you such hope.

Tell me your story, Levi. Tell me the truth, the whole truth without any games of deception or even accidentally-on-purpose deceit. By all means read Paradigm Shift first. If you do not have a copy, just tell me an address where to send one. Most of what I know about your story is contained in the book, however I know a lot that is not in the book, particularly about the people who have tried to lead you down their many misleading pathways. I can tell you all of it. All you have to do is to trust me and tell me the whole truth as you know it to be. I seriously doubt that we both know the same details. In fact I expect that our knowledge of the subject spans a wide chasm between us. After all, I am about three times your age, so I do not expect you to have an understanding of The Southern Strategy or the Council for National Policy or the severe divisiveness your nemesis has brought to our once great nation. I understand that your viewpoint is much more up close and personal, that you have  a child caught in the crossfire.

Bring your conscience home to me, Levi. I can tell your story without the conflicting motives of your fellow Alaskans. I can publish it in book form so that it remains alive forever. You tell me the truth and I can make it real for your children. They will always have the truth in print, regardless of all the hurtful, shallow dreck published by the blogs and tabloids that have haunted your story since the beginning. Come home to the truth, Levi. We both have been blackballed by those who seek only to control us for the acquisition of personal fame and fortune. Please come home, Levi. Let me tell your story. Let's tell the truth as only we can.

Fifty Faces

Hunter S. Thompson Cat has his eyes wide open watching out for the fifty faces I never want to see on TV again. No celebrity should be allowed to deface my television set as much or as often as the members of this rogues' gallery have done over the past few years. Some of these are on the screen multiple times a day, 365 days a year. Some have just been on the public stage too damn long, and some have been nauseating from their very first appearance. It's way past time to save my sanity and bring the hook. You may say that I can always turn off the TV or change the channel. That's why I watch with my finger on the channel or mute buttons. Hold your nose. Here comes the parade of stinkers.

50. Anderson Cooper - Of course I know you are not as bad as many on this list, but how many hours a day do we have to get our supposed news from only one person?

49. Larry King - Finally, one of these clowns has already left the stage. He was becoming quite the parody of himself.

48. Ray Barone & the Rest of His Family - Of course you created a decent sitcom, but enough is enough! You are on multiple channels umpteen times a day! I've seen 'em all already!

47. Kevin James - Some of your movies are quite good, but your sitcom earns a C+ on its best day. If it was on only once a week, that would be tolerable. As it is, I am sick of it!

46. Steven Tyler - I have always liked your outfits and persona as America's answer to Mick Jagger, but dude, you are embarrassing yourself!

45. Paul Teutul, Sr. - Does everybody on reality TV have to be covered in tattoos and build ridiculously expensive, but practically useless, products?

44. Will Ferrell - Some of your movies are good, but too many of them are silly trash that are rerun endlessly on numerous cable channels.

43. Dr. Drew - An occasional appearance on MTV was interesting. Now you are just in our faces way too many times a week on way too many channels.

42. Jabbering Sluts on MTV & VH-1 - What happened to the music videos, or at least stories about musicians?

41. Toothless, Tattooed Hicks - Why does every outdoor reality show have to showcase the morons of America?

40. Geraldo Rivera - You were more mentally stable before you joined Fox News.

39. Dennis Miller - You can speak quite intelligently, but how can you stand Bill O'Reilly?

38. Erin Burnett - You are just too damn cute to be taken seriously. Of course I have never taken you seriously in the first place because you came to CNN from The Wall Street Channel.

37. Lou Dobbs - Just go home to your Hispanic wife and shut up. You're a hypocrite!

36. Bill O'Reilly - If you had only stayed with the gossip reporting of your early career, you might still be tolerable. You are lower on the list than you deserve because your trivia quizzes are at least entertaining.

35. Ben Stiller - I am SO sick of your one-trick-pony act in movies endlessly rerun on TV. You may think you are the next generation's Woody Allen, but trust me, one movie released every five years would be plenty.

34. The cast of Hot in Cleveland - Yes, you have assembled a competent cast of famous comediennes, but the canned laughter and endless promotion are overbearing, and most of all, the show is STUPID!

33. Ted Nugent - You once were a rock star and decent guitar player. Get your ass out of politics and go back to screwing as many groupies as possible.

