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Though many of us suffer from Palin Factor Fatigue, it is irrefutable that there is a nagging curiosity to have the question answered, ?How in the world did Sarah Palin become so popular and why do we still need to hear about her?? My book answers these questions in detail and urges us all to be vigilant. She is one of a small pool of ?rising stars in the republican party? as John McCain stated as recently as January 25, 2009 on Fox News Sunday.
As unbelievable as her meteoric rise was we cannot delude ourselves, turning our backs once again, into thinking that she and those like her are going away. This woman is joined by millions of loyalists whose perception is that she was persecuted in the media, stifled by McCain, and mocked by liberals - and now the theocratic conservatives are regrouping with a vengeance!
"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.
While this Community was formed specifically with Alaska in mind, all "friends of Alaska" are welcome as members!
**Note about registering** Scroll down the right side until you find the link to register. Then, just follow the instructions!
**Note about comments** To comment on a story, click on the heading and then look for the "comment bar" at the bottom (it's light grey, I can't seem to change it). I believe the font color NOW permits you to see the "post comment" text.
YOUR BLOGMISTRESS
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.
"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."
"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...
USA Women's Olympic Hockey Team Star Kerry Weiland with our friend Isabella and my daughter Morrigan at St. Baldrick's Day
(Scroll down to find posts.)
(Please register to participate in diaries and comments! We'd love for you to join our Community!)
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First we have a just-friggin'-amazing phone call with Sarah Palin from a completely fake-sounding "President of France." Sarah doesn't have a clue until she's told that this whole thing is a prank by a couple of Montreal DJs. Their reference to the "Nailin' Palin" porn movie isn't even a tip-off.
For those of you who are like me and will NEVER make it all the way through this recording because it's just too dang embarassing, I'm including a link to the transcript via diarist CatM at the Daily Kos.
(Back on October 15th, I posted a diary about the shameful way Governor Palin through her administration treated the study on Alaska's National Guard by Veterans for America.
Today, I am honored to have Bobby Muller submit a diary to Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis. He is a legend in the veterans community, having founded Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) in 1978 and Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (later renamed Veterans for America) in 1980. His achievements are too extensive to list here, but can be read on his bio at the VFA website. - promoted by Celtic Diva)
Veterans For America has long been focused on issues surrounding our National Guard soldiers and assessing the problems that they face when returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq. Through VFA's nonpartisan National Guard efforts, the group has conducted reports and examined National Guard units on a state-by-state basis to determine their needs and analyze the issues they face.
The latest iteration of this formula comes to us by way of Lt. Gen. Craig Campbell, commissioner of the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, who groaned yesterday that a Veterans for America report constitutes a political "ambush" of the governor. Campbell described the preliminary report - which focuses largely on post-deployment problems, especially vets' insufficient access to health care - as "poorly written, lacking substantiation of allegations and basically filled with plain incorrect information." Veterans for America points out that it had begun its review of Alaska's National Guard more than a year ago, long before Palin became a national figure.
As indicated by The Minnesota Independent, this review was started over a year ago - long before most of America outside of Alaska knew who Sarah Palin was. The goal of this report isn't political. The goal of this report isn't to target a now-prominent political figure. The goal of this report was to address the needs of the Alaska National Guard and determine what is required to address those needs.
Gov. Palin doesn't deserve a pass. Palin has touted since her entry into the presidential race that she headed the Alaskan National Guard. If that is what she wishes to tout, then she should be able to answer questions and address the problems facing her state's National Guard soldiers.
But the issues with the Alaska National Guard are bigger than one person. These issues impact many soldiers returning home from deployments (and, at times, multiple deployments). Troops that are deployed face many obstacles in post-deployment life. Right now, the programs and systems aren't in place to address these obstacles. VFA concluded in the report that the United States should not deploy National Guard soldiers from Alaska any longer until these problems are remedied.
