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John McCain's MANY Questionable Ties By John from Brooklyn, NY - Oct 10th, 2008 at 12:43 pm EDT http://www.stopthinkvote.com/whatsnew/mccainsties.html With only weeks before the election, John McCain and Sarah Palin have recently brought up Obama's ties to Bill Ayers and Reverend Jeremiah Wright. John McCain has many questionable ties too. Well, if we're going to play the Guilt by Association game — let's go! Perhaps McCain would like to explain these associations to the American people, including why he chose to appear on G. Gordon Liddy's radio show less than a year ago and praise him. Help spread the word - make this viral. Learn these facts to rebut smears against Obama's ties, post them on your blogs, share them with others and email them to the editorial pages of your local newspapers. You CAN make a difference. Jim Hensley, Convicted Felon G. Gordon Liddy, Convicted Felon Charles Keating, Convicted Felon Raffaello Follieri, Convicted Felon Rick Renzi, Under Indictment Rick Davis, Freddie Mac Lobbyist Charles Black, Lobbyist for Dictators Richard Quinn, White Supremist Pastor John Hagee, Bigot Pastor Rod Parsley, Bigot Todd Palin, Member of Secessionist Group Andrew McCain, Resigned Manager Savings & Loan McCain's Questionable Ties Jim Hensley, Convicted FelonA WWII bombadier, Hensley returned to the United States with an injury sustained while flying over Europe. While recovering, he met Margueritte Smith and left his wife and two-year old daughter for Smith whom he married in 1945. That same year, he and his brother Eugene began working for Kemper Marley, owner of United Sales Company in Phoenix and United Distributors in Tucson, and purported mafia boss. In a 1953 New Mexico State Police report, Kemper Marley, “is reputed to be the financial backer for the bookies” and “owned a wire service formerly operated in connection with bookmaking of the Al Capone gang.” And though never charged, Marley is suspected of ordering the car bomb assassination of journalist Ken Bolles in 1976. In 1948, Jim and Eugene Hensley were indicted for falsifying liquor records to conceal illegal distribution of whiskey against post-war rationing regulations. Both men were convicted in U.S. District Court on federal charges of conspiracy and Jim Hensley was also convicted on seven counts of filing false liquor records. In 1953 Jim Hensley and Kemper Marley were again charged with falsifying liquor records. This time Jim was defended by future Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist. Both men were acquitted. In spite of being a convicted felon, Jim Hensley was somehow granted a state liquor license in 1955 (and later a federal liquor license) to found a beer distributorship. Hensley later switched to distributing exclusively Anheuser-Busch beer, and by 1980 Hensley & Co. Distributors and Hensley & Co. Wholesale had made Jim Hensley a multi-millionaire. Read more about McCain and Hensley in the article Haunted By Spirits by John Doughtery and Amy Silverman. HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: Hensley was Cindy McCain's father, John McCain worked for Hensley as Vice President of Public Relations for Hensley & Co. when he and Cindy first married, and Hensley used his money and influence to launch John McCain's political career. G. Gordon Liddy, Convicted FelonLiddy served four and a half years in prison in connection with his conviction for his role as mastermind of the Watergate break-in and the break-in at the office of the psychiatrist of Daniel Ellsberg, the military analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers. Liddy has acknowledged preparing to kill someone during the Ellsberg break-in “if necessary”; plotting to murder journalist Jack Anderson; plotting with a “gangland figure” to murder Howard Hunt to stop him from cooperating with investigators; plotting to firebomb the Brookings Institution; and plotting to kidnap “leftist guerillas” at the 1972 Republican National Convention — a plan he outlined to the Nixon administration using terminology borrowed from the Nazis. (The murder, firebombing, and kidnapping plots were never carried out; the break-ins were.) During the 1990s, Liddy reportedly instructed his radio audience on multiple occasions on how to shoot Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents — telling listeners, “Go for a head shot; they're going to be wearing bulletproof vests” — and also reportedly said he had named his shooting targets after Bill and Hillary Clinton. Liddy has donated $5,000 to McCain's campaigns since 1998, including $1,000 in February 2008. In addition, McCain has appeared on Liddy's radio show during the presidential campaign, including as recently as May. An online video labeled John McCain On The G. Gordon Liddy Show 11/8/07 includes an audio discussion between Liddy and McCain, whom Liddy described as an “old friend.” During the segment, McCain praised Liddy's “adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great,” said he was “proud” of Liddy, and said that “it's always a pleasure for me to come on your program.” Liddy called for the murder of federal agents, served time in jail, plotted murder - and after that, John McCain applauded him and took his money HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: In 