32. Janine Turner - Just because you once played an Alaskan does not make you a political expert.

31. Victoria Jackson - You are a stupid traitor to the sensibilities of Saturday Night Live!

30. Gene Simmons - Just because you washed off your makeup doesn't make you a TV star.

29. Sharon Osbourne - You married a rocker, but that doesn't make you worth watching on TV.

28. Piers Morgan - Take your Bristish snotass back to England, you turd. There are plenty of real Americans who could do a more honest job of interviewing politicians and celebrities.

27. Gloria Borger - You are one of the biggest sellout traitors to the Republican media. You once represented the voice of reason on PBS. Now you are just another CNN right-wing shill.

26. Bay Buchanan - You have always been a nut. Now you are just an old nut.

25. Mary Matalin - Thank your lucky stars that you live in New Orleans and are married to a sane person.

24. Dana Bash - You are married to another Republican on the same damn network. Could you be any less impartial in your reporting?

23. Elisabeth Hasselbeck - You may be easy on the eyes, but your mouth is hard on the ears.

22. Mika Brzezinski - See Hasselbeck above.

21. Mitt Romney - You were boring the first ten minutes you were on. Isn't paint drying somewhere?

20. Ari Fleischer - Can you add anything to the conversation other than Republican talking points?

19. Dana Perino - See Hasselbeck and Brzezinski above. Just because Ari Fleischer is on CNN does not mean that Fox News needs yet another blonde bimbo.

18. Neil Cavuto - You are a Republican supposedly reporting the financial news on Fox. Could you be any more biased, predictable or boring?

17. Joan Rivers - I used to like your humor, but you are on television way too much these days, and like Larry King, your expiration date was up long ago.

16. Mitch McConnell - You may not be on TV that much, but every time you are, you are a certified horse's ass.

15. John Boehner - You are just as big a jerk as McConnell; however, your orange pallor and boo-hooing add an element of entertainment.

14. Greta van Susteren - Get off my TV and take the Church of Scientology with you.

13. Laura Ingraham - You are a bad enough hate monger on AM radio. Do you have to disgrace television, too?

12. Dana Loesch - Who taught you manners, Adolf Hitler?

11. Michelle Malkin - Are you sure you are not a white KKK Southern Baptist in disguise?

10. Grover Norquist - You are doing so much political damage to America that no further explanation is necessary!

9. Wolfe Blitzer - Retire already, you old jackass Republican shill!

8. Barbara Walters - You used to be an intelligent interviewer. Now you are just a hackweasel for Sarah Palin and her family of grifters.

7. Stephanie Courtney (The Progressive Insurance lady) - You may be a talented comedian, but get off every channel of my TV! I am so sick of your stupid face, I could barf!

6. Jerry Stiller - Ditto Stephanie Courtney above!!!

5. Nancy Grace - Isn't there a pretty little white girl missing somewhere? Maybe you could find her sooner if you joined the search and got your snarling mug off the TV!

4. Herman Cain - Only Fox News would have the unmitigated gall to still give a has-been clown like you a microphone.

3. Sean Hannity - You are probably the biggest right-wing blowhard of them all.

2. Bristol Palin - Has there ever been a more worthless, talentless celebrity undeserving of fame in all of American history?

1. Sarah Palin, -  Of course you are #1. Your first screech of code words and sneering expressions back in 2008 was enough for anyone with a brain.

Karma Denial

A story on one of my local news channels a few days ago reminded me of an issue I consider quite relevant as an example of precisely why America is stuck in a morass of indecisive and illogical behavior patterns. The car pictured here is the Fisker Karma, a long, heavy, expensive model built in Finland and first sold in the U.S. last November. The Karma is powered by a pair of 161-hp electric motors that can be supplemented by a 260-hp, turbocharged, 2-liter, gasoline engine. The Karma sits on a 124-inch wheelbase, weighs 5300 pounds, and costs $102,000 for the base model or $116,000 for the deluxe version. The EPA rates the total range available at 230 miles if the battery system is fully charged and the gas tank is full. Due to the car's small interior volume, the EPA rates it as a subcompact. If you want more information on the Karma, Wikipedia describes many facets of the car's development history, specifications, and technical capabilities such as range and miles-per-gallon under various conditions and power modes.

The news story concerned the fact that the Delaware facility that was supposed to produce the Fisker Atlantic, a slightly smaller, cheaper, plug-in electric sedan, is apparently at a stalemate. VP Joe Biden had facilitated a plan that would offer a heavy influx of cash from a government loan to bring the project to Wilmington. Now there seems little hope that the plant will be finished and the car produced there. The Atlantic was slated to begin production next year, but at this point the car's future is open to interpretation.

