Of Palin and hurricanes

The tropical disturbances swirling in the Atlantic -- not just those around Sarah Palin -- may still upset the GOP's applecart in Minnesota this week. Thursday evening, the night that John McCain is to give his acceptance speech to the assembled delegates, is also about the same time that Hannah may be hitting the southeastern US coastline:

The computer models have come into strikingly good accord for the 75-mph Hurricane Hanna today, and it's now with some confidence that we can predict a moderate hurricane will strike the southeastern U.S. late this week, probably along the Georgia or South Carolina coasts or possibly Florida.

So Bush is set to address the convention by satellite tonight -- along with Turncoat Joe Lieberman and, in a surprise, Lazy Fred Thompson -- bumping Rudy 9u11iani out of his keynote slot:

The revamped schedule suggested that convention planners were easing back into partisan politics with an appeal to independent-minded voters. Thompson is known by most voters for his portrayal of a gruff district attorney on NBC's Law & Order.

It was unclear whether Thompson had replaced former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as the convention keynoter and, if so, why. Convention planners said Giuliani would address the gathering in prime-time Wednesday or Thursday, though they did not know whether he would remain the keynote speaker as planned.

The real Mystery, however, is where the Alaska governor is ...

So far, Palin has not conducted a formal news conference or taken questions from reporters, and no such sessions were scheduled today. Her only statement Monday disclosed that her daughter Bristol was pregnant and planned to marry the baby's father.

That news was followed by the announcement that a private lawyer had been hired to represent Palin in a state investigation into the dismissal of the state's public safety commissioner.

We can be thankful, while Pastor Dobson's prayers for rains of biblical proportion were answered a week late, that the trouble was limited mostly to the 2 million Louisiana and Southeast Texas evacuees from Gustav, and not to their homes or property left behind. New Orleans lives to party again.

The GOP? Not so much.

Change We Can Secede With

I prefer "Sedation and Sedition '08", but most voters may not be aware that John McCain was an Ambien junkie. Likewise I'm sure very few know that Sarah Palin was recently a member of a third political party in Alaska whose purpose for being was to withdraw the state from the Union:

The campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., likes to herald the independence of its new running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Officials of the Alaskan Independence Party say that Palin was once so independent, she was once a member of their party, which, since the 1970s, has been pushing for a legal vote for Alaskans to decide whether or not residents of the 49th state can secede from the United States.

And while McCain's motto -- as seen in a new TV ad -- is "Country First," the AIP's motto is the exact opposite -- "Alaska First - Alaska Always."

Lynette Clark, the chairman of the AIP, tells ABC News that Palin and her husband Todd were members in 1994, even attending the 1994 statewide convention in Wasilla. Clark was AIP secretary at the time.

"We are a state's rights party," says Clark, a self-employed goldminer. The AIP has "a plank that challenges the legality of the Alaskan statehood vote as illegal and in violation of United Nations charter and international law."

But if you're one of those 'low-information' voters that believes, for example, Barack Obama is unpatriotic for not wearing a flag lapel pin, how do you feel about someone a heartbeat away from the Oval Office who advocates sedition?

We fought a Civil War over such a thing, I believe. IIRC John McCain crashed his bi-plane and was taken POW during it (yeah, that's the ticket).

Really, maybe it's just best for everyone if this woman goes on home and focuses on taking care of her 4-month-old with Down's and her 17-year-old with child and without husband.

Update: All you could ever want to know about Palin's Secession Scandal. One tiny excerpt (emphasis mine):

• In 2007, the Vice Chairman of the AIP, Dexter Clark, not only referenced Palin's membership, but also said that since she joined the GOP, "she is pretty well sympathetic to her former membership." Clark also goes on to discuss the need to "infiltrate" the major parties.
• In 2008, Palin recorded a message for the AIP's annual convention, stating that Alaska has "a great promise to be a self-sufficient state" and encouraging them to "keep up the good work."