1998 Liddy hosted a campaign fundraiser for McCain and McCain has accepted campaign donations from Liddy over the last a decade, most recently in February 2008. McCain has appeared as a guest on Liddy's radio show multiple times, most recently in November 2007 during the presidential campign when Liddy greeted McCain as “an old friend.” During the interview, Mccain stated he was “proud” of Liddy and praised Liddy for his “adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great.” Charles Keating, Convicted FelonCharles H. Keating, Jr., is the former chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association. The “Keating Five” were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. McCain and four other senators were accused of improperly aiding Keating., chairman of the failed Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of an investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB). McCain received $112,000 by 1987 from Keating and Keating's relatives and employees to McCain's Senate campaign, more than any of the other Senators. In addition to campaign contributions, McCain's wife and her father had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. It was also found that the McCains, sometimes accompanied by their daughter and baby-sitter, had made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard the American Continental Corporation (parent of Lincoln) jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain also did not pay Keating for some of the trips until years after they were taken, after he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln. The Lincoln Savings and Loan's collapse cost taxpayers $3.4 billion After a lengthy investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee criticized McCain for “questionable conduct,” and did not mete harsher punishment because of McCain's future presidential ambitions. HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: John McCain was a close personal friend of Charles Keating, McCain and his family vacationed at Keating's Bahamas mansion, Cindy McCain had investments with Keating. Raffaello Follieri, Convicted FelonIn late August, 2006, McCain celebrated his 70th birthday aboard a yacht, the Celine Ashley, rented by Raffaello Follieri and his then-movie star girlfriend Anne Hathaway. Follieri, who posed as Vatican chief financial officer in order to win friends and investments, pleaded guilty in a Manhattan district court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, eight counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering. As part of the plea, Follieri admitted to misappropriating at least $2.4 million of investor money and redirecting it to foreign personal bank accounts that were disguised as business accounts. HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: McCain spent his 70th birthday aboard Follieri's yacht in August 2006. Rep. Rick Renzi, Under IndictmentRenzi, Arizona Congressman 2002-2008, is currently under indictment for conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, concealment of money laundering, transactions with criminally derived funds, extortion, insurance fraud and criminal forfeiture. In robocalls to assist Renzi in his re-election bid in October 2006, McCain stated, “Rick has represented the first district of Arizona with tenacity, honesty and integrity beyond reproach.” The indictment also names business associate James Sandlin, and Maryland attorney Andrew Beardall. The indictment also refers to two companies involved in the transactions, Company A and Investment Group B. Prosecutors allege Renzi criminally concealed information about land deals to both Company A and Investment Group B, and used his seat on the House Natural Resources Committee to try to force their hand. The indictment says Renzi was trying to help his business associate, Sandlin, finish paying off an $800,000 loan Sandlin owed to Renzi. Renzi was in financial straits and needed the money and also states Renzi also never claimed the $733,000 in his 2006 House financial disclosure statements. HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: Until February 2008, Renzi was co-chair of McCain's Arizona 2008 presidential campaign, member of McCain's 2008 National Leadership Team, and a personal friend. In October 2006, McCain stated, “Rick has represented the first district of Arizona with tenacity, honesty and integrity beyond reproach.” Rick Davis, McCain Campaign Manager & Freddie Mac LobbyistDavis is currently John McCain's campaign manager in his bid for the U.S. presidency. Davis' lobbying firm — Davis Manafort — received payments of $15,000 a month between 2006 and August 2008 from Freddie Mac, the troubled mortgage giant that was recently placed under federal conservatorship. As the mortgage crisis has escalated, almost any association with Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae has become politically toxic. But the payments to Davis's firm, Davis Manafort, are especially problematic because he requested the consulting retainer in 2006 — and then did barely any work for the fees, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement who asked not to be identified discussing Freddie Mac business. Aside from attending a few breakfasts and a political-action-committee meeting with Democratic strategist Paul