I find this whole idea not only ludicrous, but a glaring symbol of Americans' deep denial of reality! America doesn't need another silly toy for the one-percenters. It needs a hybrid car for the masses, built in the U.S. and providing jobs with decent wages to Americans! Like the ridiculous Chevrolet Volt, the Fisker models are nothing more than a sham to disguise the fact that Americans have totally lost their minds in a sea of denial! America does not need another overpriced car, no matter how it is powered. America needs its own new Volkswagen Beetle. We need another Mustang, Eurosport, Caravan, Taurus, or whatever. We need a car that requires a lot of expensive pre-production tooling for a line that utilizes established mechanical components, but with a new concept in marketing. We need a new model line of hybrids that will sell hundreds of thousands of units. We need hybrid vehicles the middle class can afford and wants to buy.

President Carter changed our political nation for the worse when he made his legendary "tighten our belts" speech. It was not his fault at all. He absolutely did the brave and right thing. What hurt us was that this speech provided the launching pad for the Reagan Revolution of "greed is good" that has brought our once great nation to its financial knees. Our current Commander in Chief is too paranoid for his own political future to tell us the truth we so desperately need to hear.

Rover invented the SUV is England, but the first U.S. model was the Jeep Wagoneer launched in the 1963 model year. Back in the '60's, International Harvester (yes, Maybelle, the tractor company) was building its Scout. Ford introduced its small Jeep (as in CJ) competitor in 1966. The original Bronco was a more modern and comfortable type of off-road recreational vehicle, with a sleek body offering many options and colors. Chevrolet has been producing its Suburban model for decades. All of these vehicles were purchased by buyers with a specific off-road activity in mind, whether it was slinging mud through the boondocks from the exposed tires of a CJ or Scout, or pulling a boat or camper behind a large Suburban loaded with passengers and cargo.

This all changed when Ford introduced its Explorer in 1990. The Explorer unleashed a monster in America that has been almost as devastating to our national sanity as The War on Drugs. The modern SUV Revolution is nothing less than the automotive symbol of Reagan's greed is good concept. The Explorer was specifically designed to appeal to women, not to drive to the boonies, but to city jobs via long daily commutes on the freeway. The higher seating position allowed women to better see above the many overly aggressive pickup truck drivers who constantly cut in front of them. When these arrogant buttheads are not blocking the ladies' view, they are tailgating. Ask many women what they wanted to drive on their everyday suburban trek and they would say a tank! The new type of SUV was designed to give these ladies all the amenities of a comfortable car enclosed in a big, heavy truck-like package with a high level of outward visibility in traffic. The problem is that these tanks get less mileage than a comparable conventional sedan. Yes, of course with advances in technology they get considerably better mileage than the Wagoneers and Suburbans of old. The problem is that those SUV's were used mostly for their intended recreational purposes, and that meant by a very small percentage of the overall car buying public. The modern monsters of our freeways are mostly carrying no passengers and towing no boats. The accessory most often observed being used inside the cabin is a cell phone! Like The War on Drugs, a little of it is not so bad, but a massive explosion of it is very harmful to the future of our culture.

We do not actually need hybrid or electric cars to lessen our fuel consumption. The same advances that have allowed the Explorer to get much better mileage than you might expect have also been applied to small sedans. Most of the virtual swarm of econoboxes manufactured today get twice the mileage of their ancestors of only thirty years ago. These modern marvels of economy produce far higher levels of performance, comfort, style, and overall driving quality than their ancestors did. The problem is simply that far too few Americans are choosing to drive these fuel-efficient vehicles.

What can we as a culture do to improve our plight? The first step is ridiculously simple. We can demand that our political and media leaders tell us the truth. We can face the obvious fact that population is our problem. The population is causing the fuel supplies to dwindle faster than necessary. The population is bringing global warming sooner than expected. Other nations of the world have a different set of problems caused by overpopulation, but that is no excuse for us not to be the leader in addressing the problem in our own backyard. The second problem is The War on Drugs. What a despicably wasteful use of resources and destruction of an otherwise productive citizenry! This nonsense needed to stop long before the Ford Explorer was even launched to clog our freeways. The third problem is The SUV Revolution and the despicable little man who spawned it, Ronald Reagan. All President Obama has to do is tell us the truth, to tighten our belts.