With Alaska at the forefront thanks to Gov. Palin's notoriety, this is a time where we can really address how we are letting our National Guard fall through the cracks. Trying to pass off a sincere attempt to address the urgent needs of our soldiers returning home from multiple deployments as politics is a great disservice to our troops and veterans who face post-deployment obstacles upon their return and lack the necessary programs and systems to deal with these issues.
I'd rather see the needs our National Guard met, even if it means suffering accusations of 'playing politics', than to not see them met at all. Again, these issues are bigger than Gov. Palin. This affects many National Guard troops and their families. These issues must be addressed before Alaska fails to provide the necessary services to those who have honorably and bravely served their country.
Veterans of America is proud to sponsor the Our Troops Newsladder, a new tool to find the top news and articles in the progressive community by, about and for our troops.
Golly, we are rolling in stories over the last few days about Sarah Palin's relationship with her family and the McPalin ticket's relationships with other people's kids.
It's not a pretty picture.
First, we'll start with the blog that originally talked about at least part of the story that the National Enquirer said they "broke"...Track Palin's legal troubles and the basis for his entrance into the military.
While I trust my sources, I don't have enough independent information to nail this. So I'll drop my editorial based on this and just offer the basic allegation.
Troopers did not release names of the juvenile suspects, but David Coon's mother confirmed her son was one of two Burchell High School students involved in the incident. The other two boys are Wasilla High School students.
We also have this story from Detroit's Free Press:
Her oldest son, Track, lived in Portage [Michigan] during most of his senior year in high school. He played junior major hockey. During an interview at the National Governors Association conference in 2007, she told a Free Press reporter that her son went back to Alaska in March to graduate with his class.
The story I was told is that Track Palin was one of them and that he chose to enter the army rather than go to jail (or have a record?).
*****************UPDATE*********************
Progressive Alaska has deleted their "National Enquirer" post for reasons detailed in the linked article. Since my article here only uses the Track and Bristol stuff (which blogs already knew about) and my post has many parts to it of which the NE stuff is only one, I'm not going to delete this. However, I will post this as a disclaimer.
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Then we have the Energizer Bunnies, the folks at The National Enquirer and their heartwarming story yesterday which included the Track-avoids-jail-in-the-army story, faithfully reported by Progressive Alaska:
The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively that Sarah's oldest son, Track, was addicted to the power drug OxyContin for nearly the past two years, snorting it, eating it, smoking it and even injecting it. And as Track, 19, heads to Iraq as part of the U.S. armed forces, Sarah and her husband Todd were powerless to stop his wild antics, detailed in the new issue of The ENQUIRER, which goes on sale today.
THE ENQUIRER also has exclusive details about Track's use of other drugs, including cocaine, and his involvement in a notorious local vandalism incident.
Of course, that was only the part about Track Palin, there is still the Bristol chapter:
"Bristol was a huge stoner and drinker. I've seen her smoke pot and get drunk and make out with so many guys. All the guys would brag that the just made out with Bristol."
When Sarah found out the teen was pregnant by high schooler Levi Johnston, she was actually banished from the house. As part of the cover-up, Palin quickly transferred Bristol to another high school and made her move in with Sarah's sister Heather 25 miles away!
And here's the money quote:
The friend also confided that both Bristol and Levi "broke up a few times and they definitely messed around with other people."
I found myself bucking that near-command by the media to keep 9/11 "non-partisan" today but was too busy to get a handle on why. Writing Raven at Alaska Real described the reasons best.
With about an hour left until it is September 11 once again, and trying to come out of the political freak-out that's happening on all sides right now, my parents reminded me of two of the main reasons why this election is so important. They are both very directly related to Alaska Native culture, issues, and people. They are both very directly related to the huge issues happening in American right now.
They are both my cousins.
The oldest of these cousins is trying to figure out all he needs to take care of before he heads off on his third tour in Iraq with the Marines. He will leave his young son once again to fight a war I am still grasping at straws to understand - or at least understand its justification. Why are we still in Iraq, and why does my cousin have to go again?