Begala (another Freddie consultant), Davis did “zero” for the housing firm, one of the sources said. Freddie Mac also had no dealings with the lobbying firm beyond paying monthly invoices — but it agreed to the arrangement because of Davis's close relationship with McCain, the source said, which led top executives to conclude “you couldn't say no.” Freddie Mac's roughly $500,000 in payments to Davis & Manafort began immediately after Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in late 2005 disbanded an advocacy coalition that they had set up and hired Mr. Davis to run. From 2000 to the end of 2005, Davis received nearly $2 million as president of the coalition, the Homeownership Alliance, which the companies created to help them oppose new regulations and protect their status as federally chartered companies with implicit government backing. That status let them borrow cheaply, helping to fuel rapid growth but also their increased purchases of the risky mortgage securities that were their downfall. HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: Davis is currently John McCain's presidential campaign director, and McCain told Newsweek in 2007 “Rick is a friend, and I trust him.” Charles Black, Jr., Senior Advisor To McCain Campaign & Lobbyist For DictatorsCurrently a chief strategist and senior adviser for John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, in June 2008, Charlie Black stated in an interview with Fortune magazine that another terrorist attack on the United States would “Certainly it would be a big advantage to him.” Black is a registered as a lobbyist and is chairman of one of Washington's lobbying powerhouses, BKSH and Associates. His clients have included right-wing guerrilla leader Jonas Savimbi of Angola and such dictators as Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, as well as Nigerian General Ibrahim Babangida, Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the countries of Kenya and Equatorial Guinea, among others. As of February 2008, Black said he is still being paid by his firm and does work for clients in his “spare time,” recusing himself from lobbying McCain: “I not only do not lobby him [McCain], but if an issue comes up that I have a client on, I will tell him that and stay out of the discussion.” Though McCain often portrays himself as an anti-lobbyist politician, his senior advisor has earned more than $57 million dollars since 1998 as a Washington lobbyist. Some of his other clients include: Alcoa - $100,000; Amerada Hess Corp. - $80,000; American Financial Group - $80,000; Asoex Chilean Exporters Assn. - $40,000; AT&T - $1,185,000; AT&T Inc - $720,000; Bristol-Myers Squibb - $690,000; ChevronTexaco - $140,000; Chilean Salmon Farmers Assn. - $100,000; Colombian Textile & Apparel Industry - $80,000; Comasa, de la Optica - $80,000; Contran Corp. - $505,000; Freddie Mac - $820,000; Glaxo Wellcome Inc - $40,000; GlaxoSmithKline - $590,000; Global Strategies Group - $180,000; Honeywell International - $220,000; Importers Service Corp. - $540,000; International Franchise Assn. - $290,000; JP Morgan & Co - $140,000; JP Morgan Chase & Co - $724,000; Lockheed Martin - $487,500; Mortgage Bankers Assn. of America - $140,000; National Assn. of Mortgage Brokers - $60,000; National Foreign Trade Council - $40,000; Occidental Petroleum - $1,650,000; Occidental Petroleum - $1,650,000; Philip Morris - $1,292,500; Tobacco Quota Warehouse Alliance - $120,000; Yukos Oil - $155,000; HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: Charles Black is McCain's current chief strategist and a senior advisor to his 2008 presidential campaign. Black said he is still being paid by his firm and does work for clients in his “spare time”. Richard Quinn, White SupremistBeginning in 1981, Richard Quinn became the Executive Editor in Chief of the racist Southern Partisan Quarterly Review and as was still listed as the owner of the magazine as recently as 2005. Like McCain did originally, Quinn opposed the Martin Luther King holiday, writing it “should have been rejected because its purpose is vitriolic and profane.” In 2000, People For American Way called on McCain to fire Quinn, listing his disparaging of Nelson Mandela as a “terrorist,” his promotion of David Duke (”What better way to reject politics as usual than to elect a maverick like David Duke?”) and his selling of t-shirts praising Abraham Lincoln's assassination. McCain wouldn't fire him. He rejected the guilt-by-association charge, defending the man and disavowing the publication. HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: The Washington Post this month described Quinn as the “longtime adviser [who] directed the senator to a crucial victory in the Palmetto State.” Politico reported that McCain paid Quinn's firms $184,000. An article that was posted on McCain's website in 2008 — that is no longer available — described Quinn as “a senior political consultant to the McCain campaign.” Pastor John HageeIn a 2006 address, Hagee stated, “The United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West… a biblically prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation, and Second Coming of Christ.” Over the years, Hagee the right-wing pastor has waged “an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church” by “calling it ‘The Great