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THE BLOG--HISTORY

"Blue Oasis" began in 2005 in its Blogger format (now an archive) and became possibly the first Alaska Blog on Progressive Politics. At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis was honored to represent Alaska as the state blog.

Transition--Community Blog

In September 2008, Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis moved to a Soapblox Community Blog format. Readers can become full participants by registering on the blog to comment and write "diaries." Diary titles appear on the right sidebar for folks to read and provide comments. Blog editors may choose to move some of these diaries to the front page.

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My name is Linda Kellen Biegel and I am a former 15-year Federal employee. Thirteen of those years were spent working for the US Army Corps of Engineers. I am also semi-retired from the Alaska music scene (singer, sound tech, stage manager, logistics).

When the blog was chosen to represent Alaska in the DNCC State Blogger Pool at the Denver Convention, I attended with the help of Alaska Real blogmistress, Writing Raven and my daughter Morrigan. On August 29th, one day after Barack Obama's inspiring speech at Invesco Field , my life took another turn as it did for all Alaska bloggers when Gov. Sarah Palin was chosen to be John McCain's VP running mate. Since then, I've either assisted or have been interviewed by media from the UK, Italy, Australia and Germany as well as national media outlets such as Wall Street Journal, NY Times, ABC Good Morning America's Kate Snow, National Journal, Dallas Morning News, LA Times, and NPR.

Presently, I work as a freelance writer, PR, event coordinator, community organizer, wife to computer programmer Josh and mother to 11-year-old Morrigan. Our family especially enjoys our summers in Alaska where we get to subsistence set-net fish Sockeye salmon as well as halibut fish/whalewatch in the family's homemade aluminum boat, "The Neverdone" (when it's working). We reside in Anchorage, Alaska.

Origin of "Celtic Diva"

I've used "Celtic Diva" as a screen name since the early 1990's on Web TV.

"Celtic"

"Folks have asked about my Celtic heritage, especially in light of my name. What they don't realize is that I'm adopted. I was born Valerie Morehead of the Clan Muirhead. I was adopted at three-months-old by the Kellens. I always "knew" I was Celt even before really knew. I was drawn to all things Scottish, especially music. That's why my parents eventually told me at age 16."

"Diva"

"Linda is well-known in Alaska & beyond as the prominent progressive political blogger Celtic Diva of Celtic Diva?s Blue Oasis. But back in the day, the early 1990s, I knew her as Linda Kellen, a member of the local folk/rock band Sky is Blu, which amongst other things performed in at least a couple or so of the annual women?s show Celebration of Change, in which I also performed. And if you don?t already know, let me tell you: Linda is one fine damn singer."

I went on after the break-up of "Sky is Blu" to perform with various Alaska musicians and work with national folks like Bo Diddly, Coco Montoya, Debbie Davies, Taj Mahal, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Bad Company, Creedence Clearwater, Carny Wilson, etc...

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It's nice to be totally vindicated...almost one year later...

by: Celtic Diva

Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 01:39:19 AM AKDT





What an "airdrop of lawyers" might look like

Back in August 2008, the evening after Sarah Palin was chosen as McCain's runningmate, I was still in Denver after the Democratic Convention.  That evening, I got a call telling me something interesting...that McHugh Pierre, acting spokesperson (at that time) for the Alaska Republican Party, had inadvertantly revealed that the McCain people were coming in tomorrow to do their " investigations".

This was AFTER she was selected for McCain's runningmate, making all those stories about the "lack of vetting" accurate, right?

Well, the McCain camp came up with an obfuscation that was just the beginning of a pattern that followed through their campaign and into Sarah Palin's own Gubernatorial career.  They claimed that Obama "air-dropped" an army of lawyers to Alaska to research Palin themselves.

Riiiiiiight...

Well WE KNEW that it was false at the time, however it took Vanity Fair in June 2009 to prove it.

In Todd S. Purdum's August 2009 article, he gives us some assurances in the beginning:

As John McCain's top campaign officials talk more candidly than ever before about the meltdown of his vice-presidential pick, the author tracks the signs-political and personal-that Palin was big trouble, and checks the forecast for her future.

A little farther into the article, we get this:

After she was picked, the campaign belatedly sent a dozen lawyers and researchers, led by a veteran Bush aide, Taylor Griffin, to Alaska, in a desperate race against the national reporters descending on the state.