Tiny Furniture

...And now for something completely different: the preview of Lena Dunham's second movie, Tiny Furniture, that premiered here in Austin at SXSW in 2010. (Obviously I am a fan of Lena's new series, Girls. After writing The Last Horizon, how could I not be?)

See Also: A Short Interview with Lena Dunham about Creative Nonfiction, her first feature-length film premiering at SXSW 2009.
Watch the Creative Nonfiction trailer on YouTube. 

Read an in-depth interview with Lena Dunham from June 2009. 

The Diabolical Plan

Listen up, ladies and gentlemen. Here is the straight story as I believe it to be. This article is about Babygate, Babygate, and nothing but the Babygate. The photo at right is of President George Bush, Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty and three other guys in Washington DC on 2/25/08. Notice that seating cards are placed in front of them, so this seating arrangement was no accident. The event is one of several meetings of the Republican Governors held during the week of 2/22/08 through 2/28/08. These dates and events are covered in The Babygate Timeline in Paradigm Shift, as well as many key issues that occurred in the week prior and after this February week in Washington.This story is so convoluted and detailed, and there were so many individual details and decisions made in this crucial time of which we may never be fully aware, that I feel that I once again must state a review before proceeding further.

1. Anyone outside the creators of the plan who claim to KNOW are only kidding themselves.

2. I have lived in The South all my life and I am no spring chicken. I have had decades to observe exactly how the CINO's (Christians In Name Only) think and operate.

3. I simply do not buy the concept that the big Palin secret is that her teenage daughter had a baby out of wedlock. This is not The Fifties and these are not real Christians we are talking about. Even if the bad joke is that she lied to her supporters, she could have still fallen back on the supporting her daughter and sympathy meme no matter how it all went down.

4. This is why I have been sure from the beginning that the conceptualization of the Trig is Bristol's meme has been a scam or con utilized to baffle us all into accepting the bullshit.

5. Babygate nor The Palin Phenomenon nor The Palin Matrix could have happened at an earlier time. America had to dig itself deeply into this delusional economic hole before such a fraud could be successfully carried out. This is why, in order to explain the story in a truly complete manner, Paradigm Shift had to be so detailed and convoluted.

6. We know that Bristol began disappearing in late 2007. Although we know some of the details of these various no-shows, we do not know the complete origin or intent of this part of the story. We were never privy to the personal conversations that occurred within The Palin Family.

7. We know there were many machinations behind the scenes to prep Sarah for the VP slot. These have of course been detailed in the book. Some of the material I am including here was not included.

8. I have always felt that the Walk Around Juneau video shot on 2/13/08 has been disregarded by too many Babygators in deference to certain key still photos taken a little later in March. I think the way Sarah moves, as opposed to looks, is more important. I also think it is a truer psychological blind test for this video to have been shot before the Babygate plot had been officially unleashed.

9. Has it occurred to any of you how little has been done to stop the still photos from March 2008 from spreading all over the Internet? If the other side did not want these photos to be available, why was Palin's Deceptions left in place? This thought has haunted me for years.

10. Why was The Palinbrat Circus unleashed on us? I have always thought the concept of red herrings and deliberate cons and distractions was the answer.

There was an e-mail exchange on 2/20/08 that many of you have probably seen, but I did not discuss it in my book. (I would post the original document here now, but I do not have time to learn how to embed a PDF in a blog post.) The important point is that Governor Rick Perry, representing the RGA, extends a personal invitation to the governors to attend an affair presented by John McCain immediately prior to the RGA meeting and the Gala event with President Bush on 2/25/08, as shown above. Another photo taken that same day is shown below. As stated in the email message, John McCain was the special guest of the governors at the Statesman dinner on Saturday 2/23/08 and President Bush was the guest of honor at his final RGA dinner two days later. Keep in mind that Tim Pawlenty, and many political power brokers among the Republican establishment, thought at this time that Pawlenty was at the top of the list for the upcoming VP nomination. Note that Pawlenty is right next to Bush in the outside photo and Palin is on the front row (while at least one other pretty lady is not, in case you were thinking that was the reason). Note that Rick Perry is in the back.

In case some of you would like to see it, here is a cropped and blown up shot of SP from this lineup:

You can match the outfits worn by both Bush and Palin and see that these shots were obviously taken the same day. You can also see that the large posed photo included Democratic governors, while the affair pictured at the top included Republicans only. You can't miss Eliot Spitzer two shoulders left of Pawlenty. Sarah is wearing her usual uniform of all-black with a bright blue scarf. Make of that whatever you will, ladies.