Whore,' an ‘apostate church,' the ‘anti-Christ,' and a ‘false cult system.'” During an interview with National Public Radio, Hagee also blamed Hurricane Katrina on gays, saying the devastating storm “was, in fact, the judgment of God against … New Orleans.” The city, he continued, “had a level of sin that was offensive to God” because “there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came.” HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: Despite McCain's statement in 2000 that “Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton on the left, or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right,” McCain spent more than a year actively seeking Hagee's endorsement. In February 2008, McCain stated, “I'm very honored by Pastor John Hagee's endorsement today.” Only after public outcry did McCain repudiate Hagee. Pastor Rod ParsleyParsley has stated that “Islam is an anti-Christ religion that intends through violence to conquer the world.” Parsley has further stated that “The fact is that America was founded — I'm gonna stagger you right now — America was founded in part with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed.” He also said that Mohammed received revelations from demon spirits. HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: McCain actively sought Parsley's support to get evangelical votes. In February 2008, McCain stated, “I'm truly honored today to have one of one of the truly great leaders in America, a moral compass, a spiritual guide — Pastor Rod Parsley.” View Video. Again, after public outrage over Parsley, McCain was forced to repudiate him. Todd PalinAlaska Gov. Sarah Palin's husband, Todd, twice registered as a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a fierce states' rights group whose primary goal is for the state of Alaska to secede from the United States. Sarah Palin herself was never a member of the party, according to state officials. Founded in 1973 by Joe Vogler, Vogler stated, “I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions.” “Keep up the good work,” Sarah Palin told members of the Alaskan Independence Party in a videotaped speech to their 2008 convention six months ago in Fairbanks. She wished the party luck on what she called its “inspiring convention.” HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: Todd Palin is the husband of McCain's vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin has attended their conventions and Sarah Palin herself sent them a videotaped address for their 2008 convention, telling them to “keep up the good work.” Andrew McCainAndrew K. McCain, sat on the boards of Silver State Bank and of its parent, Silver State Bancorp, both in Nevada, but resigned in July citing “personal reasons,” corporate filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show. Andrew McCain also was a member of the bank's audit committee, responsible for oversight of the company's accounting. Regulators on Friday, September 5, shut down Silver State Bank, saying the Nevada bank failed because of losses on soured loans, mainly in commercial real estate and land development. HOW CLOSELY IS McCAIN TIED TO HIM: Andrew McCain is John McCain's son from his first marriage to Carol Shepp, the wife John McCain cheated on and left behind for Cindy Hensley.

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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. By Max Blumenthal and David Neiwert Editor's note: Research support provided by the Nation Institute Investigative Fund. For Salon's complete coverage of Sarah Palin, click here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oct. 10, 2008 | 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. Palin backed Chryson as he successfully advanced a host of anti-tax, pro-gun initiatives, including one that altered the state Constitution's language to better facilitate the formation of anti-government militias. She joined in their vendetta against several local officials they disliked, and listened to their advice about hiring. She attempted to name Stoll, a John Birch Society activist known in the Mat-Su Valley as "Black Helicopter Steve," to an empty Wasilla City Council seat. "Every time I showed up her door was open," said Chryson. "And that policy continued when she became governor." When Chryson first met Sarah Palin, however, he didn't really trust her politically. It was the early 1990s, when he was a member of a local libertarian pressure group called SAGE, or Standing Against Government Excess. (SAGE's founder, Tammy McGraw, was Palin's birth coach.) Palin was a leader in a pro-sales-tax citizens group called WOW, or Watch Over Wasilla, earning a political credential before her 1992 campaign for City Council. Though he was impressed by her interpersonal skills, Chryson greeted Palin's election warily, thinking she was too close to the Democrats on the council and too pro-tax. But soon, Palin and Chryson discovered they could be useful to each other. Palin would be running for mayor, while Chryson was about to take over the chairmanship of the Alaska Independence Party, which at its peak in 1990 had managed to elect a governor. The AIP was born of the vision of "Old Joe" Vogler, a hard-bitten former gold miner who hated the government of the United States almost as much as he hated wolves and