So there it is.  There was no "airdrop" of lawyers from the Democratic Party, they didn't even come in with the primary goal to do a Troopergate cover-up, as a collegue and I surmised.  The lawyers WERE sent by the Republicans and for exactly the reason I originally posted...to vette her after the fact.

I guess "better late than never" applies here.

Celtic Diva :: It's nice to be totally vindicated...almost one year later...
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have you heard about this Sarah Palin development ? (0.00 / 1)

Governor Sarah Palin = 15
Losers = 0.00

No problem (3.00 / 1)
When you know the story behind the numbers.  

Vanity Fair (3.50 / 2)
One of the best articles I have read lately about her. I thought it was well written and well researched from what I could tell.

It wasn't snarky as so many are and contained facts and details that are usually lacking in so many articles.


Vindication upon vindication!!!! (4.00 / 1)
 I am reposting this from The Mudflats post I just did;

HoT ! off the press !!!! This issue of Vanity Fair will fly off the shelves !

C4P's and Palinbots heads will explode.

One of the things I treat myself to IS Vanity Fair every month. I have done for many years. Since I have another birthday soon, this is like a birthday present for me..... ........treat yourselfs to this one folks, it doesn't disappoint.

I have cherry picked these excerpts, this is just the FIRST page (there are 6) and I'm sure AKM will have an in depth posting. Blue Diva and Shanny M. will be all over this too no doubt, it will be such a pleasure for all of these gals.

I thought you would enjoy a "prequel" ;

VANITY FAIR POLITICS & POWER

By TODD S. PURDUM August 2009

It Came from Wasilla

The pattern is inescapable: she takes disagreements personally, and swiftly deals vengeance on enemies, real or perceived. Illustration by Risko.

As John McCain's top campaign officials talk more candidly than ever before about the meltdown of his vice-presidential pick, the author tracks the signs-political and personal-that Palin was big trouble, and checks the forecast for her future.

Whatever her political future, the emergence of Sarah Palin raises questions that will not soon go away. What does it say about the nature of modern American politics that a public official who often seems proud of what she does not know is not only accepted but applauded? What does her prominence say about the importance of having (or lacking) a record of achievement in public life? Why did so many skilled veterans of the Republican Party-long regarded as the more adroit team in presidential politics-keep loyally working for her election even after they privately realized she was casual about the truth and totally unfit for the vice-presidency?

Perhaps most painful, how could John McCain, one of the cagiest survivors in contemporary politics-with a fine appreciation of life's injustices and absurdities, a love for the sweep of history, and an overdeveloped sense of his own integrity and honor-ever have picked a person whose utter shortage of qualification for her proposed job all but disqualified him for his?

In the aftermath of the November election, the conventional wisdom among Palin's supporters in the Republican establishment was that she should go home, keep her head down, show that she could govern effectively, and quietly educate herself about foreign and domestic policy with the help of a cadre of experienced advisers. She has done none of this. Rather, she has pursued an erratic course that, for her, may actually represent the closest thing there is to True North.

She created a political-action committee-Sarahpac-with the help of John Coale, a prominent Democratic trial lawyer. But just months into its existence the pac's chief fund-raiser, Becki Donatelli, a veteran of Republican campaigns, suddenly quit. One person familiar with the situation told me that Donatelli could not stand dealing with Palin's political spokeswoman in Alaska, Meghan Stapleton, who has drawn withering fire from Palin friends and critics alike for being an ineffective adviser. Also with Coale's help, Palin formed the grandiosely named Alaska Fund Trust, to defray a reported half million dollars in legal expenses arising from a slew of formal ethics complaints against her in her home state-prompting yet another formal complaint, that the fund itself constitutes an ethical breach.

Onetime supporters have become harsh critics. Walter Hickel, 89, a former two-term governor and interior secretary, and the grand old man of Alaska politics, who was co-chair of Palin's winning gubernatorial campaign, in 2006, now washes his hands of her. He told me simply, "I don't give a damn what she does."

Palin's deep ignorance about most aspects of foreign and domestic policy provided her with a powerful political reason not to submit to interviews. The forthcoming book adds a powerful commercial reason.