The point I am trying to make, as I have presented from several other angles in my book and blog, is that the Repubs were undoubtedly grooming Sarah for the VP slot by the time of these photos and events, at the very latest! When exactly did the process begin? I do not know. When exactly was the plot hatched to involve Bristol? I do not know. Some of you might surmise that she was not yet aware of the Babygate plan when she walked around Juneau on 2/13/08, but here she is wearing her scarf on 2/25/08, so she must have begun the plot by the time of these photos. To make a long story short, I am a man and fashion bores me silly, so I don't care. That is a job I shall leave up to you ladies. Was the plan hatched by 2/25/08? I would say a definite maybe. Was John McCain her already established doorman to national politics? Absolutely. Was Rick Perry privy to some of this stuff? I would say that is a strong probability. Tim Pawlenty was simply clueless. As Geoffrey Dunn explains on Page 190 of The Lies of Sarah Palin, six months after the events detailed in this post, Tim Pawlenty would learn that he was not McCain's running mate from a Fox newscast. They didn't even have the decency to tell him in person! I have never felt more sympathy for Tim Pawlenty than I did when I read that passage. It would now be quite fitting if he becomes Mitt's choice.

As detailed as Paradigm Shift is, a number of issues were omitted just because I could never quite find enough verification. Some of these include the Bud Paxson and Vicki Iseman story and Sarah's attendance at a CNP meeting, most likely in 2007. The problem with the former is that although we know a lot of the public story, we have little verification that Paxson actually blackmailed McCain into selecting Palin. The problem with the CNP is of course the organization's relentless control and secrecy. We know that McCain addressed the Council for National Policy soon after his winning the nomination and we know that most of the CNP members were not happy with McCain's policies, even after he tried to sweet talk them with his speech. After McCain selected Palin, the CNP called a special meeting to discuss her future as the VP candidate and they were thrilled. One of the secrets is that this was far from the first time they had heard of Sarah Palin. As I have stated earlier, the presentation of McCain operatives searching the Internet in August 2008 in the movie Game Change may not have been a lie, but it certainly was not the whole truth and nothing but the truth! At some point after a guest list for a CNP meeting escaped its control, the CNP clamped down much tighter on its secretive, controlling behavior. Like the possibility that Rick Perry offered Sarah Palin the free use of his private jet at the RGA meeting in Grapevine TX on 4/17/08, the attendance of Sarah at a CNP meeting a year or more before most of us heard of her is also a strong, but undocumented possibility.

I believe that Babygate was a very complex scam. I believe that multiple babies were involved, although the precise number of individuals who know the details might be very small. I think there was so much sloppiness involved in the early stages, just because the procedure began in far-away, isolated Alaska, that Babygate began with a stumble and wound up being the biggest forced march in American political history. I think that at a key point in late August 2008, a very powerful Republican operative declared, "Fine... let 'em think that." Because Babygate had begun at least six months prior, they knew they would never be successful in silencing the story completely, so they decided to contain it. What better way to pull off this trick of the mind than to let the media think they had discovered a political secret, one that was too personal to be exploited? The media in this case refers to CNN down to the blogs. The big shots were easily controlled with promises of big salaries in the future, as detailed in "The Blockade" in Paradigm Shift. The little guys were more of a challenge, but what the hell, they were the little guys! And so the circus came to town, bringing Levi and Piper instead of elephants and clowns.

No one cares if you call Sarah Palin a stupid idiot or a compulsive liar. Just don't call her a cunning politician who wormed her way into The Southern Strategy and Tim LaHaye's monster profit machine called Left Behind. Let me close with a direct quote from Wikipedia on its CNP page: "(The CNP) was founded in 1981 by Tim LaHaye as a forum for conservative Christians seeking to strengthen the political right in the United States." Sarah was never protecting Bristol, who is most likely not the mother of Trig, and Levi is probably not his dad, either. Neither the Republican nor the mainstream media have been protecting Sarah Palin. They have been protecting the CNP and their ultimate political takeover of the U.S. by the Christian Dominionists. The babies have been holding their little fingers in the dike, plugging the leak that could expose the biggest, darkest fraud ever perpetrated on the American citizenry purely for political gain.