environmentalists. His resentment peaked during the early 1970s when the federal government began installing Alaska's oil and gas pipeline. Fueled by raw rage -- "The United States has made a colony of Alaska," he told author John McPhee in 1977 -- Vogler declared a maverick candidacy for the governorship in 1982. Though he lost, Old Joe became a force to be reckoned with, as well as a constant source of amusement for Alaska's political class. During a gubernatorial debate in 1982, Vogler proposed using nuclear weapons to obliterate the glaciers blocking roadways to Juneau. "There's gold under there!" he exclaimed. Vogler made another failed run for the governor's mansion in 1986. But the AIP's fortunes shifted suddenly four years later when Vogler convinced Richard Nixon's former interior secretary, Wally Hickel, to run for governor under his party's banner. Hickel coasted to victory, outflanking a moderate Republican and a centrist Democrat. An archconservative Republican running under the AIP candidate, Jack Coghill, was elected lieutenant governor. Hickel's subsequent failure as governor to press for a vote on Alaskan independence rankled Old Joe. With sponsorship from the Islamic Republic of Iran, Vogler was scheduled to present his case for Alaskan secession before the United Nations General Assembly in the late spring of 1993. But before he could, Old Joe's long, strange political career ended tragically that May when he was murdered by a fellow secessionist. Hickel rejoined the Republican Party the year after Vogler's death and didn't run for reelection. Lt. Gov. Coghill's campaign to succeed him as the AIP candidate for governor ended in disaster; he peeled away just enough votes from the Republican, Jim Campbell, to throw the gubernatorial election to Democrat Tony Knowles. Despite the disaster, Coghill hung on as AIP chairman for three more years. When he was asked to resign in 1997, Mark Chryson replaced him. Chryson pursued a dual policy of cozying up to secessionist and right-wing groups in Alaska and elsewhere while also attempting to replicate the AIP's success with Hickel in infiltrating the mainstream. Unlike some radical right-wingers, Chryson doesn't put forward his ideas freighted with anger or paranoia. And in a state where defense of gun and property rights often takes on a real religious fervor, Chryson was able to present himself as a typical Alaskan. He rose through party ranks by reducing the AIP's platform to a single page that "90 percent of Alaskans could agree with." This meant scrubbing the old platform of what Chryson called "racist language" while accommodating the state's growing Christian right movement by emphasizing the AIP's commitment to the "traditional family." "The AIP is very family-oriented," Chryson explained. "We're for the traditional family -- daddy, mommy, kids -- because we all know that it was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. And we don't care if Heather has two mommies. That's not a traditional family." Chryson further streamlined the AIP's platform by softening its secessionist language. Instead of calling for immediate separation from the United States, the platform now demands a vote on independence. Yet Chryson maintains that his party remains committed to full independence. "The Alaskan Independence Party has got links to almost every independence-minded movement in the world," Chryson exclaimed. "And Alaska is not the only place that's about separation. There's at least 30 different states that are talking about some type of separation from the United States." This has meant rubbing shoulders and forging alliances with outright white supremacists and far-right theocrats, particularly those who dominate the proceedings at such gatherings as the North American Secessionist conventions, which AIP delegates have attended in recent years. The AIP's affiliation with neo-Confederate organizations is motivated as much by ideological affinity as by organizational convenience. Indeed, Chryson makes no secret of his sympathy for the Lost Cause. "Should the Confederate states have been allowed to separate and go their peaceful ways?" Chryson asked rhetorically. "Yes. The War of Northern Aggression, or the Civil War, or the War Between the States -- however you want to refer to it -- was not about slavery, it was about states' rights." Another far-right organization with whom the AIP has long been aligned is Howard Phillips' militia-minded Constitution Party. The AIP has been listed as the Constitution Party's state affiliate since the late 1990s, and it has endorsed the Constitution Party's presidential candidates (Michael Peroutka and Chuck Baldwin) in the past two elections. The Constitution Party boasts an openly theocratic platform that reads, "It is our goal to limit the federal government to its delegated, enumerated, Constitutional functions and to restore American jurisprudence to its original Biblical common-law foundations." In its 1990s incarnation as the U.S. Taxpayers Party, it was on the front lines in promoting the "militia" movement, and a significant portion of its membership comprises former and current militia members. At its 1992 convention, the AIP hosted both Phillips -- the USTP's presidential candidate -- and militia-movement leader Col. James "Bo" Gritz, who was campaigning for