When she chooses to reveal herself, what she reveals is not always the same thing as the truth. Her singular refusal to have in-depth conversations with the national media-even Richard Nixon and Dick Cheney, among the most saturnine political figures in modern American history, each submitted to countless detailed interviews over the years-has compounded the challenge of understanding who she really is.
==================================
Page 2.....just had to;

One longtime McCain friend and frequent companion on the trail was heard to refer to Palin as "Little Shop of Horrors."

========================================

Last page # 6;

Palin has disappointed many of those who once had the highest hopes for her. She has stumbled over innumerable details. But as she said to Andrew Halcro years ago, "Does any of this really matter?" Palin has shown herself to have remarkable gut instincts about raw politics, and she has seen openings where others did not. And she has the good fortune to have traction within a political party that is bereft of strong leadership, and whose rank and file often demands qualities other than knowledge, experience, and an understanding that facts are, as John Adams said, stubborn things. It is, at the moment, a party in which the loudest and most singular voices, not burdened by responsibility, wield disproportionate power. She may decide that she does not need office in order to have great influence-any more than Rush Limbaugh does.

http://www.vanityfair.com/poli...


I will email you separately so as to remove us from the state account." (0.00 / 0)
Diva....Just in case you missed this!

Palin communicated with legislators and her staff mainly by BlackBerry, sometimes using a personal e-mail account to avoid having to disclose documents under the state public-records laws. (The one time Meg Stapleton, who handles Palin's personal and political public relations, ever answered multiple e-mails was when I wrote her and Palin's gubernatorial office at the same time, and she replied: "Thank you for emailing. I will email you separately so as to remove us from the state account.")


I don't know if that's part of Andree McLeod's court case or not... (0.00 / 0)
...because ALL LEGAL PRECEDENT is that it's ALL public records.


Celtic Diva


[ Parent ]
Recall this "Queen Bee" - Get the nets out now! (0.00 / 0)
I think Sarah's book title will be "The Fairy Tale Lies of Sarah Palin" by Me, Myself and I.

Smoke and mirrors, finger pointing, promising clear and transparent Government, and most importantly, lying about her accomplishments got her elected in Alaska.  Also, keeping her truely wacky religious credentials in the closet helped.  

Here's how she set the stage for her climb into the Governor's position.  She was working with the current head of the Alaskan Republican Party, Randy Rudedick in a state position for which she had no experience herself.   She blew the whistle on him for improper email usage.  She's outdone Randy's state sins ten times by now and due to her narcissistic Queen Bee attitude no one wants to poke her.  A recall would be the kind of poke I have in mind these days.  Keep an ear out for a buzzing sound Miss Diva!  


powerful article (0.00 / 0)
Wow!  I just read the VF article online, and it is the most thorough mainstream media coverage of Palin that I've ever seen!  I caught the tail end of a report on Palin on MSNBC this morning, but I don't know if it was referencing this article or not.  

Great Article (0.00 / 0)
She declined to talk to Vanity Fair but I wonder how long it will be before she calls People again?

"Palin is a cipher by choice. When she chooses to reveal herself, what she reveals is not always the same thing as the truth"......as pointed out when Todd and GINO gave different stories regarding having health insurance coverage......

Loved the article, the new photoshop pics and the reaction the Sea-For-Peers is having over there LMAO

I also read the Runners World interview, now I know how she came up with Track's name.  


[ Parent ]
Here is the article in PDF format so you can read later (0.00 / 0)
And at your leisure with a good wine.

Bonus Comment:  It's a great read three times or more.

http://www.thelegaluniverse.co...


Well, you have to admit, Diva. . . (0.00 / 0)
that all the 'gates took the attention off Mr. Obama.

Have you read how Palin challenged the leader of the free world as we know it to a jogging duel? OF COURSE she would outlast him. Palin jogs around operating a smaller state population-wise and can exercise more; the PRESIDENT sprints from one thing to another.

It bothered me that I supported her for gov seeing how most recently she complained about David, then you, then this week with having been photoshopped with Admiral Akbar, stormtroopers, Bush (was that HER Bush in her arms?!!!) Yoda and other creatures, she attempted to foment a jog-off with the Prez.

When she lets people flaunt her as sexy or hot (I think that a woman who whines and cried over Letterman would be a turn-off,)she acts as she does and cries foul whenever things are not to her liking, then tries to act cute when a not-hot article comes out about her and wants a job off, saying that she will outlast him. Pretty women can't be in office seems to be her mantra.






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