president under the banner of the far-right Populist Party. According to Chryson, AIP regulars heavily supported Gritz, but the party deferred to Phillips' presence and issued no official endorsements. In Wasilla, the AIP became powerful by proxy -- because of Chryson and Stoll's alliance with Sarah Palin. Chryson and Stoll had found themselves in constant opposition to policies of Wasilla's Democratic mayor, who started his three-term, nine-year tenure in 1987. By 1992, Chryson and Stoll had begun convening regular protests outside City Council. Their demonstrations invariably involved grievances against any and all forms of "socialist government," from city planning to public education. Stoll shared Chryson's conspiratorial views: "The rumor was that he had wrapped his guns in plastic and buried them in his yard so he could get them after the New World Order took over," Stein told a reporter. Chryson did not trust Palin when she joined the City Council in 1992. He claimed that she was handpicked by Democratic City Council leaders and by Wasilla's Democratic mayor, John Stein, to rubber-stamp their tax hike proposals. "When I first met her," he said, "I thought she was extremely left. But I've watched her slowly as she's become more pronounced in her conservative ideology." Palin was well aware of Chryson's views. "She knew my beliefs," Chryson said. "The entire state knew my beliefs. I wasn't afraid of being on the news, on camera speaking my views." But Chryson believes she trusted his judgment because he accurately predicted what life on the City Council would be like. "We were telling her, 'This is probably what's going to happen,'" he said. "'The city is going to give this many people raises, they're going to pave everybody's roads, and they're going to pave the City Council members' roads.' We couldn't have scripted it better because everything we predicted came true." After intense evangelizing by Chryson and his allies, they claimed Palin as a convert. "When she started taking her job seriously," Chryson said, "the people who put her in as the rubber stamp found out the hard way that she was not going to go their way." In 1994, Sarah Palin attended the AIP's statewide convention. In 1995, her husband, Todd, changed his voter registration to AIP. Except for an interruption of a few months, he would remain registered was an AIP member until 2002, when he changed his registration to undeclared. In 1996, Palin decided to run against John Stein as the Republican candidate for mayor of Wasilla. While Palin pushed back against Stein's policies, particularly those related to funding public works, Chryson said he and Steve Stoll prepared the groundwork for her mayoral campaign. Chryson and Stoll viewed Palin's ascendancy as a vehicle for their own political ambitions. "She got support from these guys," Stein remarked. "I think smart politicians never utter those kind of radical things, but they let other people do it for them. I never recall Sarah saying she supported the militia or taking a public stand like that. But these guys were definitely behind Sarah, thinking she was the more conservative choice." "They worked behind the scenes," said Stein. "I think they had a lot of influence in terms of helping with the back-scatter negative campaigning." Indeed, Chryson boasted that he and his allies urged Palin to focus her campaign on slashing character-based attacks. For instance, Chryson advised Palin to paint Stein as a sexist who had told her "to just sit there and look pretty" while she served on Wasilla's City Council. Though Palin never made this accusation, her 1996 campaign for mayor was the most negative Wasilla residents had ever witnessed. While Palin played up her total opposition to the sales tax and gun control -- the two hobgoblins of the AIP -- mailers spread throughout the town portraying her as "the Christian candidate," a subtle suggestion that Stein, who is Lutheran, might be Jewish. "I watched that campaign unfold, bringing a level of slime our community hadn't seen until then," recalled Phil Munger, a local music teacher who counts himself as a close friend of Stein. "This same group [Stoll and Chryson] also [publicly] challenged me on whether my wife and I were married because she had kept her maiden name," Stein bitterly recalled. "So we literally had to produce a marriage certificate. And as I recall, they said, 'Well, you could have forged that.'" When Palin won the election, the men who had once shouted anti-government slogans outside City Hall now had a foothold inside the mayor's office. Palin attempted to pay back her newfound pals during her first City Council meeting as mayor. In that meeting, on Oct. 14, 1996, she appointed Stoll to one of the City Council's two newly vacant seats. But Palin was blocked by the single vote of then-Councilman Nick Carney, who had endured countless rancorous confrontations with Stoll and considered him a "violent" influence on local politics. Though Palin considered consulting attorneys about finding another means of placing Stoll on the council, she was ultimately forced to back down and accept a compromise candidate. Emboldened by his nomination by Mayor Palin, Stoll later demanded she fire Wasilla's museum director, John Cooper, a personal enemy he longed to sabotage. Palin obliged, eliminating Cooper's position in short order. "Gotcha, Cooper!" Stoll told the deposed museum director after his termination, as Cooper told a reporter for the New York Times. "And it only cost me a campaign contribution." Stoll, who donated $1,000 to Palin's mayoral campaign, did not respond to numerous requests for an interview. Palin has blamed budget concerns for Cooper's departure. The following year, when Carney proposed a local gun-control measure, Palin organized with Chryson to smother the nascent plan in its cradle. Carney's proposed ordinance would have prohibited residents from carrying guns into schools, bars, hospitals, government offices and playgrounds. Infuriated by the proposal that Carney viewed as a common-sense public-safety measure, Chryson and seven allies stormed a July 1997 council meeting. With the bill still in its formative stages, Carney was not even ready to present it to the council, let alone conduct public hearings on it. He and other council members objected to the ad-hoc hearing as "a waste of time." But Palin -- in plain violation of council rules and norms -- insisted that Chryson testify, stating, according to the minutes, that "she invites the public to speak on any issue at any time." When Carney tried later in the meeting to have the ordinance discussed officially at the following regular council meeting, he couldn't even get a second. His proposal died that night, thanks to Palin and her extremist allies. "A lot of it was the ultra-conservative far right that is against everything in government, including taxes," recalled Carney. "A lot of it was a personal attack on me as being anti-gun, and a personal attack on anybody who deigned to threaten their authority to carry a loaded firearm wherever they pleased. That was the tenor of it. And it was being choreographed by Steve Stoll and the mayor." Asked if he thought it was Palin who had instigated the turnout, he replied: "I know it was." By Chryson's account, he and Palin also worked hand-in-glove to slash property taxes and block a state proposal that would have taken money for public programs from the Permanent Fund Dividend, or the oil and gas fund that doles out annual payments to citizens of Alaska. Palin endorsed Chryson's unsuccessful initiative to move the state Legislature from Juneau to Wasilla. She also lent her support to Chryson's crusade to alter the Alaska Constitution's language on gun rights so cities and counties could not impose their own restrictions. "It took over 10 years to get that language written in," Chryson said. "But Sarah [Palin] was there supporting it." "With Sarah as a mayor," said Chryson, "there were a number of times when I just showed up at City Hall and said, 'Hey, Sarah, we need help.' I think there was only one time when I wasn't able to talk to her and that was because she was in a meeting." Chryson says the door remains open now that Palin is governor. (Palin's office did not respond to Salon's request for an interview.) While Palin has been more circumspect in her dealings with groups like the AIP as she has risen through the political ranks, she has stayed in touch. When Palin ran for governor in 2006, marketing herself as a fresh-faced reformer determined to crush the GOP's ossified power structure, she made certain to appear at the AIP's state convention. To burnish her maverick image, she also tapped one-time AIP member and born-again Republican Walter Hickel as her campaign co-chair. Hickel barnstormed the state for Palin, hailing her support for an "all-Alaska" liquefied gas pipeline, a project first promoted in 2002 by an AIP gubernatorial candidate named Nels Anderson. When Palin delivered her victory speech on election night, Hickel stood beaming by her side. "I made her governor," he boasted afterward. Two years later, Hickel has endorsed Palin's bid for vice president. Just months before Palin burst onto the national stage as McCain's vice-presidential nominee, she delivered a videotaped address to the AIP's annual convention. Her message was scrupulously free of secessionist rhetoric, but complementary nonetheless. "I share your party's vision of upholding the Constitution of our great state," Palin told the assembly of AIP delegates. "My administration remains focused on reining in government growth so individual liberty can expand. I know you agree with that ... Keep up the good work and God bless you." When Palin became the Republican vice-presidential nominee, her attendance of the 1994 and 2006 AIP conventions and her husband's membership in the party (as well as Palin's videotaped welcome to the AIP's 2008 convention) generated a minor controversy. Chryson claimed, however, that Sarah and Todd Palin never even played a minor role in his party's internal affairs. "Sarah's never been a member of the Alaskan Independence Party," Chryson insisted. "Todd has, but most of rural Alaska has too. I never saw him at a meeting. They were at one meeting I was at. Sarah said hello, but I didn't pay attention because I was taking care of business." But whether the Palins participated directly in shaping the AIP's program is less relevant than the extent to which they will implement that program. Chryson and his allies have demonstrated just as much interest in grooming major party candidates as they have in putting forward their own people. At a national convention of secessionist groups in 2007, AIP vice chairman Dexter Carter announced that his party would seek to "infiltrate" the Democratic and Republican parties with candidates sympathetic to its hard-right, secessionist agenda. "You should use that tactic. You should infiltrate," Carter told his audience of neo-Confederates, theocrats and libertarians. "Whichever party you think in that area you can get something done, get into that party. Even though that party has its problems, right now that is the only avenue." Carter pointed to Palin's political career as the model of a successful infiltration. "There's a lot of talk of her moving up," Carter said of Palin. "She was a member [of the AIP] when she was mayor of a small town, that was a nonpartisan job. But to get along and to go along she switched to the Republican Party … She is pretty well sympathetic because of her membership." Carter's assertion that Palin was once a card-carrying AIP member was swiftly discredited by the McCain campaign, which produced records showing she had been a registered Republican since 1988. But then why would Carter make such a statement? Why did he seem confident that Palin was a true-blue AIP activist burrowing within the Republican Party? The most salient answer is that Palin was once so thoroughly embedded with AIP figures like Chryson and Stoll and seemed so enthusiastic about their agenda, Carter may have simply assumed she belonged to his party. Now, Palin is a household name and her every move is scrutinized by the Washington press corps. She can no longer afford to kibitz with secessionists, however instrumental they may have been to her meteoric ascendancy. This does not trouble her old AIP allies. Indeed, Chryson is hopeful that Palin's inauguration will also represent the start of a new infiltration. "I've had my issues but she's still staying true to her core values," Chryson concluded. "Sarah's friends don't all agree with her, but do they respect her? Do they respect her ideology and her values? Definitely." -- By Max Blumenthal and David Neiwert

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Whom they palled around with in the past isn't as scary as who they pal around with now. They're all in debt to the corporate terrorists and that group has done more damage to this country than any of their other associates of the past.

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Re: Sylvia, that is some dynamite information.

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Sirs, and all....Excuse me for not writing a book Sylvia, but isn't this only a question of innuendo and out goes the election? I don't think Mr. Obama has answered all the questions. I don't think he has told us everything. There is something he is not telling us about his prior associations, and this is not a question of facts which are not at all bad on their face, but of character and judgement which are already set, and set since birth because us white people are forever judging the character of black folks even if they are only half black, -because half white is all black... I don't mean to belabor the point. It is like the joke about Opra Winfree and George Burns, and since it is way off color let me just give you the point of it. It does not matter how rich you are, how intelligent, well educated, honored, honorable, or talented. If you are black you will always be a nword to some people. Perhaps to most. It is a shame because we cut ourselves out of so much in the way of relationships when we are prejudiced. We need to know people of different cultures to see people from those cultures as human, and as real. When we label people we objectify them, and that is a form of injustice, and of violence since violence all makes an object of people..... When we see others as what's instead of who's. When we fail to see that their needs and desires are much like ours, and even often identical to our own, then we prevent ourselves from meaningful cooperation to a common end. We cannot afford to be at cross purposes. We need to heal the rifts that the rich and the government have made for us. We need to demand equality and a fair chance for black people. And as I say this, I will also fairly admit that I don't like black people. I don't like their culture, and I don't like a lot of their behavior and personal choices. I can only not deny to them their humanity, nor deny that much of what I may dislike has some reason beyond my vision. Unlike most people on the planet, I was long ago blessed with an opportunity to save a black man's life. It involved some risk, and some effort. But at that moment I had to decide whether it was possible to allow that man to die knowing his death was certian if I did nothing, and asking myself if I could do nothing and live with myself. I wish everyone could go into the election with the thought that they could save this one man from the effects of racism, that they could give him a chance, and not prejudge him on the basis of race, nor look for some innuendo to cover their prejudice. The democratic party has denied its racism, or has tried to. I want the whole country to join them in that effort...I don't expect the country to be less racist the day after Mr. Obama is elected. I do expect that we assert a virtue by denying a vice...Thanks...Sweeney